Ephesians 4:11-13
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:
The work of the pastor aside, this passage teaches a great deal about what ought to be the heartbeat of every Christian; to "come...unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
Anything less than that is to fall short in our Christian experience.
God provided in the earliest days of the churches, both apostles and prophets were the earliest laborers in establishing the movement of planting churches in the world. Neither of these offices is in existence today as the office of the apostle died with the last of the twelve, and Paul says of the prophet,
1 Cor 13:8
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. (KJV)
Evangelists may have been those laborers alongside the prophets as were Timothy, Barnabas, Silas, Luke and etc. The closest we have to them today would be the church planting missionaries whose work is to establish new churches where one is not found today.
Pastors and teachers are those who stay with a church and labor to build them in the Lord. The Evangelist's job would have been to begin the process of spiritual maturity in the church. The pastor and the teacher's job is to maintain that growth.
It is possible then for Christians to grow and to come to a position of maturity in the things of God.
God grant that it be so in my life and in the life of our church.
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:
The work of the pastor aside, this passage teaches a great deal about what ought to be the heartbeat of every Christian; to "come...unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
Anything less than that is to fall short in our Christian experience.
God provided in the earliest days of the churches, both apostles and prophets were the earliest laborers in establishing the movement of planting churches in the world. Neither of these offices is in existence today as the office of the apostle died with the last of the twelve, and Paul says of the prophet,
1 Cor 13:8
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. (KJV)
Evangelists may have been those laborers alongside the prophets as were Timothy, Barnabas, Silas, Luke and etc. The closest we have to them today would be the church planting missionaries whose work is to establish new churches where one is not found today.
Pastors and teachers are those who stay with a church and labor to build them in the Lord. The Evangelist's job would have been to begin the process of spiritual maturity in the church. The pastor and the teacher's job is to maintain that growth.
It is possible then for Christians to grow and to come to a position of maturity in the things of God.
God grant that it be so in my life and in the life of our church.
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