LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The service of the ministers and the Church
Ministers are for the equipping of the saints, so that they then do the work of the ministry and build up the church.
Marcelo Diaz
"And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-12).
On this occasion, I want to share more about the ministry of the saints, which, we can say with certainty, is not perfectly fulfilled among us; but we do long to see it manifested.
When I was young, I went to a Bible college to receive preparation for the ministry. There, the most frequently asked question was: 'What ministry do you have?'. It is supposed that everyone there had a call from God to serve, so that no one could ignore what his calling was. The most common answers were: evangelist, pastor and teacher. So, all of us who studied there were grouped into these ministries.
Today I'm going to ask you the same question. 'What ministry do you have?'. Has service in the Lord been reduced to just three or five ministries? The answer is categorically 'No', since in the Scriptures and in the normal life of the church there is a much bigger, broader ministry, which all of us have a place in, and yet it is one. It is 'the ministry of all the saints'.
We spend a large part of our life wanting to know how we can serve the Lord, or in other words, what our position in the body of Christ is. It is a matter that we should be very clear about.
We should all be serving. It is so important to know that we are called to this ministry and to participate in it, and that God has provided special gifts to equip the saints so that they can carry out His work. These are the so-called ministers of the word, gifts of God given to men.
The service of the ministers of the Word
The Lord wants to manifest Himself through his church, He wants to fill all things with His glory. He desires to express all of His riches and wisdom to men, and He will use the saints to do this, equipping them in various acts of service according to the riches of His grace.
One way of equipping them is through His word. For this He uses the ministers of the word, who have the job of ministering Christ to the church, for He alone is sufficient food for spiritual growth.
It is true –and we say it with sadness- that at this time many ministers have taken up the service that corresponds to the saints, and have grabbed it for themselves. The saints have also relied too much on ministers, seeking their own comfort. But that's not right. And even when this occurs in many Christian circles, God continues to bless His church, providing ministers of Christ for His people.
The Lord has given the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These five ministries are drawn from the Word, and transmit the Lord’s voice, the Lord's will, inspired by the scriptures that have already been revealed.
Let’s read Acts 20:17, to draw out some lessons. Here is Paul, acting as an apostle, one who has been sent to do the work. While in Miletus, he calls for the elders of the church at Ephesus.
Verse 17. "From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them…”. Here, there is already a relationship between the ministry of the word and the government of the church. The ministry of the word has to do with the gifts of the word, and the government of the church has to do with the elders, local men raised up by the Lord, confirmed by the apostles in order to serve among the brothers and coordinate the service in the church.
Paul was calling the brothers to share a message with them, because as he understood it, he would never see them again. This is really important. Notice how the call was received, the respect and mutual submission between both parties. Paul exhorts the elders and they receive the word with love. Such is the response of gratitude to the Lord that they embrace Paul, kiss him and accompany him until the last moment (v. 37-38).
This truly is an example, because the elders could have ignored the call or might have said, 'Why do I need to go? Who is this man? Is he greater than I, is he better than I? '. But here we see God’s order in hearts that have been dealt with by the Lord, valuing what is truly important -the will of God- and following it, being subject to each other.
In verse 18, Paul begins to talk to them lovingly. "You know how I was with you all the time, from the first day that I came into Asia, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials ...".
Paul says of himself: 'You have seen my witness, how I behaved as a minister of the word among you.' Here's a clue to help us see this relationship between apostles and elders. A minister of the word who is arrogant and authoritarian, will not be well received. The one who ministers Christ, to transmit Him through the message, must build up the church in humility. Together with the word, his actions should testify for him.
In just these two verses, we can draw out lessons for workers and elders, that speak of reciprocity, submission, obedience, dependence, love, witness and humility.
The message from ministers
Now, in relation to the ministry of the word, let’s look at the content of the message. Here we can see at least five aspects of the ministry of a worker, which Paul said should be present both in the context of public proclamation and in the privacy of homes. "... And I held back nothing that was useful to you and have taught you publicly and from house to house ... testifying to both Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 20 -21).
In the ministry of the word, the first ministry is repentance toward God, and the second, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the foundation of everything. If there is no call to repentance, then there is no gospel. The Lord began His message, "Repent and be converted." The first message of a minister of the Lord is repentance. The word repentance implies a change, a new birth.
But how often in spiritual work we find people who are ‘half good', semi- 'believers'. We try to motivate them to continue in the gospel, but to no effect. They walk for a while, but it doesn’t work. Why? Because they haven’t securely grasped the first step, which is repentance. Remember that the first requirement is repentance from dead works, and the second, faith in God (Heb. 6:1).
The second is the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; He is the author and finisher of our faith. Faith is the vision that transcends the temporal, to see what is not seen, and to take our eyes off what is seen. It seems paradoxical, but in actual fact when a Christian fails to see the unseen, he stops, he settles down, and then comes his ruin. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
"Now, behold, bound in spirit, I am going to Jerusalem ... None of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God "(v. 22, 23). We have repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, and now "the ministry to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." The ministers of the word are ministers of the gospel of God's grace.
Is there anything more precious than grace? The gospel is grace, a gift from God. It doesn’t say "the gospel of God's law" as some interpret it, transforming it into law, full of obligations and sacrifices of the flesh. The gospel is grace that saves and operates unto eternal life.
Verse 25: "And now, behold, I know that none of you, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face again." The fourth aspect is the kingdom of God; the government, the authority of God.
There are environments in which Christians have received revelation concerning the kingdom of God, but over time the government ends up being by a few men. They then impose demands and requirements upon those who enter into this context, in God's name, and it ends up being the kingdom of dogmas, rules and regulations. The kingdom is God’s! God does the work, God frees the sinner, God casts out the demons, God reveals His word, God does everything.
And finally, verses 26-27: "Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men; For I have not refrained from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. " Here's the final aspect and perhaps the most transcendent one, it is the counsel of God, revealed in Genesis when he says: "Let us make man." Paul took three long years to transmit this counsel to the church: "Therefore keep watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I didn’t cease from admonishing every one with tears" (v. 31).
What is God's purpose? Let us dwell on the Letter to the Ephesians, in order to approach this mystery. In this letter, we see how heaven draws near to the earth, how the earthly is absorbed by the heavenly. The revelation of His counsel is so wonderful that, Paul defines it as follows: "... making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself, to gather up all things into Christ ... both which are in heaven and which are on earth "(Eph. 1:10).
This means summing up all that is in heaven and on earth, in and under our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why He ascended into heaven filling it all with His glory, to then pour Himself out on us and fill up all things on earth. As the Apostle Peter testified: "This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses. Having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promised Holy Spirit, He has poured out what you now see and hear. "
Paul further explains and tells us in Ephesians 4: 7-9. "But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. For this reason it says: Having ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. The fact that he ascended, what can it mean but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? ".
Jesus, having descended first into the lower parts of the earth, took captivity captive, and rose up, and the Father made Him sit on His throne. Up above, all things were filled with Christ and when the entire universe was filled with Christ, God by his Spirit began to distribute gifts to the church. The exaltation of the Son is the basis of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of God. When Christ ascended, the heavens could not contain His glory. Then the Holy Spirit began to pour forth from Christ onto us.
"He who descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens to fill all things. And he gave ... ". He gave of Himself, of His glory, of His fullness, and put it in the church, and He constituted "some, apostles; and some, prophets; others, evangelists; some pastors and teachers. " Gifts of Christ, that reveal a part of Him, to show His fullness, His light and greatness.
So when a minister of the word begins to speak the mystery of God, he is giving a portion of Christ to the church. But these gifts of God are not an end in themselves; they have their place, they have their value. They are Christ walking, Christ prophesying, Christ evangelizing, Christ shepherding, Christ teaching, Christ filling up all things "to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ."
Ministers are to equip the saints, to equip them so that the saints take hold of the fullness of Christ, and then they can do the work of the ministry and build up the church.
Some people interpret this as being two sources of service: firstly, the work of the ministry towards unbelievers, the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18), a ministry towards the outside. And second, the inward ministry, the building up of the church, "until we all reach the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ "(Eph. 4:13).
There is a sequence here: God distributes gifts, the gifts act, ministers of the word are raised up and build up the church, so that the saints can do the work of the ministry. It finishes with verse 16: "... from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” The sequence finishes with the activity of each individual member.
The operation of all the saints
What is your service in God’s work? Sometimes, we have flocks full of ‘fat sheep’, equipped with the word, but with no activity. The ministers carry out a ministry that is given to them by the Lord so that you can do what He has specifically designed for you.
Brother, the end is that you serve in the church, in the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ. If you're not doing this, pray to the Lord. 'Lord, open my eyes. How can I better serve you, how can I be useful to you? I do not want to be wasting all these years on myself.’
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are a variety of effects, but God, who worketh all in all, is the same" (1 Corinthians 12: 4) The word effect is the same word translated as activity which we just read. There are different activities, but God, who worketh all in all, is the same...
In short, Christ descended into the depths, but He also rose to the highest place, filling the whole heaven with His glory, to then pour it out in abundance on the earth, depositing it in His church. We have freedom to receive the gift of God, so that the Spirit can express Himself with the gifts that God has given, especially the gifts of the word, equipping the saints. Then, we will see many gifts in operation and Christ, by his Spirit, governing everything. Amen.