1) Apostle - the passion of missions (Eph 4:11) 5%

Eph 4:11 And He gave some {as} apostles, and some {as} prophets, and some {as} evangelists, and some {as} pastors and teachers,

What is an apostle? apostolos apostolos: meaning "one that is sent out, a messenger". An apostle of Jesus is one that is an ambassador of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word can and most generally refers to "the apostles". Jesus chose twelve men to be His messengers or apostles. Mark 3:14 "And He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach..." Jesus said 6:70 "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and {yet} one of you is a devil?" This one was Judas. He betrayed Jesus and took himself out of the twelve. Later in Acts chapter one, after the event of Judas killing himself, he was replaced with another, resulting in Acts 1:26 "And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles." These are "the" twelve apostles. Paul was the apostle born out of due time (1 Cor 15:8-9).

One cannot dispute that the primary reference to the word in the NT refers to "the apostles" of Jesus. The phrase "the apostles", referring to the apostleship (Acts 1:25; Rom. 1:5; 1 Cor. 9:2; Gal. 2:8) occurs 39 times in the NT, so it must have been a pretty popular meaning of the word in the first century. Some examples are as follows.

• Acts 1:2 until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.
• Acts 2:37 Now when they heard {this} they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"
• Acts 4:33 And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
• Acts 15:6 And the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.
• Jude 1:17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Though the word generally refers to a specific group called "the apostles", one would do well to not associate every use of the word the same. There is also a missionary use of the word in the NT. Here are some examples.

• Acts 14:14 Both Paul and Barnabas are called "apostles".
• Rom 16:7 refers to Andronicus and Junias as "apostles".
• 2 Cor 8:23 Titus and two unnamed brothers that were "sent out" to spread the gospel were called apostolos or "messengers".
• Gal 1:19 James, the brother of Jesus is called and "apostle" (See John 7:5).
• Phil 2:25 calls Epaphroditus the apostolos or "messenger".
• 1 Thes 2:6 refers to Paul, Timothy and Silas as "apostles".
• Heb 3:1 refers to Jesus as "the Apostle" (See John 17:3).

The context of the above examples refers to being "sent out with a message" and not "the apostles". The definition of the words leans to "missionaries" and not the "apostleship".

The same appears to have occurred in the context of Eph 4:11 as it is referring to "gifts" given to members of the church for the equipping of the saints. To read it and jump to the conclusion that the word "apostles" in this case means "the apostles" or "apostleship" would not be reasonable. If we translate instead of transliterating the word "apostolos" the verse reads this way: "And He gave some {as} sent out messengers, and some {as} prophets, and some {as} evangelists, and some {as} pastors and teachers,". In the first century, they would have probably possessed the miraculous gifts of tongues and the interpretation of tongues, something that would have aided them as they traveled to all the different regions of the empire. When the miracles were phased out with the canonization of the Bible, only the passion would have remained. We have a more modern word for those with the passion of the messenger that is sent out from the church; they are called missionaries.

Who is the missionary? He is the one that deeply desires to start congregations where none exist. His or her passion is to facilitate the formation of churches in light of the world of ignorance or hostility to the Lord. The mission gift that beckons one to Matt 28:19-20 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..." It is the gift of missions that drove the first century church Acts 1:8 "...both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

The missionary possesses the unique ability to consistently hold a worldview of Christ and the church. His sense of Gospel adventure cannot joyously stop at the neighbors, for he must Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." The person with the well-developed gift of missions is not afraid to march into Satan's backyard to start sharing the word of God. They are passionately persuaded that this is their calling in life. They want to turn Acts 17:6 "...the world upside down..." through the spreading of God's word. John 4:35 "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and {then} comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest." With reaper in hand, the one with the gift of missions deeply desires to find these fields and close the harvest.

Signs of Maturity

1. Visionary
   1. They are not intimidated by obstacles.
   2. They generally hold a worldview of Christ and the Bible.
   3. They are risk takers.
2. Adaptable
   1. Culture
   2. Language
   3. Foods
   4. Travel
3. Non-materialistic
   1. They generally do not possess much.
   2. They are not interested in material gain.
   3. They know the Lord will make the ends meet.
4. Evangelistic
   1. They like to keep things simple.
   2. They like to keep it applicable.
   3. They like to keep it quick.
   4. They like to keep it Christ-centered.

Signs of Immaturity

1. Impulsive
   1. They are often unorganized.
   2. They are often under funded.
   3. They are often untrained.
2. Impractical
   1. They tend to set goals too high.
   2. They tend to move too fast.
   3. They tend to do too much.
3. Impatient
   1. They can be impatient with old converts.
   2. They can be impatient with new converts.
   3. They can be impatient with non-converts.

Some ways to obtain joy with this gift

1. Take a foreign mission trip.
2. Raise support among the congregation for outside mission work.
3. Be active in the organization and participation of local missions.
4. Pray for specific mission teams across the globe. Perhaps solicit the prayers of the fellow saints concerning the mission work.
5. Email, write and send surprise gift packages to foreign mission teams.
6. Door knocking, home Bible studies and inner-city work.
7. Eventually make full-time missions a reality.