The patterns of perfecting are the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. In Acts 20 Paul reminded the elders in Ephesus of what he did when he was among them. That meant that he wanted the elders to do the same thing that he did among them. He told them to remember how he was with them for three years, admonishing all the saints day and night with tears (v. 31). He said that he did not shrink from declaring to them all the counsel of God (v. 27). He also reminded them that he taught them publicly and from house to house (v. 20). This was how the Apostle Paul perfected the saints.
In 1 Thessalonians Paul likened himself to a nursing mother (2:6-8) and an exhorting father (2:11-12). He was a mother cherishing and nourishing the saints and a father teaching the saints. This is the way to perfect the saints. The gifted ones among us should do the work of cherishing and nourishing the saints as a mother and of exhorting, admonishing, teaching, and instructing them as a father. We should have many mothers and fathers in the churches. We have to follow the Lord to go out as a mother and as a father to visit others. There are many saints among us who have not been in the church meetings for years. All of these dear ones need us to nourish them. We should not go to them and say, “We haven’t seen you in a long time. Please come to the meeting.” We have to nourish them and take the opportunity to give them some helpful instructions. We have to recover the dear ones among us who have not been coming to the meetings for years. Paul said that he yearned over the saints and was well pleased to impart to them not only the gospel but also his own soul (1 Thes. 2:8). We all should do this kind of work. Some may ask whether Paul was doing the work of an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, or a shepherd and teacher. My response is that I neither know nor am concerned about this. What matters is that we do the work that Paul did.
In this fellowship we have seen what the work of the ministry is. If we do not respond to this fellowship and the Lord returns, He may call us slothful slaves and cast us into outer darkness for a period of time (Matt. 25:26, 30). It is not good enough to have merely the knowledge of what the gifted persons do. Many sinners need to be saved, and many backsliding saints need to be recovered. We have to cooperate with the Lord to carry out this work. We also have to speak Christ forth into others, ministering the riches of Christ into others whenever the church comes together. There is the need of such a revival among all the churches. We have to bear our responsibility and do our duty. Our duty today is to perfect others. We have to get people saved, nourish them, teach them, raise them up, and put them into the church meetings. This is not to build up a congregation but to build up the Body of Christ in an organic way.
A pattern of prophesying is seen in 1 Corinthians 14. Verse 3 says, “He who prophesies speaks to men building up and encouragement and consolation” (Gk.). This is a pattern. In verses 24 and 25, he says that prophesying convicts people and judges them. When we speak the word in a pure motive without any intention to judge others, our word will be used by the Lord to convict others, to judge them, and to make their condition manifest to them. When people’s real condition is manifested to them, they will admit that God is among us. If God were not among us, how could an unbeliever or unlearned person’s condition be manifested to him when we do not even know it? Such prophesying ministers God to the hearers and brings them to God.
Acts 8 presents the pattern of the evangelists. Verse 4 says that all the scattered saints from Jerusalem went out to preach the gospel. Surely their preaching involved visiting others. These saints did not have a hall to have a large gathering for the preaching of the gospel. They went everywhere to visit people and bring the good news to them. Philip the evangelist also went out to preach the gospel (v. 5). As he was on the road, he preached the gospel to an Ethiopian man and baptized him. He did not baptize him in a baptistry but in a body of water that was near the road. The baptisms of the early believers were without regulations and rituals. They did what was convenient according to where they were.
The Scriptures also show us the pattern of the shepherds and teachers. The Lord’s conversation with Peter in John 21:15-17 indicates that if we love the Lord, we must feed His lambs, shepherd His sheep, and feed His sheep. In Matthew 28:20 the Lord charged the disciples to teach the ones that they had baptized. They were to teach them to observe whatever the Lord had commanded them. This is the perfecting work of the shepherds and teachers.
We need to cooperate with the Lord to visit people. The results are up to Him. I hope that many of us will make a vow with the Lord to devote six hours weekly to the Lord to walk in the biblical way so that the Lord will have a way to build up His organic Body.