Body building for Christians

(The following are highlights from the message that was preached on July 14, 2019)

Ephesians 4:7-16

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: 

“When He ascended on high, He led captives away, and gave gifts to men.” 

What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.

It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ.

Notice that phrase, “so that the body of Christ may be built up.” The Lord does not want Nagoya Union Church to be a weak church. That is not the Lord’s desire. He doesn’t want us to be a sick, feeble, timid church that totally lacks strength and power. Not at all.

The Lord desires the body of Christ to be built up, and in this passage, we are told two things that we can do to achieve that.

1) Use our gifts.

The Lord gave his church gifts, he gave people in his church gifts, so that his church could be built up. These are known as spiritual gifts. So God gave his people gifts, and when these people use their gifts, the church is built up.

What kind of gifts has he given?

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. The apostles and the prophets are the people who wrote this (the bible). We also have evangelists and pastors and teachers. I’m guessing that probably everyone here has been touched in some way by a person with one of these gifts.

Perhaps you heard an evangelist speak, and through that ministry came to believe in Christ. Perhaps you had pastor in your church that gave you some good advice and helped you and supported you. You might have had a teacher, a Sunday school teacher or a small group leader with the gift of teaching, that grew your faith and deepened your knowledge.

Now that we’ve got the internet, we can connect with great teachers all over the world. You have such a wonderful treasure right here in your phone. All the world’s greatest preachers and teachers, in podcasts and audio files and electronic books. If you don’t seek these people out, you’re mad. Why would you ignore such awesome treasure trove of godly teaching? The Lord gave these people gifts so that you and I can be built up and made stronger.

It says right here that these people were given gifts “To prepare God’s people for works of service.” That’s why they have those gifts.

Are these the only gifts that the Lord has given? Not at all.

Let’s look at Romans 12:4-8.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.

We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

And also 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.

There are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. There are different ways of working, but the same God works all things in all men.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines.

Looking at the passages in Ephesians, Romans, and 1st Corinthians, it seems pretty clear that there is no complete list. There are as many spiritual gifts as there are people.

It might help you to think about this as an artists’ palette. So we have all these spiritual gifts, and you can think of them as colors. There’s red and blue and green and so on. And the Lord dips his brush into his palette and mixes colors and combines them in different ways, and then paints you with them. And the unique gift that you have from God will be different from anyone else.

2) Speak the truth in love.

Ephesians 4:14-16:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The way we grow up, is by speaking the truth in love.

You need to be speaking the truth to each other in love. We spoke last time about maintaining the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. You cannot maintain the unity of the Spirit by being silent when you’re upset about something. If you have a Christian friend who is straying from the path of life … A Christian friend who has some wrong ideas that are not based on God’s Word … If you really love that friend, you’ll speak the truth to them.

And that is really, really needed today. Right now, in 2019, perhaps the biggest problem with the church is that it is not speaking the truth in love.

What happens if we are not speaking the truth to each other in love? Well, we become …

“… infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”

There are a lot of crazy ideas out there. So many religious cults and people with twisted ideas. And many of them take verses and ideas from the bible and twist them and distort them. I mean, Shoko Asahara, that guy who founded the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult and killed people on the Tokyo subway, he took some of his ideas from the bible. And then there are other people, like the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who also twist and distort the word of God.

These are extreme examples, but you even get crazy teaching in some churches that might fall under the label of “Baptist” or “Evangelical” or “Presbyterian.”

You may have heard churches who say things like, “God wants you to be rich and prosperous. Believe in Jesus and you’ll be rich, you’ll have good health, you’ll be successful.” Things like that.

But when we are a strong church, a church where each person is contributing and ministering to others, when we are speaking the truth in love, that is when we stop being blown around by every wind of teaching. We stop being tossed back and forth. We have a rock-solid, strong body that can stand in the face of the storm.