Equipping God’s People
(The people gifts of Ephesians Chapter 4)
Pastor Eric J. Hanson
Introduction: God Wants Us All to Become Mature.
The plan of God, as revealed in His word, the Bible, is for every believer in Jesus Christ to grow up spiritually and become more and more like Jesus as time goes by. I Peter 2:2 says to new believers: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.” The desire of our Father in Heaven is that we all grow on the good nourishment of spiritual milk and then also receive and digest spiritual meat. There have always been problems in this process however. Let’s highlight a few, as recorded in the Bible.
• The writer of Hebrews was distressed about the fact that his readers, who should have been teachers of God’s truth by that time, instead had need for the foundations of the Faith to be laid once more in their lives.
• Paul, writing in I Corinthians 3 commented on his displeasure in not being able to bring spiritual meat to the Corinthian believers at that time. Their carnal pride, divisions, and sinful practices meant that they could not receive strong spiritual food, and could not become mature.
It has always been the desire of people who are attuned to the Holy Spirit, to see all Christian believers become mature in the Lord, growing up into the Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gifts to Grow Us Up
Let’s now look at the gifts the Lord gave to His church, in order to facilitate our growing up into Him. Please now read Ephesians 4:8-15.
The gifts spoken of in this passage are in the form of people God gives to help us. The Lord raises up certain people, whom He then uses to strengthen, lead, spiritually protect, and spiritually equip others in His family. These people, as we just read, are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, & teachers. Here are some introductory truths to help you understand these people gifts who equip others in the Lord.
Duration of these Giftings
The duration of these gifts is described in verse 13. They are needed until such time as all of us are walking in the following: unity in the faith and in our Knowledge of the Lord, and until we reach the level of perfect growth into the stature of the Lord. That day, my friends, has not come. Therefore these gifts are still needed and are still valid.
When will we all reach perfect unity and total growth to be like Jesus?
I Corinthians promises that this will happen for us fully when we stand face to face with the Lord. (I Corinthians 13:12)
This means that after you die, or upon the Lord’s literal bodily return to Earth, the glorification of your body and mind will take place. Then you will no longer need the work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers. Until that day, they are needed by us all.
This list of equipping gifts is one unified list. It cannot be torn in half without tearing the fabric of scripture, thus injuring it.
Why do I even mention something that seems so obvious? Unfortunately, the reason is this. There are Bible teachers today who try to tear this list in half and say that Apostles and Prophets no longer exist. These teachers then say that evangelists, pastors, and teachers do still exist. They justify this claim through spiritual gymnastics such as tying apostleship to the writing of scripture. Of course scripture is no longer being written. This line of reasoning is full of holes however, as there are several apostles named in the Gospels, who never wrote any scripture. Therefore such an assertion is doubly baseless, (a) because scripture does not tie apostleship to Bible writing, and (b) because several first generation Apostles were not Bible writers anyway.
These theologians add other extra qualifications to the Ephesians 4 giftings and callings: qualifications which the Bible does not add to them. One such added thing which is taught by dispensationalist professors is the claim that one must have seen Jesus in person, and been taught by him in person, in order to be called to be an apostle. This is not taught by the Bible. It is taught by dispensationalist Bible teachers.
Actual Bible List of Qualifications
The Bible contains two lists of character and reputation qualifications which must be met for any man to qualify to be a church elder. There is also one list like this for those who would serve as deacons. These are found in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1. There are no other such lists. Notice that the qualifications for elders and deacons have to do with proven character and servanthood within giftedness, not with living in a certain era or having seen certain things.
All such speculative adding to the Bible by those who deny the present day ministry of apostles and prophets ends up robbing God’s people of part of our inheritance from our Father in Heaven.
That is enough about this for now. I wish that I didn’t even have to defend this passage of scripture, but many of you have heard preaching based in the assumption that part of this list has been done away with. I Thank God that the equipping gifts are, in reality, all there for us. They are needed for every era of the Church age. Now, let’s look at these giftings one by one.
He Gave Some to be Apostles*
Apostle comes from the Greek apostellos, and it means one who is sent forth. The ministry of apostles, therefore, is a traveling ministry. Genuine Apostles are sent forth in two very clear steps, which must both be in place. First a man is called by the Holy Spirit into this calling. The Holy Spirit speaks clearly to him in his human spirit. The called brother’s soul resonates with this call, and a burden is birthed on the inside of him; a burden to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth and to properly raise up the Lord’s church in every city.
Those who receive this calling from God, will already be trusted servant leaders within their home church. This is the pattern found in the book of Acts. Therefore apostles are called by the Lord from among trustworthy men who have already been found faithful in their church home, and already are laying their lives down for others.
Then the Holy Spirit speaks to the other elders of the home church and puts it into the hearts of them all, that He is calling certain ones of them to apostolic ministry. After prayer, fasting, and prophetic words, the elders as a group commission those whom the Lord is setting apart for apostolic ministry, and those brothers are sent out somewhere into the Lord’s field, in order to preach the Gospel with signs (confirming miracles) following this proclamation.
Apostles do the following things in their God given role:
• start churches,
• strengthen existing churches, and
• set elders into office in maturing young churches. They also
• bring correction where needed in the churches where they are known personally and are trusted.
True apostles remain connected to their sending church. They report back to the elders there from time to time. When they are off the road, they function back home once again as part of the local team of elders. Then they go out again, freshly prayed over and with up to date personal accountability in place. Genuine apostles are careful to practice the Ephesians 5:21 command. “and all of you, submit yourselves to one another…”
Apostles typically go forth in pairs, as was the case in Acts 13 when Barnabas and Saul (Paul) were sent out. Barnabas, who was a believer with the Romans 12 motive gift of encouragement, had been serving as an elder in the Antioch church. He was also an Ephesians 4 prophet there. Two chapters and some years earlier, he had been the only believer we know of, who knew in his spirit that the conversion of the feared persecutor Saul, was real. Barnabas had gone to Tarsus and gotten Saul to come to Antioch to be part of the church there.
Because Barnabas did that, Saul/Paul’s servanthood and giftings had caused him to also emerge as an elder there in Antioch.
So by the time of Acts 13, within the eldership of Antioch, these two men were functioning As follows: Barnabas was an encouragement motive prophet/pastor who encouraged people to be all that God was calling them to be. Saul/Paul was a teacher motive pastor who taught the Word of God in context and with great accuracy. When they were then sent out as apostles, that same gift mix was a fabulously strong combination!
Often, a younger man will travel with apostles as a helper. He may be someone whom the Holy Spirit has shown to be a future apostle, being trained by doing the work. Timothy and Titus were both men who were trained by Saul/Paul and who began functioning as apostles around 30 years after Barnabas and Paul had first been sent out. At that time, Paul was imprisoned and no longer able to travel.
Both of these new second generation apostles went back to churches which Paul and the team had started or greatly strengthened. Titus or Timothy set elders into office in those places. Timothy actually spent a couple of years with the church in Ephesus, doing apostolic ministry there very similar to that which Paul had done in Corinth for almost two years. He cleaned up a couple of spiritual messes that had developed in the church there.
Summing up the gift of apostle
It is a calling into traveling ministry for the purpose of taking the Gospel everywhere and setting up strong healthy churches in those places. There is also a strong element of helping existing churches get back on track if there has been a serious problem.
And Some to be Prophets
The gifting of the New Testament prophet is seen several places in scripture. In the book of Acts, Agabus is mentioned by name as a traveling prophet whose home church was Jerusalem. In acts 13 we see that there were certain prophets and teachers in that church too. Like any believer, prophets are called to be in mutual submission with the other believers in their church family. They are to flow in their calling, in harness with the elders of that church.
People have funny ideas about what it is to be a prophet. The Greek word prophetes, from which we get this term, literally means foreteller. This is interesting when coupled with the three purposes for the gift of prophecy which are found in I Corinthians 14:3, which are to build up, to stir up, and to strengthen. Let me explain from a personal story having to do with my older daughter Sarah.
Some years ago, Owen Carey, an apostle, came here to minister over a week end. He brought a known prophet with him; Richard Lambert. Richard did not know any of us. At the end of an evening of worship and preaching, Richard walked around the room and spoke over people. He foretold things about Sarah’s life; things which have literally come true. He did not know her at all, yet he talked about the fact that she would go far in music and would excel at it. There was a bunch of other stuff too, but this has always stuck with me. Notice that the prophesying of this prophet served to build up, stir up, and strengthen. It gave confidence that God was interested in Sarah’s life.
She has been through some very hard things in some years. I sometimes think of Joseph in Egypt. He held on to the things God had told him many years earlier, or he could have despaired. I think of Abraham and Sarah too. Their prophetic word from God sometimes seemed unreal, due to the passing of time and the coming of difficult things, but it all came true.
When I was at the National Religious Broadcasters’ convention, in 1984 in Washington DC, I had a truly startling experience. I have many great memories from that trip, such as seeing and hearing President Reagan give a wonderful speech in which he affirmed the great importance of radio and television carrying the teaching of the Bible and Christian music. I also met and talked with Stephen Strang, founder and publisher of Charisma and Ministries magazines. I met and shook hands with Larry Norman and we talked a little. I attended a music workshop taught by Ralph Carmichael. It was an amazing time, but my strongest memory is this…
I was looking for a certain room and walked into a different room by accident. I had on a nice suit. I was well groomed and should have looked successful to any stranger. There was a woman in that room, sitting in a nice chair with ice water and a few books near her. This was Dr. Petite Wagner. She was resting a little and preparing to speak at the convention. Years earlier she had been dead for about a half hour, pronounced dead in the hospital. During that half hour the Lord had shown her part of Heaven, but then told her that he was sending her back to Earth and calling her to a new prophetic ministry to the nations. She was there at NRB sharing her amazing story.
Dr Wagner a woman of about 80 years of age, glanced up at me for just a second. Then she looked startled and stared at empty space above my left shoulder. She opened her mouth and gave a command. “You spirit of poverty; I command you to get off from this man in Jesus’ name!” I was stunned. I didn’t know what to do with this or what to make of it. I would know now. I do know now. I missed a sterling opportunity that night because of my ignorance.
Now, in such a situation, I would invite a prophet like her to minister to me for at least a couple more minutes. I would ask her to pray for my home too. Such callings as her’s carry great power to break bondages of many kinds.
A few years later, in 1990, Nancy and I were at the New England regional of the National Leadership Conference. We were resting on a bench in the Hotel when a couple approached us. We had never seen them before. They knew nothing about us. Suddenly the husband spoke a prophetic word to us about a serious and long term concern. His word contained a promise from God that the day would come when this problem would be gone from our lives. Then the man and his wife walked away. Nancy and I looked at each other in a sure knowledge that a God moment had just happened!
Back in 1975, a prophetic brother who was a stranger confirmed to Dallas Henry that he was doing the right thing in leaving the traveling ministry he a part of, in order to live at home full time. Dallas hadn’t said a word at that meeting in Rumford Maine, about his personal situation. This word was prophecy in action.
In May of 1982, four months after I was set in as an elder of Hosanna church, a prophetically gifted pastor from another area church followed me into the Hosanna Church building as I was bringing music equipment back after a Rejoice! concert. We sat down on the sanctuary platform together and he stated, The Lord says the time is now for you to become a staff pastor. I had been praying about God’s timing, and so had the other elders of Hosanna Church, but this man, David LaPierre, did not know this. One month later, I was on staff. Now it has been 33 years.
The ministry of the Prophet operates many places. It operates within the home church. It operates to the stranger. It operates side by side with the ministry of the apostle in strengthening and establishing churches and people.
“First of all Apostles, then Prophets…”
The prophets also minister strength, encouragement, and expansion of faith to people in long established churches; even people who have been believers in the Lord Jesus Christ for many decades. Any person needs a direct message from the Lord at times. So it will always be, until we see Jesus face to face.
And some Evangelists
When we think of the evangelist’s ministry, we tend to think of the great orator and preacher standing before big crowds and proclaiming the way of salvation. This is indeed a legitimate picture, because the evangelist sets the pace in soul winning. This very word comes from the Greek word evangel, which means good news. Evangelist literally means bringer of the Good News. No wonder public proclamation of the way of salvation is a major part of the work of the evangelist. Here in the United States we have been blessed with some World famous evangelists ranging from Billy Sunday to Billy Graham. These men have walked in integrity and have stayed accountable to others.
We have also seen, here in America, the danger of greatly gifted evangelists who did not walk in proper ongoing accountability with peers, and who failed morally in very public ways. Indeed, the more gifted and famous any evangelist or any other preacher is, the more important it is for him to have a humble and submissive heart, and to make sure that accountable peer relationships are in place and active in his life. He or she must be in genuine relationship with the elders back at the sending church. He or she must be submitted to the pastoral authority God has given to others in his or her life.
Stephen, one of the original deacons (servants) in the Jerusalem church, grew into becoming a powerful evangelist. He was a fearless witness, and as Mark 16 says should happen, healings and great signs accompanied his preaching of Jesus Christ. His ministry turned countless people toward the truth of eternal forgiveness and life through faith in Jesus Christ. When persecution came, he was still fearless, and he, an evangelist, became the first Christian murdered simply for standing up for the Lord.
Even today, evangelists often are the first to be persecuted in any given place around the World, because their ministry tends to be highly visible, and like Apostles, they tend to proclaim the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is exclusive. This shakes up the religious status quo in the city or nation and creates instant conflict. Men such as Reinhard Bonke of Africa, Carlos Anacondia of South America, and other highly visible evangelists in Third World lands often hear death threats against themselves. There have been many instances of violence against effective evangelists (also apostles and pastors) in recent decades.
When back in the home church, the evangelist ministers to the people by equipping them to be soul winners. Evangelists may have training classes within their local church, or within the citywide Church, if given that chance. The evangelist imparts a soul winning anointing to fellow believers in many ways from prayer, to example, to training.
Interestingly, the evangelist’s calling was lost for many centuries. It came back big in the days of the Wesley brothers and their itinerant preachers. It was denounced by many in those days, as many theologians of 200 year ago claimed that it had been done away with. Today, the ministry of evangelists continues all over the World in amazing ways, from mass meetings in soccer stadiums, to prisons, to one on one sharing of the Gospel.
And some Pastors
Pastor is the Greek word poimen, which literally means a shepherd. I Peter 5 tells us that the primary job of church elders is to shepherd the church. Therefore every elder is a pastor by Biblical job description. It does not matter if a given elder has the Romans 12 motive gift of prophecy, or teaching, or mercy, or exhortation, or what have you. That elder is stil, according to God’s word, also a pastor.
What do shepherds do?
• They feed the sheep in their care.
• They lead the sheep to water.
• They know the sheep by name.
• They take care of the sheep by way of medication, shearing of wool, removing ticks, or whatever is needed.
• They keep the sheep from wandering away from the flock. Jesus said that a good shepherd with 100 sheep, will temporarily leave 99 sheep who are not wandering in order to go after one who is. A shepherd has a long pole with a rounded end to place around a sheep and pull it out of mud or a thicket. This tool is called shepherd’s staff. If a sheep wanders continually, a shepherd will also discipline it, to stop it from its wanderings.
• They protect their sheep from dangerous predators and from sheep stealers. A good shepherd today has a 12 gauge shotgun and plenty of buck shot. He has a high powered rifle with a scope too. This is a modern extension of the club, the rod, and knife that David had while tending his family’s sheep.
• He knows that the sheep belong to their owner, and not to him. A good shepherd is totally dedicated to serving and pleasing the owner of the sheep.
Besides elders, there are also many other people in the Lord’s church who have a shepherd’s heart. They genuinely have the equipping gift of pastor, even though they are not elders over a whole local church. They may not even fully meet the qualifications of eldership, yet still have a pastoral gifting and burden.
You will find such people teaching Small Groups. You will find them leading Youth Groups. You will find them caring for young adults who are struggling with various things. The shepherd’s heart (the pastoral gift) is given to both men and women. Many of the older women, who are instructed in Titus to teach the younger women, are pastorally gifted, but will never exercise pastoral oversight over the whole church family as the elder/pastors do.
Pastoral ministry is an up close process. I believe that in God’s perfect math, about one in every twelve believers is given a pastor’s heart and burden. This has nothing to do with becoming a professional clergyman, which is a distorted model anyway. This is the burden and call to care for and protect others spiritually, leading them to become like Jesus and to know the Father well.
And Teachers
Teacher, as used in Ephesians 4 comes from the Greek word didaskios, which means an instructor, a master, a doctor. This is the word from which we also get our English word didactic, which refers to the act of line upon line, thorough, and careful teaching of any subject.
The teaching gift can be seen in any number of New Testament individuals. Again I point out that there were certain “teachers” in the church at Antioch. Paul served as one for a year before being sent out as an apostle. His teaching gift continued throughout his years as an apostle too.
The teaching gift equips believers at many levels.
• Many gifted teachers of the Bible have national platforms to teach and equip Christians via radio, in books, on television, on the Internet, and in great gatherings of believers. Many of these teachers are not involved in pastoral responsibilities back home, but have been prayed over and released by their local elders into traveling ministry equipping the Church at large.
• Back in the home churches many elder/pastors are also careful teachers of the Word. These men combine their pastoral function and their teaching gift in ways that help people to live right and learn how to avoid the wolves and thieves that are waiting to deceive and harm them.
• The combination of pastoral gifting and teaching also often works at the level of small groups such as Youth Groups, Home Meetings, Sunday School classes, etc.
Teaching and the gift of the Teacher is essential to the strength and maturity of the people of God. Often, but not always, it is paired in an individual with pastoral function and gifting. Sometimes, the teaching gift stands alone, especially in traveling teaching ministry and the writing of certain types of books.
Conclusion:
It is important to have a solid understanding of the powerful equipping ministry of these five gifts which take the form of people whom the Lord has sent to bless and strengthen us. No believer is an island. No leader in the Body of Christ is complete in himself. God planned this equipping process out in such a way that we need each other in order to be equipped well, and to function with both long term effectiveness and with balance, both doctrinal and practical.
God’s plan to equip his people for works of ministry is therefore, a multi layered and multi faceted tapestry of wonderful gifts; each of which represent a little bit of who Jesus is in His awesome fullness!
I deeply desire that every believer will benefit fully from God’s amazing provision of people who have been raised up and sent to us by Him, for the purpose of bringing us to an ever increasing maturity and effectiveness in knowing and doing His will! Glory to God for his wonderful plan!
*Let’s clear up a confusing situation. Some churches refer to themselves as “Apostolic” churches. This does not mean that they embrace the present day ministry of apostles. This term means that the given church’s leaders think that they are true to the teaching written down by the first century apostles. They think that their teaching and practice is therefore apostolic. Now, let’s jump into understanding the gift of apostle.
