The member & the gathering!

Introduction

Give thanks to God for the opportunity

Introduce myself and thank my bride for attending with me

Thank David for having me and talk about how blessed Doxa is to have him as Pastor and Elder.

We are going to be spending our time this morning in the Book of Ephesians. This book can be split into two themes chapters 1-3 is considered orthodoxy and chapters 4-6 is orthopraxy. The first half of the book the apostle Paul is articulating what we believe in terms of doctrine and the second half Paul explains how we ought to apply the doctrine to our life.

 The central theme of Ephesians is that through Christ, God has reconciled all creation to Himself, uniting people from all nations into one body, the Church, through His grace, and therefore Christians are called to live lives reflecting this unity and gratitude for their salvation in Christ.

"The Epistle to the Ephesians is full of marrow and fatness. Here we are taught our election, adoption, acceptance, redemption, and inheritance. It is the believer’s bank, where he may draw riches unsearchable."-Charles Spurgeon

“"The design of this epistle is to establish the Ephesians in the faith, to explain the mystery of the gospel, and to excite them to a holy life, as being delivered by grace.”-Matthew Henry

Read Ephesians 4:1–16 “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry,…”

1.) Christians need the church.

“We desperately need the church for love, for maturity and preparedness, for spiritual care. It is arrogant, rebellious, self-reliant, God-indicting pride to conclude that the church is an optional extra to the Christian life. We need everything God designs for us. Everything. To reject what God designs for His glory and our good is spiritual suicide. To reject the church is to take your own spiritual life.”-Thabiti Anyabwile

This passage stands on the shoulders of a prayer that the apostle Paul prayed in chapter 3 for the church to have spiritual strength and now hes calling the body of Christ to unity and calling Christians to a community to the local church.

This is counter cultural to what we see today especially in America. Many of us grew up in contexts where we are taught we can live a rogue like Christianity where we don’t need to go to church to be considered a christian. The idea that you can be a christian and not go to church does not come from the bible and I would argue that this is more american than it is biblical.

This mindset goes against everything in the new testament this mindset crushes under the weight of Acts 2:42–47 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Church Father Saint Augustine worded it this way “He cannot have God for his father who does not have the church for his mother”. He is making a point here that their is no separation between Jesus being Lord and a commitment to the local church. There may be a separation between church and state but there is not a separation between church and the christian.

Look at vs 4 it says “There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call”. If we follow the flow and command of scripture anyone who is a christian must be a faithful member of the church.

Paul already laid out the ground work in chapters 1-3 on soteriology that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone. Paul did the heavy lifting walking us through how we were (nekros) dead in our trespasses and sin. The Greek word for dead indicates something far more than just needing a life preserver. This isn’t someone simply drowning in the middle of the ocean and just needs fight to grab a helping hand to be rescued. This is someone that is at the very body of the ocean and something outside themselves must intervene for them to have life.

This is the state of the believer apart from Christ we are dead at the bottom of the ocean with no hope but the good news of the gospel is that God in his sovereignty had you in mind and sent his son King Jesus who took on the wrath of God that we rightly deserve absorbed the wrath of God in our place. This is the great exchange Martin Luther calls it. Jesus takes on our sin and gives us his righteousness. So when you look to christ and you believe in the message of the gospel now when God looks at you he doesn't see your sin he sees the righteousness of Christ. When God looks at the christian not only does he not see your sin anymore but because he sees Christ we he looks at you he looks at you as if you never sinned and looks at you as if you perfectly obeyed. This is what R.C Sproul and many theologians called the active obedience of Christ. This is the good news of the glorious message of the Gospel.

I love the way Martin Luther worded it he said “When I look to myself I think how could I ever be saved when I look to Christ I think how could I ever be lost”-Martin Luther. These are gospel truths that Paul articulates in all his letters especially in Ephesians and when Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus he hammers these beautiful gospel truths out so the church could be reminded who they are in Christ. It is the reality of gospel that fuels our love and commitment to the church.

2.) Christians do the work. (vs.11-12)

As Christians we don’t get to just be saved and kick our feet up and watch the sun set. Paul articulates here why God calls elders and Pastors and to shepherd the church equipping the saints for the WORK of ministry.

R.C Sproul in his commentary on Ephesians he said regarded this verse that

The Purpose of God: Ephesians Diversity of Gifts

The most effective churches that I know are churches where the ministerial staff devote many hours in training and mobilizing their congregations to be mighty armies of saints, as they minister to a dying world

I encourage you all to be thankful for your elders Doxa they dedicate there lives to equipping you all to walk as Christ has called us in this lost and dying world.

This is another reason why we need the church so that we can here the proclamation of the gospel and the preaching of the word of God so that we can grow in grace and sanctification so that we can do the work of walking out the christian life and pointing people to Jesus.

As Christians we also have to put in the work in growing in wisdom and truth. Yes Jesus does the saving and the sanctifying but there is a expectation for us as believers to put in the work and effort to pursue spiritual growth that's why Paul prayed for spiritual strength for the church in chapter 3.

We have to put the work in to know what we believe and why we believe it this is not just a work reserved for pastors. This passage speaks of us not being children and maturing in spiritual maturity and growing in knowledge so that we may not be fooled by false teaching and whatever the latest religious trend in the culture is.

If we keep it real a lot of Christians where they are spiritually does not reflect how long they have been a christian. Some of us have been Christians for 5 to 10 years some much longer and the way we are spiritually looks like Jesus saved us yesterday. Think about it we have a certain expectation for someone that is 21 and older verses a teenager in terms of behavior and maturity. We have an expectation for people to have there stuff together, be able to manage there money, maintain a good job, pursue a career the list goes on and on. But for some reason we change the rules when it comes to our walk with Christ we've made it acceptable to be spiritual infants for the whole of our christian life and for some the word theology is a curse word if your not a pastor.

Let me see if I can make it plain I remember as a kid growing up I made the grave mistake of asking my mom who was a single mom at the time working multiple jobs to help me with my math. Now for the record my mom did her best to help me with homework as a kid. I probably was 6 or 7 learning how to do simple math (5 +2) (6-2). Also for the record I should have been much farther along than I was at the time in terms of progress in math. The math problem she was helping me with was similar to this “If Johnny has 6 apples and he gives away 3 apples how many apples does he have left? Heres me yall Johnny has “7”. She would give me two more tries then all patience is GONE and now shes got the belt in her hand reading the question to me and for some reason that belt was a great motivator all of a suddenly I got the question right. But this is a lot of us spiritually we’ve been a christian nearly all our life and where still struggling to figure out how many apples Johnny has.

This is why community is so important for us believers we have to keep each other encouraged to show up to church, be committed be active, join a community group or life group depending on what you guys call it. Hold each other accountable to read your bibles you don’t get any of that apart from the local church. Every aspect of the christian life hinges on Christ and his church. We can’t mature and grow being a lone wolf and not putting in the effort and work.

3.) Christians need Christ. (vs. 15-16)

In these last two verses in our passage Paul brings his thought full circle to Jesus because its all about Jesus. We can’t live this life the way scripture has called us apart from Jesus and we can’t have sound ecclesiology without Christ. I’ve been to churches where I never heard the mention of our Lord Jesus once.

Christ is the head of the church and he must be the head of our life. Most of us have no problem with Jesus being our savor but if hes Lord then things get shaky because if hes Lord he gets to tell us how to live.

We see in these last two verses a call to grow in Christ and he holds the whole body the church together. We see “in Christ” 46 times in the book of Ephesians for a reason because that's the identity of the believer and the Church. I tell people all the time if you struggle with who you are spend some time in Ephesians that's thematic throughout the whole book. Our identity is in Christ not our bank account, social status, kids, marriage, careers, hobbies, our image our identity is in Christ.

I heard an old preacher say it this way when you know who you are you know what to do. The moment the church stops making much of Jesus is the moment the church loses its identity and will eventually die if she does not get on track. The same goes for us as individuals the moment we take our eyes off of Jesus life gets messy and we make the job of enemy very easy.

Look at verse 16 again right after Paul tells us Christ is the head of the church he says something power here he says “from (meaning Christ) the whole body (meaning the church) joined and held together (Jesus holds the church together and he holds you together) by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is WORKING (we talked about that earlier as Christians we must put in the work) properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Do we so at the center of all that was Christ. The ship sails apart from Christ, my life falls apart without Jesus, my marriage will fail without Jesus, my home, my ministry the list goes on.

As we come to a close I hope and pray that as Christians today we are reminded by the word of God our need for Jesus and his church and how inseparable the two are.

A love for King Jesus should always be followed by a love for his church. The church has always been since its birth in Acts and all throughout church history the primary means by which God sanctifies the believer. I leave you with a quote from a dear friend of mine that pastors in Asheville who says this:

“Holiness is a community project. Sanctification is a community project. To the modern Christian American ear this sounds insane. The Christian life is inherently corporate its personal but never private. Christian devotion is church shaped if you read the New Testament. Holiness is a community project. This is not something that we will do on our own but rather by virtue of being a part of a local church where Christ is preached, where we come to his table, where baptism is administered, where we gather, and we sing. We exhort, we pray and build one another up in the faith by singing spiritual songs, confess our sin to one another, praying in Jesus together as a gathered church. As we are doing all this as a gathered church week after week after week and we live life in the fellowship of the saints within the church, holiness is the fruit of all that. If you want an imperative for holiness show up to your local church every Sunday. If you want to be holy if you want to be Godly that's priority number 1 without question. Show up week after week lock arms with your people for decades be faithful to that church then we can talk about holiness. The church is how the Lord produces holiness in our lives”-Justin Purdue