Building Up The Church Series

We are not only into building up the Lord’s house in terms of physical assets, our buildings and grounds, but also in the building up of God’s people which is the church. We grow not only in terms of numbers, but in terms of spiritual depth. Last week we looked at our call:

Ephesians 4:1 (NKJV) I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,

Individually we were called. If you are here today and you do not know Jesus as Lord and savior, you may just be hearing that call this morning. It is by no mistake that you are here.

John 6:44 (NKJV) No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

We have a choice. God the Father calls us, but our eternity rest with our response to Jesus. There is no other way. But as we respond in faith, God through His Holy Spirit brings us into fellowship with Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1:9 (NKJV) God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is in this fellowship with Jesus that we are in fellowship with one another. Remember, Paul called us to walk worthy of our calling. We need walk like Jesus.

1 John 1:7 (NKJV) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

It is in light of our walk and in fellowship with one another that we are called to unity.

Ephesians 4:4–6 (NKJV) There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

But in today’s passage, Paul changes gears. Unity is not uniformity. We are unified through our diversity. And by and through the diversity of our spiritual gifts that we are called to be: “Building up the Church.” (Sermon Title)

Ephesians 4:7–16

According to John R Stott, a noted Bible scholar and author of many of my seminary textbooks, a tragic mistake was made in in the first edition Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible in 1946. It was corrected in the second edition in 1971. The mistake involve one little comma. There was placed a comma in Ephesians 4:12 that was not called for. Originally it had read:

Ephesians 4:11–12 (RSV 1946) 11 And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints < , > for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

With this comma, it appeared that the apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers had three jobs.

(1) To equip the saints,

(2) to do the work of ministry,

(3) to build up the body.

However that is very much in error. And what a tragic error it was. But this is an error that many in the church assumes, that all the work of ministry is relegated to the paid staff. But that is clearly in error. Here is our verse in the NKJV without the comma:

Ephesians 4:11–12 (NKJV) 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

The work the apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers has two purposes, “—one immediate and the other ultimate—for which Christ gave gifts to his church. His immediate purpose was ‘to equip the saints for the work of ministry’ (RSV second edition 1971), and his ultimate purpose ‘for building up the body of Christ’. [1]

Often the paid clergy is called ministers. But if we rightly understand scriptures, the ministers of the church are all the saints in the church. And who are the saints? All of you who can truly say they have been called by God and have accepted Jesus Christ has their Lord and Savior. All the Saints are ministers and all the saints have the work of ministry. As we will see, the function of the pastors and teachers are to equip and train the saints so they perform this vital God called ministries of the church. Let’s go back and examine these verses from the beginning.

Ephesians 4:7 (NKJV) But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Every believer has been given a Spiritual gift. It is because of these spiritual gifts we are “Charismatic.” The word "Charismatic" has been twisted by some. The word means we process a Spiritual gift. Spiritual gifts are supernatural and gives an ability that you did not have before your conversion. It is important that every believer identify that gift and as we will see, they need to use that gift in the building up of the church.