Virtually every cardinal doctrine in the Holy Scripture is covered in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians consists of two basic truths - positional truth and practical truth. In studying this blessed book, I counted thirty nine different benefits which are ours as members of Christ’s Body in the first three chapters, and twenty seven commands given to us in the final three chapters as to how we are to conduct ourselves because of who we are in Christ. In Ephesians 4:7-13, we see the great, meticulous care God took in establishing, empowering, and receiving glory from His church. The church is not a glorified civic or social club, she is a supernatural, spiritual, living organism. She has been enabled to extend the ministry and the life of Christ, and to be "salt" and "light" in this world of darkness and sin-sickness. I submit to you four truths concerning the way in which God, the Father has gifted His church.
I. THE SOURCE OF THE GIFTS: Christ is the Source of all giftedness in the church. If you have a ministry gift of the Spirit, it was first manifested in the life of Jesus Christ. He is the epitomy of all gifts; He is perfect in all the gifts; and He bestows them upon His Body. Ephesians 4:7 says that ". .unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ". He did this when He ascended up on high (verse 8). What did he tell the thief on the right? He told him, "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise". When Jesus died, He went into Sheol, or paradise. Scripture tells us in I Peter 3 that He went and preached to imprisoned spirits while he was in paradise. (He descended into the lower parts of the earth) Then when He ascended from paradise up into the Heavenly Jerusalem while leading captivity captive (transferring the Old Testament saints from paradise into Heaven) he "gave gifts to men. Paul was referring to the victory marches of the Israelites as they would win a decisive victory over the enemy, and then make that nine mile ascent into Jerusalem, taking the spoils of victory with them. In like manner, Jesus won the victory of the ages on Calvary. It was then that Satan was totally defeated. The Romans and the Pharisees, and even the disciples did not see that as victory. But it was! Jesus took the spoils of victory with Him and dispersed them. (Verse 10) He ". . ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things" It was at this point that the church was filled with all the giftedness of Christ. These gifts are not natural talents, but they are supernatural expressions of the giftedness of Christ. That’s one of the things which sets the church apart from any other earthly entity.
II. THE GIFTS: Chapter 4 and verse eleven describes some of the gifts. These in Ephesians 4 are what some call the "office" gifts, or the leadership gifts. There are other gifts mentioned in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12; We could catagorize the gifts in three sections: The office gifts, the motivational gifts, and the sign gifts. Sign gifts were for the authentication of a new era in God’s kingdom work. They were used to introduce the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites (i.e. the plagues of Egypt) and the introduction of the New Testament Church Age (i.e. signs and wonders at Pentecost) But these gifts in Ephesians are the office gifts.
Apostle: "One sent forth" Apostles went into a remote area in which the gospel had not been introduced,and they named the name of Jesus. This is the function of missionaries today.
Prophet: "One who ’forthtells’" A prophet delivers an authoritative message from God. It is a biblically based message, but it is different from the gift of teaching. Prophets are very straightforward as a rule. There are no "grey areas" with prophets. These guys are not interested in comforting the broken; they had rather break the comforted! These are the guys who might come into your hospital room, after you’ve had major surgery and with a booming voice, exclaim, "You must have some deep, dark sin in your life and God is whipping you! -- Repent! Repent! Repent!"
Evangelist: "One who calls others alongside and leads them to have a relationship with Jesus". An evangelist is not an evangelist because he has fourteen pastel colored sport jackets and fourteen hot sermons on hell. Evangelist Billy Graham might be an evangelist, but not by virtue of preaching to thousands in a giant stadium. An evangelist personally leads people to have a relationship with Christ. Housewives might be evangelists, as they lead their neighbor to the Lord.
Pastor-teacher: The King James Bible says, "pastors and teachers", but the original text implies that it is a combination office. There are people in the body who are not gifted to be pastor, but are gifted to teach. However, it is unthinkable that a pastor would not be able to teach. Teaching is the life-blood of the office of pastor. He leads, tends and nurtures the flock of God by the Word. Paul told Timothy that the Bishop must be "apt to teach".
I have heard it said of many pastors that they "couldn’t preach their way out of a paper bag, but they certainly were good pastors!" That’s nonsense! If a pastor cannot, or will not lead the flock to go deeper in the Word of God, they are failing as pastors. Many church members only see the need of the pastor as one who will hold their hand when they stub their toe, or visit every nursing home in the county. Others believe a good pastor is one who has the charm and charisma to bring people into the church like the Pied Piper of Hamlin. The only problem with that is, if the church grows because of the pastor’s charisma, then when he leaves, dies, or loses his mind, then whatever was built will not stand. I would rather belong to a church where the pastor may have the personality of a milk cow, but is able to feed the flock of God, and train them to do the work of ministry.
III. THE PURPOSE OF THE GIFTS: Verse 12 tells us the purpose of the gifts; It says, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ".
Because of some unfortunate punctuation placed by King James translators, it seems to read that the pastor-teacher has a three-fold job; (1) to perfect the saints, (2) to do the work of the ministry, and (3) build up the body of Christ. But that is not what it says; The pastor is to perfect (train, teach, instruct, disciple) the saints, which will enable the saints to do the work of the ministry which results in the Body of Christ being built up.
Sadly, this is the expectation of many carnal church members. "We hired that preacher to grow this church and meet our needs! After all, we have to work for a living!"
That was the problem in Jerusalem in Acts Chapter 6. The disciples were having to leave the Word of God, to wait tables and deliver groceries to the widows. Because the Word was neglected, the result was self-centeredness and carnality among the flock. One faction in the church was murmuring because the disciples were neglecting their mothers in the nursing home and paying more attention to the mothers of that other group in the church.
That kind of infantile behavior will always surface in the church when the Word is neglected.
So just a word of caution to church members; If you ever decide to murmur against the preacher because he never comes around to hold your hand, just pause and thank God that you don’t have a catastrophic illness which warrants it!
IV THE GOAL OF THE GIFTS: (verse 13) When the gifts are functioning properly and healthily, then it will produce a people who are walking "in the unity of the faith", and "in the knowledge of the Son of God", growing toward maturity in the faith, and becoming more and more conformed to the image of Christ, which will result in being established in your faith to the point you will not be deceived by false doctrine, and you will be prone to speak the truth in love, and the Body of Christ will become a Body fitly (or snugly) joined together, and everyone’s needs will be met through ministry.
In other words, pastor, I think your job is secure. I really don’t see that we are going to work ourselves out of a job anytime soon. But how glorious would it be if we did? The Body functioned so beautifully, she could just pastor herself! This should be our long-range goal!
