The Apostolic Pattern (Why Are Multiplying Churches Necessary? Part 3)
This is Part 3 in the Series “Why Are Multiplying Churches Necessary?” It would be helpful to read Part 1 and Part 2.
“Jesus lives on in an apostolic mission that advances by church multiplication.” – Wolfgang Simson
If you’re familiar with the New Testament, you know Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke as a historical account of Jesus before, during, and immediately after the cross. What some don’t realize is the book of Acts is Luke’s historical account of the resurrected Jesus’ activity as He leads and guides the church into the very activities that characterized His ministry on Earth (cf. John 14:12-14, Acts 1:1-3). The heart of the matter is this: Jesus’ post resurrection ministry was lived out through the church in the book of Acts in the form of a multiplying church movement.
Let’s look at some quick facts. The Church Jesus left was insubstantial compared to the crowds who had followed Him before His death. Paul speaks of Christ appearing to 500 people after His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Since this is the highest number of post-resurrection numbers spoken of and Paul refers to these men as brothers, my assumption is they were the lump some of Jesus’ followers. Yet, by the early third century, this relatively obscure band of five hundred had become somewhere between 5 and 10% of the Roman Empire and up to 30% of some major cities.
The book of Acts records the harvest in language that should both stun us and move us to action. When Peter preaches at Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2, a massive harvest of 3,000 new believers come to the Lord. Luke describes it this way: and there were added that day about three thousand souls (Acts 2:41). This continued on for a season in the life of the early church (Acts 2:47, 5:14) and the results were significant growth that all of us would love to have.
However, eventually the church began to feel the burden of it’s growth. The result was a decision to multiply leadership beyond the apostles to the men we refer to as deacons in Acts 6. When this multiplication of ministry happened, a small but significant shift occurs in Luke’s story. Instead of the church having new members added to them, the church begins to multiply (Acts 6:7). The church didn’t just multiply one time. It multiplied several times (Acts 9:31, 12:24)
This is more than just semantics. The shift in language represents the fact that instead of just a few people doing much of the work, many people were embracing the mission of God. See, addition works like this: 2+2+2+2+2+2=12. Multiplication works like this: 2x2x2x2x2x2=64. The more multiplication you have happening the bigger the results. This is why Paul would tell Timothy to take what he had taught him and teach it to faithful men who would teach it to other faithful men (2 Timothy 2:2). It was a God-sized idea to expand the Kingdom.
And you couldn’t stop this multiplying church. Its multiplication made it hard to know where it started or ended. Before you knew it, this little group of Jesus followers became a multitude that had no visible leader. You could kill one of the leaders, but another would rise in its place. It’s why human’s hate viruses: they multiply out of control. This is what allowed the first century church to reach an unprecedented amount of people in such a short period of time.
Beloved we find ourselves in a season of history where we must recapture the spirit of evangelism and multiplication that gripped the early church. This isn’t a call to return to only first century practices, but to capture those elements that made them vital and caused the Gospel to spread like a virus throughout earth. Jesus is worthy of His name going forth and redeeming many in this hour. May we, like them, be consumed for His name’s sake and see the church multiply in the Earth.
Photo Credit: Onion Cells by Kaibara87
Basic Introductions: Characters and Plot in Song of Solomon
[In an ongoing effort to provide a jumping-on point for new readers, over the next few weeks on Fridays I’m going to write a series of posts entitled “Basic Introductions.” Each post will focus on a seldom explored realm of Christianity that we will focus on regularly here at Pursuing Glory.]
This post also builds off previous “Basic Introductions” posts called “Basic Introductions: The Bridal Paradigm” and “Basic Introductions: The Song of Solomon.” I would encourage new readers who are unfamiliar with the Bridal Paradigm or the Song of Solomon to read those posts, and then return to this post.
In our last Basic Introductions post, we looked at the necessity of understanding the Song of Solomon as a literal love story and as an allegory describing Christ’s love for His Bride, the Church. While both views are important and necessary, I want to focus on the spiritual interpretation because I believe it will deeply benefit those who begin see God as a Pursuer of Love. Because this interpretation has largely been abandoned in the last hundred years, I want to introduce a couple of key principles that will help people new to the Song understand enough to gain revelation.
First, it’s important to understand the basic characters in the Song:
Solomon– Solomon represents Christ as revealed as the Bridegroom. If you watch closely throughout the Song, Solomon will actually manifest different aspects of the nature of God. In Chapter 1, He’s a Shepherd, In Chapter 2 He’s a conquering God, in Chapter 3 He’s the safe Savior, etc. Wherever you see Solomon, see Jesus pursuing His Bride. What Solomon says and does in the book you can generally interpret as something Christ says or does to us.
Shulamite- The Shulamite is the woman of the Song. She’s only called the Shulamite one place in the entire book (Song of Solomon 6:13) but she’s never given a name or any other identifying information. She represents the Bride of Christ, the Church, who begins the song dark but lovely (Song of Solmon 1:5) but ends the song coming out of the wilderness victoriously leaning on the one she loves (Song of Solomon 8:5). What the Shulamite says and does throughout the book you can generally interpret as something we do in our journey to love Christ more.
Daughters of Jerusalem- This group of women appear periodically through the book (Song of Solomon 1:5, 2:7, 5:8, etc.) and represent spiritually immature believers who truly love Jesus. They don’t understand the situations that the Shulamite finds herself in, so she is constantly having to explain herself. However, they look into the relationship with the curiosity of one who truly loves Jesus.
Watchmen- Two times the watchmen appear in the Song (Song of Solomon 3:3, 5:7). Both times they represent those who have authority and oversight in the Kingdom of God. Think of them as elders, older brothers, those further along the journey. They should be the ones helping the Shulamite, however, sometimes her encounters with them are mixed.
Next, it’s important to understand some basic structure of the Song. If you don’t understand the general timeline, the story get’s very complicated. What follows is a simple sketch that I would encourage you to flesh out with more study.
Song of Solomon 1- The Shulamite begins her journey realizing sinful but beautiful to Jesus. Solomon only sees her pursuit and encourages her by affirmation.
Song of Solomon 2- The Shulamite is overwhelmed by Jesus’ love. He comes and invites her to spiritual adventure on the mountains but she declines Him out of fear.
Song of Solomon 3- Jesus leaves, but the Shulamite realizes her mistake in refusing Him. She searches for Him and when she finds Him, he reveals to her His attention to her safety.
Song of Solomon 4- The Shulamite decides to join Jesus on the mountains. Jesus, seeing her sincerity, praises her character. She ends the chapter asking for Him to make her His alone.
Song of Solomon 5- Jesus comes again to invite her with Him. This time she obeys but still cannot find Him. In His absence she is abused but still loves Him. When asked why, she praises Him to the daughters of Jerusalem.
Song of Solomon 6- The daughters desire to find Jesus too and the Shulamite finds Him. Jesus praises her in a way that reveals her growth through these tests.
Song of Solomon 7- This chapter continues Jesus’ praise of the Shulamite. She desires to go see the harvest (think souls), which is the place she actually gives Him her love.
Song of Solomon 8- The Shulamite is mature in love, leaning on Jesus. She asks Him to guard her heart and her actions and to come back quickly to her.
When you read the Song of Solomon, you gain an incredible insight into the heart of Christ. We begin to see Christ as a pursuer of a Bride, the Church, who will not be turned away by her sin or distraction. His love proves to be so transformational that this Bride begins to love Christ in the same way He loves her. By taking these truths and applying them in our lives we mature and begin to love God the same way He loves us. I encourage you to crack open Song of Solomon, read the book, and pray some of the truths you find there back to God. It will change you.
Some Helpful Books on the Topic
The Bride- The Bride is incredibly helpful from the standpoint of understanding the story that lies behind the Song of Solomon. It is fictional, but will help those new to the Song of Solomon understand much of the symbolism that they will find in the Song.
The Song of Solomon-While this isn’t a book, this CD/MP3 series is well worth any time or money spent on it. Mike is the foremost expert on the Song of Solomon as an allegory for Christ’s love in our generation. I’ve been incredibly helped by Mike in many areas, but this is the place where he really shines. You can also get his material for free at Mikebickle.org.
The Song of Solomon-Watchman Nee provides an excellent resource that examines the Song of Solomon verse by verse. I don’t always agree with everything Nee sees in the book as symbolic, but he goes into more depth than just about anyone else. If you’re looking for a deep resource on understanding the book as a revelation of Christ’s love for His Bride, this is a good start.
Other Posts In the “Basic Introduction” Series:
You Were Made To Reproduce (Why Are Multiplying Churches Necessary? Part 2)
You can check out Part 1 of “Why Are Multiplying Churches Necessary?” here.
“Jesus lives on in an apostolic Mission that advances by Church multiplication.” – Wolfgang Simson
While there a lot of reasons that multiplying churches are necessary, the fact that it’s necessary because it’s in your DNA isn’t probably the first thing you think of. But if you stop for a moment and consider it, one of the most horrible things that can happen to a couple is that they are unable to have children. A couple can be healthy, popular, wealthy and successful, and yet miserable because they are unable to have children. They show us a fact the Bible already tells us: We were born to reproduce.
This reality goes all the way back to the very beginning of creation: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28).
There are two powerful concepts that are at play here, I’ll start with the most obvious one and then move the more subtle one. First, when God created a man and a woman in the Garden, He did not put them there just to enjoy Paradise. His commission to Adam and Eve was to carry the very life of the Garden to the furthest reaches of the planet. This wasn’t to be done by them living forever and trekking across the entire planet (though they did live for almost a thousand years). God’s plan for Adam and Eve to subdue the Earth was really quite simple: be fruitful and multiply. It was that easy.
The second principle is just as powerful. These two humans were to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the Earth, not because it was just the easiest way. In reality, this reproduction that God called Adam and Eve to was a facet of God’s nature. It is like God to reproduce Himself. And because it is like God to reproduce and He has put His likeness in us, we must reproduce because we are patterned after Him.
This is why Paul, the church multiplying king could write about the nature of Christ and say things like, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all,” (Ephesians 1:22-23) Notice that it’s the nature of Christ to fill all things with Himself and He manifests that nature through us, His church.
How does this apply to us? Multiplying isn’t something foreign to us as a church. It’s part of our natural and spiritual DNA. Just like the barren couple we started talking about, we will be frustrated in our lives and callings until we see successive generations of believers walk in the things Jesus called us to. But if we multiply ourselves, if we multiply leaders, and if we multiply churches, we become true to the very DNA Jesus sowed into us from the very beginning.
Photo Credit: Mountain view with sheep by Julie_Berlin.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 