I CORINTHIANS 12:28: ARE THERE APOSTLES TODAY?

"And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, etc"

The issue of whether the church today has apostles once came up in our Sunday school class. There are at least three possible interpretations here:

1. The first approach considers the word “apostles” to refer only to the original Twelve and Judas' replacement, Matthias. This is the usage of the word throughout the Synoptic Gospels and the first part of Acts. If so, then “first” may be an indication of either importance or chronology such as in the parallel passage Ephesians 2:19-20: “...the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” According to this understanding, the office of apostle does not exist in the church today.

2. However, the same Greek word, apostolos, is applied in the second half of Acts and in Paul's Epistles to Paul himself (Romans 1:1, 11:13; I Corinthians 15:9, etc.), Barnabas (Acts 14:14), Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25), Andronicus (Romans 16:7) and Junia (Romans 16:7). The listing of Junia as an apostle is especially interesting since Junia is a woman's name. Thus, “apostle” may have a broader definition referring to a designated church office which could conceivably be valid for today's church.

3. Lastly, Paul may have been using the word according to its more generic sense – “messenger, or one sent forth.” This last possibility is the probable understanding of apostolos in John 13:16 and II Corinthians 8:23. It also explains how the author of Hebrews could even call Jesus an apostle (Hebrews 3:1). Whether or not God sends only particular people out as a messengers (or apostles) today is not clear.