So I want to draw your attention to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 11, which says,
and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
The last few weeks, the last few midweek services, we've been looking at the different
offices that are contained in the local church. And we are part of a Baptist church.
One of the Baptist distinctives, if you don't know this already, is that we generally
believe there are two main offices, there are two offices where people actually have an
authority within the local church. And we really looked at that, the office of the bishop,
of course, that's the office that I personally hold. Then you've got the office of a deacon,
which we looked at last week. But we're going to be looking at today is the office of the
evangelist. And you can see once again, here in verse 11, that evangelists are mentioned.
I want you to notice that again, evangelist there is in plural form, there's an S there
with evangelists. And the reason this is a Baptist distinctive is because you've got other
churches, you might have some, if you've been in a charismatic church, there are people
that would say they hold the office of an apostle. And yet it's very clear that, you know,
the only person that could hold an office of an apostle is someone that saw the resurrected
Christ. Okay. And we're already gone. If you were in one of the sermons, we looked at all
the different people that saw the resurrected Christ. And so that office does not exist
anymore. That office was also demonstrated by the power of the laying on hands and,
you know, the ability to speak in tongues and with tongues, I should say, and, you know,
cast out devils and raise the sick, and they're able to do some, you know, amazing miracles
through the hands of the apostles. And we're going to be looking at the office of the
evangelist today. And I will say that my teaching from this is going to be quite different
to probably what many other Baptist churches hold. And I'm not trying to say that I've
come up with some new idea, except that what I'm saying is that my understanding of this office,
I'm drawing that specifically from things that I can find in the scriptures.
Well, what do I mean by this? What I mean, why are there so many different views on what
an evangelist is? Well, obviously, when we look at the office of a pastor or a bishop,
it's very clear. We got, you know, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, we've got these Titus, Book of
Titus, very clearly laying out the responsibilities of someone that holds the office of a pastor
and the qualifications necessary for that person to meet that position, as well as the things
that will get him disqualified from having that role. It's very clearly laid out for us in the
Bible. And so, you know, when it comes to other churches, we're going to be very consistent
in our understanding of what a bishop should be like. As well, we looked at the office of a
deacon, that is also we have very clear qualifications of what a deacon is. And we saw
very clearly that deacon is there to support, to be a helper with administrative tasks,
so that the person that's leaving the church, say the pastor, or in the times of the Bible,
the apostles were able to continue to minister in prayer and minister in the Word of God.
And then we have the evangelist. And now here's the thing, we don't have,
you know, in the Bible, clear qualifications. This is what an evangelist needs to meet up to,
right? And so because we don't have that very clearly laid out for us in the Bible,
this is where we're going to have different ideas of how we apply this office.
And let me just quickly, well, if we have a look, look at Ephesians 4 verse again,
let's look at verse number 11, once again, it says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Now, why does God give all these
different offices in a church? It says in verse number 12, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And if you know your
Bible, you know, the body of Christ is your local church. You know, Blessed Baptist Church
operates as the body of Christ here in Sydney, okay? And we serve each one another. And ideally,
yeah, as our church continues to grow, you know, we already have a bishop in place,
hopefully one day we get a full-time bishop in place, you know, maybe one day we'll get
a deacon in place. So we might even look at getting an evangelist in place one day,
and we'll have different people holding these offices, Lord willing, if that's his will
for our church. But I want you to notice that it's for the edifying of the body of Christ
that we have these different offices, okay? So it's not a ministry that is a standalone ministry,
okay? I personally believe that any work done for the kingdom of God should be done under
the umbrella of a local church. Again, it's the body of Christ. You know, when Christ came
to this earth, okay, he had his apostles, he had his disciples, he sent them out to do the
work of God. Well, Christ has gone back to heaven, but yet we still have the body of Christ
today, and that's the local church. And so nobody should take the view, well, I'm just going to serve
God, you know, all the churches are corrupt, it's full of hypocrites, I can't find a good church,
I'm just going to go and serve God by myself. That's not how God wants us to operate. He wants
us to operate through the body of Christ. And again, you know, in the New Testament,
that is your local church. Now, as I said, there are various views as to what the office
of evangelists should be like. You know, I've come from, you know, many IFB churches,
and, you know, if you've been part of other IFB churches in the past, you'll know that the
term evangelist they often use, it's kind of a traveling minister that goes from church to
church to church to church. You know, we would often have evangelists from the United States,
for example, come and visit some of the churches that I've been part of. They would look at,
they would hold that office of evangelists. But it never made a lot of sense to me why we
have this man come in, you know, preaching church. I'm not against people coming and preaching
to a church. I've had men cover and preach from my church, you know, different churches
at different times. I'm not against that in of itself. But the idea of the evangelist in
many churches is, well, you know, because he's there to preach the gospel, and that is the
position, by the way, to preach the gospel, they'll come to the local church, which is kind
of strange for me. When I look at the evangelist that we're going to look at later on,
he's actually outside of the church preaching to his community, preaching to his city,
okay? But the way a lot of churches do it today, they have the evangelist come
and they visit one church and they say, well, we've got an evangelist here, he's going to be
here for a whole week, you know, bring your loved ones, bring your unsaved relatives, bring
your unsaved friends to come and hear the evangelist. And, you know, and I truly believe
many people actually get saved under the preaching. Praise God for that, okay?
But it never made sense, like make a lot of sense to me, why are we getting a man
from another country to come to church, where most of us should be saved already,
to get our unsaved family to come and listen to this guy? Why couldn't my pastor preach the
gospel already to these, you know, why couldn't you equip me to be the guy that preaches the
gospel to my loved ones, my friends and my family? It never made sense to me why we
need to get someone from somewhere, some other church, overseas even, to come and give the gospel
to, you know, somebody that's my friend. It's like, if I love my friend that much,
I wouldn't have waited for the evangelist, I would have given him the gospel
if I was equipped with that understanding. So it never made a lot of sense to me.
I never really said anything about it, even though it didn't make sense to me,
because I don't want to rock the boat, you know, I don't want to be this church member
that seems to be causing problems, asking too many questions. But what's funny is, after a
while, I would have other people come up to me and say, why do we have an evangelist?
You know, and they love the evangelists, you know, usually they're kind of funny,
they have good jokes, they have great stories. It's not against the man of itself,
but it just didn't make sense. Why are we doing this when our pastor,
can't we trust our pastors to give them the gospel? You know, can't we be equipped ourselves
to give people the gospel? So that's what some people use the evangelist as.
Now, I've got some pastor friends as well. And they also have ordained people into the
office of an evangelist. And I too, hold a different view to many of these other pastor
friends that I have. And again, I'm not against these pastors, I'm not against these churches,
because as I said, we don't have clear qualifications. We don't have, okay,
this is the office of the evangelist, these are the qualifications he has to meet.
And look, if that was clearly laid out for us, obviously it would be a lot more consistent
in the way we deal with this office. So I'm not trying to have a go at other pastors
that have things, you know, see things a different way. You know, I've always said
that every pastor is going to be accountable for the church that he's overseen, okay.
I'm accountable for Blessed Hope Baptist Church, I'm accountable for New Life Baptist Church,
and I need to make sure that whatever I do in my church, that I have a clear conscience
before God, because one day I'm going to have to stand before God and give an account
for how I ran my church. And those other pastors that might do things differently
with their evangelists, they're going to have to give an account for their church.
I'm not going to have to give an account for their church, or their evangelists,
or their offices that they hold, okay. And so I understand that people are just going to
do things a different way. Now, one other way that I've seen people use the office
of the evangelist is they'll say, well, we need a leader for a church,
but we don't have someone right now that meets the qualifications of a pastor.
We don't have somebody that meets the qualifications for a deacon, and say, well,
the Bible doesn't have any qualifications for the evangelists. And so the best person that
I've got here, yeah, he might have been divorced and remarried. Yeah, maybe he doesn't
have the kids. Maybe he doesn't have all these other things that are required for a bishop
and a deacon, but we need a leader. So we're going to put this guy as the evangelist,
and he's basically going to lead the church and almost operate as a de facto pastor or deacon.
You know, I'm not comfortable with that, Reverend. And again, if other pastors,
my pastor friends are comfortable with that, so be it. You know, praise God, you know,
doing the great work of God, furthering the kingdom of God. Again, they're going to be
accountable for what they do for their church, but I'm personally not comfortable with that.
And I'll prove to you why I'm not comfortable with that. And so the sermon that I've got for
you tonight, Reverend, is pretty much something that's going to be unique to Pastor Kevin
Sapulveda. I'm just being honest, okay? Again, I'm not teaching you doctrines. I'm
not teaching anything crazy, but I want to show you why I hold my beliefs, you know,
what I'm basing it on. And of course, it's going to be based upon the scriptures.
And many times, you know, there are times in the Bible that we have clear instructions,
clear commandments that nobody can debate, but then there are other things where you might see
a pattern in the Bible, and we'll say, well, we'll pattern ourselves after that practice,
okay? And again, when it comes to patterns, we might see things a little bit different.
We might apply that in, you know, some different ways, okay? So I'm not against the fact
that there are various views, okay? And other my pastor friends are doing things
differently. I'm not against that. All I'm saying is I want you to understand as the pastor
of this church, why I hold my view and why I'll practice and ordain people into the offices
the way that I personally believe, and I want to show you that from the scriptures, okay?
Now, another reason that I'm uncomfortable with the idea of, well, because in fact,
I'll tell you right now, I believe that the person that holds the office of an evangelist
should be at minimal, the same kind of person that can hold the office of a deacon.
When we look at the qualifications of a deacon, I would say that the evangelist has to
meet the same qualifications at least for the deacon. So he's got to be married with faithful
children, et cetera, all the things that we've already seen in the previous weeks.
And when I look at some of the other evangelists that I'm familiar with,
you know, who don't meet the qualifications, what I'm seeing is a track record of failure,
and quite significant failures. You know, not long ago, there were two evangelists
from a church that I was friendly with. I even preached that from Australia,
two evangelists that were ordained. You know, those guys served in the church faithfully
in the first maybe six, eight months, whatever it was. But now those men are not in church,
they're not serving God, they're not faithful to the local body at all.
And I just kind of think, how did you appoint these people as evangelists when they can't
even maintain, you know, a strong track record, continually serving the Lord? Okay.
Another evangelist I'm familiar with was one in Hawaii, who was divorced and remarried. So he
had a second wife, he obviously did not meet the qualifications of a deacon or a pastor.
But he was appointed as an evangelist in Hawaii. And again, I hope great work was done
in that area. You know, I'm sure many souls were saved. But that same man now, you know,
has been attacking good churches, and he's held up some money, he's basically almost stolen some
money from another church bank account, a completely different church, you know, has
frozen the assets, frozen the money, and this is what this wicked man has done. Okay. And
they're trying to expose other churches for apparently, you know, not following things as
perfectly as he wished those churches did. You know, there's another evangelist that I'm aware of
that didn't meet the qualifications that closely relate to a deacon, who rejected the Trinity,
and turned to oneness. You know, there's another evangelist that I'm familiar with that split his
church in Florida, and he started his own church, and then he had his congregation
ordain him as a pastor. Okay, I mean, self ordination, split in churches. I mean,
I'm seeing what I'm seeing is brethren is a is a bad track record of evangelists
that are not lining up with the qualifications, at least that minimal
required for a deacon. So, you know, in light of what I'm seeing, as far as my experience, and
you know, what I'm observing, in light of what I personally believe, and what's going to make
me comfortable as a pastor, if I ever ordained someone as an evangelist, you know, I do believe
that my view on this is, is probably the best one you can have, you know, when it comes to
ordaining someone into this position. Now, let's understand what an evangelist is, you know,
first of all, an evangelist, if we look at the name evangelist, you may notice that,
you know, the first two letters is EV, and that's a prefix for the word good, okay, good.
Then you've got angel, and you know what an angel is, okay, obviously, an evangelist
is not an angel from heaven, but an angel is a messenger. And so an evangelist is a good
messenger, he's bringing a good message, okay. Now, when we think about the Bible, you know,
we've got Romans 10, 15, which says, and how shall they preach, except they be sent,
that's important. How shall they preach, except they be sent? Listen, these evangelists
need to be sent, okay. Again, this is why I don't like the idea of I'm just going to serve God by
myself, okay, no, a church, the body of Christ has to send you in order for you to be doing
the work of the Lord, okay. Then it says, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. So the evangelist
is bringing glad tidings of good things, he's a good messenger, he's bringing the gospel of
Jesus Christ. And again, this is a person that's been sent. Now, when we looked at the office of a
bishop and a deacon, you know, they hold offices of authority within the church. I believe,
from what I know, I'll prove this later on, because Romans 10, that's not about evangelists
in general, it's just about any soul winner in general that's been sent by the local church.
But I do believe the evangelist is a man that has been sent out of his church,
not to preach the gospel in the church, but to go out of the church, and his full-time ministry
is that to preach the gospel to the lost, okay. Now, should I preach the gospel as a pastor?
Absolutely, okay. But that's not going to be my main full-time ministry. My full-time
ministry as a pastor is to feed people the Word of God. The full-time ministry of a deacon
is to handle the administrative tasks. And the full-time ministry for the evangelist is to
preach the gospel to the lost. Now, all of us could do some element of, you know,
of different responsibilities, but there's a primary objective that we're all trying to
do that comes upon the office that is being held by that individual. The reason I want you
to focus on, except they be sent, is because there's another office that people generally hold
to in churches, and even in IFB churches, and that's the office of the missionary.
Okay, many times we say, we're going to send the missionary. Can we go and support
the missionary? You know what? The word missionary is not in your Bible. It just isn't.
Okay, I'm not against missionaries. I think it's wonderful sending people out, preaching the
gospel, okay. Praise God. You know, every time we go and knock a door, we're acting as
missionaries, okay. But you know where the word missionary comes from? It comes from the
Latin word, which is to be sent, okay, to be sent. And so when we look at, except they be
sent, they're going out preaching the gospel. To me, the missionary is the evangelist.
Like, it's basically the same office, okay. When we think about a missionary, you know,
we're going to send that missionary to preach the gospel. I'm saying, well, that's the evangelist.
The evangelist is the one who's meant to be the good messenger of the gospel of peace,
okay. And so it's strange how, you know, we've taken this office of missionary,
which doesn't exist in the Bible, and we've given them a task, which is actually the task
of the evangelist, and then we've given someone else an office of the evangelist, and they're
basically, their primary purpose of their ministry is to be serving the local church.
We're not actually, the evangelist, the good messenger, is to be preaching the gospel.
And this is why, you know, obviously I hold a slightly different position. And again,
I'm not having a go at other people. You know, I'm happy that the word of God is going out.
I'm happy the gospel is going out. I'm happy souls have been saved. I'm happy the kingdom
of God is growing. But again, I have to, as a pastor, have a clear conscience before God
with how I run the operations of our church, okay. So that's why I want you to understand
where I'm coming from in this view. Can you please turn to John chapter 20?
Turn to John chapter 20 for me. And while you're turning to John chapter 20,
I'm going to read to you from Mark 3, 14. Mark 3, 14. And this is when Jesus Christ
ordains his 12 apostles. And it says in Mark 3, 14, and he ordained 12 that they should be
with him and that he might send them forth to preach, okay. So there's a sending. Notice
that Christ would send his apostles and they would be sent to preach the gospel. They
were preaching the gospel of the kingdom, okay. Now when you go to John chapter 20,
look at verse number 20. John 20, 20, it says, and when he had so said, he showed unto them
his hands and his side, then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. So this is they
saw the resurrected Lord. Now look at verse number 21. Then said Jesus to them,
peace be unto you as my Father have sent me, even so send I you, okay. So the Father sent
the Son and then the Son sends his apostles, his disciples to go and preach the word.
And as I said, you know, this is the right role that we are set by Jesus Christ,
but Christ has ascended to heaven. Hey, but it doesn't matter. He's left the body of Christ.
He's left the local church that we would send the evangelists, that we would send people,
you know, door to door preaching the gospel, or maybe one day send them to a foreign field
far away to preach the gospel to a place where they've never heard it before, okay.
But I want you to notice that it's ascending, okay. They're being sent by Christ. They're
being sent by the body of Christ. And the practice, the pattern that we see in the
New Testament is that people were sent by the local church, all right. So the reason I'm
bringing this up is because sometimes I get asked by people,
oh, there's a missionary in so and so. You know, we should support him. It's like, okay,
I'm fine. I'm happy. I want to support missionaries, which I personally kind of think
of as evangelists, okay. But my question always is, so is he operating under a church?
Oh, no, no, he's just doing his own thing. Well, I mean, I mean, I'm glad he's preaching
the gospel. Don't get me wrong. But you know, if I'm going to have a clear conscience
as a pastor, and I want to follow biblical principles, I can't support that man, because
I wouldn't even support, you know, what I personally believe is that we need to ordain
someone to do the work, and they need to be operating under the umbrella of a church,
under the body of Christ that has sent them, okay. You can't just send yourself.
You got to be sent by someone. Jesus Christ did not send himself. He was sent by the
Father, okay. And then he sent his disciples, okay. So I personally believe that what
we consider missionaries today, that their job more closely resembles that of an evangelist, okay.
And again, they must operate under the body of Christ. So you know, I will not support
self-made missionaries. I'm glad they're out there. I'm glad they're preaching the gospel,
but I will not support self-made missionaries. That's always my first question. What church
has sent them? What church are they operating under? You know, if I was ever going to join
some other church, let's say it wasn't a pastor, and I was looking for a good church,
my first question is, who sent this pastor? Who ordained this pastor, okay? So if I'm asking
that requirement from a church that I go to, you know, I don't want a self-ordained man,
I don't want a church that began all by itself without a church, you know,
planted in another church, then I would have the same requirements on somebody that I want to
financially support, you know, even if they're doing the work of God, even if they're doing,
you know, the gospel, once again, because I'm trying to keep a clear conscience before God.
And so, here's what I'm trying to say, brethren. You know, we all operate as missionaries, okay?
We all operate as evangelists. Every time we give the gospel, we are doing the work of
an evangelist. Every time, okay? We're doing the work of preaching the gospel,
giving the good message of salvation out to lost souls. And I'm going to quickly read to
you from 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse number 5, and again, I told you that the
epistles, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, these are epistles written to pastors, okay?
So you got Paul writing to Timothy, the pastor of the church in, I think it was Thessalonians,
at this point in time, and then he says in verse number 5, he says,
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make foolproof of thy ministry, do the work of an evangelist. Notice what Paul is saying
to a pastor. I need you to do the work of an evangelist, okay? What is that? You know,
there are many pastors that, you know, yeah, they've got their church, they've got their
members, but then they're like, well, you know, we've established ourselves, and they
stopped going soul winning. Or they send their church soul winning, but they themselves don't
do any soul winning, okay? That's not right. You know, Paul is reminding Timothy, yes,
you're going to be busy with the ministry, yes, you're busy ordaining elders, yes,
you're busy teaching the Bible, yes, you're busy, you know, suffering affliction,
but don't forget to do the work of an evangelist, okay? What does that mean?
That means don't forget to go soul winning, don't forget to preach the gospel to the
lost, because sometimes, yeah, church can be overwhelming, churches grow, you know,
it can take up a lot of time, but a pastor must always remember he's got to set time
to go and preach the gospel to the lost. A pastor is meant to be an example to the flock,
okay? And if the flock never sees the path of soul winning, then the flock itself is
going to stop soul winning as well, okay? So it's so important, and look, the Bible only has
the word evangelist three times, okay? And we've really looked at two, okay? This is the second
time now that we saw it, and this is the responsibility of a pastor. If I'm going to one
day find another church, find a pastor, I want to make sure that I find a church that is,
you know, a pro soul winning, that they support soul winning, and ideally I want to see
that pastor soul winning as well, you know, spending time going and preach the gospel.
Can you please turn to Acts 21? Turn to Acts 21, we're going to look at the third time
the word evangelist is brought up in the Bible. Now, when we first had the reading in
Ephesians 4, we saw that evangelist, plural, okay? There are more than one evangelist,
but there is only one man in the Bible that is referenced as evangelist. So if you say,
look, I want to look up, you know, I want to find the Bible, who was an evangelist?
You're only going to find one man with that office, okay? But I'm not saying only one man
can hold the office, you know, because obviously we saw evangelist in plural form. I'm just saying,
look, if we're going to ordain a man into this position, well, let's look at the one example,
the only one example we have in the Bible, and let's make sure we pattern the person we
ordained into that position in the same way that we see this man presents himself in the
Bible, okay? So if we go to Acts 21 verse number 8, Acts 21 verse number 8, it says,
And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea. Now let's stop
there. Caesarea is about a three to four day journey from Jerusalem, okay? We know that the
very first early church there was in Jerusalem. Caesarea is three or four, it's, you know,
if you were to walk non-stop, it'd be like a 24-hour walk. No one's going to walk 24 hours,
okay? You're going to walk, say, six hours one day, six hours another day, rest,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It could easily take three to four days for a journey like that,
okay? Now, why is that important? It says here, And we entered into the house of Philip
the evangelist. This is the third time we see the word evangelist in the Bible,
which was one of the seven and abode with him. So notice Philip has a house in Caesarea,
okay, which is three to four days journey from Jerusalem, okay? And who is he? He's
the evangelist, which was one of the seven. So the Bible's telling us who he is, okay? He's
one of the seven. Say, what's this? What's the one of the seven? Well, let's keep your,
you can keep your finger there in Acts 21, but come to Acts chapter six now. Come to Acts
chapter six. And again, this is the only man we know in the Bible as an evangelist,
Philip the evangelist. So if I'm going to a day an evangelist, I want to make sure that
I have a Philip to a Dane, if that makes sense, okay? I'm going to try to follow the
pattern of the Bible as closely as I can, even though we don't have a list of qualifications
for this office. So go to Acts chapter six and verse number three.
Acts chapter six and verse number three. And this should, you know, come back to you if you
heard the sermon last week. It says Acts chapter six, verse number three.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report,
who is Philip? One of the seven, okay? Full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom,
whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer,
and to the ministry of the word, and the same please the whole multitude,
and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip. Who's Philip?
Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, okay? And let's wrap that to verse number six,
whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
And if you remember the sermon from last week, these are the first deacons. So what do we learn
there? That Philip, many years later, yeah, he was serving in the church in Jerusalem. He was
there to be appointed as a deacon, okay? And remember, the first ministry that they
were to look after were for the widows. The widows were being neglected in the church, okay?
So he had to be literally in Jerusalem to do the work of a deacon. A few years later,
I don't know how long later, we find him in Caesarea. Three to four days journey, okay?
And he's got a house there. He's clearly abiding in that place, and therefore he's no longer
actively, you know, attending the church services in Jerusalem, okay? He's got a house in Caesarea.
He's one of the seven. He's an evangelist. He's the only man in the Bible that's given
the office of an evangelist. And what do you learn there? That he was previously a deacon.
Now we understand, okay, if he was previously a deacon, now you can understand why I'm saying
that if I'm ever going to a day in a man as an evangelist, I want to make sure
that he meets at minimum the requirements that we see in the Bible, the qualifications for a
deacon, okay? Again, I'm building that from the Bible, okay? And I want to make sure that
I pattern myself as closely as I can to the Word of God. Say, Pastor Kevin, are you saying
the other pastors that don't follow what you're saying are in the wrong? I'm not saying
that at all, okay? Once again, you know, the Lord has made this a little bit open-ended. Again,
it's not commanding. It's not saying these are the qualifications that we must have for an
evangelist, okay? Again, I just want to make sure I have a clear conscience before God.
I want to make sure that when I make a decision, I'm using the Bible as best as I know how
to make the decision, okay? And that way I can ensure that, you know, I have a clear
conscience, serving the Lord, appointing men, and, you know, that people can at least see
that when I make decisions, even if they might be contrary to even my friends, even other pastors
that I care about and love, that, you know, you can see that my heart is to ensure that we're as
closely lined up with the Bible as possible, okay? I think the closer we're aligned to the
Bible, the less we're going to... the closer we're aligned to the Bible, the less problems
that we're going to see develop in the future. That's what I personally believe, okay?
I'm not saying we'll never have problems. I'm just saying we'll see less problems if we
align ourselves as closely as we can with the Word of God. Now, please go to Acts chapter 8.
Go to Acts chapter 8, verse number 26. Acts chapter 8 and verse number 26. So we have from
Acts 6, we've got Philip the deacon, and then when we get to Acts 21, we have Philip
the evangelist. So he's had a change in his office, okay? The deacon was required to be there
faithfully serving in the local church, okay? The evangelist is three to four days journey
preaching the gospel. I'll show you later on that he's definitely preaching the gospel, okay?
But Acts chapter 8, verse number 26, it says,
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south,
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem, unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and
went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority, under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem
for to worship. So again, Philip's still in Jerusalem. And if you know this story,
he was sent to this Ethiopian eunuch to preach the gospel. You know, again, deacons should preach
the gospel. Deacons should do the work of evangelists. Pastors should do the work of the
evangelists, okay? We have a good example here. Philip's not just preoccupied with the
widows, which was why he was there in the first place, but now the Lord's using him to
go and preach the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch. And then it says in verse number 28,
Was returning and sitting in this chariot, read S.I.I.s, the prophet, when the Spirit
said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophetized eyes, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would
come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as
a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened in not his mouth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee,
of whom speak of the prophet this? Of himself or of some other man?
You know, one of the things that we learn here is that if you give some on the scriptures,
you give some on the bible that is lost, they cannot be saved by reading the scriptures alone.
Why? Because they're still the natural man. Remember, the one that reveals us the scriptures
is the Spirit of God. And so the Ethiopian eunuch needs another man that's filled with the
Spirit of God, with the Holy Spirit, who's able to help him understand the scriptures that he's
reading. You know, we're needed. We can't say, hey, let's just publish, you know, we're about
eight, seven billion or seven, eight billion these days, I don't know, in the world.
Let's say it's eight billion, I can't remember what it is now, okay? We can't say, hey,
let's publish eight billion bibles and send them to every person in this world,
and we've done the work of evangelism. No, they're not going to get saved. They're
not going to understand the scriptures. We need an evangelist, we need a preacher,
we need people to be sent out, you know, to explain to people how they must be saved
through the scriptures. This is why Philip was needed, okay? Let's keep going. It says
there in verse number, what am I up to, brethren? 32, I think. I'll read verse number 31, and he
said, how can I accept some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come
up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, I already
read all that. Where am I up to, brethren? 34. And the eunuch answered Philip and said,
I pray thee, of whom speakest this prophet this, of himself or some other man?
Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him
Jesus. And as they went their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see,
here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believeth
with all thine heart thou mayest, and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. So you can see the Ethiopian eunuch, once Philip was able to preach the
gospel to him, was able to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? And his next desire was
to be baptized. Verse number 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down
both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And I'll just read verse
number 39. And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away
Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. Now let me
just make something very clear here, okay? When we see baptisms in the Bible as well,
okay, it's not every disciple, it's not every saved person that is doing baptisms,
it's always somebody holding an office, okay? Philip at this point in time was holding the
office, he was appointed as a deacon, okay? And so, you know, if you were to ask me,
what's my position on baptism? I would say to you, the only ones that should be baptizing
are those that hold the office of a bishop, hold the office of a deacon, or maybe hold the
office of an evangelist, okay? They're the ones that, yes, you know, I've seen people saved,
but also they're also allowed to be baptized in people. Some people think that anybody should be,
you know, able to baptize. But again, if we want to pattern ourselves after the Bible,
every time you see people that are getting baptized, it's always been done by someone
that holds an office, okay? And so what I'm trying to show you here, Brevin, is this.
When we look at Acts chapter six, we have Philip the deacon, and he's serving the church
in Jerusalem. Then when we get to Acts chapter 21, we've got Philip the evangelist, and he's
no longer in Jerusalem. He's serving in Caesarea, okay, and he's preaching the gospel there.
So let's go back to Acts 21, please. Go back to Acts 21 and look at verse number nine.
Acts 21 and verse number nine. This is talking about Philip once again. It says,
and the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. So two things that I want
to cover here. He's got four daughters, okay, meaning that he's married with kids. What is one of the
qualifications needed for a deacon? To be married with children, with having faithful children.
Again, this is why I'm not comfortable ordaining a man who's been divorced. I'm not comfortable
ordaining a man who is not married. I'm not comfortable ordaining a man who has no children,
okay? If we see the evangelist was formerly a deacon, and we know the qualification of
a deacon is to be married with children, and then we see the one evangelist who is
married with kids, then doesn't it make sense that we should at least, you know,
require the minimum requirements of a deacon before we date someone as an evangelist?
If we're going to pattern ourselves as best as closely as we can with the Word of God,
the other things his daughters are doing, they're prophesying. Well, actually they're virgins,
okay? So they're keeping themselves pure for their wedding day. Praise God. Hey, this is a good
man. He's raising a faithful family, okay? His kids aren't running riots, okay? They're faithfully
keeping themselves for the marriage day and they're prophesying. Don't forget that prophesying
is also the word preaching. So not only is Philip an evangelist, bringing the good message,
but he's also trained his four daughters to help him in the ministry, and his four daughters
are going around in Caesarea as well, preaching the gospel, you know, prophesying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I think when we look at the evangelist, it's very clear
that he lines up and he matches, of course, perfectly with what we would expect from a
deacon, okay? Verse number 10. And as we tarried them many days, they came down from Judea,
a certain prophet named Agabus. Now this is another interesting point, okay? So we're in
Caesarea, again, three to four days journey away from Jerusalem. Now in Judea,
which where Jerusalem is, we've got Agabus, a prophet, coming to see Philip, okay? Now who's
Agabus? Well, Agabus is mentioned twice in the Bible for us. Can you please now turn to Acts
chapter 11? Let's understand where Agabus is coming from, okay? Acts chapter 11, verse 27.
Acts chapter 11, verse number 27. It says in verse number 27, and in these days came
prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. We know later on there was a church in Antioch, okay?
We still have the church in Jerusalem here. Look at verse number 28. And there stood up
one of them named Agabus. So who's Agabus? He's a prophet, he's a preacher from where?
From the church in Jerusalem. And he's being sent to Antioch. It says then,
signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world which
came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his
ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, okay? So Agabus
is sent from the church in Jerusalem to the church in Antioch. Brethren, we're going to go
through a great famine, great dearth. Can you help us out? They all agree, yes, let's send
some relief, let's send some aid, you know, let's send some money down to Jerusalem to
help our brethren go through this difficult period, okay? So notice again, this man,
Agabus, is being sent by the church in Jerusalem. So when we look at the evangelist,
when we look at Philip, what do we notice? We notice Agabus coming from Judea. Why is
he coming from Judea? Because he's from the church in Jerusalem, okay? And he's going
and sending a report unto Philip, okay? So what do we learn there? That Philip is still
operating under the church in Jerusalem, okay? Yes, he started as a faithful member.
He was found, he was proven to be a man full of faith, a man full of the Holy Ghost.
He was appointed to serve in the local body of Christ as a deacon. We see not only is he
looking after the widows and, you know, looking after the tables, but then he's also preaching
the gospel. Many years later, we find him in Caesarea, okay? And now he holds the
office of an evangelist. But even though he's been sent, you know, far away to do the
work of an evangelist, he's still reporting back to the church in Jerusalem. You know,
Agabus being the proof of the prophet that he's been sent to send them a message,
okay? This is once again why I don't believe in self-made missionaries, self-made evangelists.
Oh, let's go and support this guy. You know, he needs funds, he needs help. You know,
what church is he under? Who sent him? Nobody. Well, no, I can't support that because
I don't see that pattern in the Bible. Once again, the evangelist or the missionary needs
to be sent, okay? Sent by the local body of Jesus Christ.
So that's all we have in the scriptures about an evangelist. What do we learn? He's married,
he's got kids, he's preaching the gospel, he's still under the umbrella of the church in
Jerusalem, okay? He meets the qualifications of a deacon. Yeah, praise God. So if I'm ever
going to appoint someone to have the full-time ministry where they're holding an office in this
church and they're being provided for, you know, they're receiving a wage from the church,
we appoint that person. I'm going to be looking at the qualifications of a deacon
and making sure that person lines up with that before I ordain this individual
into the office of an evangelist, okay? I hope you understand now where I'm coming from.
And again, I might be the only pastor that preaches. I don't believe I'm the only
one that believes this or the only one that preaches. I'm the only one that I know,
okay? But I want to show you that, look, I don't just come up with my own ideas, okay? It's built
upon the Word of God. Once again, if other pastors, other churches do it differently,
God bless them, you know, those men are accountable for their own churches, okay? So
I'm not trying to make enemies out of people. I'm not trying to say they're wrong about this
or that. Once again, you know, these things aren't very clear, okay? I'm just taking the
safe approach, making sure I pattern myself as closely as I can with the Word of God, okay?
And if you know me as a pastor, you know me how I run churches, you know this is the usual
way I do things. I just want to make sure I've got the Scriptures, I want to make sure I'm
following something that I can see in the Bible, then I'm comfortable to do that action, okay?
You know, there's a lot of great ideas that people come up in church, but just if it's not
consistent with the Word of God, I just don't want to do it, all right? Now, if you go
to Acts chapter 13, please, go to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Some people say,
well, what about Paul? You know, people often, when you think about a missionary in the Bible,
even though the word missionary doesn't exist, people often think about Paul. We talk about
his missionary journeys, right? We're talking about how Paul had three different, you know,
missionary journeys in his life that are recorded for us in the Word of God. And this is where
the term comes from. We often, we think about Paul and we say, well, Paul was not married,
Paul did not have any kids, therefore there's nothing wrong with sending a missionary
that is single, like Paul. Well, I want you to remember something, though. Paul was an apostle.
He held, he already held the office. Jesus Christ gave him the office of an apostle, okay?
So, and we don't have apostles today, so we can't pattern people after Paul when we no longer
have the office anyway, okay? But even though that's the case, I just want to show you
something interesting that a lot of people overlook. They don't realize this, okay? So, we know
that Paul had the possible, sorry, the office of an apostle, which is a higher office than
that of a bishop, okay? He had a higher authority than that. But even Paul operated
through a local church. Even Paul was sent by the body of Christ, okay? And you see this
in Acts chapter 13. Look at Acts chapter 13 and verse number 1. Acts chapter 13 and verse number 1.
It says,
So, notice what church are we at? The church that is at Antioch. Verse number 2,
And they ministered to the Lord and fasted. The Holy Ghost said,
Separate me Barnabas and Saul, Saul of course is Paul, for the work whereunto I have called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
So who sent Paul and Barnabas? The church in Antioch, okay? Those in authority, those in
high positions in that church. The Lord said, I need you to send Barnabas. And it was done
through the local church, okay? We're operating under the New Testament. Under the New Testament,
the body of Christ is the local church. When we serve the Lord, when we work for the Lord,
we ought to be doing it under the umbrella of a local church. Even Paul was able to do this.
Even Paul that held the highest office of any New Testament believer, okay, did this.
And notice, I want you to also notice verse number 4. It says,
So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed
to Cyprus. So notice, the Bible says in verse number 4, they were sent forth by the Holy Ghost,
but when you read the context of being sent by the Holy Ghost, they were sent by the local
church. They were sent by the church which was at Antioch, okay? Some people, they send
themselves, and they say, well the Holy Ghost sent me, and they'll point to someone like Paul
and say, well the Holy Ghost sent Paul. Yeah, but the Holy Ghost sent Paul through the local
church. And again, people just overlook this, okay? So Paul is going from town to town,
city to city, preaching the Gospel. Yes, doing the work of an evangelist, it's fine. As we
saw, a pastor ought to do the work of an evangelist, okay? Peter, Peter was an apostle
as well, and he held the office of a bishop, okay? You read about that in 1 and 2 Timothy.
So he held two offices as well, but Paul would go from town to town,
winning souls, establishing churches, not under his own authority, but again,
under the authority of the church in Antioch. Churches plant churches, okay? Men in positions,
ordained men in positions. This is something, this is the pattern that we see over and over
and over again in the Bible. And the reason we say that Paul had three missionary journeys,
because after he completed one missionary journey, guess where he went? He went back to the church
in Antioch and reported back as to what he's done, okay? He's reporting back to the church
that sent him. This is, you know, this is very clear for us in the Bible. Once again,
people calling themselves missionaries, calling themselves evangelists, doing their own work,
it's not biblical, I can't support it, even if it's a brother in Christ. Hey, I hope they're
successful, but I can't support them, okay? Unless they get themselves under the authority
of a local church and they're being sent by that church. They've been proven to be able to
take on that responsibility and they've been sent by their local church. And so, Brethren,
I just want to show you once again just why I hold this view. We already saw the office of
the bishop, very clear, okay? In fact, this is the highest office that we can have today
in the local church. And it's important that, yes, that is an office we have a lot of detail,
we have the qualifications, we have the work they ought to do, again, recorded in Titus
1 and 2 Timothy, okay? Then we have the qualifications needed for a deacon. Again,
that's quite clearly laid out. We see that they're to be an assistant to the pastor. And
both these offices have authority within the local church. The evangelist does not have authority
within the local church, he's been sent out, yes, under the umbrella of the local church,
reporting back to the local church, but he's going out and making sure his main ministry
is to preach the gospel to the lost. Now, what we saw with Philip, I'm going to wrap up
now, but what we saw with Philip is, hey, there was a time he was a deacon and then
there's a time that he was an evangelist. You know what? If one day we ordained an evangelist,
maybe we send him far away into another country, okay, that doesn't have a good church,
does not have, you know, soul winners, and he gets a whole bunch of people saved, okay?
Then, hey, maybe once we have a bunch of people saved, we can say, hey,
now it's time to establish a church in this area. We have some believers, we have some people
that want to come and grow in the Lord, get baptized, et cetera. And then we could go
see that event, either bring him back here or I go and see him in that foreign land and say,
look, you've served your purpose and evangelist right now, now we need your main ministry to
become one that is leading this church. And the next thing that I probably will do
is ordain that person now into the office of a deacon. Rather than being an evangelist
leading the church, I would rather have a deacon leading the church because that is the person
that's helping the pastor, you know, organize things. Hey, maybe he proves himself as a deacon
and then, hey, he's ready to be a pastor of his own independent church.
Then we go back and we ordain that deacon into a pastor. That's how I see things in the Bible.
You know, I like things to be done decently and in order, you know, and I hope it's given
you some things to think about. And so if you have any questions for me, brethren, about these
offices, you know, I know the evangelist one is probably the most complicated one,
please feel free to reach out to me, ask me any questions. All right, let's pray.