I wanted to take this post as a chance to explain, briefly, what apostles are. Many people are familiar with names like Peter, James, and John, who walked with Christ and served alongside Him during his earthly three-year ministry. Indeed, when Christ began His ministry, one of the first things He did was call those three men and nine others to join Him in spreading the gospel to the world both before and after His death. These men were raised and trained to act as Christ's earthly representative prior to His death, though He continued to lead His church through revelation (Acts 10:9-18). Though the Son's earthly ministry was complete, His work was far from over, and in the same way He'd directed prophets like Moses in the past, so did He direct His apostles.
The Apostles' importance to God's work is illustrated in Ephesians 2:19-20, in which the foundation of his church and doctrine has Christ as the Chief Cornerstone, with prophets and apostles acting in conjunction alongside him. Though the original apostles were all killed thanks to the widespread apostasy within the church in the early days, as evidenced in studies of Peter and Paul's later epistles and in Acts 12:1-2, the Lord promised that a restoration of all things (Matthew 17:11), including the Holy Apostleship, would supersede a great famine of hearing the word of God (Amos 8:11-12).
So, yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen from the very mouths of three men who have been called, in this day and age, by prophecy, revelation, and the laying on of hands, to act as special representatives and witnesses of Jesus Christ. I know they are called by God to do His work for myself. I love the knowledge that God is still directing His affairs through the recognizable patterns we can find in his scriptures.
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