This morning, I want to try to answer the question: “What will it look like in this body when we are well on our way to accomplishing our mission?” That is, what will be going on here, what will our mindsets be, what will we be doing? For if we can answer these questions, then even if we do not have a complete picture of what each person is going to be when they walk in God’s ordained plan for them, at least we will have something – a goal – for which we can be striving. And to answer this question, I think Ephesians 4:1-16 gives the clearest picture that I have seen in the Scriptures.
However, in order to answer the question that I have started with – “What will it look like in this body when we are well on our way to accomplishing our mission?” – I believe we need to answer two questions prior to this one. They are: “How do you need to see yourself in this body?” and “Why is it so important that you minister in the body?”
Paul answers this question in verses 7-11 of our text. He has spent much time talking about unity in the church in verses 1-6, and in verse 7 he begins to show a contrast, beginning the verse, “But grace was given …” This contrast is set up to show that unity doesn’t always mean everyone has to be the same. The picture Paul is painting is like a symphony – where different instruments are played, but together there is one unified, beautiful sound.
Therefore, in these verses he shows that each has been gifted, writing, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (4:7). Then to reinforce this idea from the Scripture, he writes, “Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men” (4:8). Now this is a quote from Psalm 68:18. However, if you turn to that text, you will find that it reads, “You have ascended on high, you have led captive your captives; You have received gifts from among men.” That is, the Psalm doesn’t tell us that God is giving gifts to men, but rather that God is receiving gifts from men.
So what is Paul doing here? Is he finding a verse in the Old Testament that sounds kind of like what he is trying to say and changing it a bit, hoping his readers do not notice? Definitely not. For he knows that if they are faithful hearers, they will search the Scriptures to see if what he has said is true. And if his readers cannot understand his use of the Scripture to support his argument, then Paul’s argument is a weak one and he should not have tried to ground his argument on this text from Psalm 68.
Therefore, we know that Paul’s use of Psalm 68 has to be right and support his declaration that Christ gave gifts to men, but how is it possible to read this portion of the psalm this way?
The answer is in realization that this is one of a number of historical psalms. That is, a psalm in which the psalmist surveys a portion of history and makes several points from it. Often these kinds of psalms retell portions of the Exodus story but add a number of moral points that the reader needs to see. This psalm is based on the events of Numbers 8, as the language is quite similar. And in Numbers 8:14-19 we read God saying to the Israelites: “Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. Then after that the Levites may go in to serve the tent of meeting. But you shall cleanse them and present them as a wave offering; for they are wholly given to me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for myself instead of every first-born of all the sons of Israel. For every first-born among the sons of Israel is mine, among the men and among the animals; on the day that I struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself. But I have taken the Levites instead of every first-born among the sons of Israel. And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the sons of Israel, to perform the service of the sons of Israel at the tent of meeting, and to make atonement on behalf of the sons of Israel, that there may be no plague among the sons of Israel by their coming near the sanctuary.”
Therefore, the picture in this text is that God takes the Levites captive to himself and then gives them back to his people to serve them in making atonement for their sins in the temple. And this is the background of Psalm 68:18. Thus, what Paul is doing in Ephesians 4:8 is combining the quote from Psalm 68:18 with the background from Numbers 8 and he is showing his Ephesian readers that much like God taking the Levites and then giving them back to serve, so Christ has done this with them.
Therefore, the message of Ephesians 4:7-10 is that Christ descended in the incarnation and ascended back to heaven after his resurrection (4:9-10), taking captive, not just the Levites, but all his people, gifting them according to the measure of grace (4:7), and giving them back to the church to serve. Therefore, Paul writes in 4:11, “And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” That is, Christ didn’t simply give the people something, he gave the people – gifted by his grace – that they might minister in the church.
Now this doesn’t simply apply to clergy but to all of us. Every single person who is a believer has been captured by Christ, given gifts according to Christ’s grace, and given back to the church for the sake of ministry to/in the church.
Therefore, “How do you need to see yourself in this body?” You need to see yourself as one who has been taken captive by Christ, given grace by him, and then given back to the Church as a gift from him to minister according to the grace given you. You need to see yourself as God’s gift to his church – all of us do.
And this leads us to the next question that we need to address before answering our main question this morning.
The answer to this is linked to everything said in verses 7-11, for Christ did not simply give you as a gift to the church but gave you for some end. And that end is that you might minister according to how he has gifted you. Have gave you “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of Man, 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 in deceitful schemes” (4:12-14).
It’s important that you minister because you have been gifted and given to the church because as you minister you 1) equip others for ministry and 2) build up the body of Christ. That is to say, as you minister, you help equip others to minister better.
We do not serve so as to be recognized or gain some great influence in the church, we serve because it helps others around me to serve better. Therefore, I know that there are people who pray for me and by that I can study and teach the Word more effectively. And at the same time, I hope from last week, that each of them have a bit clearer picture of how to pray. Also, a few people organized the fellowship we had after the service, and as we were eating bagels, I was able to establish some communication with some people that I’ll be able to meet with and teach the Word of God. And these are just two examples, but I believe it is clear that because these people are minister according to the grace given to them, I see them as Christ’s gift to the church who enable me to minister better.
Also, as you serve you build up the body of Christ. Imagine a group of only ten people who are all ministering as God’s gifts to his church. Now imagine what each of them would look like as they are built up from the ministry of the others. I’ve gone through dramatic growth at certain times in my life just because one person with whom I had much contact took quite seriously the need to minister to me in the way the Christ had gifted them. Can you imagine a community of a hundred believers seeing themselves this way – as gifts from Christ to his church – and ministering accordingly, knowing their supply is unique and important to build up his or her fellow members? It would be incredible.
But to what end are we building up? Or to ask it another way, “What goal are we hoping each comes to as we are all ministering and building one another up?” The answer is verse 13 – “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of Man, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Or to say it differently, until every man is complete (“mature” in this verse is the same Greek word) in Christ, becoming and doing all that God has ordained for him to be and to do. The end to which we labor is the goal of our mission statement – enabling men to come to maturity in Christ in order that God might be glorified in/by our lives above all things.
And as each individual sees himself this way and is ministering accordingly, not only will each person be furthered in his ability to minister and each person be built up, but it will stabilize the body, doctrinally and otherwise.
Isn’t that interesting? As we’re all ministering, the body will become more doctrinally stable. For it is not only preaching and teaching from the pulpit that produces doctrinal stability in someone, but it is when that is happening in addition to people praying, discipling, encouraging, serving, etc. These things together stabilize a church. I would dare say that the reason for most churches splitting is not what comes from the pulpit but a lack of the church functioning correctly.
So now, let’s try to answer our question,
The answer is that we’ll be able to look around us, knowing that each person here sees himself as God’s gift to the church and is ministering accordingly so that the whole body is being built up toward becoming complete/mature in Christ.
And let me add, there will be strong unity in such a community of believers.
Now we all want unity don’t we? But we don’t have to establish a basis for it. Paul tells us that we already have one, writing in verses 4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” We all have one God as our Lord and Father. We all believe in the same gospel. We all we’re converted by placing our faith in Christ. We do not need to establish a basis for unity – it already exists. We must maintain the unity that already is.
Thus, Paul writes in verses 1-3, “I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
As we are ministering in the community that I have described, we will have to be patient with one another, extend grace and mercy to one another, and be gentle with one another. But it will be a task into which we must be willing to pour ourselves if we are going to be built up and become mature in Christ and all that God has ordained for us to be.
Verses 15-16 describe to us how we work once we all see ourselves rightly and are ministering accordingly. Paul writes, “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, being fitted 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.”
That is, it takes every joint and every joint working properly if the body is to build up the body in love. This is the community that I dream of – every person seeing himself as a gift from God, graced and given to the church, and ministering accordingly so that others might minister better, the whole body being built up to maturity in Christ.
O God, grant us the dream for which we long. Amen.