In last night’s blog, we saw that the church is a part of God’s eternal purpose (Ephesians 3:11) and that it would be purchased by the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28).   Jesus came to this earth for one reason—to reconcile man to God by paying the price for sin through His death on the cross.  Referring to the time of His death, Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled.  And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?  But for this purpose, I have come to this hour…” (John 12:27).

Knowing that He was only going to be here for a short time, and that He would be back with the Father by the time the church was established here on earth, Jesus selected a special group of men to serve as His apostles.

Luke 6:12–16 (ESV)
¹² In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.  ¹³ And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: ¹⁴ Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, ¹⁵ and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, ¹⁶ and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

These men, except for Judas Iscariot, who was replaced by Matthias – Acts 1:26, were given to the church by Christ.

Ephesians 4:11–12 (ESV)
¹¹ And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…

The apostles would have delegated authority from Christ and serve as His ambassadors or representatives here on earth.

Matthew 18:18 (ESV)
¹⁸ Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Paul, who was the only addition, other than Matthias, to the original twelve, and who described himself as, “one born out of due time,” wrote of the special position the apostles would hold in the church.

2 Corinthians 5:20 (ESV)
²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Being ambassadors for Christ, when the apostles spoke or wrote, they did so with authority.  Their words were the words of Christ.  Jesus told them, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me…(Luke 10:16).

The apostles were equipped with the baptismal measure of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; Acts 1:1-5; 2:1-4), not only inspiring them, but also giving them the ability to transfer miraculous power to others (Acts 8:14-18), without which the first-century church could not have survived.

Today we still have the same apostles as the ones we read of in the New Testament.  There can never be any others because one of the qualifications of being an apostle is being a witness of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 1:22).  They continue to serve a critical role in the church today, but now they only operate through the inspired word that they delivered to us.  We must continue to abide in their doctrine (Acts 2:42) and follow the instructions they have left behind in the word of God.  Only then can we claim to be the Lord’s church.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.