Edify - Ephesians 4:1-16

In our study of Ephesians, we have been looking at Ephesians 4 where Paul is talking in verses 1 through 16 about the matter of unity. Walk in unity. In Ephesians 4:3, he says, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Now, in this particular section, Paul has given us the ground for our unity, which is the fact that we belong to one body. Ephesians 4:4. There may be many local churches, but all true believers in Jesus Christ have been joined to the one body by the Holy Spirit of God. We look upon the church as a local organization. God looks upon the church as a living organism. And this is why, wherever you meet a real Christian, you have fellowship. It's my privilege to minister in different places across the country, and oftentimes I run into Christian people in some strange places. Just recently I found myself at an air terminal. Saw a young man reading a Bible and walked over, introduced myself, discovered he was a student at a school where I have preached. We had immediately a wonderful fellowship together because we both know the Lord.

This is the unity Paul is talking about. Not uniformity. Paul's not suggesting that all the churches get together and become cookie-cutter Christians, pressed out of the same mold. No. Paul is saying that there's a wonderful spiritual unity in the church. The ground of our unity, the Spirit of God has baptized us into one body.

Now, he's talked about the gifts for unity in Ephesians 4:8. "The Lord Jesus has given gifts unto men." And in Ephesians 4:11, he talks about the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and pastors and teachers. Now, these men, these gifted men, are given to the church to promote the growth of the body of Christ. In Ephesians 4:12, it says that they have been given "for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints, unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ." Now, the pastor and the evangelist are not the only ones to do the work of the ministry. Every Christian has the responsibility of adding to the spiritual growth of the body of Christ.

May I ask you this question? Are you helping to build your local church? It doesn't take much brains or much strength to tear down. Anybody can be a critic. Anyone can stay home and complain. Anyone can sit and be silent. It takes real Christian dedication to speak up and to stand up and be counted, and to make a spiritual contribution to your local church. Are you a builder in your local church? Is your spiritual growth contributing to the health of the body to which you belong? I trust that it is.

Now, Paul warns us in Ephesians 4:14, that some Christians are like children. "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of man and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." He's warning us that little children in the faith are blown around by every wind of doctrine. Some church members believe everything they hear on the radio. They don't ask who the preacher is or where he gets his authority. They don't test the spirits by the Word of God. They just simply believe everything, very naive, very innocent. And as a consequence, they are not rooted and grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in Ephesians 4:16, which is the last verse we considered, Paul is saying that "from the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole body is fitly joined together." He's comparing the church to a body. Now, your body, my body, is made up of many members, many parts. The ear has a function and the eye has a function, the tongue has a function. Now, certain parts of our body, doctors used to think we could do without. They've changed their minds. When a part becomes diseased, it must be cut out. A few years ago, I was having a sore throat and influenza and things like this, and the doctor said, those tonsils have to come out. Well, they did. And I've been a healthier man since having my tonsils removed.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the head, and the church is his body. You'll find this same image developed over in 1 Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12, where the Lord Jesus Christ is compared to the head of a spiritual body. Now, the head does the thinking, and the head does the directing, and the head does the speaking, but the body does the working. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, he had a physical body with which he worked. His feet walked on the dusty roads of Palestine, his hands touched the broken bodies of diseased people. But now the Lord Jesus Christ has gone back to heaven, and he has left a spiritual body here on earth, made up of Christians, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We are his body on earth. He is the head. Now he does the speaking, and he does the thinking, and he does the directing, and we do the working. We are to continue the work that he began. Not the work of salvation. He finished that. On the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ cried out, "It is finished." Nothing can be added to his work on the cross. What work are we to do? The work of applying that wonderful salvation to a lost world. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel." But "ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me."

Now, we are his body. We are members of his body. And each member has a different function to perform. Paul discusses this over in 1 Corinthians 12, when he says if the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? Or if the whole body were an ear, where would be the seeing? Each member of the body contributes to the life of the body. We need hands, and we need feet. We need fingers, and we need thumbs. We need eyes, and we need ears. And even some of the members of our body, which seem insignificant, are very important. And if they get out of order, my oh my, the trouble they can cause. And most of the members of our body, we can't see. Unless you've had an operation, you've never seen your gallbladder. But oh, if that gallbladder gets out of function, my what problems you're going to have.

Now, the body of Jesus Christ, spiritually speaking, is made up of many members, and each member of the body has something to contribute spiritually to the body. And in your local church, there may be some member who's not a tongue, you don't hear him say very much. Or he's perhaps not a hand, you don't see him do very much outwardly, but oh, he may have a ministry in that body that you can't see, but God sees it. We belong to each other. And we need each other. And we affect each other. And just as when you get a toothache, it affects your whole body, and just as when you get a sliver in your hand, it affects your whole body. So when any member of the body of Christ becomes diseased or infected, it affects the whole body. Never forget this. We belong to each other. You belong to every Christian in the world. We are members one of another.

Now, in Ephesians 4:16, Paul says, "The whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth." Every part has something to supply. Now, God doesn't expect all of us to be DL Moody. Just recently I had the privilege of preaching at the Great Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. God doesn't expect us to be DL Moody or a Billy Sunday or a Hudson Taylor or a William Carey. There are very few great leading Christians in the world. But God does expect me to measure up to the gifts he's given me, and the opportunities he's given me. And as I'm faithful in a few things, he'll give me more things. You trace this in the Bible. David, for example, as a young man, a teenager, was taking care of his father's sheep, and he killed a lion and killed a bear, and God saw he could trust him and gave him the privilege of killing a giant. David was faithful to take care of a little flock of sheep, so God gave him the whole nation and made him the king. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," says Matthew 25:21. "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things."

Are you living up to the measure of the gifts God has given you? In the parable of the talents there in Matthew 25, the Lord Jesus tells us that the man who buried his talent, who did not use what was given to him, was severely dealt with. And I fear that there are some Christians who have never dedicated themselves and used their talents to the glory of the Lord.

Now, the purpose of our ministry is given in Ephesians 4:16: "according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, the whole body maketh increase of the body unto the edifying or the building up of itself in love." Why did God give you spiritual gifts? Not just to enjoy. Woe unto that Christian who takes his spiritual gifts selfishly to enjoy them. Oh no, God has given us our spiritual gifts not for enjoyment, but for employment. They are to be used to build up the body of Christ. And I ask you again, are you building your local church?

Now, it tells us here that the body edifieth itself. You grew as a little baby. You were born into this world, seven pounds, perhaps as big as 12 pounds, but you didn't stay that way. You grew up. Now, the body is supposed to grow. Your local church is supposed to grow. God wants to give increase to your church. God wants to give increase to the body of Christ. He wants us to grow spiritually, but growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. 2 Peter 3:18. And he wants us to grow numerically. In Acts, you start out with 120 people, then you have 3,000, then you have 5,000, and it says great multitudes believed. And he wants your church to increase geographically, to reach out into other areas of the world. Now how is this done? We build one another up in love.

Love builds up, says 1 Corinthians 8. But without love, you don't build up, you tear down. There are two forces at work in the world today, the force of love which builds up, and the force of hatred which tears down. Jesus came as a builder. He was called the carpenter. He built the universe. He is building a home up in heaven for all of his children. He is building a church right now. He is building his church. He wants to build you, he wants to build me, spiritually. And then to help others to grow. How do you grow physically? Food and exercise. How do you grow spiritually? Food and exercise. What kind of food? Spiritual food. 1 Peter 2:2, The Apostle Peter says, "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby." The word of God is our food. Matthew 4:4, Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Now, I fear here is the place where many Sunday school teachers and many preachers fall down. We teach lessons, but we don't teach the Bible. We preach sermons, but we don't preach the Bible. We preach about the Bible, but we don't preach the Bible. I believe that people today want plain down to earth Bible teaching. What does the Bible say? What does the Bible mean? What does the Bible mean to me? That's what people want to know. If I'm speaking right now to some pastor or some Sunday school teacher, you heed my warning. Your Christians that you're ministering to do not grow any other way but by spiritual nutrition and exercise. And if all you do is eat, and you don't exercise, you'll die. If all you do is exercise, and you don't eat, you'll kill yourself. Some churches go to one extreme and some go to another. Some churches get so much Bible teaching, and so little exercise, that they become fat, they die. And some Christians try to serve the Lord without taking time to eat, and they kill themselves. You've got to have both. Food and exercise. A church does not grow by addition, it grows by nutrition. According to Ephesians 4:16, and this is done in Christian love.

May I recommend to you as a Christian, that you find out your place in the body of Christ. Find out what the gift God has given to you. Don't be discouraged if you haven't been called to be a Sunday school teacher or a preacher or a missionary. We do need these, and God may supply them. Find out what your gift is. Find out where God wants to use you. And then every day, spend time in your Bible, spend time praying. Asking the Lord to build you up. And then you use what God has given to you to build up your local church. To win souls. To build up the new saints, to take the children, the young people, the new Christians and teach them the things of the Lord.

You know, if every one of us functioned as God wants us to function, the body wouldn't be sick, they wouldn't be crippled, wouldn't be weak. Every church would be growing the way it ought to grow, to the glory of God. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, we thank thee that we belong to the body of Christ, through faith in him. Help us each one to find the place of ministry that thou hast for us. And then to grow spiritually and to help others to grow. And may our churches be strong. May we not be children, but may we be grown up, mature Christians, to the glory of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.