So, what does Christian ministry include? Well, once Jesus called His disciples, what sorts of things did He do? What did His ministry involve?
In the first place, He was a teacher, and we see a sample of His teaching in chapters 5 through 7, which have come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus went into the synagogues and explained what the Law of Moses really meant and how it shows how we are to love God and love other people.
And He engaged in a ministry of healing, examples of which we can see in chapters 8 and 9. Jesus was able to cleanse lepers (8:1-4). He healed a man who was sick far away in another town (8:5-13). He even cast out demons, demonstrating His complete authority over them (8:28-32).
And in both of these ways He proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God. As He taught with authority, He called people to repent of their sin and believe that He was the Son of Man, the One sent by God to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. And as He healed the sick and cast out demons, He demonstrated that He is the One Who has all authority in Heaven and in Earth.
And so we see that Christ Himself must be central to all our ministry. Our teaching must be focused on Who He is and what He has done for us. Our efforts to bring healing into people’s lives in various ways must rely on and point people to the power and authority of Christ.
What is Christian ministry? It’s nothing more or less than displaying Jesus to the world in everything we say and do. Will we show and share Christ today?
Matthew 4:23-25 (NAS)
23 And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
24 And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.
25 And great multitudes followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
