Culture of the Kingdom
Today’s Topic: The Apostles’ Doctrine: Summary
Scripture: Acts 2:42; Matthew 23:34; 1 Samuel 2:27-36; 1 Samuel 3:1-14; Romans 8:30
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
In the past few messages we have looked at the Apostle’s doctrine and now we are going to wrap this portion up and summarize what we have said. After the sermon Peter preached and the 3,000 souls were saved. It states in Acts 2:42 that they continued in the apostles’ doctrine. Now the apostles’ doctrine is not some written messages in the New Testament or some interpreted writings of church fathers, reformers or teachings from those we look to for leadership. The traditions of man and today’s church says that is what the apostles’ doctrine is. The Apostolic is more involved than that and it is has to do with relationships, order, foundation and revelation of mysteries to the Body of Christ.
The apostles are the mail men who deliver the Word of God (Bread from Heaven) for that day and their function is to establish order and the government of God upon the Earth as delegates (ambassadors) of the King. Their authority is a foundational authority meant to order, empower and release the sons of God to function in their destinies. These destinies have been appointed to them from the foundations of the earth (Romans 8:30).
As we look at the church today we see a lack of foundational order as it relates to the culture of the Kingdom. The apostles’ function in the lives of believers is to establish order to your life and order in your thinking so that you can clearly see who God has called you to be. It is amazing how much we do not understand about what God wants to do through us and how He does it. God wants us to understand how to rely on His power He has delegated to us through gifting. He wants us to receive insight, understand the creativity and uniqueness God has put in you by which He intends to function through you.
Now if you do not recognize or believe in the apostolic then church is meaningless. It is meaningless in the sense that we are now not up-to-date in the reality and thing that God is doing in the current season. So then we sink down into the ritualistic aspect of church or Christianity and then take on the mindset that if I do these ritualistic things then I will go to heaven when I die. This mindset robs you of living in your destiny. It keeps people in the post-fall mindset that Adam and Eve experienced by working by the sweat of their own brow and their own abilities. But where did it switch or go wrong for the church? The culture of the Kingdom was lost when the monarchs gave authority to bishops in the hope that the bishops would keep the people in line and support the monarchy and their claims. This made the church and state become one and now the church adopts the culture of the state. Hence all the people born into that nation is defined by the current culture that exists. So in the case of a national church, children born unto members of that church are predisposed and only know what the current church culture is and if it is the culture of the state then the culture of the Kingdom is not present. The original culture of the church, at its foundation, relied upon the doctrine of the apostles. Now remember there is always a type and shadow before the reality and let me show you this because even the gifting of the apostolic was in type and shadow.
When we look at the story of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1 it states: “And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious (scarce) in those days; there was no open vision”. So if you read on it is the story of how the word of the Lord came to the young Samuel as a child but the key to seeing the apostles’ doctrine is in 1 Samuel 3:11-14 where the Lord told Samuel exactly what He was going to do and then Samuel would go on to tell Eli what the Lord said. Now understand that a prophetic voice was spoken to Eli before the reality came and the prophetic voice is found in 1 Samuel 2:27-36. Now in those days no one called Samuel an apostle but He functioned among Israel in that fashion. He was the voice of the Lord for Israel in that day and reminded Israel of the word of the Lord. Samuel was “sent” to give the word of the Lord to Israel. He is “sent” to bring back in order the children of Israel with the Lord. When the New Testament comes then we come into a better understanding and reality of the function of the apostolic to restore order to the people of God and ways of God.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
