Journeying in the Grace of Christ and God

The New and Living Way Church, Ikorodu.

Meeting: Sunday Service

Sunday School:       The Church in Antioch (Introduction)

Message: Journeying in the Grace of Christ and God

Date: 6th June, 2021

Minister: Pastor Laide Olaniyan

Pastor Laide

It is important to understand that the church knew phenomenal growth under the leadership of the Apostles in Jerusalem as written in the books of Acts 1 to Acts 8. The church of God grew, they were established in the Apostle’s doctrine and laboured in that consistently up until Acts 11.

The conversion of Paul and the attendant leadings that surrounded his life marked the opening of a new chapter for the church. The ministry towards the Gentiles and the revelation of Christ were not given to the church until Paul came. God opened up this phase for the church through Paul. The testimony of Christ was confirmed in Paul first as a precursor to the other Apostles coming into the furtherance of the gospel, in the things of everlasting life and in the things of God.

Paul himself was not established in the things called Christ until he moved to Antioch. (Galatians 1:11-19) The Lord did not permit Paul to go to the Apostles immediately after his conversion because as of then, there was a strong thrust for the Apostles amongst the Jews. Judaism still stood very tall such that they could not see Christ as all that is needed for salvation. Rather, they saw Christ as an addition to the law of Moses to principally prosper the Jews.

We see that after the conversion of Cornelius, Peter was summoned by the church and was accused of going into the house of the gentiles i.e Cornelius (Acts 11:2-3). We see that there were still schisms between the Jews and the Gentiles, also seen in Acts 6:1. The Grecians were treated as second class citizens and were not eating together with them. The grace available then was not enough to break the middle wall of partition and the hold of the Jews was so tough that it obscured the liberty that Christ provided for the church. Even in Acts 16:1-3 when Paul took Timothy and because the people knew that Timothy’s Father was Grecian and his mother a Jew, Timothy had to be circumcised according to the Jewish tradition. Paul was not the first to minister to the Grecians, other Apostles had ministered to them but always, there were roadblocks. However, after the report of growth in Antioch, other disciples started to minister in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch and gentiles started to respond in their masses.

Report of this got to Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas who later went in search of Paul and they taught for the space of a year. The church in Antioch was the headquarters of the Gentile church. It was from there Paul and Barnabas from their missionary journeys returned to. The church in Antioch began to be a little different to the church in Jerusalem which was principally pioneered by the Apostles and the Deacons they elected. The counsel of the Lord had prospered to a measure in Jerusalem, but God wasn’t going to abandon them but wanted to provoke them to jealousy by the church in Antioch.

God was going to shut down operations of what they had ministered in Jerusalem church and that they would be sustained by the light of the Gentile church. This was prophesied somewhat by Agabus in the latter part of Acts 11:26-30. This prophecy was not just physical but was also spiritual.

The church in Antioch grew by the working of the Spirit. Paul said this Gentile church had partaken of the spiritual things of the Jerusalem church and that they were worthy to receive their carnal things.

The church of restoration is like the Gentile church in the spirit, that is, what the Lord is working by the Spirit in our generation is like the working of the gentile church amidst the Jerusalem mother. Most of us got converted at a different church but because those places could not journey beyond a level of truth, God brought forth another to serve the Spirit, not to the utter condemnation of the other but to provoke them to jealousy. We knowing fully well that we were once a partaker of their (Jerusalem mother) spiritual things know that they are worthy to receive of our (Gentile church) carnal and spiritual things.

The Gentile church represents a church that grew in and by the Spirit.

(Galatians 3:1-3) What he was referring to here is that they began in the spirit and cannot now seek to be made better by the law (works of the flesh). The flesh here is the doctrine of Judaism. The Gentile church began purely by the Spirit. They drank from the church of Jerusalem but purified the waters by the filtering of the Spirit and climbed up in the spirit where they can begin to see Christ.

Paul and Barnabas were at the fulcrum of the workings in this church and they stayed there. The work of God multiplied not just by stature first. (Galatians 1:12-16) It was a revelation of the Son first in Paul. What we receive by revelation is not for preaching, it’s to be shown in you, that is, we are to be the revelation. Revelation is not what we see, it is what is shown in you. We shouldn’t be excited when we see revelation, rather we should rejoice when we become what is shown to us.

Paul said he didn’t hurriedly go out to preach, he first went to Arabia, to Damascus, and from there, he went to see Peter and James in Jerusalem, after which he went to Troas until Barnabas came to fetch him and brought him to Antioch. All the while, he was Saul (Galatians 1:15-22). One thing that happened in Antioch was his change of name.

(Acts 13:6-11) When they went to Paphos, there they met Barjesus (which means Son of Jesus) who was a false prophet and sorcerer who withstood Paul and Barnabas, to prevent the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, from the faith; and Paul saw by the spirit that he was a child of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness. Many of the Jews held the name of the Lord because of advantage, not with sincerity. Many believed but not purely. We see in the book of Acts that many were added to the church (Acts 6:7), even a great company of priests, but not purely and God would provoke them to jealousy.

For Paul, it was first from within that God helped him to minister to the churches. It is so unfortunate that what Satan has helped many to see about the call of Paul is only ministry and by ministry, we’re referring to just preaching. (1 Timothy 1:12-16) Ministry really should be what God shows through your life. Ministry is not what you say or preach, it is your life, what is shown by the gospel through your life (1 Timothy 1:12-13; 1 Timothy 1:16). There are things God will not show to the body until He finds suitable vessels through whom He will show it. God had attempted to show some patterns, but was not able to. For many of us called to the ministry, this must be set forth and understood amidst us.

For ministry, it is not platforms you need because the world will come to tempt you with platforms. It is not even an anointing you need. What a minister needs is a working within and until that work has been wrought, you are not ready for ministry. The Lord will not show beyond the work that has been wrought in you. However, we are all works in progress. A person can have an ordination to be an Apostle but God will not reveal him yet until a work has been wrought in him. Not as though fivefold ministry is a stature in the spirit because they are gifts of graces, but God will not want to unduly expose the person. He would want the person to have gathered stature in the spirit because what it takes to understand what is being preached doesn’t take long but to live it is the problem (2 Peter 1:12). The question is has it become your life, your testimony, your conversation, and not necessarily can you teach it? (Acts 1:1)

(Galatians 2:10-14) We see that even though Peter believed, he could not do what they were preaching and do it with convictions. Peter knew what to do and that is why Paul blamed him when there were dissimulations (Galatians 2:11-13).

(Acts 15:1-2) Circumcision is not necessarily cutting off of the foreskin but confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:1-3). (Philippians 3:1-7) Anything can be a circumcision e.g education degrees, accent, civilization, finesse, class, CV. We can be gentiles and still be circumcised or have confidence in the flesh, that is, things of the flesh that we trust asides Jesus Christ or estates in the flesh that we glory in outside of Jesus Christ.

Paul said we are the circumcision in the Spirit that glory in Christ (Philippians 3:3). Even a poor man can glory in his estate (or any estate in the natural that is outside of Christ). It is what makes us feel our salvation experience is superior to someone else’s. 

The church is made up of men and women so circumcision that the Jews were glorying in can’t be the cutting off of the foreskin. As far as the soul is subject to Christ, whether poor or rich, Christ knows how to subject the soul to dealings that will work out the same salvation in all of us. Our outward estate does not matter when it comes to salvation. It is the life that is subject to the tutelage of Christ.

Poverty doesn’t make us any more saved. If we’re poor, let it be by the administration of the Spirit. It is the carnal/lustful soul that notes differences in people’s estate and assumes salvation is different for each estate of a man, thinking poverty makes a man more saved or being rich makes a man more saved. We should not be afraid of poverty neither should we be lifted by wealth, both are vanities.

It is also circumcision that makes us feel like we cannot marry someone who is not as educated, that makes us feel we’re better than someone. May God heal us of evil eyes. A person can be learned in the natural and a stark illiterate or carnal man in the spirit and vice versa. If we base our judgement on just the external, we’re carnal. May it not be said that we regard people because of what they are in the world. Every regard must be because of the quantity of Christ in a person, of the life wrought in a man.

(Acts 5:1) With Ananias and Sapphira, their giving had a stench of ill savour. The problem was not the seed sowing; it was the intent of their hearts. (Acts 4:36-37) Joses did his own giving but with Ananias and Sapphira, they kept back some parts (Acts 5:1-13). It seemed like they were making a sacrifice to God when indeed they weren’t. God rejected them and their offering just as with Cain. If it is ₦5 we can give to God, give it wholeheartedly not feeling ashamed. God looks at the intent. It is not quantity that matters but the obedience to God. This is why if we cannot obey God with little, we won’t be able to obey with much.

Ananias and Sapphira wanted to impress the Apostles but they were not moved by that. When that judgement came, nobody dared to join themselves to them (Acts 5:13). If something has not yet been worked in us, let us stay in our lot.

(Acts 15:1-32) These Pharisees that believed were insisting against the authority of the Apostles that it is necessary that they be circumcised – same thing they did in Acts 11. Keeping the law of Moses will give some people the right of way, privilege by the tribe of Levi, priesthood by Aaron and structures of preeminence but it would not have been a work of grace (Acts 15:5). They wanted civility in faith, to order them according to the law and for them to have confidence in the flesh. Men went out from amongst them and they subverted souls by words (Acts 15:24). To subvert a soul is to shortchange or to trouble, to cause the soul to be unsteady by words.

Words are also used to confirm souls (Acts 15:32). Paul and Barnabas were able to contend for the faith, that is, for souls not to be established in anything other than the gospel. (Hebrews 13:9) There were people who held onto Jewish laws, meats, circumcisions, drinks, observing holy things but did not prosper by them in life because they didn’t stay on grace. A soul must find its confidence in Christ and in Christ alone. Education is good but it doesn’t make us any ounce better than the person that didn’t go to school. It profiteth us nothing because it adds no stature to the measure of the fullness of Christ. Our boast should be totally Christ. The Antioch church fought for this and this is the path of faith we must earnestly contend for.

For to be saved, what we need is the light of Truth, any other addition is pride (confidence in the flesh). It is the truth that is in Christ that confirms a soul. Anyone that has not been given Christ is still very unstable even though he’s a believer. As long as Christ has not been made his whole boast, that soul has not been established because he still has other things whereof to glory in. Even when we have things in the natural, we would have been so tempered by grace that none of these things will make us raise a feather or boast.

We cannot boast about vanities. The man within is the only thing God builds, not houses in the natural etc. We must be very careful because souls can be lifted up and will never see salvation because God can through us raise vanity (e.g big church structures) and it should never be what we set our hearts on but only and solely on Christ being exalted in us. In fact, we should be more fearful when this happens.

The life of Christ was magnified above and beyond every other estate in the Antioch church and this is why they were first to be called Christians. In the church, we are measured by our yieldedness in the spirit, submission to God and the quantum of life we have (2 Corinthians 5:16). We must not feel inferior by our seeming lack in the natural but must let Christ be our boast and confidence.

(Acts 15:5-1) Many of the Apostles were unlearned and had to be more careful of the Pharisees who had now believed and opposed them because some of them had now become more terrible than Pharisees who weren’t believers. Peter appealed to them but James silenced them. (Acts 18:24- 28) Even in Achaia, in the regions of Corinth, when Jews were troubling them, Apollos who was a man full of the Holy Ghost, who had been taught by Aquilla and Priscilla came and helped them see through scriptures that Jesus was Christ.

Changing men in the marketplace has never been God’s system but this is not to say the life of Christ should not shine through us. Joseph didn’t change Egypt or obliterate the worship of the sun god by being in the place of power. God sent him ahead to preserve His own people. Similar to Daniel, in Babylon, they didn’t obliterate the worship of other gods; they only permitted and accepted the worship of the God of Daniel amongst other gods. We should not think marketplace conversion is the ultimate tool for conversion. We must see Christ as our all, not the marketplace but if God is leading us there, we will go there and pray for the preservation of our soul as we do so.

God does not need a throne in Babylon to deliver His people. He can make use of it if He so pleases but He doesn’t need it. If He needed it, God would have arranged in the time of Jesus prominent men who were in the courts of power. Neither did He need Moses to be in the place of power to deliver His people out of Egypt (Hebrews 11:24-27). We need to quit thinking that God needs Babylon, He can use it but doesn’t need it. Christ must be our sole confidence. Christ is more than enough, more than sufficient for us. 

Message (Pastor Laide)

(2 Corinthians 8: 1-7) We can see the measure of grace in this Mecadonian church; they abounded in grace, utterance and knowledge. In this same passage, Paul began to say that the Corinthian Church had grown. Abounding in grace and utterance, not as a gift of the Spirit, but in clarity of the gospel, and knowledge and in all diligence as explained in 2 Peter 1: 5-11.

(2 Corinthians 8:7) These were graces of God that were wrought in that church. (2 Corinthians 8: 9) This is the reason why the rich young ruler could not come into the kingdom: He could not access the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. “… you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (9) What Jesus showed here was a recipe of grace. This means that he can’t make you rich if he’s rich. He can only make you rich if he’s poor. 

(2 Corinthians 6: 4-10) Can we see the manner of the working of the grace of Jesus in this passage? It’s an inside, outside, upside-down kingdom, where you lose to gain, and you die to live. So, the Apostles also didn’t make many rich through their riches, they had to be poor to make many rich; they were once rich. Paul was a rich man. 

Wealth is an accumulation of gain. If you consistently have gained, you become rich. You increase in wealth by much gain. Paul said the things that were gain unto him, he counted as dung. Jesus also had gain: “…he taught it not robbery to be equal with God” – that equality was gain.  It is impossible to make men rich kingdom-wise without being poor. They must have impoverished you. Sometimes they take from you materially, but other times they don’t take physical things; they take things that are pseudo. (1 Timothy 6: 16-18) From here, we see that dealing with wealth is about the heart state. There’s something about wealth and material things, they try to steal your allegiance and confidence in God. Money is powerful. The Bible says money answereth all things. The world says money stops nonsense. Some people want money to stop their shame.

(1 Corinthians 2:1) Material things in Christ can’t get you born again. You must love the cross to get born again. You must love Jesus that died on the cross. It’s more of a heart thing. Wealth wants to take your heart so you can be confident in it. It wants you to be fortified in it instead of being strong in the Lord.

But what good has wealth done to our soul? Has it prospered our soul? Anything that will take us from calling upon the name of the Lord is not a blessing but a curse. That’s why when wealth increases, we must become more fearful. Not that we’re against natural blessings, but we must try our hearts to ask that what if the Lord tells us to do away with the wealth, can we? 

Somehow, the heart can secretly lay its trust in wealth. We should be ready to distribute. If the Lord instructs us, are we willing and ready to obey without struggle? Will we confirm well about wealth to save our lives?

…Trust in the living God and be ready and willing to communicate…(1 Timothy 6: 18-19) The resource here is an opportunity. How do they lay in store for themselves a good foundation? The conversation is in the hearts. Sometimes, God will allow a lot to be laid in your heart, then He will test you with giving. That is also a working of grace.

(2 Corinthians 8:9) The grace referred to in this scripture is not monetary. (2 Corinthians 9:8; 1 Peter 5: 7-11) We know that in the church of the living God, not everyone will be rich in this world, that’s why we’re asked to charge the rich in this world. That means, according to the standards of this world, not every believer will be rich. Will they have sufficiency for all things? Yes. We can have the sufficiency to take care of ourselves, and give to people around us and not still be rich by the world’s standards. More vanity or less vanity, everything is still vanity. Believers that will be rich in this world must check their hearts so they’re not puffed up by the riches. One of the things that we must consistently exercise ourselves with is to condescend to men of low estate. When we do this, we will understand our heart state and how it responds to what God has taken us through. God is bringing blessing to some of you, but He wants to inundate you with wisdom.

(1 Timothy 6:17) If you can take your eyes off riches, you’re doing well. Why? The vain man is veiled. Whenever you see riches, register it as dung. Whatever wealth it may be, it is dung and uncertain. 

(1 Timothy 6:18; 1 Peter 5:10-11) He didn’t say God will make us rich, but He will make us perfect and settled. This settlement is eternal life: Paul said so in 1 Timothy 4:10. When everything is said and done, it’s not money that we obtain. The Lord can make it come, but our glory is not there. If we have all the wealth and we don’t have everlasting life, we’ve come short.

(2 Corinthians 9:8) God of all grace. All grace is everything that is able to bring us to eternal life. And God is able to give us because He has all grace. He doesn’t only have them, He can also make them abound to us. 

Should a church be content if they have not come into all grace? God is able to make all grace abound doesn’t mean that He has done it. Not only that He’s able, but He’s also willing. He wants to give us all grace so that we will always have sufficiency in all things. When there is a need for sufficient faith and diligence, we’ll have the grace for it. When there is a need for finances, we’ll also have grace for it. So that when demand for the virtues of God shows, we’ll have the grace to respond. The way God makes grace abound is through knowledge. Whatsoever grace God wants to give, He’ll bring the knowledge of it. Correct grace is communicated through knowledge (2 Peter 1:2). We will know it and it will be imputed in our spirit. Through teachings, we have realized that companying with the saints is not something to negotiate.

There are some things that have been communicated that we didn’t have knowledge of, and because of that, there was no grace for it. We can’t have grace beyond the knowledge that we have. 

Jesus also learnt to be full of grace, he wasn’t just born like that. So, when the Lord wants to communicate grace, He sends knowledge. When we miss knowledge, we miss the allocation of grace. Where truth is being taught for example is a grace house, because every communication of truth that is founded in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is from a place of grace (Colossians 4:6).

If your speech wants to minister grace, then it must be filled with the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ and be communicating it. Words that do not communicate the knowledge of God and Jesus are not gracious, because the knowledge of God and Jesus are the only things that can communicate grace (Ephesians 4:29).

It’s a heart that isn’t willing to do that prays for grace to do after hearing teachings. Grace has always been available. People frustrate grace by not responding to the knowledge that has conveyed grace unto them. We don’t do it immediately we hear. God is the one that works willingness and doing. But, we need to keep hearing.

(Psalm 45: 1-2) When anointed words (words of the light of truth) are opened up, grace is poured forth. Communication of grace is embedded in the unveiling of the knowledge of God and His Christ. This is why we must not miss Church.

(1 Peter 1:13) The person that will reign in life is not just being freed from sin or pardoned from offence but he will also come into the knowledge of the persons of the Godhead that will bring him into the essence of eternal life. If we don’t understand grace and how it works, we don’t know grace. If we want to know grace, we should sit with knowledge and stay there. God is able to make all grace abound towards us but He’s careful. He’s not hasty about it. And He doesn’t just pour all the grace at once, He gives measures of grace. 

(Romans 12:3) Because God knows that if we possess all grace at once and we’re yet to turn inside, we’ll be a stature of the adversary. So, He gives grace in measures. We must also be discerning of grace and measures of grace. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t desire it, but discern the stature of grace also. 

(Galatians 2:9) What they discerned in Paul was grace. They perceived the grace of God that was in Him. If we see grace, there’s nothing wrong, because it’s God that gives it. We weigh ministries with grace, it’s not just in words. There are grace levels we can perceive and there are some that we can’t because of our level of growth. We must be able to perceive grace and discern the ones beyond us. We don’t judge men by the outward, but by the workings that are done inside of them. 

This grace was not just knowledge, but the knowledge that has worked something, and because of that, the authority has been given. Because when grace is established, power comes with it. That power is authority. (1 Corinthians 4:19) This power is grace because when you speak, it’s not just the sounding of the word that we hear, but the weight of it. Paul was a stammerer, but there was grace for him to speak words that carry weight.

(Romans 5:17) We must be jealous of receiving the abundance of grace. This means that we must not be tired of knowledge. We must have so much of the allocations of grace. We can’t receive small word and get tired in this path because we need an abundance of grace. If we want to reign in life, we must receive more grace and never be tired. 

We must not allow the little grace we have get us puffed up. We still need more grace in order to reign in life. We must not be found without grace.

1st Tongues & Interpretation

Quickening of understanding

Even to walk through this unknown path

Even this path that has been unknown for ages

I bring quickening of understanding even to journey

And have an understanding of my saying

That you might understand the speaking of this realm that I am calling you unto

This realm that has been hidden from the wisdom of men

For I am calling you even to a quickening of understanding

There’s a baptism of understanding even to walk through this path

That is hidden from the wise, even the prudent

I’m bringing a quickening of understanding

2nd Tongues & Interpretation

An anointing

Even anointing upon the set man

Anointing for entrance, for utterance 

Even for to paint, to show this life

Anointing upon the set man

Even for to show, for to bring to man in every level of their growth

Grace to pastor every flock according to their measure of growth

I bring anointing for utterance

There’s an anointing that is at work even to fill every flock according to their measure of growth

    THE END