This sermon deals with one of the most difficult passages in the Bible. Is it “gave gifts,” as Paul quotes (it) in Ephesians 4:8?; or is it “received gifts” as David says in Psalm 68:18?
To Each One of Us Grace was Given According to the Measure of Christ's Gift
Ephesians 4:7-13 with Psalm 68:18
Please turn to Ephesians 3:21. Ephesians 3:21. Our text under study this morning is primarily Ephesians 4:7-13, but I want us to start reading back in 3:21 so that we can sort of pick up with the essence of the contextual flow. We need to get the river of thought that the Holy Spirit was moving Paul to write. The other passage that I want you to turn to is Psalm 68:18. So, you may want to mark Psalm 68:18 in your Bible now. We will turning to it later on in the sermon. In the meantime, please read along with me, starting In Ephesians 3:21 at this time,
"21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Therefore I, [Paul] the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says, 'When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.' 9 (Now this expression, 'He ascended,' what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the set apart ones for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 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."
The title of the sermon this morning is:
"To Each One of Us Grace was Given According to the Measure of Christ's Gift." [prayer]
We have entered into a most difficult passage this morning. It has had the unfortunate fame of being interpreted in just about every way that can be imagined--particularly verses 8 and 9. If each of us were to have a different Study Bible; where each Bible was put out by a different publishing company, we could compare the side notes on this section, (at least those Bibles that have comments on verses 8 and 9) and what we would find is that almost all the opinions differ from one another to some degree. This is not something to cause us any alarm. It is just something for us to be aware of as we put our thinking caps on, and we dive into this fascinating section of God's holy word. I think it is good that we all keep this kind of thing in mind as we consider the subject:
All of us have been given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.
/1/
First we must remember the big theme that Paul has been concentrating upon: Namely,
the glory of Christ; the glory of Christ, and the glory of Christ in the body of Christ, (which is you and me, and all Christians) which is His church, to all generations forever and ever.
It is the mystery of Messiah at work in all of us, and because of God's work, we work. We work in Christ, demonstrating God's grace forever. This is the plan. And with the plan is the result. The result is that God has arranged everything in the New Covenant so that He gets all the glory. So, Paul goes on and urges you and me to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling with which we have been called. Unity is the big issue, so unity is the big issue in the worthy walk. If you are a divisive Christian then you are a sinner who is walking an unworthy walk. You need to repent of your malcontentment with the church, and with your local fellowship that you malign. Running to another fellowship doesn't fix your sin of divisiveness. It only manifests it more in a futile attempt to hide what you have done. God wants us to be humble, gentle, patient, and showing real tolerance for one another in the great law of Christ, (which is the law of the New Covenant), which is love. It is real tolerance--meaning that it is not just an act, where you manifest some sort of concept called passive aggression that you think is OK, yet is so easy to do. It is easy to do because you think you are hiding the real way you feel. But, there is no aggression that is passive. Listen Husbands and wives. Listen young people, in respect to your parents. Listen everyone here in respect to everyone here. There is no such thing as aggression that is passive. It is only aggression cloaked in subtle manifestations. This is why, (in the worthy walk of our calling) we nurture an intense over riding concentration concerning ourselves and what we do in the body, to the body, as the body. In other words, it is both an awareness, and it is a discipline, that we work on. It is Paul's thrust in this section. It is all based upon the fact that unity is the big issue. God wants us to be humble, gentle, patient, and showing real tolerance for one another in real (not feigned) love.
Now, the question before you and me this morning, is:
Why? Why is unity the big issue, where your own personal humbleness, gentleness, and patience, shows authentic tolerance for one another in love?
The answer is because the big focus of God's redemption is the eternal body of Christ that He is building for Himself as the Holy Temple in His Son. In other words, we are it. You are it folks. I'm it. All Christians are it. There is nothing else like us, and there is not supposed to be. We are it in all our failures, and all our triumphs, because we are it in Christ's triumph that never fails. There is only one hope of our calling in God's big focus that He actuated in His New Covenant. There is only one Lord for any of us. There is only one faith. It is the faith that God is concerned with, where people believe in the Messiah as Lord and Savior, as the true religion of the world. Judaism is defunct. There is no more glory in the Old Covenant Mosaic Law, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, Galatians 3, and Hebrews 8, (the three Musketeers of New Covenant Theology). There is only one immersion, (from the Greek word baptizo). There is only one immersion now. It is not into water. It is immersion into a person. The person is the only Messiah that ever was, is, and ever will be, as we read Paul saying in other places,
"Or do you not know that all of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus have been immersed into His death?" Romans 6:3
"For all of you who were immersed into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." Galatians 3:27
Christ is the one summation of all of God's work with humanity on this planet. So, God puts us there, in Him, in an immersion that is both a kind of positional metaphor, but also, an immersion that is much, much, more than symbolic. It is an immersion that is a real miracle wrought by the One Spirit. And so, yes, there is also only one Spirit, and one body now, and in fact, the one Spirit is the miracle worker Who immerses us into the one body in respect to being immersed into Christ, as we read,
"13 For by one Spirit we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." 1 Corinthians 12:13
You are made, folks, by the one eternal Spirit, Who is very God in the triune Godhead, to drink of the same Holy Spirit. The immersion is into one body. Yes, we are it. We are that one body. It all comes back to Christ who is all in all of us. All of this is unity of the one. These are awesome truths of the completion and singularity of this great thing that God is doing with us as His church creation, and they are summed in the great statements that Paul made earlier in Ephesians 1:22-23, where we read that,
"22 [God] put all things in subjection under [Messiah's] feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23
Ask yourself this question:
Does the One Christ really fill all of us, in all of us?
If you have not been wasting your time and mine here in Ephesians, then you know that the answer is yes. And then we see here in 4:6, the same type of declaration, where there is,
"6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:6
Or to make it clearer, we body-people need to think of it this way:
There is one God and Father of all of us who is over all of us and through all of us and in all of us.
How can we get enough of this beautiful revelation of our endearing and enduring relationship with our Father through, and in, His Son, in the completion of the work of the eternal covenant Hebrews 13:20? God has made this beautiful thing that we are, in togetherness. So, we really need to be glorifying Him in what we are. We must not take it for granted. The beautiful thing that you are, is the body of Christ, and God wants all of us to be united emotionally, doctrinally, and in our attitudes, in maturity in the one new man of the one body. This glorifies Him immensely. You see, what I am trying to say here, is that Christ resurrected with healed scars. Folks, you and I are healed scars as the body of Christ. We all are rescued derelicts, who have been heroically made into members of His body. And so what God wants is coordination of the body members, and He wants growth of the body members. After all, Christ is in us, we are in Christ, and God is the Father of all of us who is over all of us and through all of us and in all of us. OK, I said all of that, because this is the kind of important truth that Paul is concerned with as he comes directly into our passage this morning, where Paul says next concerning the body of Christ,
"But to each one of us grace was given [from God] according to the measure of Christ's gift."
How many of you know that you specifically have been gifted according to God's grace with the means to glorify Him with the glory of Christ that is in you? If you do not see yourself as a significant person, then it because you don't recognize that
1) you are gifted by God (which means you are gifted by God to glorify Him)
and
2) you are a gift from God to the rest of us.
This is what Paul is talking about at the fundamental level. He is talking about you. Contextually, he is talking about specific people-gifts for equipping all of us, (and we're going to get to that in a moment) but at the fundamental level, gifting you is the essence of what God is saying here in His word. You and I have been gifted according to God's grace, with the means to glorify Him with the glory of Christ that is in us. Now, here is the key to understanding what has been given to you. What has been given to you are specific gifts that are meant to be used for God's glory in the worthy walk that Paul is talking about in 3:21. Primarily what you and I are to use our gifts for, is 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 in 4:12-13. Since God makes us to realize that we want to be acting, and thinking, more like Christ as the body of Christ that we are, then God also makes sure that He has provided the gifts to you to make that happen. Again, what I want to do here is encourage you with how special you are, in the same way that Paul has been encouraging the Ephesians. You absolutely must understand how important you are to God. The reason is because you are important to God getting glorified in a certain way that He came up with to glorify Himself. He made you to glorify Him, and so you are special. In His grace, He has gifted you to be about that task. You need to know how important you are as one person in the one body that God has made for His glory. Listen to 1 Corinthians 12; think about yourself, and also be thinking about those around you here,
"1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be unaware. ... 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of services [or ministries], and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
[Mark that in your mind, because that is what I believe God is saying the message is all about this morning--the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Think common good.]
... 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. 12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,' it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." 1 Corinthians 12:1-18
That last sentence is the one I want us to focus upon in respect to what Paul is getting at over here in Ephesians. God has placed you my dear Christians; each one of you, in the body just exactly as He wanted to do. It is intentional, and it was planned before the foundation of the world. And so there are a varieties of gifts that we all have but one Spirit. There are varieties of services but one Lord. There are a varieties of effects but the one God who works all things in all of us; because the manifestation of the Spirit that God is using all of us for, is for one thing, and one thing only; it is for the common good. This is why I say that if you are not about the common good of the whole body, but are harping on your own selfish divisive excuses that you claim are good for you, then you are in sin. This is also why I say that we, as Christians, really are special. But, what else does this mean then? It means that we must also remember that the person sitting next to us is special too. This is the big point. They may be quiet. You know some people have a quiet personality type, and so what happens is they seem to disappear. But, everyone is gifted, and is a gift in the body, for the body. They may not seem dynamic. They may irritate you to the edge of your seat. Now be honest--How many of you know a brother or sister that irritates you, seemingly to know end? I mean, am I the only one who has this problem, which by the way, is my problem--not theirs. They may not be your type of people that you like to hang out with. Maybe you don't like they way they dress. Maybe you are not comfortable with how old they are, how young they are, or how loud they are. Maybe you don't like how dogmatic they are about theological issues, or how confrontative they are when it comes to foolish thinking, sin, and false beliefs. It doesn't matter what you like, because they are special, and what God wants us to do is not an option. We absolutely must recognize how special they are, and we must recognize that God is using them in His own way in the body, for the body. You many not understand it with the natural mind, but some way, God is using them. God is using His people to manifest the Spirit for the common good, which is your common good, and my common good. The gifting might be encouragement. So, you might be an encourager, or you might need an encourager for the common good. The gifting might be a helper. Christians always need help--even the loners that claim that they don't need help. You might be a teacher. Everybody has the gift of prayer, but not everyone is especially practicing the gift of intercession on a daily basis. Maybe you are one of those kinds of intercessors. The body needs you. The body needs you for the common good. Remember, Paul is saying, in our context, that grace is given to you, and those around you, in various gifts, for two things that are common good things. Do you remember what they are? They are:
1) unity
2) maturity
If you are not seeking those two things concerning yourself and other Christians, then you are out of God's preceptive will. Preceptive will simply means God's clearly revealed will. The big point is that God has gifted you to be a vessel that he uses for the rest of us while in and among the rest of us. You see folks, we do not live in the days of the austere desert cave dwelling prophet who is somehow detached from the rest of the people of God until He comes out from the dusty distance like a lone ranger to prophesy doom or blessing, and then disappears back into the same dusty desert distance, in much the same way he arrived on the scene. We do not live in the Old Covenant administration, where the Levitical Priesthood was separated as the ones who mediated between God over in one area in the holy of holies at one end of the spiritual spectrum, and then rest of God's people over somewhere else outside the tabernacle. We are His body of Christ, because He is in us all, and we all are in Him, as the fullness of Him according to Ephesians 1:23. So, now each of us has ministries and giftings--not as hermits, and not as the really cool guy who has all the Bible answers, but we have them for a reason. The reason is so that we share ourselves for building up the body of Christ. Let me say that again,
We are gifted to share ourselves.
The body of Christ, which is the church, is what God cares about folks, as His big focus in redemption. He cherishes His church, and so he gifts you to cherish it too. Paul talks about it again in Romans. I still want you think of yourself and those around you here,
"3 For through the grace given to me [Paul is talking about his own gift as an apostle to say the things he is writing] I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." Romans 3:12
All of us, together, are somewhat like a kind of giant person. We are like this big giant, and so we are all connected like cells, so to speak, and in our connection, we make up the one big giant. The giant is supposed to exist, and function in a certain way. The way is in unity. The purpose of the giant is singular. The body's purpose is to glorify God. Let me give you an analogy. It is like a family. You have parents. They are given to the family as people gifts, with their own individual gifts. The husband is the spiritual head. He is to love his wife as a weaker vessel according to scripture. The wife honors and respects her husband as a gift in the one flesh that they became in holy matrimony. Children are gifts too, according to the Psalm. Parents are to raise them up in the love and admonition of the Lord. Children are to respect, and honor their parents. When we operate properly in the family unit that God designed for His glory, we bring Him glory. When we don't, the common good is made into the same common bad of immaturity that our lost culture represents the family unit as being. This, by the way, is why we do integrated family worship--we combine both institutions in respect for God's purpose and blessing according to the gifts and callings. But, here is the key to our own individual responsibilities; God wants each of us to glorify Him. So, the Holy Spirit joins us all together, in Christ, and now here we are--His people. Now we need to work hard to keep the unity of the same Holy Spirit, and we need to work hard to be about nurturing one another as truly connected body parts, and growing together in maturity. A good modern day phrase for this is called "team work." In team work there are no hot dogs. There are no heroes; there are no loners for the Lord, or mavericks for Messiah, and there is no second string. There are only team members, working together to accomplish the one goal. Remember what it is called?--it is called the common good. When you aren't doing this, then you are being selfish, and you are glorifying your own self centered life because you think your own good is what matters.
OK, now it is time to get into seminary class stuff. We need to put on our thinking caps, so we can learn some not so common things for our common good. Back here in Ephesians, Paul uses an Old Testament Messianic prophecy of David to express what God has done, is doing, and continues to do to bring about this whole process. Paul says,
"Therefore ..."
Always remember, when you see therefore, ask what it is there for. It is there for the purpose of magnifying, recapping, and further explaining what has just been said. So Paul says,
"8 Therefore it says, 'When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and gave gifts to men."
This is that difficult part I talked about at the opening of this sermon where you can find so many commentators sharing oodles of views. You need to know that skeptics, and Bible critics love this passage. Certainly, it is a difficult passage. The reason why it is a difficult passage, is because Paul is apparently quoting from Psalm 68:18. I hope you marked Psalm 68:18. Turn there now, and keep your place in Ephesians 4:8. Herein lies the apparent problem for us in exegeting this scripture. The problem is that Paul is using different language, here in what he is saying, than what David used in his Psalm. It is not an unusual practice for New Testament writers to abbreviate a passage from the Old Testament, or quote it with slightly magnified wording. Holy men moved by God were used by Him to do this kind of thing. In fact there are various esoteric quotes from all kinds of sources that are found throughout the New Testament scriptures. The writers, inspired by the Spirit, quote these things to make their points. Jude does this in his epistle. Paul does this in various epistles. He does it again here in Ephesians, in Ephesians 5:14. In this case that we are examining, when we go to the Old Testament and look at the actual passage that Paul seems to be quoting, we see that David sings the Old Testament words to Jehovah this way,
"18 You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives; You have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also, that Jehovah God may dwell there." Psalm 68:18
Now notice Ephesians 4: again;
"8 Therefore it says, 'When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and gave gifts to men."
We need to take a moment to recognize the difference. It is not merely another way to word the exact same thing. It is, in fact, a rewording, that has the opposite transaction occurring. Paul says that God gave gifts to men. David says that God has received gifts among men.
As a first consideration, before we dig into what seem to be an apparent contradiction, this is one of those beautiful instances in New Covenant Scripture where God gave Paul revelation, and authority, to recognize David's Messianic prophecy in respect to its fulfillment in the resurrected Messiah's ministry to the church. Nevertheless, we clearly recognize that the wording is so fundamentally different that it changes the meaning. So, then the question before us is;
What is going on here?
What is probably going on with the actual quote, without attempting to hyper spiritualize this difference in wording, is that it is highly likely that Paul was quoting from the ancient oral tradition extant in his day, as was reflected in the Aramaic Targum on the Psalter, which was a type of paraphrase commentary, and which is reflected in the Syriac Peshitta version of the Psalms. Notice that Paul does not say that he is quoting David in the Psalm. Paul, as he does in Ephesians 5:14, says he is quoting "it." We need to notice this important fact. Paul says,
"8 Therefore it says, ..."
The Peshitta, which is the official Bible of the Eastern church today, is a Bible interpretation that was made in the Aramaic language. Those same Aramaic language manuscripts were extant in Paul's day. looking at the Peshitta, we recognize that it renders Psalm 68:10 this way;
"You have ascended on high, you have carried away captives; you have blessed men with gifts; ..." Psalm 68:18 Peshitta
It says that God has given the blessing of gifts to men. OK this important, because Paul is demonstrating his skill in using a contemporary interpretive point of discussion to make his Holy Spirit led point. But there is more to this. The Aramaic Targum, which was a translation of the Old Testament in the form of a commentary that was translated into Aramaic after the Babylonian captivity, and existed in widespread use by the time of Paul the apostle, states plainly at Psalm 68:19--not 18,
"... you gave gifts to the sons of men," Psalm 68:19 Targum (ancient commentary)
This is the kind of stuff they talk about in seminary. This is the kind of stuff we talk about in Bridgeway, because God has gifted us for the common good. The point, for us today to recognize, is that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to quote extant interpretations and commentaries on Psalm 68:10 in respect to the contemporary dialogue going on around him based upon the same language of the Aramaic Targum on the Psalter and the Syriac Peshitta. The Holy Spirit moved Paul to do this to get the main point across that according to the Davidic Psalm, concerning the future Messiah and the body of Christ, Jehovah triumphs over His enemies, which is the whole thrust of Psalm 68. In the same way that Jehovah triumphs over His enemies, Christ triumphs as the resurrected and glorified One. Jehovah dwells in the mountain forever, Psalm 68:16. Likewise, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, His temple, forever, as we read in Ephesians 3:20-22--Christ being the chief cornerstone of the temple. And of course God is the one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all, Ephesians 4:6.
Please pay special attention here, because when Paul says "therefore," and goes on to explain the applicable sense of the Aramaic Targum on the Psalter and the Syriac Peshitta, Paul says,
'When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.'
There are two things that are going on in this verse that are of vital importance to Paul's flow of thought he has had since the beginning of the epistle. The host of captives that Christ has led captive, are all who were lost in the sin and bondage of the world, but Christ captured them--He captured you who are saved--actually He rescued you, and so you became a prisoner and a bondservant of Christ in His effectual call. Paul explained that he was a prisoner of Christ in the flow of thought starting back in Ephesians 3:1. Then coming into this immediate context, Paul says he is a prisoner of the Lord 7 verses earlier in 4:1. This is important, because Paul is talking about being captive for Christ as a people gift both for Christ, and for the body of Christ. Likewise, you, when you were in total disobedience while in the body of Adam of the lost world, Christ captured you according to predestination, and He adopted you as His Father's child in Himself. You are a healed scar, so to speak. In the same way that Christ, according to Jude, (as Jehovah), led the Israelites out of Egypt--out of their captivity, Christ led captive, a host of captives, and He did so for His glory, and He did so, giving them gifts,
"5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe." Jude 1:5 ESV
Looking back at the Psalm, according to the Aramaic Targum, we read this quote,
"... you gave gifts to the sons of men, and even the stubborn who are converted turn in repentance. [and] the glorious presence of the Lord God abides upon them."
http://www.drsbrady.com/ntcs/pss/ps2.htm
(at Psalm 68:19)
Paul, the Pharisee of pharisees, who says that the mystery was revealed to Him; Paul, who is familiar with the various interpretations of the ancient Davidic Psalm of his generation, especially that of the Jewish commentaries, expounds upon it here in Ephesians concerning what God has done in miracle at the proper time, in His Son. So the first thing that we must recognize about this, is that Christ captured us, and now He wants us, His prisoners, to walk the worthy walk of the calling with which we have been called, and so in reference to Psalm 68, the captives are everyone whom God has elected and inducted into the body of Christ to be ministers to one another for His glory--just like Paul is a prisoner to be a minister for God's glory. OK, that is the first part, Christ led captive a host of captives in the particular sense of transferring us out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son.
The other thing that Paul says, is that the Messiah gave gifts to men. Herein lies the big immediate contextual point. The gifts that Christ gave are two fold, and connected. To be more exact, the gifts that Christ gave are in the form of people, and further, the gifts are what all the captives, which is anyone who is saved, use, as personal equipping gifts, to minister as the body, in the body, to build up the body, to ultimately glorify Christ in growth, as a mature body. Write this down somewhere:
Unity of the faith of Ephesians 4:13, unity of the knowledge of the Son of God, Ephesians 4:13 and maturity in Christ, Ephesians 4:13, is the same thing as the common good of 1 Corinthians 12:7.
Now notice that Messiah had to first ascend. Like the chorus in the song,
"Lord we lift Your name on high"
You came from heaven to earth / to show the way
From the earth to the cross / my debt to pay
From the cross to the grave / from the grave to the sky
Lord we lift your name on high
Christ ascended from the grave to the sky, but He first had to descend. He descended by coming to earth to show the way. After crucifixion on the cross, He descended into the earth in burial. Then in Christ's resurrection, He ascended to where He sits at the right hand of the Father. From there as King of kings and Lord of lords, He fills all of us in all of us as Head of His church. Remember, this is still in line with what Paul has been saying all along in this Ephesians letter. Paul already laid the groundwork in chapter 1. He really wants us to understand the great blessing of the calling by which we have been called. I'm going to read it, and as I do, be looking for power, strength, and might, and the royal place that Christ is seated in His reign;
"18 I pray that ... you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the set apart ones, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come." Ephesians 1:18-21
There is a resurrection power connection that links what Paul is saying about Christ descending, and ascending and giving gifts. God's power toward all of us who believe is the same as that which is in accordance with the working of the Strength of His might in supernaturally raising up the dead Christ. Christ is now resurrected and seated in the heavenly places of kingly glory, which is a further demonstration of His strength, might, and power. But, we go a little further in Paul's previous words, and we find Paul bringing us into the picture again, showing us the connection we have to Christ as the body of Christ. In other words, we really partake of this power in an amazing way. Paul says,
"5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ..."
[think taking captive into captivity those whom He blesses]
... (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:5-7
This is the captivity that Paul is getting at, of which the eyes of our hearts need to be enlightened to. I want to ask you about the blessing of what sounds like a curse to the unsaved. How many of us are complaining about being captive to Christ, by Christ? How many of us, who have been captured by Christ while we were dead, dare to call it something blasphemously sinister as cosmic rape, or refer to it as a fiendish imprisonment in a dark kingdom? We don't complain about it, and we don't call it those Satanic things, because to be a prisoner of the Lord, is to be free. It is to be saved. In fact, in our captivity, we are seated there in the heavenly places--glorifying the King in our existence as saved people, or as the "giant" organism that I described the body of Christ being like in an earlier metaphor. We would rather be healed scars on Christ's body, than open wounds festering in the lost dying world that is held captive to disobedience, wouldn't we? Now look at the last sentence at 4:9-10. Notice that Paul gives a side step parenthesis there. We see that same consistent necessity that God had planned since before the foundation of the world,
"9 (Now this expression, 'He ascended,' what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) Ephesians 4:9-10
The "so that" that Paul says in verse 10, is an immense, "so that." "He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things," Ephesians 4:10. All of God's eternal plan, consummated in the eternal covenant, is to exalt Christ, and fulfill reconciling all things in Christ forever. The parallel epistle to this one has Paul giving the same detail,
"18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." Colossians 1:18-20
This is what Paul means when He says that Christ ascended far above all the heavens so that He might fill all things. He made peace through His blood, and He is exalted in His Messianic rule. Now, leaving the parenthesis that Paul makes, (follow along in your Bible) we find that Paul starts a sentence in the Greek that flows from verse 11 on through verse 16. We see the beginning of it, where Paul brings together more of what he meant back when he said there is one body and one Spirit in verse 4, and then to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift according to 'When He ascended on high, He gave gifts to men.' This is so important, so stay with me. The list that follows from verse 11, are those gifts, and they are living gifts that are actually certain kinds of cells in the body. As I read notice the word, "gave", and notice what he gave the people-gifts for. We are looking for gave, and for;
"11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the set apart ones for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 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." Ephesians 4:11-13
Earlier I said that there were two aspects to being captive, and giving gifts to men: 1) you are gifted by God (which means you are gifted by God to glorify Him) and 2) you are a gift from God to the rest of us. This is that second aspect that I was talking about. This identifies the important aspect in Paul's contextual flow of his point, which is the primary point, and that is that Paul, as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor-teacher, in the body of christ, to the body of Christ, just declared 10 verses earlier in this flow of thought, that he is a prisoner of the Lord--a captive of Christ. What this means is that Paul has contextually had in mind specific gifts being given to the body of Christ, which are specific people who were led captive. In other words;
People who are gifted, are also gifts to you and me.
They are people presents to us from God. They are people gifts. This is why Paul goes in to giving the list of what they do in ministry, according to what they are. He gave to you, some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors who are teachers, for the equipping of you, and me, and everyone who makes up the body of Christ. We will get back to them in next weeks sermon, but for right now, what I am wanting us to recognize about ourselves in a strong way, is that to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. That is you my dear Christian. So with these things in mind, to walk the worthy walk of the body of Christ, each of us needs to look for opportunities to minister to each other; love each other, build each other up. Each of us is here for a reason, and the reason is not just for yourself. God has put you here for other people's needs. In other words, God has designed you to fulfill needs that He says the body has. And we keep on doing it until we all attain to maturity in Christ. But here is the important thing--How many of us can truly say that we have arrived in our spiritual maturity? I can't say that I have arrived in spiritual maturity. I can't say that I am united in all things of maturity just exactly as the full stature of my Messiah is mature. But, I am growing, and so are you. So the point is, if this be the case, then we can never stop seeking ways to serve one another to build one another up. It is our design. It is our function. it is our purpose. It is the worthy walk. I urge you to consider yourself a captive of God for His glory. I urge you to recognize the gifts he has showered us with to build one another up. To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Finally, I urge you to be obedient to your call to do these things.
