Les D. Crause

Jesus the Ultimate Apostolic Type

To understand Apostolic types, lets look at the perfect type of the apostle in the New Testament. He is known as the Apostle and High Priest of our faith, the Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus came as the original prototype, so I am going to start with the New Testament and then I am going to move back into the Old Testament.

In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses predicted this concerning Jesus:

15 The LORD [Yahweh] your God will raise up for you a Prophet just like me from amongst your brothers, and you will listen to him;

First Type of Apostle: Jesus was like Moses

Jesus was the fulfillment of Moses' prophecy. Jesus was another Moses in terms of this Scripture. I can quote you a couple of Scriptures in the New Testament that confirm this. Jesus came in the spirit of Moses. He came in the ministry of Moses, to do what? To do the same thing that Moses did, to come and deliver the people from their bondage.

However they misunderstood Him. They thought He was coming to deliver them from the Romans. They didn't realize that their bondage was far greater than the bondage to Rome. He came to deliver them from the bondage of their sin, from their bondage to Satan and all they could see was the natural. Why? Because Israel was still living in the types and shadows. They were still living in the physical Promised Land that was promised to them.

Jesus came to bring them to the Promised Land. They thought it meant that they were going to get back the land of Israel. But what Jesus came to do was to bring them a life of blessing, a life that flowed with milk and honey, not just in the physical but in the spiritual as well. They misunderstood it, but He did come to do it and He did accomplish it.

Pointed the Way to God

Jesus came to show them God in a new and wonderful way. He came to fulfill the same functions as Moses. He came to give them direction and counsel. Do you remember poor old Moses standing there all day while the people gathered and came one at a time to him? I have been there. Everybody wants a time of prayer. Everybody wants personal ministry. Everybody thinks that they are the most important person in the world, and if you spend five hours with them, well everybody else can wait.

Jesus came to teach them how to hear from God, not to come and just be there to meet their needs. He was bringing the revelation of God to them. He was bringing an opportunity for them to reach out and touch God again, but they made the same mistake. Jesus was Moses all over again, but with a new spiritual emphasis. Can you see the picture?

Second Type of Apostle: Root and Offspring of David

Jesus was more than that. In Revelation 22:16 He says this:

16 I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.

He was the root and the offspring of David. What was one of the most common titles that Jesus was known by as He walked the earth?

"Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!"

Jesus came as a David. He came to restore the Throne of David, and they thought He was going to kick Herod out and take over. They missed it again! They were thinking in natural terms. He was coming to show them how they could rule and reign in life through His power. He was coming as a new spiritual David. He was coming to be the ante-type, but they were still living in the type and the shadow of the Old Covenant.

Now we are beginning to see a picture of a type and shadow in the Old Testament, from which the whole apostolic function is derived, in the ministries of Moses and David.

Four Apostolic Types

The Moses Apostlic Type

The Moses type of apostle has these functions and responsibilities.

Firstly, he directs ministry largely at the status quo church.

Directed at Status Quo

The Statys Quo is a term that I made up and which other people also use, and you know what it means. The status quo is what everybody does. It is the 'in thing'. It is the fashion of this world. The status quo church is the church that is following the patterns of this world, that have become absorbed and controlled by the world, by the status quo and doing what everybody else does. The church is behaving just like the world.

The church has become an organization no different to any worldly organization. The church has become a business, no different to any other business out there. It is has become a club, just like any other social club out there. The church has become absorbed into the World System, and the Moses type of apostle is called primarily to address that aspect of the church, to deal with it and to break the church free. Why? Because Moses was called to deliver them out of Egypt. They cried to be delivered out of Egypt, until they had to leave behind all the good things. The Moses apostle has a big job on his hands, and we are going to be dealing with a whole series just on how he has to go about it.

Moses is called to bring the church out of bondage to the World System. How is he going to do it? He is going to do it kind of like Moses delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt.

Apostolic Type Moses Introduces New Pattern

The Moses apostolic type introduces the church to the correct pattern. God gave Moses the pattern for the tabernacle and He was very fussy about how it should be done, and very exact about how it should be set up. How is the church to be conducted?

You say, "But we already have a pattern for the church. The church is doing very well, thank you very much."

Yes, but it is living in Egypt. They are doing very well there, living in Egypt. Do you want to carry on living in that same house? Do you want to have the same work hours and the same pay?

You say, "But our pattern is working fine."

Yes, it is working great - under slavery. There has to be a new pattern. There must be a change in the way things are being done in the church, and God has called Moses to stand up and say, "That is the wrong way, this is the right way. This is the way you have to do it. You must stop doing that, and you must start doing this. You've got to cut that out."

Moses brings God back into the old structures by changing them. He brings about a change in the System. He addresses the status quo and his entire motivation and task is to change the mindsets and the thinking of the people to change to a form that God can work in. So what kind of things must he change? It will probably take about five chapters to tell you that, so I am not going to touch on it here.

Finally Moses will show them the way to the Promised Land. He led the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. What is the Promised Land? The Promised Land is the life of blessing that God has for us. Have you ever heard of the Way of Blessing? It is about as Moses as you get. It is showing the people how to find the Promised Land. It is hidden away. You have to go through a special secret pass in the mountains to get there. Moses has been there. He knows the way. Moses is going to show God's people how to enter into all that He has for them. Moses is going to give them the principles and teach them everything that they need to know, and then his job is done.

The David Apostolic Type

What comes next? It is naturally the David type of apostle. What did David do?

Out of the System

The David Apostolic Type directs his ministry largely to those who have already left the System or the status quo church. They have become fed up with it. They have had enough and said, "We're out of here." Or, they received the left boot of fellowship. They have been kicked out. Most of them have the title 'prophet'.

They claim that they want nothing to do with the System, but usually the truth is the System wants nothing to do with them. Nevertheless they have left. They are a bunch of dropouts. Nobody wants them. They are considered losers. They live in the Cave of Adullam, and that is where the apostolic type David will gather them together and he will bring them outside of the System. He will minister to them and build them up and bring them to the same kind of thing. He will build them up, show them a pattern and indicate to them what God has for them.

David does far more than that though. David brings the church to a place of blessing and prosperity. His whole ultimate goal was to bring the land of Israel into a unity, into a peace and a place of security. I have bad news for you if you are a David though. You have the same problem as Moses. You are not going to finish the job. Somebody else is going to do it.

David Apostolic Type Removes Traditions

David dispenses with traditions and brings the church into contact with the living God. David says, "I'm just going to go and get the Ark," and he goes overboard in dispensing with traditions. He is so sick of tradition that he swings the pendulum and goes to the opposite end and overdoes it the other way.

How do I know this? God gave Moses very clear instructions on how the Ark of the Covenant was to be transferred. It was to be carried by the priests on poles with a curtain covering it. We read how the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines and then returned and kept in the house of Obededom.

David said, "We've got to bring the Ark back. We have to bring the glory of God back again. We must bring the presence of God back again!"

The traditional way was you send four priests along with a couple of sticks and they carry it. David didn't like this though. He was modern.

He said, "We're not going to do it the traditional way. That's the way the old people did it. We're doing it the new way now. We'll get a special brand new ox cart, the latest Mercedes model, and we will put the Ark of the Covenant on 'the best', and bring it back in glory."

You know the story of what happened when they tried to do that. Poor old Uzzah sat there and tried to protect the Ark and God killed him. All he wanted to do was to stop it from falling!

God was saying to David in no uncertain terms, "David, you do it my way!"

David brought the Ark back, but he still didn't follow tradition. He sort of followed tradition and put the Ark behind tent curtains just like it was in the Tabernacle of Moses. The only difference is that the tent was wide open. It was just a simple little tent right there in his home. A simple place where people could come and he would raise up the singers and musicians to praise and worship God, but they didn't do that in the Tabernacle of Moses.

New and Fresh Dimension

He introduced a new element. He introduced a new life into worship. A new dimension of coming into the presence of God with far greater glory than there was before. David brought a freshness that was not traditional. He did away with some of the old ways of doing things and brought a new element into the church, and that is what the Davidic apostle is going to do. He is going to bring a new freshness and a new presence of God, a new awareness of God's presence and glory and power, and he is going to reject the old way of doing things.

He is going to say, "The old pattern is all wrong."

He doesn't have much choice in that because if he wants to do it the old way everybody who has been following him will desert him. The only reason they came to him was because they had been rejected by the System and they came to receive something new and fresh. You see, Moses prepares the people in the System for change. David prepares the people outside of the System to get back into a pattern. Each of them are preparing the church of God for the final manifestation of what God will bring His end-times church into.

David sets up a new system that is not bound by the world. But I want you to see Moses and David here, and I want you to realize that each of them are called only to prepare the church for God's final plan. They will not lead the church into God's final plan.

You say, "Oh dear, and I was so looking forward to being a David!"

What then remains? Jesus came as Moses and David, but the work of Jesus is not done yet. There is more to come. There are two who followed on from Moses and David. There are two who were discipled by Moses and David and who received the baton as it was passed on to them, and they are the ones who implemented, put into motion and brought to pass what Moses and David prepared the people for.

And so in the same way the Moses apostle and the David apostle will prepare the church for the final move of God, but those who will lead the church into experiencing that final move will not be Moses and David. They will be Joshua and Solomon, and so here enter the last two apostolic types.

Now we are in brand new ground, and those of you who have followed the teaching of the Apostolic Course so far realize that we are getting into new ground.

You say, "What does a Joshua apostle do?"

Perhaps you finally came to the place where you came to realize whether you were Mosaic or Davidic, and now I have taken it away from you. I am going to give you something better, especially if you are a younger person, especially if you are the new and final generation that will lead the church of God into the final era. Let's look at it quickly.

The Joshua Apostle

Joshua was Moses' disciple and was discipled by him. The Joshua disciple is zealous for the principles that are introduced by Moses. So zealous was Joshua for Moses that when God told Moses to appoint the seventy elders and that He would put the anointing upon them, two of them failed to turn up. And as they were standing in the camp and the anointing of God came down on the sixty eight that had gone, the power of God came upon those two that remained in the camp, and they began to prophesy.

Joshua turned to Moses and said, "My Lord, shut them up. They can't do this! That's out of order. It's contrary to what you said. Sort them out!"

Joshua was there and was ready to defend Moses. I will show you when we look at Joshua in more detail that he actually was Moses' bodyguard. Hs main function was actually to protect Moses.

The Joshua apostle takes over where Moses left off and completes the work. It was not Moses who led the Israelites into the Land of Canaan and gave them the land, but it was Joshua.

The Joshua apostle displaces the System. Joshua went into the land and drove the enemy off in order that the Promised Land could be inhabited and taken over by the people. The Joshua apostle hands over the church to a new generation. Not one of those that left Egypt made it into the Canaan Land except Joshua and Caleb. Joshua handed over the Promised Land to a young and new generation. The church of tomorrow will be led by a new generation and the old will die out and will fade away.

And finally, the Joshua apostle brings rest to the Body of Christ. It says in Joshua 21:44:

44 And the LORD [Yahweh] gave them rest all around, according to all that he swore to their fathers: and not a man of all their enemies stood before them; the LORD [Yahweh] delivered all their enemies into their hands.

Joshua gave them the Land. He conquered it and divided it and handed it over to them, and it said that they finally had rest from warfare and from their enemies.

The Solomon Apostle

And so, we come to the final apostolic type - the Solomon apostle. Solomon was discipled by his father David. Solomon is zealous of introducing change, according to David's pattern. Just as Moses lays out the correct structure for the church, Joshua goes in, smashes the old one in order to introduce the new, so as David has introduced the new concept to those who have left the System, the Solomon apostle takes them in and shows them how to set up and put in place the pattern that David has introduced.

Now here is something that should make you laugh. The Solomon apostle brings an emphasis on love, not war. Joshua was the warrior. With him was big strife, conflict and, "Go kill him! Rout the System! Destroy it! Push it out!"

Solomon waits for David to do all the warfare and get it finished, then he settles down and becomes a gentleman. He enters into the prosperity that David has prepared the people for. And so Solomon brings an emphasis on working smart, not hard. Solomon brings wisdom. He brings the right way of doing things. Poor Joshua has to go and beat them on the head and try and knock some sense into them, knock it out of them and get things right.

Solomon waits for it all to blow over and he says, "Okay guys, we're going to build from scratch. Now let me show you how to do it the right way."

He comes with wisdom, with the right pattern and the right principles, and he has no opposition, because he is building on new ground. He doesn't have to go into the status quo. He builds a new church. He goes back and builds something that replaces the System.

And finally, Solomon brings the power of God to the people. It says in 1 Kings 10:

10 And it came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy [place], that the cloud filled the house of the LORD [Yahweh],

11 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD [Yahweh] had filled the house of the LORD [Yahweh].

That is a description of what happened as Solomon completed the building of the Temple. Who made the plans? David did. Who supplied the finance? David did.

You say, "Solomon was such a brilliant guy. He made so much money."

You could too, if you started out as a millionaire! Solomon just used wisely what was handed over to him on a platter. It was given to him. I can just see that all of you want to be a Solomon.

The Solomon apostle moves in the glory, and when he puts the church in place in accordance with the correct pattern, God's glory comes down and people cannot stand because the glory cloud of God comes down, and everybody is going to be flat on their face, falling under the power of God.

God is raising up His end-times apostles - the four different types. What are they going to do? They are going to restore the church to God's correct order and prepare the Bride for the return of the Bridegroom. To do this He is raising up people who will function like Moses, David, Joshua or Solomon. Where do you stand in this plan?

We have apostolic courses to train all of the Apostolic Types at AMI Training College.