Ephesians 4: 1-7 & 4:11-16, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ……..And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors, and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
One of the things that these passages so clearly say is that the work of apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and teachers is to help bring the Church to the unity of the faith, that we would no longer be tossed back and forth every time some ‘new’ doctrine or fad in the church comes along. But what it’s also saying is that we also have more to learn and that some of the things that we hold to now may change as we receive more understanding.
Now, as far as I can tell the majority of the western church has no problem with the positions of evangelists, pastors, and teachers but apostles and prophets? You may say c’mon, their ministry ended with the revelation of Christ and the canonizing of scripture. I think that we need to once again examine the role of these ministries and what the scriptures have to say about them. Many believe that Paul was the last called apostle but Paul never says that, Paul says he was the least not the last. Scriptures themselves name at least six apostles outside of the twelve apostles of the lamb, which included Matthias who replaced Judas Iscariot, we see Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, Silvanus, Epaphroditus, Appolos, and potentially more.
Apostle means delegate, or messenger, one sent forth with orders. In light of this I would say many missionaries are probably apostles, though not all, but those that have truly been called and sent of God to different people groups with the mission of preaching the gospel and establishing the church in those areas. I think that the role of these men is even bigger according to our text. I believe that in recognizing those who may truly be called to these roles would help bring unity to the local church.
I think it safe to say that any of us who are born again have probably experienced one of those moments where we were sitting next to a stranger and just had a knowing of kindred spirit. That person next to you was like you, you both had the Spirit of the living God within you. These passages teach that when we are born again we all immediately partake in the unity of the Spirit and the unity of the spirit is something that we have to maintain. As we get to verse thirteen we see a different kind of unity, a unity of faith. Most of us will never come to this unity of faith as our allegiance is often given to a building, a person(s), or denomination rather than Christ who saved us and his method of reaching unity. Like one man said when asked if he was a Christian, “I’m a Baptist!”.
In the scriptures we see the Church universal, the world-wide Church through all times, and the Church local, in a given region or city. What we don’t see is multiple Churches in a city all waving different denominational banners. When the Church at Corinth did try to splinter itself into groups following different leaders Paul wasted no time in rebuking their behavior.
I believe when we begin to operate as local churches using the method God has given us with elders, apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and teachers leading the way, we will display the power and love of God to the world around us in ways not seen in the west at this time.’
What will it take to get there? It starts with you. It starts with me. We all have to examine ourselves and the doctrines we hold to. I encourage you to check out the series, ‘The Church Jesus Is Building’ being preached by Steve Howell, you can find it at our website http://texashouseofprayer.org
God bless!
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