Who Are We and What Are We Doing Here — Ephesians 3-4

0:00 Good morning, everybody. I had the opportunity, back in eighties, back in o o six to see Fernando Ortego in concert at Emmaus Bible College in their marble Chapel, and the acoustics in there are phenomenal. And he had brought in a string quartet from from Parkside Church in Hudson, and it was a wonderful time of, of, really, of worship, but, and it was great. He was he's a really humble guy. He would...

0:31 He had started a started one of his pieces in with the piano, and and then he all of a sudden stopped and said, oh, I got it wrong. We got to start again. I would I would have never known, but he felt compelled to stop and restart. We're going to look at Ephesians Ephesians chapter four primarily today. I can tell you already who's going to win the Super Bowl next.

0:55 Is it January or February? February now. It used to always be the last Sunday of January, but it's going to be the team that executes their game plan most successfully, team that makes the fewest mistakes. And you watch and see if I'm not right. And that's then that's the same same parallel for us as a local church.

1:20 We're going to be most effective, most fruitful, most joyful if we follow the game plan. We're going to look at the game plan today from Ephesians chapter four. I don't know when I decided to speak on this passage, but it was certainly encouraged after several of us. Timothy and I and Christian Eichele was there too at the National Workers Conference is what they call it. I try to go to this event each year and it rotates location around the country, And this year, it was in Colorado Springs.

1:57 And that was one of the irresistible draws for me. Besides the fact that right down Highway 25 at the end in New Mexico is where my parents are living, so I figured I'd go see them too and had a terrific visit with them. And what was the what was the third reason? I got away from preparing for a move. Didn't have to prepare for a move now and now I'm paying for that paying for that now.

2:21 And if you wanna know how the move is going, you can talk to me afterwards. Jennifer asked me last night as we were laying in bed, who's speaking tomorrow? So that gives you an idea how she's handling the move. I I had and I told a lot of you this, I was not gonna let this move take over my life. I was gonna go on with my life and so far it's working out almost.

2:51 So let's have a word of prayer and then get into the scriptures. Father, we are so thankful for the grace of God that brings salvation to all men and how it instructs us to deny worldly lusts, for certainly we all have them, even as believers. Flesh finds much comfort in this world, and we also rejoice in that blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us, father, to all desire to walk worthy of our calling, to be faithful in the remaining days and to to love one another. We ask for your help in these few minutes to be able to learn from your word together.

3:38 And we ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. I'm not all technology. I'm not all bible.

3:54 I'm both, so that could be a problem, but I hope not too big of a problem. I'm gonna give you some introductory remarks and then we're going to trace the flow of the passage, Ephesians four verses one through 16, and then we'll make some applications and all that will be done by noon, believe it or not. The question I want to ask, the phrase that will help crystallize the messages, who are we and what are we doing here? Or speaking to yourself or to myself, I might say, who am I and what am I doing here? In these days of busyness and rapid activity, often when I show up on a job site in the morning, I have to stop and ask myself that question because there's so many things going through my mind and I have to focus on the task at hand.

5:24 There's something you can do that's important and that'll be a blessing to others. The really big picture, if you think back to the early church age, Paul wrote about that we've been given the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors of Christ. What an incredible thing to be deputized, so to speak, by God to be ministers of reconciliation. We have that same privilege today.

5:57 That's something that Paul couldn't get over in Ephesians chapter three, and I want to just read just two sentences from Ephesians chapter three. This is what got Paul going and kept him going. Starting at verse one. I think the first sentence is about four verses long. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages has not been made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.

7:03 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. I just want to reread verse six and seven and nine, that the Gentiles should be fellow wearers of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel of which I became a minister according to the gift of grace of God given to me. And then verse nine, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery. The fellowship of the mystery is what we have to share. The mystery is not merely Jews and Gentiles being united, but it's Jews and Gentiles being united in Christ.

8:24 That was the promise given to Abraham, that in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed, it took a couple thousand years for that to come about, but when it came, it was revealed to Paul, Paul And and Jim last week introduced us to some of the biographical, history of of Paul, fascinating person, apostle, servant of the Lord. I gave Jim a book, a biography of Paul by FF Bruce, and I still have a copy too. But it's it's it's about this thick and it's it's it's not easy reading, but it's rich reading. And he just traces Paul's life all the way through. But Paul, two thousand years after...

9:07 Or so after Abraham was given that promise, is now seeing it come to fruition in a practical way with the preaching of the gospel. The Jews and Gentiles would be together, but even more so that they'd be united in Christ, that they would be in Christ. So where's Paul now? Paul has passed the baton and we have to decide if we're going to receive that, the baton or not. Do you ever think of it that way?

9:35 Paul, as one of the apostles, laid the foundation for the church, and we'll look at this more precisely in chapter four. But now we are ministers. We are ambassadors for Christ. Now, Paul obviously had a special and unique role, and he didn't labor alone. He had lots of helpers.

9:58 And one of the fellows at the conference that we were at highlighted some of the... A number of those helpers. It was interesting to see how all these different men were involved in Paul's ministry. And I got to think recently, and many of you know, I won't tell you how old I was, but I was born in 1963. And I was married in 1988.

10:18 So this was a big year for Jennifer and I. We both had the birthday you'd have 50 after 1963 and twenty five years of marriage, and then I'm thinking I'm not a kid anymore. My life is mostly behind me. I don't need to hold back for the future because the future is now. So I'm not preparing for later in life.

11:27 Is it possible to walk in a manner worthy of our calling? And I would answer that, of course it is. And Paul is encouraging us. He's exhorting us to do that. If you have the New King James version, your translation reads, I beseech you to walk in a manner, to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

11:48 He's... And the word beseech, includes some passion to it, passion, an earnestness. We might beseech our children to make good decisions. We want to encourage them. We want to exhort them.

12:01 And think about who's saying this. Paul, the apostle, of course. What had he been through? This was written toward the end of his life, and he was not shirking from the opportunity or from the duty of his Christian life. He had been through a lot.

12:18 If you'd look at it, and we won't look at it, but in two Corinthians, I think it's chapter 10 or 11, he just relates some of the things he was through, The shipwrecks, I think he said he shipwrecked twice. He was beaten with... He was scourged five times. I can't imagine being scourged one time, but he was... If I remember correctly, he was beaten with rods.

12:41 He was stoned. He'd been through a lot, and yet he's encouraging all of us to walk worthy of the calling. He was endorsing the Christian walk that we often find difficult and daunting. So to me, that's encouraging. Of all the people that could say that, that carries a lot of weight to me.

13:03 Paul was saying to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called. He considered, we read in other of his letters in Philippians three for one that he considered all things of this world to be rubbish compared to knowledge of Christ. He wanted to know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings. In Romans eight, talks about the sufferings of this present time are not worthy, there's that word again, worthy, are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. Paul didn't keep reserves.

13:38 He didn't have regrets, I don't want to keep reserves either or have regrets later. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to give you my conclusion just in case we don't get that far later. And I say that tongue in cheek somewhat, but Timothy, my son Timothy was with me at this conference and he was starting to wane by the end of day one and it's... Shouldn't tell you this, but I will. They start at nine in the morning and they go till nine at night.

14:11 These conferences are not for the faint of heart, but they feed you well and the fellowship is rich and the air is crisp and clear, we had a great... Well, we had a great view of Pikes Peak one of the days, but, the saints were wonderful there. But Timothy, I I... Timothy was starting to wane, so I I let him take notes on my iPad, And he took notes of the session that Jack Spender did, which is many of which his thoughts I'm building into this message here. So I'm just going to trace through these notes that Timothy took, and he did a great job.

14:46 The message that Jack Spender gave, Jack Spender is probably 65 years old. He's been a church planter, a church planter. He shocked me a couple years ago or last year by saying he's never been an elder. He's never been elder. He's been training elders and he's been planting churches, he's never been an elder.

15:23 The word equip means to prepare someone to meet a need All of us, whether we're saved six months or sixty years, a job to do, have an opportunity to do as part of the body of Christ. So the word equip, to prepare someone to meet a need. And he traced through this chapter. He says verses one to three are part of the foundation. And verses one and three, have to do with the heart, our heart attitudes.

15:51 And he made the remark, always place more value on the heart than on the project. Verses four to six describe our unity. The spirit works toward unity, the devil works toward division. So when we're together and we're unified, we can be encouraged that the Lord is working through us. If we're in disarray and division, we need to make some adjustments because that's a manifestation of the work of our foe.

16:25 Verses seven through 10, diversity through spiritual gifts. Unity is not uniformity. We're not all going to do things the same way. The grace of God is sufficient for the complex need of people. Okay.

16:45 How equipping works. And Timothy got seven. I had eight because I think I'd subdivided, but how equipping works. Number one, the first work of workers is equipping others. Number two, the saints, not the worker, does the building up.

17:03 Number three, ministry is hard work. Number four, efforts are wider than the local church. So, for example, right now one of our own, so to speak, Ray Gonzales, is at this very moment standing behind the pulpit in Dayton, Ohio preaching the word. We don't say, Ray, you can't do that. You have to stay with us.

17:26 We permit the Lord to lead Ray out to share his gift as God leads him in different areas. So the efforts of building up the body are not just for us. Number five, the work is goal oriented and the goal is measurable. Verse 13 of this chapter four. Number six, there's two great barometers of effectiveness, stability in verse 14 and relationships, good relationships in verse 15.

17:55 And in 16, we see that the... Number seven, the end result is increase. And the summary summary statement is equipping is cultivating spiritual growth in believers through training. And that training starts with explaining. Somebody will explain to another a truth and then they will demonstrate and then they will involve somebody in a part of the work and then they will release an aspect of the work to that person who's ready to take it over.

18:34 So explaining, demonstrating, involving and releasing. So that's sort of the conclusion of what we'll spend the next twenty minutes talking about back in Ephesians chapter four. So let's trace through the flow of the the flow of chapter four. And then if we have time, we'll have our conclusion again. So to to walk worthy of the calling, which which we have been called the to find the word worthy would be to use the word in balance with.

19:15 Does the walk, and we had one of the young men today in the earlier meeting, share the observation he made of how important it is to walk worthy of our calling, to be excited about it. So it has to do with being in balance. On a warm day like today, you're going to wear your windbreaker. Now if it was 32 and windy, you'd probably wear a heavier jacket. You clothe yourself with the worthy garment for the occasion.

19:49 For us as Christians, as Jim Elliott said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. There's no sacrifice that's too big for the work of the Lord. So walk worthy of our calling. And verse two, part of the hard attitude that we were challenged at the conference, not trample or beat people with the truth, but to do it with the right attitude, to instruct them, to lead them. And there's five qualities in this verse that we need to pay attention to, and these are not hypothetical.

20:32 They're real, and that's what they are what make our Christian walk doable and bearable. Humility. Here, let me read from the New King James. With all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. So we have first loneliness.

20:54 Another translation uses the word humility. I won't define these terms for you because I believe you understand them. And gentleness. Another translation use, I think the same word, gentleness. With long suffering.

21:09 Or another one might use patience and bearing or showing forbearance to one another in love. These are natural traits of the spiritual man, not of our human nature. When we're wronged, we want to get even, but here when we're wronged, we show patience or gentleness or bearing with. Paul is writing to Christians here, so we need to understand our own vulnerabilities and be prepared to respond appropriately, not to stand up for our rights because our right is really to love one another. So those...

21:56 Verse two is what makes service happen and make it fruitful. Verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. I like how the new American standard puts that, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And my remark here is we don't make the unity, we participate in it. And that comes back to the verse two.

22:26 If we're not exhibiting the fruits of the spirit, then we're not going to be enjoying the unity of the spirit. Versus four, five, six talk about our essential unity. Of course, there's been much debate and controversy over the centuries about these things. But as the scripture says, there is one body, you're either saved or you're not. There's one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in you all.

23:18 Verse seven, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. I'm going to read a verse in Romans chapter six just to highlight that verse there. Romans six, Romans 12 rather, verse six. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophecy in proportion to our faith or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.

23:56 He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. And also a couple of verses in First Corinthians 12. This is an important passage to keep in mind because often we slip into the habit of judging other Christians by our own gift. We have to understand that even though other Christians might have the same gift, the Lord chooses to develop and use that gift differently. First Corinthians 12 verses four to six.

24:38 There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but is the same God who works all in all. Did you notice in those three verses, the Trinity is brought together in function of the gifts? We have the spirit in verse four, the Lord in verse five, and God the Father in verse six.

25:08 That's an encouraging observation to me. So to me, this is a marvelous truth that God has gifted us all individual and uniquely for the common good. We all bring something unique to the table, so to speak, in our service for the Lord. I could go right through this room and mention people by name and gifts and services by name that have been an encouragement to me. Both small and large, but all important.

26:08 Now this, he ascended, what does it mean but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. These verses used to give me a lot of trouble because I couldn't piece them all together but but I'm making progress. I think one of the things that helped me was the camp versus a couple years ago, Ephesians chapter one, as we worked on a family to memorize those, we see that God, after Christ was risen from the dead, God highly exalted him and gave him a name that was above every name. Set him, I forget how it goes in Ephesians chapter one.

26:51 So I'll it to you. When he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. There's several other passages too. I'll just make reference to them. You can look at them later that help explain this portion before I make some summary statements that will probably be most helpful rather than my rambling now.

27:23 But Colossians two verses fourteen and fifteen, first Peter three eighteen and nineteen, and second Corinthians two fourteen and six... 14 through 16. But how I would... How I look at these verses now is when Christ, actually coming to coming to earth in the first place was an incredible humbling, the incarnation, and he came for a purpose to to save us, He went to the cross. I like how Hebrews two puts it, who was made for a little while lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that he might taste death for everyone.

28:04 Christ completely fulfilled the plan of God in our salvation. He didn't just squeak it out. It was a resounding defeat of sin and death and the devil. Because of that, has absolute authority to do whatever he wants. He's got a name above every name.

28:27 Someday, every knee shall bow. Saddam Hussein is bowing the knee right now. I highly doubt as a believer, but as an unbeliever. Someday all will do that. So Christ has absolute authority.

28:44 And because of that, he can do what he wants. Part of the imagery of this that Paul is drawing upon that would have been familiar in his day was the victory parades. It was a, I think they called them triumph parades. The people would come back from war, they would be literally parading in victory and the people would throw down flowers before them and burn incense. It was a big deal.

29:15 That's some of the truths that are brought out in two Corinthians two. One: talks about also in first Peter, Jesus preaching to those in hell. It wasn't a preaching of a way of salvation. Was a preaching of your doom is sealed because I came and I did what the Word of God is true. The Gospel is true.

29:48 The cross is real and your doom is real now too because I defeated the works of the devil. And on on the basis of that, Christ can give us gifts. And moving to verse 11, he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastor and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ 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 statue of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But, and in contrast to speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, 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 itself in love. So let's go back to verse 11, just trace through some of these things.

31:08 The Lord Jesus in his absolute authority and what I call his omniscient sovereignty gave gifts as he ordained, as he saw fit according to his perfect wisdom. I can't explain it. Moses was given a task and Moses didn't feel adequate for it. Sometimes we might be given tasks that we don't consider ourselves adequate for, but the Lord knows best. Those he calls, he's in he enables.

32:01 So depending how you define apostles these days, we do or we don't have them. I don't think we have apostles anymore because that's how I define them. So I understand the work of the apostles to be done and the baton to be passed, and therefore God's given gifts to the church of which we are part to carry on the work. Not that God still doesn't do those dramatic miracles of healing or other sign gifts to bring the message to give confirmation and verification of the truth of the Gospel, but it's certainly not in the same way as it was in the first century. Then the prophets.

32:41 Also, think their work is done. We don't have time to look at this in detail, but Acts 13 and also Acts 11 talks about some of the ministry of the prophets in the early church. Again, I would say they were not ordinary believers that had the gift of prophecy, but specially commissioned men in the early church. Acts 11 talks about one of the prophets from the church in Jerusalem coming to Antioch to prophesy of the famine that was coming. So perhaps that's a clue of how that gift was used.

33:19 Evangelist, we still have evangelists today. We have them in our midst. Pastors and teachers, I love to hear, people I respect argue about this verse. Some say it's the same person, some say it's two different people, so you can draw your own conclusion. I think there's overlap.

33:47 I'll tell you what I think. I think it's essentially the same person, but not exclusively. Walking the fence. But let's look at it for a minute. The normal meaning of pastor is shepherd, and other places translate that word as elder.

34:08 And elders are supposed to be apt to teach, apt to teach. So if you want to draw the distinction, I won't call you names. You want to lump them together, I think that's a good healthy conclusion as well. So pastors and teachers who are responsible for handling the scriptures that the apostles had given out. Verse 12, we need to move on.

34:40 Ministry is more than evangelizing, pastoring and teaching. Those people who have those gifts need to train others in them, not only in those particular gifts, but also in basic Christian maturity. Kind of liken it to parenting. We're not training our kids to be clones of us, but we're equipping them for life by giving them life skills, life experiences, and the core truths of life. And we all need to take the gospel seriously as in spreading the word.

35:21 We need to take the word of God, say we need to know the word and we need to care for others. So evangelism, pastors and teachers reminds me of Acts two forty two. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in teaching, breaking of bread and prayer and fellowship. Those are all part of the training of the church. We all need to be skilled in the basics of one: the Christian And that's one of the points that I shared earlier, that it's the saints, not the workers that do the building up.

36:46 I won't ask for a show of hands. We're all works in process. I'll just embarrass Don by saying, even Don is a work in process. Don, are you work in process? Very much.

36:57 Okay. I'm good authority, Don's own words. We're all works in process, so that should bring us humility in itself. But till we all come to the unity of the faith, and this is something we need to keep striving for, even though you might feel like you never get there, till we all come to the unity of the faith. Because you've heard the statement, if you ever find a perfect church, you better not join it because it's no longer going to be.

37:24 But it's something for us to strive for, till we all come to the unity of the faith. I think the the last part of that verse is part of what Paul was getting at in chapter three of Ephesians in his prayer, which we won't which we won't look at. It's really... Key here is Christ, to want to know him, to use him as our measuring stick, not each other, because we can compare ourselves to each other and feel pretty good depending who we're comparing to, but Christ is the standard. Unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

38:11 So he's our measuring stick, not our own. It's not a knowledge of salvation here, but the experiential knowledge of Christ. Verse 14. So in the equipping, in verse 12, and the building up, in verse 12 leads to stability here. We're no longer children that are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

38:51 Some bad teaching or incorrect teaching might be a better word is by accident. We read in Acts 18 of how Apollos, was termed mighty in the scriptures, was given further clarification by Priscilla and Aquila. However, other bad teaching or false teaching is malicious. There's actually people out there that are trying to deceive you, and the terms in this verse are very descriptive, by the trickery of men, cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, who twist the scriptures to make them say what they think they want them to say. That stands in contrast to what our objective should be, speaking truth.

39:38 Verse 15, speaking the truth in love, training and nurturing people in love. And that will bring a edification that is truly Christ like, which is what our goal should be, Christ likeness. In verse 16 then, we've got the equipping, the building up, the stability, the truth. And then in verse 16 here we have real growth. Growth occurs when what Christ has ordained operates according to his plan.

40:31 I want to read a verse in Colossians two nineteen that summarizes that very one: Colossians two nineteen, holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increased status from God. One of the many books I'm reading right now is a book called Radical by David Platt, and he... I don't know how he came to be, but he found himself as the pastor of a big church that was trying to attract people and he says, Wait a minute, this isn't right. This doesn't square with scripture. We need to be concerned about true spiritual growth, not just apparent growth.

42:06 That was part of the remark I made earlier. I wasn't going to let this move get in the way of my life, and I think we should not let our life get in the way of our calling. We need to remember that when we die, it's not going to matter so much the accumulations of this life that weren't spiritual or for the sake of Christ or for our service to one another. We're out of time. Let's close in prayer.

42:37 Father, again, we thank You for Your grace to us. Thank You that You are a patient teacher. Just as you patiently worked and gave teaching to Israelites for so many years, gave them so many chances, and yet they still rebelled of their own. Help us to be those who respond to your teaching, your ministry to us, and to receive it gratefully and to use it to give back to you and to invest in lives of others in the local church, but also in the world around us for those who are lost, that they might come to faith in the Lord Jesus too. Father, I pray particularly for the younger Christians here that you'll give them a vision for using their gifts, that those of us older in the faith might be sensitive and coherent of their needs of training and encouraging and equipping, and that we'd be faithful in that good work.

43:50 We just again give thanks for the lord Jesus for Jesus and for what he's done in our life and here in the local church here in Westlake. Help us to to keep serving him faithfully and we pray in his name. Amen.