Galatians 2:1-2 “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. (2) And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain.”
This brings us to the fourth class of apostle, which is the class of apostle that exists in the church today. The only difference between the foundational apostles and the apostles in the church today is in the area of revealing New Testament doctrine. Not all of the apostles that were in the church during Paul’s time were foundational apostles. There were also at that time, those who fall into the fourth class of apostle. The reason for that is because within each ministry gift category there are those who are more anointed than others. It is scriptural for two men to be called to operate in the same ministry gift, and the one to be more anointed than the other. For example, both Elijah and Elisha stood in the office of the prophet, but Elisha had a double portion of the anointing on his ministry than Elijah did (2 Kings 2:9). And so it was that during Paul’s time that there were foundational apostles who were more anointed than their fellow apostles, because the Lord used them for the specific task of revealing New Testament doctrine to the church. Barnabas is an example of an apostle that fell into the fourth class of apostle, because he was less anointed to stand in that office than his fellow apostle Paul. Although Barnabas was clearly an apostle, he did not receive the same degree of revelation of church doctrine that Paul had, even though they ministered together. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see that just before the Holy Spirit sent Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey, Paul received revelation from the Holy Spirit to go up to Jerusalem to compare the gospel that he was preaching with the gospel that Peter and the other apostles in Jerusalem were preaching. Notice in this passage that even though Barnabas went with Paul, Paul tells us that he went up to communicate the gospel that “he” preached, not the gospel that “they” preached. And so even though Barnabas would have been preaching the same gospel as Paul’s fellow apostle, he had nevertheless learnt that gospel from Paul.
Ephesians 4:11-12 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, (12) for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
We saw earlier in this teaching, that the Lord Jesus listed the above quoted ministry gifts in order of their importance to the church. We have also seen that it was the ministry gift of the apostle that received revelation knowledge of the doctrines of the New Testament. In other words, one of the reasons that the ministry gift of apostle was more important than any of the other gifts was because of the revelation knowledge they received. Because there is no new revelation of doctrine today, foundational apostles have since been done away with. Nevertheless the ministry gift of the apostle still exists in the church today, and this gift is still more important to the church than the other ministry gifts. One of the reasons for that is because this gift is still anointed by God to reveal and explain the doctrines that are recorded in the New Testament. In other words, the apostle of today does not receive revelation of new doctrine, but rather they receive revelation knowledge of doctrine which is already recorded in the New Testament scriptures. The following example as an illustration of what I mean by that statement. As the church went into decline after the early church period, spiritual truths in God’s word were exchanged for legalism and traditions of men. And eventually even the simple truth of salvation through faith was no longer understood. During the reformation period of the fifteen hundreds, that particular truth was once again revealed to various ministers that the Lord raised up and those men in turn began to preach that message. Because of a very limited understanding of the scriptures, those ministers never referred to themselves as apostles, nevertheless we know that they stood in the office of apostle, for scripture teaches us that revelation knowledge comes through that office (Ephesians 3:5). And so we can see from that example, that the kind of revelation knowledge that the apostles receive today, is that of restored truth. When I use the term “restored truth”, I mean that these truths are already in the New Testament, but they have not yet been revealed to the current church and the apostles of today are used by the Lord to restore those truths to the church. Another example would be the apostles that the Lord used in the early nineteen hundred’s, to restore the truth of being filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Another truth restored to the church during the mid-nineteen hundred’s, again through certain apostles, was the truth of divine healing and that Jesus still heals today as He did in the book of Acts. And so we see that when an apostle preaches the word, there will very often be a degree of revelation knowledge imparted through their preaching and teaching. The reason for that is because their understanding of God’s word will always be deeper than the other ministry gifts (except the prophet). They will share nuggets of truth in God’s word that you would not have seen before, even though those truths were in the New Testament all the time. The reason for this is because the ministry gift of the apostle has that particular anointing.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments