Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20130505.htm

THE PRISON EPISTLES: NURTURE FOR OPPRESSED BELIEVERS
I. Ephesians: Nurture In Living Focused On God's Eternal Purpose For Christians
C. Nurture In Applying The Believer's Positional Truth To Life And Ministry
2. Nurture In Ministering Effectively To Fellow Believers In The Local Church
(Ephesians 4:7-16)
  1. Introduction
    1. When Paul wrote the "Prison Epistles" of Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon, the fact that he was in prison troubled believers, Philippians 1:12-13; Colossians 2:1-2; 4:7-8 and Philemon 22; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672, "Introduction to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians."
    2. To nurture his readers, Paul urged them to apply their edifying positional truths in Christ to how they related to one another, and one area was that of effective service with the use of spiritual gifts.
    3. We view this instruction for our edification as a local body of believers (as follows):
  2. Nurture In Ministering Effectively To Fellow Believers In The Local Church, Ephesians 4:7-16.
    1. Jesus revealed in John 15:5 that one's efforts to minister on the spiritual plane even in a local church setting would be futile if he were to rely on his innate natural abilities.
    2. Thus, to be effective, God directs us to use the spiritual gifts for service He has given us, 2 Timothy 1:6-7, and the doctrinal and practical outline of that program is clarified in Ephesians 4:7-16 as follows:
      1. Doctrinally, in Christ, God has gifted every one of us believers with a supernatural spiritual enabling known as a "spiritual gift" that we might effectively spiritually edify other believers, Ephesians 4:7.
      2. This gift has been given "as Christ apportioned it" (NIV) (metron = measure), or as Christ was pleased to measure it out, so each believer is to function in the realm of his gift in God's will, not outside of it, fitting into God's assignment for him in the local church, Eph. 4:7; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 634.
      3. This provision of gifts was doctrinally provided through Christ's great work on the cross, Eph. 4:8-10:
        1. Alluding to Psalm 68:18, Paul taught that when Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth, referring to His death and burial, He wrought victory over sin and Satan's realm, Eph. 4:9; Ibid. [Some have taught that Ephesians 4:9 meant Christ descended to Hades at His death, but on the Cross He finished His atonement at His death where He said, "It is finished" (John 19:30) and then He went to Paradise (Luke 23:43). Thus, the phrase "into the lower parts which belong to the earth" in Ephesians 4:9 is a genitive of possession, and refers to Christ's death and burial, Ibid.]
        2. Then, upon rising from the dead and ascending to the heavens, Jesus Christ as our Great Victor gave spiritual spoils of victory to us believers in the form of spiritual gifts for service, Eph. 4:8, 10; Ibid.
      4. However, the application of these spiritual gifts is set in a two-stage process, Ephesians 4:11-12:
        1. First, God has provided "starter-type" gifts (to coin a word!) in the form of apostles [Early Church], prophets [Early Church], evangelists [today] and pastor-teachers [today] (one article for poimen, "shepherd, pastor" and for didaskalos, "teacher" (Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 691, 190-191; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 672), Ephesians 4:11.
        2. These "starter-type" gifts that today comprise (1) evangelists who lead people to Christ and (2) pastor-teachers who both spiritually lead and also feed local churches God's Biblical truths via Bible exposition, are to function toward preparing the rest of the gifted believers in the body in turn to perform the work of the ministry of the local church as they use their gifts of service, Eph. 4:12.
        3. The goal of these "starter-type" gifts is to equip the rest of the body to unify on the true doctrines and practical knowledge of the Son of God so they can grow in unity in Christ, no longer tossed about by errant teachings by crafty, false teachers, but to speak the truth in love, Ephesians 4:13-15.
        4. Second, once that maturity occurs in the rest of the body, all individual believers in the body then function in spiritually edifying ways, with every believer building up every other believer with his spiritual gift in God's power to the edification of the whole local church body, Ephesians 4:16.
Lesson: God has positionally given every believer a spiritual gift for service that, if used Biblically, will cause him to minister effectively in using that gift spiritually to edify other believers in the local church.

Application: To be effective, may each believer rely on God and His gift to obey Him in his calling.