APOSTLES
As far as the
apostles were concerned, they were as weak as any other men. They were uneducated,
very ordinary men. Yet they are given this privileged position: they will
deliver the Word of God through the Son to the world. From
God the Father, through the Son, through the Spirit, and through the apostles
to the world. In this sense, the apostles are "foundational"
to the church... Theological and ethical instruction from the apostles is
universally binding. Indeed, it is
"from God to us."
Fred Zaspel
Taken from "New Covenant Theology" by Tom Wells
and Fred Zaspel, page 38. (c)2002 New Covenant Media, Used by
permission of New Covenant Media, 5317 Wye Creek
Drive, Frederick, MD 21703-6938. http://www.newcovenantmedia.com/home.php
What then
were the apostles? It is plain from the divine record that they were men
immediately commissioned by Christ to make a full and authoritative revelation
of His religion; to organize the church; to furnish it with officers and laws,
and to start it on its career of conquest through the world... The apostles,
the twelve, stand out just as conspicuous as an isolated body in the history of
the church, without predecessors, and without successors, as Christ Himself
does. They disappear from history. The title, the thing itself, the gifts, the
functions, all ceased when John, the last of the twelve, ascended to heaven.
What is Presbyterianism? p.
53, 60.
Apostles were
chosen by God to work in the founding and forming of the church, after which
time apostleship ceased. When all the apostles had died, the office of apostle
no longer existed. They were selected, sent and empowered by God for that
period in the history of the church, which was over when their lives were over.
As the human founders and foundation of the church, the apostles had particular
purposes and responsibilities.
1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 4.
In Christ’s
day the world was filled with intellectuals and influential people. There were
celebrated philosophers in Athens, unsurpassed scholars in Alexandria, the most
powerful political leaders the world had ever known in Rome, and some of the
most meticulous rabbis of all time in and around Jerusalem. Christ bypassed
them all and called simple, crude, unknown, and uneducated fishermen from
Galilee to be His disciples.
The Book on Leadership, 2004, p. 114.
Six
biblical reasons may be given as to why the apostolic office is not for today:
1. The church was
founded upon the apostles (Eph. 2:20)… Their role was to give grounding,
support, direction – to provide the underpinning for a
fledgling church. They were the church’s founders. That role was fulfilled by
them and by definition can never be repeated.
2. Apostles were
eyewitnesses to the resurrection (1 Cor. 9:1)… There is no trustworthy evidence
that (Jesus) has appeared to anyone since the close of the apostolic era.
3. Apostles were chosen
personally by Jesus Christ (Mt. 10:1-4).
4. Apostles were
authenticated by miraculous signs (Ac. 3:3-11; 5:15-16; 9:36-42; 20:6-12;
28:1-6)… No such miracles were ever performed – even in the apostolic era – by
anyone other than the apostles and those commissioned by them.
5. Apostles had absolute
authority (Jude 17)… When the apostles spoke, there was no discussion.
6. Apostles have an
eternal and unique place of honor (Rev. 21:14).
John MacArthur
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 148-151, www.zondervan.com.
I
have always been fascinated with the lives of the twelve apostles. Who isn’t?
The personality types of these men are familiar to us. They are just like us,
and they are like other people we know. They are approachable. They are real
and living characters we can identify with. Their faults and foibles, as well
as their triumphs and endearing features, are chronicled in some of the most
fascinating accounts of the Bible. These are men we want to know. That’s because they were perfectly ordinary men in
every way. Not one of them was renowned for scholarship or great erudition.
They had no track record as orators or theologians. In fact, they were
outsiders as far as the religious establishment of Jesus’ day was concerned.
They were not outstanding because of any natural talents or intellectual
abilities. On the contrary, they were all too prone to mistakes, misstatements,
wrong attitudes, lapses of faith, and bitter failure – no one more so than the
leader of the group, Peter. Even Jesus remarked that they were slow learners
and somewhat spiritually dense (Luke 24:25).
John
MacArthur
Twelve Ordinary Men, © John MacArthur, 2002, p. xii.
Yet with all
their faults and character flaws – as remarkably ordinary as they were – these
men carried on a ministry after Jesus’ ascension that left an indelible impact
on the world. Their ministry continues to influence us even today. God
graciously empowered and used these men to inaugurate the spread of the gospel
message and to turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Ordinary men – people
like you and me – became the instruments by which Christ’s message was carried
to the ends of the earth. No wonder they are such fascinating characters.
John
MacArthur
Twelve Ordinary Men, © John MacArthur, 2002, p. xiii.
Satan may
even attempt to convince us that our shortcomings render us useless to God and
to His church. But Christ’s choice of the apostles testifies to the fact that
God can use the unworthy and the unqualified. He can use nobodies. They turned
the world upside down, these twelve (Acts 17:6). It was not because they had
extraordinary talents, unusual intellectual abilities, powerful political
influence, or some special social status. They turned the world upside down
because God worked in them to do it.
John
MacArthur
Twelve Ordinary Men, © John
MacArthur, 2002, p. 11.
Why twelve?
Why not eight? Why not twenty-four? The number twelve was filled with symbolic
importance. There were twelve tribes in Israel. But Israel was apostate. The
Judaism of Jesus’ time represented a corruption of the faith of the Old
Testament. Israel had abandoned divine grace in favor of works-religion. Their
religion was legalistic. It was shot through with hypocrisy, self-righteous
works, man-made regulations, and meaningless ceremonies. It was heretical. It
was based on physical descent from Abraham rather than the faith of Abraham. In choosing twelve apostles, Christ was in effect
appointing new leadership for the new covenant. And the apostles represented
the new leaders of the true Israel of God – consisting of people who believed
the gospel and were following the faith of Abraham (cf. Romans 4:16). In other
words, the twelve apostles symbolized judgment against the twelve tribes of Old
Testament Israel.
John
MacArthur
Twelve Ordinary Men, © John
MacArthur, 2002, p. 19.
When did the
apostolic office cease? Right after the Apostle John penned the last words of
Scripture. Shortly after Scripture was completed, the last living apostle died.
John Napier
Charismatic
Challenge by John Napier, Providence House Publishers, 2003, p. 63. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
I do not know
what you feel, but I never cease to be grateful to these disciples. I am
grateful for the record of every mistake they ever made, and for every blunder
they ever committed, because I see myself in them. How grateful we should be to
God that we have these Scriptures, how grateful to Him that He has not merely
given us the gospel and left it at that. How wonderful it is that we can read
accounts like this and see ourselves depicted in them, and how grateful we should
be to God that it is a divinely inspired Word which speaks the truth, and shows
and pictures every human frailty.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Spiritual
Depression – Its Causes and its Cures, 1965, p. 137,
Used by Permission from Elizabeth Catherwood (daughter).
What qualifications
are essential for…apostleship?
1. Eye-Ear
Witness to the Risen Christ: To be an apostle one must have both seen and heard the risen Christ. This
is implied by Acts 1:21-22; 1 Corinthians 9:1, and 15:6-9. But simply seeing the
risen Christ did not make someone an apostle, for many saw and heard Him (e.g.
1 Cor. 15:6) who were not apostles.
2. A
Personal Call and Commission from Jesus: This is evident from the statements of Paul himself (Gal. 1:1; Rom. 1:1, 5;
1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; etc.).
Sam Storms
Are Apostles for Today? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
There are other features or characteristics of apostolic
ministry that must be noted. Whereas the presence of these factors does not
make one an apostle, their absence may well call into question the authenticity
of one's claim to that office. One would be hard-pressed to find an apostle in
the NT whose life was not characterized by these features:
1.
Success in ministry (1
Cor.9:2; cf. 2 Cor. 3:1-3; [Paul appealed to the reality of their conversion as
evidence of the authenticity of his apostolic calling]; but non-apostles also
have great evangelistic success; see Philip in Acts 8).
2.
Signs and Wonders (Ac.
5:12; Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 12:12; but non-apostles also performed signs and
wonders; see Stephen in Acts 6 and Philip in Acts 8).
3.
Extreme suffering (Col.
1:24; 2 Cor. 4:7-15; 11:23-33; etc.; certainly countless others also suffer).
4.
Christ-like life and humility (2 Cor.
1:12; 2:17; 3:4-6; 4:2; 5:11; 6:3-13; 7:2; 10:13-18; 11:6,23-28; but there is
no reason why a non-apostolic believer might not live at this same level of
maturity).
5.
Special insight into divine
mysteries (Eph. 3:1-6; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rom. 11:25-32; 2 Cor. 12:1-4, 7).
6.
Authority and the power to
enforce it (Ac. 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 4:18-21; 5:5; 2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10; 1
Tim. 1:20).
7.
God-orchestrated stigma (1 Cor.
4:9-13; 2 Cor. 6:3-10; 12:1-10). I often wonder if those who quickly accept the
title of “Apostle” have bothered to read these texts, especially 1 Cor. 4:9-13.
Sam Storms
Are Apostles for Today? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
It is widely assumed that an essential part of
apostleship is the authority to write inspired Scripture. There are three
problems with this view:
1.
Scripture nowhere asserts that all apostles could write
Scripture simply because they were apostles.
2.
Several of the apostles did not, in fact, write
Scripture. Does this disqualify them from being apostles?
3.
People other than apostles did, in fact, write
Scripture (Mark, Luke, the author of Hebrews, Jude).
Sam Storms
Are Apostles for Today? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Matthew
suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia.
Mark expired
at Alexandria, after being cruelly dragged through the streets of that city.
Luke was
hanged upon an olive tree in the classic land of Greece.
John was put
in a cauldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was
afterward banished to Patmos.
Peter was
crucified at Rome with his head downward.
James, the
Greater, was beheaded at Jerusalem.
James, the
Less, was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death
with a fuller’s club.
Bartholomew
was flayed alive.
Andrew was
bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors until he died.
Thomas was
run through the body with a lance at Coromandel in the East Indies.
Jude was shot
to death with arrows.
Matthais was
first stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas of
the Gentiles was stoned to death at Salonica.
Paul, after
various tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by the
Emperor Nero.
Source unknown.