The Apostle

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

THE APOSTLE

Eph 4:7-13

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."  9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

NIV

Christ is the same heavenly divine being who descended to earth and thus ascended back into heaven. It is interesting that this descended to the lower earthy region indicates that in fact earth of beyond heaven and the Christ not only descended to this lower earthly region, but he lowered himself, humbled himself to be taken to the cross. This is the same Jesus who was there are creation, that was the one that all things were made through and without him nothing would have been made, including us. Jesus is more our lord and Savior, He is the divine creator of all things, and yet, he lowered himself to the very form of man. Christ is the divine being part of the triune Godhead. A mystery, yet no mystery to those He has revealed himself to, as we accept through faith which God himself gave us so we could believe. This is the Jesus who gave the gifts to the church for the benefit of the church, the members of his body. We need to examine these gifts that have been revealed to us. First, we should take a closer look at the gift of apostles that Jesus gave to the church. The Greek word apostolos, which is usually translated as apostle simply means a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ. In the Gospel of John Jesus uses this word to indicate a messenger. It is fairly common for the word apostle to be applied to the twelve chosen by Jesus, with Paul being added as one chosen by Jesus. It is also fairly common to think they were the only apostles and that gift to the church is no longer available. However, we also think that because Jesus is eternal, his gifts should not end until the end of time, when we all will stand in His presence in eternity. We think there are apostles in the church today, a person who is a delegate of Christ, someone who is an ambassador of the Gospel, a messenger of the Gospel. That could define every believer for that is what we all have been called to be. Are we not supposed to represent our Lord to the world? Are we not supposed to speak for our Sovereign as His ambassador to this foreign land. If we are citizens of the kingdom of God and sent to the kingdom of this earth to speak for Jesus, we do not speak of our own or from our own authority, but we speak with the authority of our Lord, as His ambassador to this world. Now, it is also clear there can be certain people who have been called gifted and empowered to be specifically an apostle for the benefit of the whole church. Someone send with orders from on high to lift the church up, being a messenger from God, and these individuals will be different then the pastor or teacher given to the church, which we need to examine later. For now, let us be prepared to either be ready to serve the church as His apostle or be ready to greet an apostle when they show up in the church.