2017-04-28
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As far back as IS 55: 11, God made His will clear about His teaching. “So is My word that goes out from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Later, in JN 15: 5, 13-15, God’s second personality, Jesus Christ, utters, “I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing…You are My friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father, I have made known to you.” Paul writes to us in RO 1: 1-2a, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God—the Gospel He promised beforehand through the prophets in the holy Scriptures, regarding His Son…” Furthermore, Paul writes, in RO 15: 18-19, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and miracles through the power of the Spirit.” By sharing all these verses with you, they reveal to you God’s attitude of making a priority out of studying His word, about how He feels about us living the word, by the completeness of the word, and about Paul’s commission to share the word beyond just the Jewish community.
In Paul’s day, there weren’t fancy buildings set apart as churches, as there are now. Instead, the churches met in people’s houses. Nymphia was a hostess to the church in Laodicea, for example, and Paul greeted, and thus thanked, her for taking this responsibility in COL 4: 15. Fellow tentmakers, Priscilla and Aquila also hosted church meetings in their residence, as evidenced in RO 16: 15 and 1 COR 16:19. The same was true of Apphia, the sister of a fellow soldier of Christ, Archippus, seen in PHILEMON 2 and Mary, Mark’s mother [AC 12:12]. What also can be seen from Biblical records is that before his imprisonment in Rome, Paul made the rounds, or had his fellow workers for Christ do so, to these churches as Christ’s influence grew. The main letter of this study covered Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae, as seen in COL 4: 16. All of these churches were taught the main principles (we already discussed) in COL 1: 18-29. To refresh understanding of them, I will recap them here.
Jesus Christ is supreme, Firstborn, the Head of the Church (His bride), and the Church is His body, which reconciles believers with God through the shedding of His blood on the cross. He is an Advocate for believers, presenting them to God as pure and holy in God’s sight. God’s mystery revealed is hope and glory in Christ—Christ in the believer. All that is necessary for salvation [JN 3: 16], eternal forgiveness [1 JN 1: 9], and justification [RO 4: 3] is genuine repentance for sins and profession of faith in Jesus Christ! Because Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer, His blood shed for us is hugely important to our lives and should never be wasted by disobedience to His teaching. Christ is the Redeemer long prophesied in the Scriptures of the OT.
The Greek word, ekklesia, means “church,” a religious assembly, congregation, a called body of believers from the Greek word, kyriakis, meaning “belonging to the Lord.” In Greek, the original language of the NT, the word somatos, means “body,” as in the body of the church, or the one people of God. The words of PS 8: 5-6 really put this concept of Christ forward. “You made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned Him with glory and honor. You made Him Ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under His feet.” EPH 1: 22-23 is the fulfillment of this prophecy, and we’ll further examine this next week.
PRAYER: O Most Heavenly Father, we come before Your throne today to acknowledge Your supremacy over all and our need for You in our lives. It has always been the custom in Jewish homes to encourage education, to teach almsgiving, and to practice hospitality. (These principles are still a part of the practices of modern traditionally Jewish homes). Many of the people in Paul’s day had a Jewish background, as Paul himself did. That is why Your Son and His apostles were pleased to see hospitality offered by the people who made up the Church. It also pleased the Lord to see the Church spread effectively by Paul, giving it a chance to remain lasting in the world, as it still is today. It was by Paul that the word of God was opened to Gentiles, who chose to believe in Jesus Christ. Then, as it is today, the impact on one’s life of coming to faith in Christ and learning to be obedient to His teaching through the Holy Spirit is huge and valuable. As ones who has seen the great contrast between a life without Christ and one with Him, we can testify to the far-reaching impact for good of a life in which Christ is at its center. As joint-heirs to the Kingdom with Christ, we share in His sufferings and in His glory [RO 8: 17], are eager for future glory, and for “the sons of God to be revealed” –[RO 8: 18-19]. We thank and praise You for making such a future available to us, in Christ’s holy/mighty name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As mentioned above, I have been commanded by the Holy Spirit to further examine what we are told about Who Christ is in our lives, how He relates to the Church, and how He fulfills prophecy. I happen to be writing this message amidst the Lenten season, a time when every believer in Christ needs to be contemplating his relationship to the Lord, what the Lord’s sacrifice means to us personally, and how we, as Christ’s body-the Church, can learn to be His obedient disciples. Oftentimes, we are asked, “What are you giving up for Lent?” My reply to that question is, “I’m more concerned with what Christ gave up for me!” It blows my mind to think of the Lord loving me enough to suffer as He did and give up His physical life for me. I now know that He has had me in His sight for my entire life—even through those first 25 years when I didn’t believe He exists or cares about me. When I read 1 PET 5: 6-10, tears come to my eyes, as I learn the measure of Christ’s love for me! As believers, we can consider ourselves richly blessed that He is in our lives, albeit at the Center of them. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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