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120 What Do the Christian Scriptures Claim for Themselves?
words were his words (John 15:7). They began to be his voice while
he was still here (Matt. 10:27). They became his voice (Acts 8:25) and
his miracle-working hands (Acts 5:12) when he had ascended to the
Father. This is why Luke begins his second volume, the book of Acts,
by saying, “In the first book [the Gospel of Luke], O Theophilus, I have
dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). In other
words, the point is that while on earth Jesus “began” to do and to teach
his church; and now that he has ascended, he continues to “do and
teach”—namely, by his Spirit through his inspired spokesmen.
That is what happened through the apostles in a unique way, because
that kind of authorized representation is what it means to be an
apostle.
By calling the twelve men whom He chose out of the wider circle of
disciples by the name “apostles” (sheluhim) and not merely “messengers”
or “heralds,” Jesus thus made it clear that they were to be
His delegates whom He would send with the commission to teach
and to act in His name and on His authority. That this was indeed
what He meant is shown by the whole history of His dealings with
the Twelve. 3
As we saw in chapter 3, the way Jesus secured the reliability of the
apostles’ representative work was to promise them the special help of
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth (John 14:25–26; 16:12–14). Therefore,
when Jesus had ascended to heaven, the apostles had a profound
sense of God-given responsibility to serve as completely submitted to
the authority of the risen Christ. They knew that they had unique authority.
And they knew that it was not absolute. They were men under
authority.
“In the Sight of God We Speak in Christ”
Paul (Rom. 1:1), James (1:1), Peter (2 Pet. 1:1) and Jude (Jude 1) all
called themselves “slaves” of Jesus Christ. That is, they did not belong
to themselves and did not teach the church as though they could speak
3
Ibid., 54. “Applied to a person, apostolos denotes more than aggelos. The ‘apostle’ is not only the messenger
but the delegate of the person who sends him. He is entrusted with a mission, has powers conferred
upon him.” J. B. Lightfoot, Epistle to the Galatians (New York: Macmillan, 1865), 89.