The Apostolic Call

Called to Prayer – Called to Equip – Called to Send

A Biblical Understanding of What it Means to be Apostolic
[apostle] a person sent by another; a messenger; envoy. This word is once used as a descriptive designation of Jesus Christ, the Son, sent of the Father. It is, however, generally used to designate the body of disciples to whom He entrusted the organization of His church and the dissemination of His gospel.

[apostolic] “Apostolic” is derived from the Greek word “apostolos, or apostolokos,” meaning “one who is sent out” or “messenger.”

Biblical History and Foundation
The foundation of the Apostolic ministry is rooted in the New Testament, where Jesus Christ appointed the twelve apostles. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus calls the twelve to be with Him and to be sent out to preach: “He appointed twelve whom He designated as apostles, to accompany Him, to be sent out to preach” (Mark 3:14).

The apostles were entrusted with the authority to pray, teach, perform miracles, and lead the early Christian community.

Apostolic Authority and Succession
The authority of the apostles is evident in their role as foundational leaders of the Church. In Ephesians 2:20, Paul describes the Church as “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.” This highlights the significance of apostolic teaching and leadership in the establishment and growth of the Church.

The concept of apostolic succession is the belief that the authority given to the apostles by Christ has been passed down through successive generations of church leaders. This succession is seen as a means of preserving the integrity and continuity of apostolic praying, teaching, and practice.


Apostolic Teaching and Doctrine
Apostolic teaching is characterized by adherence to the doctrines and practices taught by the apostles, as recorded in the New Testament. The early Church devoted itself to the apostles’ teaching, as seen in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” This commitment to apostolic doctrine is considered essential for maintaining the purity and unity of the faith.

Apostolic Signs and Miracles
The apostles were endowed with the ability to perform signs and miracles as a testament to their divine commission. In Acts 5:12, it is recorded that “the apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people.” These miraculous acts served to confirm the truth of their message and the authority of their mission.

Apostolic Mission and Evangelism
The apostolic mission is characterized by a commitment to evangelism and the spread of the Gospel to all nations. Jesus’ Great Commission to the apostles in Matthew 28:19-20 underscores this mission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” The apostles’ dedication to this mission laid the groundwork for the global proliferation of Christianity.

Apostolic Unity and Fellowship
Unity and fellowship among believers are central to the apostolic vision for the Church. The apostles emphasized the importance of maintaining unity in the body of Christ, as seen in Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians 4:3-4:
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of
peace. There is one body and one Spirit.” This unity is fostered through shared faith, communal worship, and mutual support.

The Apostolic Legacy
The legacy of the apostles continues to influence the Church today
through the New Testament writings, which serve as the authoritative source of Christian doctrine and practice. The apostolic foundation remains a vital aspect of the Church’s identity, guiding believers in faith, worship, and mission.

Part One – The Apostolic Call to Prayer

Ephesians 1:15-20
“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.”

Selected by God to establish the foundation of the church, the apostles did so by bearing witness to the resurrected Christ, by their prayers, their teaching, and by their sending. The apostles were recognized and formidable in their prayer and intercession. When there was a need to provide for the widows in the early church, the apostles couldn’t do it because they had to devote themselves to “prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:4 ESV
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.”

When the leaders of the church at Antioch were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Paul and Barnabas for the ministry God had called them to.

Acts 6:4 ESV
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.”

This was, in reality, the beginning of Paul’s missionary journeys. In addition, in the apostle Paul’s epistles to churches, he often begins by sharing that he has been praying for them.

Romans 1:9-10 ESV
“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”

Philippians 1:4-6 ESV
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Colossians 1:9-12
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

One thing is very clear: praying for God’s Church – interceding for God’s people was significant to laying the apostolic foundation and traditions. Although the foundation of the Church has long since been established and the apostles of the historic early Church have passed on, the biblical principles and traditions of apostolic ministry remain successive and entirely relevant, particularly in the area of prayer. God wants to use us to establish, equip, and build His church through prayer. Let’s go back to our foundational passage.

Ephesians 1:15-21
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”

As we unpack this segment of this great letter from the apostle Paul to the remarkable churches in the region of Ephesus (75 to 100k members), we can learn their timeless principles of apostolic prayer—prayer that establishes, equips, and builds up God’s Church. To do this, let’s first ask two informative questions.

Questions we must ask:
How can we develop and deepen an apostolic prayer life?

What active and relevant principles can be exegeted (drawn) and
contextualized (practiced) from Ephesians 1:15-20?

Apostolic Prayer Comes from an Informed, Caring, and Consistently Righteous Heart

Ephesians 1:15-16
“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for
you, remembering you in my prayers.”

While Paul was in prison, he was informed of the Ephesians’ extraordinary faith and their love for all the saints. It must be noted that faith and love are essential marks of genuine conversion and life-changing transformation. Those who truly have faith in Christ are new creations; old things have passed away, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus instructs that one of the new things in the life of a true believer is love for other believers.

John 13:34-35
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If we do not love our fellow believers, then we have not passed – we cannot pass as the Scripture says from death to life.

1 John 3:14
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love
our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”

After hearing that kind of intense and direct instruction, we must also include the access point to the love that allows us passage from death to life…

Romans 5:5
“God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
whom he has given us.”

The believers in Ephesus had surely experienced this outpouring of love; they were moved by the Holy Spirit to love “all the saints”—not just the lovable folks in their local church communities or cities, but all the saints—everywhere. Their love for God and one another was evident in their faith – the Church of Jesus was being indisputably transformed by God.

One of the things that should be noted about Ephesians 1:15 is the way in which Paul writes, “ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus.” He appears to say that he had never met these believers before. The problem with this is that, according to Acts 20:31, he had spent at least three years in Ephesus. With this understanding, we can infer that this letter was written not only to the Ephesians but also to several other congregations in Asia Minor.

I. Apostolic Prayer is Informed
Paul prays with gratitude because he has heard about the faith and love of these saints. It is hard to pray for things we know nothing about. To cultivate our prayer lives, we must seek to be informed. This might
include asking others for their prayer requests so we can constantly lift them up. It could include reading and watching the news so we can know how to pray for our nation and for the world in general. No doubt Paul is implying the need to be informed in Ephesians 6:18: “Be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” We must be alert, aware, informed, and wisely literate to problems, substantial events, and instances of spiritual warfare so that we can pray for all the saints. Eyes wide open, heart kept tender, spirit made ready, wise to the purpose and fulfillment of God’s eternal Word.

If we do not stay informed, we will not be able to pray as we must.

II. Apostolic Prayer is Concerned
Another aspect of Paul’s apostolic prayer is his care for the Ephesians—he has “not stopped giving thanks” for them. He is thankful for the Ephesians’ spiritual attainments and successes, which reveal much about his heart. Many do not rejoice when others succeed, whether spiritually, socially, or vocationally. Rather, a spirit of jealousy, cynicism, or anger grows within, making one incapable of true prayer. We must have a selfless, concerned heart to pray both right and righteously.

We must truly want the best for others. We must desire that they know
God and excel at work, church, school, and in their relationships. This is the type of heart needed to pray. Sadly, this is the reason many of us do not pray. We are simply not concerned enough about others as we should be, but are far too concerned about ourselves.

III. Apostolic Prayer is Constant
Paul’s own prayers were constant, and he commands all believers to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We see this constancy in his prayers for the Colossians, the Romans, and the Ephesians.

Colossians 1:9
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not
stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the
knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Romans 1:9-10
God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of
His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers
at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be
opened for me to come to you.”

Paul was constantly praying for the Church, and this should be true of us as well. But how can we practice constant prayer—prayer without
ceasing? Does this mean that we never stop praying all day long?
Not necessarily. The Greek word translated as “without ceasing” in ancient literature was used of a “hacking cough.” When a person has a bad cough, it is not that he never stops coughing. It’s that he coughs all day— The cough keeps coming back. We must do the same with our prayers.

Throughout the day, we must constantly remember the Church, our
neighbors, our co-workers, our leaders, and the lost in general before God. Prayer must be our constant endeavor and focus throughout the day.

Apostolic prayer is informed, concerned, and constant – it is the call
for all, and most certainly, the call for the times and seasons in which we live.