The minister as a believer

Only ministers who know God can supply what people come to church to receive.

Robert M. Johnston, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of New Testament studies at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States.

And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).*

We give many reasons for going to church—fellowship, inspiration, service. But all of these things are empty by themselves. What people really long for in their inmost souls is to meet God there. Whether they find Him there depends a great deal upon the minister, for to a great degree it is the minister who determines the spirituality of the service. Blessed is the minister and the church that can make visitors say after the service what Jacob said at Bethel: "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it. ... How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:16, 17).

Unfortunately, people cannot always say this about our services. Running a program is all very well, but it is no substitute for the pastor's "being thick with the Almighty," as an old Scottish woman described her dominie.

There is such a thing as the atheism of technique-—the belief that we can has ten the kingdom by using the right methods, trying some new gimmicks, and working our heads off. We read books like Six Steps to Revival or Five Simple Techniques for-a Growing Church or How to Achieve Translation in Seven Minutes a Day. A skeptic might be forgiven for suggesting that the church could be success fully accomplishing all that it is now doing even if there were no God and no Holy Spirit.

More than anything else, we need God. How can we introduce others to One whom we do not know? We must be able to say what John said: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life . . . that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:1-3).

Can a minister really not be a believer? Can a minister really not know God? Robertson of Brighton warned of "the hardening influence of spiritual things." James Stewart explained it this way: "It might indeed be supposed that the very nature of the preacher's calling would guarantee an invincible fidelity and consecration. But all sacred things are double-edged; and if the tasks of the ministry may be a safeguard and a panoply they have also their peculiar perils, and they exact vengeance from those who handle them with undue familiarity. . . . For the prophetic awe and wonder in presence of the revelation of God can all too easily deteriorate into a mere mechanical trafficking with the ordinances of religion."1

There is a great and hungry demand for reality. All around us, in the media, in entertainment, in literature, in the arts, people see tinselly phoniness. They have become so accustomed to it that they seem willing to settle for it even in religion. If reality unexpectedly bursts upon them, they are startled and fascinated.

Stewart wrote, "You do not need to be eloquent, or clever, or sensational, or skilled in dialectic; you must be real. To fail there is to fail abysmally and tragically. It is to damage incalculably the cause you represent."2

As one of my colleagues has put it, a painted fire warms nobody. You must be real. You must really know God.

Getting to know God

Perhaps what I have said has smitten some of you. Perhaps you are wondering, "How can I know God? I do not remember hearing His voice, or seeing Him, or touching, or tasting. I do not know whether I know Him."

John wrote his first Epistle to answer such questions. "I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). That Epistle gives us certain tests that we can apply to our experience to determine whether it is genuine. I commend that little letter to you.

But how do you come to experience God? Jesus said: "All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out" (John 6:37). If He doesn't cast us out, what does He do? He takes us in. And when does He take us in? When we come to Him. And why do we come to Him? Be cause the Father has given us to Him.

God has as many mysterious ways to draw us to Himself as there are individuals—and the Holy Spirit is in each of them. But I will give you my own testimony.

It was my second year in an Adventist college. I had been educated in secular schools through the first year of university, though I had been baptized into the church before entering high school. Neither of my parents were Christians; my father was an atheist. I had heard the doctrines from the evangelist who baptized me, and I tried to be obedient to them, though there had been some lapses. It seems to me now that though I knew a little doctrine and a little law, I did not know God.

At the college I joined what they called the Personal Evangelism Crusade; we went out every Sabbath and handed out tracts door-to-door. I also took Bible classes. And I even took Greek—mostly because I was interested in languages. In addition, there were the Weeks of Prayer—week-long revivals.

Somehow, for the first time in my life, I was led to begin reading the Bible through for myself and not as a class assignment. Beginning with Genesis, I got past the "so-and-so begat so-and-so's" and came to the patriarchs and to Moses. The fact that these men talked to God and He answered them impressed me. That was something I had never experienced. I wanted to know if God talks to people in that way now.

During a meeting of the prayer band to which I belonged, I blurted out the question "Have any of you ever had God talk to you?" The question seemed to strike the others dumb, though they were good men. Later I learned that my question so fed the doubts of one of those prayer band members that he went off into unbelief. That night another member of the prayer band put a scrap of paper on my desk telling me to read 1 John 4:11. Its message, "If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us," was helpful —but it wasn't quite what I had in mind.

Then the teacher of the Bible class I was taking assigned us to write out our understanding of righteousness by faith. The more I thought about that subject, the more I was stumped. I didn't know what faith was. I didn't hand in the assignment when it was due. Instead, I asked the teacher to let me work on it during the Christmas vacation.

I didn't go home for Christmas. I was all alone in my room on the third floor of the dormitory, Newton Hall. Outside the window the night was crystal- clear, and there were stars all over the place. The air was fresh, and everything was quiet.

I began to study faith. I used a concordance to find what the Bible had to say about this element of the Christian life. And it seemed that the Lord was directing my study, for each text prepared me for the next. Eventually my search brought me to page 53 in the old edition of Ellen G. White's book Steps to Christ, 3 the first • page of the chapter entitled "Faith and Acceptance." As I began reading that page, something told me This is the recipe you have been looking for. Read it slowly, and don't move on to the next sentence until you have done what the sentence you're reading says.

I read, "As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look upon it with abhorrence."

Sure enough, that described my feeling just then.

"You feel that sin has separated you from God, that you are in bondage to the power of evil."

As a matter of fact, I felt out of sync with the universe.

"The more you struggle to escape, the more you realize your helplessness."

I was especially afflicted with procrastination, and these words applied.

"Your motives are impure; your heart is unclean."

Those were hard words, but they came from the Doctor.

"You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and sin. You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him —what can you do to obtain it?"

Yes, that was what I wanted to know.

"It is peace that you need—Heaven's forgiveness and peace and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect can not procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your own effort, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift, 'without money and without price.' It is yours, if you will but reach out your hand and grasp it."

I was getting excited. I knew some thing great was about to happen.

"The Lord says, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' 'A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.' "

When I came to the next paragraph, I knew that the moment of truth had arrived: "You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away."

I hadn't yet, but I did it right then and there.

"You have resolved to give yourself to God."

I did it. But I didn't feel any different.

"Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins, and give you a new heart."

I did that, but I still didn't feel any different.

"Then believe that He does this because He has promised. "

Then it happened. It was like a warm glow passing through my body from head to toe, cleansing me. It was as though I was bathed in a pure light.

That was the way God spoke to me. And when He did, I was satisfied. I no longer envied Abraham. I no longer doubted. God was real.

I tried to continue reading, but it was no use. My soul was so happy, I could not sit down. I went through the dormitory looking for someone to whom I could tell what had happened. I saw no one on the third floor or the second floor, but on the first floor I came upon Ben, who, as "chance" would have it, was standing in his open doorway—just sort of leaning against the doorjamb. Ben was the prayer band member whose faith had been shaken by the question I had blurted out. When I gave him my testimony, he told me what had happened to him. God moves in a mysterious way.

Your beginning with God may be different. That doesn't matter. The important thing is that there must be a beginning.

Renewing your experience

Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem for the Passover when Jesus was 12. There, because of the excitement of travel, while they were participating in a religious gathering and were fellowshipping with other people of God, they lost track of Him—they forgot Jesus. Ellen White comments, "By one day's neglect they lost the Saviour; but it cost them three days of anxious search to find Him." Then she draws a lesson: "So with us; by idle talk, evil-speaking, or neglect of prayer, we may in one day lose the Saviour's presence, and it may take many days of sorrowful search to find Him, and regain the peace that we have lost." 4

We must come to know the Lord. But that is not enough. We must keep up the friendship. The relationship must be nurtured. Yesterday's fire will not warm us today.

Perhaps I need not remind you of the spiritual disciplines—devotional reading of Scripture, prayer, and meditation. But perhaps I do need to. Some may actually think that all the biblical and theological study they do obviates the need for "extracurricular" religion. In an interview Charles Swindoll told why his private devotions are important to him. He said the first reason was "to help guard against a textbook mentality when I approach the Scriptures. I want to keep my heart warm, and break down the cynicism that easily grows out of a strictly academic kind of Bible study. The devotional time really helps that to happen." 5

Yet it would be a huge mistake to think that your converse with God has to be suspended while you do your professional study. Don't think that after you touch base with God in the morning you have to tell Him, "So long for now, Lord—I've got to prepare a sermon on Galatians. See You tomorrow!" Keep in touch with God all day long, and the study of the Scriptures you do in preparing for sermons and Bible studies can enhance your knowledge of Him, not interrupt your relationship. Make your very study an act of worship. Make Paul's admonition to slaves your motto: "Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ" (Col. 3:23, 24).

Whether in season or out of season, whether in your study, your church, your car, or your home, practice the presence of God. Keep talking to Him. Whatever you undertake, say, "Lord, I cannot do this unless Thou enablest me." When you do everything that you do because you love Him, you will have joy—deep joy. Even drudgery will give you happiness, for you will have God for company. And if you do whatever you do for Him, He will help you, and He will accept you and your service.

But we are clay. Like Joseph and Mary, we forget. If this happens to you, what then?

If you were once warm and have be come cold, remember what made you warm and do it again. Genesis 13:3, 4 tells us what Abraham did just after suffering a spiritual defeat in Egypt. We read that he "journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord."

The process of Abraham's recovery included his returning to Bethel, a place where he had enjoyed warm fellowship with the Lord.

Every Christian has his Bethel. It may be the crowing of a cock. It may be the hearing of some long-forgotten gospel song. It may be a heavily underlined book. It may be a hilltop. It may be a seminary chapel. For me it's Newton Hall. The Lord brings back to my mind the memory of that clear night, and the memory of it warms me. And it begins to revive me.

Whatever or wherever it is, go back to your Bethel. Go back whenever you need to. Know the Lord. And continue on to know the Lord.

And if you experience that dark night of the soul that now and again comes to every saint; if, in spite of all, you experience a time of dryness—this need not separate you from God. This is the time when faith counts most. Hold on by faith, not by sight. When you have heard the voice of God, you can endure His silences. Those silences may be necessary to remind you of your dependence upon Him.

When you aren't sure that you still know Jesus, have the faith to realize that He knows you. Don't pray only when you feel like it; pray until you feel like it. Sometimes you can only go through the motions of your devotions. Never mind. The Lord accepts it. Feelings are God's to give; faith is yours to exercise. The righteous shall live by faith, not by feeling.

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (KJV).

*Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts in this article are from the Revised Standard Version.

1. Heralds of God (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946), p. 193.

2. Ibid., p. 32.

3. Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1908. The passage is found on page 49 of the 1956 edition of Steps to Christ.

4. Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1940), p. 83.

5. "What Makes Charles Swindoll Tick?" Christianity Today, Oct. 8, 1982, pp. 54-56.


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Robert M. Johnston, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of New Testament studies at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States.

March 1990

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