A New Reformation in America Ephesians 4:11-16

The Twilight Zone as a Picture of the American Church

From 1959 to 1964, there was a television sci-fi series known as the Twilight Zone. It was created by Rod Serling and also directed by him. Every episode opened with this intro. There is a fifth dimension beyond which is known to man.

It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

This is the dimension of imagination. It is the area which we call the Twilight Zone. Every episode in the show was about surreal experiences on planet Earth. The characters in these stories lived a normal life until they entered the Twilight Zone, and in this zone, strange things happened.

Now, why do I say this? In the American church, which is the largest and most influential of all the countries in the world, we have entered the Twilight Zone. A couple months back, I had someone in our church ask me about people I would recommend to listen to beyond what you get at this church.

I compiled a list, and before I sent the email off, I had to pause for a second. This list of recommendations was so different from a list I would have sent off even five years ago. We are living in an American church where people are compromising left and right, and I was slow to recommend anyone who has seriously compromised.

At a time when it is more important than ever to take a stand, so many are buckling, and they are doing it in the name of Christian love, when in reality, it is folding to pressure from the outside world.

There are Christian leaders who used to be my heroes, who no longer are. It doesn't mean I forget everything I learned from them, but it does mean that respect has been lost. When someone folds when the moment is the biggest, that is a serious problem.

One of my heroes, who still is one of my heroes, is John MacArthur. He has been pastoring Grace Community Church near Los Angeles, California since 1969. He has seen everything, and what he said several months back is that the crisis facing the American church is bigger than anything he has ever seen.

It is the greatest threat to the gospel in his lifetime. Down through church history, there have been many threats to the gospel. The most notable is what happened in the Middle Ages. The gospel was polluted so much that it became largely lost in the church in Europe.

This is why a reformation needed to happen 500 years ago. Martin Luther, the great reformer, rediscovered the gospel, and he made a stand. Luther was a pastor and professor in the town of Wittenberg, Germany, a town about the size of St. Croix Falls.

But his writings, which denounced the Roman Catholic teaching, eventually made their way to Rome, and the whole world exploded as there was a split in the church between biblical Christianity and unbiblical.

The Lord used Luther and other brave men to bring about a reformation in the church, and this was, largely speaking, a grassroots effort. It didn't come from the most well-known and popular in Europe.

I submit to you that most of the biggest names in the church in America right now are leading the church astray. I'll explain what I mean as we dig into this sermon, but what is happening in America right now is similar to what happened 500 years ago in Europe.

A reformation needs to happen, and a reformation is happening by God's grace, and this is mostly a grassroots effort. Most of the people fighting the corruption of the American church are not big names.

There are a few, and MacArthur, as I mentioned, is one of them, but most are not. It is among most of the well-known men in the American church where the compromise is happening, and I feel the need to preach this sermon because there is a need to address it, and I want to do my very small part.

And I want you, Eureka Baptist Church, to understand what is going on out there. You are American Christians, so this is your concern, and I want to help you navigate through these strange times. So at this time, I encourage you to turn in the Bible with me to Ephesians chapter 4.

We'll be looking at verses 11 through 16. The reason we are going to plant ourselves in this text is that this passage describes what the church is supposed to look like, and this is not what is happening, largely speaking, in the church in America right now.

And if this passage isn't happening, then bad things will happen. They are happening, and they will happen, only getting worse down the road. This sermon is titled, A New Reformation in America. Let's read the text.

Christ Gives True Teachers for the Growth of the Church

This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Ephesus, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Here's our big idea. True growth can only happen in churches that are rooted in God's Word. Another way to say this is this. Churches only go in the right direction if they are fully committed to God's Word.

We're going to see two paths how in this text. The first one today, and the next one next Sunday. Here's the first path. Through following true teachers that leads to maturity and unity. This is how true growth happens in churches.

Following true teachers that leads to maturity and unity. And we'll see this in verses 11 through 13. What we see at the beginning of verse 11 is the first pronoun, he. And this pronoun is important to understand.

Verses 9 and 10 tell us who the he is. Verse 10 describes the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things, that he can only be one person, Jesus Christ. What Scripture makes clear is that Jesus is the head of the church.

Verses 4 and 5 of this chapter say that there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. The Lord mentioned there once again is referring to Christ.

Jesus is the head of the church, and it is so important that all of his followers listen to what he says. There is no mystery what the church is supposed to look like and what individual lives are supposed to look like.

Christ's instructions have been outlined clearly in Scripture. We know the story of Jesus' ministry. He called 12 men to be his disciples. Jesus spent three years with them. Then Jesus died and rose again.

And after his resurrection, he spent 40 days with his disciples. And what he did is he sent them out into the world. These disciples were called apostles. And a few more apostles were added, including Paul.

And their purpose was getting the good news of Jesus Christ out to a lost world. In verse 19 of the Great Commission, Jesus tells his apostles to make disciples. And you make disciples by sharing the good news of what Jesus did on behalf of humanity when he came to earth.

This is what the apostle communicated to the world. Paul tells us a definition of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, he wrote, I deliver to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

What we see in the book of Acts is that the gospel is communicated to the world and many believed and churches were established on the truth. The apostles not only taught the people the gospel, but they taught them everything that Jesus said.

That is what Jesus commanded them in verse 20 of the Great Commission. To teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. The teachings of Jesus were passed on to the world by the apostles. And several decades later, these apostles and their associates wrote down the teachings of Christ, what we call the New Testament.

So the Lord gave the apostles as a gift to the church to tell everyone who believes in Christ what the truth is. We do not have to speculate about what the truth may be like philosophers have done down through the ages.

We know what the truth is and it has been written down in the pages of Scripture. We hold in our hands the teachings of the apostles, which is the teaching of Christ. Now the apostles were given to the church as a gift, but the apostles are off the scene and they have been for almost 2000 years.

If anyone ever tells you that there are modern apostles run from them, that's not true. The qualification to be an apostle were those who were appointed by God to this office. And those appointed were eyewitnesses to the bodily resurrection of Christ.

But Christ has given other gifts to the church besides apostles. Verse 11 of chapter four says that Christ has also given the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. Every Christian agrees that there were prophets in the first century who spoke the words of God.

Some still believe the gift of prophecy is alive among believers today. Personally, I do not. I think that the gift has ceased as it is not necessary since we have the full revelation of God's word. What need is there for a prophet if we have the Bible?

But what is crystal clear is there are still evangelists and there are still shepherds and teachers, as verse 11 tells us. These gifts that God has given to the church. Obviously, evangelists are those who share the gospel, and they not only share the gospel, but the New Testament way of understanding it is that these are people who planted churches.

And of course, when you plant a church, the church is designed to get the good news out so that people would come into a saving relationship with Christ. But God has also given shepherds and teachers to the church.

Shepherds are pastors. And what pastors do is preach the word, teach the word and shepherd the flock of God among them. In this church, I am a pastor and Mark is an elder. Elder and pastor, those terms are interchangeable.

Our job is to teach. Our job is to shepherd. And we better not mess it up. James 3 says, not many of you should be teachers. For those who teach will be judged more strictly. More pastors in America need to take this verse more seriously.

Every teacher will give an account based on our level of faithfulness to carry out what he told us to do. God has told us in the New Testament what a church is supposed to look like and what we are to teach.

And if a shepherd diverts from that, he has no authority. All of his authority comes from the Bible. And a pastor should never deviate to do his own things. And this is the problem in America. Too many are deviating.

Too many are doing things their own way because they want to attract people or they don't want to offend anyone. Or they don't want to look down on by society. The pressure that comes from society. Now verse 12 tells us the purpose of the ministry of the shepherd.

To equip the saints for the work of ministry. For building up the body of Christ. So the pastor's responsibility is to help other Christians, specifically the ones in their flock, to fulfill their ministry.

Every Christian is called to ministry. And what the second half of verse 12 tells us is that whenever one does the ministry that each are called to, the church is built up. Everyone in this room has so many different abilities and gifts of the Spirit.

The Lord wants you to use those gifts to serve the church. When this happens, what a beautiful sight it is. When everyone uses their gifts, this leads to such a blessing as so many are helped and built up.

It is the pastor's responsibility to equip the saints for the work of ministry. I once heard a good illustration. It's a military illustration about a pastor's relationship with his church. A pastor is the supply person on the military battlefield while the people in the church are on the front lines.

Every time you hear the word week after week, what you hear is preparing you for your own personal ministry. So God supplies you through the pastor. Ministry is not something done only by pastors and Christian leaders.

We must understand that. No, to do the work of ministry is the call of every Christian. When this happens, God accomplishes many wonderful things through a local church. This blessing happens within the church and outside the church and the church is built up.

Now, what is the building up of the body of Christ? As Paul mentions at the end of verse 12, the purpose of pastors preaching, teaching, and shepherding, and the purpose of other saints in the church fulfilling their ministry leads to the building up that is described in verse 13, where Paul writes, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So when true teaching and true living happens in a church, which starts at the top with the pastor and elders and flows down to the others in the congregation, what takes place is unity and maturity according to verse 13.

This takes place when there is correct knowledge of the Son of God, as verse 13 says, which includes believing what he accomplished at the cross and through his resurrection and following all his teaching.

This leads to maturity among church members. And when there is maturity, there is unity. You can't have unity without maturity. You can't have unity unless you're going in the right direction, largely speaking.

At the end of verse 13, when Paul writes that we attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Paul is referring to reflecting Christ. A simple definition of Christian maturity is that you look more like Jesus.

You think, talk, and act like him. This is the mission of our church. We want to grow in Christ together. That's the mission of Eureka Baptist, to grow in Christ together. So how are we doing? How are we doing?

And here's an even broader question. How is the church in America doing? I can honestly say that I think little by little our church is moving in the right direction. Thanks be to God. God has been good to us.

Things take time. And I think I'm seeing more of what Paul is describing here taking place in our midst. And this is happening in many places in America. I don't want to make it sound like there's nothing good happening in America.

There are some places.

There are bastions of light. But the sad part is because of an embrace of false teaching, which I will explain in the next point, next Sunday, the direction that these churches and Christian organizations are trying to go will be greatly hindered.

This is the main idea of this two week sermon. You cannot experience true growth in Christ unless you have a sound understanding of God's word without any teaching brought in from the outside world that contradicts the Word of God.

There must be full commitment to the Word of God. And once again, next week, I will explain the poison that is drowning out the true teaching in many churches and why there must be a strong movement away from this.

The problem in many American churches is not only that there is little true teaching, which is rampant in America, yes. But it doesn't stop there. The problem is also that in some places an abundance of true teaching is taught.

But it is combined.

With sprinkles of false teaching.

Enough to distract from the true gospel and enough to set up a destructive path for churches and Christian organizations in to the future. So the question that pastors in America need to ask is are pastors teaching correct doctrine?

And are pastors speaking out against threats to the gospel rather than caving to a society that is hostile toward biblical Christianity? And a society, by the way, that is becoming even more hostile toward Christianity.

A pastor should not care what the outside society says.

There needs to be full commitment.

To the Word of God. Now, I know that I am not in a room full of pastors, but this is still relevant to each of you because you may listen to pastors outside of me, and I hope that you do. But I hope that the ones you listen to are speaking the truth without compromise.

True teachers are called to make the gospel central as it is of first importance. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, and pastors are also called to preach and teach the whole counsel of God, as Acts 20, 27 says, and to reject any false teaching that creeps in.

Titus 1, 9 says that a pastor must hold firm to the trustworthy Word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So pastors are proclaimers of the truth and guardians.

Of the truth.

Local churches and the church in America desperately need true teachers. There are lots of teachers out there who are dangerous or wishy-washy. Some are outright false teachers, while others do not teach the whole counsel of God.

Others teach the whole counsel of God, but are afraid to speak out against unhealthy trends in the wider church or even bizarrely embrace the unhealthy trends. Trying to combine sound doctrine with other teaching that threatens the gospel in these places that were once bastions of sound, biblical Christianity, are in danger of having their best days behind them.

But do you know what God's call to the ministers are? He calls His teachers not to shrink back from anything, even if some look down on you for it. The words of Paul in Galatians 1, 10 are very helpful and so important to hear.

Paul wrote,.

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. What motivated me to preach this sermon is that I've been wrestling with what in the world is going on in the wider church. We truly have entered the twilight zone.

If you would have told me five years ago that I would preach a sermon with concern about many men whom not long ago I considered reliable,.

I would have told you.

That you were crazy. But here we are at the end of 2020.

We live in a wild.

And unpredictable world. And on top of this, this week there were stories about Ravi Zacharias who passed away several months back and the news about him is very tragic. The man lived a double life. He was preying on women and what he did cannot happen with someone who is teaching the Word of God.

He was disqualified.

He should not have been doing what he was doing because he was living an immoral life.

And what a tragedy.

And by the way,.

The evidence is out there.

There's not a question.

Of whether he did it.

He did it.

And it's tragic. And that's just one of... That's not even the main issue I'm talking about in this sermon. That's just an example of just the chaos that is happening in the American church right now.

In a wild and unpredictable world, we need to know the teachers we can trust and those who are not so trustworthy right now. The last several years and 2020 especially has been a revealer of reliability.

Who is going to stand when things get tough? In America and in the American church, we have seen many people buckle when an opportunity for an Esther moment is there for the taking. In Esther 4 .14, we read that Esther was born for such a time as this.

People who are all in for Christ with no care for what the world thinks of them do not buckle when the hour arrives. The temptation is to hold on to one's security and cushy position. But this is not what brave men and women of God do.

I am so alarmed by what is happening in some Christian institutions. There's one Christian seminary in particular, a Southern seminary, where some very corrupt things have happened. And I only say this because the evidence is there.

I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true. Let me give you an example of this. There was a professor who was speaking out against the false teaching in the seminary.

The professor was fired.

And he was not going to be given his severance package unless he would not say anything bad about the seminary. So they were going to withhold it from him if he agreed that he would not say anything bad.

These are things that happen in Washington, D .C. The corruption. These are swamp-like things that happen in Washington, D .C. And this is happening in Christian institutions and it's unacceptable. And there needs to be repentance.

And that president needs to resign. It's unbelievable what is happening in the American church right now. But we must live,.

Defend,.

Preach the truth of God's Word no matter the consequences. People who do this realize the only true security is found in God. He will take care of you as you stand for the truth no matter what happens.

And you know what's on the line? The present and future health of the church is on the line. You cannot experience true growth in Christ unless you have sound doctrine. And when there is a threat to the truth, we should not be okay that it makes damaging inroads into a local church or the wider church.

Christ gives true teachers for the growth and unity of the church. Without true teachers staying in the course, growth is absent, stagnancy comes, and the church is in danger of being led away from God.

What we must understand.

Is that history repeats itself. What people don't understand is that in the 1600s, Harvard and Yale, the first hundred years of these schools,.

They were churches.

Or they were colleges that trained pastors. And now, they're about as secular as can be.

What happened?

Somewhere along the way, they stopped guarding the truth. Satan got a foothold and he completely turned them away from God.

And if you don't think.

That can't happen in your place or even in this church, we're fooling ourselves.

It can happen anywhere.

In an unstable time in American Christianity, I want our church, Eureka Baptist, to recognize true teachers who stand out from those who compromise. Every teacher must teach the truth and everyone else must make sure that you are listening to true, sound teaching from God's holy word.

This is how growth into Christ's likeness happens.

Among the people of God.

My prayer and hope.

Is that Eureka Baptist.

Would be a beacon of light.

In this dark time. We are small, yes, but God can still use something small as an example for other churches. As we grow, we can become a better and better example.

To follow.

As individuals,.

The Bible tells us to follow those who follow Christ. The same goes for churches. May our church grow more and more to be a model for others in an age when, frankly, good biblical churches are fewer and fewer.

This morning, we have seen how true growth happens in the church as it is rooted in God's word. The first path how this takes place is through following true teachers that leads the church to maturity and unity.

Sadly, in many places in the American church, this is not happening because the church is not fully committed to the word of God.

Next week,.

We are going to look at what kills the spiritual growth of the church and what even sends it down a path where the gospel may be abandoned. We will look at the false teaching in America that is the biggest threat to the church right now.

In the intro, I mentioned what MacArthur was talking about when he said, there is a poison out there that is a bigger threat to the American church than anything that has come on the scene in a very long time.

And next Sunday, we will look at that. Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Prayer for Reformation and Discernment

Father in Heaven, Lord,.

We live in some very strange times. And my prayer for Eureka Baptist, Lord, is that You would help us navigate these times. And I pray indeed that there is a reformation happening. I pray that they would only be advanced.

Going forward.

That believers who are entangled in these things would turn from them,.

I pray.

Lord, we don't want them to stay there. We want them to turn from it. I pray, Lord, that You would expose the false teachers in the church so that people can see who a true teacher is and who a false teacher is.

And indeed, Lord, that this church.

And the wider church will be built up.

In maturity and unity. And we ask this in Jesus' name,.

Amen.