Acts 14:21-23 “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, (22) strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God." (23) So, when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
Part of the work of an apostle in establishing churches, is to appoint elders in those churches to oversee the Lord’s flock. And so the apostle Paul would never leave a church that he had started, until he or members of his team had appointed elders whom they had tested as being faithful to the Lord (Titus 1:5-9). The above quoted passage of scripture emphasises that Paul and his team appointed elders in “every” church. As an aside, it is important to note that the biblical pattern is that Lord appoints His ministry gifts and that in turn the ministry gifts appoint elders.
1 Corinthians 1:12 “Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Christ.”
Although an apostle’s authority extends to the churches that he has established, he is not limited to ministering only in the churches that he has established however. We know this to be the case because the above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that after Paul had established the church at Corinth that other apostles and various ministry gifts also went there to minister. And we also know from scripture that Paul ministered in both the churches in Antioch and Jerusalem, even though he hadn’t started either of those churches. At that time there were no divisions in the church such as the various denominations that we see today. Nevertheless we do see this practice creeping into the church even in Paul’s day, for we see that he had to deal with the division that was manifesting in Corinthian church, with certain believers declaring that they were followers of Apollos, Paul or Cephas. The reason I mention this is because at the time of Paul’s letter, all the churches were being exposed to all the ministry gifts that were available to the church. This is how the Lord intended His church to operate, because this is the only way that His church can be matured, as they are exposed to all the ministry gifts that He has raised up. With today’s split in the church through the various denominations however, some ministry gifts cannot preach in certain churches and so those churches cannot grow as the Lord intended and subsequently those churches will never reach maturity in Christ.
1 Corinthians 9:1 “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?”
Scripture reveals to us that one of the qualifications needed to stand in the office of apostle is that Jesus Himself would have appeared to the individual at some point in their ministry. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul stated that part of his proof that he was an apostle was that he had seen Jesus Christ our Lord, and we know from scripture that Jesus appeared to Paul on numerous occasions during Paul’s life and ministry.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, (5) and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. (6) After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. (7) After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. (8) Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul gives us a list of which disciples had seen the risen Lord at that time. Paul starts the list with Peter and then he lists the twelve, referring to the twelve apostles of the Lamb, which would have included Peter. He then mentions over five hundred disciples, followed by James the Lord’s brother. And then Paul tells us that the Lord Jesus had appeared to all the apostles. Paul was not referring the twelve in this statement, but rather all the other apostles who were ministering at that time. When Paul states that Jesus was then seen by all the apostles, he is referring to men like Barnabas, Andronicus and Junia, for example. Someone will say I know of Barnabas, but who are Andronicus and Junia? In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul mentions Andronicus and Junia as being apostles and he tells us that they were in fact apostles before Paul was (Romans 16:7). And so these are the apostles, amongst others (there are a total of twenty-five apostles listed in the New Testament), that Paul is referring to when he states that Jesus appeared to all the apostles. Paul ends his list with the Lord appearing to himself as well. And so we see that this particular qualification for the office of apostle eliminates many who are going around today telling the church that they are apostles. Someone will say, does this mean that if someone has seen Jesus then that automatically makes them an apostle? Obviously not, because in this passage we see that Jesus appeared to over five hundred disciples, most of whom were not apostles. What I am saying however, is that one who is called by the Lord to stand in the office of the apostle will have seen the Lord Jesus at some point in their ministry, as part of the qualification to stand in that office. So does the Lord still appear to His apostles today? The answer is yes He does. If you study the lives and ministries of men who have been used by the Lord in this office over the centuries, even up until this present time, you will see that each one gives an account of our Lord Jesus appearing to them at some point.
Michael E.B. Maher
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