Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Joint supplies
Ephesians 4:16
(Christ) – 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.
Our key verse today is taken from an unwieldy sentence in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, its actually six verses long, Ephesians 4:11-16. It’s difficult to just quote a part like attempted above because the whole sentence is needed to give context to any part.
Paul is addressing at least two things in this section of the letter, the role and function of ministers in the church, and the primary results of ministry. We are not concerned today with an exegesis of the whole passage, rather we are focused on the principle we established recently – saved to be and saved to do.
The saved to be and saved to do concept comes from Jesus calling the first disciples on a beach. Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19. Tied up there are two things, the following, which speaks of salvation, reconciliation, restoration, relationship with God in discipleship – being saved. The second is the doing part, being fishers of men.
John amplified the being part, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,” John 1:12. When we are saved we have an identity in Christ, we are children of God. The children of God then go out and do things, that is ministry.
The popular model today is that we come to the church and get an identity, but that is pretty much it, we don’t actually do anything. For many, going to the church service on Sunday morning is the doing part.
John expanded in the identity and in our passage Paul is expanding in the ministry component. Paul presents to us here two aspects of the ministry. The role of the called and appointed ministers and the role of the other members of the church, not that there is a division but there are different roles.
Paul says that there are a variety of ministry roles in the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Great doctrinal positions and great debate have come out of this simple list. There is the teaching of the five-fold ministry, and there is an argument over the pastor and teacher. The brothers have argued for hundreds of years over whether it means pastor and teacher, two roles, or pastor-teacher, one role. Others argue over whether one person could have all five operating and so on. Let’s leave that alone.
Now Paul goes on to make the case that there are two purposes for the exercise of those ministries in the church. First, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,” and second, “for the edifying of the body of Christ,” Ephesians 4:12. We are concerned today with the first, the doing part.
We, members of the church, who identify as children of God, are to be busy doing things that are part of the ministry of the church. That we should be actively doing the work of ministry is one of Paul’s preoccupations in this letter.
Earlier he wrote, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10. In other words, God is not looking around for some things for us to do since we are here. Neither is He short of work since there are so many of us. The work of ministry for us to do was prepared for us long before we were saved.
Well, what a thing that is. So many of us have been warming the seats in church all this time and God actually has work for us to do already set and waiting.
What is popular today is that the work of ministry is the domain of a hired few. There are those who are the ministers who are deemed to have the five-fold ministry or parts thereof. There are ministry teams that comprise ministers who among them have the various ministries. Then, as the church in the west prospers, we have hired staff.
To the professional ministers, the hired staff, we can add the full-time recording Gospel artists and musicians. With this professional team assembled in churches many of us who are not pastors, or artiste, or staff, or musicians are kind of left out of ministry.
More and more today the vast majority of those going to church are there for the holy entertainment. The entire Sunday morning show is so well choreographed and rehearsed that it rival many an act on the entertainment stage.
In fact, as someone recently remarked to me, often these days the congregation cannot sing along with the professionals on stage singing songs that weren’t composed and arranged for us. Even with words displayed on the big screen, we are mere consumers of the live entertainment.
The problem with church structured this way is that God has work for each of us to do but we have left it to the professionals and just leave money each week to ensure that they are paid right. This is true even though we don’t think of it this way. We have professionalised the ministry where God personalises the call to ministry.
Paul finished the section by going back to the body metaphor that he used elsewhere. “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” And, “you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27.
Here he says that every one of us must play our role in ministry because the body needs its supply from every joint. Those of us who are ageing are very conscious of the consequences of joints which are no longer proving good service to the body. We’re buying joint supplies, supplements.
Think on these things:
- What are you supplying, are you involved in ministry in your church or with any groups?
- Do you have any sense of God’s call for you to be involved in ministry?
- Does your church make deliberate efforts to ensure that all members find their place in ministry?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be sensitive to God’s personal call to us and seek to find our place in ministry.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
