Special Lesson:
Ministry of Jesus: The Motivation for Ministry
What ministry are we really looking for?
Jesus ministered from His relationship with the Father. Jesus expressed the heart of God.
What motivated Jesus in His ministry?
- Compassion – It’s not a human emotion. It’s not merely feeling sorry for someone, but it’s deeper than what emotions human can generate. Our prayers can get emotional, but they aren’t necessarily compassionate.
- Compassion comes from the Spirit and the knowledge of the Father. It involves forgiveness.
- 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.John 5:19-20
- You can’t give what you don’t have.
But what is Ministry? Ministry is the office and the duty according to the world. True ministry is the manifestation of God’s heart, and love in action.
True Ministry is the fruit of relationship with the source of ministry. Again, it is a manifestation of the Father’s heart. Ministry is born from our fellowship with God. We see His heart, and we operate. We don’t need the paper or title to minister – everyone receives love, and true ministry is love in action.
God’s Heart Revealed Through Jesus:
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16
Giving and forgiving: Giving is the action of love, forgiving is the attitude of love.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.1 John 4:7-8
God is love; love is borne of God. And giving and forgiving are of God. We can give and forgive because we are loved by God, and connected to God, who is Love.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18-19
Love seeks to deliver, heal, and to set captives free. This is the power that we receive by way of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 1:8. We are sealed in love by the Holy Spirit, according to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The Spirit of God is an expression of His love to set us free.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36
Other translations mention that He was ‘moved with compassion’, expressing something deep within.
The Greek expresses that it’s the deep expression of suffering with the wish to relieve it, but the true meaning is that we don’t just have the wish but the power to relieve the yearning/suffering within.
I’ve never had that same feeling of yearning to help the lost and those without a shepherd.
14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.Matthew 14:14
40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”Mark 1:40-41
There’s no formula to compassion – there’s only a heart. Compassion heals.
32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” Matthew 15:32
In our own human capacity we cannot hope to help everyone… but God will give us opportunities to demonstrate the power of the Spirit and the heart of God. Compassion gives and provides us as compassion heals.
Jesus’ Parable:
27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.Matthew 18:27
Compassion forgives and leads us to forgive. Compassion also restores.
Your compassion for others – and therefore, your capacity to heal, to give, to provide, to forgive, to restore, etc – is a reflection of your own awe and response to God’s great compassion for you.
We move out of relationship, but the relationship is sealed(?) in compassion.
Jesus having compassion over the demon-possessed man:
1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.Mark 5:1-20
Compassion sets the captives free.
34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.Mark 6:34
Compassion teaches.
Other examples are presented throughout the Gospel, and we pull up the following:
(Ultimately) Compassion responds to needs.
Jesus had compassion on the grieving.
Compassion raises the dead.
Jesus had compassion on strangers.
Again, compassion gives, much like the Good Samaritan.
Compassion runs to us, much like the father ran to the prodigal son.
It forgives and restores.
Compassion is the motivation for ministry. We need to abide in the relationship we have with the Father, and His compassion will move us to action.
17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.1 John 3:17-18
Takeaways?
Differentiate your being emotional from being compassionate. You can be compassionate without being emotional because, again, compassion is rooted in our relationship with the Father.
Your lack of emotion or rather your lack of compassion is addressed by your abiding in the relationship you have in God, guaranteed by Christ, and sealed by the Spirit.
See what the Father wants, and move accordingly. It’s the Spirit that gives life and the flesh profits nothing.
Take it beyond sympathy – that’s a feeling. We think we’re so into it with empathy – putting ourselves in their shoes.
Surprisingly in the body of Christ, we have something much more powerful – compassion, or abiding in the heart of God.
And, really – His heart is our heart. Compassion impacts in its terms – His terms.
I hate to admit how I’m struggling with this. Be honest, I feel less compassionate, more callous.
But here I’m reminded of Christ. Of God, my Father. Of the Spirit. Of how I’m not merely talking about Them, but… here and now, as I type, no matter what I’m feeling, and what I’m not feeling; No matter what or who I have in mind, in this moment and in this time, in the present, here and now – I’m reminded that Father, Son, Holy Spirit – the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Creator of the Universe and all that is seen and unseen – God is with me, never leaving me, never forsaking me; Always with me, always for me and never against me. Nothing can ever separate me from His love, and everything – even the nothing in the now – EVERYTHING reminds me of His goodness and greatness, His glory and His grace… EVERYTHING I see, feel, hear, and ALL I perceive reminds me, POINTS me back to Him.
And I’m not merely saying all of that as a mantra of sorts to get me back ‘on track’ mentally; Well, some of this is that, but more than me reminding myself, I suppose I just need to revel in His presence, savor His love, enjoy His grace, and receive His breakthroughs.
Here and now, I receive His revelations. As I have the mind of Christ, I think with Him as He thinks with me. Reaching deeper than I could ever go into my own soul, and deeper into my own being, loving me with an everlasting love, infusing me, saturating me with His Word, here and now reminding me that goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life, and all the days of my pathetic existence in this miserable world… I see and say things are bleak as they are, only because I follow all of it up by saying and declaring that my God is the God of all that is good, and He gives me all that is good, and I shall have no sorrow.
Oh, glory. Glory and honor, indeed, to the Lord Most High! I DO need You. I DO need Your help. I DO need Your revelations. I DO need ALL of You working in ALL of me, for the glory of Your great name, and for Your will to be done that much further, here on earth as it has already been done and is being done in the heavenlies. I’m sorry I’ve been trying to figure everything out on my own! I need You, Father! I need You, Jesus! I need You, Holy Spirit!
Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Take me out of the callousness and into Your compassion!
Help me, Father! Minister to me, and motivate me!
…Amen.
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