Commentary on "Spiritual Gifts for Evangelism and Witnessing"

COLLEEN TINKER

 

Day 5: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - Other Gifts

 

Overview

Today’s lesson discusses the fact that there are spiritual gifts besides teaching, preaching, and evangelism. It points to Acts 6:1-4 to show that the early church appointed deacons to take care of the food distribution for the poor and the widows so the apostles would be free to evangelize. The lesson comments that these deacons’ behind-the-scenes ministry may have rendered people more open to the gospel.

The lesson also refers to Acts 2:40-47 where it states that “new converts” were being added and extrapolates that these new members were being cared for and supported, thus demonstrating that all the individual spiritual gifts were supporting the ministry of evangelism.

The Teachers’ Comments on page 39 of the Teacher’s Quarterly say this:

The early church described in Acts focused on community and mission. The members shared their lives in practical ways and organized their leadership so that they could focus on their areas of giftedness (see Acts 6:1–7). This structure supported and built up the newly formed group of believers into a new kind of community that served as an example of a new way to live by faith in God. This community also served as a base for the proclamation of the good news about Jesus, as well as a place where new believers could belong. By worshiping, sharing, and working together, these early believers attracted more believers, and God worked through this community to grow it further.

Consider This: To what degree do the descriptions of the early church in Acts suggest a pattern for how the church should function today?

 

Observations

I’ve quoted the Teachers’ comments above because they subtly but powerfully avoid the true nature and power of the church. First, the lesson addresses the issue of the appointment of deacons to care for the widows and the poor so the apostles could continue to evangelize. The lesson for Wednesday actually states this: “The newly elected deacons were contributing to the overall evangelistic program of the early church by freeing up the disciples to be engaged full time in evangelism and preaching.”

In reality, those deacons were gifted evangelists as well. God had appointed the apostles to take the gospel to the first new converts, and the appointment of the deacons was specifically to help the Hellenistic Jews (those not native to Judea and who spoke Greek instead of Hebrew) to be included in the daily distributions. They had been feeling neglected, and the appointment of deacons from the Greek-speaking Jews was a move to care for those Jews from foreign countries who had come to Jerusalem.

Moreover, these men were carefully chosen and set apart for their ministry through the laying on of hands and prayer. Stephen, one of the deacons, is the first person besides an apostle who is recorded as “doing great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). In fact, Stephen is described as being “full of grace and power” (Acts 6:8). He is also the first person recorded as having given an evangelistic, inductive sermon besides Peter; just before he was stoned to death, Stephen explained from Scripture the entire history of God’s promises and of the Lord Jesus’ fulfillment of those promises (Acts 7). Even in his death Stephen’s incredible power as a preacher and teacher still instructs us today.

The hierarchical subjection of “deacon” to a position of less influence or “front-line importance” is a total misreading of Scripture. The deacons were no less responsible for being evangelists; they were just given different job descriptions by God Himself. The apostles were not “apostles” because they were gifted; rather, God chose them, through the body of disciples, for their jobs, and He gifted them for the jobs He called them to do.

Adventism really gets “ministry” convoluted. God appoints us with the work He prepares in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10), and He gifts and equips us for the work to which He calls us. We don’t get our “work” on the basis of our gifts. Rather, we receive His gifts from Him on the basis of what He gives us to do.

The biblical model of service is diametrically opposed to the Adventist method commonly practiced. The Adventist mindset is revealed in this sentence from the Teachers’ comments quoted above: “The members shared their lives in practical ways and organized their leadership so that they could focus on their areas of giftedness (see Acts 6:1–7).”

On the contrary, God appoints our work; the organization follows. “Giftedness” is God’s equipping for service; it is not power and ability given to us as gifts to us. Rather, God’s gifts are never “ours”, and they are never for our advancement or advantage. They are always for service and submission for God’s purposes, never for the purposes we might think they should serve.

 

Separation of God and Jesus

Second, the following passages reveals, again, the underlying view of God the Father being separate from Jesus:

“This structure supported and built up the newly formed group of believers into a new kind of community that served as an example of a new way to live by faith in God. This community also served as a base for the proclamation of the good news about Jesus, as well as a place where new believers could belong.”

While it may be argued that this passage does not state God and Jesus are not “equal”, nevertheless, the wording here is consistent with the quotation from the Teacher’s Comments addressed in Saturday’s lesson at the beginning of this week.

Adventism does not perceive or function on the biblical statement that God is ONE Being. Rather, Adventism sees “God” as a “trio” or “three Worthies” or, as the quarterly stated, “three Kings”. Seeing God as three separate beings completely destroys the nature and power of God, and members who hold this deep background understanding of God have a Jesus who is not the same as Almighty God. Jesus is perceived, even if He is not verbally described, as the kinder, gentler, less frightening version of god. He’s the accessible demonstration of god; but he’s not the eternal, almighty, omnipotent, omnipresent Yahweh. He’s—Jesus, the god even children can approach. He showed us the Father in a way that we could comprehend. He demonstrated compassion and goodness; he was willing to die to demonstrate the lengths to which he would go to reveal to us our sinfulness and his kindness and refusal to hurt back those who hurt him.

Adventists say there is One God in three persons, but they internally understand that one god to be three separate beings who are working together.

Yet God is One, and nothing can ever separate the Trinity—not even the death of Jesus. God is spirit (Jn. 4:24), and that means the entire Trinity is “spirit”.

When God is separated into God and Jesus, as the quotation above separates Him, the impact on us is critical. We do not have a sovereign, eternal Savior in whom we can place absolute faith and confidence.

The early church was not an example of a “new way to live by faith in God”. No! The early church was a completely NEW reality: the literal presence of God indwelling individual believers whom He was building “into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22).

The church has never been an “example” of a new way to live. Rather, the church is new LIFE, not a new way of life. It is the place where the One God puts His name and His presence. It is an organism made by God; it is not a human construct with a new vision for living.

The church was never a “base” for the proclamation of the gospel. Instead, the church is God’s own declaration to the entire universe of His own manifest wisdom:. Paul explains it like this:

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. (Eph. 3:7-12)

The real church (not merely those who profess to be part of the church) is those who are made alive by the new birth by the Holy Spirit because of their belief and trust in Jesus. They carry the literal presence of Christ with them in the world; they are the Living, and they carry God’s Life into the world of the walking dead.

The church is not merely a place for new believers to belong. In reality, new believers have no choice: they ARE incorporated into the church when they are incorporated into Christ.

The church is unified not by a new vision and a new way of doing ministry and working together; it is unified by the Holy Spirit and by the Head who is Christ. Again, Paul states it like this:

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. (Eph. 4:4-7).

Once again, it is almost sacreligious to discuss spiritual gifts in a context that does not understand nor teach the new birth through faith in the Lord Jesus alone—plus nothing. God does not give spiritual gifts to those who are not born again. Everyone has natural talents, but spiritual gifts are God’s equipping of those who are new creatures in Christ. Only those who have died to themselves, to their personal understandings of reality and accepted the Lord Jesus as the only Way of salvation receive spiritual gifts.

Belonging to an organization that claims to have truth does not qualify a person for spiritual gifts.

 

Summary

1. In Scripture there is not superior “value” that comes from having certain spiritual gifts.
2. Spiritual gifts are not given to people who are not born again.
3. The deacons in Acts 6 were not secondary “ministers”; they were men filled with the Holy Spirit.
4. Stephen was the first person besides an apostle credited with performing signs and wonders among the people.
5. Stephen was full of grace and the Holy Spirit and preached the first expository sermon besides Peter’s in the New Testament.
6. Deacon Stephen’s sermon still teaches us today, two millennia later.
7. The church is not an example of a new way to organize around “gifts”, nor is it a convenient base for the proclamation of Jesus or a place for new believers to go. It is new LIFE; it is a spiritual house where God dwells and is His statement of His personal wisdom to the rulers and authorities.
8. Before looking or trying to identify spiritual gifts, deal with Jesus. Only when you know Him and trust Him will you receive God’s spiritual gifts.

 

GO TO DAY 6

 

Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised April 17, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

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