Volume 2 - Issue 4 - December 1998
 

CONSIDER THE APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST

By Bishop Gary S. Brooks
 

Hebrews 3:1-6

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who has builded the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is built by some man; but He that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ as a Son over His own house; Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

I am persuaded that this is the hour to forget those things which are behind and count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God that is in Christ! It is paramount for our life in Christ, for our particular ministries in Him, for our fellowship in Him and especially for the revealing and the manifest glory of Him as the Corporate Son of God, to learn to understand by the Spirit that we are partakers of the heavenly calling! To be “a partaker” means that we are participants, associates, partners and sharers of the heavenly calling, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus! The “heavenly calling” is an invitation into a vocation.

A vocation, according to Webster's dictionary is:

1. a summons to a particular state or course of action.

2. a divine call to the religious life.

3. an entry into the priesthood or a religious order.

4. an occupation.

5. the special function of an individual or group.

The heavenly call of our corporate life in Christ is to be participants and partners together in the vocation of the Apostolic, High Priestly Ministry of Christ Jesus!

This call of God for our life is not a suggestion, it is the Word and therefore an authoritative command of God. If we are to rightly consider our profession, we must realize that it is in Christ Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest. To “consider” means, to fully observe, to behold, to discover and perceive. This word “profession”, is the Greek word "homologia", which means "the acknowledgement of the word". If we are going to fully observe and acknowledge the Word, we must acknowledge, as an established fact, that we are partakers of the heavenly calling of the Apostolic and High Priestly Ministry of Christ Jesus, and let that truly be our vocation together in Christ!

This acknowledgement, by the Body of Christ, will usher in a glorious administration of the Spirit, with the emergence of the corporate Son of God, made priests (and kings) forever after the order of Melchisedec! For God has sworn by an oath to the Christ, which is Jesus the Head with His Corporate Body the Church, saying "Thou art My Son, today have I begotten thee", and Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec". We will also then need to acknowledge the presence of genuine Apostles and Prophets once again and receive that ministry of Christ so that the Corporate Church may once again be Divinely governed and directed into the revealing and manifesting of the corporate Son of God. Is it not what the whole creation is waiting for, the manifestation of the sons of God?

We must also acknowledge then, that the more excellent ministry of our High Priest, Christ Jesus, is by it's nature Apostolic. Then whatever "Church Ministry" that now is in operation and has not been established upon the foundation stone Christ Jesus (being built up upon the word of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb in agreement with the scriptures of the old testament Prophets), through a relationship and covering with an Apostolic gift of God in their lives today, then that Ministry is lacking in the revelation of the mystery and the revealed glory of Christ in us which God has prepared for the corporate House of His Son! For Christ is a Son whose image has been superimposed over His own House. The Body of Christ is the House of the Corporate Son of God!

Now this is the order of the Spirit. First a Son, then a Priest. We must first be a son before we'll ever be a priest after the order of Melchisedec. For though Jesus were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered and then afterward He was made a High Priest. To be a son we must have a father. Paul, an Apostle, wrote to the Corinthian Church saying that "in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel", showing them that they might have ten thousand teachers in Christ, but they have only one father in the Lord, Paul himself, an Apostle. So then, to be a son we must be submitted to an Apostolic father, the gift of the Apostle in a human vessel, for the exercise of the chastening of a son. For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. So if we endure chastening, then God is dealing with us as sons. So then, every son is connected to and submitted to their own father in the Lord. In the local church setting, that father, in the Lord, is the gift of the shepherd of the flock, who in turn is also submitted to Apostolic authority. Likewise then, every father has had the same experience which speaks with the wisdom of Solomon saying, "I was my father's son, tender and only beloved  in the sight of my mother". Now then, every Apostolic father will be in relationship with other Apostolic fathers to be submitted one to the other in the fear of God, in the unity of the Spirit and in the unity of the faith, and will, as a unified body, hold to the Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The dispensation, stewardship, and mystery of the gospel of Christ (the gospel of God concerning His Son, which is Christ in us the hope of glory) has been committed to the plurality of one corporate gift of the Apostle in conjunction with its expression through the gifts of the Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher. So also then is the "five fold" ministry of Christ, by it's nature, Apostolic. There is now being revealed on the earth a Corporate Apostolic Ministry that is gathering together, in one, all things in heaven and on earth, in Christ, to sum up all things in Him! It is the ministry of the fullness of times! For in the fullness of time God sent forth a Son! Now is the gathering of many sons into One, to sum up the Christ as the Corporate Son, which is Christ Jesus, the Head, in union with His many membered Body, His Church, fitly joined together in One!

Part of the definition of the word "apostle" means “to be sent”. "And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel, For Esaias saith Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:15-17). So then, we need to be hearing the word of God from them that have been sent to preach the gospel, His Apostles.

It is written concerning the High Priestly Ministry of Christ Jesus that, "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law) what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law" (Hebrews 7:11-12). The priesthood has changed, is being changed, and therefore we are changing.

We are being internally and externally adjusted into that arrangement and order, unto the law of the power an endless life! We must, as the corporate Son of God, be poised and willing hearted to do and to receive from God whatever is necessary, to the end that we may be gathered together in one, in Christ, unto the arrangement and order of the Spirit. It is time to put away the insecurities of what we believe, that which has kept us from being One New Man, and say together, "We know in Whom we have believed!". For we are a chosen generation (the divinely selected seed Christ), a royal priesthood (a kingly, priestly fraternity of the sacred order of Melchisedec), a holy nation, a peculiar (purposed) people; that we should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.