“Growth”
Ministry morphs into maturity
Father Son Holy Spirit – as we discover the way church is supposed to be, I pray that you would do things in our lives that we are not used to. Give us an appetite for the things that increase your presence. Take our lives & use them wherever & however you see fit for your Kingdom work. Amen.
I came across these 6 safety tips this week – listen closely:
§ 20% of all fatal accidents happen in cars (walking to church)
§ 17% of all accidents happen at home
§ 15% of all accidents happen to people walking on the street
§ 14% of all accidents happen on air/rail/water transportation
§ beware – more people die in bed than in any other place!
§ church – only .001% of all accidents happen at church = this is a safe place to be!
We are searching Ephesians 4 in hopes of discovering something about the church – the way its supposed to be.
On 9/18 we explored the strategic importance of unity – the 7 “ones” (body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, God) which form the foundation for the 5 “ways” we are to treat each other – with humility, gentleness, patience, tolerant love & peacekeeping.
On 9/25 we expanded our understanding of unity. 1 – God himself is a unity of 3 persons. 2 – the church’s unity will help convince the watching world that Jesus & his love are real. 3 – unity is our final destiny as the people of God
Last week I spoke about service.
1 – what Christ gives to the church (apostles prophets evangelists pastors-teachers).
2 – what the church gives to Christ (works of service). Nobody can do everything but everybody can do something.
3 – what Christ does with what we give to him. My 3rd point from last week that I didn’t have time for.
Today I want to speak about growth. What Christ does with what we give him – our works of service. Let me set the stage.
5-fold offices
1. quick review:* apostles – start things
* prophets – stir things up
* evangelists – share Christ
* pastor/teachers – shepherd people toward Christ
These 5 are charged with preparing/equipping God’s people for service. These leaders are the equippers for ministry. Those in the church are the doers of ministry.
A few prepare – many do. This is the way the church is supposed to be. What happens when a few prepare & many do? Paul lays out 6 outcomes.
6 outcomes
1 – We will experience spiritual growth (12)
1 – We will experience spiritual growth (12)
When apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers empower people for works of service. When empowered people serve. Something happens that is supernatural – spiritual growth.
The best way to define spiritual growth is to look at the next 5 outcomes. They are the stuff of spiritual growth.
2 – We will achieve unity in doctrine (13)
Unity in the faith = theology, doctrine, the body of truth embraced by God’s people. The 7-fold creed of 4:4-6 = 1 body Spirit hope Lord faith baptism & God the Father.Here’s my observation – statements of faith in the Scriptures are far shorter & simpler than those the church has created over the years. The longer & more detailed our statement of faith, the harder it becomes to find theological & church unity & the more Christ-followers who are fenced out.
Example – The Christian & Missionary Alliance. Our doctrinal statement declares that we believe in the pre-millennial return of Christ. That Jesus Christ will return to earth before the 1000 year millennium
This means that the following people could not join The Christian & Missionary Alliance – St Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Francis Schaeffer, John Stott, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, Charles Colson & many others. They hold to a different view.
This is why I like The Apostles Creed – it simply says, he shall come again to judge the living & the dead. That does it for me.
It's sad when our theology divides us when most of what divides us are secondary matters – not issues of Christ or salvation.
Leaders equip & Christ-follower serve UNTIL unity of the faith is achieved.
3 – we will experience a fuller experience of Christ (13)
1. Paul’s word for knowledge in this statement goes far beyond intellectual accent. He means growth in our personal relationship with Christ, our experience of Christ.2. Paul is not high-lighting how much we know about Christ – he is pointing to experience of Christ in our daily living.
3. a number of years ago I became curious about the Kennedy family. I read a number of books about the Kennedy’s. I found out all kinds of juicy, fascinating & tragic stuff. Joseph Patrick Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald.
§ 1st son Joe Jr. died on a secret mission in WWII
§ 1st daughter Rosemary was born mentally impaired. After a failed lobotomy she was sent to a convent in the Midwest to live the rest of her life
§ 2nd daughter Kathleen died in a plane crash over France during WWII
§ President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963
§ Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968
And on it goes. After a while I knew a lot about the Kennedy family.
4. But I didn’t know the family. I had knowledge about them but none of them.
5. our knowledge about Christ, gained from studying the Bible, is meant to become knowledge of Christ. As we invite him into our lives. As we seek to love, obey, worship, serve & follow him.
4 – We will grow to become more like Christ (13,15,16)
1. now Paul unpacks this a step farther. It’s all about becoming like Christ. The gospel. Discipleship. Is about transformation of our character, about Christ being formed in us.2. the whole point of the gospel is to be transformed into the image of Christ:
§ Romans 8:29 – to be conformed to the likeness of his Son
§ Galatians 4:19 – until Christ is formed in you
3. this means that we come to:
§ believe what he believed (mind)
§ live the way he lived (character)
§ love the way he loved (relationships)
§ serve the way he served (service)
§ lead the way he led (influence)
4. 4:7-16 is all about Christ:
§ Him who gives ‘serving’ grace to each of us (7)
§ Him who gives these 5 gifted people to the church (11)
§ Him whose body is built up (12)
§ Him that we know & experience (13)
§ Him whose fullness becomes our own (13)
§ Him we grow up into (15)
§ Him who is the Head of the Body (15)
§ Him who is the source of the church’s unity & growth (16)
5 – we will be saved from doctrinal instability (14)
1. take note of the contrasts between 4:13 & 4:14:§ maturity (13) vs. infancy (14)
§ Christ (13) vs. men (14)
§ the faith (13) vs. every wind of teaching (14)
2. works of service includes a teaching ministry of some kind that nails down the theological essentials & gives people a firm foundation on which to base their faith.
6 – we will live in truth & love (15)
1. instead of being deceived by false teachers Christ followers are to speak the truth in love to one another.2. truth without love is harsh & bruising. But love without truth is wishy-washy.
3. Paul is not pitting love & truth against each other. The 7-fold creed of 4:4-6, ‘the faith’ of 4:13 under which we are to unite, the ‘truth’ of 4:15 establishes a clear sense of boundaries, of what we believe. There is content to our belief.
4. but that content must always be communicated in love. Truth is not to be used as a hammer to pound the gospel into people’s heads.
5. speaking the truth in love. I want to focus on the preposition in. To be in Christ is to be in a relationship with Christ. In is a relationship word.
6. Tod Bolsinger of the San Clemente Presbyterian Church puts it like this in his blog, speaking the truth that is anchored in Christ, in relationships that reflect the love of Christ.
7. love is the pre-eminent relationship word in the Bible. The closer we are to each other, the more natural it will be to speak the truth to each other. If we have a relationship built on the love of Christ, we must speak the truth. If we can’t speak the truth, we’d better build the relationship.
8. truth & love are the twin towers of spiritual growth, of Christ-likeness = we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
Ministry Morphs into Maturity
1. 4:11-12 is all about ministry & service, action & movement, expressing your love for Christ in works & deeds.2. 4:13-16 is all about maturity. The results of ministry. Service turns into growth. The church as a whole develops. Individuals ripen.
3. the bottomline? I need your ministry for my maturity. And you need my ministry for your maturity. Together we are the Body of Christ. United in him for service & transformation.
4. Christ is Who holds this all together:
§ Him who gives ‘serving’ grace to each of us (7)
§ Him who gives these 5 gifted people to the church (11)
§ Him whose body is built up (12)
§ Him that we know & experience (13)
§ Him whose fullness becomes our own (13)
§ Him we grow up into (15)
§ Him who is the Head of the Body (15)
§ Him who is the source of the church’s unity & growth (16)
5. our focus must not be – the apostles prophets evangelists pastors-teachers, or, equipping & empowering, or, works of service, or, the 6 outcomes that our service creates. All are important. All are to be valued & desired.
6. but our greatest value & our greatest desire must be Christ Himself. Our ministry, our service, our growth, our maturity grow best out of our intimacy with Jesus.
7. is Jesus the center of our lives? Mike Steele (email that Mike Higgs sent to the elders this week), it strikes me that focusing on the heart relationship with Jesus (learning to hear his voice & do what he says) is truly organic and reproducible. How could a person who is intimate with Jesus not have his heart for the world?
8. my challenge to you? Get close to Jesus. Learn to hear his voice. Commit to obey his voice. Pick up his heart for our community!
5 comments:
So what does spiritual maturity look like?
Giving, caring, sacrificing?
I'm think of T.S. He seemed to always have a number of people that he wanted to talk to, and with each one he had a special way of interacting with them. Something that was stimulating, With me it was the intersection of faith and science. With J.R. it was hunting. He made every person feel special.
Or is there something more? As people mature they tend to think more about others. Psychologists speak of the highest form of maturity as that found in people who sacrifice themselves for a greater good (Gandhi, mother Theresa, Neimoller. . .)
T.S. was the kind of person that everyone loved. His death leaves an ache in our hearts. Why? His wisdom. Humility. Love. Story-telling. He was grace & truth personified. Spiritual maturity embodied.
Class discussion:
ES paul saying reason teachers etc. exist is not just to garner faith but also as service, that through that works come out naturally
BW Your service & ministry makes my maturity and my service and ministry makes your maturity. Too many in the church do the majority.
ES in Romans Paul writes: going to Rome build up their faith, and they build up his.
BW how much do we do because others in the church are watching?
VM Others outside of the church are watching also.
WG About heart relationship. Part skipped during service (email from Higgs). Shared about following the shepherd
JH If anything leads to chaos it doesn’t lead to God. Disunity comes from people going in different directions
BW When God spoke to Moses there was no question. We can agree or disagree about the details, but in the end if the decision is made we need to let what we feel go, and not let it turn into a battle. As long as it turns into a prayer meeting, we seek God.
DC The early church that we look to with such idealistic view that was always in turmoil. I don’t think that to mystify the following Jesus
Tim mentioned the Apostles’ Creed. That was battled over, people left over it. History shows that unless we objectify our faith by the community of Christ and the scriptures we can go wandering wildly.
I know that you (WG) are not saying this, and I know where you are going with it,. But uniformity is. . . unity is the best kind of unity when people are allowed to discuss differences.
BW It sounds more like choose your battles. But throughout history there were things that needed to be battled.
DC I am saying that it is both. Follow the Shepherd
ES Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they examined scripture thoroughly. The bottom line is what is in scripture. The Word quantifies everything.
Friend that was brought up Baptist, then went to,Mennonite and is now at Canby Christian.
ES Some churches argue how often communion is served.
KV I feel like Abraham’s servant I am in the way
BH Head knowledge coupled with heart knowledge. You can study and get a lot of head knowledge, but if you don’t couple that wit h heart knowledge.
WG Truth w/out love can hurt.
BG And love w/out truth is wishy washy ness.
BW We can go to God’s word w/ several dif. attitudes, but sometimes go looking for what we want to see and what we want to do, and justify what we want to do.
I see things in the Bible all the time that can justify what I want to do. We need to listen to what He wants to do through my relationship with Christ.
Balance is what is important. I can tell somebody that they are dead wrong, but I don’t have to do it in a nasty way.
BG James 1:19-20 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Need to do less speaking & more listening.
ES Sanctification is not a 1 time event but a lifetime event.
Every time I get something worked out He shows me something new.
BG I have found that sometimes I need to work on the quality of my silence (HUGE laughter all around).
DC Eph. 4:12-13 Things seem to be lined out on a progressive incline. We can look at the components, and we need to, but we need to keep in mind the equal sign of what all this adds up to, maturity. Typical new testament theme is to grow up
VM That’s why it says in 14 to grow up, that you are not babies anymore.
DC It would be nice if in the church we had a venue where we didn’t focus on our sins button our victories. It is really helpful. If that guy can do that, why can’t I. It seems we don’t have a lot of opportunities in our gatherings to share our victories.
BH Took a catholic friend to church. She was impressed by the testimonies she heard. That impressed her more than anything else in the service.
DC In psychology we give high marks to positive reinforcement, but in the church setting we don’t seem to do that as much.
JH If people come to church, even if it isn’t for a reason for service, at least they are here.
BW The thought about equipping. The staff is really here to equip the equippers. And as to J’s comment, that is true, even if they are just here, that is a start. In business they say to join a church with a lot of people (networking), and that offends me. If people come to me in church and ask me what I do, that is one thing, but that is not the reason I come to church.
Silence for 20 seconds.
RW nothing like a quiet service.
JH I have an employee w/ a lot of problems w/ his life. Asked him: do you ever do anything for anyone else? “Nope.” He doesn’t experience service, which is something that comes from the heart. It is an opportunity to grow. It is a hard thing to tell someone that they need to do service to grow.
BH Opinion The more easily we “Love is the preeminent relationship word in the Bible. The more deeply we are related to each other, the more natural it will be to speak the truth to each other. And, the more difficult it is to speak the truth, the more we must build the relationship. If we have a relationship built on the love of Christ, we must speak the truth. If we can’t speak the truth, we’d better build the relationship.”
Why is it?
KV Men don’t make close friendships.
JH That is a cultural thing. Other cultures feel easier about showing close friendships with other men.
BW Had a friend who came to him about disagreeing w/ way he prayed. Felt good that he had fortitude to approach him about it. BUT, he did it in love. Didn’t bruise. Made all the difference.
BH Women find it easier.
ES Do women find it easier to criticize?
KV Grew up w/ group that was intolerant w/ imperfections. Neighbor’s attitude made it tougher to grow, change. To him we were heathens. It’s true of course, but we didn’t want to hear it. Afraid we would corrupt his children. If I had not gone to Korea I would not be here today. God called the heathens to save a heathen. It was all predestined.
Prayer requests:
ES Wife’s brother (Mike) & wife (Loretta) (he is a new Christian) and she is offended by mother in law. If God doesn’t intervene it will damage that relationship permanently.
JH G & I are going to the Holy Land. Looking for prayers for that trip. Also, looking at all the calamities in the world, our nation has this dollar thing that seems to think it can pay for anything. Our nation needs to reevaluate where it is going.
BH Steve T's mother died, funeral today.
WG Prayers for Roberta and the vacuum in our church.
i wish i could have joined your discussion!
When I got to work this morning my principal called me over. A teacher who mentored me, was a real sweet heart, died last night. She was suffering, and now that has ceased. She was a believer. I know that I do not ache for her but for the empty spot she has left.
Heavenly Father:
We are merely mortals, weak, fickle, and our lives are but a breath. But the events of each day seem large to us.
I ask You LORD to bless Your children. Permit us to feel Your presence, send us Your comforter so that we may walk our paths with the certainty of knowing, truly understanding, that we are walkiong Your path.
Bless R.S. as she deals with this void. Bless G.H. as he deals with his void.
Bring those who are struggling with the changes of this rapid life to a place that is quiet, gentle, and let us feel Your love for us as we deal with the reality of being ephemeral while we are clothed in flesh.
Amen.
Oh yes. Thank you LORD for my friends. Thank you for the resources, the spiritual mentors, the guidance You have provided me through those in my life.
Amen and amen.
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