I have been reading Lloyd-Jones biography (2 Volume Set) and have come to the second to last section at the end of the second volume called “The End of An Era.” I was encouraged by the following quotes on the ministry in a very personal way. I am stirred up afresh for the ministry because when I read what God has done and said to others, I am all the more encouraged that is the way God works! He worked then in this man, and He is working in my own life and ministry! I’ve gathered together the following subjects to consider and reflect upon.

1. The role that hope plays in the ministry.

2. The call to the ministry.

3. What causes people to be critical and divisive.

4. The charge to be faithful.

The Role That Hope Plays In the Ministry

“Do not listen to the pessimism, the hopelessness, and the despair of this materialistic age. Believe in the supernatural, miraculous, divine Gospel!” (580)

Hope has been a very important theme in my own ministry in recent years. Lloyd-Jones speaks like a postmillennialist here, though I think he was by profession ammillennial. His biographer is a postmillennial, so I tend to think he is pointing out that at the end of Lloyd-Jones’ ministry he spoke in these terms. No matter what one is, a victorious eschatology is what the Bible teaches. Lloyd-Jones was full of hope. It’s an essential aspect of the gospel and faith therein. Personally, I didn’t become postmillennial in my worldview because I wanted some novel theology in my life, but because I simply was preaching through books of the Bible and God taught me so that I would teach others. I see it as what people need in their lives—Hope. I read one person sum up postmillennialism this way: “Post-millennial theology is the assertion that the Gospel will be as effective and expansive as Christ said it would be.”

Eric Conn @Eric_Conn

Post-mill theology is the assertion that the Gospel will be as effective and expansive as Christ said it would be.

April 26th 2022

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The Call To Ministry

I can resonate with what he says here below, as some of the very language he uses played a role in my being convinced that God had called me to the ministry. Specifically, the word “sent.” This word was used in my own calling whether it was the man at the Pool of Siloam which means sent, or Ezekiel who was called to stand on his feet because God was “sending” him. I recall with fasting and prayer the wrestling that God brought me through and how God used those words and others to send me to leave my work in sales and go prepare in seminary to preach and pastor. But here is Lloyd-Jones on the matter,

“Here is a man filled with the Spirit, he can teach, he can expound. God sends him. And then the Spirit works in the man himself and he is ready to listen to his teacher. And that is God’s method, and that has been God’s way throughout the running centuries. I would not dare stand in the pulpit unless I had been sent, unless I had been called. I do not expound my own theories and ideas; I simply hold before you and divide, as I am enabled by the Spirit of God, the words, the message of God. But it will mean nothing to you until you have become as a little child and realize your helplessness, your hopelessness, your ignorance and you are ready to listen.” (581)

What Causes People to be Critical and Divisive.

Lloyd-Jones was finishing up his ministry at his church. His last message on Romans was on peace. He was explaining why people are warring and divisive,

“It is people who are uncertain about themselves who are generally the most critical of others…The tragedy is that it leads not only to strife but to division and to schisms and to parties, and so the Christian church gives the impression that she is just a collection of warring groups and sects and divided personalities. (583)

This makes me see something more clear, namely that people need to be made certain about themselves. This is part of ministering to the flock.

The Charge to be Faithful.

And perhaps the most stirring of all was in this chapter the testimony of a woman to Lloyd-Jones,

“Where might I have been now, if you had not been faithful?” (593)

This quote is probably most meaningful to me because my ordination sermon was on being faithful from Ezekiel 34. The title of my ordination sermon was Shepherds—Faithful or Failures? I was ordained with another, he is no longer in ministry, but has (for all I know) left the faith altogether. I’ve found I have a lot to live up to and for in ministry. And sometimes it is the very sentiment of what this woman said of Lloyd-Jones’ ministry that God uses to keep me in the fight. It is all owing to the grace of God alone, but he uses means.