The change that every pastor wants to see is “growth”.
The change every people want to see in themselves is “growth”.
I am referring to spiritual growth.
The great passage on this is Ephesians ch 4 – and, unless otherwise noted, references in this post are from this passage.
Christ wants to see growth in His church.
Christ “ascended far above all the heavens” that He might “give some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers…” (v 11)
Why does the Lord set apart pastors for this work?
“…for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry” (v 12a)
Why? To what end?
“…for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (vv 12b-13)
Pastors are given to the church to equip the saints for the work of their ministry.
The saints are to exercise that ministry to build up the body of Christ.
The result is that:
– we will grow in the unity of the faith
– we will grow in the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God
– we will thereby grow towards maturity, or (as it is put in Ephesians church 4) towards that “perfect man”
“Perfect man”? Mature man? By what measure?
According “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
In practical terms, what does this look like?
What does the “perfect man” look like?
The four areas that I am looking at are:
– Growing in Discernment
– Growing in Ministry
– Growing in Witness
– Growing in Worship
In the last post I looked at the first two.
In this post I’ll look at a the remaining two.
Growing in Witness
Witnessing is an important mark of the maturity of a Christian.
1) Our first, and most important, witness as believers is in how we live.
And, especially, in how we live with each other.
That is why the mark of growing together by edifying each other is so important.
Growing together by edifying each other is the fundamental witness of the church.
Jesus said: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
He prayed for us, in John ch 17:20-21, “I pray for all those who will believe in Me – that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us…”
To what end? “…so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
And again (v 23): “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one…”
To what end? “…so that the world may know that You have sent Me.”
Do we want the world to believe that Jesus is the God-sent Messiah?
Then first and foremost we need to be growing together in unity as we edify one another.
Without that, the world simply will not find what we say credible.
Yes, we are to “go”, to take the gospel to an unbelieving world. (I’ll come to that in a moment).
But sometimes unbelievers do just “come” into our midst.
Unbelievers who have never been to church before do sometimes come to church: perhaps they were invited, perhaps they just wander in.
But I don’t know of any unbeliever who has come back a second time, who has not witnessed something different, something attractive, about those he meets there.
In the church I am in is a lovely Christian who grew up in Japan – in a Shinto-Buddhist household.
Some friends invited her to church once.
Partly because she was curious, and partly because she was polite, she went along –though she was resolute she would never become a Christian.
She didn’t understand a word. Even though it was in Japanese (her native tongue) she didn’t understand. She would have simply left it at that, and never returned.
But she says there was something about the people she met there.
In her words, these people were “shining”.
It was that that attracted her. It was that that kept her coming.
Until finally, one day she did understand – and she was converted.
I could tell you many other stories like that. I’m sure you can too.
Unbelievers (other than covenant children who grow up in the church) do sometimes come into a church service.
But they don’t come back unless they have witnessed something different, something attractive, about those they meet there.
You see? Edifying, growth, is not only about who you are and what you will become.
It is also a vital part of your witness before an unbelieving world.
The Bible says: “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:14-15)
2) But there is the other aspect to our witness; an important aspect.
And that is what I just referred to: the “going” and “telling” aspect of witnessing.
We can’t rely upon others “coming” to us.
The imperative of the gospel is:
– not, first and foremost, to tell people to “come”.
– but, first and foremost, for those in the church to “go” and tell people where they are.
That surely is the main way the gospel is spread.
As important as the preaching of the Word is, in church, Sunday by Sunday, as important as it is that that word regularly incorporate an evangelistic message, yet it is not the most common way God uses to convert the unbelieving society around us.
It is simply not fulfilling the Gospel Mandate to “go”!
We, as members of the church, are to be sharing the Word of God with others.
Gospel outreach is the ministry of the whole church.
Again, this is not simply the ministry of the leaders of the church.
At the same time as Paul wrote to the church here in Ephesus, he also wrote to the church in Colosse. Both letters were probably taken at the same time, and delivered by the same messenger.
At the end of his letter to those in Colosse, he writes this:
“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside,making the most of each opportunity.
“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” (Colossians 4:5-6)
You’ll notice he first tells the Christians there to “walk”.
Our first witness is in our “walk” – in other words, how we are living, how we conduct ourselves, yes, even towards “outsiders”.
But then he goes on to talk about our “talk” with outsiders:
“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”
We must “walk” before we “talk”. But we must also “talk”; we must go to those outside of Christ and talk about the things of God and His gospel.
This is the ministry of all the members of the church – not just the official leaders.
And, you who are leaders are to “equip of the saints for the work of their ministry.” That includes this ministry of their witness. How will you do this?
I’m not talking about holding classes to tell people “how to witness”.
I’m not against such things. But it doesn’t address the fundamental issue when it comes to effective witnessing.
The fundamental need we have in our witnessing is to be full of what we want to say:
– to be full of Christ
– to be full of God
– to be full of the gospel…
…to such an extent that (in the words of the apostles) “we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20)
Think of David, in Psalm 18
“The Lord is: my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.
He is: my God, and my strength.
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
You can’t shut him up when it comes to speaking of the Lord.
Why? Why not?
Because he begins that Psalm:
“I will love You, O Lord, my strength.”
He loves the Lord! That’s why you can’t shut him up.
“The Lord is: my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.
He is: my God, and my strength.
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
If you want to train your people to witness, preach so that:
– they love God the Father, more and more
– they love Christ, more and more
– they love the gospel, more and more
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was once asked: “What is the chief end of preaching?”
He answered: “I like to think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence.”
Give them:
– a sense of God and His presence.
– a sense of the wonderful grace of our Saviour, Jesus Christ,
– a sense of the glory of the gospel…
Do that – and you will “equip saints for the work of their [witnessing] ministry.”
The 4th mark of growth to maturity I want to look at is:
Growing in Worship
There is a lot of immaturity in worship today.
You can go into some churches, and you wouldn’t know if you are in a church or a night club.
The whole thing is so irreverent, so man centred, so me-focused that it is a travesty even to call it worship.
That is immaturity – or worse.
Immaturity is all about: Me.
It is all about making a loud noise that attracts attention to Me.
Nowhere is immaturity and lack of discernment more evident today than in what, in many churches, passes for “worship”.
A leader’s responsibility is to lead the people in worship which is:
– reverent
– focused on God,
– offered up through Christ
– in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the worship with which Paul opened his epistle to the Ephesian church:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved…in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:3-6,13)
This is blessed worship – focused on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
This is the worship Paul takes up in ch 3:14-15,
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named…”
This is worship which is God-focused.
It is not about man. It is not about you and me.
And yet it is this type of worship – focused on God – that builds up you and me.
Man-centred worship doesn’t build up; it tears down.
But God-focused worship builds up the saints.
Listen:
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named…”
What is the result?
“…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
God-focused worship builds up the saints.
Only God-focused worship builds up the saints.