God-Centered Theology In The Ministry Of The Word

By Joel R. Beeke

The what, the why, and the how of proclaiming God-centered theology in our sermons.

The ministry, which centers on preaching the Word of God, should be God-centered. However, ever since the time of Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8), men have been drawn to the work of the ministry and have done that work in ways that are more man-centered and man-pleasing than those commended to us in Scripture.

To be truly God-centered, ministry must also be Christ-centered. We confess that in Jesus Christ, “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 1:16) and that “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29). If our work is centered on the Christ of Scripture, we cannot help but be centered on the God of Scripture. True Christianity does not offer a generalized theism.

To determine what a God-centered ministry should look like, we should review the most important sources and models of Christian ministry: the work of the apostles. In particular, we shall look at ministry as described by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:1-2:5. We shall consider the preacher, the hearers, the message, the method, the resources, and the goal of God-centered preaching of the Word.

The Preacher

How do we view ourselves as ministers of the Word? Why are we in the ministry? What does our work consist of?

The Word—“An apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God” (1:1)

As an apostle, Paul was called to serve Jesus Christ as His authorized representative or “ambassador” (2 Cor. 5:20) to unbelievers. He was sent in the name of Christ and given the authority of Christ to do the work of Christ. He was called to lay the foundation of the Christian church by preaching the gospel, gathering churches, and building them on the foundation of Christ Jesus. The work of an apostle was God-centered and Christ-centered. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:5, “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

Ministers of the Word are not apostles and should not claim to be so. Even so, we are to follow the example of the apostles who gave themselves “continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). The apostles laid the foundation of the ministry of the Word, and then they entrusted the work to others. These others are described as “they who labor in the word and doctrine” (1 Tim. 5:17), “pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4:11), “ministers of God” (1 Thess. 3:2), and “ministers of Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 4:6). Their charge is to “preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim. 3:4).

Do we, as ministers of the Word, take this view of our office? Is our view of the ministry rooted in what Christ has ordained through the ministry and writings of His apostles?

Paul goes on to say that he holds his office “through the will of God,” that is, as a calling and commission from God. God sent Christ into the world to redeem and reconcile man to God. God raised Christ from the dead and received Him into heaven. God gave Christ gifts that He then gave to His church—first to apostles, prophets, and evangelists of the New Testament period, and subsequently, to the ministers of the Word, ruling elders, and deacons who followed them. These leaders were appointed according to a principle as old as the Old Testament: that “no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God” (Heb. 5:4).

In addition to a saving knowledge of Christ and personal experience of the truth of the gospel, the first requirement for ordination to the ministry of the Word is a clearly perceived, well-articulated, and well-attested call from God to preach, so that we can say with Paul, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16). Indeed, the difficulties, heartaches, and frustrations of the ministry are so great that only a person who is convicted that he is a minister through the will of God will have the fortitude to persevere to the end in the work of the ministry.

So fellow ministers of the Word, I urge you to go back to first things. How did you come to hold this office? Have you been ordained by the laying on of unseen hands? How were you called to this work? What does that imply for the way you go about doing it? And to whom are you accountable for the faithfulness with which you do it?

To keep God central to our theology as preachers of the Word, we must not only have a sense of our God-ordained calling as ministers of the Word, but we must also have a right understanding of our hearers.

The Hearers

To whom are the ministers of the Word sent? On whom are they to bestow their labors?

The Word—“The church of God which is at Corinth” (1:2)

As ministers of the Word, we are to preach the gospel to all mankind, according to the command of Jesus Christ. However, we are called in particular to serve local assemblies of the church of Christ. So let us examine what the church is as a divine institution and what that implies for our ministry.

Paul describes those to whom he addresses his epistle as “the church of God which is at Corinth.” The church at Corinth had a distinct human history in its origins, its growth and development, and its descent into division, disorder, and immorality. No one knew that history better than Paul; yet, the first aspect of the church that he mentions here is the awesome truth that the church at Corinth is “the church of God.”

Paul addresses his epistle to “the assembly” or “congregation” of God. These terms suggest a body of people called together as a permanent society to deal with matters of common interest. The members of this assembly are human beings with never-dying souls, and so are the messengers who report good news to them, the teachers who inform and instruct them, the governors who preside over them, and the stewards who serve them. Even so, the One who gathers, nurtures, governs, protects, and sustains this congregation is God, not man. To this the Scriptures bear witness.

Human agents are only the instruments of God’s will and good pleasure; Christ is the One who builds the church. The human agents who “plant” and “water” the church are nothing in themselves, Paul says. It is “God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6-7). Human efforts will come to naught unless God uses them to accomplish His purposes for His church.

This God-centered view of the church is the foundation of the apostle’s hopes as he writes to a church in disarray. Paul’s conviction that God had established His church at Corinth fortifies all of Paul’s efforts to recover this church from her fallen state. The apostle views the members of this church as set apart or “sanctified in Christ” and “called to be saints.” That is the basis of every appeal, entreaty, and command in his epistle. So long as Corinthian Christians “call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,” there is hope for the recovery and reformation of this church, no matter how badly disordered her conduct, how erroneous her doctrine, or how chaotic her worship.

So let us preach to our congregations with hope in God and the gospel message. Let us preach, as François Fenelon says, “with the zeal of a friend, the generous energy of a father and the exuberant affection of a mother.” Let us preach the full message of God with such conviction that we can say with Martin Luther, “I preach as though Christ was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is coming back tomorrow.”

The Message

What should be the content of a God-centered ministry of the Word?

The Word—“Grace be unto you, and peace from God” (1:3); nothing among you, “save Jesus Christ and him crucified” (2:2).

The apostle Paul greeted the church at Corinth as he customarily greeted all of his churches: “Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3). Still, we might pass over the importance of this greeting to the Corinthians unless we recognized that Paul would not say such words if he did not mean them.

The grace of God bestowed on us in Christ and the peace of God that we enjoy through Christ are the fruits of being justified by faith (Rom. 5:1). They are a summary of all that Paul has to say to the churches in his care. They assure believers how their salvation is the work of God’s grace, whether it be the electing grace of the Father, the redeeming grace of the Son, or the sealing and sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:3-14). They also express the apostle’s longing for believers to know the fullest measure of God’s grace and love, which is “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7).

Sadly, it is possible to preach grace with little or no reference to the love of God or the work of Jesus Christ. But such grace is merely a general kind of benevolence or good cheer. It is something human and ordinary, something we more or less deserve and practice as good citizens and kindly neighbors. Such grace is mere graciousness. Preaching about this type of grace is like a mild-mannered man addressing a company of mild-mannered people, advising them to become more mild-mannered.

Likewise, it is possible to reduce peace to mere peace of mind, an emotional or psychological state of well-being or calm. The preacher of this type of peace becomes a counselor or therapist who massages away knots of unhappiness that may intrude upon our psyches. Grace loses its meaning when it is divorced from the gospel revelation of the wrath of God against sin and the sufferings of Christ on the cross to atone for sin. Peace loses its meaning when it is no longer seen as a precious gift purchased for us at great cost, enjoyed only in communion with the Father and the Son, and possible only because the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Because of the Spirit’s blessing on Paul’s God-centered preaching of the gospel, the Corinthians knew much intellectually and spiritually of God’s grace. So they understood what Paul meant when he said, “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which was given you by Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:4). They also understood that the reason they lacked true peace was because of divisions among themselves as a church and various ways they were sinning against God and the Holy Spirit.

They also knew that Paul’s mission as a God-called apostle was to preach the truth about God’s only-begotten son, Jesus Christ. So he wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:2: “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Nothing else was as important to ministry as to know Christ. Paul wasn’t just referring here to his preaching, but to his entire ministry. His driving conviction was to know Christ. He deliberately renounced every consideration but Christ crucified. Paul lived in a society ripe with issues to address. There was much to be said to philosophers who demanded a hearing, to civic and political leaders who had problems and vices. But Paul’s message first and foremost was to preach Christ crucified.

Paul’s words here have puzzled some. But understanding its meaning is crucial because this statement of Paul is the defining statement of Christian ministry. Paul is not saying here that he preached only the scenes of the cross. He did tell the Galatians that before their eyes, he publicly portrayed Christ as crucified (Gal. 3:1). No doubt he did that everywhere to help believers gain a greater appreciation of the cost of their redemption and to help bring the lost to Christ.

Paul also preached Christ crucified to impress listeners with the seriousness of God’s wrath against sin. He preached Christ to proclaim Christ as the One who absorbed the full weight of divine wrath against sin so that God might receive sinners back into His presence. Paul preached Christ to stress the significance of Christ’s death and that He who knew no sin was made sin for us “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Paul preached Christ to show that His vicarious curse-bearing and His innocent suffering for the guilty offered just grounds for imputed righteousness.

But Paul preached the whole counsel of God. So in saying he preached nothing but Christ crucified, Paul was speaking in comprehensive terms. The gospel (1:17), the preaching of the cross (1:18), Christ crucified (1:23), and Jesus Christ and Him crucified (2:2) are all synecdochal yet comprehensive phrases that relate to the same subject. Paul was saying that he preached a complete message about the person and work of Jesus Christ. He preached the message of Jesus’ saviorhood and lordship. The Lord Jesus was the center of Paul’s preaching because God the Father says Jesus Christ deserves to be that center. Christ is the Lord from heaven in whom the world is reconciled to God. He is Savior, and He is Lord.

Likewise, Charles Spurgeon said to his theological students after preaching for fifteen years at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, “I have been preaching nothing but this name of Jesus Christ. That, brethren, is the magnet; He will draw His own to Himself. If we cry out to see conversion, this must be our preaching — more constant preaching of Christ. He must be in every sermon; He must be the top and bottom of all the theology that we preach.”

We as ministers must be like Paul in setting Jesus Christ in all His glory and grandeur before men and women, not only for the sake of evangelism, but also for the sake of the spiritual growth and maturity of those who are under our pastoral care. Theologically that is critical, for the central means by which God works out His salvation is by uniting believers with Jesus Christ. We grow in the Christian life by growing in the knowledge of Christ and His work. Moreover, every spiritual blessing that God has provided for His people in their journey through this world to glory is found in Jesus Christ.

But still the question remains: Why does Paul speak here in such exclusive terms? How can he say that his message was nothing but the person and work of Christ?

The most obvious answer is that Jesus Christ was the central focus of Paul’s preaching. This is certainly part of what Paul is saying. When men and women came to hear Paul preach, they came expecting to hear about Jesus. And they did. But this statement also offers us a glimpse into Paul’s hermeneutic, or interpretation of the gospel. This apostle who claimed to preach all the counsel of God claimed also to preach only Christ. That is to say, to preach the whole counsel of God is to preach Christ. Christ is the central theme throughout God’s Word. Christ is the centerpiece of Scripture. The Bible is a Christocentric book. And so Paul preached the message of God about Jesus Christ.

But let us take this one step farther. Paul does not merely say here that Christ is his primary focus; he says that Christ, ultimately, is his only subject. Everything he says goes back to Christ. Apart from Christ crucified, there is nothing to say.

Today, we tend to divide theological studies into categories: pneumatology, ecclesiology, soteriology, eschatology, and so on. That has its place for theological study, to be sure. But for Paul, Christology was the overarching head of every kind of theology. Take away Christ and we have no theology at all, he seems to say. “Christ is all” was the apostolic theme. Everything we believe and are and have is in relation to Christ. He is our only theme, our only theology.

Knowing this, we can begin to understand why Paul confronted every problem by referring back to Christ. If the problem was divisions in the assembly, Paul ran back to Christ, asking, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1:13). If the problem was immorality, he ran back to Christ, saying, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump…. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). If the problem was temptation, Paul ran back to Christ, saying, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). If instruction on home life was needed, he ran back to Christ, saying, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Eph. 5:22), “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (5:25), and “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Eph. 6:1).

In all aspects of Christian life, Paul focused on Christ. When he tells us to forgive one another, Paul reminds us of Christ, who forgave us (Col. 3:13; Eph. 4:32). When he teaches us to be generous in our giving, he refers to Christ, who gave so much for us (2 Cor. 8:9). When he tells us about humility, he teaches us to put on the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5ff.). When he preaches on everyday holiness, it is on the ground that we are crucified and risen with Christ to new life in Him (Rom. 6:1-14).

Christ is the answer to every problem in life. To the lost and to the saved, Christ is the answer. So Paul says, “He is all I preach. He is the whole sum and substance of my theology and my ministry. He is our only hope, yes, but He is more. He is our highest incentive to holiness.”

Let us resolve to preach God-centered theology by preaching Christ. As Charles Bridges says, “Let Him be the diamond in the bosom of your every sermon.” Preach Christ with theological articulation, with divine grandeur, and with human passion. By working out the implications of “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” we provide people with all the material the Holy Spirit uses to bring them from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). This is Paul’s objective in all his preaching: Jesus Christ, “whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col 1:28). That must also be our comprehensive theme in ministry.

Some speak of balance in preaching today, meaning we should be careful to spread out the topics we cover across Scripture. However, Paul tells us that if Christ is not the sum and substance of our message, then we are not balanced at all. So do not relegate Christ to certain aspects of the Bible or to certain aspects of life. Rather, let Him be your exclusive theme. This, according to Paul, is the only message that works. If we do not preach Christ alone, we are no better than secular moralists.

“Jesus Christ and Him crucified” is the distinctive message of the gospel. Jesus is our only theme, yes, and the whole of it. As Richard Baxter says, “If we can but teach Christ to our people, we teach them all.” Or as Spurgeon says: “A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution…. When we preach Jesus Christ, then we are not putting out the plates, and the knives, and the forks, for the feast, but we are handing out the bread itself…. [Let us] preach Christ to sinners if we cannot preach sinners to Christ…. I wish that our ministry—and mine especially—might be tied and tethered to the cross.”

Are you known first as a preacher of Christ? Can you say with Samuel Rutherford, “Next to Christ I have one joy, to preach Christ my Lord”? William Perkins, often called the father of Puritanism, closed his classic homiletics book, The Art of Prophesying, by declaring that all he had said could be summarized in this: “Preach one Christ, by Christ, to the praise of Christ.” Let Christ be our God-centered message, our God-centered theology, and our God-centered calling.

The Method

How can we keep God the center of our preaching?

The Word—“The power of God, the wisdom of God, the deep things of God” (1:24; 2:10)

Paul kept God central in his preaching by determining not to know anything “save Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). He might have taken other approaches, such as entertaining the troubled Corinthians with a display of “excellency of speech,” or impressing them with his knowledge of Greco-Roman philosophy, or overwhelming them with his wisdom. He might have used those approaches to resolve their difficulties and assure them of prosperity and happiness in the world (2:1).

Instead, Paul came to the troubled Corinthians with a very specific message: “the testimony of God” (2.1). Some assume this meant Paul advocated preaching “the simple gospel,” devoid of any deep theology, abstracting Christ’s atoning death from its biblical context and presenting it as a simple remedy for all of life’s problems. “Christ is the answer,” they say, resenting it when someone with better sense asks, “But what was the question?”

Paul’s summary of his message goes beyond being a “simple gospel.” Rather it addresses the “deep things of God” as it asks: Who is Jesus of Nazareth? What did He say and do? Why is He proclaimed as Christ, and what does that mean? In a day when the Romans were crucifying many people, what was unique about Christ’s death on the cross? What could it possibly mean for the people of Corinth, or anyone else in the whole world?

Paul’s summary addresses such deep things as God’s wrath against sin, the love of God for sinners and His eternal decree or plan to save them, the promises God made to the fathers long ago, the distinct persons in the Godhead, the incarnation of the eternal Son of God as Jesus of Nazareth, the law of atonement, the efficacy of Christ’s death as an offering for sin, and God’s divine attestation in the resurrection of Christ and His ascension into heaven. No wonder that Paul calls it “the testimony of God.” Paul’s sermons in the Book of Acts show that he covered all these themes in his preaching.

For Paul, preaching Christ includes the kind of preaching Vance Havner describes as declaring “sin black, hell hot, judgment certain, eternity long, and salvation free.” Such preaching aims to give young and old a sense of God and His presence. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God.”

In 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul says that even though preaching “Christ and him crucified” was discounted by the Greeks as nonsense or “foolishness” and opposed by the Jews as something scandalous or offensive and a “stumbling block,” it is nonetheless “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1:24). If the Greeks could not perceive the wisdom of God in the gospel in preaching, it was because of their natural blindness, Paul said. If the Jews were offended by the spectacle of a crucified Messiah, it was because of the unbelief and hardness of their hearts.

Paul could take this view because he knew that the elect understood the power of God in the gospel, when in due time they were called to faith by the preaching of the Word and the work of the Spirit (1:24). The wisdom of God revealed in the gospel was hid from those who, as “natural men,” were strangers to the illuminating work of the Spirit (2:14).

In election and reprobation, Paul sees the fulfillment of God’s great purpose to glorify Himself in the sight of the whole world. By sovereignly choosing, calling, and making use of “the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised, yea, and things which are not” (1:27-28), God displays His supreme wisdom, power, glory, honor, and being. He shows that He has no need of the world’s wisdom, or the help of man, or the wealth and power of the rich and famous of this world, “that no flesh should glory in his presence” (1:29).

In sum, Paul focused his preaching on “the deep things of God” (2:10) and “the things that are freely given us of God” (2:12). He focused on the grace of God, the peace of God, the power of God, and the wisdom of God revealed in the death of Christ on the cross, which pardons God’s chosen ones who believe on “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Paul did not preach the great things of God as theological abstractions or intellectual puzzles. Rather, he spoke in plain words with the conviction of true faith and ablaze with love for God and man, because he disdained empty rhetoric and cheap theatrics in the pulpit (2:4). Paul goes on to explain that the God of the Bible is at the center of it all, “for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things” (Rom. 11:36).

One cannot be a true minister of the New Testament without a thorough knowledge of the great doctrines of the Bible, an understanding of how they relate to each other and to Christ, and a clear conception of “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man” (Shorter Catechism, Q. 3). The minister of the Word has nothing to gain from ignorance, error, simplistic thinking, or intellectual laziness.

A God-centered ministry focuses on Scripture, the gospel, and the way of salvation. The minister of the Word must battle the human tendency to be self-centered and man-centered in his thinking by applying himself wholly to the Scriptures, and the Scriptures wholly to himself. We find help in this battle by reading the best of Reformed theology and preaching.

The Resources

What does a God-centered ministry depend on for effectiveness?

The Word—“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (2:5)

The God-centered ministry of the apostle Paul was effective, both in his day and today. His teaching continues to bear abundant fruit in the church, for every Christian who is “a Gentile by nature” (cf. Gal. 2:15) is indebted to the unwavering, faithful work of the apostle Paul as a minister of the Word.

It is tempting to view Paul as one of the wonders of his time in being brilliant, cultured, charismatic, good-looking — a true, strong, natural leader that pulpit committees are forever hoping to discover. Yet here is Paul’s own account of himself at Corinth: “I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (2:3-4). The writer of these words offers no impression of tanned, sleek, “muscular” Christianity, no jaunty self-confidence and ability to master a bad case of nerves. Instead, he confesses he has no winning way with words, no salesman’s ability to close a deal, no clever responses to his detractors and opponents.

Paul was not resorting here to false modesty. He was a strong advocate of sober thinking about oneself and one’s abilities (Rom. 12:3). That said, 1 Corinthians 2 does indicate that Paul knew the tricks of public speaking, and that, had he wished to, he could have used them to make a name for himself as a preacher. The point is that Paul, indeed, did approach the church at Corinth with fear and trembling. Corinth was a wicked city, and the task of dealing with a fractious bunch of believers was daunting. Indeed, it was a situation impossible for Paul, who had a profound sense of inadequacy, to correct. He did not come to Corinth bounding with confidence, convinced of success. He did not believe he carried “revival in his briefcase,” as certain modern-day evangelists have claimed. Rather, he felt the work was too great for him, the calling too high. Paul was a brilliant man, and he surely could have influenced many to make human decisions for Christ. But he knew he could not in himself do lasting good in his listeners.

And yet, Paul did enjoy success in Corinth. But that success was due to the Spirit of God. As Paul writes, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2:4). As Paul preached, God’s Spirit was at work. The Spirit powerfully demonstrated the truth of Paul’s message to those who heard him. His gospel was made effective, not by external means, but by the inward, efficacious call of God (cf. 1:18-31).

Despite Paul’s fear and weakness, he felt confident, not in himself, but in God. One of the strange, mysterious, yet holy things about preaching is that we can often feel unequal to the task, perhaps even to the point of physical weakness and sickness. At the same time we are bold in preaching the message of God because we are dependent on the Holy Spirit. When we rely fully on that power, we believe that God will work through His preached Word in the lives of sinners. We preach, believing that God’s Word will, by the power and grace of His Spirit, not return our words to Him void. The Spirit of God will work through the proclamation of the God-centered Word. That fills us with holy expectation as we ascend the pulpit in personal weakness and inadequacy.

Paul made a deliberate choice to depend on other resources for the effectiveness and fruitfulness of his ministry of the Word. He relied on the truth of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit to carry the day with his hearers. He did not try to gather a following around himself or his abilities. He wanted the faith of every Christian to stand not “in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (2:5).

Are we failing to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ by resorting to storytelling, trendy topics, or foolish humor to win popularity and entertain our hearers? It is clear from Paul’s epistle that such preaching offers no confidence in the power of truth, the powerful truth of God’s Word.

Paul took his stand with the inspired psalmist who declared, “I believed, and therefore have I spoken” (Ps. 116:10; 2 Cor. 4:13), believing that faith in God and in His Word were essential for a God-centered ministry. Paul was well aware that in any faithful ministry of the Word, much seed falls on unproductive soil (Matt. 13:3-23). But he also knew that, to produce lasting effects, the preached Word must be accompanied by the sovereign, life-giving, life-changing operation of the Holy Spirit. Almost any well-trained speaker can thrill an audience, but only the Holy Spirit can use those words to move sinners to repentance and kindle the light of faith in darkened, unbelieving hearts.

So Paul took pains to prune away anything that savored of man and to preach the gospel message of “Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” so that “the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1 Pet. 1:12) might open a way for that message in the minds and hearts of the hearers. He was careful in his preaching to direct people to trust in God’s power alone. To run to Paul for help would not do; they must run to God.

Paul was never so arrogant as to assume the Spirit’s role. He was very concerned that no one believe something simply because he said so. Rather, he trusted God to work in listeners through the plain preaching of the gospel.

Though Paul was not eloquent or mighty in the Scriptures, like Apollos of Alexandria, who had a following at Corinth (1:12), that preacher soon discovered that eloquence is no substitute for a thorough knowledge of the doctrines of grace (Acts 18:25-26). Apollos only became helpful to others when his eloquence served God’s Word, through the grace of God.

Clearly Paul agonized over the problematic Corinthian church, asking himself such questions as: what will become of these Corinthian Christians when I am gone? If their faith depends on Paul and his words, what will happen when he leaves? They should regard him as only a messenger, a mere earthen vessel, and merely the servant of Christ. The message was the important thing, not the messenger. These Corinthian Christians would persevere in believing that message only by the power of God, not because of the wisdom of men.

Simply put, Paul staked his ministry on the faithfulness of God. Because God is faithful, a minister of the Word may look to God to honor His Word, to bless the faithful proclamation of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” to bring to glorious perfection the illumining, quickening, sanctifying, and sustaining work of His Spirit in the lives of His people (Ps. 138:8; Phil. 1:6).

The Goal

What is the aim of God-centered ministry? How can that be achieved? How should it be measured?

The Word—“He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1:31)

The aim of a God-centered ministry is to glorify God. It is to extol God to the highest, in the splendor of all His attributes. Faithful ministers aim to give God the same place in their own hearts and in the hearts of their people as He holds in the universe. Every other consideration, whether it be building the church, or extending Christ’s kingdom, or contributing to the happiness of people, must be subordinate to this one all-controlling motive. What is not done to God’s glory is sin.

Likewise, what is done to God’s glory must be done according to God’s revealed will. We sometimes speak of God’s “prescriptive” will. The revelation of God’s will in His written Word is a word of command. It is not descriptive but prescriptive in ordaining how ministers are to go about doing the work He has put into their hands.

Some people believe the authority of Scripture extends only to the truths that Scripture teaches but not to its specific commands. For example, we view the matter of Christian worship as “open-ended,” finding in the Bible only a few basic ideas that we are free to develop as we please. Not surprisingly, Christians who learn in church to pay little regard to the biblical regulation of worship go home with little concern for observing the biblical regulation of their life and conduct.

Truth begins with the ministry of the Word. As ministers, we must strive to bring listeners into subjection to God and to Christ. We must model that subjection in everything we say and do, in and out of the pulpit. We must make the Word of God the sole rule of our faith, our preaching, our worship, and the way we live. We must aim to be as holy out of the pulpit as we appear to be in it. Our lives must be transcripts of our sermons. We must die to ourselves, to the world, and to the praise and criticism of men. Like John the Baptist, who pointed his own disciples away from himself to Christ (John 3:30), our motive must be “Not I, but Christ!” In this way, we glorify God and do the greatest good to others.

Success in the ministry may be measured in various ways. Too often we measure it in terms of numbers and recognition. We ask, who preaches to the most people? Who raises the most money? Who sells the most books? Whose radio broadcast is on the most stations? Who is invited to appear at public meetings and political rallies or to endorse candidates for office? Whose opinions are cited in the periodicals and newspapers? Whose website garners the most hits? Whose church is growing in numbers? We may deny it, but we are impressed by such things.

Those measurements hardly apply to Paul’s goals in ministry. The living God at the center of Paul’s theology and ministry makes use of things that appear to men to be foolish, weak, base, and despised, or even nothing at all. We must remember that “the world by wisdom knew not God” (1:21). A God-centered ministry cannot be achieved by consulting the wisdom of the world, by courting the favor of men, or by forsaking the ways of the Word of God. True success in the ministry should be measured by depth of true faith, consistency of life, faithfulness in doing the will of God, and persevering to the end. The ministry that glorifies God in these ways is truly a success.

That is the kind of ministry we need. All the attention must be Godward (cf. 1:31). Our faith and the faith of our people must be in the triune God. Our faith and the faith of our people must stand firm in God’s power and serve His glory. Let us resolve to conduct our ministry accordingly. That is what Paul is saying to you today. Do not pretend that you can have success and take the credit. To have real success, God alone must have the glory.

The apostolic model for Christian ministry is thus a God-centered ministry based on sound theology that is in keeping with the gospel. There is no room for personal glory in the ministry, much less divisions over the popularity of ministers (1:11-13). Stay humble and dependent on the One who calls you to ministry. Focus on the glory of God and on the white fields of harvest rather than on yourself. Let your comfort in life and death be your faithful Savior and Sender, Jesus Christ. To every preacher of the Word, Paul says: Preach the message of God about Jesus Christ, relying on the Holy Spirit to do what He alone can do. And do all of this to the glory of God, who alone is worthy. As Philip Doddridge writes: “Perish each thought of human pride, / Let God alone be magnified; / His glory let the heavens resound, / Shouted from earth’s remotest bound.”

Luther once said that Paul’s pen could not stop writing about God in Christ because Paul could not get God in Christ out of his mind and heart. From 1 Corinthians 1:1 to 2:5 alone, Paul references the name of God more than sixty times. God was central to the apostle’s theology, his preaching, his life. Christ was all in all for Paul. That is why he could say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

Paul was on fire for God. Let us not rest until we, too, are consumed with God. Think of Lloyd-Jones’s remarkable definition of preaching: “Preaching is theology come through a man who is on fire.” Let us storm the mercy seat to ask God to revive our hearts with God-centered lives and theological depth and preaching, for then we would surely see better days in the church of Jesus Christ.

This article is an expanded version of an address given at Ligonier’s Pastor’s Conference in 2007. I wish to thank Ray Lanning for his assistance.