Marks of an Effective Personal Ministry, Part 1
Acts 9:32-35
For our guests, we would just mention that we've been studying the book of Acts for some time and are in the process of going through the 9th Chapter, just having concluded the section on the conversion and transformation of Saul of Tarsus in to the apostle Paul. And now we're coming back to a study about the man Peter. And Peter is a fascinating, fascinating disciple and we all are richer because of his life. And I've entitled this passage, kind of with two titles, the miraculous ministry of Peter, but perhaps a more direct title in terms of what I'm going to talk about is the marks of effective personal ministry. The marks of effective personal ministry. Because as I studied this passage I couldn't help but focus on the very basic principles that are exhibited in this personal ministry of Peter.
And again I've been refreshed and challenged in recent days about having a personal ministry. It's sometimes very easy when you're a "speaker" or a preacher to confine yourself to large groups. But you know, as I study the Bible, I find that this was really never done by the great men of God and the word of God. They always maintained personal ministries. And how my heart has been refreshed in recent days to be involved in such personal ministries, I've asked God to give me several people to work with and as always, He gave me more than I asked for. And it's a blessed thing anyway and I am really enjoying this. But as...and maybe it's in the frame of reference that I read this passage, but here we don't see Peter like we have in the past chapters of Acts preaching to great crowds of thousands. We see him kind of isolated with individuals. And some tremendous principles just kind of ooze out of the text as we shall look at Acts 9:32-43. It had planned to be, but we only got to verse 35 in the first service, so we'll have to stop there in this one. Praise the Lord. I know, you're thinking that.
But anyway, this is the beginning of what is now two parts. We'll see how it goes next time. Now the apostle Peter with all of his pre-Pentecost weaknesses and all of the failures that kind of help us to brand him as the apostle with the foot shaped mouth, finally after Pentecost, got his foot out of it and really began to speak for God. He really was fired up in every sense of the word. His life becomes then the dominate theme in the first 12 Chapters of Acts. From Chapter 13 to 28, Paul dominates the picture.
But here Peter dominates. And everything that we saw in terms of failure at the beginning in the gospel sort of passes away with the energizing of the Holy Spirit in Chapter 2 and we see a dynamic and powerful apostle who not only is the leader of the church, but the leader of the other apostles as well. And so he is dynamic to put it mildly. He is effective to put it simply here in the book of Acts. And we might say that we learn both sides of living the Christian life from Peter how not to do it in the gospels and how to do it in the book of Acts.
And as we look at Peter's life, it's a lot like Paul's life. There are so many principles of ministry that we can find. There are maybe two passages that kind of stick out in my mind where Peter kind of unloads, first of all directly and then secondly, as we look at this one, indirectly, principles for effective ministry. The first one that jumps into my mind I'd like to use as just as a beginning is 2 Peter Chapter 1. In 2 Peter Chapter 1, from verses 12 through 21, Peter kind of shares four very basic principles to effective ministry. And I want to use these as just a starting point and then I want to go to the book of Acts and add to these some other very important practical marks of an effective ministry.
But here to begin with four personal qualifications. Before you can have an effective personal ministry as he does in Acts 9, there must be certain things that you possess personally. Before I'm going to have any impact on you, something's got to be going on in me. That's the point. And as we look here, we see kind of the heart of Peter unbared in a very direct way and he gives us four things that really qualified him to have effective personal ministries. Number one, personal concern. Verse 12, 1 Peter 2...2 Peter 1 I should say.
Verse 12, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things. Though you know them and are established in the present truth. Ye I think it fitting as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." Now here is expressed the concern of Peter for those to whom he ministers. He cares about them. He is not satisfied to teach. He is satisfied that they learn, and there's a big difference. You have not done the job when you have communicated the truth. You have done the job when somebody else has learned it so that they can reproduce it.
And Peter says, I want you to know this. Now it's not that you haven't heard it before, it's that I don't want you to forget it so I'm going to remind you and remind you and remind you. He has a tremendous personal concern. Before anybody ever had an effective ministry, they had to care about people. And they had to care not that they presented it well, not that they got it off, that they came off looking good, but that somebody learned what it was they were saying. And Peter had that personal concern.
The second thing that he expresses here is personal urgency. In verse 14, "Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle," which is a long way to say I'm going to die, leave the body, "even as the Lord Jesus Christ has shown me." Remember in John Chapter 21, the Lord had said to Peter, "Peter you're going to die for me." In fact, He even told him that he was going to get crucified. And so Peter lived his whole life knowing he was going to get crucified. You say well, that wouldn't make a very happy life. It did for Peter, because he realized that he was going to be faithful in the end.
You see he had had another opportunity when he was confronted with Jesus Christ and three times what did he do? He denied him. So he proved that his commitment wasn't really valid. It was only verbal. And so finally Jesus said, next time Peter, you'll go all the way and die for me and that was good news. Because it meant he knew that he would make it next time. It gave him confidence. Now if the Lord told most of us that we'd die of apoplexy before we ever got to the cross. But Peter, he wanted to know. He wanted to be sure that he'd be faithful, and so the Lord told him.
And so he says, I know I don't have long, I'm going to die. He knew he was going for a cross. Verse 15, "Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance." He said, I want to drum them into our brain while I'm still here so that when I'm dead you can't forget them. Now that's urgency. He knew he only had a limited time and he wanted to maximize that time. He wanted to cram as much as he could into the limited time that he had.
I spent some time this week with a businessman who's an amazing guy. He's a graduate of Harvard with a Master's Degree in Economics. Got a brain like a computer. And he left me in the dust, you know, on that area. But nevertheless, he had figured out that he was wasting years of his life, because he didn't know how to maximize his time and make account for God. So he has figured out all of these sheets, time sheets, of his life and how he can maximize every moment for God. And it was absolutely hysterical for four days I was with the guy. And he had...he was the one who worked out my schedule when I was in Wichita. And so all the week long I was agreeing, this is great. Oh this is using your time knowing on Thursday I'm going home. I'm going home, you know.
But anyway, he had this fantastic schedule. And he would come in and he would say we have three minutes and 30 seconds and we've got to make sure we're there on time because every minute counts. We need to communicate Christ to these men. He'd rush me out to a country club to meet with a banker and a guy and some community leader and he'd say now we've got to be sure that we're there on time. And I've checked back with their secretaries. They'll all be there at two minutes after, etc., etc. We've got to make use of our time. Time is so limited. And he had me on this schedule. The last day I was there, I had five appointments and spoke six times. But...you know, and it was fruitful, believe me. It was fruitful. I don't know if I could take it very long, but it was fruitful. But you know, you say well, that's going a little far. For him this is what functions best. He works on that kind of a schedule best. And the Lord is using him.
I met another man who's got the same kind of a schedule and he opened up his notebook and he showed me the list of about 15 to 20 men that he meets with every week to disciple. And he has how much time he gives each one of those men. And then under their names, he has the names of other men that they've begun to disciple and a third generation and some men are on their fourth generation of disciple cycles and he's got a big sheet that folds out of his notebook telling what he's teaching every one of these men and what they're teaching their men. Now that's maximizing your time and making the most use of opportunity.
Now Peter was the same way and I don't know if he had a notebook like that, but Peter said I want to use every moment to get through what I need to get through. Apostle Paul was in Ephesus. He said, "I have not failed to teach you with tears night and day for three years." And that's personal urgency. The third thing that characterized Peter in an effective personal ministry would characterize anybody was personal experience. Verse 16, he says, "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming our Lord Jesus Christ, but were," what, "eyewitnesses." I'm not giving you secondhand information. This is experienced in my life. I'm telling you what I know. Now experience itself isn't a final qualification so he further...and he incidentally was talking about the transfiguration as he states in verse 17 and 18 in the Holy Mount he saw Christ, so he knew what he was talking. But he goes a step further and says you not only need personal experience in effective personal ministry, but personal knowledge.
Experience unless it's coordinated with the scripture might not be valid, right? So he moves in there with verse 21. "For the prophecy came not at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." And he calls this in verse 19 a more sure word. More sure that what? Experience. So Peter says to begin with as I look at my own life there are four things that are needful. Personal concern, personal urgency, personal experience, personal knowledge. And if I have those four things I'm ready for an effective personal ministry.
Now go back to Acts 9 and let's see how effective it was. And let's see if we can pull out some of the keys that made his ministry effective. Now just to give you a brief kind of insight into some background, keep in mind that when Jesus left this earth at the end of Matthew, at the end of the book of Mark it's recorded, he said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." In Matthew it says that he said "Make disciples out of them, teach them, and baptize them." So our Lord had the goal, the vision to reach the world with the gospel. That was his plan.
Now, the Lord made a strategy out to accomplish that and the strategy ran this way. First of all, he would work in Israel. And he would gain believing Jews. And when he had a group of believing Jews, they would be launched, blasted off the launching pad to reach the world. Now God has to start somewhere. God never in his plan had designed that Israel just sit there and be the dead end street for all of His blessing. They were always to be a channel to the world. And so he was planning then even in the New Testament to first begin in Jerusalem. And begin with believing Jews and then they would go out to reach the world.
Now the plan is indicated in Acts 1:8, the strategy for the church, you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be mumartures, my witnesses." And this being said to about 120 Jews. You are going to be the beginning of this explosion. You are going to be the key. "And you'll start in Jerusalem, then you go to Judea, Samaria, and finally the uttermost part of the earth." That's the outline of the book of Acts. So he starts with a group of believing Jews. Step number one is to hit Jerusalem. And so he says to them, now you guys get yourself in there in Jerusalem together and you wait til I send the Holy Spirit to indo you with power from on High. And they were all gathered up there in the upper room and the Spirit of God came in power, baptized them into the body, filled them and they shot out of that place and began to speak to everybody the wonderful works of God and every many heard in his own language. And then Peter stood up and preached the sermon and 3,000 people were saved and the church began in Jerusalem that day.
They were baptized and added to the fellowship. Then it went from there and they continued to preach in Jerusalem. Peter was thrown in prison, he preached to the Sanhedrin. Went back to the temple, when the angel let him out of prison on the other occasion, preached again to the people and the church grew. In Chapter 4, there are 5,000 men in the church to say nothing of the women and the children and young people. And so the church explodes in Jerusalem.
And finally, the characterization of the church in Jerusalem was made by the hating world as the Jews dragged the disciples in and they say this, "You have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching." And so they mark off Jerusalem and say it's time for Samaria. Well, you know, it's an interesting thing that God often does a little bit of fire building under the saints to get them to go where He wants them to go. And so the Lord new that the church might tend to kind of languish a little bit in Jerusalem. Especially since the Jews just by cultural pattern despised the Samaritans.
And to try to get them to go out into Samaria, might be a little bit tough even though they were believers and even though they loved the Lord Jesus Christ. Old patterns die hard don't they? Even we become a Christian we find these old patterns die very hard. And so the Lord had a little bit of an impedance and the impedance was a man by the name of Saul. And it says that Saul was consenting in Chapter 8, verse 1 to the death of Stephen. And says, "Then at that time there was a great persecution against the church. Verse 3 says Paul or Saul at that time became Paul, "Saul led the persecution." So the Lord just let the church get persecuted. The result was this. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. So the Lord just said, I'm going to help you guys get going a little bit, and just starting persecuting. They all bailed out and went just exactly where the Lord wanted them to go.
Now in verse 4 of Chapter 8, it says, they were scattered abroad and they went everywhere preaching the word. Isn't that good? You see the church then moved to the second step in the commission, Jerusalem, then Judea, and Samaria. And they moved outside the city of Jerusalem, blasted off the launching pad this time by persecution, the first time by the energizing of the Spirit of God and they'd begun to move throughout Samaria and Judea. And they had marvelous, marvelous results. Now this is an exciting thing for Judea and Samaria isn't it? But it's kind of tragic for Jerusalem, because it spelled really the final call to Jerusalem. As Jerusalem Jews had confirmed their unbelief, had arrived at a place of static and permanent disbelief and rejection of Christ and so God just moves out.
And so while it's victorious and joyous for Judea and Samaria, there's a note of tragedy as the persecution flames in Jerusalem against Christ and His people. Now we saw in Chapter 8 how that the work in Samaria was dominated by a man by the name of Philip, but he was assisted also by Peter and John who later came up to Samaria and did some preaching. And so there was a great work going on Samaria, Christians scattered all over everywhere and they were being brought into the church. And they received the Holy Spirit at the hands of Peter and John and were united with Jerusalem church, in fact, and in obvious vision. And so the church grew.
And now it's time to go another step. The third step in the expansion of the church is the ministry to the Gentiles. And that's not an easy one because that's even another large step for the Jews to take to extent themselves to the Gentiles whom they had been taught traditionally through all their history to despise. The Samaritans were half-breeds. So they were a little bit akin. The Gentile, that was going along ways. And you know, God had a special man to do the job with Gentiles. He was introduced to us in Chapter 7, verse 58 by the name of Saul. But before God use him, like everybody before He uses, He had to switch him around. And so we read in Chapter 8 how He transformed Saul into Paul. And this was the man that was going to be the guy who would labor and really do the work among the Gentiles.
But you know, he had to have some time of preparation. And so he remember spent three years in Nabatea and Arabia and in Damascus, then finally after three years, he came down to Jerusalem and only lasted 15 days before he had created such havoc they had to ship him to Tarsus to calm the scene down. He was that kind of a guy. So they finally shipped him out. And so by this time we've been only introduced to Paul who is going to be apostle of the Gentiles. And he's gone back to Tarsus. So the scene then refocuses on Peter who dominates from now through Chapter 12. He becomes God's man in the expansion of the church.
It is not Paul who opened the door to the Gentiles, it is Peter. Paul later came in and spread the word. Peter was the door opener. And you know, that takes us back and let me read you a very important verse in Matthew 16:18, to this statement of our Lord in which He commissioned Peter for this. Now in verse 18, Jesus said, "I'm going to build my church." Remember that statement? "The gates of hell will not prevail against it." The He said this in verse 19. "And I will give unto thee," and he was talking to Peter, "the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Now I believe the phrase there for general purposes is synonymous with the church. The kingdom of heaven was the church, the expanding church. He says, Peter, you're the guy who's going to unlock the doors as the church expands.
Now Peter was there in Jerusalem at Pentecost wasn't he? And he was the guy who preached. Peter was there in Samaria. Remember the Samaritans believed, but they didn't receive the Holy Spirit to be included in the body until Peter arrived and laid hands on them. So Peter opened the door of inclusion to the Samaritans in Chapter 10. As we get to Chapter in a week or so, we're going to see Peter opens the door to Cornelius, lay