What is the difference between a disciple and apostle?

There is a very distinct difference. We read, "He called to Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve whom also He named apostles" (Luke 6:13). The word "disciple" means "one taught" or "trained." The word "apostle" means "one sent forth." Every true follower of the Lord was a disciple; only the twelve were sent forth by Him as apostles. Theirs was a peculiar place, therefore, of authority and service.

But looking a little closer into details we find that Matthew 10 opens with the mission of the twelve. At the close of Matthew 9 they were instructed to pray for labourers to be sent forth, and here we find them being sent forth themselves. The disciples now become apostles — sent ones. Hitherto they had been following with the Lord, as disciples; now they go forth for the Lord, as servants, and the chapter is full of the deepest practical instruction for every servant, now, as well as then.

μαθητής This word signifies strictly 'a learner' or 'pupil.' The Pharisees had such, whom they taught to fast. Matt. 22:16; Mark 2:18. John the Baptist had disciples, who likewise fasted. Matt. 9:14; Luke 5:33; John 3:25. The Lord Jesus had His disciples: the apostles whom He chose to be with Him are called His 'twelve disciples,' Matt. 11:1; but in other places the term is applied to all who followed the Lord, many of whom 'went back and walked no more with him.' John 6:60-66. When great multitudes followed the Lord, He turned to them and bade them count the cost of really following Him. Such an one must hate (in comparison with Christ) all his natural relations and his own life also. He must take up his cross and follow Christ, and he must forsake all that he had, or he could not be His disciple. Luke 14:26-33. On another occasion Jesus said to the Jews that believed on Him, "If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples." John 8:31. It was true association in heart with a rejected Christ. Matt. 10:24-25; John 15:8.

While the New Testament sometimes uses the phrase ‘the disciples’ to denote the twelve apostles specially called by the Lord while He was on the earth (Matt. 10:1–4), the word ‘disciples’, particularly in Acts, often refers more generally to those who had believed on the Lord Jesus. In both instances, the meaning of ‘disciple’ is important. Strong’s Concordance gives it as learner or pupil. Another thought connected with the word is a follower (see Luke 14:26–33). Although much of the truth which God has, in His grace, made known to us in the New Testament was still to be revealed at that time, the early Christians had willingly taken upon themselves the yoke of Christ and were learning of Him (Matt. 11:29). They also understood that the Lord Jesus was indeed Lord and that they were not their own (1 Cor. 6:19–20) but had to obey His commandments and follow in His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21), cost them what it may. The word ‘disciple’ may not encapsulate all of our standing and privileges as believers in this dispensation (which may be why the word does not appear in the epistles), but would any of us want to suggest that we should not forsake all and follow the Lord Jesus in our lives?

Here are two classes of persons gathered round Christ. First, the twelve apostles were public witnesses, fitted by divine grace to be the vessels of testimony, manifesting the electing power of God in calling them, and sending them forth in all the energy of ministry; Christ's apostles, sent out by Himself - "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" - His chosen ones. "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," etc. Then, secondly, there were others who were gathered by affection round Him, having no place of office in the church, but those whose hearts were touched and drawn round Him, not sent out like the first class, but not less devoted in heart than the apostles, for they followed Him and ministered to Him of their substance.

But, as we have seen, the abounding and activity of grace, so this induces necessarily conflict; as the rejection of Jesus involved rejection, the activity of goodness involved the sacrifice of all in a world in possession of the enemy - the cost of all that tied us to it, and the opposition of the prince of it. If one made inroads in his kingdom one could not keep its outward blessing if one made war upon him. Of this Jesus warns the multitudes. They followed Him as an easy thing, interested and attracted, but not knowing whither He went or whither it led them. He tells them plainly: You cannot follow Me without sacrificing all, life and all. There is the principle of the new dispensation and its grace; the world is all gone wrong. It is the introduction of an extraordinary power into it, this very grace. The world is adverse. These things are links to it by which Satan will hinder in the war - the heart's hostages in his hands; there must be entire and simple devotedness in the war. So it was in Jesus in the exercise of grace. Such was discipleship to Him, for discipleship, though every Christian is a disciple, and every disciple is a Christian, is more than a Christian. It takes up the Christian in his learning from and following of Jesus in His life and service. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples," for He had borne much fruit. So far as His disciples in this service and following Him, this would be the result or the necessity, and at the commencement that His work and its efficacy might be presented in power and force, it actually involved all this. It always does in the service to which this applies. So far as that service goes the warfare always involves the same consequences, "So then," says the apostle, "death worketh in us but life in you." He was carrying about in his body the dying (nekrosin) of the Lord Jesus, that His life might be manifest in his mortal body; he could not follow Jesus in his service otherwise. Such was his advice to Timothy. No man goeth a warfare at any time, etc.; and whoever did not carry his cross, set out on a constant course of humiliation, shame, and self-denial, cannot be His disciple.

The object for which these twelve persons were selected from among the mass of the disciples or followers of the Lord is here stated to be threefold. They were (1) to be with the Lord, (2) to be sent forth to preach, and (3) to have authority to expel demons. These chosen ones, as Luke tells us, are named apostles" by the Lord Himself (Luke 6:13); and it is well to remember that this term was applied to them from the first, so that the apostolate, so far as the twelve are concerned, originated before the founding of the church.

The Twelve Chosen. — We have seen that the recognised teachers amongst the Jews refused to receive the Lord and His instruction, and if possible would have got rid of Him. Hence He now called the twelve, whom He named Apostles, to send them forth at a later time on their mission of preaching the good news of the kingdom. God's work was not to suffer because the scribes and Pharisees persistently opposed the prophet of whom Moses had written. The moment, therefore, had come for the selection of the twelve out of the company of His disciples (Luke 6:13). Ere, however, doing that, He went into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. That night of prayer Luke only records. It was a moment of importance in the work given Him to do. For the choice of the twelve was the open declaration on the Lord's part of His rejection of the scribes as fitting teachers of the truth He had come to communicate. Sitting as they did in Moses' seat, whatever of the Mosaic legislation they taught, to that people were still to hearken (Matt. 23:2-3) but the privilege of preaching the good news of the kingdom, and of showing by works of miraculous power that a new dispensation was commencing, was to be entrusted to others. They had proved themselves unfit for such an honour. Of the twelve we then hear, Simon Peter as always heading the list, and Judas Iscariot closing it. In none of the synoptic gospels are they all mentioned quite in the same order. Matthew enumerated them in couples, indicating very probably how they went out to preach, for two and two were they sent forth by the Lord on their mission (Mark 6:7); and with becoming modesty he mentions himself after his travelling companion Thomas, whilst both Mark (3:18), and Luke (6:15), agree in giving him the precedence.

The gifts for edification were apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Elsewhere it is said that "God has set some in the Church, first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers;" after which the sign gifts are named. (1 Cor. 12:28.) The chief gift, then, was that of apostles. They were to testify of Christ's resurrection and to lay the foundation of the Church. It seems to have been an essential qualification, therefore, that they should have seen Jesus after He rose from the dead. Thus, Peter, speaking of the appointment of another apostle in Judas's room, says that he "must be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection" (Acts 1:22). Accordingly on the day of Pentecost, "Peter, standing up with the eleven," declares to the Jews that "this Jesus has God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:32). We read afterwards that "with power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 4:33). And still later, speaking to Cornelius, Peter says that God raised Jesus up "the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead" (Acts 10:40-41). The only persons who ate and drank with Jesus after His resurrection were the apostles. Though others saw Him, therefore, these were the chosen witnesses of the resurrection. Paul, himself, though not one of these, owns the same thing, declaring that Jesus had been raised up "from the dead, and He was seen many days of them which came with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people" (Acts 13:30-31). Paul's own apostleship is connected with the same evidence, and required the same qualification, though the place where he saw the risen Christ was not on earth, but in glory. Thus Ananias says to him, "The God of our fathers has chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth; for thou shalt be His witness unto all men, of what thou hast seen and heard" (Acts 22:14-15). Accordingly Paul, when asserting his apostleship, asks — "Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" (1 Cor. 9:1). And afterwards, speaking of the witnesses of His resurrection, he says — "And last of all, He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time; for I am the least of the apostles" (1 Cor. 15:8-9). The apostles, then, were to be eye-witnesses of Christ's resurrection, an important fact, inasmuch as it shows the office to be temporary in its character, and incapable of revival in after times.

The word ‘apostle’means ‘sent one.’In this sense we may apply this in a wider sense to all believers as all believers have been drawn out from this world. It is very remarkable that the Lord said this when He called Paul. The Lord said He would deliver him “from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee”(Acts 26:17). The “people”were the Jewish nation and so the Lord took him from the Jewish nation and from the Gentiles. He was born a Roman citizen in Tarsus and he was born a Jew also, so he had double citizenship, but the Lord took him from both. Then He said, “unto whom now I send thee.”That is exactly the case with believers today in the whole Christian era. The Lord has drawn the Christians to Himself and then sent them to be His representatives in this world and in that sense we are all apostles. However, there are no apostles today with the kind of authority that these had in those days. Why can I say this? One of the criteria was that an apostle had to have seen the Lord in resurrection (Acts 1:22). We see Him today through faith, crowned with glory and honour, but we never met Him on the road to Damascus, we never met Him in Galilee, we were not there, so that kind of apostle is not around. There are people who claim to be apostles with a special authority today but these are false claims. In the very limited meaning here Paul was the only apostle of this order and we see in the New Testament that he shared the information that he had received with others. In Ephesians 3 he speaks of the eternal counsel, of what the Lord had entrusted to him, but he shared it with the others so there was not a conflict with the other apostles - simply a different emphasis.