What About These Modern “Apostles”?

Are you an apostle? Last week we covered the first half of the second verse of Acts chapter 1, discussing the ascension of Jesus as the event to which this book is anchored, and as a source of our joy and confidence as we proclaim the gospel of this ascended one.

Today our task is to understand the rest of the verse, and there are a couple of different ways in which it can be interpreted because the Greek is a bit ambiguous. We'll start in verse 1 again. The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen.

Now the question that has been asked about this text historically is, what is the role of the Holy Spirit being described here? It has been taken to mean either that Jesus gave his commandments to his apostles by or through the Holy Spirit before he ascended, which you can see is the way that the NASB translates it, or it is meant to say that Christ's apostles were chosen by him through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I prefer the reading of the NASB, but I think we can agree that the agency of the Holy Spirit is involved in both events, the choosing of the apostles and his post-resurrection, pre-ascension instructions to them.

Now all the cool kids these days are calling themselves apostles. Apostle Catherine Crick, Apostle Alexander Pagani, Apostle Bill Johnson, Apostle Chuck Pierce, Apostle Che Ahn, prominent members of the New Apostolic Reformation are writing books to equip a rising generation of apostles.

But who are the apostles that Luke is talking about? Well, it should be noted that the word apostles occurs 28 times in Acts. In Acts 14 verses 4 and 14, it refers to Paul and Barnabas, and the rest of the time, it refers to anyone who feels called that way, or is appointed by someone else who feels called to be one.

No, that is nonsense, of course. It refers to the 12. Well, in our verse today, it refers to the 11, because of Judas, you know. And it says, these are the apostles whom Jesus had chosen. Luke here points us back to his first volume in the sixth chapter of his gospel, wherein Jesus spends all night in prayer before picking out from among his disciples the 12.

So, there is a distinction between the disciples who are following Jesus and the apostles that he chose from among them. And this he did by or through the Holy Spirit, because, well, everything he did, he did through or by the Holy Spirit.

After night in prayer, he is appointing these 12 to a privileged position that not every one of his disciples enjoys. So, who can be an apostle, and what are the qualifications? Well, I submit to you that our text contains the four qualifications within the scope of its teaching.

First and most obvious, an apostle must be chosen by Jesus. Second, an apostle must be taught by Jesus. Again, our text says Jesus had given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. The third qualification to be an apostle was to be a witness of the resurrected Christ.

And our verse certainly implies that if the resurrected Jesus is giving them instructions, then they have seen him, they have witnessed him. And this implication receives confirmation in the next verse, to these, the apostles, he presented himself alive.

This qualification is affirmed later in Acts 1, 21 -22.

So, one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.

Now, the fourth qualification or.

Confirmation of an apostle is his ability to perform miraculous signs. The purpose of these miraculous gifts, what Paul calls the signs of an apostle, is to be a witness to the ascended Jesus whom the apostles proclaim.

The apostolic gifts are a witness to the authenticity and to the authority of the apostolic message. This power to be Christ's witness is included in the said orders that Jesus gave to his apostles, which Luke records in the final chapter of his gospel.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Luke is preparing the.

Reader for what he is about to encounter in the following pages of this inspired narrative. And here he means to say that the account of the acts of the risen, ascended, and ruling Lord Jesus Christ through these apostles, who are not just anybody, but these apostles whom Christ chose and taught, who meet the qualifications, this account is trustworthy.

You ought to believe these men and what is recorded in these pages about what they do and say as men inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. This means that Apostle Catherine Crick does not meet the qualifications for apostleship, nor does Alexander Pagani, nor does Bill Johnson, nor does Chaon, nor does Chuck Pierce, nor does any person who claims to be an apostle today.

Whenever my wife and I talk about something that we're planning to do, or we did, or something that my four-year-old did, my two-year-old will chime in and shout, and me too! And most of the time it has absolutely nothing to do with him at all.

But he inserts himself into the conversation because he wants to be a part of everything. Now in my two-year-old it's super cute, but the childish self-insertion of these charlatans into the authority and role of the apostles whom Christ had chosen, not so much.

What these modern apostles and super apostles do, and it's the same hermeneutical fallacy that many people commit, that inspired this series. As I said in the first lesson, we are such products of our culture that we assume, and we are unfortunately, taught from many pulpits, looking at you Stephen,.

And so now I wonder am I talking about Jesus or am I talking about you, that scripture is.

Fundamentally an analogy about our personal lives so that we can apply whatever we like directly to our lives by inserting ourselves into the narrative, typically as the main character.