here is a link to an audio version of this sermon https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/hope-whangarei/episodes/The-Five-Fold-Gift---Howard-Carter-e377q2l/a-ac49qfb
If you were here last week you may be suffering a bit of de
Ja Vu with the portion of Ephesians we had read to us this morning… yes..it is the
same ? and No it’s not a glitch… We are doing a two part mini series on this
passage. Specifically on the list of gifts Christ gives for the building up of
the Church in Ephesians 4:11.
Last week Roland looked at the purpose of the gifts. That
they are to be used for the building up of the body of Christ for us to
function and minister together. To grow in our grounding in the gospel, our
unity, into maturity, and the fulness of Christ… that we can function as the
body of Christ with everyone doing their part, And embody Christ in the world. We all belong and we all have a part to play…
Roland emphasized that we are all called to use our gifts to
build one another up. We are blessed to bless others. That being the body is a
team sport, with everyone playing their part. Using their gifts in unison. That
God may be glorified in the church and in Jesus Christ.
Today, we want to focus in on the five-fold gift of grace
that is given to the Church… some to be apostles, some to be prophets… some to
be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers. It seems strange to start that
by making a disclaimer, but there are many ways this passage and this list has been
interpreted and applied down through Church history. Some have tried to confine
at least apostles and prophets to the early stages of the church, Paul in
Ephesians 3;20 says that the church is founded on the apostles and the
prophets, some even equate the evangelists with those who gave us the written
gospels. On the other hand, there are those in the words of bible commentator
Mark Roberts who have tried to make elaborate missional models based on the five-fold
schema in Ephesians 4:11. It also has been used almost like a personality test
for believers to find themselves in one
of these ministry areas… Mark Roberts points out that the passage does not give
us information on each of these gifts, rather its emphasis was on what they
have in common, namely their source and their purpose.
Having said that I want to have a look at these grace gifts
and what that has to say to us today. We’ll do that by looking at how they are
used in scripture and making some reflections.
But first I want to make some opening remarks.
The first is that we have several lists of holy spirit given
gifts in Paul’s writing. Apostles, prophets and teachers appear also in the
list in 1 Corinthians 12, and prophecy and teaching appear in Romans 12. These
lists are not designed to be exclusive or exhaustive… if you don’t see yourself
in this list… it is not that God has not given you gifts to use to build up the
church… nor are they less valuable or important. The Holy Spirit is poured out
on all who believe, it is the Holy Spirit that enables us to serve and minister
to and with one another and provides us what we need by God’s great grace. We
all belong, share the one spirit one lord, one baptism, one father we all have
a part to play as God gives us gifts by his grace.
Secondly, these gifts, or gifted people are given to the
church and such roles are always to be seen as servant roles. The Christian
ideal of leadership or gifts is that Christ gives them by grace and they are to
used for the good of all as it says in 1 Corinthians 12:7 . Paul acknowledges
that he is an apostle but his favourite way of introducing himself is as a
servant or a salve to Christ. They are given to build up the church not to
build up the person. We do tend to in our culture to admire and almost put on a
pedestal the gifted person. The gifted athlete, speaker, musician Where as these
gifts are by grace, not merit…
Following on from
that. These are gifts and not offices in the Church, not positions. Yes people
can be acknowledged as apostles, or prophets or evangelists or teachers and we
use pastor now as a title for people set aside for a leadership role… however
in the pastorals where Paul writes about establishing leadership in churches.
It is not these roles that are looked to be filled but rather elders, and
overseers. Our church the presbyterian church, comes from the Greek word for
elders, our leadership is based on group decision making, overseer is where we
get the word bishop, or Episcopalian, as the Anglican church is called in
America. The other role is Deacons, who
oversee the practical running of the church. The criteria for these roles is
more to do with depth of faith and character than giftedness. Remember God gives us the gifts we need. However one of
the criteria for an elder is apt to teach… in our system what we call ministers
are in actual fact teaching elders people called and set aside and trained for the ministry of word and sacrament.
Following on from that, when we think of the body of Christ,
in this passage we have to be careful to realise that Paul can be talking about
the church universal or the local expression of the church. Remember Ephesians
could be written to a whole network of churches in Asia minor. We do need to be
aware of that as it maybe that we have to distinguish where and how these gifts
were and are to be used. Some seem bitinerary and other fixed in a local.
The final opening point, and they seem to take up half my
message is that a key part of each of these gifts listed here has to do with
the proclamation of the gospel. In Ephesians 3:7 as Paul is talking about what
God has sent him to do, his role as an apostle to the gentiles he declares that
he is a servant of the gospel. It the gospel and the word of God that
ultimately by God’s holy spirit builds up the church, that brings us to
maturity and unity and which causes us
to function as a body in the fullness of Christ. In writing to Timothy Paul
speaks of the scriptures as being good for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work. Almost the same as what he says of these gifting
here in Ephesus. ” Apostles, prophets, evangelists pastors and teachers kind of
fit in there as the way the scriptures and the gospel are conveyed to do there
work.
Ok lets look at these five gifts. How they are used in
scripture and what they are.
Apostle: Apostle literally means a sent one… some one who is
sent by a king to represent him and tell his message. A herald…
It’s used in three different ways in scripture. Firstly it
is a word that is used for the twelve, those who were with Jesus that he called
and set aside, and who were witnesses of the resurrection. We normally refer to
these as the Apostles with a capital A… The number twelve of course relates to
the tribes of Israel and the establishment of a new people of God. So after
Judas killed himself, in Acts 1 the believers get together and chose another to
take judas’ place.
Secondly it is used of those who have a specific calling and
ministry to take the gospel to new regions and places. Paul is called an
apostle to the gentiles, which he would say he received from seeing the risen
Jesus, as he puts it in 1 Corinthians 15 as one untimely born… but in the
category you also have Barnabas, who was Paul’s mentor, and like Paul set aside
to be an apostle to the gentiles by the church in Antioch. Which he had gone to
help and build up when he heard of the gentiles there coming to faith, remember
he went and got Paul from Tarsus.
There are a third group known as apostles that we know little
about… James the brother of Jesus, Apollos, salvinias, Epaphrodities possibly Andrionius and Junia…
mentioned in Romans 16. Junia by the way is most probably a women’s name.
They are authoritative representatives of the Gospel charged
and called to go into new areas with the gospel, plant and build up Churches in
those places and spaces. Some equate
them with Missionaries today, or pioneers who plant and grow churches in new
environments. They were in scripture itinerant sent to go and pioneer. Today
some would say they provide entrepreneurial leadership.
I love the way Elaine Holwell talks of pioneer missionaries,
as those who hack a path through the jungle with the gospel which others will
walk and follow on with. Be it new places or fresh people groups in our own
society.
Prophets: There is a great tradition in the Old Testament of
Prophets people who receive revelation from God… in a way that uses the covenant
Israel has with Yahweh with God, to critic and encourage and comfort the
people. In the new testament we have
mention of people as prophets on several occasions. In Acts Agabus is
called a prophet, he predicts a famine in the roman empire, which facilitates a
collection for the care of the church in Judea, he also predicts Paul’s
captivity as Paul heads to Jerusalem. The
people with Paul see it as a warning and try and tell Paul not to go, Paul sees
it as God letting him know that even though this is going to happen it is in
God’s plans so he goes, trusting God. In Acts 10 at Antioch, the leadership
there is said to be made up of prophets and teachers, and they believe Paul and
Barnabas are to be set aside for their mission to the gentiles and commission
them to Go. In each of these occasions the prophecy is weighed by the community
of faith. In Pauls list of gifts in Corinthians 12 Gordon fee sees gifts given
in pairs, discernment of spirits is paired with prophecy, to test what the
Spirit maybe saying.
The four daughters of
Philip the evangelist are also called prophets. Women seen as prophets.
We do tend to think of prophets as having fresh revelation
from God, seeing visions, and they can do that. However in the pagan temples
people would come to get a word from the oracle, in the Greek a Mantis, from
which we get the word manaic, but a prophet is the one who would take what has been
given, and interpret it and apply it to the person who had come to consult the
oracle. Harold Hoehner defines it as one who is gifted by the Holy Spirit for
the sake of edification, comfort, encouragement further understanding and
communicating the mysteries and revelations of God the Church. This may include
a predictive element. We talk of taking the timeless word of God and applying
it in a timely manner. To the situation here and now. You may have noted how a
bible verse or something that someone says hits home, and its as if God is
Speaking. That is prophetic… Paul wishes
all would prophecy, tell forth god’s word… and some who are more used in that
way are seen as prophets. Although there is no office of prophets in early
church history.
Evangelists: Literally good new people. People who proclaim
the gospel effectively in a way that brings people to faith in Christ. The word
only appears in scripture three time. Here in this list, in 2 Timothy where
Paul encourages Timothy to do the work of an evangelist and in Acts where we
have Phillip the evangelist. Who God transports to places and people to share
the gospel with them. On a one on one
like the Ethiopian eunuch which has amazing ripple effects as he goes
back to his country, and various towns around Judea. There are people who are gifted at sharing
the faith, but we are all called to be good news people and share our faith.
Maybe with Julie Anne laird’s visit recently you can see how a gifted
evangelist can inspire all of us in that role.
Pastors and teachers, In the Greek these two seem to be
bracketed together. There is no definite article before teacher like the other
four. Pastors are shepherd leaders who look after the flock, probably more on a
local level. Jesus calls himself the good shepherd and in the way he walks with
his disciples and leads them to grow in their knowledge of who he is and his
teaching, you can get a picture of pastoring. By the way no one in the New
Testament is called a pastor. A key function of pastoral leadership is feeding
the sheep and so it is appropriate that pastors and teachers are bracketed
together here. One commentator puts it that
all pastors are to be teachers, but not all teachers are to be pastors. A
pastor is one who focuses on the wellbeing of the flock, who is able to lead
them to green pastures and still waters. It is both a caring for role and a
moving people together role. Again its both a roll of feeding from the gospel
but also moving people to maturity in the gospel.
Teachers Is used 59 times in Pauls letters and depicts
instruction… in factual matters, the essence of the gospel… also skills and
moral education. How to live out the gospel together as God’s new people. An
interesting example of teachers is in acts 18 where Pricilla
and Aquila, hear Apollos preach, he’s a gifted speaker, and they, a woman and a
man, take him aside and give him a better understanding of the way of
God… Apollos then goes and establishes churches in other places, he is an
apostle. It may be seen today as
discipling people today, teaching our children the basics of the faith. We are
blessed at the moment to have Geoff New and Seb Murrihy involved with lay preachers
in northland, equipping people to preach and minister the word.
That is a quick look at these gifts and I just want to make
some comments on the implications for us.
Again the key focus of this whole passage is what these
gifts have in common, their source… from Christ by grace through the Holy
Spirit and their purpose for building up the body of Christ. It is important
for that to remain central. I’ve encountered many harmful situations where the
focus comes on to the gifts and the person who uses the gifts and the focus
moves away from Christ and it becomes about building up the person or a cult of
personality rather than about service and building up one another. One of the keys of using gifts of the Holy
Spirit is a willingness to be open to accountability to one another. Realising
they are given for the good of all.
Secondly, it is important that we all realise we have been
given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit draws us together as the
body of Christ and is the one that gives us gifts to use to minister to one
another and together to the world around us. We need each other connected and
held together. We all have a place to belong and a part to play. So I would
encourage you to look nd see how you can serve in the church and as a church
how we can serve and share our faith with our wider community, using the gifts
God has given us. connect groups are a great place to learn about using our
gifts together, as we encourage and build one another up. If you are not in a
connect group I’d encourage you to join one.
Lastly, can I encourage you to seek God as to how he has
gifted you and how you can use those gifts to encourage and build each other
up.
No comments:
Post a Comment