(Audio/Video/Text)
Title: The Complexity of Christ
Intro:
In order to fully grasp what Paul is telling us in verse 13, it’s necessary to back up to the last few verses in Ephesians we’ve been studying. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve been in Ephesians, so here is a brief recap of what we’ve discovered:
Recap and Review:
Backing up to verse 11, we discovered that part of the reason Jesus died was to establish certain roles like apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor/teachers.
Then in verse twelve we learn that the REASON these roles were established was for the equipping of the rest of us.
J.I. Packer puts it this way:
It is not primarily those mentioned in verse 11 who do the work of the ministry, it is the people they equip. Effective teachers help each believer to find their own way of benefitting the rest of the church.
Pastoral Pause specific to Heritage:
Obviously, we are not a large church, but I believe this is an area where our smaller size should serve as somewhat of an advantage for this part of our mission.
Let me give an example as to why:
Years ago there was a young, bright AU student who I had befriended on campus and she was ultimately deciding between our church and another, much larger, very healthy church across town.
Essentially, she asked me why she should come to Heritage instead of the the other church. Well, as you might imagine, this put me in an awkward position because I generally don’t want to “sell” the advantages or disadvantages of one church verses another (unless there is a big theological issue with the other church).
I would much rather partner in prayer that the Spirit would make it clear where a person might end up.
This young woman was particularly bright and she sense my hesitancy. So she rephrased her question:
“Ok, Pastor Ben, how might my experience be different at HBC than at a larger church?”
This was a bit easier for me to answer.
I replied, “Well…at a larger church, as you have opportunity to serve, it will most often be in a pre-established ministry. Essentially they might say “here are your 20 options pick one” whereas at a church our size there is a much higher probability that you would own and be responsible for that particular ministry. I believe one of the advantages of that is that you are much less likely to just be a cog a replaceable cog in a large machine but rather your individual skills and talents and desires and callings can be maximized for the benefit of the body at large.”
Many of you who have gone through membership meetings with me remember me saying that I want you to start praying about something that you uniquely with your skills and talents and desires bring to the table that doesn’t exist at the church. You become more involved as a member for sure but you really become part of the church when the church is different when you’re not here.
The Goal and Endgame:
This brings us full circle back to the point of verse 13.
“…till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the body of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the nature of the fullness of Christ.”
The final goal is that through this equipping we would all come to unity together, (the recurring theme of Ephesians) and this unity is based in two things faith (pistis) that Jesus Christ is real and knowledge (epiginosis) that the body of Christ is absolutely essential for our own growth, accountability, sustaining and difficult times, and, ultimately, for the Glory of God.
We all have pretty strong idea about what faith is and what role it plays. I want to close spending a few minutes on this idea of knowledge and what that knowledge leads to.
I really like the way the NASB renders it:
“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.”
Epiginosis: knowledge
This Greek Word has three components to it:
- Recognition: We know who Jesus truly is.
- Discernment: We understand the implications of that truth.
- Acknowledgement: We serve him as both Lord and Savior.
Conclusion:
So with this layered and comprehensive epiginosis (knowledge), we come to the end of verse 13, that we see Christ as the perfect man, who knew no sin, yet was tempted in all ways as we were, who perfectly fulfilled the mission given by the Father.
This understanding leads us to fully appreciate how reverently and humbly we ought to view Christ because he is so much more layered than what we often reduce him to.
Pray/QA