"Ministry is hard."

 

I’ve heard this for years, and I’ve also experienced it firsthand. Both the Old Testament and New Testament show us as well that "ministry" will not be easy—as we see the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles all suffered in their own ministries. And yet, we also see that the Bible tells us that there is great joy to be had doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. How do we get from the day-to-day stressors and depressors of the ministry grind, where we want to throw in the towel, to see the glorious vision of joy-filled gospel ministry? How do we not romanticize gospel ministry and still see the joy in it?

 

Specifically, this question hits everyone who is called by Christ to be salt and light in a darkened world. As Peter says, we are to be a kingdom of priests who are called to take the light of the gospel into a dark and hostile world. Whether you’re full-time staff at a church, bi-vocational, volunteer, or even just trying to be obedient to the call of the Great

Commission in taking the gospel to our homes, neighborhoods, cities, and the world, we all must have joy that is deeply rooted in Jesus if we are going to continue in ministry in any capacity.

 

I’m primarily thinking of two passages that put into perspective the joy we can have in ministry now because of Christ’s finished work. The first is Isaiah 52:7-9, where Isaiah proclaims to unfaithful Israel in the midst of a proclamation of judgment and restoration, to welcome the ministers of good news because the ministers bring news of peace. The second passage is Hebrews 12:1-2, which comes out of the great "Hall-of-Faith" chapter, showing us how the saints of old persevered in their ministries by faith, and the source of that endurance was looking to Jesus—the founder and perfecter of their faith and ours.

 

We could look at numerous passages, but these two often pop out at me when I am feeling discouraged in ministry. In fact, I had the idea to write on this topic because I was reading through Isaiah again and came across Isaiah 52:7-9 and was encouraged. There is encouragement in these passages for you as well, because if Christ is the center of our ministry, He supplies us with all the joy we could ever need in the midst of ministry. Let’s first hear from Isaiah about joy in ministry:

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How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,

who publishes salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;

together they sing for joy;

for eye to eye they see

the return of the Lord to Zion.

Break forth together into singing,

you waste places of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted His people;

He has redeemed Jerusalem.

 

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Perspective

To put into perspective Isaiah’s call to joy in chapter 52, we should have in mind his own calling to ministry from chapter 6—when Isaiah is caught up in a vision and sees the glory of the Lord filling the throne room of the temple and the seraphim floating around the

throne saying to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isa. 6:3). Then Isaiah is shown his own unworthiness to be in the presence of the Lord and the unworthiness of the people he is in community with, and he cries out, "Woe is me, for I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isa. 6:5). Next, we see that one of the Seraphim from around the throne flies over to Isaiah, touches Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal from the altar in front of the throne, and declares that Isaiah’s sins have been atoned for, and his guilt is taken away. Then, the Lord asks, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" (Isa. 6:8). And with a new sense of purpose, Isaiah states, "Here I am! Send me." Isaiah didn’t know what he was in for because the description of the ministry the Lord gave to Isaiah is that he will preach to a people with dull, non-understanding hearts, heavy deaf ears, blind eyes: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land" (Isa. 6:10-12).

 

So What?

This sounds like a bummer.

 

To wake up daily and preach to people who will not listen or understand, and to have a seemingly fruitless ministry.

 

How can he bear such a task?

How can we?

 

I’d say first that the strength to continue in this ministry is knowing that our guilt is taken away. We can only truly experience joy in ministry if we first experience the joy of our sins forgiven by the atoning work of Jesus Christ. That is the crux of gospel ministry in the first place, isn’t it? That we, who are undeserving people, are proclaiming the Lord’s atoning work to undeserving people. That, by the grace of God, in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9), through faith in that finished work of Jesus on the cross (Eph. 2:8-9), unworthy, undeserving people like Isaiah—and like you and I—can be restored to a right standing and relationship with the thrice-holy God of the entire universe.

 

That’s the message.

That’s the ministry.

 

There is obviously a lot of nuances to that, such as the counseling ministry of the word to sinners turned saints, who are being sanctified from who they were to who they are now, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. There’s the relational ministry of being a gospel community, a city on a hill, a light shining in the darkness, as we do life together with the people God has called us to care for. Then, there is the public ministry of preaching the Word of God. And this is where Isaiah 52:7-9 encourages our joy in the ministry.

 

Paul tells Timothy that the desire to be an elder is noble (1 Tim. 3:1). Isaiah tells us that it is beautiful to be a bringer of good news, a gospel herald. Yes, the workload might be heavy, and the task might be hard, but it is noble and beautiful to be a proclaimer of peace between God and man. I love singing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing for this very reason. The line, "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled." Wow! Have we stopped to think about the calling of being a messenger of peace between God and man? Jesus Christ came to establish that peace through His life, death, and resurrection, and if you are bought by His blood, you are a recipient of that peace. God’s wrath is not aimed at you. You are a son of the Most High God, and He looks at you with joyful song and adoration (Zeph. 3:17). How could we not tell people about this? How could we not be consumed with joy and gratitude when we think about how much we have sinned and rebelled against such a gracious and holy God who makes the way possible for us to be reconciled to Him through the work of His Son?

 

We have a noble and beautiful task.

 

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How Should We Respond Then?

Isaiah 52: 8-9 helps us understand how to respond:

 

The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.

 

Isaiah says we sing for joy.

 

Burst into song.

Sing aloud what God has done for you and what He is doing for all those He is saving.

 

I appreciate how John Piper defines joy—saying that "Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as He causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world." This definition makes sense when we look at the scope of the Apostle Paul’s usage of the word—especially in the context of Romans 15:13:

 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

 

We can have joy in the midst of the trials of ministry on this side of the cross because of what Jesus is doing, has done, and will do when He comes again. The Holy Spirit can stir this up inside of us as we look to Jesus in the midst of hardship. He will help us see the reasons for joy as our eyes, hearts, and minds are transformed to see the world through the lens of Christ, who is ruling and reigning now—as that is the declaration of good news in Isaiah 52:7: "Your God reigns."

 

It is good news that God is the one who reigns, not us. We are too fickle. Our emotions are all over the place, and we still have sinful hearts that need to be taught how to love others and love God. We aren’t perfect—(is that okay to be said in the 21st century?) But God is perfect. He is perfect in all His ways and all His works (Ps. 18:3). I can’t even make a decent slice of toast most mornings when I’m in a hurry to get my daughter dressed and ready fo school. But Jesus upholds all things by the power of His word (Heb. 1:3).

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We can trust Him.

 

Isaiah would go on to tell us, for just as the rain and snow go out and cannot fail to nourish the ground it lands on, so does the Word of God go out, and it will not return empty, for God will accomplish all He plans to do (Isa. 55:10-13). The text continues to say that we will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, and creation itself will celebrate as it witnesses what God is doing by the proclamation of his word. This is a good call to contentment in God, no matter the circumstances, because He works in ways we may not see yet, nor may we see for a few years—but it is glorious. His word is bearing fruit around us and in us. Pastor H.B. Charles Jr. talks about how peace is not the absence of conflict, but contentment through the conflict.

 

And so too, with joy, we must find contentment in Christ regardless of the circumstances.