THE LIVING CHURCH
Meditations in the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 26:16-18

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IN these three verses Paul tells Agrippa the ministry he had been given by Jesus. In this ministry we see what the Christian ministry is and should be. The first thing to notice is that Paul was appointed by Jesus. A church or denomination may ordain a person into the ministry, but unless that person has been called and appointed by the Lord Jesus no amount of ordaining and commissioning can make that person a minister of Christ and in the true church of God.

Then Paul tells us Jesus appointed him to be a servant. A minister of the Gospel is a servant. Nothing more and nothing less. Jesus appoints us to serve. We are first and foremost servants of Jesus and to Jesus. We serve him. Every Christian serves Jesus, but the minister in a special way is Christ servant to go out and do his or her masters business. We go in the name of Christ to tell people what Christ has told us to tell them. This message is the message of the Bible, but if the minister is a true servant of Jesus, before preaching or teaching on any occasion, he or she will seek personal audience with the Lord for the message that is to be proclaimed in Jesus Name. This personal audience is realised by prayer and meditation in God's Word, and, in utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit, to hear and be told the truth of God to be proclaimed and how to proclaim it. The minister should not leave audience with the Lord until the message has been received.

The minister is also the servant of Jesus to be a servant to others. We are those who wait at table to place before people the nourishment and food of the Word of God, and we are carers that serve people by ministering in love to their needs. We are not sent to judge but to serve, just as our master was sent not to judge but to give his life a ransom for many.

Then Paul tells Aprippa that he was sent to be a witness to Jesus. He was a witness of what he had seen of Jesus and what Jesus in the future would tell him. A minister is totally unqualified as a minister unless he or she has seen Jesus, and had a personal encounter with him. This is not study in a theological college, however necessary this is, but a personal knowledge and experience of the blessing of salvation that Jesus bestows through his life and death for us. We must have bowed before Jesus, and from the heart said, as we beheld him, 'my Lord and my God'.

Further the witness of the minister is an ongoing witness. We are continually being taught of the Lord and continual being in audience with the Lord, and having revealed to us new depths of his salvation and blessing. Unlike other professions or careers in our world, the minister should be more qualified and a better minister the older he or she may be. Whereas the world seeks for the young because youth is felt to be better, this is not so in the minister of the Gospel. We are being taught of the Lord daily, and so become more able to teach others the depth and the wonder of the love of God in Christ the older we get.

Lastly the minister rests on the promise of the Lord of protection while in ministry. Paul tells Agrippa that Jesus promised him protection from both Jew and Gentile who would oppose the Gospel. This is the ministers assurance that until his or her work is done, God will be with them to protect them from all that would hinder the ministry from being accomplished. This does not mean that the minister is free from trials and difficulties, nor that the minister will be protected from attacks and opposition. Paul had known in his ministry much opposition and persecution, but Paul could testify to the fact that he had been protected so that the ministry given to him by the Lord, he had been able to complete. Paul now knew, in spite of his imprisonment, that God's purpose for ministry in Rome would be accomplished, because God would protect him so that it would be accomplished. Suffering still lay ahead, but victory was certain for the Gospel and for the purposes of Christ.

The protection of the Lord stretches beyond this life for the minister and every believer. Christ has promised that he will bring his people to his heavenly glory. This he will do, and death for us is the gateway to life and glory, where we shall see Jesus, whom we love before all other loves.