What I find today, though, is that people want to use the term
because they crave the authority.
The hunger to have people follow you
and want to obey you. Want you to tell them what to believe.
I don't understand that.
What are the four or five different types of apostles in the New Testament?
Okay, well, there's the original 12. And, of course, Judas was replaced
at the beginning of the Book of Acts.
There's the 12. And the replacement had to be somebody
who had lived with, lived at the time of the original 12 apostles
and follow the Lord around,
I mean, had to have personal contact with Jesus, and so on and so forth.
So there's actually a criteria, criterion
for a litmus test in Acts 1 to replace Judas.
So there's that original group. Then there's, if you go to 1 Corinthians 15,
«For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.»
So we have Peter, who was one of the 12. So he appears to Peter, then the 12.
«Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time,
most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.»
So we've got Peter, and then the 12, and then these 500.
And then it says, «then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.»
So there's a third group here. It's not the 12, okay?
It's not the 12, it's not the 11 plus 1, you know, that followed up later.
It's not even the 500, you know, like, who would that be?
But there's another group of apostles here. So you've got the 12,
you've got people like Paul, and Silas.
Silas is called an apostle in one passage as well.
People who traveled with Paul. There's some debate as to whether
we could call them apostles or not, with some it's clearer than others.
And then all these other apostles that would be along with James.
James is the Lord's brother. James was not one of the original 12, okay?
He would have come later, but apparently this has some connection to Jerusalem.
The people actually doing ministry in the Jerusalem church, while the original 12
they do ministry in the Jerusalem church, but they also travel,
at least according to church tradition, later on in their lives.
And then , «last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.»
So, whatever Paul was, he excludes himself from James and that group of apostles.
He excludes himself from the 12.
And if you actually looked up "apostle" in the New Testament,
there are passages where it really looks like what's being described
as what we would call a missionary: Someone who is sent
for a specific task to a local church, either to start a church
or to minister to a church in some way.
So, is that what is being talked about in verse 7 here?
Or is that how Paul would look at himself?
Paul does claim apostleship.
Like in 2 Corinthians he makes a lot of argumentation in his own defense
as being an apostle, but he wasn't part of these other groups,
but he still uses the term. So again, this isn't a place for a lesson
on what an apostle is or isn't and how to do that,
but those are your basic categories. There's also false apostles.
At least in one passage, where you have people who claim to be apostles
and really aren't, they're false teachers.
So, there's your panoply of "apostle". I tend to think that
in our day and age we should not be using the word "apostle"
as though we considered anybody alive today to be at the level of the 12.
We also shouldn't be considering anybody alive today at the level of James
and either the rest of the 12 or others who ministered in the Jerusalem church.
We also shouldn't be using the word "apostle" at the level of somebody like Paul.
We could use the word "apostle" if what we were thinking of
is something like a missionary,
somebody sent from one congregation or group of churches
to another church to do ministry. And that's all it is. It's all an apostle is.
So, what I find today though, is that people want to the term
because they crave the authority.
I don't understand why people crave authority. I really don't.
It's something that I stumble over all the time;
that the hunger to have people follow you and want to obey you,
want you to tell them what to believe. I don't understand that.