Today we've reached the conclusion of this two-month course called One Anothering. There's no handout for tonight, and we will stay basically in one passage. So I would highly recommend have the Bible open to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4, and we will look at 11 through 16. I would like to conclude this with just a wrap-up class and one that is short and sweet and reminds us of what the goal is. We've heard a lot of imperatives, that means commands, things that we should do, and those things include love and serve one another. fellowship and work with one another, pray for and care for one another, bear one another's burdens, encourage one another, teach and admonish one another. And last week we looked at all the do nots. Do not lie, do not provoke, do not pass judgment, do not speak evil, do not grumble against one another. The New Testament is filled with one another's. And as it has been weaved throughout this class, I want to just make it very clear as to why. Why the one another's? Why couldn't God just save us? He does, right? By the Holy Spirit's power. Forgive us by Christ's blood. Equip us with His Word. Why do we need each other? This is God's design, and it has a very specific purpose. Look with me in Ephesians chapter four, verses 11 through 16. It says, and he, that's God, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and 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 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 up itself in love. And may the Lord open our eyes to this precious truth. In order for us to discover what is the ultimate goal of the one another's, this passage will help us if we follow the logical order. So let's look even more deeply at verses 11 and 12. This is Ephesians 4, verse 11 and 12. The first proposition is that God gave key officers to His church. Look again at verse 11. He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Apostles are those who saw the risen Christ Apostles were his official representatives. We think of John and Peter and James and eventually Paul. Men who saw the risen Christ and were given an unction by Christ and authority from Christ to go and preach the gospel, to sacrifice their lives for the cause of the early church, and to plant churches in his name. That was a unique authority, a unique office, which no longer exists. Unless someone has seen the risen Christ, they are not an apostle, despite the title they may bear in their name. But I'm not gonna get into all the nuances of what's an apostle, what's a prophet. For the sake of tonight's lesson, verse 11 says, he gave, that's the point. God gave apostles. And he gave prophets. Prophets are those who receive a revelation from God. Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. Or in the New Testament, we see prophets. And then they communicate that message to the people. And sometimes they foretell what's going to happen, and they do that to confirm the witness of the gospel. Again, we're talking about the early church. Then we have, the next one, evangelists. Evangelists is where we get the word gospel. The evangel means the good news. Anytime you and I go out and preach the gospel, we become evangelists. But these were particular people in the early church. Their whole life was given over to this. They're kind of like apostles, but they don't bear the mark of authority of the apostles. But functionally, they go out and they preach the gospel. And the next title is shepherds. Some translations might say pastor. The word pastor basically comes from the word that means shepherd. It has that shepherdly idea of shepherding a flock of sheep. So pastors or elders are those who are mature men who lead the church. Not only do they preach, they feed the flock of God, the word of God, and they lead the flock of God. And then the last one is teachers. And teachers might be non-ordained elders who teach. Really anyone who has a discipleship role, or in our context, a Sunday school role, a public teaching role, a Bible study role. God gave these officers to the church. When God raises up people like this, or sends people out like this, he's giving gifts to the church. So verse 11 says, he gave the apostles. So follow, that's the first proposition. But now, verse 12 is going to tell us why he gave us these officers. Why did he give us apostles and evangelists and teachers and pastors? It says in verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. To equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Who are the saints? I know they're a football team, but really, who are the saints? Saint means one who is sanctified, one who is holy. A saint is a Christian. That's why in our tradition, we don't recognize certain people like the Catholics do and say, this special group of people who qualify because they supposedly did these miracles or so on are saints and everybody else is just common Folk, we don't believe in that distinction. That's not a biblical distinction. If you are a believer in Christ in this room, you are a saint. And I know we use that term sort of jokingly, oh, you're such a saint with the halo on top of the head. We're not saying anybody's perfect, but in Christ Jesus, we have been sanctified, we've been set apart, we've been made holy. So you are a saint, I am a saint, whether or not you have an office in the church, deacon or pastor or evangelist or not, every Christian is a saint. So when the Bible says in verse 12, to equip the saints, he's talking about you. So verse 11, he gave apostles and teachers and prophets and evangelists and shepherds to equip you. Not to equip the professionals, but to equip you. For what? For the work of the ministry. That means that the ministry of the church is an all hands on deck endeavor. Ordained, not ordained, men, women, new, old, mothers, fathers, singles, everyone who is following Christ is given the ministry. You can tell your friends and family, I'm a minister of Jesus Christ, and that is a biblically accurate statement. But you might feel inadequate. Well, I never went to seminary. I'm not a professional. How could I be in ministry? Verse 12 says, to equip. God is equipping his people to do the work of the ministry. How did he do that? Verse 11, he gave apostles and teachers and prophets and shepherds and so on. Did you see the logical progression here in verse 11 and 12? God gave these officers to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. In other words, it is not only the pastor's and the teacher's jobs to intimately disciple everyone. Matter of fact, as the church grows, they cannot do that. Think about our Lord's own ministry. He had the inner circle, right? The three, Peter, James, and John. There was a special teaching ministry that he gave to them that was more intimate than with anyone else. Beyond that, there was the 12. The 12 disciples who were called had a more special relationship than the rest of the multitude, but not quite as special as the three. And then going out from there, we have 40, and we have the multitude, and so on. Jesus did not spend the same amount of time with everybody in the multitude, nor everyone in the 40, nor everyone in the 12, nor everyone in the three. But what he did was he equipped his inner circle to reach the 12. He equipped the 12 to reach the 40. He equipped the 40 to reach the multitude and so on. And did it work? I'd say it did. Here we are 2000 years later, still talking about Jesus. So Jesus gives an example then for churches. The leaders of the church, especially as the church grows, are not going to be able to disciple every single person with the same amount of time and energy and intimacy, but that's not even his job. Because according to Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12, the shepherd is supposed to equip the saints, and the saints are supposed to be doing the ministry together. That is the one anothering that we're talking about. So when you as a saint, when I as a saint come to church and we hear a sermon, don't just think about it as this is feeding my soul, which it is. Think about it also as this is your equipping. You are being equipped in that very moment. Even right now, you're being equipped to be a more effective minister within the context of the church. When you get a pastoral visit, when you ask the shepherds and teachers a theological question, when you reach out to other men and women of the church and you reach out for prayer, anytime any one of these officers is Teaching you in any way it is meant to be an equipping of you So that you and I can do the work of the ministry the whole idea is that the whole idea here is that every member is doing ministry because God is equipping every member and if you think you're not adequate the Bible says you are You are adequate for the task that God has given you. No, you're not adequate in and of yourself, but you're adequate because Christ is equipping you. He's given you the Holy Spirit. He's given you His Word. So, again, the logical order. Verse 11, He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers. Why did He give them? To train or equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And then what does it say at the end of verse 12? For what? For building up the body of Christ. That is the answer to tonight's question. What is the ultimate goal of the one another? Building up the body of Christ. That's it. The goal is to build us up. So, that means that this whole series has been about church growth. At least that's what putting these things to practice should result in. It should result, if we take every class we've heard the last eight weeks, teach one another, love one another, bear each other's burdens, and we do them faithfully, it will result in the building up of the body of Christ. If we follow God's formula, God will give the results, right? But what do we mean by church growth? I mean, we need to clarify that, right? I wonder what comes to your mind when you think of church growth. I think for many of us, the first thing we think of, even if we later correct our thinking, the first thing we typically think of is more people, bigger numbers, fill in all the blanks in these pews. Or we might think more buildings, or in our case, a building. We might think more ministries. Building the church, that means now we'll have a youth ministry, now we'll have a children's ministry, now we'll have a senior saints ministry, and so on. Or maybe you might think more influence. Your church will have a greater impact. People will talk about your church. They will know your church. Your church's worship team will produce their own CDs and your YouTube channel will have more hits and that kind of thing. There's nothing wrong, of course, with growth in that way. We would love to see this building filled. We would love to see the impact we can have so long as we stay true to the gospel of Christ. But if those are the end game, if that's the end game, if it's just all about numerical growth, how can I get more people to come? I think we're prone to fall short of what the Bible expects of us. So when I went online, I looked up some church growth strategies. Here are some things I found. This is according to people online. So here's one strategy, and I was actually looking for what is the key ingredient, what is the most important thing that can grow the church? One person said, it's a positive, healthy attitude. So a positive, healthy attitude will grow the church. So if our church struggles to grow, I guess our attitudes are not positive nor healthy. We need more K-love in our lives. One other person, I'm going to list some of these, are Leadership Development, Clear Vision, Generous Giving. Vision Acquisition and Conversion System, Monitor, Measure, Evaluate, and Adjustment Process, Flexible and Innovative. That was another website. Create Welcoming Experience, Embrace the New Normal, Pour Energy into Children and Youth Ministry, Create invitation cards, inspiring worship. I can go on. Now don't get me wrong. There's nothing inherently wrong with all those things. Some of those things are helpful. We do need leadership development. We do need a clear vision. We can use good invitation cards. Nothing wrong with that, right? But these are all based upon the idea that church growth equals more numbers. How can we get more people? So if the goal is simply numerical growth or influential growth, then at the end of the day, the focus is going to revolve around things like marketing, the atmosphere, the leadership style, and contextualization. That just means we have to adapt our message to our context. We will always be faced with the temptation to water down the Christian message so that it's more palatable to the people. We're going to want to cater to the lost preferences and skirt over the hard work of every member ministry. I want the Word of God to correct that course if that's what you're tempted to think. When we talk about building the body of Christ, we are not limiting this to numerical growth. So what does building the body of Christ mean? If you follow me so far, we have evangelists, prophets, apostles, and teachers, and pastors. They are given to the church to equip the saints, that's everyone, to do the ministry. Doing the ministry, that's the one anothering, results in the building of the body of Christ. But what does that mean? How do we know what that looks like to look back and say, oh, the body of Christ is being built up? Do we measure it by the number of people or not? Well, let's look back in our text, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 to 16. And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Now He's going to describe what that looks like. Verse 13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 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." Verse 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 it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Man, there's so much good stuff in there. If I say to you, I want to build up my family, there's two ways you can interpret that. I could say, I want to have lots of kids. Or I could mean, I want to see every member of my family grow in their knowledge, in their skill, in their joy, and in their impact on the world. Which of these two ways is Paul using the term build? Is he using it numerically or is he using it in a sense of growth in maturity? I think the answer is pretty clear, right? He's not talking necessarily about the growth of the body in terms of volume. He's talking about the growth of the body in terms of maturity. While building the body does not preclude numerical growth, and I think if the body's more mature, we will see numerical growth, it entails much more. So what are those things in the verses we just read that you can tangibly look at and say, these are marks that the church is growing in its body? And I have four things here, there might be more, but four implications. One is growth in truth, than growth in Christ-likeness, growth in confidence, and growth in effectiveness. Number one, growth in truth. Notice that Paul says in verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Quite frankly, putting more people in the pews means very little if you don't have growth in understanding who Jesus is. So verse 13 is telling us that we all, all of us, all the saints, are to aspire to attain unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Knowledge of the Son of God. But isn't it through the knowledge of Christ that they came to church in the first place? Well, yes. And the point is, they need more. We as Christians need to grow in our knowledge. So yes, when we get saved, we know Christ. We come to the understanding that He is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day. But brothers and sisters, there's so much more to know about Jesus. And not just know in your head. You're gonna go through your life and experience the fact that He's gentle and lowly. You'll go through His life and you'll experience the power of Christ in your life. You'll begin to know what it's like to abide in Christ and Him abide in you. There's so much about Christ that we could not exhaust everything there is to know, even for all of eternity. The sign that the church is becoming more mature and becoming more, or growing, being built up, is that it knows Jesus more and more. It knows truth more and more. It cherishes good doctrine. You see almost a paradox here, because in some modern day church growth strategies, doctrine is downplayed. Doctrine divides. Doctrine is too technical, it's too heady. People don't want that, they just want to feel good. But here in the Bible it says, in verse 13, that we are to attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. So are we growing in our understanding of truth? That is the first mark that we are growing as a body. Growth in truth. The second way that we grow is growth in Christlikeness. Christlikeness, again, verse 13, goes on to say, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I love that verse. I love a lot of verses, but that verse in particular lately, because there's a lot of stuff out there about what it means to be a biblical man. And there are a lot of different opinions and different cultural contexts. And who's the real manly man? Ephesians 4.13 tells us that the standard of manhood is Jesus Christ, period. Not every man's gonna look the same. Not every man's gonna have the same preferences. Not every man is going to be, in the world's eyes, more manly, less manly, stronger, weaker, more sensitive, and so on. But we don't measure ourselves against Mr. Rogers or John Wayne. We measure ourselves against Christ. And that doesn't just go for men, but for women. He is the standard for all Christians. So how do we measure that we as a church are growing again, not in the number of people, but in our Christ likeness to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. God saved you. Even though you and I marred the image of God with which we were created by our sins, he's restoring the image of God in us by making us more like Jesus. That means that we will be more like Jesus in our hearts. That means that we are more like Jesus in the way we respond to people when they insult us. That means that we should be more like Jesus when Satan tries to tempt us. Like Jesus, we fight him with the word of God. In our attitude, we are friends of sinners. We have righteous anger. We are gracious to all. In our conduct, in our speech, the question is, are you and I becoming more like Jesus? That is the sign of a church that is being built up. How is the church being built up? By the work of the ministry. Who's doing the work of the ministry? All the saints. How do the saints get equipped? By the prophets and the teachers and so on. Did you see that progression there? Thirdly, growth in confidence. A church that is being built up is growing in its confidence in God's word. Look what it says in verse 14, 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. What is this saying? It's saying, and this is 2,000 years ago, there will be other teachings. False teachings. Timothy talks about foolish speculations and endless genealogies and old wives tales and myths and dissensions. And you know this has been multiplied by a thousand in our day and age. Just turn on TV, go to a Christian bookstore, go to YouTube, podcast, whatever. There's so much out there. And what does that do sometimes? It shakes us up. We wonder, am I in the right place? Is there really a God? Did Jesus really rise from the grave? And it starts to make us doubt, and it starts to make us shaky, and it starts to make us sort of go back and forth. Or as it says here, verse 14, toss to and fro. We have very little foundation. Well, Paul says here that a church that is being built up will not be like children. The mark of a child in this context is someone who is impulsive, who has what we call shiny object syndrome, who cannot stay focused on the main thing. I teach middle school. I see this every day. Standing in front of these wonderful children made in the image of God sometimes make me want to rip my hair out, because why is that kid going to the bathroom more interesting than what I have to tell you? But we're naturally distracted, aren't we? And we, as adults, we are distracted, aren't we? Some of us are distracted right now. But as children, that's a characteristic that they have to grow out of. So hopefully you can look back in your life and say, yeah, when I was in second grade, third grade, fourth grade, you know, I was distracted. I was. But as I grew in my confidence, I've learned self-control. I've learned to have more peace. And it's the same for the Christian life, no matter how old you are. When you first come to the faith, things are a little uncertain, a little shaky. Is this the truth? Is that the truth? Right. But as we do this one another ministry, As we grow in love, we begin to have more confidence. Not arrogance, but confidence that God's word is true, that there is a God, that he sent his son for us, that the Bible is God's word, and that it guides our steps. Growth in confidence. Lastly, growth in effectiveness, growth in effectiveness. How do we know that a church is built up? Well, Paul says in verse 16, 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. So there's something here about each individual and our gifts being used in a proper fashion. You know that there can be one or two things wrong with your vehicle and it will break down even though everything else works. The best car is going to have everything working properly. One part of your computer can break down and it affects everything else in the computer, right? A church that is mature isn't perfect, but the parts are working properly. The people who are gifted to teach are the ones teaching. The people who are gifted to evangelize are going out and they're using the gift of evangelism. Those who are gifted in hospitality are using hospitality, bringing people into their homes. Those who are gifted in one-on-one discipleship and counseling are using that gift to help people in their Christian life. Those who have gifts of administration are seeing the areas that can be tightened so that the church can work more effectively. And I can go on and on. Even talents like singing and music and working with children, whatever it might be. When we're using our gifts properly, that's a sign that the church is growing. When people's gifts lie dormant, or when they're being used ineffectively, when people who shouldn't be teaching are doing the teaching, and vice versa, then the church is still immature and needs to grow. And so when we discover our spiritual gifts and then use them properly all together as one well-oiled machine, we demonstrate growth. So again, the logical progression. Verse 11, God gives all of these officers to his church. He gives them to his church to equip the saints to do one another ministry. If they're doing one another ministry, it's for the building up of the body of Christ. What does that look like? It looks like a body that is growing in at least four areas, in truth, in Christ likeness, in confidence, and in effectiveness. But the last thing I want to point out is this. What is the key ingredient for church growth? Without this ingredient, none of what I'm telling you will work. It's not a formula. You can do all the things that I said today, and all the things that we said not to do last week, and all the things that Brother John and Brother Sean showed us from the Bible, and then what I showed you from the book, and do all those things, but if we lack this one thing, we are bound to fail. What is that thing? The end of our text, verse 16. It says, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. We must have love. Jesus said, you'll know, they will know that you're my disciples by your love. Such a basic thing, right? It's like, this is what we learn in Sunday school. We feel like we're past that. We're never past that. We're never past that. The Apostle John tells us that if you say you love God, but you hate your brother, you have no evidence that you're actually a Christian. You can't not love your brothers and sisters in Christ. If you work for God, but have no love, there will be no impact, no lasting impact. Love is the key ingredient. Verse 15 says, speaking the truth in love. Verse 16, it builds itself up in love. Think about all the things we talked about the last eight weeks, right? Week number one, love and serve one another. I'm not going to last very long serving you, and you're not going to last long serving each other or me, if you have not love. Why would you want to continue to serve people that you don't love? You don't agree with them, you're always butting heads, there's contention, it makes no sense. Because we know people will annoy us, they will frustrate us, they will let us down. You will let people down, I will let people down. But if we have self-sacrificial, Christ-like love, then we can serve each other from the heart. Week number two, we talked about fellowshipping with and working with one another. Again, you need genuine love if you're gonna fellowship with brothers and sisters. To work together for each other's good, to put their interests above your own interests. Praying for and caring for one another, that was week three. I can't consistently pray for you and care for you if I don't love you. It has to come from the heart. How about week four? Bury one another's burdens. All of us have our own burdens. What would compel me to want to add your burden to my burdens other than Christ-like love? Week number five, encourage one another. That is, I am interested in your growth. I am interested in encouraging you, building you up. Why? Because I love you. And then week number six, teach and admonish one another. This one is like, I don't want to talk to him or her, confront them, instruct them, correct them, rebuke them, who wants that? But we do it, why? Because to fail to correct someone in error is a hateful thing. Just like Proverbs says, if you fail to discipline your children, it's as if you hate your son. So if we let someone wallow in their sin, or go after false doctrine, and we don't admonish, it's as if we hate them. But if we love one another, we will warn one another, we will rebuke one another, we will admonish one another. And then last week, If you have genuine Christ-like love in your heart, you would not want to lie to one another, provoke one another, pass judgment on one another, speak evil against one another, or grumble against one another. Why? Because of love. So love is the glue that holds us all together. Love colors it all. I wish that more church growth strategies, websites, books, seminars began with that and said, it all starts with genuinely loving one another like Christ loved you and you see the body of Christ grow. So brothers and sisters, as you participate in the church, Take heart, you are being equipped for the work of the ministry, this one another ministry that is characterized by Christ-like love. If you love one another and you do these things, God promises that we will attain to the growth that He wants to see in our church. You know, man plans, but God orders his steps, right? We have an idea of what we want church to look like, but God knows best. We might never have a permanent building. We might never have the most dynamic leadership or speakers behind this pulpit or music team making CDs or marketing team. Our church may never have the influence of other big name churches. But if we have Christ-like love and we practice these one another's with that Christ-like love, then God will grow our church into the fullness of the stature of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.