Maturity: The Purpose of Gifts Pt. 2

Maturity

 

 

Sunday 01/21/18 

Series: He Gave Gifts

Message – Maturity: The Purpose of Gifts Pt. 2

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Maturity: The Purpose of Gifts

Last week…

Paul to Ephesians…

Everything leading up to chapter 4

  • Who they are in Christ
  • United with Him – in God’s family, citizens, partakers of His promises.
  • Seated with Him
  • One with the Jews
  • Destined to exist to the praise of His glory
  • Destined to be prepared a dwelling place for God
  • Therefore I urge you to live a life of humble gratitude mindful and worthy of the blessings you’ve been invited into.
  • Strive for unity in the peace that binds us together remembering that there is only…
    • One Lord
    • One Baptism
    • One body
    • One Father

And Jesus, the Lord of that one body personally gave some (corresponds to 1 Cor. 12:28): (these are in order of function NOT rank. Also the first Apostles and Prophets were the establishers of Christian doctrine – the “one Doctrine” we mentioned earlier – Eph. 2:20; 3:5).

    • Apostles – Instructors and Teachers of foundational truths who establish a new body of believers in otherwise unevangelized areas.
      • Different than the first hand picked Apostles in terms of authority.
      • Ex. – Acts 14:21-23; Acts 15:23-36; Acts 11:26-30
    • Prophets – Teachers and preachers who speak from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the moment rather than from a prepared notes. Their focus is ALWAYS the testimony of Jesus, they are considered the friends of God and at least under the Old Covenant always have had God reveal Himself to them personally. They build up, exhort and comfort the church by means of their teaching.
      • Ex. – Acts 15:32; Acts 21:10-14
      • The prophet was not necessarily a foreteller. The Hebrew word is derived from a root signifying to boil or bubble over, and simply conveys the idea of the bursting forth, as of a fountain of truth, with which God has inspired the soul. The early English kept tolerably near this original idea. Thus Jeremy Taylor, in the reign of Elizabeth, wrote a treatise on the “Liberty of Prophesying”–i.e., of preaching. In the classics the Greek word is used to describe those who interpreted the unintelligible oracles, and, metaphorically, the poets as interpreters of the gods or muses. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament the prominent idea in prophecy and prophesying is not prediction, but inspiration–not telling before what is to happen, but delivering messages of warning, instruction, comfort, helpfulness–such as are commissioned by or given under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit. This characteristic of prophecy appears very clearly from the titles given to the prophet in the Scriptures. He is called “the interpreter,” “the messenger of Jehovah,” “the man of Spirit,” “the man of God”; and it is declared that the “Spirit of Jehovah “ enters into him, or “clothes him,” or, as here, that he speaks “by the Spirit.” In the New Testament Paul gives some detailed description of prophesying, which is distinguished from what we should call preaching only in that the presence and power of God is, perhaps, more prominent. (E. Abbott, D. D.)
  • Evangelists – Ones who are especially anointed of God to preach the Gospel to the world.
      • Ex. – Acts 21:8
      • The evangelist, who was one of the seven first deacons of the church (Acts 6:5). –  Philip had preached the Gospel to the Samaritans, to the Ethiopian eunuch, and to all the towns from Azotus to Cesarea, Act 8:5, Act 8:26, Act 8:40. It is not unlikely he spent the following years preaching in Tyre and Sidon, and the other heathen cities in the neighbourhood of Galilee, his house being at Cesarea, a convenient situation for that purpose. And he housed Paul & company while they were in that area. This would have been a momentous occasion since this was likely the first time Paul and Philip had met which was about 25 years after Philip first became a deacon.
      • Acts 8:29-32;35-40
  • Pastor-teachers – These are the only people Jesus gave as gifts to the body which were always intended to stay in one location. These are the everyday shepherds of God’s people. Their stated job is to lead, feed and to oversee the spiritual development and welfare of a local body of believers. Pastor-teachers were never to lead and exercise oversight over a local body ALONE. It was intended to always have a group of Pastors who co-led with equal authority concerning the flock. Also, there is NO such thing as a Pastor who does not teach. This is a modern fallacy which dilutes the integrity and purpose of the gift and it’s role in the lives of believers. The reason the name given was Pastor-teacher is because Pastors are a specific type of teacher. They are teachers who are given as a gift to the body to lead, feed and take the spiritual oversight of believers in a given area. We will examine the truth of these statements as we continue.
    • Ex. – Acts 20:17-31; 1 Peter 5:1-4

 

Why did Jesus give these people AS gifts?

FOR…

    • Fully preparing and equipping believers for the work of the ministry.
      • The words equipping  carries the meaning or the idea of setting or putting something right. This word was actually used to describe the “setting of broken bones” and for mending nets. So these God given gifts to the body work in concert to grow believers into strong, well-established ministers of Christ.
      • As Guzik says, “God’s people do the real work of ministry. Leaders in the church have the first responsibility to equip people to serve and to direct their service as God leads.”
      • Smith says this, “The primary purpose of the Church isn’t to convert sinners to Christianity, but to perfect (complete and mature) the saints for the ministry and edification of the Body.”
  • For the building up of Christ’s body UNTIL we all come to the unity of”:
  • It is for the building up of the body of Christ. Again Guzik helps us by saying, “When the gifted offices work right and the saints are properly equipped, there are increased maturity and greater intimacy in our experience of God.”
  • How long will be have the gifts? I mean, so claim they were only for the church of the 1st century! Well, both this scripture and one other in particular tells us how long?

 

UNTIL – The words “we all” is pantós . When used with the art., hoi pántes, “we all”, means all those definitely mentioned. In this case all those mentioned were “the saints” & “the body of Christ”.

  • the faith” & knowledge of Jesus
    • The Words, “THE FAITH” are in reference to the established Christian Doctrine laid down by the Apostles.

 

This service had no notes since it was an open discussion…Blessings! 

 

I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

You have a special place in God’s family & kingdom. If you do not know Him, please use our ‘Contact Us‘ page and reach out so we may have the privilege of introducing you to the Lord. Neither money nor attendance at our church will be mentioned.

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Blessings!

 

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!