Task of the 12
People miss an important logical purpose of the twelve apostles. If we start with the known elements, they were witnesses of Jesus face-to-face and of his resurrected self. As such, they provide eyewitness testimony of what he said and of his resurrection. Beyond that, there may be some sense of them as authorities of the church, but that point appears to be overstated. None are shown functioning in that capacity (except to be trusted for stuff like the vision in Acts 10). Most of the apostles disappeared out of the discussion after the early chapters of Acts.
The task of the twelve apostles was to reach the nations were people of the Israel bloodline were located, even if mixed bloodline or unidentifiable tribes of Israel. The prophecies come as metaphors and enigmas. People may read these points about gathering the tribes in a physical sense when no physical sense is reasonable. (Matt 24:31, Mark 13:27). This gathering is about Jews/Israel especially seen with the parallel in Matt 23:37 (...how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen...)
The twelve apostles judged those nations for those descendants of Jacob. The passage on judgment of nations is to then judge the nations where these descendants resided (Matt 25:31-42). It can be noted that the judgment was not whether someone was a Christian or not, the judgment was how these nations treated Christians. As a critical detail, this passage would not affect “nations” who had no contact with Christians.
Jesus's selection of the twelve apostles reflected the twelve tribes of Israel. Their selection meant they represented the twelve tribes. The mission of these apostles points was primarily witnessing to the nations where the tribes of Israel were found, since those tribes were especially being judged regarding the acceptance or rejection of the Messiah. This judgment was due to the failure to recognize the day of visitation by God. It is this preparation that completes John the Baptist's warning to repent ahead of the kingdom of God. This judgment is the reason the 70 were sent. Luke 10:1 indicates, “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” Notably, Matt 28:16-20 speaks to the eleven disciples to share the gospel to all the nations. The accomplishment of this global outreach in our modern sense of worldwide evangelism is not likely since they lived only in the first century. Nor does the passage speak about organizing additional disciples to carry forth a long-term task to reach nations not one of them knew about. Jesus gave the apostles a task they could manage. (To apply this beyond their work would require some basis to apply this passage beyond its original scope. This extension of the scope would depend on the quality of the argument being presented.)
Consequently, what we expect of the twelve apostles is that their ministry was among the nations being judged in light of the treatment of Christians. They were there to share the gospel (and warn Jerusalem of the impending judgment) among the nations in their reach before it was too late to escape the judgment they were facing.
People miss an important logical purpose of the twelve apostles. If we start with the known elements, they were witnesses of Jesus face-to-face and of his resurrected self. As such, they provide eyewitness testimony of what he said and of his resurrection. Beyond that, there may be some sense of them as authorities of the church, but that point appears to be overstated. None are shown functioning in that capacity (except to be trusted for stuff like the vision in Acts 10). Most of the apostles disappeared out of the discussion after the early chapters of Acts.
The task of the twelve apostles was to reach the nations were people of the Israel bloodline were located, even if mixed bloodline or unidentifiable tribes of Israel. The prophecies come as metaphors and enigmas. People may read these points about gathering the tribes in a physical sense when no physical sense is reasonable. (Matt 24:31, Mark 13:27). This gathering is about Jews/Israel especially seen with the parallel in Matt 23:37 (...how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen...)
The twelve apostles judged those nations for those descendants of Jacob. The passage on judgment of nations is to then judge the nations where these descendants resided (Matt 25:31-42). It can be noted that the judgment was not whether someone was a Christian or not, the judgment was how these nations treated Christians. As a critical detail, this passage would not affect “nations” who had no contact with Christians.
Jesus's selection of the twelve apostles reflected the twelve tribes of Israel. Their selection meant they represented the twelve tribes. The mission of these apostles points was primarily witnessing to the nations where the tribes of Israel were found, since those tribes were especially being judged regarding the acceptance or rejection of the Messiah. This judgment was due to the failure to recognize the day of visitation by God. It is this preparation that completes John the Baptist's warning to repent ahead of the kingdom of God. This judgment is the reason the 70 were sent. Luke 10:1 indicates, “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” Notably, Matt 28:16-20 speaks to the eleven disciples to share the gospel to all the nations. The accomplishment of this global outreach in our modern sense of worldwide evangelism is not likely since they lived only in the first century. Nor does the passage speak about organizing additional disciples to carry forth a long-term task to reach nations not one of them knew about. Jesus gave the apostles a task they could manage. (To apply this beyond their work would require some basis to apply this passage beyond its original scope. This extension of the scope would depend on the quality of the argument being presented.)
Consequently, what we expect of the twelve apostles is that their ministry was among the nations being judged in light of the treatment of Christians. They were there to share the gospel (and warn Jerusalem of the impending judgment) among the nations in their reach before it was too late to escape the judgment they were facing.
