What is a Healthy Church Community?

Community: What Is A Healthy Church Community
Ephesians 4:1-16 • FCBC • 01/14/24
Good morning church, it is a privilege to be worshipping with you this morning. If you are
visiting with us for the first time my name is Ryan and I am a pastor and one of the elders here
at FCBC and I have the privilege of continuing in our series this morning entitled “Our church,
it’s purpose: who is FCBC and where is she going?” We’ve been answering that question by
going word by word through the name of our church, Faith. Community. Bible. Church. Last
week Trent introduced this series to us by looking at that first word in our churches name
“Faith.” And he anchored that word to the gospel of Jesus Christ in Romans 3:21-26. We looked
at the good news that God in Christ saves sinners through His propitiatory death (that is a death
or sacrifice that satisfied God’s righteous wrath against our sin rebellion and treason), his
glorious resurrection, and his ascension to the right hand of the father where he is reigning and
ruling as King of Kings and Lord of Lords until he comes back to earth visibly and personally to
judge both the living and the dead and establishes his eternal reign on earth in fellowship with
His people forever! We are saved by Faith in His name and by no other way! We are a Faith
people or to say it another way, we are a gospel people, a redeemed people, a holy people, a
people of the king. In other words, as Trent reminded us from our doctrinal statement, we are a
people who hold to:
• “The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died a substitutionary and
propitiatory death as the once for all sacrifice to God for our sins and overcame death by
rising again to life. This sacrifice satisfies the demands of God’s holy justice, appeases His
holy wrath, demonstrates His mysterious love, and reveals His amazing grace. This free
gift of salvation is provided by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone,
for the glory of God alone."
But our doctrinal statement goes on to say that we are also:
• We are a community of faith (that is to say, a Faith Community). That is, a group of
believers that have been saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. We are believers who
gather.
• And we gather to proclaim this glorious hope we call the gospel.
So we see that this Faith in Jesus Christ, this belief, this giving ourselves to the gospel that has
saved us leads us into community. And our goal this morning is to answer the question what is
a healthy church community? If we are going to identify as a community of Faith or again, Faith
Community, then what is a healthy church community?
This morning we are going to look to the book of Ephesians and the apostle Paul to help us
answer that question, so I’d invite you to turn to your bibles to Ephesians 4 and were going to
read verses 1-16 together. Let’s read this and see what the apostle Paul has to say to and about
a local church Faith Community. (Read passage)
This is in part a bit of a distinctives series and part of the purpose of this series is to get you
acquainted with who we are, what we believe, what our name actually means to us, what our
doctrinal statement says about us. Our doctrinal statement says this about what a church is:
• There is one universal Church, composed of all who in every time and place are chosen in
Christ and united to Him through faith by the Spirit in one Body with Christ Himself as the
all-sustaining and all-authoritative Head. We believe that the ultimate purpose of the
Church is to glorify God forever.
• It is God’s will that the universal Church find expression in local churches in which
believers gather to hear the Word of God proclaimed, to engage in corporate worship, to
baptize new believers, and partake in Lord’s Supper. Each member of the body is called
to exercise his/her spiritual gifts in building one another's faith by encouraging, loving,
exhorting, discipling one another, and engaging in evangelism of the lost. Key Texts:
Acts 1:8; 2:42; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Eph 2:19-22; Col 1:18; 3:16-17; Heb 10:23-25.
And these are the very things Paul helps lay out for us in our text this morning. He gives us the
ways in which a healthy church community ought to be defined, established, and maintained.
God’s blueprint for the church is beautiful. It reflects the very unity, diversity, and fellowship
that happens within the Trinity.
Recently we went through the book of Ephesians and saw God’s glorious plan of redemption on
display! In Ephesians 1 we see God’s eternal plan is “to bring unity to all things in heaven and
on earth under Christ” (1:10), so that “through this triumphant centerpiece called the church,
the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the
heavenly realms” (3:10 word for word). The church is a heavenly hope played out in an earthly
reality where congregations of God’s people continue gathering people from all nations under
the rule of Christ to share in his holiness.
So to summarize this thought, Ephesians 1–3 celebrates God’s eternal plan: to gather all things
in heaven and on earth together under Christ (chapter 1), through the death and resurrection
of Christ, which reconciles us to God and to each other (chapter 2), to manifest the triumphant
wisdom of his gospel mystery to the spiritual realms through his church (chapter 3).
So we come to chapter 4 and Paul explains how his readers and therefore how we must live as
a church or a COMMUNITY committed to gathering people under Christ. He does this by
outlining three basic principles for us in our text this morning and those are:
1. In Unity
2. Through Ministry
3. For Maturity
You see a healthy church community is going to reflect these things. They’ll be unified in the
gospel, promoting a using of gifts which we’re going to talk about here in a bit, for the
maturing, holiness, and purity of a church that glorifies God and looks like it’s head, Jesus
Christ.
We’ll start with this first principle, UNITY, here in verses 1-6 where Paul encourages his readers
to walk in manner worthy of the gospel. In other words, if you are a Faith Community then
you’ll walk like this. And in verse 2 he gives 3 attitudes crucial for accomplishing this type of
unity that supports a healthy church community, and 7 glorious motives for pursuing it.
The three attitudes necessary to nourish this sort of community are:
1. Humility
2. Gentleness
3. Patience.
If you’re truly eager to maintain a spirit of unity in the bond of peace as he says in verse 3, you’ll
only accomplish that by bearing with one another in love with all humility, gentleness, and
patience. And he’s saying that ought to be something that you are eager to do. That word eager
in the Greek means your zealous for this kind of unity, you hasten to see it happen. It’s not
passive, it’s active, it’s a verb it’s something you do. In other words, the eagerness leads to
action.
But if you’re like me, that feels like a tall order and can quickly become discouraging. You see
humility, gentleness, and kindness don’t come easy to us in our sin nature. We by nature are
the very opposite of these three attitudes. Instead of humble we are arrogant or self-interested
and promoting. Instead of gentle we’re harsh, brash, unkind, brutal, and even violent. And
instead of patient we are short fused, easily irritable, demanding, and rude. And there is not a
single one of us in this room this morning that escapes that indictment because that’s the
indictment levied against us from the Word of God. We just learned from 2 Timothy that people
apart from Christ in their natural state are lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant,
abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, and unholy. You might think to yourself, “Well I’m not really
like that. I don’t treat people like that on the outside or to their face at least. I actually tend to
be softer, less combative, even conflict averse.” And I wouldn’t deny you that. Certainly, some
are more predisposed to being softer than others by nature and therefore maybe more gentle
or patient and come off more humble. But there is this tricky little thing called the heart.
Remember, God told Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, “I don’t see as man sees, for man looks on the
outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.” I think we could prove that case if there
was a running tape of our head and heart that was accessible at any given moment. Perhaps at
rush hour on Eagle Rd, or Ustick rd, or Fairview, or in the In n out line, or in conflict with your
spouse or children, or simply in the deep recesses of our hearts and what we actually think of
people, and the list goes on and on. What’s on the inside of us IS what is true of us, in any given
moment.
But, I don’t want to leave you discouraged! You see a healthy church community is really a
supernatural community because Paul says it ought to be driven by an eager desire to maintain
unity through the very attitudes that we aren’t naturally geared or predisposed towards. Which
is why it is a Faith Community. Because, through Faith or through the gospel of Jesus Christ we
have obtained new natures. That is part of what takes place in the heart transplant of
regeneration, we get new life and therefore completely new natures. And with those new
natures comes new desires and therefore new ways of living! So it is possible to actually walk in
a manner worthy of the gospel with all humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with one
another and even eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace… BUT ONLY IN
UNION WITH CHRIST AND THEREFORE THROUGH THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT THAT RESIDES IN
YOU AS A RESULT OF RECEIVING THE GOSPEL, OR FAITH. We have 3 chapters of rich doctrine
saying this is not of your own doing it is a gift of God not of works so that you cannot boast.
That’s not only a power to save but a power to keep and sanctify and eventually complete good
work started in us and to bring us home to heaven.
So Paul, gives 7 motivations for the new natured man or women to encourage this kind of living
and they all begin with the word ONE:
1. One body
2. One Spirit
3. One hope
4. One Lord
5. One Faith
6. One baptism
7. One God and Father
Another way we could say it is we have one “Spirit” who’s called us into the one “body” of the
church (because this is who Paul is writing to, the gathered church or churches in Ephesus as he
says in chapter 1) through the one “hope” of eternal life in the gospel of Christ. One “Lord”,
Jesus, is proclaimed in the one gospel “faith” in Scripture, symbolized in our shared “baptism”
in the Holy Spirit when we were born again (represented in the ceremony of baptism that
symbolizes this cleansing in Christ). One “God and Father” who’s the origin, ruler and sustaining
presence of everything and everyone in the universe (one God and Father of all, who is over all,
and through all and in all).
Talk about a motivation! A new family to live with you, a spirit to live in you, a hope to preserve
you, a Lord who claims you, a faith that saves you, a baptism to identify you, and a God and
Father to love, lead, and encompass all of you! And all of this perfectly ordered in unity for the
glory of the triune God. Richard Coeken put it like this,
• Since God is himself a unity of persons who are different but equal and ordered in love
for each other, every church he gathers under Christ is to be a unity of different but equal
persons ordered in sacrificially loving roles, serving each other. How exciting to realize
that our church community reflects our Creator!
I heard this example one time that might help us solidify this point. In a sense, each local church
is like a symphony orchestra. The different musicians skillfully combine their talents to make
beautiful music. But imagine if the string section becomes competitive and starts showing off
by playing faster than everyone else, so the brass section gets aggressive and plays so loudly
that they totally dominate, and you can’t hear anyone else. Then the wind section gets so upset
with all the conflict that they stop playing entirely, and the percussion section overreacts and
starts throwing their drumsticks at the rest of the orchestra! Their music would sound dreadful,
and the conductor would have to rebuke them, or the audience would quickly leave.
Church, far too often, God’s people have been characterized by self-centeredness, sharp
tongues, and an appetite for conflict. People have left their local church never to return and the
glory of God gets eclipsed in the eye of those beholding this kind of community.
A fighting orchestra would surely be told: “Stop fighting—you’re incredibly privileged to have
been chosen and assembled in this orchestra to play Mozart so play nicely!” And the apostle
Paul wants to remind us: Stop arguing, stop living in disunity—you’re incredibly privileged to
have been chosen and gathered into your local church to co-operate in God’s stunningly
beautiful plan to gather people under Christ. So be humble, gentle and patient, and play nicely!
Would God give us the mercy to embody that kind of culture and the good news is that through
the gospel we can in UNITY.
So a healthy church community happens in unity and THROUGH MINISTRY which is the second
principle Paul draws out in verses 7-12. So Paul says one of the ways we preserve unity in the
bond of peace is through the gifts given to the church for the work of the ministry and those
gifts are the gifts of people who were Christ’s gift upon his glorious resurrection from the dead
and ascension into heaven. Look at verse 7 (read). What is the measure of Christ’s gift?
• Paul tells us back in Ephesians 1:18-22 and it’s the glorious inheritance in the saints,
immeasurable greatness and power (which just like that inheritance, is ours in Christ)
and all authority, power, and dominion, a name that is above every name, and
ultimately a redeemed people called the church whom he is head over for all time!
• Paul then quotes Psalm 68:18 in verse 8 and says that host of captives once enslaved to
sin are now his to enlist and repurpose back into kingdom work for the advance of the
gospel!
• He says the one that ascended to heaven ie Christ was also the one who descended as
Josiah talked about a few weeks ago from Philippians 2 to the earth and even to death
and the very hell that was God’s wrath at calvary (and as an aside there are a lot of
interpretations as to what Paul means here in terms of “lower regions” that we don’t
have time to get into this morning) but suffice it to say experienced the brutal and
hellish pain of that descending but didn’t stay dead or in that descended state, but
rather ascended far above all heavens, that he might fulfill all things!
• The check cleared, the payment paid in full, the sacrifice acceptable to God and Christ
the rightful head over the church and therefore it’s his gift to give, he earned it and he
alone!
• And that’s what he does, he received in order to give, and he earned in order to bestow.
And he gives the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, and the shepherd teachers in
order to equip the saints for the work of the ministry or in other words to see to it that
the priesthood of all believers was being exhorted and admonished to use their gifts.
o And we already see this at this point in time of the church. Christ gave the early
church apostles, 12 men plus Paul who were charter witnesses of Christ’s
resurrection and rendered life long and church wide authority over life and
doctrine, who penned the New Testament into cannon under the inspiration of
the Spirit of God.
o He gave prophets like Agubus in Acts 11 and Paul said in Ephesians 2:20 “That
the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”
o He gives evangelists like Philip designated in Acts 21:8
o And he gives teachers and shepherds or as we might understand it in this context
elders, or ministers of local congregations, overseers to shepherd the flock of
God among them as charged to them by the Holy Spirit himself.
• And why does he give the church these kind of people? Verse 12 answers that for us,
“To equip the saints for the work of the ministry and for the building up of the body of
Christ.” In other words these gifts to the church aren’t meant to be the only gifts of the
church, but rather gifts that keep on giving. The sequential nature of Paul’s line of
thought here seems to indicate that the immediate purpose of Christ’s gifts is the
ministry to be rendered by the entire flock. So, the church bodies ultimate purpose is
the building up of the body of Christ, the church. William Hendrickson in his
commentary on this passage says,
o Using our gifts is necessary, for when the church recognizes its unity and strives
more and more to preserve it, each member co-operating with all the others, the
gospel will move mightily forward among the nations, the church itself rejoice,
Satan tremble, and the name of God be glorified.
• That’s a pretty epic picture but I don’t think Christ died for anything less glorious than
that. He goes on to say:
o And what’s more, is that this unity makes allowance for diversity of gifts among
the many members of the one body. In fact, this very diversity, far from
destroying the unity, will, if properly used, promote it.
• Listen, Paul the apostle is his own best commentary on this in 1 Corinthians 12. Listen to
what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:4-7:
o “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of
service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the
same God who empowers them all in everyone.7 To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
• I think one man summed it up really well when he said,
o “the real comfort and glorious lesson for everyone must ever be: I have received
my gift, be it great or small, from Christ himself. I must use it, therefore, as he
requires. The giver will not fail me when I use my gift for the benefit of all as He
intended.”
Now, there is a lot we could say about the types of gifts and how they are distributed, and what
their purpose is, and on and on. Paul certainly spends A LOT of time correcting people that have
a distorted or disorderly view and function of their gift. I mean isn’t it so much like us as
humans to take our gift and make it about us. But we aren’t going to get into all of that unless
you want me to take us until 4 pm which I’m assuming you don’t.
But I would like to address one thing I feel like the Lord has put on my heart as it pertains to
serving and using your gift in this local body and I have a few examples I’d love to share. Often,
when the question comes, how can I get involved here at this local church I’m afraid we’re
misinterpreting the nature of the question. What I’ve grown to understand is what’s often
meant by that is, “How do I get involved in formal ministries of the church organization.” That’s
not a bad question! We need musicians who love Christ to serve skillfully and sincerely to lead
our body in sung worship every Sunday. We need children’s ministry volunteers and Sunday
School teachers to give our students the nourishment of the Word and gospel in tandem with
you as their parent’s week in and week out. We need ushers and greeters to serve our body
with the gift of hospitality, we need people to help with women’s ministries and men’s
ministries events and studies and programs, we need life group leaders to lead life groups and
offer shepherding care that way, we need people gifted with helping those under intense
suffering or sin to help provide Biblical counseling in our counseling ministry. Church, the list
goes on and on, but there are a lot of us here. I’d say there are more of us than there are formal
needs of FCBC. So what if by some miracle every formal need was met and the body was
helping the church to meet it’s needs functionally on a week to week basis. Does ministry
opportunity or our call to use our gifts stop? Do the needs stop? NO, and that’s because the gift
of Christ isn’t the building, the programs, the scheduled ministries that are really good things,
the gift of Christ IS PEOPLE. PEOPLE ARE THE CHURCH and PEOPLE ARE HER GIFT from Christ
who purchased that gift, ransomed that gift, redeemed that gift to give back to the church! So
you might come here, attend here, heck even serve in one of the formal ministries I just listed
and not be doing the actual work of the ministry because the actual work of the ministry results
in the building up of the body in love. So, here’s a really helpful and vulnerable question as it
pertains to your meaningful involvement at FCBC, who do you know and who knows you!?
Listen we were meant to be covenanted together in union with Christ and therefore in union
with one another. Brother sister you are responsible one to another just as I am responsible to
you as one of your elders and pastors. I know I’ve said stuff like this before, but if you want to
do something meaningful for the church, you want to be meaningfully involved in serving the
church and using your gift, be a Christian and therefore thoroughly invested into the building up
of one another in love. Let me give some practical examples of how I see this happening in our
church in ways you may not even be aware of:
• Andy book studies, Abrie Church incredibly gifted musician who started this ministry
called BTB scripture memory to song, Mitchell’s adoption support, other foster care
support groups, worship nights hosted by the Steins, people committing to get together
and pray once a week, study God’s Word once a week, and so many other things.
• Listen, instead of asking yourself how am I being used at FCBC in a formal sense, start by
asking yourself whose life am I meaningfully involved in and who’s meaningfully
involved in mine?
• Listen serving the church in a formal way is a glorious thing and we need all the help we
can get but ministry is so much more than that.
And this is what is so beautiful about the local church. All of these types of one another’s
happen within a group of believers called a local church a gathered expression of God’s
universally gathered church, a microcosm of what he intends for all eternity.
And what happens when we are committed to walking in unity, using our gifts through ministry,
it results in our 3rd and final principle OUR MATURITY. Look with me briefly at verses 13-16
(read).
Church what’s the goal of Christ in our lives from beginning to end? Christlikeness. Looking like
Jesus. Becoming like the one we love and behold. He is shaping and fashioning us into his
likeness so that we can live with him for eternity and one day he’ll complete that work he
began in us for even when we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot and will not deny
himself. I love how Greg Gilbert puts it in his book “What is The Gospel” when he says:
• "Do you want to see what the kingdom of God looks like, at least before it is made
perfect? Do you want to see the life of the kingdom lived out in this age? Look at the
church. That's where God's wisdom is displayed, where people who were formerly
alienated are reconciled and united because of Jesus, and where God's Holy Spirit is at
work remaking and rebuilding human lives. It's where God's people learn to love one
another, to bear one another's burdens and sorrow, to weep together and rejoice
together, and to hold one another accountable. Of course it's not perfect, but the church
is where the life of the kingdom is lived and showcased to a world desperately in need of
salvation."
What does a healthy church community look like? Well quite simply, Jesus. A Faith Community
is a people committed to one another’s maturity, to see one another look like Jesus, so that we
can build each other up in love, maintaining unity, though the gift of the church and ministry,
for maturity because we actually think the lamb is worth the reward of His suffering. He is
certainly worth this community called Faith Community Bible Church.