Neil Silverberg: Well, I've been given the gift of these verses.
Neil Silverberg: We're in the book of Ephesians.
Neil Silverberg: If you're new to Trinity, we're preaching through the book of Ephesians.
Neil Silverberg: And I am so excited about the verses I get to deal with this morning.
Neil Silverberg: I want to encourage you to open your heart.
Neil Silverberg: How many know there's a saying that I have that I repeat often.
Neil Silverberg: Those who are most bound by tradition are those who don't think they have any.
Neil Silverberg: And it's true.
Neil Silverberg: Some of you are familiar with one of some of the things we'll be sharing this morning, but for some of you, they may be new and you've never heard it, or you've wondered about it, and maybe this will be an answer to prayer.
Neil Silverberg: So turn with me in Ephesians to chapter 4.
Neil Silverberg: Ephesians chapter 4.
Neil Silverberg: And I want to read a few verses in chapter 4, beginning in verse 7.
Neil Silverberg: Would you mind standing before the Lord as we read God's word in his presence?
Neil Silverberg: Let's begin in verse 7.
Neil Silverberg: Ephesians 4, 7.
Neil Silverberg: But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Neil Silverberg: Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
Neil Silverberg: In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
Neil Silverberg: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
Neil Silverberg: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of us of the Son of God to mature manhood.
Neil Silverberg: Let's stop there.
Neil Silverberg: Father, thank you for these verses in Ephesians.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you for the truth they convey.
Neil Silverberg: We need to hear it, Lord.
Neil Silverberg: We pray for open hearts this morning.
Neil Silverberg: We pray for the gift of hearing the word of God, untainted by tradition.
Neil Silverberg: We thank you, Father, you're going to speak to us through these words.
Neil Silverberg: And we pray that as people hear them, you would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Neil Silverberg: Open our hearts to receive the Word of God in Jesus' name.
Neil Silverberg: And everyone said, Amen.
Neil Silverberg: You may be seated.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you.
Neil Silverberg: It was a number of years ago I did a series in a local church I was serving out of state.
Neil Silverberg: And I called this series, I love this title.
Neil Silverberg: It's my favorite title of any series I've ever done.
Neil Silverberg: It was called the Local Church Prison Camp or Training Camp.
Neil Silverberg: Question mark.
Neil Silverberg: And the burden of that message was to help believers see clearly what God has called pastors to do and why they're so vital to the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: And it focused not only on pastors, but on the fivefold ministry and how fivefold ministry was necessary to equip the saints.
Neil Silverberg: That's what I want to focus on mainly in our text this morning, but I want to spend time in the verses that precede it.
Neil Silverberg: I've simply entitled this, Pastors as Equippers.
Neil Silverberg: Now we've seen that this letter to the Ephesians has two sections in it.
Neil Silverberg: In the first half of this book, chapters one through three, the apostle deals with our identity in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: In the entire section, verses chapters one through three, there's not one command or one imperative.
Neil Silverberg: The entire section, chapters one through three, is a series of indicative statements comprised of several theological statements, all dealing with what God did in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: And that's why we call we're calling this series in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul never refers to believers one time as Christians, but as men and women who are in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: And it's so important to see that.
Neil Silverberg: It's either in Christ or in him.
Neil Silverberg: Listen to chapter one.
Neil Silverberg: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose him in him, us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
Neil Silverberg: What does in Christ mean?
Neil Silverberg: It means that Jesus is our federal head.
Neil Silverberg: And that's a term that may not be familiar to all, but what it means simply is what true, what is true of Jesus is now true of us.
Neil Silverberg: What is true of Jesus is now true of us.
Neil Silverberg: I remember Watchman Knee in a book I read years ago called A Normal Christian Life.
Neil Silverberg: He talked about uh in Christ by giving this the little illustration.
Neil Silverberg: It's a little crude, but it works.
Neil Silverberg: He says, here's a book and here's a piece of paper.
Neil Silverberg: If you drop the book on the pulpit, what happens to the paper?
Neil Silverberg: Nothing.
Neil Silverberg: If I hand the book to Tyler, what happens to the paper?
Neil Silverberg: Nothing.
Neil Silverberg: If I mail the book to Mark, what happens to the paper?
Neil Silverberg: Nothing.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: Because the paper and the book have separate histories.
Neil Silverberg: They're not united together.
Neil Silverberg: What happens to one does not affect the other.
Neil Silverberg: But what if I put the paper in the book and I hand the book to Tyler?
Neil Silverberg: What happens to the paper?
Neil Silverberg: It goes with Tyler.
Neil Silverberg: If I hand the book to Mark, what happens to the paper?
Neil Silverberg: What the paper's history and the book's history are now one.
Neil Silverberg: And that's exactly what Paul's saying when he says we are in Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Two weeks ago, Kelly opened up the seventh second section of Ephesians chapter 4 through 6, which deals with the believer's walk.
Neil Silverberg: And in this chapter, he introduced us to our calling as believers.
Neil Silverberg: He focused on four qualities that are essential to fulfill our calling.
Neil Silverberg: He said, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called, with all humility, gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.
Neil Silverberg: And last week Tyler preached verses four through six of chapter four, and the theme of Christian unity.
Neil Silverberg: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, three thousand denominations.
Neil Silverberg: The great unity of the faith.
Neil Silverberg: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Neil Silverberg: And now, in the five verses which I'll deal with this morning, Paul tells us that Christian unity is enriched by the diversity of our gifts.
Neil Silverberg: Christian unity is enriched by the diversity of our gifts.
Neil Silverberg: Though Christians are to live in unity, that doesn't mean believers are mere stereotypes of each other.
Neil Silverberg: How many are glad for the variety in the body of Christ?
Neil Silverberg: Could you survive if the only jokes you heard were mine?
Neil Silverberg: No.
Neil Silverberg: Boy, survive, yes, but I went to I went to my psychiatrist.
Neil Silverberg: She said, You're crazy.
Neil Silverberg: I said, I want a second opinion.
Neil Silverberg: He said, You're ugly too.
Neil Silverberg: That's it, folks.
Neil Silverberg: No more.
Neil Silverberg: If I'm gonna stop right now, I can't stop.
Neil Silverberg: Those of you new to Trinity, I had a I had a calling which I clearly forsook.
Neil Silverberg: I had a calling to be a comic.
Neil Silverberg: But I'm just that I'm in full-time misery.
Neil Silverberg: Minister.
Neil Silverberg: See what happens when you go down that road.
Neil Silverberg: The body of Christ is one, but it's diverse in its giftedness.
Neil Silverberg: The word grace in chapter 4, verse 7, is an important word.
Neil Silverberg: In scripture, it's the Greek word charas, and it's from that Greek word that the word charismatic is formed.
Neil Silverberg: All churches should view themselves, therefore, as charismatic, in that we're all received of his grace.
Neil Silverberg: And this stresses both the universality of gifting, meaning that every believer has received a gift, and diversity, meaning not all receive the same kind of gift.
Neil Silverberg: These verses tell us three things about the gifts.
Neil Silverberg: First, they tell us about the giver of these gifts.
Neil Silverberg: They tell us, secondly, about their character, and thirdly, they tell us about their purpose.
Neil Silverberg: So let's start.
Neil Silverberg: Verses 5 through 10 tell us about the giver of these gifts.
Neil Silverberg: The giver of spiritual gift, Paul says, is the ascended Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Paul quotes Psalm 68, verse 18, to explain this fact.
Neil Silverberg: When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
Neil Silverberg: Paul cites Psalm 68 to portray the risen Christ as a victorious king who has ascended on high, taken captives, and now gives gifts to his people.
Neil Silverberg: And the phrase ascended on high is a prophecy regarding Messiah's ascension.
Neil Silverberg: You know, we don't talk about the ascension of Jesus enough, I think.
Neil Silverberg: The fact that not only did he die and was buried, but he was raised from the dead and then ascended to the right hand of the Father to take the ultimate seat of glory and power in the universe.
Neil Silverberg: That's the ascension of Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: And it fulfilled the ancient prophecy of Psalm 110, verse 1.
Neil Silverberg: The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
Neil Silverberg: Peter, when preaching on the day of Pentecost, referenced his ascension.
Neil Silverberg: He said, Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from him the promise of the Father, of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Neil Silverberg: That's Acts 2.33.
Neil Silverberg: The fact that Peter speaks about his ascension in his preaching on the day of Pentecost is interesting.
Neil Silverberg: Did you know that according to Judaism, the Jewish people believe that Pentecost was the day the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai?
Neil Silverberg: And on that day, Moses was given the law written on tablets of stone.
Neil Silverberg: 2,000 years ago, on another day of Pentecost, Jesus received the Spirit and gave him to his people to write his laws on our heart.
Neil Silverberg: And that's why three, and by the way, 3,000 died on the Pentecost that Moses celebrated because of idolatry, but 3,000 were added to the church.
Neil Silverberg: And this Pentecost that occurred 2,000 years ago.
Neil Silverberg: And Paul adds a parenthesis in verses 9 through 10.
Neil Silverberg: In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
Neil Silverberg: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
Neil Silverberg: He is saying in that if Psalm 68 is dealing with the fact that he ascended, it means by implication that he first descended into the lower regions of the earth.
Neil Silverberg: The King James states it that he descended into lower parts of the earth.
Neil Silverberg: The early church fathers, many of them, understood this as a reference to his descent into hell.
Neil Silverberg: There's a teaching based on this verse and others that Jesus, after he died, descended into hell where he had to be tormented for the salvation of man.
Neil Silverberg: I do not believe Jesus descended to hell to be tormented, because when he died, he said it is finished.
Neil Silverberg: Shortly after his death, Jesus' human soul went to the realm of scripture calls Sheol or Hades, the place of the dead, but not to the place of fiery, eternal punishment.
Neil Silverberg: In paradise.
Neil Silverberg: Today you'll be with me in paradise.
Neil Silverberg: That's not what this verse is teaching, that he went to hell.
Neil Silverberg: Rather, it's simply saying that his ascension followed his incarnation.
Neil Silverberg: This fits well, by the way, with Philippians 2, 5 through 11, where dying on a cross describes his deepest humiliation, followed by his supreme exaltation.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus gave specific ministry roles to his church as gifts for its growth and maturity.
Neil Silverberg: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Neil Silverberg: This is known as the five-fold ministry.
Neil Silverberg: And we believe in it because it's scriptural.
Neil Silverberg: God gave to the church five roles or gift of people to the church for its equipping.
Neil Silverberg: And these verse tell us about the gifts Jesus given.
Neil Silverberg: To be more exact, they describe not gifts given to people as we read in 1 Corinthians 12, but gifts of people given to the church.
Neil Silverberg: And it starts with apostles or sent ones.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, these men members of the fivefold ministry were appointed after Jesus ascended, not before, because many would say there's no apostles today.
Neil Silverberg: Well, this is not a reference just to the twelve, it's a reference to the fact that there's still apostolic people in the earth.
Neil Silverberg: Fivefold ministry were appointed after Jesus ascended.
Neil Silverberg: And this is important to recognize.
Neil Silverberg: Now there's a group of apostles that will never be added to.
Neil Silverberg: We call them capital A, big A, and no one will be added to the group.
Neil Silverberg: If you are sitting under teaching where someone says, I'm part, I'm an apostle, meaning I'm one of the apostles of the Lamb, take up your stakes and go.
Neil Silverberg: Because that is not true.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus gave 12 apostles of the Lamb, He handpicked them, and they were directly appointed by Jesus and sent by Him.
Neil Silverberg: They will serve as foundation stones in the New Jerusalem.
Neil Silverberg: Did you know that?
Neil Silverberg: And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.
Neil Silverberg: And all toll, there's 28 people called apostles in the New Testament.
Neil Silverberg: And again, that includes the 12, but there's others, or 16 others.
Neil Silverberg: This these apostles we would give a small A to.
Neil Silverberg: They're not apostles of the Lamb, chosen directly by Jesus, but they're apostles of the churches.
Neil Silverberg: In fact, they're mentioned in 2 Corinthians 8 23.
Neil Silverberg: As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit.
Neil Silverberg: As for our brothers, they are messengers.
Neil Silverberg: The Greek word there is apostolos.
Neil Silverberg: They are apostles of the churches, the glory of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: And these apostles of the churches were sent out from churches.
Neil Silverberg: There's apostles for the churches at Trinity.
Neil Silverberg: And Yuri and Olga, Mark and Amy, even Rob and Chris, and also y'all and myself.
Neil Silverberg: They're apostles of the churches.
Neil Silverberg: Then he gave also some as prophets.
Neil Silverberg: Did you know that prophets are alive and well in the body of Christ?
Neil Silverberg: These are people who stand in the council of the Lord, bringing a current word, a fresh word from the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: The New Testament clearly teaches that prophets had an important role in the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: For example, Paul describes a New Testament gathering this way.
Neil Silverberg: We see that prophets had a prominent role.
Neil Silverberg: He said, Let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what is said.
Neil Silverberg: Paul says about, and notice he says, two or three prophets, which means these were recognized prophets in the local church there.
Neil Silverberg: And they were to speak, and the others were to weigh what was being said.
Neil Silverberg: Prophets work with teachers.
Neil Silverberg: Here's a miracle: prophets and teachers work together without killing each other.
Neil Silverberg: Luke describes in chapter 13 of Acts how these prophets and teachers work together.
Neil Silverberg: He says, Now there was in the church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers.
Neil Silverberg: It is a challenge for them to work together because prophets love to soar in the spirit, but not spend time studying the word of God.
Neil Silverberg: That's a generalization, but it's true.
Neil Silverberg: And teachers love the word of God, but they don't have too much time for prophets.
Neil Silverberg: But folks, it's not an either-or.
Neil Silverberg: We need both.
Neil Silverberg: God has called us to embrace the prophetic, He's called us to embrace teaching, and we need both.
Neil Silverberg: Evangelists.
Neil Silverberg: He gave some as evangelists.
Neil Silverberg: This word evangelist occurs three times in the New Testament.
Neil Silverberg: Here in Ephesians 4:11, in Acts 21:8, Philip was called the evangelist.
Neil Silverberg: And 2 Timothy 4.5, Paul told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist.
Neil Silverberg: It may refer to the gift of uh evangelistic preaching or of making the gospel particularly plain and relevant.
Neil Silverberg: And let me say, I failed to say earlier, the purpose of these gifts is to equip the saints.
Neil Silverberg: We'll talk about that in a minute, which means when apostles function in the New Testament church, we become an apostolic people.
Neil Silverberg: When the prophets function, we become a prophetic people.
Neil Silverberg: When evangelists function, the body of Christ becomes equipped to do evangelism.
Neil Silverberg: It isn't just that we have these gifts and we get excited and glory in the fact that we have these gifts.
Neil Silverberg: We have them because they equip us.
Neil Silverberg: And I'll talk about that in a moment in a moment more.
Neil Silverberg: Evangelists think of one thing: souls.
Neil Silverberg: That's all they eat and breathe and sleep souls.
Neil Silverberg: And we need this gift in the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: There are people in our midst who are evangelists and who go after the souls.
Neil Silverberg: And everybody should pray for the grace of ability to do evangelism.
Neil Silverberg: Because it's not just evangelists who are called to do evangelistic work.
Neil Silverberg: Everybody should have a heart to be an evangelist.
Neil Silverberg: That's why Paul told Timothy, do the work of an evangelist.
Neil Silverberg: Timothy was not an evangelist, but Jesus, Paul said, do the work of an evangelist.
Neil Silverberg: Pray that God would let you do the work of an evangelist.
Neil Silverberg: And to do that, you have to open your mouth and speak.
Neil Silverberg: There's a great need for gifted evangelists today who can pioneer new ways of exercising and developing the evangelistic gift.
Neil Silverberg: And then probably the most known of the five-fold ministry are the following ones.
Neil Silverberg: He gave some as shepherds and teachers.
Neil Silverberg: Now you'll notice the definite article is not repeated in the expression.
Neil Silverberg: If it was, it would read, he gave some as shepherds, quote, some uh some teachers, but it doesn't.
Neil Silverberg: It says uh he gave some shepherds and teachers, and that means that shepherds who are called to tend the flock, they do so by teaching.
Neil Silverberg: That's an important way that shepherds feed the flock.
Neil Silverberg: Every pastor must be a teacher, but not every teacher is a pastor.
Neil Silverberg: Shepherds is a description of what elders do, and never is it appear, there's never a single shepherd in the New Testament church.
Neil Silverberg: It's always shepherds plural, which is why we have a team of shepherds or elders at Trinity that are pastoring the church.
Neil Silverberg: And we have a lead pastor.
Neil Silverberg: Tyler functions as a lead pastor, but we all shepherd the church.
Neil Silverberg: Uh every pastor shepherds the church, is why we have not only multiple elders, but we have a shared pulpit.
Neil Silverberg: Shepherds is a description of what elders do.
Neil Silverberg: Paul, when speaking to the elders, At Ephesus said, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
Neil Silverberg: I exhort the elders among you, Peter says, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed.
Neil Silverberg: Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock, is 1 Peter 5, 1 through 3.
Neil Silverberg: So the fivefold ministry gifts are given for the equipping of the saints.
Neil Silverberg: It takes the entire fivefold ministry to equip a church.
Neil Silverberg: It's one of the reasons local churches import ministry gifts.
Neil Silverberg: They are lacking to minister to the church, because they understand it takes the whole five-fold ministry.
Neil Silverberg: Having saying that, let's look at the roles pastors play specifically in equipping the saints, because that is a low local church function.
Neil Silverberg: One of the things which determines whether or not a local church will function as a training camp or a prison camp is whether or not the pastoral staff of that church has an accurate understanding of their role biblically and functions accordingly.
Neil Silverberg: That about churches and pastors and who pastors are and what they do that is clearly not biblical.
Neil Silverberg: The mindset, this mindset has kept pastors functioning as God intended, and that he has had a direct effect on the function or non-function of the members of the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: The best description of the relationship between who pastors are and how it relates to the body of Christ, I found, is by a man named Elton Trueblood.
Neil Silverberg: Listen to his description of the relationship between pastors and how it relates to the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: He says the ministry is for all those who share Christ's life.
Neil Silverberg: The pastorate is for those who possess the peculiar gift of being able to help others practice any ministry to which they are called.
Neil Silverberg: Isn't that tremendous?
Neil Silverberg: I love that quote because it sets clearly forth the biblical reality of who pastors are, who the people of God are, and how the two are related.
Neil Silverberg: True Blood starts with a statement about who is in the ministry.
Neil Silverberg: We would expect it to say pastors are in the ministry, but it's a shocking statement.
Neil Silverberg: He says the ministry is for all those who share Christ's life.
Neil Silverberg: Did you know when you got saved, you entered the ministry?
Neil Silverberg: And don't panic, you don't have to quit your job and get a mailing list.
Neil Silverberg: If you have the life of Christ, God has given you a ministry.
Neil Silverberg: All Christians are in the ministry.
Neil Silverberg: You know, the lack of understanding that has caused great harm in the body of Christ, especially to leaders.
Neil Silverberg: As I travel the nation, I find tired leaders.
Neil Silverberg: And guess why they're tired?
Neil Silverberg: They're doing the ministry for the majority who are functioning in a ministry gift that's in wasn't in the New Testament.
Neil Silverberg: It's called spectator.
Neil Silverberg: And they're spectators.
Neil Silverberg: They sit on the fence because they they believe that ministry is not open to them.
Neil Silverberg: That's why they're tired.
Neil Silverberg: It's like a Valves football game.
Neil Silverberg: 100,000 people in their stands, desperately needing exercise, 11 on the field, desperately needing rest.
Neil Silverberg: He says the pastorate is for those who have the gift of helping others practice their ministry.
Neil Silverberg: That's what pastors do among many things.
Neil Silverberg: They train and equip God's people for ministry.
Neil Silverberg: In other words, pastors service others so that they are equipped to function in what God has called them to do.
Neil Silverberg: Now I realize this is backwards again from what people usually think.
Neil Silverberg: Pastors are, they think pastors are in the ministry, and we support them.
Neil Silverberg: But this clearly reflects the biblical picture of why God gives pastors to the body.
Neil Silverberg: True blood statement in reality simply reflects what scripture teaches.
Neil Silverberg: Paul doesn't give, in listing the five-fold ministry in Ephesians 4.11, Paul doesn't give a detailed description of who these gifted people are.
Neil Silverberg: The emphasis is clearly on what they do for the body.
Neil Silverberg: They equip people more than an understanding of who they are.
Neil Silverberg: He tells us a little about who they are, but mainly his focus is on what they do, and that is they equip people for the work of the ministry.
Neil Silverberg: That means when pastor teachers function properly, the result is people are empowered so that they begin to function in their God-appointed spheres.
Neil Silverberg: The purpose of pastors, therefore, is to empower the body so they become ministers.
Neil Silverberg: Unfortunately, if you've been around the body of Christ for any length of time, you know this is not the prevailing view that most people hold regarding who and what pastors do.
Neil Silverberg: It was certainly not the way I thought in my second pastorate over 45 years ago.
Neil Silverberg: I was burning out and I took a year off to learn what ministry really was.
Neil Silverberg: And it was during that time that I learned the importance of recognizing my philosophy of ministry.
Neil Silverberg: You know what I mean by talk about a philosophy of ministry?
Neil Silverberg: It's an understanding not only of what ministry is, but why we do what we do.
Neil Silverberg: I actually had a philosophy of ministry, but it was the wrong one.
Neil Silverberg: In fact, I soon learned that as a pastor, I could have one of three philosophies of ministry.
Neil Silverberg: I could be a museum curator, I could be a short-order cook, or I could be a wise master builder.
Neil Silverberg: Now I had no problem with being a museum curator.
Neil Silverberg: You know what a museum curator, his job is to take care of old relics and make sure they never become new.
Neil Silverberg: He wants old and decrepit things.
Neil Silverberg: You don't go to a museum to see new things.
Neil Silverberg: Now, certain aspect of that is good because we're called to handle the ancient word of God and safeguard it from changing.
Neil Silverberg: But uh, you know, museum curators are those who fight hard to maintain traditions.
Neil Silverberg: And I didn't have that problem when I got saved, coming out of Judaism right into the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: I had no problem being, I was not battling being a museum curator, but I took the second uh philosophy of ministry.
Neil Silverberg: I was a short-order cook.
Neil Silverberg: My philosophy was no philosophy at all.
Neil Silverberg: It's to fill orders.
Neil Silverberg: That's all I did.
Neil Silverberg: A short-order cook does not think about yesterday or tomorrow.
Neil Silverberg: His only task is to fill the next order.
Neil Silverberg: This is the concept of pastoring who sees ministry as nothing more than meeting needs.
Neil Silverberg: I stood before my congregation and said, I'm here to meet all your needs, and they took me up on it.
Neil Silverberg: They brought their cousins and uncles and aunts.
Neil Silverberg: This is the concept of pastoring that most people love.
Neil Silverberg: Pastor gives me womb-to-tomb service.
Neil Silverberg: Someone asked me one, what do pastors do?
Neil Silverberg: I said, they dedicate babies, they marry people, they bury people, they hatch them, match them, and dispatch them.
Neil Silverberg: That was a new one.
Neil Silverberg: No, it wasn't.
Neil Silverberg: You have a short-term memory.
Neil Silverberg: Now there's several things, shorter to cook as a philosophy, there's several things about it that are wrong, not the least of which it puts incredible demands on one person to meet everyone's needs.
Neil Silverberg: I think that's a biblical principle.
Neil Silverberg: A pastor's job is not to meet everyone's needs, but to make sure everyone's needs are met.
Neil Silverberg: Jerry Cook, in his groundbreaking book, Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness, tells a story of a woman in his church who was hospitalized for 17 days.
Neil Silverberg: And the pastor never went to visit her in the hospital.
Neil Silverberg: She was very mad.
Neil Silverberg: And he heard that 17 people had visited her, and he called her up and she said, Why haven't you come and visit me?
Neil Silverberg: He said, I heard 17 people from the church came and visited you.
Neil Silverberg: She said, Yes, that's right, but you didn't.
Neil Silverberg: He said, Let me get this straight.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus Christ visited you 17 times, and you didn't receive it because you'll only receive him in one form.
Neil Silverberg: Good answer.
Neil Silverberg: But the third uh philosophy of ministry is the one we strive at.
Neil Silverberg: It's called wise master builder.
Neil Silverberg: And in 1 Corinthians 3 10, Paul uses the word architect non, from which we get our English word what?
Neil Silverberg: Architect.
Neil Silverberg: He says, I am an architect.
Neil Silverberg: And he calls himself that.
Neil Silverberg: And that meant that Paul saw blueprints for the house and knew what God wanted to build.
Neil Silverberg: He was a wise master builder, which by inference means there's foolish master builders.
Neil Silverberg: There's people who build weakness into the body of Christ rather than strength.
Neil Silverberg: The most important thing Paul's saying when he calls himself a wise master builder is he's an architect.
Neil Silverberg: He saw the plans of the house.
Neil Silverberg: And in this regard, he's much like Moses, who God gave the plans for the tabernacle.
Neil Silverberg: When we think about pastors being set in the body to equip people, it's not just a good idea.
Neil Silverberg: It's the way that God has built his house.
Neil Silverberg: Wise master builders know how to build people solidly upon the only foundation.
Neil Silverberg: So let me end by taking you through three applications of the word equipping that is translated in Ephesians 4, 12.
Neil Silverberg: To understand this properly, I want to take a moment to talk about the meaning of this powerful word, equipping.
Neil Silverberg: It's the powerful Greek word katartismos.
Neil Silverberg: In the New Testament, that word is used in three distinct ways.
Neil Silverberg: As we understand these ways, we are used, we are, they begin to help us to know how pastors are called to equip.
Neil Silverberg: The first way that word was used was in a medical or medicinal fashion.
Neil Silverberg: It was translated by the word mending.
Neil Silverberg: Remember when Jesus called Andrew and Simon?
Neil Silverberg: They were in the boat.
Neil Silverberg: Remember what they were doing when Jesus called them?
Neil Silverberg: It says they were in the boat mending the nets.
Neil Silverberg: And that word mending is a medical term.
Neil Silverberg: And it's used here, translating catartismos.
Neil Silverberg: It's the idea of restoration and healing.
Neil Silverberg: What it conveys is as pastors, teachers function, they bring mending to lives.
Neil Silverberg: I've for the years I've been in ministry, I've gone through, you know, I've seen so many people come into the church and they're racked with uh unhealthiness and things of this nature.
Neil Silverberg: And I saw the five-fold ministry, especially pastors as a function, bring healing and restoration.
Neil Silverberg: The result is the entire church is immersed in grace.
Neil Silverberg: It becomes the therapeutic community.
Neil Silverberg: The love of God in a healthy church is a healing agent, mending broken lives.
Neil Silverberg: And again, I've watched people come in whose lives were utterly shattered and saw the word of God and loving pastors minister to them and healing occur.
Neil Silverberg: It's a powerful thing.
Neil Silverberg: When a church is healthy, it exercises a mending ministry, a restorative ministry.
Neil Silverberg: God can bring both broken lives into that church so they can be healed.
Neil Silverberg: The second way this term catarisms was used.
Neil Silverberg: It was used in the world of construction for establishing or laying foundation.
Neil Silverberg: The most important aspect of building is laying the foundation.
Neil Silverberg: Foundation is the building is only as strong as its foundation.
Neil Silverberg: New Testament reveals that Jesus is both our foundation and our equipper.
Neil Silverberg: And that brings up an important question.
Neil Silverberg: How can pastors be both uh you know equippers?
Neil Silverberg: Uh how can pastors in Jesus Christ, that is, be equippers and uh pastors at the same time.
Neil Silverberg: Our Paul Stevens in his book, Liberating the Laity, supplies an answer.
Neil Silverberg: This is my favorite definition of leadership.
Neil Silverberg: The human equipper's major function is not to make people dependent upon the leaders, but dependent upon the head.
Neil Silverberg: This is the highest possible calling.
Neil Silverberg: It requires the strongest possible leadership in the church to lead people in such a way that they do not become dependent on human leaders.
Neil Silverberg: Equipping, directing people to find their life and future in Christ Himself makes the highest claim on leadership.
Neil Silverberg: True leaders are always pointing people to the all-sufficient Christ to whom each member is connected.
Neil Silverberg: Folks, believe it or not, Jesus Christ is really the head of the church.
Neil Silverberg: He's the head of the church, not the retired founder.
Neil Silverberg: Along with Jesus Christ is our foundation, the written word is fundamentally connected to laying foundation in our lives.
Neil Silverberg: It's not pastors' personalities or their winsomeness or their ability to tell jokes that brings completeness to lies, but the ever-living, abiding word of God that makes people whole.
Neil Silverberg: This tells us the main job of pastors is to be pointing people to Jesus Christ through the written word.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, the word of God not only informs, it performs.
Neil Silverberg: And then finally, training.
Neil Silverberg: The word was used, catertismos, in the training of athletes.
Neil Silverberg: It is sometimes translated by the English word discipline.
Neil Silverberg: When pastors function the way they ought, the local church becomes a training camp where people are trained for life and ministry.
Neil Silverberg: Paul understood this training for athletes because the Olympic Games were created in his backyard.
Neil Silverberg: Some of us have been watching the Olympics this week.
Neil Silverberg: How many know the athletes don't train just to train, but that they might compete in the Games?
Neil Silverberg: By the way, has anybody figured out that sport of curling?
Neil Silverberg: I don't get it.
Neil Silverberg: Shelley loves it.
Neil Silverberg: She gets it.
Neil Silverberg: It's bowling on steroids.
Neil Silverberg: But an athlete doesn't train just to train, but that he or she might compete in the games.
Neil Silverberg: And there's two extremes in the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: Some try to jump into Olympics without training.
Neil Silverberg: You know, I sit on my couch watching the Olympics, and I say, I could do that.
Neil Silverberg: But second, some are training forever and never get to compete.
Neil Silverberg: So two things are happening at TCC, especially with our emphasis on discipleship.
Neil Silverberg: People are being trained through teaching, mentoring, discipling, through leadership intenses and other ways.
Neil Silverberg: And trained people are being sent.
Neil Silverberg: Sent for what?
Neil Silverberg: Sent as a trained army to push back the gates of hell and advance the kingdom throughout this region.
Neil Silverberg: That's our calling.
Neil Silverberg: That's what the Fivefold Ministry does.
Neil Silverberg: That's why church life is so important that we be part of the body of Christ.
Neil Silverberg: And that's why our present emphasis on discipleship is so important to what God wants to do.
Neil Silverberg: He is raising people up to by training.
Neil Silverberg: And as training goes on, more and more people function in ministry.
Neil Silverberg: Stand with me.
Neil Silverberg: Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful way you created the body of Christ to function.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you, Father, for you gave us an ability to multiply ourselves.
Neil Silverberg: Father, we pray for Trinity and this present emphasis on discipleship.
Neil Silverberg: Lord, give us new disciples.
Neil Silverberg: Give us people that the Fivefold Ministry can function and train and bring life.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you in Jesus' name.
Neil Silverberg: Amen.