... but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear. - 1 Pet 3:15
Matthew 28:18-20
Matthew 9:37 - 10:40; Luke 10:1-20
Galatians 4:19; 1 Corinthians 4:14-17
"Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith, among all nations for His Name" Romans 1:5
Declaring the whole counsel of God This is a continuation of the previous Bulletins – Article 9 & 10 – The Vision – Part 1& 2. The teaching was shared in the January 2024 Training School at SHILOH and is adapted from the notes. It focuses on sharing aspects of the apostolic vision from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The apostle Paul provides a most magnificent and victorious view of God’s purpose in Christ through the church in the letter to the Ephesians. The plan is laid out. As we understand this plan, we will become more effective in administering God’s will in the earth and running with the gospel! Let the apostolic vision grip your heart and be captured by the splendour of the riches of the glory of this mystery being revealed by the Spirit to us.
The apostolic vision is that there is a house being built for God and there is a pattern to follow! Firstly, we must know our identity. We Gentile believers are to know that we are “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” Ephesians 2:19. The household of God is made up of Jews and Gentiles, each with equal status in God’s eyes; we are “fellow citizens” and “members of the household of God”. We have a standing with God. We are members of the family! We are in the house!
Secondly, we are to know we have “been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” Ephesians 2:20. There is a house being built! It is built on a foundation! The foundation is “of the apostles and prophets”. We need apostles and prophets to lay the foundation for the house of God to be built. There is “no other foundation that anyone can lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 3:11. True apostles and prophets lay the foundation of Jesus Christ, bringing the revelation of who He is and emphasising the centrality of Christ Jesus and the pre-eminence He is to have in the house of God, “which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” 1 Timothy 3:15. The foundation truth of Jesus Christ laid by apostles and prophets is that He is the “Christ, the Son of the Living God” Matthew 16:16. Jesus said that upon this Rock of revelation truth, “I will build My Church” Matthew 16:18. This is the revelation that true apostles and prophets need to bring in every generation!
Thirdly, “Jesus Christ Himself is the Chief Cornerstone”! Not only is Jesus Christ the foundation Rock on which to build, He is also the Chief Cornerstone. As the Chief Cornerstone the whole building is measured from and into Him. We are to come to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” Ephesians 4:13. This house will be a manifestation of Christ Himself! He is in all and through all the house, from the foundation to the cornerstone, all the way through to when “He shall bring forth the Capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” Zechariah 4:7b. The Stone which the builders of that generation rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone!
Fourthly, now that the Chief Cornerstone Himself has been laid, it is in Him that “the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” Ephesians 2:21. We are now growing in Him! We are being built into Him, “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” Ephesians 4:13. We “coming to Him as to a Living Stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house…” 1 Peter 2:4-5. This is the vision - a spiritual house of living stones, becoming like the Living Stone Himself. A holy temple in the Lord. We are the to be as the inner sanctuary for the Lord. We are to be as the Most Holy Place, a place for His glory to abide!
Finally, it is in Him “you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” Ephesians 2:22. The apostolic vision is for there to be a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. God is Spirit. He wants to dwell in a house, a body, a temple! This is a living temple. Jesus individually was that Body on the earth for about thirty-three years. He was “God manifested in the flesh” 1 Timothy 3:16. He was God dwelling in a body on the earth; “the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily” Colossians 2:9. Now the body is a many-membered Body, the Body of Christ (1 Cor.12:12). We are the dwelling place of God in the Spirit. God’s vision is summed up in these words, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” Revelation 21:3.
The dwelling place of God is where “two or three gather together in My Name, I Am there in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20. It is the saints coming together in His name, being built according to the pattern! This is the camp of God, where the abiding Presence, the Shekinah Glory can abide and rest. The glory is to fill the house!
A Journey through the Book of Revelation
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