Installation of Karl Hollibaugh as Pastor
St. Paul Lutheran Blue Earth
Title: The Holy Scriptures
October 3, 1999
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Text: NKJ 2 Timothy 3:14-15 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
I had a hard time with the text for this message. Actually, it wasn't a hard time, but a easy time. I knew I wanted to go to one of the "Pastoral Epistles," 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, which were originally written to pastors. These three books abound with God's POWERFUL Word for pastors today. I focused right away on 2 Timothy 3:14-15. Then I started to read the verses before and after this section and I thought they were really good too. I was tempted to pick out all of chapter 3 or even the whole book. I thought perhaps I could just read this whole book and let that be my entire message. I was tempted, for God's Word is far superior to mine. If I did, however, people would surely think that Pastor Buchs doesn't really know how to write a sermon. They would wonder just where it was that I did my vicarage! Maybe he didn't really learn anything on vicarage! So, I decided I had better keep the text narrow. You may, however, find me wandering off the main text from time to time, and you will know why.
You can surely see that the focus of our text is The Holy Scriptures. It is the teachings of the Holy Scriptures which Timothy has received and into which he is exhorted to continue. It is the Holy Scriptures which have the power to make you wise to salvation.
It is good to recall exactly what is meant by Holy Scriptures. Of course, we understand them as the book we call the Bible, and this is what Pastor Hollibaugh will confess in a few minutes. Yet, what is meant by that term, "Holy Scriptures." "Scriptures" are simply another way of saying writings. These writings are special, for we say they are "Holy." In this context, that word "Holy" means separated from ordinary use and connected with God. Indeed, the Holy Scriptures are God's message to us. They are the written form of God's voice speaking to us.
As they are separated from secular use, the Holy Scriptures have a special use: a holy and sacred use: "to make us wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." They make us wise by first showing us that we need salvation. This is the law. We see we need to be saved from our fallen, sinful state. The way out of this fallen state is the second part of making us wise to salvation. We are made wise when we read the good news of Jesus' actions on our behalf, which is the gospel. We read of Christ's death in our places. Through faith we trust that what Jesus did has indeed saved us and will deliver us into eternal life. The Holy Scriptures show us the way out of sin and into fellowship with our Holy God.
Now, as the relationship of pastor and congregation moves forward today, the guidance for both pastor and people is to look toward the Holy Scriptures. Keep your eyes fixed on that which makes you wise for salvation. Pastor Hollibaugh, you will faithfully shepherd your people when you keep their attention focused on the Holy Scriptures. By God's actions you have been called to care for these people and you will do well to keep them looking to the source of our hope: The Holy Scriptures which teach us of Christ.
Members of Immanuel and St. Paul Lutheran Churches: you also have a duty, and that is to keep your new pastor also constantly looking towards the Holy Scriptures. Remember, Pastor Hollibaugh is given to you as a gift from God. He is God's chosen man who is to keep you also looking toward those Scriptures. How do you keep Him looking at the Holy Scriptures? You do this by encouraging him to take time for personal devotion and study. You do this by requesting and even demanding Bible studies. You do this by asking him questions. I know that Pastor Hollibaugh likes questions - especially the tough ones where you sit down with him in his office. Your job, people, is to keep this man always looking toward the Holy Scriptures.
It is truly sad when the focus of people or pastor turn away from the Holy Scriptures.
My attention was caught recently by an audio tape a member loaned me, titled "Conversion of a Luthern Pastor." Yes, that's right, they forgot the "a" from Lutheran, but maybe its ok if you pronounce it with an accent: "Lu-Turn." This pastor, after serving for 15 years, converted from Lutheranism to another church. I don't need to identify the church to which this pastor converted but we can suffice it to say this is a church where they don't have the Gospel.
The fact that this man abandoned the Gospel is what made the tape so shocking. I listened with ears wide open, as it were, to hear how this could have happened. What I heard was a pastor tell his story which to me was indeed a sad story. He was feeling like he had a lot of basic questions about Christianity, even after so much experience. He even had gone on to get a Doctorate degree and was working on a post-graduate degree. He was seeking more knowledge and understanding. He was seeking the truth, he said, and in all his years he had not found it.
Along came the teachers of this other church and they presented something that snatched him away from the truth. They brought their own book, not the Holy Scriptures. He said they didn't seem all that threatening even though he was taught that they were non-Christian.
How could he have not seen that the church lacked the pure blessed Gospel with which we are so familiar? We have the wonderful teaching in Christianity that Christ died to pay for our sins and He offers us forgiveness as a free gift. We don't work for it, but it comes for free. Yet this pastor gave all that up. In the end, what convinced him to convert was the piety of the people, the feelings he had when in their buildings, and baptism by immersion. For those things, he was willing to give up the Gospel? Now he thinks he has the true gospel. He explains that he will be saved IF he lives worthily, IF he progresses, IF he grows line-upon-line. He is sure that he has now found the true gospel though it is nothing like we were taught from Holy Scriptures.
My prayer for you, Pastor Hollibaugh, and for the people who are under your care is that you not take your attention off of the Holy Scriptures. In that way, you will remember that which you have learned and been assured of: the Gospel of our Lord. By doing this, you will not lose it, as that pastor did.
Surely there will be questions which arise about our faith and the Holy Scriptures. Our Lord has not revealed everything to us and so He leads us to search those Scriptures for the answers. In all things, however, we are never to forget what we have learned. That pastor who lost the gospel reminded me of those Paul describes in 2 Timothy as: "always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." We are instead called to always confess the truth we have learned.
If we turn away from that truth and the Holy Scriptures that teach us that truth, we will quickly get lost. There are many who are lost today - seeking for answers in unholy writings and in sin-tainted human reasoning. Rather than look in these places for the answers, we humbly resign all authority to the Holy Scriptures. Continue in the truth which you have learned and of which you have been assured.
Will this always be easy? I am leery of an installation sermon that promises that it will be easy going. No, 2 Timothy 3:12 promises: "all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." Further, the next verse promises there are those who will be opposing what you have learned and of what you have become assured. It says, "But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Deception will lead people away from the truth of the Holy Scriptures. What an evil thing deception is, for when you are deceived you don't know you are deceived. You don't know you have missed the mark.
This year is the first year I have ever covered tomatoes in our garden to protect them against frost. In prior years, I believe they were on their own. Seems a bit different living among the farmers in that we feel pressure to be more sophisticated in growing things. So, we covered the tomatoes but the green beans didn't get that protection. When the frost came it really hit the beans and the leaves wilted, but the tomatoes are still producing. You must protect your vegetables when the frost comes.
The protection against deception is none other than the Holy Scriptures. So Paul urges the pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2-5, "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." To protect our faith against deception, remember what you have learned and been assured of as you learned it from Holy Scriptures.
Pastors often try to be all things to all people which can often be a dangerous thing. They will undoubted find that they cannot do it. Both the pastor and the people make decisions about priorities in ministry. When you do, don't move the focus on Holy Scripture out of the top position. It is a given that not all people will be happy, but God calls for us to keep top priority on the Holy Scripture and the gospel we have learned from it. We find so many pastors and congregations today that are willing to compromise with God's Word. Let St. Paul and Immanuel and their new pastor not be found among them.
It is so essential that you keep this dedication to the Holy Scriptures. Without it, something will surely be missing.
There were two guys working for the city. One would dig a hole, he would dig, dig, dig; the other would come behind him and fill the hole, fill, fill, fill. These two men worked furiously. One digging a hole, the other filling it up again. A man was watching from the sidewalk and couldn't believe how hard these men were working, but couldn't understand what they were doing. Finally he had to ask them. He said to the hole digger, "I appreciate how hard you work, but what are you doing? You dig a hole and your partner comes behind you and fills it up again!" The hole digger replied, "Oh yeah, must look funny, but the guy who plants the trees is sick today."
It would be more horrible to forget the Holy Scriptures in our churches. Something would be missing. It would be tragic to fail to "continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of." We want to never forget those truths. Let us always hold high the golden truths of Christ come to save us by His sacrifice upon the cross. Let us never fail to continue believing in the wonderful free gift of forgiveness we have because of Christ. May we never wander from the truth that all our sins have been erased. Let us keep our attention directed to the Holy Scriptures so we never wander from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.