What is an Apostle?
Big Words of the Bible
The apostles spoken about in the Bible built the foundation that the church rests on today. You may be more familiar with them being called the 12 disciples. Jesus appointed them as apostles in Matthew 10, Mark 3, and Luke 6.
After Jesus’s ascension, the 11 remaining apostles journeyed back to Jerusalem. The apostles and Jesus’s other followers spent time “constantly in prayer,” until Peter announced that they needed to select another apostle to replace Judas Iscariot in order to fulfill the words of Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8. Peter laid out the qualifications for apostleship:
“one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
Acts 1:21-22 (NIV)
After prayer and casting lots they chose a man named Matthias to be the 12th apostle.
The 12 apostles had a unique and symbolic role to fulfill as seen in Revelation 21:9-14 and Ephesians 2:20.
The word apostle means “one who is sent out.” Paul is the most famous apostle that existed outside of the 12. Acts 9:1-31 explains how the risen Jesus appeared to Saul (who became Paul) and chose him to be an “instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.”
There are other apostles mentioned in Scripture who spread the good news of Jesus: Barnabas, Andronicus, Junia, Titus, Apollos, Epaphroditus, Silas and Timothy. Today, we might consider them to be missionaries.
So why are there no apostles now? We saw that the 12 apostles had a unique and symbolic role as the foundation of the church which does not need to be replicated today. Some of the 12 and Paul were responsible for writing the words of Scripture, which is complete according to Revelation 22:18-19. We no longer need apostles to fulfill the role of the 12 or write new books for the Bible.
However, there still need to be “ones who are sent out,” or as we would call them today, missionaries. As 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 says, God gave us His ministry of reconciliation and we are now Christ’s ambassadors. While the role of apostle has already been fulfilled, there is still important work for believers today!