With the institutional church mindset, people assume that if an elder or anyone else cannot stand before an audience and deliver a public speech, the elders should then choose a professional preacher or the church should hire a “pastor” who can do so while they sit and listen. So, a hireling is brought in who…
Making application of these principles today, we must not forget that we are not privileged to have apostles of Jesus Christ imparting a spiritual gift. Nor do we have prophets, evangelists, pastors/teachers endowed with the gift of teaching. However, because we are not limited to a gift of grace given to us through the laying…
We can learn from the little information given in the Bible concerning the method of teaching. Teaching was done through direct guidance of the Holy Spirit either through Apostles and prophets or spiritual gifts. In the context of spiritual gifts, instructions were given to Corinth about speaking in their gatherings (1 Cor. 14). If anyone…
We have looked at the word “minister” in connection with the role of an evangelist and have introduced the role of the Holy Spirit in the work of these gifted men listed in Ephesians 4:11. “Preacher” The word is translated from a Greek word that means “a herald” (Vine). As shepherds, it is descriptive of…
Today, one’s view of the Holy Spirit’s work will greatly influence one’s thinking about evangelism, especially as it relates to the purpose and method of preaching. If we espouse the view that the Holy Spirit continues this work, then the work of evangelists must be explained as the intervention of the Holy Spirit in the…
private)Paul’s charge to Timothy in preaching the word was to be ready to convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching (2 Tim. 4:2). Paul is not speaking of congregational oversight for the evangelist any more than he does for the elders. God did not put me in charge of a congregation or a particular…
By the Holy Spirit, the apostles and prophets performed their work of revelation. They and the evangelists (like Philip) spread the gospel, confirmed and strengthened the souls of new saints for various lengths of time but moved on to other areas to spread the good news. It is said of them that they were “itinerant”…
If we compared the list of servants which “God has set … in the ekklesia” in 1 Cor. 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11, we will find that the apostles and prophets take first and second places respectively in each of the texts. (Cf. Chs. 2:20; 3:5). They are the first in the list because they are…
Matthew 10 records Jesus calling the twelve unto him to give them authority over unclean spirits and the power to heal all diseases (10:1). He then sends them forth with the commission to preach to the Jews only that the kingdom is at hand. They were to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the…
An apostle of Jesus Christ corresponds to the authority of an “ambassador” (cf. Ephesians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:20). Once again, this does not apply to anyone today. The word is translated from the Greek presbeuo, which suggests someone who has been given the authority to act and speak on behalf of and in the absence…