Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

We are in our third message of a new series entitled “Family Matters.”

We’re taking a break from the book of Revelation so we can study what God’s Word says about how to do church.

I’m assuming you have some degree of interest in the church or you wouldn’t be here this morning.

But the reality is there’s a growing apathy towards the local church.

People’s commitment to and involvement with the local church has decreased over the past many months and years.

It’s an unfortunate reality because a Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble.

Church Matters

The local church should really matter to US because the local church really matters to GOD.

We saw this last week in Ephesians 3.

The local church is God’s plan A for accomplishing his redemptive purposes in the world.

We have been purchased by Christ’s blood.

We been bought with a price and brought into a new covenant and new covenant community.

We are to continue Christ’s Ministry.

We are the visible and tangible continuation of Christ’s ministry and presence on the earth.

Finally we are to steward Christ’s authority.

, with the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Local church have been invested with the authority of Christ and will therefore be accountable to him for how they stewarded that authority.

Given these truths about why the local church matters we also discovered a core set of things that really matter in the church.

It matters to God that the members of a local church be truly saved.

This is why our church is committed to a regenerate church membership and believers baptism.

It matters to God that members of a local church be progressively sanctified.

Everyone is welcome to come just as they are.

However, membership in a church should entail you not staying AS you are but progressively becoming more and more of who Christ wants you to be.

Finally, it matters to God that members of a local church be submitted to Jesus Christ .

Christ’s keys are a stewardship.

They’re temporary and we’re accountable.

We also said that Christ doesn’t give us a command without also giving us the means and tools to accomplish his commands.

There are four in particular.

The Word: First, Christ has given his Word to the local church.

By this I don’t only mean the completed cannon of Scripture as much as I do the Gospel preached by Christ and the rest of the apostles.

The Spirt: Closely related to the Word is the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God and the Word of God go hand in hand.

They work synergistically in the life of a local church.

Ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper act like a fence and a gate.

They help us remember Christ’s work on the cross but they also help maintain the purity of the local church.

Offices: Finally we have the offices.

We’re going to look at that today.

Pastors and Deacons (and healthy church leadership) are given to churches to help provide structure and stability and protection.

Last week I used the analogy of a house.

The Ordinances are the doors,

The Word acts like the frame of a house giving stability and structure.

The Spirit acts like electricity running through a house giving power to everything within.

The Offices act like plumbing underneath the house (in that nobody really notices it until there’s a mess that needs to be cleaned up.)

Read The Text

We’re going to talk more about that last one this morning.

Our preaching passage is Ephesians 4:1-11.

If you’ll remember last week I said that the book of Ephesians is a fantastic blueprint for how local churches ought to operate.

Ephesians 4 starts a shift in Paul’s letter from the theology of the Gospel to the practical outworking of that theology on how we live our live and how we structure the local church.

Verses 1-6 review chapters 1-3.

In verse 7 Paul begins to speak of Christ’s authority in the church and his gift of the Holy Spirit TO the church.

Ephesians 4:7 says, “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

That gift he’s talking about is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit empowers us for for the mission of Christ and ministry within the church.

But the Spirit gives different gifts to different people and appoints particular people to particular offices within the Church.

Verse 11 begins to spell out those details.

Ephesians 4:11–16 (CSB)

11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 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.

14 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.

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

16 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.

Healthy Church = Healthy Structure

This is one of my favorite passages in all of the New Testament for how the local church is supposed to work.

Jesus Christ is the head of the church.

The church is called to grow into Christ.

Christ has given pastors to equip the saints and build up the body.

When each part works the way it is supposed to work, the church as a whole grows healthy and strong!

In other words, healthy churches have a healthy structure.

From this text and some supporting passages elsewhere in the New Testament I want to show what I believe to be Christ’s design for the “proper working” of the local church.

Four pillars of healthy church governance.

Christ ruled

Congregationally Affirmed

Pastor Led

Deacon/Member Served

Christ & The Congregation

The first two pillars are Christ and the congregation.

Jesus Christ is the head of every healthy church.

We saw this in our text today.

Eph 4:15 “ But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.”

By the way, this isn’t the only passage that talks about Christ as the head of the church.

Ephesians 1:22 says that Christ is the head over EVERYTHING FOR THE CHURCH.

(not just authority in the Church but authority over all things for the church)

Colossians 2:9-10 says the same thing “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

To be the “head” of something means to have authority over and responsibility for that which is underneath you.

Christ is in authority OVER the church and has taken responsibility FOR the church.

He told Peter, “I will build my church!” (Matthew 16:18)

It is “CHRIST who washes us with the water of the Word.”

(Eph 5:26)

Congregational Authority

Christ is our head.

But Christ, as our head, exercises his authority through His body, the Church.

In our constitution and by-laws we say we are “pastor led and congregationally ruled.”

That language isn’t wrong but it is indirect.

We’re really ruled by Jesus Christ but our congregation is tasked with affirming whether or not we’re in alignment with our head.

That doesn’t mean pastors don’t LEAD.

We obviously do (as we’ll see in a minute.)

But the authority of Christ doesn’t rest in a single individual.

It rests in the congregation.

I love that quote by John Maxwell, “If you’re leading but nobody else is following then you’re not leading, you’re just taking a walk.”

That’s true in the local church as well.