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Sermon preached on Ephesians 4:7-12 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/22/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Paul has been exhorting us to maintain the unity that we have in Christ. Yet, today, we are reminded that our unity does not equal uniformity. In verse 7, we learn that God has given his grace in the form of spiritual gifts to each Christian, but that he gives such in different measures. While every member in Christ’s church will have some form and degree of spiritual gifting, it will vary in measure. The analogy here is that we are like different parts of a body. We each have a function to do for the greater good of the whole body. Now this idea that all Christians have a measure of such spiritual gifting is more fully developed later in this passage, which we will study next week. But today, we will focus on verses 7-12 which talk about a subset of Christ’s gifts. While verse 7 says that all Christians are spiritually gifted, Paul first focuses on the gifts described in verse 11. Before describing how all the saints are to use their spiritual gifts, Paul puts a prominence on those listed in verse 11. That will be our focus for today, to highlight the role of those listed in verse 11. Indeed, Paul calls them gifts to the church.
Here’s our three points for today. First, we will consider verses 8-10 that describe how Christ gives gifts to men. Second, we’ll consider verse 11 that describes the specific gifts he has in mind, namely, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd-teachers. Third, we’ll consider verse 12 and review how Paul describes the purposes of these gifts.
Let us then begin with verses 8-10. It begins with a reference from Psalm 68:18. Verse 11, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” Paul quotes to explain how Christ gives gifts to the church, especially those listed in verse 11, the apostles, shepherds, etc. Let me explain how he uses this interesting quote.
First, Paul makes a very interpretive reference to this Psalm. This psalm is about how God conquers his enemies and then in victory marches them captive back home. It presents God as king with this glorious procession of captured enemies paraded back home as spoil. Paul says this psalm describes what Jesus has done. That points to Jesus’ divinity and that Jesus is the fulfillment of that psalm.
Second, Paul further shows the divine nature of Jesus here in verses 9 and 10. He interprets the psalm’s ascending language to imply that Jesus had first descended to earth. Surely, Paul has in mind the incarnation. Jesus, the eternal Son of God descended down into this world. He triumphed over his enemies in his life, death, and resurrection. After that, he then ascended back up into heaven in victory, essentially leading his conquered enemies back with him as spoil. This complements what Paul said of Jesus back in chapter 1 (21-23), that Jesus ascended to the highest place of heaven. From there, Jesus is working to perfect his church which is his body, to fill all in all with his fullness.
Third, Paul changes the wording a little here in this psalm. The psalm originally spoke about receiving gifts from men. It pictured God as the warrior-king coming back with the spoils of war. But Paul changes the key verb in verse 8 to say that Jesus “gave” gifts instead of “received” gifts. Paul wasn’t misquoting the psalm, he was explaining the psalm. You see, what do kings do when they parade home all the captured enemies and other spoil? They then turn around and divide up the spoil among the people. Kings capture the spoil only to then redistribute the spoil to his faithful subjects.
Fourth, let us understand that spoil can include not just things like gold and silver, but also the captured enemies themselves are spoil, and back then they would have generally been given out as servants. Paul is saying that Jesus conquered enemies that then became his spoil that he gives as gifts to the church. Who are these captured humans that are his spoil? Well, Paul is one of them. Paul was an enemy of Christ and Jesus conquered him on the road to Damascus and Paul became a sort of “spoil” of battle. Jesus then ultimately gave Paul to the church to be a gift called an apostle. I, by the grace of God, am also another example. Before the Lord conquered my hard heard, I was an enemy of Christ and his kingdom. Now, the Lord was victorious over me and I became his plunder of war. He then gave me to the church to be a gift called a pastor. While verses 8-12 focus on leaders like apostles and pastors, this general concept is true for all Christians. Jesus has conquered each us and ultimately converted us into faithful servants in his kingdom.
So then, in our first point, we’ve considered how Paul used this psalm in an interpretive way to explain how Jesus converts rebels to servants. He conquers our sinful rebellion and turns us into glorious gifts for his church! Paul especially has in mind how Jesus conquered and gave back as gifts those listed in verse 11. Let’s turn now in our second point and draw our attention to those important gifts for the church.
As we look at the list of people in verse 11, these apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd and teachers, let us recognize the common denominator. Each of these is someone who is bringing God’s Word to the people. That’s how they are a gift from God to the church. That’s the commond denominator, but let us appreciate some important differences. To start, let us recognize that the first two, the apostles and prophets, have already been mentioned twice in this letter. In 2:20, we were told that together with Christ they have become the foundation of the new covenant people of God. Christ, of course, is the ultimate foundation, but the apostles and prophets bore witness to Jesus. They were again both mentioned in 3:5, how they had received the revelation about the mystery of the Gentile inclusion in the church, how all who believe in Jesus are united in one church.
Regarding the “gift” of the apostles, let us remember that this included the twelve as apostles to Israel, plus Paul as an apostle to the Gentiles. Per the qualifications described in Acts, these apostles had to be eye-witnesses to the risen Lord Jesus. They gave the initial testimony of the saving work Christ accomplished in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. As such, these apostles had an extraordinary office and ministry, to boldly proclaim the Word of Christ at the start of the new covenant church. They helped to lay the foundation of Christ that we then continue to build upon today. As such, their office ceased when they all died, but their legacy, of course, continues. We benefit from that legacy when we study their writings that they left us.
Closely related are the “gift” of the prophets. Previously, I made the point that references to the prophets in Ephesians were references to New Testament prophets. The same are likely in mind here. This would include people like Agabus in Acts 11, Judas and Silas in Acts 15, for example. When we studied these prophets back in chapter 2, we saw they were paired up alongside the apostles as a foundational ministry. They received new revelation, along with the apostles, necessary for founding the new covenant church. Since that foundation is laid, we do not expect any new revelation, and no more prophets of this sort. We call that the doctrine of cessationism – new revelation has ceased. Yet, we still can benefit from what is recorded of their prophetic work in the book of Acts.
The next “gift” listed in verse 11 are the evangelists. The name evangelist is literally one who proclaims the good news. Likely, Paul refers here to ministers of the Word who serve as missionaries, going here and there proclaiming the gospel. Such evangelists are essential for planting new congregations and spreading the faith to the ends of the earth. Such evangelists were already at work in Paul’s day and we continue to have many today. We’d consider our Regional Home Missionary Brian Tsui as an evangelist. Our ordained Foreign Missionaries would also fall into this category too.
The last “gift” listed here is that of shepherds and teachers. The grammar of the Greek here clearly groups these two titles together as one role. Paul explains there is a single office that has these twin functions, to shepherd and to teach. This describes the pastors that we still have today. The title of pastor, literally means shepherd. As a shepherd, your pastor is to spiritually guide, protect, and care for you. As a teacher, your pastor is to preach and teach God’s Word for the care of your soul. Pastors will preach and teach publicly, house to house, and individually. God’s Word is the primary means of grace and pastors are the primary dispensers of it. Such pastors already were at work in Paul’s day and we continue to have them as the regular ministers of God’s Word in local congregations. I’m honored to be your pastor and am thankful for God’s grace that makes possible fallible men like myself able to serve in this capacity.
So then, we have these gifts in verse 11, which really describe those leaders who have or still do minister God’s Word to the church. We already said that there are many other spiritual gifts in the church, that aren’t represented in this list, which we’ll talk more about next time. Let me note that we do not see in this list elders or deacons. This is not to minimize those offices, but it does distinguish them. In the OPC, we believe there are three ongoing ordained offices in the church, deacons, elders, and ministers of the Word. Ministers can function as pastors, as evangelists, or sometimes other teaching roles like at a seminary. By not mentioning the elders and the deacons in this list, we are reminded of the importance of the office of minister of the Word. Deacons lead in areas of material service and need. Elders especially lead in oversight and governance. Ministers, though, especially labor in the Word to help shepherd and teach the people with God’s Word.
So then, a related application comes to us at this second point. Christ expects you to be guided and discipled especially by a local pastor. Yes, your private times of studying God’s Word is valuable. Yes, your times together in your homes as a family studying God’s Word is valuable. But, Jesus has especially given us pastors to feed us. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 89 expresses this well. It says, “The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, to salvation.” This application is that lone-ranger Christians or those who often forsake the public pastoral ministry should course correct and make sure they are getting to church and getting fed and shepherded!
Let us now turn to our third point and consider verse 12 and how Paul describes the purposes of these “gifts”. Paul there describes three ways that God uses ministers of the Word in the church. He uses them to “equip the saints”, he uses them “for the work of ministry” and he uses them “for building up the body of Christ.” That is the most traditional interpretation of this verse, but I do acknowledge a common alternative interpretation which can be recognize in our pew Bibles. You will note that I just said verse 12 includes 3 distinct things that ministers of the Word do today. Yet, the pew Bible translates it as if the work of the pastor is to equip the saints, who then the saints do the work of ministry, which will then result in the building up of the body of Christ. If you look at a KJV, it has a comma after the word saints so that it conveys the traditional understanding, three distinction functions of the pastor.
So then, if you read the commentaries an awful lot of ink is spilled advocating for one view or the other for verse 12. One argument made about why it must have in mind the saints doing the work of ministry and building up the body of Christ is because of what we find later in verse 16. There, it clearly describes how every part of the body of Christ has a function to perform in the body, and when all the parts are working properly, the whole body then can grow up into the maturity. But, in my judgment, that is an actually an argument that strengthens the traditional view that verse 12 focuses on what ministers do. Otherwise, arguably Paul would just be repeating himself in verse 16 if he already made the same point back in verse 12. Rather, verse 12’s focus is clearly on the work of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors. They equip the saints, they do the work of their ministry, they build up the body of Christ. Today’s passage has been focusing on these special gifts to the church and their prominent role in the church. Yet, that sets us up wonderfully for next week to look at verses 13-16 to see how then all the saints also participate in the work of the church and all have their part to play. The service of the saints is distinct but not separate from the work of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors. Indeed, the first verse of today’s passage already introduced us to this fact because verse 7 says that grace is given to every saint, a measure of Christ’s gift to each. Paul then turned in today’s passage to draw our attention to the prominence of these apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors who received this measure of God’s grace. But then he will draw our attention back to the whole church to show how each member has also received a measure of grace as verse 7 says. That word for “measure” even appears in verse 16 in talking about how all the saints serve in the church together. So, next week we’ll focus on how all the saints serve in the church. But, now let’s consider the prominent role pastors and evangelists perform in these three ways identified in verse 12.
First, pastors and evangelists equip the saints. The Greek word for “equip” is a rare work, only used here in the New Testament. The word describes preparing something for its proper use or function. I think this fits well with the discussion we’ve had already. Verse 16 speaks of the saints “working properly” as they use their spiritual gifts. Well, the precursor to that is God preparing those saints to function properly in the church through the ministry of the pastors and evangelists. Pastors teach the saints what they need to know to be useful in the church and they disciple them with biblical counsel and admonition to train them for Christian service.
Second, pastors and evangelists perform the work of ministry. The Greek word for ministry is diakonias and is a commonly translated as service. This word gets used in various context to decribe different kinds of Christian service. It is used to describe the service all the saints do unto God and unto their fellow Christians. It used for the office of deacon, officially ordained servants in the church. And it is also used to describe the ordained ministry of the Word and Sacrament that someone like a pastor or evangelist does. When a pastor performs his ministry, this is the specific form of service that God has called him to do. So on the one hand, when it says here that pastors etc. do the work of ministry, we can think of all the various job duties of the pastoral ministry. Pastors feed and tend and protect the flock, conduct public worship, pray with and for the people, read and preach God’s Word, bless the people, visit the members, counsel and admonish, all in service to God in the name of Christ. This and more is the typical work of a pastor which is referenced here. But let us appreciate how this work is descried as ministry, aka, as service. A minister is ultimately a servant. A minister serves Christ even as he serves the flock as their pastor. A pastor ought not to lord himself over the people, because he is to be a servant to them. That doesn’t mean you should belittle the pastor, either (e.g. “you work for me”). Rather, you should recognize that God has given your pastor as a gift to serve and bless you and all the congregation.
Third, pastors and evangelists build up the body of Christ. We do this when we evangelize and see new people come to faith and become members in the body of Christ. With the analogy of the church as a building, that’s like adding another stone into the structure. But pastors and evangelists also help build up the body of Christ by helping the individual members grow and thrive in the church. If the ultimate goal is the body of Christ being fully mature, to the full stature of Christ, then your pastor will help you fit into the church in a way that are you both useful to the body and yourself growing. Pastors will promote the peace, purity, and unity in the church, both individually and corporately. They will help you discern, test, use, and develop your gifts in the church. As we’ve said and we’ll study more next time, all the saints will contribute to this goal of edification. Paul draws out the prominent role that the pastors will play in helping the saints function properly and be well fitted in the church.
Saints of God, it is clear that the verses we studied today have highlighted the important role of pastors and evangelists today, even as we also remember the legacy that the apostles and prophets have left for us. While it’s been implied that these people have been spiritually gifted for their ministry, Paul’s main point is that they themselves are Christ’s gifts to the church. I feel funny preaching it, but God wants us to see pastors and evangelists as gifts to the church.
Now, imagine if you got a valuable gift from someone, but then put it on the shelf and forgot about it. Then, they later ask how have you been enjoying your gift? Would you not be embarrassed that you spurned their gift by neglecting it? Jesus has given the church many gifts. This week, Jesus reminds you that he has given you a pastor. I pray that you will heartily take advantage of the ministry work that I do. I spend many hours all week preparing sermons, Sunday School lessons, Wednesday Bible studies, and more. I pray you will hear them and be blessed by them. I am available for biblical counsel and I always enjoy my routine pastoral visits. Please remember, that Christ gives fallible brothers for pastors, so I will not always be perfect. We should take care of gifts we receive, so may you help care for your pastor by praying for him regularly.
In conclusion, as we’ll see both this week and next, Jesus is building up and perfecting his church, over time, with the grace he gives us. Let us rejoice and take comfort in knowing that our infallible Lord Jesus Christ is ultimately overseeing this work of building up the church which is his body.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
