 topic you're going to have three different groups of people listening you're going to have three people in your audience you're going to have those who believe that there are apostles you're going to have those who believe that there are no apostles and then you're going to have in the third group those who just don't know in a recent video about Gino Jennings who calls himself an apostle and I say that he's not an apostle what you get back and just look at the comment section on that video or go peruse YouTube and look at anyone who has anything to say about apostles and say that there are no apostles especially about Gino Jennings watch and see how his followers his devotees how they come after you kind of insult a little group but that's fine you get people calling you all sorts of names that you're of the devil or you're not saved you don't believe in God all these different things and then even people who will say well why not debate him well let me say this about debating and I have no problem whatsoever debating him at all can I debate everybody that I disagree with no can I call everybody that I disagree with no I cannot does Gino or any of your favorite neighborhood apostles do they call everyone they disagree with or they criticize do they try to debate everyone they they criticize no they do not that would be impractical but if someone is wanting me to debate him you don't do what I'll do I'll go ahead and put the offer out and let's see what happens but I can promise you if it comes through going through the scriptures we're going to see some things as a matter of fact I want you to share this with was brother Gino kaitas adokantus main Apollastus to stick prophet us to stay young released us to step away manna kaita dust gloves the words were on the screen you heard how I said it see if someone can get that to him or any of your neighborhood apostles who feel like they are with power from the Holy Spirit they're led by the Holy Spirit ask them what that means and to execute that and tell us tell you all what that means now I'm going to come back to that passage later what that was was a Greek passage that many are bringing up and we'll see if it says what some of you are saying well I don't speak Greek I don't speak Hebrew I speak English and so that's what I want well if you are as you say that your apostle is led by the Holy Spirit and since the Holy Spirit sovereignly gave us these New Testament writings in Greek that it shouldn't be that hard or that difficult for him to understand that and to tell us what it means and as I said it's not going to sway everyone and it's not meant to as I said again this is just meant to kind of affirm those who believe that there are no apostles and for those who are kind of not sure this should settle the argument for you in a technical sense anybody can be an apostle it's not a special term in and of itself all apostle simply means is a messenger or someone who sent as a matter of fact Jesus was called an apostle in Hebrews also in John and other places Bible says that he was sent and so in the generic sense the word just simply means a messenger or someone who sent by someone else and so you've got two different groups of apostles that are out there you have those that are in the generic sense that are sent by someone for a certain purpose who are apostles you've got people like James you've got people like Barnabas who are apostles the issue is what type of apostle are they James nor Barnabas or any others are considered to be of the same ilk of the of the twelve apostles plus Paul they're not in the same category as being in the office of an apostle and so we look at what the qualifications are for the one in the office of the apostle first and foremost they had to have seen the resurrected Christ they had to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection not that they saw him resurrected from the dead they didn't no one saw that but they saw him afterwards now in truth there are over 500 people who could have at least fit that part of the criteria because even Paul said they were even out there over 500 people who have seen Jesus after his resurrection so you had to have been part of that according to Acts 1 according to Acts 22 according to 1st Corinthians 9 you see that one of the first descriptions that this these apostles had to have seen the risen Christ so that makes it clear off the bat that unless you're over 2,000 years old you missed the qualification by a few thousand years second an apostle had to be specifically sent by Jesus handpicked and sent by Jesus we know we have the original 12 then minus Judas who the Bible prophesied that was going to happen and so you see his replacement being Matthias and so what was the qualification for Matthias even enjoying we already said that he had to have seen the or witnessed the risen Christ and so they choose to and then they end up letting God be the final determiner of the the last one and so you've got these 12 handpicked apostles oh by the way Matthias also having spent some time with Jesus and so the one thing that you're going to find with the 12 as well as with Paul because that they didn't just jump out there there was some time in ministry some time with Jesus to kind of learn of him and learn the gospel we read about how long he took for Paul to actually start out into ministry and so whether you would say that's a qualification or not I won't harp on it too much when someone says that's not technically a qualification of someone however you won't find Jesus picking disciples picking apostles who are not first disciple by him and so the third thing because you're going to have the folks going to say well I saw Jesus he came to me in a dream there's no way to argue that you can't you can't say that because now anyone can say that so you're going to have folks are going to say well Jesus handpicked me Jesus I saw Jesus and he handpicked me fine here's the third one all of the apostles were empowered with miraculous signs all of them all of them came with some sort of apostolic power when it came to healing when came to all these different things now were there some people who also perform some of these miracles there were where they called apostles they were not all of these everyone who performed a miracle who had any sort of signs was either an apostle or under one of the apostles apostolic authority you also notice that all of the scriptures are written by apostles save Luke and James who were under apostolic authority what was the whole purpose of even having at first these 12 disciples these 12 apostles to be the foundation of the church and we're gonna look at this passage in a second but what was the reason for that remember God did not want a divided church and so you start off with these 12 of course the Bible says that the gospel comes first to the Jews first the Gentiles because just like today you've got a lot of prejudice and different hatred towards different groups similarly today you had back then the Jews didn't like the Samaritans or the Gentiles and they didn't like that and the Samaritans didn't like the Jews or the Gentiles the Gentiles and like either and that's kind of how it was and so God starts with the Jews and then on the day of Pentecost you've got these 12 people not 120 these 12 people who receive the Holy Spirit and then what happens from them from their hands you see the church growing the Jews receive the Holy Spirit first they become part of the church then who gets it next according to Jesus how we said then the Samaritans he said to them in Acts 1 you shall be my witnesses when you receive power in Jerusalem Judea that's the Jews Samaria the Samaritans into the rest of the world that's the Gentiles and you see it happening just that way throughout Acts and so because you've got the Jews being the foundation these these Jewish apostles being the foundation we'll talk about Paul in a second when they start seeing the Holy Spirit poured out on other people and these apostles being the ones that give validity to the Samaritans in Acts 8 you see these Jews these apostles being the ones that give validity to the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit the Jews couldn't say yeah everyone's a Christian but only us Jews have the Holy Spirit they couldn't say that and so now you've got these apostles who are sharing the gospel that's their whole point Jesus hand picks them to share the gospel why does he give them power he gives them power to demonstrate to unbelievers or to those who might want to become in that they really are sent by God and so who are they apostles to each one of these apostles are apostles to Jews or to Samaritans well what about the Gentiles well that's where Paul comes in Paul defends his apostleship in 1st Corinthians 9 so let's go there real quick in verse 1 of 9 Paul says am I not an apostle am I not free have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord are you not my work in the Lord if I am not apostle to others yet doubtless I am to you for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord so Paul is laying out his defense and again one of the criteria he brings up he has seen the risen Christ he has seen Jesus we all know he was hand-picked by Jesus and that's verified by by others throughout the Bible even Peter equates Paul's writings as Scripture and then he's speaking to these Gentiles are you not my worship are you not a result of what I am to you and so Paul is proving that I am an apostle and so Paul has been sent as an apostle from Jesus he was sent by Jesus specifically to the Gentiles now we see Paul going out on these missionary trips with who Barnabas and what is Barnabas called Barnabas is also called an apostle but is he of the same sort of possible no Barnabas was not sent by Jesus Barnabas was sent by the church so he's an apostle in the in the in the generic sense that he was sent but he was sent by whom not Jesus but by the church for what for the same reason and so he's not of that same office we don't see any books written by him we don't see any authoritative power we don't see him classified in this same sense as the others the same holds true for James now someone will say well so what it's just a title well the title matters but I would also say this if someone has a problem with us wrangling over this issue of the title the question would be then why would someone call themselves an apostle if all it is just a title well let's just be clear and I've been in ministry for for some time now and I've always noticed men wanting to be something it's just like in any every every aspect of our life people want to be something special and Paul tells us not to think more highly of ourselves when we ought to but you've got people who want to claim that there's something special something great and give themselves a title apostle or bishop or prophet or what have you okay well fine do the things that an apostle do let's see your power let's see your work because if all you're doing is pastoring a church well then be a pastor other than talking what other power have these so-called apostles ever shown not much more than the average pastor out there they may talk big and talk tough and talk boldly and so forth and let's just be clear when someone says if this apostle speaks boldly and powerfully he's not the only person doing that there are many men out there who are doing the same thing maybe to a different audience and so let's also be clear talking tough and talking bold and talking loud and proud does not make you an apostle to make you anything just loud proud and bold that's it all the other apostles suffered but doubtless any of these apostles are willing to suffer anything as a matter of fact oftentimes these apostles are willing to anything but suffer they were trying to trying to pull in as much money as they can in a coffer so they can live as high off the hog as they possibly can maybe not all but kind of hard to find one of it now someone will say well all that you're saying is fine but the Bible still does not say that Paul was the last apostle give me a scripture well again what I've given you before you've seen the scriptures below if you don't meet all three criteria and the first criteria that you have seen the risen Savior how could you have but let's just make it even clear let's go ahead and go to the past that you all keep wanting to go to and say that there must be according to this five-fold ministry still prophets still apostles if there's still our pastors in Ephesians 411 we read this and he gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God so someone's gonna say two things one if he gave apostles and you're saying there are no longer any apostles and no longer any prophets well then there must not be any pastors and then folks will say what this this is part of the what they call the five-fold ministry and then the last thing they'll say is where in this past does he say he's not giving any more apostles okay the pastor that I read earlier kai out to sedokin to main apostles you need to understand what that says in the Greek the word for he gave by the way the English is is clear the word gave that she was in here is the past tense of give or given right so gave is what someone did he gave and as Paul is writing this he gave some to be a policy gave some apostles the word edokin is the heiress tense of diddami which means to give so he gave in the past tense not that he's giving and I know we're gonna go with this in second but let me just say this he is speaking past tense that he gave apostles and he gave a prop and gave profit first of all let's talk about what profits are because so we can get this straight at the founding of the church you've got these twelve apostles who are sent to set up and to establish this this body and they are speaking to at least for the twelve they're speaking to Jews and Samaritans and then you've got Paul who is witnessing and establishing these churches to the Gentiles but what about this prophets well he's not talking about the Old Testament prophecy and he's speaking kind of in a chronological sense in order first you got the apostles which is why he says is that they are the foundation and then Jesus being the cheap corner stone they are the foundation and I don't care what sort of building you have there's only one foundation and I've heard some little clever little remarks well your house in the first house there and so there's many foundations no there's only been one foundation on this house you don't build a foundation on top of another foundation on top of another foundation that's how that works you build the foundation first and you start building on top of this and in this case there's only one foundation for the body of Christ for the church then after that because there are no Bibles because they're not manuscript for everyone here how are these people going to hear the gospel how are they gonna understand these things so these prophets these guys who are going to give these revelations they're going to go and also preach okay that's their job their job is to give a revelation that's what the word prophet to a taste mean is someone who brings about a revelation so you've got these people in these parts who don't have handwritten manuscripts to read off of there are especially like they did even for the Old Testament manuscripts so now this is what he gave past tense and now the latter part where says he also gave evangelists and pastors and teachers and there's what folks are going to say see that's the five-fold ministry well again just a basic understanding of Greek will clear that up there's not five offices here so if you're saying there's a five-fold ministry is because you don't know Greek you don't know the scriptures evangelists is the third term given but what they would think is the fourth and fifth term pastor and teachers know pastor and teachers is together it's what they are pastor teacher that's the fourth office so someone will say then okay well fine there's only it's a four-fold ministry but if there are no apostles then that must mean that there are no more preachers well if that were the only passage relating to pastors teachers and evangelists then we'd be fine however if we read later in books that were written after that Paul had written after Ephesians we'll find this we'll find that God allows for anyone who wishes to become a pastor teacher so that was still left open you'll find him asking us really even commanding us to go and to evangelize so you're going to have those two things that are still going on you still you still see the promotion of those two offices there you're going to have people that are working in the office of an evangelist that's still why that's fine that's someone that that literally goes around and is evangelizing people we call missionaries all throughout the world you're going to still have people who are pastor teachers Paul says if anyone desires this is there ever a passage that asks if anyone desires to be an apostle or prophet no there's no come sign up for this role there is none of that and so to be one of those God has to choose you and God has to appoint you did he appoint some pastors and some evangelists he did is he also asking folks to come and sign up or to to volunteer to become pastors and evangelists he does is he asking for anyone to become or wants to volunteer to become apostles or prophets he does not and so that office is clearly closed and so anyone who wants to become an apostle prophet that office has been foreclosure you because you have not been there at the founding of the church that's all it is if someone wants to continue to say that he's been sent because the bible has sent him in a generic sense fine then i guess that means that we all are apostles but what you won't see is you don't see anyone else in the in the office of an apostle likened to paul or the other twelve you do see the other smaller sent apostles that those that were sent by the church you see them but they don't have the same status as a paul as a peter as a john you do not see that and so since the greek makes it clear that it was the past tense that he gave him he gave him in the past tense meaning that he's not giving further he's not giving me anymore uh when he when he spoke about it when he spoke about what he's going to give in mark he was looking future tense but he'd already given those ineffesions there are no more apostles to be given but there are pastors who paul says if anyone desires this he desires a good thing and he even lays up the qualifications of a pastor of a president and so if this person hadn't seen the risen uh savior if this person hasn't been hand picked if this person isn't empowered by miracles i'm not saying that this person has the miraculous ability to speak there are a lot of non christians who are gifted in speaking we're talking about actual as we would say show enough powers that even the people who were unbelievers noticed it and saw this and so none of these folks like the like the the geno gennings of the world or the apostle murray's of the world or even though they're the great apostle uh paul white and so none of these apostles these great apostles out there have been empowered with these miracles no not geno gennings the lord says it is done the lord says it is done for i hear victory victory no not paul white the great apostle paul white no not a possible murray i'm causing it to be activated in your life even as it comes on your tongue and you speak it by faith not a possible ecart i declare the spirit of fear to get out i deliver you i free you not a possible kathryn crick a false prophet is someone who do not turn people to god right what site what biblical site you say that's what the bible is in the bible all right where to read it i can't give you all the scriptures right now you don't know the scripture i do know them but i can't get you pointing first i got to go through the concordance and show you what they are yeah and certainly not this apostle this great apostle who who doesn't even know the scriptures in his uh legal deposition so it should be clear that there are no apostles what should also be clear is that if someone says that there are no apostles what shouldn't happen is that guys of the devil he's not saved he's this he's that okay well fine let's just use the scriptures i don't mind and i really don't mind the name calling don't mind it at all and so if you feel like that you need to challenge that's what you do let me know when you're ready to go live and we'll have a conversation let's see where you stand on the issues when we have the live discussions and we're talking about apostles or we're talking about tongues or ones they've always saved or or the trinity let's see if your thoughts or your apostles thoughts hold up against the scriptures and what i'm going to do is i'm going to go not just what we see on the surface but we're going to go into the greek some of you all know i love to do that we're going to go into the hebrew and let's just see because that's what he silently gave it to us as and let's just see if everything lines up again there are no apostles not one of those in the thumbnail are apostles not anyone walking around here calling themselves apostles and here's something interesting i just happen to notice this but doesn't it seem like all too often most of these apostles happen to be black or surrounded by black folks in the church whether here in america or in africa or what have you not to make this into a race issue but what's going on of black folks what are we doing here we need to be not whether we're white or black more discerning of who we allow tell us certain things and when a man makes a statement that i didn't study as though that's a badge of honor run away from that run away from that when the bible tells us that these leaders ought to study when paul is admonishing timothy to study to be approved to be able to divide rightly divide the uh the word of god does it mean he has to go to seminary or no it doesn't but it does mean he has to he has to study theology that just means the study of god he has to study all the different doctors he has to be familiar with those things he has to be able to break it down he needs no if he's going to be a leader he needs to be able to know the hebrew absolutely he needs to be able to agree absolutely why because there are certain passages that just aren't as clear in the english as they are in the greek or hebrew so any debate that anyone wants to have i'm fine with that but what i'm going to say and want to stand on this is that there are no apostles you disagree you disagree i disagree with those who say that i am satisfied with paul being the last i'm certainly not satisfied with anyone saying any of these other names so-called apostles are on par with paul or john or peter i'm just not comfortable with that you're not you don't have the authority that they've been given you don't have the power they've been given you cannot speak on behalf of god which means you could also in theory give us scriptures give us new revelations you don't have that ability whatsoever so just be comfortable that you are a man to preach the gospel do that be satisfied with that the titles you don't need and remember this when they call themselves an apostle they didn't call themselves they didn't wear that as a badge of honor they wore it as i'm a servant i'm someone being sent by i am someone who's been sent by someone i'm not the the man in charge i'm not the special person the special person the guy in charge sent me i'm his emissary and so what we've got today is we've got folks who use that in a in a backwards way as though this is some high title to have there's only one high title there's only one star of the show and guess what you so-called apostles you ain't it