32 Apostolic Uniqueness
(2 Corinthians 12:11–12)
I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles. (12:11–12)
One of the most disturbing phenomena in contemporary Christianity is the Charismatic Movement. Through its television networks, televangelists, healing services, and best-selling authors, the movement is one of the most visible fabrications of Christianity to the watching world. A number of emphases characterize it, most notably experientialism and belief in continuing revelation, healing, fainting, and speaking in tongues. But at its core is the belief that the apostolic era was not unique but rather is normative for the church in all ages. As a corollary to that, some even try to convince people that there are apostles today, thus denying their uniqueness as well. Some even claim more power and impact on the world than the apostles of Jesus Christ themselves.
But confusion over the unique role of the apostles is nothing new. The early church had to contend with those who falsely claimed to be apostles. The Lord Jesus Christ commended the church at Ephesus because they “put to the test those who call[ed] themselves apostles, and they [were] not, and … found them to be false” (Rev. 2:2). Like the church at Ephesus, the Corinthian church had been infiltrated by false apostles (2 Cor. 11:13). Lacking the discernment displayed by the Ephesian church, however, many of the Corinthians had embraced those lying deceivers. As a result, the Corinthian church was in turmoil, with some of its members believing the false teachers’ attacks on Paul’s apostleship.
That such attacks occurred is not surprising. Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44) and inveterate Enemy of God’s truth (Mark 4:15; Luke 22:3; John 13:27; Acts 5:3; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Thess. 2:18; Rev. 20:3, 8, 10), has always opposed God’s messengers and message. One of the tactics he uses is to attack the credibility of God’s spokesmen (cf. Zech. 3:1; Luke 22:31) so that people will not believe their message. Because of Paul’s important role in God’s redemptive plan, no one except for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has been more systematically assaulted by Satan.
Though he reluctantly defended himself to the Corinthians, Paul found doing so distasteful, repeatedly describing it as foolish (cf. 2 Cor. 11:1, 16, 17, 21, 12:6). He fully agreed with Solomon’s wise counsel, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips” (Prov. 27:2). Yet it was the Corinthians themselves who compelled him to boast, their silence forcing him to speak. Paul knew that the issue was critically important; the Corinthians’ continued faithfulness to Jesus Christ was at stake (11:3).
But instead of having to defend himself to them Paul should have been commended by the Corinthians. There was no excuse for their confusion. They should have risen to his defense; after all, he was their spiritual father (1 Cor. 4:15; cf. 9:2), the one who brought the gospel to Corinth (Acts 18:1–8; 1 Cor. 3:6, 10; 15:1; 2 Cor. 10:14). The false apostles had their deceptive letters of commendation, but the Corinthians themselves were Paul’s letter of commendation (3:2). What made their failure to defend him all the more inexcusable was that the Corinthians knew that the allegations against Paul were false. They had observed his life during his ministry among them (Acts 18:11) and knew that he was above reproach. To be silent when aspersions are cast on the lives and ministries of godly men is to share in the guilt of their detractors.
The truth is that Paul was in no respect … inferior to the most eminent apostles. As noted in the discussion of 11:5 in chapter 27 of this volume, the phrase the most eminent apostles (or “super apostles”) is a sarcastic reference to the false apostles. Most likely, that was how they billed themselves. In reality, even though Paul’s characteristic humility caused him to describe himself as a nobody (cf. 4:7; 1 Cor. 15:9), he was superior to them, since he alone was a true apostle.
Though he was humble and reluctant to boast, the Corinthians’ naïve acceptance of the false apostles’ claims left Paul no choice. Beginning in chapter 10, he directly confronted the false apostles, concluding that confrontation in 11:22ff. with a presentation of his apostolic credentials. In 12:12, Paul presented irrefutable proof that he was a genuine apostle that, in a broader sense, also establishes the uniqueness of the apostles. He showed that apostles possessed unique qualifications and powers.
UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS
The signs of a true apostle were performed among you (12:12a)
The apostles had a one-of-a-kind, non-repeatable, and nontransferable role in the history of the church. To fail to understand that role is to have an incomplete understanding of the history of redemption. Apostle translates the Greek word apostolos (from the verb apostell?; “to send”), which appears eighty times in the New Testament. The term, which means, “messenger,” “delegate,” or “ambassador,” is primarily used in the New Testament to designate fourteen men—the Twelve (Matt. 10:2), Matthias (Acts 1:26), and Paul (1 Cor. 9:1). Its Aramaic (the language Jesus probably spoke) equivalent is 
ālîah, a term which
has become important for NT exegesis. Rab. Judaism in the time of Jesus clearly recognized the function of the representative or proxy derived from the old Sem. law concerning messengers. It is expressed briefly in the principle found in the Mishnah, “A man’s agent (
Therefore Jesus could say to the Twelve, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me” (John 13:20; cf. Heb. 3:1).
In addition to the Twelve and Paul, the New Testament names several other individuals as “messengers [apostles] of the churches” (2 Cor. 8:23). In that passage, the phrase refers to the two unnamed brothers who assisted Titus with the collection at Corinth. Barnabas (Acts 14:4, 14), Andronicus, Junius, and others (Rom. 16:7), James, the Lord’s brother (Gal. 1:19), and Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25) were also apostles of the churches. Unlike the Twelve and Paul, they were not personally commissioned by Jesus Christ. Instead, they were chosen by the churches to serve as their officially authorized representatives.
The signs that were the benchmark of a true apostle of Jesus Christ were performed by Paul at Corinth. The passive voice of the verb translated were performed emphasizes that it was God’s power working through Paul that enabled him to perform those signs. The apostles were conduits for divine power, not deceptive magicians. That they saw firsthand the signs Paul performed is another reason the Corinthians should have defended him (see the discussion of v. 11 above). In addition to the supernatural signs, wonders, and miracles, which will be discussed below, the Bible lists several other signs, or characteristics, of the apostles.
First, the apostles were sovereignly chosen by God for their ministry. The Lord told Ananias, “[Paul] is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Paul reflected on God’s choice of him both to salvation and to apostolic service in Galatians 1:15: “God … set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace.” In his first inspired letter to the Corinthians, Paul affirmed that he was “called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (1 Cor. 1:1; cf. Rom. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:1; 1 Tim. 1:1). He reminded Timothy, “For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth” (1 Tim. 2:7; cf. 2 Tim. 1:11). God also chose the other apostles (Acts 10:41; 1 Cor. 12:28).
Second, the apostles were personally appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 6:13 records that “He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles.” In John 15:16 He told the apostles, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain.” Jesus even sovereignly chose Judas, who betrayed Him: “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him” (John 6:70–71). Paul spoke to the Ephesian elders of “the ministry which [he] received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). At his conversion on the Damascus Road Jesus said to Paul, “For this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you” (Acts 26:16). To the Romans he wrote, “Through [Jesus Christ] we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake” (Rom. 1:5). As “an apostle [Paul was] not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:1). To Timothy he added, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service” (1 Tim. 1:12). Christ’s call of the apostles was the outworking of God’s eternal choice.
Third, the apostles had to have been eyewitnesses of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. After Judas’s defection and suicide,
Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together), and said, “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem; so that in their own language that field was called Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead be made desolate, and let no one dwell in it’; and, ‘Let another man take his office.’” (Acts 1:15–20)
Judas’s replacement had to meet very specific requirements:
“Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us—beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us— one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles. (vv. 21–26)
The candidates had to have accompanied Jesus and the other apostles through His entire earthly ministry, “beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up” in His ascension. The Lord sovereignly revealed His will through the drawing of lots and “Matthias … was added to the eleven apostles.”
Peter told those gathered at the house of Cornelius that the apostles were “witnesses of all the things [Jesus] did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem” (Acts 10:39). Specifically, the apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection: “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead” (vv. 40–41).
Paul had not been one of Jesus’ followers during His earthly ministry, yet he was no less an apostle. “Am I not an apostle?” he challenged the Corinthians; “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Cor. 9:1). Recounting the postresurrection appearances of Christ, Paul concluded, “Last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also” (1 Cor. 15:8). In addition to his initial vision on the Damascus Road, Acts records that Paul saw the resurrected Christ three other times (18:9–10; 22:17–21; 23:11).
Fourth, the apostles received the gospel by direct revelation from Jesus Christ, not from other men. The Lord taught the Twelve during His time on earth (e.g., Matt. 20:17–19; John 13–17), including the forty days between His resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:1–3). Paul, though he did not sit under Christ’s teaching during the Lord’s earthly ministry, nevertheless received the gospel directly from Him. In Galatians 1:11–12 he wrote, “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Writing to the Corinthians about the Lord’s Supper Paul said,
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (1 Cor. 11:23–25)
He prefaced his synopsis of the gospel he had preached to the Corinthians by reminding them, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received” (1 Cor. 15:3). To the Ephesians Paul wrote, “By revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ” (Eph. 3:3–4). He also affirmed that the gospel, “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men … has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” (v. 5).
Fifth, the apostles were the foundation of the church. In Ephesians 2:20 Paul wrote that the church was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone” (cf. Matt. 16:18). God gave apostles to the church “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12). From the earliest days of the church the believers “were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). The apostles laid the doctrinal foundation of the church, which is codified in the New Testament. Those who followed them built on that foundation. Having been laid once and for all (Jude 3), the foundation does not need to be continuously laid today by self-proclaimed apostles. After giving the church the Word of God in the New Testament (2 Peter 1:19), the apostles passed from the scene, never to be replaced.
Sixth, the apostles were given unique ministry duties. Their first responsibility was to be discipled by the Lord. Mark 3:14 says that Jesus “appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him.” They then were to be models of godliness for other believers to follow. Therefore Paul exhorted the Corinthians, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1; cf. 1 Cor. 4:16; 1 Thess. 1:6).
A second essential responsibility of the apostles was to preach the gospel. Mark 3:14 says that Jesus called the Twelve not only to disciple them, but also so He could “send them out to preach.” Luke 9:2 records that “He sent [the Twelve] out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.” The apostles faithfully carried out Jesus’ mandate. Acts 4:33 records that “with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” Peter told the Gentiles gathered in Cornelius’s house that Jesus “ordered [the apostles] to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). Along with their responsibility to preach the gospel to unbelievers the apostles also taught believers. As noted above, their teaching was the foundation of the church. In 2 Peter 3:2 Peter exhorted his readers to “remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.” Paul twice wrote of his call to be a “preacher and an apostle and a teacher” (2 Tim. 1:11; cf. 1 Tim. 2:7).
A third responsibility of the apostles, which will be examined in more detail later in this chapter, was to exercise their divine power in the realm of the supernatural. Jesus gave the Twelve “authority to cast out the demons” (Mark 3:15; cf. 6:7; Matt. 10:1, 8; Luke 9:1). Paul also had that authority, as he demonstrated by casting a demon out of the slave girl in Philippi (Acts 16:16–18; cf. 19:11–12). The apostles were also granted the power to heal the sick. In Luke 9:1 Jesus “called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases” (cf. Matt. 10:1; Mark 6:13; Acts 3:1–8; 9:34–41). Paul also demonstrated the apostolic sign of healing (Acts 14:8–10; 28:8).
Finally, the apostles collectively were given the task of writing the New Testament. It is true that not all of the apostles wrote New Testament books. Yet all of the New Testament was written either by an apostle (Paul, Peter, John, Matthew), or a close associate of the apostles (Mark, Luke, James, Jude). Jesus promised the apostles, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26; cf. 16:13). As an apostle, Paul also wrote Scripture under divine inspiration, as he noted in 1 Corinthians 2:13: “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
Seventh, the twelve apostles were promised a unique place of honor in the future. In reply to Peter’s question, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” (Matt. 19:27) Jesus promised the Twelve, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration [the millennial kingdom] when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (v. 28). The twelve apostles, including Matthias as Judas’s replacement, will fulfill a special role in the millennial kingdom, that of governing the twelve tribes of Israel.
The apostles will also receive special honor in the heavenly city. In his vision of the New Jerusalem, John saw that “the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:14). Though Scripture does not give any details, Paul unquestionably will also be greatly honored both in the millennial kingdom and in the eternal state.
The stringent requirements for the apostolic office are such that only the Twelve and Paul qualified. Claims to apostleship made by others throughout the history of the church are therefore false.
UNIQUE POWER
by signs and wonders and miracles. (12:12c)
These words “do not describe three types of miracles but miracles in general considered from three aspects—their ability to authenticate the message (“signs”), evoke awe (“wonders”), and display divine power (“mighty deeds”)” (Murray J. Harris, “2 Corinthians,” in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976], 10:398). The supernatural miracles done by the apostles were signs pointing to them as genuine messengers of God. They were wonders that created amazement and astonishment, drawing the onlookers’ attention to the message the apostles proclaimed.
That miracles are not normative for all periods of church history should be obvious from Paul’s designation of them as the signs of an apostle. If they were commonplace, they could hardly have distinguished the apostles from ordinary believers. It was their rarity, as well as their unusual extent, that made them definitive signs of the apostles. Nor were miracles scattered haphazardly throughout redemptive history. Scripture reveals a threefold purpose for signs, wonders, and miracles that confines them to specific periods.
First, miracles introduced successive eras of divine revelation. The miracles recorded in Scripture took place during three time periods: the time of Moses and Joshua, the time of Elijah and Elisha, and the ministry of Christ and the apostles. God attested the giving of the Law with some miracles at the time of Moses and Joshua. The miracles done by Elijah and Elisha symbolized the second great era of Old Testament revelation, the prophets (cf. Matt. 5:17; 7:12; 22:40). The miracles God performed through them authenticated them as prophets who spoke for Him (see the discussion below). Still, these periods had few miracles.
By far the greatest number of miracles in redemptive history occurred during the time of Christ and the apostles. The Incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity and the dawn of the day of redemption, as well as the revelation of the New Testament and of the church sparked an outpouring of miracles unequaled either before or since.
While all miracles are supernatural acts of God, not all supernatural acts of God are miracles. These signs, wonders, and miracles were supernatural acts done by God through a human agent. The reason for that lies in the second purpose of miracles: to authenticate the messengers of God. Miracles were designed to act as signs creating wonder that drew people to conclude that the message from those who performed them came from God. Thus, such expressions of God’s power as creation, the Flood, and other acts of divine judgment are supernatural acts of God, but not signs and wonders. Signs and wonders are thus a sub -category of God’s supernatural acts.
God granted Moses miraculous powers to prove to the Israelites that he was God’s messenger (Ex. 4:1–9; cf. Acts 7:36). Elijah’s ability to call down fire from heaven demonstrated that he was a man of God (2 Kings 1:10, 12; cf. 1 Kings 18:36–38), as did his restoration of the widow’s dead son to life (1 Kings 17:17–24). In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost Peter declared, “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22; cf. Mark 6:2; Luke 19:37; John 3:2; 5:36; 7:31; 10:25, 38; 11:47; 12:37; 14:11; Acts 10:38). The apostles were authenticated in the same way as God’s earlier spokesmen. Hebrews 2:3–4 warns,
How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
Acts 2:43 records that “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles” (cf. Acts 4:30; 5:12). Describing the ministry of Paul and Barnabas at Iconium, Luke noted that “the Lord … was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands” (Acts 14:3; cf. 15:12; 19:11). Paul reminded the Romans,
Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. (Rom. 15:17–19)
To the Thessalonians he wrote, “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5). Though Acts does not record any of the miracles Paul performed at Corinth, it is clear that he did. Otherwise, his claim, The signs of a true apostle were performed among you … by signs and wonders and miracles, would have made no sense.
Finally, God used miracles to reveal truth about Himself to those who observed them. God commanded Moses, “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments’” (Ex. 6:6–7). In Exodus 34:10
God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.”
Nehemiah 9:10 says, “Then You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and all the people of his land; for You knew that they acted arrogantly toward them, and made a name for Yourself as it is this day.” Psalm 135:9 reveals that God “sent signs and wonders into [the] midst [of] Egypt, upon Pharaoh and all his servants.” Jeremiah wrote, “[God] set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day both in Israel and among mankind; and [He] … made a name for [Himself], as at this day” (Jer. 32:20).
The apostles held a unique, nontransferable, and highly privileged place in the history of the church. The apostolate was never intended to be a perpetual institution; in fact, there are clear indications in the New Testament the apostolic era was already drawing to a close. According to Acts 5:16, all the sick who came to the apostles were healed. However, by the end of Paul’s life the situation had dramatically changed. His beloved son in the faith Timothy faced a recurring illness. But instead of healing him, Paul counseled him to treat the illness by drinking wine (1 Tim. 5:23). Nor was Paul able to heal another of his close companions, Trophimus, whom he had to leave sick at Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20).
The early days of the Jerusalem church were punctuated by signs and wonders (Acts 2:43; 5:12). Yet Acts records no miracles in that city after Stephen’s martyrdom (cf. Acts 6:8). Some might argue that the apostles left the city, and thus were not present to perform miracles. Yet they remained in Jerusalem after the outbreak of the persecution associated with the death of Stephen (Acts 8:1). The supernatural invincibility afforded the apostles during the early years (cf. Acts 12:6–11) was also gradually withdrawn, and nearly all of the apostles were martyred. Finally, the writer of Hebrews spoke both of the apostles (“those who heard” the Lord) and of the signs and wonders they performed in the past tense (Heb. 2:3–4). Both the time of the apostles and the miracles associated with them were passing away.
Their qualifications and foundational role in God’s plan for the church made the apostles unique. Having laid the solid doctrinal foundation for the church, they passed from the scene, never to be replaced. Apostles, signs, wonders, and miracles are not normative for the church today. What is normative is the Bible, which is complete (Jude 3; Rev. 22:18), stands forever (Isa. 40:8; Matt. 5:17–18; 24:35), and is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17).