Word of the Week
November 9, 2024
Apostolos: Can I Sign Up Here?
Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.
Ephesians 2:20 NASB2020
Now Hiring: Apostles!
I’ll bet that you haven’t seen that help-wanted notice lately. Churches are looking for pastors or directors of Christian education – or receptionists. But I have never been in a church that attempted to add an apostle to their staff.
Apostles played a central role in the earliest Christian churches, so why don’t we see them on modern organizational charts?
Naturally, we should go to the source if we want to learn the truth about this important leadership role. To do that, we will scrutinize the Greek word for apostle as it is described in the New Testament.
We get our word “apostle” directly from the Greek word apostolos [ah-PAHS-tah-loss], which occurs about 80 times in the New Testament.
The word is formed from two Greek words that mean “send” and “from,” and they carry the general meaning of a “messenger, delegate, representative,” someone who is sent as an envoy from a person with authority.
In classical Greek, the word was original a nautical term describing a freighter or a fleet sent out on a mission. Later on, it was a description of a naval commander or the term for a group of colonists heading overseas. As the years passed, it took on a broader meaning, referring to anyone sent out with a mission.
In the New Testament church, Apostolos took on a specialized meaning: a description of the men chosen by Jesus to be the founders of the church. Ephesians 2:20 declares that the apostles and prophets were the foundation of the church, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.
In the early chapters of Acts, the apostles were in charge of the fledgling congregation. They taught the believers about the gospel (Acts 2:42) and confirmed the message with miraculous signs (Acts 2:43). They were imprisoned overnight by the Sanhedrin, but an angel released them to preach in the Temple (Acts 5:18-19). They specialized in teaching and prayer, assigning organizational tasks to others (Acts 6:3-4). When a controversy arose over Gentiles entering the church, they participated in a council to settle the issue (Acts 15:4).
They were at the center of everything!
And there were only twelve men who qualified for this position. After Jesus returned to heaven, His followers gathered to pray and wait for the Spirit, as Jesus had instructed. At one point, Peter got up and raised an issue: With the defection of Judas, there was a vacancy in the twelve apostles. Acts 1:13 lists the remaining eleven by name, but they needed someone to fill out the full roster. It had to be someone who had been with the followers of Jesus from the beginning, someone who had seen the resurrected Jesus. They chose a brother named Matthias – and now there were twelve.
Was there room for more? Travel in time to the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven at the end of time.
And the wall of the city have twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Revelation 21:14).
Clearly there is a specific group of twelve who are apostles in the strictest sense.
However, several books of the New Testament start with the words “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1, etc.). Saul of Tarsus was not one of the original followers of Jesus, yet he claimed that God had made him an apostle.
For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles (2 Corinthians 11:5).
The first two chapters of Galatians argue the case that Paul is a legitimate apostle, even though some critics had questioned his credentials.
Some have suggested that the Acts 1 selection of Matthias was a mistake, and that Paul’s name is going to be engraved on the walls of the New Jerusalem. Personally, I think that he is simply an apostle in a different sense. Though he had not seen the public ministry of Jesus, he was a legitimate witness to the reality of the resurrection. He had seen the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. And God had “I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21). He was commissioned to reach the Gentile world, just as Peter’s apostleship was aimed at the Jewish world (Galatians 2:8).
The New Testament also uses the word apostolos in a broader sense.
- Barnabas was identified as an apostle when he and Paul were on their first missionary journey (Acts 14:4, 14).
- James the brother of Jesus is included as an apostle, even though he was not one of the Twelve (Galatians 1:19).
- Andronicus and Junias, members of the church in Rome are described as “outstanding among the apostles” (Romans 16:7), a phrase which might mean that they were apostles or that the apostles considered them outstanding.
Paul even uses the term to describe “false apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:13).
You can even find the older, secular meaning for the word in a passage that mentions Epaphroditus as a “messenger” [apostolos] sent by the church in Philippi to bring a gift to Paul in his Roman imprisonment (Philippians 2:25).
Back to our original question: Can I apply for a job as an apostle today?
Not if you’re jockeying for a spot in the Twelve. Those positions have already been filled.
And none of us is going to step in to duplicate the ministry of Paul.
However, each of us has been sent out as ambassadors for the kingdom of God (2 Corinthians 5:20). God has customized an assignment of good works for you (Ephesians 2:10). He may send you to bring the gospel to an unreached tribal group, or He might send you to a children’s Bible club. Wherever He sends you, you can go with His authority behind you. The title isn’t as important as the task.
Study Hint:
You can pursue this study further by investigating the spiritual gifts described in the key passages of Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. One of the gifts listed is “apostle,” and I suggest you dig into the Scriptural teaching on all the gifts described in those passages.
Consider carefully whether the mention of apostle as a spiritual gift is talking about a place in the original Twelve or something that carries a more general meaning.
Coming Up
To help you begin a study of spiritual gifts, we will do a cluster of short word studies next week, examining all the words used to describe spiritual gifts.
©Ezra Project 2024
One Response
I understand the origins meaning of the word apostle. Today, many in the church are using it in an applicable way. We must be cautious. I look at my pastor, not as an apostle, but as a messenger of God. Here, to oversee His flock.