Ephesians 4.11a-The Gift of Apostleship
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday February 4, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:11a-The Gift of Apostleship
Lesson # 224
Ephesians 4:7 Now, however, to each one of us grace was given corresponding to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving. 8 Therefore, it says, “When he ascended to the highest place, he captured captives. He generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race.” 9 In other words, what is the meaning of the statement, “he ascended?” Namely that, he also descended into the lower regions, which are part of the earth? 10 He, the very one who has descended is the one who also has ascended above each and every one of the heavens in order that He would enter into the state of bringing to completion each and every animate and inanimate object. 11 Therefore, on the one hand, He Himself generously gave some to be apostles but on other hand, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, specifically, teachers. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:11 begins a section in the Ephesian epistle, which ends in Ephesians 4:16.
In verse 11, Paul presents a list of four communication gifts.
The function of apostleship, prophecy and teaching is for the spiritual growth of the body of Christ while on the other hand, the function of the gift of evangelism is for the numerical growth of the body of Christ.
In verses 12-14, Paul presents the purpose of these gifts, namely, to provide capacity the members of the body of Christ to function in their spiritual gifts and also to provide spiritual nourishment in the form of sound doctrine to facilitate spiritual growth (vs. 12-13) and protection from false doctrine (vs. 14).
Lastly, in verses 15-16, Paul addresses the subject of spiritual growth by asserting that the teaching the members of the body of Christ received from the apostles, prophets and teachers provides them the capacity to obey the command to love one another as Christ loved the believer.
He reiterates in verse 16 the importance of the function of these three gifts in relation to the spiritual growth of the members of the body of Christ.
In this verse, he uses the ligament metaphor to describe these three communication gifts.
Now, Paul states in Ephesians 4:13 the ultimate purpose of these communication gifts is to promote unity in the body of Christ.
This supports this my contention that the purpose of Ephesians is to maintain unity experientially in the body of Christ with emphasis upon the Jewish and Gentile wings of the church maintaining this unity experientially by practicing the love of God when interacting with each other.
Now, as was the case in Ephesians 2:20 and 3:5, the noun apostolos (ἀπόστολος) here in Ephesians 4:11 is employed as designation for the temporary spiritual gift assigned to the twelve men Jesus Christ sovereignly chose and delegated authority to exercise over the church.
Here it refers to the spiritual gift of apostle.
This gift is no longer extant since the last church age believer who possessed this gift, namely the apostle John died in approximately 98 A.D.
As we noted in our study of Ephesians 1:1, Paul uses this noun apostolos (ἀπόστολος) to describe himself and the other eleven men whom Jesus Christ personally selected to be those who serve as His witnesses to His life, teaching, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
The twelve men who were selected by the Lord Jesus Christ to the office of apostle were Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, Simon the Canaanite, James, the son of Alphaeus, not the lesser, Thaddaeus, also called Jude, and Saul of Tarsus, also known as Paul.
In Acts 1:26, Matthias was selected to be an apostle by lot to replace Judas Iscariot, however, this selection was not honored by God since he was not personally selected by the resurrected Christ as the other eleven men were, nor did he demonstrate any sign gifts.
Therefore, this word apostolos (ἀπόστολος) refers to the office of an apostle, which was given by the Lord Jesus Christ to only thirteen men.
Paul replaced Judas Iscariot.
The noun appears in the salutation of several of Paul’s epistles, namely, Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1.
However, it doesn’t appear in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philippians and Philemon.
Paul uses the word to establish that his authority is from the Lord Himself (Romans 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1).
He uses it when his authority or teaching is being questioned or rejected by those to whom he is writing (1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians).
The Thessalonians and Philippians were faithful to Paul’s teaching and had a great friendship with Paul.
Philemon was a personal note, thus there was no need of him to establish his authority with these churches and Philemon.
One of the requirements for holding the “office” of apostle was the experience of seeing the resurrected Christ as Paul had when defending his ministry in 1 Corinthians 9:1-2.
Another requirement for holding the “office” of apostle was that of possessing the “sign gifts” such as healing, which Paul demonstrated he had many times during the course of his ministry (Acts 14:10; 16:18; 19:11; 20:10; 28:8) or “tongues,” which Paul also demonstrated he possessed (1 Corinthians 14:18).
The office and spiritual gift of apostleship was not appointed until after the resurrection and ascension and session of the Lord Jesus Christ (See Ephesians 4:1-16).
Distribution of spiritual gifts was authorized by the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His death, resurrection, ascension and session.
However, the actual appointment of the spiritual gift of apostleship was made by God the Holy Spirit according 1 Corinthians 12:11.
The spiritual gift of apostleship functioned under two categories:
(1) Writers of the New Testament
(2) Establishment of local churches:
(a) The clarification of mystery doctrine
(b) The maintenance of a true systematic theology with dispensational emphasis (c) The training of pastors
(d) Establishment of local church policy.
Paul was personally commissioned by the resurrected Christ to be the apostle to the Gentiles (See Acts 9:15; 22:21; Romans 11:13; 15:16; Galatians 1:15-16; 2:2, 7-9; Ephesians 3:1; First Timothy 2:7).
It is also important to understand that the apostles possessed the gift of prophecy, evangelism and teaching according to a comparison of Scripture with the Scripture.
The apostle Paul and John prophesied in their writings with John’s found primarily in the book of Revelation and Paul’s found mainly in 1 Corinthians and in 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
Peter also prophesied in 2 Peter 2-3.
Paul possessed the gift of evangelism as manifested by the fact that he evangelized the Roman Empire (Rom. 15:14-33) and was a church planter which would require the gift of evangelism.
Lastly, all the apostles taught as manifested by the epistles of Peter, Paul and John.
