Living for the Right Thing

Some time ago I read a quote from Charles Misner about Albert Einstein regarding what he thought about church and religion.  Listen carefully to what Misner said about one of the smartest men who lived:

The design of the universe… is very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he’d run across did not have proper respect … for the author of the universe.[1]

It was in John Piper’s book, Let the Nations Be Glad that I read that quote over 20 years ago, and I have never forgotten it.  We were made to know God and it is the reason Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the body of Christ by showing them the “real thing.”  It is hard to show the body of Christ the “real thing” if you are not looking at the “real thing.”

Last week, we spent our time together in Ephesians 4:7-10.  My goal was to show you that one way to be, “diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v. 3), is to use spiritual gifts, your talents, and your time to, “encourage one another in love and good deeds…” (Heb. 10:19-25).  Hopefully, I was able to show you that you cannot do that if you are not physically present and active with fellow Christians who gather regularly as the local expression of the body of Christ. 

Some of you are unsure of what spiritual gifts Jesus has given through His Holy Spirit.  You may be unaware of the supernatural gifts given by the Holy Spirit that are listed in the Bible. Two places in the Bible list spiritual gifts that are still given today; all that I want to do today is to list them for you just so that you are aware of what they are:

All of these spiritual gifts are supernatural in nature and given through the Holy Spirit for the edification of Christ’s body and to participate in His mission.  This is the point of Ephesians 4:7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”  Of all the gifts given by Christ through the Holy Spirit to His people, they can be categorized into two groups: Gifts of speaking and gifts of helping; I believe this is what the apostle Peter described in his epistle: “Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking actual words of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving 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” (1 Pet. 4:11). 

You Have Been Gifted to Live for Jesus in Partnership with His People

If you are a Christian, you are the recipient of God’s rich mercy, great love, and all-sufficient grace that has been lavished upon you when you were dead in your offenses and sins and stood as before the God who is holy as a child of His infinite wrath.  Christian, we have been forgiven much! Not only have we been forgiven much, but we were chosen and redeemed for, “good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (2:10)! 

Your redemption was not meant only for your benefit, but the benefit of every person in your world—especially those who belong to the body of Christ.  Your spiritual gifts, your talents, your stuff, and your time are all blood-bought gifts from the God who created everything and owns it all: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures” (Jas. 1:17–18).

Do you know how to, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (4:1)?  Do you want to know how it is you can bear with your brothers and sisters in Christ with, “all humility and gentleness, with patience, and in love” (v. 2)?  Do you understand the part you play in keeping, “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v. 3)?  You do it by the power God has provided through His Holy Spirit, which is, “the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe” (1:19) that enables you to use your God-given spiritual gifts, your God-given talents, your God-given skills, your God-given time, and everything else God has provided out of the abundance of His goodness toward you, “to encourage one another in love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24).  This is how Jesus has built His Church, this is how Jesus is building His Church, this is how Jesus will continue to build His Church, “and the gates of hell will not overpower it” (Matt. 16:17-19). 

Listen, Jesus loves His bride too much to leave her the way He found her!  We will eventually get to Ephesians 5:25-27 where husbands are told how we are to love our wives, but for now, I only want you to see the way Christ loves His Bride: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:25–27).  How is Jesus loving His bride?  He gave Himself up for her, He is sanctifying her, and He is cleansing her through His Spirit and His Word.  All of this He is doing for the purpose of presenting her for Himself in all her potential glory with no more blemishes or defects… that she would be holy and blameless!  Do you know the way that He is doing it?  Through the ministry of His Word, the Power of His Spirit, and the community of His People.  Do not buy into the lie that you do not need the Church! 

Jesus Gifts His Body with Spiritually Gifted People to Equip His Church

Now I want to turn your attention to verse 11, which is not spiritual gifts, but spiritually gifted people called to at least four offices in Jesus’ Church.  These are people called by Jesus and gifted to His people to do two things: (1) Equip the saints for the work of ministry, and (2) for the building up of the body of Christ. 

Some propose that in every church there should be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  Those who propose the view, rightly point out that the word “apostle” can mean “messenger” or anyone who is “sent” as a witness.  In the same way, “prophet” does not always refer to a person who receives a special inspired word from God but can also refer to a person who speaks forth God's word.  My problem with this view is with the way the office of “apostle” and “prophet” is used elsewhere in Ephesians.  This is why understanding the context of a book in the Bible is so important for interpreting and understanding a passage like the one before us.  Notice the way “apostles” and “prophets” are referred to in Ephesians 2:19-22,

“So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:19–22)

For this reason, I believe that the office of apostle and prophet that Paul is referring to in Ephesians 4:11 are the gifted people God used (past tense) in both the Old Testament and New Testament.  Both were gifts given to God’s people to provide the Church with the Word of God (the Bible) and form the foundation for the people of God.  The prophets were mostly men through whom God spoke to provide the people of God with the word of God and the apostles were the 12 men Jesus chose to be the foundation of the Church.  Both the office of prophet and apostle ceased after the Apostles all died, but the gift that they were and continue to be to the Church are gifts we enjoy and benefit from still today, for every time you read your Bible, hear it faithfully preached and taught, or sing songs shaped by the Word of God, you reap the benefits of the good gifts to the Church that were the prophets and Apostles. 

The other three offices in the Church are evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  Now everyone is called to evangelize, but some are uniquely gifted to be evangelists who tend to be those sent to plant churches or sent to people groups who have not yet heard the gospel of Jesus Christ such as Adoniram Judson who brought the gospel to the unreached people group known as the Burmese.  Before arriving upon the shores of what is still called, “The Land of the Golden Pagodas”, at the age of 21, Judson’s eyes fell upon Ephesians 3:17-19 which compelled Adoniram and his wife (Ann) to make Burma (Myanmar) their home on July 13, 1813.  I would submit to you the fire that burns in all those truly called by Christ to the office of evangelists, pastor, and teacher can be heard in Ephesians 3:17-19, “…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.”

It would take six years for Judson to learn Burmese and eventually see his first Burmese convert come to Christ on May 9, 1819.  Three years later, he finished translating the New Testament into Burmese.  Although it took him 24 years to do so, he was able to translate the entire Bible into Burmese in the early months of 1834.  Before his death on Abril 12, 1850, the gift that Adoniram Judson gave to the body of Christ resulted in 63 churches and 7,000 converts, 800 of those converts were from a tribe in Burma known as the Karen.  Judson’s role was to fill the office of an evangelist in Burma.  What Judson did not know was that there was an ancient prophecy known by the Karen concerning the great God they called Y’wa who created the earth and a man and a woman who were our first parents and that He had a book that was lost, but a white man would come to bring them the lost book about Y’wa.  Adoniram Judson was that man.

Some think that the offices of pastor and teacher are one and the same.  Others believe they are separate offices.  What I do know is that one of the qualifications of pastors is their ability to teach, but not all teachers are called to be pastors.  Both, however, like the evangelist, are called by Christ and gifted to His Church to, “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ” (v. 12).  But what is the goal of verse 12?  The goal is verse 13, which could not be any more clear: “until we all attain 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, the goal and purpose of the gifting of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the body of Christ is four-fold:

1. The unity of the faith: Those Jesus gifts to His Church are sent to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus as the only redeemer and savior of our souls.

2. The knowledge of the Son of God: Those Jesus gifts to His Church are sent to proclaim Him as the Son of God. Any other Jesus than the One presented in the Bible who is fully God and fully man as the second person of the Trinity is a Jesus who cannot save.

3. Maturity as a follower of Jesus: Those Jesus gifts to His Church are sent to proclaim the full counsel of God’s word for the full health of God’s people.

4. To become full of Christ: The purpose of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers is the proclamation of the Word of God to the people of God, before the people of God, and over the people of God who make of the Church of Jesus Christ!

To a young pastor-teacher, by the name of Timothy, Paul gave these solemn instructions that are not only for me as the pastor of Meadowbrooke Church, but for us all:

“I solemnly exhort you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, use self-restraint in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim. 4:1–5)

So, I come back to my original question: How are you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (4:1)?  Use your God-given gifts, talents, time, and resources to, “encourage one another in love and good deed, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25).  The way you do that is by giving them Jesus in the same way the apostles and prophets were sent to do, and in the same way the evangelists, pastors, and teachers are called to do! 

I have one more thing to say, and I want to say it to the fathers and the single mothers of Meadowbrooke Church.  The Church is a macrocosm of the way God structured the family, and in a very real sense, you are called and sent to be a gift to your family!  Like the apostles, you are called to show your wife and children the beauty and splendor of the incomparable Christ!  Like the prophets of old, you are called to give your wife and children the Word of God because it is honey to the lips (Ps. 119:103), and it is living and active (Heb. 4:12).  Like the evangelist, you are sent to show your wife and children why and how Jesus satisfies.   

Finally, just like pastors and teachers who serve Christ’s Church, you are to serve your wife and children to help them know and understand that there is none like our God (Isa. 46:9-10), and to know Him is to know His Son who is on all levels, “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).  As a husband and father, you show your family that Jesus is the “bread of life” that satisfies (John 6:35); He is the “true door” that leads to salvation (10:7), He is the “good shepherd” even in the valley of the shadow of death (10:11,14); He is the “resurrection and the life” who keeps His sheep (11:25); He is the “true vine” in whom the purpose of life and true thriving is to be experienced (15:1).   

Dear fathers of Meadowbrooke, you are not called to lead your children to their idols but to the all-satisfying and all-sufficient Redeemer who is the only One who can give what their idols will never be able to give… namely, LIFE.  Give them the God of the Book! Give them the real thing!

[1] John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, 30th Anniversary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2022), 4.