Post by Les Brewer on Mar 10, 2022 21:56:41 GMT
Perfecting the Saints - Ephesians 4:11-16
Well, we come today to the fourth chapter of Ephesians, and I confess to you that this is a chapter about which I have thought maybe more than most other chapters in the Bible. And it goes all the way back, in particular, to the beginning years at Grace Church when I was seeking from the Lord to understand what was His desire for a church. And it was in those days, as I was searching the Scripture, that I came to the section that we’re going to be looking at this morning: Ephesians 4:11–16. I don’t know that I had really a clear understanding of it, even when I went away to seminary. But in my seminary days I was on the hunt, I have to say, to find the best possible plan to shepherd a church, and do it the way God designed it to do and the way Christ wanted His church to go; and I wound up in this passage more than any other passage. And I’m telling you that because you need to know it’s very hard for me to go over it lightly this morning. It has occupied much of my life, but I want to give you the overview of these very, very important words. Let’s read from verse 11 to 16.
“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
To continue reading this in text format, please follow this next link or scroll down for the recorded message.
www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/49-20/perfecting-the-saints
Well, we come today to the fourth chapter of Ephesians, and I confess to you that this is a chapter about which I have thought maybe more than most other chapters in the Bible. And it goes all the way back, in particular, to the beginning years at Grace Church when I was seeking from the Lord to understand what was His desire for a church. And it was in those days, as I was searching the Scripture, that I came to the section that we’re going to be looking at this morning: Ephesians 4:11–16. I don’t know that I had really a clear understanding of it, even when I went away to seminary. But in my seminary days I was on the hunt, I have to say, to find the best possible plan to shepherd a church, and do it the way God designed it to do and the way Christ wanted His church to go; and I wound up in this passage more than any other passage. And I’m telling you that because you need to know it’s very hard for me to go over it lightly this morning. It has occupied much of my life, but I want to give you the overview of these very, very important words. Let’s read from verse 11 to 16.
“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
To continue reading this in text format, please follow this next link or scroll down for the recorded message.
www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/49-20/perfecting-the-saints
