“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 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 fulness of Christ”
Paul falls back on his analogy of the building in talking about the church, here in chapter 4, and I am going to have to be very careful, choosing a sermon title like “Construction Equipment”, because I have men in my congregation who build houses for a living, and if I’m not careful I could embarrass myself.
When I go on my morning walks, which is something pastors should do for several reasons; to have time to meditate, to stay healthy since they spend so much time glued to a chair, and to keep the weight down so they can continue to fit in that chair; but when I go on my walks I pass through a new subdivision next door to ours.
At present there are four houses being built simultaneously in that subdivision, and when I see the crews working on those new homes, and watch the various steps being taken through the process, I often reflect on what a sense of accomplishment must come when a man who builds something like that steps back and looks at the finished product, and knows that he’s built a home for someone.
Something else I’ve paid attention to as I see the daily progress of this work, is the number of different people who come at the proper time to add their expertise to the project.
First someone comes and surveys the property. And they lay in whatever underground plumbing and electrical that needs to be there prior to concrete being poured for a foundation. Sometimes they’re there in advance of all that, grating the land or filling it or removing vegetation.
Then after the foundation is laid, the framing begins. Once that’s done the electricians and plumbers are back to install outlets and water heaters and bathroom fixtures and so on, before the drywall starts going up.
Well I’m not going to recount the whole process, but eventually I see a truck from a local garage door installer. Then (not necessarily in this order), I see another company showing up to do the siding; sometimes in brick or stone. Then I see different people putting in windows, or starting on the basics for landscaping like stone barriers around what will be a garden area.
In short, the building of a nice home calls for numerous talents, and sometimes there are only a few men doing all of it because they have developed all those talents that go into making a house, or different ones who specialize in a particular field come one at a time as they are called, and complete their special part.
In building His church, Jesus, as we touched on at the end of the last sermon, gifted His saints with spiritual gifts, and equipped them for the work of the Kingdom.
I want you to notice today that these things He supplied are GIFTS, and that they are for the benefit, not of the few, but of all THE SAINTS, and that the result of the proper working of these tools He has provided is meant to be KNOWLEDGE AND MATURITY.
GIFTS
Now a series of sermons could be preached, focusing on each of these gifts to the church listed for us by Paul, here in verse 11. It has been done, many times I’m sure, and there is a proper place for doing that when the emphasis is along the lines of teaching, primarily, all the characteristics and manifestations of those gifts.
I do not want to spend a great deal of time on them, only because my focus today is elsewhere and, I think, will ultimately benefit you more.
But you do need to have some basic comprehension of what each of these gifts is, and the purpose they serve, so you might see that as they each fulfill their designed function the job of Kingdom building gets done.
The first thing we need to take a look at is this word ‘apostle’. In fact, it’s the only one I want to really spend any time on; I’ll mention the others briefly later just to refresh your minds as to their particular function.
There has been much confusion over the years about the use and misuse of this word, and I personally remember a teaching that flared up during the time I was in Bible college. I’m sure it wasn’t the first time around for this teaching, as false, or at the very least, inappropriate, teachings have a way of reincarnating themselves. But it was new to me at the time, and it made red lights go on, and alarms sound in my head.
A speaker brought to us at the school informed us that we were all apostles. The word ‘apostolos’, simply means ‘one sent’, ‘sent on a mission’, and therefore all of us who are called into ministry fall into that category and therefore it is fine and good to call ourselves apostles and think of ourselves as apostles.
Now technically, the man was right, of course. We can all see the sense in that. But I question very seriously, the wisdom of preaching it. Since when we hear the word ‘apostle’ we generally give it a capital ‘A” and we think of Paul and Peter and the other men that made up the original 12 minus 1 and traveled with Jesus during His earthly ministry, and were personally commissioned by Him with the gospel message.
So, true to the sin nature and the innate desire of men to be important and be seen as important, when you tell a school full of young men aspiring to full-time ministry that they are apostles, you tempt them strongly to turn their focus off of Christ and onto themselves. You place a temptation in front of them, to begin to consider themselves just slightly more important than those Christians not serving in full-time ministry. And not only do you puff them up unnecessarily, you set them up for a great deal of disappointment, when they take their first church and find out they are expected not only to preach and administrate, but also to mow the church lawn, fix the church toilet, paint the baptistery, and fight a five year war with a board of ancient deacons who hold that the church furnace has worked fine for 25 years, and there’s just no point in spending money to replace it just because there’s little sparks coming out the cracks in the sides.
Now I’m going to say something that you may take or leave. If it doesn’t help you, let it go and it will not make one iota of difference either in our relationship, or your walk with God. Perhaps there would be some scholars who would argue with me, or say that I’ve gone too far, but I’m preaching today and they have elected not to attend my church, so here it is. And here is also where I will briefly mention the functions of the other gifts listed here, so don’t sneeze or you’ll miss it.
As I look at this list, and I see these words; ‘apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers,’ it occurs to me that according to that man who spoke to us at Bible college, all of those folks listed would technically be apostles, based on the literal definition of the word.
So the question comes to mind, ‘why begin the list specifically with that word?’ And the answer I come up with in my own mind, is that since an apostle is ‘one sent’, or ‘one on a mission’, then perhaps the kind of person Paul had in mind was what we refer to today as missionaries.
That would certainly round out the list if you’re considering the function of each of these gifts to the church. You would then have those sent to far away and foreign lands to spread the gospel, and you would have those called prophets, who perhaps write books and travel around preaching to pastors and church leaders and proclaiming the Word that way, you have those with evangelistic zeal and talent, such as Billy Graham, who have one basic message and function, that being, to preach a very simple and straight-forward gospel message to the masses so that many may hear and be saved, then you have pastors; men who stay in one place and serve a specific congregation of people as a shepherd tends his sheep; with love and compassion and wise-counsel, and finally, (and oftentimes these two gifts are combined in one man), those who teach the word and take the Christian deeper into the things of God.
So I have no problem at all, assuming that when Paul said ‘apostles’, with this small ‘a’, he had in mind those who would answer God’s call to leave the comfort and relative ease of their own home and homeland, and strike out wherever the Holy Spirit leads them with a heart for the lost and needy and a bible in their backpack.
Now all that having been said, I repeat that I do not intend to spend a great deal of time talking about the function of each of these gifts. In fact, I just did spend all the time I wanted to spend on that.
So please let it be sufficient, for me to say that as a spiritual team, these gifts to the church listed for us in verse 11 are God’s tools, if you will; they are the builders of the house, and they each come in at their appropriate time and place and perform their special function, for this purpose (vs. 12): ‘the equipping of the saints for the work of service”.
THE SAINTS
The saints. That’s you. That’s me too, of course. But I’m one of those gifts listed in verse 11. I’m an apostle. just kidding… I’m a pastor/teacher. Now the use of the word ’gift’ in reference to myself does not puff me up, because I know that Christ is the gift-giver, not me, and He is the one who has made me what I am so that He might give me to you, and that you might make proper use of the gift given.
Clay pot. Nothing more or less.
But I was given, to fulfill my minor but very specific role in equipping you, the saints, for the work of service.
Now here we run up against a problem, and I promise not to spend our entire time accentuating the negative, but there are issues that need to be addressed and I am remiss in my duties if I do not discuss them at the proper time.
You see, we have a very large problem in the Christian church, at least in our American society in these days, and probably in many other cultures and societies around the world, and that problem is that the saints are not being equipped for the work of service.
Now I’m speaking in general terms, of course. There are many churches where the proper work is being done; God’s Word is being preached and teachers and other leaders are in place in those churches to round out the believer’s experience and education so that he may be inspired to serve, equipped to serve, and given ample opportunity to serve.
But I do not think I am alone in suspecting that in far, far too many cases, people are not being equipped, and unfortunately in too many cases, they like it that way.
A slothful child, if allowed to remain slothful, in his chores, in his school work, in his personal hygiene, or any other area of his life, will just continue on, content to get by, unchallenged and uninspired, and the longer this attitude toward life is allowed to take root, the more likely it will become that he will never in his life decide that he needs to be more than he is.
This is a truth that is self-evident in our world today, as we look about us and see the evidence in a large number of young people who have never had to work for anything they have; and they have much; and the total absence of discipline in the home shows in their attire, in their attitude, in their very walk and the way they carry themselves ~ and I won’t go on and get into all that; you’ve seen them, and I’m not here to blast American youth today. There’s a whole lot of great kids out there, and unfortunately they’re not the ones who get the public’s attention.
But the condition of the ones I was describing is also a clearly evident truth in the church and in the spiritual lives of believers, all over! It is why people skip around from one church to another in a never-changing state of dissatisfaction, staying at one while everything is new to them and they’re hearing a new voice and everyone is being friendly to them. But when they begin to hear a challenge to grow from the pulpit, a challenge to commit, to sacrifice, or they tire of the activities, or come roughly up against some character they don’t want to deal with, or whatever… they’re gone!
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to right here in our town, who tell me they’ve visited every Christian church in town, and they still aren’t satisfied. They don’t care about doctrinal distinctives, in many cases I don’t think they’ve ever bothered to learn the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. They want to be appeased, they want to be emotionally stirred, they want to be entertained, they want to be coddled, they want to walk out feeling good about themselves…
…they are spiritual sloths, perpetual babes ~ if indeed they are born again believers at all ~ and they will not be equipped for the work of service, if they have to run home and hide under the bed to avoid it!
Now before I move on from here, let me add that although each and every saint of God has an individual responsibility before Him to build on that relationship, and study His word, and avail himself or herself to the kind of training and leadership that would develop them and mature them and fit them for service, those who I’ve described a moment ago are not the only ones to blame.
When a preacher let’s the thinking of the world dictate his message, when he falls into the snare of thinking he must address the social and political issues of the day, and decry the treatment of animals or bemoan the latest Supreme Court decisions, or tout the praises of the humanitarians and reformers of society; when he is afraid to preach the whole counsel of God because he might offend some big givers or incur the wrath of some portion of his congregation who might respond badly to truth; when a preacher, slothful himself, wants to get by, plucking a feel-good text out of the New Testament, smothering it in several cutsie “Reader’s Digest” illustrations and patting his flock on the fanny and sending them home smiling and talking about what a charismatic speaker he is…
…that man is not equipping the saints for the work of service! He is doing them a great disfavor, comparable to the father who lets his son grow up on the couch, munching potato chips and chuckling at reruns of the Three Stooges.
My friends and family, God gave gifts to the church! He gave missionaries, prophets {or people gifted to speak forth His truth in clarity and power}, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, and they are gifts to be put to use and gotten the most out of.
It is my solemn duty, and one I accept with great joy, although it is often burdensome and comes hand in hand with a lot of discouragement and very little encouragement, but it delights me nonetheless, to open up the Word of God to you and admonish you to eat it all! Not just the pizza and Popsicles; but the potatoes and peas as well!
Why? Because the only way the Spirit can get what R. C. Sproul called ‘the excellent sense of the scripture’ in your heart, is if you first get it into your head; and until He brings it to your heart and applies it to your daily walk, you are not equipped for service! I’ve got it to do!
But friends, make no mistake about this. No matter how faithful these gifts, these tools of God are in the fulfilling of their ministry to you, none of it will be worth a tinker’s tin cup if you don’t prayerfully, and faithfully, and conscientiously, let the Holy Spirit equip you and then get off your pew warmer and serve!
KNOWLEDGE AND MATURITY
Ok, enough of that for now. We need to go on in these final moments and talk about verse 13, but we have to get there by way of the second half of verse 12.
A refresher:
“…for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 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 fulness of Christ.”
What service are you to be equipped for? “the building up of the body of Christ”.
Do you hear what the Apostle is saying to you here, saint? It’s not the preacher’s job, solely, to build up the body of Christ. As a saint in the Lord himself, yes, it is his duty also. But his primary function; my primary function; is to equip the saints, that’s you, to build up the body of Christ in and by your faithful service.
What is building up? Well, that would cover the various spiritual services that you might be led and called upon to perform. Intercessory prayer, sharing your testimony with those you walk and work with, finding your gift for use in the body and putting it to work; whether it be teaching or music or administration or maintenance, or whatever that might be.
As we go on to verse 13 though, we can get a clearer picture of what will be the manifestations and demonstrations that this building up is actually taking place. Because Paul isn’t talking about actual physical construction of a building here. It should bless our hearts here at Cornerstone Christian Chapel that he is not, since we don’t have a building to maintain.
The building up he’s talking about is infinitely and eternally more important than that.
Because everything he’s saying in verse 13 pertains to the heart, and the sanctified mind of the Christian; that which is everlasting and will continue on after all the physical world around us has melted with an intense heat.
What happens, believer, when your missionaries and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers are doing their job, and you are making the most of these wonderful gifts of God to you, and letting them equip you for the work of service, and then applying your teaching and training to service in praying and giving the gospel and looking for areas to put your talents to use in the building of the Kingdom of God? What happens?
By the Holy Spirit’s power and guidance we begin to attain to the kind of unity we spent a couple of weeks talking about just a short time ago. The kind of unity that He brings to the body of Christ; the kind of unity that, as we diligently preserve it among ourselves in love and the bond of peace, even the unchurched can see it and it makes them wonder.
And we’ve talked at length about that so I’ll move on.
What happens is that our knowledge of the Son of God matures. The relationship grows and matures. Instead of praying for a clear day so you can go fishing, or for your car to make it one more month or 500 more miles, whichever comes first, or for the Lord to get you that promotion or that good grade, you begin praying for more mature things. Because you know Him better, you see, and you better understand what’s on His heart, and what He considers important, and you pray according to His will and not your own.
And you begin to hear His voice and develop a mature consciousness of His presence ever with you.
So this works for the building up of the body of Christ, because you’re praying for souls. And you’re praying for the brethren. And you’re praying for things of an eternal value, and you’re praying ‘not my will, but Thy will’, and that’s when He can fulfill His promise that if you abide in Him and His Word abides in you, you can ask anything in His name and you will receive it.
Knowledge of the Son of God to the point of maturity.
“…to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.”
I have a bible I found in a garage sale, called the “Easy to read” version. (?)
It translates this last line of verse 13 like this: “We must grow until we become like Christ and have all his perfection”.
Your NIV (Yes, I do have one of those), says “…attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ”
Young’s literal translation says “…till we may all come to the unity of the faith and of the recognition of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to a measure of stature of the fulness of Christ.”
And the Amplified, just to give you the clearest picture possible of what Paul is saying: “…until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the {full and accurate} knowledge of the Son of God, that {we might arrive} at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection}, the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.”
Beloved, we’re being told here that God’s gifts to the church are for the equipping of you, the saints, for carrying out your active role in the building up of His body now, and also for attaining in a real and tangible way this unity He brings by His Spirit, and also for the development of a mature and fruitful and growing relationship with the Son of God…whose image you are being conformed to, and will continue to be conformed to, until you are glorified.
There is no rest here, friend. There is no excuse for sitting down and saying, my work is done. “I’m old and tired; it’s up to the young people now” NO! The young people are watching you! Keep going! Don’t stop! The work goes on, and it mustn’t go on without you, as long as you are here in this realm with us.
Young person, don’t let the enemy convince you that the building of the body of Christ is someone else’s job. If you are a Christian, it’s your job!
Whatever other plans you have for your future, whatever schooling you intend to pursue, whatever vocation you are leaning toward, wherever you think you may end up settling down and living, the most important task you have in life, is to submit yourself to being equipped for service to the Lord, and then serving Him in the building up of the body, and studying to know Christ so intimately that you begin to look like Him.
Christians, I know each and every one of you, if I pointed to you and asked you individually, would say, “Yes, of course I want to be more like Jesus. I want to be a mature Christian. I want to pray wisely and according to His will. I want to see souls saved and I want to see such a brilliant manifestation of Holy Spirit unity in the church that it becomes obvious even to the world around us” I know you would.
And my solemn and sacred duty made clear right here in our text today, is to tell you that the only way, the only way, is if all the workers show up at the site, tools and talents at the ready.
May His precious Holy Spirit do a work in each of our hearts today to comprehend the plan and purpose of God in giving these gifts to the church, and make the very best use of them both now, and until He calls us home and completes in an instant, the work of conforming us to the full stature of the fulness of Christ.
