Devotional For Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Have you ever thought of yourself as a minister? Well, if you are saved and redeemed, according to Scripture, you are. When people ask me how many ministers we have at Southside, the number I give is the average attendance in worship. Look at Ephesians 4:11-12, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. (12) Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ” (NLT). So, what are the positions in the church?

• Apostles — this a reference to the original 12 disciples, minus Judas being replaced by Matthias and a few others. The apostles included more than the Twelve. Barnabas was an apostle (Acts 14:4, 14). James, the brother of our Lord, was an apostle (1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19). Silvanus was an apostle (1 Thessalonians 2:7). Andronicus and Junias were apostles (Romans 16:7). Contrary to some denominations today, the position of an Apostle died when those first century apostles died. The Greek New Testament word is [ἀπόστολος, apostolos] and it means “one who has been sent to preach the Gospel.” There were two requirements to be an apostle: 
  • First, an apostle must have seen Jesus. When Paul is claiming his own rights, faced by the opposition of Corinth, he demands: ‘Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?’ (1 Corinthians 9:1). This nullifies anyone today claiming to be an apostle.
  • Second, an apostle had to be a witness of the resurrection and of the risen Lord. When the eleven met to elect a successor to Judas the traitor, the one chosen had to be someone who had been with them throughout the earthly life of Jesus and had been a witness of the resurrection (Acts 1:21–2). Meaning — anyone who is going to teach Christ, must personally know Christ. This also nullifies anyone today claiming to be an apostle.
• Prophets — The prophets did not so much foretell the future as forth-tell the will of God. In forth-telling the will of God, they necessarily to some extent foretold the future, because they announced the consequences which would follow if people disobeyed that will. The prophets were wanderers throughout the Church. Their message was held to be not the result of thought and study but the direct result of the Holy Spirit. They had no homes and no families and no means of support. They went from church to church proclaiming the will of God as God had told it to them. They eventually died out as well for several reasons:
  
  • Persecution/martyrdom — they were the first ones to go and they made no attempt to hide. 
  • As the church grew, so did its organizational structure. Local churches began to call pastors and teachers as their ministers. 
  • Abuse of their office — we know that these people who called themselves prophets were held in high esteem. Like some traveling evangelists today, they became wealthy at the expense of local congregations. In 100 AD, there was scroll written called The Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. This talks about the abuse by some of these wandering prophets.
• Evangelists — these we would call today missionaries Paul writes to Timothy: ‘Do the work of an evangelist’ (2 Timothy 4:5). They were the bringers of the good news. They did not have the prestige and authority of the apostles who had seen the Lord; they did not have the influence of the Spirit-inspired prophets; they were the ordinary missionaries of the Church who took the good news to a world which had never heard it.
• Pastors — these would be men called by God to oversee a local church as today. The Greek New Testament word means “shepherd.” They shepherd the sheep in their local church. 
• Teachers — writing was expensive. The make a copy of the whole New Testament alone back then would cost over one year’s wage. These would those trained and certified by either an apostle, or a pastor. They would memorize for example the teachings of Jesus and then teach them to people in the local church. Most of the people coming to Christ back then were leaving both Greek and Roman idolatry and knew nothing about Jesus and salvation. 

If you read Ephesians 4:12 again, it says all these share one primary responsibility — to equip God’s people on how to live the Christian life, witness, evangelize, disciple, share their faith, mentor and do missions. All of them are about construction, not destruction. They are to buildup the body of Christ and maintain the unity of the church. Jesus prayed for this in the Garden of Gethsemane just prior to His arrest, mocked trial, crucifixion and death. Look at John 17:21, I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are one—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent Me” (NLT). 

A Christian that is not serving to share the Gospel personally, mentor others personally, disciple others personally, is mocking the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every single Christian is called to serve, not be served. Every single Christian is called to sacrifice, not sit in a pew. Every single Christian is called to lead, not lord over. Every single Christian is called to disciple, not dictate. 

So the BIG question is: are you serving the Lord who gave His life for you? If you are not, you are expressing an attitude of ingratitude. The oneness in the church that Jesus prayed for hours before His death is a oneness committed to following the example He gave and left us. If you do not know where you could serve, ask the staff of your church.

In our church, take Class 301 — our ministry sending class. Pastor Kelly will teach you how to learn what your unique S.H.A.P.E. is. S = spiritual gifts; H -= hear — what makes you come alive; A = abilities, which God gave you to equip you to serve; P = personality, which goes with your spiritual gifts; E = Experiences, especially your most painful experiences. God uses our most painful experience to minister to people. Who best help a person who is going through a divorce than someone who has gone through a divorce? Who best help someone who has experienced abuse than someone who has experienced abuse?

Verse To Meditate On: Colossians 4:17, “Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, out of gratitude for Your death, resurrection, and salvation You have given me, I commit to You to find a ministry in my local church to bring glory to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”