All right, here's the text, or
eight verses of Matthew 10. When he had called unto him his
twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits
to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all
manner of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles
are these. the first Simon, who is called
Peter, Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican,
James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebeus, whose sure name was Thaddeus,
Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed
him. These twelve Jesus sent forth
and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles,
and to any city of the Samaritans enter not, but go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely you have received, freely
give. Provide neither gold nor silver
nor brass in your pursuit." Now, it does not seem unreasonable
that that we might tie both of these questions together, that
is, the question of Apostle and the question of miracle. For
in fact they go together in that the period of the Apostle and
of Christ was one of the greatest period of miracles to be found
anywhere in the Bible. Then the question remains, are
there such today? Should there be? Should there
be in the church the ministry or the exercise of the ministry
of apostles and should miracles be a common thing in our services
and in our worship today? Of course there are some that
say yes. and have even taken to themselves
the name of an apostle and contend the same thing in regard unto
miracles. In fact, there are some who have
made some rather spectacular claims from their mouth, many
who pass themselves off as apostles of Christ with the power to work
miracles, but they leave themselves wiggle room, dodge room, when
their miracles don't work out so good. But the absurdity does
not end there, for such as make these claims have also sought
to resuscitate the charismatic gift that were present in the scripture,
and they revel, therefore, in miracles, in signs, and in wonder. You know, they kind of play what
I call a spiritual game of, can you top this? For one tries to
top the other. So the question, are there apostles
and miracles today? We do not ask, were there apostles? Were there miracles in the early
church? For in Luke chapter 6 and verse
13, he called unto him his disciple, and he chose twelve, whom he
named Apostle. Nor do we ask, did the Lord and
the Apostle work miracles in their day and in their time? Because, you see, the greatest
miracles, both for number and for degree, were done at the
hands of our Lord and Savior and in that particular time period. So what we ask is, do they continue
to be apostles and should there be miracles as ordinary things
in the churches even unto the end? Is the church at a loss? if they are not apostles, and
if they are not the gifts of the Spirit and of miracles. Now to take up the matter, let's
start with a question of the apostles, or let's call it the
apostolate as we read about it in the New Testament. Their office
and their relationship and their ministry to the early church
in the first century. We've already cited Luke 6 and
verse 13. He chose twelve whom he named
apostles. Now, the text suggests some points
to our mind, such as the distinction that might be made between disciples
of the Lord and apostles of the Lord. Because from the larger
number of disciples, our Lord named a dozen of them and called
them apostles. In Mark's account of the same
event, he writes in Mark chapter 3 and 14, he ordained twelve
that they should be with him and that he might send them forth
to preach." Thus where Luke uses the word choosing, Mark uses
the word ordained. That is, he appointed them, he
made twelve apostles. By his sovereign choice and decorative
will, he called and gave authority to twelve as apostles. Thus these apostles received
their apostleship directly from Christ in his days in the flesh
upon the earth. The churches did not choose the
apostles, the Lord did. They were appointed not by a
vote of unanimity of the church, but their calling and authority
was from the Lord Jesus Christ. But wait a minute. What is this
that we see? That one of the twelve apostles,
Judas is carried by name, the traitor who betrayed our Lord. sold him for thirty pieces of
silver, and was called a devil from the beginning." John 6,
70 and 71. A graceless man put among the
apostles. He even was the treasurer and
handled the money for the group. John 12, verse 5 and verse 6. And why did the Lord choose such
a man as that to be an apostle? Did he not know the heart of
Judas? Of course he did. But the choosing
of Judas as an apostle, the Scriptures make very clear, was a deliberate
fulfillment of some prophecies of the Old Testament Scripture. For example, he would be betrayed
by, quote, a familiar friend. Psalm 41, verse 9. He would be
sold for 30 pieces of silver, Zechariah chapter 11 and verse
12, as well as those prophesied in Psalm 69 verse 25, Psalm 109
and verse 8. And these are quoted in Acts
chapter 1 and verse 20 as having direct reference unto the man's
yudah. But the Lord chose Judas to be
one of the twelve, John 6 and verse 70. Then, dare we ask the
question, why twelve? Why that number of twelve? Why not more? Why not less? We're no more qualified to be
apostles and serve our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
though in themselves they were neither worthy of each. But this
number 12 is a number that we meet with very frequently in
the Scripture, such as there were 12 tribes in the nation
of Israel, Exodus 21, 25. There were 12 loaves of shewbread
in Leviticus 24 and 5. There were 12 stones in the breastplate
of the great high priest, Exodus 28 and 21. There were 12 spices
that were sent, spies rather, that were sent into Canaan Numbers
chapter 13. There were 12 stones in the memorial
at Jordan, Joshua 4 and verse 3. There were 12 baskets of fragments
of food that were left from the miraculous lunch, John 6 and
verse 13. There are 12 foundations of the
new Jerusalem, Revelation 21 and verse 12. There is a tree
bearing 12 manner of fruit described in Revelation 22 and verse 2.
And so, twelve apostles by the choice of our Lord. Now, one
final observation concerning the twelve apostles as to their
earthly ministry or their special standing in the kingdom of God
and in the church. The twelve apostles as to their
earthly social standing. J.C. Ryle said this concerning
the twelve. Four of them had been fishermen. One of them had been a publican. And there were three pairs of
brothers among them. Most of them probably were Galilean. We have no reason to think that
any of them were noble or rich or high-bred or of great authority
in Judaism. That statement concerning Peter
and John, calling them ignorant and unlearned men in Acts chapter
4 and verse 13. Now concerning the apostolate,
the 12, the number, and how many whole faulty views I think of
the office of an apostle. So I'd like to quote from some
sound men of the past regarding the apostolate or the apostleship. Thomas Goodwin. Apostleship was
an office extraordinary in the church of God appointed for a
time for the first rearing up and governing of the church. Again, that same man said, they
had authority, they had jurisdiction committed unto them as elders
in every church where providence cast them to serve." Abraham
Kuyper wrote extensively on the apostolate in one of his books
and he said this, the work of the Holy Spirit is the name of
that book, the apostolate bears the character of an extraordinary
manifestation, not seen before or after, in which we discover
a proper work of the Holy Spirit of God." One called them ambassador
extraordinary in their ministry. They differed from the prophet,
and they differed from subsequent ministers of the gospel down
unto our time. They performed, however, a particular
function in the church, and their work has been finished so that
there is no need today for us to have apostles in the church,
yea? If they should appear among us
today, we should please the Lord to call them counterfeits and
liars, as they did in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 2. We would
reject their claims of apostleship, bring them to the touchstone
of the Word of God's truth, such as Acts 1 and 21, where they
had accompanied with Christ. Had they, have they been in the
company of Christ in the flesh from the baptism of John under
the ascension? That was the qualification that
they put upon choosing another. In Acts 1, 22 in the last part.
Were they eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ? Have those
today who claim apostleship seen the Lord alive in the flesh? Have they seen Him since He came
out of the grave? 1 John 1, 1-5. Can they honestly say they have
heard the Lord in the flesh? They have seen with their very
own eyes and have handled Him with their hands. of the Word
of Life. Have they seen a manifestation
of the Lord in the flesh? Or, in Hebrews chapter 2, verse
3 and verse 4, has God attested to their ministry by confirming
signs and wonders to confirm their, quote, apostleship, unquote. It is a bold, presumptuous claim
that some make to being a present-day apostle on the level with Peter,
Paul, and James and such like, having not the slightest evidence
whatsoever, either from experience or from Scripture, such as the
Church of Rome in their claim that its bishops are successors
of the Apostle, and that the Pope is a successor of Peter,
whom they contend was made the first pope by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not only so, but the apostles
were endowed by the Lord to do great and mighty miracles which
could not be denied. So that in Acts 5 and verse 12
we read, by the hands of the apostle were many signs and wonders
wrought among the people, such as the lame man healed at the
temple gate by Peter and by John in Acts chapter 3 and 1 through
9. The death of Ananias and Sapphira
for lying to the Lord in Acts chapter 5. Peter and Paul raising
up the dead during their ministry. Peter in Acts 9 and Paul in Acts
chapter 20. to the young man, Eutychius.
There are many others. So that, as James Alexander wrote
in his commentary, the impression made by the events of Pentecost
was strengthened and maintained by the succession of miraculous
performances done in and through the Apostle. In Hebrews 2, in
verse 4, it is very clear, God bore them witness. both with
signs and wonders, with divine miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost according to His own will. God gave a mighty will and endorsement
and witness to the gospel preached by the apostle whom he had sent. We must remember that the giving
of the law was with great attending glory and with God's power. And it made the proper impression,
lasting impression, upon the people. Suppose Moses had climbed
up on the mount and stayed a while and came again into the camp
with a couple of stones, a tablet under his arm, without the voice,
without the quaking, without the fire, without the thunder,
and without the smoke, and said to the people, here is the law
that I have received to be given unto you." The manifestation
accompanying the giving of the law as a work of God caused the
people to highly esteem the law and to believe it. Even so, the
gospel, being a divine revelation, has been endorsed by great signs
and wonders, not the least of them being the resurrection of
the Son of God from the dead, by which Paul said he was declared,
demonstrated to be the Son of God. And to repeat for emphasis,
God gave a mighty witness and a great endorsement to the gospel
preached by the apostles. By the way, to the apostles themselves
and their ministry. Paul said to the Corinthians,
there had been some sort of a claim or whatever among the people,
but he said in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12, the
signs of an apostle, were wrought among you in signs and wonders
and mighty deeds." In other words, this was a part of Paul's proof
that he was an apostle commissioned by the Lord Jesus and in every
way equal to those other apostles that were at Jerusalem. One author
made the observation that of the signs and the wonders performed
through the apostles that, quote, the general atmosphere of them
resembles that of the earlier days of our Lord's Galilean ministry,
unquote. One especially telling likeness
is visible when we read the incident in Matthew chapter 9, verse 20
through 22, when the woman with the issue of blood was made whole. Mark 5.30, Jesus knowing that
virtue or power had gone out of him, and the woman knowing,
feeling in her body that she had indeed been healed. But then consider Acts 5 and
15, a miraculous thing, when the very shadow of Peter passing
by might overshadow, might fall upon some of the sick, and the
lame and the infirm, causing one expositor to observe, quote,
Peter's shadow was as efficacious a medium of healing power as
the helm of the master's robe had been, unquote. And when Paul,
in Acts 19, verse 11 and 12, God wrought special miracles
by the hand of Paul so that from his body were brought kerchiefs
and aprons, and diseases departed out of them, and evil spirits
went out of certain individuals. The very next verse tells of
some gypsy Jews, vagabonds or strollers as they're called,
itinerant Jews, nomads we might think of them today, who undertook
the work of exorcism like they had seen from Paul, by saying,
I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preached, come out of him. And you remember what happened
to that particular individual. We remember again the Gospel,
Mark 6 and 5, that the Lord Jesus Christ healed the sick by laying
his hands upon them by the touch. Of the apostles we read that
by laying on of their hand, the Holy Spirit was given. Peter
and John in Acts 8 and verse 17, on the Samaritan, Paul, in
Acts 19 and verse 6, on some disciples of John the Baptist,
and the Holy Spirit came upon them. Paul, in Acts 28, verse
8 and 9, lay hands on the father of Publius and healed his fever
and his bloody flux. the century. And verse 9, others
were healed by Paul in the same place which was the island of
Melita. So, let's make some application
then. By these things it is easy to
see where and why modern charlatans and conmen in the church get
the idea to send out prayer cloths and anointing oil and they claim
to have the power to exercise the devil and unclean spirit. And this is the kind of people
who go to the stage and say, yes, I discerned that someone's
here today with a gallbladder problem, and about half the people
would qualify for that. Of course, they greatly differ
from our Apostle Paul in that we never read that Paul ever
asked anyone to send an approve me offering or an offering as
a seed faith or anything like that. What about apostles then
today? Are some apostles even now? Are there wonders, there are
signs, there are miracles? Their tongues are they of the
same caliber and of the same class as those of the apostle. Now as for signs, we think the
dollar sign is their favorite. Their tongues are sometimes just
unintelligent babbling. And like Luther who said, I slap
your spirit on the snout to some in his day. There is not the
office of an apostle today in the church. For as Kuyper said,
it is a closed circle and every effort to reopen it, therefore,
tends to efface the new covenant that God has instituted." Unquote. John Gill wrote, and I'm in agreement
with him, the office has now ceased. The apostles have no
successors in it, unquote. Not a settled ministry to forever
continue in the church. At this point, let's come to
the question of miracles. And with the express intention
of asking and seeking to answer the question, have miracles ceased? We look around, we don't see
great miracles today. Why is that? Should there be?
Is the church failing in its mission and its work for the
lack of a display and the exercise of a constancy of miracles, signs,
and wonders in its worship today? Now some things are clear. Number
one, The Bible records a great number of miracles, many of them. Number two, such have not been
for quite a long time now. No great plethora of miracles
has erupted in Christianity, well, since the days of the apostles,
actually, and a little after that. As a matter of fact, the
great last outburst of miracles was in the day, in the days of
the apostles. Now, that causes us to ask the
question, is there a connection between them? Have both of them
ceased together, the apostolate and the great working of miracles? Now, the careful student of Scripture
will discern something, and that is, for the most part, as we
read the Scripture, the greatest part and the greatest number
of the days of miracles were concentrated in certain particular
times in the history of the worship of God. And they were connected
to or concentrated to certain times and events. So, let's consider
the great periods of miracles that we find in the Bible. What are they? Well, number one,
we name the day of Moses and the Egyptian deliverance and
the wilderness journey as God preserved them and gave them
manna, gave them water out of a rock, turned bitter water to
sweet. Manna came and rained down upon
the ground. It was a great extensive time
of miracle and of great work. Secondly, another great period
of miracle was in the time of the prophets Elijah and Elisha,
especially the day and the ministry of Elisha. A. W. Pink wrote a
book on the life and ministry of Elisha, listing 17 miracles
done by this one prophet of God. including, but not in all of
them, the everlasting cruise of oil for the widow, the raising
of a dead child from dead. causing an iron axe head to float
to the top of the river. One of the better known ones,
the healing of Naaman the leper, just to name a few. Now the third
great period of miracle was during the ministry of our Lord here
on the earth. when our Lord walked in the flesh
among men and did many great things. And the fourth one, of
course, is the apostolic era, the days of the apostle. Of course, the last two seemed
merged together since there was no great time span between our
Lord's miracle ceasing and those of the apostles taking up. Before
we proceed, Let's reflect a little bit upon what all of this means. First of all, we ask the question,
what is it that is worthy of the name miracle? Many things
are called miracles today, but what What is the nature of a
miracle in the sense that we are describing this afternoon? What qualifies it to be put in
that category as a miracle? What makes something a miracle? Well, the answer is that miracles
are works extraordinary. They are things that are done
contrary to nature and exceeding the need or the use of second
cause. Let me illustrate. If the Lord
restores sight to a blind man by a word or a touch, This is
reckoned as a miracle. If a surgeon gives sight by an
operation, this is by a second cause and is not a miracle in
the same category as the first. Though it would be considered
a miracle by the recipient and a great and wonderful blessing
from Almighty God. But I'm just making the point
that some things are loosely labeled as a miracle. If a prophet or Christ or an
apostle raised one again from the dead, that is a supernatural
miracle indeed beyond question. But if one's heart stopped, chopped
by the medical crew, or given CPR, this is a second cause,
and therefore it causes it to go. When Elijah stretched himself
upon that little child there in that room, and breath came
again unto him. when our Lord went in and said
to Geras' daughter, Child, arise, and it was so. Then another question
is, what is or what was the purpose of miracles? Miracles in Moses,
miracles of Elijah and Elisha, of the Lord and the Apostle. Why did miracles seem to always
appear in mass or in cluster? I think we will be much helped
to consider the things and the time in which miracles occurred
as recorded in the scripture. They are, number one, the deliverance
from Egypt, the giving of the law, the time and days of Moses. Number two, the period of the
ministry of Elijah and Elisha, which was a great time of apostasy
in the land of Egypt, in the land of Israel. And thirdly,
of Christ and the Apostle. Thomas Manton said, miracles
were done to confirm some truth or some work of God, that the
mighty works that were done by Moses were tokens of God's power
working in him and through him. They were tokens of God's power. to confirm unto the Israelites
that Moses was a man sent from God, just as the glory of Mount
Sinai was to impress upon the people the majesty of God and
of His law, and to gain their fear and their obedience in what
they saw and what they heard. And as Matan observed, miracles
occur when God would set up some new law or bring in some new
dispensation, or introduce some new revelation." They are used
to confirm faith, to show that such things are of and from God. So that the miracles of Moses,
and Elijah, and Elisha, and of Christ, and then of the Apostle
were their credentials that they were sent from God, that they
were teachers come from God. Remember what Peter said in Acts
2.22.23, Jesus, a man, approved of God among you by signs and
miracles and wonders which He did by Him in the midst of you,
even as ye yourselves also know. And the Lord Himself did appeal
to His works to attest to His great divinity. Such were used
to confirm 1 John the Baptist, that Jesus was the Messiah, Matthew
11 and verse 4. Now concerning the miracles of
Christ and of the Apostle, it was necessary that Christ's person
and His mission should be established as being from God. For He came
to put an end to the Mosaic dispensation. Bring in gospel worship. This required a mighty display
of miracles and signs and wonder. Then the question, have miracles
ceased in our day? Why no more miracles and apostles
today? The answer is, yes, miracles,
the charisma, the office of apostle have all ceased for the reason
that they have served their purpose. Now consider the glorious manifestation
in the giving of the law. It was never repeated again in
that aspect. Even though the law was enforced
for centuries, and only a few comparatively actually saw the
glorious giving of the Law. Even so, there need be no repetition
of the miracles, or the incarnation, or Pentecost, or another set
of apostles, and that for the simple reason, signs and wonders,
done to confirm the truth are a standing memorial and a standing
testimony for all coming ages to follow. And concerning the
gospel, it is sufficiently confirmed by the miracles and the works
of the Lord and of the Apostle, and it is reasonable that they
cease. For the gospel, the gospel of
salvation, the Christian revelation is forever recorded in the inspired
written scripture for our learning. Being the same, there coming
no change In gospel worship from now on, no change, therefore
no need of a great era of miracles or of apostles. Those who would
seek to or claim to revive the miracles of Christ and the apostles
thereby prove they have no confidence in the sacred scripture. We tell them what was told the
rich man. They have Moses and the Prophet. Let them hear them. Let us remember not all believed
who saw the miracles and wonders and signs of our Lord and of
the Apostle. And when the person and gospel
of Christ was fully confirmed, miracles ceased, we have an infallible
record in the scripture. We have a more sure word of prophecy,
is how Peter put it. So that there's no need for those
things to be revived or to continue throughout the age of the church.