Derek Prince - We Are The Most Important People For Jesus
This is an excerpt from: The Headship of Jesus - Part 2
We're going to continue in this session with the theme from the last session, 'The Headship of Jesus.' I think I need to recapitulate briefly some of the main points. First of all, we saw that headship is a central concept of the word of God, especially in the New Testament. And really, headship is God's appointed way of governing. We saw that in the natural the head has certain functions. See if you can remember them. It receives input, it makes decisions, it initiates action, and it gives ongoing direction. These are reproduced also in the spiritual realm. The pattern relationship of headship is a relationship between God the Father and Jesus His Son. And if we want to know what it means to be under headship we need to look at the example of Jesus in His relationship to the Father.
And I pointed out that He never initiated anything. The initiative for all that He did always came from the Father, which is exactly in line with the pattern of headship. I think it's a concept which most of us are not really familiar with. It's going to take prayer and meditation and seeking God to be able to reproduce this relationship of headship as God wants it reproduced. And then we saw that the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son should be reproduced in the relationship between Jesus and His church, because Jesus has been appointed head over all things to the church, which is His body.
Now I want to look at some examples of the outworking of this principle in the church of the New Testament. What it means to be under the headship of Jesus in the church, how that headship works out. And I've chosen to begin with a specific example which is the apostleship of Paul. I find in Paul's apostleship a perfect and complete pattern of what the headship of Jesus should be. I think it's important to focus on Paul because he was appointed an apostle after the day of Pentecost. He was not in the category with the first twelve who were appointed while Jesus was on earth. And in a certain sense, we might say we can't expect to reproduce what happened while Jesus was on earth but there is no reason why we cannot expect to see reproduced what happened through the Holy Spirit after the day of Pentecost.
So if you turn to 1 Timothy 1, Paul here makes a declaration of the basis of his apostleship. 1 Timothy 1:1: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. So Paul traces his apostleship right back to the headship of God the Father. And it came through Jesus Christ who was under the headship of the Father but head over the church. At the end of Matthew's gospel Jesus said after the resurrection, 'All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to Me.' I sometimes picture this like: The source of all authority is God the Father. But He has transmitted it to Jesus Christ the Son because Jesus proved Himself totally worthy of having authority. How did He prove that? By being totally obedient to authority.
See, the qualification for exercising authority is proving you can be under authority. And so, in a sense, I mentally picture authority like a big dome up there which is the throne of God. And then underneath is a big, vast, strong hook which is Jesus Christ. And all authority in any area of the universe, among the angels, men, wherever, proceeds from that hook. Everything is suspended from the hook which is Jesus Christ. So Jesus is the channel and the transmitter of God's authority to the whole universe. And in particular, He has a special relationship with the church, which is His body. God has put all things under His feet. But we're not just under the feet of Jesus. As part of His body we are joined to Him as head. And He directs the body as head in a different way from any other part of the universe.
Just like, let me say I might be a drill sergeant which God forbid, let me say that and I'm giving orders to a squad of soldiers. So I'm directing all the soldiers by my orders. But my own body I direct in a completely different way. I don't have to give orders to my body, I just make the decision, and communicate it and the members do it. So you see, we have a unique relationship with Jesus that no one else in the universe has. That's an amazing thought, isn't it? Do you know one of our problems as Christians? We don't appreciate ourselves. We have no concept how valuable we are and how important we are. It always grieves me to hear Christians belittling themselves. Admittedly, in ourselves we're nothing. But because of our relationship with Jesus Christ we are the most important people in the universe. We are the decisive factor in all human affairs. Solely because of that relationship.