Walk Unified: Serving with Our Diversity

Introduction

Diversity is a big thing in our society today. It is a hot topic of discussion on the political landscape, social landscape, employment landscape, and religious landscape. When we hear people talk about diversity in any of these areas we all probably have varying responses. Debates take place in the public forum daily. They take place in a formal setting and informal setting. They take place amongst family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. These areas of diversity are argued on television and social media. The topic of diversity is everywhere. We cannot go anywhere where the topic has not or most likely will not be discussed. In many ways the obsession with diversity today and even the mindset that it is deserved has brought chaos and strife among the relationships among people and an irrationality to how we are to interact.

This morning we are going to find out that before our world was obsessed with diversity the Apostle Paul talked diversity among the church. Unlike today the diversity that Paul is speaking of in the church promotes unity, a unity that is worthy of the calling by what we have been called—salvation by grace through faith by the shed and redemptive blood of Jesus Christ! The diversity Paul speaks of brings God glory!

The Book of Ephesians clearly spells out what we have in Christ, the riches we have in Him because of Christ death on the cross (Ephesians 1-3). The book of Ephesians is laid out in showing what we have, who we were, and what we are to do.

The main theme in Ephesians is God accomplishing his purposes through the unity of the Church made possible through His son for his own glory (Ephesians 3:20–21 “20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” ).

The central purpose is to glorify God through unity. The foundation (belief/doctrine) of this unity is taught in chapters 1-3 and lived (behavior/practice) in chapters 4-6. The first three chapters are filled with declarative statements whereas chapters 4-6 contain many principles/imperatives/commands woven throughout that aid in practical living of the doctrine in Ephesians 1-3.

We have a new position as a Christian. It is vital we live this position out to the glory of God. In Ephesians Paul emphasizes this amazing truth.

Last week we looked at the unity we have because of what Christ has done for us and because of that we need to walk worthy of the calling we have been called. We examined the necessity of our lives’ practice needing to match the doctrinal truth of the gospel we believe. We saw that the fundamental truths underlying our unity is different and unique from any other group of people. Even when we may have a difference with someone over some variation of living out the doctrine we believe we can and do have a fundamental unity that needs to show in our lives. The unity we have Paul says is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one hope, one baptism, one God and father of all. We are united in Christ through the drawing of the Holy Spirit made possible by God the Father alone. We see that the one, triune God is the fundamental truth for the unity that all believers have regardless of ethnicity or background or circumstances of life.

This week we are going to see Paul shift from discussing the unity we have and emphasizing the oneness of many to the diversity we have amid the unity. We will see that the unity we have and Paul urges the church to live in gains strength and maturity through the diversity among the church.

We will see this in three facets.

Main Idea: A unified church is marked by serving others with Christ-given gifts.

1) The diversity in gifts are graciously given by Christ. 7-10

Paul in verse 7 uses a transitional word in the word “but” to connect what he has just finished saying to what he is now introducing. This word introduces a new but related topic. Paul is not totally changing topics but adding to what he has said an important truth that on the surface is going to sound contradictory. Paul has just finished sharing with the church the unity they are to have by living worthy of their calling, their salvation. Paul emphasized the unity they have and needed to live as such regardless of any perceived or actual differences they may have with one another because of the unity they have that is different from the world. Paul explains that in their unity Christ has measured out gifts by his grace to each and every believer.

In Christ doing this it brought to the church family—diversity in unity! When you and I got saved we were given by Christ through his grace gifts to use for his purposes. These gifts are not something only the elite has or only the non-elite so they can catch up to the elite. No every Christian has gifts given to them from Christ though his grace. We have multiple passages of scripture in the NT that provide lists of various gifts that have been given. None of them are completely identical and all of them are not comprehensive.

The primary truth we need to note about these gifts is the person who gave them to us. These gifts are not something we contrive on our own. They are not something we can even be successful with on our own. We see in the various NT passages that the gifts are given by Christ through the Holy Spirit. Each of these gifts are distinctly given for the service to Christ and the maturing of the church. Verse 7 gives it plainly that amid our unity is God-given diversity that we often neglect and dismiss.

Why? if we admit and own the truth that every believer has been given a spiritual gift or gifts then that means that we are responsible to use those gifts for God’s glory in the life of the church. We do not like that because our gifts might place us where our flesh seemingly most often kicks against.

A little side note, we are not going to spend much time in Paul’s paranthetical in 9-10. Paul seemingly gets somewhat distracted. He focuses on Christ and actions made by Christ. In verse 8 I believe Paul is making the strong point that Christ is the giver of the gifts in the church. Verses 9-10 discuss as part of a quote from Psalm 68:18 the place where Christ went.

Finally, what is Paul’s point in these verses? Christ descended to earth in the Incarnation. He completed His task, winning the victory, and then ascended to Heaven, where He has resumed His place of glory. He now is distributing the fruits of His conquest to His people. Paul has thus laid a theological foundation from the OT for the ministry of diverse gifts in the church. - Dr. David Saxon, MBU, class notes, 2009.

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

In

This service is due to God’s grace. We need to live reminded that we are all gifted to serve God!

As we are all gifted to serve God it begs the question then that if Christ has gifted every believer, what are the gifts he has given? Paul moves to discussing the gifts of grace given by Christ to the church for the purpose of unity.

2) The diversity in gifts enriches the unity of the church. 11-12

Paul now in verse 11 provides a list of gifting that Christ has given to the church followed in verse 12 how these gifts enrich the church. As we look at these two verses it is helpful to understand the flow of Paul’s argument. Christ wants the best for his church and every believer. He wanted to see his purpose accomplished and he gave the believer special gifts of grace to accomplish the growth and maturity he wants to see in the church daily. The list provided in these verses is far from exhaustive but they are important to the maturity spiritually in the church. Let’s examine these gifts as we will see that leaders are to do the equipping of the saints.

Structure of 4:11 - 12:

He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers

              For (pros) the perfecting of the saints

                           For (eis, unto) the work of ministry

                                         For (eis) the building of the body of Christ.

The gifts that Paul does list here are gifts of leadership to the church. The first three are unconnected gifts. The final two are connected.

apostles:

this gifting was foundational to the beginning of the early church. It was a gift that was given to a few to help launch the NT church in its infancy from Pentecost. It seems that special criteria was necessary to be an apostle. The apostle has passed from the scene since the early church. They were articulators of the gospel and teaching the Word of God to the Christians. They helped to shepherd the people in the early days of the Church.

prophets:

this gifting is similar to the apostles. They were foundational to the church. “the use of prophets in Ephesians (2:20; 3:5) proves that Paul has in mind men (women? – Acts 21:9) who received direct revelation from God for the church. The doctrine of the closing of the canon argues for the cessation of such a gift at the end of the first century.” - Saxon

in a general sense the word can mean one who proclaims forth the Word of God. We no longer have prophets in the sense of the OT receiving revelation from God since the close of the canon.

evangelists:

in a general sense the term speaks to proclamation of the gospel. Here Paul is speaking it seems to someone who possibly had an itinerant ministry however it is not entirely clear this is what this word is speaking of. The word is only used three times in the NT. It is used here, Acts 21:8 and 2 Timothy 4:5. The basic principle for this

Acts 21:8 NASB95

8 On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him.

2 Timothy 4:5 NASB95

5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

The admonition to Timothy to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ is set within the context of a settled congregation,106 which presumably meant a ministry to believers and unbelievers alike, while the cognate verb, rendered ‘preach the gospel’,107 covers a range of activities from primary evangelism and the planting of churches to the ongoing building of Christians and the establishment of settled congregations (cf.

“This combination of data yields little clear evidence of the nature of a first-century evangelist. The word, of course, means “one who preached the gospel”; since the underlying verb is extremely common and all Christians are in fact commanded to evangelize, building a case on the underlying verb would run the hazard of the “root fallacy.” I, for one, am content to say I don’t know what the gift of the evangelist was in the early church and that God could have spelled it out more clearly if it were important.” - Saxon

It is unclear as to Paul’s inclusion of this term amid the other gifts here that seem more obvious connected to positions of leadership in the church. I personally see this as one who proclaims the gospel and aids in missions and planting churches. However, it alludes to an ability of proclaiming the gospel to those who need to hear.

With the next two we can see these clearly and strongly a part of the church with specificity. Paul uses a little different grammatical structure in how he puts these two gifts next to each other. Look at the text: “some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. The construction shows that they have a relationship. The best way to look at these is that pastors are a subset of the larger group—teachers. Let’s look at them:

pastors:

this is the only text where the word here is translated pastor. It has the underlying understanding of another word used to describe the pastoral responsibility and that is shepherd. The term pastor is used here to speak to the ministry of pastor in the church. With pastors being a subset of teachers a part of their role is to be a teacher of God’s word to the flock or the church. Pastors are to oversee and shepherd the flock. They are to care for the spiritual needs of the church.

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

All pastors teach (since teaching is an essential part of pastoral ministry), but not all teachers are also pastors.113 The latter exercise their leadership role by feeding God’s flock with his word.

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

Pastors, whose functions are similar to those of overseers (cf.

teachers:

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

Teaching is often an exposition or application of Scripture

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

Arnold’s comment is more balanced: ‘

Each of these gifts connected with an office of leadership in the church were given for the spiritual growth and service of the church body as a whole. Each of these offices were also not above the rest of the church or a separate entity in the church. As one of your pastors I am also one of you. God has placed me and gifted me with the gift of pastor and teacher but that does not elevate me above you in the church. It places me in the God-ordained position of using my gifts given by Christ to help equip you to use your gift(s) as God as given you for the growth of the church.

If you have not caught it yet, Paul does not say for those who have gifts. He says to the body are these leadership gifts given. We saw that from Eph 4:7 that every believer has been given gifts according to the measure by which Christ gave them. We all have different gifts and measure of those gifts. It is the pastor-teacher and teacher who are to use their gifts to help the church body mature, exercise, and grow in the use of their gifts.

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

The notion of equipping or preparing, in the sense of making someone adequate or sufficient for something, best suits the context. However, it does require an object:

No hierarchy exists in the church. None of us are untrained and unqualified to serve Christ in ministry. We have all been called in to “full-time Christian service.” When I was a kid and teenager growing up this phrase was often used to challenge us to serve the Lord like something different and special was out there and often referring to vocational ministry and service. Paul is not saying that you have to wait to find out if God wants you to serve him. Paul is telling us in this entire passage you ARE called to serve God in full service to him with all of your life. You have been equipped with everything you need to serve him! Peter in 2 Peter 1 tells us God has given to all of us everything we need to live godly. Part of that godly living is total and complete service for Christ.

Paul connects this service/ministry by the individual members of the body to the maturing and spiritual growth of the entire church body! We all are responsible for the growth of the church. Church growth is not in numbers but in the relationship each member has with God and how they are faithfully using the gifts of grace given through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enables us to use the gifts.

How serious are you about committing your spiritual gifting to the building up of the church? Doing the work of the ministry is everyone’s responsibility not only the leadership. Too often parts of the church body look to a pastor to see ministry done without any desire to do the ministry themselves. For far too long much of the ministry has been left by the body to the “trained” leadership when God expects everyone, every member to do the work of the ministry.

The NIV translates it nicely in understanding verse 12:

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

3) The diversity of gifts exercised leads to spiritual maturity of the church, 13-16

You may be asking how long?

Until we reach three things: The three things we are seeking to attain and that put a timeline on how long leaders are to equip and the church is to serve are eschatological in nature. These thring things are waht we are working in ministry to reach. Each of which we will not attain or reach until we are with the Lord in heaven for eternity.

To (eis) the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God

The unity of the faith speaks to the truth that the church will not have full and complete unity until the Lord returns and we are in heaven for eternity. This is motivation not discouragement. In fact this is the case with all three time identifiers for how long we serve and do ministry.

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

The point being made, then, is that God’s people are moving towards the goal of appropriating all that is included in the one faith

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

The apostle has prayed that

To (eis) a perfect man

Paul is speaking similar to James in James 1 where he speaks of living without wisdom and being swayed around as a double-minded man. It is what Paul warns the church in Colossae about in Colossians 2:8 “8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16

The adjective has the sense of ‘mature’ (cf.

To (eis) the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

The maturity desired for the Christian is completed when they reach the standard that is Christ. One day Paul says we will be glorified and be at the standard Christ wants. Until we reach that we are to be serving with the gifts that God has given us. Again, Paul here is speaking to the diversity of the individual and to the diverse individual. DO the WORK of the MINISTRY UNTIL we reach the full measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

You may be asking why?

“Believers within the church must mature beyond spiritual infancy, establishing firm roots so that the false teachers will no longer have success in deceiving them. Believers who are achieving this maturity will be speaking truth in love. The successful combination of fidelity and love is a sure sign of spiritual maturity.” - Dr. David Saxon, Class Notes, Prison Epistles, Maranatha Baptist Seminary

The goal is that we may be no longer infants spiritually. Christ desires that we eat the meat of truth and not stay content with the milk. Infants drink milk and are completely vulnerable. They are able to be taken away by an enemy without a fight or ability to escape. Infants to babies to even toddlers to young children are easily swayed by creative and cunning stories and systems of belief.

Illustration: Give the illustration of guy working as a Gorilla at the zoo and how children ate the story up and believed it.

 Being blown and being carried about by every wind of doctrine is not below us. Many false teachings are out there that we need to fend off and part of how we are to fend them off is doing the work of the ministry. Cunning men and deceitful scheming is being done to pull each of you away from doing the work of the ministry with the gifts Christ has given you.

      What lies are you believing about your relationship with Christ? What cunning lies have you been deceived by?

Are you falling into the lie that:

God just wants you to be happy...Christ tells us himself that his children will endure suffering for his name.

Follow your heart, do what you like to do...Jeremiah 17:9 Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 12:1

Jeremiah 17:9 NASB95

9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Ecclesiastes 12:1 NASB95

1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”;

I will serve in ministry when I can. Ministry is optional. God will understand why I can’t serve him right now ...Paul has just told us this is not the truth.

Reading and studying the Bible daily is not necessary...Psalm 119:105 “105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

Prayer is something good but not always necessary or important...Paul expresses to the Ephesians (Ephesians 6:18-19)the importance of prayer for spiritual growth of oneself and church leadership

Ephesians 6:18–19 NASB95

18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,

This week I along with the other pastors were at a conference hosted by Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. The theme was on preaching and prayer. In one of the sessions a point was made that prayer gets diminished often to other physical ministries. Prayer is important. It is more important than the program we may emphasize. We often praise and get excited more over teh in person ministry and prayer is just simply used to “pray people into ministry” rather than seeing it as ministry itself.

I could never forgive that person...Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:32 to forgive as God forgave us.

Ephesians 4:32 NASB95

32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

So many other lies and deceitful teaching exists that Christians are buy. The purpose of why we continue individually to use the gifts given graciously by Christ is to help one another be built up in Christ so that we are not blown away by the cunningness of the wicked and sinful lies and distractions that so easily distract us. The author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 12:1-2

Hebrews 12:1–2 NASB95

1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He writes this because he wants the Christian to understand that we need to evaluate our lives and look for every encumbrance and sin that keeps us from growing toward that perfection we one day will have. You need to take a heart search and ask where are you neglecting the spiritual gifting that God has given you. Stop letting the cunningness of the world deceive you into thinking you are okay where you are spiritually and how often you are doing the work of the ministry. Church family, all of us can do more! All of us have areas in our lives that we are not surrendering and doing the work of the ministry with the gifts God has given us.

This week in my own life God has convicted me on ways I should grow in doing ministry. Part of what he has shown me is working to better equip each of you to do the work of the ministry.

We need to be fixing our eyes on Christ the one who through his grace gave us gifts as we repented and placed our faith in him. We have teh power of the Holy SPirit to enable us to use our gifts. We have church leadership to disciple and equip to do the work of the ministry.

Do you realize that as a Christian the less you are involved with the church the less building up in your life takes place? This is what Paul is saying in the affirmative. The purpose of the diversity in unity is for he building up of the believer. God has ordained the church to be the vehicle by which the authority of God’s Word is taught to you. No lone wolf Christianity exists. God desires each of us to serve our part in glorifying him through unity as we exercise our gifts.

We need to be busy speaking the truth to one another in love. Paul is not talking here about what people want to here. The speaking the truth in love is speaking to them what htey need to hear to grow up spiritually. These conversations can be hard. Love is speaking to them in a way that hinders the biblical truth in your message.

This leads us to verses Ephesians 4:15-16 where we see that what holds the church together is actually a who—the head of the church, Christ Jesus...

The unity in diversity is held together by Christ.

Paul in these last two verses connects verse 7 to this bookend. He emphasizes the centrality once again of the church—Jesus Christ himself. Christ is the one who gave us our gifts and he is the one who sustains us in our exercise of the gifts. Paul is closing this paragraph out talking about diversity by showing how the diverse parts (ligaments of the body) are controlled by the head and help to hold the entire body together.

A healthy body is when the parts of the body are working in conjunction with one another as they are supposed to.

Illustration: Grandma Love and the impact of her living with Polio for over 50 years. Her body went from using a cane for short distances to a walker to a wheelchair to a electric wheelchair. Her body broke down but what I praise God for is she by his grace never stopped using her gifts. She was a prayer warrior. She loved to help others. She kept on serving the body of Christ even when her physical body continued to quit on her.

Christian, Christ is the head of our church. How healthy do you see our church? A healthy church is not based on our numbers but on how the body of Christ exercises their gifts. Are you doing the bare minimum? What is keeping you from strengthening the gifts God has given you? The list of gifts in scripture Paul gives are not comprehensive. You may not even know fully what every aspect of the gifts are God has given you. You certainly will not find out if you do not serve. You will not find out if you do not fully engage. Every part is critical for the health of the church.

Conclusion

This morning we have looked at the diversity of the church and how each persons gifts are give graciously by God, they enrich the unity of the church, and exercising them leads to unity in the church. Our main idea is that a unified church is marked by serving others with Christ-given gifts.

So what about you? You are a part of helping our church be a healthy church! Every one of our parts—every single church member is vital to our spiritual health as a church. Are you currently slacking in the commitment to growing in your service of your gifts to Christ. Again if you do not know what they are that is not an excuse to not serve. We are commanded to serve God through gospel ministry and he has ordained the church to be that vehicle.

I want you to evaluate where in my life can I serve the church more? What in my life might be taking precedence over what God has ordained to be the center of my life and core of my spiritual health? I want you to ask yourself this morning how am I exercising my gifts and service to the church people and not just the programs of the church?

Do the programs of the church you are serving in more important you than the people in the programs you serve?

Let’s commit together this morning that we will strive to grow in being a unified church marked by serving others with Christ-given gifts.