In John 16 Jesus reinforces some things He’s touched on before with His disciples, highlighting just how important these topics will be for all of His followers. Some points He will emphasize will be: the persecution of believers, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the fact that He is departing to go to His Father and the concept of our praying to the Father in Jesus’ name.
Audio: John16.mp3
Notes: John16.pdf
The next little statement conveying a big truth is this one:
“This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop [literally, “overseer”], he desires a good work.” – 1 Timothy 3:1 (NKJV)
A man can desire to go into ministry for either right or wrong reasons. The man who desires the position of leadership within the body of Christ should desire the position because he desires the work. The work is good.
Notice that the “position” is not the thing that’s good, but the “work”. The overseer may dislike the position at times, but he needs to stay committed to the work. He may not get the results he hoped for, but he needs to do the work. He will certainly fall short of the standards some people set for him, but the work remains good so he needs to do it. He may personally fall far short of the standards he sets for himself, but he still needs to devote himself to the work – because it is good.
Preaching, teaching, counseling, comforting, correcting, directing and protecting God’s people – all these things come under the work of the overseer and much, much more besides. And he’ll need to be a man of prayer and a student of the Scriptures before all of that. The man who becomes an overseer will never be bored again.
In this week’s chapter Jesus uses the illustration of the vine and the branches, which explains our complete dependence upon Him and our need to abide in Him. He’ll also tell us more about His love and our need to love one another. This is in contrast to the hatred of the world, which we will experience just as He did. Finally Christ will remind us of the coming of the Holy Spirit, our much needed Helper as we eagerly wait for Him.
Audio: John15.mp3
Notes: John15.pdf
Paul liked to give his understudies neat little proverb-like gems of wisdom to take to heart as they carried out their own ministries. He recognized the value of placing an important principle in an easily opened package – of saying something that needed to be remembered in a way that his guys would remember it. He called them “faithful sayings”.
Here is the first:
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” – 1 Timothy 1:15 (NKJV)
Anyone desiring to serve the Lord can benefit from a deep awareness of their sin. It enhances our humility and keeps us conscious of the fact that we fully depend upon Christ. No matter how long or how well we serve Him – and Paul served better and longer than most – we should never get past the fact that we do so by His grace.
This is not a morbid focus on our own shortcomings and should never lead to that. This is good sense and extremely useful in ministry. As we, Christ’s servants, deal consistently with sin-filled people in sin-filled surroundings, it helps to keep in mind that we are sinners saved by grace.
Paul considered himself the “chief of sinners”. During his ministry he was accused of many things, but offhand I can’t think of a case he was accused of arrogant or hypocritical self-righteousness. Maybe there’s a connection?
Central Reflections 