Paul's View of Ministry Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
a couple of weeks ago, we began looking at Paul’s view of Ministry. We looked at the Source of the ministry being God. He is the one who instituted the Church and the one who commissioned all believers to Go and share the Gospel. We looked at the Spirit of the ministry being the spirit of Joy. As the Holy Spirit works in and through us, the result is the spirit of true Joy. And we finished up with the Suffering of the Ministry. We considered how the early church expected to suffer for the sake of the ministry. How this suffering draws us closer to Jesus Christ. How it shows us that we Belong to Him, and finally how the suffering that we go through for His sake brings us future reward. This week, we pick up right there and will consider the Scope of the Ministry, the subject of the ministry the Style of the Ministry, the Sum and the Strength of the Ministry.
The SCOPE of the Ministry
The SCOPE of the Ministry
1:25b
Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
The ministry that Paul speaks of includes Preaching of the Word of God. We see this in
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Paul set himself to do God’s will for his life completely, nothing more, nothing less. This is why he was able to write in
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
He sought to preach the world to the people that God called him to preach to. He didn’t try and win the entire world all by himself as some in ministry try to do today. Paul only took 3 missionary journeys and was not even close to going to every major city in the world in his day. But he did fish the ponds that God had given him.
As another example, Jesus never really left the region of Palestine. Though He had many followers, He didn’t teach everyone there. In fact, though He could have done so, He limited Himself to certain things that God the Father had for Him to do.
As we look through the book of John, we see that there are several passages that speak of these and further limitations that Christ placed on His earthly ministry.
He Limited His Ministry to God’s WILL
He Limited His Ministry to God’s WILL
The first limitation that we see is that the ministry should be limited to God’s will.
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
While there are many things that we can do for the work of the ministry, we must seek to only do the work that God has called us to do, only the work that He leads us to do according to His Will.
A second limitation Christ placed on His earthly Ministry was God’s Timing
He Limited His Ministry to God’s TIMING
He Limited His Ministry to God’s TIMING
Christ limited His Ministry to God’s timing. He could have done anything that He wanted, whenever and wherever He wanted, but He didn’t. When it comes to timing, personally I would have just wanted to get things over with. I would not have wanted to spend 3 years in ministry waiting and working toward the Crucifixion. Knowing what was coming, Christ pressed onward in His earthly ministry and only doing things at the appointed time. We see examples of this in John chapter 7 and 13.
The hour has not yet come
Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.
Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
A third limitation that we see is that He limited His earthly ministry to
He Limited His Ministry to God’s OBJECTIVE
He Limited His Ministry to God’s OBJECTIVE
Not to all the world
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Not only did He limit himself to a specific group of people, but certain people of that group. We see this in Matt 9
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
This is not to say that Christ only came to save the lost people of the nation of Israel, but while He was here, He ministered to those specific individuals at that time. It would be out of that specific group that the disciples were called and from them, the word went out into the world.
The SUBJECT of the Ministry
The SUBJECT of the Ministry
Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
This might sound odd, but Paul kept his focus on the Gospel. Following Christ’s example, Paul didn’t get into the political issues of the day. Throughout Christ’s ministry, people were trying to trick Him or question Him about political issues. For instance in Matthew 22, we see them asking about paying taxes to Caesar (a very sore subject for the Jews). If He had said don’t pay taxes, He would be in trouble with the Romans, if He said to pay them, He would be in trouble with the Jews. So He simply answered saying
They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
You see, He didn’t get into the politics because that was not what He was here to do. So here, we see that Paul was limiting his ministry to the work of sharing the Gospel (or the mystery that had been hidden) with the Gentiles.
The STYLE of the Ministry
The STYLE of the Ministry
1:28a
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
While there are many different “styles” of ministry today, Paul states here that his ministry of making the Gospel known among the Gentiles followed a specific style.
We see that he “Preached” or Proclaimed the Gospel. Living our lives as ambassadors of Christ is important for sure, but we must also Proclaim the Gospel as well. This doesn’t just mean preaching in a formal sense, but rather speaking the truth of the Gospel.
Now, what does this speaking look like? We see a 2 sided speaking here, not being double tongued, but rather speaking a warning and speaking the truth.
The warning here is an admonishing, or to give encouraging counsel in view of sin and impending punishment. Basically, its like telling our kids, if you don’t stop doing that, you are going to get hurt. Or in the spiritual sense, If you don’t repent of your sins and accept Christ as your Savior, you are destined to eternal separation from God. Or to warn believers that if they continue in the path of sin that they are walking, then they will see the consequences.
Now, the other side of this is to teach or speak the truth of the Gospel, or the word of God. And we are to do so to everyone.
The SUM and STRENGTH of Ministry
The SUM and STRENGTH of Ministry
1:28b-29
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
Our last point today is the Sum or Goal of the ministry and the Strength to do it.
The Goal is found in the end of verse 28 saying “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” The word perfect here means Mature, so the Goal of the ministry is to preach the Gospel so people can be saved and to teach them sound doctrine so that they can grow to become mature believers.
The Strength to do the Work of the ministry, and it is work, comes from Christ’s working in Paul to do it. Paul’s use of labor here means to work to the point of Exhaustion, and strive meaning to struggle in agony. The work of the ministry is not easy As we look at Paul’s ministry over the years he ministered, we see that it was incredibly hard. We could look t many of the missionaries or ministers of years past and see that the work of the ministry was not easy, and nothing has changed since then. If we were left alone to labor and strive in the work, no one would be able to do it. In fact, we wouldn’t be able to really do anything meaningful for the Kingdom without God working in us to do it. It is God who gives us the strength, peace and encouragement to do the work.
So when we accomplish anything, it isn't because we worked hard, it's because God did it--He energized, He gave the power, He gave the resource.
Conclusion
As we conclude our time together today, let’s consider Christ’s and Paul’s view of the ministry.
Let us Limit our ministry to only that what God has called us and led us to do, According to His will, His way and in His Timing, nothing more, nothing less.
Let us Keep the main thing, the main thing. May our focus be on the Truth of God’s word and not on anything else.
Let's be committed to opening our mouths and proclaiming--not just leaving tracts on tables and walking away (though that is good to do). Let's commit ourselves to speak for the Lord-- warning about negative behavior and teaching positive truth in all wisdom.
And let us do the WORK of the Ministry and realize that it is in and through Him alone that we can do so. And give Him the glory for it.