Ephesians 4. And I want to just
read verse 11. This is a continuation of what
Paul had said back in verse 7. And verse 8, when he said that
Christ measured out gifts to His church. And verse 8, that
He ascended on high and gave gifts to His church. Gave gifts
to men. And now he's going to mention
four of these gifts here in verse 11. He gave some apostles. He gave some prophets. He gave
some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Now he mentions
these four here, these four gifts, these four offices. because they're
the most prominent offices. Now, there's many more offices.
There's many more gifts. If you'd like to read them, they're
over in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, I believe. You see many,
many gifts that the Lord gave to His church. But Paul mentions
these four here, these apostles and prophets and evangelists
and pastors, pastors and teachers, because it has to do with the
Scriptures. These offices have to do with
the teachings of the Scriptures. He limits this to these four
gifts. Now, I hope this isn't boring
to you. We have a tendency to come to
a place like this, and when we go through these epistles, we
reach some places where we think, oh, that's so boring. But really,
we should never think that. I know we do, but we should never
think that. And I want us to look tonight just at these four
gifts. Look at the apostles, and look
at the prophets, and the evangelists, and the pastors. And the reason
I want us to take time to look at these is because they are
indeed gifts of Christ. Gifts to His wife. If your husband told you that
he had to go away for an extended period of time, and he was going
to send you some gifts, would you receive those gifts and set
them up and say, well, they're not really that important? Why,
no. As soon as you got those gifts,
you'd be opening them and examining them. And you'd appreciate them.
Because who are these gifts from? Well, your loving husband. And
He's gave them to you out of His great love and concern for
you. Well, that's what these gifts are. Our Savior ascended
on high. He's out of our sight. But He
loves His church so much, He gave her these gifts. And here
He mentions the most prominent gifts, because these gifts have
to do with the ministry of the Word of God. And I say that for
this reason. Let me just quickly cover it,
then we'll look at it in detail. He first mentions these apostles. The apostles. And he says here
in chapter 5, or chapter 3, I remind you of what he said. Look in
verse 1. He says, I, Paul, a prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of this dispensation
of the grace of God given me to youward, how by revelation
he made known unto me the mystery. And look down in verse 5, which
in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is
now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. So see who these apostles and
prophets were? They were men who had received
these special revelations of truth. Why did they receive it? To give it to us. To give it
to you and give it to me. And then the gift here of evangelists. He speaks here of the evangelists
that we'll look at. And in 2 Timothy chapter 4, here's
what it says about these evangelists. Paul said, I charge you, Timothy,
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that you preach the Word.
And then he goes right on to say, Watch thou in all things,
do the work of man evangelist. What is the work of evangelist?
Preaching the Word. ministering the Word. Then in
Acts chapter 8 and Acts chapter 21, he mentions Philip the evangelist. And here's what's said about
Philip. That he went down into the desert and preached Jesus
to the eunuch. Remember that? And he baptized
the eunuch and from Samaria all the way over to Caesarea, every
city he went through, he went preaching Christ. That's what
Evangelist says. He's a minister of the Word.
And then, of course, the pastors. Here's what's said about pastors.
Remember them who have the rule over you and who have spoken
unto you the Word of the Lord. And he says a bishop, which is
an elder, he's a pastor, must be out to teach. What does he
teach? He teaches the Scriptures, doesn't
he? Feed my sheep. Feed them with the Word. Feed
them with the Gospel. So let's look at these now, and
I want you to take your Bibles. If you don't have your Bible
handy, get your Bible. Because I want you to take just a few
minutes and look at these precious gifts and their offices. And
there's a good reason why you and I must do this. And I think
if the church, down through the ages, had been more careful to
look at these offices, and what they're all about, and the extent
of them, then the church would have saved itself a lot of heartaches.
and would have saved the world from a lot of heresy. When He ascended on high, He
left captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And the first one
that we're told of here is apostles. He gave some apostles. Who isn't
an apostle? What isn't an apostle? This is
a gift of our dear Savior. What isn't an apostle? Well,
first of all, we could say this about them. That they were men
who were a select group. If you look at these apostles
individually, it is a select person. It is a person that Jesus
Christ called personally. And when I say personally, I
mean physically. He called these men physically.
Listen to this passage of Scripture. Paul said of himself in Romans
1.1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God. And when did Jesus Christ
call this man to be an apostle? On the road to Damascus, when
he appeared to him, physically, and called him to be an apostle.
And he says in Galatians 1.1, I called that apostle, not of
men, Neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. So
they have this special calling. about them, that Christ called
them Himself. When He was here, He had these
disciples, and among a host of disciples, He chose out twelve
men and called them apostles. So it's a very special calling
to be an apostle. Now turn with me to Acts chapter
1. The first thing about being an
apostle, he has to be called, he must be called of Jesus Christ
personally, and he must have seen the resurrected
Christ. Now this is so important. Look
at Acts chapter 1 and look here in verse 1. This is a little
bit of lengthy reading, but I want you to see this. The former treatise
have I made, O Theopilus, of all that Jesus began both to
do and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after
that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandment unto the
apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself
alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen
of them forty days, speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God. And being assembled together
with them, the eleven apostles, he commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which he said, You have heard of me. For John truly baptized
with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
in not many days. When they therefore will come
together, They asked him, saying, Will you at this time restore
the kingdom to Israel? He said unto them, It is not
for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father
hath put in his own power, but you shall receive power after
the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto
me, both in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost
parts of the earth. These were men who had witnessed
the resurrected Christ. and had seen him. And Judas,
by transgression, fell from that apostleship. And look here in
the same chapter, and look here in verse 21. Now here this church,
120 of them, were in the upper room. And Peter got up and was
telling about Judas falling from the apostleship. And they knew
that their office was so critical. They said one must be chosen
to replace Him. And here's what He said about
it, in verse 21. Verse 21, "...Wherefore, of these
men which have accompanied with us all the time that our Lord
Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of
John until the day that He was taken up from us, must one be
ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection." See
that? That's what Peter was concerned
about because he knew the office of an apostle was one that was
called of Christ to witness that, I have seen the resurrected Christ. I have seen the resurrected Christ.
Look in chapter 10. Look over here in chapter 10
of Acts, in verse 38. Here's where Peter was down preaching
to the Gentiles. And he mentions this very thing,
that the qualification to being an apostle, he had to see the
resurrected Christ. Look what he says now in verse
38. Chapter 10, verse 38. Here's what he's preaching to
Cornelius and the Gentiles. And Peter said, How God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went
about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things
which ye did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew, and hanged on a tree. But God hath raised him
up the third day, and showed him openly." But now look what
he says, not to all the people. Everybody didn't see Christ,
but who saw Him? unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to
us who did eat and drink with him after he arose from the dead."
So what was the qualifications for being an apostle? Had to
be called directly by Christ, and he had to have seen the resurrected
Christ. Now here's why Paul says in 1
Corinthians 9, verse 1, he says, am I not an apostle? And quickly
he adds this, have I not seen Jesus Christ in the flesh? Have I not seen this resurrected
Christ? And you remember when the Lord
appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus. And he told Ananias,
he said, you go tell Saul. what I'm doing. You go talk to him and he'll
receive his sign. And Ananias went over there to Saul, he was
still blind, on the street called Stray, and Ananias said this
to him. He said, Saul, the God of our
fathers has chosen you, that you may know His will and see
that just one and hear His voice. And that's when Paul seen Him.
He appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, and two or three
more times he appeared to it. Why did he appear to Paul? That
was the qualifications for being an apostle. And Paul was the
last one to see it. Paul said, last of all, he was
seen of me. Now what does that tell us? Well,
that tells us there's no apostles today. Has anybody seen the resurrected
Christ? No. Nobody's seen Him. And you had to be a witness of
the resurrection to see Him. If some today profess to be non-apostles,
I'll tell you what Paul said about it. Paul said they're false
apostles. They're deceitful workers. They
transform themselves into the apostles of Christ, but they're
not. They're ministers of the devil. And Paul says, here's
one of the ways you'll know them. Ask them this question. Did Christ
appear to you? Have you saw His glorious body
since He raised from the dead? No. So that's important then.
It's so important today to know what an apostle is. First of
all then, he has to be called with a special calling. Christ
called him personally. in his flesh, appeared to him. They saw the resurrected Christ. And thirdly, the third thing
about apostles, there was given to them special power to work
miracles. They did miraculous things. They
did wondrous things. And there were very few exceptions
to this rule. I know Philip performed some
miracles, and Stephen did right before his death, but those were
the excesses. When you read the book of Acts,
one of the things that you realize over and over again, that great
signs and wonders were done by the hands of the apostles. And
that's why they were apostles. So they could demonstrate the
great power of God in healing, Even in raising the dead, remember
in Acts chapter 3, where Peter and John was going into the temple
to pray, and there lay a man who was lame from his mother's
womb. And Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such
as I have. What do you have, Peter? I have
this apostleship, he said. And if you're that apostle, you've
got these special powers. In the name of Jesus Christ,
you can work great miracles. And he says, such as I have,
give I you. In the name of Jesus Christ,
rise up and walk. And that man who had never stood
on those ankles began to leap and shout and to praise God.
Now that's power, ain't it? That's power. And you go on seeing
them do these miracles in Acts chapter 9. Dorcas, remember Dorcas? That child of God who grew sick
and died? And they called Peter, and he
went down to visit them and to comfort them. And he went in
there where she was and got down and prayed. And then he laid
his hands on Dorcas and said, Dorcas, arise. And that woman
who was dead, she arose. And they marveled. Who has the
power to raise the dead? These apostles did have. That's
what it meant to be an apostle. Paul smote a man with blindness. This smote him with blindness.
He said, Be blind and get out of here and leave us alone while
we preach the gospel to this man. And they had to leave that
man out. The Lord smote him with blindness.
Remember the young fellow that fell out of the upper story window?
And they said, He's dead. And Paul went down and fell on
him and prayed and restored him to life. There was in Jerusalem
a host of people that they brought them from out of the city into
Peter. And they laid them along the streets. Just waiting for
Peter's shadow to touch them. And all of them were healed,
the Scripture said. God bore witness to these apostles
of His miraculous power. Do we have that today? We don't
have that, do we? We don't. And it's probably a
good thing we don't. Because you'd have assembly lines
healing worse than we've ever seen them in all our days. But
these men had them. These men had them. Thirdly is this, not only did
they receive this great power to do great and wondrous miracles
and signs, they received direct revelations from the Holy Spirit. Direct revelations. Look here
in Galatians. Look with me in Galatians chapter
1. These apostles not only preached
with great power that we're often told of, But they preached with
infallibility. When you got a letter from one
of these apostles, it was without any error. It was infallible.
When you listened to one of them preach, he had truly what the
Pope only professes to have. He had infallibility. And there's
a reason for that. These apostles received direct
revelations. Now, what do I mean by direct
revelations? I mean apart from any means.
You and I often say that the Lord has to teach us, and He
does. But He uses means to do it. He
uses His Word, doesn't He? He uses preachers. But when He
taught these apostles, He used no means. He opened up their
understanding and revealed to them these truths. Some of them
had never been known before. Look here at how the Apostle
Paul says it in Galatians 1. Look in verse 8. He's talking
about the gospel. Though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you, then that which you have already received from me, let
him be accursed. For do I now persuade men? Am
I teaching the things of men? Or am I teaching the things of
God? Or do I now seek to please men? If I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren,
the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I
neither received it of men, neither was I taught it by any man, but
by the revelation." of the Lord Jesus Christ. See that? Look here in Peter, another place,
in 1 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3, and look in verse 2. Look in 2 Peter chapter
3, and look in verse 2. Peter said, I want you to be
mindful of the words which were spoken before of the holy prophets. Now that's inspiring. You take
heed when you read the prophets. That's God speaking to them.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And look at this. And of the commandment of us,
the apostles of our Lord and Savior. He said, when you hear
these commandments, When you read where we've written these
commandments, that's God's Word. That's God's Word. And he's talking
about the Apostle Paul over in verse 15. Look there in verse
15 of the same chapter. He's talking about the coming
of God, the day of God, the world being on fire, and why the Lord
is waiting. "...An account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also,
according to the wisdom given unto him, has written unto you."
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things,
in which are some things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable twist, rest, as they do also
the other scriptures." See what he just did? He equates Paul's
epistles with other scriptures. So see, when Paul writes, when
Peter writes, It's Scripture. It's God-breathed. It's revealed. Now, I think, just seeing these
three things, and you and I, we could have expanded this,
but we just prove over and over and over the same thing. But
can't we see, just with these three things, the very nature
of what it was to be an apostle, why that office ceased with these
apostles? It was a miraculous office to
do what they did, and to write and speak as they wrote, to be
called as they were. The very nature of that office
almost demands that it's gone now, it's ceased. We don't have
apostles anymore, brothers and sisters. Have you ever heard
anybody called the pontiff? That's the word used in the theological
realms to describe the pope. The pontiff, that's what they
call him sometimes. You know what the definition of a pontiff
is? A successor. Of who? The apostles. What does
he claim? He claims that he's a successor
of the apostle Peter. All the popes are apostles. They're pontiffs. Now let me
ask him this. Has Christ called you to that
office? Have you seen the resurrected Christ? Do you write infallibly? You know, it's funny to me, and
Martin Luther said this, and you can see it throughout Catholicism,
the history of Catholicism. He said, ain't it very telling
that one pope will speak infallibly, and the very next pope will come
along and void everything that he says? That's strange, isn't
it? You know why? They're not apostles.
They're not apostles. Prophets, number two. The Lord
Jesus gave to the church apostles. And brothers and sisters, you
and I shall never cease to thank the Lord. How He loved us. How He loved us to give us apostles.
What would we do? What would you and I do if we
did not have Paul's epistles? He's our apostle, isn't He? All
the Word of God is ours. But He's our special apostle.
Christ gave Him to us poor Gentiles especially. Prophets. What is a prophet? Well, they
were something like these apostles in this sense. They had received,
and they did receive, these special revelations of the Holy Spirit.
They had this special light that was given to them. Let me show
you that right quickly. Let me show you two places, because
I want you to mark these. I want you to look in Acts chapter
21, Prophets, Acts chapter 21. I want to show you two places. Look in Acts chapter 21 and verse
10. Prophets were men who had this
special light, special revelation. In that sense, they were like
the apostles. We never read that they did miracles and they didn't
have to see the resurrected Christ. We never read that that was a
qualification. But they sure received revelations, as the
apostles did, in special light. Look in verse 10. And as we tarried, Luke says,
me and the apostle and his group, we tarried there in Caesarea
many days. There came down from Judea a
certain prophet named Agabus. And when he was coming to us,
he took Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said,
Thus saith the Holy Ghost. Now you haven't known anybody
speak like that. You don't hear me speak like that, do you? You
didn't hear Larry say that this morning. I bet you you didn't
say that to the children, did you? Thus saith the Holy Ghost. We
read the Bible and we say, right, here's what the Holy Ghost said.
But boy, we don't dare say, the Holy Ghost is speaking by me.
But this man did, because the Holy Ghost was. Thus saith the
Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews which are at Jerusalem bind the
man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the
hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things,
both we and they that were of the place besought him not to
go up at Jerusalem. And what happened, brothers and
sisters, when he got to Jerusalem? They bound him, didn't they?
And he was a prisoner from there on out. The Holy Ghost said that
through this prophet. That's what the prophets were.
That's special light, special revelation. Look in 1 Corinthians
chapter 14. This is very important because
it pertains to the worship service when the church was gathered
together to worship. And there were many prophets
in the church. So Paul writes to the church
concerning these prophets. These prophets were saying, some
of these Corinthians, it wasn't the prophets so much maybe saying
it, but some of these Corinthians said, these prophets are getting
out of control. And they're saying it's the Holy Ghost speaking
through them, and they're just, one's getting up and prophesying,
and one over here's getting up and prophesying, and it's leading
to all this confusion. So Paul writes to clear this
confusion up with these prophets. And look what he says in verse
29. Now keep in mind, this is speaking of the worship service.
And this is why this is so important. Let me preface this by saying
this. Verse 29. Hold it there a minute. Prophets were sometimes women. Now, when you say that, sometimes
it sends a chill over your throat because a prophet is a woman?
You remember Philip, the evangelist? He had four daughters that prophesied. Your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions. This is
why Paul is writing this to the worship service. Now you get
that with that in mind. Look at this. Verse 29, Let the
prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. And
if anything be revealed to another that saith it by, let the first
hold his peace. So he said, you've got a lot
of prophets there. Just about three of you. That's about all
the time you're going to have. You're going to wear people out.
So about three of you, that's enough to speak. You do it one
at a time. Do it one at a time. And if something
is revealed to another prophet, then you sit down and let him
speak. Verse 31, For you may all, all
you prophets, You may all prophesy one by one that all the church
may learn and may be comforted. And he says, you fellows that
are saying that the Holy Ghost is coming upon you and you can't
control yourself, look at this. The spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets. If you're getting out of control
and disorderly, no, that's not the Spirit of God. He's not the
author of confusion. You can sit down and be patient
and wait. For God is not the author of
confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches. Notice what
he said. Let your women keep silence in
the church. You got any women in the churches
that are prophetess? Anna was a prophetess. You let
them keep quiet. There's a place for them to prophesy.
There's a place when the Spirit of God moves upon them and they
can foretell, they can speak, but not in the worship. Not in
the worship. And look what he says, "...for
it is not permitted to them to speak, but they are commanded
to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they learn
anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a
shame for a woman, even if she is a prophetess, to speak in
the church." What? I read this to my dad one time.
I read through verse 35 to him, and that's what he said. Because
he'd been used to these women preaching. Getting up and start
testifying, they're just preaching. And I read this to him and stopped
in verse 35, and he said, what? And I went ahead and I said,
let me read verse 36. And I started with, what? What? Came the Word of God out from
you, or it came into you only? If any man think himself to be
a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that
I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." This is not my
opinion. This is inspired Scripture. God's
breathing this out. Now, as the New Testament begins
to be written and fulfilled, we didn't have a need for prophets.
Thank God for the prophets. Of what use were they to the
church? Well, if you and I would just remember that all the church
had basically was the Old Testament Scriptures. At this time, Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians, they had very few epistles, early
epistles, if any. So the prophets were very, very
edifying. enlightenment to the church.
They got this fresh light, these new revelations. They could tell
them what the Old Testament Scriptures meant. They had special light.
Or He'd give them revelations of things that they'd never heard
before. So it was very profitable to the church. But as the New
Testament Scriptures became poor, as these epistles were written,
You see there, you don't see these prophets mentioned anymore.
You look in Paul's pastoral epistle to Titus and Timothy and Philemon,
you don't see prophets mentioned. Why? They didn't need them anymore,
did they? They didn't need them anymore.
Just like the apostles. We had the full, what do you
call it, the full canon, We had all the Scriptures that we needed. Now, now, the church could take
this New Testament in a book just like we got it, or scrolls,
and they could lay it down and they could read. They could read
it for themselves. And they had a Spirit, the Holy
Spirit, an option to teach them what these things meant. So therefore,
the need for prophets ceased. They ceased. Peter wrote to him
and said, desire the sin-sealed miracle of the Word. You mean,
Peter, we've got it? Yeah, you've got it now. You've
got it all. It's collected, and you've got it. So you can read
it for yourself and meditate in it, and the Spirit of God
will teach you. Throughout, especially the dark ages, Catholicism, one
of the things Catholicism did that was so wrong, They took
the Bibles away from the church. And the reason they did that
was to keep them ignorant. Because the entrance of God's
Word gives light. And there was a priest that saw
a peasant one day, and the peasant had found him a little Bible,
and he was reading it. And the priest said, give me that. He
said, if you want the sin-sealed milk of the Word, you come to
me, and I'll give you the milk of the Word. And that old peasant
said, I appreciate that. I really do. But he said, you
know, I sort of like to keep a cow myself. I sort of like
to keep a cow myself. I appreciate anybody that's willing
to give me the sincere milk of the Word. I've got a cow. I've got a cow. I like to milk
her myself, don't you? And that's why we don't need
these guys anymore. We don't need the prophets anymore.
And I'll tell you this much. I'll tell you this much. When
you see these guys that's running around, these people running
around, this modern time, the last hundred years or so, and
they profess they have some special light, a new revelation, mark
it down. Trouble's coming. There was a
man, you can never think of his name because I wrote it down,
Charles Russell. Charles Russell. And Judge Rutherford,
the fellow that took his place, Charles Russell says, God has
given me special light. He says Jesus Christ in 1874
came back secretly. So the resurrections passed now.
And they established a new denomination. And you know what it was? Jehovah's Witnesses. Special
light. There was another man by the
name of Joseph Smith. And he said, God has revealed
to me some new thing. And He's given me these golden
plates. And He showed me that the church has been lost all
of these ages. And He showed me how to recover.
And he came up with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. When people start claiming new
light, you can just about put your finger right there on an
arrow. 1916, the era of this tongue
business started out in San Francisco, California, and spread all across
our nation. This thing of ultra-dispensationalism,
that there's two Gospels and not one, one for the Jews, you
can put your finger on where that started. And the man professed,
God has revealed something new to me. We don't have prophets. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave us the gift, but we don't have any more. We don't have
them. Why don't we need them? Right
here. The entrance of Thy Word gives
light. That's all we need, isn't it?
That's all we want. Light. Don't need prophets. Don't
need prophets. Evangelists. Evangelists. Third, apostles, prophets, and
now evangelists. This word is just mentioned two
times in the entire New Testament. Acts chapter 21, verse 8 says,
Philip, the evangelist. And then 2 Timothy 4.5, Paul
told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. Now, I want to
read you just a few short statements here. Two statements from Webster. He gives the definition of an
evangelist, and I want to give you a definition of guilt. I'm
not too dogmatic on this. I've got my own opinion about
it, and I'll tell you in just a minute. Here's what Webster says, the
definition of an evangelist. He said, evangelist is a writer
of the history and the doctrine and the precepts and action and
life and death and resurrection of our blessed Savior. And then
he gives those who are evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Now, if you take that definition of an evangelist, we don't have
any more evangelists today, do we? Because we have nobody that's
given the history. We're just telling the history.
We're repeating the history that's already been given. But he goes
on, secondly, to say this, that evangelist is a preacher or publisher
of the gospel of Christ, one who is licensed to preach, but
not having any charge over a particular church. In other words, he's
just a preacher in a congregation, and he goes out everywhere and
preaches. Now, if that's true of many evangelists, then we
have several of them, don't we? We have many evangelists. But
here's what Gill says, and listen to this. The evangelists were
below the apostles and prophets, and they were above the pastor
and teacher. They were the companions of the
apostles, and assistance to them, and subserved them, they served
them in their work. Such were Philip, and Timothy,
and Luke, and Mark, and Titus, and many others," he said. These
were not stated and fixed ministers of any one place as the pastors
and teachers were, but were sent here and there as the apostles
thought fit. Now, I sort of agree with what
Gil says here. If we take what Webster says,
then we know many evangelists. When I go somewhere else to preach,
I have Larry Christensen come here sometime to preach to you.
Who is he? He's not an evangelist. But if
we take Gil's definition of what evangelists are, that they were
chosen and given to help the apostles and to aid the apostles,
then we don't have evangelists today. And the reason I sort
of lean that way is because he doesn't say the evangelists are
pastors and teachers. But evangelists are a particular
office in themselves. And this was their office, to
aid the apostles and to help the apostles. Paul left Titus
at Crete, remember that? And he says, I've left you there
to ordain elders in every city. You're an evangelist. He told
Timothy, I've sent you to Ephius to set in order and to keep order
there in the churches. He said, bring Mark with you
for he's profitable to me. Mark is profitable to me as an
evangelist, a minister. And then in Acts chapter 8, I
think that the Philip was sent down to Samaria by the apostles. Because when they believed the
gospel that he preached, he set for the apostles to come down
and lay hands on. If that be so, then we don't have any evangelists
today. But I'm not too dogmatic about
that. And I don't know what we call these men, if that be the
case, who we call evangelists today. I don't know what we may
call them. Okay, fourthly, pastors and teachers. Now, this is one office. This
is one office. Pastors and teachers. Now, this
is going to relieve some of you fellows. This is going to relieve
some pressure off of Larrity, some pressure off of Clarence,
some pressure off of Terrence. And if Brother Glenn was here,
he'd say, I like that. There's probably nowhere in the
Scriptures that we have an office of teacher. I don't know any
place where the Lord called a teacher. Pastors here and teachers are
one office. Notice how he said that when
he said apostles and then he gave some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers. Pastors and teachers he links
together. So that's one office. Now why do I say that's probably
going to help Brother Larry? Because probably if you corner
Brother Larry up and you say, Larry, do you believe that the
Lord's called you to teach? And he may tell you, well, I
don't know about that. I just don't know. I don't know
if he has an eye, you know. Well, he'd probably be right
in saying, you know, I doubt it. Because there probably is
no office of a teacher. But you know what the Scripture
calls them? Exhorters. This is what they used to call
what you do, Mary, back in the 1800s. They called you an exhorter. And you know what the Scripture
says about exhorting? Exhort one another. Exhort one
another. If I cannot say, well, the Lord's
called me to preach, but I tell you what, He's called all of
us to exhort. So I'll try to do that. As much
as in me, I don't boast myself of a gift I may not have, but
I'll exhort. I'll study 1 Peter. And as God
gives me light on 1 Peter, I'll give it to you. We all can do
that, can't we? We all can do that. The pastor
is a teacher. Let me read just two Scriptures
and I'll close. Look here in 1 Peter chapter
5. 1 Peter chapter 5 and Hebrews chapter 13 concerning pastors. Sometimes you read about these
pastors and they're called elders. That's mostly the name they go
under, elders. Sometimes they go under the name
of bishop. Overseers. Here's what Peter
says to them. Look at this. 1 Peter chapter
5. The elders which are among you, the pastors which are among
you, I exhort, who have also an elder, and a witness of the
sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory which
shall be revealed, feed the flock of God. Feed the flock. You elders. You elders, feed
the flock of God. What do you feed them with? God has a flock. They're God's
flock. He chose them. He redeemed them. He called them. Now feed them.
What do you feed them? What do you feed sheep? You feed
them sheep's food, don't you? Preach the Word. Man shall not
live by bread alone. but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God." My words, the Lord Jesus said, are
spirit in their life. Feed them the Word. Give them
the Word. That'll help them. That'll help
them. I tell you what the Word of God does. You know what the
Word of God does? He'll give you life. You know that? The preached Word will give you
life. Of His own will begot He us through
and by the Word of truth. You know why I preached this
morning. Not just to help you. But there's lost people here.
And I preach with the expectation and the hope that as I preach,
the Holy Spirit is going to take that Word to their hearts. And
somewhere, He's going to give them life. The words I speak
are Spirit in their life. Feed the flock. Peter, feed my
sheep. Feed my lambs. Feed them with
the Word. Feed the flock of God which is among you. Look, among
you. Among you. That's where I'm at. I'm your pastor. Where am I? I'm not a cardinal, set over
in Indianapolis, over two or three states, or over fifty churches. I'm among you. I'm not a pope
over all the churches of the world. I'm among you. I'm right here among you. You don't believe I'm among you
and close to you? Give me a call. You're in trouble some night,
or some one, three o'clock? Give me a call. I'll show you.
I'm among you. I'm just as you are, brothers
and sisters. I suffer the same heartaches, the same burdens,
the same trials, the same weaknesses. I'm just like you. I'm among
you. One sinner preaching to another. I'm among you. That's
who I am. Taking the oversight. That word
means to watch, to inspect, to guard, to watch over, and to
inspect. That's a strange word for a For
a pastor to inspect. I had a lady tell me one time,
she said, this is none of your business what I do. I said, yes
it is. Yes it is. Yes, God's made it
my business what you do, dear soul. I'm an inspector. I watch. I watch. And I'm a guardian. I'm a guardian. Not by constraint. Look what
he says. Not by constraint. Not because
others says we want you to do it. Not because nobody else will
do it, so you're going to have to do it. And don't do it because
you're constrained to make a living by it. But how do we do it? Willingly. Because Christ has
called us. Christ has given us the gift.
And He's given us grace. And He's given us power to do
it. Do it for His glory. Do it for the good of the church.
Do it of a ready mind. One thing I have to pray, and
I almost have to pray this constantly, I'll be honest with you. Lord,
give me a willing mind. Give me a willing mind to study,
to give my time to this, and to preach and be a pastor to
these people, and do it willingly. Do it willingly. Look at this. Verse 3. Neither as being Lord
over God's heritage. God's heritage. You're God's
people. You're His inheritance. But being
examples to the flock. You don't drive the flock. And
the only way you lead them is by example. And this thing, it's
every pastor ought to say, follow me. Clerks follow me. Follow
me. That's your example. Follow me.
You say, I believe God. Believe Him like I do. You say,
I follow Christ wherever He leads. You do the same thing. Example. And then when the chief shepherds
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth
not away. Okay, one more Scripture and
we'll close and read this. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews
13 and verse 7. This is a pastor. He gave some
pastors. I think, brothers and sisters,
and I'm not too dogmatic about this, it wouldn't behoove me
to be dogmatic about this, but I think probably, I think probably,
in the church in our day, probably the only office we have left
is the pastor. We have many gifts, and I said
just a few weeks ago, we can't do without them. We can't do
without them. We can't do without the helps.
We cannot. Whatever capacity you serve the
Lord Jesus Christ and His church, I'm telling you, we can't do
without you. But this is probably the only
office that you and I are looking at tonight that's left. The apostles? We don't have any apostles. We
don't have any prophets. We may very well not have any
evangelists in the strictest sense of the word. Probably all
we've got left is pastors and teachers. But you know, that's
all we need. That's all we need. The world says, don't preach
to me. Well, if the Lord ever speaks to you, He'll be through
preaching. He'll be through preaching. Hebrews 13 and verse 7. Remember
them. Remember your pastor. Remember
your elders. They have the rule over you.
Not as lords. Not driving you. Threatening
you. Bribing you. But by example. They have the rule over you.
And they have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith
follow, considering the end of their lifestyle, considering
the end of their life, their conversation. Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, today, and forever. Look in verse 17. Obey them which
have the rule over you, and submit yourselves to them. They're not
going to ask you to do or to be anything but what the Scriptures
gives them authority to command of you and ask of you. So obey
them. For they watch for your souls. Oh my! You put yourself in the
pastor's shoes. You put yourself in the pastor's
shoes. What he's doing some mornings when you're asleep, you know
what he's doing? He's on his bedside. On his knees, watering
his pillow with his tears. Why? Because he's watching. Oh
God, keep this people. Oh Lord, visit this one. Lord,
visit that family. He's watching. So watch your
souls. Not your finances. Not your jobs. But your souls. Your precious
souls. He's watching. He's making sure that you don't
err from Christ. Don't err from the faith. He's
making sure that you keep your eye on Christ and let go of this
world and this thing and live to Him your souls. And look at this. Here's what
your pastor is going to have to do soon. As they that must
give account. I've got to give account. If
I ever get on to some of you and it seems hateful, Here's
why. I've got to give account. I've
got to give account. It's not only just about your
precious soul, but it's about me standing before my Lord and
giving an account. And look at this. Remember this.
That they may do it, that they may watch over your soul and
preach to you and guide you with joy and not with grief. For that's unprofitable for you. So these are precious offices,
aren't they? And what would we do without them? What would we
do without them? What would we do without the
gift of the apostles and prophets and evangelists? What would we
do without our pastors to teach us and to guide us? Oh, I thank
my husband for them, don't you? I thank my husband. He's my husband.
Cindy's your husband. He's my husband. He's Clarence's
husband. He's Joe's husband. Christ our husband. And he loves
us so much he sent us this gift. And we value it, don't we? We
value these gifts. I know you value them. I know
you value me. I know you pray for me. Let's
pray.