The Apostles of Jesus Christ (Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

What's the problem? Are you picking up on what the issue is with Paul and the people in Corinth, his critics?

What's the problem? Paul was not a follower of Christ during his earthly ministry.

So, based on that, Paul doesn't meet the first qualification.

And you can be certain his enemies loved to point that out. And not only was

Paul not a follower of Christ during his earthly ministry, he was what? A little later on, he was a persecutor of the early church.

If any man had baggage, Paul was that man. To criticize the apostle

Paul, this would have been an easy thing to do. So, here's the thing.

One of two things has to be true. Either Peter's list of qualifications was not absolute, or the only other option,

Paul is not a legitimate apostle. Now, listen, if you go online, well that's interesting.

I'm going to go on Google later and insert who knows what you're going to find. Well, I do know what you're going to find.

There will be plenty of people who are just like the false teachers in Corinth, and they're going to rip apart the apostle

Paul. Many liberal churches, they say, we love Jesus, we listen to Jesus, but not

Paul. It's a very common thing. You go to a liberal seminary, that's probably what they're going to teach you.

No surprise, they're saying this 2 ,000 years ago. But just in case this makes you nervous, you're like, wow,

I never thought about that. He wasn't a follower. He didn't meet the qualifications. Maybe they're onto something.

Wrong. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 3. Two more quick things before we move on to our next point.

Number one, while Paul was not a follower of Christ, that's true, during his earthly ministry, he was affirmed and accepted by the other apostles.

We read that in the book of Galatians, that he received the right hand of fellowship.

We see that in Acts chapter 15, in the first council of the church,

Paul was received by the apostles. And now we're going to look at what

Peter, remember, Peter is the leader of the original 12. We're going to see what

Peter wrote about Paul. Look at 2 Peter 3 verses 14 through 16.

The apostle Peter writes, therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless.

And consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation as also our what?

Our beloved brother, Paul. Did Peter accept Paul? Absolutely.

Our beloved brother, Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written you.

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction.

But here's the main point, as they do also the rest of the scriptures.

Do you realize what Peter is saying about his beloved brother, Paul? Paul is an author of scripture.

That's by the leader of the original 12. I mean, that should settle all debate of whether or not

Paul was a legitimate apostle. And by the way, I like this other statement he makes.

You know, yeah, Paul has written some things that are really hard to understand. So if you've ever thought that you're in very good company.

Obviously, the writings of a false apostle would not be considered scripture. Let's turn back to Second Corinthians, Chapter 12.

Second Corinthians 12. So Paul was accepted by the 11. As an apostle, he is writing scripture.

Now, there is one more qualification to be an apostle that rarely gets talked about.

This qualification sometimes gets ignored. But I would say that it is, if not the most important, certainly one of the most.

But I think it's the most important. You remember what I asked you to recall a little while back when

Jesus sent out the 12? What did Jesus do? He gave them power to do what?

To heal, to cast out demons. So Jesus gave his apostles the ability to work miracles.

To heal sickness, cast out demons. And this leads us to point number four. What were the signs of an apostle?

What does that refer to? The true apostles of Jesus Christ had the ability to work miracles.

We were talking about miracles during the prayer request. We believe in miracles. We believe that you can pray to God and God can answer prayer and does answer prayer.

And that God can do that in a miraculous way. Here's what's different with the apostles and then like the prophets in the

Old Testament. Men were given the ability to work miracles. That is not something that is happening today.

God may be working miracles, but he's not doing it through individual men. The apostles had that power.

That is the sign of an apostle. Second Corinthians 12 verse 12.

Look at that. What does Paul say? Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance.

Okay, so what does that refer to? Paul was loyal. Paul was committed to the faith.

He persevered. Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished. Paul mentions three things.

What are they? Signs, wonders, and mighty deeds.

Do you know that there is no one single word in Greek in the New Testament for miracle or that can be translated miracle?

There's no one single word. It's one of three words. Signs, wonders, or powers.

Or as we saw here, mighty deeds. And I think we can understand why they're called these things, right?

I think so. A miracle, here's the thing about a miracle. What is it? Well, it's something that defies logic.

A miracle is something that defies the laws of nature. So when somebody witnessed a miracle, they were in awe.

They stood in wonder. So that's why they're called wonders. Now at the risk of getting myself in trouble, someone would probably get mad at me.

I should learn not to do this probably, but you know what people say about the birth of a baby.

It's so wonderful. It is wonderful. But they say it's a miracle. Actually, it's very common.

It's completely natural. Sorry. It's not a miracle. It's completely natural. It's very common.

Babies are being born all over the world every moment of every day. Now the birth of Christ, now that was a miracle.

Actually, the birth of Christ wasn't the miracle. It was the conception, but that's another. But the point is true miracles, biblically speaking, by definition are supernatural.

And they are very, very, very, very, very rare.

If miracles happened every day, everywhere, be nothing special about them.

That's why when people witnessed a miracle, they were in wonder about it.

When the Egyptians encountered the miracles performed by Moses, what did they say?

This is the finger of God. So wonder we understand that mighty deeds are powers.

Well, this is the power of God. Miracles show the power of God. We understand why it's called power or a mighty deed.

But what about this statement signs, right? Miracles are signs, signs, miracles.

Well, what does a sign do? What's the purpose of a sign? A sign communicates something, right?

It points to something else beyond itself. So a sign is pointing to something, but it's a sign of what?

Point number five. What was the purpose of the signs? Turn to Mark chapter 16.

We're getting towards the end. Mark chapter 16. So Paul, again, he wasn't a follower of Christ during his earthly ministry.

His enemies would have made a big issue about that. Paul claims to have seen the resurrected

Lord on the road to Damascus. Did anyone else see the

Lord? Remember when Paul, I saw paradise, the third heaven. Did anyone else see that?

This is what Paul claimed. How do people know? Do you think they questioned

Paul on these things? Paul made these claims. How do they know? Maybe Paul is making it all up.

People do make things up. There's a lot of religious con men who make things up.

I'm high and mighty because I've done and seen all these things, and they do make it up.

So all of these things, they could have cast doubt on all of it. Here's the proof, okay?

Here is the proof. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ.

He was able to work signs and wonders. He was able to perform miracles before the people.

What's the purpose of a sign? To authenticate the miracle worker.

The purpose of a miracle is to authenticate the miracle worker. Look at Mark 16, verses 17 through 20.

And these signs, Jesus said, will follow those who believe. In my name, they will do what?

Cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up serpents.

And if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

When you read the book of Acts, isn't this what they did?

Can this all come to pass? In the book of Acts, did the apostles speak in new languages that they didn't know previously?

Yeah. Acts chapter 2, they spoke with other tongues. That is, other languages.

Did they cast out demons? Yeah. Acts chapter 16,

Paul cast the demon out of the slave girl. What about this thing with serpents?

I mean, that's weird, right? We don't want to be like those churches that handle rattlesnakes. Well, that's not what it's talking about.

It is definitely not saying go out and get poisonous snakes and pick them up. Not what it's saying.

You remember in the book of Acts, when Paul was bit by the poisonous snake? Comes out of the fire, it bits him. Paul just shrugs it off like nothing even happened.

They're all watching Paul, waiting for him to keel over and die. And he's like, yeah, it's no big deal. All these things came to pass in the first century.

We can read about them in the book of Acts. And, of course, many people were healed.

So what was the purpose of all of that? All the miracles and the signs in the book of Acts was to point to the apostles.

What's the book of Acts? What's the full name of it? The Acts of the Apostles. Right.

So what was the purpose of writing that down? What was the purpose of God giving them the power to do those things, to authenticate them?

That these men spoke the truth. These men were Jesus's representatives.

And the gospel that they preached, the gospel of the new covenant in Christ's blood.

This was true. And God proved it through the working of the miracles, through the signs done.

And look at verse 20 of Mark 16. This sums it up perfectly.

And they went out and preached everywhere. The apostles did. The Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.

Folks, that's what it's all about. That's what miracles and the signs are all about. So Paul's defense in his ministry or of his ministry in 2

Corinthians chapter 12 can now come to an end. Because he saved the best for last.

Paul's miracles which he performed before the church, they proved his ministry was legitimate.

Now finally point number six. What does this mean for the church today? You know, it's really a matter of who you listen to.

How do you know who to listen to? How do you know what's true? You ever noticed this church denomination teaches one thing.

This denomination teaches something completely different. This pastor says one thing. This pastor says the opposite.

How do you know who to believe? How do you know who to listen to? We listen to the true apostles of Jesus Christ.

We listen to Peter. We believe John. We listen to Paul.

In other words, we get our beliefs from this book. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.