Joining The Apostles

Until the great persecution broke out on believers as Luke described in Acts 8, apostles were the only decision makers in the ekklesia of the King. By the time the thrusting forth of everyone but the apostles from Jerusalem reached maturity, forcing all the believers to take up their ministries, there was a congregation formed in Antioch of Syria that was apparently completely made up of gentiles. This forcing into service of all the believers was accomplished under the influence of persecution.

The large gentile congregation apparently concerned the Jewish leadership so much that they sent Barnabas to investigate how things could be so good without their direction. Barnabas, who was born in Cyprus, was so impressed by how good things were that he didn’t return to Jerusalem. He joined the work. He also thought of his friend Saul, who had been rejected by the Jewish believers in Jerusalem, and invited him from Tarsus to enjoy the lack of presence of Jews who would remember Saul’s mistreatment of their friends and family members prior to his conversion to Jesus.

A year later (Acts 13), prophets and teachers in Antioch were fasting and praying, and felt led in that time of seeking the Spirit’s leadership to co-mission Saul and Barnabas to the Spirit’s mission of taking good news to the ends of the earth. They laid hands on them and sent them forth. Their works were so effective that, two millennia later, you know their names.

The point is not that other gifts displaced the gift of apostle. It is that other gifts joined that of apostle. Later, Luke called Barnabas an apostle (Acts 14:14). The body of Jesus in the earth still has many apostles working very effectively.