Ephesians 4

Ephesians 4

We have been looking at what it means to be “Easter people”. Easter People are those who are are together encountering Jesus. We are people who in that encounter are moved from confusion, fear, and uncertainty, to peace, the power of the Spirit and to engage in God's mission. I want to look again at what the Risen Jesus wants to do in us by his Spirit, with a look at Ephesians 4.

It is difficult to tell the story of the letter to the Ephesians: Romans has a historical setting: Paul was planning to visit Rome; But there’s no such story for Ephesians: rather we have to try and imagine the kind of conversation that Ephesians is part of. And I can kind of imagine a conversation like this: “Paul, remind us about Jesus; tell us how Jesus affects our lives today, what difference he makes here in Ephesus.”

So Paul writes back, with two aims in mind: Firstly, to strengthen their commitment to the truth about Jesus, and secondly, to stir them to action that is consistent with what they believe. He will answer the question and fire back another question: “What are you going to do about it?”

Maybe there were specific questions: “Where is Jesus?” Seated at the Father’s right hand in glory! Gods power to us is the same as the power he used to raise Jesus from the dead! In Mph 1.19 Paul refers to Gods hyperbolical - extreme - power towards us who believe. Four different "powers" in this verse...dynamis, energies, Kratos, lschos.” Paul piles word upon word to show how extreme and pwoerful God's power is. Andrew Lincoln says that the point is not the difference but  the similarity between these words. In v 20 - which he energised (accomplished seems a weak translation) when he raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand...   The extent of the power is seen the resurrection of Jesus. Paul, it seems, is not too much bothered about the "gap" between the resurrection and The ascension. For him, what matters is that the Risen Jesus is exalted at the Father's right hand, and has everything under his feet.

“Where is Jesus?” Seated at the Father’s right hand in glory! Hallelujah! All things are under Jesus feet, he is head over all things for the church which is his body... So the So Paul is pressing on from the truth about Jesus, to the practise of life together in him.. The Church, the ekklesia: Paul mentions it 9 times in Ephesians. It's Christ's body (1. 22f); it's there to show God's wisdom and carry Jesus' glory (3. 10, 21); It's Jesus' bride, his girl, under his authority (5. 23f); object of his love (5. 25), focus of his plan (5. 27) and his care (5. 29). Being the Church – the real Church, alive, beautiful, glorious, united, global – is part of what it means to be Easter people.

And I believe that as Christians in Rosyth, as a Church in Rosyth, part of the outworking of what it means to be Easter people, is to be a local expression of that global reality – alive, beautiful glorious, united. The Vision of Jesus is in no sense to build a building or even an institution: it is to build a COMMUNITY! - It is "organic". It is about a "body" in a living connexion with the Head! (Eph 1:22). Throughout Ephesians Paul uses the language of the organic. "Joined"". "bodily growth" ...joints and ligaments.... So Paul teaches about Christian living- growing up into Christ...

“Where is Jesus?” Seated at the Father’s right hand in glory! He descended to the lowest parts of the earth – and has now ascended far above all. From there he has poured out his gifts. (verse 8-11) The gifts God gives to men, come from the risen and ascended Jesus. Paul quotes Ps 68. 18 which was a Pentecost psalm; so he links the exaltation and victory fo Jesus with the coming of the spirit. There is in the Bible a direct time-line, a direct link of cause and effect, running from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, through the ascension to the coming of the Spirit and receiving his gifts.

The NIV gives a good translation of 4. 11 is “Christ himself gave the Apostles the  prophets,  the Evangelists, the Pastors and Teachers.” 

Does that mean that the rest of us are none of the above, but maybe hewers of wood and drawers of water? That is the trouble with the traditional interpretation of this passage: it identifies a select list of people with “ministry gifts” – one (or more) of which became redundant shortly after the letter was written – while the rest of us just get on and use our ordinary gifts?

There is a strong connexion between what this passage says about gifts and Romans 12. and 1 Cor 12 The language used is very similar. Unity and diversity in the Church are shared themes of all three passages. To each grace was given (v. 7) The idea of a group of people who are "God's gift to the Church", called to equip the saints and do the work of ministry makes sense if Ephesians was written by someone else a generation after Paul, when the church was beginning to fossilize into an"institution" with a structured hierarchy. But it doesn't make sense if the letter was written by Paul or someone close to Paul - who had (as Jesus did) a vision of a "flat", non-hierarchical structure in an organic church. Apostates, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are expressions of the grace we are all given. God's gift to the church: but not necessarily office-holders or leaders. So, YOU can build up the body.

Do you have an orientation towards mission? You want to keep bringing us back to this: there's a world out there that needs Jesus; how can we reach the unreached, unchurched? I'm not talking about being an apostle like Paul or Peter. I'm talking about a heart for new ground among the lost.

Do you have a passion to speak out God's word? A heart to know what God is saying to us today, a conviction that God speaks, applies his eternal truth, specifically to each generation.

Do you have a passion to share the good news? Do you have a burning desire to be part of a Church where everyone can articulate what the Good news is, and is irrepressible about sharing that Good news?

Do you have a passion for the sheep? Do you long to see people cared for, led clear of the pitfalls, healed in their times of brokenness, and growing safely into the image of Jesus?

Do you have a heart for teaching? Do have a desire to wrestle with, and to see people knowing and applying the teachings of Scripture?

And the big purpose “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”. To understand verses 9 onwards, we need the first part of the chapter. Paul is talking about “living a life worthy of our calling, with humility, patience, bearing with one another, love unity and peace.” It's about how we live our lives.

So the gifts are given so that we can be enabled to live holy lives and to be united. They are about life-change!  And that – holy living, effective mission, spiritual power – is what it means to be an Easter people. That kind of Church life, that kind of mission, that kind of anointing and gifting is the direct result on earth, of the resurrection, exaltation, and victory of Jesus.

© Gilmour Lilly February 2016