<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> You Have Work To Do

You Have Work To Do

By William R. Cunningham
Sunday March 4, 2007

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NKJV) -- {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.

Introduction

Christians collectively comprise the body of Christ, the true Church. The body of Christ is not a mere organization that exists to worship and praise God or even to just learn about the Bible. The body of Christ has work to do and that work involves two things. We are to edify each other and to preach the gospel to everyone to effect reconciliation to God. I suppose we could really say that the work of the church is indeed to spread the gospel and to effectively do that we must be edified.

We unfortunately get caught up with the day to day chores and the weekly religious obligations and therefore don’t do the very work that we are called to do (For example see Matthew 13:22). Some are also just unaware of the fact that they have work to do in the body of Christ and for the Lord. Those who are mature in the faith therefore have a responsibility to help edify those who are not mature so that all are edified. All Christians should be familiar with the fundamental Christian doctrines and have established an intimate relationship with the Lord.

We have looked to church leaders (religious leaders to be more precise) to help us learn how to live a righteous life and how to please God only to find that many do not care about God or us. People use religion to steal money and resources from the unaware flock. The flock is unaware because they were never taught nor were they told to go and learn.

Hosea 4:4-6 (NKJV) -- {4} “Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; For your people are like those who contend with the priest. {5} Therefore you shall stumble in the day; The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; And I will destroy your mother. {6} My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

This scripture passage is interesting because something very similar is going on today. People who call themselves preachers are causing the flock to stumble. The flock is not learning about God nor are they learning to go to God so they remain ignorant and therefore pray to any wind of doctrine. It is also interesting to note that the priests in the passage above were really dedicated to the king not God. See 1 Kings 22:6-8 and contrast with Amos 7:10-17.

The priests who were supposed to have been teaching the people the law of God were neglecting their duties causing the people to fall into ignorance and stumble. Even today those who claim to be men and women of God are really leading the people astray. See Jeremiah 23:1.

What must be done? What can we do? There is a lot that has to be done and there is a lot that we can do. We first must stand for God and realize that God has equipped us to do our part to edify the church. You have been equipped by God to do good works. Jesus said to let your light so shine before men that they would see your good works and glorify God. You have a part to play in God’s call to salvation. You have a job to do to help people learn about Christ and put their faith in Christ for salvation. Church we have work to do and that is the topic of this discussion, which we will use Ephesians 4:11-16 as a foundation.

Scripture Lesson

Ephesians 4:11-12 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…”

The “He Himself” in this scripture refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus supplied the body of Christ with apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Now we should note the strict sense of the word apostle here and how it applies to the Christian faith. There are many people who call themselves apostles, but what does that really mean.

Apostles

An apostle is simply a special messenger of Jesus Christ. This refers to those who Jesus sent out after his resurrection (the eleven). Those eleven apostles chose another to replace Judas Iscariot. However, note that the qualifications of this “new” apostle included the same items as the original apostles.

Acts 1:21-22 (NKJV) -- {21} “Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, {22} beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”

The word “apostle” was also used in the New Testament to denote a messenger. This could be a messenger of a particular local church for example (See 2 Corinthians 8:23). It also was used by Paul to refer to himself as an apostle because of the authority and call on his life by Jesus Christ. Paul also considered others to be apostles who had seen the risen Lord after his resurrection and were subsequently called to be witnesses.

We should note that the authority of the original apostles was not transferred to others. The apostles appointed elders and bishops in the church, but their unique authority, which was directly from Jesus Christ, was not transferred to those. Therefore, there is no apostolic authority in the church today apart from the word of those apostles that we have in the Bible. No authority exists outside of the word of God in regards to the fundamental Christian faith. We have the apostles’ authority within the Bible.

I need to make a point here about apostles and prophets respectively. The first, as I said previously, is that all of the apostles are dead. There are no apostles such as John, Peter, and Paul who could claim that Jesus sent them with the authority that they had. The apostles of Jesus Christ established the teachings that we now use. No person today can claim to have that kind of authority within the Christian faith.

Prophets

Prophets were those who spoke for God and communicated his message, which sometimes included foretelling events according to God’s will. These were the prophets of the Old Testament that we are familiar with.

Prophets in the New Testament were different. Remember that the Christian cannon had not been established so the authority of the Christian faith was commissioned to apostles and prophets. The prophets in the New Testament were those who communicated God’s will for the church. As with the apostles the authority of the apostles was not transferred after the first generation of prophets and apostles. We have their words in the New Testament cannon to refer to as authority for the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Hebrews 1:1-2 (NKJV) -- {1} God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, {2} has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

Again we see that anyone who calls herself a prophet really has no authority over the body of Christ. There may be proclamations that people may have, but they are only specific to a particular thing and are not fundamental. For example, I could tell you that God wants Pursuing the Truth Ministries to move forward in ministry to the Australians. However, that has nothing to do with neither fundamental Christian doctrine nor your life whatsoever. I am just communicating what I believe that God wants Pursuing the Truth Ministries to do.

So we should be very careful when someone calls himself an apostle or prophet. We can hear from God through his word and through the personal relationship that we have established with him. We must also realize that the authority of our lives ultimately rests with Jesus Christ and not a bishop, pastor, or prophet. This has been the area that I have found were people are led astray. People tend to believe that the apostle, bishop, pastor, etc. have some kind of god-given authority over their lives. However, the truth of the matter is that their authority does not travel that deeply within our lives.

Evangelists

Evangelists are simply those who proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word is derived from a Hebrew word that means to proclaim victory in battle. The evangelists are basically one who communicates the gospel of Jesus Christ to others.

Pastors and Teachers

I believe that there is much misconception about the term pastor. The word “pastor” in the New Testament denoted a feeder, protector, and guide, or shepherd of a flock of God’s people. It was not used to indicate a title as it is today. The same Greek word was used elsewhere as sheepherder (See Matthew 25:32). The term “pastor” implied nourishing of and caring for God’s people.

We have come to think of pastors as leaders of the church and who have authority over us and such is not the case. The pastor is a leader by influence because of the respect given him or her by the congregation that he cares for. The pastor is first and foremost a servant of God for the people. A pastor serves the people.

So God placed those within the body of Christ that would nourish God’s people with the word of God and who would protect and care for them. They would be protected from false apostles, prophets, and from false doctrines.

Some suggest that pastors and teachers refer to one office within the church while others say that they are two separate offices. A pastor will instruct the flock because that is how he or she would feed the flock. So in that regard it probably doesn’t matter. A teacher instructs the people in the things that pertain to the fundamentals of the Christian faith in New Testament times. Now however, a teacher would instruct us in the things written in the New Testament cannon and help us to understand what the message of the Bible and a particular passage of scripture.

Edification and the Work of Ministry

So the point here is that Jesus has placed within the body of Christ those who would equip and edify the body so that it would do the work of ministry. This is a very important point in regards to how God has equipped the body of Christ.

The word “edify” means to be built up and in this case it refers to the process of becoming mature in the faith. We are built up to maturity so that we could effectively do the work of ministry. This means that we must be mature in our Christian faith if we are going to effectively do the work of ministry. The work of ministry is basically a work to meet the needs of the people in regards to salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The work of ministry may take other forms as Jesus implied (See Matthew 25:31-46).

Working Versus Going Through the Motions

Note that we have to do the work of ministry. Are you doing the work of ministry? The work of ministry starts with you. Have you evaluated your life to see what you are all about? Have you taken the time to determine if you are on the track that God wants you to be on and that you are fulfilling the will of God for you. Does your church merely go through the motion Sunday after Sunday with no purpose whatsoever in place? What is the goal of your church? What is your goal? Are you merely going through the motions or are you truly trying to accomplish something?

Some churches have the same old services Sunday after Sunday, but are not accomplishing anything outside of the four walls. They have the same program that is played each Sunday, but nothing is being accomplished for the kingdom of God and in regards to the work of ministry. We need to put an end to this and begin to pursue those things that truly have meaning.

Doing the work of ministry is not Sunday services, anniversary services, and the plethora of services and programs that exist in the church community. The work of the ministry involves reaching the people with the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as meeting their needs.

No Longer Tossed To and Fro

Ephesians 4:14 (NKJV) -- {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,

The effect of edification is that we are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. However, since the church is not edified as it should be people are indeed swept away by all kinds of false doctrines. There are two reasons for this lack of edification.

The people in leadership within the church do not intend on edifying the body of Christ
The body of Christ don’t study the Bible

This is nothing new as we can see in the scripture passage below.

The priests were neglecting their duties and the people suffered because they weren’t being taught and subsequently fell into sin. The body of Christ is not being edified by true ministers and therefore is being led away by a plethora of false doctrines. This could be avoided if ministers within the body of Christ would edify the body and that the body would truly seek God.

Doing Our Share

Ephesians 4:15-16 (NKJV) -- {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.

When we are edified we can speak the truth in love in addition to not falling for false doctrines. Notice that Paul says that we are knit together by what every joint supply, according to the effective working by which we all do our share. This causes growth of the body for the edifying of the body in love.

We therefore must do our share within the body of Christ to contribute to the edification of the body. God has equipped you in a certain way and you should simply be you and do what God has wired you to do so to speak. We have to break out of the religious trap and begin being conscious of what God wants us to accomplish and begin to pursue that.

It is not the local church that does it but the Christians that comprise it. The local church is just an organizational unit, but it is the people that truly do the ministry. If the people do not care about God’s purposes or the work of ministry then that local church will be merely a religious institution. However, if we are conscious of what God wants and pursue that then we become a true congregation within the body of Christ accomplishing great things for God’s kingdom

Just be who you are. Not everyone is going to be a “preacher” in the sense that we use it today. Not everyone will have a penchant for Bible knowledge to be a Bible scholar. Just do what God wired you to do in the way that you are wired to do it. Just do your share.

Conclusion

We all have a part to play within the body of Christ. Some people are in more leadership-like positions, but the truth of the matter is that we all play a part in the edification of the body of Christ so that we would be equipped to do the work of ministry. Being edified protects us from falling for false doctrines that people proclaim with convincing words and performances only to lead us astray. Our knowledge of God and his word along with a strong personal relationship with the Lord go a long way to protect us from false doctrines and establishing edification within the body of Christ.

We do have a lot to do, but it starts with you. What are you going to do to be edified and to edify others? What are you going to do to ensure that you know the word of God and can share it with others. We indeed have work to do so let’s get ourselves together and stop playing the religious programs that we have been doing for so long and get down to business and do the work of ministry because we truly have a lot of work to do. Amen.