Easter Sunday.

Christians minister and serve because of Christ is resurrected and assures us of our own.

Skeptics and revisionists like to question the validity of the resurrection. If you know Christ, you are living proof of the resurrection. This Easter morning, we looked at 7 qualities of a minister for Christ living with resurrection power, from 1 Corinthians 4:1-15.

Consistency

Verse 1 follows the discussion in 1 Corinthians 3 of the glory of the New Covenant. When we were saved, we received mercy – both a ministry and protection from temptation.

Honesty

Verse 2 shows what does not characterize our ministry: cunning and diluting the truth. Instead, we live as a public display of truth. It is clear what the Gospel has done in our lives to change us!

In verses 3-4, honesty is shown in how ministry success (or the lack of it) is handled. The reality is that the Gospel is not popular. Holiness sheds light on the human condition, and this is not usually welcome.

Humility

There is no self-promotion in Gospel ministry (verses 5-6). 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 illustrates the same point. The ministry is not even ours; it is God's. It takes a miracle to change us. We live with a new spiritual governor who dictates down to the minute details of our lives.

Reliability

Our ministry and service can be reliable because the power is God's, not ours (verses 7-12).

Boldness

The Spirit of faith causes us to speak about the truth of the Gospel regardless of times of ease or hardship (verse 13). See also Psalm 116:10 and Matthew 10:32.

Confidence

Our belief comes from a personal knowledge of Christ and His resurrection power (verse 14).

Expectancy

All our spiritual development is pursued for a purpose: the spread and reception of the Gospel (verse 15). Our growth and service results in praise to God when He uses it to bring another person to salvation. We can prayerfully expect a harvest when living in His resurrection power!

Application Points

• Do you know the resurrection power of Jesus? If He has never changed your life, all you have to do is ask Him. Forsake your own way of living and submit to his governance over your life. If you need help, ask a friend whose life you know He has changed!
• Believer, do you live out these 7 qualities? Are you prayerfully expecting a harvest from your Gospel ministry? Pray and look for God to answer!
• We encourage you to continue to live these seven virtues during this time of crisis and after this crisis is over, so that many may come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and give glory and thanks to God because of your testimony.

Tools for Further Study

A Hymn to Encourage: "And Can It Be?"

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

-Charles Wesley, 1738