Reaching for the Goal - Ephesians 4:13

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. 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 over in your Bibles with me now to the book of Ephesians. I should ask real quick, We're spread out, kind of a 180 here. Can you guys hear me over here when I'm talking to them? What about you all? Can you hear me when I'm talking? Okay, good.

All right, we are in the book of Ephesians, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Ephesians, or no, that's not right, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Ephesians chapter four, And today we'll read verses 7 through 16, and we'll be looking specifically at verses 12 and 13. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning at verse 9, hear now the Word of God.

Now this He ascended, what does it mean, but that He also first ascended, but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens, that He might fill all things. 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, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the crafty cunningness 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 in it together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying to itself in love.

Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's Word. The grass withers. Brothers and sisters, the flower will fade away. But the Word of our God endures forever. This morning we look specifically at verse 13. And I want to start off with just acknowledging something all of us know. And yet, we are Iowa nice. We won't say it. You don't like everybody in the church equally. Okay, the elephant in the room is acknowledged. You don't like everyone in the church equally. If you're honest, there are times people in the church, they bug you, don't they?

You can say it, we're people. But God has given the church, He's united you, He's made you as a church, as a body, for a reason. He's made us with certain gifts. He has given you teachers and the apostles and the prophets and evangelists to equip you and train you. He has made you in certain ways ready for ministry. And why has He given us all these things? Well, that's what we look at today.

What is the goal of the church? We've talked a lot about what the church is. We've talked a lot about what God has given to the church. We have looked at and been defining what is the church, but we haven't talked about what is the goal. What is the goal of the church?

And today, brothers and sisters, I admonish you, I encourage you, I exhort you to reach for the goal of Jesus Christ. Reach for nothing less than the goal of Jesus Christ. And the first place we start with that is in verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith, to the unity of the faith. Brothers and sisters, reach for unity in Christ. Reach for unity in Christ. Together. Together, reach for unity in Christ. The word here, till we all come to the unity of faith is this idea that we together are running a race seeking to grab on to a prize.

This isn't an individual race. Actually, one of the enemies to church unity, one of the enemies that we especially face in our Western culture, is what we pride ourselves so much on as Americans. Individualism. But the church isn't individualism. The church is the body of Christ. The church is us striving together. It's us working with one another. It's us striving with one another. It's us longing for Jesus Christ and encouraging unity together.

Remember that we have a foundation for unity. We looked at that earlier in chapter four. Just turn the page or lift up your eyes to verses three through six. endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were also called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, who is above all and through all and in all. We have a foundation for unity, and we strive towards that goal, towards more and more unity together.

Together we strive for unity in Jesus Christ. Now we have to look out, it is Jesus Christ that is that goal of unity. Again, look at me at verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Till we all come to the unity of faith.

Second Point

Brothers and sisters, if you're keeping notes, the second point would be strive for unity of faith. for unity of faith in Jesus Christ. We looked just a few weeks ago at the gifts that God has equipped each one of you with. God has, by His Holy Spirit, given each one of you certain gifts. And He is preparing each one of you for certain ministries to do. But all of the ministries of the church All of your activities, all of your giftedness is meant to spur one another on toward Christ. Toward something bigger than yourself.

There's a movie that came out, oh, it was probably a decade ago. Have you seen the movie Miracle? where the US Olympic hockey team takes on the Soviet Union. It's amazing what happens in that movie. There's a team that's brought together. There's a team that, as soon as they are picked for the team, they really are a team.

They all play together. They're all practicing together. And yet, what do they find? is that even though they are together, there's a lack of cohesiveness, isn't there? They don't know who they're playing for, they don't know what they're joined together for, until life beats them down, until Kirchhoff beats them down, and they skate, and they skate, and they skate, and they skate, and they skate into the night, all night, until finally they're broken down together, until the pressures of life have beat them down, And finally they realize they're not playing for themselves. They're playing as a team. They're playing as a family. And it's then, it's then that they have unity. There are degrees of unity as they move towards a goal.

And our goal, your goal, is Jesus Christ. That we have unity in Jesus Christ. That He is the object of our faith. That He is the goal of our faith. This is why Paul in 1 Corinthians says, I determined to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified. Why are we together if it's not for growing in grace in Christ? That is where we find unity. That is where we grow together. If we ever lose sight of the goal of the glory of Jesus Christ, we have to ask ourselves, are we really a Christian church anymore?

I'm also going to encourage you that there is a type of unity that's fake. There is a type of unity that everybody just gets together, And again, we're really Iowa nice to one another. We smile. We keep it in. We don't talk about our problems. We don't actually get to the nitty gritty of life.

I was just listening to a story, a tragic story of a woman named Jennifer, who had been abused by her father for years. And she went to a Bible study. And as she went into this Bible study, Before the study had happened, they were dealing with a text that was going to profoundly hurt her because it spoke into the reality of her abuse. And as she told the women's Bible study this, they said, oh, we don't talk about that type of stuff here.

Brothers and sisters, we were made for this. God made you to deal with the nitty gritties of life, that we are united around the hope of Jesus Christ. And it is here, it is here that we deal with the hard realities of life. It is here that as broken vessels we come, and God makes us new. It is here that God grows us as we deal with the realities of life.

It is here that we have true unity, because we don't hide away from the hard realities of life. We don't hide away from sin. We don't hide away from what's going on in someone else's life. But when we see our brothers and sisters struggling, we don't go to them with judgmentalism. But brothers and sisters, we bring Christ. We show them the love of Christ. We remind them of the words of Christ. remind them of the blood of Christ. We have unity in one faith and in the knowledge of the very Son of God. If we want unity, we must focus, we must fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

Third Point

But as we strive for that unity, As we strive for that goal, we are seeking the perfect man. The idea here of perfect man, I think I would translate it differently. You might think of the mature man, the complete man. So the third point might go something like strive together to be a mature Christian church. The word here Complete man.

The idea is directly tied to what we looked at last week in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. That the Word of God is inspired. It's breathed out. And what is it profitable? It's profitable for correction, for reproof, for training in righteousness. And then verse 17. that the man of God might be thoroughly equipped, complete for every good work. Where do we find the idea of unity and being built up?

What is the tool that God has given? It's right here. It's in the Scriptures. We go to God's Word. It is our standard. It is our rule for faith and life. You go to God's Word to be equipped. We go to God's Word to be reproved. We take God's Word to someone, to one of our brothers and sisters, and we say, I know that you love Jesus Christ. I know that you believe the Gospel, and I love you.

And because I love you, I know that you're engaged in this sin, and so I want to show you where that is, and please repent from that sin. See again, it's not being Iowa nice, it's not just gathering together and making our hearts feel better, but God desires for you to use His Word to be built up in the faith that we together as a church might be mature.

But where do we look to for that maturity? What is our example? What's our goal? What's the standard set for us? It's Jesus Christ Himself. Again, look with me at verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of who? Of Christ. Of Christ.

Oh, we want to be more like Christ. Children, children, you come and you hear sermons because we want you to be more like Christ. Parents, you teach your children because you want them to be more like Christ. Siblings, God gave you siblings in the church because He wants you to make them more like Christ. Brothers and sisters, God gave you husbands and wives that you might bring them and make them more and more like Christ.

We look to Christ as He models compassion. Just this morning, if you're one of those who follows along with coffee and devotions each morning, we looked at Jesus in Mark chapter 1, and as a leper came to Jesus, Jesus looks at him, and he has compassion on him.

This man who's a reject, separate, unclean from everyone else, who everyone else would turn their back and walk away from because they didn't want to become unclean? Jesus shows compassion to him. He touches him and he heals him. Are you willing to step into the messiness of each other's lives?

We look at Jesus and we see the standard of humility. We look at Jesus and what do we see? We see someone who is God himself, who created the universe. and yet humbled himself into the likeness of a man. We're humble because Christ is our measure of humility.

We look to Jesus Christ and we see what it is to be a servant. We turn in the Gospels and we see Jesus Christ washing His disciples' feet and saying, I did not come to be served, but to serve. Oh, we reach to become like Jesus Christ. We want to be conformed to Jesus Christ. We look to Jesus Christ and we see that He was not afraid to hold grace and truth in balance. We look at Jesus Christ and we see what biblical boldness looks like.

We see Jesus calling hypocrisy what it is. We see Jesus, and we have a model for righteous anger. We see Jesus when He walks into the temple, and we see Him with His own hands, grab onto those money changers' table, and with all of His force, throw the tables over. And with righteous zeal, admonish those who have turned God's house from a house of prayer into a den of thieves.

What is the goal that we are reaching for? It's no less than Jesus Christ. Now this does not mean that you are going to obtain that perfection in this life. We're never going to reach that bar. We're always going to fall short. But that is the goal until our dying breath But one day church, one day as individuals, you are going to die. But when you die, you'll obtain that goal.

When you die, and you are ushered in to the very throne room of God, and you sit before His face, What does He say to His servants? Well done, good and faithful servants. What is He going to say to His church when He comes back again on that great day of judgment? Oh, He is going to see His church and He is going to love His bride. Are we prepared for Him to come? Are you ready for your Savior to come tomorrow? Are you building up your spouse? Are you caring for your neighbor? Are you loving your children? Are you loving your grandchildren? Are you showing them Christ?

Closing Prayer

Oh, brothers and sisters, there is a sweet unity we have when we fix our eyes upon Jesus and as He conforms us together as His church into the image of His own Son. Strive for that goal, not out of legalism, but in grace. Strive for the goal of Jesus Christ, out of a love for your Savior, with regenerate hearts. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, I thank you so much for the blessing it is to see your church this morning. Lord, thank you for the blessing it is. Lord, as I see the growth in your people week in and week out, Lord, thank you for the hungering and thirsting for righteousness that your people have. God, I pray that you would never let us stop searching and reaching that we might obtain the goal Lord, please, do not forsake your church, but Lord, conform us to the image of your Son. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in 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.