Grace For Your Day April 27
Grace For Your Day
An Apostle is defined as "someone who was sent out by Jesus to lay the foundation of the church." In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem says that there were four tasks that were attributed to them. An Apostle did four things:
This is important because Paul sheds a little light on this office in the Book of Ephesians. He describes his role as an Apostle in the following way in 3:1-7 when he says:
While the word "apostle" is not used in this passage, Paul says that one of his duties as an Apostle or "a minister" was to tell the Gentiles that they can be saved. One of his jobs was to tell the Non-Jews that, for the first time, they can be fellow heirs and fellow members of the Body of Christ along with Israel. This was a mystery that was not made known in other generations but has not been revealed.
This sounds very scholastic but the point is simple. You can be part of the church today. As a Gentile, you can be saved. We take that for granted today but, for thousands of years, the only people who could be saved were the Jews. For hundreds of generations, the only people who could go to Heaven were the Hebrew people. However, now salvation is available for anyone which leads us to some heart-searching questions.
Are you grateful for this today? Are you thankful that you live in a time in which the mystery has been revealed? My friends, this is good news because it means that you do not have to become Jewish to be saved. You do not have to change your race or the place where you live. You can just trust in Jesus right where you are and go to Heaven. Doesn’t that just blow your mind?
Another question is: Does this bring comfort to you? Does it encourage you to know that you are not a partial heir? You are not a half member of the church. You do not lack anything because it has all been provided for you in Christ. So many Christians feel like they are lacking something today. So many feel like they are missing out on something but that is not what Paul says here. He says that we have all we need in Christ to make us complete members of the church.
Please join us this Sunday morning as we talk about that. Since the restrictions for COVID-19 are still in place, we will be recording the sermon on Saturday night and posting it on our You Tube Channel on Sunday morning. Please watch online as we talk about Paul’s amazing ministry to the Gentiles and what it means for us today.
- Jeremy Cagle
- He wrote Scripture
- He performed miracles
- He oversaw the establishment of the early church
- He spoke on Jesus' behalf
This is important because Paul sheds a little light on this office in the Book of Ephesians. He describes his role as an Apostle in the following way in 3:1-7 when he says:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles - if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 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; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
While the word "apostle" is not used in this passage, Paul says that one of his duties as an Apostle or "a minister" was to tell the Gentiles that they can be saved. One of his jobs was to tell the Non-Jews that, for the first time, they can be fellow heirs and fellow members of the Body of Christ along with Israel. This was a mystery that was not made known in other generations but has not been revealed.
This sounds very scholastic but the point is simple. You can be part of the church today. As a Gentile, you can be saved. We take that for granted today but, for thousands of years, the only people who could be saved were the Jews. For hundreds of generations, the only people who could go to Heaven were the Hebrew people. However, now salvation is available for anyone which leads us to some heart-searching questions.
Are you grateful for this today? Are you thankful that you live in a time in which the mystery has been revealed? My friends, this is good news because it means that you do not have to become Jewish to be saved. You do not have to change your race or the place where you live. You can just trust in Jesus right where you are and go to Heaven. Doesn’t that just blow your mind?
Another question is: Does this bring comfort to you? Does it encourage you to know that you are not a partial heir? You are not a half member of the church. You do not lack anything because it has all been provided for you in Christ. So many Christians feel like they are lacking something today. So many feel like they are missing out on something but that is not what Paul says here. He says that we have all we need in Christ to make us complete members of the church.
Please join us this Sunday morning as we talk about that. Since the restrictions for COVID-19 are still in place, we will be recording the sermon on Saturday night and posting it on our You Tube Channel on Sunday morning. Please watch online as we talk about Paul’s amazing ministry to the Gentiles and what it means for us today.
- Jeremy Cagle
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