Sunday, 17 January 2016

APOSLE, WHAT IT MEANS?

It means an envoy, an ambassador, or messenger commissioned to carry out instructions of the commissioned agenda. An overseer of human affairs.
The Septuagint uses "apostello" some 700 times to translate the Hebrew word "salah" (stretch out, send). More than the act of sending, this hebrew word includes the idea of the authorization of a messenger. The noun "apostolos" is found only in 1King 14:6, where the commissioning and empowering of the Prophet are clearly in mind. Thus the Septuagint uses it to denote the authorization of an individual to fulfill a particular function, with emphasis on the one who sends, not on the one who is sent.
The noun "apostolos" appears 79 times in the New Testament (10 in the Gospels; 28 in Acts; 38 in The Epistles; and 3 in Revelation). The vast majority is these occurrences are found in Luke-Acts(34) and in the Pauline Epistles(34), and refer to those appointed by Christ for a special function in the Church. Their unique place is not only on having witnessed the Resurrection, but also on having been commissioned and empowered by the Resurrected Lord to Proclaim the Gospel to all nations.
In the New Testament the word is applied to Jesus as the Sent One of God(Heb.3:1), to those sent by God to preach to Israel(Luk.11:49), to those sent by Churches(2Col.8:23;Php2:25), and most often, to the individuals who had been appointed by Christ to preach The Gospel of the Kingdom. This latter category is understood differently by New Testament writers. Luke-Act uses the term to refer to the 12, while Paul uses it in relation to a broader group of individuals. Jesus had a large number of disciples during His ministry, but not all of them were apostles. The 12 were chosen out of a wider group both to be with Jesus as disciples and to be sent out to preach and teach as apostles. In this broder sense, an apostle was a witness to the Resurrection of Christ, sent by Him to make disciples of all nations.
Jesus' choice of 12 disciples to form an inner circle of followers served to symbolize The Truth that He had come to build a New House of Israel. The 12 formed the nucleus of this New People of God, corresponding to the 12 Tribes of Israel, and signifying God's saving activity at work in Jesus and his followers. Paul's claim to apostleship is likewise based on the Divine Call of Christ, manifested in its 3 accounts of the Damascus Road encounter, and presented as the direct action of the Risen Christ.
Christ the Apostle is mentioned only once in Heb.3:1, sent by the Father. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the Gospel of John, where Christ's entire ministry is qualified by the term "apostello"(send). As the Father sent His Son into the World, Jesus, in turn, sends out his disciples to continue and extend his mission. Thus, all apostleship finds its meaning in Jesus the Apostle.

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