7. Ephesians 4:1-16

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My wife tells me I’m boring and should get a new hobby.

So, at long last, I have obeyed. I have a new hobby.

My hobby (as I think I mentioned two weeks ago) is walking around Edinburgh taking pictures. Very nice you may say… but my hobby has a dark twist. I’m photographing church buildings which are no longer church buildings.

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Here are churches which did not GROW. Either in depth and love for Jesus… or (obviously) in number.

What went wrong? Why didn’t they GROW?

And crucially… how can we make sure we ARE a church that grows?

Perhaps we will grow so that we outgrow this building - we’re often pretty close to that on a Sunday any way. Perhaps we’ll get to occupy one of these abandoned buildings one day - that’s not a promise or a prophecy by the way, I’ve no idea what the future holds.

But the question this passage begs us is just that…

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How can a church grow? How can this church grow?

I mean grow in both senses….

how can we grow to love the Lord Jesus more wholeheartedly and follow, serve him more completely?

AND how can we grow in number?

We’d be wise, of course, to listen to advice, to learn from the experiences of others in growing churches, to see what they do and don’t do. A report called “Transforming Scotland’ which was published by the respected Barna Group back in 2015 is probably the most extensive research on this topic which has been carried out here in Scotland. Amongst other things it found that…

SLIDE - Transforming Scotland

• growing churches had strong leadership from whole teams of leaders - not just one individual…. • those leaders had an entrepreneurial style… trusting God, trying new things and taking risks in an attempt to reach new people with the gospel. • Growing churches were also places of genuine community - not just one day a week clubs…. • the churches who grew were those who didn’t simply focus on one leader to do the stuff but (and I quote), ’equipped every Christian as a missionary disciple”

That’s what the evidence in 21st C Scotland says about growing churches… We’d be wise to listen to evidence like that and ask – are we doing those things?

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But the supremely important question is, of course… what does the Bible say? What does the Bible tell us about growth in Jesus’ church?

You can’t escape the fact that the passage you have before you is all about growth. Growing and building up the church.

v12 Eph 4.12 SLIDE

Ephesians 4:12 ESV

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

v13 Eph 4.13 SLIDE

Ephesians 4:13 ESV

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,

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Ephesians 4:15 ESV

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

It’s all the language of upward and outward growth….

The church is not to be static…. you as a Christian are not supposed to stand still but to change…. to grow… to mature.

Maybe you’ve given up on growth… growing to be more like Jesus…. growing the church in number. It just feels too hard… How can it happen? How can the church GROW - in every sense of that word.

Paul points out TWO ESSENTIALS for growth…

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we are to be united.

we are to be equipped.

Before we dive into those two things…. notice where we are in this letter. 4.1

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Ephesians 4:1 ESV

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,

Paul is a prisoner, probably in Rome…. writing to the church in Ephesus…. he has spent the first half of the letter explaining the gospel message.

Remember he has said (Chapter 2)

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Ephesians 2:5 ESV

5 …by grace you have been saved

And it’s SO important to remember that from this point on.

Paul is about to launch into part two (the second half) of his letter… he’s about to start drawing out the implications for living…. He IS going to start telling us what we should do in the light of what we have learned.

BUT….

Don’t drop the ball at this point….. It’s more important than ever to remember that God has drawn us into his masterplan purely by grace.

If we don’t remember that we’ll start to think that all the instructions we’re about to receive are the things that make us right with God…. but they aren’t – REMEMBER the restoration of our relationship with God is entirely on the basis of grace…. and then these changed behaviours flow out from there….. not the other way around.

As usual Paul puts it beautifully….

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Ephesians 4:1 ESV

1 I… urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

the ‘calling’ of course is just a short-hand for all God has done for us in the Gospel - everything captured in CH1-2. So many blessings…

To switch analogy for a moment…. Paul has spoken of us being adopted as children of God…. now he is concerned that, like an adopted child, you should grow up and live out your new identity… becoming like your father, as adopted children do, living out the new family likeness….

So how do we grow? How does a church grow? Our two things again….

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Be united

Be equipped

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So first…

1. Be United.

Read on v2 (we are to walk….)

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Ephesians 4:2–6 ESV

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.

The point is this…. God is not running different programmes for different people.

There is one gospel, one masterplan for the whole universe. Those who have been drawn into it by trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross have all been raised up from death and (so complete was what Jesus has done for us), it’s as if we’re seated in heaven with him…. along with all those other Christians.

Remember as well that even when the worst of enemies are both drawn into relationship with God…. well then even the most divided can become united.

God has only one masterplan… or as Paul puts it here…. there’s only one body (he means one church), one Spirit (given to dwell in us) …. we’re called to place our faith in one Lord Jesus…. we have been adopted by one Father God into his glorious new family.

Are you getting the message - it’s one, one, one±

SO HERE’S THE POINT - If you are a Christian…. you are deeply united to other believers because of the gospel.

Notice what doesn’t unite the believers…. It isn’t background or social class, or nationality, or relative education….. We are not united on the basis of tastes or hobbies…. how could we be, since God is drawing together people in his masterplan from every corner of the world…. Jews and Gentiles…. Dutch, Italian, French, Japanese….. Scottish…. even English.

The great things we hold in common are not our hobbies or our backgrounds…

HERE are the things we all (in Christ) have in common….

• All were dead in sin…. • and all made alive through Christ.

That is so important to remember…. God has brought us together in unity.

So can you see then how deeply troubling it would be to see a church community like ours, brought together, united through the gospel…. was then riven with divisions and petty squabbles….?

God is driving history in one direction, to bring unity to all his people under Christ…. it would be as if we wanted to drive in the opposite direction.

A divided church is not a healthy church…. it is a dysfunctional church…. it will not be a growing church.

And since it is the gospel that unites us, not our background or tastes…. a healthy church will often look, on the surface, like a fairly diverse place…. different people drawn together, bound together…. because of the gospel.

So when it comes to worship styles, expected dress codes, service formats, instruments or no instruments…. more formal or less formal…. set liturgy or a free-flow style…. the mature Christian and the growing church holds all these things lightly…. but keeps a firm grip on the one gospel that draws us together.

As an aside, this passage gives us an insight into the limits of unity…. This isn’t an appeal for unity at any cost…. no, if unity is forged by the gospel…. and where other churches, or Christians have ceased to hold to the gospel then there is no unity to maintain.

So to be a growing church we need to be a united church… and what will it take for Cornerstone Free Church to remind a united church?

Well from each one of us (including, of course, from me) it will take (v2)

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v2 - humility, gentleness, patience.

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Ephesians 4:2 ESV

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

It means, in our church, being more concerned with the needs and preferences of others. Being humble about my views, about my wants or desires. In the church we must have humility. The gospel humbles us all.

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In the church we must also have….Gentleness…. dealing with one another with kindness not roughness, care not aggression…. I’ve seen some destructive church cultures where the way people spoke about each other was just awful. We must not do that here.

And in the church we must have patience…. be long-suffering with the faults of others, spiritual growth takes time…. time in you, time in others.

So we will need to be a humble, gentle, patient, UNITED church if we want to be a growing church.

But there’s more says Paul… we need to be united…. but we also need to secondly…

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2 Be Equipped.

You see, there needs to be great unity, but also great diversity.

(v7)

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Ephesians 4:7 ESV

7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

What does it mean that grace is apportioned to each of us differently?

Paul can’t be talking about saving grace here….. he can’t be using the word in the same way as in CH2 when he speaks of us being raised from death to life by grace… that is the same for each of us.

The next verse clarifies what Paul does mean…. v8

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Ephesians 4:8 ESV

8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

This is a quote from Psalm 68.

That Psalm pictures God as a hero riding back victorious from battle, with the spoils of war, giving out the gifts of his triumph - it was a common thing in the ancient world.

In the same way…. we who benefit from the great victory of Jesus on the cross are those who have been gifted by God to serve him in various ways.

There is unity in the way we are saved - ALL are saved by grace through faith in Christ.

There is DIVERSITY in the gifts we’re given to SERVE.

And by the way… that means (it’s very clear) You are not meant to be consumers of the church… (repeat)

It’s not as if we each come wheeling in our spiritual shopping trolley each Sunday morning, filling up on whatever pleases us before paying and leaving.

A healthy church, a growing church is not a church of consumers who say ‘what can I get out of this’…. A healthy church, a growing church is a church of contributors… who say “what can I give.”

You are unique…. the person you are, the personality you have, the things you’re good at, your unique experiences… are all shaped by God not merely for your own satisfaction or enjoyment…. but so that you might deploy the resources you have and hte person you are in his service.

Have you considered that God gave you a love of cooking so that you could spend that gift showing hospitality to others, introducing them to the gospel on the way?

Have you ever considered that God gave you your intellect so you could put it to work strategising for the church?

Have you ever considered that God gave you your love of golf, or reading or keeping fit so that you would be a witness for Christ on the golf course, in the book group and at the gym?

But you might say… look I don’t know that I feel very gifted, especially when it comes to churchy stuff…. surely we have people in the church who are supposed to do the ministry… they’re called ministers…. isn’t that their job?

Well read on, because Paul wants to address that question and what he has to say might surprise you a great deal. (v11)

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Ephesians 4:11 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

Let’s go slowly here for a moment – it’s important to get this right.

Two groups here - the apostles and prophets were foundational figures…. the apostles of course were eyewitnesses of Jesus… and they are a great gift to the church…. you hold in your hand the great gift they made to the church - the Bible in the O & NT.

They are foundational gifts… but what about the gifts for today (well, read on)…. the evangelists and the pastor-teachers.

There’s some discussion amongst the scholars of the Greek, but most agree that shepherds (pastors) and teachers is ONE role and not two. A pastor must teach the Bible and a good Bible teacher needs be a pastor.

Read again…

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

NOW HERE’S THE KEY QUESTION - WHY?

WHY? WHY DID CHRIST HIMSELF GIVE THESE PEOPLE… can I suggest to you that the future growth and wellbeing of our church may hang on the answer to that question!

Did God give these people so they might do all the ministry? So that they must preach and teach and visit and pray…. So that they would evangelise all of your friends… and manage the church and set a vision…. So that they might do the job of making disciples and discipling disciples…. And caring for people and visiting the sick and counselling the distressed….

No. Such a burden is unbearable for one man, or even for the body of the elders.

And it isn’t biblical…. And isn’t the pathway to a growing church…. Remember that’s what this passage is all about.

Why did Christ gift some to be pastors and teachers….. (V12)

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Ephesians 4:12–13 ESV

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,

My role here is not simply to do all the ministry…

I want you to stop and digest that…. Because it has huge implications for church life.

My role here is not simply to do all the ministry…..

It is to teach and equip so that we, you, might perform the ministry of the church.

We are to be a collection of disciples who make and grow other disciples. We are like a body… Different bits, different parts, working together that we might grow.

The body gathers each Sunday…. We come of course to worship God…. But you should also think of Sundays a bit like boot camp…. This is a training day. We gather to be equipped from God’s word… And then we scatter to serve.

We scatter to live lives of sacrificial love…. To encourage other Christians…. We scatter to live lives of prayer….. We scatter to gather others and invite them in, that they too might come and place their trust in Jesus… see lives transformed, turned around…. and sent out to serve Jesus wholeheartedly.

To be a growing church…. we ALL need to be united around the gospel….. and we ALL need be equipped to be servants.

PAUSE - BREAK OFF TO SUM UP

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Back to that piece of research I mentioned at the beginning – the study into church growth in Scotland.

There was much that was interesting, even surprising, about this report…. and all it had to say about how to be a growing church.

It’s also kind of wonderful that there were many things in here which were a surprise at all…. of the 9 distinctive marks of a growing church, two of them were these….

Growing churches are places of united community.

Growing churches equip every member as a missionary disciple.

It’s in here…. much more importantly it’s in HERE (Bible).

Be united around the gospel…. and be equipped to go out and serve… sharing the message of the gospel with those around.

Let’s pray.