Life in the Father's House #5 - A Culture of Biblical Equipping Pt. 2 (Eph 4:15-16)

If you have a

Bible, and I hope you do, take it and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians and chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4, and we're going to be in verses 15 and 16 this afternoon.

Ephesians 4, 15 and 16, but as always, we want to read the passage in its context.

And so, Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, we'll read from verse 1 through to verse 16.

Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. If you have one of the red hardbacks that we give away, that's on page 1037.

Page 1037, Ephesians chapter 4, reading from verse 1 to verse 16.

Ephesians 4, verse 1, page 1037. If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's word.

Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. Brothers and sisters, these are

God's words. Therefore I, the prisoner in the

Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all.

Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

For it says, when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive, he gave gifts to men.

But what does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth?

The one who ascended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things.

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.

Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head,

Christ. From him, the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love, by the proper working of each individual part.

Pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding of it as we study it. Let's pray, ask for the

Lord's help and we will get to work in God's word. Let's pray together. More heavenly

Father, we ask as we open up your word even now that you would shine light upon the world, that you would open our eyes, that we would understand what it is that you have for us.

May we see wonderful things out of your law as we spend time in it. Father, we take a moment to thank you for the just wonderful time we had yesterday in fellowship with the brothers and sisters of both

Creekside Bible Church and First Baptist Church of Phoenix. Thank you for just a wonderful time of fellowship and gathering around your work in history and celebrating the glorious reality that the gospel was recovered in the

Reformation and that the great and precious truths of your word which were never lost but had been forgotten by your people were recovered and that we are able to celebrate and rejoice in and proclaim those truths.

And Father, we pray that as we engage in that even now, we pray that your spirit would be at work, that you would grant us open ears and open hearts to receive all that you have for us from your word and we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. Amen. Please be seated. And Eddie, would you mind passing my phone for me, please? Thank you.

Well, we come to the end. Thank you so much. We come to the end of the sermon series that we've been in for the month of October that we've entitled

Life in the Father's House. Our aim with this series, you'll remember from my first week was

I really wanted us to take some time to consider what the Bible says about life in the church.

What does it mean that we are part of the local church? What does it mean for us to essentially live life in the

Father's House? That's what we've been considering for the last, well, four weeks.

This is our final week in this series. And this is part two of a message that I began to bring last week.

Part two of a message that I've entitled A Culture of Biblical Equipping. A Culture of Biblical Equipping.

The reality is that one of the marks of a healthy church, one that I think at times doesn't get the level of play that it should, is the reality that the church should be characterized by a culture of equipping one another for works of service.

And that's what we started to consider last week. I started last week really with a basic assertion.

I said basically that God's plan for his church is every member ministering to every member through the word for the growth of the body and the glory of God.

That God's plan for his church is every member ministering to every member through the word for the growth of the body and the glory of God.

And to demonstrate that, we looked at Ephesians 4 and we looked at verses 11 through 14.

In the study guide in front of you, there should be a little section there kind of reviewing what we looked at last time.

So we saw, first of all, God's provision for this. If this is what God's purpose for the church is, every member ministering to every member through the word for the glory of God.

If that is God's purpose for the church, well how does that happen? So we started by thinking about God's provision.

What has God given to the church to equip the church for that ministry? And we saw,

I'm super summarizing here, but we essentially saw that God gives qualified men to the church who speak his word.

And so that's God's provision to the church. He gives qualified men who speak his word to God's people.

Well, then that opened up the question of, well, why does God do this? So we looked at God's purpose in verse 12. And we saw that through the word that is spoken, through these men who speak

God's word, it's not about the men, it's about the word of God. Through the word of God, three things happen.

First of all, God's people are equipped. They are given what they need to serve the

Lord. So God's people are equipped, but not only are they equipped, God's people are equipped for service.

So they're given what they need for particular acts of service to one another.

And finally, we saw that God's people are equipped for service, so the body is built up.

As each member fulfills their role in the body, as they're equipped with the word of God, the body begins to be built up spiritually.

And actually, we're going to say a little bit more about that in this message, so I won't labor that point too much. And then finally, we saw

God's portrait in verses 13 and 14. So God's provision, God's purpose, and then God's portrait. That as the church is equipped, a full, full portrait of what the church should be starts to emerge.

So the church becomes characterized by doctrinal clarity. There isn't confusion on what

God's word says. But not only is there doctrinal clarity, there is experiential knowledge.

So we don't just gather to file away information in our sort of religious rolodex, as it were, but we actually come into experiencing the truth.

That we are learning. So there's doctrinal clarity, experiential knowledge, and then there's spiritual maturity.

When you bring those first two things together, the body starts to grow, it starts to mature.

And finally, we saw that there is continual discernment. As this body grows, it doesn't just grow spiritually, it also grows in its awareness of what is true and what is not true.

The difference between, I think I said it last week, what my historical hero Spurgeon said, discernment is the difference not between right and wrong, but the difference between right and almost right.

So that's a super quick summary of what we looked at last week. That's the plan. That's the 30 ,000 foot view, the big picture reviewer.

And that is great and wonderful and fantastic. And my point last week I ended with was, regardless of how we may feel about that, because there are all kinds of views out there about what church should be, but regardless of what we feel about that, the question we need to ask is, is this the master's plan for the church?

Is this what Jesus, who is the Lord of the church, is this what he wants for his church?

Well, my contention I said at the end of that message was, yeah, I do think this is what Jesus wants for his church. Well, if this is what

Jesus wants for his church, well, how do you know when the body is doing this? Can you tell?

Put it another way, how do you know when a body is spiritually healthy? How do you know when a body is functioning the way it should function?

After all, we can't assume a definition of what spiritual health looks like. That's very dangerous. We can't just say, well,

I think spiritual health looks like this. Not with, at least without saying, okay, well, what does

God's word have to say about that? So we can't assume a definition of what spiritual health looks like.

And thankfully, we don't have to. Because in the two verses I want to consider with you,

Paul actually tells us up front what this looks like. What does it look like when a church, when a local body is spiritually healthy?

Is it a large crowd? Is it, you know, everybody knows my name?

Is it, I feel like the church is meeting my emotional needs? Is it, insert whatever we might put as a metric here.

Well, really the question that I want, that's the question I want to answer is often, what does this look like? What does a spiritually healthy body look like?

And that leads into my big idea for this message. Simply put, a spiritually healthy body looks like a

Christ -centered body where truth is spoken in love for its growth in godliness, and service.

A spiritually healthy body looks like a Christ -centered body where truth is spoken in love for its growth in godliness and service.

I'm going to argue that whatever other things we might like in a church, this is non -negotiable.

We can have a conversation and we can think through, okay, other things that would be great. But if we don't have this in place, we can't really have conversations about anything else.

Why? Because a spiritually healthy body looks like a Christ -centered body where truth is spoken in love for its growth in godliness, being the kinds of people

God wants us to be, and service, doing the things that God desires for us to do.

For the rest of this message, I want to consider three indicators of spiritual health that we need to understand if we're truly going to grow.

I think in this passage, Paul gives us three indicators of what a spiritually healthy church looks like, what a genuinely equipped church looks like, and if we're going to grow as a body, we need to understand these three indicators.

So three indicators. I'm going to do my best to be short, but you also know me. We'll see how this goes. So three indicators.

Let's jump in. If a local body is truly growing in spiritual health, if it's truly equipped for the work that God has called it to do, it's going to look like point number one, everyone speaks

God's word to each other. Everyone speaks God's word to each other.

So look at verse 15. Ephesians 4, 15. The text says, but speaking the truth in love.

Well, the fact that he says, but that means he's contrasting this with something else. Well, the most natural thing is verse 14.

He's contrasting this with being little children who are tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching.

Instead of being the immature and untrained, Paul says that this is what you're supposed to be.

That's what they might be, but you are supposed to be characterized by, see it there in verse 15, speaking the truth in love.

Six words, but actually I think they bring up some big questions that we need to answer just as we get started.

So as we think about this, this idea that the church is a place where everyone speaks

God's word to each other when it's healthy. Well, if Paul says that it's speaking the truth in love, well, three questions we need to answer real quickly, don't we?

Three questions. First of all, what is the truth? So when he's speaking the truth here, what is he talking about?

Let's not assume we know what that means. So what is the truth here? Number two, how do believers know this truth?

So what is the truth? Number two, how do believers know this truth? And then number three, how do believers speak this truth?

So what is the truth? How do believers know this truth? And how do believers speak this truth?

Let me answer each of those questions real quickly. First of all, what is the truth that Paul's talking about here? So when he says speaking the truth, what does it mean here?

I think the most natural reading is, well, just look at this in its context. He's been speaking about the word of God being spoken in the midst of God's people.

That's what he's talking about here. The word of God with the gospel at the beating heart of that body of truth.

It's like Paul says in Galatians 4 .16, have I become your enemy because I told you the truth? And in that context, it's a reference to the message of the gospel.

So when Paul says speaking the truth here, he's talking about the truths of God's word with the gospel at the center, which again makes the most sense.

If God gives gifted men to the church to speak his word, well, where the word is rightly proclaimed, the gospel message will never be far behind.

So that's the first question. Now, what is the truth that Paul refers to here? But question number two, how do believers know this truth?

Well, again, we've already kind of answered this if you were here last week, because the way in which believers come to know the truth is through the men that God has given, these apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors who teach.

To kind of review what I said last week, we have the apostolic and prophetic message. This is my contention, at least from reading scripture, that we find that message in the pages of this book.

That in the scriptures, we have all that the prophets and all that the apostles rightfully said and taught that God desires for us to know.

So we have that message in the scriptures. And then what does God do? He gives evangelists and pastors who teach, who are able to, 1

Timothy 4, 13, read, explain, and exhort from that truth.

Now, please hear me when I say this. Yes, we have the apostolic message in the pages of scripture.

And then God gives evangelists and pastor teachers who read, explain, and exhort from the word of God.

Please do not hear me as saying that, oh, are you saying I can't learn anything on my own?

Far from it. This is not saying that personal study and reading of the Bible is unimportant.

Actually, it's incredibly important. Often you'll hear, I've heard people use this argument before. Oh, you always make too much of the

Bible. For hundreds of years, people didn't have the Bible. They didn't have copies of the Bible for themselves. And they managed to be just fine.

Why do I, well, first of all, you're not them. Let's just cut that one at the knees. No, you're not them.

You actually have access to a Bible. And the Bible actually encourages you to know

God's word. So I'm not saying that there is nothing to be learned from personal study and reading from the

Bible. Far from it. If you're not in God's word for yourself, quite frankly, you are missing out. But I am saying in addition to that, in fact,

I'm not the only one saying this. I'm simply just standing in the stream of historic biblical

Christianity when we note that God desires for us not just to be in the word personally, but to be under the sound of the word of God proclaimed by faithful men.

So the Baptist Catechism from the 1600s, question 94 says, how is the word, so the word of God, made effectual, made able to work for salvation?

And again, salvation there is not just how we become Christians, but also how we grow as Christians. How was the word made effectual to salvation?

The answers our fathers in the faith gave was pretty interesting. They said the spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.

It's interesting that they noted, yes, the spirit of God makes the reading of God's word effectual, which is why you should have, in my opinion, you have no excuse in 2023, we all have access to the

Bible. We should all have a daily consistent habit of reading God's word. But they also said, yes, he does that in the reading of the word, but especially the preaching of it.

This is an effectual means. It's effective. It actually produces the goal of convincing and converting sinners and of building them up in holiness and comfort as they are saved through faith unto salvation.

Again, the spoken word by faithful and qualified men isn't the only way to learn the truth, but it's a pretty essential one.

And I would say in the context of our passage, Paul would agree. And of course, this kind of states the obvious, but allow me to just say it for a moment.

This is why the public ministry of the word of God is so critical in the life of a church.

It might not seem that way. I mean, think about it. I was listening to a friend of mine, dear brother.

He was speaking at a conference yesterday, and he made the point that if you think about it, preaching really isn't that amazing.

Somebody steps up, opens the Bible that everybody's got a copy of, and then seeks to read it, explain it, and then exhort from it.

From a human perspective, preaching is not the most amazing thing in the world, but God has been pleased through preaching.

I think this is the fourth point of 1 Corinthians chapter two, I believe. That through the foolishness of the thing preached,

God shows his glory. What designs in this time and space as we gather to hear God's word is designed by him to do so many things, including setting the spiritual climate for growth and for service.

So, how do believers know this truth? Well, we know this truth in the pages of scripture, and we know it as God gives faithful men who explain that scripture for the building up of God's people.

Question number three, well, how do believers speak this truth? This is where this gets a little more interesting now, because this actually gets a little bit trickier to answer, and I think it gets tricky if you have the wrong definition in mind.

If your only definition of speaking the truth is what I'm doing right now, public proclamation in a sustained and organized monologue, if that's your understanding of preaching, what

Paul just said here might be problematic. Wait, you want me to do what he does? I can't do that. And let's be honest, not everyone has the capability or the desire to do this, and that's just how

God has made us all. So that's fine. But if you limit, if I can use this phrase, word work, you know what

I mean? When I say that, the ministry and service that involves the word, if we limit word work to just public preaching like this, then if you think about it, the body can't do this because not everybody can preach.

But I don't think that's Paul's point at all when he says this. And actually, if we look at the example of the early church, we might actually get some help on this.

Turn with me to Acts chapter eight, keep something in Ephesians four, we'll be back in a second, but turn to Acts chapter eight for a moment to give you some context.

This is immediately following the murder of Stephen, the deacon and evangelist. Acts chapter eight, we're gonna start reading in verse one.

The text says, right after the martyrdom of Stephen, well actually end of verse 53,

Saul agreed with putting him to death. On that day, the day of Stephen's death, a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem.

And pay attention to this. All except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.

Pay attention to that. I'm gonna come back to that in just a moment. A scattering takes place and all of the church in Jerusalem with the exception of the apostles are scattered through the land of Judea and Samaria.

Verse two, devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. Saul, however, was ravaging the church.

He would enter house after house, drag off men and women and put them in prison. Here's what

I wanna pay attention to, verse four. Those, so those who were scattered. Who are the ones who were scattered?

According to verse one, it was the church in Jerusalem with the exception of the apostles.

It says that those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word.

Oh, that's interesting. So it wasn't just the apostles who were doing preaching. It says that those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word.

Flip over to chapter 11. So a few months have passed at this point. Acts chapter 11 and verse 19.

Beginning of chapter 11, you have Peter giving the account of what happened when he went to Cornelius' house. And then the narrative picks up in verse 19.

Chapter 11, verse 19. It says, now those who had been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen, or we just read who those were, didn't we?

That was all the church in Jerusalem, except for the apostles. It says, now those who have been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen made their way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch.

So they've really spread out now. They're going further and further east at this point. And what were they doing?

Speaking the word to no one except Jews. Note something with me from both those passages.

Acts 4 and Acts 11. Did you catch it? The preaching and the speaking of the word wasn't limited to the apostles.

There were people other than the apostles who were involved in preaching and speaking the word.

Again, if your only definition for speaking the word is this, what I'm doing right now, this doesn't work.

But if you rightly understand, and here's the point I'm getting at, if you rightly understand that not all word work, let me put it another way, not all word ministry is formal.

Not all of it looks like this. This passage starts to make some sense.

I'm not the only one who notices this. So excellent scholar, Jonathan Griffiths, in his book, Preaching in the New Testament says this, "'Nowhere does the

New Testament call or instruct believers as a whole to preach in the formal sense, but it does call them to minister the word to one another and does so using language that can also describe preaching.'"

He goes on, "'This fact supports the contention that preaching has a distinct character as a particular ministry of the word.

Yet at the same time, the fact that the vocabulary used to frame these general instructions is also applied to preaching in various contexts in the

New Testament tends to affirm a close affinity and integral relationship between preaching and other ministries of the word.'"

In layman's terms, not all preaching is formal, but all believers preach in one way or another.

You see, not all of us are going to stand up here and do this, that's fine, but all of us are called to proclaim, which is what the word preach means, to proclaim, to speak the word to one another.

The reality is that as we grow in the knowledge of God's word, we aren't just growing in the knowledge of God's word so we can say we've grown in the knowledge of God's word.

As we grow in the knowledge of God's word, we are receiving the equipment we need to truly minister to one another.

Let's get practical with this for a moment. Think about this. When you're going through a tough situation, how helpful are platitudes?

I experienced this myself in 2013 when my brother unfortunately passed away. I discovered just how quickly people can say stuff and they really mean well.

I had to learn to be gracious and be patient with people, but say things that sound nice, but don't actually help.

Let's be honest, most platitudes are there because you don't know what to say. And so we found out, well, if you say this, it kind of fills the space.

But is that the kind of thing that Paul's speaking about here? No, because it doesn't actually minister to anyone, not in the way that truly helps.

What about personal stories? I love personal stories. I love Christian biographies. I love hearing about the great stories of God's work in people's lives.

We spent some time last night, those of you who were there, doing exactly that. Like I have no problem. I absolutely love that stuff.

But in and of themselves, think about this. Do personal stories help people grow?

In and of themselves. No. Well, if platitudes don't help people in times of struggle, if even personal stories don't, well, what does?

What does actually help people grow? Well, again, God takes the mystery out of this in his word.

One of my favorite verses, Acts chapter 20, verse 32, Paul says, and now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

Peter says it like this in 1 Peter 2, 2, that like newborn infants, we should desire the pure milk of the word so that by it, by what?

By the word. You may grow up into your salvation.

Can I put it to you that the most helpful thing that you can give to somebody in a time of trial and a time of difficulty and a time where somebody needs your help, it's not platitudes.

Personal stories might be great for establishing a relationship, but the ultimate thing needs to be this right here.

It is the word unleashed in love that grows God's people.

It is the word, excuse me, the love fueled speaking of the word of God that is at the heart of truly faithful and effective ministry.

I put it to you that if you show me a church where genuine word ministry is happening on every level, not just in the pulpit, if I can pause,

I have to say to my shame that for years I thought that as long as the pulpit was fine, whatever else happened in the church doesn't really matter.

Life has a funny way of teaching you just how wrong you are. I've discovered very quickly that, oh, this is just a small part.

It's an important part, but it's just a small part of the ministry of the word in the life of a church. Show me a church where there is genuine word ministry happening on every level, not just in the pulpit, and I'll show you a church that is well on its way to being spiritually healthy.

And again, this is done, please don't miss this in our passage, come back to Ephesians four with me. He says that this is done in love.

This isn't done in a sense of superiority. We've all, again, I've said this before here at Redeemer.

We've all been around people who they're trying to help you, but their definition of help is basically telling you how dumb you are.

Like, that's not helpful. No, it's done in love. It's done with sincere concern and affection for the other person.

Show me a ministry where genuine word, show me a church, excuse me, where genuine word ministry is happening on every level in love, and I'll show you a church that is well on its way to being spiritually healthy.

It's one of the reasons that I've said it in the past, and I haven't said it in a while, so allow me to say it. I've said before that we don't do a lot at Redeemer.

We're not a church with 1 ,001 programs. We don't do a lot at Redeemer, but we do the Bible. It doesn't necessarily make you popular.

It doesn't exactly make your church a thriving place, but it does make for growing Christians over the long haul. So you know a church is moving in a healthy direction when the truth of God's word is spoken by all to all for their building up.

That's one indicator, but it's not the only indicator. You see, you know when a church is spiritually healthy, when everyone speaks the truth,

God's word to one another, and you know it when, point number two, everyone keeps Christ at the center.

Everyone keeps Christ at the center. So again, look at verse 15 with me.

Ephesians 4, verse 15. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head,

Christ. Now, first thing I have to know is this is interesting. Paul doesn't say, let us grow in every way in him who is the head,

Christ. Did you catch that? He says, let us grow in every way into him who is the head.

It's kind of, I won't say weird because it's God's word, but it's an interesting way to say that.

He could have just said, let's grow up in Christ or grow in Christ, which wouldn't be wrong.

But again, it's not what he says. Paul says that we are to grow into Christ.

Well, what does that mean? I think simply put, Paul is saying this. It means that our metric for what is genuine growth, catch this, it can't be, think of all the things that people might say are metrics for spiritual growth.

Your metric for growth is not how much you are doing. Because the reality is you can have people who do all sorts and are not doing it for the right motivations or for the right reasons.

So it can't be what you are doing. It can't be, and this is, let me get a little closer to home in our own theological camp for a minute.

It can't be, well, our church is conforming well to this historical standard. So we must be healthy.

Now, let's be clear. I love church history. I love creeds. I love confessions. I quoted one just a few minutes ago. I love historical theology.

I love the story of what God has been doing in Christ for 2000 years in his church. I think that's wonderful and amazing.

But let's be clear, the presence of good history and good historical theology, it might be a means, but it's not the standard.

And church history is littered with examples of churches that had great truth on paper. And where are they today?

It means our metric isn't how we feel about ourselves or others or the church.

There's a lot of a therapeutic approach that floats around in Christianity these days. You know, the metric of good things.

How does it make me feel? But let's be honest.

You know what? I'm going to ask you. Let me say it. My feelings are probably too, that's not probably, they are too fickle and too changey.

Not the word I'm looking for, but it works. My feelings are too fickle and too changey to be the measure of anything.

I've used this illustration before and I'm going to use it again. I'm a football fan of both kinds. Right now, my football team across the pond are doing fantastic.

My American football team, not so much. Lost again this afternoon. Yes, I'm salty about it.

If my feelings about my football team determined how I did things, I wouldn't be here this afternoon.

Why? I'd be upset. My feelings can't be a metric. One minute, things are great. Oh, great.

I'm wonderful. I'm doing great. Then, no, I'm not. No, those can't be the metric for what growth is.

You see, what Paul is saying here when he says we are to grow into Christ, he's telling us that the metric isn't anything in us.

That like our salvation, the metric of growth isn't us. It couldn't be us. The metric is

Christ. We grow in likeness, not to an external standard, not to how we feel, not to what makes us feel good, but we grow into Christ.

Christ is the goal that we are growing towards. Imperfectly, to be sure, in this life. And quite frankly,

I think the Bible makes the case that we're never going to complete that in this life. But that's what we are aiming towards, knowing that on the other side of glory will be made perfectly like him.

Christ is the goal that we are growing towards. And the beautiful thing is this, not only is he the goal that we are growing into, he is the source of that growth.

If you've been at Redeemer any length of time, you know that one of my favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 1 .30. 1

Corinthians 1 .30 says it is from him, from God, that you are in Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus who became wisdom from God for us, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption.

The reality is a healthy church is one that recognizes it's not about us. It's not about what standard we can put in place for you,

Glory. Oh, are you attending this many meetings? Have you read this many books? Have you been to this many events? That's not a healthy church.

A healthy church is one that recognizes that both the goal of our growth is Christ and the source of our goal is

Christ. I love what

Charles Spurgeon had to say about this. I'll put it up on screen so you can read it with me. Spurgeon said that the true church of Christ in the world is ever advancing and multiplying.

As the apostle says in our text, he's preaching from this passage, that it maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

He's quoting the King James version there. But beloved, there is no edification except that which comes from Christ.

He is the church's true teacher. He is the great master builder. And it is by him that the whole spiritual building is fitly joined together.

He's alluding to Ephesians 2 there. We try to preach that truth, which is to the nourishment of men's souls, but it does not nourish them because it comes from us.

It nourishes them as it, it only, excuse me, nourishes them as it comes from Christ.

And he ends it like this. If you want to grow in grace, you must get from Christ all that is needful for your growth.

You see, the healthy church is the one that has this mindset of, hey, you heard the gospel. That's great, that's wonderful. Let's graduate from that and let's move on to something else.

Can I put it to you? There is nothing else. And if there is, I don't want it anyway. The healthy church is not the one that says

Jesus is cool, but what about this thing over here? No, the healthy church is the one that says, forget all of that stuff.

Forget all of that additional fluff. Forget all of those additives and preservatives we tried to add to this very pure thing.

Forget all of that. It is our joy to be on a journey of a lifetime to grow in closeness and likeness to Christ.

A healthy church is the one that says that Christ is the measure. Christ is the standard, not us.

And let's get practical about this for a moment. Do you know how you see this in a church? You know how a church recognizes that they're not the standard, but Christ is?

Two things, patience and resilience. We're patient with one another.

I believe the saying is Rome wasn't built in a day. Guess what? The church of Jesus Christ isn't built in a day either. It takes patience with one another, saying, you know what?

Yes, you know what? This is taking a while. Like this person isn't quite where they should be, but you know what?

I'm not going to get mad and annoyed about it. I'm going to try and come alongside them and help them. I'm going to take my time with them.

Oh, just like God in Christ is patient with you and me. It's patience, but it also takes resilience.

It takes a willingness to say, you know what? This isn't, this isn't a sprint.

This is a marathon. In fact, calling it a marathon is an insult. It's like three marathons rolled into one.

Forget 26 .2 miles, whatever three of that is. My math is terrible, but whatever three of those are. Yeah, it's that.

It's indeed a journey, but I'm willing to be patient and resilient in my relationships with my brothers and sisters, since it's not about my checklist and my needs, but it's all about.

It's indeed the journey of a lifetime, but it's a journey of a lifetime that is driven and fueled by the good news that there is somebody who has come, who has lived in our place, who died in our place, and who was raised for us, and that we can have full and free life in him.

That's what fuels growth. That's how you know that our church is equipped and it's growing.

Everyone speaks the truth to one another, and everyone endeavors to keep Christ at the center, which creates a culture of patience and resilience with one another as we recognize that this is indeed a journey.

But there's a third indicator of growth of a healthy church in this passage. So everyone speaks the truth to everyone.

Everyone keeps Christ at the center, and thirdly, everyone contributes to the body's growth.

Everyone contributes to the body's growth. So look at verse 16 with me.

Verse 16, text says, from him, from Christ, the whole body fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament promotes the growth of the body for working its, for, excuse me, for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Honestly, there is so much happening here. You could preach a whole series of sermons from this one verse. I'm not going to do that, of course, but let me just stick to three observations from this passage real quickly.

Three observations. First of all, we just talked about this. The body, excuse me, the building up of the body comes from Christ.

So again, what does our passage start with, verse 16? From him, the whole body. If Christ is the goal and Christ is the source, that makes perfect sense.

But spiritual growth is not something that we bring to the table. It's something that Christ brings to the table. And sure, let's think practically about our church for a moment.

We can put things in place like redeeming you, like our grace, sweet and glory men's discipleship, like the men's and women's studies once a month.

We can put all these things in place. But all of these things, if I can use this analogy, all of these things are like pipes.

They're not the water itself. And quite frankly, unless Christ blesses any of these things, those pipes are going to give you rusty, dirty water every time.

They're pointless, unless you recognize that any good that happens comes from Christ.

So the building up of the body comes from Christ. But secondly, the building up of the body is organic.

The building up of the body is organic. Paul uses very physical language here to make this point.

And I wrestled this week with the best way to kind of show this. And I realized probably the best way for me to show you this is to show it to you.

So look on screen with me for a moment. Let me point something out in terms of the grammar of this passage.

So the text says, from him, the whole body. And then Paul gives us kind of a supplementary explanation of how the body is put together.

That's how I've kind of put that in brackets and I've set it off from the rest of the passage. Fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament.

He's describing what the body is. But pay attention to something. Let's do a thought experiment.

This would be the one time I tell you to take words out of your Bible. What if you didn't have that section in brackets?

Notice that if you took that section out, this still reads as a complete sentence. Let me read it to you without those words.

From him, the whole body promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

According to this verse, who promotes the growth of the body? According to this text, the body does.

As it's united to Christ, Christ is so designed that the body promotes the growth of the body.

You may think, Kofi, why is that important? Real simple. It doesn't say anywhere in the Bible that the pastor promotes the growth of the body.

So much of the Western church has this very weird idea. And quite frankly, it is a weird idea that if anything goes wrong in a church, it's the pastor's fault.

If anything goes right in a church, it might not be the pastor's fault. We won't give him credit for that. But by and large, it's the pastor's problem when stuff isn't happening spiritually.

And I want to say who said? Not according to this passage. According to this passage, you know who

God has given to promote the growth of the body? He's given you. He's given each and every one of you.

Whether you're at this church or another church, he's given you to the body so that the body as a whole promotes his own growth.

Think about this. This is how your body works. When your body is 100 % healthy, growth is organic.

The body has all of the internal processes and systems it needs to grow.

And provided a body is healthy, the body will do what it does. I think about, as you know, my wife is expecting.

There's obviously Laura takes care of her nutrition and make sure she's like not stressed out to make sure the baby's healthy.

But the reality is the baby that is growing inside of Laura grows because that's what the body is designed to do.

As with the natural, so it is with the spiritual. As each individual member grows, the collective body is designed to grow.

And can I pause for a moment? It's isn't it lamentable that we have such an individualistic view of our relationship to Christ and to one another?

Isn't it just sad that we are often more concerned with our own personal needs over the responsibility we have to one another?

Isn't it sad that if something's not convenient for me, even though it might bless my brother and my sister, it's not convenient for me.

So guess what? I'm not going to do it. But can I suggest something? What if the, let's just call a spade a spade, the me -centered even, the me -centered approach that American evangelicalism has labored so hard to guard, create and perpetuate.

What if that isn't actually healthy? What if it was never the design of the

Lord of the Church for us to so focus on us as individuals that we neglect the church?

What if Jesus' design, the one, you know, Jesus, the one who stretched out his arms on the cross and gave his life for us, what if his design was for member

A over here to be so grown and matured in their faith that they can turn around and help member

B? And what if the design is that when member B is strong, he turns around and helps member

C? What if Jesus' design for the body is for the body to help itself to grow?

What if God's design for you isn't necessarily your personal happiness, but it is your growth as you minister to others and they minister to you?

What if we all, this will be a novel thing, what if we all took to heart the reality that we have a

God -given responsibility to play a tiny part, to be sure, but a part in the growth of somebody not named you?

As Warren Wisby, that giant among giants said, we must realize that as members of the one body and a local body, we belong to each other and we affect each other and we need each other.

Every believer, no matter how insignificant they may appear, has a ministry to other believers.

Kofi, why are you laboring this point? Well, because, final observation, the building up of the body is done for the purpose of love.

It's done for the purpose of love. Don't miss those words in verse 16, that the whole body promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love.

If I could speak from my heart for a moment, I've had a few people tell me recently that Kofi, from the things that you say and the things that you preach, it always sounds like you're pitting love and relationship against knowing people against spiritual growth.

And if I'm really honest, what I should have said, but lacked the courage to say in those moments was, I'm not the one making that distinction.

You are. Because the reality is, there is no way for Christians to love one another without the truth.

You can't have truth over here. Well, that's great. But what's really important is love over here. Not in the biblical conception.

More concerning. At times, I've come to realize that that objection essentially says that we get to determine what love is.

And if you don't love me the way I feel I should be loved, then what happens? We withdraw from church life. We kind of moan amongst ourselves and the church kind of dies on the vine instead of thriving.

But first of all, let's be clear. Love is incredibly important. Remember what Jesus said, John 13? I give you a new commandment.

Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

By this, all men will know you're my disciples if you love one another. Love is incredibly important.

But catch this. Genuine spiritual love can't take place where a body is not growing. And what does love look like?

Well, actually, it looks like everything we've talked about in this series. It looks like the kind of love that is sacrificial, that says,

I will give for the betterment and the growth of somebody else. It's the kind of love that is empowered by the

Spirit giving us zeal for the things of God. It's the kind of love that, remember the end of Romans 12, is characterized by mutual care for one another.

It's love that's characterized by submission to the word as taught, not just because the word is being taught, but because that is how we learn the truth so that we can speak it to one another.

Can I put it to you ultimately that Christian love is not self -shaped, it's body -shaped?

I'm pretty much done. As I leave this series in the rear view and we return to the book of Genesis and, well, not next

Sunday, the following Sunday. I hope that as we've spent the last five weeks, for those of you who've been here, as you've spent the last five weeks thinking about life in the church and what life in the church looks like,

I hope that your vision for what life in the church looks like has expanded some. I hope you've gained a sense of what it is to serve the

Lord and to serve one another as family members in the Father's house. There's a very distinct reason

I use that language of a Father's house. It's relational, it's warm, it's caring for one another.

When I planned this series, I had no idea that we were going to be moving to a new location. Kind of funny how Providence works in that way.

But in a sense, this series couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. Next Sunday, we walk into a new season of life together as the people of God here at Redeemer Bible Fellowship.

Is there a part of me that prays that we would see more numerical growth in this new season? I'd be lying to you if I said

I didn't. But more than that, and this is something, this is a journey

God had to take me on personally. More than that, I'm trusting that this next season we're walking into will be a time, if numerical growth comes, praise the

Lord. But I'm trusting for more than that, that God will use this time as one of spiritual growth and maturity and transformation for us as a body.

And I can hope and pray for that because God has been faithful. A lot of that has happened in the past and is happening now.

God is at work in amazing ways in our congregation and I am just thankful to be a spectator on what so much of it.

And my hope is that as we thought about life in the church and we thought about what it is to live life in the Father's house, my hope is that we've gained a vision for all the things that God could still do in the future.

But none of that happens if the body is not equipped by Christ through the word of God for this kind of ministry.

And Father, we are so grateful because you don't leave it to us to figure out how growth works.

You don't leave it to us to figure out how maturity works. You've given us your word and you give us your spirit and you give us union with the resurrected

Christ, all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him.

And so Father, my simple prayer as we close out this series is that we would be a body characterized by genuine ministry to one another as we speak the word of God to one another for our growth, for our up -building and we find ways to demonstrate genuine love to one another in light of your word.

Father, I pray like I said for this next season that we are walking into as a body that this would be the beginning of a new chapter of further growth, further encouragement, a further ministry to one another.

Father, we pray that you would receive all the glory. Be with us now as we come before your table. We ask these things in Jesus name and for his sake.