When Christ came and took possession of His own house, it could not be but that some great changes would take place in its economy and its condition. And such there were. It was exalted and established above all earthly power, and became a refuge and home for all ages. It remained what it had been before, a Church, in its inward and characteristic structure the same; but it became what it had never been before, or only in a partial measure in the time of David and some other princes, and that in type of what was to come, it became an imperial Church. It was the head of an empire.
I. When our Lord was ascending, He said, "All power is given unto Me in heaven, and in earth." We believe in His power in heaven; but, strange to say, it is usual with us to grudge Him His power upon earth. He is the invisible King of a visiblekingdom; for it does not at all follow, because a monarch is withdrawn from view, that therefore His kingdom must cease to be a fact in the face of day also.
II. Who are spoken of as the rulers in the kingdom, Christ's viceroys? The twelve Apostles, and first of all Peter. Their authority was equal to that of Him who appointed them. "He that receiveth you," He saith, "receiveth Me." Nay, it would seem as if their authority were even greater than that which it pleased our Lord to possess in the days of His flesh; for whereas He breathed on them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He had formerly said, "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven Him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven Him."
III. The only question that can here arise is this: whether this imperial power was vested only in the twelve Apostles, or in others besides and after them? I answer: (1) We must conclude that the power was vested in others also, from the size of the empire; for a few persons, though inspired, cannot be supposed to have been equal to the care of all the churches. (2) Again, it is expressly said, that the Church is to last to the end of time, and the gates of hell are to fail in their warfare against it. But the Apostles were soon cut off; therefore the Church's power was vested in others besides the Apostles. (3) The promise was neither made nor fulfilled exactly to the twelve Apostles; one of them fell, and another took his place. (4) No honours which were accorded to the Apostles were accorded to them for their own sake, or were, strictly speaking, vestedin them; they were theirs only as being instruments of Him who, being "immortal, invisible," governs His kingdom in every age in His own way; the one Master, the one Lord, the one Teacher, the one Priest, alone glorified in all His saints, while they live and when they die. Whatever honours then and powers the Apostles possessed needed not to die with them, for they never had really belonged to them.
J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day,p. 26.
References: Isaiah 2:2. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 249. Isaiah 2:3. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xi., p. 272.