Equipped for the Work of the Ministry
The Purpose of the Church: Edify the Saints • Sermon • Submitted
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What is the Purpose of the Church?
What is the Purpose of the Church?
Well good morning everyone, if you are visiting for the first time or viewing this online, I am Pastor Ben and it is my humbled joy to be able to bring you God’s word today. Next week we are going to be celebrating Communion together as a church family. With that following service today the elders will remain up front after service if there is anyone who wants to come forwards for prayer. As a reminder we will ask you two questions. What it is that you would like prayer for, and is there anything you need to repent of. After that we will then place some oil on your forehead and pray for you.
This is one of the many ways that we can be edifying our church family. Which brings us to what we are going to talk about over the next few weeks. Today we are going to begin to look at the second purpose of the church. Remember what we are to be doing, let’s go ahead and say them. Exalt God, edify the saints, evangelize the lost. Good, today we are going to start looking at the edification of the saints. But first let us have our hearts and minds brought to attention with our focus verse.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
As we are working through this series I want you to take notice at how these three purposes align with the two greatest commandments and then the new commandment we are given in the Scriptures. The first command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This directly relates to the exaltation of God. The second command is to love your neighbor as yourself. This is the edification of the saints. Now what do I mean by that. When we talk about the love of self from the Scriptures it is not meant to be a self-centered type love, but rather an acknowledgement that we innately know that we have to care for our bodies. When we are tired we give it rest. When we are hungry or thirsty, we fuel it with nourishment. The idea of loving others as our self basically means that we care for the well being of others.
The struggle comes in the fact that we understand self-love very differently today. Self-love is no longer just the basic needs but rather going above and beyond. We then read this back into the text we then get comments like, “we don’t love others well because we do not know how to love ourselves.” The problem is that when it comes to loving self, we put to much emphasis on self. And this is an issue within the church.
A prime example is the love languages. In counseling I stay away from the love languages, they are something I have advised people against. And why? Something that started as a tool to help us understand how to make others feel loved has turned into something drastically different. And I do not believe the author had this intent. But the problem is when we say this is my love language, this is how I feel loved. So that means this is what you must do for me to feel loved. And what ends up happening is we overlook all the other ways the person is sacrificing to show us love. You know the real definition of love. Our whole issue today in understanding how to love others as our self is that we have elevated ourselves to a level that was not intended.
So why do I bring this up? As we walk through this next section of edifying the saints, there are going to be many examples given comparing the church to the human body. We need to understand that love for that body relates to what it takes to make it grow strong and capable. Not unnecessary over indulgences that we today relate to self-love.
With all this in mind would you please join me in prayer?
Father we come before you today thanking you for this opportunity to be able to gather together as a church family. To worship you in all that we do here this morning. Father as we come to your word today would you open our minds to grow in understanding. Would you soften our hearts to the moving of your Spirit so that we may be drawn closer to you. Father we ask that you bless this message and our gathering here this day.
Amen
Well we are going to spend the next several weeks working through this topic and today we are going to lay the fondation for what the edification of the saints is. The title of our message today is, Equipped for the Work of the Ministry: The Building Up of the Church. and we will be looking to Eph 4:11-16. If you have brought your own Bible or want to follow along on your device please turn their now. If you are using the blue pew Bible it starts at the bottom of page 1080. Or you may follow along on the screen.
Let us hear the word of the Lord.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
As we look to this section today there are three ecclesiastical aspects we need to consider. What is edification? Who does the edifying? And what is the purpose of edification? After laying this foundation this week the next several weeks will look at self edification and corporate edification.
What is Edification?
What is Edification?
What is edification? For several weeks now you have been hearing me use this term, I have you memorizing it as one of our purposes, but how familiar are you with it? Maybe you are good with it. Maybe you understand it to be a church term but that’s it. Maybe it is a completely foreign idea for you. Let’s look to our first two verse for today.
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,
As we look to these two verse we do not see the term edification within this translation. So what is edification?
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) (Edify)
ed•i•fy verb
1 archaic a: BUILD b: ESTABLISH
2: to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge: UPLIFT also: ENLIGHTEN, INFORM
To edify relates directly to the building up of something or someone. How is this different from simply encouraging someone? In encouraging someone you are inspiring them. You can inspire them to continue in the direction they are heading or you can inspire them to change direction. With edification you go a step further to equip them with what they need to move forward from where they are at. So not only do you inspire but you also equip. To edify is to inspire and equip, or rather to build up.
When we understand this we can see then that edification is not this warm fuzzy feeling we experience. Can that come, yes, but does it always no. Why do I bring this up? When we talk about being edified specifically through the songs we sing, I am not talking about the feeling we experience internally in those moments. I am talking about are the truths of the words being said helping you to grow both in your understanding of your Savior and the ability to sense his presence in your life. Can that feeling occur in those moments? Yes absolutely, but are they the tell tale sign, no. Those feelings can lie to you. You can be running after something that is not edifying because it produces a similar feeling.
For an example, a few weeks back a friend of mine on Facebook share a song from a former Christian Song artist. I say former because this person now openly admits he is an atheist. But at one point he was a member of a prominent Christian rock band. What my friend share was a song written by this man about 5 years ago. The video of the song shows hands raised and gives that typical worship style music that most of the Christian songs on the radio have. Through the verse you her this man singing about a Spirit. With the lyrics of the choruses you would believe this is a worship song that would cause that feeling to appear. One that you would get lost in worship. Yet you get to the bridge of the song and it is revealed that the spirit he is singing about is alcohol.
More than 2 minutes into the song. More than 2 minutes into this feeling that creeps up inside and causes us to lift up our voices, with our arms high and heart abandoned and we discover that we are worshiping alcohol rather than God. Now I realize that most of us are more discerning than that, but how often do we just get swept away chasing a feeling, chasing an emotion rather than chasing after God. Rather than chasing after Christ. Fortunately, for those who are serious about their faith, Christ has provided a way so that you do not get swept away. This brings us to our next point.
Who is to do the Edifying?
Who is to do the Edifying?
Over the last few years there has been a new term starting to circulate with in American Christianity, this term is not an endearing term but rather one that calls out a very ugly truth; Consumer Christianity. Just doing a quick internet search about this topic and this is what you find.
Consumer Christianity is just what it sounds like – we treat Christ and His bride like commodities that exist to serve our wants. We treat believers and the church as things that need to impress us. If they don’t, we’ll harbor bitterness in our hearts or, more often, simply leave and find a group that gives us what we want.
This is a quote from a gentleman named Ray Burns. Ray from what I could find does not serve on staff at his church, rather he is a Christian man that sees an issue within American Christianity and works to call it out, while pointing others to Christ. His very point is that when you have a consumer mentality towards church you are constantly looking for what you can get out instead of what you can give. This goes against what we established last week as the intention for corporate worship.
Since we are not to be here for ourselves but to grow in oneness. And we are to be edifying each other, or rather inspiring and equipping each other let’s look to our passage for today to see how this is done. Let’s look again to the first two verses.
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,
As we approach this section we first need to see that there are two groups of people described here. First is the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. The second is the saints, and the body of Christ. There are some Christian circles that believe this section is detailing out authoritative offices within the church for its operation. Many within these circles believe these positions are still required today. Often times this is called the five-fold church.
This is not the position I hold. While I agree that these positions listed in verse 11 are describing held offices rather than generic giftings. And I believe that there is authority granted to those that hold these offices, this passage is not about authority, but rather about what Christ has given his church to continue his ministry of the proclaiming of the good news.
The other reason that I do not hold to this position is the fact that I do not believe that this describes 5 offices but rather 4 offices. And two of these offices I believe are no longer held. The generic giftings continue but the held offices do not. The offices that are no longer held are that of apostle and prophet. Again, my understanding from Scripture is that the generic gifting that is equated to these terms exists, but the offices do not.
And why is this? Well what is something that the apostles and the prophets had in common? They served as the human element that authored the Scriptures. When we see these terms used in the collective or the plural sense as they are here they tend to refer to a specific group of people. This is what John Stott argues here for the term apostle.
The Message of Ephesians b. The Character of Spiritual Gifts Is Extremely Varied
And thirdly there were the ‘apostles of Christ’, a very small and distinctive group, consisting of the Twelve (including Matthias who replaced Judas), Paul, James the Lord’s brother, and possibly one or two others. They were personally chosen and authorized by Jesus, and had to be eyewitnesses of the risen Lord. It must be in this sense that Paul is using the word ‘apostles’ here,
Coinciding with this is the term prophets. When the collective prophets are referred to in Scripture it is referencing the authors of the OT. The prophets wrote about the need for the Messiah, and the apostles wrote of the revealing and second coming of the Messiah. Now you might argue that not every NT author was an apostle. You would be correct, Luke and Mark as far as we know were not considered apostles. Yet, they were eyewitnesses to the testimony of the apostles. Luke traveled with Paul and Mark traveled with both Paul and Peter.
Jay Adams would support this position in stating,
Two of these offices are extinct (apostles and prophets). As we have already noted, they were foundational offices, through which revelation was given.
The last two offices included those who minister to the lost, and those who minister to those who are saved. Evangelist deal with ministering to the lost and are gifted in such a way. And the shepherds/teachers, which is two ways of describing the same office, are gifted in such a way to oversee the local church. Why do we not see the terms elder or deacon here? I would argue that the terms shepherd/teacher is indicating elders because they describe what the elders do. Yet, we do not see the terms here because they are directly related to authority within a local church setting and this passage is not directly speaking to that.
See through these 4 offices Christ has laid his foundation through his revealed word and the men he employed to write it, he has the lost becoming found through the work of the evangelist, and he has the saved being cared for and growing in maturity through the shepherd/teacher.
Now let’s bring in a further point of clarification. Do you need to hold the office evangelist to do evangelistic work? No. Do you need to hold the title shepherd/teacher to be able to teach others? No. See these offices serve a specific purpose. Lets look to verse 12 again.
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
See these offices were given for the equipping of the saints. So the corporately help position of Evangelist or Pastor of Evangelism would exists to serve the church by training others in how to do evangelism. Does that mean that he does not evangelize? No, in his personal life he would still evangelize the lost. But in the corporate church life he serves by training others. Shepherd/Teacher or Teaching Pastor or Senior Pastor as most often called, serves the church by teaching them God’s word so to grow in maturity while also training them in how to teach others. These positions exists to serve the church.
In considering this, if we looked to the Greek to understand this term equip what we would see is that it indicates an idea of being repaired or brought to completion. Regarding this Foulkes states,
Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary b. Diversity in Unity (4:7–16)
the word denotes ‘the bringing of the saints to a condition of fitness for the discharge of their functions in the Body, without implying restoration from a disordered state’. Their being brought to this condition is not an end in itself, but for a purpose, that they may be fitted for the work of ministry.
These positions were granted for a purpose, to equip the saints. And the saints are equipped for a purpose, the work of the ministry. Well what is the work of the ministry? First, we need to understand that the word we have here translated as ministry most often gets translated to service. It is actually the word that the term Deacon comes from. The idea that is given is that the work of the ministry, at any level, is to be a work of service. So what are these works of service? The most spelled out list is from 1 Cor 12 and in a couple weeks we will work through that passage. Another passage from Paul is.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
The thing that we need to understand is that in any of these list that we find in Scripture, they are not consider to be exhaustive. Meaning that gifting from the Spirit could appear in ways that are not mentioned. And I believe that this is why Peter keeps his explanation rather open.
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
I want you to notice how closely related this is to the worship of God in everything we do. A form of worship is being in the service of others. This is what we saw from Isaiah’s call. A changed heart is one that willing offers themselves to the service of God which often manifests in by serving those around you.
Husbands, your wives managing and caring for your home is her serving you. Wives, your husbands going to work to be able to provide is him serving you. Young people who still live with their parents. The discipline that you receive from them is them serving you to help you grow into maturity. We need to realize that our worship of God that comes in the form of service, happens in the everyday life.
You do not need to become a missionary to a remote village in a foreign country. You do not need to obtain the title Pastor, Elder, or Deacon to serve God. We do the work of ministry by serving others in the day in, day out, mundane parts of life. Now could some become missionaries? Yes and praise God if they do. Could some become Pastors, Elders and Deacons? Yes and praise God if they do. But the majority do not come to hold the positions, yet they are just as responsible for the work of service, that builds up the body of Christ.
This brings us to our final point.
What is the Purpose of Edification?
What is the Purpose of Edification?
Verse 11 and 12 establish that the offices that Jesus gave to the church were to equip all believers to be able to serve others in a way that built the whole body up. But what is that purpose? Let’s look at verses 13 and 14
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Keeping the previous section in mind we find this part starting out with the phrase “until we all attain.” As Foulkes points out the word used for this phrase often indicates the arrival at a destination. Our teaching others, our serving others, they are not without purpose, they are to cause us to arrive at a certain point.
The argument that Paul gives here is that this serving is to cause us to grow in unity and maturity. But what are we to be unity in what is the measure of maturity? Paul directly answers that and says Christ, the fullness of Christ is what we are to be measured against. This is the sign of unity and maturity. Are we growing in a oneness that elevates Jesus. Are our lives marked by a humble heart that is concerned for others more than ourselves. But the full reason is not to simply arrive at this destination.
Continuing in verse 14 Paul says that we do this so that we are not carried away by every wind of teaching or doctrine. We need to realize that this sits in opposition of growing in maturity to the measure and stature of Christ. So what does this mean? That means that if we profess to be a Christian but are not connected to the greater body, to a healthy church that helps us to grow in our knowledge and understanding, then we are leaving ourselves open to be carried away by any wind of teaching. It means that our foundation for understanding and therefore discernment will not be complete or in place. It means that we will be susceptible to believing anything that sounds good to our own ears.
I want to hone in on something here for a moment. Often when we here that we need to be discerning we equate it to things of the world and things of faith. Yet, there is much that falls within the religious context that we need to be discerning of. To bring a current thing up the series The Chosen. This is a multi season show about the first century Near Middle East which uses the Bible as its primary source. Many of the plot lines that build character backgrounds are not found in the Bible but the writers, given the information they have believe them to be plausible.
This show has receive much praise and criticism from Christians all over the world. Regardless of how we feel about the show we need to guard ourselves against minimizing the thoughts, feelings, and opinions, of those that hold a different view. Again we all only know in part. There seem to be three major complaints about the show. First is it ties to Mormonism. The company helping to produce this , Vid Angel or Angel Studios, is owned and operated by Mormons. There is also a line in episode three of this current season that many believe to be a quote from the Book of Mormon. Also the writer/director in an interview almost 3 years ago made a comment about the Jesus of Christianity and the Jesus of the Latter Day Saints being the same Jesus.
Now in an interview that took place after Christmas this past year, the writer/director addressed these issues. Having watched that interview I believe that while Mormons may be helping in production and distribution, their doctrines and the Book of Mormon are not operating as a resource for the show. The second issue is that of plausibility. If the content they are showing could plausibly be depicting the Jesus of the Bible, is is plausible it could not? I believe this is a fair question. There can be a lot of gray area in plausibility. This is where being connected to a church, a body of believers, teaching , learning, serving together helps. As we grow and learn together we can watch a show like this and be able to discern that it is not equivalent to the Bible but we can still be encouraged by it.
The final argument is that this show breaks the second commandment. This is a fairly new argument to me and one that I have not fully fleshed out yet. Again regardless of how you feel about this show, anything that we watch or read that is connected to the Christian faith we need to come to with discernment. If Satan tried to temp Jesus with God’s word he will do the same to us.
Paul concludes his argument by doubling back down on what we are to be doing. Let’s look to our last two verses for today.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
How do we combat against the waves of doctrine, how do we keep from becoming deceived, by the way that we conduct ourselves in relation to each other. Speaking the truth in love, everyone with their individual gifts working together for the betterment of the others. Bock commenting on this portion says that the idea of being joined and held together brings to mind two types of union. First in being joined it is like the stone mason that must cut and refine each individual stone to make them fit with the other stones to build a structure. The second is that of knitting, where the pieces are interwoven with each other to cause the whole to be stronger. While there is an emphasis on the teaching aspect throughout the whole passage, the main point is that it takes all together to accomplish the edification, not just a select few.
Bock comments,
Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary (Bock) (Comment)
“Putting this all together with the rest of the letter, the linkage involves people of various backgrounds and gifts of various types. As each part of the body effectively is in contact with the others, the body works together as it is designed to do.
The emphasis on connection is obvious and purposeful. Believers are never meant to function as individualistic islands. The stress on the role of each within the corporate structure comes next, with the reference to each one working properly, or ‘in measure’.
It is this verse that undercuts a too excessive distinction between clergy and lay members. All are to contribute. Each member applies the measure he or she has been given by Christ to make the body work well and grow to a spiritual maturity rooted in love.”
It takes all of us together. Each of us with our gifts that Jesus determined to bless each of us with. This is how we grow stronger together. Each doing the part that they are called too without an excessive distinction between groups. Those who are granted the gifting and demonstrate the character that grants them a position of overseer they are not to lord over the others. They are not to operate as though they have achieved some greater insight, that they have obtained a level of communion and connection with Jesus through the Holy Spirit that granted them that position. They are not to operate as if they have arrived at a higher level of morality and therefore are holier than the rest. They are still a servant that is to imitate their Savior and bear his image as a humble servant.
And for those that just come week after week, but do not contribute. The church is missing out on your gifts. Jesus gave you gifts for the building up of his church. You play a role in the edification of everyone here. Do not simply be a consumer, be an investor. If you are not sure what your spiritual gifts may be I can help you with that. I can give you a tool that will at least get you started in trying to figure it out.
In closing there is just a few things left I would like to say. Jesus left to his church the responsibility of continuing to spread his message. The message that set the captives free. The message that gave the fatherless a place to belong. If today you find yourself, feeling like a captive, or feeling like you do not belong. If you sense Jesus telling you come to me, I will set you free, I will give you a home. Do not ignore that. Give your life to Christ. Accept him as your Savior. He has a place for you within his church and needs you as part of his body. He has special gifts and talents he wants to equip you with for the building up and betterment of the entire church.
If you are not sure where to start come see me.
END IN PRAYER