A Call To Men of Service

Part One: Acts 1, 2, 13

Part Two: First Timothy 1

7.22.01

Walkersville Christian Fellowship

Gary L. Cox

Acts 13:2, speaking of the early church in Antioch, and the leadership there, says, “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said, ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them’.”  Now, the word “minister” or “ministering” or “ministered” and generally any form of the word “minister”  is usually “diakonos” or some form of the word “diakonos" in the greek.  However, in this particular verse, the root word if we transliterated it into English would be the word “liturgy.”  Liturgy has a lot to do with the formal ministry and duties that are put upon elders in a church and little to do with the perverted forms of worship so-called found in many churches today.  Liturgy is a formal reference to those ministries of laboring in the Word, performing the duties of "feeding His sheep".  Not pomp and circumstance!  Another misperceived and misused word is the word "bishop".  It is not a man in special clothing, huge hat, and gold chains and staff.  The greek simply means "overseer", usually a group of mature believing men who are already caring for the people of God and are therefore set apart by the obvious hand of the Holy Spirit to watch for their souls, much like a shepherd does his sheep.  And yet, down through history, words of simplicity such as "liturgy" and "bishop" have been perverted by those who would usurp the authority of Christ on earth in the simplicity of the Word and the corporate responsibility of ministry by the Assembly.

Where Are the Men of Service?

Leadership is service.  In a false sense of humility most of the body of Christ do nothing.  They think nothing of themselves and their need to actively work for Christ: they do not acknowledge the gifting of the Spirit, they do not acknowledge the burdens of the Spirit and they do not acknowledge the duty of the Spirit.  So they allow all the work to fall on someone whom they see, remarking, “Oh at least they are doing something,” and they refuse to share the burdens of ministry and service.  What is happening in most American churches today is an attack by the throne of Satan to keep the saints lethargic, while they are happy to let their leaders do all the "spiritual" work.  Every aspect of life is a battlefront for the Kingdom of Heaven!  A battle can never be won by one or two Generals only, the companies and units are all leaders in their own right, and must fight and serve together if they are to be victorious.  The foot soldiers must advance.  The ministry of the Holy Spirit is cut off because we are elevating a few individual people and their ministries by the Holy Spirit, and everyone else sits back and does nothing.  Then the whole paradigm is shifted from the Body ministering, to only one or two members ministering and everybody depending on them.  You have this dynamic shift of destruction in the church of Jesus Christ.  You are never going to have a church if you do not have members functioning.  Which members?  Every member.  Every member and every joint supplies.  If a man is a Christian, he must serve Christ.  A man unwilling to serve must question his Christianity, for that is what a Christ-follower does - he serves.  Not in busyness of getting gold, or heaping up fortunes, service of sacrifice and laying down one's life for the Glory and Cause of God.

I stand in awe of how God brings something so life-giving as His Church, and puts it at a place of such tremendous risk.  He is confident that because it is set in a place of risk it can be preserved.  How do we feel about that?  We do not think of preserving things by putting them at a place of risk - but God does.  God preserves His church by putting it in a place of jeopardy and allowing that jeopardy to be the constant thing that burdens the hearts of those in all callings who would know Him, love Him, serve Him and follow after His Word.  This risk moves those men into active and brave service for the continuance of the brethren in the most Holy Faith.

Actively Waiting

Acts 1:14, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplications with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brethren.”  It is important to understand here that they were in the phase of waiting, tarrying until there was a movement by the Holy Spirit.  How did they tarry?  They tarried actively.  It says that they continued with one accord.  What we see with that word “continued” is the sense of a reoccurring event that was never stopped.  Here is the problem brothers and sisters as I see it in the church in America today: we do not have continuance, we have spurts.  Someone gets a little bit of vision, and they take that vision and they say, “I am going to go,” and they go out and spurt ahead with their vision.  Then they look around and there is no one following so they stop and there is no continuance in ministry.  There is a critical comparison here.  It says, “They continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.”   There is a work that we can do while we are waiting for the Holy Spirit to move with greater vision, and that work is service in one accord, not getting ahead of the needs and work of the Body, actively praying and supplicating Father God for the benefit of the church.  There was a focus on being like-minded in the calling of Christ, and praying together fervently - all while waiting for the greater movement of the Spirit of God.  May we not forget that one cannot be given much until he is faithful in little.