The Gifts for Edification of the Church (4:11-16)

Introduction:

If you would do an internet search on books, blogs, or videos on how to build a successful church, you would be overrun with more information then you could probably weed through in your lifetime. And yet the scripture makes it very clear to us on how we are to build the church. We need only to study it contents and implement its commands in order to be successful at this task.

The last time we were together, we looked at how our Lord and King, Jesus, when he rose form the dead and ascended into heaven, lead in his victory march captives which consisted of those who he conquered (Satan and his kingdom), and those that he freed from Satans kingdom, his true church. He then gave gifts to his true church, and that the different gifts we given to individual parts of Christ’s body so that they can function in unity.

We will see this morning, that the ultimate purpose of The Gifts is for the Edification (or building up) of the Church. So with that in mind, lets turn to Ephesians 4:11-16.

Text: Ephesians 4:11-16

Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 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, 14 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. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 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.

Main Idea: Since Christ gave gifts to his people, we, as his people are responsible to use them to complete his work of growing his body, the true church, to maturity.

I. The Gifts (11)

We begin in verse 11 with the conjunction, and, which links us to the section before where we are told about the giving of gifts by Christ as he ascended into heaven and now we will see that these gifts are varied in function yet unified in scope.

You will notice that this list of gifts is not exhaustive, as in 1 Cor 12:1-11, or Romans 12:6-8, but are purposely chosen in this context to focus on those gifts that were foundational and used for growth.

The first two gifts have to do with how the church started and the necessity of a firm, true foundation, these are the:

A. Foundational Gifts (11a)

(11a) And he gave the apostles, the prophets,

he gave (didomai [aor, act, ind]) - Christ gave that which they did not inherently possess.

the apostles (apostolos [noun] - literally, messengers on a mission), the prophets (prophetes [noun] - literally, one who speaks in behalf of and interprets the will of a supreme being) - Though these literal definitions could be talking about anybody, scripture helps us understand that these special messengers and speakers were part of the early churches’ apostolic team used to lay the foundation of the church. We remember back in chapters 2 & 3...

Ephesians 2:19–22 ESV

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:3–5 ESV

3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

Since the the NT apostles and prophets were the foundation of the holy temple of the Lord upon which we, the true church are being built, this means that when the apostles and prophets died, so did the need for any future apostles and prophets.

One of the most important responsibilities of the early apostles and prophets was to receive revelation for God, and write it down as the Holy Spirit inspired them. When the apostles and prophets passed, so did God’s revelation given to these men, since it was then complete. Paul alludes to this in 1 Corinthians 13:

1 Corinthians 13:8–10 ESV

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

That I believe is talking about the completion of the Cannon of Scripture, which is the perfect that came, rendering the partial obsolete.

Psalm 19:7 ESV

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

James 1:25 ESV

25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Now that the apostles and prophets laid the foundation for the church, how will the church be built? This is what Paul explains to us next...

B. Building Gifts (11b)

(11b) the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

the evangelists (evangelistes [noun]) - Literally, a bringer of good tidings. One who preaches the gospel particularly to the unregenerate.

This is a gift given by Christ, which means that there are some who have received it and some who have not. This is true with all the gifts, some have one gift while others have another. Sometime, the Holy Spirit gives more then one gift to a person or persons.

However, though this gift is a specific gift given to some and not all, we are told to evangelize, or preach the gospel. The difference is, that the gifted evangelist has a passion and ability to talk to anyone, anywhere, at anytime, whereas Paul tells the rest of us to evangelize as God leads and enables us. We see this description laid out in Acts and Timothy:

Acts 21:8 ESV

8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

2 Timothy 4:5 ESV

5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

We see from these passages that Philip was a known gifted evangelist, whereas Timothy, was not a gifted evangelist, but he was nonetheless commanded to evangelize. I believe the difference is where God has directed your passions. All of us have been commended to make disciples, which includes evangelism but not exclusively.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

After evangelizing and God brings people to himself through the gospel, we bring them into the church as part of that discipleship process to be under the care of:

the shepherds (poimen [noun] - pastor, who is shepherd over a flock) and teachers (didaskalos [noun] one who instructs didactically) - Many times this man has both the gift to shepherd and care for the flock and is skilled in teaching doctrinally the word of God. Many commentators put these together as pastor/teacher.

Note that this is a gift in which a man is given a passion for, and yet, just like the call to evangelize, we have been called to care for one another, and to teach each other through exhortation and discipline.

Hebrews 3:13 ESV

13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Fathers are called to raise their children in the nurturing instruction of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

One final point, these gifts are given to the body whether you are male or female. However, the gifts of church leadership as elder/pastor are exclusively declared for men in the assembly of the local church (1 Tim 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). However, women with these gifts are free to use them in the assembly of other women or children.

So what is the purpose of these foundational and building gifts?

II. Their Purpose (12-14)

The three purposes that I believe Paul is teaching us are progressive…each coming to fruition and spawning the next one as we continue in the exercise these gifts…BTW, each purpose never ends, but it continues to be the wellhead of the next purpose...

A. Equip for Ministry (12)

(12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

to equip (katartismos [noun]) - to furnish completely

the saints (hagios [adjective]) - the set apart ones; born again believers. This equipping is not for the world but for the saints. The coming together on Sunday mornings or whenever the church assembles is for the body of Christ! So for what reason do we equip them?

for (eis [preposition of direction]) the work (ergon [noun]) of ministry (diakonia [noun]) - this equipping by the gifted ones is to furnish them completely in the direction of service, which will be used...

for (eis [preposition of direction]) building up (oikodome [noun] - bring something closer to fullness or completion) the body of Christ - so as the work continues, we get closer to completing the body of Christ. Each saint has been given this responsibility, and we carry on until we...

B. Become Like Christ (13)

(13) 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,

until (mechri [conjunction]) - to the point of

we all attain (katantao [aor, act, sub] - to reach a state of) to the unity - note that these individual gifts bring us back to the their purpose, and that is unity...

of the (ho [definite article]) faith (pistis [noun]) - unity in the faith, that body of doctrine declared by the apostles and prophets when they laid the foundation.

of the knowledge (epignosos [noun] - clearly and distinctly known in contrast to superficial knowledge) of the Son of God -

to mature manhood, - The underlying figure is that of a strong, mature, well-built male (not just “human being”).

Ephesians 4:1–16

Just as a physically robust man can be pictured as being filled with vibrant strength and without defect, so the spiritually mature individual, which is the ideal for all believers to attain, is without spiritual flaw, filled with goodness, that is, with every Christian virtue that results from faith in, and heart-knowledge of, the Son of God.

This well built male, a tower of strength, able to stand all opposition since he is patterned...

to the measure (metron [noun] - the quantity of) of the stature (helikia [noun] - maturity, age or life span) of the fullness (pleroma [noun] - completeness, totality) of Christ

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 4

Christ Jesus is the standard of the maturity to which the church must aspire. Christ’s fullness is the full expression of his divine and human perfection

So in essence, we continually equip the saints until they are unified in their faith and knowledge of Christ, and portray that image of Christ to its fulness as we sojourn on this earth. As we engage in this continual process, we will also...

C. Be Steadfast in Doctrine (14)

(14) 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.

so that (hina [conjunction]) - so as a result

we may no longer be children - in contrast to the mature man, and is defined by being...

tossed to and fro - this picture of instability takes its analogy from the sea in whose waves toss to and fro anything that is found on it. This analogy is sequenced by four progressive propositional phrases, each being defined from the next one in progression:

by the waves and carried about - like sea waves are able to carry us about because of the wind, so being children in the faith, we can be carried about by...

by every wind of doctrine - this wind of doctrine that tosses is produced not by the apostles and prophets, which will cause us to grow, but by...

by human cunning - which, because it is of man and not of God, purposely drives us away from our foundation (apostles and prophets) and is being fed by...

by craftiness in deceitful schemes - this craftiness and deceitful schemes play on the unsuspecting immature children in our midst.

Therefore, when we are faithful to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, we bring them to the level of maturity where they emulate Jesus Christ, and keep them from being deceived by every wind of doctrine.

So what does it look like in a maturing church? We will answer this in our last point as we look at how the gifts function.

III. Their Function (15-16)

Up to this point, we saw the responsibility of those gifted to build the church with evangelizing, shepherding, and teaching. Now we will look at the result of growing to maturity within the members of Christ’s body…not, we are not to be static sponges that soak in and never give out...

A. Speaking and Growing (15)

(15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Rather (de [logical conjunction]) - in other words, instead of being children that are tossed about by false doctrine, we are to be...

[speaking the truth] (aletheuo [pre, act, par] - used 2x in NT, here and in Gal 4:16 “16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?”) in love (agape [noun]) - we use the true doctrine to exhort and encourage one another, and since this truth may be confrontational, it must always be done in the bond of God’s love. This must be done if...

[we are to grow up] (auxano [aor, act, sub] - a snapshot of growth) [in every way] (pas [adjective] - complete)

into (eis [preposition of direction]) him who is the head (kephale [noun] - control center), into Christ, - the goal and direction of growth is that we as individuals and we as a body would display the image and glorify our head, Jesus Christ. Note that this means that anything else to which our growth may be directed is false and probably idolatrous.

B. Working and Growing (16)

(16) 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.

from whom - our head, Jesus Christ.

the whole body- His body the church to which his head is attached is...

joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped - in other words, the body is held together and unified by the gifted equipping mentioned in verse 12, enabling it to function as designed...

when each part is working properly - that equipping brings both unity and functionality to the body, like having a well oiled and maintained machine. Note that when each part is working properly, it...

makes the body grow - the ultimate goal is growth. Not necessarily numerical but spiritual.

so that (eis [preposition of direction])- this growth is directed so...

it builds [itself] up (oikodome [noun] - the object where the growth is directed) in (en [preposition of means]) love (agape [noun]) - because the growth is done according to God’s plan, the means in which this growth takes place is the love that God gives as a result.

So What?

Do we understand that the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, is to be used by the evangelists and pastor/teachers to grow the church through equipping them for ministry?

Do we understand that the purpose of all of the spiritual gifts is to build the body of Christ, his true church, toward maturity, and keep on doing so until the Lord returns?

Note once again the individual parts working for the total unity of the body.