Elements of an Electrifying Ministry — E.A. Johnston

Worldly Standards of Ministry Success

This is a message for all you young preachers out there who have your sights on growing a big church. We are easily swayed today into false impressions of what successful ministry is. But go read the book of Acts.

Did Peter end up as the pastor of a megachurch. With everyone applauding him and admiring him. Did Paul end up with a big TV ministry that raked in millions every month. Where did we get this nonsense that to be successful in ministry means commercial success?

Material success. Big buildings and fancy auditoriums and Country Club amenities all wrapped up on a beautiful campus with plenty of parking. This is not the biblical standard of success in ministry. But our own worldly standards that we borrowed from society and applied them to the church.

Most men fresh out of seminary can't wait to go build a big church because Ministry success is viewed by brick-and-mortar and numerical numbers. It's easy to get fooled and to believe in that just because a pastor has overflow crowds and a huge church Campus and an upbeat worship team that God's smile is on that man's ministry when it could be Satan Behind him just as well.

The Great Door and the Many Adversaries

I want us to re-examine what Ministry is this evening friends and look at it in light of Scripture. Turning your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 9. For it is here where we get a glimpse of what vital ministry really is and we find it is vastly Different from our view of it today.

Christ's Ministry and the Cost of Faithfulness

Satan raged against the Christ of the Gospels. After one of his sermons his audience tried to throw him down a cliff. All hell came at him in the form of human dupes, which were the religious leaders of his day.

Jesus went about doing good healing the sick Giving sight to the blind and he ended his labors nailed to a ignoble cross. With two common criminals as his last companions. Because all his friends deserted him.

We want admiration from our congregation. So we preach nice little messages that don't upset anybody. The problem is they don't save anybody either. But it's okay. So long as we grew our church and look successful within our denomination.

But when we examine Scripture and The man got used we find a different brand of success. Look at 1st Corinthians 169 where the Apostle Paul describes his ministry for a great door and effectual is opened unto me.

Let me pause here friends to say this is the positive aspect of his usefulness. Now, let's continue with our text and there are many adversaries. This is the negative aspect which always accompanies the fruitful ministry for the glory of God.

There is a positive and a negative a great door and Effectual is swinging open for Paul. But waiting like a lion in the bush is the devil ready to pounce and there are many adversaries. This negative and Corresponding positive go hand-in-hand just like electrical polarity, but where there must be both a positive and a negative present in every electrical circuit.

For the electrons to flow there must be the positive to the negative. So too in a God called ministry. You will find these elements present the negative and the positive. The title of my message this evening friends is the elements of an electrifying ministry.

George Whitefield's Ministry of Power and Opposition

Just go read and examine the life of George Whitfield. And you will find a man who could hold the attention of 30 ,000 people in the rain. While it preached in the open air and while the glory of God was poured out on his hearers.

But at the same time Whitfield had rotten eggs thrown at him and pieces of dead cats. One time he was stoned by a violent mob in Ireland and was almost killed. When introduced to a New England minister while in Boston The minister informed him he was originally from Ireland.

Upon hearing this Whitfield removed his beaver cap and bent over. Pointing with his finger to a Lord's scar on his forehead and replying. This wound sir. I received while preaching Christ in your country.

We all want our ministry to end with roses thrown at our feet and not rotten eggs or stones thrown at our heads. The positive and the negative go all together. They're so altogether different from our view of what ministry should be.

Paul's Labors, Sufferings, and Faithfulness

The Apostle Paul Finished his ministry not with applause and cheers. But with abandonment and a fallen axe. His labors for Christ in the gospel are unmatched in the scripture record. Let me read you his laundry list of his labors in Labors more abundant and let me pause here friends to point out this positive Labors more abundant.

He planted churches all over Asia Minor. For the glory of God and the sake of the gospel. Now look at the corresponding negative in stripes above measure in Prisons more frequent in deaths oft of the Jews.

Five times received I 40 stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods once. I was stoned Thrice I suffered shipwreck a night in a day. I have been in the deep in journey ends often in perils of water.

In perils of robbers. In Perils by mine own countrymen. In perils by the heathen. In perils in the city. In perils in the wilderness. In perils in the sea. In perils among false brethren. In weariness and Painfulness.

In watchings often in hunger and thirst. In Fastings often in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches. There you have it friends the positive and negative.

The Spiritual Impact of an Electrifying Ministry

That makes an electrifying ministry one that alarms awakens thunders woos and wins many to Christ Jesus. In lives of Transformation the Apostle Paul was an absolutely electrifying preacher that if you hurt him you would experience the Electrifying shockwaves of the Holy Ghost in conviction of sin.

But for the positive to exist there had to be a Corresponding negative. I'm afraid today. We just want the positive. We want to be accepted acknowledged and appreciated. So we lean more to please folks where their messages so we can have a positive ministry meanwhile our Congregations slide on right on down to hell.

Let us pray.