“8 Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
Ephesians 4:8-16
Next, evangelists. What is evangelism? On scriptural grounds, it is misleading to identify 'preaching the gospel' with 'preaching a gospel message', as if only the latter were true evangelism. Men who labour to expound the Scriptures are sometimes criticised for not making pointed enough appeals to the unconverted, and the implication is that only the pointed appeal constitutes true evangelism. There is a whole philosophy behind this attitude, but it must be asserted that all the available scriptural evidence stands in contradiction to it. According to the New Testament, the preaching of the gospel is the proclamation of the mighty acts of God, not a series of exhortations and entreaties to get right with God. All the characteristic preaching of the gospel in the Acts of the Apostles bears witness to this. The Apostles preached doctrine. Modern scholarship has established that there was a well-defined apostolic 'kerugma' which formed the foundation and basis of all their ministry. And it was objective proclamation in this sense, not subjective appeal that God was pleased to bless. A careful and unbiased reading of the New Testament will surely make it clear that the apostolic evangelism consisted of the exposition and interpretation of the Scriptures concerning Christ. Paul reasoned with men out of the Scriptures (Acts 17:2), opening up and unfolding their meaning in such a way that their message in all its virtue and power got home to mind, heart and conscience. It is precisely the lack of this kind of preaching that has so often brought evangelistic work into such a parlous state today. We need to be clear that it is the law of the Lord that converts the soul (Psalm 19:7), not the earnest pleading of men, and this means that it must be proclaimed and expounded objectively, and trusted in - whether it be John's Gospel, Romans, Genesis or Numbers - as having converting power, if the Spirit is in the preaching of it.