Ephesians 4:11-16

Equipped for a Good Work

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Welcome to God’s Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.Sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life.

Well, will you turn your Bibles with me now to the book of Ephesians? The book of Ephesians, and we’ll continue our series on The Church Defined. Ephesians chapter 4, and this morning we’ll be reading verses 11 through 16. Ephesians 4:11-16. Ephesians 4:11-16, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” The grass withers and the flower fades, but, brothers and sisters, the Word of our God endures forever.

One of the beautiful things about moving to Iowa is I've gotten to fall back in love with a sport that I played in high school. Y’all really love your wrestling. And I was absolutely thrilled to find out that in Iowa, pee-wee wrestling is a major thing. And one of the fun things has been, this past year, watching the University of Iowa's wrestling team do a great job. I know some of you might cringe at that word, but there were amazing matches and it was really fun as I was watching some of the old videos from the NCAA championship a year or two ago, and it was amazing seeing the distinctive mark of a wrestler and their coaches. They all had that cauliflower ear. And the point that I was struck by was these wrestling coaches, who had been wrestlers. They had been part of the team. And even at the University of Virginia, one of the main coaches had just been a wrestler a year or two before.

Well, in the church, we are not meant to stay watching the sport. The church is not a spectator sport, but we are meant to be on the mat. And we are not just meant to be on the mat, but we are meant to grow in our skill. We are meant to thrive. And indeed, some of you are called by God to become coaches. Even yourself, at one point, to become officers of the church yourself. And here, in Ephesians 4:11-12, we find out that each one of us are being equipped for a good work. So, the question is: what is the good work that God is equipping you for?

So, first thing we need to realize is that you are being equipped. That is what God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, even the teachers and shepherds. Look with me at verses 11 and the first part of verse 12, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors even teachers, for the equipping of the saints.” We need to remember that God saved us by His grace. God saved us even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But we do not stay in that dead state, but God has made you alive by His Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, do you remember what it said? “You were saved by grace through faith,” yes, but you are saved unto good works. Let me read that for you, Ephesians 2:10. It's been a while since we've been there. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,” in advance, “that we should walk in them.” God has prepared you for good works and He is equipping you through the teaching of His Word.

This is an interesting word in Ephesians 4:12 that we are being equipped. The word is also found, it's cognate word, or it's word that's kind of it's cousin is the same word that is found in Second Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, “For all Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped, ready for every good work.” God's Word, taught by the teachers, taught by the shepherds, is what is meant to reprove, to correct, to train, to build you up, that you could be ready to do the good work that God has prepared for you to do. God has prepared for each and every one of us to do good work, to build up the church.

And that's the next point, is that you are not just being equipped for your own sake. The church is not about individualism. What do you come to worship for? That's an honest question. What do you come, why do you come to worship? Are you coming to be entertained? If so, you should have turned on your TV. It would have been a lot better than this! Why do you come? God tells us that we come to magnify His name and worship, as well as to build one another up, to learn, to be equipped. And so, we go into our second part of verse 12 on what that equipping that good work looks like. God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, pastors, and teachers, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.” You might translate that word, “service”. You actually know this Greek word really well: Diakonia. Some of you are deacons. For the work of ministry, God has good work for you to do.

Now, it's important, if you're going to do good work, if you went to go set out and you were going to build a house, you might need a few things. You would need a plan. You would need blueprints, instructions, to tell you how you're to do your work. You would need the necessary skills to know how to frame, how to wire, how to roof. And you would also need a mentor who would help you in that. That is what God is doing in the church. He's given us His plan. He is equipping us and teaching us how to do it and he's given us teachers to explain the Word, for how we build His house.

Now, some of you have ministry right underneath your noses. Some of you have ministry right under your noses. Let me encourage you, you don't have to look to that bigger and better church down the road. That's not our ministry. Let me encourage you, if we looked in our own denomination and said, “Oh, what are they doing in that successful church over there?” Well, we could look at, let's say, North Hills Reformed Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. What's one of their biggest ministries right now? English as a second language to Chinese people living in their community. That's not our ministry!

The question is: what ministry is before you right now? For some of you, that ministry is your own children. For some of you, that ministry is caring for your aging parents. For some of you, that ministry is mentoring and teaching the children in the church. For some of you, that ministry is caring for the poor around us. What is the ministry that God has in Morning Sun and in Mediapolis for us to do as a congregation? What has God given to us to do in our own community? We can stretch that out a little bit further. We might say Wapello, or we might say down to Burlington. But, brothers and sisters, God planted individual churches as members of a larger body. How do we serve the people in our immediate context? What is it? Where can you serve? What can you do?

Let me encourage you: talk to others about this. Talk to the deacons about this. If you want, some of you might feel the desire that someday I would like to be an elder, someday I would like to be a deacon, someday I would like to be a teacher. God tells us that that desire is a good desire. And indeed, if the players do not become coaches, the team will suffer. And this is one reason why God, again, has given us, in His church, opportunities, a plethora of opportunities, to grow, especially in the equipping that He gives us in His Word.

How can you be equipped? By paying attention, paying careful ear, to what you're doing right now. The preaching of His Word. How can you be equipped? Could you join one of the local Bible studies? Will you do what Psalm 119 said that we just sung? Will you take heed to His Word? Bury it in your heart. Is it one of the daily devotionals? Is it starting a reading plan with someone? How is it that you are purposely being equipped, so you might be ready for the good work that God has for you to do now?

Well, each one of us are being equipped for that good work. And as you search for that good work, we also find ourselves at the end of verse 12. At the end of verse 12, we find out that this ministry is meant for something. It's meant for the edifying of the body of Christ. Let me encourage you, this is not the default mode of how we do things. One of the things that I loved doing a few years ago, there was a kids’ show on Netflix. And normally, Netflix is a waste of your time, but not always. But I loved this show that we would watch with our kids. It was called Dinotrux. Dinotrux was this amazing show of, you guessed it, dinosaurs who are also trucks. And the good guys were always trying to build things, but there was, kids do you remember this in the show? There were bad guys, weren't there? And the main bad guy, his name was D-Structs, because the bad guy, after things would be built up, what would he do? He would try to come in and tear things down. And there's a reason that show was made for kids. Regularly parents have to tell their children something like, “We build things up, not tear things down.” If you have been a parent of a child, or if you have had a sibling break your things, or if you have even been a child, you know what it's like just to take pleasure in destroying things just to destroy them.

Well, sadly this happens even in church today. This is what happens when we become backbiting. It is easy for us, as the church, to tear others down with our words. It's easy for us in the church to just fall into judgmentalism. And most of the time when we want to sin by tearing people down, we don't go, “Man, I just want to get mad at this person cause it's going to be fun.” No, it's just from our heart, from that old man, that we sin and we tear down. But as the Scriptures tell us here, God is equipping each one of us to build each other up. When we come here, this is the place where Satan would like nothing more than to sow division and to sow discord. Satan would like nothing more, but for you to fight one another. Satan would like nothing more than to see the church full of people who are just angry, mad, nitpicky, and judgmental.

Thank the Lord that He reminds us of His love and of His grace, because it was Jesus Himself who gave us the pattern of service. It was Jesus Himself who told us in Matthew chapter 20 that if anyone wants to be the greatest among you, may he become the other’s slave. And then He points to Himself and He says, “For I did not come to be served, but to serve.”

Brothers and sisters, may I encourage you, do not be a spectator in the church, but build one another up. May I encourage you not to ask what the church can do for you, but what you can do for the people of God. How have you, this week, cared for others? Is there a phone you can pick up and call someone who's lonely? Is there an email that you can send? Is there encouragement that you can give? Is there discipleship that you can bring someone along? How is it that you can love others? This is a defining mark of who the church is, a congregation of servants. As we love one another, as we care for one another, as we seek each other’s good. Brothers and sisters, God is equipping you. God has given you work of ministry to do. Again, not to earn His favor. Oh, He already loves you. Not to earn your salvation. He's already made you alive. But to build up His body, to bring Him glory. Indeed, that's what He saved us for. That's what He's given you to do. So, what is the good work that He is calling you to do this morning and this week? Pray about it, think about it, and thank Him for the good work that He's given us to do.

Let's pray. “Oh Lord, we thank you for Your grace. We thank you for Your mercy. We thank you for Your love and for Your kindness. Lord, we thank you for Your Holy Spirit that it's alive and working in us. God, we pray that You would care for us this day, that You would bless us. In Jesus’s name, amen.”

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website: Sharonrpc.org. We’d love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa 52640. May God richly bless you this week.