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A Team Player
This
September is really the start of new beginnings in a church.
A church year tends to follow the pattern of the school year of our children.
As our students return to the classroom in September, there is a renewed sense of adventure and new beginnings.
Among those fresh starts that a new school year provides are the re-formations of athletic teams.
With the passage of the previous school year, graduates have moved on and under-classmen have moved up.
Coaches of various teams are planning, strategizing and recruiting for their particular teams in hopes that this fall they will field successful programs and maybe even a winning record.
These athletic teams provide us an illustration of much of what church is about.
We, too, are a team of players coming together in a common purpose so that we will grow together in our love for Jesus Christ, in our love for each other and give ourselves to the mission of introducing and winning people to Jesus Christ.
Our Vision - read the wall or card
As I mentioned last week, our effectiveness in doing ministry depends on a few very important factors like being faithful, being available and being teachable.
But the glue that binds those factors together is commitment and unity
September begins a new season for us as a church.
Some of the players we counted on last year have moved on.
Most football coaches would love to have their seniors return.
But, rarely do coaches spend much time in that dream world.
They have a task ahead of them.
They have many return players and a goodly number of new and young players.
It is with that assembly of athletesthat the coach will field a team.
And, if the players buy into the coach’s plan and work hard, the entire team will come to the end of the season with many accomplishments to show for their hard work.
Paul in this 4th chapter of Ephesians has outlined a strategy for how a local church family is able to grow and build itself up in love.
We will see that his strategy calls for a very intentional focus on Jesus Christ
Therefore, I am urging you to recommit yourself to Christ as your highest and most valued priority.
Take control of your calendar so that your days and your weeks reflect that Jesus Christ truly is your Lord, the Head of His Church.
We will also see that Paul’s strategy calls for a very intentional effort to maintain the unity of the team by expressing support and encouragement at every turn and in every situation.
I unashamedly am challenging you to an even higher view of the local church than you may presently hold.
For I believe the Scriptures tell us that it is through the local body of Christ where the rubber meets the road, where our love for Christ is given the best opportunity to develop and be employed.
It is in the context of a local assembly of believers where our faith is best lived out, not in isolation from the world, but in its most effective impact on the world.
For I am convinced that faithful, obedient, loving Christians, who are committed to the mission of a local church that is faithfully serving Christ, have the greatest potential for impacting the unbelieving world that surrounds them.
I would like us to read together our text, going back to include the earlier versesof chapter 4. I would like the men to read verses 1-3.
The women to read verses 4-6.
I will read verses 7-10.
Then, I would like us all to read verses 11-16.
Would you please stand with me as we read from God’s Word?
(NIV) – [women] 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
(NIV) – [Pastor Dan] 7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
8 This is why it says:
“When He ascended on high, He led captives in His train and gave gifts to men.”
9 (What does “He ascended” mean except that He also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
16 From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Paul likely wrote this letter while imprisoned in Rome for having too effectively proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Roman leadership thought they could stop the spread of Christianity if they silenced its leaders.
Sometimes that strategy works.
But, very commonly, it backfires.
Paul writes to a church of which he had served as the founding pastor-teacher a few years earlier and urges them to live up to the calling to which they had been called by Christ.
All throughout this letter he has drawn his readers to look again at Christ, to see Him as the source of every spiritual blessing, to understand that it was Christ who made it possible for us to be adopted as sons and daughtersinto God’s family, to be overwhelmed with gratitude for the gift of salvation made possible through Christ’s death on the cross.
How could anyone reading Paul’s letter to the Ephesian believers not respond with overflowing gratitude to God?
No, God has a word for us and He intends that we pay close attention to it.
He has given it to us through His servant Paul.
I The Outcome 4:16
If all parts do their job it works great ......
Let’s start with the promised outcome of Paul’s instructions if we obey them.
Look at verse 16.
Look at a car - plugs misfire, fuel pump fails, coolants gets plugged etc....
16 From Him (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
kinetic chain of the body.....
Feet, knees, and hip
One part has to overcompensate for the others
God promises that His body, the church, will grow and build itself up as each part does its work.
There appear to be two conditions to the fulfillment of this promise.
First, the source of the life that causes the growth and the building up is Christ.
Our Lord cannot be divorcedfrom His church without taking the life out of the church.
He is the source of lifeand growth and health and love.
Look again at the text in verse 16.
Do you see what I see?
Is there not a second condition to the promise God makes through Paul?
16 From Him (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Each of us has a responsibility to the local congregation in which God has placed us.
What’s the second condition?
That each part of the body must do its work.
Each of us is to do his or her part, make his or her contribution as God has intended.
God promises that His body, the church, will grow and build itself up as each part does its work.
Each of us has a responsibility to the local congregation in which God has placed us.
Each of us is to do his or her part, make his or her contribution as God has intended.
God has promised that His body will grow and will build itself up in love.
That’s the outcome God has in mind for His church.
Coaches want their teams to be well bonded and strong in team spirit.
They want each player to be supportive and encouraging of all the other players.
They want each player to make the contribution they are trained for and practice for.
They want each player committed to following the assignments they are given.
And teams that practice these goals will grow and be built up from within.
And win or lose, they will put it on the line for each other and their common objective.
II Building UP
(NIV) 11 It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Pardon the football analogy again, but if we think of apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor-teachers as specialized coaches, they are assigned to work with each player to prepare them for works of service in order to make their contribution to the achievement of the team vision.
Do you agree?
Is that a proper understanding of the role of the apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers?
God wants His team, His body, to be built up.
Evidence of being built up will be seen in the same faith that is held in common by all the players or members.
There will be a common experience in their relationship with Christ.
And this common faith and this common experience in Christ will bring about a rising level of maturity to the body of believers that shows itself best by exhibiting the character of Christ to each other and to all the world around them.
So, here we are, an assembled team of players.
The apostles have made and continue to make their contributions to the building up of our team.
They were privileged to be personal disciples of Christ and witnesses of His resurrection (; ).
They were commissioned by Christ to do works on His behalf and in His name ().
By their testimony, by their preaching, teaching and writing and by their taking the gospel to Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world, the apostles have laid a foundation for us and the church for all generations to come.
Old and New Testament prophets have boldly spoken the word of God to God-fearing and God-defying people alike.
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