©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

04-10-05

And He Gave Gifts

4/10/05 And He Gave Gifts

EPH 4:1-16 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, "When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men." ... And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

We return this morning

to our study of the Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

As most of you know,

we’ve been in and out of this study

for some considerable time now.

We covered the first half of the book more than a year ago,

then took an extended break for some other things that caught my attention,

and now, within the past few months,

we have begun to make a reentrance into the book.

I know, of course,

that this may not seem like the most sensible way of studying a book,

stepping in and out of it over such an extended period of time.

But I know, too,

that what we do here on Sunday mornings

is not really a Bible study as such.

Of course I will to my best

to acquaint you with both the basic structure

and the basic content of the passages we are involved with during our times together,

but I learned many years ago

that your primary hope

and my primary obligation to you on Sunday mornings

is not to communicate academic competence in the books we study.

Our time here is best spent

in my offering you both concepts and attitudes from the Word

that will provide you with solid footing

for your daily walk with the Lord.

For me to do that

it is essential that I correctly understand the passages we study

in the context in which they were written,

but assuming I’ve done that,

my responsibility to you is then to pass on

not so much the academic content,

but rather the life attitudes and principles that come out of that content.

And if that means we spend an entire morning

or an entire month

on one paragraph,

or one verse,

or one phrase,

it doesn’t really matter

so long as we are making progress

in hearing accurately

what it is our Lord wants us to hear.

When we were studying the book of Romans several years ago,

if I’d chosen to do so,

I could have given you a concise,

accurate,

academic overview of the entire book in a single day.

I could have pointed out the four major sections,

and the basic structure within each of those sections,

and we could all have gone home believing we now “know the book of Romans”.

But the truth is

that sometimes such academic knowledge of a book

actually blinds us to the real truths contained within those books,

the truths that have the power to change our lives.

We could have easily grasped the academic structure of Romans

and yet never have wrestled with the transforming power of the truth that now,

...having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand... (Rom. 5:1-2),

or that ...There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 8:1)

Yet it is our spirits’ discovery of such truths,

that brings about real healing in our lives.

And so, with the goal of approaching our Ephesians study

in a way that reaches both our minds and our spirits,

let’s pick up our study of this letter where we left off,

in the first part of chapter 4.

As we’ve seen already in this study,

Paul begins this fourth chapter

with a statement that tells us exactly what he wants to accomplish

in the final three chapters of the letter.

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called...

After taking the first three chapters

to reveal to us this truly awesome relationship

that God has established between Himself and His people,

a relationship in which we become the literal physical body of Jesus Christ on this earth,

a relationship in which we then become the means through which ...(EPH 3:10) the manifold wisdom of God (is) now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places...,

now, in the remainder of this letter,

Paul then goes on to explain to us

how we can create for ourselves

a daily approach to life

that is consistent with who we have already become at the spirit level of our being

as a result of the recreative work of Christ within us.

When we come to Christ

we bring with us two huge areas of ignorance.

The first, and by far the greatest,

is that we do not know who we now are.

We think we are still sinful little wretches

who have, by the grace of God,

had our sins forgiven.

Tragically, Christians frequently seem all too comfortable proclaiming to the world,

“I’m just a sinner saved by grace.”

Now, it is certainly true that we do, at times, still sin.

And it is also true that we are indeed saved daily and eternally by the grace of God.

But we are not sinners.

Through Christ we have not just been forgiven,

we have been recreated in spirit,

and we are now God’s holy ones.

It is His favorite title for us throughout the New Testament - My holy ones... My saints.

And never, ever, even once in any New Testament writing

does He ever address his people as “sinners”.

He certainly talks with us about our sinful actions,

pointing out to us how absurd such conduct is

in the light of who we really are,

but He never identifies us as “sinners”.

And that is our first great area of ignorance -

ignorance about who we really are in Christ.

And it is that first great area of ignorance

that Paul addresses and corrects in the first three chapters of Ephesians.

Then, the second great area of ignorance we bring with us

concerns what it really means for us to approach life

in a way that is consistent with our true identity.

Left to ourselves

we will most certainly gravitate toward some external religious form

or the fulfillment of some set of religious duties.

As I have wrestled with the gospel accounts over the years

I am now convinced that this same misconception is one of the most significant reasons

why the disciples of Jesus simply could not see who He really was.

It was certainly at the heart

of so much of the hostility Christ encountered

from the established Jewish leadership.

LUK 5:30-33 The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." And they said to Him, "The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but Yours eat and drink."

Their complaint against Jesus was obvious -

if You really are the great religious leader you claim to be,

then why don’t you train your followers

in the proper observance

of those religious forms

that will prove their piety and faithfulness to God?

And things really haven’t changed all that much in the past 2000 years.

If God were to once again take on human form

and walk into this room today

what would we expect Him to do?

Even knowing what we know about Christ,

many of us would still, I think, expect something along the lines of what the Pope did

when He visited Anchorage in the 80's.

At the very least we would expect some sort of religious meeting.

We would expect teaching,

and prayers,

and blessings,

and organized religious form.

We would not, I think, expect Him to come in

dressed in jeans and a T shirt

and see Him sit down in the bleachers

next to one of our high school students

and start a conversation about the state basketball tournament.

And yet that is very like what He would do.

It is certainly consistent

with what He did when He was here.

Most of the men He selected for His disciples

were in their early or mid 20's.

A few were probably in their late teens.

And most of what He did with them

was simply to live in their presence,

and to build the strongest, deepest, healthiest friendships with them they’d ever known.

And when He taught,

He never ever lectured them about the perpetuation

of religious forms.

In fact,

He repeatedly ignored those forms

whenever they got in the way

of His relationship with someone who needed to see His love.

On the contrary,

when He taught, He simply talked with them

about the most practical issues of real life.

He talked about the importance of purity.

He redefined love and humility

in terms that created within His listeners

a hunger and a longing to be so much more and so much different than they were.

He talked in painfully practical terms

about the power money has to consume us,

then went on to call His listeners

to a practical trust

in their heavenly Father’s willingness and ability to meet their needs.

He talked with them

about the destructive powers

of lust and a judgmental spirit.

He talked about the rich rewards

that accompany purity and generosity.

In simple, understandable words

He revealed to His followers

how life was designed to operate.

And everyone who had ears to hear

felt as though this man had just opened up their hearts

and revealed to all the world what was there.

Yet, He did it in a way that

rather than flooding his listeners with shame

filled them with a hunger and thirst for righteousness

unlike anything they had ever known before.

And when we can wade through

all of the religious rubbish

that has been swirling around His name for the past 2000 years,

and when we once again

listen with simplicity and clarity

to what He’s saying to us through His Word,

we will discover that nothing has really changed.

I mentioned a few minutes ago

that we bring with us into our walk with our Lord

two huge areas of ignorance.

The first is our ignorance of the remarkable recreative work

that our God accomplishes within our spirits when we come to Him,

a recreative work

that literally transforms us into saints - the holy ones of God at the deepest level of our being.

The second is our ignorance of what it means

to approach life in a way that is consistent with our new identity.

Or, in the terms Paul uses in Ephesians,

how do we walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called?

And as we moved through the first half of Ephesians

we saw Paul giving us the truth we need

for a correct understanding of who we have become in Christ-

not sinners saved by grace,

but the holy ones of God,

chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,

sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,

individual members of His physical body on this earth,

seated with Christ in the spirit world,

the means through which the manifold wisdom of God

is now being proclaimed to all created beings in both the seen and the unseen world.

And now, as we move through these final three chapters

we will see the approach to life

that will allow us to effectively fulfill this high calling that has been given to us in Christ.

And just so there is no confusion,

no misunderstanding about what’s coming,

let me tell you right up front

that most of what he talks about

is our relationships with one another.

It’s not our doctrinal system,

it’s not our religious form and structure,

it’s the way we choose to relate to the people God has placed around us.

When John wrote his first open letter to the people of God

he stated it with almost brutal simplicity.

If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21)

Here in Ephesians Paul simply offers it to us as his plea to us, ...with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And just so that we don’t miss the obvious here,

let me say that it is impossible to read the New Testament honestly

without realizing that our relationships with one another

are the ultimate tests of the truth and correctness of all doctrinal systems.

Our religious world is filled

with people who are filled

with no end of Bible knowledge.

But if we meet a person

whose knowledge about God

has not resulted in better equipping them to show real, practical love to the people who make up their world,

then one thing we know for certain -

there is something deeply flawed with their doctrinal system.

Paul could not have said it any more clearly

than he said it in his letter to his friend, Timothy.

1TI 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

And if what we hear

does not change the way we relate to one another,

then we’re listening to the wrong sources.

After nearly 40 years in the family of God,

I have grown very weary of Bible knowledge

that does not strengthen our ability to love,

or even worse,

with Bible knowledge

that actually allows us to hide from one another behind our religious facade.

Now, when we left this 4^th chapter of Ephesians the last time we were in it,

just before we ended

I pointed out the contrast Paul sets up in the first half of the chapter

between the true unity and diversity that exists within the family of God.

We saw that, whether we choose to believe it or not,

whether our conduct and speech and attitudes toward one another proclaim the truth of it or not,

there really is only one body and one Spirit, and one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

But then, immediately following this proclamation of all that we share in common,

he then goes on to tell us

that there is one area in which God has intentionally designed tremendous diversity into His family.

It is in the area of the gifts He has chosen to distribute throughout the body.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, "When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men."

Now, before we go any farther with this

I want you to know

that over the years I have been exposed to a wide range of approaches to teachings about spiritual gifts.

In the end

nearly every one of them

has accomplished exactly the opposite result

that Paul clearly states as being the purpose of the gifts.

In this fourth chapter,

after giving us a brief overview of the gifts,

Paul tells us that when they are used correctly they will bring about the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

In other words,

when correctly used

the gifts of the Spirit will accomplish three things in the lives of God’s people.

First, they will build us up,

they will help us to grow.

Second, they will produce greater unity within the family of God.

And third, they will ultimately move us toward true maturity.

Yet, nearly every teaching I have seen on the gifts has done exactly the opposite.

Rather than encouraging people,

it has frustrated them.

Rather than bringing about greater unity,

it brings about division.

Rather than bring about greater maturity

it leaves people feeling confused and even inadequate.

So, with the hope that I can approach this

in a way that actually accomplishes what Paul says we should accomplish,

let me share with you what I believe to be

the three key things every Christian needs to know about the gifts.

First, God’s Spirit has given every one of His children some spiritual gift.

These gifts are not the same thing as natural talents.

Our talents may be useful tools in the exercise of our gifts,

but they are not the same thing as the gifts.

A person who has a natural singing ability

may use that singing ability in the exercise of his or her gift,

but the singing ability is not the spiritual gift.

A person may have a natural talent for public speaking,

but that speaking ability does not then mean

that the person possesses the spiritual gift of teaching.

But every Christian has been equipped by the Spirit of God with some spiritual gift.

Second, all true spiritual gifts

are not gifts God gives to us,

they are gifts God gives through us to our fellow Christians.

It is one of the ways in which the Spirit of God

allows us to contribute to the growth, and health of those around us.

When it is correctly exercised

it will leave us with a feeling of gratitude to God

that He has honored us with the ability to be of value to another person.

Have you ever felt that way?

Have you ever come away from a contact with another person

realizing that, in the most beautiful way,

God just used you to bring about encouragement, or growth, or a step toward greater health in another person?

And inside you just felt so very grateful

that He honored you by allowing you to be some place where He was doing something,

and in the process allowed some of the honor that rightfully belonged to Him

to slop over onto you.

If so,

that was probably your spiritual gift being exercised,

and you probably didn’t even know it.

Which brings me to my third statement about the gifts,

your spiritual gift will operate just fine

whether or not you are ever able to label it,

or even consciously recognize it’s existence within you.

Nowhere in Scripture

does God ever tell Christians to label their gifts,

or even to try to figure out what they are.

What He does tell us

is that He has equipped each of us

with the ability to contribute to the growth and maturity of our fellow believers.

Now, having said that,

I’ll go ahead and say just a tiny bit more.

Consistently throughout the New Testament

we see the New Testament writers

telling us that there are two broad categories of spiritual gifts.

The clearest statement of these two categories

is found in 1 Peter 4:10-11.

Peter begins by saying,

1PE 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Then he goes on to divide those gifts up into two major groups.

1PE 4:11 Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

There are speaking gifts,

and there are serving gifts.

We see exactly the same two major divisions in Romans 12:7,

and again in this passage here in Ephesians.

This Ephesians passage is unique in some ways

because Paul lists the speaking gifts

and then explains to us the relationship between the two groups.

He tells us that the speaking gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

And then he tells us that, when correctly used,

these gifts will equip those with the serving gifts for the work God seeks to do through them.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service...

And with all of the gifts,

when they are being used as God intended,

they will result in greater unity

and greater maturity in the lives of God’s people.