TOM · The Owner's Manual · New Testament

Ephesians 4

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Now Paul switches from who you are to how you walk. Keep the unity of the Spirit. Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip you, so you grow up and stop getting tossed around. Take off the old self, put on the new. Be angry but do not sin. Be kind and forgive.

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In this chapterThe Big Question · Christians disagreeThe Fivefold Ministry · after verse 20

Unity in the Body// Psalm 133:1–3; 1 Corinthians 1:10–17

¹As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received: ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

⁷Now to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. ⁸This is why it says:

“When He ascended on high,

He led captives away,

and gave gifts to men.”

EPH 4:8[FULFILLS]He would ascend on high and give gifts to men ← PS 68:18

⁹What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the very One who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things.

¹¹And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.

EPH 4:11[NOTABLE]The fivefold ministry. Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to His church, and their job is to equip every believer to do the ministry. See The Fivefold Ministry pages.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. ¹⁶From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.

New Life in Christ// Colossians 3:1–17

¹⁷So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. ¹⁹Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.

EPH 4:18[HEART]The Gentiles are cut off from God because of the hardness of their hearts.

²⁰But this is not the way you came to know Christ. ²¹Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus— ²²to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

The Big Question · Christians disagree

The Fivefold Ministry

(God's Org Chart)

Ephesians 4:7 to 16 · 2:20

WHAT PAUL SAID: When Jesus went back to heaven, He gave gifts to His people, 4:8. The gifts are people: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, 4:11. Their job is not to do all the work. It is to equip the saints for works of ministry, 4:12, until we all reach unity and grow up into Christ, 4:13. Continuists call this list the fivefold ministry. Over all of it, Jesus Himself is the chief cornerstone, 2:20.
FIVE OR FOUR?: In the Greek, apostles, prophets and evangelists each get their own word the. But pastors and teachers share just one: the pastors and teachers, like one team. So some say it is really a fourfold ministry, with pastor and teacher as one job. Most Greek scholars say the two are tied together but not exactly the same: every pastor is a teacher, but not every teacher is a pastor. A shepherd who cannot teach cannot feed the sheep.
THE HAND PICTURE: Many teachers use your hand. The thumb is the apostle, because it can touch every other finger. The pointer is the prophet, pointing the way. The middle finger is the evangelist, reaching farthest out. The ring finger is the pastor, married to the flock. The pinky is the teacher, small enough to get into the ear. It is a picture, not a verse, but it sticks.
APOSTLE: THE ONE WHO IS SENT: Apostle means sent one. An apostle is sent to start something new: a church, a ministry, a work in a new place, like Paul planting churches across the Roman world. Many teachers say an apostle can work in all five gifts when needed. Paul called himself a preacher, an apostle and a teacher, 2 Timothy 1:11. Some today also speak of marketplace apostles, people sent to build businesses that fund and spread the gospel, like Paul the tentmaker, Acts 18:3. That is a modern way of saying it, not a Bible term.
PROPHET: THE WATCHMAN: A prophet hears from God and speaks it. Sometimes that means telling the future, like Agabus, who warned of a famine and of Paul's arrest, Acts 11:28 and 21:10 to 11. Sometimes it means exposing what is hidden, so the secrets of a heart come out, 1 Corinthians 14:24 to 25, and warning against deception. Prophets work side by side with apostles, 2:20. Every prophecy gets weighed, 1 Corinthians 14:29.
STRANGE AND HEAVY: Prophets are often unusual people who carry heavy burdens. Isaiah walked barefoot and stripped for three years, Isaiah 20:2 to 3. Ezekiel lay on his side for 390 days, Ezekiel 4:4 to 6. Hosea married an unfaithful wife. Jeremiah wore an ox yoke and was thrown into a muddy pit. John the Baptist ate locusts. Many go through pain most people could never imagine.
EVANGELIST: THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT: An evangelist gets the good news out and brings people in. Philip the evangelist led a city in Samaria to Jesus, then one man on a desert road, Acts 8 and 21:8. If the church were a company, the evangelist would be marketing. Paul told Timothy, do the work of an evangelist, 2 Timothy 4:5.
PASTOR: THE SHEPHERD: Pastor means shepherd. A shepherd feeds, leads, protects and counsels the flock. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, John 10:11, and the Chief Shepherd, 1 Peter 5:4. Paul told the Ephesian elders, shepherd the church of God, Acts 20:28.
TEACHER: THE TRANSLATOR: A teacher breaks the Bible down so anyone can get it, idiot proof. Priscilla and Aquila explained the way of God more accurately to Apollos, Acts 18:26. Teachers will be judged more strictly, James 3:1.

Apostles and Prophets Today?

Ephesians 2:20 · 4:11 to 13 · Acts 1:21 to 22

THE CESSATIONIST SIDE: Cessationists believe the offices of apostle and prophet ended with the first generation. An apostle had to be an eyewitness of the risen Jesus, Acts 1:21 to 22 and 1 Corinthians 9:1, and Paul called himself the last of all to see Him, 1 Corinthians 15:8. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 2:20, and you only lay a foundation once. Now we have the finished Bible. Most cessationists gladly keep evangelists, pastors and teachers, and some call missionaries apostles in a small sense, sent ones.
THE CONTINUIST SIDE: Continuists point to 4:13: these gifts last until we all reach unity and full maturity, and that has not happened yet. Paul was writing to ordinary believers in Ephesus, none of them part of the Twelve, about gifts Christ gives His church. The Bible calls others apostles too: Barnabas, Acts 14:14, James the brother of Jesus, Galatians 1:19, Andronicus and Junia, Romans 16:7, and Silas and Timothy, 1 Thessalonians 2:6. The Twelve had a role nobody can repeat, Revelation 21:14, but the gift of being sent did not stop.
WHAT THE EARLY CHURCH SAID: About AD 100, a church manual called the Didache gave rules for traveling apostles and prophets: welcome an apostle like the Lord, but if he stays three days or asks for money, he is a false prophet. So apostles and prophets were still around after the Twelve. Even John Calvin, a hero of the cessationist side, wrote in 1559 that God still occasionally raises them up when the times require it, and that He had raised up apostles, or at least evangelists, in Calvin's own day.
WHERE THE WORD CAME FROM: The phrase fivefold ministry took off with the Latter Rain revival in Canada in 1948, then spread through the charismatic movement. The Assemblies of God rejected Latter Rain in 1949. Today it says apostolic and prophetic ministry still works, but it does not give anyone the title apostle or prophet.
WHO IS THE PASTOR ACCOUNTABLE TO?: The New Testament put a team of elders in every church, Acts 14:23, not one man alone. Without apostles and prophets, many pastors today answer to no one. Many believe that is why God often places prophetic people on elder and deacon boards, even when nobody calls them prophets.
A WORD OF CAUTION: Since the 1990s, some groups have named their own apostles and prophets who demand loyalty, money or obedience. Titles are not the point. Real apostles serve. Real prophets point to Jesus. Test them all, 1 John 4:1, just as Jesus praised the Ephesians for testing false apostles, Revelation 2:2.
THE POINT: Whatever you call them, the goal never changes: equip every believer for ministry, 4:12, so the whole body grows up into Jesus, the Head, 4:15 to 16.

²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another. ²⁶“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold.

EPH 4:25[QUOTES]Quotes ← ZECH 8:16
EPH 4:26[QUOTES]Direct ← PS 4:4

²⁸He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.

²⁹Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up the one in need and bringing grace to those who listen.

EPH 4:29[NOTABLE]Your words can build people up or tear them down. Mean talk, bitterness and rage grieve the Holy Spirit, so the Spirit has feelings. The cure is to forgive the way God forgave you: fully, and before you deserved it.

³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

Ephesians 4

Unity in the Body// Psalm 133:1–3; 1 Corinthians 1:10–17

New Life in Christ// Colossians 3:1–17

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