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Founding Apostles of the Church

Ezekiel 34:11-16; Psalm 87; 2 Timothy 4:1-8; John 21:15-19

The Apostles which have had the most profound impact on the Church are the Apostles Peter and Paul. One was an ordinary, uneducated fisherman who became the central leader of a movement and faith that has reverberated down through the ages. The other was the outstanding student of Judaism in his day who became our New Testament theologian and missionary extraordinaire. Which one was more important? We cannot say. Without the ministry and leadership of either one we would not have the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

Each apostle started their ministry in the Church from a position of weakness. Peter had denied his Lord three times before Jesus endured the cross. Paul was persecuting the Church, thinking that he was saving Judaism from heresy. Without the intervention of Jesus neither one would have been the leader that we revere today.

Peter and Paul did not always see eye to eye:

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:11-16)

Peter and Paul resolved their differences and came to a common understanding of the Gospel which opened the door for people of all nations to enter into the Kingdom of God. They emphasized that the Kingdom was not of this world which Christian believers could forward to with hope. In the meantime, the believers were to advance in purity and holiness. Here is how Peter described Paul’s writings:

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:13-16)

What is significant about both Peter and Paul is that, against all odds, they taught and preached the Gospel with boldness and perseverance. Although they both became martyrs for the Church they did not shrink back from the great commission which their Lord Jesus entrusted to them. The commonality in the leadership of Peter and Paul is that they did not rely on themselves but on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Let us summon the courage and persevere in our own day by the grace of God and the guidance of His Holy Spirit. Peter and Paul needed Jesus to strengthen and guide them, so we need Him more than ever. Apart from Him we can do nothing.

Let us also remember this word from Peter:

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because

“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Let us remember this word from Paul:

I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:12-13)