Sent with Love: From Jesus

Introduction

Illustration:

Historical Context: Letters have forms, usually in the beginning and in the end. The middle section of letters tend to have some freedom determined by:

Purpose of the letter

And content of the letter

The author introduced himself as Paul, which we looked over his life very briefly last week. He was:

A Jew, from Tarsus, trained in Jerusalem under Gamaliel.

A Pharisees who persecuted the church, he heard Stephen’s sermon before consenting to Stephen’s death.

Had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. An experience that totally transformed his life.

Barnabas sought Paul out to involve Paul in the ministry.

The church in Antioch commissioned Barnabas and Paul as missionaries to preach the Gospel – we have no way of estimating the impact the obedience of the church and the obedience of Barnabas and Paul had for the cause of Christ.

What could happen if we were obedience in sending and in going?

Could we measure the impact?

Proposition: Christians will disciple when they submit to God's desire, and Jesus' sending to announce grace and peace.

I. Discipleship Results by Christ’s Sending

Eph. 1:1 Paul is called an “apostle” (αποστολος). The term causes a bit of a problem, because when Luke wrote Acts of the Holy Spirit he gave a definition for an Apostle that the Apostles used as a criteria to chose a person to take Judas’ place. Acts 1:21-22

Acts 1:21–22 NASB95

21 “Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— 22 beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”

An apostle was with Jesus at His baptism

Followed around with them

Saw Jesus ascend to heaven.

Paul does not fit that criteria. And yet Paul calls himself an Apostle. So how are we supposed to understand Paul’s title?

Words have a semantic range, meaning that they have a range of meanings they can represent.

It is a exegetical fallacy to throw all the available meanings of a word to each occurence of a word.

Context limits the meaning of the words. So how are we supposed understand “apostle”? We must try to understand the meanings of the word.

An ancient meaning is “a. sent, dispatched: ἀ. πλοῖον merchant ships” (GE, 272). Ships were dispatched with a cargo.

A meaning closer to the time of Paul was of a “delegate” and also as “2. of messengers with extraordinary status, esp. of God’s messenger, envoy” (BDAG, 122).

Luke defines the word as a specific office. Matthew 10:2 also uses the word as Apostolic office.

Luke also calls Barnabas and Paul apostles in Acts 14:4, 14. Did Luke forget criteria of Peter in Acts 1:21-22?

Either there is a specific Apostolic office for certain people in the New Testament, and maybe even now.

Or we can understand that apostle was used of Barnabas and Paul after they were sent by the church in Antioch. It is a title of a missionary.

Paul consideres himself as being “sent” as apostle. But Paul’s apostleship is in construct to “Christ Jesus.” The possessive nature of “Christ Jesus” has a qualifying or limiting effect on Paul and his being sent (Genitive: Wallace, 76). Paul is not a free agent, nor is he someone who chooses his agenda and his message. The Holy Spirit had the church set aside Paul and Barnabas for this ministry.

There are two things that is important to note of the sender:

Christ is the Greek for Messiah, the anointed on of God. In the Old Testament, the high priest was anointed (Lev. 4:5) and the kings of Israel were “anointed” (1 Sam.24:6) and part of the imagery is one of Priest/Lordship. – Paul was trying to kill all those who followed Christ, and now Paul is calling Jesus the Messiah!

The Christ is Jesus. Christ is not really a name, many take it that way but it is a title. Paul identifies the Christ as being Jesus. Psa. 2:2 Jesus is the Anointed of God. There are some who try to equate God the Father with God the Son, modalism, but the anointed one is not God the Father. One God, but different persons.

Paul identifies Jesus as being the Messiah

And that Jesus as authority to send, and that the authority to send should be obeyed.

To whom is Paul being sent to? Contextually, Paul was sent to believers in Ephesus.

Ephesus was a city on the western shore of present day Turkey. “Ephesus was the third largest city in the Roman empire. Its population is estimated to have been around 250,000 during the time of early Christianity” (Lexham Bible Dictionary).

Paul first arrived in Ephesus during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19-21). In Acts 19:1, Paul was on his third missionary journey and he stopped off again in Ephesus.

At this time he stayed about 2 years and 3 months (3 years in Acts 20:31) reasoning and teaching them, so that all in Asia heard about Jesus (Acts 19:10).

People got saved and turned from their idol worship of Diana. A silversmith named Demetrius started a riot because his business was affected.

Paul on his way back to Jerusalem desired to talk to the elders of the church in Ephesus (Acts 20:17). This section has both the word for “elder” (πρεσβυτέρους) and for “bishop/overseers” (ἐπισκόπους) and their responsibility is to “shepherd” (ποιμαίνειν) the flock.

1 Tim. 3:1 A bishop/elder/pastor should “aspire” (ὀρέγεται Pres. Mid. Indc. 3rd Sg.).

Elders have a list of personal qualifications that need to meet.

Being an elder/bishop/pastor is a calling by God (Acts 20:28 ) to guard the flock by teaching the “word of His grace” to build up the believer (Acts 20:32).

Paul then sent Timothy to go and minister in Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:3).

John the beloved Apostle – there is a tradition that John ministered there for some time.

Jesus – Even Jesus was involved in this ministry: Rev. 2:1-7. They have been able to tell the difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy. But they had lost their first love!

Paul address the Ephesians by two qualifiers:

“Saints” (ἁγίοις) – The word can mean something pure or sacred, but it also can mean “as adj. pert. to being dedicated or consecrated to the service of God” (BDAG, 10). They were set apart for God’s service.

“Believers” (πιστοῖς) The word can have two meanings. It can mean 1. pertaining to being worthy of belief or trust, trustworthy, faithful, dependable, inspiring trust/faith or it can mean “2. pert. to being trusting, trusting, cherishing faith/trust act. aspect of πιστεύω” (BDAG, 821).

The problem with understanding the πιστοις as faithful is that it sets the purpose of the letter being between the faithful and the unfaithful. But that does not seem to be the point of the letter.

Rather the letter is addressing those who are believing or believers. Chapter two with address those who do not believe.

εν + Dative for Personal Agency (Wallace, 373). Meaning it is Jesus is the agent that they are believing in. They are not believing in a higher power, or a force. They are believers because they have put their faith in Christ Jesus.

Discipleship Results by Christ’s Sending

A. Christ sends all to disciple, and some to disciple cross culturally

The great commission is our “sending” to disciple. If you ask yourself, “am I sent to disciple someone?” The answer is Yes!

If you have been saved and you have not been actively engaging people by teaching them to obey God, you need to examine your life. Something is going on and you need to discover what the problem is.

You are to teach people how to obey God!

Maybe you too busy to disciple?

Maybe you have been worried about a pandemic?

Maybe you feel like you need to be disciple?

You need to figure out why you are not and address it. Because we will apear before the Bema seat and we will give an account for our actions.

Christ sends all to disciple, some He sends to cross-cultures. They are sent out of the church to go and reach people with the Gospel. How do you know if God is calling you to the mission field? The church will confirm your calling. Usually by seeing that you are actively teaching people here.

Paul Washer preached a sermon about missionaries are the ones that go into the cave of the great dragon and rescue people from His grasp. Doesn’t that sound exciting?

B. Christians need to respond to the Sender

Christ has sent, now we have to respond! How will you respond. Those things that we want to do, we do them.

Do you think a pothead is going to go a day without pot? No! He will hustle to get some pot.

Are you going to get out hustled by a pothead?

Discipleship Results by Christ’s Sending

II. Discipleship Is Willed by God

Eph. 1:1 Paul’s sending was “through” (δια) –“3. marker of instrumentality or circumstance whereby someth. is accomplished or effected, by, via, through” (BDAG, s.v. “διά,” 224.) the will God “a. Agency: by, through” (Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: an Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 368).

The agency by which Paul is sent by the will of God. Paul is Jesus’ apostle because God desired it to be so. Two different persons. Not the same person.

“Desire/will” "θελήματος" (Ephesians 1:1) appears 7 times in Ephesians which has only six chapters. It carries the meaning of “b. what one wishes to bring about by one’s own action, since one has undertaken to do what one has willed” (BDAG, s.v. “θέλημα,” 447).

God desired that Paul be sent. But God’s desire was not Him wishing up in heaven. Rather, divine intervention happened in Paul’s life.

Paul had the experience on the Road to Damascus

Paul received training out in the desert

Paul was brought on by Barnabas in Jerusalem and then Antioch

Paul had a vision of the Macedonian Call.

God had moved in Paul’s life.

A. God has sovereignly willed in your life

I hope you are not arrogant enough to think that you are where you are in life because you got yourself there. What do you owe to God:

Where you live

Where you work

Your strength

Your career

God has sovereignly willed and moved you for His glory and your good. He has placed you in contact with people I will never be in contact. And even if I were in contact with them I do not have your life situations to be able to share the Gospel with them like you could.

B. Yield to God’s Will

It might seem inconsistent to say that God has a sovereign will and then be pleading with you to yield to His sovereign will.

God always works out His plan and He allows us to be part of that plan. We will find fulfillment and pure joy by aligning our life with His plan.

When Paul wrote Philemon about Onesimus, Paul could have ordered Philemon to do what he wanted (Philemon 8). But Paul wanted Philemon to act rightly because he wanted to (Philemon 14), out of his free will.

It will not be easy, it is not like because you yield to God nothing bad will happen. But you can know peace from following God.

Discipleship Results by Christ’s Sending

II. Discipleship Is Willed by God

III. Discipleship Invites Saints to Grace and Peace

Eph. 1:2 Grace "χάρις" (Ephesians 1:2) this is an important word for Paul because he includes it 12 times in Ephesians. It has the meaning of “a beneficent disposition toward someone, favor, grace, gracious care/help, goodwill” (BDAG, s.v. “χάρις,” 1079).

The grace is “to you.” The Ephesians are to receive GRACE, favor that they do not desirve.

Grace is necessary to live. The Gospel is all about grace:

You need grace to be saved!

You need grace to live the Christian life!

Where would we be if it were not for the grace of God? God is a gracious God. Exodus 34:6-7

Exodus 34:6–7 NASB95

6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Numbers 6:24–26 NASB95

24 The Lord bless you, and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’

Peace "εἰρήνη" (Ephesians 1:2) “1. a state of concord, peace, harmony” (BDAG, s.v. “εἰρήνη,” 287). “Grace (χάρις) expresses the cause, God’s gracious work, and peace (εἰρήνη), the effect of God’s work” (Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary, Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 150).

Peace “from” - marks where the peace comes from. The peace comes from God.

Our sin makes us children of wrath, Paul will explain this.

But those who have believe in Christ have peace from God, peace comes down on to the believer!

“Our Father” – Paul is writing to Jews and Gentiles and he is calling God “our” Father. Not my Father. But our.

“And the Lord Jesus Christ” – again marks a difference in person between the Father and the Son.

A. What was Paul sent by Jesus by the will of the Father to do?

Paul shared Grace and Peace. If you reduce down the Christian life to two words it is Grace and Peace.

The Ephesians needed God’s grace. God’s grace is explained through the Gospel. Christ died for sinners.

The Ephesians needed God’s peace, they get that peace by believing in the Gospel

B. What should should be sharing with those around you?

Grace and peace. You can share that with the unsaved, you can share it with the saved.

Conclusion

Proposition: Christians will disciple when they submit to God's desire, and Jesus' sending to announce grace and peace.

I. Discipleship Results by Christ’s Sending

II. Discipleship Is Willed by God

III. Discipleship Invites Saints to Grace and Peace