15.5.11
THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY -- ROM 10:1-15 'First apostles'
INTRO RECAP. Last Sunday we did what we called a mini-consultancy. Bill has all the data and is working on it, but it will be a while before we can get back to you with what it all means.
I began by stating that:
The church is primarily a missionary agency
(The only organisation that exists primarily for its non-members)
God is more than a match when it comes to cultural change that challenges the survival and growth of his church.
Example: China -- (Only thousands of Christians when the missionaries were there. It turned into millions when the communist authorities drove out the missionaries and sought to destroy the faith)
God takes the initiative -- Our part is to discern what God is doing and to align ourselves with this.
A healthy and effective missional church operates with the five ministry gifts, not just two!
In times of exponential cultural change:
* Apostolic leadership and initiative emerges.
* Prophetic words are spoken to counter the challenge that confronts the church.
* Forms of evangelism emerge that are more than a match for the challenge.
* New Christians are born of the Spirit who need the ministries of pastors and teachers.
Problems arise with the erroneous model of having only a pastor/teacher gift.
The Canadian author Alan Roxburgh is quoted by Alan Hirsch: 'a predominantly pastoral conception of the church and ministry now actually constitutes a major hindrance to the church reconceiving itself as a missionary agency......
APPLIC
According to both authors (and I agree with them)
The Church that follows the Ephesians 4 pattern is one that grows.
It means giving recognition to apostolic vision
Listening to the prophetic word
Evangelism in the power of the Spirit
Pastoring and teaching new believers
With one flowing into the other.
POINT
We need the apostolic ministry. But what is the apostolic ministry?
Last week we were in Ephesians 4, but this Sunday we are going to take a look at Romans 10
READING: Romans 10:1-15
POINT
In Romans 10 Paul declares 'all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved'.
* Context -- reaching the Jews with the Gospel
* Error -- pursuing a righteousness of their own
* Moses shows that it condemns not justifies
* It is the same for Jews and non-Jews -- we are saved by grace through the response of faith
* But someone has to be SENT in order they can hear, believe, call on and be saved
APPLIC
If people need to be saved then they have not yet been saved. There are therefore those who have been saved and those who are lost. [Explain salvation]
But what does it mean to be sent? (apostello)
(one sent with a mission)
It is not just a matter of leaving one place to go to another
The goal is that people hear the Gospel.
POINT -- We used to think of it in terms of mission -- going from our country to another like Africa or China. But then the world changed and our country became multiracial.
But then we realized that the people of our nation are as much the 'mission field' as elsewhere. So what does it mean to be sent?
It is about effectively engaging with people with the good news of salvation wherever they are.
MAPS POINT
The old ways of engaging with people with the Gospel have changed. Because culture is not constantly and rapidly changing shape the old ways are do not work as they once did.
ILLUSTR
I have a Satnav that I use from time to time. I rely on it a lot when driving in areas I am unfamiliar with. But there is a problem. I am too mean to spend the money to download map upgrades!
This means that from time to time I get caught out. Driving over the new Kincardine bridge it looks as though I have taken a helicopter. A voice from the satnav keeps telling me 'turn around where possible.
Once when driving in a town I followed the satnav to the letter of instructions only to find that I had driven down a road that led to a dead end. The reason:
The landscape had changed and the rules had changed!
APPLIC
It is the same with our culture:
The landscape has changed and the rules have changed and the old maps don't work anymore.
They lead us down dead ends, or up one way streets, and into places that don't exist any more.
The culture we have moved out from was described as 'modern'. But we have moved on from this to something as yet undefined.
* In modernism outreach was about CONQUEST, but in postmodernism it's about SERVICE.
* Yesterday outreach was PROGRAM BASED, but today it's RELATIONSHIP BASED.
* In modernism outreach was an EVENT, but today it's much more of a PROCESS.
* In modernism outreach tried to PROVE THAT THE MESSAGE WAS TRUE, but in postmodernism we have to FIRST DEMONSTRATE THAT THE MESSAGE IS RELEVANT before showing that it is relevant because it is true.
This is where the apostolic ministry comes in.
APOSTOLIC GIFT
It informs Christians on how to effectively engage with the unsaved leading to the formation of new church covenant communities.
It initiates new missionary movements.
EXAMPLES:
Church without Walls in Stewartfield under the leadership of Douglas Wallace.
It updates the maps of our thinking to enable us to navigate the changing landscape of our times.
YEAH BUT
Some may say that there is no longer the ministry of the apostle since it died out after the last of the 12 plus Paul passed away. Because the qualification of an apostle was to see Jesus risen.
The twelve along with Paul were UNIQUE as apostles, but they were not the only apostles: cf Barnabus, Silas, Andronicus and Junias outstanding among the apostles (Romans 16). There were more, some of whom were not eyewitnesses of the resurrection. So while we can say that the 12 plus Paul were unique they were not the only apostles and apostolic ministry has continued in the church since that time to this day.
NOW WHAT
This is nothing new. We have been here before:
The Babylonian Exile:
The landscape suddenly changed. The maps didn't work, and they wrote a Psalm:
'How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land'
But they found new ways and wrote new stories:
Esther - ; Daniel; Nehemiah
What is the map? Where are we on it? The map is how we see the world in which we live. But the world has changed and we are part of that world.
But the context has changed and new approaches are needed to connect with the population at large whose mindset is continually being altered.
NOW WHAT?
Where is the apostolic voice? What is the context into which it speaks? How do we identify the apostolic ministry?
By continuing to be open-minded and listening to God and his people. Openess to the gifts
A couple of weeks ago I spoke about our need of the Holy Spirit for evangelism more than our need for books about it. There is a place for being informed about what is going on by way of change in our world.
CLOSING
* This morning we have stood well back to take a look at ourselves from a distance.
* We have seen that the maps we have in our minds of the world around us are so out of date that we have little idea of what the real world is now like.
But God gives gifts:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
That equipping includes the work of mission. God still gives gifts and he will not let his eternal cause be unsupported.
