The Marks of Faithful Ministry

Intro

We are going to grab a little bit more text this week and look at the marks of Paul’s ministry and how by extension, we can see the marks of what a faithful ministry would look like.

Disclaimer - Tune out, only for “professionals”

Ephesians 4:11–12 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”

This is for you

Ministry

The Marks

Gift

For others - Sacrificial - Selfless

Difficult

Joyful

Biblical

Purposeful

Providential

Christ Centered

Gift

vs 25 “according to the stewardship… was given”

Paul’s ministry was a gift from God

Apostolic office?

Stewardship

It is a gift that we get to be ministers of the gospel

Everyone has a ministry

To the world & to the church

Matthew 28:19–20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

You have been given a gift

1 Peter 4:10–11 “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

For Others

vs 24 “for your sake” “for the sake of the church”

vs 25 “for you”

Vs 2:1 “for you”

This should be obvious but unfortunately it’s not

Ministry has become something that people use for their own benefit

Power, money, fame

Appear righteous to your friends

Not embarrassed by kids

Not Paul

Paul ministry eyes are not set on himself but on others

Paul loves Christ’s church, his bride

Minister - servant, intermediary

OF WHO - CHRIST

Paul tells Timothy

2 Timothy 2:8–10 “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

You have been given the winning lottery ticket numbers. How unloving is it to not tell everyone

Pen Jillette -

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell… and you think it’s not worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”

Jesus came not to be served but serve

Philippians 2:3–7 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Ministry is a gift to be enjoyed

Difficult

vs 25 “sufferings”; “filling up… Christ’s afflictions”

vs 29 “toil, struggling”

“Christs afflictions”

not saying Christ’s sufferings needed to be supplemented

Context

My turn

Paul’s Sufferings

2 Corinthians 11:23–28 “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

There are struggles in ministry and struggles in life

What Suffering does for you

Your suffering is real and its not wasted

Humbles you

Comfort

Compassion

Refocuses

Prepares you for glory

2 Corinthians 4:17 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,”

There seems to be nothing light or momentary about pauls afflictions

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Makes you look more like Christ

There will be great difficulties in your life, in your ministry, but you can rest assured knowing that God is using that for your good and his glory

Joyful

vs 24 “rejoice”

Specifically, in light of suffering

Rejoice always

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

Rejoicing in suffering is not fake happiness

Joy is not happiness.

2 Corinthians 6:1–9 “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;”

Happiness is a feeling, happiness is fleeting

Joy is deeper, fuller, longer

You can have joy without being happy

You can have joy in the midst of sorrow and heartbreak

You can have joy yes on the peaks but also in the valleys

When you get the diagnosis, Joy

When you get the phone call, Joy

When the child goes astray, Joy

Reasons for Joy

Because we win. Because this cosmic creator king has triumphed over all in his resurrection and in the end is making all things right.

There are amazing things we get to rejoice in

The joy that we are reunited to loved ones in Christ

The joy that we get eternal life

The joy that every tear is wiped away

The joy in the absence of pain, sickness, sorrow, death

The joy in feasting forever

The joy in the beauties of heaven

And not to diminish any of those joys, but I need you to understand your greatest reason joy is that you get God

Because you you get this king. You get God. and that is the greatest treasure you could ever want.

Joy is saying

Psalm 73:25–26 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Matthew 13:44 ““The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Imagine, him breaking down on the way to that field. Imagine him losing his phone. Imagine his wife calling him to say that the furnace went out.

He knows he owns treasure

Biblical

vs 25 “to make the word of God fully known”

28 “him we proclaim, warning & teaching”

elaborates a little bit

fully known - the mystery

Pastor Brent is going to dig deeper into this mystery next week but ultimately the focus of the mystery for Paul here is vs 27 Christ in you

Paul’s desire is to reveal the glories of God’s unfolding plan of salvation through the finished work of his son on the cross.

That ought to be all of our aim in ministry

To make the word of God known

To show people the riches of God’s word and the glories of Gods son

I stand up here and preach week in and week out with this goal. Make God’s word fully known

God’s word isn’t fully known if Christ isn’t clearly shown

See it is a mystery because the Gospel was veiled, it was hidden, it was shadowed, but now it has been clearly revealed to us in Christ

We don’t show people Gods word to make just give them head knowledge

We don’t show them God’s word just to give them good life advice

We don’t show them God’s word as simply an alternative lens in which to view the world.

We show them God’s words to show them God’s son

Purposeful

28 “that we may present”

Paul’s ministry is not just something he does to pass the time but a a is a mission with a purpose.

Paul’s purpose in ministry is to mature christians in Christ.

Far too often, ministry can be focused on growth, growth of attendees, growth of missions, growth growth growth…

We better not forget the spiritual growth of the people we minister to.

You can have a church, a bible study, a small group, etc that is bursting at the seams but the people are spiritually anemic

To the husbands, what are you doing to present your family mature in Christ

Present others mature in Christ begins with your own maturity in Christ

Paul says to Timothy, train yourself for Godliness

Questions to ask

In what areas have I been killing sin in my life

In what areas have I been lacking in my spiritual life

What am I intentionally doing and not doing to look more like Jesus

Providential

vs 29 “his energy that he powerfully works”

Ministry is something that is ultimately God’s work

Paul says here that he is toiling and struggling but it is Christ that fuels him

Be careful to not think your ministry is your doing.

notches on belts

people saved

people baptized

church members

Successes in ministry can start to make you think that you are getting things done by your own strength, your own efforts, your own strategies.

The very breath you breathe is because God has given it to you.

The sustainer of the universe is the one who providentially works in you and in your ministry

This means your ministry better be a prayer saturated ministry

Paul is a praying man

“day and night”

“never ceasing”

In fact, Paul says in 4:12 that Ephaphras is “always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God”

If your ministry, and your life for that matter, is one that is driven by God’s providence, then prayer is the only fuel that you have

You can preach

You can teach

You can defend the faith

You can have all the answers

But can you pray. And do you pray

“Enough with prayers, we need action”

Implies prayers don’t work

The vehicle of your ministry will not move unless it is fueled by prayer

Christ Centered

23 Gospel of reconciliation that Christ has done that he is a minister of

24 “Christs afflictions”; “his body”

27 “christ in you”

28 “him we proclaim”; ‘mature in Christ”

29 “his energy that he powerfully works”

2:2 “which is Christ”

2:5 “faith in Christ”

A faithful ministry is one that has Christ at the very center of it.

Christ is not one aspect of it

Christ is not a good benefit of it

Christ is not a primary topic

It is all Christ

1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”

Christ is not a side, he is the main course

Christ is not an accessory he is the main object

He is not a good option, he is our only hope

Church I want you to make it your aim, that when you die, people may say many good things about you, but the primary marking characteristic of your life is that you were sold out for Jesus.

Not the businessman

Not the golfer

Not the kind person

Not even the great husband and father

The Jesus person

Adoniram Judson

American missionary to Burma in the early 1800s

On his way there his first child dies

His second child dies at 17 months old

His first wife dies in burma

He buries 6 children and 2 wives bringing the gospel to the burmese people

Takes 6 years to see his first convert

Endures “I will not leave Burma until the cross is planted here forever”

He is imprisoned and tortured

Shackled with his feet above his head at night

Starved

Mosquitoes constantly swarming him as he sit in his own filth

at one point he is forced to dig his own grave, expecting to be executed

A prisoner mocked

“what of the prospect of converting the heathen now?”

Judson replied

“The future is a bright as the promises of God”

After prison he is in unspeakable grief, despair, isolation for a year

He dug a grave and would lay by it contemplating death

God is to me the Great Unknown. I believe in Him, but I find Him not.”

Eventually he works his way out of this and returns to the mission field.

As he travels to an unreached village a villager runs up to him and asks

“Are you Jesus Christ”

“No, but I am one of his servants, come to teach you of him”

By his death there were thousands of converts and hundreds of churches planted in burma

Today, there are millions of christians in Burma that trace their roots to the ministry of Adoniram Judson.

We may not have the impact Paul did or Judson did, but we can all say, with Paul and with Judson

“We are servants of Jesus Christ, come to teach you of him”