Well, good morning.
Once again, my name is Wes.
I was here last week.
If you were here with us, it was great being with you.
I'm excited to be back to bring God's word for us this morning.
So if you want to open up in your Bibles
or look in your bulletin at Ephesians chapter 4,
we're going to be looking at verses 7 through 16 this week.
And if you were here last week,
you heard me kind of give the caution
that as we come to this passage,
we need to be reminded that
as in many of Paul's letters,
he spent a lot of time building out for us
the core truths of the gospel,
the grace of Jesus given to us
before he gets to these gospel therefores.
And so we're looking at a passage
that has a lot of implications for how we should live,
how we should interact with one another.
But those how-tos are rooted
in what Jesus alone has done for us in the gospel.
What we are striving to do in our efforts to love one another,
in our efforts to paint a picture to the world of the unity
that Jesus has already created by his sacrifice,
is not efforts to save ourselves.
It's not efforts to earn our salvation.
If you're here this morning,
and you're not sure where you stand
in relation to this Christianity idea,
you're here perhaps as a visitor, as a skeptic,
we're so glad that you're here with us.
We're honored.
I'm honored that you would even listen to what I have to say.
This is not a how-to-earn-God's-love message for us this morning.
This is a how-do-we-respond-to-God's-love-for-us-in-Christ.
And so I hope you're encouraged by that,
and you're reminded of that as we go to this passage.
I'm gonna read this for us as we begin Ephesians chapter 4,
starting in verse 7.
And then I would invite you to go to the throne of grace with me,
that we would go together in prayer
to ask God's blessing on our time together in his word.
And so let me read this for us as we begin our time together
in God's word this morning, starting in verse 7.
But grace was given to each one of us
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore it says, when he ascended on high,
he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
In saying he ascended, what does it mean
but that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens,
that he might fill all things.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,
the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints
for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to mature manhood to the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ.
So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves
and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
Rather, speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head,
into Christ, from whom the whole body,
joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,
when each part is working properly,
makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Let's pray together.
Gracious Father, once again,
we thank you for the chance to gather together in your name this morning,
that you are a God who speaks,
and in your speech and in your action,
you have called a people to yourself,
a people that was not a people,
but by the blood of Jesus,
you have claimed us as your own.
You have cleansed us.
You have redeemed us.
You have given us a new name.
You call us your children.
And so as we gather together as your family this morning,
Father, you know where each of us is coming from.
You know the burdens we carry.
You know the particular ways that we come to this passage this morning,
wondering about the grace of Jesus,
reaching for that grace,
or perhaps afraid of what that grace might mean
in terms of the change that it can bring into our lives.
Father, would you draw us near to you by your spirit?
Would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear?
Would you help us see the sweet gifts of the risen and ascended Jesus
given to your church this morning
that we might pursue that unity that we saw last week,
that we might pursue that love and service of one another
because of your love and service to us?
Father, we ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
When I was in seminary,
Kelly and I had a very unique housing situation.
We had a parent of a teacher in high school
that had a country house on the state line.
I was going to seminary in Charlotte in North Carolina.
My wife kind of got her dream job as an oncology nurse.
Back in the town, we were from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
So we were living in between these two cities
and we were on this old farmhouse
that was being rented to us at a very affordable rate.
It was very kind of a Lord to provide that.
And one of the things that came with this house was like,
all right, we have all this land.
What are we going to do?
Well, there was this plot of land that was perfect for a garden.
And so we had a garden
and not only did we have this garden,
but I had my Meemaw.
And if you can't tell by that name,
Meemaw was just like a walking farmer's atlas.
She knew how to plant everything and when to plant it.
And so my Uncle Greg and my Meemaw
helped me actually have a successful garden,
which was a sweet thing to have.
And I kind of enjoyed that.
It was a fun thing to have.
It was fun to bring people tomatoes and things like that.
But when we moved to Georgia,
I was like, oh, so like I'm a gardener now.
You know, like I can do this.
So we get to our house
and it's a pretty similar place
in terms of like, you know, the weather and the soil.
There's not that much different from where we lived.
But it is a neighborhood.
So I'm going to do the cool thing
and do a raised bed garden.
So I do everything kind of the same
as I had done it before.
Everything started to grow and it looked nice.
But one thing was different
about our first house in Georgia.
And that was it had a lot of trees.
It had a ton of trees.
So many trees.
Like when I think back on how many trees we had
and now that we live in Colorado,
I'm like, man, can a place have that many trees?
And it did.
It had that many trees.
And so one thing our garden lacked
was the one thing it had to have.
It just did not have much sunlight, right?
And in my wisdom, my expertise as a gardener,
I failed to see that until after I had built
the raised bed garden and put in the time and effort.
And so even as things grew some,
there was very little fruit that was yielded.
And I just mentioned that story just to say,
once again, it is essential that we have
the light of Jesus shining on us.
That without that light shining on us,
there is no hope for fruitfulness.
And yet part of what Paul is doing
in the passage we're looking at
is he's saying that the light of Jesus is shining on you.
If you are in Christ and you have his spirit,
that light is shining on you.
And now we can begin to talk about
some of the other things that go into growing
and producing fruit in Christ.
We can start to talk about some of the other gifts
that King Jesus has given us
in order to pursue each other and care for one another.
And as we begin to move towards each other in Christ
and serve each other,
one of the things we have to recognize
is that because Jesus is a generous king,
a king who delights in giving his people good gifts
because our father in heaven is a good father
who delights in giving his people good gifts
because he hasn't withheld the most precious gift from us.
He's already laid down his son's life for us.
How can he withhold any gift for us now in Christ?
That this community is a gifted community.
It's a community that Jesus longs to see
pursue each other by the gifts that he's given,
that a community seeking unity in Christ
actually has a diversity of gifts from King Jesus
to pursue that unity.
And that's what we're gonna look at this morning.
It's what I want us to be challenged by,
but I want us to never lose sight
of the light of Jesus that we need,
that this is an overflow of the abundance
of the grace of Jesus given to his people.
And I want us to begin looking at verses seven to 10
and to see this idea that the church of Jesus
is a gifted church.
Not it will be a gifted church,
not maybe it could become a gifted church,
but there is a diversity of gifts
that Jesus has given his church.
And when we begin to embrace that,
I think it actually changes the way
that we move towards each other.
If you look at the passage with me in verse seven,
there's a distinct shift, isn't there?
Especially if you have a Bible open,
you can kind of look back at the passage
we were looking at last week.
This comes out of that famous statement
of the unity of the gospel,
like the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism,
the God and Father of all,
who is ruler over all and through all and in all.
Up to this point that therefore,
the walking worthy of the gospel
and the push towards unity
has been an invitation to see our oneness in Jesus.
Notice that in verse seven,
Paul now shifts to our individuality, doesn't he?
There's a but each one of us.
Despite this call to unity,
it doesn't mean that now who we are
as individuals doesn't matter.
This is not a call to kind of abandon
all of our gifts and personalities.
Instead, Paul wants us to see
that grace was given to each one of us
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
That part of the plan of King Jesus
and calling a people to himself
is that that people would have a diversity of gifts.
And this is actually a really big idea in Paul's writing.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 12,
we can see in verses five and six
that there's a variety of service,
varieties of service, but the same Lord.
There's a variety of activities,
but it's the same God who empowers them all and everyone.
In Romans 12, we can also go and see
that the different measures of faith
lead into a discussion of different functions
of the members of the body.
Later in this passage,
he's gonna use this metaphor
that speaks to the different purposes of the body.
This is a huge idea
in Paul's understanding of the body of Christ.
To be a member of this body
is to be a member of a body
that has a variety of gifts.
And where do those gifts come from?
Paul says they come from the ascended Lord Jesus.
And he gives us this image
that comes from Psalm 68, right?
You ascended on high,
leading a host of captives in your train
and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious,
that the Lord God may dwell there.
This image from the Psalms of a conquering king
who having conquered,
who having won victory,
now has a host of captives
and a host of gifts to give to his people.
The idea that in Jesus,
our principal enemies,
sin and death itself have been conquered.
And now Jesus has ascended on high
and sits at his father's right hand.
And from that place of power,
Paul wants us to see
that part of his purpose in ascending
is so like an ascended king
who sits on his throne
and now has authority granted to him.
He gives good gifts.
And there's a variety of gifts
that can come out of that.
And yet one of the things I think we have to do
is before we even get into some of the specific gifts
that Paul mentions in this passage,
we need to ask ourselves,
do I believe this of the body of Christ?
When I come to church,
am I thinking,
all right, here I go.
I'm headed to the place
where there's a bunch of gifts
of the risen ascended Lord Jesus at work,
ready to serve me and my family and my children,
ready to serve me and my neighbors,
an opportunity for me now
to serve uniquely as a child of God, right?
There's a diversity of gifts.
There's a diversity of tools
and it's actually a beautiful thing.
A lot of people in Colorado love to bike.
They love to ski.
I will just raise my hand and confess,
I too fall victim to those wonderful hobbies.
And there's a joke among those hobbies
and it's funny
because both of them kind of have the same joke
and that's that the right number of skis
or the right number of bikes is N plus one
or N is the number you currently have.
Now that's not necessarily a good thing,
but it does speak to this idea, right?
That when we get into something
and we love something and we enjoy it,
as we're drawn into that,
we often just wanna have more and more things to enjoy, right?
And you think at first like,
oh, if I just have a set of skis,
I could ski down this mountain.
You're like, no, no, no, no.
What sort of conditions are we dealing with here?
Are we looking at powder?
Are we going back country, right?
If we're riding a bike,
are we riding a mountain bike to do road bike riding?
Heaven forbid that would happen, right?
There's a variety of tools.
There's a variety of things we would use to do certain things.
When we went to Japan on this mission trip,
I thought we wanted like a Japanese knife.
If you're a cook, if you like,
you might know like Japan is one of the knife capitals,
but honestly, I was overwhelmed
with the types of knives and the shapes of knives.
I was like, how can there be this many knives?
And yet I'm someone who loves
that there's that many skis and that many bikes.
And so there's so many hobbies and things we can get into
where we're like, man,
if I could just have more of these things.
And I think there's something beautiful about that, right?
That as we get into a craft, as we get into a hobby,
we see the different ways that things can be enjoyed.
And one of the things that I hope you're encouraged by
is that Jesus actually looks at the church and says,
there is almost an unending number of gifts
and people that I can use in my kingdom.
You might be sitting here this morning
and thinking about your personality and your giftings
and thinking, well, I'm not that sort of person.
You might have a vision of a very gregarious,
outgoing person.
And you might think that in order to serve the church,
Jesus is really looking for this type of person,
this sort of relational ninja.
You might be thinking about someone sitting next to you
that you're like, I could never know
as much as so and so about the Bible.
You might be thinking of someone here this morning.
You're like, if I could pray like them, I mean.
But I can't.
I'm not that sort of prayer warrior.
And it's not that these things aren't admirable things.
I mean, many of us should be aspiring
to grow closer to the Lord in prayer.
And yet one of the beautiful things
about the body of Jesus
is that we get to acknowledge
that he's given us each different measures of faith
and gifting and personality.
And really the only kind of prerequisite for that
is the prerequisite that's happened already
in Ephesians, humble hearts
that recognize their need for the grace of Jesus.
That if we come to the Lord Jesus in humility,
confessing our sin,
believing that his grace alone can redeem us
and give us a new identity,
God can work with humble people
dependent on the grace of Jesus.
And not only does he work with them,
but what Paul wants us to see
is that he actually is intent on giving them gifts.
Right?
This should affect every aspect of our life
as the body of Christ.
It means that on the days
where we're perhaps worn down
about the struggles at home
and our parenting,
I mean, I love the way that
in our membership vows,
we take vows as a community, don't we?
If you're here this morning as a visitor
and you don't know what I'm talking about,
one of the things that happens
when someone joins our churches
in our denomination
is not only do they take vows
about what they believe,
but the congregation takes a vow of commitment
to care for them and their children.
It's a beautiful reflection
of this New Testament idea
that we are all called to the body of Christ
and we all need the variety of gifts
in order to love and serve each other
and our children.
If you think about outreach,
I hope we think about outreach
as the body of Christ.
It can be so discouraging, can't it,
to think about evangelism and outreach.
And we might look at ourselves and say,
well, I'm an introvert
or I have this kind of personality
or I have no interest in that biking and skiing
that he's talking about.
Is God calling me to reach all of the bikers
and skiers in Colorado Springs?
No.
I have a variety of theological reasons
for saying that,
not just this passage.
Right?
But the beauty is,
is that Jesus invites us into a community
where there's other people
to help us love and serve our neighbors.
Right?
That you might have the opportunity
to get to know people
where God has placed you
and say, you know what?
I don't know if I'm very gifted,
but I know someone in my body of Jesus
that actually could really serve you well right now.
And I actually believe
that that's part of what King Jesus wants us to do.
In order for this to happen,
I hope this is obvious to us,
but I'll just mention it.
It just, it can't happen
unless we get to know each other.
Right?
Like if I don't know the body sitting around me,
if I'm not beginning to move towards
the people around me
and get to know who Jesus has called
to my particular church,
it'll be very hard for me
to actually practically live out
this idea of the gifting of Jesus.
And this is a place where,
we're about to talk about elders in just a moment,
but this is a place where you could perhaps
go to the leadership of your church
and ask some of these questions.
If you're wrestling with something
or you're struggling with something
and you're wondering,
well, how has the church gifted?
How has Jesus gifted this church
that might actually speak to this area?
This might be a great place
to get to know your elders.
And they might have a better idea,
a better grasp on the ways
that King Jesus has already gifted this church.
Oh, well, so-and-so is actually
like this fantastic prayer warrior.
And they would probably love
to come alongside you in prayer.
Let's start with going to Jesus in prayer.
Because as we accept the giftings of Jesus,
the fact that the body of Christ
is always a gifted body
because King Jesus loves to give gifts,
that actually moves us to be an equipped body.
And that's the second thing
I want us to see in this passage.
That as we begin to accept the idea
that King Jesus gives gifts,
it actually leads us to long to be an equipped body.
And it begins by seeing what gifts Paul mentions here.
And this is actually, I'll just mention this.
This is a passage I love to go to with college students
to kind of explain the importance of the local church,
why Jesus is calling them to the church.
Because this one, I think always,
I've never mentioned this passage to a college student
and not had some degree of surprise at this point.
But I want you to ask the question,
what gifts does Paul mention in this passage?
Let's look at verse 11, right?
After talking about the risen, ascended Jesus,
he says, and he gave.
What did he give Paul?
The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,
the shepherds, and teachers.
I just want to stop there and say,
the first thing he names
is probably not the thing you or I would name, right?
Like if we were just like,
hey, what sort of gifts does Jesus give the church?
We'd probably be quick to run to spiritual gifts.
We might run to some of the character qualities of Jesus,
the fruit of the spirit.
That would be, those are wonderful answers.
But here, Paul goes to church offices.
That's not my first thing.
I am in a church office.
The way REF functions,
I'm actually a teaching elder,
ordained in the same way our local pastors ordained
and then sent to the college campus.
I am in a church office
and I would never first answer,
say, what gifts does Jesus give church offices?
Right?
Here he's saying that Jesus has actually given
specific roles to his people,
specific offices to actually help them be equipped
and encouraged and built up.
The first we are actually seeing
as we look at scripture together.
When we look at God's word together,
we are seeing the gifts of that apostolic office,
that specific office of people
that were sent out in the early church,
witnesses of Jesus,
to give authoritative scripture.
We don't have time this morning
for me to make the more kind of full-orbed argument
for how that word apostle really speaks
to that specific revelatory office,
but I'm sure your elders would love
to sit down and talk to you about that.
So that's one thing that is mentioned here.
Another thing that's mentioned
is evangelists, church planters,
those who have a special gift
in planting and growing churches
and doing evangelism and going to places
and sharing the gospel.
I'll just admit,
sometimes when people are like,
what do you do?
Why do you do it?
How do we make sense
of why you should even be doing what you're doing?
Sometimes I'm like,
you know, I struggle with that question too,
just to be honest.
But sometimes, like,
I do kind of point to this idea
that even in the early church,
there was this idea of the church
sending out evangelists to places.
Go to this place and spread the gospel.
And there is the hope of,
often of planting churches,
but the idea of like going to the college campus,
go beyond the college campus
and preach the gospel
and reach our covenant children
and help equip them
to reach and serve their classmates
and bear witness to Jesus.
All right.
The one I want us to focus on this morning
just to be mindful of the most,
I think,
because it's so relevant
in the local body of believers,
is the shepherds and teachers.
Jesus actually gifts his church
with this office of shepherds and teachers
because at the heart of the idea of church
is this idea of the gathering
and perfecting of the saints.
That's language that our confession uses
to kind of summarize
that the purpose of the church,
this idea that King Jesus
is drawing his people to himself.
And as he draws his people to himself
through the ministry of the word and prayer,
he's then equipping them
to serve one another
and to serve the world around them
to his glory.
Just as we've confessed, right?
It's getting back at that chief end of man
to glorify God,
to enjoy him forever.
Jesus has gifted these offices
to draw us together
so that we might enjoy
and delight in God
and point others
to that matchless glory,
that worthy God and Savior.
And just,
I want us to see
just the weight of this call
and this office
and the role it has.
In Acts chapter 20,
I think it's a special place for us to go
because we're in the book of Ephesians.
Paul is kind of saying his last words
to the elders of Ephesus, right?
The same people that he's writing to here.
And notice the weight
that he gives them to this office.
And it's actually a place
where he uses these words
that we often use interchangeably
like elder, pastor,
even overseer, bishop.
Those words all appear
in verb or noun form
in this short kind of exhortation.
But in Acts chapter 20,
speaking to the Ephesian elders,
Paul says this,
now for Miletus,
he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church
to come to him.
And then in verse 28,
this is what he says,
pay careful attention
to yourself
and to all the flock
in which the Holy Spirit
has made you overseers.
It's that bishop word.
To care for the church
of God,
which he obtained
with his own blood.
Right?
From the early days
of the church,
King Jesus has been
gifting people,
calling them to this unique office
to care for the flock of God.
To care for the flock
that Jesus shed his blood for.
And so I think
there's a lot of application
here for us
as we see Paul
in Ephesians 4 say,
part of the giftings
of Jesus
are these offices
is how do we encourage
or support these offices?
In other words,
are we availing ourselves
of the gift of Jesus?
Have you in recently
or in the past year
thought to yourself,
well, you know,
I'm trying to grow
closer to Jesus.
I need to avail myself
of the gift
of the elders
and deacons
of this church.
once again,
I'll just raise my hand
and say that's not
something I normally go to.
When I sit down
and ask students,
like,
how are you doing spiritually?
When we kind of get into that,
how do you evaluate
that question?
You know,
how do you gauge that?
What does it look like
for you to actually
be doing well spiritually?
I don't think
I've ever gotten the answer.
You know what?
Like,
I'm really enjoying
the body of Christ
and especially
the gifting of the offices
that Jesus has given
the church.
I would love to have
that answer sometime.
I'd be like,
wow,
that's really mature
and not expected.
Right?
And one of the reasons
I'm excited about being
in this passage with you
is Matthew continues
his sabbatical,
but you're getting closer
to the time of him returning.
I'll just say that
I think it's beautiful
that your church
is practicing
a biblical pattern
of rest
and caring for
the gifting of Jesus
of this office.
But I'll just also confess
that as a pastor
with lots of pastor friends,
I have heard for many say
that like sometimes
coming back from sabbatical
can be really hard.
What does it look like
to reintegrate
into the church?
What does it look like
for you as a congregation
and for other elders
to help Matthew
reintegrate well?
To maybe not be flooded
on day one
with all of the problems
that you think
need to be fixed
right away,
immediately
from everything that happened
while he was gone?
There's a lot of things
that you can be praying about
and thinking about.
Well,
if this is a gift of Jesus,
how can I reflect
that gifting
in the way that
I care for Matthew
and the other elders here?
But this is obviously
a passage that speaks
of the weight
of what we're doing
to the elders as well,
right?
What does it look like
for you elders
and deacons
who are called
to serve the church
and the needs
of the church
and those who are
on the outside
or those who are
in need of mercy,
the leadership
of the church,
what does it look like
for you to care
for this flock?
There's a pastor,
William Still,
one of our seminary professors
because he knew him personally,
he called him Willie.
I just thought
that was so funny.
But William Still
had this beautiful line
about this idea
that in order
to feed the flock,
we must be fed men.
We must be feeding others
out of that drawing,
out of the grace
that Jesus is offering
to us ourselves.
Are you being fed
from the hand of Jesus
so you can turn
as under shepherds
to the flock
and feed them
and care for them as well?
I just want to point out
that the real authority
of this entire model
rests in King Jesus'
authority, doesn't it?
That all of our authority
is subservient
to King Jesus
who is the ascended leader
and this is a beautiful passage
to go and see that.
But it's a challenging passage,
right?
It suggests that there
are many gifts
that Jesus has given
the church
and that it even includes
some of these offices
and people.
I don't often quote
our book of church order
when I preach.
In fact,
I almost never do
and it's probably
a dangerous place
to go at times
just to get lost
in headiness
and ideas
and church government.
But our BCO
beautifully says,
the head of the church
is Christ
and that all of these
offices and gifts
are subservient
to Christ
and his purposes.
And so that the government
of our church
says that Jesus
is the head
of the church
and that image
even of Jesus
being the head
of the church
comes from passages
like this one
where Paul says
that even these giftings,
what are they aimed at?
What does a gifted
and equipped community
aim for?
And that's what we look at
in the final part
of our passage
starting in verse 13,
starting in verse 12 really,
right?
It's an aim
of growing
into loving maturity.
That a gifted church
that believes
that Jesus is calling
it to be
an equipped church
is ultimately aiming
to be a loving,
mature church
that grows
into Christ.
And it starts
in verse 13
with this aim,
right?
And I think
this is so important
for us to begin there
because this is one
of the key verses
in a passage
that once again
is heavy on things
we can be doing
and thinking about
and pursuing.
This is one
of the verses
that I think
gets us back
to the grace
of Jesus,
right?
Until we all
attain to the unity
of faith
and of the knowledge
of the Son of God
to mature manhood
to the measure
of the stature
of the fullness
of Christ.
To go back
to verse 12
and ask this question,
right?
How long do we do
these equipping things?
What does it look like
for us to be seeking
to be equipped
and submitting
to the equipping work
of those God
has placed over us
and for us to begin
moving towards each other
with the hope
of speaking truth
and love
like it's a natural
question to ask,
well,
how long do we do this?
What's the parameters,
right?
Here's the goal.
The measure
of the fullness,
the stature
of the fullness
of Jesus himself.
Now,
if you
are a follower
of Jesus,
I hope your immediate
reaction to that
is,
oh,
forever.
If your reaction
to that verse
is not,
oh,
forever,
like we might need
to go back
to earlier parts
of Ephesians once again
and talk about
what the gospel is.
Right?
This idea
that none of us
is able to save ourselves.
All of us
are sinners
in need of the grace
that Jesus alone offers.
Right?
The measure
of Jesus
is perfection.
It is his fullness
and his holiness.
In other words,
Paul is saying
this is the life
of a Christian.
This is not just
something we do
for a season.
This is what it means
to be a Christian.
It's having been redeemed
by the grace of Jesus
the rest of our lives
we are working together
to grow into maturity,
a maturity
that we will not attain
in this life.
That we will not attain
until Jesus comes
and makes all things new
and every last bit
of sin in the fall,
every sadness,
every tear
is pushed back
and cast into the lake of fire.
Until that happens,
we all are in this process
of growth
and sanctification
and drawing near
to each other
with the hope
of speaking truth
and love
with the goal
that we would grow
into loving maturity.
In verse 14,
right,
is this image
that Paul gives us
of being anchored,
of not being tossed about
and blown about.
I don't know
if you've ever been out
on a large lake
or an ocean
when a storm is coming.
It is a terrifying thing.
One thing we experienced
growing up in South Carolina,
sometimes we'd go out
in the intercoastal waterway,
sometimes in our fairly small boat
we'd venture out
probably further than we should,
is once that storm
starts to blow in,
if you thought your anchor
was set and it was not,
you're done.
Like,
it's getting dragged.
It is a terrifying thing
to try and get that anchor set
once the waves
get to a certain point,
right?
And one of the things
that Paul wants us to see
is that we do,
we Christians have always,
since the fall,
lived in a world
that is tossed to and fro,
that there are doctrines
that are at times
of evil origin,
there's human cunning
and craftiness,
there's deceitful schemes.
That is,
and some of you
might have read this,
looked at this passage
this morning
and been like,
oh man,
that really feels like
it hits right now.
And our temptation
sometimes is to be like,
it's never been as bad
as it is now.
And notice that,
Paul's saying it's pretty bad,
isn't he,
in the early church times.
That there are all sorts
of forces and powers
at work
that would love
to deceive us,
that would love
to blow us astray,
that would love
to blow us,
to crash into one another
in violence,
in conflict.
That,
in other words,
this sort of loving maturity,
this sort of growth
isn't natural to us
as fallen people,
as sinners in need
of God's grace.
I laugh sometimes,
you heard me talk
about my failings,
my lack of a green thumb
earlier.
It's popular,
especially,
I think,
among current generations
to talk about
things happening organically
and authenticity
is like a big thing
right now,
I think,
for young people.
And sometimes
that word organic
is thrown around.
Like,
I just like to let things
just kind of happen
and I'm like,
man,
do you know how hard it is
to get stuff to actually grow
that you want to grow?
I mean,
if we're talking about weeds,
sure,
let's just do organic stuff.
But sometimes organic
is used as just kind of like
lack of intentionality,
let's just see what happens.
And that's not the picture
we get here,
is it,
of growth in Christ?
It's a fight,
it's a struggle.
There are things
seeking to draw us
away from the truth.
And instead of being blown about
what Paul longs for us to do,
we see in verse 15
that that maturing love
is a desire
to speak truth in love.
to speak truth in love
so that we can grow
into Christ.
In other words,
one of my chief purposes
as a follower of Jesus
is to long to see
those people around me
in the body of Christ
grow towards Jesus,
to look more like him,
to see more and more
how his grace
is offered to them,
how his spirit
is at work in them,
that that is a calling
of every believer
so that we can actually
work together.
And he gives us this image,
doesn't he,
in verse 16
of a body working together
of joints and ligaments
and this idea
that regardless
of those who might,
some who might be called
to this office
to equip the saints,
going back to verses 11 and 12,
that at the end of the day,
all of us in the body of Christ
have an essential role to play
to be a healthy,
functioning body.
And we might tend to look
at certain parts of our body
and say,
well,
this part's not very glorious,
this part's not that important.
It's all important.
And sometimes it's just
a simple one bone
being out of place,
right?
And we can be in great pain
and we can realize
how hard so many things
in life are.
One of the most hard things
about our trip to Japan,
one of our students
dislocated her hip
in Japan.
Wasn't on my bingo card.
I was like,
this cannot be happening.
I've skied with students
and biked with students a lot
since we've moved to Colorado
and I've never had
this traumatic of an injury happen.
And just that joint
being out of place
and a small fracture
on the femur head
and it was bad.
Overnight stay
in a hospital in Japan.
It was just a reminder,
right?
Like just one little thing
out of socket,
just a few ligaments
out of place
and you could be
in such pain
and so debilitated.
And part of the reason
I share her story
is while that was true
of her physically,
like she,
she just loves Jesus.
And so she got her crutches
and she just crutched
around Tokyo
pursuing Japanese students,
talking to them
about the love of Jesus.
At one point we were
at a dinner
and I just like
walked by her table
and overheard her talking
about who the Holy Spirit is.
And just,
I mentioned this last week,
like there are just,
there are no Christians
almost in Japan.
All of these students,
except for two of them
that we met with
were just not Christians
and yet she was pursuing them
and she was not letting
her physical malady
prevent her from seeing
that King Jesus
was excited to work
through her as well.
That there's a variety
of giftings in the body
and that he was going
to make his name
great and glorious
even through her
as she was hobbled
and hurt.
You are desperately needed
not because
there's anything
lacking in Jesus
but because King Jesus
has chosen
to work through
his people
because the body
of Christ
is his plan
for the advancement
of his kingdom
and you,
you can get it,
right?
Like I get it.
We look around
at each other
and we're like,
I don't know Jesus.
have you seen
the ways that I
continue to fail
and struggle?
Have you seen
the conflict
we're capable of?
Like are you sure
you want to hit yourself
to this wagon?
Right?
And yet that is what
Jesus assures
his people
that he is going
to do.
It's actually,
he says it's better
for him to leave
to his disciples
because he's going
to send his spirit
to work among them.
Jesus is doing
something incredible
among us
as we draw near
to him.
And so I hope
you're encouraged
this morning
by this idea
that Jesus
is at work
among his people,
that this vision
of unity
we talked about
last week
is actually
going to be realized
by the gifting
and grace of Jesus
worked out
in the lives
of individuals
seeking to love
one another
and serve one another.
This can only be done
by the gifting
of Jesus.
Would you pray with me?
Gracious Father,
once again,
we just thank you
that you are
a good, good father
and you love
to give your people
good gifts
and too often
perhaps we are prone
to listen
to the voice
of the accuser
and to deny
your grace to us
and to say to you,
no father,
not me,
like Moses,
like don't you want
someone that can speak
better?
And yet,
you are a faithful king.
you are faithful
to work through
the lives of your people.
Your gifting
is greater
than our sin.
Your grace
is greater
than our sin.
You are at work
through humble,
dependent,
needy people
by the grace
of Jesus.
Would you help us
to love each other
to your glory?
Would you help us
to point one another
to Jesus
so that we might grow
into this loving maturity,
this fullness,
the stature of Jesus?
Would you help us
to labor towards that
as your people
this morning
we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.