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The Ephesian Connection
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus...
Apostle. When we hear this term, we usually think of men in the New Testament who did mighty miracles, walked in intimacy with Jesus, and established new churches. From among this company, God even appointed a few to write Holy Scripture. But while all of this is applicable, the word “apostle” simply means one sent on a mission, one who has been commissioned by another. An apostle of Christ was uniquely commissioned and sent by Him to authoritatively make Him known in word and deed.
Paul who was an apostle also saw himself as Christ’s slave [Greek, DOULOS] (Romans 1:1). The Lord had purchased his servant with His own blood and now Paul belonged wholly to Him and lived fully subject to His will. By definition, a slave could not live for himself, but only for the sake of his master. It simply would not make sense for a redeemed sinner/apostle of Christ not to be His slave. To bear such great spiritual authority so as to influence both individuals as well as whole cities/regions (Acts 13:44; 19:10) required that when speaking for his Master, an apostle would not simply speak his own words but seek to increasingly express those of the One who had sent him. For an apostle to misrepresent Christ in word or deed was to fail as His emissary and to reveal a contradiction – that to some degree he lived for himself as his own lord.
The first person we often think of in connection with apostleship is Paul. But the premier example is Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1).
Jesus did not simply decide one day to become the Savior of the world; His Father sent Him (John 17:18). Thus His primary ministry on earth was to do the will of His Father, to represent Him perfectly.
...the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
In fact, Jesus was able to say:
...I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
Consequently,
...He who has seen Me has seen the Father.
Jesus was the perfect representative. And just as He had revealed the Father, so Paul was called by grace to reveal the Lord Jesus, to bear His words and presence everywhere he went.
Today, while many speak for religious institutions, schools of doctrine, or methods of church order, authentic apostles of Christ must be so yielded to Him that He will speak for Himself in and through them. In other words, their agenda must be Christ. And as He increasingly calls and sends forth many such servants among us, one aspect of His strategy will be to fashion His people corporately as an apostolic people to make Him known. Along this line, He is presently calling us all to come and spend time with Him, to know Him more intimately so that we may bear His presence and over time speak His words to others with ever more accuracy.
...this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.
The word translated here as “know” involves intimate experience. To know Christ is to personally encounter Him, to come into oneness with Him. Here is our priority. Then as we grow to appreciate Him as He is, He will send us into the world on His behalf to not only speak truth about Him (things we have heard or read), but to proclaim on the basis of a face-to-face relationship who He is and what is on His heart.
God had said to Moses:
...come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain.
In effect He said, “Moses, come up and be there.” In obedience, Moses went up and stood in the presence of the Lord. And out of that encounter came “nation altering” consequences. The course of Israel, the way that men worshiped God, and even the history of mankind itself took a new direction because of that meeting between the Lord and Moses. There He gave significant insights concerning His purpose and the building of His house. And amazingly, those insights are still valid in the construction of His spiritual house in our generation. All over the world multitudes are thankful that Moses responded to God’s call to stand in His presence.
Another who responded to Heaven’s summons was the apostle Paul. Though the church at Antioch identified with this man, agreed with his call to international ministry, and released him from local church responsibility to fulfill God’s purpose, he never referred to himself as an apostle of Antioch. He was an apostle of Christ, called to make Him known. Nor did he attempt to promote “Antioch-ism”, the practice of using his home church as the pattern for the local churches he planted. He did not seem interested in duplicating elsewhere the corporate expression of the saints in Antioch. Rather, he endeavored to minister in the powerful wisdom of the Holy Spirit so that in each locale God would integrate through his servant’s labors gatherings of believers expressing unique corporate demonstrations of Christ (Ephesians 4:15 - 16). Obviously there would be similarities, such as establishing elders and deacons in each local church. However, because each group was comprised of believers with unique personalities, ethnic backgrounds, and ministries, and because they were united around the person of the Lord Jesus, God would cause an increase among the nations of the revelation of His Son. Here was Heaven’s goal.
The key to understanding Paul’s method of ministry is simple. He wanted to know and to make known the person of Christ. He was not enamored with a favorite doctrine or a method of church ministry. The risen Lord had captured his heart. And Paul wanted Him to be central and magnified in all the earth.
It was not always so for him. He says of his former life:
...I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen.
While “moving up the ranks” in Jewish religion, Paul was actually opposing Heaven. He cast Christians into prison, tried to force them to blaspheme, and all the while believed he was rendering service to God (Acts 26:2 - 11). In fact, He saw the Christian phenomenon as a kind of “infection” in Judaism that needed to be eradicated.
However, one day on the road to Damascus, while fuming in his fanatical zeal against the followers of Christ, Paul met the fulfillment of all that he had studied. Prior to this, during his time of training in the Law and the Prophets, he had gained much knowledge from the well-respected Rabbi Gamaliel. So he thought he understood the Scriptures. But on the fateful day of his salvation, he met their fulfillment. And as he beheld the glory of Christ, he realized there was no comparison between mere knowledge about God and actually meeting Him in person. Confronted with such majesty, Paul fell to the ground. And his life was never the same.
From that time on, the glory of Christ became both Paul’s message and also the experience of those who received his gospel. “Come meet Heaven’s Word to the nations.” And indeed, many did. Why did he make such an impact in his lifetime upon so many? The plain answer is that he had been taken captive; he had become the bond-slave of his Messiah even unto prison and death. He simply could not settle for a ministry of speaking mere words. He desperately wanted Christ, to experience God’s work of unveiling His Son in and through him. Just as the Father had been pleased to reveal Himself in His Son, so now to Paul’s amazement, the Lord Jesus was making Himself known individually through him, through the other ministries (Ephesians 4:10 - 13), and also corporately through bodies of believers built on the proper apostolic foundation.
The only biblical foundation sufficient for God’s house cannot be mere doctrine about the Lord Jesus (as important as that is), even if it is biblical and balanced. Doctrine alone will never suffice. Such an approach will only bring about more sects among us, more fault lines expressed in varied and often conflicting interpretations of scripture. Rather, the bedrock, the Stone upon which God is building His house is the person of the Lord Jesus Himself (1Corinthians 3:10 - 11). And He has chosen to graciously unveil Himself as the foundation of God’s emerging singular house by the power of the Holy Spirit uniquely through the ministries of New Testament apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). May God call, empower, and give to the nations such vessels of grace in our day.
If we would see the Lord Jesus made known through our lives and ministries, we must walk in a first–love relationship with Him. From there He will enable us to go into the world as an apostolic people accurately representing the One who has sent us.
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