"There were in the church at Antioch certain prophets and
teachers… and as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost
said, “Separate for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called
them to do (Acts 13:1a,2).”
There is much to be gleaned from this passage of Scripture. The first
thing that strikes us is that the prophets and teachers were gathered
together to minister to the Lord. How seldom we see this today! In the
first place, prophets and teachers are rarely able to get together
regarding anything. The prophet thinks the teacher is too intellectual,
and the teacher thinks the prophet is too ethereal. The prophet favors
inspiration and revelation, while the teacher favors illumination and
study. The two seem to naturally be at odds, and this is probably
necessary to keep everyone balanced. The prophet needs the teacher, and
the teacher needs the prophet.
But here we see that everyone has come together, not to have a
prophets and teachers conference, but to minister to the Lord. They have
not lost their first love! Prophetic things have their place, but there
is a time when prophetic things must be put on hold. Teaching and
instruction have their place, but there is a time when no one should be
teaching or saying anything. There is a time when the saints should
gather together for the purpose of ministering to the Lord.
The Greek word for “ministered” here is “leitourgeo”, and we get our
English word “liturgy” from it. It meant the performance of priestly or
ministerial functions. Interestingly enough, it could only be used in
connection with the Temple, since that was the only valid place a priest
or minister could perform the functions. In Acts 13 we see the word
used to describe the Church in Antioch. What does this mean? Simply
this: we are the temple of the living God, a house of living stones,
offering up ourselves as the sacrifices, ministering to the Lord as a
holy nation, as a royal priesthood. Hence, we need no earthly temple or
priest to represent us to God. We worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
The fact that the Holy Spirit moved and revealed the Lord’s Need
while they were ministering to the Lord is significant. How can we know
the Lord’s Need unless we have ministered to Him? Perhaps there were a
dozen or so missions that might be done, and they could have fulfilled
any number of needs and been considered good Christians. But the issue
is not how many needs can we meet, but is the Lord’s Need met? What if
we meet everyone’s need but the Lord’s Need is not satisfied? Let us
meet the Lord’s Need first, and give Him His portion; then we are fit to
stand before people and minister to them. This is the motivation for
ministering to the Lord. People with no patience for these things will
forge ahead on their own, see a need, and move at once to meet it, just
like a good business person will do. But the Kingdom is not based on
business principles. Our foremost concern is satisfying the Lord’s
heart, being with Him, meeting His Need. Ministry to men is founded upon
ministry to the Lord.
http://theschoolofchrist.org/articles/the-priests-of-the-lord-part-1.html
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Peter Wagner: Apostles: Why The Title
Numerous individuals have said words to me like this: “I agree that
we need apostolic ministry in our churches today, but why use the title?
As long as apostles are functioning as apostles, the title doesn’t
matter.”
Curiously, those who pose this question would not ordinarily use the
same reasoning with the title “Pastor.” Most local churches would not be
content if their leader said something like, “I can function as your
pastor, but please don’t call me Pastor.” No! The title “Pastor,” or
sometimes “Reverend,” implies a certain recognized job description
within the congregation and a certain role in the community outside the
congregation. The same is true of a seminary professor. Only an oddball
would say, “I will function as a teacher, but please don’t give me the
title of Doctor.” If we are comfortable with titles for pastor and
teacher, why would we be uncomfortable with the title of apostle? Jesus
wasn’t uncomfortable. He was the one who introduced the title “apostle”
into New Testament life in the first place.
We are told that on one occasion Jesus went apart to pray all night,
and the next morning He called all His disciples to a meeting. In the
meeting, He chose twelve of the disciples to be His top leaders, and He
commissioned them with the title “apostles” (see Luke 6:12- 13). In the
society of Jesus’ day, “apostle” had important military and political
innuendos, and Jesus adapted the term to indicate a specific role in the
extension of the kingdom of God. Its basic root meaning in Greek
(apóstolos) is one sent with an assignment. However not all those whom
Jesus sent were apostles, such as the seventy of Luke 10. The twelve
apostles were more than just sent; they were also given apostolic
leadership authority that Jesus’ other disciples did not have.
The title “apostle” carries through the rest of the New Testament. It
appears 74 times as contrasted with “teacher” (14 times), “prophet” (8
times), “evangelist” (3 times), and “pastor” (3 times). The authors of
the New Testament epistles identify themselves as “apostle” 11 times as
contrasted with “servant” (5 times), “elder” (2 times) and “prisoner” (1
time). I list these numbers in an attempt to show that the current
inhibitions that some Christian leaders harbor, preventing them from
using the title “apostle,” are undoubtedly rooted more in cultural
conditioning than in scriptural exegesis.
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