06/26/2002
I Cor1:1
¶ Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
·
An
apostle is a divinely summoned and divinely appointed ambassador belonging to
Christ Jesus. The formation of the
apostolic office comes as the apostle learns to do everything through the will
of God. An apostle is the product and a vessel of God’s will, ways and
timetable. The apostolic office is not
a ministry, which one chooses for himself or is conferred upon by men. It is divinely willed by the Lord. He is divinely picked and divinely sent out
and his life is result of the will of the Lord.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do
nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine
own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
John 8:28 Then said Jesus unto
them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he,
and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these
things.
John 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me:
for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent
me.
·
Through the agency of God’s will.
The apostle called to be an apostle has no other choice than to fulfill
his through the will of God, in that it is the agent or vehicle for the
apostolic ministry to be executed successfully.
·
The apostle himself does not matter but the one giving him the
commission, the Lord. The apostle sacrifices all programs and agendas to become a
vessel of God’ ways, will, and His timetable. Thus the apostle becomes an
ambassador or a representative of the Lord.
Gal
1:1 ¶ Paul, an apostle, (not
of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead;)
·
In absolutely no way is his calling from men, or his ordination or
authorizing from men. Not through their assistance, support, influence, or the
open doors that they can provide. Paul, an apostle not from men as a source. Not raised up by men
but by Jesus Christ
v Thusly the apostle is never
intended to please man outside of God’s will, but to please
God who chose and raised him up. Not
pleasing man, but a bond slave of God.
Eph 1:1 ¶ Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints, which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus:
·
An apostle by the agency, influence, and
the open doors willed by God.
Col
1:1 ¶ Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,
v The apostle can proclaim the will
of God, because he or she live strictly out of the will of God.
1Tim 1:1 ¶ Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the commandment
of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
v He or she can proclaim God’s commandments, because the
apostle lives strictly out of the commandments of God.
2Tim:1:1 ¶ Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,
v With the apostolic proclamation of the
resurrection life which is in Christ Jesus there it the promise and ability for
us to live in this quality of life right now?
This is fellowship of the mystery.
v Hence the
apostle in proclaiming Christ’s power and life must be an ambassador of the
life of Jesus. In other word he or she
must live in the resurrection life of God, which comes forth from the death of
Christ’s cross, which has touched everything in their lives.
v The apostle can only proclaim the life
of the resurrected Christ to us to the degree that he lives in it.
Titus 1:1¶ Paul,
a servant of God, and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to
the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
(Greek: ... and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith
of God’s elect, and the full
knowledge of the truth..
v
The apostle lives in accordance with God’s level of faith for His
saints. God’s level of faith is His
rhema word. Therefore the apostle lives out of God’s rhema word.
v
The apostle stimulates
and promotes the faith of God’s chosen ones. The stimulation of this faith
is to make others thirsty for the Son of God and not just simply for the
blessings, prosperity and other things that come from God.
v
True
promotion of faith by the apostle is to reveal the Son of God, and give the
saints the knowledge of what is their participation, ministries, and callings
into the riches found in the Son of God whom the apostle has just revealed to
them. This called the fellowship of the mystery.
v Secondly, the
apostle reveals to the church an accurate witness of the Word of God found both
in the logos and rhema word. This allows
the saints of God to participate in the truth of the Word, which will produce
godliness in their lives.
v The apostles thus must live themselves in that accurate
recognition and participation of the truth so that they may be able to testify
to it and bring others into its participation or fellowship.
v In accordance with the faith of God’s chosen out ones as a
precise and full knowledge of the truth, which is in accordance with godliness
towards God. He leads the saints into the accurate discernment,
recognition and participation of the truth, which belongs to and harmonizes
with what tends to godliness. He must
live in that accurate recognition and participation of these very truths.
Romans1:5 By whom we have
received grace and apostleship, for obedience to
the faith among all nations, for his name:
· The apostolic
ministry promotes obedience to the gospel, and through it makes disciples
amongst all the nations. The gospel must
be testified to in such an accurate way by the apostle that it will have the
power to promote obedience to others.
·
He or she promotes obedience to the
faith and make disciples amongst all the nations. It is a traveling ministry
· The apostle can only promote obedience to the gospel to
the extent that they are themselves living in accordance to it. I limit the administration of the kingdom to
my hearing of the rhema word
·
The apostle do not have the power to do anything from myself as a
source
·
The apostle does not matter who sent him and His mission.
The emphasis on the commissioning is the author.
·
None can
be sent but the one who is under orders.
·
The man
commissioned is always the representative of the one giving the commissioning. The
apostle represents in his own person the Lord and His rights.
·
He must be
as good as the one who sent him.
·
God’s
commission cannot be fulfilled unless there is an absolute subordination and
death of the sent one’s will.
·
God’s
authority is given to the one who lives under God’s authority.
·
God’s
power is given to the one who lives out of God’s power as the source of life.
·
The sent
one by the Lord should be as the Lord Himself.
·
A man that
is sent with full authority must stand fully under the authority of the Lord
and as a slave of the Lord derives all that He is and has from the Lord,
·
He
forfeits his won initiative and unites his won will to the one who sent him.
·
An apostle
is always a mathetes (disciple)
·
The
commissioning to represent Jesus and His cause means humiliation rather than
exaltation.
·
There is
no special position or personal privilege.
·
The
apostle has no personal influence on how his ministry will turn out. He is brought under the will of God who
destroys his autonomy and leaves the apostle with no other choice but to a full
and obedient dedication to the will of God and a military walk to the voice of
the Spirit.
Gal
5:25 If we live in ( Instrumental (By)) in the Spirit, let us also walk (Greek word which is defined as “marching
in the footsteps of a soldier”) in (Instrumental (By)) the Spirit.
·
Greek paraphrase) (It is a
given that we should be living our lives not in the present day world system,
but in the domain, influence, and sovereignty of the world of the Holy Spirit. Because
we are being continually affected and influenced by the Spirit, in that
influence and effect we must march in step as soldiers so that the Spirit’s
influence can go on, deepen, intensify, and continue interrupted.
1 Corinthians 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world,
and to angels, and to men.
q Hath
set forth To
expose to view; or to exhibit
q
Last in receiving honor,
last in being recognized by men and by the body of Christ, last in being raised
up by Christ, and smallest in importance and in the estimation of men.
q
Appointed to death: Greek:
Upon the death “Doomed to die”
q
A spectacle unto the
world. Greek: A theatre unto the
world.
q
God has exhibited, showed off, and exposed to view. The apostle
becomes a man exhibited, or to be gazed at.
Last in rank, importance, recognition and so forth.
q
The apostolic calling to those who are destined to be God
ambassadors. As His representatives,
apostles are called to be a portrait or a painting of God’s ways, will, and
timing upon the earth. The Lord allows
the apostle to go through the humiliating and frustrating circumstances of
being last so that he is whittled away from all that does not represent the
voice of the Lord, His ways, and His timing.
1 Corinthians
4:13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are
made as the filth(As soap being rinsed off from dirty plates) of the
world, and are the offscouring(scrapings of food thrown away) of all things
unto this day.
filth
and offscouring: The food
scrapings on a dirty plate, and the sweepings gathered from a dirty floor,
which are rinsed off or thrown away.
q
The
Lord engineers all of this in the apostle’s life, as He whittles him or her
into a walk by the simple rhema word, and continuously humbles them so that
they only walk in His ways.
Ambassadorship requires living by God’s rhema word and conforming to His
ways. Only then can their be true a representation
of the Lord here on earth.
1 Cor 4:10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
q Greek: We are morons on the account of Christ
q We are frail and weak, you are
confident and strong
q We are those who get no respect
from people
1 Cor 4:11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
q We are hungry and thirsty
q We are dressed scantily or with poor quality of clothing
q We are treated poorly
·
We have no home of our
own
12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
q We labor for the gospel’s sake to
the point of exhaustion
q When we are abused by men, we
bless back
1 Cor 9:12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
q Greek: We did not make use of the different rights afforded to us
by the gospel as apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of these rights include having a Christian wife and getting
our income from the gospel. (Please study
the preceding verses above this one.) We do not make use of our rights,
but instead put up with all things so as not to impede the pioneering progress
of the gospel.
2 Cor 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you
ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of
measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
v Excessively we
were burdened beyond our power.
v It is throwing
beyond magnitude. We were utterly at loss, destitute of earthly and fleshly
measures and resources.
9 But we had the sentence of death in
ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the
dead:
· It is a judicial
sentence of death. “An official resolution that stamps a matter as done.’
·
Whether on asking myself, should I die or whether I should
come out of mortal peril, I answered, “I must die”.
· So as to trust in God alone who is raising the
corpses
2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
·
Our sufficiency and ability and our qualifications is not found in
ourselves as a source but only in God, his grace and power as its root sources.
q
2 Cor 4:1 ¶ Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not Because by the mercy of God,
we were called into this ministry, we do not become discouraged. (We know that
if God divinely summoned us, He will take care of us, and see us through;
therefore we do not lose heart.)
2
But have renounced (we gave up once, and now forbid) the hidden things of dishonesty
(anything that brings shame or disgrace to the gospel, or to us),
not walking in craftiness(not
conducting ourselves in the doctrines of men), nor handling the word of God deceitfully(by
trickery, adulterating or corrupting God’s word for base gain) ; but by manifestation of the truth (but by
manifesting the gospel in its accuracy and genuineness through the Word of God
and by our lives) commending
ourselves to every man’s conscience( we present ourselves to
every type of men’s conscience)
in the sight of God.
(Before the constant gaze of God)
·
Paul here
says, that the soundness of the apostle’s doctrine and the genuineness of his
or her life in accordance to the gospel must be so great, that it must hold up
to the scrutiny of the voice of God bearing witness or passing judgment to what
the apostle ministers in their hearer’s consciences. Secondly, the apostle must also deal with the scrutiny of God
Himself, whose penetrating look is ever upon the apostle.
2Cor 4:7 But
we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may
be of God, and not of us.
v The power is the
property of God.
·
2Cor 4:12 So then
death worketh in
us, but life in you.
·
The manifested death of Christ within the apostle is as an “energy
dynamo” that never ceases but always works with effect. We are always being handed over to death, so
that the very life of Christ can be like wised energized with effect for the
sakes of others.
· Death is actively energized and
efficient in us. The death of Christ is effectual in the apostle. Christ’s death always mighty in the
apostolic workings. This death is for
the benefit of others
2 Cor 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
· To rot thoroughly being disabled or being brought to decay,
consumed, or ruin.
2 Corinthians 5:13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
If we are out of our minds; out of our
wits or insane
If Paul goes
beyond the bounds of normalcy it is in his highest devotion towards the Lord;
but on the other hand wisdom and prudence towards his disciples.
2 Cor
5:14 For the love of Christ
constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all
dead:
·
Not
urging or driving us, but shutting us up to one line, or one side of the road
and one purpose, as in a narrowed wall road.
Ø 2Cor 6:3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:
q
Not even one occasion of sin or offense. No occasion for stumbling.
2 Cor 12:14 Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
q
I am not seeking your
possessions, I am seeking you (the
person)
2 Corinthians 12:15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the
more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
q
spend Incur personal expense
q spent To exhaust by spending; To spend oneself
totally up for the individual and for the sake of the gospel
q
Incur personal expense for your Christian well-being. I will pour my very soul out for your
progress in the faith. I will exhaust
myself by spending and using myself up for your spiritual maturing in Christ.
2Cor 13:4 For though he was crucified through
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the
power of God toward you.
·
The apostle lives out of the power of God as the root system in
his life.
Oneness With The Lord
1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ
Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting
me into the ministry;
Greek: I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who endued me with His
power (only as He found me dependable.) The gift of His power was given to me
as He found me worthy of trust. Once that the trust and power were there God
placed me into my ministry.
John 6:57 As the living Father hath sent
me ( Greek: apostolic
sending), and I
live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
q Greek: The apostle or the one sent on an apostolic
mission lives moment to moment through the Father who does the works.
q As I have taught, the works
of the Father are translated into rhema words. The apostle must continuously
discern and carry out the rhema word.
That is the apostle’s whole objective in life.
q Any time that the apostle
acts in the flesh, he or she will experience a loss of the full credentials of
the Lord’s power, which is found only in the voice of the Spirit.
John 8:42 Jesus said unto them,
If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither
came I of myself, but he sent me.
q
Greek: The
apostle, or the one on an apostolic mission, is birthed from God and lives
continuously out of God just as a tree must live out of its roots. Not only is
their ministry birthed from God, but also their constant presence in this world
must be accomplished out of this same dependency.
q The apostle has no agenda.
His or her agenda is the Lord.
q
The apostle therefore lives in utter
dependency upon the Lord. The apostle
has been broken by the Lord and lives out of the voice, strength and the power
of God. There has been a death to his or her ability to overcome, so that their
overcoming now comes through the revelation of the Son of God.
q His or her whole existence
is sustained and originates through his or her relationship with the Father.
John 5:36 But I have greater
witness than that of John: for the
works which the
Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness
of me, that the Father hath sent me.
v The apostle’s work originates in God. It is consequently done with the full
authority of God and in signs and wonders of the rhema word.
q
Utter
dependency on the rhema word of God bounds the apostle to learn and limit his
or her life strictly to the ways of God.
Both of these things bring the apsotle into oneness with the Lord and
equip him or her for ambassadorship with the full credentials of the Lord power.
q
His ministry is not one of exaltation but one
of being continually humbled either by seasons of material lack, or by the
stringent limits placed upon their lives by the boundaries of the rhema word of
God. .
q
The greatness of the apostle and
the prophet is found in how faithfully he or she restrict their lives to the
accuracy of rhema word of God.
·
John 14:9 Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me, Philip? he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then,
Shew us the Father?
·
He that has seen me with discernment has seen the Father.
Mat 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me
receiveth him that sent me.
q Greek:To welcome with open arms i.e. receive
with hospitality.
q The reception that the apostle receives is in
fact the reception given to the Lord Himself. This is because the apostle
always lives and acts in accordance to the voice of the Spirit through the
rhema word of God. A hospitable welcome given to the apostle is a hospitable
welcome given to the Lord whose rhema word the apostle is executing.
Luke 10:16 He that heareth you heareth me;
and he that despiseth you
despiseth me; and
he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
v Greek ; He that is making
light of, or is despising you, despises me.
He that is paying attention to what you are saying pays attention to me.
Rom 11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy
them that are my flesh, and may save some of them.
q
Greek
Scriptures: Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the nations, I do my ministry
honor, or I lay much stress and care in magnifying my office, or I continuously
glorify my ministry. The apostle does his ministry honor
q If I may provoke to jealousy
Ephesians 6:19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open
my mouth boldly, to make known
the mystery of the gospel,
1 Corinthians 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God(The will of God as found in the gospel and
in His Son) in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom,
(even the hidden will of God) which God ordained before the world
unto our glory:
·
Mysteries
for one are doctrines of God that are brought to life through revelation
knowledge and are bring out the scriptural patterns of God’s kingdom.
Ephesians
3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Ephesians
3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all
things by Jesus Christ:
·
To turn on the light as to what is the koinonia of the fellowship
·
Which was hidden in a perfect tense in God. One mystery here is the doctrine of allowing
the Gentiles into the NT fellowship.
Christ however is the main mystery of God.
Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles;
which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory: {in: or, among}
28
Whom we preach, (The apostle preaches the revealed Person of Christ, and not
a thing) warning
every man (exhorting, admonishing and warning), and teaching
every man in all wisdom
(teaching every person the will of God found in the sound doctrine of
scriptures); that we may present every man perfect (to the level of Christ’s maturity
and character) in Christ Jesus:
Eph
3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in
the mystery of Christ)
v
The apostle not only reveals the mystery of Christ,
its dispositions and arrangements but also teaches others how to participate
according to their calling into this mystery.
v It comes to say that the apostle is used within church to bring the
church into the comprehensive participation of what that it has been called
into.
v Bring forth the dispositions of God according to His grace.
Eph 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all
saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ;
9
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
v
Ephesians
chapter three verses eight and nine guides us a bit deeper into the supremely
significant importance of the apostolic and prophetic revelation of Christ our
mystery. As we have discussed before,
the Person of Christ contains within Himself all of the treasures and riches of
who God is, and of what He possesses.
These treasures, the Greek scriptures tell us, are undetectable, un-
searchable, and unreachable through all of our fleshly efforts. Only through a spirit of revelation into the
mystery of the Person of Christ can these treasures be manifested out to the
body through the preaching of the gospel. Verse nine tells just this. Part of
Paul’s apostolic/ prophetic ministry as described in verse eight and nine, is
to not only reveal theses undetectable riches.
In verse nine he goes on to tell us that the purpose of this revelation
is to make every one else within the local body aware as to what is their part,
participation, share, and calling into the riches of Christ is.
v
Through this, the apostle stimulates and promotes the faith of
God towards His chosen ones. The
stimulation of this faith is to make others thirsty for the Son of God and not
just simply for the blessings, prosperity and other things that come from God.
v
True
promotion of faith by the apostle is to reveal the Son of God, and give the
saints the knowledge of what is their participation, ministries, and callings
into the riches found in the Son of God whom the apostle has just revealed to
them. This called the fellowship of the mystery.
v Secondly, the
apostle reveals to the church an accurate witness of the Word of God found both
in the logos and rhema word. This
allows the saints of God to participate in the truth of the Word, which will
produce godliness in their lives.
v The apostles thus must live themselves in that accurate
recognition and participation of the truth so that they may be able to testify
to it and bring others into its participation or fellowship.
v Furthermore, I believe that the seal
of apostleship is defined in these two ways. The believer as mentored by the apostle, is first brought to a
place of adequate spiritual freedom as he or she grasps the liberty brought to him
or her by the revelation of the mystery of the gospel, as the apostle teaches
it.
v As the disciple begins to grasp whom he
or she is IN CHRIST, the apostle introduces the fellowship of the mystery;
assisting the disciple to discover his or her office, callings, and spiritual
gifts so that the disciples in turn can do the work of the ministry.
v
Through this, the apostle stimulates and promotes the faith of God
towards His chosen ones. The stimulation
of this faith is to make others thirsty for the Son of God and not just simply
for the blessings, prosperity and other things that come from God.
v True promotion
of faith by the apostle is to reveal the Son of God, and give the saints the knowledge
of what is their participation, ministries, and callings into the riches found
in the Son of God whom the apostle has just revealed to them.
v Secondly, the
apostle reveals to the church an accurate witness of the Word of God found both
in the logos and rhema word. This
allows the saints of God to participate in the truth of the Word, which will
produce godliness in their lives.
v In accordance with the faith of God’s chosen out ones as a
precise and full knowledge of the truth, which is in accordance with piety
towards God.
v Leads them into the accurate discernment, recognition and
participation of the truth, which belongs to and harmonizes with what tends to
godliness. He must live in that
accurate recognition and participation of the truth.
v With the promise of life goes the provision
for its proclamation. Hence the apostle
in proclaiming you shall live through Christ, is an apostle according through
the very proclamation of this life.
2 Timothy 1:13Hold fast the form of sound words,
which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Greek: Hold fast the outline or pattern of
healthy words…in a world that belongs to faith and love.
1 Timothy 6:3