02.08. Source, Channels, and Extent of Ministry
Source, Channels, and Extent of Ministry The basis on which the giving of these gifts of ministry by Christ depends is that of the redemption He has accomplished by His blood and of His ascension to heaven. As the victorious risen and ascended Savior, who has led the whole power of the enemy captive, conquered Satan who had held man captive, and who loves His Church and cares for each member of it, He gives gifts unto men for the performance of Christian ministry, that souls might be saved and His people be built up, established, nourished, and perfected-thus attaining unto the stature of a full man in Christ. Christian ministry, then, flows from Christ exalted at the right hand of God as the head and source of all. Hence, there can be no true ministry in the Church, or by it, apart from the recognition and dependence upon Christ as the head and origin of all ministrations.
It should be observed that there is quite a difference between ministry, Christian priesthood, and worship. All Christians, men, women, and children, are priests with access to the presence of God and able to present worship praise and thanksgiving, to God. Priesthood is universal and from man to God, while ministry in the Word is an action through man, from God toward men. It is a varied service by particular members of the body through whom Christ thus acts for the good of all. It is only a few among the many who are what Scripture calls ministers of the Word or public servants of Christ. We speak not now of the general sense in which all ought to be serving Christ every day of their lives; but the question now is of the proper ministry in the Word" for it is plain that all Christians have not the power to preach the Word of God profitably for the souls of others.
According to Scripture, the spiritual ministry of the Church is to be performed by the gifts which Christ has given to the Church-those gifted and enabled by Him for such work-and not by men who have merely chosen the ministry as a profession or who claim the right to minister because they have been trained by man in colleges and seminaries for it and have also been ordained by man to the so-called ministry of their particular denominational church. All this, which is so common today and is looked upon as the proper way for the providing of ministry in the churches, is absolutely foreign to Scripture and opposed to God’s will and way for His Church and its ministry as revealed in His Word. When one searches the Scriptures, considers the apostolic Church, and makes a comparison between this and the organized system of ministry in the present church world, he is forced to conclude that it is wholly without Scriptural foundation and of human invention. We shall consider this more fully later.
Furthermore, it should be noted that our text in Ephesians 4:1-32 says that the gifts of ministry which Christ gave are for the perfection of the saints and for the edifying of the Body of Christ. If the Lord has given one a gift to teach, preach, or shepherd His sheep, he is a gift to the whole Church and his service should ever be toward the saints of God, the Body of Christ, and not to just a certain denominational group. We have previously seen that in the Bible God only speaks of one body, His Church of born-again believers, and this is the Church to which He has given gifts and which every true minister of Christ should serve and seek to build up. Thus the gifts and true ministers whom Christ gives are for the benefit of the whole Church of God in a locality, country, or even in the entire world. "Feed the flock of God which is among you," says Peter in 1 Peter 5:2. It is God’s flock, not man’s. It embraces all His people around us.
Christ not only gave gifts unto men when He ascended up on high, but He continues there in the heavens and abides as the Head of the Church and as the giver of all needful gifts for the continuation of His Church in this world. He is still giving gifts unto men, raising up and calling this one and that one, causing them to be divinely taught for their own soul’s need and giving them a power, not possessed before, to act effectively upon the souls of others in awakening, clearing, or establishing souls in the grace of God, or to communicate truth convincingly to believers. And this will continue "till we all come in the unity of the faith," as our text assures us. So that we are warranted in expecting a perpetuation of ministry of the same character and flowing from the same source as that in the apostolic Church. Whatever is necessary for the gathering in of souls, and caring for them when gathered, abides till Christ comes when all will be completed. In defining more fully what a gift is, we would add that it is spiritual power from above to act upon souls. It is more than natural ability to speak or teach, though Christ does give talents "to every man according to his several ability" (Matthew 25:15), so that natural ability is taken into account by the Lord in His sovereign distribution of ministerial gifts and talents, but natural gift alone does not make one a minister of God’s Word. There must be the positive bestowal of a gift from Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 the various gifts are spoken of as manifestations of the Spirit. The different gifts are looked at there as functioning by the Holy Spirit; "all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will" (1 Corinthians 12:11). The Lord is, however, the real and proper giver; the Spirit of God is rather the intermediate means of conveying the gift, distributing or making it good,-the energy by which the Lord acts.
Apostles and Prophets
These are the first of the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11, which the ascended Christ gave to His Church. "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets." They are what might be called the foundation gifts, which God used for the purpose of laying a broad and deep platform ,on which the Church was to be built. This work was done lby those whom God empowered in a special manner.
Ephesians 2:20 speaks of the Church being "built upon he foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Of course, Christ is, in the greatest and highest sense, the foundation" Upon this rock I will build my church." But still, to use the words of another, "As the means not only of revealing the mind of God touching the Church, but also particularly of laying down with authority the landmarks of His husbandry in the earth-the Church of God, the apostles and prophets were thus used. To distinguish them the former were characterized by an authority in action, the prophets by giving out according to God His mind and will about this great mystery" (W. K.). The apostles occupied a unique position in the establishment of the Church which could not be transmitted to others. They were special witnesses of our Lord’s resurrection. See Acts 1:22, 1 Corinthians 9:1; 1 Corinthians 15:5-8. Therefore there can be no "apostolic succession" such as various church groups claim today. Only one appointed such by the Lord, and a witness of His resurrection could be an apostle in the full sense of the word. The twelve and Paul, as the special apostle of the Church, are the apostolic gifts. These were entrusted with the planting of the Church and the nourishing of it during its infancy, as well as with providing it, for its whole earthly history (along with the rest of Scripture) with an infallible guide. This we have in the apostolic writings which are perfectly inspired of God. Thus, while we have not the apostles with us personally, we have them in their writings still with us as a foundational guide in the Church. The prophets here mentioned do not refer to the Old Testament prophets, but to those who followed Christ. The latter are New Testament prophets, men who spoke directly for God to man, often indicating in a supernatural way His mind as to the present or future. A prophet is one who brings home the truth to souls so definitely- as to connect them directly with God. Judas and Silas, for instance, are mentioned as prophets in Acts 15:32; they exhorted and confirmed the brethren. The Scriptures had not all been written when the Church began and the apostles were not everywhere, so God raised up prophets, who, in certain cases at least, were the means of divine revelation. But now revelation is complete; we have the full Word of God o^. and want no more. So the need for these prophets in the highest sense is closed with the Canon of Scripture being complete. In a subordinate sense, that which would answer in our times to the prophetic work in question is the revival of truth and the powerful action of the Spirit on saints at large by recalling what was once revealed, but completely lost. The recovery of the truths of justification by faith, the nature of the Church as the Body of Christ, and His coming for it as the Christian’s hope, for instance, would resemble prophetic work in this particular, though one might hesitate to call any used in the work either apostles or prophets. In the strict sense, apostles and prophets were not meant to continue, though something analogous to an apostle may be raised up at fitting times. Luther, for example, is an instance. There was a partial recall, through him, of the saints of God generally, to fundamental truth, long lost sight of. This answers in a little measure to what an apostle did.
Evangelists
"He gave ... some, evangelists." This gift, as well as those mentioned in the rest of this verse in Ephesians 4:11. is still with us today and at work in the world. The evangelist is the usual instrument used of God in gathering souls to Christ. The man to whom such a gift has been given would not be confined to one spot, but would be ready to go here and there wherever the Lord by the Spirit might lead him to minister to the need of souls.
"Evangelists, as their names would suggest, are heralds of the glad tidings, preachers of the Gospel of the grace of God, who awaken the careless and win souls to Christ. It is not everyone who is an evangelist, though all should have the love of souls, and be ready to point the sinner to Christ. But men who are evangelists by gift have a true passion for souls, true longing and travailing in birth for them; they are instructed how to present the Gospel, how to gather in the souls, to distinguish true anxiety from false and reality from mere profession. It is their joy to bring sinners to Christ, to see those who were in the world brought into the Church.
"The evangelist is a man of prayer, for he realizes that the work is all of God, and that `methods’ are but of little worth. He is a man of faith, who counts on the living God. He is a student of Scripture, that he may present only the truth to souls. He is a man of courage, not fearing to go even where `bonds and imprisonment’ may await him, that he may carry the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to the perishing. He is a man of energy, instant in season, out of season. He is a man of perseverance, not discouraged if he fails to see immediate fruit from his labor. Lastly, he is a man of humility, glorying in Another, saying from the heart, `Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’ " (S. Ridout). The evangelist’s special concern is for lost and unsaved souls and his sphere of labor is the world, while that of the pastor and teacher is in the Church and among the children of God. The evangelist is like the quarryman who goes out and hews out the rough stones and brings them up from the quarry to be polished. The evangelist finds souls in the quarry of sin and brings them to Christ Who saves them and baptizes them into the Body of Christ, the Church, by the Spirit. The true evangelist will then see that these new-born babes, his children in the faith, are introduced into the fellowship and care of the Church of God also, where the gifts of the pastor and teacher are exercised for their upbuilding and nourishment. The Spirit-taught evangelist will not tell the new convert to enter the church of his choice, or of his family, as is often done, but will rather show him that he is already in the Church, a member of it, and should now recognize those who, in the place where he resides, form the local assembly of God’s Church. He must search the Scriptures for God’s mind and order as to church fellowship as well as follow that Word for God’s salvation. In Acts 21:8 we read of "Philip the evangelist." In the eighth of Acts we have an account of his labors. This passage gives us an illustration of the nature and work of this gift. In the apostle Paul we also see the working of the gift of an evangelist, though he also possessed the gift of a pastor and teacher and was an apostle. His aim was "To preach the gospel in the regions beyond" (2 Corinthians 10:16) , which words may well be taken as a true motto for every evangelist.
Surely when we remember the Lord’s words to "look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest," and that "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into his harvest" (John 4:35; Luke 10:2), we are constrained to pray for the raising up of true evangelists and the sending forth of those already gifted and called. The need is great and the work is blessed. Evangelist, "stir up the gift of God, which is in thee." "Preach the word... do the work of an evangelist" (2 Timothy 1:6; 2 Timothy 4:2; 2 Timothy 4:5).
Pastors and Teachers
These gifts are given for the care of the new-born babes in Christ and for the purpose of leading and guiding them on in the truth. All the gifts of Christ are given for the purpose of "perfecting of the saints; with a view to (the) work of (the) ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ ... in order that we may be no longer babes" (Ephesians 4:12-13, New Trans.). God wants His children to grow in the truth, so He has given these gifts for their edification and growth. This is especially the work and purpose of those exercising the gifts of pastors and teachers. The gifts of pastors and teachers are linked together in our passage. It does not say, "he gave some pastors and some teachers," but rather, "he gave . . . some, pastors and teachers." The two are mentioned together, showing they are closely allied, although they are distinct gifts and one may have the one without the other, or may possess them both. These two gifts are given for the care and help of God’s people and are closely associated.
Pastors The word for "pastors" here is literally "shepherds," which gives us the thought of one who feeds and cares for God’s sheep. This word designates those whom the Lord has fitted and gifted to "feed the flock of God," and whom He has called to this work. The Good Shepherd desires that His sheep not only be delivered from the enemy, but that they be guarded, led, and fed as well. Th pastor looks after the Lord’s people; he sees that they do not go astray and seeks to recover them if they do. One who is a shepherd will have a sympathetic heart, administering comfort to the sheep of God in time of affliction. He will enter into their trials and problems and will seek to cheer and strengthen them, giving counsel, encouragement or correction by the application of the Scripture as needed in each case. He watches over souls and warns them if they grow careless or worldly. A pastor must not only have knowledge of the truth, but the power and gift to urge it day by day upon individuals. He applies the truth practically, dealing with heart and conscience. He interests himself in the sheep of Christ individually and labors for their state. His work may be much in sorrow, which is naturally shrunk from, but it is a most blessed work and much needed. The pastor’s work is largely of a private character and he need not be a public speaker nor take a prominent place, though he may also have the gift of preaching and teaching and labor publicly as well. Such are the main characteristics of the gift of a pastor. In view of the common usage of the term, "pastor" in our day, it may be needful for us to distinguish between this and the gift of a pastor which we have been considering from Scripture. In these days one who is chosen as the minister of a particular denominational church is called "the pastor of the church." But such an office as "the official pastor of a church" is unknown in Scripture and did not exist in the apostolic church. One might be "a pastor," as to gift, in a local church, but in the Bible we never find one man spoken of as "the pastor" or "the minister" in charge of a local assembly of God’s people. (We shall take up this matter of "one-man ministry" more fully in Chapter Three). The man whom Scripture speaks of in Ephesians 4:11 as a pastor, is one who possesses from Christ the particular gift and qualification of shepherding and caring for God’s sheep, wherever he finds them. He is a pastor in gift and service, though he may do secular work for his living, while looking after God’s people in his locality. Or he may give all his time to shepherding God’s children, traveling from place to place serving "the Church of the living God." Again he may labor much in one place. All is as his Master and Head in heaven may direct. There may be several such gifted pastors in a local Lathering of the Church of God, each caring for souls, but none taking the title or place of "the pastor" or "the minister" of the congregation, for this would usurp the place of the Holy Spirit, nullifying His sovereign right to use whomsoever He will as His mouthpiece in the Church (see 1 Corinthians 12:11) . In the present day organized church systems, one may bear the title of "the pastor of a congregation," and yet not have a pastoral gift from Christ at all; he may not even be converted. Or if he is truly a child of God, he may be an evangelist in gift and yet be expected to do the work of pastor and teacher also, though these gifts may not have been given him by Christ. And because he holds the title and office of "the pastor and minister," though unfitted for it, another in the congregation, who really has a pastoral gift, is not allowed nor expected to exercise it because he is not the official pastor. Likewise the gifts of evangelists and teachers might be hindered.
All this is contrary to God’s order for His Church as revealed in the book of Acts and the Epistles and is a hindrance to the free-working of God’s Spirit and Christ’s gifts. That there are many true ministers of Christ and truly gifted pastors serving in such an official way in the present disordered condition of the Church and doing good work for the Lord, we truly believe. We would recognize all such gifts of the Lord and honor them, though not accepting their unscriptural position. What we are speaking of now is God’s order for His Church and the true pastoral gift as found in the Scriptures, which is different from man’s order in the church-world of today. The Scriptural order for the ministry in a local assembly of believers, we purpose to develop more fully in the next chapter.
Returning to the subject of the characteristics of the pastoral gift, we may say that, in general, it is one of rule and oversight. The word translated "rule" in Matthew 2:6 and Revelation 2:27 means literally to shepherd and is rendered "feed" in John 21:16; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2, where pastoral care is spoken of. When Scripture speaks of rule, it means service and he rules or leads best who serves best and most. The qualifications for one doing pastoral care are given in general in those passages which speak of oversight and eldership, such as 1 Timothy 3:1-14 and Titus 1:6-9, for the work of elders is closely allied with that of the pastoral gift. This is seen by considering the charge given to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28 : "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God."
Surely the gift and work of a pastor is a very important and needful one and we need to pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up and encourage many true shepherds for His sheep, for as in Christ’s day, so it is now, many are "scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). May every one gifted as a shepherd, no matter how small the gift may be, be awakened to a fresh sense of his responsibility to care for God’s sheep in a labor of love, and be encouraged in this noble work. If we do not have a pastoral gift, may we cultivate the heart of a pastor that cares for Christ’s sheep.
Teachers-The gift of a teacher is also a very important one and closely associated with the pastoral gift we have been considering, for a pastor can hardly be of profit to an individual without being able, in some measure, to teach him. A person may teach without being a pastor in gift, but one would hardly be a pastor without teaching in a certain sense. The pastor has the people more before him, while the teacher occupies himself more with the truth. The teacher sets forth the truth of God and the pastor endeavors to see how the truth is being received individually. A God-given teacher is one who enjoys and loves to help others enjoy the truth of God. He is gifted in understanding and grasping the truths of God’s Word and in noticing distinctions .of truth and shades of meaning, and is able by the Spirit’s power to unfold these truths and to impart them to others. Many enjoy the truth in their own souls, but cannot help others or convey to them what they themselves enjoy. Here is where the gift of teaching comes in. One possessing this gift is able to put the truth clearly and convincingly before believers, so as to deal with the affections and carry home the truth with energy to the soul. The truth is put in so convincing a way as to bring the conscience into the light and make it feel its responsibility to follow that light. Such is the effect produced by the God-gifted, Spirit-led teacher. The teacher is especially a student of the Scriptures and knows how to apply its truths aright, "rightly dividing the word of truth." He unfolds its perfections, expounds its doctrines, and explains its difficulties. He ever loves to lead on the Children of God into the deep things of His Word and to develop the character of God in them. It is the teacher who meets the teachings of error and exposes false and evil doctrines, thus safeguarding and delivering souls. And as Christ is the theme and center of all Scripture and of all its truths, the divinely taught teacher will ever exalt Him and unfold the glories of His person and work. This will be the outstanding characteristic of his ministry.
What a valuable endowment to the Church is the gift of teachers! How necessary they are and how grateful we should be to the Lord for them, for it is He who has given every gifted teacher for the establishing of His saints, that they be not tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14). As error and evil doctrines abound on every hand, we need to pray for the raising up and encouraging on of divinely gifted teachers who can set forth the truth of God in power and clearness, that souls may be set free from erroneous and evil teachings and Christians be built up in the faith. We need to pray, too, that His gifts to the Church may be unfettered from "religious machinery" and systems of men, so that they may freely exercise their God-given ministry under the sole direction of Christ their Head. In our day of perverse, adulterated teachings there is much need for a "teaching-Gospel" to establish and deliver souls that have been awakened. This is a mixture of a teacher’s and evangelist’s work and is illustrated by the Epistle to the Romans, where the apostle teaches the principles of the Gospel to Christians. In Paul were found many gifts. He was an apostle, prophet, evangelist, "teacher of the Gentiles," and a true pastor. His words to Barnabas: "Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do" (Acts 15:36), evidence the true heart of a pastor and furnish a good motto for every shepherd of the sheep of Christ.
Other Gifts-We have now considered in detail the five prominent gifts to the Church-apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, as mentioned in Ephesians 4:11. These are the greater gifts, and the last three, especially, we may expect to continue till the Church is gathered home in glory (Ephesians 4:13). These verses in Ephesians do not give us a complete list of all the gifts which Christ gives to His Church, but they are the most important ones. After mentioning these, the apostle goes on to speak of the whole Body of Christ and "that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part" (verse 16). All the members of the body have something to give for the edification of the Body of Christ. Each has his or her place and service: one may exhort publicly while another may have a little word of wisdom though never appearing in public at all.If we are to profit from the ministry of every joint and every part of the body, there must be room and opportunity given for such ministrations in the Church. A stated "one-man ministry" hinders such functioning and is never contemplated in Scripture.
Various gifts are mentioned in Romans 12:4-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-31. Some of these are somewhat the same gifts as mentioned in Ephesians 4:1-32, though different forms, modifications, or parts of these. The gifts of prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, and rule spoken of in Romans 12:1-21 would all, doubtless, be included under the teaching and pastoral gifts of Ephesians. The "word of wisdom" and "word of knowledge," mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 as given by the Spirit to some, would come under the gifts of pastor and teacher, respectively.
Miraculous Gifts
These gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, such as gifts of healing, working of miracles, and divers kinds of tongues and interpretations, were those which accompanied the coming to earth of the Holy Spirit and the inaugurating of the Gospel and the Church. There is no promise that they shall continue till Christ’s coming, as is true of the gifts in Ephesians 4:1-32. In fact, 1 Corinthians 13:8 says tongues shall cease, and the language there is such as to differentiate between tongues, prophecies, and knowledge, and to indicate that only the latter two of the three will Continue until "that which is perfect is come"-Christ’s coming (see 1 Corinthians 13:8-10). In the latter part of the New Testament we read little about miracles, less and less as time passes on. Miracles in the Old Testament never continued, but were exceptional events at the beginning of a new work of God. So doubtless these miraculous powers were temporary gifts to the early Church. With the Church in disorder, division, and rebellion today, the Spirit is grieved and cannot act in full manifestation of mighty signs and thus put His outward seal on such a mass of confusion. We are aware that various ones claim to possess these gifts today, but the true marks of the Spirit’s work are missing and we cannot accept their claims as genuine.