Sermon

Sermon # 1029
February 20, 2011
Ephesians 4:1-16
Dr. Ed Pettus

“God’s Gifts”

I. The Gifts He Gave

Our God is a gift giver. God gives gifts to God’s people – abundant gifts, elaborate gifts, lavished upon us for life. Gifts come from God in a variety of ways. There are spiritual gifts, material gifts, gifts of talents, and gifts we don’t even recognize in our lives, gifts we take for granted, life, breath, health, and love. There are gifts given to us through others – often the person through which the gift is given is unaware that God is using him or her.
We are entrusted with these gifts – called to use them wisely, not to waste our talents or our material goods. We are called to seek out the gifts of the spirit and use them for the ministry. Gifts of hospitality, faith, healing, tongues, prophecy, teaching, pastoring, and many others. Gifts through talents, skills, resources available, and sometimes simply the gift of one’s presence, being here, being with someone in the hospital, being at the ballgame with a young person – just being available.
In today’s reading from Ephesians we see that God gave gifts so that some would be able to serve various roles in the Church. Paul writes some would be:
1. Apostles
2. Prophets
3. Evangelists
4. Pastors
5. Teachers (and if we carried the list out, this is not an exhaustive list);
6. Elders
7. Choir members
8. Sunday School helpers, participants in worship, and a host of others…

Apostles are those sent to do ministry in the name of Christ. Prophets listen for God’s word and notice what is happening in the world in order to proclaim the good and bad that come at the intersection of the Good News of God and the world. Evangelists have a special task of proclaiming the gospel. Pastors care for the church as a shepherd for the sheep. Teachers teach!
Elders are not listed in Ephesians, but the term elder comes from the Greek word presbuterion, which you may quickly notice is the root word for Presbyterian. Elders are also called in the Church for special tasks. The history of elders goes back to the Old Testament when elders were established to govern the people. Moses had too many folks to deal with so elders were chosen from among the people to bear some of the work of judging cases and dealing with problems. The New Testament saints kept this practice alive by appointing elders to serve in the Church. The apostles could not do everything so they chose others of high character to do ministry. Acts 6:1-6 gives one account:
Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait at tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.’ 5What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose [seven men]… 6They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
In the Church today elders are chosen by the people, by the congregation, to work with the minister in ministry. They are called to exercise leadership, government, and discipline. They are to be people of faith, dedication, and good judgment. Their life should demonstrate the Christian gospel. Their duties include strengthening the faith and life of the congregation. With the pastor they are to encourage people to worship and serve God, to equip and renew the Church for work and mission, to visit and comfort and care for the people. The Book of Order states that they should cultivate their ability to teach the Bible and in some cases may be authorized to fill in to preach at churches that have no pastor. (G-6.0304a)
It is quite a calling to be an elder. As great as being an apostle, an evangelist, a pastor, a teacher, because each one has special tasks to do that make up the Church. God gives us all these gifts for a reason, for a purpose. Paul tells us the purpose of these gifts are:
II. Purpose of Gifts
To Equip the Saints
Who are the saints? Too often we think they are dead. Too often we think they are only Catholic. Too often we think they have to perform super spiritual things. Saints are Christians! Saints are you and I. Saints are the Church. The gifts that God gave to some are to equip all of us for two things:
1. for the work of ministry
2. for building the body of Christ
That means that saints, Christians – we are all to be equipped for the work of ministry. It is not just for the pastor to do, not just for the elders to do, not just for apostles, or prophets, or teachers. It is ours together. We are all called, all gifted, and all equipped for ministry. We are not called to sit on the pew and watch everyone else do the work of ministry. We are not called to be pew potatoes like our cousins the couch potatoes. We are called to the ministry – to work – to participate – to experience God through service and worship and prayer and study and a host of other activities.
We are called and equipped to build up the body of Christ. We are not to tear down, to ridicule, to bite one another out of anger and hatred, but to build up. We are to become body builders. We build each other through kind words, through acts of compassion, through care, love, and edification.
Another purpose of the gifts is…
To bring unity
1. in faith
2. in knowledge

This unity revolves around one person – Jesus Christ. It has been said that the one thing the various Protestant denominations share is Jesus Christ, and that is true. Where we part is in how we interpret Jesus for our life and faith. Each denomination should at least strive to come to unity in the faith and knowledge of Christ, but too often we fall short in each respective denomination. Certainly in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. we argue over authority of scripture, sexuality, ordination, and numerous other topics and we become more and more divided. We need to pray for our denomination and for the whole Church, for the unity that God seeks in us through these gifts.

God gives gifts to do three more things in this passage.

C. To bring maturity

D. To speak the truth in love

E. To promote growth in building up the body in love

The Christian life is marked by a growing maturity. We do not expect people to act at age 30 like they did at age 10. There should be signs of growth and maturity in their life. If we come to know Christ at an early age and continue with an infant faith twenty years later, then we are not growing and maturing. Faith is to be nurtured, matured, and strengthened as we grow in the body of Christ.
We are called to speak the truth in love. Sometimes the truth hurts and we compound that pain by speaking the truth in anger rather than love, or in hatred rather than love. Paul says 1 Corinthians 13 – love is not rude or envious or arrogant. Speaking the truth in love is through kindness and gentleness.
Again Paul speaks of growing in building up the body in love. Building the physical body requires discipline, specific exercises, work, some routine, and some variety. To see muscle growth one has to be disciplined enough to work out on a regular basis. Growth will not occur trying to work out on a hit or miss basis. Once in a while the muscles need a surprise so that they don’t fall into a rut and plateau at a certain level.
Perhaps that is something we need to consider when we participate in the life of the Church. Participation requires discipline, exercise, work, some routine, and some variety. We need to try something new once in a while to see if God is at work giving us a new gift! We need to commit our lives to the disciplines that seek to help us build one another up in love, prayer, scripture reading and study, worship, fellowship, evangelism, and the like – in order to promote growth so that we are not living with a faith that has leveled off at the plateau. Like muscles that are not worked, faith may also atrophy and stop growing. So we seek out the gifts of God by getting more involved in your relationship with Jesus Christ, by being more active in the life of the Church, and by exercising our faith in ways that we have not considered before.

Today we have asked questions of elders that involve participation in ministry with particular tasks. Promises are made to work with others, showing love and justice in ministry, and to follow Jesus Christ. Membership in the Church also brings responsibilities for ministry. Every member of the Church promises to support the work of the church, that is the ministry, through the giving of money, time, and talents. Every one of us, elder, pastor, teacher, prophet, member, evangelist, has responsibility to the work of the ministry.
We do not ordain and install elders to do all the work of ministry. We should not have to rely on ten percent of membership to do all the work. Every one of us should be seeking God and God’s call in our life, understanding that God calls us to share the work. While our elders promise to do certain things, they have not promised to do it all. All of us should remember and renew our promises to active membership in the church.

What have you promised as a member? Well, I am going to remind you! You have promised to proclaim the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ in the Savior. You have promised to take part in the life of the church, to worship, to pray, to study Scripture, and to learn the faith. Members promise to support the work of the church – giving money, time, and talents or skills. Members promise to participate in governing responsibilities, to attend congregational meetings or to serve as elder when called. We are to demonstrate a new quality of life reflecting our life in Christ. We are called on to serve, to live responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life. And we are to work in the world for peace, justice freedom, and human fulfillment. These are the responsibilities of all of us as members of the body of Christ.
Sometimes we get too caught up on money issues and we do not spend enough time reflecting on our time and talents. Time is very precious and most talents or skills are not given because we are unwilling to give of our time. Discipleship takes time. Membership takes time. It certainly takes money to keep the church active and it takes our talents to foster growth and maturity. Christ calls all of us to this work of ministry. The Message concludes today’s Epistle lessons with these words: God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love – like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Let us grow up together in love like Christ, nourished by the leadership of the church – the servants of the church. Let us all work together to make our church a place of faithful witness to Jesus Christ, a place of nurturing growth, a place of unity and peace. Amen.