{"id":18478,"date":"2018-04-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-019\/"},"modified":"2018-04-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T05:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-019","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-019\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 019"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[94],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18478","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-ephesians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 019","sermon_date":"20180408","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5659,"sermon_slides":5656,"sermon_mp3":5663,"sermon_id":"481813442910","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":94,"chapter_and_verse":"4:11-16","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 19\n\n4-8-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 19\n\nIf you can take your Bibles and open them to the Book of Ephesians, chapter 4 and verse 11.\u00a0 As you guys hopefully remember, I had a hard time remembering today, I had to look at my notes to see what were supposed to be studying.\u00a0 But we have been doing a study on ecclesiology which is the doctrine of the church.\u00a0 And the last time we were together we were talking about Roman numeral VII, the purposes of the church.\u00a0 Why does the church exist?\u00a0 And what you\u2019ll discover in the modern evangelical climate is there\u2019s a lot of confusion on why a church (I\u2019m talking now about a local church) why a local church even exists.\n\nThe last time we were together I was sharing with you some insights from my professor of systematic theology, Robert Lightner, and I\u2019m so grateful he taught me this because it helped me, not only in helping guide a church but other times in my life trying to pick a church to attend.\u00a0 A church basically has three basic purposes, a local church.\u00a0 The first is to glorify God.\u00a0 And you recall that we talked about last time how God\u2019s purposes in human history are not to save souls but rather to do what?\u00a0 Glorify Himself.\u00a0 Now when souls are saved who is glorified?\u00a0 God!\u00a0\u00a0 What I mean by \u201csaved\u201d is soteriology, even the soteriological purposes of God are subsumed under the category the doxological purpose of God.\n\nSo the first purpose of a church is essentially to glorify God because that\u2019s God purpose in human history.\u00a0 And in fact no matter what God does in human history, whether it be through creation or redemption what you\u2019ll discover is His glory is at the center. So you think of salvation and\u00a0 you think of the Second Member of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, stepping out of eternity into time to pay a sin debt we could never pay for, and to resurrect from the dead.\u00a0 And we\u2019re so grateful for that and for our salvation, but who gets the glory for all of that?\u00a0 It\u2019s obviously Christ.\u00a0 So even the plan that He used to orchestrate salvation glorifies Himself.\n\nSo if God\u2019s purpose\u2019s in human history are doxological (doxological means glory), if God works in history to glorify Himself then the primary purpose of any church should be to do what?\u00a0 Glorify God!\u00a0 And that\u2019s why Paul, when he talks about the church in the Book of Ephesians, which is probably the area where you get the most treatment anywhere else in the Bible concerning the purpose of the church, Paul is very clear in Ephesians 3:21, \u201cto Him be<\/em> the glory\u201d where? \u201cin the church.\u201d\u00a0 [Ephesians 3:21, \u201cto Him be<\/em> the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.\u201d]\u00a0 So the first purpose of a local church is to glorify God. Everything a church does the glory of God should be at the center.\u00a0 We covered that last time; does that ring a bell at all.\u00a0 Hopefully it does.\n\nAnd we move from there to the second great purpose of the local church, which is to edify the saints; \u201cedify\u201d means to build up in spiritual things the saints; the saints would be the people of God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the Book of Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 11-16 become such a big deal.\u00a0 And we worked through this passage last time, at least verses 11, 12, 13 and 14, and I\u2019d like to finish it this morning and I\u2019ll also take a look at verses 15 and 16.\n\nBut Paul writes there in verses 11 and 12 of Ephesians 4, \u201cAnd He gave some as<\/em> apostles, and some as<\/em> prophets\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Now when you slip back to Ephesians 2:20 what you discover is that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:20, \u201chaving been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.\u201d] \u00a0And of course we made the point that how many times do you lay a foundation?\u00a0 One time.\u00a0 So the foundation was laid through the apostles and prophets and now God has been building on that structure for the last 2,000 years, I would say today He\u2019s putting on the roof of the house because it looks to me like the church age is winding down.\u00a0 I could be wrong on that, it may go on for another ten million years, I kind of doubt it but\u2026 it looks like God is sort of wrapping up things. So He\u2019s now relaying the foundation, that\u2019s already been laid, He\u2019s building on that foundation.\u00a0 So that was the purpose of apostles and prophets.\n\nAnd then He gave \u201csome as evangelists,\u201d now last time we were together I said an evangelist is like an obstetrician who helps in the birthing process.\u00a0 So the evangelist is primarily working with the unsaved, trying to get the unsaved saved.\u00a0 That\u2019s the spiritual gift of evangelism.\u00a0 If we didn\u2019t have the spiritual gift of evangelism the church could never grow and God has designed the church to grow.\u00a0 So He\u2019s given that spiritual gift to the church.\u00a0 Now once these new converts, after having come to Christ you don\u2019t just leave them to their own devices, I mean, that would be like having a newborn child, you know, we would bring Sarah home from the hospital as a newborn child back in 2006, and what kind of parents would be if we just kind of plopped her in the middle of the kitchen and said help yourself to a ham sandwich when you get hungry.\u00a0 Of course a child can\u2019t do that, a child doesn\u2019t even have teeth yet, couldn\u2019t even eat meat yet, certainly can\u2019t fend for themselves yet.\u00a0 And so you have another medical office besides an obstetrician called a pediatrician that helps the child to grow.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we are as infants in Christ, newborn Christians, we\u2019re children and we need to be brought into spiritual maturity\n\nSo the great purpose of the church that I\u2019m highlighting here is the edification of its own members.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why God has given the spiritual gift to the church called the gift of pastors and teachers; I think it better reads pastor-teacher or pastor-teachers because the way Paul is using it there in the Greek language, according to what\u2019s called the Granville Sharpe Rule which basically says if there\u2019s a definite article followed by two nouns and those nouns are joined by a conjunction then the two nouns are what?\u00a0 They\u2019re equal, and that\u2019s a very famous rule of Greek grammar called the Granville Sharpe Rule.\u00a0 And because that\u2019s the way this reads is in the Greek language Paul mentions evangelist and he mentions this other office called the office of pastor-teacher.\u00a0 The office of pastor-teacher is to function not as an obstetrician, that\u2019s the evangelist\u2019s job; he functions primarily as a pediatrician helping newborn children of God to grow in the faith that they\u2019ve come to believe in.\n\nAnd as\u00a0 you go on from verse 11, in verse 12 it says that the pastor-teacher is to equip the unbelievers\u2026 it doesn\u2019t say that does it.\u00a0 He is to equip the who? \u201cthe saints\u201d and part of that equipping is preparing them for their ministry, whatever it is, or their life in Christ, so that the body of Christ can be built.\u00a0 [Verse 12, \u201cfor the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;\u201d]\u00a0 So what you discover is the pastor-teacher is someone that has this spiritual gift to teach the Bible in a way that helps people grow in Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s a way to teach the Bible completely, accurately, relatively, understandably so that people under that kind of ministry can develop the way they\u2019re supposed to develop.\u00a0 He\u2019s functioning like that pediatrician.\n\nAnd as he does this the saints are being prepared for works of service.\u00a0 And so God wants to use the ministry of the Word to prepare you for the work that He has for you.\u00a0 That\u2019s why a local church exists; its second major purpose, and that\u2019s why the gift of pastor-teacher exists.\n\nNow you\u2019ll notice this word equip, \u201cthe equipping of the saints,\u201d and I mentioned (I think last time) that there are three books in your Bible, three canonical letters written to the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 Paul in Rome wrote this book, the Book of Ephesians, and then when he was out of prison he wrote 1 Timothy to the church at Ephesus because Timothy is a young pastor trying to pastor the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 So the letter wasn\u2019t addressed specifically to the church as a whole but it was addressed to Timothy who was pastoring that church.\u00a0 And then when Paul is in jail a second time, at the very end of his life, he writes another book from Roman prison to Timothy again, still functioning at the church at Ephesus.\n\nSo if you want to understand how the pastor-teacher equips the flock you have to look at the whole three volume set.\u00a0 I mean, how does Paul use the same word \u201cequipping\u201d in the other letters that he addressed to the church at Ephesus?\u00a0 And when you go over to 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17 you have the answer as to how the pastor teacher equips the flock, these are verses you no doubt know very well.\u00a0 Paul writes to Timothy in Ephesus and he says, \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; [17] so that the man of God may be adequately\u201d what\u2019s the next word there, \u201cequipped\u201d boy, that sure sounds like Ephesians 4:11 and 4:12 doesn\u2019t it, the pastor-teacher exists for the equipping of the saints; \u201cso that the man of God may be adequately equipped for\u201d 75% of his or her life\u2026 NO, \u201cthat the man of God may be adequately equipped \u00a0for\u201d what? \u201cevery good work.\u201d\n\nSo what you have here is a divine promise; when the Bible is taught accurately, faithfully, comprehensively, completely by someone in a local church possessing the gift of pastor-teacher God makes a promise and the promise is He is using that process to equip the flock for their ministry and\/or ministries and for their life in general.\u00a0 And the only reason I believe this is true is because God has made it here a promise to us.\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t have this promise I would probably be tossed to and fro and delve into all kinds of other tactics that people use today to run the church, but because my ministry is anchored in this promise that\u2019s what I do every single time I have the opportunity to teach.\u00a0 I trust that God is using what I\u2019m saying and how I\u2019m teaching to equip you.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice that the pastor-teacher is working amongst the flock primarily with the Word of God functioning under the promise that as the Word of God is being taught, profitable (that means productive, right) profitable things are happening.\u00a0 They are teaching, reproof, correction, training, and equipping for every single thing God wants to do in your life.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why you would come to a church; that\u2019s why you pick a church, you don\u2019t necessarily pick a church because they have the nicest building in town or they have the best sounding music, or they have beautiful stained glass windows.\u00a0\u00a0 You pick a church to attend that\u2019s functioning the way God intended it to function, through this office of pastor-teacher and equipping.\u00a0 If that\u2019s not happening in a church you really don\u2019t have a church.\u00a0 I would call it a crowd of people, they\u2019re doing something but it\u2019s not what God called the church to be.\n\nAnd by the way, this has zero to do with how big a church is or how little a church is.\u00a0 Everybody today is so hung up on \u201cwell how many people go to your church?\u201d\u00a0 I remember talking with my friend, David Hocking, some of you may know him, and years ago he asked me how\u2019s your ministry going.\u00a0 And I said well, you know, it\u2019s going okay, I\u2019m pastoring this little church over here.\u00a0 And he stopped me dead in my tracks and he says can you find the words \u201clittle church\u201d in the Bible for me?\u00a0 I mean, the Bible doesn\u2019t make any distinction between little churches and big churches. What the Bible says is where two or three are gathered there I am, what? \u201cin their midst.\u201d [Matthew 18:20, \u201cFor where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.\u201d\u2019]\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re so hung up on size and attendance and all of these kinds of things and I don\u2019t think God really cares that much about stuff like that, to be honest with you.\n\nSo when Paul writes to the church at Philippi he doesn\u2019t say well, you\u2019re a little church and then when he writes to the church at Ephesus he says you\u2019re a big church, I mean, that\u2019s an artificial distinction that we\u2019ve brought to the Bible because we, in ministry, very sadly have defined success the wrong way.\u00a0 We\u2019ve defined it the American way which is bigger is better.\u00a0 The reality is as\u00a0 you go into the Word of God you will not find the equation that bigger is better. And I\u2019m not against big if God makes it big; what I\u2019m against is defining success by the three B\u2019s, Bodies, Building and Bucks. \u00a0Or the ABC\u2019s of ministry, Attendance, Buildings and Cash.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re all hung up on that. What God wants done is this equipping work, it doesn\u2019t matter who comes.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if the place is maxed out, it doesn\u2019t matter if just a few people are there, this is God\u2019s design for the church.\u00a0 It should be a place of equipping through His Word.\n\nAnd we all know Isaiah 55:10-11, when the Word of God goes forth it does not return what? \u00a0Void, it always accomplishes the purposes for which it was sent.\u00a0 [Isaiah 55:10, \u201cFor as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;\u00a0 [11] So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void,<\/u> but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing<\/em> whereto I sent it.\u201d]\n\nAnd so what you have to do in ministry is trust those promises and trust that God is doing something through the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher as he teaches the Scripture that God is ministering to people in ways that you couldn\u2019t even comprehend.\u00a0 I know that for a fact just by reading my e-mail, because we\u2019re on Sermon Audio and internet and live streaming and all these kinds of things and people will write and they say man, your sermon or whatever really helped me with this issue in my life.\u00a0 And I\u2019m thinking to myself, wow, that issue was probably the furthest thing in my mind when I put that sermon together.\u00a0 But they talk about how it helped them with that issue.\u00a0 So what do you attribute that to?\u00a0 You attribute that to the fact that God has made a promise that when His Word is faithfully taught He will use it in a special way to minister to God\u2019s people.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m not a mind reader, I can\u2019t see what\u2019s going on in everybody\u2019s life. But I know that God uses His Word in the lives of His people in a special way.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to know what everybody\u2019s needs are, God knows what they are and He has designed the church in a way so that your needs are met in this way and you\u2019re being adequately equipped for every good work.\n\nNow let me back up just for a second.\u00a0 You see where it says \u201call Scripture is inspired by God and profitable,\u201d [2 Timothy 3:16, \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;\u201d] what would \u201call Scripture\u201d mean?\u00a0 Well, it would mean Genesis chapter 1 all the way through Revelation 22, wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Would it not include the Book of Leviticus, would it even include 1 Chronicles chapters 1-9, all of the genealogies?\u00a0 Would it include the genealogy of Matthew chapter 1?\u00a0 You see, the bottom line is God put the whole Scripture, by design, together for us and since \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable\u201d does it make any sense to have a ministry philosophy that preaches part of the Scripture.\u00a0 I mean, that wouldn\u2019t make any sense. He wouldn\u2019t say Timothy, all Scripture is inspired, now focus on the parts that you think are most important.\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s sort of like Moses getting Ten Commandments from God and Moses saying to God, well God, I\u2019m going to kind of sum it up a little bit, I\u2019ll just focus on seven, and I\u2019ll pick the seven that are the most important.\n\nBut you know, that\u2019s the attitude of people, they just kind of act like you can just kind of randomly piecemeal the Bible and pick this and pick that when God is saying the whole thing is inspired by Me and so you have an obligation to teach and preach the whole Bible.\u00a0 And that\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019m just a big believer in verse by verse teaching, because as I go through the Bible I don\u2019t give myself the luxury of picking the topics that I want to talk about.\u00a0 I mean, early on in my ministry, when I was just teaching Bible studies I would just sort of leaf through the Bible and try to pick something that would be appropriate for the day.\u00a0 And then I discovered well, if you just start in Romans 1:1 and go all the way through chapter 16\u00a0 you\u2019re not picking your sermons anymore, God is picking them and you\u2019re forced to talk about things you would never talk about.\n\nI mean, if I was in charge of this process I would just select the things that make me happy and make you happy.\u00a0 But when you go verse by verse you\u2019re not in charge any more and God is giving His people a balanced meal.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 All the vitamin groups and what are those called, nutrition groups or whatever they are, are represented.\u00a0 And if you just teach topically over and over again you\u2019re going to miss certain food groups.\u00a0 And this is one of the reasons that God\u2019s people today, I think, are starving, because the people that God has called to the role of pastor-teacher have bought into, largely, a highly selective topical approach to the Bible.\n\nNow why do they do that?\u00a0 They do that because of this pyramid here called Maslow\u2019s Hierarchy of Needs.\u00a0 This pyramid was developed by someone that to my mind wasn\u2019t even regenerated, Abraham Maslow.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically what runs modern day marketing.\u00a0 And what Maslow postulated is that human beings have different levels of need.\u00a0 They have, number one, their physiological needs, and so they try to get those met first.\u00a0 Physiological needs would be breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, using the bathroom and other things like that.\n\nAnd then Maslow said once those needs are met people will move on to the next level and try to get those met and those are what you call your safety needs.\u00a0 So that would be the need for security of the body, security of employment, security for resources, health, you name it.\u00a0 And then Maslow said once they meet that level of need they\u2019ll move on to the next level which every human being (Maslow says) has a need for social things, a need, what was that show called Cheers, you remember that, I think the song to it (which I won\u2019t be singing) was\u00a0 you want to go where everybody knows your name.\u00a0 Does that ring a bell?\u00a0 Something like that. So that would be Maslow\u2019s third need, a need for society, social relationships, friendships, family.\n\nAnd then Maslow said if that area of need is met people move into their esteem needs.\u00a0 That\u2019s the need to feel important.\u00a0\u00a0 So that would be things like self-esteem, self-confidence, achievement, being respected by outsiders, being respected for others.\u00a0 And then Maslow said once a human being has met all four of those areas of need in their life they reach a place of what he called self-actualization, where they are at their full potential, they\u2019re self-actualized.\u00a0 And what you have to understand is modern day marketing is run according to this triangle, this pyramid.\n\nMarketing is basically about developing what\u2019s called a marketing mix, a product or service, or related products or services and appealing to these areas of need.\u00a0 And marketers say that if you appeal to these areas of need people will want your product.\u00a0 So you are watching a commercial and somebody is breaking down someone\u2019s house in the middle of the night and threatening them and stealing from them and then they come along and they say you need this new security system to help you with that.\u00a0 That\u2019s a marketing ploy appealing to the first level of need there at the very bottom.\u00a0 And then you watch how the car companies advertise, man, you get in this new car you\u2019re going to be really something, you know you\u2019re important, people will respect you, people will look up to you and that\u2019s a marketing mix aimed at the esteem needs.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo what began to happen within Christianity, particularly in America, around the 1980\u2019s is a man named Peter Drucker came on the scene. Peter Drucker is basically a business guru and he began to influence ministers that this is how you need to preach and teach, this is how you get your church to grow.\u00a0 So this philosophy heavily influenced Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral.\u00a0 It heavily influenced Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church.\u00a0 It heavily influenced Bill Hybels in Chicago and a number of other people that I can point to.\u00a0 And basically what they do is they figure out who unchurched Harry and Mary are out there in the world and you develop sermon topics that relate to these areas of need.\n\nSo I went to one of those churches on Easter Sunday (not recently, this was years ago) and I was expecting to hear a sermon on the resurrection of Jesus Christ because isn\u2019t that what you\u2019re supposed to talk about on Easter Sunday?\u00a0 And the sermon title was How to Catapult Your Career.\u00a0 That was the sermon title.\u00a0 So what happened is they wanted their church to grow and so they developed a marketing mix to appeal to people, to bring them in, and they were developing a sermon around\u00a0 your esteem needs.\u00a0 And so as\u00a0 you look at how these people preach, and Rick Warren, by the way, allows pastors to go onto his website and download any sermon they want to use.\u00a0 They can use his notes, they can use his jokes, they can use his illustrations, they can use his fill in the blanks on the church bulletin that he passes out to everybody.\n\nAnd basically what this spawns is a generation of preachers and teachers that began to piecemeal the Bible.\u00a0 They began to look only for subjects is the Bible that related to one or more of these areas of need.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 Well guess what folks, there\u2019s a lot of things in the Bible that don\u2019t fit into this triangle. Amen!\u00a0 Where do you put the doctrine of hell into that?\u00a0 Where do you put the second coming of Jesus and the tribulation period into that?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t fit.\u00a0 Where do you put spiritual warfare?\n\nThink of all of the topics that are omitted and today it\u2019s not so much going to a church, it\u2019s not so much what they say that\u2019s so bad because they\u2019re using the Bible, it\u2019s what they\u2019re leaving out.\u00a0 That\u2019s the problem!\u00a0 They intentionally leave out, by design, subjects that don\u2019t fit somewhere into this triangle and consequently who is being starved to death in the process? God\u2019s people, because God\u2019s people can only grow when they\u2019re given all of their additives and preservatives and vitamins and food groups.\u00a0 I mean, you can\u2019t grow simply by hearing felt needs messages over and over and over again.\n\nAnd this is why so many of these sermons that you hear in these churches they start to sound an awful lot alike.\u00a0 I remember being in a church like that and I said I thought I heard something like that two or three or four months ago, or two, or three or four weeks ago.\n\nAnd the reason these sermons start sounding alike is there\u2019s only so many places in the Bible you can go to teach felt needs.\u00a0 And you have to omit\u2026 I mean, where would you put into this the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Matthew 1?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t fit!\u00a0 Where are you going to put 1 Chronicles chapters 1-9?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t fit.\u00a0 So the church today, in my humble opinion, is failing, particularly here in the United States, because of this philosophy, not so much by what it says; what it says is not so much the problem, it\u2019s what it leaves out.\u00a0 And Paul is very clear that \u201call Scripture is inspired by God.\u201d [2 Timothy 3:16]\n\nIf I ever taught on the genealogy of Christ, like if I was moving through Matthew, I would be saying to the Lord, well Lord, you know, I don\u2019t know how you\u2019re going to use this in people\u2019s live, but You made me a promise here that when Your Word is faithfully taught God\u2019s people are being equipped. God will use any part of His Word to fortify and edify His people and the problem is your typical church today is not\u2026 it doesn\u2019t have the right ministry philosophy where it\u2019s teaching the whole Bible.\u00a0 What it has is a Peter Drucker, Robert Schuller, Rick Warren business model which works really well in the area of marketing and business, but it doesn\u2019t have a proper ecclesiological model starting from what God says.\n\nAnd so probably your most fundamental question you have to ask for any church is why are you here?\u00a0 Why do you exist?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why these purposes of the church that we\u2019re talking about here are very important.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t plan on bringing this up but while I\u2019m on the subject over in the Book of Acts, chapter 20, verses 26-27 where Paul, as a shepherd, is talking to fellow shepherds.\u00a0 He\u2019s talking to the elders of the church at Ephesus.\u00a0 In other words, he\u2019s a pastor telling other pastors how to be pastors.\u00a0 And he gives this tremendous talk to these guys at the end of his third missionary journey.\u00a0 And probably some of my favorite verses in the whole Bible are right there in verses 26 and 27.\u00a0 He says, \u201cTherefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.\u201d\u00a0 Why would he say that?\u00a0\u00a0 Because it\u2019s a principle that goes back to the Book of Ezekiel; one of the things to understand about the Book of Ezekiel is it\u2019s symmetrically structured.\u00a0 At the beginning of the book Ezekiel preaches judgment; at the end of the book he preaches restoration.\u00a0 And so there are two calling sections in the Book of Ezekiel. There are two times God calls Ezekiel to this task, because he has two ministries, one judgment, one restoration.\n\nSo in chapter 3, verses 17-19 I believe it is, he says over there, Ezekiel, here\u2019s the deal, I\u2019m going to give you a message to the people to deliver, and if\u00a0 you deliver it and they don\u2019t listen and die in their sin it\u2019s their own fault.\u00a0 But on the other hand, if I tell you to speak and you don\u2019t speak and the people die in their sin God specifically says to Ezekiel, because you\u2019re the watchman on the wall, you\u2019re the shepherd, He tells Ezekiel I\u2019m coming after you. And He tells Ezekiel not just this once in Ezekiel 3:17-19, He tells it to him a second time for his second assignment of preaching restoration, Ezekiel 33:7-9.\n\n[Ezekiel 3:17-19, \u201cSon of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. [18] When I say to the wicked, \u2018You will surely die,\u2019 and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. [19] Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.\u00a0 Ezekiel 33:7-9, \u201cNow as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. [8] \u201cWhen I say to the wicked, \u2018O wicked man, you will surely die,\u2019 and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. [9] But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.\u201d]\n\nAnd God is very clear to Ezekiel that if\u00a0 you withhold information and the people die in their sin because you\u2019ve withheld the information then their blood, He tells them, is on your hands.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo with that background in mind that\u2019s why Paul in Acts 20:26 says, \u201cTherefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.\u201d\u00a0 Paul says I\u2019m off the hook.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 The answer is verse 27, \u201cFor I did not shrink from declaring to you the\u201d what\u2019s the next word? \u201cFor I did not shrink from declaring to you the\u201d what? \u201cwhole purpose of God.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0So Paul says I\u2019ve done my job as a watchman on the wall, I\u2019ve delivered complete content, I didn\u2019t hold back on anything and so I\u2019m off the hook.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And keep in mind this was also written or given to the church at Ephesus, Acts 20, Paul speaking to the Ephesian elders. \u00a0\u00a0So when he says \u201cwhole purpose of God\u201d he\u2019s reminding Timothy of this exhortation, reminding him that All Scripture is inspired, therefore the whole Scripture needs to be taught.\n\nAnd to the extent that you don\u2019t and you piecemeal the Bible and you leave out subjects for the sake of not wanting to hurt people\u2019s feelings or wanting the church to get bigger, whatever the motive is, God tells the teachers that they are responsible.\u00a0 Do we understand that?\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Book of James, chapter 3, verse 1, says, \u201clet few of you\u201d what? \u201cpresume to be teachers, knowing that the teacher will incur the\u201d what? \u00a0\u201cstricter judgment.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s a higher accountability when you get into the business of teaching spiritual things.\u00a0 And what these passages, whether it\u2019s here in 2 Timothy, whether it\u2019s in Acts 20, whether it\u2019s in Ezekiel 3 or Ezekiel 33, I mean what all these passages area basically saying is the shepherds are responsible, not just for what they say but what they don\u2019t say.\u00a0 See?\u00a0 And this is the problem with the whole Peter Drucker, Robert Schuller approach; it\u2019s an approach designed to censor the Bible when it doesn\u2019t fit into the triangle.\u00a0 Are you with me on this?\u00a0 So the major purpose of the church is to help the flock to grow through a systematic teaching of the Word of God.\n\nNow once we start getting all of our nutrients and vitamins and food groups and attitudes and preservatives and all that stuff, what starts to happen in a church?\u00a0 The church starts to mature, meaning the people in the church that are already saved start to become more Christ like in their daily lives.\u00a0 So the function of a pastor-teacher is to help a local church reach maturity. So since that\u2019s true we need a definition of what maturity looks like. Right?\n\nSo what does maturity look like?\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked.\u00a0 Verse 13, \u201cUntil we all attain\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cthe unity of the faith,\u201d we\u2019re not bickering with ourselves over slight issues, sister so and so got more time with the piano than I got this week and so I\u2019m mad and I\u2019m going to hold a grudge and\u2026 you know, after all, I don\u2019t like the color of carpet in this church, I\u2019m going to find another church with a color of carpet that I like; and that pastor parts his hair on the wrong side of his head and so I\u2019m going to go down the street and find a pastor that combs his hair correctly, and these dumb things that happen in churches.\u00a0 When the flock starts to mature those things start getting minimized and people become knowledgeable of the Son of God, they have more than just a John 3:16 understanding of the Bible.\u00a0 They become a mature man which is a stature which is fitting of a Christian belonging to the whole stature of Christ, and they \u201care no longer children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.\u201d\u00a0 [Ephesians 4:14]\n\nPart of maturity is not just jumping on board with every spiritual trend.\u00a0 So someone comes into a church (as happened in recent times) and said well, according to the constellation in the sky Jesus is going to come back, what was it, September 12th<\/sup> or something like that?\u00a0 And you look at that and you say well, that\u2019s interesting but I\u2019m not going to jump onboard with that because I don\u2019t really see it squarely spelled out in the Bible.\u00a0 Or someone else comes in and says you know, the Nephilim are going to come back one day because after all the Bible says \u201cas it was in the days of Noah so shall it be,\u201d so on TV they\u2019re telling me about a resurgence of Nephilim in the last days.\u00a0 And so you say hold the phone, that sounds interesting, But I don\u2019t necessarily find that in the Word of God.\u00a0 And someone else comes along with a plan and says hey, there\u2019s this prayer of Jabez and if you pray this prayer, you know God is obligated to increase your land, so let\u2019s get the Prayer of Jabez Study Books and T-shirts and small groups.\n\nAnd a mature Christian doesn\u2019t jump on the bandwagon, and says well, that kind of sounds interesting but let me filter it through the Word of God.\u00a0 See what\u2019s happening here?\u00a0 As a flock matures what\u2019s happening is they\u2019re no longer tossed around by every trend that comes through the body of Christ.\u00a0 I mean, there are basic trends, aren\u2019t there?\u00a0 Do you wear the exact same style that you wore in the 80\u2019s?\u00a0 You\u2019d probably stick out like a sore thumb if you did that.\u00a0 We understand trends.\n\nWell, there are trends, Paul says, that come through churches all the time.\u00a0 In my brief time in Christ I can think of like four or five, six, major trends that have come and gone.\u00a0 I remember when Promise Keepers was the height of everything to the point where if you weren\u2019t in Promise Keepers some people were wondering whether you were a Christian or not.\u00a0 What happened to Promise Keepers?\u00a0 It just died out and people hardly remember it any more.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a passing fad. What happened to the Prayer of Jabez?\u00a0 Same kind of thing.\u00a0 What happened to date setting schemes?\u00a0 Same kind of thing.\u00a0 And so we just need to be growing in Christ to the point where we\u2019re just not, as I used the illustration last time, crawling on the ground as an immature child does and putting into our mouths everything we see on the floor.\u00a0 That\u2019s what infants do. But as they progress into adulthood they develop a screen, a grid, a worldview by which they can say you know, that doesn\u2019t sound quite right.\u00a0 And you stand on the authority of the Word of God so you\u2019re no longer tossed around.\n\nI like this imagery here, being from southern California, spending a lot of time on the ocean, the Pacific Ocean, how the waves would be tossed by wind and that in essence is what these trends, these spiritual trends blowing through the body of Christ are.\u00a0 And the reason people jump on board with these things is largely, to my mind, a failure of the local church.\u00a0 The local church is not set up to bring people to maturity.\u00a0 Most local churches don\u2019t even have a ministry philosophy to bring people to maturity.\u00a0 And so the shepherds are leaving God\u2019s people to their own devices to do what\u2019s right in their own eyes.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 And so the local church fails at its most fundamental mission of bringing people into the full stature of Christ.\u00a0 This is why God has given to this earth the local church and the gift of pastor-teacher to equip the saints and bring them into maturity.\n\nDo people in Christ need to become mature?\u00a0 My goodness, have we read 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 lately.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I, brethren,\u201d so who\u2019s he talking to there, believers or unbelievers?\u00a0 Believers!\u00a0 \u201cI brethren could not speak to you as\u201d spiritual people, but as what? \u201ccarnal, as to babes in Christ,\u201d why are they carnal and babes in Christ?\u00a0 Verse 2, \u201cI fed you with milk, not with solid food.\u201d\u00a0 I mean, you can\u2019t handle a steak yet.\u00a0 I mean, Paul says when I get up and teach in depth doctrine everybody is thinking about their lunch plans, looking at their watches, and wondering when the service is going to be over.\u00a0 That\u2019s a sign of immaturity.\u00a0 The inability to digest truth at a deeper level is a sign of immaturity.\u00a0 \u201cI fed you with milk, not solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it.\u00a0 Even now you\u2019re still not able, [3] for you are still carnal.\u201d\n\nWhat\u2019s another indicator of carnality?\u00a0 Where there is envy and strife and divisions\u2026 do we realize that a lot of local churches are some of the most unruly places you could ever go to, where people are at war with each other over what?\u00a0 The virgin birth?\u00a0 No, it\u2019s some issue of preference.\u00a0 I mean people basically take a preference that they have that\u2019s really not found in the Bible and they try to make a big deal about it. That\u2019s a sign of immaturity.\u00a0 If\u00a0 you\u2019re in perpetual conflict, and I know people like this, they\u2019re in perpetual conflict with almost every relationship God brings into their life there\u2019s conflict, over and over and\u00a0 over and over again.\u00a0 That\u2019s a sign of a carnal or immature Christian.\n\n\u201cFor you are still carnal.\u00a0 For where there is envy and strife and divisions among you, are not you behaving like mere men?\u201d\u00a0 What he\u2019s saying there is you\u2019re acting worse than the\u00a0 unbelievers.\u00a0 And you say well, can a Christian really behave in such a way that they act worse than an unbeliever?\u00a0 Absolutely that\u2019s a possibility because in chapter 5 there\u2019s incest going on and Paul says the pagans don\u2019t even do this.\u00a0 I mean, your standards are so low that the pagans won\u2019t even do what you\u2019re doing. And he tells the elders to exercise church discipline, it\u2019s obviously a believer there.\u00a0 You don\u2019t exercise church discipline on unbelievers; you get unbelievers saved.\u00a0 So when the Book of Ephesians talks about we\u2019re \u201cno longer children\u201d that\u2019s what it\u2019s dealing with here.\u00a0 It\u2019s dealing with people that are carnal or babes in Christ and they\u2019re unable to digest deeper truths in God; they fight amongst each other like kids in a sand box, you know, sort of throwing sand at each other.\u00a0 And sometimes they even act worse than unbelievers.\u00a0 You see that?\n\nIf you look at this chart you\u2019ll notice that Paul divides the world into two camps: unbelievers and believers.\u00a0 Unbelievers is the unsaved people; believers are the saved people.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that amongst believers there are three categories of believers.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Where am I getting this from?\u00a0 Spiritual, Carnal, Babes.\u00a0 Within the camp of the believing there are spiritual, those that are growing in Christ.\u00a0 There are the infants, those that are new Christians and then there are people that should have grown up a long time ago.\u00a0 Those are called the carnal; they\u2019re called carnal, you recognize the word \u201ccarnivorous\u201d right, devoted to meat, devoted to the flesh.\u00a0 They\u2019re carnal because they\u2019re still living according to the desires of the sin nature, see that?\u00a0 They\u2019re still Christians.\n\nSo who is an evangelist working with?\u00a0 The right half of the screen or the left half?\u00a0 The evangelist is working amongst the unbelievers.\u00a0 The pastor-teacher is working amongst the believers trying to help the infant believer or the carnal believer become the what?\u00a0 Spiritual believer.\u00a0 See that. So the function of a local church is to help people in category of believers develop into that spiritual man.\u00a0 And Paul is explaining how that\u2019s basically going to happen through the perpetual teaching of God\u2019s Word.\n\nSo your obligation in a church is to hear the Word and then apply the Word.\u00a0 If that\u2019s happening every single Sunday, hearing\/applying, hearing\/applying, hearing\/applying, then guess what?\u00a0 You\u2019re moving out of infancy into the full stature of Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God set up the local church.\u00a0 If this isn\u2019t happening because the Bible is being piecemealed, under the Drucker model, then the church never really achieves its purpose.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have the ability under this system to bring people into the full stature of Christ.\u00a0 It leaves them as infants.\u00a0 It\u2019s like bringing a child home from the hospital and in essence, as a newborn, leaving them to their own devices.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s happening in local churches.\n\nCan you, Paul, give us more of a definition of what maturity looks like since the purpose of the church is to bring the saints to maturity.\u00a0 So he continues on in verses 15 and 16, what does maturity look like?\u00a0 What does it say in verse 15? \u00a0\u201cbut speaking,\u201d that\u2019s how you identify a mature Christian, it\u2019s how they use this two by two slab of mucus membrane between our gums called the tongue.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how much of the Bible you know, what I\u2019d like to know is what\u2019s coming out of your mouth moment by moment.\u00a0 Is it sarcasm, derision, petty comments, or is it words of optimism, hope, holiness and things like that?\n\nAnd a mature Christian, look at this here, is able to speak the truth, period.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that does it?\u00a0 A mature Christian is able to \u201cspeak the truth\u201d what? \u201cin love.\u201d\u00a0 Now I\u2019ve found that speaking the truth is the easy part, but the ability to \u201cspeak the truth\u201d in a way that\u2019s loving, that\u2019s totally different.\u00a0 In fact, that is so difficult to do only someone \u201cin Christ,\u201d maturing in Christ has the capacity to do that.\u00a0 But if you have the capacity to do that, that\u2019s a sign that we are growing up \u201cinto Him who is the head, even Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causing the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.\u201d\n\nWhat does maturity start to look like in a flock that\u2019s under a pastor-teacher growing the way they\u2019re supposed to.\u00a0 Well, what starts to happen is you start to see harmony, you start to see people understanding that the ministry doesn\u2019t just belong to the preacher and the piano player but the ministry belongs to all of us.\u00a0 We all have spiritual gifts, we\u2019re all called to use those spiritual gifts.\u00a0 The office of pastor-teacher is preparing you for the use of your spiritual gifts, and when each of us begin to use our gifts we\u2019re not doing it in a way where we\u2019re at war with each other, we\u2019re doing it in a way where we\u2019re cooperating with each other.\u00a0 And what starts to happen is the body of Christ starts to become built up.\u00a0 It starts to become edified; it\u2019s a beautiful thing to see.\n\nThis is why Paul, over in 1 Corinthians 12 uses the body example.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have two right hands, if I had two right hands one of my hands would be unnecessary.\u00a0 God has given me a right hand and He\u2019s given me a left hand and my body works best when both of those hands are joined to the head, the nerve center, and taking instructions, and there\u2019s a beautiful harmony that exists between my right hand and my left hand and every other part of my anatomy for that matter.\u00a0 That is what the body of Christ is supposed to look like as it grows and matures, being joined to the head, Jesus Christ, as\u00a0 you start to see people taking on ministries and we start to discover that the ministry doesn\u2019t just belong to a single person, it belongs to all of us, and we all begin to use our spiritual gifts in harmony with each other, and what starts to happen in a\u00a0 mature flock is you start to see the building up of that flock in love.\n\nAnd this God\u2019s great purpose for the local church.\u00a0 This is why the local church exists.\u00a0 So the local church has three reasons, two of which we\u2019ve covered, we\u2019ll do the next one next time, or the third one the next time.\u00a0 It exists, number one, to glorify God.\u00a0 Number two, to edify the saints.\u00a0 And then next week we\u2019re going to see that it\u2019s not just about us, it\u2019s not just to sit, soak and sour, but God actually has a mission and a vision for the local church outside of its four walls which is to fulfill the great commission and if that gets neglected then the great commission becomes the what?\u00a0 The great omission.\u00a0 And what you discover in churches is most churches are good at two of the three; some are good at one of the three, some are good at two of the three.\u00a0 And if you find a church that\u2019s does all three that\u2019s sort of rare today.\u00a0 And yet that\u2019s the calling of the church.\u00a0 The calling of the church is to be doing all three of these things.\n\nAnd I\u2019ll be explaining next week how the calling of the church is not to bring social justice to the earth, because a lot of people are out there saying that well, we don\u2019t just need to fish out of the fish bowl, we need to clean up the fishbowl.\u00a0 So a lot of churches are putting on their own shoulders kingdom responsibilities, changing the structures of society and that\u2019s something only the King can do.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll get into that subject next time.\u00a0 All right, I\u2019ll stop talking at this point; if you guys would like to open it up for questions we can do that.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t