Our scripture reading this evening comes from Ephesians 4, verses 11 through 16. This can be found on page 1,243 of the Pew Bibles. This is Ephesians 4, verses 11 through 16. Hear now the word of the Lord. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. This is the word of our Lord. Let us go before him in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it can guide us and we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to guide me as I speak about it. We pray that you would open our hearts and that you would soften them, Lord, to be receptive to your word. Help us to keep from distractions and to be mindful and to grow through it. I pray this in Christ's name, amen. What do you want to be when you grow up? Perhaps this is an interesting question coming from me to you as there are some of you out there who have been Christians two or three times as long as I've been alive. But I think this question can hold an element for us that is appropriate when keeping in mind and looking at this passage. You see, when we ask a child this question, what do you want to be when you grow up? They often choose something dramatic, perhaps a fireman, or a ballerina, or an astronaut, or something of that nature. And one of the reasons that they choose these dramatic occupations is that there's some ideal in them that they recognize as good, something that they want to strive for. Perhaps in a fireman, they see the courage, they see the bravery or the strength it takes to go into a dangerous situation to help others in their time of need, to face the fires and the flames yourself, to rescue others from it. Perhaps if you look at a ballerina, you see the grace and the poise with which they dance, the beauty behind it. Or an astronaut is the courage to face that which no one has faced before. Another aspect of this question is we recognize that they aren't there yet. You don't ask a fireman, what do you want to be when you grow up? Because they're already up. They've already chosen. You don't ask a ballerina either, but you ask children this because they are not yet where they want to be. They want to grow to be that, that ideal that they see as valuable. And this can give us a sort of perspective of what's going on in this passage. What do we want to be when we grow? There is an ideal that we strive for that we are not yet there. And also, as I mentioned earlier this morning, taking a step back and looking at the overall picture, the context in which this passage lies, is important. If we look beforehand in verse four, we see that this is a section about unity. particularly unity in Christ, there is one body and one spirit, just as you are 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. It's about unity afterwards as well. The later portions in chapter four and verse five and continuing shows us how to live out that unity. If we are unified, what does that look like? It calls us to a new life. calls us to walk in love, to be submissive to one another, children obeying their parents and so forth. Ephesians goes into what that would look like practically later. This passage here then, verses 11 through 16, is a sort of bridge between the ideal that we see just beforehand and our growing into that ideal which we see afterwards. We must recognize though that there is a unity here in our passage that comes from something particular. Many groups around the world have unity. They have a kind of fellowship, a closeness, a bond. We find this all over the place. We find this in football teams. We find this in the army and so forth. The question is not whether or not we have unity. The question is not whether or not we can find a fellowship with one another, or help each other out, or find a community that is loving. The question is what that is based upon. And a football team that's based upon doing well in a football game. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, I don't mean to suggest, but I'm saying that that is of a distinctly lesser quality than the unity that we have in the church. In the army, the unity is based around completing your mission successfully, defending your country, and so on. But again, even that is of a lesser quality than the unity that we find in the church. Particularly in this passage, we can see that Christ matures his church through unity in himself. that Christ matures his church through unity in himself. And I wanna look at that in three different aspects in this text. First, that Christ is preparing us. Second, that he's preventing our destruction. And finally, his perfecting us. His preparing, preventing our destruction, and perfecting us. We start off right in verse 11. And he gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Before we go any further, I want to look a little bit more at just the first three words there, and he gave. He was the one who gave. This is following right on the footsteps of talking about Christ. Christ is the one giving these positions, the evangelists, apostles, and so forth. And part of what that says is that he has the authority to give, that Christ having all things under his feet has the authority to give to the church that which is best for the church in the coming period, whether that be the early church of the time of the writing or whether that be today. He has the authority to give people those positions. And when we look to those people then, we must recognize that authority, not as one that we have elected amongst ourselves only, but as one that God has ordained to be put there in that position to guide his people. It's important to recognize as it goes on, the apostles, the prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, the leaders of the church, which today look like the elders and the preachers of our churches. But it is important also to recognize what they're there for. They aren't just there to stand up here and preach. They aren't just there to lead you or to visit you or so forth. They are there for a specific purpose in this passage, which we find at the beginning of verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And in understanding what the leadership of the church is there for, the verb equip is a very helpful tool Because part of equipping is giving the proper and necessary tools and instruments to make it so that one can do the task that they are assigned. That's the very basic of equipment. There are a number of illustrations you can use. That of a knight. A knight wants to be fully equipped with armor, with a shield, and with a sword. If you go in without any equipment into battle, something has gone terribly wrong. If they go in without their shield or their armor, they are very vulnerable to being killed. And if they are killed, they cannot serve their duty. Or likewise, if you go into battle with armor and a shield, but no sword, you can sit there blocking all you want, but you will still never defeat the enemy. A knight must be fully equipped in order for them to do their task appropriately, or for them to be able to complete it. Likewise, you can think of a plumber. It's a little bit more contemporary, perhaps. A plumber, when he's called to a time where someone is in some crisis and there's water leaking all over the place, they don't want to walk in there and look at the leaky pipes and just say, yeah, I can't really do that with my bare hands. They bring a toolbox with them. And with that is all of the necessary equipment to be able to handle the situation at hand. We don't equip ourselves here in this passage. We recognize that as the apostles, the prophets, and evangelists, shepherds and teachers are the ones equipping. What have they sent for though? What are we being equipped for? It says here that they're equipping, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And this is important for a number of different respects because oftentimes when we think of the ministry, we think of the calling of becoming a pastor. I'm going into the ministry, I can say, if I am working towards completing my seminary degree and taking a call at a church. The ministry here, though, isn't just talking about that specific setting apart for that specific vocation. The ministry here is the work of spreading the gospel. It is the work of the church. Whatever that might look like. It might be just using your talents to serve those in the church. It might be helping others understand the gospel, reaching out, evangelizing. But this work of the ministry is not consigned only for those people, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. The work of the ministry is broader. It is for all of the saints. And oftentimes we think of saints in sort of a Roman Catholic type of way. The saints are those people who are supposedly extra holy, people who haven't sinned, people who have multiple confirmed miracles. Oftentimes they even embody an ideal. There's the saint of love, the saint of courage, the saint of each of these things. But the saints here is not the Roman Catholic type of idea. The saints here just means all who are in Christ. At the very beginning, I gave the vodum and the salutation. It said, from Ephesians 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. This is the word that is being used here as well. It is to the saints who are in Ephesus, but also those who are faithful in Christ. All of those who call upon Jesus are saints, which means that all of us who call upon Christ are to be prepared and equipped for the work of the ministry. This has profound influence on what we do. We recognize that someone is holding an office of believer. It is an office that is often forgotten. We think of deacons, we think of elders and so forth, but the office of believer is one that is an office. and often overlooked. You're not simply a passive observer, not someone who sits there in the pews and watches other people do their worship stuff, but you are an active worker, a participator. When I first came to Indiana to work in seminary, I was looking around for a church that I thought would be a good fit. And one of the ones I joined, or joined for one service, they had great music. Wonderful music, some of the best music I have ever heard. The sermon wasn't so good, partly because it was only eight minutes long, and they came down off the stage and all the lights turned off and everything. Came down, just opened his Bible, read some, preached for a couple minutes, and then at the end said, let's get back to worshiping God. The lights came on, the fog machine started rolling again, people were jiving on their way back up to the stage. And not only did that bother me, but even though the singing was great, I looked around and no one else in the congregation was singing. It was purely them up on stage. It was passive reception of what was happening rather than an active participation. And while singing is just one small element of worship, it sort of embodied a kind of mentality of what they are doing with their lives in worship. they were there receiving worship, they were not partaking. And likewise, as we want to participate in worship and we lift up our voices in singing together as God's people, so also we must lift up the rest of our lives to be ministers to those around us. Again, it doesn't have to be preaching the word. I doubt many of you will be exegeting different passages or working in the Greek or Hebrew or going on pastoral visits and so forth. That doesn't mean that you are excluded from those who are called to the work of the ministry. That is not all they're called to, though. To equip the saints for the work of the ministry, they're also called for building up the body of Christ. And this is a short little phrase, but it is one that is used a lot. It is one that is repetitive. It is one that is also extremely valuable in understanding the nuances of this illustration. Because bodies, while being common, are also important because there is no part of the body that is not directly connected to the rest of the body. A finger is connected to your elbow through your forearm. Your finger and your elbow are connected to your hip through your torso. This is different from other things which share a commonality but are completely distinct. In a set of silverware, for example, you'll have a fork and you'll have a knife, and they might be part of the same set, and in that case sort of belong together, but the fork isn't the knife. The two are separate. The two are distinct. With the body, though, even though there are distinct parts, each person is different from the next. They're all connected. What more, you do not want them to be separated. If any part of your body is separated from the rest, you are rushing to the hospital with urgency. And the church is similar. If your pinky is cut off, you want to reattach it as quickly as possible because the longer it is remained entirely separate from the body, the more it is damaged and the more likely it will die completely. And so too with the church. When one of the members is cut off from the church, we want with an urgency to call them back. We hope and we try our best to help them understand the importance of being with God's people, being joined to them. We must be connected. and we pursue those who stray away. You see this when Christ says that if there is one lost sheep out of a hundred, you pursue that one and bring it back. And there is rejoicing and celebration. The angels dance in heaven when this happens. And so too we must in this earth, in this church, pursue those who stray away. Without being unified, we will die. And also, without that person, the whole church, is worth off. If we think back to the pinky, if it is separated and it falls away and dies, not only does a finger die, but the whole body is then without a finger. They're worth off. So he wants to be unified. Part of the work of the ministry is for building up the body of Christ in a unity. Verse 13 continues this. We are to build up the body of Christ until we attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. Until we attain the unity and the faith. Unity is critical. It is excessively critical within the church because without it there are divisions, there are splits and there are strifes. And there still are. Not all of them are necessarily bad. I wanna take just a moment to look at the differences that one might have in these splits. When I first came to Mid-America, again, I had come from a PCA background. I had grown up in the PCA church the whole time. I really didn't know much about the distinction between the different reforms traditions. I came to Mid-America and four of the faculty members are URC and two of them are OPC. I was a minority at that school, only a couple different PCA students. I learned very quickly how different they are, yet how much the same they are. They are the same in that they still hold to God as God. They are the same in that they still hold the Bible as faithful. And the reformed traditions might take different expressions, whether it's the three forms of unity or the Westminster Standards, but they are still ultimately relying fully upon the Lord with very, very, very similar doctrines. we can still come together and I can say to my classmate that you are a brother in the Lord. Even if we differ on this or that or the other things. The traditions themselves also are a little bit different. URC is largely Dutch, and the Dutch brought with them their own tradition of the way they do things, the way the organ plays even, or having a minute-long silent prayer that I was not quite sure if I was doing that right this morning, because it's just a different tradition. And I'm not talking about those differences when I'm talking about these splits here, or being unified. I'm not saying that we have to be all the same denomination. or Federation, rather, whichever, I got in some hot water with my classmates about calling the URC a denomination, but that's another story altogether. But they can still come together, and they can still say, you are my brother or you are my sister in Christ. That is the point of unity. And even though other people are not Reformed, we can still say to a number of others outside the Reformed tradition, yes, you also are my brother and sister in Christ. It is that that is the point. The unity there is important, but the unity comes from a faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. That is why we have this part here in the end of 13, until we attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. That is what unifies us, not the letters outside the church door. to measure the stature of the fullness of Christ. That is what we are striving for, the fullness of Christ. And that is what we are maturing for. And part of it is, again, going back to the question I asked at the very beginning, what do you want to be when you grow up? When you ask that question, you recognize they aren't fully there yet. That's what you're striving for, and this here is what we are striving for, and the unity of Christ is not just a knowledge, but it is so that we might mature to the stature and the fullness of Christ, that we might embody him in all parts of our lives. That is another thing we can hold each other accountable to, even if you are in a different tradition, even if you are in a different church body entirely, and hold different doctrines, if we have the centrality of Christ. we encourage one another to mature to the fullness of Christ. This leads me then to my second point. He is not just preparing us, but Christ is also protecting us. Verse 14, we have the beginning, so that. So that is important because it puts into context then the rest of this statement. This is just a really, really long sentence here that spans across multiple verses. But the reason that we are being prepared and equipped to the fullness and the unity and so forth is so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. He likens us to children in both an immaturity and not fully embodying Christ, but also a gullibility here as well. Children we know are kind of gullible. And if you raise small children, you recognize they don't quite get sarcasm yet, so there's a number of jokes that really fall flat on them. The reason is they are gullible. They look up to authority and they trust it, generally, in a way that it is much harder to do when we are older. I look to the authority as trustworthy, which can't even be abused. And unfortunately, that can still happen here in the church. We like to trust those that are placed in authority over us. If you have a question of some doctrinal issue, for example, we take it to our pastor, and we take it to our elders, and they give us an answer, we trust, oh, okay, I see that. Or you might have a guest preacher who comes in, hey, maybe me, and I say something, and you say, oh, I've never seen that in the text before. But sometimes they lead us astray, either intentionally or unintentionally entirely. We can't just only trust them by their authority, because they themselves are under an authority, and that authority is the word of God. That authority is Christ. And if what they are saying is not in accordance with either of those, then they are still wrong. We then have to determine, partly, through the word, whether or not they are telling us the truth. We cannot just take their word at it and call it good. Now this doesn't mean you should always refute what anyone else is saying to you based on your own understanding. We must be guided as well, but my point is that a blind trust is dangerous. And it is one that in here we are likened to the children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. If you think I've never seen that in the text before, take another look because it might not be in the text. It might be something that he is putting into the text that was not originally there in the first place. We might look to our pastors and theologians as almost the giver of truth, but we have to recognize them as possibly faulty or misleading. What they say must be grounded then in the truth, the word of God. This is what we see in 15, rather speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. When we look to other traditions, other religions, rather, we can be more on guard. When it comes to other Christians, though, that is when we can often lead ourselves down. So we must be protected from the false doctrine. Verses 15 and 16 then leads us to our third point, perfecting. He doesn't just protect, but he perfects as well. It talks of maturity. And one of the first ways it does that is saying that we should speak to each other in love. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who's ahead and to Christ. Speaking to the truth in love, while that is a central part of maturity, is also very difficult. Either part without the other is harmful. When you rebuke a child, hopefully it is not because you hate that child, but it's because you love them. and you want them to understand that what they were doing is wrong. Yes, it comes within a buke, but a rebuke that comes with love. Even if this is painful for the child. Oftentimes, children don't like getting rebuked. I know I didn't when I was little. We can't stray away from the faith because someone might not like it. We can't stray away from the truth simply because someone is offended by it. We must hold fast. But this can't be at the expense of love. There are people who call themselves Christians who do this a lot. People who use the truth almost as a weapon. And they add in not just that something is a sin, but also that God hates them and they will go to hell because of it. And it might be true. They might be correct in saying that something is a sin. They might be able to point to scripture, the same scripture, the very same scripture that we would, to point that out. But when it is joined with hatred, It has not only lost its effectiveness, it has not only lost its convincingness, but it has lost the very charge that we have. The other side doesn't work either. When we just have love for others, or what we perceive as love, oftentimes it comes at the expense of truth and the expense of a zeal for the law of God. You might say that you don't want them to be isolated. You don't want them to feel downtrodden. You don't want them to feel beaten up. And so you let them do whatever they want. But if you're letting them do whatever they want, you're letting them sin, and the sin harms themselves. We do want the love. We do want the truth. And we cannot have either half without the other. This is how we are joined together, though, in love. We grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined 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. We are joined and held together, the whole body. And this also means that it is not just the people who are good at it. When I was young, I wouldn't talk about spiritual things practically with anyone ever, for fear that I would make myself look like a fool, and more than that, make Christianity as a whole look foolish. I was very bad at articulating my faith, but I did have a brother who was a decade older than me, and he went to seminary for just two years, a Master's of Theological Studies, not to go into the ministry, but just for general education purposes. He was a genius also. So when you asked him any question you wanted, he would not only give you a great response, it would be off the cuff, and it would be full of scripture references as well. It was quite amazing. And so every time that I was asked something spiritual, I would say, why don't I ask my brother, I'll get back to you on that, or he'll get back to you on that. I deferred constantly. because he was knowledgeable and not me. But this isn't what we are called to here. Every part, each part is working properly, and every joint with which it is equipped. All the saints are for the work of the ministry. So when we ask ourselves, what then do we want to be when we grow up? What ideal is it that we strive for? We must look to Christ, the reason for our unity, The One who paid the sins of all of us. The One who took upon Him all of our griefs, all of our sorrows, and the product of our rebellion. He did the law perfectly where we could not. He gave His life for us. Our maturity comes in from following Him and Him alone. And through Him we do this work of the ministry. Let us then spread the love of the gospel of Christ. For it is only in that hope that we are unified, and it is only in that hope that we have a true and lasting joy. One where we can, amongst each other, grow up in love. Let's go before our God in prayer. Heavenly Father, you are perfect and you have called us to be perfect as well. And though we have failed in this respect, we thank you that you have given us Christ who was perfect and whose perfection is our own. We thank you that you have sent us your word to be able to perfect us, to be able to help us grow, and your spirit to mold us in the likeness of Christ. We pray that you would give us a courage to speak to one another in love. Help us not stray away from the truth, but help us not also only look to that which is easy. We pray that you would give us a courage both amongst each other to encourage one another and to rebuke one another when it is necessary, but to always turn back to your word for guidance in how we should live our lives and how we should grow in both the knowledge of you and of how we should live and our conduct. We pray that you would give us a passion and a zeal for Christ and his kingdom, so that we would reflect him in every way in which we do not. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.