WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 So this evening we're going to be continuing the series we started last week on the gifts of the Spirit. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Before the summer here at St. Columbus we were looking on our Sunday evenings at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5, 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:18.000 the fruit of the Spirit's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and so on. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:27.000 What it looks like to live a life that's led by the Spirit that's rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ and so on and so forth. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:35.000 Now last week we started a new series on the gifts of the Spirit. We looked at the fruit of the Spirit, we're now looking at the gifts of the Spirit. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:42.000 And Derek reminded us last week that every Christian, every follower of Jesus Christ has gifts. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:47.000 That through the Holy Spirit we are all gifted in unique and different ways. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:55.000 And I think a lot of Christians sometimes struggle with acknowledging that, with accepting that they're gifted. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:03.000 Maybe because they feel like they're not talented or you're not worthy or you're maybe even afraid of what other people might think of you. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:07.000 And maybe we fall into one of these categories this evening. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:15.000 But the fact is the Bible says that every Christian has a gift, has gifts. You have unique gifts as a Christian. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:22.000 And perhaps maybe it's part of our culture being Scottish, we struggle to talk about our own abilities, our own gifts. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:26.000 Maybe it makes us a little bit uncomfortable. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:33.000 Sometimes we have a tendency to understate our abilities and the things that we're good at. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:41.000 But the New Testament is clear that through the Spirit God has equipped us as a church, as individuals, to have gifts. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.000 Each and every one of us. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:51.000 And what that means is that no matter how much we value and love the leadership of an individual, like Derek or Thomas or whoever it is, 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:55.000 the church has to be so much more than a one-man band. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.000 Romans chapter 12 verse 6 puts it like this. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:05.000 It says, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:10.000 We all have something to offer God and the church. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:19.000 So clearly it's important that we reflect on what the Bible says about these gifts and that we understand biblical teaching on the spiritual gifts. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:27.000 So last Sunday we did an overview of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the passage we read earlier, the great spiritual gifts passage. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.000 We thought last week about God as the great gift giver. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:32.000 God is the starting point. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.000 God is the one who gives these gifts through the Holy Spirit. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:44.000 And tonight we're going to think for a brief time about the first gift we have listed for us in 1 Corinthians 12, 28. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.000 God has placed in the church, first of all, apostles. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.000 And I wanted to think about the gift of apostles by breaking it down into two simple questions. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:54.000 So two points this evening. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.000 Mary had three, I've got two. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:57.000 Well, I've kind of cheated. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000 My second one has like five sub points. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:02.000 But the first one is what is an apostle? 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.000 I'm going to think about what an apostle is, what the Bible says about apostles. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:11.000 And then secondly, I want us to think about why God gave apostles. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.000 Why should they matter to us this evening? 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:17.000 Why are they significant in our lives as Christians? 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:21.000 So first of all, why, what is an apostle? 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:27.000 Maybe you're sitting here this evening and you have no idea what I'm talking about when I use the word apostle. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Maybe you're hearing about kind of vague idea or a vague understanding of what an apostle is. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:36.000 Or maybe you feel like, you know, all there is to know about the apostles. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.000 I think wherever you're at in your understanding, before we jump into it properly, 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:46.000 I think it's helpful for us just to reflect on what the Bible actually says about apostles. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:52.000 I'm not going to bore you all with the Greek, but the word itself literally means one who is sent. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.000 It's someone who is sent. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:58.000 It's a messenger, a kind of representative. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.000 It's a bill like when we have the General Assembly in this building every year, the Queen. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.000 She doesn't often come herself, but she sends someone called the Lord High Commissioner, 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:11.000 someone who comes and someone who speaks to us as if it was the Queen speaking. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:17.000 Someone who represents her. In the ancient world, Caesar had a similar kind of thing going on. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:20.000 He would send apostles to speak for him. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.000 And if you didn't obey these apostles, you were effectively disobeying Caesar himself. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:30.000 Now, the Bible tells us in the New Testament that Jesus sent out apostles. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.000 He sent out people who functioned in much the same way. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.000 The apostles were people who would speak for Jesus with his words 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.000 and who would act with his authority. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:44.000 So who were they? 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.000 Well, we need to look at a couple of key texts. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.000 Bear with me as we jump around a little bit. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.000 The first one I want to look at is in Matthew chapter 10. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.000 The first kind of apostle text we have is here. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:01.000 These are the names of the 12 apostles, the disciples who followed Jesus. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:08.000 Simon, Peter, his brother Andrew, James, his brother John, Philip, and Bartholomew, 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:14.000 Thomas, and Matthew, the tax collector, James, and Thaddeus, Simon the zealot, 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:19.000 and Judas, who ultimately betrayed him. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.000 So these are the guys who followed Jesus around in his earthly ministry. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:25.000 They were his inner core of his followers. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:28.000 And here we have them sent out as apostles. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:34.000 And the point is that there's a distinction made in the Bible between a disciple and an apostle. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.000 There's a difference. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.000 All Christians are disciples. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:42.000 If you hear this evening and your faith is in Jesus Christ, you are a disciple. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.000 You're a follower, a learner of Jesus Christ. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.000 That's literally what the word means. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:49.000 You're a follower of Jesus Christ. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:52.000 But not all disciples are apostles. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:55.000 And that's important, and we'll come back to that. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:02.000 See, in Matthew chapter 10 and in the next text, I think I forgot to put on the screen, Acts chapter 1, 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.000 the point that's been made is that they have a unique role in the church. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.000 These apostles, these guys who are sort of sent out by Jesus. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Acts chapter 1 verse 21, this is after Judas has betrayed Jesus and they have to replace him. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:21.000 It says, it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time Jesus was living among us, 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:25.000 beginning with John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.000 For one of these must become a witness to the resurrection. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:33.000 So they nominate two men, Joseph called Bar Sabbath and Matthias. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:41.000 And then they prayed, Lord, you know everyone's heart, show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:46.000 So they cast lots and they fell on Matthias and he's added to the 11 apostles. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:54.000 So part of the criteria for being an apostle is being a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Okay, we're getting there, one more biblical text. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.000 You've also got the apostle Paul. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.000 How does Paul fit in? 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:07.000 Paul calls himself an apostle, he calls himself one who is sent not from men nor by a man, 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:12.000 but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:19.000 Now Paul obviously came later, he wasn't with Jesus as original 12 when he was here on earth. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.000 So how does he fit in? 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.000 How does he meet this criteria for being an apostle? 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:29.000 Well he says in 1 Corinthians 15, this is the last big text we're going to read. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:33.000 He says, for what I received I passed on to you as a first importance, 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.000 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:39.000 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:43.000 and that he appeared to Cephas, that's Peter, and then to the 12. 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:47.000 After that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:50.000 most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:53.000 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.000 and last of all he appeared to me also. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:01.000 For I am the least of the apostles, and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:04.000 because I persecuted the church of God. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:09.000 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:14.000 No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was in me. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:20.000 So clearly Paul is considered in the Bible to be part of this select group of individuals. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:23.000 He is part of this group of apostles. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:29.000 Now what all of this stuff boils down to is that the gift of apostleship is unique. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:34.000 It's a particular gift for a particular moment in time, 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.000 and it's given to a certain group of people. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.000 So maybe we're sitting here this evening and we're thinking, 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:45.000 well why is any of this really relevant to me and my Christian life this evening? 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:51.000 How does any of this stuff affect me tomorrow at work or at uni? 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:54.000 Why aren't we looking at gifts that we can actually use? 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:00.000 Well the reason is that the gift of apostles is such an important starting point. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:06.000 The Bible describes the apostles as the foundation that the church is built on. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:10.000 And we're going to think now just for a little bit about why God gave us apostles. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.000 And there's several reasons. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.000 I'm going to suggest five very briefly. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.000 The first of all is that the church is built on their foundation. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:23.000 You and Red for us earlier from Ephesians 2 verse 19 and 20, 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.000 you're no longer foreigners and strangers, 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.000 but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:34.000 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:39.000 Now foundations are important, they're essential. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.000 That might seem obvious but it's true. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.000 And it's a metaphor that Jesus used in his teaching. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.000 He used the story of the man who built his house on the rock 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.000 and the man who built his house on the sand. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:55.000 And in both cases the wind comes, the storms come, the waves come, 00:09:55.000 --> 00:10:00.000 and the house on the rock stands firm and the house on the sand is washed away. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.000 It's a simple point, the point being that what you build your life on, 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:07.000 what you choose to base your life on will have tremendous consequences. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:11.000 And choosing the right foundation is essential. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:13.000 So right away we see here with the apostles, 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:18.000 they are hugely, hugely, hugely important figures and we have to understand them. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:22.000 At the very least because they are the ground on which the church is built. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.000 And for us today that means that St. Columba's here in Edinburgh 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:28.000 is built on the foundation of the apostles. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:32.000 It means that St. Columba's is grounded in the work of the apostles, 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:35.000 the message of the apostles, the teaching of the apostles. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:40.000 It means that every individual believing group and congregation 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:46.000 and even every individual believer is grounded in the apostles. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:50.000 There's a document called the Nicene Creed, it's a historical church document. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:55.000 I won't go into the history stuff, it's fascinating but we'll put you all to sleep. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.000 But effectively what it was was a document that summarized what the church believed. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.000 And this is a statement that the church has confessed together, 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.000 has stated together time and time throughout history. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:11.000 We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:15.000 Now it's important to state right away that Catholic that's with a small c, 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.000 it just means universal, it's not referring to Rome. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:24.000 And really it's referring to the kind of the global nature of Jesus's church. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:31.000 It's worldwide, it's not limited to a certain group or denomination or sect. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.000 But the church we believe is apostolic. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:39.000 It is grounded in these guys called the apostles. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:44.000 See sometimes in life the foundation beneath us can feel a little bit flimsy. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:48.000 In our day to day lives it can feel like the ground is about to give way. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.000 Sometimes we live our life as Christians, our faith can seem shaky, 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:56.000 the people around us can seem inconsistent. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:02.000 But one thing we have is this amazing, amazing truth that we are part of something so much bigger. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:06.000 Something that is grounded in what God has done through the apostles. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:11.000 God gave the gift of apostles first of all as a foundation for the church. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:16.000 Secondly, and related to that and building on that from mixing metaphors a little bit, 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:20.000 that God gave the gift of apostles because we need teaching. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.000 Imagine for a second that you are a first century Christian 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:31.000 and you're believing in Jesus Christ, you're following the church and all the rest of that. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.000 You've experienced what we were thinking about this morning, 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:36.000 you've been made alive in Christ, you've been transformed. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:41.000 You maybe have a copy of Old Testament Scriptures but you've got no New Testament. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:45.000 Where do you go if you want to learn more about the cross? 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:48.000 How do you find out how you should relate to the law now that you're a Christian? 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:55.000 Or how do you relate to the people around you, the church? 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.000 See the apostles were given in this unique period in history. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:05.000 After Jesus Christ has risen from the dead but it's before the New Testament has been finalized, 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:11.000 I wonder when we read our New Testaments, do we think about the books inside it? 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:16.000 Do we think about why they are there, why those ones and not other ones? 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.000 The teaching of the apostles is effectively the New Testament, it's the teaching of Jesus. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.000 The Bible says that they were carried along these people by the Holy Spirit, 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:27.000 it's what we call the inspiration of Scripture. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:33.000 So the message of Paul, the message of Peter, of John, of Matthew, of Mark, and Luke and so on and so forth, 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:37.000 is all the message of Jesus Christ. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:42.000 And just as we think about the content of the apostles' teaching, when you read Peter's letters, 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:48.000 you don't get a book full of Peter's helpful life advice for a happy life. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:58.000 When you read Paul, you don't get 10 top tricks to a successful and happy life. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.000 It's not just good advice on how to live. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:09.000 When you read the apostles, you get the gospel, you get the message of Jesus Christ. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:14.000 Paul is not big on his office as an apostle, as his role as an apostle. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:20.000 He mentions it when he has to, when he's forced to defend himself, but Paul is big on the gospel. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.000 The gospel just radiates throughout Paul's writings. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:29.000 It's absolutely fundamental. It's the central thing in the apostles' teaching. 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:32.000 They were fundamentally gospel people. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:36.000 Their life, their actions, their words, their thoughts, their writings, 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:41.000 they were all shaped and molded and driven by the gospel. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:46.000 So if we are the church that's built on the foundation of the apostles, 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:51.000 if we're following on in their tradition, we need to be gospel people. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:57.000 We have to be a gospel church. It might seem obvious, but it's true. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:00.000 And as we think about the gifts of the Spirit in our Christian lives, 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.000 we can never separate that from the one who gives those gifts. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:07.000 The one who is the source of the gospel, the God we were thinking about. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:10.000 God is the great gift giver. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.000 At 1 Corinthians 12 verse 4, it says, 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:15.000 there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:18.000 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.000 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.000 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:30.000 it is the same God at work. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.000 God is the great gift giver. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:36.000 Ultimately, it's not because the apostles were awesome. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:41.000 When you read the Bible, you see they were fairly flawed individuals at times. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:44.000 Peter was a fisherman. Paul made tents. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:48.000 Matthew was a finance guy. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:52.000 These were normal people chosen by God, commissioned by God, sent out by God, 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.000 and gifted by God. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:02.000 And ultimately, it's God's revealed truth that we have through the teaching of the apostles. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.000 Okay, thirdly, moving on. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:09.000 The apostles are absolutely crucial for how we understand mission. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.000 That's what the Book of Acts is all about. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.000 The Book of Acts is amazing. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.000 It's exciting. It's fascinating. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.000 You can sit down and you can read it in one sitting. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:22.000 And I'd recommend if you get the chance to do that. It's incredible. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:25.000 The apostles do incredible things through the Spirit. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:28.000 They speak the gospel message. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:34.000 They perform miracles and healings and all kinds of wonderful signs that point people to Jesus. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.000 They plant churches. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.000 What we do here in St. Columas, we, you know, cornerstone a few years ago, 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:45.000 in the middle of the West Valley, Haddington, these are not novel things. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.000 Church planting is not a recent fad. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.000 It's profoundly biblical. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:54.000 You read the Book of Acts, you see church planting. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:59.000 The apostles were committed to spreading the gospel by planting new churches 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:04.000 and forming new communities of Christians all over the world. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:09.000 And the mission of the apostles is a mission that we're called through today as Christians. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:12.000 We can't say that their experience is normative for us. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:16.000 In other words, we can't do exactly as they didn't expect to get the exact same results. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:20.000 They're a very unique group of individuals. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.000 But it is absolutely true that we share their sentness. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:30.000 And if Thomas can get away with bigness last week, I'm going to go for sentness as a word. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.000 We share in their sentness. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:38.000 God sends out every single believer to be a Jesus messenger. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:43.000 We all have an amazing message for the people around us, for our family, 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:46.000 our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:50.000 There's profoundly good news to share. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.000 And we too, like the apostles, have the Holy Spirit. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:56.000 We are sent out with the Holy Spirit inside us. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:02.000 We have the gift of the Holy Spirit living in our lives, each and every one of us. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:09.000 It's impossible to be a Christian and not have the Holy Spirit. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:11.000 So we have the gospel of the apostles. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:14.000 We have the Holy Spirit of the apostles. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:16.000 We have the same message of the apostles. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:17.000 It's life-changing. 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.000 It's life-transforming. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:20.000 It's a message of good news. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.000 It's a message about a person, Jesus Christ. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:29.000 And just like the apostles actually shape the way we think, the way we act, the way we speak, 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:34.000 and we should ultimately be driven with that as a result to mission. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.000 So that's mission thirdly. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.000 Fourthly, authority. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:39.000 Why did God give the apostles? 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:42.000 Well, the church needs authority. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:46.000 And I think instantly today in our society, in our culture, that's a word that people don't like. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.000 It's a word that people may be shrink back from a little bit. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:55.000 We live in a culture that's very much emphasizing individual autonomy, freedom of expression, 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.000 and the value of self. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:03.000 So anything that threatens that, we kind of shrink back from. 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:10.000 But Jesus is so clear in the Bible that the church can never be a free-for-all. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:12.000 We're not just a group of random individuals. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:18.000 It just happened to meet together every now and then, and saying, and then go home and do our own thing. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:20.000 The church has authority. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.000 God has given us authority through the apostles. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 Maybe you've ever read the book The Da Vinci Code or watched the movie. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.000 It's an interesting take on history. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.000 It's profoundly wrong, but it's an interesting story. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.000 It takes a stance that the true Jesus of history has been distorted, 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.000 and the churches kind of swept him away, 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:50.000 and the real Jesus actually got married and had kids and all sorts of other things. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.000 But that way of thinking is actually quite common. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:57.000 People think that we need to get back to the real Jesus. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:00.000 We need to discover the historical, the message of Jesus in here is not the real Jesus. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:03.000 We need to discover the real one. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:10.000 Part of that is because people don't like the apostles' position on sexuality or church leadership. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.000 It's controversial. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.000 So some people say, well, you know, I'll follow the teachings of Jesus, 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:20.000 but I'll leave the apostles to one side. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.000 Some denominations today, some parts of the church, they take this view. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:28.000 They say that, well, the apostles, that was then, and this is now. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:31.000 We need to determine truth for ourselves. 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:34.000 God is doing a new thing. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:39.000 But as a church, we have to believe that the whole Bible is the teaching of Jesus. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:42.000 Right from the beginning, right through the end, including the apostles, 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:44.000 and it all carries his authority. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:49.000 It's his living word, how he speaks to us today. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:55.000 My last point this evening is that God gave the apostles to the church for guidance. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.000 The world we live in today desperately needs guidance. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:02.000 Just building on what we were thinking earlier about teaching. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:06.000 How do we know what is true? 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:08.000 How do we know what is true? 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:13.000 Our culture today tells us that we need to determine truth for ourselves. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:17.000 Or that what's true for you might not be true for me. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:20.000 We have a really subjective view of truth. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.000 And it's a common way of thinking. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:29.000 But the gift of the apostles, God gives us these people because he knows that we need guidance. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.000 They're like a spiritual satnav. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:34.000 A kind of godly Google Maps. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:38.000 They keep us going in the right direction. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:42.000 And, well, we make sense of that by thinking, well, what was their primary job? 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.000 What was the primary task of the apostles? 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.000 It was to point people to Jesus. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.000 It was to guide people to Jesus Christ. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:55.000 They were to bear witness to his life and his claims. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:01.000 And through the apostles, you come face to face with the living Jesus Christ. 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:05.000 With the resurrected Savior and Lord of this world. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:11.000 So when you go and open your Bible and you read Ephesians, or you read 1 John or James, 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:15.000 you come face to face with Jesus. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:20.000 One of the big reasons the church needs the gift of apostles is false teaching. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.000 And that's something you read time and time again in the New Testament. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:28.000 False teaching has been a problem for the church throughout its existence. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:33.000 And for example, some groups would say that to become a Christian, you also had to become a Jew. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:35.000 You had to follow the ceremonial law. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:38.000 And if you were a male, you had to get circumcised. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:42.000 That's what the letter of goations is dealing with. It's false teaching. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:48.000 It's guiding people away from that, which is effectively a different gospel, a different Jesus. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:53.000 And this crops up time and time again throughout history. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:01.000 So God gave the gift of the apostles to point us and guide us to the real living Jesus Christ. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:06.000 I want to close this evening just by reading a verse from 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:07.000 It says, 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:29.000 Just as we were thinking about last week, as a Christian, God has given you all that you need. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:33.000 He has given all the gifts that you need as an individual. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:38.000 You might not feel that way sometimes. You might struggle with that, but it's true. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:42.000 We have the gift of the Holy Spirit living inside us. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:46.000 The same spirit who brings the words of the apostles to life. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:51.000 The spirit who turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:56.000 The same spirit that works through the apostles in all of their teaching and in all of their miracles. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:59.000 And we share in the apostles' sentness. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:07.000 We are being sent out tomorrow in whatever we are in our workplace or uni or in our social circles, wherever we'll be. 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:14.000 We're sent into a world that is broken, a world that is in many ways in darkness, a world that is a mission field, 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:24.000 full of people that need to hear the gospel, that need to hear the message of forgiveness and hope and life that can only be found in Jesus. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:34.000 We are Jesus' messengers today, and we pray that his spirit would help us and enable us to be faithful gospel messengers. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:39.000 Before we sing again, let's just come before God in prayer. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:48.000 Our Father in heaven, we come before you this evening, and we thank you that you are a God who gives gifts to your church. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:54.000 Lord, you are a God who does not leave us to our own devices, you do not leave us to find our own way in life. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:59.000 Father, you have given us the greatest gift of all in your Son Jesus Christ. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:06.000 And we praise you Father for his death, his life, his resurrection, and for all that you've achieved for us through Jesus. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:11.000 We thank you Father for your spirit which lives and seeks to guide us in our hearts. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:20.000 Father, help us to be people who are characterized, people who are, Lord, just driven by the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:29.000 Father, be with us tomorrow in wherever you send us, whether that's studies, whether that's work, whether that's our family or our homes. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:34.000 Father, help us wherever we are to be effective witnesses of your good news. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:41.000 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.