Place and Position of the Elders in the Kingdom

Eldership in the Kingdom of God
Today’s Focus: Place and Position of the Elders in the Kingdom
Scripture: Ephesians 4:11,12; Ephesians 2:19,20; 1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2:6; 2 Timothy 1:6, 2 Timothy 4

Greetings Kingdom Citizens
In a city, the rule of elders replaces the rule of apostles. Now right here I know we got the people who scream that there is no apostles but we have shown and studied the there is still a need for the apostolic because God said all five are needed for the equipping and maturing of the saints (Ephesians 4:11,12). In the beginning of the church when it was time to lay the foundation who was present? It was the apostles with the faithful working of prophets. Paul said this to the church at Ephesus.
Ephesians 2:19,20:”Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.”
Do we see this? The Kingdom (fellowcitizens) and the House (household) of God are built (present tense) upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Now to understand why the foundation is built upon these two gifts, you must then understand how these gifts operate.

Briefly, the apostolic gifting is the foundational gifting in the Kingdom. The apostles reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom, give the current direction of the Body of Christ, as well as order the relationships within the Kingdom. They appoint the elders to a local body of believers. The apostolic gifting is a trans-local gifting means it is not a stationary gifting but ever moving to establish the foundation and knowledge of the Kingdom of God in the Earth.

The prophetic gifting is vital because it is the gifting not just to inform the Body of Christ of a change in seasons, corporately or individually, but also it is used to teach people how to hear the voice of God. Now this is the sad part about this gifting because people are using and abusing this gifting for selfish gain and not teaching people how to hear God. This is a big problem because people always wonder can I hear God when at the entrance to the Kingdom, there should have been the prophetic gifting available to teach the young in Christ how to hear God. How can someone do anything for the Kingdom if they do not recognize the King’s voice? The holy people are being formed at this very point in maturity in the Body of Christ.

As they move on in maturity they begin to understand what gifts and callings they have in the Lord and individually wanting to respond to God

The elder is the gifted grace to lead the people of God to the next phase of maturity. The elders tend to be older men and their rule is over a local area. Hence we get the term presbytery. Their oversight over the people of God is the term Bishop. When the older men who rule together in overseeing the people of God in a locality rise up, the apostle who was laboring with them leaves and continues going forth in the gift. Now we can absolutely prove this. Paul and Timothy were both apostles (1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2:6). Paul was discipling Timothy. Now the time came that Timothy and Paul would be separated. Paul would continue as an apostle but Timothy would become an elder of local body of believers. In Paul’s letter to Timothy he writes to Timothy the order and organization of leadership in the local church. So we have an apostle laying the foundation of the local church to an elder. Timothy was appointed by Paul to this area. Paul charges Timothy as the elder of this church in 2 Timothy 4 and reminds him OF THE GIFT BY THE LAYING ON OF HANDS in 2 Timothy 1:6.

I want to close on this revelation of the five fold ministry and I need to show this here. The order in which Paul lists the five-fold ministry shows a particular picture to the Body of Christ of how the church or the sons of God mature in the Body of Christ
1. Apostles – laying of the foundation of the Kingdom of God and the relationship between the members of the Body of Christ
2. Prophets – Teach people how to hear the Father
3. Evangelist – They teach the love of God for the believer and lost and teaches one how to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom
4. Pastor – Teaches the sons how to oversee the people of God and realize the hidden gifting among the sons of God and bring them into their gifting and calling
5. Teacher – Able to provide instruction and discipleship to the sons of God and in the ways of the Father and in the knowledge and structure of the Kingdom and House of God so that they can disciple others (The Great Commission Matthew 28:18-20)

You need all five! Without all five you cannot, I mean cannot, mature a son of God because God said all five is for the perfecting or maturing of the saints. In the next message we will continue and look at the rulership of the elder.

At Our Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun, Jr.