In the previous section we addressed the difference between the universal church and the local church. For the past two thousand years the church has not been able to properly solve the question of how the workers are related to the local church. The term workers can be used both in a narrow sense and in a broad sense. In a broad sense, all those who serve God are workers. For instance, whenever we go out to preach the gospel and do the Lord’s work, we are His workers. In a broad sense, it is a fact that all the saved ones are God’s servants. However, when we say that the apostle Paul was a servant of God, we say this in a narrower sense. The same principle applies to the term workers. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9; cf. 2 Cor. 6:1); moreover, he told Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman” (2 Tim. 2:15). Workers and workman as used in these verses are undoubtedly used in a narrower sense.
In this chapter we are speaking of workers in the narrow sense of the word, not the broad sense. In a narrow sense, according to the biblical revelation these workers are those sent by the Lord; that is, they are apostles. Throughout church history people have held an inaccurate concept concerning apostles. When I was young, I heard a preacher solemnly say that throughout the ages there have been only twelve apostles and that once the twelve apostles passed away, there have been no more apostles. At the time, I thought that this concept was scriptural, but the more I read the Bible, the more I felt that it was not true. For example, both Paul and Barnabas were apostles. Those who hold the view that there were only twelve apostles claim that Paul simply filled the place of Judas. If this were the case, there would still be thirteen apostles, because Barnabas was considered to be an apostle. Acts 14:4 clearly uses the term apostles when speaking of Barnabas and Paul; hence, Barnabas also was an apostle. Moreover, Silas was an apostle (15:22), and there is clear evidence that Timothy also was an apostle (Rom. 16:21). This proves that there were many apostles in the apostles’ time. If there were not many apostles, there would not have been the need to speak of false apostles. Revelation 2:2 says that there were false apostles: “those who call themselves apostles and are not.” There is only one president in the Philippines; as a result, there is no need to speak of false presidents. However, if a nation has three or four presidents, it would be easy to have false presidents.
When some in Corinth questioned whether Paul was an apostle, he said, “If to others I am not an apostle, yet surely I am to you” (1 Cor. 9:2). According to Revelation 2:2, the church and the believers are able to try those who call themselves apostles in order to verify whether or not they are apostles. These verses indicate that there is not a limited number of apostles. They also show that apostles are not limited to a special group of people.
On the one hand, apostles are weighty people in the church; on the other hand, they are not a special group of people. According to the Bible, an apostle is simply a worker who is sent out by God. An apostle is a person who is called by God and sent by Him to preach the gospel, save sinners, and establish and edify churches. Therefore, workers in a narrow sense refers to those who are sent out by God, that is, the apostles, as spoken of in the Bible. Later, in Europe the word missionary, a term derived from Latin, emerged. This word means “sent one.” In recent days, when people are sent out to preach the gospel by either the Roman Catholic Church or various Protestant denominations, they are referred to as missionaries. Because most missionaries have come from the West, there is a new term in Chinese—Western missionaries.
In fact, the word missionary is equivalent to the New Testament word apostle. Both missionaries and apostles are people sent by God to preach the gospel and establish churches. When we speak of workers, we are referring to apostles, those sent by God to preach the gospel and establish churches.