Earlier this summer, Michelle and I decided to be daring and take Elayna to Noah’s Ark and Six Flags. I’m not sure she’s ever had as much fun as she did those two days. And yet, even though she had fun, I still found myself saying over and over again “No, you can’t go on those rides. Those are for big kids. You can go on those when you grow up.” Being a little kid is tough. You are too short and too small for all those rides that the big kids get to go on. You are told repeatedly that you just have to grow up, but growing up is completely out of your control. Elayna cannot decide tonight that she is going to grow up. The only thing that will make Elayna grow up is time. She just has to wait.

The church of Jesus Christ faces a similar situation. We need to grow up spiritually. In our passage this morning Paul says repeatedly that the body of Christ needs to grow, to be built up until it reaches its full stature and perfection in Jesus Christ. But there is one key difference between Elayna needing to grow up and the church needing to grow up. Spiritual growth is not dependent on time. Sure, it takes time, but it does not just happen. Instead, Paul teaches us in this passage that we as the church need to help the body grow. In both verse 12 and verse 16 Paul says that the body of Christ builds itself up, making the body grow. But it is just not because of our own effort as a body. Instead, Paul clearly tells us that Christ supplies gifts to the church to help the body grow itself spiritually. It is because of these gifts that we are enabled to help the church grow. In addition, Paul also tells us in this passage that not only is Christ the supplier of gifts to the church for growth, Christ is also the standard of that growth and the source that growth.  Because we as the body need to spiritually grow up, Christ is the supplier of gifts for growth, the standard of growth, and the source of growth.

Because of the depth of these few verses, it would take well over an hour to examine everything that Paul says about these three points.  So what I would like to do this morning is examine how Christ is the supplier of gifts for spiritual growth. Then next Sunday, we will take a look at how this passage says Christ is the standard and source of growth.

So let’s begin with Christ as the supplier of gifts for growth. In verses 7-12, Paul tells us about two gifts in verses 7-12 which Christ has given to His church. Because we need to grow up, Christ has given us grace to serve, and He has given us graced servants.

Paul’s first focus is on grace to serve. Paul tells us in verse 7 of our passage. “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” In verses 1-6 Paul wanted to make it crystal clear that all believers are a part of the unified body of Christ. “There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” That same theme of unity continues here in verse 7. We are all still part of one body. Paul says that grace was given to all of us. He even includes himself. A Jew, one who often called himself an apostle, understands that he is grouped together in one body with new Gentile believers in Ephesus. The church is “us.” But he also says “grace was given to each one of us.” Paul now begins to focus on the diversity within the unified body. Paul also wants to make sure that we understand that unity does not mean that we are all identical. Instead, each one, although part of the same body, part of “us,” has been given grace in different measure, according to the gift that Christ has given us.

When we speak of grace we often mean saving grace, the grace by which God adopts us into his family, imputes Christ’s righteousness to our account, and accepts us as holy and blameless in his sight. This is clearly what Paul was speaking of in chapter 2 when he said “It is by grace that you have been saved,” but it is not his focus here in verse 7. He is not suggesting that some of us needed more or less grace to be saved then others. We might also speak of sanctifying grace, the grace by which God continually conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ, making us more and more holy in the way we live. This was Paul’s focus throughout chapters 1-3, but it is not his focus here in verse 7. Sometimes we speak of sustaining grace, the grace by which God enables us to fight temptation and  withstand persecution and difficult times. This was what Paul was speaking of when he prayed in chapter 3 that “God might grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” But this is not what Paul is speaking of here either. Instead, Paul is speaking here of serving grace. Serving grace has been given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. We know Paul is speaking of serving grace because he repeats much of verse 7 in verse 16. Look at verse 16. Paul writes “When each part is working properly” in the ESV. But actually, Paul uses the same Greek words from verse 7, “when each part is working in measure, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Christ has given serving grace to each of us in different measure so that we can each work in measure to make the body grow.

We most often speak of serving grace in terms taken from 1 Corinthians. We normally call it spiritual gifting. Actually, the Greek word for spiritual gifts which shows up in Corinthians and Romans literally means “grace thing.” Christ not only saved us by grace, sanctifies and sustains us with His grace, he also graciously gave each and every one of us grace to serve his church. But again, we are not identical. We have each received grace according to the gift Christ has given us. Paul writes in Romans 12 “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” Not everyone has the same gift or the same measure of grace, but we are all important. Each and every believer in Jesus Christ has been given grace in different measures to serve, and when we all serve in our diverse ways, we grow the body and build it up in love.

With Paul speaking of a united body with diverse parts, we might expect him to break into his “one body with many parts” speech from Corinthians or Romans. Instead, he quotes from Psalm 68, explains that this Psalm proves it is Christ who gives gifts, and then moves on to his next example of Christ’s gifts for growth in verse 11. He does not give any more explanation of what this serving grace looks like. There are no lists of spiritual gifts found in Ephesians. We almost get the sense that something is missing. Only two verses on spiritual gifts? What was Paul thinking?

Let me assure you, nothing is missing. Instead, Paul is calling our focus back to where it should be when it comes to serving grace. Paul has given us all the information we need. Christ has given us each grace to serve the body and help it grow; so serve! That’s all we really need to know. Christ has called every believer to grow the body using the grace He has given us to serve. You and I get to help the body grow through our service. We can confidently serve the body of Christ, seeking to help it grow knowing that we are not serving by our own effort. We serve empowered by the grace of Christ.

And yet what do we do? Rather than confidently serving because we understand that we have been given grace to serve, we complicate the whole thing. We take spiritual gift inventories, trying to decide which gift is truly ours or reading Romans and 1 Corinthians trying to figure out where we fit it. Let me let you in on a little secret. I highly doubt that the residents of ancient Rome ever read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. And I doubt those in Corinth ever read the letter to the Romans. And yet we sit down with our spiritual gift tests which combine lists found in Romans and Corinthians without ever asking ourselves how those in Rome knew what their gifts were when they were missing the list from Corinthians and those in Corinth were missing the list from Romans? I believe if Paul knew the way the modern church discussed spiritual gifts he’d be furious. Paul’s point in all of those many lists of gifts is simply this: you have been given different measures of grace to serve in different ways, so serve. In Romans 12:6 Paul says “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us. Let us use them.” This is not deep theology. This is about as easy as it gets. You have grace to serve, so serve. We spend so much time trying to figure out which spiritual gift we have that we forget to serve. Or, we question if we can serve since we may not have that gift. Can I serve in the nursery if I’m not sure if that is my gift? Absolutely. Can I say something encouraging to someone if I am not sure if my gift is encouragement? Of course. What is it that enables people to spend their free time installing heaters and air conditioners or planting flowers here at Cornerstone? It’s the grace of God, but you will not find a spiritual gift of H-vac or gardening on any spiritual gift inventory. You will not find in 1 Corinthians or Romans the spiritual gift of prayer or the spiritual gift of “Hey I read this in my quiet time and thought it might encourage you in the situation you are going through” or the spiritual gift of visiting someone in the hospital or the spiritual gift of saying “Hello, welcome to Cornerstone, we’re glad you are here.” We need to stop trying to categorize ourselves and allow Ephesians 4:7 and 16 to be enough. Christ knows our immaturity. He knows we need to grow as His body and he knows we cannot do it on our own. So He has given to each of us grace to serve the body and help it grow; so serve! Stop being afraid that you might be doing something that is not your gifting. Instead, confidently serve knowing that God has given us all the grace we need to serve His body.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of paintball. The goal of paintball is to tag your opponent by shooting him with small plastic balls filled paint. While that may sound perfectly innocent, the other important detail is that these balls travel at 200 feet per second. That’s around 130 miles an hour. As you can imagine, being tagged by a paintball is not the greatest feeling in the world. One of the versions of paintball I enjoy playing involves having a medic on each team. The idea is simple, when you get tagged by a paintball, the medic can come touch you and you are back in the game. To keep the game going, medics cannot be eliminated, no matter how many times they get tagged. That is not to say, though, that medics do not get tagged, it’s just that the tags don’t count. In fact, most medics get tagged more than all of the other players combined. Unless you simply enjoy the pain of getting tagged repeatedly by 130 mile per hour paintballs, no one volunteers for medic. No one, that is, except for me. I don’t volunteer because I’m the fastest. It may actually take me longer to get to tagged players. I don’t volunteer because I’m the best paintballer. I’m probably going to be tagged more than any other medic. Instead, I volunteer because of what I’ve been given. A few years ago, someone gave me a Kevlar vest, it’s made to stop a bullet, so it can certainly stop a paintball. Wearing that vest, I get tagged and do not feel a thing. I willingly serve as medic because of that gift. I can confidently serve knowing that I have been graced specifically for that service.

That’s the confidence we should have in the grace Christ has given us. We have been given grace by Christ to enable us to serve, to help us grow the body of Christ and build it up in love. Because we need to grow, Christ has gifted us with grace to serve. So let’s do it. Let’s confidently and willingly serve the body using the grace we have been given. Everyone of us, from children up through adult should be serving here at Cornerstone to support the body. Whether it be making sure there is enough toilet paper in bathrooms on a Sunday morning to collecting the communion cups after the Lord’s supper, to teaching Sunday school or assisting with primary praise, there are places to serve for everyone. So plug in. Find a place to serve, maybe find a place to serve as a family. If you can’t find a place to serve, ask me, I’ll be glad to help you find a place to serve. Christ has supplied the grace to serve, so let’s serve. 

Grace to serve is not the only gift that Christ has given to His church. Paul also says that because we need to grow Christ gave the church graced servants. He says in verse 11 “And he, that is Christ, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” The theme of diversity which Paul began in verse 7 continues here in verse 11. Everyone has been given grace to serve, but not everyone is called to these five specific groups of graced servants.

Paul mentioned the first two, apostles and prophets earlier in chapter 2 verse 20. He says there that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” The founding of the church took place nearly 2000 years ago, so we no longer have need of apostles, and now having the completed Bible, we no longer have need of prophets to reveal God’s word to us. At the time of Paul, though, as the church was being founded and scripture was still being written, the prophets and apostles were still active. In fact, Paul referred to himself as an apostle. In the 21st century, while we may not have apostles or prophets, we do still have evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The reason that Paul selects these five particular groups and says that Christ gave them to the church is that these five groups are of key importance as they relate to everyone else in the church who has been given grace to serve.

Paul says in verse 12 that Christ gave us these people “to equip the saints for ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Christ has given each of the saints grace to serve, but He has also given these groups of graced servants to equip and prepare the saints to serve. Again, in keeping with his theme of unity, Paul uses an all-inclusive word: the saints. It is a common misperception that only certain types of saints are called to serve. There are actually books in Christian bookstores which suggest that you should be eighteen before you serve the church. But Paul made it clear in verse 7 that all saints, all of “us,” regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity, have been given grace to serve. So too the evangelists, pastors, and teachers exist to equip all the saints for the work of ministry.

The word for ministry that Paul uses here is the word diakonias, from which we get our English word deacon. It is the word “ministry” but diaknoias can also mean “service.” If you remember Acts 6 and the election of the original deacons, diakonias in the first century could actually refer to waiting on tables. We should all remember that the next time we have to clean up tables after a church function. These groups that Paul mentions were given by Christ to equip, to prepare all of us for ministry, and “for building the body of Christ.” Paul repeats this last phrase again in verse 16 in the context of growth—“each part makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Having been equipped, the saints minister and serve, building up the body of Christ. We have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ as the Cornerstone, and now we are being equipped and trained by evangelists, pastors, and teachers to serve, to minister, building up the body of Christ and helping it grow.

And how do they equip the body for service? All five groups of graced servants that Paul mentions equip by proclaiming the Word of God. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers are all groups of individuals entrusted with teaching and proclaiming the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 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.” Paul says that Christ gave us these groups of graced servants to equip us so that verse 14 will be avoided. This is done by a grounding in the Word of God. Paul is not suggesting that we be equipped with new techniques or methods but with the content of the gospel. This morning, I am equipping you for service. I have not given you ten steps to discovering your spiritual gifts or the five secrets to successful service. I have simply instructed you in the Word of God. I did not come up with this on my own; it’s straight from the book of Ephesians. I’m telling you what God says in His word. That’s what you need to be equipped with to serve: His Word.

Normally when we sit in Sunday School or listen to a sermon we have in mind “What impact does this truth make on my life?” And that’s fantastic. We should all be seeking to apply the truths of God’s Word to our lives. But Paul says that these graced servants teach to equip the saints for service. As we listen to instruction and teaching we should also be thinking “How does this truth equip me to serve the church?” How does knowing the good news of Jesus Christ equip me with the knowledge of grace to serve in the nursery or replace broken lightbulbs? How do the truths of the gospel equip me to encourage someone? Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3 that scripture is useful for rebuking, correcting, instructing, and training in righteousness that the man of God may be “equipped” for everyone good work. Having been given grace by Christ, the Living Word of God to serve the church, we are being equipped by these graced servants with the written Word of God to serve the church. Confidently serving, empowered by grace, we are being equipped with the content of the gospel for service.

Several years ago, Pastor Vogel started a Saturday morning training session for men called Leadership Deployment. I still remember the day he walked into my office and handed me a list of the books he would be using. I expected the newest leadership books by John Maxwell or church strategy books by Bill Hybels. Instead, every book was about the Word of God. There were books on how to study scripture, books on grace and salvation, books on Biblical marriage, even a book on Biblical eldership. There was not a single book purely on leadership on the whole list. Pastor Vogel was seeking to equip the men of this church for ministry with the Word of God. He correctly understood that the saints are equipped for service by instruction in the Word of God.

We may have confidence, having been given empowering grace by Christ, but we also need the content, being equipped with the Word of God. We need to submit ourselves to the teaching and instruction of the graced servants that Christ has given to the church to equip us for ministry. They are there to train us, to teach us, to equip us to serve the body. Then, equipped with the Word of God, we can serve the body, helping it grow, building it up in love.

Paul’s argument in these five verses is pretty simple. You have been given grace to serve. You have also been given graced servants to equip you to serve. So serve. You have what you need, so get involved. The body of Christ needs to grow, so work to build up the body, work to help it grow. That’s why Christ gave you His grace. That’s why the pastors and teachers and evangelists are seeking to equip you. We as a church need to grow and you have all been given gifts by Christ to help it grow. So use them. Use the grace God has given you. Be equipped by the servants God has given you. Serve!

In 2006, Mark Inglis made history by becoming the first double amputee to climb Mt. Everest. However, it was later learned that Inglis, as well as nearly forty other climbers, had past David Sharpe on their way to the top. Sharpe had run out of oxygen on his way down from the summit and was beginning to succumb to frostbite. And yet, not one climber stop to help until it was too late. Almost every climber who passed David had the gifts necessary to help him. They had the confidence as seasoned climbers to help him off the mountains. Rescues on Everest have been done before. They were equipped with the oxygen to save his life, but no one wanted to share. All forty climbers cared only of themselves. They made it to the top of the mountain and back down, David Sharpe, on the other hand, died on Mount Everest.

Too often, we think of Christianity like the climbers on that mountain. Christianity is about me and God. But here, Paul has told us the opposite. We are a part of a united body that needs to grow, not just as individuals, but as a body, and we have what we need to help that body grow. We have been given grace to serve and we have graced servants to equip up with the Word of God. So let’s serve. Let’s not be like those climbers on Everest and think only our of ourselves. Instead, let’s use what we have been given to build up each other and help the body grow. Let’s serve.