1. There are no Apostles today. The biblical qualifications for an Apostle are: 1) being a witness to the resurrected Christ and 2) personally appointed by Jesus to the office. (Acts 1:22-26, 1 Corinthians 9:1, 15:5-9, Matthew 10:1-7, Acts 26:16-17, Romans 1:1, Galatians 1:1) These qualifications preclude any in our day from legitimately claiming the office. Of note, no church leader of any regard has ever claimed the title, from the patristic church fathers to the Reformers and so forth.
2. Apostles performed several functions:
a. They served as the foundation of the church. (Ephesians 2:20)
b. They replaced the Old Testament Prophets in speaking and writing divinely inspired words of Scripture. (John 14:26, Ephesians 3:5)
3. The Apostles include the original 12 (Matthias replacing Judas) and Paul along with James, the brother of Jesus. Barnabas and Silas (Sylvanus) were also possibly Apostles, though textually they could be apostles in the non-technical sense as discussed in bullet 5 below. As a result, between 14 and 16 men held the office. Timothy and Titus, though important to the early church, were almost certainly not Apostles.
4. Elders and deacons lead the biblical church today.
5. The gift of apostles continues to this day. There exists a general usage of the word in Scripture which literally means messenger. Jesus uses the word in this general sense. (John 13:16) Paul calls Epaphroditus a messenger/apostle and mentions messengers/apostles to the Corinthians. (Philippians 2:5, 2 Corinthians 8:23) Paul lists apostles alongside the other gifts two separate times. (1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11) It seems highly unlikely that Paul would mention a gift to two separate audiences that would be reserved for only a handful in its official capacity. He is referring to the gift of apostle or apostleship.
6. The Latin word for apostle is translated missio from where we get our word missionary. Thus, an apostle in the general sense of the word is one gifted to start a new work in an unchurched place, a missionary gift so to speak, a messenger of the Gospel to the unchurched. Church planters could be described as having an apostolic gift.
