Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, and Teachers

“And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers....” Verse 11.

These people are equipped by God with gifts in specific areas in order to serve the church. Their gifts are so pronounced that the person himself becomes a gift to the church.

Apostles

No one can presume to say, “I will be an apostle.” God chooses whom He pleases. Jesus found a Peter, He found a James, a Mark, a Matthew, and a John. He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Thus an apostle’s work is first and fore­most to be a fisher of men. With these men he is to form churches; that is to say, he is to instruct each one in the fear of God and teach them all how to associate with one another in the love of Christ. This is no easy task. Therefore, no one can be an apostle without having an ear for what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Apostle John was given the task of writing to the angels of the seven churches in Asia Minor. In order to do this, he himself had to hear and see; then he could share exactly what God had re­vealed to him. The angels (defenders, or overseers) of the local churches had to submit to the Apostles, just as the Apostles had to submit to Jesus Christ.

The work of an apostle is to fish men from the world and in­struct them in godliness within the church; this tells us that an apostle must be a prophet, shepherd, evangelist, and teacher as well. Without all these gifts it would be impossible for him to dis­charge this difficult task of leading a church away from the world to perfection in Christ Jesus. Some of these gifts may be more prominent than others, but all of them must be present.

In the thirteenth chapter of the book of Acts we see that in the church of Antioch there were prophets and teachers, among whom were Saul and Barnabas. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” This tells us that Saul and Barnabas were prophets and had the calling of an apostle; however, the rest of the church was to be told of this, so that they could approve their calling and send them off accord­ing to God’s will.

Prophets

When King Abimelech took Sarah from Abraham, God revealed Himself to the king in a dream and said: “‘Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man’s wife.’ Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, ‘Lord, wilt thou slay an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, “She is my sister”? And she herself said, “He is my brother.” In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.’ Then God said to him in a dream, ‘Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me; therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.’” Genesis 20:3-7.

Abraham was a prophet, a man who spoke with the Lord. Moses was a prophet with whom God spoke face to face. Christ was a prophet. (Acts 3:22.) A prophet is one to whom the Lord reveals Himself and makes known His will. The one who touches the Lord’s prophets will not go unpunished; but the one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. (Matthew 10:41.)

The prophet is the channel through which the Lord speaks to the people. The prophet hears what the Spirit is saying to the church, because he is in communion with the invisible powers. Some apostles are chosen from among the prophets. Acts 13 shows us that God has appointed some to be prophets in the new cove­nant. There will always be prophets in the church for its benefit and development. May God bless His prophets!

Evangelists

God’s entire work of salvation is a gospel of glad tidings for us. And yet an evangelist has a special task: He is to lead people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. Every saved soul can, to a certain degree, help draw sinners from the world to Christ; but this doesn’t necessarily make him an evangelist. On the other hand, the one whom God has appointed in the church as an evangelist is especially gifted to preach to sinners.

Today’s evangelists err greatly when they keep new converts for themselves. The evangelist himself must be in the church, where God, in addition to him, has appointed shepherds, prophets, and teachers. After the evangelist has brought a sinner to salvation, he cannot, as a rule, bring him any further. It is now the shepherds and teachers who are to lead the soul further. But what happens? The evangelists place these new converts on a platform behind them and continue to preach to sinners. These new converts are supposed to give their testimonies during the pauses in the meet­ings. Poor souls! There they sit, without a shepherd and without an overseer, year after year, and wither away. The evangelist is deathly afraid of losing his sheep, to whom he is unable to give the least bit of nourishment. He speaks to sinners and nobody but sin­ners! Meanwhile, those who are already converted sit behind him on the platform and “starve to death.” What a responsibility such evangelists have!

I would counsel everyone who ministers to sinners to remember that the church is more than just “the evangelist.” The others are perhaps less visible, being hidden within the body, yet they are there. The evangelist ought to be aware of this. It is time to stop making a business of the work of God’s kingdom. Let souls be free to develop in their own inheritance, and let the prophets, the shep­herds, and teachers share this work together with the evangelist.

Shepherds

New converts have not received life only to die right away. If a newborn baby doesn’t immediately receive care and nourishment, it will perish. And so it is with children in the spiritual sense. The ministry of a shepherd is like that of a tender mother on behalf of her children. But since this is essentially a hidden ministry, it is not held in much regard by the natural man. Nor is it very appeal­ing to carnal Christians (or to preachers who seek their own, for that matter). But in God’s eyes, the ministry of a shepherd is of double worth. It is a strenuous ministry that calls for great care and vigilance.

A good shepherd will use every free moment, even at his place of work, to guide the lambs. He will see that they do their work prop­erly, that they don’t engage in loose conversation with worldly col­leagues, that they don’t go off and hide in the corner and light up a pipe or a cigarette. The shepherd will watch and see that they don’t promise more than they can keep, and that they keep the promises they make. He will make sure that in their personal fi­nances they don’t spend more than they earn, that they don’t bor­row money in season and out of season and run around getting people to co-sign their bank loans. He will see to it that they don’t make gluttons of themselves, that they dress as modestly and in­conspicuously as possible, that they keep themselves pure, and that they are without offense in any way, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of Christ.

Some may well think that this is too much of a good thing and that it violates personal freedom. But the flesh manifests itself in every conceivable (and inconceivable) way, and that kind of free­dom must be checked so that the freedom of Christ can become manifest.

I realize full well that there are preachers who caution against this practical training in righteousness. At the same time, I also realize that these warnings are not of God, but of the devil. For it is a well-known fact that among the regular followers of these very same preachers there are people who sneak out of the meetings in order to light up a cigarette, people who for years have not paid their subscription to the church paper—yes, who put hefty sums in the collection box, but who are less interested in whether their in­come has been obtained in a righteous or an unrighteous manner—people who, by the way they look and the way they act, remind us of the vanity of this world. For such people, living a God-fearing life would be bondage of the worst sort, so God has appointed shep­herds in the church to see to it that the flesh is kept in bondage and becomes crucified.

Teachers

“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:20-21.

As long as everything is going well, people feel that they are rich and have abundance, and yet they are in abject poverty. No one has use for a teacher, because “Jesus is enough for me,” they say. Yet it is this very Jesus who appointed teachers in the church!

The giving of instruction in the churches today is in a dismal state. We can truly say that the vast majority know nothing of God. There is relentless preaching to sinners, but once they are converted, that’s the end of it. There is hardly anyone to take care of them. Nice feelings, a pleasant time together, smiling faces, soulish worship services, testimonies, song and music must certainly not be interrupted by wholesome spiritual instruction. When someone exhorts, corrects, or instructs, it is considered a disruption of the pleasantries. May God save His people from all this happy-go-lucky Christianity, which in itself is largely a vain deceit. Older people are so caught up in this chaos that they won’t forsake it for anything; yet in a number of places we have seen young people come to their senses. They have bidden farewell to sugar-coated Christianity and have had their eyes opened to the fact that they need salted food in order to live and grow.

The one who fears God in truth soon notices an emptiness. You can leave the most rousing “Hallelujah” meetings with a feeling of the greatest emptiness. There is no true depth, no instruction, no edification in love. One can’t live and build further on any of that.

When Israel became rich and satisfied, God sent them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. And in response to all the empty phrases with which they were so preoccupied, He let them suffer hunger. That helped, because it was as if it had begun to dawn on them that there must have been something to what all those “contemptible” teachers of Israel had been saying after all. Let those teachers whom Christ has appointed in the church have their say. It may hurt, but you will assuredly suffer no harm.