Jesus Is Better Week 5

by Darren Nguyen

Jesus the Apostle

In Hebrews 3:1, the author of Hebrews refers to Jesus as “the apostle.. of our confession.” This verse is the only place in the Bible that refers to Jesus as an apostle. When you think of the word apostle, you likely think of the twelve apostles and Paul, so you might be confused why the author of Hebrews would refer to Jesus as an apostle as well. This article will define what an apostle is, show how Jesus perfectly models apostleship, and point you to the hope that you can find when you view Jesus as the apostle of your salvation.

Apostle Defined

The concept of an apostle stems from the Greek noun apostolos. This word means a delegate, a messenger, or one sent forth with orders. Most commonly, we associate this word with Jesus’ twelve disciples. Justin Martyr wrote of these twelve, “…for twelve illiterate men, unskilled in the art of speaking, went out from Jerusalem into the world, and by the power of God they announced to the men of every nation that they were sent by Christ to teach everyone the word of God.”

However, Luke and Paul presented apostleship differently than our traditional understanding. Luke affirmed the qualifications of an apostle in Acts 1:21-22, “[a man] who [was] with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus– from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us.. a witness of Jesus’ resurrection.” In the rest of Acts, Luke presented the apostles primarily as a council of pioneering leaders presiding over the early church (like in Acts 15) rather than missionaries. The missionary journeys of the twelve apostles were rarely detailed in the book of Acts, for of the twelve, Luke only wrote of Philip, Peter, and John’s missional encounters. Later in the book of Acts, Luke referred to Paul and Barnabas as apostles (Acts 14:14) which implies a broader definition of apostleship.

Paul shared a similar broader view of apostleship. Paul referred to himself as an apostle and recognized the existence of apostles outside of the twelve (1 Corinthians 15:7). Paul’s apostleship was given to him by divine revelation, receiving a special mission (preaching the gospel to the Gentiles) similarly to many of the Old Testament prophets. Morris Ashcraft wrote of Paul’s understanding of apostleship, “Paul did not deny the importance of the other types of

Christian ministry but rather exalted them. Yet he thought that his call to be an apostle required him to engage in a ministry of itinerant proclamation. He very likely would expect every minister of Jesus Christ to have a deeply embedded conviction of God’s call, the assignment of a mission, and an awareness that he had been made a steward of the Gospel. He would not have objected for these ministers to be called apostles also.”

To conclude, one can use the term apostle to refer to the twelve disciples, but there exists a broader definition of apostleship within the New Testament that refers to a human uniquely commissioned by God to do a specific task, typically related to the Gospel.

The Apostleship of Christ

We may struggle to view Christ as an apostle because we relate apostleship to being a follower of Christ. However, as defined above, the biblical concept of apostleship goes beyond the twelve apostles. One can more accurately describe an apostle as a human uniquely sent forth with orders from God to further his kingdom. Jesus, in his humanity, took on the role of apostle, for the Father sent forth the Son into the world with a specific purpose– to redeem the world through his life, death, and resurrection.

The theme of “sending” is most apparent in the Gospel of John. Although John never referred to Jesus as an apostle, John’s account of Jesus’ ministry is filled with the Greek verb apostellein from which the word apostle derives. Apostellein means to send forth a messenger, agent, message, or command. This verb of “sending” serves as a large motif in the Gospel of John, connecting The Father, John the Baptist, The Son, The Holy Spirit, and the twelve disciples.

In John 1:6, John the Baptist was sent by God. He later famously said in John 3:28, “I am not the Christ but I have been sent before him.” God is the sender, John the Baptist is the sent, and his mission is to fulfill the role of the Isaiah 40 prophet, preparing for the Messiah and crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord,” (John 1:23). The authority of John the Baptist’s mission is found in the one who sent him and empowered him to carry out the mission.

The Father also sent the Son into the world so that it might be saved through him (John 3:17). As an apostle sent forth by the Father, Jesus’s mission, simply put, was to bring forth the Gospel. Jesus himself often related his sending to faith and belief. For example, he said, “This is the work that God requires, that you believe in him who he has sent,” (John 6:29). Or, “But I have a witness greater than that of [John the Baptist]; for the works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me,” (John 5:36).

John also highlights that the Holy Spirit is sent from the Father and the Son. In John 14:26 Jesus says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” And in John 15:26 Jesus says, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son and the Spirit’s mission is to bear witness about Christ, teaching all things and bringing remembrance to Jesus’s teachings.

The theme of sending in the Gospel of John crescendos into Jesus’s high priestly prayer in John 17. In this chapter alone, John refers to sending seven times. In this prayer for the apostles, Jesus sets the foundation for their apostleship in his own apostleship. He says to the Father, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do,” (John 17:3-4). He continues in verse 18, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them [the apostles] into the world.” The apostles are sent by the chief apostle, Jesus Christ, to proclaim the gospel so that many people may come to know God through Jesus Christ.

With the broader definition of apostleship, one can clearly see the concept that the author of Hebrews 3 is drawing upon when he refers to the Son as an apostle. The Father sent the Son so that people may be reconciled with God through the Son’s life, death, and resurrection. The Son in turn responds by sending the Holy Spirit (with the Father) and the apostles with their own unique God-given purpose and mission.

Why Does This Matter to You?

When Jesus was sent with the mission of redeeming the entire world, we know that he did not fail. His mission, as given by the Father, succeeded in every way, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Jesus lived a perfect life without sin and with complete righteousness. He suffered and died for the complete atonement of your sins. We can have assurance of our faith and salvation as well as the future hope to come for the complete redemption of the entire world because we know that Jesus is an apostle who was completely successful in his mission.

The plan to send Jesus forth into the world as our savior was always the plan. It wasn’t as if because sin entered the world, God had to come up with a special operation, not knowing if it would work. Instead, we know that The Father had planned from eternity to send the Son into the world so that those with faith, from Adam to you and the future generations to come, may come to know God and be in relationship with him. Jesus was always going to be an apostle from the beginning of time, and he was always going to be successful in his mission to redeem the world from sin. May you find joy and peace from knowing Christ as the apostle of your faith.