Who are apostles & prophets in Ephesians?
God Made Ministers for My Maturity
Ephesians 4:11-13 a
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Turn to Ephesians 3:21. We will be reading from 3:21, on to our primary passage which is 4:11-13. We are going to be studying what Paul means in this particular passage, when he refers to Apostles and prophets. Paul has a distinct meaning in this context, and so we are going to dig a little bit to get at what he is intending to get at with his references of Apostles and prophets. While you are turning to the place where we are going to start reading, let me bring us into the flow of thought that Paul has been stressing. It is vital that we get oriented to the immediate context. To do this, we must remember that the big theme that Paul has been concentrating upon is the glory of Christ, and the glory of Christ in the body of Christ, which is His church. God has done this because He wants His glory manifest in us, (His church) as a living testimony of His plan, grace, love, self sacrifice, and wisdom. Paul is focusing strongly upon the mystery of the resurrected Messiah at work in all of us. As Paul is writing this in his day, the mystery is a new revelation among Jews and Gentiles both. According to the revealed mystery, the Holy Spirit is the seal, and the power worker. He is the one who molds you, makes you, and uses you for God's good pleasure. It is because of God's work, that you and I, work in Christ. This is how we demonstrate God's grace, and glory, forever. This is the big plan for why we exist. In other words, God primarily did this for Himself. It is done for us too, but we are really secondary in terms of concern for Who experiences the ultimate blessing. God did all of this because God will get what He wants. What God wants from the plan, is the result. The result is that God has arranged everything in the New Covenant so that He gets all the glory, as Christ, which is the ultimate blessing. So think about this: the more humble we are; the more obedient we are; and the more thankful we are; simply diminishes us; magnifies the Spirit in us, and brings more glory to God. The more united we are as a body, in doctrine, in attitudes, in God's goals, and in our earthly relationships, the more we bring glory to God. We get blessed too, but unity primarily brings glory to God. The reason is because we are simply reflecting more of Christ than more of ourselves when we are in unity. So, Paul goes on and urges us to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling with which you, and I, have been called. That is the big doing thing that we need to pay attention to in our immediate context. Unity is the big issue that is at stake, when we walk in an unworthy manner. Without unity, God's glory is diminished. So, God wants you to be humble, gentle, and patient. He wants you to be showing tolerance for the other people around you, in love. It is both an intentional awareness that you and I need to check ourselves with on a moment to moment basis, and it is a discipline. It is something that we have to make ourselves do by submitting to the Spirit through His clear commandment in His New Covenant word. This is what we looked at last week. Unity is a bigger issue with God than many Christians, in our day, realize. The reason is because the big focus of God's redemptive plan, is the eternal body of Christ that He is building as the Holy Temple in His Son. So Paul explains that the backbone of our unity has to do with the fact that what we have is all we have. There is only one hope of our calling in God's big focus that He actuated in His New Covenant. There is only one Lord for any of us. There is only one faith. It is the faith that God is concerned with, where people believe in the Messiah as Lord and Savior. There is only one body of Christ. You, and I, and all Christians, are the only body that is bringing glory to the Lord. We are the one body, so we need to be one in our local body. God united us, as the one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Now we need to act united, as if God really is the One Father of all of us, who is over all of us, through all of us, and in all of us. Like a fish is designed for water, or a sparrow is designed to fly, and a cheetah is designed to run, being united in the body, as the body, is what God designed you and me to be. Keep this in mind as we continue to learn from God, through Paul's epistle this morning in this sermon titled:
God Made Ministers for My Maturity.
[Prayer]
The title has two meanings,
One; is that all ministers of God are God made, and not man made,
Two; is that God specifically made ministers for my maturity.
Let us begin reading our text at this time, starting in verse 21,
"21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. 4:1 Therefore I, [Paul] the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also 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 over all and through all and in all. 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says, 'When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.' 9 (Now this expression, 'He ascended,' what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the set apart ones for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."
It doesn't take a new Christian long to figure out that God has gifted certain people with certain ministries in the church. The babe in Christ may not yet know that God has mandated certain people-gifts within the body for this purpose, but it is, at least, obvious that there are people who fit into a kind of operational mode, or a type of godly authority, or even an attribute of being good at what they are doing in service to God, by serving the church. If they are building up other Christians, then they are doing what they should be doing. People recognize this, and all Christians who believe the Bible should recognize this. There is another kind of baby Christian. The other kind is not necessarily a new believer, but is an immature Christian in the carnal sense. Such people, in arrogant sin, do not recognize that God has gifted certain people with specific ministry qualification, gifts, and callings, in the church, for the church. But the fact of the matter is that God has created the body to be this way. God has arranged each ligament, blood vessel, tendon, muscle, and organ to function as a miracle, according to each gift, calling, and qualification.
Starting into this, I want to point out that Paul, who uses the genitive case of the Greek in the first verse of chapter 4, is saying that he is a prisoner of Christ. Certainly he is a prisoner for Christ as one translation renders it, but Paul wants us to know that he is a prisoner of Christ. What this means is that Paul is a personal captive of Christ, and by Christ to be in the body of Christ as a gift to the rest of the body of Christ as an apostle. All these things concerning Paul, go with what Paul says here in Ephesians 4:8-9; quoting the Aramaic Targum on the Psalter, and the Syriac Peshitta version of the Psalms concerning Psalm 68. Paul explains it by saying that Christ captured a host of captives, and gave gifts to men, or as is stated in the Jewish commentary,
"19 ... you captured captives, you taught the words of Torah, you gave gifts to the sons of men, and even the stubborn who are converted turn in repentance. [and] the glorious presence of the Lord God abides upon them" Psalm 68:19 Targum
The great reformed Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said concerning this great Psalm, of which, Paul quotes from the Targum and Peshitta:
"From the gracious character of his reign it comes to pass that to be led into captivity by him is for our captivity to cease, or to be itself led captive; a glorious result indeed."--CH Spurgeon Commentary on the Psalms
Now after declaring all of this glorious result indeed, Paul urges all of us body-people to walk the worthy walk of our calling. Christ's captives are everyone whom He has elected and inducts from out of this world that is previously in enmity against God; and so now they, and in like manner we, have been placed, by God, into the body of Christ to be ministers to one another for His glory. Christ led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men. He gave gifts to each of us. It is the great cosmic rescue where God storm troops our old nature in a swift military takeover that frees us from our blind bondage to the sinful enemy we thought was the one we really wanted to fight for. Now, we work for Christ. We minister for Christ. The word "minister" means, to serve. The gifts that Christ gave to us, (His captives), are the gifts that His people use to minister as the body, in the body, to ultimately glorify Christ. You, and I, are the blood and guts, so to speak, of the body of Christ that God has made, and so, in a sense, there is a sort of underlying metaphor, or analogy here. There is, in an illustrative sense, a kind of a spiritual genetic code in the last Adam (Christ), where what Paul says in 4:7, applies to you, and to me,
"4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift"
This is the plan, where God, as Christ, gets his glory by gifting His people to build one another up, so that He gets the glory. The spiritual genetic code metaphor that I am using is really the fact that all of this arrangement works according to two important things:
1) The Holy Spirit,
2) the word of God.
Without those two being there in the midst of the operation, then it does not matter what kind of talent you have. It does not matter how great we think we are as theologians, or as people who know how to use a Strong's concordance. It does not matter how smart we are, how religious acting we are, or even how self sacrificing we are. Without allegiance, empowerment, and strict reliance upon the Holy Spirit, and the word of God rightly divided, interpreted, and relayed, we would merely be one big country club of religious acting fools.
Since we are relying upon the Spirit and the word, then we must look to the word this morning to see what all of this grace that was given to each of us here, according to the measure of Christ's gift, is all about; and what does is mean to us? To do this, we are going to jump ahead a few verses, to verse 12, and then we are going to jump back a bit. What I mean, is that when we jump ahead to verse 12, we see that God has gifted the body with God-made ministers for our equipping. This does not mean that God is merely using people to fill you, and stuff you with equipment, so that you become an equipment collector. Have you ever noticed that some people seem to collect tools? You look at their garages or their sheds, and it's like walking into a hardware store. I know a guy like that, and he has a hardware store in his garage. The funny thing about it is that there are some tools in there that he says he has never used. There are lot of kitchens that are this way too. There are kitchens that have as many cooking tools as some 5 star restaurants, and in those same kitchens, many, if not most, of those tools, are never used. But, God is not filling our warehouses with a lot of neat tools so that we can become big doctrinal heads who have the latest insights, and the right understanding of certain Greek phrases, and then we take our overloaded selves around and just wait for a moment to impress everyone with our keen doctrinal insights. You know a lot of Christians are into that. Their whole reason for learning what God has designed for equipping, is so they can blow other people away with how smart they are. You'll find a lot of them hanging out on internet forums, just hunting for opportunities to flame. Folks, that's not what God wants from us. The problem is that they, in their self assured expertise of the word, show their ignorance of the word, in that they fail to recognize, in humble gratefulness, why they are being equipped by the God who fills all in all, in the first place. This is what God is talking about. You see there is a big "why' to all of what God is doing with us, and the reason is because of what Paul says next, where Christ has equipped His people specifically for the work of service. That seems easy enough to understand, but in our me oriented culture of Christianity we have today, many of us are missing this, or ignoring this, to our own detriment. What I mean, is that many Christians have no idea that their purpose in being equipped is for spiritual growth to serve the body. Yes, what this means is that you are equipped to be used. God's grace that was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift is so that we will be used to build up the body of Christ. The questions to ask yourself are,
Have I been about doing this task of being used to serve the body with all the learning, and the equipping that I have been getting from God?
Am I making specific and intentional steps to reach out and touch the other members and bless them as the body in the body for the body as the God glorifying prisoner of Christ that I am supposed to be?
Am I doing this in a biblical fellowship--a local body like Bridgeway?
You see, it is so easy to talk about it, and learn about it, but doing it is another thing altogether. The point is that you are equipped, and you are being equipped, and it is what God wants, and our equipment is not about storage in a safety deposit box, but, it is also not about building ourselves up in pridefully thinking that we are somehow superior to a fellow brother, or sister, or better than they are. How many of you realize that God has His glory in mind, in considering what all He has graced you with according to His word, fellowship, and opportunity? He is equipping all of us who are set apart by Christ in salvation, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ with a goal for each of us in mind. The goal that God has for each of us in our equipping, and building up the body is so we will be working,
"13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:13
This is a really long sentence, and it can almost seem rather confusing, but what Paul is saying, is that God is equipping us to be like Christ in our thoughts and actions. All it means is that you practice what you are. The name for this kind of Christian is called a mature Christian. You see, we (the church) are already there positionally as the fullness of Christ;
"22 And He [the Father] put all things in subjection under His feet [Christ's feet], and gave Him [Christ] as head over all things to the church, [God gave Christ, the big boss, to the church] 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23
We are the fullness of Him already in our position, but we are not all there to that measure of the stature yet, which belongs to the fullness of Christ in our practice. We are not all there in doctrine yet, and we are not all there in unity yet. If such be the case, (that we have not yet arrived in manifesting His fullness), then all of us are not yet walking in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. And folks, God wants you and I to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called! He wants you to start doing it right now.
Now, stay with me, because remember, I jumped forward a bit to get to this high calling of maturity in Christ. And now, we need to do that step back to verse 11, and recognize the God-made ministers for my maturity. Remember they are God-made. They are His workmanship, and they are God-made, by Him, for a reason. The reason is that God made them to be instruments in equipping us to be mature in Christ as more of His sovereign workmanship. Looking back at verse 11 now, we notice the various gifts that Paul lists,
"11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the set apart ones for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."
OK, I quickly want to get something out of the way, and that is that Paul, in context, is saying that Christ gave all these kinds of people for the equipping of us--His set apart ones. Remember that Paul just said,
"But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift."
Then we read what Christ gave, which are the people-gifts. The first thing we need to recognize is that Paul is not merely talking about a good idea of organizational operation that business men came up with to get the job done in the first century church. You know, a lot of people, who are immature, and who wish to cause division in the church, think that God's ministers that He has made, and given to the body, as gifts, are in a category called an outdated, cultural, non-neccessity created by men. Such thinking is sin. People who think this way, then, are sinners in this thinking, and so they reap what they sow. Therefor, they need to agree with the Holy Spirit, through God's word, and repent. God came up with his gifts that he gave to His captives for His glory. He is the one who invented some as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers for us to grow. We all want to be mature, right? God wants us to be mature, so we want to be mature. To do so, then, we must first agree with God. We must first agree, and then receive, (rather than reject), His grace gifts to us, which are men who love and follow Him in fear and trembling. To do so, we need to accurately break down the designations that Paul makes to us here. First Paul names two that God gave;
"11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets,"
I am stating both of these together as Paul does, rather than just one. I am doing this for a reason. I'll get to the reason in a moment. But the present point is that Christ gave some as apostles, and some as prophets. Immediately, a question we need to ask ourselves is,
What in the world is an apostle?
In simple terms, an apostle is:
"One who is sent out."
So to name someone an apostle, is really to give them a name that is descriptive of the action involved in their ministry. We get our modern word "missionary" from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, where apostle, was translated as "missionis." A missionary is one who is sent out, and he is sent out on what is typically called a mission. There are some people here in the church, who told me that they have a true burden in their hearts to go out to minister in missions work in Asia. If they go, then they will be ones who are sent out--they will be missionaries. Looking at the various biblical distinctions of apostles, we must recognize that there were various missions, and so along with the various missions, there were various commissions given to people to go out. With these missions, and commissions, we see why they are called apostles in certain contexts, and, we also recognize that there was more than one kind of apostle. What I mean is that there were apostles that were such because of specific missions to be sent out to accomplish. For example, we find in the Gospel chronicles, that when Jesus started His earthly pre-cross ministry. He elected 12 particular students. He named them apostles in Mark 3:14. Their specific pre-cross, Old Covenant ministry, was to announce and proclaim that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" Matthew 10:6 and to cast out demons. They were apostles, and they were such in a particular respect. Once we know what the term, apostle, actually means, then it becomes clear why Jesus Himself was called an apostle, as we read in Hebrews,
"1 Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;" Hebrews 3:1
Jesus, as God manifested in the flesh; Who is God's only begotten Son, was also a sent out one. He was "the" great Missionary of our confession, on the great mission of all great missions. During Jesus' pre-cross ministry, he called the 12 apostles, but Jesus also sent out 70 other men in a missionary endeavor who were also apostles, as we read where the word apesteilen is used for sent,
"1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent [apesteilen] them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come." Luke 10:1
Looking at these things in the Gospels, we find the explanation of what is meant by speaking of certain apostles being those who were sent out by Jesus in His pre-cross, (pre New Covenant) ministry.
That is one biblical identification of apostles. We must also recognize that there is the very important distinction of the primary apostles, and witnesses, who continued on after the pre-cross ministry into the New Covenant age in a post-resurrection aspect of apostleship. These sent out ones (apostles) of the post-resurrection, New Covenant age, were re-commissioned for their new mission by the risen Christ. Their commission was to spread the good news of the resurrection and future coming of Messiah. Jesus sent them out in what is typically called their great commission, Mark 16:15. The eleven, absent of Judas, were elected to go into the world and preach the good news of the crucified and resurrected Messiah, Acts 2:1. They were sent by Christ, so they were primary apostles. A little later, Saul who was known as Paul, was also a kind of a primary apostle in that he was elected, and directly commissioned by the risen Christ. Paul was called,
"a bondslave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God," Romans 1:1
According to 1 Timothy 2:7, Paul was "appointed." Paul's call and appointment was specifically from the risen Christ while Paul was on the road to Damascus, Acts 9. Paul was also called the apostle to the Gentiles, in Romans 11:13; 1 Timothy 2:7; and Galatians 2:8. Paul carried a distinctive message of the unfolding revelation of the doctrine of Christ. Christ, His Savior, Lord, and sender, is the one who gave Him these revelations. These primary kinds of apostles who were sent out by the risen Lord, are the apostles that Paul is talking about in our text under study. In our understanding of what the Apostle Paul is teaching in our Ephesians context, we must understand that these primary type apostles really were special in at least one particular sense. These are the guys that Christ used to establish the church in the faith. All of them had seen Christ. All of them had been commissioned by the risen Christ directly, in a visual, personal, manner. All of them had the authority to receive, and declare, doctrine directly from Christ that nobody else in history can claim to have. They are the ones that gave all the foundational instructions to the churches of what to believe, and how to act, in respect to various situations, details, methods, and concerns. They were sent to do this by the risen Lord, and it was unique, and the task was finished when they recorded the directives as scripture, and then they died. This is why you and I have to be careful of people today who say that they are apostles in this respect. Almost every cult leader that exists claims to be a modern day apostle. But, they are not apostles, (in this sense of the word given to the primary apostles) and they have not been given new revelations from God. What we need to know, is that we, here, actually do partake in the ministry of the primary apostles. Their ministry is complete, in terms of revelation, but it is a ministry that has not ceased. It lives on through them through our finished, and completed Bibles.
That explains primary apostles, as those commissioned directly by the Lord to establish the early church in the New Covenant. The next kind of apostles to look at in the New Testament, are those who can be described as secondary types of apostles. Secondary types of apostles are people called apostles typically because the primary apostles commissioned and sent them out. For example there was Barnabas, who is listed with Paul as an apostle in Acts 14:14. Matthias, who was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:26, was a secondary apostle who was sent out by the primary apostles. Epaphroditus, was also a secondary kind of apostle. He was the Philippian's apostle, (apostolos in the Greek), and minister to Paul's need, in Philippians 2:25. In 2 Corinthians 8:23, we find that Titus and an unnamed brother are called apostles of the various churches. So, that is what we mean when we speak of a kind of secondary biblical apostle.
The last kind of apostle we need to recognize, is the one like what Jason here is aspiring to by going to Asia to minister in Communist (deleted name). All those who come later after those secondary apostles of the Bible, throughout the last 2000 years of church history, are typically called missionaries. Jason wants to be a missionary. Because we don't usually say "primary apostle," and then "secondary apostle," and so forth, anymore, it is probably best to use the term, missionary for modern ministers that God has gifted the body with, to go out to evangelize, teach, and establish Christ's church amongst unreached people. We could call them apostles, but we would need to clarify by calling them secondary, so that we are not giving them the same status as those apostles commissioned directly by the risen Lord to go establish the emerging church in the revelations that He gave to them.
OK, let's put our minds back to thinking about the context that Paul is coming from. Remember the important key of interpretation is context. We must keep in mind that Paul is talking about people who are establishing the brand-new doctrine in that generation that has to do with the body of Christ, where God is creating the one new man comprised of both Israelites, and Gentiles into His church by grace through faith, Ephesians 2:15. The main message that Paul is talking about is the mystery of Christ in people, as the hope of glory. Those apostles of Paul's point had the goal in God's calling, to establish, and be building up, the body of Christ, until we, who are the body of Christ, all attain to the unity of the faith. These are the apostles that Paul, who is also an apostle, is talking about. With this in mind then, we are led to ask about the other group, which are prophets. The question is pressed to the forefront.
Q. What is a prophet in the New Covenant sense of the word?
Well, the answer is;
A. much like what a prophet is in the Old Covenant sense of the word.
A prophet is a person who speaks for God by speaking forth the words of God. Again, a prophet is a person who speaks for God by speaking forth the words of God; and the prophet does so by the Spirit of God. In the Old Testament scriptures, God's prophets would many times start out their speaking for God, by speaking the words of God, by saying, thus says the Lord, and then they would go on to speak the divine revelation by God's Spirit. In the New Covenant, and in the context of what Paul is talking about, in establishing the New Covenant church, God's prophets did the same thing. For example, we find Paul, who was both an apostle, and prophet saying,
"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you ..." 1 Corinthians 11:23
"3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, ..." 1 Corinthians 15:3
In other words, Paul, as an apostolic prophet, spoke forth the words of God as words of prophetic utterance that he received directly from the Lord in a miraculous way. Paul declares plainly in Galatians 1:11-13
"11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the good news which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Galatians 1:11-13
Paul is talking about prophesying the gospel as the foundation of the faith, of which the church is built upon--Christ being the chief corner stone. I really think Paul's declaration in 2 Corinthians is one of the starkest assertions of what Paul is saying concerning the grace of Christ in giving the church these things, when Paul says,
"3 since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, ..." 2 Corinthians 13:3
In my opinion, this is one of the most amazing statements made in the Bible, and it only makes sense when we recognize the deity of Christ, and the fact that He has gifted men in such a manner that He speaks through them by His Holy Spirit, Who is God. We find the apostle Peter stating the same kind of thing in a very easy to understand explanation of the revelation behind speaking for God by speaking the words of God, when he says,
"16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased'--18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" 2 Peter 2:16-21
We are constantly urged to recognize that the apostles spoke forth the words of God when they prophesied, and taught the revelations they received.
"For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." 1 Thessalonians 2:13
What is very important for us to understand is that the Bible itself, then, is the ministry of the apostles, and it is the ministry of the New Covenant prophets that is the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit that Christ has given from His apostles and prophets to the church in each generation. The scriptures are constantly and consistently called the word of God, the word of Christ, and the word of the Lord. It is recorded prophecy that is meant to establish us in God's truth.
The way the primary apostles and prophets minister to us today, is the same way they ministered to the first generation church back then. To get at this, we must look through Ephesians and recognize something of great importance in respect to Paul's usage of these terms. What I mean is that Paul uses the Greek word for apostles, 39 times in his epistles. He uses the word for prophet only seven times in his epistles. Now, what is interesting is that Paul only uses the two words, coupled together, three times in his epistles, and all three times are here in Ephesians. As we read the two places Paul does this before our passage, let's keep in mind that Paul intentionally marries both designations together with a specific contextual ministry function in mind. In other words, Paul puts Apostles and prophets together contextually for a reason. In chapter 2 Paul is concerned with the joining together of Israelites and Gentiles by God into one temple, where Paul says,
"18 for through Him we both [Israelite and Gentile] have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you [Gentiles] are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the set apart ones, and are of God's household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone," Ephesians 2:18-20
In other words, the Gentiles have had the mystery prophetically revealed to them of the body of Christ, which is the New Covenant church. This is what the Apostles and Prophets were laying as a foundation. Now listen to where Paul brings the two words together in chapter 3. It is there that I am hoping that what I am trying to get across, will come out in bright and vivid illumination, Paul says, in context,
"1 For this reason [the reason is the joining of Gentiles and Israelites into the one new man of the one temple of chapter 2] I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power." Ephesians 3:1-7
This is the big point. Without prophets, the mystery remains a mystery. Paul says, that at that time, the mystery was previously not made known to the sons of men in other generations, but it has now been revealed to His set apart apostles and prophets in the Spirit. Then notice that Paul, (who is an apostle and prophet) says basically the same thing as he says coming into chapter 4. He speaks of Himself as being made into a minister according to the gift of God's grace. Why? Why was Paul made into this minister? He says it next;
"8 To me, the very least of all set apart ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things" Ephesians 3:8-9
This is the ministry of the apostles and prophets that Paul is talking about in our Ephesians 4 context, which is the only other time (last time) that he marries the two terms together. Follow me because we are almost done, and this is important stuff to know for our scriptural edification in understanding what Paul means with his terminology. Sticking with the same theme of the one united body being gifted by Christ according to His grace, Paul says, "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets," with the same view in mind. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation of revelation of the mystery of Messiah in creating the church out of both Jews and Gentiles, and so the church gets the foundational revelation from them, in that respect, and then from there, the evangelists, and pastors who teach, build upon the foundation, to build up the body of Christ in all the riches of what that means for their lives. This is where maturity comes, and we will get into that next week, where we will look at the rest of the passage. But in the meantime, I will leave us with this: The exact same ministry of God-made men of that generation is the exact same ministry we receive from them today. In other words, we still have the ministry of the primary apostles. We still have the ministry of the prophets of Paul's context. The questions are who, where, and how? The who is simple. The who are the exact same people--though dead to this earth-- their ministries, by the Spirit, live on. The where is also simple. The where is in the fulfillment of the canon of scripture that we call the Bible, and in its expression through us--the body. The Bible is the library of the apostles and prophets that we consult to get the fruit of their God made ministry to build us up. The how is through study, and through preaching and teaching the revelations of all the various mysteries that God has revealed to us through their ministries.
I urge you recognize this great privilege and responsibility we have. Be recognizing that God has blessed us with everything we need to attain to the maturity of Christ. Be thankful for it. Be thankful for the church, and the way God has designed it with people-gifts in mind. Be recognizing the God made ministers that He has given for our maturity, and seek to operate the way God wants you to in the body, as the body, from the body, for the body as obedient children of God.
