Ephesians Lesson 27 of 39 part 7

We stated that God has not revealed any special days or feasts to us in this Church Age to observe as He did Israel for their learning of His character in Holiness. Nor did He tell Paul or any of Jesus' disciples to catty on with any of the Jewish feats in the fashion and practice of them. To check that statement I did some checking with Scripture and found that I was right in my hearing and understanding. I wanted to know if Jesus, Paul or any other disciple may have said anything of the sort. The answer is they had, Jesus in Matthew 15:9 which is also revealed by Mark in 7:7 and then John in 6:27 and even Isaiah in 29:13 in the use of such terms as; the commandments of men, wives' men fables, meats which perish and like phrases. Then Paul in 1Corinthians 6:13 and a host of others reveals that we are NOT in any fashion to participate with those who practice them (the former Jewish festivals as they have passed away). Even Peter in 2Peter 2:22, where he calls them dogs that return to its vomit, and for me that is strong language to be used by him when speaking of his former heritage. For earlier he said that he did not use or follow cunningly devised fables when bearing his witness of Christ in 1:16 of 2Peter and the “wresting” of scriptures in 3:15. Here are some of the verses I found: Proverbs 1:32, Zechariah 7:11; 1Timothy 1:4-7, 2Timothy 4:4, Titus 3:9, Colossians 2:22, Galatians 4:9 and Hebrews 12:25. These all relate to what we said. We are to be a people separated and peculiar unto God through Christ by bearing His name as a wife bears her husbands. We can not be true to Him if we participate in the worlds traditions of religious performances in any fashion. If we do we are a liar and there is NO Truth in us, as these verses reveal. We are then obdurate and protractors through the protraction of God and His declared Will. It is this Will which all unlearned twist and resist because it means our suffering as Jesus suffered. They resist because they have been feed a lie, they believe that they are to be healthy, wealthy, happy and wise......which is not how we learn God and how His Love, Truth and Grace is received and perfected within us.

We left off in Ephesians chapter 4. We will pick up with verse 12. Remember that in verse 11, Paul leaves the Church with evangelists, pastors and teachers as we discussed. These are specially gifted men and women that God is going to provide for the true Christian community. We think it also ties in with 1Corinthians chapter 13, the love chapter. It is almost the same kind of scenario, only we shake out and off the superfluous things and we end up with the three, no possibly four things that in the end will abide. For remember that Revelation discloses that the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Prophecy. And what are they?

Revelation 19:10

“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

This does not necessarily mean that there will be Prophets as in the Old Testament economy but that this whole book of Revelation is a prophecy, in the revealing of Christ's ministry and activities within us, the Body. Which Paul's Epistles all say, including the Epistle of Hebrews. The Spirit of Prophecy is our knowledge of His mysteries, not that of fortune-telling as we see in operation, this is perversion of truth and the trust which God places in us.

1Corinthians 13:13

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Those are the things that remain with us even today. These three words in Paul’s Epistles just keep popping up. All three may not be together all the time, but watch for those words. Coming back to where we were in Ephesians chapter 4, and we have much the same thing. So for the various gifts and so forth, that people make so much ado over even today, they have more or less fallen by the way side, but three of them remain. These three are as absolute as anything can be even today, and what are they? Evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Those are the three main criteria for any local group of believers. But, and this is a strong "BUT" these positions require the knowledge of God in Christ and the ontological essence of Christ in those who fill these ministry gifts to the Church of the Living God. WE, As members of the Body, are to test the spirits of these men and women to discern there knowledge of the mysteries upon which our faith is based. And believe me this has not been the history or the case of the worlds churches as we know them. In verse 12 again, and what is the purpose of these three?

Ephesians 4:12

"For the perfecting of the saints*, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:"