Sermon Tone Analysis

*/Ephesians 4:11-13/*

 

            4:1-6 is the key NT passage on unity.

The shift in verse 7 is from the corporate unity of the Church to the individuals that make up that unit.

Paul says *to each one of us* *grace was given *in proportion *to the measure of Christ’s gift*.

Christ determines the measure of grace given to the individual.

We have nothing to do with this bestowal of grace, it is solely determined by Christ.

What we do have a role in is the value of the gift of grace.

Ministering to one another in proportion to the grace given to each of us edifies the body, builds up the church, and promotes love and joy among believers.

Grace ministries are not first of all for individual enjoyment but for the equipping of the saints and building up the body of believers.

How we received this gift of grace is given by Paul in vv.

8-10./

/v. 8 is a summary of Psalm 68.

It’s not a direct quotation because it differs from Psalm 68:18 quite substantially.

Paul’s brilliant and extensive knowledge of the OT allowed him to quickly pick up similarities between OT passages and NT events.

Here he picks up the idea of God descending from Mt. Sinai, defeating the Canaanites, ascending to Mt. Zion and giving gifts to Israel and draws a parallel with Christ descending from Heaven to earth, even into the grave, ascending to heaven and then giving gifts to the Church.

The two key gifts in vv.

9-10 are the ascension and the gift giving.

First, Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father giving Him authority.

Second, Christ dispenses of the gifts themselves which is further explained in vv.

11-16.

One purpose of Christ giving gifts in v. 7 and which are listed in v. 11 is to preserve the unity already established by the Spirit (4:3).

This section therefore is here to show the purpose of the gifts which is to re-enforce unity (4:13), build the church up into a mature man even to the stature of Christ.

Although there are a diversity of gifts given this diversity is not inconsistent with unity.

Unity and diversity go hand in hand in both the Trinity (one and three) and the Church (one body and many gifts).

The Church therefore reflects the Creator of the Church.

Therefore, unity does not equal uniformity but harmony (e.g. a properly working football team, human body, or automobile).

The purpose of Christ’s giving diverse gifts to the church is therefore to preserve the unity already established by the Spirit (v.

3).

This is what Paul has taught so far.

But in vv.

11-16 Paul wants to expound on the gifts Christ gave to the Church.

Paul mentioned Christ giving gifts in v. 7 (read) and now he is expounding more on that topic in vv.

11-16.

vv.

11-16 are the 7th of 8 long sentence in Ephesians.

It is composed of 125 words.

*/Greek Text 4:11 kai autos edoken tous men apostolous, tous de prophetas, tous de euaggelistas, tous de poimenas kai didaskalous,/*

*Translation 4:11 Namely, he gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,*

 

            Whereas in v. 7 Paul mentioned Christ giving gifts to each one of us, here he speaks of Christ giving gifted people to the Church.

This is not a contradiction because once Christ gives each of us a gift(s) we become gifted persons.

Christ gave these people to the church to ultimately build up believers to do ministry.

Some important introductory points need to be made before we look at the list of gifted persons given here in v. 11.

First, this list does not contain every gift.

The three passages listing the gifts or gifted persons are Ephesians 4:11, 1 Corinthians 12:28, and Romans 12:3-8.

All the lists seem to be representative.

Second, Paul is listing /gifts/, not /offices/.

The Bible never confuses gifts with offices.

This is a very important distinction that has been given some but not much attention by scholars.

Maintaining this distinction between gifts and offices immensely helps avoid confusion, particularly in the area of biblical manhood and womanhood.

The design of men and women by God at creation, the headship of the male and the important role of women in the church.

What are some of the differences between gifts and offices? 1) The office is limited to apostles, elders, and deacons (some add Deaconesses depending on how one interprets 1 Tim.

3:11 and Rom.

16:1 but the best interpretation is that 1 Tim.

3:11 refers to the Deacons wives and Rom.

16:1 is not enough to establish a female office).

2) Those who hold offices are appointed or nominated and then appointed (Acts 6:1-6) whereas God gives the gifts sovereignly.

3) Everyone has a gift but not everyone has an office.

4) Qualifications are mentioned for those holding the office of elder and deacon but not for those who have gifts.

5) The offices are limited to men whereas gifts are given regardless of gender.

6) Those who hold offices cannot be novices whereas every believer regardless of maturity has a gift(s).

| *Offices* | *Gifts* |

| Apostles, Elders, Deacons (Deaconesses?)

| apostle, prophet, teacher evangelist, pastor, miracles, healings, helps, government, exhorter, giver, mercy, leader, server, tongues, interpretation |

| Appointed by men | Sovereignly given by God |

| Select believers | All believers |

| Must meet qualifications | No qualifications |

| Men only | All believers regardless of gender |

| Mature believers | All believers regardless of maturity |

 

It should be noted that all who hold an office also have at least one gift.

It’s not that some get offices and some get gifts but that all get gifts and some are appointed to offices.

If we keep this in mind it will avoid a lot of confusion.

Now let’s look at the list given here in Ephesians 4:11.

*/kai autos edoken tous men apostolous, tous de prophetas, tous de euaggelistas, tous de poimenas kai didaskalous, “and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,”/*/.*

*/

* *

*He *(that is Christ) *gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers*.

He lists four /or/ five gifted persons here.

Notice that each believer is not given the same gift or the same measure of a gift (v.

7).

*Apostles*.

The first gifted person is the *apostle*.*

*This is clearly the gift of apostle and not the office of apostle.

We’ve looked at the word *apostle *in Eph.

1:1 where Paul was called an *apostle*.

The word /apostolos /simply means “an official delegate who proclaims authoritatively the message of the sender”.

In the Church an *apostle *was one who proclaimed the message of Christ and was involved in /establishing /and /building up/ churches.

There are three kinds of apostles in the NT.

/First/, those who were with Christ from His baptism by John until His ascension, for example, the 12 (Acts 1:21-22).

/Second/, those who saw Jesus in His resurrection body, for example, Paul (1 Cor.

9:1).

/Third/, those who were given the spiritual gift of apostle.

It seems that the main function of those who had the gift of apostle was to establish churches in areas that may not have been reached by others (Rom.

15:20).

They function much like modern day missionaries.

*Prophets*.

The second gifted person is listed as the *prophet*.*

*Prophets have already been mentioned in 2:20 and 3:5.

Both passages refer to NT prophets because it follows *apostle*.

In this context it is also NT *prophets*.

*Prophets *edified, comforted, encouraged, and communicated clearly the mysteries and revelation of God.

Prophets also received revelation about the future.

When a prophet received revelation he was not under some ecstatic influence.

He was always one who had self-control when receiving revelation.

This gift has received a lot of attention recently because some people claim to be prophets.

However, the gift of prophecy passed away early in the 2nd century.

We might speculate that the reason the gift of prophecy has ceased is because God is no longer speaking verbally into history.

Certainly He guides and providentially directs us but He has finished revealing all that He wants to reveal until the coming of Elijah the prophet just before the Tribulation (Mal.

4:5).

So, we might conclude that when God closed the canon of Scripture with the Book of Revelation there was no need for continuing to give *prophets*.

*Evangelists*. The third gifted person is listed as the *evangelist*.