God bless his church...

“It was he” – Jesus that is – “who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13, NIV)

There’s that word fullness again at the very end of the sentence – word number seventy. With words sixty-nine, seventy-one and seventy-two we have “the fullness of Christ.” I hope that phrase sounds vaguely familiar. The fullness in every sentence we’ve look at this week has been the same.

In chapter one, it was the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Who is that? God.

In chapter three, it was the fullness of God we were to be filled with.

In this passage, who is Christ? He is God. As I said, the fullness throughout this book and each of our sentences has been the same. It is the fullness of God that Paul wants his hearers, us included, to be filled with.

So what does Paul say here about the path the church must take if all its members are to reach maturity, to attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ? It is must follow the path of allowing Holy Spirit gifted leaders to lead. It must walk along the path of appointing wise and godly teachers to teach. It must.

Why? Because that is God’s path. He has appointed some in the church to prepare their brothers and sisters for works of service. The good results of proper preparation of the saints for the work of God are many.

First, the church will be built up. That is, it will be encouraged by the blessings received when one benefits another through the use of God-given spiritual gifts.

Then the church will reach unity in the faith. That is, the followers of Jesus in any particular town will love each other and work together.

At the same time, the church will reach unity in the knowledge of the Son of God. That is, the believers will acknowledge in worship their common Lord.

Finally, Paul says the church will reach maturity and attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. That is, the people of God will live and look and talk and love more like His Son.

I want you to understand something. My deepest desire is for those I minister to, those I teach, to grow in your faith. I want you to become more and more like Jesus. I want you to serve each other in love so that your actions reflect his love for the world. I want you to serve each other so that, working together, we may be one. I want these things for you and for me because they are the things God wants for us.

I know that this is what God wants, because God’s Son prayed for these things and his words are recorded for us in John 17. The end of his prayer is for those who would believe because of his disciples’ preaching. We’re a long way down the line, but that’s us. We are believers because of the faithful teaching of Jesus’ disciples throughout the centuries.

Hear to your Savior’s heart for the church as we listen in to his prayer for us.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:20-26, NIV)

May God do in us all Jesus has asked of him on our behalf. May we grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God. May we become a mature, unified, Spirit-empowered, others-serving church that has and shows the fullness we have in Christ.

God bless his church!

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