Christ, the Giver of Gifts
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· 108 viewsChrist gifts his Church through his ascended reign in heaven.
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Foundations for Every Member Minstry
Foundations for Every Member Minstry
One of the reasons why the Church is so out of tune with the culture is that the culture affirms self-fullfilment and chasing your own dream being you own self and the church runs against the grain of that Spirit. You don't exist for your own self fulfillment, but you exist for the mutual benefit of the whole.
Our text begins with Christ giving gifts to his people and ends with the purpose for which Christ gives those gifts. The purpose is the mutual growth of the whole body. In order to sustain and nourish his Church, Christ enables her every part with gifts and sends her specially gifted men to help make this possible.
Whole Passage
Who is the Giver/ Christ the Giver of Gifts
What is the Gift/ Ministers the enabler of Gifts
Why are they given/ The mature Church/ the purpose of the gifts
Gifted for Ministry
Gifted for Ministry
Christ Blesses His People With Gifts
1. All Have These Gifts
1. All Have These Gifts
Every Christian has been gifted for Ministry
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
2. They are sovereignly given by grace God
2. They are sovereignly given by grace God
He determines our Spiritual Gifts and he he determines the amount. Each believer has a gift for ministry, and God determines the amount.
But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Gifts of Christ to Individual Believers
We are gifted according to His plan, His purpose, and His measure. We have no more to do with determining our gift than we did with determining what color of skin, hair, or eyes we would be born with. God is the source of electing grace, equipping grace, and enabling grace.
Rom. 12:3
3. There is Diversity in Gifts (Each is different)
3. There is Diversity in Gifts (Each is different)
There is Diversity in Gifts (Each is different)
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Gifts of Christ to Individual Believers
Christians are not assembly-line productions, with every unit being exactly like every other unit. Consequently, no Christian can replace another in God’s plan. He has His own individualized plan for each of us and has individually gifted us accordingly. We are not interchangeable parts in Christ’s Body, but “individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). “One and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills” (1 Cor. 12:11, emphasis added). When a believer does not minister his gift properly as God’s steward (1 Pet. 4:10), God’s work suffers to that degree—because God has not called or gifted another Christian in exactly the same way or for exactly the same work. That is why no Christian is to be a spectator. Every believer is on the team and is strategic in God’s plan, with his own unique skills, position, and responsibilities
4. Each has a responsibility to use their gifts for the benefit of the Local Church
4. Each has a responsibility to use their gifts for the benefit of the Local Church
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
(It’s not for Self-fullfillment)/ For the Benefit of the Local Church
This is the definition of Love vs.16
We find our gifting when we adopt this purpose. Not the other way around.
Gifts that are the spoils of War
Gifts that are the spoils of War
The Foreshadow in
The Foreshadow in
Read verse 7-18, verse 35
The image of a king victorious and bringing back the spoils of war, gifting them to his faithful soldiers.
“Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, break out in a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam.
‘Have they not found and divided the spoil?— A womb or two for every man; spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?’ “So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.” And the land had rest for forty years.
A Victorious Death and a Glorious Ascension
A Victorious Death and a Glorious Ascension
Jesus’s death was a war and he succeeded.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
His death was a triumph over all his enemies.
His ascension to heaven was his exaltation and appointment to the highest place in the universe.
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
fill all things- his perogative and majesty and glory and power to dispense gifts to his people
Illustration: Joseph, Executive in Command
Our gifting are the spoils of war. The rewards of Jesus’ victory through death and his right as the Exalted King of all things.
The Spirit’s Coming the result of His Victory
The Spirit’s Coming the result of His Victory
But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
This was in a context of warnings of apostasy and difficulty, plus the sorrow that Jesus will go away. The Spirit’s coming enables the Church to endure these difficulties.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Christ’s victory and ascension establish his right to bless his Church and he gives gifts to her.
In order to sustain and nourish his Church, Christ enables her every part with gifts and sends her specially gifted men to help make this possible.
If Christ is this concerned with His Church, how should our attitude be about the Church.
1. Do you order your life around the local Church? Taking care to not miss too many worship services?
2. Do you actively seek oppotunities to use your resources for the benefit of others?
3. Do you see yourself as having gifts for the benefits of others?
4. When’s the last time you asked your small group leader, or pastor, what kind of work needs to be done?