What Does it Take to be an Apostle?

Transcript

GRM 978
3/11/2007
What Does it Take to Be an Apostle?
Eph. 4:11 & Select Verses
Gil Rugh


We're studying about spiritual gifts in our study of I Corinthians, so if you want to start by turning to I Corinthians 12. Then come back to II Timothy 3:16 we read, all scripture is inspired by God, literally, God-breathed. It is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. You'll note, God has given forth His scripture, it comes from Him and it is profitable for all areas of our lives. And the goal is, verse 17, to make us adequate, complete, all that God wants us to be, equipped for every good work, to enable us to do everything God wants us to do.

Now as we look at the subject of spiritual gifts, it's important that we have our feet firmly planted on the scripture, and the scripture is adequate and sufficient and it is God's plan to make the child of God everything that God wants him to be and to equip him to do everything God wants him to do. And as we look at the matter of spiritual gifts, we want to be absolutely certain that our view of the gifts is based upon what the scripture has to say. I was reminded the importance of this, this past week in reading material in preparation for our study today and I was reading of three seminary professors who in the late 1970s had to be dismissed from the evangelical seminary in which they taught. All three have earned doctor's degrees, two of them were professors in the Old Testament realm, but they came under the influence of a charismatic teacher. And one of those men wanted the seminary to change the doctrinal statement so that it would be both scripture and experience that determine our doctrine. All three of those men had to leave the seminary because of their position. We want to be sure we ground our doctrine in the scripture and the scripture alone. We're not saying we don't have experiences, but our experiences are not authoritative. We only understand experience as we come to the Word of God and find out what God has said.

Now we've been in I Corinthians 12, we've talked about various matters related to spiritual gifts. God's sovereignty in the gifts, and He bestows them on whom He wills. Every believer has a gift, it's part of being part of the body of Christ, which is the church. And you become part of the church, the body of Christ, by the baptizing work of the Spirit, by being baptized in and with the Spirit. That identifies you with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection so that now you have become a part of His spiritual body. Now as we talk about the doctrine of spiritual gifts, this is God's plan for the functioning of the church, for the functioning of the local church, as we have noted. I Corinthians 12-14 are about the subject of spiritual gifts.

I want to read two other passages with you before we look at some related material. Go back to Romans 12. This is another passage in the New Testament on the subject of spiritual gifts, not nearly as extensive as what we have in I Corinthians, but important nonetheless. Through the first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul has set forth the doctrine related to the gospel of Jesus Christ as God's power for salvation to everyone who believes. Then when you come to chapter 12 he talks about our response to that truth and the living out of that truth. So chapter 12 begins, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice. So now that you've experienced God's power in salvation, understand something of His sovereignty in that work, we realize that we are not our own, we are bought with a price. Therefore, we are to glorify God in our bodies. We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, turned over to Him for His use. It involves not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the making new of your minds.

Verse 3, and with that the first subject area he moves into, the first subject he deals with is the area of spiritual gifts. Crucial to using our bodies as a sacrifice devoted to the Lord. For through the grace given to me, you'll see in the context, that grace given to Paul is the grace that gifted him as an apostle. Through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. But to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. I'm not to exalt and puff myself up, think of myself as someone great, nor do I have to say, I don't have anything to contribute to this body. I am to think with sound judgment, I am to have a realistic consideration of myself and my gifts and abilities in light of the Word of God. So as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. The context here, that measure of faith is talking about the spiritual gifts He has given to each believer. It is parallel to what you have down in verse 6, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Another way to say that is the measure of faith given to us. And helps us understand, in grace God has sovereignly given each of us a gift to enable us to function as an effective part of the spiritual body of Christ. That is a measure of faith, an ability to trust God in a special area of ministry How often have you looked around and seen someone being used of the Lord in an area and you say, I could never do that, I wouldn't have the courage to do that. I would be afraid to do that. Or, I wouldn't know what to do there. Part of that relates to what God has gifted us to do. In your area of giftedness He has given you a measure of faith to trust Him in an area to exercise the ability He has given you. So he calls it a measure of faith.

Then he uses the same analogy that he does in writing to the Corinthians, verses 4-5, the body. We have many members in one body, all the members don't have the same function. So we who are many are one body in Christ, individually members of one another. So we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. We are to exercise the gifts accordingly. If prophecy, according to the proportion of faith. What he's going to do is move through a variety of the gifts. If service, in serving. To the first one he stretches out, if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith. In other words you're given a measure of faith, and even in the area where you might have the same gift as someone else, it's not exactly the same. My gift as a pastor doesn't mean that it's the same as someone else who has the gift of pastor. There may be someone who has a greater measure of faith than I do. If I compare myself to them it can be discouraging. I don't seem to be as effective they, nor be able to do what they do, or have as great a ministry. I'm not called to exercise my gift to the same level as someone else, but to the faith I have. The responsibility I have is to trust God and, if you will, use every ounce of ability in the gift that God has given me. That doesn't mean that my gift will be as great as someone else's, and it may be greater than another person. You exercise it according to the proportion of your faith. That's not an excuse for me to slack off, because God knows what He has given me and I'm accountable to Him. And so if your gift is in serving, you serve; in teaching, teaching; in exhorting, exhortation; in giving, giving with liberality. Now again in the gifts that doesn't mean, that's an excuse for me not to give, because some people have the gift of giving and I don't. Thank the Lord. So those who have the gift of giving can give and I'll do something else. No, we all give. But those who have a gift in an area do it with exceptional ability. Those with the gift of giving probably give a larger portion, relatively speaking, larger portion of what they have comparatively and often it's a larger portion in the ministry of the body. I may not have the gift of showing mercy, but that doesn't mean I never show mercy. These things are to characterize us as God's people. But those with the gift bring, if you will, a supernatural dimension that enables the body to function in a cohesive, orderly way.

Come over to I Peter 4. This is the other passage dealing with the gifts specifically. Verse 10, as each one has received a special gift, a gift of grace, employ it in serving one another. That's how we use our gifts, serving others. As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, that multifaceted graced of God. You see the variety in God's grace with the variety of gifts. And then the variety even within the same gifts, that some people have the gift of teaching, are especially effective, it seems, when teaching young children. Others are more effective in teaching adults. Some are effective in teaching a group of adults in a small setting, others in a larger setting. There is variety within the gifts. And then there is the variety of gifts, it's a multifaceted grace. You know we are stewards of that grace, it is a serious sin against the living God not to exercise the gift He has given me. I am a steward of that grace. Remember above all it's required of stewards that one be found faithful. Remember in the parable that Jesus told about the three different servants that their master gave money to. When he came back they gave an accounting and the one had done nothing with what had been given to him. He was greatly condemned. God has entrusted a portion of His grace to me to be used in serving others, and I am a steward of that. I will give an account of that to Him. Not a matter, well, I choose not to function, that's my choice. It is not, not if you belong to the living God. Because we belong to Him, we are His stewards and a gift is a stewardship from Him.

Whoever speaks, do it as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves, do it as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. And here he gives two broad categories to the gifts—the speaking gifts and the serving gifts. All of them are used to serve, according to verse 10, yet you can classify the gifts as those used primarily in communicating the Word and those that would be classified as serving gifts. Broad categories. So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs glory and dominion forever and ever. These are ultimately for the glory of God.

All right come to Ephesians 4. We're going to talk about some current matters on the spiritual gifts. It's important that we have a biblical understanding of spiritual gifts because this is how God intends the church, the local church, to function in a way that will bring glory to Him, in a way that will demonstrate faithfulness on the part of His stewards in the exercising of their abilities. There is much debate and discussion on the issue of spiritual gifts today. You'll see a word that is used often, that we read in the writings, talking about cessationalism. Not sensationalism, cessationalism, which basically means that some people believe that some of the gifts mentioned in the New Testament have ceased and are no longer operative. So they are cessational. They believe these gifts have ceased. Non-cessationalist believe that all the gifts mentioned in the New Testament are present down to today. You'll have to look at the biblical pros and cons of that.

I want you to go to Ephesians 4, then I'm going to read you from some of the writings of a man who has written currently. You'll note in verse 11, talking about spiritual gifts, he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers. They take five gifts here—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. You will read, if you read current material on this subject, of the revival of the fivefold ministry. When you read that expression, the revival of the fivefold ministry, they are talking about the five gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11. And what they're saying is we live in a day in which all five of these gifts are now present. We'll talk about the relationship of pastors and teachers, just taking it and examining it. And they believe that we are near the culmination of the church's final victory because we saw the revival of prophets and now following the revival of prophets in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and now into the new millennium we have the revival of apostles. This is a serious issue, that we have apostles present today.

I have some material to read to you. Couple of books written by Peter Wagner, one is called New Apostolic Churches, the other is called Church Quake. And Peter Wagner is one of the leaders in what is called the new apostolic movement, new paradigm churches. He says, the name I have settled on for the movement is the new apostolic reformation, and individual churches being designated as new apostolic churches. I use reformation because as I have said, these new wineskins appear to be at least as radical as those of the Protestant Reformation, almost 500 years ago. He believes that what is taking place in the church across the United States and around the world is as significant, if not more significant, than the Protestant Reformation of 500 years ago. Apostolic, remember he calls the movement the new apostolic reformation. It's a reformation because it is as great or greater than the reformation under Martin Luther and the reformers. Apostolic connotes a strong focus on outreach plus a recognition of present day apostolic ministry. A basic theological presupposition in new apostolic as contrasted to traditional churches is that supernatural powers tend to open the way for applying truth rather than vice versa. That is why visitors will frequently observe in these churches what seems to be more emphasis on the heart than on the mind. That's an important difference. What he's really saying is experience leads the way. In these churches there will be a lot stronger emphasis on experience, and then out of the experience we will apply the scripture. I believe they seriously have things turned around. There is a full book, then, on 18 churches, everything from Willow Creek to more charismatic churches that he would see fit within this framework, and would be comfortable seeing himself in that framework.

Another book he wrote, these books go back a few years, I think '98 and '99, on the theology of them. And we talk about the importance of the kingdom and having a proper perspective of the kingdom. One characteristic of these groups is they believe they are in the kingdom. They are basically post millennial. We are in the kingdom and we are bringing the kingdom into fullness. He's giving points here, we don't need to go in, this is on their eschatology. The new apostolic compass point value, he's giving things that mark this out that are key and significant, is that satan is being defeated, that things are going well for the kingdom of God and that spiritual victories will continue to exceed spiritual defeat. These new apostolic leaders hold what one calls a visionary eschatology. In other words, they strongly believe that more souls than ever are being saved, that churches will continue to multiply, that demonic strongholds will be torn down, that the powers of darkness will crack open and that the advance of God's kingdom is inexorable. This is post millennial. Remember the old song we used to sing, I don't think we sing it anymore—the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright; and God's great kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of love and light. You see that's progress. The darkness is turning to dawning. It's not that things get worse and worse and we have the tribulation, a tribulation like has never existed on the earth. And it's the intervention of Christ that dramatically brings it. No, it's just that darkness turns to dawning, the dawning to noonday, it's just getting better and better. So here, we are progressively moving the kingdom along and the advance of God's kingdom is inexorable.

Now what he's just said, that shows you what his theology of the kingdom is. His next paragraph is this. As I move among new apostolic leaders I hear surprisingly little conversation relating to premillenialism or postmillenialism or amillenialism. And even less about pretribulation or midtribulation or post tribulation rapture. These eschatological issues, once high on the agendas of many conservative church leaders, do not seem to be that important today. Robert Schuller's advice to young church leaders would seem to apply to new apostolic Christians. Don't let eschatology stifle your long term thinking. That's a great theological thought from a great theologian—Robert Schuller. Don't let eschatology stifle your long term thinking. He doesn't let theology influence his thinking at all. It's permeating evangelicalism. Now they say, we aren't concerned about the theology of the kingdom, but you see they have a theology of the kingdom. He says I don't hear them talking about theology like premillenial, amillenial, postmillenial. But they have a postmillenial theology—we are in the kingdom, and we are advancing the kingdom and we're winning. And ultimately the world will be won over and the kingdom will be here in its fullness. And what about us who don't hold that, who are cessationalists.

This describes us. Although their number has been diminishing significantly over the last couple of decades, some Christian leaders still consider themselves cessationalists. They hold the position that many of the spiritual gifts that were in operation in the first century church were designed by God so that their use would cease with the close of the apostolic age and with the completion of the New Testament canon. And that is the view that I hold, that we hold as a church, and I think it is biblical. We have to come to the scripture to find out, what does the scripture say. Do we have modern day apostles? Peter Wagner believes that God called him to be an apostle. How does he know? The book on apostles. How does he know we have apostles? Well I began to believe and feel in my heart that God called me to be an apostle. Then you talk about it with others and they say, I've been feeling in my heart that God has called you to be an apostle also. So that confirms it. And then you may have someone with the gift of prophecy say, God gave me a revelation and said you are going to be an apostle. So those are the three steps he uses on one of the men. We have to come and say, I believe and fell in my heart that God has called me to be an astronaut. Really? What would you say? Get over it, get real, it ain't going to happen. But he feels in his heart he's an apostle and he talks to someone else and they say, it's interesting you say that. I've been feeling in my heart that maybe you're an apostle, too.

You know the one thing that amazed me? One of these books I read a while ago, this book I read this week and the thing that amazed me about this is the almost total absence of any scripture. It's all about what this man has said and it's sociology and psychology gone to seed. The theology that's mixed in, he doesn't even try to support scripturally. It doesn't matter that the Bible says ______________ We have to look and see, have some gifts ceased? They are right, if God wants all the gifts to be present and we are closed to some, we are missing out on the fullness of God's blessing and the ability to manifest the multifaceted grace of God to bring Him glory the way He would have us do it. So we have to find out from scripture.

Now by their own admission in their writings and his writings here, he says, well we have to be pragmatic. And really experience leads the way. He says I go and look at a church that's growing and I find out what they do and what their practice is and then I know how churches grow and then he reads his theology into it. That's ____________. I mean God can grow churches, you can have the church of Laodicea that Christ says He can't stomach and He's going to vomit out. And it's a church that is prosperous and has need of nothing, and thinks it's the greatest church. And Christ says, I can't stomach you. So I can't go by experience. That doesn't mean a church might not be “successful” and growing and large and be biblical. I'm saying I have to come to the Word and find out.

So what I want to do is look, what is an apostle biblically speaking. I must say there is a certain appeal because these men are self-validating. Because once you are an apostle or an apostle/pastor you are accountable to no one, ultimately. In fact, Peter Wagner mentions in his book, the one disturbing thing I have not been able to work out is how you make apostles accountable, because by very nature they aren't accountable. And so I still have to work that out. You have to say there is a little bit of appeal to that, because if I'm an apostle/pastor and I just stand up and say, I had a dream last night and I realized I'm an apostle as well as a pastor. So I'm an apostle/pastor, and that means we don't need a Board of Elders any longer, and I really don't need your input because God just tells me directly and you do it. And that's basically how they operate. He feels that's why these churches bloom and so you get into all kinds of managerial stuff.

What does the Bible say about apostles? There were apostles in the New Testament. Paul is an apostle. Let me mention one other verse, I almost forgot it. Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Some of you may have talked to those in the charismatic movement. They'll say, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Didn't Jesus Christ do miracles when He walked this earth? Didn't He do miracles through His apostles and the book of Acts? Isn't Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever? Why would we limit Him then? Why would we not expect Him to be doing miracles today? The most I can say about that is it's terribly shallow, the worst I can say is it's absolutely stupid. Think about it, there was a time when Jesus Christ walked this earth in a physical body. You could walk up and shake hands with Him, you could sit down and eat fish with Him. Is He doing that today? No, He's seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Well I thought Jesus Christ was the same yesterday, today and forever. If He was on earth in a physical body 2000 years ago, why wouldn't He be on earth today in a physical body? Because Hebrews 13:8 is not talking about that God always does the same thing in the same way. He is always the same in His nature and His being, and what He is as God. He is the unchanging God.

There was time when God manifested Himself in the tabernacle and then the temple in Jerusalem. His glory was centered between the cherubim at the ark of the covenant. He doesn't do that today. The fact that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever doesn't mean He always does the same thing in the same way. He is always the same in His nature and being and character.

All right. What is an apostle? I've written four things that are required to be an apostle in the New Testament sense of the word. We have to be careful here because if you being to veer off, where will you stop. We'll see where that will lead you if you get off track. What is a New Testament apostle? And we have to stick with this because some will say, well, apostles are not exactly like New Testament apostles. Then they are not apostles. Well they are prophets, but they're not exactly like New Testament........... Then they are not prophets.

What did it take to be an apostle? 1) Paul was an apostle by virtue of personal appointment by Christ. Look at Romans 1:1, Paul says, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle. Or a called apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. It was not something he chose for himself, it's not a feeling he got in his heart. That was a sovereign, divine appointment, a call of God to the office of apostle. Come over to Galatians 1:1, Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead. So Paul says I didn't become an apostle because Peter and John and the others got together and decided I could be. God appointed me. And he met the requirements, there are other requirements. This is just the first. Remember this is just the first, because these men claim that God has called them to be an apostle. Paul claimed that God called him to be an apostle, but he also said there are false apostles in II Corinthians 11 and other places.

2) The second requirement of an apostle is he receives direct revelation from Christ. Galatians 1:11, for I would have you note, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it. But I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Unique to being an apostle was you received direct revelation from God. Paul says I wasn't taught the gospel by Peter or someone else, I was taught the gospel directly by Jesus Christ. That's a crucial part of being an apostle. Now that becomes important here.

Turn over to Ephesians 3. We looked into this passage in one of our previous studies and we'll just pick up the fact that Paul emphasizes repeatedly that he received revelation from God. Verse 3, by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. Verse 4, by referring to this when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. You see it was not made known to everyone, but to the apostles and prophets. That's characteristic of an apostle. 1) He is called of God, 2) he received direct revelation from God. These two these men today would claim. That's what happens, once you allow them to say we're apostles and you say, we're not going to quibble over names. Now they say as apostles, we received direct revelation. That's why they cannot be held accountable by church members. Average church members don't get direct revelation. It begins to sound like Roman Catholicism, doesn't it, and the Pope?

I mean, if I'm an apostle and God spoke to me last night, what do you have to say to that? All you have is to listen to what I have to tell you that I got directly from God. And you can't help but, as you read books like I referred to here, there is an arrogance that permeates it. We are the ones, and you understand the reason our churches grow is we've done away with all this interaction and discussion and so on. So they received direct revelation.

3) Now here is where we begin to part ways. To be a New Testament apostle you had to have seen Jesus Christ bodily after His resurrection from the dead. This is why I truly believe there are no apostles today, that they ceased with the death of the New Testament apostles. He had to have seen Jesus Christ after His resurrection from the dead. Look at I Corinthians 9:1, again Paul is the writer, am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you. You are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. We'll see more of this in our next study as we move more into the other gifts and the situation at Corinth. The Corinthians of all people ought to recognize Paul's apostleship because he had been there and given them the gospel and done miracles among them. Miracle gifts are present there, we'll say more about that in a moment.

But you'll note, am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? That's a requirement. Well how do you know that people haven't seen Christ bodily today? Most of those who are claiming to be apostles aren't, like Peter Wagner and others. At least from what I have read they weren't claiming that kind of validation. And if they did they would be liars. Turn over to I Corinthians 15, and we will get here some day. It's a chapter on the resurrection of the dead. Paul starts out by talking about the gospel that he preached, and remember that he received by direct revelation. In verse 3 he says, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. Where did he receive it? Galatians 1:11-12, I received it by revelation from Christ. That Christ died for our sins according to the scripture and that He was buried. His burial proves that He really died. And that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Everything is according to the scriptures. And that He appeared, His appearances are the proof that He was raised from the dead. He died, the proof of His death is His burial; He was raised, the proof of His resurrection are the witnesses. He appeared to Cephas, Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. Most of them were still alive, but some of them had died. Then He appeared to James, verse 7, then to all the apostles. Last of all as the one untimely born He appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles and I'm not fit to be called an apostle because I actively persecuted the church. The other apostles didn't—Peter, James and John walked with Christ during His earthly ministry. So they were believers when the church starts in Acts 2. Paul persecuted the church. We read about that in the opening chapters of Acts. He said, I am not worthy, I am the least of the apostles, I am the most unworthy. But you'll note what he says, last of all, verse 8, as the one untimely born. I'm a unique birth, I'm a unique case, I'm the only one of my kind, I'm the last one. I saw Christ on the Damascus Road. That was the unique, special occasion. So he doesn't say, then he appeared to me and then after me there were a number of other appearances. No, that was it. And it was unique because Jesus Christ departed earth and that aspect of His ministry in Acts 1, remember, the ascension. The next time He comes to earth will be in clouds of glory to establish a kingdom. But there is an exceptional case for Paul. Last of all me.

Now how do we just declare ourselves an apostle today? Well, we're not apostles in exactly the same way because we haven't seen Christ, but ________________. What they want to be, the fivefold ministry, they say, is governmental authority. I see those five gifts in Ephesians 4:11 as talking about speaking gifts. Remember we read in I Peter 4:10,11 there are the speaking gifts and the serving gifts. The five gifts in Ephesians 4:11, if you want to divide them into five, are speaking gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. They all involve verbal communication of God's truth. That is not what the apostolic people say, they say these are governmental gifts. The key element is authority, they are given authority in the church, an authority over the church. In other words, it's just a way to claim power for yourself. __________ no, you don't meet the requirements. Well I believe God called me. Well, we'll have to test further. That's one of the requirements—to be divinely appointed. The second requirement is you receive direct revelation from God. Yes, God gave me a revelation last night and told me I was an apostle. All right, the third is you have to have seen Christ after His resurrection from the dead in body, because you are to be an eyewitness of His resurrection.

Back up to Acts 10. Peter refers to this when he preaches to the Gentiles. He is at the house of Cornelius the Gentile, and for the first time now Gentiles are going to have the gospel preached to them, they are going to be saved, be baptized with the Holy Spirit, speak with tongues, become part of the church. Look at verse 39, the last statement, they also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. Peter is giving the gospel. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God. See the sovereign selection of God, that there would be specifically divinely chosen witnesses. That's what Paul unfolded, some of those witnesses in I Corinthians 15. Particularly, Peter says, to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. The particular focus for apostolic ministry was on the eleven and then the twelfth that joins them and requirement of him was that he had to be part of the ministry of Christ from the beginning, in Acts 1 the replacement for Judas. So even though Paul says in I Corinthians 15 there were 500, they weren't all apostles because there are other requirements than having seen Jesus Christ after His resurrection. So there are more witnesses of the resurrection in New Testament times to establish the fact, but the particular focus for apostolic ministry will be on the twelve. So you can see why Paul says I am one untimely born.

To all people but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand. To us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He ordered us to preach to the people and to solemnly testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God. I can tell you it's true, I saw Him. Now Paul can say that, too—I saw Him on the Damascus Road, I had a personal confrontation with the resurrected Christ. All right, that's a requirement to be an apostle.

4) And then fourthly, he had to have the ability to perform miracles. Look at II Corinthians 12:12, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs, wonders and miracles. Paul has been defending his apostleship to the church at Corinth. He says, you shouldn't have any question, I demonstrated to you that I was a true apostle, because the signs of a true apostle are the ability to do signs, wonders and miracles. Now if that wasn't the sign of a true apostle, it would be meaningless. This appears when we talk about the gift of miracles, healings and so on. If anyone could do it, it wouldn't be a sign of a true apostle. Signs, wonders and miracles are particularly associated with the ministry of the apostles.

Come back to Acts 2. Remember this is after the day of Pentecost, after Peter has preached on the day of Pentecost, telling what has been happening. Verse 42, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship to the breaking of bread, to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through all the believers. That's not what it says, is it. Through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together. But the signs and wonders are taking place through the apostles. These validate their ministry, their message. Look at Acts 5:12, at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people. You see at the hands of the apostles these things are happening. Because it's important you validate the ministry and the message of the apostles because this is new revelation as we read in Acts 3, the apostles and prophets were receiving. How do we know this is new revelation from God? God is validating it.

Go to Romans 15. Paul is talking about his ministry as an apostle, directed to the Gentiles. Verse 18, I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit. So that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And I aspired to preach the gospel not where Christ was named so that I would not build on another's foundation. You see in verse 19 his ministry was accompanied by the power of signs and wonders, the power of the Spirit. That's where you get Wimber's concept (John Wimber who founded the vineyard movement) of power evangelism. And I was going to read you a quote but I didn't want to take more time to do it on the fact that ministry of power has to precede the truth. They just have things upside down. This scripture is complete, now we have it.

Go over to Hebrews 2. A word of warning, the first warning passage, the first of five warning passages in the book of Hebrews about the seriousness of failing to place your faith in Christ. Verse 1, for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it, drift past it. You know in biblical times you used sailing ships, they didn't have motors. So in the sailing ship if they drifted past the harbor and a storm is coming, there is no way to get back. They are left open and exposed to the terror of that storm. That's the warning. You've heard the Word of God, be careful you don't drift past the safe harbor of this salvation. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable. The word spoken through angels was the law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The angels were the mediators. God gave His law to Moses through angelic beings. That law was unalterable, that was fixed. God gave it through angels but it was settled. Every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord it was confirmed to us by those who heard. So the Lord spoke it during His earthly ministry, He spoke it when He went to heaven. Those who heard it from Him confirmed it to us. How do we know? Verse 4, God also testifying with them, both by signs, wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. These supernatural miracle gifts validated the message that these apostles and prophets were giving.

How did these Jews know that these just aren't people trying to add something to their holy scriptures which we know as the Old Testament? God is validating the message. Now this is important, because those who claim that the gift of apostle is present today along with the gift of prophet, we'll say more about that in a future study, claim that revelation is also being given. And so as you read these books they tell you, God spoke to Apostle So-and-so and said this, God gave a prophetic message through So-and-so. Well, wait a minute. Are we adding to scripture now? God is still revealing new truth? I thought the book of Revelation, this prophetic book, said I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and the holy city which are in this book. I do not believe these men are believers, saved men. Who are you to judge? I am nobody, but we all sit under the authority of God's Word. And Jesus Christ said anyone who adds to His prophecy or takes away from it has no part in the tree of life, no part in His salvation.

This is a serious matter, serious matter. We have to be careful. Well, they call themselves apostles. Well, let's not dicker over terminology. But now we've taken a bad step, a wrong turn in handling the Word of God. Now that opens the door to the next step. Now these are men with authority over all other believers and these are men who can receive direct revelation from God. Just like the pope speaking ex cathedra, from his chair, out of the chair. I mean that's fixed, there can be no debate, there can be no discussion. God has spoken to him. You see what we've done, we've transferred the authority from the Word of God to man. That's what the devil is always trying to do, because all scripture is God-breathed and profitable to equip the man of God to do everything God wants him to do as a man is everything that God wants him to be. So the devil's attack is always on the scripture. How did he start with Eve in the garden? Has God said? How did he do with Christ in the temptation in Matthew 4? Well, here let's misuse the scripture. It just goes on and on.

Look at Ephesians 2 and we have to be done. Verse 19, you are no longer strangers and aliens, you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, God's household, church. The pillar and support of the truth, that's God's household, the body of Christ. Now note verse 20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple. You know our cornerstone now in modern days becomes symbolic and you lay it last sometimes. But in biblical times the cornerstone was laid and it was from that set corner that the lines were drawn for the rest of the building. So Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the truth concerning Him is the key for the whole rest of the building. The teaching we received through the apostles and prophets is the foundation that we're being built on. So we are studying various portions of the New Testament together today as the people of God, to be built on the foundation of what the apostles and prophets had revealed to them, through them to us in the scripture. We don't need new revelation, we don't need additional revelation. God has given everything there is for us at this time. It's contained in this Book.

So yes, we had apostles, we had prophets, they were there because God was giving new revelation. No, we are not coming to the culmination phase of the kingdom where God's great kingdom shall come to earth through our ministry, and the church is breaking down strongholds and more and more people are getting saved, and sin is being crushed and the church is winning and the kingdom is going to come in its fullness. That's not biblical theology, that's using portions of the Bible or maybe I should say misusing them, using them improperly. And bad theology always catches up to you. Now we mix bad theology on the kingdom with bad theology on spiritual gifts and we mix it all together and we just have a mess.

But you know the devil is smart. You know what you do? One of the chapters in one of these books is on the importance of pragmatism. You have to be pragmatic, look at the churches that are growing. So the devil is smart, we need to build some really big churches that are flourishing with this mixture of corrupted theology because the people will say, I want a church that grows. Well if it's growing, the Lord must be in it, they're saying the Lord is doing it. And he successfully has a church that follows him, the doctrine of demons and not the truth of God.

I'm not sour grapes, oh if a church is growing it must be off track. No. If a church is not being biblical, it's off track. I mean the only way to be biblical is to be biblical, right? I mean, you can't write a whole book on Church Quake and having a growing church and the principles of having a growing church and use almost no scripture. But of course if you believe you're an apostle, your word is just as authoritative and just as good. And all you have to do is talk to some other men who think they're apostles or prophets and you have new revelation anyway. So now when we bind this Book we'll just put these two right on here and one big black cover. But wait, we're not done because I have more prophecies and messages from God that men claim to get. Where does it stop? And it's all an attack on the sufficiency of scripture and the authority of scripture for the church of Jesus Christ. The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth, that truth which has been revealed.

My plan was that we would cover all the temporary gifts today. The older I get the less realistic I am and so we will continue with temporary gifts next week, and I trust we will grasp the importance of being biblical as God's church.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your truth. What a precious treasure has been entrusted to us, a revelation of your very words that speak your will to us, your purpose, your plan, the beauty of your salvation. How tragic that the church should hold this truth lightly, should treat this treasure as less than precious. May it be true of our church that we are in love with Jesus Christ, that we are in love with the truth that reveals Him to us. Lord, may we be on guard for ourselves, take heed lest we think we stand and we fall, that we would be careful in the handling of your Word. Lord, we desire to have everything, every gift, every blessing that you provide for your people in these days. Lord, guard us from desiring anything that does not come from you. May our thinking, our living be shaped by the truth of your Word as the Spirit ministers it to our hearts. We pray in Christ's name, amen.