Ephesians 4:11-16 - Christ's Gifts For The Church

Have you ever received a gift that you had no idea what to do with?

Maybe it was a tool you didn’t recognize… a kitchen gadget you’d never use… or a digital device that left you reading the manual for hours. The gift was real, valuable, and useful—but without understanding it, it just sat there.

God has given each of us gifts. Not the kind you put on a shelf or store in the closet—but spiritual gifts, meant to be used. The problem is, many of us never unwrap them. We don’t know how to use them. Or we don’t see how they fit.

But in Ephesians 4, Paul reminds us that Christ—through His victory—gave gifts to His people. He gave you something. And He gave you to the Church. So the question isn’t “Do I have a gift?” The question is “What am I doing with what Christ gave me?”

V.8-10

Christ’s victory at the cross and resurrection is described in verse 8-10, with the major point being in verse 8 which is “to the victor go the spoils”.

Christ came and defeated, now he distributes the treasure gained - the treasure is you and I, disciples who are gifted, and He gives us as gifts with our giftedness back to the Church for building up and equipping.

V.7 - grace/favor was given to EACH of us in Christ!

We need to use what we know we have - but also try to “open up” others to see if we have that too, or if we need to work on it.

So, we never get stagnant or complacent, we always have something we’re doing and working on while we start to grow in other areas.

Since Christ is victorious, He invites us into His victory and in doing so distributes to us treasures, GIFTS, to use as the Church in order to grow towards Unity and Maturity.

If we’re not careful our human tendency is to start thinking about our gifts in a way similar to “Where does my gift or role fit in terms of importance?” That can lead us down a negative way without realizing that they are ALL EQUALLY IMPORTANT.

The two ways of thinking that are detrimental is “I’m not important” & “Where would they be without me”. Two extremes of comparison.

But gifts were never meant to be compared, but collaborated with one another - working together for a purpose.

Romans 12 helps us with these thoughts.

Proper view of Self, vs.3

Think humbly of your gift

All have gifts — Gifts are equal

Gifts are from God, therefore are to be used

Proper view of the Church, vs.4-5

We’re all working towards the same goal

Each of us have different ways of helping the body get to that goal

Your gift doesn’t belong to just YOU! It belongs to God and to the Body of Christ!

We need you!

Proper view of Gifts, vs.6-8

You got a gift? YES! So, use your gift diligently, vs.6-8

It is one way of worship to God, vs.1

The Church needs all these gifts, and all these gifts can be used in any situation – all of these are a correct response in some way. However, each gift is sometimes misunderstood by a person with a different one when a situation does arise.

Illustration: a toddler spilling milk. Grandma comforts the upset toddler, mom cleans it up, dad says “you’re not supposed to do that”, and grandad gets another cup of milk with the added cookie....which person did the right thing? ALL OF THEM! The toddler needed all of these things from these people.

How does this apply to our gifts within the Church? You have to avoid viewing things ONLY through your own gifted lenses, thinking yours is the only one and the only right way to go about things. Respect every type of giftedness.

Our job – help people understand their giftedness, encourage their giftedness, and provide times for them to use their giftedness.

V.11

GIFTS FOR THE CHURCH

Apostles

Apostle = “one sent” (Hebrews 3:1 “...consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession...” sent by God!)

Appointed & Sent By Jesus

Luke 6:12-16 – The Twelve

Acts 1:26 – Matthias taking Judas’ place

1 Corinthians 15:8-9 – Paul

They gave the Word about God and the Church

Acts 1:8 – spreading it, bearing witness to everyone they could

Acts 2:42 – in their teaching the Church continued, and so do we

Acts 6:1-4 – their number one priority/job given to them was the ministry of the Word

Why do we follow the word they gave? STAY TUNED FOR OUR DEVOTED SERIES!

Prophets (NT)

Foretoled in Joel 2, confirmed by Peter in Acts 2:17 ““ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;”

Does this make anyone uncomfortable? OT prophets, no problem. Makes sense. NT prophets seem a bit different to us for some reason

MISCONCEPTION: The Holy Spirit didn’t put people into a trance-like state and take over to begin speaking. That’s how some religions treat it, but that’s not what we see in scripture. It goes against John 16:13-15 and Galatians 5:23 (self control).

TERMS

Seer - “old term”

1 Samuel 9:9 “(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, “Come, let us go to the seer,” for today’s “prophet” was formerly called a seer.)”

Amos 7:12 “And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there,”

this was used in a sarcastic way saying “your old fashioned, old man, a dying and foolish breed, etc.”

Seer, they would “SEE” things from God’s perspective and would teach that

Sometimes a “vision” and literally saw a message from God

Prophet

A Mouthpeice of God

Deuteronomy 18:15-22

Where do we see them?

Mark, Luke, James, Acts 8, Acts 10 Cornelius/gentiles, many nameless ones but referenced in 1 Corinthians and Romans.

Though there is not the mircaculous nature today, we’re have the full revelation of God and are meant to be mouthpeices speaking truth in the world.

Evangelist/Preachers

εὐαγγελιστής – “euangelistes”, comes from “euangelion” which means “gospel”.

This name is given to those in the NT who herald the message of God that are not Apostles.

Acts 21:8 “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.”

Evangelist is quite literally a “gospelizer” since they bring the good news message. How does an evangelist bring or give the good news? They must speak it, proclaim it, herald it.

“Kerux” is a herald, a preacher. Part of the job of evangelist is to preach/proclaim the message.

The Work:

A Soul Winner (from the word itself)

Preach to the Church, 2 Timothy 4:2 “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

Edify the Church, Eph.4:12-13

Help Appoint/Establish Elders, Titus 1:5 “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—”

Defend The Faith, 1 Timothy 1:3 “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,”

In order to defend the faith, you must first know what it is or else you can’t identify what it isn’t.

Preacher/Teacher Trainer, 2 Timothy 2:2 “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”

Shepherd Teachers

In this context and the way it reads, these are combined not meant to be separated. Other places speak of teachers and having that giftedness, but here its about shepherds who teach and it combines the roles together.

This is the only place in scripture poimen is translated pastor

So clearly there is a intentional difference between a pastor and a preacher.

The Work

not just decision making

Watchmen over the flock

Shepherding and guiding the flock towards a specific place and purpose

Maturing the Church, v.12-13

Personal and helpful servants of the members to do as 1 Thessalonians 5:12ff says - admonish, encourage, support the weak, and so they must GO TO people

Stewards of the Church, 1 Timothy 3:5

Prayerful people, James 5

Their important jobs then help us to understand the high qualifications. In fact, the qualifications enable them to do the work.

In Ephesians 4:11 it doesn’t say he gave them spiritual gifts, it says God gave the church roles which are the gifts of victory for the benefit of the Body of Christ.

We have our attitudes v.1-3, our doctrine v.4-6, and our gifts v.9-11.....… but what’s the purpose?

V.12

For ministry/service - same word for deacon. We can’t all be deacons, but we are all meant to be ministering servants!

That happens once we’re EQUIPPED

“equipped” is the word “katartisis”, which means “a making fit”, “fitting or preparing fully” which of course involves a process

Boy that adds depth to what we’re all supposed to do. We’re meant to fully prepare people to step into roles of service, to make sure they’re fit for it!

Example: it’s nice when Bible class teachers who have done it a while pass on their booklets and binders of past thigns they’ve made for class. Thats super helpful no dobt!!...but thats not equipping, not fully. You haven’t taught how to teach, how to prep, how to manage the class or any of that.

You can apply that to elderships, preaching, and all the rest. You MUST invest your time in people to help make them fully prepared.

V.13

We “ALL” have to work towards unity and maintaining it. It’s not a spectating sport, we can’t sit back and point fingers and hope it gets done.

V.14

We do all that to remain stable through Satan’s schemes

We aren’t meant to be babies forever. God has a reasonable expectation for us each to grow and for us collectively as the Church to grow.

We can’t remain babies or else we’re defying God’s will for us!

Get off the milk, get on the meat

Hebrews 5:12–14 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

AND Get in the ministry!

V.15-16

Unity happens when individuals are devoted to Jesus and one another.

Every supporting ligament. As each part does its work.

And we see here that each part, the individual, has his/her own responsibilities to mature

A well-oiled machine!

Joined together – fitly framed and knit together

My role is to be doing the most that I can at whatever stage of faith I’m at, and whatever my stage of life can allow.

**“In love”—a phrase repeated three times in verses 1–16—reminds us that love isn’t just an emotion; it’s a decision and an action. Unity doesn’t come from simply feeling good about where we are as a church—it comes from each member actively doing their part. God showed His love through action—by doing what it took to save us. In response, we show our love by doing what it takes to build up His Church. Christ established it. Now, through the gifts He’s given us, we are called to do our part to help grow it and strengthen it — to be a Body working together, each part doing its work, fitly joined, motivated by love, and committed to maturity.”