True Apostles and Apostleship

"And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” Acts 1:21-26 

In the New Testament, we are shown the biblical qualifications of an apostle of Jesus Christ; yet, many today aspire to apostleship and seek to occupy the ministry of an apostle. In Acts 1:21-26, Peter provides the criteria for true apostleship as biblically indicated. According to the Scriptures, an apostle must have accompanied the twelve disciples during the timeframe that Jesus was among them, beginning with the time John baptized Jesus until He ascended from their sight (Acts 1:9-11). Additionally, a true apostle must have witnessed Christ’s resurrection as the other disciples did (Acts 1:21-22). 
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Following Psalms 69:25 and 109:8, as mentioned in Acts 1:20, Peter and the remaining eleven apostles (of the initial twelve disciples Jesus chose) put forward Matthias and Joseph (called Barsabbas, also called Justus) and prayed for the Lord to show them which of the two the Lord would choose to replace Judas Iscariot after his death (Acts 1:16-20, 23-26). When the lot fell to Matthias, he was added to the eleven apostles. Further in the book of Acts, we read that Jesus personally appeared on the road to Damascus and appointed Paul as an apostle, whom Jesus also taught and was formerly known as Saul the Pharisee (Acts 9; 26; Galatians 1:12-17). Each of these instances of apostleship accounts for an eye-witness to Jesus’ ministry or personal appearance from the resurrected Christ and also being appointed by the Lord. 

There are many gifts in the body of Christ, and those gifts are given in grace according to the measure that Christ gives those gifts. That is to say, the gifts are given to whom He desires and to the measure He desires. Christ appointed apostleship to those who were eyewitnesses to His resurrected body and His ministry, as shown in Scripture through the appointment of the disciples and Paul. In attaining to the unity of the faith, we must agree with the Scriptures by thinking, believing, speaking, and acting on what the Scriptures reveal to be true (Ephesians 4). Biblical apostleship is to be viewed within the criteria as Scripture designated, and those who currently seek apostleship must observe the biblical criteria and the timeframe specified by Christ for that gift, which was the time and epoch of Christ’s earthly ministry and His bodily resurrected appearance.