An Innocent Ministry

Today was my last day serving as Assistant to the Pastor at Center Presbyterian Church, a position that I've been blessed to minister in for the last two years.  In addition to my role as Assistant to the Pastor, I've also been helping to lead the middle- and high-school youth group there for three years.  My time working with the youth group has been a stretching experience for me, as I've struggled to help them make connections between the staggering glory of the Gospel and the everyday challenges of adolescence, and to see their desperate need for the saving grace of God.

Since I started working with the youth group, my vision for youth ministry has been encapsulated in Acts 20:18-26.  In this passage, Paul addresses the leaders of the Ephesian church where he has ministered and preached for three years.  Here are selections from the passage in question:

"You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears... how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ... Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

My deep desire for the past three years has been to be able to read this passage to the kids today and, because of the way I have lived and taught them, to be taken seriously.  I want to be able to say earnestly and truthfully to them and to God, "I am innocent of the blood of all of you.  You know that what I've been talking about for the last three years is a life-and-death matter, and I have proclaimed the gospel to you over and over again.  I have not shrunk from declaring to you the whole counsel of God; therefore, dear young people, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of your blood.  What you do with this is between you and God, but you have heard the truth from me.  I am innocent of your blood."

The Old Testament background on which Paul is drawing in making his claim to the Ephesian church is Ezekiel 3:17-19.  In this passage, God commissions Ezekiel to preach a message of repentance to Israel.

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel.  Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them a warning from me.  If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul."

I tremble when I read that passage.  Every minister and pastor and preacher and teacher of God's Word should tremble at that passage.  If we do not fulfill God's call to warn a wicked generation of the just consequences of their rebellion, they will die for their sins, but their blood will be laid at our feet.  I think of this text every time I am preparing a sermon and every time I'm working on a youth group message.  By desperate reliance on the Holy Spirit, I want to lead an innocent ministry, innocent of their blood, not shrinking from declaring the whole counsel of God which is able to save their souls.

Is your ministry innocent of blood?  I pray, by God's power, that it would be.