Devotionals on Ministry

Sentence Search

• The Lord might send prophetic vision by ministry to lead into His fuller meanings if there was a way for it, but we are too busy.

• Kingdom of Heaven The baptism in water of Jesus was also a marker that pointed to the beginning of His public ministry.

• Men have made an earthly representation of the New Testament revelation of the church, and ministry, and priesthood.

• Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah and the Saviour of the world, but during His earthly ministry, we are reminded that He only came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

• John 3:30.  Christ in His ministry to Israel encourages them to learn of Me.

• All in All When Christ is not a Christian’s fullness, that one is filled with self, not Christ. When Christ is not all in all to the body of Christ, it becomes an empty vessel. When the Lord Jesus is not preeminent in our lives, we fail in our ministry.

• Christ in Me Being His witnesses does not necessarily mean going out and talking. Being a consecrated man or woman – ‘being a sign’ may not mean what you think. It may not mean becoming a missionary or starting a ministry… This may be a fraction of the call on a sanctified life.

• The life and ministry of the Lord Jesus took place before today’s Church Age started.
• Israel’s Messiah The beautiful words and works of the Lord Jesus are worthy of our regard and study, but we must never forget that His ministry was primarily to the lost sheep of Israel.

• Veiled Life In the main, God chose to veil our view of Jesus, until the time of John the Baptist’s ministry, when Jesus started to walk in and out among the disciples of John. And yet there is much that we know of His character – His spirited zeal for the Lord – His love for the Scriptures of God and His humble dedication to His Father in heaven.

• John stood his ground, maintaining his testimony in the face of every foe, and as a consequence has exercised a mighty ministry of life down through the centuries. -T.

• The present and eternal ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son; the past, present, and future ministry of the Son is to glorify the Father.
• Our life and ministry will bring glory to our Father to the extent that we abide in the Son, and are controlled by the Holy Spirit.
• When one's ministry or outreach flows from close communion with the Father, one's influence and moral authority will be recognized.
• Moreover, such a workman is not carried beyond what he has received from the Lord, so that his ministry finds sanction in hearts without any pressure. -J.N.D.
• The object of all Christian life and ministry, of whatever kind, must surely be to bring glory to God.

• She, who discovered His claims and ministry a mystery!  She, who was confused at His staggering words,  Who is my mother?

• Inner Ministry I doubt the disciples could have imagined that Christ, going away as He did, would have resulted in something even better for them– for the Lord Jesus could only walk beside His disciples – while the Holy Spirit indwells the very heart of a believer. This intimate, inner ministry of the indwelling Spirit, surpasses our wildest thoughts.

• Man of God Paul was a man who loved his Saviour and a man whose service to his Lord is one that we hold up as an example of a great man of faith – a man of God that we ourselves would seek to emulate, and yet his comparatively short life in the ministry was one that was engulfed by an overabundance of problems and difficulties – a ministry that was packed from start to finish with unbelievable severities and significant hardships.
• Servant of the Lord And yet we discover that the apostle Paul was hounded by those who sought to destroy his ministry and discredit His reputation.

• It was proclaiming Christ Jesus the Lord that was Paul’s ministry.
• Christ as Preeminent A ministry that does not have Christ at the centre is an abortive mission. A man or movement without Christ as preeminent is of no consequence. Preaching Christ, proclaiming Christ, publishing Christ is God’s pleasure.
• Christ Crucified But down through the centuries so much Christian work excludes Christ. Proclaiming a mission statement is too often the abortive work of a ministry. Publishing a programme has become the norm in much evangelistic work. Preaching anything and everything except the only thing of importance.. that I might preach HIM – that I might preach Christ – that I might preach Christ Jesus and Him crucified.

• Surely there is only one answer:- On the one hand, a ministry which has as its substance and object the rooting and grounding, the establishing, the building up of believers, and the real increase of the measure of Christ.

• Different Empowerment In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit gifted a few people for their particular ministry or their specific service – or for a certain office such as prophet, priest, or king.

• It is a new day to your soul when you realize that Christ is the Source of everything, and that it is from Him you must draw, and not from ministry about Him.
• It does not effect what is the Lord's desire as the end of the ministry, which is to lead the soul to Himself, because it is not spoken in communion with Himself.

• In a somewhat extended life and ministry, again and again I have seen dear people of God who were out in the open going on with the Lord in the liberty of the Spirit with great promise and then theye been caught in some sm.They simply are helpless to escape themselves from the tenets of that sm.Again and again Ie seen it!

• When we behold them by the ministry of the Spirit it is as beholding us with infinite love, and bestowing upon us the blessings of grace.

• John 1:27 This same humility of spirit marked John’s entire earthly ministry, for it was John who said, He must increase, and I must decrease.
• pointed to Christ throughout his earthly ministry: “Behold, the Lamb of God“

• This was the Man, Who entreated, “come to Me”, throughout His earthly ministry.

• If there is anything in this world that would cause me to give up the Christian ministry, it is myself.

• But that is the error of holiness by faith.' The objective (position) is that we are clear before the Father; the subjective (condition) is that we are cleared from ourselves by the growth ministry of the Holy Spirit.

• Body Ministry The body of Christ is to reach its full stature - even the fullness of Christ Jesus.

• “As the believer grows, and his path becomes more involved, he is taught more about the Holy Spirit’s ministry, for he needs this doctrine increasingly for his comfort and rest in trial.

• In these days of spiritual dearth there is an ever-increasing need for the ministry of nurturing new believers, that they may be rooted and built up in Him, and established (Col. 2:7).
• The great burden of the Christian ministry should be that Christ may be formed in men, and that they, in turn, may be living witnesses to others.

• Afflictions, therefore, many times are the advance token of the Father that we are being prepared for a special ministry of comfort to others.

• When the believer truly sees Pentecost he says, There, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I was baptized into the risen Lord Jesus.

• Sinless Life Oh, there are many false and spurious legends that have grown up surrounding the early life of the Lord, with untrue and foolish stories of childhood miracles He did – but all are erroneous and blasphemous and are the product of a vivid imagination. But what we do know is that the Boy Jesus lived a sinless life, which is equally true of the many silent years of His childhood as it is of His three intense years of ministry, for He was God and He was Man – not just for 3 years but throughout His whole life.

• The Spirit's ministry within is the displacement of the old man, and the emplacement of the New Man.

• One Foundation If a ministry is dependent on the name of its leader it is doomed to fail. If Christ is replaced by a man, woman or denomination, a death knoll has sounded, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” 1Corinthians 3:11
• Centrality of Christ It is folly to spend time and energy building up a Christian work unless Christ is central, but many Christian works are founded on ‘Christian’ principles alone and not Christ – and any ministry that neglects His rightful place, is doomed to collapse.
• Wise Warning There are numerous establishments and foundations that are labelled ‘Christian’, but we must beware when Christ is not central to a church or ministry.
• We must beware when a denomination is simply following the traditions of men. We must be careful of a body that is a fawning over a man-made ministry. We must be alert to the many false doctrines and deceiving spirits many proclaim today.

• The Spirit's ministry is to present a Person, rather than to produce an experience.
• In the latter we have the surrender, but it is not to get, or to attain; it is because he has entered into what is his; he has accepted the wondrous fact of his death with the Lord Jesus, and of the Spirit's presence and ministry.
• Without His scriptural revelation we cannot commence the course, but without the discipline of His ministry we cannot complete it.

• Had I never come up against it, never would I have believed the terrific force there is lying behind Christian institutions if your ministry touches them.

• Prayer is indeed a rest and joy, but prayer is also a duty, a work, a ministry, and so it calls for purpose and PERSISTENCE.

• When the suffering soul reaches a calm sweet carelessness, when it can inwardly smile at its own suffering, and does not even ask the Father to deliver it from suffering, then it has wrought its blessed ministry; then patience has its perfect work; then the crucifixion begins to weave itself into a crown. -T.W.

• Religious ministry may be psychic, orthodox, heretical, social, humanitarian, educational, political, or spiritual.

• They are absorbed in something else, and this not only distracts them from their work, but when they do set themselves to it, there is not that maturity, that finished condition of soul, that knowledge of hearts, and of the way in which the Word suits itself to their needs, which gives lasting value to ministry. -J.N.D.

• Today we hear of many travelling to and fro, to seek a teacher or follow a ministry.

• High Calling My work and ministry is worth nothing unless sanctified in Him. For all my work and ministering is as filthy rags in my own, immature state.

• they are quite unfitted to bear the burden of spiritual ministry.

• I only hope that Paul knows of all that has sprung from his ministry, all that his ministry means to us.

• Devotional Study - FEAR NOT Bold Words Christ made some very bold statements throughout His ministry.

• Our one responsibility, that of concentrating upon the Lord Jesus, has a three-fold result: (1) fellowship with Him; (2) growth in His image; (3) ministry of life to others.

• Oh, yes, God gives us a ministry and then we get hold of it and become jealous about our ministry and afraid of other people getting in our way and taking our ministry away from us; interfering with our ministry, you see.

• Our great Helper in prayer is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Advocate with the Father, our Great High Priest, whose chief ministry for us these centuries has been intercession and prayer.

• Godly Instructions And in Romans 12, Paul tells us how to live:- we being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another – having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.

• Jesus, when He began His ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as it was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli...Luke 3:23
• Now Jesus Himself, when He began His ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli – the father of Mary.

• some set off to do what a work that they perceive to be His will.  Some see it as their job and responsibility to convert the world – some are quickly pushed into a ministry or service by other people.
• I watched some similar clips of 4 years olds, 7 years olds and other minor ‘preachers’ – infants and children given the pulpit, who were evidently considered ‘gifted’ – and yet the Lord Jesus Himself waited until he was 30 before starting His public ministry.
• Man or Ministry If God’s word is true, then God is more interested in developing a man than a ministry.

• This cannot be done in some Bible school, or by putting people nto the ministry.God never works on an official side.

• To Know Him At the start of his life, we are told that it was God’s pleasure to reveal Christ in Paul, but at the end of his life, Paul longed to know the Lord Jesus more and more and more, and throughout his ministry, it is Paul’s longing that we also come to know Him more.

• Jesus could have overshadowed the Baptist’s ministry, but He quietly waited – His time had not yet come.

• A ministry of life, whether it be at the kitchen sink, or from the First Church pulpit, must flow from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

• An Instruction From Paul Give no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things – Approving ourselves as the ministers of God… Behold – this is the way we should live….

• And Job also was being prepared for an eternal ministry.
• An Eternal Ministry God prepared Job to be His ‘Vessel of Comfort‘ – and you have that same choice.
• And Job has been engaged in the 'Ministry of Comfort' – for the last 4000 years or more..
• a lasting prayer ministry that cries: Thy Will Be Done on earth as in heaven… until God’s Way is completed and Christ is ALL in ALL.

• Paul longed to go to his heavenly home, but Paul recognised the ministry to which he was called.

• No one can fail to recognize the tremendous enrichment of ministry as contained in what are called the Prison Epistles.

• John 3:6 And from the commencement of Christ’s ministry, all He did was in and through the Spirit..
• and from the start of His ministry, all He did was under the shadow of the Cross.

• You will not get far before you are in the company of those who opposed Christ at every step, and of the Judaizers who pursued Paul across the world with the one object of making his ministry impossible.

• A Simple Ministry Here our Lord Jesus Christ cried out, I thirst.
• We cannot but be thankful for this little ministry in giving momentary relief to this holy Sufferer.

• If you are not coming to help their thing or things with your ministry or presentation, of course they won have it, and it resolves itself into this: they won have Him; that is not the kind of Lord they want.

• A ministry and work that is linked with the very Spirit of God, for He shall baptise with the Holy Spirit, and with the fires of judgement, for He was made a quickening, life-giving spirit. 1Cor.15:45
• Continuing Ministry Yes..
• His is a ministry that He is continuing today at the right hand of God the Father..

• No wonder at the genesis of His earthly ministry a voice from heaven was heard to say, Thou art My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.

• At the start of his ministry Isaiah cried in full submission to the Almighty God: Lord, Here am I, send me.

• Humble Submission It seems that for a little time at least; the Lord was among the followers of John! He had humbled Himself for many silent years under the authority of His parents, and He seems to have spent some time learning from the ministry of the Baptist. What a wonderful example we have in the silent years of our developing Saviour. Though little is written of His life and learning there are many little clues that demonstrate that the Lord Jesus lived His entire childhood and early adult life in humble submission to those that were in authority – as He waited for God’s timing when He would continue His long, painful..

• The Church's real ministry is not multitudinous public services, so-called, but the forming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the lives of His people; the reproduction of Christ; epistles made alive by the Holy Spirit, to be seen and read of all men. -C.A.F.

• We must be born into our ministry, our service; and it must be born in us.

• So then, to gather that up in one word, it means that for our lives and for our service, our ministry, our heavenly vocation, there are, in union with Christ, resources at our disposal which are heavenly, inexhaustible, and incorruptible.

• It rebukes the haste and readiness with which many now enter the ministry, attempting to impress others with a measure of the truth which they have not proved for themselves.

• Even if we were perfect in ourselves, that would not make us ministers, for ministry consists in the Spirit's manifesting in our lives something more of Christ that was not there before, and then making it shine out for the blessing and transformation of others. -H.F.

• Individual effort in whatever ministry or work you find yourself, is to no avail..

• The fact is forgotten that He, while living under, keeping, and applying the Law of Moses, also taught the principles of His future earthly kingdom, and, at the end of His ministry and in relation to His Cross, He also anticipated the teachings of grace.

• This is never done by chasing after a man or a ministry – for there is bias in all.  But just like the Bereans, we should search the Scriptures to discover what they really say, Jesus said I am the TRUTH.

• Early in Christ’s ministry, the disciples believed the Lord because of His signs, but to develop into mature believers, they were to be participators of His life.

• Lack of Faith Men that walked with the Lord throughout His ministry showed a great lack of faith. The disciples were frequently told – oh you of little faith. The same men with the authority to drive out demons and heal the sick – lacked faith!

• Every fear to go down into daily death, ever clinging to that which belongs to us, every grasp on our own personal position or ministry, will only hinder the manifestation of His life.

• Give no offence in anything, so that the ministry is not discredited, but in all things seek to encourage each other..

• But when we are not allowed to do anything, when we are cut off from ministry and work and service, and shut up to the discipline of inaction and the discipline of delay, God is preparing for better service than we would ever have fulfilled otherwise.

• No ministry of the servant of Jesus Christ can be a triumphant ministry unless there is a deep, strong, abiding love.... Love is going to solve our problems and to bring us into victory; but apart from a sufficient love, the problems of human make-up, the many differences of disposition and character and all that goes to make up a company, and the continuous drain and strain, with all the pressure that comes from the enemy, will present a problem, a perplexity and a paralyzing task....

• The Throne Ministry Much of scripture is devoted to intercession and prayer – the throne ministry of God. Simple, dynamic power-packed instructions – to help us withstand in the evil day. This is so that God’s plans will be fulfilled in His way, in His time and for His glory – and God’s perfect plan always results in the best outcome for all of His children.
• We are part of God’s throne ministry of prayer and we are exhorted to:- be diligent; be watchful; be thankful; be faithful; be obedient, and trust the Lord.

• The true hope makes all the difference to us in our ministry.
• It changes our teaching ministry to them.

• It is a mark of going on when we can come to the place where it is true before God that we have let go all the prosperity and success even of Christian work and Christian ministry as men would count it.

• Painful Love Christ’s ministry on intercession is an illustration of His great love for us.

• Where there is no Cross there is no life, and no ministry of life.
• The object of suffering is that there may be a full and abundant ministry. . . .
• The Holy Spirit Himself takes responsibility for our experience, leading us in paths where we encounter, in body, heart, or spirit, that measure of the dying of Jesus' that will mean enrichment of our ministry.

• A holy ministry is an awful weapon in the hands of God. -R.M.Mc.

• This is a general difference, but it is a very great one, and it may represent all the difference between bondage and liberty, between limitation and fullness, even between Life and death in ministry.
• The need of the hour is not only for a higher spiritual level of ministry in general, it is for men with a specific revelation which will meet the situation as it is now.

• Are you like that after a conference, or after any meeting in which there has been a ministry of God's Word?

• The very fact that you are jealous for the Lord will bring you into conflict with that trend that there is in this world, in man.... When there is the purest testimony, the fullest expression of what is of God, the heavenly over against the earthly, the spiritual over against the carnal or the natural, the enemy gives a turn to things, a twist to things, and lays the responsibility at the door of a spiritual and a heavenly ministry.

• Great High Priest His life of obedience qualified the Lord Jesus to become our great High Priest, and as such, He sits at the right hand of the Father carrying out His high priestly ministry on behalf of all who are part of His body – all who believe on His name. As our great High Priest, He comforts and succours all those who are weary and heavy-laden and who come to Him for rest.
• His high priestly ministry is founded upon the life that He lived on earth.

• The ongoing outpouring of the riches of God’s amazing grace from that uniquely special occasion, on all believers, has been through the beautiful ministry of the Holy Spirit.

• Some person who is not in an fficialposition may be far more useful to the Lord than many who have an official ministry and position.
• What matters is not our spiritual knowledge or official ministry, but our secret relationship with God.
• He never said that the Father loved the ministry He had come to fulfill on this earth.

• Moses waited 80 years to start his ministry and be brought into the Lord’s presence.

• to know the surpassing power that is ours through the ministry of the Holy Spirit -  to know the matchless riches of God’s grace and glory that are ours, by believing.

• to know the surpassing power that is ours through the ministry of the Holy Spirit – to know the matchless riches of God’s grace and glory that are ours, by believing.

• Spiritual Strength Sometimes we misunderstand the reason that Paul prays for our spiritual strength. Often we pray for strength so that we may be successful in our work or ministry. Sometimes we pray for special strength in one particular aspect of our physical lives, but Paul prays for strength for us so that we may be rightly related to the Lord Jesus – for when we are rightly related to Him, everything falls into place.

• Samaritans & Gentiles Added We read in Acts 2 of the day that Jews were placed into the body of Christ – Pentecost. We read in Acts 8 that Samaritans were added to Christ’s body – through Philip’s ministry, and in Acts 10 Gentiles were included in Christ’s body at the house of Cornelius, a centurion – when Peter was urged by the Holy Spirit to go to the house of a gentile.

• Without a bitter realisation of their own inadequacy and poverty they are quite unfitted to bear the burdens of spiritual ministry.

• We must not think the revelation as to the will of God is an end in itself; it is but the first phase of a prayer ministry.
• His prayer ministry took him into the lion's den, but it also brought him out again, and he was able to see the things through to the glorious end. -H.F.

• Ministry of Intercession Intercession is a ministry for those that are of the Royal House of Faith.
• Kingdom of Priests Intercession is a ministry for those that are of the Royal House of Faith. Intercession is a privilege for those that are a kingdom of priests unto the Lord. Intercession is an office in which saints of old have poured their pleading prayers.
• He has endowed us with a heavenly ministry, where angelic being hush their praise.

• Voice of Warning We are to be God’s voice of warning to a lost world that is dead in their sins. We are to be ambassadors of the Lord, entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation.
• Reuniting Relationship Reconciliation is a reuniting of sinful man back into tender relationship with God. It was conceived in heaven; applied in Eden; the prophets’ cry and God’s desire - and we have been made ambassadors for Christ with a ministry of reconciliation.

• Our testimony and our ministry is jeopardized, weakened, limited and discredited if we are not ourselves in rest; and this is the object of the enemy's activity in this matter to discredit us by taking from us that very birthright of our union with Him Who is never perturbed, never anxious, never in doubt as to the issue, the One Who reigns.

• If positional truth, rather than the duties of attainment, were taught first to the saints, much more satisfactory results would follow the ministry of many Christian workers.

• To truly minister to others is always to accept new happiness and new distress, both of them forever deepening and entering into closer and more inseparable union with each other, the more profound and spiritual the ministry becomes.

• Defeated Enemy It’s not essential to be known of men or have a great ministry – but does the enemy tremble at your presence?

• There is a Christ-honoring ministry of being and sharing awaiting each believer, and the secret is to let Christ do it!

• There are many priests of God whose voices have never been heard in public, who have never been seen in a public way, who are unknown, hidden very often in the assembly and yet in secret history fulfilling a most valuable ministry.

• Some may be wondering why there is so little up-springing from the inner well, when they are sitting back in a wrong kind of modesty, failing to bring in their own personal contribution to fellowship life and ministry.

• Do you see there is something bound up with that; the undoing of the work of the devil, the registration of God's mind upon this universe, everything which is meant by priestly ministry, which is bringing God in, is bound up with this: God having the ear.

• An understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is basic to Christian growth.

• The difference too often is that of a ministry to the mind or head, and not one to the heart or spirit.
• The latter is a ministry of Life to both, and is inexhaustible in freshness.

• We thank God forever that He took Paul away from his traveling ministry and let him be shut up in prison.

• Oh, the snare of the platform idea that so often constitutes the whole conception of ministry, as though other people are not ministers at all.
• The Lord give us the ministry issuing from a continuous and ever-growing contemplation of His fullness in Christ.

• So every bit of ministry that is going to be a ministry of true revelation will be surrounded by conflict.

• When men or women are called by God into some piece of Divine ministry and, in the face of the demand, are conscious to the last degree that they have no ability, no resource, no power to fulfill that ministry, that in themselves the thing is utterly impossible, that for them to essay to do it would be the utmost folly and absurdity when in such circumstances they recognize that they have a living Christ in whom are resources more than enough to meet that demand... and by faith lay hold of Him and go forward into the ministry with that consciousness... that is spirituality; and that is practical, tremendously practical.

• Throne Ministry Unsung lovers of God who’ve seasoned the path of the body of Christ over time; each adding tears of intercessory love to the brimming bowl on the heavenly alter – all combined to contribute to heaven’s plan – in the throne ministry of God’s will.

• a man whose earthly ministry was expressed in sacrifice for others… a man whose self-life and pride was being ground to powder – a life that cried in the end, that I may know Him.

• To some, He gives a leadership gift to be exercised in public ministry and service but to most, He bestows the quiet endowment for the hidden life of helping others.
• We may be assigned a vast ministry; a high public profile – the ear of many.

• ‘You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased’, and when Jesus, began His ministry, He was about thirty years of age… being the son of Mary..

• He will set you in a ministry of sorrow – before He ministers to you His joy.

• This is what makes the ministry so difficult.
• This is what makes the ministry so costly.
• eligiouspeople would not even rebel against the ministry of the prophet, if the enemy did not instigate them.

• There is no way through otherwise.... There was a revolution in my life thirty years ago when that principle of the Cross came flat up against ministry ministry that for years I had been producing against all my study, reading and late nights, to get up the stuff for ministry, till the whole thing became an intolerable burden in myself.
• Others perhaps thought it to be pretty good, but the crisis when listen to me, men and women who are in ministry, or contemplating it the whole turn came upon the recognition of this principle, this principle of the Cross when, with the door closed, I said to the Lord am finished in all ministry, I am never going to preach again unless You do something now.
• The next week would have seen my resignation in with my church officers, and I would have gone out from ministry if the Lord had not done it.
• It was an utter end of anything that I could produce for ministry, and I meant it to be like that, because I recognized that God meant that.
• From that day to this, there has been no trouble about ministry.
• It is easy to let ministry go, and much more easy than to accept it.
• This clamoring for ministry it is uncrucified flesh.

• It makes us jealous for our position and our ministry, and resentful if it is interfered with.

• The majority of people have no occasion to draw upon heavenly resources for a platform ministry.
• For the most part their work is of some regular, daily kind, and very often they feel utterly unable for it, and they are tempted to think that if they had some spiritual ministry to fulfill, if they had to go and take a meeting, or speak to some souls about spiritual matters, they could make a claim upon the Lord for help and He would carry them through.

• Paul, who cruelly assented to the macabre mob’s mercilessness murder of Stephen… Paul, who so independently and industriously supported his ministry by making tents..

• May it not be that so many who might have this ministry have become so much a part of a system?

• Every ministry in the Word and in the Spirit, is governed by that end.
• When we recognize that that is the aim and object of the Holy Spirit, we have life and ministry defined.
• Whatever your work is it may be in the home as a parent, it may be in household duties, it may be in business if you are there in relation to the Lord, so far as you personally are concerned, your life has got to represent Christ; and that is the ministry.

• But how the Lord Jesus demonstrated this grace of humility through His earthly ministry - Even from His lowly stable birth; His status as a refugee in Egypt; His gracious attitude towards His earthly parents; His long years of hard toil in a common, little carpentry shop.

• Life of Pain At the start of his ministry, Moses saw the glory of God pass by..

• Ministry to Israel The ministry of the Baptist was to prepare Israel for the coming kingdom of God.
• Paul also reminds us that John’s ministry to Israel was a baptism of repentance, for John called the people to repent of their sins,  turn to God and to believe in the One Who was to come after him – that is, Jesus, for the Kingdom of Heaven was near.

• Much ministry is lost upon us as to any practical result, because we are not prepared to be detached from things here, so as to be simply here for Christ.

• Ministry is the expression of Life, and not the taking on of a uniform and a title.
• Once I thought that to be in the ministry was to go into a certain kind of work, to come out of business, and, well, be a minister!
• Ministry is not a system like that.
• Ministry is the expression of Life, and that is but saying in other words that it is the outworking of the indwelling of Christ.
• When the Lord gets a chance in us, and we really will trust Him on that ground and take our position there, He will show us that there is ministry enough for us; we shall not have to go round looking for it.
• The real labor so often is to get us down to that ground, the delivering of us from this present evil age even in its conception of the ministry, unto the heavenly ministry.
• You see the spontaneous ministry, the restful ministry of that Heavenly Man.

• It was not the ministry.

• The call of God to some fuller and higher acceptance of truth and ministry; of testimony and witness; of surrender and experience, will undoubtedly come by one or another of the Divine forms of visitation to such as the Lord wishes to lead in grace.

• We are concerned about our lifework, our ministry.

• Christ empowered the twelve and the seventy as lights in His earthly ministry..

• The peril is that we should begin to make our ministry something that is watertight.... Draw in your mind eye three squares, separate, standing each alone, and you will have what represents a very great deal of the nature of work for the Lord in our day from time to time.

• We do not draw a great deal of comfort from that, but if we understood I think we would realize that, while we may not at such times be fulfilling a very big ministry on the earth, there is a big ministry going on towards principalities and powers through our instrumentality.
• Do not think that running about taking meetings, and doing work for the Lord, is the only kind of ministry that members of the Church can fulfill.
• Ministry may be equally being fulfilled when these things have been brought to a standstill, and all earthly activities for the Lord stopped, and we are in one of these painful periods of inaction.
• Do not conclude that because of such inaction no ministry is being rendered, or that everything of that kind is cut off at such a time.

• Yes, they include many who have held place in ministry and office in what is called The Church.

• The Spirit’s Ministry In the book of Acts, we discover the Lord Jesus ascending into heaven but the promised Holy Spirit was sent to be an ever-present help and comfort in this church age.
• The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of all believers today, is to glorify Christ.

• This is not a ministry which can be taken up.
• Usually for such ministry there is a long and deep history with God, a history full of mystery and suffering.

• I do not think that ministry is such an onerous thing after all.
• We need to come back to the simplicity and the spontaneity of ministry.

• God’s Future Plan As Christ’s three years of ministry ebbed to an end, He started to hint of God’s future plan.

• What a precious ministry for them to thus roll away the stone away and proclaim, 'Don’t be afraid, Jesus is ALIVE!!' What a thrill to proclaim to Mary, Who Stood Weeping He‘s Alive.

• There are those Levites whose ministry is, shall I say, more essentially spiritual; it may belong to the vessels of the sanctuary.
• Mine it may be to mainly minister in the Word of the Lord, what a lot of people would call the spiritual ministry, (I repudiate that suggestion that spiritual ministry is bound up with people who preach that is not spiritual ministry only).
• Responsibility rested upon all equally, for all these parts made one ministry.
• And so your sphere, your work and mine may differ, but it is one ministry, one calling, one responsibility, one testimony.

• bringing Salvation to all people. The keynote of Isaiah’s forty years ministry was – Salvation is of the Lord, and his message called for Israel to repent of their sins… to return to the Lord and be saved., and this truth is confirmed multiple times in Scripture – that Jesus Christ is God.
• Gift of Salvation The keynote of Isaiah’s forty years ministry was – Salvation is of the Lord and so the Son of the Most High was supernaturally begotten in the womb of a virgin – so that He could save His people from their sins and become our Wonderful Counsellor; our Mighty God; our Everlasting Father – our Prince of Peace.

• Service of God There are many that claim to be in the service of God. Many that claim to be doing mighty works in the Name of Jesus, but thank God that true ministry is not to be judged and assessed by man – but please God that we will all judge and assess our own hearts and motives.
• Word and Service Much is heard of ‘Ministry Work’ and ‘Missionary Work’ and ‘Christian Work’..
• Spiritual Effectiveness The cost of accountability in each life is very high. The greater the degree of spiritual effectiveness given to an individual or ministry..  the more spiritually accountable that one becomes. For to him that has been given much, much will be required Luke 12:48
• Spiritual Accountability The Lord Jesus Himself is the guide-stone of effective spiritual ministry. The Lord Jesus Himself shows the way to examine spiritual accountability: “The Son can do nothing of Himself…” John 5:19 “The Father doeth the works…” John 14:10 “The Father speaketh the words…” John 12:49 “My Father worketh until now…” John 5:17 And when Jesus sent his disciples out to preach the gospel, He told them:-.
• Examine Ourselves In your ministry and in my work for the Lord, let us examine ourselves.. to see if the flesh is still seeking supremacy… If it is, your ministry will die – and my little work will die too. An effective work does not depend on how much we do but how we do it.
• Effective Work Yes –the Lord Jesus is the one way that your ministry can be spiritually effective, and it is the only way that mine can be spiritually effective too. But it requires a daily dying to self – and a moment by moment living to Christ.. Is it worth the pain now for the glory that will follow…?

• Anguish of heart was replaced by their caring ministry of devotion, in the very core of their beings, as they recalled the bountiful blessings, bestowed from His hand.
• The Greatest Person Never allow the obstacles that this world affords to distract you from your life’s ministry.

• Paul’s whole ministry was surrounded by contentions and hard talking.

• What a privilege and honour – what a ministry and yet what a responsibility… we have been entrusted to be that good, faithful servant, toward other believers.

• Ministry, in its real, abiding, eternal value, will depend upon the measure in which the travail is entered into by us.

• The “grace-promise-faith” way is described in Scripture as a ministry of life: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
• This path is a ministry of death.
• Law is called a ministry of death and its source is the old sin nature, (the flesh), while grace is described as a ministry of life, and its source is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
• Any believer who has strayed along the “works-merit–law” path and its ministry of death can be restored to the  “grace-promise-faith” way and its ministry of life for, His mercies are new every morning – great is His faithfulness.

• If we are to fulfill this true, living ministry, it will only be through suffering, through the winepress, through pressure and through breaking.
• We are not talking about preaching and Bible teaching, but about this great ministry of Christ giving His Life through us.

• It looked to Paul that these five things would terminate his apostolic ministry.
• These five things removed that which was hindering Paul’s ministry.

• The Word of life, the Lord of life, and the exigencies of life all must combine to give us a ministry of life.
• It is the trials and difficulties of the way that are the opportunities for our hearts to grow in acquaintance with Him; and it will be found, while there may be many great enjoyment in ministry, and in the unfolding of truth, that really there is not strength but in proportion as one has learned how God has been for and with one in the trials and sorrows of the way; and as one has known Him in them, so is one able to speak of Him.

• Gifts and Talents Some gifts are to be exercised in a public ministry or communal service.

• Responsibilities in a ministry.

• The Spirit's ministry is to make Christ all to each.

• Maybe in the physical, but predominantly and principally in the spiritual… “Ye are My witnesses .” the Lord Jesus tells us. Being His witnesses does not necessarily mean going out and talking. Being a consecrated man or woman – being a sign, may not mean what you think. It may not mean becoming a missionary or starting a ministry… though such may certainly be a part of the sanctified life.

• And so spiritual men and women, and spiritual ministry, are called trouble makers, because the two things cannot go on together.

• It is possible to read books by the score, and to listen to the most faithful and blessed ministry for years on end, and yet never know the Lord Jesus as a present loving Object in heavenly glory.

• Men may be saved through hearing the Word of God that it contains but, unless they get purer light later, their dependence for life and service will be primarily upon human strength, and not upon the power and demonstration of the Spirit.' Paul (in spite of the Corinthians' demand for it) refused to permit any human wisdom to enter into his ministry for that reason - because he wanted purely spiritual fruit: converts who have seen the power of the Spirit and expect to know it in their lives and service.

• The ministry of intercession probes into God’s desires; God’s will; God’s purpose.
• A Prayer Ministry Intercession often starts with praying for the souls of men – those dead in trespasses and sins. Intercession frequently progresses with prayer for the problems of all the saints of God.
• When we engage in intercession, we participate in Christ’s high priestly ministry – what a glorious privilege – what a humbling reality – what an astonishing fact.
• A Heavenly Ministry Jesus, our great high priest is even now ever living to make intercession for us. Christ Himself is praying for the fulfilment of God’s plans in each of our lives, indeed our Lord Jesus Christ is even now praying for us – interceding for US!!! – and we have been called as priests, to participate with Christ in His high office: for we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,  people for His possession. 1 Peter 2:9
• New Testament Truth Very often we find that Old Testament stories often typify New Testament truths. Happenings in the physical realm often pictures the spiritual walk of believers today. The ministry of the Aaronic priesthood is one such beautiful example:
• Servant Heart The ministry of intercession probes into God’s desires; God’s will; God’s purpose. The man or woman of prayer has God’s interest as their sole and sublime concern. The intercessor has a servant-heart that looks away from self to the purpose of God, The intercessor is cleansed daily from all unrighteousness.

• John’s Ministry John was sent by God to call Israel to true repentance.
• John was Israel’s final prophet, and he called them to repent and return to God. It is important to see the ministry of John the Baptist in its context of Israel. Paul was the man God chose to give greater insight into Church-age doctrine – and the book of Acts is a bridge from pre-cross teaching to post-cross doctrine.

• Discovering Christ It is Paul’s comprehension of Christ that individually and collectively we should seek – an ever-growing understanding of Christ; a discovery of Christ; exploring of Christ. This was the thing that maintained Paul in his life and throughout his ministry.

• He was presenting the embryonic gospel of grace, which was to be more fully revealed by the ministry of the apostle Paul – to include the Church as the Body of Christ in Union with Him  – a new creation and joint-heirs of God’s Son – a heavenly citizenship and the indwelling Holy Spirit as a down-payment from God the Father – our Abba.

• Paul was also unique among Christ's apostles, for unlike the others, he was not one who accompanied the Lord from the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry until the day He was taken up into heaven, as we read in Acts chapter 1. 

• The fruit of his ministry was being displayed in the lives of many of these saints.

• Paul's aching heart of evangelism knew his ministry to the Christian Churches was the essential ministry to which Christ had called him and for which the Lord had equipped him, and yet he yearned to be with His Saviour.

• They determined to put a stop to His ministry and discredit His Messianic ministry by accusing Him of breaking the Law and even blaspheming Moses and God!

• From the beginning of His ministry to the day of His death, the controversy between the liberty of the gospel of God and the restrictive traditions of Judaism, raged.

• Paul's life and ministry as God's chosen apostle to the Gentiles was drawing to its close, and yet when Paul wrote his letters to both Timothy and Titus, he recognised the increasing problem of false teachers and heretical dogma.
• Times today are not so different from the time of Paul's earthly ministry.
• No matter what age we may be, may we seek to carry out Paul's timeless instructions on godly behaviour in our life and ministry, to God's praise and glory.

• At the beginning of Christ's ministry, His identity as the LIGHT of the world was revealed to us.

• I think this must be one of the most grievous things that the Lord Jesus had to go through in His ministry, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
• Jesus was the Word made flesh Who came to pay the price for the sin of the whole world, and He authenticated His mission and ministry through His many prophesied signs and wonders..

• At the start of His ministry the Lord Jesus was introduced to Israel by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God - the King and Messiah of the Jews.
• Here, at the end of His earthly ministry we see Christ offer an official and final presentation of Himself to the people of Israel, as their God, their King and their promised Messiah..
• at the start of His ministry we see Christ cleansing the Temple of God.
• Throughout His ministry the Lord Jesus had fulfilled multiple prophecies and the many signs, wonders and miracles.

• Jesus was popular with the people because He healed the sick, taught them many things, told some good stories, and had fed them with bread and fishes - but His betrayal by one of the men that had accompanied Him throughout His ministry, emboldened the Jewish leaders to arrest Him.

• The godly character of this dear man of faith was manifested in his actions, attitude, and commendable ministry.May we, like Tychicus, walk in wisdom, pray in spirit and truth, redeem the time, and give godly comfort and encouragement to our Christian brothers and sisters in Christ.

• It was in the third year of Christ's ministry that we read: The feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near.
• It was in the final year of His ministry that we read: The feast of the Jews was near.

• The ministry of Jesus began to widen as news of His amazing miracles and healings began to be spread abroad.
• However, as time passed, hostility towards the Lord Jesus started to develop, and increasingly His message and ministry was rejected, causing Him to begin teaching His faithful followers through parables.
• During His early ministry, there are many examples where Jesus stated that a miracle occurred because of someone's faith.
• The first time He was rejected by the people of Nazareth, was early in His ministry when He found it necessary to relocate to Capernaum.
• The second time He was rejected by the people of Nazareth, was in this passage, when Jesus interrupted His preaching itinerary to, once again, visit His hometown during His Galilean ministry.

• His birth, His baptism, His ministry, and His miracles had been foretold.
• But how gracious Jesus was to these two troubled souls, for He then opened up the Scriptures to them and gave them an exclusive Bible study on His mission and ministry, His Person and Work, His death and His Resurrection, and God's entire plan of salvation for the redemption of mankind.
• He no doubt touched on His life, His ministry, His mission, and His work on the Cross for the forgiveness of sin, the redemption of mankind, and life everlasting, as outlined in so many prophetic books.

• For the first time in His life and ministry, the Lord Jesus gave this little group of men a taste of the heavenly glory that He had with the Father before the world began, a peep in the eternal glory that He had set aside, in order to live and die as our Saviour and Lord.

• It appears that His baptism in the Jordan was a particular milestone in Christ's life, which divided His three and a half year ministry from His pre-ministerial period.
• It was following His unique baptism that we read: When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, (the husband of Mary) the son of Eli... and thus, Luke recorded Christ's entire earthly lineage back to Adam, who was identified in Genesis as: The son of God.
• In this distinctive manner, the Gospel of Luke prepares the reader for the hypostatic union of a holy God with perfect Man in the Person of Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God and true Son of Man: And Jesus was about 30 years of age when He began His ministry.
• Throughout Scripture, we see that thirty was an important age for men to begin an office or ministry.
• In this verse, we read that the Lord Jesus Himself: Was about thirty years of age when He began His ministry, which shows the critical importance God places on sound preparation and serious training before a man is equipped for an important ministry.
• But whichever is correct, we discover that like the Levitical priests, David the king, and others that God has used mightily, Jesus had to go through many years of preparation and training before He was ready to fulfil the ministry for which He had been appointed. 

• As his ministry continued, Zechariah prophesied about the first advent of their Messiah, but from chapter 12 to the end his focus is on the Second Coming of our Lord, where he contrasts God's righteous judgments on Israel with their ultimate rescue, restoration, and blessing.

• Paul described these believers, who had been born again through his ministry as his hope, his joy and the Crown of Rejoicing he would receive at Christ's return.
• We will also rejoice, with exceeding great joy, when we see men and women, boys and girls, who responded to our ministry, standing in that heavenly throng of rejoicing saints.

• Paul was wonderfully used of the Lord to write a significant portion of the New Testament Scriptures and yet throughout his ministry, we discover many individual critics of Paul, and various groups who were openly opposed to his position and authority.
• Paul was certainly filled with joy knowing that there were many who were continuing his work and preaching Christ from a sincere love of the Lord and a desire to tell forth the glorious message of salvation by grace through faith in Him, but he also rejoiced over the ministry of those whose motive in preaching was rooted in envy and strife.

• Jeremiah began his ministry knowing that no one would heed His message of grace, and he lived his life being ridiculed and persecuted by his own people.

• While the book of Hebrews systematically sets out the supreme superiority of the person, work, ministry, status and office of Christ, over everyone and everything in heaven or on earth, chapter 7 presents the in-depth reasoning that the priesthood of Christ, (after the order of Melchisedek), takes precedence over Israel's priesthood, (after the order of Aaron), which was given to them by God, and recorded by Moses, in the Book of the Law.
• Jesus Christ demonstrated the supreme superiority of His person, work, ministry, status, office and sacrifice, over everyone and everything, through His death on the cross.
• The greater ALWAYS blesses the LESSER and the blessing Melchizedek gave to Abraham, is one more piece of evidence, showing the supreme superiority of the person, work, ministry, status, office and sacrifice of Christ over everyone else and every other thing in heaven or on earth.

• Jeremiah's prophetic voice and his God-ordained ministry was rejected by kings, ridiculed by courtiers, contradicted by false prophets, and ignored by the people.
• Jeremiah's ministry covered about 50 years... much of which gave dire warning of God's inevitable judgement on both the Gentile nations and the idolatrous people of Israel - if they did not repent of their apostasy.

• Although God blessed their ministry abundantly, and even though many were being saved, there was much disobedience in those early days of the Church, for they did not follow Christ's clear instructions.
• But his successful ministry angered the Jewish leaders who arrested him and killed him for his faith in Christ.
• May we not only devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, but also to listening to God's instructions and obeying His Word.

• Paul's message never altered, but his love for the Lord and his passion to share the good news of the gospel of God gathered momentum and intensity throughout his ministry.

• It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit which guides us into all truth and teaches us all things.
• It was from this point in His ministry that Christ started to move at speed toward the cross.
• It was at this critical point in His ministry that His mother and young brothers came to see Jesus.
• We also discover elsewhere that His family and friends had arrived on this occasion because they were ashamed of Him and His ministry..
• Christ's earthly ministry to His own people - the lost sheep of the house of Israel, was almost over.
• It was at this pivotal point in His earthly ministry we see Him starting to prepare for an even greater pivotal point..

• Following his calling and commission by God, the first few chapters of Jeremiah's public ministry is a long, prophetic sermon that remonstrates against Judah's wilful apostasy.

• As His ministry progressed, Jesus was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God would come.

• It empowers us to carry out the work that God has prepared for us to do and it emboldens us to engage in the spiritual warfare of this age, effectively: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and satanic powers, who prowl around, seeking to destroy our ministry and taint our testimony.Peace and love with faith, comes directly from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• As Christ's ministry progressed the apostle John incorporated a number of signs that would give clear and irrefutable proof to the nation of Israel that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah - and that by believing in Him they might have life in His name - and have it more abundantly.
• Despite all the signs that Christ performed in His ministry and despite each one being a direct fulfillment of prophetic Scripture..

• No surprise that early in his ministry Christ said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, so that at the end of His life He could give a new commandment: That we love others as He loved us.

• Titus accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys, partnered with him in spreading the work of the gospel in various cities, was entrusted with several sensitive ministry responsibilities, and even accompanied him to Jerusalem when Paul went-up to explain to the apostles there about his doctrine, his ministry, and his calling as Christ's apostle to the Gentiles.
• Paul knew how quickly error can creep into a fellowship of believers, and his epistle to Titus is one of three, pastoral epistles giving him personal encouragement, reminding him of important issues in ministry, outlining the criteria and character required in a church elder, correcting doctrinal errors that may arise in a Christian church, explaining the roles and responsibilities of believers in their families and communities, and exhorting the congregations towards godly living and good works, both at home and abroad.

• Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, Whom to know is life eternal, and let us take heed to watch expectantly for the Lord's soon return - and also to watch with Him, in His continuous ministry of prayer and intercession.

• Both at the start and the end of His ministry, we discover the Lord Jesus cleansing the Temple of God from the many ungodly practices that had been implemented over the years.
• Early in His ministry, Christ displayed righteous indignation when He saw the misuse of the Temple.

• During His earthly ministry, His claims were authenticated by many signs, wonders, and prophecies of old.
• Every characteristic of Yahweh identified in the Old Testament was claimed by Christ during his earthly ministry, for He is Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

• The former things were a dim shadow of the vastly superior priestly office and greater ministry of God's new and permanent priesthood, and Christ Jesus is the superior heavenly High Priest.
• They point to His superior ministry as God's heavenly High Priest.

• Over half of the Gospel of John details the last few weeks of Christ's earthly ministry, before His death on the Cross.

• While I was with them, I have kept them in Your name, He prayed. While the Lord Jesus carried out His God-ordained, earthly ministry He kept, protected, trained, loved and guarded the men whom the Father had given to Him.

• As Christ's earthly ministry progressed, the animosity against the Lord Jesus increased.

• This call for singleness of heart is founded upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and not our preferred preacher or favoured ministry.

• Doctor Luke was a talented historian who paid careful attention to every little detail of Christ's life and ministry.
• Luke wrote of all that Jesus started to do from the beginning of His earthly ministry until He ascended into heaven from a mountain, close to the little town of Bethany, leaving His disciples to rejoice in hope while giving praise to God for all His goodness and grace to them.
• Hundreds of Old Testament prophecies were literally fulfilled to the letter during the short life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, and hundreds more are to intersect with precision at His Second Coming.

• While there are many other things that are made known in this book, like the Antichrist, the four horsemen, the two witnesses, the ministry of angels, mystery Babylon, the mark of the beast, and the Great White Throne judgement seat... the primary thing that is being revealed throughout its pages is Jesus Christ.

• Others identify it as the perfect way to live, if humanity is to bring in everlasting peace and prosperity onto the earth.Some suggest that this only applies to Christ's Jewish disciples during His pre-Cross ministry, while others suggest that this is to be the standard required during the 7-year Tribulation or Christ’s Millennial kingdom on earth.
• Some insist that these instructions are binding on the Church of today, while others refute this interpretation.In context, this sermon was delivered early on in Christ's earthly ministry.

• and to recover from the excitement and exhaustion of their Messianic ministry.

• But before all that could happen, the disciples had to receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Helper Whom Christ sent from the Father on that first day of Pentecost, the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father, and Whose ministry to the Body of Christ is to testify about our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

• Every Gospel presents different, yet complementary aspects of Christ's ministry and mission, and one important characteristic of Matthew's Gospel is the presentation of Jesus as Israel's promised Messiah and his role as King of the Jews, together with information about the kingdom over which He will rule.
• Once His ministry, mission, and messianic claims were rejected by the Jewish leaders in Chapter 12, Jesus knew that the kingdom of heaven He came to establish would be postponed and from that point, we discover a subtle change in His approach.
• Genuine ministry is carried out for the benefit of others and not for one's own self-promotion.
• A true and fruitful ministry is not undertaken for what one receives but for what one can give to others.

• He sounds as if he were advancing in years, because John refers to Him as 'Gaius, the Elder' and yet it is likely that this elderly gentleman was brought to faith in Christ through the ministry of John himself, for in addressing him, the apostle writes: I have no greater joy than this – to hear of my children walking in the truth.John makes no secret of his love and respect for this man, whom he admits to love in truth, for it appears that his whole life was dedicated to the Lord, and Gaius must have been a wonderful testimony of a godly man who walked in grace and love, for we read that his soul prospered.

• Throughout his ministry, one of the greatest concerns of the apostle Paul was those who deliberately infiltrated Christian communities from outside or within the congregation.

• Before the New Testament had even been penned, Galatia was a hotbed of apostate teaching, filled with Judaisers who opposed the legitimate, God-ordained ministry of Paul and the liberating gospel of grace.
• During Christ's ministry on earth, it was the gospel of the kingdom that was taught to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but because they rejected their Messiah, the nation of Israel and the imminent gospel of the kingdom, was set aside.

• His prophetic ministry was not only to Judah, but he became God's spokesman to Gentiles and worldly kingdoms as well.He felt ill-prepared for such a responsible role, and argued that both his young age and his lack of good oratory skills, disqualified him from this tremendous task: Ah Lord God!
• he bewailed, Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.However, God in His grace gave this young man comfort and encouragement for the daunting task that lay ahead: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, were the Lord’s reassuring words to this young man, and before you were born I consecrated you.Jeremiah had been born into a 'priestly' family, from the tribe of Benjamin... but it was not his parentage, his lineage, or the dictates of a board of directors that secured his prophetic ministry; nor was he a self-proclaimed mouthpiece for the Lord, as so often happened in Bible times, and still happens today!He was called and chosen by the Lord... and those that are called and chosen by God for a specific task, are always sufficiently equipped by the Spirit of God, to complete the task before them.Do not say, 'I am only a youth,' Jeremiah was told by the Lord, because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.He was not to worry about being too young or inarticulate, or because of any speech impediment.

• God gave Paul a unique ministry and appointed him to be the administrator of His plans and purposes during this Church age.
• But as a result, Paul's ministry became one of Satan's prime targets.
• But Paul's God-appointed ministry and passionate mission was to labour unceasingly to preach the truth of the glorious gospel of grace to Jew and Gentile alike.

• Despite all that Jesus had taught the apostles during His earthly ministry, and even though He opened the prophetic Scriptures to their understanding following His glorious Resurrection, these disciples still held tightly to their limited perspective and biased understanding of what the Messiah would do and when He would set up His kingdom.
• Instead of searching the Scriptures to find out if their interpretation was based on Scriptural fact, human tradition, or a skewed understanding of Christ's message and ministry, they gazed with wonder and amazement when Christ ascended into heaven.

• Christ's disciples had to understand this greater ministry - that through Him ALL the families of the earth, not just Israel, would be blessed.
• While Jesus had to bring the gospel to the Jew first, to fulfil Scripture, we also capture glimpses of His compassion towards the Gentiles, throughout His ministry.

• Unlike the apostles who accompanied Jesus throughout His earthly 'pre-Cross' ministry, beginning with the baptism of John, Paul was called to be an apostle by Christ following His 'post-Cross' Resurrection, Ascension, and Glorification.
• Not only had he seen the risen Lord Jesus and been commissioned by Him to carry the gospel to unconverted Gentiles, kings, and the people of Israel, but Paul argued that the fruit of his ministry within their church community, should provide sufficient evidence for the legitimacy of his apostolic claims.

• Paul was surrounded by a host of enemies, both physical and spiritual, and experienced the most acute hardships and persecutions during his God-appointed ministry.
• Paul's singular purpose in his God-appointed ministry was to preach Christ crucified, and his great desire was to establish mature believers, in order to present them holy and blameless before God at Christ's appearing.
• Paul's ministry was unique, for he was the one individual who had been called by God to establish much post-Cross Church doctrine, as distinct from Christ's pre-Cross ministry, where He was introduced as the Lamb of God and Messiah of Israel.
• Today, as then, the ministry of Paul is attacked from many quarters.

• The vision given to Samuel that night may have been the start of his prophetic ministry to God, but the Lord had been preparing this young man for many years.

• Instead of being a voice crying in the wilderness to the lost and executing our ministry of reconciliation between fallen man and a holy God, we have weakened our very voice and become a play-thing in the hands of the enemy.Nevertheless, we have the promise from Christ, Himself: I will build my Church and the gates of hell will NOT prevail against it.

• However, that which was given to Paul for us in 'the dispensation of the grace of God' gives us a perspective on salvation that was kept hidden in earlier times, but how we praise God for the ministry of Paul who became a minister to the Church to make God's message fully known: Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

• Paul had to admonish Christians in various churches for their ungodly ways and from distancing themselves from the important issues of Christian conduct, which are necessary for godly living and effective ministry.

• The opposition to Jesus Christ increased over the years, but the imprisonment of John the Baptist seemed to be a turning point in His ministry: He who has ears to hear, let him hear, were words of warning that were spoken at this time, and soon the prophecy of Isaiah would be fulfilled, when Jesus started to teach His disciples in parables: That having eyes they do not see and having ears they will not hear.
• This was indeed a turning point in His ministry.
• Jesus had only been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but this was the point in His ministry when He would start to turn His attention toward the nation that would bring forth the fruit of righteousness.
• This was at this critical moment in Christ's ministry when Jesus offered the most beautiful prayer of thanksgiving to His Father, the Lord of heaven and earth.

• The same all-engrossing fervour that David had for the house of God, is clearly exhibited in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ Who, on two occasions, zealously cleansed the Temple - once at the start of His ministry and once during the days immediately before He walked to the Cross.

• He skilfully introduces people and prophecies in his writings, to show that they have their fulfilment in the Lord Jesus Christ, His ministry, and His mission.

• The unbeliever is drawn by the Father's cords of love and convicted of their sinfulness and need of a Saviour, through the ministry of Holy Spirit.

• Timothy had been faithfully taught the Scriptures from childhood and had been born again through the ministry of the apostle Paul, rendering him Paul's 'spiritual son in the Lord'.
• Timothy had been called into pastoral ministry in the pagan city of Ephesus, and in his final epistle, Paul reiterates the special pastoral responsibilities Timothy had among the local churches, to teach, protect, serve, and care for the flock of God.

• Christ's life and ministry had been journeying towards the appointed time when He would become Israel's final Passover sacrifice.

• While Matthew chapter 2 determines the historical timing for the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist (in the days of 'king Herod the Great'), chapter 3 pinpoints the start of John's witness, in preparation for the ministry and mission of Jesus the Messiah, the royal Son of David, the promised Seed of Abraham.

• He came to claim His rightful place as the God-ordained, legitimate Ruler in Jerusalem, but throughout His ministry, Jesus was rejected and despised by His own people - the Jews.

• The severity of rebuke that Christ gave His disciples proved to be the thing that angered Jesus the most throughout His entire earthly ministry.

• We are all called to minister, but no minister of God, no matter how distinguished his position or humble his calling, can glory in his own cleverness, nor should those who learn from the ministry of others, elevate the importance of one believer above another, for we are all one in Christ and we all have the same common benefits of being in Christ – we are all declaring God's established gospel, all are proclaiming the faith common to all believers.

• During His earthly ministry, Christ taught the multitudes that He was the promised Messiah.

• We are not to become discouraged if our life appears mundane or our ministry seems unfruitful.

• He would rise from the dead and, in so doing, break the power of sin and Satan, death and hell, for all who would trust in Him.And early in His ministry, He stood up in His hometown synagogue to declare, The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor.

• May we who are called by His name, be faithful to our calling - however great or menial our task may be... for we are all members of Christ's Body and each has been given a unique role in the place where God has planted us and in the work of the ministry to which we have each been called.

• And those who valued Paul's ministry and proclaimed the truth in a gracious manner were also spreading the good news far and wide.
• Too often in Christian ministry and Church gatherings, there is resentment against other Christian leaders because of what God is doing in their lives.

• His unique ministry came from God the Father Who raised Jesus from the dead, and also from the risen, glorified Lord Jesus, Himself, Whom he met on the road to Damascus. 

• May we be ready and willing to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ and pray that through our ministry, some may be plucked from the brands into a saving faith in Jesus.

• According to Scripture, Jesus had to offer salvation to His own people first, before He could shepherd the Gentiles into His heavenly sheepfold, and most of His earthly ministry and Messianic claims were directed towards His own people - the Jewish nation. 
• But they rejected their Messiah and His message, and there was a point when His ministry began to change and Jesus started teaching in parables.
• Throughout His entire ministry, Christ's words, deeds, actions, and attitude bore witness to the truth that Jesus was one with the Father, which is why He was filled with amazement when He heard His followers question the truth and ask Him to show us the Father.
• Despite all that Philip and the other disciples had witnessed throughout the three and a half years of His ministry, the disciples' stumbling block was a lack of faith.

• God in His grace has reconciled those who believe in the Lord Jesus to Himself, and through Christ, we have been given this important ministry of reconciliation, so that the world may know that God is the Lord and Saviour of mankind.
• And may we become ambassadors of God's peace in a world at war, through our ministry of reconciliation - through Him Who is our one and only mediator between God and man - Jesus Christ our Lord.

• He is acting as High Priest in heavenly places for the Church… and Hebrews sets out clearly Christ's present, High Priestly ministry.Hebrews emphases that the temporary, inferior Aaronic priesthood, after the order of Levi, had been set aside for Christ's permanent, superior, and eternal Priesthood.

• And here, at the very beginning of His earthly ministry, the Lord prophesied of His own death and Resurrection: Destroy this Temple... He challenged angrily, as He accused the Pharisees of making His Father's house into a den on thieves, ...and in three days I will raise it up again.

• Indeed, it is recorded that there were over 60 million slaves in Paul's day, and much attention was given, in Scripture, to the instruction and conduct of slaves, as well as their slave-masters.People often offered themselves as slaves when they fell on hard times, and Paul gave important instructions on how to carry out their duties as unto the Lord, even when their masters were unfair.Although he gave instructions on godly living as a slave, Paul also encouraged those in slavery to secure their freedom whenever possible: If you are able also to become free, rather do that, was His wise advice.Of particular importance, it is to be noted that nowhere in Scripture are members of Christ's Body instructed to engage in the abolishment of slavery or the correction of any other social injustices, in preference to our given ministry to the lost.Jesus said, The poor you will have with you always, and Paul could easily have said, slaves will continue to be with you (however distasteful this is) until Christ's return when He comes to set up His earthly kingdom of peace, prosperity, righteousness, and justice.Although we must certainly stand against the evils of our day, protect those that are weak, help those that are afflicted by social injustices, and show patience towards all men, the preeminent function of the Christian Church is to honour the Lord and tell sinners about Jesus – that He died to pay the price for our sin and rose again so that all who believe on Him will not perish, but have eternal life.We are told to go into all the world and preach the word of truth to a lost and dying humanity.
• We are to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to and live our lives as unto the Lord – no matter where we are or what our station in life happens to be.The true, Christian ministry of reconciliation will indirectly have a great impact on the many social injustices of our day.

• God gave the first witness of His Son's authenticity at His baptism when He spoke these beautiful words from heaven: This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus Christ and remained upon Him throughout His earthly ministry.

• David was a man whose life illustrated much of the suffering service of Christ's ministry during his sojourn on earth.

• Although Peter was chosen to start the worldwide ministry of Christ and was the one God chose to open the door to Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles, we are all ministers of reconciliation who are called, by God, to carry out the good work that God has prepared each of us to do.

• The first twenty verses of Mark's Gospel catapult us through the tumultuous ministry of John the Baptist, Christ's baptism, His temptation in the wilderness, and the beginning of His public ministry, with the calling of His first disciples on the shore of the Galilee.
• During this energetic introduction to Christ's ministry, the drama intensified when a man in their synagogue, who had an unclean spirit, shouted out in the middle of the service: What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth?
• None of Mark's readers could continue pleading ignorance about Christ's identity after this unexpected outburst so early in His ministry which stated clearly Who Jesus was.
• Why did he reveal the identity of Christ so early in His ministry?

• Over the course of His ministry, these Jewish leaders had become increasingly uncomfortable about Christ's popularity with the people and had already determined to kill Him.

• His confidence in his own ministry and the testimony of these believers in Corinth, was firmly rooted in Christ.

• Throughout the book of Acts, we see this principle: To the Jew first and also to the Greek, being fulfilled in Paul's ministry.

• The combined facts from the four Gospel writers, paint the perfect picture of Christ's life and ministry.

• The Sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing His plan to His servants, the prophets, and Ezekiel was one such servant through whom the Lord spoke to His people, Israel, and disclosed many wonderful and many terrible things.Although this man of God warned of the judgement to come, there is much in this book that emphases the sovereign authority of the Lord, which gives encouragement and comfort to his people, Israel.Although the book of Ezekiel trumpets the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Sanctuary, it also proclaims the great and awesome glory of the Lord and describes, in detail, the future Millennial Temple under the administration of God's anointed King.One aspect of Ezekiel's ministry was that some of his prophetic announcements were to be articulated through drama or mime.

• Paul directed Titus to guard the flock and expose false teaching, through the establishment of a doctrinally sound leadership of elders throughout the island of Crete.Paul's letter to Titus reaffirms, in writing, the responsibility that was laid on his shoulders: It was for this reason I left you in Crete, the older apostle wrote to his younger assistant, that you would set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city – as I directed you.We discover from other passages, that Titus was a Greek by birth who was born again through the ministry of Paul.

• There were many in Paul's day that challenged his credentials as an 'apostle of Christ' but his apostleship complies with every scriptural qualification and his ministry is endorsed in the inspired and inerrant Word of God.
• His ministry was to develop the faith of God's chosen people, through sound doctrine and mutual encouragement.

• Each Christian is a member of Christ's Body and each is uniquely empowered by the Spirit to perform his or her own special ministry which God has foreordained for us to do for His praise and His glory.

• But throughout Christ's earthly life, James had been critical of his half-brother's ministry and at times, he mocked Christ's Messianic claims.

• A Christian should be more concerned with the development of personal character, growing in grace, maturing in the faith, and the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, than engaging in a ministry of activities, however valuable it may seem to us or to others.

• It was during his second missionary journey, that Paul not only met Timothy, but invited him to join him in ministry and he was with Paul when the church at Philippi was founded.

• Earlier, we discover Paul exhorting Timothy to righteous living, Christian fidelity, fulfilling his ministry as a pastor, and ensuring that he continues to be a worthy workman - approved of God.

• In the Old Testament under the old covenant, the Holy Spirit would come upon certain people to empower them for a particular ministry for which they were chosen, or for a special office to which they had been called. When the job was done or if the individual grieved or displeased the Lord, the Holy Spirit could withdraw. 

• During His ministry on earth, the Lord Jesus instructed His followers to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and soul, and mind, and strength: This is the first and great commandment, He reminded them, and the second is 'you shall love your neighbour as yourself.' And the entire truth of God's Word hangs upon the Law and the Prophets. 

• The last years of Paul's ministry were spent as a prisoner of Rome where he was often bound in chains and could neither visit the churches he had planted in Asia nor fellowship with the Christians he loved there.
• To the casual observer, it would appear that the final years of Paul's life and ministry were an utter failure... but God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are so much higher and better than our thoughts.
• Paul knew that it was God's will that he would go to Rome to declare the gospel of Christ before Ceasar and we discover that many souls in Ceasar's own household were saved, by God's grace, through his ministry in Rome.

• God Himself bore audible witness to the truth of Christ's Messianic role, as did our Lord's own life and ministry so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life in His name.
• The person and work of Jesus was testified by God the Father and was validated by the prophesied Messianic signs, wonders, and miracles that He Himself carried out in His life and ministry and which continued into those early years of the fledgling Church.

• As Jesus spoke to a lost woman at a well in Samaria near the beginning of His earthly ministry, He looked past the shadow of the Cross to that glorious day when the Church would be born.

• Unlike the rest of Christ's apostles who walked with Jesus throughout His earthly ministry, Paul was called to be God's apostle to the Gentiles following the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Ascension into heaven.Because of Paul's unusual calling and unique ministry, there were many who criticised his teaching and challenged his authority, which is why he so vigorously defended his calling and frequently made reference to the direct revelation he received from the Lord.Here in first Corinthians, Paul found it necessary to severely admonish the believers in Corinth for their disgraceful conduct which discredited the Lord, tarnished their witness, and rendered them carnal Christians and spiritual infants.The unruly disunity, riotous behaviour, greedy indulgence, and disregard for the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ, was even displayed during the celebration of the Lord's Supper – which Paul had already taught was a time to reflect on the reality of Christ's sacrificial death, until His coming again.And so in this passage, Paul is preparing to criticise and correct the shocking behaviour of these carnally minded believers, by reminding them of his own unique calling and the direct revelation he received from the Lord, which had already been taught to them on an earlier occasion.He reminded them that he had been called personally by God, and delivered a specific message regarding the importance and seriousness of the Lord's Supper, which they were currently disregarding:For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, Paul reminded them, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and gave thanks, and broke it and said, 'This is My body, which is given for you – do this in remembrance of Me.'May we never forget the enormous price that was paid for our redemption, at the Cross.

• Today, we have been made His representatives and have been entrusted with the message of the gospel of grace; the ministry of reconciliation.

• During the time of the judges, the people of Israel rejected God as their King and during His earthly ministry, they rejected Jesus as King.

• Every other apostle, including Matthias (who was the person that the eleven disciples chose to replace Judas), were men who had been with Jesus from the very start of His ministry.
• God knew that Paul would respond to his calling by faith and so he was set aside for this ministry from his mother's womb.
• Paul was to be given much revelation that had been hidden in ages past, together with many Church age truths that were not even revealed to Christ's other apostles during His earthly ministry.
• Christ's ministry to Israel was before the Cross, but after the Cross, salvation was open to Jew and Gentile alike and it was by grace through faith in the death, burial, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Salvation was made available to all;both Jew and Gentile in one Body and, by God's grace, Paul was called to be the main apostle for this ministry.
• How we praise God that Paul was set apart for God, even from his mother's womb and that God was pleased to reveal His Son in and through Paul's ministry so that Jew and Gentile alike may be saved by grace through faith and together become part of the one new man in Christ, to His praise and glory.

• Each of the four Gospels introduces the Lord Jesus in their own particular way, laying peculiar emphasises on different aspects of His Person and work; His character and ministry; His life, and His death.
• At the start of His ministry, Jesus called His disciples to follow Him.
• Others may have called Jesus, 'King of the Jews' in a derisory manner or to sneer at His Messianic claims, but Nathanael's heart was open to the truth and he was rewarded by being a man who walked with Jesus for the three and a half years of His earthly ministry.

• It was only after Christ had been crucified, buried, resurrected, glorified, and returned to His Father in heaven, that the full impact of His words and earthly ministry began to become clear, and was recorded in so many New Testament epistles.

• The pagan deities that the Athenians worshipped, needed human beings to build their temples and bring them things, whereas the great God of the universe needs nothing from men – since He Himself gives life and breath to all people and all things.There is no correct way to introduce the gospel of grace to unbelievers, but there does need to be willingness to tell others about Jesus and bring God's message of salvation to the lost – and many missionaries have found that a good starting point is to give others a correct understanding of the God of creation Who made heaven and earth and everything in it, and of man whom God created in His own image, but who sinned and needs to be redeemed from sin and death and hell.May we, who have been saved by grace through faith, make ourselves available to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit so that lost sinners may be given the opportunity to hear the gospel and believe, through our ministry – for how shall they hear if no one is willing to tell them?

• And much of Paul's ministry was refuting the false teachers who sought to turn the freedom these Galatian believers had in Christ into enslavement under a variety of rules and regulations.

• His earnest expectation and hope, was that his message and ministry would not be discredited or put to shame in any way, but that he would be able to continue speaking out the marvellous message of salvation freely, openly, and boldly so that whether he lived or died, the lovely Lord Jesus Christ would be magnified by his imprisonment.
• At times, he felt hard-pressed to know whether departing this life to be with Jesus or remaining here to continue his ministry was preferable.
• Paul realised that his continuing ministry at Philippi and to other churches he served, would help and encourage them in their Christian walk.
• May we never forget the far-reaching impact of Paul's ministry, because he was a man whose confidence was in God and considered that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

• The main theme in Leviticus is holiness and a life that is consecrated to God, and the Lord designed the duties and office of the Levites and priests to emphasise their sacred ministry and mission.

• His father announced that John would be a prophet of the Most High and give God's people a knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sin, and throughout his ministry, John gave testimony of the Person and work of Christ. 
• Wherever we are, whatever our role in the Body of Christ, and however vast or insignificant our ministry for our Lord may be, when Jesus is central in every area of life we are bound to say, He must increase, but I must decrease.

• Throughout His ministry, the scribes, Pharisees, politicians, and Jewish leaders resisted Christ's message and ministry.
• Throughout His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus had longed to gather the children of Israel together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, yet their leaders were not willing to acknowledge the truth.
• Early in His ministry, the Lord Jesus had presented Himself to Israel as God's Anointed Messiah Who had come to redeem His people from their sin.
• And at the start of His ministry, the Lord Jesus gave His people some wonderful blessings (beatitudes) in His Sermon on the Mount, but as His time on earth came to an end he had to pronounce a terrible series of 'woes' on Israel's leadership because they caused the people to reject the Lord of Glory.
• How shocking that the very group who should have promoted Jesus' message and ministry to the needy people, were the ones who turned the crowds against Christ.

• Jesus had made some astonishing declarations during His earthly ministry, but here He was claiming to have sovereign authority over life and death.

• Jesus was the Word made flesh, Whom they saw with their eyes, touched with their hands, and heard speaking with their own ears, and John wanted to make it very clear that he and the other apostles were not propagating second hand information to their readers, but were actual eye-witnesses of Christ's amazing ministry.

• Throughout His ministry, Christ had those who hated Him and sought to trip Him up and accused Him of breaking the Law of Moses or flouting the dictates of Rome.

• We have been endued with heavenly gifts and holy graces so we can offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God, in our service to Him and in our ministry to others.

• But the Lord gently scolded this chosen apostle, who had been with Him throughout His earthly ministry, with the words, because you have seen Me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

• The pre-Cross ministry of the Lord Jesus was specifically to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
• Throughout His ministry, the Jewish leaders rejected Christ's Messianic claims, dismissed the miraculous signs and wonders He performed, and looked for ways to entrap Him and have Him killed.

• Although Paul was the first to point out, elsewhere in scripture, that a workman is worthy of his hire, we discover that he used his tent-making abilities to provide for his basic needs during much of his own ministry.
• He did not beg for any financial assistance during his ministry, nor did he make a request for help when he was behind prison bars.

• Our mission and ministry as God's children, is to be spiritually minded Christians and not carnally minded believers.

• Jude, who was the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ and who despised his older brother during His earthly ministry, is here seen to be a bond-slave of Christ Jesus his Saviour.

• Jesus is characterised as the vine-dresser who sought in vain for fruit, during the three years of His earthly ministry, but found none.

• Having finished telling them some personal details of his recent ministry, Paul's thoughts transfer to the spiritual wellbeing of these believers, and he starts exhorting them to keep putting into practice all the things he's taught them and to excel in their spiritual walk more and more.

• The very instrument that God gave Israel in order to point them to Christ for salvation, was the very tool they modified to accuse the Son of God of blasphemy, and this particular Sabbath-day healing was a great turning-point in Christ's ministry, because from that time forward: The Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him.

• No one spoke the gracious words that Jesus spoke, and no one performed many mighty miracles that Jesus performed; prophetic signs that authenticated the Man Christ Jesus and His supernatural ministry of reconciliation.

• Israel did not recognise the time of their visitation, and Jesus reached a point in His ministry when He transferred His attention from the nation as a whole, to individuals who believed in Him.

• Indeed, the Lord Jesus in His earthly mission and ministry is the singular demonstration of how God expects all His children to live.
• Jesus Christ lived His entire life in willing surrender to the leading and guiding of the Father and His entire ministry demonstrated His Messianic claims and served and a dependable witness to His God-given authority.
• But the religious Jews were jealous of Jesus and purposed both individually and collectively to discredit His ministry and destroy His witness.
• The Lord Jesus in His earthly mission and ministry is the singular demonstration of how God expects all His children to live: doing nothing in and of ourselves, but only doing and saying those things that we hear from Him.

• It is the Spirit of peace Who reconciles man to God through faith in Jesus Christ and gives us the ministry of reconciliation.

• The desire of his heart is that those who have come to faith through his ministry might not sin but would strive to live lives that are holy and acceptable to God: My little children, he says, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin... 

• He came to fulfil His ministry of reconciliation and to offer His life, as the ransom price for sin.
• Jesus had been born 33 years earlier and had begun His ministry three years before this appearance of Elijah on the holy mountain.
• However, they soon understood that figuratively, Elijah came in the person and ministry of John the Baptist, but few recognised the significance of John's mission. 
• Elijah came both figuratively and literally 2000 years ago, but he was not accepted by the majority in the person of John, whose ministry was cut short.

• They were given power to perform many mighty signs, supernatural miracles, and great wonders, in order to authenticate their God-appointed ministry, message, and revelation.
• through the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit by means of His holy Word.
• In a very broad sense, all have a form of 'apostolic' ministry, for we are all called to: Preach the Word, not only in what we say but in how we live.
• Similarly, we all have a form of 'prophetic' ministry, for Paul tells us: The one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.
• And although we are all called to: Do the work of an evangelist, by winning lost souls to Christ, there are those that are specifically called into this ministry who are wonderfully equipped to preach Christ Crucified to a lost world.

• Having spent six chapters of his letter correcting a wide range of abuses within the church at Corinth, Paul continued by giving apostolic answers to important questions which had been asked about Christian marriage and how it relates to celibacy, divorce, remarriage, and its role in ministry.
• No doubt, as his ministry progressed and as he travelled with married men and those that were unmarried, Paul recognised that despite marriage being a sacred union of a man and a woman instituted by God in the garden of Eden, there were advantages of remaining in the unmarried state for both men and women, if they were able to control their passion.

• It illustrates His superiority to prophets, angels, kings, and priests, and it details His supremacy in His high priestly ministry and the exclusivity of His sacrificial offering.
• And the promise God made relates to Person, Work, Ministry, and Office of CHRIST JESUS our Lord and His sacrificial death on the Cross and glorious Resurrection; a promise that is pertinent to ALL who believe on Him.

• He was the Holy One of Israel Who at the start of His ministry caused people to wonder at the gracious words that fell from His lips.

• Often he prayed that they would grow in grace, receive spiritual gifts, be fruitful in their ministry, and be kept by the power of God.

• Paul had been called to a unique ministry by Christ Himself and chosen to unveil many hidden mysteries to the early Church; mysteries which had been veiled from view in earlier dispensations.

• Throughout His ministry, we see many Gentiles putting their trust in Jesus and in this passage, we rejoice to find a Canaanite woman, from the region of Tyre and Sidon, being saved by grace and having her demon-possessed daughter restored to full health and a sound mind.

• They knew that Christ came from God, yet refused to come to Him and acknowledge His message, His mission, and His ministry.

• Paul gave the strongest defence of his message and ministry to the church at Galatia, for they were the most proactive in challenging his apostolic authority and insisting that the Mosaic Law must be reintegrated into Church age doctrine.
• However, we must stand fast on the Word of Truth which we have been given through the ministry and mission of the apostle Paul.

• The edifying ministry of a child of God, can be ruined when he seeks earthly wisdom from the well of fallen humanity.

• It was his love for Christ that compelled Paul to share relentlessly the ministry of reconciliation through the glorious gospel of grace; whereby Christ died for all so that by faith in Him we should not live for ourselves any longer, but for Him Who died and rose again.
• Christ was now the risen, ascended, glorified Lord of glory, Whose personal ministry on earth had been superseded by the ministry of reconciliation, where every member of His Body is a full and free participant.

• Jesus tells us in Matthew 15: I was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and all four Gospels trace Christ's life and ministry within Israel.
• The mighty signs and wonders that Jesus performed throughout His ministry, were to authenticate His Messianic claims.
• He then prepared the twelve for a special, evangelistic ministry, by equipping them with His own mighty power and sovereign authority.

• Haggai was a post-exile returnee to the land of Israel whose main ministry was to encourage the people to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and to let them know that God was with them and would help them.

• He explained that instead of silencing the gospel, his incarceration in a Roman prison had the opposite effect - even members of the prison guard understood that Paul was in chains for Christ's sake, and many were coming to faith in the Lord Jesus through Paul's ministry... despite his unjust imprisonment.

• Nevertheless, they received certain mysteries from the Lord, which had been hidden for ages and generations, through the ministry of the apostle Paul and others.

• His ancestry, which is traced through David and Abraham, and His prophesied advent as 'Immanuel' which means 'God with us', sets the stage for Christ's ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
• The Lord Jesus was identified as God's beloved Son at His baptism and started His mission and ministry by calling His disciples to follow Him.

• John's ministry was well known, for people throughout Judea were flocking to the river Jordan to come back, in faith, to the God of their fathers, confessing their sins, and undergoing his baptism of repentance.
• It was during the time of John's frenetic ministry that Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan.
• The Acts of the Apostles even implies that Jesus was there at the start of John's ministry, for when choosing a disciple to replace Judas, Peter insisted, It is necessary that Judas' replacement must have accompanied us all the time... that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us - beginning with the baptism of John, until the day that He was taken up from us, into heaven.
• For thirty silent years, God had been preparing the Lord Jesus Christ for His ministry of reconciliation between God and mankind.
• Whatever Christ's baptism signified - whether it was His identification with sinners for whom He was to be the substitute, an act of obedience to His Father in order to fulfil the righteous requirements of the Law, a presentation of Himself as the Messiah of Israel and Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, an act of dedication to His God and Father, or simply a picture of His forthcoming death and Resurrection - we know that in the days of John the Baptist's ministry - Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptised by John in the Jordan.

• He not only accompanied Paul to the council of Jerusalem, which agreed that Gentiles do not have to become Jews nor do Jews have to become Gentiles, but he participated in ministry work in Corinth, Ephesus, and the little island of Crete.

• The multitudes had just been miraculously fed with multiplied bread and fishes, but they were blinded to the reality of His ministry as: The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
• And His little band of faithful followers would have to be spiritually prepared for the time of their post-Cross ministry, which was fast-approaching.

• We discover that the little church at Philippi was the only Christian community that sent financial aid to support Paul's ministry.
• These believers understood that Paul's ministry work generated certain financial costs, and they were ready and willing to make some personal sacrifices to donate to this worthy calling.

• There was a point in Christ's ministry, when the hour had arrived for the Son of Man to be glorified.
• He had declared His Messianic mission throughout His ministry and authenticated His claims through many signs and wonders.

• Whether running a home or building a house, working at a factory or supporting a ministry, there is one vital principle that is all-embracing.

• Christ's Messianic claims, His ministry, teachings, and proclamations did not conform to Israel's distorted view of their coming King.

• At the very start of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus had to establish His God-appointed authority on earth, for as He set out on His three year walk towards the Cross He would honour no other instruction than those that came from His Father in heaven.

• The apostles were no doubt flushed with excitement at the success of their ministry and weary from their exhausting schedule and: They gathered around Jesus and told Him everything they had done and taught.
• Working hard for the Lord, obeying His call on their life, exhilarated at all that God is carrying out in their ministry and eager to share their stories.
• And yet we read in the next verse: There was so much coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. The disciples were in danger of 'ministry burnout' which is an all too common occurrence in Christians today.
• Should not all who are earnestly carrying out the special little ministry that God has purposed for them, be watchful to gather around the Lord Jesus and to sit at His feet daily.

• The Lord Jesus was starting His earthly ministry, and one of His first public appearances was attending the Passover in Jerusalem.

• Jesus said earlier in His ministry that not one jot or tittle of the Law would pass away until all things have been accomplished, and in many respects Jesus came to fulfil both the Word of the Lord and the Work of the Law.

• This verse tells us that Timothy was called by the Lord and chosen to carry out this important ministry, and it concludes with a reminder of Timothy's personal confession of his faith - in the presence of many witnesses.

• Christ's ministry was popular with the people because they were fascinated by His wisdom, His words, His miracles, and His healings, but they were deaf and disinterested in the truth that sinful man needs a Saviour and that only faith in His death and Resurrection as payment for our sin, is acceptable to God the Father. 

• What an assurance, therefore, to be told that the eyes of the Lord will never miss any good deed we do for His glory, nor will be unaware of any labour of love that is shown to Him through a tender ministry that is directed towards His people.

• Paul felt compelled to share the good news of God's amazing grace, and just as the Lord Jesus pointed His disciples to His Heavenly Father during His earthly ministry, so Paul points us to our Saviour and Him alone.
• Paul was not bothered about being financially recompensed for his ministry, even though financial support of ministers of the gospel is a biblical principle.

• Although saints in other cities, sent financial and material aid to these believers, this was an area of ministry, that the Corinthian Christians had neglected.
• Paul did not want these brothers and sisters to fall short in any area of their ministry and so he urged them, by the grace of God, to prepare a bountiful gift for the believers in Jerusalem who were facing such hardship.

• The mystery of the Church was in God's heart and mind from the beginning, but there was a special reason why the Lord kept the 'dispensation of the grace of God' a secret during his earthly ministry.

• Paul's message in this verse is quite a serious warning to any ministry that is teaching there are extra things that we need to do for our initial salvation or for our ongoing sanctification, for it means that Christ's finished, sacrificial work on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection from the dead was not sufficient for our salvation.

• During Christ's present, High Priestly ministry in heaven, the Church have been entrusted to be lights in this dark world of sin: Ye are the light of the world, Jesus told us, and as His representatives on earth we are to shine for Him.

• Love of God and His Spirit of love pulsing through our lives and streaming out to others is the most important ministry any one of us can be called to undertake.

• Just as certain women tended to the needs of Jesus during His earthly ministry, and Christ's other apostles received financial support from various churches, Paul explained that he had the same entitlement to financial support from the Corinthians, even though he did not take up this fundamental right.

• Bitter water was sweetened in Jericho, and the desperate needs of a poverty-stricken widow was supplied through the ministry of Elisha, where her oil was miraculously multiplied.

• His mission and ministry was to redeem a people out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of His dear Son.
• Earlier in His ministry, Jesus sent out His disciples, commanding them, Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

• His inner peace is something to which all believers are called, both individually and corporately, and should become a reality in the lives of all who are called by His name, for each is given particular gifts and a unique ministry that is designed to give mutual encouragement to one another in our service to the Lord.

• Not only does he give them a final reminder of their Christian duty; to devote themselves to prayer, maintain an attitude of thanksgiving, conduct themselves with wisdom and grace, and make the most of their opportunity to speak of Christ, but he also asks them to pray for his own ministry; that the Lord would open doors for him and his team to share the gospel of grace and the mystery of Christ, and for him to receive wisdom to know when to speak and when to remain silent. 
• He greeted Nympha, whose house was used as a meeting place for the Laodiceans, and Archippus, who was instructed to: Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfil it.
• Maybe she was a woman of prayer or a lady who simply used her generous nature to encourage the saints and edify the body, but the name of 'Nympha' and her simple home-based ministry in Laodicea has been celebrated by centuries of believers who have read the book of Colossians.

• While the Mosaic Law was given to Israel, and Christ's ministry was to the Jew first, Paul calls on Christians to follow this Golden Rule as well, for in so doing we will live a life that is well-pleasing to the Lord, honours our Father in heaven, and is the fulfilment of God's Law.
• At the end of His ministry, the Lord Jesus gave a new commandment to the Church, which condenses this important law of love, into one simple command, LOVE one another as I have loved you - by THIS shall all men know that you are My disciples.

• May we faithfully fulfil the ministry to which we have been called, and do it to His strength and for His greater glory. 

• It appears that Christ's ministry began at the very point that His faithful forerunner, John the Baptist, was flung into prison by king Herod after which he was brutally beheaded.
• He preached the gospel throughout the land of Israel and authenticated His ministry by performing many signs and wonders, all of which had been foretold by prophets of old, all of which confirmed Him as the true Light from God.
• And so it was that early in His ministry, Jesus started to teach His followers the gospel of the kingdom.
• In His pre-Cross ministry, the kingdom of heaven was preached primarily to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

• Unlike Christ's other apostles, Paul did not accompany the Lord during His earthly ministry.
• He freely admitted he had cruelly persecuted the early Church and was only too ready to admit that his own salvation and his God-given apostolic ministry to the Gentiles (in which he served as a priest of the gospel of God) was wholly through God's boundless mercy and amazing grace. 
• He was not called into the priestly ministry of Israel, where he would have functioned with great authority as a scribe or Pharisee in Israel's Sanhedrin.
• As we trace the ministry and missionary work of Paul, we see him teaching the glorious gospel of God to the unsaved and writing letters of instruction and encouragement to accomplish two things for unsaved Gentiles.
• None of us are called to carry out the identical ministry to which Paul was called, but every one of us who is born of the Spirit is given all we need for life and godliness so that we will be enabled to carry out the ministry that God requires of us.

• We will never understand the full extent of the incredible riches of God's unfathomable grace that are discovered in Jesus Christ our Lord, but the more we know Him the more effective will be our Christian ministry and witness.

• Partway through His ministry however, the Lord Jesus started to give hints that God's plans and purposes for Israel were to be postponed for an undisclosed length of time.

• They rejected His ministry.
• And from the start of His ministry, Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were sick or demon possessed.
• The debate about Christ's authenticity was so heightened, on this last great day of the great feast of Tabernacles, that the chief priests and scribes were determined to put a stop to His ministry.

• Christ's Resurrection would confirm that His ministry and message were true, and it would be used to authenticate His Messianic claims - which had been rejected by Israel. 
• The Jews did not recognise the coming of Elijah in the person of John the Baptist, and his ministry was cut short.
• But only PART of His mission and ministry could be completed, because of unbelief.

• Attempts to destabilise the Church and destroy the ministry of believers began during those early days of Christianity.

• The Law in the Old Testament was designed to point us to Christ, but the Spirit's ministry of grace is intended to make us like Christ.

• An over-indulgence in either food or drink does not glorify our Heavenly Father and is often the precursor to a failed ministry and fruitless life, and there is also the strong possibility that it will contribute to early death.

• Did they desire to learn the truth, to learn of Him, His ministry, and mission?
• Christ's invitation to Come, was given to these two followers of John the Baptist and His invitation to Come is still as relevant today as it was in Christ's early ministry.
• May we come to Christ and discover more and more of His message, His ministry, and His majesty, and follow Him wherever He leads for His praise and glory.

• While Paul gives a resounding call to patient endurance in life's difficulties, purity in personal conduct, and faithfulness in Christian ministry, he is equally eager to warn us of perilous times ahead, the ploys of the enemy to shipwreck our faith, and the insidious dangers of false teachers.

• John witnessed how the world hated Jesus during His earthly ministry and experienced increasing hatred towards Christians following Christ's Ascension into heaven.

• Although much of Paul's ministry was independent from the other apostles of Christ, there was always a fundamental unity between them, and his visit to the Holy City and attendance at the Jerusalem Council, demonstrates the importance of Christian unity through doctrinal purity.

• His target audience were Jewish believers and his ministry contained a Jewish flavour.

• The section on Christ's healing ministry follows the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus gave witness of His Messianic claims to the people of Israel.

• For a second time in His ministry, the Lord Jesus drove out the corrupt, profiteering money-changers from the Temple court, likening them to a den of thieves and condemning their ungodly practices.
• Both at the start and the close of His earthly ministry this act of Temple-cleansing was necessary, for priests and people alike were holding too lightly the sacred things of God, causing crooked commercialism and ungodly trafficking to replace holy conduct and godly worship.

• Quite early in His earthly ministry, He gave His twelve disciples authority over unclean spirits, and to heal every kind of disease and sickness.

• But it is no good simply believing in the historical FACT of Christ's life and ministry.

• These men were to be left in a world from which they had been saved, in order to carry on the good work that Christ had started in His own, earthly ministry, and to shed abroad the Word of Truth.
• And so Christ prays for their protection and sanctification so that their future ministry would be effective, for having given them the Word of Truth through His earthly ministry, they were to be the ones that would spread abroad the gospel of God to a world that remained dead in their trespasses and sins: for God loved the world so much that He gave Jesus to be the propitiation for the sin of the whole world.
• Thousands came to faith in Christ in the early years of the Church, through the ministry of their spoken word in the book of Acts, and multiple millions have come to faith through the witness of their written word, down through many centuries of time.

• At the beginning of His ministry, we discover the Lord Jesus to be both supported by the Spirit and led by Him, but after passing the testings in the wilderness, we discover the Lord Jesus was further empowered by the Holy Spirit for we read: He returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.
• We see the Lord Jesus at the start of His ministry returning to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district, as He set out on His long, three year trek to the Cross where, as the sin-substitute for the whole world, He would pay the price for your sin and mine so that whosoever believes on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

• The Lord Jesus is the express image of the invisible God, and during His earthly ministry had been revealing the 'I AM' of the Old Testament as the Good Shepherd, the Door of the sheepfold, the Light of the world, the Bread of life, the living Water, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (abundant life, eternal life), for in Him was life and His life is the light of all mankind.

• Loving one's neighbour in the same way that we love and care for ourselves was an instruction Christ gave to Israel many times during His earthly ministry, and both Paul and James quoted this instruction in their respective writings to Christians.

• Isaiah had prophesied of John's ministry many centuries earlier, and later Jesus was to identify His older cousin as the greatest prophet who ever lived!

• Peter's confession seemed to mark a turning point in Christ's earthly ministry.

• Faith in our Heavenly Father and love for His beloved Son is our eternal protection, both inwardly and outwardly, while the blessed hope we have in our salvation will guard our minds from the wiles of the evil one who would seek to flood us with fear, ship-wreck our mission and ministry, and destroy our testimony, through worry of what is coming on the world.

• He had learned the holy Scriptures from childhood and was saved by grace through faith - through the ministry of Paul.

• They were jealous of Paul's calling and his apostolic ministry.
• Rather than proclaiming the gospel with the joy and thanksgiving for their salvation and to honour their glorious Saviour, they were selfish, ambitious individuals who had developed a spiteful, contentious disposition. Their motive in spreading the Word was far from pure, for their ministry had developed out of selfish envy and an ungodly rivalry.
• They valued him and his ministry, and showed him their loving concern when he was put in prison.

• It explains that Jesus is the Mediator of a New and better Covenant, and that His service, sacrifice, mission, and ministry surpassed everything that had gone before.

• But like the Sadducees and the Herodians, the Pharisees were also a sect of Judaism that was at enmity with Christ and which became increasingly hostile towards the Lord Jesus throughout His ministry.
• John identified them as a brood of vipers, during his ministry, while Jesus would pronounce severe condemnation on their pride and hypocrisy, as the Cross loomed every closer.
• Only a short time before, Jesus is seen at the start of His ministry in the Temple of God.

• Paul is not only urging these believers to pray for their own needs and to maintain holy fellowship with the Lord, but gives them guidance on topics for prayer and asks them to pray for him and his ministry: Pray at the same time for us as yourselves, Paul writes: Pray that God will open up to us a door for the Word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned. 

• In the final week of Christ's ministry, the religious leaders became increasingly hostile towards Him.

• Before Christ's ministry started, we discover John calling the nation of Israel to, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is nigh, - indeed the King of Israel was in their very midst.
• The gospels indicate that as soon as John was taken into custody, the ministry of the Lord Jesus began.
• We are given a little insight into His birth at Bethlehem and a glimpse into His life in Nazareth, His visit to the temple at the age of 12, and this special preparatory time with John, which preceded Christ's three-and-a-half-year ministry that led to His sacrificial death on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection.
• Jesus humbly walked in the shadow of John's ministry until that day when John was taken into custody.
• It appears to be God's will that Christ did not begin His ministry in earnest until John was removed from the scene... for like each one of us... Jesus had to learn humility and obedience by the things that He suffered - and no doubt, the unjust arrest and cruel execution of His faithful forerunner must have caused our Saviour much heartache.

• As the end of Christ's earthly ministry drew ever closer, the conflict with Israel's hypocritical leaders continued to escalate.

• He had heard those words spoken by John the Baptist at the start of Christ's earthly ministry.
• The master with Whom John walked and talked during His earthly ministry was the One Who washed their feet on that last night before He was betrayed and took bread and wine, to represent His body broken for us, and His blood shed on our account.

• It would also enable Peter, the other apostles, and the 70 who were commissioned by Christ, during His ministry, to continue fulfilling the commission they were given, to, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons.

• He detailed how the Lord had separated him from his mother's womb and listed the events of his calling, conversion, and early ministry: Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

• The blessings these faithful folk in Hebrews 11 are to enjoy, are still future, for their blessings are to flow to them through the Person of JESUS, His Office and His Ministry, His death on the Cross, His resurrected life, and His victory over Satan, sin, death, and hell. 

• Three times during His ministry, the Lord Jesus said His hour had not yet come.
• He first said this to His mother at the wedding in Cana of Galilee at the start of His ministry.
• The second was to His siblings, near the end of His ministry, when they mocked their brother about his Messianic claims.
• And once again, at this critical time of His ministry when the hour for Him to be glorified had finally arrived, we find Greeks desiring to speak with Jesus. 

• It is sad that Paul had to defend his ministry to the carnal Corinthians, but he had discovered that these believers often resisted his teaching before they would accept it and apply it in their lives.

• Paul was writing to the Philippian Church from a prison cell, but he wanted to emphasise that the many misfortunes that had befallen him in his ministry, and his incarceration and trial before a Roman court of law, had resulted in the furtherance of the gospel.

• At the very start of His ministry, the Lord Jesus was an invited guest at a wedding feast and was accompanied by both His disciples and His mother.
• During His early life, Jesus submitted to His earthly parents in humble obedience, but at the start of His God-appointed ministry to a lost and dying world, Jesus had to make it plain to all people that His divine mission was not to be influenced by the whims or the demands of fallen man, including His own dear mother who was equally in need of His redemptive blood as you and me.

• Paul was confident that his reassurances would calm their hearts, still their concerns, and bring peace to their souls, and so he encouraged them to pray for him and for the rest of his ministry team constructively, before reassuring them, We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing, and will continue to do what we command.

• They failed to obey His commands, refused to acknowledge His heavenly position, poured scorn on Christ's ministry, and even blasphemed the Holy Spirit by attributing His miracles to Satan.

• Paul was afforded a unique role in the administration of the Christian Church, for not only was he the ONLY God-appointed apostle who did not accompany Christ throughout His earthly ministry... but he was also a murdering, hostile antagonist of the gospel of Christ at the time that the church was born - at Pentecost.

• The book of Acts gives us some great insights into the ministry of the Spirit within the corporate Body of Christ, as well as the lives of believers, individually.
• And while Chapter 1 deals with Christ's transition from his earthly ministry into His role as our heavenly High Priest, the rest of Acts gives insight into the development of the early Church, the ongoing work of the Spirit in and through the Church, and the postponement of God's dealings with Israel.
• It also helps to expand our understanding of the Spirit's ongoing ministry in the lives of all believers.
• The all-pervasive ministry of the Holy Spirit began in a small group of 120 disciples, who obeyed Christ's command to: Remain in Jerusalem and wait for the Father to send the Comforter.
• The ministry of the Spirit in the lives of believers covers both experiential and non-experiential work The Spirit's non-experiential work takes place at the point of salvation.
• It includes our regeneration or rebirth into the Body of Christ and the indwelling ministry of the Spirit in the life of all believers.
• How blessed we are to be recipients of the astonishing ministry of the Holy Spirit and beneficiaries of the mysteries that are ours in Christ Jesus, by grace through faith in Him.

• So much of Paul's ministry to the Church is reminding us of our eternal inheritance and our heavenly citizenship.

• Imagine the overwhelming joy and reverential fear that overtook this disciple of Christ as he began to comprehend that the death, burial, and Resurrection of the Man, Christ Jesus, whom he had loved so dearly in His earthly ministry was in fact that almighty LION of the tribe of Judah Who stood before him.

• Baptism was not the focus of Paul's apostolic ministry.

• What an astonishing happening that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit should unite at this significant moment in history, when the eternal Son of God as the perfect Son of Man is commissioned to begin His earthly ministry to a lost and dying world.
• And as the time of His preparation for His most significant yet solemn ministry was ending, we see the Trinity working in harmony, the Godhead meeting in unity. 

• One such non-experiential ministry is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the body of each believer.
• Days before His crucifixion and during His post-Resurrection ministry, Christ promised His Holy Spirit would not only be with His disciples, as their Comforter, but would dwell inside them.
• The indwelling Spirit in New Testament believers, is a ministry unique to Church age believers and is permanent.
• When writing to Timothy, Paul is speaking of this wonderful, indwelling ministry when he says, Guard, through the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
• He has chosen to use each of us as Ministers of Reconciliation in His perfect plan of redemption, and His indwelling Spirit provides the power we need to fulfil the mission and ministry He has for each of His children.
• Through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are to protect, safeguard, preserve, and garrison the truth of the glorious gospel of God and share it with those with whom we come in contact, and so we will fulfil our ministry.

• His weight of suffering was a refining ministry that the Lord had permitted to overtake His faithful servant, with a purpose in view.

• We can become forgetful hearers, powerless in our ministry, and ineffective in our testimony, if we do not take this warning to heart.

• John gave his prophecy at the start of Christ's ministry, but moments before His ascension into heaven, Jesus informed his disciples that the baptism of the Spirit would happen a few days later: John baptised with water, Jesus told them, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. Indeed, on that first day of Pentecost, the believers who were all together in one place were not only baptised by the Spirit but were also filled with the Spirit and endowed with the spiritual gift of 'tongues'.
• However, when John baptised Jesus in the River Jordan, at the start of His earthly ministry, His baptism had nothing to do with repentance, for Jesus was the sinless Son of God.

• Christ had glorified God throughout His life, by His miracles, by His ministry, by His grace, by living in humble obedience to the Father, and by submitting to the power of the Spirit, for He had laid aside His pre-incarnate glory.

• He confirms that His ministry is according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, by faith... before addressing Timothy as, my dearly beloved son.
• Timothy had come to a deepening faith in Christ through the ministry of the apostle Paul and is identified in Scripture as one of the men who would wear the mantle of leadership in the Christian Church.

• Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had informed them that He must suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes.

• The Galatian Christians were being targeted by legalistic Jews who were not only spreading a fabricated gospel, a distorted doctrine, and a false Christ to Christians, but were deliberately seeking to discredit Paul and the unique ministry and mission to which he had been commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself.
• This was untrue and was diametrically opposite of Paul's glorious gospel of grace and the ministry to which he had been called.

• The rebellious hearts of those to whom Isaiah would dedicate his life and ministry, would not recognise their evil ways nor repent of their sin.
• This verse describes the result of his ministry rather than the content of his message.

• While Matthew wrote to identify Jesus as the Jewish messiah and King of Israel, John's principal desire was to emphasise the deity of the eternal Son of God, and Luke's aim was to bring out the empathetic ministry of the lowly Son of Man.

• The Corinthians Christians had some serious misunderstandings about Paul's message and ministry, which gave rise to division within the church, immoral activities among its members, a selfish, self-serving attitude, and the stunting of their spiritual growth.

• At the start of His ministry, Jesus had taught His disciples the importance of the prolonged persistent prayer of faith.
• The crowds were unsympathetic about his desperate situation and told him to be quiet, and maybe the disciples had also become too accustomed to Christ's healing ministry, for they seemed unsympathetic to the plight of this poor blind beggar-man.

• He realised the importance of prayer in dealing with problems that might arise in his own ministry, as well as in the corporate Body of Christ.
• And in both letters to the Thessalonians, Paul makes a special request that intercessions be made for him and his ministry team, to penetrate through the ungodliness in this pagan city with the good news of the gospel of Christ Jesus: Finally, brethren, he writes in chapter 3, pray for us that the Word of the Lord will spread rapidly and that God would be glorified, just as it did also with you.
• Paul wanted his readers in Thessalonica to pray earnestly that his ministry in Corinth would spread quickly and not be hindered, that it would bring forth much fruit, and that the Lord Jesus would be glorified.
• He wanted their prayer ministry to become an important part of their daily practice.
• What a privilege that we Christians in this 21st century, can take part in the same important prayer ministry with which Paul and the Thessalonians were involved.
• May we be earnest in supplications, and stand firm in our personal prayer ministry, resolving to pray earnestly and keep on praying that the gospel of Christ is effective today, that it will spread rapidly in these closing days of the Church dispensation, and that God will be greatly glorified. 

• Christ participated in four Passover celebrations during His short, three and a half year ministry on earth.
• Early in His ministry, He cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem by overthrowing the tables of the money-changers proclaiming, My Father’s House is a house of prayer for all people, but you have made it a den of thieves.
• This first Passover seemed to be a critical event at the start of Christ's ministry.
• In the final year of His ministry as the feast of the Passover drew near, Christ once again cleansed the same House of God.
• This fourth Passover was another momentous occasion which took place at the end of Christ's ministry.
• We also find that the Passover, a feast of the Jews, is mentioned in the third year of Christ's ministry.
• With only one more year to go until His sacrificial death on the Cross, it seems that this third Passover, which is called 'a feast of the Jews' was the event which activated that last leg of Christ's earthly ministry before His disciples would be left to go into all the world and proclaim the good news of the gospel of grace in His absence, while the gospel of the kingdom would have to be postponed for a season.

• They knew that Jesus came from God, yet refused to come to Christ and acknowledge His message, His mission, and His ministry.

• Israel had a special and unique ministry, which was given to them by God.
• They alone were chosen for a special and unique ministry which would circumnavigate Satan's plan to be, like the Most High. Israel was commissioned to undermine the works of evil and to overturn Satan's wicked influence on humanity.
• Israel had to be set aside for the duration of the Church age, and a new body of believers were commissioned to carry out God's 'ministry of reconciliation'.
• They are called the 'Body of Christ', which is 'the Church' and like Israel, have also been entrusted with their own special and unique ministry for God.
• But Paul, Christ's chosen apostle to the Gentiles, disclosed certain additional truths regarding the important ministry and work of believers, in this 'Dispensation of the Grace of God'.

• Moses was a man of God who spent much of his ministry to Israel calling for them to trust in the Lord, and to turn from their sin of unbelief and rebellion.

• It was during the ministry of Elisha, that we read of the miraculous cleansing of Naaman the leper.

• He also sealed us, and gave us the indwelling Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. Paul then stamped his apostolic authority on his message and ministry by adding, as his defence, But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.

• And yet, as Christ's three-and-a-half-year ministry drew to its close, His chosen disciples were incapable of casting out the tormenting spirit from a demon-possessed boy.
• Bring him here to Me. The men who were in training to carry on Christ's ministry after Israel's rejection of His offer of the kingdom and His forthcoming sacrificial death on a Roman cross, had failed miserably in this test of faith.

• Jeremiah's prophetic ministry lasted for about fifty years.

• Although the filling of the Spirit is inextricably linked to our initial salvation, it is an ongoing ministry that continues throughout life.

• The people that were present during the life, ministry, death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus belong to a unique generation because their life spanned the closing years of the pre-Cross dispensation of the Law (when Christ offered the kingdom to Israel, who rejected it), and the post-Resurrection dispensation of grace (where salvation is a free gift of God's grace, to all who will believe in Christ's death, burial and Resurrection for the forgiveness of our sin).
• We may not have had the opportunity to hear Christ's teaching, see His miraculous signs and wonders, visit the empty tomb, or meet with Jesus during his post-Resurrection ministry, but we are blessed beyond compare, for we have the Word of God which is living, active, and able to give us all that we need.

• He laid out the manner and means of his ministry and his motivation in sharing the gospel of God, with Jew and Gentile alike - for His apostleship was appointed of God and not of man.

• Jesus was identified as the hard-working husbandman Who tended the fig tree for the three years of His earthly ministry, giving it sufficient time to produce good fruit.
• It was as Christ's ministry was drawing to its close that the Owner came looking for fruit - fruit that was rightfully His.

• Much of Jeremiah's ministry was calling the nation to repent of their sin, warning of Judah's inevitable defeat at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and reporting on the devastating destruction of the holy city and sanctuary, while providing assurance that God would not forsake His errant people.
• Perhaps the most significant section of Jeremiah's ministry is Chapter 31, where he prophesied about Israel's eventual restoration in the end-times.

• There are many hidden truths that were revealed to Paul by the Lord Jesus which had been concealed for ages and generations, but which have been revealed to us through the anointed ministry of Christ's appointed apostle.

• In the previous chapter, Paul not only reminds us that everything is from God, Who graciously reconciled us to Himself through Christ, but that we have been given the 'ministry of reconciliation'.
• Just as Christ was the Channel through Whom God worked to reconcile the world back to Himself during His earthly ministry, the Body of Christ, which is the Church, is called to carry out the same, responsible task.

• As Paul was nearing the end of his ministry, we discover that all but a handful of believers had deserted him and many were straying from the gospel of grace.

• However, their ministry should always be overseen by responsible men, elected elders. 

• James, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, had a ministry to Jewish believers in Christ in the early Church, and this epistle is addressed to Christians from the 12 tribes of Israel who are dispersed throughout the world.

• Throughout His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus was ready and willing to say, Thy Will, not Mine be done. He was able to trust the Lord with every circumstance of His life, for His undivided hope was in God.

• During the times of Paul's ministry, he was encouraging the people of God to wake up from their spiritual slumber.

• Old Testament writings pointed to Christ, and He fulfilled each aspect of the Law and every prophetic Scripture relating to the earthly ministry of Israel's long-awaited, promised Messiah.

• Haggai's brief prophetic ministry had an immense effect on the post-captivity people of Israel.

• They have closed their eyes; otherwise, they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.' And so, for the third and last time in his ministry, we hear Paul's scathing rebuke: Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen.
• One very telling testimony of God working through Paul's ministry is encapsulated in a simple sentence he wrote in his letter to the Philippians: All the saints in Rome, and especially those from the house of Caesar (Paul's prison guards) salute you.
• Things that others would consider to be a ministry stumbling block, Paul used as a springboard to share the glorious truth of the gospel of Christ.
• The book of Acts was Luke's final commentary on the life of Paul and His ongoing ministry.

• Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and new birth happens when the truth of God's Word is translated from intellectual, head knowledge into confident, heart faith through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit of God.

• Paul was not complaining about the times when their contribution to his ministry stopped, nor was he implying that he relied upon their financial support to maintain his ministry.
• Although Paul rejoiced to think that the Philippian Christians had kindly supported his ministry, he wanted to get across to them that whether we have little or much, we are to remain content and joyful in all things.

• Christ was made the sacrifice for our sins, which rendered His ministry as the sin-sacrifice final and complete.

• The apostolic ministry of Paul, is an example to all of us of a life that was lived for God's glory and praise.
• They were encouraged to glory in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and to draw power and strength from God, knowing that like Paul, all God's children have this same, heavenly treasure indwelling and empowering our earthly, mortal bodies!
• Paul's apostolic ministry is an example for us all to emulate, and in this verse he explained the reason he had to undergo the different troubles and trials he listed; Paul was faithful to lift up the name of Jesus and preach the gospel of Christ, which is an offence to the world: For the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
• Paul also knew that spiritual wickedness in high places would seek to disrupt his important ministry, but as a soldier of Christ, he relied on the weapons of righteousness which the Lord Himself provides: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

• He was encouraged to stir up his spiritual gift and to fan it into a burning flame of effective ministry and faithfulness to his calling.

• We have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, and one Christian characteristic that is pleasing to the Lord, is the one who can demonstrate the long-suffering goodness of God in the midst of the trials and tribulations they face.

• But today, as in the days of the early Church, there is a huge interest in angels and an intense fascination with the ministry of the angelic host which will often eclipse the vital message of salvation that God gave through His Son.
• And we need to pay special heed to the Word of God that we have received through both the pre-Cross and post-Cross ministry of Christ.

• And so in this passage, Jesus is giving His twelve disciples a crash course in their future ministry.
• During the last weeks of Christ's life, He had to give His disciples a crash course in their fast-approaching ministry where the gospel of grace would supersede the gospel of the kingdom.
• The world will always hate and persecute the people of God, both Jewish and Gentile believers, but we have been given the ministry of reconciliation which was started by the apostles.

• It was not using any persuasive words or relying on human wisdom, that motivated Paul in his ministry... nor was it his eloquent preaching style that exposed Paul's inner strength and godly wisdom.

• They were not only teaching a false, legalistic gospel but were discrediting Paul's God-ordained ministry, mission, and message.

• Spiritual regeneration, the baptism of the Spirit, His sealing of believers, and the Holy Spirit's indwelling ministry in the Body of Christ, takes place only once in the life of a believer; at his or her salvation.
• In 1 John chapter 2, we discover a ministry of the Holy Spirit not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture; His 'unction' or His 'anointing': You have an UNCTION from the Holy One, we read in the KJV translation, and ye know all things.
• It seems that His 'unction' or 'anointing' corresponds with His 'indwelling' ministry, which takes place at the moment of salvation.
• However, the Spirit's indwelling ministry is necessary for every other office He undertakes in a believer's life.

• The Church will continue their ministry of reconciliation, until the day they are taken out of the way, when Israel will once again be used to finish the work God He has prepared for them to do, and finally, they will welcome their Messiah - JESUS, King of kings and Lord of lords.

• From the point that Christ had been accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, we feel the chill winds of change in His message and ministry.
• He was to complete His unique ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, for He must fulfil all that was written about the Messiah in Scripture, but He began to teach in parables so the unbelieving masses would hear with their ears yet not understand in their heart.
• He also began in earnest to prepare His few, faithful followers for His fast approaching death and Resurrection, and for their forthcoming ministry as the foundational apostles and prophets of the Church.

• His faithful followers were to remain in the world and continue the work that Jesus Himself had begun; a ministry of reconciliation.

• Just as Christ is the head of the Church and was submissive to His Heavenly Father, during His earthly ministry, so a husband is the head of the wife, who should similarly be submissive.

• Early in His ministry, it was revealed to Peter by the Spirit of God, that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
• In His earthly ministry, Christ was only sent to Israel, but His true mission was to include the whole world.
• Earlier in His ministry, He was recognised by many as the Messiah who had come from God to save His people and to set up His promised earthly kingdom.

• Indeed, there was a small remnant of Jewish believers during Christ's earthly ministry, and in the early days of the Church, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and were saved - and today, during this Christian dispensation, there is still a small remnant of Jewish people whose eyes have been opened to the truth of the gospel of grace and who believe that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and Son of the living God.

• The apostle John was one of Christ's chosen disciples who walked with the Lord Jesus from the very beginning of His earthly ministry.
• The apostle John was one of those that was closest to Jesus throughout His earthly ministry.
• Yes, John desired that others would also engage in the same close communion with Jesus that he himself enjoyed, both during Christ's ministry on earth and during His current session, where He is seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high in heavenly glory.

• And so the mystery hidden for ages and generations was now revealed to His saints through the unique ministry of the apostle Paul.

• It was at Pentecost when the baton was passed from Israel to the Church, for a season, and from that Day of Pentecost until the start of the Great Tribulation, God is forwarding his plans and purposes through Church-age believers who have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation.
• Many had heard Christ's words during His earthly ministry but failed to give heed to everything He said until their eyes were opened in those early days of the Christian Church.

• And while Peter's ministry, together with the other apostles, was mainly to the Jews, Paul's apostolic ministry was mainly to the Gentiles.
• The gospel of the kingdom that had been taught during Christ's earthly ministry was postponed until the time of the end, because Israel rejected and crucified their Messiah.
• The book of Galatians was written because certain Judaisers and religious-minded legalists went from church to church challenging the person of Paul and his work, his ministry and message, his teachings, his calling, and the gospel of the grace of God that is accessed through faith. They believed they were saved by their Jewish ancestry and taught that Gentiles could not be saved unless they first converted to Judaism and participated in circumcision and other Jewish practices.
• Because of the opposition to his teaching and ministry, it was necessary for Paul to not only defend the truth of the gospel that he taught and justify his own apostolic calling, but to clarify the true gospel of salvation that he taught; that every man, Jew and Gentile alike, is a guilty sinner who is under God's eternal condemnation, who can only be declared righteous by God through FAITH in Christ Jesus. And so Paul penned his epistle to the Galatians to vehemently condemn their false teaching and meticulously set out the one and only way to be saved - as a free gift of God's grace which is accessed by Jews and Gentiles alike - BY FAITH.

• In his Gospel, Luke wrote down all that Jesus began to do and teach during his earthly ministry, describing His birth, life, death, burial, and rising from the dead.
• This passage in Acts, clearly tells us that Christ's earthly ministry began when John the Baptist commenced his prophetic witness, with the warning: Repent, for the Kingdon of Heaven is near.
• For most of Christ's earthly ministry, He and His disciples taught the gospel of the kingdom, but because Israel rejected God's anointed King, Christ returned to heaven for a season, while God continued His plan of redemption through the Church.
• He recognised that the new apostle needed to be a man who had not only been with them all from the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry, until the day when Jesus was taken up into heaven, but was also a man who would become the 12th witness, to testify to Christ's Resurrection: Therefore, Luke explains in this passage, he must be chosen from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John (from the start of John the Baptist's ministry) until the day Jesus was taken up from us.
• But as we search the Scriptures for the whole council of God, it becomes increasingly clear that those ministering in Christ's PRE-Cross ministry will govern over the 12 tribes of Israel in Christ's Millennial Kingdom, while Paul was clearly appointed as the apostle to the Gentiles.

• The Lord Jesus had just finished His ministry in the Galilee area and set His face to Jerusalem.
• He began training His disciples for their post Resurrection ministry, and increasingly He made hints about His person, His sacrifice on the Cross, and His coming kingdom.
• Jesus not only started to explain privately to His disciples about His mission and ministry (His death and Resurrection), but He also talked to the crowd about what it really means for a believer to become a true disciple of His.

• During his lifetime, Paul had to face much personal criticism and significant hostility towards his message and his ministry, but he was not ashamed of the gospel, because he knew the gospel of Christ was the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
• It was Paul's deep desire to encourage Timothy to reflect this same fervour, and not to allow critics to discourage him in his own pastoral ministry.

• When the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, He entered His new life - His heavenly ministry.

• He was sent to bring them into His glorious light so that they might fulfil the ministry that had been entrusted to them so many centuries before, to tell the nations of the good news of God.

• As Christ's ministry progressed, we see Him authenticating His messianic claims through a series of supernatural demonstrations of God's power.
• As Christ's ministry progressed, He gave greater understanding of Who He was to as many as would believe on Him, but for those whose ears were deaf to His voice and whose hearts were closed to His call, He began to teach in parables so that those with a heart of unbelief would hear with their ears but not understand in their soul.
• Throughout His ministry, Jesus increasingly demonstrated His power over sickness and diseases, demons and death, until that pivotal day in history when the sting of death was swallowed up in victory.

• And during His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus made it increasingly clear that there is no more important relationship in the life of a believer that our relationship with HIM.

• Love is displayed in selflessly giving to others and the ministry in which we are engaged should manifest the sacrificial grace, compassion, and kindness that Christ has shown towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for US.

• But just as Moses had harsh criticism from jealous, envious men, so Paul was hounded throughout his ministry by those who sought to destroy him, silence his message, and demolish his Christian witness.

• It was John, the beloved disciple, who loved his Lord with a deep passion and who had walked with Jesus from the start of His three-year ministry, that was given this unique glimpse of the risen, ascended, glorified Son of Man.

• In His pre-Cross ministry, Jesus was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

• Before beginning his ministry and missionary journeys, Paul was caught up into heaven and saw unspeakable things about which he was commanded not to speak.
• The hindrance Paul had in his life, was designed by God to make his ministry even more effective.
• Whether we have a specific 'thorn in the flesh' or whether we are simply encompassed about by the difficulties and dangers of normal life, God is no respecter of persons, and the grace and strength that Paul received throughout his ministry is the same grace and strength which is freely available to all who have been saved, by grace through faith in Christ.

• Although we are able to see tiny glimpses of the coming dispensation of grace during Christ's earthly ministry, where the Body of Christ (which is the Church) would bring forth the fruit of the gospel of God, Christ's pre-Cross ministry was in general directed towards His chosen people, Israel.

• During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus described Himself as the Vine and explained that we are branches on that heavenly Vine.

• It may require us to follow scriptural guidelines to rebuke or challenge a man or ministry, but any admonishment should never be aggressively or deliberately confrontational.

• Hebrews is the book that sets out to show that the Person and ministry of Lord Jesus is vastly superior to anything that has gone before.
• We recognise much in the old order; the Mosaic Law, the Tabernacle, the sacrifices, the feasts, and the priesthood, as typifying Christ and pointing us to the Person, the ministry, and the finished work of Lord Jesus, which is vastly superior to anything that has gone before.

• Jeremiah's entire, prophetic ministry to Israel fell on deaf ears, as he warned them of the severe judgements to come if they did not repent of their apostate ways and return to the Lord their God.
• Jeremiah was a good and faithful servant in the ministry to which he was called.

• Throughout His ministry, Jesus applied various Old Testament Scriptures to Himself, even identifying Himself as, the Stone which the builders rejected, Who has become the chief Cornerstone. That Stone is a stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence - such that all who believe on Him will not be disappointed.
• During the first part of His ministry, He ministered specifically to the Jews... in such a way that His mission and Messianic claims were undeniably clear.

• Jesus is the Word made flesh, and throughout His earthly ministry His humanity was the important focus of the Gospel writings.

• In the power of the Spirit, they would be able to withstand the increasing attacks of the enemy and to stand fast in this evil age, and so Paul encouraged them, and us, to walk in spirit and truth, be sober in all things, to endure hardship, to do the work of an evangelist, and to fulfil our particular ministry.

• Paul was required, therefore, to give an intense defence of his apostolic ministry.
• He explained, in his defence, that he had been separated from his mothers womb, by God's grace, for a special work - a specific ministry to the Gentiles.
• Although there are many today who continue to discredit Paul's ministry and his apostolic calling, we would do well to pay attention to his teaching, for he opens our understanding to many Church age mysteries - including that as the Church, we are members of Christ's Body and have the permanently indwelling Spirit Who provides us with godly power to guide us in our earthly walk.

• They were to focus on their important ministry and not be needlessly delayed by profitless talk or diverted from their important task by unnecessary diversions.
• Indeed, the 70 were reminded to pray earnestly about their ministry, asking God to send more labourers into the harvest-field so that lost souls could hear the good news of the glorious gospel of grace and be eternally saved by faith in Christ.
• This was a special office and unique privilege for these 70 disciples which they undertook during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, but there are many principles in this passage of Scripture that can apply to our Christian walk as we witness of the coming of the Lord to a world of lost sinners who need a gracious Saviour.

• It was through his ministry that the mystery of the glorious gospel of grace, which was hidden in ages past, was made known to the Gentile nations; that all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, old or young, bond or free) might be saved by grace through faith in Him.
• The gospel of God's grace was made known to the Gentiles through the grace and apostleship that Paul himself received, and it was through his ministry that this good news of the grace of God and peace with Him has continued to be poured out upon all people on earth, during this Church dispensation.

• This blasphemous accusation was the turning point in His ministry when Jesus started to teach His disciples, and all who trusted Him, in parables.
• Although there is much that the Church can learn from the kingdom parables, it is always important to remember that the focus of Christ's pre-Cross ministry was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and that He is really speaking about a future generation of Jews whose blinded eyes will be opened and deaf ears will be unblocked.
• Too often those with deaf ears and blinded eyes consider Christ's earthly ministry to have failed in its cause, for He was crucified, dead, and buried.

• Today, we have far greater illumination than King David, for we have been given the whole counsel of God in the completed Scriptures, we have eyewitness accounts of Christ's ministry, message, His sacrificial death, and glorious Resurrection.

• As a result, Paul was vehemently opposed by legalists who deliberately undermined his ministry and his message... and the churches throughout Galatia were infected with this false teaching.

• During His ministry, men marvelled at His biblical knowledge and wondered at the gracious words that fell from His lips.

• It was the hardness of the nation's heart that dictated that Christ started to speak to them in parables at this point in His ministry, because they had proved that their interest in Him was superficial, temporal, and selfish.
• And although the major mysteries of the Church (which is His Body) would be revealed to Paul, it was at this point in Christ's ministry that He started to give a glimpse into the mysteries of the kingdom, to all who had ears to hear.

• Man did not comprehend the enormity of what had happened in Bethlehem some thirty years earlier, and throughout His ministry, men continued to misunderstand the Man, His ministry, and His message.

• Little by little and precept upon precept, we are brought in the book of Hebrews to acknowledge that Christ's heavenly, high-priestly ministry is so much more superior than the earthly, Aaronic priesthood that preceded it.

• The conditions of the Law were not set aside, but through the birth of Christ into the human race and His sinless life and ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, God purposed that Jesus would fulfil every legal requirements of God's holy Law on behalf of every fallen sinner - and the single requirement to benefit from His sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection, was faith in HIM - to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ - and by believing, be given salvation as a free gift of God's grace: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

• He was told at the start of his ministry that he would suffer many things for the name of the Lord Jesus, and what a catalogue of trials and tribulations have been listed in his various epistles.

• Christ's ministry in the gospel of Luke, began with His Baptism by the Spirit in the Jordan, when the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a Dove, descended and rested on Christ.
• His signs, His wonders, His message, and His ministry, were foretold by prophets of old, and His heavenly mission and Messianic claims were authenticated through His words and actions, and Peter reminded the crowd of these things: Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, was a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.

• God, Whose Holy Spirit indwells all believers, will use the prayers, praises, ministry, and life of the saints to finish His good work in the destruction of evil.

• To gain a full and comprehensive understanding of the New Testament requires a student of Scripture to be familiar with the Old Testament, for many of the prophetic Scriptures are brought to completion in the New, and many of the people in Old Testament times are identified as a type of Christ or their teachings and experiences are made manifested through His mission and ministry.

• The second chapter of Luke's Gospel gives the greatest insight into Christ's early years, His childhood, and His pre-ministry preparation.
• Not only in His adult ministry but throughout His childhood and youth, the Lord Jesus was the sinless Son of God Who learned obedience by the things that He suffered.

• The first part of Paul's ministry was to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.

• Jeremiah's public ministry of calling the nation of Israel to repent of their sin and turn from their hypocritical religiosity, was treated with indifference and contempt by his fellow-countrymen, causing this man of God deep distress.
• But his cautions were ignored, their idolatry increased, and Jeremiah's lament seems to identify one of the lowest moments in his ministry and expose his own vexation with this stiff-necked, iron-willed nation.
• His 'unprofitable' ministry caused this man of God to long for an opportunity to move far away from his people, to some little wayfarer's lodging in the desert or some other distant place.

• For instance, he points out that the suffering we undergo for Christ's sake, brings with it great reward and equips us for the ministry of comfort, in that when we are weak in ourselves we are strong in the Lord, but when we are proud of our self-sufficiency, we will suffer a tremendous fall.

• No doubt, on that first day of the week, they rejoiced to have Paul in their midst and doubtless listened intently to his message and ministry, until the hour of midnight.

• Later chapters give a detailed account of the ministry and missionary journeys of Paul and other servants of God, and detail various incidents that happened along the way.
• The latter part of the book focusses on the work and ministry of Paul, and in this verse, we read that he did not shrink from declaring the whole council of God to those he visited.
• Paul knew that the message of the Cross is deeply offensive to the proud heart of the unregenerate man, but throughout his ministry, he never shrank back from declaring everything that would be profitable for their eternal soul.

• This man had heard about Paul's ministry.

• Starting from their slavery in Egypt, he progressed through Jewish history until he reached the ministry of John the Baptist who preached a baptism of repentance to Israel and identified Jesus as: The Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.

• As the day for His departure drew ever closer, we find Jesus preparing men for a ministry that would shortly be handed over to them.
• Earlier in His ministry, Christ had sent out His twelve disciples on a ministry mission in northern Israel.
• Although the ministry of the 70 was a unique, pre-Cross commission, there are many aspects of their ministry that are relevant for the Body of Christ today, as we... like them, are sent out into the world to continue to share the gospel of Christ with whomsoever we meet.
• Their instruction not to carry money and make provision for their ministry, does not suggest irresponsibility but demands a determined trust in God's provision, Who has promised to supply all our needs according to His riches in glory.
• And no matter what thrilling results we witness in our ministry for Christ, and no matter what excitement we experience along the way, nothing should overshadow the wonderful truth that we are covered by the blood of the Lamb - and that our names are written in heaven.

• During His earthly ministry, Peter confessed, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Father had revealed this wonderful truth to Peter, and it was upon this stupendous revelation that Christ would build His church.

• These were prophets who foretold of astonishing future events which would have little impact on their own earthly life, but it was revealed to each one that their ministry was being addressed to a future generation.

• The apostle Paul had a ministry that was distinct from the other disciples who accompanied the Lord Jesus from the beginning of His earthly ministry.
• Paul's ministry was exclusive, his commission was unique, and his calling was distinctive.
• Paul did not receive the apostolic message he taught through the ministry of Peter, James, John, or any of Christ's other apostles.
• And as a result, God equipped him and used him for a very special ministry.
• You and I will not be called on to write sections of the New Testament or undertake the ministry to which Paul was called... but like him, we can all respond to God's call on our lives, listen to His voice, obey His instruction, and heed His call - so that like Paul we can fulfil the good work that God has prepared for us to do - to His greater praise and glory.

• It was during His second year of ministry that this healing took place.

• All that pertains to life and godliness in a believer is achieved through the ministry of the Holy Spirit within our heart and the intercessory ministry of our great High Priest in heaven, for it is God Who works in us, to equip each believer to mature in the faith, to grow in grace, and to come into a fuller and deeper knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

• Having reminded him of the rise of false teachers who compromise the truth of the glorious gospel with a 'comfortable' creed designed to tickle men's itching ears, Paul's final instruction to his 'son in the faith' is: But you, be sober in all things; endure hardship; do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.
• Paul's fourth instruction to Timothy was specific: Fulfil you ministry. He was never to give-up when difficulties arose but was to keep on to the very end and accomplish the purpose for which he had been called.
• But as Paul's life was soon to cease, the urgency to remind Timothy to be sober in all things, to endure hardship, to do the work of an evangelist, and to fulfil the sacred ministry for which he was called, was close to Paul's heart.
• We also have the responsibility to heed Paul's words of warning, his instructions on living the Christlike life, and to be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfil our unique ministry.

• There came a trigger-point in Christ's ministry when He knew that Israel would reject His mission, ministry, and Messiahship.
• However, it was at this turning point in His ministry, that the Lord told the parable of the sower and explained to His faithful disciples why He was speaking in parables, for whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have... even what he has shall be taken away from him.

• May we take to heart the words of Jeremiah, who faced incredible hardship in his ministry: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord.

• He knew that a good minister of the Word would keep this as a priority in his life and ministry, but he also gave stark warning of an infestation of false teachers and doctrines of demons, energised by Satan and designed to lead many people astray from God's promise of salvation.

• It was at the beginning of His ministry that Jesus entered into this den of thieves and overturned the tables of the unprincipled moneychangers.

• He only 'came upon' certain people whom the Lord called to fulfil a particular mission or special ministry.
• He convicts sinners of their need of salvation, and saints of their need to be holy, and He carries out the ministry of regeneration in the spirit of a man or woman who trusts in the death, burial, and Resurrection of Christ for salvation.

• Despite the testimony of John the Baptist, which announced the arrival of Israel's Messiah-King, and the many signs and wonders that Jesus performed during His earthly ministry, we read that the Lord Jesus was despised and rejected by the religious leaders of His day.

• Joshua had been honed from the very beginning for this new and different ministry with all its problems and challenges.
• It was a ministry for which Moses was not qualified, but it was a position that God had purposed would be carried out by Joshua.

• He simply pointed to His own ministry which fulfilled the prophetic Scriptures and authenticated His claim.
• Jesus was explaining that the importance of hearing the Word of God, and responding positively to His Holy Spirit's ministry in their life, lines up with the rest of Scripture.

• The focus of his ministry related to the rebuilding of the Temple of God, which had been utterly destroyed decades earlier by Nebuchadnezzar, the first great king of Babylon.

• Like all of Christ's disciples, Peter started following the Lord at the start of Christ's ministry when Jesus was teaching the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that the kingdom of heaven was near.

• It was early in His ministry that the Lord Jesus began to be resented by the Pharisees.

• His ministry as our great High Priest is matchless, while the offering of Himself on the Cross is unsurpassed in history and infinitely superior to the blood of bulls and goats, which were simply a type of Him Who was to come.
• Christ has a more excellent Name, a superior Ministry, and is the single Mediator of a better covenant which was ratified through His shed blood on Calvary.

• From the start of Christ's ministry, the scribes and Pharisees resented His unorthodox teaching and heavenly testimony, which laid claims to His being the incarnate Son of God Who came to earth from heaven as the anointed Messiah of Israel.

• For this reason Paul gives a very clear and detailed description of his holy calling and apostolic ministry.

• This Old Testament character is used to show that Christ's heavenly, high priestly ministry, is vastly superior to the limited, earthly, Aaronic priesthood.

• It was early in His ministry when the incarnate Son of God started to choose certain men to be His disciples, many of whom would be used of God to pen the Scriptures for our learning.

• Jesus was in the line of Judah and thus qualified to become Israel's king, but He was also destined to be God's holy, High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, and John the Baptist was called to commission Christ's coming priestly ministry, as well as to introduce Israel to their true Messiah: Behold, he cried, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

• And as the time for his departure drew ever closer, Peter wanted to ensure that those who had grown in grace and matured in the faith, were equipped to continue Christ's ministry of reconciliation, and to care for the flock of God - and so he spoke directly to the elders of the Church who had the authority over God's people.

• His ministry would not be an easy task, but one that would entail much hardship and suffering.
• Indeed, the catalogue of problems and persecutions that Paul endures in his ministry is almost without equal, for on numerous occasions he was imprisoned, beaten, whipped, and shipwrecked.

• They all witnessed His Resurrection and were all men who travelled with Jesus when He started to go in and out among them, during John the Baptist's ministry (when he challenged the lost sheep of the house of Israel to repent of their sins, for the kingdom of heaven was at hand and their King was in their midst).
• Paul wanted to make it clear that the same Spirit of God who had empowered Peter for his God-authorised apostleship among the Jews, is the same Holy Spirit Who was working powerfully in his own ministry and apostleship to Gentile believers.
• Paul’s biblical authority is not invalidated because others are prejudiced against him, have misgivings about him, or are jealous of his ministry.

• Paul's ministry objective was to teach the good news of the glorious gospel of grace to the people of God and to instruct them on godly living.

• Just as Christ's earthly ministry was predominantly to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, so His response to the disciples' question was predominantly referring to the time of Jacob's trouble, the 70th week of Daniel, just prior to His return in the clouds when Israel will cry out: Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.

• Although His ministry was to the Jew first, He always showed great compassion to the Gentiles who came to Him for help.
• This Roman commander was a remarkable man, who showed a far greater awareness of Christ's mission, ministry, and sovereign authority over sickness and death, than the Jews.

• Paul had a unique ministry to the Gentiles.
• He was not appointed during Christ's earthly ministry, nor was he appointed to be an apostle by the authority of other men (as was the replacement for Judas, when the lot fell upon Matthias).
• Paul was singular in his apostleship, unique in his ministry, and singular in his message.
• Paul did not continue teaching the gospel of the coming kingdom on earth which Christ and the apostles proclaimed during His pre-Cross ministry.

• It is unlikely that 'ALL' fellow believers who had 'turned away from him' had deserted the gospel of Christ, but it was no doubt painful for Paul to feel so forsaken by trusted friends, in the twilight years of his ministry.
• Paul was shown at the start of his ministry, all the things he would be required to suffer for Christ's sake, and he wanted Timothy to remain faithful to his calling, in spite of the hardships he would also face.
• And in his lonely cell, as Paul awaited his execution, we are blessed to hear about Onesiphorus, his gracious ministry to the apostle, and his faithful service to the Lord.

• Paul had a glorious ministry that flung wide-open the door of salvation to men.

• Although we often imagine the ministry of John the Baptist to be one of a passionate prophet who ate locusts and wild honey as he wandered in the wilderness and accused the proud, unrepentant Pharisees of being a brood of vipers, he was also a man dedicated to prayer who prayed in the in spirit and power of Elijah.

• Before Jesus was to embark on His earthly ministry and set out on His three year march to the Cross, it was necessary for Him to demonstrate that He was qualified to act as the federal Head of God's new creation of mankind.

• Only then could the nation of Israel fulfil their ministry of being a light to the Gentiles, but they refused and God set Israel aside, for a season, while He continued His work of redemption through the Church.

• Following Christ's death, resurrection, ascension and glorification, we discover the murderous Saul of Tarsus being selected for a unique ministry by the Lord Jesus Himself, which he describes as: The dispensation of the grace of God.

• He rebuked the blind, hypocritical leaders of Israel, who refused to acknowledge His message and His ministry, for He knew the terrible consequences of rejecting their Messiah.

• Christ's royal birth in the regal city of Bethlehem, together with the many prophesied signs and wonders He performed during His three-year ministry, authenticated His Messianic mission and verified His kingly claims to the throne of His father, David - great David's greater Son.

• Paul was a major vessel that God used in Christ's post-Cross ministry to reveal much of that form of teaching that is exclusively given to the Body of Christ.

• How important it was that the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven at the end of His earthly ministry, for only then could He send the indwelling Holy Spirit as the seal of all God's promises to those who believe on Him.
• How wonderful to realise that in returning to heaven He would take up His twofold ministry as our great High Priest interceding to the Father on our behalf and also our heavenly Advocate and Mediator between God and man; a heavenly Saviour Who forgives all our sins.

• OR, alternatively, they teach of nothing but a dead Jesus without linking His sacrificial death to His glorious Resurrection and present-day ministry in heaven.

• Throughout His earthly ministry, Christ had been teaching of the coming kingdom of God, and so with excited anticipation His disciples asked Jesus: Lord, is it at this time You are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

• It was at the start of Christ's ministry that Jesus walked from His hometown in Galilee to the River Jordan to be baptised by John, to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, and to be confirmed as God's only Begotten Son and Israel's promised Messiah.

• For the three years of Christ's own ministry, we see evidence of little seeds of faith taking root, growing, and blossoming into a firm foundation of unshakable faith.

• John rejoiced to receive good tidings of this Christian brother, who was acting faithfully in his ministry role and was fruitful in his various endeavours.

• Let us be united in our mission and ministry so that we are all one in Christ, for we are all Christ's, and Christ is God's.

• It encompasses the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit in all believers, the one Body of believers made up of Jews and Gentiles, the Rapture of the Church, and the mystery of the gospel, to name but a few.

• Jesus had kept His identity hidden from many during His earthly ministry, but as He stood before Caiaphas, He boldly identified Himself with a title that could only be used by the almighty, everlasting God.

• Throughout his ministry, Paul faithfully fulfilled his assignment and discovered that God's grace is sufficient, for His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

• The people considered John to be a great prophet and yet his ministry was a partial preparation for the good news of the gospel that was to follow.

• They had heard him preaching of the coming Messiah and already knew about Jesus, Who like them, had been following John from the start of his ministry.

• Having been saved by grace through faith, all who are beloved of God are not only called to be saints, but are supplied with the sufficient grace that enables, empowers, equips, and commissions each child of God in their own appointed mission and ministry.

• During Christ's ministry, He told his disciples not to rejoice that they could heal the sick or cast our demons.
• May we never place importance on the ministry to which we are called, the study we have done, our past heritage, current achievements, or spiritual gifts, for ALL that we are and ALL that we have is given to us from above.

• Paul was no stranger to those that were hostile to his ministry and his message.
• There seems to be no rivalry between Paul and Epaphras, because their united focus was the Lord Jesus, their singular ministry was to preach Christ crucified, and their common goal was to spread the gospel of God to the unsaved, while also bringing the body of Christ into spiritual maturity.

• These mysteries together with the mystery of lawlessness, the mystery of the gospel, and the mystery of God, were hidden secrets which were revealed to us through the ministry of Christ's appointed apostles.

• Throughout His ministry, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were at enmity with Christ, but as the time for His crucifixion drew ever closer, we see their hostility escalating, and their accusations against the Lord Jesus, becoming increasingly hostile.
• These short-sighted men demonstrated their ignorance of the Law, and their disdain for Christ's mission, ministry, and witness with their haughty resistance and foolish jibes.

• The great desire of his heart was to have a fruitful ministry among them, just as he had in so many other Gentile towns and cities.

• He uses things like the Cross of Christ and Paul's own ministry in order to humiliate those that are wise in their own eyes.

• Every area of His message, ministry, power, and authority, was challenged, including the astonishing healing miracles He had performed in their midst.

• But we do know Paul was a faithful servant of the Lord and his ministry, and that his testimony had far-reaching effects in the spread of the gospel.

• During His earthly ministry, prayer was not only a vital part of life - but a subject about which the Lord taught often and an issue that should rejoice our hearts and become a vital element of our Christian walk.  

• Mark is the shortest gospel... detailing the work of Christ's ministry, the calling of His disciples, the healing of the sick, and the teaching of the kingdom, at breakneck speed.
• The Lord Jesus knew how the pressures of ministry affect the human body.
• Just as Jesus gave these men work to do, so He called them to step aside from their mission and ministry and rest for a while.

• How wonderful to realise that in Christ, our ministry and mission is to show forth the fragrance of His love, not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up ourselves to His standard and service.

• But Elijah wanted his fiery ministry to continue.
• Elijah had enjoyed his ministry and wanted his own personal 'success' to continue... rather than humbly recognising that God's plans and purposes span from eternity past, into the ages to come.

• Christ had made many references to the crucifixion and His rising from the dead after three days, but He also wanted to prepare them for things yet to come - things that would take place after He had left them - things would become so much clearer in the future from the day of Pentecost (when the Spirit of Truth would be sent), to the mysteries that would be unveiled to them through the ministry of the apostle Paul.

• About a year into his ministry, Jesus decided to return to Nazareth.
• The people in Christ's hometown limited His wonderful healing work and great redemptive ministry, because of unbelief.

• Philemon was a wealthy man from Colossae who came to faith in Christ through Paul's ministry and became a beloved friend of the apostle.
• Under Paul's ministry, the runaway slave trusted Christ for salvation and became a valuable helper in spreading the gospel.
• This verse is also a lovely testimony of Philemon's developing Christian character, for news had reached the apostle's ears that other believers were being refreshed through Philemon's ministry.

• During his ministry, John gathered large numbers of followers who were passionately loyal to him, but some became concerned that Jesus was attracting people away from John's ministry.
• Before His baptism Jesus had been a follower of John, but after His baptism and testing in the wilderness, Jesus began His own ministry.
• John's ministry may have started in a dramatic way, but he was not to be the focus of attention.
• In the midst of his declining ministry, and as a comfort to his distressed disciples, John gave the most beautiful explanation of his relationship to Jesus.
• John was faithful in his ministry.
• Rather than express regret that his ministry was dwindling, John was filled with joy that the Lord Jesus was apparently succeeding in His work for the Father.  
• Their rejection of their Messiah caused the Baptist's ministry to be cut short and Christ's kingdom to be postponed, until a new generation of Israelites would welcome Him.

• Israel as a nation, was still in unbelief after three years of Christ's earthly ministry, and Jesus knew that the nation would reject Him as their King.

• They rejected God-the-Son in the Person of Jesus throughout His earthly ministry... and their abusive murder of Stephen was a clear rejection of God the Holy Spirit.

• A little earlier in His ministry while at the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus had laid claim to the fact that He was Israel's promised Messiah with the words, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor.

• Indeed, it is suggested that Christ's rebuke to His disciples concerning this incident, was the most forceful chastening remark He made throughout His entire ministry.

• Indeed, the first sermon that Peter preached after he had been baptised with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, was a greater work than all the recorded work that was carried out by Christ in His earthly ministry.
• The work that Peter did on that first day of Pentecost was a greater work than had been secured during the entire recorded ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

• He was not resentful that this thriving ministry was not the result of his own personal labour, for Paul knew that jealousy and strife among believers is a result of a proud heart and fleshly behaviour.

• From the start of His ministry to His cruel crucifixion on Calvary's Cross, Jesus taught His disciples to love one another, with a godly love.
• The love of God for us is displayed, from the beginning of Christ's ministry - it is displayed from His birth in Bethlehem to His sacrificial offering on the Cross and glorious Resurrection.

• God has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

• Paul concludes by reminding them that the 'man-of-sin' will be only revealed when the Restrainer of lawlessness is removed: Then that lawless one will be revealed. The Restrainer is the Holy Spirit, and His restraining ministry is being carried out today through the Church.
• Only when the Church has been removed at the Rapture and the Holy Spirit's restraining ministry comes to an end, will the Antichrist be revealed.

• John, who is so often referred to as 'the apostle of love', wrote at the sunset of his life, Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. (through the ministry of Jesus Christ our Lord.)
• It was the same commandment that he had taught to sinner and saint alike, from the beginning of his post-Cross ministry.
• John understood the importance of obeying Christ's new commandment - which was the same old commandment that had been taught from the very start of Christ's ministry - a love that started before the foundation of the world and can be traced throughout the entire Word of God.

• Although this verse was probably addressing the public ministry of the Word, in a day when the reading of personal Scripture is being replaced with watered down and distorted audio-visual alternatives, all Christians should give heed to these instruction from Paul and make opportunities to engage in both the personal and public reading of Scripture as well as paying careful attention that what is preached and taught from the pulpit.

• The eighth chapter of Romans begins in no condemnation and concludes in glory, and in this beautiful passage we are gently led into a fuller understanding of the wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit that takes place in the life of a believer.

• He has given to US - the Church, which is Christ's Body, the ministry of reconciliation, during this dispensation of the age of grace.

• And in this final epistle of encouragement and warning, he trumpeted a call to faithfulness in ministry, courage in the challenges of life, and patient endurance when facing the inevitable hardships that pursue all who live godly in Christ Jesus.
• If there is a theme that threads its way through the entire epistle, it would be the urgent call to 'faithfulness.' Timothy was admonished to be faithful in ministry, faithful in conduct, faithful in preaching the foundational truth of the Word..
• No doubt he saw Timothy grow in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus during their ministry together, but as the time for his parting drew ever closer, Paul was prompted to write to his young co-labourer, exhorting him to continue in the things that he had learned from him..

• Therefore, even though this psalm, like other psalms, prayers, and praises of David is an ever-present source of comfort and encouragement to all believers, and rightly so, this verse is a prayer that the Christian can never pray, for in so doing it demonstrates a lack of understanding of the permanent, indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of ALL believers - following Christ’s finished work on Calvary's Cross.
• This prayer of David was a prayer that he needed to pray, for prior to the Cross the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit was only for certain people in Israel at certain times.
• Kings, prophets, and selected individuals would be indwelled by the Spirit for a specific ministry - and He would leave when their task was completed or if that believer sinned (as was typified in the life of king Saul).
• But this is very different from the permanently indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of ALL believers, ever since He was sent, by Christ, at Pentecost.

• James was unconvinced of his Siblings authority and deity during the Lord's earthy ministry.

• It is not for us to question why God chooses to use a particular man or ministry in a certain way while rejecting another.

• Their ministry was to be given without cost, and they were instructed on how to conduct themselves during this important assignment.

• But sadly their hearts were darkened to the truth, and most rejected his message and ministry.

• Paul laboured hard to preach and teach the truth of the glorious gospel of Christ, and he warned unceasingly of the many false teachers who strove to undermine his God-appointed ministry and to confound the faith of believers with false doctrine, religious legalism, and twisting of the truth.

• As members of Christ's Body, we too have been given the responsibility to continue Christ's ministry of reconciliation to a world of lost sinners, as directed by God the Father through the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the praise and glory of His holy name.

• It was in the second year of His ministry that the Lord Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda, which means House of Mercy.

• Each 'type' would present one particular aspect of Christ's Person or ministry.
• God often used 'people' and 'things' as a 'type' of Christ in Scripture (to represent some character trait of the Lord Jesus or an important aspect of His ministry).

• At the start of his ministry, Jeremiah had been warned that the people would not listen to his message, and the guilt of the nation stands in stark contrast with the innocence of this solitary prophet of God.

• There are many passages that warn of the torment that awaits those who do not believe in the only begotten Son of God for their eternal redemption, and perhaps there is no more chilling passage that attests to this truth, than the story the Lord Jesus related during his earthly ministry which describes the eternal destinies of Lazarus and the rich man, in Luke chapter 16.
• JESUS HIMSELF would soon walk to the Cross as the ransom price for the sin of the world HE HIMSELF would die and He would rise from the dead, as prophesied by Moses and the Old Testament prophets... but Jesus knew that if these proud Pharisees would not listen to the truth spoken by Moses, the Prophets, and His own Messianic ministry - they would not even be persuaded when HE HIMSELF rose from the dead.

• Worry is one of the greatest hindrances to our spiritual growth, Christian witness, and effective ministry, because worry is one step towards unbelief.

• For the third time during His earthly ministry, God the Father witnessed audibly to the veracity of Christ's Person and Work.
• For the third time, Divine testimony was given to authenticate Christ's Messianic ministry. I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

• Jesus had been born for this hour and His whole life and ministry was focused on this even.

• Numerous prophecies give details of His coming to earth as a babe in Bethlehem, His ministry on earth, His sacrificial death, His glorious Resurrection, and His victory over Satan.

• But Hebrews reminds us that the 'last days' started with the ministry of the Lord Jesus for we read: In these last days God has spoken to us in His Son. John also reminds us: My little children, these are the last days.
• He does not tell us to try to change society per se, but he does instruct us to turn away from such things; to immerse ourselves in the Scriptures; to preach the Word; to be watchful in all things; to endure hardships; to do the work of an evangelist; to fulfil our ministry and to keep the faith.
• May we in like manner fulfil our responsibility to God and our duty towards our fellow man as we look steadfastly to Jesus, study His Word, fulfil the ministry that God has given each of us, and continue to look for His any day appearing, knowing that very soon Christ will be coming in the clouds to take us to be with Himself, before He finally pours our His wrath during that future time of great tribulation.

• John was the one man who, before the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry, was able to testify: This is the Son of God.
• The end, objective, the climax, and the reason for John's message and ministry, was that Jesus was anointed of God to be the promised Messiah and Saviour of the world.

• May we also be wise in our giving, knowing that our gifts not only supply the needs of the saints but is also a ministry that glorifies God.

• They are to equip one another for the ministry or service to which each has been called.

• Not only have we been reconciled to God through Christ, but as members of His Body, we have been commissioned to carry out and continue the ministry of reconciliation that Jesus Himself started during His earthly life: For God has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
• He has given us the ongoing ministry of reconciliation so that others may hear the good news, trust in Jesus for the salvation of their soul, and be reconciled back to God - not only through time but into eternity.

• Many repented of their sin during Christ's pre-Cross ministry.

• There was much that Christ was unable to tell His disciples during those last days and weeks of His earthly ministry as the cross loomed ever closer, for we read that they could not have bourn it.
• But this would come through the ministry of the Comforter: the indwelling Holy Spirit Whom the Father would send to dwell in them forever.

• He was not one of the multitude who was baptised by John unto repentance early in Christ's ministry.

• The goal of Paul's ministry was to spread the gospel of Christ and its salvation message to many people.

• This was the ministry for which God the Father sent His Son into the world – a ministry of reconciliation and hope for a world lost in sin – providing salvation for all that would trust in His finished work on Calvary.
• This indeed was His mission and ministry when He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel 2000 years ago, and this continues to be His mission and ministry throughout this present age of grace, the dispensation of the Church of God.

• The prophet, Jeremiah, whose ministry overlapped with Ezekiel, bemoaned the same intransigence among the people of God when he declared, These people's minds are dull, their ears are hard of hearing.
• And throughout the ministry of the Lord Jesus, Himself, we hear the same call to action: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

• After laying this prophetic foundation and a brief reference to Christ's baptism in the Jordan, His temptation in the wilderness, and John's disgraceful imprisonment, Mark plunges straight into Christ's extended Galilean ministry.
• This extended ministry is the main focus of his short gospel until that final week of Christ's astonishing life on earth.

• Leading up to this section in chapter 3, Paul defended his authority by listing four characteristics of his message and ministry.
• He was simply reminding them that his conduct, whilst living in their midst, should be a sufficient recommendation as to his character, his motive, and the gospel he taught, compared with these legalists who relied on letters of commendation to endorse their ministry.

• Throughout His ministry, Jesus was teaching the people that He had been sent from God to carry out the will of the Father.

• The Lord Jesus is far higher in rank and authority than Aaron the first high priest of Israel, and His ministry eclipses the Levitical priesthood.

• Luke in his Gospel, described all that the Lord Jesus began to do and teach in His earthly ministry and he also put on record, in the book of Acts, all that Jesus continued to do and to teach.

• Timothy was Paul's 'son-in-the-faith' who was not only effective in ministry, but entrusted with a number of tasks and responsibilities, including pastoring the thriving church at Ephesus and acting as an trusted courier, by delivering messages to and from the apostle Paul. 

• The early signs of His rejection had already begun in Judea, and Christ knew His earthly ministry would focus in Galilee, but although He was sent as Messiah to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Jesus was also to become the Saviour of the world.

• Sadly, most of the short-sighted people in Capernaum were simply looking for some temporary physical relief, and were paying little attention to their spiritual poverty, their need of salvation, or their eternal destiny, while the blind, jealous, Jewish leaders foolishly overlooked the presence of the incarnate God, Who was living in their midst - as they sought to find anything that would discredit His important, heavenly-ordained ministry, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

• From early in his ministry, Isaiah recognised that most people in the nation of Israel were apostate.

• Isaiah's prolonged ministry gave details of how the Lord was to bring in a period of time - 'the Times of the Gentiles' during which Gentile nations would become supreme on earth, subjugate Israel, and govern the world, until God's people, as a nation, repent of their sin.

• In the early days of Christ's ministry, John (the energetic 'son of thunder') was disposed to call down fire on those who refused to welcome Jesus into their village.

• Jesus had erroneously been found guilty of blasphemy by the Jews, despite being the eternal Son of God, and proving His authenticity through the many prophetic signs, miracles, and wonders that were carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit, during His three-year ministry.

• Christ's earthly ministry and three-year trek to Calvary's bitter cup which had been prepared for Him before the foundation of the world, was about to begin.

• Teaching in parables became an important tool as Christ's ministry progressed, and it became the main vehicle through which revelation was given to those who followed Him during His earthly life.
• It drew a clear line between those who trusted His message, ministry, and claim to Messiahship, and those who rejected His Person and work, and so we read in this verse: As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables.

• They were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women - and even Mary the mother of Jesus, and His own brothers who had ridiculed him throughout His ministry, were part of that praying company, as with one mind, they hammered on heaven's door.

• As he penned his final epistle from a dungeon in Rome, Paul wanted to encourage this young pastor to stand fast in the faith and endure the inevitable challenges he would face, if he were to be faithful in ministry, remain true to the glorious gospel of grace, and preach the Word of God to a world that was dead in sins and at enmity with God.
• Paul wanted to encourage this young man to remain faithful to his ministry and pastoral duties, as he preached the Word and shared the gospel of Christ with those in need... knowing how easy it is to become discouraged in a hostile and godless world.

• He hated His followers and wished to wipe them off the face of the earth, but his encounter on that momentous day caused a radical change in the future course of his life, his thinking, his passion, and his ministry.

• But the title, the name, the ministry, the sacrificial work, and the decree of the LORD which was given to the unique Son of God, stands fast for ever and ever: You are My Son.

• Paul rejoiced to know that the gospel of Christ was being shed abroad (even though some teachers opposed Paul's ministry and taught about Jesus out of envy and strife), for Paul rejoiced that men and women were being saved by grace through faith in Christ.
• When the gospel of grace was taught by those that opposed Paul's God-ordained ministry out of jealousy or hatred (and even though these teachers were instrumental in many of the trials and tribulations Paul had to face in his ministry to the Gentiles), he was able to write: For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance.
• He did not harbour bitterness against those that oppressed and opposed him, but demonstrated godly love and a desire to see the gospel of God spread far and wide, whether it was preached from a heart of goodwill (that reflected the spirit of Christ) or taught due to envy, contention, and jealously of Paul's God-ordained ministry.
• When a man or ministry is founded on godly principles that lifts up the Lord Jesus Christ, and when earnest prayer, that reflects the love of God in the unity of the Spirit is offered, Christ will be magnified and the gospel will be preached.

• But through all of his long and faithful ministry, he was (like the Lord Jesus) despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with much grief.

• He was teaching that through the ministry of the corporate Body - especially through the teaching of the Word, every member would be increasingly edified and grow in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.

• Timothy was a young man who came to faith through the ministry of Paul.

• Jeremiah had a long ministry which spanned the reign of a number of kings of Judah, the first of which was king Josiah, who was crowned at the age of eight and had been on the throne of Judah for 5 years when the Lord spoke to his servant.
• Although the call on Jeremiah's life was devoid of great visions of heaven like Isaiah, or revealed to his parents like John the Baptist, the knowledge that he had been singled out by God and set apart for an important prophetic ministry, must have been a great encouragement to this young Levite.
• Jeremiah may have been divinely chosen and empowered by God for his prophetic ministry, but he was a man who was humanly hesitant and reluctant to take up this God-ordained role.
• He was also a man who had to endure much hardship during his ministry because of his God-ordained position.
• Although he was a man who had to experience much hardship, loneliness, pain, and rejection, and became known as 'the weeping prophet', Jeremiah was a man who was greatly used by the Lord in the furtherance of God's redemptive plan throughout his ministry and enjoyed much intimate fellowship with the Lord he served.

• The letter Paul penned to Timothy strongly indicated that within the professing Church there were an increasing number of problems, with some departing from the faith and others who had become unfaithful and careless in their work and witness, not only to Paul, but in their ministry and towards the Lord Jesus Himself. 

• He had received increasing opposition to his ministry from legalists and other enemies of the gospel, who vigorously opposed his teaching.

• Paul was given a unique place in the Church because he was the one who was called and chosen by God to have a special ministry to the Gentiles.

• In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul describes our heavenly position in Christ and the amazing mystery which remained hidden in ages past, but which was revealed to the Church through his unique ministry.

• Paul grew in grace from the wretched man that we see in Romans chapter 7, to the liberated man of Romans chapter 8, and his life ministry was sharing with others the open secret of how to grow in grace and in the wisdom of God, and how to grow in love and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• There is no more sublime truth than the message of the Cross, and yet we see a complete misunderstanding of the simple gospel of Christ, both during His own earthly ministry and throughout the apostolic letters that were written to the Church.

• Our heavenly Father testified to the authenticity of Jesus Christ through the multiplied signs, wonders, miracles, and spiritual gifts, which He displayed throughout His earthly ministry and which were carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit.

• He was also a contemporary of the prophet Daniel who had been deported to Babylon years earlier, and Ezekiel's prophetic ministry was mainly to the Jews who had been taken into captivity.
• His ministry was also concurrent with Jeremiah's ministry who was called to prophesy to those left behind in Jerusalem, and both the ministries of Ezekiel and Jeremiah were mutually complimentary.

• Throughout the ministry of John the Baptist, and for the three and a half years of Christ's earthly ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, ISRAEL was being called to repent of their sins once again.
• But despite the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus Himself, they continued in their sinful ways.

• He was rejected by the elders for Israel as their prophet, priest, and king, for they refused to recognise His birth in Bethlehem, and during His ministry they falsely declared, You are not also from Galilee, are you?

• The most beautiful 'picture' of prayer as a sweet fragrance ascending to God, is Christ's own ministry of intercession.
• Today, we know that the ministry of Christ Jesus is continuous intercession, for He is at the right hand of the Father: And ever lives to make intercession for us (the Church). 
• The flame on this alter, which was to be kept burning day and night, is an elegant reminder of Christ's ministry of unceasing prayer and intercession, for He is the one and only Mediator between God and man and His intercession prompts God's people towards continuous prayer and ongoing fellowship with the Father.

• But when He arrived, Jesus did not fit in with their predetermined expectation, and there was a certain point in Christ's ministry when the leaders of the Jews committed the unforgivable sin - they attributed the Spirit's work through Christ, to Beelzebub.
• It was from the point in Christ's ministry where priests and people misunderstood His message and ministry, that the style of His teaching changed from claiming to be Israel's King and proclaiming kingdom principles to the disinterested masses, to preparing the little flock of believers for a different message and ministry, by teaching kingdom mysteries to His committed disciples - through parables.
• The people of Christ's time were reacting to His message and ministry in the same way that the masses in Isaiah's day reacted to his message and ministry. 
• And the same attitude prevailed during Christ's ministry, when He proclaimed His message of salvation and called the nation to repent, proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was near.

• For much of His ministry, the Lord Jesus was teaching the gospel of the kingdom to none but the lost sheep of the house or Israel, but as the animosity and hatred towards their promised Messiah became increasingly evident among the Jewish leaders, Jesus began to prepare His little band of disciples for the significant changes that were about to take place after His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.

• The gifts of the Spirit are given to help equip other believers in their spiritual service, to edify the Body of Christ, and to help to perfect each member of the Church for the particular ministry to which God has called them.

• We are God's representatives on earth during the Church dispensation, and Paul begins his teaching by explaining that every believer is given their own distinctive gifts and unique ministry.
• Not everyone receives the same spiritual gifts, and each ministry is unique, yet varied and complementary.

• Jesus rehearsed the truth of His mission and ministry in the ears of all who stood by... but finally confessed, Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say.. 'Father, save Me from this hour?
• Jesus walked in the shadow of the Cross His entire life and ministry.

• Jesus was in His final year of ministry, having proclaimed Himself to be the true Bread from heaven, the Living Water for the thirsty soul, the Light of the world, and the Son of the Most High God.
• It was in His final year of ministry, as Christ set His face as a flint towards Jerusalem and His prophesied death on the Cross of Calvary drew ever closer, that the enmity of the Scribes and Pharisees mounted in intensity - and a widening rift between true believers and those that hated Him began to develop.
• John the Baptist had identified Him as the Lamb of God, many years before, when he was that voice, crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, and Jesus' ministry was authenticated by the very signs and wonders He performed throughout His earthly life.

• Christ's earthy ministry, His sacrificial gift on Calvary, the establishment of the Church, which is His Body, Her future role as Bride of the King in the coming kingdom of Christ, and her elevated position in the eternal ages to come when she will show forth God’s gracious love to principalities and powers for evermore, were all part of God's eternal plan for her.

• Paul's authority was challenged by Judaisers in Galatia, who distorted the truth of the gospel by persuading believers to add works of the law to the gospel of grace, and so he presented a series of arguments in defence of his message, ministry, apostleship, and doctrine.
• No doubt they rejoiced in the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit and were excited and encouraged that the doctrine of Peter harmonised with that which Paul taught.

• With the arrival of John the Baptist and his public preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, we are fast-forwarded to the start of Christ's own ministry, where His authority is demonstrated and His qualifications validated, through His ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and His message that the kingdom of heaven was 'at hand'.
• Although Christ's earthly ministry was primarily towards Israel, this teaching appears to have relevance for a larger group; those who are living between His first advent and His second (from the start of Christ's ministry to His return, at the end of the Great Tribulation).

• The ministry of Pastor-Teacher can be interpreted as one duel gift, or two separate gifts.

• It was as they prepared themselves to embark upon their second ministry trip that the contention between Paul and Barnabas was so sharp, that they departed from one another... and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus, while Paul continued his missionary journey with another evangelist, called Silas.
• Paul considered that someone who had abandoned them in an earlier ministry could not be trusted to join their company again and would not consent, while Barnabas refused to continue his ministry with Paul if John Mark was not permitted to accompany them.
• While Paul and Barnabas never worked together in ministry again, their disagreements were resolved in later years and John Mark, who angered Paul by departing from their first missionary journey, was used by God to pen the glorious Gospel of Mark.
• And in his final letter to Timothy, from a Roman jail, we see Paul's change of attitude toward John Mark, when he wrote, Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry.
• I wonder, as Paul reflected on his life and ministry, whether the instructions he gave in his later epistles were influenced by his sharp disagreement with Barnabas and his stark refusal to allow John Mark to accompany them.

• This Old Testament command, to honour your father and mother, is not only repeated by the Lord Jesus in His pre-Cross ministry to Israel, but is also reiterated to the Church by Paul, in both Ephesians and Colossians: Children, be obedient to your parents..

• When asked what was the greatest commandment during Christ's earthly, pre-Cross ministry, one scribe gave the perfect answer: Love God with all your heart, and he added, love Your neighbour as yourself.

• Sometimes those special people upon whom we rely the most, need to be removed from our lives in the same way that John was removed from Christ's ministry because the next step of His earthly journey was rapidly moving into days of darkness and difficulty where the Father alone must be Christ's only means of support and sustenance.

• These sad and sombre words were written by Paul to Timothy, very close to the end of his ministry when imprisoned in Rome.

• As Christ's ministry speeded towards His death, so His teachings became more urgent as He set about preparing the hearts of His followers for His forthcoming crucifixion and glorious Resurrection on the third day.

• Jesus knew that He could not commit His life and His important ministry into their safe-keeping..

• Paul had a great love for all who had heard and accepted the gospel of grace through his ministry, and longed to see them again and to fellowship with them in person.
• Paul also knew that his faithful ministry to these believers was rooted in the eternal.

• Just as Christ's early ministry began with His baptism in the Spirit, when the heavens opened and God declared, this is My beloved Son, in the same way, the Church was inaugurated with the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

• We are God's representatives on earth during the Church dispensation, and Paul began his teaching by explaining that each member is given their own distinctive gifts and unique ministry.
• Not everyone receives the same spiritual gifts, and each ministry is unique, yet varied.