Gifts to the Body

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Announcements

Join us on Sunday Mornings at 9:30 am for Sunday School,

Wednesday evenings at 6 pm our Study on the Autopsy of a Revived Church

Announce charter with Cub Scouts, starting this Monday night

Prepare for Worship

Call To Worship

44 Come Praise and Glorify

Confession

Prayer of Confession

Holy Father, we confess that we may approach you with our mouths and our lips, when our hearts are not in worship. We confess that we offer to you that which costs us little. Though you are a great King, we often bring to you the leftovers of our time, energy, gifts, and worship. We have neglected your commands when it is inconvenient for us to keep them. We have ignored your laws when it causes us to lose our ease. We have disregarded our neighbors' needs, and wondered aloud why other people do not meet our needs. O Father, have mercy on us! Forgive us of our many debts! Cleanse us and give us the mind and heart of Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. In His name, and for His sake, we come to you. Amen.

Assurance of Faith

Hear now, O Church, who stand in the gap for the world as representatives of God. We have been made clean. As the angel of the Lord touched the unclean lips of Isaiah and made the man whole in word and deed, readying him to do his will, he has done the same for us by the cleansing touch of his Son, Jesus Christ. In him, the disparity between our word and deed is made right. In him, our unkindness in action and in word has been forgiven. Go now in the purity of the King to speak the Gospel through actions of justice, mercy, grace, and love.

Catechism

Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man, in the estate wherein he was created?

A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.

Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.

As we examine our articles of faith in todays catechism we are reminded of God’s goodness in that He in the act of creation entered into covenant with us, He provided a way for us through Adam and Eve towards eternal life, but yet they fell from that grace, they did not uphold their portion of the covenant that was obedience. In following questions we will find that with them we fell too. But we should not be so bold as to blame them for our fall as if we would have done a better job. This is why we spend time in confession, looking to God’s great kindness, recognizing our weakness and rebellion against Him, and then in thanking Him for Christ, the second Adam, the one who fulfilled the requirements that we could not, and then paid the price for our failures, providing for us once again a way to eternal life with Him. So now let us turn to him in praise and worship for all He has given unto us.

Worship

359 My Soul Finds Rest

363 Every Promise of Your Word

338 O’ Church of Christ, Invincible

Prayers of the People

Prayer Request

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Gifts to the Body

Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

This series has been a study upon church unity as directed by the Apostle Paul. Up to this point we have looked at

our individual callings and how to walk in a manner worthy of that calling

the corporate nature of our calling to walk in unity of the faith, in peace, hope and love

the transcendent nature of Christ’s gifting of men in His ascension to the throne

Now as we look to the Scriptures once again we see the specific gifts given to the church from the King on the throne

Some text in Scripture you come to and you are moved at your deepest depths with the amazing love of Christ, others you immediately recognize as instruction. As it was this week with this text. There is a depth of knowledge in this text. But rest assured that though it may seem that this is a bit academic, it is important for us to know so that we might know our purpose in Christ.

Hang on with me as I try to move quickly through this first part looking at the definitions of the gifts so that we can get to the purpose.

Gifts Given

first let us look at the gifts that are given to men by the victorious King.

the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers

what is the nature of these gifts? are they merely talents bestowed upon men?

they are not merely gifts as in talents given to people

but rather are offices, for which men are assigned to fill

no organization can exist or function properly without appropriate structure and leadership, man is far to sinful to merely cooperate with one another to accomplish a common goal

we need a hierarchical structure by which to function

we will see this further worked out in the family structure in Chapter 5

here we see Paul describing the gifts that the King has handed out to men, down to the church for a purpose

its important for us to take a few minutes to examine each of these to ensure we have a full understanding of each office, and how it is designated and how it functions to bring unity to the body

Apostles

the first gift mention is the apostles.

is this a general gift of the spirit, or a specific office given to specific men

Quickly discuss continuationism vs cessationism

why is it important for us to examine this even if superficially

some churches still claim to possess the authority of the apostles within their system

giving them the right to establish new doctrine, new law for the church

an apostle is a messenger, a delegate, one sent forth with orders. specifically in the Scriptures it seems that the ones holding this position, to whom the title is applied, or office had one thing in common

they were chosen, assigned to the office specifically by Jesus, or by one another

So when we are asked does this office continue, I would say no. There is no Scriptural evidence that the 1st set of apostles chose a second set who chose a third set and so on.

Would I say the function continues, absolutely, because all the Apostles did and said to the church are recorded in God’s word before us today. Their instruction is just as pertinent and accessible to us as it was to the church then.

Prophets

this is another office gifted to men from Christ

this is an office that existed before Christ’s incarnation as well obviously in the old testament

as such it may be best to look at what role it filled then, and what role it then filled in the new testament

OT prophets were the mouth piece of God

they sometimes foretold the future

but they most assuredly brought to the people a message of repentance. Showing the people where they were failing and foretelling what would happen to them if they did not.

Some foretold of Christ, reminding the people that He was their hope, that their faith should be in Him

So in the NT we see a number of people said to prophesy, even warning of things in the future

So the question arises, is this office still active

it seems that in function no it is not.

The reason would seem that it is no longer needed in the form it once was. We have the fullness of God’s word, even to the end o the story, therefore do we need prophets to come give us rebuke, the Scriptures do that in full, do we need to be told of future events? We know the end of the story, and our hope lies in that glorious victory.

Evangelists

An evangelists is one who carries and proclaims the evangelion from place to place. The good news, sort of like a herald, a town crier on a much larger scale.

In the NT we see those who were sent out with and from the apostles to carry the good news to the corners of the earth, we see the title applied in Acts 21:8 “8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.” and again in 2 Tim 4:5 “5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

So it would seem from Scripture the work of an evangelist was a specific work given to specific men, it was a particular office given to men to do the work of the Body through a specific equipping by Christ.

So does the office of evangelist still exist today. I would say the work of the evangelist does, but we call them missionaries today. They are people chosen and sent out by the church under its authority to spread the good news.

It is important to note that this would seem to preclude the popular notion that you are all evangelist. While we are all called to share the reason for the hope that is within us 2 Peter 3:15, not everyone is equipped to evangelize, you are all witnesses to Christ and what he is done in your life, but you are not all evangelist, and sending out the unprepared and unequipped to do the work of the evangelist is dangerous and detrimental to the body of Christ.

Shepherds and Teachers

So we arrive at the last office, shepherd (pastor, poimen) and teacher.

The church is charged with the great commission, three parts: make disciples of the nations, baptize them, and teach them to obey all I have commanded

This is the job of the 4 leaders given to the church. The apostles as delegates of Christ brought His word to life int he Scriptures for all time, the prophets assisted them in bringing about God’s word in the ancient world before the Scriptures came to their fullness, the evangelists then and now keep pushing out the boundaries of where that word is presented to people, they brought it to the nations, and it is the role of the shepherd to continue to bring it to bear in the nations teaching them to obey all He has commanded

Interestingly enough this is the only office of leadership for which the Apostles set down specific qualifications.

1 Timothy 3:1–7 ESV

1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Titus 1:5–9 ESV

5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Quickly we need to make the connection here though as Scripture does. Each of these references speak of “overseers”. The word is episkopos which is translated as overseer or bishop. But we notice as well that in Titus Paul refers to the same office as elder (prebyteros - from which the denominations name is drawn) and overseer.

But how does that connect us back to this office of pastor and teacher

Acts 20:28 ESV

28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

the word translated to care is also the same word translated in Peter as to shepherd

1 Peter 5:1–2 ESV

1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;

So we can clearly link the multitude of words for the office of elder in the church: overseer, bishop, prebuteros, and pastor. And seeing as this is the one office that the Apostles saw fit to give so much direction too, we can make a good guess that it is the one office that we can rest assured is continuous in the body of Christ.

A final note about this office, is the interesting fact about the link between the two words.

note the grammatical structure of the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the last two are connected one office

In the great commission the church is called to teach the nations to obey all Christ commanded

for those who fill this office today the burden is heavy, bring God’s command to bear on the world is not a popular position to be in, but it is necessary, and I would dare to say that the lack of doing so in the past is what has brought us to this place we are in now

Equipping Saints

So we ran as quick as possible through the details on thes offices. Now lets look at the reason Christ gave them in the first place.

It was not to enrich themselves, endear themselves to the world or to do all the work of the church themselves

Paul says it is to equip the Saints for the work of the ministry

The Saints

But who are the saints?

Ephesians 1:1 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

Those who follow Christ are all saints

In fact the word hagios, is more often just translated Holy, or set apart, so the saints are those set apart by God

Equipping

Paul tells us the job of those leaders He gifted the church with are to equip these saints

We use to use an mantra in our planning for missions “man, train, and equip”

In order to move any Army forward you must have the people, they must be trained properly, and they must be equipped with the tools to do the job.

And they must be trained to use those tools.

its obvious from Paul here that those who come to Christ, those who are among the body are not going to naturally just pick up the Sword (bible) and just walk out on the battlefield and win the battle.

They must be trained to to do so, they must be equipped. in chapter 6 we are called to put on the whole armor of God

Ephesians 6:13–17 ESV

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

The work of ministry is vast, and in order to complete it, those who are to do it must be properly equipped

The work of Ministry

But what is that work. Earlier I said that not all are evangelist.

but all Saints are called to the work of ministry, or service, proclaiming the faith to others, providing charity to others, feeding those who need fed.

We often talk of Christ ruling, sitting on His throne, but we must not forget that He is a benevolent King that provides for the whole world. That is the work of ministry, that He has put us here to care for the community around us as best we can in whatever way He has gifted to do so.

Building the Body

but what is the purpose of this work. Paul tells us it is for the building up of the Body of Christ.

this word (oikodome) translated building up can have a two different definitions, and I think they all apply here

Building

obviously the first definition is quite literally building something, setting block upon block

if we think of the metaphor we find in Ephesians 2 about us being built up into a temple, this makes sense

we are to do this work of ministry as a function of growing the body of Christ

God reaches the unsaved and brings them into His body through our work to minister to them

Edifying

the next definition of this word oikodome, is edifying, or promoting the growth in Christian wisdom

we will see this as an obvious application when we continue with this study next week

Strengthening

In applying both of these definitions to the metaphor of the church as the body of Christ I think we can safely expand the application a bit

if we build up our body (our physical body) by adding to it, and then refining that additional mass, we obviously strengthen our body.

the same holds true for the church. As we minister to the world around us, being faithful to the work Christ has given us, and then we care for those parts that are added, not merely content with adding numbers, but building up each individual piece, we will build the strength of the body, and be able to do far more than we could before

Conclusion

So Paul teaches us that the King of all the world is building up his body, and he is doing so through us. and inorder for us to do so rightly He has given us gifts.

He gave us apostles and prophets and evangelist and shepherds. He has specifically gifted them with the ability and responsibility to equip all of His Holy, His set apart, saints so that they could go out and minister to those around them and in turn build up the body of Christ.

We should rejoice and at the same time be greatly humbled that God saw fit to use us for the purpose of redeeming this world. We all to often spend our time wondering what is my purpose, what can I do to fulfill myself? When what we should be asking is how do I fulfill the work of the ministry in the exact spot Christ has me right now. You are not where you are by accident, you are not even where you are by your own good or bad choices. He has put you right where you are to do the work of ministry. Pray for wisdom and strength to do it rightly. To do it in such a way as it glorify’s Him.

I had a conversation the other day about how do you know you are called to this thing or the other. The answer is mind numbingly simple. Look where you are at today, that is exactly where you are called to be, now glorify God right there.

Benediction & Doxology

Closing Prayer

If anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to catch me afterwards. And a quick reminder we do have plates in the back for anyone who desires to worship through giving today. The plate to the right is general giving, and the one to the left is specific for our missions giving.

Join us as we sing the doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.