[0:00] And non-campers and glampers? Oh, you went to Camp Pfizer, though. Camp Pfizer, I heard about Camp Pfizer.
[0:10] Yeah, we did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, thank you. All right. Good to be here with y'all. Y'all, you know, came from the camping, which was south of here, so I guess pick that up.
[0:27] Take out your Bibles with me, please, and turn to Ephesians chapter 4. We have been looking at spiritual gifts for the last several weeks.
[0:38] We spent a few weeks in Romans 12 looking at the gifts that are given, that the Holy Spirit distributes to various members of the church.
[0:51] And then we looked at 1 Corinthians 12 where we saw the manifestations of the Spirit. There they're not called gifts as much as manifestations, which implies that they are works of the Holy Spirit as He wills to do them.
[1:10] And now we come to a third text that has a little bit different of a category, but they are gifts. They are gifts Christ gives to His church. The difference is these gifts are people.
[1:24] These are gifted people given to the church in order to equip the church. And next week, Lord willing, we plan to do a review so we can put it all together, wrap it up in a nice bow and pack it away, put it in our pocket and forget about it and move on.
[1:42] So, no, we want to review, hopefully, to dialogue and apply and answer questions. We do want to package it up, put a little bow on it.
[1:57] I don't know. Okay. Cross that off. Bow thing didn't work. All right. Ephesians chapter 4.
[2:08] This is where we are today. Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to read from verse 7, where it talks about Christ's gifts, through verse 16, which is the context.
[2:20] But we will be focusing on verse 11 in Ephesians 4. So, if you're able, please stand as I read from Ephesians 4, beginning of verse 7. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
[2:41] Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, that is, the earth.
[3:00] He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Now, picking up from the end of verse 8, where he said he gave gifts to men.
[3:13] Verse 11. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
[3:59] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love.
[4:29] So reads the text. Let's pray. Father, guide us today as always. Teach us. As we look at this, Father, many will think about this as applying to others.
[4:44] Not many have you called to full-time ministry. But Father, you might be doing that today. You might be preparing some who in a later day you will call.
[4:59] But for all of us, Father, we need to understand how you work, how you gift the church and how you equip the church so that it becomes the church that you have designed.
[5:11] So give us understanding. Teach us. Fill us in on how your will works in this body.
[5:22] We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. So anyone here called to full-time ministry? Anyone? Besides me?
[5:34] Besides me? Any of you that called to full-time ministry? No? Are you sure? You're sure? Called to ministry? Yeah. Full-time ministry?
[5:46] Okay. Different, right? I mean, not another job. I mean, full-time, right? That's what I mean by that. As Christians, of course, we're called to minister all the time.
[5:57] I don't mean that in general. So let me... I forgot to drink a drink. I need a drink. Get the moisture in my mouth. That's good.
[6:09] So I was thinking about my call to ministry, and I added up the years, and it was over 40 years ago. Ow! I'm only like 49, so it's like 40 years ago.
[6:21] So God gave me a burden for young people. So I went to seminary to learn the scriptures, to learn to teach the Bible for myself, not to be dependent on others.
[6:44] And graduating seminary, I took a position as a full-time youth pastor in Green Acres First Baptist Church.
[6:55] There is a Green Acres. Remember? Okay, no. So I went... Yeah, somebody's whistling the tune.
[7:06] Thank you very much. And I think that was Andy Griffith, your whistle. That was... I don't know. Anyway, so in my mind, I did not plan to be a senior pastor.
[7:17] I wanted to be a youth pastor. I just... I had a heart for youth. I loved youth ministry. Loved being with young people. Until a number of years later, they wore me out.
[7:30] And so many all-nighters, right? Loved it. But after some years of doing that, I began to struggle with my own...
[7:41] My senior pastor in the church and the way the church was run. And I would go back to seminary and talk to one of my professors there that I really respected who had been a pastor for a long time.
[7:52] And I wanted his input. And as I talked about that, he began to say, Well, you're sounding like a senior pastor. I said, No, no, no, no. And then he began to say, No, I think maybe God's calling you to a senior pastor.
[8:07] No, no. I don't want to do that. I'm just struggling with my pastor. He said, Well, why are you thinking that way? Well, because the church isn't being fed. And the people are flailing.
[8:21] And, you know, I'm taking care of the kids. And then I'm thinking about their parents. And I'm thinking about... Right? And he says, No, you're starting to think like a senior pastor. That was traumatic for me.
[8:33] I didn't want to do that. But eventually I saw that that's what God was doing. And so after four years in youth ministry, I tentatively and with trepidation stepped into a senior pastorate, or solo pastorate in San Jose, California.
[8:53] And for the next eight years, I was taught how to be a pastor. This very gracious, kind... congregation...
[9:12] probably spoiled me. Because then, after eight years...
[9:23] And why would you leave a church that you loved? Well, because I believe God called me away from it. And I fought that call. With gusto.
[9:37] But I was convinced through a series of events and just kind of how it all came about. And some things, not with that church that I was in in San Jose, but with the denomination there, that caused me to take this new call.
[9:56] And when I moved to this foreign field, it was called Peru, Illinois. So it was truly a foreign field. For someone who grew up in California to move to the Midwest, okay, people in California, they were like, oh, you're not going to know.
[10:13] You're not going to fit there. I'm like, what? People. Yeah. It's a different culture. If you're from the Midwest, you understand. Or if you've been to the Midwest. Wonderful folks, but different. And if you're a Californian, you do things that are inappropriate to Midwest people.
[10:30] Anyway, I won't say. Anyway, so some wonderful, wonderful folks there. But also that ministry there really challenged my calling because I was taught humility.
[10:45] God humbled me greatly there. I battled for essentials. I was overwhelmed. And what are all the D words? I was depressed. I was discouraged. I was disillusioned.
[10:58] I was disheartened. Any D word, pretty much. But it resulted in depression, ultimately, because I experienced things I'd never experienced before. I'd never had a leadership lie to me.
[11:10] I'd never had a leadership betray me. I'd never battled for essentials like I had to battle for there. So, I wanted to get out, right?
[11:25] I mean, they lied. I wanted to get out. I wanted to, okay, fine. But I didn't go because I believed God called me there. I would not quit.
[11:36] I could not quit. Until about four years later, after battling hard and doing everything I knew to do, God did not lead me, unfortunately, to a nice, comfortable pastorate where I would have a paycheck.
[11:57] And, you know, he just led me out with nowhere to go. So, I'm like, okay, what am I doing now? So, I drove a school bus.
[12:09] I came here. We drove a school bus for a couple of years. Worked part-time at another church. And in 2006, one of the other bus drivers came into our morning meeting and said, we just lost our pastor.
[12:26] We need a new pastor. I said, what church are you going to? Oh, Little Log Church. So, I was the very first one, Ron, with my resume in, right? First one because it wasn't even out yet, I don't think.
[12:38] And I had my resume in. And Colonel Jenkins, chairman of the board, said, bus driver?
[12:50] We're not hiring a bus driver for our pastor. Well, you know how the last are first and the first are last? It's always the last resume standing or sitting or whatever. So, God brought us here.
[13:02] And that was an amazing thing as well. And this is our last stop. Lord willing, you can't really say that to the Lord.
[13:15] Because I wasn't planning to go to Illinois either. And that's because you're going to Illinois, boy. And he brought us here. And our first years here were tough. There was some more humbling, a lot more humbling, more battles.
[13:28] And in those early years, there was a time where I truly wanted out. I was already broken, already beat up, disillusioned, humbled.
[13:53] So, I remember pleading with the Lord. Give me anything else. Shouldn't be this emotional.
[14:06] And I felt strongly convicted that he would not give me release.
[14:19] He would not release me. So, I continued. And I am so grateful.
[14:29] To this day. Some of you were there back then.
[14:42] Some of you were there back then. And we're not part of the hard part. Thank God for Ron and Jenny. Dan and others that were here.
[14:53] And I had some wise elders. I remember in the 12th year of my depression, the elders said, you need to take a sabbatical.
[15:05] And I said, I want to take a sabbatical while I'm still depressed. Because the expectation will be that you come back healed. So, anyway.
[15:16] So, I remember talking to the elders at that time about that. That maybe they should fire me, right? Or let me go. Because I was not feeling adequate. Not up to it. They wouldn't have it.
[15:32] So, it did go on sabbatical. God had started to. I wrote a book on it. My next sabbatical, the elders said, you need to write a book about your experience. What went through.
[15:43] Because there was a big healing of that depression right before I went on sabbatical. And it was, well, not a place to explain that here.
[15:58] But there is a copy of the book, manuscript, about that journey. So, God did not give me a release.
[16:12] I am still convinced to this day that I've been given to the church. For better or worse. That's what a call is.
[16:25] Are you called to ministry? You're called. In a sense, God calls you. But then he gives you. So, in a sense, you're not your own. You've been given.
[16:39] For this flock. So, here in all that to say, in Ephesians 4.11, we're talking about four people.
[16:52] I know he lists five. But we're talking about four people here. That he. That are called people. That are people who are given to the body of Christ.
[17:04] For a purpose. So, that's what we're going to look at. First, I want you to see. In the context.
[17:14] The purpose. Why are these people called? Why are they given to the church? So, look back at verse 7. There's two purposes. One general. Verse 7. There's grace given to each one of us.
[17:26] According to the measure of Christ's gifts. So, one of the purposes is Christ gives gifts to all of us. That's what we've been studying. It's given to each one of us.
[17:37] And it leads to a unified maturity. You see in verse 12. This group of men. Verse 11. Are given to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
[17:49] For the building up of the body of Christ. So, what happens to these people who are equipped? Then we see that. Go down to verse 16. And you see that these people become this mature unity who work as a body.
[18:05] Look at verse 16. From whom the whole body. Speaking of Christ. Whole body connected to the head. The whole body joined and held together by every joint which is equipped.
[18:16] When each part is working properly. It makes the whole body grow so that it builds itself up in love. So, in other words. One of the purposes God gives us gifts is so that we can minister to one another.
[18:28] As each part is doing. Right? When each part is working properly. When each part is using their gift. As God has gifted you. As he has designed us. As every joint and every part is working together.
[18:39] What happens? The body grows. It builds itself up. It's self-sustaining. It's self-growing. It's self-building.
[18:51] That's how God has designed. It's not programs that grow the church. It's people. Being equipped. Doing ministry with one another.
[19:02] As God has gifted. And it builds itself up. It builds itself up. So, that's one of the purposes. We see.
[19:13] And once again. Each time we've talked about these gifts. In Romans 12. 1 Corinthians 12. Every time Paul talks about it. In the context of the body. These are not gifts for an individual.
[19:24] To do something. On their own. These gifts are given. To individuals in the church. So that they might serve other people. In the church. Right?
[19:35] So, these gifts are. For building. And maturing the church. And encouraging one another. So, once again. Romans 12.
[19:46] 1 Corinthians 12. Here Ephesians 4. It's about body life. It's how the body functions together. It's how the church is to work. Right? And then the primary purpose.
[19:59] He's taught. He gets to. In verse 12. So, in verse 11. He names these people. He gave apostles. Prophets. Evangelists. Shepherds. And teachers. To do what?
[20:09] Verse 12. To equip the saints. That's their role. That's the role. An apostle. A prophet. An evangelist. Believe it or not. That's the role of an evangelist.
[20:21] To equip the flock. And pastor teachers. To equip the flock. To do what? They equip the flock. To do the work of ministry. So that the body is built up.
[20:32] And then we keep reading. As we read already. Verse 13. Is about the goal. What's the goal? In this building up. To. Until we attain.
[20:42] To the unity of the faith. So how long does this process go on? We attain to the unity of the faith. Of the knowledge of the Son of God. To mature manhood. To the measure of the stature. Of the fullness of Christ. So when do we reach that fullness of Christ?
[20:53] When do we. When do we reach that maturity. Right? Where we're just like Jesus. When do we achieve that goal? Well. We're going to set the goal for five years. Right? That would be silly.
[21:04] Right? The goal is eternity. Okay. But that's our process. So it's always ongoing. We're always maturing. We've never arrived. And then the result.
[21:17] Verse 14. The result is. We're not like this anymore. We're not unstable. We're not deceived. We're not. We're. We're. We know enough. That we don't get tricked and deceived.
[21:28] Right? And then verse 15 and 16. On the other hand. What we are is. People who speak the truth in love. And we grow. And we minister to one another. And we build up the body. The body builds up the body.
[21:42] That's what we do. And each one. Obviously. No one of us can do that building. We do. Each of us do one part.
[21:54] And others do their part. When they're all working. It's beautiful. Okay. So that's the purpose. Of the church. Who are these people.
[22:04] That Christ gives. The people Christ gifts. To his church. In order to equip the church. As I said. This. These five names here.
[22:16] Five. People. That are listed. Verse 11. Are a little bit different category. They're the ones who are called. Or given. To lead. And I want to kind of put that.
[22:27] Question out there. For you. Even though. Many of you are already resolved. In your mind. That you're not called. In full-time ministry. I want you. To entertain it.
[22:40] Okay. Is that you? And if not.
[22:51] You may know someone. That is. Or if you're a parent. Maybe your child will be. Or grandparent. Maybe your grandchild. So this is good to know.
[23:02] In helping somebody else. You have a friend. That maybe. They're considering it. So you. This will be helpful for you to know. How to help them. With what's. What is that?
[23:13] What is the role of someone called. To full-time ministry. Okay. So who are these people? So there's. There are five. I know.
[23:24] Verse 11 says. Apostles. Prophets. Evangelists. Pastors. Teachers. That's five. Right. It's really four. So. So notice. The structure. Verse 11.
[23:36] He gave. The apostles. The prophets. The evangelists. Evangelists. The shepherds. And teachers. Doesn't say. And the teachers.
[23:48] So the last two. Are grouped together. So it's really four groups. So I. I want to put these four.
[24:00] Into two groups. In verse 11. The first two. Or the first group. Which I would. Call. Foundational. Gifts. Foundational ministries.
[24:11] These are the ones who. The apostles and prophets. Are the ones. Who are the foundation. The church is built upon. Okay. And then. The next two. Being the evangelist.
[24:22] And the pastor teachers. Would be. Then the. Those who build upon the foundation. Okay. That's. How I would look at these. So who are these? Who are these?
[24:32] Apostles and prophets. So. The first one listed. Are apostles. Apostle. Means somebody who sent. Sent one. Remember the. The original 12. Remember Jesus called disciples.
[24:43] Right. Follow me. And I'll make you fishers of men. He called disciples. At some point in his ministry. He then spent all night in prayer. For God to direct him.
[24:53] As to whom. To choose. To be the 12. Apostles. So they're going to be different. Than the other disciples. They're going to be set apart.
[25:05] Right. So who are those 12. That are appointed by Christ personally. In Mark chapter 3. He says. Mark says. That he chose. These 12.
[25:17] For two. Two purposes. One. To be with him. To spend time with him. To watch him. To learn from him. Right. To. To be with him. As he does ministry.
[25:28] To be eyewitnesses. Of all that he does. And says. And then secondly. That they would then be the ones. He would send out. To preach. So that it's.
[25:39] There to be with him. And then there to. To be sent out. That's the apostle. To be sent. To then preach. So he's building. Them. He's discipling them. To. Do what he did.
[25:50] See. So in Acts 1. When. Remember. Judas betrayed Jesus. So. We went from 12 to 11. So in Acts chapter 1. After the resurrection. The disciples get together.
[26:01] Or the apostles get together. Say. Hey. We're one short. How are we going to fill. How are we going to fill that gap? So. They read scripture. And they. They're. They're thinking.
[26:11] Okay. There's a few. They pick a few psalms. That. That seem to relate. To filling this office. So they draw lots. Which is. I think the only time lots are drawn.
[26:22] In the New Testament. But it was an Old Testament method. So that's just. They did what they. I don't know. What they did was wrong or right. But. Anyway. They came up. With two guidelines. Whoever they chose.
[26:33] Had to be somebody. One. That had been with Jesus. From the beginning. Right. So more than the 12. Had been with Jesus. All his ministry. Had seen him. Baptized. From his baptism.
[26:44] To his death. And resurrection. Had seen it all. That's one. The other one. They had to be. Again. Witnesses of the resurrection. So. They picked a guy.
[26:55] By the name of Matthias. Whom we never hear of. Again. After that. But that doesn't mean. He wasn't. Number 12. God seemed to pick number 12. Later. Right. God.
[27:05] By the name of. Saul. Who he renamed Paul. Right. Yeah. We know him as Paul. Right. Who was chosen. Who was appointed. Right. To. Your best life now.
[27:17] No. That's not what Paul got. Paul didn't get his best life. He got. No. I'm going to. Yeah. You're going to go through a lot of hard stuff. For me. Right. You will bring the light to the Gentiles. Etc. Etc. Etc.
[27:28] Paul did see the risen Christ. So. Apostles. So. We have the. Then. The. The. The original 12. Which then became the 11. And then. And then an add on. And then Paul.
[27:39] And then you have other guys that are called apostles. Like Barnabas. And James. The brother of Jesus. And then. In 1 Corinthians 15.
[27:49] It talks about. He appeared to Peter. Then to the 12. And then he appeared to Paul. And to James. The brother of Jesus. And then the other apostles.
[28:00] I'm like. Well. Who are the other apostles? He already said the 12. So. Seems like there was a. A bigger group of. These guys. So. Then. Who's the second group then?
[28:11] Prophets. So. Who are these prophets? Now. We already studied the gift of prophecy. What we determined was. The gift of prophecy is one that God still gives. I believe God still gives today. It's not a.
[28:22] Old Testament kind of prophet. Like. Thus saith the Lord. And giving new revelation. About truth. Uh. Because the gift of prophecy. Uh. Remember Romans 12 said.
[28:33] If your gift is prophecy. Then. You do it. According to the proportion of. The. Faith. In other words. What you prophesy. Must be. In line with.
[28:44] The faith. The things we believe already. You're not giving anything new. No new doctrine. No new. No. Uh. What you can give. What we saw in Acts. Was they gave.
[28:55] Things like warnings. They. They talked about. Paul would go. Right. To prison. They talked about a famine. That was coming. They set apart. Paul and Barnabas.
[29:05] For the ministry. Um. So they did. Practical things. What they seemed to reveal. Was. A practical application. Of the truth. That was already true.
[29:16] Okay. So they were prophetic. In that sense. Um. But there may be. A difference. Between. The very early. Prophets.
[29:27] As an office. Like. Apostles and prophets. And the gift of. Prophecy. Uh. That's hard. To determine. Uh. But as we look.
[29:37] At the next couple. References. These two terms. Are used. Together. Two other times. In the book of Ephesians. So back in chapter two. These two terms. Apostles and prophets. Are grouped.
[29:49] Together. In Ephesians 2. 20. Look. Let me read that. Ephesians 2. 19. So then you are no longer. Strangers and aliens. But you are fellow citizens.
[30:00] He's talking to Gentiles. Right? You are fellow citizens. With the saints. And members. Of the household. Of God. Built. On the foundation. Of the apostles.
[30:12] And prophets. There they are. They're foundational. They're built. The house of God. Is built on the foundation. Of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself. Being the cornerstone.
[30:23] In whom the whole structure. Being joined together. Grows into a holy temple. In the Lord. In him you also are. Being built together. Into a dwelling place. For God. By the spirit.
[30:33] So. Paul's giving a picture. Of the church. Like a body. Like a. Like a tower. Being built up. Or. He calls it a holy. He calls it a household. He calls it a. A building.
[30:43] He calls it a temple. So. He talks about a foundation. Of apostles and prophets. Which means. Their ground level people. Right. That's a foundation.
[30:55] And the reason we know. He means. Very foundation. Is because then he talks about. Jesus Christ himself. Being the. What? The cornerstone. The cornerstone. Isn't halfway up.
[31:06] The cornerstone. Is always at the bottom. The cornerstone. Determines everything else. Engineers. Right. You understand that. Right. You have. For the whole building. To be built right. So.
[31:16] The cornerstone. Is the corner. Determines this direction. Determines this direction. And it determines this direction. So. Everything built upon. That foundation. Must be in line with it. So.
[31:28] We know. If somebody. Is teaching. A Jesus. That is not in line. With Jesus himself. We know. They're off. Jesus' teaching and ministry. Determines everyone else.
[31:39] Who follows him. Who calls him by that name. Right. So. What we're learning. Is that these first two groups. Apostles and prophets. Are somehow foundational. They're the bottom level.
[31:50] They're the found. They're the basis. Everything else builds on them. So. It sounds like they're the very early ones. We're thinking of those apostles and prophets.
[32:01] During the first century. Could have been more than the twelve. Apostles. But still. Foundational people. And then he says this again. In chapter three of Ephesians. That they have a unique.
[32:14] They receive unique revelation. From God. Ephesians three. Four. Says. When you read this. You can perceive my insight. Into the mystery of Christ.
[32:26] Which was not made known. To the sons of men. And other generations. As it has now been revealed. To his. Here's these two groups again. To his holy apostles and prophets.
[32:38] By the spirit. What mystery is that? This mystery is that the Gentiles. Are fellow heirs. Members of the same body. Partakers of the promise.
[32:48] In Christ Jesus. Through the gospel. That's brand new revelation. That was not revealed in the Old Testament. There are obvious hints. That the Gentiles. Would be included.
[33:00] But it never said in the Old Testament. That the Gentiles. Would be on equal status. The Old Testament talked about. Yeah. Gentiles can come. They can come. But when they come to the temple.
[33:11] They can come where? Right? They better not cross this line. Right? There were lines in the. There were stay out. Stay alive signs. All over the temple. Right?
[33:21] You could come to here. And that's as far as you can come. Right? So when Christ. Built a new temple. It was. Didn't have those. Barriers and lines. Jew and Gentile.
[33:32] Could both come. Right to him. Right into the holy voice. Right? So. So that's brand new. And that's why. We saw it on. We see in Acts.
[33:42] Why the. The Jews had a hard time. With the Gentiles coming in. They go. No. No. They got to be more Jewish. If they're going to. You know. I got to get circumcised. I got to. You know. I got to do all this. All this stuff. And the apostles and prophets are going.
[33:55] No. No. No. They need to believe and repent. Yeah. Okay. And it show acts of repentance. We're. No circumcision. Nope.
[34:06] Mm-mm. Not going there. This is a different circumcision. Right? So. So the. The point is these apostles and prophets are grouped here in Ephesians that seems to show that they.
[34:20] They're unique. They're unique. They're unique. These two groups are unique. Uh. In terms of foundational. That they had received unique revelation. Not like the gift of prophecy where it's profNING.
[34:32] It's revelation about how to apply something. These guys were receiving new truth. That was not there before. Okay. So what difference does all this make?
[34:47] How do apostles and prophets still equip us today? It was their role to equip the saints, right? How do they equip us today? Any ideas?
[34:59] They're gone, right? Can they still equip us? Can they still feed us? Can they still teach us? There you go.
[35:10] Here they are. There's a whole bunch of them in here. In fact, to one of the criteria for any of the books of the New Testament to make it into the canon of the New Testament, in other words, the accepted, these are true, one of the criteria was it had to be attached to one of the original 12 apostles.
[35:33] I see books like Mark. Mark's not an apostle. Who is he connected to? Anyone know? Peter. Peter. Peter. He was clearly connected to Peter.
[35:44] How about Luke? We're going to start Luke in a couple of weeks. Luke's not an apostle. Luke kind of came on later. Who's Luke? Paul. Paul. Yeah. Well, and he's going to write his gospel saying, I interviewed this one.
[35:57] I interviewed, you know, I went to all the eyewitnesses to get all the facts right. So you have that kind of thing gone where they had to be attached to an apostle. The book of Hebrews.
[36:10] Who wrote that one? Paul. Paul. Oh, we got a Paul. All right. Anybody else got a Paul? Paul. A little too articulate for Paul.
[36:21] Not articulate. Not the wrong word. Eloquent. Paul did not write that eloquently. Barnabas is a good one. Because it's probably a Levite.
[36:32] Probably a... No way to prove that. But I'll lean on Barnabas. But he was attached to Paul. Clearly, whoever wrote Hebrews was attached to Paul.
[36:46] I mean, there's a lot of Paul influence in there. That's clear. So, okay. Okay. So, what Paul wrote to Timothy that the scriptures, that all scriptures God breathed, right?
[37:06] It's breathed out by God. It's the breath of God. And it has the purpose to teach us and equip us and make us adequate.
[37:19] That the man of God may be fully equipped. Anyone want some equipping? Anyone feel inadequate? Right?
[37:31] The scriptures will make you... Yeah, adequate. That's their... They breathe life into you. They equip you. And it's the pastor's job too.
[37:42] But these guys wrote so that you can breathe this in and become more adequate. Do you lack stability? What Ephesians 4 is talking about.
[37:55] You know, be built up. Becoming mature. No longer tossed to and fro. Need a little stability? That's what these are written for.
[38:07] So, after the apostles are gone, after the first century, what happens when these foundational members are gone? Who carries on the work of equipping the saints?
[38:18] Well, we see in this list, the evangelists and pastor teachers. Let me remind you of 1 Corinthians 12, 28, where God is talking about these gifts.
[38:30] And He said, God has appointed in the church first, apostles. Second, prophets. Third, teachers.
[38:42] And then He says, then the rest of the gifts. Then they're all added in after that. Apostles first. Second, prophets.
[38:52] So, obviously, apostles, Christ appointed apostles first. And then prophets came in. And then now we're on that third stage. Now we're in that teacher's realm. Those who build on that foundation.
[39:04] Who are those people? Verse 11 tells us those people are called evangelists and pastor teachers. So, these are the building gifts.
[39:15] Evangelists, pastor, teachers. Those who build upon. They continue to equip the saints. Building upon the foundation. Staying in line with the apostles and the prophets. Staying in line with Christ the cornerstone.
[39:27] And teaching those same truths and applying those same truths in this foolish method of preaching and teaching.
[39:41] So, who are the evangelists? What's an evangelist? We hear that term. We probably have different ideas pop into our head. There have been touring, traveling evangelists.
[39:53] And different people call themselves evangelists. What's an evangelist? So, break the word down. Okay? It's got the word angel in it. Take the EV off the front.
[40:05] You got angel, right? Angelist. Now, what's the EV on the front for? Well, if we go back to Greek, it should be an EU.
[40:16] What's EU? So, when you hear of a eulogy. E-U-L-O-G-Y. What's L-O-G-Y? What's logy? We got any linguists in here that like to break words?
[40:26] Logos. Logos. Logos. Word, right? Good. And then EU means good. So, you give a eulogy, give a good word. Right? So, we do a benediction at the end.
[40:40] We never call it a benediction. It's a bene-ediction. What's a diction? Word. And a bene is good. I think it's Latin, right?
[40:51] Benediction comes from Latin. So, I always say, let's close with a good word. So, an evangelist is a good message.
[41:03] Angel is a messenger. Right? So, a messenger. So, then a you messenger. A you angel, a good messenger. So, evangelist is a gospelizer.
[41:18] A good message is good news. Right? Gospel. So, an evangelist literally is a gospelizer. I don't know if that sounds good or not.
[41:31] I don't know. They preach the gospel. They explain the gospel. They are those people that go out to the unreached, to the unbelievers, to the unchurched.
[41:43] They're the people going out and preaching the gospel like Jesus did. These are the folks that pick up what Jesus was doing. And what the apostles did when Paul and Barnabas went out and planted churches, they're preaching the gospel to unbelievers, to unchurched people.
[41:58] They're planting churches. Evangelists are just like that. They're picking up that same thing. They're going out. They're preaching to the unbeliever. They're sharing the gospel.
[42:09] They're the missionaries. They're the pioneers. They're the church planners. They're preaching and proclaiming and explaining the gospel. They're explaining the gospel in terms of how is it good news?
[42:24] Why is it good news? How do you bring the gospel to people? How do you, what is the gospel? What do we, we give four names.
[42:34] We give four, right? We kind of outlined it in four so we get it all, four parts of it, right? God, man, Christ, Jesus, response or faith.
[42:46] Yeah. Right? So if you go out point blank to somebody and start, start with Jesus, are they going to get the gospel? You won't understand the gospel until you get to the man part and you don't understand the man part until you do the God part.
[43:02] I don't know who man is until I know who God is. Once I know who God is, God is holy, righteous and good. God is loving and forgiving and right. Right? He's, but most people focus on just parts of who God is.
[43:13] I like the, he's compassionate, loving, gracious, right? Forgiving. What am I missing? He's also just. He's also holy.
[43:24] Right? He's also righteous. So he's holy and righteous and then he's also forgiving and gracious. So how does that come together? When you got a man who is what?
[43:36] None of that. Right? Especially the holy just, you know, how does, how does God bring that together? See, that's the tension. And when you, when you look at how God described himself back in, in Exodus 34, remember Moses said, I want to see you, right?
[43:53] I want to see you. And God held his hand and came out and he proclaimed, he revealed himself by proclaiming his name, right? I am gracious and good, forgiving and compassionate and will not let go those who have broken, right?
[44:15] I forget the right word. It brings in his justice and holiness. So how does God bring that together? So you go from a God who's all of this to a man who's not.
[44:26] So man's in trouble. Okay. Okay. Now I see where I need some good news because all I got so far is bad news. And how does God resolve that? How does he bring that together? That's Jesus Christ.
[44:37] He sends his son down to, to bring the righteous and the forgiveness together in one who has died, who has done the holy part and fulfilled the law and now takes our place as a holy one, as a substitute for we who could not, right?
[44:58] He meets what we can't meet. He pays the debt we cannot pay. He did not have to. He did not. Why do we die? Wages of sin is death, right?
[45:12] We earn death. He didn't. He didn't earn death. He earned righteousness. He earned life everlasting. He laid that down for us.
[45:24] He paid our debt. That's how God resolved it. What do we do? What hoop do we jump through? How do I get a hold of that? I believe. That belief is a turning around kind of, it's not just a, oh, I like that idea.
[45:40] It's a, I'm all in. I'm all in. That means I turn from that life, not to earn anything. I turn that life because I want this whole life.
[45:52] And when he applies it to me by the Holy Spirit, he does, he changes me so that I want to do this. And I no longer want to do that, though I still fall.
[46:07] That's the gospel. That's what these guys do. But I want you to notice in verse 12 that the evangelists not only speak to believers, but they speak, I mean, speak to unbelievers, but they also speak to believers.
[46:19] Part of their role is not just that they go outside the church and tell unbelievers, but that they are also equipers of the church. I think that's one of the things the church is direly missing today.
[46:31] We're missing the evangelists that God has gifted to help the church know how to do evangelism. What do we do?
[46:41] What do churches typically do for evangelism? Donate money. Send somebody else. We support missions. Wonderful. Great. Of course that's great.
[46:53] But if we're going to evangelize, we have like a campaign or we have an event, right? And we share those four points. And so we've done the gospel, right? How do you do gospel?
[47:06] How do we reach our neighbors? How do we reach our family members? How do we reach the people we work with, right? How do we build that so evangelists?
[47:18] You know any evangelists? I mean, personally? How many people that you learn from? I think this is critical. If we're going to reach our community, we're going to reach, right?
[47:29] We don't just send people away. We need people to train us. That's what Jesus did. That's why those 12 had to be with Him to see how He did things. He went everywhere preaching the gospel, but He did a lot more.
[47:45] So I've known a few that I believe truly were gifted at this. My pastor that I grew up with, I heard an evangelistic message every Sunday. Got a little tired of it, but okay.
[47:58] But man, when he was out speaking to people, he could turn the conversation. It was incredible. I had a friend in seminary that could do that very same thing, Joel.
[48:12] There was someone who was a member of our church who was extremely gifted at evangelism. Wrote a book on it. Our men's group studied that book for a while. Best book I've ever read on evangelism.
[48:26] Wasn't a program. It's got that nice little tidy wrap-up bow and you got it. Remember Walt Lermore? Remember Walt?
[48:37] He's done a lot. He does a marriage seminar. He does a wonderful book on marriage as well. His Brain, Her Brain. But he wrote a book. It's been called a couple of different...
[48:48] I think now it's called Going Public With Your Faith. I think that's what it's called now. He used to do it just as a seminar all over the United States teaching other medical... Walt's a doctor.
[48:59] He would teach other medical professionals how to share their faith as they did their work. How to integrate that into what they did. So then he built it into a course for anyone because we're kind of like, hey, Walt, how about for the rest of us, right?
[49:12] And it's wonderful. It's not easy. It's about investing in people. How do you get to the point where you can share that Christ part of the gospel?
[49:25] Because people tend to be stuck with the God part. A lot of people have problems with God. So they can't get to the Christ part until you start to resolve that.
[49:37] And of course they got man, you know. That means breaking down those barriers with folks. You need evangelists for that.
[49:51] And I'm wondering, because it says Christ gives them to the church. I'm wondering if we have some quiet evangelists among us.
[50:05] Let the Lord do what He was with that. So what's that look like? So we had a couple examples in Acts of Philip. Philip was called an evangelist. Okay? So he was one of these guys. And so in chapter 8 of Acts, we have a couple of examples of what he did.
[50:19] What did that look like? What did that involve? So Acts 8, 12. When they believed Philip, as he preached the good news, as he evangelized, as he gospelized, about what?
[50:34] What does it mean that he preached good news? He preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. So there's the message of the gospel. It's not just Jesus.
[50:47] It's there's a whole kingdom aspect to it. What's that? That's all of Jesus' teaching in the gospels. That's quite a bit of explaining to do, isn't it?
[50:57] And then a little bit later, remember, he got teleported. Remember, this is the first, I don't know if there's more teleports in the Bible, but he suddenly disappeared and then he appeared.
[51:08] Remember in Acts 8? You ever read that? It's there. Apparently he's an illusionist. He appeared. He appeared. All of a sudden he's on the road where there's this Ethiopian who's traveling in a chariot back to his town and he's reading.
[51:25] He has a scroll of Isaiah. So this guy had to be somebody to have a scroll of Isaiah that not everybody had those. He's reading the scroll of Isaiah and Philip comes up along the chariot and he can hear him reading it.
[51:41] He says, hey, do you understand what you're reading? And the Ethiopian says, how am I going to understand unless somebody explains it to me? So Philip hops up on the chariot and beginning with that scripture, he preached Jesus to him.
[51:56] Isaiah 53, you think that'd be a good launching point? Right? Wow, that's the heart of what Jesus did, redemption. So that's evangelism.
[52:07] They're explaining the gospel. They're explaining the good news, how it's good, why it's good. Now we get to the last gift called pastors and teachers.
[52:19] So pastors, what's a pastor? If you took a survey of a regular congregation, you get all kinds of responses of what a pastor is. Right? Oh, he works one day a week. You know, he's supposed to do this, supposed to do that.
[52:34] Lots of interesting ideas. What is a pastor? Well, pastor simply means shepherd. He's a sheep herder. That helps, right? What does a sheep herder do?
[52:45] Well, so, so y'all know, y'all, here I go again. Y'all know Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. Okay. Here's an example of a shepherd.
[52:55] Psalm 23. What is Jesus? What is the Lord is my shepherd do? Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He, he makes me, makes me lie down.
[53:08] Where? Green pastures. Why green pastures? You don't find those in California, by the way. They're all golden. I'm sorry. Green pastures.
[53:18] Why, why do I lie down in green pastures? Does sheep lie down? Yeah, obviously. When? When they're full. When they're full. And then he leads me beside quiet waters, still waters, because sheep won't eat from rushing water.
[53:36] Eat, drink, okay, whatever. Right? What does he do? So what does the shepherd do? He makes me lie down in green pastures. He feeds me. He makes, he, he, he, he, he, he, he leads me beside quiet waters so I can drink and be fulfilled.
[53:49] And what else does he do? He restores my soul. Ooh. That's a biggie. And he leads me in paths of righteousness. He even takes me into the valley of the shadow of death.
[54:03] Right? He has a rod and a staff. What's that about? What's, what's, what's, what's the staff for? It's got the hook, right? So when I go astray, right? Or if I'm not moving, the other end is a prod and long.
[54:15] What's the rod for? Is that for the, is he going to beat the sheep? That's for defense. That's for the wolf. Yeah. Right? Like it's a little one.
[54:27] Or if you're David, just do slinging a stone. That's, you know, you don't have to get as close that way. So shepherd, Jesus talked about a good shepherd. Right? I am the good shepherd.
[54:38] What does the good shepherd do? He lays down his life for his sheep. Right? The sheep know my voice. They listen to me. They don't listen to anyone else. They listen to me. They know my voice. They listen to me. My voice is distinctive.
[54:49] The other ones are hirelings. They come in. You know, there's those temporary pastors that come in. Right? And when trouble comes, they leave.
[55:01] Jesus says, I don't do that. I'm the good shepherd. I don't leave when my sheep are in trouble. I protect the sheep. I lay down my life for those sheep. And I said, that's the idea of a shepherd.
[55:15] And then this gift is dual. They're shepherding and teachers. So in terms of interpretation or translation, it should probably read like this.
[55:27] He gave some as evangelists and some as shepherds, indeed, teachers. Or shepherds who are teachers. Or shepherds that is teachers.
[55:41] So a little connective word in Greek can be used differently like that, depending on the context. And this appears to be that kind of context. So there are pastors who are teachers.
[55:52] Sometimes we call ourselves teaching pastors. Or pastor teachers kind of idea. And teaching is from the word didascolo.
[56:05] And so it implies the idea of a didactic kind of teaching that's orderly, systematic instruction. And obviously, verse 12, their role is to equip the saints.
[56:16] Right? So they unpack, interpret, explain, and apply the scriptures. 1 Timothy 3 talks about elders. And one of the requirements for an elder is that they be able to teach.
[56:27] That's the distinction between an elder and a deacon, by the way. Elders and deacons both must be above reproach. They both must be people of quality and maturity.
[56:38] The difference with an elder is they must be able to teach. Doesn't mean deacons can't teach, but elders must be able to teach. Then in 1 Timothy 5, 17, it's interesting.
[56:52] So Paul is teaching Timothy to take some of the elders who do well at eldering and set them apart for full time.
[57:09] He says take some who are worthy of double honor. So that means the first honor is a character honor. Honor those who lead.
[57:20] The second honor is pay them. And we know that because the next verse he's quoting Jesus who says, you know, the labor is worthy of his wages. When Jesus was talking about going out and preaching, he said don't take any money with you.
[57:32] They need to supply for you. Your preaching earns, you should earn a living from your preaching. Right? So in 1 Timothy 5, when he says set apart elders who are worthy of double honor, he says, but especially set apart those gifted in preaching and teaching.
[57:53] If you have a choice, those first. So there are obviously other elders that aren't as gifted in teaching and preaching. Maybe they're really good at leading and organizing that kind of thing.
[58:05] But if you had to choose, if you can only afford one, you get a preacher teacher. Because the flock must be fed. The flock must be fed.
[58:19] Okay. Otherwise they die. Otherwise they look for other things to feed on. If you don't, give them a healthy diet of truth.
[58:33] Right? So the Bible talks about pastors who are also called elders, who are also called overseers.
[58:44] Did you know that? Did you know that elders are also pastors? How come we don't call Mark pastor? Or Rick? I know they don't like that.
[58:58] Well, I don't know if they don't. I know Rick was kind of adverse to that. He's not giving me anything. He's just staring at me. He's not going anywhere with that.
[59:10] Unworthy. Oh, I'm all over that. Yeah, I need some other unworthies with me to take the title. Okay. Elder is the office.
[59:21] Pastor is the role. Overseer is the function. Okay. So in 1 Peter 5, he uses these three terms together.
[59:32] 1 Peter 5, he says, I exhort the elders. The Greek word is presbyteros. Get any English out of that? Presbyteros. Is there a denomination that's a presbyteros? Presbyterian.
[59:43] Oh, that's where that word comes. They function, or they think about eldership. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness, as a fellow Presbyterian and witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker of the glory that's going to be revealed.
[60:00] Elders, there's your job. Here's your role. Shepherd the flock. Pastor the flock of God that is among you. How? By exercising oversight.
[60:11] The word oversight is episkopos. Episcopos. There's another denomination called episkoposkalans. Episcopalians. Right?
[60:22] All right? That just means oversees. Skopos. Right? To scope. To see. Epi. Over. Overseer. So how do you shepherd? By overseeing, watching over the flock.
[60:32] How do you do that? Not under compulsion, but willingly. In other words, you're called. You must be called. Let's not be a have to.
[60:43] Well, I got to go back on that. Not because you're forced into it, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain.
[60:54] In other words, pastoring is not about a career. It's not for gain. It's not about finance. It's not about making ends meet. It's not about a job. It's a call. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly.
[61:07] Not domineering over those in charge. So don't be a, don't have spiritual abuse going on here. Not domineering, not forcing people, but being examples. Lead people, not push people.
[61:19] Being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd, who's the chief shepherd? Who's the real shepherd? That's our Lord Jesus. When he appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
[61:34] So that's, that's how and why pastors shepherd. If you want to know what, what's a pastor, what's a pastor supposed to be doing? Shepherding. What's the primary role of a shepherd? Think about a shepherd with real sheep.
[61:47] He's, what does he do every day? Right? He, he, he, he shepherds, right? What does that mean? What does that look like? Huh? Leads them out.
[61:57] Leads them out to where? Pastures. Pastures. I got to feed them again today. Tomorrow. Guess what? I got to, I got to feed them again. I got to get them to a new pasture.
[62:07] I got to take them to another pasture. And I got to find some quiet water. So they, if I can't find it, I'll bring it to them. Every day, primary thing I'm doing every day is feed them.
[62:18] Feed them. Feed them. Feed them. Now they get in trouble. Okay. Take care. Obviously care. I'm watching out. I'm watching over. Wolf comes.
[62:29] But what's the primary thing I'm doing all the time as a shepherd? I'm leading them and making them lay down in great pastures because they've been well fed.
[62:42] And I'm going to lead them on the right path to the next pasture. Right? So, Jeremiah. Jeremiah 3. God says this.
[62:53] He's talking to Israel. He's talking about the things to come. Right? Jeremiah is kind of that transition. One of those transitional prophets between old and new. In fact, Jeremiah is the one that's going to mention the new covenant.
[63:05] So, preparing the people for what's new. So, God says, return, O faithful children, declares the Lord. For I am your master. I will take you. One from a city and two from a family.
[63:17] And I'll bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds after my own heart. Who will, what? Feed you. Feed you.
[63:29] With knowledge and understanding. That's what the shepherd will do. Not their own knowledge. Not the knowledge of the world.
[63:41] Not the wisdom of the world. Not how to do things to fix this problem. They will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Being that is of the ways of the Lord.
[63:53] Not man's ways. Right? So, what difference does all this make? So, for some of you are going, okay. God, I'm not called. Right?
[64:05] What's the application here? Well, it's not necessarily something to do. But first of all, it's something to understand. It's important to understand the role of an evangelist, pastor, teacher. They're equippers.
[64:16] They're trainers. They're teachers. They don't do all the ministries. If they did, they'd fail and burn out. That's probably why a lot of pastors don't stay long. They're only part of the body. They're an important part of the body to equip the body, to be the body.
[64:30] Right? But I also want to apply this in another sense as I handed at the beginning. It may be that God will or is calling some of you to ministry.
[64:46] What does that mean? There's a sense. It's a burden. There's a burden for people. A burden for the flock.
[64:57] A burden for the lost. A very relentless burden. I think we all as Christians have that burden. But a calling is like, this is on me all the time.
[65:14] It's a deep sense of duty that God has given. That I'm given for this. It's not a job at all.
[65:26] It's a calling. It's a mission. In fact, there's a sense where I can't do anything else. A deep conviction that I'm summoned.
[65:40] I kind of like that word a little better than called. It has a little... You ever get a summons? Right? Can you ignore it? Can you just... Okay, I'm just not going to pay attention to that.
[65:51] It comes back, doesn't it? What if this is a summons from God? I can't dismiss it. Maybe.
[66:05] That you're set apart. That you are given to the body. I don't know. But I want you to ask the Lord. Some of you are like, I'm already doing this.
[66:16] I got this. I got this plan. God changes things, doesn't he? I never planned to go to Illinois. It wasn't in my bucket.
[66:32] Didn't have goals to come to Colorado either. I'm really glad I came to Colorado. I'm really glad I didn't go back to California. But that's a whole other thing. So, has God given you to his church?
[66:51] Are you burdened for the flocked? If you sense this at all, seek him. And if not, please pray for those who are given to the church.
[67:05] That they would be faithful. That they would be enabled by God. That they would be protected. That they would not give in to the trials and temptations that can overwhelm.
[67:22] Pray for them. And pray for our church. Pray that God would reveal or raise up the evangelist among us.
[67:35] To equip us better at reaching our neighbors. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your teaching.
[67:47] For your design. Father, we would probably, if you left it to us, we'd probably think of another way to do church. We'd think of something that's more pragmatic.
[68:01] Something that's more effective by man's eyes. That makes it look outwardly, at least, like we're successful.
[68:12] But Father, we, we, that's not our goal. Our goal is to be faithful to you. Our goal is primarily that you would be honored.
[68:22] And we want growth that's truly God-given and spirit-led. And so help us to be faithful in that.
[68:35] Lord, we confess, we, we often look to the easy way. We, Lord, want to or get quicker relief. And, but we thank you that you continue to bring us back to your word.
[68:49] And that your word feeds us. Your word nourishes us. Your word makes us adequate. Your word restores our soul. Your, your word builds us.
[69:00] And enables us. To be fruitful with others. So bless this, Lord, we pray.
[69:12] Reveal or, or, or raise up an evangelist among us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.