The Apostle and His Role

Transcript

GR 1291
04-24-05
The Apostle and His Role
I Corinthians 1:1
Gil Rugh

We’re beginning a study of the book of I Corinthians, so you might turn there in your Bibles, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, I Corinthians. I do that up front and I’m always wondering, what am I going to do if I can’t remember and get it fouled up? We’re in I Corinthians. We’ll do a little bit of the background of this book and I might say a word that might seem strange. But we’re going to start a little slow, some of you think that’s the only pace we have in going through these books, but slower than normal. I want to cover some foundational things in the opening verses of this book, in fact we’ll take two studies to do the first 3 verses and we’ll be looking at some foundational matters then that will be played out through the rest of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.

We mentioned that Paul started the church at Corinth on his second missionary journey. And it was on that trip that Paul carried the gospel to Europe for the first time. And he established churches in Greece—in Philippi, and later he wrote the letter to the Philippians; at Thessalonica, then later he wrote two letters to the Thessalonians; and then he established a church at Corinth and would later write two letters to the church at Corinth. As we noted, the church at Corinth becomes the prominent, dominant church in our New Testament. Some 30 chapters of our New Testament are devoted to the church at Corinth—I and II Corinthians and then Acts 18, which deals with the founding of the church there. Corinth was a very crucial city; it was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia in that region of Greece. It was a very diverse city; as I noted a city perhaps of 200,000, about the size of Lincoln, Nebraska. But I want you to note that those population estimates are not solid. I don’t want to give you a misunderstanding. 200,000 is on the low side of the estimates. The estimates to the size of the city of Corinth really run anywhere from 100,000 to 1 million. That’s quite a variation. If you want to take the middle you could say it might have been 500,000. But a number of writers estimate 200,000, some estimate more. Whatever its population size, all are agreed it was a diverse city, very commercial, very political, very religious, and very wicked.

I shared with you, the very expression, to Corinthianize somebody meant to corrupt them morally. We learned something of the reputation of the city. Paul spent 18 months in the city of Corinth. That 18 months would have been somewhere in the period of time from 49 A.D. to 52 A.D. We can establish that because of the decree of Claudius, Roman emperor, that all Jews had to leave the city of Rome, and in Acts 18 Paul met Aquila and Priscilla who had recently left Rome because of that decree. We know that decree was given in 49 A.D. Then later in Paul’s stay he appears before the tribunal of the provincial governor, Gallio, and we know Gallio ruled in that position in this region from July 51 to June 52. So that helps us to place that 18 months within that framework. So sometime in 50, 51 or early part of 52 Paul was in Corinth for 18 months; he established the church there.
He is writing this letter to the church 3-4 years later, about 54 or 55 A.D. So it’s a relatively young church, only been in existence when Paul writes I Corinthians at maximum 5 years, perhaps closer to 3-4 years. He writes this letter on his third missionary journey, so he’s traveling back toward Greece; he stops at Ephesus, has a three-year ministry there. During that time he writes a letter to Corinth, planning to travel over from Asia Minor into Greece and visit the church at Corinth.

Now this is not the first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians. It is the first letter we have retained in our Bibles, and thus have a record of. Turn over to I Corinthians 5. We won’t deal with the context of this chapter, we’ll deal with it when we get here in our study, but look at verse 9 and see what Paul mentions. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. There was a prior letter he wrote to the Corinthians. In that he gave them instructions regarding their involvement with people in immorality. He’s clarifying, verse 11, actually I wrote you not to associate with any so-called brother if he’s immoral, covetous, and so on. What we want to know here is, Paul refers to a previous letter he has written, but it was not within the plan of God that that letter be retained as permanent scripture. So it’s not of particular interest to us, but at least we want to be aware that he has had communication with them. So it’s not like Paul established the church and then a period of several years goes by and then Paul re-establishes and writes a letter to correct things. There has been communication going back and forth. Paul had written them a letter; they’ve written to Paul, there have been verbal messages carried. Paul will refer to that; we’ll see in a moment. So there has been communication and interaction and this first epistle to the Corinthians as we have it, don’t get confused, the prior letter we won’t be referring to, but the first letter to the Corinthians as is in our Bible. It’s part of ongoing communication with the church at Corinth, and interaction that Paul has maintained.

We do learn that Paul was well aware that his communications were in danger of being misunderstood. In chapter 5 verse 9 he’s clarifying what he meant in a previous letter. And at different times through the letter he will try to further clarify what he is writing in this letter. Anytime you communicate with someone from a distance, you know with a letter or you send a message with someone else, they didn’t have phones in those days, so when somebody was traveling to an area you might say, if you see my friend so-and-so would you tell them such-and-such, or you send instructions through another person, there is always the possibility things will be misunderstood. So Paul will be concerned in this letter that there be no confusion.

Paul gives two basic reasons for writing this letter, I Corinthians. Back in chapter 1 verse 11, for I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. So here there has been some verbal information brought to Paul from the family of Chloe or friends of Chloe. These people had traveled over to Ephesus, had visited with Paul and then had brought a message to Paul. There is trouble in the church at Corinth; there are quarrels; there are divisions; there are factions. And Paul will spend much time in this letter dealing with the issue of the quarrels and factions in the church at Corinth. So that’s one of his reasons for writing, to deal with what he has been told about the situation in the church.
Another reason for writing, turn over to I Corinthians 7. The church at Corinth had written to Paul and asked him questions concerning how they should be functioning in certain areas. So chapter 7 opens up, now concerning the things about which you wrote. And really from chapter 7 through the rest of the letter Paul is going to be responding to issues that they have asked him about, and giving them divine revelation on those matters.

Paul begins with the normal pattern of a letter of this period of time in history. Should you read a secular letter, they follow the same pattern. They all start out by identifying the author of the letter, the recipients of the letter, and giving a word of greeting. And so Paul is writing a letter, now this becomes an extensive letter, no doubt, but it’s in the form of a letter. He starts out by identifying himself, by identifying who he is writing to, and then giving a word of greeting. And then he will move to elaborate that greeting, really, with verses 4-9. The greeting is given in verse 3, then he elaborates before he gets into the heart of the letter itself.

What I want to do is focus just on one verse, verse 1, where Paul identifies himself as the writer of the letter and who is associated with him. Verse 2 will identify the recipients, and that will be our focus in our next study, and then he gives the greeting in verse 3. And what we’ll do is look at Paul’s position as an apostle, and this is our pattern as we move through the books of the Bible. We’ll start as though we don’t have a lot of information; we won’t gloss over it because oh we studied that on other occasions. Basically we want to move through and I approach it assuming most of you here haven’t been through this. And I do that knowing that most of you have. I just want you to know I’m not losing it; I know some of this will be review of review, but I always look at it, what about a person who is here who has not been through different books with us and thus built a background of information, and trust it will be helpful to all of us as we are reminded. So we are going to focus on Paul’s role as an apostle and then at the end of our study I want to use as an example an area going on in the churches today worldwide that come out of a misunderstanding of the biblical position on what the Bible teaches about particularly the area of apostleship and the role of apostles.

Paul begins this first letter to the Corinthians, verse 1, Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother. To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He begins very simply. Who is writing this letter? Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. We know Paul really had two names, he was known more prominently by the name Saul. After his conversion we know him more by the name Paul. Now since Paul was a Jew but born into Roman citizenship, it would not have been uncommon for him to have two
names, the name that would have been more prominent for him among the Jews and then a Roman name. So there may be no significance that he was Saul, then Paul. Common that someone in that position would have had both a Jewish name and a Roman name.

What is important here is he identifies himself as a called apostle. The word apostle comes from the Greek word, apostello, compound word. The word apo means to be from or away from, stello is the verb descend. So you put it together and apostello, the verb, means one sent on behalf of someone else, sent to represent someone else. It becomes a technical term in most of its New Testament usage of a select group of men who were divinely appointed to represent Jesus Christ and spread a message concerning Him. That’s what Paul is referring to when he says, he is a called apostle. He is an apostle who has experienced the divine call of God. So he is an apostle by the will of God, as he further elaborates. To be a called apostle means he is an apostle by the will of God. It was God’s initiative and God’s action that resulted in Paul’s being an apostle. And this is crucial, foundational. This is not a position that someone could take to himself; it is not a position that could be acquired by desire. It was a divinely appointed position.

Go back to Acts 9. Paul’s call to apostleship occurs at the same time as Paul’s call to salvation. Now we often talk about the call of God in the epistles of the New Testament as the effectual call of God. But in the epistles of the New Testament the word called, when used of God, is always referring to an effectual call, a call that is effective, a call that results in the salvation of the individual called. But we also see as we look through, particularly as we go through the Corinthian letters where we will be focusing, that the call of God not only encompasses our salvation in its justification aspect, but it also encompasses the service that we will render to God as His child and as His people. So Paul was not only called to salvation in Christ, he was also called to service. And it really occurs together, it is part of God’s sovereign plan. This will come out as we look into the spiritual gifts. When a person places their faith in Christ, we become part of the church of Jesus Christ, which is the body of Christ. And an analogy will be drawn with the physical body and the body of Christ, and we’ll be talking about the church in a future study.

Well when a baby is born into the world, he’s not just born as a pile of parts. But there are fingers and ears and eyes and legs and all the parts are there. So there is a process of development in learning how to use the parts, but the parts are there in proper place and order. And so it is when we are called to salvation and thus to membership in the body of Christ, we are also called to a particular realm of service and ministry in the body of Christ. The body of Christ is not just a collection of indiscriminate parts lying around, waiting for some kind of action to put them in some place. But the call of God to salvation also involves the call of God to an area of serving and ministry. And so it is with the Apostle Paul.

Look in Acts 9, this is the account of Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road. And after his confrontation with the risen Christ and he proceeds into Damascus, a man named Ananias is sent to formally introduce Paul into his new ministry. Ananias has heard about Paul’s unsavory background in persecuting the church and individual believers. Acts 9:15, but the Lord said to him, go for he, referring to Paul, now note this, is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. So you see he’s a chosen instrument of God, and as Paul has entered into this salvation that God has provided for him, he also enters into a realm of serving. He is a chosen instrument for serving, not just a chosen instrument to enjoy the blessing of being saved and now knowing he’s not going to hell, but now he is a chosen instrument for carrying out the purposes and plans of God with his life.

Go over to Galatians, just after II Corinthians. Look at Galatians 1:1, Paul, an apostle. Now note what he emphasizes here, he is an apostle, not from men, not sent out representing men. Nor was I appointed to this particular responsibility by a group of men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead. I am an apostle by divine appointment. Go down to verse 15, but when God, who had set me apart, note this, from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach among the Gentiles. So you see that connection. Paul says from my mother’s womb God had sovereignly chosen me, sovereignly chosen that His Son would dwell in me, had sovereignly chosen that I would be an instrument to preach Jesus Christ among the Gentiles before he was ever born. Now we can go back to Ephesians 1 and find out that this sovereign work of God began before the foundation of the world. But Paul picks it up here; he’s satisfied just to deal with his physical existence. He says, you understand God’s call for me was established before I was born. I’m in the womb. The sovereign God had appointed His plan for me and that included my salvation, to have His Son dwell in me. That included my realm of serving, to preach Christ among the Gentiles.

To be an apostle. What is an apostle? Sometimes we get into problems in the church just because we don’t take time to be careful. We must first know for sure what an apostle was, what were the requirements of an apostle, before we know if a person is a valid apostle. And experience won’t do it; we need something foundational. The Apostle Paul in his writings to the Corinthians has to defend himself and his apostleship. And just like today in the church we have to deal with false teachers, false doctrine, Paul had to deal with that in New Testament times. In fact there were men who claimed to be apostles that were not. In fact one of the problems at the church in Corinth that was creating problems and the problems would get worse, were there were men who claimed that they were apostles and Paul wasn’t. And so they said that people in the church at Corinth shouldn’t listen to Paul, they should listen to them.

Turn over to II Corinthians 11. In II Corinthians 11 Paul said he is concerned that the church at Corinth maintain its purity of devotion to Christ. He warns them about those who are coming and teaching things that will lead them away from Christ. And then look down in II Corinthians 11:13, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostle of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. And you see the conflict. And in the second letter to the Corinthians Paul spends much more time defending his apostleship to the Corinthians. This becomes a crucial issue. Who is the genuine apostle? And so whose message should we believe and follow?

Well the Bible sets out some clear guidelines. What are the requirements for a genuine apostle? We’ll just walk through three of them. Keep these in mind because we’ll have to look at some men today who are claiming that they are apostles in the latter day movement of God in the church in preparation for the coming of Christ. Look at I Corinthians 9:1. The first requirement of an apostle was he had to have seen Jesus Christ personally, bodily, following the resurrection of Christ from the dead. An apostle had to have seen Jesus Christ after He was raised from the dead. I Corinthians 9:1, am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? And that occurred on the Damascus Road in the first part of Acts 9, where when Paul asks, who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Turn over to I Corinthians 15. It becomes very important. Paul unfolds the truth of the good news concerning Jesus Christ; that He died for our sins; that He was buried; which is proof that He died, and that He was raised from the dead, and that he was seen by many witnesses. His appearances are proof that he was resurrected. You’ll note in verse 5, and He appeared, and the appearances are crucial because they validate the work of Christ on the cross, that His death did pay the penalty for sin, that He was raised in victory and there are witnesses. He appeared to Cephas, that’s Peter, then to the twelve. And you’ll note, to the twelve, it’s really only eleven because Judas was no longer part of the twelve, but the title the twelve becomes a technical title for that group which was the circle following Christ. And Judas was replaced by Matthias; we’ll make note of that in a moment. After that He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. I want you to note, to be an apostle you had to have seen Jesus following His resurrection, but not everyone who saw Jesus following His resurrection from the dead was an apostle. You see the distinction. To be an apostle you had to be one of those who saw Jesus following His resurrection from the dead, but not everyone who saw Him was an apostle. There were 500 who saw Him at one time, they weren’t all apostles. Seeing Jesus following His resurrection is not the only requirement for being an apostle, but it is a foundational one.

Verse 7, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles and last of all as the one untimely born, He appeared to me also. And so the last appearance of Christ is to Paul and that is a unique case. Paul is one born out of time; he is a unique exception; that Christ would appear to him in the special way he did in Acts 9. So there will be no later appearances that will qualify anyone, I’m the last one who gets such an appearance. So the apostles will have to come from this group who have seen Him following His resurrection.

Go back to Acts 1. They are getting ready to select a replacement for Judas Iscariot who went out and hanged himself. And you’ll note the requirements here, verse 21, Peter talking, therefore it is necessary of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us. One of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection. Now you note, to be part of that group of twelve, you must have been a follower of Christ from the beginning of His public ministry. And the beginning of His public ministry is when He is baptized by John the Baptist, and the Spirit of God descends upon Him as a dove. Thus He begins His Messianic ministry. And part of the purpose of this inner circle was to be a witness of His resurrection. The apostles aren’t the only witnesses; we saw that in I Corinthians 15. But a key role they have is that they declare the message of Christ; they can also declare that they are eye witnesses, a fact that He did rise from the dead, because they’ve seen Him. And Matthias will fill that role. Paul is not the 12th apostle. Paul may be the 13th, but he’s not the 12th; he’s not part of the circle of 12. But he is an apostle and he has seen the resurrected Christ.

The second requirement, that’s not the only one, remember. The second requirement to be an apostle was you must have your ministry validated by miracles. Go over to II Corinthians 12. And Paul is involved and has been involved in defending his apostleship. We’ll pick up with verse 12. He tells them in verse 11, this is foolishness, I shouldn’t have to be defending myself to you as an apostle, and he feels awkward about doing it. I mean he is not trying to say he is someone in and of himself. There are crucial issues at stake. I’m a nobody, he says, at the end of verse 11, but I’m not inferior to the most eminent of apostles. Then verse 12, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles. So what are the signs or evidences that you are a genuine apostle? Signs, wonders and miracles. Signs were the miracles done that attested, were a sign that you were genuine. This is crucial. You know sometimes you hear people talk about the early church in the book of Acts and the idea is that miracles were going on all over the place and all kinds of Christians were experiencing and doing miracles. That’s just not the case. Paul knows here that miracles are identified in a special way with apostolic ministry. If every believer were doing them, this would not mean anything. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you. What are the signs of a true apostle? Signs, wonders and miracles. This all gets into the fact, are miracle gifts present today? Well are apostles present today? Well, has anybody seen Jesus Christ bodily today? Those are the kind of questions that have to be asked.

Go back to Acts 5. Here we are in the early church. Acts 5:12, at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people. And there is church growth going on, but there is a barrier around because verse 13 says, none of the rest dared to associate with them. Because of the purity of the church, the events of Ananias and Sapphira. What I want you to note in verse 12, is that these signs and wonders are taking place through the apostles, and this is validating their ministry, which becomes very important for the third requirement.

First requirement, you must have seen Jesus following His resurrection. Second requirement, your ministry must be validated by miracles. Third requirement, you must be the recipient of direct revelation from God. Go back to II Corinthians 12. We’re in a section where Paul is defending his apostleship, as we noted a few moments ago. But note how he started chapter 12 of II Corinthians. Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. And then verse 7, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, he had the thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. Paul was the recipient of abundant and wonderful revelations from God. In the next page or so in your Bible, Galatians 1:11, for I would have you know, 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. Paul was receiving new revelation, new information from God that we have contained now in our Bibles.

Turn back to Hebrews 2, toward the back of your New Testament. The writer to the Hebrews is speaking about the superiority of Christ and he starts out by showing He is superior to angels. And he warns them about the danger of failing to respond to the revelation given in Christ. Verse 3, how will we escape, Hebrews 2:3, if we neglect so great a salvation, after it was at first spoken through the Lord, during Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry He taught this. It was confirmed to us by those who heard; then He taught it to His apostles who have taught it now to us. God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will. You’ll note it was those who were receiving new revelation from God that had their ministry and the revelations they were receiving validated by the miraculous. Why do the apostles need to be able to do miracles? Quite frankly, I wish I could do miracles. It would put an end to any discussion, wouldn’t it? Some people disagree with me over some things; well let me just settle this, I’ll do a miracle. You say, that would settle it, go ahead and do it. I can’t. But the apostles did, not just to entertain people, but to demonstrate that their message is from God. Now there is no new revelation given. We have the completed revelation in our Bible; there is no need to validate new revelation. So the miracle gifts ceased with the apostles’ ministry.

Keep going toward the back of your Bible after Hebrews to II Peter 3. Peter is writing about those who make fun of the idea that Jesus Christ is going to come back; there is going to be judgment on this world. And he encourages believers to maintain their purity and faithfulness of devotion to Christ. II Peter 3:15, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. In other words, the fact that God has delayed judgment is an opportunity for people to be saved. Just as our beloved brother, Paul, according to the wisdom given him wrote to you, as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, now note this, which the untaught and unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction. And here the Apostle Peter says that the writings of the Apostle Paul are scripture and if you alter them or change them, you bring destruction on yourself. Remember the end of the book of Revelation, Revelation 22, Jesus said that there would be the curses of the book of Revelation brought on anyone who added or took away from the writings of that book. So here Peter says basically the same thing about the writings of Paul. They are scripture, just like the Old Testament. So the writings of Paul are scripture, and those who twist the writings of Paul twist the rest of scripture, indicating that Paul’s writings were scripture. So he is one who had received revelation. That revelation had been validated by the miracles that characterized Paul’s ministry. Now it has become part of inspired scripture.

Come back to Ephesians 3. In the first 13 verses Paul talks about the revelation that had been given through him. He says in verse 2, it was a stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for your benefit; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. This enables you to understand how I know about the mystery of Christ, verse 4, 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. New Testament prophets also received revelation from God; they also had that revelation validated by miracles. They had a different ministry than apostles; the apostles had authority in the church, as we see in Paul. The prophets also brought new revelation. And that new revelation was the new thing that God was doing—He was creating the church which would be comprised of people of all nationalities, Jews and Gentiles alike who would make up one body. So He is bringing to light, verse 9, the administration of the mystery, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. He had the grace in verse 8 to preach the message of Christ to the Gentiles. All part of the revelation given.

That’s why, look in Ephesians 2:19-20, you are God’s fellow citizens with the saints and are of God’s household, now note this, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. The foundation is the apostles and prophets, their ministry and the truth revealed to them. Now you understand as Paul writes to the Corinthians, this is new material; as he writes to the Ephesians, this is new material. He needed to have some validation. I mean there were other men running around saying I’m the true apostle, Paul is false, don’t believe him. This is not just a battle for authority, this is a battle for truth, because to reject Paul and his apostleship will be to reject the message that God is giving through Paul, and thus to respond to the false message coming through false apostles. So the role and position of the apostles is absolutely essential, and the church is built upon that foundation. Our New Testament contains the revelation given through the apostles and prophets. So we’re studying Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. I am not bringing you here and standing before you to teach you and give you new revelation. My role is to explain to you and help to clarify, to teach you the revelation that has been recorded that was given through the apostles and prophets. And that’s the foundation for our church. That is the apostolic line, not men who are raised up to take the place of the apostles as recipients of revelation, but teachers who take the revelation given through those apostles and prophets and pass it on. That’s the plan of God. That’s what we are about, that’s why we come and open our Bibles and say, we’re going to start a study of I Corinthians. Why? The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Paul wrote to Timothy and told Timothy in II Timothy 2:2, the things which you have learned from me, the Apostle Paul, in the presence of many witnesses, you teach these things to men who will be able to teach others also. The ministry of the church is not so complicated; it’s a ministry of God’s truth, a truth that has been given through apostles and prophets.

Come back to I Corinthians 1, let me summarize some things here and then give you a modern example that I want to tie in with what we’ve been saying. Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ, Christ is the one that has sent Paul and that Paul represents. And his message is a message of Christ, and that permeates everything Paul says and writes. Sosthenes, our brother, is joined with Paul. He is not the co-author of the letter. Now he was joined with Paul in the sending of the letter and his being joined here would indicate his agreement with what Paul was writing and support of it. But Paul is the apostle, the message comes through him. We noted in our study of Acts 18, the only other reference to Sosthenes in the New Testament is Acts 18:17 and here in I Corinthians 1:1. In Acts 18:17 he is the leader of the synagogue who is beaten before the judgment seat of Gallio. Evidently he has become a believer and is now joined with Paul, and that’s why Paul joins him in this letter to the church at Corinth. He is well known among the Corinthians. So Paul can identify him as Sosthenes, the brother. Not mentioned any other time in the letter, or any other letters in the New Testament. But here he is with Paul, and is enough a part of Paul’s ministry at this time, while Paul is in Ephesus, that when Paul writes back to the Corinthians where Sosthenes is from, the city of Corinth, he mentions him as the brother, and joins with him in what he has to say here, even though Paul himself is the author.

Just want to, at the end here, take a few moments to talk about this matter of apostleship and how it impacts us today, what we need to be aware of as the church. We don’t need new revelation; it is not God’s intention to give any new revelation. I referred to Revelation 22, and there the reference is to the book of Revelation particularly, but the principle is established that would be supported in other scriptures. Jesus says in Revelation 22:18, 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, the holy city which are written in the book. Our Bibles are complete, and everything we need to know about God, everything God has said to man, is contained between Genesis and Revelation. This is the Word of God.

Now that’s crucial to understand. Parts of this are not more the Word of God than others. Many of you use a red-letter Bible, sometimes I’m preaching from a red-letter Bible because it is hard to get any Bibles today that aren’t red-letter. That’s one of the worst ideas anyone ever came up with. What is the significance of a red-letter Bible? Someone told me one time that they bought a new Bible and they were sure to get red-letter so they knew what was important. And you know that’s what it does--give us the idea. If you have the very words of Christ, that’s the most important thing. But you understand that what is written in the book of Joshua is just as much the words of Christ as what is recorded that He said in the gospels. This is God’s Word; it is God speaking. It’s not some of it is God speaking and other is not, it is the Word of God. So we’re studying I Corinthians; it is just as much the words of Christ as the beatitudes in the gospel of Matthew. It’s Christ speaking; this is the Word of God. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a red-letter Bible because like I say, I sometimes am using one because most Bibles are red-letter today. Someone gets a bad idea and it multiplies. And whether it’s red, black, blue or green, it’s the Word of God. You understand that the black is just as much the Word of God as the red.

No new revelation, just the Word of God. However, there is a movement that is gaining in popularity that there is a revival of apostles and prophets in the church today. Some of you who are somewhat familiar with some charismatic teaching, you are familiar with the revival of the five-fold ministry. And the five-fold ministry is taken from Ephesians 4:11 when Christ gave gifted men to the church, He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—five. And those who believe in the revival, as they would refer to it, of the five-fold ministry are saying that apostles and prophets have come back into existence. And this comes out of the latter rain movement of more ultra-charismatics, hyper charismatics, back in the ‘40s and ‘50s of the latter rain. In the latter days God is pouring out the latter rains and so as the church is coming to its climax in history, God is pouring out His special blessings and His special outpouring of the Holy Spirit and we are seeing revival of the gifts that were given to the church in its beginning days and then went dormant, and now in the last days God is pouring out His Spirit.

One of the men who is a leader in this is Peter Wagner who I refer to because I came to know him in the ‘70s. He was one of the leaders in the church growth movement. Now we have a modern movement called the apostolic reformation. There are a couple of books that have been written recently, one is entitled The Apostolic Churches. The other is entitled, Church Quake, a play on earthquake, because what is happening now is so significant in impacting the church it’s like an earthquake in the church, it’s a church quake. And really what we have is apostolic gifts being given to the church. I’m just going to read you some summaries. Apostolic reformation centers on the belief that God is restoring the offices of apostles and prophets, and that Peter Wagner, in particular, is the apostle of God that God is using to implement that restoration. It goes beyond him personally. Peter Wagner says, back in the ‘90s we began hearing the Holy Spirit speaking about restoring apostles and prophets as the foundation of the church as God originally designed. Now you’ll note here, revelation, we began hearing the Holy Spirit speaking about restoring apostles and prophets to be the foundation of the church like Ephesians 2:20 says. Now we have direct revelation, new material, and this is a key part of it. I gradually came to the realization that God had given me the gift of apostle, and that certain spheres in the body of Christ were recognizing that I had the office. I not only had the gift, I have the office. And we hear these kinds of things, and my concern for the church and what happens is that this came out of the church growth movement where I first became familiar with Peter Wagner. You begin to analyze churches that are growing, and you look and see what is happening in growing churches, and then those are the things that everybody ought to implement. And then you work the Bible into that some way.

So you see it’s pragmatism from the standpoint, you don’t start from the Bible, let’s search the scripture and see what God says about the church, you look around and see who is being “successful.” This is what has happened to the evangelical church. You take a survey, what do people want in a church? What don’t they like in a church? All right, this is the kind of church we have for you. Then we find out that people come to church because of the music, and what kind of music they like to listen to, and then if your church is going to grow, you have to have this kind of music. And we begin to structure the church around what works. I’ve shared with you, Peter Wagner himself shared with me on one occasion when I asked him about the theology behind this movement. He said, Gil, these principles are beautiful, they work whatever your theology. In other words, you can build a large church without the Bible, or with a corrupted view of the Bible. And it’s just gotten worse, remember we say bad theology always catches up to you. Well, it’s run over Peter Wagner; now he thinks he’s an apostle.

Now I mention it, not because there is one isolated person, this is permeating the world and having such an impact that Peter thinks it should be considered on the level of the Protestant Reformation. There are a number of organizations that have developed out of this, an association of churches. One of them has over 400 churches associated with it; in over 25 nations they have representatives. So it grows.

Peter Wagner was associated with John Wimber in the vineyard movement for some time. How Peter Wagner came to this conclusion is he began to examine churches in other parts of the world that were growing, and he saw that they had a nontraditional kind of leadership. And so the key here is leadership. You’ll note, he’s analyzing the churches, he’s not looking at the Bible, he’s not looking at theology; he’s looking at what churches are doing. And the most important characteristic that we found in these new churches is that they had a new authority structure that was different from traditional Christianity. But what about what the Bible says about the authority in the structure of the church? That doesn’t come into play here. Churches growing in different parts of the world do this, so let’s get that clear and then we’ll fit the Bible in somehow, I’m sure.

He says the new apostolic reformation is an extraordinary work of God at the close of the 20th century that is to a significant extent changing the shape of Protestant Christianity around the world. In virtually every region of the world these new apostolic churches constitute the fastest growing segment of Christianity. And we need new wine skins for new wine; spiritualizing and allegorizing scripture is okay in this system. Wagner also believes that the apostles and prophets of his reformation will bring new truths to the body of Christ. He says God uses individuals, their messages and their ministries to help propagate new truth. And when Peter Wagner talks about new truth, he’s not talking about a new understanding of what the Bible teaches. He’s talking about new truth not found in the Bible, because we have new apostles and apostles receive direct revelation from God. And this new revelation from God is just as authoritative as any revelation you have in your Bible. And of course the new revelation is subjective in nature. Peter Wagner just begins to think, I think I have the gift of apostle; then some others agree with him. Now we have a movement. What about the theology? Don’t worry about that, these will work whatever your theology. We’ll put some theology into this, give us time. And on it goes.

Now I mention this because where should we start? The church growth movement, lest you think it won’t impact us, you know where one of the centers of this is? The new apostolic reformation in Kansas City. It became a center of that whole latter rain movement, and we have the Kansas City prophets, as they were known a number of years ago. They have a new name—Metro Christian Fellowship. Kansas City prophets were part of a movement that impacted the whole world. In fact one of the leading prophets from the Kansas City prophets was able to be accepted as a member at the Martin Lloyd Jones departure from Westminster Chapel in London and infiltrate that church and propagate that kind of teaching. And now today they list people there at the Metro Christian Fellowship, formerly Kansas City prophets, that are part of leading this movement. This is not just something going on in strange places. Church growth movement, who would have thought it would be so accepted. Now the evangelical world can’t get enough of the purpose driven. Those are just the church growth principles Peter Wagner was espousing in the ‘70s along with others.

Something like this comes up, what is our first response? Well, judge not that you be not judged, who is to say that God is not doing something special in these latter days of the church? I mean how can we say for sure that God is not raising up latter day apostles and prophets to lead the church in anticipation, and it will be a revival of what it was like in the early days of the church as we prepare for the climax of the church’s history? And pretty soon we’ll say, I don’t want to be negative; I don’t want to be against every new thing that comes down. But what is our response? Oh there’s a new apostle, well let’s first go to the Bible to find out if this man is a genuine apostle or if anyone could be a genuine apostle. Number 1, just explain to me, when did you see Jesus Christ bodily? Because you know an apostle has to have seen Jesus Christ. And he can’t win on this, it’s like when did you stop beating your wife? When did you see Jesus Christ? Well, I haven’t seen Him. So you don’t qualify. If he says he does, he’s a liar because Paul says in I Corinthians 15 that he was the last one. Secondly, the validating miracles. Now they claim miracles, but having spent time with some of these men, I don’t think they can be validated. And I think the scripture is clear, there is no new revelation.

So the church just ought to shut the gates and put an end to it. Oh, but look at these churches, they’re growing. And you know what we want to do? We want to move from the authority of scripture to the what-works mentality. I mean if it’s growing and they claim to believe in Christ, maybe it is the Spirit working. But the Spirit never works in conflict with Himself. And the Spirit is the one who has inspired the Word of God, so He is never in conflict with Himself. So the first thing I want to see when apostles come, the same way Paul dealt with it in Corinthians--here is what a true apostle is; here is how you recognize a true apostle from a false apostle. Don’t get confused, I am concerned lest you be led astray from your purity of devotion to Christ. The reason these things are put in our New Testament is because of what the Spirit of God has to say to the church today as well as in bygone days.

We have the Word from God; it is our privilege to turn to the scripture and find out what God has said. In the heart of fallen man there is always a desire for something new, something different, something exciting. And even in the evangelical church, if we’re not careful we begin to set our Bibles more and more aside and replace them with other things and thus face the danger the Corinthians did of being led astray from purity of devotion to Christ, because of those who make false claims and those claims are not subjected to the authority of the Word of God. The church is not the authority; the preacher is not the authority. The Word of God is the authority. The church is subject to the scriptures, contrary to Roman Catholic doctrine. The authority is the scripture. I am not the authority; the authority is the scripture. That’s why you’re encouraged to bring your Bible. If I begin to teach you something contrary to what’s in this book, then I am teaching false doctrine. I must be corrected. If this church begins as a church to espouse things that are contrary to the Word of God, then we must be brought to discipline and correction. We have an authoritative Word of God; God has spoken; He’s given us His Spirit so we might understand it. Next time we’ll talk about the church and its role

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for its clarity. Lord, may we be diligent to study your truth so we might be workmen that do not need to be ashamed, but rather are those who are handling accurately the Word of truth. May this church be a pillar and support of the truth in all its ministries. We desire that your Spirit will use your truth to bring men, women and young people to salvation through faith in Christ, would use this truth to nurture and nourish our lives that we might grow to maturity in Christ, so that in it all He might be honored. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.