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4-14-2019 Weekly Message

The Meditations of the Week: Psalm 68: 1-19

Text: Ephesians 4: 1-32

The title of the Word: The gifts of the Holy Spirit given to them who serve the members of the Church of God

         The Holy Spirit encourages the Saints who are members of the Church of God through the Apostle Paul in prison to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called.  First of all, he asked them in the kingdom of God to walk according to their calling. Here, the vocation tells us what we were called to do in the kingdom of God. Just as people born in the world need to know what they should do in the world, those who have come out of the world and entered into the kingdom of God also have their  jobs that God gives to them.

         The people of the world are working in competition and fighting one to another while giving priority to their own benefits, but in the kingdom of God he  testifies that in all the humility, meekness, patience, and love, one should accept one another and pursue peace with all people and become one in the Holy Spirit .

          Also, the reason why the saints should be one is that one must be one body in one Spirit because they are called in one hope. When we become one body in one Spirit, all of us have the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts.  (Galatians 5: 22-24)

        It is also the Lord Jesus Christ, not other Jesus, who is one body in the Holy Spirit, one faith, the same faith in the gospel of Christ, not a different gospel, a baptism, all baptized into Christ Jesus,  God, the only God who created the heavens and the earth, not the idol, is the Father God, who is not only on all things, but in all the saints of Christ. In other words, we become one in the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son.

       In addition, in order to serve the Saints in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is required to give gifts according to the amount that they are called to, so that they can live a life of serving in grace. The Apostle Paul testified to the saints in the Corinthian church about the ministry gifts given by the Holy Spirit:

 “It is for the good of those who have given the appearance of the Spirit to man that it is for profit, that some shall give the word of wisdom through the Holy Spirit, and some to the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, To man he sees the spirits by the same Spirit, and to some man the gifts of healing, and to others miracles, to some to prophesy, to some to speak tongues, to some to speak tongues But all these things work as one god, the Holy Spirit, and impart to each man as he pleases. ” “(1 Corinthians 12: 7-11).

            Apostle Paul also testified of the gifts needed to serve the saints in the church:

“Because of the grace given to me, I speak to every one of you, Do not have any more thoughts to think about yourself, but think soundly according to the amount of faith God has given to each person. Thus, many of us have become one body in Christ, and each man has become a member of one another. Therefore, the grace given to us and the gifts we have are different. For the prophecy, and for the service, and for the exhortation, and for the exhortation, and for the exhortation, for the faithful, for the guidance, and for the mercy.”(Romans 12:3-8)

       In addition, as Christ ascended into heaven, he took the saints who were  in Abraham’s bosom to heaven, and for the church of God, the Holy Spirit gave special gifts in the church to minister the saints spiritually, and edify them as they are called, Apostle Paul also testified about the purpose of the gifts for ministry:

” And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:“(Ephesians 4: 11-13).

        The first man, Adam, was the son of God (Luke 3:38). But when he sinned against God,  the breath of life was taken away  that God had given him, and he lost the image of God and lost the position of the son of God. But God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world as in the form of Adam, and made him the last Adam. God has planned to give the breath of life, the Holy Spirit, to all those who believe in His death, burial, and resurrection to restore them to the image of God.   Apostle Paul testified of God’s plan of restoration in the image of God:

” For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. “(Romans 8: 29-30)

            As the firstborn of the Holy Spirit, Jesus, who prayed to the Father to sanctify the disciples when he gave the final prayer for them.  The Lord prayed not only for his disciples at that time, but for all his disciples who would have believed in the gospel of Christ:

 “And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

14I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

20Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. “(John 17: 13-21).

           That’s right! The Lord prayed to the Father to sanctify the children of God with the word of  truth as he made the final prayer in the world.. He also testified that the word of the Father is truth. As we make all the words of God as the mirror, we can cleanse all unclean things with the water by the word of God.  Apostle Paul spoke briefly to the Saints about this sanctification:

” For this is the will of God, even your sanctification,….. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.“(I Thessalonians 4: 3, Ephesians 5: 26-27) Amen! Hallelujah!