Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
The reason I push against the idea that the Apostolic gift still exists is:
(1) We can't even agree what it consists of.
(2) Some, given the freedom to define apostles as they wish, create monsters like the MOTA.
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I think we can all agree that an apostle is a "sent one" who has been sent by God to deliver a message.
Now I realize that seems to overlap with a prophet, but only superficially. For example, I was once walking across campus and I had one gospel tract left and I wanted to hand it out. So I was praying. I passed many people without handing it out and became more and more desperate in my prayer. Finally I arrived at the office I was heading for and in the waiting room there was another student so I handed her the tract and said "here, this is for you". She looked at the title "Life at best is very brief like the falling of a leaf" and said "That is appropriate, I just learned I have lung cancer".
I could share a number of other experiences, but to me there is a distinction between being sent by the Lord to deliver a message, vs speaking for the Lord vs evangelizing vs teaching.
The reason I am not willing to dismiss Apostles as a gift is because in Eph 4 it says these gifts perfect all the saints to grow into a full grown man. To me that means we all can function in all of these gifts. We may not be "gifted" but we can still function.
To me the "gift" of apostle is when they don't want to receive your message. Paul makes it very clear that he is revealed to be an apostle by delivering the message to those who very much did not want to receive it. For example, just about everyone can hit a layup in basketball. But what if Lebron James doesn't want you to make the shot? That changes everything.
Another example: my brother was getting married and asked if I would read a verse from the Bible during the ceremony. Again, I put quite a lot of prayer into this. Prior to the wedding I was driving with my Dad who asked about this. I told him I was desperately trying to edit it down because it was taking me 5 minutes. He freaked out, 5 minutes! Well as soon as I started to speak he began to signal my two brothers to yank me out of there. Since he was sitting on the front row everyone in the church could see this (except me). It was incredibly quiet, everyone was on the edge of their seat to see what was about to happen as my older brother, standing behind me was leaning in to yank me out. I was talking about how my father's children expressed him and as they were just about to cut me off I said "and we'll even let you see things he doesn't want you to see". Well I got to share my full burden and it was very memorable and I heard about it for years afterwards.
So, I also use my experience when studying the word.