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Ministry Gift Part II - Purpose of Ministry Gifts SIB
METRO CHURCH BIBLE CLASS – 16.10.2008, Thursday Night at 8 p.m. Conducted by Ronny Cham MINSTRY GIFTS – PART II [THE PURPOSE
OF MINISTRY GIFTS] Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-6 1 I,
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling
with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness,
with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one
body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5
one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who
is above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 But
to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8
Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men." 9(Now
this, "He ascended" — what does it mean but that He also first
descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is
also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all
things.) 11 And
He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the
work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we
all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a
perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14
that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of
deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up
in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — 16 from whom the whole body,
joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the
effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body
for the edifying of itself in love. (NKJV) KEEPING
THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE In Ephesians
4:1-6, Paul spoke of himself as “a prisoner” bound for a particular
purpose in Christ. A prisoner is
one who has no more freedom or liberty to live or do things as he wishes.
Besides the basic human rights, a prisoner has no rights which he can insist upon, he is bound by the rules and regulation of the prison
authority. Each one of us as a Christian, as Paul had described, is a prisoner
of Christ, no longer free to live as we wish, but according to His commandment
and Word. Paul
said in Galatians 2:20 that, “I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (NKJV) We choose to be a prisoner of Christ. Therefore,
we must relate this truth to our daily life in the Church. Every single one of us as a Christian
must subscribe to this truth and this confession of our faith in a local
church, whether leaders or a mere common member of a local church. On this
truth, we, individually and corporately as a church, are able to walk worthy of
our calling, with lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with
one another in love. Only then we can
understand the primary focus of spiritual ministries in the church, i.e. “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace”. How do
we keep the unity of the Spirit? Each member of the church, as an individual
Christian, must walk worthy of Christ’s calling and must bear with each
other patiently in love, with humility and gentleness. Why do
we need to do that? It is because we are one body, all in One God, one Father,
one spirit, one faith, one baptism, in one Lord. There is no difference between
church leadership and an ordinary member of the church as far as the calling of
the Lord is concerned; and as far as spiritual ministry in the church is
concerned. Any one
of us in the ministry who ignore or live in contempt of this commandment to
keep the Unity of the Spirit, is not worthy of the calling and usually, the
Lord will take us out of ministry. There are examples in the Old and New
Testaments to this effect. This is
not a threat because in verses 7, 8 and 9 of Ephesians 4, Paul acknowledges and
so we do, that ministry gifts are Christ’s gifts and such gifts are given
by Him according to His grace. By
His grace He has given us gifts to minister. It is therefore His prerogative to take
such gifts and remove such grace from us if we walk unworthy of His calling as ministers
of the Kingdom of Heaven in the local church. There
is no wonder that Paul would continue to say that: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers”. (verse
11) This means that even the
ministry of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, these
are individual Christians called by the Lord, given His grace to function as
such. These are people bestowed
upon the local church as gifts from the Lord. THESE
MINISTRY GIFTS ARE IN THE MIDST OF A LOCAL CHURCH Yes,
these are not individuals identified as super-ministers in the world-wide Church,
but they are in the midst of us in the local church. Their functions are for the “equipping
of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ” (verse 12). We tend
to read verse 12 as saying that these apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors
and teachers are individual Christian leaders in the world and not in the local
church because we tend to think that verse 13 talks of “perfect
man” and “stature of the fullness of Christ” in relation to “the
body of Christ”. However,
verses 14 and 15 will bring us back to the reality of the local church: “14 that we should no
longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting, 15 but,
speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head
— Christ” These
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are in the midst of a
local church, yes, in one local church.
Through them, each member of the local church is to be equipped for the
work of ministry, and to be edified as “one body” of Christ, till everyone
comes to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a
perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Verse
16 thus speaks of the “joining” and “knitting” together
the local churches, as parts of the body, into a whole body, “according to the effective working by which
every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself
in love” (NKJV) Next
week we will look into these gifts to the local church. Ronny Cham |
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