Gifted, Equipped, Unified
Anytime you want to get a project done, you have to figure out what tools you’re going to need for the job.
Gardening, you might need a shovel, a hoe, a tiller.
Building a house: wood, nails, nailers, saws, concrete tools.
Painting: brushes, pans, drop cloths, tape.
Every project calls for tools to get it done, even if it is just our hands.
God has a project going on, called the church.
He’s in the process of building it up, person by person, into a house for God.
Not a physical house like a building, but in houses of people.
He has designed tools for the job. These tools are in the form of people.
We can start our understanding of these people tools in Eph. 4.
I. The Origin of Gifts. 4:7-10
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A. Time. 7-10
1. In order to understand the tools that Christ has designed for the building of the church, we have to go back to his death and resurrection.
a. We know the facts: that he died on the cross, was placed in the tomb secured by Joseph of Arimathea, and on the morning of the third day rose again.
b. That is what the witnesses saw with their eyes.
c. But Paul tells us more about what happened when he rose up from the dead and went back to heaven.
i. v. 8 is a quote of various bits of Ps. 68, saying that he led captive a host of captives.
ii. Since we have to keep moving, we will not stay here and look at it in detail.
iii. So here’s the bottom line:
(a) When Jesus died and was laid in the grave, he descended into the earth.
(b) When he rose and went to heaven to be with the Father again, he ascended on high.
© When he did that, he redeemed a group of people who had been held captive to sin, and now they are claimed by him.
d. All of this is done by Christ himself, referred to as he or himself 9 times in 4 verses.
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i. He didn’t need the help of men to bring him back to life.
ii. Instead, he did it himself, going far beyond the heavens, so that he might fill all things. In short, he went and took his throne in authority over the entire universe, and took a bunch of people with him.
B. Source. 7-10
1. So we have the timing of the gifting of men: he gave gifts to men when he ascended and reclaimed his throne in heaven.
2. Before we go on, we need to discuss what a spiritual gift is.
a. It is an ability that is given to us by the Holy Spirit, an ability given to us so that we can serve and strengthen the whole church body.
b. It may have something to do with a natural talent, but in most cases it may not.
c. For instance, a guy might be a mechanic in real life, but his gift might be administration in serving the body.
d. Or a person might be a businessman in the world, but in the church body he could have the gift of helps, serving others by doing things with his hands.
e. You probably have a gift if God has put something in your heart to do something, if
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you love to do something specific, and if people ask you to do it.
2. So we see here that he is the source of the gifts in the church. Let’s make some observations:
a. First, see in v. 7 that each one of us is given grace.
i. This is important to understand; the church does not just have a few people who are gifted.
ii. This is also discussed in 1 Cor. 12, which we will get to eventually.
iii. We have a tendency to say we don’t have the people skills or the teaching skills of people, so we’re not gifted.
iv. Each one of us given grace.
b. Second, see that this grace is according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
i. That is, each believer is given a measure, or portion, of giftedness from Christ.
ii. God is the one who decides who gets the gifts, but we also have the ability to acquire gifts and to sharpen what we have.
c. And he gives gifts for a purpose. Next few verses.
II. The Equipping Gifts. 4:11-12
A. Gifted People. 11
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1. In v. 11, Jesus deliberately gives 4 people as gifts to the church. Let’s look at them one at a time.
2. First, he gives apostles.
a. The word is apostolos, which means somebody who is sent to go do or say something.
b. Jesus chose 12 of them.
i. One of them went down in flames, as an unbeliever.
ii. That left 11.
iii. They chose a guy to replace him, making 12 again. Paul made 13.
iv. The first to die among them was James, the brother of John, who was executed by Herod.
v. They didn’t replace him, nor is there any indication that they replaced any other apostle upon their death.
c. The apostles, according to Eph. 2:20, make up the foundation of the church. You only need to put down one foundation.
d. The apostles preached the gospel, led people to faith in Christ, taught doctrine to the new believers, and went out to start new churches.
e. Apostles are a gift from Christ to the church.
3. Second, he gives prophets as gifts to the church.
a. The word is prophetas.
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b. We think of prophets as telling the future. That is only a fraction of their ministry.
c. The prophetic ministry is also just to tell people the word of God.
d. According to 1 Cor. 11, it was a ministry that both men and women could do, though women were supposed to keep silence in the gatherings of the people. So if they did prophesy, it was apparently in a context outside of the gathering.
e. The writing down of the scripture gave the people the written word of God, so prophecy as a spiritual gift purely born along by the Spirit receded in its use.
f. Notice that the word prophets is plural. There were more than one, and there are none listed or mentioned as the president of the worldwide church.
g. If you’re thinking that there was just one prophet who ran the entire New Testament church, there is no evidence to suggest it.
h. Having said that, the word prophets is a good word.
4. Third, Jesus gave evangelists to the church.
a. The word means good message.
b. The evangelist is someone who tells the good news of the gospel.
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c. In our western culture we have defined the word narrowly to describe a guy who has mass crusades like Billy Graham. The phenomenon of mass crusades is actually more of a recent thing.
d. Evangelists, or tellers of good news, are just people who have the God-given ability and desire to share the word with people. Sometimes it’s with lots of people, but more often with just one person at a time.
e. For your reading I recommend John Bunyan’s book The Pilgrim’s Progress, in which the man evangelist plays a major part in the salvation and sanctification of the Christian in the story.
f. We came to faith in Christ through the telling of the word of God, most likely from the mouth of a believer. Such a person was an evangelist. But here, they are called gifts from Jesus.
5. Fourth, Pastor teachers are gifts from Jesus.
a. The last two roles are actually better combined than separate from each other.
b. The word pastor is poimenas, which means shepherd.
i. In our thinking we assign the term to someone who is the teacher/leader in the local church.
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ii. While it is okay to use the word that way, that isn’t the exclusive way that the word can be applied. It is a word that generally means someone who feeds and cares for the sheep.
iii. The word poimene actually should say something about the function of the person rather than the title of the person.
(a) Looking out for the needs of the people.
(b) Keeping the people out of danger.
© Feeding the people.
(d) Providing a vision for where the flock ought to be headed to align itself with the design of God.
c. The word teacher means to teach information or facts.
i. It is not limited to facts, though.
ii. It can be counsel, advice, wisdom, rebuke, exhortation, admonition.
iii. The teacher is required to teach the entirety of the word of God, doctrine, prophecy, gospel, practical advice, everything.
d. While it may not be obvious to the people in the church that these people are gifts from Christ, they are nonetheless, because they have a function in the body.
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B. The Function of the Gifts. 12
1. Now we come to a part of scripture that might come as a surprise if you’ve not seen this before.
2. The function of the 4 gifts in v. 11 is one word: equipping.
a. The word means to fully outfit, to perfect, to bring to completion.
b. It’s like outfitting a mountain climber.
i. Ropes.
ii. Crampons.
iii. Spiky shoes.
iv. Tent.
v. Food.
vi. Cookstove, etc.
c. The gifted leaders mentioned are to be very purposefully about the business of outfitting the people.
3. And exactly what is it that the people are being outfitted for? The work of the ministry.
a. Exactly. The people of God are the ones who are designed by God to do the work of the ministry.
b. We think that it is the preacher’s job to do all of the work while the people watch, but that is not the design at all.
c. The words work of service is ergon diakonos.
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i. We get our word ergonomic from the first word, as in being useful, or efficient in working.
ii. The word diakonos is the same as the word deacon, an office in the church. It means slave, or servant.
4. So the gifted leaders are to be about the business of getting the people ready to do the work, and notice what the people are supposed to be doing in their work of ministry.
a. The people of God are supposed to be building up the body of Christ.
b. Literally, making it bigger and better, continuously, ongoing, never quitting the process.
c. The building up process includes adding wisdom among the people, confronting sin, counseling, doing physical work for people, teaching, worshiping, spending time together, and 1000 other things.
So here’s the deal.
We need to be expecting some things out of each other in our church body, and we need to be expecting things out of ourselves in the church body.
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First, you should be expecting your pastor and leadership team to be equipping you for the work of the ministry. You should expect out of me, us, and the next pastors who come along to be about the business of getting you ready to do the work.
It should be up to the leadership in a church to help the people to ascertain their spiritual gifts, train to be ready to use them, and then to encourage the people to go after it.
Second, you should be expecting yourself to be getting equipped for the work of the ministry. In short, there must be a change of thinking from being the spectator of an event to a player getting ready to go onto the field of play.
If you have not figured out where you fit in doing the work of ministry, then I urge you to know that right away and get going in outfitting yourself for the work.
Third, all of us as a body should be expecting of ourselves to be actively doing the work of the ministry, building up the body of Christ.
Our thinking is that if we attend church and put our body in a chair and sing the songs and listen, we have done what scripture requires of us.
Scrap that thinking.
Attendance in itself just gets our bodies in the building, where we are supposed to be, so that we can be about the business of prepping to serve the people of God and to be doing that work.
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Some of us will be doing the work of building up the body on Sunday. But there are 6 other days to also do the work, and the greater part of that ministry can and should be done during the 6 days that aren’t Sunday.
We have done what scripture requires of us when all of us have an active hand in the work of the ministry, being diligent to guard the unity of the Spirit, and building up the body of Christ.
Each of us is going to do that in our own individual way, but we are all doing it for the whole body.
I’ve been really struck by this passage, that I need to be an equipper.
I have always known that this verse is here and what it says, but I understood it to mean that I was supposed to be equipping the men for leadership.
That is true, but that is too narrow. This verse is for all of the people in the church body.
So from now on, I am committing to equipping the people, in any way I can. I will take it upon myself to get you ready to work. I hope that I can remember that this commitment is for the rest of my life.
I will assume, in light of that, that you will be joining me in obeying v. 12 also. That you will take it upon yourself to be equipped so that you will do the work of the ministry.
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I’m excited. Over 80 people doing the work of the ministry. Our work in the years ahead will be so much more effective, with so many hands helping.
You are here to obey v. 12, aren’t you?
Great, then let’s get to it.
