The Seven “Kingdom Expanders” (Acts 2:37-47) Page 127

The Seven “Kingdom Expanders” (Acts 2:37-47) 

1. Repentance and Baptism. 

2. The Great Commission apostolic teaching

3. Table Fellowship and Breaking of bread from house to house. 

4. Kingdom Prayers 

5. Signs and wonders 

6. Generous giving to the apostles 

7. Making multigenerational disciples  

The church owns the greatest reservoir of untapped gifts and talents in the world, all buried underground. Dig anywhere and you will find pearls, nuggets and treasures of great value. They are likely to remain buried unless zealously found and polished into kingdom expanders of great value (Matt. 13:45,46)

The Old Testament begins with sin in the first family who brought the curse. The OT ends with the threat of more curses if there is disintegration in the family relationship. Therefore, any sustainable revival in the church must begin in the family.

Elijah incarnated as John the Baptist to restore the family as the centre of gravity (Mal 4:6; Luke 1:17). Today, more than ever, we need to go from house to house, removing the veil of darkness and compelling them to become a light unto the Gentiles (Luke 14:23). 

Every Christian home should be a refuge for the lost and an altar for offering Gentiles as a sweet smelling sacrifice pleasing to Yahweh (Phil. 4:18; Eph. 5:2; 1Pet.2:5). 

The Israelites carried their tabernacle with them wherever they went and offered sacrifices in it. Yeshua came to fix the fallen tabernacle of David so that the Gentiles may seek Him. He has now put His tabernacle right inside every believer’s heart. Now every follower of Christ is a walking and talking mobile tabernacle and an altar for offering Gentiles as sacrifice and an epicentre of community restoration (Acts 15:16,17; 2 Cor. 6:16; 2Pet. 3:9).

Everyone should have a valid (real, meaningful, clear) opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel and those who respond should be flocked into fellowships of local expressions of the Body so they can be taught to obey. (Roy Wingerd)

Solomon built the Temple, obtained horses and chariots from Egypt and married idolatrous princesses against Yahweh’s express command (Deut 17:16,17). He did all these to enlarge his kingdom and make it powerful. It was a great idea but not God idea. So even with all his wealth, power and wisdom, he lost the empire. While our dyslexic forefather Moses, a refugee with no wealth or power or oratory skills, built a tent house for Yahweh and liquidated the mighty Egyptian empire through great acts of faith. 

Yeshua built no buildings nor did He establish any church traditions. He came to plant the kingdom of Yahweh in human hearts, “The kingdom of Yahweh is within you.” He healed corporeally and spiritually. The black Ethiopian eunuch could not meet Yahweh in Solomon’s Temple because he was unfit for regeneration. So Yahweh Himself met him on the road through Philip who served at the tables. The eunuch then went and regenerated Ethiopia. (Deut. 23:1; Isa 56:3-7; Math. 19:12).

The Legacy: Yeshua was busy all day with His ministry of healing the sick, delivering the demonized, debating the defiant and feeding the hungry. But He never lost sight of His primary objective of leaving a legacy of world changers. Like our Master, the primary objective of our existence is to leave behind a rich legacy of disciples, fishers of men, shepherds who seek and save the lost and fivefold elders who equip saints for the edification of the Body and practice kingdom economics and forever change the spiritual landscape. 

The greatest day in a pastor’s life is when, like his Master, he gladly says to his flock, “Shalom Aleikhem (Peace); Go, as the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21).

However, do not take off like a bull in a china shop. There is no room for loose cannons. Christianity is a corporate manifesto and requires flying in formation for direction and synergy. Before rocking the boat, talk to objective listeners because in the multitude of counsellors, there is safety (Prov. 11:14). However avoid those who live in the natural. They will kill your vision. William Carey’s vision for India was nearly killed by a senior pastor in England who told him that if God wanted India saved, He will take care of it. The way forward is to prayerfully prepare a biblical blueprint based on the Master’s vision, detailing implementation and monitoring mechanisms, mobilization of kingdom resources and a time schedule for the systematic execution and completion of the Great Commission manifesto.

Most Christians have only experienced religion but not Christ. So they try to manufacture spirituality through ornate buildings, funky music, feigned worship and glitzy programs. 

Get the Horse Buggy Ready: Yeshua tabernacled with men in the NT times. He will again appear in Body and the law shall go forth from Zion. Redeemed pilgrims from all nations, tongues and tribes will go to Jerusalem from one moon to the next and from one Sabbath to another to worship The King. There will be no high-teck elevator to heaven. They will come, singing and rejoicing on horses, mules, camels and ox carts. Children will play with snakes, bears and lions who will eat straw. Old people will go romping as their youth will be renewed like the eagle. Disabled will also go as there will be no more blind, deaf, dumb or lame people. There will be no pollution as petroleum would have been exhausted and we will have carbon free pure air to breathe. Organically grown food and sparkling fresh water will be available in plenty as we will go from one Garden of Delight to the next. We will be fed with abundance of milk, butter, bread, honey and fresh fruits. You will be living in tabernacles covered with palm branches. There will be no sea, so you can travel through the shortest route and go fishing in Engedi as the Dead sea will be full of fish. This tourist Utopia will be available for free only to those who have planted their own apostolic gardens so that they can offer the same services to other pilgrims. (Isa. 2:3;66:20-23;11:6-9; 35:5-10;51:3,11;7:22;Rev.21:1,4;Eze. 47:10)  

Many of us have grown in the “Church-as-we-know-it” (CAWKI) and it may come as a resounding shock to know that the “Church-as-God-wants-it” (CAGWI) not only looks different but also thinks, acts and performs differently. (Wolfgang Simson) 

The church is in crisis and needs to deploy all available hands on board, not leaving everything to the busy captain. Communication must have a seat at the grown-ups’ table for a reality check to see how the outside world perceives the church and to shape effective strategies. Missiologists, management gurus, performance oriented corporate fraternity, government officers, soldiers, professionals, city planners, environmentalists, agriculturists, horticulturists, gardeners and a spectrum of hard-nosed, pragmatic entrepreneurs, all interested in the mission of Yahweh and drawn from the network of ekklesias, will completely unshackle the gridlocked, religious thought process. They will release hidden synergies unimagined by the church, but enough to cause a Big Bang, which will throw the church into splinters but in the process, create new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1).

Yeshua, the King of kings and Lord of lords came to seek and to save the lost people; therefore His ekklesia exists to do the same. Nothing more and nothing less. 

Every stonewalled Christian has the option to choose between relevance and irrelevance. The illegitimate love affair with the pulpit and pew has lasted too long and it is time to say adieu. The shallowness of a weekly handshake with the Sunday Orator must change to a deeper relationship with each other and with the neighbour. Worship must change from the security and comfort of the temple to the insecurity and the threat of openness of the Garden of Gethsemane - and confront the moment of truth. The change will not come cheap. The choice is to stay in staleness and stagnate or walk out the walk of freedom, and become fruitful (Mark 12:31; John 13:34,35).  

Yeshua arose from the dead in the springtime from a garden tomb when the trees shed old leaves and burst forth with new life to bring forth new fruit. We need to do the same.

The church today does not need just ordinary members but a green army with the anointing of Jeremiah: “You will go wherever I send you and speak whatever I command you to speak... See, I have this day set you over the nations and kingdoms, to uproot, tear down and to overthrow them, then rebuild and plant again” (Jer. 1:7-10). 

In that day, says the Lord, I will build my tabernacle (ekklesia). They will possess the nations, rebuild waste cities, plant gardens and eat the fruit thereof. (Amos 9:11-15) 

  

“Be fruitful and fill the earth with multiplying apostolic gardens” is not a desirable option but a fundamental requirement of every ekklesia and indeed of every Christian. 

Shalom and again Shalom.