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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:8; 4:7, 11-12, 16; John 20:19, 21; Acts 6:4, 7
Whenever the children of God gather together, it is a time when God can speak. In the Old Testament God spoke from within the tent of meeting. Without a meeting of God’s children He would not speak. God’s oracle comes to the congregation of His people. This was true not only at the time of Moses and Aaron but also when the children of God gathered together in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. When we gather together seeking Him, we are an audience for His speaking. And God Himself is in His speaking. The invisible, mysterious God is manifested in His word. As I speak, it is another opportunity for God to visit us in His speaking.
In the years since the recovery began, it has passed through many marvelous and also terrible things. But whatever storms have come, the Lord’s recovery is still here. Once the Lord has built the church, it is unshakable and prevailing. Yet I believe that from today the Lord will give us a new beginning. I do not mean a new movement. It is still the old, even ancient, move of the Lord, but with a new beginning.
This new beginning came from one of the messages given during the Ephesians training. While I was speaking that day on Ephesians 4:11, the light came. “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers.” I saw that all the real believers can and must be like the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.
Some humble ones may wonder how they could ever be like the apostles. They may feel that it cannot possibly be so. Bible teachers, hearing this, might think that such a statement goes too far. But it does not go too far.
The light that came to me is based on Ephesians 3:8, where Paul says that he is “less than the least of all saints.” We consider the apostle Paul a giant and therefore qualified to be an apostle. In this verse though, Paul says that he is less than the least of all saints. If we feel that we are the least of all the saints, Paul says that he is less than we are. If we believe Paul’s word in chapter 1 that God the Father has chosen us before the foundation of the world (v. 4), we must also believe what he says in 3:8, that he is less than the least of all saints and therefore less than we.
If Paul, who was less than the least of all saints, could be an apostle, how much more can you be one! “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (4:7). Are you included in this verse? Surely each one of us is included. Notice also that the verb is in past tense — was given. Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
“He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers” (v. 11). Are you included in this verse? No, you are not. But do not think that you are through. You are in verse 12: “For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” You are one of the saints to be perfected. Every believer is a saint.
Are those in verse 11 — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — greater than the saints in verse 12? Here we can answer both yes and no. Yes: The apostles and other gifted ones are greater, because they perfect the saints. It must be the greater who perfect the lesser. No: The saints must be greater than the apostles and the other gifted ones because Paul, who was an apostle, said that he was less than the least of all saints. Even the smallest saint is greater than he. From verses 11 and 12 we would think that the gifted ones are greater, but from 3:8 it appears that the saints are greater than the gifted apostle Paul. From these seeming contradictions we may conclude that all of us, whether saints or gifted ones, are about the same. We are all members of the Body. Paul was a member, and so are we.
Notice, then, that you are in 4:7 but not in verse 11; you are also in verse 12. Verse 16 reads, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Surely you are in this verse. All the Body includes you. You may not be one of the joints of the supply, but you are at least one of the many parts.
What is the perfecting work that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers are doing? It is to perfect the saints to do the same work as they themselves are doing. A basketball coach trains the players to play basketball as he does. If the perfecters fly like angels, they must not perfect the saints to creep like snakes. The fliers must perfect all those under them to fly also. The young ones must fly even higher than their perfecters. The outcome of this perfecting work is that all the saints become apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.
You may not be an apostle yet, but you should have the boldness to say, “I am an apostle-to-be.” I am presenting to you what is in the Bible. We wear the tinted glasses of Christianity when we come to the Bible. Ministers and pastors are esteemed above ordinary believers. Seeing this causes us to think that the gifted ones in Ephesians 4:11 are special ones and that we are insignificant nobodies. Even among us today there is the concept that the apostle is above the elder and that the elder is higher than the other saints. When we come to the Bible, we bring this concept and insert it into the Bible. Because we do not come to find out the revelation from the Bible, there is no light.
We say that among us there is no clergy or laity. Yet we rank some above others. If we say that the gifted ones in Ephesians 4:11 are higher, then we are making ourselves lower. This means that there are two levels, and a hierarchy exists. How can we have only one level? This will be the case when the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers have perfected the other saints to be the same as they are. The perfecting will uplift the saints to be all on one level.
Suppose that among the five hundred or so who are in this meeting, only fourteen are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. All the rest are humble, claiming not to know anything or to be able to do anything. The fourteen are then the clergy; the rest are nobodies. This is Christianity’s fallen situation. The normal condition would be for the fourteen not to remain in a special rank but day by day to uplift all the others, perfecting them until all of them are on the same level.
It may sound humble to say that you do not know anything and cannot do anything, but you have to be practical. You have to grow and be trained and practice until you are an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd and teacher.
Do you believe that these categories of people are all distinct from each other? Can the prophet be an evangelist? Can the evangelist be an apostle? Consider the example of the apostle Paul.
No doubt he was an apostle. Was he not also a prophet? In his Epistles he prophesies how the Lord Jesus will return. Does this not prove that he was a prophet? As for being an evangelist, he surely preached the gospel far more than others. How about his being a shepherd? He says he was like a nourishing mother, cherishing the churches (1 Thes. 2:7). Surely he was a shepherd, with all the churches on his heart. Last, he was also a teacher.
Suppose that two of you are burdened to go to a village in Alaska. You leave your locality and go to an Eskimo village as sent ones. When you arrive, you begin speaking to those you meet. You speak Jesus, God, redemption, salvation, regeneration, and life. When you preach the gospel, some Eskimos believe in the Lord and are baptized. They become a little church there. As you care for them and shepherd them, you will share with them about God’s economy, His eternal purpose, and His dispensation. Do you see how the two of you are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers? Then eventually some of the Eskimo believers will be perfected. They will do the same thing as the two of you have done. They may either work in their village or be burdened to go, for example, to Moscow. In either case they would be the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.
Every one of you can be all these four kinds of persons. Do not think that this is too much. In your religious concept an apostle might mean a prominent leader, but the Greek meaning of the word is “sent one.” If, for example, I send you to get my briefcase, you are my apostle. In John 20:19 through 21, “Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be to you...The disciples therefore rejoiced at seeing the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” This passage says that the disciples (not the apostles) were assembled together, rejoiced when they saw the Lord, and were told by the Lord, “I also send you” (v. 21). The Lord Jesus was the Father’s sent One, coming to us as the Apostle (Heb. 3:1). He was the first New Testament Apostle. Now we are His sent ones, going to others as apostles.
How did the Father send the Lord Jesus? He sent Him by going with Him. If you are constrained by the Lord, after praying, to say a word for Him to your mother, the Lord would say to you, “I send you as the Father sent Me. When you go to your mother, I will be with you. Go and express Me, as I expressed the Father. Express Me and speak for Me.” To the Lord, then, you are a sent one; to your mother, you are an apostle. You may feel burdened, after contacting the Lord through prayer, to go to your relatives, classmates, or neighbors. Go to them with Him and to express Him.
I hope I have persuaded you that we can all be these gifted ones. They are not a special class. If you have not been perfected up to this standard, you are abnormal. Every normal Christian must be one sent by God. Do not say that you are still a student and therefore cannot be an apostle. God needs teenage prophets! You can be sent to your classmates by God. Preach the gospel to them. Then care for the new believers. Teach them about the three wills in the universe and about God’s economy.
If all of you are like this, a revival will spread throughout the earth. There is no need of a movement. There is no need for you to be ordained. You have already been ordained and chosen to be a sent one. Do you care about this? If so, go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I am here. I present myself to You. Send me.” The Lord will say, “I have already sent you. Go!” You must go to your relatives, friends, classmates, or even people you encounter on the street. You must speak persuasively to them. Preach the gospel and convince them.
You not only can but you also must be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd and teacher. For this to come about, you must read the Word. Acts 6:7 says, “The word of God grew.” For the word of God to grow, there must be a period of learning, experiencing, and being dealt with. This is not an overnight matter. It requires the work of the leading apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. What they do you also need to do. They take the lead, setting up the pattern. You follow. If they speak of God’s economy, that is what you speak. You say what they say, and do what they do. They are the lead sheep in the flock. If they turn right, the rest of you turn right. They do not do one thing and have you do something else.
You cannot speak the Word if you do not know it. You will be making a fool of yourself if you try to help others and you do not even know where Genesis is. God’s way is the way of the Word. It is not a miraculous or mushrooming growth based on gimmicks. Acts 6:4 says, “We will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word.” God’s way is by life. Day by day read the Word and pray. Match whatever you read by prayer. Pray in order to digest the Word. Then it will get into you. Once this happens, the word becomes the Spirit. With the Spirit, you have life, understanding, and utterance. Then you can be sent. The matter of being a gifted one is wholly wrapped up with the Word. Even if you are young, come to the Word regularly and pray-read it. Be mingled with the divine Word and the life-giving Spirit day after day. If you do this, within a very few years you will be ready to be sent and to be God’s spokesman, speaking for Him and speaking Him forth. You will preach the gospel and shepherd new ones, teaching them how to go on.
This was how the church life was in the beginning. Today we have a degraded situation, full of deadness. We must come back and let the Lord give us a new beginning.
