What more can we say, and how better can we say it, than:
More of Thyself, O show me, hour by hour;
More of Thy glory, O my God and Lord;
More of Thyself, in all Thy grace and power;
More of Thy love and truth, incarnate Word.
Answer that prayer, we ask, this hour, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
In a consideration of the great transition from one humanity—exposed, discredited, judged, and set aside—to another, tested, perfected, and installed in glory in our Lord Jesus Christ, we have come at length, in the closing hours of this time together, to the all-governing vision.
In the light of which this transition becomes both clear and very practical. And we saw yesterday that, with Paul, this vision—this heavenly vision, as he called it—was the secret and key to his whole life and ministry.
When he saw the Lord Jesus risen and glorified, four things became clear to him in that vision. The four things we have mentioned are:
Yesterday, we were occupied with the first of these four things. This morning, we proceed to the second: the nature and dynamic of ministry in this dispensation.
We are feeling our way along as to whether we shall get right to the end of the four; that is with the Lord.
The apostle said, “It pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the nations.”
Now we must stay for a moment to ask and answer one question: What do we mean by ministry? I think we need a revised version on this matter of ministry.
Immediately the word ministry is mentioned, people’s minds think of someone, perhaps with a Bible in their hand, standing up and teaching out of the Bible; or someone preaching the gospel to the unsaved; someone having been shut up with their Bible, studying it and making some notes, then coming out into public and giving the result of their Bible study. Something like that is usually associated in the mind with the word ministry.
It may be that here this morning, when I speak of ministry in this dispensation, some of your minds at once think of something with Bible in hand, from a platform or in a group, a circle—teaching, preaching. I hope the Lord is going to upset that idea entirely before we are through.
Well, the New Testament, of course, does have two things to say about this matter of ministry. It does speak about special personal gifts for ministry in the church.
He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.
These are specific personal ministry gifts in the church. And put a circle around that word in. Get your mentality adjusted again over that. You will see what I mean in a minute. There are these personal ministry gifts in the church.
But the New Testament has much more to say about the ministry of the church itself. And it does say that these personal gifts in the church are for the purpose of enabling the church to fulfil the ministry—to do the ministry, to be the minister of Christ.
You will remember the passage:
He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of the ministry.
Do not put any break there in your sentence. The perfecting of the church—the making complete, that is, of the church—is unto the work of the ministry.
I heard Dr. G. Campbell Morgan once say, in this very connection, this passage: “God help the minister whose church does not fulfil the ministry.”
It is with that second matter that we are occupied this morning. I am not going to talk about apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—the specific ministries—but about the ministry of the church.
You know that the two letters with which we have been mainly occupied this week, the two letters to the Corinthians, had in view, very clearly and emphatically, the ministry of the church.
All that the apostle is saying is with this background: the fulfilment of the divine ministry in Corinth. And as those letters are a vehicle down through the whole dispensation to our own time, it is what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church about its ministry.
In the first letter, the apostle is dealing with all those things which either frustrate or spoil the ministry of the church. In the second letter, he comes out very clearly and emphatically on the matter of ministry, as he uses these words: “Seeing then that we have this ministry.”
You must remember that the apostle is writing to a church, a local church. He is not just talking about his own ministry, though he has much to say about that. He is speaking of the church’s ministry. The “we,” the “we,” is the Corinthian church: “We have this ministry.”
And you know the associated phrase: “We have this treasure in vessels of fragile clay.” Is that only apostles? No. All of us. We will come to that again presently.
So what we are really concerned with this morning is the ministry of all believers—the ministry of the church.
Having said that, we can proceed to a consideration of the nature and the dynamic of ministry.
Once more referring to the apostle—the particular apostle who is writing these letters—just remember that he is a representative or example of ministry. That is how he speaks of himself through these letters.
What was true of him as to ministry, he was saying, has got to be true through the church. He did not put it in this way, but this is very clearly what he is saying: What is true in my ministry, as to its source, its nature, and its power, has to be true of all believers and of the church.
He is a representative minister, not an exclusive one. He may have dimensions beyond anyone else’s, but that is just his representative character. The Lord is saying by this man: Here you have an example of what ministry is, how ministry is produced, and what are the principles and laws of ministry—and, inclusively, what is the background of ministry.
That is how you must look at the apostle: as a great minister, quite true, but in principle a representative minister.
He begins as it all began in him. He goes right back to the Damascus road, to the beginning of his Christian life and ministry. You will remember that it was there, right at the commencement, when the Lord met him on his way to Damascus, that the Lord gave him his commission: “To whom I send thee.”
He goes right back to his conversion, to the beginning of his life in union with Christ, and he says this: As to life, as to vocation, ministry—“that I might proclaim Him among the nations”—God revealed His Son in me.
There you have the source of everything. It is this vision of the Lord Jesus. That is the nature of ministry. That is the source of ministry. That is the dynamic of all true ministry.
All true ministry in this dispensation issues and proceeds from an enshining of divine light, revealing Jesus Christ.
“It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.” That gives us the secret.
Oh, yes, Saul of Tarsus was on the way to Damascus, and on the way he saw a light from heaven—objective, objective—something which blinded him from without. That light turned out to be the glorified Lord Jesus.
Paul is saying here, in this fragment from Galatians, that he not only objectively saw that light and that glorified Man; something happened inside of him—inside of him.
He said, “Jesus of Nazareth? I am on the way to persecute—whose persecution has become the one passion of my life—Jesus of Nazareth, that impostor, that, I believe, very evil man, that sinner.”
That carries with it an enormous significance. He has been here amongst us, walking the streets of Jerusalem and Galilee, up and down the country. That same one has now appeared to me—the same one, not a different one; only different in appearance and in knowledge, but the same.
What does this mean? Away in the desert he went to dwell upon this, and that light which had shone upon him was shining within. He was seeing and seeing and seeing the significance: God’s Son? Oh, yes, quite true—but, no, Jesus of Nazareth, glorified Man.
The Man having reached the ultimate of God’s intention for man. That was what he was mastering, because he knew Him as a man. Whether he saw Him in the flesh or not, he knew all about Him as a man.
Human eyes could not discriminate between Him and other men, only there was something about Him that was different. But He was a man amongst men, and this is that same Man—transfigured.
He had to think in the light of that, and all the implications. People who know the Greek well know that this word, “It pleased God to reveal His Son in me,” has the force of the subjective as well as the objective.
Is that too technical? Yes, I saw objectively, but I also saw subjectively. And until that happens, dear friends, we are not in the way of effectual ministry.
You may see what is said to you throughout this week; you may see in a sort of objective way everything objectively. “Oh, yes, yes, that is very wonderful, very wonderful.” But has it broken through from the objective to the subjective, and you say, “I have never seen it like that. I have never seen Him in that place”?
That is what happened to the apostle, and it was, I say, the beginning both of his Christian life and of his ministry, and they both went together.
Have you got that? Do you know that you, as a believer, as a Christian, are constituted for ministry from the day of your new birth? That you are an ordained minister the moment you are regenerated into this new humanity?
Understand it? Do not wait for the day when someone will ordain you to the ministry. No, no, no, no. Your calling from the beginning is unto ministry.
It may be difficult to swallow, but we will go on.
Paul said about this that it corresponded to what happened at the creation. Such a wealth there is here; I never hope to even touch it.
He said, in 2 Corinthians, the great letter of ministry:
God, who said, “Let light be,”
hath shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
God, who said, “Let there be light,” repeated that divine fiat in a spiritual way in our hearts. He has said in these darkened human hearts, “Let light be.”
He has shined into our hearts with what object? To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Those of you who have heard this before—and at least say it—bear with me if I just stay for this moment with that word glory. Oh, yes, it was objective glory that Saul of Tarsus saw. But what is that glory? What is the glory of God?
We have been hearing in the second session about the God of glory appearing to Abraham. What is the glory of God? The glory of God is His absolute satisfaction with anyone or any situation.
When God is satisfied, something emanates from Him.
You know that in simple ways in Christian experience. If there is something over which you may have had a battle—a real battle—and you have got through to what the Lord has been trying to get you to, and the battle is over, and you are responsive wholly to the will of God, what happens?
Oh, such a sense of blessedness inside, is it not? The fight is finished, the battle is over, and rest and peace and joy within. That is glory.
Because it is on the way to that ultimate accomplishment of the whole will of God in a humanity, when the glory will be universal: God is satisfied.
You see, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ just means this: the Lord Jesus was so satisfying to the very nature of God that there was about Him something of peace, rest, and joy. He carried with Him the satisfaction of God.
I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.
That is the glory. Do not think of glory just as some objective, shining, blazing thing. Think of it shining into your heart. It is in the face of Jesus Christ.
Oh, how can I explain it? I would rather dwell on this alone. It is just this: inside, we have come to the place where we are satisfied with the Lord Jesus and meet the satisfaction of God.
Not what I am,
but what Thou art,
that can be my soul’s true rest;
Thy love, not mine,
as glory.
Paul said, God carried out this new fiat in my heart, in your heart, Corinthians. He shone in. He said, “Let light be,” and there was light. But it was a light that was never on land or sea: the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Now that, I say, is the spring of ministry—the spring of ministry.
What is it? What is ministry? What do you mean by ministry? Set your revised version now, mentally, about this.
Ministry is the outshining of Jesus Christ from our lives. That is all. That is all.
You do not need to have gone through convocation. You do not need to have any artificial or mechanical means. You may study your Bible and give the most wonderfully organised and arranged Bible readings, but the question is: Is that ministry?
Are you emanating Christ? Are you transmitting Christ? Is Christ coming through? Are people sensing Christ?
Not your study, not your library, not your commentaries, not your translations—which so many keep always in view, and you know where it came from.
There was a preacher who was always quoting without giving the source of his quotation—this book, this authority, that authority. There was a man sitting in front of him who knew it all, knew where he got it from. Every time he made a quotation, he gave the author.
But that is not all. The preacher got so annoyed with this man that he said, “I do wish you would be quiet.” And the man said, “Himself.”
Well, if we are laughing at ourselves, it is all right.
You see the point. Where does this come from? Where did we get it? How did we get it? I am not saying Bible study is wrong. No, I am saying: Through it all, has Christ appeared? And is He appearing?
You may be a preacher, a Bible teacher, a renowned one, and it may stop there. The question is whether I am officially that, or just a humble member of Christ, without any public gift or calling, without any human ordination.
I can be administering Christ in some way—ministering Christ—and that is ministry. That is ministry.
As I say, that is the source of ministry. The apostle is making that clear: it began in me, and it is going on in me. All that I have to say to you believers is what I am seeing of the Lord Jesus—a growing inward unveiling of God’s Son.
Now, that is the source of ministry—the source of all ministry, from beginning to end. How does the ministry proceed?
These letters, and especially the second letter to the Corinthians, are going to touch us quite deeply—acutely, I think—on this matter: the procedure of ministry, the growth of ministry.
How? More study? More books? Is it? Oh, no. Oh, no, dear friends, that is not the way of growing, continuing ministry.
Ministry has got to grow all the time, deepen and enlarge all the time.
Would you please, not just at this moment but again, pick up your second letter to the Corinthians. Before you have got very far—indeed, almost immediately—you come upon some words that are repeated, repeated again and again.
What are they? Afflictions. Consolation. Afflictions. Consolations. Underline those words right at the beginning of the second letter.
In that connection, the apostle brings forward his own great experience:
We were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power,
insomuch that we despaired even of life.
Right through that letter, the apostle is constantly striking that note of suffering, suffering, suffering.
We have this treasure—which is this ministry, the revelation of Jesus Christ in our hearts—we have it in vessels, and I like the literal translation, “of fragile clay,” capable of being broken and smashed.
Beyond our measure of endurance, even unto despair—we despaired of life. Then he gives us a couple of catalogues of his afflictions, and my, you ought to sit down and think about that if you are thinking about ministry.
All that he himself met, encountered, and went through—from centre to circumference. At the centre: unfaithful, disloyal, and treacherous brethren.
Moving out from that centre in ever larger circles, there are the many implications in these letters, the statements of what people were saying about him: “He was not a true apostle. He was not one of the twelve. He never saw Jesus after the resurrection. He is not a true apostle. He is an impostor. He is a deceiver.”
As deceivers, and yet true.
And yet, “He is just going round cadging”—that is implied—getting money from Christians.
As poor, yet making many rich.
All these are implications—a whole list of them. “If any man hath suffered, I more.” Then he speaks of the many times he was in prison, the many times he received stripes, the many times he was shipwrecked and in the deep, the many times he was in hunger and nakedness and peril—from sea, from men, from robbers, and from fellow Christians.
It is a terrible, dark list that he gives in these chapters of 2 Corinthians. Read them again.
No wonder that word has such a large place at the beginning: “The afflictions of Christ which abound unto us, so our consolation also aboundeth.”
That is the mystery. That is how it goes on.
You say, “How am I to be a minister? How can I be an effectual minister? How can my ministry grow?” I will tell you this: It will not be by your running around trying to get open doors for ministry.
It will not be by your telling people, talking about yourself and what you have got, with that thought behind it: “This will open a way for me.”
Oh, that is not a very pleasant realm, is it? No, not that way. How will the ministry grow, proceed, deepen, and become more fruitful?
Will you dare to really say to the Lord, “Lord, make my life the ministry of Christ”? Would you dare?
I wonder if you are going out of the ministry now—going to withdraw or resign.
Believe me, dear friends, if the apostle is representative, and if those servants of God who have been most fruitfully effective—not who have done the biggest organisations, but the most spiritually fruitful—if these are really true ministers of Jesus Christ, look at the background of their lives: the secret sufferings.
That hidden history with God under His hand. Those periods where even a man like this man, Paul—perhaps the greatest minister that Christ ever had—would say, “I despaired. I despaired of life. I was pressed beyond my measure of endurance.”
That is how the ministry grew.
If you are going to be a true minister of Christ, ministering Christ, He is going to take you into some deep experiences—very deep experiences—that you will discover something which is going to be of great value to others.
It is the crucified and suffering servant of God who is really the fruitful one, of whom you can say, “That man is not talking out of his library, from his books. That man knows what he is talking about. He has been there. He has been in it.”