Intro to "The Gifts of Christ to the Whole Church" (Eph. 4:11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2019 2:43 PM

 

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Intro to “The Gifts of Christ to the Whole Church”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:11

 

            Message of the verses:  “11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,”

 

            We begin what will probably be a long time in looking at just one verse from the book of Ephesians.  As I follow the outline from John MacArthur’s commentary I see that “The Gifts of Christ to the Whole Church” is just the main point, and then there will be three different sub-sections with the last one that speaks of Pastors and teachers taking up the most time to look at.  We will just begin with this introduction to this very important verse from Ephesians, and one of the most important verses that speak about the New Testament church.

 

            We have mentioned that verses 9-10 were from the 68^th Psalm and that was actually a parenthetical analogy and then after that Paul once again goes back to his explanation of spiritual gifts.  We have learned that Jesus Christ not only gives gifts to individual believers, but He also gives them to the total Body.  Christ gives each believer special gifts of divine enablement, and then to the church overall He gives specially gifted men as leaders (“This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men” [Eph. 4:8 NIV]).  As we then look at verse eleven we see these gifts that Christ gave to the whole church and they are “as apostles” “prophets” evangelists,” and “pastors and teachers.” 

 

            John MacArthur then finishes his very short introduction to this section by writing “He gave’ emphasizes the sovereign choice and authority given to Christ because of His perfect fulfillment of the Father’s will.  Not only ‘apostles’ and ‘prophets’ but also ‘evangelists,’…pastors and teachers are divinely called and places.”

 

            Now if we go back to the time of Christ when He was on the earth we see that He chose 12 men, one of which would betray Him, and so that one would have to be replaced.  These twelve men, not including Judas, along with the Apostle Paul would begin to take the message of the gospel to the whole world.  Now we probably can see it best in the life of the Apostle Paul, in that he would then train others like Timothy to continue to give out the gospel.  Timothy was not an apostle, but a Pastor/Teacher who would then in his life do the same thing.  We can see from the book of Acts that in Paul’s missionary trips, especially the later ones that his group would then appoint deacons and elders, and bishops, to care for the church.  Once the apostles all died off, and John was the last one, then there were no more apostles, but it was the apostles that Christ used to lay the ground work to build His church. 

 

            A pastor is called by the Lord to fulfill his position, and this takes me to a point that I want to make, and that is when you attend a church make sure that the pastor has been called by the Lord to be at that church.  How can you find that out?  Ask him, and if it is a woman then you are in the wrong church for as you look at the qualifications of pastors from Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus they say that a Pastor must be the husband of one wife, so that leaves women out of becoming pastors. 

 

            Another thing that I want to mention is that not only is a Pastor called by the Lord to serve Him, but they are given special insight into the messages that they preach to their congregations.  The Holy Spirit will led called Pastors into what He wants them to preach to their congregations, and this means that Pastors are to be in the Word of God and in prayer in order to know what the Spirit of God wants them to preach about.

 

            It is the obligation of those attending these churches to consistently pray for their Pastors, and do it on a daily basis.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for the Pastors that we have at the church that I worship at, knowing that all of them have been called by the Lord to serve Him there.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to continue to work on my heart in regard to humility, knowing that all that I do for the cause of Christ is done in the will of God and also from the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

 

Scripture that goes along with yesterday’s quotation:  “Be still and know that I Am God” (Psalm 46:10 NIV).