Wonderful words we just sang. Amen. No condemnation now, I dread. Amazing love. If you would please take God's Word and turn to Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to be looking at verses 15 and 16 here this morning and coming to the last part of what is probably the, at least arguably, the most important passage on the church in the Bible, Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. It's the only passage in the Bible where the word pastor is used. There's a very timely study in the life of our church and our leaders as we have been studying and working to define the role of pastors and elders and others in the church. We've shared with you that as elders, we are prayerfully pursuing an associate pastor, another shepherd to help us lead our flock here, as we shared with you a few months ago. As a full-time pastor, ideally to work alongside me as our church has grown beyond what we as elders can Support, uh, jerry is Becoming more full-time at providence christian school. He is still going to be continuing as our music director, which we're very thankful for he's going to be part-time staff, which we're very thankful for but not serving in the role of elder or pastor and We are very helpful for his support through this process and we are supporting him through this process but we ask for your prayer your prayer support for us as we This next week are going down to shepherds conference and we are gonna be meeting with and talking with some men from down there and we would ask for your prayer for us for our guidance in this very important process as we think about these things as we think about what is a Pastor to do. What is the job description of a pastor? What are we to look for in a pastor? Some of you actually asked me that what is the job description? What are some of the things you're looking for? Well, you could go on the internet and you could see what the ideal minister is. Maybe some of you have heard this before. The ideal minister preaches only 10 to 20 minutes, but he thoroughly expounds the whole counsel of God in every sermon. He condemns sin and social issues, but he manages to never offend anyone or never hurt anybody's feelings. He works from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. every day, but he always spends quality time with his family. His family is always perfect in deportment and dress and demeanor. He is 36 years old, he's the perfect age. 36 years old, but get this, he has 40 years of experience in pastoral ministry. The perfect minister is passionately committed to young people and families and he spends tons of time with elderly believers. He smiles constantly with a straight face. because he has a sense of humor that keeps him serious in his ministry. He visits 15 homes each day and he is always evangelizing the lost, but he is never out of the office if you call there or if you stop by to see him. So we'll let you know how this goes. We'll continue to search for this because we obviously haven't found it yet. There are all kinds of ideas about what a minister is to do and be, but of course we need to look to inspired scripture and not to the Internet. In Ephesians 4, 11 through 12 is God's job description of what a pastor is to be. A pastor is a shepherd, that's how it's translated in the ESV, a shepherd who teaches and equips the church to fulfill its calling in ministry. That's what we're looking for. We're looking for someone who is a shepherd, first and foremost, to help lead and feed and equip and teach the sheep. Pastors aren't to do all or even most of the work of ministry. Verse 12 makes very clear. I am not the minister of this church. I am a minister, and so are you, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Biblically, all of us are ministers in the sense that verse 12 is talking about. And verse 16, as we're going to see today, says each of us has a part in the ministry, in the building up of the body. There is only one ideal minister. There is only one perfect shepherd, and he's at the end of verse 15, and his name is Christ. I want to read once again his plan for his church. I want to start back in verse 11. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, I'm reading from the ESV, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ now verse 16 comes back to this 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. This is the building up of the body in love. I'm calling this the ministry of body building. I'm not talking about the Lord's gym and I'm not talking about a new weightlifter outreach at the sports club next door to our church there. I do try to be a good witness when I play basketball there, but by bodybuilding ministry, I don't mean what maybe some of you think of a bunch of big guys on stage flexing their muscles and grunting and smashing things with their foreheads and then saying, repent or God will smash you or something like that. I'm not talking, of course, about physical bodybuilding. Although scripture does say bodily exercise is of some value, but spiritual, godly discipline is far greater, Paul says. He's talking about spiritual bodybuilding in verse 16. Building up of the body of Christ, and in the end of verse 12 also. And there are some parallels, because there is hard work involved in this process, just like physical exercise. No pain, no gain is somewhat of what Paul is saying in 1 Timothy 4 verse 7. We are to take great pains. We are to work out. I believe the word is the word we get gymnasium from. It also requires daily intake of food and fuel that each part of the body needs and of course that comes from the Word of God. The weight gainer, if you will, is the weight of God's Word that keeps us from being blown around in verse 14 as it talks about the winds of doctrine, how they will blow away those who are not stable and strong. Spiritual bodybuilding also needs commitment, and it needs consistent, regular exercise of each part, each muscle being worked out, not just certain ones, or the body will become disproportionate or imbalanced. If you were to just work out one part of the body, as some do, the body becomes imbalanced. The spiritual bodybuilding also needs the encouragement of coaches or trainers, if you will, partners who will spot for us spiritually, who will help us to lift more weight together than we could on our own. Those who are there to jump in and to help us so that the weight doesn't all fall on us and crush us. It's very important. People spend big money, by the way, on top of sports club fees for personal trainers for this very reason, because of this principle behind verse 16 that we need others in this sort of process. If it's just up to us on our own, we will not develop as we could with a trainer, with a partner, with accountability and with discipline. That's true even with some of the greatest Olympians. And it's true spiritually and building up the body of Christ. And there's two aspects of this in verse 15 and 16. I want to look at it. It starts with the head of the body. And then he moves in verse 16 to the health of the body. So the head of the body and then the health of the body. Middle of verse 15 says, as we speak the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head and that is Christ. And we need to start here. Because unless we are in Christ, unless we are vitally connected to Him, unless we have life in Him and through Him, Unless we are in His body, unless we are doing as our head directs us, we will not grow, we will not be built up. If you're not committed to Christ here this morning as your head, as your authority, if you are cutting yourself off from the head, you're not going to be able to hear and benefit from this message spiritually any more than the ear that Peter cut off from the ear of Malchus that we heard about earlier in our scripture reading, any more than that ear could hear. Physically as it's lying there on the ground because it was disconnected from the head you could talk all you Would want to to that ear that is lying there on the ground But it is not going to be able to hear because it doesn't have life and it is not connected to the head But of course, you know the story there that Jesus picked up that ear and he Supernaturally set that ear back in place in the body and that body part could then function Because it was connected to the head Jesus also gives us ears to hear spiritually. And as his truth and love comes to us who are connected by faith to Christ as our head, this is the way that verse 15 says we grow into him. And as we are, as Christ puts us in his body, there is an actual life that pulses and comes through us in a way beyond any human doctor could. But I want to say to you first, if Jesus is not your head, if he is not... The word head means ruler, it means authority. If he is not the authority of your life, then... It really isn't. You're not going to get a lot more from this message here unless you come to the place where you repent and you submit yourself under him today as your Lord and as your head is the one that you take your orders from and that you respond to as a part of the body does to the head. And so I would tell you first and foremost, if Jesus is not your head, repent, trust in him today. You see, this idea of the word head involves a couple different things right here in Ephesians. If you go back to chapter one, verse 22, the first thing that head involves and implies is submission of the body. Head means or implies submission of the body. Chapter one, verse 22 says, he put all things under his feet, this is Christ's feet, and gave him as head over all things in the church, which is his body. This is obviously the headship, the authority of Christ to the church. The church is his body. He is the authority over the church. Now look at chapter 5, verse 22. Familiar passage. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body. This is in the context of submission to the head. And verse 24 says, the church submits to Christ. So this is the first aspect of what the word head means, probably the dominant meaning of this word. And head also means in the same passage, savior and sustainer of life and growth. The idea of a head also involves that it is the savior and the sustainer of life and growth. Savior, of course, in the sense of where the life comes from. Look at the middle of chapter five, verse 23, and the rest of it says, Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. And then verse 29 explains this analogy further for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it Just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body and so the analogy is very clear just like we Want to take care of different parts of our body and nourish and care for them and cherish them That's what Christ wants to do to his body So he is the authority but he is a loving authority and he is the the sustainer of life and growth to the body the head This is true physiologically, provides and is essential to the life and the growth of each member of the body. When you become a member of a local church body, this is really the spiritual reality that is being expressed there, that you're making visible. Membership in a church body is a tangible, practical, outward expression of what this is expressing spiritually. It's another way to communicate what verse 25 of chapter 4 says at the end there. It says, we are members of one another. To be members of one another in a body of Christ helps facilitate Ephesians 4, 15 through 16 taking place. But let me be very clear, becoming a church member itself does not produce growth automatically. It is only a platform for it. And it is a platform for using your gifts in greater ways as we want people to be members here, to serve in certain roles. We want to make sure that those who are serving in certain roles agree with our doctrine and they're in submission to our Leadership and our philosophy of ministry here. It's really a simple way that Christ's headship can be manifested in a local church by our submitting to what he has set up for our spiritual life and growth and Good see Jesus is the head of the church in verse 15 of chapter 4 He is the head shepherd and under his authority. He has given a church under shepherds in verse 11 When you put yourself under shepherds and under the accountability in a flock among shepherds there, when you are joining a church, you are saying, making a statement in essence to our individualistic and consumeristic world that I am not hopping or shopping, I am settling here. This is my family that I want to commit to in that way. And I want the accountability that Ephesians 4, 15 is talking about. I'm inviting that into my life. I am a sheep desiring shepherding. in verse 11. I'm a body part that is connected to other body parts and I'm related to the same head in this particular church body here. And you're saying to others, in essence, I commit to you. I want to give and I want to be a part of this body. But the point in Ephesians 4, 15 through 16 is that our being connected, we'll come back to our connection with each other, but our being connected first and foremost and coming under the headship of Christ and his church is where that life comes from and where it grows because the church isn't an organization like other organizations. It is a living organism. It is a body with members and with parts that are active if it is healthy. Just having a membership on paper in a gym, for example, doesn't automatically make you strong physically any more than being a church member on paper automatically makes you strong spiritually. Mere membership by itself doesn't do it. It's only a platform to work out. But think about that gym analogy again. Going to a gym to watch others work out for one morning a week for an hour and 15 minutes isn't going to do it for your physical body. nor will it on Sunday morning at church for one hour and 15 minutes. A healthy body must exercise often, not just pay its dues at the beginning of each month, which takes us from the head to the health of the body. After mentioning Christ as head at the end of verse 15, verse 16 continues, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every point with which it is equipped when each part is working properly Paul says, that's what makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. One translation says the whole body is healthy and growing. And that's somewhat of a paraphrase, but that really captures the basic idea of this passage here. This is the building up spiritually of the body. And it occurs and how it occurs in health and growth. It's true in the physical body, these things, and it's true in the spiritual body. I'm not an expert on physiology, but I understand the pituitary gland and the human growth hormone and some of the interactions and various things flow out from our brain and from our head, obviously. And those are essential things for us to grow. And when those get out of sync, it affects our growth. It's obviously through the head that we Breathe in the air that we need to be alive that allows the body to live. It is through the head and its mouth that we eat the food that is essential and drink the water that is essential for our body to be alive. And the head directs the entire body if it is healthy and functioning. Same is true spiritually through Christ as we breathe out our prayers, as we feed on the word of Christ, as he directs his body and as we respond. We just sang in that hymn, And Can It Be. Alive in Him, my living head. That's exactly what Paul is talking about here. We are alive in Him. He is our living head. The from whom at the start of the verse reminds us it is from the head of the body, it is from Christ that we live and move and have our being as Paul says elsewhere. It is from Him and through Him and to Him. that all things flow. Brian Chapel writes, the image of the human body with all its parts coordinated and enabled by the head is more than an ancient anatomy lesson. This is a timely warning of the human reflex that we must always guard against. That reflex is to try to do God's work in our own strength. To exercise God's gifts without dependence upon the Savior, our living head we just sang about. It's easy, he says, to work so hard to provide for our families that we neglect to pray. To become so busy in making sure our children perform well that we slight the spouse God sent to support us. Or to become so accustomed to depending on our gifts that we do not stop to depend upon the one who gives them. I know what it is like to hit the ground running at the beginning of the day and to think about a thousand things more than we think about the Savior. Or as a crisis comes, or something comes up, to attack it immediately with my own wisdom before I seek the Lord. This is a very convicting thing for me, and I need to keep going back to what Jesus taught in John 15, that our life comes only by being connected to Him. For apart from Him, I can do nothing. Brian Chapel continues. One of the most important events in my life occurred when I went to visit the pastor of a very large church to ask his advice about a leadership issue. During our lunch in a crowded restaurant, I asked him my question. He started to answer and then stopped himself. You know, he said, this is an important issue. Before we talk about it, we need to pray about it. And right there in that restaurant, in a way that broke our routine and turned attention away from Himself and his experience or his wisdom this pastor with great gifts prayed before answering my question And he writes I try to remember his words often before we talk about it. We need to pray about it And I want you to know this is something that I am being convicted about and I pray God will continue to work in my heart in this way in years as well Order of this passage here verses 15 and 16 reminds us of the order we must have in our own life and And one way to show our dependence upon our head and our submission to our head is by our prayer to our Lord. So that's where we need to start. But this passage goes on to say that we also need each other. We keep that in the right order, but we also realize that we are placed in a body for a reason. That's what verse 16 goes on to talk about. We need Christ first and foremost. And one of the ways that Christ gives his grace to us is through his body. Verse 16 really is a rebuke to all individualism and independence because it reminds us we are dependent on Christ and we are also interdependent on others in his church. We are interconnected members of the same body. I think the main point of this passage is simple enough to understand but some of the Most technical and exegetical commentators struggle for pages to really grasp the depth of what Paul is saying here. And I can't pretend that I have exhausted it. Martin Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor. He was a surgeon who knew the human body well before he became a pastor. And when he was teaching on this, he was explaining how God's word describes the workings of the body. And he says on verse 16, this is undoubtedly one of the most complicated statements the apostle Paul ever wrote. Close quote. And he points out how some of the church fathers who actually spoke Greek and lived very close to the time of Paul, they struggled to really understand some of the nuances of what he was saying, grasping the language. Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, said, if I had to preach fully and accurately upon all that is taught in this text, I should certainly need to deliver a course of sermons, say, five or six at the least. There is such a wonderful depth of meaning in these inspired words that I might just keep on expounding them and all the while be like one who is taking water out of the ocean. Always wondering that there's so much more left than I can possibly draw from. Another writer says, this passage is as compacted as the joints of which it speaks. There is much connecting thought that is compressed here, packed into the smallest possible space. And let me say, if Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, didn't think he could exhaust the fullness of this passage in several sermons, I'm not gonna be able to do it in the next several minutes. Let's try and draw out some of these truths and begin to understand some of the things that are being said here with God's help. And I would put it under three points here. The first point is that the whole body is joined. The whole body is joined. If you have the ESV, the New King James, NIV, it says something like this, from whom the whole body is joined. The Amplified Bible adds closely joined. Amplifying that this joining here is a is a close intimate Joining Kenneth Weiss captures the present tense of this participle in the Greek. We are constantly being joined closely together The NASB captures that this way we are being fitted Another translation has united and that certainly fits with the context in verse 3 where it says we are bound together and The idea is we're bound like a chain. We're bound inseparably to each other. If you take out one link of that chain, it's going to cause a problem. We are bound in that sort of way and we're to preserve the unity of the Spirit in this bond, this bond of peace. For there is one body, verse 4. That's not the first time the phrase one body is mentioned. If you go back to chapter 2, verse 16, Paul was speaking about how God joined Jews and Gentiles in, he uses the phrase one body. through the cross by destroying what had separated them. and making not just one body, but making one new man. That's what verses 15 to 16 in chapter two say. Because of the cross, those who have put their faith and trust in Christ, they've not only been reconciled to God, but they have been brought together and united to each other. They are united to Christ inseparably, and they are to be united that same way and express that here on earth with other believers, despite the earthly divisions that separate unredeemed people. In verse 22 of chapter 2, the same Greek word that's translated join in chapter 4 is used. It's the only other place in the Bible that word joined is used. And here it's translated, in my Bible, built together like a physical building or like a physical structure. This is the word as you would get things that would fit perfectly when you were building and doing construction work. They need to be fitly framed. They need to be joined together. And if things get out of whack or imbalanced, it causes problems for the whole structure. And in chapter four, that word is applied to the structure of the human body. This also, this body building that Christ does in the body of Christ is something that also requires great skill. Think of a doctor who might need to make a prosthetic limb today, something that will fit perfectly. And he forms it. He forms that body part to function and to fit closely together so that it will function. The difference is when Jesus does that, that actually becomes a living part of our body. How many of you have had a knee or a hip replaced? You want to show of hands? All right, I see that hand. Is there another? All right, there's another hand there. I see that hand. All right, a few of you in here. Knee or a hip replaced. And you know, I mean, it's really an amazing thing that we're at this day and age where doctors can do that and the technology continues to grow. My mom's knee replacements was a different technology than people just a few years before her. But it's an amazing thing that We can understand the body to the point where we can put parts in there, and they don't work exactly like the original parts necessarily, but when God does this, it works perfectly, and it works even better than anything that we can do. Our great physician, when he joins us into the body, just like as he joined that ear back to the head of Malchus, he makes those parts come alive. The whole body is joined is the first thing, and then the second thing is that the whole body has joints holding it together. So the whole body is joined and the whole body also has joints holding it together. The ESV says in chapter 4 verse 16, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. The New American Standard says, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies. And many of the commentators believe the joints are the pastors and the teachers from verse 11. There's a special role in equipping and supplying the rest of the body. They have an important task to help hold together. Others are not so sure of that interpretation. Here's what one footnote of one study Bible says, the Greek participle translated held together also has in different contexts the idea of teaching implied in it. And it certainly may not be limited to those in verse 11, but it seems to speak, some translations even say it's not the word joints, but it's the word ligaments. Joints and ligaments, of course, are a little bit different, even though there's some overlap there. When a ligament goes out, it has a devastating effect. My wife, Jamie, a week after we got engaged, her ACL and MCL ligaments were torn. And I didn't really know much about ligaments. She called me on the phone, told me what happened, and in my denseness I said, so does this mean we're not going out tonight? Remember that? We weren't going out for quite a while, actually. But it was actually a great thing in God's providence as I was able to care for her when she needed total support before we were Mary, but when a ligament like that goes out, it has a devastating immobilizing effect. In my teen years, I was growing so fast that I actually developed a medical problem because my bones and my ligaments and my muscles weren't growing in sync with each other. And I actually hobbled around for a couple of weeks. I had to support my knee with a knee brace when I would play sports. I was actually told not to play sports or that there was a risk of me playing sports. But verse 16 is using a very similar word to a support, something that supports and holds together at those joints or where those ligaments are. Our body is critically held together in joints and ligaments and connections is kind of the most basic meaning of this word. It's the idea of any, it can mean those things, but it can also mean any connecting contact point, whether it's a joint or a ligament, tendon, flesh, muscle, bone, all those different things. One preacher from the south divided his church into five types of bones. He says there are the wish bones of the church. There are people who are always wishing for better things, but they're not willing to work and pray for them and be part of the solution. There are the jaw bones of the church. Any guesses what those are? the jaws that just keep talking, keep gossiping about things that aren't their business. There are the funny bones of the church, those who like that bone in the elbow when it gets hit on something and it just, it just really affects you if you hit it just right. It just might even be a little, a little hit, but it has a, it really, you're touchy. There's a nerve there. There's people who are like that also in the church. There are dry bones, he says. There are those who are very orthodox, but they are dead as fossils. And then there are the backbones of the church. There are those who are the spiritual support of the church that keeps the body standing. And what Paul's talking about here goes beyond just one part of our internal body. It's obviously the bone structure, the skeletal structure, the vascular system, the muscles, everything is important. And that's what brings us to our last point here. Point number three, the whole body needs you to join and do your part. The whole body needs you to join and do your part. We are a part of the body. The question is, are we functioning in the body? Spiritual bodybuilding and spiritual growth needs your part in this last part of verse 16. According, it says, to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. The New King James translates it, the effective working by which every part does its share. and another has, under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly as each part does its own special work. It helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing. The doctor, Martin Lloyd-Jones, helps me out here, commenting on how medically, by the inspiration of God, Paul, who was writing over 1,900 years ago, seems to have anticipated modern physiology. And the human body, the head contains the brain. And many people in ancient times thought differently than the way Paul presents it through the inspiration of God, the way we understand it of course now. The head contains the brain. The whole nervous system of the body comes originally from the brain and is connected to it. The smallest nerve or nerve tendril in the tip of your finger can be traced back to the brain. And it all goes back first into the spinal cord, which in turn is connected by these strands of nerves to the brain, which is the highest center of all that contains everything. If you should suddenly, he says, develop a very acute infection in the tip of your little finger, you could soon find that it begins to throb and it could give terrible pain. And if it's not Treated you might even become ill you might only not develop pains all over your body You could become delirious and you could come to the point of being incapable of using Your brain if if there is a disease in your little finger that is producing poisoning and paralysis it affects the entire body And we could of course multiply those analogies many different ways, but he applies it this way. Are you? causing pain or trouble in other parts of the body by being diseased, by being sinful, by being lethargic. When parts don't get used very much and you use those parts, your body hurts. We know this, don't we? I am much more sore now at the age of 36 after playing basketball than I was at the age of 20 if I don't stretch before playing. And I know I'm not gonna get much sympathy from any of you in this room here. But my body is not in the same shape that it used to be because I'm not exercising it like I should and like I need. I was telling someone just recently, it's not a good sign when I'm already breathing heavy and in pain when I'm just stretching, getting ready to go out there on the court. I haven't even warmed up yet. But if I have, by myself, I really don't have a motivation to do a lot of exercise, but if there is a team, there's a bunch of guys gathering together to run up and down and to play, I am much more motivated to get out there. I don't do very good running alone, disciplining myself. Some people do better than I can, but the Lord in general has designed our body and has designed his body to exercise best in conjunction with others. And even those, as I said earlier, like Olympians, who have that great internal drive, they still need someone else to push them to be all that they could be. But we need to keep in mind, as the end of this verse says, the motivation and the means needs to be in love. The end of verse 60, not in legalistic exercise routines. Warren Wiersbe says, love is the circulatory system of the body. It has been discovered that isolated, unloved babies do not grow properly and are especially susceptible to disease, while babies who are loved and handled grow normally and are stronger. So it is with the children of God. I want you to turn forward to Colossians 2, where there's some similar language used, and if we had the time, we could look at Paul's longest explanation of the body analogy in 1 Corinthians 12, and we could notice how it also ends, or comes to, the longest passage on love in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. I like how Colossians 2 says it. He says that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love. We are to be knit together in love. Those are the same words that Ephesians 4, 16 uses. And it reminds me of Psalm 139. Remember that passage? You knit me together in my mother's womb. And that's the idea there. God has not only knit together our physical body in the womb, but he, when we are born again, he has knit us together spiritually. wonderful image and we're knit together in love. Colossians 2 19 says also we must be holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from God. And this really brings together the same thing he's talking about in Ephesians that spiritual growth is from God It involves every other body part. We're joined with each other. And if a body part is not used, it atrophies. If a body part doesn't respond to the head, if you're wanting your leg or your arm or your finger or any part of your body to do something and it doesn't respond, there's a problem that can cause paralysis. It could be a symptom of a greater problem going on in the body. And that's the analogy here. Every part needs to be active. If you don't function the way God has intended you to function, the rest of the body loses something. It's not just about you, it is about the body that Christ has put you in. And if you don't do the part that he intended when he puts you in that body, it affects the rest of the body. When one part of the body suffers, other parts of the body suffer with it as well, is another aspect of that. And this word for the active working of each part in the Greek is the word that we get energized from. I don't know if any of you remember the Energizer battery commercials from years past. You remember the character? Remember the motto? It was a bunny. Energizer bunny. And the bunny would just keep, he'd show up on the commercial and he'd just keep hitting his drum again and again. He would just keep playing his part again and again and again. Nothing would stop him. He would keep going and going and going and going. And that's the word here. We are to be playing our part. We're to keep going in the part that God has given to us. We are to keep going in God's unending, energizing love for the body. Harold Hohner, in his exegetical commentary on Ephesians, explains the present tense of these participles indicates a continuous action. And in the passive voice, what this means is that we are recipients of God's grace. We don't just do this on our own. We grow by being carefully fitted and held together. We don't grow individually apart from one another. The whole body functions together as the individual parts contribute. The union and the growth of the body can only come where there is interaction or contact between members as the gifts are exercised. Each member of the body has been gifted and as each member utilizes the gifts as he or she makes contact or connection with other members of the body, that's how growth occurs. It's analogous to the human body where each cell is an entity to itself but is not in isolation from the rest. And he explains the emphasis of the grammar is on the individual's responsibility to do his or her part and not depend on others to do the work of ministry. Nor to think that he or she, one part, is to do all the work of the ministry. In Paul's body analogy, if the liver cells are more active than for what they are designed, they will ultimately do harm to the body. If the liver cells stop functioning, The body will suffer dire consequences since other body parts cannot replace their function. Even in the fifth century, 500 years before Paul wrote this, Hippocrates remarked that good health proceeds when the various parts of the body function proportionately to one another and he used the same adverb that Paul uses here in the Greek language. Pain occurs when one of the parts is in defect or excess or when it is isolated from the body. If we don't function, we're hurting the body. Casting Crowns asked it this way, if we are the body, why aren't his arms reaching? Why aren't his hands healing? Why aren't his words teaching? If we are the body, why aren't his feet going? Why is his love not showing them there is a way? If we are the body of Christ, we will respond to our head bleeding. If we are the body of Christ, let me say it another way. If we are the body of Christ because we are in Christ by grace, through faith, by His doing, not by our doing, but He has brought us into His body and made us a part of His body, we can look at it another way. If we are His body, then praise God that His love will not let us go. Someone once said to an old preacher, isn't it wonderful to be close to God and safe in the arms of Jesus? And the old preacher said to him, I know of something even better. This person was thinking, what could possibly be better than being close and being in the arms of Jesus? He says, I'm not just in the arms of Jesus. I am part of the arm of Jesus. I am a part of the arm of Jesus. I'm part of the body of Christ. I am not just in his care, I am in him. I am an inseparable part of him. Christ doesn't amputate and throw away his body parts. I couldn't possibly be any nearer and his inseparable union with me couldn't possibly be any clearer than this image. So praise God for the body. Praise God that if we are in Christ, we will never be cut off. And praise God that when we are not functioning as we should be, there are other parts next to us that God has intended to help us and to compensate for that and to bring us back into our functioning health and praise God for the other people around us that he intends to do that. Praise God for this body right here that he has put together in a marvelous way. Praise God for the head Jesus Christ. Praise God for his direction to us that is so clear in his word and may we apply his word. Praise God for the body, amen? Amen, let me pray. Our Lord, we want to just praise You for Your body. We want to ask, Lord, that You would help this church body to reflect the spiritual reality of this passage more and more. And Lord, we pray this not for our sake, but to Your name be the glory, as this passage makes so clear it's not about us, it is about Christ and it's about His body and how His body here on earth reflects to our watching world spiritual realities in a way that bring glory to our head. Jesus Christ, may we be alive in him, our living head. And Lord, as we seek to apply this passage, may we never forget that if we are in Christ, that we are inseparably joined to him. Your love will not let us go and you love us too much to let us go our own way and to be isolated from your people nor we thank you for that love that brings us back and that brings us here. We pray that your love as we speak the truth in love to each other would be manifested through your body here in this church in this place. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.