1. The Spiritual gift of Apostleship Spiritual gift series By DJ Sutton III PART TWO

2. Opening Statement Do you feel your spiritual gift is that of an apostle? I don’t want you to answear that right away instead I want you to keep this in mind and take notes. Because after I go through all the different spiritual gifts I will talk about how to discover your spiritual gifts and then how to apply them to your life. Lets open with Prayer.

3. Opening Prayer Lord please help us to understand the spiritual gift of apostleship. We also pray that you help us look into our lives to see if we have this spiritual gift or not. Amen

4. Scripture “ And 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, Si’mon, who is called Pe’ter, and An’drew his brother; James the son of Zeb’e-dee, and John his brother; Phil’ip, and Bar-thol’o-mew; Thom’as, and Mat’thew the publican; James the son of Al-phae’us, and Leb-bae’us, whose surname was Thad’dae-us;

5. Si’mon the Ca’naan-ite, and Ju’-das Is-car’i-ot, who also betrayed him. These twelve Je’sus sent forth, and commanded the, saying, Go not into the way of the Gen’tiles, and into any city of the Sa-mar’i-tans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Is’ra-el. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:1-8, KJV)

6. “ And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common.” (Acts 2: 42-44, KJV)

7. “ And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, the gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12: 28-31, KJV)

8. “ Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” (2 Corinthians 12:12, KJV)

9. “ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

10. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4: 11-16, KJV)

11. The Problem with the gift of Apostleship The life application Bible commentary for 1 and 2 Corinthians says: “ It seems that the qualifications for being an apostle were to have seen the risen Christ, to have been sent out by Christ to preach the gospel, and to work on behalf of the kingdom, building its foundation.” All the scriptures shows us that his disciples which witnessed the resurrection because they were there. I don’t think this should determine the spiritual gift of apostleship because none of us were alive when Jesus was resurrected.

12. Another thing that the scripture shows us is that Jesus sent his apostles out to preach the gospel. The problem is that Jesus is not physically here to send us out to preach the gospel. At the same time the spirit can call us to preach the gospel and other things that the apostles did while Jesus was still in physical form. On the next slide I provided a list.

13. People with this gift: - pioneer and establish new ministries or churches - adapt to different surroundings by being culturally sensitive and aware - desire to minister to unreached people in other communities or countries - have responsibilities to oversee ministries or groups of churches - demonstrate authority and vision for the mission of the church. This list is from: http://www.kodachrome.org/spiritgift/refer.htm#Apostle

14. - pioneer and establish new ministries or churches After Jesus died his apostles went out and started establishing churches. Throughout the years since Jesus Resurrection people have been called to establish churches through out the world. To this day people are still establishing churches throughout the world or opening old churches back up. The way people minister has changed in many ways two.

15. - adapt to different surroundings by being culturally sensitive and aware Throughout history people have been called to adapt to new surroundings. An example of this is Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and others that had to help reestablish peoples ideas of culture and the awareness that now matter who you are we are still brothers and sisters. More people during this age are more aware and sensitive to other cultures. God is still calling people to fall into this category.

16. - desire to minister to unreached people in other communities or countries People go on missions to reach out to others. Some already believers and others known believers. God still calls us to reach to the unreached and try to save them before its to late.

17. - have responsibilities to oversee ministries or groups of churches People are still doing this today and probably will continue doing this for as long as this world is still here.

18. - demonstrate authority and vision for the mission of the church. This could be done in so many different ways its hard to say exactly what to look for or how to tell if this is what God is calling you to do.

19. As you can see we can still be apostles just not to the extant of the original apostles. Don’t make a decision about if this is your spiritual gift instead keep your notes for references . In your notebook write down any life examples from your life that would fit into the above ideas from People with this gift list. Make sure its things you have done or felt called to do not what others do or feel called to do. Let us now close in prayer

20. Closing prayer Lord we thank you for showing us what you have shown us in this teaching. We ask that you keep showing us more of grace and continue helping us find our spiritual gifts. Amen.