SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/19/2019
9:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Apostles and Prophets
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 4:11
Message of the verse: “11 It was he who gave some to be apostles,
some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and
teachers,”
We
will begin to discuss apostles and prophets in this SD, and some of the things
that I wrote towards the end of yesterday’s SD may be repeated in this SD.
Let
us first of all look at 1 Corinthians 12:28 “And God has appointed in the
church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then
gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.” As we look at the statement in this verse we
can see that it first of all adds weight, not only to the idea of divine calling
but also to the chronological significance in the giving of these gifted men to
the church as we can see in this verse first, second, third, and so on.
Now
we want to begin to look at the first two classes of these gifted men as they
were given three basic responsibilities.
We will be looking at a lot of Scripture verses to help us understand
these three basic responsibilities.
The first responsibility is to lay the
foundation of the church as seen in Ephesians 2:20 “having been built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,”
(2) second is to receive and declare the revelation of God’s word as seen in
Acts 11:28 “One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by
the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And
this took place in the reign of Claudius.” Acts 21:10-11 “10 As we were staying there for some days, a prophet
named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and
bound his own feet and hands, and said, "This is what the Holy Spirit
says: ’In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt
and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’"” Ephesians 3:5 “which in other generations was
not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy
apostles and prophets in the Spirit;” (3) The third responsibility is to give
confirmation of that Word through “signs and wonders and miracles” as seen in 2
Cor. 12:12 “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all
perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” We can also compare Acts 8:6-7 and Hebrews
2:3-4. “6 The crowds with one accord
were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs
which he was performing. 7 For in the case of many who had unclean
spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and
many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.” “3 how will we escape if we neglect so great
a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was
confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various
miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”
Now
I find the following very interesting and that is that the first of the gifted
men in the NT church were the apostles, of whom Jesus Christ Himself is
foremost. (That was something that I may
have forgotten about the fact that Jesus was first and foremost and
apostle.) Hebrews 3:1 “Therefore, holy
brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our
confession;” Let us now look at
the basic meaning of apostle (apostolos)
and this simply means one who is sent on a mission. In its primary and most technical sense apostle is used in the New Testament
only of the 12 that Jesus chose minus Judas and with the addition of Matthias
who was the one who replaced Judas as seen in Acts 1:26 “And they drew lots for
them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.” We mentioned yesterday that Paul was also an
apostle as He was chosen by God to go to the Gentiles. This fact
is seen in Gal. 1:15-17 “15 But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and
called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I
might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh
and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before
me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.”
Now
we want to look at the qualifications for apostleship, and they were having
been chosen directly by Christ and having witnessed the resurrected Christ as
seen in Mark 3:13 and Acts 1:22-24. “13 And
He went up on the mountain and *summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they
came to Him.” “22 beginning with the
baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us-one of these must
become a witness with us of His resurrection." 23 So they put forward two
men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. 24 And
they prayed and said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show
which one
of these two You have chosen 25 to occupy this ministry and apostleship from
which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.’” We mentioned that Paul was an apostle and
Paul was the last apostle to see the resurrected Lord. Romans 1:1 tells us that Paul was an apostle:
“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of
God,”
I
believe that I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s SD that it is not possible
to have apostles today because the thirteen apostles have all died many, many
years ago. John MacArthur writes that “Some
have observed that the apostles were like delegates to a constitutional
convention. When the convention is over,
the position ceases. When the New
Testament was completed, the office of apostle ceased.”
We
can read in the New Testament that the term apostle was used in a more general
sense of other men in the early church, such as Barnabas and also Silas and
Timothy and a few other outstanding leaders.
In 2 Corinthians 11:13 we see some false apostles spoken of “For such
men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of
Christ.” MacArthur writes “The true
apostles in the second group were called ‘messengers (apostoloi) of the churches’ (2 Cor. 8:23, whereas the thirteen were
apostles of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1; etc.).” “As for Titus, he is my partner and
fellow worker among you; as for our brethren, they are messengers of the
churches, a glory to Christ” (2 Cor. 8:23).”
We
will pick up on this subject in our next SD, Lord willing.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: These studies are very important to me even
so some of it is a reminder of what I learned earlier in my walk with the
Lord. I enjoy better understand how the
church is suppose to work and continue to look forward to learn more is its
workings.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
work on what I am learning from both Ephesians 4:4 and Romans 12:3.
Quotation for today: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if
you want to test a man’s character, give him power” (Abraham Lincoln).
3/19/2019 11:00 AM
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