Last Saturday, Mary and I went to the U of A football game. And as we watched that game, it reminded me of how someone once described a football game:
Eleven men down on the field, desperately in need of rest, and fifty thousand people in the stands desperately in need of exercise.
Unfortunately, in many cases, that’s also a pretty accurate description of what the church has become. But God never intended for Christianity to be a spectator sport. I think that’s the main point Paul is making as we continue our journey through the book of Ephesians. Let’s read our passage for this morning out loud together. I’m using the NASB translation today since it is the most accurate translation of what Paul wrote.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service...
Ephesians 4:11-12a (NASB)
You’ll remember that two weeks ago we saw that Jesus Christ has taken a people unto Himself, given them gifts and then turned around and given them back to the church for the purpose of serving among His people. In verse 11, he now goes on to describe four specific groups of people that He has given to the church as a gift – apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers.
1. THE PEOPLE OF THE GIFT
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers...
• Apostles and prophets
I’m grouping these first two groups together since Paul has already made a clear connection between apostles and prophets in two different places earlier in his letter:
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
Ephesians 2:19, 20 (NIV)
In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.
Ephesians 3:4, 5 (NIV)
As we saw in those verses, when Paul used the word apostle in his letter, he uses it in a very specific sense to refer to himself and the eleven that Jesus had specifically called as apostles and Matthias, who was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot. These were men who were commissioned by Jesus to authoritatively proclaim the gospel and who had been witnesses of the resurrected Jesus.
The prophets that Paul refers to are men who worked alongside the apostles to interpret and explain the authoritative words of the apostles. Men such as Mark, Luke, James, and Jude were not themselves apostles but they were associated with the apostles in the writing of the New Testament.
As they were led by the Holy Spirit, these apostles and prophets produced writings which we now have today as the New Testament. So, at least in the sense in which Paul writes about them here, there is no need for apostles and prophets in the church today. These apostles and prophets, enabled and guided by the Holy Spirit, produced the foundation of God’s Word on which the next two groups that Paul mentions are still building today. In fact, the one thing that all four of these groups that Paul writes about have in common is that their work is centered on the word of God. The apostles and prophets produced that Word and it is the main tool used by both the evangelist and the pastor/teacher.
• Evangelists
While all believers are commanded by Jesus to be witnesses for Him, He also gifts certain people with the special gift of being able to communicate the gospel effectively to unbelievers. In Paul’s day these were travelling missionaries who preached the gospel and called people to repentance. These were the people who were primarily responsible for the numerical growth of the church.
A New Testament example of an evangelist is Philip. In Acts 8, we read how he effectively preached the gospel in Samaria and how the people responded to his preaching. And then he is directed by God to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, where he encounters an Ethiopian eunuch. Philip uses the Scriptures to explain the gospel and the man becomes a believer. Then God takes Philip away so that he can continue preaching the gospel as he travels from town to town.
In our day, God has certainly used men like Billy Graham and Luis Palau as evangelists in large gatherings. But I’m convinced that God also raises up men and women to be evangelists within each local body of believers.
• Pastor/Teachers
In the original language, it is clear that Paul links together pastors and teachers. Literally, these are teaching shepherds who care for the flock like a shepherd cares for his sheep. They are to oversee, feed, protect, lead and guide the members of the body. And they are to do that primarily through the teaching of God’s Word. God gifts these men to explain what the Bible says, interpret what it means and help the members of the body to apply it in their everyday lives.
I really like how Ray Stedman explains the relationship between evangelists and pastor/teachers:
Therefore, evangelists are basically obstetricians, having to do with birth, and teaching-pastors are pediatricians, having to do with diets and diseases and the need for fresh air and exercise.
You’ll notice that I haven’t spent a lot of time going into great detail about these four groups that Jesus has given as a gift to His body, the church. That’s because I want to focus most of our time discussing the purpose of the gift and the implications for us as followers of Jesus Christ.
2. THE PURPOSE OF THE GIFT
...for the equipping of the saints for the work of service...
Punctuation is important. Let’s look at two different letters received by and English professor named Ched. The two letters are exactly the same – except for the punctuation.
A letter she sent me a few months after we met:
Dear Ched:
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy -- will you let me be yours?
Leigh Anne
A letter she wrote me 8 Months after we were married:
Dear Ched:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Leigh Anne
You can clearly see the importance of punctuation in those two letters, but certainly just one comma can’t make a difference can it? Why don’t you ask Rogers Communications, Inc. about that? One misplaced comma in a 14 page contract forced them to pay an additional $2.13 million to use utility poles to string their cables.
Unfortunately, a misplaced comma in one translation of today’s passage has also led to a completely wrong understanding of what Paul is writing here. Let’s look at this passage in the KJV and see if you can identify the crucial comma:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry...
Ephesians 4:11-12a (KJV)
There is an extra comma that is added after the phrase “for the perfecting of the saints”. I think it’s quite apparent how that completely changes the meaning of this passage. By placing the comma there, it implies that the apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers are given to the church for the purpose of doing the work of the ministry. But the problem with that interpretation is that there is no comma there in the original text.
Unfortunately that misinterpretation has been used to further the whole idea of a distinction between clergy and laity. Historically, the concept of a separate clergy and laity did not begin to develop until about the third century in conjunction with the formation of the Roman Catholic Church. That concept was certainly foreign to the first century church. One cannot find any reference to such a separation anywhere in the New Testament. In fact, I looked very hard and I couldn’t locate the words “clergy” or “laity” anywhere in the Bible.
But that idea has so permeated the church that Christianity has essentially become a spectator sport. We hire “professional clergy” to do the work of ministry and then we come to church to cheer them on while they carry out that work. Even the format of our worship services fosters that idea. If we’re not careful here’s how we can begin to view the worship service: We come in and sing a few songs as the “warm-up” and then the professional, paid clergy gets up and gives his speech. We pay our “admission fee” when we pass the offering plates and then we go home and go on living our lives the same way we did before we came to church.
I’m reminded of three boys are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, "My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50."
The second boy says, "That’s nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100."
The third boy says, "I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon. And it takes eight people to collect all the money!"
But that is certainly not the way God intended for it to be. But I don’t think the problem is so much a result of the format of our worship service as it is the way that we view what is going on during that time. Although it’s certainly healthy to vary the format of our worship service from time-to-time, the long term solution is to make sure that our whole concept of ministry is in line with what Paul is teaching us here.
A proper reading of our passage makes it very clear that the purpose of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers is to equip all believers to carry out the work of service, or ministry. To continue our sports analogy, my job as the pastor-teacher is really a lot like a coach. My role is to prepare and equip all of you to actually do the ministry of our church.
The word “equipping” is an interesting word. The original root word was a medical term that referred to setting broken bones. It carries the idea of making something or someone completely fit or ready for service. It’s the same word used to describe what James and John were doing when Jesus called them to follow Him. In Matthew 4, we read that they were “mending” their nets. The word translated “mending” in that passage is the same word translated “equip” here in Ephesians. In other words, James and John were getting their nets ready to be used.
So my job as a pastor/teacher is not to do the work of the ministry while the rest of you watch and cheer me on. My purpose is to:
• To prepare every member of the body for service
And the way that I am primarily to do that is by helping you to understand the Word of God and put it into practice in your lives. That’s why I’m really excited about our new Sunday morning format. Once our worship service is over this morning all of you will have the opportunity to stay for our “Connections” Bible study where you’ll have the chance to discuss this passage further and talk with other believers about how you can put these principles that we’re learning together into practice in your lives.
3. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE GIFT
So what does this mean for all of us?
• Every believer is a minister
In order for us to understand this principle, we need to look at the last phrase of our passage for just a moment. What exactly does Paul mean by “work of service”?
The first thing that we notice is that ministry is work. It takes effort on all of our parts to carry out ministry. But it’s really interesting to me that Paul uses the singular form of the word “work” here. That’s one reason I didn’t use the NIV translation today, because it translates the phrase “works [plural] of service”. I think Paul is deliberately pointing out the need for teamwork here. He’s really continuing the theme from the previous verses where he has pointed out that we can have unity even in our diversity because of what we have in common.
Ministry is a lot like a football team. We each have our own roles to carry out, but our goal is to work together to carry out the purposes God has given to us as a body. On a football team the quarterback, the running backs, the receivers and the linemen all have different roles on every play. But unless they coordinate those efforts and work together, they will never be able to gain any yardage. The same thing is true for the defense. The linemen, linebackers and defensive backs are completely different and have different roles, but they have to work together to be successful.
In His body, Jesus has given each member of that body different talents, gifts, passions and abilities. But His desire is that all those diverse people work together to accomplish His purposes for the church, which Paul has previously described for us:
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 3:10, 11 (NIV
When every member of the body is a minister, then the church is able to make known the manifold wisdom of God, both here on earth as well as in the heavenly realms.
When I say that every believer is a minister, I think the problem many of us have with that statement is that we have a really narrow idea of what the word ministry means. We think that ministry means I have to teach a Bible study class, or sing on the Worship Team, or be a greeter, or work in the nursery. And believe me; we certainly do need people to do all of those things. But perhaps we can get a better of idea of what Paul is thinking about if we spend a moment looking at the word “service” Some other translations render that word “ministry” both here and in other places in the New Testament. The word is from the same root word from which we get the word “deacon”. It was a word that described menial service such as waiting on tables.
It is also the same word Jesus used to describe Himself:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mark 10:45 (NIV)
So if we want to determine what Paul means by service, or ministry, all we have to do is to look to the life of Jesus as an example. Think about how Jesus ministered to others. Sometimes He met physical needs by healing people or feeding them. Sometimes, He met emotional needs by teaching and comforting. But even when He did those things, his primary purpose was to deal with the spiritual needs of people. But Jesus realized that people often wouldn’t be ready to deal with their spiritual needs until they first had their physical and emotional needs addressed.
When we look at ministry, or service, in that light, we begin to realize that all of us can be ministers in our everyday lives. Everything we do to help meet needs in the lives of others for the purpose of revealing the manifold wisdom of God in our world is ministry. The problem for most of us is that we just don’t view what we’re doing as ministry.
I had the opportunity to spend some time with someone from our church this week. And it was really interesting to hear him talk about all the ways that God had enabled him to be involved in the lives of his employees in ways that were far outside their work responsibilities. He explained how he had been able to help some employees deal with the loss of family members and damaged relationships. Even though this person has his own struggles to deal with, I have no doubt that what he was doing with his employees was just as much ministry as what I’m doing right now or what our Bible study teachers will be doing in just a few minutes.
For many of us, being a minister doesn’t require us to change what we’re doing so much as it requires us to change why we’re doing it. Some of you are out there serving others every day. But if you’re doing that so that you’ll gain recognition from others or feel good about yourself, I don’t think you’re being a minister. But if you’re out there meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of others so that the wisdom of God would be made known, then you’re doing ministry and I’m here to do everything I can to help prepare you to do that.
Christianity is not a spectator sport. So let’s all make sure we get out of the stands and off the bench and get into the game.
