Iowa RP Family Camp 2019 - Talk 3

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. We are in Ephesians, we're skipping ahead to chapter 4. Not that the last part of chapter 2 and chapter 3 isn't important, but for the things we want to focus on this week, we want to go ahead and move to chapter 4 so we can be done by Friday.

It's important to remember the structure of the epistles. You have generally the first half of an epistle is indicative material. Paul reminding the church that he is writing to of what is true about them, what Christ has done for them. and then the second half being the imperative then, what they are to do as a result of that.

And so we've wanted to focus on the indicative so that as we transition into the imperative, tomorrow we don't end up with the legalistic because if we start talking about what we must do and not remember why we must do those things and how we're able to do those things we'll try to do them from our own strength and from our own resources and consequently from our own pride and we don't need to complicate our situation any more than it already is. So we want to remember what Christ has done for us.

So today we're looking at the power for change. You might think of this also as resources for change as well. When you have to do something in your home, in your family, in your church, it's always good to stop and evaluate. What are the resources we have available to us?

If you have two nickels, that tells you one direction you might be able to go. If you go to your bank account and realize you had an extra million bucks you forgot about. Probably rarely happens to an RP, but anyway. Not that they don't have the million bucks, but they don't forget about it. That's for later. That money's for later, right? If you have an extra million dollars, you think, oh, we have more resources than we remembered, and we can do more with that. And obviously the gospel is worth way more than a million dollars. And if we forget that we have that available to us, we will be wrapped up in self-righteous attempts at change and end off worse than we were in the beginning.

Paul, over the course of the end of chapter 2, talks about the reconciliatory nature of the gospel that God is bringing together all of his people. Then Paul speaks of his ministry in the gospel. He prays for spiritual strength. And then we come to chapter 4 of Ephesians. We're focusing on the first 16 verses today.

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 with 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 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 of 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, 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, 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.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, help us as we consider further what it is you have called us to in this life, as you have saved us, redeemed us, as you change us. Lord, help us to appropriately involve ourselves in the activities and obeying all that you have commanded us. And Lord, help us to look for the power, the resources that we have available to us to walk the path of change, to become the people that You desire us to be, and to walk faithfully in all Your ways.

Sermon

In Christ's name we pray, Amen. So we are seeing four things from this text today. We see Christ's call, Christ's gift, Christ's humiliation and exaltation, and Christ's body. You'll notice that all of this belongs to Christ. All of this is His. These are graciously given to us.

And this should be a reminder to us that the power for change, the resources for change in our lives, come from outside of us. So, psychologically today, the world has it backwards. All of our problems are outside of us. and we just need to muster the resources from inside of us to change. That is completely backwards to what God tells us in His Word. The problem is inside of us and the resources are outside of us and must invade our lives if we are to change.

The first thing that we see is Christ's call And that call unites us to Christ, as we talked about, but it also brings us into a body of believers. Christ does not just make us into a body part. He makes us into a part of the body. And there is a big difference if you've ever lost a body part or if you've ever seen the ways in which they can now grow body parts that they install in people. There's a big difference between being a body part and a part of the body.

And Paul is not afraid to put some apostolic pressure on the people here. He's building his case, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord. Some texts say a prisoner in the Lord. Paul is an apostle and he is suffering for his office. And this brings a certain amount of weight to what he is about to say to the church at Ephesus. Paul was considered worthy to suffer for Christ because he was suffering as a Christian. God's Word tells us, This is a loose paraphrase. You'll notice somewhere the good book says something about a chicken.

If you do dumb sinful things, of course you're going to suffer. So let's make sure that when we're suffering, we're suffering for righteousness sake. A lot of times we can claim persecution as Christians when it's just simply people reacting to us being jerks. Of course we're going to suffer when we do sinful things.

But Paul here is suffering as a Christian, as you may be called to suffer as a Christian. And so he is counted worthy to suffer with Christ. Now it's interesting here, Paul does not go on at length about how the Romans are oppressing him. about how this isn't fair, about how he deserves differently. No. He almost makes it sound as if Christ himself is the one that has Paul imprisoned. He makes it sound that way because that's exactly how Paul viewed it. Paul knew that there were soldiers who needed to hear the gospel, and the only way those soldiers assigned to the Roman prison would hear the gospel is if Christ sent an ambassador in chains into the prison.

How do you view your sufferings? How do you consider that illness that puts you in touch with that nurse that's having a really difficult time in her life? How do you view that heartache that puts you in touch with others who are suffering heartache? Do you view that as coming from the Lord or do you just simply not deserve that? Whatever is going on in your life is going on for the sake of ministry to others.

Paul here speaks of our call, urging the Ephesians to walk in a manner worthy of the call to which they have been called. Well, that starts with the effectual call. The Shorter Catechism asks us, How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. The question came yesterday during the discussion time exactly what that union is. We know it happens when we are effectually called. That is when The Spirit takes that verbal outward call that falls on the ears of sinners every week from the pulpit and drags it down into our heart and makes it effectual for our salvation.

He gives us a new heart and all of a sudden we hear the gospel. All of a sudden we understand the gospel. Perhaps you've heard the testimony of some, if you hang out with Gideons very much, I would encourage you to do that. They're a great group of folks, very concerned with the spread of God's Word.

You hear testimonies of people who say, you know, I read the Bible as a young person, and it didn't make any sense, it was just obscure and weird, and then later, I was going through this hard time, I went back, I read Scripture, and it was like somebody rewrote it. I actually heard one testimony where they said, I was so glad they went back and edited it so it made sense all of a sudden. Scripture wasn't edited. You were edited. You were changed. You were rewritten so that God's word made sense.

The catechism asks, what is effectual calling? It's that work of God's spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel." And so, you know the confessional language and act is a one-time event, a work is a process, and we know that this doesn't necessarily happen, we might experience it kind of in an immediate way, But sometimes it takes years for the gospel to sink in and do the work that the Spirit intends for it to do. We hear the message over and over, but then all of a sudden, these things are coming to fruition in our lives, and it makes sense, and we're renewed. and we are changed so that we are able to embrace Jesus and cling to Him knowing that He is our only hope in this life and the life to come.

Reminds me of that of the pastor's boy who Every week, he would sit on the front pew and he would squirm and he would wiggle and he would not obey his mother. I'm sure none of you have pastor's kids like that in your church. And the mom would say, now son, please, just please, just please, be quiet, be quiet, please, just listen to your father, just don't squirm, don't act up, just please, please, listen.

Final Point

Finally, one day, One Sunday, in the middle of the sermon, the father had had enough, and he stepped out of the pulpit, and he walked down, and he leaned over and he said, Son, if you do not sit still for your mother, I'm going to take you out of this service, and I'm going to spank you until you cannot sit down for a month. And he said it so quietly, the mom didn't know what he had said, and he went back up and finished the sermon, and the boy sat there completely still and silent. And finally, at the end of the service, she said, son, what did your dad say to you?

And he said, well, the same thing you always say. He just explained it a little differently. And that's what happens to us, isn't it? Is we hear the gospel over and over and over. And all of a sudden, we feel like it's explained a little differently to us. We understand the consequences of how we're living. We understand that this is real. That all those other things we thought were real and the gospel was fake, that actually the gospel is real. And all that other stuff is vapor. It's the mist of the morning. It's the dew on the grass. It disappears so quickly.

We're able to embrace Jesus, knowing that He is our true salvation. We're called to the body, but we're also called to the body in a certain way. We're called with humility and gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love. I know I just described your congregation. Humility, not pride. Think of two biblical characters with me. Think of Joseph and think of Nebuchadnezzar. Which one saw humility produced in them through their exaltation?

Joseph was dragged down, down, down. He was the favored son. He ends up in the bottom of a well sold to his cousins that take him into Egypt, sell him into slavery. He's made the head of Potiphar's house, but then because he wouldn't perform in a sexually inappropriate way for Potiphar's wife, he's thrown into jail, he's forgotten, he's abandoned, and then the Lord moves and he is made basically the most powerful man on the face of the earth. If you read this scripture, it's really almost disturbing the way Joseph buys all of the land and all of the people ultimately who come for food to Egypt. He built Pharaoh's empire for him. But all the while remembering what you meant for evil, God meant for good. Then there's Nebuchadnezzar, who reached a point where he just thought he was God.

And God had to give him a season of life to remind him, no, no, no, no. You're no different than the animals that Ed Hays will eat, than the cows that eat the grass. You're no different than them. Any dignity you have, any honor you have is from me. We're to come at the body that we are a part of humbly, not pridefully. Why? Because we know that really we don't deserve to be here. We don't belong here. We belong somewhere else. We're to come meekly. There's to be a meekness there, not arrogance.

Charles Hodge speaks of this as softness, mildness, gentleness, which when united with strength, is one of the loveliest attributes of our nature. Jesus himself, God the Son, said that he is gentle and humble in heart, Matthew 11, 29. The Apostle Paul speaks of the gentleness of Christ. Christ is referred to as a lamb before its shears. Hodge says again, of the Son of God, He is the most exalted of all beings and yet was the gentlest. of all beings.

There's something striking, is there not? Perhaps you remember from your childhood, the large man who we like to say was like a teddy bear, right? That's meekness. When you know they have the strength to kill you with their bare hands and they use those hands to bear you up and to strengthen you and to encourage you. Patience with one another. I know I don't need to talk to this group about patience. You guys are very patient with one another. You never get agitated, never get frustrated. What do these sound like? These sound like the fruits of the Spirit.

The things that we're called to be in relation to the body are the fruit of the Spirit working in us. We cannot do these things on our own. If you've ever been interrupted in your prayers while you're praying for patients with your children, and you're interrupted with them fighting or something, and you yell at them because you're busy trying to pray for patients with them, maybe I'm the only one who's experienced something like that. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith. Colossians 3, So embrace, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, a spirit of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and long-suffering.

Bearing with one another in love, not forcing one another out of spite. Humility. Humility is a proper perspective of yourself in light of everything that is going on around you. Meekness is a proper view of your strength in light of everything that's going on around you. We're to protect, we are to guard the unity of the body.

That's very key, that's very important So as we find here the unity of the body, we find a lot of ones. 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. And so as we think of our resources for change, the power that we have for change, the fact that we are in the body of Christ, and that body of Christ has a singular purpose, a singular focus, a singular power, a singular root and ground for being?

Maybe some of you have had the pleasure of working for a company in the past that knows the one thing that they do and they seek to do it really well. And perhaps you've had the non-pleasure of working for a company that couldn't figure out what it was about, what it was supposed to do, constantly responding rather than leading in the market that they are in. It's miserable. It's miserable to work for a company that doesn't know what they're supposed to be doing. And so therefore, they can't do it well.

It's an absolute joy to go to work for a company that says, this is what we do, and we're going to do it the best we can. The church is an absolute joy to be a part of. because we have a lot of ones. We are singularly focused. We are singularly empowered. We don't have this person here because of this cause, or that person there because of that cause, or whatever. It's the same spirit that drew us in. We have the same baptism in which we've all participated in, whether that baptism practice, water conservation, or not. We have one faith in which we believe. And it's all focused on this God who is transcendent. He is above all. He is omnipresent. He is through all. And He is Emmanuel. He is in you all. As the Greek has it there.

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. What is the ultimate gift that we receive from Christ? It is, well, He is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit.

Grace was given to each one. of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. This word grace is used a couple of ways in scripture. It can refer to that unmerited favor that God mercifully shows to guilty sinners. And this is the sense in which most of us generally think of the word grace. But the word also refers to the enabling work of the Holy Spirit. who dwells in and works within Christians. It is, in effect, that help He gives them to do God's will.

2 Peter 3.18, this is what we find there where it's the help of the Holy Spirit which brings about growth. We're commanded to grow by grace. It stresses the fact that it is the grace, it's the Holy Spirit's help that enables the Christian to grow. And so as we see that we are called into a body, and we are to respond in appropriate ways to the body that we are called to be a part of, we see then that grace isn't just something that flows in. Grace is also something that flows out from us. Paul illustrates it this way in Romans 12, verses 3-9.

He says, For I say through the grace given to me to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sound judgment according to the measure of faith God has distributed to every man. for just as we have many parts in one body, and not all parts have the same function. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and all are parts of one another. We have diverse gifts according to the grace that is given to us, of prophecy according to the proportion of faith, of service in serving, he who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with generosity, he who rules with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy, hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

And so we see this grace flowing out to others through the many giftings that Christ gives us in the Spirit. What is grace? Grace is that unmerited favor of God that not only justifies and adopts us, but also sanctifies us, empowering us to actually obey God's Word, being thereby exhibited, shown forth to our brothers and sisters in Christ in real and meaningful ways. Grace isn't just something received. It's something that's given.

What if our hearts decided that receiving blood was enough? The intake was all it really needed. Our hearts would explode. What if our lungs started to think that just taking air in was enough? That that's really all that was required of them. didn't also see fit to push air out.

The body analogy that Paul returns to again and again and again, sometimes in very subtle ways, as we will see, is a very powerful picture for us on how to interact and how to work with one another. So this grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's And it is a gift, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, as we have seen. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, this is a gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. It is a gift to us, this grace, this mercy, this salvation. And how do we get more of this grace? Well, the saving grace you don't. You don't get more.

You got all that you're going to get when you are justified. But when it comes to being sanctified, and see this is the Roman problem, right? They amalgamate justification and sanctification. So I'm as saved as I am sanctified. Now think back through your morning, since you woke up this morning. How saved would you be today if you were as saved as you are sanctified? If you're as justified as you are sanctified? How justified would you be before the Father today? Anybody wanna put forth a guess? Confession? Zero. We all know Andrew. We all know that is probably true. It's true of all of us, isn't it? It's true of all of us.

Because we're not Westlands. We don't believe that sin is just the proactive, obvious violations of God's law. That's the Westland doctrine of sin. No, we're Calvinists. We hold to the biblical doctrine of sin. That sin is any lack, any nonconformity to what Christ has called us to, right? It's zero.

And so praise God that we are justified. Separate doctrine. We are sanctified then. Justified is always 100%. Sanctified, we go like this. We might for a season dip really low. But the Lord is drawing us to himself. And so ask, ask the Lord. Ask the Lord to be further sanctified, to be further made like Christ. This is proven to us in the ascension. Okay, so let's look at this together. There is one body and 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.

Paul here is quoting Psalm 68. If you look at Psalm 68, with me real quick. Verse 18 says, "...you ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious that the Lord God may dwell there." Now, Paul is quoting Psalm 68. Did he misquote it? Because in Psalm 68, Christ is receiving gifts, and in Ephesians 4, He's giving gifts to men. Did Paul misremember? Did the Holy Spirit lead him to misquote Psalm 68?

Well, if you look at verse 19, in the ESV, says, Blessed be the Lord who daily bears us up. God is our salvation. That bearing us up is a giving that He gives. The modern English version says, Loads us with benefits. So it's not just a removal of burdens or removal of cares. bearing up our children, and when they're hurt, they're crying. It's also a bestowing. It's a giving. So Paul's quoting here the larger context.

Yes, Christ received gifts in His triumphal train, but He also gave gifts to us. Paul's quoting the broader passage, and again, this point comes, Christ received gifts, He gave gifts. The gospel is something that for us is received and it's given. And in Christ, even the gifts that He was given, He passed on benefits to His church.

We see this, number three, in His humiliation and exaltation. And 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.

Now, Paul is using just basic logic and how we interact with things. If Emily calls me and I'm at home, And she says, hey, can you come meet me at the store? We need to talk about something. And I say, yeah, give me a few minutes. Andrew's fixing to leave the house. What would her natural question be? Well, when did Andrew get there? If Andrew's going to be leaving, that means didn't he arrive at some point? And when she left the house that morning, Andrew wasn't there.

I said, oh, he was passing through, stopped in, and we've been sitting here talking. Paul here talks about the ascension of Christ, and so he says, doesn't it make sense then that He also descended? So what is this that Paul is talking about? Well, the plummeting incarnation, and I use the word plummeting because Christ is so different from us. His humiliation, the catechism reminds us, consisted in His being born Now, we've got some babies around here this week.

They're very cute. I think a little Cole, right? When we hear of someone giving birth to a baby, and we go and we see that baby, every baby is the cutest baby that you've ever seen, right? Especially if they're your baby, or your grandbaby, or your great grandbaby. It doesn't matter how ugly they are. They are the cutest baby. that you have ever seen, right? Right? It's a glorious thing to give birth. It's a glorious thing to have a newborn child.

But for Christ, that thing that is like the pinnacle for us was just the beginning of His humiliation. What we think of a beautiful, glorious event was part of knocking Him down. He had to be born. He was the eternal God the Son. And He had to undergo having a birthday, having a start date, growing, aging, getting tired, getting hungry, getting sore. Christ's humiliation consisted in His being born, and that in a low condition. He wasn't born in the palaces of Rome, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, and being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time. All of that is His dissension. His humiliation.

Why would He do this? Well, the old poem reminds us, out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe, only His great eternal love made my Savior go. He did that because He loved us. Because He was coming to live the life that we could not live, that Adam could not live and that we could not live in Adam. and to die the death that would be effective to cover the sins of all of God's people in all times and places. Then we have His perfecting ascension, His exaltation that consisted in the resurrection, His rising again from the dead on the third day, into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father is His coronation, and then coming to judge the world at the last day, His glorious return. In Acts 1, the disciples, they were like dogs on a bone. They were dogs on a bone.

When was Jesus bringing in the kingdom? Is it now? Is it now? I need to go to Jerusalem to die. Is it now? I mean, like a little kid on a road trip. When you tell them, you know, we'll stop at McDonald's for lunch. Is it McDonald's time yet? Do we get McDonald's now? How about now?

It'll be at least an hour. Has it been an hour yet? No, I just said that. It has not been an hour. So, you know, you find whatever. It's four veggie tales until we get There, it's four Spongebobs, whatever your marker of time is. It's half of a baby Einstein video, whatever. And this is the disciples, right? They're always, is it the kingdom time now? Do I get a happy meal now?

Jesus is always reminding them, guys, no. Let it go. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Is all this wandering around in the desert finally going to do us good? He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the dates. I have a feeling on the road trips home, this scripture will be quoted. When do we get lunch? It is not for you to know the times Or the dates. Mostly because mom and dad don't know. It's not for you to know the times or the dates which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. when He had spoken these things. While they looked, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him from their sight. While they looked intently toward heaven as He ascended, suddenly two men stood by them in white garments. They said, Men of Galilee, why stand looking toward heaven? The same Jesus who has taken up from you to heaven will come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.

Now, we know the rest of the story. It's easy for us to get excited about the ascension. But the disciples didn't know what was going on. I mean, ten seconds earlier, they thought this is the beginning of the triumph. Now we can get to the business of restoring the kingdom.

Have you ever seen those videos where You know, somebody's going to propose in some neat, unique way, and they pull the ring out, and the ring goes flying into... I remember one time in our neighborhood in California, we were driving out of the neighborhood, and there was a kid on a skateboard, and we're slowing down so he can do his thing, and he realized there was a car behind him, and he jumps off his skateboard, and it's going downhill, and it goes right into the storm drain. And I stop, and he stops, I'm like, well, there's a lot at hand. They're like, I don't know.

The disciples were thinking that now is the time for the kingdom. And Jesus is like, don't worry. The Spirit is going to come, and you're going to get power, and you're going to be my ambassadors into all the world. Yeah. And then they're like. And the angels come down and they're like, what? He was just here. Where did He go? They didn't understand. See, we know the rest of what happens. Oh yeah, the ascension and the coronation. He's seated at the right hand of the Father and the Holy Spirit comes. They didn't know. They didn't know, but brothers and sisters, we know.

We know that we have the Holy Spirit. We know that Christ has given that gift to us. We know now that Christ couldn't stay here because He needed to send the Spirit to us to send another counselor, a different helper. Christ, because of the incarnation, was limited in space and time. The Holy Spirit still maintains that omnipresence.

He can be fully in me, filling me with power. to do what Christ has called me to do. He can be fully in Mr. Christ to do whatever He's called you to do. Fully. He can be in each one of us. And He is not divided. He's not split up. This perfecting ascension.

Christ is perfected in the in the ministry that he was to have were reminded in Hebrews, but to which of the angels did he say at any time, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool? That sounds like a very parental question, right? When have I ever said to you that fill in the blank, whatever the child is expecting, right? God has not said that to any of the angels. He's not said it to anyone else. He's only said it to one person, God the Son.

So Christ is the more and the better. He is receiving glory, He is receiving tribute, He is receiving praise, and He has sent His Holy Spirit. And we are receiving power to do all that Christ has called us to do. So then, Christ's body. Christ's body. 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 fro by 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." The body, this body motif, this body analogy goes on. And Paul is telling us There is something you need to expect from the body and you need to expect of yourself. And that is to grow.

To grow up as the body of Christ. He does this by a number of other gifts that he gives his body. He's given us the Holy Spirit, that's the ultimate gift. But then he gives shepherds and teachers. And let's be honest, after the Holy Spirit, shepherds and teachers are kind of a letdown.

Right? I mean, it's kind of disappointing when you really think about it. The perfect, powerful Holy Spirit and then the imperfect, weak, and frail men that are called to teach you and to lead you week in and week out in your worship and in your service and in your care for one another. It's got to be a little frustrating.

Acts 20, Paul tells the elders of Ephesus, These are the same elders that he's writing to in the church in Ephesians 4. And we read there that the Holy Spirit has made the overseers the overseers of the flock of God. Now, if God has given these gifts that deliver the truth to you week in and week out, if it's clear that the Holy Spirit has given them to you as a gift for your benefit in the body to help you grow up, and to not be dragged around by every wind of doctrine, to be stabilized in your walk with Christ, to grow together in the body of Christ, you would think that God's people would respond really well to these men. Right?

That's not always the case. In Luke 11, We read of an interaction that Christ has with some Pharisees and some other leaders. It says, as he spoke, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and sat down to eat. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. It's kind of like camp. We don't marvel, we say, hey, go wash your hands. Here's some hand sanitizer.

Then the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give alms from what is within, and then all things are clean to you. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint, and rue, and every herb, and pass over justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.

Woe to you, Pharisees, for you have the prominent seats in the synagogues. Those were the front seats, by the way, not the back seats, just so we're clear. You have the prominent seats in the synagogues. and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unseen graves, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.

One of the lawyers asked, Teacher, by saying these things, you insult us also. And I think an amendment to that is surely you're not meaning to insult us, right? He said, woe to you also, you lawyers, in which all the other lawyers said, you had to say something, didn't you? Right? I mean, human nature doesn't change. Couldn't just be quiet. Now we're dragged in with all of this. For you load men with burdens difficult to carry, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. So you are witnesses and entirely approve the deeds of your fathers because they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles and some of them they will kill and persecute. of all the prophets shed since the beginning of the world may be required from this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required from this generation.

Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to incite him vehemently and angrily. him out concerning many things, lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him." See, God's people have not always responded the best to those who have been called to deliver the truth to them. Now, along with praising God for not giving us everything that we deserve, We can probably also praise God for not requiring the blood of us, of one another in the church, but also for the pastors and elders that perhaps we've destroyed with our words, we got tired of, so we ran them out, And I would encourage you, whether it's a previous pastor or elder of yours or a current one that you've had a hard time, maybe you've said and done some things you shouldn't have in light of their ministry, be glad that the blood's not required of you.

Just go. Confess that. Trust me. You will find a forgiving man. He's already laid his life down for you once. He'll do it again. If only we always received the gifts from God's hand and saw them as such. But He has given, Christ has given, pastors and teachers, shepherds, apostles, prophets in the varying generations of the church. Why? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service and for the building up of the body of Christ. These things go hand-in-hand. We're called to equip you and together we do the ministry together. There are things that only pastors can do. There are things that only elders can do. But all of us together can work in the ministry of the church.

Till when? Until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a complete man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Until we all look like Jesus. This is the way it will be until He comes for us individually or corporately.

Why? So we may no longer be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness, with deceitful scheming. So we need to grow up. We need to grow up in all things into Christ, the head.

Hebrews 6, we read, Therefore, leaving the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ, Let us go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Growing up, this is a picture for us of sanctification. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and we are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live under righteousness.

You remember I said that dead is a word without degree in the Greek, but it is with degree in the Confession. We are enabled to die more and more to sin. That is weird, but that's how it works. Right? There are some sins that you are completely dead to some days, and then the next day you find yourself alive a little bit to that sin.

And you have to get to know that elderly couple of the Christian life, Mort and Viv. Do you know Mort and Viv? Do you guys know who I'm talking about, Mort and Viv? Have you ever met them? Mortification of the flesh. Oh, I got you, Marta. I got you. She's like, who is he talking about? Mortification of the flesh, vivification of the spirit. Dying more and more every day. to ourselves. Calvin makes the point that in light of this scriptural analogy, we are never men in this life. That means we're never fully mature. But we shouldn't delight in acting like children.

So I'll borrow from one of my dad's sermon illustrations that he liked to use over the years. When I was born, I was loved. I was welcomed into the family. I'd sit at my father's table, and my mom would feed me, and I would spit the food right out of my mouth. And what was the response?

Oh, he's so cute. He can't swallow yet. He's still working on it. I think babies are so, they slobber all over, and we think, oh, they're so cute, they must be teething, they're getting teeth, they're so cute, they're going to do this. But when I was 16, and put peas in my mouth and proceeded to spit them out all over the dining room floor, it wasn't so cute. Right? And the command comes, grow up. It's not cute anymore. We're to grow up. We're not to act like little children. How are we to grow up?

It's interesting where Paul goes in this, in this body analogy. It's interesting where he goes. To speaking the truth in love. All the points that Paul could have made here of how we grow up. Clinging to the truth, not being convinced of error. He notes maturity through what we believe, the truth, and how we present it in love. Some merely find it loving to speak the truth, and you know who those people are. Speaking the truth is loving. I'm going to tell them the truth. That outfit is hideous. I love you. No, you don't. No, you don't.

This love, this is agape here, this love marks our words even as it exposes our hearts. as pastors, as elders, as deacons, as church members. Why would Paul go here? Why would Paul go to speaking the truth in love as a means to maturity and growing up in Christ? Remember, he's building a whole body analogy.

Can your body grow if one of its members decides to either stop communicating with the rest of the body, or communicate false messages, or over-communicate true messages? It creates real havoc in the body when that happens. If my leg decides to stop communicating with the rest of my body, my leg will not serve the body as it should. And it may even stop growing as it's not receiving the signals that it needs to receive.

See, Paul carries the body analogy through in ways that we don't even expect. You think, how is maturity gained in the Christian life? It's not just a singular thing. Well, if I believe the truth, then I will grow in maturity in Christ. That's how we view it many times. But we all are called to maturity in Christ. And this is part of the change. It's not being just body parts, but being parts of the body. Learning to communicate the truth in love. Why? Because we need to confront.

Sometimes we have to tell our hand, hey, you're over a hot stove. And you need to move that. And not press on with, you idiot, what's wrong with you. But hey, you were over the hot stove and you shouldn't have been. Are you okay? Do you need any ministry? Any care? because of that foolish thing that you were doing.

That communication in the body, that speaking the truth in love, helps grow us up into maturity into the head. And we begin to act like Him, look like Him, talk like Him, walk like Him, care like Him, minister grace like Him. So, a few things here. What we need to do is grow up in all things into Christ. How we grow up in all things is through speaking the truth in love. We must know the truth if we are to speak it. We must care for them if we are to speak it in love.

Why we need to grow up in all things is because Christ is our head and the source of our being. What else would we grow up into? And who needs to grow up in all things? Is each part of the body. Every single one of us needs to do that. Christ's call, Christ's gift, Christ's humiliation and exaltation, and Christ's body. These things taken together as Paul has presented them to us become the power that we need, the resources that we have to change. How do we accomplish change? It's through these things. What is accomplished in change?

Closing Prayer

That's what we'll talk about tomorrow. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the fullness of Christ in our sanctification. That you have placed us in this body together as you have called us to yourself. That we are not simply individuals, but that we are connected. And that we are to grow up and mature And we're able to do that because of what you have provided in your life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and coronation. That in that power, you have given us gifts that we need to be strengthened and to grow in grace. So Lord, help us as your people. Help us now as we embark on this mission of change.

As you have made us no longer dead to you, but alive in Christ, help us to rightfully grapple with, to wrestle with what that means individually for us in each of our lives. and what it means for us corporately as the body of Christ in this place. We pray in His name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon Arpey Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.