How Someone Becomes an Apostle

Yesterday, we dealt with the universal church. The nature of the universal church, how it is formed, what the word church means: an assembly of people called out who meet certain requirements. And we considered those requirements. The requirements are a direct, personal revelation of Jesus Christ granted to the individual by the Father through the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Father, through the Spirit, reveals the Son. And on the basis of this revelation received, acknowledged, and confessed, Jesus says,

“Upon this rock I will build my church.”

In John chapter 10, the same basic conditions are stated. Jesus said,

“The entrance into the sheepfold is by the door only. I am the door. If any man comes by the door, to him the doorkeeper will open.”

So in that parable, the Father is the Lord, the doorkeeper is the Holy Spirit, Jesus the Son crucified is the door, risen from the dead is the Shepherd. Everybody that wants to come into the sheepfold by God’s appointed way must come through the door, the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. Entering in through that door, they become members of the sheepfold. They have its blessings and its protection, and they have the risen Christ as their Shepherd.

So that we see the entrance into the assembly of God’s people on earth is of such tremendous importance and significance that it is jealously guarded by each of the three persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Spirit. You cannot bypass any person of the Godhead and enter into the church of Jesus Christ. Now, in this universal church, the total body of Christ, God has set certain ministries, which I call universal ministries or mobile ministries. The two amount to the same. They’re universal in the sense that they function to the whole body of Christ. They are mobile in the sense that they are not tied down by residence in one particular locality. So they are both mobile and universal. The other category of ministries, which we will deal with tomorrow, are the resident and local ministries.

But first of all, we’re going through the mobile, universal ministries. And we suggested that these are four: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers. The resident, local ministry is the shepherd ministry. Yesterday, we dealt with the first of these four great mobile, universal ministries, the ministry of the apostle. We said that literally an apostle means one who is sent forth. And that all through the New Testament, those who became apostles became apostles by being sent forth. During the earthly ministry of Jesus, He called to Him 12 men who were disciples, commissioned them, and sent them forth. And when they were sent forth, then they were no longer merely disciples, they had become apostles. But it says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 8 that after He had ascended, then He gave these ministry gifts. So there are apostles also given from Pentecost onwards. The pattern for these apostolic ministries is found in Acts 13, where a group of leaders waited upon the Lord in fellowship and fasting and prayer. The Holy Spirit said,

“Separate me Barnabas and Saul for a special task which I have for them.”

And when they had been separated, sanctified, commissioned, and sent forth, they had become apostles.

It’s interesting to notice, and I will deal with this again later, that the New Testament gives no endorsement to the principle of the necessity of apostolic succession. In other words, an apostle does not have to be appointed by an apostle. Because when the apostles Paul and Barnabas were sent forth from Antioch, there is no question that there were apostles appointed by Jesus during His earthly ministry in Jerusalem, which is only a short journey from Antioch. If Jesus had insisted on the principle that apostles must be appointed by apostles, that’s the principle of apostolic succession, then He could have easily arranged that some apostles whom He had already ordained Himself during His earthly ministry could have come down from Jerusalem to Antioch and ordained Paul and Barnabas. But in actual fact, the Lord deliberately set aside that principle. Paul and Barnabas were sent forth as apostles produced from within the fellowship of the local church in Antioch. And all the other apostles in the New Testament were produced in the same way. It’s a bringing forth by generation from within the womb of the local church in any area.

We saw that the nature of the apostolic ministry, in its essence, is that of a master builder. He’s the one who knows how to set up and maintain church order. He understands the principles of building from the foundation to the roof. He has a seal, which is the completed edifice. His ministry is attested by signs. The first sign is the character sign, endurance. The second sign is the miracles. There are also false apostles, and apostles have to be tried and tested by the church to which they claim to be ministering as apostles.