Original date: 10-19-97 – Classic Christianity Part 2 (2-5-19)
Bob George discusses insights from God’s word. In part one, Bob addressed the laws of love; to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Bob explained man’s inability to love, requiring the need to be born again, to be placed into the body of Christ, the true Church, the Ecclesia. In part two of this three part series, Bob addresses the functioning of the church as the people of God, where this love of Christ is to be worked out, so the people of God can grow in maturity to know the fullness of God. Bob explains that the true church is the Ecclesia, the “called out ones”. He explains that the spiritual gifts are people whom God sent to build up the body of Christ, the church. He explains the role of teachers, prophets and apostles in that proper context. In every case, people are to be dependent on the Holy Spirit in them, as a branch on a vine, to do the work of ministry that God has prepared for them to do. Bob referenced the fruit of the Spirit and that such fruit cannot be produced in the flesh, but only in the strength that God provides. Otherwise, the church is not functioning properly and people can even burn out, as there flesh is weak and they cannot produce. Bob also explained some of the faulty understanding in today’s “church” or religious world in regard to baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit. People are given to the church for the purpose of building up the body of Christ, the true Church, until we understand the truth of the scriptures, to know Him and grow mature in Him, and to grow in full measure of Christ. The church is to serve one another in love, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
Bob reviews much of what he spoke on yesterday. We continue now in about 14 minute into the audio.
Ephesians 1:9-10
With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Godly enthusiasm comes from God. This is not a fleshly enthusiasm.
Romans 10:2
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.
Paul addresses those Jews, the Pharisees, who failed to come to Christ for life, as having a fleshly zeal. Paul testifies of this also in his former life as a religious Pharisee, persecuting the people of God until he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. That is an example of fleshly zeal, the zeal without knowledge.
2 Timothy 3:6-8
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.
So these teachers, Jannes and Jambres, mentioned in 2 Timothy are examples of those proud in heart.
James 4:6
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. So where do we learn about grace and truth?
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The best way to grow is in the context of the body of Christ. God raises up people to be born again and equips them to serve one in another in love and to speak truth into their hearts even as God pours truth into theirs. God is the source of everything and pours His love into the hearts of men so that love may be displayed through them. God gives people, whom he has touched, as gifts to one another.
Now this strength to serve one another in love comes from God. God is at work in us to do the work of ministry.
Jude 24-25
24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
So then as Bob continues teaching from Ephesians, amplifying its meaning from truth God has revealed through other scriptures, what do we come to understand?
Ephesians 4:1-4
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
So when God calls us to be these things, the only way is to abide in Christ (recall the parable of the vine and the branches in John 15). These things are produced in you and through you. We cannot do these things in the flesh.
“We are the true church.” is what so many say. Some say the Catholic Church is the one true church. Others say you must be in the Church of Christ, and be baptized by their pastor in their waters. When you hear that then run away for it is a cult. I is pride in the heart to say you are the first church or that you are the only true church. As far as being first, that was pride in the heart that Paul corrected in speaking to the believers in Corinth.
1 Corinthians 1:11-13
11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
There is only one church, the Ecclesia, the body of Christ. There is only one body, one Spirit, one faith, one Baptism, and one Lord.
Romans 8:9
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
What are you born of? Are you not born of the Spirit, a new birth! Is it possible to receive Christ today and then receive the Spirit tomorrow? No. Why is that an impossibility? If you do not have Spirit, then you do not belong to God, and if you do not belong to God then you are not born again.
How can you have the Spirit today and get the Spirit tomorrow? You cannot. It is not true to have the Spirit one day and then get Him another day. That is an impossibility. Either you have the Spirit or you do not. When you are born again, you are born into one body and not two. Born again by one Spirit and all called to one hope when called, called to one Lord, one faith and one baptism. What baptism is that? Baptism of the Holy Spirit, when placed in Christ, and not when you dunked in water. Baptism is a spiritual baptism and nothing to do with water but the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians 4:4, what does it mean “who is over all and through all and in all”. He is referring to when you were baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is not speaking of God in everyone and everything, as in panentheism or New Age teaching. God only dwells in those who are born again.
Now, in regards to the functioning of the body of Christ in serving one another in love, what is the role of pastors and teachers?
Ephesians 4:11-13
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 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.
When dealing with this designation of evangelism, prophet or teacher, let us understand something of importance here in regards to what is the spiritual gift. Evangelism is not the gift of evangelism. The evangelist himself is the gift to the body of Christ. The apostle was the gift to the body of Christ. Paul or Peter, as an apostle, named by God as an apostle. What was the main function of an apostle? Where did we get the Bible from? The bible got recorded down by way of the apostles, and also through the scribes. God called the twelve, and called Paul. God taught truth to them and instructed them to communicate that truth to the body of Christ. They did not make things up.
2 Peter 1:21
For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
In regards specifically to the apostle Paul, through whom well over half of the New Testament came to be written, scripture makes it very clear who taught him.
Galatians 1:12
For my message comes from no less a person than Jesus Christ himself, who told me what to say. No one else has taught me.
The writer or scribe is a gift to the body of Christ so the word of God would be written down for even us today to know what God has revealed to men. There also prophets, a gift to body. Not a gift of prophecy but a prophet. Then you have pastors and teachers. They are gifts to body of Christ. God gives a person to the body of Christ. He selects a person and then gives that person to the body of Christ.
When a man or woman is given to the body of Christ, they are there for the purpose of building up the body of Christ until we understand truth of the scriptures, as revealed by the Spirit of God, to know Him, to grow mature in Him, and to grow in the full measure of Christ. To know Him is the continual goal.
Ephesians 3:16-18
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ
So it takes the power of God to grasp the love of God! That is the prayer Paul is praying for the Ephesians, that out of God’s glorious riches for them to be strengthened with power so Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. Can you trust Him? Do you know Him? Are you persuaded of His love for you? Are you convinced?
Even as Christ is in us, our minds are being renewed so that our lives show the whole measure of the fullness of God, reaching out to the branches, the church, the body of believers, in all unity of Spirit. Yes, God gives people to the body so that we may know His love so deeply that we can say like Paul:
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I sam persuaded nothing can separate.
That is God’s desire for you and me, to know His love, and to be convinced and persuaded!
Ephesians 4:14-15
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Are you thankful for the body of Christ, who works with the energy God supplies, His might resurrection power in us, to build one another up in love, to know Him, the source of that love?