Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars, written about 120 AD, provides interesting historical information.  His description of Nero resembles some of celebrity culture today- egotistical, pursuit of applause, self-centered, exaggerated sense of self-importance.

“He [Nero] also chose a few young equites and more than 5,000 ordinary youths, whom he divided into claques to learn the various Alexandrian methods of applause – they were known respectively as ‘Bees’, ‘Roof tiles’ and ‘Brickbats’ – and to provide it liberally whenever he sang.  It was easy to recognize them by their pomaded hair, splendid dress and absence of rings on their left hands.  The equites who led them earned 400,000 sesterces a performance.” 217

 “…[he] would attend no entertainment or official business unless he had a voice trainer standing by, telling him when to spare his vocal cords and when to protect his mouth with a handkerchief.  Whether he offered people his friendship or plainly indicated his dislike for them often depended on how generously or how feebly they had applauded.” 221

“Nero never wore the same clothes twice…” 223

“When the palace had been decorated throughout in this lavish style, Nero dedicated it, and condescended to remark, ‘Good, now I can at least begin to live like a human being!’” 224

“[as his end approached] he muttered through his tears, ‘Dead! And so great an artist!’238

This sounds all too familiar today.  Yet, it was during this time that Paul wrote the following to Christians:

Phil 2:3f- Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus …

1 Cor 3:5-7- What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

1 Cor 3:21– let no one boast in men.

2 Cor 10:17-18- “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

(Nero had visited the Isthmian games in Corinth and declared his own glory)

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Let us truly have the mind of Christ, demonstrating gospel humility rather than pagan self-centeredness.  Fellow pastors, we are often encouraged to exalt ourselves and this is too much in vogue. Remember, in the first century there were prima donnas, but they were pagans, not preachers.

In 1990 Saul Bellow, Pulitzer and Noble Prize winning author made this observation:

“In today’s Chicago Tribune I learn that the American Catholic bishops have hired, at a fee of five million dollars, a public relations firm to direct their anti-abortion campaign… to ‘practice paid persuasion,’ says the writer of this Tribune article.  Evidently the Church itself is unable to preach against mortal sin and is forced to turn to experts who better understand mass culture and the mind of the public.  The company hired by the American bishops successfully conducted one of Ronald Regan’s campaigns for the presidency.  So the doctrines on which the Church stands are apparently considered intransmissible.  You must persuade or hypnotize the public, or influence it by symbolic manipulations, by magical substitutes for fact and thought.  Obviously – to turn again to George Orwell and the duty of civilized men to restate the obvious – the Church, too, must bow to the power of television” ( It All Adds Up,159; emphasis added)

Bellow’s criticism is correct for too much of the church today.  Let it not be true of us.  Let us speak clearly and confidently the Word of God, knowing that it is transmissible and powerful.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants  for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 4:1-6)

This past Sunday I completed our class on “True Spirituality,” with a lesson arguing that one key work of the Spirit is empowering believers to speak the gospel boldly (and often to suffer as a result).  This can be seen in 2 Timothy 1 and as a theme in Acts where, I argue, speaking the word with boldness is the most common effect of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Luther once made a similar point:

“But the comfort and courage of Christendom, created by the Holy Spirit, are steadfast, properly motivated, and pleasing to God and His angels.  Thus we read that the holy martyrs were defiantly courageous against tyrants, torments, and suffering.  When the young virgins Agnes and Agatha went to prison and to death, they went very confident and joyful.  They felt as they also said aloud, as if they were going to a wedding.  Truly my dear daughter, if to you going to prison and being beheaded is like going to a dance, you must in truth have a heart, mind and courage different from those of the world…. Such courage assuredly is the work of the Holy Spirit alone” (What Luther Says, p. 349, #1033, emphasis added)

Brian Denker recently posted this quote from Kierkegaard and I thought it was a wonderful portrait of the church.  Here we have a pastor accomplishing his duties well, but even more a godly individual in the congregation making a powerful impact.

“The church itself attracted me greatly, the clergyman who I heard every Sunday was a right reverend personality, a unique figure, who knew how to bring out old and new from the experiences of an eventful life; he was perfectly in place in the pulpit. As a priest he satisfied completely my soul’s ideal demand, he satisfied it as a figure, satisfied it as an orator. I was glad every Sunday to think that I was to go to hear him.
But what increased my joy and made perfect for me the impression of divine worship in this church was another figure, an elderly woman, who likewise attended every Sunday. She used to come a little before the service began, and I likewise. Her personality was for me an image of the congregation, and thinking of her I forgot the disturbing impression of the parish clerk at the church door. She was a woman of a certain age, apparently about sixty years old, but was still beautiful, her features noble, her look full of a certain humble dignity, her countenance expressive of deep, pure, feminine character. She looked as if she had experienced much, not precisely stormy events, but as a mother who had borne life’s burdens and yet had preserved and attained the ability to rejoice over the world. So when I saw her coming far down the aisle, when the sexton had met her at the church door and now as a servant was deferentially escorting her to her seat, then I knew she would also pass the pew where I sat. So when she went by I always rose and bowed to her. For me there was so much implied in this bow, it was as though I would beg her to include me in her supplications. She entered her pew, giving a kindly greeting to the sexton, she remained an instant on her feet, she bowed her head, held a handkerchief an instant before her eyes as she prayed – it would take a pithy preacher to make so strong and salutary an impression as did the solemnity of that venerable woman.
It sometimes came into my mind that perhaps I, too, was included in her prayer, for to woman it belongs essentially to pray for others.”

Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Vol. II, tr. Walter Lowrie, rev. Howard A. Johnson (Princeton: Princeton U, 1974), pp. 318-9.

Last Sunday Lee Tankersley preached a searching sermon on 2 Kings 14-17, “A Sobering Call to Turn from Sin.”Â  Walking through the text, the refrain of the continuing impact on the Northern Kingdom of the deeds of Jeroboam is unmistakable.  The picture is clear- the first king of this group set an example and trajectory which shaped the rest of their history until their destruction.  Jeroboam’s ways affected rulers who descended from him and those who did not.  Note the refrain:

Zechariah (son of Jeroboam)– And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. (2 Kings 15:9)

Menahem – And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart all his days from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. (2 Kings 15:18)

Pekahiah (son of Menahem) – And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. (2 Kings 15:24)

Pekah – And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. (2 Kings 15:28)

Summary at the destruction of Israel- When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit great sin. The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day. (2 Kings 17:21-23)

Pastors, what we do today matters for eternity.  The example of the leadership echoes down through the generations for good or ill.  Our only hope is Christ!  Let us be examples of ready repentance and dependence on Christ.

Another Baptist voice from the past on the importance of oversight and pastoral care:

“The leader of a church must love his people.  He must watch over them with the tender solicitude of a shepherd.  He must exercise wise oversight of their lives, thinking ahead and planning ahead for their welfare, keeping them busily and happily at work, as a good overseer with a group of workmen under his direction.  He must add to his love the quality of vision and authority, so that his people will not only be protected from spiritual danger, but led to highest usefulness and effectiveness in Christian service.” 20

–  Gaines Dobbins, Baptist Churches in Action.  Nashville, TN: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1929.

I am finishing our class, “True Spirituality,” at church seeking to argue that biblical spirituality is earthy, everyday and communal, rooted in the gospel.  This quote from Donald Bloesch is very helpful:

“A spirituality that can ignite the church will furthermore be churchly.  It will seek not the elevation of believers to a higher spiritual plane but their empowering by the Holy Spirit in order to bear witness to the inbreaking of the kingdom of God in human history.  A churchly spiritually will celebrate the redemption of the people of God and not merely the beatitude of the individual soul.  It will not counsel flight from the world but hold out the hope of transforming the world into the kingdom of God.  This transformation will be effected not only by an elitist class of Neo-Brahmins who have discovered the secrets of self-mastery (as in the New Age guru Gerald Heard) but by the company of the faithful empowered and illuminated by the Spirit of God and acting in obedience to the living Christ.”

Donald Bloesch.  Spirituality Old & New: Recovering Authentic Spiritual Life, 14