What could an
absentee father provide to his children that would lay a foundation for a
lifetime of joy? Often we think of absentee fathers in terms of their neglect
of their children. There are untold stories of grief and emptiness when fathers
do not fill their designed role. Even when a father is taken away by death,
children feel a loss that can hurt them for a lifetime. Joy seems like the last
thing an orphaned child could ever experience.
This past few
days God has been ministering to me about a particular group of absentee
fathers who are a wonderful gift to the children of God. They even have
something to offer those who have been brokenhearted over their other absentee
fathers.
The absentee
fathers I speak of are those identified in God’s book as “apostles”. These are
twelve men who were given distinctive leadership responsibilities in the
formation of Jesus’ church. They had the top-tier of authority over the church,
under the headship of Jesus Christ. They were the leaders of the leaders, so to
speak.
However, when
we think of the leadership of these men, one of the distinctive characteristics
that must be included is “fathers”. The
apostle Paul wrote to one of the churches, “For
you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and
encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you
into his own kingdom and glory.”[1]The
apostle John wrote to the church as, “My
little children,”[2]and
added, “I have no greater joy than to hear
that my children are walking in the truth.”[3]
What has
ministered to me so much these last few days is Paul’s encouragement to the
churches that their obedient working out of their salvation should be, “not only as in my presence but much more in
my absence.”[4]
At first I thought this sounded like a parent warning his children that they
better behave just as well when he is not looking as when they are under his
watchful eye.
However, as I
realized more of what Paul was expressing as his fatherly relationship to the
church, I realized that he was writing them a letter that could help them just
as much while he was absent as anything he could do when present. His letter
could help them be all the more obedient to working out their salvation.
When I
understood this piece of the picture, I realized that, if Paul could help them
be all the more devoted to working out their salvation in his absence, and this
because of what he was sharing with them in his letter, it meant that every generation
of the church can receive the same ministry from this letter, and the rest of
the apostolic writings, as the first century church experienced. Paul’s letter
is a father to his children, period. Those who are children of God are children
of the apostles, so to speak, living out what they passed on to us.
Another way we
must look at the relationship of the apostles to the present generation of God’s
people is that they are still the foundation upon which Jesus is building his
church. When Jesus said, “And I tell you,
you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it,”[5]he
was introducing a chief component of the church, that it would be, “built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”[6]
This means
that, when the apostles write their letters to the churches, they are writing
as the men who form the foundation of the church, working side-by-side with Jesus
as the cornerstone who holds everything together. They are not just ahead of
us, as one generation begetting another. They are solid foundation rock for
every generation of the church.
Both of these
characteristics of “father” and “foundation” have the potential
misconception of us thinking that they are talking about men who are far away.
If Paul was a father-figure to the church, that was such a long time ago that
it could barely have any impact on us now, right? And, if the apostles are the
foundation of the church, haven’t we had so many generations of the church
built on that foundation that those of us who are being added in this day would
surely be far removed from any personal relationship with these men?
However, a
third characteristic of the apostles that has meant a lot to me lately is the
quality they add to the fellowship of the church. The apostle John wrote, “that which we have seen and heard we
proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are
writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”[7]
John spoke of
a kind of fellowship that included the apostles, the church, and the Triune
God. This fellowship, lived out the way the apostles wrote in their letters,
was designed to make our joy complete.
We see this
same three-dimensional fellowship in Paul’s letters when he describes the
church built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. With the imagery
of Jesus as the cornerstone making true the work of the apostles, Scripture
says that, “in whom the whole structure,
being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”[8]
Now we have a clear relationship between Jesus as the cornerstone, the apostles
as the foundation, and the church that is built upon that foundation, just as Jesus
had earlier told the apostles.
The apostle
Peter described it like this, “As you
come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and
precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual
house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.”[9]
Peter saw Jesus
as “a living stone,” the “cornerstone” of the church’s
foundation, and he saw believers as “living
stones” who are being “built up”
on that foundation. There is an undeniable relationship between Jesus, the
apostles, and the church.
However, when
Paul continues describing this he adds, “In
him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
Spirit.”[10]
We are the “living stones” that are
being “built together” to become “a dwelling place.” Now notice who this
is for. It is a dwelling place “for God,”
and God will dwell in us “by the Spirit.”
So, now we
have this wonderful picture of fellowship. Jesus is the cornerstone, the
apostles are the foundation, believers are the living stones that make up the
building, and God the Father dwells with his in the person of his Holy Spirit. All
that to say that we have this three-dimensional fellowship between the
apostles, the church, and the Triune God.
What this has
done for me this week is settle a very important issue. No matter what I am
going through, I am not alone. I have the ministry of my fathers, the apostles,
ministering to me through their letters just as much today as to the churches
that first received them. I have the ministry of the Triune God always working
in me, and around me, and for me, so that I can always know how to work out my
salvation with fear and trembling. And I have the church as a brotherhood of
living stones, all being built together in the same way, the same building, on
the same foundation, by the same God, by the same Holy Spirit, so that I can
always find some group of people who are seeking to live in Jesus’ name who
will fellowship with me in that way that helps all of us grow up in Christ, and
complete our mutual joy.
The most
personal application of this is that something has clicked inside me that feels
connected to Paul, and John, and Peter, as fathers. If they knew me, they would
want me as one of their dear children. If they saw me, they would greet me as
one of their “beloved.”[11]
If they had to rebuke me, or reprove me, or correct me, it would not be, “to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as
my beloved children.”[12]
And, because
these apostles are the foundation rock of the church Jesus is building, coming
together in fellowship with God and his people, the ministry of these fathers
contributes something very distinct and special and necessary to the completion
of our joy.
Jesus once
said, “These things I have spoken to you,
that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”[13]
Later he sent out the apostles to minister to the church, and then write us
these amazing letters that would show us how to have such fellowship with them,
and God, and the church, that it would make our joy complete. Now, who wouldn’t
want a letter from fathers like that!
©
2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
I Thessalonians 2:11-12
[2]
I John 2:1
[3]
3 John 1:4
[4]
Philippians 2:12
[5]
Matthew 16:18
[6]
Ephesians 2:20
[7]
I John 1:3-4
[8]
Ephesians 2:20-21
[9]
I Peter 2:4-5
[10]
Ephesians 2:22
[11]
Romans 12:19; James 1:16; I Peter 2:11; I John 2:7; Jude 1:17, 20
[12]
I Corinthians 4:14
[13]
John 15:11
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