Ephesians 4.11c-The Gift of Evangelist
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday February 8, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:11c-The Gift of Evangelist
Lesson # 226
Ephesians 4:7 Now, however, to each one of us grace was given corresponding to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving. 8 Therefore, it says, “When he ascended to the highest place, he captured captives. He generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race.” 9 In other words, what is the meaning of the statement, “he ascended?” Namely that, he also descended into the lower regions, which are part of the earth? 10 He, the very one who has descended is the one who also has ascended above each and every one of the heavens in order that He would enter into the state of bringing to completion each and every animate and inanimate object. 11 Therefore, on the one hand, He Himself generously gave some to be apostles but on other hand, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors, specifically, teachers. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:11 begins a section in the Ephesian epistle, which ends in Ephesians 4:16.
In verse 11, Paul presents a list of four communication gifts.
The function of apostleship, prophecy and teaching is for the spiritual growth of the body of Christ while on the other hand, the function of the gift of evangelism is for the numerical growth of the body of Christ.
In verses 12-14, Paul presents the purpose of these gift, namely, to provide capacity the members of the body of Christ to function in their spiritual gifts and also to provide spiritual nourishment in the form of sound doctrine to facilitate spiritual growth (vs. 12-13) and protection from false doctrine (vs. 14).
Lastly, in verses 15-16, Paul addresses the subject of spiritual growth by asserting that the teaching the members of the body of Christ received from the apostles, prophets and teachers provides them the capacity to obey the command to love one another as Christ loved the believer.
He reiterates in verse 16 the importance of the function of these three gifts in relation to the spiritual growth of the members of the body of Christ.
In this verse, he uses the ligament metaphor to describe these three communication gifts.
Now, Paul states in Ephesians 4:13 the ultimate purpose of these communication gifts is to promote unity in the body of Christ.
This supports my contention that the purpose of Ephesians is to maintain unity experientially in the body of Christ with emphasis upon the Jewish and Gentile wings of the church maintaining this unity experientially by practicing the love of God when interacting with each other.
Returning now to Ephesians 4:11, the noun euangelistēs (εὐαγγελιστής) pertains to the permanent spiritual gift of evangelism.
This gift benefits the body of Christ but in the sense that the function of this gift results in sinners being declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, which results in the justified sinner being entered into union with His Son and identified with Him.
Unlike the gift of apostleship and prophecy, the gift of evangelism is permanent and continues to be exercised by members of the body of Christ who have been given this gift by the Spirit at justification.
The function of this gift benefits unregenerate sinners in that it provides them the gospel and when they respond to the gospel by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, they are added to the body of Christ.
The function of this gift results in the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection on behalf of the sinner.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ delivers the sinner from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, the sin nature, personal sins, spiritual and physical death.
Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection provided the sinner a way to escape the wrath of a holy God.
The good news for the sinner is that through faith in Jesus Christ they can receive the forgiveness of sins and be delivered from all things.
Thus, it refers to the Christian who communicates the gospel to the non-Christian community.
The third spiritual gift mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 is also a communication gift just as the gifts of apostleship and prophet.
Unlike the previous two, this spiritual gift is still in existence today and is for the benefit of the unbeliever and not for the believer.
The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is specifically designed for the believer.
The spiritual gift of evangelism is specifically designed for the unbeliever.
The man with the spiritual gift has the dynamic ability to communicate the gospel to the unbeliever.
The evangelist must be under the authority of a pastor-teacher.
He does not have authority over the pastor-teacher.
Now, it is important to understand that even though all believers have been given the responsibility to evangelize, not all believers have been given the gift of evangelism, which is an assignment of position in the body of Christ.
All believers have the capacity to evangelize, however, the gift of evangelism itself gives the person the ability to evangelize to a greater extent and power than those believers who don’t possess this gift.
Also, this particular gift would require those who possess it to have itinerate ministries in which they would travel from place to place in order to spread the gospel.
This interpretation is supported by Acts chapter eight, which records Philip traveling from place to place proclaiming the gospel.
At the moment of conversion, God gives the church-age believer two royal commissions: (1) a royal ambassadorship (2 Corinthians 5:20), which represents Christ before the unbeliever and (2) a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:5, 9), which represents himself before God.
At the moment of their conversion, the church age believer was given a royal ambassadorship in which he is to represent the absent Christ who sits as the right hand of the Father and presents the gospel message of peace with God to the unsaved through faith alone in Christ alone (2 Corinthians 5:20a).
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NASB95)
The believer’s responsibility is to clearly present the gospel message to the unbeliever and the rest depends upon the convincing ministry of God the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11).
He is also to conduct himself with respect to the unsaved in an excellent and praiseworthy manner, bringing no reproach to the name of Christ.
1 Peter 2:12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. (NASB95)
The church age believer as a member of the royal family of God represents his King, the Lord Jesus Christ, on official business.
This official business is the communication of the gospel or the good news that Jesus Christ died for every sin committed in the human race-past, present and future and has reconciled us to God the Father with His death.
An ambassador is a high-ranking minister or member of royalty sent to represent his nation in a foreign country.
As spiritual ambassadors, the church age believer represents the Lord Jesus Christ in the devil’s kingdom.
The church age believer represents the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus Christ who is now absent from the earth because He sits at the right hand of God representing us before God the Father as our High Priest.
As royal ambassadors, believers are responsible for “witnessing” to the unbeliever, which is communicating God’s plan of salvation to unbelievers on a personal basis in two ways: (1) The example of your life (2 Corinthians 3:3; 6:3). (2) Your words (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; 6:2).
Just like an ambassador in the natural realm has his instructions in written form so the church age believer’s written instructions are found in the Bible.
Just like an ambassador in the natural realm does not belong to the country to which he is sent so church age believers are citizens of heaven, and do not belong to the devil’s world (Philippians 3:20).
Every church age believer as a royal ambassador for Christ has the responsibility to proclaim the gospel to the unbeliever and to conduct himself an excellent fashion with respect to them so as to lead them to the Savior.
