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There is one body, one spirit,
just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your
call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
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.
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, the 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 in deceitful schemes. Rather, verse 15, 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. Thus ends the reading of God's
Word. May He add His blessing to it.
Please be seated. Let's pray and ask God to bless
our time in His Word. Heavenly Father, We're so grateful
for your word. We're so grateful that we can
open up this text of scripture and hear you speak to us this
afternoon. We do pray that your spirit,
the same spirit that inspired this text of scripture, would
now come and bring illumination and understanding and application,
that we might see and hear and understand and then apply these
glorious realities to our lives, that we might live in light of
your glorious gospel, motivated, empowered, fueled, for obedience
and service. We commit ourselves to you, we
commit this time to you, and pray all these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Well, this afternoon is a significant
milestone in the life of this church, life of Redeemer. I know
that it's something we've been hoping and praying for for quite
some time. I remember standing on this stage,
some of you were here, about two years ago and You know the
news was Pastor was moving on and the question was Are we going
to be able to make it? Are we able get are we going
to be able to? get enough money together to
keep the doors open to keep worshiping together and The Lord has has
answered our prayer. I It's been a long road these
last couple of years. There have been a lot of obstacles,
a lot of ups and downs. But we celebrate this new season.
Eight days ago, Pastor Eli was ordained and installed out in
California. Formerly ordained and installed
as the evangelist for this work. And today as we gather as a church
family back on the island to celebrate that calling, that
installation, we rejoice in God's faithfulness. We are here together
to praise God for what He has done. And it's more than, you
know, celebration of a ceremony. It's more than recognition of
a new minister. This is an opportunity to stop
for a moment, to reflect, and to recommit ourselves to what
it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ on the island of
Wahoo. A moment like this should fill
us with both joy and sober-mindedness. We rejoice because Christ himself
is at work. The Lord is at work. He is the
one who calls and equips ministers for the gospel. He is the one
who builds his church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against her. He is the one who raises up leaders,
gives gifts to his people, and works through his body to accomplish
his means through his methods. but it also brings about this
joy, brings about responsibility. As Eli's been set apart as an
evangelist, this means something for him, but it also means something
for the rest of the congregation as well. It means something for
all of you together, it means something for each of you individually. And we'll talk about that in
our time together. So we're not only observing a
minister being sent, but we're standing together as a body,
hearing Christ's call, responding in faith. What does it mean for
Eli? That's an important question.
But what does it mean for us? What does it mean for each of us and
all of us together? And that's what we're going to think about
as we look at Ephesians 4, 1 to 16 here this afternoon. First
of all, the church is a people called by Christ. And I think
You know, it's always hard to jump into a text of scripture,
jump into the middle of a book. And so I love to just kind of
review, especially in a book like Ephesians, as you think
about the book of Ephesians, you can kind of roughly break
it down to the first three chapters about what the Lord has done.
And I think, Eli, you've preached through this. Are you preaching
through it right now? You have preached through it? So Ephesians
1 through 3, I mean, you guys have slept a few times since
you heard Eli preach on this book. So just to remind you,
Ephesians 1 to 3, is all about what God has done for us. And then four to six really essentially
is what we, the church, are to do in light of the glorious gospel.
What we say is the indicatives, what the Lord has done, drive,
fuel, motivate the imperatives, what we're to do in response
to the gospel. I want to spend a couple of minutes just kind
of recapping, thinking about what the church is, and how the
church is formed, before we think about what the church does. I
just think that's a healthy way for us to think about what we
do as a church and as Christians. And so Paul in the letter to
the Ephesians, in those first three chapters, as he talks about
those glorious statements about what the Lord has done, declarations
of grace, if you will. This is really about the grace
of God. Think about these things, that
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ. Chapter 1, verse 3. He has chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and blameless before Him. 1-4. He has predestined us for
adoption as sons through Christ Jesus. 1-5. Redeemed us by His
blood, forgiven our sins, lavished His grace upon us, sealed us
with the promised Holy Spirit, guaranteed our inheritance until
we acquire possession of it fully and finally in heaven. Paul goes
on to say that he's raised us from death to life, seated us
with Christ in the heavenly places, united both Jew and Gentile,
tearing down the dividing wall of hostility, the middle wall
of partition, creating one new man from the two in Christ. no
longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens in the household
of God, with the saints and the members of the household of God
being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit. And let me just stop for a moment
to say that that is what God has been doing in this church
for 20 years. God has been doing that here
for 20 years. Through thick and thin, through good times and
bad, through smooth times and rough, the Lord has been doing
that work here at Redeemer for 20. And so this is the gospel. These
are the glorious realities about what God does for sinners. And Sinclair Ferguson says the
gospel tells us to bathe in God's grace. faith in His grace, His
goodness toward us in Christ. And I just think it's always
a great time to say, the world, the people outside of the church,
have no idea that this is what the church believes. If you go up to somebody that
doesn't profess faith, if you go up to somebody outside of
the church that doesn't go to church, doesn't read the scriptures,
they think what? That the church is for the good
people. The church is for people that
are holier than thou. The church is for people that
are better than me, that live a better life than me. They just
inherently, within themselves, are just better people than I
am. But that's not at all what we
believe as Christians. That's not at all what the scriptures
teach. The scriptures teach that God saves sinners. And we come
to understand that, and it humbles us. It makes us understand that
we are unworthy and undeserving sinners that really deserve God's
judgment and condemnation. But God gives us the exact opposite
of what we deserve. He gives us what Christ deserves,
because Christ decided to stand in for us. And that's what we need to, in
the core of our beings, every day of our lives, allow to be
driven deeper and deeper into those innermost parts of us. The gospel tells us to bathe
in God's grace. And then, as we come to chapter
four, After three chapters of unfolding
these glorious realities, declarations of grace, Paul turns a corner. And as much as we can't miss
the first part, we can't miss this part either. Because in
4.1, he says, I therefore, and I always say, it's cheesy, I
know it, but I always say, when you see the word therefore, you
want to ask the question, what's the therefore therefore? Cheesy,
I know. but it's a great thing to help
you remember when you read your Bible, when you study your Bible.
What's the therefore therefore? What is he talking about? Why
does he say I therefore? Because he's saying, as he turns
the corner here, you need to live this way in light of what
I've been saying for three chapters. So he says, I therefore, for
one, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling to which you have been called. What is
it to walk? It's the way that you live your
life. It's the way you carry out what
you do. It's how you live every day.
And Paul is saying, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
you need to walk in a manner that's worthy of the calling,
worthy that measures up with the gospel. Now, when you think
of that word worthy, I think sometimes we can get confused.
But it speaks of a life that is measuring up. Like, here's
the glorious gospel, here's what Christ has done, now live a life
that matches up. Live a life that you're seeking
to live in light of this glorious gospel. You're saying, I want
to live a life that measures up. Not to be saved, not to stay
saved, but because you have been saved by this amazing God. But I think sometimes we have
this idea that if the gospel is this, what we read in the
first three chapters, then it doesn't matter how I live. God
cares a lot about how we live. He cares a lot about what we
do. And as Pastor Eli said, there's
forgiveness, there's repentance and confession, but he cares
a lot about what we And so he calls us to live worthy lives,
to walk in a worthy manner of the calling that lines up. And
he talks at first about, in this passage, he talks at first about
unity. And I'm going to talk to you
about unity, and I'm going to talk to you about diversity. There's unity in this
passage, and there's diversity. And the first part is this unity,
and to walk in a manner worthy means to be united. What does
it mean? look like for us to be, as members
of Redeemer here, to be united, walking in unity. It means, verse
2, humility. It means Paul would say to another
church in another place, esteem others more highly than yourself. It means gentleness, verse 2
goes on to say. It means patience. It means that
you bear with one another, you put up with one another, you
love one another because you love them. Bearing with one another
in love. And notice verse three, eager
to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Interesting that there's a peace
that's granted to us, but then there's a peace that we fight
for. we're trying to maintain this unity in another sense of
that word. And so you members of the body here at Redeemer
are called to walk in unity, to do the things that are spelled
out in verses two and three, and to remember that there is
one, and notice the repetition of this word one, and you probably
remember this from Pastor Eli's sermon on this passage, but notice
in verse four, There's one body, one spirit. You are called to
one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of, notice now, all, who is over all and through all and in all.
There's this oneness, there's this unity in the body of Christ.
And I think it's really important that we not only in this room,
as members of this church, remember the unity and fight for the unity,
but also remember the unity of the body of Christ as a whole,
outside of this congregation, all over the island. Those that belong to the true
church. I'm not just talking about OP. You're like, well,
we're the only OP church here. I'm talking about our Reformed
and Presbyterian brethren. I'm talking about all who preach
the gospel, administer the sacraments, and exercise church discipline.
We're on the same team. I think that's really important
for us to remember and understand. We're on the same team. There's one kingdom. There's
one king. Sometimes we get into our little
personal kingdoms, or little denominational kingdoms, or non-denominational
kingdoms. There's one kingdom because there's
one king. There's one Great Commission
that's given by the one king. Jesus says, all authority has
been given to me, and I give it to my church. And there's
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over all,
in all, through all, etc. So the unity of the body that
we fight for, it's really important for us to understand this. Catholicity,
we call it, right? In the best sense of that word.
Not a scary word. But there's also diversity. And
as you go down to verse 7 to 12, I want us to think about
this. Notice the word verse 7, but. So there's all this language
that's one, one, one, over all, all, all. But then the corner
is turned in verse 7, but grace was given to each. So now there's this diversity.
There's grace given to each according to the measure of Christ's gift.
And there's this kind of complex language that we're not going
to take the time to really get into in verses 8 to 10, but the
idea is that Christ won this cosmic battle, And he basically
went back, he came down to win the battle, to fight the battle
and to win it. He won the victory and then he went back to heaven.
And when he went back to heaven, he gave gifts to his church. One of the things that we see
on the day of Pentecost, he gave his spirit. This coronation gift
the father gives to the son and the father and the son give it
to the church. Spirit's poured out and that's super important.
But we also read about these gifts that were given to the
Church here in verse 11. He gave apostles and prophets
and evangelists, and then shepherds and teachers. I'm not getting
into those kind of deep details here, but notice the Lord gives
men to the Church. These are all men given to the
Church. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. And even
more specifically, these are men who have word gifts. These are all gifts of the word. Now, as we look at the apostles
and the prophets, those are gone. There's some conversation amongst
some groups that evangelists were a thing of the past and
aren't around anymore. But for us in the OP, we have
evangelists that plant churches. As a regional home missionary,
I'm an evangelist, and Eli is an evangelist as a church planter. And so I want to spend a couple
of minutes thinking about that and thinking about what Eli's
been called to. Eli, you stand amongst this congregation
today not because of your own ambition, not because of your
own wisdom, not because of anything in yourself, but because Christ
himself has called you and given you as a gift to the church. This is not a job you've chosen. This is a calling that you've
received from the Lord. It is Christ doing, it is his
work, and it is his gift to the church. You are not called merely
to maintain this church. You are called to build, to gather,
to labor in the harvest. You are an evangelist sent to
plant, proclaim, to shepherd, and to establish the work of
God in this place. And how do you do this? It's
not by programs. It's not by pragmatism. It's not by human
ingenuity. It's by prayer and the word.
One of the guys that I really am fond of reading, very convicting
on prayer, Ian Bounds, says this, the church is looking for better
methods. God is looking for better men. I like that. What the church needs today is
not more machinery for better new organizations, mighty, novel
methods that men from the Holy Ghost can use, Holy Spirit can
use, men of prayer, men of the Word. And that's the challenge
to you, Eli. You're going to do this work
through prayer and through the Word. It's in Acts 6, the apostles
handed off the ministry to the deacons there so that they might
give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And
that's what you're called to do. It's very straightforward,
very simple, and very important. John Calvin, writing on the weight
of gospel ministry, said the pastor ought to have two voices,
one for gathering the sheep and another for warding off and driving
away wolves. The scripture supplies him with
the means of doing both. Keep yourself in prayer and keep
yourself in God's word. You're called to gather and guard,
to preach, protect, shepherd, to stand firm. You must call
sinners to repentance and faith, comfort the brokenhearted, strengthen
the weak, defend the flock against false doctrine, fight for the
purity of the church, and be willing to lay down your life
for the sheep that God has given into your care. And you say,
I'm not sufficient for this work. Good. That's a good response
to have. None of us are. No man is. But
Christ is sufficient. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2,
who's sufficient for these things? The answer is clear. Our sufficiency
is from God. It's his gospel, his power, his
spirit, his word that will accomplish the work. And so this is your
charge, your mini charge on the island here today. Preach Christ,
shepherd the people, defend the flock, do the work of an evangelist,
and do it knowing that Christ has placed you here, Christ will
sustain you, and Christ will accomplish his purposes through
you. And now to the congregation, Redeemer. First of all, I want
to say this, and I think I'm preaching through the seven letters
to the seven churches in Revelation chapter two and three on Sunday
nights in Irvine. And I was just struck by the
letter to the Philadelphians last Sunday night. You know,
so many churches, when they think about the seven letters, they're
like, oh yeah, we're the church in Philadelphia. Like, that's the church we are,
because there's no rebuke, no correction there. But really,
as you look closely at the letter to the Philadelphians, it was
a struggling church. It was a small church. They didn't
really have a lot of gifts. They didn't really have a lot
of resources. They weren't really able to kind of impact the society
like they wanted to. But the Lord says, I know. I
know your works. I know you have but a little
strength, He says to them. But basically, He says to them,
I commend you for being faithful. It's okay if you feel like you
don't have a lot of gifts or strength. You have something
from the Lord. Listen, each of you, all of you
together, I know for certain, because God's word says you do,
Peter says you do, you all have gifts. And you say, I don't have
a lot, I'll never do anything publicly. That's okay, because
the Lord knows. You may never be a pastor. You
may never be an elder. You may never be a deacon. You
may never lead a Bible study or do something that you stand
up in front of the congregation. That's okay. You can still be
faithful. The Lord will know, which is
ultimately what matters. And so I want to encourage you
all to do the work that the Lord calls you to. And I think this
is a really important statement in verse 12. If you have a Bible
in front of you, I want you to put your eyes upon verse 12 with
me. I won't take much more of your time, but I do want us to
think about that. As the Lord goes back, Jesus
goes back to heaven, and he sends his gifts down to earth. He sends these men that preach
and teach the Word of God. And it says that he gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers,
all who proclaim God's Word Why though? Why does he do that?
Verse 12, to equip the saints, that's you, that's Christians,
for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of
Christ. So here's how this works. Pastor
Eli preaches, teaches on Sundays, stands behind this pulpit and
preaches in a service. teaches Sunday school, does a
book study in the park, has opportunities with you one-on-one or with your
family in some other kind of, in the park this afternoon. And
he is equipping you. Look at that word in verse 12.
He is equipping you as a saint, as a child of God, as a believer
in Jesus Christ. He is equipping you, making you
fully functional. Preparing you to serve God's
purpose is the idea. For the work of ministry. You all have ministry. You all
have roles to play. And then go back down to verse
15. Rather, speaking the truth in
love. There's that word love again. We are to grow up in every
way into him who is the head. You're becoming more like Christ,
your savior. from whom the whole body, joined
and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when,
notice this, notice this phrase, when each part is working properly. It doesn't say some parts, it
doesn't say most parts, it doesn't say almost every part, it says
each part. It means every part is working
properly and it makes the body grow so that it builds itself
up again. There's that word, love. One of the things I've noticed
as I get older is different parts of my body hurt at different
times. On the way over here today, out
of nowhere, my back. I'm like, what is going on? But
what I've noticed is that when my back hurts, it bothers my
whole body. My whole body is affected. When
I get a headache, None of my body wants to get out of bed,
or none of my body wants to go anywhere. So it is with the body
of Christ. The body is all interrelated,
and the body is all negatively affected, when the whole body
is not working together. I don't want us to just think
when we come here, we're just individuals doing our devotions
in front of a bunch of other people. We're not individuals
coming in here, worshiping God by ourselves, while other people
are around doing the same thing. We're a body. We're all joined
together, we're all part of one another, because that's the way
Christ has wanted it to be. That's the way Christ has made
it to be. And listen, if you're a member
of this church, it's because God has brought you here to be
a part of this body, and he's brought you here because you
have gifts, talents, and abilities that this body needs for you
to exercise. And you're part of the grand
plan of God. That he's been working out in
time and in space, that he put together before the world existed,
before Genesis 1-1 was spoken, before God spoke the world into
existence, and we're doing in these last days what God wants
us to do. And so as the passage is in chapter
4, verse 1, turning a corner, we and the church here at Redeemer
are turning a corner. And as I think back to two years
ago, and I really was worried. I'm like, let's give it a go.
Let's see what we can do. But there's a term in football. When you're running out of time,
and you have the ball somewhere around midfield, call it a Hail
Mary. Yes, it's Catholic terminology,
but this is also a football term. When you get the ball, last play
of the half of the game, and you just throw it up, and you
hope somebody catches it in the end zone so you can win the game.
It's a Hail Mary. We ran the old Hail Mary play,
and we prayed a lot, and God has answered our prayer. We have a new pastor. We have
new funding. We almost had a new building.
We thought we did, but we're looking again, and God will give
us something better, right? And we have you. We have you. who God has brought together,
has been forming together into His body, His local expression
of His one church, and the Lord knows. He knows
what you've done, He knows what you're doing, He knows your future,
and so know that. He's with you, He's for you,
the one who chose you from before the foundation of the world,
the one who came into time and space, took on our humanity,
lived that perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and
then rose and went back and sent these gifts down. He ever lives to intercede. He's
looking out, watching out. And so what can we do? Just a
couple of things, a couple of words of application. What can
we do? Where do we start? Prayer. Keep
praying. Pray for the work of the church
daily. Pray for Eli. Pray for open doors for effective
ministry. Pray for conversions. Pray for
new families. Pray for discipleship to happen.
Pray for God to be glorified. Pray for God to help you find
your place in the church to do what you can do to be maximally
fruitful for his kingdom. Serve. Utilize your gifts. Get involved in some way, shape,
or form. Invite people. You say, I've
invited everyone I know. Invite them again. See what God
will do. Encourage other people. As the
church gathers together, as people come together, gather together
with a heart to encourage. Hebrews 10, 24, and 25. Don't
neglect the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of
some, but come together, and the idea is encourage. Build
one another up as you see the day of the Lord coming nearer
and nearer. Encourage one another, bless
one another. The Lord knows that you have
but a little strength. Listen, the Lord knows that you're
thousands of miles away from the rest of our presbytery, but
he cares and he knows. And we're gonna try to get more
and more people to come, but know this, that there are people
on the mainland praying for you here consistently, praying for
your pastor, praying for you as a congregation, and asking
me constantly, how's the church doing? Brothers and sisters,
this is not Eli's moment alone. It's yours, too. It's the church's
moment. It's a it's a big step, a new
step forward. God has preserved you. God has
brought you through uncertain times to bring you to today and
into the future. And the question is this. Will
you step up? Will you step in? Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
thank you so much for your Word. Thank you so much for this opportunity
to gather together and celebrate this new season. Lord, we pray
for Eli, for Esme, we pray for his ministry, but we also pray
for the work of the Church. Every officeholder here, general
office of each believer, will you empower and strengthen and
encourage them and help them to step up and to step out to
do the things that you've called them to do as individuals, as
families and as a whole, Lord, that unity and diversity would
clearly be seen in healthy ways here, that you would add to your
church, that you would add converts, that you would add families,
that you would provide finances, that you would provide a facility,
and that you would do everything that you would like to do here
for your own glory and for the good of your people. We love
you. We praise you in Christ's name.
Amen.
The Work of Ministry
Series Visiting Preachers
The Work of Ministry
(** our apologies for last start of the recording **)
| Sermon ID | 31025610127701 |
| Duration | 32:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 4:1-16; Psalm 100 |
| Language | English |
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