Summer Series, “Being an Authentic Church” (Sermon #5)

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Serving Together in Christ (Eph 4:1-7; 11-17)

As we enter into fifth sermon in our series titled, “Being and Authentic Church,” I hope we are gaining a Biblical picture of how Christ desires His church to live and function. Again, let us be reminded of what Paul says about the church in Ephesians 2:19–22

“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

Today’s lesson deals with “Serving Together in Christ,” and represents the fourth pillar, if you will, to the spiritual house God is desiring to build us up to here at Connection Church.

Questions about serving the Lord are not marginal questions. Serving involves the everyday life of a Christian. John Piper says this:

“I think this is one of the most important questions a Christian can ask about living the Christian life in a way that glorifies God and does good to other people. It gets at the utterly crucial issue of a right way of serving God that honors him and blesses people, and a wrong way of serving God that dishonors him and doesn’t help people. This is not a marginal issue. We’re talking about what it means to be a Christian moment by moment in real life.”

Throughout Scripture, we are taught that we should, “serve the Lord.”

Psalm 100:2 “Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.”

Deuteronomy 10:12 ““And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”

Joshua 24:15 “… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.””

Romans 12:11 “not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;”

There are many who struggle understanding what it is to serve the Lord. It is my belief, people will struggle with serving the Lord if they don’t understand the purpose of serving—we will discuss this purpose near the conclusion of our time today; here are some examples:

Some see serving God as though we earn wages from him—or as though we could meet some need of God; in essence making Him our beneficiary (this is a warning light)

Some see serving God through a lens of, “He needs our service.” (this is a warning light)

Acts 17:25 “Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”

Some see serving as a gateway to salvation—the means of righteousness (this is a warning light)

Romans 4:4–5 “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”

In other words, as Piper says, “We did not get right with God in the beginning of our Christian life by serving Him for a wage of salvation. He worked for us, he served us, not us Him. He did the humanly impossible on the cross.”

Our focus today, is to set aside some of these “red flags” we’ve allowed to develop about serving and look through a Biblical lens of what it is to serve the Lord

(READ EPHESIANS 4:1-7)

David Jeremiah states this concerning Christian unity, “Unity is not union (“being connected to one another”), uniformity (“being exactly like one another”), or unanimity (“always agreeing with one another”). It is an organic oneness based on Christ as the common center. Believers are not required to create unity but to keep that unity that already is theirs in Christ.”

David writes this in Psalm 133 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, Descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing— Life forevermore.”

Why start here? Serving—in any capacity, becomes stunted, if there is division within the body. It’s as believers, “make every effort to keep the unity…” that the church can live out it’s purpose. God is not just building a shell of a building, nor is He building a house of division. He is building a house for a purpose and purpose we are all a part of and have a role in; to understand our role (serving the Lord), we must keep a hold of unity.

(READ EPHESIANS 4:1-6)

I. (v.1) We must walk worthy

Ephesians 4:1-2 “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,”

Paul begins his push for Christian unity with the individual believer’s worthy walk

To walk is to walk purposefully and intentionally, with a settled mind on the path and destination

Worthy indicates a balance and means we are to balance what Christ has done for us with a change in how we live

What does the phrase, “walk worthy,” come to mean then?

With a settled mind—purposefully and intentionally, we live according to what God has done on our behalf—not out of guilt, but in recognition of our position as sons and daughters of God; that we have been made His children

The individual believer, through the discourse of spiritual maturity, contributes to the unity of the body of believers

(v.2) Four qualities that protect our Christian unity

(Lowliness) Paul admonishes the Philippian church that nothing should, “be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” (Phil 2:3)

(FIRST) People, due to spiritual immaturity and their own sin-nature, just seem to strive with others; they

Talking about differences

Jealousy/envy

Desire for position/recognition

Opposition

Gossip/slander

The love of flattery

Forming cliques

The great root which brings about division within the church is PRIDE;

If pride takes root in the church, people will begin to strive against one another; division, disunity, and discord begins to grow as mold within the church—THESE THINGS ARE A TERRIBLE CRIME AGAINST THE CHURCH

(SECOND) Some people desire/seek glory within the church; Scripture refers to this as “vain glory;” these people want the:

Attention/recognition

Position/flattery

Praise/honor

The focus to be on themselves

To sit on committees and recognized as the leader(s) of the church

Again, attitudes and hearts set to this only serve their pride and create ripple effects of division and disunity within the church

Lowliness, however, means we are to (1) have a humble opinion of one's self, this a deep sense of one's (moral) littleness, it’s an attitude of modesty, humility, lowliness of mind

We are not to just offer oneself as lowly and submissive, but we are to walk in a spirit of lowliness

To deny oneself for the sake of Christ to help the body of believers:

The world looks at humility as a vice; it often looks as says man is a

Coward

Person “with no backbone”

A cringing or despicable type of person

Man themselves fear humility, for they feel it

Shows/displays weakness

Will make them the object of contempt of abuse, persecution/mockery

Be a blow to their ego

What Scripture says about humility?

God exalts the humble

Proverbs 29:23 “A man’s pride will bring him low, But the humble in spirit will retain honor.”

James 4:10 “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Lowliness is something which must be developed in us:.

Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Romans 12:16 “Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.”

1 Peter 5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,”

Humility’s requirement:

An honest evaluation of oneself: The hard truth is that we have a tendency to see ourselves unrealistically—in ways where we are placing ourselves at the center of everything

It takes courage/boldness to look into the mirror and see our self-centeredness, our pride/ego, self-admiration

(Meekness)

Meekness is to be

Gentle,

Kind,

Humble, and

Considerate, and strongly so

Meekness (power under control) has the strength to control and discipline—and does so at the right time

The state of mind in the characteristic of meekness is humility

The walk of the meek person walks in humility regardless of status or circumstance

The fruit born from the meek person is the love of people and the love of peace

The meek person associates with the less fortunate/poor/cast-out/and forgotten

Meek people associate with the poor, needy, cast-out and forgotten and it does not bother them

The spiritual fruit seen in the meek person is strong self-control

Self-control of their spirit & mind

Self-control of the lusts of their flesh, lust of their eyes, and the pride of life

(Long-suffering)

Long-suffering (Greek) means

Patience; with bearing and suffering a long time;

To be steadfast and enduring and to be constant and persevering—no matter the attack/hardship/trial, patience never gives in

The long-suffering person:

Never strikes back

Never retaliates

Never holds a grudge, but has forgiveness in their nature

(Forbearance/bearing with others in love) Note four things about AGAPE love:

Agape love is the of God, the very love displayed and demonstrated by God Himself; it is love

For the ungodly and unworthy sinners

For those who are underserving and utterly unworthy of being of Christ

Agape love (this love of God) is difficult for us in our, because of our fallen/sinful nature

Love is viewed as transaction, not sacrificial

Love is designated to those who we deem worthy of it or deserving of it

Agape love—then—must have this perspective:

The two things which put Christ on the cross—was our sin and God’s love—God did the harder thing in sending His Son to the cross, so we ought not be making excuses as to why we refuse to love others

Agape love is a gift of God (three things)

It’s a love we experience as we come to know God personally

It’s a love we must love other believers with, and

We must share with others, in order they might know the love of God and know Him personally

This love we share, provides hope to lost sinners to need salvation

Romans 5:5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Agape love is the greatest possession and gift in life, according to Christ Himself

Mark 12:29-31 “Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.””

1 John 3:11 “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,”

1 John 3:23 “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

Agape loves bears it’s own characteristics:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.”

II. (v.3) The believer who commits to these characteristics is committed to the endeavor to keep the unity of the body

Ephesians 4:3 “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Believers are to endeavor at keeping unity within the body:

Anyone who approaches God through Jesus Christ—come as anyone else

On equal footing/the same ground—at the foot of the cross

No better or no worse than anyone else

As people in need of God’s forgiveness/grace/mercy/love

Anyone who comes to Christ has the Spirit of God indwelt in his heart and are instantly bound to other believers, again in Christ.

There is a great spiritual bond b/t believers

There is a great need for divisiveness, differences, prejudices, and partialities to be laid aside, and

There is a great need for a spirit of love, peace, and unity to exist within the body of believers

Note the word “endeavor”—this means to be diligent, working to take care to walk worthy and keep the unity within the body.

People are different—in their personalities, ideas, strength’s, weaknesses, giftings, and talents

People aren’t always going to agree—not always going to get along—not always see eye to eye

Because of the reasons and b/c of what God thinks of division, we must “endeavor” to hold on to unity, and be reminded of the following, seen in verses 4-6:

III (v.4-6) Seven reasons for endeavoring to keep unity:

Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

A note on Paul’s use of the word unity: (David Jeremiah) “This is the only chapter in the NT that mentions the word unity (one). Paul, using the word “one”, describes Christian unity in seven ways:”

One body:

There are not two bodies or several bodies of believers. God is creating ONE body of people who would trust and follow His only begotten Son, who are:

Born again

John 1:12-13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Titus 3:5 “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”

1 Peter 1:23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,”

1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.”

New creations

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Ephesians 4:24 “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:10 “and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,”

Given God’s divine nature

2 Peter 1:4 “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Indwelt with God’s Holy Spirit

John 14:16-17 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

To bear spiritual fruit

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Placed into a new body of people (the church—the people He is creating)

One Spirit

The same Holy Spirit that dwells in one believer, dwells in all believers (members of the body)

God’s Spirit causes a man to be born again

God’s Spirit calls/gifts/directs each member to fit in and work within the body

Each believer, indwelt with the same Spirit must do his/her part to carry out the mission of the body—for Christ

Anyone acting contrary/acting independent of the body-is of a body of a different spirit—for there is only ONE creating the body of Christ

To act/behave/think/treat others, any other way than how Christ treats them—is acting contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit, and there should be repentance!

One hope

The great day of redemption; eternal life in presence of Jesus Christ and God the Father in the new heavens and new earth, is the hope ALL believers share in

Every believer will share in what Scripture says will be experienced in glory

One Lord

There is only one Master and King

Every believer has bowed and surrendered to Jesus Christ as both Lord AND Savior

Every believer is subject to Christ and how He calls us to live

One faith

There are not two faiths or several faiths

There is only ONE faith that leads man into God’s presence—this faith is founded in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:1-2)

There is no other approach to God

One baptism

In salvation, each believer has first experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit—this is something all believers share

In regards to the church—the local body, the public sign of a believer’s faith is baptism by immersion—this identifies the believer as being a member of the same (one) body

If each believer has entered the church through the same ordinance, we ought not become divisive

While the baptism of the Holy Spirit brings a person into the household of God, water baptism brings a person into the household of the body

“One God and Father of all.”

What Paul has described in verses 1-6 is the “positional oneness,” believers have in being “in Christ,” and how they are to “walk in this.”

But to see the arc of Ephesians 4, I want us to go back to a single word in Eph 4:1, “calling.” The Greek word Paul uses for this word is “vocation” (thru the KJV). We associate “vocation” to mean, “one’s work, one’s job, or what they do.”

What is Paul saying then? What is the “vocation,” or what is our “job” as believers? Take a look at Eph 4:12, 16, thru the NIV

Ephesians 4:12 (NIV) to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”

Ephesians 4:16 (NIV) From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The work of the believer—under the backdrop of Christian unity—is service to the church (and this is where we learn the value/importance/and purpose of our service:

Follow along with God’s Word here (note, the focus today is not so much on the details of these gifts, as it is the “how and why? they are given)

I. (v.7-8) Ephesians 4:7-8 teach us two things about spiritual gifts

Ephesians 4:7–8“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.””

(FIRST) Through God’s grace, spiritual gifts are given:

Believers cannot presuppose what “gift or gifts” they will be given—they are administered by Christ

Believers cannot assign themselves, or others, any spiritual gift—they are administered by Christ

Believers cannot earn (merit/deserve) gifts—b/c as we will see in the next point, the gifts are given upon a conquering/vanquishing of an enemy

Christ is the victorious conqueror who ascended to heaven to His throne and is seated at the right hand of God

Christ has defeated sin & death, which is what is meant when Scripture says He, “led captivity captive.”

Here’s the catch. Earthly kings—those who conquer—receive the “spoils of war,” (i.e. gifts) from the enemies they conquer; but Christ has “flipped the script,” so to speak, that in defeating sin & death, sovereignly gives gifts (spiritual) to his followers.

(SECOND) Notice what Paul says, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift…”

Remember, grace means “the strength, wisdom, courage, motivation, love, concern, care, and power—the favor and blessings of Christ; so in being given grace,

Christ Himself gives us the grace we need to use our gifts; He measures out the exact amount of grace needed for the maximum use of a gift

II. (v.11) Paul’s list of spiritual gifts

Ephesians 4:11 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,”

The list of gifts Paul lists are not exhaustive, but are representative of the gifts Christ gives

Contained in Romans 12:6–8 1 Cor 12:8-10 , 28-30 Paul lists other Spiritual gifts

II. (v.12-16) These verses teach is the purpose and goal of our gifts (serving)

To being In 1 Peter 4:

1 Corinthians 12:4–7 “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:”

1 Corinthians 12:12–14 “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.”

1 Corinthians 12:18 “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”

Spiritual gifts are distinct from natural abilities and are different from the fruit of the Spirit (i.e., those fruits from Gal 5:22-23 are not spiritual gifts)

Spiritual gifts are grace-gifts, alloted to the believer b/c of God’s sovereignty

Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

(READ EPHESIANS 4:11-17)

Leading into verses 11-17, verses 7-10 teach us that while the body of Christ has unity—it also has diversity. While the body of believers are “one” as Paul describes in 4-6, they are many and while they are united, they are unique.

What all of this means, is that while Christ is the same Lord to each believer, each believer serves Him in varied, unique, and differing ways.

While these gifts are necessary for us to understand, our focus today is on the purpose of these gifts and the others Scripture teaches

II. (v.12-16) What Scripture is teaching (in this short list) is: we serve through our gifts

First and foremost are the means by which we worship the Lord (remember last week) to bring Him glory

1 Peter 4:11 “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Secondly, when our Christian service is rightly applied,

We see that believers (the church) equipped for the work of ministry (Eph 4:12)

If the work of ministry (service) was left to the pastors/leaders—the task of ministry would never get done;

Believers who are living and endeavor to live in Christian unity can freely go about serving the Lord, b/c they don’t get wrapped up/tied down with comparisons/envies/or selfishness

Unity understands that each of us have different spiritual gifts. The unique skills/gifts God bestows upon believers are needed in order for believers to live in God’s will for His church.

The danger comes, if we start to define our value to God, or to the church, based on our gifts. In defining our worth/value/identity in our gifts, we are not defining our value/worth/acceptance according to Christ—and our serving becomes legalistic

Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:12–20“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.”

*We will cover these briefly, b/c our focus today is not much on the details of these gifts but rather the purpose behind them*

(CONTEXT)—The purpose for our gifts, first and foremost are the means by which we worship the Lord (remember last week) to bring Him glory yet they are also to be used to serve the Lord and the church

*Between Exodus 31 and here in Ephesians 4, some 23 spiritual gifts are mentioned. But again, remember the words of Scripture Romans 12:3–8

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

David Jeremiah sums up verses 12-16 this way,

“When the church functions as designed, six things happen: believers are equipped (4:12), ministry in enhanced (4:12), the church is edified (4:12), new Christians are established (4:15), the church is effective (4:16), and the congregation is enlarged (4:16).”

Serving others as Christians (as believers) is serving the LordI

Matthew 25:37–40 ““Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”

In serving the Lord, glory is given to God and joy is given to the believer (go back to 1 Peter 4:11)

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