Loving the Church as God does: God’s people growing Ephesians 4:1-16

Here are the notes and discussion questions from lightHouse:

What is God’s purpose for the church?

In Ephesians Paul expands our thinking about who we are in Christ. In terms of what’s ours, what church is, what God’s plan and purpose is, and where we’re headed. (1:3) We have every spiritual blessing in Christ. (1:10) God’s big plan is to unite everything in heaven and on earth under Christ. (1:23) Having been saved we are made part of Christ’s body, the church, and there we find and enjoy the fullness of Christ. (3:10) The Church is vital to God’s plan, to his being glorified, because it displays his glory and wisdom to the cosmos. (3:21) In the church God is at work powerfully to bring glory to himself.

Is that how you think of church and its purpose? Paul writes to a church split by racial tensions and lifts their eyes up to see what God has made them, what he’s doing in them, and what that will achieve. Paul spends 3 chapters looking at this glorious image of God’s church in Christ filled with the Spirit.

I wonder what you make of that? Many of us look at the ideal and struggle to match that up with what we see in our church. For some of us that’s because of bad experiences of church, or because we’ve been hurt by Christians in the past and we have the spiritual scar tissue to prove it. For some it’s because we mistakenly think this vision of church is about big and we aren’t big. The problem if we find ourselves thinking like that is cynicism, and it is the result of a gap in expectation between the ideal and the real. And often that means we settle for less, we don’t want to be hurt so we think of church in a lesser way than the bible does, we participate in a lesser way. What we’re effectively saying is God you’re wrong, that’s the ideal but we live in a world where that could never happen.

As we come to ch 4-6 God through Paul wants to ensure that this great vision of His church in Christ doesn’t just stay as an unreachable ideal, but that it becomes real there in Ephesus. And here at Grace Church. How is that possible? We see two key things that make this ideal reality:

From ideal to real: united and driven by grace 
The film Enchanted plays with this idea of the ideal v reality. A Disney princess is sent from her fairy tale world to New York where her ideas of life lived happily ever after clash with the real world cynicism of a divorce lawyer. It’s dangerous if we think like that about the church and what we read here in Ephesians. Because Paul isn’t writing about an unreal Church but real church, we see that (1-6). Believers are called to live together as those saved by grace in Jesus, reconciled and united by the Spirit. You are a new people live like a new people, is the call.

What that will look like is fleshed out in ch4-6. And it isn’t unrealistic instead there’s a gritty realism even in these opening verses. It means applying the grace and love you’ve experienced in Christ to everyday life together. The call (2) to live humbly, gently, patiently and bearing with one another in love is just so real. Paul is saying you will need to do all these things, and you are called and equipped to do them. It takes the ideal of Church and makes it real.

Just think about the church in Ephesus, Jews and Gentiles united together. Different viewpoints, social expectations, manners, ideals, habits, dreams, and so on. God isn’t unrealistic he doesn’t expect Church to be a place where sparks don’t fly. God knows the power of sin but also the even greater power of grace and love. Sin means there will be miscommunication, misunderstandings, culture clashes and just plain old sin in the church, and every individual in church. But the wonder of the church is that it’s a place where we expect such things. Not in a defeatist way, but because we have a right view of sin and the human heart. And we have an even bigger view of the gospel of grace so we meet sin with forgiveness and love.

Those attitudes in church liberate us to take our masks off and be real about our sins and struggles. It frees us to slay the dragon of pride as it rears up in our hearts because we know we will find forgiveness not fault finding. It frees us from the enslaving fear of being misunderstood or rejected. And instead encourages us that we can share because the other person will always love, assume the best of and accept us.

God’s church is a place where each member values others and actively seeks their best interests above their own. Where we lay aside our rights not fight for them. Where we permit failure, endure wrong and apply grace and forgive. Where we love others as God loves and forgives us. That doesn’t mean we let sin run unchecked, but we discipline sin applying love and grace and aiming for restoration and reconciliation. We combat sin with grace and love.

Just think about what church would be like if it wasn’t like this, if we were called to live the opposite way:  'As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live as if the gospel call you received makes no difference. Don't be humble rather put yourself first in every situation, trample others, insist on your rights, get your own way. Don't suffer fools or forgive those who sin against you, instead be bitter and vengeful, telling others what they have done to you. And above all remember that the hard won peace Jesus secured between you isn't really worth fighting for, just settle for arms length relationships if that’s easier.

Our problem with church isn’t idealism unrealised and leading to cynicism, but not grasping the Bible’s teaching on the power of sin and the even greater power of grace. Only holding those two together will we keep on growing in our love of Christ and our application of the gospel of grace together.

And as we live like that constantly putting to death self then we’ll be making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. Notice that we don’t create unity in the Church. God has done that by the Spirit, but we work to maintain it. The Spirit has broken down the dividing walls, he has joined us together, the call is to live out that identity, to maintain unity.

What is the only thing that can destroy the church? It’s not Satan, it isn’t governments or powers, it’s Christians who bite, fight and devour each other. Christians who put the gospel on the shelf rather than to work in relationships. Christians who fail to repent and love and bear with and live out grace. God unites us by the gospel and gives us the Spirit to keep the gospel active among us so that we continue to live out that unity.

Do you see the realism of this glorious vision? Doesn’t your heart long for it? How will we make it happen? By confessing, by repenting, by loving.

From ideal to real: equipped to love
If (1-6) stress the need to maintain unity by living by grace, then (7-13) emphasise that God hasn’t just left us to get on with it, but he gives us his Spirit and Christ gives the church gifts to enable us to make the ideal real.

(11) Details some of those gifts, the apostles and prophets are the foundation on which the church is built. Evangelists and pastor-teachers teach and apply that word to God’s people. But notice that it doesn’t stop at teaching. Christ didn’t give gifts so people taught the gospel of grace. Christ gave the church people with these gifts (12) to activate and equip the whole church to serve, so that together the church becomes mature and united, and more like Christ.

Again one of our problems with church is our individual mindset, we think of maturing as an individual thing. That’s wrong, the bible says it’s a corporate thing. We grow as we love and serve others, as we give more and more of ourselves to see Christ formed in others.

As a church we mustn’t just be focused on being bible teaching, but bible learning and applying. The fruit we want to see isn’t people saying thanks for the talk, or even discussing it, good though that can be, but changing together. Serving, using their gifts humbly for the good of others, meeting needs they see, forgiving quickly, reconciling readily, not letting anything cause division.

And it is vital that each (16) part does its work. All equipped to serve and love, but also all equipped to speak the truth in love to one another. That’s why God gives the church people with teaching gifts. So that we are all trained and equipped to use our practical gifts and speak the gospel to one another. So that the gospel is active among us.

This isn’t the image of an uneasy truce, it’s not the cosy country club, or the friendship where certain subjects are out of bounds. This is a real, robust loving commitment to one another’s good, to want to see Christ formed in one another. As we’ve already said, sometimes it’ll mean sparks fly. But because humility, love, grace, acceptance, forgiveness are the foundation of the church then we’re free to speak and listen knowing we love and are loved.

Let’s just stop here and draw some applications from this:
Church isn’t an optional extra its God’s means to make us more like Jesus. We won’t become more like Christ on our own. We need to be in a gospel community.

Church is all about relationships. You can be in church but not be in church. We need to be making the most of getting to know people so that we can speak the truth to one another.

Bible Talks aren’t enough. Listening to the bible being taught isn’t enough. It’s a starting point, it’s the launch platform. It is what we do with it together that will see us grow. So how can we make what we hear active. Could we discuss it together with our family? Could we meet in the week to talk honestly about how we are getting on putting it into practice? Can we be sharing what God has encouraged us with, challenged us with?

Grace must be the theme of our relationships and teaching. We fear this sort of church, why? Being exposed, people knowing my sin and failing, but we forget the other side continually having grace applied to our lives would be liberating not crushing. Having my sin exposed but being pointed beyond myself to Jesus doesn’t bring grief but joy. If grace isn’t the language we teach and speak to each other the church will rip one another apart. To speak the truth without love destroys.  Sometimes we settle for speaking the truth without the love, or we love and think that means not speaking the truth.  Only grace allows and calls us to hold the two together.

Think of church a bit like an engine, what happens if there is no oil in the engine, it grates and rips and tears itself apart. But if grace is being taught and applied and is the oil in the engine, then the friction produces momentum, and movement forward towards maturity. If there is no grace there is grinding and tearing and destruction.

There are a number of right responses to seeing this vision of church:
- Repent of lack of love
- Confess and ask forgiveness for the way we have failed in the past
- Praise God for his glorious vision
- Pray for his help to live like this
- Commit to building these relationships
- Listen to the gospel taught and apply it again and again and again. 

Is the gospel the great leveller

We live in a world that is riven by the have/have not divide economically, socially, geographically and militarily.  It breeds an innate sense of superiority and inferiority - even the terms we use to describe nations reveal this: developed, developing world etc...  And it applies in the locality, in jobs, in families, in income, in car ownership etc...  Badge appeal is a big factor people think of when buying their car, status symbols are not just for the exceptionally wealthy are they.  They make us feel superior, or are a show of superiority.

The gospel is the great leveller or is it?  Last night in home groups as a starter question we were thinking about what badges of superiority or inferiority there are as Christians.  It was a fascinating question; we know the theology that we are all united in Christ, sinners saved by grace and yet so much worldly thinking infiltrates our way of thinking about church and relationships.  Here are some of the things we came up with that make us or others feel either superior or inferior and often both at the same time: marriage, singleness, bible knowledge, training, area in which you serve in the church, job (christian work v secular, hierarchy within secular work that views medicine or teaching as better than office work etc...), youth, old age, bible translation preference, literacy level and so on.

It was so helpful to be reminded of all the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ lavished on us from God our Father, and to be challenged in our unbiblical thinking.

am I being equipped?

Am I being equipped? That's the question I'm asking today as I think about teaching the Bible. In Ephesians 4 Paul tells the Ephesians that they have been given, by Christ, apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors to equip them to do works of service or ministry. So it begs the question am I being trained, prepared, fitted to do those works of ministry, and if so am I getting on with doing them.

It also gives us pause for thought about the best way to equip people. It is a given that it is by teaching the Bible and continually introducing and reintroducing people to Jesus Christ the risen Son of God who died for us and now intercedes for us in the very throne room of the Father. But how exactly can I do it in a way that best equips people? Is that different for different people? How should that affect the way we do church?

It is by word ministry, but does it have to be in traditional forms and what results should we expect as people are equipped?

A fantastic image

Ephesian 3:10 paints a startling image of the church as God's masterpiece, of the church not as the media portray it or even as we sometimes think of it. But of the church as God's way of displaying his wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

How does it do that? As it lives out the gospel, as it exists as a community united in Christ Jesus our Lord and utilising the access Christ's death grants us to the Father.

The church is the hope of the world, it is God's shop window, it is where the mystery of the gospel is made clear as people from different backgrounds come together united by the death of God to appease God and free us to enter relationship with God and live for God's glory.

How does the church function? It works as it reads and applies the word of God in daily life in each others lives, listening to God's opinion of us not man's opinion or my own, listening to what God says I need and not what the world says we need. It functions as a fractured world sees a restored and refurbished community who live for one another loving one another, forgiving one another just as Christ lived for, loved, and forgave them.