These Bible Verses For The Apostles gather the commissions, promises and prayers given to those Jesus sent into the world. They speak to missionaries, pastors and every believer who shares the gospel today, offering courage, direction and the assurance that Christ goes with those he sends. Use them to pray for those you know who serve.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV)
The Great Commission sends Christ’s followers to all nations with the promise that he is with them always.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:15 (KJV)
A simple charge to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
John 20:21 (KJV)
Jesus breathes peace on his followers and sends them just as the Father sent him.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
John 17:17-18 (KJV)
Jesus prays that his sent ones be sanctified through the truth of God’s word.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Matthew 10:16 (KJV)
Wise counsel for those sent out: be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Matthew 10:19-20 (KJV)
A comfort for anyone who must speak for Christ: the Spirit of the Father will give the words.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 1:8 (KJV)
The promise of the Holy Ghost’s power for witness, near and far.
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:29-31 (KJV)
The apostles’ prayer for boldness is still prayed by those facing opposition to the gospel.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Romans 10:14-15 (KJV)
Paul celebrates how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (KJV)
Though pressed and perplexed, God’s messengers are never forsaken or destroyed.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20 (KJV)
Believers serve as ambassadors for Christ, pleading with others to be reconciled to God.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Ephesians 6:18-20 (KJV)
Paul asks for prayer that he might open his mouth boldly as an ambassador in bonds.
Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
Colossians 4:3 (KJV)
A model request to pray that God opens a door for the word.
Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
2 Thessalonians 3:1 (KJV)
Paul asks the church to pray that the word of the Lord may spread and be glorified.
Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
Luke 10:2 (KJV)
Seeing a plentiful harvest, Jesus tells us to pray for the Lord to send more labourers.
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (KJV)
Those entrusted with the gospel are stewards, and stewards are required to be faithful.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24 (KJV)
Paul’s resolve to finish his course with joy and testify of God’s grace.
And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Acts 5:41-42 (KJV)
Even after suffering, the apostles kept teaching and preaching Jesus Christ with joy.
Paul often asked churches to pray for him, and his requests make a ready guide. Ephesians 6:19-20, Colossians 4:3 and 2 Thessalonians 3:1 ask for boldness, open doors and the free spread of God’s word. Praying these lines by name for a missionary, pastor or church planter you know is a practical way to stand with them.
For those serving in hard places, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 and Matthew 10:19-20 bring steady comfort. They admit that pressure and perplexity are real while promising that God does not forsake his servants and will give them words when needed. Sending one of these verses in a note or message can encourage someone far from home.
These verses also remind ordinary believers that the call to witness belongs to them too. Matthew 28:19-20 and 2 Corinthians 5:20 describe every follower of Christ as sent and as an ambassador. Jesus’ instruction in Luke 10:2 is a good place to start: pray that the Lord of the harvest sends labourers, and be willing to be one.
The apostle Paul, who had seen the risen Christ and planted churches across the Roman world, repeatedly asked ordinary believers to pray for him. In Ephesians 6:19-20 he asks for words to be given to him so that he can speak the mystery of the gospel boldly, even though he is an ambassador in chains. In Colossians 4:3-4 he asks that God would open a door for the message, and in 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 he asks that the word of the Lord would spread quickly and that he would be delivered from wicked and unreasonable people.
Romans 15:30-32 is even more personal. He asks the church to strive together with him in prayer as he prepares to travel to Jerusalem, where he expected danger. The request shows that even the apostles did not see themselves as self-sufficient. If you are looking for a way to use these Bible verses for the apostles in prayer, Paul has already given the outline: ask for boldness, open doors, protection and perseverance for those who are sent.
Acts 12:1-17 describes a tense week in Jerusalem. King Herod had James, the brother of John, executed with the sword, and when he saw that this pleased some of the people, he arrested Peter and planned to bring him out after the Passover. Verse 5 says that Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was made earnestly by the church. The night before the trial, an angel woke Peter, the chains fell off, and he walked past the guards and out through an iron gate that opened by itself.
Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered praying. When the servant girl Rhoda recognized his voice, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the door, and the believers inside told her she must be out of her mind. The account is honest about both the earnestness and the surprise of the church. They prayed seriously, and when the answer arrived, they were astonished. Among the Bible verses for the apostles, this story is a reminder that the church itself was part of their protection, and it is an encouraging picture for anyone whose prayers sometimes feel small.
Acts 13:1-3 describes a church that was already busy with worship when God spoke. The believers at Antioch, a mixed group of prophets and teachers from several backgrounds, were worshiping the Lord and fasting when the Holy Spirit said to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work He had called them to. The church fasted and prayed again, laid hands on the two men and sent them off.
The first missionary journey, which took the gospel to Cyprus and across what is now southern Turkey, began with a community that took prayer seriously enough to listen and then generously enough to let two of its leading members go. Sending is part of what it means for a church to be an apostolic church, and it begins with prayer.
Epaphras appears only briefly in the New Testament, but Paul mentions him with obvious respect. Colossians 1:7 says the Colossians learned the gospel from him, and Colossians 4:12-13 says he was always wrestling in prayer for them, that they would stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. Paul adds that Epaphras had a deep concern for the believers in Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis, and in Philemon 23 he is described as a fellow prisoner.
No sermons of Epaphras are recorded and no miracles are credited to him. What the Bible remembers is that he prayed with effort and care for people he loved. Not every ministry is visible. Some of the most important work for those who are sent is done by those who stay behind and keep praying.
Priscilla and Aquila were tentmakers who had been forced out of Rome and settled in Corinth, where they welcomed Paul into their home and their trade (Acts 18:1-3). Later, in Ephesus, they heard a gifted speaker named Apollos teach and took him aside to explain the way of God more accurately (Acts 18:24-26). Paul says in Romans 16:3-4 that they risked their own necks for his life, and 1 Corinthians 16:19 mentions a church that met in their house.
They were not apostles in the formal sense, but they supported apostolic work by offering a home, a workplace and wise correction. Many missionaries and church planters through history have depended on couples like them, and the New Testament names them warmly because their contribution mattered.
Romans 10:14-15 asks how people will believe in Him of whom they have not heard, how they will hear without someone preaching, and how anyone will preach unless they are sent. The question implies a partnership: those who go need those who send. The Philippian church was a clear example. Philippians 4:14-19 records that they shared in the troubles of Paul and sent gifts to him more than once, and he called their support a fragrant offering that pleased God.
In 3 John 5-8 the elder praises Gaius for supporting traveling workers in a way worthy of God, since they went out for the sake of the Name and accepted nothing from outsiders. The passage ends with a simple conclusion: those who support such workers become fellow workers in the truth.
You do not need a missionary biography on your shelf to put these passages to work. Pick someone you know who serves in ministry, whether a pastor, a missionary or a church volunteer, and pray the requests of Paul for them by name: boldness to speak, open doors, protection from harm, endurance in hard seasons and unity with those they serve. Write the list in a notebook and add updates when you hear how the person is doing.
It also helps to pair prayer with a practical action each month, such as sending a message of encouragement, contributing to a mission fund or offering a meal to a visiting speaker. As you read the Bible verses for the apostles in this collection, notice how often the early church combined the two, praying for the sent and then actually supporting them. That pairing is a small way to share in the work of the gospel from wherever you are.
Before any apostle prayed for the church, Jesus prayed for the apostles. John 17 records his words on the night before the cross, and a good part of it is about the men sitting around him. He did not ask the Father to pull them out of danger. ‘I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil’ (John 17:15). That is a useful pattern for anyone praying over a missionary or a pastor: protection from evil is not the same as an easy assignment.
Then comes a request that is easy to skim past: ‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world’ (John 17:17-18). Truth first, then sending. When John 20:21 repeats the sending after the resurrection, with Jesus saying, ‘as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you,’ the order is the same. So when you use these Bible verses for the apostles in your own prayers, you are joining a conversation Jesus started. You can ask that the people you pray for would be kept in God’s truth, and that their work would grow out of it rather than out of ambition, guilt or habit. Those are quiet requests, but they go straight to what holds a servant steady over decades.
Matthew 28:19-20 is often quoted as a stirring send-off, and it is. But read the verse just before it. ‘And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted’ (Matthew 28:17). The eleven men standing on that Galilean mountain were not a polished team. Some were worshiping; some were still unsure. Jesus did not wait until every question was settled. He came near and spoke: ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth’ (Matthew 28:18).
The order of the verses matters. Authority comes first, then the command to go, then the promise: ‘lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’ (Matthew 28:20). The apostles were not asked to supply power. They were asked to go, with someone else’s authority behind them. A mixed group of worshipers and doubters is exactly who the Lord sent, which should make us patient with ourselves and with the people we pray for. A missionary can be committed and still have bad weeks of wondering. Praying that the Lord would draw close in those weeks, as he did on the mountain, is a sound use of the Bible verses for the apostles. And the promise of his presence was spoken to the whole uneven group, not to the most confident among them.
In Luke 10:1-2 Jesus appointed seventy others and sent them ahead of him, two by two. His opening instruction is surprising. It is not a strategy; it is a prayer request: ‘The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.’ Before he told them where to go, he told them to ask God for more people to go. Many congregations have read that verse for years without noticing that the first thing asked of the messengers was prayer.
He was honest about the risks, too. ‘Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves’ (Luke 10:3), and in Matthew 10:16, ‘be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.’ Wisdom and gentleness together is a hard mixture to keep, and those who serve in tense places feel the pull in both directions daily. When Matthew 10:19-20 promises that the Spirit of the Father will speak in them when they are brought before rulers, the point is not that they stop preparing. It is that they are not alone in the room. Someone who prays this passage for a worker abroad can ask for sharp judgment, a gentle tongue, and words given at the right moment.
Paul’s picture in 2 Corinthians 4:7 is plain and a bit humbling: ‘But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’ A clay jar in the ancient world was cheap, breakable and common, the sort of container you used for oil, grain or even rubbish. Paul says the message of Christ is carried in containers like that. Then he lists what it looks like: ‘We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed’ (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
Each phrase has two halves, and neither half is skipped. The pressure is real, and so is the holding. This is why the Bible verses for the apostles are such practical material for prayer. You do not have to pretend that the people you support are fine. Pray by name for their tiredness, for their strained marriages, for loneliness in a foreign city. Ask also for what the verse promises: that they would not be crushed past recovery. A gentle word of caution belongs here. Long-term service can wear people down in body and mind, and the right response may include rest, a counselor, a doctor or a trusted friend as well as prayer. God often works through such help, and asking for it is not weakness. A cracked jar still holds the treasure.
The believers in Acts 4 had just watched Peter and John released after a night in custody, with strict orders to stop speaking about Jesus (Acts 4:18-21). They went straight back to their friends and prayed together. What they asked is the interesting part. They did not ask for the threats to disappear. ‘And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word’ (Acts 4:29). They put the problem in front of God, then asked for courage to keep doing what they had been told to stop.
Luke says that when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31). Take that as a pattern rather than a formula, since God answers prayer in many ways. Still, it changes how we pray over people in dangerous or hostile places. Asking only that they be kept comfortable may be asking for less than they need. Boldness, endurance and wisdom may matter more. If you know someone teaching in a place where believers are watched, these Bible verses for the apostles give you words you can pray without fear of asking for the wrong thing.
Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:17-38 is one of the most human scenes in the book. He had sent for them to meet him at the seaside port of Miletus because he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem. He told them that chains and troubles awaited him, then said, ‘But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy’ (Acts 20:24). He was not boasting. He was explaining what mattered most to him.
The ending is the part people remember. ‘And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him’ (Acts 20:36-37). They sorrowed most because they would not see his face again. Here the verses about prayer and the Bible verses for the apostles meet ordinary friendship. Those who pray for a missionary often end up loving them, and love means grief at the goodbye. If you have waved at an airport gate and gone home to an empty chair, you know this scene. Prayer at a parting is not tidy. It can be tearful, and the Bible shows a great apostle kneeling in the sand and letting friends weep over him.
Two short statements from Paul reset what we ask for on behalf of anyone sent by God. ‘Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful’ (1 Corinthians 4:2). The word required is plain. A steward manages what belongs to someone else, and the test is reliability, not size. A missionary who has seen only a handful of conversions in twenty years may be a better steward than one who reports crowds. When we pray, we can ask for faithfulness first and trust God with the numbers.
The other image is in 2 Corinthians 5:20: ‘Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ An ambassador speaks for another and does not invent the message. That keeps prayer honest. You can ask that the one you support would stay close to the message entrusted to them and not drift toward whatever gets applause. A short prayer might go like this: Lord, you have sent people to places I may never see. Keep them faithful when no one is watching, bold when they are afraid, rested when they are worn out, and loved by the people around them. Let me do my part in sending, whether by giving, writing or praying, and let none of us grow tired of it. Amen.
If you would like to read further, try Bible Verses For Finding Strength in God, Bible Verses For Change, Bible Verses For Peace, Bible Verses About Purpose, Bible Verses About Faith and Healing, Bible Verses About Peace in the Storm, Bible Verses About God's Grace, Bible Verses About Hard Times, Bible Verses For Hard Times, Bible Verses About Loving Others and Bible Verses For Wisdom and Understanding.
Helpful free resources for further study include Blue Letter Bible, Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
The Bible shows the apostles as people sent by Jesus who depended on the prayers and support of other believers, and Paul in particular asks churches to pray for boldness, open doors and protection.
This page brings together 18 King James Version references about the Apostles, drawn from 11 different books of the Bible.
The verses about the Apostles on this page are drawn from the New Testament, including passages such as Ephesians 6:19.
Ephesians 6:19 is one of the verses about the Apostles referenced in this collection, alongside Colossians 4:3.
Yes, the verses referenced on this page, including Ephesians 6:19, are quoted according to the King James Version (KJV), and are suitable for daily reading, memorization, or devotional use.
