Psalm 139:13-14
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
In this final week of MilktoMeat readings, we want to focus on how you fit into the larger Kingdom purposes of Father God. In some Christian circles there is a lot of emphasis given to the Spiritual Gifts—finding your gift and using it. The Gifts are important, but it is more important to understand that YOU are more significant than the gift(s) Father God has given you to serve in His Body the Church. YOU are the gift that Father God has given to us all. It is YOU, the whole person, who will display the glory of Father God’s grace in the ages to come.
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One of the truths that we have been trying emphasize in this study is that we are called to a Body, a group or people, that we live and work together with in our Vision and Mission as Christ’s people. As we develop the last questions today, always keep in mind that you will not be doing these things alone, as an individual, but with your fellowship, your local church/assembly—the people you connect with as your spiritual family.
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Ephesians 4:11-12
It was he (Jesus Christ) who gave some as Apostles, some as Prophets, some as Evangelists, and some as Shepherds and Teachers, in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ.
How do all the 5 facets of gifted ministry work together to equip us all for the work the Lord has entrusted to us? that is the question we will focus on today.
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Today, we consider the last two gifted types of people that the Lord Jesus has given to us to equip us. The Shepherds and the Teachers work together to train us in some of the “every-day essentials” of following Christ.
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Ephesians 4:11-12
It was he (Jesus Christ) who gave some as Apostles, some as Prophets, some as Evangelists, and some as Shepherds and Teachers, in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ.
This week, we will consider the last three types of people given to us by Christ to equip us all for the work of ministry: the Evangelists, the Shepherds and the Teachers. These people build on the work of the Apostles and Prophets, cultivating their work in our daily lives.
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Today, we conclude our discussion of the Apostles and Prophets by thinking about the questions that these people raise for the Church as a whole.
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Ephesians 2:19–22
…you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 2:20 because you have been built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
In Ephesians, Paul presents The Church, the household of God, as a building that is being built up with “living stones” of people (see 1 Peter 2:4-5 for a similar image). As he says in the passage above, this building is built on the “foundation of the Apostles and Prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone.” Without a doubt, the Apostles and Prophets lay the “foundation” of the whole ministry of the Church.
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