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.
Ephesians 4:8 (NKJV) Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
Paul is paraphrasing Psalm 68:18. This is in reference to Jesus. When he ascend back to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, is a picture of a King returning from conquest. The captives are those that are brought with Him and the implication is that He sets them free. The captives would be us, we were captive to sin and condemned. Then He, that is Jesus, gave gifts, the spoils of the conquest. Paul explains this quote in verses 9-10:
Ephesians 4:9–10 (NKJV) (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
Jesus first descended to earth, the incarnation. He became like us, a man. He was fully human and fully divine. Jesus performed His redemptive work and returned to heaven as the Victor.
And as victor, He gave gifts to His church. His church is us.
Ephesians 4:11–12 (NKJV) 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,
He Himself, that is Jesus, gave to the church gifted people. In the early church, they had the apostles and prophets. These are no longer here today.
The Apostles were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Lord and commissioned by Him directly for the establishment of the church. They were sent with authority. The church having been established, the office of apostles went away.
The office of prophet went away shortly thereafter. Their job was to bring the word of God, from God by revelation, directly to the people. When the written word became available, the same word that the prophets brought from God, the need for prophets also went away.
The evangelist is still with us today. This word "evangelist" is only found in three places in the NT. Here, and in Acts 21:8 where Phillip, one of the first 8 deacons is referred to as an evangelist, and in 2 Timothy 4:5, where young Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist. The evangelist has the ability to explain the gospel in such a way that unbelievers will come to belief in Jesus.
Pastors and teachers in the Greek probably refers to the same person since the article (like “the”) only appears once before Pastor. The Greek for Pastor is the word “poimen” which translated directly means “shepherd.” The word “Pastor” is from the Latin meaning “shepherd.” God has equipped some to be shepherds, to guide and feed the people. And feeding means to teach. And there are certainly also those called to teach. Teachers and mentors are greatly needed in the church to equip the saints. All of these offices involve teaching and equipping the church.
“for the equipping of the saints.” That is the job of the Pastor and teachers, not to do the work of ministry, but to feed, teach and equip the saints in the church. Equipping the saints is done for what purpose? “for the work of ministry” The members of the church are the ministers. So many people miss the point of belonging to the church. As important as it is for us to come together and worship, and we are not going to take away from that, but our purpose is to do the work of ministry.
If all you do is come and warm a pew on Sunday, you are missing out. We must come together to be train and be equipped. We do this through the various Bible studies (listening to a sermon is not Bible study) and a part of the training and equipping is done OJT – On the Job Training. You must be part of the work of ministry. The more ministry you do the more you are equipped and able to do.
The ultimate purpose of all this is: “for the edifying of the body of Christ” The little word “edify” means to build up. We must build up the body of Christ. The body is you and I together. We build up in numbers (not transfer growth, but new converts, new baptisms.) We build up into deeper and more mature Christians. And we do this till:
Ephesians 4:13 (NKJV) till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
We grow in the faith, and as we grow together, we come to a more complete unity, until we become all of what God has called us to be. Has anyone here today reach their fullness in being like Christ? Not me, but I’m growing with you. We grow closer to Jesus together.
Ephesians 4:14 (NKJV) that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
We are not to stay babes in Christ. Yes, we are suppose to have a child like faith, but we are also called to grow. Herein is the importance of training. As we grow in knowledge, we won’t be swayed by the all the false teaching that the world throws at us. A good bit of the NT is devoted to warning about false doctrines and false teachers.
“by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,” In today culture, you can find teachings to justify any sin you want to commit. And because people refuse to become mature in the Word of God, whole Christian denominations are being demonized and sending masses of people to hell because of the worldly false doctrines being embraced and taught.
1 Corinthians 14:20 (NKJV) Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.
We are to study and know the Word of God. And that is my purpose as your Pastor and Teacher, to equip you, the saints, and one day I have to answer to Almighty God in how I performed that job. Your responsibility is to receive the training and to do the work of ministry, whatever that may be.
But when the saints are led astray, we are also called to:
Ephesians 4:15 (NKJV) but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
All that we do is done with the purpose of bringing us closer to Jesus. Both in terms of our relationship and in terms of our walk, to be more like Him. But to speak the truth in love, we must first know the truth. How well do we know the truth?
Ephesians 4:16 (NKJV) from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
For the church to work like a well oiled machine, we each must do our part. We each must be involved in the work of ministry, we each must be involve in edifying, or building up the body of Christ. Just sitting on pew every Sunday, morning is not going to do it. We have ministries for everyone. You may say that you don’t know how. Well there those who will come along side to show you how. Don’t be afraid to get some OJT. Involve yourselves in Bible study, and get deep into the word. Get involved in ministry.
Being part of the church means commitment. Being part of the church requires involvement. There is no call anywhere in Scripture for anyone to be a lone ranger Saint. The world is a hard place to live as a Christian and we cannot live this Christian life alone. We are in the world but the Word tells us that we not of the world. We come to Jesus, just as we are. Through his Spirit and through the work of His people, the church, we can be made whole and we can be equip to do his work of ministry.
[1] John R. W. Stott, God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 166.
