Tag Archives: prophets

Functions – Not Titles

Bible Study, , , ,

FUNCTIONS – NOT TITLES

But to each of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. That is why it says:

‘When He ascended on high, He led captives in His train and gave gifts to men.’

(What does “He ascended” mean except that He descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe). It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4: 7-13).

Here we have another one of Paul’s monstrous mouthfuls of revelation truth! From where did Paul get these loft ideas if not from the Holy Spirit?

According to Paul, first of all, every function a believer fulfils in the body of Christ is based on our unity in Him. There is not one person in the church who is superior in person or function to another. We all fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle or the tiles in a mosaic. If one is missing, the picture is incomplete. There is no such thing as priesthood and laity, for every believer is a priest since we are all to worship God by offering the appointed and appropriate sacrifices to God.

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and has made us to become a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father – to Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen (Rev. 1: 5b-6).

The consistent message of Scripture is that Jesus Christ is head of His church, which is His body. It is impossible for the church to be the body of Christ and yet for some fallible mortal to be the head. He alone has the right to lead and direct His body according to His will. Those whom He has chosen to have human responsibilities in the church must, first of all, be absolutely one with Him, walking in intimate fellowship with Him and submitting to Him as Lord in all.

Secondly, Jesus has the right to appoint people to functions within His church and to gift them with the ability to carry out those functions for Him and through Him. Spiritual gifts do not belong to the people who exercise them. They belong to Jesus and they are to be used to build up the members if His body, not to lord it over them with assumed superiority and authority. Gifts are given for service, not for aggrandisement. Every person to whom He has given a responsibility in His body is accountable to Him for its use and influence.

Thirdly, within the body, we are all subject to and accountable to one another. Mutual submission in humility is the hallmark of unity. Even those whom Jesus has appointed to leadership positions and positions of authority are not above correction. The armour of God makes no provision to protect our backs. Just as the soldiers in the Roman army marched in rank, their shields protecting their chests from flying arrows and their fellow soldiers protecting their backs, so we, as we do life together, are to cover one another’s backs.

The tragedy within the church is that we act more like the world than the body of Christ. The church is neither a business nor an organisation. It is a living organism, functioning like a human body in absolute unity because we are to be a reflection of God, the Three-in-One. When a system or a cell malfunctions in a human body, it becomes sick and will die if the condition is not cured. There is no competition in the body for prestige or position, yet local expressions of Christ’s body are often a hotbed of conflict. Power struggles, not unity and harmony, tear the people apart. Selfish ambition, not love and humility, drives its leaders. Men masquerade as apostles and prophets, claiming and loving the titles rather than serving the body in the humility of their function.

Isn’t it any wonder that the church has become irrelevant in the world and the butt of jokes rather than the evidence of Christ’s invasion of earth to bring the kingdom of God into sin-infested humanity! Jesus gave His disciples two sure-fire signs of the truth of His coming and evidence of the change He brought to the human heart.

A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another (John 13: 34-35).

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me (John 17: 20-21).

Love and unity – these are impossible requirements for people whom the Holy Spirit has never changed from within. These qualities in a group of people reveal a power at work far greater than human effort. Our selfish and independent hearts will never submit to any other outside of the power of God’s Spirit.

True followers of Jesus are to imitate Him. He is humble and gentle in heart, a servant leader. He requires that we exercise the gifts He has given in the spirit and disposition of Jesus, otherwise, we are nothing but wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

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Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

Jesus Did Not Say That He Had Come To Do Away With The Law

Apologetics, , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT HE HAD COME TO DO AWAY WITH THE LAW

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, no the last stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear for the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matt 5:17-18)

It all depends, you see, on what Jesus meant by “the Law and the Prophets” and “fulfil”. The Greek-thinking, western-orientated, philosophically-minded thinker (that’s most of us) understand His words differently from a Hebrew-thinker, especially the contemporaries of Jesus. The Law, according to Hebrew understanding, which is what our Bible translators have called the Torah or the first five books of the Bible, is not about commandments like those which are issued by a military commander to his troops, or by the government of a country to its citizens, (and any infringements of these commandments is punishable by appropriate measures).

The Torah was God’s directions for the journey through life which His people were to follow in order for them to reach their appointed destination. In the Torah, God taught them in very practical and detailed terms, how to relate to God, to their fellow Israelites and to the foreigners who chose to live among them. His purpose was to teach them how to live in such a way that the nature of their God would be reflected in their everyday lives as a witness to the surrounding nations that their God was loving but also holy.

God sent His prophets to help them understand the Torah, not as a set of rules and regulations to control their behaviour but as directions for living to guide their hearts. Their kings were supposed to lead the way by living and governing their people according the instructions of God’s Torah. It was also the responsibility of parents to teach their children how to live according to God’s Torah.

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching (torah). They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. (Prov. 1: 8-9)

Unfortunately God’s people both misunderstood His intention and rebelled against His instructions. Instead of understanding His directions in the light of God’s character, their sages hedged the Torah around with hundreds of additions so that, by the time of Jesus, the spirit of God’s Torah was obscured by burdensome rules which were never God’s intention.

“Jesus claimed that His purpose was to “fulfil” Torah. This was the technical term for interpreting the Scripture so that it would be obeyed correctly. To “destroy” Torah was to misinterpret Scripture so that it would not be obeyed as it was intended. This was Jesus’s intention, to interpret and obey Torah correctly as a model for His disciples to follow. By His words and actions He would show them that the right attitude and motives of the heart were as important as the right actions.” (Learning to be a Disciple, Luella Campbell, Partridge Publishing, © 2015, page 54)

“Since Jesus was steeped in the teachings of God as a faithful Jew and a recognised rabbi, His textbook would be the Torah. Instead of simply passing on the opinions and interpretations of the ancient rabbis, preserved in the Talmud, He would teach them His own interpretation of the Torah based on His yoke of mercy and compassion. As a rabbi with s’mikhah, authority, He could permit (loose from restriction) and forbid (bind to a restriction) what His yoke represented, based on its Torah-compliance. (Learning to be a Disciple – page 77)

“What is the relevance for us today? God’s Torah is, in its broadest sense, the expression of His nature. It is timeless and indispensable. It is His way to live in order to arrive at the destination He has set for us. If we support and uphold His teaching by obeying Him, we walk in His way ourselves and we keep the path open and blaze the trail for others to follow.

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfil them. (Matt. 5: 17)” (Learning to be a Disciple – page 28)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

To order your 0wn copy of either book, contact

Toll free – 0800 990 914 (South Africa)

orders.africa@partridgepublishing.com

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa  or

+44 20 314 3997 (outside South Africa)

ISBN: Hardcover – 978-1-4828-0891-9                                                                                     Softcover 978-1-4828-0890-2                                                                                                              eBook 978-1-4828-0889-6

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

Highly Privileged People

Bible Study, , ,

HIGHLY PRIVILEGED PEOPLE

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed them that they were not serving themselves when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things (1 Peter 1:10-12).

In these three long and complicated sentences, what exactly was Peter getting at? We have to look at these thoughts in the context of what he had already written.

His readers were a rejected and abused people. Some of them were Jews who had embraced Jesus as their Messiah and others had come to faith in Christ from worshipping idols and practicing wicked things in the name of their religion. Instead of being recognised as upright citizens, they were despised and rejected by both Jews and Gentiles because they no longer fitted in. They would not acknowledge Caesar as Lord and they refused to take part in idolatrous worship and the practices of their pagan neighbours.

It was natural that they should feel like outcasts. One can sense, from Peter’s encouragement, that they were in danger of forgetting who they really were. It was his intention to show them who they were in God’s eyes regardless of what the people in the world thought of them and how they treated them. He had to put their circumstances into perspective so that they would not lose heart and go back to their old ways.

Far from their suffering being the evidence of God’s neglect, it was proof that they were genuine children of God. Rejected by the world? They were chosen, holy and beloved of God? Suffering for their faith? God was purifying their confidence in Him. They had reason to rejoice because, far from being the off-scourings of the earth, they were a privileged and blessed people.

They were so blessed, in fact, that they experienced what prophets and angels could not! God’s prophets of old were the most privileged of all His people. They were called and anointed with His Spirit to stand between God and His people. They stood in the presence of God to hear His word in order to speak it to His people. They had access to God’s counsel in ways which kings and people and even the priests did not. They not only understood what God was doing in the lives of His people in their current circumstances – they also had insights into future events.

It was from those who lived in intimate fellowship with God that we can draw an accurate picture of the Messiah long before He arrived on the earth. When we compare Jesus with the predictions the prophets made about Him centuries before, we come up with a perfect match. How else can we be sure that the man who claimed to be the Son of God and sent from God was who He said He was?

But there was one thing the prophets could not do – experience what they predicted because it was for a future time. They could only see it from afar. They would experience the benefits of His death because He was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ but they would never experience the temporal blessings which are part of the package of salvation.  However much they longed to be a part of what they had written, it was not to be.

Only those to whom Peter was writing and all those who follow in their footsteps of faith are privileged to be participants in the blessings Jesus, the Messiah brought when He came to earth.

Why is it important that believers go through the kind of things of which Peter wrote? Why does God not snatch us out of here the moment we believe? Firstly, of course, He needs witnesses to live and speak of His grace to a broken world. But secondly, and this is the part we don’t like, He takes time to sanctify and purify our hearts from the corruption of the world.

While we are here on earth in the midst of the world’s brokenness and wickedness, we are serving our apprenticeship for the life to come. God is grooming us for our role as co-rulers with Christ on His restored and perfected earth. He is teaching us to reign in life now so that we can reign with Him then. He cannot use untrained and untested rookies for so great a responsibility! How we function now will determine where we function then.

Far from being underdogs, Peter had to ensure that his readers understood who they were, why they were suffering and what their privileges were so that they would persevere, not with gritted teeth but with joyful purpose because, in God they were going somewhere – into the eternal realm of unimaginable blessing.

So are we if we hang in there!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Tradition Versus Knowledge

Bible Study, , ,

TRADITION VERSUS KNOWLEDGE 

“At this they exclaimed, ‘Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?’

“Jesus replied, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know Him, I know Him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and obey His word.'” John 8:52-55 (NIV).

Listen to the tone of voice! These men were not out to learn the truth. They were only out to prove that they were right and Jesus was wrong. Their problem was that they were basing their argument on tradition and Jesus was basing His on experiential knowledge. They claimed to know God because they followed in the tradition of their ancestors who had built up an elaborate religious system based on the interpretation (yoke) of the ancient rabbis.

Isn’t this rather like the Roman Catholic system that follows the traditions of the popes who have gone before, claiming to have the authority to interpret the Bible the way they see it and not the way it was intended to be understood? Each one adds his bit until the Bible is so pulled out of shape that it is no longer recognizable as the Word of God.

It is Jesus whom the Father glorified and to whom He gave the highest place and the highest name in the universe and to whom every knee will bow. How do these religious systems fit into Jesus’ simple invitation? ‘Follow me’? To what is Jesus calling us? To live in the light; to be honest with God and our fellow-men and to live generous, merciful lives towards all people.

“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my first-born for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:6-8 (NIV).

If we take an honest look at the doctrines and practices of many of the streams of the church, we have to ask ourselves the question, “Is this what Jesus came to do?” Let’s take one example. Jesus taught that God’s economic system is based on giving and receiving, sowing and reaping. Giving to others puts our resources into a current which keeps flowing and will come back to us in our time of need. Our Father knows our needs. He wants us to take care of the needs of others because this is His way of taking care of our needs.

Why is it then that many parts of the church operate according to the world’s economic system of buying and selling? Raffles, bazaars and fund-raising functions are the way we get our money, not the simple process of giving. Unfortunately, by propagating that way, God’s people are robbed of their access, through faith, to the resources God has promised us to live godly lives (2 Peter 1:3, 4).

Jesus’ way of life demands the risks of faith. God places great value on our confidence in Him and His word, so great in fact that He puts our faith through the fire to test its genuineness (1 Peter 1:6, 7). It is easier to substitute religion for faith and to deceive ourselves into thinking that God is satisfied with our ritualistic performance rather than trusting and obeying Him. Paul put it bluntly: “…Everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23b).

Faith demands obedience to Jesus’ command, “Love one another as I have loved you,” and that demands self-sacrifice. How much easier to do stuff than to obey God!

Following Jesus means learning to live like sons and daughters of God. Jesus showed us how to be children of God. Submission and obedience is the way and that demands spending time with God and getting to know His ways. Jesus said, ‘I know Him.’

Do you know Him?

 

 

Handpicked Witnesses

Christian Life, ,

HANDPICKED WITNESSES

“You know the story of what happened in Judea. It began in Galilee after John preached a total life-change. Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the devil. He was able to do all this because God was with Him.

“And we saw it, saw it all, everything He did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem where they killed Him, hung Him from a cross. But in three days God had Him up, alive and out where He could be seen. Not everyone saw Him — He was not put on public display. Witnesses had been carefully handpicked by God beforehand — us! We were the ones, there to eat and drink with Him after He came back from the dead. He commissioned us to announce this in public, to bear solemn witness that He is in fact the One whom God designated as Judge of the living and dead. But we’re not alone in this. Our witness that He is the means to the forgiveness of sins is backed up by the witness of the prophets.” Acts 10:37-43 (The Message).

If you had stood in Peter’s shoes, what would you have said to that company of Gentiles eagerly waiting to hear your message? Would you have explained that they were all sinners and needed to be “saved”? Would you have given them a gory description of hell? Would you have urged them to repent of their sins and receive Jesus as their personal Saviour?

Peter had so much to tell them and an audience hanging on every word. What was the most pressing thing they were longing to hear? Peter grabbed the opportunity to present Jesus to them, not a Jesus who would deal with their problems and give them peace (which are not the reason but the result of bowing the knee to Him as Lord), but the Jesus who represented a loving God to the world and whom God authenticated by His resurrection to be both Saviour and Judge.

He, Peter, and his fellow disciples were eyewitnesses of the most amazing event in history; God came in the flesh to live among His people as an ordinary man, die the death of a criminal and rise from the dead. They saw Him, they spoke with Him and He ate with the after He had risen from the dead. What did all that mean?

It meant that everything He said and did was the truth. It all hung on His declaration that He would die and rise again. He had to be who He said He was to pull that off! And pull it off He did! Not only did He predict that He would do it but the prophets who wrote hundreds of years before He appeared on earth also predicted the same thing.

Surely this Jesus, who did something like that, was to be embraced as the Son of God and His promise believed that forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with the Father was the outcome of His death and resurrection. That was the message of the apostles to the world and that was the explosive power of the good news.

To these Gentiles who had known only the worship of gods who demanded but never gave, this came as a light from heaven. The proof of its truth lay in the evidence of eyewitnesses who were willing to face imprisonment and death rather than deny what they had seen and heard. Through Jesus they could receive forgiveness of sins and a place in God’s kingdom for which they had to do nothing.

What joy it must have given Peter to have the freedom to deliver a message like this to people he never thought would be eligible to receive it! God had forcefully made it clear that Jesus was for everyone, even for Gentiles and Roman soldiers! He had forgotten that the prophets had spoken of this day.

“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me.” Isaiah 65:1 (NIV).

“And now the Lord says…’It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and to bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.'” Isaiah 49:6 (NIV).