Ephesians 4:12-13: Nobody Moves Me But God.

...so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. - Ephesians 4:12-13

Why do leaders encourage service as the focus of all encouragment, cajoling, teaching, training, mentoring and resource allocation? Because of the results it produces in the church: The church is "built up." Mutual service produces a result healthier and more fruitful than any self-help or self-actualization program can achieve. Why? Because the Bible recognizes that fundamentally, each of us is inadequate. Inadequte to live healthy, fulfilling, generous lives. We need each other.

One of the areas where we really need each other is stability. Often, the perspective we need is not found in our own experience, but in the experience of those around us in the church. When we are built up, we are stable. Paul puts it like this:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. - Ephesians 4:14

We would like to remain innocent, like children. We would like to remain unaware and trusting, like infants. We even idealize such simplicity and naivete. But young ones are easily confused. There are lots of people willing to tell you how to live your life. There are lots of plausible leaders and self-proclaimed gurus dispensing clever and convincing methods and world views and plans for us. One Dr. Seuss book introduces the Sneeches, who are broadly divided into those with a star on their belly and those without. A clever man introduces a machine which, to the horror of those born with stars, imprints stars on the bellies of all Sneeches. Then, he introduces a machine to remove the star to main the visible divide between the two classes. On one memorable page, the Sneeches are shown cycling in a figure 8 out of the machine that installs stars and then back into the one that removes them, while the clever man clutches a healthy wad of money.

But Paul points out that strong, serving church help us avoid the follies and confusion. These church-goer advantages come because of the maturing process inherent in serving each other and building each other up.

1. Our Lives Stablize. Children are easily captivated by new ideas. Children have a sense of wonder there; a sense of discovery at each new thing.  As adults we sometimes regret how mundane our perception of the world has become. Part of growing up in Christ is knowing when to hoist the sails, so to speak, to catch a fresh wind, and when to refrain. Someone recently remarked about a friend of mine that they were often surprised a few days after talking with him, when they would hear him say something, because in the intervening time he had talked with another. Mature people choose who or what will move them.
2. Our Lives Gain Direction. Much of marketing today is focused on making us dissatisfied with who we are and how we do things--convinving us that it is old, boring, sub-standard or routine. Those messages are all around us and can leave us in a state of seeking, but never finding; looking, but never landing. We are "blown here and there", never finding a direction. It is a trap, a self-perpetuating system which prevents progress by emphasizing the difficulty of any determined course of action. In the face of the trauma of change, we settle into a life of maintenance and self-comfort building.
3. We Escape Cynicism. One of the primary ways in which the world causes us to oscillate back and forth without direction is that of cynicism. Born both out of anger and pride, cynicism pokes sticky fun at any who would choose any direction at all. The more determined the direction, the more pointed the remarks. Cynicism is one of the trademarks of the "cunning and crafty": the use of ridicule to tear down opposing positions. And once one position has been reduced to rubble, cynics turn their bombardment onto the next. Someone once said, "Poke a cynic and find a burnt idealist." Been there, tried that and I'm not letting anyone get there either.

It is easy to lose perspective. It is easy for us to lie to ourselves. We need  people close enough to tell us the truth. We need people who we trust enough that their example is one we are willing to try out. We need people committed to a common purpose and direction. That is the church.

"His intent was that, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known..." - Ephesians 3:10

 Don't let anyone move you except God. And what God tells you, he should be telling others. So double check with the godly whom you trust to make sure you have heard clearly. Once you have heard the truth, and confirmed it with the godly wise, camp on that, because that is the rock.

Ephesians 4:12: Serving IS Growing Up.

"..to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." - Ephesians 4:12-13

As we saw last time in Ephesians 4, Paul has just shown how the gifts that God gives each one in the church are meant to be used to encourage ministry ("works of service"), making the church a sort of ministry incubator. But he goes on to say that when we serve, it not only changes the lives of those served, but the lives of those serving.

Notice the word "we" in verse 12. The body of Christ is built up by people serving until we reach unity in faith and knowledge and become mature. Who is the we? Step back to verse 7 where it says, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it." The "we" here is referring to all of those who were given spiritual gifts by God--that is, the church.

The church advances, not by focusing our God-given talents on ourselves, but rather by redirecting them outwards And in the mutual service we are all built up, both the server and the served.

Notice also that this service is the path to maturity (not just our own, but those around us). Paul continues, "...until we all reach the unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature..."

Service has three side effects:

1. We get together. Service sets aside personal agendas and prioritizes the agendas of others. "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." - Philippians 2:4
2. We know Jesus better. When you serve, you learn in a very down-to-earth, day-to-day way, experiential way to be like Jesus who took "the very nature of a servant" (Philippians 2:7) and what makes his heart beat faster. 
3. We grow up. Service helps us progress towards the type of people God designed us to be. That term "mature" (and the definition which follows) refers reaching the final or optimal level of development.

We you put eggs in an incubator, you expect that the result will be healthy chickens. When you put new followers of Jesus in the ministry incubator, you expect that the result will be servants.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45

 

Ephesians 4:10-11: Ministry Incubators

Stop fighting! While we often think of the grand themes of the New Testament, many of the concerns expressed were those of concerned pastors. A random sampling of chapters in the letters written to churches finds that the 1st century church struggled with unity as much as the 21st century church. From the factions of the church in Corinth to the two women who won't get along in Philippi, Paul was always urging his flock to get along. Not just to tolerate each other, but to create that community of brothers and sisters that God sent his son to create.

In Ephesians, Paul returns to this theme of unity, as he has so many times elsewhere with one of his strongest statements:

"There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." - Ephesians 4:4-6

Get along. You are in this together. Whatever your differences, you share these things: your salvation, your hope, your participation in the church (Christ's body), your baptism, the Spirit and, of course, God the Father.

But then Paul's direction changes for a moment, as he addresses the question of what to do with all of the variety in the church. What to do with the fact we are all sort of strange ducks, piled together from every generation, job description, social standing and ethnic background, into the church together. He's not going to answer the question fully here, but Paul does gives a striking idea: God makes us more diverse. But he does it with a purpose.

As different as we all are in coming into the church, God stretches it further by the gifts that he gives.

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave
gifts to men." - Ephesians 4:7-8

Drawing from the Old Testament imagery of YHWH returning triumphantly to Zion from Psalm 68, Paul shows the Messiah as the victor. But whereas the victor received gifts in the passage in Psalms 68:18, here Paul shows the Messiah giving gifts.

The Messiah Jesus gives gifts, and some of the gifts that Paul singles out are those that we would typically consider leadership positions: apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor/teachers.

"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.." - Ephesians
4:11-12

What do we do with the diversity? Well, here's the outline of Paul's thought: Folks with different sorts of talents should encourage service. This service leads to the building up of people. That building up has a goal: unity and maturity.

Here are the two ideas that really struck me when I read these again recently:

1. Gifted people are placed there to be ministry enablers. The church is a ministry incubator. It is a ministry launcher where people are set up to serve from a supportive home base.
2. Serving is the path to togetherness and maturity. It is not just the sideshow, it is the main attraction when it comes to moving people forward in their Christian walk.

Pastors are not called to light a bigger camp fire. They are called to light a bigger rocket. The church is the home of the nurturing, encouraging, challenging voices that urge us all on to greater acts of service. That service moves us together closer to what God's people are supposed to look like.

More on this next time, as we look more closely as what this emphasis on service really looks like.