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There is much
to be gleaned from this passage of Scripture.
The first thing that strikes us is that the prophets and
teachers were gathered together to minister to the Lord. How
seldom we see this today! In the first place, prophets and
teachers are rarely able to get together regarding anything.
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The prophet
thinks the teacher is too intellectual, and the teacher
thinks the prophet is too ethereal.
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The prophet
favors inspiration and revelation, while the teacher favors
illumination and study.
The two seem to
naturally be at odds, and this is probably necessary to keep
everyone balanced. The prophet needs the teacher, and the
teacher needs the prophet.
But here we see that everyone has come together, not to have a
prophets and teachers conference, but to minister to the Lord.
They have not lost their first love!
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Prophetic
things have their place, but there is a time when prophetic
things must be put on hold.
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Teaching
and instruction have their place, but there is a time when
no one should be teaching or saying anything.
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There is a
time when the saints should gather together for the purpose
of ministering to the Lord.
The Greek word
for "ministered" here is "leitourgeo", and we get our English
word "liturgy" from it. It meant the performance of priestly or
ministerial functions. Interestingly enough, it could only be
used in connection with the Temple, since that was the only
valid place a priest or minister could perform the functions.
In Acts 13 we
see the word used to describe the Church in Antioch. What does
this mean? Simply this: we are the temple of the living God,
a house of living stones, offering up ourselves as the
sacrifices, ministering to the Lord as a holy nation, as a royal
priesthood. Hence, we need no earthly temple or priest to
represent us to God. We worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
The fact that the Holy Spirit moved and revealed the Lord's Need
while they were ministering to the Lord is significant.
How can we know
the Lord's Need unless we have ministered to Him? Perhaps there
were a dozen or so missions that might be done, and they could
have fulfilled any number of needs and been considered good
Christians.
But the issue is not how many needs can we meet, but is the
Lord's Need met? What if we meet everyone's need but the Lord's
Need is not satisfied? Let us meet the Lord's Need first, and
give Him His portion; then we are fit to stand before people and
minister to them. This is the motivation for ministering to the
Lord. People with no patience for these things will forge ahead
on their own, see a need, and move at once to meet it, just like
a good business person will do.
But the Kingdom
is not based on business principles. Our foremost concern is
satisfying the Lord's heart, being with Him, meeting His Need.
Ministry to men is founded upon ministry to the Lord.
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