What is "ministered to the Lord"?

 

I’ve always been fascinated with this verse. There are three parts to it: (1) ministered to the Lord; (2) fasted; (3) the Holy Ghost said. Numbers 2 & 3 I’ve always pretty much understood: fasted: a season of not eating; the Holy Ghost said: a word of prophecy. Got it. But what is ministered to the Lord?

biblegateway.com has this verse in 63 translations – ministered 18 / serving 10 / worshiping 35 / praising and praying 1 (don’t bother counting, I’m off by one!). Obviously, most translations went with “worshiping”.

Our pastor preached through the first 12 verses of chapter 13 Sunday morning. He uses the NIV, so he went with “worshiping” and encouraged us to worship, fast, and listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit. Amen. But for most of us, “worshiping” conjures up images of the praise team leading us in worship songs, and I’m 120% sure there was no praise team involved. While Pentecostal churches (20th century) had small bands, and in the black church the worship leader had a choir (also 20th century), the praise team as we know it rose up in the Jesus Movement / charismatic renewal of the 60s and 70s, as Jesus Freaks brought their guitars to church and sang songs they had written. This is not a criticism or statement of some kind, just simply pointing out there was no brother with an acoustic guitar and a sister singing praise and worship in Acts 13.

So, what were they doing when they ministered to the Lord? For that answer I did a word study.

The Greek word for ministered is the verb λειτουργέω (leitourgeō), the root word is the noun λειτουργός (leitourgos). OK. What does this mean? Well, according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon:

I.        to serve the state at one's own cost

II.       to do a service, perform a work

A.       of priests and Levites who were busied with the sacred rites in the tabernacle or the temple

B.       of Christians serving Christ, whether by prayer, or by instructing others concerning the way of salvation, or in some other way

It occurs 3 times in the New Testament

Act 13:2

Romans 15:27 It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.

This refers to the Gentiles helping the Jewish Christians in their time of need.

Hebrews 10:11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

Here the ministering is related to worship, but it’s not singing songs and all, the priest was offering prayers and sacrifices.

I’m pretty sure ministering to the Lord here is related to the ministry or serving described in Hebrews 10. 

Our word liturgy comes from this Greek word family. In case you are not familiar with liturgical worship, simply put, it is a worship service with prescribed prayers and Scripture readings in which the entire congregation participates. For example, here is the beginning of the Holy Eucharist or Sunday morning service from the Anglican Church of North America Book of Common Prayer:

The People standing

Celebrant: Blessed be God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen.

All: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

I am not suggesting the church in Antioch was using the Book of Common Prayer (at least not the English version!!). I do however believe that if this refers to worship, it is a greater possibility they would have been using some liturgical form of prescribed (written) prayers and Scripture readings, while obviously open to and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and speak, after all, there was that word of prophecy, “Separate to me Barnabas and Saul…” 

But I’m not really sure this describes a time of worship.

Remember the definition above? “To do a service, perform a work . . . of Christians serving Christ by prayer.” I used to think ministering to the Lord referred to worship, liturgical worship at that. But now I’m much more inclined to see this as a time or season of prayer. Their fasting seems to me to support that.

What difference does it make? Well, it makes a difference to me in that I want to properly understand what Scripture says. But in the long run, I don’t think it really matters: whether worship or prayer, we need to be serious and sensitive to the working of the Spirit. This of course means that our prayer meeting / worship service needs to be open to manifestations of the Spirit (expectant, receptive, and the service can’t be so tightly structured there is no room for Him to move). And of course, the people need to know what the gifts are and how they work.

As I said at the beginning, I’ve always been fascinated with this verse and wondered just what ministered to the Lord meant. And now I feel like I finally have a handle on it, so this was mostly for me. The bottom line is, in all our prayer meetings and worship services, the leadership needs to cultivate an atmosphere that is open and receptive to the moving of the Spirit, and the folks in attendance need to have an expectant attitude.

They were praising the Lord God and they were praying (EasyEnglish Bible)