Ministry Gifts

Intro

In order for a child to develop into a well-adjusted, responsible adult, he or she needs the help of many individuals.

His or her mother and father, schoolteachers, pastor, friends, and many others are involved in providing the nurture, training, instruction, discipline, guidance, understanding, and love that are a part of his or her development.

The child who lacks any of these “helps” may be handicapped in reaching full maturity socially, physically, mentally, or spiritually.

Isn’t it marvelous that through the gifts of the Holy Spirit God has provided every “help” needed for the church to grow to full maturity?

Just as there is a variety of people involved in the development of a child, so there is a variety of spiritual gifts for the development of the body of Christ. Each gift has an important function in ministry to the church.

Sermon’s outline:

Varieties of Spiritual Gifts;

Apostles;

Prophets;

Evangelists;

Pastor-Teachers.

N.1 - Varieties of Spiritual Gifts

The New Testament documents present a great variety of spiritual gifts which, for convenience, we will divide into three groups:

Gifts to establish the Church (Ephesians 4:11: So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers);

Gifts to edify the Church (1 Corinthians 12:29: Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?). They may be excerised by any member of the congregation. But this does not mean they “have” the gift in the sense of the gift being resident in them;

Gifts for service and outreach (These include administration, ruling, ministry, giving, helps, mercy).

N.2 - Apostles

2A. Apostolic Office.

The word apostle was used of any messanger who was appointed and commissioned for some speacial purpose.

Jesus received the title of Apostle: Hebrews 3:1 “Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.”

The Apostolic ministry, then, is a church-building, fellowship-building work, exercised with accompanying miracles that are the work of the Spirit. The true apostles built the Church, not a following for themselves.

Quiz: In what ways would you say the twelve apostles were different from all other apostles?

a) They were all from the tribe of Levi

b) They were all from Jerusalem

c) They were all called and trained by Jesus (yes)

2B. Apostolic Ministry.

There are 4 elements that characterize the apostolic ministry:

Miracles;

Witness to Christ’s resurrection;

Teachers of the Word;

Establishing the Church.

In Paul’s life all the 4 signs of apostolic ministry were present. John speaks about false apostles in Revelation 2:2 “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.”

N.3 - Prophets

The prophet was a spokesman for God.

foretelling the future was only a small part of the ministry of the prophets. Most of what the prophets had to say was directly related to the needs of the people they were talking to: Acts 15:32 “Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers.”

Slide with Chart: Benefits of Prophetic Ministry.

N.B.: Some today suppose that prophecy is for personal direction of others. I know of a woman who began calling several of her friends each morning, saying, “I have a prophecy for you today.” Then she would give them what she thought was their guidance for the day. There is nothing like this in the New Testament. It borders rather on what the false prophets and soothsayers* of Old Testament times did.

N.4 - Evangelists

An Evangelist is a preacher of the Gospel, a proclaimer of the good news.

Jesus Himself was the prophesied anointed Evangelist: Luke 4:18 ““The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,”.

The word evangelist in te New Testament is used just in 2 occasions: with Philip (Acts 21:8) and when Paul urged Timothy to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5).

But the corrisponding verb and noun are used many times in the New Testament.

The Evangelist preach the gospel in new areas, not in churches.

We have also false evangelist with a false gospel: Galatians 1:8–9 “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!”

Quiz: Match the ministry with the person in the New Testament sense.

Primarily done by an evangelist = E

Primarily done by a prophet = P

a) Ministry to the churches (P)

b) Ministry to sinners (E)

c) Strengthening believers (P)

d) Revival (P)

e) Spreading the gospel in new areas (E)

N.5 - Pastor-Teacher

Pastor-Teacher seem to be united. The repetition of the word “some” in Ephesians 4:11 indicates only 4 ministries are being considered and that the pastors are also teachers.

The primary concern of the Pastor is not to direct the affairs of the church, but to teach the Word of God.

The Teacher needs to provide milk and meat of the Word of God (Hebrews 5:12–14 “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”).

Apollos may be an exaple of a teacher who “watered” what Paul had planted in Corinth, and who helped people to grow spiritually by his refreshing teaching (1 Corinthians 3:6 “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”).

Questions

1 = B

2 = A

3 = A

4 = B

5 = B

6 = B