Jesus, The Church, and The Coming Kingdom

[EDITORS’S NOTE: THIS IS PART THREE OF A THREE PART ARTICLE.  PARTS ONE AND TWO OF THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND HERE AND HERE.]

Apostolic Tribes and the Coming Shift 

This brings us to the reality that I believe God is building and will build across the earth in the future before we reach the end of the age.  As we discussed, part of the unique dimension that apostles bring to church is that they are uniquely gifted to spiritually father the body of Christ.  This fathering dimension comes from their knowledge of God as the ultimate Father.  The result of this aspect of their ministry is not just that they have many spiritual sons and daughters but that the body of Christ begins to become a real spiritual family. This spiritual family is centered around God as a Father and Christ as King, but connected together in an open-hearted, loving way.  

When the body of Christ begins to unite in this way, the results will be dramatic.  The apostle’s unique revelation of Christ will enable the body to unite around Jesus and not just a man’s teaching, theology, or practice.  The unique flow of gifts that occurs between Ephesians 4 ministries will begin to build up the body into all the aspects of the fullness of God, not just in one area or another.  Those within the body will begin to relate to one another in a 24/7, organic expression of Christianity that embodies the reality of spiritual family.  The result will be bodies of believers fully equipped and whole, fully in love with God and one another. 

The churches that embrace this aspect of the Lord’s ministry in the earth will begin to join together for the purpose of support and joint missions strategies.  The result will be churches that are linked regionally and internationally with a mandate from God.  Just like the apostles who are sent from God to them, these churches in turn are raised up and “sent” as a family to accomplish a specific mandate given by God to them.  When a whole people embrace a commission from God in a specific area and they approach it as connected spiritual families, apostolic tribes are born. 

The R.O.C.K International defines apostolic tribes this way: “Apostolic people are those who have been joined by God under the leadership of apostles and prophets, who have been mandated to extend the kingdom of God, especially in unreached areas, by starting and sustaining new churches, businesses and ministries.  The word “tribe” speaks of an extended trans-local spiritual family.  God is a Father and a Son and builds his Kingdom relationally in the context of spiritual family,” (“Apostolic People,” “Apostolic Tribe,” Glossary, http://www.rocktribe.org.). 

We see a pictures of this dynamic throughout the scripture.  The most explicit example is the nation of Israel.  These people were a natural family descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and a spiritual family united around Yahweh.  This spiritual family, however, was also united around a commission from God to take the land of Canaan from the Gentile nations and that mandate caused them to become an army as well.  Within the nation of Israel there were 13 tribes which each had their own gifts and callings (see Genesis 49).  The tribe of Levi was called to minister before the Lord as priests while the tribe of Judah was called to produce governmental leaders for the nation.  Each tribe’s calling made it distinct from the other tribes, but each tribe operated with an awareness that they were part of a larger spiritual family. 

Apostolic tribes will function much the same way as the tribes within the nation of Israel.  They will be spiritual families with similar giftings and mandates from the God.  These gifts and callings will not separate us from other tribes within the larger body of Christ.  Rather, they will cause us to depend on each other for the unique functions that God has called each part of the body to fulfill (1 Corinthians 12:14-20).  The tribe will operate as a spiritual family—loving its people and caring for each other’s needs—and as a spiritual army—forcefully advancing the Kingdom of Christ into whatever field of ministry they’ve been called. 

The world is becoming more and more broken.  Jesus predicted that before the end of the age came, the love of many would grow cold (Matthew 24:12).  We are living in an age when people will have to shut off their hearts in order to cope with the tremendous pressures ahead.  This will produce a generation suffering from rejection and lack of love.  But, even before we reach the climax of the Last Days, we live in a generation plagued by fatherlessness.  Never in the history of America have so many children grown up without fathers.  Even before the great judgments shake the earth, Africa is in need of spiritual families that will take the spirit of adoption to as many orphans as will receive it.  Only a church that is a true spiritual family will be able to bring healing to a whole generation suffering from rejection and the void left by not having a family.  But this is the plan that the Father had in His heart since the beginning of time—to mediate the love of His Son to broken and lost people through churches that have learned to live as spiritual families.