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”

#6170

TAKING THE BIBLE SERIOUSLY

We need to take the Bible seriously. That means taking seriously the context in which each book was written and the rich variety of literary forms in which it comes to us…

Sometimes it reads like the front-page account of an actual historic event. Sometimes it’s like reading… parable and poetry, story and song. Sometimes it feels like… good and evil struggling to win a victory. Sometimes Paul’s letters are like reading a [personal message to a particular group of people] while reading the prophets is… filled with fantastic images and mind-blowing metaphors. None of it reads like a scientific textbook or a self-help manual.

The grand sweep of the biblical story is the account of a life-changing experience with God that required the use of nearly every literary form to attempt to convey it.

When we take the Bible seriously in terms of the context in which it was written and the form in which it comes, we begin to discover what Paul meant when he said, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NRSV)

-- Adapted from James A. Harnish in “A Disciple’s Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church”

#5352

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT - Part 2

Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Do not get drunk with wine… Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Intoxication and spirituality seem like odd companions in a Bible verse. But Paul is saying it just right: don’t try to get inspiration out of a bottle. God wants to fill and inspire you through His Spirit. If you need comfort, don’t guzzle it. Find the real stuff in the one Jesus called the Comforter. Don’t try to work up courage by drinking. The Spirit is courageous! The disciples ran in fright when Jesus was arrested, but they boldly faced danger every day once the Spirit had come.

Do you drink just to loosen up and relax? The fruit of the Spirit includes peace from God. Not to mention love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

An old commercial used to tout two merits of the beer it was promoting: “tastes great” and “less filling.” At least the beer company got the second one right. Everything this world has to offer is less filling. And at the end of the day, none of it tastes great. But life in the Spirit is a different matter.          

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”

#4903

SPIRIT BORN

Jesus says [to Nicodemus], "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

Listen to the wind, Nicodemus.  Listen to the wind.

Again, and again, in both the Old and New Testaments, God's Spirit -- the Holy Spirit -- is described as being like the wind.  Both the Hebrew of the Old Testament (ruach) and the Greek of the New Testament (pneuma) employ a word that can mean wind, breath, or spirit.  When the writer of Genesis explains our divine origins, he tells us that God breathed into the human nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7); that is, God inspirited us.  When the Holy Spirit entered our world in a new way on the Day of Pentecost, one of the manifestations of the Spirit's coming was "a sound like the rush of a violent wind" that filled the house where the believers were sitting (Acts 2:2).  Even so, when Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand how he could be born from above, Jesus said that it was like the wind.  You might not understand it, and certainly you couldn't control it, but you could feel its reality.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “New Testament Stories from the Back Side”

#4342

INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE

“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.”  (2 Timothy 3:16 NLT)

Scripture requires the activity of the Holy Spirit to speak. Words become the Word by the empowering presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. Modernity taught that most rational human beings, regardless of background, training, or character, were perfectly capable of unaided understanding, perfectly able to grasp and comprehend everything in the world simply by the use of reason. Scripture frustrates such limited knowing. Scripture opens itself up to us through the work of the Holy Spirit, whom we cannot rationalize or control, and modernity is high on control and rationalization. Thus, interpretation of Scripture is a communal, pneumatic affair -- a work of grace -- requiring considerably more than the lone, reasoning reader.

-- Bishop Will Willimon, from his Peculiar Prophet blog


#4124

A LIVING MESSAGE

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,…"  (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV)

God's Word tells us the truth about Him, about ourselves, and about the way He does things... God's Word is a living message to His people, literally "God-breathed." Those who read Scripture often recount the times when a particular message jumped off the page and spoke to their hearts.

Of course, [God] doesn't intend for us to use His Word like a collection of disconnected slogans that promise us everything we want. But when we sincerely seek to know God, the Scriptures provide clear guidance, warm comfort, and supernatural solutions.

-- Stephen Arterburn in The Power Book

#3730

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