About this sermon
The ascended Christ gives his church apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Every believer is gifted for service, beginning at home, so that the body is built up in unity of the faith and grows from spiritual infancy to maturity. As a new year begins, the church seeks to serve Christ more faithfully so that his kingdom advances and he receives the glory.
Sermon transcript
Ephesians chapter 4, we’re going to be focusing on verses 11 to 16 in particular this morning, but I’d like to begin at the beginning of the chapter to put the passage in context. Ephesians chapter 4, hear God’s word. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you’ve been called. with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in a bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we will no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto him who is ahead, into Christ, 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. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.
If I were to ask you, what is the ideal church? Many of you probably would have some image in your mind. Perhaps it was a fellowship that you were part of in the past. Perhaps it was a local church that you’ve read about or visited and thought, oh, if only I could be part of that church. Or perhaps it’s a group that you long to be part of based on a real need in your life. Whatever it is, we’ve had some experience with the church and we’ve had some longing, if you will, of what is the ideal church. In fact, in a gathering of this size, it would not be uncommon for there to be multiple visions of what a church ought to be, perhaps competing ones as well.
And this need not be a problem if we all remember whose church is it anyway. It is Christ’s church. It is the church that is given by God the Father to His Son as His bride. It belongs to Jesus Christ. And so Christ gives some instructions through his word about what his church is to be.
As we think about the love of God the Father to his son to give him this bride, think of us as fathers and mothers. How many of us have ever held a newborn baby in our arms and wondered to ourselves, I wonder what this child will grow up to be? Of course, as our children get older, sometimes that’s part of where we have those conversations with the Lord and many prayers in terms of what we think is best for this child and what the Lord thinks is best for that child. And for them, of course, those times where perhaps some of you had the privilege of walking your daughter down an aisle or seeing your son get married. and think, okay, what is life gonna be like for them? And the vision of what you would long for it to be, and children and grandchildren as well, and it’s natural for, as we’re connected with people, and longing to see God at work in their lives, to have some vision of what it is that they are to become, and how they’re to live life, and what it is that we would want for them.
And my friends, that’s no different the same way that God the Father has a vision for his church, who we are to become as his people, the church of his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some of you perhaps have been around long enough in this church that you still remember, or maybe you heard the stories in terms of the birthing of this church. And every church goes through that experience of there’s time when it’s called into being by the work of the Spirit, its ministry begins, And it travels along a predictable, projected life cycle. And so as there are transitions in the life of the church, new pastors, new officers, those sorts of things, inevitably it raises those expectations.
But what’s our vision? What are we to become? This morning I’d like to suggest that The same grace that is needed by a church to be birthed is the same grace that a church needs to be sustained and continued and renewed by the work of the Spirit. And so our sermon this morning is entitled, Building Together God’s Way, because God’s word reveals a pattern, that He has provided a means and a motivation for His children to grow up in every way. not to be those who rest in the past, not to be those who are seeking to be sustained by yesterday’s manna, which we cannot be, but indeed to lay hold of the things of God, to trust the Spirit, and to receive the grace that He promises to give us as we seek to walk by faith.
In Ephesians chapter 4, which we just read, Apostle Paul begins and says, he urges us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. He stresses the unity that we have in Christ, a unity of confession, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And then he reminds us of the grace that we’ve received. In fact, he says very specifically that Christ ascended on high and he gave gifts to men. that by His grace, all the graces have been given to us by Christ. And so we want to look at this passage, particularly verses 11 to 16, to see what are the gifts that God gives to His church, to His people, in all times and all places, but particularly at this, the first Sunday of a new year. One of those things that we need to be reminded that Christ has given to us, that we might be all that He intends us to be. You begin there, look there at verses 11 and 12, we see that we are gifted for ministry.
It speaks specifically about offices. There’s some debate about those things, but when someone first comes to faith in Christ, receives the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, part of that is that they also receive a gift. Cherished the grace of spiritual gift. God’s pattern for his church is a model of ministry based upon God’s gifting of his people with spiritual gifts. Each and every one of us is called and gifted for ministry.”
Now, it talks about first leaders, that there were those apostles and prophets. We believe that those offices are no longer in play since the completion of the canon. But then it also says evangelists and then shepherds and teachers, or pastors and teachers, as the NIV puts it. It’s not two separate offices, but one office of pastors and teachers.
And what is their role? Their role is to prepare God’s people for works of service, or to equip the saints for the work of ministry. The responsibility of leaders of the church is not to do all the ministry, but to train you as members of the church to minister as Christ calls and enables you and gifts you to do. God’s model for ministry is for each of us as members of his body to be involved in ministry. How are the elders to enable us or how are the elders to equip us and enable us to be more effective ministers of the gospel? is primarily through the teaching ministry of the Church, as well as by prayer for you, to intercede for you.
God says this, all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness. And we all know that part because we hold the scripture in very high regard, as we ought. But the purpose of that scripture, doing all these things is so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The reason to sit on the preaching of the word, the reason to study God’s word in small groups and Bible studies and those sorts of things is so that you might be equipped for the work that God has called you to do in his kingdom.
The Apostle Paul commends Epaphras, a leader in the Colossian church, and he says this about him, he says, he is always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in all the will of God. As the elders here get to know you, and they pray for you, and they intercede for you, they’re wrestling in prayer that you might stand firm, that you might stand strong, that you might be all that God wants you to be. in the places that He’s called you.
So my friends, let me ask you this morning this question. It’s not a question to be asked just of pastor teachers. What is your ministry? What is your ministry? It is what God has called you to do in all the places He’s called you to be. If you’re a husband, you are first to minister to your wife. If you’re a father, you have a spiritual ministry to your children. whatever your occupation, God has also called you to be there and to minister to those around you, not just by witnessing to others, although certainly we have those opportunities, but even by the way that we do the work that we do, that we do it for the glory of God, that too bears witness to him.
And so that’s part of our calling, those callings that God has for each and every one of us. And in addition to that, The scriptures tell us that God has given each of us at least one spiritual gift, usually a collection of gifts, and they’re not all the same.
They’re different. Don’t have time this morning to talk about all of that, of Paul’s analogy of the body and the different parts and all those other sorts of things, but different gifts given to different parts of the body so that together we might become the body that God wants us to be.
The vast majority of ministry, my friends, the vast majority of ministry that Christ is calling you as a congregation to do this coming year will not happen within these walls because you spend so little time, by God’s appointment, within these walls. The vast majority of the ministry of this church, of this body and its members, is outside of these walls.
It’s in the places that God calls you to live and to work and to move. as a minister of Jesus Christ. And for our life together, then God calls and gifts, and I notice in the bulletin there’s an announcement of things on the bulletin board where you can sign up for various things to serve one another. So that the body here as we gather for worship and other functions can minister to each other for the common good. We must remember that you and I as individuals, we are not the church, but collectively we are the church, the body of Christ. What is the ministry of grace, Orthodox Presbyterian Church?
Part of our thinking has to be is, well, where has God called each of us to be during the week? Sometimes 40 hours of it, if it’s work. That’s part of the ministry of this church because we are members of this body and Christ’s ministry extends through us into this community and into the world.
And my friends, that’s a radical thought. It really is. It’s not the way we normally think. It’s not the way we normally function. And in fact, it’s not the way even our culture would like us to think about ourselves, that we were sent people. They would rather that we would think ourselves that your faith is a personal, private thing.
It’s compartmentalized. It’s something that just, oh, wait, it’s where you go on Sunday mornings. That’s the church. No, the church is the people. We gather in a building for worship, and we’re not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together. But the ministry of a church is where God’s people are by his appointment. And so, my friends, do you understand that?
Can you say, I’m a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ? in all the places and all the relationships that God calls me to have. I’m a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. I represent Him because my life is not my own. And that as we understand that, and that we’re to be this collection of ministers, ministers of God’s grace, then each member of this body has a vital function to perform. What’s your ministry? Are you equipped for that ministry?
Are there things you say, well, I wish I knew more? I wish I, you know, maybe I need some people to encourage me. I really think God’s calling me to do this, but I don’t know how to begin. Those are things to talk with your elders about. And if you’ve never, ever gone through the process of some inquiries of, well, what are my spiritual gifts? What is it that God’s uniquely given to me that as I lean into that, God’s spirit works through me to bring glory to Christ and to bless people around me? because we’re not just saved to sit and soak, we’re saved from our sin in order to serve Christ and to advance his kingdom.
You know, there’s this pattern that we see in the New Testament over and over and over again, wherever churches were planted, the apostolic pattern, all of Paul’s teaching in terms of that. It’s a model for ministry. It’s quite different than what we see in most churches in America today. And I cannot emphasize enough that the biblical concept of the church is that of a body, a vital body, or if you will, a team. Let me illustrate. Many of us have been influenced, unfortunately, by unbiblical models of ministry that permeated the American landscape, particularly in the 80s and 90s.
How many of us remember being told the church is like a hospital? You know, a place where weary people come to have their spiritual needs met, much like we go to a hospital, we expect the doctors and the experts to do it all, and we’re there just to be put back together in those sorts of things. And so we rely on the professionals to minister to us. And if we think that way about the church, which that’s not, there’s some truth there, but it’s not a biblical image. is then all we will do is that we come to a physical building to have our needs met by the professionals, the pastor who’s called and paid to do the work of ministry.
How unbiblical an idea. The church is not a hospital, my friends. If anything, it’s a mass unit. moving about and helping people who are wounded and scarred and patching them up and sending them back out onto the front lines because that’s where the Christian life is to be lived.
Or how many of us have been unwittingly influenced by the megachurch movement with its emphasis that bigger is always better. So we just begin to look around and we count noses and budgets and all those other sorts of things. In America in particular, we love our buildings and they get bigger and bigger and all those sorts of things. And so our pastors are expected to be celebrity preachers, CEOs of a spiritual business that focuses on numbers and programs and facilities.
How unbiblical. Church does not exist to build its own empire. Church exists that Christ’s kingdom might be advanced. To further the kingdom of God, the church is the agent of the kingdom. And that involves, my friends, ministry, hands-on ministry to all kinds of people. We could go on and say there are other models, you know, of a bus where you all get on the bus and sort of we expect, you know, the pastor, he’s going to be the bus driver, he’s going to tell us where we need to go. Or worse than that is the cruise ship. You know, where the pastor serves like the activities director, trying to just go around and make sure everyone’s happy with everything that’s going on.
My friends, maybe in this church you’ve never had these things, these issues. But the church in America, and even in our circles, Reformed and Presbyterian circles, we are struggling with some of these things that have come into our understanding of what the church is called to be. The job of the pastor is not to make everyone comfortable. That’s not the calling of the New Testament church. New Testament does not envision a single pastor and a docile flock. It envisions in terms of a plurality of elders, of disciples who have a heart and a vision to see others reached and disciples made for the glory of King Jesus.
Ray Steadman over 30 years ago wrote a landmark book called Body Life. And he traces the deviations from the biblical model And historically, he says, he makes a good point, that the responsibility for ministry was transferred from the people to professional clergy. And he comments this way, when ministry was left to the professionals, there was nothing left for the people to do other than to come to church and listen. They were told it was their responsibility to bring the world into the church building to hear the pastor preach the gospel.
Soon, Christianity became little more than a Sunday morning spectator sport, much like the definition of professional football. 22 men down on the field, desperately in need of rest, and 22,000 people in the grandstands, desperately in need of exercise. Biblical Christianity is not a spectator sport. The local church is a body, a team, in which every person is called by God to have a distinctive ministry.
And what’s the result when we understand who we are and whose we are and the gifts we’ve received for the ministry to which God’s called us? God’s word says that when that is in play, the church is built up. That’s the biblical measure of church growth. or church health, not how many people attend the worship services, but how many members are equipped to minister as Christ’s disciples, bringing his presence and his power, the power of the gospel, into contact with people all around us. Christians ministering in Christ’s name cause Christ’s church to be built up in every way, spiritually, numerically, organizationally, maximum impact. for the Kingdom of God. And how many people just already want an established church where they can just come and do certain things and stuff?
No, it’s the work to which is spread over many shoulders to trust God to do. And I would suggest that one of the joys of church planting, there are many struggles, one of the joys is that people find their place. in the body, where they can make their contribution, where they can serve Christ and serve others and to see that it matters because every person matters when you’re a church plant. Somehow as we get established in churches, once we have our buildings and things get a little bit more comfortable, somehow we lose that, maybe that initial momentum that’s there in the early years of the planting of a church.
But nonetheless, it’s what we must understand our identity. That yes, we are people that gather for worship, but then we scatter to serve. We are sent people, sent by Christ on His mission in the world. Not only are we gifted for ministry, Apostle Paul says we’re gifted for the purpose of maturity. Look there at verses 13 and 14. That’s the goal. Why does Christ pour out all these gifts? Why does the Spirit do all this work? It’s so that we might become mature. And he lists four aspects, and we want to just look at those briefly, at each one.
The first aspect is a unity in the faith. True Christians have a unity of confession. The faith is the body of doctrine that’s given to us by the apostles. The faith is the content of the gospel in its most complete form. the summary of the apostolic preaching and teaching. We read in Jude verse three, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith once for all entrusted to the saints.
There’s much we have to discover and learn from the scriptures, but there’s nothing new there. The scriptures are sufficient, have always been, and will always be sufficient for the church in every age to be faithful to her Lord. Disunity in the church oftentimes comes from spiritual immaturity, where we want what we want rather than thinking of the body as a whole, and also doctrinal ignorance. Somehow we just think, hmm, we thought this new idea. And any new idea, quite frankly, if it’s not tested by the word of God, ought to be very suspect. Because the scriptures are sufficient.
And so we have a unity that has to be maintained. A true oneness of fellowship cannot be reached apart from community and commonly believed truth. And being able to remind ourselves of that and encourage each other. someone has written, only a biblically equipped, faithfully serving, and spiritually maturing church can attain to unity in the faith. And that is absolutely true.
You are a church that has a common confession for which you ought to praise God. But it’s not just something to say, oh, OK, well, we read that once in a while, we put it on the shelf, but to understand the depth of the truth of God there. Because not only is there a unity of confession, but there is a unity then that will lead us to a knowledge, as the scripture says here, of the Son of God.
And it’s not talking about an intellectual knowledge. It’s not intellectual cognition. It’s not knowing about God. In fact, it’s a relational understanding. It’s knowing in the way that the Bible speaks of knowing, relationally. And it’s developed. This knowledge, this relational knowledge of God is developed by prayer. and by obedience to the word of God. Praise God, you have set apart in terms of a Bible reading plan whereby you might have a systematic way of reading through the scriptures to understand the whole counsel of God.
The apostle Paul, toward the end of his life, wrote this. He said, but whatever was to my profit, I now consider lost for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to greatness of knowing Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, not having already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead. I press on toward the goal. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. We’ve not arrived.
While God still gives us breath on this side of heaven, there are ways that we are to continue to grow to be like Christ because we know Him in deeper ways. And as we do that, we will attain not only individually, but corporately. to the fullness of Christ, the whole measure of Christ who fills things in all ways.
It’s Christ-likeness. It’s not enough just a personal relationship with God through Christ, but that’s the foundation. But then that Christ begins to live his life out through us before watching the world. It’s Christ-likeness. When people see us, they say, that’s a Christian. That’s a Christian. Christians were called to follow the example of Christ in every situation, that we are his representative. We are men and women on a mission from God. For the sake of Christ, what would Jesus think? What would Jesus say? What would Jesus do in those circumstances? And then to be guided by his spirit and word to respond appropriately.
Paul said that the goal of his ministry to believers was their maturity in Christ, Colossians 1. We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ to this and thy labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me.” My friends, is it your goal? Is it your goal in life? to develop and have the character of Christ. Because that is what God is calling you to. That is what God is calling us to. And so we have a unity of confession. We have a unity of purpose in our drawing deeper into a personal relationship, a knowledge of Christ the Son, so that we might become mature, that we might become more and more like Christ.
And that then is undergirded by sound doctrine. Doctrine doesn’t produce those things, but it guards those things and provides a foundation. It’s the good soil which all these things grow out of. Look again at verse 14. where Paul says, 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 and deceitful scheming. The Bible speaks of us in developmental terms. It’s not to insult any of us, but it’s how the Bible speaks.
When we first come to faith in Christ, we are considered infants. We are needing a lot of care and a lot of attention. And as we get older, we still need lots of care and lots of attention. It just changes in the form in which God gives it to us. But nonetheless, we’re called to grow up. We’re called to grow beyond a childlike trust in Christ. We’re called to put childish things behind, where it’s all about me and everything centered on me. We’re to grow up spiritually.
Some Christians, unfortunately, even some churches, seem to prefer to live spiritual lives like that of Peter Pan. You never want to really grow up. You just want everything to be easy. God’s word rebukes, actually, such a simple attitude. In the book of Hebrews, we read this. We have much to say about this, but it’s hard to explain because you are slow to learn.
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not equated with a teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
And then here’s the point he makes. Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity. We’ve just hit these four aspects briefly. Most of the epistles are written to address these very things. But if we’re gifted for ministry, we’re also gifted so that we might move towards maturity. And the last thing that Ephesians 4 the Apostle Paul is telling us here, by the inspiration of the Spirit, is that we are gifted for growth. If spiritual gifts are the means and spiritual maturity is the goal of the body being built up, growth is the result. Paul describes the process of spiritual growth as learning to speak the truth in love and growing up into Christ. learning to speak the truth in love. You know, Barbara and I spent part of our lives, even part of my seminary training was in the deep south in Mississippi. And there’s a tendency of Christians to be like cultural southerners.
Do you know what I mean by that? They prefer to tell you something nice rather than telling you the truth. We make jokes about that in terms of Southern culture. All the nice, they could spend half an hour, have the nicest conversation with you. And yet, turn away and they’re regretting all the time that was spent to be nice to you. You never got to any things of substance. In my limited experience, not having been born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, but my limited experience of ministering here in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio, is that we so value relationships that we often, we feel very uncomfortable if someone that’s near to us or dear to us is made to feel uncomfortable. And so we will hedge. Now I’m not saying we ought to be obnoxious. I’m not saying any of those things.
The gospel calls us to be gracious in how we speak, but we are called to speak the truth in love. And when we do so, then people are built up. That’s what the scripture tells us here. The purpose of speaking the truth to each other and to be good truth tellers even to ourselves is so that we might be built up, we might be restored, we might be pulled away from those things that are idols or temptations or those sorts of things that we might focus on Christ. The book of Proverbs says this, wounds from a friend can be trusted. but an enemy multiplies kisses. Are we growing in our desire and the ability to speak the truth in love to each other? As we do that, we will grow up into Christ.
Think of it this way, just as the physical body needs adequate food and exercise and rest in order to grow, so too does the spiritual body. They’re things that we need. We need the nourishment of God’s Word. We need the exercise of spiritual gifts. We need the refreshment and rest of public and private worship in order to grow as God intends us to grow. But there’s one other thing that we need.
And that is the body must be washed from time to time. to remove germs and be free from diseases. And as believers we too need to be daily cleansed from sin and its effect. And so the scripture gives to us then a responsibility, a biblical responsibility to each other to confront, confess, and repent of our sin. The elders share a special responsibility for the removal of sin, or unconfessed sin, in the life of the body. But we are called to be our brother’s keeper. The word of God is quite clear. It also tells us how we are to do that.
And as we do those things, those ordinary things of feeding on God’s word, of exercising with a dependence upon the Spirit, the gifts that He’s given to us. As we pray for one another, as we speak the truth to one another, we will grow because we’re united to Christ and to His purposes. Spiritual growth in the lives of individual members, as you grow spiritually in your own walk with the Lord, will produce numerical growth in the life of the local assembly. In addition, as church members are committed and grow in their ability to serve one another and to serve those that God has put across their path, the church grows organically.
Its ability to function as a body, and its ability to reproduce disciples of Jesus Christ. A spiritually healthy church will be growing as a biblical church. Again, to quote pastor teacher Ray Stedman, A healthy body is necessary to perform effective work. To attempt evangelism while the body of Christ is sick and afflicted is worse than useless.
It is not difficult to keep a body of Christians healthy and vital if the members of that body are diligent to bear one another’s burdens, confess their faults to one another, instruct one another, and admonish one another in love by means of the word of God. And as together, as members of this body, you work to maintain the health and the unity of this body, you will grow.
You will become what God intends. You will be partners with God and the work of his spirit to build a church together God’s way. My friends, it’s a new year. It’s a new opportunity to trust God for greater things. Jesus said to his disciples before he went to the cross and then on to glory, greater works than you have seen me do, you will do by the working of your spirit. What is the work that God has called this church to do in this coming year? in this community, in these environments, among the people that God has already, by his sovereign hand, placed around you, who desperately need to see and to hear the gospel in action. May God give you a renewed vision. And now with leadership in place, to be the body that he calls you to be.
And there’ll be adjustments. And there’ll be things that aren’t always ideal, but rest assured in this, that our God is a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. And God is committed to presenting His Church to His Son, perfect, spotless, blameless, full, and reflective of the glory of Christ. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word We thank you for that in which it reminds us, which is just so countercultural for us. But Lord, as we have experienced in the past and perhaps even in the present, Lord, the working of your spirit in our lives and the life of this body and being part of it, Lord, we pray for the coming year that all that you intend for this church to be, she will become. Because as individuals and as a body, We are open. We are listening. We’re willing to be led by your spirit and led by officers. We’re willing to serve and use the gifts that you’ve given to us.
We’ve made it our goal and our ambition to pursue Christ and to move on to maturity. and to allow you to determine the steps and the process along the way to bring glory to yourself. So Lord, we pray that as we come before you even now, that you might reveal to us as individuals even today what it is that you would have us do in this coming year to serve you more faithfully, that your kingdom might advance, that your church might grow, that all glory might go to Christ. And so it’s in His name we pray, amen. I invite you to turn in your hymnal, a way of response. Hymn number four, 16, Your Hand, O God, Has Guided. And let’s stand together as we sing. you.
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