Series: Towards the Full Corporate Stature

Sun am 27 September 2009 – Kobus Swart

Acts 18:23 to 19:10; Acts 17:22-31; John 17:20-21; 2 Cor. 5:16;

(John 14:16); (Eph. 4:11-13)

Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the ways of the Lord; he was fervent in spirit and was teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus. Nevertheless, Apollos needed an upgrade because he was only acquainted with the baptism of John; he did not know about the Holy Spirit. He was speaking from the previous season. When John the Baptist proclaimed, “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, he should have closed his ministry and joined the new season, but he didn’t and eventually lost his head.

Priscilla & Aquila sat under the apostolic teaching of Paul in the new season. Apollos was trained under the previous season; the ‘silver-tongue’ of the New Testament. When Priscilla & Aquila heard him, they took him aside gently and explained to him the way of God more accurately. They upgraded him from being accurate to being more accurate.  We don’t judge the previous season, but it was incomplete. God is bringing more truth and you need to upgrade your hearing and understanding of the Word.

Paul was prepared to spend two years with a handful of men who finally turned that region upside down. The sons in the house must be activated now, not to just sit in meetings and listen, but to go and infect others with the gospel of the Kingdom since you have heard it in the apostolic season.

When Paul saw an altar with the inscription, “To the unknown God” on Mars Hill, he gave the unknown God definition and made Him personal. This is how we must be in the world. There is ignorance out there. For them religion was going to a temple, a shrine. Paul dismantled that. “He’s not far from you, but you have looked for Him in buildings, in creations of men’s hands.” There was a time that God winked at (overlooked) ignorance. The moment you hear the truth, however, you are responsible to respond.

Let’s look again at some very familiar scriptures through new eyes.

Jesus told His disciples shortly before the crucifixion, “In a little while you will not see Me and in a little while (literally: Micron of time) you will see Me.” He also said, “behold I come (or “am coming” – Omit will or again. Moffats & Companion translations.) to you…”(Jn 14:18). He also promised, “I am sending another Helper to you” (John 16:16 & John 14:16) The Spirit of Christ was left with an amazing function in this earth. We need to upgrade our understanding of what Jesus said.

The prophets of the Old Testament only saw one Messianic age.

What happened when Jesus finally ascended into heaven? He left something of Himself behind. This is what the Holy Spirit is presently decoding. Jesus went to the Father and is seated at the right hand of the Father, praying the prayer in John 17:20-21. “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” It’s a oneness that we cannot explain with our finite minds, but it is not yet seen in the Church world.  This points to a fusion of the human with the divine. The world has become skeptical because they don’t see this oneness in the Church.

The Church seems oblivious to the true function of the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus ascended to the Father, there is a sense in which we needed a new definition of the Christ. Paul said that even though we knew Him after the flesh, now we know Him so no longer (2 Cor.5:16). We will sit here for a thousand years waiting for Jesus to come while He says, “I come to you.” Ever since the Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit never left the earth. The Holy Spirit has been at work in those who believe. My prayer is that our services will become characterized by deep operations of the Spirit of God in the lives of the true worshippers. Stop the future expectation that has been fed to us by dispensationalists. Everything is postponed until the ‘golden age’ called the millennium. Both Jesus and Paul never spoke about a “millennium”.