Size Matters in Ministry

²⁵ Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶ and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. - Acts 11:25-26 (NIV)

Paul (Saul) and Barnabas went to Antioch on a mission.  Earlier, in verses 20-21, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and shared the "good news" and "a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord." Word of this reached Jerusalem and Barnabas, who was "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith", was sent to Antioch where he encouraged the believers (vv. 22-24).  That's when he went for reinforcements, seeking out Paul (Saul) in Tarsus.

The Book of Acts gives the Bible reader an account of the missionary journeys of Paul.  Barnabas, also known as "Son of Encouragement," went to Tarsus and brought his partner to Antioch.  They spent a year there, teaching and discipling a diverse population of believers.  Obviously, they did some good works because the people were called "Christians," followers of Christ.  At some point, their teaching and fellowship must have hit home with those with whom they shared the Word of God.

Think it through.  There were those who brought the Good News that sparked the movement among the people.  Barnabas stepped in and offered some support to the new converts.  After that experience, Paul (Saul) was brought in to assist Barnabas in discipling the people at Antioch.  That was teamwork.  The teamwork occurred in phases or stages.

We need to examine the example of these men further.  Our ministries need to do something similar.  There needs to be a team who can go into uncharted territory and break new ground with the Gospel.  They need to be able to share the Good News with fervor, winning hearts and souls along the way.  They need to return to the house of God, sharing what they discovered as fertile ground, so that others like Barnabas can come in and edify the new believers with words of comfort, gladness and encouragement.  From there, those encouragers can leverage their relationship with the believers and other evangelists and workers who can support and strengthen the believers.  That's teamwork.

We need prayer warriors who can intercede on behalf of lost souls and those evangelists and missionaries.  We need workers within the ministry who are taught and trained, equipped to do good works beyond the confines of the house of God.  We need those who have the spiritual gift of exhortation, comfort, and other special gifts to serve in a variety of capacities in order to reach a dying world.

It takes a team who can work together to bring a community together in the name of Jesus.

5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
- 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (NKJV)



Doing as He Says

Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’

and do not do what I say?

- Luke 6:46 (NIV)

You shall observe My judgments and keep

My ordinances, to walk in them:

I am the LORD your God.
- Leviticus 18:4 (NKJV)



When accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we also accept Him as Lord.  We embrace His sacrifice for our salvation.  We accept His suffering for our sins.  Yet, we stumble when it comes to His lordship over our lives.
 

In Leviticus 18, God addresses His people through Moses the man of God, affirming His relationship with the people by stating repetitively: I am the LORD your God.  The phrase repeats throughout the divine dialogue between God and His people.  God states it through Moses and establishes His relationship with His people based on His decrees and statutes given in the wilderness.

 

Read Psalm 145:13. It speaks of God's "everlasting kingdom." Nathan shared the words of God with David in 2 Samuel 7.  God promised David: And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:16, KJV).
 
Let us fast forward to Jesus walking the earth as the Son of David.  He came as the Messiah and the Christ, "the Anointed One." The Savior would reign and rule as Lord forever.  His kingdom would extend beyond Jewish bloodlines like He shared through His prophets.  He came and sacrificed Himself for us.  He kept His promise to redeem us.  He offers the sinner in us all reconciliation.  He lives as our Lord.
 

Look at how we handle Him ruling over us as Lord.  We cry out to Him, expecting Him to offer us healing and help.  Yet, we must regard Him as Lord.  We must serve as His loyal subjects, for He is the King.  Those who serve the King do as He says.  They do each and every act according to His commandments in true submission.

 

If He is your Lord, do as He says.  Leave your ego out of it.  Keep your faith as your focus.  Do just as He says.  He is Lord.  Submit to Him.  Do as He says.

 
He is your Lord.
 
Do what He says for you to do.
 
Do just what the Lord says.

A Fiasco of Faith

And let our people also learn to maintain good works,

to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.

- Titus 3:14 (KJV)

We, the faithful, are also called to be fruitful.  We are commandment to bear much fruit.  Jesus said so.  The Lord Himself wants us both faithful and fruitful.

So what's the deal? Are we faithful? If we are so faithful, we should be full of fruit.  We should be fruitful.

We become unfruitful, in the words of Paul to Titus, when we fail to meet urgent needs and to maintain good works.  Being without fruit, barren in other words, we demonstrate little faith.

James said as much when he wrote: But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:18, KJV).  What you have to show for all the faith that you claim to have will speak louder than words.  Your actions will outweigh your words.  Your proclamation and profession of faith will be measured by your production of fruit.

Fruit is the byproduct of your works.  Your works should produce something.  The fruit stands as evidence of the effort on your part.  No faith equals no fruit.  It is a simple formula.

Keep the faith.

Learn of Him

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. - Matthew 11:29 (NIV)

The Lord beckons the believer to learn of Him.  He desires us to seek Him out.  He desires us to search Him out in the Scriptures.  He wants us to find rest for our souls as we discover more and more about Him.

Learning about Him should help each and every one of us to live more like Him.  Study His Word.  Find out more about Him.  Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and discover what He says and what others have said about Him.  Read the epistles by Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude.  Find out how Christians should conduct themselves in the manner of Jesus Christ.

Learn more about Jesus and live more like Jesus. 

Read some Christian material that helps you learn more about Jesus.  Read Watchman Nee, Francis Chan, C.S. Lewis, Max Lucado, Charles Stanley, Martin Luther, and others who have written extensively on Jesus Christ.  Discover more about Jesus Christ.

Develpment and Destiny

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” - Matthew 4:19

You should expect some development on your way to your destiny.  That should be a given.

Jesus offered something unique to His disciples.  He invited them to follow Him, to leave their nets for fishing men and to become "fishers of men." Jesus had something to offer these fishermen.

Jesus has something to offer every single Christian beyond a divine destination.  Jesus offers each and every one of us some development on the way to our destination.  He wants to make more out of us than we could ever imagine.

Let Jesus work on you.  Let Him develop you on your way to your destination.

Living as His Body

⁴ For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

- Ephesians 4:4-6 (NLT)

The believers are the collective and universal body of Christ.  Each believer serves as part of the body.  We, as believers in Christ, make up the body of Christ.  We are one body, gathered together in His name in one faith.


Paul wrote that "there is one body... just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future." The collective body of believers have a common goal, that one glorious hope for the future.  In seeking that common goal, believers come together on common ground.  The prime example of this is not the believers having all things in common.  The prime example of this is the gathering of believers in Antioch.

¹⁹ Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. ²⁰ But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. ²¹ And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

- Acts 11:19-21 (NKJV)

The body of Christ lives together based on:

• Common Belief: The confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One
• Common Bond: The connection between each believers is the one Spirit that indwells each believer and inhabits each local body of believers gathered together in His name

We are to live as His body, the church open and operating in His name and by His Spirit.

Live as His body.

Take on His Mind

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus- Philippians 2:5

The Bible says that we should have the mind of Christ Jesus.  Paul wrote it to the believers in Philippi.  He sought to encourage these believers while helping them to understand what was available to them through Christ Jesus.

Similarly, Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth on how he and his missionary companions speak of Christ.  He shared how he did not use eloquence to share the gospel with others, especially in Corinth.  He ends the second chapter of First Corinthians with these words: ...But we have the mind of Christ.

Believer, you must believe that God Almighty has all power and ability.  If He can place His Spirit within you upon belief, He surely can do more than that with you as you grow closer to Him and submit your entire self over to Him.  Search the Scriptures.  See where the Lord has implanted His promises in His Word.  Take it from there.  Look at how the Lord handled difficult and touchy situations.  Try and see your way to embracing a similar approach to dealing with hard cases and others.