Ephesians 4:7-13 | Why Guilt Never Gets Anyone Serving

We've been saying that the book of Ephesians is all about the church, and it is all about the church, but it's also a book of vision. It's a book of the vision that God has for the world through his church. And, you know, vision is a funny thing. You know, if you have vision for something, it changes everything. You know, I love to read books. I love to study the Word. I love to preach, I love to minister. But some of you will know I also like geeky stuff as well. And so I'm often dabbling in church tech and all those sort of areas as well. It's just one of the things I love. I find myself having a vision for it. And something I noticed is when I talk to my wife about those things, and I say to my wife that, you know, I've designed. I've coded this amazing app, or I've designed this wonderful thing, and I try to tell her about it, there's that moment when I see her eyes glazing over, like, you know, this is just not. This is just not getting through. Why? Because I have a vision for it. She has a vision for something else. And so it's my vision for it that causes me to get excited about it and dedicate time to it and think about it and plan things about it. And so I'm very happy when I'm dabbling in those things. But other people, they don't want to hear about it. Maybe you have a hobby. Maybe you have something that really interests you and you've noticed that, that when you start to talk about it, you look around and. And of course, we always know that there is that one person who has that one hobby, and they don't know how to read the room. And so they're telling you about their hobby, and everyone is dying inside. And that's because they have a vision for it. They have a vision for it. And the book of Ephesians is all about the church, but it's about vision. It's about the vision that God has. And this passage we're going to read today talks about the vision that God has. And it's a vision that God has for the whole world through his Son, that He means to accomplish through his church. And so we're going to touch things like gifting and participation. But here's the thing that I want to get across. It's not enough for us to keep saying, you need to serve, you need to serve. Where are you serving in the church? What ministry do you want to be in that's not enough. Because if somebody doesn't have a vision, then they're not going to go in the direction that the Bible tells tells them to go, or we ask them to go. Because if you don't have vision, the Bible says, sometimes people quote it this way, don't they? They say without vision, the people perish. But actually a better translation is that without vision, the people go unrestrained. It's vision that causes people to serve. It's vision that causes people to minister. The reason I am in ministry is not that I got serv and I came into church one Sunday morning and they said, why are you not serving? And I said, I don't know. What can I do? And I was afraid. And so they said, well, go and serve over here. And I did. And then I got more and more fearful and said, I need to serve more. Maybe I should become a pastor. Maybe then they'll be satisfied. Maybe. No, I got a vision for it. I was in church all, all the time because church work and the Bible and ministry just got a hold of me. And so that carried me. And so the way to get every member in ministry is to get every member envisioned. Because when everyone's envisioned, you won't need anyone else to tell you what to do. That was the problem. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, but they wanted to go back. They didn't want to be in the desert. They didn't want to go to the promised land because Moses had a vision for a land of milk and honey, and they had a vision for cucumbers of Egypt. And that was the thing. Your vision will carry you somewhere. So bear that in mind as we look at today's passage from the book of Ephesians. Starting at chapter four and verse seven, it says, but to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says when he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people. Verse 9. What does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to to the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. If you're confused about that verse, you're not the only one, by the way. We'll circle back to it in a bit. Verse number 10. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. Verse 11. So Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for the work of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. Verse 13. Until we all reach the unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. You'll be pleased to hear we're not going to do every jot and tittle of this today. It's going to take us two or three weeks just to go through this. But I want to start here. I want to start with what I shared just a moment ago about vision and about gifting. God has a vision for the church. And we'll start off with this verse 9 and 10. Just to remove any confusion. Paul says in verse 9 of this passage. In fact, if you go back to verse 8, he starts by quoting Psalm 68. And he says, when he ascended on high, he took many, many captives and gave gifts to his people. And then in verse 9 and 10, he talks about Christ ascending and descending. What does all that mean? Well, when you go back to the Old Testament and you look at Psalm 68, it's a Psalm of victory. It's around verse 18, by the way, for those of you I can see coming through your bibles there, verse 18 talks about the victory of God, and it's talking about when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt to go and establish his temple on the mountain in Jerusalem. And it says he led the captives and he received gifts. Do you notice that Paul says he gave gifts and Psalm 68 says that he receives gifts. And anytime that you see something like that, they let the scholars loose and everyone argues about what it means. But the fact is that this was first of all a psalm of victory. Joyce didn't know when she sang that song this morning that our God will never fail because he only knows how to triumph. God is a God of victory, is what we learn in Psalm 60. He's a God of triumph. And if you go back, and if you're a Bible geek like me, you open up your Bible dictionaries and you go back and you look at all the pictures and all the inscriptions and all the things that they wrote about those days when Moses was coming out of Egypt. And you will have seen this when you look at some of those pictures or documentaries from ancient Egypt and places like that. They used to love to have pictures of all the victories of their kings. And you would see them leading a train of captives behind them, people that they had captured, people that they had conquered. And from there on in, everyone had to come to the King and give him tribute. Because now you were subdued, now you were his subjects, and now he had triumphed over you. Well, fast forward to Jesus and it's a different day. Same God. He knows only how to triumph. Death could not hold him. Hallelujah. The grave could not hold him. He was up and out of the grave in victory. And that's what all this ascended and descended stuff is about, that Jesus descended to. To the earth. He descended to the earth. There was an incarnation. God became man, took on human flesh, bore our sins, lived the life we should have lived, died the death. We should have died and went down to the grave. Triumphed over death. He was resurrected, and then he ascended again to heaven in victory. Hallelujah. But this is the time of grace. And unlike those ancient times, this is a season of grace, when the king who has conquered us showers us with gifts. That's why you want Jesus to be your king. That's why you don't want every other man or woman to be your king. That's why you don't want any other God to be your God. Because we serve a God who has triumphed over sin. He has even triumphed over us. But instead of bringing us down, he lifts us up and it says, he showers us with gifts, gifts of grace. And that brings us to the beginning of our passage. But to each of us, grace has been given. I wonder what people have taught you about grace. You know, sometimes people give us. And I've said this a number of times, and I'll keep saying it because we need to get it a number of times. It seems to me that people are told about grace, and grace goes like this. Someone asks, well, what is grace? Well, you see that bank you robbed? God will just cancel that. You see that adultery you did? God will just cancel that. And if you do it again tomorrow, don't worry, the blood of Jesus will deal with that. You'll be forgiven, no problem. And it's all about kind of getting away with stuff, you know, avoiding hell seems to be the main objective of many people's faith. And on top of that, getting as many toys as they can in this life to bless them and to keep them happy. But grace is so much bigger than just forgiveness. Grace is so much more than just simple favor. It's so much more than that. And here we see an example with that. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. It actually says, if you translate it directly, grace has been given to each one of us according to the Measure of Christ. What does that mean? It means according to the measure that Christ gives. Not the measure that your friend gives or your brother gives or your mother gives or your father gives, or anyone gives, but according to the measure that Christ gives and Christ gives. And when Christ gives, He gives. Hallelujah. That's why we say you can't out get God. If God going to give, get excited. Because when God gives, He gives. Look at what he gave when it says, for God so loved the world that he gave what a Pajero, his only begotten son. He gave what was dearest to him. He gave all that he could give. And so we should be excited when it says to each one of us, grace has been given according to the measure that Christ uses. That's amazing. He gives incredibly. He gives abundantly according to the measure that Christ gives. And then in verse 8, this is why it says, and we read it already, when he ascended, ascended on high. Hallelujah. There's a victory that Jesus has. And the result of that victory is that he is pouring out grace upon his church in abundant measure. With a purpose. With a purpose. Let's go back. Let's go back to this verse 8. This really is the vision that God has. Because God, I said right at the beginning, has a vision. And this passage is not just about grace or about gifts or about the church. It's about the vision of God. And we're going to tie all of this together in just a minute. But it says, he who descended. This is verse 10. 10. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. The vision of God. The vision of God is that His Son would ascend and that everything would be under him and that he would be in everything. Hallelujah. Jesus in you, Jesus in me, Jesus in my work, Jesus in the church, Jesus in my business, Jesus in my daily life until eventually he will come back and everything will be filled and permeated with Jesus. His life, his presence, his values and his power. Just everything filled with Jesus. That's the vision of God. And this is before we talk about the grace we've just talked about, before we go deeper into that, before we go deeper into gifting. That's the vision we have to get. Because if we hear that and our eyes glaze over, then we're not going to get the point of serving. But if we can get excited about this vision, that God wants to fill the whole earth with the presence of Himself, with His Son, with His Spirit and to transform this world. If we can't get a clear vision of that reality that God has done something that's going to change everything, that God has done something that is going to transform this world. If we can't open our eyes and see something bigger and something greater, something worth living for. And the apostles knew it was something worth dying for. Look at the deaths of the apostles. Do you think they went to their death for something that was just on a Sunday morning? They went to their death because they said, I've got a hold of something that is worth dying for. And if I want people to serve in God's harvest field, if I want people to take up the baton and be part of the work, all I have to do is get served someone to see the vision of God for eternity and the vision of God for this world. And if you get it, if you get on fire with that, everything changes. It's a vision that changes us. And nothing's ever the same again. Nothing is ever the same again. Francis Chan in his great book get it by the way, if you want some foundational teaching and what it is to be a Christian, it's called Multiply and you can either buy it, but you can actually download it for free. It's a really good book to get you grounded in the Christian life. He says we can get so caught up in our personal relationship with God that we think, or rather we forget to think about the global implications of the Great Commission. Why is it important to see the mission of the church as a global calling? He asked the question, why is it important? Have you thought about that? Have you thought about this bigger vision? Bigger than my family, bigger than me and Jesus, Something that God has a vision for, A God sized vision. Just gonna keep on tapping away at this for just a minute. You see, we have our little visions, don't we? Maybe it's a vision for a business, maybe it's a vision for your family, maybe it's a vision for your house. Maybe for me it's a vision for Colchester City Church and all it's going to be. Maybe it's a, a vision for that. But there's a God sized vision. There's a God sized vision that when we see it and we see it at work today in the negative, what do you think it is that makes people to march down the street with England flags? What do you think it is? As negative as it is. They've seen a vision that is bigger than just their house. They're thinking big but you know What? We have got a vision that is bigger than nationalism, bigger than England, bigger than the uk, bigger than the world on which we stand. It is a God sized vision of a universe that is filled with the goodness of God. Don't you want to see such a thing happen where there's no more suffering, no more pain, no more striving, no more hatred, no more war, no more sickness, no more disease. See, we struggle to believe in such a thing though, don't we? But if the spirit of God will put it in our hearts and we will see, we will be so motivated that pastors will not be trying to motivate us to serve. They'll be trying to hold us back. I want to be in a church where I have to hold everyone back. You can't all be on the welcome team. You can't all be on the evangelism team. Please, everyone, everywhere, running up and down. I can't control you people. The church is growing too fast. Please stop. When you get a God sized vision, suddenly that supercharges your activity. Suddenly you don't need someone chasing you from behind. You don't need someone with a stick behind you. You found the ultimate carrot and you're going for it. Grace was given to each one for this vision. Christ ascended to fill the whole world. And how does he fill it? Through his church. But let's be specific. Christ has ascended to fill the whole world. And the way he fills it is through a church that has been equipped and sent. Not a church that is seated, but a church that is equipped. You see, the church seated never did anything. But a church that is equipped will go out and fill the whole world with Jesus. Because Jesus is in you and Jesus is in me. And we're going to go out there and fill the world with Jesus. In everything we do, everywhere we serve, everywhere we worship, work, everywhere we relate to people. It's his vision. And you see, that's where we're going to look at these fivefold ministries. Some people call it the fourfold, but I won't unpack that today. But these ministries, Apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher, those ministries, he tells us about them. We're going to unpack them maybe next week. But for today I want you to look at what it says says about these ministries. What does it say about these ministries of pastor and apostle and so on? It says in verse 11, we have them. And then it says in verse 12, to do what? To equip his people for works of service. Hallelujah. Let me put it this way. Put this in your mind or write it down. Ministers, pastors, let's say pastors for now, ministers here are equippers, not service providers. We are equippers, not service providers. I am not here to provide a service. I'm here to equip you to be the minister that God intended you to be. I'm here to equip you to be that. And as long as we think that ministers are service providers, instead of looking at them as people, are there to equip me to do the ministry that God has called me to do, we will never see growth. And in fact, Paul is going to say that later in this chapter that it makes the body grow when every member is doing its part. That's just a warning that there's more of this to come. Hallelujah. We're going to keep on unpacking this because Paul keeps on unpacking it. Not service providers, but equippers. Every single person that is born again, somebody who has committed their life to Jesus is somebody that has looked up and seen Jesus, the ascended one, and he has poured out on them gifts of grace to serve. It is impossible that God did not grace you with a gift. You know, sometimes the reason why we think we are not gifted is because we're fixated on the wrong gift. Have you ever watched one of those shows, I don't know, X Factor or Britain's Got Talent, and someone will stand up and they'll say, what do you do? And they'll say, I'm a singer, very good. And they'll say, what do you sing like? They'll say, oh, well, my mom says I sing like Celine Dion. And then they open their mouths and what you get is, cat falls off, tall building, screams all the way down. It's not that they're not gifted. It's just that they think that gifting means this or gifting means that. Let me tell you, every single person that has come to Jesus has had a grace gift put upon them. You just need to ask yourself what it is. And I want to tell you, one of the best ways to discover your gift is just to start serving. Just start serving. Because people will soon say to you, no, brother, that's not your gift. But I can see you over here. But I'll tell you, the moment we see someone who is diligent and committed to the work of God, that's when we notice people and we say, okay, how can I use that, brother? How can I use that, sister? Where can they serve? Where can they fit. What is their gift? What is their talent? What is their ability? But every single person has it. So what is holding us back? What is holding us back? It's a lack of vision, of understanding, the magnitude of what God has done, what he has achieved in his victory over life and over death. Let me tell you, we mirror that. When you're filled with Jesus. That is your story. He looks like he was defeated, but he wasn't. He looked like he had failed, but he hadn't. So when you see me fail, know that I'm not failing. To quote Toy Story, I'm just falling with style. Hallelujah. That's what Paul meant when he says, all things work together for good to those that love him and according to his purpose. Now, sometimes it's said like a cliche, and sometimes your fellow Christians will say it to you at the wrong time. Hallelujah. You don't want to hear, when you've just lost your job and your house is burned down, someone who just says with a smile on their face, don't worry, brother, all things work together for good. Hallelujah. So then you punch them on the nose and you say, well, how's that working for you? All things working together for good. But nevertheless, although it can be used like a cliche, it can be used in the wrong way. That is the reality that we walk with the One who has never failed. We walk with the One who has never been defeated. So let's align ourselves with Him. Sometimes we align ourselves with the wrong things, don't we? We align ourselves with the things that we think would be best for us and invite Jesus along for the ride. Hallelujah. Have you ever heard the illustration? We used to do it like this. We used to say, you have to surrender to Jesus. And surrendering to Jesus is like getting out of the driver's seat and he gets in the driver's seat and he has control. Have you ever heard that? Yeah. Yeah. No, that's the wrong illustration because it's still your car. It's still your car. No, no, no. He wants to take your car to the wrecking yard, scrap it, and then you get in his car and you don't know where you're going and you don't know what you're doing. But he's taking you there. Like Abraham, God said, leave your people and go where? I will tell you. Where's that? Don't. I will let you know. Got to align yourself with him because he has a vision. And if you're not getting the Vision. We want people to serve in the church and we're going to keep on about that. But if you're not getting that vision, if all you have is this sense of religion, this sense of how can I get through the day? And I understand that feeling. Don't think. We don't wake up some days and think, how are we going to get through the day? All I need Jesus to do to me today is deliver me through the day's work and get me safely back to my bed. That's all I need from Jesus today. I just need to get through this. But if that's all we can see, if we can't see something so much bigger than ourselves, we need to be more than these people who are marching and protesting and doing whatever they're doing. We need to be kingdom people who see the vision of God. And if we will get a hold of that vision, we will serve. And if we want to serve, then God has put past and evangelists and teachers and prophets here for that reason. Not to be service providers, but to help you and equip you when you have that vision, to go out and walk in that vision and turn this world upside down. Because I don't know about you. I'm tired of just living daily, ordinary life down here in the valley. I want to be on top of the mountain. I want to be on top of that mountain meeting with the living God and seeing this world touched and impacted by that same God in his power and his glory. And if that's you, there are people we're going to tell you about next time that are here to equip you. But let's rest on this today, the vision of God. Have you seen the vision of God? Have you seen what it is God wants to do? Are you excited about it? Because until you get that vision, you're going to go unrestrained. Hallelujah. And I know what it is not to have vision. Not to have vision. It's when you don't really see it in your inner being. And so you wake up one day and you feel guilty because you're not going to church, or you feel guilty because you're not praying enough, or you feel guilty because you're not reading your Bible. And so you go, you know what? I'm going to pray. I'm going to be the best prayer. You speak like a true American president. I got the best prayers. I've got the best prayer. And you say, right, I'm going to read my Bible every day for one and a half Hours and you get your bible out and you're determined and you seem like a person with vision until day three or day four, if you have a good run. Amen. You feel like you've got that vision, but you haven't really got it. But when you get it, when you get that vision inside of you and you see it, you won't have to, you know, I know sometimes, you know, we've done a lot of. We did pre marriage counseling for me and Emmanuel recently, and they were amazing. I had such an amazing time with them. But we've done a lot of marriage counseling down through the years. And you know, sometimes one of the things that brides often do is they get them. They've got all the magazines, right? You know, the magazines. They got all the magazines. They're working out the cater, they're working out everything. And we men are different, aren't we? Are we different? I think we're a bit different. We're like, let's just get married down the pub and we can do. You know, men don't want a lot of fun. But a woman, this is a big thing for some. I don't want to generalized, but for many women, this would be a big thing. And they've got all the magazines and they got everything. And they're driving their fiance mad with all the plans and everything. All the plans are going on. And why is that? Because they've got a vision. They don't wake up in the morning and say to themselves, you know what? I should really take a little look at the wedding day at least. Okay, let me just try. Let me just try and get some magazines. Try and plan. No, they're like a jet engine. There's something that is really. The vision has got them. The vision is driving them. This wedding, it's gonna be the wedding of the century. It's gonna be something. Men, men who have not yet found your sweetheart, be warned, it's coming, it's coming. But you see, that's what having vision is. You don't wake up thinking, let me just try. Let me just try. No, you have something that is driving you, something that is keeping you, man. We do that. You know, when. When you've got something you're interested in and you've got to go and maybe your wife's calling you to go and do something somewhere or whatever, and you're so occupied with this thing of yours and they're saying, you know, it's not just the kids with their Xbox, it's husbands as well. There's something that's got you and you're like, let me just finish this, let me just get to the, you know, that feeling. You don't need to be guilt tripped into it. It's in you. It's in you. That's what vision is. And Paul is trying to paint this vision. That's why he builds up to it at the beginning of Ephesians, you know, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And now he's talking about Jesus ascending and pouring out gifts and filling the whole earth. He's trying to get them envisioned. He's going to talk about some really day to day stuff like, you know, being nice to your wife, being nice to your husband, stuff like that, being honest, being all of that stuff. But why doesn't he start there? Why doesn't he start with husbands, love your wives? Why doesn't he start with those kind of instructions? Because he knows that doing them is built on a vision. And so he builds the vision. And my question as we come to a close is, is there a vision in you? And if there's not a vision in you today, we want to pray that God will put that vision in you. And if you don't have that vision burning in you for the kingdom of God that touches every other area of your life. Because when I study the art of preaching, because I'm a preacher, that's what I do. So I do. And one of the things they constantly tell me is you have to find something relevant for the people in their everyday lives. And it's true, you have to find something relevant for the people. But Paul is going to reach relevancy, but he's not there yet because he knows that unless your daily living is tied to something bigger than your daily living, you won't do it. You won't get it right. And so I know, you know, you might be thinking, well, you know, how does this help me on Monday morning, you know, when I'm late for work and the kids decided to set fire to the kitchen and, you know, whatever it is, how does this help me? Well, I want to tell you that that vision will help you, you more than you know. Vision will help you more than you know because it anchors you somewhere, it puts perspective on things. During World War II, they would ask the women sweeping the factory floor, what are you doing? And they didn't say sweeping. They said, I'm helping in the war effort. That's the thing have you got the vision? I'm gonna pray for you right now. But please, as we do stand, let's stand together. Let's pray for ourselves as well. Just ask God to give you vision to intensify that vision, to help you to see outside of the everyday, outside of whatever circumstances are going on in your life and to see that there is something bigger worth living for that's going to touch every other area of our lives. Let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you and we praise you that there is something that you have done and you are doing that is so much bigger than us, so much more earth shattering, so much more incredible than we can even ask or think. Father, in the name of Jesus, we want to pray this morning that you will help us to see the vision that you have for this world, for this universe. That Father, we would catch the vision that there would be a fire in our hearts. That Father, we wouldn't have to be chastised or nagged or goaded into serving in your kingdom. But Father, there will be a vision, an understanding of the vision that you have that would set us on fire for your gospel, that would spur us on. Father, in the name of Jesus, I want to pray for each and every one of us. If anyone this morning is struggling to see that vision that you have placed here in your word, I pray, Father, that you would just open eyes and hearts this morning to see, to see in the name of Jesus, to see the kingdom perspective, to see the reality of your vision and your plan. Open eyes and open hearts. We pray in Jesus mighty name and we all say amen.