So You Want to be an Apostle????

By Lahry Sibley

When is the last time you saw an Apostle? If you saw one, what would he look like? What kind of
qualifications do you suppose he would have?

Let’s look at God’s Word and get a glimpse of the real deal. God knows the church of Jesus Christ in
the USA could use a boost, maybe a prophet or an apostle here and there.

1 Cor 4:1 SO THEN, let us [apostles] be looked upon as ministering servants of Christ and stewards
(trustees) of the mysteries (the secret purposes) of God.

Apostles are servants who do ministry. They are trustees of the secret things of God, but oh so eager
to make them known (special messengers) to the Body of Christ. The operate in the prophetic as well.

2 Moreover, it is [essentially] required of stewards that a man should be found faithful [proving
himself worthy of trust].

Trust is such a precious commodity in this hour. There are so precious few who can actually be
trusted, apart from Christ. This man, the apostle, is very mature and is biblically and spiritually led by
the Holy Spirit. You just feel better when he is around…..don’t you?

4b It is the Lord [Himself] Who examines and judges me.

Few would deny that Paul surely was an apostle. His judge? The Lord Himself. Apostles, as with us all
are accountable to God for our life and our ministry.

6 Now I have applied all this [about parties and factions] to myself and Apollos for your sakes,
brethren, so that from what I have said of us [as illustrations], you may learn [to think of men in
accordance with Scripture and] not to go beyond that which is written, that none of you may be puffed
up and inflated with pride and boast in favor of one [minister and teacher] against another.

Oh the pride I see in churches today, and factions, and ministers. Just question the teaching of some
of these guys and you will see who has an idolatrous relationship with themselves. These things
should not be as Paul so aptly points out.

7 For who separates you from the others [as a faction leader]? [Who makes you superior and sets you
apart from another, giving you the preeminence?] What have you that was not given to you? If then
you received it [from someone], why do you boast as if you had not received [but had gained it by
your own efforts]?

National fame, literary notoriety, video performance. Do these things make one a faction leader? A
Superior? An authority?

8 [You behave as if] you are already filled and think you have enough [you are full and content,
feeling no need of anything more]! Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts and graces]!
[Without any counsel or instruction from us, in your conceit], you have ascended your thrones and
come into your kingdom without including us! And would that it were true and that you did reign, so
that we might be sharing the kingdom with you!
“you have ascended YOUR thrones and come into YOUR kingdom” (emphasis my own) That is why so
many of today’s church leaders lack the power of God. They are not ambassadors of Christ as they
should be. In stead, they are kings of their kingdoms of their own making, empowered by their own
egos and conceit. True apostles will never fall prey to this self inflation and pride.

9 For it seems to me that God has made an exhibit of us apostles, exposing us to view last [of all, like
men in a triumphal procession who are] sentenced to death [and displayed at the end of the line]. For
we have become a spectacle to the world [a show in the world's amphitheater] with both men and
angels [as spectators].

Apostles are of God made to be and exhibit as a man sentenced to death. Surely, apostles have
already died with Christ, but they are looked upon, even to many church folks and especially church
leaders as common criminals, to be despised and ridiculed. Sigh. How did we get into such a mess as
this?

10 We are [looked upon as] fools on account of Christ and for His sake, but you are [supposedly] so
amazingly wise and prudent in Christ! We are weak, but you are [so very] strong! You are highly
esteemed, but we are in disrepute and contempt!

Not only the world has contempt for true apostles, but so does religious crowd as well. They despised
Jesus, and they despise His apostles, pastors, evangelists, teachers, and prophets.

The church leadership is held in high esteem, while the true apostle is viewed as being weak,
contemptible and in disrepute.

11 To this hour we have gone both hungry and thirsty; we [habitually] wear but one undergarment
[and shiver in the cold]; we are roughly knocked about and wander around homeless.

Ever look at the “street people” in a city park and wonder if there is an apostle among them? Only
outcasts go hungry, and are thirsty. What are they cast out from, if not our very own churches, whom
they should be loved and welcomed by. Apostles suffer harsh treatment, just as Jesus did, without a
true cause for the vindictive behavior of the religious kings and their kingdoms.

12 And we still toil unto weariness [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When men revile
us [wound us with an accursed sting], we bless them. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently
and endure it.

When is the last time you ever heard of an apostle being included in the church budget? (Budget of
the “True Church”)

13 When we are slandered and defamed, we [try to] answer softly and bring comfort. We have been
made and are now the rubbish and filth of the world [the offscouring of all things, the scum of the
earth].

To mention an apostle or prophet is to equate the title with a snake oil salesman or a crooked
attorney, a politician even. Why is that?

14 I do not write this to shame you, but to warn and counsel you as my beloved children.
When was the last time you heard such a warning come from the pulpit in your church? Has it been a
while? Why is that?

15After all, though you should have ten thousand teachers (guides to direct you) in Christ, yet you do
not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel).

A father to all, but yet rejected by most, especially church “leadership”.

16 So I urge and implore you, be imitators of me.

In another place, Paul says the same thing, to be imitators of him, as He imitates Christ. Christ was a
servant to all the rest, so are His apostles. And both Christ and Paul urged all to be servants as they
were. Servants have no self interest, but live to please and work for their master, always at His
beckon call.

17For this very cause I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, who
will recall to your minds my methods of proceeding and course of conduct and way of life in Christ,
such as I teach everywhere in each of the churches.

This is what Paul wanted imitated among the church brethren. If it is not imitated by church
leadership, it will not be imitated by the church itself.

18Some of you have become conceited and arrogant and pretentious, counting on my not coming to
you.

Many are not counting on the soon coming of our Lord and Savior either. But that will not spare them
when He does come. Suddenly!!!!!!!!

19 But I will come to you [and] shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will perceive and understand
not what the talk of these puffed up and arrogant spirits amount to, but their force (the moral power
and excellence of soul they really possess).

All church leadership, true leadership, should posses moral power over the lusts of the flesh by, and
only by, the power of the blood of Jesus working in their lives. They also should possess excellence in
their souls…living according to Romans 12.

20 For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on not talk but power (moral power and excellence
of soul).

Are you living in the kingdom of God, or are you observing the kingdom of God. Romans 14:17 says
that the kingdom of God …is righteousness, heart peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Is there where
you dwell, or do you just observe others whom you think dwells there?

21 Now which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of correction, or with love and in a spirit
of gentleness?

Apostles are well able to apply the rod, but most often walk in love and gentleness of Spirit.

Of course, there is much more that scripture reveals about apostles. But this passage really hits the
high points. I hear folks often comment how they would like to be or are apostles. Really? Could you
joyfully embrace what Paul went through, what the other 12 went through, what Jesus went through?

My Lord we need all the leadership operating in the Body if the Body is to be alive and healthy. We
need all the parts active as well. Sadly, in some churches, the head of the pastor is so large, there is
no room for anything else.

Jesus was crucified outside the camp, outside the temple, outside of the religiosity of His day. That is
likely where you will find the true apostle as well. Look closely. You just may spot a prophet nearby.
The following is a post in another forum regarding apostles today. While I did not write this, I trust
you will see the truth and the simplicity of what we often find ourselves trying to make very
complicated. God bless you as I share this insightful writing with you....my friends, brothers and
sisters......

*****

A true apostle is simply concerned about establishing Christ as Chief Apostle, not himself. They are
not interested in establishing their own ministry, but Christ's. They are looking to see Christ formed
where Christ is not yet formed. Thus, they set out as missionaries (which is a word that comes from
the latin translation of the word 'apostle') to take the gospel to new places, to new people who have
never heard the gospel. Furthermore, they exist to build up the local body of Christ, and strengthen
the brethren.

Thus in part, they are evangelists, thus, Paul's admonition to the apostle Timothy to "do the work of
an evangelist." At the same time, they act as roaming pastors, providing spiritual oversight to
congregations they come to have relationships with.

Apostles are not super-ministers with super-anointings with super-authority. In fact, such individuals
are indeed, false apostles. Nearly all of 2 Corinthians was written towards this fact! A group of false
apostles were making their rounds (with credentials from other churches at that!) to the different
churches, seeking to hijack them by boasting of how great they are, and how pathetic other "lesser"
apostles like Paul were. Thus, today with the "new apostolic revolution" with the likes of C. Peter
Wagner, you have another group of false apostles slowly infiltrating the churches, looking to hijack
them nearly on the same grounds which the false apostles of 2 Corinthians.

There are geniune modern day apostles today, as there have always been. But they are not these
super-anointed people that we have always imagined. They are quite regular. Where they are
extrodinary is not so much in the miraculous, but in their lives. Yet, unlike many modern day apostles
who seek to be super-stars, like the original 12, they make it their ambitions to lead quiet lives doing
the work the Lord has called them to do.

Thus, most of the first apostles we know nothing about outside of the Scriptures. Yes, some fantastic
legends circulated about them after their deaths, but outside of Peter, John, James, and Paul, we
know little to nothing of those first generation of apostles. But apostles they were. And apostles there
are. What those first generation of apostles left us was not their personal memoirs detailing us their
own personal lives. Nor did they leave us their own ministries to pass on by "succession." Rather, they
left us Christ.

**********
Immersed in Him,
Lahry