The Work of the Evangelist Pt.1

The Work of the Evangelist Pt. 1

Adapted from an article from Michael W. Pemberton

       Is there no one to be evangelized? Has the whole world heard the gospel? Do all believe in Jesus Christ? Can anyone hear without a preacher? Do all understand without guidance? Are there no churches that need set in order? Are there no elders to ordain? Are there no errors or heresies to be exposed? Is there no need for the preaching of the gospel? Is the church to the point where we are longer tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine? Who can do the work of an evangelist but an evangelist?

When we read the words that Paul wrote to Timothy, we can see that Paul’s telling Timothy to do the work of an evangelist because:

1.              Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead.

2.              Jesus is going to appear at His Second Coming Of                His Kingdom

3.              The time was coming when men wouldn’t put up                 with sound doctrine, but would bring unto themselves          teachers not condemning their sins.

Listen to these words from 2 Tim. 4:1-5:

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Isn’t it still true that men aren’t tolerating sound doctrine but listen to false teachers who, by tickling their ears with what they don’t need, but want to hear, are turning them away from the truth? If this is the case, aren’t we still in need of those who are to do the work of an evangelist by preaching the Word in season and out of season; reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with great patience and instruction?

Over the centuries, the work of the evangelist has been lost and needs to be restored. Maybe we’ve put too much focus on the eldership and its qualifications and that’s led to many congregations not knowing that there is work scripturally assigned to the evangelist and most have no idea what that work is.

The first fact that we need to understand is that Christ has given gifts to the church. Ephesians 4:11-12 reads, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”

In Romans 12 we can see gifts which are given by God The Father. They still remain. In 1 Corinthians 12 we see the miraculous gifts given by the Holy Spirit. Those have been done away with. Here, in Ephesians 4, we see the gifts given by the Son of God. Two of these, the apostles and the prophets, are no longer needed since we have, through their inspiration, the complete revelation of God in the greatest writing of all time: the Holy Bible. However, two of those gifts remain: the evangelist and the pastor-teacher. Why? Because these are to teach what’s already been revealed.

Now, there are those today who say that since everyone is to evangelize there’s no such office of “evangelist”. But, while it is true that all Christians are to evangelize, not all do the work of an evangelist. All Christians are to be their brother’s keeper, but not all do the work of elders. All Christians are to be servants, but not all do the work of deacons.

So then, what is an evangelist? Well, according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary, the evangelist is a “preacher of the Gospel, one who heralds the glad tidings and the good news”. He is the proclaimer of the Word; not the word from man, but the Word from God. He is to proclaim to the world that Christ died for our sins, and that through that death, we may have a newness of life which can lead to our salvation. And although he himself cannot save, he is an instrument of God to be used by Him for that purpose.

Then, although they’re mistaken, some preachers today say they are pastors and not evangelists because they do the same work as the elder, which in actuality is only partially true.

In Ephesians 4: 11-12, we see that the evangelist (preacher) and the pastor-teacher (elder) are mutual gifts to the church. Both are for the perfecting of the saints; both are for preparing God’s people for good works of service; and both are for edifying the Body of Christ, which is His Church.

Now, in spite of popular belief, neither the evangelist nor the elders are to do all the work of the church. Each member must do their part for the body to grow. And every Christian has a gift from God to be used for that purpose. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Who is Peter speaking to here? The evangelist? The elders? Yes! But don’t be mistaken: he’s speaking to each and every one of you, too!

In the way that God has ordained His Church to operate, the evangelist and elders are to equip the saints for good works, not do all the work, themselves. If that happens, it creates a bottleneck and the growth of the church is stunted. It’s only through the whole body (not just the preacher and elders) working together that the church will grow. That is God’s requirement. Any other way is from Satan.

Earlier, I mentioned that it is true that the evangelist and the elders do have some of the same responsibilities, and these shared responsibilities are (and let’s understand this) within the church. They are to guard the flock from false teaching so that none are “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.” (Eph. 4:14); to bring the flock to maturity, not by driving, but by leading them by speaking the truth in love, as well as “quipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

We also need to have the understanding that the evangelist and elders have mutual accountability. It is the evangelist who ordains elders and elders who ordain evangelists. Titus 1:5 states, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.” And then Paul writes in 1 Timothy 5:22, “Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.” Paul is telling Timothy here not to be too fast in ordaining a man as an elder. So, we see here that an elder is to be ordained with the laying on of the hands of the evangelist with fasting and prayer (Acts 13:2-3) This teaches us that an elder cannot be voted in by the congregation, put in office by another elder, or appointed by a church board.

However, it’s a wise thing for the evangelist to seek the counsel of the congregation because there is safety in the multitude of counselors. But, when it comes to where the rubber meets the road, the ultimate decision as to whether a man is to be an elder or not is made by the evangelist.

Unfortunately, in our churches today, many have strayed from the God-Ordained form of church government. Elders are put into office by popularity contests without any regard for qualification. Elders are ordaining elders, and some even go as far as to say that they’re appointed by the Holy Spirit. Are any of these methods given to us by example in the Bible? No! The only one given to us by Scripture is the evangelist performing the ordaining of the elders.

So, I guess the question then becomes: who ordains the evangelist? That responsibility falls to the elders. Again, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.” The word “presbytery” being defined as “the order of elders”.

Taking into account that one office ordains the other, we’re meant also to see that one is accountable to the other. The elders are to correct the evangelist as they oversee the flock, and in most churches that’s all that can happen. In these churches, because the evangelist is typically looked upon as the elders’ flunky, any evangelist who’d try to correct an elder would be fired. But consider this: In 1 Timothy 5:19-21 we can read Paul telling this young evangelist, “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.” So, what’s a preacher to do? Abide by the rules made by men or abide by the Word of God and suffer the consequences because of the rules of men who are also meant to abide by the Word of God? Isn’t God’s divine order paramount to any device of man?

I’m sure that most of us have heard it said that the New Testament is for our living, and the Old Testament for our learning. If that’s true, then let’s learn something from the Old Testament.

First, did kings rebuke kings? No! Prophets rebuked kings just as Nathan rebuked David. Did kings ordain kings? Again, no! Who did ordain kings? Yes, the prophets. God had a divine order of things in the Old Testament for checks and balances, and He also has a divine order in the New Testament for checks and balances.

Let’s also keep in mind that there are no checks and balances without two equal components, which brings us to the next point.

       There are some today who think that after a church has elders there’s no longer any need for an evangelist. But, if there’s no evangelist, how can the sinning elder be corrected since God has given that responsibility to the evangelist, as we read earlier. On top of that, what do we do with responsibilities of both the elders and the evangelist in Ephesians chapter 4? Just rewrite it to not include the evangelist? Well, before we do that, let me give you some examples from the Bible.

       If we read carefully, we can see that Paul never left a church with just elders. He left Timothy in Ephesus. 1 Timothy 1:3 says, “As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” Did the church at Ephesus already have elders? Yes, they did. We can find this in Acts 20:17 where Paul called for the elders of the Ephesian church. At this time, the year was somewhere between 54-58 AD. This letter to Timothy was written between 62-65 AD. So we can clearly see that an eldership was already in existence there, but Paul sent Timothy to charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine.

       Then later, Paul sends for Timothy to come to Rome and sends another evangelist to take his place in Ephesus. While 2 Timothy 4:9 reads, “Make every effort to come to me soon”, verse 12 says, “But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.” And then, in Titus 3:12, “When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.”

       As we can see, Paul told Titus not to leave until another evangelist arrived. Doesn’t this agree with the pattern given to us in Ephesians chapter 4 that both the evangelist and the elders, the two remaining gifts from Christ to the church, are to prepare God’s people for good works of service?

       Ro 10:14 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”