God's Great Gifts For His Church Series

God's Great Gifts for His Church

Ephesians 4:7-16

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The Book of Ephesians

(Prepared May 6, 2024)

BACKGROUND:

*How do you describe God? There are many great ways we can find in His Word, but today we will focus on the fact that God is a great giver. James 1:17 tells us that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."

*Our God is a great giver! He loves to give, and today's Scripture will help us understand how and why God has given spiritual gifts to His Church. Please think about this as we read Ephesians 4:7-16.

MESSAGE:

*God has given spiritual gifts to His Church. But what is God's Church? Basically, it is the growing group of all people who have believed in Jesus Christ. The Church is everyone who has received Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

*Pastor Russ Blowers gave a wonderful description of God's Church when he was speaking to the Rotary Club in Indianapolis. Each week, a different member told a little about his job. And this is what Russ said when his turn came up:

*"I'm with a global enterprise. We have branches in every country in the world. We're into motivation and behavior alteration. We run hospitals, feeding stations, crisis pregnancy centers, universities, publishing houses, and nursing homes. We care for our clients from birth to death. We are into life insurance and fire insurance. We perform spiritual heart transplants.

*Our original Organizer owns all the real estate on earth, plus an assortment of galaxies and constellations. He knows everything, and lives everywhere. Our product is free for the asking. (There's not enough money to buy it.)

*Our CEO was born in a hick town, worked as a carpenter, didn't own a home, was misunderstood by his family, hated by enemies, walked on water, was condemned to death without a fair trial, and arose from the dead! I talk with him every day." (1)

*Friends: God's Church is all of that, and much more! In the Book of Ephesians, the Holy Spirit led Paul to give us a multi-faceted view the Church. For example, in Ephesians 2:19-22 Paul tells Christians that we are citizens of Heaven, members of God's family, and part of the growing, holy temple where God now lives through the Holy Spirit. Then in Ephesians 3 and 4, Paul stressed that we are part of the Spiritual Body of Christ on earth. And God has given some great gifts to His Church.

1. NOTICE FIRST THAT GOD'S GIFTS FLOW OUT OF HIS GRACE.

*All of God's gifts flow out of His grace. We see this truth in vs. 7 where Paul said, "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift." All of God's gifts for us flow out of His grace, so let's talk about God's grace.

*John Phillips pointed out that "grace" was one of Paul’s favorite words. The Greek word translated "grace" occurs 156 times in the New Testament, and 110 of them are in Paul’s letters. The original word always carries the idea of free, undeserved favor. Once we understand that God’s free and undeserved favor has given us any gifts we have, we will be more devoted to develop and use them. We will also be more humble about having them. (2)

*And Christians, "to each one of us grace was given according to the "measure" of Christ's gift. The original word for measure there is where we get our word "meter."

*So how much grace did Jesus give us in vs. 7? He certainly gave us more than enough grace. The Lord Jesus gave us more grace than any man can measure! Think of the distance between God's goodness and our sinfulness. That is the measure of God's grace. Think of the distance between life and death. That is the measure of God's grace. Think of the distance between Heaven and hell. That is the measure of God's grace.

*But why do we need God's grace? Alan Perkins gave one of the best answers I've ever heard. And he said we need grace "because God is completely holy, and his standard is perfect righteousness. It doesn't matter if you're a little better than someone else, or even a lot better than someone else. You're still guilty of sin. You're still condemned.

*The person who jumps halfway across the Grand Canyon winds up just as dead as the person who only jumps 8 feet out from the cliff. They both fall a mile to the bottom.

*That's why we have to depend on Christ's perfect righteousness to make us right with God. Our righteousness will never be enough, because we all fall short of God's absolute perfection. The more we understand and accept that, the less critical we will be of other people, because we can't be saved by our own works. We can't gain God's grace by being better than someone else. We can't make it to heaven by even the most strenuous attempts at good behavior.