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Ephesians 4:4-16
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”1
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?2 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds3 and teachers,4 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,5 to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 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. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 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.
[1] 4:8
[2] 4:9
[3] 4:11
[4] 4:11
[5] 4:13
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
That last song that we just sang, that we want to build our life upon his love. That we want to commit to give our lives and trust to him. One of the best ways, one of the most fundamental ways that we do that is by committing ourselves to God's word. So we're gonna do that together this morning. So if you would turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 4 verses 4 through 16, and listen carefully, for these are the very words of God.
Speaker 1:There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism. 1 God and Father over all. Who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Speaker 1:Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. 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, and 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.
Speaker 1:This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters who are gathered here together this morning. Because the very last thing they need is to hear words from a mere man.
Speaker 1:We are here to hear from you because your name and your renown are the desires of our hearts. So I pray that you would let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight. I pray that you would speak to us by the power of your word, that you would give us ears that are ready to hear from you, minds ready to receive what you might teach us, hearts ready to be transformed more and more like Jesus. And arms and feet that are ready to obey whatever you call us to do. For the glory of your name, we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. So if I haven't met you yet, my name is Matt Francisco, and I'm the pastor of discipleship here at Redeemer. And before taking on this role, I spent a decade in college ministry. And just about every week, a college student would hit me up, giving me a phone call, if you guys remember what those are, or shooting me a text saying that they would like to get together. And 9 times out of 10, they wanted some sort of advice.
Speaker 1:They were trying to figure out, whether or not they should join this fraternity or whether they should break up with this guy. Here's a fun fact for you. If you're thinking about it, the answer's probably yes. Or maybe whether or not they should take this internship. Or whether they should work at this place after college or move.
Speaker 1:And a lot of times, this was fueled by a very noble hearted desire. Right? These students wanted to know what God's will was for their lives and they wanted to obey it, but often, it betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding about what God really wants from us, how we're really supposed to figure out what God's will is and how he typically speaks to us. And I remember talking to one student in particular who was trying to figure out whether or not to propose to his long term girlfriend And I sat down with him, and I don't know if it was cynicism or the holy spirit at this point, maybe both. But I said, do you wanna know what God's will is?
Speaker 1:He's like, yeah. I'm like, alright. I know it. Are you sure? He's like, yes.
Speaker 1:Like maybe he wasn't really expecting me to have an answer. I wasn't sure that I came prepared with an answer. But I said, God's will. First Thessalonians 43. This is the will of the Lord for you.
Speaker 1:Your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality. So let me ask you a question. Are you sleeping together? To his credit, he looked back at me and he said, well, yeah. And I said, if you are closing your ears to what God has clearly said about his will in his word, How is it that you expect to hear him if he's trying to talk to you about anything else?
Speaker 1:And if that illustration hit a little close to home this morning, I wanna say some things to you very quickly and carefully. If anyone is in Christ Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation. Jesus' blood covers all of our past sins, our present sins, and praise the lord, our future sins as well. He knew exactly what he was getting into when he saved each and every one of us. But I also want you to hear me say what Jesus said to the woman in John 8, that he did not condemn her, but then he called her to go and sin no more.
Speaker 1:I also want you to hear me say that it's not that God doesn't care about your future. There is no one in the universe that cares more about your future than God does. Not even you. It's just that God's not playing a game with you. It's not like his will is a puzzle and he's scattered pieces all throughout the house, and you're supposed to find some in your bible, some in a conversation with your friend, some in the pattern of your dog barking, and some in your cereal.
Speaker 1:That's not the way that God operates. So if that's not the way that God operates, how is it that we're supposed to figure out God's will for us? How do we figure out who we are and where we belong? And how would we even begin to figure out what God's will for us as a church might be? So this week, we're gonna take a break from our study in Romans to look at this passage in Ephesians 4 to begin to answer some of those questions, but I'm gonna give you a spoiler right now.
Speaker 1:God is much more concerned with you becoming the kind of person who is led by him, than leading you or our church to a specific decision in a specific situation. This is not the kind of answer that's gonna sell a 1000000 copies of a book, but it's true and it's backed by the power and the promises of God, which means that it is unstoppable. God's plan is unstoppable. And before we begin to unpack these verses in Ephesians 4, I wanna give you a glimpse of what Paul was trying to do in Ephesians 1 through 3. He begins his letter by peeling back the curtain of redemptive history, showing us what God has been doing all along.
Speaker 1:He tells us that even before God created the heavens and the earth, the father, the son and the holy spirit, they got together and they formed a perfect plan. A plan that we who were made in his image, we who would rebel against this God and fall dead in our trespasses and sins, that we might receive redemption through the shed blood of Jesus who lives this perfect life on our behalf and dies the death that we are supposed to die. This plan shows the immeasurable riches of God's grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus by saving us not by our works but by grace through faith. This plan is to tear down the dividing wall of hostility that might be between us and create in Jesus one new man, one body, one faith, one baptism, one god and father overall. A plan that all of us, who are welcomed by grace through faith, might be ultimately presented blameless and holy and without blemish before him, and through us, to rescue the entire world by uniting all things under Christ's rule and reign to the praise of his glorious grace.
Speaker 1:Now that is a pretty good plan. Right? Is this a monologue? I thought we were all in this together. That's a pretty good plan.
Speaker 1:Right? And God's plan is as glorious as it is unstoppable. But hear me say this, just because God's plan is unstoppable, doesn't mean that he doesn't intend to use us. Hear these words from Ephesians chapter 3 verse 10. Paul tells us that it is through the church that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Speaker 1:In Ephesians 2:10, Paul tells us that we are God's workmanship. That he has created good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do that. We should walk in them. In other words, God's plan to redeem all things, to accomplish the rescue of the world, is meant to go through you and me. As we proclaim the good news of the gospel and as we live out the gospel in word and deed.
Speaker 1:And here's one of the craziest things. Paul tells us that Jesus is in heaven right now. Even as we're gathering, he is praying for us and he is armed with every spiritual blessing, ready to dispense them for the church's unity and mission And as Paul tells us here in Ephesians 4, he gives the church the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to do the work of ministry. Were you guys reading, or were you just listening to me? Were you gonna let me get away with that?
Speaker 1:It's not what it says, is it? What does he instruct the shepherds and the teachers to do? Everyone, to equip the saints. That is anyone who has been saved by grace through faith in Jesus' finished work for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. So do you want to know God's will for your life?
Speaker 1:Do you want to know where you belong and who you are? Do you want to know how to begin to unpack what God's will is for us as a church? It's right here. God is not trying to hide it from you. He's speaking as plainly as he can for all of us who would have ears to hear.
Speaker 1:God's will for you, for me, and for our church is that we would grow up together, That we would strive together to become like Jesus and carry out the mission of Jesus, both in word sharing the gospel and in deed, meeting human need. That means that as you try to discern God's will about whether you take that job or spend your money on x or what activities your kids should be involved in, maybe the most basic and fundamental question you should be asking are ones like this, does this lead me and my family into deeper unity together as a member of God's family? Does it lead us to become more like Jesus and to better fulfill the mission of Jesus? We're not. And as we've tried to discern these things together as a church, especially as we've tried to sort through all the endless options we could offer you as a discipleship ministry, these are the questions that have guided us.
Speaker 1:Will these spaces, these classes, these opportunities, by the power of the holy spirit, lead us to grow up together in unity, knowledge, maturity, and mission. And we're gonna spend some time this morning unpacking those 4 words. We're gonna spend the majority of our time on this first, unity, because I think it's the least intuitive to us in our particular day and age. So I was born in the eighties, a decade that tried to kill music once and for all, but also a decade where real superheroes roamed the earth and the greatest of them all was a guy named Bo Jackson. That's right.
Speaker 1:Bo Jackson was an outfielder for the Kansas City Royals who could run faster than just about anybody, throw a ball harder and faster than anybody, and hit a ball farther than anybody. And on top of that, he was one of the greatest running backs in NFL history. So much so that Nike made this ad called Bo Knows, and it was basically Bo showing up with the greatest of every sport, like Wayne Gretzky in hockey, Andre Agassi in tennis. And it was like, oh yeah, Bo knows how to play tennis. Because the assumption was that if Bo decided to do it, he could do it.
Speaker 1:But then the unthinkable happened. On a pretty routine tackle, Bo falls to the ground and he can't get back up. It turns out that something has gone horribly wrong and ultimately, Bo Jackson will have to have a hip replacement, which in that day and age meant that his football career and soon enough, his baseball career would be over. Though Bo Jackson had been unstoppable, a part of his body that he may have never thought about before had ceased working properly, and Bo was relegated to the sidelines. I want you to take a look around at everybody in this room for a minute.
Speaker 1:For real. I can see all of you, so I can see if you're doing it or not. The people around you are meant to be your eyes. They are meant to be your ears, your arms and your legs. Paul knows here in Ephesians 4 that the body of Christ is not always going to be working properly, but when it is, it will be glorious and unstoppable to the degree that the world will have to take notice and wonder what is happening in our midst.
Speaker 1:If we are unified across every barrier that would divide us, across ethnicity, age, class and socioeconomic background and political ideology, if we are committed to Jesus, becoming like him in his mission, the world will not have a category for us. So here's your takeaway. Don't skip leg day. Every part of your body is important. What would happen if you were actually convinced that God's will for your life is that you would be joined together, knit together as a body with people that you may otherwise have nothing in common with apart from the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 1:What would happen if we were as interested in one another's good and growth into maturity as we are our own? What would that do in the world? I mean, just imagine for a second. Paul is writing this letter to the church at Ephesus and imagine this group of gentile Christians and this group of Jewish Christians, that they just decide, you know what? We love you guys.
Speaker 1:We respect you. We want you, to know that we're praying for you and asking for God to bless you. We're really just gonna do life alongside those that we share a common history and background and interest in. Would that have been wrong? I mean, not necessarily.
Speaker 1:Those kind of friendships are beautiful and good. But would that have put on display before the world the manifold wisdom of god? What happens when our community is primarily not built upon what we have in common or what we like about each other, but what Jesus has done for us. It signals something to the world that something supernatural is happening in our midst. That's why Jeff Heine, our shepherding pastor, worked for years to come up with our home groups here at Redeemer.
Speaker 1:Each week, throughout our city, there are 69 home groups that are meeting together to walk through the rhythms of gospel hospitality, gospel conversation, gospel care and gospel confession. And we are very aware that it is not the easiest way to develop community, right? It is often very messy. But because we believe that God is after making us a body and making us family, we are committed to it. And it makes my heart so happy that I know so many of you who are members here, you love your home groups and it's been a tremendous blessing for you in your life.
Speaker 1:But I also know for many of you, your experience has been more difficult or disappointing, and that makes me sad.
Joel Brooks:And I don't
Speaker 1:wanna minimize in any way the disappointment that you may have experienced, But I want you to know that you have a very real enemy who would love to take what you have experienced and amplify it, to keep you away from a place where you might be truly known and truly loved and truly led to live out your calling as a member of the redeemed family of God, That your enemy would love to whisper lies in your heart that say that the grass is greener elsewhere. That there really is a community in place where intimacy and love come really easily, where you are going to be pursued exactly the way that you wanna be pursued, Not too much, not too little, by the kind of people that you want to pursue you, where people will love you without ever making you uncomfortable or annoyed or hurt or offended. And I know that some of you, over time and experience, have grown disillusioned and maybe think that you're never going to find or experience the kind of community that that God longs for each and every one of us to have and I hate that. But my challenge to you this morning is to make sure that you're not chasing a mirage.
Speaker 1:Something that is more than anything meant to give you a foretaste of what we one day will forever experience. Right? And I know others of you, you've been hurt by the church in the past and that breaks my heart because there are very few hurts in this world that are more painful than church hurts. And I don't want to minimize the pain that you've experienced or the fears that you may have, but I want you to know that you serve a God who sees that. Who knows, who has said that he carries our griefs and our sorrows and that he himself will bind up every single wound.
Speaker 1:And he has promised to never leave us or forsake us, but to walk with you every single step of the way, even as he calls you to trust him again, to pray and to hear his will that you would prayerfully and humbly commit to grow up together alongside other still being sanctified sinners. Because if the church's warts and sins and imperfections are what is keeping you away, praise God that our sins and imperfections didn't keep Jesus away from us. Right? And by grace, by the grace that we have been experienced, that we have experienced, we are now free to welcome one another as God in Christ has welcomed us. And he is using that grace and that welcoming to unify us as one body.
Speaker 1:And the first key to develop developing this unified family is simpler than you think. Colin Hanson, one of our elders, wrote a new book called Rediscover Church, and he put it really simply. He said, the key is to show up and ask how you can help. And I think that that's so beautiful. It's not that there's not good reasons for stepping outside of it from time to time, but we're asking God as he has revealed his will to us in his word, that he would change the default position of our hearts to say, so far as it depends upon me, I'm going to live into the community that you have created, and I'm gonna trust that you are using all of these things for my good and using me for others' good as well.
Speaker 1:But growing more like Jesus isn't just about unity. Paul tells us that the body of Christ will continue to be built up, verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood. Verse 14. 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 and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
Speaker 1:So if part 1 of God's will for you in this passage is that we would grow up together in unity, parts 23 is that all of us together would grow up towards knowledge and maturity. And as Paul shows us here in verse 14, the opposite of maturity is remaining like a child. Now, being like a child isn't always a bad thing, right? Jesus himself calls us to a childlike humility and faith and trust in God saying, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. But there are some things that are endearing in children, like my 3 kids thinking that the opposite of upside down is upside right.
Speaker 1:Don't you dare ruin that for me. There are some things that are endearing or acceptable in children that are pitiable or tragic in adults, like never learning how to read or not knowing how to practice self control or how to have discernment. And just like a good and loving parent works hard to see their children grow in what they know, in their knowledge, in what they know how to do and, what they understand. And in maturity, their convictions, their consistency in carrying out those convictions and their character. Just as a good parent knows that sometimes they work alongside their children's desires, and sometimes they have to work in spite of them, Jesus is committed to working in us and through us for all of us to grow in knowledge, in what we know and know how to do, and maturity because he longs for all of us to grow and mature.
Speaker 1:And he intends to use us in making that happen. We need others who love us enough to tell us some things that we may not wanna hear because they're more committed to our good than they are committed to not offending us. This is what speaking the truth in love that Paul talks about here is about. Because truth without love isn't actually truth and love without truth isn't actually love. It's just flattery.
Speaker 1:This is something that you can't get from a podcast. You have to be known. The world's concept of love means accepting people just as they are without ever asking them to change, but that's not how Jesus loves us. Loving someone like Jesus means meeting them in their brokenness and being willing to fight side by side with them as they struggle to become more like Jesus. Asking them to do the same in our lives.
Speaker 1:Reminding them of the forgiveness that Jesus has offered, his promised presence, and his promise to redeem and ultimately sanctify us as together we move forward. And here at Redeemer, the main places where we have seen these things happen are here on our Sunday services and in our home groups, but by, by design, they were not meant to be the only places where these things take place. Our home groups and Sunday services were never designed to carry the full weight of making mature disciples, because being a disciple means to be a learner. That's why we've spent so much time over the last several years developing our core classes and why I'm so thankful for some of the work of our pastors and elders and other lay people for Paige Bierman, our discipleship coordinator, and Jonathan Hawes, our communications director, that we could present to you something like this booklet here this morning about what it means for us to grow up together. So that you can see that we're what we're praying that god does in our midst and through us, and how all of these pieces of discipleship are meant to fit together.
Speaker 1:It's our prayer that in due course of time, that each and every one of you would avail yourself of some of these means to be equipped for every single good work. It's why we offer classes like Growing Up in Grace, so that every member of the redeemed family of God might know how to study his word, how to grow in prayer, how to deal with sin, how to grow in Christlike character and live in community. Because we desire for all of us to know God's glorious plan of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. We offer classes like God's heart for the nations. That this gospel has always been meant to go forth from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1:That we are all called to participate in the great commission proclaiming the good news of the gospel. That god's heart has also been always especially bent towards the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and the foreigner so that God has an a special heart for the city because he is not merely after the redemption of souls, but Jesus' work will accomplish the redemption of all things. It is out of our desire that we all grow together in discernment, that we build out classes like knowing the times and our stewardship class, so that together, we might grow in thinking biblically about money and politics and sexuality and the most pressing issues of our day. That's why I wanna encourage you this week, take this booklet home, spend some time before the Lord, praying, asking, what would you have me grow in this year? What sacrifices can I make to become more like Jesus or to be more used by Jesus in this body and in the world?
Speaker 1:Because Jesus intends for his mission, again, to be fulfilled through you and me and through the church. Let's look back just for a second to train or trace this chain. That was harder to say than I thought it was gonna be. Trace this chain of cause and effect in these verses one more time. Verse 11 says that Jesus gives the church leaders whose main work is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Speaker 1:So the heart of this passage is not that the church staff or the pastors do the work of ministry, not for the church, but with the church. That ministry is not something the church staff does. It's something that the whole church does. That means that you are a minister just like me. You are called by God to teach and admonish God's people just like Joel Brooks is.
Speaker 1:You are called to stir up one another towards love and good deeds just like Dwight Castle and Josh Howson. You are called to be at work towards the redemption of all things. That God has said in verse 7 here that you have been given a gift by his grace. And the reason that you have been given that gift is that you would use that gift to build up the body that he has called you to participate in for its good and for the good of the world. That means that there's a part of the mission that God has given to this church that only you are meant to fulfill.
Speaker 1:There's a space on the canvas of God's glorious redemption where he intends to use you as his paintbrush. This process of being built up together, of maturing and making disciples and seeing the world transformed, It's painful at times. And it's certainly going slower than a lot of us would like. Right? But one day, we will be unified.
Speaker 1:One day, we will be mature. One day, we will have all knowledge, and one day, the mission of Jesus will forever be complete. One day, we will be united with people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation, from all history, everyone who has placed their trust in the finished work of Jesus. We will be together forever in the presence of God and we will be forever mature. We will struggle with sin no more.
Speaker 1:We will weep no more and there will be no more sorrow. We will have full knowledge because we will see him face to face and we will know him even as we are known. One day, this mission will be fulfilled because the gospel will have gone to the ends of the earth and the new Jerusalem will come down from heaven and it will restore all things. And we together will get to feast in the very house of Zion as Jesus' own bride, dressed and adorned with his own righteousness, he himself will prepare a feast before us and serve us and will be welcomed into the marriage supper of the lamb and our God will make his home with us forever. That is impossibly good news.
Speaker 1:Right? That is worth making any sacrifice for so that we will be there on that day. And as our band comes back out, as we proclaim together the goodness and the certainty that we will feast in the house of Zion, I wanna encourage you to pray with eyes and hearts and hopes that are fixed on him, committing to obey God's will, trusting that no matter what he calls you to do, it will be for your good and for his glory. Committing that we would labor together in God's great reclamation project to rescue this world from sin and death, committing to be a messenger of his good news, not only with your lips, but your life, and committing whatever it means for us to work together for one another's unity and knowledge and maturity until that day where we, with one voice, can dance and sing and in complete harmony be restored to sing the praise of God's glorious grace. Let's pray.
Speaker 1:Father of mercy, you have been impossibly good to us. We wanna praise you and make sure that you know that we know how good you've been to us. And we pray that you would grant us We ask that you would use us to make known your great power and your grace to the ends of the earth, that you would fulfill your mission so that we would get to be with you forever. We pray these things through Jesus our lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.