Kingdom Keys - Ephesians 4 Series

So maybe you’ve heard it said, ‘read your bible’ so you tried and failed. Our hope as leaders is that all of us will pick up God’s word and come to understand the true nature of God. After all, the bible is God’s Word curated over centuries detailing His nature, His will, the meaning of life and humanity’s historical interactions with Him. The Bible details the hidden keys to the Kingdom. Hence, the reason we are reviewing a new book each week.

Last week, we learned about repentance and the stages therein so that for us repentance means:

settling the past and

enduring consequences for our action

So that hope can return

by directing our present activities so that we attain the preferred future.

This week we jump ahead to that preferred future as described by Paul and how our unity allows the body, the connected people of God, to directly receive the impulses of the mind of Christ. To explain this fully, I’d like for us to open our bibles to the Ephesians 4:1.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

A little context, Paul is writing to a group of people he converted and walked beside. He loved them. He knew their stories, personal problems and personality differences. As their leader, he knew the power of unity and the divisive nature of uniformity.

I can remember when I was a younger man arrogantly believing anyone thinking or doing anything differently than I would was an idiot or a lunatic. It wasn’t until a man I gave no value to stepped out of the shadows and showed me how wrong I was and how much I had to learn. A man who I had nothing in common with.

He was handy. I am not.

He was a man of a few words. I am not.

He was High School educated. I was studying for a masters.

He was retired. I was in the throws of revitalizing a church.

We couldn’t have been further apart and yet, he taught me what a humble man of commitment says and does to further the Kingdom with others in mind. As Paul continues,

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:

“When he ascended on high,

he took many captives

and gave gifts to his people.”Psalm 68:18

9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions[c]? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

Did you catch it? You may have missed it if you just read it. “He gave gifts to His people.” Paul is quoting Psalm 68:18 as a reference to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, leaving behind “gifts” to his people. The gifts are both supernatural and natural to be used in concert with one another. We are born with a certain penchants and our environment hones those most needed.

All five gifts are needed to engender, call forth, and sustain a full ministry in the Jesus movement. In fact, all are in dynamic relation to one another and absolutely essential to vigorous discipleship, healthy churches and growing movements.

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 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.

Ephesians 4:7,11-12 assigns the gift of APEST (apostolic, prophetic, evangelist, shepherd and teacher) areas to the entire church. All followers of Jesus are to be found somewhere in APEST, living out their nature characterized by a servant-inspired dynamic.

I had glossed over these two verses for years before really seeing the implications. The body of believers we call the “church” has been given a set of gifts from God. The purpose of which is not to act independently but to act in harmony with one another. The purpose of which is to keep Christ as the leader (brains of the outfit) of the supernatural movement we call Christianity.