Calling
A Written compostion of the Heavenly Calling Network Study Group
Chapter
22
We have seen in Ephesians Chapter 4 verse
6, four times, a stress on the word "all". The Father of "all", above
"all", through "all", and in your "all". That is looking at the whole
body altogether. Now unless we should think as individuals, then we are
lost in the crowd aren't we? Ephesians 4 verse 7 says, No, your not.
Instead of looking at the whole body, here is each one separately. ...
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of
the gift of Christ. ... Isn't that great. The most unknown member to
us, the littlest member in this great company is known by God, is
marked out by God, is given grace by God to do a job of work for Him.
Every single one. Each one, the Greek says, is given grace.
Look at the measure. There are three great measures in this section.
The measure of the gift of Christ in verse 7. Verse 13, Till we all
come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ: ... When you think about it and try to understand it, what does
it mean, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ? Well,
there is another measure then. Then the third measure in verse 15, ...
which is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes
increase ... Makes growth. ... of the body to the edifying of itself in
love. ... So you come back in this third reference to each individual
part. Each individual part, in verse 7, is given grace. Each individual
member or part, in verse 16, grows. And so the whole body grows. This
is a very important phase of truth which we must get deeply in to.
Grace. What can you say about that? Grace is music to the ears. And it
is. If we are speaking in God's word we are bound to be steeped in
grace. The Apostle Paul uses the word "grace" more than any other
writer of the New Testament. For one thing, he was an example of God's
dealing in grace. When you look back at him and saw the persecutor. saw
the Pharisee, saw the murderer, saw what he was, nothing but grace
could have changed a man like that. And he said, by the grace of God I
am what I am.
While we see grace in the gospel, grace saving, that is where we start
with it. We mustn't keep grace in the gospel. We must go further than
that. We talk about the gospel of grace. Grace is the principle the God
saves sinners because He is a gracious God. And because of His infinite
love.He stooped into the person of the gift of Christ to save us. Well
that is grace. We are saved, in this very letter, by grace. And that is
not through ourselves but by the gift of God through faith. The whole
thing being a precious gift. But we've only started with grace with
salvation. What we have got to learn then is to live by grace, to serve
by grace. This man said, the grace of God labored in me. It was the
grace of God that worked in him. And this is the same grace of God that
is going to equip us to do what He wants us to do. What ever that will
that has been made known to us it will be the grace that will enable
us.
So to everyone of us, to each one, is given grace. That should reassure
us. It stops us from saying, well I can't. If God shows us His will, we
may be some what appalled at what He has called us to do. We feel how
utterly inadequate we are. Mind you, it is a good thing to feel that.
Listen, if we are self sufficient we certainly shall not go very far.
But on the other hand we can get so overwhelmed that we say, well, I
can't. Even the great leader, Moses, in the Old Testament said that to
God once. God wants him to go and speak for Him and he answered, no, I
can't speak. He had forgotten for the moment that God is enabling. God
of all grace. He gives grace to do the job that He want's us to do. So
here is a truth that we can rest in and give us great joy and assurance
that what ever He want's to do in our daily lives, grace is given day
by day to do it. And He wants us to rely on it by simple trust. To
appropriate it by simple trust. And the thing acts so great that
sometimes we are taken by surprise for we see how we have gone through
certain experiences and we say, how did I ever get through that. Well,
it wasn't through anything of ourselves. It is because of His grace
took us through. And that enables us to give Him all the glory and
thanks. So grace goes right through to the end of the pilgrim pathway
till we see the God of grace in all His fullness later on in glory.
So here is the gift then, for practice in our daily lives. Grace to
every single one and the measure is the measure of the gift of Christ.
Can you measure that? Can you estimate that? How much was the gift of
Christ? But you say, that is a measure that I can take or know. Because
we see that God gave His all in His Son. So what size that measure must
be. And that is the measure. He has given us grace all sufficient.
Now the Apostle is going to stress not the Lord's resurrection. But His
ascension. That is something else that is left out of modern theology.
When did you last here an address, bible reading, or a sermon preached
on the ascension of Christ? When did you last read a book that stressed
the ascension of Christ? But this is so vital to the teaching of the
mystery, the great secret of Ephesians that we will never grasp it till
we an ascended Christ. Because when Ephesians chapter 6 tells you, I am
seated with Christ in heavenly places, well must have ascended first to
get there mustn't He. Resurrection took Him out of the grave but it
never took Him to the glory. He ascended after 40 days and they saw Him
go in a cloud and received Him out of their sight. Now ascension is
greatly stressed in the prison epistles of the Apostle Paul. Because it
is the essential to the Seated Christ at God's right hand. He is
ascended up. This very context tells that. Ephesians 4:10 He that
descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, ...
That was the statement. ...that he might fill all things. ...
Do we want to know where this church is? What its constitution is? What
it means to be saved and be a member by grace of this company? What its
position is? Then we must first have an apprehension of the measure of
the ascended Christ that has gone before. Because we can't link this
church in the glory until He is there first. Ascention puts Him far
above all heavens.
Back to verse 8. Wherefore he saith, ... He quotes one of the Psalms.
Psalm 68:18. ... When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men. ... Now the Apostle slips in an explanation in
brackets. Ephesians 4:9 (Now this, He ascended, ... Well He says if He
has ascended it means first of all He must of descended. That makes
sense doesn't it. He must have come down before He could go up. Well,
what did He come down for? Well ... He ascended, what is it but that he
also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ... That doesn't
necessarily mean into the earth. The lower parts are looked at by the
stand points of heaven. He came from heaven. He was in the bosom of the
Father. And He came down to the earth. Well, that is the lower parts.
And back He is gone to the glory that was once His. So we could
translate the lower parts, that is to say, the earth. There is no
problem on how far He went into the earth. That is not what the Apostle
is stressing at all.
He led captivity captive. Or as the margin says, the multitude of
captives. There is a very extraordinary doctrine pinned on to this
verse. Which is something like this. That the Old Testament Saints who
have died are said to be a sleep. Because that is the consistent figure
that was used in the Old testament of death. They slept with their
fathers. Then we are told that when the Lord ascended He broke the
graves and all the dead, who died previously, all the saved, they we
held captive by death and He took them all up to Paradise. Doesn't that
sound beautiful? But, when you look closely at the original, when you
look at the context. If that was true, well there would be no use to
try to prove it from this verse. Because the figure is, a very well
know figure, of an eastern conqueror returning from battle with all his
captives chained. That is what it means. He led a multitude of
captives. These Ephesians might have seen similar things. It is most
assured that they did. Because it is a thing that all these pagan
conquerors did. They went out. They fought a campaign. They won a
campaign. What did they do? They took captives. Prisoners and chained
them up and then there was a triumphal procession back and they led the
captives behind. That is the figure.
So you ask, well now, you don't mean to tell me that God's children are
likened to enemies who've been chained? That would be straining things
wouldn't it. Now, now, we can't read that in to it because that is
wishful thinking. You can inject wishful thinking into scriptures. That
is only to easy to do that because there is something that you want to
prove from it. And if you look long enough you will soon find a verse
that will prove it. But, that we must not do. That is turning things
around the wrong way. We have to be very clear, so lets ask the LORD
for all that we believe. And here is the Christ of victory. He ascended
up. He is triumphant. You want another scripture that tells you that?
You look at the companion epistle to Ephesians, which is Colossians,
where talks about the evil principalities and powers, when He triumphed
over them. When did He triumph over them? When He was at Calvary.
Calvary means victory. Calvary means victory over satan and all his
hosts. Evil principalities and powers and satan and everybody else.
What a wonderful thought that is isn't it. That is one of what Calvary
means.
Here He is, the great conqueror, when He ascended up He lead a
multitude of captives. And then this is the point, Ephesians 4:8 ...
And gave gifts unto men. ... That is what the Apostle is leading to.
What did the Lord give when He ascended to glory, above all heavens? It
wasn't things, as this context says. It was people.This is what He
gave. Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; ... Look at this
tremendous phrase. He ascended up far above all heavens. The scriptures
doesn't only talk about heaven in the singular. It is not as simple as
that. Even if it did, we still don't quite know what it means. Where is
heaven? Is it up? Is it down? Is it sideways? Where is it? Of course we
point up to the sky, but then if we are down in New Zealand we are
pointing the other way. So where is it? That is much as we can do. But
the scriptures talk about the heavens, plural. And then when it uses
this phrase, all heavens, you ask, well how many can that make to have
any meaning of all heavens? There must be at least three mustn't there.
You can not have all in English with out that. All heavens. So there
must be at least three heavens. And maybe more for all we know.
And you do read in scripture of the first heaven and earth. And you do
read in scripture of the heaven and earth are now. And you do read in
scripture of a new heaven and earth that is yet to come. So there is
one, two, three. So it is not so fanciful as it may seem. But, far
above them all has this triumphant One gone. Seated at the pinnacle of
glory. And that is our Saviour. That is our glorious Head which we are
joined with this unity of the Spirit. That is what this baptism of the
Holy Spirit done. Uniting us as we have seen with Christ and His death,
His burial, His resurrection, His quickening, His ascension, and
finally in manifestation. He ascended up far above all heavens that He
might fill all things. Oh the fullness in Ephesians. Chapter 1, the
church which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
Another huge expression. What does it mean? Well, here He is filling
all things when He ascended. And He is called the fullness. The church
is the fullness to Christ, but, He is the fullness of God. For in Him
dwells, says Colossians, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. These
epistles are not just empty types. These epistles are rich filling.
Filling right to the brim and over flowing.
If it leaves us saying, well, this overwhelms me, I don't understand
it. Well that may be good, and we just say then, Lord open up my eyes.
Just give me a measure of understanding. You have written this in your
word for my understanding. Oh to have opened up eyes and a
comprehension of our measure, to know something of the wonder of this
fullness. The church itself, the fullness of Christ. Christ Himself,
the fullness of God. And He filling everything. The whole universe. All
things. This is no small subject is it. If some preacher wanted a text
to talk about this they would have enough here to last them for weeks,
months and years. They would never exhaust it. So wonderful and so full
of rich.
These gifts by the ascended Christ are Apostles and prophets. Now, do
you say, well, I see. These are James, Peter, and John. Well, no, that
can't be can it. Because He appointed Peter, James, and John, the
twelve in His earthly life time. And this says when He ascended He
appointed. So here is another gift then. This is another set of
Apostles which were given by Christ when He went right far above all
heavens. Who are these? This New Testament tells us that Paul, of
course, was one. Timothy, of course, was one. Barnabas, of course, was
one. Titus was one. Apollos was one. They are all named. And these were
appointed, not by Christ in the days of His flesh, for none of them
knew Christ when He walked the earth. They were appointed by the
ascended Christ. Paul being the first. In Christ ascension laying a
hold of this man, then laying hold of these others.
So you think of the New Testament Apostles and prophets as being two
sets of them. The twelve are linked with the earthly kingdom in which
Israel is the center, as Matthew makes perfectly clear. And these
others are given to the body of Christ, the church. Apostles and
prophets. The word "Apostles" means "sent ones". And the word "prophet"
really means a "spokesmen". A mouth piece. Not merely a future teller.
When God says to Moses, because he was to modest to speak for Him, He
said, Aaron shall be thy prophet. He didn't say, Aaron is going to
forecast the future for you Moses. But Aaron shall speak for you. He
will be your mouth piece. That is the original meaning. But then, if
you are a mouth piece for God, if you are called to be a prophet, you'd
have to forecast the future as God saw to it. Very often these great
servants of God were given a gift of foretelling the future of which we
now call prophecy. But they could do their work without mentioning the
future at all. So please never get it as a picture, that prophets are
foreteller of the future, oh no, they are simply mouth pieces of God.
So you have got Apostles, and prophets. These were foundation ministry.
They were given before there was a completed scripture. This book takes
on the position that the Apostles and prophets are not around today.
But today. If we do, where are they. Someone has to have some guts to
say, I am an Apostle. Or I am a prophet. But not knowing you the reader
on how you feel about it, but if someone asks, you would have to say, I
am very sorry I just can't except your claim. Looking back to the
second chapter of Ephesians just to have a reminder of what is said
there. Ephesians 2:19 Now therefore you are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, ... Or as we have seen
it could be translated fellow citizens of the Holiest of all. ... and
of the household of God; 20 And are built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner
stone; ... But they are called here, the foundation. The foundation of
the apostles and prophets. You see, the Ephesians saints couldn't pick
up the book in which we call the bible. They hadn't got one. The bible
was still in the process of writing. God hadn't completed His written
revelation. So what did He do? He gave inspired men to begin with, to
make known His truth. And now we have an inspired bible and we don't
need the apostle or prophet. We've got an inspired scripture to put our
faith on. The word of the Lord, which never changes, abides forever.
First of all then, during the Acts and the early years after the
crucifixion and the resurrection and the ascension of Christ we have an
inspired ministry by Apostles and Prophets. And when the last book of
the bible was written, and scripture was complete that ministry stops.
What have we got now? We have got three more. Evangelist, pastors, that
is shepherds, and teachers. That is what we have today. And all
Christian ministry, with regard to the leadership anyway, comes under
those three headings. Either they are Evangelists, who are making known
the gospel of God's grace, although you should remember that this word
"evangelist" in the New Testament is something that is deeper than
merely getting up and preaching a gospel sermon. When Paul said to
Timothy, do the work of an Evangelist, it meant roughing it. It meant
going into places where Christ and the gospel have never been heard of.
It meant going into the pagan darkness of the then known world. And it
was pagan and dark to. And making Christ known to them. It was a real
hard pioneering rough work to do. It didn't mean just going into a
building which was a church or a chapel and standing up in a pulpit and
preaching what we call the gospel. And this is not to be little that
for that is important as well. Oh that there was many more who could do
it faithfully. But in New Testament times it was far harder. There was
far more in it than just that. There Evangelist then.
There are pastor, shepherds. And that presupposes a sheep to keep, to
look after, to care for. And teachers. It is very seldom, and you may
have already noted this, that God gives all these three gifts to one
man. If a man is an evangelist, he is seldom a teacher. If he is a
teacher, he is seldom an evangelist. And it is not for us to grumble or
complain because it is the ascended Christ that has given the gifts.
And He surely knows what He is doing. If He wanted everybody to lump
all these things together He would have given it in that way. But He
hadn't done it.
So, what should be the response. What should be the outworking of this
in Christian circles? It should be the Evangelist, and a pastor, and a
teacher pulling together. If you have got that then you have everything
you need. Because the evangelist making known God's grace to sinners
and seeing God doing His wonderful work of salvation in saving through
that ministry. It is stills the Lord's job to save, the evangelists
doesn't save anybody. But He makes known the Saviour to sinners. And
the Lord blesses and uses that. And then the teacher would come along
and see that these were then new life in Christ, mere babes in Christ,
and were built up and grow. Then you've got the balance of truth. But,
as you look around in Christian circles you find that, well, alas, you
don't. And that is nearly the root of all our problems in the
professing Christian world. We are seeing today great strides in
Evangelism, which is wonderful, on a large scale that is possibly never
been done before. The problem is, what are going to do with the
converts. What are you going to do with them? There should be no
problems because there should be men who realize that they have been
equipped by God to teach. They would be coming along and building these
children of God up. But as long as Christian circles stresses one of
these things at the expense of the other you will never get a balance.
And God doesn't say, the teacher is more important than the evangelist.
And He does not say, the evangelist is more important that the teacher.
But He puts them all on the path and says, I give you the job to
evangelize for Me. I give you the job of Teaching. I give you the job
of looking after the sheep. All having to be done after the one great
giver, the Lord Himself. There, you would have a healthy balance of the
witness of the ministry. This doesn't mean God never combines the
offices, but it is just very rare.
We should pray that God will send more. More teachers. More
Evangelists. So that there might be this fruitful working of witness
together in harmony. But, we see around us in Christendom it all split
up into fragments making harmonious working so difficult. How far short
have we all fallen from the great pattern that is set before us in the
New Testament. And yet, if we can't do anything about it in mass,
because after all we are quite insignificant as individuals, no doubt,
but we can do something about it with in our circle that we do know.
And that is our responsibility.
Back to it then. Now what for. Ephesians 4:12 for the perfecting of the
saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body
of Christ: ... The building up of the body of Christ. First of all,
they are given for the perfecting of the saints. The word "perfect" in
verse 13, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, ... But, although they
are the same in the English, they are not in the original. And we must
make a distinction. Other wise we can't get the truth. This first word,
in verse 12, "perfect", is a medical word. And it was used in the New
Testament times of setting a broken limb. It means to "mend". And it is
translated, "to restore", and we can see in the gospels how it is
translated simple "to mend". Matthew 4:21 And going on from there, he
saw other two brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother,
in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; ... So it is
plainly "to restore" or "to mend".
Then in Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you
which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; ...
The word is "restore". Restore him. Well you say, how does that mean?
If he had been over taken in a fault there is a break that is coming
between him and the Lord. We know what sin does. It makes a break,
doesn't it. It doesn't break us off eternally from God, thanks to Him
through Christ, but in the sense of fellowship, it breaks the joy. It
breaks the peace. Well, it says in this verse, you mend him then.
Restore him. "Mend" him, bring him back. The fellowship. Always behind
the element of this word is breakage. Something is gone wrong and it is
being put right.
1Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brothers, by the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together ...
There is the same word again, but it is translated "perfectly" joined
together. But there was a breakage there wasn't it. The very thing that
he said, I want you to be, "let there be no divisions among you", was
the very thing that happened. Because we are told in this church some
said, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, and some said I follow Christ.
They split into little factions. There was a breakage. He said, don't
be like that. You be joined together. You be mended. And so the first
great thing that we see of these gifts in Ephesians chapter 4 in this
ministry of the ascended Christ is for literally the mending of the
saints. You say, well, that is puzzling. I don't know what that could
mean. The mending of the saints. Well, there has been a breakage
somewhere. You must remember that Ephesians is the first great letter
after the great breakage of Acts 28. We have seen that the people of
Israel were dismissed at the end of that chapter. They had rejected
against the Lord. They rejected Him in the flesh. They rejected Him in
the Acts when they were given another opportunity of repenting. And
then in the last chapter Paul says, well spoke the Holy Ghost, he is
talking to the Jews at Rome and he says, now your dismissed. Your going
in to blindness and hardness and you won't be able to understand but
the Gentiles will.
So there was a great breakage in God's purpose. Don't forget this,
Israel has held the stage in scriptures from Genesis 12, the call of
Abram, to Acts 28. They are the first people all through the Old
Testament, all through the gospel ministry, all though the Acts period
until Acts 28 and then God said, your un usable and were cast off. Well
look, a breakage. God said, because you are the channel that I am going
to use to bless the whole earth. That is what He promised to Abraham.
Through your seed, that is through Israel. Now then, supposing you
lived at that time and you seen this great thing happen. You would be
in wanting of mending in a sense. You would be in wanting of
readjusting. You would have said, well, what is ever going to happen
now. And then, along with a letter from the Apostle Paul with this new
revelation, this secret made known for the body of Christ, this new
thing. My, you would have said, here is a new truth. Here is a marvel.
You would have been readjusted alright by this new teaching. Looked at
it that way, this word can be understood. It readjusted, mended the
saint, putting them in the new position concerning Christ body in this
revelation of the secret for the first time.
So these were given for the readjusting, mending of the saints.
Ephesians 4:12 ... for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ: ... Don't misunderstand that word "ministry". We
use the word "ministry" or "minister" in a limited sense of clergymen.
This isn't a word for clergymen. This is the word "service" in the
Greek. And this means you. It doesn't mean people who turn their collar
around the other way about. Not for that work. It is for the work of
Christian service. So don't make it is just the ministers. This
glorious ministry was given for service. That is the word "ministry"
for the edifying, the building up, of the body of Christ. This is such
an important feature of the truth given to the Apostle Paul. The
building up. This is something constructive. This is something
positive. And we have to be very clear on this. And very definite. It
is very easy to be destructive. It is very easy to pull down. It is
very easy to ridicule. But it is very hard, and it is a slow business
to build up.