Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20120506.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Timothy: God's Ministry Roles For Church Leaders And The Local Church
Part XII: Understanding The Path To Great Blessing In Church Ministry Functions
(1 Timothy 3:13 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Be it local church leaders or their subordinates, all who serve the Lord in their local church assignments are actually God's servants, so their ministry efforts in the local church should be performed uprightly.
    2. Now, upright service to the Lord for any and every believer brings unspeakably great blessing, and 1 Timothy 3:13 itemizes this great blessing, and accompanying passages further describe it (as follows):
  2. Understanding The Path To Great Blessing In Church Ministry Functions, 1 Timothy 3:13 et al.
    1. We before learned in this series that the Early Church "deacons" were not the church leaders, but that they served believers' needs, functioning under ruling "elders", so Paul's description of the blessings awaiting those who served well as "deacons" in 1 Timothy 3:13 applies to anyone who serves in the local church.
    2. Well, the path to great blessing in a local church ministry service assignment is detailed for us in 1 Timothy 3:13, and it is further explained in other Scripture passages (as follows):
      1. Those who serve as "deacon" servants in the local church, and so by application, any believer who serves the Lord in his assignment in the local church, in a way that is "good" (kalos, U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 724), that is, in a way that is "at once seen to be good" by onlookers due to its immediately evident honorable qualities (Moulton & Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek N. T., 1972, p. 318), these men or women (gune in 1 Timothy 3:11) acquire to their own benefit (middle voice of personal benefit of peripoieo, meaning "acquire," Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.; Arndt & Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the N. T., 1967, p. 655) for themselves (heautois , Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.) an immediately evident "good" (kalos, Ibid.) "rank, standing" (bathmos, Ibid.; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 129) from other believers in the local church. Thus, as a believer serves the Lord in a way that is "good" due to his or her obviously respectable, self-controlled, dependable behavior as seen in the qualities of deacons and women servants in the Church (1 Timothy 3:8-12 and our former lesson on this), he acquires for himself great respect from and influence with onlooking fellow believers!
      2. In addition, those who serve as "deacon" servants in the local church, or any believer who does his assigned service in the local church in a way "at once seen to be good" by onlookers also acquire for themselves "much confidence [with its resulting] openness in relating" (polle parresia, Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 694-696, 635-636; Theological Dictionary of the N. T., vol. V, p. 882-883) "in the faith that is in Christ Jesus." In other words, when one righteously serves God in the local church, gaining no worldly rewards that "the world deems important" (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 738), and continues to do so willingly amid the absence of worldly recognition due to the Holy Spirit's reassuring motivation within for him to keep on thus serving, that very faithfulness alone signals he is ministering in "a Christlike spirit of selfless service" (Ibid.), building confidence that his relationship with the Lord is upright, and that makes him very confident that his relationship with God is upright, leaving him "happy" like Jesus predicted in such a situation in John 13:12-17 KJV.
      3. Also, Jesus in John 14:21-23 promised that if a believer obeyed God's commands, and this applies also to one's divine ministry assignment in the local church, he signaled he truly loved the Lord, and God the Father and God the Son would respond to him, getting visibly involved his daily life, making their affirming, blessed encouragement clear to that believer in his life experiences to his enormous joy!
Lesson: If any believer, man or woman, serves the Lord in his divine calling in the local church in a respectable, self-controlled, dependable manner as God wants him to serve, he will acquire for himself high respect from and influence with other Christians in the body, and great open confidence before his Lord that his work, though not lauded by the world's standards, is still a quality work that pleases God, and he will see the Lord express His love by entering into his daily experience to express that love in edifying ways! CHRISTIAN SERVICE JUST DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT!

Application: May we serve the Lord in our calling in the local church this way to enjoy great blessing!