Deeper ReflectionTHE WORD APOSTOLOS OCCURS 80 TIMES IN THE NEW
Testament. The word can mean “one who is sent with a message”
1 – as
in “nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (Jn 13:16);
Titus and an unnamed famous evangelist were “our brothers, they are
messengers of the churches” (2 Cor 8:18, 23). But the word is mostly
used to refer to “one who fulfils the role of being a special messenger
(generally restricted to the immediate followers of Jesus Christ, but
also extended, as in the case of Paul, to other early Christians active
in proclaiming the message of the Gospel)”
2 – like Jesus choosing the
Twelve among His many disciples and named them “apostles” (Lk 6:13).Apostles like the Twelve and Paul were “special messengers” of Christ
in salvation history, who are “the foundation” on which the Church
is built (Eph 2:19-20). They were eyewitnesses of the historic risen
Jesus (Acts 1:21-22, 25). They had such authority that disobeying their
commands was equivalent to disobeying God (vv.6-9). And “their
authority is preserved today in the New Testament”
3. While there are
today no apostles of Christ with an authority comparable to that of
these apostles, “it is certainly possible to argue that there are people
with apostolic ministries of a different kind, including episcopal
jurisdiction, pioneer missionary work, church planting and itinerant
leadership”
4. So, we have people like William Carey – the “father
of modern missions” and Dawson Trotman – the founder of The
Navigators, who is considered as an apostle of disciplemaking. Hence,
it is not incorrect that some leaders today are considered as apostles.
1 Johannes P. Louw & Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, Second
Edition, Volume 1 (UBS, 1988, 1989), 33.194
2 Johannes P. Louw & Eugene A. Nida, 53.74
3 John R. W. Stott, The Message of Ephesians, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP, 1979), 161
4 John R. W. Stott, Ephesians, 161
