By Mark Crocco

The apostle Paul was one of the most devoted, passionate, and effective followers of Jesus Christ that have ever lived. It could be argued that what he modeled in his life and ministry is the supreme example of what pastoral ministry and preaching are all about in any period of church history. His identity as a man was defined in light of His union with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:1-5; Col. 3:1-4), which is why he continually cried out, “Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) in both his personal life and ministry. He defined the essence of the Christian life and pastoral ministry in the words, “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). His supreme goal and highest purpose in life was to cultivate an intimate love relationship with Christ by purposing to “know Christ and the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10). He was a Christ-centered preacher, who resolved to preach “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1Cor. 2:2), and “Christ Jesus as Lord” (2Cor. 4:5). The purpose of this article is to allow the apostle Paul to challenge us to build our ministries upon the centrality of Jesus Christ leading us to live, minister, and preach with a burning passion for Jesus Christ.

DESPERATION FOR CHRIST

The starting point of living with a burning passion for Christ is placing Christ at the center of our existence in the light of our inability to overcome indwelling sin in our own strength. Pastoral ministry does not deliver us from our own ongoing struggles with sin that Paul described in the following words, “For what I am doing, I don’t understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate” (Rom. 7:15). His inability to overcome his own battles with sin in his own strength led him to cry out, “Wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7:24). This cry was a combination of mental anguish, spiritual brokenness, and emotional and physical exhaustion. It was a cry of desperation that highlighted the futility of any Christian attempting to overcome their struggles with sin, apart from the power of Jesus Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The inability to overcome sin in his own strength and power led Paul to ask the question, “Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). In a spirit of thanksgiving, he celebrates where his deliverance is found in the words, “But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:25). Christ remains central to Paul’s existence because he recognizes that Christ rescues him from the “power of sin” in the present in terms of his sanctification and that Christ will rescue him at some future time from the “presence” of sin in terms of his glorification. As those who give our lives to Christ in pastoral ministry, we must never lose sight of the fact that moment by moment, hour by hour, and day by day, we are to be as desperate for Christ for our sanctification as we were at the moment of our conversion when He saved us. Our passion to preach God’s Word increases when our view of the gospel acknowledges that the Lord Jesus Christ saved, rescued, and delivered us from the penalty of sin in the past, the power of sin in the present, and the presence of sin in the future!

FINDING OUR IDENTITY IN OUR UNION WITH CHRIST

It is obvious from his epistles that the apostle Paul found his identity primarily in his union and participation with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:1-11; Col. 3:1-4). This is the primary place every pastor is to find their identity so that we will minister and preach in the fear of God rather than in the fear of man. One of the clearest statements of his union with Christ in his Savior’s liberating death, risen life, and perfect love is, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” The centrality of Christ in Paul’s life is found in his deep awareness of the reality that “Christ lives in me” continually, and at all times, with the purpose of living His resurrected life in and through me.

As pastors and preachers, we must be living, ministering, and preaching beyond ourselves in the strength, power, energy, and resources of Jesus Christ. In light of our union with Jesus Christ and His indwelling presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit, we should be purposing to experience the “resurrection power” of Jesus Christ every day of our lives (Phil. 3:10; Phil. 4:13). As we run the race of our Christian life we are to be “fixing our eyes upon Christ” (Heb. 12:2) at all times. This will fuel our passion for Christ and will empower us to lead, teach, and preach supernaturally in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. The centrality of Christ, and Paul’s partnership with Christ, in light of his union with Christ, governs his proclamation of biblical truth, “And we proclaim Him (Christ), admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col. 1:28-29). Those who consistently live, minister, and preach in light of their union with Christ, will ultimately live with a passion for Christ.

THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST

As pastors, we live, minister, and preach in an unstable world marked by volatility, uncertainty, and insecurity. In the midst of the chaos of this world, we must exalt and proclaim the supremacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord who sovereignly reigns over this world, His church, and our lives. After establishing His supremacy as the sovereign creator and sustainer of the universe (Col. 1:16-17) and as the sovereign head of the church (Col. 1:18), Paul establishes the supremacy of Christ in the words, “So that Christ Himself would have first place in everything.” Giving Christ first place in everything affirms the centrality of Christ in the life of every Christian, especially in the lives of those who are called to pastoral ministry.

On a practical level, do our values, priorities, and pursuits indicate that we are giving Christ the supremacy in our personal lives and churches? When we stand in our pulpits, are we preaching with divine authority, as men whom God has commissioned (2 Tim. 4:1-5), to speak His words as His ambassadors? (2Cor. 5:2-21). As shepherds in the church of Jesus Christ, we are called to “feed and protect” His sheep (1Pet. 5:2). This requires us to faithfully proclaim the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is the risen, ascended, and glorified Christ who has placed “all things under his feet” (Eph. 1:22). The supremacy of Christ clearly fueled Paul’s passion for Christ. It should also be fueling our passion as we lead and preach on behalf of our sovereign King.

THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST

The apostle Paul most frequently referred to himself as a slave of Jesus Christ ((Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Tit. 1:1; 2:14; Acts 20:28). He never lost sight of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in his life. In light of the cross of Jesus Christ, he recognized that his life was “not his own” (1Cor. 6:19) because Christ “bought and purchased” his life (1Cor. 6:20) on the cross by shedding His “precious blood” (1Pet. 1:18-19) to redeem Paul’s life. Paul never recovered from the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross on his behalf and was “held in the grip” of that love (2Cor. 5:14-15), motivating Him to offer His life as a “living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1), and as a willing slave of Christ (Rom. 1:1) for the rest of his life.

As those who are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ by means of going, baptizing, and teaching (Matt. 28:19-20), one of our primary tasks in the disciple-making process is to help people to live in submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The expression, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded them” (v.20), is a call from the lips of Christ for his disciples to live out His Sovereign Lordship in every area of their lives. One of the realities that should ignite our passion for Christ and our passion to preach is our responsibility to invite those we preach to respond to the radical call of biblical discipleship. That timeless call is a call to self-denial, cross-bearing, and followership (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23-24). Biblical preachers who preach with divine authority refuse to preach to “itching ears” (2 Tim. 3) but choose rather to challenge their hearers to submit their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

THE POWER OF CHRIST RELEASED IN HUMAN WEAKNESS

Divine strength is released in human weakness. The apostle Paul embraced this paradigm in his approach to ministry. Even though this principle is fundamentally counterintuitive to human beings, it is the only principle God has ever used to accomplish His will and purposes on this earth through His servants. Ultimately, this has been the timeless principle God has used in order for Him to receive the glory for what He accomplishes in ministry rather than man. In light of God’s refusal to remove Paul’s thorn in the flesh in 2Corinthians 12, God promised that His grace would be sufficient in Paul’s life because “God’s power is released in human weakness” (2Cor. 12:9). In response to God’s promise, Paul learned to “rejoice in his weaknesses” (2Cor. 12:9), so that the resurrection power of Christ could empower his life. The combination of divine strength and human weakness caused Paul to conclude, “for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

Throughout his epistles, Paul models that in his human weaknesses, Christ released His divine power, which is why he asserts, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens him” (Phil. 4:13). The principle of divine strength being released in human weakness is why Paul prayed so intensely that God would “strengthen those he ministered to with power through His Spirit” (Eph. 3:16), and why he prayed for others “to be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might” (Col. 1:11). As we minister, we must acknowledge, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who makes us able ministers of the new covenant” (2Cor. 3:5-6). Knowing that the power of Christ is released in human weakness brings hope to our weaknesses and fuels our passion for Christ.

THE MIND OF CHRIST

Those of us who find ourselves in pastoral ministry are on the front lines of a spiritual battle for the hearts, minds, and souls of human beings. The apostle Paul lived his life focused upon the centrality of Christ, with a burning passion for Christ, because he lived with a wartime rather than a peacetime mentality. He encourages us to live with a warfare mentality by commanding us “to put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12), “to pick up the weapons of righteousness” (2Cor. 6:7), “to put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11;13), and “to endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ” (2Tim. 2:3). In 2 Corinthians 10 he reminds us that our minds are the battlefields upon which our spiritual battles are fought (2Cor. 10:2-5). He challenges us to grasp that the key to victory in our spiritual battles is to “take every one of our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ” (v.5). This means that every one of our thoughts is to be brought into submission and subjection to Christ to determine whether they are pleasing to Christ.

One of the major objectives of our preaching is to lead to Christ-like transformation in the lives of those we preach to on a regular basis (2 Cor. 3:18). Our preaching should contribute to our people developing the “mind of Christ” (1Cor. 2:16), which should contribute to them living with a Christian worldview that enables them to think biblically, and to live with biblical discernment. With the goal of helping our people cultivate “the mind of Christ,” we must preach with the conviction that the truth of God sanctifies human beings (John 17:17), renews their minds (Rom. 12:2), and promotes spiritual growth in their lives (1Pet. 2:2). Nothing will keep Christ more central in our lives, than a life that is immersed in the Word of God. Nothing will fuel our passion for Christ like a preacher who delights in and mediates upon the Word of God continually (Psalm 1:1-3), as he cultivates the “mind of Christ” in his own life. 

INTIMACY WITH CHRIST

A famous Scottish preacher from the 1800s once expressed, “The greatest need for my people is my personal holiness.” This was not a statement of pride but rather a statement of profound humility. He recognized that the quality and depth of his relationship with Jesus Christ would determine the quality of His life and the effectiveness of his ministry, including his preaching. The supreme goal and highest priority in any pastor’s life is their decision to cultivate an intimate and personal love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3:10, the apostle Paul shares his credo in life and ministry, “I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Paul was not purposing to know Christ intellectually, but rather experientially. He longed and purposed to experience Christ intimately, affectionately, and emotionally in his life and ministry. There is no higher pursuit in the life of any pastor that will have a greater impact upon their life or ministry. Philippians 3:10 is an expression of the centrality of Jesus Christ in Paul’s life. In the immediate context of this verse, he made a choice to consider everything else in his life as “loss” in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus as Lord (Phil. 3:7-8). Philippians 3:10 is also an expression of Paul’s burning passion to love, serve, and exalt Christ in his life. When Philippians 3:10 becomes the grid and the filter that we pour all of the events, people, and circumstances of our lives through, we will maintain a “first-love” (Rev. 2:4) relationship with our Savior that will place us in a position to bring Him maximum glory through our lives and ministries.

THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST

One of the most sobering texts for every man who has responded to God’s call for pastoral ministry is 2Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” The Judgment Seat of Christ ignited Paul’s passion to please Christ at all times, in light of his future accountability to Christ for His life and ministry. The Judgement Seat of Christ is not a judgment that raises the possibility of eternal condemnation or damnation in the life of a believer or pastor because we have been justified (Rom. 5:1) and removed from ever experiencing eternal condemnation (Rom. 8:1; 35-39). The Judgment Seat of Christ is a future reality for all true believers and pastors where our lives will be examined, reviewed, and evaluated, leading to either future reward or future loss (1 Cor. 3:14-15).

The reality of future judgment and accountability in our lives as pastors should fuel a burning passion in our hearts to please Christ (2Cor. 5:9). In addition, it should fuel a sobering sense of accountability for us to be faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to us for His glory. The Judgment Seat of Christ brings an almost incomprehensible sense of purpose and significance to our lives. We are called to make an eternal difference in this world! Jonathan Edwards once cried out to God in prayer, “Oh God, stamp eternity on my eyes, that I might see this world with an eternal perspective.” That is our awesome privilege and responsibility as pastors, especially in those times when we stand in a pulpit to preach God’s holy, inerrant, and all-sufficient Word. All of our “right now’s” count forever. Living for eternity will stoke our passion for Christ and will help us to persevere in the struggles and challenges that will always be associated with life on this side of eternity and in pastoral ministry.

THE GLORY AND EXALTATION OF JESUS CHRIST

Paul lived his life for the glory and exaltation of Jesus Christ. This was his “true north” that governed his entire existence. His courageous and resilient spirit in the face of opposition, hardship, and physical persecution was rooted in his passion to see Christ glorified, exalted, magnified, and honored. Even when facing potential martyrdom while in prison, his major preoccupation remained the exaltation and glory of Jesus Christ, “According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:20-21). The expression “as always” indicates this was an unceasing priority in his life. The reputation of Christ trumped everything in his life.

The glory and exaltation of Jesus Christ must become a motivating factor in our lives to keep Christ, His glory, and His reputation central in all that we do. In light of the fact that God has reminded us that He “does not share His glory with anyone” (Isaiah 42:8), we have all the incentive necessary to keep Christ at the center of our lives, ministries, and pulpits. As those who have been called to pastoral ministry, we must remind ourselves on a regular basis that we exist for Christ, His purposes, and His glory. He does not exist for us, our purposes, and our glory. May this article encourage every expository preacher to celebrate the centrality of Jesus Christ in their ministries while igniting a burning passion for Jesus Christ in their own hearts and in the hearts of their churches?