Well, if you have gone, some of you probably have gone to the
Contarelli Chapel at the Church of Saint Louis of the French in
Rome. Anybody been there?
There's a couple hands. That's amazing.
If you go there, there, there's three paintings on the wall.
They're called the Matthew Cycle, and they represent the
the Apostle Matthew's life from his calling to his commissioning
to his martyrdom. And if if you look at those,
those are beautiful, you should go, you should visit.
But I want to draw your attention to the painting on the
left. All three of these are the work
of a man named Caravaggio, and they come from the 1590s.
And this one that you see now is called the Calling of Saint
Matthew. It is the visual representation
of what we've been talking about, your salvation from
Ephesians 4, where we heard Paul record last week.
Ephesians 41I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you
to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have
been called. Calling to which you have been
called, you are now called to walk.
Worthy says you once walked according to the course of this
world. You walked according to the
darkness, your former life, you had your life, your schedule,
your worldview, your plans, and then you were called.
And as is depicted here by the light of divine grace pouring
into the room, it was interruptive on your life.
And if you look on the right as Christ points his finger, this
is the decisive moment that He calls Matthew to follow him.
And divine grace is entering from outside the room.
And grace is external to us. It's otherworldly and it's
shine. It's pictured as a brilliant
light shining in the dark room. What Carvaji was teaching in
images and not in words is that Christ calls sinners as they
are. There's a whole movement after
him where there's it's depicted He calls people out of tax
offices and he calls people out of pubs.
And it happened to Matthew when Jesus interrupted him extorting
his own people for financial gain.
It happened to you, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2.
You were walking in darkness, following the course of the
world, and then you experienced grace, which is why the only
commandment that came in chapters one to three, the only
imperative verb that came in chapters one to three was
remember. Remember where you were.
And I will ask you, where were you when God called you?
Where were you when grace interrupted your life?
What were you doing? What was your life like then,
and what is it like now? And Matthew in this picture
points at himself, who we think is Matthew points at himself as
if to say, Is it me, Lord? Could you be calling me?
And the men left of him, you can see the sudden and unexpected
nature of his calling by the surprise on their face.
Into Darkness comes this light. And even when you see this, this
painting, people debate over which one Matthew is.
Is it the one who's surprised or is he actually pointing at
someone else? Where these men are just
distracted, counting their money.
They're too distracted by their money to even realize they're
being called. And some say Caravaggio did this
on purpose because he he could be calling any one of you.
And that's the point 2nd Corinthians 4/6 for God, who
said light, the light, let the light shine out of darkness, has
shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I bring up this painting for two reasons.
Number one, to frame our text and to help remind you of the
words of Paul in their context. He has called you to a calling
and you are called to walk worthy of that calling.
And the second reason I bring up this painting is because there
was a time in very recent years, but years past, where I had no
value. I ascribed no value to artists
or to painters or to paintings. And I would say, according to
First Corinthians 12, to borrow their language, I have no need
of you. And what I've said to
Caravaggio, I would have said to him, you have a lesser gift.
I have no need of you. There is no room for you.
Why don't you be a pastor or a church planner or do something?
Because there's no category in my mind for how you could build
up the church. And we're going to see in this
passage that there's a a diversity of giftings in the
church. Think of Exodus 31.
It was the painters and the Craftsman that God fills with
his spirit so that they could build amazing things for him,
his temple, for his glory. And it's a diversity of giftings
in the church. It's whether you're a painter or
whether you're a pastor, a singer or musician or a
sculptor, God has a means for you of highlighting and building
our unity in this church for His glory.
Turn in your Bible to Ephesians 4, verse 7.
We're coming off of verses 1 to 6, which you, if you remember,
describe the unity of the church. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one
baptism, one God and Father who is over all and through all and
in all. And then the very next words
Paul's going to say, within that unity there is an incredible
diversity. It's not unity does not lead to
uniformity. It's not like Jesus is the
model. We're all being conformed into
this exact replica of each other.
No, the the conforming to Christ is moral and how we worship him.
And our spiritual giftings are incredibly diverse.
There's amazing diversity and it's by design.
Paul says to the Corinthians, there are varieties of gift, but
the same spirit. There's varieties of service,
but the same Lord. There are varieties of
activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all in
everyone. To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
He apportions to each one individually as He wills.
So as diversity of giftings from a diverse group of people
working in concert to buttress and support the ministry of the
gospel. That's Ephesians 4.
Read it with me beginning in verse 7.
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure
of Christ's gift. Therefore it says that Psalm 68,
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 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 the ministry, for building up the
body of Christ. Look back to verse 6.
There's a diversity of giftings, but we share in it says 1 body,
1 Spirit, 1 hope, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and
Father who is over all. And the transition again from
1:00 to 6:00 to 7:00 to 12:00 is a transition from discussion of
unity to a discussion of diversity.
So it's still tied to last week, but we're now talking about the
diversity of the giftings. And he makes that transition by
saying, but each one of us has been gifted.
So he's we're talking about the one church.
But now each one of us in the church, the individual members
have been given to steal his language, a stewardship of
grace, a responsibility so that we might continue on the
ministry of Jesus Christ in his absence.
He ascended that he might fill us with all things.
And so he reminds you by quoting this Psalm that Christ ascended
and he sat down at the right hand of God the Father.
And when he did, he poured out gifts on his church.
And then by his grace, he gave gifted men to equip the Saints
so that they might use those gifts.
And so we're going to divide the verse in half, Verses 7 to 10.
We'll, we'll, we'll put it this way.
He gave gifts to men and then when you look to verses 11 to
12, he gave gifted men. So he gave gifts to men and then
he gave gifted men to his church.
Read with me or look with me again to to verses 7 to 10.
We'll we'll start here with he gave gifts to men.
And when we say this, this is spiritual gifts, spirituals,
grace gifts. And Paul quotes the Psalms
because he wants to tie this not only theologically but
chronologically to Jesus ascension where he is taken up
into glory, He ascends into heaven, he sends out his spirit
and he pours out his gifts on his church.
When I was a youth, I remember reading just the Gospels and you
know, it talks about Jesus. He comes, this is what we're
celebrating at Christmas, that he's born in a Manger.
He's born as the God man and he lives and he dies and he's
resurrected. And I thought to myself, I
wonder if what happened to him after that.
I wonder if anybody knows what happened to Jesus after he was
raised from the dead. Has anybody looked into that?
And then come to find out, we're missing a huge, this is the the
pinnacle, right? He goes to be coronated, to be
crowned king and to pour out his gifts.
There's all these things that come with this ascension.
And Paul quotes Psalm 6818 to remind you of this beautiful
theology. Again, theologically,
chronologically, Psalm 6818 says when he ascended on high, he led
a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
And it's helpful to understand the context there so we can see
kind of what Paul is doing. He does something shocking and
what he's doing is he's he's quoting these these verses that
lead up to verse 18 is all about a, a historical retelling of
Israel as they come to conquer Canaan and they conquer the the
promised land. There's this long historical
retelling of history, a historical survey which ends
climactically in verse 17 with God moving from Sinai into the
Temple. And interestingly, it says in
verse 17, the Lord is among them.
Sinai is now in the temple. Sinai is now in the sanctuary.
Remember, Sinai is where the 10 commandments came.
It's the mountain where there was Thunder and there was
lightning and there was fire and the people weren't allowed to go
near it and they were terrified of it.
If you touched the mountain, you died.
What does it mean when the psalmist says that Sinai is now
in the temple at Zion? And Don Carson says it means
that the image, the God whose power was, was so much evidence
that Mount Sinai, it's the same God with the same power that's
now at work in his temple on Zion.
And the Psalm is apparently referencing these victories as
Israel is going into the promised land and to Canaan to
occupy it. And the Psalm says that God
leads a host of captives in his train and receives gifts, which
are literally the spoils of war of all these people.
He says there's going to be trees and vineyards that you did
not plant. They're going to be yours.
He's receiving tribute because in the ancient world, the normal
political decorum when a king conquers is that the the rest of
the world brings gifts lest they too be conquered.
You bring gifts so that you can earn favour with the conquering
king. And Paul does something
interesting with that context. He changes the language of the
Psalm when he quotes it. He changes the the word you
receive gifts to you gave gifts. And Paul reverses the words.
He's saying Jesus has risen as the conquering King and rather
than receiving gifts from men, he gives gifts to men.
Michael Allen, the theologian says the triumphant Messiah
messianic King gives rather than receives.
The verb is shifted from passively receiving gifts after
triumphing in glory to actively granting them as our Lord does.
Because this is God's character. Why does he change it?
Because our God. It's what's happening all
through Psalm 68. He gives gifts to men.
He doesn't conquer so that he can receive for himself.
He conquers so that He can fill all things is what Ephesians 4
says. And this, this should tie
together several theological points in your mind.
I hope you can kind of attach these together in your mind's
eye. The first thing I want you to to
remember is the ascension of Jesus Christ.
It's bringing that up. He descended to the lower
regions of the earth so that he might ascend and fill all things
and give gifts to men. That's the first.
And the second thing I want you to attach to His ascension.
That doesn't always go together in our minds, but it should is
that He pours out spiritual gifts to us.
He's equipped you for Christian service in his absence.
He did that at His ascension. And then third, this leads to
the third thing I want to have in your mind.
It's what we call theologically the priesthood of all believers.
Every believer is now a priest because Christ's ascension is
not Him leaving us, but Him filling us with all things.
It's what your Ephesians 4 passage says, that He might fill
all things, verse 10. So he ascends and he graciously
distributes spiritual gifts among his diverse church
membership. The gifts come by the power of
the Holy Spirit directly from the throne of the resurrected
Christ. That's where you got your
equipping, which means that no Christian is ungifted.
Nobody's belong. Nobody can't be in the gifted
and talented program in the church.
You're all gifted, you're all talented.
It came from Jesus. He ascended, and now this is
important. His priestly body carries on his
work, and so as Christ, he said to his disciples, as the Father
has sent me, so I am sending you.
That's what he tells his disciples.
He equips his disciple or his apostles, and his apostles tell
the disciples, go. The authority passes from the
disciples into the local church. This Is Us.
We are the priesthood. And Christ ascends in victory
because he defeated heaven and hell.
And then gifts proceed from the throne as he fills all things
and the believers carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ through
their faithful Christian service.
And there's emphasis that Scripture puts on your spiritual
gifts. We've we've seen it in the weeks
past. The first emphasis was that
they're not for you. Remember our our metaphor,
taking it even to the womb of the woman's body.
That's not for her. The womb is not for the woman.
It's for filling the world with worshippers.
It's for other people to nourish them.
And the same is true with your spiritual gifts.
They're not for you. They are for other people.
It's for the common good. Scripture says it's for others,
it's externally focused. That's the first emphasis.
And the second is that the gifts are many and they are incredibly
diverse. And that's what this passage
with First Corinthians 12 there's, they're saying there's
a diversity to our activity and our ministry and what we do.
The church is lacking if somebody doesn't walk worthy of
their calling. Paul says in First Corinthians
12 for again, hear this again, there are varieties of gifts,
but the same Spirit. You hear all the Trinity in this
as well. There are varieties of service,
but the same Lord, varieties of activities, but it is the same
God who empowers them all in everyone.
So with that, inferred is no one has all the gifts which we want
to think of ourselves. Yes, I'm a skilled administrator
and I can sing and I can preach and I can.
That's not meant to be any one of us.
Nobody gets all the giftings, which means we need one another.
We have if and if any part is missing, the church is lacking
and we fall short of our potential when people fail to
serve and, and this is the state of the church.
You read the Barnes studies. Half of the church is not
engaged in meaningful Christian service.
This is everywhere. Richard Cokin says most local
churches look more like soccer matches than churches.
And what he means by that is he says there's 22,000 people in
need of exercise that are watching, and there's 22 people
on the field exhausted that need rest.
And he says it ought not to be that way.
And I'll make a point when we say that we're to to be serving
and building up the church according to your gifts.
That means much more than you making coffee on Sunday morning
or handing out a bulletin on Sunday morning or distributing
doughnuts. Those are amazing ways to serve
the church. That's not what we're talking
about. I want to give you some
expressions of this in our church.
I want to linger here for just a minute because when we teach in
our membership class about faithful Christian service,
we're talking about sacrificial, costly service on behalf of
other people, meaningful service.
And some of the ways that this, that this happens at our church,
comes through our jail and prison ministries.
There are people in this church who go into Lexington Prison,
into Park County Safety Center every week.
There are some who help mothers who are inmates stay in touch
with their children while they're in jail and in prison.
Several are seminary professors who go to Lexington prison and
teach in the Prison Divinity program.
And many of us are evangelists who preach on Thursday and
Sunday afternoons to evangelize and disciple the inmates.
And there are some who are here who are employers who
intentionally hire ex cons so that they can give them a leg up
and care for them as vulnerable people and share the gospel with
them. And some of us work at the
homeless Resource Center where our church contributes so that
we can give birth certificates and IDs and food to individuals
who are in our community. It's just right over here, just
a few blocks away. We have those serving, providing
a safe place for them to be. Many, many in our church are
involved in caring for vulnerable children and we have
many who are fostering. We have many who are adopting.
We have many who are opening their home to Safe Families, to
care for kids and to care for vulnerable.
I'm so proud of Becky who has opened her home recently for the
first time, and then the second and then the third.
I'm so proud of the joins who are taking in their first kid at
Safe Families. I think this week soon, roughly
half of our church is on the care portal platform,
cooperating with all the other churches and ministries in town
to care for vulnerable. Many in our church are involved
with the Child Evangelism Fellowship where they host clubs
and local schools to share the gospel with the kids.
We have some 14 individuals now going through formal and highly
rigorous counselling training so that they can pour themselves
out not only for the people in this church, but those who are
in our community. There are several who have run
for public office so that they can enact structural change in
our community and create an ecology of righteousness for the
church to flourish. There are many in our church who
pair up and just go evangelize. They take the books from
downstairs, what is the gospel, and they go into the streets and
they go to the mall and they share the gospel and they do it
weekly. Some are at work among the
nations, which for this church, for whatever reason, North
Africa, it's Oklahoma that supports it.
We don't know why, we haven't figured it out yet, but Oklahoma
supports it. We have a group going in a few
weeks to spend a week evangelizing.
Others will be going in January to spend 2 weeks in Liberia.
There's a member of this church who's going with a one way
ticket indefinitely or who knows how long this individual will be
in Liberia. And we have others who are
training with the IMB now to buy a one way ticket.
They may never come back from supporting them.
That's the calling. Many are entrepreneurs who are
light to the city and fund the church.
Many serve with our non, our partner nonprofits, Legacy
Parenting, World Haven, Cargo Ranch, Hope Pregnancy.
Not only that, they serve on the board as board members for those
ministries and the newest ministry initiative is a support
group for those caring for special needs children.
What amazing ministries that we're involved in, what diverse
ministries. And this is nobody does these
things on their own. You don't just happen to be
going by and suddenly this is the work and the fruit of
supernatural energy. This is God's Holy Spirit
empowering our church for the work of the ministry.
And you can hear the modern fulfillment of Paul's words.
There's varieties of gifts, there's varieties of service,
varieties, activity of activities.
But it's the same God, the same Lord, and the same Spirit who
empowers all of it. And this reminds me of the words
of Peter. As each has received a gift, use
it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's varied
grace varied is the word multi colored, multi colored grace.
He's poured out all kinds of gifts on this body, multi
colored multifaceted and so that doesn't exclude you from also
making coffee and handing out bulletins and serving in the
nursery. We but pour yourself out for
others and consider how has God equipped you?
What are you to be doing in this body?
Consider the stewardship that God has given you.
There's no such thing as a Christian consumer.
It's an oxymoron where you come and you consume coffee and you
consume doughnuts and you consume lessons and music and
sermons and you enjoy the AC and you enjoy the plumbing and you
enjoy people loving on your children and loving on you and
serving you. There's no category for a
Christian that enjoys being served but doesn't enjoy
service. And on the night that Jesus was
betrayed, that was the attitude of his disciples.
They wanted to be served. They wanted their feet to be
washed and they wanted the room to be arranged for them.
They wanted the bitter herbs prepared and they wanted the
lamb roasted, and they wanted their supper served for them.
They wanted to recline at the table.
And it's in this setting that the words are recorded of Jesus,
or it is recorded of Jesus. It says Jesus, knowing that the
Father had given him all things and he'd come from God and he
was going back to God, rose from supper.
He laid aside his outer garments and he took his towel and tied
it around his waist. And he poured a water basin and
began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel
that was wrapped around him. And so we are now the disciples
of Jesus and we still expect to be served.
And Jesus said, it shall not be so among you, for even the Son
of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give himself
as a ransom for many. So you have been given the
language of Paul and Ephesians, a stewardship of grace, a
responsibility to serve in Christ's absence.
Works have been written for you in eternity past that you might
walk in them. You've been given spiritual
gifts and grace that you might serve.
And you were gifted with pastors and teachers who are here to
help equip you so that you can serve.
Ian Hamilton says the Church of God's not like a train where all
the passengers sit comfortably and passively until they arrive
at their destination brought by the giftedness of their
spiritual leaders, but rather they are an orchestra where all
members play their part and contribute to the melodic
Symphony of service to God. And if you look ahead to verse
12, what are you to do? Your pastors are equipping you
for the work of the ministry. That word ministry is so
important for your service. It's the word diakonos where we
get our word Deacon. It means literally table waiter.
That's your function in the world.
You are a Deacon. You are a table waiter, you are
a servant. And so the very next passage
after Jesus speaks the words, the Son of Man came not to be
served, but to serve. 5 verses later, a need is brought before
Jesus. And I want his words to be your
word. As you go out of this place
Monday to Saturday, make his words your words.
He comes and says to the man who asks of him.
She says, what do you want me to do for you?
That needs to be your mantra. What do you want me to do for
you? And then what they say, you go
and do it. HB Charles, one of my favorite
pastors, my professor said that he was taught in his church
growing up. There's two basin theology.
You either take up the basin of Jesus and you wash the feet of
the disciples, or you take up the basin of Pontius Pilate and
you wash your hands of Jesus Christ.
There is no in between. Pick which one you'll do.
And so if you are a consumer, let me remind you of your higher
calling, that Jesus in victory has ascended into heaven, that
you might minister in his place. Hear this quote from Thalman.
He says Christ to his extended victory over all opposing forces
and his sovereignty over all creation, is the very one who
himself now equips the church to join him in his sovereign rule
over creation. And he says he does this through
gifts to discreet groups of people.
That's you, that's this church, that's this body.
What can we do for you? And Jesus ascended so that every
believer would be a priest, every Christian would be a
minister, the ministers of the church are you every church
would be a training church and every church would be a sending
church. And so if you are a Christian,
you are gifted for service. And the question is in your
mind's eye, where do you see yourself serving over the coming
years? What is God calling you to do?
What works Has he written out that you might walk in them?
Because this is the, the, the question that your pastors are
asking of you. As we look to our second point
in verses 11 to 12, we want to equip you.
We're called to equip you. What is it that you were
supposed to do? What is God calling you to do?
Because first we said God gave gifts to men.
And now in verses 11 to 12, now God gives gifted men.
Read, read these two verses again with me.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
shepherds, and the teachers to equip the Saints for the work of
the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
This is apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds,
teachers. The acronym that's become famous
to describe this is apest. If you hear people talking about
apest, this is what they're talking about.
And really interesting when we're talking about apest, what
we're giving in is, in summary, a history of God's Bible
teachers. This is how God has built up His
church from the 1st century until now.
It started with the foundation of the apostles and the
prophets. That was Ephesians 220.
Just a little over a chapter ago.
He says that the apostles and the prophets were how the church
began. And this wasn't the Old
Testament prophets. We established this and then
Christ's apostles. This is Christ's apostles who
wrote the Word. We're the bedrock foundation for
the church. And then the 1st century
prophets who went out into the world proclaiming the will of
God and planted churches with the evangelists.
That's the foundation of the church.
And once you lay the foundation, any subsequent building is not
the foundation. You're building a first story
and a second story and a third story.
The foundation was laid by the apostles and the prophets.
Now we have pastors and teachers and arguably evangelists.
We can't be dogmatic about whether they were the 1st
century or today. But whatever an evangelist is,
whether that office has passed as a formal office in the church
or not, they are the ones that go out and they win the world
and they bring the disciples into the church where the
pastors and the teachers build them up and send them back out
into the world. That's how this all fits
together. The apostles and the prophets
built the foundation. The evangelists gather in the
pastors and the teachers build them up.
Galatians 419 My little children, whom I'm in the pains
of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.
That's the idea. We equip you for the work of the
ministry. And the last two shepherds and
teachers are the only two that are linked by the Word.
And this, this conjunction. And this has LED some people to
say that pastors and teachers is is really one.
This is just one office. It's hyphenated, it's pastor
teacher and meaning that there are there are pastors and
there's teachers. Not all pastors or all pastors
are teachers, but not all teachers are pastors.
And so there's kind of two ways to see that you can, you can
divide it up or you can even see it as one office.
The common way of taking it is two different offices.
Again, saying not all teachers are pastors, but all pastors are
teachers. And so God gives these pastors
to make sure that we are all shepherding our gifts well.
And I, I had an insight this week as I was studying this, I
realized that most large churches begin to err toward not
unity in diversity, but uniformity in their unity.
And so I, what I mean by that is I think there are, there are
churches who the bigger you get, the easier it is to hire a Bible
major and then more Bible majors and they hire Bible majors.
And before long you're not bringing people up out of the
workplace and you're getting these, this uniform picture of
what a man of God is. We have to be careful that we
don't fall into this. But I I think smaller churches
may have this right where they're pulling their pastors up
from the marketplace as much as they're hiring Bible teachers.
And I was thinking about the subject of pastors and diversity
in the church. I began to consider our pastors
and I wrote down the occupations of our 10 pastors as we were
pulled from the marketplace. Are you ready for the diversity
that God has brought here? We have a marketing professor, a
sign hanger, an engineer, a used car salesman, a plumber, the
director of an education technology company, a chocolate
chemist, a counsellor, A musician, and an IT specialist.
I challenge you to come up with a more diverse list of people
than that. What can God do with a diverse
congregation like this? And the answer is a lot, right?
He can do abundantly more than we ever could ask or imagine.
This is amazing diversity that God brings in His church.
And yet, in all this diversity among the pastors and among the
congregation, we are united in our confession of Jesus Christ
as Lord. That's what we said last week
when we went and took the Lords Supper together.
We were united in theology and doctrine.
We're united in our core values. And Ephesians 411 to 12 is one
of the favorite passages of the elders of this church because
equipping the Saints of the work of the ministry is a core value
of this church. We have 5 core values.
This is the second one, theological education.
Theological education is the first.
Equipping the Saints for the work of the ministry is second.
Advancing the gospel, ministering to the vulnerable,
and seeking the welfare of the city.
And so our elders retreat this year that we got back a few
weeks ago. That was all we talked about.
That was the forefront. We can't we had James Wilder
came and preached a sermon on Ephesians 4, equipping the
Saints for the work of the ministry.
And he said this is what you do. This is what to look for.
Here are some tools so that you can do this well.
And before we left, we asked every team lead of this church 5
questions. The justice and mercy team, the
children's, the youth, the tech, the worship, the college, the
men's, the women's, the assets team and the counselling team.
We said what is your vision for your ministry in this church
over the next three years? Who are you equipping in your
role as a ministry leader? Number two.
Number three, what is your team need to grow in maturity in
Christian service #4 is there any resource or training or
support that we can give people in your area so they can better
minister to others? 5 What do you believe equipping
the Saints for the work of the ministry looks like in your
ministry context? And we read all of those
together. And that was the fuel that led
our entire prayer and our whole weekend.
And the reason we prayed that. And the reason we do that is
because we're commanded to here. This is the command of pastors,
equip you for the work of the ministry.
But it's because we don't want to move where God is not moving.
If God is walking through this door, then we want to walk
through this door. If God's equipping you to go
here in this season, then we want to equip you to go here.
We don't want to move where the Spirit is not moving.
And so today our churches are not given apostles and prophets.
They're given pastors and teachers and it's not the job of
the pastors to do the work of the ministry.
As a matter of fact, it feels like we do less.
It's your job to do the work of the ministry and we come
alongside and build you up almost like coaches.
And we share in your glory and we share in your victories.
And when we're equipping you for this, for the work of the
ministry, the word equipping is a rare word.
This is important for the pastors in the room.
Equipping was a word. It's only used here in the New
Testament and it means they're actually, it's used in medical
textbooks. It means literally straightening
or setting a a joint or a broken bone.
That's what equipping meant medically outside of the medical
field. It meant outfitting a guest room
with furniture. And probably how Paul took it to
mean specifically was it was the preparation of woof and warp.
Before you weave a garment, you're setting your machine,
you're, you're getting it all tuned up.
And then comes the service and the labour and the work.
And that's what we're doing. We lay the foundation, we
prepare you and you go and do the work of the ministry.
Because it says in Ephesians that God is building a building
and all the Saints are involved in the construction.
All Saints are Oikonamiya house managers.
That's your role. And which means that every time
a new member comes into the church, the whole dynamic of the
church shifts because now we're adjusting to those spiritual
gifts you hear in in John 3. The Spirit blows where it wills.
We don't choose what giftings get brought in.
We don't choose what God's going to call you to do.
We adjust as he leads sovereignly.
And so these are glorious things to a pastor.
Our glory is your fruitful service.
And never be jealous of one gift over another.
Never be jealous of the work of the pastor.
It's like the player being jealous of the coach when when
there's success, the the coach and the player share in the
success and they share in the glory.
There's nothing more that we want to hear as pastors than you
are engaging in fruitful ministry.
Paul says this too. 1st Thessalonians 219.
What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting?
It's you. This is what he says to the
Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 3.
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written not with
ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.
The highest compliment I ever was paid was Myles Britt.
When I was kind of pouting because I didn't get to do
another degree like I wanted to, he came to me and he said you
don't need a PHDI am your PhD and he's what that means.
You don't have to go chase another credential.
I am your credential. You're equipping me for the work
of the ministry. You don't need another letter
after your name. And so his fruitful service is
my grounds of boasting. It's written not with ink, but
with the power of the Spirit. So Jesus ascends to heaven.
He gives gifts to his Kingdom of priests for the continuation of
ministry. He gives shepherds to shepherd
those people with their diverse giftings.
He gives men. And when everyone is doing this
part, Ephesians 412, the blessing of Ephesians 412
happens. There's the building up of the
body of Christ. You can look down to 416 where
we'll be next week. It says when each part is
working properly, when everybody's serving, it makes
the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
And one of the most convicted that I've ever been in a sermon
was in a sermon on Ephesians 4 at Super Summer a few years ago.
Many of the youth here were in the room and he was preaching on
at the diversity of gifts that God's given the church.
And his point was that was so convicting to me was that God
gives different personalities and different people and
different giftings. And yet we we try to fit all
these gifts and personality into these little molds that we want
to force other Christians into. And his application was that we
think my wife is too eccentric or my husband doesn't laugh
enough, he's too serious, or we think, why is she so intense or
talk so much? And he says, you can't force
people into this little box you've made for them.
The same in the Western church that we've kind of forced
Christians into a box saying a good Christian can do one of two
things. You can go plant a church or you
can evangelize and tithe. Those are your options to be
faithful in your Christian service.
And I would have said to Caravaggio, the painter, years
ago, why can't you just be a church planter and make yourself
useful? And everybody in his generation
said, why can't you just paint like everybody else?
Why do you have to paint this this weird stuff, these
Christians in Taverns? And it was actually the
unorthodox style of Caravaggio that influenced the culture and
built the church because he brought the gospel to new
audiences who could see themselves in their paintings
for the first time. And the church was increased in
the pastor at Super Summer taught me you can't hide the
people. You can't change the people who
are around you to fit your mold. That's not the point.
He gifted them in this way for a reason.
It's not an embarrassment to you.
You're not supposed to change them.
You're supposed to steward their gifts for the Kingdom.
And so the apostles, as we look through this history, they wrote
the Word, they established the church, the prophets preach the
Word as the foundation to the church.
The evangelist won the hearts of and souls of men, and the
shepherds build them up and equip them for the work of the
ministry. All believers and their various
gifts have a part to play. And the church is a living
diversity. It's like a forest ecosystem.
It's like a coral reef. It's alive and teeming and
changing. And diversity is what makes it
beautiful. It's like the music of the
spheres is saying to us, diversity is a good and
beautiful thing. And so Paul says again, I want
you to hear this one more time. To the Corinthians, there are
varieties of gifts but the same spirit, varieties of service but
the same Lord, varieties of activities, but it's the same
God who empowers them all in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for
the common good. He apportions to each one
individually as he wills. We have all received a measure
of grace and we confess. Like Paul, I am what I am, but
the but by the grace of God. I am what I am, but by the grace
of God. And so remember his words in
First Timothy 4. Do not neglect the gift that you
have. His grace has shown into the
world and we must respond in service Church, please pray with
me, God. Help us to do what we were
called to do, Lord. When every member is functioning
properly, when it's all in order, when everyone has been
inspired, inspired to serve, when we're a Kingdom of priests,
then amazing things happen. Lord, we're a Symphony that the
church builds itself up. The vulnerable are cared for.
The word is preached. There's adequate resources in
the church to do all that we've been called to do.
It's the Lord give us the the courage to to be selfless, to
not take up the the basin of Pontius Pilate, but to take up
the basin of Jesus Christ, to gird our loins and to serve, to
ask, what can I do for you? Beginning first with the
household of God and pouring out into the world.
Show us now, even as we sing and respond, what are you calling us
to do? And whatever it is, Lord, may
the pastors equip, may the people respond in service, and
may you be glorified. It's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen. Thanks for listening.
To learn more about Heritage Church or if you'd like to
respond to this sermon, visit our website at
www.heritageshawnee.org.