Foundation Stones (Part 6) – Why Only the Life of Christ Restores the Church

There is something of just seeing Him. It was not theology, it was glory, and in that glory was an understanding of God, was an understanding of his Lord and Savior. His Pharisees fell away completely. His legalistic nature fell away. He was a boy, don’t you ever think Paul of Tarsus was a legalist, first class. Do you understand what a legalist is? That’s a guy who goes around with all the rules of what you can and cannot do and what God is expecting out of you, and if you don’t do it, God’s not going to be happy with you. That’s what that guy was, that’s what Paul was, he was a legalist, but the sight of Christ melted away the mosaic traditions, or at least his almost fanatical commitment to them. Forgive me, but his commitment to obedience to scripture apart from God. And that’s what usually happens to scripture. God gets lost in the process, and it’s a commitment to the letter of the law. And he went into a desert, back out of the desert, and he went to Tarsus and sat down. What he did, I don’t know why he didn’t do anything, I don’t know. Except this: The Lord had already told him that Paul would go to the Gentiles.

Do you know who introduced Paul to Simon Peter and James? There, while Simon Peter and James were hiding in Jerusalem years before, do you know who said, “Brother Peter, I want you to meet Brother Paul.” Do you know who the man was? Who said that? That was Barnabas. Barnabas sat there and met James and Peter or sat with Peter and James while Paul talked to him. Paul had just been converted a few days before this took place. I think at that time Barnabas heard Paul say, “I was taken up into the heavenly places and the Lord told me that I would preach the gospel to the Gentiles.” And you know what else I think? I think Peter didn’t believe him or didn’t hear him or thought he was crazy.

Years later, Barnabas is in Antioch with a room full of Gentiles, a big room full of Gentiles, and Paul is in Tarsus, not doing anything because he has not yet been sent by the Lord to the Gentiles. He is not clear about the when of his calling, and he wants the Lord to get the show on the road rather than his own. You can fall in love with your calling to the point that it is your calling and not His. Well, Paul was not making that mistake. He was waiting. Somebody knocked on his door. Paul.? Yes. Oh, I know you. You’re Barnabas. Right. Paul, I’d like you to come with me. Why? Paul, it’s important. What is it? I’ve got a room full of Gentiles in Antioch. Well, Paul of Tarsus, there were many things he was and many things he wasn’t, but dumb he was not, and it didn’t take a whole lot of understanding for that man to know where he belonged. And he went to Antioch.

Now, Paul was very proud of saying that he had received his revelation from Jesus Christ in heavenly places. What do you figure he saw? What do you figure he saw in heavenly places? Tell me. Come on? I know what you’ll see. I can tell you what you’ll see if you go into the heavens, you will see Jesus Christ in fellowship with His Father. That’s what’s on the other side of that door. It’s what he saw. He saw the Lord living the Christian life the right way. It’s what he saw.

He got straight on his theology without hearing a word of it. He saw God, he got a glimpse of the Godhead, and lived to tell about it. Now, here is one who has missed Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judea, and he’s gone back to sources. Well, you say that’s wonderful, and that’s not all. Paul cheated a little bit, Paul would say, “No man taught me. I only saw Peter for two weeks. No man taught me; I got my revelation straight from God.” Well, you know, and of course, there were those four years when I heard Barnabas preach every day. Do you understand?

For four years, he sat in Antioch and experienced church life. We’re going to come back this Friday. Paul steps into the lineage. He becomes part of the pattern. He sits and listens to Barnabas. He sits in the church and experiences the life of the church, and he sees a man living the Christian life. Who is that man? Who is it? It’s Barnabas. Where’d Barnabas come from? Where did he get his stuff? Right. His church life, his Christian life. From whom did he get it? Tell me. Say it. Say it boldly. From twelve. And where did the twelve get it? And where did the Lord get it? From His Father, and it was organic to Him. He got it from His Father. From the Godhead to Jesus, to the twelve to Barnabas to Paul.

Paul is really safe; he’s getting it from two sources. Direct revelation and reconfirmed through brother Barnabas. Don’t you ever think Barnabas did not have a profound influence on Paul of Tarsus; Barnabas was his mentor. Paul did know church life. He did have the privilege of sitting. He did learn the Christian life from two areas, and they matched. We say they dovetailed. What he got from God in the heavens and what he got from Barnabas matched.

He had a heavenly testimony and an earthly testimony. It was even a verification that Barnabas was on the right track. He lived in church life before he ever became a worker. He knew the Christian life from having been there and watched it lived out by the two oldest Christians there were: God the Father and God the Son. And he saw it again in an ordinary human being. The pattern holds.

Now, Friday, we’re going to watch it come to us, and here, if we’re going to talk about restoration, let’s not talk about the gifts. Let’s talk about the restoration of that pattern, that line. Let’s talk about it in Portland. Let’s talk about it in this room and let’s talk about it in Beaumont, but most of all, let’s talk about it inside you. I believe we’ll stop there.