Equipping the Saints. February 22, 2015 Ephesians 4:11-13

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1 February 22, 2015 Ephesians 4:11-13 Equipping the Saints You re back! Welcome! After our excursion into the whole descended into hell issue, I did not take it for granted that anyone would be here this morning. And yet, I trust that you heard my heart, that this is not a make or break issue for me. In fact, it plays right into the heart of today s text. As Christians, as individuals, as stubborn rugged individualists, we like to divide, we like to stand our ground. We have no problem with going our own way and keeping our distance from everyone else. That is what we like to do. It is just me, and mine, and us, and ours. As long as we have that, we are happy and secure. But then we come to a passage like Ephesians 4: Here we see that God has indeed given individual and differing gifts to each and all of His children, all for the purpose of building up the one unified body called the Church with a capital C. You may have your gift, I may have mine, but we have that gift to further the building up of the one body. The purpose of the gift is to build up the body. To separate, to segregate, to isolate by definition shows a lack of concern for the body, an unhealthy concern for self, a misunderstanding of the purpose of the gift. Listen as I read this short text. I ask you to notice the purpose of the gifts and the actual words used to describe that purpose. They are rich words like fullness, maturity, unity. READ Ephesians 4:11-13 Main point: The purpose of spiritual gifts is to equip believers so that the body of Christ might be strong, healthy, and mature. The purpose of the gifts is not to amaze, not to puff up, not to build kingdoms around us. The purpose of the gifts is to equip individuals to build up the corporate body, the Church to something much bigger, much more powerful than any of us can be on our own. It is all about the bigger picture. Can you see already where this is going to hit us? We are all about self, about me, about us. We want to know, What s in it for me? And God s perspective is, What s in it for the Kingdom? (3 parts)

2 I. Christ Himself has given a variety of gifts to His people. v.11 Yes, this is a sermon about spiritual gifts. But unlike other passages on this topic, this one focuses on their purpose. Here in v.11, we don t even have the specific gift in view, but rather the type of person created by the gift. 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, If we were to look back, we would see the identity of the he. It is Jesus. In other passages, the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit as the giver of the gifts, in fact we often call them, gifts of the Spirit. But here, emphasis is put on Jesus, the head of the body, giving the gifts to the various members of His body. It is the same picture as seen in the previous verses, where the freed captives are given gifts by their Savior. So, from the giving of those gifts, the Head, Jesus, has produced 4 different roles within the body: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastorteachers. Other lists in places like I Corinthians dwell on more extensive lists, including spectacular gifts like tongues and healing as well as less spectacular gifts like service and administration. But here, the short list focuses on leadership type gifts. Whatever were those gifts given, what they produced were apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. Collectively, they represent the highest levels of leadership in the Church. Some (probably including me) would argue that at least one of them no longer exists (apostleship). In the strict sense of the word, apostles no longer exist. But perhaps in the broader sense, there still are apostles. But before we go into the individual offices mentioned here, I want you to see that the roles of leadership come out of spiritual giftedness. Such roles are not given on the basis of longevity, nor popularity, nor social status, but giftedness. Jesus gave some to be... Thus, our role is to discern who it is that has been gifted in such ways. The first one is apostles. Jesus has gifted some to be apostles. This is clear in the sense of Peter, James, John, John, Andrew, Matthew, Paul and the rest. They are easy to pick out as apostles. But the bigger question is whether such gifting still continues. The technical definition of apostle is sent one, from the same root where we get our word postal. But in a biblical sense, an apostle is

3 one who was sent by God to be an authority for His Church. In New Testament times, it meant you had to have had contact with the Lord Himself. Paul qualified as one untimely born who met Jesus on the road to Damascus. By definition, then, there are no more apostles today. No one can rightfully claim to be picked out personally by Jesus and set in that position. And yet, I am very aware that some claim such a position. In a very literal sense, the Roman Catholic church claims that for the pope, the bishop of Rome. They claim today s pope has that office through apostolic succession, one apostle after another through the generations from Peter to present day. Of course, protestants reject such a claim. And yet, there are other groups which claim apostles, some referring to their highest office as apostle. So, the sense of the word is supreme authority and we can debate about whether we ought to use the term today. The second gift on the list is prophet. A prophet is one who speaks for God. Again, there is and probably always has been a debate over whether anyone can actually claim that role. Clearly, if the OT standards for legitimacy is used, few would qualify, 100% accuracy or death. The NT does not seem to hold out the same standard, inviting us to test prophecies. Even then, not all would agree that there are prophets today. And yet, I think all would agree that there is a role for prophets in the Church. All would agree that there is a place for Thus says the LORD sort of preaching. We might just disagree on how far that extends. I see much of what I do as Thus says the LORD work. I do see myself as speaking for God to His people on a regular basis. I trust this does not freak anyone out. The third one is evangelists. An evangelist is someone who proclaims the evangel, the gospel. Such a person is gifted at going where the Church is not yet, building relationships with those not yet believers and introducing them to Christ. An evangelist has a way of explaining the faith that makes sense to those who hear it and knows what to do when they respond. Of the four, the inclusion of the evangelist in this list probably both comforts and scares the most of us. We all know that we are all to be evangelists, we are all to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us, we all know we are supposed to share our faith, and far too many of us are scared to death to do so. So this one scares us. But then we see it in a list like

4 this and it excites us. We can simply claim that we are not gifted at this and bring the people to talk with the gifted evangelist. We are off the hook! The final one is actually two. Because of the pronouns and conjunctions here, it seems that pastors and teachers are linked. Pastors are those who guide and care for the flock. They are ready to stay up all night to watch over the flock, beat back intruders, and command authority with their crook for sheep who wander off. They know their sheep and their sheep know them. This image of shepherding is common in Scripture. A teacher is one who...teaches! A teacher explains the faith to believers, helping them understand what it is that Scripture teaches, what it is that makes up the Christian faith. It is no coincidence that these two are connected. Jesus was a pastor-teacher. We see that connection in His feeding of the 5,000. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, He taught them, He fed them. Jesus was a gifted pastor-teacher. Okay, now here s the rub. There is a sense that the local church has completely skewed this truth. Far too many churches have relied on one hired person, expecting him to be all of these things. We call him pastor. He is the one who exerts authority. He is the one who preaches powerful sermons (Thus says the LORD!), he is the one who reaches the lost, he is the one who cares for the sheep and teaches the faith. Admit it, we want our pastor to do all these things. Right? Why? Because then we don t have to bear any of that responsibility. And then we wonder why the church is not healthy, not strong, not growing, not drawing people. We have placed all of the weight on our hired hand. Do not read between the lines. I am not specifically calling out Hillcrest. But I am preaching the text and applying it to our world today. And the truth is that the church has for far too long relied on its hired hands, expecting them to bear all of these leadership gifts. The image here is many people, each gifted in his or her own way, working in tandem, with the result of the coordinated effort an efficient, powerful living, growing body. And the image I see in the church today is a few people who have been hired, or elected, who do the work in the place of the rest. That makes most of the people simply spare parts sitting on a shelf in the parts room. They sit there until something breaks and they have to fill in, letting everyone know they are not as good as the original. They do not even see themselves as factory original

5 equipment, but after market imitations. And then we wonder why we are not healthy. Let me put it another way. You could rightly measure church health by the number of people utilizing their unique Jesus given spiritual gifts. The more people using their gifts, the healthier the church. Can you see why the larger the church the more challenging the issue? The larger the church the more the pull in the opposite direction, the more pressure on the one person who stands in front and draws a crowd, the more we depend on his giftedness. The larger the church, the more gifts being utilized, the more complex the body, the more difficult it is to get everyone working in tandem. That is the truth. That is what we here at Hillcrest are experiencing, will increasingly experience in the days ahead. When you only need one person to run the kitchen, it works quite efficiently. When you need twenty women to run the kitchen, that could easily be a nightmare, all who see themselves as gifted. When you had Vacation Bible School for 20 kids, no big deal, everyone does his part. But when you have 200 kids for VBS, you have to recruit, train, and coordinate dozens of gifted workers. Are you catching my point? Natural instinct would say it is easier because there are more people to draw from. The truth is it is exponentially harder. We have experienced some of these growing pains. I know administration takes up far more of my time than it did when I first came here. II. The gifts given are for the building up of the body (not us). v.12 If you thought the hard message of the text was v.11, just wait for this verse, and the next verse. The point here is that the gifts are designed to pass along necessary training for those in your midst. Gifts are not meant to lift up the possessors, but the body which benefits from them. Again, a legitimate way to measure would be, How much benefit is the Church receiving from this gift? 12 to prepare God s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

6 To prepare or equip. The purpose of these offices in v.11 and the gifts of the Spirit which empower them, is to prepare or equip God s people for works of service. It is not to do the work themselves. Those who have the gift of teaching are to use it to prepare the people to do their work. Those who have the gift of evangelism are to use it to train the people to do it themselves. The focus must always be on the training, preparing, equipping of the rest of the people so they might benefit from your giftedness. It is not, You do it, so they don t have to. Rather, it is, You are gifted at it, so train them to do it as well. Can you see the principle of multiplication, or exponential growth? If every church had one gifted evangelist, who used that gift to evangelize, where would it be? But if every church had one gifted evangelist, who used that gift to train everyone in evangelism, where would it be? The same for teaching, preaching, administration, whatever. The purpose of the gift is to multiply the work and efficiency of the body. As the gifts are utilized, as the effects are multiplied, the whole body is built up, it increases in size, in strength, in effectiveness. The size, strength, effectiveness can be measured by the number of people equipped for works of service. Once more, is that how the church of today is organized? Absolutely not. Most people s image of the church is a place I go to meet with God once a week. Period! If I feel good, if I am relieved of my burden of sin and lifted up in my spirit, if I have been challenged from His Word, the church has met its requirements. Can you see how far that is from the image of this text? Imagine with me for a moment a church where everyone was using his or her unique giftedness (v.11) to equip others, to multiply the gift, to carry out works of service (which God has prepared in advance for us to do (2:10), to build up the body of Christ (v.12). What would that be like? Gifted teachers training teachers, gifted musicians training musicians, gifted leaders training leaders, gifted youth workers training youth workers. I can t imagine, or only in my dreams. Instead, we identify one, who utilizes his gift to do the work, which overwhelms because there is too much. Oh yes, we have much to learn! III. The goal of the gifts is have all believers reach spiritual maturity, forming a healthy Church. v. 13

7 If you thought the worst was over, now we come to v.13. Here we see that the goal of such giftedness and training is to reach unity, maturity, spiritual health. In fact, it is more than that, the goal is to experience the fullness of Christ. This is the path to experience the fullness of Christ. v.13- until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. until in other words, keep going, don t stop, don t sit back and relax until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son. So, when does that happen? It doesn t. It is always in process. And the nature of a living body is that those that arrive die and the rough stock keeps getting added in. Every generation, every year means a new set of people to start, graduate to the next level and so on. But notice the wording here, unity in the faith and knowledge of Jesus. Don t stop until everyone holds tightly the same faith and knows, really knows Jesus. In other words, they are all working together and share the same love for Jesus. When you get to that point, you can stop. Right? Now, here I come again. How do we too often handle that? Segment off. We slice off most, leaving only those with whom I have the most influence, where I have the most control. Not only is this true among churches and denominations and traditions, it is true within churches. We call that silo ministries. We live in a silo, we care only about what happens in our particular silo. We limit our perspective to only me and my ministry...and then complain about everyone else who does not care about my ministry as much as I do. The church is filled with silo ministries. You see it in the fact that they do not want to work together. The arm people only want to work with arm people. They don t care about the legs. The stomach only care about getting food to the stomach, they don t care about the shine of the teeth, or whether the eyes can see the food. As long as the food gets to the stomach, that s all they care. That s not unity, that s not maturity. become mature How about grow up? As one of our leaders so wisely said shortly after I arrived at Hillcrest, there is a big difference between old age and maturity. In this context, maturity might be better understood in terms of

8 crop production. Maturity means producing fruit. There will be fruit. In other words, a right measurement for a church would be the amount of fruit being produced, knowing that maturity is necessary to produce fruit. By definition, fruit comes at maturity, not immaturity, not infancy, not all along the way. Flowers come right away, stem growth comes right away, leaves, buds, all the rest. But fruit comes at maturity. And that is what we see here. The goal of the gifts is to reach fruit bearing maturity. The last is the full measure of the fullness of Christ. In other words, if you want to experience all there is of Jesus Christ, be a part of a healthy church. Do you want to know Christ more? Associate yourself with people who are utilizing their gifts to build up the body and stick with them to maturity. Make sense? Again, what is natural? I don t need the church to be a Christian. You re right. But both you and the church will be stunted in their growth if you choose this path. You will never know the fullness of Christ apart from the church. Your fruit will be limited apart from the church. And the church will miss your giftedness. God gave it to you to build up the church, not you. So, if we believe this passage is the Word of God, then what should be different about our lives? (I think I could come up with 100) 1) We will see ourselves as vital parts of the church, as having a unique, Jesus given gift and role within the church. As I so often say it, the church needs you and you need the church. That s what will be different if this is the Word of God. 2) We will seek to identify that giftedness and use it to build up the body, so often through the passing on of it to others. It s kind of like the Habitat for Humanity philosophy of building houses. You don t need all experts, rather only a few who multiply their skills and gifts through willing workers. If everyone is willing to work, there doesn t need to be so many truly gifted people. 3) We will be most satisfied seeing our giftedness multiplied, not just used. We have to be willing to work through others. We have to be willing to be on the sidelines coaching, be in the stands cheering, rather than the center of the spotlight performing. Remember, there is no Christian spare parts room!

9 4) We will strive for unity and maturity. We will not be satisfied with me and mine mentality, with this much is good enough. No, we will look around and see more people and think, the task just got larger...and that s a good thing. Let s get to work! 5) We see all that we do as part of the larger whole of the church. We will not silo off our ministry, our work, our relationships. 6) We will value the church. It is God s plan A, there is no plan B. Amen?