Church Growth Christ’s Way

by | Jun 16, 2015 | Expositions

Last week in our concluding study through Ephesians 4:1-16 we considered 19 principles of church growth that flow from Ephesian 4:-16. Listed here are the 19 principles that we considered together followed by the expositional outline of the passage.

 

  1. Church growth Christ’s way is impossible without a committed and accountable relationship to a local expression of Christ’s body the church
  • Walking in a manner worthy of our calling necessarily has to be played out within a specific church (1-3)
  • Church growth according to this passage is growth within a body that is composed of various identifiable members of that body (15)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way is rooted in and involves doctrinal purity and clarity:
  • Therefore (1)
  • Attaining the unity of the faith (13)
  • Not carried about by every wind of doctrine (14)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way is an urgent matter: I implore you (1)
  2. Church growth Christ’s way is wrapped up with Christ’s call: Walk in manner worthy of the calling (1)
  3. Church growth Christ’s way is focused on Spirit produced realities, not external facades (2)
  • Gentleness
  • Humility
  • Patience
  1. Church growth Christ’s way requires Spirit dependent effort (3)
  • Tolerating one another in love
  • Diligently preserving the unity of the Spirit
  1. Church growth Christ’s way is God-centered: Spirit (4), Son (5) and Father (6)
  2. Church growth Christ’s way is possible through Christ’s victory gifts to all His people: to each one of us grace was given (7-10)
  3. Church growth Christ’s way is ultimately focused on the display of Christ’s Lordship over all: That He might fill all things (10)
  4. Church growth Christ’s way is coordinated by equipping gifts
  • Christ gave certain gifted individuals for the equipping (11-12a)
  • They function as joints within the body (16)
  • The primary equipping gift that functions within the life of the church are pastor-teachers (11)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way requires the whole body properly functioning:
  • All the saints doing the work of the ministry (12)
  • The whole body…causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself (16)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way requires each individual properly functioning: according to the measure of each individual (16)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way is a unified whole body growth:
  • Building up of the body (12)
  • Mature man (13)
  • We are to grow up (15)
  • body (16)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way involves experiential growth: attaining to the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God (13)
  2. Church growth Christ’s way is all about Christ-likeness:
  • attaining to the standard of the fullness of Christ (13)
  • growing up into Christ (15)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way is carried out by means of the communication of God’s truth within the body:
  • Each equipping gift functions by communicating God’s Word (11)
  • Attaining the unity of the faith which requires the communication of God’s Word (13)
  • Not being deceived by false doctrine, which requires the communication of God’s Word (14)
  • The whole body Speaking the truth in love (15)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way occurs within the atmosphere of biblical love:
  • Tolerating one another in love (3)
  • Speaking the truth in love (15)
  • The building up of the body in love (16)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way is brought about by the whole body: The whole body causes the growth of the body (16)
  1. Church growth Christ’s way is sourced in Christ alone: From whom (16) 

Walk in a manner worthy of your calling in Christ in the context of His body the church (1-6)

  • The characteristics behind a worthy walk as a church (2a)
    • Humility: Lowliness of mind evidenced by not thinking of yourself
    • Gentleness: Strength under control which expresses itself in a humble submissive spirit.
    • Patience: Bearing up under persistent sufferings or aggravations without grumbling or retaliation
  • The path to actively pursue a worthy walk as a church (2b-3)
    • Showing loving tolerance
    • Diligently preserving unity
  • The foundations of the unity preserved in a worthy walk as a church (4-6)
    • Diligently preserve the unity built on the Spirit
      • We are baptized with the Spirit into the same body the church
      • We are unified by the same Spirit in Christ’s body the church
      • Both of which are comparable to our same calling of hope pledged to us with the Spirit
    • Diligently preserve the unity built on the Son
      • We all are redeemed by the same Lord
      • We all trust in the same Lord for redemption
      • We all are partakers of the same baptism by and into the Lord
    • Diligently preserve the unity built on the Father
      • We all have the same Father who is the one God of all His children
      • We all have the same Father sovereignly over us
      • We all have the same Father at work through us

As Christ brings about a mature unity in His body by the body (7-16)

  • A mature unity through the diversity of Christ’s gifts to each person in His body (7-10)
    • All those who are in Christ have been given a spiritual gift (7)
    • As a consequence of Christ’s victory (8-10)
      • A victory secured because of Christ’s descent at the incarnation for the purpose of the cross (9)
      • A victory that results is Christ’s Lordship over everything (10)
    • A mature unity specifically through Christ’s equipping gifts to His body (11-16)
      • The identification of those equipping gifts (11)
        • Apostles
        • Prophets
        • Evangelists
        • Pastor-Teachers
      • The purpose of the equipping gifts (12)
        • For the purpose of preparing all the saints
        • With the goal of preparing them for the work of service
        • With the final goal that the body of Christ would be built up through the service of all the saints
      • The goal of the body being built up (13)
        • Attaining doctrinal and experiential unity as a body
          • Unity in the truths of the faith
          • Unity in experiential knowledge of Jesus
        • Attaining mature manhood as a body
        • Attaining Christ-likeness as a body
      • The evidence that the body is being built up (14-15)
        • Not being characterized by the doctrinal instability of immaturity (14)
          • Not tossed and carried about by false doctrine
          • Not tossed and carried about by the trickery of false teachers
          • Not tossed and carried about by deceitful doctrinal scheming
        • But rather being characterized by growing in maturity as the body speaks the truth in love (15-16)
          • A maturity defined as growing up into Christ (15)
            • A comprehensive growth
            • A Christ-centered growth
          • A maturity by means of God’s Word communicated in a loving manner (15)
          • A maturity sourced in Christ (16)
          • A maturity through the agency of the body (16)
            • As equipping gifts supply connections within the body
            • So that all the individual members of the body properly function
            • For the building up of the body in love