God wants to build His church and help us to mature and grow!
Let’s talk about the ministry of the saints today. God has called us each and every one with gifts and callings to minister to those that are lost and hurting.
We are going to discuss a very important scripture and I feel it’s prudent to include the whole thing.
Ephesians 4:11-16 says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Before we dive into the different callings in the church, let’s discuss the people. Paul mentions the “babies” of the church. This basically refers to the new converts and the unchurched. This is not intended to be insulting in anyway. If you meet and accept Jesus today, there is no way that you could automatically know or even immediately learn some of the more complicated topics in the word. Just as a mother would never dream of giving birth and moments later handing the baby a plate full of steak and potatoes. This would choke the baby and bring great harm.
Those of us who accepted Jesus years ago have hopefully been reading the Word of God and praying so it is possible at this point to eat the meat of the Word. There are no doubt 20 year old babies in the church due to not being in the right church that preaches the Word or because they count on one hour a weak at church to grow them spiritually and this is where Paul is coming from. Spiritual babies are susceptible to being tossed around by every new thing they hear lacking discernment to know right from wrong.
Paul discusses five positions in the church that are needed to grow the body of Christ. First are the Apostles and these are the people that plant churches…multiple churches. They get them up and running and make sure the appropriate pastor is in place and they move on. They also come in and revive churches that are suffering and dying due to a myriad of reasons. They set up church systems and governments as well. They also have to correct leaders when it’s called for. We don’t meet a whole lot of Apostles
Then there are prophets and Paul says that we should all aspire to be used prophetically. Many folks like to call themselves prophets, but you need not announce it because the church and other prophets will recognize a true prophet. Prophets have an inner voice from God that allows them to speak to the church many times about the future and they are correct when they do.
Next, we have Evangelists and these are the people who can not help themselves when it comes to sharing Jesus with the unsaved. They can be some fire breathing folks who can get really loud and passionate because their heart is for the lost!
We also have the Pastors or shepherds of the flock and these are the Jack of all trades! They hear directly from the Lord for what the body needs to hear and they preach those things…some harder than others. They marry, they bury, the visit the sick in the hospital and go see new babies that have been born. They council,teach and train. They oversee the needs of their flock.
Lastly, we have the teachers and these folks love to learn so they can teach and share knowledge. They love to research and dive into the Word in order to teach the ways of the Lord.
Now, did you know we are all called to teach? Parents teach their children, Sunday school teachers teach the kids and there are those in the body that teach membership classes and other topical teachings as well. In whatever profession or station you find yourself in, you should be teaching. We all should be planting seeds in people’s hearts that are unsaved. We should be watering those seeds with prayer and more teaching until the day they accept Christ and then we teach them the Word.
We have been given Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Preachers and teachers for the equipping of the saints. Seek the Lord to find out where He is placing you and then submit to your pastor so that he can help bring you along in your gifts and callings.