When is the service illegitimate
When is the service illegitimate
The servant is a person who does not act from himself; he serves the Lord, and serves His Church, His word, His Kingdom, and His children.
Therefore, he must be sent by God — or by His faithful stewards — for this service.
In this the Scripture says: “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:15).
From this it is understood that a person cannot preach unless the Lord sends him. Therefore, when Moses began his first service without being sent, he failed in the service, and when God sent him, he succeeded.
God is the One who chooses His servants. He chose the twelve apostles and the seventy, and He said to the twelve a phrase that is a beneficial lesson for us: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16).
He also said to them: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). And when He sent them, He granted them power for the service and began working with them.
The servant who is sent does not work alone, but God works with him.
Thus Paul said about himself and Apollos: “We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field… I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6–9).
The Lord Christ Himself used to say that He was sent from the Father:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). Therefore He also said: “I must work the works of Him who sent Me” (John 9:4).
God’s sending of the servants includes within it: the choosing and the calling, the setting apart for the service, and also ordination. Thus the service becomes legitimate.
The calling and choosing reached the fathers, the apostles, and the prophets… and for all this there are many examples in the Holy Bible in the life of Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, and others too numerous to count.
Then the Lord chose His apostles in Christianity and made them His stewards… and entrusted them with ordaining servants and sending them to the service, even those chosen by Him.
Perhaps one of the most wonderful examples of this is Saul of Tarsus (Paul the Apostle). The Lord had set him apart for the service from his mother’s womb and called him to preach Him among the Gentiles (Gal. 1:15). This calling was a cause of God’s good pleasure. He met the Lord on the road to Damascus, word to ear, and He appointed him a chosen vessel to bear His name, and informed Ananias of this (Acts 9:15). And the Holy Spirit called him to the work.
With all this divine calling, Saul still had to be sent to the service through the Church, through God’s stewards.
In this the Scripture says about the apostles: “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2).
How, O Lord, shall we separate to You, when You are the One who commands and forbids, who chooses and calls? Is it not enough that You have called them to the work? Is it not enough that the Lord appeared to Saul and chose him?
No, says the Spirit. Rather, you must “separate to Me.” These two chosen vessels must be sent by the Church so that their service may be legitimate.
So the apostles obeyed: they fasted then and prayed, and laid hands on them, and sent them away in peace. From here their service began.
The apostles went on to appoint bishops, priests, and deacons, as they said regarding the seven deacons: “Whom we may appoint over this business” (Acts 6:3).
And you, who appointed you to the service? Did you appoint yourself? Or did people appoint you? Or did the Church appoint you, and thus your service became legitimate? Every service for God that does not proceed from the Church is an illegitimate service.
The Apostle Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel,” except together with saying, “Necessity is laid upon me… for a stewardship has been entrusted to me” (1 Cor. 9:16–17).
And you, have you been entrusted with a stewardship? And who entrusted you?
The bishop is the one responsible for appointing the servants, because as the Scripture says, he is “a steward of God” (Titus 1:7). So in your service, did you enter by the door?
Those who thrust themselves into the service take the labor of the service without taking its blessing. Their service may be a stumbling block and an error… for how shall they preach unless they are sent? (Rom. 10:15).
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