The Call of God to Preach

(Ephesians 3:7-10)

Paul was called and appointed by God to preach and teach the gospel, specifically to the Gentiles as he spread the word of the gospel through the known world.

In this scripture we are looking at today, we see Paul speaking of the call of God to preach that was given to him. What is important in this teaching is that this call did not come from man or through man, but it came directly from God.

It was God who empowered Paul and established His word within Paul, in spite of Paul’s history of persecuting the church, and made him the vessel by which the Gentile churches would hear the gospel, and he also wrote most of the teachings in the New Testament that explain the mysteries of the New Covenant.

The Call of God to Preach

We are shown in Acts the exact moment at which Paul was set apart to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God.

He and Barnabas had been preaching and teaching the people in the church at Antioch. They were working in the church with the other teachers, prophets and preachers.

While they were worshipping with prayer and fasting, the Lord through the Holy Spirit spoke to the group in the following way.

2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)

God had a work for Paul and Barnabas to do. It was also once they began this work that Saul became known as Paul, although we do not know why this name change took place and any suggestion as to why would only be speculation.

Paul was called by God to preach, in partnership with Barnabas, because he was well equipped to do so. Having been trained as a Pharisee he had an excellent understanding of the scriptures and could explain the prophecies in the Old Testament, as well as interpret the working of the New Covenant so that the early church would see what it was and how it worked.

Paul was led by the Holy Spirit and taught the specifics of the gospel and the working of the New Covenant, not by men but by Jesus Christ, as he said:

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. (Galatians 1:15-17)

So the gospel that Paul preached to the Gentile churches, which we have contained in his letters to those churches, did not come by conferring with other men, not even the Lord’s first disciples. Instead, Paul went away and was taught the truth of the Gospel and the New Covenant directly by the Lord.

So we see that the first disciples of the Lord, which includes but is not limited to the twelve apostles, were taught by Jesus who is the Son of God. Then we see Paul being taught directly by the Lord after he received the call of God to preach also.

In each of these cases we see the direct fulfilling of prophecy that states the people of the Lord are to be taught by God, not men.

Taught by God

Prophecies that the people of the Lord shall be taught by God are mentioned in several places throughout the Bible. For example:

45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. (John 6:45)

This is a clear instruction from the Lord that those who will come to Him will be drawn and taught by the Father Himself. They will hear and understand the words because God will give them the ability to hear and understand. He will open their ears and eyes to perceive His words so that we may be saved. Consider this also:

10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (Hebrews 8:10-11)

The essence of the New Covenant is not in words taught by men, as it says in verse 11. It is not about men ordaining other men or women through bible schools or colleges to be ministers to teach the principles of God. Rather it is God Himself who opens the hearts and minds of people to understand the principles that God teaches them directly. And this verse tells us that there will be no intermediary interpreting the words of the God and the bible to other people, for God will deal directly with each person individually.

Under the Old Covenant law there was a priesthood who intervened between the people and God and who served God for this purpose. But when Christ brought the New Covenant into existence, that layer was removed so that everyone could appeal directly to God without an intermediary, and God would hear and teach them.

Why would God do this? Well, there is no better way to be assured of learning the truth than to learn it from God Himself who wrote and designed the processes of salvation contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the New Covenant.

One of the issues we are warned about many, many times in the bible, is to be aware of false teachers and false prophets. So if God does the teaching directly and we listen to Him, then the issue of false teachers and false prophets goes away.

I have often been critical of bible schools, bible colleges and universities because they do not hold to this principle of being taught by God. Under these systems it is men and women ordaining other men and women to be the teachers, preachers and pastors, and they establish a layer of clergy between man and God that Jesus tore down in His death so that every person could have direct access to God.

But more than that, we know that there are false teachings in the broad church and these false teachings are carried forward from one generation to the next as these bible schools hold them fast and teach them as truth to subsequent students who will be the next generation of teachers in their congregations. Some of these schools and colleges reject the truth of the gospel and the new covenant for the sake of holding fast their traditions. Any pupils who may see past these falsehoods cannot do anything about them lest they be rejected and forced out of the college.

The Bible tells us that we shall all be taught by God, but this is not the way of the bible schools where men ordain men. The purpose of ANY form of schooling, whether it be religion, engineering, medicine, accounting or anything else, is to train people to think in a certain way that accords with the principles of that profession and that teaching institution.

In all other professions than religion, they are being taught the things of man that are designed and developed by men. The authority for the professions of men comes from men because it is physical and was developed by men.

But with religion the authority is from God because no man developed the Christian faith as it was ordained and established by God Himself through Jesus Christ. This is why we must be taught by God, not men, because the authority that the Christian faith rests upon is God Himself.

It was clear that Paul understood this principle, because even though he was a teacher of the gospel, he recognised that it was not him doing the teaching, but God. He says:

5 What then is Apol’los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apol’los watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)

Which raises an interesting point. If we are to be taught by God, how and why are there teachers and preachers of the Gospel and where do they get their authority to do this work?

Ministry Gifts are from God

The authority to minister in the service of God comes from God Himself. It is not through the appointments by man in bible schools, colleges or universities, but it is through the working of the Holy Spirit in people chosen and selected by God to do His work.

The call of God to preach comes from God Himself who gives gifts to individuals to do specific parts of the ministry required to teach and build up the church. Consider this scripture that tells us these things.

11 And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. (Ephesians 4:11-14)

There is no doubt that God has ordained certain people to be ministers in His church; to teach and preach and do the work of ministry according to the needs of the church. But the key to this is that these people were ordained BY GOD not by men. There is no requirement for those ordained by God to go through a bible school or college to be able to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are taught by God Himself and given the gift to do this work by God.

Think about the twelve apostles for a moment. None of the twelve were trained in the religious schools of their day. Only Paul was trained as a Pharisee, and we see that Paul rejected all of his past training for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ and the truth of His gospel. Not that Paul rejected the scriptures he had been taught, but he rejected the forms of the Pharisaic religion that were based on the traditions of man rather than the word of God. All those issues that Jesus condemned the Pharisees for, calling them hypocrisy is what Paul rejected.

But the first twelve had no such training. And recall that when Jesus was about to be put to death, He commissioned Peter to teach and pastor the new flock of Christians and to be the primary teacher of the gospel to the Jews. Not a trained religious person but a mere fisherman.

It is God who ordains and gives the gifts of ministry to His people to do His work, not the schools and colleges of man. The church needs to be led by the people ordained by God. The call of God to preach comes from God Himself and no man is capable of taking the gift from God to do this work. The gift is bestowed by God.

There are no doubt many people who have gone through the bible schools who are very capable of teaching and preaching, and I believe many have gone to these schools because they have felt the call of God to preach. My issue is not with the students and alumni of these schools and colleges. My concern is about the quality of the syllabus they are being taught, because it is clear the ministry in many churches is letting the congregations down.

Many of the established churches have built deep hierarchies in the church that add layer upon layer of clergy to separate the congregation from God. They have deacons, archdeacons, ministers, bishops, archbishops, prelates, cardinals, and so on, each of whom are subject to the next superior in the hierarchy rather than being directly subject to God. The structures are wrong and they are wrong because they have not been taught by God.

Which brings me back to the point of the verses in Ephesians 3 I am looking at today that says:

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10 that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:7-10)

Paul’s ability to teach and preach the gospel and to be a minister of God was not received through the acts of men, not even as a result of his studies under the doctrine of the Pharisees. He received his commission by the grace of God through the working of the power of God. He received the call of God to preach from God Himself, as did all the rest of the early apostles and prophets.

And so it is or should be today because we are to be taught by God just as they were. Men can teach the gospel and preach the word upon receiving this commission from God, but it is God through the working of the Holy Spirit that gives every person the ability to understand the fullness of the truth of the gospel. The Holy Spirit in the working of God opens the word to each individual in a way that they can comprehend and understand, for this is how we are all to be taught by God.

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