A theology that traces promise across the contours of human history and misery, sees that its trajectory ends in a genuine hope which is of greater gravity and density than any merely topical words of comfort. Biblical theology arms the pastor, sitting by a death bed, sitting in the ruins of relational betrayal, occupying the hinterland of doubt and complexity, with the one Story whose ending is joyous without being artificial.

If a theology is true and good it will live well outside of the textbook and the classroom. If a body of scholarship fairly represents the word of God and the God of the word, then its impact will be felt beyond the pulpit and the more obvious didactic activities of the local church. A theology which has the Incarnation at its heart but that fails to land in everyday life is an inadequate and anaemic parody of divine revelation. Not all theology is experiential in content but it must be experiential in impact, the truths the theologian handles are not lifeless pinned butterflies but live specimens whose beauty and benefit should be seen and felt in the world, with the weight of God about them.
The work of a local church pastor is one of the most obvious interfaces for theology and practice, for doctrine and experience. Taking Biblical Theology as my starting point (I hope to write on Systematics at a later stage) in this post I want to share three ways in which this discipline has helped me in the caring aspect of my work as a local church pastor:
1. The Big Story gives me a book that travels well.
One of the things that can mark out a pastoral visit to a home from those made by other members is that such contact provides an informal opportunity for word ministry. This is the ‘house to house’ element of Christian service that Paul was keen to highlight to the elders in Ephesus (Acts 20:20), the ministerial priority that Richard Baxter so heavily emphasised in The Reformed Pastor, and an unseen work that forms the backbone of individual and family discipleship within the local church. Whether it is to the hospital ward, a care facility, or a home, bringing the Bible with me and leaving a word from it behind me is one of the rich privileges of being engaged in Christian service.
In this forum Biblical Theology comes into its own. Many (but by no means all) of the people whom a pastor visits are suffering from ill health, or have faced other setbacks in their Christian walk. This means that many of the texts shared in this environment are Bible promises: the consolation of the Psalms, the tender ministrations of the major and minor prophets, the pastoral heart of Jesus, or the loving counsel of the apostles. The dynamic of a broken heart or stricken health coming into contact with the living word of God can be an electrifying experience. This is often where the real conversation begins, with the word softening the reader’s and hearers’ hearts and opening a door for the mercy and goodness of God to be ministered. The danger of this, however, is that texts can be atomised or psychologised, and the insistence on context that garrisons the pulpit on a Sunday can be lost in the side ward or living room during the week.
This is where the Big Story of Biblical Theology is so beneficial. It has become common to sneer at Jeremiah 29:11 as the anthem of a therapeutic Christianity, but its counsel can be shared with those in crisis merely by disclosing something of the movement of redemptive history that gave dimension and pathos to the prophet’s words. Sections of the Psalter can be ripped away from their moorings, but Biblical Theology insists that the setting is what allows a gem to show its lustre. Having the imprint of the drama of redemption, the sweep and line and arc of what God was doing when this text was written, allows the pastor to speak hope that is real and tangible, textual and contextual. Where appropriate, and where the capacities of those visited allows it, brief context can be given to what is being read, opening up the conversation to be a teaching moment rather than a textual extraction/abstraction. It is hard not to believe that the Holy Spirit can honour the word of God when shared in this way.
2. Small stories are where the Big Story happens.
Aside from direct teaching of Scripture, Biblical Theology helps with pastoral visitation because of its esteem for history and narrative as the channel through which we come to know the mind and ways of God.
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Don’t let the media discourage you or make you think the church is irrelevant or out of date. We have a message everyone needs to hear. We want others to know the hope that we have. Pray for God to bring many more into his wedding feast. There is room for many more.

Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a wedding banquet a king is hosting for his son in Matthew 22. Through history, God had been preparing the way for his people to come to this big party. This was primarily the Jewish people through the covenants and prophets and patterns of the Old Testament. The tragedy of Matthew 22 is that a great majority of the Jewish people did not recognise Jesus as the son of the king, and they would not therefore be part of the wedding banquet that God had planned.
The great news of Matthew 22 is that the invitation is open to all who will come. Anyone, from any background, whether good or bad, is welcome to come to the wedding feast. Anyone who comes to Jesus is most welcome.
Now, if you watch the news, you could be forgiven for thinking that the church is an old, dying institution that has no relevance to modern Australia. We have seen that in the commentary around the Andrew Thorburn incident in Melbourne last week. It seems that everyone is lining up to condemn views that historically all Bible-believing Christians would hold to.
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As we remember Jesus’ death on Good Friday and celebrate the Risen Christ on Easter Sunday, let us remember the sufferers in the midst of our churches. There will be people that need us to tenderly speak to them and build them up with words of gospel hope. They may come hopeless, even feeling as if God is against them. Let us give them words of life, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth…I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26).   

Soon believers all around the world will celebrate Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Some will go to church because they are expected to do so by family. Others will go because they know the joy of gathering together on the Lord’s Day to worship Him. Still others will show up broken and tormented by trials that have torn them asunder. They may even be wondering if God “counts [them] as his adversary” (Job 19:11). The church needs to come around them and tenderly speak words of hope. Job 19 gives us a window into how the righteous suffer, and ultimately a window into our Savior’s suffering, as well as a glimpse of the sufferer’s only hope.
Job’s suffering was considerable, but perhaps it was the words of his friends that broke him and tormented him the most (Job 19:2). Instead of comforting Job they magnified themselves against him and wrongly pointed to his disgrace as evidence of some secret sin. But Job was suffering because of his godliness (1:8). Job found his friends to be “miserable comforters” (16:2). They had failed to approach him in tenderness and build him up. God’s people are to speak in ways that are only “good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). In this way we reflect the tenderness and grace of Jesus who invites “all who labor and are heavy laden” to “come to Me” (Matt. 11:28).
When the Lord spoke with Satan, the adversary claimed that Job feared God because the Lord had “put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side” (Job 1:10). Ironically, Job says that “He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass” (19:8). He concludes that God has “kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary” (19:11). But nothing could be further from the truth. His adversary is Satan, not God (1:11; 2:5).
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