Paul Apostling

Paul always had an apostolic impact, even when he was fighting against Jesus.
After Stephen was martyred a great persecution arose.

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria… Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison (Acts 8:1,3).

Paul’s persecution caused believers to go out from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria. This is what God had wanted to happen, but most believers and the apostles hung around in Jerusalem because they thought that was where the action was. Part of the problem was that the apostles had stayed when they should have gone.

Jesus had told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power of the Holy Spirit. Once they had received power, they were to go into the world and preach the good news, beginning in Judea and going to the ends of the world (Luke 24:47, Acts 1:8). Instead of obeying Jesus’ challenge and going out, too many believers were still waiting in Jerusalem. Even the apostles were in danger of becoming bishops, because they were unwilling to be sent (apostled).

Paul’s persecution got the church going out to the places Jesus had told them to go to, although the apostles did not get the message.

The modern church has the same problem. See Governmental Apostles. Perhaps we need more Pauls, of the before and after type.

Go and Live There

God set the gospel pattern right from the beginning.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).

Jesus came and lived among the people. He came and lived like them, so that he would fit in.

The disciples carried on down the same path. Jesus sent them out in pairs to live in a village that Jesus was going to visit.

He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Whatever house you enter, stay there (Luke 9:2-4).

The Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go (Luke 10:1).

The New Testament way is for pairs of Christians to go and live among people who need to hear the gospel. This enables them to see the good news.

When Christians think about starting a new church they look for a building to meet in on Sunday. They should be looking for a place to live.

Empire to Kingdom of God (15)

And the church keeps on growing.

The apostles keep on postling.

Empire to Kingdom of God (7) Apostolic

A better strategy is to plant churches in neighbourhoods where people are living. This is a neighbourhood church.

If the Holy Spirit is present in power, the church will grow quickly. When it reaches and optimal size it wills send out apostles to establish a new church in a different part of the city, possibly quite close by. More on the working of apostles can be found at the Apostolic Way.

Apostles

One of the problems with understanding the ministry of the apostle is caused by Bible. The noun “apostolos” is been translated as apostle. The equivalent noun, “apostello” is never translated as apostle. It is always translated as “sent”. This makes the name apostle seem much grander than it really is.

To be consistent, the verb apostllo should be translated as “apostled”. This would change our understanding of the role. Here are some examples.

• Jesus called the twelve and apostled them to heal the sick and proclaim the gospel (Mat 10:5,16).

• God apostled Jesus (Luke 4:18).

• People who knew Jesus apostled into the country and bought in the sick Matt 14:35).

• The owner of the vineyard apostled the labourers (Matt 20:2).

• Jesus apostled two disciples to get a donkey (Matt 21:1).

• The Rich man apostled his servant to bring in the guests (Matt 22:4).

• Pilates wife apostled a word to him (Matt 27:19).

• Jesus apostled two disciples to prepare for the Passover (Mark 14:13).

• Jesus appointed seventy and apostled them to preach the gospel and heal the sick (Luke 10:1). Were the seventy apostles?

• Herod apostled soldiers to kill the boys in Bethlehem (Matt 2:16).

Apostling is not being in charge. It is mostly about being a servant who does what they have been commanded to do.

Do the people you know who call themselves apostles go and look for donkeys and prepare meals.

The New Testament makes much greater use of the verb form apostello than it does the noun apostolos. This is because the act of being sent is far more important than the title apostle. Unfortunately, misleading translations have caused us to focus on the latter at the expense of the former. An apostle is a person who has been sent out to do a job for God, not the title of an authority figure.

Kingdom of God (8) - Multiply and Grow

Many will see the benefits of belonging to a Christian community and want to join. Provided they commit to the ethos of love and service, people will be welcome to join in supporting the others in the neighbourhood, whether they are Christians or not.

These communities will not grow too big. When more are wanting to join than can be absorbed, a couple of people who have lived in the Christian community for a while and understand how it function will offer to go with the people who want to join and help them to get started where they live. The new community in a new neighbourhood will do all the things that are done by the original group.

During the Times of the Distress, shelter communities will emerge wherever there are significant numbers of serous Christians. In many places, this the only way that Christians will survive through the worst darkness.

The Christians who move out of their community to start another will be called apostles. Some will repeat the process several times and begin several new communities. These apostles will maintain relationship with the communities that they have left. This will allow sharing between them. Some communities might provide banking or justice services for other communities.

Each of these Christian communities will be a microcosm of the Kingdom of God. An astute observer will note that the list of activities undertaken by these neighbourhood groups includes the following.

• welfare

• health care

• employment

• courts

• justice

• defence

• banking services

• money

They will be providing everything that modern governments have failed to provide. The difference is that they will flow out of love and service, without any need for coercion.
When the Time of Distress is completed and the Advance of the Gospel gets underway, the number of these kingdom communities will begin to grow rapidly. This new model of living will spread through society in the same way that yeast spreads through dough.

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough (Matt 13:33).

The Holy Spirit will mix the Kingdom of God through society by moving from community to community.

This and the previous post is a brief glimpse of a huge topic. I will do a series of posts providing more detail round these issues, when I have completed this greater series on Change of Seasons.

Prophets and Apostles

There are three reasons for a prophet and apostle (or other leader) working together.

• The prophet gives vision and direction.

• The prophet challenges the apostle if they take a wrong turn or go in the wrong direction.

The third reason is more challenging. A key role of the prophet is to protect the people from the apostle. Apostles are dangerous. Most of the people around them have blessed by them or discipled by them, so they tend to look up to the apostle. This means that an apostle is often surrounded by “Yes men”, not because they are devious, but because they love and respect the apostle so much. An apostle needs someone bold enough to challenge them if they are mistaken. That task will usually fall to a prophet. Nathan took this role for David. Barnabas for Paul.

When a prophet colludes with the apostle to attack some of the people, it gets dangerous. When a prophet starts firing the apostle’s bullets, he becomes a pet prophet. This is a risk that all prophets working with an apostle need to guard against.

Travelling Prophets

When pastors are sent out to establish a beachhead in the enemies territory, they become apostles. The church needs apostles and pastors.

Pastors are local
Apostles are mobile.

Apostles and pastors both need prophets alongside them. Pastors of local churches need prophets to feed holiness into their church. Apostles need prophets to ensure their new work is built on a solid foundation.

Some prophets will be local, working with a pastor.
Other prophets will be mobile, working with an apostle.

A common view is that prophets are people who float from place to place as itinerant ministers, who give words to individuals and organisations, but do not have a leadership role. However, there does not seem to be a role for independent mobile prophets in the biblical model. According to early church history, groups of travelling prophets lost the plot and eventually became a burden on the church.

Ascension Gifts

The ascension gifts are not spiritual things that are given to people, like the gifts in 1 Cor 12. They are people that God gives to each church. Each church needs all each of these types of people.

Apostles like to start new things and go new places. They are not so good at dealing with people problems. If people change quickly and get going, that is fine. However, apostles get frustrated with people who need a lot of time to get back on track, because they are already wanting to move on to the next new thing. That is why they need to be working with pastors, who love doing this people stuff.

These principles work in business too. A business will often be started by one person, but to keep going long term they need four different types of leadership. The business founder (apostle) will be keen to more on to breaking into new markets and launching new products. “Don’t worry about the details, we will sort that out later”. They need an accountant/legal type (prophet) to sort out the details and keep them from crossing boundaries. To grow rapidly, they will need someone to do the marketing/sales(evangelist). They also need someone to do the HR/people management stuff that the business founder cannot be bothered about.

Some workplaces have used the DISC profile for personal development stuff. It puts people into four categories. There are other versions using dog breeds, etc, that are similar. I have always been intrigued by they way these categories parallel the ascension gifts.

• Dominance/lion/ apostle loves making decisions and wants to get things done.
• Influence/otter/evangelist makes lots of noise and loves working with other.
• Steadiness/Labrador/pastor works with people and keeps the ship steady.
• Conscientious/beaver/prophet wants stuff to be right. They get the details sorted out.

These are categories are not a perfect match, but they do show how a leadership team needs to be balanced.

I have noticed that secular organisations are often better than Churches at harnessing the creative energies that emerge when these very different personalities work together in a team. Churches usually put one person in charge, and everyone has to dance to his tune. Real growth comes when very different leaders can work together, because they have committed to love each other.

Problems in Jerusalem (3) Property Prophecy

Many citizens of Jerusalem had heard Jesus’ prophecy that Jerusalem would be destroyed (Matt 24:1-35, Luke 21). The outpouring of the Spirit showed that Jesus was in heaven at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:32-33). This confirmed the truth of his prophecy (Matt 24:30).

After Pentecost, many Christians living in Jerusalem heard of this prophecy and sold their land. They understood that the day was coming when their property would be worthless, so they sold out while the market was still good. They used their money to provide food for people the visitors living in Jerusalem during a tumultuous time.

Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need (Acts 2:45).

There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales… and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 24:34-35).

Selling property was a sensible response to Jesus prophecy, but some people misunderstood his warning signs and sold to soon. This left the Christians living in Jerusalem without land, which was the main form of capital in those times.

Without capital, Christians were not economically productive. The end result was that the Jerusalem church continued in poverty up until AD 70. The Jerusalem church continued to be dependent on donations from other Churches in Asia. This was not an ideal situation.

These factors mentioned in the last three posts mean that the Jerusalem Church cannot be used as an ideal on which to base a Christian approach to economics. The unique situation in that city means that the very Jerusalem church does not provide a model that can be directly copied.

Problems in Jerusalem (2) Christian Overstayers

Although they should have taken the gospel back to their home towns and villages, people from all over the world stayed in Jerusalem. On the day of Pentecost, thousand of people were still in Jerusalem, after coming their to celebrate the Passover.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven….Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; Cretans and Arabs. (Acts 2:5,9-10).

Many of these people responded to the apostles preaching and received the gospel. Some of these people, like the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:39), immediately took the gospel back to their home as God intended.

This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every nation under heaven. (Col 1:23).

However many more of these foreign Christians remained in Jerusalem. I presume that they remained, because the Apostles remained, making Jerusalem the centre of the action. New Christians naturally wanted to be close to the action, so they stayed to see what would develop. This slowed the spread of the gospel.

The large number of visitors staying on in Jerusalem after they received salvation caused a serious economic problem, as the church was committed to providing them with food. It meant that the church was always short of money and needed donations from other churches.

Financial Support for Local Apostles (3) - Pay It Forward

When an apostolic team is sent out to plant a new church, the church that sends them out will often provide financial support. Because this apostolic team will have established the sending church for free, they will pay it forward by supporting their apostles on their next venture. When Paul was in Thessalonica, the church in Philippi provided support for him.

You sent me aid again and again when I was in need (Phil 4:16).

The key to this support is person-to person relationships. Paul had lived in Philippi as an apostle. He had an excellent relationship with them. They could put something back into his ministry by providing him with financial support. Modern apostles will often receive help from the people they have discipled in churches where the previously exercised their ministry.

Giving to apostles must be voluntary. Apostles cannot enforce giving by the church that has sent them out. They do not have authority to require financial support from their sending churches. The sending church will support the apostles they send, because they love them and are committed to the apostolic task.

In the New Testament Model, money flows through relationships, not institutions. Person-to-person giving feeds on trust. Deacons will have a key role in building relationships between those in need and those who can give.

If churches go back to meeting in believer’s homes, the overhead costs involved in planting a new Church very low. All that will be needed is a team of apostles and a home in which to meet. Often they will meet in the home of the first person converted, so there will be almost no expenses at all.

Governmental Apostles (10) No Authority

The ministry of an apostle is relational, not positional. Once the apostle has moved on, they can influence the leaders left behind, because they nurtured and mentored them, and then released into ministry. Apostles do not have governmental authority, they have relational influence.

Apostles do not have the authority to decide how much money will be given to another church. The decision about how much should be given to Jerusalem was decided by the individual givers in the churches in Asia Minor.

The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea (Acts 11:29).

Paul had no authority to tell the Corinthians how much to give. The size of the fund was decided when the people who gave the money tagged it for that purpose.

An apostle does not have authority to allocate money to particular needs. Paul could draw Jerusalem’s need to the attention of the Corinthians and facilitate the giving, but he did not control any funds that he could just allocate to Jerusalem.

Paul received financial support from several of the churches which he had helped the Holy Spirit to establish, but this was always voluntary. He was always gave thanks for their generosity, but he never instructed them to give him money for his support. Paul knew that an apostle did not have authority to demand money from a church he had helped to plant.

Paul was careful not to usurp authority that did not belong to him. If he had asked for money for his support, many people in these churches would gladly obey him, because they loved and respected him. Paul wanted the elders in the new churches to grow in confidence, so he refused to undermine them, by imposing his authority on the Christians under their oversight.

Centralised financing does not work. This is not surprising, because the core problem is not financial, but with the modern implementation of the apostolic ministry. The solution to the funding problems to push the fivefold ministries down to the local level, where they can be supported locally.

Governmental Apostles (9) Corinthian Collection

Paul in his letter to the Corinthians was consistent with the approach described in previous posts.

Now concerning the collection for the saints… On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come (1 Cor 16:1-2).

He did not want to be involved in organising a collection. Instead he urged each person to lay up some money each week, so that the money would be ready when Paul arrived in Corinth. There was no compulsion and each person was free to decide how much they would give. The text above implies that there was no central collection, but that each person would put aside their own store (The Greek text literally means “lay beside himself”).

Paul focussed on organising of the delivery of the funds to Jerusalem. He was able to do this because he had good relationships with the Corinthians and the leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

And when I come, whomever you approve by your letters I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem. But if it is fitting that I go also, they will go with me (1 Cor 16:3-4).

Paul did not want to handle the money himself. His preference was to provide a referral letters for the Corinthians, who would deliver the money. He offered to accompany them, if that would be helpful, but he did not want to get involved in controlling money. This confirms that apostles should not be handling money.

Money flows through relationship between churches. Apostles have extensive relationships, so they will support the flow of giving between communities. Paul had a relationship with both the leaders in Jerusalem and the church in Asia Minor, so he could facilitate the flow of support from one church to another.

Governmental Apostles (8) Waiting on Tables

The Jerusalem disciples apostles received clear instructions that they should keep out of the finance business.

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food (Acts 6:1).

This problem is inevitable when the distribution of finances is centralised. The people responsible for distribution simply cannot understand all needs and assess them correctly. Some people will end up getting more than they need, while others miss out. This happens with many modern Christian foundations. Those with good connections tend to get plentiful finance, but some really good people miss out on funding.

The solution to the apostle’s problem was to appoint deacons to take care of the money. Under the guidance of the Spirit, they identified seven men to be deacons. The ministry of the deacon is an important ministry that needs to be restored in the modern church (see Ministry of the Deacon).

This experience changed the apostles approach to their ministry.

We will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4).

They committed to focussing on prayer and preaching. There is no mention of handling finance. This change is confirmed in their other statement.

It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables (Acts 6:2).

The apostles decided that it would be wrong for them to wait on tables. The Greek expression for “waiting on tables” is “diakonein trapezais”. The word “trapezais” means table, so one meaning of the expression is serving food. However, the word “trapezais” is also used in the gospels for the money changers’ tables (Matt 21:12, John 2:15) and the counter of a bank (Luke 19:23). This suggests that the apostles were not just resolving to stop serving food. They were also saying it would be wrong for them to manage the collection of money.

Governmental Apostles (6) Staying at the Centre

Jesus told his apostles to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. Once they received the Holy Spirit, they were meant to go out into Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. By staying in Jerusalem after they had received the Holy Spirit, they gradually morphed in governmental apostles.

The Book of Acts shows the Holy Spirit guiding the church. Things went best, when Christians followed his voice. The apostles often got things wrong, and had to be corrected by the Holy Spirit. Here are just a few examples.

1. The Holy Spirit had a dreadful job getting Peter to go to Caesarea to share the gospel with Cornelius and his household. Luke takes a whole chapter to describe the incident. Peter had a vision. The Holy Spirit spoke to him. The prediction of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled (Acts 10:19-21). Even after all that, Peter launched into his sermon by saying that it was against his law for a Jew to associate with a gentile. While Peter was preaching, the Holy Spirit interrupted and filled the people so they spoke in tongues.
   
   Peter did not have a clue about what the Holy Sprit was doing in Caesarea. If he had been in control of this situation, the gospel would not have gone their. However, the Holy Sprit worked with hard to get Peter on track. Holy Spirit guidance triumphed over the mistakes of a key apostle.

2. The apostles appointed Philip to be a deacon, but it soon became clear that the Holy Spirit has more important work in mind for him.

   Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there (Acts 8:4-5).

   Philip was called to be an evangelist.

3. Paul made Timothy get circumcised in a bout of people pleasing.

   Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area (Acts 16:3).

   The circumcision party soon became a thorn in Paul’s flesh, so this incident pleasing man not God was a serious mistake.

4. Two apostles, Barnabas and Paul, disagreed over Mark. The Holy Spirit got his way and both Mark and Timothy became key evangelists.

5. Paul wanted to go into Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit did not allow him. The Holy Spirit had to send a vision to get him into Macedonia (Acts 16:7-9).

6. Paul planned to visit Spain. He intended to visit Rome on his way there.

   I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there (Rom 15:24)

   I will go to Spain and visit you on the way (Rom 15:28).

   The Holy Sprit had different plans. Paul ended up as a prisoner in Rome and never got to Rome. However, his desire to visit Spain cause him to write the letter to the Romans, which was what the Holy Sprit really wanted from him.

The Acts of the Apostles are really the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Things went well when people followed the leading of the Holy Spirit. Things did not go so well when the Apostles did their own thing. This shows the risks of apostolic government. The more power that is given to governing apostles, the more serious this risk will be.

When individual Christians ignore the Holy Spirit, they do not do much harm. When an apostle with governing authority misses the Holy Spirit’s leading, terrible harm could done. The good news of the gospel is that every believer can be taught and lead by the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit guidance is far safer than Apostolic leadership.

Governmental Apostles (5) Big Ministries

Whereas Jesus dispersed his authority widely, the apostles in Jerusalem soon slipped into a mode of gathering authority to themselves.

An interesting feature of the Jerusalem church was that most of the miracles were worked by the apostles.

Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles (Acts 2:43).

The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade (Acts 5:12)

With the massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, many people should have been preaching the gospel and healing, but instead they seem to be gathering to watch the Apostles.

As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by (Acts 5:15).

These miracles were marvellous, but the entire movement in Jerusalem was becoming centred round the key apostles. Their ministries were built up, not multiplied. The rapid growth of the Church in Jerusalem depended on a few big apostles drawing lots of people into the church.

Because the number of apostles did not grow, the rate at which the church grew outside Jerusalem was slowed. It took serious persecution to get believers apostled out to places like Antioch for the real multiplication got underway.

The apostles quite quickly took financial control of the church. In the beginning those, those giving away their possessions distributed their money themselves.

Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need (Acts 2:45).

Within a short period of time, the giving was all going through the apostles.

Those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:34-35).

This was a significant change that increased the power of the apostles.

Governmental Apostles (4) Church Government

Jesus is the head of the church. He has not delegated this authority to church leaders or apostles. The only authority he delegated to apostles was authority to heal the sick and to cast our demons. He delegated governing and guiding authority to the Holy Spirit. He gave also gave all those who repent and believe freedom to obey the voice of the Spirit. Christians have authority over their own lives. The can give authority to their leaders by submitting them. The authority of leaders is comes from bottom to the top, not from the top down.

The Holy Spirit is everywhere and can speak to any believer, so he does not need to operate through a hierarchy. The leaders of human organisations are not omnipresent, so they have to work through hierarchy. The devil is confined to one place, so he has to work through a unruly hierarchy of principalities and powers. The Holy Spirit does not have this problem, so he does not need hierarchy. He can accomplish his plans by guiding Christians at a local level. The Holy Spirit guides the entire church by speaking to individual Christians.

Jesus worked locally and released lots of people into the apostolic ministry. He trained many apostles and gave them authority. He started with the twelve apostles and gave them some of his authority (Luke 6:12-16). Once the twelve were “on the case”, he began work with another seventy-two. They were “apostled” out into the surrounding villages and towns with authority to act for Jesus (Luke 10:1-21). The seventy-two were really green, but Jesus gave them authority, because he trusted the Holy Spirit to guide and lead them.

By the time he died, Jesus had 120 people who were waiting for the Spirit and “raring to go” (Acts 1:15). They had a lot to learn, but Jesus gave them authority, sent his Spirit and left them to it.

Governmental Apostles (3) Modern Forms

Once they have planted a new church, the next step for a person with the apostolic calling is to establish a training centre for church planters. They will use their experience to develop training materials and programmes. The graduates of the training school will no longer fit in the churches they came from, so the apostolic leader will have to organising church planting opportunities for them.

Sending out highly-trained, but inexperienced church planters in teams that have never worked together always leads to problems. The apostolic leader will be respected by the trainees, so they are the best person to sort out any problems. The person with an apostolic calling could soon have responsibility for a number of churches across a broad region. Governmental policies will be developed to manage and control these churches. In a few quick steps, a church planter has morphed into a governing apostle.

The governmental approach to apostleship will never be as effective as the local multiplicative approach. The best people are clustered at the centre, which can cause ego problems. Inexperienced people are pushed out to edge where the greatest problems emerge.

No matter how good the people at the centre; no matter how much money flows in; or how effective the training; or the effective the governmental management, governing apostles will be less effective

Governmental Apostles (2)

The false form of apostleship is governmental apostles.

Governmental apostles have a regional focus. They stay at the centre and direct the action from there. Some commentators liken apostles to generals, because they each command a chunk of God’s army. When a modern apostle oversees all the pastors in a region of in a group of churches this is referred to as apostolic government. Apostolic government is seen as essential for restoring the church.

Governmental apostleship has emerged in the modern church because no place has been found for the fivefold ministries at the local level. Every church is lead by a pastor, so there is no room for the other ministries. To find a role, prophets have had to become itinerant consultants. Evangelists have been forced into travelling ministries that operate independently. Apostles must function at a regional level, because there is no scope for their ministry at a local level.