WHAT IS AN APOSTLE
written by Andrew Corbett
THE EARLIEST UNDERSTANDING
OF "APOSTLE"
Our understanding
of what an apostle in New Testament times was has been based largely
on what we know of Paul the apostle. The current definitions and
descriptions of what an apostle was has been based upon insufficient
scholarship if it has only been drawn on Paul the apostle and
his ministry. An examination of the ministry of the New Testament
apostle is integral to our investigation of the early Church's
New Testament leadership structure. Therefore we need to re-evaluate
our understanding of what a New Testament apostle was by ensuring
that we are limiting our apostolic paradigm to just Paul the apostle.
For this to be achieved we will examine the background to Christ's
commissioning of the first apostles, and their subsequent development
from that point. While we have established that the Jewish Synagogue
structure appears to have influenced the structure of the New
Testament Church, it is argued by some that the commissioning
of the first apostles by Christ was a parallel to the Jewish Law's
provision of a Saliah. These men were commissioned messengers
charged to represent their sponsor in some matter. One noted scholar,
Dr. Schmithals, however, vigorously rejects the Jewish institution
of the Saliah as the origin of the concept of the New Testament
Apostle. Despite this, there can be no doubt that the apostles
were representatives of Christ, sent by Him, and charged to represent
Him in some matter.
(i) THE INFLUENCE OF THE MISSIONARY MANDATE
Christ first commissioned His disciples
to be missionaries (emissaries on a mission to convert people
through the preaching of the Kingdom of God). Historically, Judaism
was divinely intentioned to be a "missionary" religion, yet it
was by and large exclusive (not open to outsiders being added
to their number). Christ scolded the Pharisees' attempts at proslytization
(missionary activity) when He said -
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single
convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much
a son of hell as you are."
(Matthew 23:15 NIV)
Therefore, the Church's earliest
understanding of its missionary mandate was not yet appreciated.
The original mission may have been understood to convince all
Jews that Christ was their Messiah and that He had achieved their
salvation. Even though Christ had told them to go into all the
world to preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15), they may have thought
that this was to exclusively reach the dispersed Jews (the Diaspora,
or Dispersion). We surmise this by the reluctance of the apostles
to leave Jerusalem, and statements found in the New Testament
that seem to support this.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because
it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:
first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
(Romans 1:16 NIV)
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the
pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia,
and Bithynia
(1 Peter 1:1 NKJV)
Added to this is that we have already
established the influence of Judaism over the early Church, where
there was no "evangelist", or "missionary-scribe". These factors
combined to reduce the early Church's initial revelation of evangelism
for the world.
(ii) FROM DISCIPLE TO GOVERNOR
The first apostles had witnessed
Christ focus His ministry on the Jews, almost to the point of
apparently excluding Gentiles. They possibly failed to appreciate
that they were being discipled for the task of world evangelisation.
Their first role as "apostles" was as "disciples". They were followers
of the Chief Apostle.
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the
heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and
high priest whom we confess.
(Hebrews 3:1 NIV)
Before the apostles were to be
released into their governing ministries, they were first grounded
as disciples. This required that they had a humble, servant's
heart. They came under Christ's strict discipline and often felt
the sting of His loving rebukes (Mark 8:33; Mat.26:40; Mark 16:14).
They were grounded in the Word of God, and taught how to approach
God in prayer (Mat. 6:6-18). They learnt how to walk with Christ
daily and emulate His character (Acts 4:13).
As disciples, followers, of Christ
they were sent by Him to preach the message of the Kingdom (Mat.
10:7). The foundational ministry of all apostles can be summed
up as: following and proclaiming Christ. No matter how scholarly
we attempt to become when defining what an apostle was, we must
not lose sight of this most simple starting point. Eventually
the apostles would go on to govern the burgeoning Church. But
this could only happen because they had learnt to follow and proclaim
Christ first. Paul supported his own apostolic calling on the
basis that he encountered Christ and had continued to walk with
Him (1Cor. 15:8; 1Cor. 11:1).
After the Ascension, the apostles
were told to wait for the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8
[NIV] "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on
you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."). They appear to have
continued as proclaimers shortly after this happened. When there
was an influx of new converts, they became the governors or overseers
of the Church. To enable them to adequately govern the Church
they requested that the Church free them to study God's Word and
pray rather than go house to house meeting individual needs (Acts
6:4 [NIV] "and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry
of the word"). The apostles recognised that Christ had called
them to be overseers, or governors of the Church.
(iii) APOSTOLIC CHARISMA
Since they were firstly disciples
(disciplined followers), we see that character comes before charisma
in those that Christ appointed as apostles. But this is not to
suggest that character alone was sufficient for those called to
be apostles. They also had an added dimension to their ministry
that would separate them from the other ministries that Christ
would eventually gift His Church with. We must add this further
dimension to our foundational understanding of what an apostle
was: this is the miraculous authority given to the apostles.
Calling the Twelve to him, he sent
them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits...They
went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out
many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed
them.
(Mark 6:7, 12-13 NIV)
The first apostles displayed so
much charismatic power that the observing population were in awe
of the miraculous signs and wonders they performed (Acts 2:43).
Their unquestioned power to perform miracles caused a great reluctance
on the part of the unchurched community to associate with the
Church (Acts 5:12-13). Later on Paul regarded the "charisma dimension"
as one of the distinguishing marks of a true apostle.
The things that mark an apostle--signs, wonders
and miracles--were done among you with great perseverance.
(2 Cor 12:12 NIV)
(iv) TO GROUND-BREAKER
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all
teachers? Do all work miracles?
(1 Corinthians 12:29 NIV)
While some Christians are called
to preach, and some are even called to preach in a pioneer or
cross-cultural sense (such as missionaries), not all are given
the gift of apostleship. It is wrong to assume that the modern
concept of a cross-cultural missionary is the functional equivalent
of a Biblical apostle. Care must be taken to also not diminish
the important ministry of the apostle to that of a preacher or
missionary. Dispensational scholar, Professor Everett F. Harrison
(of Fuller Theological Seminary), criticizes the cheap modern
adaptation of the term apostle when he says-
"...warrant is lacking for making the 'apostle'
the equivalent of 'missionary.' In the practice of the modern
church, prominent pioneer missionaries are often called apostles,
but this is only an accommodation of language. In the apostolic
age one who held this rank was more than a preacher (2Tim. 1:11)."
His former colleague at Fuller
Theological Seminary, Professor C. Peter Wagner, makes a similar
point in his book Churchquake.
Our English word "missionary" comes from
the Latin missionarius, which means a person sent into an area
to do religious work. This gives it a close affinity with the
concept of "apostle" as a sent one. The gift of missionary is
the special ability that God gives to certain members of the
Body of Christ to minister whatever other spiritual gift they
have in a second culture. Peter had the gift of apostle, but
not the gift of missionary. Paul had the gift of apostle and
the gift of missionary.
Wagner might be drawing a long
bow by trying to assert that not all apostles are missionaries.
The statement assumes that a missionary is necessarily a cross-cultural
minister, and an apostle is not. The apostolic mandate to go into
all the nations, and to the ends of the world, seems to indicate
that Christ expected His first apostles to each be cross-cultural.
To appeal to the statement that Peter was an apostle to the Jews
only, may tend to ignore that it was Peter who first ministered
apostolically to the Samaritans (Acts 8) and the Gentile house
of Cornelius (Acts 10). Whether Peter and the other apostles realised
it or not, Christ expected them to evangelise cross-culturally.
The revelation that the apostle
was a ground breaking minister took several years for the first
apostles to understand. Eventually they would plant churches in
North Africa, India, and Europe.
(v) THE APOSTLE'S MISSIONARY PERSPECTIVE
The revelation that the apostles
were called to the nations was still not immediately realised.
Yet their changing role was about to be fundamentally changed
by Christ's commissioning of Saul of Tarsus to be an apostle to
the Gentiles (Acts 9:15 [NIV] "But the Lord said to Ananias,
"Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before
the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel").
In the apostolic ministry of Paul,
we see a greater revelation of what Christ had intended the apostle
to be. Although Paul initially went to the Jews first, he later
abandoned this approach and concentrated on reaching the Gentiles.
Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly:
"We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject
it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we
now turn to the Gentiles."
(Acts 13:46 NIV)
We can see that the ministry of the apostle developed
to the point of appreciation that the apostle was to be a "ground
breaker".
It has always been my ambition to preach
the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be
building on someone else's foundation.
(Romans 15:20 NIV)
This was pre-empted in their training
under Christ's ministry when He sent them ahead of Himself.
When Jesus had called the Twelve together,
he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and
to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom
of God and to heal the sick.
(Luke 9:1-2 NIV)
(vi) THE EARLY APOSTOLIC FUNCTION
The apostle's ministry was much
more than that of our modern concept of a missionary. He was not
merely a cross-cultural preacher to the unconverted. And he was
also more than a governor. Dr. Bill Hamon has identified six main
functions of the first century apostles. These include-
| (i)
|
Taking the gospel to unreached areas (Rom.
15:20, NIV) |
| (ii)
|
Planting churches upon the foundation of
Christ and helping established churches return to this scriptural
foundation (1Cor. 3:10, 11; Gal. 1:6-10; 3:13; Rev. 2:15)
|
| (iii)
|
Appointing and training the initial leaders
of a church (Acts 14:21-23; Titus 1:5)
|
| (iv)
|
Dealing with specific problems, false doctrines
or sins (1Cor. 1:1 - 16:24; Acts 15)
|
| (v)
|
Promoting unity in the Body of Christ and
networking churches (Eph. 4:1-16; Acts 11:27-30; Rom. 15:25-27;
1Cor. 16:1-4; 2Cor. 8:9) |
| (vi)
|
Demonstrating and imparting the supernatural
dimension of the kingdom of God (2Cor. 12:12; Acts 4:33; 8:4-20;
10:44-46; 19:16; 2Tim 1:6-7). |
The term "apostle" comes from the
Greek word apostolos, which literally means 'one sent forth'.
According to Coombs the term "is first found in maritime language,
referring to a cargo ship or fleet being sent out. Early usage
of this term carried the twofold sense of an express commission
and being sent overseas." Coombs cites Kittel, the author of The
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, who says that term
apostle carries the meaning of an official envoy that is commissioned
with the full authority of the sender.
It is upon this basis that we begin
to see that the ministry of the apostle was more than just that
of a preacher, missionary, or church-planter. It was a ministry
of ambassadorial authority. Yet the apostle's role and function
was still being developed throughout the early years of the Church.
Part of that development is described in Acts 6. This was a critical
phase in both the development of the Church and the ministry of
the apostle. It was a crossroads where the Church could have stalled
with a limited structure, and understanding, of leadership. For
this reason we need to examine the establishment of deacons within
the Church as a vital layer in the structure of the early Church's
leadership.
© 2001 Andrew
Corbett, Tasmania, Australia
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