“7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’ 9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
Over the past few weeks, we have looked at different aspects of unity and how to build it and preserve it. Today, we will look at how to build the body – the local church – of Christ in unity. This is so important; there is so much division in the local churches, and as such, too many of our local churches are small and weak. In this passage we are exploring today, Paul lays out the people that Jesus put in the local church to equip the saints, to help us all grow in obedience to the Lord and to learn how to speak the truth in love. One of the most important things that Paul is working toward in the local churches is stability.
He says here in verse 14 that he no longer wants us to be ‘tossed to and fro’ by every wind of doctrine. If you recall last week, we looked at the basic doctrines that a local church should hold to. You should take the time to read verses 4-6 again to refresh your memory. These foundational doctrines of unity are essential to each local church. Once we have these in place, then the men that Jesus put in place to equip the saints and churches can then work and do their work from a firm foundation.
One of the ways that the New Testament is conformed to us as the truth is that there is the fulfillment of prophecy contained in it. In verse 8, we see that there is a fulfillment of Psalm 68:18. Here we can see that THE New Testament is confirmed by the words of the Psalmist. This is important for us to know, to have confidence in what we are reading and learning.
The apostle goes on to show us the people that Jesus put in place in a local church to help equip the saved persons who attend. As an aside, Jesus, we see, did not go to Hell, as many would have us believe. He went to paradise, the lower parts of the earth, as we see in Luke 16 with the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and as He promised the thief on the cross where He would meet him that very afternoon of the crucifixion.
Jesus, we are told, sets certain persons in the local church to equip it. First, He set apostles at the very beginning. The age of apostles is over; that age ended with the death of the apostle John around the end of the first century after Christ. In Acts 1:15-26, we see the requirements for an apostle: he must have been with the followers of Jesus from Jesus’ baptism by John until the resurrection. No one today meets these criteria. Paul says that he was an apostle born out of season; he did not see Jesus being baptized, but he did see the resurrected Jesus.
Then we are given prophets; these are forth-tellers, not future tellers. There are no more revelations from God to us; the Bible is complete. But a good prophet will know the prophecies and show us their fulfillment so that we can grow in confidence in the scriptures and the person, character, and power of God.
Then we have evangelists; these men, like Billy Graham and many others that I know today, preach the word of God, but they do not start and establish churches. Their primary goal is the salvation of souls, then others can come along and build local churches with those who are saved.
Finally, we get the pastor/teachers; these are called to teach the Bible in an expository fashion that reveals the mysteries and helps the saved to become more obedient and more like Jesus. The goal, as we mentioned before, is that we become more and more stable and that our churches stop splitting and being divided by schisms. As we grow, we are to learn how to speak the truth of Jesus in love and not to allow the excuse of love to stop us from speaking the truth. As we can see, the goal is to create strong local churches with people who are knit together and that function together as one people. Too many churches are individuals that are almost competing with each other, and if not individuals, then little clicks that want to be more important than the other click; and then we end up eating each other, and we are destroyed not from the enemy, but from within. What a sad commentary on us.
When we do ‘church’ right, we build each other up, we help each other grow, we serve each other, and together we face to bumps of life and hold each other when we stumble. We all have enough issues outside that we do not need more issues inside. Remember when we began this journey, we are to be lowly, gentle, and long-suffering; what if every church were like that? Oh, we would have a lot fewer churches and stronger, serving, life-changing churches that are numerically and financially strong.
Lord, please help us.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario