Chip Brogden: Ministering to the Lord

"There were in the church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers… and as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, “Separate for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to do (Acts 13:1a,2).” 
 
There is much to be gleaned from this passage of Scripture. The first thing that strikes us is that the prophets and teachers were gathered together to minister to the Lord. How seldom we see this today! In the first place, prophets and teachers are rarely able to get together regarding anything. The prophet thinks the teacher is too intellectual, and the teacher thinks the prophet is too ethereal. The prophet favors inspiration and revelation, while the teacher favors illumination and study. The two seem to naturally be at odds, and this is probably necessary to keep everyone balanced. The prophet needs the teacher, and the teacher needs the prophet.
 
But here we see that everyone has come together, not to have a prophets and teachers conference, but to minister to the Lord. They have not lost their first love! Prophetic things have their place, but there is a time when prophetic things must be put on hold. Teaching and instruction have their place, but there is a time when no one should be teaching or saying anything. There is a time when the saints should gather together for the purpose of ministering to the Lord.

The Greek word for “ministered” here is “leitourgeo”, and we get our English word “liturgy” from it. It meant the performance of priestly or ministerial functions. Interestingly enough, it could only be used in connection with the Temple, since that was the only valid place a priest or minister could perform the functions. In Acts 13 we see the word used to describe the Church in Antioch. What does this mean? Simply this: we are the temple of the living God, a house of living stones, offering up ourselves as the sacrifices, ministering to the Lord as a holy nation, as a royal priesthood. Hence, we need no earthly temple or priest to represent us to God. We worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

The fact that the Holy Spirit moved and revealed the Lord’s Need while they were ministering to the Lord is significant. How can we know the Lord’s Need unless we have ministered to Him? Perhaps there were a dozen or so missions that might be done, and they could have fulfilled any number of needs and been considered good Christians. But the issue is not how many needs can we meet, but is the Lord’s Need met? What if we meet everyone’s need but the Lord’s Need is not satisfied? Let us meet the Lord’s Need first, and give Him His portion; then we are fit to stand before people and minister to them. This is the motivation for ministering to the Lord. People with no patience for these things will forge ahead on their own, see a need, and move at once to meet it, just like a good business person will do. But the Kingdom is not based on business principles. Our foremost concern is satisfying the Lord’s heart, being with Him, meeting His Need. Ministry to men is founded upon ministry to the Lord.

http://theschoolofchrist.org/articles/the-priests-of-the-lord-part-1.html


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