ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
The best preparation for teaching Christ’s lambs is love: love for Jesus and for them. We cannot be priests on their behalf unless like Aaron we wear their names upon our breasts. We must love or we cannot bless. Teaching is poor work when love is gone; it is like a smith working without fire, or a builder without mortar. A shepherd who does not love his sheep is a hireling and not a shepherd: he will flee in the time of danger, and leave his flock to the wolf.
Where there is no love there will be no life; living lambs are not to be fed by dead men. We preach and teach love; our subject is the love of God in Christ Jesus. How can we teach this if we have no love ourselves? Our object is to create love in the hearts of those we teach, and to foster it where it already exists; but how can we convey the fire if it is not kindled in our own hearts?
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe that true Christians persevere.
Not many days ago, I thought I saw the Alps. I have stood on the platform at Berne, Switzerland, and viewed with growing wonder that magnificent range of the snow-clad Alps. The other day within a few miles of this spot, in our own county of Surrey, I saw on the horizon clouds that were the very facsimile of Switzerland’s glorious mountains. To me there seemed no perceptible difference; the snowy masses of cloud were the exact counterpart of the Alps. If I had just risen from my sleep, and not known where I was, I should have said, “I am at Berne, looking at the mountains that I saw years ago.” Yet before five minutes had passed, the fair vision had melted away, and there were no peaks of granite there but mere aggregations of vapor.
How often have I seen Christians, as I have thought, and as all others have thought, and I have rejoiced and blessed God over what seemed converted men and women. But before long we have had clear proof that we have been grossly deceived. There was goodness in them—Hosea 6:4 calls it “love”—but it was only such nominal goodness as nature boasts of, and it vanished “like a morning cloud.”
RESOURCE FOR PASTORS
Thanks to CROSS CON for sponsoring Shepherding with Spurgeon this year. CROSS is a conference for 18–25 year-olds and their leaders.
Consider bringing a group from your church to Louisville next January to help them deepen their love for God and his Word. They will return home passionate about God, sound theology, and missions.
Learn more and register today.
ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND
“If the spiritually sick are healed, it is Jesus’ name which makes them strong.” — Charles Spurgeon