by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:22-24

Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

I said two weeks ago that the series of messages on Ephesians 4:17 to 5:20 was chosen because many of us felt the need to ponder the relationship between our faith and the ordinary daily affairs of our lives. That is what this section of Scripture helps us do.

Six Layers of Corruption Apart from Christ

First, we looked at verses 17–21 where Paul, for the third time in this letter, lays bare the moral misery of life without the saving grace of God. He mentions six layers of corruption that, apart from the saving work of Christ, make us utterly unacceptable to God and without hope.

1. First, he says in verse 18 that our root problem is hardness of heart.
2. Second, this hardness against God darkens the understanding (v. 18).
3. Third, the result of this darkness is a gross ignorance of reality (v. 18)—even if I have three doctoral degrees and know 10,000 facts, I am ignorant if I do not know the divine meaning or the purpose of those facts, and how they relate to the great things of eternity.
4. Fourth, being ignorant of the true value of things in relation to God and eternity, I yield naturally to covetousness and licentiousness (v. 19), that is, my desires go after the wrong things, or after all things in the wrong way. None of my desires has a proper relation to God, and so they are all ruined.
5. This leads, in the fifth place, to a life of futility (v. 17). Nothing of any eternal significance is accomplished. Life is one big ash heap of wasted weeks and years. There is no service to the King of Ages, and so it is all meaningless in the end—like a man who works hard planting trees and landscaped flower gardens in a new housing project and then watches them get bulldozed because he was just doing his own thing and never consulted the master plan for where they belonged. There is only futility in the end without relating all you do to God.
6. The sixth layer of our corruption, and the one that seals our hopelessness without some mighty work of salvation, is mentioned in verse 18, namely, that we are alienated from the life of God. Our hardness and darkness and ignorance and licentiousness and futile behavior are the marks and motions of living dead men—like Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their dead!” (Luke 9:60). And like Paul said of self-indulgent widows: “She is dead even while she lives” (1 Timothy 5:6). Alienated from the life of God. Dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), “having no hope and without God in the world” (3:12).

Everyone of us is in that condition until the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ breaks in and melts the hardness, and dispels the darkness, and unites us to the life of God and makes us new creatures through faith in Christ.

Freedom Through Hearing the Voice of Jesus

And so Paul says in verse 17, “No longer live in the futility of your mind!” Life need not be—must not be—futile any more. Then in verse 20 he gives the reason why we can no longer live like the Gentiles in futility: “You did not so learn Christ.”

Then in verse 21 he entertains the possibility that some who hear this letter may not be true Christians. He realizes he may be out in front of some church attenders. And so he mentions two things he is assuming when he says they don’t have to walk in futility any more. He says, “Assuming [or: if indeed] 1) you have heard him [i.e., Christ] and 2) were taught in him, just as the truth is in Jesus.”

I take this to mean: before you can escape from all the hardness and darkness and futility of the old life, you have to hear the voice of Jesus and in response to his voice enter his school to be taught by him as a trusted master. His voice is the power that breaks through all the hardness and darkness and ignorance and wakens you from the hopelessness of death. And faith responds like the Gadarene demoniac, suddenly saved from the futility of insanity and self-destruction, and says, “Lord, let me be with you.”

And so I want to make clear before we go on this morning that this must happen in your life before today’s text can apply to you. You must hear the voice of Jesus calling you out of darkness into light and out of death into life. This is why Jesus so often said things like, “Take heed how you hear” (Luke 8:18), and, “If any man has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:23). And once you hear the quickening voice of Jesus, you must, as Paul says here in verse 21, be taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. You must gladly and heartily enroll in the school of Christ.

The School of Christ: Instruction for Living

That is where we are this morning. Verses 22–24 are the teaching of the Lord for Christians who have been awakened by the voice of Jesus, have been given a new eternal life within and who are now in the school of Christ waiting and eager to be taught how to live, no longer like the Gentiles in the futility of their minds (v. 17) but like new creatures whose lives are full of meaning and hope and joy.

“Change Your Clothes”

What is the first thing Jesus says to us when we enter his school? Answer: verses 22–24 (my literal translation):

Put off the old person [or: old self; or: old man] which accords with the former way of life and which is corrupted in accord with the desires of deceit. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new person which was created in accordance with God in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

And so after you hear the voice of Christ and are made alive and brought to faith in him and enter into his school to let him teach you how to live, the first thing he says to you is: “change your clothes.” Take off the old person and put on the new person.

Putting Off the Old Person

So we should ask immediately: What do these two garments refer to? What is the old person and what is the new person?

Verse 25 gives a helpful clue. The same word is used for “put off” both here and in verse 22, as though Paul meant to illustrate now what he intends by putting off the old person. He says, “Therefore putting off falsehood, speak truth.” So it seems like one example of putting off the old person is to put off bad practices that belong to the old way of life—like lying.

Another good clue to the meaning of “the old person” is in Colossians 3:8–9.

But now put them all away [same Greek word as in Ephesians 4:22]: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old person with its practices.

So putting off the old person is more than putting off old practices, because Colossians 3:9 says we put it off WITH its practices. And Colossians 3:8 mentions things that lie beneath and behind practices—like anger and wrath.

So the old person is the old bundle of attitudes and emotions and practices that I used to be. That’s who I was before I was called out of darkness by the voice of Jesus and began to be taught in his school.

Putting On the New Person

Colossians 3:12 gives the same kind of clue about the meaning of the new person that we are supposed to put on. Paul says, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience.”

So the new person is the new bundle of attitudes and emotions and practices that Jesus has called us to become in his school. We must take off the old person and put on the new person. It is absolutely imperative that we get our moral clothes changed. If we don’t, we will not graduate. We will not make it to heaven.

The Requirement for Graduation

Do you remember the parable of the marriage feast (Matthew 22:1–14)? The invitation was thrown open to anybody who would come. But then Jesus says,

But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”

There will be many shocked church goers when the Lord comes, who think that they have responded to the Lord’s invitation to come to the banquet of heaven, but in fact have never really, with their hearts, entered his school to get ready. They walk in the door, as it were, when the bell rings, but they don’t listen to him. With their lips they honor him as the schoolmaster, but their hearts are far away. It’s as though they were not even there. When the Master says, “Change your clothes,” they adjust their collars or shine their shoes, or tuck in their shirts, but they won’t take off those cherished habits. They won’t strip away those old attitudes of racism, or the love of money, or the addiction to pornography. They want the hope of heaven, but they won’t dress for heaven. They won’t change their clothes. And Jesus says in the end on the graduation day, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness.” He had never really enrolled with his heart. It was all a show.

So when Paul says, put off the old person and put on the new person, he is not talking about an optional elective that some true Christians enroll in and others don’t. This is the core curriculum in the school of Christ. It is a requirement for graduation. There is a holiness without which we will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). Therefore (as v. 24 says) put on the new person created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness.

An Utterly Unique School

Now why doesn’t Paul just come straight out and say that when you believe on Jesus you must get rid of bad attitudes and habits and build in some new good attitudes and habits? Why does he write in pictures like this in verses 22–24?

The answer is that Christianity is not like any other school. It is not a moral self-improvement course. You don’t just sign up and work hard to change yourself. That’s the school of legalism, not the school of grace.

In the school of Christ change comes in a totally different way, by grace through faith, so that the schoolmaster gets all the glory not the students. That’s why Paul has to describe the coursework with such strange language. It’s like nothing you have experienced anywhere before entering this school. Let’s look closely at the three verses and see how the coursework is described.

The Description of the Coursework

Verses 22 and 24 are parallel in four ways.

1. First, put off the old person in verse 22 is parallel to put on the new person in verse 24.
2. Second, verse 22 says that the old person accords with the former way of life; verse 24 says that the new person accords with God.
3. Third, verse 22 says that the old self is corrupted through its desires; verse 24 says that the new person is created in righteousness and holiness.
4. Fourth, verse 22 says the desires that ruined the old person were based on deceit; verse 24 says that the righteousness and holiness of the new person are based on truth.

Verse 22	Verse 24
Old person	New person
Corresponding to former life	Corresponding to God
Corrupted through desires	Created in righteousness and holiness
Based on deceit	Based on truth

Now you can start to see how different the coursework is here than in a moral self-improvement course. In the school of legalism, where you take moral self-improvement courses, you are given the assignment to make a new set of moral clothes and put them on. But in the school of grace your new clothes are . . . what (v. 24)? CREATED! God creates the new person that we must put on.

Now remember what this new person is! It is the bundle of attitudes and emotions and practices that make up the new me. That is what verse 24 says God creates. He creates the new me. The bundle of attitudes and emotions and practices are created after his own likeness in righteousness and holiness, the catalogue says.

This is totally unlike any other school in the world. I am given the assignment to become holy; but then I am told that God creates my holiness. This is a very strange school. Look at Ephesians 2:10 for one of the strangest sentences of all in the course description:

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

This boggles the mind! I am God’s workmanship, God’s creation. And not only that, the works that I am assigned to do—he has already prepared those, too! Who is working in this school, anyway?!

Do you see why Paul can’t just say, “OK, you’re a Christian now, get rid of your bad habits and get some good ones.” That is the curriculum in the school of legalism: God saved you, now improve yourself. No! In the school of grace God creates the new person—and that includes all the new attitudes and emotions and practices that we are supposed to put on.

The Key Question in the Christian Life

So here I am in the school of Christ. I have heard his voice. He has called me from death to life. I’ve trusted him to forgive all my sins. I’ve gladly submitted to enter his school and learn from him how to live to his glory. Now here I am, and he tells me that I am his workmanship and that the new person I am to become is his creation and the works I am assigned to do are already prepared by him before I even do them. What in the world am I supposed to do?

Verse 24 says, “Put on the new person!” But how do you put on a bundle of attitudes and emotions and practices that God has created? Here is THE KEY QUESTION for how to live the Christian life: How do you think in such a way that God will be the creator of your thoughts? How do you feel in such a way that God will be the creator of your feelings? How do you act in such a way that God will be the creator of your actions? How do you put on a new person created by God?

I believe the answer is found in verse 23: “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

This is the connection between the laying off of the old in verse 22 and the putting on of the new in verse 24.

Notice very carefully: in verse 22 the old person is corrupted by desires that are fueled and fired by deceit, by lies, by the absence of truth. When your mind is deceived, you can even love to drink poison.

But then notice in verse 24 that the new person is created in righteousness and holiness that is fueled and fired by truth. Right attitudes and emotions and actions are born from true views of spiritual reality.

And what is the bridge that leads from between the corrupting deceit in verse 22 to the sanctifying truth in verse 24? It is the renewing of the spirit of the mind in verse 23. This is the key to all the assignments in the school of grace: “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” If your attitudes and emotions and practices come from the spirit of a renewed mind, they will be yours in one sense, but in a deeper sense they will be the creation of God in righteousness and holiness. And you will be able to say with one of the most advanced students in the school of grace, “I worked harder than any of them, nevertheless, it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). I did my assignments but really God did my assignments in me and through me.

Becoming Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind

But how do you become renewed in the spirit of your mind?

With this I close until next week when we will flesh it out with the specific example of putting away lying and putting on honesty.

The answer is to fill the mind continually with truth about spiritual, eternal, heavenly reality. In 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 Paul says, “We do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.” How? Answer: “Because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Paul was renewed in the spirit of his mind by filling his mind with the unseen truths of eternity, so that the loud, garish deceitfulness of this world was pushed out.

He says in Colossians 3:2–3, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Fill your mind with the truth of heaven.

And here in Ephesians Paul prays for us in 1:18–19 that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened that we might know what is the hope to which God had called us, and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power. Why does he want us to see these things with the eyes of our hearts? Because this is what renews the spirit of the mind—when it is full of the truth of God’s power and promises.

And finally, in 3:18–19 Paul prayed for us that we may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Why?

Because when your mind is filled with the love of Christ and with all the fullness of God, then the spirit of your mind is renewed and freed from the deceit of the world. And out of that renewed mind come new attitudes and emotions and practices, and they clothe you with righteousness and holiness. And this new person that you become is indeed the creation of God himself, and to him belongs all the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:17-21

This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus.

We begin this morning a series of eleven messages based on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, 4:17 through 5:20. There are two reasons that I felt constrained to preach from this portion of Scripture.

Two Reasons for This Series

One is that many of us have sensed the need to ponder the significance of our faith in the area of personal relationships and related practical matters. Do we treat each other the way Christians should?

The other reason is that I am deeply convinced that the upshot of the 17 messages on hope from last spring and summer should be a new way of life in all its most ordinary parts. That’s what this portion of Scripture is about. The sermons will have titles like, “Speak Truth with Your Neighbor,” “A Small Place for Anger,” “Don’t Steal, Work and Give,” “Make Your Mouth a Means of Grace,” “Be Kind to One Another,” and so on.

What About Larger Social and Global Issues?

I think it would be a fair question if someone were to ask, “Why do you focus our attention on such small, personal matters when there are large social and global issues to be concerned about? What about racial unrest in South Africa, and religious oppression in Russia and eastern Europe, and war in the Middle East, and the export of terrorism, and the threat of AIDS, and the almost forgotten hunger and refugee problems, and the elections on Tuesday?

My answer would not be antagonistic, because I really believe that the Christian message of salvation in Christ does have something to say about every problem the world faces. I would simply say two things:

1. The More Common Application in the New Testament

When you read the New Testament, what you find is that by and large (though not exclusively: cf., e.g., Romans 13:1–7) God inspired the writers to apply the great doctrinal truths of his Word to the most ordinary personal matters and daily relationships of family and work and neighbors.

I got a good letter from one of our members this week in which he said, “Theology is not optional or a toy. It is intensely practical. My view of God will determine how I live every day. It will determine how I respond when my computer crashes.” That’s absolutely right, and biblical preaching will reflect this emphasis.

2. The Humbling Scrutiny of the Word

The other thing I would say is that the reason for this personal focus in the New Testament is probably because on the one hand it is fairly easy to be a crusader for a distant cause, say in South Africa or Central America, and yet at the same time be a very self-exalting, corrupt, and God-belittling person. But on the other hand it is very hard to endure the personal, practical scrutiny of New Testament commands about our eating habits and sexual habits and the way we use our tongue and our money—it’s hard for us to stand under this kind of moral searchlight and not be humbled by the corruption of our hearts and feel the need for a deep work of renovation in our very nature.

And wouldn’t you agree that the message of Scripture is that what the world needs most—from South Africa to Central America and from Libyan terrorism to Russian oppression—is the supernatural, spiritual renovation of human hearts? For Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts,” thoughts like atheistic oppressions, and racial degradation, and calculated terrorism—”out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.” And therefore the world is full of futility, because hard and darkened hearts have not been renovated. And so that is where our very practical text begins today.

A Penetrating Analysis of the Human Heart’s Futility

It begins with a very penetrating analysis of the hardness and darkness and ignorance and corruption and futility of the human heart. Why does he do this? Because it’s so important that the root of our problem be recognized. There is no point in going on in this text and telling people how to manage their anger (4:26) and their money (4:28) and their sexuality (5:3) and their time (5:16) and their tongue (4:29) if you don’t help them to know and heal the disease that turns all these things into futility.

If we want to escape from futility in the practical affairs and relationships of our daily lives, we have to first of all become deep people—people who look deeply within ourselves for the cause of our futility, and who don’t settle for quick fixes and superficial, upbeat attitude changes. We don’t want the surgeon to keep back anything! Tell us everything you found, God! We want to be healed. We want to be free from the very root of futility.

So in 4:17–19 we get the surgeon’s report on the human heart.

Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live [literally: walk] as the Gentiles do, *in the futility of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness.

(* NOTE: these readers were once among this number; in fact, 2:3 says we were ALL among this number; in other words, apart from the renovation that Christ brings, what we read here is the universal condition of the human heart)

This is what God sees when he looks into the human heart. Until we see this clearly and agree that this is what we are by nature, we probably will be healed very lightly and very superficially, and the disease will break out more easily, and we will wonder why our external clean up operations so consistently fail. We haven’t seen the real disease and haven’t severed the root of our futility.

Six Levels of Evil in the Heart

As I have meditated on these three verses I have seen six levels of evil in my own heart that stand in opposition to Christ and the work he is doing.

1. Hardness

First, the deepest problem is hardness (v. 18 at the end): “due to their hardness of heart.” My deepest problem in life is that apart from the free and sovereign grace of God my heart is hardened against God. I am like a stone toward all that is spiritual. It does not move me, attract me, delight me. This is a far deeper problem than ignorance. It is the cause of ignorance, and the guilt of ignorance.

Do you see this in the last two phrases of verse 18? “The ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” The hardness is deeper than ignorance. And therefore my ignorance of spiritual things is not innocent. It is evil. It is blameworthy, because it comes not from lack of truth or evidence, but from a deep hardness in my heart against God. That is the first and deepest problem that the surgeon shows me about myself and why my life is so futile.

2. Darkness

Second, there is in me a deep darkness that swallows up my understanding, and keeps me from seeing the glory of the gospel or the excellency of Christ (v. 18 at the very beginning): “they are darkened in their understanding.” Notice 5:8: “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of the light.” Before the Lord shined in my heart, I was darkness (2 Corinthians 4:4–6). There was no light in me. And Jesus said in John 3:20 that I would not come to the light because I hated the light. And this is true whether I am a college professor or an illiterate native.

3. Deep Ignorance

Third, the result of this darkness is a deep ignorance of reality (v. 18): “alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.” I say it is a DEEP ignorance, for there is a superficial knowledge in the darkened mind of man. Apart from spiritual light I can know ten thousand things, but I can’t know the true meaning of anything—not one thing. Because to know the meaning of a thing is to know why it exists. But Colossians 1:16 says, “All things were created through Christ and for Christ.” So until I know in my heart that every molecule in this universe exists for the sake of Jesus Christ, I don’t know the final meaning of anything. I misunderstand everything, until the darkness of my mind is taken away.

4. Licentiousness

Fourth, the hardness and darkness and ignorance of my heart results in licentiousness. Verse 19: “They have become callous [which is the same as 'hard'] and have given themselves up to licentiousness.” The sense of the passage seems to be that when a person is ignorant of the true meaning of things, and the true values of life as God sees them, that person will make his goal in life something other than God. It may be the gratification of his body in sex or drink or drugs or food. Or it may be the gratification of his ego with more refined intellectual and cultural pursuits. Anything but God, and everything apart from God. The heart that is hard and dark and ignorant of God will also be a licentious and covetous heart.

5. Uncleanness

Fifth, inevitably the hardness and darkness and ignorance and licentiousness spill over into practices of uncleanness. Notice how verse 19 ends: “greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness.” Literally, their covetousness drives them to pursue practices that in God’s eyes are impure.

So we have finally reached the level of outward behavior, or what verse 17 calls “walking” or “living”—”don’t walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” In other words, Escape from futility! Live a different way. Walk a different path.

But now that we have read the surgeon’s report in verses 17, 18, and 19, we know that the disease is massive. The cancer of hardness and darkness and ignorance and licentiousness has spread everywhere. And we will never be healed, we will never escape from futility by means of a psychological quick fix or a superficial, up-beat seminar on how to change our attitude. That’s man’s way, not God’s way.

6. Alienated from the Life of God

God has a way. But that leads to the sixth level of evil in my disease that I haven’t mentioned yet. Verse 18 says I am “alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in me, due to my hardness of heart.” Hardness and darkness and ignorance and licentiousness and the practice of uncleanness cut me off from the one thing that could save me—the “life of God,” and leave me dead (2:1, 5).

What Is the Escape from Futility?

But even though there is no man or woman or book or seminar or program that can save me from the disease and futility of my own deep depravity, God can. It IS possible not to live in futility. That’s what Paul assumes when he says in verse 17: “Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” There is an escape from futility!

What is it? He begins his answer in verses 20–21. The reason, he says, that you must not follow the Gentiles in futility is that, “You did not so learn Christ [then he mentions what he is assuming!], assuming that your have heard of him [literally: not 'heard OF' but 'heard': assuming you have heard him] and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.”

What is the escape from futility this morning? It is hearing the voice of Jesus and being taught by him (verse 21). If you have heard him and if you have been taught by him, you need not and you must not walk in futility. Jesus said, “The hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). No longer alienated from the life of God. Jesus Christ has spoken this morning in the truth of his Word. He has diagnosed our disease, and now he gives himself as a cure and as a teacher to everyone who hears his voice and becomes his pupil.

On another occasion he said, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me; and I give them eternal life” (John 10:16). If you hear the voice of Jesus this morning, and not just my voice, and if you follow him (like a sheep follows a shepherd), then you will no longer be alienated from the life of God. Nothing will be futile for you any more. He will make you live forever in the presence of God and every detail of your ordinary life will have meaning in him.

The text ends with these great words: “The truth is in Jesus.” And Jesus said, “The truth will make you free.” Free from hardness and darkness and ignorance and licentiousness and uncleanness and alienation. The truth shall set you free from futility. And the truth is in Jesus. The door to his hospital and to his school is open this morning. And I urge you in his name, become his trusting patient and become his eager pupil.

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:11-12

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

I have a deep confidence that God’s hand is upon us for good here at Bethlehem in the calling of our ministers. Let me describe briefly what I think the Lord is doing and what he aims to do. About 14 months ago the church called me to be pastor with the expectation that I would devote myself primarily to the ministry of the Word and to prayerful oversight of our total ministry. During those first months together we prayed and we pondered what priorities of ministry should guide our call of an associate pastor. The decision was that he should be a person gifted to develop both a ministry of outreach and a ministry of nurture through the building of support groups throughout the congregation. We saw a vital link between the rich group life and sustained, joyful outreach. Last February Glenn Ogren was called to help equip us for these ministries. In addition the church is committed to providing the best possible spiritual leadership for our youth, and to that end Tom Steller, Cory Dahl, and Gregg Heinsch were called to work with our college, senior high, and junior high young people. At the other end of the age spectrum we have numerous elderly people who can’t get out to services, and the church sought the help of David Carlson to provide a steady link between these people and the gathered assembly. And finally as of this month, Bruce Leafblad has joined us to lead in worship and music.

The implication of all this is that we are in the infant stages of our ministry together. There is so much potential for God-honoring, life-changing ministry in this place! And one of the greatest potentials of all lies in the emergence of many small support groups within our larger congregation. Glenn and I have been praying for months about how to develop a network of faith-nurturing cells in the larger body here at Bethlehem. The specific suggestions that we have I will mention at the end of the message. But the main thing I want to do this morning is provide a biblical basis for why we believe it is very important for you all to be involved in some form of spiritually sensitive small groups. We are issuing a “call to small togetherness,” and we are very eager for you to agree it is a call from God and not from men. Therefore, I want us to look at several passages from God’s Word which I think have moved Christians again and again throughout the centuries to seek small forms of togetherness, as well as larger forms.

The Upbuilding Ministry of All Saints

The first text I want us to look at is Ephesians 4:11, 12. This text is the Magna Carta of church ministry. It is the blueprint of God’s living temple. It is a description of how the body of Christ must work in order to fulfill its God-ordained purpose. In verse 8 Paul says that when Christ ascended, he gave gifts to men. Then verse 11 describes those gifts as people, and tells us what their purpose is. “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Most of us are able to keep clear in our minds the origin and goal of Christian ministry: its origin is in Christ, who gives spiritual gifts and gifted people to the church; and its goal is the upbuilding of the body of Christ in knowledge, faith, and love. But what we don’t keep as clear is the living, dynamic, God-appointed process that moves from origin to goal. Notice very carefully what it is in these two verses. God gives to a church spiritual leaders whose role is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And from the work of the ministry by the saints, the body is built up. God’s pattern for producing people with powerful faith and genuine love is not to have the pastor-teachers do all the work of the ministry. They are to equip the saints to do the ministry. And the saints are not a class of Christians. They are you, all of you, who have set yourselves apart for God through faith in Christ. According to God’s pattern, the upbuilding of the body in faith and love is the immediate result of the ministry of the laity, not the ministry of the clergy.

The question this raises for us is whether the forms of our togetherness provide adequate settings in which your ministry to each other can happen to the extent that the New Testament wants it to happen. The answer to the question is a resounding NO! We have four regular forms of togetherness here at Bethlehem—Sunday morning, for high worship with a focus on God; Sunday evening, for a more informal time of praise and study and telling each other what the Lord has done; Sunday School, for the imparting of biblical knowledge; and Wednesday evening, for corporate prayer. To be sure, in all of these settings you minister to each other. But what we are convinced of is that the New Testament calls for a kind of personal ministry among the saints that cannot be fulfilled in these larger forms of togetherness. Therefore, we want to issue a “call to small togetherness.” We believe that only in such smaller groupings will you, the saints, really be free to do the work of the ministry.

Exhort One Another Every Day

Let’s look at several other texts which have led believers, through the centuries, to this same conclusion. Does the work of the ministry among the saints really necessitate forming small support groups? Isn’t that more or less a luxury for the super-spiritual? Turn with me to Hebrews 3:12–14. Most readers of Hebrews do not stop to ponder what, according to this text, is at stake when believers gather to nurture each other’s faith.

Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ (or: have become sharers in Christ) if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.

It happens in churches (it has happened in ours) that a person is deceived by the attractiveness of sin, and becomes hardened toward things of the Spirit, and falls away from the living God. Now I believe in eternal security; that is, I believe that everyone who is born of God and has the renewing Spirit of God within will finally be saved. But I also believe, on the basis of verse 14, that only those will be saved who hold their first confidence firm to the end. That is, in order to be saved, you must persevere in faith. Therefore, we may be sure of two things: one, if someone forsakes Christ, he was never truly born of God (1 John 2:19); and two, if someone is truly born of God, he will not forsake Christ, but will fight the fight of faith successfully to the end.

You can tell whether someone has learned his doctrine of eternal security from the Bible or not by whether he thinks the doctrine makes warnings and exhortations superfluous. If he says: “I am secure from falling; therefore, you need not warn me of the danger of falling or exhort me to hold firm to the end,” then you know he has not learned his doctrine from the Bible. But if he says, “I am confident that the Lord will continue to preserve me for himself, but I know that my heart is open to the deceitfulness of sin and that I will only hold my confidence firm to the end if I take heed to the warnings and exhortations of my brothers and sisters,” then you know he has learned his doctrine from the Bible. Let us not be wiser than God. His way of keeping his sheep secure is through regular warnings against sin and exhortations to trust Christ.

That has tremendous implications for the way I preach, but notice it does not say, “Take care, pastors, to exhort your people daily.” It says, “Take care, brothers, . . . exhort one another every day.” Christ gives pastors to the church, pastors equip the saints for ministry, and you, the saints, minister to each other; that is, you exhort one another every day and thus become God’s instruments for the preservation of each other’s faith. Eternal security is a community project. You are responsible (and this is a weighty statement) for the perseverance of your brothers and sisters.

Now how is that ministry going to happen among the saints at Bethlehem? We believe that without the emergence of many smaller support groups we run the risk of this ministry not happening in our church. The kind of pointed exhortation and encouragement and warning which is suited to our need can’t be given or received on the run. And it’s not enough to have it given from the pulpit. We need people who know us and feel our particular need, so that their word of exhortation is intimate and shaped to our special crisis of faith. And you can’t know people significantly if you only see them in church a couple of hours a week. Therefore, we believe it is essential that all of us seek the kind of regular smaller togetherness where the ministry of the saints is free to happen.

Bear One Another’s Burdens

When the saints do the work of the ministry, the goal is not only to encourage strong, persevering faith, but also to stir each other up to love and good works. In Hebrews 10:24, 25 the writer exhorts us like this:

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Notice, again, it does not say, “Meet together so the pastor can stir you up to love and good works, and encourage you.” It says, “Consider how to stir up each other . . . Encourage one another.” When we have asked what forms of togetherness will allow the saints of Bethlehem to fulfill this ministry, the repeated answer has been: the emergence of many small support groups. History has shown that God’s way of stirring up his people to great acts of love and mission has often been to draw together a small praying band who lay themselves open to him and get a vision for service. Where will the new works of mission and charity come from in our church, if not from holy brain-storming in small groups of zealous people?

Not only does vision for love get stirred up by such fellowship, but also strength to see it through to reality. Love and good works are not easy to sustain over the long haul. There has to be much lifting up of the downcast. As Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.” The Christian life is to be a life of love and good works flowing from a joyful faith in God’s promises. But there are innumerable obstacles to love and threats to faith. We sink down, or fall down, or get knocked down again and again, and it is not God’s revealed pattern for us to have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps in isolation. On the contrary, God’s command, and gracious provision, is: “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). It is a sweet law in the Savior’s kingdom that no one, married or single, male or female, young or old, carry a crushing burden alone. Yet it is happening because we are a big church without sufficient forms of small togetherness. In order to obey the law of Christ, we have to build close, trusting relationships. Otherwise, you don’t even know what the burdens are, let alone have occasion to share their weight. And we believe that to build those relationships we must form small, regular gatherings of believers.

One of the burdens of life that we should not try to bear alone, which often makes us physically ill, and which hinders love and good works, is hidden sin. Therefore, Jesus commands us: “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16). In what sort of setting can we be free to confess our sins to each other? The answer is surely in a small group of believers who have won our trust, who know us and love us, and have committed themselves to care for us. And what about praying for each other? The bigger the group, the more impersonal the prayers will be. Yet the greatest needs are often the most personal. Shall we then pray for each other alone at home? If we only do that, something very precious and very powerful will be missing. For Jesus said, “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:19, 20). Do we need any further incentive to gather in a small group for the upbuilding of our faith, the stirring up of love to the glory of our Lord’s name, than this? He will be there! And I assume that would be a pointless observation if it did not mean that he would be there more obviously and more powerfully than if we were to remain alone. Is it any wonder that Jesus sent out his disciples two by two (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1), and that Paul always traveled with his Barnabas or Silas or Timothy or Luke, and that even within the twelve Jesus built that deep core of affection with Peter, James, and John?

In summary, the biblical basis for developing smaller forms of togetherness in our church is that God intends you, the saints, to do the work of the ministry as you are equipped and encouraged by the pastor-teachers. The aim of this ministry is to build up each other’s faith and love. God’s design is to use human support and exhortation to sustain the faith of his children and to lighten the burdens which they bear in the service of love. That kind of mutually caring ministry does not happen in big groups between casual acquaintances. Therefore, to fulfill our calling we must see the emergence of many smaller support groups among our numbers.

Practical Suggestions

Now let me conclude with some practical suggestions and examples. Our aim is to be as flexible as possible in the encouragement of this ministry. There is not one kind or size or frequency or format or group that will fit everyone’s needs. We are happy to let the Word and Spirit of God go to work on you to produce many different forms of small togetherness. For example, I can see several housewives meeting each week for lunch and prayer. I can see three or four business men meeting for breakfast and prayer. I can see a group of high schoolers getting together to talk over problems of being Christian in school and praying for each other. I can see two or three couples and some singles meeting in the evening every week or two to read a pertinent book together, talk of mutual concerns, and pray.

When I was in seminary I was in four very valuable groups. The men of our Sunday School class met one morning a week at Jim Keener’s apartment for half an hour. It was devoted almost entirely to prayer for things that would be happening that day or week. Then for one semester five or six of us students met with our professor, Dr. Fuller, in his office just to pray for him and for each other. Then my senior year Marcia Sayer and Brian Reed and I met early in the morning once a week in an empty classroom to talk about the uncertainties of our future after school and to pray specifically for God’s guidance in the coming months. And finally, several of us seminarians had the privilege of meeting for several months with our pastor, Ray Ortlund. Those were precious times, and ten years later we still communicate with people from those groups. And I’ve never lost my longing for deep, substantial relationships.

So now today I am in three groups again, all quite different. I meet with the entire church staff for lunch, sharing in the Word, discussion of ministry, and prayer each Wednesday. I meet with the interns every other week for an hour-and-a-half to share their burdens of ministry, to study, and to pray for each other. Then, finally, I meet for an hour-and-a-half with Glenn to talk over how things are going and to pray for the church together. When any of these groups lapse, I miss it very much. None of those people realizes how much they mean to me. I cherish the thought that I am building relationships now that will last all my life, no matter what.

One other illustration which fell into my lap like a Godsend this week, wholly unplanned. And may this spur us all on to do likewise. My wife, Noël, and Mavis, Glenn’s wife, and June, Bruce’s wife, plan to begin meeting together every other week for discussion and prayer. I know Bruce and Glenn share my joy at having a wife who places a high priority on the ministry of prayer and spiritual fellowship. I know we’ll be the richer for it.

What I desire for you all this morning is that the Lord might put the resolve in your hearts to pray for his leadership in forming a support group. May this be the beginning of an upsurge of ministry and life among the saints at Bethlehem.

__________

Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:7-16

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 this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 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. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

We are going to spend two weeks on this text. Today we will ask the question, “Why do the saints minister to the body of Christ?” Next week we will ask the question, “How do the saints minister to the body of Christ?” Another way to say it would be: today we ask about the aim or goal of every-member ministry, and next week we ask about the ways and means that members use to minister to the body.

Is Every Member to Minister to the Body of Christ?

But before we can take up either question I need to justify the assumption that every member is to minister to the body of Christ. Why do I think that?

The answer is found in verse 7 and verses 11–12. In verse 7 Paul talks about how each individual Christian is gifted by Christ with various measures of grace; and in verses 11–12 he talks about how the church is gifted by Christ with certain ministering people who equip the saints to minister to the body.

Every Believer Is Gifted by Christ with Varied Grace

Verse 7: “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Here the focus is on Christ’s giving each believer varied grace. You are uniquely graced with Christ’s gift. This means that you are not an accident in the body of Christ. When you received grace, it was because Christ gave it in a measure suited to his good purposes for you and for the body.

This does not yet prove that every member is to be a minister to the body. But it does lay the foundation for it when it comes in verses 11–12. “Each of us” is given grace not according to the measure of our worth or merit, but according to the measure that Christ decided to give. Romans 12:6 says almost the same thing: “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” Our different giftedness is owing to sovereign grace, bestowed according to the will of Christ, the head. The Head knows what is good for the body.

The Church Is Gifted with People in Varied Offices

Now verses 11–12 make the point of every-member ministry explicit. After describing (in vv. 8–10) how Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven like a triumphant general with his wagons full of booty, ready to distribute it to his troops, Paul says, “And He [Christ] 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.”

This is different from verse 7. There the point was that every believer is gifted by Christ with varied grace. Here the point is that the church is gifted by Christ with people in varied offices: “some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers [probably one office].” These gifts to the church—these people—are charged with equipping the saints, that is, the believers. (All believers are saints in the New Testament; they are set apart for God.)

The Need for Equipping

The word for equipping usually means fixing something that’s broken (as when nets are torn, Matthew 4:21) or supplying something that is lacking (as in 1 Thessalonians 3:10, “We desire to supply, or equip, what is lacking in your faith”). So the point of verses 11–12 is that Christ not only gives varied grace to each believer in the church, he also gives leaders to the church whose job is to repair what’s broken and supply what’s lacking in the believers.

We will talk more about this next week. But think how significant this is for the nature of the church. Each of you is personally gifted by Christ with varied grace, and yet not so perfectly that you are not in need of fixing and supply by apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. No one may say: “I am gifted and graced by Christ himself, I have no need of apostolic authority (which I believe comes through the New Testament), or prophetic encouragement, or evangelistic training, or pastoral nurture, or human teachers to apply the Bible to my life.” This text makes plain that all of you are gifted with a measure of grace, and all of you are in some measure lacking the improvement of grace. The one proves that you are vitally needed by the church, and the other proves that the church is vitally needed by you.

For the Work of Service/Ministry

But the main point still hasn’t been made. Verse 12 goes on to say that the leaders equip the saints for a specific purpose, namely, “for the work of service,” or, “for the work of ministry.” The fixing of what is broken and the supplying of what is lacking in the saints is not an end in itself. The leaders don’t stop then and say, “O good, now we have fixed and supplied saints. The work is done.” No, the fixing and supplying are meant to make the saints into servants, or ministers.

So this finally is the justification of the assumption I started with, namely, that every saint—every Christian—is a minister. This is why today’s message can be titled, “Why the Saints Minister to the Body,” and next week’s message can be titled, “How the Saints Minister to the Body.”

The Body Needs a Lot of Work Done on It

Isn’t it remarkable that Paul’s vision of the body of Christ is that it needs so much work done on it? Let that sink in a minute. It will help keep us from being discouraged when we realize how imperfect the church is. It starts with people becoming believers and receiving grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift (v. 7). Then all these saints need to avail themselves of leaders who equip them for ministry. But whom is that ministry for? It’s for the all those same saints who are ministering—the body of Christ. You see this at the end of verse 12: “For the equipping of the saints for the work of service [or ministry], to the building up of the body of Christ.” So in spite of the fact that all the saints are gifted with grace directly from Christ himself, we all need the ministry of the saints to build us up; and, not only that, we need the leader-saints, too, to fix us and supply us in ways that help us be ministering saints to other saints.

The Building Up of the Body of Christ

Now the specific question for today is, Why all this ministry? What’s the goal? What are we all supposed to be doing here at Bethlehem? What is it to be church? Or to do church? This is what we have been asking for these weeks together.

Verse 12 sums it up in the phrase “building up of the body of Christ.” The goal of all ministry is the building up of the body of Christ. This is what we want to think about for the rest of our time this morning. What is it?

Not the Same as Building Up Individuals

First of all, notice that it is not exactly the same as building up individuals. That is part of it for sure: Paul said in Romans 15:2, “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, for his upbuilding” (exactly the same word: oikodomen). We are supposed to build each other up in faith and hope and love and holiness.

But that is not what verse 12 says. Here the ministry of the saints is aimed at building up of the body of Christ. What Paul wants to stress here is the aim of strengthening the whole, not just the parts. This is not as easy for us to grasp, but we must try not to let our individualistic bent twist the text. The aim of your ministry as a Christian—and you all have one—is to build up the body as a whole.

The Unity of Faith and the Unity of Knowledge

Now what does that mean? Verses 13–15 give the answer. Look at verse 13 first. It says that we aim at building up the body “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.”

This confirms that Paul wants to stress the building up of the body as a whole, not just individuals. It says the aim is unity of faith and unity of knowledge. Don’t miss the unmodern flavor of this: unity of knowledge is definitely not politically correct. The key word today is diversity, not unity, especially when it comes to claims to know anything about the Son of God. But Paul would respond to the relativism of our day with these words: building up the body of Christ means ministering in such a way as to create a unity of knowledge as the basis of the unity of faith.

The Shift in the Last 50 Years

Any efforts at unity in the body of Christ that minimize the unity of knowledge will not build up the body. I have the sense that we are reaching the crest of a wave of indifference to doctrinal truthfulness and to the unity of knowledge and the importance of theology. The most recent Christianity Today describes the change over the last 50 years:

Fifty years ago evangelicals were fully engaged in battling modernists’ attempts to detach Christianity from historic orthodoxy. This kept evangelical concerns centered on the content of Christian belief—on the propositional truths of Scripture. Today evangelicals seem far more interested in questions of worship. This has led in two different directions: a movement toward the liturgical by the intellectually inclined, and a movement toward the charismatic by the average churchgoer. Both represent a shift in emphasis away from knowledge about God toward the experience of God.

I think that is exactly right. There has been a shift away from interest in the right knowledge of God toward a desire for a more immediate experience of God that does not have to bother with the labors of knowledge. But I suspect that we may be seeing the bottom of this curve.

Open Hostility to the Bible and Christian Truth

Yesterday’s Star Tribune published (apparently approvingly) an article by two atheists who defended the aim of Gene Kasmar to remove the Bible from Brooklyn Center public schools. They wrote: “It is true that the Bible has some worthwhile material . . . However, those worthwhile parts could probably be contained in a pamphlet.” The reason I say the Tribune seems to have published this approvingly is that the caption under the picture of the Bible, with no quotes around it to indicate it only represented the opinion of the writers, said, “The Bible is filled with divinely approved mistreatment of children.”

What I suspect is going to happen in the coming years is that this kind of open hostility to the Bible and to Bible-believing people will increase. Non-compromising evangelicals will recognize that we are not the big, influential force in America we thought we were. And we will begin to re-emphasize the truths that make us distinct instead of constantly omitting hard truths and watering down things to make them appealing to a secular culture that is not taking the bait. When this happens we will rediscover the crucial importance of knowledge and doctrine and theology. We will awaken to the fact that very few people in recent years have been developing an articulate defense of the Bible that can stand before the hostile mockery of the Star Tribune. But it has been done before and it will be done again.

The Mature, Complete, Full Man—Christ Himself

Now notice in the middle of verse 13 the phrase “to a mature man.” ” . . . until we attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man.” This is the aim of our ministry of building up the body—that the body attain “to a mature man.” Now that is not an individual. Yes we ought to all be mature. But here Paul is referring to Christ as a “mature man.” The next phrase explains it: “To the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” The mature, complete, full man here is Christ.

Paul pictures Christ as a mature man, full grown in stature. Then he sees the church as the body of this full-grown man. Only the body is still in the process of being built up. We are to minister to each other with a view not just of helping each other mature, but with a view to the whole body attaining to the mature man. In other words, since we are the body of Christ, we should become mature as the body, the mature man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Verse 15 uses the metaphor of growing instead of building to say the same thing: “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ.” Growing up into Christ in verse 15 is the same as attaining to a mature man in verse 13.

The Aim of Our Ministry

The aim of our ministry—your ministry, with your grace and gifts—is to become a body of Christ that is unified in faith and unified in knowledge, and that grows more and more into the kind of unified person that Christ is. I said this is not easy for us to grasp. But I want to say it, even if I don’t fully understand it.

The aim of the ministry is not just that individuals be built up, but that the body take on a personality like Christ’s and a strength like Christ’s and a love like Christ’s and a spirit like Christ’s.

We have much to learn here. We are, as Americans, utterly devoted to personal individual fulfillment and satisfaction so that the idea of devoting our lives and ministries to building a body of Christ that as a whole looks Christ-like and as a whole has strong faith and as a whole has unified knowledge and as a whole looks and acts like the mature man, Christ Jesus—the idea of devoting ourselves to that, is very difficult to grasp.

But I call you to it. To meditate on it. And to pray over it. And to long for it. And to keep on with me, as we take it further next week in asking HOW we minister to this end.

__________

Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper -  Listen

Ephesians 4:4-16

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.” (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 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. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Typical American Christians’ Church Experience: Organically Flawed?

My aim this morning is to persuade you and plead with you to get into a small group relationship with other Christians to experience the fullness of supernatural church life as the New Testament pictures it.

Sometimes I wonder if the frequency and seriousness of many problems that Christians face is not owing to the fact that most Christians in America do not experience relational, interpersonal, supernatural church life the way the New Testaments describes it. Psychological problems, marriage problems, parenting problems, self-identity problems, financial problems, career problems, loneliness, addictions, phobias, weaknesses—I wonder if the epidemic of emotional and psychological woes is not the symptom of an organic flaw in the way most Christians experience corporate church life.

How Most Christians View Corporate Church Life

For most Christians corporate church life is a Sunday morning worship service and that’s all. A smaller percentage add to that a class of some kind, perhaps Sunday morning or Wednesday evening in which there is very little interpersonal ministry. Now don’t misunderstand me, I believe in the tremendous value of corporate worship and I believe that solid teaching times are usually crucial for depth and strength. But you simply can’t read the New Testament in search of what church life is supposed to be like and come away thinking that worship services and classes are the sum total of what church was supposed to be.

The inevitable effect of treating church as worship services and classes is to make the people of God passive and too dependent on ordained experts. And could it not be that this pervasive relational passivity and dependence of millions of Christians—I mean passivity in interpersonal, spiritual ministry—rob us of some of Christ’s precious remedies for a hundred problems? If God designed the church to function like a body with every member ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit to other members, in regular interpersonal relationship, then would it be surprising to find that the neglect of this regular interpersonal, spiritual ministry cripples the body in some of its functions and causes parts of the body to be weak and sick? Isn’t that what you would expect?

The Felt Need for Professional Psychologists

I wonder if the incredible felt need for professional psychologists—with the common assumption: Where else could you possibly turn?—whether this feeling is owing in large measure to an organic flaw in the way we experience corporate church life. Think about this for a moment. How do psychological counselors help people? (And many of them do!) It seems to boil down to three things: 1) personal one on one conversations, called counseling or psychotherapy; 2) personal group meetings with others facing similar struggles; and 3) medications, usually some form of antidepressant. Now I think we can be thankful for these things in many cases.

But isn’t it amazing that when Christians are in distress and seek help from professional psychologists, short of medication, the help we get comes through one-on-one or group sharing? When confronted with the pain of people’s personal problems, where do professionals turn? They turn first to one-on-one conversation. And when more is needed, they turn to small groups. Isn’t that remarkable! That the multi-billion dollar ministry of psychotherapy that we have created to help hurting people is built almost entirely on the ministry of conversation. They talk. That is the ministry—the power of conversation. In the best settings, wise, insightful, prayerful, loving conversation.

A Source of Various Distresses and Dysfunctions?

Someone might conclude from this: So the church has failed to provide for this and should now be providing support groups—for all kinds of distresses and abuses. Yes, perhaps so. But the question that is troubling me more these days is more fundamental than that. I am asking whether generations of flawed organic church life is a significant part of the origin of some of our dysfunctions and distresses. It’s the difference between asking whether the job of the church is to have programs to distribute vitamin C tablets to remedy a scurvy epidemic, or whether we should have all the while been eating oranges.

If I am anywhere close to the truth here, then we might ask whether those who experience church in small groups get victory over their problems more often than those who don’t. Yes, perhaps that would tell us something. But the problem is deeper. Are most of the small groups that exist experiencing what the New Testament pictures as interpersonal, supernatural ministry in the power of the Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Let me give you an illustration of what may be the case in many small groups, and plead with you to move toward New Testament life together.

An Illustration of What Small Group Life Could Be

A visiting pastor in Auckland, New Zealand, was asked by the pastor of a church to come to a small group to help it understand its function. He came early for dinner and the husband was not there. The wife was embarrassed and explained that the husband owned a construction company and worked late.

The group arrived after dinner and the visiting pastor taught for a while on how to use spiritual gifts to build each other up. Then he asked them to get alone for a few minutes to seek God for how each one might channel God’s grace to the others for their upbuilding.

When they came back together, he assumed they knew each other’s needs because they had been together for several years. The husband came home, showered, and joined them in a few minutes. When the opportunity was given to speak or to pray for each other, there was an awkward silence. They had never done anything like this before—seeking the Lord for how he might want them to minister to each other in that moment to build each other up.

The visiting pastor felt a fiasco was on his hands and turned the meeting back to the pastor to close. The pastor asked if anyone had a special problem they would like prayer for. The hostess said yes and showed the group the rash all over her arms. She said that the doctors had prescribed medicine but it hadn’t helped. They invited her to put her chair in the middle for prayer. And as they prayed, Christ, the head of the church, did his ministry. The pastor said, “I sense in my heart the Lord is telling me your problem is the result of great anger.”

She was silent for a moment then began to cry softly. Then she confessed, “I am so angry at my husband. He promises to be home for dinner, but night after night we eat without him . . . He’s broken his promises to me over and over, and I feel I am a widow as I raise our children.”

There was an awareness that something had just been revealed that two years of small group meetings had not revealed. And the husband was blushing with embarrassment.

To make the story shorter, several of the men began to speak about how they had wrestled with the same problem in their homes and had almost ruined their marriages. One in particular spoke of a deep meeting with God in such a crisis and how God had made everything new.

By the grace of God the husband knelt down in front of his wife and wept into her lap, as the group prayed for them more earnestly than they had ever prayed. The visiting pastor commented later, “The Lord had invaded His Body, and the gateway into the supernatural world had been crossed by us all.”

The following Sunday the visiting pastor was to preach and saw the small group gathered on the parking lot outside the church. When they found him inside, the woman pulled up her sleeves and said, “Look, no rash anywhere!” The husband approached and said, “I’ve cut back my workday to eight hours. I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. We have a new home.” (Ralph Neighbor, Where Do We Go From Here? pp. 161–164)

In other words, it is possible to turn a small group into just another impersonal time where we learn some more about the Bible, but do not minister to each other in an interpersonal way in the power of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, it is possible to lay hold on the supernatural supply of the Holy Spirit by faith and minister to each other in ways that, over generations, might rebuild a healthy church body with less weakness and sickness and immaturity and fruitlessness than we see today.

So what I am pleading for this morning is a serious reconsideration of whether you are experiencing corporate church life the way Christ reveals it in the New Testament.

Paul’s Description of Church Life: The Building Up of the Body

Let me take just a few minutes to sketch what that looks like from Ephesians 4. Start with verses 16,

. . . from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Now this is a description of how the church, the body of Christ, “causes growth” and is built up in love.

From Christ

Notice two things. First, the verse begins with the words, ” . . . from whom.” The growth and building up of the body is “from somebody.” Whom does “whom” refer to? The answer is the last word in verse 15: ” . . . who is the head, even Christ . . . from whom . . . ” So the first and most important thing to say about how interpersonal church life happens as the church is built up is that it happens “from Christ.” That is, it is supernatural. Christ lived once, died for our sins, rose again, ascended into heaven. He reigns there today and, as he promised, he is building his church. He is not passive and distant. He is a living, dynamic, active head of the body. He is supplier and guide by his Spirit. But will we receive his supply? Will we expect it and channel it to each other? That’s the first thing to see: Christ is the living source of church life and growth.

“The Whole Body . . . Causes the Growth of the Body”

The second thing to see in verse 16 is that, even though the growth and building up of the body happens “from Christ,” it is the body itself that is the immediate active cause of that growth. Verse 16: ” . . . from whom the whole body . . . ” That’s the subject of the sentence; now where is the verb? What does the whole body do? The verb is way down in the last line: “the whole body . . . causes the growth of the body.” Everything else in that verse is explains how. But the basic sentence is “the whole body . . . causes the growth of the body.”

So even though growth and upbuilding are from Christ, the head, it is the whole body that builds the body. And the word “whole” is important. The whole body builds the body. That point is emphasized in the words, “according to the working of each individual part.” The whole body—that is, each individual part in the body properly functioning—causes the growth of the body.

Where and How Does That Happen?

Now I ask you, where and how does that happen in your corporate church life? Can we ever create enough programs that every person would be involved using some particular gift? That’s probably not even the right question to ask. Isn’t it more likely that Paul envisions a kind of regular gathering of the body in groups small enough so that every member of the body can minister to others with his own unique spiritual gifts?

Look at verse 7:

To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, When He ascended on high, he led captive a hose of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

Notice: “To EACH one of us grace was given.” And then in verse 8 that grace is expressed in terms of gifts: “Therefore, it says . . . he gave gifts to men.”

So what verse 16 means when it says that “the whole body causes the growth of the body” when “each individual part is working properly,” it means that all the members have gifts, and all of those gifts are to be used in building up the body “in love.” And this is how Christ, the all-supplying, supernatural Head of the body, builds and cares for his church.

Conclusion: Is Significant Change Needed?

So I close by asking again, Is there not implied here an immense resource for healing and joy and power and strength and mission that most Christians miss because they only experience church as worship services and classes? Is there an organic flaw in this pattern that may account for untold weaknesses and discouragements in the body of Christ?

I invite you to put this matter to a test. Are you living normal New Testament church life in personal spiritual ministry with others? Or are you part of a flawed and disfigured pattern of life that may account for more weakness and woe in the church than we can imagine?

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:1-6

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to 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.

Why do you think Paul starts this section by calling attention to the fact that he is a prisoner? “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” I think the answer is that he wants them to feel the truth that it is worth it. Walking worthy of our Christian calling (the calling to glory and everlasting joy with Christ) is worth being imprisoned for and worth dying for.

The Worth of Walking Worthy of Our Calling

Writing from prison means that what he writes is dangerous. It is not a nice, middle class way to solve your problems and be comfortable. Real, radical Christianity is risky and unpopular and dangerous. Jesus had given many warnings that following him was safe in the long run and dangerous in the short run. For example, he said,

They will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. (Luke 21:12–13)

There is something very powerful about a testimony from prison where your life is at stake. That’s the power Paul wants to put behind these words. The power we feel when we hear Richard Wurmbrand tell us of Tahir Iqbal, a Muslim convert to Christianity who was imprisoned December 7, 1990, in Lahore, Pakistan, and died in prison July 19 this year. He was a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair. When asked about the possibility of being hanged he said, “I will kiss my rope, but will never deny my faith.”¹

That kind of talk from prison is like a stiff, wakening winter wind in the face of our drowsy, television-soaked, self-pitying kind of Christianity. It wakes us up and makes us dress spiritually for the winter battles. That’s what Paul wants to happen when we read his testimony from prison.

Preserve the Unity of the Spirit

He pleads with the church to walk worthy of our calling. Specifically, the way he wants to emphasize is that we be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v.3). We walk unworthily of our calling in Christ if we disregard the unity of the body and don’t expend any effort to safeguard what Christ died to obtain. “Be diligent,” Paul says, “Be eager, be earnest” to keep the unity given by the Spirit of God and obtained with the blood of Christ (2:16).

This is Paul’s prison burden for the church at Ephesus. If we have any empathy for a suffering saint, it should make us say, Yes, that is utterly crucial. How, brother Paul? How shall we do this?

His answer is found in verse 2. The character traits that will preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace are humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love. So he says that a life worthy of our calling and leading to unity of Spirit is “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love.” If you are humble, you will be gentle, and if you are patient, you will be forbearing or enduring. And if you are gentle and forbearing in love, you will be a peacemaker and a unity preserver. So be diligent and eager to be a humble and patient person by the power of Christ.

Humility and Truth

But beware of a modern mistake here. Humble does not mean wishy-washy when it comes to truth. Forbearing does not mean saying: truth doesn’t matter. It is a great mistake to confuse humility with uncertainty. But many today do confuse them. They think that the only humble demeanor is the uncertain, vague, iffy demeanor.

Is that what Paul meant? The only way to preserve the unity of the Spirit is to be vague, uncertain in your grasp of truth? He didn’t seem to be that way. I think G.K. Chesterton put his finger on our problem 50 years ago in a little book called Orthodoxy:

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert—himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt—the Divine Reason. (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p. 55)

I think that’s right because later in this chapter Paul says he wants Christians to not be babes any longer blown about by winds of doctrine but to come to the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God (4:13–14). The humility that leads to unity is not uncertainty and doubt and vagueness and confusion. It is the demeanor that says: I am not the center; truth is the center and I submit to the truth and go where it leads. I am not king; God is king. My will is not the law; God’s Word is the law. I don’t tell God how many faiths are acceptable to him; he tells me. I don’t define the foundation of the unity of the Spirit; God does.

The Objective Ground for Our Experience of Unity

That is what he is doing in verses 4–6. Here he gives the objective ground in reality for the subjective experience of unity that we are to pursue. The unity of the Spirit that we should be so diligent for is based on a given, objective unity outside ourselves that we have nothing to do with creating or defining. It is there, and we are humbly to recognize it and submit to it and rejoice in it and live it out.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as 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.

One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father. This is the objective foundation of our diligent efforts to preserve the unity of the Spirit. It is not a fragile or ultimately vulnerable thing. It rests on the oneness of God, the oneness of faith, the oneness of baptism, and the oneness of the body. Those things are one, no matter what you or I do. They are fixed realities. Our task is to walk worthily of them.

What Does This Have to Do with Missions?

Now the question I want to ask this morning is: What does this have to do with missions? What does it have to do with the task of the church to evangelize the unreached peoples of the world?

The answer is that since there is only one God (the Father of all who believe, Ephesians 2:12) and only one Lord (the Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:2f.), and only one Spirit (the Holy Spirit poured out from the Father by the Son, Acts 2:33) and only one faith (faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, Ephesians 1:13, 15) and only one baptism (into Christ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Matthew 28:19f.), and only one body (the church of God gathered with Jesus as the head, Ephesians 4:15)—since there is only one God and one faith, we must take the news of this God and this faith to the nations. “There is no other name under heaven,” Peter said, “given among men by which we must be said” (Acts 4:12). Other religions and other lords will not save.

You might think that this text is about church unity, not about missions. But think again. The issue at Ephesus, as we saw back in chapter 2, was the issue of whether Gentiles could be full fellow heirs with Jews in the body of Christ. The answer was that Christ reconciled both in ONE body to God through the cross (2:16). Both have access in ONE Spirit to the Father (2:18). Those who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ and made into ONE new man (2:15). So the issue of unity for Paul is created by the mission of the church to “those who were far off”—the Gentiles, the nations—far off spiritually and far off culturally and sometimes geographically.

In other words, the uniqueness of Christ—the fact that there is only one Christ, and only one God, and only one faith—is the foundation for mission outside the church and the foundation of unity inside the church.

If there were many true gods, and many Saviors, and many valid faiths, and many baptismal entrances into many genuine bodies of redeemed people, there would be little need for missions the way Paul sees the need. But there is only one God and one Lord and one faith and one baptism. And so this salvation truth must be proclaimed to all creation—to all the peoples.

Unique Lordship, Church Unity, and Mission

You can see in Romans 10:12-15 how the singularity and uniqueness of the Lordship of Christ connects the unity of church and mission of the church.

12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all abounding in riches for all who call upon him. 13 For, “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? 15 And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!”

So the truth that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, is a truth for inside the church and outside the church. It is the foundation for unity inside and the foundation for missions outside. Since there is one Lord, we should be diligent to maintain the unity of the Spirit under that unifying lordship. And since there is one Lord among all the religions of the world, we should be diligent to spread the news to Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and tribal religions and atheists.

Counting the Cost of This Truth

I want you to believe this, but I want you to believe it with your eyes open and to count the cost. It is has never been a popular stance—that there is one Lord in all the universe whom all humans must deal with, and that this Lord is the God-Man Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose once for all 2,000 years ago in Palestine; and knowing and trusting him alone is the only way to escape the just judgment of God. The particularity and singularity and uniqueness of Jesus as man’s only hope has never been popular, and it is increasingly unpopular today.

If you believe it, you will be called arrogant, and intolerant, and ignorant. You will be opposed by powerful people like British theologian John Hick who argues that different religions are “equals, though they each may have different emphases.” Christianity, he says, is not superior, but one partner in the quest for salvation. We are not to seek one world religion but rather we look to the day when “the ecumenical spirit which has so largely transformed Christianity will increasingly affect relations between the world faiths.” He likes to quote from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, iv, 11, “However man may approach me, even so do I accept them; for, on all sides, whatever path they may choose is mine.”

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

But if it is true that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that knowing and trusting him is the only way to heaven—if it is true, then believing it is not arrogant, but a humble submission to reality. And teaching it is not intolerant except in the sense that doctors are intolerant of poison and tolerant of medicine.

And does it mean that you are ignorant when you say that there is only one way to God—one Lord, one faith, one baptism? Well, every person in the world is ignorant of millions of facts. So yes we are ignorant. But when you are trying to find your way out of the woods, the important thing is not that you know all the trees and streams and birds and rocks and paths. The important thing is that you know one thing—the path that leads to other side.

This is what Jesus came to do—make a path to heaven for rebellious sinners; and there is only one path. If you know Jesus (if the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ has shone in your heart), you know the way. The one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism.

My prayer is that each of us would feel what Paul felt when he discovered this—that he was a debtor to the Greeks and Barbarians, the wise and the foolish—to all those who had not yet named the name of Christ. To know this truth is to be a debtor to all the nations.

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¹ John Hick, “Whatever Path Men Choose Is Mine,” in Christianity and Other Religions, eds. John Hick and Brian Hebblethwaite, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980, p. 188.

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 4:1-6

1) I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2) with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, 3) eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4) There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, 5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6) one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.

The Great Calling of a District Court Judge

Four years ago one of our Hennepin District Court judges was censured for ten engagements with a 26-year-old prostitute. Last week another judge was removed from office for buying sex from fifteen male prostitutes. One of our State Supreme Court Justices had to stay out of the decision last week because he is under investigation by the board of standards for ethical violations. It was not a good week for the Minnesota judiciary. The events go a long way to encourage citizen suspicions of a lot of rottenness in our whole system. But what I want to illustrate from this is the meaning of the word worthy. We say, “The man proved to be unworthy of his judgeship.” Or: “He was living unworthily of his high office.” What I mean when I say this is that the office of Hennepin District Court Judge merits a higher level of integrity. The position is worthy of greater moral vigilance and higher character. The judgeship deserves a better man.

Note that even though I said, “The man proved unworthy of his office,” what I am focusing on is the worth of the office not the man. I am saying that the value of the office should have kept the man from desecrating it. The Supreme Court decision last week said, “By disclosing his identity and his judicial position to the prostitutes, moreover, he made even greater the risk of discredit to himself and the judiciary.” In other words, the honor and value of his position in the judiciary should have been worth so much to him that he would not dare bring it into disrepute. The greatness of his calling should have constrained him to lead a life worthy of his call. But it didn’t, and now the public has much less regard not only for him, but worse, for the Hennepin County District Court.

The Far Greater Calling of Christians

In Ephesians 4:1 Paul urges us Christians “to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” This does not mean that we should try to deserve our place in God’s favor. It means that we should recognize how much our place in God’s favor deserves from us. The focus is not on our worth but on the worth of our calling. If we go back to chapters 1 through 3, we can catch a glimpse of the calling Paul means.

• 1:4, God chose us for himself before the world was created.
• 1:5, he predestined us to be his children—and that means heirs of all our Father owns!
• 1:7, he sent Christ to atone for all our trespasses.
• 1:13, he sealed us with his Holy Spirit to preserve us forever.
• 2:7, he promises to spend an eternity increasing our joy in the immeasurable riches of his grace.
• 3:10, he has given us the mission as a church to display his wisdom, even to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Or as 1:12 says, we are “destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.”

In other words, the privilege and purpose of our Christian calling is greater than the privilege and purpose of a Hennepin County District Court Judgeship. The judgeship is a calling from man; our calling is from God. The judgeship attains status and (we would hope) a sense of worthy achievement; our calling attains divine sonship and we become beneficiaries of all that God owns. The judgeship will last a couple decades; our calling will last for ever. If, as the Supreme Court said last week, the honor and privilege of being a District Court Judge should give the judge a passion for integrity, then how much more should the honor and privilege of being made a Christian shape our lives!

Living a Life Worthy of Our Calling

In Ephesians 4:3 the way to lead a life worthy of our calling is to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Verse 2 tells us how to maintain spiritual unity: “With all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love.” But before we look at how to maintain the unity of the Spirit in verse 2, we need to make sure we know what it is. What is the kind of unity that will bring honor and credit to our high calling?

What Is the Unity of the Spirit?

Part of the answer is found in verses 11–13. Here Paul says that Christ has given to the church “some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for 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.”

A Reality to Be Maintained and a Goal to Be Attained

One difference between verse 3 and verse 13 is that in verse 3 we are told to maintain unity but in verse 13 we are told to attain unity. In verse 3 it is a reality to be maintained. In verse 13 it is a goal to be attained. The reason for this is not that there are two kinds of Christian unity but that Christian unity has in one sense already been accomplished and in another sense hasn’t. Look at Ephesians 2:13–16:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself a new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.

This text shows that, in a decisive act of atonement and reconciliation, Christ has already made us one. What he has accomplished at Calvary we should maintain by the Spirit. But in another sense the unity Christ purchased and guaranteed with his blood must now be lived out and brought to full expression in the life of the church. In this sense it is a goal to be attained.

Three Components of Christian Unity

So if the same basic unity is spoken of in 2:13–16 and 4:3 and 4:13, then we can now define it. Christian unity involves three things that we should have in common. Ephesians 4:13 speaks of a “unity of . . . the knowledge of the Son of God.” That is our common convictions about Christ. That verse also speaks of a “unity of faith.” That is our common confidence in Christ. And Ephesians 2:14 speaks of the end of hostility. When hostility is replaced with love, we have a common care for each other. So I would sum up Christian unity from Ephesians 2–4 as having common convictions about Christ, common confidence in Christ, and common care for each other.

Flowing from the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:3 calls this the unity of the Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who frees our hearts from irrational, self-defensive prejudices so that we are willing to own up to true convictions about Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14–16). It’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to have faith in Christ and to cry out to God with confidence, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15–16). And it is the Holy Spirit who bears the fruit of love in our lives and gives us a common care for each other (Galatians 5:22). So our common convictions and confidence and care are all from the Holy Spirit. Therefore Paul calls it the “unity of the Spirit” (v. 3).

Two Stages of Love on the Way to This Unity

Now when we go back to verse 2 to see how we maintain this unity, we see two stages of love. Neither of these stages is natural to human nature. Both are the result of the work of the Spirit in our lives. Let’s look at each one briefly.

1. Lowliness and Meekness

The first stage of love that leads to unity is lowliness and meekness. “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called in all lowliness and meekness.” The knowledge of our high calling should make us feel very lowly. Christian lowliness is a disposition to think lowly of ourselves and highly of Christ. Christian meekness is the demeanor of a person with this disposition. Precisely because he has been granted to know God, the Christian man is a man of lowliness. He regards his knowledge as small and lowly because he has seen the omniscient God. He regards his strength as small and lowly because he has seen the omnipotent God. He regards his righteousness as small and lowly because he has seen the Holy One of Israel. And since the Christian is oriented on God and not man, he is not puffed up by any little superiority he may have over other humans. If an ant measures himself by the IDS tower, he will not boast over the flea.

Christian lowliness makes a person feel awkward receiving praise. It makes a person recoil from the contemporary counsel of self-assertiveness and self-esteem and self-confidence. The great delight of the lowly Christian is to enjoy the free, unmerited mercy of God. All his longings are satisfied in God. God is the one he esteems. God is his confidence. God is the one who will assert himself someday to vindicate the poor in spirit and to make the last first. In the meantime, the man of lowliness is the servant of all. This is the first stage of love, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to see the majesty of God’s holiness and the minuteness of ourselves.

2. Patience and Forbearance

The second stage of love results from the first. It is called patience or long-suffering. “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience.” Lowliness is the prerequisite of patience. Haughty people are not patient. The more highly you think of yourself the more quickly you will think you should be served. “Who do they think they are to keep me waiting like this!” But if you have a disposition of lowliness, it won’t feel so inappropriate when you are not treated like a dignitary and when the fruits of your labors are slow in coming. If you have seen the majesty of God’s holiness, you know your own minuteness and sinfulness, and you don’t presume to deserve special treatment. And if you have seen the magnificence of God’s grace, you know he will give you the strength to wait and will turn all your delays into strategic maneuvers of victory.

Another way of describing the results of lowliness is with the term forbearance. “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love.” Another word for “forbearing” is “enduring.” Just like meekness is the demeanor of lowliness, endurance is the demeanor of patience.

I am so glad Paul said we must endure one another. This frees me from the hypocritical need to think I, or anyone else in the church, am perfect. Perfect people don’t need to be endured or forgiven (Colossians 3:13). But we do, often. Paul is not naïve. He knows that there are a few people at Bethlehem who are grumpy or critical or unreliable or finicky. He knows the pastor has gaping holes in the fabric of his sanctification. So his counsel here is not how perfect people can live together in unity, but how real, imperfect Conference Baptists can maintain the unity of the Spirit, namely, by enduring each other in love.

Preserving Common Care for Each Other

The focus in verses 2 and 3 is not so much on how to maintain our common convictions or our common confidence. Those are assumed as a basis, and the focus is on how a group of imperfect people can preserve a common care for each other. How can you keep on caring about a person who doesn’t like you? Or a person who likes music you don’t like? Or a person who opposes you and wants to frustrate your dreams? How do you maintain the unity of the Spirit with them instead of becoming hostile and cold? Paul’s answer: be lowly in spirit so that you can patiently endure their differences and their sins. A man of lowliness is keenly aware of the immensity of his debt toward God and how he has dishonored God through unbelief and disobedience. He is also keenly aware of God’s amazing grace that saved a wretch like him. Therefore, the man of lowliness cannot easily or quickly retaliate when he is wronged. He knows that before God he doesn’t deserve anything better, and he knows that if he returns evil for evil, he would be saying to God, “You were a fool for being patient with me and enduring my sin and returning good for my evil.” And that would bring far more disgrace and discredit upon our high calling than homosexual prostitution brought upon the Hennepin County District Court last week.

Therefore, let’s not be puffed up but lowly and meek. And let’s not be impatient or resentful, but long-suffering and forgiving. Then the unity that Christ died to create will become real in our church, and we will not bring any disrepute upon the great God who called us into his kingdom and glory.

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper – Listen

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

God Gives Special Power for Witness

The point of last week’s message was that God gives special power, extraordinary power, for the extraordinary challenges of an expanding witness to Christ.

Luke 24, “You are witnesses . . . but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.” Power from on high will be essential for the expanding witness of world missions.

Acts 1:8, “And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” The power is essential for the challenges of an ever-expanding witness to Christ.

“Filled with the Holy Spirit”

This extraordinary power fell upon the Christians at Pentecost. It says in Acts 2:4 that they were “filled with the Holy Spirit.” And this power, this unusual fullness came upon the church and its messengers again and again in the early church for the special challenges of witnessing to Christ.

• Acts 4:8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,” spoke to the rulers of the people. And they saw the boldness with which he spoke (v. 13).
• Acts 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”
• Acts 6:5, 10, Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and faith and the Jews could not withstand the wisdom with which he spoke.
• Acts 7:55, “Stephen filled with Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”
• Acts 11:24, Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit and faith; and a large company was added to the Lord.
• Acts 13:9, “Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at Elymas and said . . . “

“Filled with All the Fullness of God”

And not only the book of Acts, the letters of Paul talk of this same extraordinary power available to Christians. For example, here in Ephesians 3:16 Paul prays that “according to the riches of his glory he might grant you to be strengthened [empowered!] with might through his Spirit in the inner man . . . ” And in verse 19 he prays that we would be “filled with all the fullness of God.” And in verse 21 he says that God “by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”

In other words there is an extraordinary power available to believers, a power that can accomplish far more than we ordinarily think or imagine. It comes by the Spirit. It accords with the riches of God’s glory. It is the very fullness of God, as unimaginable as that sounds.

Revival and Witness to Christ

And I tried to show in the STAR this week that when God sovereignly pours that kind of power out on a church, we call it revival. And God’s purpose in such a revival is that our witness to Christ will have more conviction, more courage, more wisdom, and more effect, so that God is greatly glorified as more and more peoples are reached and more and more people are added to the Lord.

Now the question is: what should we do? Does the Bible teach us that there is a way to seek this power, or that there is a way to prepare ourselves to receive it? The answer is yes and in the few minutes we have I want to show you four ways to seek this power.

Four Ways to Seek the Power of the Holy Spirit

1. Immerse Yourself in the Word of God, the Bible

It is almost certain that you will not be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit if you are not filled with the Word of God.

Why do I think this?

1.1. Acts 1:8 and Luke 24:48f. teach that the power is given for effective witness. And we witness primarily with the Word of God. There is no reason to think that God will ignite the powder of his Spirit if you don’t load your rifle with the bullet of the Word.

1.2. Luke 4:14 says that Jesus returned from the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit. And how had he fought the devil with power in the wilderness? Every time he was attacked he answered, “It is written.” And he quoted Scripture. Jesus was full of the Spirit because he was full of the Word of God.

1.3. In John 6:63 Jesus said, “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” The words of Jesus are the voice and life-giving power of the Spirit. If we don’t hear his words, we don’t receive his power.

1.4. In Ephesians 6:17 Paul says that we should put on the whole armor of God including “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” If you want the Spirit to come mightily upon you so that you can defeat the principalities and powers, then you must take his sword, the Word of God. He will not fight without his sword.

1.5. In 1 John 2:14 John says, “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have conquered the evil one.” They are strong, powerful; they have conquered the most powerful enemy, Satan. How? The Word of God abides in them. If you don’t lay up the Word of God within you, there will be no power, and no victory. (See also Hebrews 4:12 and Jeremiah 23:29.)

If you want the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, if you are tired of being a weak replica of ordinary non-Christians, then change your routine and immerse yourself in the Word of God. Read it, think about it, memorize it, use it.

I remember hearing a seminary teacher say how he was shamed when he saw Muslims memorizing page after page of the Koran while he tossed off his devotions with ten minutes of superficial reading.

The first way to seek the power of the Holy Spirit is to immerse yourself in the Word of God.

2. Believe the Word of God

Let me be more specific. Trust that God intends to do wonderful things for his glory through you because that is what the Bible teaches. Be expectant that the Holy Spirit within you will give you power according to God’s Word.

Now why do I think that faith is the way to seek the power of the Holy Spirit?

2.1. In Galatians 3:5 Paul says, “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” Answer: by the hearing with faith. Hearing what? The Word of God. The promises of God. The good guidance of God.

For example, you change your routine and set aside an hour to be with God in the Word before work. You get alone and immerse yourself in the book of Ephesians for an hour. The Lord impresses on your mind especially 1:12 that we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory. And 3:20 that by the power at work in us he is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.

Then you head off to work. During the day the natural occasion arises to speak a word of testimony to the praise of God’s glory. But you feel weak. Two things can now happen.

One, the Word of God comes back to you—this is what you are alive for—the praise of his glory—and he is not weak; he can do far more than I can dream. It’s his power at work in me.

The other thing that can happen is that in this critical moment you can believe the Word of God. Trust that God intends to do wonderful things for his glory through you. Be expectant that the Holy Spirit within you will give you power according to God’s Word.

And when you believe, this belief becomes the channel of God’s Spirit. God supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you by the hearing of faith . . . when you believe the Word of God with eager expectation.

2.2. In Romans 15:13 Paul says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Notice the phrase “IN BELIEVING.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace IN BELIEVING. In other words by believing in God and his Word, we are filled with joy and peace. And then it says, “so that by the power of the Spirit you may abound in hope.” In other words, the power of the Spirit is the result of the believing or the faith that begets joy and peace.

We could paraphrase it like this: Put your confidence and your trust in God’s Word so fully that joy and peace abound and the Holy Spirit is released in your life with extraordinary power and hope.

2.3. In Acts 6:5 and 11:24 Stephen and Barnabas are described as full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Probably because the two have to go together. To be filled with faith is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with faith.

Picture yourself drinking ice water with a straw. The water is the Holy Spirit. The air in the straw is doubt and unbelief. Faith is the vacuum you create when you suck on the straw. And what happens when the vacuum of faith is created? The water of the Spirit comes in immediately. And if the straw is full of the vacuum of faith the straw will also be full of the water of the Spirit. So Stephen and Barnabas were full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

So the first way to seek the power of the Spirit is to immerse yourself in God’s Word, and the second way is to believe that Word. To be confident and expectant that God aims to do wonderful things through you for his glory. The Holy Spirit always fills the vacuum of faith.

3. Pray Earnestly for It and Fast

The third way to seek the power of the Holy Spirit is to pray for it earnestly and sometimes with fasting.

3.1. According to Acts 1:13 this is what the disciples devoted themselves to in Jerusalem during the ten days of waiting for Pentecost. “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.”

3.2. This is what the disciples were doing in Acts 4:24–31 when (verse 31 says) they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word with boldness. They were praying. And they were saturating their prayer with Old Testament Scripture, and they were confident in God’s sovereign power.

3.3. In Luke 11:13 Jesus says to his disciples, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The Holy Spirit is given to those who ask the Father. Now, since these men already had a measure of the Holy Spirit in their ministry, I take Jesus to mean that we should ask for more of the Spirit—not that he comes in pieces, but that he reveals himself and stirs himself up in varying measures. And we should pray for the fullness of the Spirit.

3.4. In Ephesians 3:14–21 Paul is praying for the Ephesians and what he prays is that they might be strengthened with might through the Spirit and that they might be filled with all the fullness of God. He must believe, then, that Christians might receive this power and this fullness if he prays that they will.

We should ask God for the power of his Spirit. And sometimes we should do this with fasting. Luke 4:14 says that Jesus came from his 40 day fast full of the Holy Spirit. It may be that God reserves his extraordinary power for those who long for it in extraordinary ways—and show that longing by extended fasting and prayer.

So we seek the fullness of the Spirit’s power by immersing ourselves in God’s Word, and by believing its promises with expectant faith, and by praying earnestly, sometimes with fasting, that God would give us our heart’s desire for his power in witness.

4. Obey the Holy Spirit

The fourth way to seek the power of the Holy Spirit is to obey him even before you feel his power.

I’m speaking very personally here now. On July 14 of this year I was alone at a cabin. I sent the family home so that I could pray and seek the Lord concerning this fall’s messages. I stayed up late one night pleading with God for power in the ministry, and struggling with why it is that we see so few people converted in our ministry at Bethlehem. Why do I not have more power in soul-winning witnessing? Here is what came to me, and I read from my journal written the next day.

The question arose in my mind: Have I resisted the offer of the Spirit’s power for witnessing so often that it is now being withheld from me? Has the voice of the Spirit in the past prompted me to write a letter or make a phone call or pay a visit or say a word, with the readiness to give me all the power I would need, only to find my heart resistant and unbelieving, so that now he will not (and probably dare not) give me the tokens of this power until I am on the brink of some special act of witnessing obedience?

I believe this is where many of us are. We have resisted the Holy Spirit so often when he was calling us to bear witness to Christ that we are unfit for the flow of his power. The channels have become so clogged with fear and self-consciousness and doubt and rationalization and worldly preoccupation that what we allow through is a barely discernible trickle of God’s love.

And I believe that once we have begun to immerse ourselves in God’s Word and battle the unbelief of our hearts and pray and fast for his power, we may have to simply step out with very little power felt in advance and do what we know what we ought to do. And I believe that in this doing, little by little the old clogged channels are cleared and we begin to feel the power flow again.

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Used by permission: John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

by John Piper — Listen

Paul’s Magnificent Doxology (Ephesians 3:20-21)

In verses 20–21 Paul’s spirit is soaring in prayer, and he closes this first half of his letter with a magnificent doxology.

20) Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 21) to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Let’s start with verse 21 and look briefly at each of the four phrases.

1. “To him be glory . . . “

The glory of God is the beauty and brightness of his infinite perfections. When your heart breaks out in the words, “Glory to God,” it’s like a football team carrying their coach off the field on their shoulders; or like a standing ovation at Orchestra Hall; or like the waving and cheers of the crowds on the docks as the battleship comes home after victory.

There is in the heart of every child and teenager and adult the need and longing to sing a doxology. We may sing it more lustily to athletes or rock stars or architecture or space technology or politicians or purple mountain majesties, than we do to God. But there is no denying that the doxology is there in every heart. We were made to worship and sing. We were made to have a hero to brag about, namely, God. And so the reality of doxology is just as common and understandable as a three dollar Dome seat.

The main reason people feel awkward about singing or shouting glory to God is simply that he is not as real to them as Kent Hrbek or Tommy Kramer or Neville Mariner or Garrison Keillor. So the meaning of doxology is clear to anyone who has ever admired anything. You’ve all done it. But the experience of having your heart soar in admiration to GOD depends on whether you have ears to hear and eyes to see that above and behind every admirable thing on earth stands the magnificence and beauty God.

Paul’s admiration for God was boundless. And so at the end of these three chapters he sings a doxology.

2. “To him be glory in the church . . . “

To Tommy Kramer be glory in the Metrodome. To Garrison Keillor be glory in the World Theater. But to God be glory in the church. Look at verse 10 to see how Paul conceives the church as the theater of the glory of God: the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things is “that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”

The reason God created the world and called the church into being is so that he would have a sufficiently diversified yet unified system of mirrors with which to reflect the glory of his many-sided wisdom to the universe. Bethlehem Baptist Church is a local expression of this universal church. Our destiny, therefore, is to be a corporate and visible and audible doxology to God. And believe me, this destiny has to do with Saturday night. But we will come back to that.

3. “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus . . . “

If the church is the theater in which the principalities and powers of the universe are to see the glory of God’s manifold wisdom, then Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that wisdom and the main character in the drama played out in the theater of the church. The way the church glorifies God is by simply providing an arena in which the work of Jesus Christ can take effect.

Or we can change the picture and see the church as a hospital established by God and where his Son Jesus Christ is the only physician. And so God gets glory in the hospital by all the people getting well through the surgery of his Son. Ephesians 3:21, then, would be translated: “Glory to God in the church, his hospital, and in his Son, the surgeon Jesus Christ.

4. “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations for ever and ever. Amen.”

Yesterday I asked Karsten for the name of a rock star that I could use as an illustration along with Tommy Kramer and Neville Mariner and Garrison Keillor. I said, “Is Michael Jackson still around?” He said, “Nobody talks about him anymore.” I said, “Fine. That’s all I need.” “Glory to Michael Jackson in the discos and in the kids to a tenth of one generation. Amen. Amen.”

The greatest of men—like the apostle Paul and St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther and John Calvin and George Whitefield and William Carey and Jonathan Edwards and Billy Graham—the most admirable of men are only meteors on the sky of history. They last about a third of a second and then are gone. But God is like the sun. And generation after generation he rises on the just and the unjust and never fades in his glory. “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to ALL GENERATIONS, FOR EVER AND EVER. Amen.”

That’s what we mean when we sing the Gloria: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen.” The glory of God will fill the world with his glory as the waters cover the sea, and it will be a world of glory without end, to all generations forever and ever. Amen!

What Spurred Paul’s Doxology

Now we go back to verse 20 and ask what it was about God that set Paul in orbit here. Biblical doxologies usually have a phrase or two in them that sum up why the doxology is being sung. For example Jude sings, “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing . . . be glory.” So what sends Jude into orbit is the keeping power of God: “He is going to cause me to persevere and be saved—glory to God!” Or consider 1 Timothy 1:17, “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” He what sends Paul into orbit is that God reigns as king over all the ages of the world with an undying and infinite wisdom.

What about Ephesians 3:20? “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . . ” What sends Paul into orbit here is the thought that in the church (remember that from verse 21) God can do more than we have asked him to do and more than we have ever thought he could do.

If Paul Were Pastor

If Paul were the pastor of this church, I think that every time he lifted his eyes to heaven he would see God saying, “I can do more in this church than you have yet asked or thought.” And so Pastor Paul would ask for power and then launch into a new venture of obedience. And then he would look up, and God would say, “I can do MORE!” And Paul would ask again and launch another new ministry, and then look up and God would say, “I can do MORE!” And each time he stretched himself in faith beyond what he thought possible in the church, the response of God would always be the same: “I can do More . . . MORE . . . MORE!”

Why Paul Sings

Now don’t miss the fact that the form of verse 20 carries part of the meaning. It is a doxology. Paul is soaring. He is singing or shouting. If you don’t see that, you might simply say that verse 20 is a novel way of stating the doctrine of God’s sovereignty—he can do anything he pleases. But there are a lot of people who believe that doctrine in their heads who don’t sing about it. They don’t shout, GLORY TO GOD! when they think about it. Why is Paul singing? Until you can answer that, you can’t say you know the meaning of this verse.

Paul is singing because he sees two things, not just one thing. He sees that the power of God over the church goes beyond what we can think. And he also sees that the love of God for the church goes beyond what we can think. Notice verses 18–19. He prays that the church “may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.”

Do you see the parallel with the power of God in verse 20? In verse 19 he says that the love of Christ for the church goes beyond what you can know, and in verse 20 he says that the power of God over the church goes beyond what you can think. When the massive weather front of God’s love meets the massive weather front of God’s power in the heart of a believer, it produces a hurricane of confidence called “Gloria”—a powerful doxology: “To him be GLORY in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations for ever and ever. Amen.”

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Used by permission:  John Piper. © Desiring God.  Website: desiringGod.org