Gospel Ministry in Light of the Resurrection

Doing Gospel ministry can sometimes feel like a job for the defeated among a defeated people that works with a lot of defeat. You have a minister laboring to see a church grow. A youth worker seeking transformation amongst his teenage congregation. A missionary trying to swim against the culture upstream. But as our modern media likes to air you hear of the leader who’s exposed for living a double life. A society facing deconstruction. Ministries facing bankruptcy and that’s in addition to the daily struggle with sin. Yes there are scattered joys along the way but it’s not strange to feel the sigh of defeat when you speak to Gospel workers. Sometimes you don’t even want to say things are going well rest your enemies of sin, the world and the devil hear you.

Ours can feel like a ministry of weakness, which it is, see 2 Cor 4:7. The Lord in his goodness has kept away the limelight of the world from us so that we look to him only. But our temptation is to want the pomp and fame. To say if it’s of God it ought to be great and powerful. To want influence and want to make a name for ourselves. Only it doesn’t work like that and many times the Lord humbles us. But what does Easter offer us? What does the resurrection offer the Christian soldier at the verge of giving up? What does the resurrection offer the pastor who has no more energy left in him to fight for the truth of the Gospel? What about the Christian leader facing temptation right, front and center? The resurrection offers them victory that surpasses winning their current battles.

The resurrection of Jesus teaches us that there’s hope when we are looking at defeat in the eyes. When it all looks gloomy and we are about to throw in the towel the risen Saviour reminds us he’s not in the grave. He’s alive and with us to the end of the age, see Matt 28:20. You see what makes ministry difficult is trying to do the Saviour’s work as if he’s dead. It’s when we try to work hard to win him souls while depending on our own energy. It’s when we neglect the Holy Spirit who’s the gift of the resurrection and operate like Jesus remained in the grave. Often when we are finding it really hard in ministry it’s because we mistake our risen master of one sleeping in the grave not sitting at the right of God. When we remember this we look up instead of looking around and worse looking down.

The resurrection of Jesus reminds us that our enemies are already defeated. You see the crazy thing is the things that we fear the most are actually already defeated. By defeating sin, death, the world and the devil, Jesus has already conquered our worst fears. Perhaps you are a leader afraid that you or someone in your team might mess it all up. Well, here’s the good news, Jesus has already defeated your sin and that of your team. You need not worry about sin, only surrender it to the champion of sin and look up to him to defeat it. Perhaps it’s financial resources that keep you awake at night. Well, guess what, the risen Saviour wasn’t going to defeat death and then let money stop his work. Look to him for provision, trust in him and his plan even when it doesn’t work the way you want. What about the prevailing culture? The rise of Islam and deconstruction. Well, you forget Jesus has already conquered the big man himself, Satan, and with him all his crafty schemes with the Gospel. Hold unto the message for the cross and the resurrection and see it work wonders.

But finally and most important for us in the trenches of Gospel ministry, the resurrection of Jesus tells us it’s worth fighting to the end. Not only that, the resurrection says we have all it takes to win this war. We have the risen Saviour as the living proof. But perhaps you feel, well, Jesus did conquer all those enemies but I’m not sure I can do it. It’s one thing for him to persevere to the end but I’m no son of God. Well, that’s the thing, you actually are a son of God now. The point of Jesus coming to the world was to make sons of men into sons of God by faith which he does at the Cross and is affirmed at the resurrection. In other words, you are not just a Christian or ordinary Gospel minister, you have a divine pedigree all because of the risen Saviour and heaven is now your home. Whatever battles you are fighting to live right and serve King Jesus keep at it because you have the King, the power and the hope of resurrection with you.