Ephesians 4:11-16: Gospel Driven Service
Notes
Transcript
Ephesians 4:11-16: Gospel Driven Service
Prayer:
Memorial Day weekend: Fallen soldiers and our freedomProtect current soldiers
Introduction:
Different type of sermon:
Verse by verse
What does the verse mean?How does this verse apply to our lives?
Context: Parenthesis!
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.)
“From that position of authority and power, he gave grace to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
ABOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH Gift giver
Everything else in this passage hinges on what the Lord gave to the church!
vv.11-16: One long sentence in Greek
Verse 11: Gifts of Ministers of the Word
“11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers”
FROM THAT POSITION OF AUTHORITY AND POWER, Jesus gave apostles, the prophets, evangelists, pastors teachers
Main verb: HE GAVE!
What do these classes of people have in common:
Communicating God’s truth!
Unique list here of people especially focused on preaching the Word
Summarizing Statement “Ministers of the Word”
Why is this important?
God gave offices to the church to uphold the GospelEvangelists=Good Worders!Teaching Pastors who speak the Gospel
This isn’t merely about a list of offices, this is a list of GOSPEL-CENTERED OFFICES made up of people who need to be preaching the TRUTH ABOUT JESUS CHRIST!
Church Leadership needs to be GOSPEL-CENTRIC!
It’s not so much about the sinners who make up the offices, it’s about the message that needs to go out.
Verse 12
To equip the Saints for the Work of Ministry, for the building up the body of Christ
Very confusing for translators: “To equip” only found 1, and this is it. NO COMPARABLE!
“To equip the Saints”
“For completion”
“To restore”
“putting in order”
“For perfection” “unto the perfecting”
“For the Equipment of the saints”Ministers are the equipment within the saints, for the saints!
Rob DeWeerd: “Your such a tool, Knetsch!”
“To equip” here about the process of movement towards a particular completed project.
Role of the Offices:
Organizing people for works of service
Like the engineer at a job site with the blue prints. Serving from below to see the building.
Not barking orders but encouraging
Not authoritative but serving from below
TWO PURPOSES OF THIS ENGINEERING WORK:
PURPOSE #1: “For the Work of Ministry”
YLT: “for the work of ministration”
NIV: “for works of service”
Works of diaconia: Service for others
GOSPEL DIRECTS OUR SERVICE
We are a GOSPEL-DRIVEN Church: THE GOSPEL PROPELS OUR ACTIONS.
PURPOSE #2: For the building up the body of Christ
Church is an organic building project:
Building a Building of People!
Ephesians 2:20-22: Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Construction language but also biology language!
Verse 13
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
We need to be doing verse 12 UNTIL what we experience verse 13
We are united in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God
Verse 13 Provides three really important insights:
RESULT of Preaching the Gospel: Unity of the Faith
We need to be preaching the Gospel and serving in response in order to experience unity of the faith!
So not just about faith, but UNITY of the faith!
Gospel gives us roots and gathers us together.
Our faith gives us a common bond.
CONTENT of the Gospel: Knowledge of the Son of God We need to KNOW the Content well!Who is this Jesus? Do you shape him or is he shaping you?What is the Gospel? How is God’s justice accomplished on the cross?How is God’s grace accomplished on the cross?
PURPOSE of the Gospel: Maturity
“to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”
What does Mature Manhood mean?
Age or size?
BOTH!
Although on a weekend like Memorial Day weekend, it’s hard to see growth, but growth is not merely about numbers. The type of church growth Paul is talking about here is spiritual growth, and I’m convinced that the kind of growth Paul is referring to is absolutely NOT about numerical growth but depth of growth!
Growth in Christ? Growth in your prayer life. Growth in Scripture reading! Growth in service!
Verse 14
What happens when the Gospel is not preached!
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.
Maturity MetaphorMature Man vs. ChildTremper Longman III and David Garland: “Infants cannot be unified; they are individualistic to a fault…prone to instability and will fall pray to heresy and false teachers.”
Maritime MetaphorTosses to and froEvery wind of what?
Doctrine, human cunning, and crafty deceitful schemes.
What’s the Point?
Notice what the threats of the wind are:
We don’t need to beware of physical threats like persecution.
We don’t need to beware of survival: for church plant or even our own lives!
No, the winds have to do with false teaching, manipulators, and liars.
Mature faith is growing up in TRUTH!
That just reenforces this whole idea:
We go back to why this list of people are so important: We need GOSPEL-CENTERED preaching to keep us focused on the truth, to serve with the right motivations, and to avoid manipulators!
Knowing the difference between what is false, what is manipulation, and when we’re being lied to!
Being mature allows us to recognize falsity, manipulation, and lies.
Kids: It’s not enough to just read your Bible either!Listen to the right podcasts!Buy the right devotionals.Read the write books!Listen to Gospel-Centered Preaching
But, as verse 15-16 suggests, it’s not MERELY about knowing the Gospel, but it’s about HOW the Gospel is communicated!
Verse 15-16: What happens when the Gospel is preached
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.
Rather than being tossed around like a rag doll, the goal is to speak the truth in love like a mature believer.
Paul goes back to the world of Biology:
Grow up in every way into the head...
Whole body is attached to the head, held together
How to understand this verse?
Draw pictures of how to understand this
Head is Christ
O’Brien: “Divine energy being channelled by every supporting ligament. “Ligament which acts as a support.” “The ligaments make contact with other parts of the body and are the channels which extend nourishment from the head.”
Limps and ligaments are members
Ministers of the Word are the joints?
Two very trustworthy sources:
“By every joint which it is equipped.” NIV: “By every supporting ligament.”
Supporting=providing,
“The ministers are presented as the means of support or supply for the other parts of the body, and this is consistent with the earlier emphasis in the paragraph on the ministry of God’s word and the role of teaching leaders.” O’Brien
If this interpretation is true, then my role as a minister is to look for ways to help you serve? Are you ready for that?Are you ready for a church plant that requires that additional amount of work?As we emerge out of this pandemic, are you ready?
Now, as we wrap up, I think it’s important we recap where we’ve been:
a) Gifts of offices are given to the Church by Christ
b) To organize the church for acts of service
c) Until the church experiences unity about Jesus
d) And maturity in Jesus
e) By lovingly preaching the Gospel
f) To uniformly connect together under Christ
f) To GROW UP in LOVE!
Not a perfect summary, but it’s close, but where I want to end is where this passage ends for us:
The Church grows by being built with love!
Maritime Metaphor
Maturity Metaphor
Biology Metaphor
Construction Metaphor
That’s the last one:
The Body builds itself up in love!
We grow up in Christ’s love, because love is the message of the Gospel, love is the motivation as to why we serve, it’s what surges and courses throughout veins as Christians. We grow up in the truth of the Gospel which proclaims that Christ’s love is what saved us broken and messed up sinners.
The preaching of the word
The acts of service
Unity of Faith
Knowledge of Jesus
Maturity in Christ
It’s all about the Love of God made manifest in Christ so that his body can continue on this venture of love.
Ask a Construction Worker:
Today, there’s all this expense about how much materials costs?
Some builders have put a halt on new building projects?It take a whole lot of extra investment to build a house today.
MEME: “Take me somewhere expensive”: Candlelight dinner at the lumber section at Lowes.MEME: “The price of lumber is going through the roof… That I can’t afford because of the price of lumber”
The same is true for building the Church with Love. IT COSTS A LOT! It takes sacrifice!
It’s a sacrificial type of love similar to the type of love build on the Love shown to us on the Cross...
Be moved by that kind of of love!
As we emerge out of a pandemic, the church has a lot of fixing up to do, but each building block, each wall, each piece of flooring, sheet of sheet rock, and each nail through lumber needs to be motivated by sacrificial love!
What does love look like?4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends…11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
This summer’s sermon series: Love in Motion based on I John: How to love in motion!
As we go, as we grow, as we mature under the authority and head of the Church, Jesus Christ, let’s be motivated by love each step of the way!!