Sermon on the Authority of Christ

Honoring Zach and Taryn in the Church

So this is a special occasion for Apology of Kaua 'i. We have. Pastor Zach is now going to be taking over the pastorate here, and we're very, very excited about it. But what I wanted to do today in honor of this occasion is to honor both Zach and Taryn in the midst of all of this.

God has blessed them tremendously, and I want us to have a better understanding of what the significance is about this moment that we're in right now. So, Kano, if you would, tell us about the significance of the lei, what it means.

And then we'll actually do a Scripture reading, and we'll present them with leis today.

Well, the lei would be a way to honor people, and we set them apart for that honorable reason. But now in Christ, we even have more significance. As 2 Corinthians 2 .15 says, And it is you two, it's all of you, it's all of us, we have been equipped by God through His Spirit.

And we are now equal to that task through God's soul. That's the significance of the lei. Thank you, brother.

You're welcome.

Scripture reading, Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6.

It's hard to hear, Kano, even through your voice.

Scripture reading, Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6.

This verse comes out of Proverbs, again, chapter 3, verses 5 and 6. It says, Amen. And that's the wisdom that I'm imparting to Zach and to Taryn in the midst of all of this. There's lots of things that can be said, but God Himself has given us, in those very simple verses, really the pattern for our lives, but that for ministry as well.

And so in honor of that, in honor of Zach and Taryn, I want to present you both with two leis. Sorry, thank you. Love you, brother.

Thank you, brother.

Love you, too. Love you, man. Get in here.

I love you, man. Praise Jesus.

The Unity and Gifts of Ephesians 4

Ephesians chapter 4. That breeze off the ocean is howling, isn't it? Praise God.

Alright.

Ephesians chapter 4. I'm going to go ahead and start reading from verse 1. Probably stop verse 16, just to get context before and after. Bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to 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 by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and 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.

Let's pray and ask the Lord to bless the message. Father, Lord, I confess and acknowledge to you, God, that as a minister of your gospel, I am so unworthy to be standing where I am right now. I have no earthly right to be here, Lord.

And we in this body have no earthly right to worship the Lord God of Israel on an island in the middle of the ocean. But Lord, such is your providential care of us. We thank you that you have saved us in Jesus, that you have called us to a high and holy calling with all of the different giftings that you have given us within the body.

We thank you for the unity that we have, and the common doctrine that we share, our common confession. We praise you and we worship you, Father, for the diversity within our body, Lord, all of the diverse giftings, diverse backgrounds, and Lord, everything that you have purchased for your saints to use so that the body of Christ may be built up, Lord, so that the structure may be erected, so that a house for you in all of the earth, Lord, would be established in every part of the earth, Lord God.

I ask now, Lord, that you would help me to commit self-forgetfulness, God. Remove me from this equation, Lord, so that your people now hear your word and are equipped. And Lord, being born again in you, they put off the old man and rather put on the new man, Lord God.

That you are making that you would unite us together as a body, working together in love so that we serve one another and so that we advance, Lord, your kingdom, your reign, your dominion throughout all the earth, Lord, starting at this beach, at this moment in time, Lord, that we come to you now to worship, Lord.

Please get me out of the way and prepare the hearts of your people to receive your word today, Lord God. It's in your name that we pray, amen. We've been going through the book of Ephesians, the Apology of Church.

The first three chapters of Ephesians are very heavy in terms of the weighty theology, right? Theology, the study of God, theos logos, right?

Very heavy.

Paul is laying down these foundations for the church at Ephesus and he begins in chapter 1 in talking about how we are the blessed ones, part of the congregation, and we have as a result of our Father's graciousness and the overflowing of himself, the gifting of himself that he's given to us, all of this myriad of blessings in Christ Jesus.

We've been chosen. We've been redeemed to walk blamelessly, to walk in a holy manner because we've been redeemed. We've been forgiven in Christ. And God in Christ is actually summing up all things together in heaven and on earth.

Jesus Christ is that central reference point in whom all of history with the people of God right there at the center with him are being united into. Ephesians chapter 1 where God works all things together after the counsel of his own will.

He unites us to him. As Ephesians chapter 1 goes on, Paul wants to make very, very clear that he's interceding on behalf of the people of God so that we may know this glorious hope to which we have been called, right?

This incredible inheritance that we have in Christ as the people of God and that we would know this incomparably great power that God has exerted in Christ Jesus, right? When he raised him from the dead and he seated him at the right hand of God, far above all rule and authority and power and above every name that is to be named in heaven and on earth, and then he gave this one, the one who conquered, the one who had victory, the one who went up, the one who ascended, the one who lived, died, rose again, and then ascended to the Father receiving the reward for his suffering, receiving the glory, being enthroned at the right hand of God, having the name of all names given to him as a result of his obedience.

It says about this one that he was given as head over all things to the church, to us, the people of God, that he might fill all things. And then Paul takes us there from Ephesians chapter 1 into chapter 2.

What does that mean for you? You remember where you were in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1? You were dead in your trespasses and sins. You were a child of wrath. You were not seeking God. You were enslaved to your passions.

You were enslaved to your flesh. You were an emissary of Satan himself. You thought that you were in control of your life, but really you were under the grip of the enemy and he led you around by a bridle.

And you led yourself around untamed by your own passions. And together you were working with the enemy to actually destroy yourself in a life of sin. By nature, children of wrath, that's how the Scriptures and the Apostle Paul talks about our condition.

Before God comes into our lives and miraculously saves us, we're given this portrait of our condition, children of wrath. But God, Paul says, who is rich in mercy, with the great love with which he loved us, made us alive.

He resurrected us. He raised us from spiritual death to spiritual life. And there's more than that. Not only did he raise us from spiritual death to spiritual life, but with his Messiah who has now been ascended and seated at the right hand of God, he has raised us up, given us new life, and seated us with him in the heavenly places so that we have the position of Christ with him reigning, with the authority that he possesses.

And Paul makes very certain that we know that this grace that has come to us is not of ourselves. We didn't save ourselves. We didn't overcome our flesh. We didn't overcome being ensnared to the enemy of our own accord and our own power.

God did it by a miracle in our lives. He raised us from the dead, united us with his Son, and then seated us with him in the heavenly places, for by grace you have been saved. And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are God's workmanship, his poema, his living poem, his work of art, that we would walk and fulfill the good works that he has prepared beforehand that we should walk in, the grace of God in our lives to save us from ourselves, to save us from sin.

And then Paul goes on, after he describes that portrait of grace that saved us from a life of death and sin, being children of wrath, to talk about this new heavenly community that he has made, where he's taken Jew and Gentile, no longer being one ethnic people of God, but now the foreigners, but now the strangers, those who were alien to the promises of the covenant of Israel.

God in the person of Jesus Christ has united together. He has made us one for Jesus. He himself is our peace and has made the two one, destroying in his flesh that abiding wall of hostility, that the commandments expressed in ordinances that separated Jew from Gentile.

In the holy places, there was this fence between Israel and the rest of the world. And in Jesus, those things are brought to their fulfillment, their completion. And now Gentiles, pagans,.

Like you and me,.

Most of us here, come from pagan parents.

Right?

Christ brought us into the blessings of this covenant by faith in Jesus. And now we have access by the one spirit to the one father, by the one savior, Jesus Christ. Access to him for time and all eternity.

And what does it say? In that same passage, as it goes on, this structure that God is building, Jew and Gentile together, this holy temple that he's making, where he takes all of us, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone.

Right?

The stone of the corner, the foundation stone. And then all of us, like living stones that are being united to him and built up to form a holy structure, a holy temple in the earth.

Right?

So that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. That was the command, by the way, in the Garden of Eden. Do you remember? In Genesis, God told Adam and Eve, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, build me a house.

And he told the men of the Old Testament, the kings and the prophets, heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool, what kind of house will you build for me? Referring to a physical structure.

Right?

What house will you build for me? But the creational mandate, being completely in harmony with the great commission to make disciples of all nations, teaches us that God's plan all along was to fill the earth with his image.

To make worshippers of the one true and living God. And then the call of Jesus, of course, in Matthew chapter 28, 18 through 20, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.

The scriptures are clear. The overwhelming testimony of the Bible, if you think about it, it's really beautiful. It really ought to stun us and take us aback that God ordained this beautiful union between male and female, husband and wife, physical children, and then with the true bridegroom, Jesus, and his bride unites them together and what do they do?

They bear spiritual offspring. Children of the flesh, children of the spirit. And this is why the creational mandate and the great commission are not at odds with one another because in order for there to be regeneration, the new birth, being born again, then there must first be generation, the physical birth, being born from below so that the gospel comes forth and we're born from above, born again unto a new and living hope, raised from spiritual death to spiritual life.

It's incredible the way that God has ordained this. But back to that structure. God is making us all together. He's building himself a house in all of the earth and that's what it was all about all along.

Make me a house in all the earth and you sitting here today, each and every one of you, are a fulfillment of that promise, that commission. We stand here, we sit here, as children of Abraham, having the faith of Abraham, being united to this covenants of promise through Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

We've been united in him. And so Paul wants to make sure that our identity is clear to us as a corporate body because he goes into chapter 3 and what does he say? I was given this grace as a minister of gospel to preach this gospel, this mystery that was kept hidden in ages past but has now been revealed and brought to light through the apostles and prophets, through the church, so that as a result of what God is doing and making one new man out of the two, Jew and Gentile becoming one because of the Messiah and his victory over all things, making us a house, but in what God is doing, he is declaring, it says in chapter 3 verse 10, he is declaring the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

What God has done in causing you and I to be united together in Christ screams at the spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly places that Christ is victorious, that Satan has been defeated, the ruler of this world has been cast out and plundered.

So what? As a result of that, that's what we're talking about today. Now what? Now that the calling of the church, we know what our corporate identity is, now what? Now that the spirit has created this heavenly unity that we could never create because we're a bunch of sinners who sin against each other all the time in word and deed, now what?

Now that we've been unified by God's spirit, we're commanded by God, through Paul speaking in chapter 4, to maintain the unity, to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. This is not a unity that we created in and of ourselves, that's the spirit's work, amen?

But we are called to maintenance that unity, to build it up as God uses us together as a corporate body through the giftings that he's given us to serve one another and to advance his dominion and his rule throughout the world.

So that's where we are today. How's that for an introduction?

Alright,.

Ecclesiology and the One Body of Christ

Paul is giving us truly a picture today of what's called ecclesiology. We are the ecclesia, we are the called out ones of the congregation, and this is textbook theology on what we are to believe about the church, what's our purpose, how are we to go about this new life, this new foundation that we have right now.

So we're told that we are to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The portrait that Paul gives us is that we are yoked together. We are like two animals side by side, plowing, working, united now, plowing in the same direction.

We've been united together in the body of Christ for this purpose and now within the unity that we all possess, there's one body, one spirit, one hope, one call,.

One Lord,.

One faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all. This is our common confession as the people of God. This is what unites us. The reason there's only one body of Christ, globally, right? It comes to us in local expressions as local bodies of Christ.

But the reason there's only one church, one people of God is because there's one Lord. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. So we have this tremendous unity in God. This is how come a Baptist and a Presbyterian or a Reformed Baptist, an assembly of God, Pentecostal, can get together, hang out, have coffee, and love Jesus and serve Him together on mission.

That's why we can do that because we have such tremendous unity in the gospel and the doctrine of God, who Jesus is, what the gospel is, how we come to know God. But within this one body, within this one body, there is a grace that is given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

That is that Jesus Christ Himself has apportioned to each member of the body a gifting that no one else has. Within the body of Christ, there are a variety of gifts and the purpose of these gifts being given, as we talked about last week, is for the building up of this body of Christ so that we may attain the unity of our faith growing in doctrine and knowledge of the Son of God so that we may know Jesus as He truly is, know Him, not just in word and profession, but experientially as we serve God together, as we serve one another, as we go and proclaim the good news, as we serve the community, as we go forth into our vocations and our callings, as we do our education, as we have our relationships with one another, as we're in our families, all these different areas, all of it belongs to Jesus.

And so all of these diverse gifts help us to accomplish these things within the body. So, this diversity in the body. Paul, he quotes this passage here, and we talked about it last week, from Psalm chapter 68, right?

In verse 8, he quotes this passage from Psalm 68 and he applies it to Christ, who is victorious, who secured these gifts, who plundered the enemy, plundered Satan and his kingdom to obtain these things from him, to take them back and to distribute them to God's household, plundering his enemy.

That's what happened when Jesus was raised and ascended. He plundered Satan. And so we should be motivated to use these gifts, as we talked about last week, because of the source from which they come, they come from God, and from the cost that was paid to procure them.

God himself in the flesh shed his blood for your gifting, to apply these things not to yourself, not so that you could go and serve yourself or just be enlightened in a Sunday service and then go about your week forgetting everything else, but he employed the use of these gifts so that you would use them within the body to serve one another.

That's the purpose, not to serve yourself, serve the body of Christ so that we would serve one another and grow up into maturity, grow up into the body of Christ. So what is this passage talking about that Paul is quoting here?

Verse 8, it says,. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. Psalm 68 is a victory hymn of David celebrating God's conquest over the Jebusites and the ascent of God to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, where the presence of Yahweh, symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant, would find its habitation.

So God's King strode out to battle, secured the victory as the conquering king, and then he comes into his defeated, vanquished foe's lair with the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolizes the presence of God with the people of Israel, and he comes leading a royal procession, a victory parade full of captives.

It says in that verse that Christ took captivity captive.

Right?

So in Christ is, what else? The death of death, and in Christ is the captivity of captivity. Christ took captivity captive. As the Apostle Paul makes clear elsewhere in Colossians chapter 1, what does he say about you and I?

He says that we have been transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son, the Son that God loves. We've been moved out of the realm and authority of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son, the rule of the Messiah.

This is our position now. This is where we are in God's kingdom. And so that psalm, the king is leading a royal procession of captives, and you know something that's amazing about this? That could cause us to meditate for days and days on the goodness and glory of God to save us from our sins.

All of these enemies were made willing subjects when they were subjected to this conquering king. Think about that for a moment. You didn't always love God, did you? Before you came to Christ, what were we?

Rebels against the king. We were enemies of God. It's what the book of Romans says. That's how Paul describes us. Enemies of God. Not going towards God, but God in conquering and resting us from the possession of the enemy has put us now in his victory parade so that we are part of his royal procession.

That passage that we read before the service, you remember in 2 Corinthians 4. But thanks be to God, Paul says, who leads us in royal procession, in triumphal procession as we spread the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere.

It's a victory parade because our king now has ascended the highest mountain and we have been drawn up to Zion in his victory parade. The most quoted verse from the Old Testament into the New Testament.

You guys know what it is? Psalm 110 .1 The Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The conquering king ascending his mountain. Us being led in his victory procession.

Christ ruling from the right hand of God. His people who were once enemies now, get this. As it says in Psalm 10 .1, we usually stop right there when we quote that verse, right? Psalm 110 .1 The Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

But there's more. In verse 4 it says something about these captives that have been rested from captivity. It says that they will offer themselves freely on the day of this procession. These enemies of God that were conquered by this king, now they're offering themselves freely.

Why?

Because they love the king now. They're no longer enemies of God. And you and I aren't enemies of God anymore.

We've been saved. We've been changed.

Our hearts have been made new. That heart of stone has been taken out and the heart of flesh has replaced it. God has come into us. He's written His law in our hearts so that we desire to obey Him. You remember where you were when you received Christ?

When you heard His gospel and you turned from sin to come to Him for life? What happened? What happened? You were made a willing subject because you saw Jesus. You saw how glorious He was. You saw how beautiful He was.

You saw that He was worth more to you than your sin. He was more satisfying to you, more enjoyable than anything that this world could give to you and anything that they could take away. He was more enjoyable,.

More satisfying, more delightful.

What He accomplished on behalf of sinners was so beautiful to you that it captured your heart and you turned away from sin and you said, I'm running for You, Jesus. I'm coming to You confessing my sin, confessing You as Lord, turning from my transgressions.

Change me, Lord. Save me. Wreck my life. Turn it upside down. Save me from my sins.

Here we go.

That's what happened. The picture that we're given in Psalm 110 is of people who were once enemies who offer themselves now as living sacrifices. That's what Paul calls us, by the way. Living sacrifices.

Right?

And now, we are volunteers willingly rallying to our leader in this holy war. So wait a minute, Zach.

What are we?

Are we a building that's being built up for God? Are we all under construction being sanctified by God? Or is this a battlefield and we're fighting as soldiers in God's army?

Yes.

The answer is yes. We are both a temple that God is dwelling irregardless of a building.

Right?

And God is preparing us. The reason that He's preparing us in the way that He is and equipping us and preserving us and loving us and taking care of us is so that we do battle against the forces of darkness in the spiritual and heavenly places.

That's where He's going in Ephesians chapter 6, by the way. It's coming. But the purpose to get there, we need to know what we're for. What is the church for? What do we have? What has God put in place to make sure that we reach maturity?

To make sure that we reach the fullness of the knowledge of the Son of God and the unity of faith? What has God put into place? Think about that picture for a second. You read the book of Nehemiah. What do you have when Nehemiah is sent back by the king to build the wall of Jerusalem?

He's building the wall and people try to come stop him.

Right?

They try to put an end to what they're doing to erect the wall in Israel. And so what does He tell the people of Israel to do? These exiles now that have been brought back to build up the structure of Jerusalem again.

He says,.

When you dig,.

Keep a sword on you.

When you build.

The walls of this temple, when you put it back up, be ready to fight as you build. Because we both build and we fight. As Christians, we carry a shovel in one hand and a sword in the other. As we build the kingdom of God through Christ working in us and then we fight off the enemy of darkness.

Building and fighting. That's our calling as a church. Building and fighting and always being ready. Just something to think about. So Christ has ascended and taken His people to glory. He's seated us with Him and now this conqueror, this victor has given gifts to His people.

The first of which is the Holy Spirit. God poured out His Spirit at Pentecost on His people.

He said,.

Don't go anywhere.

Until you receive power from on high. The Holy Spirit who will equip you, who will be with you. You will testify of God and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

It's going to start here and then it's going to grow. And then God's going to bring you out further. And then you're going to be persecuted. He's not saying this but this is what happened. If you read the book of Acts, just read it later.

The church was persecuted. They continued to grow. They continued to expand. They continued to be pushed to the farthest reaches of the earth. Jews came to Christ. Then Gentiles were incorporated into the faith which is God's plan all along by the way for all the families of the earth to return and worship the Lord God of Israel.

Psalm chapter 22. Go read it later. Psalm chapter 22. All the families of the earth returning to worship the Lord God of Israel. That was the plan all along. That wonderful hymn that we sing, Mighty Fortress is Our God.

How many of you guys love that hymn? I sure do. There's a verse in there that says, That word above all earthly power, no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth.

Christ is the builder of God's church. And he uses miserable wretches like me and like you to build him a house in this earth. He uses us for his glory and he wields us as his vessels working through us, being partnered with us to accomplish these things that he's doing.

Right?

So Christ ascended. We know that, right? We know he went to glory. We know that a result of that was that the spirit would be poured out on God's people, right? We see this in John chapter 14, John chapter 16.

Unless I go away, unless I go to be with my father, the spirit will not come. The parakletos, the helper, will not come. It's better that I go away so that the spirit may come. Now, as the people of God, we not only have Christ locally, now he's present in the lives.

Of all of his believers,.

Globally,.

The benefit of giving the gift, being recipients of the gift of the Holy Spirit. But what else does the ascension prove? What does it testify to? Of course, the lordship of Christ, the lordship of the Messiah over all things, but it also proves something else.

This heavenly enthronement, right? As we read about in Daniel chapter 7, Daniel's looking in the night visions.

He says,.

As I saw in the night visions, behold, one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven. And he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away. And his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed. That's what God promised. The ascension of our Lord into the reception of these gifts and another gift that we're given as a result of the ascension is that the sacrifice of Christ, we know according to Hebrews chapter 10, has been accepted by God.

There is no more sacrifice for sins to offer anymore. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 4, says that after he made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. No more sacrifice to offer for sins.

It means that this God-man has gone into heaven and he intercedes for us before the throne of God. But what does that mean exactly? How is Christ as our faithful and high priest interceding for us now?

It means, according to Romans chapter 8, verse 34, right? You know the passage I'm talking about where Paul says that it is God who justifies. It is God who declares us righteous. Who is to condemn? Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf before the Father to make sure that everything that the Lamb of God suffered and bled and died for is applied to us now and for all of eternity.

That's why you.

And you and you and you.

Can go into communion with God and expect God to hear your prayers. You have access now to your Father in his throne room for now and all of eternity. Did that change the way that you woke up this morning?

When you sinned against your wife? You sinned against your child? You sinned against each other? Does that change the way you wake up in the morning? I have a man in heaven who intercedes for me before the throne of God and he was perfect.

He had a perfect righteousness. That's how come he can represent me before the throne of God. That's how he can stand in my place and be my substitute before the Father. Did that change the way you woke up?

I hope so. Certainly something that I thought about today. My own sin. Knowing that Christ, our faithful high priest, our faithful intercessor has declared us righteous. God has declared us righteous on the basis of his Son's work.

Not because we are righteous, but because Christ was righteous. He was blameless. He was perfect. And we get his righteousness as a gift imputed or counted or credited to us by faith in what God has done.

Apart from any work of law, that's the good news of the gospel. Of course, there's more than that. But that's at the heart of the good news. Justification by faith. We're declared righteous. Christ gives gifts to his church.