SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH FROM ITS BEGINNING - CHRIST'S TENDER CARE AND PROVISION FOR THE CHURCH - PART 7
[1]. CHRIST'S THE CARE FOR, AND SUSTENANCE OF THE CHURCH
The Church is not a collection of names on a roll kept in heaven. It is not a detached organisation of people. A secretary might have a register of people who belong to a yachting club who pay fees and receive notices, but the secretary has no deep feeling for that group or the members of it. That is not what the Church is. It is a living, vital organism under the care of the Master Physician. The Church is the most precious entity the Lord possesses. It is so close to His heart and embodied in the first marriage union – bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. We can’t exactly say that of Christ and the Church, but the concept it represents is very real. Each member of the Church is the precious child of the living God found in the living Body of Christ.
One can not read Ephesians and not see that the Lord is so carefully connected with the Church as her Saviour, her Carer and her Sustainer and precious Head. Let us consider some verses from Ephesians –
{{Ephesians 4:7-8 To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.”}}
This is personal when it says, “To each one of us”. We are all recipients of God’s grace and God’s gifts. The Lord works through grace and He correspondingly gives gifts in accordance to that grace as part of His very special concern for His Bride. Now we will look at some of those gifts to THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL.
In the two verses just above it says He gave gifts to men. Corinthians deals with the individual gifts to people in a church to help everything function as a local body of believers. These are gifts that every Christian has. However in the two verses above these gifts are MEN. They are men who have been given to the Church and their primary function was to establish the early Church, to fortify and stabilise the Church. Therefore these gifts mentioned now in the verses underneath are men who were given to the Church for that purpose. They were very special in the early church, but as time went on, only evangelists, pastors and teachers have remained.
[2]. MEN WHO WERE GIVEN AS GIFTS TO THE CHURCH
{{Ephesians 4:11 “and He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, Ephesians 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to (in) the building up of the body of Christ, Ephesians 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to A MATURE MAN, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”}}
These gifts in Ephesians are gifts to the Church more than gifts to the individual. Of course individuals have them but these gifts cover a much wider field than the local church. In verse 4 there are 5 specified gifts to establish, teach and succor the Church. The apostles and prophets had an important and foundational role. They belonged to the whole Church. The evangelists worked with and through the Church to reach our beyond the Church. Pastors and teachers in the sense of verse 11 had a wider ministry in the Church beyond the local Church, a ministry to the members of the universal Church. There are no apostles and prophets today, but the other three offices are with us as men who minister in a wide field, even a worldwide setting.
Verse 12 gives us the reason for God supplying these men to His people. Their function was/is to equip the saints. That is, they built up, taught, and endowed the saints for the ministry they would have. These saints would be built up themselves so they would then build up the Body of Christ. These act like arteries running through the Body to supply all that is necessary for full health and growth.
The reason for verse 12 is verse 13. That is the purpose of God’s gifts. The Lord wants us to attain to the unity of the faith. Overall, I think we have failed badly in that objective. We are to work towards the knowledge of the Son of God, but this is not a head knowledge but a practical one. Knowledge puffs up but commitment achieves the goal. The ultimate goal is that each one is mature in the Lord, fully committed to Him, pleasing to Him, and understanding Him, and to be part of “the fullness of Christ”.
[3]. THE NEED FOR MATURITY IN CHRIST
{{Ephesians 4:14-16 “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, WE ARE TO GROW UP IN ALL ASPECTS INTO HIM WHO IS THE HEAD, EVEN CHRIST, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, CAUSES THE GROWTH OF THE BODY FOR THE BUILDING UP OF ITSELF IN LOVE.}}
We come to the practical part here. God requires stable Christians, established, and free from vacillation. Verse 14 spells out the means of attack against us and that is by doctrinal error, deceitfulness of men, trickery of the enemy, and scheming against us. Delusion and false teachers abound in these days as we fast approach the Rapture. Evil men are everywhere and so many of them seem to have taken over media outlets like YouTube and the Internet and television. There are godly sites on these platforms but imposters are increasing.
We are in the last days of the Church age, those days of the Laodicean period when all around is lukewarmness and mere profession. God wants the true soldier who stands up for the truth of the bible. In these WOKE days many churches are compromising and some are adopting the world’s agendas – homosexuality, climate change, critical race theory, and all these anti biblical demonic teachings.
The only way to combat these evil philosophies among God’s people is to have men who stand for the truth and preach an uncompromising gospel. We want more Daniels, more Jeremiahs, more Joshuas. {{Joshua 24:15 “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”}} That is the boldness we need in the face of declining faith, and persecution of the church and the faithlessness of an increasing number of ministers. Leadership is required. Will you stand faithful for the Lord as did Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego?
David knew what difficulty was, oppression and opposition and the infliction of terror on every side. In the midst of that he could write – {{Psalm 119:86-88 “All Your commandments are faithful. They have persecuted me with a lie. Help me! They almost destroyed me on earth, BUT AS FOR ME, I DID NOT FORSAKE YOUR PRECEPTS. Revive me according to Your loving-kindness so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.”}}
[4]. THE GROWTH OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE CHURCH
I am afraid too many Christians want people to nurture them all the time. What is required is for Christians to buckle up and take control of themselves instead of expecting others to do it for them. It is not good enough to say, “I did not know. I need others to help me with the bible.” No you don’t. What you mean is that you want others to spoon feed you all the time. Take the bible yourself and open the book up and read and study. You will get nowhere fast just reading a small devotion in the morning. Spend time in the bible YOURSELF gleaning the promises and truth, and being established in your Christian faith.
Take another look at Ephesians 4:15. It is a request to be honest always in your speech with each other so you grow in the Lord. Also avail yourself of resources that are true and edifying. There have been many great Christian writers and teachers and I feel at times the books written, say, 100, 200 years ago are better than the ones today. That is my own opinion so no need for attack. Some of the books in Christian bookshops are quite superficial I think.
Verse 16 is a strange verse at first glance but it is the answer for an effective growth. The imagery is of a human body that functions because each part works properly but the essential item is love. All that the churches need for growth is there but gifting is suppressed, because the church’s attitude is this one someone told me once, “We pay our pastor so he studies for us and shares.” That is so wrong.
I could ask if your church is growing, but that is not the correct question. What is correct is, “Are those who come to your fellowship being enriched by the bible and taught to study and pray and for each one to grow in the Lord?”
[5]. THE LORD CARES FOR THE CHURCH IN THE MOST COMPASSIONATE WAY
Let’s leave that and move to another area. Further along in Ephesians Paul wrote – {{Ephesians 5:21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Eph 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord, Eph 5:23 for the husband is the head of the wife as CHRIST ALSO IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH, HE HIMSELF BEING THE SAVIOUR OF THE BODY. Eph 5:24 As the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as CHRIST ALSO LOVED THE CHURCH AND GAVE HIMSELF UP FOR HER, Eph 5:26 THAT HE MIGHT SANCTIFY HER, HAVING CLEANSED HER BY THE WASHING OF WATER WITH THE WORD, Eph. 5:27 THAT HE MIGHT PRESENT TO HIMSELF THE CHURCH IN ALL HER GLORY, HAVING NO SPOT OR WRINKLE OR ANY SUCH THING, BUT THAT SHE SHOULD BE HOLY AND BLAMELESS. Eph 5:28 Husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself Eph 5:29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, JUST AS CHRIST ALSO DOES THE CHURCH, Eph 5:30 because we are members of His body. Eph 5:31 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. Eph 5:32 This mystery is great but I am speaking with reference to CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.
I don’t intend today to lecture husbands and wives according to this passage but to look at the role our Lord has in all this. I have capitalised those areas and we will look at them. This is all about the Lord caring for the Church, the Body, His Bride, and the sustenance and enrichment the Lord supplies.
Christ is Head and Saviour. Therefore He places His church under His wing in protection and love. He loved the Church and gave Himself for the Church. That is sacrificial love displayed when there was no Church in existence. In other words, He gave Himself up for the Church that was to come into existence. All that makes sense when we accept the Omniscience of God.
In verse 26 we have sanctification and cleansing. Christ works to make the Church holy, and it is hard going for some of us. Some are too careless about holiness in their lives but the Lord strives to bring holiness (sanctification) to each one of us because we ought to be like Him.
The next part speaks about cleansing through the washing of water by the word. Christ cleanses and sanctifies. The water of the word is just that. It is the word of God that cleanses us (not forgetting or dismissing the blood of the Lamb). As you read and study the scriptures, they edify you and educate you, and point out sin so you can be cleansed and washed and sanctified. Do not neglect the word of God.
Verse 27 is the key verse in this passage but I would like to forgo it until at the end when we do the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. However, just to say this – great is the transformation that has changed us from vile and guilty sinners to become saints with the holiness of God so we can stand before God and be without blame of any kind. The righteousness of God that achieves all that is often beyond our comprehension, and it rests in faith because we know God will bring it all to the light one day. There is a hymn I loved as a very young Christian and this is part – “Guilty, vile and helpless we; Spotless Lamb of God was He; Full atonement, can it be?; Hallelujah, What a Saviour.”
Verse 29 above speaks of Christ cherishing and nourishing the Church in a tender way, just as a person looks after his own body to keep it healthy and away from harm. Well the Saviour does look after His own Body as if it is His own flesh, and that is the Church. When I was a child I did not appreciate what my mother did to look after me. I found out later that sometimes she went without proper food so the kids would not miss out. At the time we might not appreciate what was done for us, and I am sure on this earth, we do not appreciate what the Lord is doing for each of us in His Church, His Body. Maybe one day in glory we will understand how the Lord has cherished us and nourished us.
Let us look at verse 31 in a little detail – {{Ephesians 5:31 “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”}} The context here is membership in the Body of Christ. Then it speaks about leaving and cleaving, and in that there is a personal and corporate application.
The personal application is salvation when we are born again. We were sinners but we left the world and were joined to Christ by the Holy Spirit, bringing us into membership in the Body through the baptism of the Spirit according to 1Corinthians 12:13. We left this sinful state to cleave to Christ our Saviour and Head.
The corporate application is our removal from the earth. When the whole Church is raptured, it will leave the earth when the final bonds are broken and it will cleave forever to the Lamb as the precious, blood-bought Bride. Leaving and cleaving. Do we take the great truths as just matter of fact or do they grab us with joy and expectation? “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” What is your expectation of that? Are you eager to go? Do you desire the Lord’s presence more than anything, or are the strings of attachment to this earth just too strong?
Here is a poem of mine looking forward to that happy time when we will be with the Lord forever – (It can be sung. “Ode to Joy” will fit) – (It closes the message)
TO BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY
To be absent from the body,
To be present with the Lord;
To be robed in linen garments
With eternal life unflawed.
I will then be in His presence,
Where the saints of God will shine,
And that blessed sinless pleasure -
O, that joy will then be mine.
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Heaven’s call will soon come to us
Bathed in joy and happiness.
He will raise His saints up to Him,
Called from this world’s wretchedness.
In an instant changed forever,
In the power of His might,
And the glories then of heaven,
Will be wondrous in our sight.
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It was grace that sought and saved us;
Nothing of it we deserved.
Wonders grace has stored up for us,
That in glory are reserved.
We will see our splendid Saviour,
Gathered with His ransomed throng.
Faces shine in radiance bright,
As they praise their Lord in song.
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To be absent from the body,
To be present with the Lord,
And we long for that appearing,
As we rise to our reward.
Jesus soon comes, and He’ll change us
In the twinkling of an eye.
We’ll behold His full perfection,
Being flawless, we won’t die.
21 September 2021 R E Ferguson
