(1 Corinthians 4:1-21)
How would you define ministry, particularly your ministry?
The apostle Paul is very serious about this aspect of ministry among God’s people. We have not been saved to be passive, but rather, to do the work of the ministry under the authority of God.
One basic aspect of ministry has to do with the opportunities that are before us. How do I recognize an opportunity for ministry?
Perhaps another important question would be, how many opportunities for ministry have I missed?
Being a servant of Christ is not an easy life. In fact, in our own strength it is absolutely impossible. What God wants to do through my life cannot be accomplished by my strength or even my wisdom.
Even David as a young person understood this particularly when he faced Goliath.
“Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied” (1 Samuel 17:45).
Ministry does not have anything to do with our ability or talent. In fact, these things get in the way of the spiritual ministry that God has in mind for us.
Theme… To really come to grips with the ministry God wants for us is the great challenge of the Christian life.
Paul uses the phrase here “Servants of Christ.”
It is important to understand that we are servants of Christ, not servants of people. If we are servants of people, we do them a great disservice because we are serving only on the human level.
As a servant of Christ, I am now serving on God’s level, having available to me God’s resources to do what God delights us to do.
If I am a servant of Christ and totally committed to serving him, I will find a joy in my life that nothing else could match.
Will there be troubles, trials and tribulations?
No doubt about that.
If your life is easy, it is probably because you are not doing anything, particularly anything for Christ.
The enemy will do everything within his power to distract us from serving Christ. This we can only deal with through the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.
One interesting thought here is, if our ministry is guided by human talent it can then be compromised and manipulated by the enemy. If, on the other hand, it is completely guided by the Holy Spirit the devil cannot touch it, although he tries.
How many people think they are doing ministry, but are actually being used by the enemy to lead people away from Christ? (Cults within the church. A cult mentality).
I want to make sure in my life and ministry that that is not happening to me. It is a continuous safeguard of my ministry to the Lord.
Paul lays down the framework for us to be servants of Christ.
I. Our Ownership (4:1-3)
Paul makes a very important comment here in verse one.
“Think of us as servants who are owned by Christ.”
It is important for me to understand this aspect of ownership. Who really owns me?
With some people, you can easily see that they own themselves. They are their own God and this is found even among some Christians who do not quite understand the difference.
Paul considered himself a “servant.”
If you go through this passage here you will see how Paul was so committed to Christ that he was willing to sacrifice everything even his own ownership.
The owner of the apostle Paul was Christ, as such he was accountable only to Christ.
“A servant must be faithful to his owner. This is expected of him.”
To know who the owner is, is the first step towards being faithful. If I do not know who my owner is, I am wavering in a sea of discomfort and delusion, not knowing where I’m going.
Paul emphasizes this in verse three.
“It is not the most important thing to me what you or any other people think of me. Even what I think of myself does not mean much.”
This is a remarkable statement in the light of what we see in the church today. Everybody seems to be very sensitive to what people think of them. Paul went a step further and said he was not even concerned about what he thought of himself.
He knew that he was absolutely surrendered to Jesus Christ and as such, he did not know everything that God was doing in his life, but he knew that God was working and he was faithful to the God working in his life.
If I am going to grasp what it means to be a servant of Christ, I need to understand this ownership aspect.
This has to do with the authority that has been established in my life.
Either, I’m in control or God’s in control. It simply cannot be both.
How is God’s authority being honored in my life?
II. Our Obligation (4:4-5).
If I really know the ownership of my life, it would lead me to understand certain obligations that I have to that authority.
These obligations define my relationship to this authority.
I need to understand that these obligations are nonnegotiable.
The first obligation has to do with my heart.
“As for me, my heart tells me I’m not guilty of anything. But that does not prove I am free from guilt. It is the Lord who looks into my life and says what is wrong.”
This obligation has to do with an absolute surrender to God without telling him what is right or wrong.
We can easily convince ourselves that we are not doing anything wrong. We have excuses for why we did or did not do something. Anyone with an excuses only lying to himself.
But Paul says that my obligation is not to my own understanding, but to God’s word.
My favorite verse of Scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6.
“5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
My obligation is not to judge myself because I do not know everything, rather my obligation is to trust God and acknowledge him in my life allowing him to direct my path.
Many times when I think I know where I am going, I end up going the wrong way.
Other times, I think nothing can be right here and that everything is wrong and I end up where God wants me to be.
My obligation is not to my knowledge, but rather to God’s wisdom, which will get me to the place that God wants me to be.
III. our Opportunity (4:6-7).
If I have really come to grips with the ownership of my life and understand my personal obligations to that ownership, it will bring me to a phase of understanding opportunities for ministry.
Very simply put, my personal ministry is a reflection of the authority reining in my life.
If that authority is me… Then my ministry reflects my strengths, my wisdom and myself.
If that authority is God… Then my ministry reflects God and his strength and his wisdom.
Many people do “works.” The world is filled with people who are committed to doing good works. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Ministry however is something altogether different.
Ministry does not promote a person or personality.
Ministry promotes Christ.
I like what Paul says here, “This is to help you so you will not think more of men than what God’s word will allow. Never think more of one of God’s servants than another.”
This is really needed today. We have celebrities doing what they think is ministry which is only drawing attention to themselves, implying that they are better than other people.
Paul was totally against that.
When I commit myself to Christ as the owner of my life and understand those obligations that I have for him I will begin to see opportunities for ministry.
I think this is a growing thing. There are some opportunities today that I did not know was there yesterday. And tomorrow a new opportunity may show up that I’m not even thinking about today.
My obligation to God is a growing thing and the more I understand it and the more I surrender to Christ the more I will recognize opportunities for ministry.
Sometimes we never consider the idea that one ministry may be for just a moment of time. We think that ministry is a life long activity. It may not be that.
This is why many times we miss an opportunity. There is just a short time window of that opportunity and if we are not on target, we miss it and it will never repeat itself.
Think back over the last week and try to think of an opportunity that opened up to you that you never thought of before.
We must be aware of God’s leading in our life and the only way we can keep that in focus is to understand our obligation to the owner who is Jesus Christ.
Each day I understand this more and more.
Conclusion…
The apostle Paul identified himself as a servant owned by Christ. Consequently, he was not able to make decisions in his life.
As I understand this servant of Christ dynamic, I will begin to see that I lay everything on Christ’s shoulders. He is the one that is carrying me, he is the one that is directing me, he is the one that is resourcing me to do his ministry.
Spend some time this week examining your own heart. What needs to change? What needs to go, and what needs to stay?
Perhaps the hardest thing we have to do as a Christian and yet it is the easiest, is to surrender our day-to-day life to Jesus Christ for him to use us according to his pleasure and not according to our understanding.
