Public Ministry

What is a minister to do?  The average pulpit committee sets forth an elaborate job description that even the most talented man finds difficult to fulfill.  Cultural influences help shape the expectations so that the list includes responsibilities for which Timothy himself would have been utterly ill-equipped.  Thankfully the apostle Paul established a job description of his own.  Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching (1Tim 4:13).  This is simple, straightforward and to the point.  It is ministry for which Timothy was gifted by the Spirit and to which he was ordained by the church (1Tim 4:14).  Such public ministry may not be imaginative or flashy, but neither are the ordinary meals consumed three times a day.  Yet just as the body is nourished by regular food consumption so the soul is nourished by consistent Word intake.  Neither process is complicated.  Prepare and serve the food!  The minister is to practice these things, indeed, to immerse himself in them (1Tim 4:15).  How many modern ministry profiles would establish that as the primary criteria for candidates?  The Lord Jesus taught that a minister must be a faithful and wise steward who gives them their food at the proper time (Matt 24:45).  To use modern jargon, the Spirit is advocating a “means of grace ministry.”  That is, a ministry devoted to the ordinary means of grace, or those divinely-appointed ordinances by means of which Christians grow in grace and sanctification, such as the reading, preaching and teaching of God’s word.  Perhaps most revealing is how Paul caps off this particular portion of instruction:  Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers (1Tim 4:16).  Notice, steady devotion to this kind of ministry will not necessarily delight or amuse or entertain one’s hearers.  It will SAVE them!  What?!  Did he really say SAVE them?  Many might feel a bit uncomfortable with that language, especially because we know salvation is from the Lord.  But God works through means and appoints His agents.  He will apply the great salvation accomplished by Christ to His people through the faithful, wise and ordinary reading, preaching and teaching of His word.  Only our glorious God could and would accomplish His purpose through cracked jars of clay.  May He raise up men who will feed His sheep at the proper time!

Word and Spirit

Paul refers to the Apostasy and the Man of Lawlessness who is the Son of Destruction (2Thess 2:3).  The definite articles give a unique specificity to his expectation.  These are not vague, undefined expressions of wickedness.  One might say they are summations of it.  All the strands of earthly evil can be gathered up and bound together in what seems to be an ultimate expression of sin.  Something or someone restrains it for now (2Thess 2:6), but when that restraint is removed, all the forces of hell will break loose (2Thess 2:7-8).  Yet Jesus reigns supreme.  He will simply slay this devil with the breath of His mouth.  Sadly, those who are perishing will be deceived by the accompanying false signs and wonders primarily because they refused to love the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness (2Thess 2:10, 12).  How different were the believing Thessalonians!  Paul identifies them as the godly antithesis since they were being saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (2Thess 2:13).  Those perishing hate the truth while believers love it.  Those perishing delight in unrighteousness while believers turn away from it.  Those glorious means by which the salvation accomplished by Christ was applied to believers were God’s word and Spirit.  Nothing less could rescue weak lambs from the mighty jaws of wickedness and corruption, or the mystery of lawlessness.  Why mysterious?  Partly because of its insidious and deceitful nature.  We are no match for it.  But thanks be to God!  His Word shall accomplish His purpose and succeed in the thing for which He sends it (Isa 55:11) and His Spirit can and will sanctify with invincible power.  While our enemies are formidable, our temptations strong and our flesh weak, we have no reason to fear.  The Lord Jesus cannot be denied His offspring (Isa 53:10) whom He will certainly deliver from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever.  Amen  (Gal 1:4-5).

A Good Man

At a marriage seminar we considered hypothetically how each one would eulogize his or her spouse. It was an exercise designed both to provoke thought and to provide encouragement. Many nice things were said about our respective spouses. But nothing could have been said that would have surpassed what the Holy Spirit affirmed in describing one of the early church’s leading men. Barnabas rejoiced at the work of God in Antioch and exhorted the believers to fidelity, and the sacred text makes this observation: he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith (Acts 11:24).

Of course he was not inherently good, but became so as a result of the Spirit’s presence and faith’s exercise. With the blessed Promise filling his heart, he was divinely enabled to believe – it was granted to him (Php 1:29) – and in so doing he was able to receive and rest upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what made him good. That is what enabled him to rejoice in and work for the Kingdom. And that is why he was recognized and esteemed as a son of encouragement (Acts 4:36). In Barnabas we see an example of divine prophecy fulfilled. I will give you a new heart… and I will put My Spirit within you (Ezek 36:26-27). His soul and life were undeniably transformed by means of the gracious and powerful influence of the Holy Spirit. The same is true of every believer. Like Barnabas we have within our hearts a Presence that sanctifies and sweetens life. He sanctifies even to the extent that wicked sinners can now be classified as good. What a stunning transformation! What an amazing gospel! The Father chose us for this. The Son lived and died and rose again for this. The Spirit descends and indwells and disinfects for this. All of it unfolds for the glory of God and the good of His people.