We Are All In This Together
Notes
Transcript
This morning we have come to the last of Paul’s letters to those believers who were far away from him. In those days when you wrote a letter and sent it by someone to read it was called an epistle. Paul had several of them. Romans was his letter to the Christians in Rome, Galatians was his letter those those Christians in Galatia. Corinthians to those in Corinth, Thessalonians to those in Thessonalica, and the one we will look at today is an epistle to the believers in Ephesus. We know it as the book in our Bible, Ephesians.
All of this preaching over 5 weeks has been about spiritual growth. About spiritual maturity. Paul will even tell you that today. How you should be more mature in your faith today than you were when you first believed in Christ.
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Open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. Last week his letter was to the people in Corinth, Greece. This week it is Ephesus, also in Greece. Ephesus was the big city of Greece at that time. And like Corinth, there were temples to the greeks gods. Their culture was surrounded by false gods, and these beleivers in Christ were living among all of this everyday. Paul knew this, and wanted remind them how they should live, how they were to continue to grow, be sanctified, even living in this culture.
In the first chapter and the second verse, Paul says who he is writing to: Ephesians 1:1 “1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:”
From this we can see that the his letter is for those who are following Christ. They have turned their heart and their lives over to Jesus. Now I want you to skip over to Chapter 4 of Ephesians. That is where we are going to focus on today.
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
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.
Paul, writing to these Christians in Ephesus and maybe even the entire region that they were part of says something in verse 1 that has been our focus for this entire series. We have talked about sanctification, right? Sanctification is a maturing process in the life of the believer. It is a growth in your walk with Christ, from the time you come to salvation until the time you see him in eternity. A few weeks ago I showed you this quoatation from a Bible Dictionary defining the idea of sanctification, look at it again…
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Sanctification
to the process of gradual purification from sin and progressive spiritual growth that should mark the life of the believer.
Now I want you to remind you of the two parts that make up sanctification. GRADUAL and PROGRESSIVE. Gradual means moving in small, slow stages. And Progressive means always moving forward.
Gradual, small movements of purification of sin. You may never be able to conquer a sin, but you should be moving more and more away from it. Then, you should be progressivly moving forward. Away from the person you were before you started following Jesus.
So there is this idea of growth. Moving forward. Sometimes not as fast as your would like…but it is a growing.
And Paul gives us a key ingredient in the way we can grow and mature, and that is by coming together like this, in church… gathering with other believers, worshipping, sitting under the teaching of the word, even serving in the church.
Look at verse 8 (Ephesians 4:8
8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
What were these gifts he gave? Look at verse 11 Ephesians 4:11
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
Paul lists 5 different positions. five different gifts that Jesus gave. He gave these gifts for a purpose, but first lets look at these gifts.
Apostle: an envoy of Jesus Christ commissioned directly by Him or by other apostles; normally someone who has been taught directly by Jesus and who is invested with the authority to speak on His behalf.
Prophets: someone who speaks in behalf of and interprets the will of a supernatural being (God), often rebuking or predicting events; can be used of poets who were said to be inspired by (G)od.
Evangelist: a person who announces information about recent and important events worthy of celebration; especially the now present instantiation of Jesus’ divine dominion and way of salvation by His death and resurrection.
Shepherds: a leader of a Christian congregation understood as a shepherd over a flock of sheep.
Teachers: a person who instructs others by imparting skills or knowledge; probably as an occupation.
Paul lists these 5 gifts, but he doesn’t stop there, he says that there is reason for them, Look at verse 12…
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus and telling them that they should be growing in their faith, stronger in their faith every day than the day before. And how were they going to grow and walk closer to God? Through thier meeting together… through times of serving, teaching and preaching? What is that? That is church! He is saying gather together under a shepherd which is someone to guide them. under a teacher, which would be someone to teach them the Words of God for the purpose of helping them grow. Equiping them for service and building the body of Christ. The body of Christ is the church!
That is why you should never leave the church. That is why even after you leave this place and grow into an adult, you should always gather with the body of Christ, the church, because it will help you in your sanctification…your growth…from now on.
He tells them in verse 14 the reason for this…
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.
Listen, if you ever get to a place where you think that you don’t need to attend church because you think you know all you need to know. You’re wrong. Because when you begin to pull away from the church, from meeting together, worshipping together, and opening God’s Words together… Paul says that our knowledge of God and what he wants and expects from us will no longer be that a maturing, santified beleiver, but will be that of a small child, easily confused by false teaching and ideas by people who want to lead you away from the truth.
But, when we choose to stay close to the body of Christ, the church, look what Paul says…
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.
Paul’s words from these people in Ephesus are true for us today.
YOU need the church.
Why because it is an important part of our growing as a Christian. Ephesians 4:12
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
When you come to church, you are being built up, personally, in your own life, but together the body of Christ (the beleivers) are also growing and becoming a bigger impact on the world. The word ‘equip’ means that you are being given the tools for the work of ministry. Not as a Pastor or Missionary, but as a beleiver who is called to tell others about Jesus. I hope you feel that Cornerstone Baptist Church is preparing you to be a better Christian and to walk closely with Christ as you grow up. You need the church, We are all in this together!
2. The church needs YOU.
Look at verse 16: Ephesians 4:16
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.
Paul gives the example of the church being a body. And the body can only work properly if every part is together. If my eyes said I don’t want to open, how could I see where to walk? If my hands said I don’t want to hold a spoon, how could I eat the food? Every part needs to work together.
The same is for the body of Christ. You are a key ingredient and the church needs you to complete the mission that he has given us.
Think about all of the things that have to happen for church to be this morning. Someone swept and mopped the floor. Someone set the chairs up. The praise team was her to practic the music. There are people who make sure we have the music and the words on the screen. There is someone who will teach the Sunday School lesson. There is people who will teach the small children. There are those who take the offering, and there is someone who will preach.
All of those tasks are done by someone serving in the church. What if someone this morning who is serving, said “no I want to go to the market, not church.” What if it was the small children’s teacher? What if it was the Pastor?
It takes the entire body of Christ working together, serving together so we can grow. And when we grow, the gospel going out makes a bigger impact.
We need the church and the church needs us.
So how we grow our commitment to the church?
Make it a priority. No matter where you are, no matter how old you are, no matter where you live, you need to make the church a priority. Its more important than friends, it more important than the market, it more important than watching yoru favorite football team, its more important than work. Church, worshipping and growing together with the body of Christ needs to be a priority.
Also, Paul reminds us of the importance of serving. All of those areas I talked about earlier where people help do all those things… thats called serving. Are you serviing in the church, or are you coming in, sitting down, and just receiving. Receiving is good, there is nothing wrong with that, we want you to receive what God and the Holy Spirit with bring to you, but what about the serving. There are some of you here today who could help teach the children. We know have a great program that Calista has set up. Some of you that are older, even the adults here, if your not serving anywhere, maybe you shild talk to Calsita about serving in the children's area once a month.
What about the praise team. We just lost two of our members because they have gone out to a trade. There are other areas, but my point here is that if you come with a heart to serve, God will show you where to serve.
Let me encourage you this morning to never leave the church. When you grow up and you are out on your own,, you will still need to grow and mature in your faith, and a vital way to do that in to continue to attend a church where the truth of the Bible is being preached.
Why? Because look what Paul says later is his letter to the Ephesians…
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
You need the church, the church needs you. It is how God prepares us From Now On.
Let’s pray.
