Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

SATURDAY 5^th

Philippians 1:1-18

NIV (v5) – ‘. . . because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now . . .’

ESV (v5) – ‘. . . because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.’

We come today to the letter that Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi. In the book of Acts, (chapter 16) we have the account of when Paul went down into Philippi and met with some who were down by the river where a prayer meeting was being held. During this prayer meeting Paul and those with him spoke to some of the women and one of them was Lydia, who responded to the message and was baptised along with her household, she invited Paul and his companions to stay at her home. The same chapter tells us that Paul had already had some bother on his way to the prayer meeting with a woman who had the spirit of divination (16:16) and she kept bothering him for many days, till finally Paul commanded the spirit to leave her, good news for the woman to have been delivered, but bad news for those who owned her as they were no longer able to make a living out of her and they had Paul and Silas arrested which in turn led to them being thrown into prison. And we know the story, at midnight they prayed and sang hymns and a miracle took place, first that brought them (Paul and Silas) deliverance from their prison chains, but secondly, more importantly led to the jailor being delivered from his chains, the bondage of sin and he and his household were converted and baptised, thus a Church was being planted in this city of Philippi.

It is to this Church this letter is written and I just love the fact that Pauls introduction to the Philippians in Acts 16 was through a prayer meeting and here as he writes to them his introduction is to tell them that he is praying for them! Prayer! And he says in verse 3 that he thanks God for them, not just once-in-a-while, but in every prayer with joy. The experience he had had with them while in Philippi had filled Pauls heart with joy, he then continues to say that he thanks God ‘because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now’. (v5) He did not see them as two separate things, Paul here and Philippi there but as a partnership, together for the gospel.

Whenever I read this phrase it always reminds me that we as believers today can partner with others for the sake of the gospel, we can partner in prayer for them, we can partner in giving out of our resources toward mission enterprise and activity, we can partner by going and some have done by serving abroad but others through some form of short term mission. Mission to me has always been important, from a young child I always got excited about mission and not just of hearing the reports of those active in mission but to be able to support as well in whatever way and for the last ten years I have been able to go as well as I supported mission and partnered with some in Hungary who have become close and personal friends who like Paul I regularly give thanks to God for.

Spend some time today praying for mission, for those you may know who are serving abroad, or involved in mission in some way, pray for mission opportunity, for the need is as real in our local neighbourhoods as it is abroad.

FRIDAY 4^th

Ephesians 6:10-20

NIV (v13) – ‘Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.’

ESV (v13) – ‘Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.’

We come to the final thoughts from Ephesians and the final three important aspects of our spiritual armour.

We need the helmet of salvation. I once knew a man who fought in the trenches in WWI and he by his own admission was a little rebellious toward orders and on one occasion he was in the trenches without his helmet on. He told me that the officer in charge shouted across to him, ‘Hughes, put your helmet on.’ And literally as he lifted his helmet on and placed it on his head, he was hit by a sniper’s bullet, the helmet saved his life. We like ‘Hughes’ were rebellious, fallen in our depravity, ‘Hughes’ was in a trench, we were in a pit, thinking we were okay, but we were lost, hopeless, without Christ in this world, spiritually dead and heading for a lost eternity, but Jesus came, we have donned the helmet of salvation, praise his name and through faith we have been saved, we are saved and we need to keep the helmet of salvation on to be safe for eternity.

We need the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. O how important the sword of the Spirit is which is the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12, ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’ It is by this living and abiding Word that we have been saved. (‘. . . since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God’ 1 Peter 1:23)

It is by this living and abiding word we are fed, (‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.’ Hebrews 5:12–14) It is by this living and abiding Word we defend who and what we are in Christ, remember when the devil came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, he answered with the Scripture.

Finally, we need the power of prayer.  ‘. . . praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints . . .’ (Ephesians 6:18)

Prayer in the Spirit is the power line between us and God. Using an image from war again, good communication is vital between the one(s) deciding the strategy and the ones who are out on the battle field doing the manoeuvres, and we cannot go it alone, we need to be communicating with the one who controls all things, God is our High Commander, for the battle belongs to the Lord. Paul says we need to stay alert with all perseverance, that is NO SURRENDER, and making supplication for one another, for all the saints. What a joy it is to be a Christian soldier, doing battle together, united as a body of believers in Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, what a privilege it is to carry one another to the throne of grace. We stand together in the full armour of God and we supplicate together as the army of God.

I close the Ephesians studies with the opening verses again from chapter 1:

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places . . .’ (Ephesians 1:3)

THURSDAY 3^rd

Ephesians 6:10-20

NIV (v13) – ‘Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.’

ESV (v13) – ‘Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.’

We conclude our look in Ephesians by briefly considering the armour of God. First I want us to note that Paul says to ‘Put on the FULL armour of God’ (NIV) ‘Take up the WHOLE armour of God’ (ESV) We cannot expect to be protected spiritually if we only put on the parts of the spiritual armour we want to and exclude others parts. We need truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, Spirit & Word, and prayer.

In one of the parables Jesus gave, we have these words, ‘Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning . . .’ (ESV) ‘Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning . . .’ (NIV) )Luke 12:35) In Ephesians 6, Paul is saying the same, put on the armour of God to be ready for anything, be protected, ready for action. I come from Hereford which is the home of the SAS and they are trained as soldiers to be ready for action, action which could come at any given moment and in any given situation, most of the time in extremely volatile and dangerous circumstances, imagine the soldiers being called up to a particular task and turning up without some of the essential equipment, the whole outcome would be a failure, a disaster rather than a success. We also need to properly prepared. We will consider four aspects today and conclude tomorrow with the final three.

We need the belt of truth. Truth is essential, for the Christian faith is the faith that is based on truth, Jesus is truth, his word is truth and we as his people, the church should be people of truth. We need to be able to stand against anything that opposes truth, in particular the truth of who Jesus is and the truthfulness of his Word. Jesus came from the Father full of grace and TRUTH, he himself said he was the way, the TRUTH and the life and in his prayer in John 17, he called the word of God, TRUTH and we as the people of God should walk in truth, we should be a people who walk in honesty and integrity.

We need the breastplate of righteousness. Thankfully although our own righteousness was like filthy rags, when we are placed in Christ at new birth, salvation, his righteousness is imputed to us and we stand clothed in robes of righteousness, this speaks of the need for us to be clothed in holiness, living morally pure and upright lives in an ungodly world. Lives with which no one can point a finger at us.

The shoes of the gospel of peace. Christianity is a faith of peace, it is the gospel of peace, peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and we are called to live peaceable lives in the world. (Hence why we are also called in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 to pray for those who are in authority ‘so that we can lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way’.)  You will recall the ministry from Peter Vincent that we have peace with God, within ourselves and toward others. The Church is not called to take up weapons of warfare such as swords and guns etc, for we are called to live in peace and in harmony, in other words we do not conquer through warfare but through sharing the good news of the gospel. This has nothing to do with warfare in the stage of the world with its aggression found with state against state or country against country, we are dealing with the spiritual. Regarding the secular I personally believe it is up to an individual’s own conscience as to whether they get involved with civilian affairs and warfare. And I personally thank God for those (and the people themselves) who have played and do still play an essential part in peace keeping around the trouble spots in the world, with so many having laid down their lives for our freedom.

We need the shield of faith. The shield of faith is used to protect us from the fiery darts of the devil, this can include anything and everything that the enemy will seek to throw at us to try to make us unsteady, to try to shake our faith and our confidence in God. Arrows that if the devil could get them through would penetrate our heart and cause us to distrust God and doubt who he is and all he has made available for us. The shield of faith is what takes the hits for us, and the fiery arrows lose their ability to harm us, as they hit the shield they will fall to the ground and we can stamp on them in joyous victory. Faith is what brings us to Christ and it is faith that enables us to stand tall when trials, difficult circumstances and adversary comes for ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’. (Hebrews 11:1) Listen to the words of John, ‘For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?’ (1 John 5:4–5)

WEDNESDAY 2^nd

Ephesians 6:10-20

NIV (v10) – ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.’

ESV (v10) – ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.’

Yesterday (ten days ago by the time this devotion goes out) we went for a walk to Thornley Woods in the Derwent valley and followed a route we have taken before as I love to go down by the weir and take some photos or video, watching out for wildlife, birds, happy that we saw a beaver and a dipper, (among other birds as well) but what captured my attention was the water cascading what is only a couple of feet over the weir, and the leaves that had fallen off the trees further up stream were being washed down over the weir to continue the journey to wherever the water took them, except that at certain points along the length of the weir there are stones or rocks and despite the force of the water some of the leaves had somehow become attached to the rocks and were holding on firmly, and I watched for ages as they remained firm despite the torrent of water cascading over them. It reminded me of these verses in our thoughts today, as I knew I would be preparing this devotion the next day. As Paul was encouraging the believers to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, the leaves clinging to the rocks reminded me that we are living in a hostile world, we are faced everyday with so many things that would try to unsettle us or cause us alarm but we like the leaves are clinging onto, clinging firmly, holding tightly onto our Rock, who is Jesus Christ the Lord and he is a firm unmoveable rock, a sure and a steady foundation.

Here in Ephesians 6 Paul is showing us an another way, not an alternative way, but a further way in which we can stand firm, and it is by being clothed with the armour of God. We stand firm, hold on tightly while at the same time being clothed in this armour of protection. I hold tight so that I remain steadfast, I put on the armour so that I will be protected.

In the Old Testament we have the well known story of David and Goliath, Saul attempted to get David to dress up in his armour, but David refused saying he was going to fight the battle in the name of the Lord, his faith, trust and confidence was in the true and living God whom he served, he had a spiritual armour, a spiritual Protector and spiritual protection and we are called into battle, ‘for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,’ (Ephesians 6:12) and we don’t put on a metal armour, a literal armour but the spiritual armour that God has provided for us to enable our faith, trust and confidence to be in him and in him alone.

Paul tells us what this armour is, a belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, for shoes, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, helmet of salvation, the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God AND of equal importance to the armour is the command, to pray at all times in the Spirit.

Each morning when we get up, the first thing we do is get dressed, we get ready for the day ahead, likewise we should get dressed in the spiritual armour to be ready for whatever lies ahead, ready to do battle knowing we are standing strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

In Romans, Paul also encourages us to put the armour on, calling it the armour of light and in the verses following he also says, ‘put on Christ’, ‘The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.’

This morning I put on a slightly thicker jumper than what I have been doing up to now, it is getting colder! Spiritually things seem to be getting colder in society all around us and we need to be putting on all that God has made available for us to be able to stand firm. The armour of God, the armour of light, and put on Christ.

See also Luke 24:49, Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10.

Tomorrow to wrap up Ephesians we will look at some Scriptures that help us to understand the armour.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 1^st

Ephesians 6:10-20

NIV (v10) – ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.’

ESV (v10) – ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.’

As we come to the end of our look in Ephesians, we come to this well-known section which is all about the armour of God. As Paul introduces this section, he reminds the believers to ‘be strong in the Lord’, as the NIV puts it ‘in his mighty power’ or the ESV, ‘the strength of his might’.

I used to enjoy watching the world’s strongest man on tv, and be amazed at the power they had, the might or strength they had built up through disciplined training, to see them pull a lorry unit or to lift stones and rocks that under normal circumstances would require mechanical help. Looking at them, you would think that they were invincible, nothing would ever be able to harm them or crush them, and although that might be seem true in the natural it certainly wouldn’t be so in the spiritual,  and we may think that we are strong in so many ways, but left to our own devices and to our own physical strength we would never be able to stand against the wiles of the evil one.

The strength of the world’s strongest men is measured by how much they can lift or by how far they could pull something, they would lift or pull till they couldn’t muster up a single ounce of strength to do any more. Paul has already reminded the believers of how strong God is by saying that his strength is immeasurable, he could keep lifting up and pulling without ever getting weary or having to use his last ounce of strength, in fact the longer he lifts and pulls makes absolutely no difference to his strength for he cannot and will never weaken. From eternity past to eternity future his strength remains constant, the strength that threw the stars into space, is the strength that sustains the orbit of all that has been created and will be the same strength that will forever hold all things together by the power of his Word. Isaiah says, ‘Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.’ Psalm 147:5 ‘Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.’  And Paul commands or instructs us to ‘BE STRONG IN THE LORD AND IN THE STRENGTH OF HIS MIGHT’ In the same chapter in Isaiah mentioned above it continues ‘He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;  they shall walk and not faint.’  (Isaiah 40:29-31)

Feeling weak, feeling spiritually anaemic, feeling powerless in the midst of your circumstances, the answer is found in our waiting upon the Lord, it is found in our being strong, not in our own strength but in the strength of the Lord, it is found as we are willing to put on the whole armour of God and we will briefly consider this tomorrow.

This last week I have needed to drill into the walls outside about 6 inches to be able attach a post to hang a garden gate from. I attempted it with my battery-operated drill which coped reasonably well, but not enough, I ended up borrowing our neighbours drill because it had a higher-powered battery, and it did it.

How often do we try to do things in our own strength when someone else has the power and strength to do it for us?

MONDAY 30^th

Ephesians 5

NIV (vv18–20) – ‘Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

ESV (vv18-20) – ‘And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Paul continues in chapter 5 with the subject of love, and introduces another fruit to us, the fruit of light (v9)

Obviously, the fruit of light contrasts with the fruit of darkness, and we have been called out of darkness and into the light. ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’  (1 Peter 2:9)

In Romans 7:4, Paul says that we have been called to ‘bear fruit for God’. ‘Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.’

In Ephesians 5 Paul tells us where the fruit of light can be found, it is ‘found in all that is good and right and true,’ (v9) and that we as the children of God are to learn to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. (v10) Paul is concerned for the spiritual well-being of the Ephesian believers, they were living in dark days, difficult days, they were living in a pagan society where they would have been so easily enticed into so much that would be detrimental to them as Christians, or followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, as men and women who had come out of spiritual darkness and into the marvellous light. His instruction for them is also truly clear for us today in the society that we live amongst, ‘take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness . . .’ (v11) but rather ‘look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.’

What are we making of the time that we have? I wonder how more quickly than we realise will the days we are living in become darker and more difficult for the Church, for the believer, for the genuine follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even this week some of the news has been shocking in that the attack against the Christian faith has come not from outside sources but from within the Anglican Church where a synod member has said that Churches and Christians who hold to the Bibles teaching on sexual ethics are like ‘Holocaust deniers’ and rapists^*. Within the so called ‘Church’ the light is being extinguished, darkness is being allowed to take hold, and we who desire to hold faithfully to the truth must uphold truth and righteousness. We must take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, we must take a stand and we need the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, we will need more than ever in our lifetime to be putting on the whole armour of God which is our subject as we move into the final chapter of Ephesians tomorrow. In verses 18-19, Paul uses a comparison between being drunk with wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit, for whatever reason Paul used this comparison he is making a point that being drunk leads to debauchery (that is depravity, immorality or sin) but being filled with the Spirit leads to a life that is in harmony or in tune with God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. We all know what drunkenness causes and leads to, like me you may have never drunk (that is we are teetotal) let alone have had enough to have been at risk of drunkenness, but we know its effects, we can see it, it leads to an individual losing control of their senses and leads to senseless behaviour putting themselves at risk and also others. I think one of the reasons Paul is using this comparison is because he wants the believers to remain level and clear headed, ‘don’t allow yourselves to become so intoxicated with drink that you can no longer be in control of both what you may do or what you may say!’ It is linked back to his telling them to discern back in verse 10, and we will certainly need to be level and clear headed to discern today. Paul’s alternative is to be filled, or to keep being filled with the Spirit, as he invades us and fills us, he will help us to discern, will help us to be fruitful and will help us to live good, morally upright lives in a corrupt society and of course in the context of these verses enable us to genuinely worship the Lord.

SUNDAY 29^th

Ephesians 4:17-32

NIV (vv22-24) – ‘You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.’

ESV (vv22-24) – ‘. . . to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.’

To remind ourselves again, from Ephesians, I have suggested that as believers we are rooted in Christ, rooted in love, and rooted in truth. As a result, our being rooted in these three areas means that we should be bearing good fruit.

The fruit of Christlikeness

The fruit of love

The fruit of truth or truthfulness

While we have been doing our garden, I have purchased some dwarf fruit trees, and as I was exploring the various kinds, there were some available that would produce more than one specific type, for example a pear tree that would produce two types of pear. When I was living on the farm growing up we had an orchard and I had heard all about grafting one type into another and attempted to graft one kind of apple to another kind of apple tree, it worked and the tree bore two kinds. Spiritually we should be bearing or producing many kinds of fruit. In fact, the Bible even says that we have been grafted into the purpose of God through Christ Jesus. (Romans 11)

We need to be bearing fruit, I didn’t touch on the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 (‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law’) and won’t here except to ask the question are we bearing good fruit, through our being rooted and grounded well.

In these verses Paul shows what happens when we are rooted well, we put off the old self, and become new creatures in Christ Jesus, (vv22-24) and as we put off the old self, it leads to us putting off falsehood and being clothed in truth and truthfulness (vv25-31) and then it leads to us being forgiving toward one another which emanates from the fruit of love or loving kindness. (4:32 – 5:2)

Going back to our garden again, (sorry!) it was empty or barren just a few weeks ago, early in October I created some flower beds and planted a variety of flowers, pansies, primrose, cyclamen, to add some colour, but at the same time I planted some spring bulbs, tulips, iris, daffodils, snowdrops, bluebells, hyacinth, crocus, I was amazed to see how quickly some of them have rooted and are already showing up through the soil. (I noticed the first few on November 17^th) Something in the soil must be right to help produce the growth. May we always ensure that the soil of our heart remains pliable and well manured for the fruit of righteousness, for the fruit of love / loving kindness, for the fruit of forgiveness,  for the fruit of truth / truthfulness, for the fruit of Galatians 5:22-23, may our lives become like a well planted and a well-watered garden showing forth the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yesterday (Nov 19^th – I am ahead in preparing devotions) I brought a bag of compost as I had more bulbs to plant in pots, it was a cold day, 3^o according to the car temperature display and the compost was stacked outside at the store entrance in the cold, yet when I opened the bag and put my hand into the compost I was amazed as to how warm it was in the centre, it was a pleasant contrast to the air temperature and when we have the right ‘manure’ in our hearts, it doesn’t matter how cold and hostile the outside world is, (or maybe other believers toward us!) the inner warmth of the love of God should emanate from us.

I close this devotion with some verses from Colossians, which show the evidence of a life showing forth good fruit, ‘Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ (Colossians 3:12–17)

SATURDAY 28^th

Ephesians 4:7-16

NIV (v14) – ‘Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.’

ESV (v14) – ‘. . . so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.’

So far in this epistle, we discover that we are placed or rooted in Christ (Chapters 1&2) and we need to be rooted in love. (Chapter 3:17) here in chapter 4, I suggest that we need to be rooted in truth or sound doctrine. In verse 11 we read that Jesus himself has given ministries to the Church defined as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and their purpose is to:

 1) equip the saints for the individual works of ministry, this means that we can all be equipped in some way to serve.

2) to build up the body of Christ so that

3) we will attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity and to the measure of the fulness of Christ and as such

4) we will no longer be like children, tossed by the waves and carried by every wind of doctrine this leads to

5) speaking truth we grow up in every way to him who is the head, Christ Jesus himself who we are joined to as his body, the Church.

These verses paint a beautiful picture of gathered Church which is the body of Christ being taught, instructed with good sound doctrine and built up in the faith so that each one can become mature in the faith, serving one another as we are connected with each other as the body and to Christ the head.

Sound doctrine is essential, if you remember our look into Galatians, Paul had to deal with things creeping into the Church that he likened to being like a little yeast spoiling the whole, and it only takes a small perversion of truth to lead to error. Paul’s instruction to Timothy was very clear that he was to ‘preach the Word’, today we can get hold of so many books, and hear so many ‘sermons’ which are what we call motivational, self-help, how to better yourself books / ‘sermons’, and sadly many books which are full of man’s thoughts rather than the truth of God and I firmly believe that these are not the primary books that preachers should be turning to when getting their material for sermon preparation, we should be turning first and foremost to the Scripture, and if anything in any of the other books even has a hint of anything that does not agree with what Scripture has to say, then they should be put away, even disposed of. Error often comes in when an individual starts to formulate their own ideas, promoting these ideas over and above the truth of the Word of God, listen to what Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy Chapter 4 verses 1-5, ‘I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.’ I myself have gotten into ‘difficulty’ with Church members in the past for publicly speaking out against error that was being openly accepted, it is not always easy, and can cause hurt, but at the end of the day, my responsibility as a shepherd was and still is to feed and to protect the flock under my care, and I would rather expose and deal with error now than to stand before God and be asked as to why didn’t I fulfil my ministry in protecting the sheep under my care. This is an important part of pastoral responsibility, in Ezekiel we have a warning to the watchmen over the towns and cities, which should also apply to pastors and church leaders, we are watchmen over the people of God, (Ezekiel 33:1-9) but alongside this is also the responsibility of the sheep to be what we see in Acts 17, ‘Berean believers’ those who received the word eagerly, but examined the Scriptures to see if it was so. (Acts 17:11) May we all be eager to be rooted in Christ, rooted in love, and rooted in truth, sound doctrine. May we who preach ‘Preach the Word’ not ‘fanciful ideas’ from books.

FRIDAY 27^th

Ephesians 4:1-6

NIV (vv4-6) – ‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’

ESV (vv4-6) – ‘There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’

The word ‘one’ appears seven times here in these verses, and taken in the whole implies that there is only ONE plan, or ONE purpose that God has, and it is all wrapped up in what he has done in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of the ‘uniqueness’ of the Christian faith.

From out of his one plan, he sent his one (and only) Son, to provide the one (and only) means for redemption, through the Cross, to create through this one (and only) body, the Church. The reverse of this means that there is no plan B, that is, there is no other means of redemption, no other way into heaven, no other body of people on earth that are Gods redeemed people. This means that in our multi-faith and religious world then every other way will lead to a dead end in more ways than one, lead to still being dead in sin and lead to eternal death cut off from God.

This should remind us of the importance of world evangelisation, for so many consider that they are on the right path through the religion they follow, yet they are heading toward destruction.

Let us look today at some Scriptures that speak more of this ‘uniqueness’

BODY

Ephesians 2:15–16

‘. . . that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross. . .’

Romans 12:4–5

‘For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.’

See also Pauls teaching in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

SPIRIT

1 Corinthians 12:13

‘For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.’

Ephesians 2:18

‘For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.’

HOPE

Ephesians 1:18

‘. . . having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.’

Hebrews 6:11–12

‘And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.’

Romans 8:24–25

‘For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.’

LORD, GOD AND FATHER

Zechariah 14:9

 ‘And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.’

1 Corinthians 8:6

‘. . . yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.’

FAITH

Romans  4:16–25 through to Romans 5:1-2

‘That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, So shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone,  but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,  who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’

BAPTISM

Galatians 3:27–29

‘For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.’

Romans 6:3–4

‘Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.’

THURSDAY 26^th

Ephesians 3:14-21

NIV (v20-21) –  ‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’

ESV (v20-21) – ‘Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.’

1) That they may be strengthened with power (v16)

2) That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (v17)

3) That they may be rooted and grounded in love (17-18)

4) That they may know the love of Christ and the fulness of God (v19)

5) That all the glory goes to the Lord Jesus (v20-21)

Paul finishes this prayer with an ascription of praise and glory to God, making a very bold statement or declaration of faith, ‘Now unto him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . .’ This does not mean that God is going to do or give us absolutely everything that we might ask or even demand from him in prayer, it doesn’t mean that we can come to God with a blank cheque book and get him to sign off everything we want, it doesn’t mean that we can name it and claim it or blab it and grab it, it doesn’t even mean that we have the power to speak things into existence by our words or through the power of prayer, it simply means what it says, or to put it another way it is language Paul is using to make us aware that God can do anything, it is to strengthen our faith,  – but what God does will always be in accordance to what are his eternal plan and purpose, his will and not what I may demand or my whim and fancy. Of course God can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, he created the heavens and the earth by speaking his word, he displayed his power in so many different ways to the people of Israel, he stopped the mouths of lions, he put a seal of protection around the Hebrew lads in the furnace, we could compile a long list, but what is the most amazing of all is that he wrought salvation by the means of a Cross, a place of public humiliation and execution and he demonstrated his power by raising Jesus from the dead thus making eternal life available to you and me.

If God were to do everything I wanted him to do, it would look more like I was controlling God, as if he was under my control and what a mess things would turn out to be, because I would end up living a self -centred life. Rather we allow him to do what he wants to do, we come under his authority, under his control, allowing him to be sovereign in all things. We can ask for more, so long as we ask that it be according to his will and be willing to accept that sometimes God may have to say no! And he sometimes does say no because he has our best interests at heart. ‘And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.’ (1 John 5:14–15)

The apostle goes on to say ‘to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.’ By submitting to his will and obeying his leading, all glory goes to God. Man’s chief aim is to glorify God, sadly we seem too often to think that man’s chief aim is to satisfy self, when all the time it should be to bring glory to God.