One, 17 September 2023
04 10 23 Filed in: Sermons | Ephesians: Our True Identity
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Ephesians: Finding Our True Identity
Ephesians 4:1-16
Series Big Idea: The book of Ephesians reveals our true identity…in Christ!
Big Idea: The Church of Jesus Christ is to be one family, united not in our politics, ethnicity, age, or income but in faith, all loving and serving together for God’s glory.
One of the six core values of First Alliance Church states,
Family. We are a mosaic of people loving God and doing life together. (1 Corinthians 12:4-31; Romans 12:10; Revelation 7:9)
I love mosaics. The don’t usually look all that great up close. In fact, most individual pieces are anything but attractive, typically broken glass fragments. When an artist is able to bring together a variety of shards of glass, the results can be stunning.
We’re in the middle of series on the book of Ephesians, finding our true identity. Whether it’s due to Hollywood, social media, our families of origin, or the expectations of ourselves or others, it’s easy to be confused about our identity. Who are we? Whose are we? Why are we? Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus in modern day Turkey addresses these questions, and today’s text in chapter four is packed with compelling instructions on what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ, the family of God, the Church…a mosaic of people loving God and doing life together.
What’s the first thing you think of when I say the word family? Is it positive or negative? We’ve all seen various families portrayed on tv and the movies, whether positively or negatively. What are some famous families?
Regardless of your own family of origin, it’s possible to imagine some of those ideal families, whether they’re realistic or not.
My personal experience with family is quite positive, but I must admit there are no perfect families, and even the best of them can be complicated and messy. Where two or more are gathered together…there’s the potential for conflict! The very thing that makes relationships interesting—diversity—is also the source of our tensions. How boring would it be if we all looked, dressed, voted, and behaved the same? Yet many of us have been taught to question or even hate those who are different.
God created you unique and special, with dignity, value and worth. He knew you in your mother’s womb and He sees you, He hears you, He loves you. I believe somebody needs to hear that today!
We all have a lot in common, yet we’re all different. Our theme today is one…unity…not uniformity, but unity. It wasn’t long ago that I heard unity and diversity are the two words that form the word university…a place where different people and opinions can come together (though that’s not always the case!).
As we noted three weeks ago, there was a huge divide between Jews and Gentiles which Jesus died to remove, unifying them into one family. We are one in Christ. It’s a spiritual reality we need to guard and protect. It’s also fragile which is why unity is one of the four prayers I pray regularly for First Alliance Church (echoing the prayer Jesus prayed for us in John 17).
Are you ready to dive in?
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. (Ephesians 4:1)
What’s the therefore there for? The first three chapters of the book are about doctrine, right beliefs, orthodoxy. The second half of the book is about duty, about right actions, orthopraxy. It’s not enough to know the right things if you can’t apply them. Our enemy, satan, knows the truth. He believes in Jesus and saw him before and after the resurrection. He probably knows the Bible better than you or I.
We’ve been invited into God’s family. If you receive the invitation, you become an adopted son or daughter of the Creator of the Universe. The King of kings. The LORD of all. Paul says if this is true, if you are now royalty, if you are on God’s team, act like it! Lead a life worthy of your calling. Our faith cannot stop with our head. It needs to transform our hearts and hands, too.
I get so frustrated when people claim the name of Jesus but act nothing like him. Christian means “little Christ.” So what does that look like?
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. (Ephesians 4:2)
I didn’t say this was easy! Always be humble and gentle. Has anyone mastered this? I. haven’t!
Before we go any farther, let me remind you that this behavior is not the result of trying harder. It’s about surrender and letting the Holy Spirit take over. This may look like daily times of Bible study, prayer, silence, reflection, and simply saying, “Holy Spirit, take control.”
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t like slow and quiet. I like to go, produce, succeed, get ‘er done! Sabbatical interrupted my rhythms…and lowered my speed! When I get busy and excited, I find it harder to be humble and gentle. I want people to notice me and my accomplishments, and I’m tempted to tell everyone how right I am about everything! This may be fine if I’m alone, but as soon as I’m with another person…
This is why Paul says to be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your…love. Because of God’s love in you. Again, it’s not about trying harder. It’s about being filled with the Holy Spirit, emptying ourselves of our pride, selfishness, and sin and being open to God working in and through us.
If we could master this one verse, it would only be a matter of time before our campus would be overflowing with people. Humble and gentle? Patient? Who does this? Jesus followers.
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
United. Unity. One. That’s the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. (Ephesians 4:4)
One. That’s our theme today. Many broken pieces of glass together form one beautiful mosaic. Many parts form one body. Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one. Again, not uniformity, but unity.
I’ve told the story before, but on my wedding day, I was excited to watch my beautiful bride walk down the aisle to meet her groom (me!). If the same woman came down the aisle in pieces (eyeballs rolling, foot hopping, hands wiggling), it would’ve been horrifying! Same parts, just not one. The biblical vision of the Church of Jesus Christ is one body of diverse parts joined together not by our politics or skin color or favorite football team, but rather by the LORD.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all,
who is over all, in all, and living through all. (Ephesians 4:5-6)
I like to say we’re all related by blood…the blood of Jesus. Likewise, we’re all equal at the foot of the cross. We all need Jesus.
However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say,
“When he ascended to the heights,
he led a crowd of captives
and gave gifts to his people.” (Ephesians 4:7-8)
This is a quote from Psalm 68 and likely referring to Jesus’ victory through his death and resurrection, setting us free from the law of sin and death. We’ll get to the gifts in a moment.
Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. (Ephesians 4:9-10)
Jesus descended from heaven to earth about 2000 years ago, ascended into heaven and promised to return…soon! In the meantime, the Holy Spirit came (and you can read about that in Acts 2) and is alive in our world today, living in every believer, though many seem unaware of His presence and the command to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, continually surrendering our will and desires and pursuing His. Jesus’ mission is to rule over everything. He is King of kings and LORD of lords.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. (Ephesians 4:11)
Some have called this the fivefold ministry, though others see pastors and teachers combined. A frequent acronym is APEST: apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or pastor, and teacher. Let’s look at these gifts.
In the New Testament, the Apostles were a special group of people who spent time with Jesus. Obviously, none of them exist today, but apostles (small a) are sent ones, entrepreneurs and church planters that think about new ways to reach new people with the good news of the gospel.
Prophets are not necessarily future tellers, but forth tellers. They know God’s will and bring correction and challenge, questioning the status quo. Biblical prophets were generally not popular, and not much is different today!
Evangelists recruit, communicate good news, and introduce people to Jesus.
Shepherds or pastors care for people, protecting the flocks and leading others toward maturity.
Teachers teach! They communicate God’s truth.
In our culture, professional Christians who may fall into one or more of these categories are typically given the title pastor or reverend or clergy, which kind of defeats the distinction of the fivefold gifting of APEST, of church leaders. Why are the gifts given?
Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:12)
Their responsibility is not to do the ministry, but to equip God’s people to do the ministry. Do you see this? One of the most important things I want you to understand is you are called by God to be a minister, a disciple-maker. It’s not just for professional Christians! Ministry is acts of service to bring glory to God, which could be plumbing, lawn care, factory work, whatever…it can all be done for God’s glory. When Paul was writing, there weren’t paid and unpaid Christians. There were leaders and followers. One of the greatest strategies of our enemy is to make people think only the clergy can do ministry. That’s wiping out 99% of the army of God!
Imagine if a football team thought the job of the coach was to play on the field while the players sat back and watched! Do you think any football coach by himself or herself could beat an entire football team? Of course not! It’s the job of the coach to equip the team to win the game. Likewise, it’s my job and the job of our staff to recruit and equip you to win the game, to make disciples, to launch Life Groups, to serve the poor, to disciple our children and youth, to lead worship, to care for our physical campus, to manage the finances, to lead people to Jesus, and all of the other things involved in restoring God’s masterpieces.
This idea is known as the priesthood of all believers, and a few years ago one of our elders at the time, Doug Oliver, alerted me to the reason it’s such a challenge. As you may know, the King James Version of the Bible has been influential since its translation in 1611. It says
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11-12, KJV)
It says it’s the job of the pastors and clergy to do the work of the ministry. It was corrected in the New King James Version which states:
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, (Ephesians 4:11-12, NKJV)
It’s the difference between a semicolon and a comma, and it makes a huge difference! If I had to do all of the work of the ministry, I would burn out like so many clergy have done in recent days. If our job as staff is to equip you (which we do through Sunday gatherings, Life Groups, online resources, discipleship Huddles, Right Now Media, and other tools), we can all get in the game, loving God, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and making disciples of all nations. Let me say it again, you are called by God to be a minister, a disciple-maker. First Alliance isn’t about a Sunday gathering. It’s about an army of love getting equipped to be Jesus with skin on 168 hours a week.
It's worth noting there are other parts of the New Testament which speak about spiritual gifts such as healing, hospitality, and tongues, but in this case Paul mentions people…people to equip the body.
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)
There it is again. Unity…in Christ.
Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Ephesians 4:14-16)
I could preach another sermon just on those verses, but here’s the big idea:
The Church of Jesus Christ is to be one family, united not in our politics, ethnicity, age, or income but in faith, all loving and serving together for God’s glory.
We’re different. We need one another. We need apostles like Will Henderson to start new churches like LEAD Community Church. We need prophets like Jason Horton to challenge us and make us uncomfortable through the proclamation of God’s Word. We need evangelists like Hollywood to share the good news of Jesus with people who are not yet following Christ. We need pastors and shepherds like Pastor Donald and his wife, Joyce, who can visit the sick, care for the needy, and love on people. We need teachers like Pastor Mike and the others on our teaching team to instruct us in the Bible and show us what it means to follow Jesus.
Paul is talking about the rule of Jesus over everything, and to do so he has given the church leaders to equip his people to serve and glorify him and make him known everywhere, all the time, not just in a building on Sunday morning.
We’re all different…by design. That can be challenging, at times, which is why Paul began by saying,
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. (Ephesians 4:2)
Family, let’s surrender to the LORD, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through each of us as we restore God’s masterpieces in Toledo and beyond for His glory. He is worthy of our worship, our praise, our time, our talents, and our treasures. Amen!
You can listen to this message and others at the First Alliance Church podcast here.
You can watch this video and others at the First Alliance Church Video Library here.
Ephesians: Finding Our True Identity
Ephesians 4:1-16
Series Big Idea: The book of Ephesians reveals our true identity…in Christ!
Big Idea: The Church of Jesus Christ is to be one family, united not in our politics, ethnicity, age, or income but in faith, all loving and serving together for God’s glory.
One of the six core values of First Alliance Church states,
Family. We are a mosaic of people loving God and doing life together. (1 Corinthians 12:4-31; Romans 12:10; Revelation 7:9)
I love mosaics. The don’t usually look all that great up close. In fact, most individual pieces are anything but attractive, typically broken glass fragments. When an artist is able to bring together a variety of shards of glass, the results can be stunning.
We’re in the middle of series on the book of Ephesians, finding our true identity. Whether it’s due to Hollywood, social media, our families of origin, or the expectations of ourselves or others, it’s easy to be confused about our identity. Who are we? Whose are we? Why are we? Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus in modern day Turkey addresses these questions, and today’s text in chapter four is packed with compelling instructions on what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ, the family of God, the Church…a mosaic of people loving God and doing life together.
What’s the first thing you think of when I say the word family? Is it positive or negative? We’ve all seen various families portrayed on tv and the movies, whether positively or negatively. What are some famous families?
Regardless of your own family of origin, it’s possible to imagine some of those ideal families, whether they’re realistic or not.
My personal experience with family is quite positive, but I must admit there are no perfect families, and even the best of them can be complicated and messy. Where two or more are gathered together…there’s the potential for conflict! The very thing that makes relationships interesting—diversity—is also the source of our tensions. How boring would it be if we all looked, dressed, voted, and behaved the same? Yet many of us have been taught to question or even hate those who are different.
God created you unique and special, with dignity, value and worth. He knew you in your mother’s womb and He sees you, He hears you, He loves you. I believe somebody needs to hear that today!
We all have a lot in common, yet we’re all different. Our theme today is one…unity…not uniformity, but unity. It wasn’t long ago that I heard unity and diversity are the two words that form the word university…a place where different people and opinions can come together (though that’s not always the case!).
As we noted three weeks ago, there was a huge divide between Jews and Gentiles which Jesus died to remove, unifying them into one family. We are one in Christ. It’s a spiritual reality we need to guard and protect. It’s also fragile which is why unity is one of the four prayers I pray regularly for First Alliance Church (echoing the prayer Jesus prayed for us in John 17).
Are you ready to dive in?
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. (Ephesians 4:1)
What’s the therefore there for? The first three chapters of the book are about doctrine, right beliefs, orthodoxy. The second half of the book is about duty, about right actions, orthopraxy. It’s not enough to know the right things if you can’t apply them. Our enemy, satan, knows the truth. He believes in Jesus and saw him before and after the resurrection. He probably knows the Bible better than you or I.
We’ve been invited into God’s family. If you receive the invitation, you become an adopted son or daughter of the Creator of the Universe. The King of kings. The LORD of all. Paul says if this is true, if you are now royalty, if you are on God’s team, act like it! Lead a life worthy of your calling. Our faith cannot stop with our head. It needs to transform our hearts and hands, too.
I get so frustrated when people claim the name of Jesus but act nothing like him. Christian means “little Christ.” So what does that look like?
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. (Ephesians 4:2)
I didn’t say this was easy! Always be humble and gentle. Has anyone mastered this? I. haven’t!
Before we go any farther, let me remind you that this behavior is not the result of trying harder. It’s about surrender and letting the Holy Spirit take over. This may look like daily times of Bible study, prayer, silence, reflection, and simply saying, “Holy Spirit, take control.”
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t like slow and quiet. I like to go, produce, succeed, get ‘er done! Sabbatical interrupted my rhythms…and lowered my speed! When I get busy and excited, I find it harder to be humble and gentle. I want people to notice me and my accomplishments, and I’m tempted to tell everyone how right I am about everything! This may be fine if I’m alone, but as soon as I’m with another person…
This is why Paul says to be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your…love. Because of God’s love in you. Again, it’s not about trying harder. It’s about being filled with the Holy Spirit, emptying ourselves of our pride, selfishness, and sin and being open to God working in and through us.
If we could master this one verse, it would only be a matter of time before our campus would be overflowing with people. Humble and gentle? Patient? Who does this? Jesus followers.
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
United. Unity. One. That’s the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. (Ephesians 4:4)
One. That’s our theme today. Many broken pieces of glass together form one beautiful mosaic. Many parts form one body. Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one. Again, not uniformity, but unity.
I’ve told the story before, but on my wedding day, I was excited to watch my beautiful bride walk down the aisle to meet her groom (me!). If the same woman came down the aisle in pieces (eyeballs rolling, foot hopping, hands wiggling), it would’ve been horrifying! Same parts, just not one. The biblical vision of the Church of Jesus Christ is one body of diverse parts joined together not by our politics or skin color or favorite football team, but rather by the LORD.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all,
who is over all, in all, and living through all. (Ephesians 4:5-6)
I like to say we’re all related by blood…the blood of Jesus. Likewise, we’re all equal at the foot of the cross. We all need Jesus.
However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say,
“When he ascended to the heights,
he led a crowd of captives
and gave gifts to his people.” (Ephesians 4:7-8)
This is a quote from Psalm 68 and likely referring to Jesus’ victory through his death and resurrection, setting us free from the law of sin and death. We’ll get to the gifts in a moment.
Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. (Ephesians 4:9-10)
Jesus descended from heaven to earth about 2000 years ago, ascended into heaven and promised to return…soon! In the meantime, the Holy Spirit came (and you can read about that in Acts 2) and is alive in our world today, living in every believer, though many seem unaware of His presence and the command to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, continually surrendering our will and desires and pursuing His. Jesus’ mission is to rule over everything. He is King of kings and LORD of lords.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. (Ephesians 4:11)
Some have called this the fivefold ministry, though others see pastors and teachers combined. A frequent acronym is APEST: apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or pastor, and teacher. Let’s look at these gifts.
In the New Testament, the Apostles were a special group of people who spent time with Jesus. Obviously, none of them exist today, but apostles (small a) are sent ones, entrepreneurs and church planters that think about new ways to reach new people with the good news of the gospel.
Prophets are not necessarily future tellers, but forth tellers. They know God’s will and bring correction and challenge, questioning the status quo. Biblical prophets were generally not popular, and not much is different today!
Evangelists recruit, communicate good news, and introduce people to Jesus.
Shepherds or pastors care for people, protecting the flocks and leading others toward maturity.
Teachers teach! They communicate God’s truth.
In our culture, professional Christians who may fall into one or more of these categories are typically given the title pastor or reverend or clergy, which kind of defeats the distinction of the fivefold gifting of APEST, of church leaders. Why are the gifts given?
Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:12)
Their responsibility is not to do the ministry, but to equip God’s people to do the ministry. Do you see this? One of the most important things I want you to understand is you are called by God to be a minister, a disciple-maker. It’s not just for professional Christians! Ministry is acts of service to bring glory to God, which could be plumbing, lawn care, factory work, whatever…it can all be done for God’s glory. When Paul was writing, there weren’t paid and unpaid Christians. There were leaders and followers. One of the greatest strategies of our enemy is to make people think only the clergy can do ministry. That’s wiping out 99% of the army of God!
Imagine if a football team thought the job of the coach was to play on the field while the players sat back and watched! Do you think any football coach by himself or herself could beat an entire football team? Of course not! It’s the job of the coach to equip the team to win the game. Likewise, it’s my job and the job of our staff to recruit and equip you to win the game, to make disciples, to launch Life Groups, to serve the poor, to disciple our children and youth, to lead worship, to care for our physical campus, to manage the finances, to lead people to Jesus, and all of the other things involved in restoring God’s masterpieces.
This idea is known as the priesthood of all believers, and a few years ago one of our elders at the time, Doug Oliver, alerted me to the reason it’s such a challenge. As you may know, the King James Version of the Bible has been influential since its translation in 1611. It says
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11-12, KJV)
It says it’s the job of the pastors and clergy to do the work of the ministry. It was corrected in the New King James Version which states:
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, (Ephesians 4:11-12, NKJV)
It’s the difference between a semicolon and a comma, and it makes a huge difference! If I had to do all of the work of the ministry, I would burn out like so many clergy have done in recent days. If our job as staff is to equip you (which we do through Sunday gatherings, Life Groups, online resources, discipleship Huddles, Right Now Media, and other tools), we can all get in the game, loving God, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and making disciples of all nations. Let me say it again, you are called by God to be a minister, a disciple-maker. First Alliance isn’t about a Sunday gathering. It’s about an army of love getting equipped to be Jesus with skin on 168 hours a week.
It's worth noting there are other parts of the New Testament which speak about spiritual gifts such as healing, hospitality, and tongues, but in this case Paul mentions people…people to equip the body.
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)
There it is again. Unity…in Christ.
Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Ephesians 4:14-16)
I could preach another sermon just on those verses, but here’s the big idea:
The Church of Jesus Christ is to be one family, united not in our politics, ethnicity, age, or income but in faith, all loving and serving together for God’s glory.
We’re different. We need one another. We need apostles like Will Henderson to start new churches like LEAD Community Church. We need prophets like Jason Horton to challenge us and make us uncomfortable through the proclamation of God’s Word. We need evangelists like Hollywood to share the good news of Jesus with people who are not yet following Christ. We need pastors and shepherds like Pastor Donald and his wife, Joyce, who can visit the sick, care for the needy, and love on people. We need teachers like Pastor Mike and the others on our teaching team to instruct us in the Bible and show us what it means to follow Jesus.
Paul is talking about the rule of Jesus over everything, and to do so he has given the church leaders to equip his people to serve and glorify him and make him known everywhere, all the time, not just in a building on Sunday morning.
We’re all different…by design. That can be challenging, at times, which is why Paul began by saying,
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. (Ephesians 4:2)
Family, let’s surrender to the LORD, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through each of us as we restore God’s masterpieces in Toledo and beyond for His glory. He is worthy of our worship, our praise, our time, our talents, and our treasures. Amen!
You can listen to this message and others at the First Alliance Church podcast here.
You can watch this video and others at the First Alliance Church Video Library here.