Ephesians 4 (part 1)

Bethlehem Bible Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Certainly, every Christian wants to obey the Lord Jesus. They'd like to live a holy life.

00:10

But is it possible? Well, the question would be, why should we even obey?

00:16

Sadly, we live in a transactional world. If you do this, I will do that. And it sneaks into our life before our triune

00:25

God. If I do this, God will love me more. If I read my

00:31

Bible, God will be happy with me. If I obey, if I have a ministry, if I pray, if I'm a good

00:41

Christian, God will keep loving me. Is that the right way to think? Jerry Bridges said, to the degree that we live with an abiding sense of His love for us in Christ, to that degree we will love

00:55

God with all our heart and soul and mind. You see, for the Christian, we don't relate to God transactionally.

01:03

If we do this, God will do that. We relate to Him a different way, and we'll find out that way today.

01:10

Turn your Bibles, please, to Ephesians chapter 4, a great New Testament epistle or letter,

01:16

Ephesians chapter 4. We are saved by grace and grace alone, and we live by grace and by grace alone.

01:25

Paul will not let us forget that. We certainly have an action responding to God, but it's not a transaction.

01:32

It's not if God does this, if I do this, God will do that. It's what has God done and how must

01:38

I respond. We come to the book of Ephesians, and as you know, we've been going through it half a chapter a week.

01:47

And so we are up to chapter 4. We're going to cover today chapter 4, verses 1 through 16.

01:53

I don't know how we'll do it, but there's no football games on. I have all day.

01:59

It's the Lord's day. I try to preach, by the way, around 45, 48 minutes, something like that.

02:06

In the old days, you thought you were really cool if you could preach 60 minutes, 80 minutes, something like that, but I think right about 45, 50 minutes, we can give you at least an overview of this passage so that you say, do you know what?

02:18

I understand it better. The next time I read it, I think I can grasp it better. And I maybe want to study a little bit more because I wish

02:25

Mike would have talked a little bit more about that particular passage. Today we're going to talk about the response to God's sanctifying work.

02:33

Technically speaking, God alone is the sanctifier. We don't sanctify ourselves. We don't co -sanctify, but God sanctifies by grace, supernaturally, sovereignly, and we respond.

02:44

That's the action. The direction is going, God is sanctifying us, teaching us to say no to sin, teaching us to say yes to righteousness, and then we respond.

02:53

And we're coming to that hinge point in Ephesians where I think for 56 verses, there hasn't been any commands except for one.

03:00

And now, what does God require from us as a response to his great triune love?

03:07

And you see it in chapter 4, 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.

03:18

That's one of those great therefores that you see in lots of places in the Bible, especially in Romans and Ephesians.

03:25

Remember chapter 1? Can you imagine? God in eternity past chose you.

03:31

He didn't have to choose you, but he chose you. Can you believe that, Christian? That's amazing. He actually sent his son, the sinless one, to go die for you.

03:41

The death that we should have died, Jesus died for you. To make sure that you couldn't mess it up, he gives you the spirit of God to keep you to the day of your salvation.

03:51

And then all of a sudden, Paul responds with, this has to be grace.

03:58

It has to be with kindness. It has to be with love. It has to be with a sovereign initiative.

04:04

And since God has done all that for you, the transaction isn't, God, I think I'll do this so you keep loving me.

04:10

No, God has loved you. How do we respond? There is a response to grace.

04:17

It's motivated by grace, yes, but there is a response. And here we have really the missing link.

04:23

We have doctrine in the first three chapters, and now we have duty, right? You've heard this before.

04:28

There's a creed of what we believe. Now there's conduct. There's a, let's see,

04:34

I have to throw in Latin every once in a while. There's a credenda, what we believe, and then an agenda, what we do.

04:40

And now we're coming to that response to the great grace of God. Truth has consequences.

04:47

And one of the great things about doing this two sermons, a chapter, is we're not going to forget about who the

04:54

Lord is, so we don't think Christianity is simply law, simply conduct, what we have to do.

05:01

Chapter four, don't lie, tell the truth, work hard, don't steal, don't be bitter, forgive.

05:07

Those are true, but that's not the essence of Christianity. The essence of Christianity is

05:12

Christ Jesus himself, and we want to respond with obedience.

05:20

Remember the song? Here would be a good description of Ephesians 1 to 3 and then 4 to 6.

05:25

This lyric, love so amazing, so divine, that's Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, demands my soul, do you guys know hymns?

05:37

My soul, my life, my all. If God has done this, how do

05:43

I respond? I'm so guilty, I've been so graced, I want to respond with gratitude and thanksgiving and obedience.

05:52

One man wrote, many how -to books are published for Christians today. Christians rightly want to know how to honor

05:59

God with their lives. Many times, however, these how -to books for the Christian life fail to appreciate that how we live the

06:08

Christian life flows out of how we think about Jesus Christ and the great salvation he has won by his life, death, and resurrection.

06:18

And when Ian Hamilton wrote that in the last 10 years, it was nothing new because this is the doctrine of scripture.

06:26

So for our outline today in Ephesians 4, 1 to 16, let me give you three questions designed to motivate you to respond to God's great grace with thankfulness and gratitude and obedience.

06:39

Three questions. I'll give you the three questions up front. Since God has called you by grace, how should you respond?

06:47

Number two, since God has united the church at his own expense, how should you respond?

06:53

And question three, since God has gifted the church and equipped it, how should you respond?

07:02

Three reminders in the form of questions. So let's go to number one, the first question found in verses one and two.

07:08

Since God called you, dear Christian, by grace and love, first three chapters, how should you respond?

07:14

Now let's take a look at verse one to set the context and set the table. I therefore, Ephesians 4, 1, a prisoner for the

07:21

Lord, probably in Rome, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

07:31

The first thing Paul says here in chapter four in this kind of hinge going from doctrine to duty is, and I've done this many times and you're probably tired of me doing it, but if there are scales here that you would weigh things on, chapters one, two, and three, there's a lot of heavy things there, wonderful things, gravitas, doctrine, glory of God, the heavy weight of the glory of God is on this side of the scale.

07:56

And now by the Spirit's power, we begin to live out the Christian life and our desire is to have our doctrine match up to our duty.

08:04

It will never be true perfectly until glory, but it's our desire to balance out the scale of our lives by the

08:12

Spirit's power. He's urging you to go past doctrine. It's not enough to just think rightly about the triune

08:19

God. It is mandatory, but there's something more. You can know all about the Lord and then just know all about the

08:26

Lord. Matter of fact, did you know in Ephesians, I think there are 20 times the word

08:33

Lord used in verses, in chapters four, five, and six, and only six times it's used in the first three chapters.

08:39

In other words, you think about Christ when it comes to doctrine, in Paul's thinking here, and Lord when it comes to ethics.

08:47

If Jesus is your Lord, then you want to respond with obedience. Certainly not sheer brute force or willpower only.

08:57

And he wants you to conduct yourselves, Philippians 1, in a manner worthy of the gospel. You ever see somebody that doesn't know how to match their clothes?

09:05

They kind of have the color clash. Maybe some of you are here today or maybe I'm here today. Remember back in the old days, you had granimals.

09:14

Remember a granimal? I mean, if a mom didn't know how to match an infant's top and bottom, they could look at the granimal and it saw this animal and you mix the two animals together and it worked.

09:25

I thought if a mom doesn't know how to match a kid's clothes, I don't know what that's going to say about her husband, but that's another story.

09:31

Colors that clash, I mean, you can't wear that. You can't wear certain things like that. And it's almost like for a

09:37

Christian, what he wears or what she wears in terms of gospel obedience, it clashes when it doesn't flow out of grace and respond to what the

09:47

Lord has done. Did you notice in chapter 4, how many times do you see the word call or called in verse 1?

09:58

Of the calling to which you've been called. Verse 4, that belongs to your call.

10:07

Here's the point. God calls people to believe. We would call that a general call.

10:12

If you're not a believer here today, here's a general call. I give you a sincere offer from God Himself that if you'll simply trust in the

10:20

Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, and believe that He died for your sins and was raised from the dead, you shall be saved.

10:27

Now, some people say no to that call, but there's another kind of call, what Paul is talking about here. It's called the effectual call, the internal call.

10:35

When the Spirit of God takes the words from a preacher and says you must believe and then makes you alive, you believe.

10:42

You were called. This is not like being a pastor is my calling. This is somebody preached the word to me and the

10:49

Spirit of God regenerated me through that preaching and He called me. That's what he's talking about here.

10:55

And the calling is God's work and God's alone. This gracious act of God that He changes powerfully from the inside.

11:04

Here's the point. If God so called you, dear Christian, and changed you and did everything for you, how do you respond?

11:12

Answer, pridefully. Answer, I got it going on.

11:18

Answer, I'm better than you. No, no, if we are the recipients of salvation, the divine call, that puts us all on the same playing field, and how do we respond?

11:28

That's question number one. How do we respond, verse 2? With all humility. Doesn't that make sense?

11:34

This is kind of, any person who had any thinking would say, if I just contribute sin, if I just am supposed to go to hell, and God calls me and quickens me and makes me alive,

11:45

I think I should be the most humble person on the planet. Now you're thinking rightly. With all humility.

11:53

Lowliness. I mean, the world is self -esteem, self -aggregation, forget it, self -assertion.

12:04

I mean, Augustine, when he was asked, Augustine, when asked, what's the chief Christian grace, he said, humilitas, humilitas, humilitas.

12:13

If God so did all the saving, God alone, monergistically, it was done to us, and how do we respond?

12:20

With humility. Stott says, pride lurks behind all discord, while the greatest single secret of concord is humility.

12:35

One man said, humility is something we should constantly pray for, yet never thank God that we have. I don't mind being treated like a servant, says humility.

12:48

I don't have to thrive off of other people's praise, says humility. I don't have to be recognized for my behind -the -scenes ministry, says humility.

12:58

There's no ministry below me, says humility. I'm content with the gifts God has given me, says humility.

13:05

George Washington Carver was a scientist. Remember what he was famous for studying? A peanut, yes.

13:12

Here's what he said in his biography. When I was young, I said to God, God, tell me the mystery of the universe.

13:19

God didn't say anything out loud, but this is how he recounts it. God said, that knowledge is reserved for me alone.

13:25

So I, George Washington Carver, said, God, please tell me the mystery of the peanut. Then God said, well,

13:32

George, that's more nearly your size. No wonder

13:39

Paul writes elsewhere, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each one of you regard one another as more important than himself.

13:47

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

13:55

Have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

14:04

But he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient.

14:16

Well, not only that, if God did all the calling, how do we respond? Not with just humility, but what does Paul say in gentleness?

14:23

Not harshness or rudeness. Proverbs 16 says, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who captures a city.

14:36

This harsh kind of bravado is opposite of the Lord Jesus, who was gentle and lowly, who had self -control.

14:46

Well, not only that, Paul goes on. God did everything for us. How do we respond?

14:51

With humility and gentleness and also, what? Patience. Long -tempered.

14:58

Takes a long time. It should take a long time for somebody to rile you up and make you want to pay back and fight.

15:08

We know this, dear Christians, do we not? That we are prone very much so to disappoint one another, sin against one another, fail each other.

15:17

Think about that in marriage. You think about that in body life. And so he says, I just want you to put up with difficult people.

15:26

Remember, God saved you. God did all the work. What do you get? How do you respond? Love, 1

15:32

Corinthians 15, does not take into an account a wrong suffered. How long is your list of your spouse's complaints?

15:42

Well, understanding doctrine, we should just say, you know, that's not how we should act. You see what he says in verse 2?

15:48

God did all the calling. God did all the saving. Bearing with one another in love.

15:53

I mean, all this doctrine about unconditional election and redemption and forgiveness and sealing and bringing the church together by the blood of Christ.

16:03

God sending Paul the apostle to tell us the mysteries of the gospel and to preach to the

16:08

Gentiles. How should that make us respond? I mean, as I say these things about humility, don't you think of Jesus?

16:15

I do. Gentleness, I think of the Lord Jesus. Bearing with one another in love. That's how we're to respond.

16:22

You know the old slogan, to dwell above with saints we love. Oh, that will be glory.

16:29

But to live below with saints we know? Well, that's another story. In a church like this, a growing church, different sizes and different sizes of people.

16:42

No, that's not what I meant. That's not what I was saying. But that's true. Different backgrounds.

16:48

I mean, what holds us together? Only the Lord Jesus. And so when you see Him, then some of the differences and issues and sins against one another, we just think, okay,

16:58

I bear with that. I was just loved with undeserved love.

17:04

I will love them back over and over and over. We're a family, in other words. Jesus said, by this all will know they're my disciples if you have love for one another.

17:15

So with all doctrine, with all holy living, God is sanctifying us, and He's the one moving, and we respond.

17:23

So if God calls, He calls, He calls three times, well, then how do we respond? Certainly with not some kind of bravado, but with Christlike response.

17:32

Not only that, verses 3 through 6, question 2, since God has unified the church at His own expense, how should you respond?

17:40

Verses 3, 4, 5, and 6. A lot goes into church unity from the triune

17:46

God's perspective. The response should be, hmm, verse 3, we should be eager to maintain the unity of the

17:53

Spirit and the bond of peace. This is not our church. If God is concerned about unity, dear

17:59

Christian, you should be concerned about unity. Not church generally, but Bethlehem Bible Church.

18:08

Since God has brought Gentiles that are far off and Jews who are close together, made one body broken down in His flesh, the dividing wall of hostility, we both have access to God, we should be concerned about church unity.

18:26

The unity of the Spirit is important, and Jesus prayed for this, and it is true, and then we come along as a response to keep unity as a priority.

18:35

Jesus said, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent

18:50

Me. Look again at the passage. Eager to maintain the unity. That's with diligence.

18:56

This should be at the top of your list on things. Okay, what about church? What's going on at church? I need to make sure

19:02

I put some effort into that. Somebody's wronged Me, and I need to put effort into making sure there's no breach in the body.

19:10

Something's going on, and there's a little group over here, a little factiousness, I don't really want to deal with it, but I must because I have to be eager to do that.

19:18

And to show you how important unity is, Paul uses seven objective unifying facts in verses 4, 5, and 6.

19:29

Seven words preceded by the English word, one. Not unity at any price, but look at the things that we all have in common.

19:40

Verse 4. There is one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one

19:47

God, and Father of all. Every Christian here has those in common.

19:53

You say, well, you know, we look so different, we're different ages and everything else and backgrounds. Is there a unifying reality?

19:59

Yes, we all have these things in common. Should we not be able to get along?

20:06

What does he say there first in verse 4? One body. This is 1 Corinthians 12 language, even as the body is one and yet has many members.

20:14

If Christ is the head, we're the body, we should be unified. Not Christ as head and two bodies, or three bodies.

20:23

Of course, the mouth can't say to the knee, you're done, or the finger to the ear, that's it, our relationship is over.

20:30

Or eye to the hand, I've had it with you. Every part of the body is essential and we're part of one body.

20:37

I've met people before in my office and they'll say, I need some help, please come in, how can I help you?

20:43

And they'll say, I'm a cutter, I mutilate myself, I cut myself. Of course, that is wrong on a number of reasons, image bearing and other things, but they have one body.

20:54

It would be wrong for us to do physically how much more so with Jesus' body.

21:00

He goes on, there's another unifying agent for all of us, everybody at Bethlehem Bible Church. You might be a little more

21:06

Arminian, or Calvinistic, or charismatic, or cessationist, or complementarian, or egalitarian, or whatever our differences might be.

21:15

You have one body and one spirit. Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that indwells us, the

21:22

Holy Spirit that convicts us, and encourages us, and illuminates the Scripture. Talked about in Ephesians 1 .13,

21:29

sealed with Him, in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Everything that happens here, the

21:35

Spirit of God is doing and working. There's also verse 4, one hope. A decrease of unity is when we're all looking at self, we're all looking at the news, we're all looking at current events, we're all looking at other people.

21:49

But when you keep your eyes focused on the hope of the upward prize of the call of Christ Jesus, of heaven, we're all looking in the same direction then.

21:57

We're hopeful of who's going to return. Would today be a good day for the Lord Jesus to return? I think today would be a good day.

22:06

If we're looking all around, well, we could be not unified, but looking with hope, all going the same direction.

22:16

That's what He's after. All looking at the same person. 1

22:22

John 3, Beloved, we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see

22:29

Him just as He is. And everyone who has had this hope fixed on Him, purifies himself just as He is pure.

22:37

Verse 5, there's one Lord. What unifies the church? Lots of things do. Here's another one.

22:42

One Lord. Christianity is about Christ. One Lord. We no longer say

22:48

Caesar is Lord, I am Lord, other people are Lord. Jesus is

22:56

Lord. There's one mediator, the Lord. One risen

23:02

Savior, the Lord. And there's also one faith that unifies us. There's one object of faith.

23:09

When I say faith, I don't mean faith in general, I don't mean faith in faith, I mean the object of faith.

23:14

When I hear things like the just shall live by faith, that's shorthand for the just shall live by faith in the risen

23:20

Savior who loved me and gave Himself for me. We all have the same object of faith.

23:26

There's objective truth to be believed about that object, the Lord Jesus. The faith delivered once to the saints.

23:34

Well, what else unifies us? This is kind of interesting. Baptism? I thought that was a divider.

23:42

I mean, are you sprinkled? Are you dunked? Are you splashed? Are you triple dunked? I remember one time

23:47

I went to a church in Los Angeles, and they had like this big pool, and they said, I baptize you in the name of the

23:53

Father. And they threw the person in, pulled him out, and in the name of the Son, threw him in. And I thought,

23:58

I know what's coming next. This same church, by the way, had two offerings, the general offering, and then the pastor said he had a need, a personal need.

24:12

So he stood down here with a little bucket, and it looked like a little trick -or -treat orange bucket, like a pumpkin.

24:19

And we were supposed to get up row by row and go put something from our wallet in that man's little bucket for his own personal problem offering.

24:31

I didn't put any money in. What does that have to do with anything?

24:37

Nothing, but we're just taking a little breath here. There's a lot of doctrine in life, and we can't live without doctrine.

24:45

But doctrine changes you. When you look, just like 1 John 3, at the Lord Jesus, you're purified.

24:50

You are changing. You're doing different things. And Paul, from the get -go, says, listen, you're called.

24:56

We respond with humility and forbearance and loving one another. But also, if God is so involved with the unity of the church, that ought to be at the top of our list.

25:05

And by the way, we might be Jews and Gentiles, but we have lots in common, including verse 5, baptism.

25:12

Not baptismal regeneration, where somehow you're saved. If you would like to argue, is this your personal baptism?

25:19

Because you would all have that, to be in a local church. Or probably what it is, is a spiritual baptism.

25:27

Listen to 1 Corinthians 10. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud, united.

25:41

This is the language of 1 Corinthians 12. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.

25:48

This is the language of Galatians 3. For all of you were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourself with Christ.

25:55

Without this baptism being placed in the body, it doesn't matter if you're sprinkled, dunked, dumped, a child, an adult, it doesn't matter.

26:04

So whether you want to refer this to your own personal baptism, or probably more likely the Spirit baptism, we all believe this.

26:12

And then number 7, verse 6, the seventh unifying factor is we have one

26:18

Father. We're all part of a family, we're all children of the same Father. And one

26:23

God and Father of all. And then Paul does this a lot. He just begins to praise.

26:28

He speaks of a person of the Trinity, and then he just praises. Who's over all, through all, and in all.

26:38

I mean, isn't there anything more close than a family? There shouldn't be. God has designed it that way.

26:43

And then a church family, we all have one Father. We all are children of that Father.

26:50

First Corinthians 8, yet there is but one God, the Father from whom all things exist.

26:58

And so, dear Christian, whether we're Jews or barbarians, circumcised, uncircumcised, free or slaves, church unity should be important.

27:07

Factiousness, divisions, groups, cliques, we're part of a body.

27:15

Question three. Well, when you know God calls you to respond with humility, you know if God's concerned about church unity, we should be.

27:25

And then now, verses 7 through 16, since God gifted the church and equipped it, how should you respond? And here's what you're going to see.

27:32

I should respond with thankfulness. I should respond with ministry. I should respond with service. Speaking the truth in love, work.

27:40

Well, let's start back at verse 7. Ephesians 4, 7, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

27:51

Now, sometimes we use the word grace for forgiveness. You're graced by God and now you're forgiven.

27:58

That's true. Sometimes the word grace is used for a spiritual gift to serve other

28:04

Christians. That's what this is here. There's a saving grace. We all have the same saving grace because of the

28:12

Lord Jesus. But there's a serving grace, and we're different. There's a unity to the body, but we have some diversity.

28:18

These are called grace gifts. And it's where we get the word charis, charismatics.

28:26

Charismatics, truly, biblically speaking from Ephesians 4, 7, are people that have a spiritual gift.

28:33

It's now been used of people that speak in tongues and other things. But here, this is a common word for a spiritual gift.

28:40

And you notice what happened? It is given. The spiritual gifts are given.

28:46

You, Christian, were given a specific capacity via a spiritual gift to serve

28:52

God's people. It's supernatural. It's undeserved. It's for others.

28:58

You say, well, I don't even know what it is. Well, you hear phrases like this. We don't decide our spiritual gift, we discover.

29:05

We don't request a spiritual gift. We recognize. And doesn't it make sense if Ephesians 1 says,

29:12

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

29:18

Wouldn't that mean more than just getting to heaven, but also serving? I mean, doesn't it make sense when the

29:25

Bible says, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

29:31

If He so lathered, so lavished love, wouldn't He give us something to help the church with unity and service?

29:40

By the way, if you're a Christian, you have a spiritual gift. See it again in verse 7. To each one. We don't have the haves and have -nots.

29:48

To each one. 1 Corinthians 12. To each one. Romans 12. Grace given to me to every man among you.

29:56

1 Peter chapter 4. Each one has received a spiritual gift. As commentator

30:01

O 'Brien said, no one misses out on Christ's bounty. Every one of you has a spiritual gift.

30:09

We're different. There's diversity, but we're all unified. You should be confident you have at least one spiritual gift.

30:16

And you say, well, I don't know what it is. Well, maybe you say to yourself, this particular area

30:22

I like serving and I get joy and satisfaction from that. That would be a good litmus test. Other people recognize when

30:28

I do certain things that I, not in my own strength, but I'm good at it. And other people recognize that's a good way to figure it out.

30:35

Just help where there's an opportunity needed. And people will come alongside. Sometimes you think, well,

30:40

I have a propensity naturally for music, and then it matches the spiritual gift. That happens too.

30:48

Here's what I see, though, sometimes in a church like ours. Sometimes we think, you know what, we have to be at this level of spiritual growth to serve.

30:57

I have to have a perfect marriage and a perfect life and a perfect this and a perfect that. Then I'm able to serve.

31:06

Who would serve then? Then Moses said to the Lord, Please, Lord, I've never been eloquent, neither recently nor in times past, nor since you have spoken to your servant.

31:17

I'm slow of speech, slow of tongue. Who's made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb or deaf, seen or blind?

31:25

Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say.

31:32

Yes, we're weak vessels, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.

31:45

Jesus, matter of fact, handpicked your gift. That's what verse 7 says, according to the measure of Christ Jesus.

31:51

Can you imagine perfectly picked out by Jesus? Here's your gift. I mean,

31:57

Jesus has all authority to do whatever he wants in heaven and earth, and he picks out this perfect gift with the perfect wisdom that he has for his perfect serving in this local church with imperfect

32:11

Kenny Loggins music. 1

32:16

Corinthians 12, but one in the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as he wills.

32:23

He picks it out. Never fall for the trick, well, you know, you want to have the spiritual gift, just pray for it.

32:28

Just start speaking in tongues and you'll get it. No, no. I mean, we can develop our spiritual gifts. Kindle afresh,

32:35

Paul said to Timothy, the gift of God which is in you. But here we have a triune God, the

32:40

Father, the Son, and the Spirit all working together, and he gives you a gift. And now we come to the section that I've been waiting for.

32:50

Here comes Ephesians 4 .8, and it is awesome.

32:59

This Jesus has the right to give you whatever He wants because He is exalted.

33:06

Ephesians 4 .8, therefore it says, when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.

33:15

In saying He ascended, what does it mean? That He also descended into the lower regions, the earth.

33:20

He descended as the One who ascended far above all heavens that He might fill all things. And He gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers.

33:31

Now, if you're reading your Bible carefully, you realize this is from Psalm 68, right? Psalm 68, you see a little indentation, maybe capital with a new

33:39

American standard. I'll tell you what's happening, and then we'll look at it in more detail.

33:46

Back in the day in Rome, if you had a great general and he conquered the lands, he would go back to Rome and he would tell the senators outside the city, do you see all these things that I brought from this conquered land?

34:00

I have conquered generals. I have conquered people. I have elephants, horses, food, paintings, slaves.

34:09

This is what I brought back. I've ransacked this other country and I've conquered them, and I think it deserves a celebration.

34:17

The senators would say, well, does this deserve a triumph or does it not? A procession or does it not?

34:24

And if it was great enough and wonderful enough, the whole city would be there lined up as you would have these great soldiers of Rome coming back for a triumph with all kinds of people in handcuffs and chains getting ready to be slain over the temple.

34:41

What does Jesus do with this same triumphant language? Jesus, the eternal

34:47

Son, adds human nature, assumes human nature, and He comes to earth and He conquers through the resurrection and He's coming back with all kinds of slaves and enemies and traitors and rebels.

35:04

And instead of slaying them at the temple of the false gods, He regenerates them, equips them, and gives them to the church.

35:17

That's what's going on here. You say, what's going on? What's going on is this great triumph happens and instead of God just obliterating enemies like Paul, what do you think

35:27

Jesus did on that road to Damascus with Paul, Saul? He should have just obliterated

35:33

Saul, that Christian killer, that Pharisee, that law keeper, that destroyer of grace. And what does

35:38

God do to Paul? I'll tell you what He does. When God ascended on high, He led a host of captives including

35:45

Paul and He gave gifts to men. What kind of gifts? Verse 10, verse 11, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers.

35:52

Paul is rescued and redeemed, should have been slain up at the temple of the false gods as a sacrifice to these false gods as it were and instead what does

36:02

God do? There's no false gods. Jesus was sacrificed for Paul and for every other

36:07

Christian and now God gives Paul to the church as a gift.

36:14

That's amazing. That's wonderful. The huge parade.

36:20

You ever been to a parade? I think the first huge parade I went to, well, I went to a small one in Iowa town of about 600 and they had,

36:29

I don't know, they have things like, you know, motorcycles driving up over cars. They have that one in Santa Cruz too.

36:35

They had a couple like local businesses go by in the parade and like the people that sell outhouses, they drove by.

36:44

I'm like, wow, parade. Now I'm going to get to New England here in a second but I remember then going to the

36:49

Lakers parade. Remember there and I think five times we beat the Celtics in the 80s.

36:55

Was it four? My kids would say to me, Dad, can we cut school today because we want to go see the

37:03

Patriots parade, the Red Sox parade, the Bruins parade.

37:09

You have any other sports in this town? Victory, white horse, all my enemies behind me,

37:22

I'm going to go kill them and instead of killing them, I die on their own behalf and I rescue them and I say, by the way, here's

37:29

Paul for the church. Verse 8. Don't read too much of this.

37:35

It's super easy. When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

37:41

We know who those gifts are. We know they're people in verse 11. You say, what about all this ascension, descension stuff?

37:48

It's super simple. In saying he ascended, what does it mean by that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?

37:53

Well, I don't want to be flippant, but what goes down must come up. Right?

37:59

And so you have the Lord Jesus, the Eternal Son. He assumes humanity and then afterwards he's raised from the dead.

38:10

He who descended is the one who ascended. To where did he ascend? Far above all heavens.

38:16

He might fill all things. I think it's pretty simple. It's just a general statement that there's humility in the descent and there's exaltation in the ascent.

38:28

That he might fill everything. Jesus said in John 20, I ascend to my Father and your

38:33

Father and my God and your God. Verse 11.

38:41

What does this conquering king do with his vanquished captives and enemies?

38:47

Well, he regenerates them and he gives them to the church. Verses 11 through 16 is one long sentence in the original language.

38:55

And why does he give these to the local church? Verse 12. To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the

39:06

Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the statute of the fullness of Christ. The gifts are people.

39:15

Jesus loves his church. He gave himself for her. He'll also equip the church. And he equips the church through people.

39:22

This is Old Testament continuity. The same thing happened in the Old Testament where you needed somebody to work on the tabernacle and he equips people to specially know how to work on the tabernacle.

39:33

Chosen people. It's the goodness of God. And what does he give? He gives, at the top of the list, apostles.

39:41

Now, this could be a whole study on its own. Maybe we'll do some breakouts on this one day. These are some foundational offices at the top of the food chain.

39:54

Apostle. Now, here's how I like to think of it. You could have apostle, all caps, that's

40:00

Jesus. He's called the apostle. The sent one. You could have a capital A, apostle, the rest, small letters.

40:07

That's those that have seen the resurrected Jesus. Handpicked by Jesus. The 12 minus Judas, plus Matthias, then, of course,

40:14

Paul. And then there's a small A, apostle, just means a sent one. These were foundational.

40:21

These men spoke for God, directly appointed by the Lord Jesus himself, laying down the foundation to receive

40:28

God's word, to declare it, to write it down. One man said, there's no apostles today unless you're more than twice the age of Methuselah.

40:37

By the way, I've met some apostles before. They call themselves apostles. And I thought, you know, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I do have a little bit of theological education.

40:45

If you were an apostle, I should be able to ask you any question in the Bible, and you should give me a good answer. How can

40:51

I, a lowly minister, know less than you, the apostle? There's no apostles for today.

40:57

They would do miracles and signs and wonders as a foundational authentication to Christ's church.

41:06

They had absolute authority. I mean, absolute. A unique place forever they had in Revelation 21.

41:15

Where would we be without apostles? Well, there was another gift to the church.

41:21

Men, people, prophets. Direct, divine revelation would go through them.

41:30

They were the channels of the mysteries of God. They did not have the same authority of an apostle, but they spoke when they did speak for the word of God.

41:39

Similar to the apostles. Officially, sufficiently, properly. No prophets today.

41:47

You say, well, he was sure prophetic when he preached today. That's a lot different than a prophet. Well, there's something else.

41:56

The church began to spread. There was something called an evangelist. Now, most of the time we think evangelist today is somebody that just likes to preach a lot and evangelize a lot.

42:04

That's true, but these foundational offices were in fact that, foundational. It's one thing to do the work of an evangelist.

42:11

It's another thing to have this office. Only three times this noun is used. So you can just imagine there's all kinds of little villages and places.

42:20

You need to go send the truth out. There's specially equipped apostolic lieutenants sent out. Evangelists.

42:26

Did you know sometimes even during the great awakening, people weren't called evangelists because they realized this was a specific foundational office that's not for today anymore, so they were called exhorters, spreading the gospel in new places.

42:40

And then you think, well, who's going to shepherd the flock today? If apostles are gone, prophets are gone, evangelists are gone, we already have the word of God.

42:47

Nobody needs to tell us what's true and what's false. We have the word of God. Who's going to shepherd the flock now? And what does the passage say?

42:53

Pastor -teachers. Jesus is the great shepherd. We read that in John chapter 10.

42:59

God is the great shepherd, Ezekiel 34. And these pastors and teachers do that very thing.

43:05

They shepherd. You've got a settled congregation, unlike an evangelist going all around.

43:11

And their purpose was to what? Feed the sheep, to protect the sheep, to guard the sheep.

43:20

What does verse 12 say? To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

43:27

That word equip means you've got a broken fishing net and you've got to mend it. You've got a broken arm and you've got to mend it.

43:33

There's something broken in the church. The Lord uses these men to do that. Mending nets.

43:39

You have an old car and you have a... My first car was a 1967 Chevy Nova. And so beat up and you restore the car back to its original condition.

43:48

That's the idea here. Jesus didn't come to serve, but to be served.

43:53

No, he came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. I like this idea.

44:02

If my job is to equip you for ministry, you're my ministry, then this makes sense by James Packer.

44:09

It stated first the church name, second, ministers, the congregation, and third, assistants to the ministers, the name of the pastor.

44:19

So first you've got the church name, who are the ministers? The congregation. Who's the assistant to the minister? Me. I like that.

44:27

Elton Trueblood said, perhaps the greatest single weakness of contemporary Christian church is that millions of supposed members are not really involved at all in the local church.

44:37

And what is worse, they do not think it's strange that they are not. I'm so thankful for the majority of people at Bethlehem Bible Church.

44:45

You have a ministry. You want to serve. Trueblood goes on, most alleged

44:51

Christians do not know or do not now understand that loyalty to Christ means sharing personally in his ministry.

45:00

And then he said, cheap Christianity can usually pull a pretty good attendance on a

45:06

Sunday morning. But since God has saved you, called you, elected you, redeemed you, forgave you, what's your local ministry here?

45:17

It doesn't have to be within the building, but you are, if you are an inherent or a member of this church, you are to serve.

45:25

You are to serve. One man said, you can always get a crowd if you demand very little and put on a show.

45:33

The pastors and teachers are equipping you to do the work of the ministry. Paul said,

45:39

I commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified.

45:46

This building up, this equipping, how long do we do it?

45:52

Verse 13, until, well there is an end date, but it's until, until we all attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of the

46:00

Son to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. God wants you, the

46:09

Father wants you to look like His Son. You say, well positionally I do, that's true, but practically, more and more and more.

46:18

Ministers of the word of God, people are changed, you serve, take care of, you equip, and then you grow.

46:28

Let me say this, and I could say it for the parenting tonight, I love babies. I love children. But if they're not growing, something's wrong.

46:36

I'm glad I'm not still a baby. You probably are too. Well sometimes you act that way.

46:43

Being a baby Christian isn't bad, staying a baby Christian is wrong. Verse 14, there's kind of a negative side to this, then we get to the positive.

46:55

So that you may no longer be children. What do children do? And what do infants do? They'll put anything in their mouth.

47:02

Soldering iron or a pewter elephant, they don't care. 44 caliber ammo.

47:12

Who would ever have that? Tossed to and fro, waves carried about, every wind of doctrine, human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

47:23

It's like they're just at the mercy of everything. Whatever's being sold, oh Joyce Meyer's being sold, and then it's this person sold, that person sold.

47:31

I just look around and go, whatever they're selling I buy. That's what immature people do. At the mercy of evangelicalism, at the mercy of the wind, blown this way and that way, by people that aren't out for your own good.

47:45

What do they do? What do these kind of people do? Why do we need to make sure we keep growing in the knowledge of the

47:51

Son and maturing into manhood, to the stature and fullness of Christ? Because there are people, look at the end of verse 14, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

48:01

These are people that literally talk for Satan, by sleight of hand. It's where we get the word cube, like a dice cube, like a die, because they're going to trick you and swindle you when you walk by.

48:14

Professional gamblers, they will manipulate you. You are the mark. So the church comes alongside and we learn and we grow and we don't buy into trickery of men and deceitful scheming.

48:26

Pastors have to sometimes say, yes this is true, and sometimes Titus 1 contradicts those and refutes them.

48:33

Positively though, verse 15, speaking the truth in love, literally, truthing in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ.

48:44

Truthing in love. There's a lot of bad things we need to avoid, but we truth in love, falsehoods, our own, our old life, and now we tell the truth.

48:53

We tell the truth about the Lord Jesus, about others that we may present, every man completing Christ. Colossians chapter 1, verse 16, we conclude, from whom the whole body, the body of Christ, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,

49:14

I ask the question, are you working properly? Would you like to work properly? Makes the body grow, see we need every one, so that it builds itself up in love.

49:29

Every pastor should want church growth. This kind. Not the empty pews we don't preach to, the ones that are filled.

49:41

When you ask yourself the question, in light of what God has done for me, I never want to say, God, I serve so you'll like me, but since you have loved me,

49:49

I want to serve. And that was really the whole thing with Ephesians chapter 4, 1 to 16.

49:55

If God has effectually called you, we respond with humility. If God is so worked on the unity of the church,

50:03

I want to make sure I'm eager to maintain that. And since God has gifted the church at the expense of his son,

50:09

I want to use my spiritual gifts. Not because I must use them, because God can't live without me, but because I'm told to, because it's good and it's right, and it's loving for other people.

50:22

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for Ephesians chapter 4, 1 to 16. I thank you as a pastor that we have people here that are humble and gentle and forbearing with one another.

50:34

Would you help us to do better at that? I thank you that we have many people here who want church unity.

50:41

No factions and splits and little corners, big ones at least, but if there's a minor clique or group or anything like that,

50:49

Father, would you just help us to love one another? And when people want in to a group, we let them.

50:54

And Father, lastly, that we would use our gifts. So many new people here, Father.

50:59

I pray that you would let them see opportunities to come alongside and serve. And Father, for those that just want to show up on Sunday and have nothing to do with the body the rest of the week,

51:09

I pray that you'd convict them by your love and by your grace that they want to respond out of gratitude.

51:15

How could we not respond with service and ministry for you after all we've received?

51:23

I thank you that we have wonderful people here that love and serve and love to serve. And I count that as a gift,