Jeremy Sarber On Life & Scripture
Jeremy Sarber

About

I’m Jeremy Sarber, a disciple of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, a Reformed Baptist, a Bible teacher, a funeral home chaplain, a husband, and a father.

Jeremy Sarber on WNDU News in 2023Jeremy Sarber on WNDU News in 2023

As I prepared to write about myself and what I do, I asked my wife for her input. While you may not trust her to provide an unbiased opinion, no one knows me better. No one has heard more of my sermons or read more of my writings. I believe she’s uniquely qualified.

Specifically, I asked her to describe my preaching and writing style, to which she quickly replied, “Your greatest strength is your ability to make the profound simple.”

I pray she’s right.

Teaching the Bible is a weighty responsibility not to be taken lightly. The book of James warns, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (Jas 3:1). Teachers are held to a higher standard, if for no other reason, because their errors do not remain with them. They spread their falsehoods to their students. Accuracy is vital when publicly expounding upon Scripture.

Furthermore, Bible teachers should be able to teach (1Ti 3:2). Clarity can be as essential to the task as faithfulness. A man may know the truth, but can he skillfully communicate it? If not, he should leave the pulpit or lay down his pen. No one is helped by casting shadows over the Bible’s meaning. The commentator’s role is to illuminate.

Assuming my wife is correct about me, I praise God alone for this gift and pray I will continue using it for his glory and the good of his people.

A fellow pastor from years ago said I teach the Bible with an intimate, conversational tone. He was the sixth man to preach at a church conference and began by describing the other five of us. “Jeremy doesn’t really preach,” he said. “He’s having a conversation with you. It’s just you and him sitting across the table from one another.” Later, I asked whether he believed my style was a good thing. “It can’t hurt,” he claimed, but you can be the final judge.

About Jeremy Sarber

Jeremy Sarber and his wife in 2024Jeremy Sarber and his wife in 2024

Since my conversion to Christ, I’ve had an insatiable appetite for studying Scripture. After years of living like the prodigal son, I was saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone. I pulled an old Bible from my closet the following day and never put it down. Soon after, I started a weekly Bible study group in the community, which caught the attention of my pastor. Before I knew it, I was ordained for pastoral ministry. I served as an interim pastor for two years, lead pastor for seven, and a church planter for another three.

Today, I have a rare and seemingly strange role as a full-time funeral home chaplain. When families do not belong to a church or personally know a pastor to call, I officiate their loved one’s funeral and offer counseling as needed. If you’re curious how one becomes a funeral home chaplain, especially with a full-time position, the short answer is God’s providence. I’ll save the complete answer for another day. If you’re like most people and want to know how someone survives working around death day after day, I’ll let Solomon answer for me. He said, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart” (Ecc 7:2).

Thankfully, I still have frequent opportunities to preach and teach outside the funeral home. My family and I belong to Grace Fellowship Church in Bremen, Indiana, where I most often lead our adult Sunday school. I’m also involved in two nursing home ministries. As much as I enjoy my labors in the house of mourning, I relish the times I can preach the word without a casket by my side and grieving family in the front row (Ecc 7:2; 2Ti 4:2).

I should also mention that I’m a confessional Reformed Baptist. By confessional, I mean I hold to a specific written summary of biblical truth. By Reformed Baptist, I mean I agree with the 1689 (Second London) Baptist Confession of Faith. If you want to know my fundamental beliefs as a Christian, you can read the 1689 Confession and gain a thorough understanding. We may not agree on every point, but you’ll know where I stand.

In short, I’m a disciple of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, a Reformed Baptist, a Bible teacher, a funeral home chaplain, a husband, a father, and the author and host of On Life & Scripture (Tit 2:13).

About ‘On Life & Scripture’

Jeremy Sarber’s office and studioJeremy Sarber’s office and studio

In a sense, this publication began in 2007 with my first blog, though it didn’t come into its present form under its current name until 2023. For that reason, you won’t find older posts. While I could have easily imported them, a new year on a new platform practically begs for a blank slate.

My relationship with publishing for the Web has been complicated. I could once boast that my online following exceeded twenty-thousand people. That’s a tiny audience for today’s social media influencers, but I was a small-town pastor without name recognition or a single piece of viral content. I wrote and recorded Bible expositions with a Calvinist bent, yet I gained traction week after week. Then, when I felt my local flock needed my full attention, I deleted everything—my blog, podcast, newsletter, and social media accounts. My following dropped to zero.

While I’ve never regretted that decision, I’ve questioned whether I was a faithful steward of the opportunities the Lord afforded me. After all, twenty-thousand people were two hundred times the size of my former church. I could have continued influencing enough people to fill two megachurches, which, one could reasonably argue, might prove a blessing or a curse. But if I proclaimed gospel truth and nothing less, multitudes might have come to know Christ while many others may have grown to love him more deeply.

For this reason, I’ve never stayed away from writing and podcasting for long. One reader’s gracious note to me said, “You are an excellent writer, gifted by the LORD.” If so, God forbid I should bury my talent in the ground. Necessity is practically laid upon me, assuming my motivations remain pure and I do all to the glory of God rather than myself (1Co 9:16; 10:31). Whether I have an audience of one soul or one million, I will labor to exalt Jesus, make disciples, and build up the body of Christ (Mt 28:19; Eph 4:12).

On Life & Scripture are my insights into God, salvation, and ourselves. My work always begins with three simple presuppositions: The world is utterly broken, only Christ can fix it, and the Bible is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2Ti 3:16). If not all three, I’m confident you can agree with the first. Regardless, I pray you’ll follow along with me as I reflect out loud on God, man, and where we meet. Covering subjects ranging from deeply theological to immediately practical, I’ll strive to “make the profound simple” in my usual conversational tone.

All glory be to Christ.