Every apostle started as a disciple, and no apostle ever stopped being one. Here is what the two words mean, who carried each, and what the difference says about your own walk with Jesus.
The difference in apostle vs disciple comes down to two Greek words. A disciple is a learner who follows Jesus. An apostle is one who is sent out with His message and His authority.
Every believer is called to be a disciple. Jesus chose twelve of His disciples and named them apostles, and the New Testament later uses the word for a handful of others too. No apostle ever outgrew being a disciple.
That last line is the one people miss. Apostle is not a promotion out of discipleship. It is discipleship with a destination.
Our English Bibles borrowed both words from Greek, and each one carries a picture. We have a full study on the apostle definition, so here I will keep it to how the two words sit side by side.
A learner, a pupil. English gets "disciple" from the Latin word for the same idea.
Blue Letter Bible counts 269 uses in the Greek text behind the King James. Every one of them sits in the Gospels and Acts. The letters never use it.
An apprentice. John the Baptist had disciples, and so did the Pharisees (Mark 2:18). Learning meant living near the teacher, and listening was only part of it.
A delegate, a messenger, one sent forth with orders.
81 uses. The King James renders it "messenger" twice, once for Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25, and "he that is sent" once in John 13:16.
An envoy. The one sent carries the message and the authority of the one who sent him.
Put them side by side and the difference is direction. A disciple moves toward Jesus. An apostle is sent out from Him. Healthy faith has both motions, which is why the two words overlap so much in the Gospels and why the same twelve men get called both.
Notice also where "disciple" stops. After Acts, the letters call believers saints, brothers and sisters, the body. The word changes. The calling to follow does not.
Jesus had many disciples, at times crowds of them. Luke tells us that after a night of prayer He picked twelve out of that larger group and gave them a second name.
“When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.”
Luke 6:13The Gospels show the change happening in stages, and the order matters.
Simon and Andrew leave their nets. The first word Jesus gives them is "follow," not "go."
"He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach." Presence first, mission second.
He gives the Twelve power and authority and sends them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and heal the sick. They come back and report.
"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." The risen Jesus commissions them in the language of sending.
They wait for the Spirit, and on the day of Pentecost the learners become witnesses in the streets of Jerusalem.
Jesus never skipped the first half. The Twelve spent their time with Him as learners, got things wrong in front of Him, and were corrected by Him before they were ready to be sent. Even then they waited.
For the names and the small differences between the lists, see our study on the 12 disciples of Jesus. Peter is the clearest example of the whole journey, a fisherman who sank, denied and was restored before he preached, and we trace it in Peter in the Bible.
Jesus made apostles out of disciples, never the other way around. Being with Him came before being sent by Him.
Every post here is free to read. If this one helped you, you can help keep it that way. Pick an amount and finish on Stripe's secure checkout.
Change your amount, update your card, or cancel anytime. Enter the email you give with and Stripe sends you a secure link.
Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
If apostle only ever meant the Twelve, this would be a short study. It does not. The New Testament uses the word in a narrow sense and a wider one, and both are real.
After Judas was gone, Peter laid out what a replacement needed: someone who had been with them from John's baptism to the day Jesus was taken up. Then he gave the reason.
“For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
Acts 1:22Matthias was chosen and "added to the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:26). Their number matched Israel's twelve tribes, and their eyewitness testimony belonged to the generation that saw the old covenant age close in AD 70. Revelation 21:14 writes their names on the foundations of the city. Nobody alive today can be one of them. For the rest of that story, see who Judas was.
Paul was not one of the Twelve and never claimed to be. His case rests on meeting the risen Christ and being sent by Him: "Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" (1 Corinthians 9:1). He even calls himself the least of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:9). More in who Paul was.
Chosen from the disciples and named apostles by Jesus Himself. Unrepeatable witnesses.
He insists his sending came from Jesus Christ and the Father, not from any human committee.
Luke writes "the apostles Barnabas and Paul." Read more on who Barnabas was.
Jewish believers who were in Christ before Paul and shared prison with him, called "outstanding among the apostles."
Paul appears to count the Lord's brother among the apostles, though the sentence can be read either way.
"Our apostle and high priest." Before anyone else was sent, the Son was sent by the Father.
Junia deserves a straight word, because her name gets argued over. Junia is a woman's name, and early readers took her as a woman. John Chrysostom, preaching on Romans near the end of the fourth century, said it plainly: "How great is the devotion of this woman, that she should be even counted worthy of the appellation of apostle!" (Homily 31 on Romans).
Two honest questions remain. Some modern translations printed a masculine form, Junias, which has little ancient support. And the Greek phrase can mean "outstanding among the apostles" or "esteemed by the apostles," which is why the NIV carries a footnote. Careful scholars land on both sides. We read it the way Chrysostom did: Paul is calling Junia an apostle in the wider, sent sense, not one of the Twelve. For the bigger conversation about women in ministry, see should women speak in the church.
So are there apostles now? The answer depends on which sense you mean, and blurring the two senses causes most of the arguments.
Pioneering, planting, laying foundations where the church is weak, and sending others out. Barnabas and Paul did this, and the Spirit still gives this gift. It is recognized by fruit in people.
Nobody today is a resurrection eyewitness or adds to Scripture. When "Apostle" becomes a rank on a business card that puts someone beyond questions, it has left the New Testament behind.
At Sound of Heaven we hold that the Twelve were unique and unrepeatable. Their eyewitness role closed with their generation, and their teaching is part of the foundation the church is built on (Ephesians 2:20).
We also believe the apostolic function is active today. The New Testament used the word for Barnabas, Andronicus and Junia, and Ephesians 4:11 lists apostles among the gifts Christ gave until the whole body matures. We treat it as a function within the body, not an office over it. Christ alone is the head.
The strongest case against us is the cessationist one: a foundation is laid once, so apostles ended with the first century. We agree about the foundation. We disagree that the sending gift ended with it. The close of the old covenant age in AD 70 opened the new one fully. It did not switch off the Spirit.
We walk through all five gifts in our study on the five fold ministry, and we take the cessationist question head on in are apostles still for today.
If a leader used the word apostle, or a promise of spiritual covering, to control your money, your time or your silence, that was not the New Testament gift. You were not foolish for trusting. Real apostolic ministry sends people out stronger. If you want someone to pray with you, send us a prayer request.
A lot of teaching treats discipleship as the junior level and apostleship as the senior one. That gets it backwards. Peter was still being corrected years after Pentecost, when Paul opposed him to his face in Antioch (Galatians 2:11). Paul wrote late in his ministry that he had not already arrived but pressed on (Philippians 3:12). The apostles never stopped learning.
The reverse is also true. Every disciple is sent. Jesus gave His final charge in Matthew to the eleven, but the content of it is to make more disciples, taught to obey everything He commanded, and that includes the charge itself.
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 28:19In Greek the one command in that sentence is "make disciples." Going, baptizing and teaching wrap around it. The goal of every sending is more learners who follow Jesus. More on that in our study of the Great Commission.
A disciple spends time with Jesus in the Gospels, in prayer, and in a church family that can correct you. Mark 3:14 still sets the order. With Him first.
Most sending happens at a job site in Hauppauge, at the kitchen table, on the sideline of a Saturday game. You do not need a title to carry His peace into a room.
The aim is not people who admire you. It is people who follow Jesus without needing you. Paul told the Corinthians they were the seal of his apostleship (1 Corinthians 9:2). The fruit was people.
If you want the practical side of this, our study on what discipleship means walks through it step by step.
In Mark 3:14, what did Jesus appoint the Twelve to do first?
He appointed twelve "that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach." Being with Jesus came before being sent by Him, and it still does.
Hebrews calls Jesus "our apostle and high priest." He is the original Sent One, sent from the Father to show us exactly who the Father is. Every apostle after Him carries His message, and every disciple learns from Him. The whole distinction points back to one Person.
So you do not have to wonder where you rank. If you follow Jesus, you are His disciple, and He sends you. Some will carry the apostolic gift in a stronger way, planting and pioneering. All of us are learners sent into our own streets, and the Kingdom is already at work there.
For more, read about how the apostles died, what a calling from God is and spiritual gifts. You can also see what we believe or plan a visit on Long Island.
A disciple is a learner who follows Jesus, an apostle is one He sends, and in His Kingdom nobody stops learning and nobody is left unsent.
Tell us where you feel Jesus is sending you, or where you feel stuck. Someone at Sound of Heaven will pray with you.
A disciple is a learner who follows Jesus, from the Greek mathētēs. An apostle is one who is sent with His message, from the Greek apostolos. Every apostle in the New Testament was a disciple first, and none of them stopped being one. Jesus had many disciples, chose twelve of them and named them apostles in Luke 6:13. Later the word also covered Paul, Barnabas and others who were sent out. Every believer is called to be a disciple, and every disciple is sent in some way.
Yes. The Twelve were disciples whom Jesus chose from a larger group and designated apostles, according to Luke 6:13. That is why the Gospels call them both the twelve disciples and the twelve apostles. Judas Iscariot was among the original Twelve, and after his death the others chose Matthias to replace him in Acts 1. The requirement was that he had been with them from John's baptism to the ascension and could be a witness of the resurrection. Jesus had many other disciples who were never numbered among the Twelve.
The New Testament uses the word more widely than many people expect. Paul is the best known, sent by the risen Christ on the Damascus road. Luke calls Barnabas and Paul apostles together in Acts 14:14. Paul greets Andronicus and Junia as outstanding among the apostles in Romans 16:7, and he appears to count James the Lord's brother in Galatians 1:19. Hebrews 3:1 even calls Jesus our apostle. The Twelve held a unique place as eyewitnesses, but the sending function was never limited to them.
Most scholars today agree Junia was a woman. Junia is a known Latin woman's name, and early readers such as John Chrysostom took her as a woman and praised her for being called an apostle. The open question is the phrase in Romans 16:7, which can be translated outstanding among the apostles or esteemed by the apostles. We read it as Paul calling Andronicus and Junia apostles in the wider sense of people sent out, not members of the Twelve. Good scholars disagree, so we hold it with humility.
In the sense of the Twelve, no. They were unique eyewitnesses of the resurrection, and their testimony is the foundation of the church. In the wider sense of people sent to pioneer, plant and strengthen churches, we believe yes. Ephesians 4:11 lists apostles among the gifts Christ gave until the body reaches maturity, and the New Testament used the word beyond the Twelve. At Sound of Heaven we treat it as a function, not a title. A true apostolic gift is known by the fruit it leaves in people.