Equipping – The Ministry-Minded Work of the Church

"For the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry..."  This is how the Apostle Paul described the purpose of the gifts of Christ to the Church (apostles and prophets, evangelists, and pastors/teachers).  God has created the local church to be the primary place where you as a Christian get what you need to grow.  To accomplish this, God has given leaders to the church in order to teach you His Word and give you the tools you need to both enable your own spiritual growth and help others in their spiritual growth.

As Americans, most of us figure that church is a nice place to go on Sundays (maybe even every Sunday) in order to be encouraged as we worship God.  But, the church is much more than that.  The church is the ONE place that God has designed for us to minister to others and be ministered to.  Unless we are actively engaging in mutual ministry with other believers, we will never become more like Christ, which is our ultimate goal.

But, we don't know what we're doing, do we?  We don't naturally know how to minister to others?  In fact, we don't naturally know anything about the ministry that Christ calls us to.  That is why we need the equipping ministry of the church.  And, by "equipping ministry" I do not mean some prepackaged program.  I mean the church being who the church was meant to be.  I mean the elders and deacons functioning in the way God intended.  I mean the Gospel being the central focus of everything the church says and does.  I mean all the members of the church being actively involved in serving one another and the community around them.

So, what does this look like?  Well, there is no simple 4-step program to Christian growth.  Similarly, there is no simple 4-step process of equipping people for ministry.  It is a life-long job.  The Word of God is our primary tool.  As the servant-leaders of the church pour the Word of God into the lives of other believers, those believers begin to do the same with others.  We teach, we preach, we train, we counsel, we pray, we disciple.  We all do this.  Not just the pastor.  Not some board of super-spiritual people.  Paul says Jesus gave the pastors/teachers to equip "the saints".  That means all Christians.  And we equip with the Word because that is what God says He uses to make us all more like Christ, which is the goal.

As you become a part of a local congregation, your job is to find two types of relationships - 1) you need to find someone who is more mature than you spiritually so they can help disciple you, and 2) you need to find someone who is less mature than you spiritually so you can help disciple them.  Think about this for a minute.  What is your goal when you look for a church?  Why do you go to church?  What do you hope happens?  If you go to a church looking for what it can do for you or your family, you are only looking at half the picture.  The other half is what you can do for others within the congregation.  The question that remains is, "How have you purposed to get involved in the equipping ministry of your local church?"

Great Faith (Part 2) - MORE Reflections on Matthew 15:21-29

"Have mercy on me, Lord!"  This was the desperate cry of the woman who approached Jesus.  She came to the right person (see yesterday's article).  And she came for the right reason - mercy.  This was a woman who was at the end of her rope.  Her daughter was demon-possessed and who knows what other problems that caused?  She could do NOTHING about her situation.  She had probably exhausted all the religious options her own people could offer.  No medicine could cure her daughter.  No amount of psychoanalysis would help.  She was desperate.  So, when Jesus came through her area, she ran to meet him.

And she cried out for mercy.  Notice she doesn't go up to Jesus and start complaining about her circumstances.  She doesn't whine about how God's not fair. No, this is the cry of someone who recognizes they deserve nothing from God.  That's a little different from the way most of us feel.  Most of us, although we would never say it like this, believe that God owes us something.  We think we deserve better than what we have.

The reality is that we all deserve much worse than we have.  We all deserve eternal damnation for our cosmic treason that we commit with every breath we take.  We probably don't think we are all that bad, but the reality is that we are!  The Bible describes us as utterly corrupt, evil down to the core, enemies of God, violent, boastful and proud.  Not one of us ever loves God the way we should and we definitely don't love others the way we should.

This is why we need mercy.  We are in no position to ask for anything from God and DEFINITELY in no position to demand anything.  But, God gives mercy.  The Father sent the Son into the world to fulfill our righteous requirement and die in our place.  He then offers forgiveness of our sin if we will just repent of (that means "turn from") our sin and trust in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.  I plead with you, if you are not a believer in Jesus, stop reading right now and deal with that issue.  Nothing else matters.  God's mercy is available to you.  Don't pass it by.

Even as Christians, sometimes we think God owes us an easy life.  After all, we made the right decision.  We chose Christ instead of rejecting Him.  We go to church (at least once a month).  We don't drink, smoke, chew, or go out with girls who do.  We think we have performed well enough to earn God's blessing.  Isn't that how it works?

NO!!!  Christianity is never a performance-based religion.  Well, actually, it is.  But it's not our performance that matters.  What matters is not our works, but Christ's.  Of course, this in itself is mercy!  If our standing with God was in any way up to us, we would be cast out of His presence forever.  But, we have Another who stands in our place, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who has performed all the righteousness we will ever need and also took all our punishment on Himself.

Well, why is life so tough for the Christian then?  Shouldn't "mercy" mean that life gets easy after we come to Christ?  Of course, that question betrays our lack of an eternal perspective.  We forget that God is more interested in our holiness than our comfort.  And, so everything that God brings into our lives has a greater purpose than we can even contemplate.  He, in His mercy, is working Christ-likeness into us with everything He brings into our lives - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Romans 8:28 says, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."  It doesn't say, "everything feels good."  It says, "all things work together for good."

This is all mercy!  Christ being our righteousness, Christ taking the wrath of God for our sins, Christ constantly interceding before the Father on our behalf, the Holy Spirit guiding us and empowering us to live the Christian life, God ordaining all the things that come into our lives to make us more like Christ - all these things - are examples of God's mercy!  And we need it.  We need God's mercy every day.  And God withholds no good thing from His children.

So, the way to approach God is the exact way this woman did - crying for mercy.  And the beautiful thing is, God gives it!  Rather than giving us judgment, through Jesus Christ, God gives us mercy.  So, Christian, keep coming to Jesus pleading for His mercy.  He won't disappoint.

Great Faith (Part 1) - Reflections on Matthew 15:21-28

OK, so every 6 months or so, I decide I need to type something.  Actually, one of my desires is to have time to update this blog more often, not because I think I'm all that important.  Mostly, I want to reflect on my understanding of Scripture so that those who end up reading this have a greater appreciation and love for God.  SO... I am going to attempt to be a little more persistent (which will come into play in a few days when we get to that issue in this passage in Matthew).

When Jesus went into the region of Tyre and Sidon, He was approached by a woman who was in desperation.  She wanted help.  She had nowhere else to turn.  So, she came to Jesus.  As we looked at this passage this past Sunday (the sermon will be posted on www.gracebaptistonline.com later tonight), we saw that Jesus described her as having great faith.  In our consideration of this proclamation by Jesus, we sought to find out what about this woman's faith was so great.  Because WE want great faith.  Wouldn't it be (dare I say it) great to have Jesus say that about us?  So, what made this woman's faith so great?

Well, the first thing we noticed was that she came to the right person for the right reason.  In this post, I'll deal with the first part of that.  The right person.  You see, the object of our faith is just as important, if not more so, as the faith itself.  You can have a lot of faith, have it be in the wrong object, and be lost for eternity.  Everybody has faith, but most of it is misplaced.  No, this woman came to the right person.  The object of her faith was the King of kings and Lord of lords.

If we are to have great faith, we must, first of all, have God as He is described in the Bible as the object of our faith.  We can't just trust in some god of our own making.  We must trust in the one true God.  And, apart from the Scripture, we do not really know who God is.  So, we must turn to the Bible to see who we are to trust.

There is a lot about God that the Bible reveals.  John tells us that God is love.  Both in his gospel account and his epistles, he emphasizes that God loves His creation and sent His Son to save His people.  So, yes God is love.  We also see that God is merciful and gracious.  He is a God who, despite our sinfulness and war against Him, consistently and continuously forgives us because of the death of His Son in our place.  In Genesis 18 (as we noticed Sunday night), Abraham recognized that God is a just God.  As the "Judge of all the earth", God will always do what is just and right.  We could go on and on talking about God's sovereignty, His power, His omnipresence, His omniscience, His perfection, etc.

BUT (and this is a big "but"), the one aspect of God's character that the Bible emphasizes over and over is His holiness.  We must understand that the God we approach is holy.  He is not like us.  The basic definition of the word "holy" is "separate, distinct, other".  God is not like His creation.  In fact, all of His other characteristics are bound up in His holiness.  His sovereignty is a holy sovereignty.  His justice is a holy justice.  God is completely different from any other thing in existence.  He is holy.

In Isaiah 6, shortly after the death of a very powerful and popular king in Israel, the prophet Isaiah was given a vision of the King of kings.  He describes the Lord as "high and lifted up" and seated on His throne.  Around Him are angelic beings known as seraphim, or burning ones, who are described as having multiple wings and flying around constantly.  Over and over they call out to each other, describing the character of God.  And the one aspect they choose to proclaim is God's holiness.  They cry out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts."  The tripling of the word "holy" is a Hebrew method of emphasis.  Notice the seraphim don't say, "Love, love, love" or "sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."  They say, "Holy, holy, holy."  Above all else, the God we approach is holy.

This is why, in Matthew 6, when Jesus begins instructing us in how to pray, he starts by telling us to address God as "our Father, who art in heaven".  And immediately, we are to pray for God's name to be hallowed.  In other words, as we come to God as little children to their daddy, our initial and primary concern should be the holiness of His name.  Everything else takes a back seat. Before we ask for stuff either for ourselves or for others, we should plead that God's name would be set apart from all else.  That He would be considered holy by His creation.

So, when we approach God, as we come to Him to plead with Him for His mercy and grace and help in time of need, let's remember that we are coming to a God is not at all like us.  He is not given to weakness or unjust anger.  He is not capricious or needy.  He is not forgetful or mistake-prone.  He is not greedy or sinful in any way.  He is preeminently holy.  And "as He who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy'." (1 Peter 1:15-16)

**If you're looking for a good resource to do deeper study of the holiness of God, I recommend the book by R. C. Sproul with that same title (The Holiness of God).  You can buy the book or watch the teaching series here.