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Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. 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. To we all come in the unity of the faith and with the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the statute of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that he henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness, would ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor for ye are members one of another. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Grief not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you for every soul here and thank you for the great fellowship we have as a church, Lord. We thank you for pastor and pray that you bless him right now. Fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches unto us, Lord, and that we in the congregation are attentive to the preaching, Lord. We put this all in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Ephesians chapter four tonight. And the title of my sermon tonight is he gave some apostles. He gave some apostles. And I actually wanna talk about the offices of an apostle, prophet, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The offices that we see in Ephesians chapter four. Look down into the Bibles at verse number 11. It says that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and some teachers, excuse me, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, what the apostle Paul is talking about here in Ephesians chapter four is the fact that God has distributed these particular men who hold these offices in the first century A.D. to these various churches that were in that area in order to help Christians to grow in their faith. And it even says for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. So it's not just a matter of maturing them spiritually by teaching them the word of God. It's also for the intent of training them for the work of the ministry. In other words, you know, it's not just a matter of learning the Bible. It's important for God that you actually live out the Bible, right? That you're winning souls to Christ, that you're participating and serving in your local New Testament church. And in fact, part of going to church is not just learning doctrine and what the Bible says about particular topics and subjects. According to the Bible, we come here also to be trained on how to live a Christian life, how to behave ourselves, how to have the right godly and righteous conversation. This is what it's referred to when it talks about the work of the ministry, and ultimately for the edifying of the body of Christ, to build up Christians and help them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But I want you to notice a couple things here by way of introduction. First and foremost, you know, it's important for us to know what each of these offices do, right? Because we can clearly see that according to verse 11, he gives these offices to the church, but you can see how someone today can say, well, we have an apostle, because the Bible says in Ephesians 4 that he gave some apostles. And you know, the reason we have here at La Luz del Mundo or whatever, an apostle, a modern day apostle, is because the Bible's saying here that God gave him to us. This is our justification for that. And you know, La Luz del Mundo is not the only apostate church that uses that. There's other churches. You know, you think of the Church of the Mormon Church, they also have apostles. And so they'll commonly state that they, you know, have justification for having the office of an apostle. But as I'm gonna show you in just a little bit, you know, apostles no longer exist today. And in fact, the Bible even warns us that such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. So God is constantly warning us that there's gonna be people, there are gonna be false prophets who are claiming to be the apostles of Christ, and it shouldn't shock us. We shouldn't be marveled at it. And the reason why is because we should know what the Bible says about it. And so the reason people are deceived by this, thinking that there are modern day apostles and these individuals who supposedly have these supernatural capabilities, is because they obviously don't know what the Bible says. They don't know that the era of apostleship has come to an end. There is a conclusion to it, and it was a very short-lived ministry, so to speak. Okay, and it was done that way on purpose. Now again, what were the purposes of these offices that are being mentioned here in Ephesians chapter four? Well, look at verse 13, if you would. It says, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So here it's saying that, you know, the purpose of these offices in the first century AD, and of course we could apply it to today, is that we are unified around the same doctrine, okay? These spiritual leaders that got us placed in our life are to unify us in the knowledge of the Son of God to the point that we can spiritually mature. This is what the Bible was referring to when it says a perfect man. It's not referring to a sinless person. It's referring to an individual who doesn't have spiritual deficiencies. They are complete, they understand the word of God, they're serving the Lord. That's what it's referring to. And verse 14 states this, that we henceforth, from here on out, from this point forward, be no more children. Now obviously this isn't referring to physical children. It's referring to a spiritual child. Because when a person gets saved, they're automatically labeled by the Bible as being a babe in Christ, okay? A baby in Christ. Because they're newly born, they're newly saved, they don't know a whole lot of Bible. And as you begin to grow in your faith and in the knowledge of the Bible, you begin to grow up, or at least you should, right? Obviously there's people who get saved and they don't grow. And they stay babes in Christ for the rest of their life but God's will is for you to grow up spiritually. To increase in your knowledge. And eventually you'll become a child, right? In the sense of maturity, as far as maturity is concerned. But God says, don't be a child anymore, okay? That we henceforth be no more children. God doesn't want the house of God to only be filled with just children spiritually. Okay, as far as maturity level's concerned. He wants people to grow up, mature, and be complete in their faith. He says this, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Now this is a good way to describe a spiritual child because if you think about it, physical children are very gullible. You just kind of believe anything. You can make up all kinds of stories to a child, fairy tales, and they'll be tossed to and fro. They'll believe that there's a monster around the corner and they'll believe whatever horror stories you can tell them about ghosts. And you can basically, they're essentially a blank canvas and so they're willing to believe a lot of things because they're just gullible. Well, spiritual children are the same way. A person who's duly saved, if they're not grounded in the word of God, they're very gullible. And the Bible says that the simple passed on and are punished. So according to the Bible, a lot of new Christians are just, don't be offended by this, simpletons. They're deficient of knowledge. And the remedy to that is that you gotta get in church to be perfected in your faith so you're not like a child who's just believing every stupid doctrine that's out there. Because there's a lot of heresies and false doctrines that are out there. Flat earth is a really stupid doctrine. Hollow earth or whatever is a really dumb doctrine that people will try to use. People will try to use the Bible to teach those doctrines, right? And especially in the day and age in which we live, in the age of the internet, false doctrine is constantly being streamlined through the internet into the ears of babes in Christ and they're believing all kinds of weird stuff because of the fact that they're not verifying these things. I mean, I think about a common video that I keep seeing over and over again on social media is this bashing of the King James, claiming that the Geneva Bible is better or something. And here's the thing, Geneva Bible is a great Bible. I mean, I like the Geneva Bible, but anybody who's actually done any thorough investigation on the subject will see and come to the conclusion that the King James is superior to the Geneva Bible. The King James is the Geneva Bible perfected, right? And you know, but you have these idiots on social media promoting it and saying, King James did this because he didn't want people to question his authority and this is why he put, you know, he removed from Ephesians chapter six about the worldly governors and all these things. And it's just like, well, first of all, you know, worldly governors, if you really wanna get specific about it, it's not even a phrase that's found in the original language. But you know what, even if the translators chose to, if they decided to put worldly governors in Ephesians chapter six, we know what they mean by it. We don't walk away thinking, oh, this means that we should usurp the authority of the government, right? So, but the reason they're pointing that out is because they obviously despise governments. They don't like magistrates, so they're trying to look for verses in the Bible to try to back that up and try to support their position of going against the government. But you know, because they don't really know the Bible, and I guarantee you the vast majority of them have never even read through the Geneva Bible cover to cover, they don't realize that the Geneva Bible is pro-being under the government. There's plenty of verses. I mean, how about Romans chapter 13? That was not changed in the Geneva Bible or the King James. They basically read this exactly the same. And Romans 13 is a chapter on being subject to the higher powers, referring to the government. And of course we can point to 1 Peter chapter two and other portions of scripture that support the importance of being under the government, being law-abiding citizens, not being criminals, and not making it a fight about worldly governors or whatever it may be. But you know what, I guarantee you there's a lot of Christians who are on social media who are being tossed through and fro with that. And I would even dare say, there's probably people who are King James only who have made the switch to the Geneva Bible because of a stupid 90-second video of some teen bro who has no idea what he's talking about. And just because it went viral or whatever, all of a sudden it has veracity to what, the message has veracity because he pointed out these differences or whatever it may be. And it's always interesting to me that he always compares, these people always compare the King James to the Geneva, but why don't you just compare it to the original Greek? I'll tell you why, because they don't know Greek. They don't know what they're talking about. And so it's important for us to be in church so that we actually show you what the Bible says and not go to internet church on Instagram or elsewhere where people can just feed you a load of crap and teach you a lot of false doctrine. You need to mature in the Lord in church and on your own as you're reading the word of God so you can grow up. And so it's important for us as Christians, and let's finish up the verse here. It says, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men. Now what does that mean? It means that they are trying to deceive by slight of hand, they're being purposely deceptive. So don't think for a second that these guys on social media actually believe what they're saying. I know you might find that hard to believe, but as convincing as they sound and as passionate as they are, I guarantee you the vast majority of them know that they're lying to you. And they don't even believe the stuff that they're actually saying. Promise you that. Because it says the slight of men, referring to the fact that they are selling you a bill of goods, they are trying to purposely deceive you, and this shouldn't surprise us, my friends. You know, men in the end times will be, are gonna be deceiving and being deceived, and so that's part of the element of the end times. It says by slight of man, cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. So the purposes of the offices that we see in this particular chapter is to kind of help mold us into a person who is not only fit for the work of the ministry, but fit for doctrine as well. You know, we're fit up here as far as knowing what the Bible says, but we're also doers of the work and not hearers only. And so we see that that's why it's important. And you know, this is a good chapter to use, a good passage to use, when people say that you don't have to go to church. You can learn the Bible on your own. There's some truth to that, but you know what? You will veer off, and you will become a person who desires to be a teacher of the law, understanding neither what you say, nor wherever you affirm. Because at the end of the day, most Christians who are newly saved can't bring themselves up to spiritual maturity without the aid of another person. We need older Christians to kind of guide us into spiritual truths. It kind of, you know, spiritual leaders essentially give us spiritual bumpers so that we don't get out of bounds. So when you start veering off into weird doctrines, we kind of slap you upside the head and say that's a really stupid doctrine. And so just get on the straight and narrow, and it kind of corrects them, and it helps their way of thinking. But what if you just had no governor whatsoever of doctrine, you didn't have anybody to correct you, you can get into all kinds of stuff. You would end up being one of those IG influencers, making videos or whatever about dumb doctrines. So we need people correcting us because we're not always gonna be right. We're not always gonna have the right interpretation. And in fact, a babe in Christ is also considered a novice, a novice in spiritual matters, which is why they're not permitted to be pastors in the church because they cannot teach doctrine because of the fact that they're just newly saved, they haven't spiritually matured. And so we'll get into more of that later on. Now, one thing I want to mention about the apostles, and this particular verse is the fact that it says, he gave some apostles. And people are like, well, we got apostles today because of this. But let me just say this, let me just point out a very obvious thing here in this passage, is that it's referring to churches in the first century AD and not all the churches in the first century AD actually had an apostle on site. You guys know that? So they didn't have a spiritual leader known as an apostle on site, making sure that they were growing spiritually. Why? Because he gave some apostles. Not all the churches and congregations actually had a physical apostle on site, making sure that they were growing spiritually. Only a select few had actual apostles. It doesn't mean that those who didn't have apostles did not reach spiritual maturity. It just means he gave some apostles. Kind of showing us that not every church needed an actual apostle on site in order to reach spiritual maturity. And here's an example. Let me just give you a few examples of this. You know, you have the apostle Paul who is writing to the church of Colossae and based upon chapter two, he's never even been there. He's writing to them and his letter, his epistle is definitely authoritative. We know that it's the word of God, but he was never actually there to actually help them spiritually grow week to week, month to month, year to year. His letter is very much authoritative. And let me say this, based upon the book of Colossians, it may seem also that he wasn't there at the church at Laodicea either. Now he definitely helped them to grow by his letter and by his admonishments, but he was never actually on site, on the premise, you know, helping them to grow spiritually. And why is that? Well, the apostle Paul was not only an apostle, but he was also what the Bible describes to be an evangelist. Now, if we're to, what is an evangelist? Well, when you look at like the old IFB, an evangelist of the old IFB was like a circuit preacher, basically. Okay, you know what a circuit preacher is, right? Maybe, you know, Samuel in the Old Testament was, you know, he was considered a circuit preacher because he would go from town to town preaching the word of God, understand? And so the old IFB, whenever you hear about evangelist so-and-so in the old IFB, it's referring to a guy who goes from, his entire ministry is him going from church to church to church to church preaching the same five sermons. And I'm not joking about that. I'm not kidding about that at all. You will have evangelists that literally, word for word, preach like a sermon and it's literally, like they're just reading it off the page. And look, I'm not saying I'm against sermon notes because I got sermon notes, but if you look at my sermon notes, they're just verses sometimes. And if you review the video, most of the time I'm not even looking at my notes because a lot of stuff is just coming from the heart. But these guys are literally just like word for word reading and if they record the sermon and you find that they preached that sermon at another church, you can almost compare the same sermon in two different locations and it's basically the same exact thing including the same jokes. But that's what they call an evangelist. But folks, that is not an evangelist. That is a circuit preacher. I'm not saying it's a bad ministry or anything like that. I don't really support that, but if that's what you wanna do and you think that that's what God wants you to do, I just don't think that's very productive. And here's the thing, why are you only preaching the same five sermons? Is that means, are you tapped out? Like you don't have any more ideas of what kind of sermons to preach? What is an evangelist? Well, evangelist is someone who, listen, evangelizes. And more specifically, we would say in modern terms, it's like a missionary or a church planner. Because if we were to look at the examples of evangelists in the Bible, they're involved in the ministry of church planning. Either they are there starting a church or they're in a particular area just winning a bunch of people to Christ. Okay, so they're going to different cities and nations to preach the word of God and if there's a group of people there that need a church, they ordain elders from the authority of the sending apostle as we see with the apostle Paul in Titus, okay? And so the apostle Paul obviously is an apostle, but he is simultaneously an evangelist. Now, why did he choose to be an evangelist? Well, possibly because of the fact that obviously he can't be a pastor. He's not married, doesn't have kids, and he's just essentially kind of built into that ministry due to the fact that he is starting off during the inception of the local New Testament churches, which is causing him to go into different nations and so naturally, the natural result of that, if he's going to Cappadocia, if he's going to Asia Minor, if he's going to Thessalonica and these Greek areas, what's gonna happen? He's gonna win people to Christ and then he's eventually gonna start churches there as well. Now, here's the thing, is that he had the authority to start churches, because he's an apostle. Now, what's another example of this? Well, you think of the apostle Peter and the apostle Peter was not an evangelist. Obviously, we know he was a soul winner because every Christian should be a soul winner, but he, according to the Bible, was a pastor, okay? And you had two apostles that fulfilled the office of a pastor and that was Peter and John. How do we know that? Because they actually call themselves an elder. An elder is a synonym for pastor, okay? And we see that in 1 Peter and 2 Peter, he's writing to the strangers in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, Asia, and then he says, I exhort the elders which are among you who am also an elder. So he's describing himself as being an elder and we know that he's writing from, historically, from Rome. He's pastoring a church in Rome and so he was a pastor. And the same thing with John, okay? The apostle John was an elder, meaning he was a pastor, doesn't say specifically of what church, but he was a pastor of a local congregation. So the point that I'm making is that when you think of an apostle and you think about these other offices, you know, just because you're a pastor doesn't make you an apostle, just because you're an evangelist doesn't make you an apostle, but these apostles were able to kind of permeate all of these types of offices and we see that taking place in the New Testament. Now, if you think about, you know, the apostle Paul and his relationship to Timothy, okay, we see that in Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy, he was basically an evangelist and he was ordained of the apostle Paul to be an evangelist and the Bible tells us in 1 Timothy chapter one, the apostle Paul is telling Timothy, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, that thou mightest teach some, that thou mightest charge some, that they teach no other doctrine. So based upon these scriptures, we can surmise that the apostle Paul sent Timothy to the church at Ephesus in order to straighten things out doctrinally and of course, to kind of teach the elders and what the Bible says regarding specific things, but he's telling them, I'm sending you there so you can tell the people there not to teach any other doctrine. Now, here's my guess, okay, and this is speculation based upon the evidence provided and that is that the church at Ephesus was possibly a pretty big church, okay, it was probably, let me chew my cough drop real quick, you know, it's probably a pretty big church and you say, why do you think that? Well, when you read Acts chapter 20, the apostle Paul is calling for the elders at Ephesus, plural, right, and he's praying with them so if it's saying elders, it's plural and when you read first Timothy, you see that he's kind of charging Timothy to correct those who are teaching the word of God, who are possibly these elders, okay. Not only that, but we see that maybe some of these elders were off doctrinally because it says that they were desiring to be teachers of law, understanding neither what they say nor what they affirm and then later on, we see that two of them, Hymenaeus and Alexander were excommunicated from the church that they may learn not to blaspheme. So apparently there's some doctrinal issues that are going on because of the fact that maybe some elders have taken over who are not qualified, you understand what I'm saying? So, you know, side note here, that's why it's important you say, why don't you have like assistant pastors? Well, one, I don't really need them and our church is not that big right now and we don't really need them, but let me just say this, you know, the more assistant pastors that you have and people are ordained, you know, the more likely it is some weird stuff is gonna be taught if they're not qualified and I think the main reason Paul is sending Timothy is for that particular reason there, is that there's some elders at the church at Ephesus that are kind of, you know, they're getting off kilter and, you know, is there any surprise? What is chapter three about? The office of a bishop. He's like, if any man desire the office of a bishop, he desires the good work. So the qualifications of being a pastor is distinctly laid out in chapter three and the apostle Paul's not putting that there because he just wants to, you know, and it's gotta be the Bible, you know what I mean? So we just gotta fill things in and make a couple of chapters. I don't wanna, you know, I did so much, I wrote two letters to Corinth and so, you know, I don't wanna, we just gotta fill this in or whatever. No, it's obviously for a particular reason and then later on in chapter five, what is he saying? He's admonishing Timothy on how to treat the elders. You know, he says rebuke not an elder and then he says the elders that rule well are counted worthy of double honor and he says against an elder receive not an accusation, okay, and then in chapter four, he's teaching them how to avoid false doctrine, okay, and then he tells them, you know, neglect not the gift that is in thee by the laying on the hands of the presbytery. So he's saying, you know, you got your work cut out for you, Timothy, but don't forget, I laid hands on you and you are ordained to fulfill this ministry and to set things in order there, okay? Now what does that mean when it says laying on of hands? This isn't fighting terms, okay? You know, Timothy didn't get jumped in into being a part of the ministry or something like that although sometimes you kinda wonder, maybe that was a better way to, no, I'm just kidding. You know, he's not talking about laying on, that's not what laying on of hands means. In the Bible, when the Bible talks about the laying on of hands, it's essentially indicating that a leader views that God's hand is on this person and he lays hands on him symbolically to represent the fact that he's being sent out, he's being ordained, he's being sent out to do a particular work, okay? So that person is going to another place with the authority of ascending pastor and in this case, ascending apostle, you understand? So he's saying, look, don't neglect the gift that is in thee, you know, don't, cause you know, it seems to indicate that Timothy was kind of fearful. You know, the Bible tells us in 2 Timothy, God did not give us the spirit of fear but a power, love, and a sound mind. He might have been a little timid and so Paul's like, hey, I ordained you, you have the authority, you know, I know you're dealing with elders here but let no man despise thy youth, right? So he's sending them there and he's like, why would Paul send Timothy if he's in that condition? Well, it's his son in the faith and he has no man like-minded who would naturally care for the estate of the brethren. Timothy was obviously a faithful person, he's a faithful man. And you know, it says in 2 Timothy chapter four that he's to do the work of an evangelist. So aside from the fact that he has to preach and teach and essentially, you know, correct some of the doctrines and set things in order in the administration, he's also supposed to be out soul winning as well. And so these were some of the responsibilities that he had. Now, later on, did he become a pastor? It's possible that he probably was. We don't know but we just know that that was his mission when going to Ephesus. And it's the same thing that we see with Titus. You know, Paul sent Titus to the island of Crete, right? That he may ordain elders in every city, okay? To, I'm forgetting the wording here, to set things in order, the things which are wanting, lacking, and to ordain elders in every city. So this evangelist known as Titus actually had the responsibility to find qualified individuals, qualified men to become pastors and ordain them. And of course, that authority was given to him by the apostle Paul. And so we see here that, you know, I know I went off on a tangent there but these things are important to know because people can get confused about these things and wonder like, how come Timothy, was Timothy a pastor? It says he's an evangelist. You know, does the evangelist have the authority to do these things that Timothy did? Well, he has the authority if the sending pastor gives him that authority. You understand what I'm saying? So the evangelist in general would be considered like a church planner missionary but you know, there's obviously other responsibilities that the sending pastor can give him and authorize him for. And I'll give you an example. When we started this church, I was not the pastor, I was the evangelist of the church, okay? And I was the boots on the ground, I organized a lot of the systems that were here and I ran the soul winning times and all that but you know, Pastor Anderson also authorized me to do church discipline, to preach the sermons and you know, help people grow in the knowledge of the word of God and kind of rule strictly in the house of God even though those weren't necessarily responsibilities that will fall directly under an evangelist, the sending pastor has the authority to kind of put those responsibilities on an evangelist especially if the pastor's not on site, you understand? And so, and then of course, you know, when you look at Ephesians 4 and it says that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and pastors and teachers, we could definitely see that today, right? Because aren't there satellite churches that don't have pastors? There's some satellite churches that don't have necessarily a pastor, they don't even have like evangelists, they might just have like teachers. So there's not necessarily one particular leader there, they're just kind of like leading themselves under the authority of an offsite pastor type of a thing and so, you know, obviously that's not the best case scenario but what I'm saying is that that does exist, okay? Now go with me if you went to Acts chapter one, Acts chapter one, I know this is super interesting stuff and you're just like dying to hear more about this so I think I'm gonna go for another 45 minutes because you guys are just hungry for the knowledge here so don't worry, I got enough here to last like an entire hour so you guys are good, right? Let's talk about an apostle and what is an apostle. First of all, what does it mean? An apostle is essentially a messenger, one who's sent from God and as I mentioned, it was a very short-lived ministry and the reason God instituted the office of an apostle was essentially to accelerate the foundation of the New Testament churches, okay? Now look at Acts chapter one because we're gonna look at the qualifications of an apostle, it says in verse 20, for it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his bishopric let another take. Now who is this referring to? It's referring to Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot was one of the 12 apostles but he was the devil from the beginning, he did not believe and so he betrayed the Lord, committed suicide and he went to hell and it's stating here, the apostle Peter's talking about this and what he's referencing in chapter, in verse 20 is the fact that because Judas is dead, the prophecy states that someone else should take his bishopric. Now bishopric is not a phrase that we would commonly use today but it just means office, okay? And in fact, if you go to the Psalm reference, it doesn't say bishopric, it actually says office. It's a really good verse to use if you want to like, if you don't like the current president, you can just say let another man take his office, you know what I mean? It's just referring to let someone else take his position, let someone else take his office, let someone replace him. Verse 21 says wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in, out and among us. So what is he saying there? He's saying we have to choose an apostle who's been with us from the very beginning. Someone who has actually came out with us and among us, this is the qualification of the apostles. Verse 22 says beginning from the baptism of John. Until the day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. Now there may be some debate as to like well, that's kind of like the qualification that Peter put to select an apostle, right? But here's the thing, it's still good qualification though, because he's saying you should be a witness of the resurrection, because that's where the apostles were, and obviously the exception to this would be who? Paul. But we know that the apostle Paul was an apostle and in fact, we know that he also saw the resurrected Christ. And he even said of himself that he was one born out of due time, and although he was not there from John the Baptist until thereafter, he was selected specifically by Jesus Christ to fulfill the office of an apostle. And why? Well, it's because the other apostles weren't doing their job. So it's just like all right, we gotta choose someone else. You gotta go outside of the mold of selecting an apostle because these 11, 12 apostles are not doing their job. They're staying in Jerusalem, they're not preaching the word of God, so we need to find someone who could be an apostle to the Gentiles, facetiously speaking, because they're all supposed to go to the Gentiles. And so therefore he selects the apostle Paul, so he would be the exception to that rule. But you know what, these rules are still great. And any time someone claims to be an apostle, you know, you gotta ask them like, so did you see the resurrected Christ? Like were you there since John the Baptist and thereafter, did you go in and out among them? Were you there for the resurrection and the ascension? If not, you're a phony, you're a false apostle, you're a false Christ, you are a false prophet. Now go with me if you would to Mark chapter 16. So what are we talking about? We're talking about the qualifications of an apostle. One sent from God, it's an individual who's been there since the baptism of John. He saw Christ resurrected and ascended to be with the Father, but not only that, you know, the apostles were notorious for doing some pretty cool supernatural things. And this is something that makes them distinctly different from every lame apostle today. The charlatans, look at what I have here, Mark 16. Let me read to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 12 in verse number 12, it says, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds. So according to the Bible, there's something called the signs of an apostle. A sign is a miracle. And it's not just like a miracle of sleight of hand. You're like, well, maybe it was real, maybe it wasn't. It was a very blatant miracle that multitudes can see and say, okay, there is no other explanation other than the supernatural. Now, what are we talking about specifically? Well, look at Mark 16 in verse 17. He says, and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So let's go over a couple of these. So this is specifically referring to the apostles, okay? He's saying that these particular apostles will have the ability, first of all, to perform legitimate exorcisms, okay? Because he says they're able to cast out devils. And they shall speak with new tongues. This is not hala shalabala and a six-pack dala, habananisa nashirabada handa. When it says new tongues, it means that they're able to speak a language that they previously did not know. So you and I maybe are able to learn a new language. How many are bilingual here? How many are trilingual? Quadriple-lingual? You know four languages. So three is probably the most. Raise your hand if you're three again. Okay, two, three, all right. You two, Ninny? All right, all right. Well, you know, you have to learn these things, right? It takes years. Whereas God supernaturally endowed these men with the ability to learn or to know a language just on the spot, which is pretty awesome. Just one day you're just not, you know, one day you're just not speaking, you're only speaking like two languages, and all of a sudden, you know, someone comes from China, you're just like ching chong ching chong chong chong chong. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah. You're just like, whoa! You know what I mean? That's pretty cool. You know, one day you're just not speaking any language, and then you meet someone from Africa, and you're just like, you're just doing the click language. And you know exactly what it means. That's an amazing ability, right? It's a supernatural ability that God gave them to be able to do so, okay? So, and you say, well, why would God give them that ability? Well, like I mentioned, in order to accelerate the gospel message, to accelerate the beginning of these churches, because, you know, it helps to have some momentum in the very beginning, okay? So they're able to perform exorcisms, speak with new tongues. Verse 18 says, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. So he says, look, if they're to take up a black mamba or something, a viper of some sort, a particular serpent that is venomous, and if it were to strike them, it's not gonna kill them, okay? And this is supernatural, because, you know, the serpents aren't frozen. You understand? You know, it's not like these snake handlers that put the serpents inside a freezer or a fridge or whatever, and then they bring them out to do the little whatever demonic service, and the snakes are just like, what's going on, you know? They don't even know. And look, sometimes it doesn't work. Some, you know, they're like flinging around, the serpent's like, ha ha, he's just like, bam! And that happened recently, where a guy was doing that, and it was like a rattlesnake, and it bit him right in the head, and he died a couple hours later, rightfully so, because thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God, the Bible says, you know? And so, you know, these people who think that they have these, you know, I want to go to these apostles and just hand them a black mamba, and say, fulfill Mark 16 real quick for me, would you? You know, just get bit a couple times, show me! Because the Apostle Paul did this. Now, he didn't go out to do it, he didn't set forth to go, all right, let's go look for some snakes or something. He wasn't in the Florida Everglades, you know, with that one dude, looking for the most venomous animal there was to get bitten or whatever. You guys know what I'm talking about? You know, he was a yoinking, you know, venomous serpent or whatever. What was he doing? You know, he was putting a fire together, wood upon, to make fire, a viper jumped out and bit him, and he just like, shook it off, and everyone was just like, wow, how come he's not swelling up and dying? Well, it's because he's an apostle. So he has that capability. So obviously, that softened the hearts of the people to let them know, oh, this is a man sent from God. You understand? And so, this is not a text verse to do snake handling in church services. You don't see that example in the New Testament or in the book of Acts. The apostle's just handling snakes. He's just saying that they are immune to these particular things, but it's only for a small period of time, in order, listen to this, to impress people. Because it was to make an impression in order to lend veracity to the message, okay? So it says, they shall take up serpents if they drink any deadly thing, not on purpose. This is not like, you know, I'm gonna drink poison and I'm gonna show you that I'm an apostle. You know, if someone's trying to poison them, it's not gonna happen because of the fact that obviously, they're apostles. It shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. They have the capability of healing people supernaturally as well. And it says in verse 19, so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere. The Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Amen, the Bible says. Now go with me to Luke chapter 10. So when it says that he's confirming the word, the implication here is that he's using these miracles and signs, these supernatural occurrences, so that people will be convinced that these men are from God. And you know, thank God that he did. Number one, because it just makes the Bible that much more interesting when we read it. But also, it's giving more momentum to the New Testament churches because of the fact that, you know, the more miracles there are, it's giving them credibility as apostles. They're writing some of the scriptures of the New Testament. So if people understand that they're men who are sent from God, they also understand that these men have authority when they're penning the scriptures, okay? And by the way, let me just say is that not all of the New Testament is written by apostles. You know, there's this thought out there that it's only apostles who wrote it. Apostles wrote a lot of it, but not all of it. You know, the latter end of the book of John is not written by the book of John. It's written by someone else, okay? You say, by who? Doesn't matter. You say, why? Because at the end of the day, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, okay? And you know, even some of the apostle Paul's writings was written by Timothy, who was not an apostle. But it doesn't matter because at the end of the day, the physical author does not matter. What matters is the fact that it's God who is the author of the word of God. And so, that's the important part. Now, another misconception that people have about apostles is that there's only 12. Now, there was the 12 apostles who were the 12 disciples who were like part of Jesus' particular group, but there's actually 70 other apostles that existed that God ordained, that Jesus Christ ordained. Look at Luke chapter 10, verse one. He says, after these things, the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whether he himself would come. And then verse two says, therefore said he unto them the harvest truly is great, but the labors are few. Pray therefore the Lord of harvest that he will send forth labors into his harvest. He thinks to himself, well, you know, that's a stretch though. It just says he sent them out, he appointed 70. It doesn't say that they're apostles. Well, if you remember, the signs of an apostle are characterized by these divine supernatural miracles that they're able to do, right? Well, look at verse eight. Into whatsoever city ye enter and that receive you, eat such things as are set before you and heal the sick that are therein and say unto them the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. So he's speaking to the same group. Well, look at verse 17. And the 70 returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. So they're obviously performing exorcisms. They're healing people. And he goes on to say there, and he said unto them, it might be helped Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you, referring to those 70, power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you, he says. So this is obviously something that is, these supernatural abilities are something that's only delegated to the apostles, which would make these 70 apostles. They're not the 12, but there are 70 who are apart from the 12. And it kind of explains some of the passages that we see in the New Testament. For example, if you remember in one of the gospels, I can't think of it off the top of my head, but you think of when James and John go to the Lord and they say, we saw one casting out devils in thy name and they followeth not with us, right? And Jesus basically rebukes them and said, and I'm paraphrasing, and he's like, they can't be against me if they're speaking in my name, basically. But they're specifically saying that they're casting out devils. That's potentially one of the 70 that he's addressing there, okay? And it's possible that some of the names that we see in the book of Acts who are called apostles were part of that 72. Because when you read the book of Acts, you see that Barnabas is called an apostle. You see in Romans chapter 16, I think it's Junia, I forgot the names of them, but the call-out chapter in chapter 16 talks about them being fellow apostles as well. So it could be that these people were part of that 70 that were sent out during Luke chapter 10, that area, that time, okay? So again, why no more apostles today? What was their purpose? Well, to accelerate the message, to expedite the planting of churches, starting churches, it's happening at a faster rate, it's getting the momentum going, okay? To lend veracity to the message, and go to Ephesians chapter two, to provide a doctrinal foundation for believers in churches, okay? Because if you have apostles, because the Bible talks about how they continued in the apostles' doctrine. Now, keep in mind that after the four gospels, you have the events of the book of Acts taking place. When we look at our New Testament, we think that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written first, because chronologically, they are first in the New Testament. However, they were not the first books that were written and penned down. They're the events that took place first, but they're not the first books that are written down. It's possible that the epistles of Paul were the first epistles that were penned down, along with the book of Acts and many of the epistles, and that many of the gospels came afterwards. So, when you have the apostles performing their ministries and getting people saved, they're also providing a doctrinal foundation for the believers, because they have the authority. So, you have people understanding, okay, these men are sent from God, they've performed these miracles, they are teaching us about Jesus Christ, and his crucifixion, and all these doctrines, so then now they have credibility and when they send them a letter, okay, this is legitimately the word of God, because these men are sent from God. And of course, then you run into the issue of forgeries and such, where people are claiming to be the apostle Paul, and they're sending in fraudulent documents or whatever it may be, but the only thing you need in order to make sure that that's not true is the Holy Spirit. It's not like someone got the Gospel of Thomas and was just like, man, this is good stuff right here, I've grown so much. I'm reading the book of Enoch or whatever, and I've just learned so much from Maccabees, it's just like, I went from a child to a spiritually mature person because of it, because anybody who has the Holy Spirit residing within them, they'll tell you this is trash. This isn't the word of God, this is someone who's acting like the word of God, they're a phony, it's a fraud. Now look at Ephesians two, verse 19. It says, now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So according to the Bible, the apostles and prophets provided the foundational doctrine of the first churches that were started in the first century AD. Now we know who the apostles are, but what about the prophets? And you can easily see this and say, well maybe it's referring to Old Testament prophets, right? Major and minor prophets. But I actually think it's just referring to prophets of the New Testament. And I'm not referring to New Testament as in the gospels, I'm talking about the New Testament after the resurrection of Jesus Christ when you're already into the book of Acts, okay? Now let's see some proof of that, look at Acts chapter 11 if you would. Now what is a prophet? Well, there's two manners of describing what a prophet is, and it can be one of two or just both, okay? A prophet could be a person who is essentially prophesying of a future event that's gonna take place, they're given supernatural information of something that's gonna take place in the future that they don't know about, that people don't know about, and they're prophesying of that. Or it's referring to someone who's able to just preach. And make no mistake about it, you need to have the ability to preach the word of God in order to reach people, okay? But I believe these particular prophets just had that special ability to expound the word of God, teach the word of God, to put the cookie on the bottom of the shelf. I mean think about Apollos, right? It says about Apollos that he mightily convinced the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. So he was able to make a very strong case for that because obviously he's prophesying of it, he was able to put the cookie on the bottom shelf. But look at Acts 11, verse 27. It says, in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch, and there stood up one of them named Agabus, and 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. So he received that there is a prophet by the name of Agabus, who might have been actually preaching the word of God, but he's actually prophesying, he's a prophet who is foretelling of future events. Look at Acts chapter 13, if you would, Acts chapter 13. And by the way, that same Agabus later comes out in Acts chapter 21 to let the Apostle Paul know, hey, if you go back to Jerusalem, you're gonna get arrested, and he kind of gives him that illustration of being bound, you know, he takes the girdle and puts it around the Apostle Paul, et cetera. And he says that basically this is what's gonna happen to you if you go there. So he's not only foretelling of future events, but he's also foretelling future events just based upon common sense, he's preaching to them, okay? Look at Acts 13, verse one. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul, and they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said separate, excuse me, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work we're into I have called them. Let me read to you from Acts 15, verse 32. And Judas and Silas, being prophets, also themselves, listen to this, exhorted the brethren with many words and confirm them. So I believe it's taking place here when it says the apostles and prophets, you have apostles laying down the doctrinal foundation, just kind of being really dogmatic about certain things, so that there's just no question of what God expects or what he's teaching of the New Testament. You think of like the book of Hebrews, it's a very doctrinally sound, systematic doctrine type of a book, right? So he's laying that down, but then you have the prophets who are actually expounding this and explaining it to the recipients, to the churches, to other believers. So you can see how important the prophet would be because you think of the apostle Paul, he's hard to be understood. He's a hard guy to listen to. You read some of his writings and it's just like, you know, I don't know what he really means here. I mean, we're going through the book of Hebrews and we're just deciphering what he's saying. We are in need of a prophet who's able to put the cookie on the bottom shelf. So you see how necessary a prophet would be in those days, especially when everything is new. We have a hard time understanding the book of Hebrews and we've been reading the Bible like for years and you know, we've had churches and churches and churches have been preaching this. How much more when it's just brand new to the churches of the first century AD and it's just like all this information is new. I believe God is endowing these men, these prophets to be able to kind of put the cookie on the bottom shelf to explain the word of God, to expound it unto them so that they can have better understanding of what God expects and what the Bible actually says regarding certain doctrines. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. So yeah, it could be referring to someone who is prophesying of future events, but I just think it's someone who's just a good preacher who is prophesying, they're explaining the word of God. Look at 1 Corinthians 14, 27 because you have all these prophets that God is using, but now churches are beginning to get organized. You gotta think about it. You know, you have the first century AD, it's very primitive, you know what I mean? Like here we are 2,000 years later and we're very organized sometimes, you know? We start at a specific time and we have like everything that we do has order to it. Well, when you first started this in the first century AD, it probably wasn't like this. Okay, if you were to get a glimpse of how the first century church, the churches were in the first century, you'd probably be like, whoa, what's going on? And then you have people who are like, we need to go back to that. It's like, no, we don't. Like, why would you want to go back to that? There's no piano, they don't have hymn books, they're working very primitively in those days. And in fact, let me just tell you something. You know more in 2024 of the Bible than the majority of people who lived in close proximity to those apostles and Jesus Christ. Because you gotta think about the fact that a lot of those churches probably only had one letter to work off of for a while. Whatever letter that was given to them. Church of Colossae, it's like, that's all they had, was that letter. And then eventually they would hear from another letter or whatever. We have 66 books, you understand? So it's like from the first century AD, you have all of these steps that are being taken to kind of organize churches and believers and help people. And so you kind of know why God had to institute apostles because it's a very slow process. You understand what I'm saying? I'm pretty sure they didn't have sowing groups. They're just like, let's just go preach. They probably weren't very organized. They're just like, they probably met on Sundays, maybe they met on Mondays, maybe they also met on Tuesdays. They didn't really know what they were doing kind of thing, it's just very primitive. But obviously the more knowledge we get, the more knowledge they understood, the more organized they can get, the more systematic they can be about the word of God and about teaching the word of God. And here's an example of it. Look at 1 Corinthians 14, 27. It says, if any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two or at the most by three and that by course and let one interpret. So if he has to tell them that, it means that they're being kind of Pentecostal a little bit. And by Pentecostal, I don't mean they're speaking in tongues, but they're being a little disorderly about it. It's a little chaotic of a service. He says, but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church and let him speak to himself and to God. Let the prophets be two or three and let the other judge. So now we're looking at a church that possibly had a pastor, possibly didn't. Maybe it just had prophets. And if you think of, you know, let's say there's five prophets or something and they want to have church, they would divide that hour by having three prophets come up and preach about 15 minutes, 20 minutes a pop, right? I mean, we've had preaching night where we have three men come up, four men, and they'll preach for a certain amount of time or whatever. That's probably what they're doing. So you have men who aren't capable of preaching the word of God, but he's giving them specific instructions. You know, if they're gonna preach, they need to do it separately, like one at a time, not all together, you know? Not everyone up there just is like, thus saith the Lord, take it away, you know? And then the other guy is preaching. It needs to be orderly. Let me see here. And by the way, this is another reason why this is our justification for just having one preacher preach, okay? We never want to have a disorderly service where the man of God is getting up and preaching and then there's another sermon going on over here, another sermon going on over here. You're like, well, I'm just kind of adding to it. We don't need you to add anything. We don't need the commentary. You're making this a chaotic service. You're bringing us back to a primitive first century AD type of a service, and the apostle Paul's condemning that, okay? That's very charismatic of you. And so there should be one preacher expounding the word of God. We don't need confirmation. And according to the Bible, the only thing that's needed is an agreement from the congregation, which is why we say amen. We don't need, and also the Bible says, and also this and that, and you're just kind of putting in your two cents. Take the two cents back. We don't need the two cents. We don't need multiple sermons going on throughout the service. You understand? Because at that point, you're bringing confusion into the church, you know, because then it's just like, well, pastor's preaching, but someone else is saying something over here. And look, and here's another good reason why that shouldn't be done, because you might say something really stupid out loud, because sometimes I give like rhetorical questions. You know what a rhetorical question is? It means I ask a question, and I don't expect you to really answer it, unless I tell you, like, answer, right? So sometimes I'll be like, I'll ask a question, but it's rhetorical, and someone might answer, and they're just completely wrong. So then you're like shamed, because, you know, you're just wrong about it. You know, I remember preaching one time, and someone was just like, well, that's funny, and I was just like, well, no, actually, it isn't funny. And they were pretty embarrassed, but, you know, that's their fault for assuming that I was making a joke about something that pretty much the whole church knew that it wasn't a joke. You understand? And so it's important that we only have one prophet preaching at a time, and, you know, we're here to hear the word of God. We don't want to turn into a charismatic church. And you know what? If you have the gift of prophesying, that's great. If you know how to explain the word of God, that's great. But you know what? During the church service, there's only one of us preaching at a time. Okay? And the reality is this, is that we've gotten to a point in 2024 with churches that we don't need to rotate preachers here. I can preach every single service. I'm the pastor of the church. That's my job. And so, but you know, there's satellite churches that need that because sometimes preaching can be physically exhausting. You know, sometimes people find it hard to preach for an entire hour. I find it hard to only preach for an hour. You know that's true. That's what's hard to me. You know, what's hard for me and my pastor friends is that we got to keep it to an hour. That's hard because I can just keep going. But you know, a lot of people are like, man, it's just like to preach that long is just like so hard. You know, so sometimes there's satellite churches that will have to have a rotation of preachers because to come up with that much content on a weekly basis is a difficult thing to do. Okay? He says in verse 30, If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. So it was just like, if you understand something, you ain't got to explain it. Just shut up, shut up and listen. For you may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the saints. Now let me just briefly cover the pastor, okay? Because we know what an apostle is, we know what a prophet is, okay? And prophets exist today but not Agabus prophets. So what do you mean by that? Well, if you just paid attention to what we're talking. Agabus was the guy who's foretelling the future. We don't have Agabus prophets today, you understand? Because of the fact that we don't need the foretelling of the future of something that's outside of the boundaries of God's word. But prophets do exist today as far as people who can preach, okay? However, the most prominent offices in 2024, the New Testament, now the churches have matured, they're spiritually up to par, they're organized, is the pastor, evangelist and the teacher. Now, what is a pastor? Well, there's three ways of describing a pastor. One is the pastor. And that title's only given once in the New Testament, multiple times in the Old, but once in the New, and that's in Ephesians 4. And that signifies what? An overseer. More specifically, it's what? It's a shepherd, okay? So it's a term for livestock, like overseeing livestock, but God uses it to essentially describe a position or an office in the church that oversees the flock of God. So if you were to take an actual shepherd, and what does a shepherd do? It protects the sheep from the wolf, but it also feeds the sheep, leads them to green pastures, et cetera, right? And every once in a while it takes a staff and just like knocks them on the head, because they're kind of going astray or something like that, and you just gotta whack them a little bit. Well, spiritually, that's what pastors do. So when you see that term pastor, it means shepherd, overseer, and it means they have to take the oversight of the flock of God. It means that my job is to preach the word of God unto you, but it's also my job to rebuke you, okay? To correct you, to kind of hit you with a staff, not physically, although sometimes, I feel like that's more effective. No, I'm just kidding. You know, it kind of knocks people spiritually over with the staff, and to make sure that you're eating good food and protecting you from the wolves. That's like part of my job, okay? But another title for a pastor is an elder, and no, it's not the queer-looking, what is that, the zesty? The zesty Mormons on bikes with the little black badge that says elder with the 10-speed or whatever. You see one of those, you wanna throw a stick right through the wheel right there and just laugh, you know? That's not an elder. Now, why do they call pastors elders in the Bible? Well, another way of saying elder is what? Someone who is older, like the elderly, right? Now, this is true as far as age is concerned. It can be true, but it more signifies spiritual maturity, okay? And it's important that a pastor is spiritually mature, which obviously would go hand in hand with having physical maturity as well, you know what I mean? Like a 18-year-old isn't necessarily spiritually mature to run a church type of a thing. There's special cases for that, but it's very uncommon to find something like that, okay? An elder is someone who the Bible says is not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he could fall into the condemnation of the devil. So he has his senses exercised to discern good and evil, he's spiritually mature, he's been faithful, serving the Lord for years, and according to the Bible, he's elderly enough that he has a family. You know, he got someone to marry him, and he has kids, he's ruling over his house, and he is a reputable member of the church, he is spiritually mature, that's what an elder is, okay? So a spiritually mature person. And then the last one, description of a pastor is a bishop, okay? And a bishop is just simply another way of saying bishop is an officer of the church. So how do you know that? Well, when you look at Acts chapter one, when dealing with Judas, it says, and let another man take his bishop prick, it's referring to the office, understand? So if someone's called a bishop, it's referring to the fact that he's an officer of the church, he holds a position of leadership in a local New Testament church. And these are interchangeable. So don't think like, oh, there's an elder, then there's a pastor, then there is a bishop. No, they're basically all one and the same. How do I know that? I'm glad you asked. It's because of the fact that when you look at the qualifications in 1 Timothy chapter three of a bishop, it simultaneously describes what we see for an elder in Acts chapter 20 and in Titus chapter one as well, even though it uses the term elder and overseer in Acts chapter 20, well, 1 Timothy three says they should be apt to teach. And then of course, 1 Peter, I believe, is chapter four or five, it says that the elder is supposed to take the oversight, feeding the flock of God, et cetera, it's giving those same qualifications. And you say, well, then why give so many titles? What's the point? Well, it's to kind of show us all of the responsibilities of that pastor, of that over, they're supposed to oversee the flock of God, supposed to shepherd the people, they're supposed to be spiritually mature, they're supposed to be, they're the officer of the church, they're supposed to fulfill these particular responsibilities, okay? All right, go back to Ephesians chapter four, if you would, Ephesians chapter four. Now, here's the thing is that, you know, you have teachers in a church as well, and I think when it states this in Ephesians chapter four, this is still in the primitive stages, which is why they have to kind of be distinct one from another, because not everyone had that particular, all of those offices in one, or those abilities in one. But the reality is this is the pastor, who's the bishop, who's the elder, is the evangelist also, is the overseer also, and is the teacher as well, because of the fact that he has to be apt to teach. So someone who is a pastor has to keep tabs spiritually on the flock, making sure that sin isn't taking place, whereby they might be excommunicated, they have to be able to study the word of God and teach the word of God, they have to be spiritually mature, and they just have to be able to fulfill those roles simultaneously, okay? So even though these roles are given distinctively in Ephesians chapter four, we can see now that one person is able to fulfill all those roles, except, of course, the office of an apostle, because that was a temporary office in order to streamline the New Testament churches. You understand what I'm saying? And so, you know, this sermon is basically to just kind of show us that these positions of authority are important to God, and the fact that you might have one of these, you know, obviously not the apostle one, hopefully you're not a false apostle, you're all getting the hell out of here, you know? But you know, let's say you're a prophet, let's say you are a pastor, you have the ability to oversee individuals, you have the ability to teach individuals to put the cookie on the bottom shelf, you have the ability to expound the word of God, you know, these are abilities that you should utilize in the local New Testament church. But let me say this, if you're gonna be a pastor one day, you have to have all of those things, okay? And it's commanded of God that you have all of those. So you have pastors out there that, you know, oh, they're great overseers, but they can't preach themselves out of a wet paper bag. It's like they suck at preaching, they don't know exactly how to expound the word of God, they can't be pastors. You have people out there who are great elders, they're spiritually mature, but they can't teach the word of God. Or you have people who are great at preaching the word of God, they're great at prophesying, they could put the cookie on the bottom shelf, but let me say this, they're still spiritually immature though. Or they're just disqualified, how about that? So it's important for us to realize that it's just like, well, you know, I'm a good preacher, so maybe I should be a pastor. Well, not necessarily, do you meet the other things that a pastor is supposed to do? You know, well, you know, I'm really good at teaching the word of God, and so what? You have to have all those other capabilities in order to fulfill the office of a pastor. And here's the thing, yeah, you know what, preaching is important, teaching's important, sowing is important, but how about this, are you able to oversee people though? Do you have a heart that has the ability to think about people in your church? Or are you just a self-centered, self-willed person? You understand what I'm saying? Where it's just like, well, it's kinda, I'm only like, you know, focusing on what I got going on. Well, it takes a particular person to actually take the oversight of the flock of God. It takes a particular position and a person to have a pulse on the church to know, you know what, I feel like the church is becoming apathetic towards this specific ministry or this particular area. I feel like this is something that's trending in our church right now. They have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. You understand what I'm saying? But sometimes people aren't spiritually mature to even know that. They're just like, oh, I don't even know. I don't even know how it's taking place. So it's important to have all of that. And you know, if you're gonna be a pastor one day, make sure you learn how to preach, for sure, because you can't be a sucky preacher. We got enough of those in this world. We got enough crappy preachers out there. Don't join that club, okay? You need to learn how to teach the word of God, but you also need to learn how to take the oversight thereof as well. And of course, do the work of an evangelist and do afflictions, et cetera. And so that's the sermon, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for Ephesians chapter four and thank you for those who've you placed in our lives, Lord, to help us to mature spiritually, to perfect us in the Lord. And I pray, Lord, as we hear the sermon tonight that we would take to heart, just the scriptures, it may seem like a basic sermon, but it is important. And I pray that you'd help us to understand that, Lord, and help us to realize that we don't need any more unqualified leaders taking over churches. It's a bad idea, it's not good. It just ends up deteriorating in the long run. And you want churches to stay around for a long time, Lord, and this is the reason why you've given the qualifications of a pastor. We don't wanna just put up people who are not qualified and maybe they might have one aspect of leadership, but they are deficient in the others. There could be a reason why you have required bishops to be well balanced in all those areas. And so help us, Lord, as your people to take those things in mind and help the men to count the cost. And so, Lord, help us. We love you and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. ["Tis the Grandest Name For A Mortal Time"] Turn your songboards to song number 260. He is able to deliver thee. Song number 260. Song number 260 on that first verse. Tis the grandest name through the ages run. Tis the grandest name for a mortal time. Tis the grandest name that the world e'er sung. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. For by sin all threats go to him for rest. Our God is able to deliver thee. Tis the grandest name in the earth o'er me. Tis the grandest name for a mortal strain. Tis the grandest name till the world again. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. For by sin all threats go to him for rest. Our God is able to deliver thee. And the last is the grandest name that the tidings roll to the guilty heart for the sinful soul. Look to God in faith, make thee whole. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Though my sin all threats go to him for rest. Our God is able to deliver thee. Great singing, you're dismissed.