Understanding the 12 as Apostles-- 'Sent Ones'
Jesus sent 12. He spoke to them personally and sent them. In Matthew 9, He says to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. Have you ever had a plan to pray for something and asked others to do the same? Well, the Lord Jesus goes up on a mountain and prays all night, and then He comes down and appoints 12, and tells them to heal, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out devils and gives them a message to preach and instructions for conduct and how they will be provided for on their preaching journey.
The Spirit Speaks--Paul and Barnabas Are Apostles.
Acts 13 shows that the Spirit spoke to prophets and teachers in Antioch, and sent out two men. Acts calls them 'apostles.' One of them was Saul/Paul, and later in Galatians we can kind of infer that he considered himself an apostle before that if we go with the south Galatia interpretation (which makes more sense). But I believe it is significant that Acts' language includes him as an apostle after the Spirit sent him out.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy--Apostles of Christ. Gift Imparted through Prophecy
Paul takes Silvanus and Timothy as co-laborers, but they write an epistle in which they describe themselves as 'apostles of Christ'. So how did the other two get to be apostles of Christ? Acts doesn't tell us specifically.
But in the case of Timothy, we can see that he got a gift imparted to him through the gift of prophecy, accompanied by the laying on of hands of the elders. Acts shows some examples of the apostles laying hands on individuals who then operated in a spiritual gift. Of course, there are examples in Acts of this happening where it is extremely unlikely the apostles were laying hands on anyone. But I Timothy 4:14 indicates a spiritual gift can be imparted through a prophecy. This was accompanied by the laying on of hands of the elders.
Acts 13 shows that Barnabas and Saul were sent by the Spirit. The Spirit spoke. It does not say if the speech was internal to all the prophets and teachers in that list's hearts, or if it were audible for all to hear, or a prophecy. But prophecy is more frequently mentioned in scripture. Also, the other ones who heard this message separated these two apostles by the laying on of hands. Compare to Timothy who actually received his gift through prophecy, accompanied by the laying on of hands of the elders.
What I see here is that the Spirit spoke to saints affirming a gifting or ministry or else imparting it through speaking.
Both Local Eldership Ministry and 'Sent One' Ministry in Scripture
The Bible gives us some patterns and teaching for how the church is to be run. We see apostles going around preaching, doing miracles, proclaiming the gospel, organizing believers into an assembly presumably, teaching and discipling these believers, but often leaving pretty quick to do the same elsewhere. They keep in contact with the new churches that form dealing with issues that arise. They return and appoint elders.
Elders are to pastor the church/flock of God according to Paul and Peter. In the examples we see, they are appointed from within the church/city in which they are to minister. The Bible does not say their job is for one of them to preach a 45 minute message every week. They are to be ensamples to the flock, correct false teaching, they are to be able to teach, and their doing preaching and teaching may be a component of their being worthy of double honor. Church tradition eventually gave them near exclusive domain in blessing the Lord's Supper, performing baptisms, and later performing weddings. Scripture does not.
Ironically, all the elders we see instructions or narrative about being appointed in New Testament scripture were either appointed by someone called an apostle or appointed under the direction of an apostle by someone who was a co-laborer with the apostles in their work.
I do not believe God that the understanding we can gain from scripture about ministry roles is limited to understanding the local pastoral overseer type ministry. The Bible also teaches us about the ministry related to 'the work'-- how the gospel is spread and new churches are formed. I do believe the Spirit can speak to the church, or to smaller groups of people within the church (prophets and teachers in Antioch, for example, or elders, for example) that He is sending out people into the harvest. So I do believe the Spirit may send out apostles to continue 'the work' and reach new souls.
I see relevance for these scriptures when it comes to getting the message out to Jews and Gentiles. Romans 10:15 ...And how shall they preach except they be sent?....
Apostolic 'Outliers' Like Apollos and James the Lord's Brother
There are a couple of 'outliers', those called apostles in scripture who do not seem to fit the general mold above, but we do not know because we do not have information in scripture itself. If we read about Apollos, speaking accurately about Jesus, but only up to the baptism of John. Aquilla and Priscilla informed him further. He debated, proving from scripture that Jesus is the Messiah. They sent him across the sea to Corinth with letters. In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul said that he had preached, Apollos had watered, but God gave the increase. But he goes on to say that 'we apostles'... and decribed their difficulties compared to how well his readers had it.
Apollos might have had some 'sending experience' also. The passage doesn't say. Paul's ministry was laying new foundations. But Apollos watered what he had planted. And Paul may have recognized that Apollos was sent to do this.
Paul wrote in Galatians that he saw none of the other apostles save James the Lord's brothers. We see James working with the elders in Jerusalem. The apostles had handed over some church administration duties. They collected money, then when Barnabas and Saul bring a donation for Antioch, there are elders there to collect it. The twelve fed the widows, but it got to be a lot and there was a dispute. They needed dedicated men to handle it, so the church chose the seven based on the criteria they set forth and the apostles laid hands on them. They needed to devote themselves to being witnesses of the resurrection and to prayer. But when Paul goes to Jerusalem amidst some controversy, of course they hand the church politics over to the elders to handle-- but it is James and the elders. So James is handling this working in a group with the elders, and not doing 'the Twelve stuff'. But Paul indicates or hints that he is an apostle.
There may be a hint that James was doing some 'itinerating' ministry that we could imagine might have have falling into the category of church planting and new-church-plant-watering that Paul, Apollos, etc. were in. We read that the other apostles and the Lord's brethren had a right to travel with a sister-- a wife-- in I Corinthians 9. This is in the context of Paul discussing his right to live of the gospel. He indicates that he and Barnabas worked for a living, so apparently Barnabas took the 'tentmaker' approach to.
Andronichus and Junia--Notable Apostles or NonApostles?
Then there are Andronichus and Junia, of note among the apostles in Romans 16. Scripture does not tell us what they did. We could imagine the idea of a husband and wife team, for example, actually being sent through a prophetic word. But there is also ambiguity in the wording as to whether these were notable apostles, or whether they were just people the apostles considered to be of note. If Paul heard other apostles, for example the apostles in Jerusalem talking about how Christ-like Andronichus and Junia were, how they moved to Rome from Jerusalem, etc., then he could also have made this comment to describe them and great them.
Paul calls Epaphroditus 'your apostle' in Philippians 2:25. On the one hand, those who delivered money or gifts on behalf of the church could be their 'apostles' as we see in II Corinthians. On the other if Epaphras is a shortened form of Epaphroditus, Epaphroditus could also have been a man who expanded the kingdom territory and may have been what we call a 'church planter' in modern terminology. So he may have been 'your apostle' in another sense.
There are also evangelists. Philip is the one person who is not included in the 'apostles' label in scripture for which the term 'evangelist' is used. We can understand more about the evangelist ministry by looking at Philip. He preached did miracles, baptized.... and it seems like he left a lot of the 'follow up' for discipleship to the apostles. T
Jesus sent 12. He spoke to them personally and sent them. In Matthew 9, He says to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. Have you ever had a plan to pray for something and asked others to do the same? Well, the Lord Jesus goes up on a mountain and prays all night, and then He comes down and appoints 12, and tells them to heal, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out devils and gives them a message to preach and instructions for conduct and how they will be provided for on their preaching journey.
The Spirit Speaks--Paul and Barnabas Are Apostles.
Acts 13 shows that the Spirit spoke to prophets and teachers in Antioch, and sent out two men. Acts calls them 'apostles.' One of them was Saul/Paul, and later in Galatians we can kind of infer that he considered himself an apostle before that if we go with the south Galatia interpretation (which makes more sense). But I believe it is significant that Acts' language includes him as an apostle after the Spirit sent him out.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy--Apostles of Christ. Gift Imparted through Prophecy
Paul takes Silvanus and Timothy as co-laborers, but they write an epistle in which they describe themselves as 'apostles of Christ'. So how did the other two get to be apostles of Christ? Acts doesn't tell us specifically.
But in the case of Timothy, we can see that he got a gift imparted to him through the gift of prophecy, accompanied by the laying on of hands of the elders. Acts shows some examples of the apostles laying hands on individuals who then operated in a spiritual gift. Of course, there are examples in Acts of this happening where it is extremely unlikely the apostles were laying hands on anyone. But I Timothy 4:14 indicates a spiritual gift can be imparted through a prophecy. This was accompanied by the laying on of hands of the elders.
Acts 13 shows that Barnabas and Saul were sent by the Spirit. The Spirit spoke. It does not say if the speech was internal to all the prophets and teachers in that list's hearts, or if it were audible for all to hear, or a prophecy. But prophecy is more frequently mentioned in scripture. Also, the other ones who heard this message separated these two apostles by the laying on of hands. Compare to Timothy who actually received his gift through prophecy, accompanied by the laying on of hands of the elders.
What I see here is that the Spirit spoke to saints affirming a gifting or ministry or else imparting it through speaking.
Both Local Eldership Ministry and 'Sent One' Ministry in Scripture
The Bible gives us some patterns and teaching for how the church is to be run. We see apostles going around preaching, doing miracles, proclaiming the gospel, organizing believers into an assembly presumably, teaching and discipling these believers, but often leaving pretty quick to do the same elsewhere. They keep in contact with the new churches that form dealing with issues that arise. They return and appoint elders.
Elders are to pastor the church/flock of God according to Paul and Peter. In the examples we see, they are appointed from within the church/city in which they are to minister. The Bible does not say their job is for one of them to preach a 45 minute message every week. They are to be ensamples to the flock, correct false teaching, they are to be able to teach, and their doing preaching and teaching may be a component of their being worthy of double honor. Church tradition eventually gave them near exclusive domain in blessing the Lord's Supper, performing baptisms, and later performing weddings. Scripture does not.
Ironically, all the elders we see instructions or narrative about being appointed in New Testament scripture were either appointed by someone called an apostle or appointed under the direction of an apostle by someone who was a co-laborer with the apostles in their work.
I do not believe God that the understanding we can gain from scripture about ministry roles is limited to understanding the local pastoral overseer type ministry. The Bible also teaches us about the ministry related to 'the work'-- how the gospel is spread and new churches are formed. I do believe the Spirit can speak to the church, or to smaller groups of people within the church (prophets and teachers in Antioch, for example, or elders, for example) that He is sending out people into the harvest. So I do believe the Spirit may send out apostles to continue 'the work' and reach new souls.
I see relevance for these scriptures when it comes to getting the message out to Jews and Gentiles. Romans 10:15 ...And how shall they preach except they be sent?....
Apostolic 'Outliers' Like Apollos and James the Lord's Brother
There are a couple of 'outliers', those called apostles in scripture who do not seem to fit the general mold above, but we do not know because we do not have information in scripture itself. If we read about Apollos, speaking accurately about Jesus, but only up to the baptism of John. Aquilla and Priscilla informed him further. He debated, proving from scripture that Jesus is the Messiah. They sent him across the sea to Corinth with letters. In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul said that he had preached, Apollos had watered, but God gave the increase. But he goes on to say that 'we apostles'... and decribed their difficulties compared to how well his readers had it.
Apollos might have had some 'sending experience' also. The passage doesn't say. Paul's ministry was laying new foundations. But Apollos watered what he had planted. And Paul may have recognized that Apollos was sent to do this.
Paul wrote in Galatians that he saw none of the other apostles save James the Lord's brothers. We see James working with the elders in Jerusalem. The apostles had handed over some church administration duties. They collected money, then when Barnabas and Saul bring a donation for Antioch, there are elders there to collect it. The twelve fed the widows, but it got to be a lot and there was a dispute. They needed dedicated men to handle it, so the church chose the seven based on the criteria they set forth and the apostles laid hands on them. They needed to devote themselves to being witnesses of the resurrection and to prayer. But when Paul goes to Jerusalem amidst some controversy, of course they hand the church politics over to the elders to handle-- but it is James and the elders. So James is handling this working in a group with the elders, and not doing 'the Twelve stuff'. But Paul indicates or hints that he is an apostle.
There may be a hint that James was doing some 'itinerating' ministry that we could imagine might have have falling into the category of church planting and new-church-plant-watering that Paul, Apollos, etc. were in. We read that the other apostles and the Lord's brethren had a right to travel with a sister-- a wife-- in I Corinthians 9. This is in the context of Paul discussing his right to live of the gospel. He indicates that he and Barnabas worked for a living, so apparently Barnabas took the 'tentmaker' approach to.
Andronichus and Junia--Notable Apostles or NonApostles?
Then there are Andronichus and Junia, of note among the apostles in Romans 16. Scripture does not tell us what they did. We could imagine the idea of a husband and wife team, for example, actually being sent through a prophetic word. But there is also ambiguity in the wording as to whether these were notable apostles, or whether they were just people the apostles considered to be of note. If Paul heard other apostles, for example the apostles in Jerusalem talking about how Christ-like Andronichus and Junia were, how they moved to Rome from Jerusalem, etc., then he could also have made this comment to describe them and great them.
Paul calls Epaphroditus 'your apostle' in Philippians 2:25. On the one hand, those who delivered money or gifts on behalf of the church could be their 'apostles' as we see in II Corinthians. On the other if Epaphras is a shortened form of Epaphroditus, Epaphroditus could also have been a man who expanded the kingdom territory and may have been what we call a 'church planter' in modern terminology. So he may have been 'your apostle' in another sense.
There are also evangelists. Philip is the one person who is not included in the 'apostles' label in scripture for which the term 'evangelist' is used. We can understand more about the evangelist ministry by looking at Philip. He preached did miracles, baptized.... and it seems like he left a lot of the 'follow up' for discipleship to the apostles. T