COMMON MEN, UNCOMMON CALLING

Although the apostles were common men, theirs was an uncommon calling. In other words, the task they were called to, and not anything about the men per se, is what makes them so important. Consider how unique their role was to be.

Not only would they found the church and play a pivotal leadership role as the early church grew and branched out, but they also became the channels through which most of the New Testament would be given. They received truth from God by divine revelation. Ephesians 3:5 is very explicit. Paul says that the mystery of Christ, which in the earlier ages was not made known, “has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.” They did not preach a human message. The truth was given to them by direct revelation.

They were therefore the source of all true church doctrine. Acts 2:42 describes the activities of the early church in these terms: “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Before the New Testament was complete, the apostles’ teaching was the only source of truth about Christ and church doctrine. And their teaching was received with the same authority as the written Word. In fact, the written New Testament is nothing other than the Spirit-inspired, inscripturated record of the apostle’s teaching.

In short, the apostles were given to edify the church. Ephesians 4:11-12 says Christ gave the apostles “for quipping the saints for the work of ministry, for edifying of the body of Christ.” They were the original Christian teachers and preachers. 

-- John MacArthur (1939-2025) in “Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness and What He Wants to Do with You”

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OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.”  (Revelation 3:20 NIV))

Loving God is different from loving doctrine. Doctrine (true ideas about God and His ways) is important. It is crucial that our minds are as soundly converted as our hearts. But in the end, ideas are just ideas; whereas God is alive -- a flame of love, a presence, a power, a reality, a person. Ideas can be embraced, but God can be loved. Once ideas are accepted and one’s life is conformed to them, the matter is over. But when God becomes the center of life, the story has just begun. How will it unfold, where you will be led, who will play a part in your life, what task you will be asked to undertake, where you will go -- all of that will emerge in the context of your relationship with God…

The Christian life is no static holding action; it is an amazing, serendipitous journey. To live it out is our calling in life. As we do so, we become what we are meant to be: whole people, holy people, conformed to the image of Christ. This is our great and wonderful task in life. 

-- Richard Peace in “Learning to Love God”

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WALKING WITH CHRIST

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’”  (Matthew 25:34-36 NKJV)

Many assert that John Wesley was the world’s most influential social reformer of his day. While some will question the depth of his influence, none question his remarkable ability to link piety with justice and to translate doctrine into daily living. From the early days at Oxford until a few days before his death, Wesley was about the ministry of caring for the poor, the oppressed, and the imprisoned. And all of this while living a rigorous life of prayer, study, and reflection.

This commitment to neighbor and passion to proclaim the gospel story was so great that John and Charles [his brother] rode in a cart with a condemned prisoner so that they could sing and pray on the way to the hangman’s scaffold…

Holy living is a direct result of and inseparable from a holy heart. To experience Christian perfection is to live as Jesus lived. It is to be obedient to the One proclaimed as Savior and Lord. Matthew 25 is a text to be taken seriously. To know Christ and to be known by Christ means to walk with Christ in the everyday business of life. 

– Rueben P. Job in “A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader”

#5440

EAR-TICKLING

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”  (2 Timothy 4:3 NIV)

The devil is not fighting religion. He's too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity, so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it. We are plainly told in the Scriptures that in the last days men will not endure sound doctrine and will depart from the faith and heap to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. We live in an epidemic of this itch, and popular preachers have developed “ear-tickling” into a fine art. 

-- Vance Havner

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GOD INSPIRED

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT)

The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of special revelation from God.

-- Daniel Webster, in a speech at the dedication of the Bunker Hill monument in 1843

#3695

THE GOSPEL ACCOUNTS

No nation, and few individuals, are really brought into [God's] camp by the historical study of the biography of Jesus, simply as biography.  Indeed, materials for a full biography have been withheld from [us].  The earliest converts were converted by a single historical fact (the Resurrection) and a single theological doctrine (the Redemption) operating on a sense of win which they already had...  The "Gospels" came later and were written not to make Christians but to edify Christians already made.

-- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Screwtape Letters


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