"The Body" Sermon: Ephesians 4:11-16

"The Body"
[Ephesians 4:11-16]
March 30, 2008 Second Reformed Church

What are the offices of the Church? I'm not referring to the rooms in Freeman Hall. What are the offices of the Church? What are the biblical positions that some people are called to function in in the Church? If we talk just about the local church -- Second Reformed Church, we have people who hold the office of minister, elder, and deacon. These are the three biblical offices of the Church. In discussions in the past few months, it seems that there is some confusion about these offices, what they are, what their responsibilities are, how someone is called to an office, and so forth. So, if the Lord is willing, we will spend the next four weeks looking at the offices. Today, we begin, more generally, with the idea of the Church as the Body of Christ.

Paul begins his letter to the Church at Ephesus by explaining the Gospel, so they will be able to defend themselves against heretics and false teachers that were seeking to prey on them. Then, in chapter four, he argues that since the Gospel is true, since salvation is wholly the Work of God, "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness with patience, bearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit -- just as you were called into 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" (Ephesians 4:1-7 ESV).

Paul argues that since the Gospel is true, since our salvation is wholly the Work of God, we ought to live in such a way that the value of God's Work is seen and understood. We have been called to salvation in Jesus Christ so we ought to be humble, gentle, patient, bearing one another in love, working hard to maintain our unity in the Spirit and in peace. Does that sound like you?

Would someone say of you, "That person is great to work with and be friends with, she is always doing good for other people, she doesn't put herself up on a pedestal, she doesn't get offended if she isn't the center of attention. In fact, she is so dedicated to the essentials of her faith that she bends over backwards to help other people -- in love, so that the unity of the essential teachings/doctrines are maintained, and there is peace among her fellow Christians with her, even as she maintains herself"?

Paul says we ought to be working on being that way with the help of the Holy Spirit, because there is only one Body -- the Church, one Spirit, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all of us. And Christ gives us grace. If there is one Body, one Salvation, One Spirit, One Savior, One Father, then we cannot be divided and together. We, through the grace that Jesus gives us, are either one together -- or we actually have nothing to do with Jesus. We cannot claim Christ and be in disunity with our fellow Christians. That doesn't mean we'll all be best friends; it doesn't mean that we will never disagree, but on the non-compromiseable issues, we will be one, and united in them in Christ's Love through His Grace.

We're told in this morning's Scripture that every Christian has been gifted by the Holy Spirit, and some have been called to serve in the offices of the Church.

Every Christian has received a gift or gifts from the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, 'Jesus is accused!' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills" (I Corinthians 12:1-11 ESV). And "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness" (Romans 12:3-8 ESV).

Every Christian has been given a gift for the good of the Body of Christ -- the Church. Each one of you here this morning has been gifted in some way for the sake of the Church -- all of us. Some of you love to teach, so you should be teaching in the Church. Some of you love to give financially, so you should give generously. Some of you love to listen to others and comfort them, so you should be about that ministry. Some of you love to bake, so you should be baking. Some of you love to visit people, so you should be out visiting the members of the Church. And so forth. There is one thing, or maybe several things, that God has gifted you in and you love to do, so you should be doing that in the Church. The gifts are given to make the Church whole, and using those gifts that we have been given give us joy.

If you don't know what your gift is, if you doubt you have a gift -- ask me, and I will get the tools we need to determine your gift, so you can have greater joy in the Church. One place to start would be to ask yourself what you do that you always want to do. What gives you joy? When people ask me about whether they have the gift and call to the ministry, I tell them that one of the key questions in my understanding is this: would you be alright with never preaching again? Would you be able to live a joyful and satisfying life in Christ, in the Church, and never ascend to the holy pulpit to speak for God? You see, God's Gifts to us are not a punishment: God gives us gifts, for His Glory, for the good of the Church, and for our joy. Using the gift we have in the Church will bring us joy -- so that is another tell.

God also calls some to offices in the Church: God calls some to be ministers, some to be elders, and some to be deacons. God gives everyone gifts, but not everyone is called to an office. And some will be called to one office, and some to two, and some to three in their lifetimes, depending on how God uses them. It is not biblical to say that someone is called to be a deacon and then when he proves himself he becomes an elder, and then finally, he becomes a minister. They are separate but equal offices -- we say they have parity. They are equal and one does not necessarily follow from another. Some people serve in several offices, some do not, depending on the gifts they have and the call God places upon them.

Paul makes the point in this morning's Scripture (and if the Lord wills, we will look at this in greater detail next week), that God calls some to be ministers or teachers, or minsters and teachers, and the primary work of the office of the minister/teacher is this: to equip the saints for the work of ministry and to build up the body of Christ. The office of minister/teacher is to be primarily concerned with teaching everyone else in the Church and making sure that everyone else has the tools necessary to do ministry inside and outside of the Church, because they are the ones that are call to do the work of ministry. The minister/teacher is to teach and equip the congregation so the congregation can do the work of the ministry.

If the minister/teacher does what he is called to do, the result will be that "we all attain the unity of the faith," "the knowledge of the Son of God," and we will "mature [into] Christ[likeness]." First, we will be united in the essentials of the faith -- all those things which are non-compromiseable, all those things which Christians must agree on, if they are to be Christians. Second, we will know Jesus savingly and we will continue to know Him better and more fully. And third, we will mature, change, into people who are like Jesus.

It is urgent that minister/teachers do the work they are gifted and called to do, and, sadly, most are not. And there are a variety of reasons for that, but we won't get into that this morning. But our Scripture explains the necessity, as Paul says we are no longer to 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." The devil, his demons, and some people don't want you to mature in Christ. As Larry Norman sang, "you've got to love everybody, but don't be blind, 'cuz some kinds of people try to mess up your mind."

Why shouldn't we remain like children in these things? What is it about children? Children are over-credulous -- they tend to believe what they are told. Children tend to think that everything "new and improved" is better. And children tend to be void of discerning.

I am the oldest of six children, and I now have a niece and nephew. I have teased all of them, telling them incredible and disgusting things, to get a reaction out of them -- because I knew they would believe. On the spur of the moment, in the car, when the oldest of my sisters was young, I pointed out a water tower to her and told her that it was a lamb's egg. That a lamb would lay an egg on the ground, and it would grow up into this tower, and then when the sheep we ready to hatch, they slide down the middle tube and walked out the bottom. And, briefly, she believed me.

We cannot believe people just because they are ministers or friends or relatives or scholars. There must be reason, argument, and proof behind what we say is true. One of my favorite examples from seminary is that we were taught that the world-wide flood of Noah is a myth, a fable, a parable. And the way they knew it wasn't true history was because every civilization has a world-wide flood story. I disagreed with that argument -- if everyone agrees that something happened, and the archeological evidence supports it -- and it does -- then it is probably true, right?

My little brother is a tech hound. He loves gadgets, and he has to get the newest and "most improved." "New and improved" -- what did we have before, "old and substandard"? I had a professor in seminary who said new commentaries are always better than old commentaries. Well, what if the new one is wrong? Do you have to be in style, not matter what the cost? The new style of worship is called the "emergent church," and in its most excessive, it minimizes the Scripture, emphasizes rock music and praise choruses, mysticism, and doing whatever makes you feel good in worship. How far are they from the bacchanalian orgies? If General Synod recommended church prostitutes, how long would it take to catch on? We must stand by the clear teachings of the Scripture and not give in to everything new and shiny.

And what of discernment? If I put a hundred dollar bill and a matchbox car in front of my nephew and said, "Ty, you can have one of these," he would choose the car. It would be a poor choice, poor discernment of the value of the two, but it would satisfy him for the moment. We must learn and discern that eternal satisfaction and joy are worth more than momentary pleasure. The future of the Church and the Kingdom, Jesus promised, will mean we will need to be uncomfortable at times, even suffer for His Sake.

We must put away childish things, and our minister/teachers are to speak the truth to us in love -- to teach us, not because they are smart and we are dumb, but in the love of Christ and for His Sake. And "we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (NRSV). Our pew Bible makes the appropriate emphasis, maturing, becoming like Christ, using the gifts we have been given, serving in the offices we are called to, is not a choice, it is a command -- we must grow up. If we are Christians, our Lord, our God, our Savior commands us, not as a tyrant, but as a loving Father, to grow up!

We are to become like Christ, functioning properly as members of His Body. And Christ is our Head. He is the Brain, the Mind, the Reason. We have been gifted as hands, feet, stomachs, ears, eyes, noses, mouths, toes, fingers, lungs, kidneys, livers, intestines, and so forth. Christ gives us our gifts through the Holy Spirit and some are called to particular offices in the Church -- not because they are better than others, but because it pleased God to use us in the way He uses us.

Some of us are mouths -- we speak on behalf of the Body. Some of us are feet -- we walk, provide locomotion for the Body. We have different gifts, but we are all important in what we have been gifted. And it would be disaster to mix up our parts, especially if we try to be the head of the Body. The intestines are necessary and do a good work and are gifted for what they do, but what a disaster it would be for our skull to be full of intestines, rather than the brain!

Christ is the Head, the Brain, the Mind, the Reason. We follow Him. He unites us all together. We can only function rightly and fully when He is controlling us and we are responding to the impulses He sends to us. Paul wrote, "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and all were made to drink of the one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor can the head say to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greatest honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, administering, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all poses gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a more excellent way" (I Corinthians 12:12-31 ESV).

Paul wrote, in verse sixteen of this morning's Scripture, that when each part of the Body is working properly, when we are being fed by God's Grace, using the gifts we have been given, and serving in the offices, as we are called, the Body will work properly. We will be the Church, no longer being immature and foolish, but being a people actively maturing into the image of Christ.

And we will build up the Body -- each other -- in love. Not just out of duty. It is not enough to hear the Scripture this morning and say, "OK, God said I have to do what I have been gifted at in the Church, so I'll do it." Duty is not enough, there must also be love. Rev. Dr. John Piper gave the example of giving roses to his wife on their anniversary: he said it would be wrong of him to come to the door, ring the bell, hand his wife roses, and, when she asked, "Why did you bring me these, Johnny?" -- it would be wrong, and she would have a poor reaction if he said, "It was my duty; it's our anniversary, it's something I have to do." No, what he should do, the right thing to do would be to bring her the roses and answer the question, "I bought them for you because I love you; you bring out the best in me, and it is my honor and joy to be your husband."

Coming to worship, being a part of the Body, using your gifts in the Church, serving in the offices as God calls you, putting away childishness and working hard to mature into Christ-likeness are all good things, and they are things we ought to do, but if we don't love each other, if we don't love the Body, if we don't love Christ and His Church, it's not enough.

Brothers and sisters, do you love Christ? Do you love His Church? Do you desire to be satisfied and filled with His Joy? Then we are told to be the part of the Body we have been called to be. Understand what your gift is, and use it for the good of us all. If you have been called by God to serve in one of the offices, serve. Learn from ministers and teachers who desire you to learn the pure Word of God. And let us grow up, in all ways, into the image of Christ.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, the Head of the Church, unite us, equip us, and cause us to joyfully know and use our gifts for the good of the Body and to Your Glory. And as we work together in love, may we understand the offices and rightly discern Your Call to serve. In Jesus' Name, Amen.