Passage: Ephesians 4:7-16

The Big Idea

The Church is in a spiritual war, and every soldier is a specialist. Instead of boot camp and job assignments based on talent, the risen Jesus gives each believer spiritual gifts, according to the measure of His own gift. He gives leaders (apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, so we grow up together into Christ, unified in love, and speaking the truth in love.

Things to Remember During a War

There’s an old list of military humor that goes something like this:

The only thing more accurate than enemy fire is friendly fire.
Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo.
Teamwork is essential. It gives the enemy more targets.
No inspection-ready unit ever passed combat, and no combat-ready unit ever passed inspection.
Remember: your aircraft was made by the lowest bidder.
You are not Tom Cruise.
If you’re short on everything but enemy, you’re in combat.

We’re in a war: a full assault on the kingdom of darkness. And just as any army has specialists, the Church does too: people specially prepared and commissioned for a particular purpose.

A modern military has spies and cooks, generals and engineers, special-ops commandos and janitors, translators and mechanics. It trains each one based on natural ability.

But God doesn’t send us to boot camp and assign jobs based on how good we are. He supernaturally bypasses all that and gives us spiritual gifts. They’re given not according to how talented we are, but according to how God wants to use us.

Grace Given to Each One (Ephesians 4:7)

To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

No one deserves or earns spiritual gifts.
When you turn from your sin to Jesus Christ in faith, you’re given spiritual gifts, at least one and maybe many.
Gifts can work with your natural personality, but often they go beyond it.

Let me illustrate. Imagine my youngest son runs up to bring me a glass of water while I’m teaching, trips, falls, and spills everywhere. How would different gifts respond?

Prophecy: “Thus says the Lord: when you run without looking, you will fall, and great will be the fall!”
Serving: “Let me help you up and dry you off.”
Teaching: “You fell because your speed exceeded your legs’ ability to keep up. Here’s how to succeed next time…”
Encouragement: “You almost made it! You’re such a thoughtful boy!”
Giving: “Here, take my water instead!”
Administration: “We need to fix these stairs. Let’s redesign the room. Water should be on the stage fifteen minutes before we start, and you and you are responsible.”
Mercy: “I know exactly how you feel!”
Wisdom: “Next time, walk like a sloth.”
Knowledge: “He already had water.”
Healing: “Let’s put a bandage on that knee.”
Evangelism: “Did everyone see him fall? Repent, lest you fall the same way!”

These gifts aren’t for using on yourself. They’re for blessing the Church. Every one of you has a job from God to bless His people, and you’re specially equipped for it. You weren’t born with this ability. God works through Jesus in your life to enable you.

These gifts aren’t a burden; they’re a blessing. I find no greater joy than serving the Church with the gifts God has graciously given me. I know I’m part of what He’s doing. It’s amazing and humbling.

How powerful is my spiritual gift? According to the measure of Christ’s gift. It shares in the power and glory of Jesus’ gift of salvation. How can that be? He didn’t only pay for your sin on the cross. He personally thought of you, how He would use you supernaturally, and planned gifts for you alone. No one else is like you.

Don’t think of them as cookie-cutter gifts. Think of them more like superhero powers: they fall into broad categories, but Jesus uses them uniquely in each person.

Maybe you aren’t walking in yours right now. Maybe you don’t believe Jesus has given you a gift, so you ignore His calling out of fear. Maybe you have no idea how to serve the body of Christ. Maybe you aren’t happy with your gift and wish you had a different one. Paul is inviting you to know and walk in what Jesus has given you.

The Victor’s Gifts (Ephesians 4:8-10)

Paul quotes the psalm: when He ascended on high, He led captives in His train and gave gifts to people (Psalm 68:18). And he explains: the One who ascended first descended into the lower parts of the earth, and He who descended is the same One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.

Picture a Roman general returning from war, riding through the streets of Rome with the spoils of victory behind him. That’s the image here. Jesus ascends to heaven as the Victor, and one of the first things He does is give gifts to people.

That means He thinks about His Church. He thinks about you, and plans how to use you. He sets aside a measure of supernatural power to anoint you with, and waits for the day He can give it.
“Descended” means He had to come to earth and die for you first. He had to go to war and pay the price.
But now He’s far above all things, and His gifts work! Could you imagine a king giving a broken gift?

These gifts aren’t designed to win the war. The war is already won. They’re designed to make the Church stand apart as a supernatural body, something no company or marketing agency could ever replicate.

So if that’s true, why do we lean on the world’s marketing tactics? If simply being the Church will change the world, why try to be something else?

Gifts for Leading (Ephesians 4:11-12)

He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Paul’s focus here is church leadership: how Jesus wants His Church to be led.

Apostles

People sent out to start new works. I’d call them missionaries.

The church goes stagnant without these sent ones: people who feel a call to go, who aren’t stopped by boundaries or language barriers, who have a remarkable spirit of adventure and a willingness to go.
In the unique, foundational sense, the term refers to the Twelve, Paul and a few others, especially in giving us the written Word. But in a broader sense, the early church spoke of messengers who didn’t settle in one church but traveled from place to place with the gospel.
Maybe you’re a missionary to your workplace, sent by Jesus to establish His work there. Maybe God will call you to Africa. Don’t worry: if He calls you, He’ll give you the gift.

What company has people willing to travel the world with no plan except to spread the news?

Prophets

People filled with the Spirit who, by God’s authority, speak weighty words that plead God’s cause and urge people toward salvation. Someone who just seems to say the right word at the right time.

They sometimes struggle with humility, because sensing what God is doing comes easily to them.
They help us know what God is doing and how to respond.
What they say always lines up with the whole Word of God. Sometimes they’re simply sharing a verse they read that day, or rewording it in a way that makes sense to the person in front of them.
If God has gifted you to speak boldly into people’s lives, don’t shrink back. It’s how you serve the Church. Stay in your Bible so you’re ready when He wants to use you.

What company has someone who can see hidden things, warn of coming problems, or encourage someone who didn’t yet know they were discouraged?

Evangelists

People who always have the lost at the front of their minds.

Everything they hear at church, they’re already translating for a coworker or friend who needs Jesus.
They’re desperately needed: people gifted to tell others what God is doing and with supernatural boldness to invite them.
They often share the gospel in a genuine way that melts the hardest hearts. When they share the good news, it really sounds like good news!
What makes a great evangelist is a broken heart that cares for every soul they meet.
They don’t need to be good at winning arguments, because they’re winning souls.

What company has employees who can share their brand with powerful conviction to anyone, from family to strangers?

Pastor-teachers

One job with a two-word description: someone who watches over God’s people and teaches them God’s Word in a consistent, reliable way.

They see threats to a person’s walk with the Lord and do something about it.
They’re responsible to teach the whole Word of God to everyone who comes, whatever the challenges.
They labor in prayer for the people in their care and help them know God’s will and what His Word says about their situation.
Some Bible teachers aren’t great pastors. They enjoy talking about the Bible but aren’t very concerned with the actual lives in front of them. That’s why God joins the two. He doesn’t want an intellectual conversation every week; He wants the people cared for.
You can be a good pastor without being a great communicator or a dynamic personality. The gift is about bringing clarity, instruction and protection to a specific group of people, not delivering stirring speeches.
Is it supernatural motivation, or clever manipulation, happening in the pulpit?

What company has someone who deeply cares about the soul of every employee and is equipped to protect and instruct them?

Equipped for the Work of Ministry (Ephesians 4:12)

Whose job is the work of ministry? Yours!

Church leaders exist to build you up, to encourage and enable you to love each other skillfully. That’s the work of ministry: to love!

The leaders are here for you, never the other way around. You aren’t here to make the pastor feel better. You’re here to be built up, equipped, encouraged, informed, protected, healed and restored.
When you’re confused, the Church has answers. When you’re tired, help. When you’re hurt, healing compassion. When you’re lonely, fellowship. When you’re weak, strength.

All so we can love each other in a way the world finds unbelievable and undeniable. We love, and love, and love some more, in every circumstance: through divorce, through addiction, through every horrible thing this world has to offer. We offer back one thing: love.

Growing Up (Ephesians 4:13-14)

Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Love is the unity of the faith. Unity isn’t just being together. It isn’t agreeing on everything, being bigger than everyone, having the best arguments or the best worship team. It’s love.

When you know agape love, you really get Jesus. Many people go to church and never really get Him. They think it’s about the denomination, the building, the messages or the programs. It’s really about knowing Him, and that’s all about love. Our leaders, with their supernatural gifts, should be leading us to understand love, which leads to the unity of love and a true knowledge of Jesus.

And to maturity. We’re mature when we understand that it’s all about the agape love of Jesus.

An immature person is about building influence and power. A mature person is concerned with loving God and neighbor.
An immature person goes to church to make God happy or get blessings. A mature person is part of the Church to serve God and people in love.
An immature person tries to change people. A mature person loves them, knowing change will come as they walk in the Spirit, and that he can only be part of that work through love.

“The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The goal is that we all measure up to Jesus Christ! How can that happen? He’s perfect; we aren’t.

Here’s the greatest trade in history: Jesus traded His perfect life for our sin. We receive that trade by faith. And as we walk in that faith, we become like Him in practice. His life is poured into ours until it takes over our very behavior. You can’t try to do it. You just walk with Him.

As you walk with Jesus, growing in His love, you won’t stay a child, tossed back and forth by every wind of teaching, by the trickery and cunning schemes of people (Ephesians 4:14).

Children are easily tricked. (Every kid falls for the loose salt-shaker lid at a restaurant, or the invisible rope trick.) But God wants us to mature and know why we’re here: to love. Anything that leads us away from that is a wind of doctrine, a trick, a scheme.

Speaking the Truth in Love (Ephesians 4:15-16)

Speaking the truth in love, we grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ.

Our leaders help us hear the truth, teach us to walk in love, and always lead us to Jesus. They never point us to their own ministries, or to angels, saints or any other god. Only to Jesus and His love, in all things.

In every season of your life, there will be someone in the Church to lead you to Jesus if you look:

Maybe a missionary: a coworker or someone at the store who faithfully loves you like Jesus.
Maybe a prophet: someone who calls out of the blue or takes you aside with a word for you.
Maybe an evangelist: someone who seeks you out and brings you hope and love.
Maybe a pastor-teacher: you’re sitting in church, or serving and praying alongside others, and Jesus touches your life as you’re protected and instructed.

Speaking the truth in love is an invaluable skill, and it isn’t only for the specially gifted. It’s God’s will for every mature Christian.

Some are great at speaking truth, but without love, so it comes off harsh. Truth without love is brutality.
Some are loving but never speak the truth, and that’s shallow. Think of churches that want everyone to feel welcome but won’t call sin “sin.”
Jesus has a deeper plan: to know who we are and why we believe what we believe (the truth), and to do it all in love.

When our leaders lead us this way, we operate as the Church: the most supernatural, truly life-changing witness in the world, powerfully bringing truth in powerful love!

From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (Ephesians 4:16).

Finding Your Gift

How do you see these gifts operate in your life? Humbly abide in Christ, and stay close to others who are already walking in their gifts.

Pray. Ask God to reveal your gifts to you.
Read. Spend time in the Word, so your heart changes and is freed from the fog of the flesh.
Fellowship. Ask other believers what they see in your life, and ask them to pray for you.

This is a war. We’re desperate for soldiers, and not just any soldiers: the right ones. Spec ops for Jesus.

Grace Takeaway

The risen Jesus came home from the battle with gifts in His hands, and one of them has your name on it. You didn’t earn it, and it isn’t for you alone; it’s His grace given to build up His body. Let the leaders He’s given equip you, discover your gift as you abide in Him, and join the work of ministry, which is simply this: speaking the truth in love until we all grow up into Christ.

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Spec Ops for Jesus