He Gave Us Gifts (Ephesians 4:7-13)

How much work do you think we do as a congregation? If you could get together all of the individuals who are doing work and somehow quantify their effort, how big would it be compared to the congregation down the road? I don't think it would be that bad. I think we have some fantastic workers in this congregation. But what if you took that number, whatever it is, and compared it to the work of Christ's body throughout history. Are we even close to the first-century church? You might say, "I have no idea." That's fair. It's tough to tell by reading letters. But the explosiveness of the church in the first century tells us that they were massively evangelistic and turning the world upside down. Why can't we do that? What if we could find out their trade secrets? In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us the secret behind their explosiveness is three-fold.

Our studies have revolved around the question, "How do we resonate God's glory?" That's our mission. That's what we should be striving after every day as we realize all of the blessings he has given us. Chapters 1-3 of Ephesians have clearly described God's blessings toward us in making us his children, saving us from death, and giving us the calling to be the temple of God. Paul tells us repeatedly that he did all of that so that we might be "to the praise of his glory." But now, we are starting to understand how we can walk worthy of the calling. Here is the trade secret that Paul is sharing with us. We demonstrate God's glory through unity.

Unity Reviewed (Ephesians 4:1-6)

In the last three sermons, we have seen Paul discuss the idea of unity from the first six verses in Ephesians. So far, we have learned that unity is made possible when our attitudes are humble, gentle, patient, and bearing with one another in love. That means that we should not find the "My way or the highway" attitude among us. When we are eager to maintain unity, we are not eager to divide. That should be the last thing we want to happen. Paul tells us that we are all united under the work of Christ. I don't get the impression that we really can divide. In Christ, there is one body, one Spirit, one hope that belongs to our call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. We have all of these in common to unite us. All of these things bring us together.

But I want us to notice before we begin our study this morning that Paul does not say we have one heritage, one ethnicity, one way of doing things, one methodology for everything, one opinion about everything, or one gift given to all. We are all very different people with these seven things in common. So there is a sense in which unity has been given to us, and all we have to do is maintain it.

One common misconception we can have is to believe that unity means we all look alike and believe everything in the same way. We don't see how easy it is for us to add to the list of ones. He does not say one opinion about paint color. We aren't supposed to assimilate and become duplicates of each other. That would be nice. It would make life easier in some ways, but imagine how selective we would become on who can join us. That's not the gospel. In the text we will study this morning, we learn how God helps us maintain unity while being different.

Attaining Unity With Differences (Ephesians 4:7-13)

Gifts

Ephesians 4:7 (ESV) --- 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Notice that he begins with "But" after telling us we are all a part of the seven ones. He says, "But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift." At first glance, this sounds like saving grace being given to each one of us. But, as we continue, we see that the gifts of Christ are gifts like apostles, prophets, evangelists, elders, and teachers (11). The point is that Christ has graciously given different gifts to the different people in his body. The word "But" indicates that Christ has given us unique gifts, although we are all sharing these seven things in common. We are not all the same. There is some measure of gifting that God has given you personally.

Ephesians 4:8--11 (ESV) --- 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 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 shepherds and teachers,

To illustrate this, Paul takes us back to Psalm 68. This is a Psalm of David's where God is portrayed as the victor over his enemies. The Psalm's point is that God delivers his people from their enemies and brings them to his holy hill, Jerusalem. They, in response to this deliverance, sing praises and glorify their God. They respond to God's blessing by praising and glorifying God. They give God gifts.

Paul looks at that Psalm and says, that's what Christ has done for us, and that's what we are supposed to do in response, using our abilities and gifts to serve God. But he says that Jesus saves us from our captivity and gives us gifts that we can use to glorify God. We don't have gifts to give without Christ's help. This text tells us that Jesus humbled himself by descending to earth, freeing us from captivity (took captivity captive), and ascended on high while pouring gifts out on us. The imagery is of a king defeating his enemies and carrying us with him to the heavenly Jerusalem. On the way, he shares with us the plunder and gives us gifts---what a neat picture for us to understand what Jesus has done.

What gift did Jesus give you? To some, he gave the gifts of apostleship and prophesied. Back in 2:20, Paul said that the church (temple of God) was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. These are gifts that he gave to establish the foundation of the church. The Holy Spirit inspired these men to teach us how we might glorify God. Their message was started by the teachings of Christ and completed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

After apostles and prophets, he mentions evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. These are members of the body devoted to teaching people all that the apostles and prophets revealed by the Holy Spirit. These men were given gifts so that they could do their work to the glory of God. Apostles and prophets provided us with the faith that was once and for all delivered. Now men are given gifts to share that faith so that every generation knows how to glorify God.

Where do you fall into all of this? Some men here may have the gift of being an evangelist, shepherd, or teacher. If Christ has given you that gift, what are you doing with it? The body needs your gift to function. Maybe you hear this and believe you have one of these gifts, or maybe you don't know. Why don't you talk to someone about it? What if you don't have any of those gifts? Does that mean you are useless in the body? That's what many people act like. Notice that these gifts are given to fulfill one purpose, but other gifts are too numerous to count.

Ephesians 4:12--13 (ESV) --- 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, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

The working of the evangelists, shepherds, and teachers is intended to help every other part of the body work. We need evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to devote themselves to equipping saints for ministry work. If you have that gift, we need you to use it. We need shepherds to devote themselves to leading the flock. We need teachers who can equip others so they can build up the body. But we need ministers of many different types. In this congregation, we have inviters, greeters, friend makers, home sharers, burden bearers, encouragers, organizers, resource managers, creators, prayer warriors, contributors, and overall servants. We need all of these gifts and ministries working at peak performance. We need each inviter to be working together so that they can refine their inviting skills. We need burden bearers for our burden bearers. We need supporters for our teachers. We need every part of the body to do its share. Why? So we can "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."

In Acts 1:1, we learn that the gospel Luke was about all that Jesus began to do and teach. As we read through the book of Acts, we learn that it is about all that Jesus continued to do and teach through his apostles and his body of believers.

Attaining Unity

When we hear that the goal is to "attain to the unity of the faith," what does this mean to you? Many times in scripture, we find that we have been given something, but we are striving as though we don't have it yet. This is one of those cases. Back in verse 3, Paul hinted at this when he said we are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How can we maintain something we haven't yet attained? There is a sense in which unity has been given to us, and we just need to maintain it. But there is also a sense in which we are all very different people with different opinions, different gifts, and different ways of doing things. There is a sense in which we have to work hard to attain the unity that God created us to have.

Creating Growth

Okay, so how do we attain unity? We attain unity by talking about our differences and living with one another in an understanding way. That is how we grow. Since I've been here, I have heard minimal concerns being expressed. I hope that is not because we are suppressing our concerns? I hope we aren't grumbling and complaining to one another instead of asking questions with a desire to attain unity. If you are concerned about anything I'm doing, you are always welcome to talk to me about it. But please don't come to me looking for a fight.

I also hope that those questions will be met with patience and love. Peter tells men to live with their spouse in an understanding way so that their prayers will not be hindered, but then he says this to everyone.

1 Peter 3:8--9 (ESV) --- 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

God called us to have unity with one another by being patient and understanding toward one another like Christ is patient toward us. This is the same thing Paul said in Ephesians 4:1-2. We are supposed to be humble in mind, not proud. If we believe pride is justified and that my way is the only way, this will never promote unity. Churches don't divide due to some doctrinal disagreement. I know that is what it seems like, but churches divide over pride and arrogance as they handle doctrinal differences. Are we all seeking to attain the knowledge of the Son of God? Then, we must assume the best in one another and study to agree. In Romans 12, Paul said outdo one another in showing honor. I don't honor you by accusing you of something you haven't done! Instead of dividing, we must strive for unity. If I have a difference with you, the last thing I want to happen is for us to be separated from one another. I want us to work it out.

Ultimately, Paul tells us that if we focus on working together and loving each other, we can grow to be like Christ. That is our calling, brethren. Jesus has given us gifts to equip one another and work together. When you look more closely at verse 13, you will see several parallel statements. First, we have "the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God." Second, Paul says, "to mature manhood." Third, we have "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Spiritual maturity and growth are not just about knowing the truth doctrinally (One body, one Spirit, one hope of our call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father). It's also about learning to work together and knowing the loving nature of Christ so that we act like him.

I read an email from a member who expressed concern over an issue at this church. His words were so good I have to share them. He said, "I have several concerns but wanted to make sure that I am not being unjustly harsh or un-Christian." Brethren, if we approach every concern with that attitude, we will never divide. If we seek to understand the ways of Jesus together, we will unite in our beliefs and grow to become what God wants us to be. We are blessed with many tools to accomplish this. Some are better than others.

Conclusion

Christ has given us more grace than we deserve. We have access to salvation and a perpetual sacrifice to cover our sins. That would be enough, but God has also given us a calling to be to the praise of his glory. To accomplish this, Jesus has given gifts to men. This is the "trade secret" that the first-century church knew, and they used their gifts in harmony to create unparalleled spiritual growth. We can do the same thing, but we need to learn how to work together, and we need more people to use their gifts. Some have gifts that equip others to work, but most are gifted in some specialized ministry. The first question we must ask ourselves is, "What is my gift?" Then, we must ask ourselves, "How can I use it to serve the body?" We need every part to do its share because each person here brings something unique to the group. If you don't do your part, the whole group will suffer.

Then, Paul tells us that these different ministries need to work in unison. We need to encourage each other and build up the body of Christ. We don't want to hinder one another. Our goal is to attain unity in our ministries to work together because being the body of Christ on the earth is bigger than any one person. Attaining unity is not an easy thing, but it is the only way for us to grow. We have to talk to one another about our differences with understanding and love. In the final part of this, we will look at a few threats to unity. Tonight, we will look at 1 Corinthians and see a church struggling with divisions to understand better how we can overcome any divisions we might face in this group.