When Everyone Plays - Ephesians 4:7-16

Okay, don't you love that song? We worship an amazing savior, don't we? Jesus. My name is Craig nicely. I'm new to the staff. I'm a doctoral student at Midwestern as well. You just call me the new guy, if you want to. Um, A couple of things to know about me. I love history. My sons affectionately call me a history nerd. And I love movies. And this is why I loved, a few years ago, a movie called The Darkest Hour, The Darkest Hour, which was a film about a story of one of the darkest moments in British history. In the spring of 1940, the Nazis had swept across Europe, and they had pinned over 300,000 Allied soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk. And it was bleak. Many thought that if Britain had fallen, there goes the war. And as you would imagine, fear gripped the people. And they realized that the military alone wouldn't save the day. was terrorizing. Then something amazing happened. Winston Churchill. Only the great Winston Churchill, rallied his people to come in and save the day. And so you had fishing boats. and pleasure craft, and merchant vessels, 1000s and 1000s of ordinary British citizens, answered the call, they crossed the English channel, into danger, and they rescued the soldiers, 300,000 soldiers. Some have dubbed this the miracle of Dunkirk. It's an amazing true story. And it's so amazing that of Churchill's leadership, one person said of him, He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. What a great quote. I love that. And this is the picture, of what the risen Jesus does for his church. He builds his church, get this, not through a few super saints, not through a few superstar leaders, but through average ordinary people in the church. He mobilizes his church and sins us into his mission. It's incredible, right? Here's the problem. We often miss this. Instead of mobilizing, we often monopolize. We often look at a few gifted leaders and we golf club. They're amazing. Keep doing it, and we sit on the sidelines. And because of this, 3 problems emerge. One is, We have bottleneck ministries. You ever been in a bottleneck ministry. when everything funnels through one or 2 people, and all momentum stalls, and everything slows down. And then you have burned out leaders. Friends, we have an epidemic today of tired, worn out, beaten up pastors and leaders who are waving the white flag. And so they're struggling with anxieties and addiction. Some are having affairs. It's an epidemic. I was on staff at a church one time where the main teaching pastor had been plagiarizing whole sermons for years. He was pressed on it. And he said, I just felt like I had to keep up. I was so tired. He was burned out. And then it leads to bored stiff believers. You ever met a bored believer. They're sitting on the sidelines watching all the other people do ministry. They're going through the motions, and John Piper says of their faith. It becomes like that dried out peach in the back of your refrigerator. It's a problem. Here's the good news. In our passage today, we have perspective on how God designs his church, and it's a beautiful thing. Listen, he mobilizes his church where everyone is equipped. Where everyone is engaged and everybody, I mean, everybody does their part. Let me say it differently. The church grows best. When everybody plays. And so in Ephesians 4 verses 7 through 16, what Paul's going to do today is give you 3 snapshots. Three pictures. You're going to see God's gifts. You're going to see God's goals. And then finally, you're going to see God's growth. So let's look at that 1st portrait. God's gift. God and his gifts mobilize every believer in the church. And so if you have a Bible, go to Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4, last week, Pastor Rustin walked us through verses one through six. And he talked about as a result of the gospel, we are to have peace and unity and be good neighbors among one another. Then we come to verse seven. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, and he's about to quote, Psalm 68. When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. Verse 9 and saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended? into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended as the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Let's stop there. A couple of observations leap from the text. The 1st observation in verses 7 and 8 is the giving of gifts. Jesus gives gifts. It says that grace was given to what each one of us. Now, this idea of grace given, refers to special empowerment. Divine enablement. It's a word that's connected to the Greek word charisma. We see this in places like one Corinthians 12, Romans chapter 12, where they talk about a grace gift. Now a seminary professor. Bill Lawrence calls this tailor-made grace. In other words, Jesus gives gifts to each person that best suit them for their unique contribution to his church. And nobody is left out. Isn't that pretty cool? Right? And then in verse 8, he quotes Psalm 68, 18, and he picks up on this theme, he explains this, and in Psalm 68, God is portrayed as a conquering king. And this king leaves, he descends off his throne, and he wins the victory because that's what a conquering king does. And then after he does that, he ascends back up his throne, and then he gives gifts to his army. This is applied to God. So there's the giving of gifts. And the 2nd observation we see in verses 9 and 10 is the greatness of the giver. In verse 9, he starts, what I would just call a parenthetical thought. An aside, he's kind of writing his own commentary for his insertion of Psalm 68, in your translation, you may see a parentheses on verses 9 and 10. That's what he's doing. And what he's doing is applying this whole conquering king idea to Jesus. He said, Jesus is the conquering king here. And by the way, he then says this thing. He says, he talks about descending into the lower regions. What's that all about? Well, historically, some would interpret this as Jesus, when he died after he died on the cross, he literally went down to hell. He went down to Hades and he defeated the forces of darkness. That's a very traditional view. Let me say this. I don't think that's what Paul is talking about. One, it doesn't fit the context of what he's writing about right now, which is giving gifts. It doesn't fit the context of Ephesians. Two, um, and it's about to die on a cross for our sins. That's where victory is accomplished. And then he gives gifts to his people. Here's the point. Paul pictures Jesus as the conquering king who has ascended and now distributes gifts to his people. through action, and through his, and through his, and through his ascension. It says that he fills all things. That means, friends, his sovereign rule extends over all creation. Let me say it differently. Jesus Christ is awesome. Amen. We just sang about this. No other name gets the glory. In Colossians 118. You know what Paul says? He says Jesus, this Christ. He's the head of the church. He's the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent. Jesus Christ is awesome. Abraham Kuiper penned these words years ago. There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence, mine, mine, mine, mine. Jesus is awesome. And C.S. Lewis is the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. Many fans? Aslan, the lie on the Christ figure. dies, he comes back for the final battle, final battle, battle. Before that happens, the children are given gifts. Peter gets field. Susan receives a bow and horn. Lucy receives a cordial and a dagger. Edmund gets nothing because he had been bad. What's interesting. They don't all get the same thing, do they? But they all have the same king. They all have the same mission. And just before this great battle, Father Christmas. I don't know how he works in there. He's there. He turns to Peter and he says, the time to use these is perhaps near at hand, bear them well. Paul says something similar about Christ, after his victory, this conquering king does not leave his people empty handed. He gives gifts to his people, and we must bear them well. So let's zoom out from this passage for just a moment and get some perspective. God has mobilized his people. Every one of us through his gifts. Last month, Pastor Rustin was preaching through Ephesians chapter 2, and he came to verse 10. Which says that in Christ, you are his, you know this, you are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. which God prepared beforehand that you were poema, poema, we came up. We transliterate our English word poem from this. It literally means a work of art, a tapestry, an artwork. Here's the point. What it says there is that in Christ, You are his work of art for a purpose. It's an incredible truth. In 1st Peter chapter 4, verse 10. Peter says this, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. as good stewards of God's varied grace. So here's let me give you an application. And now what? Steward, your gift well. You have a part to play. When I was a kid, growing up, growing up in the church, we used to sing this song, I may never march in the infantry. Ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery. I may never fly over the enemy, but I'm in the Lord's army. I'm in the Lord's army. Look at that. Look at you all. You have a part to play. Amen, the Lord. I don't have the gift of singing, so I will stop. As a kid, I love the motions. Did he love the motions? Y'all were saying random things. I can't even understand it. But as an adult, what I realize is that song actually has profound truth. We all don't do the same thing. We don't have the same job, but we have the same God. And the same purpose. This is Paul's point. Listen, we don't have the same gift. Some can teach. Some of you are like, you teach. I don't want to do that. Some lead. Some are phenomenal behind the scenes. I am not. Some encourage, if that's you, encourage me. I love receiving encouragement. But the goal, listen, whatever your gift, listen, the goal is to bear your gift well. And I want to talk to some of you may be here today. that you lack confidence. Stop. Doubting yourself. You might think, I'm too old. Or maybe you think I'm too young. Maybe you think, I don't know enough. I'm not special. Stop doubting yourself. King Jesus, the mighty Savior has given you everything you need. I love what Bill Lawrence said of this. He said, just strive to be the person he graced you to be by the faith he gave you to trust him. Steward, your gift. Let me say this. Give him thanks. Rejoice in who he made you to be because Jesus doesn't make mistakes. And he doesn't regift. Here's so the 1st is his gifts. Here's the 2nd snapshot, the 2nd picture is his goal. God's purpose is to prepare people. He gives leaders. This is incredible. He gives leaders to prepare people. Let's go back to the text. We're going to look at verses 11 and 12. By the way, the apostle Paul. Loves him some run on sentences. Verses 11 through 16 is one sentence in the Greek. It's like 130 words. Kids don't try that at home, okay? And he says this, and he gave the apostles. The prophets. The evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, verse 12. And by the way, underline this in your mind, your heart, maybe in your Bible, to what, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. And then it says for building up. The body of Christ. A couple of observations. He gives a provision and then he gives a purpose. Let's look at the provision in verse 11. He talks about 5 leaders, 5 kinds of leaders. Okay? He starts off with apostles. What's an apostle? An apostle is a sent one. It's an emissary for a king. So in the New Testament, you have 2 kinds of apostles. On one side, you have what we might call the big A apostles. These are the 12. These are the guys that Jesus called to himself. They were special. You had Peter, you had James, you had John, you had Bartholomemy, you had Thomas, and on and on, and even the apostle Paul works his way into the 12 in time. These are leaders who were given the office of apostle by King Jesus. And then on the other side, you have the lowercase apostles. These were apostles, not by office, but by God's gifts to them. That's probably who Paul's talking about here. In the New Testament. Barnabas was this way. James was this way. These are apostles. These are leaders who plant churches and start things. As a former church planner, I appreciate this group of leaders. And then we see prophets. A prophet is one who has the ministry of edification. They speak forth truth from God's revelation to the congregation. And in the New Testament, they're often linked with apostles, apostles and prophets, apostles and prophets. You see this in Ephesians 220, for instance. In Acts 13, one, you see prophets in 1st Corinthians 11 or 5, he talks about prophets. These are leaders who speak truth revealed by God to the church. And then thirdly, we come to the evangelist. And that's probably more intuitive for us to understand. Evangelists do the work of what? I don't know, evangelism. They declare the gospel to those who are lost here and abroad. We know that Philip in the book of Acts was an evangelist. Paul tells Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. Okay, these are these are leaders who share the gospel and they often have a great passion for this. You may know an evangelist in your family or in your orbit of friends. And then we come to shepherds. A shepherd is another way of saying a pastor. These are leaders who nurture and care for and protect the body. Here at Northland, we have a group of pastors as well. Okay? And again, these are leaders over congregations who pastor the church. And then finally, we have teachers. These are leaders who teach and preach the word. In this sentence, it's very similar to the shepherds. It shares the same article. So oftentimes these are linked together, shepherd teachers or pastor teachers. Here's the point. These are leaders who proclaim, expound, and interpret the scriptures for the church. By the way, Here at Northland, Pastor Matt, Pastor Rustin, teach and preach the word often. And don't they do it really well? Aren't we? We could clap. Teachers, here's the point. We have 5 leaders, Paul says, to equip the church. That's a provision. Then we see the purpose. This is incredible. They are there to prepare the church. In verse 12, you see a progression of sorts in purpose. It's like 3 lengths of a chain. The 1st length. The 1st link is equipping. Notice what he says. Equip the Saints. The Greek word, uh, equip is cateritso. Turn to someone and say cut a rizzo. It just sounds cool. It's a word that means to put something in order. It could mean mending a net, setting a broken bone, but more than that, it means to train, to prepare, to equip. So, in my life, I have 3 sons, identical twins as well, who are in high school, and I got to say pray for me, because I'm practicing Caterizzo as I teach them how to drive. Exactly. And so I never forget the 1st time, Tyler, again, identical twins, he turned to me and he said, Dad, this is harder than I thought. I know that's why we're in the Pleasant Valley parking lot, bro. I'm training them. How to drive. Paul is saying that leaders train the people for ministry. That's the next link in the chain. is the work of ministry, he says. That word ministry means to serve at a table. But it also means to serve the Lord Jesus through ministry. Acts 2024 shows us this. Romans 11, 13. And he says that you are to do this for the who. The saints. It's not the super duper group of teachers and pastors that are doing the work of ministry. He says, it's the average person in the pew. It is the saint, the church. And then he gets to the 3rd thing. This is so incredible. It builds to the point, he says, for the building up of the body of Christ. That word building means to edify or to strengthen. It literally could refer to building a structure or an actual building. If some of you are in construction. That's your jam. But what he is talking about is through all of this, the building up of the church. Here's the point. Gifted leaders, prepare believers for ministry, and this builds up the church. said differently. This provision, this provision of leaders, is to equip saints. for the work of ministries, of ministry. Years ago, I had a I heard a pastor called this Home Depot theology. Any Home Depot people here? I see those hands. I remember years ago they had this tagline. I don't think they have this anymore, which was this. You can do it. We can help. You can do it, we can help. I think that's a great tagline for a pastor. Listen, you can teach kids. We can help. Hey, shameless plug, you could lead a life group. I oversee life groups. That's why it's a shameless plug. We can help. You can encourage others in the church. I encourage you to encourage people in the church. We can help. You can do it, anything. You could administrate. I don't have that gift. Whatever your gift of ministries, uh, that you have, Leaders and pastors are here to help. I love what J.D. Greer, uh, pastor in North Carolina said. He said when he became a pastor, he said, I read this passage and I told my church, I have left the ministry. Because I'm here to prepare you. So let's zoom out for a second. God gives gifted leaders with a purpose to prepare people to do ministry. All of this World Cup madness. It's everywhere, right? I hearken back to when I was 5 years old playing soccer for the 1st time. You ever watch five-year-olds on a soccer field? It's literally a swarm of kids around a ball? Well, one game. I became mini messy. A little taller, I think, than he is. Or maybe not back then. But one game, I had 4 goals. Four goals. Here's the good news. Three of those goals were for my team. You know where I'm going with this? Unfortunately, my last goal, I turned around, I booted the ball into our net. It gets worse. You know what I did? I celebrated. I thought I accomplished something, and this is like in the 80s, so I'm probably doing like the moonwalk in honor of Michael Jackson. I thought I did something, and I didn't realize I was celebrating the wrong thing. We often, in the church, celebrate the wrong thing. We celebrate numbers for numbers' sake. We celebrate people being busy for business sake. We celebrate a few leaders doing all the work and we golf flap in the distance, say, hi, 5, well done, and what we don't realize is we're missing the point. The goal is not a church where a few people do everything but a church where everyone is equipped, where everyone is engaged. And that means friends, we must learn to build people and not just build programs. Jesus did this incredibly well. He was always investing in his leaders. In Matthew chapter 4, verse 19. I love this. He's calling his 1st followers to him. He said, come, follow me. And I will make you what? Fishers of men. You're gonna reach people, and I'm gonna help you do it. And then in Mark chapter three, he calls his apostles, and it says that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. Jesus was about building people who would eventually build his church. I learned in our 1st church plan. I planted 3 churches. And, uh, I learned the principle of IC and U. ICNU conversations. Dave Ferguson in Chicago says these are the 4 most important letters in our church's alphabet. And what it means is, I see something in someone else. I see this in you and I call them into ministry and I equip them. And so I think about Joe and Tracy. Joe and Tracy. were just one of those couples. They were faithful. They were available. They were teachable, they were humble. He had his own business. She was in the corporate world. And so one day, I went to their home, And I did the whole ICNU thing. I said, guys, I see in you a couple that will be phenomenal in our church plant starting our 1st global ministry to Africa. And I'll never forget this, Joe. turns to Tracy. And they have that awkward smile on their face. Like, what? And Joe turns to me. And I'll never forget this. He said, Us? Really? And I said, absolutely, you're going to crush this. You know what happened? They crushed it. In the months to come? I encouraged them, gave them some equipping here and there. They started our 1st ever global ministry to Africa. They they led multiple trips to sub-Saharan Africa. Eventually, they loved it so much, they adopted children. from AIDS, ravaged villages there into their home. For my 50th birthday, not long ago. They sent me a card, And they sent me a video message. You know what they did? They thanked me after all these years for helping them, and they said, Pastor Craig, thank you for calling us into a deeper level of service for the kingdom. And I just got to say, that never would have happened if I had not believed in them first. There is power in equipping. So I just want to say as an application. Get it right. If you're a leader, If you're a leader here at Northland. Don't hog the ball. equip. And better yet. Let me challenge you. Have an ICNU conversation with someone that's on your mind. Call them up, text them, email them, and say, I see this in you, and I want to help you be successful. It will change their life, but friends, it will change your life. Finally, the 3rd postcard that we see is God's growth that God grows us by maturing us through ministry. I don't have time to get into reading the text, but let me say this in verses 13 through 16. He explains reasons for mobilization. One, we attain ministry. He says that we come to mature manhood, he says, which is perfect, a perfect person or a mature person. In my home, as my sons grow up. They're often like trying to measure themselves against dad. And they play football. So sometimes it hurts. They're like doing these moves on me and they're hitting me. I'm like, out, stop that. But they so want to be mature. Paul's talking about one of the things we get is maturity. And then secondly, stability. And verses 14 through 16, he says, we're not going to be tossed to and fro by deceit. And then he says, verse 16, like a mic drop summary. He says that we grow up in Christ as our head from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint, by which it is equipped, makes the body grow up so that it builds itself up in love. Here's the big idea. When believers are mobilized, when every person plays, the result is a mature, stable, and healthy church. One pastor said this. It's a fully functioning bride of Christ. Isn't that what we want here? Paul says in 1st Corinthians 12, 27, he says, now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. We are the body. We're not spectators, we're not an audience, we're not consumers. We are members of a body and we have a part to play. So let me just say this. Get in the game. Jump in. If you're reluctant, maybe you're newer to the church, jump in, the water's wonderful. Maturity comes through ministry. I want to close with something that happened about a little over a month ago. Love your neighbor day. Who all participated in love your neighbor day here at the church? Love your neighbor day was over 200 of us. From the church, being the hands and feet of Jesus in our local community, and I got to say it was a blast. Right? And it was awesome. I love Maggie. I loved watching you bark orders to us as to love on foster families. And then you had the crepe sisters making crepes for us, the 3 of them. I called them the crepe sisters. And my boys had like half of them. I don't know if that's serving, but they did that. And I love watching Karen Romano in the basement. She's like getting people to write notes for teachers. And then Willie's laughed. You love Willie Hunter's laugh, if you know Willie, that joy, he's getting people to go serve in a nursing home, and Melissa's in her element, getting people to bless 1st responders, and it was awesome. You know why it was awesome? Because you were doing the work. You were doing it. And listen, you could hear the laughter, you could feel the energy, you could see the smiles. Why? Because that day. We were the fully functioning bride of Christ, brothers and sisters. The church grows best. When everybody plays. Amen? In this text, you see gifts. You see goals. And you see growth. It was said of Winston Churchill. He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. King Jesus does one better. He mobilizes his church and sends it into his mission. What a passage. What a purpose. What a savior. Amen. Would you pray with me? Father, we are grateful. that you see fit in your sovereign pleasure through your gospel, to not only save us, to equip us, but to equip us to serve. Would you capture us today with this vision of multiplication and ministry? Mobilize us. And I pray, Lord, you would speak to us. Change us, and I pray today, Lord, we would be ready to serve you, that we would make disciples of all nations. And we pray this in the matchless, wonderful name of King Jesus and all of God's people said, amen.