The Hands of the Church: His People

Joe Bridgman

10/8/2017

Ephesians 4:1-16

Imagine if a Lego really wanted to be a Lego castle. In fact, this Lego was specifically designed to be part of a castle. It wants to be a huge castle with a drawbridge, a throne room, battlements, and everything else that castles have. But there’s one problem: this Lego does not really like being connected to other Legos. Can this Lego become the full castle it was made to be? This sounds ridiculous to us, but we can be like that Lego sometimes. This is especially true when we come to the topic of today’s sermon. Two weeks ago, we learned that the heart of the church is God’s gospel. Last week, we saw that the height of the church is God’s glory. This week, in Ephesians 4:1-16, which is on page 977 in your pew Bibles, we are getting practical. We are ending this series by looking at the hands of the church. And when we begin talking about what the hands of the church do, some of us begin to think like that Lego, very individualistically. We want to grow up into a mature Christian, and we want to help others grow too. So we get excited to learn new ministry skills: how to share the gospel better, how to pray longer, how to read the Bible more deeply, etc. Even though these are good things, we often neglect the main point. Because of Jesus’ uniting work in the gospel, we are now like Legos in a castle or like ligaments in a body: we were made to grow up as one body by fastening to one another. That’s what the hands of the church do.

But at times, some of us are not at all like that Lego. We do not have any problem with what the hands of the church do. We just have a problem with who the hands of the church are. We love coming to the Sunday morning service and receiving God’s word from the preacher. But any time we are challenged to do the work of the church—to be its hands—we feel uncomfortable, inconvenienced, overwhelmed, or ill-equipped. At our worst, we may even think, “Pastor Bob went to pastor school to learn how to do that work. I have my job, and he has his. Do you see me asking him to share the burden of my job?”

God’s Word corrects both tendencies in our hearts. For our last sermon in this mini-series about the church, God’s Word is teaching us that all of his people are the hands of the church—that’s you and me—and that we grow by fastening to one another. We see this in four ways. The first, in verses 1-3, is that we fasten together with our attitudes.

We fasten together with our attitudes

As I mentioned, this is the place in the book of Ephesians where Paul starts focusing on practically walking out the theology he taught in the first three chapters. That’s why our first verse says, “Therefore” and talks about walking in a worthy manner. The fact that he addresses all of us to do this is one reason why we must believe that we are all the hands of the church. Then Paul begins explaining what the hands of the church do. But instead of giving us a list of actions to perform, he leads with something else. Paul’s first priority is not actions but attitudes.

Attitudes come before actions.

Look at verses 2-3. Paul urges us to live…

Eph. 4:2-3, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (ESV)

The first things that Paul targets are the attitudes in our hearts toward each other. The Holy Spirit carried Paul’s mind to prioritize attitudes that keep us fastened to one another, and the hands of the church should share that priority. Paul could have placed any number of important things first. He could have said, “Therefore, start as many outreach programs as you can and get as many people into your church doors as possible.” He could have said, “Start teaching others how to read the Bible better and how to live righteously.” Both are good things and worth pursuing, but Paul starts with our attitudes.

We, the hands of the church, too often get this backward. Most of us know that we need to have these attitudes toward each other, and we also know that we have been commissioned by Christ to spread his gospel everywhere. The problem is that we reverse the order. We get so concerned with achieving measurable, exciting results in our ministry that we put our attitudes on the backburner. We feel excited to share the gospel with unbelievers, but we let pride grow in our hearts toward those less excited. We desire a brother or sister to be freed of a particular sin, so we rebuke them with little concern for gentleness or patience. It is wrong to excuse our short tempers, our pride, our impatience, or our divisiveness because of how much we’re accomplishing for the church. That’s the opposite of how the hands of the church work. If the church were about individual people each becoming more like Jesus on their own, it might be correct. But we are ligaments in a body, being fastened to one another. For the hands of the church, attitudes come before actions.

But these attitudes are not something we just encourage in ourselves and feel in an anonymous way. These attitudes are aimed at something.

Attitudes aim at each other.

When you read the attitudes that Riverbend should have, you notice that they require others to be recipients. Humility is difficult to show when I am not around others to do so. The same is true of gentleness and patience. Becca and I are preparing to have our first baby in December. If you asked us at this point, we would both tell you that we are pretty patient people. According to some of our friends, God has a surprise in store for us. Patience and gentleness are only shown when you interact with people who draw out your impatience and harshness. If I were to claim that I have these attitudes without aiming them at others, it would be the same as preaching this sermon by myself in the woods and saying that I am a good teacher. We are told to bear with one another in love. You tell me how to bear with one another without having a one another there to bear with. We must aim these attitudes at each other. This is why Paul summarizes them by encouraging us to eagerly maintain our unity.

Before we move on, let’s not miss what Paul’s exhortations assume. By exhorting us to guard our unity with these attitudes, Paul assumes that our interactions will require humility, patience, gentleness, or forbearance. Here’s what I mean. Our sin can be quick to say, “Yeah, you were humble toward the folks of Riverbend this week. You were patient with them. You were gentle with them. Or at least you weren’t doing the opposite of those things!” But that’s the point. There is a difference between the presence of a virtue and the absence of a vice, a difference between being humble and not being prideful, a difference between being patient and not being impatient. If I just don’t spend time with you, I can keep from being prideful, but I can’t practice humility. If I don’t have vulnerable conversations with you, I can keep from hurting you, but I can’t bear with you. The simple lack of pride, impatience, or hostility can make us think we are guarding the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. But most of us could say that about our 10 minutes per week with the Wal-Mart employee in the checkout line too. Paul assumes that we will be close enough to rub each other the wrong way. Paul assumes that our relationships will be close enough to see each other’s warts. That’s why he wants us to aim our attitudes toward each other. And as we do that, we will fasten together with our attitudes.

Next, Paul briefly reminds us of why we fasten together.

We fasten together because of our beliefs

In verses 4-6, Paul briefly reiterates doctrines we believe about ourselves and about God. He reminds us over and over that what we believe demands that we fasten together. For example, he says there is only one body. This should remind us of our first sermon in Ephesians 2:16, where we read that Christ…

Eph. 2:16, “[reconciled] us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

God did not save thousands of individual bodies. He did not save Jews one way and Gentiles another way. He did not save some of us for one reason and others for a different reason. There is only one body into which God has brought all of his people and saved us by his son’s blood. We all share the same hope. We all worship the one Lord, believe the one faith, and participate in the one baptism. He finally reinforces that there is only one, true God for all people to serve. Since we spent so much time in our first sermon focusing on the doctrine at the heart of the church, the gospel, I will not repeat it all here. However, why does Paul bring this up again?

He brings these doctrines up and heavily emphasizes that there is only one of each of these things, because that is the basis for our unity. If we truly believe that there is only one God, we will not treat our brothers and sisters like there are other gods for them to worship or another lord to serve. If we are convinced, down into our bones that we have not just found a subjective hope that cheers us up or a faith that meets our needs, but that we have found the only hope for all men and the only true faith which can save every vile sinner, then we have set the foundations for our unity. We draw one another close because we believe there is only one place that we are all made right with God. We hold each other close because we believe there is no other hope or faith outside of the one we share. The more we accept and trust in what we believe, the more we will fasten to one another. We fasten together because of our beliefs.

The next verse, verse 7, starts with a “But”. It introduces an “Uh-oh.” At first glance, verses 7-12 appear to be a big problem for the hands of the church. Even though verses 4-6 mentioned all the things that we share in common, verses 7-12 bring up some of our differences. For men, our differences prove the greatest barriers to fastening together. But verses 7-12 not only mention our differences, but they actually say Christ wants the differences. He is the one who causes these differences. He does not want our differences to hinder fastening together but to enhance it. That is why our next point is not that we fasten together despite our differences. Rather…

We fasten together through our differences

Look at verse 7 with me again. It reads,

Eph. 4:7, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” (ESV)

You can feel the shift from Paul’s focus on our unity to our differences. He was urging all of us together. He was reminding us of the beliefs we all hold in common. And then he says, “But grace was given to each one of us…” There is a unique grace given to each one of us. By the way, he does not mean saving grace here. All Christians are equally saved by grace. Chapter 2 verse 8 makes that very clear. Here, he means a unique grace that was specifically given to each Christian so that we could steward it for the fastening together of the church. So how is the grace you have been given different from the grace everyone else has been given? Look back at verse 7. It was “according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Each of us has received different measures of this grace. Some have received huge measures, others have received small measures. Some have received 10 talents. Some have received 1 talent. And just like the parable of the talents, each of us will be held responsible by the giver of the grace for how we steward it. And that giver, according to our passage, is our sovereign Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our differences come from the Lord.

Our Lord is the one who is responsible for our differences, and no one can question him. This is the point of verses 8-10. In them, Paul quotes Psalm 68. Listen to a few of the ways that this Psalm describes God. He is the one who sends those who hate him fleeing. He is the one whose marching steps cause the earth to quake and the heavens to pour rain. He is the “almighty who scatters kings.” The God with “twice ten thousand” chariots. Who would question the mandates of such a God? And Paul argues in verses 9-10 that this unbelievably powerful God is Jesus, the one who descended and ascended. So his point is simple: who are you to challenge the measure of Christ’s gift of grace to you?

This is critical for us to believe. If our differences came from us, one of two things would happen. If we had a large measure, we would have every reason to be proud, and we would destroy our unity with it. We would judge those with less and envy those with more. But if we only had a small measure, we would have an excuse to be ashamed, and we would never have the confidence to help fasten the church together. But neither of those things is true, because our differences did not come from us. This is exactly what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7.

1 Cor. 4:7, “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (ESV)

You did not cause what makes you different. This truth ravages our pride. Nothing about you caused you to receive the measure of grace you have. Paul deeply understood how humbling that truth is. Look back at Ephesians 3:8, where he is talking about the measure of the grace given to him. He says, “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given”. This truth also goes to war with our shame and feelings of inadequacy. The amount of grace given for you to steward was chosen by the authority and wisdom of our Lord Jesus. We have no right to excuse ourselves from being the hands of the church because we think we are inadequate. You have been given the exact measure of grace that our Lord wanted you to have.