THE MINISTRY FOR BUILDING THE BODY OF CHRIST
Ephesians 4:11-15
By Lay Pastor Markus Budi Raharjo
Johor, August 12, 2018
Shalom,
We should be thankful to the Lord for His loving kindness and grace that we are able to worship and serve Him. The gift that the Lord has given to each church member has a great purpose, that is, to build the “Body of Christ.” The building project of the body of Christ is a divine will that is still going on until today.
This great body of Christ consists of many parts. Instead of one church denomination, it is a unity of common churches whose members are God’s children from all over the world. Sadly, the churches are not united yet at the moment. Therefore, the body of Christ has not yet taken shape as Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20).”
To build the body of Christ, God has given many gifts. Like in the time of the Law, He entrusted Moses and the Israelites with building the Tabernacle as a place where He was present in their midst (Exodus 25:8). In regard to building the body of Christ, He has set spiritual offices as written in Ephesians 4:11-12, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
To be honest, we are often too proud of our spiritual offices which tend to make us arrogant and forget the One who has entrusted the offices to us. Take note that spiritual offices are not to be contested for as we often see it happens in some churches because the Lord Himself (not an organization or a church) is the one who decides on the position. Spiritual power abuse neither glorify the Lord nor build the body of Christ. Instead, it creates divisions. We have to be thankful for every gift no matter how small it may be as it is needed to build the body of Christ. None of those five offices is more prominent or outstanding than the others. Most importantly, the Lord is the Giver of the gifts and each must be used for the glory of His name.
The Lord gives five different offices to His holy men, His chosen ones, for the final goal of the Lord’s church is, “ That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). The offices that He gives are:
1. Apostles
An apostle has a gift of discernment to tell the right and the evil apart. For instance, the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John laid their hands (transferring the Holy Spirit) on the Samaritans who later received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17). In the same way, the Apostle Paul placed their hands on the 12 disciples. As the Holy Spirit came upon them, they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy (Acts 19:6).
An apostle declares that someone has been owned by Christ and has been sealed by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of all things He has prepared (2 Corinthians 1: 22). Without involving the apostles, the well-built body of Christ will never be realized (Ephesians 2: 20).
2. Prophets
In the body of Christ, prophets are equipped with revelations (visions, hearing and prophecy) directly from the Lord (cf. Revelation 19:10b). The well-built body of Christ will not come to pass without the involvement of prophets (Ephesians 2:20). Recent events like horrific earthquake should not shock or confuse us as everything has been prophesied and written in the Word of God. The greatest prophesy is the Word of God itself that must come to pass. Please note that a worship service takes place on an orderly basis. When one or two people prophesy, there should be someone who interprets the prophecy to spiritually build and strengthen the church.
3. Evangelists
The task of evangelists is to proclaim the Word of God about the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus in relation to the salvation of humankind as stated in His Great Commission, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15) to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8b).”
The goal of evangelism is to call those who are still outside the body of Christ so that they will believe and be saved in Him. This task can be done by every child of God who feels that salvation is not only for them but also for all people as the Lord desires that all will be saved in Him (1 Timothy 2:4; Acts 4:12).
4. Pastors
In building the body of Christ, pastors are needed to herd and feed the sheep to keep them well-nourished. That way, the old as well as new church members will repent and grow. The only thing the sheep need is the presence of a shepherd. When the shepherd is there, the sheep surely feel cared for and safe because the shepherd has a staff with him to drive wild beasts away (Psalm 23:1-4). The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep (John 10:11). A pastor should imitate the Great Shepherd as written in 1 Peter 5:2-3,“Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”
5. Teachers
In building the body of Christ, teachers are needed to help the church members to grow in their understanding of the Word of God. That way, they are able to fight against the false teaching that is on the increase nowadays (1 Timothy 4: 1-2). The spiritually immature church members are easy to be tossed around by the false teaching. Teachers need to give solid food to help the congregations to grow spiritually (Hebrews 5:14) for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers (2 Timothy 4:3).
The body of Christ needs to be built in line with the Lord’s requirements, that is, coming to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). The unity of the faith speaks of the certainty related to the foundations of Christian faith for faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). In fact, the preaching of the Word of God is no longer pure because it is often influenced by cultural backgrounds, philosophy, sources and education systems in the past.
The unity of the faith happens if all of us have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our one and only Savior (Acts 4:12) and believe that the Holy Bible (66 books) is the Word of God without blemish. The right understanding of God’s Word manifests the true knowledge of the Son of God. This way, all actions, decisions and thoughts are always under the influence of God’s Word. Meanwhile, mindsets patterned after Christ’s perspectives show full maturity and growth in line with the fullness of Christ and display the characters of Christ thanks to the continuing renewal and sanctification as well (Colossians 3:10). Congregants with mature spiritual growth show these characteristics: firmly hold in righteousness in the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head — Christ (Ephesians 4:14-15). The focus of this spiritual growth is the unity of the body of Christ, not the self-interest of a certain group or party. This way, the aim and the ultimate goal of God’s church will be accomplished, namely, a glorious church with neither spot nor wrinkle before Him (Ephesians 5:27).
Being the church of God, let’s seriously benefit our gifts of offices to minister to the Lord according to the portions and capabilities that He has given to us. This way, the building of the body of Christ will soon take shape and Jesus will have a place to put His ‘head’ on His body. Amen.