"A special messenger of Jesus Christ; a person to whom Jesus delegated
authority for certain tasks. The word apostle is primarily used of the twelve disciples
Jesus first called "sent" (Mark 3:14, 6:30).... After the ascension of Christ,
the Eleven brought their number to twelve again as they prayerfully placed Matthias in
their ranks (Acts 1:23-26).
"The word apostle is also used in the New Testament when delegates of Christian
communities were "sent" into extended ministry (II Cor. 8:23). Jesus also used
the word this way when He quoted the proverb, ‘A servant is not greater than his
master; nor he who is sent [literally, ‘an apostle’] greater than he who sent
him’ (John 13:16). Jesus Himself is called ‘the Apostle ... of our
confession’ (Heb. 3:1), a reference to His function as God’s special Messenger
to the world.
"The word apostle has a wider meaning in the letters of the apostle Paul. It
includes people who, like himself, were not included in the Twelve, but who saw the risen
Christ and were specially commissioned by Him. Paul’s claim to be an apostle was
questioned by others. He based his apostleship, however, on the direct call of the exalted
Lord who appeared to him on the Damascus Road and on the Lord’s blessing of his
ministry in winning converts and establishing churches (I Cor. 15:10).
"Apparently, James, the Lord’s brother, was also regarded as an apostle (Gal.
1:19). This James was not one of the Twelve; in fact, he was not a believer in Jesus
before the Crucifixion (John 7:5). It was the resurrected Lord who ‘was seen by
James’ (I Cor. 15:7) and presumably commissioned him for his ministry. When Paul says
Jesus was seen not only by James but also by ‘all the apostles’ (I Cor. 15:7),
he seems to be describing a wider group than the Twelve to whom Jesus appeared earlier (I
Cor. 15:5).
"...In a thoroughly biblical sense, the term apostle is used today of people who
are providentially gifted for broader leadership, or who minister as pioneers in the work
of making converts and planting churches. However, the authority committed to the
first-century apostles by the Lord Jesus Christ was clearly unique, especially with
reference to the instrumentality of those who were used to give us the scriptures, their
writings which are contained in the closed canon of the New Testament."
