8: Jesus, Paul, and the Task of the Church
8.1. Introduction.
8.2 Jesus and Paul. The relationship between Jesus and Paul was like that of a composer and conductor. Three areas where there have been issues between the message of Jesus and Paul
- The Kingdom of God. Jesus talked about it a lot. Paul hardly at all. For Jesus and his hearers, the kingdom of God was a slogan with lots of meaning. Jesus talked about the real kingdom of God, a very different idea than the commonly held one. Paul used that notion inside his message, but to his hearers the notion had a much different meaning.
- Justification by faith. Paul talks about this a lot; Jesus rarely mentions it.For Paul justification was never about salvation. It was about how to tell in the present who God’s people were, who was family. Jesus did the same thing when he redefined who his family was.
- Ethics.
8.3 The Work of an Apostle.
- a. Servant, apostle, set apart.
- b. Redefinitions in practice. Paul made it is life’s work to found Jew and Gentile churches on Gentile soil. First because he foresaw the fall of Jerusalem. Second, because such churches challenged to rule and claims of Caesar.
8.4. Conclusion: Paul and the Task of the Church. We live in the 5th act of a 5 act play. Our job in the 5th act as the church is to lead the world into a new world and a new culture in three ways
- Reconstruct of the self.
- The reconstruction of knowledge.
- The reconstruction of the great story.