The high calling of the ministry and the battle with worldliness can leave us feeling greatly defeated and discouraged. Happily, however, Paul provides power­ful persuasions to persevere, and to overcome the world by faith.

Co-laborers with the Sanctifying Spirit⤒🔗

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you over­seers,” Paul says (Acts 20:28; emphasis mine). We are serving as agents of the Holy Ghost, who has called us to our work, enables and equips us for it, and works both in us and in our people through the ministry of the Word. He has committed His sheep to our care. That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:1 that we are “workers together with” the Spirit of God.

How can we comprehend that? We labor side by side with the Holy Spirit, not just with our fellow human office-bearers. We all are agents of the Holy Ghost, fellow workers with God. It is our privilege to preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; the Word of God itself is the sword of the Spirit, and our ministry of the Word is the ministra­tion of the Spirit (1 Pet. 1:12; Eph. 6:17; 2 Cor. 3:8). Such an honor far outweighs the difficulties of church work. I often say to my wife, “I can handle a great deal of criticism when I see one sinner saved and one child of God growing under my ministry.” Why? Because criticisms will fade, but God’s work abides forever.

John Williams took more comfort from the con­version of one soul to God under his ministry than he did from seventy years of education, titles, and hon­ors in church and state. Cotton Mather said, “The saving or enlightening or edifying, of one soul at any time, will be a matter of more joy unto you, than if all the wealth of Ophir should flow in upon you.” Samuel Rutherford said that meeting one of his parishioners from Anworth in heaven would make heaven to be two heavens for him.

Brothers, there is nothing so humbling in all the world as being used by God to save souls from the abyss of hell and bring them to Jesus Christ and everlasting bliss. The greatest work on earth is to reveal the will of God to the church and to the world.

Cotton Mather wrote, “Of the ministry, it is the highest dignity, if not the greatest happiness, that human nature is capable of here in this vale below. To have the soul so far enlightened as to become the mirror, or conduit, or conveyor of God’s truth to others, is our privilege.” Thomas Scott said, “Had I a thousand lives, I would willingly spend them in (the ministry) and had I as many sons, I should gladly devote them to it.” Edward Payson said there were times in his life when he clapped his hands in unrestrained joy that God had counted him worthy to be put into the ministry as His coworker.

If I am the Spirit’s agent, I can say with Nehemiah to those who opposed him, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you” (Neh. 6:3). Our work is too important to let the world dis­tract us from it, or allow worldliness to undercut it.

If, quite properly, we have a due sense of our own inadequacy and insufficiency to be the Spirit’s coworkers, we may nonetheless be sure that we have a sufficiency from God (2 Cor. 3:5); that is, we have the help of the Spirit, enabling us to live godly, to put to death what is earthly in us, and to set our affec­tion on things above, and so fight against worldliness in ourselves.

Sheep Purchased by the Redeeming Christ←⤒🔗

Though the dignity of our work and its high privilege makes us often cry with Paul, “Who is sufficient for these things?” We also confess with the apostle, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not” (2 Cor. 4:1). We don’t faint because the Spirit’s persevering ministry in us is grounded in the atoning blood of Christ. Paul con­cludes with that glorious fact in Acts 20:28, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”

We shepherd the church because Christ purchased the church of God with His blood. Our labors are dif­ficult, but we do not faint because we do not do it for ourselves; we do it for Christ. Flavel reports Luther saying, “The labors of the ministry will exhaust the very marrow from your bones, hasten old age and death.” But Flavel goes on to say, “Welcome pained breast, aching backs, and trembling legs if we can but approve ourselves Christ’s faithful servants and hear that joyful voice from His mouth saying, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”

This moves us forward in the midst of difficulty: Christ has purchased the church with His own blood. He has bought her; she is His bride. When you grow weary, and your heart grows cold and indifferent, take heed of Christ, who says to you, “I died for them; will you not look after them? They were worth My blood; are they not worth your time, your tears, your prayers, your energy?”

Think about that when you become bone-weary in ministering to God’s people. Say to yourself, “Christ has committed them to me at the price of His blood. These labors are worth every minute.” Take heart, brothers; be humble, be hopeful. Labor with all your might for the sake and glory of Christ and His bride. Love Christ’s sheep because He loved them, and washed them from their sins in His own blood (Rev. 1:7).

How can we persist in worldliness in the face of such a Savior? We must pursue our calling as minis­ters gripped by the conviction that we shall one day have to give account to the Chief Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. Being one of those sheep ourselves, we must daily bring all our personal and office-bearing sins to our Savior, anticipating the day when our mortality shall put on immortality and we shall serve Him in glory without blemish (1 Cor. 15). Kenneth MacRae, minister of the Free Church of Scotland, uttered these words five months before his death in 1964: “I have been long in His service here, but I never tired of it. All my grief was that it was so poor, so listless, so forgetful, and so lacking in holiness. But soon I shall serve Him with a perfect service, without failure and without fault.”

The Church Glorifying the Electing Father←⤒🔗

Finally, be persuaded to overcome worldliness by considering that God shall receive the glory from His church, including every faithful ministry. We are caring for the church of God — chosen by the Father from before the foundation of the world, loved with an everlasting love, and predestined to eternal life. We must reflect this electing love of God in our own love for the people to whom we minister. Love for the world is diametrically opposed to love both for God and His church (1 John 2:15).

All this is implied in our text, for we are called to “take heed” in response to “all the counsel of God” being declared (Acts 20:27). Our work, the Spirit’s work, and the Son’s work will help establish a redeemed church as the fruit of the Father’s everlasting love to sinners and determination to glorify His own name. Sinners will be saved by the blood of His Son, the Spirit will empower the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will be glorified. That three­fold, Trinitarian purpose for our ministries should be enough to persuade us to abandon worldliness and to persevere in faithful ministry.

After all, it’s the Triune God’s glory, not ours, that’s important. When Spurgeon had to leave England after a number of people were killed in Surrey Gardens, he was very discouraged. Even the sight of the Bible made him weep. But God comforted him with Acts 5:31, “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior,” showing him that that was all that mattered. Spurgeon’s response was, “If God is exalted, never mind what becomes of us. We are a set of pigmies; it is all right if He is exalted. God’s truth is safe, we are perfectly willing to be forgotten, derided, slandered, or anything else that men please. The cause is safe, and the King is on the throne, Hallelujah! Blessed be His Name!”

Brothers, let us be lifted above discouragement. Our ministries serve the Triune God; what more could we ask for? For the Triune God’s sake, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

If you have already given way to worldliness and feel too sinful to go on, consider John Robertson of Glasgow, who became so disillusioned with ministry that he decided to resign. One morning he prayed, “O God, Thou didst commission me forty years ago, but I have blundered and failed and I want to resign this morning.” God showed Robertson that though he had blundered and failed, God was willing to forgive him. He saw that God wanted him to “re-sign,” not resign, his commission.

That’s God’s will for you, too. Don’t resign; re-sign. You do that the same way the backsliding Ephesians had to “re-sign” when they left their first love. You:

• Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen,
• Repent of your worldliness and backsliding,
• Return to your first love, ministry, and do the first works (Rev. 2:5).

Don’t give up on the Lord. He is not done with you or your ministry. Serve this great God with faithfulness and zeal. The world may not be worthy of you, but God is. Serve your Master with all your heart and every gift that you have. F. B. Meyer once said, “I have no special gifts. I am no orator, no scholar, no profound thinker. If I have done anything for Christ and my generation, it is because I have given myself to Jesus Christ, and then have tried to do whatever He wanted me to do.”

Follow Spurgeon’s advice: “Be diligent in action.” Watch for opportunities and be quick to seize upon them. Feed your flocks as pastors, and increase them by being evangelists. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. “We must use every energy that we may checkmate the incessant activities of the prince of darkness,” Spurgeon concludes.¹

Finally, brothers, remember that your eternal day of rest will soon dawn. On that day, Christ will raise you to Himself, saying, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter now into the joy of the Lord.” He will wipe every tear from your eye and embrace you as you enter glory. All shall be well. As a woman seeing her newborn puts out of mind the pain of delivery, you will forget all the trials of your ministry when you embrace Immanuel. Then you will say with Peter, “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13). Soli Deo Gloria!