QUALIFICATION FOR AN APOSTLE: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, COMMENTARY: Paul states that he was called to the apostleship by Jesus Christ according to the will of God. Paul introduces Sosthenes to the Corinthian Church as a brother in the Lord. ROMANS 11:1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. COMMENTARY: An apostle was called directly by Jesus Christ out of the Israelite people. An apostle had to be a Jew, not by adoption, but by birth as Jesus Himself was. ACTS 13:2, As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. ACTS 14: Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, COMMENTARY: Called by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas, born Joseph, was an early Christian, one of the earliest Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to ACTS 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Named an apostle in ACTS 14:14, he and Paul the Apostle undertook missionary journeys together and defended Gentile converts against the Judaizers. They traveled together making more converts, and participated in the Council of Jerusalem. Barnabas and Paul successfully evangelized among the God-fearing Gentiles who attended synagogues in various Hellenized cities of Anatolia. When we read of the calling of the apostles in the four Gospels and the Book of Acts, we find that all were Israelite Jews by birth and they were enpowered with the gifts that Jesus Himself had as He walked the earth, even the amility to raise the dead and able to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to another with the laying on of hands. But fore-most to be an apostle, one had to be an natural Jew by birth. An apostle-(one sent on a mission) is one whom God has sent on an errand or with a message. An apostle is accountable to his Sender and carries the authority of his Sender. Jesus Christ Himself wore the title of Apostle as one of His descriptive titles-(HEBREWS 3:1). He was sent to earth by the Heavenly Father with God’s authoritative message, which He faithfully delivered-(JOHN 17:1 thru.5). While Jesus was here on earth, He personally selected from His many followers twelve men and gave them special responsibility to receive and spread His message after He returned to heaven-(JOHN 17:6 thru.20, MATTHEW 10:1 thru.4, MARK 3:14 and 15 and MARK 6:40). There is no recorded Biblical criteria for why He chose these twelve were to be His apostles-(sent ones). One of the twelve was Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus to His enemies. In agony of conscience, Judas hanged himself-(MATTHEW 27:5). Thus, when Jesus returned to heaven, He left behind only eleven apostles. Some days later, the remaining apostles were praying with Jesus’ mother, His aunt and uncle, cousins, and other believers. The group totaled about 120-(ACTS 1:12 thru.26). Simon Peter addressed the group and told them that PSALM 69:25 predicted Judas’ desertion and PSALM 109:8 predicted that the defector’s place among the apostles should be filled. Peter proposed choosing a new apostle and set the qualifications-(ACTS 1:15 thru.26). Anyone under consideration needed to have been with Jesus during the whole three years that Jesus was among them. That is, he needed to be an eye-witness of Jesus’ baptism when the Heavenly Father validated Jesus’ person and work. He needed to have heard Jesus’ life-changing teachings and been present to see His healings and other miracles. He needed to have witnessed Jesus sacrifice Himself on the cross and to have seen Jesus walk, talk, and eat among the disciples again after His resurrection, and even witness Him being taken up into heaven. These were the pivotal facts of Jesus’ life, the heart of the message they were to teach, and personal witnesses were required to verify the truth of the good news. The prayer group nominated two who met these qualifications, Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias. Then the disciples asked God to guide them to know which one was to fill the post. Using a method of determining God’s will that was common at that time, they cast lots, thus giving God freedom to make His choice clear. The lot fell to Matthias, and he became the twelfth apostle. On repeated occasions, these men gave witness of their personal observations of Jesus, using such words as, We are witnesses of everything Jesus did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen-(ACTS 10:39 and 40). Months later, Saul, one of the Jewish Pharisees, was trying to stamp out the new cult of Christianity by killing and jailing some of Jesus’ followers. While Saul was on one of his deadly errands to Damascus, the living Jesus personally appeared to him. This undeniable encounter with the resurrected Lord revolutionized Saul’s life. In a vision to another believer in Damascus, Jesus said that He had chosen Saul as y chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel-(ACTS 9:15 and ACTS 22:14 thru.15). Following his conversion, Saul-(Paul) spent 3 years in Arabia-(believed to have been on Mt. Sinia), where he was taught by Christ-(GALATIANS 1:12 thru.17). The other apostles recognized that Jesus Himself had appointed their former enemy to be one of them. As Saul went into Gentile territories, he changed his name to the Greek Paul, and Jesus sent many messages through him to His Churches and to unbelievers. It was this apostle, Paul, who wrote over half of the Books of the New Testament. In two of his Epistles, Paul identifies the office of apostle as the first that Jesus appointed to serve His newly established Churches-(1 COR. 12:27 thru.30 and EPHESIANS 4:11). Clearly, the work of the apostle was to lay the foundation-(Jesus as the chief cornerstone), of the Church in a sense Paul was only secondary to the Church leadership to that of Christ Himself-(EPHESIANS 2:19 and 20), thus requiring eye-witness authority behind their teaching-preaching. After the apostles laid the foundation of Jesus Christ, the Church could be built on solid doctrine. While Paul never claimed to be included among the original twelve, he, the others, and all believers have recognized that Jesus appointed him as His special apostle to the Gentiles-(GALATIANS 1:1, 1 COR. 9:1 and ACTS 26:16 thru.18). There are others in the early Church referred to as apostles-(ACTS 14:4 and 14, ROMANS 16:7 and 1 THESS. 2:6), but only in the sense that they were appointed, authorized, and sent by churches on special errands. Other than Barnabas-(ACTS 14:14 who was chosen by the Holy Spirit), these individuals bore the title in a limited sense-(as bishop) and did not possess all the qualifications of apostleship that the original twelve, Barnabas and Paul did. No Biblical evidence exists to indicate that these 14 apostles were replaced when they died. See ACTS 12:1 and 2, for example. Jesus appointed the apostles to do the founding work of the Church, and foundations only need to be laid once. After the apostles’ deaths, other offices, not requiring an eye-witness relationship with Jesus, would carry on the work. The office of apostle ended during the first century, but God will restablish the Apostleship once again during the Seven tribulation with the 144,000-(REV. 7:3 thru.9) Jewish male virgins He has chosen to bring Israel back into His kingdom. Father grant us that we would be satisfied with the gift that you have bestowed upon us and use those gifts for the edification of your Church. Grant us Father that we seek not and claim not a gift, office or title that you have not rendered unto us. Give us the strength to reject the temptation of a false apostle, false prophet as our dear brother Paul had to contend with. Bless us Father in the gifts that you have provided us with and help us to use these gifts wisely for Jesus name sake and in His name I pray. A-MEN
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 20:57:55 +0000
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