ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT SHIP?
Introduction:
I would like to begin today's message by showing you two ships. The first ship is a cruise ship, the kind that offers people leisure and lots of things to do as well as lots of food to eat. On board, you have stage theaters, cinemas, casinos, restaurants, swimming pools, spas, and sports facilities, just to name a few. All these things are included to make your stay during the cruise a memorable one. For every 2 passengers, there will be one crew member. This means a ship with a 3000 capacity would have 2000 passengers and 1000 crew members serving the passengers. Now, let's look at the second ship. It is a warship. In fact, what you are looking at right now is known as an aircraft carrier with around 90 aircrafts and 5400 crew members on board. There are no passengers on board who are traveling for a good time. Everyone on board this warship is doing his part to keep the ship afloat and the morale of everybody high. There are people who fly the planes while others maintain the planes. There are people on the ship's deck, navigating the ship through the seas, and there are cooks who prepare meals for everyone. There are people who man the computerized weapons systems and those who man the radios and telecommunications equipment. Everyone on board a warship has an important role to play. On board a cruise ship, only 1/3 of the total people on board are keeping the ship afloat, the rest are just enjoying the facilities.
Now, what is the relation of cruise ships and warships with what this morning's message? Actually, the illustration that I have just given you depicts what a mature, growing church should look like, and the sad reality that many churches are still far from reaching maturity. The warship is a depiction of a maturing church, where everyone is involved in keeping the ship afloat and moving; sadly though, many churches, including ours, sometimes look more like a cruise ship than a warship. What do I mean? I am pointing out right now that many people who are members of the church are not getting involved at all in the life of the Body of Christ. In fact, they could be what we call as “spectators” who are simply there to watch what's going on, but they don't lift a finger to help.
What made matters worse is that churches hire pastors and full-time workers with the unrealistic expectation that they should be doing everything. They expect the paid personnel of the church to lead every Bible study, visit everyone on the church membership roster, preach in every Sunday service and fellowship, lead small groups, make decisions for the church. Now, pastors are supposed to do the things I have just mentioned, but really, do you think they can meet everyone's needs? Do you think they can live up to an unrealistic expectation that they have to do everything? What aggravated the situation was that we have created this artificial divide inside the church where one group is called the clergy while the other is called the laity. The clergy is wrongly viewed as being more superior than the laity, very much similar to what happens inside the Roman Catholic Church where the priests, nuns, bishops and popes are viewed as being more holier than the ordinary church member.
This morning's passage, Ephesians 4:7 – 16, makes clear that God has given spiritual gifts to all his people. However, Paul does not go through a list of various spiritual gifts like those listed in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Instead, Paul wrote about four particular offices that God has given the church with specific purposes in mind, for the benefit of the entire church. Without further delay, let's look at these four gifts in the form of four kinds of ministers of the church, how they function in the church, and what these gifts are supposed to bring forth in the lives of every believer.
GOD'S GIFT TO THE CHURCH – THE FOUR OFFICES OF LEADERSHIP
While the Lord has definitely blessed the entire church with various spiritual gifts, there are four specific offices that he has given to specific people in order to minister to the church. Let us briefly go through what these gifts are.
Apostles. The Lord first of all gifted the church with the apostles. In the strictest sense, “apostles” refer to the Twelve whom Christ had chosen as well as others like Paul and Barnabas – the people who have seen the Lord, and who have directly received the Lord's commission. The apostles, together with the prophets, were known as the foundation of the church, with the apostles being the ones commissioned to start the work among the Jews and the Gentiles. They were also responsible for conveying the teachings of Jesus and preserving them in writing.
Prophets. Then there are the prophets. Now, the prophets' main responsibility was to convey God's message for the church. Foretelling the future is a secondary task. They bring to light the sins of men. They also give exhortation to the church in order to strengthen her.
Now, both apostles and prophets, I believe are spiritual leaders who were needed during the first century, during the early years of Christianity, in order to make it firmly established. However, once the church was established and the New Testament was already written, these two offices ceased to exist. However, their impact is felt up till today because we have in our possession the Word of God which helps us to know what is God's will as well as what we are supposed to obey.
Evangelists. The third and fourth offices mentioned are still existing in the church as they are the most needed. The third is the office of the evangelists. An evangelist is simply put, someone who is gifted in conveying the Gospel of Jesus Christ, such that when they proclaim the Gospel, many are touched by the Holy Spirit and come to faith in Christ. They do not need to be high-profile people like Billy Graham or Luis Palau. They can be people who are led by the Spirit to share the Gospel with other people on a one-on-one basis. Now, all of us are to share the Gospel. We cannot be excused from it. However, the evangelist is specially endowed as someone who brings in the harvest of souls very effectively.
Pastors-Teachers. The fourth office is the office of the pastor-teacher. A pastor-teacher is responsible for taking care of the spiritual needs of the church by feeding them with the Word of God regularly as well as by checking after their welfare such as praying for the church, visiting the sick, giving guidance to the church. Not everyone who has this gift is called to lead an entire church. Some may be gifted to lead smaller groups such as a fellowship or a discipleship group.
There's just one thing to note about the four offices that were given to certain people in the church – it did not mean that they had to do everything. Instead, the succeeding passages spell out for us what the four offices should accomplish and achieve in the life of the church. We can call this as the given aim as well as the desired result.
THE AIM & THE DESIRED RESULT
As I have just said, God has given these four offices not for them to do everything and the rest of the church doing nothing. Paul spelled it out very clearly what the four offices were supposed to accomplish. Likewise, this aim should be the same for all leaders in the church. That aim is to prepare God's people for service (v. 12). God put the four offices in place was so that they would get everyone in the church ready and equipped for serving God and others.
This preparation for service is done in many ways. There is instruction in the Word of God. If you want to be an effective servant of God, you have to at least be growing in your knowledge and application of God's Word. At the same time, those in leadership have to be faithfully teaching you and modeling for you obedience to the Word of God. Second, there is training on how you can use your gift effectively. When you are aware of your spiritual gift, it would be wise to have training in order that you can hone your gift. For example, if you sense that you have the gift of encouragement and people around you affirm that, then I think it would be wise for you to learn about counseling or to learn how to verbalize it to a bigger audience. The leaders of the church should be keenly observing your potentials and your gifts and should encourage you to get trained. Third is the actual exercise of ministry, where you put into practice what you've learned and then the leader gives you feedback on how well you've done and where you can improve further. Notice that this is what the leaders of the church are supposed to be doing – we should be empowering you all to become effective ministers/servants of God's kingdom.
Now, when the leaders of the church are diligently doing their responsibility in preparing you all for ministry/service and you are willing to be trained, taught, and to use your gifts, then the result is that the body of Christ will be built up (vv. 12b), meaning, the church will be maturing. Imagine for a moment the human body. When you came out from your mother's womb, you were very helpless. You had to depend on your parents to feed you, to change your diaper, to bring you from one place to another. Your parents however did not leave you at that state. Instead, they began to encourage you to walk and helped you in the process. They taught you how to feed yourself by taking the spoon and putting food into your mouth on your own. They stopped making you wear diaper when you learned how to go to the toilet when you need to. As you continue to grow, you found that you became more agile physically and your thinking became more sharper. That is what the church looks like when it is maturing. It is moving from one phase to the next, higher phase. Your spiritual gifts are just like your arms, legs and brain. They need to be developed in order to become stronger and wiser. When every member of Grace Gospel Church is developing and using his or her spiritual gifts to serve the Lord and others, then maturity will happen to you as an individual member, and to the entire church.
How do we know that a church is maturing, that every member of the church is growing in their relationship with the Lord? Verses 13 to 15 gives us the answers. This forms our final point.
THE EVIDENCES OF MATURITY
In verses 13 to 16, we find three evidences of maturity that happens when every member of the church is willing to receive training and instruction for service and when every leader of the church is willing to train and instruct the members.
(1) There will be unity in the church (v. 13)
When all the members of the church are growing or maturing in faith, what happens is that unity among believers is strengthened. People will begin to quarrel less in areas of doctrine and belief because they will agree on what are the essentials and learn to disagree and be amiable in those areas that are not essential. I think one area of doctrine that people often argue about is regarding the Second Coming. Another is regarding which theological position is correct – Reformed, Arminian, or Dispensationalists. I have learned in seminary as well as working here in church that these things are somewhat secondary compared to what the Bible is really saying to us. When we are willing to receive training and instruction, we begin to see that we hold more things in common. Consider last week's passage. It says that we belong to one body and there is one Spirit that dwells in us. We believe in one Lord and in One God and Father, and we go through one baptism. These are the essentials we must cling on to. These are the things we must defend. However, we don't need to argue about things like which version of the Bible is the best or what color of drapes do we need to see hanging here at the front. We don't need to argue about which music is best for worship – hymns or contemporary worship songs. These are secondary; sometimes they may even be trivial.
When we are in unity, what happens is that together we will become more like Jesus Christ in our speech and action. People will notice that our church exhibits love and she will be attractive to people outside the church.
(2) We will not fall for the enemy's lies (v. 14)
The second evidence of maturity is that we will not fall for the enemy's lies. When a believer is actively learning God's Word and is willing to receive instruction and to serve the Lord, he will not fall very easily to the trap that Satan will set up. In verse 14, we find three things that the enemy uses to cause us to fall – every wind of doctrine, human cunning, and deceitful schemes. Now, the likely reference of all three phrases is with regards to false teachings. There are a lot of teachings out there that sound “Christian”, just watch TV and you'll see people like Eli Soriano of Ang Dating Daan, the teachers of the Iglesia ni Kristo, and other cults and prosperity preachers proclaiming a false message about God and about the Lord Jesus. They talk about giving your money to their ministry and you will be immensely blessed materially, but we all know that God doesn't operate in that way. Some preachers who stand in the pulpit don't even preach God's Word but they proclaim the message of human goodness and motivation, not in any way dissimilar to what we hear from some motivational speakers in school and in the workplace. It is so easy to fall into the lies of the enemy if we are not trained in God's Word, enabling us to discern what is true from what is false, what is from God and what is not from God. The mature Christian, the mature church, will be one that will not be swayed by false teachers and doctrines, but will always hold on to the anchor that is God's Word.
(3) Love will be Readily Seen (vv. 15, 16)
Finally, the third evidence of a maturing church is that love will be readily expressed within the body of Christ. In verse 15, we find the phrase, “Speaking the truth in love” while in verse 16 we find the phrase “make the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Both phrases indicate that a mature believer will show love toward others, a mature church will have members who love each other. When there is conflict within the body of Christ, people actually notice. The same is true when there is love within the body of Christ. People will see it. Jesus himself said that people will know that we are his disciples if we have love for one another (John 13:35). If we, as a church, are always fighting against each other, how can people see Jesus Christ in our midst? Fighting and hatred are sure signs of the absence of love which points to the immaturity of the believer and of the church. If we are truly mature, we will be more loving towards each other. We will show concern for those in need. We will empathize with those who are sad and genuinely rejoice with those who rejoice.
So, those are the three sure signs of the maturity of a church and of her members. There will be unity. We will not fall easily to false teachings. We will show love for one another. Do you think that Grace Gospel Church is anywhere near these signs? Are you, as a member of this church, showing signs of maturity in your faith?
Conclusion:
The leaders of the church have been called by the Lord in order to equip you all for works of service, for you all to become even more faithful in following Jesus Christ. They have not been called in order to do everything to keep the church going while you sit back and do nothing except listen to a sermon on Sunday. As members of this church, I want to challenge you all to do two things. First, you should expect your leaders to do their responsibility in training and equipping you for service. If you find any one of us doing everything on our own and not letting you in on the opportunity to serve and to grow, then you should remind us of what our role is. Our role is to equip you, to prepare you to serve the Lord.
The second thing I would like for you to do is to make a decision that you will be willing to undergo training and equipping. It is God's intention that we be equipped to do his work. If we are not willing to be trained and equipped, not only will we fail to mature as a believer, but we will bring the entire church down with us. We will also be cheating our fellow brothers and sisters by failing to use our spiritual gifts and talents to edify them. So please, when the opportunity comes for you to be equipped and trained, take it immediately. When the opportunity to use your gifts and talents come your way, use them.
