Cheryl

Also regarding Don’s comments in #4. I appreciate differing points of view and views different than mine are welcomed on this blog. I know that there are many coming over here from CARM who wonder how we handle differences (I do not edit people’s disagreements with me as I have been accused of) and I would ask that people watch and see how differing points of views can be handled with Christian love. We can passionately argue our point of view, but treat each other with love and respect as befitting brethren in Christ.

Now to my argument that Paul was the twelfth apostle and not Matthias, I take my argument from scripture especially from Paul’s own argument. While I do agree that the eleven apostles rightly saw from scripture that there was to be one who would take Judas’ place, I do not belief that it was faith in the application of this scripture that led them to replace Judas. I believe it was a presumption that they were responsible for fulfilling the scriptures.

All the apostles were hand picked by Jesus and thus they were the apostles of Jesus Christ. Peter, like Paul, calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ because he, like Paul, was picked by Jesus to be his apostle.

1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ…

Paul’s ordination as an apostle was by the resurrected Christ, as Jesus appeared to him:

1 Cor 15:8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
1 Cor 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Paul speaks about this revelation of Christ to him “as to one untimely born”. He was numbered with the apostles but as one who came late, born out of time with all the rest.

When the apostles gathered together to chose a successor to Judas, Paul had not yet become a Christian and Jesus had not yet appeared to him. It was in Christ’s timing for Paul’s apostleship that allowed Paul to carry on as an unbeliever persecuting the church until the time that Christ stopped him on the road to Damascus. Jesus, in a spiritual sense, picked Paul up and placed him alongside the eleven apostles, while out of the appointed time of the rest, yet Paul was fully an apostle and one ordained by the glorified man Jesus Christ as his representative, one of the foundational apostles of Christ.

Yes, there are other apostles too in the New Testament, but there are only twelve foundational apostles. Paul’s apostleship was marked with great revelation from Jesus Christ in such a way that he was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from becoming proud. His miracles were evident of his ordination as apostle and his writings were accepted as scripture.

Now what about Matthias? Can it be said that Jesus Christ personally ordained Matthias as an apostle? There is not one word in scripture that shows that Matthias was ordained as an apostle by Christ. There are no scriptures that say “Matthias an apostle of Jesus Christ”. In fact Matthias is never heard from again in scripture. Isn’t this odd for a foundational apostle? It certainly would be odd if Jesus counted him in amongst the other eleven. But the truth is that Paul claimed to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. His claims stand up to the test. It is also very understandable why Paul had to constantly defend his apostleship. When the twelve are complete in number because they ordained by their own authority a twelfth member, it comes across as Paul is an interloper. Yet it isn’t Paul who is the interloper. Matthias is put into the twelve by the will of man. Paul is put into the twelve by the will of Christ. Paul claimed that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ NOT by the will of man, but by the will of Jesus Christ and the Father (Galatians 1:1).

So now we come down to my original discussion of fences. We have to make a decision regarding the foundational apostles of Jesus Christ. Was Matthias really one of the foundational apostles ordained by Christ or did he get his ordination from man? Paul claimed that he became an apostle because of the will of Jesus Christ and I believe him.

All of this is very much related to women in ministry. I have encouraged women who have been gifted by God as pastors (Ephesians 4:11), to walk within that calling and that gift. Do you need to have an ordination by man to walk in that calling? No you don’t and the examples of Matthias and Paul should help us to see this. An ordination of man cannot create a foundational apostle. Matthias was ordained by man but he was not chosen by Jesus Christ so his ordination was not valid. Paul was not ordained by man but his ordination by Jesus Christ was valid even without man’s ordination. If you are called and gifted as a pastor, then live out your calling. Do not say that you have not been ordained so you cannot serve and shepherd. The one whom God calls and gifts does not have to be reliant on man’s ordination. You may not get recognition from man, but you can still shepherd. Shepherd the bible study that you are in and lead. Shepherd the hurting in your church. Do the work of your calling and do not regard man’s ordination as necessary.