God’s Gifts to His People: Equipping the Saints of His Church for Service. Ephesians 4:7 – 13

Ephesians 4:7-13 Amplified Bible

⁷ Yet grace [God’s undeserved favor] was given to each one of us [not indiscriminately, but in different ways] in proportion to the measure of Christ’s [rich and abundant] gift. ⁸ Therefore it says,

“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And He bestowed gifts on men.”

⁹ (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had  previously descended [from the heights of heaven] into the lower parts of the earth?  ¹⁰ He who descended is the very same as He who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things [that is, the whole universe]).  ¹¹ And [His gifts to the church were varied and] He Himself appointed some as apostles [special messengers, representatives], some as prophets [who speak a new message from God to the people], some as evangelists [who spread the good news of salvation], and some as pastors and teachers [to shepherd and guide and instruct],  ¹² [and He did this] to fully equip and perfect the saints (God’s people) for works of service, to build up the body of Christ [the church]; ¹³ until we all reach oneness in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, [growing spiritually] to become a mature believer, reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ [manifesting His spiritual completeness and exercising our spiritual gifts in unity].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

God’s Gifts to His People …

Ephesians 4:11-13 Amplified Bible

¹¹ And [His gifts to the church were varied and] He Himself appointed some as apostles [special messengers, representatives], some as prophets [who speak a new message from God to the people], some as evangelists [who spread the good news of salvation], and some as pastors and teachers [to shepherd and guide and instruct], ¹² [and He did this] to fully equip and perfect the saints (God’s people) for works of service, to build up the body of Christ [the church];  ¹³ until we all reach oneness in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, [growing spiritually] to become a mature believer, reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ [manifesting His spiritual completeness and exercising our spiritual gifts in unity].

The basic premise is this: God always cares for the well-being of the church.

The other basic premise is this: We the saints of His church will sometimes care for His church by the same measure by which God always cares for His church.

Christ himself made provision for the building up of its members by equipping various individuals with the varied, diverse gifts needed to achieve that goal.

Everything needed in the church is covered by this provision.

The function that each person fulfills will, of course, vary, but within that diversity of functions is a unity of purpose: “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”

Sometimes we tend to give credit to individuals for their leadership in the church—and we forget the Giver of those leadership skills. It’s good to be reminded that it is “Christ himself” who does the equipping. It is appropriate for us to be diligent, prudent, in humility about the gifts that are given us.

The gifts we receive are not merely for personal enhancement. The one purpose of all the gifts Christ gives is to max benefit others so that they are empowered to render “their works of service”—“that the body of Christ may be built up.”

The church as an institution serves a variety of social and relational functions, but the most important of these is that all of the membership of the church be strengthened so the ministry and mission and work of God in the world can be made more evident, far more effectively and far more efficiently carried out.

… to equip His people for works of service …

Ephesians 4:11-13 Complete Jewish Bible

¹¹ Furthermore, he gave some people as emissaries, some as prophets, some as proclaimers of the Good News, and some as shepherds and teachers. ¹² Their task is to equip God’s people for the work of service that builds the body of the Messiah,  ¹³ until we all arrive at the unity implied by trusting and knowing the Son of God, at full manhood, at the standard of maturity set by the Messiah’s perfection.

When we chance to compare present-day churches to the original blueprint, we will surely see that many deviations have been permitted which are detrimental to the life of the church. The church has gradually turned away from the simple provisions which made it such a powerful force in its early years, and terrible distortions have entered into the church which continue to weaken the church.

Popular fashionable, thinking has fastened onto the church building as the identifying symbol of the church. Emphasis was placed upon massive ornate cathedrals and campuses with stained glass windows and flying buttresses.

In the beginning, working in the church meant to exercise a gift or perform a ministry anywhere within the vast far-reaching body of Christ, in a home, in a neighborhood, a community, out on a mission field, leper colony, in a hospital.

Gradually, however, working in the church came to mean performing some religious act, liturgist, usher, within a specific building called the church. 

While at the same time, there was a gradual transfer of ministry responsibility from the people, the congregations, whom we do now call the laity, to the few pastors, whom we now call the clergy – clergy run churches, laity in their pews.

1 Peter 2:1-12 Amplified Bible

As Newborn Babes

2 So put aside every trace of malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander and hateful speech; ² like newborn babies [you should] long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may be nurtured and grow in respect to salvation [its ultimate fulfillment], ³ if in fact you have [already] tasted ^[a]the goodness and  gracious kindness of the Lord.

As Living Stones

⁴ Come to Him [the risen Lord] as to a living Stone which men rejected and  threw away, but which is choice and precious in the sight of God. ⁵ You [believers], like living stones, are ^[b]being built up into a spiritual house for a holy and dedicated priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For this is contained in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a chosen stone, a precious (honored) Cornerstone,
And he who believes in Him [whoever adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him]  will never be disappointed [in his expectations].”

⁷ This precious value, then, is for you who believe [in Him as God’s only Son—the Source of salvation]; but for those who disbelieve,

“The [very] stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief Cornerstone,”

⁸ and,

“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”;

for they stumble because they disobey the word [of God], and to this they [who reject Him as Savior] were also appointed.

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people [at all], but now you are  God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges [those dishonorable desires] that wage war against the soul.  ¹² Keep your behavior excellent among the [unsaved] Gentiles [conduct yourself honorably, with graciousness and integrity], so that ^[c]for whatever reason they may slander you as evildoers, yet by observing your good deeds they may [instead come to] glorify God ^[d]in the day of visitation [when He looks upon them with mercy].

The scriptural concept that every believer is a priest before God was lost, and a special class of super-Christians emerged who were looked to for everything.

Somehow, the church lost sight of the concept that all Christians, without any allowable exceptions, are in the shared work, ministry, mission of Jesus Christ.

When the ministry was left to the professionals, there was nothing left for the people to do other than come to church, chat it up, sit in their pews and listen.

They were told that it was their responsibility to bring the world into the church building to hear the pastor preach the Gospel. Soon this Christianity became little more than a Sunday morning spectator sport, much like the definition of football: twenty-two men down on the field, desperately in need of plays, and a hundred plus thousands in those grandstands, desperately in need of exercise!

This unbiblical distortion has resulted in an impoverished church which has made little impact on the world and increasingly withdraws into irrelevance and isolation. We desperately need to return to the dynamic of the early church.

We can no longer defend our ivy-clad, ivory towered traditions which leave no room for the original, Holy Spirit power-packed strategy.

Pastors must restore to the people the ministry which was taken from them with the best of intentions.

The work of the ministry belongs to the entire body of believers, who should be being equipped by those who are gifted by God to expound and apply His Word.

The entire body has received gifts from the Holy Spirit, and it is the task of those in the pastoral ministry to encourage the entire body to use those gifts.

Isaiah 58:1-12 Complete Jewish Bible

58 Shout out loud! Don’t hold back!
Raise your voice like a shofar!
Proclaim to my people what rebels they are,
to the house of Ya‘akov their sins.

² “Oh yes, they seek me day after day
and [claim to] delight in knowing my ways.
As if they were an upright nation
that had not abandoned the rulings of their God,
they ask me for just rulings
and [claim] to take pleasure in closeness to God,
³ [asking,] ‘Why should we fast, if you don’t see?
Why mortify ourselves, if you don’t notice?’

“Here is my answer: when you fast,
you go about doing whatever you like,
while keeping your laborers hard at work.
⁴ Your fasts lead to quarreling and fighting,
to lashing out with violent blows.
On a day like today, fasting like yours
will not make your voice heard on high.

⁵ “Is this the sort of fast I want,
a day when a person mortifies himself?
Is the object to hang your head like a reed
and spread sackcloth and ashes under yourself?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day that pleases Adonai?

⁶ “Here is the sort of fast I want —
releasing those unjustly bound,
untying the thongs of the yoke,
letting the oppressed go free,
breaking every yoke,
⁷ sharing your food with the hungry,
taking the homeless poor into your house,
clothing the naked when you see them,
fulfilling your duty to your kinsmen!”

⁸ Then your light will burst forth like the morning,
your new skin will quickly grow over your wound;
your righteousness will precede you,
and Adonai’s glory will follow you.
⁹ Then you will call, and Adonai will answer;
you will cry, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you will remove the yoke from among you,
stop false accusation and slander,
¹⁰ generously offer food to the hungry
and meet the needs of the person in trouble;
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your gloom become like noon.
¹¹ Adonai will always guide you;
he will satisfy your needs in the desert,
he will renew the strength in your limbs;
so that you will be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
¹² You will rebuild the ancient ruins,
raise foundations from ages past,
and be called “Repairer of broken walls,
Restorer of streets to live in.”

When we have given, equipped, restored, renewed, refreshed all Christians in the body their God-given role as ministers of God’s eternal plan, then lives are going to be changed, transformed. The church begins to be a difference again.

Ancient Ruins will be rebuilt …

Razed foundations from ages past will be re-raised.

Ancient broken shattered Walls are rebuilt, refreshed and repurposed …

Dilapidated, Wrecked and Ruined Streets are returned to the people to live in.

And Adonai will always be there to guide us, to provision us and to sustain us.

Proverbs 29:18 Amplified Bible

¹⁸ 
Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained;
But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God].

What is our current definition of the church? How much prophetic vision does it need to be conformed, transformed to God’s idea of what the church should be?

Psalm 84:9-10 Easy-to-Read Version

⁹ God, watch over the king, our protector.^[a]
    Be kind to him, the one you have chosen.
¹⁰ One day in your Temple is better
    than a thousand days anywhere else.
Serving as a guard at the gate of my God’s house is better
    than living in the homes of the wicked.

How well does our 2024 interpretation of “God’s church” match up with God’s?

Do we have enough trust and faith in God tear down our failed, fault-filled, deeply flawed effort, to rebuild it, to give God His real live vision of church?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 84 Complete Jewish Bible

84 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of the sons of Korach:

^2 (1) How deeply loved are your dwelling-places,
Adonai-Tzva’ot!
^3 (2) My soul yearns, yes, faints with longing
for the courtyards of Adonai;
my heart and body cry for joy
to the living God.

^4 (3) As the sparrow finds herself a home
and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young,
[so my resting-place is] by your altars,
Adonai-Tzva’ot, my king and my God.

^5 (4) How happy are those who live in your house;
they never cease to praise you! (Selah)
^6 (5) How happy the man whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are [pilgrim] highways.

^7 (6) Passing through the [dry] Baka Valley,
they make it a place of springs,
and the early rain clothes it with blessings.
^8 (7) They go from strength to strength
and appear before God in Tziyon.

^9 (8) Adonai, God of armies, hear my prayer;
listen, God of Ya‘akov. (Selah)
^10 (9) God, see our shield [the king];
look at the face of your anointed.
^11 (10) Better a day in your courtyards
than a thousand [days elsewhere].
Better just standing at the door of my God’s house
than living in the tents of the wicked.

^12 (11) For Adonai, God, is a sun and a shield;
Adonai bestows favor and honor;
he will not withhold anything good
from those whose lives are pure.

^13 (12) Adonai-Tzva’ot,
how happy is anyone who trusts in you!

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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