Denied - Part 2

As I said in part one through the example of ice hockey when a shot on goal is blocked by the goalie the scoreboard flashes "DENIED." I now want to look at two, gifts, offices, functions that have been "denied" in the Body of Christ by most sector of the church which has prevented the church for centuries from maturing. The Apostle Paul tells us, "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 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, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." (Ephesians 4:7-16) 

Honestly, volumes have been written on this passage of scripture so I am not going to attempt to discuss the entirety of this passage, only that which will challenge what we believe and why we believe it. The first thing Paul tells us is that upon Christ's ascension He "gave gifts to men." There is no record in the Epistles that tells us that once the Lord gives something to His church that He takes it away for any reason. In fact, Paul is quoting Psalm 68:18 concerning these gifts, but let's look at the next verse in Psalm 68. "Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!" Selah (Psalm 68:19) No doubt, David knew the Lord as one "Who daily loads us with benefits." 

The gifts of "apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers" are benefits to and for the church. So why would the Lord remove gifts from the church that are for its benefit? Actually, He wouldn't! So what are the benefits of these five wonderful gifts? "...for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

Understand, it takes all five of these gifts to accomplish these things. However, most sectors of the church whether Catholic or Protestant have rejected the gifts of the apostle and prophet. There are many reasons for this but we will only look at what seems to be the main three reasons...

Reason one; The gospels reveal that Jesus personally chose the twelve apostles, one of which was chosen for perdition and that the position of the apostles became a permanently fixed number after the resurrection meaning the number twelve then became an eternally established number. Let's think about this. Although the Apostle Judas Iscariot killed himself, the remaining eleven apostles chose Matthias to replace him. Well, maybe the other eleven were acting outside of the Lords will, but if they were, how then did these uneducated and untrained men (Acts 4:13) know Psalm 109:8 "Let another take his office." (Acts 1:20) Also, if twelve apostles was a fixed number after the resurrection and Matthias was not appointed by the Lord through the remaining eleven apostles, but Paul was, (which puts the number back to twelve) then why is Barnabas called an apostle? "But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this..." (Acts 14:14) This would make the number of apostles after the resurrection fourteen with Matthias or at least thirteen with Barnabas if we eliminate Matthias. Of course we see that the Lord appointed more than Twelve apostles after His resurrection. In fact. if we look at Ephesians 4 again, it was after the resurrection that the Lord gave some to be "apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers", all plural and without a specific number or an expiration date.

Reason two: Today there are certain denominations that believe that the phrase “when that which is perfect is come” (1 Corinthians 13:10) is referring to the canonized scripture. As a result of this interpretation many believers have also been taught that not only ministries of the apostle and prophet but also the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12, 14) have been done away with by Christ and are no longer necessary for the Church. Is this true? Well, if it were, then we need to ask ourselves why there is so much division, lack of love and lack of spiritual maturity in the church. The Apostle Paul dealt with this very issue with the church at Corinth and says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?" (1 Corinthians 3:1-4)

Again, looking back to Ephesians 4 we see the purpose of these five gifts working together is for the benefit of the church (see above). So, we must conclude, that 1 Corinthians 13:10 does not mean the elimination of the apostle and prophet or spiritual gifts due to the canonization of the scripture, but that it refers to when Christ comes again. It should be obvious that when Christ returns there will be no need for these gifts to function, the gift giver Himself will be on the earth again. To eliminate the gifts of apostle and prophet from the church would be like having an automobile with two cylinders not functioning. No matter if you have a four, six or eight cylinder automobile with two cylinders not functioning the auto will not run properly, if it runs at all, and you will damage the engine.

Reason three: Another reason for the elimination of the gifts of apostle and prophet from many sectors of the church is, Christ only used apostles and prophets in the first century to lay the foundation of the Church, therefore, these two ministries are no longer needed today. Is this true? According to the Apostle Paul,  ^"having been built (the church) on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone." (Ephesians 2:20) Paul does not specify only certain apostles and prophets or only for a certain dispensation of time, but simply the church is built "on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone." In fact, even today the foundation of the church continues to be strong because true apostles and prophets are building on Christ the Chief Cornerstone.

I say true apostles and prophets because there are those who say they are apostles and or prophets who do not fulfill the biblical function of the office but only use the title. I am not trying to be critical toward those in the Body of Christ who believe that apostles and prophets are no longer needed in the church today, but only that we need to question ourselves to see if our doctrine is in line with the entirety of God's Word. We need to be cautious of creating doctrine by picking and choosing scripture that "aligns with my thinking" while looking away from scriptures that contradict "my way of thinking." We also cannot read into God's Word things that are not mentioned verbatim with intellectual assumptions. We need to let the Word of God and the Holy Spirit have the final say in all matters of the church.

As we continue in this series we will look at what the Bible reveals as the credential to fulfill these two gifts, offices, functions, that are crucial to the Body of Christ today. In the next part of this series we will look specifically at the five biblical characteristics of the gift of the apostle. So for now, let us think on these thing and remember that Jesus said, "...I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18)