How to memorize a portion of Paul’s Epistles

If you find memorizing Scripture difficult, let me encourage you by helping you to learn something from each of Paul’s 13 New Testament epistles. 

I guarantee your success! 

“Impossible!” you say.

Nope.

Say with me, “Paul.” 

Okay. You now have committed to memory the first word of each of his letters. 

Take a look:

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…(Romans)
Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God…(1 Corinthians)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…(2 Corinthians)
Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father…(Galatians)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…(Ephesians)
Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus…(Philippians)
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God…(Colossians)
Paul and Silvanus and Timothy…(1 Thessalonians)
Paul and Silvanus and Timothy…(2 Thessalonians)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope…(1 Timothy)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus…(2 Timothy)
Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ…(Titus)
Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus…(Philemon)

That is the way the Greeks wrote a letter: they began a letter with the name of the author, which honestly seems a lot more reasonable than how we, today, put it at the end.

Another thing to notice is how often Paul establishes himself as an apostle.  

John MacArthur explains why,

“Now, this is something that Paul repeatedly did, and there were many reasons why he did this. You do not find the other writers of the New Testament doing this in the way Paul does. Of course, not all of the apostles wrote in the New Testament, but nevertheless, Paul is the one who is continually identifying himself as an apostle. And I think there are some very specific reasons why he does this. He says: “called an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.”

He had not lived and walked with Jesus Christ in His pre-death years. He had not seen the resurrected Christ before He ascended into heaven. And the qualifications for an apostle, according to the Scripture – Acts 1 – were that they know Christ in His post-resurrection reality, and that they be specifically and personally and directly chosen by Christ. They had to have seen the resurrected Christ and been called specifically by Him into the apostolate.

That’s the reason we can’t have any apostles today. That’s the reason there couldn’t be any past the biblical ones, because no one since then has seen the living resurrected Christ, and been specifically commissioned by Him. He has ascended into heaven, where He is until He comes again. So, the apostolate has ceased. It was foundational, according to Ephesians 2:20.”

________________________

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:21-26)

The Cost of Cultural Acceptance

I’m an unapologetic child of the 80’s. Somewhere in my parent’s home is a HYPERCOLOR sweatshirt to prove it.

Search “High School Stereotypes of the 1980s,” and you come up with terms like:

-Preppies
-Jocks
-Valley Girls
-Skaters
-Headbangers
-Goths
-New Wavers
-Overachievers

…the list goes on.

And if you’re like me, you recall, from your teen years, individuals who changed to fit into a particular group. They wanted so badly to be accepted that they were willing to endure wholesale change of their identity to achieve it.

That is what is sadly occurring within the evangelic church today: churches so desperately in need of feeling embraced by secular society that they are rushing to be seen as the most tolerant, loving, open-minded and sympathetic.

But as John MacArthur notes below, chasing cultural acceptance is neither the Church’s mandates, nor ultimately feasible.

If there is any doubt about this, it is worth asking why popular evangelicalism’s greatest fear is being out of sync with the culture. Pastors and leaders are chasing the culture, so that its trends show up in their churches. They treat this pursuit as a necessary evangelistic strategy. But the only way to be in sync with the culture is to diminish the presence of the Word of God, because unregenerate culture will always be fundamentally and irreconcilably incompatible with the truth of God. By catering to the unchurched or to the unconverted in the church, evangelicalism has been hijacked by legions of carnal spin doctors seeking to convince the world that Christians can be just as inclusive, pluralistic, and open-minded as any postmodern, politically correct worldling. 

However, true biblical Christianity requires a denial of every worldly value and behavior, and Christians must be willing to make a commitment to the Word of God, with a full understanding of the implications of doing so. Jesus plainly tells the disciples in John 15: 19 that the world will hate them because they are not of this world. God has chosen believers out of the world, and the world hates them. In Luke 6: 26, Jesus says, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” 

Why is the world so fixed in its animosity toward the truth of God? Jesus says in John 7: 7, “The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” Contempt for Scripture is not intellectual; it’s moral. As the Lord explained to Nicodemus, “Men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3: 19). How tragic for the church to seek to accommodate that worldly affection, since it is impossible by any human method to overcome the sinner’s resistance to the truth and the gospel (2 Cor. 3: 14). The only time the church has made any spiritual impact on the world is when the people of God have stood firm and have refused to compromise, boldly proclaiming the truth in the face of the world’s hostility. In the end, seeking cultural relevance will only result in obsolescence, since tomorrow’s generation will inevitably renounce today’s fads and philosophies.

 In the face of ever-changing cultural trends, the church needs to boldly proclaim the eternal relevance and evergreen applicability of the Word of God. In particular, Christians must embrace and exalt six truths about the Scripture: its objectivity, rationality, veracity, authority, incompatibility, and integrity.

Grace and Peace

This past week I read the following quote on Jonathan Edwards, about how he handled being voted out of his church at the end of his ministry, for taking the biblical stand that communion should be only for believers:

“That faithful witness received the shock, unshaken. I never saw the least symptoms of displeasure in his countenance the whole week but he appeared like a man of God, whose happiness was out of the reach of his enemies.”

It is impossible to not contrast his behavior with the current political climate in the United States.

One must ask, “What enabled Edwards to handle such a difficult situation with such apparent grace and peace?”

Interestingly enough, I ran across the following insights from H.A. Ironside in my study of 1 Corinthians:

In the third verse we have the apostolic salutation, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are saved by grace, but of course this is not the grace to which he here refers. He knows that is settled, these people who are sanctified in Christ Jesus are already justified by faith, saved by grace. It is not that which he is thinking of when he says, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” And then again all Christians have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God”—it is a settled thing—“through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is not praying that these Christians may obtain that grace of which he speaks here.

First of all, it is grace to sustain in all the trials of the way, grace to enable us to overcome in every hour of temptation. In Hebrews we are bidden to “come boldly unto the throne of grace”—upon which our great High Priest sits—“that we may obtain mercy, and find grace for seasonable help” (Heb. 4:16). We need grace every day of our lives. The grace of yesterday will not suffice for today. We need to go to God morning by morning, to draw down from above by meditation and prayer supplies of grace to start the day aright. But throughout the day we need to learn to “Pray without ceasing” that our hearts may continually be reaching out to Him that new supplies of grace may come down to us constantly. We cannot keep ourselves, not for one moment, therefore the need of the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And the peace, I repeat, is not peace with God, but that peace of God of which we read in Philippians 4:6, 7: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

You see this has nothing to do with the sin question. That is settled. We have peace with God because our sins have been forever put away, but this has to do with the question of things that would keep us anxious, the trials of life that press upon our hearts…

My brother, my sister, not a trial ever comes to you, there is not a perplexity you are called upon to face, there is not a need you will have to meet, but God invites you to come to Him about it, and you have the promise, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phi. 4:19).

(Excerpt from Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians)

Pick 4

The Bible states clearly that,

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

And Paul declares his innocence because he “did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)

So, while we should be exceedingly grateful for our possession of the whole cannon of Scripture, this is a powerful and enlightening statement below from H.A. Ironside, regarding if we had to choose only 4 of the 21 epistles in the New Testament, the choice should be clear!

“In Romans we have set forth the great fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone. In Galatians that doctrine is defended after having been called in question by legal teachers. These two epistles, Romans and Galatians, form therefore the very foundation of Christian teaching. Then in the two letters to the Corinthians we have instruction as to the Church.

– In the first epistle we have the ordering, the calling, and the discipline of the Church.

– In the second we have the ministry of the Church.

If we should lose all the rest of the New Testament—which God forbid we should—and have only these four letters preserved, they would be sufficient to show us the way of salvation and how to conduct ourselves as Christian people coming together in church relationship.”

(Excerpt from Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians)

The Offense of Sin

Recently, I had the opportunity to teach a class on The Offense of Sin.

Below are a few of the key concepts.

Weight of sin

Question: Of the Bible’s 66 books and 1,189 chapters, only two books and four chapters do not mention sin or sinner.

Answer: Genesis 1-2 describes creation before sin and Revelation 21-22 depicts the new heaven and earth that will never be infected by sin.

Genesis 4 to the end of Revelation deals with God’s response to and remedy for the events of the Fall in Genesis 3

Why is an understanding of sin important?

Believer

He who wishes to attain right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very low if he would build high. A mistake here is most mischievous. Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption. – JC Ryle

Unbeliever

The plain truth is that a right understanding of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity…The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes anyone a new creature in Christ is to send light into his heart and show him that he is a guilty sinner. The material creation in Genesis began with “light,” and so also does the spiritual creation. Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies and false doctrines of the present day…I believe that one of the chief wants of the contemporary church has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin. – JC Ryle

Sin: A definition

“Sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4 KJV).

– Sin must be understood from a God-centered standpoint: it is a violation of the Creator-creature relationship.
– Every sin: acting autonomously, usurping God’s authority and saying, “My will be done…not God’s Will be done.” (Luke 22:42)
– There are sins of Omission as well as Commission (James 4:17

God judges sin based on two criteria:

1. Outward acts/Inward thoughts (horizontal relationships) – to see if they conform to His law (Matt. 5:21-28)

2. Inward motivation (vertical relationship) – a desire to please God (the heart)

Only the Holy Spirit can change our natural disposition and inclination and create in our souls a genuine love for God.

Unless He moves to change us, the only good we will ever do is on the horizontal plane, and that will not satisfy the law of God.

Abundant Life Graduation

Recently, I had the opportunity to address graduates of our most recent Abundant Life Program class.  Below are my notes:

2 short thoughts:

-What do CHURCHES need, as transformational agents in their communities?
-What do YOU need, as you continue to seek what are the good works God ordained you walk in?

What do the churches need?

1. Commitment to the Gospel

Acts 13 – First Missionaries: Paul and Barnabas give the 1st missionary sermon

15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a word of exhortation for the people, please speak.”

23 “From this man’s descendants (David) God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.

38 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

More than any program, communities need the person of Jesus Christ

2. Leaders equipped to serve

Titus 1:9 – Regarding Elders

9He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

What do You need?

There are two commitments you must carry with you wherever you go:

1. To be persistent and teachable students of God’s Word.

-We must submit to the wisdom of the Word (I delight to do your will. Ps. 40:8)
-We must crave the nutrition of the Word  (Like newborns crave milk. 1 Pet. 2:2)
-We must be equipped by the Word (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

 

 

 

2. To a habit of ongoing self-examination.

You and I need to get used to standing before the mirror of the Word of God, so that we can see ourselves as we really are.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Healthy Christianity is found at the intersection of accurate self-knowledge and the true knowledge of God.

Colossians 2:6-7 reads, Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Just as you have faithfully completed Abundant Life, continue to grow in Christ-likeness and serve your community for His glory.

Serving Churches

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia,

“Each new generation must learn what God has done for His people so that “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19)

Recently, I was reading John MacArthur’s new book, Final Word: Why We Need the Bible, and reminded of what a privilege and pleasure it is to serve Christ’s Church, “helping to supplement the spiritual sustenance the local church requires from God’s Word.”

“My heart goes out to those true believers who can’t find a reliable church that provides real spiritual food. I hear from people in that situation all the time. They’re committed to their local church, but they’re not being faithfully fed. They have to survive with weak teaching, scrounging for morsels instead of feasting on the riches of God’s Word. And in that malnourished state, they develop deficient immune systems, succumbing to heresies and errors they would otherwise know to avoid. That’s the cost of weak preaching and weak pastors—they leave the people under them exposed and vulnerable to lies that would not confuse or corrupt stronger believers. Today, too many pulpits are occupied by hirelings who don’t know the first thing about how to feed their flocks—they’re either incapable of feeding God’s sheep or unwilling to do so. My prayer is that believers caught in such situations would find faithful ministries to help supplement the spiritual sustenance they require from God’s Word.“

God’s Ordained Institution

Pastor Warren Wiersbe writes,

“Each new generation must learn what God has done for His people so that they will obey His Word and trust Him for the future.  When you have a living faith in a living God, the past is not ‘dead history.’ It throbs with living reality.”

This is the heart of the Genesis Family Ministry Program: strengthening church leaders, in order that they might encourage and equip parents as the primary disciplers of their children, remembering that the family is God’s ordained institution for passing faith from one generation to the next.

We find inspiration and instruction in passages such as the one below from Psalm 78:1-8:

Listen, O my people, to my instruction;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach them to their children,
That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,
That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,
And not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not faithful to God. 

Albert Barnes

It has been said,

“There are no great men of God, only men of a great God.”

In that case, one of my favorite “men of a great God” is 19th century American theologian Albert Barnes, who provided gems like this below in his commentary of both the Old and New Testaments.

Psalm 55:22 – Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

    “All that is to be ‘borne’ or to be ‘done’ in this world he has ‘divided up’ among people, giving or assigning to each one what He thought best suited to his ability, his circumstances, his position in life – what ‘he’ could do or bear best – and what, therefore, would most conduce to the great end in view. That portion thus assigned to ‘us,’ we are directed to ‘cast upon the Lord;’ that is, we are to look to him to enable us to do or to bear it. As it is ‘his’ appointment, we should receive it, and submit to it, without complaining; as it is ‘his’ appointment, we may feel assured that no more has been laid upon us than is commensurate with our ability, our condition, our usefulness, our salvation. We have not to rearrange what has been thus appointed, or to adjust it anew, but to do all, and endure all that he has ordained, leaning on his arm.”

Kingdom Co-Laborers

Next month we will have the privilege of hosting visiting pastors from the following countries for encouragement in Scripture and equipping in EA’s strategies:

– Cuba
– Haiti
– Puerto Rico
– Panama
– Mexico

This morning I came across the following passage in 1 Peter 1:1-2,

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.”

Such a great reminder that ALL Scripture is given for our instruction and edification, even this portion where the Apostle Peter is addressing a letter almost 2,000 years ago!

As Jim George notes in his outstanding resource Bare Bones Bible Handbook,

“First Peter was written around the time Rome was burned by the emperor, Nero. The persecution of Christians had been steadily increasing, and its intensity will only accelerate as Nero spreads the false rumor that the fires were started by Christians. Peter writes this letter to Christians throughout the Roman Empire to show them how to live victoriously in the midst of the coming hostility without losing hope, without becoming resentful, and by trusting the Lord and looking for His second coming. Peter believes that if his readers will live obediently in the midst of a hostile society, they can be evangelistic tools in the hand of God.”

As I read the passage I thought of the visiting pastors coming to the Dominican Republic, who likewise are:

-Scattered throughout the provinces,
-Chosen by the Father,
-Set apart by the Spirit,
-For obedience to Jesus Christ.

What a privilege it will be fellowship and learn alongside these Kingdom Co-laborers!