Jesus’ ministry among the Gentile people of Decapolis has a particular result. He visited them with His presence and He ministered to them in healing. As a result, “The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.”
This is the reason Jesus came; “They praised the God of Israel.” Jesus went on a mission to Gentile people so that God’s glory would be magnified through their praise of Him. This is the point of all missional activity. The point of healing, the point of deliverance ministry, the point of teaching and the point of preaching; Heartfelt worship of God Most High. As John Piper said, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”
In the same way, making disciples is only helpful when those disciples are worshippers. For this reason, the goal of any church is to raise up worshippers, not attendees. Not even tithers. Attendance and tithing are only outward symptoms of inner worship. They are not the goal. The goal is the worship of God. The goal is the praise of God. The goal is lifting up the Name of Jesus to the glory of God. That is the goal. That is the only goal.
Yet because that goal is internal to the person involved, it is intangible and arguably impossible to measure. So churches and Gospel ministers measure other metrics, like church attendance, giving and signs of obedience such as baptisms and church service. The result of that is that it becomes particularly easy and almost logical for a minister of the Gospel to make ministry the goal.
Ministry as a goal does have a benefit. It results in gratitude. But gratitude is temporary. If people are not changed, they are grateful for only a short time. For this reason feeding people, or counselling people, or teaching people, or even preaching to people – is not the goal. It profits the Kingdom very little if we preach to tens of thousands or if we teach hundreds of thousands, and none of them praise God as a result. It is of only temporary value if we feed millions and none of them praise God as a result. These things may be urgent (and they are) and they may result in gratefulness (and they do). But the tyranny of the urgent and the temporary appreciation of the saints should never displace what is most important.
The most important thing is to bring glory to God. That’s what worship is. Bringing glory to God. All we do must be to that end. Especially when the cost – in terms of time, effort and resources – is large. For Jesus, the cost, time and effort of bringing His band of disciples across the Sea of Galilee in a mission to reach Gentiles was worth the effort and time because of this result, “They praised the God of Israel.”
May we do likewise. Amen.
The mission of God’s people is to be agents of that redemptive love of God. We live to bring others to worship and glorify the living God, for that is where they will find their greatest and eternal fulfillment and joy.
Chris Wright
APPLICATION: Intentionality
Why do you do ministry? God knows your heart on that matter better than you do. It’s a good idea to ask Him to check your real motive once in a while.