Bible verses about "ministry" | Riverside

¹⁸ Jesus came to them and talked with them. He said, "To me has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to keep all the commands that I have given you. And, behold, I am with you all the days to the end of the world."

¹ JESUS, full of the Holy Spirit, turned back from the Jordan and was led about in the Spirit in the wilderness ² forty days while being tempted by the Devil. During those days he ate nothing, and when they were ended he was hungry. ³ The Devil said to him, "If you are God's Son, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread." ⁴ Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone.' " ⁵ The Devil led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, ⁶ and said to him, "To you I will give all this power and glory, for it has been handed over to me and I give it to whomever I will. ⁷ If you do homage before me, all shall be yours." ⁸ Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Thou shalt do homage to the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou worship.' " ⁹ The Devil took him to Jerusalem and placed him on the roof of the Temple, and said to him, "If you are God's Son, throw yourself down, ¹⁰ for it is written, 'He will command his angels to guard you,' ¹¹ and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you shall not strike your foot against a stone.' " ¹² Jesus answered him, "It has been said, 'Thou shalt not try the Lord thy God.' "

¹ HE went another time into the synagogue and there was present a man with a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might have something to say against him. ³ He said to the man with the withered hand, "Stand up in the center." ⁴ Then he said to them, "Is it allowable to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent. ⁵ He looked round on them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their hearts, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched the hand out and it was completely restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out immediately and joined with the Herodians in a plot to put him out of the way. ⁷ Then Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake and a great number from Galilee followed him. Also from Judaea ⁸ and from Jerusalem and from Idumaea and from beyond the Jordan and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon, a great number, hearing of all that he was doing, came to him. ⁹ Jesus spoke to his disciples to have a little boat ready for his use on account of the throng, to prevent them from pressing upon him. ¹⁰ For he healed many, so that all that had diseases crowded around him to touch him. ¹¹ The impure spirits, also, when they saw him, fell down before him and shouted, "You are the Son of God." ¹² But he ordered them repeatedly and sternly not to make him known. ¹³ Jesus went up on the mountain and invited whom he chose, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve who should be with him and whom he could send out to preach ¹⁵ and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶ He appointed these twelve: Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter (Rock), ¹⁷ James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder, ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Jesus came into a house ²⁰ and the crowd gathered again so that they were not able even to eat bread. ²¹ When his family heard of it, they went out to take him by force, for they said, "He is out of his mind." ²² The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, "He has Beelzebul in him, and by the Chief of the demons he casts out demons." ²³ Jesus called them to him and said to them in figures: "How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house divides against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ So if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. ²⁷ No one can enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, and then he can plunder his house. ²⁸ Truly I tell you all sins will be forgiven to the sons of men and all their profane words, whatever they may say, ²⁹ but whoever speaks profane words against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness forever, but is guilty of an eternal sin." ³⁰ This he said because they said, "He has an impure spirit." ³¹ Then came his mother and his brothers, and standing outside sent and called him out. ³² A crowd was sitting around him when some one said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside and want you." ³³ But he answered, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?" ³⁴ Looking round at those sitting in the circle about him he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. ³⁵ Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

¹ I BEG you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, pleasing to God — your rational worship. ² Do not follow the fashions of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds so as to recognize what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God. ³ Through the grace given to me I say to every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought, but to think so as to become wise, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. ⁶ Having gifts differing according to the grace given to us, if it is prophecy, let us use it according to the proportion of our faith; ⁷ if it is service, let us use it in service. Let the teacher use his gift in teaching. ⁸ Let the exhorter use his gift in exhorting. Let him who gives do it in simplicity. Let him who manages do it earnestly. Let him who helps the needy do it cheerfully.

¹ AND I myself, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual, but as fleshly, as babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk, not solid food. For you were not able to take it. Nor are you yet able, for you are still fleshly. ³ For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living in man's way? ⁴ For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not men? ⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you were led to faith, as the Lord granted to each of us. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God made the seed grow. ⁷ So then neither is he who planted anything nor he who watered, but God who makes the seed grow. ⁸ Each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ We are God's fellow workers: you are God's farm God's building. ¹⁰ According to the grace of God granted to me, as a wise master-builder I have laid a foundation and another is building on it. But let each be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If any one builds on this foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, straw — ¹³ every one's work will become manifest. For the day will show it, because it will be revealed in fire and the fire will test each one's work, of what quality it is. ¹⁴ If the work which any one has built stands he will get a reward. ¹⁵ If any one's work burns up he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but as through fire. ¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God's temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you? ¹⁷ If any one mars the temple of God, God will mar him, for the temple of God is holy, and you are the temple. ¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If any one of you thinks himself wise in this world, let him become a fool in order to become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness," ²⁰ and again, "The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise to be futile." ²¹ Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours — ²² Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come — all are yours ²³ and you are Christ's and Christ is God's.

¹¹ Knowing, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we are persuading men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope that it is also plain to your consciences. ¹² We are not recommending ourselves again to you, but giving occasion to you for boasting on our behalf, that you may have it to use against those who boast of appearances and not of heart. ¹³ For if we were out of our minds it was for God, and if we are sane it is for you. ¹⁴ For the love of Christ impels us, convinced of this, that if one died for all, then all died, ¹⁵ and he died for all that the living may no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. ¹⁶ So we, from now on, know no man according to the flesh. Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. ¹⁷ So if any one is in Christ he is a new creature. The old things have passed away, they have become new. ¹⁸ And all things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given to us the service of reconciliation — ¹⁹ to proclaim that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting against men their sins, and that he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing to you through us. We pray you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God.

¹ THEREFORE, having this service through God's mercy, we are not downhearted, ² but we have renounced shameful secret things, not living in craftiness nor adulterating God's message, but by the openness of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. ³ If our good news is veiled, it is veiled to those who are going to ruin, ⁴ in whom the god of this world has blinded the thinking of the unbelieving so that the light of the glorious good news of Christ, who is the image of God, may not shine in. ⁵ For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶ Because it is the God who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts bringing the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen jars, that the surpassing power may be God's and not ours — ⁸ in every way distressed, but not reduced to straits, perplexed, but not in despair, ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed, ¹⁰ always bearing about in our bodies the death of Jesus that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in our bodies. ¹¹ For we, though living, are always delivered up to death for Jesus' sake, that also the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death works in us, but life in you. ¹³ Having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke," we too believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ knowing that he who raised up Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and place us in his presence with you. ¹⁵ For all things are for your sake, that grace abounding through many may overflow in thanksgiving to the glory of God. ¹⁶ Therefore we are not downhearted, but even if our outward man is wasting away, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our momentary and light distress is working out for us a far surpassing and eternal weight of glory ¹⁸ while we contemplate not the things that are seen, but the things unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things unseen are eternal.

⁶ who has fitted us to be servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

²⁴ But I do not hold my life as of any account if only I may finish my race and the service which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of the grace of God.

¹ I CHARGE you before God and Christ Jesus, who will soon judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² proclaim the message, be at it in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, encourage, with all patience in teaching. ³ For there will be a time when they will not endure wholesome teaching, but following their own fancies and wishing to have their ears tickled, they will get a crowd of teachers. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and give attention to myths. ⁵ But you must be calm in all circumstances, suffer hardships, do the work of a bringer of the good news, carry out fully all the duties of your office.

¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

⁷ Remember your leaders, those who have spoken to you God's message, think how they ended their lives and imitate their faith.

³ We give no occasion for stumbling to any one that our service may not be blamed, ⁴ but in everything we commend ourselves as God's servants in great patience, in distresses, in necessities, in hardships, ⁵ in floggings, in prisons, in riots, in toils, in sleepless nights, in fastings, ⁶ with purity, with knowledge, with long-suffering, with kindness, with the Holy Spirit, with sincere love, ⁷ with the message of truth, with the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and the left, ⁸ by honor and shame, by slander and praise; as deceivers yet true, ⁹ as unknown yet well known, as dying and yet we are living, as chastised yet not put to death, ¹⁰ as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet owning all things.

¹⁵ Be earnest in presenting yourself to God as a tested man, a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, rightly handling the message of truth.

¹² Let no one look down on you because you are young, but be an example to believers in speech, in the life you lead, in love, in faith, in purity.

¹³ For "Every one who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ¹⁴ How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without some one to proclaim him? ¹⁵ How shall they proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

¹¹ And he "gave" to some to be apostles, some prophets, some tellers of the good news, some shepherds and teachers, ¹² for the equipment of the saints, for the work of service, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain oneness in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, and the maturity of manhood and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.