THE example and pattern for ministry is the one Jesus gives us, of which we have an example here in these verses. All those engaged in ministry for Jesus, whether ordained or lay, must have the ministry of Jesus before them. Let us learn from these verses all we can from the example of Jesus in these verses.

The first thing we notice in these verses is that Jesus went through all the towns and villages to minister. Not one was left out. There is no place in the world which is not right for the proclamation of the Gospel. The great commission of Jesus at the end of Matthew's Gospel is a commission to go into all the world. The only time when a place should be left out from ministry is when Jesus specifically forbids it, or when the people definitely refuse the Gospel. In the next chapter Jesus himself excluded all but the Jews in the ministry he gave the twelve apostles at this time, and he also told them to leave such places who stubbornly refused to hear the Gospel. Ministry should be engaged in with much prayer to discern the will of Christ, but to go everywhere is our starting point. If we have been placed in a specific location for ministry, like a Church of England vicar, then it is the cure of the souls of everyone in the parish which is the commission we are given. As far as possible the minister of a parish must seek to visit with the Gospel every home in the parish, and seek to preach the Gospel. We must not wait for people to come to church, but we must go out to them.

The chief task of a minister of Christ is to preach the Gospel. This was the way of Jesus. As we read the Gospel's we find ourselves concentrating on the miracles of Jesus - his healing and raising the dead. However in the Gospel we have the teaching of Jesus recorded also, and we are told often, as we are here, that Jesus' prime mission in ministry was to preach the Gospel. The preaching of the Gospel came before the healing of the body. The Gospel is healing medicine for the soul. If the Gospel medicine is applied to the soul, it raises a person to eternal life, whereas ministry to the body is only for this earthly temporal life. Whatever else we may be called to do in ministry, and all of us have particular gifts which may be used in ministry, the chief of our calling to ministry is to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in and through Jesus. Everything we do must be for this purpose, if we visit the sick, we must not neglect to minister to the soul, as well as the body. We must take every opportunity in every situation to testify in some way to Christ, and to be able to do this we must be constant in prayer for grace and wisdom from God. We are not meant to offend people wrongly in our efforts to proclaim Christ. There is an offence which the Gospel causes, but this is no excuse for causing offence by the way we seek to preach the Gospel. We must be wise as serpents, while being harmless as doves.

Then we can't help but notice that Jesus healed every sickness and disease. Although the health of the soul comes first, we must not neglect the body. It is often those who have felt Christian love in the releaving of physical and mental needs, who will be most ready to hear and receive the Gospel. It has been a failure in some sections of the church for concentration of spiritual needs to cause the neglect of bodily and temporal needs. Jesus while preaching did not neglect to care for the body and the mind. In ministry today we quite rightly leave it to doctors and nurses to care for the bodily and mental sicknesses fallen humanity are prone to, but because human beings are made up of more than just the body, we have a ministry of healing which cares for people in their unhappiness, depression, loneliness, etc. It is often through such ministry as this that a person becomes more ready to hear the preaching.

Sometimes ministry is carried out in a sense of duty, or as a job that we have been called upon to do. Or ministry may be engaged in for the purpose of promoting our careers. These are the wrong reasons. After the chief reason for being in ministry is to bring glory to God, being in ministry is to show to others the love of Christ which he showed and showes to us. Jesus had compassion on people, and we must have a like compassion. People soon realise whether we genuinely care about them, of whether we are in it just for ourselves and for our own well-being and assurance. Above all if we are to follow Jesus in ministry, we must care for people and specially for them when we see that they are travelling fast down the broad way that leads to destruction.

Jesus cared for people chiefly on account of the fact that they have an immortal soul, and the fact that most people seem to be living for this world on the Broad way that leads to destruction. Jesus saw people as sheep without a shepherd; and as people who are without someone to minister to them the word of life, and care for their souls. To be without Christ is to be without the chief shepherd who guards his sheep unto eternal life. Not to have Christ is to be without a shepherd to keep and save from eternal death.

Jesus saw what so often we do not, and that is the potential harvest of souls out there in the world and society. Because of much discouragement in ministry, we tend to think that most are so hardened that they will not respond in any way to the Gospel. Jesus looked out on his time, and saw a potential for so many to be saved.