Ministers and Ministry

There is a knocking that Christ uses in the church, his ministerial knocking. When he was here in the days of his flesh, he was a preacher and prophet himself, and now that he is ascended into heaven, he has given gifts to men, and men to the church (Eph. 4:11), whom he speaks by, to the end of the world. In preaching and unfolding the word they are but Christ's mouth and his voice. Now he is in heaven, he speaks by them, 'He that hears you hears me, he that despises you despise me' (Luke 10:16). Christ is either received or rejected in his ministers. They are as ambassadors of Christ. 'We, therefore, as ambassadors, beseech and entreat you, as if Christ by us should speak to you; so, we entreat you to be reconciled unto God' (2 Cor. 5:20). You know what heart-breaking words the apostle uses in all his epistles, especially when he writes to Christians in a good state, as to the Philippians, 'If there be any affection of mercy, if there be any consolation in Christ,’ then regard what I say, 'be of one mind' (Phil. 2:1). Among the Thessalonians he was as a nurse to them (1 Thess. 2:7). So, Christ speaks by them, and puts his own affections into them, that as he is tender and full of affection himself, so he has put the same affection into those that are his true ministers. He speaks by them, and they use all kind of means that Christ may be received into their hearts; sometimes threatenings, sometimes entreaties, sometimes they come as ‘sons of thunder' (Mark 3:17), sometimes with the still voice of sweet promises. And because one man is not so fit as another for all varieties of conditions and spirits, therefore God gives variety of gifts to his ministers, that they may knock at the heart of every man by their several gifts. For some have more rousing, some more insinuating gifts; some more legal, some more evangelical spirits, yet all for the church's good. All kind of means have been used in the ministry from the beginning of the world.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Love of Christ (Bowels Opened), pp. 104-05
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