We are continuing our discussion of spiritual gifts. These are special abilities God provides for his children. We have discovered that each true Christ follower will supernaturally receive at least one gift and probably more. Also, God is the one who decides which gifts go to which individual based on his all-knowing wisdom. The gifts are given for our use as we minister to the Body of Christ but will also assist us in the many other roles we fill as men.
As I have been reminding you, there are several lists of gifts in Scripture and we will look at many of them. However, there are five primary gifts God provides to edify the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul lists them for us in Ephesians 4:11. “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,”
We are using the visual image of a hand to help us remember the five primary gifts and their purposes. We have discussed the Apostle and represented this gift by the thumb. The Apostle is one who is sent to start new things. We moved then to the Prophet, represented by the pointer finger since the prophet needs to be “in your face”. It is his role to speak the hard truth, regardless the fall out. He keeps the body in line.
Today, we will discuss the Evangelist. There are several important qualities that identify this gift. This person has a continual burning in their spirits to assure everyone hears the life changing message of salvation. They also posses the boldness to share this truth with people without fear or hesitation. These two qualities are usually enhanced by the person having a personality that is attractive to people. This allows him to present the Gospel in love. This does not always result in the recipient of the message responding in faith to receive Jesus, but it generally leaves the door open to further discussion because the motives of the Evangelist are so pure and loving.
In our hand analogy, the Evangelist is represented by the middle finger (keep you mind in the right place!) because he stands tall among the other gifts. He works at making himself visible to people so that they can see Christ in him.
The advantage of this gift is obvious. We believe that a person who does not make a personal commitment of faith to Jesus is destined for a godless eternity. This is unacceptable and the truth of God’s gift of grace through Jesus must be proclaimed.
By the way, the fact that certain people have specific giftedness to accomplish this task does not take the responsibility away from all men to be proclaimers of the Gospel to this lost world. The last command Jesus gave to EVERY believer before ascending to heaven was to evangelize this world. Some are just more purposefully wired for this task than others.
The advantage of this gift for a man leading a family is also obvious. This person will not rest until he is certain that all of those he cares for have had multiple opportunities to hear God’s truth from his mouth.
In the rest of our roles, the person gifted as an Evangelist is a good friend and one who attracts people to him. He does not make the salvation of co-workers or friends a “project” to be checked off his list. Instead, the truth of the Gospel is simply lived out in a way that opens the door for the message of Jesus to naturally be shared.