Artistic Apostles Embody Jesus

Today we continue our series on the artistic five-fold ministry.

We have had two weeks of introduction!
Last week I promised we would get on to the Apostle,
but first,
we have to lay a little more foundation,
and I want to re-emphasize something I have already said.

There is a difference between
the Five-Fold Ministry
and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In the Greek this difference is obvious.
But our Bibles are largely translated by people
who do not believe in or understand the supernatural gifts
mentioned in the New Testament.
And because of this,
they try to make sense of words
and concepts in an academic sense,
with no point of reference in their own lives.

And so
In Ephesians 4, 
Apostles, prophets, 
evangelists,
pastors, and teachers
in the Greek are called "donations"
to the church.
They are a physical grant,
blessing,
or tangible object
the church receives.
As I have said many times in my books,
whenever God sees a problem,
God raises up a person.

And so
before we can go further,
we have to acknowledge the deep error
in protestant theology.
Anything that diminishes
the power of the incarnation is the spirit of Anti-Christ.
Jesus Christ is our model.
God became a man,
took on flesh,
was baptized,
was filled with the Holy Spirit,
embraced the cross
and was resurrected
to live a new kind of life before us.
And then he told his disciples,
wait in the city,
and you too will receive power from on high
to live the same kind of life I have shown you.

Paul says that the five-fold gifts are for the Body.
And what is the Body?
It is the physical presence of the spiritual reality of Jesus in the earth.
It is not a group of people who have embraced some doctrine,
it is the embodiment of Jesus in the earth.
You and everyone else
are supposed to be the body of Jesus on earth.

This is Incarnational reality:
As it says in Colossians:
This is the mystery: Christ in You, the hope of Glory.

One of my greatest frustrations
and something I try to attack in all my writing
is the crazy-making that Christian artists endure.
Even ones who call themselves charismatic or prophetic
disconnect the spiritual from the physical.
Because the Incarnation is not understood or taught,
or experienced through the sacraments,
Most of the artists I work with do not understand that
God became a man to redeem and restore this physical world,
and that the plan is for God to live in you so that you are more and more
transformed into his Image and likeness
so that you will be one in him.
Because there is a misunderstanding of the Incarnation,
artists feel a niggling sense of shame and guilt for creating.
God did not get you saved in the past
so that you could live a moral life
and then get your bit of pie in the sky.
That is heresy,
and so much less than the gospel.
God called you to Himself,
so that you could become more and more like him
and like your True Self.

Hurting people come to me 
and they try to reconcile their protestant theology 
with what I am asking them to do.
And for a season they struggle,
and things get worse.
And then I tell them
you have to give up your evangelical theology,
because trying harder and faking it
is what is keeping you in sin.
Your only hope is surrendering to God,
listening to his voice,
and letting the light and love of Jesus
change you.
Jesus changes us 
through abiding in his presence,
receiving the Eucharist,
listening to his voice,
and obeying.

God brought you into his Kingdom
so that you could more and more walk 
into the fullness of your 
true identity.
And this identity flows out of the real you.
This is the power of the New Creation.
This is what Paul is saying in II Corinthians 5:17.
You are a new kind of humanity,
where through the power of the Holy Spirit
you are renewed from the inside out,
into the likeness and image of Jesus.
This is not about information,
this is about transformation.

This is discipleship in the truest form.

So when we get to these unique people who are gifts to the church,
they are the Incarnation of the Charism, 
the living embodiment
of the spiritual giftings.

And this leads us to the first of the five-fold gifts:
the Apostle.

There is no definition of what an apostle is 
in the New Testament
because it was a common term in the Roman world.
And it is an unusual word that Jesus chose.
Luke 6:13 tells us 
that Jesus spent a night in fasting in prayer,
and in the morning
he chose Twelve who he called "apostles."

This is not a Jewish word.
It's a word from the Roman empire.
And it is a very important word for us who are called to make and transform culture.
Because the term apostle is all about culture.

The Roman Empire
was first a mercantile empire.
When the Romans went to a new place
they did not send the military in first.
They sent a group of people who would first set up 
a trading post,
build a forum and a theatre,
and a gymnasium.
And they would woo the local population in
by the best of Roman values,
culture,
and commerce.
And artists were part of this,
that's why some of the best preserved
Roman mosaics and frescoes are in Hull,
in the North of England.
The Romans brought the best of the best of the best
to a new place.
And the name for the persons who expanded the empire
by bringing Roman culture was "Apostoloi."
And of course,
if the locals didn't embrace the culture of Rome,
well then,
they came in with force.

And Jesus,
after calling and making the apostles
gave them these instructions.
"And he called the Twelve together
and he gave them power and authority
over all demons,
and to cure diseases,
and he sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God,
and to heal.
And he said to them,
take nothing for your journey,
no staff,
nor bag,
nor bread,
nor money,
and not have two tunics." Luke 9:1-3 RSV-CE

So Jesus sends them out,
and gives them the power of the New Covenant.
He tells them to take the culture of the Kingdom
everywhere they go.
Notice he didn't say
go be apologetic
or convince people with reasoning.
No,
he said go do what I am doing.
Heal the sick and preach the gospel.
So from this,
and from what Paul tells us in his letters in many places,
the apostle is an ambassador of the Kingdom.
The Apostle is a Kingdom diplomat.
The Apostle is the physical representation of Jesus in this world.
And the Apostle goes first.
In I Corinthians 4
Paul tells us that the Apostle goes low,
becomes a fool by worldly standards,
and suffers all kinds of things
to expland the Kingdom.

What are the marks of an apostle?
First,
in the New Testament,
and throughout history,
Apostles have an encounter and receive a calling 
from the Risen Lord Jesus.
I think this is the purpose of the events of Paul's life,
to show us
that there was someone who was not with Jesus during his earthly life
who had an encounter with Jesus and was called to be an apostle.
And this pattern is repeated throughout history,
there are many people who have had encounters with Jesus.

Second,
the encounter and the calling
are always to a specific mission or a specific people group.
So we have Saint Patrick being called to Ireland,
Cyril and Methodias called to the Slavs,
and Francis called to rebuild the church that has drifted from the Kingdom.

Third,
Apostles are called to healing and miracles.
All true apostolic ministry will be accompanied
by signs, wonders, and miracles.
And this miraculous ministry
will be in the areas of healing and provision.
We see this in the New Testament.
The first apostolic miracle that is recorded is the feeding of the five thousand.
Remember, Jesus said,
"You give them something to eat."
Jesus did it with the apostles.

Fourth,
All apostles will be called to the core message:
It is all about Jesus,
the preaching of the cross and the resurrection,
the kingdom of God,
calling people to be transformed and return.
Apostles also restore and call people back to the Eucharist.
Paul does this in I Corinthians 11,
but we see this throughout history,
when the Eucharist gets set aside or distorted,
God brings apostles to restore order.
This was the case with the Franciscans.
And I find it interesting that three protestants:
John Wesley,
George Muller,
and Smith Wigglesworth
made communion central to their lives.
The core of the apostle is the mystery of the faith,
Christ has died,
Christ is risen,
Christ will come again.

And finally,
An apostle embodies
the life of Jesus.
We are back to the Incarnation.
These folks,
to quote Paul again,
are living letters.
Apostles go low,
and become the foundation.
Apostles bear in their bodies the marks of Jesus.
They are the living embodiment 
of the King and his kingdom.
And because of this,
Apostles will function in a lot of the charismatic gifts:
and any gift that is needed in a moment will manifest.
All the apostles in the New Testament spoke in tongues.
All worked in miracles,
healed the sicked,
casted out demons,
and operated in prophecy.
And in exchange,
those same Apostles suffered terribly.
To whom much is given,
much is required.

Artists and creative people are first called to 
build up,
restore,
and communicate culture.
And so there is a synergy here 
between the apostolic calling and the artistic one.
Artistic apostles
are going to reflect Jesus 
in their work
and in their lives.
Artistic apostles
are going to go into dark places and be Jesus.

As you all know,
our house,
Belonging House
carries and apostolic mantle.
And I am so grateful to see how the foundation laying
process is now beginning to pay off.
Others can now stand on the foundation
that has been laid through prayer,
sacrifice,
teaching,
and miracles.
We have begun to really form a culture for others to embrace.

Next week,
we are going to talk about the Prophet.