The Apostle And Unity In The Church – Part 2

And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. Col. 4:16

That is the voice of the father – a spiritual father. There are many more instances in the apostolic epistles of a spiritual father addressing his children. And here we see the Apostle Paul addressing the same thing to two different churches simultaneously: “When you read this letter, cause it to be read by the Laodeceans; and you likewise read my letter to the Laodiceans.”

How could this be? Was Paul addressing his denomination, or his ministry? By no means. A denomination is a dead thing because it is man-made; but Paul was addressing the church of the Living God. Paul was addressing a living Body. And this Body was one. Whichever church Paul had a relationship with was similar to the other for the simple reason that they were being conformed to the image of Christ. They were not being conformed to the image of Paul, but of Christ, who died and rose again.

One of the gravest dangers in the church today is conformationism. The church is being conformed all right, but to whom is it being conformed? Even in churches that confess the revelation of the cross, the question must be asked, to whom are they being conformed? Yes, they are being conformed to their pastor, but is the pastor conformed after Christ?

You cannot have a church in Tanzania that carries its own peculiar image (read its pastor’s image) and one in Europe that carries a different image (its pastor’s). If it is so, then this speaks of churches that are not under the ministry of an apostle, for there cannot be two different images of Christ. There is only one image of Christ, which the apostle brings into the church. Where the apostle is ministering, throughout, you will find only one image amongst the people:

“Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)

That is so simple and clear. And it ought to be very, very clear to the church. The church cannot be said to be like Christ because it worships in a certain way or prays in certain manner.

This is the reason for God bringing the apostle to the church. A true apostle is a man who has died, that Christ may live in him. In this way, he reveals the crucified Christ. Therefore, wherever and whatever he touches or ministers, it is no longer him, but Christ who will be seen and known. And there is no other Christ that can be revealed to the church apart from

“Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

The issue of Christ being formed in the church is no light thing. It is something that requires a total death to the body of the one chosen by God to carry this ministry. Recall what God told Ananias about Paul:

“15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: 16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Acts 9:15-16

Paul would suffer. He would suffer just as Christ suffered, until he put away his carnal body.

An apostle who has suffered in the body will reveal the cross; he will reveal the crucified Christ. Hence the Apostle Paul writes:

“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” (Gal. 6:17)

The Body of Christ. It must be one. The church cannot be like So-and-So. It must be like Christ. It must have the image of Christ, not the image of a man. Throughout the entire world. Through conforming to the image of the crucified Christ, who it is who rose again.

Then the church will be one, showing off the character and riches of Christ in the Spirit.

My final thought is that the church should be extremely wary of anyone who calls themselves an apostle. This is not someone you can invite lightly into your life or church. He must be someone whose life you have examined in the light of Christ and found to fulfill the criteria that the early apostles carried. And we can find them only if we have a heart for God in truth and in the Spirit.

[The great Mara River bridge]

Turning Point!

1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter…

 7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

In verse 7 the Apostle Paul reveals that it was he who was “caught up to the third heaven… into paradise”. And he writes that it was he, while there, who “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”

Paul was a man who was held in high esteem indeed by God. He was a man to whom God revealed His deepest secrets. In the natural order of things we would therefore expect that God would “uplift” His most trusted servant and send him about with angels on trumpets announcing his arrival in every city. Paul’s name and persona ought to have been growing with his every appearance.

But it did not work that way for Paul. On the contrary, instead of sending ministering angels, God sent to Paul a messenger of Satan – to buffet him! Paul called this his “thorn in the flesh”. In other words, God’s style of “blessing” Paul was to put a thorn in his flesh.

The next thing we see is that initially Paul was not happy about this thorn. He did not go about singing “Glory, hallelujah!” on account of this thorn. On the contrary, we read that Paul prayed to God thrice to have this thorn removed from his flesh. In practical terms, Paul was not happy about the situations that came into his life.

For a long time, I personally had no idea about what Paul went through here. I thought I knew, but one day God decided to show me that I did not know. I do not claim to have any association with Paul’s persecutions, but one day God put me through something similar, or close to what Paul went through. It was something I had never experienced before. It was so painful. It was all the more painful because it appeared unreasonably unjust. It was one of the hardest things I had ever experienced in my Christian life. And so, just like Paul once did, I “kicked against the pricks” (Acts 9:5).

The last thing we notice in this scripture is the most important. Paul finally realized and accepted what God wanted to do with the thorn He had placed in his flesh. He realized that God wanted to humble him. Paul realized that God did not want him to serve Him in his own strength. This would have made him to boast. God wanted Paul to serve Him in His grace so that all glory and honor would return to God.

Paul finally accepted that and, once that had been settled in his heart, Paul was not content with passively accepting adverse situations in his life. He went further and welcomed them for he knew, just as God had told him, that it was these very situations that would break him and enable him to serve God in a manner that pleased Him – in God’s strength, not his own.

This acceptance by Paul was the turning point in Paul’s ministry and life. From that moment on, Paul became a truly spiritual man.

In the particular test that God gave me, I failed miserably. Yet, in hindsight, when I think about the ordeal, I have reason to smile. In the first place, it was wonderful that God would put His hand upon my life in such a manner. The textbook understanding in mainstream Pentecostalism is that God only has a soft hand which He gently wraps around us to comfort us in our distresses.

But God has two hands. With the other hand, He moulds and fashions us into the image He wants us to be in order for us to carry His purpose on earth. And the moulding is hard and painful.

I am sure the Apostle Paul had no argument against carrying God’s revelation in his heart. None of us would. It is an exalted position to be so entrusted by God. Paul admits that it was something that would have brought pride into his heart. But in our lack of spiritual understanding we fail to realize the price we have to pay in order to carry the secrets of God.

We cannot serve God as we should until a messenger of Satan has been sent to deal with our flesh. It is incredible how, in Pentecostalism, we have learned to elevate men to impossible heights while here we see God beating Paul to a pulp! But Paul was there for God’s purposes, not his.

[Below: The Moshi Town bus stand, with Mt. Kilimanjaro looming in the background]

 

Of Baptisms…

Mat_20:23:  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.

I hate being bogged down in theology, and the subject of baptism is one sure quicksand in that respect. But, despite the clear risks, I want to attempt to address something about this subject here.

Did you ever notice that during His earthly ministry Jesus never baptized anyone in water? The Bible does say in John 3:22 that “After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized”; but in the very following chapter we read: “When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)” John 4:1-2.

The reason Jesus personally did not baptize with water was because He had not come to baptize people with that baptism. He had another baptism with which He would baptize His followers. In Mat_3:11  we see John the Baptist contrasting his (water) baptism with the baptism that Jesus would administer: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:”

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:17: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”

Both Paul and John the Baptist caught the revelation of what Jesus would be coming to accomplish in men and women’s hearts. The difference, though, was that John, being of the older order, saw this revelation from afar, as it were – like the prophets of old. When he was in prison, he would begin doubting what he has seen of Jesus, for he had seen Him more in the natural than in the spirit. Paul, on the other hand, not only received a clearer and fuller spiritual revelation of who Jesus was and the work He was to accomplish, but he fully lived and experienced that revelation in the spirit. It consumed his entire being. The outcome of it is that today we are partakers of the fruits of Paul’s experiences through the gospel he received and lived. His gospel and life have enriched all believers’ lives. This was the same gospel that the Early Apostles and the Early Church lived.

Long before John the Baptist would talk of the Holy Spirit and fire, God had spoken these same words through Isaiah. Isaiah 43:2 says “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”

We see that even under the Old Testament God had never promised His people that they would live a life free of trouble. He promised to baptize them.

John and James were two of Jesus’ closest disciples, yet He could tell them these same words. I doubt that we can expect anything less.

What is the fire the Bible is talking about? The reality of the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians is brought to our lives through the many trials and tests that we are made to go through daily. Through these we experience first-hand the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives as He moulds us into the image of Christ and enables us to live a holy and righteous life in “this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4). When we live the revelation that Jesus brought and that Paul elucidates in his epistles, that is our true baptism.

We will be tempted and tried in many ways. Many of us, unaware of the need for this baptism, constantly cry out to God to set us free from these trials and temptations. But that is exactly the baptism that God desires to have us pass through: the baptism of the Holy Spirit and of fire. We cannot expect, for example, to learn how to forgive if we are not hurt or wounded on the inside. We fear having our feelings hurt and yet that is the very area where God wants to touch our lives so that He may set us free from our selfish nature.

If there is an area in our lives where we are struggling in the flesh, we should stop everything and cry out to God to set us free. He will give us His Holy Spirit who will enable us to stand our ground as we are being put through the fire. That fire will purify us as we by faith anticipate the outcome, which is becoming worthy (golden) vessels to carry the Life of God, like the Apostles did.

The Foundation of our Faith – the Pauline Doctrine (Pt. 4)

We are now in chapter 4 and any intrepid reader who is still following my ramblings must be wondering whether I am lost…. Well, I am not, and in fact I will be finishing in the next post. I just want to fill in the gaps, a job I am not sure I am doing too well. Nonetheless, I am trusting the Lord every step of the way. And let me thank each one of you individually for your love and patience, and for your encouragement.

In this chapter we will look at how Paul’s gospel was ‘different’ from the other Apostles’ gospel and what the implications of this are for us today.

Trouble for the gospel began early enough, in fact right after the birth of the Early Church in Jerusalem. The Bible says: “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.” Act 6:1 Lines were drawn within the Church of Christ ! But the Apostles handled it swiftly and wisely, choosing spiritually mature men to oversee the “serving of tables”.

But another disturbing scenario crops up not long afterwards. In Acts 11:19 we are told that after Saul’s persecution of the Church began at Jerusalem, the believers who fled to the diaspora preached the gospel all right but “unto the Jews only.” Demarcation lines were drawn once again, by believers. Clearly, the Jerusalem Church had a problem understanding the universal nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Soon it was time for the Apostles themselves to be tested. Although Peter knew and understood what the Scriptures said about salvation for the Gentiles (Acts 10:43), yet when God wanted to send him to take the gospel to Cornelius – and, by extension, to the Gentiles – we see in Acts chapter 10 that the Lord Himself had to appear to him in a vision in order to persuade him to accept the truth that salvation was for the Gentiles also!

(After he had preached to them the gospel, God promptly confirmed His acceptance of them by pouring upon them His Holy Spirit.)

When news of the fact that Peter had entered a Gentile home reached the Apostles at Jerusalem, they summoned him before them to explain why he had “crossed the boundary”. After Peter explained to them that it was God and not him, the Bible says “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” (Act 11:18)

After reading the above Scripture, and hearing Peter’s proclamati0ns you would think that the Apostles were in full agreement with God about accepting the Gentiles as equal heirs with them of the Kingdom of God. But you will be surprised at what happened later, as we read in Galatians 2:12-13:  “For before that certain came from James, (Peter) did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.”

The Bible here is saying that Peter feared a delegation that was coming from James, the leader of the Jerusalem church. Why? Because they would do him in for consorting with uncircumcised Gentiles.  In other words, in spite of what they knew from Scripture and from Peter’s experience with Cornelius these Jews were not ready to accept any stranger in their midst merely on the supposition of grace. For them keeping the Law of Moses was paramount!

In short, it was like this: the Apostles had received the gospel all right, but at heart they were still Torah hardliners!

I want us to look at one last scene before we get done with this chapter. When Paul went to Jerusalem on his final journey, his host, the Apostle James  together with the other elders met him and told him, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:” (Act 21:20) In other words, even though the gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ had been preached in Jerusalem for a long time and many Jews had accepted Jesus into their hearts the fact of salvation by grace without works was proving to be a thorn in the flesh for many of them.

But if the Apostles themselves had a problem with this truth, as we have seen, they most likely would have been preaching a gospel tainted with law and it is no wonder, therefore, that Jerusalem was crawling with samurai-wielding believers!

And it was not only in Jerusalem. The Jews were creating havoc wherever the Word of salvation reached out to people, even amongst the Gentiles.

And here you have the basic difference between Paul and the Apostles at Jerusalem. You see, right from the beginning Paul never had any problem accepting what the Lord had revealed to him about salvation being for every man who believed on the Lord Jesus, Jew or Greek, and that it was by grace and grace alone.

Paul understood grace perfectly well. The Apostles at Jerusalem were limited in their understanding of it.

Many years later, after more light had entered Peter’s heart, he would affirm to the Church that the Apostle Paul received far greater “wisdom” than what he and his compatriots received from the Lord (2 Peter 3:15). Peter here was not talking about intellectual or human wisdom. The Bible never refers to human intellect because God is spirit. I am sure Peter was talking about the grace that Paul received from the Lord, and the power that came with that grace to not only bring salvation to both Jews and Gentiles, men and women, high and low, but to also set them free from the power of the flesh and to perfect them in the image of Christ.

We conclude in the next post!