Reverend Jonathan Waits
Sermon: Working Properly (Ephesians 4:1-16)
Date: May 12, 2024
Let’s do a bit of imagining together this morning. First, I want you to imagine a company. Let’s say it’s a large company. It’s a large and successful company that has recently rolled out a new product that is promising to be a huge success in terms of sales and advancing the corporate brand in the minds of present and potential consumers. Managing to create a product like this is the goal of pretty much every company that has ever existed. This kind of product-launch that puts a company on the map can set a company up for success for many years into the future. But with this particular company, not all is well behind the scenes. The CEO is a tyrant who rules by threatening fiat and a demagogic personality. He’s brilliant, but mean. He rewards employees not for their character and competence, but for personal loyalty to him and their demonstration of a willingness to step over or even on top of their fellow employees in their attempts to advance their own careers in the company. This promising product was the CEO’s idea and he doesn’t let anyone forget that fact. Beyond this, though, innovation is stifled and new ideas are generally not welcome. Now, think on this for just a second: How successful do you think this company is going to be in the long-term?
Now, imagine a different company with me. This one has a tremendous corporate culture. The CEO is kind and generous. She is a servant leader of the first order who constantly values people over personalities. What gets her attention most are not ruthlessness and naked ambition, but character and competence. She has successfully created a culture in which each and every employee feels like they are valued members of a thriving team. There are all kinds of morale-boosting events, and the families of the employees are not shunned, but welcome to be an active part of the larger corporate family. People who work there love working there and are fiercely loyal to the institution not out of fear, but out of love. But the company just doesn’t have many successful products. Yes, there have been a few flashes in the pan, but they just can’t hit on anything that really shows the promise of taking off in a big way. Nothing they do is particularly innovative or disruptive. It’s all mostly just background noise in the culture. Let’s think on the same question as last time: How successful do you think this company is going to be in the long-term?
The truth here is that neither of these companies are built to last. They both suffer from a fatal flaw. They are different fatal flaws, one primarily internal and the other primarily external, but they are fatal flaws all the same. A really successful product that comes out of a horrible corporate culture isn’t going to last long. A really great corporate culture that puts out a horrible product isn’t going to last long either. You have to have both of these elements in place if you want to experience anything that resembles success. Well, make a bit of a context leap with me. The church is not a business, but it is an organization, and organizations operate by a similar set of rules whether they are secular or sacred. When it comes to the church, what we might call a healthy corporate culture and successful product in the business world we simply call being the body of Christ. And being the body of Christ operates in two different directions: in and out. If we don’t get both right, we aren’t really being the body of Christ.
This morning, we are in the fifth part of our teaching series, Authentic Church. For the last few weeks we have been talking about how we can know when we are engaging with a real church that is a living and functioning part of the body of Christ and when we are dealing with a cheap substitute. Today is Mother’s Day. I suspect that if I were to put the question to you, you could tell me with very little thought one dish your mom or maybe a mother-figure in your life made that no one else can make in quite the same way. Everything else falls short of her impossibly high standard. Some of you know my favorite pie in the world is pecan pie. I learned to love that because my mom made them growing up and made them really well. I remember one time years ago that someone made for me, but they had tinkered with the recipe. They added chocolate to it because chocolate makes everything better. I learned something very important then. Chocolate makes everything better except pecan pie. You know when you are eating something that is functionally an off-brand version of what your mom made. The whole goal of this series is to help sharpen your palate for the church. When we wrap up this series next week, I want you to be able to after only a bite whether you have encountered a real church or something less than that; an off-brand version that’s just not as good as the real thing.
Along the way, we have touched on several indicators for us to make sure to take notice of. The first was that authentic churches rest on the foundation of Christ alone. Nothing short of Him as the absolute point of centrality will do. Everything in the church centers on Jesus. Anything pretending to be the church that isn’t centered on Christ will eventually collapse. On that foundation, rest several different pillars. The first of these is sharing the Gospel. Jesus was all about getting people into a right relationship with God. So must we be. Our job is to help people get and grow in a right relationship with God through Jesus. But we can’t leave them there. That’s just the starting point of a lifetime of growing in a disciple relationship with Him. Authentic churches grow people in Jesus. Last week, after building a couple of these pillars of an authentic church, we paused to talk about the context in which they all exist. Their right and proper foundation is Jesus, but they all exist in a certain context as well, and that context is worship. The church was made to worship, not just in general, but as a community. When we worship together, we experience the joy of the Lord as a community.
I touched on this briefly last time, but worship is composed of three parts. All three of them have to be present, or we’re not really worshiping. When we worship we acknowledge, celebrate, and participate in the character of God. If our worship only includes those first two parts, it may be encouraging to us while we are in this room, but it’s not ultimately accomplishing its broader and intended aim of expanding God’s kingdom by giving more people the chance to taste and see that the Lord is good. In other words, it’s not really worship. It’s just singing or reading the Scriptures. Worship necessarily includes this participatory element, and I don’t just mean singing along. We have to actively participate in the character of God. What’s more, this has to happen in two different places, neither of which is more or less important than the other. We have to do it in the church and out in the world. Well, what does it look like for us to participate in the character of God? It looks like service. Authentic churches serve one another as well as all the one anothers around them.
There are several places in the New Testament that give us some guidance on how to get being the church right. One of the most significant of these is found in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. As we have talked about before, there is no church in the New Testament that gets more time and attention dedicated to it than Ephesus. It was either a really prominent church, a really messed up church, or maybe a little of both. Either way, if you have a copy of the Scriptures handy this morning, find your way over to Ephesians 4 with me, and let’s take a look at this.
Ephesians, kind of like Romans, breaks down into two parts. The first part is Paul’s exposition of the Gospel. He lays out the deep and abiding truths about God in glorious detail. The second part is Paul’s application of the Gospel. He lays out in challenging, personal terms what we are supposed to do in light of those truths about God. In Ephsians, Paul breaks down his applications into basically three sections: the church, the world, and the home. He concludes with a reflection on the tools—or, rather, the armor—we need in order to get all of this right no matter where we are pursuing it. I want to look this morning at Paul’s thoughts on the church. What he says here is pretty foundational, and pretty important to get right if we are going to get being the church right in the first place.
Take a look at this with me starting in Ephesians 4:1. In light of the Gospel truths Paul has spent the previous three chapters laying out, here’s the very first thing he wants his readers to know and do. “Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord [which he meant literally because he was in prison in Rome for proclaiming the Gospel while dictating this letter], urge you to live worthy of the calling you have received.” If you’ve accepted and embraced God’s call to eternal life in Christ, live worthy of that calling. Okay, but how? Paul’s glad you asked. “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Make sense? But where are all the specifics? Where are the details? Where’s the step-by-step process? There isn’t one. If you are going to live worthy of the calling you have received in Christ, you can do it in any situation you are facing. The what we so often clamor for is almost totally irrelevant. The how is everything. We do it by being humble and gentle and patient and loving and by having unity. Why, all of those things sound like aspects of God’s character. Paul could have simply said we are to participate in God’s character. Well, what do you know! Worship rightly pursued really is the context in which all of these being the church pillars exist.
But there’s something here that’s easy to overlook. What do all of these different characteristics Paul lists out here require? I’ll give you a hint: You can’t do any of them on your own. They all require other people. This is especially true with that last one, unity. In other words, Paul is not speaking generally about how to live up to the calling we have in Christ on our own here. He’s talking specifically about doing it in the context of the church. In fact, as far as Paul understood it, you can’t actually live worthy of your calling in Christ apart from the church in the first place. And speaking of this unity Paul invites believers into, the next couple of verses explain it in a little more detail. “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” In other words, we are to be one in Christ. There’s room for a lot of charity on a lot of issues under the umbrella of this unity, but as long as we are all following the same God, we are one.
Okay, but how is this unity supposed to function? I mean, there really is quite a lot of diversity in the body of Christ. That certainly applies to the body of Christ worldwide, but it even applies to an individual body of Christ. It even applies to a body of Christ like ours where so many of us share so many things in common. We’re still all different. What’s Jesus’ plan for dealing with that, because usually differences like that just result in a mess. That’s where Paul goes next. The gist of his argument is that Jesus builds all this diversity into the church on purpose. Check this out back in v. 7 now.
“Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. For it says: ‘When he ascended on high he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people.’ But what does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things.” Now, that part is confusing. Usually when this passage gets preached, those verses get skipped. Honestly, we’re not going to spend a ton of time on them because we could easily get lost in them. But I didn’t want to ignore them. The short version here is that there’s lots and lots of debate about what exactly Paul means in the details here. Personally, I’m persuaded by the folks who argue that Paul is talking about Jesus’ incarnation—His coming to earth as a man—and not some hypothetical trip into the underworld, whatever or wherever exactly that is. Jesus came to earth, won His victory over sin and death, freeing us from the captivity of sin, and then rose and ascended to proclaim and celebrate His victory over all creation. Now, from His glorified position, He gives out gifts to those who are a part of His kingdom so they can be a part of continuing His work as a function of His larger victory celebration.
Paul goes on next to talk about the purpose of these gifts. Look at this starting in v. 11 with me: “And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers…” Pause for just a second. He’s talking about different ways church leaders are gifted for the work God has given them. Wherever exactly their ministry gifting falls, though, the purpose of their gifting is the same. Jesus equips all these folks so that they can be “equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.”
Are you still with him? Jesus equips leaders to equip the rest of the church to do the work of ministry. He does this in order to strengthen and build up His body until every part of it is functioning as it was designed. And the goal of all this work is where Paul lands. “Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. [That is, we’ll understand the Gospel and not be fooled by any kind of a fake however cleverly designed it may be.] But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.” We are able to experience all of this when every part is playing its designed and intended part.
As important as all of that is, it’s all commentary. What are we actually supposed to do with all of this? Well, let’s think through what Paul is saying here. He gives the bulk of his attention to two different things. The first is the unity of the church. I know it seems like unity is kind of a big deal for the church. That’s because it is. Unity is essential to everything else we do. The work we are trying to accomplish as a church, both generally as a part of the body of Christ and specifically as members of this particular body of Christ, is way beyond what any of us can accomplish on our own. If we are not all in this whole thing together from start to finish, we are going to fail. What we are united around, though, matters. Remember that our foundation is Jesus, and Jesus alone.
One of the ways of keeping our unity strong is the way any group manages to keep itself together through the manifold of challenges before it. We have to have a clear and compelling focus. And if we really want to be a united church and not just a united club, that unity has to be focused on something external to ourselves. It is when we start doing institutional navelgazing that we start to find things that bother us about the situations we are in as well as the people with whom we are facing them. When we see through the lens of an outwardly focused mission, though, we are able to see those things in their proper light. Yes, there may be this or that we don’t particularly care for, but these are the people with whom we are accomplishing something larger than ourselves and without whom we can’t do it. If there is real hurt, that needs to be addressed, but otherwise we forgive and keep moving forward toward the larger goal of glorifying God in Christ and expanding His kingdom.
The other thing to which Paul gives his attention here is the proper working of the body of Christ. This proper working is possible when every part is playing its part. And Jesus gives different parts so that all the parts are covered. And what does the proper working of the body of Christ look like? It looks like our doing the things Jesus would have been doing if He were still physically here. This is the work of ministry. Well, let’s be explicit. Ministry is doing the work of Christ inside the church and for the benefit of the rest of the body. Missions is doing the work of Christ outside the church and for the benefit of the rest of the world. Both are necessary, and neither can be accomplished effectively and well unless every part is playing its part.
Far from being two different things, though, this unity and actively being the body of Christ are two sides of the same coin. You can’t divorce one from the other. Without the unity, our being the body isn’t ever going to happen. Without our actively being the body, our unity not only doesn’t matter, but it won’t last. It is only when we put both pieces together that we have a church that is what God intended for it to be. When we are getting being the church right, when we are being an authentic church, we are serving both in and out. Serving in and serving out is an essential part of what makes a church, a church.
What all this means for you is fairly simple. You need to be serving in some capacity. You need to be putting the gifts God has given you to work in order to advance the kingdom of God both within the community and outside these walls. Now, if you’re a guest with us this morning, I’m really glad you’re here. This next part isn’t for you. You can just listen in and get a better sense of what it means to be a church and of the kind of church we are striving to be together. For everybody else, if you are doing nothing more than showing up in this room on a weekly basis, that’s not cutting it. You are not functioning as a part of the church. You’re really not all that different from someone who has walked in the door for the very first time. God in Christ has given you a set of gifts that were designed and intended to be put to use under the guidance of His Spirit in building up this body in love so that we are all becoming together more fully who God designed us to be. If all you are doing is walking in the door, sitting down, and then walking back out after an hour, you’re not accomplishing anything for the kingdom, and you’re not really benefiting anybody around you very much, which ultimately means none of what you are experiencing is really doing much of any good for you either. In other words, you’re just wasting your time. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be here. You should. There’s no better place to be. But it’s time for you to take what you are learning and actually put it into practice. Don’t settle for just being a pew-filler. Be a member of the church. Serving in and serving out is an essential part of what makes a church, a church.
Now, for everybody, if you want to be fully experiencing the wonder of being a part of the body of Christ, serving is essential. Everybody can do this. There’s no age limit on it. We had some of our youngest members handing out flowers before we got started this morning. That’s service. We have middle and high school students actively helping with our A/V team each week. Several of you are volunteers with our kids and youth ministries. We have a group of ladies who range in their number of decades on earth from 70 to 90+ who regularly visit our shut-ins. This week when we host Missions Night at the Gathering Place, we are going to be able to join together as a whole community in a great service project for a great local organization. If you are still drawing breath, you can be a part of serving in and serving out. You can love the people around you well, and you can love your neighbors in the name of Jesus and as a representative of this church. Have I mentioned that we have VBS coming up soon? And while we’re doing okay right now, come this next Fall, we are going to need some more dinner teams to join the rotation for the Gathering Place so we don’t burn out the ones who are already faithfully serving. Serving in and serving out is an essential part of what makes a church, a church.
The question you might be asking now, though, is how you know where to serve? Lots of folks get paralyzed by that one. Well, to a certain extent, that’s mostly between you and God, but that’s also where the rest of the church can come into play as well. With you and God, think through several different questions to help get a sense of the ministry He’s designed you to pursue in your current season. What gifts has God given you? (I have resources to help you answer this question.) What life experiences have you had that not everyone else around you has experienced? What talents and abilities has God allowed you to develop thus far in life? What are your real passions in life? What is it that gets your heart beating a little faster and that you just can’t get out of your mind? The other factor is what the other members of the body see in you. Ask a fellow member: What do you see as a place where I could be really effective? (And if you don’t know anyone well enough that you think they could give you a good answer, that’s a sign that it’s time to engage more fully and intentionally with the community so that you can build those relationships stronger.) When you start to get answers to all of those questions, the intersection of those answers will likely be the place God has designed you to serve for the present season. That place may change over time, but when you are well-connected to the body, God will make that clear as you need to know it. There’s one more thing here too. If you put all that together and come up with the area where you are built to serve and we don’t have anything going on in that area here, we’ll start it. And you can help lead it. Serving in and serving out is an essential part of what makes a church, a church. Let’s commit to doing all of this together for the benefit of the body and the expansion of God’s kingdom.