This chapter gives an example and an explanation what the role of the universal church is. This role is a very important part in God’s plan. We know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ came to the earth, and according to the prophets He was to be here for seven years in His labour. The prophets also foretold that He would be cut-off halfway through His labour, not by His own will, but by the will of man. That happened. Our Lord began His labour when He was thirty according to the Jewish law, and three and a half years later it came to an end on this earth. God’s word is always sure. God’s word must be sure, for the whole of the creation and the realms that we see in the heavens are held together by one thing, and that is the validity of God’s word. If God’s word is not truth, everything we see around us would collapse.

God’s word said that our Lord would labour for that period of time. In His love now He gave unto His Son the right to call a group of people called the Universal Church. This Church was commissioned and sanctified to fulfil that labour that was robbed from Christ, and that is the role of the Church. The Apostle John saw it very clearly in chapter 12 of Revelation where he saw the woman  clothed in the sun, and she would  have to labour for that number of days which represented in our time three and a half years. In God’s time of course, we do not count it. The Church then must stand in the stead of Christ and fulfil those things and those virtues that were robbed from Christ when He was taken from this earth.

The Apostle Paul began his writings ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren.’ To beseech someone means – stop, look, look hard at it, don’t just hear it but beseech, search behind why this is happening. ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.’  What are the mercies of God? The mercies of God are very clearly shown within the Scriptures. The mercies of God that he is referring to there is the sanctification that God is prepared to give to this body on earth. Sanctification means – to take something that is earthly, and through the mercies of God it is to be then used for a holy purpose. We witness sanctification each Sunday, where we take the bread and the wine, they are from the earth, and through the special prayer to our Lord to allow the Holy Spirit to now sanctify that to become as the Body and Blood of Christ. It is still bread, it is still wine; but through the mercies of God it has been transformed or sanctified from an earthly meaning to be as the Body and Blood of Christ, and through this Body of Christ we then become the body of Christ, the Church throughout the world.

When we are sanctified we do not change appearances, we are still the same as we were, but through the mercies of God and this sanctification we are set aside for a holy purpose, and that holy purpose is to stand in the stead of Christ, and fulfil His labour and His virtues daily within our lives around the whole world, so that it can be seen that He is still labouring, and God’s word then is validated.

When we look at it like that we then see what the Apostle Paul meant that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Once we have received this calling and this blessing, and through the grace and righteousness of Christ, we then become a living sacrifice as it were to Christ. We become a living sacrifice to God because we have committed our bodies to now stand in Christ’s stead, and in this commitment the Apostle Paul then  went on and enumerated many  things that we should consider within our lives as we walk through life. Every one of them is a teaching of Christ and a virtue of Christ, and we as human beings of course can find it difficult.

That is why before we action anything in our lives, we should ask ourselves the simple question, “What would Jesus have said or done?”

We see God created a rainbow for the first time and He said that it was the token of His covenant, meaning that each time we looked at it we could remember that promise and that covenant. Also, within that teaching is something that perhaps we could have overlooked and that is – “The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature.” We see that God looks upon that bow. Each time a rainbow appears in the world God looks upon it and looks down to the earth and remembers that great offering of thanksgiving of Noah and his family. He remembers His promise that He would no longer destroy the earth with a flood again, and if He is not going to destroy it, He will then bless it; and thereby we see where we receive our blessings. They came direct from God as He remembers that great covenant because of the thanksgiving of Noah and his family and the sacrifice they made to God.

It does not end there. We have been granted also a divine covenant, and that divine covenant was brought into the world by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is an even greater covenant because it pertains to our future life, our spiritual life, and that covenant of course is the New Testament, the promises contained therein for all of those who will at all times offer thanksgiving unto God, all those who at all times will offer thanksgiving through Jesus Christ and partake of the blessings He left in His covenant of eternal life, which is divided into various promises throughout His labour on this earth; the promises that pertained to the Sacraments that He left, the promises that He will return again. All of these are dispensed through the Grace of Christ and at the time that it was shown that this covenant would be made, the Prophet Ezekiel chapter 1, saw how it would be administered in the world again.

He saw it as four wheels: the four ministries that would be placed within the world that would work together, and they would be on the earth, but their loops would go up into the heaven, and above them sat on the throne as it were a man. It showed that Christ would be the dispenser of Grace, and the prophet then saw something that was the glory of God shining down to the earth in the form of a rainbow. Once again that rainbow was promised where God would look upon it and look down to the earth because we in spiritual eyes cannot see it up into the heavens. We know that the access is there, but it requires faith, but God looks down and it is His intention to maintain those blessings so that the divine covenant given by Christ will be able to be fulfilled.

We have been taught that we should bring thanksgiving for the re-establishment of the Apostle Ministry in the world. Why is it so important that this should be done? Why is it so important that we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that latter-day rain? It is most important because the four wheels have to be in place. The Scripture teaches us this. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians about this. It is not only today that we give thanksgiving for the re-establishment of the Apostle Ministry. We give thanks for the re-establishment for the voice of prophecy which had died within the world, for the prophets foretell of things that must then be discerned by the Apostle Ministry. We give thanks also for the re-establishment of the Evangelist ministry. We know that the Priest and teacher ministry continued, but as the English Apostles wrote, salvation cannot be given, and the Church cannot survive unless the fullness of what God set in place through Christ is operating within the Church.

They also reminded the people and the churches at that time that the Church is made up of every soul that is baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The blessings of those ministries are for the whole Church. Everyone who is baptised in the Trinity God needs those ministries to be able to receive the dispensation of Grace through the Sacraments, and that is why we must give thanksgiving, and more importantly, we must pray that those ministries will be preserved so that the Church can be fed by the Grace of Christ which is the only way we can obtain salvation.

This promise came after Noah and his family offered a special thanksgiving offering, for protection by God during this total flooding of the Earth. Genesis 8:20 “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord: and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”

Ephesians 4:11-12, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Let us reflect on 2 Corinthians 4:15, “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”

This text came to my mind as I read an article in a recent paper. It was headed-A LESSON LEARNT and was as follows:

The psychologist at our local common-sense class gave us all a nudge last week!

She held up a large white handkerchief, near the centre of which was a small, black spot. “Tell me “she said “What can you see?” “A small black spot,” was the instant reply. “Now that’s strange,” said our speaker. “Can’t you see a large white handkerchief?”

As we walked home, we all admitted we were guilty of seeing the small black spot in other people, rather than the many virtues which exist in every person!

This article certainly should make us think, for we ourselves are always falling into doing the opposite to our text word. We always seem to look for the worst in our neighbours. We are always keen to hear the bad things that a person is supposed to have done, and usually we are prepared to then judge them, and worse condemn them. We condemn a person when we pass what we have seen or heard, on to another, for in our mind we have accepted the bad and are then prepared to tell others. This is contrary to Christ’s teaching, where he states, if we are to judge then we must judge with righteous judgement. When we see or are told something that appears to be bad about a person, we must train ourselves to immediately think of the good attributes known about that person. Righteousness is good, for we know that Jesus Christ taught us in our lives that we should first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We know that the Kingdom of God is Christ, so we see His righteousness is God’s ways that He gave to us by His word and deeds while on earth. We know by this teaching that none of us on earth are good, for He told us in Matt. 19:17. “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.” We believe that there is a part of God in us all, so we must remember that there is always some good in us all. We know to build this up, we have to be obedient to the remaining part of that teaching, “but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” This seems to not always be possible. If we liken our- selves to the newspaper article as the white cloth, no one seems to take any notice of those things and so it must be; for our good deeds must not be put forward according to Christ’s teaching in Matt. 6:1, “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven”, but these must be there in our lives, to be seen as Christ taught, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. If we were to spend a little time in our lives to look for the good in those around us, we would see more there than we first realize, and this will give us cause to thank God that He has allowed this good to be done. Who knows, we may even suddenly see how little, white is in our lives, and how many black spots we have. If we look for this good, we will then be in a position if someone tells us something bad about a person to say back. “Oh that may well be so but, look at all the good virtues of that person; and name some of them.” This should achieve two things. Firstly, we are ensuring that we are unlikely to pass that bad news on to another, and secondly, there is a great chance that the person who told us, may then remember by our reply, Christ’s words. “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye.” If this is achieved, then we will have fulfilled our text-word.

To try to understand this teaching, following is a heartfelt story that appeared in a recent newspaper:
In the city of Chicago, one cold, dark night, a blizzard was settling in. A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the people were in and out of the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn’t trying to sell many papers. He walked up to a policeman and said, “Please Sir, you wouldn’t happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and it’s awful cold in there, for tonight. Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay.”
The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, “You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they come out the door you just say John 3:16 and they will let you in.” So he did, he walked up the steps to the door and a lady answered. He looked up and said “John 3: 16: the lady said “Come on in, Son”. She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace and she went off. He sat there for a while, and thought to himself. “John 3:16 I don’t understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm.
Later she came back and asked him “Are you hungry?” He said, “Well, just a little. I haven’t eaten in a couple of days and I guess I could stand a little bit of food” The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn’t eat any more. Then he thought to himself “John 3:16 Boy, I sure don’t understand it, but it sure makes a hungry boy full”.
She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub filled with warm water and he sat there and soaked for a while. As he soaked, he thought to himself, “John 3:16 I sure don’t understand it, but sure makes a dirty boy clean. You know, I’ve not had a bath, a real bath, in my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out.”
The lady came in and got him, and took him to a room and tucked him into a big old feather bed and pulled the covers up around his neck and kissed him goodnight, and turned out the lights. As he laid in the darkness and looked out the window at the snow coming down on that cold night he thought to himself, “John 3:16 I don’t understand it, but it sure makes a tired boy rested”.
The next morning, she came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food. After he ate she took him back to that same big split bottom rocker in front of the fireplace and she took a big old Bible and sat down in front of him and read John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. She asked him did he understand?

He said, “No, Ma’am, I don’t. The first time I ever heard it was last night when the policeman told me to use it.” She opened the Bible to John 3:16, and she began to explain to him about Jesus. He sat there and thought, “John 3:16 I don’t understand it, but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe”.

Later in life that boy became a powerful teacher in the Christian Church.
If we are all honest, we too, find it difficult to understand the love of God in sending His Son to die for us and also how Jesus agreed to do it for us. We do not find it easy to understand but it sure makes life worth living.

”I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.”
HUMBLENSS AND HIGHMINDEDNESS.

What a Beautiful example of Humbleness, by the wise and extremely successful King Solomon. He divulges his “Secret to Success”.
Eccl. 10:7 “1 have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.”

Perhaps he was teaching us to get off your high horse and put both feet on the ground.

Some think and go through life as if they were “God’s gift to mankind.”
The Gift of GOD to mankind, was in giving of HIS only begotten SON, Our LORD and SAVIOUR CHRIST JESUS to mankind. Some accepted Him but the majority rejected Him.
Not all think themselves to be the gift to this world; only those that have a very high rating of themselves.

Others, who are really fruitful and prolific, pick the fruit of their labour in quietness. You shall know them by their humble and quiet way when picking the fruits of their labour in dignity; not boasting, nor shouting their own praises and accomplishments. Always knowing and acknowledging, GOD gave it to me, (I shall guard His laws and institutions with my life, to keep and enjoy that which He has granted unto me.)

No one has ever fallen so low to never rise again… getting up from the fall, you shall without a doubt, “only be wiser.”

God like the husbandman works in the vineyard. He wishes the vines to bear good fruit.

What is the work of a husbandman? A vinedresser, as he is called today, goes early to the vineyard and prunes the wild branches. If he does not do that, the grapes would yield only sour wine. If the vinedresser does not know the art of pruning, he could cut off the good as well as the wild branches, and soon the vineyard would be destroyed.

After cutting he binds the vines, he bends them down and supports them with the help of strong posts. Then he digs the ground around the vines and removes the weeds. Now the sun can reach the blossoms and they will bear fruit. Gradually the skins of the fruits become more transparent and the grapes sweeter. Finally the vinedresser breaks off the leaves, leaving the vine bare. The sun can now directly reach the fruits and ripen them.

The picture that Jesus has drawn for us and explained in detail, can also be applied to our spiritual lives. We are the branches attached to the vine and the vinedresser works on us too. Our wild impulses will be cut off. In one of our hymns we sing “0 fashion me, my Master, just as it pleaseth Thee … ”

God the vinedresser knows what is good and what is evil in us. We too, will be bent and bound, “bound to His sweet yoke.” That alone should give us firm support.
God too, loosens the soil and removes the weeds from around us, so that the spiritual rain – His words and deeds – may reach us and not be consumed by the weeds. He rids us of what we think we cannot do without. Then the light of His love and mercy reach us directly, the obstacles are removed.

We should draw our nourishment and strength from the vine which is Christ Jesus, and allow the vinedresser to do with us as He wishes, so that we may bear good fruit.

In the original Hebrew version ‘perfect peace’ was literally ‘shậlộm shậlộm’ or ‘peace peace’.

What is perfect peace? It is not a state without anxiety or where our life is easy and perfect, rather, it is something internal, namely contentment through trusting in the Lord. It is a gift from God. John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

The clue to this understanding is contained in how the prophet tells us perfect peace can be attained – by having our mind stayed on God. Our mind, or cognition, is the source of our free will thought and, as the arbiter of choice, the beginning of our words and deeds.

In this life we make many decisions that take us away from the source of peace. John 16: 33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” It is inherent in our nature to choose things other than God and so it must become a conscious choice to go against that nature. If we have the first step, our thinking, ‘stayed on God’ then godliness in words and actions can follow. This can be a great blessing in our lives. 1 Timothy 6: 6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”

From contentment to perfect peace, however, requires the added aspect of trust. Trust in the saving Grace of Jesus Christ to remove the separation of sin from our life, and trust in His promise to send a power within that helps us to make these right decisions. 1 John 4: 4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

Of course, to be stayed on anything requires perseverance and sustained effort until the act becomes our automatic first thought. Practice brings perfection. Philippians 4: 7-9, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”

Apostle Paul, an educated man coming from a faithful Judaic home, realized what we read in the beginning of the tenth chapter of Romans: Israel did not attain salvation through their striving to fulfil the Mosaic Law. They were ignorant of the righteousness which is valid before God. By establishing their own righteousness, they distanced themselves from the righteousness of God which can only be attained through belief in Jesus Christ. This faith comes from the word of God, which is today, as before, proclaimed by the Apostles. For this reason, we, too, can say: “The word is nigh unto us, even in our mouth, and in our heart.” What does this mean? Firstly, that we believe wholeheartedly what the spirit says to the congregation, and also confess this by word of mouth. For this purpose, we sanctify ourselves for every divine service, so that we may come before the Lord with the right heart disposition. Our heart will then be:
– thankful, because we realize that the Heavenly Father wishes to bless us: God does not always allow what we have prayed for to come about. Are we thankful despite this? If we are, new sources of blessing and help are opened to us.
– loving, and believe those who first loved us: The love of Christ is also evident in the sending and commission of the Apostles to preach the gospel and the return of Christ to all the world, and to offer reconciliation to God.
– steadfast, in all temptations, and we will remain with the Lord: Amidst many divergent opinions that are expressed, Apostle Peter recognized: “… thou art the Christ, the son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Our recognition stems from the living faith: “The Lord is at hand!”.
– sensitive, so that we do not break the laws governing the fellowship: Moulded by the spirit and the love of God, we will avoid offending our neighbour and be sensitive to those things which can be to assistance.

Those who in the manner allow the word of God to be near to their heart, also find in their mouth. They feel compelled to praise God for the great things He has done for us. We certainly have enough cause for praising Him: e.g., Being made His children, the activity of the Apostles, comfort and strength from the Altar, forgiveness of sins, fellowship with the Christ through the Holy Communion, and the promise of the eternal life. Praising God already here on earth bring joys to the soul. This we wish to freely, openly and with sincere hearts confess, so that we may soon be redeemed and be able to join in with the great praise that will be given Him on His day.
“And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God.” (Revelation 19:1).