APRIL 12
We’re in our month on APOSTLESHIP! Last week, Caleb did an awesome job laying out for us what an apostle even is, and also made an incredibly strong case that the Great Commission, which we call the Multi-Millennial Mandate, is a God-given Apostolic mandate for the church and for us! You can check out his notes here
Our topic this week is:
JESUS CHRIST APOSTLE
Hebrews 3:1 tells us Jesus is “The Apostle and Great High Priest of our Confession”
As Caleb taught us, an Apostle is “an agent SENT with delegated authority.”
Jesus was sent by the Father.
Matt 10:40 He that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives him that sent me.
Mark 9:37 Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receives me: and whosoever shall receive me, receives not me, but him that sent me.
Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luke 10:16 He that hears you hears me; and he that despises you despises me; and he that despises me despises him that sent me.
John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
John 5: 36-37 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
John 6:38-39 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Caleb also gave us an outline of the roles of the Apostle, which Jesus fulfilled all of:
To gather - Mark 5:21
To impart - John 15:26 (sending the helper)
To mobilize - Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:14-18
To order - 1 Corinthians 15:27
To ordain - Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
To judge - John 9:39To reform - Revelation 21:5
To build - Mark 6:3 (literally a carpenter), Matt 16:18
To bring revelation - Revelation 1:1
To father John 10:30
To lay a foundation 1 Corinthians 3:11
To initiate Philippians 1:6
To bridge (transition from old to new) Matthew 5:17
To pioneer Isaiah 43:9
To establish Hebrews 10:9
To legislate in the church - Matthew 5-7
To execute the plans and purposes of God See above re: “sent” scriptures
To defend Psalm 5:11, Psalm 59:1, Psalm 82:3
To confront Matthew 16:23, Luke 9:54-55
To oversee - Ephesians 1:22
To invade - Came from heaven to Earth
To war - Exodus 15:3
To enforce - Matt 4:1-11
To convert - Psalm 19:7
To train - Ephesians 6:4
To finish (win!) “Tetelestai” - It is finished.
The victory is won, the grave is overcome, our eternity is secure. It is finished, it is done.
Jesus has completed His work of bringing life, salvation, a new and BETTER covenant to us
Jeremiah 31:31-34 ““Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.””
2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Now He is enforcing it across the earth, bringing that salvation to the people of every nation through His Church…which by the way is His work as well.
REST
The first covenant was that God would create and establish a nation (Israel) and be their God.
BUT MANY MISSED IT. Many were looking for their own plot of land where they could set up their lives and their families and get comfortable. They wanted to rest from the wanderings and from slavery. God did want to give them rest, but his plan was a victorious, conquering rest where they could THRIVE as a nation WITH God.
Hebrews 1-4 (Handy Link)
TODAY IS THE DAY
I am praying that one of the huge takeaways for the western world is how un-urgent so many things are. We as a society are addicted to busy-ness. I am praying we get some breakthrough in what REST in God looks like. We think we deserve to do our work each day and blob out as a reward. What kind of reward for hard work is blobbing out? We have available to us a life full of purpose, a rest full of power and refreshing when we choose to receive God’s best.
So let’s RECEIVE the rest.