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Apostleship as a Spiritual Gift: Its Foundational Role and Cessation in the New Testament Church · Reformed Thinking

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  You know, if you hire a construction career to build a
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  house, there's a very rigid, non negotiable sequence of events.
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  Right. For sure.
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  Like you pour the concrete, you let it cure, you frame the walls
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  and eventually put on the roof. You do not, under any
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  circumstances, wait 10 years, walk into the beautifully
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  furnished living room and tell the true to start pouring a
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  fresh batch of wet cement all over the rugs and the sofa.
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  Right, because I mean the base goes down once it is a completed
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  project. By definition a house can only
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  have one bottom layer. If you are constantly messing
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  with the dirt underneath, you don't have a secure home, you
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  have a disaster waiting to happen.
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  Spot on. Yet when you look at the modern
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  religious landscape, we are seeing people drag cement mixers
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  right into the living room of the church.
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  Yeah, that's a great way to put it.
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  We're looking at a theological environment that is just
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  absolutely saturated with leaders trying to relay the
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  ground floor of the Christian faith.
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  Welcome to reformed thinking. This is our deep dive for today.
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  Glad to be here. Today we are taking you, our
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  listener, into a theological analysis that directly affects
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  the stability of your own faith. We are looking at the modern
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  global surge of charismatic leaders who claim to be
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  receiving fresh, direct revelations from God and who are
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  officially calling themselves apostles.
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  Yeah, and it's everywhere right now.
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  It really is. So we are going to
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  systematically unpack why the era of the Apostles closed in
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  the 1st century, why the groundwork of the Church is a
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  completely finished project, and why that finished project
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  actually secures your faith today.
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  The confusion surrounding the single concept is it's honestly
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  staggering. The title of apostle is not just
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  a harmless piece of stationary or a trendy bio on social media.
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  It touches the very bedrock of Christian authority and
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  revelation. So we are going to treat this
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  theology with the serious reverence it requires, but we
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  also want to make sure the mechanics of how this works are
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  perfectly clear to you. Yeah, we want to make it
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  accessible. Precisely to do that, we have to
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  look backward. We cannot understand what is
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  happening today without first understanding what this word
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  actually meant in its original historical context.
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  OK, let's start with the lexical bedrock.
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  We hear the word apostle thrown around a lot, but before we
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  examine whether these individuals exist today, we need
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  to define the Greek word apostolos.
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  Right Apostolos. From what I understand in its
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  broadest, most everyday Greco Roman usage, it simply meant a
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  messenger or a delegate. Like it could refer to a naval
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  expedition or perhaps an Admiral sent out by a king with a
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  specific fleet. But that broad civic usage is
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  accurate, and frankly, it is where much of the modern
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  confusion originates. Really.
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  How so? Well, in general ancient
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  society, being sent was a very common activity.
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  A person could be sent to deliver mail, to carry a payment
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  or to represent a local trade Guild in another city.
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  Just a basic errand. Runner.
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  Yeah, exactly. I mean, precisely.
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  Even the New Testament sometimes uses the word in this wider
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  sense for individuals commissioned by local
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  congregations for specific errands.
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  Oh, like who? Apeferdidis, for instance, he is
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  called a messenger, an apostolos of the church in Philippi
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  because they sent him to deliver a financial gift to Paul.
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  However, the biblical authors took this broad everyday term
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  and applied a very narrow, highly restricted legal meaning
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  to it when referring to the men chosen by Jesus Christ.
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  They infuse this Greek word with the weight of the Ancient Near
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  Eastern and Rabbinic concept of the shaliac.
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  Wait, the shaliac. Yeah, Shaliac.
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  That is a Hebrew term, right? What does that legal concept
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  actually entail for the original Jewish audience who are
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  listening to the claims of the early church?
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  So the shaliac was a legally appointed representative.
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  This was not a mail carrier, this was a proxy.
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  Legal proxy. Yes, the Jewish legal maxim
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  regarding the shaliac was staggering in its absolute
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  nature. The rabbinic rule, which you can
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  find in the Talmud, stated, and I quote, a man's agent is as the
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  man himself. Wow, as the man himself, yeah.
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  If a prominent rabbi or a wealthy merchant sent a shaliak
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  to another town to conduct business, arrange a marriage, or
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  render a legal judgment, the words of the shaliak carried the
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  exact same binding legal weight as if the sender were standing
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  there speaking those words himself.
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  That is a massive amount of authority.
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  It is so when the New Testament authors call the original 12 men
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  apostles, they are explicitly identifying them as the legal
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  proxies of Jesus Christ. So if I'm hearing you right,
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  this sounds a lot like the difference between a companies
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  social media brand ambassador and a legally appointed
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  corporate proxy. Oh, that's a good analogy.
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  Right, like a brand ambassador spreads the message.
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  They wear the company logo, they tell everyone on social media
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  how great the product is and they try to get people on board.
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  Right, they represent the vibe of the company.
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  Yeah, the vibe. Any Christian can be a brand
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  ambassador for the Gospel, but a corporate proxy holds absolute
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  signature authority. They can sit down at a
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  negotiating table, sign a massive contract, and legally
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  bind the CEO to those exact terms.
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  That is a perfect way to look at it.
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  The biblical authors reserve the title of apostle for a highly
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  specific, restricted category of men holding absolute signature
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  authority delegated directly by Jesus Christ.
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  And if we collapse that distinction?
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  If we collapse it, we run into immediate catastrophic trouble.
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  If we use the broad definition, any church planter, any
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  energetic missionary, or any influential leader could be
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  called an apostle. Which is exactly what we see
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  happening today. Spot on.
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  But such looseness obscures the historical uniqueness of the
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  office. The apostles did not gain their
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  position through ecclesiastical ambition, climbing the corporate
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  ladder or winning a congregational vote.
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  Right. They didn't campaign for it.
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  No, they were selected by the direct sovereign will of the
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  risen Lord to speak in His name. When an apostle spoke doctrine,
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  it was not a private theological opinion to be debated.
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  It was the CEO signing the contract.
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  Rejection of their official testimony was treated as a
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  direct rejection of the one who sent them.
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  I want to pause here and ask you, the listener, to evaluate
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  the titles you hear in your own circles.
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  Are leaders using the term apostle casually?
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  Are they treating it like a brand ambassador, completely
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  ignoring the immense historical and legal weight of that word?
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  It's a vital question to ask. Because if a leader claims to be
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  an apostle in the biblical sense, they are claiming to hold
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  the absolute signature authority of Jesus Christ over your life.
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  Which brings up an incredibly practical issue.
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  Because the title implies absolute proxy authority, the
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  early Church needed rigorous criteria to distinguish true
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  proxies from frauds. Yeah, because anyone could just
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  stand up and claim it. Precisely, You cannot have men
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  wandering around the Mediterranean world claiming to
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  speak with the voice of Christ without some ironclad method of
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  verification. Christ designed specific,
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  unrepeatable scriptural marks required for this office to
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  function as a divine safeguard. And these marks were completely
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  exclusive by design. Entirely exclusive.
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  Let us examine these 4 unrepeatable marks of the
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  office, because this is where the historical rubber meets the
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  road. Let's do it.
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  Mark #1 is direct, immediate appointment by Jesus Christ.
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  This means they were not chosen by a church committee, a
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  denominational board, or a slick marketing campaign.
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  No. Not at all.
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  In Luke 6 we see and Jesus calling his disciples to
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  himself, and from that larger group he explicitly chooses 12
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  whom he names apostles. It was sovereign direct
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  commissioning. The source of the office lies
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  strictly in the will of Christ. A local church can recognize
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  pastors and elders, but a church cannot manufacture an apostle.
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  Right. They don't have the jurisdiction
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  to do that. Exactly.
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  I mean spot on. Mark #2 is just as historically
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  bounded. A true apostle had to be a
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  physical eyewitness to the resurrected Christ.
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  OK, physical eyewitness. Yes, we see this vaguely in Acts
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  chapter 1. The early believers are looking
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  to replace Judas Iscariot after his suicide.
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  Peter stands up and lays out the non negotiable requirement and
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  what was that? The replacement must be someone
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  who accompanied Jesus during his earthly ministry from the
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  baptism of John until the Ascension, so they could become
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  a witness with them to his resurrection.
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  So it is not about just having a really strong internal feeling
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  about Jesus or claiming you had a dream about him.
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  No, not at all. It is a strict historical
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  requirement. They had to physically see him
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  risen from the dead with their own eyes.
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  Yes, tangible physical reality. That brings us to mark #3
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  miraculous authentication signs and wonders.
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  And we should clarify, these were not random magic tricks
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  meant to entertain a crowd or sell tickets to an event.
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  Oh, definitely not. In the gibbicle text, miracles
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  function as divine credentials validating the messenger.
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  Like a badge. Yeah, like a badge.
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  In 2nd Corinthians 12, Paul explicitly defends his ministry
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  by Speaking of the signs of a true apostle being performed
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  among them with signs and wonders and mighty works.
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  Oh, so he actually calls them the signs of an apostle.
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  Yes, Hebrews chapter 2 speaks of God bearing witness to their
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  specific message through these miraculous gifts.
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  The Lord did not ask the early believers to blindly trust these
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  men without divine attestation. That's incredibly gracious of
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  God, actually. It really is.
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  The miracles were the King's wax seal on the official document,
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  proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the proxy was
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  legitimately sent by the king. Which naturally leads to mark #4
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  binding doctrinal authority. Because they had the direct
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  appointment, the eyewitness testimony, and the miraculous
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  credentials, they held the authority to write the rules for
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  the church. In Acts 2.42.
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  The early church devoted itself to the apostles teaching.
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  They accepted the words of these men as the literal, binding word
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  of God. Taken together, these 4 marks
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  show that no one today can possibly meet the historical
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  requirements. It's impossible.
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  You cannot find someone today who physically walked with Jesus
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  in the 1st century, saw his resurrected body, and receives
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  direct commissioning from him to write scripture.
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  The design of the office was intentionally self limiting to
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  that specific era. OK, I have to jump in and play
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  devil's advocate for a second because a very common objection
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  comes up right at this point. I think I know what you're going
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  to ask. What about the Apostle Paul?
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  Yep. There it is.
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  Right. He was not one of the original
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  12. He did not walk with Jesus
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  during his earthly ministry. He was famously persecuting the
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  Church. How does he fit into these
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  strict historical marks without breaking the rule?
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  That is a crucial question. Paul is the untimely born
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  exception that actually proves the rule.
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  OK, explain that. Paul consistently defends his
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  status by appealing directly to the fact that he saw the risen
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  Christ on the road to Damascus. He was directly and immediately
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  commissioned by Christ to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
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  So he did meet the eyewitness requirement.
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  Yes, he received the miraculous signs, the eyewitness status,
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  and the doctrinal authority. His calling was unusual in its
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  timing, coming after the Ascension, but it was identical
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  in its nature to the original 12.
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  That makes you think of a constitutional analogy.
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  Let's hear it. Think about the original framers
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  of a national constitution versus modern judges.
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  The framers actually wrote the document.
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  They built the parameters of the government.
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  Modern judges just interpret it. Paul absolutely sits among the
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  framers, not the modern judges. He was brought in to help write
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  the constitutional document of the church.
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  That is perfectly stated. Understanding these strict
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  qualifications points us to when these men lived.
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  The office was tied to a highly specific, unrepeatable era in
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  the history of redemption. And the timing is not an
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  accident. No, not at all.
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  Jesus choosing 12 apostles corresponds directly to the 12
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  tribes of Israel. This signals a massive
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  covenantal shift. Right from the Old Covenant to
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  the New Covenant. Christ is inaugurating the new
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  covenant community. The apostles stand at the great
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  turning point between the promise given in the Old
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  Testament and the fulfillment achieved by Christ.
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  They belong exclusively to the era of inauguration.
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  Let's do a deep dive into the grammar of this, because this is
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  where the Greek text totally shuts down the modern arguments.
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  Oh I love this part. I know you do.
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  Let's look at Ephesians 2.20. Paul writes that the household
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  of God, the Church, is built on the groundwork of the apostles
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  and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief
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  cornerstone. You mentioned earlier that the
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  architectural context here is vital.
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  It is. Absolutely vital.
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  The Greek word for cornerstone used here is Akrogenius.
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  OK, Akrogenius. Yeah.
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  In ancient architecture, especially in massive structures
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  like the Temple Mount, the cornerstone was the primary
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  massive stone set at the corner of a building.
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  It determined the lines, the angles and the stability of the
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  entire structure. Everything else was aligned to.
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  It everything. Now look at the verb describing
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  how the Church relates to the apostles and prophets.
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  The text uses the word epochoto manothas, which translates to
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  having been built upon. OK, stop right there.
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  You just threw a massive Greek word at me.
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  I know, I know. You were saying it is an aorist
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  passive participle. For those of us who haven't
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  dusted off a Greek grammar book recently, what does aorist
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  actually signify to the person reading this letter in Ephesus?
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  Fairpoint. Let's break it down.
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  In Greek syntax, the aorist tense typically denotes a
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  completed punctilier action in the past.
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  Punctilier meaning. Meaning it refers to a specific
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  event that happened, was finished, and stands as a
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  completed historical fact. Oh wow.
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  OK. Paul is not describing a
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  construction project that is currently in the base pouring
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  phase. He is speaking to a reality that
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  has already been fully established.
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  That's huge. Furthermore, the Greek text uses
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  a single definite article linking apostles and prophets.
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  It reads the apostles and prophets, grouping them together
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  as a single unified category of revelatory agents who operated
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  in that completed past era. So bringing this back to our
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  earlier thought, claiming we need new apostles today is like
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  a contractor trying to pour wet concrete over a fully finished,
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  beautifully stained hardwood floor.
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  Exactly. The base layer is done, the
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  floor is set. If you bring a cement mixer into
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  a finished house and start pouring, you are not helping the
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  house, you are ruining the completed work.
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  If the base layer is still moving, still expanding, with
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  new apostles offering new revelations today, the
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  cornerstone is compromised. Because the lines keep moving.
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  Right, The Acrogunios loses its function because the lines of
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  the building are constantly shifting.
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  The entire building becomes unstable.
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  We would be left in a perpetual state of theological
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  construction, never able to actually live in the house
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  because the floor is always wet. So if the Greek grammar and the
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  history of redemption show that the base is finished, we must
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  draw the logical conclusion regarding the cessation of the
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  office itself. We have to.
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  The office ceased because its historical qualifications are
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  literally impossible to replicate today.
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  The initial base laying era is complete.
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  The cessation of the office is tied directly to the permanence
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  of their witness. The living office of the Apostle
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  was replaced by the permanent preservation of their testimony
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  in the written closed Canon of Scripture.
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  That we don't need them walking around today.
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  We do not need living apostles walking the earth because we
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  possess their exact words. In the New Testament, Christ now
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  governs His Church through ordinary continuing means.
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  Pastors. Elders.
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  Yeah, he uses pastors, elders and teachers who interpret the
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  written word rather than individuals receiving new direct
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  revelations from heaven. I have to play devil's advocate
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  again here. I can hear someone listening
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  right now saying, but it feels so cold.
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  If God loves His church, why remove such an amazing gift?
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  Why take away the men who could perform miracles and speak with
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  the direct voice of God? Why are we stuck reading old
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  letters? That is a very real emotional
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  reaction. I hear that a lot, but it
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  misunderstands the goal of the building process.
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  Also, think of it this way. When a magnificent European
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  cathedral is finally built, taking down the massive wooden
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  construction scaffolding is not a tragedy.
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  No, of course not. The scaffolding was absolutely
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  necessary to build the walls, hoist the stones and place the
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  stained glass, But removing it is the proof that the building
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  can now stand on its own. It reveals the beauty of the
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  finished structure. That makes total sense.
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  Removing the scaffolding is not a sign of failure.
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  It is the ultimate sign of success.
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  Cessation is not a loss for the church, it is a victory.
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  It means Christ successfully accomplished precisely what He
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  set out to do through those men. He promised to build His Church,
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  and He provided the infallible written texts which are entirely
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  sufficient for all doctrine, correction and training.
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  To demand that the scaffolding remain up forever is to imply
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  that the cathedral is fundamentally flawed and
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  structurally unsound. Acknowledging that the
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  scaffolding has been removed forces us to strictly define the
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  roles of the permanent builders who remain.
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  We have pastors, elders and missionaries.
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  Let's look at these roles to ensure we protect the boundaries
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  of ordinary ministry. First, consider apostles versus
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  prophets. Right, because Ephesians 2
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  mention both. Prophets in the New Testament
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  era were associated with the same initial revelatory period.
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  They were subordinate to the apostles, lacking the universal
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  authority and the strict requirement of being an
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  eyewitness to the resurrection. But they were tied to that same
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  era of establishing the Church's doctrine before the Canon was
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  closed. So they were part of that
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  foundation level. Both groups belong to the
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  completed groundwork. Now what about apostles versus
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  elders or pastors? We see a lot of modern pastors
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  adopting the title of apostle when their church reaches a
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  certain size or influence. Elders and pastors are ordinary
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  continuing officers in the church.
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  Their charge is to shepherd the local flock and guard sound
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  doctrine. They don't invent new doctrine.
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  No, they do not generate new revelation.
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  They minister the word that has already been given, and elders
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  authority is real, but it is derivative and bounded strictly
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  by the written text of scripture.
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  They are stewards of the completed work, not architects
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  of a new structure. And finally, apostles versus
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  missionaries. The broad Greek word apostolos
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  means sent 1, so people often confuse the two.
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  Missionaries are sent immediately by a local church.
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  A congregation prays, fasts, and commissions them to carry the
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  gospel to new regions. Right, it's a church sending
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  them. Apostles, however, were sent
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  immediately by a physical encounter with the risen Christ.
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  Missionaries do not bear universal doctrinal authority to
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  write Scripture. They simply carry the ancient
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  message to new geographical locations.
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  I think there was a very real human temptation to reward
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  extreme ministry success with grander titles.
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  When a church planter goes into a city, starts a massive
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  congregation and plants 10 other churches, people want to elevate
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  him. It's natural.
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  They want to give him a title that matches his success.
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  But blurring these lines leads to a gross inflation of
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  authority. It is like a military captain
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  who wins many victories and displays incredible tactical
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  genius on the battlefield. OK, I see where you're going.
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  Winning battles is fantastic, but it does not automatically
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  gain that captain the authority to rewrite the military's entire
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  code of conduct. Success on the ground does not
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  alter the inherent nature of the office.
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  That is a phenomenal point. When you elevate a successful
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  pastor to the status of an apostle, you grant him an
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  authority that bypasses biblical accountability.
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  Because you can't question him anymore.
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  If his words are viewed as direct revelation from God, how
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  can a congregation possibly question him?
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  This is the immense danger of inflating titles.
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  It strips the congregation of their biblical right and duty to
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  hold leadership accountable to the objective standard of the
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  Bible. It's terrifying, honestly.
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  It replaces that objective standard with a subjective
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  standard based on the leader's personal charisma and supposed
• 20:00
  visions. Let's talk about what happens
• 20:02
  when the Church ignores these boundaries, because this isn't
• 20:05
  just an abstract theological debate.
• 20:07
  We see the rise of modern movements that claim new
• 20:10
  revelations, and this threatens the stability of millions of
• 20:14
  people. It does.
• 20:15
  Let's address the sheer scale of the issue.
• 20:17
  We are talking about over 644,000,000 adherents in broader
• 20:23
  charismatic circles globally, with many of them heavily
• 20:26
  influenced by what is known as the New Apostolic Reformation or
• 20:29
  the NAR. That number is just massive.
• 20:32
  This is not a fringe issue. This is a massive shift in
• 20:34
  global religious practice. The primary error of these
• 20:38
  movements lies in equating organizational reach, personal
• 20:41
  charisma, or alleged supernatural experiences with
• 20:44
  biblical Apostolic qualifications.
• 20:46
  A man may be widely influential, he may oversee hundreds of
• 20:49
  affiliated congregations, and he may speak with incredible
• 20:52
  passion. But influence does not equal
• 20:54
  Apostolic office. So what happens when they make
• 20:57
  that equation? The result of this error is
• 20:59
  ecclesiastical tyranny. Leaders demand unquestioning
• 21:03
  loyalty from their followers. They shield themselves from
• 21:06
  biblical accountability by claiming their decisions are
• 21:09
  based on direct, subjective visions from God.
• 21:12
  The classic God told me, yeah. If a leader says God told me to
• 21:16
  do this, anyone who disagrees is no longer just disagreeing with
• 21:20
  the pastor. They are framed as rebelling
• 21:22
  against God himself. Let's analyze the psychology
• 21:25
  behind this. Why are people so drawn to this?
• 21:28
  It comes down to what the Apostle Paul called itching
• 21:31
  ears. Yes, itching ears.
• 21:32
  There is a deep seated human craving for novelty.
• 21:36
  We want to hear something fresh, something spectacular, something
• 21:39
  tailored specifically for our modern moment.
• 21:42
  That craving reveals a functional dissatisfaction with
• 21:44
  the sufficiency of the written Word of God.
• 21:47
  When people chase after modern apostles, they are subtly
• 21:50
  declaring that the Bible is not enough for them.
• 21:52
  They want something more. They want a live, ongoing voice
• 21:55
  to tell them what to do, rather than doing the hard, sanctifying
• 21:58
  work of studying, understanding and applying the ancient texts
• 22:02
  to their daily lives. I can completely relate to the
• 22:05
  desire for a fresh word from God.
• 22:09
  It sounds incredibly appealing to have someone stand up and
• 22:12
  give you a direct, customized message for your life.
• 22:14
  Of course it does. But honestly it is like using a
• 22:16
  crowd sourced, constantly updating live GPS app on your
• 22:20
  phone. Sure, sometimes it gets you
• 22:22
  there faster, but occasionally a bad user update or a software
• 22:25
  glitch drives you straight into a lake.
• 22:27
  Right, right. Relying on the completed Canon
• 22:30
  of scripture is like relying on an ancient Florida State drawn
• 22:33
  physical map that has never once been wrong.
• 22:36
  And we must understand why that static map of Scripture is
• 22:40
  actually living and active. It is not a dead historical
• 22:43
  document gathering dust. The Holy Spirit works through
• 22:46
  the written word to Pierce the heart convict of sin and reveal
• 22:50
  the beauty of Christ. So it's not just an old book,
• 22:53
  not at all. The Spirit eliminates the text,
• 22:55
  applying its timeless truths to our specific modern situations.
• 22:59
  We do not need a newly drawn map.
• 23:01
  We need the Spirit to open our eyes to the brilliant map we
• 23:04
  already hold in our hands. To counter this craving for the
• 23:07
  novel, we must anchor ourselves in the historic Reformed
• 23:10
  understanding of how God interacts with his people today.
• 23:14
  Let's look at the Westminster Confession of Faith.
• 23:16
  Yes, let's go there. This document is a brilliant
• 23:19
  summary of biblical truth. Chapter 1 states very clearly
• 23:23
  that the supreme judge of all controversies is the Holy Spirit
• 23:26
  speaking in Scripture. Not the Holy Spirit speaking
• 23:29
  through a modern visionary, but specifically in the text of
• 23:33
  Scripture. Chapter 7 of the Confession is
• 23:35
  also vital here. It details the progressive
• 23:38
  nature of God's covenantal dealings.
• 23:41
  God revealed Himself in stages throughout redemptive history,
• 23:44
  culminating in the new Covenant established by Christ and
• 23:47
  recorded by the apostles right. Once that peak was reached, the
• 23:50
  period of generating new revelation closed.
• 23:53
  Furthermore, Chapter 21 introduces the regulative
• 23:55
  principle of worship. The regulative principle.
• 23:59
  This principle states that we only worship God according to
• 24:01
  what He has explicitly commanded in His Word.
• 24:04
  We do not invent new ways to worship based on the latest
• 24:07
  prophetic utterance of a modern leader.
• 24:09
  I know the regulative principle can sound to modern ears like a
• 24:12
  bunch of 17th century guys making up rules to keep church
• 24:16
  boring, but it is actually a massive safeguard for Christian
• 24:20
  freedom, isn't? It absolutely.
• 24:22
  It protects the conscience of the believer.
• 24:24
  If worship is regulated only by Scripture, no modern pastor or
• 24:29
  self-proclaimed apostle can force you to participate in a
• 24:32
  practice or believe a doctrine that isn't clearly found in the
• 24:35
  Bible. So it's actually liberating.
• 24:37
  It frees you from the tyranny of human invention.
• 24:39
  This brings us to a crucial theological distinction, law and
• 24:44
  gospel. The law exposes our sinful
• 24:47
  nature. In this context, the law exposes
• 24:50
  our rebellious, idolatrous desire for a mediator other than
• 24:54
  Christ. That's a strong word.
• 24:55
  Idolatrous, but it fits. It really does.
• 24:58
  When we seek modern apostles to give us fresh words, we are
• 25:01
  functionally looking for a new mediator to stand between US and
• 25:04
  God. We are rejecting the sufficiency
• 25:06
  of what Christ provided. The Gospel, on the other hand,
• 25:08
  announces the remedy. The Gospel declares that
• 25:11
  Christ's finished work, witnessed and recorded by the
• 25:14
  original 1st century men, is our totally sufficient cure.
• 25:17
  We don't need anyone. Else we do not need a new
• 25:20
  mediator, because the great High Priest has already secured our
• 25:23
  salvation and given us everything we need for life and
• 25:25
  godliness in His written Word. This funnels all of the church's
• 25:29
  energy into what we call the ordinary means of grace.
• 25:33
  These are the simple, everyday practices, the preaching of the
• 25:36
  Word, prayer, the sacraments of baptism and communion, and
• 25:39
  church discipline. True worship is governed by the
• 25:42
  biblical text, not by chasing the extraordinary.
• 25:45
  The cessation of the extraordinary office does not
• 25:47
  leave the church empty. It directs our focus to the
• 25:51
  steady, sustaining practices that build long term spiritual
• 25:54
  health. The ordinary means of grace are
• 25:57
  how Christ presently nourishes His flock.
• 25:59
  But let's be honest, relying only on the ordinary means can
• 26:03
  make church feel stagnant. Compared to a supposed live
• 26:05
  revelation, steady routines can feel less exciting.
• 26:09
  I hear that criticism frequently.
• 26:11
  Right. It is like the difference
• 26:12
  between eating a steady, daily, highly nutritious diet of meat
• 26:15
  and vegetables versus trying to survive entirely on the erratic,
• 26:18
  fleeting sugar rushes of candy. That analogy hits the nail on
• 26:22
  the head. A diet of candy is thrilling for
• 26:24
  a moment, but it leaves you malnourished, exhausted, and
• 26:27
  sick. The ordinary means of grace, the
• 26:30
  meat and vegetables of preaching, prayer, and the
• 26:33
  sacraments provide the deep, sustaining nutrition that
• 26:36
  produces mature, resilient believers who can weather the
• 26:40
  storms of life. The spectacular might draw a
• 26:43
  massive crowd, but only the ordinary sustained preaching of
• 26:47
  the word produces lasting holiness.
• 26:50
  OK, let's summarize the massive terrain we have covered today in
• 26:52
  this deep dive. We started with the strict
• 26:55
  definition of the proxy office, the Shaliak who carries the
• 26:59
  binding signature authority of the sender.
• 27:01
  Right, the legal proxy we. Examine the unrepeatable
• 27:04
  historical marks, direct appointment by Christ, being a
• 27:07
  physical eyewitness to the Resurrection, possessing
• 27:10
  miraculous credentials, and wielding absolute doctrinal
• 27:13
  authority. We also plunged into the Greek
• 27:15
  syntax of Ephesians 2.20, showing how the Aoris passive
• 27:19
  participle proves the base layer of the church is a completed
• 27:22
  action in the past. Wet cement on a finished floor.
• 27:24
  Exactly. We discussed the logic of
• 27:27
  cessation, demonstrating that taking down the scaffolding is a
• 27:30
  sign of a completed glorious building, not a tragic loss.
• 27:34
  We looked at the danger of modern counterfeits, noting how
• 27:37
  blurring the lines of church leadership leads to
• 27:40
  ecclesiastical tyranny and unchecked authority.
• 27:44
  And finally, we found deep peace in the Reformed confessions,
• 27:48
  resting in the sufficiency of Scripture and the steady rhythm
• 27:51
  of the ordinary means of grace. It is vital to redefine what it
• 27:55
  means to be an Apostolic Church. A truly Apostolic Church has
• 27:59
  absolutely nothing to do with modern men claiming the title to
• 28:02
  gain influence. No, not at all.
• 28:03
  An Apostolic Church is simply a church that stubbornly, joyfully
• 28:07
  clings to the doctrine written by the original 1st century men.
• 28:10
  I want to leave you with a completely different angle to
• 28:12
  think about today. We often assume that closing the
• 28:16
  Canon, shedding the book on new revelation, was the end of God's
• 28:19
  dynamic activity. But what if realizing the book
• 28:22
  was closed is actually what sparked the greatest spiritual
• 28:24
  awakening in history? That is a fascinating thought.
• 28:27
  Think about the 16th century, when the reformers finally
• 28:31
  grasped that the groundwork was finished and no new apostles
• 28:34
  were coming. That realization alone broke the
• 28:38
  power of medieval church tyranny.
• 28:40
  Realizing the ancient book was sufficient is what actually
• 28:43
  opened the door for the Protestant Reformation.
• 28:45
  The sufficiency of Scripture. The closed Canon didn't
• 28:48
  extinguish the fire, it was the match that lit it.
• 28:51
  Stop trying to pour wet cement in the living room and enjoy the
• 28:54
  magnificent house that Christ has already built.