♪ Thy wings shall my petition bear ♪ ♪ To heroes' truth and faithfulness ♪ ♪ Engage the waiting soul to rest ♪ ♪ And since he made me see ♪ ♪ Believe his word and trust his grace ♪ ♪ I'll trust on him my every care ♪ ♪ And wait for thee, sweet heart ♪ ♪ Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer ♪ ♪ That calls me from a world of care ♪ ♪ And leads me at my father's door ♪ In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has And o'er its gate the tempter slain, By my reader, sweetheart of men. Sweet lullaby that holds me from the world of care, and leads me at my mother's door, make all my wants and wishes know. My soul has often found relief, An office staked, a tender stare, On thy return, sweetheart. of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear. To Hebrews' truth and faithfulness, engage the waiting soul to rest. And since he leads me Good morning. Welcome to the Pentwater Bible Church. I'm glad you could join us this morning as we continue in our study of the 2nd Corinthians book that the Apostle Paul wrote to those folks in Corinth. And we're going to be looking today at the subject of apostleship because he spent a lot of time in very humble text affirming the fact that he was an apostle. And so we're going to look at that whole environment today and what that means. And I've seen so many different opinions on this. I think it's just important to look at what the text says. So with that, I will say we continue to pray for the nation Israel and the war that's going on there. You know, I ask my Hebrew teacher every week, how goes the war? You know, how does the war go? And she said, it's not good. She said the sirens go off most days and fortunately, most of the rockets get taken out. We have even helped, and as I've mentioned earlier, I'm just amazed that this present administration has several battleships over there, or carriers, to help them. And they have taken out some of the rockets coming from Iran. Not all of them. They can't get them all. They try as hard as they can with both the Iron Dome and the help they're getting from us, but some of them still land. And she says, when the sirens sound, we go into the safe room. Now, she lives in a condo development. It's a multi-high rise. And I said, well, what floor do you go to? I mean, how do you get there? And she says, oh, we've got them in every room, in every unit. They're building these places now with safe rooms in each of the apartments or condos. That's amazing. Now, I don't know what they've done in terms of the construction, but she said they're very hard walls and they're thick, but she says I don't know why or what they've done. But that's the provision that you make when you're living in a war zone, you know. You've got to account for those kinds of things. We don't think about things like that. I mean, you can maybe when, you know, I mention it and I've just learned this. But we don't live like that. We've never had to live like that since the Civil War. And most of the Civil War was fought in the South, except some of it came up into Pennsylvania. We have been blessed. This country has been blessed. And if we continue on the road that we're on, which I think a lot of this is going to end with the new administration coming in in January. But if we continued on with the huge amount of abortion and homosexual promotion, God's not going to turn a blind eye to this stuff. He will not do it. And he will give us a certain amount of time, and I don't think anybody knows what that is, And he will let us fail. You know he will just, just look at how many people they have let in on the southern border. Many of which are murderers. I don't know if anybody's been following this Riley trial. That Joan wants me to say this. Oh, okay. Speak up. Okay. Anyway, this one lady that was running in Georgia, she's out jogging, and an illegal immigrant that had been, I think he had been thrown out once and came back, just murdered her. And they're going through this televised trial. The guy, there's actually her 9-11 phone call. She scratched him so they have DNA from her fingernails and there was some video camera taking pictures of this somewhere, you know, along that jogging trail. Pardon me? Her phone took the pictures as well? Oh my goodness. Anyway, they've got so much evidence and I haven't followed it. I won't look at this stuff, but I can only imagine the leftists are going to be pushing back Oh, his family was not good and he was born in a poor place and he didn't have a... They try and justify murder just like the leftist and the media are trying to justify the October invasion of Israel from the Hamas people. They seem to think that somehow this is okay. Good grief. Anyway, we continue to pray for the people that are stuck in the Ukraine. There's still people there that are suffering from this war that continues to go on in Afghanistan. Just pray for their rescue efforts, especially Israel, because of what is going on there daily. We pray for our seminary students, our elected officials, that they would do what they should do. And we pray for the incoming president and his highly qualified cabinet that he's pulling together. I think if they don't kill them, there's going to be a lot of structural changes to the economy with this new group coming in. You know, I'm especially pleased with this appointment of RFK because he represents the old Democrats when we were kids. You know, they had a different view on the use of government to provide goods and services to the country, but they were moral people. You know, and he's looking at the pharmaceutical industry and they're, terrible pricing. You know, for a while, a couple of years ago, when I had that bad case of COVID, I had to go on blood thinners for a while, called Eliquis. They were extremely expensive. I went to several other countries to try and find them cheaper. Canada, Great Britain, India, they're all the same, exact same price. That's a monopoly. That is a monopoly. Those pharmaceutical industries have gotten together and said, man, this one's big. We're going to milk this for all we can. And he's going to stop this. I've seen some real good conservative principles coming out of him. So anyway. We continue to pray for our people that connect with us on our broadcast around the world. We continue to pray for our children, grandchildren, and their walk with the Lord that they would be trained in the way that they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from it. And those of you that have silent prayer requests here and online that are reticent about sharing some particular issue, we ask the Lord to humbly answer those silent prayer requests, and he will. So we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, because it won't be peaceful until the Prince of Peace returns. Sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim. Gary, could you open us in prayer today, please? Heavenly Father, thank you again, Lord, for bringing us back to begin this week, Lord, to open your word. We're grateful, Lord, for the blessings you showered us with this last week, for the protection you afforded us. Pray, Lord, that as we go forward this coming week that you would guide and direct our thoughts and our actions. Thank you again for the many blessings that you have provided us. And I also pray for protection over each and every one. Pray for those that have not been able to come today, Lord. We just ask that you would Bless them in a special way this day and keep them safe. As we open your word, Lord, guide our thoughts, open our minds to your word. May your spirit teach us what you would have for us this day. So be with Pastor Dan as he presents this message of Second Corinthians that we start today, Lord, and we just pray your blessing upon all that we learn. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. We'll sing our first tune. Take, Break Thou the Bread of Life. Break thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me. ♪ His praise follows beside the sea ♪ ♪ Beyond the sacred page I seek thee, Lord ♪ ♪ Thy spirit that's for me, O lily of the valley ♪ truth, dear Lord, to me, to me. As thou didst bless the bread by Galilee, then shall all bondage cease, all better God shall find my peace, my all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me thy holy word. We'll be to Thee, and live with Thee above. Teach me to love Thy truth for now. The Lord Jesus gathered those twelve apostles, even though one Judas was going to betray him, in that upper room the night before he was sacrificed to teach them servanthood by washing their feet. And they were appalled at this. The master is going to stoop down and do something so lowly. That's reserved for the servants. And that's what he wanted to get to them. You guys got to be the servants of all. You can't lord it over them. He knew it was going to happen because in the second, third chapter of Revelation when he wrote those letters to the seven churches, he talked about that regularly. talked about the Nicolaitans. Nicolaitans were a group of people in early Christianity that thought they were better than the common person. And that has bled into so many denominational teachings and organizational structure. And it gets epitomized in the clergy and the laity. Good grief. You think they know better but most people, the false teachers, don't pay attention to the scripture. Now we're going to look at a little bit of that today when Jesus condemned those false teachers and then later on we're going to go into it in great detail. You know I've heard people say well you really shouldn't say anything about that or about this and yes you should because scripture warns us not to tolerate the false teachers. Problem is you need to understand what the text of the Bible says so you're not inaccurately falsely accusing someone. Jesus died so that we can have eternal life. And at that last Passover meal, celebrating their exodus from Egypt, 1440 BC, Jesus starts looking at them and breaks bread, and they're watching him, and he passes it around to give them the first communion. And he holds that piece of bread up and he said, this is my body which is broken for you. Take this and eat it. And in a like manner, he poured wine into a cup that would represent his blood. And he said, I'm not going to be taking of this wine until I see you again in the kingdom. Marriage Supper of the Lamb which will take place in the kingdom and there will be plenty of wine to drink, there will be plenty of food, plenty of celebration when that kingdom starts. Now we've looked at that extensively in our study of the book of Revelation. It's interesting you know most of the text of the kingdom is in the Old Testament which most churches push away as irrelevant. And this started in the third and fourth centuries when some of the church fathers just decided that there wasn't any thousand-year reign of Christ even though it says it six times in the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation. They just ignored that. I don't know how people can do that sort of stuff. You know? Well, what about this? Oh, that doesn't matter. They just push it away. And thousands of people and many, many denominations have accepted that. Most of the Protestant denominations have done that, including Rome. They just push it away that the Jews have been cast aside. Well, that's not what Paul says in Romans 11, 25 through 27. He doesn't say that at all. He said, you guys are wise in your conceits because you're thinking this. And he warns people. But they also, the detractors say, well that doesn't matter. He meant something else. Trying to twist the words. Unbelievable. Jesus died so that we can have eternal life. And he raised that glass with the wine in it and he said, this is my blood which is shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. We are most blessed to know these things. We sing our next tune, Singing Redemption Song. Angels are singing redemption's sweet song, wonderful thing. and joy in the throng, singing redemption's song. Singing redemption's song. Singing redemption's song. Ever will sing, praise to the King, singing redemption's song. The melodies ring, wonderful theme, glorious theme. Heaven resounds with the tribute they bring, singing redemption song. Singing a sweet song, redemption's sweet song. Over and over, but over and over, Ever will sing, praise to the King, singing redemption's song. ♪ For beyond measure awaits us up there ♪ ♪ Wonderful theme, glorious theme ♪ ♪ Soon we shall join with the angels so fair ♪ ♪ Singing redemption song ♪ ♪ Singing redemption song ♪ Ever will sing, praise to the King, singing redemption's song. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, we love you and we are so thankful you've sent our Lord Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, in to provide for our salvation. And it is a wonderful, wonderful concept to behold that you came into the earth in a human body to pay the penalty for our sins. Thank you, Father. Lord, as we open your scripture again today, bless us, Father. Ignite in us an interest in these texts so that we can then pass on this information to others. Thank you, Father. We pray these things in the name of our precious Savior, Jesus the Messiah. Amen. What we're going to look at today, we're still in the first couple of verses of this book, 2nd Corinthians. I want to talk about the concept of apostleship. what it means and how it's used in the scriptures. Because there is some confusion. Some people see the word apostle used in context other than the original twelve. And I want to make that clear today, what this means. And we'll start again with 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 to 2. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all grace to be you, grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul affirms his apostolic authority on many, many books that he wrote. He refers to himself as coming into the Apostleship as one born out of due time, and he declared himself as the result of this, I'm just the least of the Apostles. Unfitting, because he persecuted the church. And he never got over that, even though he was forgiven. He was of the Pharisaical party, and he was one of the zealots in the Pharisaical party. And what he did is he saw this church starting, not recognizing that Jesus was the Messiah that they were waiting for, and set out to start killing Christians. and he was good at it too. He was really harming the early church, but he recognized what happened to him when he was confronted by Jesus. So I'll get to that in just a first few minutes, but what we want to look at is his declaration being an apostle and the sensitivity that he had to the position in time of which he was chosen. He wasn't chosen with the original twelve. Now first Corinthians 15 verses 8 to 10 say, and last of all he was seen of me, in other words Jesus, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles. that am not meet or fitting, to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but by the grace of God which was in me. Paul was not one of the original twelve, and he was very sensitive to that, very sensitive, plus the fact how he came in. The other twelve were not persecuting anybody. Judas betrayed Jesus, major sin, but the first credential apostleship, to be an apostle, is a personal eyewitness and a choosing by Jesus. Now let's just look at this concept of apostleship. As I have seen ever since seminary days, I've seen so much confusion on this subject. The word apostle in Greek is apostolos, or one sent on a mission. or sent on an errand with a message. And the Apostle is accountable to the one that sent him. And he carries the authority of the sender. You know, Apostleship is the office an Apostle holds. Now we have to make a distinction that I will show you in a few moments between the original Apostles were sent by Jesus and held that office of apostleship, and others who were called apostles later that were sent out by the church. Because the word apostolos means one sent. So you got these guys that weren't chosen by Jesus and they weren't claiming to be apostles either. The text of the scriptures, specifically in the book of Acts, calls these people apostles because they were sent out. it doesn't declare them to be of the office of Apostle, just doing the work of Apostle. So there's a big difference between doing the work of Apostle and the Apostleship, the guy that's chosen. Christ was the first person to be acknowledged as an Apostleship. He wears Apostle in one of his descriptive titles in Hebrews 3.1. He was sent to earth by God the Father with an authoritative message and he faithfully delivered it. When Jesus was on earth he personally selected 12 men. You know what we have to keep in mind is that we live in time and space. The first thing that was created in early Genesis is time. There doesn't exist time where God lives. God lives where there's no time. Even Einstein couldn't understand that. He tried as hard as he could to define time. Nobody can. You know, if you think you can, the first thing that you think of is, well, it's, you know, 1120. That's not describing time. That's measuring it. What is it? We don't know. It was the first creation. The very first word in the Bible is Barashit Bar Elohim. Three words. beginning, the creation of time, God created. And it goes on, HaShemayim ve'etz ha'aretz, the heavens and the earth, but that first word gets translated, mistranslated, and every one of our Bible says in the beginning. There's no direct definite article in Hebrew. It's just in beginning. In other words, out of time God created everything. So there's no way we're ever going to understand it, but we have to recognize that. The creation came out of time. We measure time. He personally, Jesus, selected 12 men at the time he was here on this earth at the beginning of that three and a half year ministry. And the interesting thing about this is he gave them this special responsibility. Jesus knew exactly what they were going to do. He is God, and as God he knows everything. He knows the beginning, he knows the end. That's why when Moses came to the burning bush, and the bush did not burn up, he knew something was going on, and the bush starts talking to him, and he says, well who should I say? is talking to me. He says, I am that I am. In other words, I'm always in the present tense. I'm not in the past tense. I'm not in the future tense. I am. He lives outside of time. There isn't any future and past there. He gave them, those 12, a special message. He knew before he even chose them. who they were going to be, how they were going to respond. Some of them were just massive sinners, like Matthew. He was a publican. You know, a publican in those days was a tax collector for the Romans. I'll tell you, when you got a country occupying you, as the Romans did, and they chose one of the Jewish people to collect taxes for them, you're immediately hated by the population because you're a turncoat. You're a traitor. And to make it worse, the way the Romans set things up when they conquered a nation is they would let that nation's government run itself under their guidance and control. And they did two things. One, no capital punishment. You can't kill any people. You bring those cases to us. We don't want any insurrections. And two, we're going to pick a guy here, prominent guy, that's going to collect taxes for us. And all they told this guy was, you go out, this is how much we want. Anything you collect over, that's yours. So, you know, greed starts rolling in, and these guys are just squeezing the people. you know, and they hated him even more. Well, Jesus chooses Matthew, and he wrote one of the best Gospels from the Jewish standpoint about the future of this coming from the prophets, and he quoted them frequently. In time and space we live. Those guys lived. Those 12 people were sent out and they had special powers that were stopped or eliminated at the end of the first century. There is a lot of discourse over their powers. They could raise people from the dead. they could heal people like Jesus with physical infirmities that could not be healed. I mean they could heal blind people, they could heal crippled people, people with diseases that they had no idea how to teach or deal with back then. The text in the scripture says he created apostles? prophets and teachers. And the other roles that he said were created were lower than the Apostles. Their gifts had this extensive nature. And again, those we call the sign gifts, they ended with the first century when those guys died off. the gifts of healing, the gifts of prophecy, and the actual office of apostleship, and the teaching of these things continued. Now we look at the sign gifts today, one of which is speaking in tongues, and I'll talk about that in a few minutes. not having a spiritual gift that is given to somebody, but with prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, he may use someone. We are told to pray with the elders for healing of someone. That doesn't mean that God has given us the gift to heal this person who's the object of our prayers. He may use us, but a spiritual gift is an embodied supernatural enablement to do things like this. So there are spiritual gifts that continue today like mercy and teaching and so on. The gift of prophecy today is just clearly explaining what the Bible says. We're not giving new prophecies. Like, you know, I know what you're going to have for lunch two days from now or something. You know, that's a crazy example, but we're not giving new prophecies. So this spectacular gift of tongues also died out. And there are some denominations that think, when the charismatic groups, that if you can't speak in tongues then you're not saved. And they have a few other things that are contrary to scripture. Glossalia is what it's called in scripture in the Greek. And they are primarily used at that time for reaching the unbelieving Jews, because that would stimulate their minds to want to know more. And that's why it's there. If you look at 1 Corinthians 14, There's a detailed instruction of this. The listing of these gifts that he puts down here, apostles, prophets, teachers, they minister to the whole church and encourage unity and mutual edification. They're designed to bring us together. The spiritual gifts as well, all of them are designed to fulfill Jesus' role for the church, the body of believers, to build it up. There isn't any spiritual gift that's better than another. There's no competition. There should not be. It happens, you know. My gift is better than yours sort of thing. And Paul teaches against this stuff. People do it anyway. people do it anyway. You know when I was in seminary my mentor Dr. Couch used to say regularly if everybody that was a believer took a course in hermeneutics we wouldn't have this kind of junk going on. You'd understand the text, you wouldn't be arguing about it. I agree with that but it's not going to happen. You know most people don't even read the Bible and I think we can all look back at the churches we've been in and there's never been any of the 17 prophetic books in the Old Testament taught. They just ignore them. They think, well, it's not important. Really, if it's important enough for God to put it in the Bible, we ought to be paying attention to it. The gift of tongues was absorbed by that Corinthian church for ways that were inappropriate. They were looking at it to self-aggrandize themselves pridefully. I can speak in tongues, you know, and that sort of thing. That's not what they were for, but they were used that way. Tongues are a sign for the unbelievers to see and to try and inquire more. Look at what 1st Corinthians 12 29 to 31a say. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers in miracles? Have the gift of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret but covet earnestly the best gift? You know the rhetorical question is obviously no. Everybody doesn't have the ability to do those things. We must prayerfully seek God's will in our life as a believer. We all have a spiritual gift. I've got a spiritual gift inventory if any of you haven't done that to try and get at least a modicum of understanding of how God has gifted you. because he's gifted everybody in some particular way. Don't ever think, I don't have one. Yes, you do. Some people have two or three. The biggest one is mercy. Most of the people in the church that are gifted, which is all believers, have the gift of mercy. I'll tell you, the people that are merciful can see a situation and minister to people before most of us even know there's something wrong. I mean, they just have a sixth sense. That's the gifting. That's the spiritual enablement that God gives us. You know, Ephesians 4 11 says, and he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teacher. The work of the apostle was to, the original 12 was to lay a foundation of the church. secondary obviously to the Lord Jesus, which has been called the foundation, the builder, the stone. And Ephesians 2 19 to 20 say they were given eyewitness authority behind their preaching. They saw Jesus, they saw him die, they saw him come back, and nothing was going to stop them once you saw that. I know the scripture just talks about a few people, and we're going to look at this in a moment, about who saw Jesus after he came back to life. But the fact is he was walking Jerusalem for 40 days. Thousands upon thousands and thousands of people saw him, saw him die. saw him over three and a half years bring miracles and healing and raising people from the dead. For example, when he rose Lazarus back to life, Lazarus had died and Jesus waited a few days before he went to them. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were his friends. And one of the girls says to him, oh Jesus don't go in there, he's smelling real bad, he's decomposed. And Jesus just yells, Lazarus come forth. And Lazarus came back from the dead. That's the enablement that he had as God that he gave to those twelve apostles. Those sorts of spiritual gifts died out in the first century. Now the events of the resurrection, the very first events, and I want to read this to you slowly and have you absorb this because it's so fascinating. John 20, we're going to read 23 verses. Now on the first day of the week, which is a Sunday, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, and the tomb had been provided for Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea donated the tomb while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. In biblical times, tombs were carved out of rock for the elite, for the rich, and what they did was they rolled a over the opening when they made the tomb. And the way that they would do this, they would have this big round stone and they would put a wedge underneath it so it would be rolled by itself over the the opening to the tomb. And right in front of the opening was a little trough that was hammered out or chiseled out. And once the person had been put into the tomb, all wrapped all in the, you know, clothes that they had and embalmed them, the grave attendants would go to the stone, pull that wedge out, and it would roll down in front the opening. These things were like seven, eight, nine tons. They weren't going to be moved by anybody easily. I remember witnessing to my father and he said, oh anybody could have stolen that. I said, dad there were armed guards, Roman soldiers in front of that tomb. You really think they were going to let somebody steal that body? You know how fierce those Romans were. they wouldn't have let that happen and they ran. They were gone when that stone came over or away from the tomb. So Mary Magdalene sees this and she ran and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, and said to them, they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they've laid him. Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying there, yet he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and saw the linen cloth lying there and the handkerchief that had been wrapped around his head, not lying with the linen cloth but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed. for as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting one at the head the other at the feet with the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to him, because they've taken away my Lord and I don't know where they've laid him. Now when she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She supposed him to be the gardener. She said to him, sir if you have carried him away tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Raponi, what do you mean to say, teacher? Jesus said to her, don't cling to me for I haven't yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she'd seen the Lord and that he'd spoken these things to her. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, Peace be unto you. Now I want you to notice two characteristics of the resurrected body of Jesus. One, he could disguise his appearance so that he wouldn't be recognized, but not always. It wasn't permanent. And two, he could enter places without going through doors or windows. He could just put himself someplace. He wasn't bound in a resurrected body by normal time and space hindrances. In other words, we got to walk through a door. He could just appear. instantly. We are going to have that body too. Paul says to us in Philippians, we're going to be just like Jesus. So when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and when the disciples were glad that they saw the Lord, so Jesus said to them again, peace to you. As the Father sent me, I also send you. So he's giving them their marching orders to jumpstart the church as an apostle. And now pay attention to this one, when he had said this he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. Their first anointing was from Jesus, giving them the Holy Spirit of God in them to provide them with the spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit to jumpstart the church. Call this the charismata that they were given. The Holy Spirit, he breathed this on them. No one else had this. When the church started, the Holy Spirit came and people believed and were fed by the Spirit, took the Spirit. But these guys first, and then he says to them, if you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now we're going to see periodically in this book where Paul recognized people that were irredeemable and sends them to Satan. He had that ability. Some people were never, ever going to have faith in the facts of the resurrection and believe in Jesus. The same holds true today, although we haven't been given the discernment to know who's who, who's which. because Paul, the most vilest of the sinners, was converted. That's something to remember, you know. The most vile sinner can be converted. We don't know who's in the election or not, so we just share the gospel, try and tell people the importance of this, You know, Paul never claimed to be included in the first twelve, and he was given a very special appointment to the Gentiles. And again, as I mentioned earlier, there were others in the early church that were referred to as apostles, but only in the sense that they were given spiritual enablement to go out and spread the gospel. They couldn't raise people from the dead. They didn't have those gifts that the apostles had, but they were sent out. The apostolos means sent out. It's distinct from the office of the apostle that the first 12 and then Paul had been given. So it's just a limited sense they were called apostles. I know that can be confusing unless you look into this in detail. There's no biblical evidence to indicate that these 13 apostles had appointed others after they died. These apostles did the earliest work of founding the church. They laid the basis after Jesus had given them, and the earliest apostles, office of apostles, those 13 people had all seen Jesus and had been given this role by him. Now let's take a look, most people probably know this already, but let's take a look at how Paul got chosen. bear in mind now he's a Pharisee of the Pharisees, the highest of the highest. He was the most vigorous, the most stalwart. He was going to persecute these heathens called Christians. He didn't understand that the Messiah had come. He probably should have. There's plenty of biblical text talking about how he would come, especially the ninth chapter of Daniel. he would be born of a virgin and so on, but Paul in his zeal just grabbed that role and said I'm going to keep Judaism pure. In Acts chapter 9 the first six verse said Saul, that was his name before he was converted, Yet, out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues. In other words, he wants some authorization by the Jewish authorities, and the high priest was about as high as you got, to go to Damascus and start persecuting believers there. And if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell on the earth and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. hard for thee to kick against the pricks. The pricks were for oxen that were in a yoke, so that they wouldn't rise up and try and break out. And if they did, there was a bar right behind their back legs that had these spikes in it, the bricks they called them. And when the oxen would try and break out, they would kick those and whoa, stop right away. So what Jesus is saying to him, I got you in a spot you can't get out of. You have to pay attention to me. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul rose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. But they led him by the hand, and brought him to Damascus. and he was three days without sight, neither did eat or drink. Now the people that he met there were very skeptical of him, but it took just a little while before they realized that this guy was chosen, and because of his zeal, and his attacking the church, not with the activity but because of the force that he put into these things God chose him, because he knew, the Lord Jesus knew, that Paul was going to carry out more for the early church than the other twelve. He wrote 14 books of the New Testament. I include Hebrews because When we went through Hebrews I pointed out to you why I accept that that Paul wrote. The other 13 are all identified by him, but I truly believe that he wrote Hebrews the way he described it. He wrote it to the early church Jewish believers that were getting persecuted by the high priest and the other Jews in the council, the Sanhedrin. were becoming Jews, are becoming Christians and leaving Judaism. And they wanted to go back. They were scared because the Jewish leaders were attacking their families and taking their jobs away and all the unions were controlled by them and the various trade groups and so on. And these guys were hungry and they hated to see their families hurting. And Paul says, you can't go back. There's nothing there for you. You have become a believer. You have reached the end of God's salvation program for this world by bringing his Messiah. He's come. You can't go back. And then along comes out of that melee a group called the Judaizers. They became Christians, but They required the earliest converts from the Gentiles to become Jews first. Take up a whole host of practices and Paul says, wait a minute, that's not right. They don't have to become Jews. The Messiah has come. It's him we have to believe on. They were compelling these guys to you've got to become a Jew, you've got to get circumcised, you've got to follow certain food patterns, and so on, and a whole host of other requirements. Paul said no, no, and this was happening in Galatia, and what he did, this was fascinating, he doesn't take this on his own. He was saved by faith And he wrote this in Ephesians 2 verses 8 to 9, and that is, not of yourselves as a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This is a pure gift from God. It has no earthly works requirements to become saved. It's impossible. Most groups in this world think you need to work your way to God. You need to get better. There's Christian groups that do the same thing. No, you need to get better and then God will come back. No, not at all. There's nothing in the text that says this. The actual office of the apostleship ceased, as I've said, and the signed gifts were eliminated But good works came after salvation. We are saved unto good works. And he wrote these 14 books describing these things in detail. So what he did was, I'm not going to battle this on my own. I'm going to go to Jerusalem and talk to the elders and the apostles that are there. and I'm going to get their authority. So we refer to this as the first worldwide church council, and there have been a lot of them, but this is the first one. Paul going back to Jerusalem from Galatia with this message and request for understanding, and these guys would then promulgate these things to a wider audience. So Acts 15 verses 1 to 9 say, and certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you can't be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they were fighting them. determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem under the apostles and the elders about this question, and being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees that believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, Ye know how the good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe in God which knoweth the hearts, and bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. We are saved by grace through faith. So the consul decided that the Gentile converts of Christianity were not required to follow the Mosaic Law. The dietary practices that were laid out there, circumcision of the male, they did retain some of the prohibitions like eating blood, meat containing blood, and the meat of animals that were strangled. and fornication and idolatry. Further, we're not to be judged for celebrating various dietary laws. There is, and I'm going to read this verse in a moment, there's nothing in the Bible that says we can't celebrate these Jewish festivals. They didn't end. They just are not obligatory. to celebrate these things. You don't have to do this. And there was this, as a result of this first worldwide church council, there was some difficulty among the believers as to whether they had to do this, because a lot of them want to, you know, they're used to celebrating Passover on leavened bread, first fruits, and so on. And they said, we like doing this. So Paul writes Colossians 2, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, food or drink, or in respect of a holy day or a new moon or any of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ. In other words, go ahead and celebrate him. That's not what saved you and you don't have to do this for salvation, to be in obedience to God. But if you do it if you want to, meaning things to come. What he's showing us is the six Jewish holidays, actually it's seven. The first one is Passover. The next one is unleavened bread. The third one is first fruits. The fourth one is the birth of the church. Pentecost. Now think about this. Jesus died on the Sabbath day of Pentecost. He was put into the tomb on unleavened bread. He rose from the dead on firstfruits and the church was started on Pentecost. And the things to come are the three holidays in the future that represent the rapture of the church and the development of the messianic kingdom. And here's Paul saying that. These represent the things to come, but the body is of Christ. Now, his marching orders that gave him the apostleship office caused him to write that he's a prisoner of the Lord Jesus. This is the degree that he said his enablement and fidelity to Christ is as if I was a prisoner. A prisoner doesn't have any freedom, has no choice of activity, required to do whatever the jailer has them do and is extremely limiting in their activities. Here's what he said, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherein you are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity, the spirit, and the bond of peace. Now he's talking to believers. This is us. This is us. First he says he was completed in this role of an apostle, meaning he's a prisoner. He has no choice. You know, this is not something you make a selection on in career day in high school in your senior class. Oh, I think I'll be an apostle. Or I think I'll be a believer. I think I'll be whatever. And I can tell you in my own life, I had no, I was brought into the church in belief through a big problem I had. I had a business failure and it crushed me You know, I'd always been very careful with my money and everything, and I had a business, I bought a business that had a restrained trade lawsuit against it, and I didn't know that. And, you know, I was devastated. I was married, I had three kids under, probably around nine or ten. And all I kept thinking was, oh, Lord, somebody's got to help me. And I couldn't get any help anywhere. And that's when I became a believer. I turned to Jesus. And when that happens, it's not like I chose this at career day, you know? And I voraciously read the Bible. I started talking to people. We listened to everybody we could. And because we're reading the scriptures daily, extensively, You start to understand what Christ's will is for this world. And then you start listening to people telling you something different. You just push them away. You know? We are called to be believers with unifying the body of believers with our spiritual gifts. That's what they're for. That's what these enablements are for, to bring people together. Now Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, therefore I make known unto you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a curse, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. In other words, we're all given different things to do, we have different personalities, but everything is given by God to pull us together, not to take us apart. We have unity like the Godhead has unity as the way he describes this. The Holy Spirit gives diversity of gifts so everybody can serve the church, different kind of gifts, but they all unify. These gifts are not for personal enrichment. They can't be learned. You know, you can learn the scripture, but to convey the scripture, to understand the spiritual need and what God has given us is a spiritual enablement. I remember trying to read the Bible before I was saved and I was like, I'd just close it, you know, and say, this is too much. You know, who are all these people groups? What's that? Who's, you know, and, and, but after salvation, I couldn't wait to get into scripture. And I, we bought dictionaries and encyclopedias and started looking these words up we didn't understand. I wouldn't have done that before, but that's how the Godly Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads us We build up others. They're not for personal enrichment. They can't be cultivated. In other words, you can't get better at mercy. You can't get better at administration. You can't get better at teaching. You can learn more and you can convey more, but the capability to do all these things, that everybody has something, are enabled by the Holy Spirit. And Paul says, You live a life worthy of your calling. And at the Greek word toxios, it means equal weight. One's calling and conduct should be in balance. Our salvation is to serve without any compunction the unity of the church, the whole church, not just our particular local body here. calling is not limited to salvation but includes our service as well. Christ called us to be servants. He wants us to be givers, not takers, expecting a return. You know in donations we've looked at this in the past where God loves a cheerful giver and he's going to multiply to us. what we have given in the church, and that is not the motivation. He knows that that's not the motivation, but he's going to do this. He'll reward us for our time, and our talents, and our spiritual gifts, and our donations, and helping, and so on. He knows this. If we're doing it for a reward, he's not going to reward you. makes any sense because it's the motive, it's the motive. Jesus exalted humility as a virtue. The Greco-Roman culture viewed humility as a terrible weakness in human beings. Not so in the church, not so in the church. To be humble avenue of receptivity of your spiritual gifts. If you get proud, and Paul writes against this, and think your gift is better than some others, people are going to see that right away and they won't even listen to you. Case in point, the televangelists that come on in some of these crazy channels and the crazy things they say. God's not going to reward them. They may have a temporary financial reward now, but that is not going to last. That is not going to last. Humility, patience, gentleness will eradicate most problem in the local church. Believers must be willing and able to share burdens without expecting a reward. Jesus said to love others the same way we love ourselves. He knew exactly that we take care of ourselves first and we love ourselves. That's the way it is, you know, and he's saying you love others the same way. Others in the church. You can't love a rattlesnake, you know, and some people outside the church are going to harm us. You just avoid them. You just avoid them, that's all. Humility is the opposite of pride, and pride caused the first fall of Eliel, who was termed Lucifer by the Romans in the Latin translation of the Bible. False humility is outside of God's program. It can be easily seen. if you are false in their humility or a false prophet. Ultimately these things are all revealed. We can't be unified around heresy or untruth and there's nothing wrong with calling out a false teacher. Nothing wrong at all doing that. The church faces many forces and have since the early church to drive us apart. As I mentioned earlier the whole book of Hebrews is written to the early church Jewish believers that were being persecuted. The entire church for the first 300 years after the Lord Jesus went back to heaven were persecuted. They were, the Romans persecuted them, fed them to lions, hungry lions in the Colosseum. They're terrible the things that were done. That relaxed Chief among these problems is heresy, teaching the wrong things, false teachers. There are also others that the Lord Jesus said cause disruptions in the church, schisms, breaks, causing dissension in the church. He hates it. And God has hated that for a long time. Proverbs 6, and I'm going to close it with this, verses 16 to 19, says, These things that the Lord hate, yea, seven, are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running amiss, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord amongst the brethren. God hates these things and will judge them whether it's here or on the other side. They will be accountable for doing these things. Let's pray. Lord we love you and we are so thankful Lord you've given us these scriptures. It's such a blessing to know your will about promoting your will. And Lord, we are just so blessed that you've given us the salvation to know where we will go when we leave these bodies. Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, we pray this. Amen. Shall we sing our next tune and take our offering? I love the Lord. ♪ For he died my soul to save ♪ ♪ On Calvary his delight he freely gave ♪ ♪ From realms above Jesus freely came to die ♪ some day with him on high. I love the Lord, he has been so good to me. He gave his life from sin to set me free. ♪ This could ever be ♪ ♪ I love the Lord ♪ ♪ Because he works for me ♪ ♪ I love the Lord ♪ ♪ For he saved the lost from sin ♪ He gave them life to be whole and free again. To live on high with him never more to die. Oh, praise his name. ♪ To see Him by and by ♪ I love the Lord ♪ He has been so good to me ♪ He gave His life ♪ From sin to set me free and his could ever be. I love the Lord, because he first loved me. I love the Lord, for his love's so full and free. of our kids should be. To me, I give, and compassion freely give. Oh, bless his name. Breathe in with him. Lord, He has been so good to me. He gave His life from sin to set me free. No greater love than His could ever We sing our last tune, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be. faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see, and all I have needed thy hands have provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto ♪ Mine own dear presence to cheer and to guide ♪ ♪ Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow ♪ ♪ Blessings all mine with 10,000 besides ♪ faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness. Lord, every morning new mercies I see, and all I have needed Thy hands have provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness, Dale, could you close us in prayer, please? Lord, thank you so much for bringing us together today. Lord, we are so thankful that we have a place to gather in safety and in warmth. And Lord, we are just in awe of the grace that you show us. Lord, we ask that you help us to remain humble. Lord, you have given each one of us a gift. Lord, let us explore that gift, use that gift. And Lord, let us use it to further your kingdom. Let us follow in the steps that you have provided for us. And we ask for that guidance on a daily basis. Lord be with us in this upcoming week. Guide the things that we say and the things that we do. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Thank you. And that concludes our service for today. God bless you. ♪ In this new world of divines ♪ ♪ Enlightened access will open from our eyes ♪ ♪ Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days ♪ ♪ Almighty victorious, thy great name be praised ♪