First the Question: The LORD Jesus Christ in anticipating Calvary, called it His Baptism. True or False?
Please take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day
And now the answer to the LLM Question of 8-5-2011
Question: The word....APOSTLE....is NOT found in the Gospel of John. True or False?
Answer: TRUE! Out of the 634 responses we received 92.6% of you got it right! Therefore,
Today let us consider, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 5 of 12
LET’S CONSIDER THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH
The Holy Spirit, in Hebrews 12:2, instructs believers to look unto Jesus “the Author and Finisher of our Faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Then He adds, “CONSIDER Him Who endured such contradiction of sinners,” the One Who resisted unto blood striving against sin.
As we consider the Author of our Faith, let us consider the Greek word here translated ‘Author.’ The word is literally ‘Chief‑Leader.’ There is another word translated ‘Author’ in Hebrews 5:9. In Hebrews 5:8-9 we learn that the LORD Jesus, through the things which He suffered, being made perfect, “became the ‘Author’ of eternal salvation. The Greek word here translated ‘Author’ means ‘Causer.’
As we think of the LORD Jesus as the ‘Chief‑Leader’ of our Faith and the ‘Causer’ of eternal salvation, let us think of Him also as the ‘Finisher’ of our Faith. The Greek word translated ‘Finish’ is also translated ‘End’ in the Bible. When we read, in Hebrews 7:25, that God is able to save to the ‘Uttermost’ all who come to Him by the LORD Jesus, because the glorified Christ ever makes intercession for them, we think of two other Scriptures; namely Philippians 1:6 and John 13:1.
In Philippians 1:6, Christians are given ASSURANCE of their eternal security in Christ, “being confident of this very thing that He Who began the good work will ‘Perform’ (finish, consummate, complete) it unto the day of Jesus Christ.” Then John 13:1, “Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the ‘End’.” The word translated ‘Uttermost’ in Hebrews 7:25 means “all the way to the end.” The word translated ‘Perform’ in Philippians 1:6 has about the same meaning. In John 17:2, John 17:12, and John 17:24 we learn what it means to be saved all the way to the end. Christ gave eternal life to those believers whom the Father gave to Him. He kept them while He was in their midst. Then He committed their keeping to His Father. (John 17:15). Then this petition in that great prayer, “that they be with Me where I am; and may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me.”
CONSIDER THE APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST OF OUR CONFESSION
As all people on this earth should ‘Consider’ the LORD Jesus as the ‘Author and Finisher of our Faith,’ which means to consider Christ in Gethsemane and on the cross of Calvary (Hebrews 12:1-5), we are told in Hebrews 3:1, “Consider ‘the APOSTLE and High Priest of our confession,’ Jesus Christ.”
There are five different Greek words translated ‘Consider.’ These different Greek words mean, “exercise your mind”, “contemplate”, “estimate”, “reckon thoroughly”, “deliberate”, “reason.” Today we would say, “use your head”.
But when we read that “the natural man receiveth NOT the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14), we know that we have to do more than use our heads. Here we are reminded of the instructions of the Holy Spirit, by the pen of the Apostle Paul, recorded in 2 Timothy 2:7, “CONSIDER what I say: and the LORD give thee understanding in all things-Remember that Jesus Christ-was raised from the dead, according to my Gospel.”
May the LORD, by the Holy Spirit, give to us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened. (Ephesians 1:15-18).
THE APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Concerning Melchisedec, we are told, in Hebrews 7:4, “Now ‘CONSIDER’ how great this man was. He had neither beginning of days, nor end of life.” (Hebrews 7:3). In Hebrews 6:20 we are told that Jesus is made a High Priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec. In John 17 we can see this High Priest at work, interceding for all whom the Father had given Him. Note these words of the High Priest to His Father in heaven, uttered in John 11:41-42, “Then Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me: and I know that Thou hearest Me always.” This is why He is able to save to the ‘uttermost’ (all‑the-way‑to‑the‑end) believers who come to the Father through the Son; those whom the Father gives to the Son.
In the Gospel of John, which begins with the LORD Jesus Christ as the “Incarnate Word”, The One Who was with God in the beginning and Who was God (John 1:1-2 and John 1:14), we may truly consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ. Moreover in the Gospel of John, in chapters eighteen and nineteen we may consider Him in Gethsemane and on the cross of Calvary, enduring contradiction of sinners and enduring the cross of Calvary. Surely we should consider or contemplate the meaning of the Savior’s word at the time He yielded up the ghost “Finished.” (John 19:30-31). He was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that He should by the Grace of God taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:18).
In making this last statement we think of another ‘CONSIDER’, the words of Caiaphas, the high priest who apparently did not understand the meaning of his own words when he said, “Nor ‘CONSIDER’ that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not”, “he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation (Israel) and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together it ONE the children of God that were scattered abroad.” (John 11:49-52) With this prophecy of Caiaphas we think of the words of John the Baptist in John 1:29, “the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith Behold the Lamb of God Who beareth away the sin of the world.”
Both of these Scriptures cause us to think of the LORD’s words to the man who was born blind, as recorded in John 9:1-7. To this blind man the Apostle of the Father said, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation ‘SENT’). He went and he washed, and came seeing.” (John 9:7). Why did the Holy Spirit give us the words, “which is by interpretation ‘SENT’?” This Greek word translated ‘SENT’ is ‘APOSTELLO.’ The Greek word translated ‘APOSTLE’ is APOSTOLOS.’
The LORD Jesus told religious Nicodemus that he had to be born from above to see the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3). Christ told Nicodemus that He (Christ) had to be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and those who believed in Him would be born anew, could see and enter the kingdom of God, and have eternal life. (John 3:13-16)
Nicodemus had to wash in the ‘Pool of Sent,’ to see. You got that so far?
The man born blind was able to see after he had washed in the pool of Siloam, or the pool of the ‘APOSTLE.’
It is very interesting to note that the word ‘apostle’ is not found in the Gospel of John. The twelve apostles, called ‘apostles’ in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts, are not called ‘apostles’ in John. They are called ‘disciples’. But more interesting is the fact that forty‑one times, in John’s Record, the LORD Jesus is “THE SENT ONE.” In John, Christ speaks of Himself time and again as “Him Who God Hath Sent,”…“Him Whom The Father Sent”…“Him Whom Thou Hast Sent,” “Him Whom He Hath Sent.” About seventeen times the word translated ‘SENT’ is ‘APOSTELLO’. Five times the LORD Jesus uses this word in His prayer in the seventeenth chapter of John.
Thus we see that Jesus Christ in John, is the “Apostle and High Priest of our Confession.”
In John 5:36 we have these words of the Father’s Apostle…“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 (APOSTELLO) ME’”. Here we think of the words of the apostle Paul which he wrote to the Corinthians who denied his apostleship, “truly the signs of an ‘apostle’ were wrought among you, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” (2 Cor. 12:12). The apostle Paul describes this in detail in Romans 15:16-20, “through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” Concerning the twelve apostles of Christ we read, in Acts 5:12, “by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people.” In Hebrews 2:4 again we read that these signs and wonders witnessed that the twelve were Christ’s apostles.
In John 20:21 the LORD Jesus, after His death and resurrection, said to the twelve, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” Christ was the Father’s Apostle. The twelve and Paul were Christ’s apostles. In His prayer to His Father the LORD Jesus said, “As Thou hast ‘SENT’ (APOSTELLO) Me into the world, even so have I also ‘SENT’ (APOSTELLO) them into the world.” (John 17:18). Is everyone grasping this? These are very important points, so read through this message again if needed.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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