Ephesians 4:11 - Is Evangelism a Gift?

Many Christians, even respected Evangelical leaders, would call Evangelism a spiritual gift (see post from The Resurgence). I would like to challenge that notion, or at the very least show that not having the gift of evangelism doesn't exempt a Christian from the call.

Commentators seem to point to Ephesians 4:11 as their understanding for calling evangelism a gift, "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." There is a direct parallel between this passage and Romans 12 (v6-­7), "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching." Paul clearly calls prophecy and teaching spiritual gifts, so even though it's not explicitly mentioned in Ephesians 4, the link shows that being an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a shepherd or a teacher is a spiritual gift. So it's not strictly wrong to call evangelism a spiritual gift.

However, take another look at the list from Ephesians: apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. You either have to play the game One of These Things is Not Like the Other, or acknowledge that Paul groups evangelist within the rank of teacher. Paul is consistent in at least one other place in pairing evangelist with teacher, for he exhorts Timothy to "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Timothy 4:5). If the spiritual gift of evangelism is understood in this context, then it appears that it refers to a teacher's ability to train others in evangelism (“to equip the saints for the work of ministry”).

Even with this understanding, though, that does not mean someone can't be a gifted evangelist! God has given all of us his Holy Spirit, he has gifted us in different ways to complement each other and build up the body. I believe that my wife's ability to play piano for church is just as much a spiritual gift as Paul's mention of an "utterance of wisdom" or “speaking in tongues.” "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Cor 12:7), and those manifestations can work themselves out in natural talent or miraculous ways. So, I'm not saying that people cannot be gifted in evangelism, but I believe that the “spiritual gift of evangelism” as Paul mentions it is a leadership gift.

Too many have used "not having the gift of evangelism" as their excuse for never evangelizing. According to Barna, that number is growing over time, and roughly (or less than) ten percent of professing Christians participate in evangelism! Our biblical responsibility to make disciples is very clear. Even beyond the Great Commission of Matthew 28 are a few exhortations to share our faith: Acts 1:8, 1 Peter 3:15. The message becomes clearer with an inductive study of the entire New Testament. The apostles simply have no context for not sharing the gospel-­-it is a treasure of too much value to keep to one's self. I hope we grow a heart and all become more gifted in sharing the precious news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 8: Money, The New Covenant's Manna

Paul devotes a lot of space to the issues of money and generosity in 2 Corinthians 8. His main argument in the chapter is that Jesus Christ became poor so that they may become rich (2 Cor 8:9), so have the same heart, go and do likewise (2 Cor 8:10-11). There may be a little surprise in what Paul is saying here, for he says he is not giving them a new command (2 Cor 8:8), but rather promoting the love for their brothers in Christ they ought to have had (John 13:34).

Paul could have stopped there and told them to be generous because Christ has been supremely generous with us and, frankly, he commanded it. But he doesn't end with that exhortation, he uses a reference to manna in the wilderness (from Exodus 16) in verse 15:

For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (2 Corinthians 8:13-15 ESV)

Care should be taken in extending the analogy, but there is a relationship that Paul is making between the manna God provided wandering Israel with and the money he gives us today. The analogy is anchored to 'supplying need' or 'having no lack.' God ensured that his people had enough to eat while they wandered in the wasteland for 40 years, and Paul exhorts the Corinthian church to supply the needs of other Christians or other churches who were in a position of need.

If it can be extended, the analogy might fit on the other end as well: no one should have an excess. For those who gathered too much manna, they found their stores corrupted by rot and worms. Even though that does not physically happen to an accumulation of money, it can certainly have the same effect on our hearts, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. There are certainly Christians who live by this principle: they set a maximum income they'll live by and give the rest away. The point isn't to set a rule, however, it's about having the right heart. It would be easy to set a standard of living cap and have a miserable attitude, and that would be sinful (it does not proceed from faith, and God loves a cheerful giver). However, I believe most people struggle not with this heart so much as the first one: actually giving away in a sacrificial manner. Fear of sin of one extreme is not license to sin in the other extreme.

Aside from trying to zip up the analogy from bottom to top, however, it appears that God's heart for the collection of manna and money are the same. Do not collect too much for yourself; it's purpose is so that everyone has their needs met. Money should be like water in our hands, and we should position ours over those whose hands are dry and blistered. Paul shows us that we should have the heart of Macedonia. This is a sacrificial heart--the heart of Christ in giving:

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5 ESV)

I know I need to grow in this heart. And it comes by giving ourselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to others. Macedonia loved the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and their neighbor as themselves, and proved it through their wallets.

Luke 13: O Jerusalem

One of the grave dangers in reading the Bible is to sit in judgment against those that failed to do what's right in the narrative. "Those silly Israelites, grumbling after God brought them out of Egypt," or "those evil Pharisees; they're such hypocrites!" The judgment may be right, but if you don't apply it to your own heart and life, you've missed a significant point. I often think about how I probably would have followed Jesus for the tangible, earthly benefits if I lived in first century Palestine. I would have missed that he is Lord and Savior, and I would have been disappointed that my hope for food and health was gone when he died. In many ways today I am still a Pharisee. I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit; he has opened my eyes to see how precious the grace and salvation Jesus bestows on us is, for in my flesh I would have missed it all.

Luke 13 has one of those passages. We could read it and sit in judgment against Jerusalem.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:34-35).

Those silly Jews, killing their prophets and crucifying their Lord! But wait, it was my sin that nailed him to the cross too.

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6 ESV)

And in this life, we're never done learning our lesson. Think about the great atrocities mankind has committed in the last century. Think about your very sin this day. This is one of the reasons I like Casting Crowns' song While You Were Sleeping. We as a nation are still missing our Savior the way Jerusalem missed him 2,000 years ago. Don't miss what he has done for your soul.

If you would like to listen to the song, you can find it on YouTube.

Redemption

My wife and I were sitting in the living room earlier this week after the kids went to bed, and I forget what I was reading that prompted this comment, but I said something along the lines of, "It seems like God is going to pretty much give to those he saves what Adam and Eve were looking for when they sinned." I got a well-deserved funny look. Read Genesis 3 to understand what I was saying:

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:4-6 ESV)

Adam and Eve were seeking to be like God, and though we're made in the image of God (so we're already like him to some degree), I believe he will make us more like him than we could have ever been in our pure humanity.

The main question about my statement was one of the degree of redemption. Isn't God simply restoring us, to be like Adam and Eve were as they were first created, when God saves us through his Son? The answer is yes, but he's also making us so much more!

God is restoring his elect to be like Adam and Eve again. That happens in some ways now, but God will complete the work [Phil 1:6] when we enter his presence in heaven.

• Our relationship with God becomes personal (Jeremiah 31:33)
• We will not sin (Rev 21:27, Rev 22:15)
• We will not die (Rev 21:4)
• Our home will be like the garden of Eden (Rev 22:1-2)

Already in the list are hints of the ways God's redemptive work is better than simple restoration. When God created Adam and Eve, they possessed all the blessings listed above, but they also had the potential to stumble and fall from God's grace (which, of course, they did rather swiftly). God will remove that potential, and because he bought us with a price, he will be faithful to us for all eternity. So we inherit the perfection of Adam and Eve once again, but the primary reason God's redemption is so much better is that we will possess the perfection of Christ. We will be glorified. We will be fully conformed to the image of Christ. In the same way that Jesus is the good and better everything (Adam, covenant, sacrifice, prophet, king, priest, etc.), the work he accomplishes in us will be a good and better copy of the work of Adam's creation. We will be a new creation.

• We will live in the presence of God (Rev 21:3, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man." That sentence needs an exclamation point!)
• There cannot be sin, sickness, pain or death (Rev 21:4)
• Life will be eternal joy and comfort (Psalm 16:11)

The primary reason I made the original statement, however, is that God will give us wisdom. We will have knowledge like God. I don't think we'll be omniscient, for we are not God, but we will clearly have knowledge of good and evil, and we will have a measure of the wisdom of God that Adam and Eve could never have had before the fall. We will intimately know the saving wisdom of Jesus Christ. And Paul says that one day we shall see clearly, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Cor 13:12). So that which Adam and Eve were seeking, God is giving it to us, and so much more. He is giving us himself.

"He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev 22:20)

Surprised By Joy, Chapter 9: New Atheists

Having said that he [Lewis' instructor "Kirk"] was an Atheist, I hasten to add that he was a "Rationalist" of the old, high and dry nineteenth-century type. For Atheism has come down in the world since those days, and mixed itself with politics and learned to dabble in dirt. The anonymous donor who now sends me anti-God magazines hopes, no doubt, to hurt the Christian in me; he really hurts the ex-Atheist. I am ashamed that my old mates and (which matters much more) Kirk's old mates should have sunk to what they are now. It was different then; even McCabe wrote like a man. At the time when I knew him, the fuel of Kirk's Atheism was chiefly of the anthropological and pessimistic kind. He was great on The Golden Bough and Schopenhauer.

C.S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy, p. 152

What's old is new again. The recent resurgence of the New Atheists sounds much like the proselytizing atheists of Lewis' day. It is fascinating that some atheists are not content to stew in their own nihilism. They defeat their own argument by caring so much; for if they were right, there would be no point in convincing every they're right: all will be gone, all will be lost at the heat death of the universe. There may as well have never been pain and sorrow, joy and delight, life itself, for the memory of existence will fade away. By finding meaning in something, the anti-theist imparts significance to life. This group sounds a bit like what C.S. Lewis had previously called himself, "very angry at God for not existing."

Lewis makes a great point about what the New Atheism accomplishes: giving boldness to someone who has already made up their mind. That's it. They do not truly harm those with faith, for those who truly believe in God know that the New Atheists are just dabbling in dirt.

These who have set their lives vehemently opposed to God need prayer and witness. If this group succeeds in fooling the world with their non-belief, life will become very dark. But exceeding the horror of earth's consequences is the eternal destiny of their souls. If they do not confess in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, their eternal separation from all of God's grace is tragic. Soul-rendingly, heart-breakingly tragic.

Ezekiel 15 and John 15: The Vine

The M'Cheyne readings for Sunday and Monday both included illustrations using the vine as a metaphor. This post will look at them in reverse reading order, but historical chronological order.

Ezekiel 15: The Vine Is Charred

First, through Ezekiel, God has been describing to Jerusalem precisely how evil their behavior had become. See yesterday's post for a taste, or better yet, read Ezekiel for yourself to see how Jerusalem decayed. In chapter 15 (a very short chapter), God describes Jerusalem as a useless vine:

Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest? Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it? Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it, and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything? Behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything! Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 15:2-6 ESV)

Israel was meant to be a useful vine. If you take God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." and his instruction to Israel in Exodus 19, "and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," then you see that one of God's purposes for Israel is to be a light to the world. The nations of the earth would know that God was holy by his work in his people Israel. God would draw in the nations through his chosen race.

As the city neared exile, it was clear Jerusalem had defiled their covenant with God (read Ezekiel 16 for a graphic depiction of how God viewed their actions). So the vine branch to the world burned itself and became useful for nothing. Mostly nothing, for God had not fulfilled his final plan through this broken nation. Through Israel, God sent his Son a few hundred years later to save both Israel and the Gentiles, and by that revealed the True Vine Branch (Jer 23:5), the Source (Heb 5:9) and Head (Col 1:8, Col 2:9) in the Messiah. So Israel was not the branch source, but rather a shoot off of the real vine: Jesus Christ. But through their apostasy they cut themselves off from the source and withered.

John 15: The Vine Is Christ

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. (John 15:5-6 ESV)

The Vine has life, and we have a choice to abide in him and bear fruit, or we wither, are thrown into the fire and burned. Jesus goes on to talk about a connection between abiding in him, loving the Father, the Son and one another, keeping his commands and bearing fruit. All of those flow through Christ to us, as he chose us and appointed us that we should go and bear fruit (John 15:16).

Our health as a vine branch is directly related to how completely we are grafted in--to our spiritual health. As we separate from Christ (John 15:5 says this applies to all of life!), we wither and die, but as we abide in him, we grow and bear fruit. How close is your relationship to your Savior? How grafted in is your life in Christ?

Ezekiel 14: Righteousness

Chapter 14 of Ezekiel from Sunday's M'Cheyne reading has several fascinating elements in it. As usual, D.A. Carson has a brilliant devotional on the chapter in his book For the Love of God, and his thoughts are far more worthy to ponder.

The thing most striking about Ezekiel 14 is the list of names given: Noah, Daniel and Job. We know them as righteous men God used for significant historical purposes, but what is so surprising is that Daniel is listed among Noah and Job. Genesis says "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God" (Genesis 6:9). Job was "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil" (Job 1:1). When Ezekiel was in service to the Lord, the Scriptures speaking of Noah and Job were already written. But Daniel was a contemporary, living in Babylon as Ezekiel wrote his scrolls. Through the Spirit's inspiration, Ezekiel knew that Daniel's righteousness was in the same league as Noah and Job. We know in hindsight, by God's recorded Word, that Daniel was faithful to the end (Daniel 6:28). Part of the surprise is that another faithful hero of old wasn't named, such as Moses or David. Perhaps Daniel was even more righteous than these men, as there are no recorded events where Daniel stumbled in his life.

Another peculiar statement in Ezekiel 14 is, "they would deliver neither sons nor daughters." This is used three times in the chapter (Ezekiel 14:16, 18, 22). This evokes thoughts of what Noah and Job endured. Noah did deliver his sons and daughters from the global flood. But Job's sons and daughters were lost despite (or perhaps because of) his righteousness. The Bible does not speak to whether or not Daniel had any children, but his biography reads as if he lived a bachelor's life. Regardless, Jerusalem has become so wicked in Ezekiel's day that no others besides these men would survive, apparently not even their family members. That could be interpreted a few ways:

• God showed grace to Noah's family in saving his children through the flood even though they may not have had the same righteous heart toward God as Noah. After the flood subsides, the behavior of Ham was not blameless (see Genesis 9:20-27), though neither was Noah's.
• The culture of wickedness was so extreme in Jerusalem that it may have swayed the children of these men despite their own righteous lives and teaching. After all, Noah was able to convince at least his family to join him on the ark. Perhaps his three children, and any others among Job and Daniel, would have succumbed to societal pressures.
• The most likely meaning is that God would not spare Jerusalem for the sake of a few righteous citizens. God would deliver the righteous to safety, thus preserving a remnant, and the rest would be swept away in judgment (devastatingly complete judgment through beasts, war, disease and famine).

The last interpretation would remind the reader of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Genesis 18-19). God determined to destroy those cities for their wickedness; he would not relent despite Abraham's intercession. Abraham knew his nephew Lot lived in Sodom, but Lot was the only [or least un-]righteous man living in the city. God rescued Lot and his family, and the cities were destroyed in a fiery hailstorm. I believe God is saying that he would not have spared Lot's family if they had been living in Jerusalem in Ezekiel's day, for Lot's wife certainly did not trust in the Word of God (Genesis 19:26), and Lot himself would not have been righteous enough to spare his own life or Jerusalem's. Indeed, a while later, God calls Jerusalem Sodom's older (and more evil) sister, "As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it" (Ezekiel 16:48-50).

Do we presume upon God's kindness, forbearance and patience? Can you think of any nation that has pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but does not aid the poor and needy? Do we defend the indefensible?

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations" (Ezekiel 14:6 ESV).