Big Idea: God has given gifts his people to build up His church to maturity (4:7-16). More specifically, God has given gifted leaders to his church to equip everyone in his church to build it up to maturity (11-16).
We are in the second half of our series, Brought to Life; Brought Together, based on the New Testament letter to Ephesians. Ephesians can be divided into two sections. Chapters one through three describe what God has done for us in Christ while chapters four through six calls us to live out what God has done in us, summarized as walking worthy. So, the rest of our series is subtitled Walking Worthy. Today’s message is Building up Christ’s Church (4:11-13). God has united us in one new humanity and Paul calls us to maintain that unity (4:1-6). But unity does not mean uniformity so God has given diverse gifts to his people that he secured by his triumph on the cross (7-10). Today we see that God has given gifted leaders to the church to equip everyone who believes in Jesus to serve the church so that it is built up to maturity (11-16).
1. Christ Gives Gifted Leaders to His Church (11)
Christ has given gifts to all who believe in Jesus. Gifts or spiritual gifts are any ability empowered by the Holy Spirit used to serve and build up the church (1 Cor 12:4-7; Rom 12:6; 1 Pet 4:10). Here Paul describes Christ giving gifted leaders to the church for establishing the foundation of churches (2:20). He describes leaders who all have some form of word gift because leaders with word gifts are critical for establishing the foundation of the church.
Paul starts with apostle. The New Testament describes three levels of apostles. First are the twelve disciples plus a limited number of others who were with Jesus during his earthly ministry and saw him after his resurrection. Next is Paul, who was unique and describes himself as one abnormally born (1 Co 15:8). Apostles preached the gospel, made disciples, gathered disciples together to establish churches, their teaching and writings were recognized as inspired by God. Then there are those who have apostolic gifting but are not apostles. Their work is similar to the apostles but their teaching is not seen as authoritative like the original apostles. Next Paul lists prophets, who are those who receive revelation from God that would otherwise be unknown to them and is edifying to the church (1 Cor 14:3-4). Then Paul lists evangelists who are those who preached the gospel and helped to establish churches. The last two, shepherd and teachers are best understood as grouped together, referring to one person. Shepherd is the same word for pastor and are considered elders elsewhere (1 Pet 5:2; Acts 20:28). They lead (1 Pet 5:1-2; Acts 20:17, 28) and teach (Mark 6:34) the church.
2. Christ Gives Gifted People to His Church (12)
• Gifted leaders equip believers
God gives gifted leaders to lead the church with a purpose, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Equipping is a word that describes repairing something that is damaged or broken like mending a torn net or setting a broken bone. Equipping has the idea of repairing or preparing us for the work of ministry.
• Equipped believers build up the church
The goal of equipping every believer is so that everyone participates, does the work of ministry, which Paul describes as building up the body of Christ (4:16; Cor 14:12). Building up is an architectural term which describes the construction of a building (2:21). The church is God’s construction project (2:21) in which every single believer in Jesus has been gifted for ministry (11). Every church has been given gifted leaders (12). And the leader’s job isn't to do all the ministry for the church, it's to equip all the people in the church to do the work of ministry (12). Paul said it perfectly in verse 16: the church will grow and build itself up in love when each part is doing it’s work.
• Building up the church produces maturity
Paul then tells us that the goal the construction process is Christlike maturity (13). Maturity is described as theological unity, unity of the faith and unity of the knowledge of the Son of God. Unity of the faith describes the essential doctrinal truths that center around the gospel. Doctrinal truth is necessary for a robust faith, for spiritual strength to follow Christ daily. I am not just talking about duty, doing the right thing but a heartfelt response to the truth by trusting God, loving God, and desiring God more. Faith works through love so as your faith grows so too your love grows, which results in greater desire for God. Using your gifts serves this purpose, so our faith and love for God grows! Paul is looking for progressive growth of the whole church toward a fuller experience and application of faith. Now, the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God is similar but focusses us specifically on increasing our understanding and enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ (3:8). Knowledge of Jesus and enjoyment of Jesus are connected. As the disciples followed Jesus their love for him and devotion to him grew. The growth in their knowledge of him as the Son and loving him as the Son that caused their devotion and commitment to him grow. So, at the latter part of Jesus’ ministry, he questioned the disciples about their commitment to him, Peter responded, where shall we go for you have the words of life and we have believed, that is, come to know that you are the Holy One of God (Jn 6:60-69)! Our knowledge of Jesus strengthens our faith which in turn strengthens our devotion to and love for Jesus. He is talking about discipleship, following Jesus and becoming like him. Gifts are given to serve the church so we all attain to the unity of the faith and to the unity of the knowledge and enjoyment of Jesus.
• The standard for maturity
Lastly, Paul gives us the standard for maturity, Christ himself, described as attaining to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (13). Mature manhood is literally prefect man, which he measures against the standard of the stature of the fullness of Christ (13). He is describing what it means to be fully human, God restoring his image in us, the image of his Son who walked in love and obedience to the Father. God gives gifted leaders to the church to equip all the saints to serve his church so that it is built up, it becomes like Christ. If you believe in Jesus, you follow Jesus, then you are called to use your gifts to serve his church to build it up so that we become more like Christ (16).
Life Group Questions:
1. What does unity in Christ means?
2. How does unity not mean uniformity?
3. How does diverse gifts to bring more unity to the body of Christ?
4. Can you think of other gifted leaders other than those listed in verse eleven?
5. How do leaders equip the saints?
6. How did David define spiritual gives? Talk about that definition.
7. What responsibilities do you have as a member of a local church?
8. How does this apply to my discipleship to Jesus?
9. What are my gifts and how am I serving his church?
10. How does this help me in making disciples?
