Listen for God’s word to you from Ephesians 4:1-16…
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he took many captives
and gave gifts to his people.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
The Church
Paul has a practice in his letters of first giving his readers theology and then the practical application of that theology. In Ephesians 1-3 he has given us a lot of theology. Now, beginning in Ephesians 4, he gives us the practical application. In Ephesians 1, Paul talked about our calling in Christ. Now in chapter 4 he says, “I want you to live in a way worthy of that calling.”
One thing Paul is quite clear about is that as Christians we are not called to be lone rangers. We are called to be part of a family, part of a body, called the church. Being a Christian is not so much about “Jesus and Me” as it is about “Jesus and Us”. And one thing Paul begins to show us in this chapter is that the church is designed to be a laboratory for developing unity in diversity.
Paul starts this chapter by mentioning five Christian virtues that can help us to maintain unity in diversity. Paul says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” So, the five virtues Paul mentions here are: humility, gentleness, patience, love, and peace. We need all five of these virtues if we are going to survive in the church. Unfortunately, many people, lacking these virtues, give up on the church too soon. And thereby, these same people, miss out on the benefits that the church can bring to their life.
Let’s be honest. The church is not perfect. No church is. If you ever find a perfect church here on earth, I urge you not to join it, because if you do, that church won’t be perfect anymore. You know why? Because you aren’t perfect. None of us are. The church is made for imperfect people. The church is a hospital for sinners, not a showcase for God’s trophies. So, because the church is imperfect, it takes work to stick with it. That’s why Paul says, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” It takes effort. That was one of Bud Rowles favorite words. He was always reminding us in men’s Bible study that the Christian life takes effort. And that is true. It does.
Unity
“But why put in the effort?” you might ask. The answer is because it’s the only option we have. The church is kind of like Noah’s Ark. Risking the stench from the animals inside is better than drowning outside. The church, like Noah’s Ark, is the only option.
We need the church. Individual Christians do not survive well alone. And though there are many expressions of the church on earth, many different denominations, there really is only one church. So, we need to do our best to make the church the best it can be. If the church really is a body, cutting off one of its limbs would be a strange way to make it healthier, don’t you think? And you are one of those limbs. The church needs you.
Paul emphasizes the importance of unity in the church in verses 4 through 6… “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Did you notice how many times Paul uses the word “one” in those three verses? He uses the word “one” seven times. And seven is the number of completeness in Jewish numerology. Paul says there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. All of this goes along with the fact that there is one way. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
If you reject the one way, what other way is there? If you reject the one body, what other body do you have to live in? If you reject the one Spirit, what other spirit do you have that can breathe spiritual life into you? If you reject the one hope, what hope do you have? If you reject the one Lord, what other master do you have who can lead you in the way everlasting? If you reject the one faith that is true, what other faith can suffice? If you reject the one true baptism, what other baptism is there that is not just an empty ritual? And if you reject the one true God, what other God is there? If God is life, to turn away from him can only mean death. That is why unity with the entity God calls his body is so essential.
Diversity
But, at the same time, the unity of the body of Christ does not mean that the body of Christ is a boring, monolithic institution. There is diversity in the body of Christ and that diversity is not an accident. God has created the church to have diversity. And that diversity is beautiful! Our diversity stems, in part, from the different gifts that Christ has given to us. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” Paul is talking about the spiritual gifts that Christ poured out on the Church, through the Holy Spirit, beginning on the Day of Pentecost, after his ascension into heaven. Paul quotes from Psalm 68:18, “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”
The picture in Psalm 68 is of the Old Testament conquering king who would receive gifts from men when he returned from the battlefield victorious. Barclay writes, “This Psalm describes a king’s conquering return. He ascends on high; that is to say, he climbs the steep road of Mount Zion into the streets of the Holy City. He brings in his captive band of prisoners; that is to say, he marches through the streets with his prisoners in chains behind him to demonstrate his conquering power.”
Psalm 68:18 applies this picture to God’s ascension to his throne in the Temple in Jerusalem. And Paul applies this verse to Christ’s ascension to heaven. The captives that Christ leads in his train are the spiritual enemies that Christ defeated at the cross. But there is a twist in the way Paul applies Psalm 68. According to Paul, the conquering Christ givesgifts to men rather than receiving gifts from men.
So, here is the practical application for us. This means that whatever gifts we have, they are Christ’s gifts. Our spiritual gifts are the ones Jesus has given to us by his Spirit. And no one has all the gifts. We each have at least one gift, but not all gifts. That’s why we need the body of Christ. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”
The story is told of a composer who wanted to conduct. But his conducting style was idiosyncratic at best. During soft passages he would crouch extremely low. For loud sections, he would leap into the air, even shouting at the orchestra.
To make matters worse, the composer’s memory was poor. Once he forgot that he had instructed the orchestra not to repeat a section of music. During the performance, when he went back to repeat that section, the orchestra went forward, so the conductor stopped the piece yelling, “Stop! Wrong! That will not do! Again! Again!”
For his own piano concerto, the composer tried conducting from the piano. At one point he jumped from the bench, bumping the candles off the piano. At another concert he knocked over a choir boy.
During one long, delicate passage, the conductor jumped high to cue a loud entrance, but nothing happened because he had lost count and signaled the orchestra too soon.
As the composer’s hearing worsened, musicians tried to ignore his conducting and get their cues from the first violinist. Finally, the musicians pled with the composer to go home and give up conducting, which he did.
That composer’s name was Ludwig van Beethoven.
The man whom many consider to be the greatest composer of all time learned that no one is a genius at everything.
The way God has made things to work in the church one person does not have to do all the work. The gifts of God’s grace provide beautiful diversity in the body of Christ and those same gifts, distributed to many, provide an opportunity for teamwork.
Paul spells out some specific gifts he has in mind. This is one of at least three places where Paul enumerates the gifts of the Spirit. Paul has much to say about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and Romans 12. Each list is different from the others. Thus, I think we can conclude that none of the lists are exhaustive. In Ephesians, Paul mentions five gifts, or gifted people. Some commentators consider these to be offices in the early church.
First, Paul mentions apostles. The first apostles were ones who had known Jesus in the flesh and were eyewitnesses of his resurrection. Obviously, apostles in this sense do not exist today. But the word “apostle” means “one who is sent” by Christ. And we are all sent by Christ to share the good news about him with others.
Second, Paul mentions prophets. This gift/office involved both fore-telling, predicting events before they happen, and forth-telling, telling forth the good news about Jesus. In Ephesians 2:19-20 we read where Paul says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” Apostles and prophets were part of the foundation of the church. And so, in a sense, there are no apostles or prophets today equivalent to those in the first century. But we are still called to tell forth the good news of Jesus today. And so, there is a sense, in which every preacher is a prophet and has a prophetic gift.
Third, Paul mentions evangelists. Evangelists are those who are especially gifted at sharing the good news with others in such a way that people are drawn to commit their lives to following Jesus Christ. Billy Graham was a preeminent evangelist in the twentieth century. But he was not the only one given the gift of evangelism. Many have it and use it to great effect still today.
Fourth, Paul mentions pastors. “Pastor” is an office in the church, but it is also a gift that some people have, the gift of caring for members of the church, God’s sheep.
And how do pastors care for their sheep? They do it primarily through using the fifth gift Paul mentions: teaching. The main job of the pastor is to teach God’s people. But there are people gifted at pastoring who are not ordained ministers. And there are those who are gifted at teaching who are not ordained ministers. The gifts of pastor and teacher are not exclusive to those who have “Reverend” in front of their name.
All these people: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are gifts to the church as well as being gifted people. In fact, every gifted Christian is a gift from God to the whole body of Christ.
Paul makes very clear the purpose of these people being given as gifts to the church. Their purpose is to “equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”.
Sometimes, some people conceive of the pastor’s job as doing all the ministry in the church. But that is an unbiblical conception.
A well-known coach was once questioned about how much college football contributes to the national physical-fitness picture. His reply: “Nothing!”
The interviewer was startled and asked, “Why not?”
“Well,” said the coach, “The way I see it, you have 22 men down on the field desperately needing a rest and 40,000 people in the stands desperately needing some exercise.”
Unfortunately, the church is sometimes like that. Some pastors try to do all the work and people are left sitting in the pews needing spiritual exercise. I hope our church won’t be like that. I want to be your pastor, but I don’t want to do all the ministry. I want to be a good equipper. We are all in this together, doing ministry together.
Paul tells us that the end goal of equipping is that the body of Christ may be built up. In other words, the work of the pastor ought to be construction, not destruction.
How will we know when the church has been fully built up? Paul says that we will be built up when we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. When the church is properly equipped, she will be stable: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” I believe Scripture, properly taught and applied in the lives of God’s people enables them to stand up against the winds of false doctrine.
A while back, a great movie appeared entitled Jesus Revolution. The movie was all about Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel churches that sprang out of the Jesus movement of the late 60s and early 70s. Pastor Chuck used to say, “Well fed, well cared for sheep, naturally reproduce.” I believe that is true.
I believe God wants us to be well established in the faith, but he doesn’t want us to be stuck. He wants us to be in motion, constantly growing, because when a church or a Christian isn’t growing, they are dying.
One sure-fire way to grow in Christ is by putting to work the gifts that God has given you. If you don’t have a ministry at First Church, try different things until you find out what you’re good at. Then put to work the gifts you discover. Sometimes we don’t grow until we get out on the edge of life and try to do some things we never thought we could do before.
A mountain climber learning to climb must take some risks and be willing to hang off the side of a cliff while trying to move upward. A climber may have to stretch to reach some handholds and footholds that may seem beyond reach. Just so, sometimes we must let go of our comfort zones to grow spiritually in the ways God wants us to grow.
This leads us to the result of proper equipping in the church: growth. Paul says, “From him [that is, from Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Did you know that from time to time, lobsters must leave their shells to grow? They need the shell to protect them from being torn apart, yet when they grow, the old shell must be abandoned. If they do not abandon it, the old shell soon becomes their prison—and finally their casket.
The tricky part for the lobster is the brief time between when the old shell is discarded, and the new one is formed. During that terribly vulnerable period, the transition must be scary to the lobster. Currents gleefully cartwheel them from coral to kelp. Hungry schools of fish are ready to make them part of their food chain. For a while, at least, that old shell must look pretty tempting to the lobster.
We are not so different from lobsters. To change and grow, we must sometimes shed our shells—a structure, a framework—we’ve depended upon. Discipleship requires us to be committed enough to Jesus that when he bids us follow, we will be willing to change, risk, grow, and leave our “shells” behind.
Jesus once told a parable to make this very point. He said, “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.” (Luke 5:36-38)
The question is: “Are we ready for the new wine and the new wineskin?” Jesus is doing a new thing in our midst. Are we ready, willing, and able to be a part of that new thing? We can say “yes” to the new by the power of the Holy Spirit…
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