~5 min read
Ps Paul Cheng
Ephesians 4:11-13
“…preaching and teaching the Word of God…”
Dear Bethelites,
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).
In every church, we have pastors, teachers and full-time workers whom God has called into the ministry to serve in the areas of preaching and teaching the Word of God. But generally how do people perceive the work of the ministry and such men whom God has called?
- Some people think that the work of the ministry is to be done only by those who are paid to do so, and the duty of the normal member of the church is simply to support those full-time workers financially.
- Others think that pastors and preachers are just employees tasked to labour in the church and members are the employers. Surely nobody in the church would dare say he or she is the employer, but through their actions, some do behave as such. If the members are unhappy with the pastors for whatever reasons and they wish to dismiss them, they simply do it by way of voting them out of service.
- There are yet others who have this attitude to just sit back and let the pastors and full-time workers to do the work. One pastor was asked, “What does the ordinary church member want?” And he answered, “The ordinary church member wants the building to look like a church, the pastor to dress in a way he approves and service the kind of things he needs and then to be left alone.” In other words, do not disturb me!
But of course, not all pastors are without fault though. In some churches, there are pastors who behave as if they are the only ones in charge and they abuse their authorities. That is why the Apostle Peter instructed the church elders in 1 Peter 5:2, Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. Obviously, the chief example for every pastor is the Lord Jesus Christ who though is the God of creation, nonetheless He put on a servant’s garment and performed the work of a servant by washing the disciples’ feet (cf. John 13:4-5).
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said to His disciple Peter, I will build my church and if Christ is the One who will build the church, then by whatever instruments He would use to build the church, we must acknowledge those instruments. As believers, we must recognise that God has given gifts of teaching and leadership to some people within the church for its well-being.
I. God’s Instruments
Verse 11, And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.
The words he gave emphasized the sovereign choice and authority given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the One who chose those men and He gave unto them spiritual gifts that they may perform those God-given duties. Each and every one of the offices mentioned here is unique, different and special in their own ways but there is a common denominator and that is the Word of God.
Apostles — The word apostle simply means someone who has been sent. In the case of the twelve apostles, minus Judas Iscariot who was replaced by Matthias, they were directly sent by the Lord Jesus Christ for the foundation of the local church. One important criterion to be part of the twelve apostles is that they must be witnesses of the resurrected Christ.
One of the primary responsibilities of these apostles was also to write the New Testament scriptures. Once the last of these twelve apostles died, the office for this particular group of apostles was closed forever. There is to be no more addition to the Word of God and apparently John was the last apostle to be alive and under the inspiration of God, he concluded in Revelation 22:18, For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Paul was also such an apostle like the twelve, for he was specially chosen by the resurrected Christ to be an apostle to the Gentiles and he was also used by God to write many books in the New Testament. Paul described himself as one who was born out of due time (1 Cor 15:8).
But in the Bible there were also other apostles being mentioned like Barnabas, Timothy, Silas and some other outstanding leaders in the New Testament church. These were unlike the twelve apostles and the apostle Paul. As the word apostle simply means someone who has been sent out, and since the establishment of the church in the book of Acts, there were these people who were specially sent out by the church. You can call them missionaries.
Today, some mega Charismatic churches claim they have apostles. When those senior pastors called themselves apostles, they were not referring to themselves as simply missionaries or those “sent out” by the church. They are implying the office of the twelve apostles. Many of these modern apostles have no problem coming unto the pulpit saying, “God spoke to us, or the Lord has revealed to me new revelations.” In so doing, they have committed the terrible sin of either adding or subtracting from the Word of God (Rev 22:18). Today, do we still have the office of the twelve apostles as in the New Testament times? No!
Prophets — Prophets are primarily people who proclaim the Word of God by fore-telling and forth-telling. When the Holy Scripture is completed and with the command not to add or subtract from the Bible, the gift to fore-tell the future has come to an end. So the office for these kinds of prophets has also ceased. Today, if anyone uses the word “prophet” in the general sense, then he must only mean one thing; he is only forth-telling by declaring what he finds in the Scripture. For example if we say, “Jesus is coming soon and He will rule the world for one thousand years,” that is a future event and we are forth-telling the future based on the prophecies given in the Bible which are true and will surely happen.
But again that is not what the Charismatics mean when they call themselves “prophets.” They would proclaim new revelations pertaining to your future, your marriage life and where you would be living and working, etc. Basically, they are just like fortune tellers with no basis whatsoever from the Word of God and that is absolutely unbiblical. Do we still have the office of these kinds of prophets today? No more!
God has given to us apostles and prophets for the foundation of the church, and they are no longer required today after the completion of the New Testament. But the other three offices, evangelists, pastors and teachers, are still very much needed today, primarily for sustaining the churches that God has established and for advancing the kingdom of God on this earth.
With love in Christ,
Pastor Paul Cheng
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