Tag Archives: Pastoral Office

Theology Summary Bible Class, Pt. 28: Priesthood and the Pastor

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Jesus, the God-man, is our high priest! He made the one and only propitiatory sacrifice to merit the forgiveness of sins before God.  The Levitical priesthood and sacrifices have ceased. “Accordingly the New Testament, since Levitical services have been abrogated, teaches that new and pure sacrifices will be made, namely, faith, prayer, thanksgiving, confession, and the preaching of the Gospel, afflictions on account of the Gospel, and the like” (Ap, XXIV, 30, Bente, page 395). The Scriptures do speak of New Testament believers as “a holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5,9). That priesthood (with an emphasis on the group of believers) is the church. In the New Testament these priests actively participate as laymen receiving the Lord’s gifts with praise and thanksgiving. When the Scriptures do talk about individual Christians as priests, it is always speaking about either living in our vocation(Romans 12:1-2, Hebrews 13:15-16), or about dying to sin and rising to new life(Psalm 51:13-19).

Among American protestants, the priesthood of believers is usually misunderstood to teach that individual Christians are all ministers. That is not the Scriptural teaching. God calls one of the priests to be a servant/minister to the priesthood. The pastor is not an Old Testament priest offering up sacrifices for the people. The pastor publicly preaches the Gospel and administers the sacraments to the priesthood (1 Cor 4:1). The pastor is an “ambassador for Christ” (2 Cor 5:17-21) so that the priesthood might receive the Lord’s gifts. God is reconciling the world though the Ministry(Pastoral Office) of Reconciliation which preaches the Word of reconciliation so that people come to believe! The pastor’s sacrifice, according to his vocation, is to preach the Law and the Gospel. The law kills the Old Adam in his hearers and the gospel creates faith and new life.

Overhead 1: Overheads-for-Dec-2-2018.pdf
Handout 1: AP-XXIV-Handout-for-Dec-2-2018.pdf
Handout 2 (yellow sheet): The-Third-Genus-Prophet-Priest-Pages-1-8.pdf

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 5 (Excursus on Divine Call)

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Class #5 :  The divine call (see podcast parts 3 and 4) places a man into the office of the ministry.  The Lutheran Confessions refer to the office of the ministry in Augsburg Confession, Article 5.  Article 5 is not a generic functional view of the Gospel and the sacraments, but a concrete reference to the Pastoral Office.  Later on article 14 clearly teaches that only those with a regular call should publicly exercise the duties of the office of the ministry.

Those who license men (lay ministers or licensed lay deacons) to perform the duties of the office have a different theology from the Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions.  Just as St. Paul magnifies his office, so today’s pastors and people need the assurance that God has called a man into the office of the ministry and intends to use him to create and strengthen faith in Jesus Christ.

Overheads: Galatians Overheads for class 5
Includes web address for video(1:13 to 6:15) I showed to the class.
Augsburg Confession Quotes

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Galatians Bible Study, Pt. 4 (Excursus on Divine Call)

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Class #4:  A call is not determined to be divine because of some inner emotional experience or heartfelt desire of the person.  The call is divine because it comes from God–either directly (immediately from God as it did in the case of prophets and apostles, including St. Paul), or indirectly (mediately from God, by means of the congregation, Acts 20:28, to whom God has given the command to place a man into the pastoral office, 2 Tim. 2:2).  For New Testament churches, the divine call (1) comes from the congregation (2) for Word and Sacrament and (3) is not time limited (not licensed).

In Galatians 1:1, St. Paul explains that he did not have a non-divine call (humanly determined), nor did he have a divine call which was mediately given through a congregation, as do today’s pastors.  St. Paul was an apostle through an immediate divine call from God!

Handout:  Galatians Overheads class 3

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