Have you heard about Richard, the apostle? Perhaps also the apostles Jennifer or Robert? Not in the Bible, of course, but in your workplace or classroom? The word “apostle” includes more than Peter, James, John and the others who wrote the New Testament—in one sense it applies to all of us who believe in Jesus.
You see, an apostle is “one who fulfills the role of being a special messenger.” Jesus prayed, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). That word “send” is apostello, the Greek word from which we get “apostle.”
It means “to cause someone to depart for a particular purpose.” Christ Himself clarified this sending forth as including not only the first apostles but “those who will believe in me through their word” (verse 20).
So all of us are apostles in that Christ sends us out for the particular purpose of revealing Him to people God has placed in our lives.
We often misunderstand “church” as the building where we get together to sing, pray and get preached to. But the church is people who together comprise the body of Christ. We are “called out” of the world every Sabbath in corporate worship, but then Jesus sends us back into the world as His ambassadors.
Our human bodies illustrate this. The heart gathers the blood from throughout the body and then scatters it. First blood is drawn in to be cleansed and oxygenated, then it gets sent out to energize and combat pathogens. So it is with the body of Christ. The heart of Jesus brings us together for worship and fellowship, and then He disperses us into a sinful world as His healing representatives.
Consider another metaphor of the church: salt. It congregates in the salt shaker for the purpose of being “sent out,” not to be stored in a cupboard. Jesus declared: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13). Salt in Christ’s day was sufficiently valuable that ancient Romans often paid soldiers with it; hence the term “salary.”So, in a sense, Jesus wants to provide a salary to the world’s workplaces, classrooms and neighborhoods through His church—His end-time apostles, all of us.
Are you fascinated by God’s purpose for the church? That’s not good enough! We need to be inspired–motivated to get out of our own little closets and serve in whatever way He commissions us individually. This takes training. In calling us to serve Him, Jesus says “learn from me” (Matthew 11:29). The early apostles heeded Christ’s instruction and recorded it in the Bible. Therein we gain our own information about Jesus—how to love Him and how to represent Him to the people God sends us out to serve in our homes, workplaces and classrooms.
Equipping us to serve Jesus is a primary purpose of Logos Bible Software. If you preach or teach on Sabbath, you can accomplish 40 hours of preparation in just one hour with Logos. (If you are curious about the new and enhanced features in Logos version 6, click here.)
Then to be inspired and equipped to serve Jesus the rest of the week, “out there” in your world, consider beginning each day with His Word.
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To see what’s waiting for you in Logos, visit www.logos.com/sda and sample scores of new biblical resources that can inspire and equip you to serve as a modern day apostle of Jesus Christ.