Equipping the Church
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 15 viewsChrist's gifts are to help us become a healthy church of mature Christians.
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Equipping the Church
Ephesians 4:7-13
Have you ever asked yourself, what is my contribution to the kingdom of God? or what am I doing to serve God with my life? God has a plan for the life of every believer. A plan to serve others in the body of Christ and He has given you a gift to do just that. The question is, how are you using that gift?
Maybe you have the gift of prayer. God knows we desperately need people to pray for the church today. Maybe you have been gifted in encouragement and you can help people who are struggling. Others minister publicly in all the different spiritual gifts the bible mentions. But it is important we realize we all fit within the body and God has a purpose and a plan for your life.
There is something He wants to accomplish through you, and He does that in the framework of the church. He does that by developing spiritual gifts in your life and mine because He wants us to grow, and become healthy Christians serving the kingdom of God.
I want to encourage you today that you have a role in the church and when we work together, we can make a difference in the world. That is what we learn from this passage. We learn that Christ’s gifts are to help us to grow and become a healthy church of mature Christians. (Read Eph. 4:7-13)
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;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Pray)
In our passage this morning we see that God Has created diversity in the church through spiritual gifts. Last week we talked about the unity of the church and all the things we share. We are one body, with one faith, one hope, and one God.
Notice today’s passage begins with the word “but.” But sets up a contrast because what Paul is saying is, even though we are united by all the things we share, we are also unique. We are unique in the way we serve God, and we are unique in the gifts God has given us.
Just like your hands work in a different way than your feet, but belong to the same body, and your ears perform a different task than your eyes, but belong to the same body. God has given us gifts in the church to work together and serve Him in the world.
Christ’s gifts are to help us to grow and become a healthy church of mature Christians.
The first thing I want you to see in this passage is the provider of the gifts, Vs. 7-10. What sets this passage apart from other areas in the bible where Paul teaches about spiritual gifts is, this is Christ centered. Jesus is the focus of this passage, and He is the provider of the gifts.
Notice who receives His gifts, look at vs. 7 it says, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have a gift. You have been gifted to serve God in the church in some way. There is something God wants to do in your life that He expects you to share with others.
The word grace here is not talking about saving grace. It is talking about grace that is given to us to perform ministry. Paul uses the same word to describe himself in 3:8 when he said, “grace was given to me to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.”
What this means is Jesus has provided the strength, the wisdom, and the courage, we need to use the gift He gives us. He measures out the exact amount of grace for maximum use of our gift.
What an incredible promise that everyone of us has a gift from Christ. No one is excluded, and we have a measure of grace to do whatever He calls us to do. There is an old Christian saying, “God doesn’t call the equipped, but He equips the called.” And God has equipped you to serve the kingdom of God.
And the fact that Christ is the one who gives us this gift means it is perfect for us. We don’t need to covet someone else’s gift because Christ is doing what’s best for us.
Someone might say, I don’t feel like I am gifted by God.
I have seen people with no education become powerful Sunday School teachers. I have seen people who studder when they speak, and can barely carry on a conversation, preach the gospel clearly. The gifts of God are used to serve the kingdom of God, and every one of us has one.
It is important to understand this isn’t speaking of our natural abilities. It’s not talking about what we do for work, or what we do in the world, although sometimes there is a crossover. James tells us every good and perfect gift comes from God. So, even our natural abilities are God’s gifts to us and they can be a good indicator of what He has called you to do.
It takes all kinds of people to make a church strong. Thankfully God has gifted His people with the skills to accomplish His work. Our task is to identify our gift and develop it for the growth of the body of Christ.
In Vs. 8-10 we learn that Christ’s victory over hell and death, and His ascension into heaven is what qualifies Him to give us these gifts. These are some of the most difficult verses in the bible to understand because there are so many different opinions about what they mean. So, I am going to try and make this simple.
Vs 8 says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.” This is a quote from Psalm 68:18. Psalm 68 is called the victory hymn, and the idea here, is of an ancient king returning home from a victorious battle, and he would lead back a host of captives and share the spoils of war with his people.
Well, Paul now applies Psalm 68 to Jesus. He says, Jesus is the victorious king who has conquered hell and death. He has gone to war on behalf of men and conquered all our enemies, and He gives us the greatest gift of all; a life full of meaning and purpose.
In Vs. 9 and 10 Paul explains why he applies Psalm 68 to Christ. He says, because it was Christ who first descended into the world (incarnation) and (after the resurection) He ascended into heaven. He is the crowned eternal king of glory. He is above all. He fills all and gives gifts to all.
The important thing for us to understand is the generosity of Jesus is supposed to make us generous. We are to be givers who use the gifts we have received to help others. In other words, when someone has been a blessing in your life, you should want to be a blessing in return and think of that as doing the work of the Lord, and there is no greater purpose in life.
In 2002 Rick Warren wrote the book “A Purpose Driven Life,” and it became one of the best-selling books of all time, but why do you think it was so popular? Well because it was an incredible marketing strategy. It tapped into one of the deepest human needs.
We all want our lives to count. We all want to live a life of meaning and purpose. As Christians we know that we do that by glorifying God. We do that by using the gifts that Christ gives us to serve others. (Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive).
So, the first thing we see in this passage is Jesus is the provider of the gifts.
The next thing I want you to see is the responsibility of the gifts, vs.11. We are responsible to use the gifts Christ has given us.
There are at least 21 spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament. There is a list of gifts in Romans 12:4-8. There is a list of gifts in 1 Cor.12-14, and there is a list here in Ephesians 4. But none of these lists are complete (they are not exhaustive, and they are not meant to be) it would be impossible to list all of the things God does in our lives.
Here in Ephesians 4 Paul is specifically talking about the gifts of ministry using the Word of God. Notice Vs. 11, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.” This is called the five-fold ministry of the church. Every healthy church has people who are using these gifts.
Now people will argue over secondary issues that don’t matter. For example, there are some who say there are no apostles and prophets today, they died out with the New Testament church. And in one sense that’s true.
Those who were apostles walked with Jesus when He was here on the earth. They saw the resurrected Christ and they were given special abilities to perform miracles and establish the church, and they are all gone today.
But an apostle just means “one who is sent” An apostle is a representative, an ambassador. Someone who is sent out to represent his country in a foreign land.
Matt. 28:18-20 tells us we are all sent out to represent Jesus. Jesus said, to go into all the world and make disciples. So, in another sense to be an apostle is to be a representative of Jesus.
When we think of prophets, we get this image of Nostradamus in our head. He was someone who was predicting the future. But the truth is the prophets in the bible were not always predicting the future, but they were proclaiming the Word of God.
And we do the same thing today every time we quote scripture. So, while I am skeptical of anyone predicting the future, I say amen when someone says, Christ is coming soon!!
No one would argue against there being evangelists today. Everyone is called to be an evangelist, but there are people who are gifted at sharing their faith. I think of Billy Graham whose whole life was dedicated to evangelism and he led millions to Christ.
I think of Tony and Jamie Lynn who serve as missionaries and leaders of Send Network of Michigan. They are gifted evangelists.
I have to be honest with you, I’m not gifted in this area. I try hard, I look for opportunities, and I have been through extensive training, but there are people who are naturals at sharing their faith in Christ with the world.
Then notice Paul says, there are Pastor’s and teachers. Some people say, “the term Pastor and teacher are referring to the same thing.” But I think there can be a lot of difference between a Pastor and a teacher. I have met some Pastors who couldn’t teach and some teachers who would make lousy Pastors.
The word Pastor means shepherd, and it is interchangeable in the bible with the words elder and overseer. For example, Acts 20:28 says, “Be on guard for yourself and all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” So, the idea of a Pastor is, someone who is protecting the flock and caring for the people of the church.
The main point to keep in mind with these gifts in Ephesians 4 is they are centered on the Word of God. Every church need men and women, who are centered on God’s Word. It doesn’t matter to me if we call them elders, teachers, directors, or deacons, what matters is their faithfulness.
There are responsibilities that come with God’s gifts whether you find yourself on this list or not, but there is a unique responsibility for those who teach the Word.
The next thing I want you to see in this passage is the purpose of the gifts, Vs. 12-13. Paul tells us the purpose of these gifts in Vs. 12, “For the equipping of the saints for the work of service.” It is the responsibility of church leaders to equip church members to serve God.
I read a story this week about Pastor Stuart Briscoe. He said when he first became the Pastor of Elm brook church (Wisconsin) a woman came up to him with a question and asked him if he would find the answer for her in the bible, and Briscoe said, “no I’m not going to do that.”
And the woman was shocked!! She said, ‘what did you say?” “What are we paying you for?” Briscoe said, ‘I’m not going to find the answer for you but what I will do is show you how to find it for yourself.’ And that’s what he did, and that is good leadership.
The proper way to lead is to teach others how to do it for themselves. There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” Paul tells us the same thing is true in Christian ministry.
A true Christian minister is one who is teaching his people how to do the work. One of the most crippling ideas that has taken over the American church is that we pay our Pastor’s and leaders to do the work and the rest of us just sit back and watch.
Also, notice the purpose of equipping the saints. It says, “to build up the body of Christ.” That’s important because it means the church can’t be built up without all of us doing the work. All believers in the church must be involved in ministry.
I want you to understand something. You are never going to grow in your spiritual gift just by coming to church on Sunday, even as important as it is. But you have to get involved to become equipped. We learn from hands on training, not watching from the sidelines.
I mean think about it. Do you think you could learn to fly a plane by someone reading you the owner’s manual? No, we need to serve as a co-pilot for a while first. It takes more than information to serve God. It takes time and a willingness to be involved.
That’s why we have small groups and discipleship classes so we can spend time learning to minister to each other and pray for each other. That’s why we started the outreach team so we can provide opportunities to serve God and serve the community.
That’s why we train to share our faith in the church, so we can have confidence sharing our faith in the world. In a healthy church every member is a minister, and every minister is a missionary.
We are representatives of Christ, and a spiritual gift is a God given opportunity to serve. It is given to build up the body of Jesus Christ, to strengthen it, so that we might represent Him well. A healthy church is exercising its spiritual gifts and produces spiritual growth.
Have you noticed Paul never tells us how big the church at Ephesus is? He never mentions how much money they got in the budget. Why? Because Paul didn’t care about those things, his goals were spiritual, and our goals should be spiritual as well. Paul’s vision for the church was spiritual maturity.
Notice Vs. 13, it says, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” It is the job of leadership of the church to teach people what it looks like to be united and to work together as a team without murmuring and complaining.
It is the job of leadership of the church to help people grow in their knowledge of the Son God. To understand the gospel and how it applies to their life.
It is the job of the leadership of the church to use the spiritual gifts they have been given to help people grow to become like Christ. That is what it means to be spiritually mature.
It is also the job of the members of the church to want to grow and become all that God has called them to be.
Hebrews 6:1 says, “therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” Paul defines maturity as measuring up to Christ.
What we learn from this passage is, God’s gifts are to help us to grow and become a healthy church of mature Christians. We all fit perfectly into the body and Christ has given each one of us a gift that is perfect for us. And that gift is meant to be used to serve the church.
But we have to be available to serve or we will never know what He has called us to do. God has a purpose and a plan for your life. He wants to use you and the gift He has given you to make a difference in the world.
That begins right here in the church with training and exercising that gift, and then it is supposed to overflow from your life. I want to encourage you today, get involved in small groups. Get involved in ministering in other people’s lives. Bring the ideas God has placed on your heart to an outreach team meeting, so we can put them to work in the community.
Do not let your Christ given gift sit on a shelf going unused because you are afraid to get involved. Lets work together as a team and grow to become a healthy church of mature Christians, building the kingdom of God.
Primary sermon resources:
Stott, John. The message of Ephesians, (The Bible Speaks Today)
Cole, Steven J, Ephesians, (Steven J. Cole Commentary series)
Merida, Tony, Exalting Jesus in Ephesians, (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary)
