A Call to Service (Part 1 of 2)

The clear command of Jesus to his first disciples was, follow me.

I've got a job for you to do. Most of us understand that pastors are called to ministry in a similar way, but do we realize that all of us are called to follow him? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains how we're listening to a message titled, A Call to Service. As we move to the close of our studies here in 1 Corinthians, and as Paul obviously draws his letter to a close, it's good for us to remind ourselves that Paul was not writing a letter which was primarily to be dealt with in the way in which we're dealing with it, but he was writing a letter to a real group of people living at a real point in time and a real place in time, dealing with the rough and tumble of their days and trying to make their journey through life in much the same way that each of us is doing this morning. And although they were Corinth and we're Cleveland, separated both by geography and by history, the principles and the practical elements to which he addresses himself here in these closing verses are as vitally important for us this morning as they were for the real and ordinary people to whom they were addressed in the first place. Paul, in providing these personal requests and practical statements as he draws his letter to a close, provides for us, somewhat inadvertently, a perspective on ministry itself.

Essentially, Paul gives us an insight into what he's doing, why he's doing it, and how he's doing it. The word ministry may variously be translated service, and he has been called to service, as have all who have been called to Christ. Jesus, in Matthew 4, in calling the disciples, who were working along the shores of Galilee, says to them, in the midst of their preoccupations and their normal routine and day, he says, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. In other words, follow me. I've got a job for you to do.

There is something in which I desire for you to be involved. Jesus called people to himself, and he called them to serve. And whether we're called to serve in the capacity of an elder or an evangelist or a pastor, teacher, or whether we're called to a whole variety of forms of service within the body of Christ, we are all called to service. And any distinction between those who are, quote, full-time servants and those who are lay servants—from the word leios in Greek, from which we get lay ministry—the distinction is not a distinction of value.

It is always a distinction of function. And service is where it's at. Therefore, it's good for us to get the apostles' perspective on Christian service or ministry. Service, in the Bible's terms, is not a preliminary or a pathway to greatness.

Service is greatness. Jesus, in Mark chapter 10, says, The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Ministry in the body of Christ, to the body of Christ, through the body of Christ, is not something that we do in the hope that we may be able eventually to step up a few rungs in the way that is often true in our office or our commerce or in our academic circles. No, says Jesus.

That's the way the pagans view it. He says, I want you to know that he who wants to be great among you should first become the servant of all, and it will be in that expression of service that greatness will be realized. Now, Paul clearly understood this. Christian ministry or Christian service is ultimately nothing more than the ministry of the risen Lord Jesus among and through his people. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20 is a classic summary of this principle, where the apostle says, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

And as you take those verses there and look at them, the principle is this. He—namely, Jesus—gave his life for me. That he in turn might take my life from me. I have been crucified with Christ. That he then may live his life through me.

Service. Now, in wrestling with these verses this week—and there are some verses to which one turns that are immediately obvious in terms of where one is going—I looked at these for a long time, without a great deal of encouragement, I must say. And yet, as the week went on, I decided that it would be true to the text and encouraging for God's people to summarize these eight verses by considering these three simple factors. In relationship to a Pauline perspective on ministry or service, number one, that we would understand that it is the Lord's work. Secondly, that he uses a variety of people to accomplish it. And thirdly, that there is no ideal place in which to serve him.

We'll notice each of these in turn. First of all, then, noticing that this work in which we engage of service and of ministry is the Lord's work. Now, this comes out clearly in verse 10, where in referring to Timothy and what Timothy is doing, he says of him, he is carrying on the work of the Lord just as I am.

Ergon curiu ergesatai. Works of the Lord, he works. That's what it says. If you want to know what he's doing, he is not establishing his name, he is not building a ministry, the Timothy ministry, he is not seeking to become notorious, he is working the work of the Lord. Now, we saw this in verse 58 of the previous chapter, Give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Now, broadly speaking, the work of the Lord is anything to which we might lay our hands as Christians, both within the body of Christ and in seeking to minister to those beyond the body of Christ. It is, as we noted before in Colossians 3, that whatever we do, in word or in deed, we should do it all to the glory of the Lord Jesus. That when we do our work, we should be working, as it were, in serving the Lord and not ultimately in serving men. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for men. And that comprehensive phrase, whatever you do, is there purposefully.

And to that we will return. But whatever of Christian service is matched by the particular element of being involved in the work of the good news itself—namely, in seeking to position ourselves in such a way that we might be effectively involved in the activities of the gospel. Now, that simply means that we might recognize that we were born to reproduce, that we were born to be involved in seeing unbelieving people become committed followers of Jesus Christ. Some years ago, Alan Redpath, quoting statistics that he had gleaned from the average American congregation, said that of all those whose names appear on the lists of congregations in the United States, five percent of them don't exist, ten percent of them can't be found, twenty-five percent of them never attend, fifty percent of them attend only once on a Sunday, seventy-five percent are never present for corporate prayer, ninety percent have no family devotions, and ninety-five percent never lead another person to faith in Jesus Christ.

So some of us are hiding behind the whatever and missing the fact that we are each uniquely called and appointed to the specific task of allowing the light and the truth and the power of Jesus so to invade and fill our lives that in turn men and women might encounter that same light and truth and power in the way in which we do our jobs, in the way in which we fulfill our responsibilities, and in the way in which we answer their questions when they ask of us a reason for the hope that is within us. Now, when Paul viewed the Corinthians themselves, he actually saw them in relationship to the Lord's work. If you turn back to chapter 9 and look at it, his description of these people to whom he writes is as follows. The final sentence of verse 9, he says to them, Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? The very existence of the church in Corinth was due to the fact that the apostle was doing the Lord's work.

He was not irrelevant, nor was he preeminent. He was purposefully appointed to a specific responsibility in the way in which God plans to purposefully appoint each one whom he calls to himself within the framework of his family two specific and particular responsibilities in terms of Christian ministry and of service. And immediately this morning, you ought to be asking yourself a question as we look at the Scriptures together, So where am I in relation to the particular and specific tasks of shining out and declaring the truth of the gospel as it relates to Parkside Church and my involvement here? If I understand that I have been called not simply to sit, not simply to absorb, not simply to learn, but I have been called to grow and to go, to fish and to feed, then where am I in this equation this morning? The Corinthians were the product of the work of the Lord through God's servant.

Now, Paul was in no question that it was the Lord's work. And if you turn back another few chapters to chapter 3, you turn to probably the classic statement of this truth that is given to us in this first letter to Corinth. There was a problem in Corinth—indeed, there were a whole host of problems in Corinth—and one of them was that they were stuck on personalities. And they began to gather themselves in little groups around different elements of the pastoral team that was ministering there. And somebody was saying, you know, I am really of Apollos.

He's my main man. And someone else said, Well, you know, I much prefer Paul. And someone else said, Yeah, I am of Cephas. It wasn't that Apollos was trying to get a group or Paul was trying to get a group. It was that these people naturally had an affinity in this way for whatever reason, and as a result there was division, there was worldliness, there was carnality, there was fleshliness.

It was all very childish. And in addressing this, look at what Paul says in verse 5 of 1 Corinthians 3. He says, What, after all, is Apollos, and what is Paul? The question is in the neuter.

It's not in the masculine. He doesn't say, Who are we? He says, What are we? The issue's not who. The issue's what. We live in a world that is preoccupied with who. The evangelical world is preoccupied with who. God is interested in what, first of all.

What is Apollos? What is Paul? Answer, They're only servants through whom you came to believe, as the LORD assigned to each his task.

So they don't have any reason to glory in what they did. Says Paul for himself, All I was doing was being obedient to Jesus. He told me that I was a chosen instrument to bear his name before the Gentiles. And as soon as I understood that, I said, Well, I'd better go and bear his name before the Gentiles. So I don't have any reason to be particularly excited about the fact that all of you people have come to faith in Jesus Christ. I've got reason to be discouraged that I've done such a job among you that there's all this fighting and quarreling and immorality and chaos.

But I know this. The only reason I did what I did is because the LORD assigned my task, and furthermore, he said the same is true of Apollos. I got the job of planting, he said. Apollos got the job of watering. Isn't that the way you divvy it up around your house? Or the way your wife wishes you would divvy it up around the house?

That it would be some form of division of labor? One would plant and the other would water? Did you plant the plants? And you walk up and down and go, I planted these.

Does your wife walk up and down and go, Yeah, but that's irrelevant. I watered these. And you say, Yeah, but if I unplanted them, you couldn't water them. And she says, Yeah, but if I didn't water them, they'd shrivel up. And so it goes on, and then you both realize that if God didn't make them grow, you'd both be standing looking at nothing.

That's the point here. Calvin says the key to usefulness in the kingdom of God begins with self-forgetfulness. You want to be useful in the kingdom? Forget yourself. You want to be effective in ministry? Die to yourself. It's hard.

Well nigh impossible without the Spirit's enabling. So he says, Here's the deal. I planted the seed, and Paul had swatted it, but God made it grow. And then he gives us these three statements. All right, let me summarize them as three statements.

Notice this. In verse 5, God gave the ministry. He assigned the task. So no point walking around, preening our feathers about the task. Do you know who I am? And do you know what I do?

So what? The only reason you do what you do is because God said you could do it, and up until now, he still lets you do it. God gave you the task. Secondly, verse 6, God gives the growth. Do you know how many people are now in Corinth, Paul might have been prepared to say?

And then he would have stopped himself and said, No, I shouldn't say that, because after all, I was only a servant in his hands, and nothing would have happened unless God gave the growth. And notice in verse 8, it is God who gives the rewards. The man who plants and the mountain who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own success.

Do you have your Bible on? Your head should have gone like that when I said success, because you know it can be success. It isn't success. Each one will be rewarded according to his own labor.

You're going to get a reward for being a faithful laborer, faithful laborer. Not a successful laborer. People around you may not think you're as successful as you should be.

You may not even think you're as successful as you might be. God's rewards are not going to be given on the basis of success. They're going to be given on the basis of faithfulness. He gave the task.

He made it grow. He gives the rewards. So the ministry to which we're all called and in which we're all involved, then, is the Lord's ministry, the Lord's service, the Lord's work. Second principle to notice is that the Lord Jesus uses a variety of people to accomplish his work. Paul understood this. We're going to later on notice the impact of a transformed family down there in verse 15.

Can't wait to get to it. We're also going to look at these three characters in verse 17—Stefanis, Fortunatus, and Achakas. What did they look like? We won't know, but we can tell what they did. Paul says, They refreshed my spirit. In other words, these guys were important in his ministry. He wasn't a one-man show. He wasn't a one-man band. One-man bands are no longer particularly compelling, I've noticed. In Glasgow, there used to be a whole host of one-man bands when I was a boy—guys who had drums strapped to all manners and parts of their body, and when they did this, they did that and that and this and that, and they used to stand and contort themselves and make all manner of sounds.

And you couldn't help but say, goodness gracious, is there nothing this fellow can't do! The body of Christ is a peculiar place for producing one-man bands. Paul says, I'm not a one-man band. The Lord's servant mustn't be a one-man band. He says, I'm keen that Apollos comes.

That proves he's not a one-man band. He knew the territorialism within the church. He knew there was a wee group that favored Apollos. If he was looking out for his own interests selfishly, he'd make sure that Apollos never went back to Corinth, because when Apollos went back to Corinth, maybe they would like his watering better than they liked Paul's planting.

What would save him from that? The fact that he was only concerned that the plants grew. If his preoccupation was that he would like his planting more than Apollos's watering, he wouldn't have been urging Apollos to go back and do some more watering, because he would be fearful of the impact of what would take place when somebody else began to get a little bit of the focus and the profile. Timothy, the young, rising lieutenant in his force, he says, I can't wait for Timothy to get to you, and here's how I want you to treat Timothy.

A great variety of people—the Fortunatuses and the Stephanises and the Archaicuses and the Apolloses and the Timothys—they didn't all look the same, they didn't all act the same, they weren't all gifted the same, but they were all vital in the work of ministry. Do you believe that? And do you know what the work is? And are you doing it? See, first of all, you need to know there's a work that none but you can do. Then you need to know what the work is.

Then you need to go ahead and do it. And look at the wonderful way in which God chooses to put these people together. Timothy, the man who was apparently so disqualified for service, naturally timid—that's why he has all these things to say about, make sure he's got nothing to fear when he's with you—physically frail, why he has to keep taking a little wine for his stomach's sake, and chronologically disadvantaged, young. Let no man despise your youth, Timothy, he says. And people would look on and say, It doesn't make any sense at all that you, the mighty apostle Paul, would take the batten of faith and entrust it into the hands of a fellow who's always getting an upset stomach, who has always naturally timid amongst people, can't go in amongst the crowd, and he frankly looks far too young to be any use for anything. Everyone looks at him and says, Why did you send a boy here? And Paul says, I understand that kind of thinking, but here's the deal.

God assigns the task. One of the reasons that people don't engage in ministry is because they're fearful. There were intimidating characters in Corinth, for sure—big mouths, loud mouths, strong arms, people who thought they knew how ministry ought to be operated, and it probably was a daunting prospect for Timothy as he made his journey towards the city of Corinth to think of going in and meeting this group. After all, the group had pulverized and tyrannized his boss and his colleague and his mentor, the apostle Paul. And if they gave Paul such a hard time, what were they gonna do to him?

He must have gone in there with fear and trembling. The fear of rejection. That is one of the great debilitating factors in involvement in Christian ministry.

People are afraid of rejection. The answer is, listen, if God puts his hand upon you, shows you the pink slip, sign your name on the pink slip and do the job, would you? Accept your limitations. You can't do everything. Assume your responsibilities. You can do something. And don't let the evil one tell you that because you're young, frail, and timid, that it's everybody else's job. Or that you're old, frail, and timid. All of us who are called by Christ are called to service.

That's Alistair Begg. You're listening to Truth for Life. If you've been enjoying our study in the book of 1 Corinthians, Alistair taught through all 16 chapters in this book. The title of the complete series is Firm Foundation, and you can hear any of the messages in this series for free or start at the beginning. Work your way through the entire letter from the Apostle Paul.

Just search the title Firm Foundation on our mobile app or on our website at truthforlife.org. You can also purchase the entire study on a single USB for just $5. Now as we look forward to Easter, do you ever try to imagine what it would have been like to have been present with Jesus and the disciples in the private upper room on the evening before his death? Theologian Sinclair Ferguson takes us into this scene that's described in John's Gospel with vivid clarity. He's written a book titled Lessons from the Upper Room, and in this book Sinclair describes the atmosphere where emotions were ebbing and flowing. There's confusion, there's misunderstanding, there's fear, and of course there's comfort.

All of these are at play as Jesus washes the disciples feet, tells about his coming departure, and then promises the coming of the Holy Spirit. Request a copy of the book Lessons from the Upper Room when you donate today. To give, you can click on the image in the mobile app or visit us online at truthforlife.org slash donate.

I'm Bob Lapine, thanks for listening. Where is your ideal place to serve God? Tomorrow we'll learn more about our calling in service to Christ. I hope you can join us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.