Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1973 · 50th Convention › Sheet 491
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Sheet 491

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

MINISTRY IN RELATION TO CHURCH 459

‘f them emphasize the distinction between ‘ministry’
that is, Christian service of various kinds which may
nd should be performed by all Christians) and the
‘Ministry” (that is, a special office in the church).

The CTCR recognizes and endorses the validity and
mportance of this distinction. It notes, however, that
he specific questions addressed to the CTCR for study
ul pertain to the Ministry as a special office in the church.
“or that reason, this study does not directly address
tself to the ministry of all Christians, but rather to
juestions of the Ministry as the office of Word and
3Jacrament in the church. The first part summarizes
mportant aspects of the Biblical and confessional teach-
ng on the Ministry. The second part applies these em-
shases to the offices of teacher, deacon, and evangelist.

I. The Ministry in the New Testament and the
Lutheran Confessions

nstitution of the Ministry

The Augsburg Confession explicitly states that God
nstituted the office of the ministry:

To obtain such faith God instituted the office of the ministry,
that is, provided the Gospel and the sacraments. Through
these, as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit, who works
faith, when and where he pleases, in those who hear the
Gospel. [AC, V, p. 31]

Towever, in Holy Scripture we do not find words of
nstitution for the Ministry on the order of the words of
nstitution for Christian Baptism (Matt. 28:19, 20) and the
uord’s Supper (Matt. 26:26-29; Mk. 14:22-25; Luke
'2:19-24, and 1 Cor. 11:23-25). Nevertheless, we do find
hat Christ, even before His suffering, death, and resur-
‘ection, expected the Gospel of the kingdom to be pro-
tlaimed in all the world. ‘‘This Gospel of the kingdom
will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testi-
nony to all nations’ (Matt. 24:14). ‘‘Truly I say to you,
wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world,
what she [Mary of Bethany] has done will be told in
nemory of her.” (Matt. 26:13)

After His death and resurrection, our Lord’s earlier
2xpectation became His explicit command. He com-
nanded His disciples: ‘“‘Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them
‘o observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19,
20). “He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that Christ
should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be
oreached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jeru-
salem. You are witnesses of these things’? (Luke 24:
46-48). ‘Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent Me, even so send I you.’ And
when He had said this, He breathed on them and said
‘o them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the
sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of
any, they are retained’’’ (John 20:21-23). ‘You shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

In obedience to the Lord’s instruction and command,
the apostles began proclaiming the Gospel of forgive-
ness through Christ on the day of Pentecost and there-
after, and carried on this work until their death. The
apostles taught the church at Jerusalem (Acts 2:42).
Peter strengthened the brethren, as the Lord had com-
manded him (Luke 22:32; Acts 8:14-25). St. Paul founded
numerous churches in Asia Minor and later also in
Europe, and repeatedly visited and strengthened these
churches as need and opportunity arose.

Ministers of the Word Other Than Apostles

The command to preach and to teach the Gospel in
all the world had been given to the twelve apostles. The
task of evangelizing the world was, however, too great
to be accomplished by twelve men in one life-span,
shortened in the case of most of them by martyrdom.

The apostles soon sought and found assistants. Be-
cause the work of ministering to the temporal needs of
the many widows in the church at Jerusalem required
much time and energy, and prevented the apostles from
devoting sufficient time and energy to prayer and the
Ministry of the Word, the apostles asked the church at
Jerusalem to choose seven suitable men who could be
appointed to take charge of this work (Acts 6:1-6). These
men are often referred to in later ecclesiastical writings
as “the seven deacons,” although Scripture does not call
them deacons. Nor can their office simply be identified
with the office of deacon which later developed in the
church as one of the orders of clergy. They were ap-
pointed to a service which was related to the preaching
of the Gospel only insofar as it freed the apostles for this
task. Nevertheless, we soon find two of the so-called
“deacons” preaching the Gospel (namely, Stephen,
Acts 6:8 ff., and Philip the evangelist, Acts 8:5 ff.).

Soon we find others engaged in the work of preach-
ing and teaching the Gospel. Some men who had been
scattered by the persecution which arose after the death
of Stephen preached the Gospel to Gentiles at Antioch
(Acts 11:19 ff.), and a church which was destined to be-
come very influential in a short time came into being. In
this church, according to Acts 13:1 ff., there were proph-
ets and teachers, who evidently were engaged in some
way in the service of the Gospel.

St. Paul, who had come into the church by a miracu-
lous conversion, and to apostleship by a special call
(Acts 9:15; 22:21), recruited many helpers who became
preachers of the Gospel. Notable among them were
Timothy and Titus. They in turn were instructed to enlist
other competent and faithful men for the task of pro-
claiming the Gospel. Paul writes to Timothy, ‘‘You then,
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and
what you have heard from me before many witnesses
entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others
also” (2 Tim. 2:1, 2). There can be no question about what
Timothy had heard from Paul before many witnesses,
for Paul was faithful to his own commission, which he
describes in Rom. 1:1-6: