TITLE: WHY STUDY THE MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST?
SERIES: THE INCOMPARABLE MINISTRY OF JESUS THE MESSIAH
TEXT: JOHN 21:24-25; LUKE 1:1-4
Introduction: Last week we found that the first reason Luke give us to study the minstry of Jesus Christ is to that we may establish an accurate account of His life, death, and resurrection. Just as in the days of Luke, we see many accounts of Jesus’ ministry, most of which leave much to be desired when it comes to the truth.
Today we will consider another aspect that Luke presents, to develop a faithful ministry through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Any ministry that is faithful must be founded upon the Great Commission. Within the words of the Great Commission we find the purpose of the Church on earh. Every ministry of the Church must adhere to this main purpose, otherwise it will be doomed from the start as unfaithful, unfruitful, and unfulfilling.
We begin with the basic premise that Jesus has promised to build the Church (Mt 16:18). Since we know that He is always faithful to His promises, we know there is no reason for the Church not to grow.
So why do some churches fail? Obviously the responsibility rests with us. There are some churches that grow because Jesus Christ is in control, and the people are following His lead. Those that are failing, however, are doing so because a pastor, a deacon board, a committee, a clique, or some other alien entity is in control. Rather than working to bring people into the kingdom of heaven, they are working to build their own little kingdoms on earth. This will never work. That is why we need to be careful to make sure that we are always faithful to the Great Commission, and that it is indeed Jesus who is in control as the Head of the Church. Any other way is an attempt to circumvent His established purpose, and usurps His authority over the Church.
So let us consider our own investment in the kingdom of heaven to see if we truly are faithful in our ministry.
II. TO DEVELOP A FAITHFUL MINISTRY THROUGH HIS LIFE, HIS DEATH, AND HIS RESURRECTION.
Luke 1:2
2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us,
A. Faithful Ministry Involves The Preaching Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
B. Faithful Ministry Involves Defending The Faith.
1 Peter 3:15
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
C. Faithful Ministry Involves Making Disciples, Baptizing Believers, And Teaching Learners.
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
THREE COMPONENTS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION
1. Make Disciples: Our First Priority.
a. The Greek word (metheteusate) that is translated “teach” in the KJV should be more accurately rendered, “make disciples.”
b. Herein lies the “Macedonian call” of the evangelical church, to go to all the nations of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, making disciples who will faithfully follow Him.
i. Making disciples begins with the preaching of the gospel so that those who are willing to accept Christ can hear the message and believe in Him as their personal Savior.
ii. Becoming a disciple begins with the impartation of a saving knowledge of who He is, and the calling upon His name through saving faith.
iii. This occurs through the preaching of the Word.
iv. Paul, writing in Romans says,
Romans 10:13-15
13 For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"
a) Following these steps in reverse order to discover their logical order, we see that in order to make disciples of men, there must first be the preaching of the gospel.
b) This is absolutely necessary because it is God’s plan to use preaching to reach a lost world for Christ.
c) Without preaching, no one will hear.
d) Without hearing, no one will believe.
e) Without believing, they cannot call on Him for salvation.
v. So the first step in making disciples must be the proclamation of the death and resurrection of our Lord in order to save people from their sins.
vi. Upon discovering and believing this truth, the lost soul can call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and experience personal salvation.
c. Unfortunately, not all who become disciples are genuine believers, and all are, therefore, not born again.
i. In the sixth chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus gave His “Bread of Life” sermon to certain Jews in Capernaum who were seeking Him (John 6:35-40).
ii. He told them that He was the bread of life that came down from heaven, and that they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life (v. 51).
iii. He was speaking figuratively, of course, demonstrating that just as food and drink is necessary for our physical life, so is His sacrificial death on the cross necessary for eternal life.
iv. He also said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him” (v. 44).
d. Not only were the Jews offended by this teaching, so also were many of His disciples, who complained, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it” (v. 60)?
i. Jesus confronted their complaint, and asked, “Does this offend you?”
ii. But Jesus knew from the beginning which disciples believed and which did not (v. 64); and He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (v. 65).
iii. The response was immediate and decisive.
iv. “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (v. 66).
e. These disciples were, no doubt, in the crowd of five thousand who, earlier in this same chapter, were miraculously fed with five barley loaves and two small fish.
i. They had certainly witnessed this miracle, among others, and were glad to follow Him because of the benefits they could receive.
ii. But when it came down to a genuine belief in Him, they rejected His message and walked away condemned.
iii. Their actions revealed what was really in their hearts.
iv. Just as Jesus had proclaimed, they could not come to Him because it had not been granted them by the Father (v. 65).
v. Their rejection was complete, as they turned from following Him and sought to kill Him.
John 7:1
7 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.
f. Then, in order to demonstrate the evidence of a genuine disciple, Jesus looked to the twelve and asked, “Do you also want to go away?” (v. 67).
i. As he was apt to do, Peter spoke up for them with one of the greatest declarations of faith recorded in the Scriptures.
ii. As the Bible records theses precious words, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (vv. 68-69).
g. How inexpressively profound is this declaration by this poor, simple Galilean fisherman!
i. Jesus would later reinforce this confirmation of faith by adding, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Note: Compare this to John 6:65.
· No one comes to the Father except through Jesus.
· No one comes to Jesus unless the Father has granted it to him.
· Then consider that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he has been born “again” (from above).
ii. Where else, indeed, can one go for eternal life?
iii. Who else is able to transform and regenerate the vile, degraded, and dirty sinner into a child of God, without spot and without blemish?
iv. And what more could portray the attitude of a true disciple than to profess, “we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God?”
h. Through this bold, courageous testimonial we see exemplified in Peter the teaching of Jesus that “he who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25).
i. Although he would later lose his courage and thrice deny his Lord, he would never lose his faith because he had counted the cost of discipleship (cp. Luke 14:26-33).
ii. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed” (John 8:31), and that is precisely where Peter stood, and this is where all genuine believers will abide, in the Word of God.
2. Baptize Believers: Evidence Of A Changed Life.
a. One of the great promises of Scripture is that the believer will be transformed into a “new creature” as a result of his encounter with Jesus Christ in saving faith.
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
i. Through the “circumcision made without hands,” a believer is “born again” into new life.
Colossians 2:11
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
John 3:7
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ’You must be born again.’
ii. He has “put off…the old man” and he has been made a child of God.
Ephesians 4:22
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
1 John 3:1
3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
iii. He is washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:11
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
iv. He has been indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of his inheritance.
Romans 8:9
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Ephesians 1:13-14
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
v. This radical spiritual change that takes place in every genuine believer, the re-creating of the fallen human nature by the Holy Spirit, is commonly known as salvation, and is theologically expressed as regeneration.
b. When regeneration takes place in the believer, they are to be accepted into the membership of the local church through the ordinance of baptism.
i. That its importance is not overstated is certain, for Christ commissioned baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” the early church practiced it as a condition for membership (Acts 2:41), and the apostle Paul sanctioned it as a portrayal of the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 6:3-5) in which the participant is publicly identified as being in Christ.
Matthew 28:19
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Acts 2:41
41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
Romans 6:3-5
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
ii. In fact, throughout Christendom there is an inseparable link between salvation and baptism, so much so that many denominations subscribe to the mistaken belief that baptism produces salvation, an incorrect and damning theological speculation known as baptismal regeneration.
c. Baptism, however, produces nothing.
i. It is purely symbolic of the death and resurrection of Christ, and should only be administered to those who have experienced regeneration. In bestowing grace, it is no more effective than saying a prayer or making a decision for salvation when that decision comes from an unrepentant heart.
ii. Baptism is merely an outward sign of the regeneration that has already taken place inwardly.
d. Jesus revealed the process of regeneration to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, in the third chapter of John’s gospel where He likened it to the birth process.
i. He told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3).
ii. Nicodemus, dumbfounded at this suggestion,
questioned the manner in which being “born again” might take place.
iii. “Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” he asked (v. 4).
iv. Jesus answered by explaining the spiritual aspect of the new birth.
e. There are several features worthy of note as we parallel our spiritual birth with the birth of a child.
i. No child has even the slightest involvement in any details of their birth.
ii. They are never consulted about the possibility of being born.
iii. They are not involved in the decision to determine when they are born.
iv. They have no input in determining their parents, their environment, or their natural abilities.
v. They cannot choose their gender, economic means, social status, appearance, or health.
vi. Their eye color, hair color, height, and build are all pre-determined by God through their genetic code.
vii. Even at the microscopic level, the total substance of the human being is predetermined by which sperm fertilizes the egg.
viii. Every aspect of birth is determined and controlled by God.
f. Jesus implied as much about the spiritual birth when He told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (v. 8 - emphasis added).
i. The events that lead to a person being born again are all predetermined and under the control of God.
ii. Being regenerated is an event that God determines and performs, not a person.
iii. It centers on the will of God, not on the will of man.
iv. It is initiated by the eternal decree of God, not from the natural desire of man.
v. It works through belief (v. 16), and fails through unbelief (v. 18).
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:18
18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
3. Instruct Learners: The Condition For Growth.
a. One of the qualifications of an elder is that he be “able to teach.”
1 Timothy 3:2
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;
i. Paul exhorted Timothy to take the things he had learned and “commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
2 Timothy 2:2
2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
ii. Our Lord said, in the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 5:19
19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
iii. Teaching, then, is one of our primary tasks in carrying out the Great Commission.
b. It is worthy of note that Jesus’ primary objective in His earthly ministry was to teach.
i. He taught in the synagogues, in the temple, in the cities and villages, by the sea, and on a mountainside.
ii. He taught Jews, Gentiles, and Samaritans.
iii. He taught Pharisees, Scribes, rulers, and teachers.
iv. He taught His disciples in small, intimate groups, and He taught multitudes.
v. He taught the rich, the poor, the old, the young, the educated, the ignorant; anyone who would listen received authoritative instruction from the Master Teacher.
vi. It was not the miracles He performed that made the greatest impact upon the people (cp. the nine lepers, Luke 7:17), it was His teaching ministry.
vii. This is how He revealed the kingdom of heaven, and this is how he led people to saving faith.
viii. So it is no surprise that one of the major components of the Great Commission involves the teaching of the Word.
c. This command to teach is vitally important to the health and well being of every born again child of God.
i. Yet, its primary objective is not the accumulation of knowledge.
ii. Teaching is to provide for the spiritual growth of those who are believers.
iii. Peter instructed his readers “as newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).
iv. Paul echoed this sentiment, lamenting the lack of growth of the Corinthian believers.
v. He wrote, “I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able” (1 Corinthians 3:2).
vi. All believers are to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3:18), in their faith (2 Thessalonians 1:3), and for the edification of the body (Ephesians 4:15-16).
2 Peter 3:18a
18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:3
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other,
Ephesians 4:15-16
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
d. Growth, therefore, is essential to the Christian life, and serves as a valid indicator that regeneration has actually taken place.
i. Falsely professing faith in Christ will not produce growth.
ii. Knowing this, Jesus authorized the disciples to “go…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”
iii. He understood that the act of spiritual birth carried with it the innate desire for spiritual food.
iv. Thus He charged the disciples to feed those who were spiritually hungry.
e. The Bible places no premium upon ignorance.
i. James wrote:
James 1:5
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
ii. If the Lord expects us to be learned in the Scriptures, we cannot fail to adequately prepare ourselves in the things that God has given us in His Word.
iii. Anything less is cause for shame and disapproval.
2 Timothy 2:15
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Note: Study, for a pastor or student of the Word, does not end with graduation. A seminary degree does not supply one with all knowledge, nor does it tell him what to believe. All it does is supply him with the proper tools, and help him to develop skills, that will allow him to study more effectively. The study of the Word is a lifetime endeavor that only begins after his formal training has ended. Any preacher who fails to study is subject to shame and disapproval in the sight of God.
Conclusion: The challenge before us today is to evaluate our ministries, both as a church and as an individual. We need to determine whether or not our ministry is faithful to the Word of God. What kind of fruit are we bearing? Who is in control? Will we be commended or condemned when we face Jesus Christ? The answer to each of these questions will ultimately be determined by our commitment to the Great Commission.
