2nd Evangelical Free Church

The Kingdom Values.

Ezra 2

Here we find a record of all the people who responded to Cyrus' decree and returned to Israel. The list is of families and the towns in Babylon they came from. Almost all of these people could demonstrate their Jewish ancestry. As such, this list records those who belonged to the faith community divided into several subgroups: lay people, the regular citizens; priests; Levites who assisted in the Temple function rites; singers; gatekeepers; the Nethinim, which literally means those given, those dedicated to God, servants who assisted the Levites; and finally those who could not demonstrate their ancestry. This last group had to wait until the priests could later identify them properly.

Although the listing may seem dull and pointless because it is just a list of names, there seems to be a very good reason for its inclusion in the scripture. It reminds us of the importance of the purity of the community of faith. Those who say they belong to Jesus become members of His royal household. They must be able, however, to verify that relationship with evidence. What is required is not a genealogy of course, but the evidence of a changed life, one that has renounced the world completely and is marked by tangible acts of love and self-sacrifice.  

We Christians are often called on to provide the required proof, usually in the form of a testimony that gives evidence of a changed life. Once we were sinners. Now we are not. Once we valued all the world deems important. Now everything in the world, no matter how grand or glorious, no matter how heroic or noble, lofty or exalted, popular and fashionable, beautiful and talented, pales into insignificance before the love, mercy and righteousness of the Kingdom of God.

 

 

Who was involved in commissioning Paul and Barnabas for their mission trip?

Acts 13

The church at Antioch was growing well under the capable leadership of 5 prophets and teachers including Saul (now called Paul) and Barnabas. The Holy Spirit informed the church as a whole that these two men were called to a special work, which as we discover is to go and preach the gospel to Gentiles. The Spirit had already spoken to the two, but their call had to be confirmed by the church. This seems to tell us that itinerant self-appointed preachers are an anomaly in the church, something that ought not to be. Preachers, teachers and leaders ought to be raised up from the local body of believers and either be appointed for local ministry or commissioned to go to foreign or domestic mission fields.

Up to the point Barnabas and Paul left for Cyprus and Asia Minor their ministry had already been among Jews as well as Gentiles who had some understanding of the Jewish faith. They would continue this ministry for they would begin preaching in the local synagogues as their local base of operations. But now they would encounter people who were outright pagans with little or no knowledge of the god of the Jews. As we see in the incident in Cyprus and Antioch of Pisidia the disciples received overwhelming responses Jews but also from people who were transformed by the message of a loving Savior, which to them was certainly a completely novel concept in a harsh and brutal world filled with competing philosophies, religions as well as capricious and cruel deities. Paul and Barnabas were well equipped to handle this challenge and the opposition.

Meditate & Apply: Why do you think John Mark deserted the missionary trip and went home?