Beyond Individualism: God’s Blueprint for a Flourishing Church

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Good morning everyone.
[00:00:03] Let's open to Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians 4, 11 to 16, page 977 in the Pew Bibles.
[00:00:19] Ephesians 4, 11 to 16.
[00:00:33] Hear the word of the Lord.
[00:00:36] 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
[00:00:59] 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 in deceitful schemes.
[00:01:19] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom
[00:01:29] 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.
[00:01:45] Let's pray.
[00:01:47] Father, I ask for your help and mercy and grace in this moment of opening your word.
[00:01:55] Help me to make clear the wondrous truths in this passage for the upbuilding of your people and the exaltation of the Lord of our lives, Jesus Christ, who has so generously and so lavishly
[00:02:11] Pour out upon us gifts because of his finished work on the cross.
[00:02:17] We pray that we would rejoice and marvel at the goodness of Jesus shown in not only saving us but inviting us to be a part of the work for which he does not need us.
[00:02:33] So come and help, I pray in Jesus' name.
[00:02:37] Amen.
[00:02:40] Last week I argued from Ephesians 4, 4-10 that one key means by which a believer flourishes in Jesus Christ is to learn the things that make a church flourish.
[00:02:58] And more than that, to also give themselves to the things that make a church flourish.
[00:03:06] And to buttress that point, we showed from Ephesians 4, 4-10 that God has provided two crucial things for the flourishing of the church and they are a rock solid foundation for unity in the church and grace, meaning specifically ministry grace or spiritual gifts to every believer in Jesus Christ.
[00:03:34] So to flourish as a believer you should give yourself to finding out from God's Word what makes a church flourish and then to give yourself to those things
[00:03:46] Because it is in the flourishing of the church that you yourself will find your own flourishing and God has made provision for the flourishing of the church in giving to the church a rock solid foundation for unity and giving spiritual gifts to all believers.
[00:04:03] Well what that means is that realistically speaking there are hundreds of spiritual gifts represented here in this room this morning right here.
[00:04:16] In fact, there may even be up to a thousand spiritual gifts present here.
[00:04:20] And I say that because on the authority of Scripture, we know that every single believer has at least one spiritual gift given them by the reason Christ.
[00:04:31] And some have double, have more than one, and others have more than a couple of spiritual gifts.
[00:04:38] So it could well be that we have up to a thousand spiritual gifts represented here
[00:04:45] In this room this morning, every believer has at least one.
[00:04:49] So the question becomes, what is God's design for how all the hundreds of spiritual gifts here at GRBC interact with one another?
[00:05:03] How are those gifts to interplay with one another in such a way that good happens to the church?
[00:05:13] Is there a design from God for that?
[00:05:17] And if there is, what is it?
[00:05:20] I mean, think about it.
[00:05:21] We all, believers in Jesus Christ, have at least a spiritual gift, every single one of us.
[00:05:27] And we are commanded to employ those spiritual gifts, to exercise them for the good of the body.
[00:05:36] That means that the church will be a nightmare of utter chaos and anarchy if every one of us was left to determine for themselves how best to use their spiritual gift.
[00:05:49] It will be like getting all the automobiles in the U.S. onto the highway all at once and allowing every driver to decide what the traffic rules will be.
[00:05:58] Or it will be like trying to teach four and five year olds how to play soccer.
[00:06:04] If you are a
[00:06:06] soccer coach for four and five year olds you know that when you start the game they just all run towards the soccer ball they just cluster around the ball and form a small ball of little humans around the soccer ball they just don't play it so so one of your key roles and goals in the first few days of playing will be to have them learn the concept of positions in the field and play from those positions and when they move that they return to those positions and if they don't learn that
[00:06:36] They may play something but it will be anything but soccer.
[00:06:41] But our God is not just a good and wise traffic controller or a soccer coach.
[00:06:50] He is the creator and sustainer of the church.
[00:06:54] He's the one who has given all the gifts that are there in the church and are there at our church here.
[00:07:01] He's not allowed us to crash onto one another or to cluster around one another just because we are seeking to do one thing that everybody is excited about.
[00:07:11] He's given us a design.
[00:07:14] For how the spiritual gifts interplay with one another, interact with one another, so that the outcome is maturity in the body, Christ-likeness in the body, more growth in the body, that we begin to measure up more and more to the image of our eldest brother and Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:07:32] So here's my main argument this morning.
[00:07:37] Your spiritual gift will benefit the church when you employ it according to God's design.
[00:07:45] You will contribute to doing good to your brothers and sisters in this church when you employ your spiritual gift, exercise your spiritual gift according to God's design.
[00:07:59] So God's given you spiritual gifts, at least one.
[00:08:03] And his purpose in that is that you be a participant in the upbuilding of the church in which you yourself are being built up.
[00:08:13] And I am arguing that the way you participate in that is discerning and applying God's design for how the gifts work.
[00:08:21] And there are four things I think that we see here that God has specifically designed for the church in regard to how spiritual gifts are to interact with one another.
[00:08:33] And here's the first thing.
[00:08:35] God has designed foundational gifts.
[00:08:39] Foundational gifts.
[00:08:40] Look at verse 11.
[00:08:43] And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers.
[00:08:51] So the first thing we are to understand from verse 11 of Ephesians chapter 4 is this.
[00:08:59] Every spiritual gift given by the risen Lord to every single one of us, believers in Jesus Christ, is important and the contribution they make to the body matters.
[00:09:12] We each participate in the ministry in very significant ways.
[00:09:18] But some gifts play a more crucial role than other gifts.
[00:09:24] Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers play a crucial role in founding and maintaining a church.
[00:09:37] that's because they proclaim and explicate and explain and expound on the gospel which is the basis of the life of the church the church lives and breathes by the gospel and apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers they expound the gospel they bring the gospel to the church which means they guarantee life for the church
[00:10:02] So every gift is important and useful and makes an important contribution.
[00:10:07] But some gifts are foundational.
[00:10:10] They are more crucial.
[00:10:12] They are essential to the life of the church.
[00:10:17] And Paul says this even more explicitly in 1 Corinthians 12, 28.
[00:10:20] Just listen to this.
[00:10:22] And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administering, and various kinds of tongues.
[00:10:38] So clearly there are first order and second order and third order gifts in the body.
[00:10:44] First and second and third order refer to gifts that are indispensable for the church.
[00:10:51] The church cannot do without those.
[00:10:54] They help establish the church.
[00:10:56] They help maintain the church.
[00:10:58] They help safeguard the church.
[00:11:02] And apostles and prophets are clearly shown to us as first and second order gift even here in the book of Ephesians.
[00:11:10] If you just flip back to chapter 2 verse 20, you will hear Paul say that the church is built on the foundation.
[00:11:17] of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
[00:11:25] The crucial role of Apostles and Prophets, Paul brings it back again in chapter 3 verse 5 when he says that the mystery of Christ was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
[00:11:44] so these are individuals given to the church by Jesus Christ with a very central founding and establishing role for the life of the church and of course when it talks about apostles we recognize from the New Testament this means a group that is a little bit wider a little bit bigger than the original 12 that Jesus called because we know Matthias was added in Acts chapter 1
[00:12:09] We know that Paul was added on the Damascus road.
[00:12:12] There's a debate among New Testament scholars as to how many exactly we had in terms of apostles.
[00:12:17] But everybody agrees the circle of apostles is bigger than the original 12 that Jesus called.
[00:12:24] But my point is this.
[00:12:26] The apostles and the prophets, they constitute the founding...
[00:12:31] ministers of the gospel of the church because God has designed them as first and second order gifts in the body and you probably are aware that there's an argument among faithful bible teachers as to whether apostles but especially prophets continue today so you may have questions about that
[00:12:54] You cannot decide that question from Ephesians chapter 4.
[00:12:57] You'd have to read theologically through the rest of the New Testament and the rest of the Bible to make a decision about that.
[00:13:04] So I don't want to get into that this morning.
[00:13:06] If you want to talk about that, you can ask me at the door or some other time.
[00:13:10] The point in Ephesians 4.11 is that Christ has given to the church apostles and prophets who have a founding role in the life of the church.
[00:13:20] But he's given some other gifts as well.
[00:13:22] Evangelists.
[00:13:23] They are gifted to take the gospel to the world.
[00:13:27] It's interesting that word is used only twice or two other times in the New Testament about Timothy in 2 Timothy 4-5 and about Philip in Acts chapter 21 verse 8.
[00:13:39] But the task of this individual is to bring the gospel to the world.
[00:13:45] And of course God has given third order gifts, pastors and teachers.
[00:13:52] And I think Paul expresses it in that way because it is required that everyone who is a pastor should be gifted to teach.
[00:14:02] You don't have the role of pastoring in the church if God has seen in his wisdom that it is not best for him to give you the gift of teaching.
[00:14:13] but at the same time it's also true that it's not necessarily the case that everyone in the church who is gifted to teach is a pastor so somebody must not be a pastor if they are not gifted to teach but somebody can be gifted to teach and not be called to be a pastor and I think that's why Paul says he's gifted us pastors and teachers without saying the pastors and the teachers
[00:14:40] Last week I mentioned that there is no spectator part in our bodies as human beings.
[00:14:45] Every part plays an important role in contributing to the common good.
[00:14:51] But it's also true that the parts do not play the exact same crucial role.
[00:14:57] The parts have different roles that they play and some roles are more important than others.
[00:15:02] Certain parts are more important than others, are more crucial for the sustenance of life than others.
[00:15:08] If your heart stops beating right now, life stops right that moment.
[00:15:13] If a glitch happens in your brain and it stops working for five minutes,
[00:15:17] Your life will stop, but you could lose your hand, and yes, life will become very uncomfortable and difficult, but it will go on.
[00:15:24] So there's a difference between the role that your heart plays and the role that the brain plays in your body, and the role that the hand plays.
[00:15:33] Well, it's the same thing for the church.
[00:15:35] You can expand that into the society.
[00:15:38] When we had the pandemic, thank God it is in the past, but when it was here, almost the whole society was shut down.
[00:15:46] You couldn't go to a gym, you couldn't go to a salon, but hospitals were kept open.
[00:15:50] Grocery stores were kept open because yes, they all play important roles for the sustenance and for the thriving of the society, but hospitals and grocery stores have a role that is above that of gyms and salons.
[00:16:06] The same thing is true for the church.
[00:16:10] God has designed foundational gifts in the body that are there to add to the order and beauty that he has designed for the church to experience.
[00:16:21] Our God is a God of order and beauty, not a God of chaos.
[00:16:26] He's not called us to just cluster around one particular thing we want to do.
[00:16:30] It's remarkable, speaking about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says,
[00:16:34] All things should be done decently and in order.
[00:16:38] Part of that order is that God has designed foundational gifts.
[00:16:42] So this is what that means for us, beloved.
[00:16:45] When we think about our life together as a church and what priorities we are to set and how we are to organize ourselves and how we are to manage our resources in order to maximize gospel health in the church, we must bear in mind the fact that God has designed a certain order for how the gifts operate in the church.
[00:17:05] We can't
[00:17:06] Just place them on the same plane and function and operate as if they play the exact same role in the body.
[00:17:13] We have to follow the revealed wisdom of God in terms of how the body is to organize itself.
[00:17:19] We will only thrive and flourish as a church if we conform our body life as a church to the design
[00:17:28] If you think about Psalm 1, the Bible says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.
[00:17:40] And in this law he meditates day and night.
[00:17:42] He is like a tree planted by streams of water, whose leaf does not wither, that brings forth its fruit in season.
[00:17:47] Whatever he does prospers.
[00:17:49] That's true for a single believer.
[00:17:51] But it's true for a local church as well.
[00:17:54] A local church will prosper and its leaf will not wither.
[00:17:57] It will bring forth its fruit in season when it follows the design of God.
[00:18:02] Why did the church in Acts chapter 2 thrive and flourish the way it did?
[00:18:08] The answer is they were devoted to the apostles' teaching.
[00:18:12] Because from a devotion to the apostles teaching there was a radiation of devotion to prayer, devotion to fellowship, devotion to the breaking of bread and every other ministry that this church was undertaking in Jerusalem.
[00:18:27] So God has a design for how the spiritual gift that he has lavishly deposited in every local church, he has a design for how those gifts interplay and interrelate and work together for the common good.
[00:18:42] of the church and one aspect of that design is that he has ordained and designed foundational gifts namely apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers and we do well to conform to that here's the second thing that god has designed equipping for the work of ministry god has designed equipping for the work of ministry he's ordained that
[00:19:10] One way you could get at that point in verse 12 is to say, what's Christ's purpose in giving us apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor teachers?
[00:19:20] Why has Christ given those individuals to the church?
[00:19:23] And here's the purpose, verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
[00:19:32] So the gifted individuals equip the saints as a whole for ministry in the church.
[00:19:39] And as a result of the work of ministry that the saints do, there is edification that happens, there's upbuilding that happens in the church.
[00:19:50] If you do a study of that phrase, to equip, you will find in the original, it's actually not a verbal phrase, it's a noun, and it means something like to put things in order.
[00:20:04] It means it was used in the medical field to talk about setting a bone in place.
[00:20:09] So if somebody had a dislocation, if something was out of joint and a doctor was performing a procedure to set that bone back in place, they would use this word right here.
[00:20:19] So the saints are instructed to take their rightful positions, their respective roles in ministry.
[00:20:27] They are set into the position for which God designed them and gifted them so that they can contribute optimally to the ministry of the church.
[00:20:36] That's the role, that's the purpose that is accomplished by the equipping of the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers.
[00:20:46] Ministry was never designed by God to be something that a small few, a group of few in the church, a small number in the church undertakes.
[00:21:00] It's designed for everyone to participate in.
[00:21:02] That's God's wisdom.
[00:21:04] Look at verse 16.
[00:21:06] From whom, talking about Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is supplied or with which it is equipped.
[00:21:17] And then listen to this, when each part is working properly, each part, there is a design for connectivity in the body with each part being connected and working properly.
[00:21:33] There's an invitation to participation here.
[00:21:36] That's why some pastors and theologians talk about every member ministry.
[00:21:42] Every member of the church.
[00:21:43] Every truly born-again human being is a full-time minister of the gospel.
[00:21:49] That's God's design.
[00:21:50] And he's designed for all of us to participate.
[00:21:53] And in participating, all of us grow in Christ-likeness.
[00:21:58] That's God's wisdom.
[00:22:00] and Design for the church so the whole church does ministry as equipped through the word and the whole church grows together so here's the psalm from verses 11 and 12 there are two complementary truths that paul gives to us in verses 11 and 12. here's the first god has designed foundational gifts of teaching and leadership in the body
[00:22:23] Here's the other complimentary truth.
[00:22:25] Ministry is done by all the saints as they are equipped by the foundational gift and the result of ministry is a growth in Christlikeness among all the saints.
[00:22:37] That's God's design.
[00:22:39] Foundational gifts equip all the saints for the work of ministry and as a result of the work of ministry, all grow together in Christlikeness.
[00:22:51] John Piper wrote a very useful book called Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.
[00:22:58] And his audience sounds very John Piper-like.
[00:23:02] His audience in that book, his targeted readers in that book are mainly pastors.
[00:23:08] And that's a very important thing to remember, what Piper says in that book, because we live in an age of professionalism.
[00:23:18] and it is very possible for a pastor and a church to professionalize the ministry of the gospel so that the pastor begins to do ministry as if he were a professional who has to perform to the tastes of his consumers in order to keep them coming now he is here to make sure that they like what he does enough
[00:23:45] and are enthralled by what he does enough that they show up again the next week.
[00:23:53] But that's not God's design for the ministry of a pastor or for the ministry of the church for that matter.
[00:23:59] On my part as a pastor, one key question I must always be asking myself is to ask, am I intentionally equipping God's people for the work of ministry?
[00:24:12] And for us as pastors at GRBC, we must always be asking ourselves, are we intentionally equipping God's people for the work of ministry?
[00:24:24] That's the question we can never fail to ask ourselves because that's the purpose of Christ for placing us in the church, to equip the saints for works of ministry.
[00:24:35] It's for that reason that in addition to the general ministry of the Word and shepherding that the pastors here at GRBC strive to do, there are other efforts in the church like the counseling cohort that Pastor Johnston leads, or like Kingdom Men that Pastor Thompson leads, or like College and Career that Pastor Bird leads.
[00:24:59] The pastoral apprenticeship that Pastor Alan and myself are leading.
[00:25:05] It's for that reason that the elders are thinking about revamping our small group ministry in hope that it can become more effective in equipping God's people for the work of ministry.
[00:25:18] That's precisely the reason because we are thinking before the Lord what the account we will give is to what extent did you expand yourself in keeping with the measure of grace given to you to equip my people for the works of ministry.
[00:25:36] And as a church, I invite you brothers and sisters to be asking those questions as well.
[00:25:41] Are our pastors equipping us to do the work of ministry?
[00:25:45] Do we see them empowering people to do ministry?
[00:25:49] Are they working as a team?
[00:25:51] Or is there somebody standing out to draw attention to themselves?
[00:25:56] Do we see people thriving and flourishing in ministry and we could attribute that to the blessing of God through the equipping of our pastors?
[00:26:05] Are we seeing that?
[00:26:06] That's one way to evaluate your pastor.
[00:26:10] And if you see things they are doing that are truly equipping God's people for works of ministry, then you can praise God for that.
[00:26:18] And I can say to you as one of your pastors, we are wide open to suggestions from you as, Pastor, I think we need equipping in this area, or I think we need equipping from God's Word in this area.
[00:26:29] We are wide open to receive those kinds of suggestions and recommendations, and I promise we will consider every single one of them.
[00:26:38] We may not do every single one of them, we will consider every single one of them.
[00:26:43] Because our burden, our desire is to see you equipped for works of ministry.
[00:26:49] And then on your part,
[00:26:51] Give yourselves to the work of ministry.
[00:26:53] One way you could do that is just get on our website, get on our church website and go under ministries.
[00:26:59] You will see almost an exhaustive list of all the works of service that happen here at our church and seek to get involved.
[00:27:07] If you need somebody to talk to, to give you direction, if you're new or here, or maybe you've even been here for long and have never done this.
[00:27:13] just send an email to office at grbc.net like i'm interested in this ministry who can i talk to to get information about how to be involved you can also go to on that same website under resources you will see a recommended list of books that you could use for your own soul for discipling a younger believer whether here at church or somewhere else that god opens the door for you some of them are pdfs
[00:27:37] Just totally free that you could use for the sake of building up one another in the faith.
[00:27:43] If you have any questions, just ask any one of your pastors.
[00:27:47] God has designed equipping for work of ministry in the church that comes from the ministry of the pastor.
[00:27:55] So brothers and sisters, here is the bottom line.
[00:27:59] Romans 12, 11
[00:28:02] Do not be slothful in zeal.
[00:28:05] Be fervent in spirit.
[00:28:07] Serve the Lord.
[00:28:10] I do not have two lives.
[00:28:12] You do not have two lives.
[00:28:14] We don't have any way to catch up on this life if we waste it and not invest it for the kingdom.
[00:28:22] When the Bible says be fervent in spirit, that word is used only one at a time in the New Testament in the book of Acts and it describes a man by the name of Apollos.
[00:28:30] He was fervent in spirit and that word means he was boiling in the spirit.
[00:28:35] My hope and prayer is that for us we will be people boiling in the spirit and deploying the gift that God has given us for the good of the whole body.
[00:28:45] So God has ordained foundational gifts.
[00:28:47] He's ordained equipping for work of ministry.
[00:28:49] Here's the third thing.
[00:28:51] Growth in Christ-likeness.
[00:28:55] God has ordained growth in Christ-likeness.
[00:28:58] What is the end game of all this?
[00:29:01] What do we aim?
[00:29:03] What do we look to accomplish?
[00:29:05] What do we look to see happen as a result of all this?
[00:29:08] This is not just getting busy for the sake of being busy.
[00:29:11] This is not something we do in order to shake off guilt or feel holy or feel good about ourselves.
[00:29:17] That is a God-designed outcome.
[00:29:20] that we are pursuing when we employ and exercise in a sustained way the spiritual gifts God has given us.
[00:29:28] And it is this.
[00:29:29] It is for a corporate growth in Christlikeness.
[00:29:35] Becoming more like Christ.
[00:29:36] Look at verse 13.
[00:29:39] So the gifted leaders are to equip their saints for works of ministry
[00:29:43] until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ.
[00:29:54] So the first aspect of this goal that is being pursued here that Christ has designed for the church is to achieve a unified understanding of the faith.
[00:30:04] That we speak with one mind and heart when it comes to the faith of the gospel.
[00:30:10] Remember back in chapter 4 verse 5, Paul has said there is one faith.
[00:30:17] There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
[00:30:20] There's one faith, one body of teaching that we hold to as God's people.
[00:30:26] And at the center of that body of teaching is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
[00:30:33] That's why Paul says we seek to attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
[00:30:40] One key area in which we must all share a common set of convictions is what we believe about Jesus the Son of God.
[00:30:50] We don't come with our own opinions.
[00:30:53] We don't have idiosyncratic notions about who Jesus is and what he did on the cross.
[00:31:00] It's given to all of us and we share that common conviction without reservation.
[00:31:06] Paul wants his readers to have a comprehensive understanding of the person of Christ, what he has done, and it's relevant for their lives.
[00:31:15] Who is Christ?
[00:31:16] What has he done?
[00:31:17] And what does that matter for how I go to work tomorrow?
[00:31:19] How I love my wife?
[00:31:20] How I care for my children?
[00:31:21] How I do my work?
[00:31:22] How does that matter for the way I manage my money?
[00:31:25] Who is Christ?
[00:31:26] What has he done?
[00:31:27] And how does that impact my life?
[00:31:29] Paul wants his readers to have a common conviction about that reality.
[00:31:36] Believers, brothers, just think about this.
[00:31:38] Maturity in the Christian faith hinges on a commitment to Christ.
[00:31:45] There's no sacred code that will make you a more mature Christian.
[00:31:51] It is a commitment to Jesus Christ as the all in all of your life.
[00:31:59] There's no secret code for you as an individual, for us as a church.
[00:32:03] It's a commitment to Jesus and Him alone.
[00:32:08] And there's one unified and proper understanding of Christ and the core element of the faith.
[00:32:15] So what the gifted leaders, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, what they do is impart the right and correct knowledge about Jesus and then that fills the work of the ministry among God's people so that the result is a unity in faith, a commitment to the truth about Jesus as revealed.
[00:32:38] and progress in maturity.
[00:32:40] Progress in becoming more and more like the head of the body of which we are a part.
[00:32:47] And just notice the expressions that Paul uses here.
[00:32:50] He says, until we attend to mature manhood.
[00:32:55] That word literally means a complete man, a perfect man.
[00:33:00] Now Paul uses the image of a person who is fully grown to portray the entire community with the hope that they will all be a mature community.
[00:33:10] We finally attain this in the age to come.
[00:33:13] We finally will be like Christ perfectly in the age to come.
[00:33:17] But in the here and now, we make progress towards that.
[00:33:22] And to be mature means
[00:33:24] will be a community that makes good judgment and is able to clearly respond to situations as they arise.
[00:33:33] Listen to these words from John Calvin as he comments on another verse.
[00:33:37] Those who are thoroughly founded in the doctrine of Christ, though not yet perfect,
[00:33:43] Have so much wisdom and vigor as to choose properly and proceed steadily in the right course.
[00:33:50] Thus we find that the life of believers marked by a constant desire and progress toward those attainments that they shall ultimately reach bears resemblance to youth.
[00:34:02] At no period of this life are we men, but let not such a statement be carried to the other extreme as if there were no progress beyond childhood.
[00:34:12] We don't remain children all our lives.
[00:34:13] We make progress towards boyhood in anticipation of becoming the perfect man when we see Christ face to face.
[00:34:20] And that comes by the gifted leaders equipping the saints for works of ministry and the saints deploying themselves for works of ministry.
[00:34:30] until we reach the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ.
[00:34:36] So beloved, maturity is not static, it's dynamic.
[00:34:41] The goal to be mature or the goal to pursue maturity is something that is always before our eyes and should always be before our eyes.
[00:34:49] And think about it, our church today does not look anything like it looked 20 years ago in terms of membership, in terms of who is here.
[00:34:58] people have exited and people have come in that means the maturity level has changed and therefore the teaching always has to be set before God's people so that we are always maturing because younger people come in older people die of the sin but the purpose to be a mature church never ceases therefore we always have to be holding the truth before our eyes and pursuing that
[00:35:25] Many churches go liberal, not because they always were liberal, but it's because they failed in this responsibility.
[00:35:32] They preached the gospel at some point, and at some point they got tired of it or other things, and people came in who didn't have the maturity of the previous generation, and then things started to go south until it crashed down.
[00:35:46] And therefore we always have to be pursuing this maturity.
[00:35:50] The equipping always has to be happening, the works of ministry always have to be going on.
[00:35:56] That's why Paul exhorts us like this.
[00:35:58] So that means every member participates.
[00:36:01] Every member buys in like this is my Father's business.
[00:36:06] I am in body and soul.
[00:36:09] So God has ordained foundational gifts, equipping for works of ministry, and growth in Christlikeness.
[00:36:15] He's also ordained, here's the fourth and final thing, He's also ordained pictures of Christlikeness.
[00:36:21] If you're asking yourself, okay,
[00:36:25] Yes, we want to be Christ-like.
[00:36:27] We want to make progress towards Christ-likeness, towards maturity.
[00:36:31] What does that look like?
[00:36:32] Well, Paul, being the master teacher that he is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he gives us two pictures of what maturity looks like, of what Christ-likeness looks like.
[00:36:45] He gives a negative picture first and then a positive picture.
[00:36:48] Look at verse 14.
[00:36:49] This is the negative picture.
[00:36:51] 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 in deceitful schemes.
[00:37:05] That's the picture.
[00:37:06] In other words, this maturity, this Christ-likeness is the opposite of instability.
[00:37:14] Maturity fights the instability that comes with erroneous teaching because erroneous teaching creates instability and a lack of ballast for believers as individuals and for churches as a whole.
[00:37:31] When the pastors give themselves to equipping the saints by the ministry of the word and the saints give themselves to the work of the ministry for which they have been equipped by the word, the result is glorious.
[00:37:45] is that the era of immaturity is prevented, it's eliminated, it's removed so that we are no longer children, we are not affected by the shifting forces of life and the shifting forces of society.
[00:37:57] We go through all kinds of seasons, seasons of great health, seasons of declining health, seasons of great
[00:38:03] Financial prosperity, seasons of declining prosperity, seasons of great political stability, seasons of instability, seasons of economic prosperity for the wider society.
[00:38:13] So all kinds of things change and then the ideologies that run through the society, they come and go in various different shapes and sizes and forms and they aim to deceive.
[00:38:25] And those forces
[00:38:27] a church can only stand in the face of when they are maturing and just notice the masterfulness of Paul's teaching here because he goes on to say that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine in other words an immature believer or an immature church is pictured like a boat in the open sea
[00:38:55] That is small and doesn't have ballast and doesn't have stamina and cannot resist the waves and the winds.
[00:39:02] It's just tossed here and over there and carried here and it's flooded by the waters coming with the waves.
[00:39:09] It doesn't have any direction of itself or for itself.
[00:39:13] Maturity on the other hand is not exempted from the turbulence but it can navigate it.
[00:39:19] It can go through it because it's anchored in the Word.
[00:39:23] It's kept by the Word.
[00:39:24] So the point is that as a believer in Jesus Christ, you should be aware, as you become aware of all the shifting forces in the culture and in your own life and the deceitful schemes that come.
[00:39:37] You should know the Bible calls those waves and winds of teaching.
[00:39:42] It's not trying to be fashionable because the society will present it to you as this is what you do to be cool, this is what you do to be fashionable today.
[00:39:52] Those are deceitful schemes that are meant to lead people down a path of destruction.
[00:39:59] Many of the ideologies that the world will bring and come with.
[00:40:04] When somebody on the college campus or a colleague at work starts to say to you, well you can't be that close minded.
[00:40:12] How can you hold on to Jesus?
[00:40:14] How can you argue for a biblical sexuality?
[00:40:17] How can you argue for a biblical view of marriage?
[00:40:19] How can you argue for this or that that the Bible clearly speaks about?
[00:40:23] You should remember, Paul calls those the waves and winds of doctrine that come.
[00:40:30] And sometimes they would even come through people that you thought would never say something like that.
[00:40:34] Just remember, those things are not neutral.
[00:40:38] There's cunning in it.
[00:40:39] There's craftiness in it.
[00:40:41] There's the devil and demons walking through human beings who lead others astray.
[00:40:49] There's design in it.
[00:40:50] There's design in the allurement to draw you away.
[00:40:55] No fisherman ever cast a bait on the water accidentally.
[00:41:00] They hope that a fish will be hooked out.
[00:41:03] So when the devil sends out these lies through people and are inviting us to believe the pundits and believe the experts and abandon God's word.
[00:41:13] the hope is somebody will be led astray and be brought to perdition and how we prevent that as a church is that equipping happens through the gifted leaders the saints give themselves to the work of the ministry and then we are kept from being like a boat in the open sea that is tossed left and right that's how we prevent that maybe you're an unbeliever here this morning and
[00:41:42] You just feel tired of all the things you have heard.
[00:41:46] Society has said before, it's career that matters the most.
[00:41:50] And you've pursued that and it's left you empty.
[00:41:52] Or it's personal autonomy that matters the most and you've pursued that, it's left you empty.
[00:41:57] It's sexual fulfillment that matters the most and you've pursued that, it's left you empty.
[00:42:02] It's body shape and form or whatever it is that matters the most and you've pursued that and it's left you empty.
[00:42:07] And you feel broken and in despair.
[00:42:11] well there's somebody who will not leave you broken and in despair he has rest for the human soul that no scheme can afford he said this come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and i'll give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light
[00:42:41] He gave that kind of rest to a tax collector who was notorious for defrauding people because he had believed the lie that money brings happiness.
[00:42:52] He gave that kind of rest to a Samaritan woman who had been married five times and at the time of meeting this Jesus was living with a Sith man who was not even her husband.
[00:43:02] That kind of rest took hold of her soul and her life was changed forever.
[00:43:06] Nobody is too deceived and too decrepit by the world and broken down by the deceitfulness of the world for Jesus to restore.
[00:43:15] You turn to Him today in repentance and faith, you know He has spayed for every shameful and foolish thing you ever did.
[00:43:23] He will restore you to meaningfulness and purpose and joy.
[00:43:30] That never ends.
[00:43:32] So that's the negative picture, like a boat carried around by the waves.
[00:43:35] Here's the positive as I close with it.
[00:43:37] Verse 15.
[00:43:40] 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.
[00:43:59] That's the positive picture.
[00:44:02] So rather than being like children who are tossed left and right and front and back by every wind of doctrine, we become mature, speaking the truth in love, growing in every way into Christ-likeness and every part is working properly and doing its part and there is edification and growth in love as well.
[00:44:24] So the picture that Paul gives us here is not just a picture of knowing the truth, not just a picture of speaking the truth, it's a picture of doing the truth.
[00:44:33] It's included in doing the truth.
[00:44:36] In fact, we never truly have understood God's word if we are not applying it.
[00:44:42] Because true understanding shows itself in application.
[00:44:47] It's when we have applied God's Word that we have moved out of the category of those whom James calls, those who look at themselves in the mirror and forget what they look like.
[00:44:57] Remember Jesus did not say, go and teach them to know all that I have commanded you, but to do all that I have commanded you.
[00:45:05] So here we are to grow in every way into Him who is Christ, which means becoming more
[00:45:13] like the head and that is when the whole body is growing it's joined together again no unconnected believers no individualistic understanding of the christian life it's belonging here
[00:45:29] The current generation is not known to be high on commitment.
[00:45:34] People want to enjoy every kind of thing without commitment.
[00:45:37] Well, that doesn't exist if you are a pilgrim on the road to heaven.
[00:45:42] There's a call for commitment, connecting to a church, being invested as the church is investing in you as you are employing your gift to serve the body.
[00:45:54] Working properly
[00:45:55] aiming for each other's good and building each other up and then growing alongside everybody in that way.
[00:46:05] A believer who thinks that they can just grow by themselves fails to realize that if any part of your body whether your mouth or your head or your arm grows out of proportion to the rest of the body you will be grotesque to look at.
[00:46:21] So we ought always to aim for progress in the faith, but aim for that progress in the context of our church.
[00:46:30] We want everybody growing.
[00:46:32] We want everybody becoming more like Christ.
[00:46:35] It is not much good if you thought you were becoming more like Christ just by yourself.
[00:46:40] Hear this word from John Calvin as I close.
[00:46:44] That man is mistaken who desires his own separate growths.
[00:46:49] If a leg or arm should grow to a prodigious size or the mouth be more fully distended, would the undue enlargement of those parts be otherwise than injurious to the whole frame?
[00:47:06] In like manner, if we wish to be considered members of Christ, let no man be anything for himself, but let us all be whatever we are for the benefit of each other.
[00:47:16] This is accomplished by love.
[00:47:19] Where it does not rain, there is no edification but an absolute scattering of the church.
[00:47:29] We are loving others and seeking to see them be more like Christ.
[00:47:33] Sometimes as churches and believers, we fail not in what we believe but in how we do what we believe.
[00:47:42] We have to always remember that when there is no love, no matter how much ministry we do,
[00:47:48] We are just like an annoying sound, a resounding gong.
[00:47:53] But when we give ourselves to ministering to one another in love, not to display supremacy, not to gain some acclaim, not to establish a reputation for ourselves, but because we love God and love them, growth happens in our own lives, growth happens in their own lives, and together we grow.
[00:48:12] And not only in
[00:48:14] Doing things for one another, but grow in love as well.
[00:48:19] So beloved, as you think about your life, your goals, your resolutions for this year, think about what causes a church to flourish.
[00:48:31] Learn it, apply your mind to knowing it.
[00:48:34] Think about just the impact that would have on your own life.
[00:48:37] Recognize in the flourishing of your church will be your own.
[00:48:41] Flourishing and give yourself to the things that make a church flourish because in the flourishing of the church will be your own flourishing.
[00:48:52] Let us pray.
[00:48:58] Father we thank you that you are never served with human hands as though you needed anything.
[00:49:05] So this is your word does not call us to meet a need in you.
[00:49:10] but to celebrate the exalted privilege of participating in what you graciously invite us into.
[00:49:18] I pray that you give us zeal for this, give us fervency for this, and make us more like Christ.
[00:49:25] As a community of your people, make us a people given to the common good of each other, under Christ, by His grace, for the glory of His name.
[00:49:36] We ask in Jesus' name.
[00:49:38] Amen.