The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 9 –5
Contrary to modern usage, a minister is not the head of a congregation of believers; in fact, it’s not used that way a single time in the Bible! You’ve been trained to think of a minister as more or less synonymous with pastor, preacher, priest, and so on; and while this idea is Biblically excusable, it is not what a minister is.
Webster defines the verb “to minister” as “to give aid or service”. In the Bible it is translated from a few variations on the Greek word “diakoneo”, which if you’re paying close attention you might recognize as the origin of the word “deacon”.
The Greek word means, primarily, “to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon”. Jesus confirmed this usage in Mark 10:42-45, which you need to merge with Luke 22:25-27 to get the full sense. The people who created the meal and served it are the servants; because they… SERVED the food.
There are three words translated as deacon, minister, or servant in the NT; “diakonia”, “diakoneo”, and “diakonos”. These look like different words at first, but they aren’t really because they all share a common stem (the first several letters of the word), which is referred to as diakon*.
The differences in the endings don’t change the meaning of the stem, they just help you use it in different ways in a sentence. It’s just like the English words “to serve”, “a servant”, and “service”. These all share the same stem serv*, and all have the same basic meaning; because a servant serves which is his service.
As I’ve said so often, “minister” and “diakoneo” are not special holy words, not sacred offices; they’re just words that mean “servant”. What you serve, and whom you serve, and how you serve, have no affect on the verb “to serve”, does it?
So if you minister to Paul by washing his clothes and making food and such (Philippians 2:25), you’re his servant and thus his minister. If Paul ministers the gospel to you (Romans 15:16), he’s giving you a service you desperately need; thus, he is your minister.
If you then give him money, you’re giving him a service in return ( Romans 15:25-27). If he then yells at you and punishes you for your sins, that, too, is a service for you (Psalms 9:8). Or if God makes the Gentiles who persecuted you come work for you, then they are your ministers (Isaiah 60:10-14).
If a Roman soldier keeps the peace by punishing evildoers, so that the average citizen can dwell in safety, then he, too, is ministering unto you; for he is a public servant (Romans 13:1-7). Or more precisely, he is serving God by serving the public.
Being a minister or a servant simply means doing anything and everything your master commands, whether the command came directly from your ultimate master, or through other ministers he sent to govern or train your soul, spirit, and beast (1 Peter 2:13-18).
There are many layers of this government, as you learned in Series 8, corresponding to the pattern of the sword of Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha; and anyone who works for God, in any capacity, is His minister – human or otherwise.
PERSONAL ASSISTANTS
But when you’re trying to understand a new concept, it’s always best to start at the simplest, most practical, most literal meaning of the words; then build layers of metaphor and symbol on top of that. In this case, the most basic, most obvious meaning of the word “minister” is what we might call a personal assistant today. Someone who just does whatever their boss needs (Psalms 103:20-21).
For thousands of years, men whose time was valuable, whether because they were a ruler, or a businessman, or just a landowner, would hire one or more servants to take some of the mundane tasks off their plate. Why should someone who can judge as Solomon did wash his own plates?
As Jesus said in Luke 17:6-10, the whole point of servants was to have them prepare a meal for you so that you don’t have to wait; so that you can go back to work sooner; or even just be rested more so that you can better make the hard decisions that no one else can make.
Was Solomon’s time not more valuable, to all of society, if he spent it judging his people or writing proverbs, than by repairing his own clothes? He simply can’t afford to do these things for himself; to do so would be robbing his people of wise leadership in order to spare a maid the indignity of making his bed.
The idea is offensive to today’s hyper-egalitarian left, but it’s simple math; time is money. And the time of wise people is worth more than the time of foolish people. So why should the wise do jobs the foolish can do? If they did, wouldn’t that make the wise… foolish?
A businessman who brings in seven figures today would be an idiot to do his own shopping. His time is worth a lot of money; far better to hire someone whose time is worth less to do these lower-value jobs, leaving him free to make decisions that affect the lives of thousands of people – for good or ill.
A minister’s job is to personally assist his boss; whether that’s picking up dry cleaning or walking the dog, or conveying his messages to his customers or employees, or making routine decisions in his name.
Thus, the vice president of a corporation is the minister of the president; so is the newest intern who makes him coffee. And if the vice president, in his capacity to take some of the burden of management off the president, finds himself overworked, then he, too, would naturally hire a minister of his own.
Who would, of course, be the minister of the president’s minister.
MINISTERS OF THE MINISTERS OF GOD
It takes a great deal of training to become God’s minister, and few make the cut (Matthew 22:14). And once you do, there is a lot of work that must be done (Luke 10:2); often more than one man can handle (Exodus 18:17-22).
And so when the work in a given job becomes too much, God authorized His ministers to have ministers of their own (Numbers 3:6-10). The entire tribe of Levi was given, as bondservants, to Aaron and his house. That meant they were legally owned by Aaron.
This was not a bondage that lasted seven years, as with other servants, for Levi was to serve Aaron for as long as he was a high priest. And yet at the same time, it was a temporary bondage lasting only seven years…seven millennial years (Hebrews 7:11-24).
Remember, the patterns cannot be broken! As bondservants of Aaron, Levi’s job was to take care of the pots and robes, censers and tables; both the carrying, setting up and dismantling, and all the menial work in the temple as the ministers of Aaron… until Aaron’s own priesthood was abolished in favor of Melchizedek.
Interestingly, there were seven families of the Levites given to Aaron in Numbers 3:17-20; these are all the tribes of Levi, including Aaron’s own house, the house of Amram (Exodus 6:20). So Aaron’s house plus seven more who ministered unto him.
Aaron and his sons, in turn, were supposed to minister unto God (2 Chronicles 29:11, Numbers 18:2-7). So as Aaron was God’s bondservant, the Levites were Aaron’s bondservants – and since the lesser pays tithes to the greater, the nation of Israel was, in a way, the servants of the Levites (Hebrews 7:7 and context).
The Israelites produced, and gave the Levites a tenth; freeing them from worrying about planting and raising animals so that they could focus on sacrificing and atoning for the sins of those same Israelites. Was this not a fair trade? 1 Corinthians 9:11.
And in turn, these same non-Aaronite Levites who received the tithes did all the maintenance of the temple, freeing their own masters, Aaron’s family, to take care of the most holy things, the jobs requiring the most skill in the Word.
Aaron shouldered the burden of the hardest of all tasks, the only tasks that carried a death penalty for the slightest mistakes (Leviticus 16). So it was only fair that he let the rest of his Levite ministers take care of the herding, butchering, skinning, distributing, and burning of the beasts so that he had the free time to keep himself holy, and the perspective to make sure that they did their jobs well.
We can compare this to the apostles in Acts 6:1-4. These people were acting like beasts fighting over food at the trough. And just as with our own fractional selves, beasts need fences; they need a spirit to keep watch over them. Which is a colossal waste of the wise soul’s time.
This was a problem, and it did need handled; but not by personal apostolic attention… by a delegate. The apostles needed someone to help them with this problem. They needed ministers of their own, who could in turn minister to the people in their place. Just like Aaron.
Anyone can fluff pillows for the elderly and work in soup kitchens; and these are noble pursuits. But not everyone can understand the Bible like they did! And the work of the apostles, were they free to do it properly, would in time eliminate these other problems by curing their carnality!
If the apostles elevated the souls of the people, they would eliminate the need for external statutes; but they couldn’t do that if they were constantly wrestling with each beast by brute strength. So they needed to delegate ministers, men with their spirit upon them (Numbers 11:25-29).
Spirits that could kill their beasts in their soul’s stead, just as the Levites did for Aaron. And so they chose SEVEN MEN to assist them… just as God gave Aaron seven families to assist the family of the high priest, for the 12 apostles were indeed the family of the NEW High Priest!
DEACONS
It’s generally accepted, despite the fact that the word is not used in Acts 6, that these seven who were chosen were the first deacons. People believe that, because they would rather believe “deacon” is an office, a holy title than a simple verb.
But as I’ve said before, yet can never say enough, deacon was not a special holy word. It just meant servant, the guy who ministers to his master. Which is how it was translated in John 2:5, 9; Matthew 22:13, etc. Whether servants of Christ or ministers of a pagan king, diakon* just means “minister” or “servant”!
Now the English word “deacon” appears only 5 times in the KJV Bible; yet diakon* appears 93 times… almost always translated correctly as “minister” or “servant”. So why would they translate it differently the other 5 times?
For the same reason they translated “pneuma” as capital-S “Spirit” and translated the pronouns for it as “He”… because to them it was a person; and for the same reason they translated “hades” as “hell” instead of “grave”. Because it’s what they already believed!
Because the Church they attended HAD deacons, therefore deacons AS A TITLE, deacons AS AN OFFICE had to be in the Bible! So let’s look closely at those verses that are were mistranslated as “deacon” instead of “minister”, 1 Timothy 3:10-13.
Now at first, that does look like deacon is a special holy position in a Church. How dare I contradict Paul, and say there is no such office? If there is no such thing as a Deacon in the Church, why did Paul say “the office of a deacon”? I’m glad you asked; because he actually didn’t!
1 Timothy 3:10, 13 (YLT) and let these also first be proved, then let them minister, being unblameable… for those who did minister well a good step to themselves do acquire, and much boldness in faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Any time a doctrine rests on so few verses, it’s important to examine the verse in question in another translation, and I always start in the YLT because it was translated with as little bias as possible; there are no accommodations for readability, as you can see… but also very few accommodations for doctrinal preconceptions by the translators!
The fact is, Paul did not say “the office of a deacon”. Paul said, simply, those who desire to be a personal assistant must first prove themselves; and if they do a good job, it will be a good step forward in their career… just like any executive assistant today!
But to whom are these ministers ministering? As I always say… read the context (1 Timothy 3:1-10). Simply put, these bishops were the heads of the local ekklesia, which we’ll get into much more soon. And the deacons – a word which should not exist in English, so let’s just say their ministers – are their assistants, which is what the WORD MEANS!
But the diakon* is not a position of rank within the church; for earlier in the book, Paul used diakon* to say that he was a deacon (1 Timothy 1:12, “ministry”); and that he was a deacon to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:8, “service”).
The deacon’s job, the minister’s job, the servant’s job, was to relieve the burden of management from his master… which is all any minister, ever, has been expected to do! A man hired, contracted, or bought as a servant to relieve his boss of some mundane tasks, freeing him to focus on things only he can do.
EXECUTIVE DEACONS
But you shouldn’t think of the job of minister as necessarily a demeaning role; because anyone who takes a burden off of his boss is his minister. Consider the prime minister of England; his was the job of making routine policy decisions so the king or queen could be left free to consider the path ahead and make broad sweeping decisions.
And yet even though he is only a servant, only the kings’ minister, his is a position of considerable authority. Because one man’s servant is another man’s master (Colossians 4:1). And so a minister of God relieves God of tasks He shouldn’t have to do – and yet may carry enormous authority, even though he is but a mere servant (Genesis 24:2).
Thus, the job of the angels is to minister to us (Hebrews 1:14), as they did to Jesus (Matthew 4:11), and will to any of us when we need it – helping us, as God’s servants, in God’s stead (Psalms 91:11). This ministration may take the form of bringing us food, catching our car before it hits a tree, or judging us for our sins; whatever God would want done.
And though they are mere servants, they are acting in God’s name, in God’s place – so what we do to them, we do to God (Luke 9:48, Matthew 25:34-45). So even though they are just our “fellow servants” (Revelation 22:9), that doesn’t mean they are our equals (Psalms 8:5).
Because, again, one man’s master is another man’s servant (Daniel 4:17). Thus, these ministers deserve our respect – even the less righteous ones (2 Peter 2:9-12). Because the angels, righteous and unrighteous, are God’s servants; who are you to judge them? Romans 14:4.
God appointed them, knowing their limitations; so if you don’t like His appointment, complain to Him – but meanwhile, obey the judge He appointed over you. Because the fact is… you have no idea how hard it is to be an angel; you have no Earthly idea the challenges they face.
So before you go ranting and raving about how much you hate the demons, remember, they’re not your servants to judge. Not yet, anyway (1 Corinthians 6:3). You can command them in God’s name, if they interfere with your obedience to Him (Jude 1:9); but if they’re not in your way, then let them do their job their way – just as you’re expecting them to let you do yours your way. It’s the golden rule, remember?
MINISTERS OF GOD
All of God’s ministers are not equal; and none of them are your ministers. For while the centurion ministered justice to you, he was the minister of God. Likewise, though Paul ministered to the Corinthians, he was the minister of God (2 Corinthians 6:4).
A minister is a servant; and a servant belongs to a single master (Matthew 6:24). So you cannot be both the minister of God and the minister of a congregation. It’s simply not possible. Because you cannot serve two masters.
You cannot have a Church which you serve, and also serve God. If you don’t believe me, look at literally, and I mean literally, every Church in the world (2 Timothy 4:3). A minister of God ministers TO God.
And IF he ministers to a congregation, it is only because God is ministering to the congregation through him. Consider Ezekiel 44:15, Joel 1:9, 13. His ministers were supposed to maintain His house, and provide for His food and drink.
Obviously, when His “house” changes from a tent to stone, or from stone to the ekklesia, His ministers are supposed to move with Him, and apply their attention to maintaining His new house, and provide for the food and drink within it.
Thus, they would feed the flock in God’s place, ministering to God by doing a job He would then no longer have to do in person (2 Corinthians 5:20). But while they ministered the gospel to this flock, they were not the ministers of the flock; they were the ministers of God.
And what God needs from His servants varies – not just with the servant, but over time (Acts 9:12-16, 2 Corinthians 11:23-33). Note that all of these perils were part of his job as a minister of God. And most of these things had nothing whatsoever to do with ministering to a particular group of ekklesia, which was mentioned in passing only in verse 28.
And if Paul did spend, say, a few years with the Ephesians, he did so only until God indicated it was time to move on – just like any other servant would have to do for his master (Acts 20:18-24, Numbers 9:15-23).
Because Paul worked for God, not the people. He was HIS minister, not the people’s minister. How much different the world would be, if Christians just practiced this one thing! (Isaiah 30:8-13).
MINISTERS OF JESUS
Aaron was high priest; and Aaron’s sons, who would one day inherit his job, were his ministers; training to do his job by serving him at his job.
Aaron was a type of Jesus, and His followers who would one day rule with Him were His ministers; training to do His job by serving Him at His job.
Just as an intern brings coffee in the hopes of one day becoming that executive whom he serves. Even today we call this “paying your dues”.
And if you think all that through, you’ll realize exactly what a minister is; he is a disciple. This is why we see the disciples preparing food for Him (Luke 22:8-13). Gathering money for Him (Luke 8:3, Matthew 17:27, etc.), organizing the multitudes (Mark 6:35-46). Their job was to minister to Him, to fulfill Romans 12:1, as their reasonable service in exchange for their tutelage!
No one does anything for nothing. Higher education, then as now, required payment of some kind. The rich could afford to hire their children private tutors, but God does not call the rich, nor care about their wealth (Mark 12:41-44).
The “fee” He charges the rich to become His disciple is to give away their wealth, in fact (Mark 10:21). And so the disciples had to pay their tuition with the only currency Jesus would accept – their bond as bondservants.
Jesus’ disciples took care of the trivialities of life for Him (Mark 8:14). They had forgotten to get bread which means this was their responsibility. Because they were His ministers… which is how they paid for being His disciples!
Now, Jesus did not come to gather bondservants (Matthew 20:25-28). He came to do us an invaluable service, MINISTERING to us eternal life; both by dying and living again, but also by judging and correcting us – both directly, and through His other ministers. So is it really so much to ask that we be His servants, for a time, to pay for it?
Because in order to change their natures, He had to have complete rule over their lower fractions. And the beauty of the system is that their ministry to Him not only broke their fractions, but also prepared their souls to rule with Him.
By ruling their fractions for them, He taught their own souls how to do it for themselves; and thus, the same mundane tasks which the disciples performed as their ministry to Him, Jesus used to teach them how they could rule their own fractions.
Which is how, by having them minister to Him, He was in fact ministering TO THEM.
THE WAY OF LIFE TRADE
Today, anyone who is interested in the Bible thinks they can proclaim themselves disciples of Christ; but that’s not what the word meant! A disciple isn’t merely an interested listener; Jesus had thousands of those, but they were specifically not disciples (Mark 4:10-13).
Jesus had thousands of curious onlookers; they were “auditing His class”, so to speak. But that didn’t make them disciples (Ezekiel 33:30-32, Matthew 15:8). Jesus had huge multitudes, perhaps as many as 10,000 at once… but only TWELVE of them were disciples! (Mark 5:31).
Because while the throng was interested in Jesus’ words… they were not committed to following Him. The rich young nobleman thought he was ready to follow Jesus; but Mark 10:17-23 shows that he wasn’t. Because discipleship is never free! (1 Timothy 5:18).
Jesus’ family, while presumably not well off, was well connected; Mary’s cousin Elisabeth was descended from Aaron (Luke 1:5), and her husband Zacharias was of the tribe of Aaron, thus of the family of the high priest.
Thus, He had close access to educated people who could have easily taught Him to read for free; a method He enjoined His followers to continue (Matthew 10:8). But free does not mean without cost; on the contrary, Jesus asked a lot from His disciples; everything, in fact (Matthew 19:27).
Being Jesus’ disciple required something the multitudes hadn’t done, and most weren’t willing to do… a commitment to His service, a commitment to being His minister! A disciple of Jesus is much more than a willing ear; a disciple is even more than a committed follower; for a disciple is legally bound to be a servant to his master (1 Corinthians 7:23, Romans 14:8).
Jesus was their Lord and Master, just as much as if they had been sold as slaves (John 13:13-14). They belonged to Him (Mark 9:41). Now most Christians would say this was done by His blood… only… they were owned by Him long before He died! Because they had committed themselves to His service ALREADY!
“But didn’t Jesus come to set us free”, you ask? Yes, of course He did (John 8:31-36). But why would He free us before we are competent to rule ourselves? We would just be recaptured by our original master (Matthew 12:43-45). Freeing us knowing we would be recaptured would break His own law! (Deuteronomy 23:15).
Jesus bought us with the intention of freeing us… but we are not freed yet. Because He knows we cannot yet be “free indeed”, not while our hearts are the servants of sin. So until we’ve fulfilled our term of apprenticeship at the end of the millennium, and He is confident that our own souls can keep us free, we must remain in bond to Him.
LORD AND MASTER
Apprentices worked for years to learn a trade, and disciples worked for years to learn a way of life. A way of life which, on its own, becomes a trade by teaching it to others – just like any other philosophy (1 Corinthians 9:7-11). But think for a moment about the familiar phrase there, “the way of life”.
It’s particularly interesting because in Matthew 16:24, it says that a disciple must “follow me”. That word “follow” is the Greek “akoloutheo” which means, according to Strong’s “to be in the same way with, i.e. to accompany (specially, as a disciple)”.
So a disciple is someone who is literally on the same path as his master; with him, so that he can “fully know his doctrine and matter of life” (2 Timothy 3:10). Thus a follower of Christ is one who is with Him “whithersoever he goeth” (Revelation 14:4).
They follow Him because they know His voice, they recognize His spirit. Thus, to be Jesus’ sheep is to be His disciple (John 10:24-31). To be Jesus’ servant/minister/deacon is to be Jesus’ disciple; these are all different words for the same thing. Well, mostly.
As I’ve said before, but again, cannot say enough, God never stutters. So when the disciples called Jesus their Lord AND their Master (John 13:13-14), it was because Jesus was both; He had two separate roles to play in their training (Matthew 10:24). They were both His disciples and His servants!
A master is a teacher of the apprentice, of the disciple, as you learned in the previous lessons. But a lord is the owner of a servant. And while the same person sometimes does both, they are very different jobs; for a lord is the owner of a person’s body – but the job of a master is train them to do a certain job the way he does it.
Said differently, a lord’s job is to rule the beast, and the master’s job is to rule the spirit. So a master may not own the body of his student, if he paid for his tutelage without selling his bond; but the owner of a slave does not own his spirit, only his body (Proverbs 29:19).
But Jesus needs to own both, because both fractions must change for the soul to grow stronger. For unlike with lords and masters in the world, Jesus’ goal for His servants is to become like Him (Matthew 10:25). His goal is to turn His ministers into sons, so they can be flames of fire like He is (Proverbs 29:21, Hebrews 1:7).
You may wonder, to complete the pattern, who is in charge of the soul? No one; for the whole point of the soul is that it make its own choices; if the soul were in bondage, it couldn’t choose to follow the Master, the Lord, or the God.
The soul must train itself, but it can’t do that while it’s in bondage to its spirit and heart. And breaking free is never a fair fight (Ecclesiastes 4:12). So the soul needs to level the playing field, and the best way to do that is by choosing to submit its spirit and heart to a better soul for correction.
So ironically… the soul is most free, when it sells its spirit and beast into bondage. For only then can it truly follow God.
THE MINISTERS JOSHUA
Elijah trained Elisha to be his replacement, and as payment for his training, Elisha ministered unto him (1 Kings 19:16-21). This ministering is defined in 2 Kings 3:11; Elisha was, in a word, Elijah’s servant.
Elisha did the tedious, boring, dirty jobs that were a waste of Elijah’s time both as payment for the opportunity to become like him, and as the METHOD of becoming like him –freeing Elijah to do the things that only he could do, like prophesy and call fire from heaven.
So being a minister to Elijah meant washing his hands; serving his food; running his errands, washing his clothes, and anything else he might need done. Nearly every important person in the Bible had someone in this role; because this is just how it was always done (Deuteronomy 1:38, Joshua 1:1).
Moses had several young men who did things for him and called him their lord; because he ran a country, and one minister wasn’t enough (Numbers 11:28). Joshua was apparently his favorite servant, though – certainly the one mentioned most.
And yet Joshua was the head of his tribe, a position of considerable authority – which is why, before he inherited that authority, he had to first be humbled (Proverbs 15:30-33). Despite being the heir of his tribe, as an apprentice, he “differed nothing from a servant” (Galatians 4:1-7).
Exactly like his namesake Jesus, 1,500 years later! (Philippians 2:3-10). And like Jesus, Joshua so distinguished himself as a servant, that he later became “lord of all” and took over Moses’ job entirely (Numbers 27:15-23).
Because both Joshuas had been abased, and now both could safely be exalted (Hebrews 5:8). But again, remember, that “ministers” are there to do whatever their master needs; while this might mean building a fire, it might also mean commanding an army (Exodus 17:9-10).
Joshua had been with Moses, day in, day out; he had acted as Moses’ delegate, acting in Moses’ place so often, that he knew exactly what ruling over Israel required; just as Jesus had done with His Father (John 8:28-29).
Just as Elisha knew exactly what Elijah’s job was, for he had helped him do it for years. Whether the apprentice would do the job as well as their master remained to be seen; but they had the training so they could do it well.
Of course, not all ministers would prove themselves worthy of such an inheritance (2 Kings 5:20-25). Because he thought he knew better than his master, when in fact he was just doing HIS own greedy will, not Elisha’s will; compare to John 12:3-6 or Matthew 16:21-23 or 1 Samuel 15:13-24 or Numbers 16:3-5.
But unlike the rest of the Israelites, the Joshuas feared to speak against their master (Numbers 12:4-9). The role of a minister is to learn to submit their will unto their master (John 5:30). To learn to judge as he judges, and act as he acts. Saul, Judas, Korah, and Peter were not doing that.
But Jesus did – and that’s the only reason He was saved, because He feared to subvert His own Master’s will as Gehazi had (Hebrews 5:7, 9). To do as He did, your own heart and your own spirit have to be fully broken, and taught to obey a soul with complete trust – if not your own soul, then at least someone else’s.
COREGNANT
Throughout the world, when a king is nearing death, he names his heir and gradually transfers more and more authority onto him, so that the scepter can pass smoothly without confusion and upheaval. This practice is called associating or sharing the throne with your heir; co-reigning over the kingdom.
How long depends on how soon the king dies and how competent the prince is, but typically at least a year or two, although sometimes much longer. This way, the heir knows exactly how to rule and who to trust, and the people know him and trust him (in theory, of course).
You can see exactly why this is important in 1 Kings 1, the whole chapter is worth reading, but the key verses that show Solomon’s reign began before David’s death are verse 53 and 1 Kings 2:1. Peaceful transfer of power has not been the rule in history, and by associating an heir in the throne, and training the prince on how to do it (verses 2-9), a lot of mistakes are avoided.
Knowing this, you can see why we are to reign with Him a thousand years (Revelation 20:6). Living and reigning with Him (2 Timothy 2:11-12), so that WE can fully know HIS doctrine and manner of life!
We will be associated with His reign (Romans 8:17), training as His heirs under close supervision for one whole day/year/millennium, just as He did to gain His own throne (Revelation 3:21). And while we are in this role, we will be His ministers!
But after that… just ask yourself how you’d treat your own children as they grow up? How much supervision do they need as their ages advance? Answered, as always, by the golden rule (Revelation 22:3).
No one would do a good job immediately upon being thrust into a new body, with unlimited power and decisions to make that affect eternal life and death. So of COURSE we will have to be co-regnant in HIS throne for a thousand years. Ministering with Him, until we can minister to others as He would.
No human king wants someone to replace him; but Jesus wants people who can do the things He does (Numbers 11:27-29, Mark 9:38-40). He wants people who can take some of the load of judgment and administration off His shoulders. People He can honor as lords over all His house (Luke 12:42-44).
But, just as with Joshua, the path to that honor is through humility, meekness, and abasement as servants and ministers… a path He, the CREATOR of all, walked Himself! Not just as a test, to prove Himself, but also as a TRAINING, to become better at the job! (Hebrews 2:14-18, 7:24-26). As must we all.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
We were all supposed to learn the way of life in our father’s house (Deuteronomy 6:6-8). The things that Jesus taught His disciples by the way, our father should have taught us by the way. But that didn’t happen. So, like the impoverished farmer’s son who wanted to be a philosopher, we had to go seek a new Master.
A Master who could teach us the things we needed to know, and more importantly, mold us into the person we needed to be (Jeremiah 18:1-6), the person He wants us to be (Romans 9:18-24). Because the whole point of finding a master was to become like him! (Luke 6:39-40).
Disciples ARE disciples so that they can become just like the master! But making that happen is a significant investment of time and effort on the part of your master; which is why masters require a commitment, and payment.
Remember the rich young noble, who lacked “only one thing”? (Mark 10:21). Look closely at that verse; everyone reads it, and sees only one thing “give away your money”. They see that, because they themselves are as covetous as this man was (Luke 16:14). But that wasn’t what Jesus said at all!
While Jesus did tell him to give away his money… that wasn’t the “one thing” he lacked!! God doesn’t care if you have money or not; a thousand verses speak of the wealth of the righteous. But giving up that money was a necessary step in order to commit to being Jesus’ disciple!
Read Mark 10:17-31. Read it carefully, thinking about these words in light of all the things you learned in all of these series. Do you see what is really happening here? Or do you still need a man to teach you? (Acts 8:31).
The young man –a young man, such as might seek a master –comes, calls him master, kneels in humility, and meekly asks how to inherit eternal life. He wanted to learn the way of life from this master whom he believed –correctly –could teach it to him!
He realized that his parents, his preachers, the authority figures over him couldn’t teach him this skill. He needed to find a new master, someone who could; which is why Psalms 27:10-11 sums up this lesson. He wanted someone to make his path straight, and to instruct him in the mind of God. And he found the right man!
Jesus then said that he was not the one who had the power of eternal life; that was His Father, the only one who was good. But Jesus could show him how to follow Him: by pointing him back to the river of life, the law, to Moses, to the baptism of John.
And the man said “I’ve done all these things, what comes next??” He knew keeping the law, alone, wasn’t enough! How many of the Jews understood that? So Jesus loved him, because he had seen beyond the veil of Moses and wanted MORE than the law! (2 Corinthians 3:13-16).
This man was perfect in the law of Moses, and realized there was something more than the Old Covenant! And Jesus loved him because He realized here was a perfect candidate for the New Covenant! And remember what that is: in a nutshell, the NC is knowing your fractions and improving them.
He had to forsake ALL that he had to be His disciple, otherwise he would find it too easy to turn back from his Master. Because the easier it was to go back into Egypt, the harder it would be for him to circumcise his heart and ears and obey Jesus! (Luke 18:24).
The less he had to lose, the easier it would be for Jesus to fix his fractions! But giving away his money and forsaking all that he had were merely preliminary steps to getting the ONE THING he truly lacked; he didn’t lack poverty! No, because the last thing Jesus said was “…and come, follow me”.
The one thing he lacked was apprenticeship under Jesus to learn the NC! A Master to tutor him in the ways of God.
…which, having no money left, he would pay for by becoming a bondservant of Jesus, and thus… a minister of God.