Effective Personal Ministry

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 17 July 2016

We just concluded in Acts 9 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 apostle Peter. He is a fascinating disciple and we all are richer because of his life. And what we are going to study are the marks of effective personal ministry. Because from this passage we can learn the basic principles that are exhibited in the personal ministry of Peter.

Here we don't see Peter like we have in the past chapters of Acts preaching to great crowds of thousands. Here we see him kind of isolated with individuals. And some tremendous principles come out of the text as we shall look at Acts 9:32-43. Now the apostle Peter with all of his weaknesses who likes to say the wrong things, finally after Pentecost really began to speak for God. His life is the dominant theme in the first 12 chapters of Acts.

Now 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 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. Peter's life is a lot like Paul's life, they both had to turn around. And Peter gives us, directly and then indirectly, many of those principles of ministry.

Let us look first in 2 Peter 1:12-21, where Peter shares four basic principles for effective ministry. This is just to get our minds thinking about ministry before we go back to Acts. Before you can have an effective personal ministry, you must possess certain things personally. Here we see the heart of Peter exposed and he gives us four things that really helped him to have an effective personal ministry.

Number one, personal concern. Verse 12-13, “For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. 13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you.” Now here Peter expressed his concern for those to whom he ministers. He wants them to learn. Communicating the truth only is not enough, they have to be reminded again and again so that they can remember it correctly and tell it to others.

The second thing here is personal urgency. In verse 14, “knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.” Peter said I am going to die, just as Jesus told me." In John 21:18-19, the Lord said to Peter, “when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” 19 This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God.” 2 Peter 1:15 says, “Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.” Peter wants to use all his time to teach others.

The third thing that characterized Peter was personal experience. Verse 16, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” And lastly Peter says you not only need personal experience in effective personal ministry, but also personal knowledge. So he explains that with verse 21, “prophecy never came 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 prophetic word confirmed”. So Peter says to begin with we need to look at our own lives, and there are four things that are needed for effective ministry: Personal concern, personal urgency, personal experience and personal knowledge. Let us go back and examine how effective Peter’s ministry was in Acts 9.

In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus gives us the Great Commandment, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” Now God began with believing Jews and then they would go out to reach the whole world.

Acts 1:8 is the strategy for the church, “you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be My witnesses”. And this being said to 120 Jews, you all are going to be the beginning of this explosion. "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 God starts with a small group of believing Jews. 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 such that they began to speak to everybody the wonderful works of God and every many heard that in his own language. And then Peter preached the sermon and 3,000 people were saved and the church began in Jerusalem that day.

Then it grew from there and they continued to preach in Jerusalem. Peter was thrown in prison and he preached to the Sanhedrin. Then he went back to the temple, and when an angel let him out of prison on another occasion, he preached again to the people and the church grew more. In Acts 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 grew mightily in Jerusalem.

And finally the Jews brought Peter and the apostles before the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:28 and they say this, "You have filled all Jerusalem with your doctrine." And so they mark off Jerusalem and say it's time for Samaria. And the Lord used a man named Saul. And the death of Stephen started a great persecution against the church. And the Lord just let the church get persecuted by Saul. And believers were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

Acts 8:4 says, they were scattered abroad and they went everywhere preaching the Word. So the church moved to the second step in the commission, Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria. And they had marvelous results. But it is tragic for Jerusalem, because it spelled really the final call to Jerusalem. As Jerusalem Jews had confirmed their unbelief, they rejected Christ and so God just moves on.

And now the third step in the expansion of the church is the ministry to the Gentiles. The Samaritans were half-breeds, so they were a little bit akin. But the Gentiles, that was going a long ways. And as you know, God chose a special man to do the job with the Gentiles by the name of Saul. But before God used him, He had to switch him around. And so we read in Acts 8 how He transformed Saul into Paul.

And he had to have some time of preparation. And so he spent three years in Nabatea and Arabia and in Damascus learning from God, then finally after that he came down to Jerusalem for 15 days before he had created such havoc they had to ship him to Tarsus to calm the scene down. And so we have been only introduced to Paul who is going to be apostle of the Gentiles. And he has gone back to Tarsus.

So let us then refocus on Peter who dominates from now through Acts 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. In Matthew 16:18 our Lord commissioned Peter for this, saying, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

Then Jesus said in verse 19, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Now that phrase there is synonymous with the church. The kingdom of heaven was the expanding church. Jesus says, Peter, you are the guy who is going to unlock the doors as the church expands. Now Peter was there preaching in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Peter was there in Samaria also. 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.

And as we get to Acts 10 in a week or so, we're going to see Peter opens the door to Cornelius, the Gentile. He receives the Holy Spirit, and Peter has unlocked the last door in the expansion of the church. So Peter was the key to opening the doors of the church. Later on Paul comes back in in Acts 13 and begins the ministry of following up and building that church that Peter really officially initiated.

God is beginning to prepare Peter for the move to the Gentiles. And so God is preparing him for Acts 10 when he's going to come face to face with Cornelius, the Gentile, and he's going to see the Gentiles included in the church, which was a big shock. And he went running back and he said you'll never believe this, but the Gentiles have the same thing we have got. But his heart is beginning to soften.

Now, Peter in Acts 9 is taking a trip from Jerusalem down to Joppa directly west to the coastline. Joppa is a sea port, now called Jaffa, a suburb of Tel Aviv, 50 miles west of Jerusalem. Peter was moving around teaching, preaching, winning new believers, confirming saints and building them up. Now what happens illustrates to us what brought him such an effective personal ministry.

My hope is that some of us will be able to use these principles for effective personal ministry. Now I have pulled six of them out of the text that I just simply want to share with you. Peter was effective personally because he was involved, exalting Christ, available, powerful, fruitful and free from prejudice. These are basics to effective personal ministry.

First of all, he was involved, Acts 9:32, “Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda.” The rest of the apostles were out in Samaria and Judea moving around and preaching too. In fact, when Saul finally came to Jerusalem, according to Galatians 1, he said the only apostles he found there were James and Peter. The other ten were moving around preaching.

God keeps His richest ministries for His busiest saints. Have you ever noticed how that some Christians seem to get involved in a lot of things that God is doing? You know why? God uses people who are already working in the mainstream flow of what He is doing. And rich ministries always bear much fruit.

God uses His priority ministries for His people who put Him in the priority place. If you're faithful over little, He will make you lord over much. But you have to start where you are. Somebody says, Lord when I get done with this and that, I'm going to serve You. No, it is today that He wants you to get going, not someday in the future.

Lydda is an interesting town that is old and historic. In the Old Testament it was called Lod, and it is still called that today and if you have ever been to Israel, you have been there, because that is where the airport is. At that time it was an important city because it was right on the trade route from Egypt to Babylon going east. Now there were some saints there. Let me talk about that term ‘saint’ for a bit.

When the Catholic Church speaks of the saints, they speak with an entirely different vernacular and context than the Bible does. The word saints in the Bible simply refers to all Christians. There is not a hierarchy of super pious people or people canonized by God. The body is equal to anyone else because positionally, we are all perfect in Christ. Sainthood is a positional thing, not a conditional thing.

If ever there was a saint in the Catholic Church, it is Peter. Peter's sainthood is magnified and glorified beyond imagination. But let us see in Acts 10:25-26 what happened, “As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.” Remember they wanted to make God's out of Paul and Peter and worship them. And Peter said no and Paul also says, don't do that.

So now let us look at Acts 9:33, “There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed.” And it was always very serious, especially when they had no treatments. And it was usually permanent and it was progressively deteriorating.

Here we see the first principle and that is involvement, he cares. The second one, he exalted Christ. Verse 34, “And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” Then he arose immediately.” Notice first the word “arise”, even in the miracles of Jesus there was a response of faith demanded. Aeneas had to exercise his will in response to the statement of Peter.

Matthew 7:24 says, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Then the second thing that is interesting here is Peter said “make your bed.” Every time in the Bible you hear about healing where Jesus Christ is involved it is absolute, a complete healing, where he instantly is able to make up his bed.

All ministries that ever has true fruit always exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. At the moment that you begin to think that you can do it yourself, you have disqualified yourself from fruit and fruitfulness. Whatever is being done to His glory is being done by Him. Paul says in Ephesians 6:10, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." There is no strength elsewhere.

Look at verse 35, “So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.” Now Sharon here is not the name of a girl. It is the name of a valley from Joppa north to the top of Mount Carmel, a long valley between the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, a beautiful fertile valley. Notice at the end of verse 35, they all turned to the Lord because Peter exalted the Lord.

People exalt many things besides Jesus, but all those other things are just additions to your life. You have to recognize that you are a sinner, and reject everything you have lived for and turn around and go God's way. And yes, that's difficult. Jesus isn't a turn on, He is a turn around. If you want an effective personal ministry, just do two things, get involved in what God's doing already and live to lift up Jesus Christ. Let's pray.