Jesus' Gift: Church Offices (Ephesians 4:7-11)

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Well, will you turn with me now to the book of Ephesians? Ephesians, after Acts, after 1st and 2nd Corinthians, a little bit, one book after Galatians, Ephesians. Ephesians, and we're going to go to chapter 4. As we continue to work through our series, The Church Defined, we'll be again spending time here in these verses to look at Christ's gifts. And so Ephesians chapter 4, and we'll be reading this morning verses 7 through 11. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning at verse 7.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this he ascended, what does it mean but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

We'll end the reading of God's word there. This is the greatest book that has ever been written. Every single word of it is inspired by God. It's completely true. And though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of our God endures forever. Well, my mind is filled with fond examples of elders in the church. I remember as a single man in the Navy, I had joined a church out in Hampton, Virginia. And I bet if I pressed this person, they would not remember their kindness towards me. But as a young single sailor with no family for a few thousand miles around, and as a baby Christian, I needed a family.

And there was a man, David Miracle, who became a leader to me. He became a father in the faith to me. He never knew it, but he and his wife just kindly invited me over to their house. They didn't know that inviting this lonely sailor over to their house to have lasagna would mean so much. But it was their hospitality that endeared my heart to them. And when he would get up there and he would read God's word on this Sunday morning, I would lean in carefully because I saw him love me. He shepherded me. He cared for me. He was a gift to me. Have you experienced people like that in the church? Have you had pastors, teachers, elders who have cared for you?

Indeed, it's a gift of Christ to his church. The offices of the church are his gift to his bride. And so as we look at these verses, verse 7 through 11, I would like to encourage you that you should rejoice and thank Jesus for the gifts which he gives his church. Thank Jesus for the gifts he gives his church, specifically the officers of his church. Last week, we looked all at the types of gifts that he gives to each of us, the gifts of the spirit. Now we look at the gifts of the offices and how we are to thank him for those good gifts. Well, we know first of all that these are gifts that Jesus Christ gives. That's what verse 8 tells us. Look with me at verse 8 real quick. We're going to fly through this. We've gone through this before.

But verse 8, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts to men. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead, our Ascended King, gave gifts to the church. And the gifts that he is going to talk about in verse 11 are the gifts of the offices. And they are indeed gifts from Jesus, our Ascended King. And so what is this first gift that God gives? Well, the first gifts that Jesus gives is a gift of apostles. And we should thank God, we should thank Jesus for the gift of apostles.

Now again, we might be really used to, you might be really used to Christianese terms. Do you know what I mean by Christianese terms? Terms that only the church uses? Terms, words that we just throw out there but we might not understand what they mean? Well, the term apostle is from the Greek word apostolos. It's not hard to translate, but it doesn't help us much. What does that mean?

An apostle, an apostolos, is one who is sent out with authority. And the thing that they are sent out with in the gospel or in the context of the New Testament is they are sent out with the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that there is salvation for people with sin, people like me and people like you. They were sent with good news. that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, if you believe in Jesus Christ and that he is your Lord and that God raised him up from the dead, if that is coming from your new heart, indeed, that is the good news that is brought to you. And the apostles were sent authoritatively to preach that message, to proclaim that salvation, to let all the nations know this is what Jesus had commissioned them in Acts chapter 1 verse 8.

Go therefore into all the nations preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And this is what we find all throughout the book of Acts. And we find out that it was those disciples Those disciples, you know some of their names. The 11 disciples, forget about Judas Iscariot, the betrayer. He was not an apostle, though he was at one time a disciple.

But who takes his spot is Paul, who is writing this. And Paul characterizes himself as the least of all the apostles. He's the last one to see Jesus when he's on his way to Damascus. And Jesus appears to him and commissions him as an apostle. It was Peter, the apostle to the Jews. It was John, who was an apostle. It was Matthew, who was once a tax collector and then sent out. It was Thomas, who would take the gospel to India. It was Andrew, who would take the gospel to the British Isles. It was the apostles who fulfilled this commission. It was the apostles who laid the foundation for the church, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. Now let me cut it straight with you, right?

There are some apostles that we have an easier time liking than other apostles. They had different types of ministries. They had different types of personalities. They had different types of ways of speaking and writing. Some people go to the book of Matthew and they read the book of Matthew and they're just like, dude, I don't understand this guy. Because Matthew had a ministry to Jewish people who were becoming Christians. And then you might go to the book of John, and you might go, man, this is like heady philosophical stuff, you know? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What is he talking about? What is this Logos? What is this Word?

And you might have to wrestle through philosophically some of the things that John is saying. And then there's Paul. Oh, many people have taken offense to Paul. I mean, how many people pick up the book of Romans and just don't like what it says? Or how many people pick up the book of Galatians like, oh man, Paul was mean. I mean, Paul talked hard to the church. Oh, who has bewitched you, oh Galatians?

But see, God sent those apostles as gifts to their specific churches for their specific ministries, for their specific laying the foundation of the church. See, there are those who need to hear from the apostle John so they don't get sucked into Neoplatonism if they're philosophical geeks. There are some who are Jewish and read the Old Testament and they needed Matthew's teaching and the Holy Spirit spoke through Matthew and gave it to them.

He helped lay the foundation and we should be thankful for his ministry. We should be thankful for Peter's ministry as an apostle to the Jews. We should be thankful that they laid the foundation, that we have a firm foundation upon which Jesus is the cornerstone and the church is being built up.

We should thank Jesus for the gift of the apostles. But we should also thank Jesus, in verse 11, the second office Jesus gives is the office of prophets. Some to be apostles, some to be prophets. And again, we should thank God that he gave the church prophets in the first century.

I mean, when Paul is writing this letter to the church in Ephesus, there are prophets in the churches who are declaring, thus saith the Lord, the Spirit is upon them, the sons and daughters are prophesying, and they are laying the foundation of the church. The church is understanding how Jesus and the Old Testament fit together. And Paul even, this is a messy type of situation in the first century.

You have to think of the foundation. Have you ever seen concrete set before? I mean, when you first lay a foundation and you pour the concrete, when you pour it, is it instantly hard? No, it's got to settle, and it's got to dry, and it's got to get hard.

And in the first century church, during the apostolic era, there is still a little bit of wiggle room in there, you might say. So much so that Paul has to speak to the church in 1 Corinthians 14 and tell them, hey, when you're going to prophesy, only one person should be prophesying at one time. And hey, if you're going to speak in tongues with prophecy, you need to speak in tongues with an interpreter. You can't just go off doing all these things.

But because the prophets did this office, the foundation was laid. And we should thank Jesus for the foundation work of the apostles and of the prophets. We should thank Jesus for these gifts of the foundations of the church. That's what Paul told us they were in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20. The foundation has been laid. The apostles have gone before us and they have given us a firm foundation upon which the church is built. The prophets were given to the church and the foundation has been set.

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone and now the house is building up. And how does God continue to build up the house now in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 21st centuries? Well, it's interesting. One of the things he did even in the 1st century was he gave evangelists. Right?

We should thank God for evangelists. We should thank God for evangelists. Now, this title evangelist is actually only used here and one other time in the Bible. So if we are to thank God for evangelists, we should understand what this is. So evangelists are those who proclaim the good word, the good news. That's what evangelion means. You, good, angelos, message, good message. There's a good message and they are proclaiming this message.

It's Philip. in Acts chapter 21. You can turn there in your Bibles with me if you want, Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21, verse eight. We read, 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. Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, one of those original seven in Acts chapter six when there was a dispute between the Hellenistic widows and the Jewish widows and they were fighting and there was an unequal distribution of the daily food. And Philip was one of those first evangelists, one of those first deacons there and right away We find in Acts chapter 8, as he's named one of those seven, in Acts chapter 8, what do we find Philip doing? Well, he's walking along the road, and all of a sudden there's a chariot, and who's in the chariot but an Ethiopian reading the scroll of Isaiah.

And he's asking, do you know what it means? The guy says, how am I supposed to know what this means? Nobody's taught me this. And what does Philip do? Philip opens up the scriptures for him, and he teaches him about the kingdom, and he baptizes that Ethiopian in that little bit of water that they found along the road. Philip had this ministry of evangelism. Now, our RP testimony, chapter 25, verse 12, says that the office, the gifts of evangelists aren't given anywhere. And so we're not sure if this is an official office in the church anymore. Most of us think probably not.

But many still believe that there are those gifted with evangelism. Each one of us has a duty to uphold Matthew chapter 28 and the Great Commission. But there are some who are especially gifted at being able to reach people. to be able to proclaim God's word and God's spirit works mightily through them. And many times we call those people now in our modern day missionaries. We send them out. Right now we are praying for another couple who will be raised up who will go and minister in a closed country. Maybe for some of you, you might feel that call to go and share the gospel with other people.

Maybe for some of you, in your heart, you feel the pressure of the Holy Spirit, like you should be going somewhere and talking to someone about the gospel. Oh, I am so thankful. I'm so thankful for Dan Phillips on the ship telling me about the gospel of Jesus Christ and of his Lordship.

I remember one of the people on the ship was telling me, one of my bosses, they said, you know that Dan guy, you know, Master Chief? And I said, well, yeah. He said, I don't understand him. And I said, what do you mean you don't understand Master Chief? And he said, well, you see, he actually believes that God put him on this ship for a reason. And it was amazing to me. Something clicked. And I understood it wasn't just me that Dan had talked about the gospel with. But Dan lived the gospel in front of other people. And I'm not saying Dan was a perfect person.

But I thank God, and we should thank God for the evangelists. Maybe for you, it was your parents who were an evangelist in your life. But we should thank God for those who share the gospel. Timothy is told in 2 Timothy chapter 4 that he is to do the work of an evangelist. We are to be doing that work, especially the officers of the church are to be doing that work of evangelism.

Lastly, lastly there's something else that God has given. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11, And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

We should thank God. I'm gonna change the translation here. I think a more faithful translation would be, and some shepherds even teachers. And some shepherds even teachers. We should thank God. We should lift up our eyes to heaven and thank Jesus for the gift of shepherds and teachers.

Now, this idea of shepherds, the word, there's a few words, and I'm gonna go a little bit of a nerdy classroom on you. Please stick around with me, but I need to show you. I'm just gonna say the words in Greek, and you're gonna see how they're tied together. The word shepherd, poimenos. The word sheep, poiminion. The word shepherding, poimino. Poi, poi, poi. Sheep, shepherd, shepherding.

This is what the elders of the church are called. We use the word that's been anglicized from this, right, it's into the word pastor, but pastor isn't just the job of me, but indeed all the elders are called shepherds. All the elders are called shepherds. I want to take you to understand that when Paul himself, remember Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus here, but when Paul is coming to Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem, he calls together the elders. Go with me to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, I've got a lot of room to look through and not a lot of time. We've got a lot of fish to fry and not much time to cook them in, so we're going to try to move fast here. Acts chapter 20, verse 17.

This is Paul. Paul sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. He calls for the presbyteroi of the church. This is where we get our word Presbyterian from, elders, overseers from. So he calls together the elders. But then when we look back down at verse 28, so that was chapter 17, he calls them Presbyteroi, he calls them together. And then in verse 28, what does he say? Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the sheep, or all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you, has made you what?

Episcopoi, bishops, overseers. See, there's a certain type of church structure that sees, like, oh, we have bishops, and then we have presbyters, and then we have, like, you know, deacons or pastors or something, and it's like hierarchy. No, no. All of them are elders. All of them are overseers. All of them are presbyters. All of them are bishops. All of them are episcopals, or episcopalians. Well, maybe we're all episcopalians. But the point is that they are all the same term. They're all shepherds of God's people. They're all shepherds of God's people. And what is their command?

To shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. See, it is Jesus who is your chief shepherd. It's Jesus who says, I am the good shepherd and the sheep hear my voice. It is in Hebrews chapter 10 that we find out that it is Jesus who is the chief shepherd. It is Jesus who is the great shepherd of the sheep. It is Jesus who is the shepherd and all the elders, all the presbyters, all the overseers are under shepherds.

They're under him. Now it is interesting to note that Peter himself in 1 Peter chapter five calls himself a fellow elder. See, in the church there is a plurality of elders. I am not the king of the church. John is not the king of the church. Jim is not the king of the church. But there is an equality amongst the elders. We find that in Acts chapter 15. We find that in Galatians where Paul is able to confront Peter. We find that when all the apostles and the elders gather together and figure out things.

It is the elders that are a gift to the church to shepherd God's people. Now, I'm sure that you have had bad elders before. I'm sure that you've heard horror stories of bad elders before. This is not a blanket statement about every elder in the church, but good elders, faithful elders, are a blessing to God's church. They are a gift of Christ to his people.

And so as we look at elders, we realize that these are men who must follow certain qualifications. If we looked into 1 Timothy chapter three, and again, there's so much to talk about here, not enough time to talk about, but there are qualifications for elders.

Elders need to be respected in the community. Elders need to be not new in the faith. Elders need to be able to handle God's Word, to be able to teach. Elders need to be above reproach. Elders need to be the husband of but one wife, or as the Greek says, they need to be a one woman man. Elders are to be those who are shepherding God's people, that they are taking God's people and they're saying, here, here, here's Christ, here's the right way, here's the truth, here's how you will grow in holiness and in your love for God.

It is not a business meeting, it is not a corporation, but it is people leading, serving God's blood-bought sheep. When elders do this faithfully, oh, what a gift they are to the church, and we should thank God for them. Now there's a caveat here. There's a small distinction, and that is what Paul says in Ephesians chapter four, verse 11. Some shepherds even teachers. There are some elders who have studied more. There are some elders who are able to teach. Now, I'm going to say, just like the apostles, you know not all elders are able to teach the way you want them to teach.

I was thinking about how to explain this. And I was thinking about how I have different breakfasts at different times, right? And I don't have the same breakfast every single day. And sometimes the Lord gives different types of teachers to churches depending on their needs.

For some of you, you might like bacon and eggs. Bacon, sausage and eggs, fill me up with some ham and I want to chew through the meat. Some of our teachers in the church are doctrinally thick and they're able to give you more than you can chew on and they will give you so much food that it will go down into the pit of your stomach and you will digest that all day long as you think about the things that they've taught. And those teachers are a blessing, a gift to the church that we should be thankful for. There are other teachers in the church who are like granola or grape nuts.

It's pretty good. It's really healthy. And what they're really trying to do is fill you up with carbs so you can run your race with endurance. There are teachers who are able to coach you and make you filled with energy and run the long race. And they're good at encouraging you how to get up hills and how to be able to have a little bit of food that will take a long time to digest.

And they are a gift that we should be thankful for. There are other pastors who are like eating a dry bowl of Cheerios. You know that pastor I'm talking about. They're a blessing to the church. No fluff, just fiber. Give you the nutrients. Give you what you need to be healthy. and they're a blessing to the church.

Sometimes you've needed that thick doctrine, that dry teaching of God's word, because you needed to see that this is propositionally true. And then there are other teachers, and I'm gonna warn you against this fourth type of teacher, and that's like the Froot Loop teacher. Let me encourage you, if you eat Froot Loops every single day for breakfast, your teeth are gonna rot out of your head and you're gonna have diabetes. We don't need a whole bunch of teachers who are going to do nothing but make you feel good, nothing but make you smile, nothing but you go, I want more of this. No, we don't want to be Christians who are always needing milk, but we want to be able to chew on the meat. We should be looking for teachers and thankful for teachers.

Thankful for faithful shepherds. Let me ask you, when's the last time you've thanked one of your elders? When's the last time you have thanked God for one of the teachers in your life? Sharon, you have been blessed here with over 174 years of teachers, of elders, of shepherds. If I mentioned the name Bruce to you, many of you would remember. If I mentioned the last name Wiley to you, if I mentioned the name Rob to you, if I mentioned any host of names to you, you would remember ruling elders and teaching elders who cared for you. Have you thanked God for them? Have you thanked God for John and Jim, your faithful ruling elders here who pour out themselves, who pour hours and hours into laboring and praying for you?

They are a gift to you. I'll tell you what, John and Jim are a gift to me. I pray that you recognize that they are Jesus' gift to you. See, we receive these gifts from Christ. And they are a good gift. Good elders will bring balm to your soul when you are in pain. Good elders will give you teaching that will mature you and build you up. And as we get next week into what these officers in the church do, we're going to see what a blessing and a gift they are, what the church is supposed to become, and what we're supposed to be doing.

But today I want you to thank God. for the gift of church officers. Thank God that the foundation was laid by the apostles and the prophets. Thank God for the evangelists who have gone out into the ends of the earth. And thank God even for the pastors and the teachers in your own life, the ruling elders and the teaching elders who have cared for your soul, your parents' souls, for decades.

Let's thank the Lord now. Let's go to hymn and prayer. Well, Father, we thank you so much for your gift. Lord, we thank you for how you have cared for us. Lord, I need to personally thank you, Lord. I know I'm not supposed to pray in the first person singular, but Father, I thank you. For Pastor Klein, I thank you. For Pastor Ramsey, I thank you. For Pastor Rhoda, I thank you. For Pastor Herman, Lord, I thank you. For Pastor Snap, I thank you.

For the men who faithfully taught me and cared for my soul. Lord, thank you for the teaching elders and the ruling elders who have cared for your people here so faithfully for decades upon decades, for 17 and a half decades, caring for your church. Thank you, Lord, that you have not stopped giving this gift to your church of shepherds and teachers. Father, we pray that we would be those who would honor our fathers in the faith, that we would respect them, Lord, that we would be thankful to you for them, Lord, and that they would not rule over us with harshness like cowboys, Lord, but we pray that you would provide for your church ruling elders, teaching elders who will lead your people beside green pastures to drink deeply of the well, the water of Christ.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.