Jesus: The Apostle to Earth

Apostolic Authority Flows From Priestly Intimacy

In this video, I explore the concept of Jesus as the apostle and the high priest, and how this relates to the Trinity and God's delight in himself (yes, you read that right). It emphasizes the connection between prayer and missions, and the importance of intimacy with Jesus in representing him on earth.

Key Takeaways

• Jesus is referred to as the apostle (Hebrews 3:1).He was sent by the Father to establish and advance the kingdom of God on earth.

• Jesus was sent from the fellowship and communion within the Godhead to the earth on a mission to restore people to the Father.

• Prayer and missions are interconnected, with prayer fueling and supporting the apostolic activity of advancing the kingdom of God.

• Authority to represent Jesus on earth flows from intimacy with him, and we cannot effectively represent him if we do not know him.

Video Transcript

Presence Pioneers (00:00.27)

So Hebrews three, one calls Jesus the apostle and the high priest. Now I want to explain this word apostle, and then I'm going to tie it back in to this idea of the Trinity and God delighting in himself. So apostle means sent one sent one. So apostolic ministry apostles are concerned with the advancement of the kingdom of God. They're those who are sent by God to the earth, to certain people or places to establish the kingdom of God and to advance the kingdom of God.

in that place and among those people. So Jesus is called the apostle, which means Jesus is a sent one. He was sent to the earth by the father. You could think of Jesus as like the first missionary. Okay. So you've got to think, uh, Jesus is in the Godhead father, son, Holy spirit. They're in this fellowship, in this communion, in this delight, in this joy all throughout the Old Testament. You never see the word apostle. You never see this idea of apostles, but.

The first apostle was Jesus and he was sent from heaven from the father. He was a sent one with the mission to bring the kingdom of God to the earth to proclaim the good news and to make a way for people to be restored to the father and to begin to see the release of the kingdom of God on the earth. He was sent as an as an apostle, as a missionary, if you will. He was sent from this priestly activity of the father, son, the Holy Spirit.

Excuse me. He was sent from this delight and this joy, this intimacy. There was this communion that was happening in the Godhead. He was sent out of that place of intimacy, uh, in heaven and he was sent to the earth on mission to bring the kingdom of God and proclaim the kingdom of God to the earth. And this is an amazing picture. God is apostolic. Jesus is apostolic. He's a sent one and our calling, uh, reflects.

who he is, our, this call to prayer and missions is actually a reflection of Jesus as the apostle and the high priest of our faith. So Jesus ministered to the father as a priest, this intimate fellowship. And then he was sent by the father, uh, from that place to the earth. He came to seek and to save the lost and restore people back. Jesus is praying in that John 17 prayer that we would come into that fellowship.

Presence Pioneers (02:27.598)

And that's what drove him and the Father and the Spirit to work together, God, to come to us, to be sent to us so that we could be with him where he is, which is what he prayed in John 17. That that delight that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are experiencing, it provoked God for Jesus to come to the earth so that he could proclaim the kingdom and make a way for us to come back into that same fellowship.

And then as we are restored to Jesus and we come into that fellowship with God, we are launched out of that place of love and intimacy, that place of prayer. And then we are sent. And just like Jesus was sent from that fellowship of the Godhead, we are sent from fellowship with God. We are launched out to the world, out of this place of intimacy with Jesus. That's the way the kingdom of God expands. And that's how God has designed this thing.

work. Jesus is the apostle and he is the high priest. Those two things cannot be separated. There's a reason they're together there in that verse, apostle and high priest, because that priestly activity is what fuels that apostolic activity. Prayer fuels missions. Those things go hand in hand and you see those things connected together in scripture. Sometimes we kind of think that they're at odds with each other. Oh, well, are you going to go pray? Are you going to go do missions? No, Jesus isn't.

doing one or the other. He's it was that delight and that love that he was experiencing that provoked him and the father to come to the earth that that we would be with him where he is. And so these two things are connected together in scripture. This is who Jesus is like. He is the apostle and the high priest and he's called us to be like him and to follow him as well to follow him into this place of intimacy into this place of.

prayer into this place of fellowship with the Father. And then out of the overflow of that, we are to go like he went to love others, to make disciples, to share the gospel, to advance the kingdom of God on the earth. And the principle here I want to leave you with is this, that authority flows from intimacy, authority flows from intimacy. We are representing Jesus on the earth. We are representing Jesus, representing him.

Presence Pioneers (04:53.518)

to the earth. We cannot represent him if we do not know him. We can't go in his name if we have not been in his presence. And so there's this biblical idea that even Jesus himself walked out that authority flows from intimacy. He came to the earth with authority because he had been he was God but had been with God and came to earth and could bring the kingdom of God. But we can actually do that same thing. We can be in his presence. We can know him.

We can experience his voice and his word and his and his glory to some measure right now. And then we can go and carry that same authority and be sent out in the same way that Jesus was. Jesus is apostolic. He's an apostolic God. He was sent out from that fellowship to the earth. And we will reflect our apostolic God as we commune with the Father and are sent into the world to advance God's kingdom.

Amen.