Sat 3.6 – Ministering Christ, Through Christ

Today’s Readings: Col 3.1-4; Eph 4; 2 Cor 5

I hope everyone still have yesterday’s study fresh on their mind because we are going to pick up right where we left off. Just to jog our memory, God says in Colossians 3 that IF WE ARE RISEN WITH CHRIST (if we are truly believers) then we should be SEEKING and SETTING our AFFECTION on the THINGS ABOVE and not on the THINGS ON EARTH. Then when we look through the Bible we find four things that God says specifically are ABOVE THINGS. Those things are…

1. The Person of God
2. The Word of God
3. The Throne of God
4. The Family of God

Yesterday’s study was all about the FAMILY of God and how important it was to Him. You could say that yesterday was the EMPHASIS, and today is the EXECUTION. Or, to put it a little simpler, yesterday we saw the TEACHING from God about how big of a deal this FAMILY OF GOD thing is to Him, and today we are going to see the PRACTICAL side of thing, what that means to me today…

If you will, open your Bible to Eph 4. If you do not have a copy of the scriptures handy, you can click on the link above and it will direct you to the passage of scripture online (you may want to right-click and choose ‘open in new tab’ so you do not loose this page.)

Back in our main section of study in the Scriptures during this DIRECTIONS series, you may remember Col 1.24 which clearly explains that another way of describing the church, or the Family of God, is the “BODY OF CHRIST”. I think we have all heard that expression used before and are comfortable with it. Keep that definition in mind as you read these next verses…

There are 2 basic things that come with seeking the FAMILY of God:

The first one is this (1) we are to MINISTER OUR GIFTS TO THOSE WHO ARE IN HIS FAMILY. Check out what God teaches us about SPIRITUAL GIFTS in Eph 4.11-16! First he lists some of the spiritual gifts (ie, prophecy, evangelism, pasturing, teaching…and you can see 1 Cor 12
& 14 for more on these gifts and their purpose). Then he moves right into explaining why those gifts are given… “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying(building up) of the body of Christ.” When you are saved, you are also equipped with some kind of spiritual gift that helps you fit into the family/body of Christ. God’s plan is for you to use that gift and fulfill the role He has for you as part of the larger group…just like a liver cannot serve as a heart, but the liver is needed as a liver! Without one of it’s parts, the body is weak. The same is true if one of it’s parts is trying to do the wrong job. Like if your liver was to try and swap duties with your heart…the body would stop functioning! So, the lesson to be learned here is that God has specifically given to everyone in His family a SPIRITUAL GIFT for them to use within the rest of His body/family.

The second things we see is that (2) we are to MINISTER THE GOSPEL TO THOSE GOD WANTS TO BE IN HIS FAMILY. As we read through the scriptures, I don’t think we can find a better example of a guy who got this principal than the Apostle Paul. Check out Rom 1.16 . Now, take your Bibles over to 2 Cor 5 and let’s see how that looked in Paul’s life. Read v.14-17 for context, and let’s focus our attention on verse 18-20. Paul points out that God had RECONCILED believers to Himself. That means He removed the problems between us and Him to bring us back into fellowship/relationship with Him. WOW. Then He says that in the SAME WAY, God has given to US the MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION (v.18). Wow, man that’s a big job isn’t it. How are we supposed to carry this ministry out? Check out the next thing He says, “and hath committed unto us the WORD OF RECONCILIATION” (v.19). Now, does anyone want to guess what the WORD OF RECONCILIATION is??? Right, that’s the WORD OF THE GOSPEL (see Acts 15.7, Eph 1.13) So, what that means is the way we MINISTER to those who are not currently RECONCILED to God is to use the WORD OF THE GOSPEL to show them the way. Man, isn’t God awesome!

But it doesn’t stop there, there’s a WAY in which we do this… look at verse 20. We speak on Christ’s behalf! Christ’s physical body is not here on earth any more, but His BODY THE CHURCH is. Therefore, we (HIS BODY) are to minister in His STEAD (or in His place) here on this earth!!! Wow. There is so much I want to say about that, but this is getting long as it is, so I must stop for today.

Spend some time in Prayer today asking God to help you as you SEEK the FAMILY OF GOD and as you SET YOUR AFFECTION on the FAMILY OF GOD. I pray you will see how God has given you special SPIRITUAL GIFTS to use to strengthen (Eph 4.13-16) the body of Christ and how He has equipped you with the GOSPEL to help bring others into the FAMILY OF GOD today!!! Amen.