You’re Invited
Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead) Galatians 1:1
Apostle – Who are the Apostles? Well, if you translate the word, the question reads a little differently. Now it becomes, “Who are those sent as emissaries of Yeshua the Messiah?” Translating the Greek word instead of treating it like an exclusive category of adult Jewish males helps us to see that in one sense a lot of us are apostoloi. We are chosen by Jesus to act as His representatives in the world. We might not be in that group usually titled “Apostles,” but we are none the less commissioned as His “sent out ones.” In this way, we are like Paul. We were not there during Yeshua’s earthly ministry. We did not join Him after His baptism. We were not eye-witnesses to the death and resurrection. We are late-arrivals, just like Paul. Of course, Paul did meet the risen Christ and on that score he is qualified for the select group, but I don’t think Jesus is counting. Paul had a role to play, just like Peter and James and John – and just like you and me, equally commissioned, called and sent. Barnabas didn’t meet the requirements of the original twelve, but he too was sent.
Now this has some absolutely wonderful implications. First, and foremost, it means that our Lord and Savior sees something in us that we don’t see. He saw the great missionary Paul in the person of the persecutor Saul. He saw the great church leader Peter in the person of the brash and arrogant Simon. And He sees something in you and in me that we carry hidden within our broken and unworthy frames. He sees what we will be for Him! We might have some glimpse of it now, as we learn to be obedient and useful to Him, but there is much more. Now we see ourselves through the glass darkly. It will take refinement to bring forth all that we will be. It is amazingly wonderful to know that in spite of our present evaluation of ourselves, He finds something so valuable in us that He is willing to give us new life to obtain it. There are days when each one of us needs to know this – right down to the bottom of our souls (to use a Greek expression). Those days when we feel that we have failed the calling, when we see how far we still have to go, when we are overwhelmed with the responsibility of being God’s representative – on those days we need to remember that He invited us because He sees where He is taking us. Praise be to Him and blessed be His Name.
Secondly, this little translated word implies that each of us has a particular role to play in the body. We are here for each other. I can’t do what you can do. You can’t do what I can do. But together, we can do all that Yeshua sees in us. There are no second-class citizens among the called and commissioned. We are all equally His emissaries. Sometimes we need to reflect on this. In this sense, we are just like Paul or any of the other great people of God. The only difference between us is the job, not the status. There is no hierarchy in the Kingdom. There are only fellow-citizens, submitted to the King. We can enjoy each other, encourage each other and praise each other because we are all in the same boat.
Apostolos – it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Called, commissioned and sent. That’s what I am. So are you! He calls and commissions and the church cooperates by sending. So, a healthy church is always getting smaller because it is sending off those who have been equipped. Kind of backwards from the way we think, isn’t it?
Topical Index: apostle, apostolos, sent, commissioned, emissary, Galatians 1:1
This is such an important idea for us today. We need to disciple one another by allowing ourselves to be filled with His word to overflowing so that our fullness spills out to others spreading the overflow so that others can learn what we have learned by His grace.
Skip’s statement: “So, a healthy church is always getting smaller because it is sending off those who have been equipped.” I am burdened by the state of affairs in most American churches today because what many have done (leadership) is to become enamored with a business model that plays right into the present American consumer mindset. Bigger is better and evangelism (sending) plays right into this because practically speaking evangelism means more numbers. When I look across the landscape of my own church, what I see is leadership wanting to “equip the saints for works of service” (Eph 4) by helping them to manage life in easy and practical ways. Equipping is reduced to informing people on how to manage their money, or how to have a successful marriage or how to lead your child to Christ or yes, even how to evangelize. It isn’t just information because people are expected to do it and be transformed by simply transforming their behavior “in a Biblical way.” It is very “me” centered equipping and falls into a Hellenistic approach to teaching people that if they just do this and follow this Biblical principle, then they will be able to “control” not only their outcomes but also help others with their outcomes as well. What is sent out then are not actually equipped disciples sold out to Christ but disciples of Larry Burkett or disciples of Gary Smalley or disciples of this or that life management skill (all of course contextualized within either a Biblical worldview or within Scriptures). But no one in leadership nor at the congregational level seems to be confident enough or hungry enough to start with Scriptures first and to truly equip true disciples of Christ to not only know Scriptures (and keep digging) but then also to live Scriptures in all facets of life….including evangelism. So when we “send” people out, there has not been the “equipping” needed and what we end up with is perhaps not evangelism at all but something more akin to “sales” or pitch men. For me, I would like to see true “equipping” going on in the church first before anyone is “sent” out. Seems like a correct Biblical priority but of course, it doesn’t draw a crowd now does it? At our church, over 600 attend “service” but only a handful attend purposeful “study groups” (or Sunday School) or prayer meetings. Hmm…what do we make of that, I wonder? Evangelism (sending), meanwhile, does seem to energize people, get more people in the church, get more people doing for God and it seems as though it may even be an odd form of idolatry for some. Evangelism becomes this peculiar means of adding numbers (quantity) while no one seems to be concerned about the quality (true disciples) of those who are being added. And to increase the quality of these new converts, we just put them into our “equipping” stream of life management skills teaching. So how “equipping” is identified as a priority and what this actually means when implemented seems to be the lack in most churches today. I agree with “equip and send” but only if both of those terms have substantive meaning to them. Just some musings of mine.
David, no offense intended…but it would be much easier to read your comments if you used the Enter key and wrote in multiple paragraphs. I’m just saying… 🙂
I think you are spot on, David. And you’ve only got to look around any Christian bookstore to find many books on the same topics: self-help, how to “fix” something, with some scriptures thrown in.
It reminds me of the man who went into a bookstore and asked where the “self-help” section was. The assistant replied “If I told you, it would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?”
🙂
Today, sadly, being salt and light has fallen on deaf ears and been replaced with the worldly model of the gospel that’s in your face. As we’ve been clearly told to “lean not on your own understanding”, it would appear that many in the Church are doing prcisely that. Time to pray, brothers and sisters!
Lots of great additional comments on this topic. Can I say only this much more. By misunderstanding the entire pattern of the “great commission,” the church has become nothing more than a Greek-based recruiting agency. I got an e mail yesterday extolling the wonderful news that a missionary church in Estonia just had a successful Easter egg hunt. Amazing! We incorporate the worship of pagan fertility goddesses into our resurrection message and then wonder why we are so messed up when it comes to evangelism. I think I will run the Today’s Word series on the Hebrew perspective of evangelism in Matthew once more. What all of you are saying is correct. We equip “collectors,” those who are trained to add to the numbers, not to transform the ones sent. We fall right into the same trap that Paul warned us about: “I am of Apollos.” At this point, I am hard pressed to imagine that anything will substantially change in the American version of religion until there is a MAJOR crisis. God has not given up, and so I expect to see such a crisis, but I shudder to think about it. If it is anything like the ones in past history, it will certainly separate the equipped from the collection.
Skip
When the Spirit gave me the revelation on Romans chap 7 that Paul was talking about himself I realized that Paul was telling my story. It was then on that realization that here an Apostle went through the same questions that I have, that I conected with Paul and I recieved a illumination in the depths of my heart, bowels, that gave me freedom from that same confusion I felt. So I then began to take Pauls teachings to heart that I truly am not condemded as Romans chapter 8 discribes. So now I see that I am a called out one, to set apart, for His purposes. When I was in my local assembly I went to my elders and told them that I wanted to dig deeper in the Word but all they had was a course on what “We believe” a mere primer in the basic which Paul said he should have no need to cover those things we should already know, ie babtism, ect. I explained that I felt a need to become intimet with my Savior and God. I don’t think they could understand this thirst that I had. So I had to search it out for myself and God has opened up that relationship Himself. Thank You for being a part of my search.
Your Fellow travelr in the Way
Jeffrey Curtis
Welcome. There are a lot of us on this road.
Skip
Yes it is!
Hi Skip,I am catching up on my saved mail.Sorry I missed you at Sukkot but I did watch you on live video steam. It warmed my heart that you upset the breathren ( prinarily the male ) with your approach to the Word and female/male relationships. This church/greek mind set brings me to my point .I have recently been studying Brad Scott’s Principal of the Seed. And in his sub-section Words mean things he addresses the word apostle. (see God’s Learning Channel or wildbranch.org ) The meaning from the paleo-hebrew is shoot as from a plant. In my way of thinking it means it comes from the source and is not different from the source.This is an embellishment of your thought not a contradistinction.However it also makes us responsible to not have a genetically modified shoot as it were.
Hope you are still enjoying your vision.