Eph 4:11-14 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; "
I will preface this message by citing incidences referring to Apostles in the New Testament
2 Cor 12:12 -signs and wonders and mighty deeds attest to a genuine Apostolic call
Gal 1:19 James the Lords brother was an Apostle, however, he was not part of the original 12
Phil 2:25 Epaphroditus was an apostle to the Philippian church
Rev2:2 It seems that there was a trend of people fraudulently claiming they were called to be Apostles, however, the Ephesian church could test and disprove such. By inference, it means they could prove those who were called indeed.
Acts 14:14 Barnabas was also separated as an Apostle by the Elders of the church.
1 Thess 2:6 Silvanus and Timothy are addressed as Apostles even though the previous stringent criteria of having seen the Lord is not evidenced to have been fulfilled.
Rom 16:7 Andronicus and Lucia are counted as being of note among the Apostles even though their credentials of having walked with the Lord or having gone through any special requirements are not stated (Not that such a system for sanctification was not there for we see in Acts 6 a strict spiritual and moral test for Deacons)
The apostles were by nature “Sent Ones” or “Messengers”. The Office of the Apostle was revered; however, it was not exclusive to the original 12 nor the later revised 12. From studying the scriptures, we realize that even early on, more people gained the title of Apostle. We can set this as a precedent for the coming Bible times in the New Church age whose practice was to heed the voice of God in “sending people out”. We need to be careful when we do our hermeneutics of the context of a verse and not make it the one thing that makes this office exclusive without considering the dynamics of the bigger Church experience in those days eg. Eph 2:20 There are instances which refer to the original 11 Apostles, which became 12 again, but the instances which refer to them should not be read as an exclusion of the other Apostles from the Office and neither is it relegation to mere “messengers” also. The same with Prophets, we do not have any indication from scripture that that Office will cease after the initial Church Age. In fact, Paul goes to great lengths to encourage people not to forbid prophecy. Acts 13 doesn’t even elaborate on who the Prophets were and what their role was in the Church at that time, but it was no secret that they were there and that they held that Office, again, because each office has accompanying signs. I find it interesting though that it seems that the “5 fold” ministry gifts did not isolate themselves, but were found working together for the good of the body. So there was no denomination which was just Prophetic, or Apostolic, or Evangelistic, or Pastoral.
-Eph 4 makes it clear that Jesus set some in “the Church”. That is a definite article representing the institution which was and still is in existence. For men to then endeavour to reason through without scriptural precedent as to the abolition of any of the set offices in scripture is very dangerous. It is not entirely true that an Apostle must carry a unique authoritative message. It is true, however, that an Apostle is foundational in his disposition, and hence will propagate foundational issues with attendant confirmatory signs (Acts 4:33). As an example, we find that there were many Apostles in scripture who don’t have a book in the NT authored by them. They all carried a message that was revealed already either by Christ Himself on earth or through the post-ascension manifestations. Paul is unique in that for him he was chiefly called to Gentiles, but this same inclusive revelation was given to Peter through a vision (Acts 10).
We can also see that the Gospel has always been a “new authoritative message” requiring men to propagate it. However, the way in which the individual moved it i.e. the signs of his ministration indicated where in the “five-fold” he was graced to stand. The Apostles are always mentioned first and I am convinced by scripture, that this unique ministry carries signs from every other major office (2 Tim 4:5). Timothy as an Apostle had to also watch that he also fulfilled the Evangelistic call on his life in order to make “full proof” of his ministry. I once blogged about a challenge within the body, which Paul also addressed in 1 Cor 12, where different members do not see value in what the other members are called to do.
This can be observed when you see ministries where the Senior Pastors or Bishop or President has a teaching gift, and he doesn’t see why there should be a prophetic gift in the Church or worse he makes it his duty to discredit anything that is not plain teaching. We also see it where the leader(s) have a strong Evangelistic office, in such cases they cannot see why people should be taught anything else other than Jesus and His saving grace. And they are quick to cite 1 Cor 2 where Paul determined to know nothing save Christ and Him crucified. Forgetting that the same Paul did know more than that. He knew about family, about prosperity, he knew about church leadership, about beneficial behaviour, dealing with stress, handling complex societal divides etc and he taught all these in a godly way consistent with the gospel and its provisions. So then we see conflict arise, Pastors want everyone to be soft spoken and understanding, teachers want everyone to be a master of didactics and homiletics, Prophets want everyone to see the way they do, Apostles want to be everything including your local politician because of their governmental unction.
“The Church”, because it is perpetually in multiple stages of growth, cannot afford to do away with any of these giftings. This because in our midst churches still need to be planted and new territories conquered (APOSTLES), governments and Christians still need prophetic voices to declare the way of the Lord and bring correction in times of error and to guide the body into the unfolding purpose of God(PROPHETS), cities need to be evangelized, to hear the heart of God for a dying and lost generation (EVANGELIST), the won need to be embraced, initiated, grounded and loved (PASTORS) and finally the grounded and founded need to grow into maturity and leave the milk and handle meat of the kingdom (Heb6) so that they don’t wander around in the wilderness of doctrinal darkness (Col 3:16) and they grow into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ and walk in the fullness of their God-given inheritance in Christ.
Yours in His Royal Service
George Mwamlowe
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