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Ministry Distinctives in
Detail!
Our ministry has but one Head, Jesus
Christ. Ephesians1:22-23 states that God put “all things
in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all
things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who
fills all in all.” The church is Christ’s church and
is subject to Him (Ephesians 5:23-24). He is the Chief
Shepherd. All those in leadership at Grace Bible are
merely under-shepherds.
I.
The Purpose of our Ministry: Glorifying God
The first
question of the Westminster Catechism asks, “What is the chief
and highest end of man?”[i]
Its answer stands as the ultimate priority for man.
“Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, (Rom.
11:36, Cor. 10:31) and fully to enjoy him forever (Ps.
73:24–28, John 17:21–23).”[ii]
Jesus, Himself, lived His life solely to the glory
of His Father (John 8:50) and was willing to do the Father’s
will at any cost (John 12:27-28).
Every follower of Jesus is commanded to do likewise by
doing everything for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31; 1 Pet.
2:21). Not only
does each individual fulfill his purpose when living to the
glory of God, but the church also fulfills its purpose when it
lives for God’s glory. Paul
succinctly stated this to the Ephesians when he wrote, “to Him
be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all
generations forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:21). The Church was made to glorify God (Rev. 1:6).
So, when anyone asks
“For what ultimate purpose does Grace Bible Church
exist?” he or she can only come up with one over-arching
biblical answer and that is to glorify God.
Our church glorifies God by giving Him glory through His
Word, in worship, by going, making and teaching disciples, and
by growing spiritually and giving spiritually.
A.
Glorifying God through His Word
Jesus
Christ is the Word incarnate.
He is revealed to us in the written Word of God, the
Bible. Hence, our ministry is and must be biblically-based.
As Paul said, “All Scripture is inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be
adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Peter echoed this when he wrote that “His divine power
has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory
and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3).
The
Bible is God's written revelation to man, and thus the 66 books
of the Bible given to us by the Holy Spirit constitute the
plenary (inspired equally in all parts) Word of God (1 Cor.
2:7-14; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21). And, the
Word of God is an objective, propositional revelation (1 Cor.
2:13; 1 Thess. 2:13), verbally inspired in every word (2 Tim.
3:16), absolutely inerrant in the original documents,
infallible, and God-breathed. Hence,
God is glorified most when these truths are acknowledged and
acted upon directly in every aspect of our ministry (e.g. John
17:7 by Jesus Himself!). The
inerrant word of God demands the expository preaching (i.e.
explanatory preaching) of Scripture, book-by-book,
paragraph-by-paragraph, verse-by-verse, phrase-by-phrase, etc.
The inerrant word of God demands biblical counseling, biblical
music, etc. God is
glorified most when our ministry flows out of His word, and,
hence, flows out of God, Himself.
At
Grace Bible we place a tremendous emphasis on our ministry
through the Word. This
is foundation of our ministry.
Everything we do is based on feeding the flock a regular,
fully nutritional diet of the Word of God, verse-by-verse,
precept-by-precept as God intended it to be taught.
Our body will not grow to healthy maturity without
starting with a proper diet.
One has to KNOW the word of God –entirely and exactly
for each precept – in order to APPLY the word of God in his or
her life. As one person commented about our teaching, “It’s hard to
take notes because everything taught is biblical and
important!”
B.
Glorifying God through Worship
In
the first eleven chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul
describes all that God has done for mankind.
At the beginning of Chapter 12, Paul refers to all God
has done as the “mercies of God” (Rom. 12:1) and goes on to
call Christians to a life of living sacrifice as the acceptable
spiritual service of worship in response to all that God has
done:
Therefore I urge you,
brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
service of worship. And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of
God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom.
12:1-2)
Both
Peter and the author of Hebrews affirm this call.
In 1 Pet. 2:5 Peter tells Christians, “You also, as
living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ.”
In Heb. 12:28-29 the author calls Christians to “show
gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service
with reverence and awe.”
The point is that a Christian must respond to what God
has done by giving back to God his entire life as an acceptable
spiritual service of worship.
This service is the primary purpose of the church of
Jesus Christ.
What
is worship? John
MacArthur writes in his book, The Ultimate Priority,
“We
began…with this definition: worship is honor and adoration
directed to God. Throughout this study, the concept has
expanded, so that perhaps a fuller definition is appropriate:
worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all
that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and
words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.
Another way to say it is that worship is glorifying God. To be
wholly obsessed with the glory of God is the consuming passion
of the true worshiper, who lives to exalt God.”[iii]
J.I.
Packer states it beautifully when he writes, “worship’s
primary aim is to give God the glory and praise that is His due,
…worship’s secondary end and purpose, inseparably bound up
with the first, is to lead worshippers into the sunshine of
communion with God—a true foretaste of heaven, in which all
spiritual souls find their highest delight.”[iv]
Glorifying God must be the worshiper’s conscious,
considered, continual and central spiritual service of worship.
Paul summed this up to the Corinthians by stating
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
However,
the New Testament church needs to remember Jesus’ encounter
with the woman at the well in Samaria (John 4).
In John 4:24, Jesus forever changes worship when He tells
her that God is now to be worshiped in “spirit and in
truth.” Jesus
presents a self-revealed God who “seeks” these “true
worshipers” (John 4:23) who are focused on the right heart
attitude (“in spirit”) and on God’s word (“in truth”)
rather than on the mandated method given to the Old Testament
saints. The New Testament saints who give God glory willingly
are true worshipers, and worship is nothing more, and nothing
less, than glorifying God with a joyful, willing heart. The New
Testament saint lives this out by becoming a living sacrifice
(Rom. 12:1) which God uses as an instrument of righteousness
(Rom. 6:13) in ministry. It
is important to clearly understand the difference between Old
Testament and New Testament worship to avoid digressing towards
the ways of worship of Israel in the Old Testament.
As Montoya describes, the worshiping Christian is to be
involved in the ministry of the gospel (Acts 6:5; Rom. 15:16; 2
Tim. 4:6), the ministry of holy living (Rom. 12:1–2; 1 Pet.
1:12–16), the ministry of prayer (Acts 6:6; 13:2–3; 1 Tim.
5:5; Rev. 4:8, 10–11), the ministry of serving others (Rom.
12:1–8; Phil. 2:17, 30; Heb. 13:16), the ministry of gratitude
(Eph. 5:19–20; Col. 3:16–17; Heb. 12:28; 13:15), and the
ministry of giving (Rom. 15:27; 2 Cor. 9:12; Phil. 2:4.; 4:18;
Heb. 13:16).[v]
At
Grace Bible we worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
Worship is our biblical response with praise for all that God
is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words.
This worshipful attitude pervades everything we do.
Knowing that Romans 11:36 tells us that all things are
from Him and through Him and for Him, we are ever-mindful that
He gave it all so that we might live eternally and so all the
glory is His, not ours. Our goal is to live a life of living
sacrifice that is an acceptable spiritual service of worship in
response to all that God has done for us!
C.
Glorifying God
By Going, Making and Teaching Disciples
Evangelism is
more than just the command Jesus Christ gives to Christians
(Matt. 28:18-20). Evangelism
brings glory to God.
For example, Paul calls his Corinthian readers to
celebrate the grace that extends to more and more unbelieving
persons as the grace of God gains a wider display through
evangelism and all of this is to abound to God’s glory (2 Cor.
4:15).[vi]
In addition, when Peter explained to the Jewish believers
in Jerusalem that He could not stop God from saving the
Gentiles, they glorified God (Acts 11:17-18).
And those being saved glorify God for His mercy, as
prophesied in the Old Testament (2 Sam. 22:50; Ps. 18:49) and
quoted in the New Testament (Rom. 15:8).
Matt. 28:18-20 emphasizes the aspect of
making, baptizing, and teaching disciples as the primary thrust
of evangelism. These
are commands to all Christians.
Hence, this is a primary task of the entire church.
In addition, these commands are to be carried out both
through local outreach and personal evangelism (“Go” of
Matt. 28:19) and through missions (“all the nations” of
Matt. 28:19 and Luke 24:47).
Jesus, Himself, demonstrated His own command at the
personal, local level as He discipled Joseph of Arimathea (Matt
27:57).[vii]
Paul and Barnabas demonstrated the missionary aspect of
evangelism as they made many disciples on their journey to
Iconium (Acts 14:21).
At Grace Bible it is a priority to carry out
God’s command to evangelize and to provide evangelism and
discipleship training. Our
evangelism training removes the barriers to sharing the gospel
and answering questions and objections.
We hold one another accountable to active evangelism
because God commands us to be His witnesses on earth. The most
exciting and best church growth is through new believers!
D.
Glorifying God
By Growing Spiritually and Using Spiritual Gifts
In
keeping with the overall theme that the church’s primary
function is to glorify God, both growing spiritually (2 Cor.
3:18) and giving spiritually (John 15:8) glorify God.
First, Christians are commanded to grow spiritually (1
Peter 2:1-2). As
Peter wrote, a Christian needs to consume the pure milk of the
word to grow spiritually. The
result is a process whereby Christians are transformed into
Christ-likeness, literally “glory-to-glory” as Paul
explained to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 3:18).
Second, Jesus told His disciples that bearing fruit
glorified God (John 15:8).
Christ said, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your
light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew
5:16). God has
gifted all men through His Holy Spirit to do the good works that
glorify Him. Paul
explained to the Ephesian church how spiritual gifts are
distributed and how they are to be used for the express purpose
of serving the church and causing it to grow into a Christ-like
body (Eph. 4:11-16). Paul
describes spiritual growth as taking place until Christians
reach the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God.
This growth also glorifies God (Rom. 15:5-6)!
At
Grace Bible, we know that Christ holds us accountable for the
edification of His flock. As
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “And He [Christ] gave… some as
pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for
the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of
the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians
4:11-13). This is
why our ministry of the Word of God is such a high priority.
“Equipping” (Ephesians 4:11) means to lead from sin
to obedience and the Word of God is the key to doing this.
You grow spiritually when you put off sinful behaviors
and put on godly behaviors.
We
also know that the Holy Spirit will raise up the ministries He
desires to have at Grace Bible.
He gives each person at least one spiritual gift at the
time of their salvation (1Corinthians 12:11) and we encourage
you and equip you to use your spiritual gifts as God intended.
II.
The Bottom Line
for our Ministry
What
is the bottom line for the purpose of our ministry?
God expects us to glorify Him through His word, to
glorify Him through His word, to glorify Him through worship, to
glorify Him through evangelization as witnesses of Jesus Christ,
and to glorify Him through spiritual growth and the use of
spiritual gifts. This is all summed up best in the most
practical verse for glorifying God, 1 Cor. 10:31:
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do
all to the glory of God.”
This verse is the over-arching grid through which the
entire life of the church should be lived.
Jesus Christ’s ultimate purpose is to present the
church “in all her glory…holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27)
so that God is glorified by the church (Eph. 3:21).
MacArthur, John F.,
Jr. The
Master’s Plan for the Church.
Chicago: Moody
Press, 1991.
Martin, Ralph P.
2 Corinthians, vol. 40.
Word Biblical Commentary.
Dallas: Word Books, 1998, Logos Research Systems, Inc.
Montoya, Alex D.
“Approaching Pastoral Ministry Scripturally.”
In Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry:
Shaping Contemporary Ministry with Biblical Mandates, ed.
John MacArthur Jr., Richard L. Mayhue, and Robert L. Thomas.
Dallas: Word
Publishing, 1995.
Packer, J.I.
A Quest for Godliness.
Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1997, Logos Research
Systems, Inc.
[i]
Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Larger Catechism, (Oak
Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1995.
[iii]
John MacArthur, Jr., The Ultimate Priority, (Chicago:
Moody Press) 1998, Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[iv]
J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway Books) 1997, Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[v]
Alex D. Montoya, “Approaching Pastoral Ministry
Scripturally,” in Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry:
Shaping Contemporary Ministry with Biblical Mandates,
ed. John MacArthur, Jr., Richard L. Mayhue, and Robert L.
Thomas (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1995), 64-83.
[vi]
Ralph P. Martin, 2 Corinthians, vol. 40, Word
Biblical Commentary (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher)
1998, Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[vii]
K. H. Rengstorf, “maqhteuvw,”
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand
Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), 4:461.
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