To be like Jesus: Ephesians 4:11-16.
Today’s a big one in our nation, we celebrate Waitangi Day when an agreement was made between the majority of the Maori Chiefs and the Crown, agreement was reached between the parties and a covenant was signed, in 1840.
There is much to be said for having an agreement with someone or making a stand for something, I guess that many of you here would have signed employment contracts, or registered a car or a dog, some will have a covenant relationship of marriage with their spouse or a covenant with God as a soldier of the Salvation Army or as a member of another church. This week we are having a look at the second goal of The Salvation Army Territorial Strategic Mission Plan, which is to “Increase the Number of Soldiers”.
If you are new to the Salvation Army as a bit of an idea of who Salvation Army soldiers are, they are in part, the people around the hall in uniform, but not only those people. To be a soldier does not mean you have to wear a uniform.
Some of you may have heard that I once went to a church where the men all wore ties, I never went back and I referred to it as the tie church, wearing a tie was not my cup of tea, now I’m a minister/officer in a church with uniforms which include ties. God has a sense of humour.
It’s not about what we wear, it’s about the relationship of agreement that we have with God, to be a covenanted believer, a soldier who agrees to certain standards in their life and The Salvation Army doctrines.
The pillar that we have in this Corps that relates to Soldiership is Discipleship. The verses that have been chosen that relate to this pillar are Ephesians 4:14. To give a bit more understanding to the passage I’ve chosen from verses 11 to 16 to talk about today. (read)
Well why be a soldier in the Salvation Army? I’ll tell you what, here are a couple of reasons not to be a soldier; because you think it will instantly solve all of your spiritual issues, or because you like the uniform.
Your reasoning for becoming a soldier needs to be considered and prayed over. Those who are soldiers have entered into a covenant relationship with God.
The term soldier is one that was used to describe Christian believers, from early on in the church. This from 2 Timothy 2:4: “No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer”. The commanding officer referred to here is not Lieutenant Andrew or Rochelle, it is Jesus.
If we look at the Ephesians passage; the reasoning for committing to soldiership becomes clear.
1) Verses 11 and 12 point to the fact that Jesus himself, made it that some in the early church would have various leadership roles, he did this through the leading of and gifting of people by the Holy Spirit; some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, but why? “To prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until…” let me leave you hanging on that word until (pp). Until what?
From this we see that without those gifted people the Church would not be what it should have been, or what it became, it would not be complete it would be developed to a point, but was in need of building up, so Jesus gifted certain people for those roles that built up the church.
So why the until? I’ll answer that in a minute.
First let me tell you a story, many years ago I went to Outward Bound, if you’ve been I was in ‘Cook Watch 222’.. Part of the course entails the watch being put in charge of a 32 foot open cutter (pp) after half a days training and instruction. Keep thinking about the until. So there we were masters of our own nautical fate, we were shadowed by our course instructor in another boat but were pretty much left to get this boat down Queen Charlotte sound to Ship Cove then out to Arapawa Island and back to Anakiwa. We needed very quickly to figure out command structures and sailing ability among our watch otherwise we were just as likely to sink the Cutter or get rundown by an Inter-Island Ferry. We needed to be united what we did. We very quickly became a crew.
So the until, why were some put in those positions that built up the church, “To prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach unity in faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature.” It’s a little like my watch at Outward Bound, Cook Watch 222 becoming knowledgeable and cohesive as a crew, capable of sailing together with a pattern of understanding of how that will be done, so they can get to where they are going and back in one piece.
What is it I’m saying that is important?
2) Two things in here are important for the body of believers here as they were in the early church. The leadership was put in place by Christ, why to bring believers to a unity of faith (1st important thing), and the 2nd thing that went hand in hand with it was maturity, why because of the knowledge of Jesus that was brought to the body of believers by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors.
Christ has gifted some people by his Holy Spirit to give knowledge of God’s Kingdom, so that the Church would be full of united and mature believers.
I would like to say that every believer is united in their understanding and love for one another and every believer is mature, I would like to say that. Because if they were they would have attained the full measure of Christ, they would become like Jesus, they would attained the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Jesus wants us to become like him. (SBI)
This is possible if people are willing to follow the lead of those that God has made the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers. They can become like Jesus. It takes unity believers and the taking in of knowledge that leads to maturity; the result is a group of believers growing to attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
A Salvation Army soldier does this by putting their hand up to being responsive to The Holy Spirit’s work and to being obedient to His leading in their lives.
The covenant of Soldiership has been developed to stress solid scriptural teaching, it encompasses the eleven doctrines of belief of the Salvation Army, making God’s Kingdom values and not the values of the world the standard for soldiers lives. Soldiers commit to live a life of integrity, having Godly relationships, being sober, dedicated to social and faith witness, practicing stewardship of personal resources and having a commitment to the principles and practices of The Salvation Army.
But why is it necessary to make such a commitment, surely it’s possible to live in the grace of God alone, without a commitment to any particular part of the church no matter what the denomination.
3) Paul states clearly that some were gifted with spiritual understanding to bring about UNITY and KNOWLEDGE leading to MATURITY in the church. This then brings those committed covenanted believers to that most important place “growing up into him who is the Head that is Christ”. Why?
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming”
No longer baby believers; the truth that there are many who fit into that category of ‘baby belief’. Lost in the confusion of what they believe and why they believe it, able to be caught up in dishonest schemes of those who would lead them away from the faith. They are easy to pick out; a foot in the world, a foot somewhere near the empty tomb of Jesus, wasting what could be a life of immense spiritual blessing.
How often do you hear of people who follow the teaching of this or that leader who have no sound knowledge of God, often they’re leaders who have followers that massage their own ego’s, who are in reality just using followers for their own person pleasure or gain or to drive some political or religious ideal; the Pol Pot, Jim Jones or the David Koresh types, or to a slightly lesser extent you could include, controlling boyfriends or girlfriends, some music or sporting hero, a political figure, some philosophers or cult gurus. Then there are followers who have no real idea what they are following. Their minds end up confused and dysfunctional. Do I go here or there? It may be that they are not even following a particular leader, but what the world tells them is okay for the moment. A bit of this a little of that, some throw away relationship here, a bit of a puff on that there.
People who end up like a leaf blowing on the wind, like a small ship tossed about by the waves with no direction, no real future, no commitment.
In reality unity of the whole body of believers and the spiritual maturity that occurs through knowledge of those things such as sound doctrines of belief, and scripture allow both individual and group maturity to occur. Personal and Group spiritual maturity occur.
Paul makes it clear; don’t be tossed about, don’t be blown here and there, some of the teaching out there is rubbish, there’s a lot of cunning and craftiness in the world.
Try these out; this is a slightly light look at craftiness and the cunningness of the men and their deceitful scheming: PP (4) 20679, of course they did including Dr’s Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, (5) what kind of a car would be a cat with cheetah feet, that’s right (6) Skoda, (7) speakes for it self and heres two examples.
If you’re considering Soldiership observance of sound belief structures that have been established by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, if followed and lived by, lead to that place of unity of believers, and knowledge and maturity in the faith. This is what Jesus wants for us all
Jesus wants us to become like him. (SBI)
We can remain as infants tossed back and forth in our lives, weak and venerable or choose to be built up both as individuals and the church. The choice is ours childlike or Christ like?
When we chose to be part of rather than apart from, we then grow individually and together through the love of God, we become more like Jesus as a united force and as individuals, part of something growing not just to be Jesus hands and feet, but as a loving giving body of believers.
Challenge.
