An Apostolic Understanding – Part Nineteen

So, this Church – the new wineskin – that Jesus is building:

Ephesians 2:19b-20 “the household of God, (the Church) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”

1 Corinthians 12:28 “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues…” (NOTE: no pastors)

To have the fullness of the ministry of Jesus in a local church we need all five ministries that Jesus had when in Galilee training His disciples

He is the apostle of the faith – Hebrews 3:1

He is a prophet without honour in His own home town – Mark 6:4

He is an evangelist – John 3 (Nicodemus) and John 4 (woman at the well)

He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep – Hebrews 13:20

He went about teaching everywhere He went – Mark 2:13b

So, He had five ministry roles when He was here

And, as He ascended into Heaven He gave those five roles to various people

Each person receiving one role – so that it takes a team of a minimum of 5 to have the fullness of Jesus’s ministry in a local church

Ephesians 4:11-12 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”

So, instead of a pastor and a pastoral focus – – – the Church Jesus is building will have a fivefold focus all aimed at training and equipping God’s people to reach the lost

Apostolic – to “go into all the world and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19)

Prophetic – to do the work supernaturally using the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit
(John 14:12; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

So, we are switching “wineskins” OR bringing change to the old wineskin so it becomes new … and can contain the new wine

Old wineskin – pastoral model started around the year AD 500
New wineskin – apostolic model that existed from start to mid-400’s
Now being reintroduced to the Church

Matthew 9:16-17 “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Luke 5:38 “…new wine MUST be poured into new wineskins.”

The word “new” can mean two different things or both together at the same time:

1> ‘neos’ = something that has never happened before

2> ‘kainos’ = something that is in the process of going to a new quality or forming a new way (something old changing so as to be new)

So new churches (wineskins) being formed and moving forward in the things of the Kingdom

And, old churches (wineskins) are in the process of being transformed into new wineskins

And, Jesus knew how much people – even His people, the Church – would not like to change so He said: “Hopefully these changes won’t offend you”

Let’s look at that comment next time ….