Gifts to equip God's people

Ephesians 4:11-13 (NLT)

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 

                                                         

This is one of four passages in the Bible that speaks of spiritual gifts.  Two others are familiar (I Corinthians 12 and Romans 12), but can you find the fourth passage?  This passage lists four, some say five, gifts; they all are communication gifts.  You know the roles of evangelists, pastors, and teachers, but are there any modern-day roles for apostles and prophets?

The Greek word for apostle (“apostolos”) refers to a delegate, an ambassador of the gospel, and someone who is sent forth.  Apostles today could be those who plant churches.  Missionaries are apostles.  Church planters and missionaries go out into the world and establish churches; that is, they spread the gospel of Jesus through their communication and either start brand new church assemblies or connect new converts to church bodies already established.

Prophets were those who were used the God’s Spirit to declare what God had revealed, particularly foretelling future events. Today, many people know what the future holds although we are skeptical of modern-day prophets just like people in biblical times were skeptical of prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the others.  Indeed there are many more false prophets than true prophets, but there are legitimate prophets called by God today to predict future events if people do not adhere to the call to salvation and follow the cause of Christ.

What is the main purpose of these communicators, called of God?  They collectively are called to equip God’s people—the church—to do His work and build up the body of Christ.  They will continue to use these gifts until four things happen: all God’s people are unified, have a personal relationship with Christ, have grown up as mature Christian people, and are Christlike with their lives.  Obviously, the church is going to need these communicators for a long time. 

Someone has said that the apostle focuses on a region, a prophet focuses on a target, the evangelist focuses on the unsaved, and the pastor-teacher focuses on the local body of believers.  Ideally, every church congregation has one or more of each of these communicators as members of the flock.  Who are these at your church?  Are you one or could you be one?  Do you know what God has called you to do for your congregation?  Do you know what God has called you to do for His kingdom?  It might not be one of these communication gifts as there are other gifts required to serve the body of Christ (His church) and you can find these in I Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and, the answer to my question above, I Peter 4:11-12.  Yet all Spirit-filled Christians have one or more spiritual gifts to use to serve others and build up the church of Jesus Christ.  May you clearly know what you spiritual gifts are.  If not or uncertain, begin pursuing what they are for you via many avenues—study guides, asking others, and experimenting with various roles of service and communication in your local church.