Ephesians 4:1-16. Build up one another

Ephesians 4:1-16

Psalm 68:8-19

      “Build one another up”

Has anyone read our mission statement on the front of the newsletter?

Our mission is:

To Glorify God by enjoying Jesus together.

The first question of the Westminster confession of faith catechism is this:

What is the chief and highest end of man? 

And the answer:

Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.

Your purpose in life is not to display your Glory, not for you to shine, is not for you to show off the gifts that God has given you……however many and great they may be, but your purpose is to glorify God, or let me put it another way- your purpose is to “show-off” God

…….and it is no co-incidence that those stiff necked reformed guys back in the seventh century, who came up with the Westminster confession of faith, linked Glorifying God to actually enjoying God.

When you love someone or something so much, and you enjoy them, you cannot help but show them off to the world, as you are constantly talking about them, constantly wanting to spend time with them.

You cannot help but Glorify God, show off God, when you enjoy Him.

Jesus prayed in John 17:13 that we may have the same Joy that He has in his father. A joy beyond our imagination. God wants you to be joyful!

Even in hard times, in times of sickness, grief and suffering, you can still enjoy the presence of God with you. Even when you are in situations that are beyond your understanding, you can still have Joy. You always have the Joy of your salvation, which God has already joyfully given to you through Jesus.

That is why our mission at this church here in Wingham, Krambach and Old Bar, is to Glorify God (show off God) by enjoying Him, and we believe, as the apostle Paul alluded to here in his letter to the Ephesians that we most glorify God, and most enjoy God, when we are doing that together.

That is why we enjoy Jesus Together.

By the way, just one obvious, but very important truth is, as we enjoy Jesus, we are enjoying God, because Jesus is God.

The next part of our mission states this:

so that Jesus will be magnified to all people,

in the hope that all people will enjoy Jesus together.

In other words, our mission at this church, is not only for us to enjoy Jesus Together, that would just be like creating a closed off Holy Huddle,- which we don’t want, but we also want to reach out to others, so they too can enjoy Jesus together.

As we show off God, we pray that Jesus will be magnified and others will want to show off God too.

This is, after all, the great commission which Jesus gave us all in Matthew 28:16-20.

Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples of Him.

We hope that our mission statement covers two vital aspects of our mission

1.        To grow in holiness- to grow to be more Christ- like, as we enjoy Him together

2.        To make disciples of Jesus

But here is the thing………

These two aspects of our mission intertwine with each other.

In fact, you cannot separate these missions, as we grow in Christ together, we will also make disciples, or let me put it another way….as we grow in our maturity in Christ, we will grow in number.

But How…….?

How do we grow the church?

Many books and many strategies have been developed for church growth, and the good books and the good strategies, all acknowledge straight off the bat- that we cannot actually grow ourselves, we cannot grow the church, it is only by the grace of God, that we grow in maturity and grow in numbers.

We may plant and water, but it is only God who makes things grow.

However……that doesn’t mean we still don’t have our part to play.

It shouldn’t stop us from planting and watering, - in fact knowing that God makes things grow- it should spur us on.

As Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:15-16, Jesus is the head of the church and we are the body- the church.

God in his wisdom, still works through each member of the body, to build his church.

Sometimes we may use God’s sovereignty as an excuse to sit on our backsides and treat church like a spectator sport.

Sometimes we are like the man who leans on his shovel and prays that God will dig the hole, without even trying to dig.

The apostle Paul brings this sovereignty of God with human responsibility together in verse 1 of Ephesians chapter 4.

Look at verse 1 with me:

I, therefore a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in the manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

Paul told the church at Ephesus, as he tells us today, that God has called us into his family, he also tells us in Romans 8:29, that those he has called, he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified.

God has saved us through the Cross of Christ, we have been saved, we have been adopted into his family, we have been given the spirit in our hearts and yet Paul then urges us to walk in a manner that shows you are part of God’s family.

One very simple way of walking in a way which shows you are part of God’s family, is to regularly meet with other parts of the family.

Imagine being selected, being called to play for Wingham Warriors over 35 soccer team? Is there a greater honour?

But then imagine, being called and selected for that team, but you never ever met your team mates, you never trained, you never played a game. You may have been selected and called to the team, but you wouldn’t be walking in a manner which shows you are worthy of that calling.

So how do we walk in a manner worthy of our calling, our calling into God’s family?

The apostle Paul gave us the answer.

Look at verses 1-3 with me again

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

First of all, we walk with humility.

CS Lewis perhaps wrote one of the best definitions of humility when he wrote this:

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it is thinking less about yourself”

And so true humility doesn’t focus on your faults, doesn’t focus on what gifts you haven’t got, true humility doesn’t state,

“I am not good enough to do that……..

I am not talented enough to do that….”,

but true humility, always asks the question,

“How can I help this other person?,

“How can I help this person to find their Joy in Jesus?”

Humility puts your brothers and sisters in Christ, before yourself.

A good question for us to ask when we meet together on a Sunday, is

How can I help my brother and sister today?

This mindset is totally opposite to the mindset of the world, which has sadly crept into some parts of the church, which instead, asks, “what is in it for me?” “what can I get of this?”

This seems to be a questions which is being thrown around a lot during so-called “peace talks” – “what do we get out of it?

Humility, asks the question, how can I serve you best?- even though it may cost me?

In verses 7-8, it tells us that all of us have been given gifts which help build up the church.

Look at verses 7 and 8 with me:

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.”

The grace that Paul talked about in verse 7, is not referring to God’s saving grace, that we all have received, but it is talking about the different portions of grace that is given to each one of us, which allows us to use the gift God has given us to help build his church.

Paul quotes from Psalm 68.

Psalm 68 was written in the context of the God saving the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians, but then giving his redeemed people back to the world as a gift to the world, to show the world His Glory.

Friends, we are a gift to one another, and it requires us to humble ourselves to serve our brothers and sisters, just as Christ humbled himself to serve us.

As it says in verses 9 and 10, Jesus stepped off his throne in heaven, came down to this earth, humbled himself to become one of us, humbled himself to die for us, even humbled himself to the most humiliating death- death on a cross- and he did all of that for you, for us, for his church.

Paul told us not only to walk in humility, but also to walk with Gentleness….

As sheep (which the bible refers to us as the sheep of God’s pasture) it is inevitable that we will occasionally butt heads, that’s what sheep do in a pen, but Paul urges us to be gentle with one another, as we graze and grow together. Jesus- our great shepherd always treated us with kindness, don’t get me wrong, Jesus was brutal when it came to the false teachers, but he was gentle on his own.

Gentleness requires us to listen to the other person, to pause, before we go at it, all guns blazing.

Paul told us not only to walk in humility, and gentleness, but also to walk with patience…..

Yes, patience……

Paul urges us to show patience with one another.

There is going to be a brother or sister who constantly falls back into sin, the same sin, they seem to just go in cycles and yet Paul urges us here, not to give up on them, but to be patient. Some brothers and sisters seem to never mature in their faith….we are to be patient with them-as we hope they will also be patient with us.

Paul told us to walk with humility, gentleness, patience and to bear with one another in love, being eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

I think it can be easier to fake this bond of unity if we bear with one another in love at a distance.

The closer we get, the more we see one another’s faults, the more we know each other’s thoughts and opinions and the more painful it is to maintain the unity of the spirit. And yet if we are bearing one another at a distance, we are probably not even bearing with one another at all.

If we are bearing one another at a distance, we are peace faking, not peace making.

Friends, God has called us into his family, to bear with one another in love. We know only share the gospel together, but we share our lives together.

So, how exactly do we grow in our maturity of the faith?

Look at verses 11-14 with me:

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,  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 from by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 

How do we grow in our maturity?

First, we acknowledge that God has given us His word- the bible. This was written by the prophets (OT) and apostles (NT). This was God’s gift to us. This is why we base everything we do on his word.

Second, we acknowledge that God has given the church evangelists. These are people who can’t help but to talk to the lost about Jesus, and just seem to have that gift. I think we have a few of these people in our churches.

Third, we acknowledge that God has given his church shepherds and teachers, which I believe and other commentators believe are the same thing- God has given his church, shepherds, who look after the flock but also teach. In fact a shepherd looks after his flock by good teaching.

And finally, but definitely not least, God has given the church each and every member who will minister to one another.

My Job, or at least a large part of my job is to equip you with God’s word, so that you can minister to one another.

And as we minister to one another, the church grows.

Look at verses 15-16 with me:

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 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.

Amazing, when each part of the body is working properly, the body grows and builds itself up.

When a part of the body is missing, we all feel it.

Perhaps, we as a church, and me as a shepherd have been guilty of treating church far more like a hospital ward rather than a gymnasium.

Yes, the church has a big role to play in healing the wounded, helping the broken…….but

I wonder for some people who we are bandaging, could have those injuries been avoided if we spent more time in the Gym- building one another up in maturity in Christ.

And when I say Gym, yes I mean getting your feed of the word on Sunday, but then chewing on that word in your bible study groups, chewing on that word with your friends over coffee or breakfast.

I wonder if some of those bandages could have been avoided if we spoke the truth in love to our brother and sister, rather than letting them drift in their sin.

I wonder if  I, at times have neglected exercising the spiritual muscle of the word and prayer, to build others up, so that there would be perhaps less visits to the hospital wards.

Friends, we as a church are called to minister to one another, we are called to build one another up. By the grace of God let us continue to do so.

Let us pray.