Ministry is about service. The word ‘ministry’ comes from the Greek word, diakonia, and it is translated in the New Testament as 'service' or 'ministry'. The word minister comes from the Greek, diakonos, and it is translated 'servant', 'minister' or 'deacon'.

In fact the word diakonia (ministry, service) seems to particularly have a place in the language of the home. It refers to the serving of another person at a table.

For instance, Jesus tells a story about a servant who has been working in the fields (Luke 17.7-10). He says, "At the end of the day .. will the master say to him, "Sit down at table". No, he will say, "Prepare supper for me, and having got yourself ready, serve (diakonei) me (or, 'minister to me', till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink".

Or, in Acts 6:2 "It is not right that we should give up the ministry of the word of God to serve (diakonein) tables." It is interesting that the NIV puts in the word ‘ministry’ when in fact the sentence reads: “It is not right that we should give up the word of God to serve tables”. It could equally be translated as 'to minister' at tables, and indeed the same word is translated as ‘to minister’ in Acts 6:4.

It is quite hard to work out why the translators have used one word in one place, and another word in another places. It seems that the NIV, for instance, translates ‘diakonos’ as servant unless it is talking about a specific calling (such as to be an apostle, or to preach the word of God), in which case it translates the word as minister or as deacon.

One commentator writes, "In the Christian community any conspicuous position, office or work was essentially a 'ministry', a 'service' to God and to the brethren ... Thus the exercise of the apostolic commission is a 'ministry' (cf. Rom 11.13, 2 Cor 6.3f, Acts 20.24). So also is St Paul's collection for 'the saints' in Jerusalem (Rom 15.25, 2 Cor 8.19,20) and the provision of meals to the poor in Acts 6.1-2"

The point that I am trying to make is that in the New Testament, the word ‘minister’ is identical with the word servant, and the word ‘ministry’ is identical with the word service.  And it is quite telling that we have three words for what in Greek was one word, servant. But if minister simply means servant, that also raises big issues:

 

Who do we serve?

We talk about ministers of the crown: who are serving the crown.
We talk about waiters serving customers.
We talk about serving an interest; for example, a political activist who serves their party or a cause.

And one of the dangers of Christian ministry is that we lose sight of exactly what it is or who it is that we are serving.

So we are going to look at the ministry of Jesus and, specifically, the ministry of Jesus in those three very brief years which changed the world.

I suggest that Jesus’ ministry, that Jesus’ service had four dimensions

1. An upward dimension
2. An inward dimension
3. An outward dimension
4. A forward dimension

 

1. THE UPWARD DIMENSION

Jesus, first of all, was serving God. He was the servant who was obedient to the word spoken by God. He was sent by Father God with a mission.

John’s gospel makes this absolutely clear
John 6:38: “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me.”
John 17:4, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”

Jesus came as a servant of God the Father. He did what his Father God wanted him to do.

So Jesus came as:

God’s apostle - Apostle simply means ‘sent one’.
God’s prophet - the one who came speaking God’s word.
God’s teacher - teaching the way of wisdom, of reconciliation with God. He was not simply a teacher of righteousness, telling people to be righteous. He was a teacher for righteousness, showing people how to become righteous.
God’s shepherd - the one sent to protect and guide and nurture God’s flock, God’s people
God’s priest - the one appointed by God to bring peace between God and human beings
God’s healer - sent to bring healing to our relationships, to our lives and to our creation
God’s lamb - the one sent by God to be a sacrifice for sin

The heart of Jesus’ service was his relationship with God. Jesus spent time with the Old Testament, his bible. He knew it. More than that, he lived it. He understood that it was pointing to him and to his ‘ministry’ or ‘service’.
And Jesus spent time in prayer. He prayed as he faced temptation; he prayed as he before he made major decisions. From his prayer, and from his understanding of the Old Testament, Jesus came to his sense of self identity. And that can be summed up in two titles:

The first is Son of Man (Mark 10:45). It is a reference to Daniel 7, to one who will judge all people at the end of time, but who will also suffer before he is vindicated.

The second is that Jesus is the suffering servant of Isaiah 52 and 53: God’s servant, who is despised and rejected, who would suffer for the sins of God's people, but who rises from the dead and is vindicated.

Today I am doing some of the groundwork, and will not do so much application.

However, we note that Jesus’ first calling was to be God’s servant and that therefore the churches first calling is to be God’s servant. God is the one who called us into existence. We owe him our ultimate allegiance.

I am going to make a radical statement. The first task of the church is not to serve people. It is to serve God. We are first his servants. And I do have a fear for the church which is that we will take our eye off God and to look simply at the people.

I was very struck by the contrast between some of the Russian Orthodox churches that we got to know, and some of the Finnish Lutheran parishes that we visited on our occasional trips out of Russia. The Orthodox churches were totally God focussed; there seemed to be hardly any concessions to the people. But people, when they came to the churches, did seem to be praying. The Finnish Lutheran parishes, on the other hand, seemed to be totally people orientated. They had huge staff numbers, but they were all engaged in social work. And when I asked how many people would meet together for worship, I was told that they had congregations of about 30.

I am not denying the place for social action as part of our Christian ministry or service, but it is a very easy temptation to fall into to turn social action into the gospel. Everyone loves us when we do it. People will say, ‘St Mary Magdalene’s church, St David’s church: you have a great asylum centre or a great Paradise Project’. What I would love them to say is, ‘St Mary Magdalene church, St David’s church: you are that place where people meet with God’.

We are first and foremost his servants. We have to put the upward dimension first.

 

2.  THE INWARD DIMENSION

There is the inward dimension of Jesus’ service. Service is not simply about servant-hood. It is also about having a servant heart.

We are told of Jesus that he was prepared to leave the glory of heaven to become as one of us (Philippians 2.5-7). The one who was equal to Father God became as a servant to Father God, a servant who was willing to be obedient even though it would lead to his death on a cross. And, as his followers, we are called to have the same heart: that willingness to be a servant.

Look at Mark 10:35-45. James and John have asked Jesus for the most important seats in heaven: They said, "We want to sit at your right hand and your left hand”. When the other disciples hear what James and John have asked for, they are furious. We can imagine what they are saying: 'Who do they think they are? What makes them think that they are more special than me?' And there is a row: "And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John" (v41)

It is all very human. Who is more important? Who has the higher status? And when someone else gets praised or thanked, or when they get the promotion or the recognition that we desire, it gets us here.

We have this mental construct of a sort of social ladder. I'm here; someone else is up there; and you're down there. The more powerful a person, the higher they are up the status ladder. It's a rat race: who can get up there the fastest - and if it means climbing over you to get to the top, then I will do so. In our world that is how the ladder works. The more important you are, the higher you are.

But Jesus is calling to his followers to have a very different attitude. He gives us a glimpse, a preview, of a new world. He stands the ladder on its head.
In Jesus' world, greatness is not identified with being on the top rung of the ladder, but on being at the bottom. Who is it who everyone else has to clamber over to get to the top? Find that person, and you find the greatest person of all.

"It shall not be so among you (note, he is pointing to a new way of living, a new community); whoever would be great among you must be your servant (diakonos), and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all." (v43f) 

In other words, if we wish to follow Jesus, we need to be willing to put aside self and selfish desires. We need to put aside those earthly desires for status or glory or power or authority.

Ministry, service, has to be combined with a servant heart. If it doesn’t it becomes a sham, a way of self-exaltation. It was said of someone, “She lived to serve others. You could tell the others by their harassed looks”. Our service simply becomes an excuse for self-exaltation.

Take for instance the story that Jesus told of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the levite see the man on the road and pass by. It is often said that they would have been ritually contaminated if they had stopped to help the man – and their ministry, their service would have been ruined. ButJesus’ challenge is that true ministry, true service, is shown in love for neighbour. They were challenged because they may have had a ministry, a service, but they did not have a servant heart.

I remember a senior church leader saying that he would always look for future leaders in the church in the people who stayed behind to tidy up, or wash up or put the chairs back. He would look for people who had servant hearts

 

3.THE OUTWARD DIMENSION

Jesus’ ministry, service, had an upward dimension, an inward dimension and an outward dimension. Jesus served God by serving people.

Jesus served people. He provided for them, taught the way of wisdom, healed, calmed storms, cast out demons, rescued a couple at their wedding, raised people from the dead, offered forgiveness, welcomed the people who no one else welcomed, showed people a new way of living.

But Jesus did not provide for everyone who was in need. He did not heal everyone. He did not calm every storm. He did not rescue every wedding where, inevitably, much worse things than running out of wine happened. He only raised three people from the dead.

Jesus did not simply respond to peoples immediate needs. He had, instead, a very specific vision of how God wished him to serve people. And at times that meant that he did not meet people’s needs. For instance, in Mark 1:35-39, Jesus has been preaching and healing. He has gone up a hill to pray, and the disciples tell him that a large crowd has gathered. Jesus turns his back on them, and moves on to a new place.

In Mark 10:45, Jesus tells them what his purpose is: “The Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”.

Jesus came to set us free from captivity to sin and evil and death. We are held captive by sin. We know we are, because when we wish to do good, we find that so often we cannot. And we are held captive to death.

Jesus could have dealt with everyone who came to him who was suffering from sickness, or demons, or relationship breakdowns, or bereavement. But he was sent by God to deal with the root of the problem: sin and death.

Because of his death on the cross there is no longer any condemnation for sin. The price has been paid.

There is forgiveness.
There is reconciliation with God.
There is the gift of the Spirit.
We can become part of God’s new creation and share in his purposes.
And although we still fall sick, experience suffering, and will die – death does not now have the final word.

Jesus served people in many ways, But from the very beginning, he knew that God had given him one overriding purpose: to die for us, to set humanity, and ultimately creation, free from sin and death.

So in our service we are not called to meet every need that is presented to us. I have to say that that is very liberating, especially in inner city ministry. We have to recognise that we do not serve people for people’s sake, but for God’s sake. We do not love people for people's sake, but for God's sake. Sometimes a person may say, "I don't like people. I like cats". Tough. If we are Christians we love people for God's sake. We meet people’s needs in a way that is obedient to the call of God.

 

4.THE FORWARD DIMENSION

The future plays a major role in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus' service is not just about helping people in a present crisis. His service is about preparing people for eternity.

Jesus talks about the coming Kingdom of God. He gives us glimpses of the coming kingdom in his healings and miracles. He calls people to get ready, to be prepared to receive the coming kingdom. Jesus points people to the future: the future judgement and the future glory.

Of course, Jesus ministry did not stop when he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. His ministry, his service, continues today. And he continues to prepare us for the future. When we lose sight of that future dimension, we lose something vital.

Our job is not simply to serve people and to make them happy here and now. Our service of people is for eternity. The purposes of God for his people are more glorious than we could ever imagine:

1 Cor 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”
2 Cor 5:4, “We wish to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal maybe swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose".

Of course we need to service people in the present. 1 John 3:17 makes that clear, as does James 2:16. We live in the present in the light of the future and we serve people in the present in the light of the future.

 

So we look at Jesus’ ministry and we see:

1. He served God (upward dimension)
2. He had a servant heart (inward dimension)
3. He served people for God (outward dimension)
4. He served people in the present in the light of the future (forward dimension)

Jesus is the true servant and the true minister of God. We minister, we serve, in his name, through his power. It is his ministry that becomes our ministry.