The Local Church 9/12/2014 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. —1 Timothy 5:17 When you were reborn by the Spirit of God, you were also born into the body of Christ. Whether you knew it at the time or not, you became a part of the Church that Jesus said He would build in the earth. Did you know that at the time of your conversion you were also drawn to a specific local body of believers? That’s exactly what happened. When God draws somebody by His Spirit, He also draws them to those He has established to help them grow. God doesn’t want you to stay in a state of infancy. He wants you to become mature and able to rightly divide the Word of truth. That’s why after the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, one of the first things that Jesus did was establish a structure of ministry gifts to equip and train those who received salvation. These gifts are revealed in the fourth chapter of the book of Ephesians. There, we find that Jesus Himself established apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These five offices were ordained by the Lord to prepare His people to do the work of the ministry. That’s where a lot of people miss the truth revealed in scripture. Most folks think that it’s these five ministry gifts that are supposed to be doing the work of the Church. The Bible explains that it’s not the Christ-ordained offices that do the work—it’s the people who make up the Church. So what do the five gifts do? They are established and ordained by God to help prepare and make ready the laborers for the work which was prepared in advance for them to do. An apostle may start works and integrate heavenly vision into a local church, but the job of a prophet will be to speak of things to come. A true evangelist will not only win souls, but he will also inspire and teach others to do the same. A teacher is one who can take the difficult things in the Word of God and make them easy to understand, while a pastor will watch over the flock that God has placed in his care. It is very important that we understand that God always places the gifts where they are needed. In the case of a local church, He will always raise up a pastor whose heart is toward the people, as a father’s heart is toward his children. A biblically based church will always have a pastor or a team of pastors to oversee the ministry. Some of them will handle things such as administration and daily operations, while others will teach and preach. The Word of God says that those who do the latter are worthy of double honor. Your local church may not have an apostle, resident prophet or evangelist that attends on a regular basis, but to be a New Testament church, it must have the pastors and teachers. Don’t ever think that the pastors and teachers are there to lord over you. They are ministers sent by God to bring out the best in you. God has established these ministry gifts in the local church to watch over you, to equip you and to train you so you can do the work He’s called you to do. Thank God for the teachers He has placed in you local body. Thank Him for the pastors that He has provided for you. Begin to honor the gifts that God has given to you through them because they are the foundation of the local church. Scriptural Context 1 Timothy 5:17-21 Concept Reinforcement We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. —Romans 12:6 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. —1 Corinthians 12:28 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers… —Ephesians 4:10-11 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. —Hebrews 13:17 Go to klminternational.net to sign up to receive Pastor Kenneys Daily Devotionals.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:47:44 +0000
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