APOSTELLO (To Send)
WRITTEN BY DREW MATZ
What is the Word?
When we study the Gospels, we cannot avoid interacting with his group of twelve followers. To be sure, Jesus taught and preached to all with ears to hear – however, there were a group of followers that were especially close to Jesus and were members of his inner circle of disciples. These twelve scattered when Jesus was arrested and tried, going into hiding for fear that they too might face the same fate. However, after Jesus’ resurrection, we begin to see these followers transformed from mere students to emboldened proclaimers of the truth of Jesus’ identity as the divine son of God. The word that the scriptures use to describe these twelve is Apostle, which comes from the Greek word apostello, which means to send.
How does the Bible use this word?
Apostelló likely strikes us as familiar, as the English term “apostle” is directly derivative from the Greek verb. In the scriptures, apostelló is a compound verb combining the words apo (away) and stello (away). It refers to the act of sending out or commissioning something for a purpose, and even more so connects the sender to those being sent. Hence, in the New Testament, the apostles are those who Jesus sends out into the world to proclaim the good news of the Gospel and to establish his Church, in whom the kingdom of God breaks into our present reality.
Where in the Bible?
At the heart of the Gospel is the fact that God so loved the world, that he gave up his only son that we might live through him (John 3:16). In John’s epistles, he explains to us that God the Father sent Jesus into the world:
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, that we might live through him.
1 John 4:9
In light of his own entering of our realm, Jesus often describes the mission of the apostles as an extension of his own. Just as Jesus is sent by the Father, so also are the apostles sent out into the world:
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
John 20:21
We can see in Jesus’ words the overarching mission of the church. Jesus is sent into the world, and so Jesus sends us into the world to proclaim the establishment of Jesus as king and savior of the world. Thus, we become participants in his building of the kingdom, sharing the good news of Christ and his love with those in our lives.
Ambassadors for Christ
It is amazing to think of becoming participants in Jesus’ own mission. Through the Holy Spirit, we are able to become co-workers with God, taking his love out into a broken world to proclaim the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in his name. Let us embrace the fact that Christ is sending us, just as he sent the apostles, to participate in building up his kingdom as we wait for the appearing of our Lord.