Foundations of Christian Leadership, Student Workbook, SW07

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F O U N D A T I O N S O F C H R I S T I A N L E A D E R S H I P

A Theological Overview of the Equipping Gifts Described in Ephesians 4.11 (continued)

the written Word of God (and in some traditions preaching and prophecy are held to be synonymous). This prophetic leadership and its development may employ a number of different forms in regard to how the voice of the Holy Spirit that guides into all truth is discerned, evaluated, and obeyed. Baptists, Pentecostals, Mennonites, and Presbyterians have very different traditions as to the language and means that are employed in this process but all of them take seriously that the Church must hear specifically what God is saying to them in the present.

V. Apostles

A. Linguistic Considerations

Apostolos

A delegate ; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ ( Strong’s Greek Dictionary of New Testament Words ). “ A delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders . . . . specifically applied to the twelve disciples whom Christ selected, out of the multitude of his adherents, to be his constant companions and the heralds to proclaim to men the kingdom of God. . . . In a broader sense the name is transferred to other eminent Christian teachers; as Barnabas, Acts xiv. 14., and perhaps also Timothy and Silvanus,” (1 Th. ii. 7, cf. too Ro. xvi. 7). (Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament , Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977, p. 68). Linguistic authorities generally agree that there is relatively little in common between the way that classical Greek or intertestamental Judaism used the term apostle and the significance that it came to have in the ministry of Jesus or the post-Pentecost Church. 3 1. [Paul] then, in a general way, calls those in this place [Rom. 16.7] 4 Apostles, who planted Churches by carrying here and there the doctrine of salvation . . .” (John Calvin, “Romans,” Calvin’s Commentaries , Vol. XIX, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981, p. 546).

3 See, for example, the article on “Apostolos” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 1, Gerhard Kittel, ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1964, pp. 398-420. 4 Romans 16.7 refers to Andronicus and Junias, who were not part of the twelve, but were spoken of as apostles by Paul.

B. Relevant Theological Quotes