United in Spiritual Diversity

Introduction

Whenever you hear the word “diversity” what are some of your initial thoughts? Maybe racial diversity? Economic diversity? Physical diversity? Maybe even spiritual diversity? Our text today comes out of and talks about diversity being a good thing. We hear our culture tell us that we should be diverse and inclusive, but in the media people tend to shut others out if they don’t agree with them. Diversity is a great thing! If you were to pair up with someone today, whether it be your spouse, a parent, a child, a friend or a complete stranger, and you were to ask them questions to see how the two of you are alike and how the two of you are different, which column do you think would have more tallies when you were finished? My wife and I have many things that we are alike in (a love for cheeseburgers, a passion for music and an interest in movies), however we have an even longer list of differences (her favorite color is maroon, mine is blue, she likes her steak medium while I prefer it medium-rare and the list goes on and on). If you have siblings, are married, or have children, you understand that there is diversity in the family.

There is certainly diversity in the church as well! We are unique creatures with different likes and different shapes and different backgrounds. Here’s what really the church has an opportunity to be and do. On one hand, those differences can lead to conflict and division and sorrow, so those differences have to, in some sense, be watched, and we have to be careful. There’s a bit of warning that comes in regard to our differences, but those differences can also be the glory of God made manifest among a people. The call from Paul in is for the church to use our diversity to reach others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to equip fellow Believers and to build up the body of Christ. The Church ought to be the place where the world see’s people of different backgrounds and personalities coming together to worship and serve the King. We are not robots and we certainly are not perfect, nor do we get along with one another perfectly, however we are called to put aside our differences in order to serve the King and proclaim the Gospel - there is no greater call than that. Let’s see what Paul has to say about “unity in diversity”.

Ephesians 4:7–12 NASB95

7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.” 9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

As I mentioned last week, has 3 marks of a healthy, active church. The first 6 verses showed us the first mark which was being united in faith. In our text of Scripture this morning, we see the second mark: being united in spiritual diversity. We see two very clear benefits of spiritual diversity, because of this, your outline shows those two points. First, we have diverse gifts and second, we have diverse responsibilities.

We have Diverse Gifts (7-10)

Within the unity of the body of Christ, each member has a distinct part to play and a distinctive service to perform in order for the organism to function properly. As the first 6 verses of told us, there are certainly some things that we are called to be united in - there are Christian essentials that we must be strong in and believe in. What we see in verses 7-10 is that each Christian receives a gift from Jesus Christ (Paul calls this “grace” in verse 7). In our Bible study on Wednesday night, we looked at the difference between common grace and saving grace and we spent a good amount of time talking about these types of grace and how we see them in our daily lives. Common grace is something that all humanity experiences. It is universal and seen in creation and through the church. Both Christians and non-Christians experience common grace from God. Saving grace is different in the sense that not every person on the face of the planet is a Christian, therefore saving grace is something that only Christians experience. Only those who have repented of their sin and confessed Jesus as Lord experience saving grace! The grace that Paul talks about here in is a third type of grace, a sort of “ministry grace”. This grace is a gift that is given to serve and build up the body. In , Paul wrote that Grace was given to him so that he might preach to the Gentiles. What Paul is saying in 4:7 is that grace is given to all Christians in order to carry on with the work of the ministry.

What is unique about these gifts, according to Paul, is that they are from Jesus Christ. We talked about a couple of spiritual gift sections of Scripture in the spring (, , and this very text) however this is the only place in the New Testament where these gifts are given from the resurrected and ascended Christ Himself. Paul highlights the generosity and authority of Jesus in verse 8 as He quotes . Jesus died, rose and ascended to heaven as the victorious King with all authority and gave gifts to His people, while displaying extravagant generosity. John Calvin called this particular psalm a “victory ode”. We see this verse from and we can read the entire section of this psalm and see a picture of a military leader returning to Jerusalem with His followers after defeating an enemy army and taking many enemies as prisoners. This is exactly what Jesus Christ has done! Christ has vanquished our mortal enemy (sin and death) on the cross. These things have no power over us as Christians because we are “in Christ”. Not only this, though, but the resurrected Christ also gives us gifts! The only response we should have because of this is to worship our Savior.

Psalm 68:18 NASB95

18 You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives; You have received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there.

Now, do Christians all receive the same gift? Of course not! Some of us in this room are gifted teachers, others are gifted musicians while others are gifted cooks (praise God for you all!). We have different gifts from God and we must praise God for that fact. You must realize, though, that you do have a gift as a Christian. This means that you must use that gift. If you do not then you are not doing your job in this living organism. Many Christians in present day America attend a church, sit in the same seat each week and maybe even take sermon notes, however that is the extent of their “Christian” experience. Church, there is so much more for you than that! You are given a gift by the resurrected King, you should use that gift! The only excuse for not doing so is because you do not know what gift you have. If that is you, I will gladly remove that excuse for you and give you some resources that can help you discover what spiritual gift you have. On that same line of thinking, to the young people in the room today, never let someone tell you that you aren’t old enough to use your gift. During VBS, just a couple of weeks ago, we had 3 awesome teenagers in charge of the recreation portion of the night. Teenagers, not adults, but teenagers were used to not only help out, but to lead a vital portion of VBS.

I’ve said this before, but as a teenager I took part in a discipleship program called Leaders in Training at First Baptist, Ozark. One of the best things that I learned in LIT was that I had a gift and I was supposed to use that gift. What LIT did was helped me figure out what that gift was and our leaders helped find avenues in the church that teenagers could use our gifts. For me, that meant being able to teach. For some of my friends, it meant them being a part of a praise and worship band. For others it meant helping out with our Wednesday night meal and serving others. There is no excuse for you not to use your gift! Young people, do not buy into the lie that you are the “church of tomorrow” - you are the church of today! The problem that we can run into whenever we hear that as a younger generation is that we think that we don’t have to step up and take responsibility until we’re “adults”. The fact of the matter is that if you have called upon the name of Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, He has given you a gift that you are supposed to use - use it. Now, does this mean that we will have a 6-7 year old preach next week? Some of you might like that better than seeing me up here as we go through , however we probably won’t do that. However, if you feel like you have the gift of teaching, we would love to find an opportunity for you to be able to use that gift and teach a children’s Sunday school class.

You are given a gift and your gift is different from the person seated next to you. Lindsey and I were both a part of this LIT class and I can assure you that our gifts are very different from one another. I was strong in areas like leadership and teaching but weak in other areas whereas Lindsey was very strong in areas like mercy and service (two areas that I was not strong in). Lindsey and I are able to compliment one another whenever we use our gifts because her strengths make up for my weaknesses. This is the same picture we see in the church today! Not everyone has the gift of service - but for those of you who do, praise God for it! Use that gift. Not everyone here has the gift of teaching, but for those who do praise God and use it! We must use our gifts to serve the body and reach others with the Gospel.

Back to the text, verses 9 and 10 are interpreted in a couple of different ways by many Christian scholars and preachers. We see Paul give a “pesher” or an explanation of the Biblical Text. In this case Paul gives us a two verse explanation of what means. In modern language, many of your Bibles have a commentary underneath the Biblical text in which a person or a group of people who are extremely educated (for the most part) get together and give you some insight into what specific verses meant back in Biblical times. This is similar to what Paul is doing here. He quotes and he then gives us an explanation of what the verse means for the believers in a 1st century context.

The dispute that some scholars have today, though, stems from what it means that Christ descended into the lower parts of the Earth. Some scholars will say that this passage of Scripture is talking about Christ descending into hell and leading a host of captives with Him as illustrates. The other interpretation, that I think more people subscribe to, is that these verses are talking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ (not what happened to Him after His death). What Paul is saying here is that Christ came down from heaven. He left His throne in glory - He did not leave His divinity! But He took on humanity and He made Himself the lowest of lows so that we might have life. Paul see’s the descent and ascent of Jesus Christ as evidence that Jesus is both Savior and King. He came all the way down, and He went all the way back up (as tells us). Christ is above all, fills all and gives gifts to all those who call upon the name of the Lord and He causes all things to work together for our good. He is a generous and powerful God and He alone deserves our praise and our adoration!

We have Diverse Responsibilities (11-12)

In basketball, there is only 1 ball but there are 5 teammates on the court together. They can’t all have the ball, but they all certainly have a job to do. In football, a Quarterback can’t do absolutely everything. In hockey, a great goalie can’t win a game for a team - they still have to score a goal. Similarly, in the church we can’t all play the same position or have the same gift. We need people to be different in order to be a unified and effective team. Some of us have the gift of encouragement while others have the gift of administration. We must celebrate the diverse gifts we have in order to fulfill our diverse responsibilities as a church.

Paul begins to list several leadership positions in the church in verse 11. He lists apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He starts by focusing on people who share the Gospel, teach and instruct the Word and shepherd the flock.

Let’s break these positions down:

Apostles and Prophets have a very broad meaning. Certainly both of these positions were very foundational and key in the early church, we see this throughout Ephesians. In a technical sense, though, the term apostle means the 12 - if we define an apostle this way, there are no present day apostles. In a very general sense, though, an apostle can refer to a “sent one”. Prophets, on the other hand, are a little harder to describe. We might think of a prophet as someone who sees the future, however the Biblical definition is more of a “forth-teller” or someone who proclaims the truth of God that might not be about the future but it could be for the past or present. We see prophets throughout the Old and New Testaments (especially in the book of Acts). In a technical sense, as was the case with apostles, there are no longer prophets. Generally, prophets are those who apply God’s Word to God’s people. Whenever you hear someone called a prophet, this is why they are called that. Not because they have the exact same technical definition as what we think of prophets from Scripture, but because they apply God’s Word to God’s people.

Evangelists are those who are gifted in proclaiming the Gospel with the lost (as and tell us). Now, some might have a gift of evangelizing others, however is this a responsibility just for them or for the whole church? We looked at the Great Commission in for nearly a month - we know that as Christians, we all have a responsibility to evangelize those around us. With that said, not all of us have the gift of opening up with a stranger or relating with them immediately like Billy Graham did. That’s ok! Not everyone has this gift, but we all have the responsibility to at least share our faith, our testimony, with the lost and point them towards Jesus Christ.

The term pastor is used to refer to a ministry in the church. We see the term “shepherd” occur in other places in Scripture such as or . A Pastor is supposed to be understood as an elder or overseer. We see throughout Scripture a picture of a shepherd and a flock. Not only are pastors supposed to preach and teach Scripture, but they are to oversee the flock and make sure that everyone is accounted for and doing well. Anyone can go to school and take courses to learn about Biblical history and doctrine, however pastoral ministry is something that is hard to describe. It is something that I am learning on the fly, and I am so thankful to be at a church where you are forgiving and loving even though I am not nearly as experienced in this area as others are. Pastors are called to nurture, defend, protect and know their flock. In the Old Testament, the image of a shepherd and his flock is applied to God. He is the ultimate shepherd, after all! Leaders in the Old Testament are also referred to as a “shepherd” sometimes. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is called the “good Shepherd” in . He is the “ultimate Senior pastor” and pastors today are vice shepherds.

Finally, we see the term “teacher”. Some people take teacher to mean the same office as a pastor and they translate them as “pastor-teacher”. Peter O’Brien puts it like this to distinguish between the two, “Although it has often been held that the two groups are identical, it is more likely that these terms describe overlapping functions. All pastors teach, and teaching is an essential part of pastoral ministry, but not all teachers are pastors.” This is a different group than “pastors” or “shepherds” and that is a great thing! In a church, you need people who are gifted teachers besides the pastor. You need these individuals to teach Sunday school, VBS and children’s activities as well! A teacher or pastor is supposed to minister with you, not for you. You have a responsibility, whether your gift was mentioned in verse 11 or not, to use your gift for the Kingdom of God.

We have all been blessed by the proclamation of the Word, have we not? Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Many of us can go back in our minds to whenever we were children and we heard a pastor preach a powerful sermon in which we felt something “click”. We can thank God for Him placing these individuals in our lives and for their devotion to the Lord both in the church and outside of it. I can think back in my own life of all the Godly men who I have met in ministry and thank God for how they have greatly impacted my own life. As Paul states, their teaching strengthens us and as he says in verse 12, equips us for ministry!

Church leaders prepare, complete, train and equip God’s people for ministry. Ministry is something that we are all a part of because we all have spiritual gifts given to us by the risen Christ. We saw in that we are saved for good works. In , Paul will tell us that we imitate God by working. A pastor works and the church body works as well. A healthy, active church cannot just have 10% of the people pulling their weight. A healthy church cannot have 50% working. A healthy church must have the whole congregation working and using their gift. Does this mean that if a church has 99% of the congregation working and using their gift that they are a “bad” or “dead” church? Certainly not! But it does mean that we try and encourage that 1% to join in as well. What are you doing with what God has given you? I genuinely ask this question. The church will be enriched and we fulfill our mission as the bride of Christ whenever everyone is in here and serving alongside their Christian brothers and sisters.

This means that we need members to work in child care, make meals for those who are sick and in the hospital, minister to one another outside of church, give of your resources and your time so that the body of Christ can be edified, blessed and built up as verse 12 tells us. There used to be a principle out there that was 80/20. If you have 100 members at your church, 80 of them will come and do 20% of the work while the remaining 20 people will do the remaining 80% of the work. This is a sad situation for a church to be in because we are called to be united and work together as a living organism. The worst part of this rule is that now it has shifted to more of a 90/10 ratio. Where 90% of the work of the ministry of a church is done by 10% of the people. Obviously, this is a statistic that is generic and covers the broad American church, not specifically our church, however this should cause us to reevaluate our action or inaction in church. It can’t be just about sitting in a pew, being a part of a Sunday school roster and calling it good for the week. It’s so much more than that! It’s about a personal relationship with the living God. It’s about being a part of something bigger than yourself. It’s about being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. We cannot have 10% of our congregation doing 90% of the work. We cannot have 20% of our congregation doing 80% of the work. We need everybody to jump on board because there is a job in this church that you are uniquely gifted to fulfill and until you commit to doing your job, we will suffer as a result.

and until you commit to doing your job,

We are commanded to use our gifts and we are called to make disciples. The church is the bride of Christ and this is a message that we cannot take lightly. It takes everything we have, however we see that we are united in faith and we are diverse in gifting. It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a church of diverse giftings in order to reach the lost with the Gospel.

Conclusion

Paul Tripp puts it like this: “Your life is much bigger than a good job, an understanding spouse, and non-delinquent kids. It is bigger than beautiful gardens, nice vacations, and fashionable clothes. In reality, you are part of something immense, something that began before you were born and will continue after you die. God is rescuing fallen humanity, transporting them into His kingdom, and progressively changing them into His likeness - and He wants you to be a part of it.”

That’s the Gospel call, right there. God is in the business of saving humans, adopting them into His family and changing them from the inside out to reflect His image. And He wants you to be a part of that family. Do you know Jesus Christ?

If you do, are you wearing a bib this morning or are you using a towel? You are not supposed to continue to have a diet of milk as a Christian, you are called to transition to meat. To grow up. You should not be an immature consumer but an eager servant! I pray that you would find your spiritual gift and use it to help our church reach the lost.

If you do not know Jesus today, He is there. He is more real than death and taxes. He loved humanity so much that He sent His Son to die a death that He didn’t deserve. He died for sinners just like you and I. The greatest news in human history, though, is that He didn’t stay dead. He conquered death and He is preparing a place right now for Christians to call their forever home in a place called heaven. If you haven’t called upon Him to save you from the penalty of your sin before a holy God, why not? Today can be your day of salvation, and I pray it is.

Let’s pray