Holly Hills' Through Love Serve One Another
Vern Peterman · Oct 31, 2010
Ministry Perspectives, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926218348066

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are in the middle of a five-week series here on Holly Hill's ministry perspectives. We have been talking the last two weeks about ministry and music, and it's been kind of different from some of our usual studies. Ordinarily we'll go through a book in the Bible and proceed for weeks on end, months on end, some would even say years, you know, through the same book. We're kind of taking a brief detour from that usual pattern And the reason is to talk about things that are kind of in-house subjects relevant to our own church body here.

And so we're going to be moving on here under the next subject, Through Love Serve One Another. I just want to let you know I've greatly appreciated all the different kinds of feedback that I've gotten from people. Lots of different kinds. So at any rate, it's been real helpful. But one of the things in moving on to this topic of Through Love Serve One Another, we want to take a look at a kind of a spectrum of different truths and teachings about ministry within the church body here.

So we'll proceed not through a particular passage, but through kind of the range of topics within that. One of the things that we'll start off with here is the Holy Spirit did it. The Holy Spirit's to blame. Blame's not quite the right word, but Scripture says that we have been baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit when we believed. The thing is, people talk about going to church or being a part of a church or something of that sort. Initially, we were made a part of the church. We were brought into the church as a work of the Holy Spirit when we believe.

That's what scripture lays out in 1 Corinthians 12.13. Very simply, for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body. This is the local expression of the universal body of Christ for all those who believe. In order that we not jump to conclusions about that word baptized, because typically in our culture we think of baptism most often as the water baptism that is representative of our salvation. But in the days of the New Testament time when that word was used, there are a couple of different examples I could use of how it was used.

Cloth was baptized into the vat of dye to color it purple or red. Actually, other colors too, but particularly purple or red. One of the reasons I would bring that up is they would use shells, a particular kind of shell that was found in the Mediterranean, or a worm that was a red color. And it would take, no matter how you did it, a great number of these in order to make even an ounce of dye. To get an ounce of dye cost more than an ounce of gold because it took so many of these and so much labor. And so when they would take the white cloth and dip it into the dye, it would come out permanently changed by being immersed in that dye. So that's what the word baptized would mean to many of the people who would hear it. Here's another way that it was used.

A heated sword was baptized into water to heat treat it and make it harder. So they would shape the sword, but it was still fairly soft metal. And so in order to heat treat it and make it harder, so you'd have a good hard blade surface on there, They would then take the heated sword and immediately plunge it into water, and it would go tsssh. And you'd have the sword then come out with a hardened surface, change the character of the metal. So the sword was said to be baptized into the water. When you place the sword heated up into the water, that would harden the outside surface, and therefore change it.

Just like the die would make a permanent change, this heat treating would also make a permanent change. Both of them use the word baptized when you put the material into the dye or the water. So this baptized into that Paul used in several different books had that idea.

Our relationship with Christ puts us in relationship to one another. When we believe We have a relationship with Christ, but we also are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, therefore permanently changed, just like the die or the sword, and giving us a special relationship with one another. Our unique relationship with Christ puts us in a special relationship to one another, I could even say. Not that special. OK. There, that's better.

So we are baptized into Christ, Romans 6.3 would say that, and also into his body, the church. A lot takes place when we're saved, doesn't it? A lot takes place. Our having been baptized into the body of Christ is one of the identification truths. We have been identified then with the body of Christ.

Well, you might ask, well, what did he do that for? What was the reason for that? We're placed into the church body to build up, that is to edify one another. So it is not simply that we're placed into the church and that's it. But there's actually a process that he intends, and that's to build up one another. Bodybuilding, you could call it. Well, not quite like that.

We're to build up one another in the body of Christ. We are placed into the body of Christ to come alongside one another, to comfort, to encourage, to pray for one another, to counsel each other. It's one of the very reasons we gather here and why we stay in touch with each other throughout the week. is there is a reason why we're placed into the body of Christ. The interaction that we have with one another is exactly what God intends.

You see, the life of Christ is to live through each believer. If you're a believer here this morning, God intends that the life of Christ be lived out through you, but also among us. the life of Christ among us as believers. Both things, individually, the life of Christ lived through each believer, and among us, the life of Christ as well.

So, how do you expect this to happen? How is this supposed to take place? Well, Christ gave gifted believers as gifts to the body of Christ. Isn't that interesting? So it's not just that we have spiritual gifts, we'll talk about that in a minute, but Christ actually gave gifted believers as a gift to the body. Wow, there's a lot of gifting going on, right? Okay.

So we get that from Ephesians 4.11, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers. for the equipping of the saints for the work of the service. Oh, by the way, the equipping of the saints to do the work of the service. So in one sense, it's important I tell you, I'm not in ministry, you are. And so my job is to equip, not to do everything.

So the Apostles and Prophets were given as a foundation earlier in Ephesians 2.20, he says that.

Now the Apostles and Prophets were there at the start as a foundation to begin the church and to get the Word of God in place, right? As a start, as a beginning, that's what he intended. They were there to write scripture. They were there to establish the first churches. They were there to get the gospel in place. Evangelist to add to the church body. We have evangelists now. It's more than just a foundation. There's an ongoing need for evangelism. Now, we in our era are oftentimes inclined to think of evangelism as some sort of a mass gathering and you have an evangelist speaking to a large group of people. That's often what we think of, isn't it?

But really that's only a fairly recent phenomenon. The reality is for the early church, for the church during New Testament times, they didn't have any such opportunity. As a matter of fact, to try to get a large group of people together to have one speaker speak to them was illegal. You couldn't do it. Evangelism took place person to person. One person at a time. Now it's not that evangelism can't take place in large groups, but the reality is it isn't necessary that it take place in large groups. The Lord may intend to use individuals among us, and particularly those who have the gift of evangelism.

Ah yes, and then there's shepherds and teachers. those who are shepherding. Now, I say shepherds and teachers. We'll explain that in a minute. Now, the shepherds and teachers are given to the church to, oh, you're not going to believe this, to shepherd and teach. That's what they're supposed to do. That's exactly what they're supposed to do. Now, I need to explain something.

The Greek word that is translated there, pastor, in many of your translations, and that I've called shepherd, that word was poimen. Probably you've not heard of too many people called Poyman, right? The word pastor actually comes from the Latin, and that's the term that's commonly understood. The English word is shepherd, and in fact, Poyman and pastor both just mean shepherd.

So that's what I've chosen to represent it as here. Now, I wrote a song A long, long time ago, well, just a few years ago, but you know how time is. And the thing is, I wanted to play the guitar. I couldn't figure out how to do that and push the buttons. So I'll just sing it, OK? And you'll have to put up with that. And just pretend I'm playing the guitar, OK?

And it goes like this. Apostles and prophets, they gave us the facts, And wrote the epistles, the gospels, and acts. These are the gifts that our dear Lord gave, The body to build, the laws to save, Were not to be tossed by wind and wave, But growing in Him, because our Lord gave. Evangelists telling the good news to all, how Jesus the Savior can save from the fall. These are the gifts that our dear Lord gave, the body to build, the loss to save. We're not to be tossed by wind and wave, but growing in Him because our Lord gave. The shepherds as teachers equipping the flock, explaining the Word were built on the rock. These are the gifts that our dear Lord gave, the body to build, the lost to save. We're not to be tossed by wind and wave, but growing in Him because our Lord gave. Now let me put my guitar away. Oh, excuse me here. Okay.

So, what we need to talk about here is E! And what I mean by E! What I mean by that is this, not this. The four E's of service in the body of Christ go like this. The first E is equipping. We've talked about that one. The next E is enabling, empowering, and then energizing. So that's the four E's. And if it helps you to memorize those, go ahead and E!

Equipping, enabling, empowering, and energizing. The first one happens because the Lord gave gifted believers as gifts to the church. The next three happen by the Holy Spirit. We are enabled, empowered, and energized to do what God intends. Besides equipping for service, we have this enabling and empowering and the energizing for our mutual service to one another.

And here's how this looks. Here is Paul. He's writing to the church at Colossae. We have a quote here from Colossians 1, 28 and 29. And it says there, Paul wrote, we proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete, that is, mature in Christ. Oh, this is amazing.

So Paul says, and this is how I go about it. Listen to this. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me." So, is Paul just laying around and waiting for the Lord to move him? Is he just saying, well, I just kind of let it be and if the Lord does it, he does it.

Here's what's very interesting. For this purpose also I labor, that word labor means to work to exhaustion. For this purpose, I really work hard. This word translated striving is an athletic term. You could put it this way. For this purpose, I labor, working myself to the bone, okay? Striving with an athletic effort, how? With my own self-effort, working as hard as I can muster of my own strength?

No. Striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. On the outside, it looks like this guy is really working hard. He's putting forth great effort. But inside, he's resting. Inside, he's resting. Because it is the Lord's enabling, empowering, and energizing that brings this about. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing?

It's not that Paul puts forth his own effort in the extreme. Not at all. On the outside, it looks like I'm working myself to death. On the outside, it looks like I'm putting forth an Olympic effort. But it's all by the Lord's empowerment. It's all by His enabling and His doing. It's not God's intent that we do our best. You ever heard that song, Give of Your Best to the Master? Forget about it! It's not God's intent that we do our best, that we try really hard, or even that we just do it. That's not what God has in mind.

God is intended to be the source of the four E's, every one of them. He gave gifts to men and gifted men he gave to the church body. The enabling, empowering, and energizing are God's working and God's doing. And there's one more thing. You don't have to do a single good work that he hasn't prepared beforehand, Ephesians 2.10. Not one. There is nothing that God wants us to do that he has not provided for in every single way, even preparing the good work ahead of time. So, where is this headed? Where are we going here?

God intends spiritual growth of two kinds. There's individual spiritual growth. We just read about that in Colossians 128, teaching and admonishing everyone, every person, every man, for that individual spiritual growth. But then there's also the growth of the church body. God intends both to take place. God desires and intends that every single believer here this morning be growing spiritually, and God desires that we as a church body grow spiritually, both. Both of those at once. So as for the growth of the body of Christ, that Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, that I essentially sang the contents about, tells us what that growth looks like in the church body, all of us together. It tells us how it happens and it tells us what it looks like.

It also tells us what it doesn't look like, verse 14, growing away from unstable and tricky doctrine. In verse 14 Paul uses actually shipping terms about a ship that's being bounced from side to side and back and forth and getting turned around. He says, away from that, growing away from that. The word there that comes right after that, Paul describes, says no longer tricky. That's actually the word cubea, where we got our word cube. It means trick dice. Doctrine that's not tricky dice. No dicey doctrine here. Right? OK. And this is key.

What's the direction of our growth? What is the direction of our growth as a church body? The direction of our growth is very clear in this passage, actually stated more than once. It's the person of Christ. Churches are sometimes inclined to look at growth in ways that they can measure. Add up the number of digits, you know, in the offering. Let's do a head count and see if we're getting greater numbers each time. But growth in this passage is defined by the person of Christ. He is the definition of growth.

It talks about, in that passage, the unity of the faith. But that's not just a lot of cold, hard facts and spiritual data. It talks about a knowledge of the Son of God. And by the way, that's an intensive personal knowledge of the Son of God. You see, knowing Him is important. It's ultimately important. Knowing Him isn't for just a special group of Christians. Knowing Him is not just something that is for just some of us. It's for all the believers, for all of us to know Him deeply. And Christ Himself is the measuring standard of that growth. He's the measuring stick. He is personally the one by whom growth is measured in the church body here. So the unity of the faith is more than just uniformity of data, spiritual data.

If we all just memorize the church's doctrinal statement, would you like to do that? Maybe not. If we all just memorize the church's doctrinal statement, that might be nice, but that's not really in the direction of what he's talking about here, is it? Because it's focused on a person.

Not just information. Growth means knowledge that is intimate, personal knowledge of the Son of God. Not just about Him. Not just about Him. My hard drive knows a lot of things. But that's not the kind of knowledge that this is, is it? I'm sorry to say my hard drive isn't saved.

It's not just knowing about Him, it is personally knowing Him. Knowing and growing are all about Christ. Got that? Knowing and growing are all about Christ. It's not just data. It's not just growth in numbers. I think Hal's term was nickels and noses, right? It's not just that. Knowing and growing are all about Christ.

The New Testament tells us about the various spiritual gifts that the Spirit gives to believers and does so in several different passages. What we don't find very interesting are titles for the people whom God has called to serve. Interestingly, not there.

Elders are called by the noun pastors, or pastor, there in that Ephesians 4.11 passage, nowhere else in the whole New Testament. That's it. That's the one place where it actually says pastor as a noun. And it's not really a title, it's just, that's what they do.

Aside from James in Jerusalem, we do not know the name of any New Testament elder. James, brother of our Lord, aside from him, we don't know the name for sure of any New Testament elder. That's very interesting. It's not something to pursue, at least biblically, for being famous. It's not something to pursue to get well known and make your mark in the world.

As a matter of fact, I think it was originally intended to be something very much of a servant, a humble servant at that. Think of, for example, the term we have in this passage, pastor. The original term, basically, as pastor, meant shepherd. Shepherd. Shepherds were not well thought of in the culture of the time.

The shepherds that were outside of Bethlehem when the angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds. Many of them lived just outside, outdoors. And when they needed shelter, they have found a few caves around Bethlehem. And as best we know, that's where the shepherds would stay when the weather got rough. There's another interesting account. It's outside of scripture, but I think it's reflective There was one instance because the Romans had Can't hold up all the fingers and keep from dropping this thing the Romans had ten waves of persecution against the Christians and in one of those there was an instance where one of the people in the church was being picked up by the Roman soldiers and hauled off and who knows what was going to happen to them and One of the elders in the church found out about it and went running to the Roman soldiers and said, no, you should take me instead.

I'm their shepherd. I'm their shepherd. Take me instead. Whatever you're going to do to him, do it to me. So the elder was not one who got special privileges. Instead, the elder was the one who volunteered to take the worst. Christ is called, 1 Peter 5.4, the Chief Shepherd. He indeed has a title. He is the one who is due the titles. Christ is the Chief Shepherd.

You see, one thing that the New Testament makes clear is the Lord is more interested in spiritual action than titles. Why do I say that? is the New Testament doesn't describe the church as an organization so much as an organism. The body of Christ. Right? Christ is the head. The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts and he empowers us to put those into action.

But when Paul spoke to the elders from Ephesus, and Peter wrote 1 Peter 5, 1 through 4, when Paul spoke to the elders from Ephesus, that's recorded in Acts chapter 20, they both, addressing the elders, used the verb for shepherding, not the noun, not the title. They used the verb in both cases. Get shepherding, even, Peter says. Get shepherding.

The Lord is interested in these verbs in action more than titles. Now, it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to serve. Where there is a tendency sometimes for us to think of, oh, this guy is an elder or a deacon or this or that at Holly Hills. When Paul is addressing the elders from Ephesus in Acts 20, he says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which, who has made them an overseer? The Holy Spirit has made you overseers to, and here's the verb in action, to shepherd the church of God.

The focus was not on titles. The focus was not on what we call them. The focus was on what the Holy Spirit qualified people to do and on action. The point is not to place restrictions on what we call each other in the body of Christ. There are some things I'd appreciate if you didn't call me. But anyway, the point is not to place restrictions on what we call others in the body of Christ, but to emphasize what God's word emphasizes. It's what the Holy Spirit has done to qualify those in the body to do whatever they do. It's the Holy Spirit's work, right? That's the emphasis the scripture puts on it. And the emphasis is not on pursuing titles, per se, but the emphasis is instead on the action that God intends.

You have on the top of page two this half page chart here. And that lists the spiritual gifts according to the four passages there. First Corinthians 12 has two of them, and then Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, 11 that we've been looking at here. And you'll find those listing the various spiritual gifts. Some of them are from the era of the apostles and exclusively for that, including the gift of apostle. In some of them, the bottom half of that chart lists the gifts that were evident in action during the apostolic era, but also in the present time. And I'll let you examine and study that. Here we also have, at the very last of your handout, some references where you can look up more information on that on the church website. Now, so here at Holly Hills, we have elders that are shepherds or overseers. Those are synonyms.

And deacons who serve. And my pictures here are only representative, not exhaustive. We also have ladies who serve as our deaconesses in their services from the heart. We have saints who work among us in various ways, and some are more noticeable than others. We need them all for the body of Christ to be built up and to function and to grow.

Some of them we hardly see. Some of them are more prominent. Some of them are by particular assignment and some of them are not. We have people who deal with the media and the PA system and all that and most of the time you don't see them. But they're necessary. We have people who do things that takes them kind of out of view and out of sight, but we still need what they're doing for the church body.

We even need people to do things that are not authorized at all. Yeah. Wasn't that long ago that Bruce Beatty, I notice I can say this, I don't see that he's here, at least not in this usual spot. Bruce got together a whole bunch of people and went over and did a lot of work in Craig and Jessica Johnson's yard. And got great things done. And you know he had no authorization at all. Isn't that great? Yeah, that's neat. That's good stuff. You see, because it's an organism, it doesn't mean everybody's got to have their organizational chart and their titles and plaques and everything else. It's the Lord's working through this body, not the organizational delegation.

We also have those who serve in prayer. We have those who serve in prayer, our prayer warriors. We have things that come up of different kinds and magnitudes and durations. Some things come up and pass quickly. Other things come up and their duration is quite long. But we have people in the body who bring that before the Lord in prayer.

And that's a wonderful thing. And if you have ever been in a spot where you've called upon the church body to pray, it is a tremendous thing to be able to count upon those believers praying. It is a wonderful thing. And sometimes, I think it's important for us to give this some thought.

Sometimes people can get the impression, well, I'm just praying and who knows what the Lord thinks of this. Well, I think it's important that we realize that the Lord values our prayer. In the book of Revelation, it says our prayer is kept in golden bowls. Golden bowls. It means there's value. They are prized in heaven. Our prayers don't just hit the floor of heaven and then drop down. But the Lord values, places a value upon what we bring before Him. And think about this. Isn't the Lord all-powerful? Isn't He all-knowing? In one sense, you could question, why does He need us to pray? He doesn't. He wants us to pray. Why?

Relationship. Fellowship. That's why. relationship and fellowship and there's an interdependence between us here in the body of Christ. We might wish to ask for the removal of the pain and the difficulty and that's okay and it's alright if we do that but you know walking by faith through whatever the difficulties may be is really what matters the most. We can ask the Lord to take things away and Sometimes he'll do that. I've seen it. Even miraculously.

But in the end, the most important thing is walking by faith through whatever we're going through. And we can support one another in that. Paul asked believers to pray for him while he was in prison. Repeatedly he asked people to pray for him while he was in prison. Did he ever ask, please pray that I'll get out of here fast? No. Isn't that interesting? He repeatedly asked for prayer, but that prayer was not, get me out of here. Very interesting.

Galatians 5 13 says that through love we are to serve one another as Wayne read for us there Ephesians 4 16 says that the body of Christ builds itself up in love Somehow that love seems pretty central doesn't it? Ephesians 4 15 says literally that we are to be truthing in love even our truth is is to have love connected with it. Ever see anybody get beat up with the truth? Truthing in love. Truth and love go together. In fact, 1 Corinthians 13 says that love rejoices in the truth.

Love among us in the body of Christ is essential to the fabric of our growth. It's basic. Why love? Love is not just an add-on. Love is a fundamental, a basic character of God himself. God is love. Therefore love along with the truth ought to be characteristic of us here Through love serve one another that's Paul's urging And it applies to us too, doesn't it?

Let's pray Lord we thank you that as we look at this set of truths here You have provided every resource even the love that we just spoke of here. I is not something we're to add on or come up with by ourselves, but that love is from you. That love is who you are. And so that's why you very much intended to be expressed among us. Thank you for the opportunities we have to express love to one another, loving truthfully, loving in reality. We thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.