This message was preached by Mark Jones who is a part of Regions Beyond which is led by Steve Oliver. Regions Beyond is an apostolic sphere within Newfrontiers Intl.
Mark shares on what does it mean to be an Apostolic people, how do we build apostolic churches whose foundation is on Jesus and not about Jesus. Great foundational stuff you do't want to miss reading about and listening to. Get your church folk to listen to this as well. Please share this freely. This is Newfrontiers DNA.
You can hear the audio by clicking here.
Acts 2 is essential to
understand being an apostolic people group
Acts 2:1- 13.
Jerusalem must have been an
incredible site, a very varied people group- every nation under heaven was in
Jerusalem. They wanted to celebrate the giving of the law and they came some
distance for this purpose. But what happened to them next changed their whole
world-view. They encountered the presence of God and had an entire world-view
change.
Peter stood up explaining
what was happening glorifying Jesus, representing Christ whom they crucified-
that has made Him both Christ and Lord. An amazing conviction fell on all of
them- this was a brand new community not an appendage to what existed already-
not a new Jewish sect. They were a brand new community and had new power and
new purpose- to establish God’s mandate in every nation and every people group.
They became an apostolic people.
Jesus in John 20 appeared
before the disciples- ‘as the Father has sent me, so I send you’- in like
purpose with the same outcomes. This new community devoted themselves to the
apostles teaching. They were given new principles and values to live by. The
power of God has affected them and what they were going to do? They were given
teaching and understanding about what they are to do- this new people of God
made up of Jews and gentiles, free and slave, rich and poor- a temple not made
of bricks and water but of living stones; a dwelling place of God in the
spirit- no longer subject to the law but free to call Him ‘Abba! Father’.
Apostolic doctrine gave
them identity- establishing foundations they never had before. And thus the
foundations of the early church were laid and I believe that every church must
built on those foundations. The vision of local church should not be defined by
an enthusiastic leader’s particular favourite subjects or cultural relevance,
historic preferences or sentiment or latest techniques or even the desire of
the masses. They must be defined by this apostolic call that has Christ Jesus
at its foundation if we want to have a people group who will go to the ends of
the earth.
Any foundation will
control the quality and shape and structure of what is built upon it. Whatever
you put in the ground is going to determine what is built upon it. If the
foundation is not Christ, what we build will be inferior and will not bring
true transformation on the earth. If church growth is done by referring to
Jesus instead of building on the foundation of Jesus- we end up copying what
God wants for us instead of building what God wants for us. The church is
called to be an original. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1:4-6- Jesus “was declared to be the
Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection
from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace
and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for
the sake of his name among all the nations, including
you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ”. We have
to catch the heart of God. Paul understood that his apostleship
is to bring the obedience of faith among all the nations including those who
are now being called.
We need to be clear that
we need to build from the heart of God. It’s easy to come to God with our plans
and try to find a reference in God’s word to gain credibility, but we need to
build on a foundation of Jesus Christ. Revelation has to always precede our
methodology. We can’t start with our methodology hoping to find something to
match it. An apostolic people always live in the revelation of God to produce a
transformational methodology. If our starting point is God’s view, then the end
result will be biblical transformation.
Q. So what is God’s view?
What is His purpose?
Ephesians 1:9-10: “making known to us the
mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in
him, things in heaven and things on earth together under one
head, even Christ.”
Our world is far too
parochial but God’s goal has always been to bring everything in heaven and on
earth under the rule Christ Jesus. In Ephesians 2 it talks about how we are no
longer strangers and aliens and we now become one new man in Christ. That’s
God’s goal- where there is no segregation and separation between who we are,
what we are and where we come from.
An apostolic people are
concerened about how to make Jesus known and how to bring everything under His
authority and His rule. It’s always been God’s intention from the beginning
that this would happen.
In Genesis when God breathed
purpose into Adam- to go forth and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it.
He was talking about developing God centered families, governments, nations,
that establishes a culture that glorifies Jesus- A world where the glory of God
would fill the earth like the waters cover the sea. It’s God’s goal that that
should happen.
As we move through Genesis we
come to the passage about Babel- where they turned around the call of God to
fill the earth. So often, we get into that consolidation point. But God scattered
them- the purposes of God would be fulfilled.
In Genesis 12, the promise
of God comes again to Abraham. Paul picks it up in Galatians- Abraham’s seed
was Christ. It was in Jesus that His promise was fulfilled. Nothing invalidates
God’s promise that every nation under heaven shall be blessed. Every family on
the earth shall be blessed through Christ Jesus.
In psalm 2- He who sits in the heavens laughs…“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” God says, possess what I’ve called
you to possess for he has set His king on His holy mountain. And it goes on to
say, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession”
We can become very
pastoral. But God says, it’s too small a thing. The vision I’ve given you to go
to the needs of the earth, so that my salvation goes to the ends of the earth.
It’s not an either or- God
wants us to lift up our gaze. Do you see the nations? Our energy goes out but
the impartation comes in. the transformation happens within us in the local
churches as well.
God’s purpose is an
apostolic people group who establish to genuinely reach out to the ends of the
earth.
Sometimes, the gospel
becomes too therapeutic- the gospel of salvation instead of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It’s first about God, before our
sin i.e when peter encountered Jesus.
This gospel is about Jesus
Christ and His authority to the ends of the earth. We are saved by grace, but
our methodology doesn't reflect that sometimes. The answer to not becoming
institutional is that we are diverse! It’s fantastic. Sometimes we can put up
barriers because we don’t understand how grace works out. An apostolic people
group don’t deny access to the poor!
We will never reach the
nations if we don’t understand the grace of God. Unless we are secure in it, we
want others to become like us and that’s just another legal system. They are
comfortable and understand the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came to empower
God’s people to reach the ends of the earth, so that we are prepared to engage
with people that He wants to reach.
He loves to take what
belongs to Him and make known to us. We are an apostolic group. We are not here just to train discipleship groups to populate our children’s groups. We are to equip
them to reach the ends of the earth!
Q. Are we training and
equipping to send or simply training and equipping to maintain?
Our training and
discipleship changes because we are an apostolic people. When we do this, it
changes our worship- worship that’s full of the presence of God-where Jesus
reaches the ends of the earth. Psalm 95- “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”
·
Q. How are we raising our children?
Genesis
18: 19 says “ For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his
household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so
that the Lord may bring to
Abraham what he has promised him.”
My
greatest regret is that we did not prepare our children better to do what God
has called us to do. We must do that. Teach them to be pioneers. How well do we
prepare them to do that?
·
Q. How do we manage our finances?
We
have a new view of finance. An apostolic people don’t hold on to their finances
for a rainy day. They give it away. In 2 Corinthians, the Macedonians begged
Paul to give away their money because of their relationship with the Lord and
to the apostle. A people group who live like this, put God at the center of
things.
·
It effects how we develop teams. We
need to have diverse leadership teams so that our conversations are diverse,
our prayers are diverse. Acts 6- ‘choose from among you’- there must have been
some diversity in that.
·
Joining in apostolic partnership-
an apostolic people will look out for one another- genuinely interested in
what’s going on in other churches. Build partnerships to fulfill the purpose that
God’s called us to. The whole church must be caught up!
·
Works among the poor- an
apostolic people know how to do psalm 113- (He raises the poor from the
dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people) lift
up those who cannot afford to get involved. Church is not a middle class
programme- it’s the purpose of God. The poor get lifted by an apostolic people,
because it matters.
We are an apostolic people
group because we are drawn into the ministry of Jesus Christ and into His
purposes.
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