Devotion - 12 Nov - Paul's Church Model

A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers this week. We continue our sermon series of the 500^th anniversary of the reformation. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴ so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. ¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Today we talked about how the reformists of Martin Luther’s time could institute very transformative changes in the way people worshipped. These transformations enabled Christians to have a more personal relationship with God both during worship and in everyday life. These changes allowed a deeper understanding in the Gospel message of being saved through God’s grace and not by something a person should or can do. These innovations included being able to sit during the service, reading God’s word in an affordable bible in the native language, taking part in communion, and singing songs of praise and thanksgiving. The reformers look at Paul’s church model [today’s text, verse 11] and realize that the church does need every one of these people: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. [Sometimes referred to as “APEST”] How we worship today is only made possible because the reformers realized the need for those APEST people. Yes, you are one of those APEST people if you are promoting Jesus and His mission: “go forth and make disciples”.