"I Timothy, the first of the pastoral epistles, begins, [1] Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
"I Timothy is going to give you the ideal picture of what the ministry, a local church, ought to be like," explains Richard Jordan. "In II Timothy, the last book Paul writes, you see the catastrophe the local church, the Body of Christ, has become by the time Paul dies.
"Somebody once said, 'I Timothy is the church in rule and II Timothy is the church in ruin,' and that's really an apt description. In each one of the epistles, the first couple of verses kind of set the tone for what the book's going to be about.
"This first verse and the shift in thinking in it--when Paul says, 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,' that's not the way he usually introduces himself.
"In Ephesians 1, it says 'Paul apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.' That's the way he usually says it: 'I'm an apostle; it was God's will that I be one.'
"Romans 1, his first doctrinal book, starts, 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.'
"When he comes to Timothy, he ratchets it up a little bit and says, 'I'm an apostle by the commandment of God.' When you think of commandments, who do you think about? Moses.
"In other words, Paul's saying, 'This isn't just God's will, this isn't just something God's chosen me to do--this is God's commandment,' and immediately you realize Paul's pulling the authority card, if you will.
"He's pulling out the fact that, 'I'm going to talk to you about some things and when I'm going to give them to you, I'm going to put you under orders. I'm going to be like a commanding officer giving you the commands that you as the troop are to keep.'
I Timothy 1:18: [18] This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
"When he says 'a charge,' that's not like, 'Get your credit card out and let's go shop.' A charge is like, 'I'm going to give you orders. I'm going to command you to do this,' and Paul's going to do that all through these epistles.
I Timothy 2:7: [7] Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
"You see that little parenthesis? When I read that I say, 'Why would he put that in there?' Well, obviously somebody's saying Paul's not an apostle. Somebody's saying, 'No, no, no. He's not who he says he is.' Somebody is contradicting; somebody's trying to deny Paul's authority and that's why he starts out so stoutly asserting it: 'I'm ordained. God set this up, a preacher, a teacher and an apostle.'
Paul starts I Timothy 4:11, 'These things command and teach.' You see, he's telling Timothy what to do and he's not leaving any kind of ambiguity. You can go all through and see Paul saying things like, 'Charge them that are rich in this world,' meaning, 'Put them under orders, Tim.'
" 'Well, how come, Paul, you can boss him around like that?' You need to be the boss, so when he says, 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God,' He's asserting his apostolic authority because it's being contradicted.
"Now, if a local church is going to function properly, the first thing it has to do is know where it gets it's authority from; where it gets its information from.
"Come to Titus 1:1-2: [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;
[2] In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;"That's the issue of how there was a message God had kept secret; He didn't reveal it until He came to the Apostle Paul, and the reason He made Paul an apostle was to make that known, but notice the rest in verse 3: [3] But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
"See, Paul's apostleship didn't come about because he thought about it, or somebody else thought it would be a good idea, or, 'We got an ordination committee up and said we thought we ought to call you to the ministry.' This is literally the commandment of Almighty God. Just as much as when God gave a commandment to Moses to give the nation Israel, He gave that kind of authority and commandment to the Apostle Paul.
Romans 11:13: [13] For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
"Paul said, 'I've got this office and the thing that's important to me is the commission that Christ's given me to do these things.' Paul's the apostle of the Gentiles and that's an important thing to understand.
"In Galatians, his apostleship is again being challenged. In fact, Paul spends the first two chapters in Galatians defending his apostleship.
Galatians 1: [11] But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
[12] For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."He's saying, 'I didn't become an apostle by man's appointment or by man's authority. I got it directly from Jesus Christ based upon the will of God the Father.'
"Notice, it doesn't say the revelation FROM Jesus Christ. It isn't just information Christ gave him, but it's the revelation OF Christ.
"You go back and look at the ministry of Moses in Exodus and Numbers and God stood face to face with Moses. He said, 'I'm going to deal with Moses like nobody else; I'm going to stand face to face with him and give him directly the information that I want the people to know.'
"Paul had a face to face. He came to visions and revelations OF the Lord. Christ appeared to him personally."
(to be continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment