Get Your Pretense On!

110 • Get Your Pretense On!

1 Cor. 9.2), and are called by that sender to suffer on the sender’s behalf (1 Cor. 4.9ff.; 2 Cor. 11). Further, apostles had to authenticate their calling through their deeds and words. The original apostles saw the risen Lord (1 Cor. 9.1; 15.7-9; Acts 1.21-22), and believers are converted and churches planted through their work (1 Cor. 9.1-2). They performed signs, wonders, and miracles in the power of the Spirit, in the name of the One who sent them (2 Cor. 12.12), and they laid the foundation for the church through their ministries, writings, and prayers (Eph. 2.20; 2 Pet. 3.2). Clearly, then, apostles do not vote themselves into office, or volunteer to represent. Rather, God selected these unique messengers to give final, authoritative witness to the Son of God in the world. Their ministry, therefore, is unique and God ordained. The same phenomena can be observed for those named as evangelists or heralds of the Good News (messengers). The Greek terms for evangelists ( evangelistes ) means “someone who brings good news (Acts 21.8; Eph. 4.11; 2 Tim. 4.5). Another term for herald ( keryx ) “denotes the person who is commissioned by his ruler or the state to call out with a clear voice some item of news and so to make it known” (David Bennett, Metaphors of Ministry , p. 135) (cf. 1 Tim. 2.7; 2 Tim. 1.11). Both evangellos and keryx presuppose the delivery of a message on behalf of someone else (neither were allowed to make up their own announcements; faithful proclamation lies at the heart of their duties). To be an evangelist is to be entrusted with Good News, and the mandate to deliver that News to those for whom the message was intended. It is pure representation. One further example may be chosen to show the intimate connection between ministry, mission and representation. The concept of Ambassadorship is one of the apostle Paul’s favorite depictions of his ministry to represent kingdom interests in the world as representation: