Deeper Reflection
THE 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.

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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