Bringing Good Tidings

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

BRINGING GOOD TIDINGS

Eph 4:7-13

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."  9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

NIV

Having looked at apostles and prophets, we turn our attention to the evangelists. We also should note these three, which we did not consider before are plural. We know there was more than one apostle in the time of Christ and more the one prophet before the time of Christ, and thus we believe there are still more than one apostle and prophet in the church today. There is no question we have witnessed some evangelists in our lifetime, some very famous. The Greek word euaggelistes has the direct meaning of a preacher of the gospel or could be seen as a bringer of good tidings, which the only good tidings is the gospel. Certainly, we can see the English word evangelists in this Greek word and it is clear of the meaning of preaching the gospel. This is quite different the preaching weakly from the word of God, for there are many truths we need to see that apply to our walk with the Lord. Being an evangelist is also not traveling from church to church for the sake of having a revival or just getting opportunities to preach the same message to a different congregation. Although we have witnessed some of these individuals who called themselves an evangelist, which is an incorrect nomenclature, as they are just traveling preachers of the word of God. This is not to say they are wrong in what they do, or their message is not worthy, it is just they are not an evangelist unless they bring the good news of salvation or redemption through accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For the most part, all the members of any local church where the word of God is preached have already accepted Jesus Christ and thus are not in need of the evangelist. However, the unsaved, the non-believers that fill the earth are in desperate need of the evangelists for they bring good tidings, the gospel to a dying and condemned people. In fact, they are simply dead men walking and need the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, so they can be transformed from dead to alive, condemned to freedom. This is the sole task of the evangelists, and the world is in dire need of them. Of course, they do not absolve us from being a witness for Christ, testifying to what Christ has done for and in our lives. We can share what we have experienced and not be evangelizing the world. The evangelist simply proclaims the gospel, and it is the Holy Spirit who convicts men of their sins, but there is no conviction unless they hear the message of Jesus Christ. Even if we share what we call Roman’s road with an unsaved acquaintance, we would not consider ourselves an evangelist, but merely a witness. Nevertheless, God has called men to the task and empowered them to be evangelists and we praise His name for his mighty work among His creation, building His church that the gates of hell will not prevail against.