Ephesians 4:11
11 And [kai] he [autos] gave [didomi] some, [men] apostles; [apostolos] and [de] some, prophets; [prophetes]
and [de] some, evangelists; [euaggelistes] and [de] some, pastors [poimen] and [kai] teachers; [didaskalos]KJV-Interlinear
11 And
He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and
some as pastors and teachers, NASB
The Christian Church did not
come into existence haphazardly or by accident or arbitrarily. God does not do anything apart from a
formalized plan. God is organized.
Christ set up an
administration for the development of, and the perpetuation of, the Church as
we know it in our dispensation.
Among the many gifts that
He bestows on believers are five mentioned here, which are used primarily for
the education and growth applications of believers. Each has specific functions and specific
objectives.
Without an education, you
cannot know anything. Even if that
education comes from the streets, it is still an education and without it, you
would be totally ignorant of knowledge, which would make you ignorant of
understanding, which in turn would make you totally ignorant of wisdom, which
would make you a total fool.
If applied to the
spiritual life, then no spiritual knowledge means no relationship with God,
which means no good future.
So, God gave to the very
first generation two special gifts, that of apostle and that of prophet.
Of the gift of apostle,
there were several requirements. An
apostle had to receive his commission direct from Christ, Matt 10:5; he
possessed supernatural gifts, Matt 10:8; it was necessary for him to have seen
the Lord, Acts 1:22; his district of authority was the whole world, Matt 28:19;
Mark 16:15.
Today there are no
apostles, even though many disrespectfully use that title.
There were only twelve
apostles listed in history and they all lived in that very first century. They set the foundation of the Christian
Church as we know it today. Certainly
since that century, there have been many changes and rearrangements through the
many denominations, but the foundation of the Church was established by those
apostles.
Then there were
prophets. These are folks that had
lesser authority but still have unique insight into the things of God, Acts
21:11. After the scriptures had been
completed with the writing of the Book or Revelation, this office of prophet
also vanished and is no longer in use. The
completion of the canon of scripture ended all direct communication from God.
However, now that the
scriptures had been completed, there were going to be generations of people
that would need to learn that which had been written, because obviously all of
those original people would be dead and gone, making conversation with them a
little difficult.
So God created three
additional offices, that of evangelism, that of pastor, and that of
teacher. These are three different
offices, but could obviously be held by one or two or three different people.
The evangelist of the original
first century, applied to those who were not assigned to a specific region, but
to those who traveled and taught the good news of the gospel to people, whom
they met, in their travels. The
evangelist certainly spread the news of the gospel of salvation, but they were
not limited in that communication alone.
Pastors were folks that
were otherwise engaged in the oversight of a specific congregation. They would oversee the local church, its
administration, and the education of the local membership, or those who attended
that churches services.
The teacher, applied to
people who taught the scriptures to a specific audience or to a general
audience.
As the pastor focused on
the education of his congregation, the teacher focused on the education of
their class or classes of students that came to learn doctrine.
So through all of these
gifts, the knowledge of salvation was made known, and the knowledge of spiritual
growth was made available, and the stability of a spiritually growing audience
was made possible.
This verse makes it very
clear that these gifts are from God, and not developed by any human means. An education is necessary, but the
credentials of an education are irrelevant as God is able to make clear to all
who possess the gifts that He gives, the details of those gifts.
The gift is paramount,
the credentials are secondary.
Far too many folks
throughout history have possessed credentials, and they knew nothing. After all Christ was crucified by the ‘experts.’
Likewise there have been
far too many folks throughout history that have known nothing and they
certainly knew nothing, but presented themselves as experts.
Often times the only way
you know the real from the phony, is through the test of time and the content
of their message. But then you have to
know something in order to make the right discernments and know when you are
being hustled, as it were.
The administration of
knowledge and growth is paramount for the stability and continuation of the
Church as well as the individual believer, and that knowledge and understanding
and growth comes only from doctrine.
Without it, doctrine, everything else in life is irrelevant and of no
value. Only with doctrine in the soul,
does anything else in life gain value.
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