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One thing that Jesus taught us is to judge ministries by their fruit (Matt 7:20). I have learned the hard way that He was not speaking of fruit of gifting but fruit of the spirit. I have been abused and confused by men and women with true supernatural gifts operating. There was good fruit directly from the ministry, but bad fruit from the minister. Wherever and whenever possible I have learned to be a fruit inspector and look for the fruit of the spirit in the life of any minister. This includes the apostolic ministry. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Gal 5:22, 23.

Another aspect of Jesus’ teachings is that true ministries will set the benchmark for false, fallen or immature ministries (Matt 7:15-17). Scripturally it was True prophets that warned of the false prophets (Lam 2:14, Ezek 22:28; Matt 7:15). True apostles likewise warned of the false apostles (Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Cor 11:13). Without the true ministries functioning and serving as an example and a model we can not know the false any more than we can know counterfeit money without having a familiarity with real money as the type or pattern to judge the false. By having the authentic ministries to teach the equip the people of God what is genuine and what is counterfeit the people will not be tricked by deceitful ministries. The apostle Paul spent time teaching the elders in the Church of Ephesus what were the marks of a true apostle and warned them of what was to come (Acts 20:27-31). When the false apostles came, the leaders were able to judge that they were false and save the people from hurt and the church from destructive behavior.

To the Church in Ephesus:

The requirement for the original twelve apostles is recorded in Act chapter 1.

Acts 1:21, 22 "Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection."

So only faithful men who had been with Jesus (necessitating that they be Jews at that time) from His water baptism by John, witnesses of the Resurrected Christ, and present at His ascension. Matthias fulfilled these requirements and was chosen by the Lord through the Holy Spirit to replace Judas. There is a false doctrine that has been around for centuries that Matthias was the choice of the apostles and that Paul really was God’s choice to come later. But we know this is untrue, not only through the record in Acts 1 showing that the Lord chose him, but Paul did not fill the requirements set forth in Act 1 for one of the twelve. These twelve will always be known as the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb. There will never be another who can join them nor replace one of them. However, there are numerous post-ascension apostles, Paul being only one example of this much larger group of apostles.

There are five post-ascension ministries directly given through the present day ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are current day extensions of His presently functioning ministry on the earth.

Eph 4:11 And He Himself [Jesus] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, Unlike the gifts of the spirit which are given to the individual to minister to the church, these are gifts of individuals whose lives are the gift Christ is giving to the church.

There are a number of requirements for post-ascension apostleship listed in scripture beginning with Paul’s listing in 1 Cor 9:1, 2.

“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 an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.”

The apostle must first and foremost have the heart of a bond servant. A bondservant is someone who has been set free from all bondage and duties of an indentured slave and has willingly placed their life back in service to the master forever (Deut 15:13-18). All of the apostles considered themselves first and foremost bond-servants and today’s apostles will likewise carry the marks of Christ their master, notably their servant’s heart and humility.

Rom 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.

2 Pet 1:1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ...

The apostles have a close relationship to the Lord, often being mentored by him as well as by other apostles. The Lord made a promise to the apostles that he would visit them after ascending to the father.

John 14:18 "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

The fulfillment of this promise is recorded in scripture as He still is doing so today (Acts 9:5; 23:11; 1 Cor 9:1). This is not to say that The Lord only appears to apostles. He is revealing Himself at a much increased rate today, even to non-believers who are searching for truth. As the apostolic age increases and the apostolic anointing increases to the church He will more often personally visit churches and regions. However, the apostle of today will have a visitation of the Lord at some point in their life which will impact them to the point that they carry something from Him to the church, they will be marked. What they have seen of Him will impact them in the way that a vision of a building impacts an architect, so that what was imparted to them directly by the Lord will be built by them in the body of Christ.

When Paul said to the Corinthian church that he was their apostle even if he was not an apostle to others, he was pointing out that apostles have spheres of influence and calling. No apostle is an apostle to everyone in the body of Christ. While they might be a teacher, prophet or evangelist to many more, the apostle will have an apostolic sphere of influence which will be recognized by those whom he serves as apostle and others who recognize this. The Corinthian church was “the seal of apostleship in the Lord” for Paul. As an apostle he established churches. This mandate for apostles is often confused with planting churches which is not an attribute of apostleship, but an attribute of discipleship

In the early church, churches were planted by disciples and other ministers beside apostles (Acts 11:20; Acts 8:5). However it was felt that even churches which had been planted needed to be established by apostles. This is referred to by Paul writing to the church in Rome, which was already quite large.

Rom 1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established.

The gift that he was speaking of was that of the apostle which he has already mentioned to them in his opening verse to them (Rom 1:1). This also was seen in the case of the church in Samaria which was planted by Philip the evangelist, but was established by the apostles Peter and John (Acts 8:5, 14). It is also interesting to note that these churches were not the type that we have today that we call “local churches” or “house churches”. These churches referred to were entire city-churches. This is something that you will notice with the modern day apostle, in that they have a kingdom heart and vision that goes beyond their own church or ministry and encompasses the well-being of all the churches of a city or region.

2 Cor 11:28 “Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”

This attribute often manifests it’s self in a self sacrificing nature even within the apostle’s own ministry. They will have a vision that goes beyond their own sphere which may often frustrate those for whom the apostle is directly responsible for. But the more mature the apostle becomes the more likely he or she is to understand this and have the ability to raise up the understanding of the saints and appropriate the faith necessary for the saints also to have a kingdom vision.

The Lord will more likely call the person by name. In other words the Lord will build a personal relationship with the individual in order to manifest His modern day ministry of an apostle through the person. Just as he called Samuel but name, but called him out as a prophet, He also called Saul (Paul) by name, but called him out and separated him as an apostle. The Lord does recognize the apostleship given to the individual minister and in some cases may refer to this or call the person by that ministry name, but it is important to the Lord to have a personal relationship with apostles that goes beyond a ministry. I think it is important to note also that the term or “title” apostle is not always necessary for a person to function in this ministry; it might even be a hindrance in some environments and under certain conditions because of wrong teaching or ignorance. However, when the term is used to describe a function which is manifested and apparent, it is not simply a title but a description, and would be quite biblical to use.

When Jesus was on earth He only ordained twelve and He ordained these twelve as apostles. It is true that these men had other ministries among them. We know this because no apostle can be an apostle only, but must manifest his or her apostleship through one or more of the other four ascension gift ministries. As the early church continued to grow other ministries were ordained and confirmed, first by the original twelve and then by other apostles. It is clear that the Lord intended for the apostles to continue to minister and raise up others into ministry until such time as He would close out the church age. Ephesians 4:13 says that we will have apostles with us “[un]till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This is something we have not attained yet.

Apostles functioned openly and powerfully in the church until perhaps the third century when they were replaced first by a position known as “Bishops”, which is a corruption of the biblical position of bishop or elder, and then finally the apostles long with the rest of the five-fold ministry were supplanted by an new testament “Priesthood”. The church is still in the process of overcoming these man made substitutions. The apostle brings a needed dimension to the rest of the ministries that is missing otherwise. If the five ministries can be seen as the working hand of God than the apostolic ministry would function as the thumb connecting the others and arranging them into a more powerful unit than four or five separate digits.

1 Pet 5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”

There are other aspects of Christ which the church is lacking that the apostle will bring. One major apostolic impartation is patient endurance. 2 Cor 12:12 “Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.”

This verse is often referred to in light of the proofs of apostolic ministry, and rightly so. Yet the first proof that Paul listed is often overlooked, down played or disregarded all together. This is too bad as it is a necessary attribute of the true apostolic. In fact other ministries may walk with powerful signs and wonders and Jesus said all who believed would manifest signs (Mk 16:17). Prophetic ministry often has accompanying signs of work of knowledge, foreknowledge, prophecy and others. Evangelistic ministry often has the accompanying signs of gifts of healing, miracles signs of conviction and other manifested power and mighty works. But neither the prophetic nor the evangelistic ministry have been able impart patient endurance to the body of Christ. This is coming with the increase of apostolic ministry.

Heb 6:12 ... imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

I think that there is an important distinction in that no true apostle will long function without being recognized by other apostles. As I noted previously this gives the church some safety in that false apostles will not be accepted by true apostles who are zealous for the safety of the church. This is not to say that all apostles instantly recognize other apostles just by walking into the same room. This can happen and does happen frequently, but is not promised. However, when one apostle receives ministry from another person there will be a witness if there is true apostolic grace present. After being around true apostolic grace and impartation, it is not difficult to discern what is called apostolic or introduced as apostolic, but is not. It might be some other form of valid ministry, but not apostolic. On the other hand even a little apostolic grace will stand out when it can be found.