“I Am Gifted”
(Eph 4:1-16)
One of my best friends when I was growing up played hockey with me. We did everything together. Played army at construction sites, floor hockey in his huge basement, tobogganed on the hill behind his house, rode dirtbikes, went to the same school. He absolutely loved hockey, but he wasn’t that good and wasn’t really built for it. In fact one year as we got older he got cut from the team and it devastated him, but he never gave up.
He was very gifted at building things and planning, and fixing just about everything, even when he was young. He made a tree fort that almost rivalled Swiss Family Robinson. He would have made a great engineer or architect, but he wanted to play hockey. Well I talked to him about ten years ago now, and he would have been about 40. He had spent his entire adult life playing in various “professional” hockey leagues that spring up everywhere down in the states. None of them were the major farm team leagues for the NHL, just very seedy leagues that come and go every couple of years. He never would have made much more that minimum wage, but he got to play hockey. But now at 40 had very little to show for his life.
He’ll be OK, but my point is that God has gifted us in practical and spiritual ways that are unique in each individual, and he has a plan for us to identify and use these gifts, for our good and the good of others. But when we go against that, it usually doesn’t work out very well. So today I want to talk about how we are gifted.
Paul now for the second time in two chapters identifies himself as a prisoner for the Lord. And this time he urges us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling to which we were called. Let’s read Ephesians chapter 4:1-16…
What is this calling? Well I think it refers to Romans 8 where Paul says that the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And that he works all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son… And those he predestined he also called…
So the essence of this calling is to be conformed to the image of His son. He then points out more qualities in Ephesians 4 as we continue. Intentionally walk according to this calling with all humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace
He goes on in verse 4, there is one body (one church) and one Spirit (the Holy Spirit) just as you were called to the one hope (Jesus) that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. In other words if we are walking according to our call from God, there is no dissension, only unity. But when we walk according to our own call, our own desires within the body, we start to divide and the body is broken down.
So he says all this at the start to introduce what he’s going to tell us in the rest of this passage. He starts this section with “but”, grace or “charis” which is where we get the word charisma, was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
What is Christ’s gift? Well it’s the spoils of his victory over sin and death. We know that he has all authority in heaven and on earth, he has inherited all of creation. So the measure of his gift is unlimited.
Now the text Paul borrows from in verse 8 is Psalm 68:18, which describes God as the victor coming into the city with his captives and receiving gifts or sacrifices from them. Paul here reverses that and says that when Jesus ascended on high he led a host of captives, those who are saved, and he gave gifts to us from his spoils of victory.
There’s the idea again of Jesus, by the nature of his victory, taking his own people captive as King and Lord, but also giving us gifts. They are all his and he can give them as he chooses, in the measure He chooses. We can’t choose how God gifts us, our job is to identify what He gives us and walk according to those gifts.
Now I’m just going to leave verses 9 and 10 for our purposes today, they just confirm Jesus authority. But then he goes into verse 11 talking about the fivefold gifts that are given to the church for the purpose of achieving what he mentioned at the beginning of the passage, unity and maturity. These I would argue are the most important gifts for this particular purpose as Paul even ranks them in 1 Cor 12. He does also say that all gifts are equal in importance overall for the health of the body, but for the specific purposes of equipping people to walk in a manner worthy of or according to their various other gifts, these five are essential.
These are examples in verses 11 of the gifts that equip others to use their gifts in the work of ministry, or service to God. These are not offices in the church as some have taught, nor are they just for church leaders. For instance Paul says in 1 Cor 14:31 that all can prophecy, and this letter to the Ephesians is to all the saints who are faithful to Jesus. And if we eliminate these gifts from the church we cannot then fully reflect Jesus.
The primary point here is that it is Jesus who gives the gifts according to the measure he chooses. Everyone of us is capable of being an apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher or shepherd at any given time according to God’s will. We cannot be the Apostles in terms of those who witnessed Christ and were given authority to be the foundation of the church and the Scriptures along with the OT Prophets, but we can all be given the gift of the apostle, which is essentially to be an ambassador or representative of Christ. Specifically, one who is commissioned by Christ, and that includes all of us who are saved.
So in that way apostle is probably the most common gifting or assignment, and possibly why Paul lists the three in order in 1 Cor 12 where he says “God has appointed first apostles, second prophets, third teachers and so on. I believe this means that apostles, prophets, and teachers are or should probably be the most prevalent giftings in the church. He makes it clear we are not all gifted with these however. That would make the body of Christ incomplete or unbalanced.
But the truth is we can all be an apostle at any given time if we are being witnesses and representing Jesus and his commission to make disciples. We can all be prophets at any given time if we speak God’s word into any situation. We can all be teachers when we help someone understand something in the bible. We can all be shepherds when we care for and lead God’s people in some way, and we can all be evangelists, when we share the gospel with someone.
By the way, there’s a new app for your mobile devices called “How to Share Your Faith”, and I encourage you to check it out, there’s a link in your bulletin to help you.
So the text seems to make it clear that we need all these gifts for the body to grow into full maturity. But the modern church has for the most part discounted the gifts of apostle, prophet and evangelist, and we only really focus on shepherd and teacher. Or we expect only pastors to be any of these.
An ingrown church is the result of neglecting the apostle, prophet and evangelist ministry, because those are the primary gifts that take God outside of the church. Also for those inside the church, we are comfortable with shepherds and teachers who give to us. But we’re not so excited about coming under the authority of the apostles teaching, we don’t necessarily want to hear what the prophet says, no one ever has, and God forbid we should have to be evangelists.
If I may make an observation of at least the North American church and why it is not producing more mature, unified, God knowing, believers with the stature of the fullness of Christ. One of the primary reasons would be that we do not come under authority. We have weakened the ministries of apostle, prophet, and evangelist, and the result has been that we remain as spiritual children wanting to be bottle fed, and we are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, human cunning, and crafty deceitful schemes. Those three giftings get the most flack from outside and inside the church.
The alternative being according to Paul, that we speak the truth in love to each other, and it is primarily those who are gifted with the apostle, prophet, and evangelist gifts who do this. And I would also argue that these are the three primary gifts of the people in the New Testament, and so even if we do not have those gifts being acted out in our local body, we are coming under the authority of those who did through the Scriptures.
So these gifts are somewhat different from other gifts we see in the bible in that they are specifically gifts of ministering the gospel or the word of God.
So then verse 15 tells us that by speaking the truth in love with these gifts, we the church are to grow up in every way into Him which is the head (again expressing authority), into Christ. From whom and from no one else, the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped (a reference to all believers and all gifts), when each part is working properly (or walking according to their calling), makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Now some take the word grow here to mean numerical growth, which would certainly happen. But the real growth Paul is referring to is what he just talked about, that we would all grow up in Christ, because it is that which will accomplish the ultimate purpose of the body, which is to build itself in love and be formed into the image of Christ.
So here’s the deal. The elders are all taking a spiritual gifts assessment, and we will be going through a process of discerning and then learning how to apply or walk in accordance with those gifts. The goal of going through this process is to ensure that we are obeying Paul’s instruction, but also so that we can help equip you to do the same.
Why is all this important? Because this chapter is all about the body of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit, and Paul is urging us or begging us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Remember how we saw Paul using long run on sentences and how excited he is as he writes this letter. Try to sense the urgency with which he is begging the people to live out the gifting that God has given them. He mentions in this passage several of the fruit of the Spirit that are spoken of in Galatians that are products of this.
Its interesting how, of all the great religions of the world, none has had such disunity in its history and to this day, as Christianity. The Bible anticipated this and because it is the only true religion, we know that Satan is very concerned about thwarting the plans of the church. Therefore God left us extensive instruction to maintain unity, which we have to a large part given lip service to and we turn to more cultural ways of doing things. The Bible has become something we study and make sermons about, but do not necessarily do what it says individually or corporately.
It seems from Paul’s words here and in other letters he writes, that for the church to fulfill its mission, it must be filled with Spirit empowered, born again believers working together using their various gifts to equip and build each other up in love.
So how many of us have seriously investigated for ourselves and asked others for feedback, about what our spiritual giftings are? Do we even know what they all are? And if so, have we made it our prioritized goal to somehow implement them for the cause of Christ and His church?
There’s no outline in your bulletin today but there is a list of the biblical spiritual gifts, and some verses you can look at. The intention is to have you discern what yours are. You can take the assessment listed at the link in your bulletin for free, and they won’t bother you after you take it. Then I encourage you to sit down with me, an elder, or some other person you respect spiritually, and ask them if they would confirm those giftings in you.
Then looking at your passions and personality, we would like to help you implement those gifts in some way either in the church or in some other kind of ministry. Because until you do that, the church is incomplete, and so is your Christian life. Not only that, you personally will not be as Paul says, attaining the unity of the faith or knowledge of the son of God, and maturing to the full stature of Christ in you. And you will probably be more influenced by the pressures and ideas of the world.
Verse 15 also implies that you will not be growing in every way into the head, Jesus Christ.
If you say you don’t have any spiritual gifts, you are either not believing Scripture, or you are not saved and don’t have the Holy Spirit living in you. And if you don’t apply those gifts in the body of Christ, you are just simply not being part of the body, and that’s essentially saying that Jesus isn’t your Lord.
Paul says all this so that you can be equipped, and that you can be an equipper. I recall this story of a woman who was married to a trucker down in the states. She loved truckers and she loved to cook, and she loved God. She identified her gifts and passions, put them together and developed a truck stop ministry. And if you now do a Google search of trucker ministries you will see many listed, and it is a thriving and very helpful ministry, partly because these people can’t necessarily get to a church on Sundays.
So this woman and many others have identified their gifts and passions, and looked at where God was calling them to use them, and God blesses that, and blesses others through you.
Paul is urging us to do this while he sits in prison. So he has led by example. To walk in a manner worthy of the calling or invitation you have received, which for Paul was taking the gospel to the Gentiles. So when we choose not to implement our gifts according to our call, we are saying in effect that Jesus isn’t worthy of our living this way. Is that really what we think? Do we think what Jesus did makes him worthy of our obedience and desiring to make His church grow and become all that it can be?
Are we captives of Christ? This is really what the whole Christian life is about. Do we love and trust Jesus enough to live our lives in a manner worthy of what he did for us. He has called us, or invited us to be His body, so when people look at you and me and His church, do they see Jesus, and do they see his worth and his power and His glory through our lives and our words.
So I’m speaking this truth in love to you today so that we may all grow up in every way into Christ our head, our Lord, the one who holds us captive because he loves us, and doesn’t wan the other guy to have us.
