Ephesians: Your Identity In Christ (3)

Ephesians | Your Identity in Christ (3)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/12/2014

Play: “Me Church” Video

The last couple of weeks we’ve been exploring the New Testament book of Ephesians. As I said last week, Ephesians is all about identity, which made me think earlier this week about comedian, Jeff Foxworthy who made his name telling jokes about how to identify a redneck—jokes like: You might be redneck if…

• You ever cut your grass and found a car.

• Your dad walks you to school because you’re in the same grade.

• People come to your door mistakenly thinking you’re having a yard sale…

• You go to the family reunion to meet women.

Of course, Jeff Foxworthy is a Christian as well as comedian and hosts The American Bible Challenge on the Game Show Network. And so he’s also told a few jokes about how to identify a redneck church: You might be in a redneck church if…

• You’ve ever seen someone make change in the offering plate.

• The first day of deer season is recognized as an official church holiday.

• The finance committee refuses to provide funds for the purchase of a chandelier because none of the members knows how to play one.

• People think "rapture" is what you get when you lift something too heavy.

• The pastor says, "Bubba, could you help take up the offering?" and 3 men and 2 women stand up.

I don’t know if you could identify with any of those, but I do want to talk today about our identity as a church. Last Sunday we held the magnifying glass over Ephesians 2 and discovered that individually, we are all sinner by nature, however in Christ we are saved by grace and servants by design. As we slide the magnifying glass over chapter four, we discover another picture—a family picture—that identifies not just who we are as individuals, but who we are as a church.

If you have a Bible with, please open it to Ephesians 4. I’d like to focus in on verses 15 and 16, but let’s start reading in verse 11 to get the context:

Christ gave gifts to people—he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God’s people. Christ gave those gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger. This work must continue until we are all joined together in the same faith and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like a mature person, growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection.

Then we will no longer be babies. We will not be tossed about like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to fool us. They make plans and try any kind of trick to fool people into following the wrong path. No! Speaking the truth with love, we will grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong with love. (Ephesians 4:11-16 NCV)

Here Paul identifies three key parts to the body of Christ.

First, Ephesians identifies the head of the church.

• THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH

Paul states clearly and concisely: “Christ…is the head of his body, the church” (vs. 15). What does that mean? It’s the same as being the head of an organization or a corporation. It means he’s the boss. Christ is in charge. What he says goes. He calls all the shots and he has all the authority. In fact, back in chapter 1, Paul wrote, “God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings, not only in this world but also in the next. God put everything under his power and made him the head over everything for the church, which is Christ’s body. The church is filled with Christ, and Christ fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:21-23 NCV).

As I already said, Jesus is in charge of his church. This is his church. I’m not the head of the church, the elders are not the head of the church, the deacons are not the head of the church, and no one else is the head of the church. Jesus and Jesus alone is the head of the church. We follow his leadership and his teaching. If I were to put an organizational chart up here showing who’s responsible for what ministries in our church, right at the top would be the name Jesus Christ. Jesus is the head of the church.