Ephesians 4:1-16    Darlington United Church 30/7/23

Introduction https://youtube.com/watch?v=2rGmCA3JKso&feature=share

Ephesians 4 is a text which speaks deeply and to the crisis[1]f acing the people of God in Australia today. We are witnessing unprecedented and intensifying cultural irrationalities dominated by issues of sexuality and gender[2], whilst massive church structures, like Hillsong, are coming apart. All this is under the sovereign power of God, who, according to Ephesians 1:11, “works out everything according to the purpose of his will”. Despite this witness, the average local church[3]seems stuck in either compromise to the spirit of the age[4], or, spiritually paralysed into vainly hoping that Christian political lobbying can turn the tide[5]. Neither of these options honours God as a Holy and Righteous Father (John 17:11, 25) who has revealed his Son Jesus Christ as both the only foundation for the church (1 Cor 3:11; Eph 2:20) and climax of the present created order.  As taught in Ephesians 1, the divine blessings given to us in the heavenly places include God “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Eph 1:9-10). Such a world-ending universal transformation is totally dependent on the will of God fully expressed in Jesus. A realisation of the greatness of Christ frees us from a “surviving sin” and persecution mentality to embrace the dimensions of the life of Jesus laid out in Ephesians 4:1-16, a passage which can conveniently be dealt with is three sections.

1. Indispensable Unity 4:1-6

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 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.

Paul’s, “I therefore”, marks a significant transition point in the letter. All the great things he has so far expounded about our salvation in Christ, like our being seated with him in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6) stand behind his “therefore”[6]. The comment “a prisoner for the Lord”[7] means we must understand[8] that our capacity to receive revelation from heaven depends on our willingness to suffer for the kingdom of God. For instance, it is in exile that the priest Ezekiel receives his “visions of God” (Ezek 1:1), and only when imprisoned on the island of Patmos[9] that the apostle John has “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1,9) which became our book of Revelation[10]. It is with the authority of a man chained up for Jesus[11] that Paul “urges” the Ephesians “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called”. This is supremely a “calling” to grow in the image and likeness of Christ (Rom 8:28-30).  Humility, gentleness, patience and love are dispositions born of the Spirit as he forms the likeness of Christ in us in preparation them for our “high calling” in Christ (Phil 3:14). Whereas this call is to “heavenly glory” (Heb 3:1; 1 Pet 5:10) and a privilege of “all the saints”[12], limiting it to those “called to ministry”[13] has led to much modern Christianity dividing reality into two separate realms[14], a holy and sacred sphere (Sunday, weekly Bible study) and a secular realm (Mon-Friday world)[15]. This distorted perspective denies who Jesus is for us today.

To spiritually be able to see (cf. Eph 1:18; Rev 1:10) what Paul is about to expound about the stature of Jesus requires living in the glory of the oneness to which he testifies (cf. John 17:22), as he uses “one” 7 times within verses 4-5. Thank God today the human make-believe of “denominationalism” is dying[16], and there is a growing conviction that we are one Church in Christ in the depths of God’s love. When Paul speaks of “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3) he isn’t telling us how we feel about one another, but exhorting us to live by faith in the supernatural condition of wholeness (shalom) that Christ has “reconciled to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col 1:20).

2. The pattern of the life of Christ (7-10)

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended”, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

In a time of “celebrity pastors”[17] we need reminding that God’s call (v.1) embraces all believers through the supreme spaciousness of Christ. Our biggest problem today is that we have miniaturised “the measure of Christ’s gift” because we have “downsized” our perspective on Jesus. Paul’s Jesus is not simply a crucified-and-resurrected human being, he is someone who has “ascended on high”. In omitting the ascension from its foundational thinking contemporary Western Christianity has denied the fullness of salvation. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he took our “humanity into God” (Athanasian Creed). The ascension marks a radical reversal in the human situation. In his going up to heaven (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9-11) the triumphant divine warrior (Ps 68 cf. Col 2:15; Heb 2:14) has enslaved, “taken captive” the evil demonic principalities and powers in order to serve his sovereign purposes. He achieved this not by an exhibition of superior might, in the ordinary sense, but through the humiliation of descending to the lowest realms of creation (Eph 4:9 cf. Phil 2:6-8; 2 Cor 8:9). In God’s kingdom order, humiliation is always followed by exaltation, debasement by glory, suffering by elevation[18].

Jesus is now elevated in stature and significance high above all created things so that he “might fill all things”. If “all things” means the created universe, what will Jesus fill the cosmos with? The answer is, with himself as the fulness and perfection of the image of God (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4; Heb 1:3)[19]. As a function of their creation in God’s image, Adam and Eve were commanded to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:26-28)[20]. As the created universe is a temple to be filled with the glory of God (Num 14:21; Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14)[21], humanity was called to be a community of prophets, priests and kings bringing the whole of creation to its complete created purpose in Christ[22]. Having failed this high calling through sin, the purpose of God in rehumanising the universe will eventually be realised in Jesus through his glory in the Church (Eph 3:21). Paul has already clearly put forward this vision in Ephesians “he (God) put all things under his (Christ’s) feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Eph 1:22-13). Whilst pointers to how all this might happen are laid out in what Paul will go on to teach, a profound personal experience comes to mind.

I have been through various phases in my spiritual journey which began over 50 years ago, an early Pentecostal-experiential phase, an intellectual Evangelical phase, a more mystical time, a post-institutional house-church phase, then in the mid 90’s I had an experience of Jesus that began to totally revolutionise thinking. On the 7^th day of seven days of city-wide prayer (6am-6pm) it was extraordinarily difficult to keep interceding, it was like some terrible weight was pressing down on me, so to stay in prayer I was lying face down on the floor gripping the carpet with both hands. Nothing quite like this had ever happened to me before, or since, I was in deep inner torment trying to hold in there with God. Then the Lord placed Acts 3:17-21 in my mind with a special focus on these final verses, “that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” (Acts 3:17-21).

At that point I could “see” that Jesus was in heaven far above the earth and he was putting everything into its proper order and place as he ruled over it as Lord[23]. I could sense all these spheres becoming subject to Christ: education, health, marriage, art, media, politics, law etc. All of life and culture was being brought into submission to his Lordship. My thinking about Jesus could never be the same again. I could sense how over the centuries the Church has tried to take hold of Jesus and make him our captive. Training for “ministry” has become training for serving in the church, most of the money given to the church goes to maintenance and not mission and so on. The risen Lord commanded us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18-20) but instead of discipling people groups we have focussed on own private personal disciplines. Christ is currently “put(ting) all his enemies under his feet…so God might be all in all” (1 Cor 15:25, 28) but the Church is largely cringing in a corner (Acts 26:26).

3. The outpouring of grace (11-16)

And he (the exalted Lord) gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

When it says Jesus “gave” apostles etc. to the Church we are talking about his ongoing gifts as ascended Lord, not the twelve apostles appointed in the Gospels. Given that the New Testament names apostles, like Barnabas, beyond those who had seen the Lord personally[24] we should accept such ministries are still appointed for the maturing of the Church today[25]. (So the experience I spoke about a minute ago was a clear prophetic call to testify about Jesus ()Rev 19:10 etc.)

In recent decades there has been a revival of interest in the so-called “5-fold ministry” or APEST as some call it. This broader perspective on ministry is preferable to a pastor-teacher focus, but it is often distorted by a focus on earthly dynamics[26] rather than the power and grace of the ascended Lord Jesus as the source of these gifts. Since the responsibility of the “ascension-gift ministries” is to preach Jesus as the Word of God, who is the life and light of humanity (John 1:1ff.), the one for whom all things were made (Col 1:16) ,and who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3), then these ministries must minister the word of Christ as God’s mystery now revealed (Rom 16:25; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:9; 3:3ff; Col 1:2-2; 4:3) in his wisdom through the Church (Eph 3:10). Through this crucified wisdom the present world will in the End “become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,” (Rev 11:15) radiating the glory of God as one vast holy temple (Rev 21:22). [In the End the new creation, the new temple and the new city of God are essentially one in love (Rev 21:9ff.).]

Our vision of Jesus is far too small[27]. Whereas to aspire to infinity apart from submission to the Word of God is the essence of original sin in Eden (Gen 3:5), to aim towards the “measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph 4:13) is true godliness (Eph 4:13 cf. Phil 3:14; 1 Tim 3:16). This, to quote John, is to believe that “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2)

What this might look like is presently unimaginable[28], but its seeds can be presently revealed as the whole Church ministers the life-imparting image of God (John 10:10) in the glorified Jesus. [This means moving beyond the ever-altering “winds of doctrine” to living out the “everlasting gospel” (Rev 14:6).] It means bringing the inexhaustible resources of forgiveness to your workplace[29] , adhering to the paradoxical humble wisdom of Christ[30] in a world both intoxicated and fearful of the potentials of artificial intelligence[31]. It will mean bringing a Christ-centred approach to Creation Care as an outworking of the [priestly, prophetic and kingly] service of the heavenly Jesus to a lost world[32].

Our Ephesians passage ends with an emphasis on the indispensability of love “from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (v.16).[33] in a darkened world we alone can testify that “love…binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14)

Conclusion

We need to carefully read the signs of the times in which we live (Matt 16:3) through the lens of the ascended all-triumphant Christ. At the present time the panic ignited by the spectre of global warming is causing widespread stress[34], as Jesus prophesied of “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world” (Luke 21:26)[35]. We should anticipate a necessary intensification of opposition to the message of Christ in the years to come. This is not to speak of a “global conspiracy”, it is to adopt the “heavenly places’’ perspective of Ephesians where “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12)[36][37].

There is a sense in which the insight of “the (demonic) rulers and authorities in the heavenly places”” (Eph 3:10) is more in proportion to the majesty of Christ’s reality than our own. As Satan will become incarnate in a fully possessed human being[38] the social struggles of today over sexuality, gender, euthanasia and climate change[39] are best seen in terms of a demonic putting forward of an alternative image of humanity[40] to the one seen fully clearly in Jesus himself.

As Jesus is the only reference point for meaning, destiny and purpose in the universe, the pressures confronting us today are a strategy launched from the evil powers (in the heavenly places) (Eph 6:12) to deny the church “making known the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph 3:10). We need to take courage at the revelation that the Jesus exalted in Ephesians is greater than all created things, so that Paul boldly states to a Church as infantile as the Corinthians (1 Cor 3:1ff), “all things are ours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Cor 3:21-23). Typically, the Jesus of Ephesians-Colossians is called the “cosmic Christ, but what we need to embrace is that Paul expounds what can be called an anthropo/human-cosmic picture of all of  reality upheld in the glorified humanity of Jesus, as its Saviour and Lord (Matt 11:27; 20:28; Acts 10:36).  Any lesser picture of who Jesus is cannot meet the challenges of our times.