Ephesians 3:1-5 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles-- (2) if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, (3) how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, (4) by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), (5) which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us that the Holy Spirit reveals the mysteries of Christ to the apostle and to the prophet. These two ministry gifts in turn reveal those mysteries to the body of Christ through their preaching and teaching of God’s word. Other ministry gifts that see an apostle or a prophet teach, and then try to copy that by thinking that they too can receive revelation knowledge of the mysteries of Christ get into trouble, because they begin to teach things which are not in line with the gospel. Rather they should recognize that their calling is to preach and teach the mysteries of the gospel that have already been revealed. For the other ministry gifts to seek to receive revelation knowledge of the mystery of Christ, is stepping outside of their callings, and that is when error begins to be taught in the church. There is more than enough revealed truth in the church today that needs to be taught, without those whom the Lord has not anointed in this area to try to discover new revelation in scripture. One area that we see a lot of this in the church today, are the myriads of teachings that are surfacing in the church regarding the end times. Most of those who are teaching on this topic do not stand in the offices of either the apostle or the prophet, and as such are operating completely outside of their anointing. What is taught outside of the anointing is not of God, for the Holy Spirit will not violate His word, and revelation knowledge will only come through the ministry gifts of the apostle and prophet.
Acts 13:1-2 “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. (2) As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Another of the primary roles of the apostle is to establish churches. In the above quoted passage of scripture we have the account of the Lord moving Barnabas and Paul from the prophets’ ministry to the ministry of the apostle. In this passage Paul and Barnabas are listed among the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch. We know from scriptural accounts that both Paul and Barnabas stood in the office of prophet at the time that this incident is recorded. After this incident however, the scripture refers to Barnabas and Paul as apostles. When we read the rest of this account in scripture we see that as apostles, Paul and Barnabas went out on the mission fields to establish churches. And so we see that the work that the Holy Spirit had called them to in this passage, was the work of establishing churches.
1 Corinthians 9:1-2 “Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? (2) If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.”
In the above passage of scripture the apostle Paul gives us some further insight into the work of an apostle. Because he tells us in this passage that the church at Corinth was his work in the Lord, and that the seal of his apostleship was the church that he had established there. Obviously, Corinth is only one example of many churches that Paul and his ministry team established throughout the Roman Empire at that time. And so if you study Paul’s’ ministry, you will see that he would start a church and stay with that church from anywhere between three months to three years. During that time, he would nurture that church to grow it both numerically and spiritually, and then he would move on to another location to start another church. After a while he would then return to visit the churches he had founded, to minister to them and strengthen them (Acts 15:36-41).
Michael E.B. Maher
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