Sonship Ministry

Jesus based Ministry

This series examines the nature and character of Christian Ministry under four headings: Sonship Ministry; Servant Ministry; Spirit Anointed Ministry; and Shared Ministry.

The notes are provided as resource material. I have also included ‘Study Group Material’ which could be used for Bible Studies or Small Group Meetings.

It is hoped the thematic approach I have adopted will bring together a number of important perspectives on Christian Ministry and provide our Lord's people with a better understanding of the distinctive nature of the MINISTRY we all are called to share through the Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Rodney H. Swansborough.

The true nature and character of Christian Ministry has been revealed to us through the SONSHIP MINISTRY of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the model and pattern of all Christian service. As the eternal Son of God, Jesus lived in a filial relationship with God expressed most vividly in his abba-address of God as “Father, My Father”.

This relationship formed the basis of his ministry, where the experience of God’s love in his life enabled him to enter into his mission with assurance and confidence. At every point in his ministry Jesus knew himself to be in continual fellowship with his Father and always felt the full force of affirming love in his life.

Jesus understood the purpose of his SONSHIP MINISTRY was to reveal the Father, to make him known so people would enter into the same filial relationship with God which he enjoyed. Everything he did was a revelation of the loving Father to people. He understood himself to be in a unique relationship with God as “Father”; a relationship which revealed the reality of his SONSHIP and which would provide the means by which others could enter into a Filial relationship with him. Jesus, in declaring his uniqueness as the Son of God, also revealed the distinctive nature of His message and ministry: “I am the way and the truth and the life, No one comes to the Father but by me”.

Our entry into this filial relationship and access to the Father has been accomplished through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. His death became the means by which we come to the Father. Our Lord’s resurrection released into our relationship with the Father, “the Spirit of his Son”, through whom we are able to cry “Abba! My Father!”. Our Filial status has been secured by Christ in his death and is made a living event by the affirming ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit breathes into our lives the sweet fragrance of our Filial relationship and assures us we are Children of God.

Both the historical basis and the experiential dimension of our Filial status are essential for our understanding of the Filial relationship established for us IN CHRIST.

Our mission to the world is based upon our Filial relationship, for in that loving affirming relationship with our Heavenly Father, we know ourselves forgiven and accepted into God’s presence where we become partakers of the very life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.

FILIAL MINISTRY is based upon “who we are”; it arises out of our being a child of God. Secure in our Filial status, our entire MINISTRY is filled with the profound sense of being embraced by our loving Father whose good pleasure is to release us into joyful service for him.

The areas of MINISTRY we each move into will be varied; the circumstances and demands different. The experiences and abilities we bring to our MINISTRY will not be the same; the tasks our Lord calls us to undertake will differ. But our shared Filial relationship with the Father will season all our “ministries” of service with the fragrance of his love, which having reached into the depths of our being, will move us into a loving response to the world.

Whatever form of FILIAL MINISTRY is ours to share, it will always be the outcome of the Father’s love for us as revealed IN CHRIST and made our own BY MEANS OF the indwelling HOLY SPIRIT. God’s empowering presence in our lives transforms our feeble efforts into His Heavenly embrace of love to the world. Know who we are IN CHRIST so that we can be what we are IN CHRIST, children of our Heavenly Father who share in FILIAL MINISTRY together.