THIS IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES ON THE GIFT OF PROPHECY
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“ …for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.”
Here are the various workings given to those in whom these graces have centralized:
Equip the saints – equipping for the work of fulfilling the commands and direction of leadership.
Edify the body of Christ – to edify is to build up the whole body, the result being a great level of authority.
Come to the unity of faith – oneness, we are one body, Christ takes a pre-eminent seat in our lives.
Knowledge of the Son of God – epignosis (G1922) – precise and correct knowledge, the knowledge that rests upon. What we see we become, what we know we can model. This ought to promote humility and tenderness.
Perfect men – complete and finished, this is accomplished within Christ by reconciling hearts to the Father.
The stature of the fullness of Christ – maturity, what Christ looked like when he walked the earth.
What exactly are the five graces afforded to us by Christ’s ascension? Here they are listed:
Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
A helpful way to rephrase this verse in the context of what has come before would be to say it like this:
He gave some people grace to be apostolic, some people grace to be prophetic, some people grace to be evangelistic, and some people grace to pastor and teach. There are four graces metered out as a result of Christ’s gift. The last, pastors and teachers are to be summed up in the same category of grace.
Let’s break down each one of these graces…
Apostolic Grace
(Paul - 1 Corinthians 1:1, Junia – Romans 16:7, Peter – Matthew 10:2)
The Greek word is apostolos (G652) and literally means “one sent, an ambassador.” (Strongs) The apostolic grace is given to the church to establish the kingdom of God in her midst. The early bishops of the church were seen as apostles. Polycarp, a disciple of the apostle John, was called as such:
“Of the elect was he indeed one, this most wonderful Polycarp-a man who in our times showed himself an apostolic and prophetic teacher and bishop of the catholic church in Smyrna. For every word that he uttered was fulfilled and will be fulfilled.”
The apostolic grace was one of governance, establishing, and building. Paul makes a distinction between the broader application of the apostolic grace and those who are the “eminent apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:5). The eminent apostles were simply known as the apostles that walked with Jesus, they were the first established apostles. It was not an issue of importance, it was simply that they walked directly with Christ. Of that class, we will never have another.
An early church document, called the Didache, taught on how an apostle should be received:
“Every apostle who comes to you should be received as the Lord. But he should not remain more than one day, and if there is some necessity a second as well; but if he should remain for three, he is a false prophet. And when the apostle departs, he should receive nothing but bread until he finds his next lodging. But if he requests money, he is a false prophet.”
His primary concern should be the function laid out in Ephesians 4, not making money off the people. If he stayed for more than a day or two it typically meant that he was more interested in the financial gain afforded to his service than the service itself. This would have been juxtaposed with the teaching philosophers of the day that would come to a city, make converts to their system of thought and garner support amongst the people for their lifestyle. The Didache pointedly calls out the practice and says that it should not be true of the Christian community.
Today we may pay someone a salary for the work that they do rather than provide a loaf of bread. Regardless, they should not regard their work as primarily done for monetary compensation. Their allegiance is to Christ and His kingdom, not the acquisition of wealth.
Prophetic Grace
(Agabus – Acts 11:27-28, Philips daughters – Acts 21:8-9, Anna – Luke 2:36)
The Greek word prophetes (G4396) means one who, moved by the spirit of God and hence his organ or spokesman, solemnly declares to men what he has received by inspiration, especially concerning future events, and in particular such as relate to the cause and kingdom of God and to human salvation. (Strongs) That prophets were alive and well in the early church is evident by many documents. Here is one 4th century reference to the ongoing prophetic grace in operation in the church:
“The name prophets is given to those who, having received the Spirit of God, spoke beforehand of Christ and his advent. These were the prophets who “were until Christ.” [Cf. Mat_11:13.] But after he arrived, was there no reason for any further prophecy? What prophets does Paul speak of here? It is obviously those who being full of the Spirit spoke of God after his coming, continuing to expound the divine teaching.”
Abraham Heschel, in his analysis of the prophet in scripture shares helpful insight into the life and work of a prophet:
“An analysis of prophetic utterances shows that the fundamental experience of the prophet is a fellowship with the feelings of God, a sympathy with the divine pathos, a communion with the divine consciousness which comes about through the prophet’s reflection of, or participation in, the divine pathos. The typical prophetic state of mind is one of being taken up into the heart of the divine pathos.”
That prophets were to be known by their fruit is made clear by the Didache:
“And you must neither make trial of nor pass judgment on any prophet who speaks forth in the spirit. For every (other) sin will be forgiven, but this sin will not be forgiven. And not everyone who speaks forth in the spirit is a prophet, but only if he has the kind of behavior which the Lord approves. From his behavior, then, will the false prophet and the true prophet be known.”
There were not so much judged by the quality of their teaching and prophetic utterances (that was obvious), but by their fruit. Why the need to point this out? Because people tend to become enamored with a gift. The early church taught that the prophet was to be known by their fruit.
Evangelistic Grace
(Philip – Acts 21, Priscilla and Aquila – Acts 18:18)
The Greek word is euaggelistes (G2099) and means a bringer of good tidings, an evangelist (Strongs). We see this directly in Philip when he expounds on the nature of the suffering servant to the Ethiopian Eunuch. Philip shows him that this passage was directly fulfilled in the person of Christ.
“This means to relate what Christ did and announce that Christ himself is to be worshipped.”
The evangelist is intensely concerned for the salvation of a person, the clear declaration of the good news of the coming of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. This person could be seen ministering in a neighborhood, city, regionally, nationally, or internationally. Paul operated in an evangelistic grace when he went on many of his missionary trips.
In the 20th century, the evangelist became synonymous with a person whose primary focus was leading people in the sinner’s prayer. While this is an element of the evangelist, it is not the entirety of his or her purview. Paul is seen in Acts 17 in the role of the evangelist reasoning with the Jews from scripture and also with the Greeks, reasoning with them through their philosophy:
Acts 17:2-4 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.
Acts 17:19-22 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore, we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious…
John Chrysostom defined the evangelist of Ephesians 4 as proclaimers of the gospel in a smaller region: “Third, evangelists: those who did not travel everywhere but merely preached the gospel, like Priscilla and Aquila.”
Philip is the only man called an evangelist specifically:
Acts 21:8 On the next day we who were Paul’s companions departed and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.
And he wasn’t merely known for his eloquence with persuasive words, but in his teaching and his service. In the wake of the first church controversy where Jewish widows were favored over Gentile widows, Philip was one of seven men chosen by the church to oversee the distribution of food to those in need:
Acts 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.
Philip brought those who he preached to into an awareness that Christ had come and what Christ accomplished:
Acts 8:34-35 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
His words were generally accompanied by miracles:
Acts 8:5-7 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.
Philip’s focus was displaying the power of God and bringing people into an awareness of God revealed through Christ. In this way, he can function as the template for us to see the grace of an evangelist on display.
Pastoral Grace
(Elect lady of 2 John, Philemon and Apphia – Philemon 1:1)
The Greek word for pastor is poimen (G4166) and means a herdsman or a shepherd (Strongs). The pastor or shepherd cares for the needs of the flock in the church of God. An instructive example is found in the correction of Peter by Christ:
John 21:15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”
Peter was told that if he loved Christ, he would be concerned for the people given to him. The one responsible for feeding the lambs is a shepherd (pastor). A shepherd is concerned about the well-being of the lambs of God, those who have committed their life to Christ. The cry of Christ when he sees the people lacking leadership shows us another layer of the heart of a shepherd:
Matthew 9:36-38 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
The people needed to know they were cared for and had to be given hope that something more was there for them.
“It is not to be supposed that as with the first three … he has allotted different offices to shepherds and teachers. For he does not say ‘some shepherds, some teachers’ but ‘some shepherds and teachers,’ meaning that he who is a shepherd should at the same time be a teacher. No one in the church, even a saintly person, should take to himself the name of shepherd unless he can teach those whom he feeds.”
As Jerome has pointed out, the pastor and teacher can have great overlap. When looking at the actual sentence, the word for pastor and the word for teacher is not written as two separate words, but in fact, could be thought of as hyphenated. The word for “and” between pastor and teacher is a different Greek word than the “and” previously in the verse. Thus the 5-fold ministry distinction could be thought of as 4-fold, or maybe 4½-fold. In the structure of Paul’s thought, the pastor and teacher share the same or at least a similar grace. Both the pastor and teacher are predisposed to be concerned for the needs of the flock.
Teaching grace
(Mary – Luke 10:38-42, Simeon – Acts 13:1, Priscilla – Acts 18:24-26)
The Greek word for teacher is didaskalos (G1320) In the New Testament the teacher is one who teaches concerning the things of God, and the duties of man (Strongs)
“And every true prophet who wishes to settle among you deserves his food. Similarly, a true teacher also deserves, like the laborer, his food. Take, therefore, every first fruit-of the produce of wine press and threshing floor, and of cattle and sheep-and give it to the prophets. For they are your high priests.”
The Teacher was put into the same category as the Prophet, especially as they are both concerned with accurately representing the heart of God.
The expectation in the early church that anyone concerned with teaching people about the kingdom of God would not be invested in the vocation for the hope of monetary gain. However, those who had dedicated their lives to teaching others deserved to have their needs take care of.
The role of a teacher is given weighty consideration by James:
James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
A teacher is responsible for shaping how people think. It is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. Some, when they speak of the Ephesians 4 passage, tend to relegate the teacher to the lesser role. Those then elevate the apostle and the prophet to the pre-eminent place. But each grace is afforded in order to serve, and the teacher is shown to be incredibly important. How we think about God will determine how we live our Christian life. The teacher is given a tremendous responsibility to shape and cultivate how we think about scripture, life, the Kingdom, and Christ.
Paul considered the grace that he had been afforded towards the gentiles was that of teaching:
I Timothy 2:7 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying— a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
These graces were not exclusive and were not only given one at a time. Paul is at times referred to as a prophet, teacher, or apostle (Acts 13:1, Acts 14:14) at different stages in his life and dependent upon the need in the moment.
The definition of each grace in your life is fluid.
What is the call of God at the moment and who has he equipped you to impact? These questions will go a long way in determining how God has gifted you to function. And, by the way, if you never claimed a single one of these graces as particular to yourself, that would not deny its presence in your life. God gives grace to affect our service. We do not identify our individual grace so that it can flourish. It is entirely dependent on God, not on our own understanding.
“When we take on a title, we soon think we are entitled to something.”
We should rightly question anyone who clings to a particular title. In all of these passages regarding gifts and service, the point was never to identify authority or leadership structure. It is simply to point out the ways in which God has given himself to the church in order to affect our service. Your life is your qualification to lead, not your gift. Your gift is your qualification for the community. The gift God has given you is your entrance to service.
“Sometimes when the church debates the nature of different offices and ministries, you get the impression that these things exist for their own sake, as though the main point of there being a church in the first place was that certain people would be ‘special’ within it. The opposite is the case. The main point of certain people having special roles is so that every single Christian, and the church as a whole, may be equipped for their work of service. Make no mistake. Verse 12 indicates clearly that the point of God calling people to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers is so that every Christian can serve in the way they are called to do, for the building up of the whole body.”
Many times throughout the Old Testament we see prophetic words bringing significant blessing and prosperity. Take for instance the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah:
Ezra 6:14 So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built…