And Gave Gifts to Men

Introduction:

As our congregation has grown and developed, our form of government has grown more defined along with it. To a certain extent, once we get used to it, we just function the way we function. But whenever we alter something, it generates questions that should always be answered from the Scriptures. Or other times it just occurs to someone to ask, as happened in our recent election of elders who are teachers.

The Text:

“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men . . . And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4: 8, 11–12).

Summary of the Text:

Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to replace Him. The Spirit’s work is to give gifts to men, and to generate fruit among men. The gifts of the Spirit include things like teaching, administration, exhortation, and so on. The fruit of the Spirit are things like love, joy, peace, patience, etc. The two are supposed to go together, but it doesn’t always happen that way. For example, the church at Corinth had every gift (1 Cor. 1:7), but when it came to spiritual maturity, they were still carnal (1 Cor. 3: 1-4). Someone can have a spiritual gift and be an unspiritual man.

Governed by Elders:

The New Testament teaches that each congregation is governed by a plurality of men, usually called elders (Acts 14:23), and sometimes called bishops (Phil. 1:1). The word translated elder is presbyteros and the word translated bishop or overseer is episkopos. We know these two offices are the same because the New Testament uses them interchangeably. Paul calls for the elders of the church at Ephesus (Acts 20:17), and moments later he speaks of them as bishops (Acts 20:28). Paul tells Titus to ordain elders in every city (Tit. 1:5), and says they must have a high character because a bishop must be blameless (Tit. 1:7). So then the highest authority in a local congregation is found in its session of elders.

Another body of men assists the elders in caring for the church on the practical side. These men are called deacons, from the word diakonos, which means servant.

Different Kinds of Elders:

But within the body of elders, the men have different callings and functions, according to their gifts. When the session votes on things, all the elders have the same role, and they all cast one vote. When the elders fan out to do certain things, they do so according to their assignments, their gifts and their abilities. In the rule of the church, they all have the same office. In the ministry of the church, they have different offices.

For example:

“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine” (1 Tim. 5:17).

So note that we have elders who rule well (who are to receive payment) but then a distinction is made between them and other elders—the elders who in addition to ruling well work with “word and doctrine.” This means there are elders who rule well who don’t teach. And the implied elders who don’t rule well are probably not elders who rule poorly, but rather elders who come to the meetings and vote, but are not vocationally dedicated to the work. So we have unpaid elders, administrative elders, and teaching elders.

Now if some elders don’t teach, why is it required that elders be “apt to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2)? One possibility is that in the New Testament we have the beginning of a separation between elder and bishop, one that became obvious by the second century. Another possibility is that every elder should be capable of handling questions about doctrine, without having the gift of teaching, kind of like the deacons (1 Tim. 3:9). And a third possibility is that the word didaktikos should be translated “teachable.”

So what about pastors? The word there is poimen, shepherd. In our text from Ephesians, the word is placed together with teacher (pastor/teacher), meaning that pastors also teach. As a shepherd, a pastor not only instructs but also feeds. This is why a pastor is responsible for Word and sacrament.

Now the names of pastor and teacher are frequently used as stand-alone descriptions. For example, teachers are mentioned separately (Acts 13:1; 1 Cor. 12:29; Rom. 12:7).

So some men are simply elders. They participate in the rule of the church. Some men are elders who dedicate enough time to rule that they are administrators (1 Cor. 12:28), and are paid for their work (1 Tim. 5:17). Some men are elders, participating in the rule of the church, but they also teach the body (1 Cor. 12:29). And then last, some men are elders, participating in the rule of the church, but they also teach, preach, and administer the sacraments (1 Tim. 2:7).

We want these things to be clear in our minds, but while remembering that they are also organic.

“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder [and an apostle], and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed [verb form of pastor] the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight [verb form of bishop] thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind” (1 Pet. 5:1–2).

A Brief Word About Translations:

In the PCA, there is a basic distinction between ministers who are called Teaching Elders (TE) and the other elders who are called Ruling Elders (RE). Our office of parish elder corresponds to their ruling elder. Our pastors (or ministers) would be TEs in the PCA, and our teachers wouldn’t correspond to anything. In the Reformation at Geneva, where the office of ruling elder was recovered, they were called seniors. The idea there was to include the laity in the governance of the church. At Geneva, they also had the office of teacher, which they called doctor. A distinction between the broader church and local church needs to be kept in mind.

Also keep in mind the distinction between office and function. The word elder is like our word senator. Presbyteros means old guy. Was Apollos ordained as a teacher, or did he just travel around teaching (Acts18:24-25)? What about a Christian who is not an officer in any church who publishes a book of teaching, and it takes off and becomes a best seller? Is he a teacher, and if so, what kind?

But always remember—all of this is a gift that Christ gave (Heb. 13:7, 17). We are everywhere taught to see the giver in the gift, and never to forsake the giver because of the gift. But neither are we to despise the giver by despising the gift. So the exalted Lord Jesus ascended beyond all glory and then He gave us . . . church government? Isn’t this like your favorite aunt letting you down on Christmas by giving you that ugly sweater, or nondescript socks? Not at all—and we must learn not to be that ungrateful kid at Christmas. We must learn to see Christ in His gifts, and when we learn to do this, we will then discover how many precious things ride on it.