THE BEAT e115 Like Father. Like Son. Like Paul. Like Us.

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.

Season 2 Episode 115

The Beat | Like Father. Like Son. Like Paul. Like Us.

Quick Take

Hey human, in this episode we recap The Great Commission, consider the Holy Spirit as true agency for our witness, and listen to Paul’s answer to “Who Are You, Lord?” We think through the range of our witness and come to decision—yay or nay—to promote maturity in Christ, through Christ. And to do so strenuously. Like Paul. Thanks for listening.

How has God shown his love for you today?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.  

Tell us more, Paul. This is where I left our look at The Great Commission.

How did we get here?

We reviewed the five passages that represented the words of Jesus in the Gospels and Acts. Jesus defines “commissioning” though it wasn’t until much later in Christian history that the term “The Great Commission” was developed. But more importantly, I came to this question:  What happens when Jesus commissions you? Again, I personally think the word “commission” is perfect for strengthening your witness.

To review one passage, Luke said,

Acts 1:4-8

 

4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

 

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

 

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The Holy Spirit is the agency for spiritual living. The Holy Spirit is our spiritual inspiration. The Holy Spirit leads our witness.

Jesus is saying create a life that illuminates His face through the work of the Spirit. He will guide you.

John tells us in John 15:26

 

The Work of the Holy Spirit

 

26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

We took cues from the art world—David Choe (Chow), Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci. We asked, what will your commission, your life given to Jesus be worth? A life representing your selfless love of not the art, but the artist. We considered how the worth of our commissioned canvas, our life will be worth what Jesus sacrificed to sit at the right hand of the Father. That if I accept His commission, it is His face, His canvas others will see.

Believers Who Did Not Walk the Earth with Jesus. Like Us.

Then we travelled on the road to Damascus when the apostle Paul was commissioned by Jesus. Commissioned to use everything Paul had used to gain ground against Jesus, to now gain the victory through Jesus.

Acts 26:15-18

 

15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

 

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

In this passage, we witness the power of his encounter with Jesus and his empowerment as an apostle of the Gentiles through the Holy Spirit. 

Through Paul we discover so much about God’s nature and how He draws closer to us.

How is this different from other apostles, like Peter, John, Matthew and the others? Well, beyond Paul’s conversion encounter with Jesus he worked out, matured in his witness through the Holy Spirit. He grew as a follower, a disciple through the guidance of God’s Word, his prayer life, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit to illuminate Paul’s conviction of the heart. And the guidance of the Holy Spirit to define his witness.

Like us. Because we too are believers who did not walk the earth with Jesus.

And like Paul, we greet each morning with a similar question: “Who are you, Lord?”

The “Before” of God’s Nature

Paul gets to it in Chapter 1 of his letter to the Colossians. Listen to how Paul takes the prophecies of the Messiah to the “before” of God’s nature. The prophecies he was so familiar with throughout his childhood and adult life, pre-Damascus Road. The prophecies that were really about supremacy and reconciliation.

The prophecies that answered to the struggles of a chosen nation.

Colossians 1:15 – 23

 

The Supremacy of the Son of God

 

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

And then he goes on to define the gospel of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection that brings us into God’s presence as sanctified.

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[g] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

“The Commission God Gave Me”

And so Paul echoes, reinforces, declares the commission God gave him: “to present to you the word of God in its fullness” – he is talking about the prophecy of the Messiah, the mystery they were so familiar with seeking… was now revealed.

Paul defines his witness in the closing of Chapter 1.

Colossians 1: 24-29

 

Paul’s Labor for the Church

 

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ in us. The hope of glory. A transparent daily testimony. The glorious riches of the mystery.

When we step out of thinking that witnessing is a separate scenario, a specific skill, a spiritual gift, when we begin to see it as our life unfolding in front of others…

When we step out of thinking that witnessing is a solo act, and open our lives to the Holy Spirit leading our witness.

Well, Paul completes Chapter 1 with this:

28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

Paul goes on to indicate that Jesus is who we proclaim, for what reason? That the people who pass through our daily witness may be presented as fully mature in Christ.

This gives our witness such a wide range. A really long reach. To nonbelievers, who I think of as living in a not-God world. To testify about how God is showing up in my life every day. How I live with God in my life, through my decision-making, my challenges. And the critical crossroad that every non-believer comes to, how conviction is the threshold by which someone enters a with-God life.

And our lives are a witness to believers who have not moved passed a comfortable, settled understanding of their salvation, who have not mobilized the power of salvation through the agency Jesus has given each of them, personally. The agency of the Holy Spirit.

And in verse 29, Paul affirms, dedicates only what he has through Christ’s power, his ability to “strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Strenuously

to grow weary, tired, exhausted (with toil or burdens or grief)

to labour with wearisome effort, to toil of bodily labour

Contend

to contend, struggle, with difficulties and dangers antagonistic to the gospel

I have been talking about committing to a transparent life, defining it as a life that reflects the personal process of seeking the Kingdom and His righteousness.

Jesus said “seek” above all else on the Sermon on the Mount, and Paul says “strenuously contend”…

Paul defines “seeking” in how he lived.

Which brings me to a question Paul might ask us: Will you commit to maturing in Christ and a powerful witness with me?

The Holy Spirit is referred to as a source of encouragement, and that’s what this podcast is about. That at least once per week, we hear this message, we submit our own will for our lives to the witness of the Father. To the witness of the Son. And to the witness of the Holy Spirit.

We have eternal life.

We have the Holy Spirit from above.

Human nature is no longer an excuse for a self-willed witness.

I will commit to letting the Holy Spirit testify through me. About God’s faithfulness.