How do we love Jesus and His Body?/Are the apostles and prophets today?

How do we build the tower?

The moment you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you were supposed to bear your cross and follow Him in order to become His disciple. This is our calling. Seeking material blessings through His Word is only secondary to discipleship. Many of you would have received material blessings like healings, miracles, etc. But my concern is about your becoming His disciple by carrying your cross and following Him.

Our failure to carry our crosses and follow Christ disqualifies us for discipleship. In this context, Jesus cited the parable of building a tower in Luke 14:27-30. A man intending to build a tower should sit down first, and count the cost, “whether he have sufficient to finish it?”

After you have laid the foundation of accepting Christ as your Savior, if you are not able to finish the tower of God’s Kingdom on this earth by performing the specific role assigned to you by the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ, those saints of God in Heaven who had finished their earthly races and who have now compassed about you as a cloud of witnesses, would begin to mock you, saying, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish it”.

If we did not bear our crosses and follow Christ, we cannot be His disciples. Many a time, we have laid aside our crosses in order to do our own wills. What have we sacrificed for the Lord? To how many people we have preached the gospel? How much time we have spent in praying for others? How much we have given to the missions and to the poor saints?

The Holy Spirit is asking you today how you have built the tower of God’s Kingdom through your material blessings.

(Job Anbalagan)

How do we love Jesus and His Body, the Church?

Let us meditate on Luke 7:36-50. This gospel passage is about the love of a sinner towards the Savior.

Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee for food on invitation. Normally, even on being invited, we would avoid going to some particular church for fellowship who do not agree with us on certain doctrines or to the houses of those who are like the Pharisees. Jesus Who exposed and scolded the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and pride, chose to accept the invitation of a Pharisee, namely Simon, and visited his house. This shows the humility of Jesus Whom we should emulate. Jesus finally conveyed His message in unambiguous terms to Simon. Through His message, Jesus distinguished between a religious Pharisee and a penitent sinner who visited the house of the said Pharisee for meeting Jesus there. Meeting Jesus in the house of a Pharisee!

What did this woman do unto Jesus in that house? She brought an alabaster box of ointment, stood at His feet behind Him weeping. Then she began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, kissed His feet and anointed the same with the ointment.

The Pharisee found fault with Jesus and said that He, a Prophet, would have known that the woman who touched Him was a sinner. Jesus then told him a parable of a certain creditor who had two debtors; the one owed few hundred pence and the other fifty. When they had nothing to pay to the creditor, the latter frankly forgave them both. Jesus afterwards asked Simon to tell Him which of them would love the creditor most. Simon replied that it was whom the creditor forgave most. Jesus then said that Simon rightly judged.

Turning to the woman, Jesus praised her and pointed to Simon that when He entered his house, he gave Him no water for His feet but she washed His feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head; he gave Jesus no kiss but that woman did not cease to kiss His feet since the time He entered the house; he did not anoint His head with oil but that woman anointed His feet with ointment.

Jesus finally gave the message, “wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little”. Jesus then turned to her and said, “Thy sins are forgiven….Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace”.

Dearly beloved, you would have committed many sins and iniquities knowingly or unknowingly. Today as you read this message, will you please enter “the house of the Pharisee” in your life? Due to the deceitfulness of the sin in your life, your heart is hardened and your eyes are blind so that you are not able to see “the house of Pharisee” in your life. May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see the wretchedness of your spiritual life today! You should enter “the house of the Pharisee” – a place where you have followed certain religious traditions by way of visiting your church on every Sunday for worshiping God by hymns and for throwing certain pence into the offertory box there. You may be a born-again Christian. But, have you practiced Phariseeism in your life? Worshipping God through hymns but denying Him through your life! Adoring Christ at the top of your voice in the church but not following His doctrines! Praising Jesus, the Head of the Church, but not ministering to His Body, the universal Church! Do all these acts reveal the leaven of Phariseeism in your life?

Entering “the house of the Pharisee” means identifying the areas in your life where you have practiced Phariseeism. Oh, beloved, as you enter through your spiritual eyes “the house of Pharisee”, you may behold your beloved Lord sitting at meat there. He is there to accept you if you humble yourself as the woman of the Luke’s gospel.

Shed tears at His feet for you have grieved His dove-like Spirit in many ways during the year. Shed tears at His feet for you have not shared the good things of your life with the poor. Shed tears at His feet for your failure to help propagation of the glorious gospel in the dark places of the world. Shed tears at His feet for your have wounded or judged some servants of God without knowing the full truth of the matter.

After shedding tears at His feet, you should wash His feet with the hairs of your head and kiss them. The feet of our Beloved Lord are nothing but those members of His Body who carry the glorious gospel to the different parts of the world. It is now time for you to minister to these members of His Body through your tearful prayers and sacrificial offerings. Have you ever shed tears through intercessory prayers for God to make use of these members of His Body mightily and to protect them and their families from the enemies of the Cross? If so, in His presence, can you name these servants of God for whom you have shed tears in the past?

Finally, you should anoint His feet with your oil. If you have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you have to pray in the Holy Spirit for God’s anointing on the feet of Jesus Christ. Praying in the Holy Spirit is praying as led by the Holy Spirit. Have you interceded for God’s anointing on the persecuted Christians in other nations, who are members of the Body of Christ, of which you are also a member? Ministers in various mission fields and persecuted Christians need God’s anointing on them through your prayers.

God will give you more of His grace and power today if you come to Jesus Christ in the same manner as the woman of the Luke’s gospel. After shedding tears at His feet for all your failures in the past, you should now decide to wash His feet with the hairs of your head and to anoint His feet with the oil. If your sins, which are many, are to be forgiven through the Blood of Jesus Christ, you should come to the Cross of Calvary with a broken heart today. As the many sins and iniquities are forgiven today, you should minister to His Body more than ever before and love His Body more than ever before.

Are the apostles and prophets today?

Recently, there was a hot discussion in a Christian web-site forum on the above issue. During the discussion, the Spirit of God led me to deal with this doctrine on the basis of the Word of God. The queries raised by a dear member and my comments are given below.

Query (i):

Certainly the church today needs church planters, missionaries, or leaders who act as pastors over other pastors. Fortunately, when some people say that the church needs "apostles" today, that's all that they mean. And while the usage of the term "apostle" is not biblical, certainly the church does need such persons.

Our comments: How can you say that the pastors of the local churches are the church planters, missionaries? Many servants of God from America, England and other European countries came to India and established churches where Christ was not named. They were apostles indeed. They could have pastured some churches in their own nations. William Carrey was a pastor in England but came to India as an apostle, in obedience to his apostolic calling by God. I have already explained to you in my earlier post about the apostolic ministries. An apostle is not one who has established a particular denominational group of churches in a place which was already evangelized and where Christ is already named.

Please note that according to the pattern of the churches established by Apostle Paul, each local church should be administered by deacons or elders. The pastors are appointed only to the Body of Christ as one of the five types of New Testament ministers.

Query (ii):

When some people say that the church needs "prophets" today, they mean that the church needs Spirit-filled leaders who can inspire the church with a vision for its mission, or who can challenge the church to deeper commitment to Christ.

Our comments: Yes, the Church, the Body of Christ needs prophets today who can inspire the local churches with a vision for the evangelical mission or who can challenge sleeping local churches to a deeper commitment to Christ through evangelism and revival.

Query (iii):

If by "apostles" and "prophets" one means Christian leaders of the same kind as the twelve apostles or the apostle Paul, they are clearly mistaken. There are no church leaders today whose authority cannot be questioned, or through whom new doctrinal revelations are given to the church, or whose teachings must be accepted by all Christians.

Our comments: Apart from the 12 apostles raised up by God during the New Testament period, the same apostolic ministries continued to function after the death of the 12 apostles who had lived during the earthly ministry of Jesus.

What do you mean by “new doctrinal revelations”? Paul gave doctrinal revelations about faith in Christ Jesus to those who were steeped in the laws and the commandments of the Jewish religion. Similarly, God did raise up many apostles like Paul during the later centuries to deal with many doctrinal issues when the people from the heathen religions began to accept Christ. Why did God raise up Martin Luther as a great reformer? God did raise him up as an apostle to deal with the false doctrines of the Catholic Church. Of course, all the apostles raised up by God after the ministry of Paul did confirm what Paul said in his epistles to the churches that existed during the New Testament period. In India, God did raise up Sadhu Sunder Singh, called an apostle with bleeding feet, who preached the gospel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in India and went to countries like USA, UK, Canada, during the 19^th century. Sadhu Sundar Singh lived like a Hindu hermit, wearing the saffron dress as commanded by Jesus Christ. He has beautifully dealt with the doctrines of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, etc which the great Apostle Paul could not deal with.

Of course, I agree that no apostle of today can claim that his authority should run over all the churches. The Body of Christ is a multi-membered body. Everyone in the Body should submit himself/herself to the other members of the Body.

Query (iv):

The New Testament teaches that the apostles of Christ were persons to whom Christ appeared after His resurrection and whom He commissioned to be His personal spokesmen (Acts 1:21-26; 5:32; 1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8).

Our comments: If your argument is to be accepted, what about Paul, the great apostle? Jesus did not appear to him in His resurrected body before His ascension. Paul had only seen a vision of Christ on his way to Damascus. In I Cor.15:8, Paul says that last of all Jesus was seen by him also, as by one born out of due time. Paul saw Jesus not in His resurrected Body. Had he seen Jesus in His resurrected Body, Paul would have believed Him earlier. But he saw Christ in a heavenly vision which resulted in his conversion. The same Paul writes in 2 Cor.5:7 that we should walk by faith, not by sight. There were many apostles like Martin Luther, George Wesley, who had not seen Christ in His resurrected Body.

Query (v):

Ephesians 2:20 and 3:5 teach that the apostles and prophets had foundational offices through which Christ established the church as the newly constituted people of God, a church in which both Jews and Gentiles make up the singular body of Christ.

Our comments: Please note that Paul, while writing to the saints in Ephesus, said that they were built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets who had lived at that particular point of time.

Query (vi):

Clearly many men today who claim to be apostles have taken upon themselves authority over other people which has not been given to them by God. Additionally, they are making prophetic utterances which they falsely claim to be divinely inspired.

Our comments: I agree with you in this regard. Though there are many aberrations like this in the Body of Christ, some wrongly claiming to be the apostles and the prophets, this does not mean that there are no true apostles and prophets in the Body of Christ today. Sitting before the computer, you cannot look for the true apostles and the prophets who live today in the Body of Christ. You are most welcome to our mission fields to see for yourself the works of apostles whom God has raised up in this nation. By judging on a few ministers like Benny Hinn, etc, you cannot come to the conclusion that there are no apostles today.

Query (v):

You should name a living prophet that prophecies future events, aligns with Scripture and passes the tests for a prophet that God established in Deuteronomy 18.

Our comments: Verse 20 of Deut.18 warns a prophet against speaking a word which He has not commanded him to speak.  The punishment for such a prophet is death.

Verse 22 in Deut.18 says that when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

The above verse says very clearly that when a prophet speaks in the Name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen, it means that the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. This shows that a prophet of God may prophesy presumptuously. In that case, you need not be afraid of him. You can just ignore him. Here, the prophet does speak in the name of the Lord. But the thing prophesied by him does not happen. However, the prophet is still a prophet.

Read about the prophetic ministry of Agabus in the book of Acts (11:27-28 & 21:10-11). Whatever he did prophesy had come true. This shows that a New Testament prophet can predict future events as led by the Spirit.

The test of a true prophet is that he remains true to the Word of God, despite many trials and tribulations that he comes across. It is for God to judge him, and not for any man or any woman to pass judgment on his ministry.

Dearly beloved, please read I Cor.13:9-10, about the gift of prophecy. We know in part and we prophesy in part. When the perfection comes at the time of the second advent of Jesus, we will not require either the ministry of a prophet or the gift of prophecy. As such, the ministry of a prophet or the gift of prophecy is now imperfect.

You also want me to name a true prophet whose prophecies will come true. Are you on the look-out for a true prophet? In that case, you should go to the wilderness to see a true prophet like John the Baptist who remained in the wilderness. This reminds me of the words of Jesus in Math.11:7-11 concerning John the Baptist. “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses….A prophet?

I challenge you to go to the wilderness to see a prophet, and not by asking others to show you a true prophet while you are seated yourself comfortably before a computer. In case you cannot find out the wilderness in your nation. I will take you to the wilderness where you can see for yourself a true prophet. I cannot show you a true prophet when you sit before your computer.

A prophet? Do you look for a prophet? You cannot find a true prophet in the comforts of the pulpit of a church. You cannot find him in the king’s house, living a luxurious life. You may not see him in any T.V. Channel. He will be like John the Baptist, preaching a message of repentance, boldly without fearing any man or any king in authority. John did not predict any event. Why are you looking out for a prophet who should predict some future events by sitting before your computer? Why are you looking for a prophet with some signs because the prophet himself is a sign?

If some people have falsely prophesied on certain future events, that does not mean that there are no prophets in the Body of Christ and that the Church, the Body of Christ, does not need the prophets today.

You may have some servants of God in your mind whose prophecies did not come true. I do not want you to name them. Please note that a New Testament prophet does not always predict the future events. He has more important functions to perform. He has to expose the false doctrines that afflict the Body of Christ and to give prophetic warnings to the churches.

You have referred to the ministry of Benny Hinn. Benny Hinn is an evangelist, and not a prophet. However, if his messages are in accordance with the Word of God, we should ignore his messages. You are not supposed to judge him as a false prophet.

Indeed, there are false prophets in our midst, especially, those who prophesy in the name of heathen gods (Verse 20 of Deut.18).

Please note that the living apostles and prophets are of the living Body of Christ. Otherwise, there may be a truncated Body of Christ, devoid of apostles and prophets abut consisting of only pastors and evangelists.

Despite all the imperfections of a particular prophetic ministry that you have in mind, God needs that particular foolish ministry because God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the mighty. It is not your or my choice to keep an imperfect prophet in the Body of Christ.

Who are we to judge that the Body of Christ does not need the ministries of apostles and prophets today? It is God who appoints the apostles and prophets to the Body of Christ.

(Job Anbalagan)