1:1 "Paul." What a great man Saul of Tarsus had now become.
His greatness was not measurable in worldly terms because he was now a prisoner. He was shackled to a Roman guard for most of the time. Some even tell us that he was often standing in 18 inches of water.
One thing is for sure: He was not in a physically comfortable condition.
GREATNESS MEASURED BY GOD’S CRITERION
No. Paul’s greatness has to be measured in what he had achieved for God. Churches throughout much of the known world had been established through his ministry. Thousands of people were now lovers of God directly or indirectly through him. We are even told that during Paul’s lifetime the church at Ephesus had reached 100,000 people.
Also, Paul had begun to minister through the epistles he was writing. Thus, his ministry would continue long after his own demise, right into eternity. By this stage of his ministry Paul could have begun to complain a great deal. He could have had a rare old pity party. He had done so much for the Lord, and now he was to suffer these further indignities. But there is no complaint from Paul. He is the one who had said, "The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared…"
"An apostle."
Apostle means "sent one." Paul was told at the beginning of his ministry that he would do many things. He was also told that he would suffer for the Kingdom’s sake. However, Paul kept the faith. He kept on going when the way was the roughest possible. When this man says something you can be sure of two things. One of them is theological. The other is emotional. Theologically we can be sure that his writings are the word of God because all scriptures are. Emotionally we can be sure that Paul earned the right to say the things he said.
When Paul speaks I want to listen, because he paid a price. He paid a high price.
EARNING THE RIGHT TO SAY WHAT YOU SAY
When you listen to some ministers you have a sneaking suspicion that they have not earned the right to say what they want. They are telling you to pray, but they don’t pray. They are telling you to work harder, but they are lazy. Perhaps they demand that you study the Word more, when you know more than they do.
Sometimes young men will talk boldly, even brashly about the way they have used their faith. Others will tell you how successful their marriage is, when it is only a few months old. (I will never forget Michael Jackson telling Lisa-Marie how much he loved her. As they stood on the stage he kissed her and said, "They said it wouldn’t last." A few weeks later, after seventeen months of marriage, they were arranging their divorce.)
HUMILITY NEEDED
If you haven’t earned the right to say something it doesn’t mean that you should not say it. What it means is that you should say it in such a way that it does not wreak of arrogance. A touch of humility could not possibly be a bad thing.
Many think of Paul as being alone all the time. This is not true. Paul always travelled with a team. There are 24 named people who travelled with him. But, the apostle at this time is probably hungry for Christian fellowship. We can see this because there is no list of others whom he mentions at the end of the letter.
"…of Jesus Christ."
Not of a church. Not of a denomination. Sometimes it is necessary for us to get ordination papers from a group for legal reasons. Other times we join a particular movement because it is beneficial in other ways. This need not be a problem. But, it soon becomes one. It is so easy to be caught unawares. The group starts to bind us up with various man-made rules and regulations. To remain in that group you have to do everything they say. You must remain loyal to your denomination to the detriment of others. This is not good!
Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. He would be unswervingly loyal to Him.
To be like Paul you will offend some people. And some of those you offend will have been your friends. There have been a number of times I have befriended a fellow minister. Because of it, others have warned me off. On many occasions it is simple jealousy. In other words it is gross evility. There are not many worse things than assassinating another’s character. You have no right to do it. You may even think you are right. But, you have no right!
To be a follower of Jesus Christ will not make you popular with everybody. Sadly, some of your fiercest critics may even be other believers. This happened to Paul. It even happened to Jesus.
"…by the will of God."
This can be a stumbling block to so many people. They are in the ministry "by the will of the deacons."
Others are in the ministry "by the will of the governing body of such a denomination."
Still others are in the work of the Lord "by the will of self."
Others can be there "by the will of my wife."
And then you have even worse things. There are those who could write to their friends one of the following:
"Fred, never will be an apostle of Jesus Christ, because it was not the will of my parents."
"Joe, no longer a pastor of Jesus Christ, because it was not the will of the church board."
"Sue, not available to be a minister of Jesus Christ, because it’s against the will (rules) of the First-bore church of Dry as Dust Theology."
"Jane, would have been a minister of Jesus Christ, but refused to wear my hat."
Now, we do need the recognition of God’s call on our lives. However, who is doing the judging.
I remember when I was in a denomination. I would have to visit a church for an interview before becoming the pastor. The church board would sit in judgement on me. Among them were men whose marriages were failing. Some of them were fathers of children whose lives were a total mess. Others were having an affair. Some were not tithers. Some were greedy, power crazed hoodlums and they were barely born-again. They were thugs at home, and not much different in church. Some could not speak in tongues but they had a bit of money. There were those who never prayed. Others had no idea that there even was a book of Habakkuk. There were yet others who told me proudly that they never read books or listened to tapes.
In the New Testament to be a deacon you had to be filled with the Holy Spirit and faith! That is the kind of man or woman I want to sit in judgement on me. They have earned the right to criticise me.
"…to the saints."
THE WRONG KIND OF SAINT
In the Roman Catholic church there is one very necessary thing you need to do before you can become a saint. You need to be dead. It is preferable for you to have been dead a long time. Then, a committee will recommend that you become "Blessed." Then when you have been blessed for a while you become a saint. So, Paul was writing to a lot of dead people? I don’t think so.
THE TRUE SAINT
To be a saint in the church of Jesus Christ there is one very necessary thing you need to do. You need to be alive. Alive in Christ. When you are alive in Christ, even in a matter of seconds you become blessed. And as soon as you become blessed you become a saint.
Paul was writing to living people. He was even writing to you!
There was nothing you needed to do to become a saint, except for being born-again. If you are born-again you are a saint. Man may not recognise it, but God does. He has sanctified (saintified) you.
"…and to the faithful."
There may not be anything more you need to do to become a saint. However, there is much you can do to be faithful. To be faithful means to agree with God. This agreement is in both word and deed. It is certainly not just mental assent. It means that we act upon what God has said.
Faithful also means to be full of faith. Each of us was dealt the measure of faith when we were first converted (Romans 12:3). Now, we have the responsibility to ourselves to build our faith. We do this by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). There are times when we think that to be faithful means to be consistent. That may be part of it, but if we are consistently wrong then we have a problem. It is like the man whom I congratulated for being regular in his church. I said to him, "You are so faithful. You are in all the meetings." He replied, "Yes. I know. I am scared to death of what the Pastor would do to me if I didn’t come!" I then had to tell him that he wasn’t faithful at all. He was fearful.
"…faithful in Christ Jesus."
We are really only faithful when we are IN Christ Jesus. "IN" is a key word here. Paul says it again and again. Look through the verse chapter and see how many times he says, "in."
To be "in Christ Jesus" in the fullest sense of the term means we will be faithful. Positionally all believers are in Christ. However, we need to ask, are we emotionally, or morally in Christ Jesus. What is our motive in life? Why do we pray? Are we about the Lord’s work for His sake? Or, are we about His business for our sake? Our motivation should be the Kingdom of God first (Matthew 6:33). We talk about Jesus being the Alpha and the Omega. Well, of course He should be first and last. However, He should also be every letter in between. If Jesus is left out of the middle we will have all sorts of problems. Many of us begin something well, but we fail to finish.
So many of us have forgotten why we began in the ministry. We begin to compromise. We begin to fail. We begin to sin. When it all goes wrong we bring Jesus back into the equation as the Omega. He has to bail us out of our self inflicted problems. If we had invited Him along for the entire ride things would not have become so bad. Even better, if He had been the one doing the inviting very little could have gone wrong.
"Grace to you," Grace is God’s power.
God’s power is for us so that we can do the things which He tells us to do. He tells us to get saved. He provides the power needed for our salvation. We should be witnesses. He empowers us to do it. We are to be healed. It is His power that brings healing. The word says, "Pray without ceasing." We are given the power gift of tongues so we can keep His word. Prosperity belongs to us. However, it is only by His power that we can keep the principles by which we gain it.
"…and peace,"
We have peace with God. We also have the peace of God. Here, Paul is giving us the peace of God. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it should also be the fruit of the recreated human spirit. If our spirit has now been infused with the life of the Holy Spirit we will have His peace. This is not a manufactured peace. It is not a false peace. It is not smiling through when you have a big problem. It is genuine. It means that when you close yourself in with the Lord you begin to enjoy His peace.
Peace is a serenity which is gained by being with Him. What should you do if you lack peace? Ask God for it. James told us that we "have not because we ask not." He was not just talking about material things. When we ask God for peace, really we are just agreeing with Him. He has already granted us His peace. When we ask for it we are taking it. Then we must use it.
"…from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
The grace and peace God gives to us are because of His Father’s heart full of love. He wants to be a Father to us.
A Father loves. However, this love is not sentimental or romantic. It is active love. It means that He wants to protect us. He also wants to lead us. His Father’s heart is also shown by His Shepherd’s heart. If you look at Psalm 23 you will see many great aspects of the Fathers heart. These gifts come from the presence of God. The Father’s plan of salvation was also to bring us peace. Many of the world’s problems are because it is not at peace with God. It is also the same with individuals. God is not the author of the problem. However, because people do not have fellowship with Him they are exposed to satanic activity.
We may say that a Christian also has to fight the devil. That is true. We fight from a position of safety and security. In the end we cannot lose. When we fight we do not need to be exposed. We have the clothing of God. We have the armour of God. We have to put it on. When we do we are not exposed. We cannot be damaged.
"Blessed be the God and Father."
The word "blessed" means empowered to prosper. How can God be empowered to prosper? It is easy to understand. God wants His gospel to spread throughout the earth. This happens when His people are blessed. When His people prosper so does the spreading of the gospel. When His people are healthy the church is healthy. The ministry of healing is then much more acceptable. When His people are at peace they can preach peace. They can bring peace into the world. Thus, God prospers when His people prosper. So, how do we bless God? We bless God when we take hold of His blessing.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
God can only be blessed in the earth because Jesus came. His death on the Cross meant that we could be blessed. Because we are blessed the Father can now be blessed.
Jesus death on the cross gave us blessing in the five areas of our life.
We have a new spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Our spirit has been made alive. Now we can relate to God as our Father. We can hear Him, because He can hear us.
We have the energising power of God so we can now renew our minds. (Romans 12:2) We are told to set our affections on things above. We can only know what things are above by seeing what is in the Word of God. Others may not be able to see what has been prepared for us. However, we can see what is prepared for us by a careful reading of His Word. When we hear the Word and agree with it we are renewing our minds.
"By His stripes we were healed." (Isaiah 53:5) Sickness does not have a stronghold over a Christian.
We have the promise of financial prosperity. (Philippians 4:19) As we carry out the principles laid down for us so we will have enough money.
We have favour in our social lives. We should have the best families and friends possible.
As we are blessed in each of these five areas so God is blessed.
"Who hath blessed us."
This does not say that God will bless us. It says that it has been done. Because we are blessed in the five areas named above God is blessed as well. His plan has come to pass. We can, if we are not careful, frustrate God’s blessing in our lives. How? Simply by not taking hold of the blessings open to us. These five blessings are really all we need.
If you are blessed with a one to one relationship with the Father it means some very good things.
It tells us that we can speak to God. When we do He will hear us. It also tells us that He can speak to us. When He does we can hear Him. This relationship means that God and we are falling in love with one another. We love Him. He loves us. We adore Him. He adores us. It is then right for us to say, "We praise Him. He praises us. We worship Him. He worships us." We have the RIGHT to expect God to hear us. He has given us the right. It is right for Him to hear us. When a Christian says God cannot hear him something is very wrong. God expects us to pray. When we pray, He always hears us. I believe that some believers are not being heard by God for a number of reasons.
They are not praying. They are thinking. They are talking to their friend. But they are not praying.
They are living in sin. Now, we all sin from time to time. And we need to keep a short account with the Lord. Use the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from sin. Many do not bring the blood of Jesus into their lives. They sin by habit. They do not even care any more. They say they cannot win. As a result, they cannot win.
They do not pray right. I know a pastor who is very proud of the fact that he prays his own way. He was told to pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus. He nearly agreed. He nodded his head. But when he prayed again he began by saying, "Dear Lord Jesus." Why? "Because I always pray that way." He was saying he knew better than God. Now, I am sure that God is not picky. I know that when people pray this way God sometimes comes through. But, I believe that to be His mercy. When we know better we should do better.
They pray with wrong motives. Their prayer is selfish. They are not concerned with the kingdom.
Prayer is simple. But, there are methods we should follow. They are not to put us into bondage. They are to help us to know that the prayer is in line with God’s will.
We should always pray to the Father. (John 15:16) It is not wrong to address Him as Lord or God. But we should make a habit of speaking to Him as Father.
We should always pray in the Name of Jesus. Why? Firstly because Jesus told us to. Also because we are using His authority. He said that this authority had been given to Him. He then passed it on to us.
We should ASK for something. (Matthew 7:7)
I like to teach on prayer by using a simple formula. The question I ask is, "Are you doing your PART?"
P. Praise God. Jairus was in a hurry. His daughter was dying. But, Jairus still took his time
worship Jesus. (Matthew 9:18)
A. Ask for something. (James 4:2b)
R. Receive. We receive by faith. We also receive by what we say. We must speak of things
which are not as if they are.
T. Thank God.
