Tonight we begin in Ephesians chapter 4, and in one sense, it's almost a completely different letter that Paul writes beginning at chapter 4. In the first three chapters, Paul basically has not told us to do anything, as is customary for the pattern of Paul. In the beginning, his emphasis is on what Jesus Christ has done for us. as how he has blessed us, how he has saved us, how he has redeemed us and reconciled us.
The emphasis is on what God has done for us. And we must always remember this in the Christian life. Sometimes it's easy to start thinking of the Christian life as essentially being something that we do for God.
But the absolute core, the absolute foundation of Christianity is not what you do for God, but what he has done for you in Jesus Christ. And over the previous several weeks, we've seen Paul spell out in incredible majesty, with great eloquence, all that God has given. Well, I shouldn't say all, but I mean an amazing amount that God has given, how high he's lifted the believer up.
And we've talked about the air being thin, and we're up on the mountaintops, and God's showing us his eternal plan, and the riches of his glory, so forth and so on. But now, at chapter 4, Paul determines... that this great theological truth that he's been explaining to us over the first three chapters, it really matters in our daily life.
And of course, if you want to say this can be the trap of the theologian, to be immersed in theological truth, but to separate it from the way that we actually live. So starting here at chapter 4, and as we continue on into chapter 4, 5, and 6, Paul... in this letter to the Ephesians is going to explain to us how to live to the glory of God.
But I have to explain to you that the first 24 verses of chapter 4, which is going to be our main focus here this evening, the first 24 verses are still dealing with principles rather than specifics. Now, many times when it comes to how you should live as a Christian, Christians are preachers or churches or however you want to call it, they're very anxious to get down to the specifics. Now you stop lying.
Now you stop stealing. Now you be honest. Now you, you know, okay, tell me what to do.
Give me the specifics. I want you to notice very deliberately here this evening, Paul is not quick to get to the specifics before getting to the specifics, which he will get to. Well, don't worry about it.
Before we're done with this letter, he's going to tell you how to be ready. the kind of husband or wife or child or parent or employer or employee that God wants you to be. He's going to tell you how to get along with other Christians. He's going to tell you how to live the Christian life in spiritual warfare.
Oh no, Paul's going to deal with a lot of specifics. Don't worry about it. But before he gets to them, he wants to very deliberately lay a groundwork. And the groundwork is there to tell us that the Christian life isn't just a list of do's and don'ts.
It's about... living in light of what God has done in you. So let's look at it here.
Ephesians chapter four, verse one. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Now again, notice the great word there, therefore.
You've probably heard it said before in sermons and it's a good little point, good little catchphrase to embed in your mind. Every time you see the word therefore, you should ask yourself, what is it therefore? It's taking something that's been previously said and bringing an application to it right to us at the present moment.
And therefore, it brings this idea that in light of all that God has done for us, that Paul has explained in the previous three chapters, in light of his matchless grace, because of all this, now he brings us a call to live rightly, but only after explaining what God did for us. So he says, I therefore, in other words, in light of all the glorious things that God has done for us in Jesus Christ, because of all that, I, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. As in Paul just explained to us in the previous three chapters, this incredibly high calling that we have.
We're lifted up in the heavenlies. We're seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We've been given every spiritual blessing in him.
That is a high, glorious calling. You are part of God. God's eternal plan. He is using you to instruct angels.
That's a high calling any way that you want to talk about it. Now live in light of it. When we really understand what God has done for us and how high we are lifted up in Jesus Christ, well, then we naturally want to serve him and obey him out of gratitude. Understanding who we are in Christ is the foundation of this worthy walk. You know, Martin Luther, he used to give this counsel to people.
He said, whenever you're tempted by Satan, You should just answer with one phrase. In Latin, he said, Christianus sum. It means in English, I am a Christian.
Every time Satan tempts you, just give him that answer. I am a Christian. Because of who I am, I can't live that way any longer. Because of who I am, I'm called to a life that's different from what you're tempting me to. You see, the idea is very clear.
And please do not miss this. We don't walk worthy so that God will love us. No, we walk worthy because he does love us.
The walk is motivated out of gratitude, not out of a desire to earn merit. So having this in mind, and that's really established by the first verse, I therefore the prison of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. And then he goes on to talk about the character of this worthy walk.
Look at it here, with all lowliness and gentleness. with long-suffering, bearing with one another, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is what a worthy walk looks like.
He gave us a challenge to a worthy walk in verse 1, right? Well, this is what the worthy walk looks like. First of all, it's marked by all lowliness and gentleness. A worthy walk before God will be marked by lowliness and gentleness, not by a pushy desire.
to defend our own rights, and to advance our own agenda. Now, the vocabulary that Paul used in the ancient Greek language in which he originally wrote, or more likely probably dictated this letter, but the ancient Greek word that Paul originally used for lowliness there, it's a very interesting word with a very interesting history. Before Christianity, this ancient Greek word for lowliness always had a bad association with it.
In the minds of many people, it still has a bad association, but it is in fact a glorious Christian virtue. You know what this lowliness means? It means that you can be happy and content even when you're not in control.
Some people haven't reached that place, have they? They can only be happy, they can only be content when they're steering, when they're driving, when they're in control. God says, no, no, no, I want you to be lowly. I want you to have the ability to be happy and content even when you're not in control. But then he goes on, not just lowliness, but also gentleness and then long-suffering, bearing with one another.
We need this. We need this quality of long-suffering and we need to be able to bear with one another. Do you know why?
Because friction is inevitable among Christians. I want you to just look at verses 2 and 3 and think about them for a moment. The fact that he says that lowliness, gentleness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and keeping the unity of the Spirit are all important parts of the Christian walk, you know what that sort of presupposes?
That there's going to be conflict and difficulty among Christians. Now, sometimes when there's, you know, friction or conflict or battles between Christians, sometimes don't we tend to You know, we feel like chicken little. The sky is falling. Oh, isn't it terrible?
There's conflict. Oh, there's friction between me and my brother. Oh, it's awful.
Oh, Lord. Oh, Jesus, why can't you just fix this? Where is everything gone?
I wonder if you would bring this sort of complaint to the Apostle Paul and he would just say, I told you it would be like this. This is why we have to learn to give him love. Don't think it's terribly abnormal when there's this friction.
If there were never this friction, Paul wouldn't have to tell us to do these things. I would say that friction and some measure of conflict between people is just normal. And this is why we have to have these graces.
Now, you see, God is working very hard, as we've noticed in the previous chapter, to establish this great unity in the body of Christ. And how do we keep it? How do we walk in it? By this long suffering and this bearing with one another.
I like that word, long-suffering. The ancient preacher in the Greek language. John Chrysostom, he defined long-suffering as the spirit that has the power to take revenge, but never does.
It's really the characteristic of a forgiving, generous heart. And that's really the test, isn't it? Not whether or not you ever take revenge, but when you do have the power, the ability to take revenge, do you pass on it, having that long-suffering in the name of Jesus? But I think in these two verses, verses two and three, Perhaps what hits me the strongest is this phrase that he says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. You see, the humble, forgiving attitude that we're to have towards one another will naturally fulfill this gift of the unity of the spirit.
And notice what he says. He says we have to endeavor to keep this unity. We don't create it.
Did you notice that? He did not say endeavor to create this unity. No, no, no.
We do not create it. We keep it. God never commands us to create unity among believers. He has created it by his spirit.
Our duty is to recognize it and to keep it. And I think it's wonderful how he puts it there. He says the unity of the spirit.
This is a spiritual unity. It's not necessarily a structural unity. It's not a denominational unity.
It's evident, I think most pointedly, in the quick fellowship that's possible among Christians of different races, different nationalities, different languages, different economic classes. But you put them together and they almost seem to immediately bond together in fellowship because they have the same Lord Jesus Christ and the same Holy Spirit filling them all. This unity of the Spirit is something so powerful.
I think sometimes we can understand best what it is. by understanding what it is not. In a wonderful sermon on this text, Charles Spurgeon pointed out some of the things that this text does not say. It does not say to endeavor to maintain the unity of evil, the unity of superstition, or the unity of spiritual tyranny. It doesn't say that. It does not say endeavoring to keep up your ecclesiastical arrangements for centralization.
It doesn't say that. Nor does it say, endeavoring to keep the uniformity of the Spirit. No. There's an essential unity of the Spirit where I can look across to a brother or a sister who maybe lives their Christian life or has their Christian experience in a somewhat different way than I do.
But yet I say, whatever we have that might be different between you and I, what we have that is the same, that is Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. It's so much greater than anything that we might have that's different that who cares about what's different? And again, I want you to notice that he's not talking about structural unity in the church. I believe that structural unity can even work against the true unity of the Spirit.
I have to say... That as I take a look at the church as it is in the world today, broken up into many different denominations and many different groups, I look at all those different groups, I look at all those different things, and generally, although I can't say it specifically about each individual separation or breakup, but generally as I see the body of Christ somewhat fragmented throughout the world today, I say, praise the Lord. I would actually be suspicious of a highly centralized church. I don't think that it's a desirable thing that all churches should melt one into another and become one.
I think that if you joined all churches into one great ecclesiastical corporation, I think that you'd just have another tyranny on the earth. I mean, even if it started out well, and even if it lasted well for one or two generations, you know what would happen to it eventually. You know, there was a time, there was a time when in all of Christendom, if you would say, There was one ecclesiastical power, one church for many centuries. And that period of time is called by some people, it's sort of a loaded term, but they call it the Dark Ages. Because it wasn't necessarily a beneficent time when all spiritual authority was centralized into one organization.
Instead, I can say, I see the different pieces of the body of Christ all over the place. And I see that they're different. And I see that they have a different function.
They all have a unity by the Spirit. But I say, well, there's my Pentecostal brethren over there. Maybe they're the tongue, aren't they?
And there's my Presbyterian brethren over there. You know, maybe they're the brain to the body there. Oh, and there's my Baptist brethren over there.
Maybe they're the heart because they're just beating hard for the Lord. And I say, each part has its place to play in the body as a whole. And I praise the Lord for it.
Now, what's important is for each one of those parts to be linked together by a conscious awareness of the unity of the Spirit. And this unity of the Spirit is found in Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. And so what I say to my Pentecostal or my Presbyterian or my Baptist brother or any other, I say, listen, you draw very close to Jesus and I'll draw very close to Jesus and we'll find ourselves in wonderful unity. You don't have to become a Baptist and you don't have to become a Pentecostal and the other doesn't have to become a Presbyterian. We can each just serve the Lord in the different fashion and different bent that he's given us and do it to our fullest.
But as we draw close to Jesus, we're all going to have sweet fellowship together because that's where the unity of the spirit is found. It's found in our common union in Jesus Christ. And so in verses four through six, he gives a discussion. description of this great unity.
Take a look at it again. He wants to say very pointedly here, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Notice this, there is one body and one spirit.
Matter of fact, I think I need to read this verse again to you just to... point out the emphasis that Paul makes here. Look at what he says. He says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body and one Spirit.
Don't you get his feel there, right? Yes. We keep this unity of the Spirit.
Why? Because it's the fact. That's what the Holy Spirit of God has created. This is what Jesus Christ has established.
And so we recognize this wonderful, unified body of Christ. Now, hallelujah, it's a spiritual unity, not a structural unity, not an ecclesiastical unity, but it is a glorious spiritual unity. And in Jesus, we share one body.
We share one spirit. We share one hope of our calling. We share one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Father.
Each of these common areas is greater than any potential difference. So when you meet your Pentecostal brother or sister, your Baptist brother or sister, your... a Presbyterian or whatever other group you just want to select or pick on. You say, well, what do I have in common with them? They seem to be so different than me.
You look at them and you say, well, we share one body. We share one spirit. We share one hope of our calling.
We share one Lord. We share one faith. We share one baptism.
We share one father. You say, look at the list of all that we share together. Whatever ways that we're different, we want to make so much out of those instead of just looking at all this glorious common ground that we have from the Spirit of God. Now, I do have to note one thing here. When he says in these verses, specifically in verse 5, that there is one baptism, some people think that because Paul says that there is one baptism, that the idea of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a subsequent experience is invalid.
In other words, there's just one baptism, perhaps a baptism by water, and there's no such thing as a subsequent baptism. Well, I... I think that if you want to make an argument against the baptism of the Holy Spirit, this isn't the place to make it. Paul here isn't even referring to the baptism of the Spirit.
He's referring to the baptism by water, which is the visible token of God's common work in every believer. You know what he's getting at? He's saying there's not one baptism for Jews and another baptism for Gentiles. There's one baptism. We share it in common.
It's the same kind of thing. It's not as if our Jewish brothers get baptized in one way and the Gentile brothers get baptized in another. No, it's one baptism.
You see, the concept of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is spoken of very clearly in Matthew chapter 3, in Acts chapter 1, and also in Acts chapter 11. This may be considered an initial and perhaps dramatic experience one has with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, a feeling that God wants to continue throughout that person's Christian life. But we'll get into more about this fullness of the Spirit later on into chapter 5. Now, through the first six verses, we've been given this glorious portrait of this unified body of Christ, right? I mean, it's really wonderful to see.
And you can just sort of picture in your mind's eye this beautiful body of Christ, the majestic church of all centuries. The spiritual unity of the people of God that we all belong to. And you think, wow, Lord, that's wonderful. How do you do it?
How do you get all these people together? How do you do this work? And God will explain the way he works this unity.
It's through spiritual gifts of leadership in the church. So as we start into verse 7, okay, we're going to take a look at verses 7 through 10 right now. But as we start into this section, please, please, please don't forget this overarching theme of unity, because you'll see Paul refer to it again here, all right? Here we come now to verse 7. But to each of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended, what does it mean? But that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
Let's understand what Paul's getting at here, starting at verse 7. First of all, he says that grace was given to us, to each one of us. We all have grace given to us according to the measure of Jesus'gift. This is the basis for God's distribution of spiritual gifts through his church. Grace.
The free, unmerited giving of God. I don't know, we could go around and ask each person in the room, what's your spiritual gift? And what's your spiritual gift?
And what's your spiritual gift? And somebody might say, well, my spiritual gift is this. My spiritual gift is that. And you go through and you make a list. Maybe somebody says, well, I really don't know what my spiritual gift is.
But you go around and you ask the question, listen, I don't know what your particular spiritual gift is, but I'll tell you this. You did not deserve it. You didn't get it because you earned it.
You didn't get it because you deserve it. And isn't it strange that somehow we also most want to make this hierarchy of spiritual gifts as if some spiritual gifts are more spiritual than other spiritual gifts. You know, the person who's the minister of mercy or ministers with a gift of helps, that somehow those are minor ones compared, of course, to the exalted place of being the teacher in the body of Christ. We all know that's by far the most spiritual place, right?
Well, it's foolish, isn't it? That's a foolish way to talk and it's a foolish way to think because it's all of grace. It's all of grace.
Whatever spiritual gifts I have or you have, it's been given to us on the basis of grace, not out of merit, not out of deserving. And then Paul goes on to explain that Jesus distributed these gifts, he says here, when he ascended on high. You see, this giving happened, and Paul here is quoting a Psalm, Psalm 68, verse 18. This happened, described prophetically in Psalm 68, 18, when Jesus ascended into heaven, which was evidence of his triumph over every foe. or in other words, the leading of captivity captive. The picture in Psalm 68 is of a military leader returning to Jerusalem at the head of his followers.
He's routed the enemy army and he's taken many prisoners and now he's bringing captivity captive back in this triumphal procession. And that's exactly what Jesus did when he went back into heaven. Do you remember what Jesus said? He said in John chapter 16, verse seven, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
But if I depart, then I'll send him to you. So that's what Jesus did after his great victory and his triumphal perception, ascending into heaven. There once enthroned in heaven at the right hand of God the Father, then he sends the Holy Spirit. Then he sends the Holy Spirit full of spiritual gifts to his people.
And so therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now. I have to say that it's very interesting that when Paul quotes Psalm 68 here, he does not quote it exactly as it appears in Psalm 68. If you were to flip back to 68, 18, you'd notice this.
Now, how did he do this? Why did he do this? Well, Paul, you're not quoting the scripture correctly. Is that okay for an apostle to do? Well, I would say this.
First of all, he may have altered it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit or he may have under similar inspiration quoted from another ancient translation called a Targum that quotes the Psalm in this manner. Psalm 68, 18 reads this way. You have ascended on high.
You have led captivity captive. You have received gifts among men. Now, there's certainly enough room in the language of the original Hebrew to allow for Paul's reading of it, even though it's unusual.
But I think it's enough just to notice that Paul says, listen, not only did Jesus receive gifts, but he gave them when he did. And either he, well, altered it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or he's quoting from another or a variant, again, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quoting from a variant Old Testament translation known as a targum. And so he makes the point here in verse nine.
Now this, he ascended, what does it mean? but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. Paul demonstrates how the words he ascended in Psalm 68, 18, have reference to the resurrection of Jesus. Speaking of his first rising up from the lower parts of the earth, and then secondly, his ascension far above all the heavens. You might say that the ascension of Jesus was in two parts.
The first part is what we usually call the resurrection. He rose up from the lower parts of the earth. to the earth in resurrection, and then he rose from the earth into heaven in what we normally call the ascension. Now I have to say, this little phrase in verses 9 and 10, where he talks about descending to the lower parts of the earth, this is a phrase full of a lot of theological controversy.
Because based upon this verse, some people think that the phrase lower parts of the earth refers to Jesus's preaching to the spirits in prison that's described in 1 Peter 3, verse 19, and chapter 4, verse 6. While this aspect of Jesus's ministry in Hades, following his work on the cross is true, after all, it was prophesied in Isaiah chapter 61, Paul does not necessarily refer to it here. He may just be referring to Jesus rising from the grave. you know, being in the ground, buried, so to speak, rising from the grave and then ascending into heaven. And so I would say there is a legitimate debate as to whether or not Paul was referring to Jesus here from Hades, the lower parts of the earth, rising up to resurrection, or whether he was just referring to the grave. And as for which one is correct, well, I'll leave that to you to sort out with some Bible scholars.
In my mind, it could go either way. Now, here he's explained these gifts that Christ gave to his church, correct? That was the whole point of verses 7 through 10. Now, what do these gifts mean to the church?
Well, here is one aspect. I don't think Paul meant to be exhaustive here, but here's one aspect of what these gifts mean to the church in verses 11 and 12. Take a look carefully now. And he himself, by the way, who's the he himself? It's Jesus Christ himself, correct? And he himself, verse 11, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Okay, well, again, let's remind ourselves of those words, he himself. This means that Jesus established these offices. They are the work and the appointment of Jesus, not men.
Now, it is true that pretenders may lay claim to them. You may have a pretender who claims to be given such a spiritual office when Jesus Christ did not give it to him at all. But nevertheless, those offices are a divine institution, not a human invention. He himself gave these gifts.
And so what did he give? Well, here, Paul describes four offices. Apostles, prophets, evangelists. and pastor-teachers.
Now, I have to be very clear here for a moment because I think it's very interesting. A common teaching in the body of Christ, which annoys me far more than it should, is the teaching of what is commonly called the five-fold ministry. And it seeks to gain an understanding from this Ephesian text and say, well, these five offices should be active.
and involved in the body of Christ today. There should be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, number four, and teachers, number five. And so people refer to the five-fold ministry. Now, as I said, that teaching, that doctrine annoys me.
I would say it annoys me much more than it should, but I'll tell you what annoys me about it. It annoys me because Paul isn't talking about five offices here. He's talking about four. It's very clear in the grammar of the original Greek that pastors and teachers refers to one office. And so it's just sort of a bird that gets under my saddle, you know, just something that just kind of bugs me.
Anytime I hear somebody refer to the five-fold ministry, I want to say, what are you, dumb? Don't you know the Bible? It's talking about four.
And again, I just confess before you now, it annoys me much more than it should. But I just want to emphasize the point. He's talking about four different offices. Well, what are these? Well, first of all, apostles.
Do you know what an apostle is? Well, I think that the best way to understand the ancient Greek word. which by the way is apostolos. Do you realize that when you read apostles in your Bible, that's not a translation?
It's what we would call a transliteration. The ancient Greek word is apostolos, and you read apostles. Does it tell you what an apostle is? No, not really. If you were to translate the ancient Greek word apostle by any one particular English word, Probably the one English word that comes closest to the definition is the ancient Greek word, excuse me, is the modern English word ambassador.
As a matter of fact, I would call an apostle a special ambassador. And so I would say an apostle is someone who is a special ambassador of God's work. Now, we know that in the first century church, those who gave to us the scriptures, that God had special and unique. ambassadors who had authority to bring forth the scriptures of God to us. And they were used by God to provide a foundation.
Back in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20, we read about the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Do you remember that? Now, once that foundation was laid by the apostles and prophets, there's no more need for these foundational apostles and prophets. And so people would ask me today, they say, well, are there apostles today?
And I give the classic theological answer. Yes and no. Are there apostles in the same way as the apostle Peter and the apostle John and the apostle Paul, men that have authority from God to speak with absolute inerrant inspiration to the church as a whole?
No, there are not such apostles on the face of the earth today. But does God have special ambassadors in the world today? Yes, I believe so. I think you can look around the Christian world today and say, well, that's a man who's a special ambassador of God's work. God's lifted him up into a unique position.
He's been used in a unique way. You know, and I think you look at people throughout history and they've just been special ambassadors of the work of God. Wouldn't you say that Martin Luther was a special ambassador? Wouldn't you say that Charles Spurgeon was a special ambassador?
Wouldn't you say that Hudson Taylor was a special ambassador? You could go on a list. Now, are we in any way trying to say that they are the same as these founders? foundational apostles and prophets that laid the foundation once for all, as mentioned in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20? No.
But God has special ambassadors today, though not in that same first century sense. And we could say the same thing about prophets, right? Are there prophets?
Are there men and women whom God has given a particular message for the church today? Yes, I believe so. But do they have the same kind of inspiration that the first century, these foundational apostles and prophets had?
No, not at all. And by the way, anytime we talk about prophets, we need to understand what the Bible says about them in both the Old and the New Testament. Sometimes prophets speak in the predictive sense, but not necessarily. A prophet isn't a fortune teller.
Oh, prophet, prophesy over me. Tell me my future. Isn't there this bizarre attraction in us towards that?
You know, we want somebody to be our fortune teller. That's not what the gift of prophecy is about. No, and we also know from understanding the New Testament that prophets in any sense today are always subject to the discernment and judgment of the church leadership according to 1 Corinthians 14, 29. And again, very definitely to say, as with the apostles, if there are modern prophets today, they do not speak in the same authoritative sense that the first century prophets brought God's foundational word.
So there's apostles, there's prophets. There's evangelists, as Paul mentions here, those who are specifically gifted to teach the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. And then there are pastor-teachers. Now again, the ancient Greek clearly describes one office with two descriptive titles.
And these are men who shepherd the flock of God primarily, though not exclusively, through teaching the Word of God. But I want you to see what an essential part that teaching is to pastoral ministry, that Paul joined the words together by saying, pastor, teachers here. Now, these gifts are given at the discretion of Jesus, working through the Holy Spirit. You can't just go among a bunch of people and say, well, why don't you be the apostle?
And why don't you be the prophet? And you over there, you can be the evangelist, and I'll be the pastor teacher, and we'll just have church together. No, this ignores that these gifts are given at the discretion of Jesus, working through the Holy Spirit.
You say, well, shouldn't you have all four operating in a church body at the same time? Ladies and gentlemen, let me just say, that's up to Jesus. It's not up to you, right?
He's the one who appoints them. He's the one who makes them. The job of responsible church leadership is not to hinder or prevent such ministry, but it's never to promote it in existence.
It's not to come up to you and to say, well, you know, you look like you might be a prophet, or you might be an apostle. Have you ever considered the apostolic office? On and on and If there are apostles in the world today, let God reveal them. And I sort of have a general rule of thumb.
This is my opinion. I'm not taking this from the scriptures here. So you can take this or leave this as you will.
But in my days, I've run across a few men who like to take upon themselves the title apostle. I think it is absolutely impossible to take the title apostle upon yourself without getting weird. I think if there are true apostles in the world today, they're smart enough not to call themselves apostles. And I would almost say the same thing about prophets.
For me, it's almost an automatic rule. If you call yourself a prophet, you're not one. God may have given you a beautiful ministry, a wonderful ministry to the church. Maybe he's called you to a special place of spiritual leadership.
Maybe in that sense, you are an apostle. But listen, if you are an apostle, don't call yourself one. It just makes spiritual weirdness. How we are, here we are, a nice little group here gathered together for a Tuesday evening Bible study. And how would we feel if an apostle walked into the room?
Ooh, the apostle is with it. Or. Better yet, the prophet. Prophet, prophet, can I speak to you after?
Can you prophesy over me? Do you see how just the taking of these titles can somehow promote a spiritual weirdness among people, a spiritual weirdness that we just don't need? Now, I think that even more important than the specifics about these four offices, which again, we'll just mention, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
I think more important than the specific. offices themselves is what Jesus gave them to the church for. And might I say, I would like you to very closely look at what he says here, right in verse 11, and then into verse 12. Why in verse 12 he explains what he gave these gifts to the church for, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry.
The purpose of these gifts of leadership is also clear. It is so that the saints, right, God's people as a whole, we all understand, don't we, that when we say saints, we're not just talking about the special forces among the church, right? We're not talking about an elite few. We're talking about God's people in community, so that the saints, so that God's people might be equipped for the work of ministry. In other words, for service, so that the body of Christ would be built up.
that is expanded and strengthened. Listen, if you can get a hold of this, it'll absolutely change your vision of what the church should be. I remember as a young man, I suppose I was probably 14 years old, maybe 15 years, I don't know, 13, 14, 15, something like that. I remember sitting in what they called the study center of Calvary Chapel, Riverside. It was just some old, humble building with some books on a shelf.
And little stations where they had a cassette recorder and you could plop in a tape and listen to them. And I remember going there and just, well, what do I want to listen to? Well, here's a Bible study by Chuck Smith. I'll throw it in. And I don't even remember what the title was.
I don't know if he was teaching verse by verse through the Bible or if it was one of his topical studies. But he was talking about this very passage and it just made so much sense to me. This is the purpose of the church.
To equip. the saints for the work of the ministry. Now I have to say that this vision that Chuck Smith explained in that tape that I listened to so many years ago, as I said when I was 13, 14, maybe 15 years old, and how it clicked with me, this I think is one of the great reasons why God's blessing has been so marvelously poured out on Calvary Chapel ministry.
Now, you know me very well. You know that I am a Calvary Chapel pastor, that I'm the director of a Calvary Chapel Bible college. Although, I do like to say, and I do like to think of myself, that I am not a Calvary Chapel chauvinist. I don't ever look my nose down upon any brother or sister from another church or another church movement.
I don't want to act as if Calvary Chapel is the only place where God is moving or anything like that. I think that kind of thinking is bigoted and it has no place among God's people. Nevertheless, I'm very appreciative for what God has done through the Calvary Chapel movement. And I think that one of the great keys, one of the great points of understanding that really has distinguished Calvary Chapel ministry was this particular vision, that when the church gathers together on a Sunday morning, that the primary purpose is not evangelism. The primary purpose is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Now, in many churches, the attitude is that the guy up on the platform, he's doing the work of ministry. Isn't that what the people pay him to do? Hey, Mr. Pastor, Mr. Leader, you do the work of ministry. We'll be spectators.
No, no, no. I think the more biblical attitude is to say, listen, pastor, your job is to equip those saints to do the work of ministry. You feed them. You, well, as it says, you equip them. That's a beautiful word in the ancient Greek language.
Do you know what that word equip means? It means to put right. You know what it was used for?
It was used for setting a broken bone. It was used for mending a torn net. And isn't that how people come into the church?
They come with their bones broken and through the loving ministry of the church and through the teaching of the word of God, through that ministry of that pastor teacher, that the bones get set right and healed, don't they? The nets get mended. And these ministries work together to produce strong, mended, fit Christians.
And then what do those Christians do? They go out and do the work of the ministry in their daily life and impact lives to the glory of Jesus Christ. I remember listening to that tape many years ago. You know, there at a little desk with headphones and an old cassette player, and there I am listening. And it just makes so much sense.
And this is what the church is here for. When you get together as a church, the primary... Now, it's not that you ignore evangelism, but you understand.
That the real purpose is to take those saints that are before you, and through teaching the Word of God and loving them, you bring them into spiritual health and maturity, and those Christians impact the world. Now, this is very much the philosophy of ministry of Calvary Chapel. To say that the primary purpose of church meetings is not evangelism, but to equip the saints. And you know what I think is very amazing about that?
Most everybody would regard the Calvary Chapel movement as fabulously successful evangelistically. That they bring many, many, many hundreds or thousands or whatever figure you want to use. They bring many people into the kingdom of God.
They're extremely evangelistically effective by not focusing on it. By instead saying, listen, it's about discipleship. Not just about bringing people in.
It's about equipping those saints, mending their broken bones, patching up the nets that are torn in their life, fixing those things. And that work, that work, is really what advances the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, God's people do the real work of ministry. Leaders in the church... have their first responsibility to equip people to serve, and then to direct their service as God leads.
But you see this vision of what the church should be. I have to say, you can make a large philosophical divide among Christians today. And the philosophical divide is in two camps.
One camp says the purpose of Christians getting together is for us to disciple. and mature and equip those saints and send them out in the world to do ministry. Or to say, the primary reason for Christians together is to do evangelism. I think that there is a big difference between those two philosophies. And while I love my brethren who have a different philosophy than I do, I say, I'm happy for how it makes sense to me.
I'm happy that this passage right here, and when I heard Chuck Smith teaching it, when I was just a punk kid listening to a cassette tape when I was 14 years old. It just made so much sense. And I said, yes, that's exactly what the passage says.
And this is what the church should be about. Lord, I want you to use me to equip your saints for the work of ministry. Well, what do you do with these equipped saints?
What do they do, right? Great. Here we are.
We're all equipped saints. What happens with them? Look at verse 13. This is glorious.
Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Well, this tells you what God does through the work of the gifted offices and the equipped saints. What does he do?
Well, first of all, he works in it until they all come to the unity of the faith. Did I tell you we'd come back again and again to this idea of unity, right? If the gifted offices aren't producing unity, something's not meshing right.
This is the first goal of God's work through gifted offices and equipped saints. And again, I want you to notice, it's beautiful how Paul puts it. Till we all come to the unity of the structure. Till we all come to the unity of the ecclesiastical organization. Did he say those things?
No, it's till we all come to the unity of what? Of the faith. He's not talking about a structural or organizational unity, but a...
spiritual unity around a common faith. And going on here into verse 13, and the knowledge of the Son of God. When the gifted offices work right, and when the saints are properly equipped, there's increased maturity and there's greater intimacy in our experience of God.
And then to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, the gifted offices and equipped saints bring the saints to maturity according to what measure? According to the measure of Chuck Smith? According to the measure of Pastor Nick Long? According to the measure of some other great man or woman of God?
No, according to the measure of Christ, the stature of the fullness of Christ. Listen, as the years pass, we should not only grow old in Jesus, but also more mature in him, both as individuals and as a corporate body. That's what we're to be, growing into the stature. into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Then that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.
That the gifted offices and equipped saints result in stability, being firmly planted on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Now listen, those people who do not mature in this way are the targets of deceivers, who are effective precisely because they operate with trickery, with cunning craftiness, as Paul puts it here. No, they lie in wait to deceive, and they're out there like landmines that the mature people can avoid. And this word here, the trickery of men, it just refers to deceptive practice, almost magical practice, sort of running after spiritual fads.
But instead, no, no, no, instead, what should it be? Look at verse 15. but speaking the truth in love. Now this speaks to not only how we are to relate to one another in God's family, but also how leaders and saints are to deal with deceivers, speak to them in love, but never budging from the truth. And the result of it all in verse 15 is that in all things we would grow up into him who is the head, Jesus Christ. Again, maturity is described as growing up into Jesus who is the head.
This is the direction of maturity. You never grow independent of Jesus. Isn't that interesting? You know, as a child grows up, he should become independent of his parents, right? That 42-year-old man who still lives with his mother, you know, and, you know, doesn't have a job and just sort of, you know, it's just the child around the house.
You go, shouldn't you have a little bit of independence from your mother? You know, there's something wrong here. You need to have something changed here. But you should understand that that's not how it works in Christian maturity. In Christian maturity, you grow up into Christ.
And then this beautiful, beautiful phrase here in verse 16. From whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share. Do you see the body, this unity working together in this beautiful coordination? The leaders and the saints are all doing their job. It's an effective working. And this means that every part and every joint provides what it can supply in a coordinated effort.
Right? My wrist joint, it doesn't have to do everything in the body, just what it can do. My ear doesn't have to do everything, just what it can do.
Every part does its share, and the whole thing works together beautifully. And when it all happens, what happens? The body grows. It grows in size.
It grows in strength. But especially, look at it there, verse 8, it grows in love. That's the best growth in the Christian community, isn't it? You see, some people think of the church as a pyramid, right? And there's the pastor at the top of the pyramid, right?
No, no, that's not the way to think. And some people think of the church as a bus, and the pastor's the driver, and the passengers just sit in the bus, and the pastor drives them where they're supposed to go, and that's not it. No, no, no. It's not a pyramid. It's not a bus.
It's a body where every part does its share. Now, in light of all this, there's a way to live. There's a way to walk. And so for our last little section here this evening, we're going to consider these verses 17 through 24. which speak to us about walking in this new man, walking in this edified life.
He says here, starting at verse 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them, because the blindness of their hearts, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Now understand this. If Paul told us to do anything in the first 16 verses, about all he told us to do was there in the first couple verses where he said, with all lowliness and gentleness, long-suffering, bearing with one another in love. If there were any commands in the first 16 verses, it was just some commands about unity, but the bigger picture was spelling out this great, wonderful operation of the body of Christ. and growing up together in Christ, and the gifted offices that Jesus gave to the church.
It's all about unity, right? I want you to see that as we move now into verse 17, Paul is sort of changing the focus. Now he's saying, okay, Christian, you've understood a lot about this. You've understood about all that I've explained to you about your glorious position in Jesus Christ, right? And you've understood about the unity of the body that I've explained to you.
Now I wanna get back to what I mentioned in verse one. Go back to verse one of this chapter. that you walk worthy of the calling in which you were called. All right, how do I do it now?
Well, one aspect was the unity that he spoke about, right? But here's the other aspect here, verse 17 through 19. As I said, you no longer walk any longer in the futility of your mind. You see, he's making the connection again that we are to walk differently than the world around us.
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. I have to say, sometimes I think that if there is any verse for the church today, it's this one. Is there not a constant tendency in the church to want to display to the world, we're really not so different from you after all.
We're really just like you. Yeah, you know, you've got, I don't know, a certain genre of music that you like. Well, we can do that too. You've got certain jewelry that you like.
Well, we can do that too. You've got certain movies. Well, we can do that too. There's an enormous amount of this attitude in the body of Christ where it looks to the world almost begging for the world's approval. It says, oh, please like us.
We can be just like you. And oh, how in the name of Jesus, we need to be set free from that and say, you know what? I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. If I don't walk like the world walks, not only is that okay, it's what I should be doing. Now, let's face it.
There's an extreme on the other end, right? And you might say that might be our Amish brothers and sisters, right? They say, well, no, we're not going to walk in any way of the world around us.
And you might say that that's the extreme on the other end. But wouldn't you say that by and large, the Christian world today has, look, the last thing in the world they are is Amish, right? They've swung the pendulum far, far over to the other side from the Amish side.
And instead, most of the Christians screaming out to the world, we're just like you. Please accept us. Listen, this misguided effort to gain the world's respect or approval. must be resisted at all costs because the goal in itself, listen, that goal to gain the respect and the approval of the world, number one, it's undesirable.
And number two, it's unachievable. Even if you could get it, you shouldn't have it. But I'll tell you, you'll never gain it.
So no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. You see, the Gentiles walk in a certain way. There's futility in their mind. And in the end, their thinking is futile because their understanding is darkened, because they're alienated from the life of God. Look at that verse very carefully in verse 18. It's a heavy verse.
I'm going to read it again. having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God. That is a heavy alienation. Not just alienated from, you know, the love of God or this.
You're alienated from the very life of God. And what happens then? Look at what he says here. Because of the blindness of their heart, he says at the end of verse 18. You see, fundamentally, this ignorance, this wrong walk of the Gentiles that Christians are not to imitate.
Fundamentally, this ignorance and lack of understanding of man is a heart problem. It's shown not only in the foolish denial of God, but also in moral failures, licentiousness and uncleanness and greediness, as he mentions in this text. It says their past feeling, as he mentions there in verse 19. Doesn't that describe so much of the world today?
That ancient Greek word that Paul used there for past feeling, it has the idea of one's skin becoming callous and no longer sensitive to pain. You know what that's like, don't you? Your skin becomes calloused. I remember growing up in California, what it was like. You know, as spring comes along and the weather starts getting warmer, you start going barefoot all the time, right?
And what's it like when you first start going barefoot? You know, in the spring and the summer. Oh, every step you take, it feels like every little pebble hurts, you know? Like, ow!
out. You know, you just can't walk anywhere because your feet have been in shoes all winter long. And now you're walking barefoot more and every little pebble seems to hurt. By the end of the summer, what's it like?
Well, you could walk over cut glass or burning coals. You wouldn't even feel it. Your feet are so calloused practically from going barefoot the whole summer.
It just doesn't matter. Well, haven't people built up those kinds of callouses? And so here we see the effect of the sin, licentiousness. uncleanness, greediness. That word licentiousness, that's a great word.
It's sort of a pity that it's in such poor favor in the world today that you could say, well, that's certainly a licentious person and nobody would know what you're talking about. You know what licentiousness is? It's sin that flaunts itself. It's sin that throws off all restraint and it has no sense of shame or fear.
It's basically the man who doesn't try to hide his sin, he flaunts it. Yes, I'll flaunt it for the whole world to see. That's licentiousness.
Now, that's the walk we're not supposed to have, right? We're going to swim against the tide. We're going to say as Christians, world, we love you. We're not going to go out and deliberately look for ways to be weird, you know, like some weird group, but we are not going to walk in the futility of the things you walk in.
instead, what are we going to do? Look at it here, starting at verse 20. And these few verses are going to be the last section we take for this evening, where he says, But you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him, and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
You know what's glorious about this? Is that when Paul is trying to steer us to not live like the world and to chart out a distinctive Christianity, a Christianity that can really be seen and noticed as being distinctive in this world that we live in, he doesn't give us a list of rules. Well, listen, the first thing you got to do is you got to read your Bible for a half hour every day. And then you got to pray for another half hour.
And then this rule and that rule. Now, listen, I'm not... I'm the last person in the world to argue against praying and reading your Bible for an hour every day. It's a glorious thing. But I want you to see that Paul's talking about spiritual principles.
We want to get right to the actions. Give me a prescription. Tell me what I got to do to fix it.
Paul says, no, no, no. This goes much deeper than a to-do list in your mind. You've got to change your thinking. You've got to change your orientation. That old man that you've been living in, put him off.
The new man, you put him on. I love the language that he uses there. Put off the old man, put on the new man. It's the exact same wording that you would use for putting off a suit of clothes and putting on a new one. The idea is that you change into a different kind of conduct.
Get this picture in your mind. A prisoner is released from prison, but he still wears his prison clothes. And he still acts like a prisoner, not like a free man.
And he comes to you and goes, you know, I just, I keep living like a prisoner. I think like a prisoner. Do you have any advice?
I've been set free from prison, but I think like a prisoner. I act like a prisoner. Can you help me? You say, you know, don't you think it'd be a good idea to change your clothes first? Why don't you take off those prisoner clothes?
It's you're defining your existence by this old man that you used to be. No, change into a different kind of conduct. You know, putting on different clothes will change the way you think about yourself and see yourself. I remember that when our kids were little. They used to love to dress up, right?
Just love to go change clothes, right? We had a box full of old clothes, the dress up box, you know, and the kids would play in them or the kids would just go and, you know, dress themselves up. Why? Because when they wore different clothes, they felt different, didn't they? You know, you put on the cape and the T-shirt with the big S on it.
You're Superman, aren't you? You put on the dress and the, you know, the fancy little thing you throw over your shoulder. Well, you're the princess at the ball, aren't you? I mean, we understand this just sort of viscerally as a kid. You put on different clothes, you change the way that you think of yourself and you see yourself.
Even so, you put on different conduct and you're going to start to change your attitude. You know what this is telling us? This may be revolutionary for someone here tonight. You don't have to wait to feel like the new man before you put on the new man. You want to wait until you feel like the new man.
Paul says feel. Put on the new man. Just do it. The feelings will come. It's a beautiful thing.
He says, you have not so learned Christ. This repetition of the idea shows that putting on the new man has a strong aspect of learning and education to him. Look at how he repeats this continually through this section.
You have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You see, there's a very active educational aspect to this. Now, our Christian life has to go beyond head knowledge, but it must absolutely include head knowledge and affect our whole manner of thinking, not in the sense of just knowing facts, but in the ability to set our mind on the right things.
You know, I wonder if I'm speaking to somebody here tonight, and honestly, you feel that you have no control over your mind. Your mind runs off into places that it... And you just can't stop it.
Maybe it's a place of fear. Maybe it's a place of lust. Maybe it's a place of confusion.
Maybe it's a place of just, I don't know, just bizarreness or awareness. You feel, I can't harness this thing. You need to go to Jesus and talk to him about that and realize that he wants you to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
Matter of fact, according to Romans 12 too, Christian growth can even be described as the renewing of your mind. And so you learn Christ. You grow in these things.
You put on Christ. As he says there at the end, put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. The new man is the new creation created in a conversion.
It's the person created according to the image of Jesus Christ, extinct, instinctively righteous and holy. It's in contrast to the old man. The old man was crucified with Christ.
He was identified with Adam, but the new man is identified with Jesus Christ. Now you have that Jesus Christ identification in you. Are you born again by the Spirit of God?
Have you been converted? Then you have. You are a new man, a new woman in Jesus Christ. I've got good news for you.
The greatest Christian in all the world lives inside of you. Understand that. You are indwelt by the greatest Christian ever, Jesus Christ himself. I don't think any of us can be a better Christian than Jesus.
And so what do we do? Over and over again, we see our identification with him. We understand that we live in that.
We relish that. I don't know of a better way to do that than if you meditate on the things in the first three chapters, right? And you know what I love about this?
And that's why we're gonna cut off here and we'll pick it up again next week. What I love about this. This isn't the to-do list, is it?
Oh, this is so fundamental to Christian character and Christian living and not being worldly and living for the glory of Jesus Christ. But I want you to know, before Paul is talking about the to-do list, and he'll get to a to-do list, don't worry about that. But before he gets to it, he understands that those things have to be built upon spiritual foundations.
And that spiritual foundation is you are a new man in Jesus Christ. You are a new woman in Jesus Christ. Put on the new man and live like it. That's who you are.
Christian, understand who you are and live that way. This is the glorious inheritance of the children of God. In this Christian life, I see many people in the Christian world today, and their Christian lives are filled with frustration and defeat, and it's because they want to go immediately to the to-do list. And they think that, well, these spirits have put on the new man, that's too theoretical for me, give me the to-do list. You say, no, no, no, you don't understand.
This so-called theory, this is spiritual truth that has to be the foundation for this godly life you want to live. Stop frustrating yourself. by skipping immediately to the to-do list.
That glorious Christian, he lives right inside of you, identifying yourself with him, living that Christian life from the inside out. That is the key. Well, let's pray and ask God to make these things true in our life. Father, it's absolutely astounding to see how different... you are than how we are by instinct, Lord.
By instinct, we want to skip right to the to-do list. We think that these spiritual principles are strange or irrelevant. Lord, we see tonight that they are not, that they're absolutely essential to living the kind of Christian life that you want us to live. And so tonight, Lord, we just say we see ourselves as we are in truth. We are in Jesus Christ.
We put off the old man. and we put on the new man, and we realize this wonderful identification that we have with Jesus Christ, and we want to step forward from this day, from this evening here, and say, Lord, this is our life. Lord, free us from the slavery of thinking that we need to walk as the Gentiles walk. And no, Lord, lift us up to a higher ground.
By the power of your spirit and through the beautiful instruction of your word, we pray that you would do it in Jesus'name. Amen.