Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians 4:16

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Introduction

I have been watching and helping a little as Menno and his helpers have been putting up the bus shed.

It is a fascinating process.

Each piece of material is added one at a time.

Slowly the building is being completed.

Sometimes you wonder, “Why is this piece going here?” but then you get to another stage of the building and it makes sense.

Each step is important and you have to think about future steps when doing earlier steps.

For example, if the foundation is not level, there will be problems with the whole building.

In the end, a strong, solid building is almost ready to house our bus.

One of the joys of watching someone dance or play sports is to recognize all the different motions possible with the human body.

There is a flexibility and a fluidity and yet a connectedness to the whole.

The human body is an amazing thing.

One day when I was dismantling our kitchen cabinets, my hammer slipped and I scrapped my little finger.

You wouldn’t think that a little finger would be that important, but when you hurt it, and then afterwards you keep touching it, you realize just how much it plays a part in what you do with your hands.

This past summer I was involved in pre-marriage counseling with three couples and it was a good reminder of how the relationship between a husband and wife is a beautiful and blessed thing.

Without love, marriage is a cold, unwelcome contract but when it is built on a loving relationship and lived in love it is a blessing.

By now you are probably wondering what I am going to talk about today.

The images of a building, a body and marriage are used in the Bible to speak of the church.

All three images appear in various shades in Ephesians 4:16 and this morning, I would like to examine this verse to think about what God intends the church to be.

What is your experience with the church?

Have you found it a necessary evil, a part of your culture, a good place to come for an hour on Sunday, a community which helps you grow, a place where you are encouraged and helped through the struggles of life, a place where you can be equipped to contribute meaningfully to the eternal plan of God?

What does God intend the church to be?

Ephesians 4:16 says, “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

It teaches us what God intends for the church and invites us to examine our involvement.

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I.                   The Growth of the Body

Carla has been training for the marathon she is planning to run in December.

She read me a quote which was encouraging her in her preparation.

It is attributed to George Patton and goes like this, “If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing.

You have to make the mind run the body.

Never let the body tell the mind what to do... the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."

In a healthy body, the mind, the head, is in charge, nevertheless, the rest of the body contributes to what the mind chooses to accomplish.

I like the way the Good News Bible puts it in Ephesians 4:16 when it says, “Under His control…the whole body grows and builds itself up…” This phrase uses the imagery of the body to make some important points about what God wants to accomplish with His church.

!! A.                 Christ is the Source

The first thing we notice is that the growth of the body of Christ, the church, begins with the head of the body, which is Christ.

The reference to Christ as head of the body comes from the previous verse and the point made in this verse is that Jesus is the source, the power from whom the growth of the church happens.

Christ is the source from which the church does what God wants it to do.

Christ is the one who has established the church by His blood.

The church is founded on the fact that Jesus died on the cross and rose again.

It is made up of those who believe in Christ.

Christ is the source from which the church accomplishes God’s work.

It is the Spirit of Christ who unifies, empowers and forms the church into a unified body.

It is not organizational structure or a church constitution which has brought us together to work for God.

It is the Spirit of God who draws and keeps us together.

If the unifying factor in our working for God ever becomes the church constitution or our connection as a denomination, we are doomed.

As long as it is the Spirit of God who is the one keeping the church together and empowering the church, then God will accomplish great things.

Christ is the goal to whom the church is striving.

The church is growing into Christ likeness, as we see from verse 15, which says, “…we will in all things grow up into Him, who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

So what is true for us?

Are we the church because our ancestors came to this region from Russia 136 years ago?

Are we the church because we adhere to a common doctrine?

Are we the church because we like to meet our friends here?

Are we the church because we are centered around the head, Jesus Christ?

!! B.                 The Body Builds Up the Body

So if Christ is the head of this church, is it also Christ who causes the church to grow?

In part, “yes.”

It is from Him that the church grows, but in part, “no.”

The body of Christ builds up the body of Christ.

That is what this verse says, “From him the whole body…grows and builds itself up.”

The growth of the body is a co-operative project which includes God’s work and our work.

Marcus Barth writes that the themes are interwoven.

“It is Christ, the head, alone ‘from whom’ the body derives unity, nourishment, growth – but Christ’s monarchy and monopoly do not exclude but rather create the activity of a church engaged in ‘its own’ growth and upbuilding.”

So the second thing we learn is that as a body we are responsible to do our part in growing the church.

That means growth in two directions.

It is first of all growth in reaching out beyond ourselves to those who do not know Christ and to invite them in to also share in the life we have been given by Christ.

The other thing is to grow in maturity and to become more like Christ.

Our church purpose statement, written on the banner, reflects this intention when it says, “At REMC we proclaim, follow and serve Jesus to the glory of God.”

This also implies that each of us is responsible to contribute our part, but more of that later on.

For now, just a reminder that we each have a part in growing the body of Christ and we can’t just leave it up to Christ, but must do what we can as a church.

!! C.                 The Body and the Individual

One of the messages about the church which is present in this verse is that this is much more about the church than about the individual.

Our current cultural perspective has placed such a high value on the individual that it is hard for us to realize that what is spoken of here is not so much about me as it is about us.

Although God cares about each individual, He is also concerned about the growth of the whole body.

This means that we need to have a much greater community perspective.

We need to think about what God is doing in the whole body, not just about what God is doing in each person.

That is why we need to find a way through conflict.

That is why we need to be concerned about the spiritual maturity of the weakest member.

That is why it is so important to care for one another.

That is why we can’t let each other go.

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II.

What We Contribute to Growth

So God is interested in growing the church.

Christ is the head and it is from Him that growth happens.

However, we also contribute to the growth and, as we have read, “…the body builds itself up…” The question, which is also answered in the text, is, “how does the body build itself up?”

!! A.                 Community

There is a fascinating phrase in this verse.

It is put somewhat differently in different translations and I think it would be helpful to read several of them.

We read NIV which says, “…the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament…” Good News Bible says, “…all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint with which it is provided…”

            In order to understand this image, which relates to the human body, I would like to ask several people to come and help me illustrate what I think this means.

The text speaks about joints and ligaments.

In order to illustrate, I would invite you to consider the elbow, which is a joint and has ligaments in it.

The joint is flexible.

It can swing back and forth, it contributes, with other joints like the shoulder and the hand, in being able to reach all over the place.

If we put a splint on this joint, and made it stiff and tickled this person’s nose, they would be in great difficulty.

So the usefulness of a joint is its flexibility, its ability to make corners and reach and bend.

However, even though it has this flexibility about it, it is solidly joined to the body.

Here is where I would like to invite the other two of you to try to separate his elbow from the rest of the body.

As you can see, it is strongly attached to the body.

What a great image of the way in which Christ builds His body.

God intends there to be a flexibility in the body that allows it to reach all over the place.