Grace Christian Fellowship: Christian Teachings from 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 12:27-31 "Apostles, Prophets and Teachers"

"Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way." (1 Corinthians 12:27-31)

Last week we learned that the church, like our human bodies is made up of many members who serve and love each other in different ways. We are not all the same, and yet we all work together in harmony. We all need each other and no one person is either so special that we cannot do without them or so worthless as to be unneeded by the rest. Rather each one supplies something that the others lack. This week we would like to look at what each member supplies.

In verse 4, Paul wrote, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit." These gifts are "charisma" in Greek. Nowadays we say that someone with a powerful personality has charisma, or in recent Japanese usage it means a shop that is successful because of the popularity of its staff. The idea of the word is that these people have something special that others do not have. The power of the Holy Spirit is definitely something special that is beyond what we normally have in ourselves. But it is more than just personality. The Greek word means a free gift, and it comes from the root word, "Charis" which means "grace". Grace is the unmerited favor of God, His free gift to us. All those who believe in Jesus Christ are saved by grace. Even though we could never earn enough to repay Him, even though we have done nothing good enough to deserve it, we have been redeemed as a free gift of God. Those whom God saves by grace, He also empowers by grace. In Romans 12, Paul says, "having then gifts (grace) differing according to the grace that is given (grace) to us, let us use them." Or to paraphrase, "We have been graced with grace by God in order to grace others." The key word then is grace, power given freely by God to be freely given away once again.

Every member of the church is graced this way by God, but not in the same way. By God’s design people who are graced in different ways will grace the rest of the church in different ways. Pastor Claude Stauffer of Calvary Chapel of Hope in New York explains these differences by giving the example of a vase filled with flowers accidentally knocked off its stand in the front of the church. "the person with the gift of prophecy will address the need in terms of truth, "The truth of the matter is that if the vase was placed in a more secure position it would not have fallen off of the altar." Someone with the gift of ministry will go over and address the need by cleaning up the mess. A person with the gift of teaching will expound on the problem, "Well, it appears the mass of flowers in the vase was too top heavy and spread too far beyond the edges of the altar. Next time the flowers should not exceed three inches beyond the edge of the altar." They dissect the problem. Another person who has the gift of exhortation will say, "Come on now, let's get this mess cleaned up. This is God's house you know!" A person with the gift of giving will say, "Don't worry, I know where I can get another vase just like the one that was broken and I'll replace it myself." The person with the gift of leading, they'll lead, "Now someone get a towel to soak up the water. You get the brush and dust pan. You get the garbage pail to put the broken debris into." Lastly, the person with the gift of mercy will say, "Oh dear, those poor flowers. But I'll bet the person who tipped them over feels awful. I'll keep my eyes open to comfort that person when we find out who it is."

These gifts seem to be a reflection of the way in which those people were graced by God. They naturally give back what they have received. It flows out of who they are in Christ very naturally. I used to be quite concerned that I not do anything out of myself and only rely on the gifting of the Holy Spirit. I thought that if I used my own talents or abilities then I would not be spiritual. But this is shallow thinking. Who gave me those talents, who gave me the abilities that I have? Of course it was the Lord who gave me life and breath and all things. The power of the Spirit is often combined with the more natural gifts that the Father has already given to you. The result of this combination is more than what we could reasonably expect of our own effort alone.

Another way to look at the same thing is to say, "There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord." Because God graces us in different ways, we will therefore serve in different ways. In fact in verse 28, we find that God actually appoints us to different ministries according to the gifts that He has given to us. "First apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues." Now Paul just got done telling us that there is no difference in honor between the different members, so what does he mean by putting one ministry first and calling some gifts better than others? I think that we can learn a couple of things from Paul’s order.

First, notice that the first three are spoken of as people and then the rest are spoken of as the gift. For the first three there is a greater commitment required by those who have it in order to use it effectively in service, in fact it is impossible to use these gifts without being tested and found faithful. One cannot decide on the spur of the moment to be an apostle, a prophet, or a teacher. You must be called and you must be tested.

A second way to understand some gifts as being better is to see it as the primary purpose of the church as opposed to those functions that while important to the overall mission are secondary and should not become the main focus. The first three ministries of apostle, prophet and teacher coincide perfectly with the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples. "Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Let’s take a look at each one of these ministries.

The literal meaning of the word, "Apostle" is a messenger, or "one who is sent". This is different from the phrase that is more often used of Christians, "those who are called." We just learned from Paul that the very meaning of the word, "church" is "those who answer the call and gather together". In the New Testament there are a total of 17 men called apostles. The original twelve became eleven when Judas betrayed Jesus Christ and took his own life. Peter went ahead of the Holy Spirit and drew lots to select a disciple named Mathaias to be a replacement but we never hear anything more about him. Instead it seems that God had a different replacement in mind and chose the arch-enemy of the disciples, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul and wrote the book that we are studying today. However Paul calls certain other men that worked with Him in carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth apostles as well (Barnabas, Timothy, Silas).

There is some debate about whether or not there are any apostles today in the church. The problem that people have about it is that Peter and Paul and the rest were inspired by the Lord to write His Word and there are some who would claim that they have an equal authority to them and therefore also to the Word of God. Catholics claim that the Pope has this apostolic authority because it was passed down through the office. Other groups such as the Mormons have also claimed this kind of authority to go beyond the Bible. But actually the issue of inspiration and authority are very different than that of being an apostle. Not all of the apostles wrote Scripture and some of those who wrote the New Testament were not apostles at all, such as Luke and John Mark (although they both worked at some point with Paul). The true work of all apostles is to go out from the existing body to where there is no church and plant a new church among those who have not heard the gospel before. This is not easy. The original apostles gave their lives taking the good news out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. They suffered tremendously so that all might know. There have been many in the history of the church who have received this gift/ministry from the Lord and have obediently allowed themselves to be sent out of their comfortable Christian world into danger and persecution. They are my personal heroes and gave their blood so that we might worship Christ today. Every single one of you owes an incredible debt to an apostle, a missionary, who brought the gospel to your part of the world.

Paul writes, "earnestly desire the best gifts." You will not wake up some morning and suddenly have the ministry of an apostle. But you might have a burden for the lost and a desire to do something that no one else has done before. If so I encourage you to be faithful in what the Lord has for you today, allow yourself to be tested and found faithful, answer the call and let God do His will in your life.

A prophet is another kind of ministry, one who speaks forth the truth of God. This can be an application of God’s word to a specific situation, or proclaiming the gospel boldly to unbelievers. It can be a message of encouragement or warning or comfort to God’s people. Or it can be a revelation of what will happen in the future. Each one of these is telling forth the truth of God. Again though there is some debate about whether or not there are any real prophets today in the church. The issue again is authority. If someone stands up in the church one day and says, "Thus sayeth the Lord…" how do you know if what he says is right? We are going to learn more about prophecy later but in 1 Cor. 14 Paul tells us that when people prophecy, let others judge. The standards for prophecy are pretty strict. In Deut. 18:20-22 we find out what God’s standard is for prophets, "when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." Here is the rule. If someone predicts something and it does not happen they are not a true prophet. Another way to judge prophets is to measure them against the Word of God. If what they say goes against God’s word in any way then it is not of God, because why in the world would God contradict Himself?

You can see that a prophetic ministry is not something that you will receive from the Lord overnight. It has to be tried and tested. I often tell those who visit our church and tell me that they have a prophetic ministry that they are welcome to use their gift in our church if they are willing to first establish long-term loving relationships with those that they want to serve. The only way that prophecy can be accepted is if we know them over time. Paul says that we should earnestly desire the best gifts. If you have a burden in your heart to speak out God’s truth and feel called to be a prophet, I heartily encourage you to study to show yourself approved, live and breathe the word of God and take any opportunity to preach. If you do this you will show yourself faithful and God will both use you and His people accept the words that you say.

The third gift that is described as a person rather than the gift itself is the teacher. In other scriptures this is put together with pastor so that it is actually one thing, pastor/teacher. The pastor/teacher’s ministry is to feed the flock of God with the Word, rightly dividing it so that it can be digested. The teacher takes the whole word of God, both Old Testament and New Testament and explains each passage in the light of all of it. As any classroom teacher knows, in order to teach well, you need more than just a knowledge of your subject, you also need to know the people that you are instructing. This is why once again the pastor/teacher is not something that you can become overnight. There is an element of trust and respect that can only come as the teacher loves and cares for those members that he is ministering to. Paul says, "earnestly desire the best gifts." If you are called to love sheep and feed them with God’s word, then you need to build a deep relationship with both. Be faithful in what God has put before you today and He will put you in that ministry at the right time.

More is required of apostles, prophets and pastor/teachers than those who receives other gifts. Suffering is part of every apostles' job description, prophets must be 100% accurate all of the time, and pastor/teachers are held accountable to the Lord for those put under their care. Likewise the trust and accountability required for each ministry demands that each be tested and found faithful. And yet the Lord does not want us to shrink away from these gifts, but to earnestly desire them. Jesus is calling out to those who would reply, "Here am I, send me." And take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Jesus is calling out to those who would preach and boldly proclaim His word. Jesus is calling out to those who would love His sheep and keep them well fed. Earnestly desire the best gifts.

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