The Apostolic Ministry

112 Pages·2016·0.48 MB·English

by  Ulf Ekman

About the Book
Are there Apostles today? How do we build strong churches that produce lasting
fruit? How is the Apostle different from other ministry gifts? One precondition
for strong church growth is that the apostolic ministryfunctions as it should, and
its importance should be understood.
Ulf Ekman’s teachings on this subject is clear and fundamental, with many
examples from contemporary churches. The Apostle Paul is presented as the
model for today’s apostle, and the author stresses the significance of God’s
ordinance in the church.
About the Author
Ulf Ekman is the founder and pastor of Word of Life Church in Uppsala,
Sweden, a church that has an extensive local, national and international ministry.
With the aim of preaching the gospel and providing basic teaching about the
Christian faith in numerous languages, it works through Christian education,
missions in many nations, Christian television broadcasts and publishing. Ulf
Ekman regularly gives pastors’ and leadership seminars in Sweden and around
the world, and has written over thirty books that have been translated into almost
thirty languages.
More Books
Books by Ulf Ekman are available in more than 20 languages. For more
infomration, contact:
Livets Ords Förlag
Box 17, 751 03 Uppsala Tel [phone]
Preface
So that the local church and the entire Body of Christ are to fulfill their calling,
we need to have a clear understanding of the various ministry gifts. These are the
tools in the Holy Spirit’s hand; they build up the Body of Christ and influence
the world.
The apostolic ministry has been mentioned least and mystified most. It has
either been denied entirely or improperly or shallowly defined.
The intent of this book is not to provide a detailed analysis of the apostolic
ministry but to provide a basic explanation that will clarify much of the
confusion surrounding it. Above all, I hope this book will lead to an increased
understanding of a ministry that has always existed and that will become
increasingly vital in the Last Days.
There are many wonderful apostles serving the Lord today. Their ministries
vary in style, but they are all trailblazers, breaking ground and laying the
foundation for strong and lasting works. They are often misunderstood,
persecuted and despised, but they are loved by the Lord. I dedicate this book to
them.
In Christ,
Ulf Ekman
Origin and Aspects of the Ministry Gifts
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and
teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the Body of
Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect
man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children,
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the
cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things in
Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every
joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth
of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:11-16).
The five-fold ministry gifts are mentioned throughout the Bible. In this book, I
will consider them all but will focus on the ministry of the apostle. And amongst
my reasons for doing this is the fact that this ministry has not been properly
understood hitherto. Furthermore, it has not always been so well developed,
which has made it seem so diverse that people have come to fear it. Even so,
there is no ministry, which has been so well documented, so well described and
so developed in the New Testament as the Ministry of the Apostle! It is quite
remarkable that it has been neglected so much, and this has caused great damage
to the Body of Christ. If the ministry of the apostle does not function well neither
does anything else.
We people can be rebellious sometimes. We have been brought up to go our
own way and to do what we ourselves think best. Certainly, no one can come
and tell us what we should do! If you have such an attitude it can create
tremendous problems in your life. The Holy Spirit sets time aside to speak to the
church and to reveal different things to the Body of Christ. He is disciplined in
the way He does things. We enjoy revelation, anointing and power but we
dislike order and discipline. However, God wants us to enjoy every aspect of
what He is doing.
The apostle’s ministry deals largely with the getting the Body of Christ
“shipshape.” The apostle recognizes how confused and flimsy everything would
be otherwise. You could liken this to building a house by merely tossing bricks
into a pile. “I’ve built the house now,” you say, but there is neither order nor
stability there. The building might look pretty good, but it is really just a mess.
God wants whatever we build to have a certain order and strength about it, and
that it should last for more than just a short time. That is why the ministry of the
apostle is as essential as the other ministry gifts. You need to understand all of
them and thank God for them.
The Ministry of the Apostle, just like the other ministry gifts, goes back to
Jesus, Himself. All of the ministry gifts operated through Him. When we teach
about these ministry gifts, especially that of the apostle, we should never forget
about these ministry gifts, especially that of the apostle, we should never forget
Jesus, as some people believe. The gifts come from Him, He works through
these gifts and He is the One who receives all the glory for what they
accomplish. The One we honour, exalt, follow and work for is Jesus of Nazareth.
Ministry gifts build up the Church
At the end of Ephesians 4:8, it says “He...gave gifts to men.” “He” refers to
Jesus, the one who gives the gifts and places them in the Church (1 Corinthians
12:18). Despite their diversity, the gifts all work together.
The first thing we need to realize is that the five-fold ministry gifts are
individuals with a task from heaven. They are gifts to the Body of Christ. And
we should accept them, should we not? Some people feel threatened by ministry
gifts while others feel confused and unsure. But if we want to benefit from them,
we must accept them as they are.
We read in the fourth chapter of Ephesians that God wants us to be spiritually
mature. He wants us to attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, no
longer driven by every wind of teaching. Like you, the Holy Spirit desires to see
people saved and edified and to see God’s glory and the works of Jesus
manifested. He longs to affect the world in a way that makes the kingdom of
God visible. His way of working is primarily by building up the Body of Christ
through the five-fold ministry gifts. However, this is often overlooked and these
gifts become the target of attack. The enemy strikes hard in this area for he
knows that if the five-fold ministry gifts do not function as they should, neither
does anything else. They are an inherent part of God’s planned and ordained
order. We can never get away from that.
Some people teach that the ministry gifts are unimportant or unnecessary; and
that what is important is that we all have a function. Of course, it’s true that
everyone needs to function in the Body of Christ, but this can only happen when
the five-fold ministry gifts function effectively first.
You might think you are a simple, ordinary Christian going on in the ministry
of the believer, and therefore you do not need to concern yourself with any of
this because you have not been called into any of these ministry giftings. That is
totally irrelevant! You still need to recognize God’s servants and to discern when
a person is a servant of God when he claims he is! You are directly affected
whether you have a special calling or not. You need to know and accept how
God works through His servants.
Let ministers minister!
Knowledge about the five-fold ministry gifts has often been incomplete. We
have vague ideas about the role of a pastor, the shepherd. He is the one who runs
around wearing himself out, pursued by his “brothers.” Then there is the
around wearing himself out, pursued by his “brothers.” Then there is the
evangelist, who is a little younger than the pastor. He can be found in the church
office, sharpening pencils and making copies of the new autumn program for the
youth group and the senior citizens’ outing. He longs to one day be a pastor.
This comic caricature represents the situation in many congregations. Satan
often perverts the five-fold ministry gifts so that we neither understand their
function nor allow them to be fulfilled. Imagine the following scenario when a
plumber visits your home:
“Do you mind hanging that picture for me?”
“Be glad to,” he replies.
“Would you also take out the garbage? We’ve got quite a pile here.”
“Okay,” he says.
“While you’re at it, I’ve been having some trouble with this window. Would
you mind fixing it for me?”
“Consider it done.”
“That wall could use some touching up. How about it?”
“No problem!”
After eight hours, the plumber has done everything but come close to a pipe!
You may think nothing of this since you are so happy to have everything fixed in
your home. He, on the other hand, feels extremely frustrated because he is a
plumber and should be plumbing away! He loves pipes! He thinks pipes! One
glance at a pipe and he is checking the flow. Pipes are his life! They are his
frame of reference and his area of competence. If he never has opportunity to
practice his trade because he is taking out trash, moving paintings and fixing
windows, he will soon begin to wonder why he is around at all!
Many ministers have never fully entered their calling. And one of the reasons
for this is they have never been allowed to do so.
You need to understand the five-fold ministry gifts
People often have false expectations about the five-fold ministry gifts. An
evangelist may come to a congregation where he is expected to be a teacher of
the word. The entire time he is preaching, people wonder when he will begin
teaching. He never does, of course, because an evangelist uses the Bible as a
springboard! He simply needs a Bible verse, any verse, and people will be saved,
healed, and see signs and wonders! That is the gift of the evangelist. He needs to
be free to function this way. If he is forced to be a systematic Bible teacher he
will be frustrated! The Holy Spirit will also be frustrated! Everyone will be
frustrated! The same thing happens if a Bible teacher is forced to be an
evangelist—pity the Bible teacher!
Forcing individuals into roles they should not have is a common problem and