And He Gave Some As Apostles

Point your attention to a couple of places in 2 Timothy. Paul's words to Timothy when he wrote this final letter. He says in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 5, to Timothy, "For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well." And then also in chapter 3 of that same book, he says in verse 14, "You however continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus."

And we are very thankful that God has created mothers — not just women, but mothers — that he has given you such an incredible opportunity and quality about you to be used by God in such a significant way. My mother is the one who gave me birth and she is also the one God used to bring me into the new birth. She is the one who shared the gospel with me over a period of time, and I came to faith by watching her life. And I think in my own family, that in all the years of instructing my children about Christ, the thing that had the greatest impact was they got to watch a mother who lived like Christ, and she gave them a picture of what he's really like and gave them a hunger to be like that. So we are grateful for all of you.

I'd like all the mothers to stand before we look at the word here. If you would just stand up, all of you mothers. And we just want to take a moment to give God thanks for you.

Our Father, we thank you this morning for these women that you have placed in this body, and for those that have family that are here to be with their family today and celebrate this Mother's Day. We are so grateful, Father, that you've put this incredible quality in their hearts and you've put in their hands the most important thing in this universe to you — the lives of little children to shape and to mold. And we are thankful for them. We pray today that this would be a day of great encouragement, that children and grandchildren would spend this day expressing their love and their gratitude to their mothers and grandmothers. This would be a day that was full of enrichment to all of us. We thank you for them. And we ask your blessing on their lives and on their ministry in Christ's name. Amen.

Thank you. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 1. We're going to continue on in the book of Acts. Let me just by way of introduction read a couple verses out of Ephesians — you don't need to turn there. In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says, "When he ascended" — that is when Jesus Christ ascended on high — "he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." And a few verses later, he begins to enumerate those gifts that he gave to men. Are you pointing to me, Dan? Sorry, but you were giving me a signal.

He starts enumerating these gifts that he had given to the church, and he says he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. He gave these gifts to the church to bring the church to maturity, and at the top of that list are the apostles. And notice what he says in verse 14, the next verse: "As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming."

There ever was a day in which there are waves of doctrine and winds of doctrine blowing through the church, and the trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming — there certainly is today in the church in America. And the solution for that, to keep us stable and bring us to maturity, is really what the apostles gave to the church: the foundation that they laid, the foundation that they were.

What we want to look at today by going on in the book of Acts is to see why Jesus Christ gave apostles to the church. Why are they such a special gift? Why are they called that? And why are they described as that in the words of Christ and then in the teachings of the New Testament?

Turn with me to Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 12. You remember from last week, in the first 11 verses, we saw this account of the ascension of Christ. Before he ascended, he met with his apostles and gave them some final instructions. He told them to go to Jerusalem and to wait there until he had gone to the Father, and when he got to the Father, he was going to send the Spirit to them, and he was going to pour out the Spirit upon them and empower them to become witnesses for him in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Notice how they responded in verse 12. "Then they" — that is the apostles — "returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away." A Sabbath day's journey is about 2,000 steps — 2,000 cubits, basically 2,000 paces — to the east of the city of Jerusalem. They walked back from this Mount Olivet where Jesus ascended into his glory. They walked back to Jerusalem, and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room. We assume, because of the way this is expressed, this is the same upper room that Jesus had his final meal — the Passover meal — with the apostles.

"Where they were staying, that is Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the zealot and Judas the son of James." Like every other listing of the apostles in the New Testament, they're never in the exact same order, but they always are made up of three groups of four each. At the head of each one of these groups is always Peter. If you notice: Peter, John, James, and Andrew — and then the head of the second group is always Philip — then Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew — and then the head of the final group is always James the son of Alphaeus. These were Christ's apostles, those that he chose. An apostle is an official witness and emissary — somebody who is sent with authority. Jesus Christ chose these men to be his apostles. And there's only one missing, as you notice: it's Judas Iscariot.

"These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers." Here we have the final picture of Mary. And it's interesting that she's gathered with the disciples of Christ, the apostles, and the other disciples, and she is praying and worshiping alongside of them as a fellow sinner in need of a Savior — her son, her physical son, and her Savior, Jesus Christ.

And if you'll notice also in that verse it says that they were with one mind. It's interesting in the book of Acts that this word is used eleven times. It's only used one other time in the New Testament. But continually, as we're getting a picture of the early church — as the church goes out from Jerusalem and as Christ is building his church and as the gospel is going out — over and over and over again, as it describes them, as it describes the atmosphere of the early church, it is "with one mind." There is unity.

And if you remember, in John 13 Jesus said it would be our love for one another that would be the distinctive mark of the followers of Jesus Christ that would impress this world, and they had that quality. They were of one mind.

And along with the apostles were the women. And if you remember back — and I think in the eighth chapter of John [note: Luke 8] — we have a listing of all these women who were traveling along with Jesus, and it said they were women who had been healed and who had had demons cast out of them, and who had come to have a personal faith in Christ. And they followed Christ, and they even gave out of their financial support to support the work of Christ and his followers. And here they are with them in the upper room, along with the other 120 persons who were there.

Verse 15: At this time Peter — oh, by the way, in verse 14, notice not only is it Mary the mother of Jesus, but also the brothers of Jesus are here. Jesus had four physical brothers — half-brothers, of course: they had the same mother but a different father, because Jesus Christ had no earthly father, but he had an earthly mother. And Mary had four more sons, so he had four younger brothers. And during the life of Christ, we were told in the gospel accounts that they didn't follow Christ, they didn't believe upon him. But now that Christ has risen from the dead, they have come to follow him and believe upon him. In fact, we're told in 1 Corinthians 15 that James the brother of Jesus was one of the individuals that Christ appeared to after his resurrection. And so now they have believed upon him and they are in the midst of his apostles and disciples.

Verse 15: "At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons were there together." By the way, there are more disciples than this at this time. There are 120 in this upper room, but we know that there were several hundred more in Galilee. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared to 500 brothers at once before this occurred here. And so there are several hundred people who have actually rested their faith in Christ, who are followers of Jesus Christ, and 120 of them — those probably who were in this area of Jerusalem — were gathered together with them.

And Peter stands up and begins to speak to them in verse 15. And now in verse 16 it says, "Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who had become a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was counted among us and received his portion in this ministry."

What an amazing account here of Judas. And notice in the following verses this parenthesis that probably Luke adds to describe Judas. As Peter is talking about him, he explains in verse 18, "Now this man" — that is Judas — "acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out." What a passage to be reading on Mother's Day. "And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem, so that in their own language the field was called Hakeldama" — that is, Field of Blood — "for it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his homestead be desolate and let no man dwell in it,' and 'His office let another man take.'"

What a description of Judas. I'd like to point out just a couple things briefly about Judas that we see in scripture, so you have a clear picture of this apostate. This is the primary apostate in scripture — that is, someone who has claimed to be a man of faith, to be within the household of faith, but who ultimately turns away from God and abandons the faith.

Now, we believe the scripture teaches clearly — very clearly — that a person who comes to rest their faith in Jesus Christ is saved for now and for eternity, that they are eternally secure. And more than that, that the person who rests his faith in Christ, who's born again, will persevere to the end. We believe in the perseverance of the saints — that the scripture clearly teaches that every person who is born again will persevere throughout their life. They may have times when they turn aside; they'll have times of disobedience, and in their life there will be those times and seasons when they won't be living by faith. But characteristically throughout their life they will persevere.

And here we have Judas Iscariot, one of the closest people to Jesus Christ, who turns his back on Christ and not only turns his back on him but sells him out completely.

Jesus — at the very first mention of Judas Iscariot in Luke chapter 6, when Jesus chooses him as an apostle — he is described as Judas Iscariot who became a traitor. And notice these things about him.

First of all, he was highly privileged. In Luke chapter 6, we have an account — one of the parallel accounts — of the calling of the apostles, the appointing of the apostles. And Judas is appointed to the highest office any man could ever hold on the face of the earth, and that is to be an official emissary of Jesus Christ. He was as close to Jesus as you could possibly get and be unregenerate. Here is a man who lived for three and a half years intimately involved in the life of Jesus Christ.

But secondly, we see that he had a hypocritical faith — that his faith was not genuine. In John 6, Jesus said these words. He said, "Did I not myself choose you?" — he's talking to all the apostles — "Did I not choose you the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." Now, John says he meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he — one of the twelve — was going to betray him. His faith was not legitimate.

Third, he was dishonest and greedy. We find in John chapter 12 an account where, just the week before the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, he is at a friend's home in Bethany, the home of Lazarus. And while he is there, listen to what happens. It says, "So they made him a supper there and Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary therefore took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples" — who was intending to betray him; he already has it in his heart now that he's going to betray Jesus Christ — "says, 'Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii?'" That is about thirty thousand dollars. Here's a man who knew the value of this — what a waste, for this woman to pour out this costly perfume on the feet of Jesus. And Judas says it could have been sold and given to the poor. And then John adds this explanation: "Now he said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to pilfer what was put into it." So he was dishonest and he was greedy.

Matthew 26 — we find out he's a mercenary. It says, right after this event, after this pouring out of this perfume and his complaint: "Then one of the twelve named Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said to them, 'What are you willing to give me to deliver him up to you?' And they weighed out to him thirty pieces of silver" — the price of a slave. "And from then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray him."

And then we find he was satanically controlled. Listen to this description. In the upper room — now watch, to get this picture: here is Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve. He's in the upper room with Jesus. The last meal they're going to have together. Think about what happened in that upper room. In John 13, when Jesus girds himself about with a towel — with the apron of a slave — and begins to wash the feet of his disciples. He takes the role of the lowest kind of servant you had in a household and begins to wash their feet. And here's Judas. Judas has thirty pieces of silver in his bag; he's already sold Christ out. As Jesus comes by to wash his feet — and then listen to this description — as they are reclining at table, it says, "When Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray me.'" One of you twelve — imagine being in a room with eleven other men and Jesus looks at this group of twelve and says, "One of you will betray me." The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one he was speaking.

"There was reclining on Jesus' breast one of his disciples" — from the parallel account, it was John, whom Jesus loved. "Simon Peter therefore gestured to him and said to him, 'Tell us who it is of whom he is speaking.' And so John, leaning back on Jesus' breast, said to him, 'Lord, who is it?' Jesus therefore answered, 'That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.' So when he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas the son of Simon Iscariot. And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him." Jesus therefore said to him, "What you do, do quickly." Now, no one of those reclining at table knew for what purpose he had said this to him. Some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him to buy the things we need for the feast, or else that he should give something to the poor. And so after receiving the morsel he went out immediately, and it was night.

Because he made himself available to Satan — Satan actually took up residence. We're not talking about a demon here; we're talking about the person of Satan, Lucifer himself, who entered into the life, the body of Judas, and began to totally control him at this point.

And then we see that he was treacherous. In Luke 22, verse 47: "While he was still speaking, behold, a multitude came." This is in the garden of Gethsemane — the night that he is arrested. He's with his disciples. He's telling them to wake up and be prepared. And just as he is speaking to them, a multitude comes. "And the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding him and he approached Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, 'Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?'"

And finally, he was sorrowful after the fact but unrepentant. We are told in Matthew chapter 27 that Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned — that Christ had been condemned. He felt remorse, and he returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself." And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed. And he went away and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood." And they counseled together, and with the money bought the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the field of blood to this day. "In that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, 'And they took thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.'"

What an amazing account of the ultimate apostate — a man who was a follower of Christ externally but whose heart was not transformed. And because his heart was not transformed, when the demands of Christ became beyond his natural ability to follow, he turned on Christ and committed the ultimate crime: selling out, betraying the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think that one of the reasons that we are given this account so vividly in the gospels is to let us know that we need to examine our own hearts. It is not the external following of Christ that means that we are born again. But it's when the heart is transformed. It is our relationship with Christ — not our relationship to the community of faith, not our relationship with Christians externally — but it is our personal commitment to Jesus Christ that flows out of a new birth that only the Spirit of God can accomplish in our lives.

Well, he goes on. Back in Acts chapter 1, Peter says, "Therefore, verse 21, it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us, one of these should become a witness with us of his resurrection."

Notice — Peter says we need a replacement for Judas. And that's exactly what they needed, because Jesus said there were to be twelve apostles reigning in the kingdom of God in the future. Twelve sons of Jacob, twelve tribes, twelve apostles of the Lamb. And those twelve apostles — Jesus said they would reign over the twelve tribes of Israel in the kingdom.

And so they begin to discuss — Peter takes the lead — about how they're going to replace Judas Iscariot, who was a false believer and a false apostle. And he says the requirement is it has to be somebody who's been with us — who's been with Jesus and with his apostles from the time of John's baptism until Jesus Christ ascended.

And they put forth two men who met these qualifications. He says in verse 23 one was Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus — and Matthias. And they prayed and said, "Thou Lord who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen."

And then what they do is they take a God-ordained method of decision-making from the Old Testament. They're still in that phase of God's program before the Day of Pentecost, and they make this decision according to a method that God had given in Leviticus about how to make decisions like this. So it says in verse 25, to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place, they drew lots for them. And the lot fell to Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven.

And so here we have the ranks filled up. And finally this one man — who had been from the very beginning, Jesus said, a devil, who was going to betray Jesus Christ — is replaced by Matthias, and again we have the twelve apostles.

Some try to argue that this is not a legitimate replacement, somehow that what they did was wrong, because of the method. But this was the method that God had given in the Old Testament for these kinds of decisions. And from this point on, Luke calls them "the twelve" — the twelve apostles. And so I think based upon that we can be assured that they made the right decision. And here we have the twelve apostles.

And what I'd like us to do for the next few minutes is to think about how important these apostles are to the church of Jesus Christ — that this gift that Christ gave to the church in the persons of these apostles ministered and fulfilled something in the early church that was so vital, and they continue to fulfill that today in a very unique way.

So let's take a look at some of these things. First of all, how can we identify what a true apostle is? Here are the qualifications of the apostles. They had to be appointed by Christ. An apostle is somebody who is an official representative and messenger of another. The apostles were official messengers of Jesus Christ, appointed by Christ. There are no self-appointed apostles that are legitimate apostles. Now I say that because there are many self-appointed apostles throughout the history of the church. There are self-appointed apostles today. There are groups that have the name "apostolic" in their name, and they usually have apostles within their groups. But one of the things that they don't have is a Christ-appointed apostle.

The second requirement was that they had to be with Jesus from the baptism of John to his ascension. They had to be eyewitnesses of his ministry during those three and a half years. And third, they had to be eyewitnesses of the resurrection — not that they saw Jesus rise from the dead out of the tomb, but that they saw him after he was risen from the dead.

Now we have the twelve that are described in Luke 6, and then the one replacement here in Acts chapter 1. We have the twelve apostles, and they are also called the apostles of the Lamb in the book of Revelation. And they serve a very unique purpose in the church and also in the kingdom.

Secondly, we have Paul the apostle, who's called the apostle in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and several other places where Paul gives his credentials as an apostle. Paul did not meet this requirement, and therefore he calls himself one born out of due season — that is, he was an apostle that was appointed after the fact. But he was appointed by Christ, and he was an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He saw him on the road to Damascus, and he saw him several times after that. In fact, if you remember, in 2 Corinthians, Paul was caught up into the third heaven.

And then finally we have one other man who is specifically called an apostle, and that is Barnabas. He was also an eyewitness, and evidently appointed by Christ. We don't have a lot of information about him; we just know he's called an apostle. So an apostle is somebody who meets these requirements — the official emissary of Christ must meet these requirements. And of course, after the death of the initial apostles, there could be no more, because no one today would ever meet those requirements.

Why did Jesus give the apostles to the church? Let's look at some things.

First of all, he gave apostles to be official eyewitnesses of his resurrection. We have historical accounts — when you open your Bible to the gospels, those four gospel accounts, what you are reading are historical documents written by eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of them are written either directly by apostles, or they are written accounts of the apostles' witness. For example, the gospel of Mark is a record of the eyewitness account of the apostle Peter. The book of Luke is a written account of the other apostles.

Now if you turn with me to Acts chapter 10 and notice what Peter says when he's talking to Cornelius — in the house of Cornelius, who's one of the first Gentiles to come to faith in Christ and be brought into the church after the resurrection of Jesus Christ — in Acts chapter 10, verse 39, he is speaking to Cornelius and he says, "And we" — that is, we apostles — "are witnesses of all things that he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, and they also put him to death by hanging him on a cross. God raised him up on the third day, and granted that he should become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead."

That is a description of Christ's relationship with the apostles after his resurrection. And so they were to be the official eyewitnesses.

Now, I've often thought — I used to wonder — why was it that Jesus didn't just appear to everybody when he was raised from the dead? Why was it that he only appeared to a few? We have the accounts of all the appearances of Christ in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He appeared to certain individuals — he appeared to the twelve, he appeared to James his brother, and he appeared to over 500 brethren at once. And then he appeared last of all to the apostle Paul. And by the way, I believe Paul — and Paul says that he appeared to him last — and I don't think he's appearing to anybody today. In the future, he's going to appear to this entire world. But why did he just choose this handful of people to appear to and to be his official witnesses?

Because this is a message of faith. And when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, when we preach that Jesus Christ died for sinners and was put into a tomb — that is an easily established historical event, not only by his followers but by those who were his enemies — but the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and these historical documents that we have in our Bible of his resurrection, are the eyewitness accounts of those who were chosen for this very function: to be eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Christ.

Charles Colson, in his book Loving God, talks about how he came to believe the truth of the Bible, that he came to believe that Jesus truly was the Son of God because he believed that the Bible was true. He said the reason that he believed the Bible was true was because of the witness of the apostles of the resurrection of Christ. If you remember, Charles Colson was involved in Watergate, and he talks about how he had been involved in a conspiracy to cover a lie — it was a small lie, it wasn't a big lie, but it was a crucial lie. And he said that those seven men or so who had conspired together to withhold truth from the public — to save their hides, and what they assumed going into it was a higher motive, to save the nation — he said we could not hold that lie together for a month.

He said, "When I read the gospel accounts, when I read the New Testament, I became convinced that these twelve apostles and these other eyewitnesses who went to their graves" — the apostle John lived 65 years or so after the resurrection of Christ and he went to his grave — "that they absolutely believed." Because there's no way those twelve men could hold together a conspiracy to propagate a lie for that many years, and at the cost of even their own lives.

But this is a faith issue. When we proclaim the gospel, you may think: if we could come up with some kind of physical evidence — the Shroud of Turin — if we could find something like the Shroud of Turin that would give physical proof that Jesus was raised from the dead, then all kinds of people would come to faith in Christ. No, they wouldn't. No matter how much physical evidence, no matter how much empirical proof we give for the resurrection of Christ, it comes down to this: it comes down to the moral issue of the heart. The reason that men reject the gospel of Christ is not intellectual — it may be presented as an intellectual problem by them, but it's not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem. If Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, then you owe him absolute commitment — you must bow the knee to his authority, you must count him to be Lord of your life, you must count him to be the only one who can save you from your sins. And that is a thing that is absolutely distasteful in the hearts of men.

So Jesus chose specific eyewitnesses, and those official eyewitnesses were the twelve apostles and then those that followed, especially Paul.

Secondly, he gave apostles to the church to follow Christ's example as an apostle. We are told in John 17:18, as Jesus is praying to the Father in his last final prayer in the upper room — his priestly prayer — he says, "Father, now I'm going to send them just as you sent me." In Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, it says that Jesus was an apostle — he was the Father's apostle. The Father sent Jesus into this world to be his official witness to the world, and now Jesus sends the apostles into the world to function just as he had with the Father.

The third reason we are given is that they are to lay a foundation upon which the church is built. Look at Ephesians chapter 2 for just a moment. We need to understand that there's only one foundation — you don't rebuild, you don't keep building foundations upon foundations. And there has been a foundation laid for the church, and that foundation is described for us here in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20. He says in verse 19, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens" — that is, you Gentiles who were outside the covenants — "but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord."

The foundation of the church is found in the life and ministry of the apostles, and we'll see how that's true in just a moment. They were given to the church to be a foundation. There is one foundation. And one of the things that we need to be aware of is when there are other foundations being built upon which men say we are to build the church — we need to understand there is only one foundation, and that foundation has been laid.

Now notice this. We're told the apostles were given to the church to give Christ's authoritative word to his people. Imagine what it would be like if today we had no authoritative word from Jesus Christ. What if you had to depend upon the strong inclinations of some fellow Christian — that he felt surely must come from God — to tell you how to live before God?

In the church today there is a theory about prophecy that's being propagated, especially in the signs and wonders movement but in many other segments of the church as well. And that theory is this: that the way God communicates his will to his people today is by putting strong inclinations in the hearts of some of his people, and that these inclinations — this sense that God is speaking to me — get so strong that I am compelled to tell you what I think God wants you to do.

One time my father-in-law, who owned a trucking business — years ago he told me about this incident. He was at church, and after church a man came up to him and said, "In whatever you do this week, don't drive your truck." And he said, "What do you mean? I've got to drive my truck — that's how I make my living." He said, "The Lord spoke to me, and he said that you should not drive that truck. If you drive that truck, you're going to have a terrible accident. You may even lose your life." Now how would you respond to a word like that? What if you were dependent upon that kind of communication from God to get you through the Christian life? What if you were dependent upon Christians who felt very strongly that God had spoken to them, and they had a word from God for you?

If you watch Christian TV very much — and I think it's kind of difficult to watch too much of it — but if you watch much of it you will hear over and over again these preachers telling you what God told them to tell you: "God told me to tell you this." But what is the basis of the authority with which they speak those words from Christ, who is your Lord and to whom you must bow in obedience?

The apostles of Jesus Christ were given to the church so that we would have an authoritative word from Christ — an authoritative word from Christ.

Look with me in the upper room account in John 14 and John 16. I want you in fact to mark this in your Bible so that you can come back to it whenever you need to. John 14, verse 25: listen to what Jesus said. And these words are said to the apostles — they're not said to you, they're not said to me; they're said to the apostles. Jesus says to them in verse 25 of John 14, "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit" — now notice the contrast: he says, I've been telling you these things while I'm with you, but the implication is, I'm going to be gone — "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."

Now one of the things we discover in reading the gospels is that as Jesus taught his apostles, they didn't understand what he was saying. In fact, it's interesting that the Pharisees understood some things better than the apostles did when Jesus said them. When Jesus talked about his resurrection, the Pharisees knew what he was claiming, but his apostles didn't. But what's going to happen? Jesus said, "When I go away and I'm absent from you, I'm going to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, and he is going to teach you all things and he will bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." And so 60 years after the fact, the apostle John writes the Gospel of John and gives us an eyewitness account of all the details of the life of Christ — an incredible thing. How do you do that? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reminded him of everything that Jesus had said to him.

Now look at chapter 16. By the way, this description that we have in verse 26 — what we would call a pre-authentication of the gospel accounts. Jesus says, "The Spirit is going to come to you apostles, and he is going to bring to your remembrance everything that I taught you." And what do we have? We have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — these gospel accounts of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ — because of this ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so we have this pre-authentication by Jesus himself of the gospel accounts.

But then look at chapter 16, verse 12. Still in the same context, still in the upper room, the night that he's going to be arrested, Jesus says in verse 12, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." In other words: I've got some things you need to know that I haven't taught you, but you are not capable of hearing them at this point. So notice what happens: "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you" — and I know that a lot of times we claim these kinds of verses, but we do need to understand what their interpretation is, what their historical context is. This is not a promise to you; this is a promise to the apostles.

"He will guide you apostles into all the truth." That expression is very strong — it means the entire body of truth that Christ is going to reveal. It's not all truth without limitations, for we know in the future God is going to reveal new things throughout eternity — Ephesians chapter 2, verse 7. But what he is saying is that the Spirit of God is going to lead you into the entire body of truth that I want to communicate to my people. "He will guide you into all of this truth, for he will not speak of his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak." And notice this: "And he will disclose to you what is to come."

In the verse we read in chapter 14, we have the pre-authentication of the gospel accounts — the life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. In these two verses here in chapter 16, verses 12 and 13, we have the pre-authentication of the epistles and of all the eschatological sections of the New Testament — all those sections that talk about the future: the book of Revelation, 1 Thessalonians, and the other segments of the New Testament epistles that talk about the future.

You see what Jesus is doing: he is saying that you are going to be the medium through which I get my authoritative word to my people.

You need to understand, people of God, that the only authority that I have — that Phil has, that Gary has, that Mike has, that any other teacher that you ever listened to has — is this book right here. This is the authoritative word of Christ, not the rantings of some preacher, no matter how convinced or how clever he is. It is the word of God. And we ought to be like the Bereans — when we hear the word of God taught, when we hear proclamation being made, we ought to go and check the scriptures. If you will be faithful in doing that, you will discover I will say things that are not true — not that I know that at the time, but because it's just a fact.

You need to verify everything that you are taught based upon the authoritative word of Christ. This is God's gift to you — an authoritative word to you. You want to know how to live for Christ? It's right here. You want to know how to live in your family life, to raise your children, how to treat your spouse? You want to know how to work on the job? We want to know how to live the Christian life? It is found right here in this authoritative word from Jesus Christ.

We are being inundated with books. We are being absolutely inundated with books. You go to the local Christian bookstore and you have a plethora of books — just book after book after book. And it is my judgment — this is my personal judgment, I don't have any Bible for this, so you just take this for what it's worth — my judgment: 90% of those books are junk. At best, a guy who reads a few of those — but this is the word of God, this is the authoritative word of Christ. It is so tempting, you know, to read these kinds of books instead of reading the scripture.

In fact, I want to quote from this book right now, because I think here is this very truth — the fact that we have an authoritative word of Christ, and we tend not to listen to that authoritative word of Christ but to listen to other words from other sources, and this is the kind of problems we get into. This is a very good book — Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges — a very biblical book. But listen to what he says. He's talking about Christian freedom, experiencing the freedom that we have been called to in Christ. He says, "In fact, God doesn't just call us to freedom, he actually exhorts us to stand firm in our freedom, to resist all efforts to abridge or destroy our freedom in Christ." And he's talking about those efforts by fellow Christians. Now listen to this:

"Despite God's call to be free and his earnest admonition to resist all efforts to curtail it, there is very little emphasis in Christian circles today of the importance of Christian freedom. Just the opposite seems to be true. Instead of promoting freedom, we stress our rules of conformity. Instead of preaching living by grace, we preach living by performance. Instead of encouraging new believers to be conformed to Christ, we subtly insist that they be conformed to our particular style of Christian culture. We don't intend to do this, and would earnestly deny that we are, yet that's the bottom line effect of most of our emphasis in Christian circles today."

For example, many people would react negatively to my quoting Galatians 5:12: "You, my brothers, were called to be free." We've been called into freedom. We've been called to be conformed into the image of Christ — not into the image of me, or Gary, or Phil, or anybody else. We've been called to be conformed into the image of Christ and to come into a relationship with him, to cling to him. You see, that can't happen unless we are coming to the authoritative word of Christ that was given to us through the apostles.

Now listen to this, because this is rampant in the church of Christ in America. He says, "We now live the Christian life in what I call evangelical legalism," which is a contradiction in terms, of course. And he says it's made up of two things. First of all, legalism is in our day not like in the early church — the kind of legalism they fought was the legalism that said, in order to live the Christian life, you must be circumcised and come under the law of Moses. Today, nobody's asking Christians to be circumcised — that I know of. I've never heard of that in my life. But here's the kind of legalism we fight: anything we do or don't do in order to earn favor with God. The reason that God is pouring favor into your life has absolutely nothing to do with what you do — it has to do with what Christ has done. Take that at its face value. Jesus blesses you — every time, always, in every circumstance — out of grace, unmerited favor, based upon the work of Jesus Christ. Legalism is when we encourage this kind of idea — to do anything or to not do anything in order to earn the favor of God.

The second form of legalism is this: it insists on conformity to man-made religious rules and requirements, which are often unspoken but nevertheless very real. To use a more common expression: it requires conformity to the do's and don'ts of our particular Christian circle. We force this legalism on others and allow others to force it on us. It is conformity to how other people think we should live, instead of how the Bible tells us to live. In other words, it is a form of legalism for you to live under the rules of men instead of responding to the authoritative word of Christ.

I want to tell you, the Bible is filled with commandments. Under grace we have commandments. The law is still functioning in the lives of Christians. However, we have been delivered from the curse of the law. We are no longer under the curse of the law. We are no longer sanctified through law-keeping — which we never were; no one ever was. But there is law in scripture, there are rules, there are authoritative commandments from Christ, and this is the authoritative word. But what has happened is this: that under grace the Spirit of God has come into your heart and he has written the law on your heart. What that means is not that he's given you a bunch of details about the will of God written on your fleshly heart — it means that he so changed your heart that you want to know what the will of Christ is so that you can do it in the power of the Holy Spirit. Is that amazing? That's what happens in the life of the believer. The regenerate person's heart is so changed that he wants to do the will of Christ.

If you go looking in any other source except the word of God — or except those places that reflect the word of God — to find out what the will of Christ is, you're going to suffer great frustration in the Christian life. You're going to get hooked up with some form of legalism. This is the freeing-est thing in the world — to discover firsthand what is it that Christ has communicated to me, his follower. He did it through the apostles.

Look how this communication is described in scripture. It's called "the apostles' doctrine" — Acts 2:42. It's this body of teaching that has been given to us through the apostles, the authoritative messengers of Christ. It's called "the mystery of Christ" in Ephesians 3:5 — Paul says, "I was given this stewardship to dispense this mystery concerning Christ, the truth about Christ that was hidden in ages past but now is being disseminated through the apostolic proclamation." It's called "filling up the word of God" in Colossians 1:25 — Paul said, "I have this commission to fill up the word of God," that is, to complete the proclamation of this body of truth that Christ has assigned the apostles to give to the church. What's important about that is this: this is a completed revelation. You do not need some fellow Christian telling you, "Thus sayeth the Lord — last night in my sleep God told me to tell you you need to sell your house and move to Idaho or Texas or Australia or anywhere else." This is the authoritative word of Christ. This word is filled up. The apostles completed it. We have a completed authoritative word from Christ.

Everything we are told that we need for life and godliness has been provided for us. You know what our problem is? We just don't know what the authoritative word says. And you need to find out. Second-hand information — getting the information second-hand — can never replace first-hand hearing of the word of Christ. Nothing can replace you getting into this book, getting your nose into this book, and listening to this authoritative word to you as a follower of Christ, and experiencing the Spirit of God illuminating your heart to this personal word to you. You cannot replace that with tapes. You can't replace it with books. You can't replace it with Bible studies. You must get into this book and listen to the word of Christ that was given to us through his apostles.

It's also called "the commandment of our Lord and Savior." That's what this body of truth is. In fact, there's an interesting expression in the Greek — it is "the given-through-the-apostles commandment of our Lord and Savior." That's what this book is. It is the commandment of Christ. You want to know what Christ's will for your life is? It's right in here. You want to know who Christ wants you to marry, young lady or young man? It's right in here — I don't mean their name is in here; I mean he gives you the principles about how to choose a mate right here in this book. You don't have to go to a seminar, you don't have to buy somebody else's little book on how to choose a mate — you can actually discover the truth in this authoritative word of Christ. This is his commandment.

It's also called "the faith that is once for all delivered to the saints" in Jude 3. What that means is this: that's a description of the Bible — in the New Testament especially, in a very unique way. It means that this body of truth that we have from Matthew through Revelation, especially the New Testament apostolic revelation which shed light on the Old Testament — this body of truth is "the faith." This is what we are to believe. You want to strengthen your faith? Then you need to strengthen your understanding of the content of this book. That's how faith is strengthened. Faith is not strengthened by you going out and bungee-jumping or doing dangerous things to see if you can trust God. The way to build your faith is to expand your understanding of the will of Christ and then live according to it. This is the faith, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. You see, the test of orthodoxy — the test of whether something is really true and accurate — is always: how does it line up with this standard? This is the standard that we have been given by Christ through his apostles.

And finally, it's called "the treasure." In 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul says he's handing the possession and the proclamation of this treasure over to Timothy as he's about to pass off the scene. And he tells him to guard it with his life. We ought to be like that — that ought to be our attitude about this book. One of the treasures that I have, one of the most wonderful things about these last couple of weeks — my dad, I think we buried him a week and a half ago — and one of the most delightful things in all of this is to look through his Bibles. I myself, over the years, gave him three Bibles, and Mitch Peterson gave him a Bible, and he had a couple others. In all these Bibles they were all marked up — all these little notes, things like "look," "read this," "study this often," and XXXX triple underlinings. You know, that told me that he was listening to this, that he treasured this, that he actually thought this had some value to it.

Is your Bible pristinely clean, like this one? Any marks of ownership in there? Are there any uniquenesses in your book that show you treasure this thing? It's a treasure. You ought to guard it. And the way you guard it is not to put it in a nice cover and put it away from the dust. The way you guard it is to inhale it — get it into your life, integrate it into your life, and live it. That's how you guard it. And then propagate it to your children and to those that you have influence over.

And all of this — we are told that as this revelation was being given, this authoritative word of Christ was being given out during the life of the apostles — it was continually being authenticated by the signs of the apostles. Paul describes this for us in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He says they were supernatural signs, wonders, and miracles — they were the same kinds of things that Jesus performed while he was here upon this earth. The purpose of the signs and wonders and miracles was to authenticate that this was the authoritative word of Christ that was being proclaimed by these apostles of Jesus Christ.

Now we ought to rejoice in the fact that this foundation has been laid. This proclamation of the resurrected Christ has been laid. And everything that we build upon it must be built upon this one foundation — and the cornerstone, of course, is Christ, because it's the word about Christ and from Christ.

One last thing: he gave the apostles to show us how to suffer for Christ's sake. Listen to this — this is the hierarchy of the church. Now if you've ever seen some of the religious stuff that has gone on in the world over the years, and you've seen the pomp and the outfits and the ceremony and all of that — I want you to get a description in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 of the hierarchy in the early church. These are the guys at the top. These are the men who were appointed by Christ to represent Christ to this world. This is the highest ranking you could have — the most authority that any man could ever have in the church. And notice how Paul describes the apostles. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, he says, "For I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to the angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are without honor."

Now he's chiding them because they've become so interested in the external, in the look, in the way they could present themselves to the world. And Paul is saying, "By that measure, we're nothing but fools. We are weak. We are without honor in the eyes of this world." They set the pace for us — they showed us how to suffer for the name of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15 — Paul says, if the resurrection isn't true, then why are we being persecuted night and day as we proclaim the truth of his resurrection? Why would we proclaim a resurrection that didn't occur and receive all of this suffering if it weren't true? They showed us how to suffer.

It's an interesting thing — in Revelation chapter 18, turn there for just a second. Revelation 18, verse 20. Talking about the fall of Babylon and God's judgment of organized religion and this world organized against Christ in the last day, in the second advent of Christ. Verse 19 says, "And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city in which all who had ships at sea'" — in other words, this is the whole commercial enterprise of the world — "woe to them. It's like a big market crash, a super crash of the world's market — 'we became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste.'" Judgment of God has come. Notice verse 20: "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her."

And in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, it says that it is only right that when Christ comes back he's going to give relief to his witnesses and he's going to give retribution to those who oppose them. You know, we ought to be persecuted for the right reason. If we're going to experience persecution in the church in America, it ought to be for the right reason. And the only right reason is that we bow to the authority of one Lord, and that's Jesus Christ.

And we need to understand that the foundation that the apostles laid is this authoritative word that was once for all delivered to the saints. And you possess it. How many Bibles do you have? How many Bibles do you possess? I bet I have fifteen Bibles, at least — maybe twenty-five. But do I treasure them? Do I actually treat this word of Christ — this authoritative word of Christ that was given through these apostles — do I treat it as the commandment of Christ? Do I treat it as a treasure, as Paul told Timothy he ought to?

I would like to encourage you, fellow saint, struggling along with me: shake yourself. If you've gotten so distracted in your life — so many things are filling up your days and your hours and your endeavors — that you're neglecting this treasure that was given to us through the hands of the apostles, I would admonish you to get back to the treasure and start digging again in the thing that really matters. It's going to give you direction in this life, because it's a direct word from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me pray. Our Father, we thank you this morning that you cared so much about us that you sent your Son, and he cared so much about his people that he gave us the apostles through whom we received this treasure that we now embrace. I thank you for writing the law — your law — upon our hearts, for giving us a deep desire in our hearts to learn your will and to respond in obedience to your will. Father, you've completely changed us. And even though sin clings to us, and there are times of rebellion and times that we bark and times that we abandon you, we cannot get rid of this deep-down desire to know and to do your will. And we thank you for giving us a completed revelation — the unveiling of the will of Christ for our lives. We thank you that we don't have to flee anywhere else — we have to look no other place except this revelation from Christ, this word of commandment to us. We pray that we would treasure it. And I pray we would show that we treasure it by listening, by digging into it, by understanding what it means for our lives, and then by responding in obedience to it and seeing it worked out in our lives and the lives of our children and our grandchildren and the generations to come. Help us to be faithful to guard the deposit with our very lives. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.