Responsibilities With the Gifts

Transcript

GR 2323
7/11/2021
Responsibilities With the Gifts
Ephesians 4:9-11
Gil Rugh


We'll be going to the book of Ephesians in your Bibles. Go to chapter 4 of this very important letter of the Apostle Paul focusing on the church. That's what this letter is about, the church—God's purposes and plans in the church and His instructions for the church. We noted in the first three chapters we have the doctrinal foundation set down, and you can't exclude that. You have to be careful, and we'll see this emphasis again in the section before us in chapter 4. The foundation for what God is doing with the church is revealed in the Word. If we aren't clear on what God says the church is and His instructions on how it is to conduct itself, then we are just subject to the whims of man and ideas that people come up with. Here is what the church ought to be, and here is how the church will be effective today. There are challenges for the church in every age and every day. Down through history, from the time Paul wrote this letter, there were challenges. The church at Ephesus was experiencing its own pressures and challenges in a pagan environment with open opposition to the Word of God. Yet they had to be the church at that time and all that God wanted it to be. So down through history, we come to our time where we are. God has raised us up as His church in this day. By that I mean the church as it exists around the world today—it’s manifested in the variety of local churches wherever they are, and they are each to be a manifestation of what God is doing in building His church today.

We've moved into the application portion of this letter, if we could refer to it that way. After teaching the doctrine he now says here is how you are to live, and there is a reminder in this as he starts chapter 4. We live consistent with the calling we have. That's the doctrine that was taught us in the first three chapters and we are to be characterized, Ephesians 4:2, with all humility and gentleness, patience and tolerance, and we are to preserve the unity that the Spirit has produced. Only He can produce this unity because it is a spiritual unity—that when you place your faith in Jesus Christ you are cleansed, forgiven, and brought into a relationship with the living God and into a relationship with others who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. That's what comprises the church. Paul emphasized the unity with that seven-time repetitive use of one in verses 4-6. There is a oneness that characterizes us.

But then in Ephesians 4:7 he began to emphasize the diversity that exists within the unity that we have. It's not a bland oneness, if you will, but there is a beauty—a multi-faceted, multi-colored diversity in the church as God has brought it together. In verse 7 it says, “But to each one of us,” each individual believer who is part of this unified body of believers, “each one of us grace was given.” This grace is something unmerited, undeserved, and unearned. We noted as we worked through this, this was given when the Spirit of God took up residence in our bodies. That was when we placed our faith in Christ. It's “according to the measure of Christ's gift.” Christ has measured out the proper gift for each one of us by His grace in His sovereign plan—how we would fit and function in the fellowship of believers where He would place us and in a variety of individual local churches, but He has fit us in to the one that He has put us a part of.

When did this happen? Goes back, founded again, we go back to the doctrine. It says and he quotes from Psalm 68 and makes an application here. The church is not found in the Old Testament, but the truth of God is always applicable. It must be properly applied, but it is profitable for us and we learn from it. When Christ in His victory ascended to heaven, He sent the Spirit. Remember we looked into John 14-17 where Jesus said it's important that I go through the process of death, burial, resurrection and ascension to the Father because when I go back to heaven to the Father, I will send the Holy Spirit to you. That's what will mark the beginning of the church, and that happens in Acts 2 as we have our Bibles. He defeated Satan and all his hosts—that's in that “host of captives,” those who had held as unbelievers in their control. The whole world lies in the evil one, under his control; he's the god, small “g,” of this world. We looked back into the previous section of Ephesians. The opening verses of chapter 2 described our being held captive, being enslaved to sin and Satan. But they were defeated, and his power was broken. Ephesians 4:8, “He gave gifts to men,” and if we could express it this way, the first most important gift is that of the Holy Spirit, whom He sent from heaven. When the Holy Spirit took up residence in your life, He came also with a gift to enable you to fit in the body. That's why the body is most often used in metaphors or pictures of the church. It's like our physical body; it's one body but it has multiple parts all contributing so the body can function as it should. “He gave gifts to men.” That refers to our spiritual gifts. They are grace gifts because the word for gifts is built on the word grace; they are grace gifts. You don't earn it, and you don't think, if I am faithful God will give me a more important gift. Every gift is important because it's what God has given. Just like on our body, you don't change. The toe doesn't decide that if I keep working, I'll get out of this sock and shoe and get to become something more visible and important. No, every part is there from the beginning. We don't always know at the beginning, and in fact, probably none of us knew. We maybe knew some of the more prominent gifts that we had been exposed to, but over time as we function it becomes clear how God is using us, where we are most effective, and how He is using us in the greatest possible way.

Verses 9-10, if you are using the New American Standard Bible, you have that marked off as a parenthesis. I think that gives the idea because he is going to just explain again, and it's going to take us back to the first three chapters. “Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’” referring to His ascension in Acts 1 where He returned back to the Father to be seated at His right hand… “’He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into,” or unto, “the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.” What he is talking about here, I take it, with this descending into the lower parts of the earth at the end of verse 9… Some of you, if you are from a more formal church, Lutheran or one of those, they often recite the Apostles’ Creed. It wasn't written by the apostles—it's hundreds of years after the apostles. But in the Apostles’ Creed it's noted, and it's a good creed, but in it, it makes the statement that He descended into hell. That's built into people's minds that Christ, after His death on the cross, went down to hell and freed the captives there—Old Testament saints that couldn't go to heaven until Christ died—then took them to heaven. We've dealt with this on other occasions. I don't think that is what this is saying, and in fact, I don't think there is any indication in Scripture that Christ went into hell. The captives here are the defeated enemies, Satan and his host. We looked at that in Colossians 2, which was written about the same time, where He demonstrated His victory over Satan and his host. What Paul is talking about is Christ came down to the earth and was a man and was buried in a grave on this earth. If He had just come to earth and lived a perfect life and then returned to heaven, there would be no salvation because the penalty for sin is death. The Old Testament anticipated this when it said without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Christ had to die. So that's the point. He not only came to this earth, but He died.

Come back to Isaiah 44. We're not going to look at many passages but come to Isaiah 44. You see this contrast. Look at verse 23, “Shout for joy, O heavens for the Lord has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains.” You see he is comparing, from the lowest parts of the earth to the highest parts, the mountains down to the valleys, the lower parts of the earth. It's not talking about going into perhaps the center of the earth or into hell or something like that, but he's talking about the lower parts of the earth. So, when Christ left heaven, He came down to this earth; and when He came to this earth, He died and was buried in this earth. But then He ascended to heaven.

Come back to the New Testament. Come over to Philippians. Remember Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians were written about the same time when Paul was a prisoner in Rome, which is recorded at the end of the book of Acts. In Philippians 2 he is instructing the believers in the church at Philippi about their conduct and how they are to conduct themselves. They are to be of one mind, verse 2, “being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” Very similar to what we saw beginning in Ephesians 4, that oneness. We've been bound together. You maintain that unity, you have the same mind, and we think alike. We have our diversity, but when it comes to the basic important things like our spiritual life and our spiritual conduct, these things we are united in. We have one purpose: to have lives individually and corporately that bring honor to God. We don't do “anything from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind,” we saw that in the opening verses of Ephesians 4, “regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God,” we noted Isaiah 6, there I saw the Lord, lofty and exalted, sitting on His throne. The seraphim are crying out, holy, holy, holy. In John 12 we are told that was Jesus Christ enthroned in glory before He humbled Himself and was born into the human race. Philippians 2:6, “Although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” He left that glory to be born into the human race. “But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.” That's the way Ephesians 1 ended. He is head over all things, particularly to the church. So, you see the parallel. He left the glory of heaven, He became a man, He humbled Himself to death, and He was buried in a tomb. But three days later He is raised from the dead and He is exalted to the highest position. It's the same theology he is talking about. That's foundational to everything. That's what the church is. People might talk about the church they go to, but it may be comprised of unbelievers who are meeting in a building they call the church. The name may continue on even though it's an association of people who have no spiritual life in Christ. How important the foundation for what makes us the church.

Come back to Ephesians 4. So verses 9-10 just remind us of the doctrine that was talked about in the first three chapters because as we noted, everything depends on our being in Christ, in a living relationship with Him, united to Him. So after that further elaboration—He gave gifts to men, having conquered the devil... Remember John 12, now the prince of this world will be judged, he'll be cast out, and he'll be defeated. His influence is not yet over, but now through faith in Christ we have been set free. We’re no longer under his authority and no longer controlled by sin. With that He sent the Spirit, and the Spirit indwells every believer as well as indwelling the church corporately; and every individual is given a gift. Ephesians 4:7 said, “To each one of us grace was given,” and Paul's talking about a grace gift here as Christ measured out that gift of grace. Now you have that theological explanation in verses 8-11, which just really took you back to the first three chapters if you go back and reread those of what Christ has accomplished.

So then verse 11 Paul picks up with what he said in verse 7—the gifts were measured out. Verse 11, “He gave some,” and now he is going to talk about the gifts. He’ll talk about some of the gifts, but he's not going to name them all. We noted that Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12-14 are the key chapters along with Ephesians 4 on spiritual gifts. There are numerous gifts, a variety of gifts, that show the multi-faceted, and sometimes we refer to it as the multi-colored grace of God, a beautiful diversity. You'll note God has made the beauty of His diversity in His creation. Somehow man thinks he is accomplishing something if he can make it all the same. We're doing this with gender issues. There is a beauty in the diversity. God created man as male and female, but we just want to do away with that. We want to be careful. In the church there is a beautiful diversity and it gives us an appreciation of one another. That's why we can see each other as more important than ourselves because we appreciate that each one is making a special contribution in a way that I don't. And that gives me a greater appreciation for that other person. That's what he is talking about here.

So grace has measured out the gift. “He gave,” verse 11, “some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ,” and on it goes in that sentence. This is what we have come to a lot because we call it the philosophy of the church or the theology of the church. Here is where you go to find out what the church is and how it is to function and operate. And there are endless, my e-mails… There’s always somebody coming up to hear how the church can grow or how your church can be more effective. There is a beautiful simplicity in it. If we're not careful, we get swept along because of the tide of the day, and we are told this is a different day, a different culture. You'll note Paul had the same way of operating no matter where he was. When he was in Jerusalem, a Jewish center; when he was where Ephesus is in Asia Minor, same ministry; when he crossed over into Greece, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as he told the Corinthians. He doesn't say this is a different group and because we're in a different culture, we have to make the adjustments or we won't be effective. No, there is one message. There is one God and I bring the truth from Him to you. Now, only the Spirit can drive that home to a heart. We can appreciate there are different foods in different places that people like. Many years ago, I was in China and we were having breakfast, so I'm going to order a pancake. I don't think they do pancakes. I waited, it must have taken an hour, finally they brought out three little round balls. That was my pancake. Now maybe that has changed. Another thing I noticed was that the Chinese food I ordered in China was not like the Chinese food I order here. What is this? Well, it's what you ordered. In fact, I couldn't order. I just pointed to the picture and they brought it. So that's fine, every culture has its own… They don't have to be like an American in China or the different parts of the world. Those aren't the issues. But the truth we bring to those people wherever we go is the same truth. Now I may need a translator when I'm in a different country because they speak a different language, but it's the same truth conveyed in their language. So what Paul is going to lay out here are some of the gifts.

Now I want you to go over to 1 Peter 4:7. “The end of all things is near.” And this chapter reminded us, it's based on verse 1, “Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose,” and on it goes—our identification with Christ, our death and burial with Christ to be raised to new life. So we've died to sin, and we're alive now to God. Now we live a new life. This truth just permeates the Scripture. Here we are with Peter writing, but it's basically the same biblical truth. You come down to verse 10. “As each one has received a special gift,” and you have the word special added there, but it is a gift. It's a grace gift. “Employ it in serving one another.” Your gift is not for your benefit. Obviously, there is profit to you as you exercise it, but it is given primarily as a way of serving others and doing what is good and best for others. “Employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold,” there is our word, that manifold, multi-faceted, multi-colored, “grace of God.” That's the beauty of it, the diversity, how God would bring us together with our differences. We come from different backgrounds, different situations, and sometimes from different countries. When I have been in another country, it's amazing there is a bond together with believers and whether you are talking through a translator or talking to someone who has learned English since I didn't know their language, there is a connection. Pretty soon there is an excitement because you are talking about the same truth, the same Lord, and the same salvation. I was walking in a park when I was in China… I had been in that park, because it was across from our hotel, and a Chinese man came walking up and he could speak English. He started to engage me—very carefully because he wanted to be careful who might hear. He was a believer, and from what I had been talking about in another context that he overheard, he said, you are a Christian and he identified himself. Then we could talk about things we had in common. We could have been walking down a street here but he had special things he had to deal with there and we talked about that. But there is that bond, that oneness. Each one of us belongs to Him.

As He has brought us together in this church, we function together in a regular basis as a cohesive whole, carrying out the ministry God has given us. That was enjoyable and profitable, but that was just a passing time. We are together one in Christ, but what he was dealing with and the issues he had to focus were not exactly the same as I had here. But, we were walking the same walk in obedience to the Word. So you employ your gift as a good steward. This is important because when we stand before the Bema seat, we will give an account. We've been entrusted with a stewardship. God didn't just give us that gift and then we decide whether we will use it or not or how much we will use it. That's a stewardship. Remember we are slaves in the house of the master, to use another analogy. We've been entrusted with a responsibility, and we will be called to give an account for our stewardship. Jesus used that in one of His parables. Those who had been given talents (which was money) and how faithful they were… One just buried it. No, that's not acceptable. God gave us this gift to be used to serve others, and that will bring glory to Him.

1 Peter 4:11, “Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God.” There are parameters for the gifts. They may not make you more effective in your “secular job.” You manifest God's character in all you do, but the exercising of your gift is in the context of our functioning together. We'll talk about the gift of evangelist in a moment. “Whoever speaks…the utterances of God.” If you have the gift of a teacher, exhortation, or one of the other speaking gifts, you speak the Word of God. I don't have to be creative. God measured out the gifts. Different men don't all just speak the same way, but all who are gifted with a speaking gift have to be speaking the Word of God and giving that out. “Whoever serves is to do it as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies.” Now I want to note here because this fits where we are in Ephesians 4. Peter doesn't go into the gifts in any detail. He just breaks them down into two major groups—the speaking gifts and the serving gifts. Now you could say the speaking gift is a way of serving the body, and it is. But he breaks it into two classifications—gifts that involve communicating the Word of God, and then all the other gifts that are involved in enabling the body to function as it should. I say that because what Paul does in Ephesians 4 on this occasion is he just selects out the speaking gifts. In writing to the Corinthians, for example, in 1 Corinthians 12 he gives a list of the variety of gifts. He does so in Romans 12 as well. Here Peter breaks them down.

Note the end of 1 Peter 4:11, the proper use of the stewardship that has been entrusted to us is “so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” It’s very important that the church function as it should, every individual part in coordination with the rest, because the ultimate goal of all is to bring glory to God. This is God's plan and the way He is working to bring glory to Himself through Christ. It doesn't get any more important than this. The church must function as God created it to function if He is to get the glory in what is going on. Sometimes we get weak. We think we are not under the Mosaic Law so we have a freedom. There is a proper way that is theologically correct, but we have to be careful. We act like just everybody is free to do what they want in the way they want. There is none of that kind of freedom. Israel was held responsible to the revelation God had given, primarily the Mosaic Law. In the New Testament we have what we call the Law of Christ, New Testament truth, and that’s what we are studying in Ephesians. That is no more optional for the church than obeying the Mosaic Law was for Israel. Now we get the idea that since we are not under the Law and I have the Spirit, I do what I want. No, we all have to do what God says. We're not under the Mosaic Law, but we are under the Law of Christ.

The instructions he is giving us are telling us, verse 10, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another.” Is that optional? No. If your gift is serving, you serve; if it is speaking, you speak. We are stewards who have been entrusted with a special grace from God. It is not optional. I have to serve with the gift He has given me where He puts me. He may move me from one place to another, and obviously He does. Most of you have moved from one place to another. I had family in New Jersey many years ago, and they thought maybe the Lord should keep me in New Jersey. Everybody wants their family together, but we have to be where God wants us. That's why sometimes people say, I think the Lord is moving me to another church. Well, I hate to see you go, but I don't want you here if this is not where the Lord wants you. We have to be where the Lord wants us, but we ought to be careful we are doing it in light of the Word. This is all about bringing glory to God through Christ. We so individualize it, we forget the corporate responsibility we have and the unity that God has put us into. We want to be sure we are clear on that. For a person who says they don't think they have to be part of a church and can still be a faithful believer, that is not true. Now if you have physical reasons, like if you are homebound, there are reasons that come, of course. God works His purposes. We talked a little bit about that. Maybe God keeps you bound at home so you'll be focused more on prayer for the body. I don't know, but it's just not optional. I don't come because it's more comfortable not to be there. That's not an option, and it wasn't an option for the Israelites. They were bound in a nation and in a tribe. They weren't even allowed to sell their own land outside of their own tribe. That's not yours; you don't make these decisions. God says no, you can't do that. We have responsibility, and we have obligations.

So come back to Ephesians 4. If we were just going to do this on our own, there wouldn't have to be the multiplicity of gifts. We're saying God's way is not the way it has to be. “Now I have the Spirit and I have my Bible, and that's all it takes.” Well, that may be what someone says, but it's not what God says. We want to come back and see the importance of this. He gives some as apostles and some as prophets. We've already seen these two gifts. Back up to the end of chapter 2, verse 20, we're “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” We noted the thing that characterizes both of these gifts is they received direct revelation from God, but they are distinct gifts. Apostles seems to be a broader gift. Paul not only received revelation from God, but he was entrusted with the authority of establishing churches and organizing those churches. He received direct revelation and we saw that in chapter 3—the truth concerning the church had been directly revealed to him. We observed the communion service last week. Paul said he received from the Lord what I have given to you, and I’ve instructed you on this. So he received…

Prophets received direct revelation that was used to encourage the people, but they don't seem to maybe have the breadth of responsibility. So, there is a diversity even when gifts overlap, and gifts would overlap. Apostles and prophets... I take it those gifts are no longer present because there is no longer direct revelation being given with the completion of the Word of God. And even as Paul wrote, there is a uniqueness to that. He didn't write as though it was a common thing for believers to be receiving revelation. He had to explain to these Ephesians why he had this additional new information while God revealed it to him as an apostle. It was part of his gift as he explained in chapter 3. Apostles and prophets were foundational for the church. They were there at the beginning, and we are continuing to build on that foundation, the truth they gave. What are we studying? Ephesians, a revelation given to the apostle Paul. I don't have any new revelation to give you. Now we have additional revelation. Almost thirty years after Paul is executed the apostle John writes the book of Revelation. There is additional revelation given, but that was given through another apostle. So that position and importance of these gifts…

The next gift here is not one mentioned often; in fact, there are only three references, I believe, to this gift in the New Testament—evangelist. It's just basically a form of the word gospel. They are gospelizers. Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist. It doesn't say he had the gift of evangelism, but he was to do the work of an evangelist. He is to share the gospel as all of us do, but evangelists seem to be those who carry the gospel to new places. We pick that up because Phillip in the book of Acts is called “Phillip the evangelist” in Acts 21. So, we know he was an evangelist. Earlier in Acts, in Acts 8 we see Phillip being used to bring the Gospel to new people in new places. So with the very word based on euangelizo—which is just the Gospel, good news, the good message. An evangelist is one who brings the good news. Obviously, that would be focused on unbelievers, carrying it to new places. We may all do that, but an evangelist will be one that focuses more on that and will perhaps be more effective. One thing about apostles is they are multi-gifted, which helped with their authority. Remember when it came to miracle gifts Paul said, I have them and I have performed miracles among you. That shows I am an apostle. So, there was a uniqueness. Paul speaking in tongues, I've done that; speaking in a language I've learned, I've done that, too. It showed the apostles were given a realm of authority and the validation of their authority going with the new revelation they were given that would enable them to authority. Because it wasn't “I have this gift, so you don't have it.” With an apostle like Paul, the miracles gifts, we've looked at that on other occasions, so we haven't gone back through that this time, but that's connected to new revelation. You'll see even Phillip the evangelist has miracles associated with his, but he'll just disappear from the scene and appear in another place in Acts 8. Evangelists carry the Gospel. We won't get on a sidetrack here, but I think we find that when people went in with the Gospel, whether it is Paul, whether it is others, or whether it is someone like Phillip the evangelist, they had a focus. Remember Paul said I determined nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Something has happened… I get some missionary letters, and it used to be they would talk about sharing the Gospel. For years, nothing is ever included about the Gospel there and I never have read of anyone who has trusted in Christ in it. We've turned it often into a social ministry of trying to improve the conditions of people where they are. And we have various kinds of that kind of ministry that gets called missions. We want to be careful. Paul said I went to Corinth, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He comes to carry the Gospel. This whole social thing, and we talk about it a lot, has permeated missions. We talk about its danger here for churches, and we have to be careful that we don't lose our focus. Paul went into areas to preach the Gospel. He went to Athens, but there wasn't the response of the Gospel, so he moved on. He didn't figure we have to develop a ministry here of upgrading their living conditions and helping with their health problems, get Dr. Luke in here, then maybe they'll be... We're moving on. The Spirit uses the Word. So, I think we want to understand. God has provided the gifts necessary for what He wants to do. All of us are to be testimonies wherever we are because we are lights in the darkness. I want to share the Gospel.

As I've shared a number of times, the desire of my heart was to be an evangelist. That's what got me interested in the ministry way back when I was a high school student. Sharing the Gospel, this is what I have to do. I thought, I'm going to be an evangelist. In my years of schooling, I still thought that's what I was going to do, and that's what I enjoyed the most. Then I sat down and evaluated. Where is the Lord using me, and how is He using me? Lord, you know I don't want to have to speak to the same people every week, week in and week out. Just wouldn't be very interesting. But the Lord pointed, that's what I will do because I had to look. I liked sharing the Gospel and I could say I've seen some people come to know Christ, but not what I would expect if I had the gift of evangelist. The goal wasn't to determine that's what I'm going to be no matter what—I'm going to be what God appoints me to be. It was sharing the Word, but it was a little different way, and part of that transition was having me pastor a small church while I was a seminary student. It gave me a greater appreciation of the regular ministry. All I'm saying is you find where God is using you and how He is using you. You say that's what the Lord has for me.

Ephesians 4:11. Evangelist, now pastors and teachers. There has been some misunderstanding on this gift. Part of it came because some of the Greek grammars and then some of us who are reading the Greek grammars pick up, and they sometimes said this is Granville Sharp's rule of grammar. But it is not. Granville Sharp's rule of grammar does not apply to plural nouns. Now that's not making any sense to many of you, but what it basically means is “pastors and teachers” is not just talking about one gift. They are distinct. But the structure here is they are closely related. So, most of the modern grammars would say that all pastors are teachers, but not all teachers are pastors. Pastors will be involved in teaching, but not all teachers will be pastors. The distinction in the two gifts is that pastors are shepherds. That's the word. They are shepherding God's people; they have the oversight. It is used interchangeably with the word elder, overseer or bishop. Those words are used interchangeably.

Come back to Acts 20. Paul here is sending for the elders of the church at Ephesus. He had ministered the Gospel at Ephesus in Acts 19, and you can see some of the challenges there. We looked at that when we started Ephesians. Now he is going to have a brief stop and he calls for the elders to meet him. He doesn't want to journey into Ephesus, but he wants to meet with the elders of the church at this brief stop. Verse 17, “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.” So, he had appointed elders and elders are shepherds, we'll see. They have the responsibility for oversight. But they come to him, and he talks, and he gives his example and what he was doing the whole time. He spent three years there teaching them the Word of God. Verse 21, “solemnly testifying both to Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” And down at the end of verse 24, that was the ministry God gave him, “to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:26, Paul says, “’I am innocent of the blood of all men.’” Why? “’I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.’” That's what God appointed and gifted me to do, so that's what I do. So, I am innocent. And the results are not Paul's responsibility; his responsibility is being faithful to carry out what God has given him to do. “’I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.’” The end of verse 24 was similar, “to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” He didn't change the truth. And that's what I spent my years there at Ephesus doing—ministering God's Word. “’I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God,’” verse 27. Now he tells the elders he is passing on the responsibility because he is going to go off the scene and ultimately, the apostles will go off the scene. Elders were appointed to pick up the shepherding responsibility of these churches.

Acts 20:28, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” Go through this, and it's good to go through it when we're not in conflict, but every conflict comes to this. Will we follow the leaders, or won't we? Every time, it's just like Israel in the Old Testament as they grumble against Moses. It's a constant battle. I can look back over 50-some years of ministry and the six or seven major battles I can say the elders were faithful to the Word. Now those who left for one reason or another, between them and the Lord… I’m not saying everybody who ever leaves is unfaithful. I'm saying we better be careful. We act like this is nothing. That's what the Israelites thought. In Numbers 16 Korah thought, God has made all of us holy. You and Moses and Aaron, we're all holy. Who put you in charge? Who said you know what is best? We're not real happy with the way things are going. And he got 250 men of renown who stood out in Israel to join with him. You're familiar with what happened. God brought serious judgment on that. Now again I want to be careful. Don't go out and say Gil said everybody who ever left Indian Hills was wrong. But we don't take seriously enough, we act like it's… I don't agree, so I don't do it. I've shared with you before, I've had people in from other churches and I start out telling them that because I'm not an elder at that church, I have no authority there. God has appointed elders there. If they're not telling you to do anything unbiblical, or forbidding you to do anything biblical, then let the elders be the elders. People say, do you agree with the elders? Well, it's not my decision. I support the elders, and they'll give an account for what they do. We could have navigated through so many disastrous conflicts if people would just say God has appointed the elders. I mention this, don't have any particular… Because I know the next battle will come because everyone comes and it comes down to the same thing—I don't agree with the elders. What's the doctrinal issue? It's not a doctrinal issue. Where do we go from here? In other words, it's everybody's opinion and I follow the elders when their opinion agrees with my opinion. If it's not a doctrinal issue, move on. I had somebody bring me a whole folder from another church that I am well familiar with, and they said, you have to know what is going on here. You and the elders have to address it. I said, we don't have to address it. We're not elders there. You can take your folder back; I have no reason to read it. What would I do with it? Try to overrule the elders God has appointed for that church? I had someone come from out of town, a church, and he wanted to talk the same thing. And I said, I'm not an elder there and I have no authority there because God didn't appoint me there. God has appointed godly men in your church. Is this a doctrinal issue? Well, no, it doesn't involve me personally. Then stay out of it. God has appointed elders. He didn't make you an elder, did He? No. Are they saying you have to do something that is not biblical? No. Then what is your problem? I don't know if I agree. It doesn't matter if you agree, God didn't make you an elder. So I'd say go home, pray for the elders, and thank God for godly men to provide leadership. If anybody asks you, do you agree with the elders, say that's not the right question. I want you to know I support the elders, that's why God gives them.

Here is what the elders have to do. Acts 20:28, they have to “’Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.’” They can't abandon that responsibility under pressure; they can't yield to the flock. And I've been in this, we've sat as elders and say, when would we lose so many people we couldn't keep the doors open anymore? Well, if you decide, then we'd give up if it got down to this point, and then you've lost the battle. If we've determined what is biblical then we will die on this hill. If the Lord closes this church down, it’s better closed down than going in a false direction, an unbiblical direction. You are “to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” This is important to God. I've had men and pastors come who want to talk about elders. I say, one thing you have to have with elders, any godly man can be an elder but you have to have godly men on your board of elders that will be able to withstand the pressure that when things become unsettled, when the heat is turned up, they will stay faithful to the truth. That is what they are to do. It's God's church. He purchased it with His own blood. Does it get any more important than that? Then He appoints the men to oversee it. The battles are going to come. “’I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert.’” Verse 32, “’I commend you to God and the word of His grace which is able to build you up’” and so on.

We're talking about shepherds, but somehow it becomes… If enough of the sheep talk together, then we are justified in not following the elders. If God wants a person in another church, they ought to get there and be there. I have had some people complain about Indian Hills people; we're going to talk about ourselves because they say all they want to do is talk about what's wrong at Indian Hills. I don't care, they said, I care about our church, our ministry. If the Lord is leading you to another church, that's all you have to say. I know the Lord was leading us to another ministry and we are here to be used of God and help this ministry be the best it can. What am I going to do? Try to unsettle other ministries? Tell people to not follow the elders there? Elders have a great responsibility; when we talk about the gifts God has given, there is a responsibility that goes with it. The shepherds have to shepherd, that's true. Moses had to lead Israel, and Aaron and the 70 elders with him eventually, regardless of what the sheep wanted to do. Now be careful, they are not magisterial. It has biblical truth. The problem is most of it, I've shared, people say it is not doctrinal. Well, you know what we do, we put it out there in the realm of our feelings and what I think and how I would do it. We want to be careful; these are gifts given for a purpose, a stewardship which has an accountability and a responsibility. And with that will go the Word.

Come back to Titus 1, and we'll have to stop here. Titus 1, why you need elders and why you need men who are elders who will be able to withstand the pressure. And he is talking about… Titus was left in Crete, another location here, local churches. “To appoint elders,” Titus 1:5, “In every city as I directed to you.” Then he gives some of the personal responsibility, the character responsibilities. Verse 9, they are to be “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers.” They have to be silenced, verse 11, “because they are upsetting whole families.” So that's part of the elders' responsibility—to keep the church on track biblically. What is the biblical issue here? It's where the elders end up having to spend the bulk of their time as issues come up sorting through what the Scripture says here. Once we've settled on what the Scripture says, that's what we will do. And the fallout, what can you do? The people decide, I will not follow... I had a person come sit in my office and say, I don't consider you a godly man; I won't listen to you. Well, I guess you'll move on. I'm not saying the Lord doesn't move His people. They are His people and if He wants them in another work… I wrote an e-mail to someone and said we miss you here, but we're all slaves in the house of the Master. You have to be where the Lord wants you to be—where you can be used of Him.

We'll leave it there with the gifts, and we'll pick up as Paul moves on to show how this, the proper use of all the gifts, will bring the body to its appointed maturity.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Thank You for the challenges that come with being a faithful church. It's hard for each one of us to appreciate Your grace given to each one, for us to appreciate one another and to be an encouragement and help to one another so that Your Spirit… Use us first in one another's lives and then as a testimony before a watching world. Pray Your blessing on the day before us, look forward to the evening. Pray the Spirit will use these truths in our lives. In Christ's name, amen.