5/6/19 

Ephesians 4:11-12

¹¹ And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 

Among Bible students there are marked differences of their understanding of the Old Testament church and the New Testament church.  No matter where you identify yourself there are differences.  One pertinent question is “how did we get from there to here?”  What comes between the Old Testament revelation and the New?

The Scriptures above point us to the transition team.  The transition is completed in those offices in 4:11.  From the time of Acts 2 until the canon was complete and whole final revelation of God was finished, what guided the church?  There are three distinct entities in the transition team.

1.       The first was the Holy Spirit who came in new fullness upon the church.  There are two errors to correct.

a.       That the Holy Spirit was not active in the Old Testament.  The triunity of God is a guarantee that God is not different and does not change.  The Holy Spirit in Genesis 1:2 is the same as the Spirit in Acts 2 and the same today.

b.      That the believers of the Old Testament were not “born again”, that they believed in God and obeyed the Law for salvation.

More tomorrow….