We will return now to the ugly truth. Alright, we are in Ephesians 4. We have covered the first 10 verses of this chapter, and so we're going to be looking at verses 11 to 16. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love. So this is part of this section that really started back with verse number seven. And if we think about where we are, we're sort of tracing our way through this letter. Paul's prayer for the church at Ephesus to have comprehension in the revelation that was given to Paul that come at the end of chapter 3. And it was to the end there that God be glorified in the church throughout all generations in this age of the ages. And then Paul began exhorting those believers in Ephesus to fulfill bringing God glory through a unified body in this age. And that's really where we are beginning with chapter four. We're now talking more about the how of how this is done. But in the beginning of chapter 4, Paul enumerated seven foundations of unity within the body, and unity obviously a controlling theme in this letter. And so Paul has shown, really from the beginning of the letter, shown many profound reasons that since Christ came and he began building buildings to glorify God, and Jews and Gentiles have equal standing in a church body. So Paul has really pressed heavily on that unity. But then in verse 7, we notice that he starts with a contrast, but unto every one of us. And so then he speaks somewhat individually to the church. So it's somewhat of a contrast. It's not a contrast maybe as much as a distinction. It doesn't, what he says after this doesn't eradicate all of the unity that he'd been talking about up to this point. But he is looking down and getting in a little deeper to say that while yes on the one hand unity there's also on the other hand diversity so there's unity so all these different parts come together make one body but within that one body and looking at all those different parts though they have equal standing Well, they don't all have equal function. And that was the way he put it in 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. And he's saying something similar here. Every member doesn't have the same function, so to speak. So there's true diversity. Now, Paul in these passages, he did allude to Psalm 68 and its future vision of Christ at His return to defeat His enemies and His victorious ascent to the hill of Zion to reign. And so Paul had previously made the point that it's one Lord. That was one of the sevens. One Lord. Jesus Christ is one. And here he's pointing out that that one Lord is this one that's being spoken of in Psalm 68 who is going to ascend that hill when He returns. But for now, He that ascended in that psalm is also the one who has already descended. He's already in incarnation come to this earth in human form and then later ascended after the crucifixion and resurrection to the right hand of God in heaven. So there's a likeness in that in Psalm 68, in that future day, he gives gifts on that ascent. And Paul likened that to say that on the ascent that's already taken place, he is also given gifts. And the heavy point that he has made is that he, this same one, is the one who did it. Now, the gifts are important. because they differ and they're given for a purpose. So it's not just sort of some random grab bag of gifts, but rather these are gifts that function together and accomplish a purpose. So since they come from one Lord, then these gifts cannot be mistaken, they can't be contradictory to each other. Again, that's a point that he made in 1 Corinthians 12. So looking at the final part of this section that began in verse 7, really 7-16, and verses 11-16 is another long sentence, and here's where Paul gets to the purpose of these gifts. So he's made the point about that foundational unity, but he's made the distinction that Within that unity, each part, there's different gifts that have been given. And Christ is the giver of those gifts. And now we're getting to why. Why he gave those gifts. And this is especially, again, speaking to that church at Ephesus, and then by extension to each body of Christ in this age. So remember, that in verse 10, which again verse 10 is not a quote from Psalm 68, in verses 9 and 10, he is drawing out from Psalm 68 what he is talking about. He said that He ascended that He might fulfill all things. And we talked about that term when we looked at that, that He might fulfill all things. So again, Paul still has that cosmic purpose that he brought up in the first chapter. He still has that cosmic purpose in mind, and he's still showing Christ doing that, which would also mean that that future vision of Psalm 68 still stands. It has not yet been fulfilled, but it will be. So he gave gifts that he might fulfill all things. Now, as we start here in verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Paul's continuing to emphasize the he here, and I kind of highlighted that a little bit. He gave. He gave. This is speaking of Christ, when He ascended. He gave. So Paul is continuing to give that emphasis. Now, as I understand this expression here, it is the aorist's active indicative, which may not mean a whole lot, but what it means is that it refers to a completed action. It's a completed action. It's not an ongoing action. It's not something that he's continuing to do. It's something he did. and this heiress active indicative expression, it may have ongoing results. It may still have implications beyond it, but it describes a whole single event of in the past, something that has happened. So that's what Paul says about this. He gave gifts, which means again, it's not an ongoing act. It's something that he did. Now, when we understand that, then we have really a better understanding of what these gifts are that he speaks of in verse number 11, because those are the gifts that he speaks of that Christ gave. That doesn't mean that these are the only gifts, and so I'll try to make a distinction because I know that can be a little bit confusing, but we see right from the start, he is not describing Christ as continually giving gifts, but He gave gifts. So, He says that what He gave is listed here, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Now, we have this word, some, here, and I don't think it's a bad translation, but I would say reading it in this particular translation in English, it gives us the idea of He gave a few. Well, you know, there's a few apostles over here and a few prophets over here. He gave some in that sense. But that's really not the sense of the word. It's more of an expression of saying, He certainly gave. Or He gave certain apostles. And actually, when you look at the underlying text, this word is not repeated. The translators repeated it, trying to show that it applied to each one of those, but the word is not actually repeated. It only appears in the opening phrase. He certainly gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Now, there's a number of different opinions, particularly on this last one. Some would look at that and think, well, that's too different that he's talking about. And there's good reason, I believe, to take it as being sort of describing the same. So it's really describing one, it's not another, it's not two different gifts necessarily. And when you look at what he says here, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, You realize that these are roles that are mentioned in the book of Acts in particular. Now, not that you don't get some mentioned later in some of the epistles, you do, but particularly these are mentioned in the book of Acts. And Paul has earlier referred to these as foundational for the church. That's Ephesians chapter 2. And verse number 20, on the foundation, that it's built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And he also connected apostles and prophets with the revelation and the mystery, and that was in the previous chapter, in chapter 3 and verse number 5. So what is the point here is that all of these gifts that are spoken of in verse 11 are in some way connected to revelation. They're connected to revelation. And that would mean that these gifts in verse 11 that are being referred to are what we would call Extraordinary. Extraordinary gifts. Extraordinary gifts would include things like confirming signs, which might be healings, might be a number of things. Confirming signs and revelation. Receiving direct revelation from God and speaking that forth. Those are extraordinary gifts. So the point that Paul is making here is talking about those extraordinary gifts that Christ gave because they laid that foundation upon which the church was built. So these are extraordinary gifts. These are past, these confirming signs and revelation. What we usually think, and a lot of times our thinking is just very imprecise when it comes to talking about gifts, and we just sort of jumble them all together. But there are gifts that are more of what we would call normal gifts, and then there are ordinary gifts and extraordinary gifts. So ordinary gifts would be things listed in some of the lists like you get in 1 Corinthians 12. I think Romans 12 has some more of those. There are more normal gifts. Again, not working signs, not receiving revelation. That has been given and that has been done. That foundation has already been laid. So, and that is also important as this point proceeds in what Paul talks about in the role that these believers in the church at Ephesus have. So, understand that when we're talking about normal or ordinary gifts, well, these are things given to everyone. Sometimes we might refer to them as abilities. We might refer to them as, what was the other word I was looking for? Abilities, talents. other things of sort of that nature. Extraordinary gifts would again refer to those signs, revelation, that sort of things, those that Paul said would be done away. So, this is what Paul's talking about. He's talking about revelation. Now remember, we've also seen a thread that's been running through where Paul has both prayed and written explicitly to the church at Ephesus that he wants them to understand. He wants them to comprehend. He wants them to get the knowledge that He has been teaching. So, Paul would be a part of this gift that Christ gave, the apostles. The apostles that received revelation that were responsible, essentially, for that revelation. Ultimately, they were responsible for giving us what we know as the New Testament. The completion of the revelation began in the Old Testament. So, Paul was a part of that. So, he did not... You notice the way he wrote. He wanted them to have comprehension and understanding of what? Of the revelation that was given to him. He didn't tell the Ephesians, now, if you can get mature and you can have enough faith, you'll receive revelations. That wasn't at all what He told them. He said, when you read, you will understand. Why? Because Paul is writing what has been revealed. And it is for them to read, and to understand, and to comprehend. And that's what he prayed for, and that's what he explicitly spoke of. So that revelation is important as the foundation for what Paul is saying concerning churches. All right, so with that in mind, we now proceed. Verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So furthermore, this revelation connection we can see is obvious as Paul explains the purpose for which these gifts were given. They were given for perfecting and And so on, we'll see other things as we proceed. Now this word for perfecting has the idea of furnishing, and I think maybe even some of the newer translations may say equip or equipping, something like that, equipping of the saints. We know that sometimes saints, holy ones or sanctified ones, can be somewhat specific. Sometimes it can be pretty general. So here I believe that Paul has in mind those members of the church at Ephesus. which puts them in the hierarchy, it puts them below those gifts that he gave. Now, I didn't really say a whole lot about pastor-teachers. I do think these are part of that gift that he's talking about, that first century, because again, A good part of that first century, you don't have a complete New Testament. You still have prophets that are functioning. They're giving revelations to churches, and sometimes there were some problems because there were those who claimed to be prophets but were not. and so on. And again, that's not to say that that work doesn't exist. Now, as far as like apostles and prophets, in the sense of the revelation, that's not an ongoing work. We don't receive revelation today. What we have is the revelation that's already been given, and it was given to the apostles and prophets and so on. And that revelation is what we are teaching and preaching and seeking to understand and live by and so on. So again, that doesn't mean that no one evangelizes or there's not teachers and shepherds and that word there actually I believe does mean shepherd. There's not shepherds in churches and offices of the churches. There obviously are. And so on. Again, this is talking about that foundation, that foundation that's connected with the giving of revelation. So now we see these saints, these saints are going to be equipped for work. They're going to be equipped for all kinds of work, and that's going to include things like evangelism, and teaching, and shepherding, and a whole lot more. But again, the point is that these are ordinary. These are not extraordinary, these are ordinary. So these gifts were given for the perfecting, for the equipping, for the work of the ministry, and then the edifying, the building up of the body is the result of the whole process. Grammatically, we've got to see how this unfolds. So here, equipping, this is actually going to relate back up to he gave. He gave for equipping. He gave for equipping. And the equipping was for the saints for the work of the ministry. And all of this is for the building up of the body of Christ. So that's the result of the whole process. And this part here is really what is ongoing. This is what is continuing. So we're not working with new revelation. The revelation has already been given. The apostles and prophets, they received their gift. They've done their work. And now we're in this ongoing cycle. And this original perfecting was started, you could say, by the apostles and the prophets and so on. But it goes on, as we'll see by the end of this passage, it goes on so that the body builds itself up. That's a continual process that goes on through the furnishing that we've received through the apostles and the prophets. Now, the word for ministry, I believe that is diakonia here, the word for which we get deacon. It's a word that meant, I think, quite literally a table waiter, or nearly literally a table waiter. and really came to mean any type of menial servant, but it's also a word that has a shade of meaning to it that this is someone that is sort of like a go-between. If you are bringing food to someone, you're serving them food, then you're bringing it from the chef to the table or whatever. So there is this kind of a sense of a going between, but that's this work of the ministry. That's for all saints. It is for all saints, this work that is being spoken of. It is service, and service is going to include words, as we'll see references to speaking in truth and references to teaching in other places. And it's also going to include actions. So it's really going to include really all aspects that we might think of. in terms of Christian service. Now you'll notice that edifying, this is building. And so Paul is continuing to mix this metaphor of construction, building a building on a foundation, and a body. And he's referring here in particular to building the body. And he's going to say that again. And again, that's a mixed metaphor situation. And we saw this back in chapter 2, verses 11-22 where he talked about this. as well. So one of the major distinctions, though, if you go back to chapter two, is that Paul was talking entirely there about Christ building every building that Christ builds. He was talking about. And now he's talking about the church building itself up. And he'll actually say that by the time you get to verse number 16. So that is that's essentially that's not a conflict or a contrast. But it is how. So Christ is head over all. So all building that takes place is His building, if that makes sense. Alright, so verse number 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So we get this until here, which shows us that this work that Paul's talking about is toward a future goal. In other words, it's not just sort of a mindless, repetitive task to keep us all busy and keep us out of trouble. Now, parents have a way sometimes of assigning those kind of things to their children. Keep them busy, keep them out of trouble. Is the task pointless? Probably. Maybe it's character building that we like to fall back on. But it doesn't really have a whole lot of point or use. Well, that's not the case here. This is not just something to keep people busy, keep them out of trouble, keep them from pestering other people too much. This is working toward a goal. So this is looking forward to something being accomplished and something going on. And what this work has to do with, when we get words like perfect man and the measure, the stature, the fullness, the full stature, these terms speak to us really of maturity. And like growing up. And in the very next verse he's going to make a reference to children. So very much like growing up. So we've seen in this letter Paul emphasizing aspects of learning and understanding and comprehending. And really what we learn from the Bible is that there's no maturity without it. And you know sometimes maybe people might be sort of rated on, well, they're this age, but they've got the maturity of this age or whatever the case may be. And so there is some sort of a common connection. There's supposed to be a learning, a growing, a developing. And so there's no maturity coming about without this learning and understanding. So in other words, what Paul's talking about here could be referred to as individual sanctification through a corporate body. So there really is a role that each member of a church body has toward each other member of a church body in this process of maturing and sanctification. We could also look at what Paul's describing here, and it's sort of one of those places where being a member, belonging to a body, being an active part of a local body is sort of implicit. Because this is, again, is one of those things that you can't, you just can't have this apart from that. You don't have this, you know, on your own in the cabin in the woods or in the bass boat out on the lake, you know, all by yourself where you say, well, I can worship God and pray and read the Bible. And yeah, you can do all of those things, but you can't do this right here. when you're off by yourself. This takes a body of people that are put together, working together for this purpose. And again, this is part of God's design. And so then he gives the explanation in verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." So, you see this reference to children here and this provides a contrast to a complete man or a mature man and a full statured man. that we be no more children. So that's the aim. That's the purpose of maturity, is to grow up and to not be children, to not continue to be children, and particularly in understanding. And you can see that as it comes out in the further expression. The children that he's talking about in understanding and maturity are tossed to and fro. They are carried about. By every wind of doctrine. And this word here just means teaching. By every wind of teaching. In other words, blowing this way, blowing that way. They're just carried about like a sail in the wind. Having no means of resistance. No means of tacking a certain course. Just being blown about back and forth. So, and I would also say, and this is just, again, one of those things that just comes from experience and being in pastoral ministry a long, long time and having encountered many, many people. over that time. I would have to say that those that are sort of disconnected, sort of unchurched, as it were, just floating about, maybe go to a service here, maybe go to a service there, really are not among the mature ones that I have known. In conversations that I've had with different ones, their thinking and their understanding is always very scattered and eclectic. And they do not, I don't know that I've met anyone that would fit that description that has really a cohesive view of the entire scripture. I just haven't. And so there's more susceptibility there. And of course, part of the problem is our pride. because none of us thinks we can be deceived. I can't be deceived. There's not some smooth talker that's going to come up and deceive me. I'm grounded. I know what I believe, and so on. Well, of course, that's, again, a thought of pride. But what's the safeguard against that? What is the safeguard against that? Well, it's maturing in Christ and through his church is one of those means of that maturity. So he goes on to describe how the children are tossed to and fro, sleight of men, cunning craftiness. I mean, he's describing things that we could describe just like trickery and deceptive schemes, the idea of sleight of hand. Makes you think of, you know, games out on the street corner or something that's sort of rigged, you know, to kind of take your money away from you. Deceitful schemes, which can sometimes be quite elaborate. And generally speaking, false teachers have to be somewhat good at what they're doing. or else they're not really going to deceive very many people, and we would never really know about them or encounter them. So one thing that we do get from this verse as well, and this can sometimes be a difficult thing to sort out, I'm not gonna try to sort it all out, but understand that there are people all around us in the world that are trying to deceive us. They're trying to mislead us. They're trying to lead us astray. And I realized that probably for a lot of people that's You know, we think, well, that's awful. I mean, why would you intentionally be trying to hurt someone? But there are. And then they've got different motivations. We see some of those talked about in the Bible as well. Sometimes it's a power. It's a greed. Sometimes it's a money lust. It can be a lot of things. but understand that there are really people in the world actively trying to deceive us. That's what Paul's talking about here. They lie in wait to deceive. So it's for that purpose. That's their motivation. That's their goal. Then he gives the contrast, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. And this is the contrast to being children. So not being children and growing in our maturity leads to this speaking the truth in love and growing up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. So it's interesting that love, Paul puts love here in contrast to this deception. And the implication here I believe, because Paul's obviously talking about teaching. He's talking about speaking the truth. So, he's talking about, really, I believe, clarity. Clarity. In other words, those that are trying to deceive are not clear. They don't stand there and tell you, I'm a false teacher. and I would like to deceive you if you'll just give me a few minutes of your time. That's not the way that they do it. There's not clarity. There's not any sort of transparency. There's not honesty at the base. So speaking the truth in love is obviously going to involve speaking true things. But that's also going to mean speaking hard things that need to be spoken. And we know how that is, particularly when it comes to raising children and things. And there's a lot of times. I mean, you have to say things that they probably don't want to hear. They don't like to hear, but things that need to be heard. And so there's hard things. And, you know, Paul experienced this in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse number 15. Paul writing to that church in Corinth, he said that the more that I love you, the less I am loved by you. Why? Because Paul was telling them the truth. They were, especially in the second letter, they were preferring to hear from those false apostles, those that claimed to be apostles and had great eloquent speech and probably were real charismatic personalities and had winning smiles and probably great hair and all that sort of thing. And people, they loved that. Whereas Paul, which you read that letter, he basically was short and ugly and talked funny, is what they said about him. So his appearance was very despisable. Well, Paul was telling them the truth. And love, Paul was showing, love demanded that he tell them the truth, that he be clear and honest with them. And the more that he did that, he said, the less I'm being loved by you, the more you're despising me. So speaking the truth in love does include truth, obviously, also includes the speaking of hard things. But again, it's going to be related to that clarity, to that honesty, that transparency. And then the purpose of it is, again, is growing up. Paul continues to use that and again he's mixing these like a building and then you've got like a person growing up and maturing and all that. He continues to mix all this together. That you will grow up into the head that is even Christ. grow up into the head, which I mean, just as he said before, the full measure of the stature of Christ. In other words, he's talking about becoming more like Christ, becoming more like Christ, more conformed to his image, which again shows us that this body and head metaphor is not talking about salvation. because he's writing and talking about the saints that are being equipped for this. Alright, and then the last verse, verse 16, Now, this word for joint is the one we talked about previously. that literally can refer to a ligament. Ligaments are those things that bind the bones together in a joint. But essentially it refers to a bond, to a binding, to a joining. So the whole body there in Ephesus, just like when he told the church at Corinth, you are the body of Christ. And he went on to describe how they were a whole body. The whole body. has been expertly joined together. In other words, Christ has fitted these pieces together. Has been well put together. And is bound together by every joint. And every joint is supplying. So every member is joined to each other in this body. And not only that, Paul says that every part supplies to the whole. So every part, as he specifically mentions here in verse 16, every part supplies, contributes, and all of these together makes an increase of the body. And again, this is back to the building and construction and mixing that with the body. But also, he says specifically, of itself. Now again, that's downstream from the gifts that Christ gave in the apostles and the prophets and all that had to do with the revelation. It's downstream. So because of that foundation that Christ laid through giving those gifts, and obviously all of His work and death and resurrection and such, but through that foundation then, This is what we are built upon, which gives us that stable platform or stable foundation upon which to build ourselves up for any lack of a better term. And again, he highlights love, which is back to the unity and it's going to have more to do because Paul's not anywhere near done yet with the things that they are to do. this whole process then maintains that unity. So in other words, I guess we could sort of reverse analyze it and say if the end result is not unity, then something's wrong in this process somewhere. This process is not being followed. because there's no fault in the foundation, there's no fault in the beginning of the building, but there's a fault somewhere if it's not resulting in this unity. So the foundational work has been done as we've already seen and now the buildings are being built and We need to comprehend that foundation to contribute to this building. And again, that comes out in Paul's prayers as well as his explicit statements for the church at Ephesus.