Rethinking the “Five-Fold Ministry” Part 4 – Apostles

Apostles

And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; Eph. 4:11-12

The purpose of this series is to impart a shift in thinking from the current “five-fold ministry” paradigm to a more accurate expression of these gifts of the grace of Christ. In Part 1 we looked at the emergence of this idealism. In Part 2 we considered the validity of what is commonly called “the ministry.” Part 3 is a refutation of the cessationist position and an introduction to the foundational aspect of apostles and prophets. The next four posts will take a closer look at these gifts to the Body in terms of character and function.

Introduction

It is necessary to first affirm that the scriptures do not give us definitive descriptions of these grace gifts. Our understanding of the function of each gift is derived from the example we see in scripture, integrated with the typical usage of each word in Greek culture.

One of the common mistakes I see in Christendom is the identification of grace gifts in terms of personality. There are many APEST (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher) “assessments” available – some of which require a fee. I have looked at several of them and find they are basically personality/disposition tests (in fact, one such assessment actually states it is based on several personality trait tests). This is a poor way to determine gifting. It is obvious even with the original 12 apostles, their personalities were significantly different. I argue that the grace gifts are irrespective of one’s personality – rather, they are determined by the sovereign will of God.

Here are example questions/statements from a few of these assessments. They are presented with a typical Likert scale answering grid that identifies your alignment with the prompt on a 5-7 point scale.

1. I am motivated when I get the chance to make an offer to promote or sell a product, service, or idea in a one-on-one or group setting when there is a clear plan on how to talk about what I will offer.
2. The idea of rallying a group together towards a new cause when I can identify talent and delegate responsibility to make it happen sounds fun to me.
3. When I’m excited about something, I get others interested in it too.

As is evident in these prompts, these are nothing more than personality tests. And to top it off, several of them are administered for a fee! God does not apportion His grace according to personality. To assume so is to marginalize those who have a true grace but never have the space in which to exercise that grace. As well, when we mistakenly identify individuals according to personality we create confusion and silence the voices that need to be heard.

There is also the misunderstanding that everyone exhibits one of the APEST gifts. However, if we carefully read Eph. 4 we see that the APEST gifts are given to equip (mend) the saints so that the saints can do the work of the Kingdom. Every believer should have a dimension of these graces operating in them, but not all are given as gifts to the body. As well, a careful reading of this chapter reveals that the work of the APEST graces is meant to be temporary – until we all come to a mature stature. Apostles, Prophets, etc who are functioning properly are effectively transferring the grace of God such that they become less necessary. For the true work of building the body is done as the individual members grow into the likeness of Christ and do their individual part.

Apostles

When we consider apostles a clear distinction must be made between the original 12 (plus Paul), the other apostles listed in the new testament, and contemporary apostles. The 12 hold a unique position in the kingdom, specifically their contributions to scripture. No contemporary apostle can add to scripture. I have heard some use the Acts 2:42-47 passage to suggest that saints should submit to the “apostles teaching” with reference to contemporary apostles but this is clearly a misuse of scripture.

Let’s first discuss what apostles are not.

1. They are not individuals who have planted churches. An honest study of the scriptures reveals that no apostle ever planted a church. They planted Christ, as the seed of the kingdom, in the hearts of people and from that the church emerged.
2. They are not individuals who “oversee” several churches. This idea follows the unbiblical pattern of pastor to bishop to apostle. Oversight of the local “church” is through a plurality of elders. Some of them may be apostles, prophets, etc., but the scripture has no occurrence of an apostle overseeing multiple congregations of believers.
3. They are not necessarily charismatic, visionary leaders who are always developing new approaches to sharing the gospel. Although it may be true there are some contemporary apostles who fit this personality type, it is not a legitimate indicator of the grace. It is of great interest that we really only read about the work of three apostles in the New Testament: Paul, Peter, and John. The scripture is literally silent regarding the work of Andrew, Matthew, and the others. And clearly, their personalities were quite different.
4. They are not necessarily entrepreneurs and explorers. We have no scriptural record of apostles starting/overseeing large ministry organizations. Regrading exploration, we really only have a record of Paul’s journeys, with other (non-12) apostles accompanying him. It appears Peter, James, and John stayed close to home. And as I stated earlier, the others are not even mentioned.

Now let’s consider the Greek word apostolos. It was a fairly common Greek word that identified someone who had been sent with the authority to act on the senders behalf. It is not a “holy” word, meaning its use is strictly descriptive regardless of whether the context is sacred or profane. A poignant example is when Herod “sent” men to slay all the male children two years and younger in Bethlehem. The word translated “sent” is apostello. Obviously we wouldn’t consider those men “apostles” but by definition they were. So let’s disassociate this word from its churchy definition and take it for what it is – a word identifying one sent on behalf of another, with the authority to carry out the sender’s business. So then point number one:

An apostle is one who is sent with a specific mandate on behalf of another.

Point #1

Next, let’s settle once and for all that there were other individuals identified as apostles, apart from the 12 (or 13 including Paul). We must be clear again that the 12 (plus Paul) had a unique mandate that was primarily focused on the revelation of Jesus Christ and the writing of the scriptures. The other apostles mentioned had a mandate that is similar to the current apostolic mandate, which we will discuss later in this article. Here is a list of the other individuals identified as apostles along with the scripture reference.

• Barnabas – Acts 14:14, 1 Cor. 9:5-6
• Andronicus and Junias – Rom. 16:7
• James (the Lord’s brother) – Gal. 1:19
• Silas (Silvanus) and Timothy – 1 Thess. 1:1, 2:6
• Epaphroditus – Phil. 2:25
• Apollos – 1 Corinthians 4:6-9 & 1 Corinthians 3:22
• Two Unnamed – 2 Cor. 8:23

There were and are apostles other than the 12.

Point #2

Clearly we see there were others who carried an apostolic mandate, which leads us to the question, “What is the apostolic mandate?”

The Apostolic Mandate

The signature expression of the apostolic is the furtherance of the administration of God in the earth. The mandate is simple: Keep the Body centered on the revelation of Jesus Christ and propel the purpose of God forward. If someone makes a claim to apostleship and is busy building their ministry, or seeking to expand their overseership of churches, or using the title as a symbol of authority they are false apostles! Consider the following…

• True apostles never seek the possessions of others. (2 Thess. 3:6-12)
• True apostles do not expect support from the saints. (2 Cor. 12:14)
• True apostles never lay with the Bride to conceive their own agenda. (2 Cor. 11:2)
• True apostles are consumed with the maturity of the bride. (Gal. 4:19)
• True apostles are zealous for the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Col. 1:3-5)
• True apostles seek to further the administration of God in the earth. (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 2 Pet. 3:11-12)

No where in scripture do we find apostles as leaders of large ministry organizations. They are never about the work of building a ministry, rather they seek to build Christ in people (1 Cor. 3:6).

No where in scripture do we find apostles identified as great orators or charismatic personalities. (1 Cor. 1:17, 2:1; 2 Cor. 10:10, 11:6) On the contrary, apostles are identified by their walk of power and faith. (1 Cor. 2:4; Eph. 3:7)

Conclusion

So then where do we go from here? We must embrace an accurate definition of the apostolic grace and ask the Lord to open our eyes to those who truly walk in that grace. Apostles prefer to be unnoticed, diminished, and embrace weakness so that the power of God might be on display rather than their personality. Look for individuals with these qualities and partake of the grace within them.