JUST AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS

JUST AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS SPIRITUAL GIFTS part 4 JoLynn Gower 352-2458 jgower@guardingthetruth.org

WHEN CHRIST AROSE • Ephesians 4:11-13 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. YOU AREN’T A TEACHER UNLESS PEOPLE LEARN SOMETHING. ANY FOOL CAN STAND UP AND TALK! • Acts 18:24 Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. • Eloquent: logios: fluent, learned • Mighty: dunatos: powerful, capable

APOLOGETIC COMPONENT • Apologia: to give a defense: what you believe and why you believe it 1 Peter 3:15 • Acts 18:27-28 And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. • It isn’t sufficient for a teacher to know what he/she believes; why it is believed is also important • Acts 20:20 … how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,

PREACHER OR TEACHER? • 2 Timothy 1:10-11 …but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. • Preacher: kerux: a herald, a public crier • Teacher: didaskalos: an instructor • Apostle: apostalos: one sent on a mission • Pastor: poimen: shepherd • Is is always necessary that a pastor also be a preacher or teacher or apostle? • Jesus may have been the only living person to do all four well and simultaneously

PASTORS AND CHURCHES • The gift of pastor does not necessarily imply that a person will be the leader of a congregation or church • John 10:11-13 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.” • 1 Peter 5:1-2 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;

ADMINISTRATION • Leadership: can set goals and communicate goals so that administrators and other people work voluntarily and harmoniously to accomplish the goals • Administration: understands short and long-term goals and can devise and execute effective plans to execute the goals • Acts 7:9-10 The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household. • Acts 15:7-9 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

ARE GIFTS ALSO PHYSICAL? • Spiritual gifts may take physical discipline and mental application or training • Body, soul, spirit • Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. • Body: soma: palpable substance • 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. • Relationship with God, in personal lives, and interpersonal contact

GIFTS OF THE RISEN LORD • Ephesians 4:11-12 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; • Equipping: katartismos: to prepare, to repair • transformed by the renewing of your mind • Transformed: metamorphousthe: changed, transfigured • Renewing: anakainosis: renovation 1. Change of appearance or action 2. Change of function 3. Upgrading a function • Mind: nous: comprehension, understanding as in worldview • Process: prove what the will of God is….

THE TEACHING COROLLARY • Learning: manthano: to learn, to be educated • Ephesians 4:17-20 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way… • 2 Timothy 3:1-7 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

THE LEARNING PROBLEM • False teachers in Ephesus • Futility, ignorance, hardness of heart, sensuality • Some apparently exploited vulnerable (silly) women who were fodder for false teaching • Always learning: openness to learning; willing to hear the latest fad heresy that was going around • 2 Timothy 3:5…holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these. • Paul seems to equate a moral deficiency with false teaching • Paul seems to equate carnality and immaturity with becoming willing targets for false teaching

THE HERESIES • In the early church: Docetists Gnostics Judaizers • In the church today: Elements of Babylonian cult religions Open theology Liberation theology Universalism • There has never been an absence of heresy in the church It is the role of pastors and teachers to dispel the heresy

JUST AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS