Apostles In The Church

Does it ever feel like the church never changes, or at least that if it does change, then the wheels of change turn very, very slowly? Does it ever feel like the church is timid, afraid to take on new challenges? Does it ever feel like the church is so busy just holding its own, surviving, that it would be foolish to think of taking on grand new projects or even launching out into new regions where the gospel has never been preached before?

When we have those feelings, then there is an important part of the church that’s missing. The gospel has been brought to every nation on earth. Grand projects have succeeded throughout the world: hospitals, schools, orphanages and beautiful churches. The church can be very powerful. But often there is something missing.

Last week we started talking about the topic of the spiritual gifts that God gives to his people. Every Christian has a gift or several gifts from God, a deep motivation to serve, an area of service in which God especially empowers them to be useful and effective. Last week we talked about the gifts in general, in an overview. This morning I’m going to start working my way through those gifts to put a little more flesh and bones on them.

And this morning we will start with the gift that is listed first in Paul’s list of spiritual gifts in Ephesians 4, the apostle.

Would you please stand for the reading of God’s word? Our text for today is, again, Ephesians 4:7, 11-16.

7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift… 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.

What’s an apostle? Many years ago my mother mentioned apostles in her Sunday school class with little kids. One of them brightened up right away and said that sometimes his family has apostle for dinner. But when she asked him about it she discovered that they had opossum for dinner, not apostle. Apostles aren’t really for eating.

What’s an apostle? The Greek word means literally, “someone who is sent out.” Long before the New Testament was written it came into use to describe a naval expedition; a group of ships sent out from their home port to do trade or deliver cargo or attack an enemy. They were sent out for a purpose.

Jesus called twelve men to be with him and learn from him and mostly we call them the twelve disciples. When we think of them as learners, then we call them disciples. But sometimes he also sent them out for the purpose of healing the sick and announcing the good news of what God was doing. And when that was the context, he called them apostles.

In Mark 3:13-19, we read that he called them to be “with him”, so that they could really have something of Christ to share, to be “sent out” to do things that just wouldn’t happen otherwise, to “proclaim the message,” they were accountable to God that the good news about Jesus Christ was to be preached, and to “have authority,” he stood behind them to bless their efforts. The power was there for success. As eyewitnesses of what Jesus taught, they had special authority to lay the theological foundations for the church. Any legitimate Christian endeavor honors the teachings they laid down.

Now, I’m doing this series to help you recognize your own spiritual gifts. But I don’t want anyone getting the idea that they are this kind of apostle, the kind who has the authority of first hand contact with the teaching of Jesus. Every once in a while the church has someone pop up and announce that Jesus has personally given them a whole new revelation and new teaching, which improves on the Bible, and everybody else is supposed to take it as from Jesus. That kind of business is nothing but trouble.