Jesus, the pre-eminent apostle

This continues my series on apostleship.

Jesus is only explicitly termed an apostle once: Heb. 3:1. Nevertheless, the Gospels demonstrate that he was fully aware of having been sent, “apostled” (Greek apesteilen) by God, and that people’s response to him is their response to God himself (Matt. 10:40; 15:24; Mark 9:37; Luke 4:18; 9:48; 10:16). In John’s Gospel, Jesus both states that he has been sent (apesteilen) by God the Father (John 3:17, 34; 5:36, 38; 6:29, 57; 7:29; 8:42; 10:36; 11:42; 17:3, 8, 18, 21, 23, 25; 20:21), and speaks of the Father as the one who sent me (Greek pempo) (John 4:34; 5:30, 37; 6:38, 39, 44; 7:16, 28, 33; 8:16, 18, 26, 29; 9:4; 12:44, 45, 49; 13:20; 14:24; 15:26; 16:5; 20:21). Paul notes that God sent (apesteilen) his son to redeem and adopt (Gal. 4:4). In three key texts in his first epistle, John states that God sent (apesteilen) his son to be the saviour of the world and propitiation for our sins, so we could live through him (1 John 4:9, 10, 14).