Ephesians 4:14,15 - No longer infants

Apologies for a slight scheduling issue! This originally came out a couple of days early

4:14

While our coming to full maturity and the “fullness of Christ” will not be completed until His return, the process starts now, and we are to be continually developing and growing in Christ. So the church should not be a flakey bunch of people easily swayed by the latest “teaching”. As we all know too well, the church is so often too easily swayed by the current fad. Sometimes that fad comes from the world, for example the action of some churches in thinking that it is a good idea to follow the world’s teaching when it comes to sexual morality. At other times we follow fads from within the church, eg the so-called prosperity gospel. We need to be on our guard, and to demonstrate maturity. In fact, an ounce of common sense would go a long way at times. The latter part of this verse shows why this is important. It is the “cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming”. False teaching is dangerous and harms the lives of people, sometimes even destroys them.

4:15

We counter false teachings not just by showing up the errors in the false teachings, but by “speaking the truth in love”. The current LGBT debates are a case in point. We do need to highlight the error of the LGBT agenda (we also need to highlight the error of all sexual immorality), but we also need to teach the positive good of God’s plan for humanity in creating us male and female, and in creating sex for marriage between one man and one woman. We must also speak the whole positive truth of the gospel. Then we will grow up to become the mature body of Christ that the church is meant to be. And Christ is the head of the church.

Isaiah 40:29-31 - He gives strength to the weary

40:29

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak”. So when we are weary or weak we are in a good position, for we are in a state that is ripe to receive help from the Lord. When we are in these situations we usually feel terrible, but we need to go to the word of God and we get a different perspective on things, such as here. We should expect God to give us strength and to increase our power.

40:30,31

In human terms youths and young men are the fittest, but even they will grow tired and weary and will stumble and fall. We too will feel weak, but if we hope in the Lord will renew our strength. There is always the hope of something more from the Lord. We will soar on wings like eagles. Elsewhere it speaks of Israel coming out of Egypt on eagles wings (Ex 19:4). Then we will “run and not grow weary, walk and not faint”. The Lord gives strength to keep going.

Ephesians 4:11 (part 2) - Prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers

Apologies for a slight scheduling issue!

4:11

Prophets is a little less problematic, but not much! We know that there were prophets in the New Testament times, and that prophecy is one of the gifts. The term prophet here is not just someone who maybe has the gift of prophecy, but fulfills an ongoing function of a prophet. The problem is that we have very little information on what the prophets did. We know that women prophesied (Acts 21:9; 1 Cor 11:4,5). The only explicit examples of prophecy given are the predictive type (Acts 11:28). Perhaps part of the problem we have is that we think primarily (only?) of prophets foretelling the future. This is actually a limited aspect of their task, it is more to forth tell, to proclaim the word of God. Even in the Old Testament a large part of the ministry of the prophets was to remind the people of the Law and how they were failing to obey the Law. If we take this wider aspect of prophecy all of us preachers should be prophetic at times, cutting to the heart of the matter with the word of God.

We have no problems with the term evangelists, though it is actually a term that is used in only two other places in the New Testament! However, there were churches set up by people other than Paul, so there must have been evangelists, proclaimers of the good news.

There is debate about whether pastors and teachers are two separate ministries or are linked. In a practical sense this debate is silly. All of us can be prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teachers at different times. Any one individual will probably focus on one or may be two of these areas, but that should not be taken as limiting. At the same time, no one is a one-man band, now should we be, we need each other, and are meant to function together. Indeed, that is an essential element of the church.

Ephesians 4:12,13 - To equip His people for works of service

4:12

“To equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (NIV). The purpose is so important. Any position or ministry that we might have is ours in order to serve others and to build up the body of Christ. It most definitely is not ours in order to pet our egos. Remember that in 2:10 Paul says that we were created in Christ to do good works. So the various ministries are there to equip His people for these works of service. Note that the people are above all else “His people”, they belong to Christ before they are “our people”. And it is the body of Christ that is to be built up, not any little empire of ours.

4:13

This will continue until we all reach unity in faith. So we see again the emphasis on unity, and that we move towards greater unity by growing in Christ, and in our knowledge and understanding of Him. Unity is very important, but we must not make an idol out of it. This happens when we are prepared to go against God’s clear commands for the sake of “unity”. The goal is that we become mature, and attain the “whole measure of the fullness of Christ”. Again, there is no lack of ambition on Paul’s part, nor should there be on ours either.

Isaiah 40:27,28 - Why do you complain?

40:27

From the vastness of the universe attention now comes right back down to the people. “Why do you complain?” We all do, there are times when we think our “way is hidden from the Lord”, we think that he has forgotten us, or isn’t bothered about our situation. The implication of this verse is that God knows exactly what is going on in our lives, and He cares about it. God’s ways will often not tally with the way we would do things, or the way we want Him to intervene, but we can be certain that He does indeed care about us and is fully aware of what is happening in our lives.

40:28

“Do you not know?”, “Have you not heard”? These are rhetorical questions, reminding them who God actually is. All of us need to remind ourselves repeatedly. That is one of the reasons (not the only one!) why worship is so important, and why worship should be focused primarily on the greatness of God. He is the creator of all things. Moreover, He does not grow tired or weary. Whatever our situation it is not beyond God, and it is not something that He can normally deal with but just now He is having an off day! God never grows tired or weary, He is always God, always able to save. “His understanding no one can fathom”. That means neither you nor I can fathom His understanding. We might not understand why God is allowing something to happen, or seeming not to do anything, but we can be sure he knows what He is doing.

Isaiah 40:22-26 - The people are like grasshoppers

40:22-24

We then get another set of verses contrasting the smallness of men with the greatness of God. God is infinitely greater than all men. He is the one who both created and sustains the whole universe. He is the Lord of history. All human rulers can be brought to naught. We may wonder why He doesn’t do this rather more quickly in many cases, but nevertheless we need to realise that all men, even the most powerful tyrants, have their power only because God has allowed it, and at some point He will take it away. We should look at all human powers in the light of God’s greatness, then we will have a more accurate perspective on the situation.

40:25,26

The attempt to get then to realise just how great God is continues. To whom can they compare God? God is so completely different and infinitely greater than anything or anyone else. No one is His equal. God then points them to look at the stars, the vastness of the universe. “Who created all these?” Absolutely everything in the universe was created by God and is utterly dependent upon Him for its continued existence. The universe did not “just happen”, nor does it just keep going. It exists and keeps going because of God. 

Ephesians 4:11 (part 1) - Apostles

4:11

After musing on Psalm 68:18 Paul returns to the immediately practical aspects, delineating various ministries within the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Apostles, prophets and teachers are mentioned in 1 Cor 12:28 as well. The term apostle literally means one who was sent out, but had a narrower meaning. Its narrowest meaning is to refer the twelve (or eleven after Judas) along with Paul. They had been with Jesus and and encountered the risen Christ. Paul was different. He had not been with Jesus and had only encountered the risen Christ after His ascension. Paul recognised this difference when he referred to himself as one “abnormally born” (1 Cor 15:8), and as being the least of all the apostles (1 Cor 15:9). In a way it was fitting that this should be the case for the apostle to the Gentiles, for we do not have all the heritage that the Jews have, we are grafted in branches (Rom 11:17). However, the term apostle is also used in a wider sense in the New Testament. Today there are some parts of the church that bandy the term about far too freely. In this list of ministries it is important to note the opening words of the verse “Christ gave ..” As with everything in Ephesians, it all leads back to the Lord, and everything emanates from Him. Whatever role we have in His church, it is one that ultimately comes from Christ. So what are we to make of the term apostles here? Here is my suggestion. Primarily it refers to the founding apostles of the church. God used them to establish the foundational teachings on which the church is built. For the most part there will not be apostles, but it is possible that from time to time God might raise up someone with a foundational ministry of some sort. Let me give an example of what I mean. There are many Christians who do work amongst Muslims. This is very difficult, sometimes very costly, work, and the progress is vital, but slow and steady. Suppose God raised someone up through whom He started having a really dramatic impact upon a Muslim community, with vast numbers turning to Christ. Such a person might legitimately be called an “apostle”. This would in no way be to denigrate the quiet, persistent faithful work of all the others who have spent many years working among Muslims, and such a person would be humble, dedicated to Christ, faithful to the Bible, and would almost certainly pay a great price.