Pew Warning Prohibited - Serve the Saints

The Metropolitan Tabernacle is one of the most famous Baptist churches in history. Situated south of the Thames in London, at a busy junction of three streets, the Tabernacle was built in 1859 to accommodate the swelling membership of a previously small congregation. 

The growth was credited to the influential preaching of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. When the 21-year-old accepted the call to pastor a church with an attendance of about 80 no one could have predicted that within five years of his arrival, the building would need to accommodate 6,000.

Shipments of his printed sermons were loaded onboard every ship that sailed from England. But in London, the Tabernacle was famous for much more than the Sunday sermons. It was a veritable ants’ nest of activity by serving saints throughout the week. They had 100 Sunday School teachers, and over 1,000 people out evangelizing on Sundays. They had alms’ houses, an orphanage, an evangelists’ association, 40 local missions and many foreign missions, a tract society, the Ladies’ Benevolent Society, the Christian Brothers’ Benefit society, a Gospel Temperance Society, and 50 other such enterprises.

Historian, Arnold Dallimore, writes:

“The Tabernacle was a place of almost constant activity. On each of the seven days of the week the doors opened at 7am and did not close till 11pm, and there were persons coming and going all the time…. The Tabernacle was like a hive of bees and for the vast majority of its people to be a member meant to live a very busy life…The affections of the members were entwined around the church and its activities. … With grand delight people went up from what was often the drudgery of daily life to the house of the Lord on Sunday mornings, evenings and at least 2 evenings a week, and there their hearts were lifted, their minds informed, and their souls inspired. Many of the women were there again at various hours, preparing meals or sewing garments for the orphans, and many of the young men were at the Tabernacle in the evenings, gaining an education or learning something more about doing the Lord’s work. For hundreds of persons the Tabernacle was the centre of their existence. The message they heard there had been the means of transforming their lives, remaking their homes, saving them from sin, and giving them new affection and new joys, and the loved the place.”

Was the Metropolitan Tabernacle an exceptional church, or is this the normal standard for all churches? Is it fine for some Christians to do all the work, while others do no more than keep the pews warm on Sundays?

3 ASPECTS OF SERVICE SO THAT YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT PEW-WARMING IS PROHIBITED

1. DIVERSITY OF SERVICE

1 Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

Peter uses the word, each which makes it crystal clear that every believer must serve the body. Some Christians act like they are going to the movies. As if to say, “I’ve paid my entrance fee in the offering box, now I want to sit back and enjoy the show. I hope the pastor’s funny this morning. I hope the band plays my favorite hymn, and I really hope the noisy toddlers have someone to look after them on the playground.”

But the church isn’t for entertainment, it’s worship. And God is worshipped by service.

“As each has received a gift,” – Gift is the word charisma, which stems from the charis, meaning grace.

These gifts take various forms: 

·     natural endowment—the ability to teach

·     training—musical or financial

·     physical ability—strength for construction

·     desire to help—a love for kids, perhaps baking

·     opportunity—singleness or retirement

Sometimes you get this gift when you get saved, other times you had it, but now it is directed to worship and service. And no Christian has all the gifts, otherwise, he wouldn’t need to be part of a church.

Ask God to show you your gifts. It can be money. Maybe it’s the gift of time. Perhaps you have a counseling ability, or musical training, or are skilled with your hands, patient with kids, have a home you could host visitors, speak encouraging words, parent well, teach, or have an extra car.

God’s gifts are as different as a cornea is to a kidney or an ear to an arm. But we need them all to function as a Body of Christ.

2. NECESSITY OF SERVICE

1 Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, …

Peter instructs everyone with a gift to use it, employ it, give it a job, put it to work. Serving is not an option it’s a command. But there are far too many Christians that God has gifted, saved, and moved into a local body, who aren’t using their gifts. The solution isn’t to go warm other pews, it’s to repent! Non-participation is a sin. Perhaps you aren’t serving out of:

• Ignorance. Maybe you didn’t know that it is sin to be a Christian and not serve. But now you know! Use your gift to serve. Perhaps you don’t know what your gifts are….just start serving somewhere. Often faithfulness in one area leads to other opportunities.
• Laziness. Having a gift doesn’t mean you don’t have to work at it. Just that the work pays off.
• Selfishness. Some people want to use their gifts for themselves alone. You have time to open up before church, or the ability to bake snacks for homegroup –  but you want time for yourself, or to entertain rather than serve. But Peter doesn’t say use your gift for self-service, he says use it to serve one another.

Do you come to church looking for ways to serve or to be served?

3. AUTHORITY OF SERVICE

1 Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

The reason you have a gift and the reason you must use it to serve one another is that it is God’s resource, for you to manage on his behalf.

A steward is a house manager. Like when you start a business and hire a manager to run the shop. You find out he regularly doesn’t show up, closes the shop early, and makes his assistant manager do all the work. What do you do? Fire him!

Jesus taught many parables about stewards. Peter had emblazoned on his mind that Jesus was coming soon for an accounting. Remember what Jesus said would happen to the servant with no return on his investment? The guy with 10 minas made 10 more, the one with 5, made 5 more….but the one with a single mina….

Luke 19:20 – 26 … ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.’

You will account for every gift God has entrusted to you, and your eternal reward is weighed in the balance.

Why do you spend your time and energy and gifts on earthly, temporal pursuits when you know you are going to die and this world is going to the recycling plant? Invest in eternity! Use your gifts to serve the kingdom and reap the eternal rewards. 

Clint Archer