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June 22/23, 2013
Aaron Davitch (South Campus) | Ephesians 4:7-16
But grace was given to each one 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 had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all 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 building up the body of Christ, 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, 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. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, 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.—Ephesians 4:7–16
Introduction
We are in the middle of a 3-part series on the purposes of the church. We have seen that every healthy church will stay focused on three areas: Up-reach—ministry to God in worship and prayer. In-reach—ministry to one another in nurture. Outreach—ministry to those outside the body of Christ in evangelism. The inter-relationship of these three must be kept in view at all times. That is, up-reach is the fuel of Outreach because worship is the fuel and goal of evangelism and missions—we want to spread a passion for God to all peoples. In-reach likewise fuels outreach because unless there is a growing passion and maturity in the body we will not spread one outside the body. Outreach is essential to the health of the body lest we become an ingrown church and disobey the Great Commission. And the goal of all Outreach and in-reach is up-reach in the praise of God’s great glory. So, though we distinguish between them, a biblical, healthy church must never separate them.
Last week Jeff Lacine reminded us of our up-reach ministry. This week we are looking at the in-reach ministry of the local church—the local church is be a place where the body of believers is built up and nurtured into Christlikeness.
The most fundamental identity marker of a Christian is that they are in Christ. . At the most basic level, this is the summary description of a Christian—namely that they have a Spirit-wrought, faith-union with Jesus Christ, in whom are all the blessings of salvation—righteousness, sanctification, and adoption. And that Adoption means not only that you now have God as your heavenly Father, but that you also have new brothers and sisters ,the family of God—the Church universal (the “Church” with a capital “C”) and the Church universal finds expression in local bodies of believers like Bethlehem. And so, we are not isolated individuals who are in Christ; we are united with other believers as the family of God. And just as membership in our nuclear family nurtures, shapes and forms us, so deep involvement in the family of God is the place where God intends to nurture, shape and form us into his image.
Probably the best text in the Bible on the nurture ministry in the local church and how it happens is Ephesians 4:7–16. This passage has some long sentences that make the flow of thought a bit tricky to follow. So, let me orient us to the text by doing a summary walk-through, and then, with God’s help, we will draw some observations and look at them together.
This passage begins with a picture of Christ as the victorious Liberator, who descended from heaven in his incarnation and death to rescue us from our captivity to sin, death and Satan, and who has now been raised from the dead and ascended to his heavenly throne, leading a host of captives in his triumphal procession, and giving gifts from the spoils of his victory to the Church. What are these gifts?
The gifts Christ gave in his ascent are defined by both verses 7 and 11:
In verse 7 as the grace given to each member of the body for the purpose of building up the body and in verse 11 as the ministry leaders gifted to equip the saints to carry out their ministry to the body.
And the purpose of the diverse gifts given to the body is, according to verse 12, for building up the body of Christ, which Paul elaborates on in verse 13 in three ways:
Then in verse 14, Paul restates the purpose of the gifts negatively: 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.
Finally, in verses 15–16. Paul rounds off this unit of thought with a summary statement of the goal: speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, 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.
This is a wonderfully dense paragraph on the nature and dynamics of ministry in the local church. We will not be able to look at everything in this text, but in our time together this morning I want to draw out three observations as we think about in-reach in the church:
I. The Call to Maturity
II. The Source of Maturity
III. The Means of Maturity
So the presupposition of this passage is that Christians are child-like and in need of maturing into adulthood. And that picture of the mature adult is nothing less than the full stature of the supremely mature man, Jesus Christ. Maturity is defined by him. Maturity has Christo-centric contours. God intends for all of his adopted children to look like their Elder Brother, Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 8:29). And if that is the measure of maturity, then yes, all of us are as spiritual children. And though in other places in Scripture childlikeness is held up in a commendable way, here Paul is using it to represent immaturity—to be lacking in theological discernment, and open to manipulation and deception. He writes in verse 14, “Then we will no longer be tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” The depiction of childlike immaturity here is as a small, rudderless boat, driven this way and that by the winds. By contrast, the mature Christian is stable, grounded in sound doctrine, grounded in the Gospel, growing up into Christlikeness. This is God’s goal for us. That is where the Church is heading. And exalted Christ has given the ministry leaders mentioned in verse 11, along with the ministry of all of the saints (vv. 12, 16) so that God’s people may reach this objective.
So the Lord’s goal for each of us is that we mature from childlike immaturity into Christlikeness. This is what theologians refer to as “progressive sanctification”: the often slow but sure, progressive growth of believers into the likeness of Christ. In other words, the path is slow, sometimes there are plateaus and setbacks, but overall there is movement, by God’s grace toward Christlikeness. And so don’t think in statics terms: like a still shot of Christlikeness is here, but we are way over here. Rather, think in dynamic terms. Are you pointed in the right direction? Is there even the slightest movement in the past year in this direction (toward Christlikeness)? Are you more stable and grounded in the gospel of our Lord?
(Sample evaluative questions: Are you growing in humility? More sensitive to the Spirit’s convicting work and quicker to repent? Are you more content in Christ? Are you becoming more mentally and emotionally stable, grounded in the gospel? More loving? Quicker to forgive others?)
These are good questions for each of us to ask, but what I’d like us to see is that Paul has in mind here not only individual Christian maturity. The accent in this passage falls on the corporate maturity of the body of Christ.
We see this in verse 13, where what the ESV translates as “mature manhood” is singular in Greek—something like “to the mature man.” It refers to the totality of believers. This is because there is a difference between an aggregation and a congregation. An aggregation is a loosely assembled group of individuals. There is nothing that really holds them all together, no pattern that makes them one. An aggregation would be a collection of individual Christians coming to the same place each week to worship God not so much together, but as families, or as private individuals who all happen to like the same church. The local body of Christ is not an “aggregation”; it is a congregation—there is a fundamental unity that we all share. In verses 4–6 of our chapter Paul emphasizes this “oneness” no less than seven times: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. In all the ways that eternally matter, we are one. Each local body expresses this oneness as they commit to one another in membership. And each of the diverse gifts is meant to serve this oneness so that together as a body we attain to a corporate Christlikeness. Paul seems to envision something like a corporate progressive sanctification. We ought to have as our desire to personally grow up in our salvation, and we ought to have as our aim the building up of other believers in the body and Bethlehem as a whole. Corporately, Bethlehem Baptist church, and this South campus are being formed into a corporate Christlikeness.
Paul makes it clear that this will only happen in community.
It is in the context of the community of the local church that Christ intends to conform us to his image. We need each other to attain to maturity. If I could adapt the African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child”, we could say that “it takes a church to make a disciple of Christ.” And it is only through the active involvement of every member that together we will move toward a corporate Christlikeness. Where am I getting this from our passage? Take a look at the life-giving source of this growth and where it flows in the body.
Christ is both the goal and He is the source of this growth. Verse 15–16 picture Christ as the head and the church as the body. The key phrase is at the beginning of verse 16, “from whom” the whole body grows. And it is from Christ that the body grows. He is the empowering and directing and energizing source of this growth.
But how does Christ carry out this work of growth in the body?
Specialized, Called Ministry Leaders
We see this in verse 11, Christ gave ministry leaders to the church. These are specially called leaders who are set apart to serve the body of Christ. But notice that according to verse 12 their role is not so much to do all the work of the ministry but rather to equip the members of the body to do the work of ministry.
Christ has designed the church so that this leadership structure would not become a top-down ministry hierarchy but be balanced with a healthy involvement of every member serving in some capacity and contributing to the growth of the body. Look at the emphasis on every member in this text. We see this in three places.
First, in verse 7, grace was given to “each one of us”; from the context it is clear that this grace is a grace to serve and build up the body.
Second, we see this in verse 12 where role of specially called ministry leaders is to “equip the saints fort he work of ministry.”
Third, we see it in verse 16 where it says the body of Christ grows as “each part” does its work.
This emphasis on the ministry of every member of God’s people is distinctly characteristic of the New Covenant people of God. This is why Paul begins this section with a reference to the Ascension of Christ in verse 8, “When he ascended on high…”
The ascension of Christ into heaven and his receiving from the father the promised Holy Spirit to be poured on the church at Pentecost (Acts 2:33) marks a huge transition in the history of redemption. In the Old Covenant God primarily related to his covenant people through three mediators: The Prophet, Priest and King. These were the ones anointed with oil, symbolizing appointment to office and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Through Kings, God governed and protected the people; through the prophets he brought his Word to them and called them back to covenant faithfulnesss, and the priests offered sacrifices for sins.
New Testament scholar D.A. Carson writes ...
Under the old covenant, God dealt with his people in what we might call a tribal fashion … the Scriptures picture God working with his people as a tribal grouping whose knowledge of God and whose relations with God were peculiarly dependent on specially endowed leaders. The Spirit of God was poured out, not on each believer, but distinctively on prophet, priest, king, and a few designated special leaders such as Bezalel.
It was the prophets, priests and kings who were the anointed ones, empowered by the Spirit to minister.
But the prophets foretold of a day when this tribal structure would change. The prophet Joel, for instance, prophesied that in the last days the Lord would pour out his Spirit on all of his people (Joel 2:28–32). This is exactly what happened when Jesus Ascended to heaven and 10 days later poured out the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:33, “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” Now in the New Covenant every believer has been anointed with the Holy Spirit and gifted to serve. This is what has been known in Protestant circles as the priesthood of all believers, and this is why we use terms like “every member ministry.” This is what Ephesians 4:7 is getting at when it says, “but grace has been given to each one of us” and the context makes it clear that the grace in mind is not saving grace, but grace to serve and build up the body.
So, the Church in the New Covenant era is neither a top-down, command and control institution that ministers to a passive audience, nor is it an unorganized, spontaneous movement without any structure or leadership. The ascended Christ has given ministry leaders specially called and equipped to lead the body, and Christ has poured out the new covenant gift of the Spirit on every member of the body so that they may be supernaturally empowered to build up the body. It is the role of the leadership to equip the saints to steward the gifts God has given them for the work of ministry. This means each of you have a role to play in the ministry that Jesus is carrying out in this congregation. The ascended Christ is the personal author of the gifts given to this body and those gifts were given not for your own private benefit alone, but for the common good. If we step outside of our text for a moment,
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.—1 Corinthians 12:4–7
To each of you is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good of this church. We cannot be all that we ought to be unless you steward that gift for the good of this body. I have a hunch that many of you have felt like I used to feel about my place of serving at Bethlehem. I used to think that because Bethlehem tends to attract strong, knowledgeable, committed believers that there really wasn’t much need for the gifts God has given me to offer the local body. Do you feel that way? Do you think that we’ve already got covered whatever you have to offer? Well, I can say on the authority of this text that it’s not true. Grace has been given to each of us (v. 7) and it is only as “each part is working properly” (v. 16) that the body grows and builds itself. In fact, I believe there are certain things that only you with your gift-mix, with your personality, gender, life experience, etc. in this body can do. Christ—the head of the church—has put you in this body to meet those very needs. There ought not to be any passive, unemployed Christians in the local church. The exalted Christ has anointed you and given you a gift for the common good of the church. So, I want to encourage you this morning not to be merely a consumer of ministry, but a producer of ministry. If you have been united to Christ by faith, you have been anointed and appointed by the Holy Spirit to serve and build up this body. Your gift is necessary to the body.
In an article on "Discerning Your Spiritual Gifts," pastor and author Tim Keller has a helpful word about how we can discern our spiritual gifts. He writes,
We can discern God’s calling when three factors come together for us: Affinity (What human needs do I “vibrate” to? What interests me? What are my passions?); Ability (What am I good at? What do people say I am effective in?); and Opportunity (What doors for service are open? What needs to be done?). When all three factors come together, you can see God has equipped and called you to do something or to move in a certain direction.
So I encourage you to find your place of ministry in this body; if you would like further help with that, ask your Shepherd group leaders, ask an elder or staff person. We would love to point you to opportunities and needs that resonate with the built-in passions and gifts God has given you to meet.
So growth in the body only comes from the head, Christ. He is the source and power of growth and he carries out his ministry of growing the body by giving ministry leaders who equip Spirit-anointed and gifted saints for the work of ministry.
Now, what is the means through which this Christ-empowered and directed, every-member ministry of growth happens? What is the primary thing we do to help another grow and mature? Paul answers this in verse 15: “Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head …” The primary means through which Christ by the Holy Spirit grows and builds the body people grow is through the truth being spoken in love.
Now, what is the content of this truth? It no doubt involves what Pastor Meyer has been calling us to in recent weeks, namely, having hard conversations in which we may need to gently show someone their sin or error. But I think Paul has in mind truth that is primarily doctrinal truth—truth about God and about his saving work through his Son. I think this is supported in three ways.
First, the context supports this since in verse 13 he has already stated that he wants us to grow in is unity in knowledge and of the Son of God so that we will not be swayed by all sorts of false teachings.
Second, the way Paul uses the word “truth” in Ephesians. In 1:13, Paul uses the phrase the “word of truth” to refer to the gospel.
Third, the “truth” is again used in 6:14 in the famous passage on the armor of God, where it is this Gospel truth which believers are to buckle around their waist to resist the onslaughts of the evil one.
The gospel is the ultimate message of truth being spoken in love. The gospel is what produces the church, and it is what builds the church. The message of Christ crucified for sinners speaks truth in love.
Truth—The gospel speaks a message that would be the most insulting message every spoken to you were it not true. It says that in yourself you were so lost and helpless that God himself had to come and rescue you. It says that there was nothing you could do to erase the infinite debt you owed to God because of your sin.
Love—But the gospel also speaks the greatest message of love ever spoken in the history of the world and that ever will be spoken. It says God so loved you he gave his one and only Son, that whoever would believe on him would not perish but have everlasting life. When Jesus went to the cross he was saying I love you so much that I will lay down my life for you. You are so valuable to me that I will leave heaven and humble myself and subject myself to the shame and pain of the cross so that you will be with me in paradise forever.
This message of truth in love—this gospel—both humbles us and establishes a firm foundation of confidence before our great and holy God. This message is what gave birth to the church, and this is the message that continually nurtures the church. This message of truth in love shapes a culture of humility where everyone is permitted to be weak and struggling because we are all sinners in need of the same Savior and the only hope of any one of us is salvation by grace, and yet, this gospel of God’s great love for us in Christ also creates a response of love and gratitude back to him that will not let us be content to remain where we are.
As we speak this message to each other in a multitude of ways—in informal conversations, and in our Shepherd Groups, and as we unpack the riches of this message and apply them through sermons and in Sunday School classes, we remind each other of who we are really are in Christ. It is from Christ, through this Gospel, spoken in love by every member of the body that Christ intends to build up the body into his own likeness.
I want to encourage you to get deeply involved in the life of the church, in the lives of each other—put yourself in places where you are hearing this message of truth spoken in love, and put yourself in places where you can speak this message to others so that we, Bethlehem Baptist Church, South Campus, might grow up in every way into him who is the head, 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.”