NT Framework - In Christ is all it takes

Not an act of obedience or adherence to some archaic tradition. And this one thing unites all believers in all times. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

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Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy

Saul’s Road To Damascus Encounter

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it.

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Look at Paul's experience in Acts chapter 9. This is a critical text on understanding the background of Paul's realization of the church, the nature of the church, what the church is. Saul, of course, gathered some letters so he could go to Damascus to arrest, you know, believers in Damascus, modern-day Syria. And as he was traveling, verse 3, it happened while he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Sometimes we read the Bible too quickly, and we don't think about what's being said. But so if we slow down here and we really ask what is going on with this question, it reveals something about the nature of the church. Now, we know that the voice that came from heaven was the Lord Jesus Christ, right? We learned that verse 5. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But again, how in the world is it that Paul is persecuting Jesus when Jesus is in heaven sitting at the right hand of the Father, how how is he actually persecuting Jesus? I thought he was persecuting believers on earth in the area of Damascus. So Saul, because he is a theological genius, right?

The Mystical Union With Christ

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He is, he's he's he's a theological genius. I'm sure he thought about these words. And he began to realize that the believers on earth were somehow connected to the Lord Jesus who's in heaven. Somehow there is a mystical union between the two, such that by persecuting believers on earth, he is persecuting the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. And this gets developed in the New Testament, doesn't it? As the body of Christ, with Christ being the head. The incorporation of believers on earth, in Christ, in the heavenlies, to the extent that the book of Ephesians is all about believers in Christ. It uses the expression in Christ or in the Lord Jesus Christ or in him 39 times. And it says that we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places. In other words, it marks out that we have a position. And that position is in Christ. And we ask then the question, well, how did we get in Christ? And this is what is the baptism ministry of the Holy Spirit. So we're going to get into the ministries of the Holy Spirit some today. But this is the ministry of the Spirit that marks off the church from believers prior in the Old Testament, which was primarily Jews, but also Gentiles could be saved in the Old Testament. Think of Rahab, think of Ruth, think of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, think of the Ninevites or the Phoenician sailors. So Gentiles could obviously be saved in the Old Testament just as well as Jews. Primarily Jews were being saved. But these believers in the Old Testament were not in Christ. And the reason they weren't in Christ is because Christ had not come, been crucified, resurrected, ascended, and sent the Spirit to do this particular ministry of baptism.

Why Bible Translation Matters

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So we're gonna, we're using a word now. It's a Greek word, it's baptism. At the time of the Reformation, when when people started to translate the Bible into other languages, I mean you had people like Wycliffe, the early morning star of the Reformation, but then you've got people like William Tyndale who wants to translate the Bible into English so that everybody can read the Word of God for themselves because it was in Latin and people didn't know Latin anymore. And so you're going to hear a Latin Mass in a Roman Catholic church and you don't even know what's being said, nor do you have a Bible you can study for yourselves, because only people who were educated and had access to Latin could actually study Jerome's Latin Vulgate. And so you're dependent on them to tell you what it means. And I hope they're getting it right because you can't check. You've got people like Martin Luther translating the Bible into German around 1522. Because why? Because he wanted Germans to be able to read the Word of God in their own language. And if God divided the languages at the Tower of Babel, would he not make it possible that we could translate his word into every language so people could have access to him? That's the God of the triumph God of the Bible and the God of history and the God of the universe. In Islam, they say, you know, you can't, if you really want to know the word of Allah, you have to know Arabic. Can't translate it and have anything of any accuracy. Well, that really is a actually stating that Allah is limited, right? He can only speak one himself about himself in one language. But the God of the Bible can reveal himself in every language. That's not a problem for him. And I'm very thankful for that, and you should be too. We have some of the greatest translations in the world in the English language. Much better than Spanish versions of the Bible. I mean, just think how many versions we have. It's too bad now that they have been corrupted in many cases by gender, you know, conflicts and things like that. We're going to retranslate the Bible, God's a she, and we're not sure who we are anymore. Um it's really sad that that's all happened. But we have a lot of great translations. I mean, no language has near as many translations as we do. And no language has access to more information to study the Word of God than the English language. We just really have something special. Um so

Peter Learns Gentiles Are Included

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Paul began to realize that there was this mystical union between the two, so that persecuting believers on earth was persecuting the Lord Jesus in heaven, to whom they were somehow connected. And um, as I said, Ephesians is all about this in Christ, Jew and Gentile in one body in Christ. This wasn't like Israel, like Old Testament saints. This is something different where those who are in Christ have equal spiritual privileges. That's the main difference. That's the main difference. We have equal spiritual privileges, whereas in the Old Testament they did not have that. Okay. So Paul is catching his first glimpse here of the concept of the church as the body of Christ, which was also revealed to other apostles and prophets like Peter. Uh, for example, Acts chapter 10. Peter was getting a glimpse of this, right? We studied this last week. He said he had the vision of the sheet coming down, being lowered down, and it's got all this kosher and non-kosher animals in it, right? And he was told to rise and eat, and he said, No way. I've never eaten that stuff in my life. I mean, this is the most grotesque menu I've ever seen. You can't mix those things together. And so he had to have this vision three times. Then he's comfortable going to Cornelius' house and stepping across the threshold of a Gentile's home. Because he'd become convinced that what God had declared clean, no man should call unclean. And as he preaches to them, as he's speaking the word and he speaks the gospel, he speaks about the death of Christ, he speaks about the resurrection of Christ, it says, while he was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and they began speaking in tongues, signifying that they had received the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit, and yet they were uncircumcised. This is all the Jews were amazed. Like, how can this be? Well, it's because God does not require anything in addition to faith in order to be acceptable to Him. And they were learning that lesson. So Peter was getting insight into this new truth of Jews and Gentiles in one body.

Where To Find Visuals And Wrap

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Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.