Hey! Guess who called you?

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Sunday,
January 3, 2010

This slave by the name of Paul is a “called apostle”.

 κλητὸς ἀπόστολος

Here and in several of his other letters Paul takes pains to emphasize that he is most definitely an authentic apostle and so designated by Christ Himself.

He is writing this letter as an apostle, a fully authorized representative of Christ with an approved message.

 κλητὸς ἀπόστολος

He is writing this letter as an apostle, a fully authorized representative of Christ with an approved message.

An apostle is one chosen and sent with a special mission as the fully authorized representative of the sender.

What are the qualifications of an apostle in the Church Age? What characteristics have to be there?

1. Saw the resurrected Christ, 1CO 9:1-2; 1CO 15:5-8.

2. Selected and called by the Lord Jesus Christ, ACT 1:2; GAL 1:1 .

3. Authenticating signs: the temporary (and no longer functioning) spiritual gifts of miracles, tongues, & healing; 2CO 12:11-12.

4. The apostles authenticated (vouched for) one another; 2PE 3:15-16.

5. Each apostle is given authority and a commission to do certain foundational things for the infant Church.

a. The formation of the canon of Scripture, the New Testament.

b. Leadership in the pre-canon period of the Church Age.

the establishment of local churches

the establishment of local church policy

They were given the authority to set the order of the churches: they ordained pastors.

The gift also functioned in sending out colonial apostles (super missionaries, the forerunners of the evangelists).

They were given the authority to teach and provide doctrine and establish people in the truth.

They decided questions when disputes arose.

The apostles claimed they spoke with authority from God and as Christ’s representatives, and so the people should listen to them not as mere men but as men who spoke from God.

He was teaching as the chosen vessel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The books, including the book of Romans, were commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ, and inspired word by word by the Holy Spirit.

But there would be a train of pastor-teachers and evangelists down the centuries to continue the work of building up and edifying the church through the teaching of the divinely inspired word of God as found in the New Testament.

We are now ready for our adjective kletos and what it means to be called.

ROM 1:1
Paul, a bondslave by nature belonging to Christ Jesus, an ambassador by divine summons, permanently separated to God’s good news [Wuest]

God shouted to you in eternity past, and like light from a distant star that you finally see it is perhaps only now that you are hearing Him.

kletos means to be called, invited, or appointed.

In the New Testament, to be called means to be designated and set apart by an action of God to some special sphere and manner of being and of consequent activity.

It can mean to be invited by God in the proclamation of the Gospel to obtain salvation in all respects, as in ROM 8:28 and 1 Cor 1:24.

kletos also means devoted to Christ and united to Him.

One reason for this is to connect whatever is true about Paul’s calling to the calling of the Roman Christians and by extension the calling of each and every believer in Christ during the Church Age.

John 17:1
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

Believers were connected with Christ before their earth history; they were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, EPH 1:4.

Finally, kletos means called to the discharge of some office or commission, divinely selected and appointed.

“Calling” refers to the work of God by which He calls people to salvation and their spiritual destiny.