We need apostles. To complete the Great Commission task Jesus left His church to occupy herself with until His return, we need apostles. To truly reach the Muslim world with the genuine gospel message, not the distorted message of historic Christendom, but the true gospel of forgiveness and new life in Christ as we eagerly await and hasten the return of the king of peace, for this we need apostles.

If any Christian community throughout history was suited to understand the essential role of apostles, the church of Ephesus was perhaps in the best position to do so:

1. It is in the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians that we learn the Lord “gave the apostles … until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” [emphasis added]. The church has not reached the fulness of her maturity yet, so we still need apostles.
2. It is in the second chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians that we learn that the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the household of God, “Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” Some Bible teachers (including at least one I greatly respect) will say that “you only lay a foundation once” and so the gift of apostleship, having fulfilled its role in the first century, thereby permanently ceased. With all due respect, that slogan certainly is not always true: after an earthquake you probably need to re-lay foundations (Calvin’s Institutes 4.3.4 agrees with me here!); and when you have a new building site you need a new work to set the foundation for that site. Furthermore the claim of “one foundation for all time” extends the metaphor in a different direction from what the apostle Paul was teaching the Ephesians. Throughout this epistle, he is concerned to teach them the proper ordering of relationships: in the church, in the family, in society, etc. The more contextual point is that the diversity of members of the body/family/household of God build each other up when we each recognize, and step in line with, our proper roles. Apostles have a foundational role, and we all are much better off when we let the true apostles do the apostolic stuff.
3. It is in Jesus’ later letter to the church of Ephesus (Rev 2:2) that we learn that, even in the first generation of the church it was necessary to test and distinguish true apostles from false claimants to the title. He commends the Ephesians for doing that task responsibly. There will always be men who love fame and accolades and authority who will abuse the title of “apostle” and take it upon themselves despite not having been commissioned and sent by the Lord Jesus Christ. The solution to that problem is not to “play it safe” by a pre-determined decision that no apostles can exist today. Rather, the solution is to apply Ephesian-caliber discernment. Not all who claim apostleship are Jesus’ apostles. Some are.
4. It was in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7) that some disciples received the Pentecostal fulness of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of apostolic hands. Apostles not only fulfill a foundational role with their own direct ministry, they also have an essential role in igniting and imparting lampstand light into the rest of us so that we can truly and completely fulfill our own important roles in building up the body of Christ.
5. It was the Ephesians who witnessed first-hand how apostolic ministry makes a wide and broad impact on society, such that it could be said, “that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10)!
6. It was the Ephesians who experienced how “the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” when they respected the evidence of Paul’s apostolic leadership, zealously turned from their former ways, and passionately clung to their “first love” (Acts 19:11-20; Rev 2:4).
7. It was the Ephesians who saw that apostolic ministry can radically disrupt the status quo because, as noted above, it makes a wide and broad impact on society which inevitably results in strong counterforces (Acts 19:21-34). But it was also the Ephesians who came to understand that, however great the drama and ferocity of the fires of opposition, God will keep His true apostolic ministry moving forward in whatever way and through whatever vessels He sees fit (Acts 19:35-41).

May the Lord restore to His people the understanding which He deposited among the Ephesians of old. Christ Jesus Himself is the Chief Cornerstone and the ultimate Master Builder, but He has a specified building plan through which He intends to work through His people in specified ways, and we need to follow the guidelines He set forth.