lol. "First officials?" Mark, that's just more unwarranted exclusivity by your magisterium.
Look at those words of Christ and tell me He's not counting you among His sheep?
Hardly exclusivity. We do not preach the mass discarding of humanity into the furnaces of hell by some unknown methodology of selection.
What were the disciples at this point? They were the teachers, the preachers, the arbiters, the instructors, the decision makers, the admonishers, the leaders and the evangelists of their age. They were the Church. There were no NT books; there were no NT instruction manuals; there was no Internet or Gutenberg or even thousands of monks faithfully copying out the Bibles at a rate of 3 a year?
They were the Church and the first officials. Did they not train and appoint presbyters? Did they not divide up the world into bishoprics and run them? If not Church and officials what were they?