"If" some of the "spiritual gifts" have not ceased, even with the completion of the New Testament, and without speaking of the specific gift of "speaking in tongues" how should we receive the teaching that apostles are still in existence today as well? My understanding is that an apostle in Jesus time on earth, was one that was a "sent one" as a representative of God, that had a message (the verbal message of the gospel and the N.T.), who was also giving supernatural gifts (the gift of miracles, the gift of knowledge, the gift of healings, etc.) as credentials to hearers/observers that he was indeed a messenger of God. My aim in this thread is not to cause division, we already have that. My aim is to understand how knowledgable people of the Scriptures can hold the view that true apostles still exist today. God bless.
In a general sense of the word, an apostle is one who is sent as a
delegate, or messenger. As such, they represent the authority of the one who sent them. Note what the Lord says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a
messenger greater than the one who sent him," and then, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." (John 13:16 and 20).
The word messenger is the same Greek word as apostle. Jesus speaking of those who receive his apostles receiving him demonstrates the authority they had from him. They were his chosen delegates!
There are several mentions of apostles in the New Testament that are not referring to the Twelve. Barnabas, Timothy, and Silvanus, among others, are referred to as apostles. Are these men any different than the Twelve? I believe so and here's why:
Luke 6:12-16. In this passage, Jesus spent the night in prayer, "And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles." (see the passage for the list of names). Out of all the disciples, the
Lord specifically chose twelve to be apostles. [
Of course, Luke's gospel is only the first in a two volume set! Volume two is commonly referred to as The Acts of the Apostles (although I would argue it is more so
The Acts of God's Holy Spirit). Now, who is Luke referring to? Again, it is the twelve,
Acts 1:1-3. "In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs,
appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God."
Again, Luke is speaking of a specific group of men, and here, he emphasized that
Christ appeared to them many times. However, there were now only eleven apostles, because Judas had betrayed him. Peter declared that someone must be chosen to take Judas'
office of apostleship. So after prayer, they were led to choose Matthias as the twelfth apostle. The main criteria for this selection was that it had to be someone who had been with them the whole time of Jesus' ministry, starting from the Lord's baptism all the way to his ascension. In other words, he had to be an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus! (Acts 1:21-26)
Finally, there is one Apostle who came along "as one who is abnormally born" (1 Corinthians 15:8). Paul's conversion is recorded in Acts 9, where he is met by the Lord on his way to Damascus. Through numerous explanations of his testimony in the New Testament, we find that Paul spent additional time with the Lord, and he went on to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, equal in the office of Apostle as Peter and the twelve (Galatians 2:9).
I don't believe that Matthias should be rejected as the twelfth apostle as some do. No, he isn't mentioned again from that point, but neither are many of the others. Paul admits that he is a special case, and the fact that he is given the distinction as the apostle to the Gentiles doesn't take away the significance of the original twelve, including Matthias.
Finally, to set the case in concrete that these men were chosen specifically from among all disciples, we see in Ephesians 2:20-21 that the Church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord." Furthermore, in Revelation 20:14, "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."
These twelve apostles (and how Paul fits in the Revelation passage, I do not know) were specifically chosen for a specific purpose. As the prophets gave us the Old Testament revelation of God's word, so have the Apostle's given us the New Testament. They were proven by the power of God's Spirit in their ministry. And it is by their testimony that we have God's word passed to us today!
