Equipped for Acts of Service

We’ll read from Eph. 4. As I studied the passage this week, I noticed ch. 4 came after ch. 2!

1st half of Eph. 2

Blunt: you [& I] are dead in transgressions and sin.

b/c of his great love, God made us alive w/ Christ.

Jesus descended from heaven to rescue us.

God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ.

2nd half of Eph. 2

o You who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ:

o Christ made Jews and Gentiles one body.

Eph. 3

o By God’s grace, Paul proclaims the mystery of salvation, despite suffering and imprisonment.

o Paul’s urgent prayer that Chr. grasp God’s love

Read passage: Eph. 4:4-13

Jesus, who descended to rescue humankind from sin and death has ascended to heaven victorious over sin and death. From heaven, he gives gifts to his people. YOU are his people.

Paul uses imagery of a physical body to describe the Church in this letter. He speaks of how the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians have become one body in Christ. It’s quite remarkable really: People who are new to God’s plan of salvation are as much part of the body of Jesus Christ as those who can count trace their ancestors as members of God’s chosen people for many generations.

Paul uses the same imagery of the body of Christ in letters he wrote to other churches as well. The 1stletter to Chr. in Corinth, for example:

Wewere all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

I Corinthians 12:12–14(NIV)

Paul uses the complexity and variety of unique features of a human body to describe the church. He reminds the church in Ephesus – and Crosspoint: you are united by faith in Jesus into one body. It’s Paul’s main point in the 2nd half of ch. 2:

Hispurpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

Ephesians 2:15b–16 (NIV)

But that doesn’t mean every church member is the same.

Look around: God did not use a cookie-cutter to make us all. It’s a good thing too. If all of us looked the same, thought the same, and acted the same, Crosspoint would be a very boring and lobsided congregation, don’t you think?

All your different abilities, different skills, different insights, different passions are gifts to the rest of the body by the grace of Jesus Christ. Our differences also bring glory to God b/c those differences give us a sense of awe: how can such a wide variety of people each bear the image of God?

God is bigger and more amazing than we ever imagined!

You’ve been invited to think about some of these differences as we selected elders and deacons this year. Starting in January, you were asked to prayerfully consider who is gifted and called by God to serve as elders and deacons at Crosspoint. We’re looking for people who you respect for their spiritual maturity, gifts, and wisdom.

· Who is honest, generous, merciful, mature and could serve as deacon?

· Who has hope, faith, and love – a model of what you want to be when your faith is more mature – and could serve as an elder?

There are other ways of selecting leaders, of course.

We could assign turns in leadership strictly in alphabetical order:

· Bakkers, Berkels, Breens, and Bylstras, this year,

· Carpanis, Clarks, Droogers and Dykxhoorns next year.

Our process is meant to be more discerning than arbitrarily going through the membership in alphabetical order. The goal is to recognize gifts and recognize that people are in different seasons of life. We try to balance the invitation to serve at Crosspoint against God’s calling in other parts of our lives:

· Parenting and other care-giving roles,

· vocation,

· other areas of serving God in our community.

Then there’s the different ways that Jesus has apportioned his gifts. Even among leaders, the Bible recognizes different gifts and different roles. In this letter, Paul mentions 5 roles:

Apostles – drive and passion to build the Kingdom of God

Prophets – insight from HS into God’s Word and God’s will

Evangelists – concern for people far from God to come near

Pastors – compassion to care for struggling and hurting

Teachers – ability to help people learn and understand

We don’t often use those categories to talk about leadership roles at Crosspoint, we use the titles of Elders, Deacons, and Ministers of the Word as described in the NT book of Acts and the NT letters: I & II Timothy and Titus.

When we read through the charge to the elders, deacons, and minister earlier in the service, the distinctions between those roles were sketched out. But the roles are united in Christ by prayer and the guidance of God’s Word and Spirit. They’re united in purpose as well.

In the letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul explains what the leaders are supposed to do: AV tech: no slide here.

Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,

to equip his people for works of service,

so that the body of Christ may be built up

· until we all reach unity

o in the faith

o and in the knowledge of the Son of God

· and become mature,

attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11–13 (NIV)

Leaders in church equip people for works of service:

What kind of work do you think that is?

The work is to imitate Jesus in loving God 100% and loving our neighbours as ourselves. We’re meant to rule God’s creation under Christ as king, caring for people, animals, plants, and the whole earth.

God’s word in this letter builds up our knowledge of how we are transformed through knowledge and self-control to become more like Christ. The opening sentence of Eph. 4 reminds us of the calling we have from Jesus:

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Ephesians 4:1 (NIV)

It’s a calling to live a different life. Repentance from sin involves turning from the wrong direction and beginning to go the correct way. Paul calls Christians to be transformed by the gospel using a variety of images.

Later in ch. 4, there’s a contrast b/t immature people w/ their deceitful scheming and the expectations of believers (vs 15):

Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Ephesians 4:15 (NIV)

By God’s word and Spirit, there’s a transformation taking place in each believer (vs 22):

To put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; . . . and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:22–24 (NIV)

Here, like elsewhere in the Bible, believers are told to be careful about what you say (v. 29):

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 4:29 (NIV)

In the next chap. God’s word expresses concern for moral purity:

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

Ephesians 5:3 (NIV)

We have been rescued from sinful behaviour; why would we ever want to get trapped in that dirty stuff again?

God’s word uses imagery of light and darkness to describe the transformation from the old self to the new self:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

Ephesians 5:8–9 (NIV)

Yet the journey of faith is not an individual sport.

Growing in faith is a team sport; it’s a group project. We’re on this journey together. We’re pursuing faith and knowledge of the Son of God together. Together we strive to become mature in faith.

It takes leaders who set a good example. It takes good teaching and encouragement. It takes guidance, coaching, and accountability.

We do not expect new believers or immature Christians to avoid all mistakes and all temptations. The goal of Chr. leaders is to catch people when they fall, reassure them of the gospel, and restore them gently, so they can learn and grow and mature from their mistakes and failures.

In this letter, Paul points out the goal of our efforts

Christhimself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.

Ephesians 4:11–13 (NIV)