Measuring a Miracle

And now we read the word of God from Ephesians chapter 4, beginning at verse 7 and concluding with verse 16. And this section has to do with the church. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of man and cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. He's telling us here how a church ought to function, and may God help us to function as we should. Where would we be in this world without measurements? Our whole technology would fall apart if we didn't have centimeters and millimeters and feet and inches and pints and quarts and liters.

All of science would come to a standstill, medicine, even finance. Imagine what it would be like if our financial system did not have standards. We did not know a dime from a quarter or a ten-dollar bill from a hundred-dollar bill.

And if that doesn't bother you, think of what it would mean to you personally if measurements and standards were lacking. Imagine buying a pair of shoes and not having definite measurements. Some people do that, I think.

Imagine what it would be like buying your clothing. We sometimes complain because we live in a cookie-cutter kind of a world where things are run with interchanging parts, but it comes in handy. It's good to know that an inch is an inch in Chicago as well as in San Francisco, and a mile is a mile in New York as well as in Louisiana.

Imagine what it would be like if we did not have measurements. Is it possible to have measurements in the realm of the spiritual? That's a good question. We're living in an era when people are enjoying measuring things, and Paul is discussing here in Ephesians 4, 7-16, this whole matter of measuring the church.

The church is a miracle. How do you measure a miracle? The church is made up of so many different kinds of people from so many different backgrounds. How do you go about measuring it? Is it even right to measure the church? There are those who say, now you should not bother to measure the church because the church is an organism.

My body is an organism. I have to measure it. I have to know exactly what size clothes to wear, and I have to know exactly how much medicine to put in.

The church is an organism, and the church as an organism needs to be measured. How do you go about doing it? Of course, there's a wrong way to do it. Paul makes an interesting statement over in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, when he talks about certain Christians who measuring themselves by themselves are not wise.

There are some false measurements, and Paul deals with some of these. But he's telling us in this paragraph how we can measure our own lives and measure the church that we're part of. At this point, someone may say, Pastor, does it make any difference? If we're serving the Lord, we're praying, we're giving, we're witnessing.

Is it necessary to do any measuring? Yes, it is. If you don't measure, you don't know where you are. If I don't measure my life, and if we don't measure this church, we don't know where we are, and we don't know where God wants us to be.

And we're liable to start using some false measurements. There are those who tell us that the church is a successful church if it has influence in government. Well, back in the book of Acts, they had no influence with the government.

In fact, they were thrown in jail several times. Someone says the church is a successful church if it has a mounting budget. Well, it's good to pay your bills.

I think God wants us to. But Peter said, silver and gold have I none. Someone else says, well, the church is where it ought to be if you have an educated clergy.

Well, nothing wrong with education. Mr. Moody only went to fifth grade, but he started a school. Charles Spurgeon never had the privilege of going to seminary or college, but he started a school.

Nothing wrong with education. But when they looked in the book of Acts at the apostles, they said they noticed that they were ignorant and unlearned men. Nothing wrong with finances.

Nothing wrong with influence. Nothing wrong with education. But those don't seem to be the standards that he's using.

How about numbers? Well, numbers mean something. I've often said from this pulpit that we want to see crowds, not so that we can count people, but because people count, and there's a difference. There's a big difference between building a crowd and building a church.

At Pentecost, they had 3,000 people saved. A few days later, they had 5,000 people saved. But in comparison to the population, that wasn't a great many people.

It sounds like a big crowd, but in comparison to the population, that wasn't a huge crowd. It seems that down through the years, the local church has always had a different kind of measurement. And I want to talk with you about that today.

You notice that three times in this paragraph, Paul uses the word measure. In verse 7, unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Over in verse 13, of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And in verse 16, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part. Paul is giving to us three standards by which we must measure our lives and measure the church. Now, may I hasten to say Paul is not talking here about some invisible, ethereal, universal church.

He's talking about a group of people who assemble together, and God is working in their midst. He tells us that there are three standards by which we must measure our church and measure our lives. Now, I must warn you that the more you get into this, the more uncomfortable you may feel.

Because you and I enjoy getting to a certain place in our Christian lives and staying there. It's comfortable. We're accustomed to it.

We can live with it. Maybe we should be better, but at least we're better than some other people. Paul is pleading with us here to measure our lives by God's standards, measure our church by God's standards, that we might become more and more of what he wants us to be.

Now, in verses 7 to 11, we have the first standard, the measure of the gift of Christ. Then in 12 through 15, we have the second standard, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And then in verse 16, you have the third standard, the measure of every part.

I want to explain these three standards to you. First, verses 7 to 11, the first standard by which we measure ourselves and measure the church is the standard of the measure of the gift of Christ. Now, what is Paul saying here? He's saying this, God gave Jesus Christ to this world for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Jesus Christ gave his life for the sins of the world. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, but he died for his enemies. God gave his son, his son gave his life.

Now, when you receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your Savior, then you become a part of this beautiful body, the church. And you ought to become a part of a local body, a local assembly, and go to work for God. Because there has been given to every believer at least one gift.

You notice it here? But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. When our Lord ascended, he led captivity captive. That means those who had been held captive by Satan and sin and death were set free by Jesus Christ.

By the way, that's the gospel. The gospel is simply the good news that Jesus Christ came and died and arose again, and you can trust him as your Savior and be born again. That's the gospel, that Christ died for you.

Now, our Lord Jesus descended to this earth, he finished his work, he ascended back to heaven, and then having gone back to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit of God gives gifts to people. I speak to hundreds of Christians right now, and each one of you has at least one gift from God.

Now, some may have more. Now, what are these gifts given for? These gifts are given for ministry. And so the first test, the first standard by which we measure this church is this.

Are we discovering, developing, and using the gifts that God has given to us? That's the first standard. He doesn't say a thing about attendance, although that's important. He doesn't even say a thing about giving, although that's involved.

What he's saying is you have a gift. As a part of a local fellowship of believers, you should be using this gift. And the first measurement that he gives is this.

Measure your fellowship, measure your church by the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ to each believer. You see, the church was never meant to be a one-man show. You people are not here to make me look good.

God forbid that any man should ever stand in this pulpit who would use the people to build up his authority instead of using his authority to build up the people. The local church was never meant to be a dictatorship where a group of fans gather week by week and form a cheering section. The work of the local church involves everybody.

And the first measurement is the measure of the gift of Christ. Have you discovered your gift? Are you developing your gift? And have you dedicated your gift to serve God? Now, there are so many different gifts. You'll find some listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

You'll find some listed in Romans chapter 12. And they cover the whole gamut of ministry. Some have a gift of teaching, and some have a gift of giving, and some have a gift of leading and ministering.

Some have a gift of showing mercy. There are so many different gifts. And the first measurement is, are the people of the Moody church discovering, developing, and dedicating their gifts? Now, he names in particular apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

You see, not only does the Holy Spirit give gifts to people, but he gives gifted people to the church. It's hard for some of you to believe this, but a pastor is meant to be a gift to the church. We don't have today, as I see it, apostles and prophets.

If you look back at chapter 2 and verse 20, you'll discover the apostles and the prophets were the foundation servants of the church. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. You don't keep laying the foundation.

The apostles were sent out, the prophets were sent out to lay the foundation of the church. And now we're building on that church with evangelists and pastor, teacher. Pastors and teachers does not signify two offices, but one office with two sides to it.

Pastor means shepherd. Teacher, of course, means one who instructs. And the pastor shepherds the flock by teaching the word.

The Bible is the shepherd's crook, the shepherd's rod and staff. It is the pasture into which the pastor leads the flock. So we don't have apostles today because in order to be an apostle, you had to have seen the risen Christ.

We don't have prophets today as we understand it in the New Testament sense. We have evangelists who go out to share the good news of gospel. And we have pastor teachers who build up the church.

The evangelist is the obstetrician and the pastor teacher is the pediatrician. And the evangelist helps to bring the spiritual children into the world. And the pastor teacher helps to raise them in the things of the Lord.

However, in as much as we don't have apostles and prophets, we still have somewhat of this function. The apostle was one who was sent out into virgin territory to preach the gospel and build a church. Our missionaries are somewhat close to this, although they are not officially apostles.

The prophets were men who took the word of God and applied it to the local situation, the need of the hour. And we have some men like that today. And so there is a sense in which there's an apostolic ministry in sending out missionaries.

There's a sense in which there's a prophetic ministry in applying the word of God to the social needs of the world today. And of course, we still have evangelists who go out to win souls. We have pastors and teachers who build up the Saints.

The trouble is, in many places, these four get out of balance. Oh, it's so difficult to keep a church in balance. Wouldn't it be an awful thing if all of a sudden your right leg became two feet longer than your left leg? You'd have a rough time.

Or if your right arm were several feet longer than your left arm, you want to keep your body in balance. Every time I go to buy a suit, they have to work on it because my body, like most people, is a little bit out of balance. I spent ten years in the hills of Kentucky, and I think one leg is maybe two inches longer than the other one from going around the mountains.

But be that as it may, you have to have balance in your body. You go to some churches, and all you hear is missions. That's all you hear.

Other churches, all you hear is soul winning. Other places, all you hear are social issues. Other churches, all you hear is Bible teaching, Bible teaching.

And we get out of balance. I said, you measure your church to see if you're in balance. Are the gifts being developed and discovered, and is everything in balance? Is the whole body a tongue? Is the whole body an eye? Is the whole body a hand? No.

The gifts have been given, and the first standard of measurement is the measure of the gift of Christ. Are we discovering, developing, and using our gifts, and are we balanced? Now, the second measure is given in verses 12 through 15, the measure of the stature of Christ. As the gifts function, the church grows.

Why were pastors and teachers and evangelists given, verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, the equipping of the saints? The word perfect here does not mean sinless. What it means is the equipping, the job of the pastor, teacher, and the evangelist is to equip the saints, for what? Unto the work of the ministry, for what? Unto the building up of the body of Christ. Now, why do the saints gather together? That the servant of God might take the word of God and teach it to you.

You know how you get equipped? You get equipped through the word of God. There's no other way. In fact, Paul wrote this to Timothy when he said that the man of God is perfect, truly furnished unto all good works through the word of God.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. That's what is right. For reproof, that's what's not right.

For correction, that's how to get right. For instruction in righteousness, that's how to stay right. That's what the Bible does for you.

The Bible tells you what is right, that's doctrine. What is not right, that's reproof. How to get right, that's correction.

How to stay right, that's instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished, same word, unto all good works. In other words, it's the word of God that equips you.

Whether the word of God is sung by the choir, sung by the congregation, or taught by the pastor, it's the word of God that equips us. Equips us to do what? To do the work of the ministry. I thought we paid the pastor to do the work of the ministry.

No. Now the pastor's job, whether it's one pastor or a multiplied number of pastors, is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. So that each one is discovering his gift, developing his gift, coming to God's house, being fed, being disciplined by the word, and being equipped to go out and do the job.

What happens? The edifying of the body of Christ. Now, how do you measure this growth? By the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. He's talking about the maturity of the local church.

He's talking about an assembly of God's people growing up. You say, well, don't all the saints grow up? No. The saints at Corinth didn't grow up.

Paul said, oh, I long to feed you with meat, but I can't do it. I've got to give you milk because you're just babies. You've been saved long enough to be teachers, but you're just babies.

I thank God for the spiritual growth that we see here at the Moody Church, because nobody wants to be a part of a church made up of a bunch of babies. Now, as new Christians come along, the babies are born into the family. We help them to grow.

That's why you need the church. I know all the faults of the church. You can't tell me too many more that I don't know.

I know all the faults of the ministry. I've been in it for 25 years. By now you know my weaknesses and I know yours.

But the interesting thing is we still love each other. And because we love each other, we live together and we work together and we build each other up. Now, Paul says we don't want to be children.

You can always tell a church made up of spiritual infants who have never grown up. It's unstable. Children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine.

Instability and ignorance. They don't understand the word of God. They believe everything they see on television, everything they hear on the radio, every magazine that comes to the front door.

Paul said, look, when your pastor, teacher feeds you the word of God and you grow, you stop being a little child tossed to and fro. You have discernment and stability and you aren't easily fooled. I would remind you that verse 14 says that there are crafty, cunning, sneaky, lying, religious gamblers running around wanting to rook you.

If I wanted to start a racket, I'd start a religious racket. And we have a lot of religious rackets. Paul's warning them here.

He says, children believe anything. Children will believe anybody. Ah, but mature people don't.

And so the ministry of the word of God helps you to mature so you don't believe every wind of doctrine. You aren't caught by every religious trick that comes along. And so there's the measure of the stature of Christ.

In other words, the church is to become more like Christ. Verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up into him in all things, not just some things, all things. In other words, Moody Church is not to be measured against any other church, nor is any other church to be measured against the Moody Church.

We do exhort each other and we do provoke each other to good works, but we're to be measured by Jesus Christ. That's the test. Are we becoming as a church more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ? When visitors come in and worship with us, do they go away and say, you know, I felt the presence of the Lord.

Now, the church can't become more and more like Christ until individuals in the church become more and more like Christ. And this is why we grow. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now, verse 16 gives us the third standard. Standard number one, the measure of the gift of Christ. Have we discovered and developed and used our gifts? Measure number two, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Are we growing up out of immaturity into maturity, out of spiritual childhood into spiritual adulthood? Are we becoming more like the Savior? Now, verse 16 is the third standard, the measure of every part. What does he mean by that? Is every believer participating in some way in the ministry of the church? Notice what he says here, from whom the whole body, not just the pastoral staff or the elders or the deacons or the trustees or the ushers or the friendly Bible class or the joint heirs class or the primary department, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint suppliant, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, did you get those words? Whole body, every joint, every part. The trouble is, too many of you people confuse ministry with office.

You think that because you don't have an office, you don't have a ministry, and that's a lie. If I understand my New Testament, you only have certain offices in the church. You have elders and deacons.

We have trustees so that the governor is happy with our organization. There are people who are teachers. We have pastors.

Pastor and elder and bishop are three names for the same particular ministry. But there are only so many offices. But you don't have to have an office to have a ministry.

The fact of the matter is, those of us who have offices could not perform our ministries if you weren't there. My responsibility is not to come once a week and report on what I did all week. I could do that if you wanted.

My responsibility is to pray and to prepare so that week by week, service by service, I feed you and the Word of God equips you so you can go back to that office and back to that school or wherever you have to go and serve God. We say the service is now over. That's a lie.

When we say amen, the service begins. You walk out of these buildings and start to serve the Lord wherever you may be. That's the New Testament concept of the church.

And you measure the church not by how many are on the staff. We thank God for our staff. Not by how many are holding offices.

We thank God for our officers. You measure the church by how many individuals are busy making their contribution to the whole ministry. That's a marvelous thing.

Because he tells us here that every part of the body is important. Now, three times in this passage he's talked about love. You notice that? Back in chapter 4, verse 2, forbearing one another in love.

And then down in verse 15, speaking the truth in love. Verse 16, the edifying of itself in love. Would you hear this statement and never forget it? The circulatory system of the body of Christ is love.

When there's an atmosphere of love, when people patiently forbear one another in love, when they speak the truth but they speak it in love, and when they build one another up in love, there is such an atmosphere that God can work. But where there's criticism and jealousy and envy and strife, then that cuts off the circulation. Then the Holy Spirit can't work.

So that each one of us has the responsibility of developing his gift and using his gift and doing it in love. Not in rivalry like the Church of Corinth. I'm for Paul and I'm for Apollos.

I speak in tongues. No, no. The gifts were not given as weapons to fight with and the gifts were not given as tools to play with.

The gifts were given as toys to play with. The gifts were given as tools to build with. I don't know what your gifts may be, but the Holy Spirit of God wants to use you to make a contribution to the whole ministry of Moody Church.

Nobody may ever see you do it except God. But who cares whether anybody else sees you ministering. God's the one who gives the rewards and God's the one who does the final judging.

Here then are three measurements for this church and for my life, for your life. The measure of the gift of Christ. Have we discovered our gifts? And having discovered them, have we developed them? And having developed them, are we using them in love to the glory of God? Now, you don't discover and develop your gifts in isolation.

You do this as a part of a local body of believers. I recall shortly after I was saved, somebody asked me to make a speech. And so I made a speech.

And somebody said to me, do you ever think of the ministry? Oh, I'm going to be a school teacher. That was my plan. I was going to be a school teacher.

They asked me to teach a Sunday school class. And I began to teach a Sunday school class and began to enjoy teaching the word of God and discovered God had given me, for his glory, a gift of teaching. I would never have found that out sitting home listening to the radio.

I would never have found that out sitting home waiting for somebody to invent TV. I discovered it in the fellowship of loving people who put up with my mistakes and loved me and encouraged me. Now, this is what happens in a church.

We don't sit and criticize each other or compare one another. We just simply say, God bless you and I'll find what your gift is and do in love the measure of the gift of Christ. Now, while you're doing this, we have standard number two.

We're all becoming more like Christ, not more like Pastor Weersbe, not more like Deacon Jones, but more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, friends, that's going to take a lot of time and a lot of prayer. And then while we're doing that, we're involving other people.

We must constantly be on the watch at Moody Church. Is somebody on the outside who ought to be in here serving? Has somebody been neglected and left out who ought to have a place of ministry? Well, you say in a large church like this, how do you do that with each person being concerned about somebody else? That's the only way. You have a responsibility.

My responsibility is to equip you. Your responsibility is to go out and do the work of the ministry. And if I do the equipping and you do the ministering, then we grow the job of the evangelist.

And there are people in this church who have a gift of evangelism. Their job is not to go out and do it for us. Their job is to help equip us to do it with them until one day the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and then we'll find out how spiritual Moody Church really was.

I think it's a marvelous thing to belong to a local body of believers. It's a wonderful thing to share your gifts with God's people and to build up his church in love. Now, some of you are on the outside.

You've never been saved at all. You've never received the gift of eternal life. You ought to come today and give your heart to Christ.

And then instead of using your life to tear down, start using your life to build up. Instead of using your time and your energy to sin, start using your time and your energy to serve. There are some of you Christians who are staying in the background.

It may be humility, it may be modesty, it may just be fear, but my friend, discover your gift. And in the context of the loving family of God, develop that gift and use that gift because every gift is important in the building up of the body. Gracious Father, the miracle of your church overwhelms us.

Oh, how marvelous that each part has a function and each function is important. Oh, we don't want to be out of balance here at Moody Church, either in our lives individually or our work collectively. Lord, keep us in balance.

Help us not to get out of balance in any area, but to grow together and become more like the Lord Jesus. As we measure our ministry, help us to do so with spiritual discernment that will not be led astray by the slight of man and the craftiness of Satan. Measure our lives, oh God, and help us to become more like Jesus Christ.

This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.