Question:

What is the difference between disciples and apostles?

Answer:

“When it was day, He called unto Him His disciples; and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles” (Luke 6:12,13).  Disciples are learners and followers of a teacher, while apostles are sent ones.  One must be a disciple first before being sent out to minister to others.

Do we still have apostles today?  The original twelve disciples were chosen by the Lord Himself, and the replacement for Judas Iscariot needed to “have companied with [the twelve disciples and Christ] … beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that [Christ] was taken up” (Acts 1:21,22).  Later on Saul of Tarsus qualified as an apostle as one who had seen and heard the risen Christ in a vision on the road to Damascus, “as one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:8; also 9:1).  Nobody today meets the criteria for an apostle.