Ephesians 4 (Part 3)

(Audio: English)

SUMMARY: The passage in Ephesians 4 talks about how God gives different gifts and ministries to His people, such as apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists. Each of these individuals has their own strengths and weaknesses, and they work together like a body to build up the Church. The purpose of these gifts is to prepare God's people for works of service and to equip them for ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built up and matured. It is important for each believer to recognize their own gift and to work in complementary ways with others in the Church.

The Church is like a body, with each member having a specific gift and purpose. These gifts are given to equip and prepare God's people for works of service. The Church's mission is to prepare believers for ministry and service, not just to provide comfort or entertainment. The teaching ministry should be practical and diverse, and fellowship should serve to consolidate and provide rest for believers. Ultimately, believers are servants and ministers, called to address the needs of others as representatives of the Kingdom of God.

The Church exists to equip believers for service, to be servants who meet the needs of others. This is the path to true authority in the Kingdom of God. Violating the laws of service will result in fragile authority that will turn against you. God has already given each believer a calling and a destiny, and it is up to them to fan their gift into flame through action, movement, exercise, prayer, study, and service. By embracing the perspective of serving, believers can live a full life in the Kingdom of God.

Let’s go to Ephesians, Chapter 4. And for the third time, I’m going to choose the same text, the same passage and go over it again. Remember what I said last time that, you know, God’s word is multilayered, multidimensional.

And you can take the same text and explore it from different perspectives. And using that metaphor of several layers of interpretation, you can peel off a layer, almost like a transparency, and it has some things in it, and you can put it on top of another layer, and together they make a pattern. And you can put another layer, and together those three make a pattern as a whole, but each one of them separately is also a pattern onto itself. And those are the messages that you can preach on a text. So you can take the same text… Thank you so much, I appreciate it. You can take the same text, and you can just keep mining it many times, several, several times, and you will always find new elements, new dimensions, new sermons, new meditations for that same text. So even though we’re exploring the same text, remember, we will not be going through the same terrain, and I hope to show that again to you. So verse 9, chapter 4, Ephesians, and I do hope you have your Bibles. If not, just listen. Actually, let’s go to verse 11, because verse 9 is really preparatory.