we live in one of the most exciting times in human history and definitely the most exciting times in church history as God birthed the church the Ecclesia in Acts chapter 2 and as we see the progression of the Ecclesia arising in Acts chapter 3 4 and forward we culminate to this day in our generation today and I believe we're coming into a Full Circle season and the Ecclesia we've been missing a key portion of the foundation in which we're to operate and what I want to do here now is to give you an overview of the Ascension gifts or the fivefold but I want to establish it within the scriptures as a basis for us to launch off of before we get into the specifics of each Ascension gift and so in Ephesians chapter one you know the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus and his challenge to the church in Ephesus and his admonishment is this for the church to stay pure and holy and right position so they could continue to live rightly before God with one another as they're advancing the kingdom and so we see Paul talking about the blessings of God what Christ did for us and what he did in Us in Ephesians chapter 1 and chapter two but then we get to a verse in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20 and it says this having been built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ Jesus himself in the Cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together and growing into a holy Temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit and he mentions a statement having built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and Christ being the cheap Cornerstone and if we look at the chapter before in Ephesians chapter 1 I believe that the Apostle Paul is laying a case and he's presenting to the church on how it's to be built and how it's supposed to be governed and so in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 17 which is really the apostolic uh prayer of the Apostle Paul for the church in Ephesus in verse 17 it says this that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of Glory may give to you a wisdom give to you a spirit of wisdom and a revelation and a knowledge of God and if you see this you see this whole aspect of the spirit of wisdom the spirit of Revelation and him God and so you see I believe that the spirit of wisdom is the apostolic and I believe that the spirit of Revelation is a prophetic and obviously God being God himself and you start seeing this from the very first chapter and how Paul presents this and then he goes on again and says now the church is founded on Apostles and Prophets with Christ being the cheap Cornerstone so I want to propose to you first and foremost as a foundation as we're laying this uh out for you is this that the apostles are here to establish faith in the church to release Faith to impart faith and so it's to it's a transform Us by the renewing of our minds so it says governance on the belief system how we're supposed to be acculturated with the kingdom of God taking on Heavenly mindsets so we could walk in Heavenly ways on the earth in a very tangible way and for the prophets I believe that the prophet's role is to establish hope to impart hope to declare hope and even the Old Testament the old Covenant as the major prophets in the Minor Prophets that are prophesying to the nation of Israel they're prophesying the word of the Lord over God's people and you you hear them calling out the nation into a place of repentance to turn away from their sins to turn away from the Wicked Ways but they don't just stop there it's not just a calling out of a Nation or calling out of a people for turning away from sin but in that there's a progression into here's what's going to happen in your repentance here's the hope that God is going to establish you as a nation he's going to give you your own land he's going to cause you to become a nation and he's going to cause the world to see that you are his people it's this hope message it's this hope perspective it's a look into the future are beyond the now and talking about the now establishing the future and giving people that hope you know one of my friends always says this he says you know it's love that secures but it's hope that advances you know it's the prophetic voice that advances God's people and it's really through faith that it manifests so as the apostles establish faith in the body of Christ the prophets establish hope in the body of Christ Christ the Chief Cornerstone of which everything is built upon I want to present to you that he is love so the government by the governance of Love were to establish hope in a faith that'll cause the ecclesioto rise to impact all of society to impact every Community impact every person and for us to eventually disciple nations of the Earth and so I believe that that's tied into First Corinthians chapter 13. and if the church is not just an infrastructural temporal system we are Eternal by Nature we are God's people we are his sons and daughters and so we have to build on Eternal uh structure and eternal principles in which things that which remain Beyond just this life and so we know that the three things that remain are these faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love and so the apostles established Faith the prophets established hope and Christ be the Chief Cornerstone is love he is love God is love and so with that Foundation we move into chapter 3 which talks really about how we're to walk and how we're to be governed and walk by the spirit and then chapter four we talk about the unity in the spirit and I want to highlight to you that Ephesians chapter 4 the focus is not what we know as the fivefold gifts or the Ascension gifts the right context of Ephesians chapter 4 is actually love unity it's about the unity of the spirit the unity in the spirit and that's why the Apostle Paul in chapter 4 verse 1 he begins with this I therefore the prisoner of the Lord entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you've been called with all humility and gentleness with patience showing forbearance to one another in love and so this whole chapter is really about us operating in in a place of love and from a place of love and then we go down and he's addressing the occultic teachings and we have to remember that in the city of Ephesus uh there says God is the goddess of fertility known as either Artemis or Diana depending whether it's from Latin or uh Roman Greek and so the Artemis is the god goddess of fertility and so the teachings are being rampant it's it's a hub and a mecca for a cultic activity because of that um cult being there and so the whole economy is based upon the selling of the little Trinkets and sacrifices to the goddess uh Diana or Artemis and so Paul is coming against and encouraging the church saying you know what you're to shine in the midst of this Darkness you're to come together in love and it's reminding them it's not many gods but it's being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and he goes on there is one body one Spirit one hope one Lord One Faith one baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all in awe and then he goes into the grace that's been given in verse seven but to each one of us Grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gifts and so you want to underline that it's Christ's gifts so what we're about to talk about now is not the gifts of the holy spirit gives to the Holy Spirit again as a reminder as mentioned in First Corinthians chapter 12. and but in this context it's from Christ's gift therefore it says when he ascended on high and you want to underline ascended there if you want to he led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men now this expression he ascended what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth he who descended is himself also he who ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things and so this is the element where in Christ's Ascension when he was ascending on high to the right hand of the Father the scripture says that he gave gifts to men and so again this is Christ's gifts to men this is the Doma gifts and in that in verse 11 it says this and he gave some as Apostles some as prophets some as evangelists some as pastors and teachers and so we call this the fivefold gifts but I like to call it the Ascension gifts because when he ascended on a high he gave gifts to men and so I just want to give you an overview based upon that Foundation of this whole Ascension gives and we know it's talking about Apostles prophets evanges pastors and teachers and so are every is everyone an apostle is everyone a prophet is everyone evangelist or a password teacher no because the Bible says he gave some ass so not everyone is called to the office of but there are those of us who are called to be in the office and so this is the overview I want to share with you So within the context of these five uh functions again these are not titles but it's the function it's the gift that God gave to the church he talks about the apostles what do the apostles do what's their role the apostles role is to govern what's the prophet's role the prophet's role is to guide what's the evangelist's role the evangelist's role is to gather and the pastor's role is to guard while the teacher's role is to ground we need to ground people so the apostles govern prophet's guide evangelists gather pastor's guard and a teacher's ground and so the focused measure of success for the Apostle is he has a heart to fulfill Mission and assignment Apostles are missional people they're on assignment they're very focused it's how many people can we send out and can we transform cities and Nations for Jesus this is a success factor in measure for Apostles it's not how many people do we send in how big can we grow our church we we measure our success on how many people can we release into their calling into society for transformation the prophet's focused measure of success is their heart is obviously to hear the voice of God you know what is God saying what is the spirit saying you know one of the most common phrases Jesus says to the church is that he who has ears hear what the spirit is saying to the church and so that is the heartbeat of the Prophet it's how people hear God for themselves how do people in their walk with Christ and as followers of Christ can they hear the voice of God with Clarity and can they obey the voice of God that is the prophet's role also releasing the heartbeat of the father the Evangelist measure of success is obviously the Evangelist their heart is for the Lost and so their measure of success is how many people are being saved and so the the Dynamics of the Apostles say can we save cities and Nations and you know disciple them and Prophets are saying you know what no but is this God are we hearing the voice of God clearly the evangelists come in and say you know what that's all great but you know what people are dying and going to hell we need to reach people we need to get souls what about the billion Soul Harvest that's been prophesied let's go out and get them let's gather them as an army so that's the Evangelist and meanwhile within that context the pastors come in regarding people and their heart is for the save their heart is the disciple so it's so how many people can we disciple you know the prophet's role is how many people can we get to hear the voice of God clearly in confidence the apostles was how many people can we send it send out the Evangelist is saying how many people can we get saved and the pastor is saying how many people can we disciple as a community and then the teachers come in amongst that Dynamic and Synergy and as they're teaching people their heart is to help people understand what the Bible is saying to help them understand what's going on in society teaching them about culture and and how to live and really to come into truth and to understand and know the reasons why the how the what and this is what the teachers do they love truth and so at the end of the day when when it comes to building when you have a strong foundation and the right foundation you will have these functions working together not in isolation but collectively cooperatively you know commissioning together as a team and with Christ and the teachers what what do they do when they build they build libraries to read they love books so when you go into a teacher's room you know they're a teacher their entire wall is covered with with uh books and books and books and then they eventually tell you oh this is just some of my books uh I have a lot more books in a box in the Attic but they build libraries because there are people of Truth pastors build churches you know they they shepherd people and they bring people in and they disciple them and and they nurture and they care and uh you know genuinely and and they create in an environment in a culture where people come in and feel safe they build churches evangelists build armies they they gather people together and they say you know what we are going after Souls This Is War and those who are saved they teach you the same thing let's go get people you know what people are dying and they're going to hell and the enemies got their soul let's go and battle for them and they go out and and they build these armies to to just win back these souls and the prophets they build sanctuaries it's a place of encounter it's a place where people meet with God of you know what is God saying you know and so they gather people and they when people are together they're saying okay you know what we need to hear God and and they start praying and they start prophesying what they hear and give other people opportunity to do the same thing and the apostles come in and they built missional tribes where it's not just people gathering for the sake of gathering but they gather people for the sake of purpose of Kingdom Purpose it's missional it is it is going out with assignments you know and saying okay what is God saying to us what does he want to build let's build the kingdom of God wherever we go and they build cities you know they build missional tribes and they build cities and so as these five come together and this is the Full Circle there was the Ascension gifts the the apostles are prophets and teachers they were all together in Antioch and that was one of the Miracles that took place in the book of Acts where the teachers and prophets were together and then the holy spirit said set aside Barnabas and Paul you know and send them out as Apostles you know they're sent out once they're the apostolos and we're going to talk about the apostolic significantly you know in the lessons to come but this is a five-fold overview and just ask yourself this question which which one of these functions do I line up with the best you may not be called to the five-fold office but perhaps you align with one of these five in terms of worldview in terms of leadership in terms of your defaults position on how you do life