Weblog Entry - 12/04/2005: Volume 84 - The Apostle aka The Sent One - Part I by Chris Pridham

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12/04/2005: Volume 84 - The Apostle aka The Sent One - Part I by Chris Pridham"

The Apostle aka The Sent One - Part I

While I was growing up as a young child in the church, I heard a lot about Apostles but I never really saw one. I knew a few men that were supposedly called to be one but they never functioned as one. So what really is this elusive ministry that was given as a gift by Jesus Christ to the church? Do they still exist in this day and age? In order to understand what an Apostle is let's go back and look at the first real Apostle to the church. Some may think that I am talking about Peter or maybe Paul. As far as I know, the first Apostle of the Church was Jesus Christ Himself.
The root word for Apostle comes from the Greek word apostello and means "to send out." Here is a part of the prayer of Jesus to His Father on behalf of the twelve disciples.
John 17:18 "As You sent (apostello) Me into the world, I also have sent (apostello) them into the world." NASU
It was Jesus who was (apostello) sent, by the Father, to this world. Was this Jesus (apostello) sent into this world to deliver a message, or was this apostello something more?
Luke 4:18-19 "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS (APOSTELLO) SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD." NASU
John 5:36-40 "But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish -- the very works that I do -- testify about Me, that the Father has (apostello) sent Me "And the Father who (apostello) sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. "You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He (apostello) sent. "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope." NASU
Here we see it was not just the 'sent one's' words but his works also that release the captive and testify of the Father; One who they have neither heard or seen. Jesus has both seen and heard the Father. He has been (apostello) sent to earth to testify to what he has already both seen and heard his Father say and do.
John 3:10-12 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" NASU
Jesus is saying, What I have known and seen in heaven with My Father I talk about. I don't talk about what I think, I talk about what I know and have seen. Or in other words we, the Father and I, talk about what we have experienced. You, Teacher in Israel cannot talk about what you have not seen or known for you it is just theory or what you think it should be. You have never seen my Father or had any real experience with my Father and yet you try and tell others about Him. Although you may be His child you are like the blind leading the blind.
It was Jesus Christ who was (apostello) sent to the earth to not only tell but to show man the Father and how He fellowships. This is what twelve men saw with Jesus over the three one half years that they walked with Him. They came to know by watching Jesus "the way" to the Father (Jn.14:4-6). They watched how the Son fellowshipped with the Father and how the Father fellowshipped with the Son. As he says to them "what you will see is the heavens opened and messages from the Father descending through Me to this earth and messages coming from earth through Me to the Father (Jn.1:51) It is this place that Jacob had dreamed of and named the House of God (Gen.28:22) This is what Jesus brought to this earth; the experience of His fellowship with the Father. It is in this fellowship of the Godhead that God finds His dwelling place. It is in this fellowship on earth He calls home (Jn.14:2-3), a place to lay His head.
When Jesus left this earth He (apostello) sent His disciples Jn.17:18. Why did He do this? First, I believe he always did what he saw His Father do. His Father sent Him so Jesus sends them. But he also did it because of the Fathers enormous love for this word and its need to know that the Father (apostello) sent the Son to a world He loves. Jn.17:21,23.
What was Jesus sent with?
In this day and age, we send our children to school to learn how to read, write, and understand numbers. Then, when a child gets older he goes off to college to learn about the profession he will enter. After college, he is ready to be sent off into society to contribute his vast knowledge, or what sixteen or so years of education has prepared him for, only to learn after the first day of being on the job that he really knows very little. You see, although school is good and necessary it really cannot beat experience. If you are going in to have a heart operation who would you rather have perform the operation? The new doctor who got the highest grades in the nation, or the doctor who got a C+ in college but had performed over one hundred successful operations just like the one you needed. So when Jesus was sent by his Father to this earth, He was not sent with a bunch of truth or facts about divine life. He was sent with the experience of Divine life inside of Him. The Bible talks about this experience as "to know" not as simply coming to understand but something much more intimate - to know.
John 3:11 "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony." NASU
This knowing or Hebrew word 'Yada' (to know, to know by experience) is first mentioned in Gen 3:5 and again in Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil" --NASU
And again in Gen 4:1-2 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the LORD." NKJV
It is this experience-knowing with the indwelling Father that Jesus brought to this earth. It is this experience that Jesus could express with such authority that made Him stand out like no other man before Him. It is this life and experience that those twelve men watched everyday displayed on this earth for the three and one half years while they walked with Jesus. What they saw was something no other man on this earth had seen, Jesus walking and talking with the indwelling Father. They were a witness to a man living in the will of the Father with nothing separating him from the Father.
In this three and one half years, these men came to know not by learning but by experience what it is to walk together with God. How it is to walk together in God's will and what it is like to live together as friends and brothers of the Most High God. How awesome! Jesus was not sent to earth with theory. It was not simply a teaching that Peter, John or Andrew shared with those brothers and sisters on the day of Pentecost. When the Spirit fell they went to the streets empowered to speak of their experience with their friend, Jesus.
So what about Paul?
The most read 'sent one' is probably the Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament. It was to this man that Jesus came on the road to Damascus and said 'why do you persecute me'. But it would be over nine years before he would be 'sent out' by the church. Paul was very educated in the scriptures but it was not because of this education that the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas out. It was because of their experience in the church in Antioch and a calling by the Lord that Paul and Barnabas were sent out. You see Paul had lived in the church in Antioch for over four years. It was here in Antioch that Paul was to learn what it was to be a brother in the church. It was in Antioch that Paul learned what it was like to have Gentile brothers in the faith. It was in the meeting with the Gentile Saints in Antioch that Paul experienced freedom and acceptance in Christ. It was in this experience that Paul was set apart and sent out with authority to preach this Gospel to the people in the Gentile world.
Written by Chris Pridham