Call - 2

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The conversion of St Paul - Caravaggio

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These studies were complied in the Spring of 2010. Most are full and some are brief

The call of the first disciples - Mark 1:16-20

Mark 1:16-20 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This is a brief and powerful story about the calling of the first disciples. In the previous verses (1:9-14) we read a compelling summary of Jesus’ mission to announce the Kingdom and call people to repent. Jesus now had to chose people to accompany Him in His work. The story of Jesus’ calling of the first disciples is well known, but it demonstrates a significant point about how God works within His world. He wants to work with people, and he does this irrespective of human attitudes towards personality, general suitability and background. The people Jesus chose would not have figured strongly on most people’s list of candidates to begin a spiritual revolution.

Many sermons have been preached on this passage. However, we cannot read these words without recalling that the man who was called first, being Simon (later Peter), was the man who spoke out bravely and boldly only a few years later on the great day of Pentecost. He delivered a stunning sermon (Acts 2) that kick-started the church, and he guided these Christians through their earliest and most formative years. In addition, Simon Peter’s brother Andrew became the man who did more than most to introduce people to Jesus (see John 1:40, 6:8, 12:22), James became a prominent leader of the church, and John became the disciple who was possibly closest to Jesus during His life (John 21:7,20). This story reminds us that all four of them started out as country fishermen. Their lives may have been satisfying and interesting before they met Jesus, but without His call, all of them would have spent the rest of their lives doing the same work and being tied to the same family and social groups from which they came in Galilee. Yet because of Jesus’ call, they were used by God to change the world forever after Jesus died and was raised again. What happened to these four men has fascinated people ever since, and the story of their call to follow Jesus remains one of the most popular stories of the New Testament.

We only have the bare bones of this wonderful story; Mark has cut it right back to the minimum of information, just like the baptism of Jesus (as we find it in 1:9-11). Because of this, there is little we can say with any certainty about these four men, and we know nothing of their past except that they were fishermen. God’s choice can never subject to human scrutiny, especially where a special and unique work of God is at stake. Jesus’ choice of Peter, Andrew, James and John is the New Testament equivalent of God’s choice of Abraham in the Old. Abraham was chosen by God to be the forefather of Israel, though we know nothing about him to distinguish him from anyone else of his day (Genesis 11:31-12:3). It is nevertheless clear that God is precise and specific in His work and His call. We will never know if Jesus ever called others and they said ‘No’, because true history is always the record of what happened, not what might have been.

Note that the story of the calling of the first disciples is swift. Mark tells us that Simon and Andrew ‘left their nets immediately’ (1:18), and that James and John were called ‘straight away’ (1:20). Yesterday, we noticed the speed with which everything happened once Jesus was baptised, and there is no let up in the pace here! The task of saving the world was immediate and urgent. Jesus was not being cruel by asking these men to leave everything immediately; what Jesus wanted of them could not wait. God’s plan of salvation was His urgent response to sin and evil in the world.

Lastly, we should not think that Simon, Andrew, James and John, were simple people, merely driven by God’s Spirit to do what Jesus wanted. Each had individuality and character, and responded because they felt drawn by Jesus’ spiritual power and authority. The whole incident tells us that when God’s authority is met by positive human response, then God can work in power to bring salvation to our world.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

The meaning of, ‘Come, follow me ...’
Discipleship and doing work!
The response of the disciples

Mark 1:16-20 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

If we go deeper into the story, we must look for this spiritual potential in Simon, Andrew, James and John, and in the mission of Jesus who called them. Jesus called the first disciples out of their worldly life and into the spiritual life of the Kingdom of God, but it was not a spiritual life of ideas and thoughts. It was a spiritual life which required the disciples to take the direct action of leaving behind everything of their past so that God could use them to build a new future for the world through His Kingdom.

The meaning of, ‘Come, follow me ...’

At the heart of this simple story is Jesus’ dramatic call of the four fishermen to ‘come and follow me ...’ (1:17). In those days, a Rabbi did not choose his followers, the followers chose the rabbi they wished to follow. So this complete reversal of the world’s values is the first thing we should notice because it signals so much of what is to come in Mark‘s Gospel. Jesus frequently turned human values upside down to demonstrate God’s purposes and the nature of the Kingdom. For example, when Jesus was asked who was greatest in the Kingdom, he took hold of a child (9:33-36) and held him up for all to see!

There is no simple or easy way for us to understand the magnitude of the spiritual power and authority of Jesus in calling the disciples, because what Simon, Andrew, James and John did was complete nonsense from every human point of view. Personally, they abandoned their homes and family; Mark even mentions that James and John left their father with ‘hirelings’, unreliable paid labourers who were normally used to provide cover for family businesses when members of a family were unable to fulfil their usual duties. In a religious sense, the disciples acted rashly, for they had no real knowledge of what Jesus had in store for them, and there is no indication that they knew anything about Jesus’ teaching or even His preaching (see 1:14,15). Lastly, we know little of what went on between Jesus and the disciples; what body language or even what discussion (with the exception of Jesus’ pun about fishing for men 1:17 – see below). We are simply told that they heard the call and followed.

However much we would love to know more about what happened (and Luke’s Gospel does give a bigger possible scenario for what happened – see Luke 5:1-11), Mark’s minimalist story helps us to accept that this is how God calls people. A time for decision comes, and a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ is required; either someone says ‘yes’ and goes Christ’s way to follow Him, or they say ‘no’ and return to their own familiar ways. However much we dress up the call to Christian discipleship today, this stark challenge represents the heart of the matter, as it does in Mark’s story.

Discipleship and doing work!

What we cannot avoid is the fact that Mark describes a basic call to discipleship which is not simply a call to follow Jesus blindly, it is a call to do some work! Jesus said ‘come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ (1:17) There is little choice for those who translate this text into English because this is almost exactly what the Greek words in Mark 1:17 say. It was clearly a pun on the trade of the first disciples; yes, Jesus may have been laughing as he asked them to stop fishing for fish and fish for people with him!

However, there was a serious side to what Jesus said. He spoke to the disciples using the language they knew, the banter of fishermen going about their work, not the theological language of rabbis, Pharisees or scribes. In our own day, some have noted that there are a number of Old Testament prophetic texts which speak about fishermen catching people instead of fish, and they are all somewhat negative. Jeremiah, for example, speaks of the Lord sending fishermen and hunters amongst the people of Israel to catch sinners to make them face the consequences of their sins (Jer 16:16; see also Ez. 29:4, Amos 4:2, Hab1:14-17). It is easy enough for us to understand these prophecies for what they are, and we do not have to attempt to tie them to this passage and what Jesus called the disciples to do in the Kingdom of God using fishermen’s banter. We know from the whole of Mark’s Gospel that Jesus wanted to reach out and catch all people, indeed, all sinners, offering repentance and the forgiveness of sins (1:14,15). However, no hearts or minds could be touched unless those who God called went out and ‘caught’ people’s attention with this amazing ‘good news’. Jesus disciples were called to follow Him not just in the unknown future which lay ahead, but in the practical work of what Jesus was doing at that time, which was ‘catching’ the attention of people to the Gospel, the ‘Good News’ of God..

The response of the disciples

The response of the disciples was decisive, complete and immediate. This threesome would make a good three-point sermon on this passage. When Jesus, in later times, preached to the crowds about letting go of the past and following God’s path for their lives completely and without reservation (see 3:31-34, 8:34-9:1), He did not say this with the example of His own life in mind, but that of the disciples who travelled with Him as well. Their decisive, complete and immediate response assisted the message Jesus preached.

In the Old Testament there is one great example of the call of a disciple, and that is the call of Elisha by Elijah (1 Kings 19:19-21). In that instance, Elijah called Elisha to follow him, but Elisha requested permission to go and say farewell to his family before he returned, immediately, to follow Elijah and eventually (2 Kings 2:13) receive Elijah’s mantle as a prophet. The call of Jesus’ disciples is similar to this, but because Jesus was God’s Son and no mere prophet, the response called for was more immediate, more decisive and more complete.

We cannot sit back and imagine that it was easy for Simon, Andrew, James and John to respond to Jesus in this way, but they were faced with Jesus Christ the Saviour, and their simple and absolute response has spoken to Christians throughout two thousand years. It challenges people who have never accepted the call of Christ to do so, and it challenges those who have always gone to church to ask whether they have truly responded to Christ with the immediate, complete and decisive response which the Lord looks for from His people.

Mark 1:16-20 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

I have sat through discussions within churches over many years in which good and godly people say that they have never had any ‘great light’ experience of faith (as with Paul on the road to Damascus - see Acts 9:1f.), but they justify their beliefs and their church practise based upon the heritage of faith they have received. To a certain extent, I feel I have little to add to such debates and do not always join in. Certainly, Paul’s Damascus Road experience was important for the life of the church, but as far as being a disciple of Christ is concerned, the call of Christ to Simon, Andrew, James and John seems to me to be a far more challenging measure of true faith and discipleship. Whatever our personal experience of coming to faith or growing into it in the life of the church, the challenge of our passage today remains clear and absolute. Am I immediately, completely and decisively committed to Jesus? There are no greys with which to answer this question, and I must either answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

If this passage of Scripture has any value in the life of God’s Church today, then it must surely be to face Christian people with the same call of discipleship again. Whatever gloss we like to put on our churchgoing, our faith, our churchmanship or our preferred style of worship in church, it is only when people answer ‘yes’ to the absolute call of God that the real church of God becomes visible and the Kingdom of God on earth is extended.

Mark 1:16-20 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

Discuss why Jesus chose to call fishermen as his first followers.
Does Jesus commonly ask people to leave everything including family and work, to follow Him today?
Do you believe that it can be harmful to leave everything and start a ‘new life’ with Christ, from the point of view of those left behind?

Personal comments by author

I find it amazing to read this story and think that one quick decision made by these men enabled God to do so much in the world. I wonder whether Jesus called others and they did not respond, and I wonder whether Jesus is always calling people today, but only some respond. The whole business of call and response is a deep mystery that is hard to fathom, and perhaps it is something we should leave with the Lord. We do know one thing, however, which is that Jesus transforms people’s lives for the better. It was true of Peter, Andrew, James and John, and it is true of us now.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

Write down on a sheet of paper what might make you ‘leave everything’ at the behest of someone else. Think about what you have written and how it illustrates your own faith. Offer your thoughts up to God in prayer.
Give thanks to God for the many people who, over the years, have left everything behind to follow Jesus and do His will. Pray that God will bless those who have made this sacrifice today.

Final Prayer

Stay with us, Lord Jesus, through all the dangers and perils of this day. May we have such a firm grasp of You through faith that we do not let you down, and may we demonstrate in all we do how much we love You and give You thanks for what You have done for us. Hold on to us by the power of Your Holy Spirit, we pray; AMEN

The call of Levi - Mark 2:13-22

Mark 2:13-22 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This reading comes towards the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when he was concerned to add to the number of his disciples. The first story is that of the call of Levi (2:14-17), followed by a discussion about fasting (2:18-20), and lastly, a famous saying by Jesus about cloth and wineskins (2:21-22). We mostly hear these discussed separately, as if each was independent of the other. However, I suggest that whilst they all have a distinct message, they are all connected, and there is a good reason for them to follow on from the call of Levi. Put simply, these three tell us something about the nature of Jesus’ work to establish His Kingdom, and the story of the call of Levi introduces the idea that the Kingdom of God is about saving sinners. The discussion of fasting tells us that this work of saving sinners is hard work and whilst Jesus was alive, the work of the Kingdom was more important than fasting. Lastly, sinners are called into a new work of God that is incompatible with the old.

The passage begins with the call of Levi. He is identified as an Israelite (‘son of Alpheus’ – 2:14), and his trade was to gather as much taxes from the populace as possible for the Roman authorities. Israelites regarded this as incompatible with God, and Levi was cut off from the religious life of the community, or as we might say today, he was ‘beyond the pale’. It is therefore entirely scandalous that Jews should see Jesus spending time with such people (2:15). When challenged by the authorities, Jesus spoke one of his most famous ‘sound-bites’, ‘I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’ (2:17).

In saying this, Jesus meant that the Kingdom of God was open to those who were beyond the bounds of the religious system. Moreover, the word ‘sinners’ was used in the same breath as the word ‘Gentiles’. Levi was as good as a Gentile to them and not worthy of the things of God. Now today, when people preach from this text, they generalise the message and refer to sinners as those who are not Christian, preaching that in love God calls even the worst of sinners. However, when we recall the details about who Levi was, then we remember that God is always seeking out those who are beyond the boundaries of human prejudice and presumption, whether religious or cultural.

The second incident describes how people compared the disciples of John and the Pharisees with the disciples of Jesus (2:18-20). Clearly, this discussion must have arisen when religious people were expected to fast, though it is not clear exactly when. The criticism of Jesus’ disciples is that they were doing something else (perhaps ‘eating and drinking with sinners – 2:14-17) when they thought all good people should be fasting. Jesus confronted such attitudes directly. His reply said that saving sinners was more important than traditional religious observance, and in order to make His point, He used the picture of a wedding feast and appropriate practice in the presence of the bridegroom. Clearly, Jesus likened Himself to the bridegroom.

It is not by coincidence that Jesus went on to make His well known comments about the ‘new’ and the ‘old’. His examples of using new cloth to mend old and new wine in old wineskins are obvious to us; the two are incompatible. However, we should be wary about how we interpret this saying. He was of course saying that new and old do not go together, but His meaning here is more specific. He was saying that the new work of God to establish His Kingdom was not compatible with the old Jewish covenant with God.

The general message we can take from all this is that when God calls a sinner to be saved from sin, something new is happening in the Kingdom of God and it has no connection with the Jewish interpretation of the old covenant. Today, we should be rather cautious about suggesting it means that any new work of God’s Spirit today is incompatible with the work of God’s Spirit in our own recent past; this is to be too cavalier with the text. God’s call to everyone is to take part in the new work of His Kingdom, from when He preached it until He comes in glory.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

The calling of Levi, the son of Alpheus
The meal at Levi’s house.
When did people fast and what did it mean?
The new and the old

Mark 2:13-22 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Each part of the passage holds its special interests and intrigues. Who was Levi son of Alpheus? He is not listed as a disciple of Christ! Why were John’s disciples fasting together with those of the Pharisees? This sounds quite strange because John and the Pharisees were not normally found too close to each other. Lastly, if the old and the new are as incompatible as this passage suggests, what connection can the Old Covenant have with the New?

The calling of Levi son of Alpheus.

The big problem with the story in Mark of the call of Levi, son of Alphaeus, is that it is the same as the call of Matthew in Matthew’s Gospel (9:9f.) and the same as the call of Levi (with no mention of his father) in Luke (5:27f.). It would be easy for us to say that this is a simple case of someone having two names and that Matthew and Levi are the same person, but the problem with this is that the name of the father, Alphaeus, is not mentioned in the lists of the disciples except as the father of a different disciple named James (Matt 10:3, Luke 6:15)! In the end, this is a conundrum we cannot solve, except by saying either that ‘Levi’ was a different person than ‘Matthew’, or that ‘Alphaeus’ was a common name for a father in those days, or that someone recorded something wrong somewhere! Indeed, there is some evidence in the very earliest of copies of Mark’s Gospel we now possess (from the fourth century AD) that the name ‘Levi son of Alpheus’ was tampered with on the scroll, but by whom and why, we do not know! Perhaps they had problems with the original text just as we do!

Despite these problems, I prefer to think that Matthew and Levi were indeed the same person, and that if there is a problem it is to do with the name ‘Alphaeus’ and not anything else! These matters are always important for people who want to be sure that every feature of God’s Word is properly understood, but what is more important is the extraordinary story which followed Jesus’ summary call of Levi.

The meal at Levi’s house

Levi responded to Jesus’ call just as quickly as had Simon, Andrew, James and John (1:16-20), but his response was very different. He called all his friends who, like himself, were outcasts from the Jewish faith because of their financial association with the Roman authorities and the puppet king Herod. All these friends would be regarded as ritually unclean by rigorous Jews, and therefore ‘sinners’. The phrase ‘tax-collectors and sinners’ does not describe two categories of people; both words described Levi and his friends. Moreover Jesus was content to ‘recline at table’ with these people (i.e. ‘eat with them’). What is quietly remarkable in the middle of this passage is the brief comment in verse 15 that Jesus ate together with His disciples. The early disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John must have felt able to trust their Master above all their fears and prejudices in order to do this!

The power and authority of Jesus’ reply to the acrid question posed to Him by the Pharisees, ‘why does He eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ is stunning. It is one of the first famous ‘ripostes’ given by Jesus to the Pharisees which put them in their place; ‘Those who are well have no need of a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ The scribes and Pharisees were looking for a Messiah who fulfilled all the Laws including those of cleanliness because in their day, they believed that this was necessary in order to maintain the purity of God’s people at a time of political oppression. They were unable to see that Jesus the Messiah fulfilled God’s prophecies by offering people the opportunity to repent and change their ways, as He had preached from the beginning of His ministry. Jesus’ first sermon was hypocritical if He did not open the door for sinners to repent; moreover, the Pharisees were not able to see that if Jesus was truly the Messiah, then His purity was greater than the ritual impurity of the tax-collectors, and He was not compromised by contact with them. Only good could come from Jesus’ time spent with ‘tax-collectors and sinners’.

When did people fast and what did it mean?

According to the Laws of Moses, Jewish males were only required to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement, but rigorous Pharisees had introduced the practice of fasting twice a week, on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Fasting meant not eating food in the daylight hours of a day from morning until sundown; and a meal was had in the evening. It is not clear, but the implication in this passage is that John’s disciples had taken up the rigorous weekly rules of fasting which the Pharisees advocated. The term ‘the followers of the Pharisees’ in verse 18 is sometimes translated ‘disciples of the Pharisees’ simply because the same Greek word means ‘followers’ and ‘disciples’. However, there are no other references in Jewish writings of Pharisees having ‘disciples’, so it seems that the word used here simply refers to those people who followed the Pharisees’ practice of fasting; in this case, the disciples of John and others.

Mark does not say who came to Jesus to ask the question about why Jesus’ disciples did not fast, but knowing the background to all this, we can imagine that Jesus was not keen on the suggestion. His disciples had been together with Him ‘feasting with sinners’, and those who asked the question did not see the difference between Jesus’ evangelistic work and the religious rituals of the Pharisees. Jesus’ response describes a wedding feast purposefully and brings the subject back to feasting. In effect, He said to the Pharisees, ‘we are now living at the time of God’s banquet for the Messiah, and it is not a time for fasting!’ In its day, this would have been well understood.

What is not so clear is that Jesus spoke about a time when the bridegroom was ‘taken from them’. This would have puzzled those who heard Jesus, but it is likely that Mark intended his readers to see in Jesus’ words a veiled reference to the time when He would go to the Cross and die (2:20). In Mark’s view, this was the only reason for fasting.

The new and the old.

The logic of the two sayings with which this passage finishes is fairly straightforward. It is easy to see that new wine that is still fermenting might burst an old wineskin that has become hardened with age. It takes a little more imagination to see how a patch of new cloth sewn onto an old cloak will shrink when it becomes wet, and possibly tear a worse hole in the old garment than was there in the first place!

The message appears clear enough, when it comes to delivering the ‘new’ things of God, the ‘old’ will not do. At one level, this is exactly what Jesus said and meant because the new message of the Kingdom of God could not, by the evidence of the previous two incidents (2:14-20), live with the old system of Jewish faith. Certainly not now it was radicalised by the party of the Pharisees. The whole of Jesus’ ministry develops around this point, and we will discover that many of the stories of Jesus which come between here and His crucifixion describe the confrontations He had with the Pharisees. In the end, the Pharisees and scribes engineered the accusations against Jesus which resulted in His crucifixion (14:43f.).

But this is not all that these verses say. Read them carefully, for you will see that whilst Jesus talks about new and old not being able to live together, and He is clearly identified with the new, the mini-parables (which is what they are!) do make it clear that it is not right to rip old garments or burst old wineskins! The moral of these texts could well be that there is a place for what is new, and there is a place for what is old, and the old does not have to be torn or burst for the new, even if the two cannot be integrated! It is helpful to read the passage in this way because unless we do, we cannot make sense of Jesus’ heartache for His own people (Matt 23:37f. and Luke 13:34f.). This also helps us keep a perspective on the relationship between the Covenant of the Old Testament and that of the New. The Old is our heritage and must be respected as such, but it is not the same as the Gospel found in the New Testament.

Mark 2:13-22 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

We must not forget that these three stories or ‘incidents’ all follow on from the call of God to sinners. In churches today, there is much preaching designed to call people to repentance, but not much of it is done directly to people who are indeed the worst sinners of our day. Now, all people need to hear this message, but the church has always had evangelists who have gone straight to the worst sinners to tell them the news of God’s love. Wesley went outside the churches of his day to preach in the fields and the market places, and he saw revival; it is not a technique people will respond to today, but the principle was right. We are called today to present the Gospel to those who sin, believing that God is always working in the hearts of men and women to make them ready to hear His call for salvation. If we take the message, then people will be saved, not within church, but outside of it, and they will become the new church of our day and beyond.

There are many discussions about the issue of fasting. Jesus’ comments (2:20) seem to be a throwaway remark, but now that the ‘bridegroom has gone’, and Jesus has ascended to the Father, Christians believe that it is right for them to fast. Traditionally, this has been done on Friday; this is because Friday is the day Jesus died on which the ‘bridegroom’ was ‘taken from us’ for a time, until the resurrection. It may not be a common practice to fast until sundown on Friday’s today, but various forms of Friday fasting have been practised within the church for centuries, and this is worth considering as a memorial of Christ’s death, as indicated in this passage.

The use of the last few verses of our text to justify new things in the life of the church is frequent, but we should be careful. We must not make the mistake of believing automatically that the principle found here applies to anything new we might wish to do. For in this scripture, the issue at stake is not the latest church idea, but the essential difference between the Old Covenant and the New. It is true that the Holy Spirit will frequently work amongst us by sweeping away what has been precious for previous generations so that the Gospel may be preached afresh to others, but Scripture bids us remember that the church of God is always the ‘new wine’. We should not be too quick to condemn what God has used in His church in the past as if it were comparable to the Old Covenant which has been superseded.

Mark 2:13-22 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

Look up the references to Levi son of Alphaeus in your Bible and check out what is said in each Gospel about him. Why do you think these are different?
How do we follow Jesus’ example to eat with ‘tax collectors and sinners’?
Discuss how we can apply the last two verses of this passage to the life of the church today.

Topics covered by this text

The call of sinners
The practice of fasting
The new work of God and what this means

Personal comments by author

There is much that is apparently ‘evangelical’ in this passage of scripture. Jesus’ venture to preach to sinners, His call to be recognised as the ‘Bridegroom’, that is, the Messiah, and the clear urgency of working with the ‘new wine’ of the Gospel. It would be sad if we thought of these texts as merely illustrative of one church ‘group’ however. This whole passage is about Jesus’ authority, and eventually, we must all decide whether we accept what He has to say or not. All His people are called to hear what He has to say and act accordingly.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

Consider taking one evangelical feature of this passage and using it to ask your church (through its leaders and meetings) how it is engaging in the mission of the church today. Be prepared to discuss this issue and use Scripture to back up what you say!
Pray for all who have the responsibility of making decisions on behalf of local churches, its leaders, elders and ministers. Pray that they will have the wisdom to make good decisions for the sake of all.

Final Prayer

Lead me, Lord Jesus, through the days ahead. When I do not know what to do, guide me by a word; when I do not know where to go, guide me by your hand; when I do not know what to say, speak tenderly to me I pray. Lead me, Lord Jesus, for alone You are my guide. AMEN

Jesus calls the Twelve - Matthew 10:5-15

Matthew 10:5-15 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

The first phase of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee drew to a close after a hectic round of teaching, healing and performing miracles (Matthew 8-9). The labourers were few (9:38) but it was now time for Jesus to work with the small band of disciples He had called (10:1-4) and hand His mission over to them. Our reading today tells us that Jesus called the disciples to go and do the things that they had seen Him do. The instructions Jesus gave are clearly important, because they are found in other Gospels (Mark 6:8-11, Luke 9:2-5 and 10:3-12), and each Gospel gives them different emphases. Here, Matthew emphasises preaching the Kingdom of God (10:7) and the ministry of miracles and healing (10:8), and the disciples clearly needed to know more.

Firstly, it is worth noting that Jesus sent His disciples to work in places where His authority was already respected. It was not yet time for the disciples to go out into the whole world (28:19f.), so their ministry was limited to Jewish regions of Galilee. Also, by requiring the disciples to do what He had already done (10:7,8), they would never be able to claim credit for their work; they could only act in faith, and give glory to Jesus. Then, by following Him, they would lay the foundations for the mission of the early church. As he wrote, Matthew clearly had this in mind.

Jesus gave the disciples a clear ‘commission’ (10:5), and followed this by further instructions about what to do, what to take, and where to stay; it was all very basic, yet also essential. All the instructions Jesus gave reflect a sense of urgency, and this is one reason why we tend to find them difficult today. Where we think of taking out time to establish the right starting points for ministry, Jesus told the disciples to go with the minimum of fuss and the minimum of preparation. No opportunity was to be lost by delay.

To begin with, Jesus summarised the mission with these words; ‘preach the good news that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers,cast out demons.’ (10:7,8). After this, he told the disciples to carry the bare minimum of personal necessities, ‘Do not take gold, silver, or copper in your belts, no food-bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the labourer is worth his keep’ (10:9,10). We will look at the reason why Jesus may have said this later in the study, but here, we should bear in mind the way Jesus qualified both these commands. In between these two, Jesus said something important that linked them together: ‘You received without paying; give, therefore, without charge’. The Kingdom of God comes free and with no charge. This oft forgotten command of Jesus challenges all His followers, for although he does not forbid the proper organisation and financial management of the church, like the NHS in the UK, what is offered must be free at the point of delivery!

The last part of our reading is about hospitality. If the disciples were called to work for free, then they would have to be welcomed and supported by others who opened their homes to them. Jesus does not say who these others might be, but He must have meant other sympathetic Jews in the region to which they were sent. The principle is straightforward; the missioner should only stay where there is a true welcome and therefore a hope of being accepted and heard. In ancient times, the nature of the offer of hospitality indicated whether the hosts were open to anything a stranger might bring or say. So here, Jesus effectively warns his disciples not to try and preach the Gospel and demonstrate it where people are unwilling to receive it.

It takes a little care to translate these instructions into a relevant code of practice for Christians and missioners today, but the effort can and should be made. Jesus would one day say more to the disciples about what he wanted of them, but they had to start by doing His will, and copying Him.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

The commission – where to go
The commission – what to do
The commission – what to take
The commission – where to stay

Matthew 10:5-15 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The Commission – where to go

Jesus gave the disciples clear instructions, using a word (‘commission’ – see verse 5) that was used for giving instruction to pupils, for a military command during warfare, or for a King issuing a decree. All three illustrate what Jesus wanted done to extend the work of the ‘harvest’, and the first thing Jesus decreed was ‘where to go’. This is a little surprising, because no other Gospel writers include this. Jesus limits this first mission to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (10:6 – see also 9:36), with guidance that the disciples should not disperse themselves amongst the Gentiles or Samaritans. In some Bible version, it says ‘do not go’ (10:5), but I have translated ‘not not disperse yourselves’ because this is true of the Greek, and it conveys Matthew’s concern that this first mission could be too diverse. Limited aims were best to start with, even though the salvation of the whole world was at stake.

Matthew knew that it was the risen Christ who gave instructions to ‘go into all the world’ (28:19), and after the creation of the early church, this became the characteristic message of the apostle Paul. He preached the message of God’s love for all to the Gentiles, as found in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. The time for this was yet to come, but in Jesus’ working life, before the crucifixion, He focussed primary, but not exclusively on His own people, the Jews.

Jesus banned the disciples from going to the Samaritans as well. This may have been because at that time, Jesus trusted Himself alone for such a mission (which we find in John chapter 4, for example). The Samaritans were people who lived in the central parts of what is now Israel and Palestine. They were descended from those who settled in that region after the Assyrian invasion of Israel in 721BC and after the Babylonian invasion of 587BC. Many Jews of the traditional tribes of Israel intermarried with the peoples of this region to create the ‘Samaritan’ people, and they developed their own beliefs and worship of God over the centuries. Pure Jews separated themselves from the Samaritans, so that by the time of Jesus, Jews and Samaritan were quite distinct. They would one day be included in the full Gospel, but not yet.

The Commission – what to do

Interestingly, the disciples were not to go somewhere, settle themselves in, and then embark upon their mission. They simply had to follow what they had seen Jesus do, and His instructions laid out the bare bones of their call in memorable terms. They would undoubtedly come across those who were ill (literally ‘weak’ 10:8), and who needed to be healed. They would also come across lepers, and whilst they would have avoided them in the past, now they had to heal them as well.

The other two features of the call were more difficult, unless, that is, the disciples had complete faith and trust in Jesus. The first of these was to ‘raise the dead’. Some describe this as an allegory of ‘spiritual awakening’, but this does not do justice to Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus had already raised a little girl from the dead (9:24,25), and this was the example they had to follow. The disciples were not told to go and open up graves, but to deal with family distress at the untimely death of loved ones, particularly children, who in those days, died in far larger numbers than today. Such a ministry would have been deeply spiritual, and seen in its day as a sign of the Kingdom. The disciples may not have appreciated the full meaning of this, because they had not yet been told by Jesus that He would die and rise again, but nevertheless, it was important fpr Jesus’ ministry.

Lastly, Jesus called his disciples to cast out of demons. Clearly, the disciples had Jesus’ example of dealing with demons ‘with a word’ of authority, both troublesome demons such as the Gadarene demoniacs (8:28f.) and those that caused disease such as the mute man (9:32f.). It made sense to cast out demons, because they had no place in the coming Kingdom of God as preached by the disciples. Evil of any form was not the stuff of the Kingdom of God. The demon’s power, however, had been expressed in holding individuals bondage so that they could not express themselves normally, or in binding a person to chronic illness through no fault of their own (the mute man, 9:32f.). Demons prevented people from responding to the call of God, and this was why demons had to be cast out.

The Commission – what to take

The next part of the Commission begins in the second half of verse 8. Much of Jesus’ instructions about what the disciples should take with them was typical of the practice of travelling rabbis of the day, though many of these rules were not enforced. There are a number of places in the Jewish ‘rule books’, the Talmud and Midrash, which give remarkably similar rules for rabbis and teachers. What Jesus did was to re-assert a strict interpretation of this guidance. He did this because the disciples did not have time for possessions due to the urgency of their work. In later generations, rules like this were not always kept, and many itinerant preachers of the Early Church demanded to be paid for their work, draining the young church of its ability to do essential charitable work. Matthew would have been keen to point out the difference in Jesus’ teaching between wages (payment for work) and provision for need. The Church was to be responsible for adequate provision of need, but not wages.

A sense of urgency is created by the Spartan image of taking nothing other than the barest of essentials, but this forced the disciples to learn to live by the principles of the Sermon on the Mount ‘do not worry … about what you will eat or drink …’ (6:25ff). In the details of these rules there is some discrepancy between Matthew and Mark here. Mark says that the disciples could take a staff Mark (6:8), whereas Matthew appears to say that a staff should not be taken (10:10). However, this may be to take the passage more literally than necessary, because if you read from verse 8b, the principle stated by Matthew is more like ‘take what you have, don’t try and obtain extra’, and this should be the guiding rule. It is possible that the ‘two’ of ‘two tunics’ could also refer to sandals and staff as well; in other words, don’t take two (of) tunics, sandals or staff, meaning, effectively, don’t take extra. Understood in this way, there is no confusion with Mark, and I do not think it likely that Matthew intended the disciples to walk barefoot and without any means of support on rocky roads.

Jesus asked that His missioners should not be encumbered either by having to acquire things (or money) before they went, and they should not be burdened by having more than was necessary. This, too, is a lesson for our materialistic world.

The commission – where to stay

The last five verses of our passage talk about where the disciples were to stay. If they were not to worry about earthly provisions, this had to come from somewhere, and it was to come from ‘hospitality’. In Jesus’ day, this was a sacred duty to people of the Middle East, as it is today. However, Jesus suggested a test for the nature of the hospitality, and this was a test of ‘worthiness’. Notice that the word ‘worthy’ occurs in one or other form, three times in these verses. Worthiness is a combination of trust, openness and honesty, and although it is vitally important in human relationships, there is no way of recognising it on the spur of the moment, so Jesus suggested a test based upon ‘peace’. He did not use here the Greek equivalent of the famous word ‘shalom’, a greeting of ‘peace’ frequently used in Israel, but a word that simply meant lack of discord or strife. Basically, if the missioner and what he was doing was accepted without discord, then that was a good sign of its worthiness.

There would only be one chance to hear the good news and accept the Kingdom, such was the urgency of the task. If a place of hospitality rejected God’s message, then the disciples were to ‘shake the dust from their feet’ (10:14), a telling illustration of how, in the end, evil can have nothing to do with good. At the harvest (9:9:37), the separation would be final, and the labourers had work to do. This expression is powerful and should be used with great caution; I find it sad when people use it to express personal differences or relationship break-up. It is about evil and good, not personal opinion, however well founded, and must be rooted in the gospel.

The final picture of rejection of the gospel is that of Sodom and Gomorrah. These cities had broken God’s laws of hospitality (Genesis 19:24ff) by abusing Lot and his family, and reaped the reward of a terrible judgement; this Biblical image of judgement served to illustrate the magnitude of the mission task, and its importance in the eyes of God.

Matthew 10:5-15 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

A significant number of issues within this passage have major implications for mission today, but it can be hard to make good connections between what Jesus said and our situation today. We should at least be careful to note the difference between what Jesus required of His disciples here before He died and rose again, and what He asked of them after He died (28:19f.).

Surely, though, we cannot be the church of God today and ignore this call to preach, teach and demonstrate the Gospel. We will do some things differently today because we live in different times, but the essentials remain. I find it amazing to find churches that have questionnaires about what people think the church should be doing. It is a pointless exercise! Jesus has given the church its marching orders and much of it is clear. We have to interpret these instructions and work out how we can call people to repentance, teach people about God, care for people’s needs and confront the demons within our world and cast them out. Although people will come up with many other things they think make up the essence of being the church, you will find that the Gospel adds few that do not fit within the short list of this passage. I have come to the simple conclusion therefore that this is what the church should be doing.

One particular issue is important. There is a lively debate in the church about whether people should ‘go out’ in twos, or singly, and whether they should operate in any form of ministry by themselves. Here in Matthew, the matter of going in twos is not mentioned. It is mentioned however, in the Gospel of Mark (6:7) and in Luke’s commission of the ‘seventy’ (Luke 9:1-6). The fact of the matter is that Scripture is not unified in its advice about this practice. The best way to resolve the issue is to regard going in twos as good practice, where appropriate, but allow that it is unwise to follow this rule too slavishly. History has plenty of examples of missionaries who have gone out singly and done great works for the Lord (for example, William Carey in India, 1761-1834).

In every age good Christian folk have sought to model their work for the Lord on this and the other similar passages in the New Testament. As we find ways of drawing closer to its ideals, we draw closer to our Lord, and some of the most significant ministries that have every happened in the life of the church have exhibited many of the features of this passage interpreted within their own culture and times. The challenge is no less today.

Matthew 10:5-15 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

How do we preach the Gospel today, and how do we reflect these rules in what we do?
There are many sick people around us all the time. Does Jesus want us to heal them all? How do we decide our priorities for ministry given that we cannot do everything?
Discuss the value of ‘going in twos’, when sent by the church to preach the Gospel and witness to Jesus.

Topics covered by this text

The agenda of mission
Christ’s commission to preach, teach, heal and deliver
Christ’s instructions about receiving hospitality
Christ’s instructions about possessions for one on ‘mission’

Personal comments by author

This is a very challenging passage of Scripture, and I have struggled with it myself over the years. What troubles me is this. Some people are very dogmatic about what is said here, yet feel no obligation to obey Jesus’ other commandments to ‘love’ others, for example! We cannot pick and choose what we obey about Christ’s commands! We must try to read these passages carefully in order to be clear with ourselves, let alone other people, about what the Lord requires of us. The worst examples are set by those who demand that others live by such spartan rules, and yet live themselves in relative luxury. I see too much of this in the church, and it is a very bad witness, and one that brings condemnation and judgement on the church.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

Imagine you are required to preach, to teach, heal the sick and cast out demons and yet live like a pauper, relying on other people’s generosity! Can you imagine circumstances like this, and what you would feel like? I ask you to do this because the Lord calls more of His people to live like this in our day than we know. How many respond?
Pray for those people who have given their lives to minister in Jesus’ name and spend their entire lives in the service of Almighty God.

Final Prayer

Dear Jesus, may we speak to You honestly and listen to You carefully, so that we may learn to distinguish Your voice from the clamour of everything around us. We long to learn more of Your will and be obedient throughout our lives, and demonstrate in this way the abiding faith we have in You; AMEN

The call of Paul - Ephesians 3:7-13

Ephesians 3:7-13 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

We are used to reading about the story of Paul’s ‘conversion’ on the road to Damascus. However, when speaking about his ‘call’, Paul does not always refer to this. He certainly spoke about it when making his defence against the Jewish and Roman authorities (Acts 22:3f. 26:12f.), but in his letters (here and in Galatians 1:13f.), he spoke forthrightly about his call to preach. It is clear that by the time he was evangelising around the Roman Empire, Paul felt that he had been called by God with this one thing in mind; to take the Gospel out of Judaism and to convert the Gentiles.

In this passage, Paul boldly describes his call to preach and gives an expansive summary of the Gospel. He speaks movingly of his call ‘by the gift of God’s grace’ (3:7) before offering a universal perspective on the Gospel. The passage is full of expressive terms, such as ‘the limitless riches of Christ’ (3:8), and ‘the vast extent of God’s wisdom’ (3:10), which challenge us to appreciate that the power of the Gospel is far greater than we imagine. Indeed, the passage give us a glimpse into the vast plan of God in Jesus Christ to save the world, and use the church to do this work (3:10).

Our passage is dominated by the contrast between Paul’s humility and the glorious nature of the Gospel. To begin with, Paul confesses he is a ‘servant’ of the Gospel (3:7), ‘the very least of the saints’ (3:8). Some accuse Paul of too grandiose a sense of his own importance due to the forthright dogmatic instructions found in his letters; but this is a hard judgement, and Paul frequently speaks of his lowly status before God (see 1 Cor. 15:9 and 1 Tim 1:15). Paul always justifies what he says and says he is only passing on what has been revealed to him (3:7f.). However, the Gospel God had given him to preach was immense, and it is extraordinary that God should give this task to a man who had at first opposed the Gospel so strongly (see Acts 9:1f.), but that is the nature of God’s grace. God transforms His enemies into His advocates!

When Paul began to preach, there was much at stake. He had to bring to the world God’s only plan to save the world and give people the opportunity to have peace with God, and this passage captures the magnitude of this. Paul speaks about a ‘mystery’, hidden ‘in God’ since the beginning of creation (3:9), so the salvation offered to us in Christ is no accident of history. Salvation is intended by God, and this means that the preacher must tell people, as Paul does here, that God is already reaching out them before they respond. Today, some use the phrase ‘I have found Christ’, when the truth is that through Christ God has always been reaching out for us with His ‘limitless riches’ (see 3:8).

More than this, the Gospel tells the whole world (3:10), that God means business. Here, in a surprising way not found elsewhere in his writing, Paul says expressly that God uses the church to make this pronouncement. Even in his famous letter to the Romans, where Paul speaks eloquently about the importance of preaching the Gospel, (Romans 10:14), he does not mention the church. But here, Paul places the community of God’s people at the centre of the action. The church is to make known ‘the eternal plan He has carried out in Christ Jesus’ (3:11). Paul even describes the great themes of ‘assurance’ and ‘access to God’ (3:12) as treasures held by all God’s people, not just individuals.

Scripture constantly appeal to us to find more in God’s Word and explore the ‘vast extent of God’s wisdom’ (3:10). Paul preached these themes many times, but he wrote them down so that we might be challenged by the grace of God and by the Gospel to which he was called. The importance of Paul’s call to preach the Gospel cannot be underestimated and should not be demeaned, because God used him in a significant way to make the Gospel available to us, two thousand years later.

Going Deeper

The Bible study continues a further look at the following subjects:

A comparison between this passage and 1 Corinthians 15:9
Wisdom, Creation, God’s mystery and plan
The role of the church in God’s plan
Paul’s appeal to the Ephesians in verse 13

Ephesians 3:7-13 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

A comparison between this passage and 1 Corinthians 15:9 (and 1 Tim 1:15)

At the beginning of this passage, Paul describes being a ‘servant of this Gospel’ (3:7) and ‘the very least of all the saints’ (3:8). What he says here is similar to what is found in two other letters, and these are quoted below:

Last of all he appeared also to me, as to one of untimely birth. For I am the least of the apostles, one who is not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But I am what I am by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1 Timothy 1:15)

It is important to look at these two texts because they indicate that Paul was inclined to make comments about his own sense of worthlessness from time to time (you can find other examples in other letters). Though he did this because he undoubtedly felt the pain of one who had been a former persecutor, he also knew that this personal testimony had a purpose. It enabled him to appeal to almost anyone to receive the Gospel, for if he could receive it as a fierce opponent of Jesus, then anyone could. Saying this also enabled Paul to appeal to his readers not to elevate him too highly. There are comments in Peter’s second letter, even in the early days of the church, that the writings of Paul were regarded as God’s Word (2 Peter 3:15,16). It was therefore essential for Paul to show that he was no more or less of a saint than anyone else.

There is one other important reason for looking at this confession of Paul. Literary analysts have examined the manner in which Paul describes himself as ‘a servant of the Gospel’, and they say that it is not as self deprecating as similar examples in other letters. This has been taken as evidence that Paul did not write the letter to the Ephesians. This is an important point of issue in the scholarly world, and I would suggest that the many different comments Paul makes about himself in his letters shows simply that he spoke about himself according to the train of thought in each letter. To draw such a conclusion is rather presumptuous.

Wisdom, Creation, God’s mystery and plan

As Paul began to describe the full extent of the Gospel in verses 9, 10 and 11, he used all these four words as an Old Testament scholar who knew Scriptures well. ‘Wisdom’ was a property of God, present at Creation (according to Proverbs 8:22-31), describing the vast knowledge of God in governing all history and all human activity and interaction. This is why the book of Proverbs embraces the entire range of human understanding of the world, and of family and social relationships. The logic of the book of Wisdom is simple, God has made everything that exists, so we must go to Him to understand both the world in which we live and also how we relate to it individually and how we relate to each other. We also gain knowledge about ourselves by accessing the wisdom of God.

I write about this because wisdom is not spoken of much today, but it is an important aspect of God’s nature and His salvation plan. Here in this passage, Paul speaks of the salvation plan of God as a revelation of God’s mysterious wisdom in all its ‘vast extent’ (3:10); it was hidden in Old Testament times and has now been revealed in Christ. Because of this, Paul describes God’s plan of salvation as universal; he says that God created ‘all things’ (3:9), and he talks about salvation as the ‘limitless riches of Christ’ (3:8). Salvation starts in the heart of God at Creation, and it is now the responsibility of God’s people on earth to proclaim it universally.

It is therefore a great tragedy that Christians are divided about what this all means today. A significant number of Christians believe that God’s plan of salvation is only relevant to those He has pre-determined and already chosen to be saved. The idea is derived from two New Testament texts that speak about God ‘choosing beforehand’ those who will do His will (Romans 8:29,30 and Ephesians 1:5,11). These two texts speak exclusively about the Christians of the early church who pioneered the faith of Jesus Christ and took it into the world, and it is very sad that they have been used to suggest that God in Christ has only died to save certain people, and not others. This text and many others throughout the Bible, make it clear that God’s plan of salvation is universal and available to all. The fact that some do not accept God’s offer is a tragedy, and scripture does not say that everyone will be saved; nevertheless, the offer of salvation is open to all. This is what is meant by the ‘limitless riches of Christ’ (3:8)

The role of the church in God’s plan

In the New Testament, there are many places where the church is mentioned, meaning the gathered people of God who have responded to Christ by faith. The word is used mostly in an incidental way, where Paul, for example, greets the ‘church at Corinth’ (1 Cor. 1:2). There are not many scriptures that speak about the church in depth, what it is, or how it should function. One exception is 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, which define the church as the ‘body of Christ’ and comment on some practices of church worship. This text is another exception, because here, Paul describes the church as being responsible for proclaiming this message of salvation not just to other people on earth, but to ‘the authorities in the heavenly world’ (3:10), and ‘according to the plan He has carried out in Christ Jesus’ (3:11).

What does this mean? We are used to the idea that the church should be involved in proclaiming the Gospel by word and deed, worshipping God and serving others, but Paul speaks here of what appears to be a spiritual rather than an earthly task. When Paul wrote this letter, the ‘rulers and authorities of this world’ were commonly thought to be the powers that ruled what happened on earth through empires, nations and governments. Paul and the early Christians would not accept that the heavens contained any other ‘gods’ (as other people of their day believed), they only believed that there were other rulers and authorities, some of which were evil and demonic, and these affected what happened on earth. It is easy to turn up our noses at such ideas, but we should be careful. It is all too evident that evil exists even today, when nations, organisations and individuals seem so capable of evils such as genocide or monstrous fraud affecting the life of everyone on the planet, and more.

The simple consequence of this text is this. We must accept that although the church has a clear obligation to announce the Gospel on earth, it must also do heavenly battle in the name of the Gospel against evil. We must fight against powers of darkness that affect our world in whatever way we chose to define them or speak about them.

Paul’s appeal to the Ephesians in verse 13

At the very end of our passage, Paul asks his readers ‘not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you ...’ (3:13). What does this mean? We know from other letters of Paul that he endure great suffering whilst travelling around the Roman Empire on his various missions (see 2 Cor 6:4f. and chapter 11), and Paul was also in prison when he wrote this letter (3:1, 4:1). Paul did not advocate seeking pain suffering or difficulty, but he did accept the teaching of Christ that His disciples would suffer for the Kingdom (Matthew 5:11f. etc.). For him, the endurance of suffering was evidence of the glory of God at work in the world!

Yet still, many Christians fall when the subject of suffering comes up. Some believe that with faith, suffering will cease because the work of Christ heals the soul and brings peace; but the truth is that Christ does indeed heal the soul and bring peace but this does not stop anyone suffering in this world. Some preach a Gospel of prosperity, which says that if you do what God requires, He will give you blessings on earth; but the truth is that the Gospel promises eternal blessings and God’s help to deal with this life.

None of us can escape the reality of life, and suffering is a part of it. When we suffer for our faith, then like Paul, we should encourage each other because this suffering is a sharing in Christ’s glory.

Ephesians 3:7-13 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

This passage of scripture contains a great many treasures. For example, the idea of being a servant of the Gospel (found in verse 7) is important, because the Greek word for ‘servant’ also means ‘minister’. With this in mind, our passage identifies the preaching of the Gospel, however it is done, as the primary task of one who would be a ‘minister of the Gospel’. Then, towards the end of our passage, verse 12 speaks about the ‘assurance’ we may have that we are saved (sometimes translated ‘boldness’). Today, when challenged, many Christians have considerable doubts about aspects of faith, and some will quickly slip away from the church if things do not work out as they would like, or suffering comes. If the church fosters such faith then it fails in its task, for true faith is faith with assurance. We do not come to Christ to get spiritual help for a good life, we come to Christ to be saved for all eternity, and by His grace, God grants that we may know this with certainty. When this happens, we surely know it!

This passage of scripture therefore challenges God’s people to hold on to and preach a full Gospel with a universal message of God’s grace. It also tells us to make this Gospel effective not just on earth, but in the heavens. How do we do this? To a certain extent, what we do on earth has eternal and heavenly consequences, but I believe that here, Paul means more than this. He expects us to battle prayerfully and practically against the evils of our day that dominate the lives of people throughout the world, whatever their origin, perhaps form politics, war or the problems of our planetary environment.

We should never lose sight of the one great theme of this passage, however, which is the greatness of God’s grace both in saving us and in using us to proclaim His Kingdom both on earth and in heaven. We offer the whole of our lives in response to this grace of Christ.

Ephesians 3:7-13 (get text) Study links: / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

Discuss how people become preachers of the Gospel today, and whether those who preach in our pulpits do indeed preach the Gospel.
What does the eternal plan of God’s salvation mean to you? Is it possible for any one of us to grasp the full extent of God’s plan?
What is ‘assurance’, and how do we find it if we are uncertain and lack confidence in our faith?

Topics covered by this text

The preaching of the Gospel by His servants
God’s eternal plan of salvation
The heavenly responsibilities of the church

Personal comments by author

When I read this passage, I felt almost overwhelmed at the range of subjects it contains. Yet, as with so many passages of scripture, it is wise to try and take a broad look at the text in order to gain its perspective. In doing this, I came across the unexpected subject of the responsibility of the church to witness in ‘heavenly places’. It is not commented upon in any of the commentaries I have read, but it is surely an important part of what Paul says here.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

Pray, and explore the idea of the church’s responsibility to declare the Gospel ‘in heavenly world’ (3:10). How can anyone be effective in such witness and testimony?
Go through the text and write down the different theme of faith you can find within it. Pray about each one and consider how they affect you and how you live your life.

Final Prayer

All glory to You, God of all joy and happiness. Bless us today in the good things of life, and help us overcome the problems of suffering and be confident in Your love. May we radiate the happiness of those who are at peace with themselves and with You, and may we declare with every part of our being that You are the One who ‘makes the difference’ to our lives! AMEN