Entries from April 1, 2008 - May 1, 2008
Apostles
"For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15).
I think if Paul were writing this letter on his MacBook Pro from the local Starbuck's in the year 2008, instead of way back when, he would write something like: "You have pastors, authors, coaches, evangelists-a-million, but you are scary-short on apostles..."
Where are all the apostles?
I find myself missing them more and more lately. Which is interesting because I'm not even sure what I'm missing. What is it I want an apostle to do for me? It seems like there must be something. Is there anyone in the Church today that has the authority to say the kinds of things that Paul did? We're drowning in opinions and strategies and "movements" and "we just need to get back tos." But we don't seem to have anyone that can stand up and say, "I'm an apostle by the will of God. All this nonsense has to stop because it's divisive and it's fruitless. And whoever disagrees with me, let's just see which of us God's power stands behind!"
I was talking to a friend and mentor about this recently and we both came to the realization that the scant-few apostles we've known were wild, beast-men who commanded respect but would also sit and have a coffee with you and would remember your wife's name. We also remembered that they all seemed to pay a huge physical price for that place in the kingdom. Peter was crucified upside down. His brother Andrew was nailed to an "X-Shaped" cross. If I recall my church history correctly, Philip died by hanging. We think John was boiled in oil - he might have survived that. Which is worse, dying in boiling oil or living after you've been boiled? And Paul, just read 2 Corinthians 11 for a taste of what he went through. We know he spent years in prison (think medieval dungeon) and was ultimately executed.
Is this what it takes to walk on the waves and raise the dead?
I'm not even really trying to "go anywhere" with this at the moment. Just pondering. What would an apostle look like today? What would he say to this Church?
Scott Bane
12 Comments
Email