What God Planned - Part II
D. Dardano, D. Cipolla, H. Cipolla
September 21, 2014
The text which is contented in this page was taken literaly from the speech
given in public, so it wasn't prepared and edited as a formal wrinting.
Descargas>>  
 
VIDEO
 
AUDIO
  • When God chose us to be a part of the Church, He didn’t do it because of our human abilities or characteristics.
    “26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things— and the things that are not— to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29, NIV).
  • In the first part of these teachings we spoke about how God never selected a “chief executive officer for the company called Church,” instead he placed a head (Jesus Christ) to transmit and share the same kind of life with his body. When a company needs to select directors, it follow certain parameters for selection, which include:
  1. The candidates have to go through a series of interviews with various execs within the company, and only those who meet the right expectations are hired.
  2. They need to have the right kind of profile that compares to the position needing to be filled. For this reason their academics, natural abilities, and experience are evaluated, and on top of that, they need to have development goals personally and professionally.
  3. They need to be people who can create plans for the success of the company.
  4. From the moment they are hired by the company to take on the role, the authority they bear is based on the position they’ve been given. This is why the higher up the role is, the more authority they have to make decisions.
  • Opposite to what we have just described we find what God has established for the Church; it has nothing in common with the way a company functions:
    1. God decided that there be guides in a church. However there are no candidates going through interviews with the desire to be selected to take on a role. The selection is instead done exclusively by Jesus Christ, without interviews, since he selected whomever he wants, but not to give them a position, instead to delegate a function. The Bible shows what the functions of these guides are.
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers…”
      (Ephesians 4:11, NIV).
    1. The Lord doesn’t select the guides of the Church based on their human abilities. The intelligence and personal capacity of those who function within these ministries is not considered by God. The Word confirms what we have just expressed.
“Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant— not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
    (2 Corinthians 3:4-6, NIV).
  1. Jesus Christ doesn’t expect the guides to create excellent plans to drive the Church to success. The head of the Church is Christ, therefore, he is the only one authorized to create plans that must be implemented in the Church. This means that the guides are in place to receive and implement the plans that Christ has for His body.
  2. Now, since the five ministries are neither tasks nor positions, the authority they possess does not come from a hierarchical position, instead it comes from Christ Himself. This means that in order to properly exert the received authority, these five ministries need to depend from Christ as the head completely. They should never attempt to use that authority as if it belonged to them, using their own selection to be a part of the five ministries as an excuse.
    • Everything that has been mentioned up to this point has a basis. These ministries are inherently of Christ, in other words they are a part of Him. While He was in this world, He developed each of these ministries to their fullest extent:

“… fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.”

      (Hebrews 3:1b, NIV).


“54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue… 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”

      (Matthew 13:54a, 57, NIV).


“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”

      (Matthew 9:35, NIV).


“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

      (John 10:11, NIV).


“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.”

      (John 13.13, NIV).

 


The guides God planned

  • From the moment Jesus ascended to heaven, he constituted these ministries and he delegated them to those He chose in order to build up God’s people (see Ephesians 4:12).
  • Why do the people He selects for these five ministries become guides for the Church? Because Christ, who is the head and supreme authority in the church, transferred his same anointing to them so that they can exert these functions. The five ministries represent Christ in his function as the head, therefore, they bring execution for everything that God thinks and plans for His church.
    “ 37If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. 38 But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.” (1 Corinthians 14:37-38, NIV).
  • Each of the five ministries has unique characteristics that are unique and irreplaceable; they are also proprietary to their trade, and it is important to see that they complement each other. Within this scheme the words shows that there is and order of authority in the way the functions of the five ministries are carried out. Now we will see some of the fundamental aspects of the ministries:
    1. The apostles and prophets are designated by God as the first and second in the exertion of the authority that God gave to the church.
      “And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets…” (1 Corinthians 12:28a, NIV).
    2. That same ministerial order is reaffirmed when the five ministries are mentioned in Ephesians 4:11.
    3. Jesus Christ planned that the apostolic and prophetic ministries may form an indivisible ministerial union; when he refers to them, he always mentions them together. One of these mentions can be found in Luke 11:49:
“Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘ I WILL SEND THEM PROPHETS AND APOSTLES, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’”
      (NIV, emphasis added).

      The context in which Jesus said these words alludes to an historical event and to the judgment of Jerusalem some years later (see 2 Chronicles 24:19-22, Matthew 23:34-37, NIV). The most noticeable thing is that Jesus used the term apostles, since these were not an established ministerial trade in the Old Testament, although they were undoubtedly sent by God. It is possible then to observe that Jesus prophesied what God had spoken in His wisdom, to refer to the function and authority that the apostles and prophets that he would constitute Himself would exert in the Church.
    1. “… which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body…” (Ephesians 3:5-6a, NIV).

      Paul confirmed that the ministry of Christ is the Church, because she is made up of the union between Jews and gentiles born again in the Spirit, those who make up the body of Christ (see Ephesians 2:14-19, NIV). The use of the Word now in this passage determines that this truth was not revealed in olden times, instead it was revealed to Paul and his contemporary apostles and prophets. This scripture contains a Spiritual Principle, and it is that the Lord grants a clear revelation about the church to the apostolic and prophetic ministries. It must be pointed out that the apostles and prophets of old are the ones who wrote down what God revealed to them and is known as the Bible. Now, as long as the Church remains on Earth, it needs to receive a fresh revelation of truth contained in the doctrine of the apostles, and it is the current apostles and prophets who bear this anointing from God to do this task.

    2. Thanks to this anointing that the apostles and prophets have received, that are tasked with bringing foundation to the Church.
“… built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
      (Ephesians 2:20, NIV). It is necessary for the Church to be enabled in the revelation of Christ, because He is her foundation (see 1 Corinthians 3:11, NIV). The apostles and prophets bring foundation to the church through Jesus Christ and His doctrine when they impart the revelation they have of Christ. Since the Church is the body of Christ, she needs to receive that fresh revelation of Christ, since this is the only way for her to have revelation of herself. In other words, she recognizes her identity, and this is fundamental for her to represent the Lord in this world properly. In summary, the Church has the same identity of Christ because she is His body.

  1. Identity should always be the basis of everything that is done. If a person knows who he is, he will feel secure when doing what he must. So, God planned for the Church to be firm in her identity so that she can be effective in what He calls her to do. This is why what the Church is sustains everything she does. The function of the apostles and prophets is to affirm the Church in her identity, while the evangelists, pastors, and teachers enable her for the mission.

Back to what God planned

  • God decided that the five ministries should serve in equipping and directing His church. As time goes by only some of these ministries have been accepted, while the others have been ignored or rejected.
    1. The history of the church is vast and it shows that she has gone through many particular situations that explain, for the most part, its actual state. We won’t go into those details, but we will refer to some of the consequences that are noticeable today.
    2. Presently we see the Church divided into different Christian denominations (such as: Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Anglican, Pentecostal, Adventist, among others), which are organizations that have adopted a series of doctrines based on their interpretation of the Bible, and are also based on statutes elaborated by their directors. We also find churches that declare themselves as independent, because they are not associated with denominations, but even they are tied down to their own set of doctrines.
    3. This scheme made the church distance herself from the doctrine of the apostles, since every Christian sector sustains its own particular doctrine and interpretation, accepting some of the truths in the Word, while rejecting others. These doctrinal interpretations also affected the teachings about the five ministries, and in some sectors it believed and preached that the apostolic and prophetic ministries have ceased to exist, and that only the ministries of pastors, evangelists, and teachers continue to exist.
    4. However, some decades ago began a restoration of the apostolic and prophetic ministries, and they are retaking that calling from Jesus Christ when he constituted them: “… to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:12, NIV).
    5. As an apostolic-prophetic ministry the Lord has placed upon us the task of working to bring the Church bad to the original model, which contains the doctrine of the apostles and the whole function of the five ministries as the guides that God established for His Church. We work on this this with two clear objectives: the first is to reveal this truth to those who still haven’t experienced or understood what God planned for His church. The second is that the churches under our authority can live at the height of the revelation that has been received in order to be more effective in the mission.
    6. Those who make up the local churches under the authority of this ministry must reflect the humility of Christ in their lives, so that in multiple ways they can be instruments so other believers can see what the model established by the Lord for His Church is.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
    (Philippians 2:3, KJV).
DANIEL DARDANO
DANIEL CIPOLLA
HERNÁN CIPOLLA
Apostolic-Prophetic Ministry “Conquering Generation”
(Generación en Conquista)
_________________________________________________________________________________
Temas relacionados:
Messages & teaching  I  Daniel & Estela Dardano  I  Daniel & Marta Cipolla  I  Hernán & Leticia Cipolla