Do apostles exist today?

What exactly is an Apostle?  The New Testament, and especially Paul, uses the Greek word apostolos (apostle) in at least two senses. 

• Broadly, it means one who is sent on a specific mission as an envoy or representative of the sender. For example, when Titus’ two companions travelled to collect the Corinthian church’s full contribution for the saints in Jerusalem, they arrived as “messengers [apostoloi] of the churches” in Macedonia (2 Cor. 8:23). Likewise, the Philippian church dispatched Epaphroditus as their “messenger [apostolos] and minister to [Paul’s] need” (Phil. 2:25). 
• This broad use of the term apostolos may reflect an older Jewish legal concept that the messenger resembles the sender insofar as his activity reflects the sender’s will and authority. As Jesus observed, “A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger [apostolos] greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16).

In its more focused and familiar sense, the word apostolos designates one who wrote scripture.

• Originally, Jesus chose twelve (Luke 6:13). After Judas’ betrayal, Matthias was “numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26). After Christ confronted Saul of Tarsus from heaven on the road to Damascus, Saul—later Paul—became “the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:9). Not all wrote scripture and even Judas was chosen. Did Matthias write scripture? No Did he do any recorded miracles? No.  

YET ALL OF THESE WERE SENT ONES
But what about James, the Lord’s brother (1 Cor. 15:7; Gal. 1:19), Luke the physician (Col. 4:14), Silas and Timothy (1 Cor. 4:17; 2 Cor. 1:19), Barnabas (1 Cor. 9:5–6), Apollos (1 Cor. 4:6), and perhaps Andronicus and Junias or Junia (Rom. 16:7), among others.

The flexibility in how the New Testament uses the term apostolos may make it difficult to determine precisely who among this group were emissaries of churches, close associates of Paul, or false apostles  (2 Cor. 11:13) but some were present with Jesus. How many? 500 + 120.

Whatever the exact number, Apostles in the sense of the specific Apostolic office were those who had seen the risen Christ (1 Cor. 9:1). 500 people witnessed and visibly saw the risen Christ. In addition to the 500 or included were the 120 in the upper room. Are they all apostles?

They all saw Jesus. The great commission was given to the 11 disciples but they were called the disciples and obviously, that commission applies to all believers, even with though Jesus included specific statements of future events.

THE MINISTRY OF THE APOSTLES
The ministry of the Apostles as Christ’s “sent ones” flows out of the deeper reality that Christ Himself is the One “sent” by the Father from heaven to be our incarnate Redeemer (Mark 9:37).

In that sense, the author of Hebrews writes, Jesus is “the apostle and high priest of our confession” (Heb. 3:1). Being the divine radiance of His Father’s glory as of the eternal Son (1:3), He is the One who as a man has climactically revealed His Father’s identity and will (John 6:38; 14:9).

As those personally called and sent by Jesus, the Apostles derived supernatural power for their ministry from Christ Himself as God’s Messiah. But Judas was chosen and turned against Jesus. Did Matthias receive supernatural power? Unknown! We also have no record of any miracles done by the other disciples. They might have performed miracles, but we have no biblical record. Yet Philip who was not an apostle performed miracles didn't write scripture but was commissioned to go out to share the gospel.

Did only the Apostles exercise Jesus’ authority over demonic forces and physical diseases as they preached the good news of God’s kingdom on earth? (Matt. 10:1, 5; Luke 9:1–2).

No. Their signs and wonders reflected Christ’s own miracles (e.g., compare Jesus’ raising of a little girl in Mark 5:41 and Peter’s raising of a woman in Acts 9:40) and authenticated their announcement of Christ’s redemptive work. Yet the 70 were also sent out and did miracles and cast out demons again authenticating the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Did all the apostles perform miracles? Not all

Christ’s relationship to His Apostles reached even greater heights after His ascension when in glorified fellowship with His Father, He poured out the Holy Spirit upon the church at Pentecost (Acts 2:33).

Sharpened by three years of ministry in Jesus’ physical presence but now endowed with His spiritual presence from heaven, the Apostles and the others shot from Jerusalem as arrows from Christ’s bow so that the salvation He had won and which they proclaimed might reach the ends of the earth (1:8).

All these divine messengers did not boast of material prosperity or peddle religious novelties. Rather, despised by the world, they exhibited the death of Jesus in the way they lived and preached so that countless generations of believers might live through Him (2 Cor. 4:8–12). God revealed to the world through all these people including the Apostles what Paul calls “the mystery of Christ”


THE FINALITY OF THE APOSTLES HAS NOT YET FINISHED
Because all of the Apostles plus others were commissioned as the eyewitnesses of the ministry of Christ (John 1:14; 15:27; Acts 1:21–22) and because they and others were inspired by the Holy Spirit - we note that only a limited number of apostles wrote the infallible scriptures.

Their writings reveal the holy “tradition” (2 Thess. 2:15) to which all Christians must hold fast. Their doctrine makes up “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3; see 1 Cor. 11:23; 15:3–4).

Christ’s redemptive work on earth is finished (John 19:30), and that finality correlates to a final word from God concerning the meaning of that work in the New Testament.

The inescapable conclusion from this connection is that while the words of these selected few Apostles abide forever (1 Peter 1:25), but the office of Apostle has not ceased but the writing of God's word has ceased.

Why because there were other apostles who all saw the resurrected Jesus, who may or may not have performed miracles and who were all commissioned to spread the gospel? The Office continues.

The church is now being built on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20). Therefore, Christians should be wary of anyone today who claims the mantle of “apostle,” in the sense that they are adding their own books or teaching as equal to the gospels. The Mormons would be a prime example.

LESSONS FROM THE APOSTLES
Even though there are no Apostles today (in the sense of writing scripture)  Christians are still called to be “Apostolic” in at least three ways.

• First and foremost, believers should cherish the binding authority of the Apostles’ witness enshrined in the New Testament, along with all Old Testament revelation (see Luke 24:44–45). As we hold our Bibles in hand, we should marvel that we possess a revelation of Christ “which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Eph. 3:5). The Apostles’ doctrine concerning God and His gospel is what unites the church in every age and lacks nothing that is necessary for living in eternal fellowship with God. We can be thankful that “in these last days” (Heb. 1:2) God has spoken in His Son by the power of the Spirit through the Apostles.

• Second, Christians should not be surprised when they face the same worldly opposition as the Apostles did in their day. Recall how those in Corinth and beyond mocked the Apostle Paul as weak (2 Cor. 10:10), a fool (11:16), and even deceitful (12:16). To the worldly-wise and powerful, Paul and his ilk were “like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things” (1 Cor. 4:13). Our increasingly secular culture often similarly scoffs at followers of Christ today. Our response should emulate that of Paul, who did not boast in his own religious or worldly accomplishments but rejoiced that his sufferings for the faith showed that he belonged to the world of heaven, to the school of the Spirit, and to the triumphal procession of Christ’s victory over sin and death (1 Cor. 2:12–13; 2 Cor. 2:14).

• Third and finally, “Apostolic” Christians who prize the Scriptures in this fallen world should exhibit a Christlike boldness in living for God’s glory. Though we are not tasked with the same foundation-laying mission as the Apostles, all Christians are called to carry out the Great Commission according to their station in God’s kingdom. Thankfully, the same Christ who promised to be with the Apostles “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20) through the Spirit is with us today, and nothing can thwart His saving purpose. The living God who laid the church’s one foundation through Christ and His Apostles will complete it on the day of Christ, and none shall prevail against it (16:18).