Body Life - Intimacy in Him & His work in us

Good morning. As we move into the passage that Wayne read for us here, I'd just like to call your attention to one item. We have a one-page supplemental handout that you may want to take advantage of. And it has to do with dealing with serious conflicts among believers and what Scripture's viewpoint on that and what are the issues at stake there. One of the reasons we want to call to your attention is because the elders would like, if you find yourself or somebody you know running into a situation where there is a serious conflict with another believer, it may be with this fellowship or with another, that we would like to be able to offer services of arbitration from a spiritual standpoint. if that's of help in resolving this. So, anyway, feel free to take one of those and look it over and get back to us if you've got any questions.

Now, last week we began what is, for the month of April, a series on the body of Christ. Body life would be one way to put it. And we started in Ephesians 4, 11 through 13, and we're now moving to the passage that Wayne just read for us, verses 14 through 16. And Intimacy in Him and His Work in Us. That's kind of the title for what we'll be moving into this morning. As we presented it, chapter 4 goes like this.

The first six verses are an appeal for the believers to walk consistent with their eternal position in the Lord. What do we mean by that? who they are in Christ. That's the appeal of the first six verses. Verses 7-10 is Christ's actions resulting in spiritual captives and relevant to what we're studying this morning, gifts to the church. We think of spiritual gifts and it's true that the Lord gives gifts to every believer. But these particular gifted believers are given as gifts to the church. And then finally, the passages we're looking at last Sunday and today, 11 through 16, talks about the specific gifts given and what God intends to happen in the church body as a result of that.

And we'll be looking at the last part of that. Verse 14 is kind of a negative statement. Here's what it doesn't look like and here's what doesn't happen. And then, here's what it finally looks like as the church grows. Alright, so we looked at 11-13 last week, this Sunday, 14-16. Let's move into verse 14 and we'll start on the slide that's on page 1 of your handout there. In verses 11-13, this is the passage from last week, Paul said that Christ gave gifted believers to the body of Christ. to equip all of us in the body. And to use the term that Matt Kirby came up with when I said, well, that's a military equipping, he said, oh, that's your kit. So he knows what that means.

This is equipping all the believers for the ministry. One of the things we presented last week is, I am not in the ministry. You are. And it is the job of those who are pastors and teachers to equip those who are in the body for the ministry. You're in the ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. See, it's not just so, hey, let's do church. But it is so that we build up the body of Christ, spiritually speaking. Now, the building up of the body of Christ looks like this.

It looks like the unity of the faith, and that is It is the single set of teachings of the apostles. The faith is that singular set of teachings. It is aiming the whole body towards a unity in that set of teachings. Ultimately, what is it about? Not just that we know a bunch of Bible stuff. It's not just that we can answer Jeopardy questions. It is so that we have an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Paul then, in the passage we're looking at today, then spells out, here are the results of that. When the body is being built up, when the body of Christ, that is, those who are believers in the church, when they are being built up, when they are coming to the unity of the faith, when they are equipped, when they are coming to an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ, verses 14-16 spells out the results.

Here is what that looks like. Verse 14 is kind of the negative side. That is, here's what you're growing away from. Here's what it doesn't look like. Here's what the body is growing away from described. For us to mature in the body of Christ, maturing is not just an individual thing. It is that.

Colossians 1.28 if you want a passage for that.

But it is also, Ephesians 4.14 in this verse here tells us about the nature of that immaturity. What does immaturity look like that we're growing away from? What is that immature characteristic? Or what are those characteristics that the church body, because the church body is being equipped, because the church body is being built up, because the church body is attaining the unity of the faith, because the church body is individually and all of us together coming into an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is what it looks like. We are growing away from what he describes in verse 14.

Now, you know and I know that I just love kids. The only problem is I don't have enough arms. But I just love kids. They can be such a joy. I told last week how When I told Nancy I wanted six kids, she quit asking. But anyway, but we do want them to grow up as they ought, don't we?

We become concerned if after 10 years goes by, our kid still looks like a two-year-old, right? Here's a for instance. You wouldn't be too disturbed probably to look at me at two years old, okay? but it would probably bother you if I got up here this morning and still look two years old. That would probably bother you. You're probably okay, not too troubled, tolerant, to see Nancy and I staying together like this, but I would venture to say it would probably bother you if I look like this. We want to see infants grow up.

The same thing in the church. We want to see people grow in the Lord individually. And we mentioned Colossians 128. That's where he says, every one, every one, every one. We want to see every believer, every believer in this body, no exceptions, to be growing in the Lord, to be maturing in the Lord. That is God's intent in ours as well. But we also want to see, and that's what this Ephesians passage talks about, we want to see the whole body growing up. We want to see the whole body maturing.

Do we rejoice when someone becomes a new believer? Yes! When they put their trust in the Lord for salvation, they become a believer? Oh yes! But we also want them to grow. Just in the same way, we don't like Vern to stay two years old, especially just at the head. Likewise, believers ought to be growing both individually and together as a church body.

That's what God has in mind. That's his intent. Now, about those kids. Those are the kids I wanted to have. No, never mind. Just as a human infant As much as we adore them and go ah and ooh, I'm not sure what qualifies for what, but ah, ooh, you know, they are physically and emotionally vulnerable. We know that.

They're vulnerable, they're gullible. A spiritual infant, someone who at whatever age comes to the Lord, and by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, is now born again as a spiritual infant. That spiritual infant is also spiritually vulnerable and gullible. And the same kind of care needs to be taken for them, that they are given what they need in order to grow.

Now, let me tell you what we didn't do with our kids when we brought them home. We didn't bring each of our kids into the entry hall and say, from here, you can get everywhere you need to go. Right up the stairs, there's a bathroom up there. There's towels in the closet. Help yourself. We've got a toothbrush in there. Toothpaste is in the drawer. Go for it. We've got a refrigerator full of food. Just help yourself. We've got a bathtub up there. Just go for it. No, we didn't do that, did we?

There was particular care needed at that particular stage. And we were intending that our kids would need all that kind of care fitting to the age that they were at. Ten years later, we did not want them to require that same level of care. In the same way, we would desire for our children to grow up and mature in various ways, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, all those things. It's God's intent that we, as a church body, all of us, be growing in various ways too. Now, here's another way in which he puts it as a negative statement. We're growing away from this.

He has in verse 414 this set of words, "...tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine." And of course you get this picture of a ship. We know well from the book of Acts and from Paul's writing to the Corinthians that He'd spent plenty of time on ships. He used a word picture here from the shipping industry with which he was familiar.

It conveyed doctrinal instability. Do you see what there is there? There's this thrashing back and forth of the ship. There's the spinning around of the ship and also being influenced not just by the waves but by the wind. There is an instability and a drifting and disorientation. that he describes here using this nautical or shipping picture.

He did not want believers to be spiritually seasick, to use the equivalent. Anybody spiritually seasick out there? That's not what he wants believers to stay with. Spiritual immaturity is characterized by this shifting instability, a lack of direction. and the teachers among the believers. I was just thinking as I saw this about some of the different Christian fads over the years. You've encountered them and may recall some of them yourself.

You know, there's this one, honk if you love Jesus. I think probably back in the New Testament times, they had these little stickers that they put on the backs of the donkeys. You know, snort if you love Jesus. You know? There's this one down here in the corner, Jesus freak. I have to admit myself here that I think it was about 1972, my back was in a movie. I don't think the movie's even available, but my back was in a movie. And I had a shirt on, and that was why I was in the movie. It said, I'm another Jesus freak.

Anyway, fads that people go through. All kinds of fads. And his point here is, I mean, some of those are fine for the time, and I'm not saying it's all bad, but the truth is, that stability is what the Lord is looking for. The unity of the faith has a certainty about it and not a thrashing back and forth, not being whipped around. So this picture, we're no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, no longer thrashed around by the waves themselves or by the wind and caused to drift. Spiritual immaturity, then, is characterized by a vulnerability to being doctrinally undefined, shifting, and uncertain. This is the opposite of the unity of the faith, the truth, the singular set of doctrines that are taught by the apostles. The Lord gave gifted people as gifts to the church in order to grow them away from that spiritual vulnerability.

Now, the next word that comes out here is trickery or in the King James slight, the actual word there is literally trick dice playing. You see, in Roman times, there would be roaming gamblers. They would sometimes come into places like ports that are long main thoroughfares and they'd go from town to town because after all, the people behind them were probably pretty ticked off and might as well move on. and they'd come in with their trick dice, and what they would start off with is real dice that work normally and work properly, and then with a sleight of hand, they would drop in something that was loaded, or same set of numbers on opposite sides, and they'd have these trick dice that they'd go in there and play, and then haul in a bunch of money, and then before they got caught up with, they'd haul off to the next town. Well, that's the word that Paul used here. Here is an example, a picture of a couple of Roman dice from right that same period of time that Paul wrote this, and they're called kubos. We get our word cube from that Greek word for the dice.

See that one there? That one has a six on two sides, okay? And so this is tricky. That's what he's talking about. Loaded dice playing. People are doing the spiritual equivalent of loading the dice. People are doing the spiritual equivalent of, hey, I'll just play this and see what I can get. There are certainly those in our own day who do that very same thing in the spiritual realm. They load the dice to see what they can get from other people. They come in and say, how can I trick you? Because after all, in the end, I want something from you. I really don't have anything to give. They're not there to build up the body of Christ, as we see in the earlier verses, but to get what they can get for themselves. And that's it.

How about craftiness and deceitful scheming? All right. The King James there has cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. Paul has described here spiritually immature believers as being subject to these cunning religious predators. I think that's the way to understand it. Cunning religious predators.

In our own culture, in our own time, we have a legal system that recognizes child predators in the sense of physical and perhaps even emotional harm. And so we recognize that, prosecute, arrest, and even have registries for people of that sort. What's amazing is someone who is a predator towards children in that respect, that can get them handcuffs and behind bars.

But you know what? Being a religious predator can make you a lot of money. It can. It can make you a lot of money. One of the religious predators common in the United States right now was earlier this year brought up before Congress to answer some questions. This particular religious predator makes over $100 million a year tax-free. That's disgusting. A growing church body is to be growing away from vulnerability to these religious predators.

They are greatly dangerous, but it's not illegal. It's quite legal. But it is horrible. It is disgusting in the extreme. He says a church body is to be growing away. That's the defense. You can't call the police. You can't dial 9-1-1. There is no registry. But the church bodies are going to be growing away from vulnerability to these religious predators.

Then, the next one, speaking the truth in love. Literally, Paul wrote something here. As a matter of fact, it is kind of a struggle to figure out how do I translate this. So what we find is, speaking the truth in love, literally it's truthing in love. Truthing in love. What is that? It's truth in action. It's living truth. That's what it is.

And it is all within God's unconditional love. It is truth and action all in God's love. All in unconditional love with God as the source. That's what he's talking about there. Truth and love, and it's important to bring this up, are not at odds with one another. Like say, okay, pick one. Do you want truth or do you want love? It's important to recognize that these are not a choice of one or the other, but they go together. Why? God is love, right? What did the Lord Jesus Christ tell his disciples? I am the way, the truth. God's character is both truth and love. It is not a matter of choosing between the two. It's not a matter of picking one. Among us here, it's God's design and desire that we speak to one another in truth and in love, both. Not picking sides, okay?

Truthing in love, truth in action, living truth is what spiritual maturity looks like among us. Here in verse 15 and on into verse 16, he's spelling out, here is what it looks like. In verse 14 he says, here's what we're growing away from. Verse 15 and 16 he says, this is what we're growing towards. This is the direction we're growing. This is what God has in mind for us to be maturing in. Truthing in love. Lived out truth all within love. And it's because God is truth and God is love, both, and not just part.

In these passages here, and you have them on a slide on page two of your handout, we find Ephesians 4.15 is among several passages that puts truth and love together. Certainly, one that's very popular because of the 1 Corinthians 13 passage puts together, love rejoices with the truth. Love rejoices with the truth.

There are other passages there as well. I'll let you catch up with those yourself. Now, this passage here, Paul has given us some insights about spiritual maturity. Here's verse 13. what spiritual immaturity is, verse 14, and now in these two verses, 15 and 16, about our growth as a church body.

You know, it's good to know what direction the Lord intends for us to be growing in. I mean, isn't it good for you to have an idea, if you've got a little baby, isn't it a good idea to recognize how is that baby going to be growing? I mean, what sort of ought to be the way the baby's growing? If the baby sprouts an extra head, you know that that's not normal, right? If the baby all of a sudden comes up with four arms, you think, well, that's not quite how it's supposed to go.

Here is exactly what the Lord's doing for us here. He's spelling it out and saying, this is what is God's intent. for growth in the church body. This is what God has in mind. This is the direction that we're to be growing. This is what growth looks like when it gets lived out and spelled out in our lives and among us as believers. We saw in verse 13, maturity as a church body is about Christ. Since intimacy in Him and maturity are also defined by Him. Remember, maturity is in him, and that's with intimacy. He is the very definition of maturity. It is by his person that maturity is defined.

You see, what will happen is, as we grow as a church body, people who have their spiritual eyes open will come in and see, hey, you know what? Those people look like Christ. That body of people there looks like Christ. I can see they're growing in that direction all the time. Yeah, that's what they'll see.

Our growing as a church body is growing into Him. Growing into Him. We're already in Christ, aren't we? Our position in Christ, that is, who we are eternally, that's already set and fixed, so that's not at issue. But the growth is into Him. The growth is into Him. That's how it's defined here. We're growing in the Lord because we're growing into Him. Now, more on this grow and growing. This growing together up into Christ the Head, that's certainly what God has in mind. That's His design and intent for us as a church body. The relationship, however, of Christ to our church body We need to think of that in terms of an organism. It's vital. It's dynamic. It is active. It is characterized by spiritual growth. And it's important for us to recognize that.

As a church body, we are an organism. We're not just aiming for a really well-drawn organizational chart. and just having titles and plaques and things like that, that's not the point. The point is that we are an organism, a living organism with Christ as the head. That's principle truth here.

As the church, Christ's body, we are not just an organization or business with some spiritual overtones, with some spiritual aspects. There is more to our being seated in the heavenlies than just having our own Holly Hills Bible Church skyscraper. We are not just an organization. We're not just a business. We're not just a well-oiled machine. We are a living organism with Christ as the head. We are a living organism and that's why we are called the body.

That's what God intends. What we've been saying in the The lective right before here in biblical counseling is God's intent is Christ's life in us, Christ's life through us, Christ's life among and between us. That's what God intends. That's exactly what He has in mind. God's heart and intent is that we be a growing spiritual organism. A growing spiritual organism because of His life not just in each one of us, not just through each one of us, but amongst and between us.

If we look at this passage here, verses 15 and 16, we'll see some interesting contrasts. Notice the words that, when you look at them, talk about the whole. But speaking the truth in love, and then we saw that as truthing in love, active truth, We are to grow up in Him in all aspects.

The we talks about all of us. Who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, there's the whole body, the we again, being fitted and held together by what? Every joint. That's all the little parts. This one and that one and this group over here and this one over here. All the parts, supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part. cause of the growth of the body, there's the hole again. So what you see here in this passage is reference to the entire body of Christ, all of us, and to each individual part.

When it comes to spiritual growth here, the spiritual organism called the body of Christ The growth and health of each individual part matters, and the whole body matters. We want the whole body to be healthy, and we want all the parts to be healthy.

Have you ever had an experience in your life where, you know, you say, well I feel fine except that, you know, gee my arm is dead. Or, you know, I feel fine except that my right leg isn't cooperating. Experiences like that kind of give you a sense of we really like both to be, the case where we're feeling a sense that we are whole and all the parts are cooperating as well. When I came down with Lyme disease about 16 years ago, one of the things that was happening is certain parts of my body where the function was dropping out, about every two weeks I'd get a new symptom. until I finally got a diagnosis. And so I can remember, you know, different times.

One time I was teaching a Sunday school class and I was trying to tell the guys, you know, I can't feel anything in my right thigh. It's not working. And so I took something and just poked my right thigh several times and they were just taking it back. But I mean, I couldn't feel anything. It just dropped out. At one point in time, I was talking to Nancy and all of a sudden I started losing my balance and started going over. And hopefully I don't do that up here. But, the point is, we have these various parts and the intent is that all the parts are healthy. With us as believers, that's exactly what God has in mind as well.

There is no part of this body of Christ that the Lord says, well, that part doesn't matter much. The Lord says, no, every part matters. Every person here matters. And that's how He puts it together here, is the whole body, And each part. Every single believer here counts. And the whole body counts. The words in verse 16 talk of being held together closely. Body parts that are in intimate connection with each other.

We give the example of a knee joint here. And of course all the parts have to work just right. And if you've ever had any problems with your knees, you realize the importance of that. All the parts have to work just right and there's all these intimate and detailed connections that all need to be working together in order for that knee to function.

Well, the same intent is there within the body of Christ. It is the Lord's desire, not that we be a well-oiled machine, but that we be a living organism where every part counts and there is intimate connection within the body of Christ. Like our own bodies, that close association of the parts is the norm. That's the regular thing. We don't like body parts that sort of drift off and go somewhere else. That's kind of problematic, as you would imagine.

The direction of spiritual growth. That characteristic, that nature of spiritual maturity in the church body is that our intimacy with Christ also equates to intimacy with one another. Intimacy with Christ equates to intimacy with one another. They go together. We are the body. Christ is the head. You really like to have those head parts connected to the body parts, right?

So, here is what spiritual growth looks like if we look at these verses 14 through 16 here. There's from immaturity, which he spelled out in verse 14. That's the being tossed to and fro by waves, carried about by the winds. This is the doctrinal instability. This is spiritual seasickness that he spelled out here. This is the doctrinal disorientation.

One of the things that we're going through in one of the electives is who you are in Christ. Why is that important? That's a part of our spiritual orientation. Who am I as a believer? Very valuable. Exceedingly valuable for a believer to know. In our own physical realm, if somebody has amnesia, we say that's a problem. But a believer who doesn't know who they are, Isn't that the same problem?

Vulnerability to spiritual trickery and craftiness and deceit is immaturity. That vulnerability is a problem because there are indeed those who are spiritual and religious predators. There are those who will simply take advantage of those who are not properly equipped.

Instead, towards maturity, how has he defined it? Maturity is being equipped. Being equipped by those who are shepherding and teaching in the body. Being equipped for the work of the service, for the ministry in the body. For building up the body of Christ in love. For the unity of the faith.

We don't just come here and say, Some people think this about the Bible and some people think this and there are those who hold this opinion and just so you know just within the last five years also some people hold this other opinion and you pick Okay, that's not the way we do it here, right and why it's because the unity of the faith is where we're headed the unity of The faith is exactly what God has in mind.

That's where we're growing and where we're going A knowledge of the Son of God. We don't want just facts and data and information. This isn't just spiritual bits and bytes. This isn't just something to fill the gray matter. It is instead a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. Intimacy with Him. That's what we're aiming at. Growing in Christ. He spells that out real clearly in the passage we looked at here. Growing in Christ. That's what maturity is. And finally, fitted and held together, there is a close connection between us because of the connection with Him that is intimate. Intimacy with Him results in intimacy between believers, spiritual intimacy among us.

The proper working of each individual part here This doesn't happen just because each person says, you know, I'm really going to work properly in the place that the Lord has given me. In fact, I'm determined to do that. That's not quite what he has in mind. Here's the way it does work out.

The proper working of each individual part comes from, it is an outflow of God directing His power, His working in us, His energizing of each of us. into every believer. Remember we said each individual part, everyone, every believer counts, and all of us at once. The life of Christ in us, through us, among us, and between us. That's what he has in mind here.

He always works in us to do his work. It is his working in us that He wants worked out. Not our own best efforts. Not the college try. Not, I'm determined to do it right this time. Not, I've been to a retreat and so now I've got a lot of momentum for the next two weeks. But rather, a recognition of the Lord's constantly, constantly working in each one of us.

Jesus said in John 10.28, and I'll expand there, I am constantly giving them life. Continuing to give them life. We have several passages. We won't go through the details on there.

But Ephesians 1, 18 and 19, the middle of 19 ends with the surpassing greatness of the power. It's a resurrection power toward or actually into us who believe. It's God's power into us. Paul himself said that he carried out his ministry. How? Through the working of his power.

And finally, Ephesians 3.20, the power that works in us. That's plural. That's us as a church body. It's His power that is the source of the working out of these things. In Philippians chapter 2, 12 and 13, I think the women study on Tuesday nights, they went through this passage just recently. And the key point in here, it is God who is at work in you. Plural. The Lord is at work in this church body.

When Christ said, I'm constantly giving them life, that means us. That means you and me. That means the bunch of us together. All of us. It's His work. It's His life. It's His doing. It's His accomplishment. The Lord's intent is that He be working in and among us in the various capacities that the Lord has given us.

Whatever that might be. Sometimes it may be high profile. Sometimes it may be something that everyone sees. Sometimes it may be something that is seen very little. That's okay. If it happens up front here, if it happens in the back room or somewhere else, that's fine.

Whatever ministry the Lord has given you, whatever part, remember the proper working of each individual part, the Lord has in mind that every single believer here have a part in this dynamic and vital activity in this organism that he's brought about called the church. Whatever those things might be. And for every believer, whether that believer has this gift or that one, this part or that one, those are all by the Lord's intent. Even our fellowship among one another is by God's intent. That's the organism that is the body of Christ in action. It's the Lord's working. It's His doing. It's His creation. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage, it is a wonderful thing to see Your working in and among us, to see Your life, Lord, among and between us. And we look to You to grow us as we've seen laid out in Your inspired Word. We look to you to provide us insight and understanding. And we give you thanks for all that you have done, are doing, and will do among us. And Lord, all we can do is give thanks and respond in faith and trust and confidence in you. And we do that now in Jesus' name. Amen.