Marks of an Effective Personal Ministry, Part 2
Acts 9:36-43
If you have your Bibles, turn to Acts chapter 9, and we'll take up where we left off last time. One of the things that I learned in seminary, not very well, but nevertheless they taught it was that you never preach part of a sermon. You always finish it so that it's in total; and I have never really thought too much about it, because so many times, I just trust the Spirit of God, and I get going on some particular thought; and, pretty soon, the time is gone. I just pick it up where we left it; and somebody came to me last week and said the Lord had used that sermon in their life, even though it wasn't very organized. And so I felt better about that, but I'm sorry for the lack of organization for you who, like me, need that. It's very comforting to be organized.
Now, this morning we want pick up where we did leave off, and we were talking last time, as we're going through the Book of Acts, so exciting a study for all of us. I know my heart has been enriched. We've come to chapter 9, and we've just begun verse 32 to 43; and we have seen here a narrative, basically, of two miracles that Peter does in the power of Christ. One is the restoration of a man eight years sick with paralysis. The other is the raising of Dorcas from the dead. Both of these are accomplished by Peter in the energy of Christ.
Now, it's interesting that these two little incidents from the life of Peter introduce us to his personal ministry. We think of Peter up until this point as involved only on a rather public basis. We hear him preaching to great crowds and proclaiming the Gospel to the Sanhedrin, and we see him moving about in Samaria with John preaching in various cities, and his ministry rather takes on the characteristic of a public ministry. And here, for the first time, apart from dealing with sin in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, we see him in a very personal ministry; and I think this becomes very important for us, because there are principles that are indicated in this little account that can be translatable into our personal ministries. And so I've called this, rather than just looking at it historically, "The Marks of Effective Personal Ministry."
Now, though many times a failure before Pentecost, Peter, after the Spirit of God empowered him, was a great success. He was a great success as God measures success. He had a dynamic character that was released in every sense of the word by the energy of the Spirit once he was really committed and filled by the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. He became the leader of the Twelve. He became the powerful preacher to the multitudes. He became the fearless apostle to the Sanhedrin. He was the teacher of the early church. He went everywhere preaching, teaching, working miracles. He was really the opener of the Gospel, both to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles. He it was who had the keys to the Kingdom, Matthew 16. He also was the point of contact for the coming of the Spirit. Whenever the Spirit of God came on the next dimension of the church, Peter was always there as the point of contact.
In chapters 1 through 12 of the Book of Acts, he dominates the action, and then reappears again in chapter 15 at the council of Jerusalem. But, really, twelve of these chapters under the title "The Acts of the Apostles" could be called the acts of Peter, chapters 13 to 28, the acts of Paul. And so we've been looking at Peter; and, as we look at his ministry post-Pentecost, we learn a lot of really positive things about our own ministries and how to make them effective. I think oftentimes in...in giving out principles for ministry, we tend to go to Paul; and we tend to look at Paul as the one who gaves all...who gives all the illustrations of Christian life and Christian ministry. But... but I really think Peter has tremendous...a tremendous amount to offer us in principlizing effectiveness in the Christian life; and we see it just rather than Paul's theological approach to it, we see it in Peter's actions.
And, you know, in terms of learning principles, we not only need theorizing, we need action. We learn best principles that are activated in somebody's life, right? When somebody says to me, "This is a principle. I've never tried it, but I think it'll work," then I consider that. When somebody says, "This is a principle. I tried it, and it works," then I pursue that. And Peter shows us principles rather than telling them to us.
For example, I wanna know how to preach. Many of us wanna know how to preach. I don't think there's a better lesson on preaching than Acts chapter 2 and 3 when you just listen to Peter's sermons; because, as you listen to Peter preaching, you find, in all of his sermons, the characteristics of effective preaching. A passion, a concern, a power, a dynamic, a freedom to say what he thinks no matter what's gonna happen. You find an organization. He begins with a dynamic gripping, attention-getting introduction. Then he moves fast into a theme, and the theme is always Christ, and it's always supported by Scripture. Then he comes to a response. It's always very direct and always very positive, and so you learn how to preach if you listen to Peter.
And then you go to chapter 4, and you know something you learn there? You learn how to handle persecution, because Peter exhibits principles for handling persecution. Peter shows us that when you get persecuted, you're...you should be submissive to it. You should be filled with the Spirit. You should boldly use it as an opportunity to preach Christ. You should be obedient to God at all costs. You should bind yourself closer together with other believers for strength that you're gonna need at that time; and, lastly, you should pray that God would give you greater boldness. That's how to handle persecution, and Peter never said that. He just gave us that by illustration of his own life.
Then you come to chapter 5, and you know what Peter teaches us? He teaches us how to handle sinning Christians, because he runs into Ananias and Sapphira, and he handles them right. He confronts them with their sin, boldly confronting them and saying what it is in face of the whole church community; and we learn from Peter how to be bold in the face of sinning Christians. That's a principle we need to know. And so we see Peter in many, many ways in an example fashion teaching us principles; and I believe, really, Bible study and preaching and teaching is simply principlizing the Scripture. It's not enough to just tell you what it says. It's gotta be principlized so you can live it. So that's what we wanna do.
Now, as we come to chapter 9, Peter's got some more principles to teach us, and they're not stated again. They just are apparent in what he does. He is the great teacher by example, and here he teaches us the marks of effective personal ministry. Now, he wasn't always preaching to crowds. He got involved with people. He got involved on one-on-one bases, and this is exciting, and this is a thing that all of us, even particularly me need to be constantly aware of. That it's not enough to be involved only with crowds. There must be personal involvement, personal ministry; and Peter had that; and here we see two just simple little vignettes from the life of Peter that indicate some of the things that made him effective in personal ministry.
Now, last time, I told you there were six things that hit me out of this texts that are the marks of effective personal ministry. I'll repeat them, and then we'll go into them. He was involved. That No. 1. No. 2, he was Christ-exalting. No. 3, he was available. No. 1, he was prayerful. No. 5, he was fruitful. No. 6, he was free from prejudice. Now, these are the things that I think really made Peter's effect...ministry effective here as we see it in Acts chapter 9; and I say again, these are transferable principles. These are things which can be learned by us and translated into our lives that we might have effective multiplication-type ministries. God wants us to work one-on-one with others, and here are the principles.
No. 1, and we're reviewing the first two. We only got past the first two last time. No. 1, he was involved, and we went into some detail about the ministry of Peter. How that Peter was going somewhere all the time. Peter never was able to stand anywhere very long. He was always going. In fact, one occasion when Jesus told him after His resurrection to go up in the mountains in Galilee and wait for Him, Peter stayed up there about as long as he could stand it, and finally said, "I can't take this any longer. I'm getting outta here. I'm going fishing." Took off and went back to fishing, because he couldn't stand to sit still. He was an active person by nature.
Well, when the Spirit of God got ahold of him, he was Holy Spirit activated in perfect conjunction with his temperament; and so he was everywhere doing everything; and I love the way verse 32 opens up, "And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters." There is a classic definition of Peter's pattern of life. He went everywhere, but you know something? It is the people that are going, it is the people that are active, it is the people that are involved that God directs easiest to His ministries. You've watched as big diesel trucks with double trailers have pulled up to a stop sign; and if you notice carefully, if it's at all possible, they'll never stop. They'll always keep rolling, even though it's very, very slow; because they know it's much easier to handle that thing as long as it's moving.
God knows the same thing, and God always chooses those who are already active in the mainstream of ministries for His choicest tasks, believe me. And we compared that with Genesis 24:27, remember, where the...the servant went out to find a wife for Isaac, and he didn't even know what he was looking for. Find some nice girl for Isaac, see; and he got out there. The Lord led him right to the place, and he...he commented on it by saying this, Genesis 24:27, "I, being in the way...what?...the Lord led me." Because he was active, because he was moving, he was available, and God put him where He wanted him.
God uses His choicest, most active servants for His choicest tasks. Isn't it amazing how that some Christians never seem to get on...in on anything, and others are doing everything? You get in the mainstream, and God'll lead you to where He wants you. That's the first point. We went into that in great length last time.
All right, so he passed all through the quarters, and he came down to the saints who dwelt at Lydda. Down from Jerusalem, down the mountain, toward the Seacoast, about 45 or 50 miles, little town called Lydda, right on the pathway to Joppa. "And he found a certain man...verse 33...named Aeneas, who had kept his bed eight years, was sick of the palsy." Here is a guy who'd been for eight years in bed with some kind of a paralysis.
Now here was Peter'