Church Life

to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter four is a chapter that you’re no doubt familiar with,
a section of scripture with which you’re likely very familiar,
but one in which we have not spent a lot of time. I preached
through the entire book of Ephesians back in 2001. We’ve tasted a
few of these chapters over the course of the history of the
church, but I wanted to go back as kind of an annual meeting
message, if you will. In my approximately 25 years
of pastoral ministry, I have observed that with regards to
the use of gifts and giftedness in the church, there are a couple
of tendencies that seem to repeat themselves. On the one end of
the spectrum there is often an attending pride associated
with one’s gifts, which leads to an overestimation of one’s
importance. And as unreasonable and absurd
as that sounds, I sense that we have all experienced that. We see it on an all too regular
occasion in the Christian ministry. Such attitudes and demeanors
really trouble the church, trouble it greatly, and they make it
less, not more effective. But on the other end of that
spectrum is an attitude that is equally destructive to the
church. I would suggest that there is
also an ashamed underestimation of one’s gifts from time to time,
and that leads to neglect. Because an individual values
one gift above another, and either they clearly do not possess a
gift that they would like to have, or the gift has not yet
emerged, or others have not yet affirmed that particular gift,
essentially they react by sulking, refusing to do anything that
they, because they cannot do what they want to do. The Apostle
Paul has an entirely different perspective on gifts and their
use. And I can safely expand that
statement to say that I believe that Scripture has an entirely
different perspective on the use of Christian gifts. These gifts are bestowed for
the use in what is in God’s eyes an estimation the greatest institution
on the face of the earth. the local church. Perhaps the
simplest definition of the church would be a gathering of those
who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the church. The
church is not a building. You’ve heard me say that many
times. It’s a gathering of Christians regularly and formally for the
purpose of glorifying God, edifying one another, and proclaiming
Christ to all that can hear them. In these local churches, believers
who have been given spiritual gifts to be used for God’s glory
in the church and in the world, here in the church, these gifted
believers serve. And may I gently remind that
when they serve, they don’t serve a building, and they don’t even
serve people primarily, believers, or unbelievers. They serve their
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul has a very different use,
a very different understanding of gifts and giftedness, and
I wanted to just consider a rather lengthy passage of Scripture,
Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. If you’re familiar with the
book of Ephesians, This is, as it were, the second half. Paul
gives three lengthy and intense chapters on doctrine, and then
he immediately moves to apply that in practical fashion. What do we do with it? What is
our response as believers to this great redemption that he
has described in the first three chapters? If you would, read
along with me, beginning in verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling
with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being
diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace. There is one body and one spirit,
just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over
all and through all and in all. But to each one of us, grace
was given 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. 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 he gave some as apostles
and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors
and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of
service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all
attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which
belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer
to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about
by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness
and deceitful scheming. Speaking the truth in love, we
are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even
Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together
by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working
of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the
building up of itself in love. Paul has a very different approach
with gifts, and Paul would not countenance the arrogant treatment
of one’s gifts if the individual considers them to be great gifts
in the eyes of others. Paul would not countenance either
the diminishing, the downplaying of one’s gifts, no matter how
obscure they appear to the rest of the world. We serve Christ. Paul would say. We ultimately
are in service to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We could easily
ask ourselves, what is our redemption worth? What is our response to
our redemption? That all takes place in the context
of the local church, Paul says. Our response to what Christ has
done for us by way of His death on the cross, the response to
that is all done in the context of the local church. It is God’s
most precious institution on the face of the earth. The church
is the gathering of believers. And I think in this passage,
we could safely break it up into looking at the different elements
of the church in its response to redemption, First of all,
I want to take you back to verse 1. The church is a gathering
of believers living to glorify their common Lord. We worship. Everything that we do is worship.
But when we come together, we come together for corporate worship
primarily. That is our main function. That is primarily what we do.
It is response to the great work of redemption that Christ has
already accomplished on the cross, and we do so as we come together
to bring Him the worship that is due. Look at verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, entreat you to walk worthy, walk in a manner worthy
of the calling with which you have been called. In the book
of Ephesians, A fascinating feature emerges in the latter half in
this practical section. Paul extensively uses the metaphor
of the Christian walk. It’s a metaphor that we’re familiar
with. And if you’re familiar with this epistle, Paul utilizes
the first three chapters to expound upon the great themes of Christian
doctrine. But then in the latter half of
the book, he waxes practical in the daily application of those
doctrines on our faith. How are we to live in light of
our redemption? For God, the Christian life is
always more than just right doctrine. Remember, as Jesus said, even
the demons believe and shudder. Right doctrine though, rightly
applied, leads to a God-pleasing life, which Paul refers to here
in these latter chapters as the walk, the Christian walk. And in using this metaphor, Paul
refers really to the whole course of the Christian life. It isn’t
just how we conduct ourselves at church, it’s how we carry
ourselves all week long. It’s one of Paul’s favorite metaphors.
He uses it no fewer than eight of his epistles. Listen to the
list. Romans 6, 4. Walk in newness
of life. 1 Corinthians 3, 3. Are you not
walking like mere men criticizing the Corinthians who had gone
back to essentially a heathen lifestyle? 2 Corinthians. We walk by faith, not by sight. Galatians 5, walk by the Spirit. Ephesians, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, that we may walk in them. Philippians
3.17, walk according to the pattern that you have in us. Follow our
example, Paul says. Colossians 2.6, walk in Him. We live in Christ, we live and
move and have our being in Christ. We walk in Him. And then 1 Thessalonians
2.12, walk in a manner of the God who calls you. The Christian
walk is a very familiar metaphor with Paul, isn’t it? Now, in
none of those passages is Paul speaking about a literal step-by-step
physical process of walking, right? It is, again, a metaphor
of the Christian course of life. And while the Christian walk
isn’t introduced here in chapter 4, as we actually saw it introduced
in chapter 2.2 and 2.10, it is an area of particular focus here
in chapters 4 and 5. In other words, it kind of takes
off here. Listen to this list. If you have your Bibles, just
glance down at these passages. We see it in verse 1 of chapter
4, walk worthy. Jump down to verse 17. In that
entire section through verse 24, Essentially, his admonition
is to walk with Christ. In chapter 5, verse 2, walk in
love. In chapter 5, verse 8, walk in
the light. In chapter 5, verse 15, walk
in wisdom. So his metaphor about the Christian
walk really is initiated and generated here. But he says walk
worthy. Walk worthy. We are to walk in
a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called.
We’ll come back to that in a moment. But even the whole element of
walking worthy, considering how we’re going about the course
of our Christian walk, is not a new thought. He says the same
thing to the Colossians, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
To the Thessalonians, as we just read, walk in a manner worthy
of the God who calls you. In other words, We are to esteem
either our calling or our Lord or the God who called us and
we are to walk accordingly. What a great motivation for pursuing
the Christian life. Here in Ephesians 4, walk in
a manner worthy of the calling with which you’ve been called.
Paul says that as Christians we’re to walk worthy and then
he immediately defines it. What does it look like to walk
worthy? Paul tells us, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another
in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the
bond of peace. These are the attitudes by which their walk
was to be marked, by which our walk is to be marked. Look at
them one by one briefly. All humility. True humility. is the only right and reasonable
response to our calling. To our redemption in Christ,
the only reasonable response is humility. We didn’t deserve
it. In fact, instead, we deserved none of God’s kindnesses. We
were lost, dead in sin, fully deserving of God’s righteous
wrath, and yet, simply because of his mercy. That’s all that
motivated him. That’s all that inclined Him
to move in our direction was mercy. It was nothing but God’s
abundant mercy. How then could we possibly be
proud? When we consider the movements
of God on our behalf, beginning in eternity past and culminating
in very practical grace that was shed upon us, not just forgiveness
but eternal salvation, what else could possibly be the response
but humility? An honest assessment. of our
spiritual standing should humble us, should prevent us from any
degree of overestimation of our importance, or our person, or
our usefulness. We should be humble. We should
be as far as we can from arrogance and conceit. But not only humility,
but gentleness. I would like to think of gentleness
as really the fruit of humility. Growing out of a humble heart.
This is the carriage, if you will, the demeanor of a humble
man in his interaction with others. He’s gentle. He’s a gentle man. He’s a gentle woman. She is a
gentle woman. This is the individual who possesses
what is called a meekness of spirit, as one described it This
is the individual who is not quick to take offense, not short-tempered,
not unwilling to peacefully endure outright mistreatment by others. Here is the person who has made
a careful study of Scripture and by God’s grace has applied
to be able to live out the wisdom of the proverb. A gentle answer
turns away wrath. As one described this quality,
it is that unresisting, uncomplaining disposition of mind, which enables
us to bear without irritation or resentment the faults and
injuries of others. It’s gentleness. And no wonder
there’s a third. These three fit together. You
almost can’t have the other two without this third. The list
would not be complete without this third patience. Humility,
gentleness, and patience. This third virtue of three is
the grace that allows a bothered or even an offended individual
to keep his anger in check for a long time. A long time. His patience graciously bears
with others. who may be either abrasive or
rude or unkind or inconsiderate or even unjust. The forbearance
that Paul talks about here, to use the old word, cannot possibly
be the equivalent of this modern idea of tolerance, simply putting
up with somebody, particularly if you consider
it in context of sin. tolerating other people’s sin
is not a virtue. The context is plain, as the
first two verses point out. This forbearance isn’t with sin
in our brothers and sisters’ lives. Rather, it is a godly
tenacity of oneness, an attitude that refuses to give up on a
relationship, refuses to give up on other people, It perseveres. It waits on God. It is patient. Here’s how this patience plays
out. Paul says, showing forbearance.
This is the practical exhibition of this patience. And instead
of some measure of retaliation, the godly individual walking
in Christ, walking as God would have him to walk, actively bears
with the rude treatment. especially by his brother. One
faithful pastor said it this way, there should be no acerbity
of temper, no sharp retort, no satirical reply, as it is the
second word which really begins strife, where mutual forbearance
is exercised, even the first angry word should never be spoken.
But he says, let it stop with you. If somebody says something
harsh, Let it stop there. Don’t reply in kind. That is
forbearance playing itself out. Then he adds this. Look back
at the passage. I entreat you to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all
humility and gentleness and patience, showing forbearance to one another
in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace.” That’s a fascinating passage. That’s a fascinating
statement. Here is another Christian commitment. to preserve, not to create, notice,
to preserve what the Holy Spirit himself has created in the fellowship. Unity. All we can do is mess
it up. The Holy Spirit has bestowed
upon the church a divine peace which can either be cultivated
and maintained. Or it can be troubled and diminished
and even destroyed. This God-given peace must be
guarded and protected with the greatest urgency and care. One pastor said peace is that
tranquility which ought to reign in the church when believers
universally and mutually recognize the image of Christ in one another. and loving one another instinctively
in spite of their differences, they feel themselves composing
the one church of Christ. It’s living out the command.
Having described the Christian walk, that’s the Christian walk. Humble, gentle, patient, Having
described that, now Paul moves to provide some motivation. Look
at verse 4. Having described the Christian
walk, now what he wants to do is provide powerful motives for
maintaining this walk. And I would submit to you that
if he only gave one of the seven, it would be enough. But he gives
us seven powerful motivations to maintaining unity in the fellowship
of Christ’s people. Look at verse 4. There is one
body. The body here referred to is, without a doubt, Christ’s
body. It’s the church of which Christ
is the head. There is one body of Christ in
which believers are to walk and function in peace. What motivation. And there is one body and one
spirit. The spirit here can be no other
than the Holy Spirit of God indwelling each believer. One described it in these terms,
there are not two rival communities. The body with its many members
and complex array of organs of very different position, functions,
and honor is yet one. The church, no matter where it
is situated, in what age of the world it exists, no matter what
race, blood, or color its members, or how various the tongues in
which its services are presented, it is one and remains so unaffected
by distance or time, physical or intellectual or social distinctions. The one Spirit of God dwells
in the one church. Whatever the gifts and graces
conferred, whatever variety of aspects they assume, all possess
a delicate self-adaptation to times and circumstances, for
they are all called by the one Spirit. See, we tend to do things
completely off. We tend to find differences and
play those up in order to find a reason to separate. What a
motivation. There’s another, there’s a third.
Just as you were called in one hope of your calling. The hope
in the Bible, hope in Scripture is biblical hope. It’s not wishful
thinking. That’s worldly hope. Biblical
hope is a settled confidence in eventual good. A settled confidence
that God is going to bring about His promises. And the calling
here that he talks about is the call to salvation and to a call
to the hope of eternal life. It is another of these seven
areas of common ground for believers that are motivation to walk in
peace. Verse 5 gives us three more.
One Lord. One Lord, their common beloved
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the reason that we want
to pursue peace. He’s the head of the body, the
church, one Lord, one faith. It’s a self-emptying faith. It’s
a faith that’s common to everyone in the room who have placed their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s saving faith. It’s an acknowledgment
that we didn’t have it on our own, that we had to look outside
of ourselves and call up to God to place our trust completely
in Him. It’s a common faith. It’s a justifying
faith. It’s a saving faith. One Lord,
one faith, one baptism. Baptism yet another of the commonalities
of believers. They’ve all proclaimed Christ
by testifying of Him in their submission to the rite of baptism. What a privilege. And then he
rounds it out. Where else could he end? With
God. One God and Father of all who
is over all and through all and in all. See, Christians, he says,
serve one God. It’s not like we have a great
diversity of sovereigns. What a powerful motivation Paul
provides here to the Christian to walk in a manner as Christ
would have us to walk, these seven elementals. From beginning
to end, any one of them carefully considered would be more than
adequate incentive, wouldn’t it, to draw on God’s grace? Any one of those, if we pondered
a skirmish with our brother or sister in Christ, any one of
those, we would look to them, would motivate us to work out
our problems and differences, cultivate peace, maintain the
peace in the body. to live as God would have us
to live, to walk as he would have us to walk. There’s another
element that I want to consider this morning. It begins in verse
seven. The church is a gathering believers. We’ve seen that. A gathering
believers living to glorify their common Lord, first and foremost,
but secondly, gifted to serve the body of Christ. gifted to
serve the body of Christ. Look at verse 7. But, and that
but is in contrast to the unity that he’s just admonished all
believers to maintain. But, in the midst of that unity,
there is going to be some diversity. It’s God-given, watch. But, to
each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s
gift. See, there’s a striking transition
here. From the thought articulated in the first seven verses, that
of unity, to the subject which begins this verse, which is essentially
individuality. The two things in God’s kingdom
are not incompatible. The church, after all, is a gathering,
a gathering of individuals who have already both physical and
spiritual differences, And that individuality comes into focus
beginning here in verse 7. Look at this. To each one of
us. See, I’ve heard this many times.
Oh, pastor, I just don’t think I have any spiritual gifts. Yes,
you do. Yes, you do. You may not have
discovered them yet. They may not be as big and as
grandiose and as obvious to other people. You have, if you are
in Christ, if you have placed your faith in Christ, you are
a gifted saint, a gifted child of God. That’s what this passage
says, to each one of us. The identity of the recipients
of God’s grace here is general and comprehensive. It’s all-encompassing. Every believer is granted what
I would call a gift package because most often it isn’t just one
gift that people possess. It’s an ability and it’s an ability
to function within their personality, within their sphere. It’s an
ability to grow into their Christianity and to flush out new areas of
service to Christ that only they can accomplish. It’s a gift package,
not one particular single gift. Every believer is granted a gift
package by the Lord. And you know what? Peter said
it the exact same way. 1 Peter 4.10, as each one has
received what he calls a special gift. As each one has received
a special gift, employ it. Put it to use in serving one
another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. We’ll
come back to that thought in a minute. The bottom line here
is in God’s distribution of gifts, no Christian is ever overlooked. Isn’t that amazing? No Christian.
No matter how obscure, no matter how they came to Christ or how
sordid their life was before they came to Christ, no Christian
is ever overlooked. No one comes away empty-handed.
Everyone, by God’s grace, are at once made useful to God and
to His kingdom. Look at the passage. To each
one of us, grace was given. Now, you could back away. You’re not completely off base
to say we have all received grace. We know that we have received
grace. Our salvation is by grace. But here, in this particular
passage, he’s using grace in a very different way. Grace always
and ever points to the undeserved nature of a gift. We didn’t deserve
this gift either, just like we didn’t deserve our salvation.
But this particular use of the word grace in this particular
verse points to a gift, a spiritual gift package, which is entirely
the result of God’s beneficent grace. He gives in spite of the
fact that we didn’t deserve it. This spiritual gift is not simply
natural, what we would call God-given talent, hand-eye coordination
and the rest of those things, good looks, whatever. As we just
heard Peter describe them, they are special gifts. Special gifts. And you don’t have to drive yourself
crazy to go looking for it. Just begin to live out your Christian
life and you’re going to blossom like a spring flower. Look at
verse 7 again. Why do I say, that the gift packages
differ? Look at the passage, but to each
one of us, every single Christian, grace was given a gift package
according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Let’s think about that
for a minute. Everyone, this verse says, receives
a gift, a gift package, as I’ve suggested, a bundle of gifts
with which to serve the church, but note here There is an inbuilt
diversity. There is the sovereignty of God
here. There is a difference in what
one person receives in comparison with his brothers in Christ.
And I would even suggest to you that no two people are the same. No two Christians are the same.
No two gift packages are identical because they reside in a personality. They reside in an individual. There’s an inbuilt diversity.
There’s sovereignty. And it’s all according to God’s
gracious and sovereign choice of who gets what. It’s very liberating,
isn’t it? You don’t have to be held to
another individual’s standards of what they have accomplished
or done in Christ. Diversity of gifts, Paul addressed
the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12. Listen, if you would. 1 Corinthians
12 verse 4. Listen to this. There are varieties
of gifts but the same Spirit. We all know that the Holy Spirit
has taken up residence within us by God’s grace and in that
He has gifted us. There are varieties of gifts
but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministry
and the same Lord to each one of us. God has given the manifestation
of the Spirit for the common good. If you have gift and if
you are in Christ I’ve already told you you do if you have a
gift it’s given for the church for the manifestation of the spirit for the common
good in fact Paul goes on and he lists a whole grocery list
of different gifts but in verse 11 he comes back to this thought
and he says but one in the same spirit works all these things
distributing to one individually just as He wills. It’s God’s
sovereignty. Your gift package is unique and
to yourself. The way that you function in
the church is unique and it’s a blessing of God for His glory. God decides and distributes. Can we complain? Can we lament
that we didn’t receive such and such a gift and so we’re not
going to serve at all? It’s a gift. And if we think
of it that way, that means that there will be diversity of gifts
in the particular gift. Some have this gift and some
don’t. There will be diversity in the measure of gifts. Some
have all kinds of gifts. They have a grocery lift, a long
list of ways that they can and are enabled to serve the Lord.
And then there’s the diversity in the blend of gifts. Some are
good in several things. Some are good in some of those
things, but not others. What a beautiful thing. What
a beautiful thing this diversity is in the church. You see, look,
at the end of the day, you have what God gave you. And that can
never be a bad thing, right? Paul also addressed the diversity
of gifts in Romans chapter 12. Again, just listen. Romans 12
verse 4, if you’re writing it down. For as we have many members
in one body, and all the members do not have the same function,
so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members
of one another, and since we have gifts that differ. He doesn’t
build the case. He takes it as a logical axiom. We have gifts that differ. Since
we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let
each exercise them accordingly.” Don’t worry about trying to exercise
a gift that you see someone else possesses. If you don’t possess
it, exercise fully the gift that you know that God has given to
you. What I’ve told many young men many times, just get in motion.
Get in motion. Do something and God will steer. If you do nothing at all, you’ll
never know. You’ll never know. So spiritual gifts are sovereignly
distributed. They aren’t doled out indiscriminately,
carelessly by God, nor are they given an eye to fairness according
to human standard. They are distributed according
to God’s sovereign grace. It isn’t the same for all. It
isn’t a matter of fairness. It fits together as God’s sovereign
design. Remember that verse in Peter
that we read a moment ago? As each one has received a special
gift, employ it. Use it. Get busy, he says, in
serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Paul was gifted in many amazing
ways. And Paul on several occasions
referred to a stewardship of God’s gifts when he refers to
it as having been entrusted. Paul treats it like that. How
do we treat it? How do we consider the gifts?
Do we consider it a sacred trust? Do we consider it a privilege
to serve? That even if it isn’t perhaps
the most grandiose gift of all, Do we take it as an opportunity,
a privilege, to respond back to God and give back to Him what
is His due in the exercise, the use of this God-given gift? Look
at verse 8. You say, when did this all take
place, all these giving of gifts? It’s an amazing passage, what
he uses here. It’s Psalm 68, verse 18. In Psalm
68, He says, you have ascended on
high, you’ve led captive your captives, you have received gifts
among men. In verses 8 through 10 here,
what Paul does, he just looks back into the Old Testament and
says, look, Christ is the conqueror of a mighty kingdom. And in the
image here in Psalm 68, it’s the image of the captives of
Israel. Well, they would go in, the scene is of a conquering
king who would go in, And as he marched back into town, he
had in tow the captives and everything that they owned. It was a sign
of victory. And what he would do is the king
would march in and he would dole out all these treasures to the
people of the nation. And so there is in Psalm 68,
it’s attributed to the scene of God Almighty. But as quoted
here in Ephesians, it attributes the scene to the conquering Savior. He has ascended on high, and
what he does is take these gifts and distribute them to all of
his people. You see, the church is a gathering
of people who are gifted to serve the body of Christ. That’s why
we’re here. That’s why Christ left us here. And so the church,
as we’ve already seen, if you want to look at that simple definition
of the church, the church is a gathering believers living
to glorify their common Lord, gifted to serve the body of Christ. But thirdly, beginning in verse
11, equipped. They are equipped to grow personally
and corporately. Look at verse 11. And he gave
some as apostles and some as prophets. and some as evangelists
and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints
for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ
until we all attained of the unity of faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ. He gave. He gave gifts. And now he begins to focus on
just a number of different offices that are also considered as gifts,
gifts given by the Savior to his church. Look at the first,
the apostles. He gave the apostles. The apostles
were the first in rank. They were the immediate messengers
of the Lord. Their job, their task, their
mission was to bear witness of Christ, bear witness to his miracles,
his gospel, his resurrection. And it wasn’t only the 12 as
we remember them, minus Judas, but also it would include such
men as Barnabas and Paul and James and Silvanus. Those men
who had seen the risen Lord, they were especially called by
God. They had been given authenticating
signs to testify of their ministry in the preaching of the gospel.
Listen to just two verses that tell about other apostles. We tend to think of just that
isolated 11. Acts 14, when the apostles Barnabas and Paul, well
they weren’t on the original list, When the apostles Barnabas
and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes, rushed out in the
crowd. Romans 16, 17 mentions others. Greet Andronicus and
Junius, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners who are outstanding
among the apostles. You see, there are a number of
these men who were the foundation of the church. He mentions another
group, prophets. These were the occasional spokesmen
of God who, having been sent by Him bore His message to the
people. They were spokesmen for God.
They were divinely inspired. They spoke by the influence and
the impulse of the Spirit of God. They didn’t bring their
own message. They didn’t run with their own story. They were
God’s servants and they brought His message. And I think we can
reasonably place such men as John the Baptist and Paul and
Peter and Stephen and others who served in this capacity.
not only apostles and prophets, but evangelists. What a neat
list this is becoming, isn’t it? I think it’s best to think
of this category as itinerant preachers who are given more
to the preaching of the gospel than they were to formal, ongoing
pastoral ministry. They went from place to place,
from town to town, from city to city, and they went about
preaching the gospel, securing converts, And they were all moved by the
Spirit’s guidance, primarily for the salvation of souls. That
didn’t mean they didn’t ever disciple anyone. And then there’s
this other list. Apostles, prophets, evangelists,
pastors and teachers. And I would say that this is
the only one that remains to our day, is this office. And I think that it’s one office.
I’ll tell you why in a moment. If you know me for 10 minutes,
You know my position on this, that this is the only place in
all the Bible where this Greek word gets translated as pastor. And I think it trips us up. The
word means, and I think it should be translated even here as shepherd. That’s what he is. That’s the
office. That’s how he functions. The
image of a shepherd should not be lost here. It’s a regular
illustration in the scriptures. not only of Christ, but even
of those who serve in this capacity. Certainly one of the most beautiful
passages in scripture is Psalm 23, a flock committed to God’s
care, tending, feeding by means of the word. Paul says that there are men
in the church that are called, they are given the mandate to
shepherd the church. Acts 20, be on guard for yourselves
and for all the flock. Remember Paul meeting with the
elders from Ephesus, and he says, shepherd the church of God. That’s
why you’ve been called. God made you overseers to shepherd
the church of God. Peter said the same exact thing.
To the elders of the church, 1 Peter 5, to shepherd the flock
of God among you. What is shepherding? It’s protecting
the sheep. It’s feeding the sheep, it’s
praying for the sheep, it’s counseling, it’s leading them, it’s covering
them, it’s caring for them, it’s loving them. That’s the shepherding
function of the church. As one pastor said, in one word,
it was their duty to promote to the utmost of their ability
and by every means within their reach, the spiritual good of
all of those committed to their care. These are those who after
the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists have laid
the groundwork, these are the ones that do the perpetual ministry
of the local church until Christ’s return. And instead of sharply
dividing, as I suggested, these two descriptions, pastors and
teachers, I would suggest to you that they are describing
the one main perpetual office in the church. These are those
who labor in the word, they nourish their local flock And while they’re
not to make two offices out of them, there are differences,
different descriptives. We’ve seen the description of
a shepherd, one that cares and watches over his flock. But teacher,
teacher has a little bit different. And pastors and teachers, shepherds
are going to look different from man to man. Teacher indicates
the other gift that’s needed in the sustenance and the progress,
the growth of the local church. This is the nourishing function
of shepherding. And as I already indicated, we’re
called to this. This is part of the mandate of
the flock is that the shepherds are to teach and to carefully
watch over the flock. One of the prerequisites, Characteristics
of an elder is that he must be able to teach. See, elders have
both gifts, but it’s only reasonable to understand that these gifts
will vary in measure, and it’s only logical that they function
according to their giftedness. And so we pause, and we ask,
why did God give all of these gifts? I’m going to close here in just
a moment, but I want to leave you with this. He gives us the
reason. He gave, verse 11, some as apostles,
some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors
and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of
service, to the building up of the body of Christ. until we
all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the
Son of God. We’ll come back next Lord’s Day. Let me take you just a little
bit further to where we’re going. Look all the way down, if you
would, to verse 14. Paul gives a reason why we’re
to have all these gifts. He doesn’t want us to end in
a shipwreck. Look all the way down to verse
15. He doesn’t want us in a shipwreck,
but he says we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is
the head, even Christ. We’re to be mature Christians
from whom the whole body causes the growth of the body. I didn’t
misread it there. That’s how the sentence breaks
out. We are to grow up into all aspects
into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body
causes the growth of the body. Now let me fill that in. from
whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which
every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each
individual part, causes the growth of the body. In other words,
what he says is that we are all being worked together. Every
single child of God, every single saint who, by the way, has been
gifted sovereignly gifted by our loving God, every single
individual is being fitted and held together by that which every
joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual
part. In other words, what Paul says is, if one part or portion
or a number of people begin to falter or they’re not functioning
according to their God-given calling, then The church is not
and will not be what it’s called to be. I don’t know at what point the
annual meeting starts. You might even put a flag right
here. Currently, I shared with the men, we are not just a Sunday
only church. We have become, we have contracted
into a Sunday morning only church. And I want to tell you, I want
to encourage you, if you walked into this church anywhere between
the last three or four years, you might even say that this
is what the church has always, it hasn’t always been this way.
Some years ago, several years ago, we had a lot of stuff going
on. Historically, the church has
offered all kinds of different training. One time, five different
life groups in the city. We had the institute running,
24 men regularly coming to train. It hasn’t always been the way
it is now, but the bottom line is it can’t remain this way.
It can’t remain this way. We have to grow. We have to grow. God’s word says it. I would suggest
that this is a season in our church. And I might even suggest
and defend it that it’s been a necessary season. We had a
great season of departure. The Lord himself winnowed us.
There’s just no way around it. We lost 30 families in three
years. And I don’t think we have to pretend that that didn’t happen.
And if you walked in and you saw what was left of the church,
you saw a church that was just hurting. And so if you walked
with us for the last several years, we thank you for your
patience. but we don’t intend to stay here. It hasn’t always been this way,
it’s a season. With regards to training, with the men’s encouragement,
currently we are utilizing the trainings in Greeley to augment
and to help, but that can’t ever be enough. I’ve told the men
that if that ever is even seemingly in the way of what we’re doing
here, we’ll be done with that and we’ll bring the institute
back here. I mean, can we really expect
to get our entire fill of teaching and training and discipleship
and fellowship one day of the week? Whether you’ve been here for
10 years or you walked in a couple of years ago and you found a
hurting church, you did not quite know what was going on, The bottom
line, it’s time. It’s time. Things have to change. We have
to grow. And whether we add in Wednesday
nights, a dynamic time that’s multifaceted, a time where we
can have Bible study and things for the kids, a time of prayer,
even a prayer group regularly functioning, it’s time. Men,
whether we want to have an occasional breakfast, quarterly, what have
you, every other month, and I’ll tell you that if you want to
meet with me, I will meet with you anytime throughout the week.
I have what I call an arsenal of things that I would be very
comfortable teaching, but if you wanted to study a book together,
Give me the name of the book. If it’s profitable and helpful,
I would love to meet with you. If it’s a family, if it’s a group
of families, if it’s a group of young people, men, whatever. But just as we just read and
we just studied, much of the church’s ministry has to come
from the saints. God has equipped us to equip
you. We need elders. We need deacons. We need teachers. We need outreach. Outreach is as simple as inviting
your neighbor to come to church or the people that pour the coffee
at the coffee shop or whoever. Outreach, reaching beyond our
own walls and caring for those that are outside of the church
and outside of Christ. We need those who would serve
in all kinds of varied capacities. Formal evangelism and informal
evangelism. We need teaching. We need counseling. Very difficult for me to counsel
other women. We need prayer. We need PR. There’s nothing wrong. There’s
nothing to be afraid of with PR. PR is just going out and
cultivating a good face of the church in the society. We need
that. You have a building. You have a sphere of operation
from which to work. The sky is the limit. We’ll come
back to Ephesians 4 next Lord’s Day, and I want to look at the
latter half of this passage, verses 12 through 16. I think
the saints will be profited by it. Let’s pray for God’s help.
Our merciful King, we humble ourselves before you and we rejoice
that we have not just a place, but we have a people. a people
with whom to walk, that we are the church, that we walk in fellowship
with like-minded believers. And Lord, on top of that, to
be reminded that every last one of us, from the newest Christian
to the most seasoned saint, every single one of us has been gifted.
And Lord, we got a forecast of these latter verses that we’ve
been gifted for a purpose. We have been gifted to serve.
We have been gifted to roll up our sleeves, call down on God’s
grace, and to serve His people and our Savior for the glory
of God. What a great privilege we have.
What a great privilege. We pray for your grace to be
found faithful. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.