God’s Ministry Gifts

(Ephesians 4:8-11)

When Jesus died, He returned to the Father. His death was not the end of His ministry because we see after He left that the Apostles carried on the next phase of the work, which was to spread the gospel across the earth.

Jesus had trained His early disciples to do this work, but there needed to be the same level and degree of spiritual training and guidance for the work to carry on, especially after those first disciples had passed away and gone to the Lord.

To achieve the ongoing work, God gave the ministry gifts to men. Jesus had all of these gifts Himself, but the work of ministry was to be carried on by the church. So God gave different gifts to different people according to what they could do or was a best fit, so that the work would continue. And those ministry gifts are still being given out by God today to ensure the church continues to learn, grow and mature.

What are the ministry Gifts?

There are many gifts given by God to man, but not all of them a re the ministry gifts as given to the church. For example, the Holy Spirit gives the gift of speaking in tongues and while it is an important and useful gift when used correctly, it is not one of the ministry gifts given to the church. Rather, the gift of tongues is given to individuals for the purposes of walking in the Spirit, which I have discussed elsewhere and you can find by searching in the search tab on the right.

Here we see the five ministry gifts given to the church which are:

• Apostles
• Prophets
• Evangelists
• Pastors
• Teachers

These five gifts are all required to ensure the growth, expansion, security and maturity of the church. In brief, these are the functions of the five ministry gifts.

Apostles – The first twelve disciples were appointed as Apostles, as too was Paul. An Apostle typically will have a number of the other gifts as well because their primary work is to establish churches. At the simplest level, an Apostle is “one who is sent.” They are sent out by the Lord to take the word and the work to other places and peoples so as to grow and establish the church. Apostles are never new Christians as they have great responsibility. They are well-versed in the scripture so as to be able to answer the many issues that come up in a new church, and to provide guidance as the church begins to grow.

Prophets – Prophets in the church operate the gift of prophecy through the working of the Holy Spirit. God wants His people to know what is happening and to inform, guide or direct His people when and where necessary. Prophets speak the words of God by the Holy Spirit to help the church understand the will of God.

Evangelists – Those who have this gift are the ones who spread the gospel to the masses. They take the word of God out into the world to build the church. Evangelists, along with Apostles, are the ones who fulfil the first part of the Great Commission, which was to go out and make disciples. They bring in the people to the church for the other ministries to then shepherd and teach so that the new disciples learn and grow.

Pastors – The work of pastors is to shepherd the flock of God. They are the ones who take care of and protect the members of the church, especially the younger members, by helping them to deal with issues that come upon Christians. Theirs is a protecting and feeding (in a spiritual sense) role.

Teachers – The role of teachers is self-explanatory. They teach the flock of God and the members of the church so that they can learn and understand the things of God. They need to have a very strong and deep understanding of the scriptures so as to impart the wisdom needed in every situation. They help the church to learn, grow and mature in Jesus Christ, and they have a responsibility also to sift right teachings from wrong.

This is a brief overview of the five ministry gifts given to the church. Two of the gifts (Apostles and Evangelists) are largely outward focused to grow the numbers in the church, while the other three gifts (Prophets, Pastors and Teachers) are inward focused to grow the members of the church spiritually.

But there is one more consideration that we must take into account.

Keeping the purity of the message

The first disciples of Jesus Christ were taught by Him and so they received the most perfect version of the gospel and the doctrine of the New Covenant as they heard it from the Son of God Himself. After Jesus died, the next generation of the church received their insights from those who were taught by Jesus and so they too had the purest form that was possible.

But as the years went by the ministry was bound to be watered down and altered so that the perfection of the first words given by Jesus would not continue on into future generations. This is typical of many forms of teaching that the further one gets from the source, the greater it differs from the original.

As children you may have played the game where a line of people would progressively whisper a story given to the first person in the line from one person to the next. As the story was told successively down the line, people forgot or omitted details until the last person received it and the story was completely different from the original.

God was aware that such a thing could and would happen too, because there were several variables that would impact the fulness of the truth as time went by.

He knew that man would gradually change the message, especially when you could perceive the power that existed in the message. Some men would come in to the church and pervert the truth for the sake of their own ends. They would take the original message and alter it to gain power over others.

Then there is the effect of the devil and the demons who would influence men to change the truth of the message and feed lies in to replace the truth. It is evident that the lies of the devil are quite persuasive for his lies have penetrated the church in many places and rendered the power of the gospel virtually useless. He has taken away the power of the gospel by having people believe certain things are not necessary and in some cases has brought in teachings that have no basis in scripture at all.

God knew all of this and expected it to happen. But He also had a solution for those who wanted to know the real truth; for those who sought Him out to find out what was right and what was wrong.

Taught by God

From the very beginning of the church we saw that the first disciples ere taught by Jesus, the Son of God.

There are a number of scriptures in the Bible that teach us that we shall be “taught by God.” For example:

“It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” (John 6:45)

This is an important thing to understand.

Even though God has given gifts to the church for the purpose of teaching and preaching to the church, it is God who gives the growth.

No person can understand the depths of the words of God unless they are opened up to them by God. He does this by giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit who teaches us individually and opens our eyes to see the what, when, where, why and how of the gospel. The Holy Spirit is the emissary of God to do this work, and to show each individual in ways that they can understand.

Different people have different orientations when it comes to learning. Some can learn by reading words. Others are visual or spatially aware and see things in different ways. Everyone is different.

That is why the Holy Spirit works with and in us to teach us because He knows what the will of God is and is able to translate that will into a form of message that we can individually understand.

Does this mean then that the ministry gifts are pointless?

By no means! They are essential because we need to first hear the words of God and seek counsel to know what is going on. We can learn from those who went before us who can explain how things work in the Lord, and then the Holy Spirit can reveal to us the message so that we can understand it.

Paul was aware of this and he spoke about it this way.

6 I planted, Apol’los watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)

It is the work of those who have the ministry gifts to do the “planting and watering” so that God can give the growth.

Those who receive the ministry gifts work hand in hand with God to plant and nurture the word in the disciples and the church, so that God can then step in and help them grow to maturity. The teaching, preaching, pastoring and evangelising work brings people to the place where God can give the growth by having the indwelling Holy Spirit reveal the things of God to each member of the church.

This is the power of the God’s ministry gifts. Those who receive His gifts work with Him as He builds His church.

You might also like:

Anointing Of Jesus
The Christian Value Proposition
Jesus Knew What Was In Man
No Comparison
Receiving God
God Gives Good Gifts
The Holy Spirit
Promise Of Salvation
Taught By Jesus
Sharing The Load
Receiving The Holy Spirit
Apostles And Elders
The Holy Spirit At Work
If God Is For Us
Many Parts One Body
Gifts From God
Harmony In The Church
Pursue Love And Spiritual Gifts
Command Of The Lord