Ephesians 4:7-10
Preached Wednesday September 26, 2012
Introduction:

Often when we accept gifts without understanding the cost, sacrifice, and thought behind those gifts, we do not value or use them as we should. Last week we discovered 7 things that bind us together as believers:

• One Body – the Church
• One Spirit – The Holy Spirit
• One Hope of our Calling – Eternity with Jesus
• One Lord- Jesus Christ
• One Faith – the only way anyone gets to Heaven.
• One Baptism – picturing the one faith
• One Father – that adopted all who believe into His family

Now that we have seen the things that unite us, we will consider what makes us unique. You see, God loved the world, but he also loves and calls us individually. He knows our strengths, and our weaknesses. He has given us gifts unique to our personal make up in order for us to fill a specific purpose in a specific Church at a specific time. We often take these gifts and abilities for granted. Today let us value these spiritual gifts for what they are, spoils of war.

I. God has divided the spoils of war according to His perfect design.

Ephesians 4:7 (AV)
7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

A. There is one grace manifesting itself in different gifts or abilities.

B. Grace = enablement

C. According to the measure – dividing out- proportion

D. According to your designed function within the body – the Local Church.

Romans 12:4–6 (AV)
4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

1 Corinthians 12:4–6 (AV)
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

E. The purpose of these gifts is to build the local church.

1 Corinthians 12:7 (AV)
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

II. These gifts are spoils of war, won at the resurrection.

Ephesians 4:8 (AV)
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
A. Referred to in the Old Testament
Psalm 68:18 (AV)
18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.

B. Led Captivity Captive – moved the redeemed Old Testament Saints from Paradise to Heaven with God the Father.
2 Corinthians 5:8 (AV)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Philippians 1:23 (AV)
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

C. Secured gifts at His ascension
John 20:17 (AV)
17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Hebrews 9:11–14 (AV)
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:24–28 (AV)
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

D. Historically after a king won a significant battle he would bring back spoils
1. Enemy prisoners to display to the people.
2. Rescued those captured by the enemy.
3. David speaks of this in Psalms.
Psalm 68:18 (AV)
18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.
Colossians 2:14–15 (AV)
14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

III. These gifts were purchased at a great price.
Ephesians 4:9–10 (AV)
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
A. Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth.
1. Not just the incarnation
2. Not just the grave
3. He went into the Heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:40 (AV)
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

4. He went into a special prison in Hell.
1 Peter 3:18–20 (AV)
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

B. He ascended in order to fulfill all this – He applied the Blood on the mercy seat.

Ephesians 4:1-3

Preached Wednesday September 12, 2012

Introduction:

We have all heard the testimony of great people, experts in their field, who experienced an epiphany and realized, “I was born for this”. “This is what I was created to do”. In our Passage this evening, the Apostle Paul makes a big shift in his letter to the Ephesians. Wuest explains it this way:

“God says in chapters 1-3, ‘I have made you a saint.’ In chapters 4-6 He says, ‘Now live a saintly life’.”

Our passage tonight follows Paul’s passionate prayer that the saints at Ephesus would personally grasp the great love that God has for them. Now based on what we have already discovered is the saint’s position and calling in the Heavenly Zone, the Apostle begs believers to walk in a way that would harmonize with that calling. Tonight, my friend, after learning of God’s great love that drew us to Himself, it is time that we walk the call.

I. Walk with the right motivation.

Ephesians 4:1 (AV)
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

A. Worthy – axios = “equal weight – one’s calling and conduct should be in balance.

Philippians 1:27 (AV)
27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

B. Called into fellowship.

1 Corinthians 1:9 (AV)
9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

II. Walk with the right attitude
Ephesians 4:2 (AV)
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

A. Lowliness – Humility
1. Pride promotes disunity.
John 3:30 (AV)
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
Romans 12:3 (AV)
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
2. The making of our self small is pride in the disguise of humility – the esteeming of ourselves as small is the beginning of humility.
B. Meekness – the opposite of self assertion, rudeness and harshness. One’s emotions are under control, but he is not weak.
Matthew 11:29 (AV)
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Matthew 21:12–13 (AV)
12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

C. Longsuffering – patience – does not give up in the face of human conflict.
2 Timothy 4:2 (AV)
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

III. Walk with the right action.
Ephesians 4:3 (AV)
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
A. Endeavoring = take care, make haste to do one’s best.
B. Keep= guard with watchful care.
C. Unity =unanimity– agreement.
1. We cannot make unity through ignoring doctrinal differences in an ecumenical compromise.
2. We preserve those things that unite us into the same body.
3. Satan is the accuser, the divider.
4. As we resist pride and embrace humility, our common bond is reinforced and division is defeated.
Conclusion:
As born again people, we have an incredible calling. God reached out to us before the foundation of the world, loved us, drew us and planned that we would be conformed into His image. Every born again believer shares that background. We have all been brought from death unto life. Now that we understand our calling, we should walk in a way that harmonizes with it. We have nothing to brag about, so if our walk harmonizes with our call, we will be humble, not prideful. We are all sinners saved by grace, made to be saints. God has called us to the same Savior, by the same grace, and to the same Body of Christ. Satan would seek to set us against each other and destroy the unity that God has created. We will walk the call when we guard the unity to which we have already been called. Next week we will discover the seven fold cord of unity that binds us to each other.