Ephesians 4:11-16 | The Ministry Of The Church

About this Episode

Preacher: Joel Fair
Ephesians 4:11-16

1. The Work Of The Church Is Ministry
2. The Ministry Of The Church Is Discipleship
3. Disciples Mature Into Christ

Sinclair Ferguson - Things Unseen Podcast
An indicative is a statement of fact, “God loves you.” An imperative is a statement of command, “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.”...Now, here’s the important point in gospel grammar: God’s indicatives are always the basis for God’s imperatives.

Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Ephesians 1:19–20
19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

Ephesians 2:4–5
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Ephesians 2:13
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 3:17–19
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Acts 20:28
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Ephesians 4:4–7
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones
As we look at this truth and test ourselves by it, how do we find ourselves as members of the Christian Church? A fatal tendency has come in to think and to say that the vast majority of people in the Church are meant to be entirely passive. Many seem to think of the Church as just a building to which they come to sit and listen to sermons and addresses, and in which they do nothing. This is a denial of the fundamental proposition that to every one of us is grace given in the Church and as parts of the body of Christ. Every one of us has a function, and we are not meant to be entirely passive. The whole secret of the working of the human body is that every part and particle has a particular function which it is meant to fulfil.

Edmund Clowney - The Church
After all, we take our livers for granted, but we fuss over our hair so that its minor role will be recognized.

Rediscover Church (Leeman & Hansen)
The picture Paul provides for both Timothy and Titus is the slow, patient, day-to-day, repetitious work of seeking to grow people in godliness. An elder doesn't force but teaches, because a forced act of godliness is no godliness at all. A godly act is willfully chosen from a regenerate, new covenant heart.

Galatians 4:3
3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

Galatians 4:19
19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

John 17:22–23
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.