One Focus Love

One Focus Love

Ephesians 4: 11 – 16.

Introduction

Over the past couple of Sundays, I have been introducing you to One Focus.  Hopefully you have seen the banners throughout the church and have noticed the art work and inserts in the Sunday morning bulletins.  One Focus is an evangelism and outreach initiative.  It is something we want all of our church members to be a part of.

One Focus is based on a very simple concept.  We are asking each of our church members to find one person to focus on for the next year.  We want you to ask God to lead you to one person in your day to day life who (as far as you know) is not a Christian or not affiliated with any church.  We want you to pray for this person, to love this person, to serve this person, and to invite this person to a service or event at our church.  Over the next twelve months, our church staff will plan special events to share the Gospel and introduce your one person to our church.

If you have been in church over the past few weeks (or if you have read my article in the church newsletter or if you have read the letter I sent out to all of our church members this week), then you have already heard me talk about One Focus.  And, you have heard me challenge you to pray for one person, to love one person, to serve one person, and to invite one person.  But, I got an interesting question this past week.  One of our church members asked me, “Why do you want us to invite people to come to church to hear the Gospel?  Do you not want us to share the Gospel on our own?”

I have two answers for this question.  First, of course I want you to share the Gospel with your friends.  And, over the next year, I am going to do my best to provide you with the training and resources to help you express your faith by telling other people about Jesus.  Second, in my experience many people feel intimidated by sharing the Gospel with others.  Some people think they do not have the education and training to talk about faith with others.  Some people think they have been disqualified by their previous sins.  And some think they are inadequate to talk about Jesus because they continue to struggle with sin.  One way to deal with these excuses is to provide you with another way to share the Gospel with others.

I want each of us to develop a lifestyle of sharing your faith with others.  However, I don’t think this is something we can change overnight.  If it is a lifestyle, then it is something we develop over time.  Inviting others to church can be a good first step to developing a lifestyle of telling others about Jesus and talking about your faith.

Actually, the first step is for each of us to commit to participate in One Focus.  Next Sunday will be One Focus Commitment Sunday, and I need your help.  Hopefully, it is obvious that I need each of you to commit to be a part of One Focus.  And, if we want to get every church member involved in One Focus, then it is important that we have all our church members here on Commitment Sunday.

This is how you can help with One Focus.  First, be here next Sunday and make a commitment to participate.  Second, reach out to every member of your Sunday School classes and departments.  We need everyone here.  Third, pray for One Focus and for God to use each of us to reach non-Christians and unchurched people in our lives.  (Cindy Ramsey committed to serve as our One Focus Prayer Coordinator.  Before she passed away to be with the Lord in Heaven, Cindy inspired us in our first couple of One Focus meetings and wrote out a helpful prayer guide for us to use in our daily prayers.  I can’t help but think One Focus will be one of the many spiritual legacies she leaves with us.)

Our Scripture this morning comes from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches of Ephesus.  In this passage Paul tells us how important it is for the church to live in unity and how important it is for every member to strive to become more like Jesus.

Ephesians 4: 11 – 16.

      11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 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.

This is one of the three places in the New Testament where Paul writes about spiritual gifts.  But, this one is a little bit different from the other two.

In Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks about how the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all individual Christians.  Each Christian is gifted differently, and we bring our gifts together within the church.  The church is the Body of Christ and functions like the human body.  There are many different parts of the human body.  A human body is healthy as long as every different part of the body functions properly within the body.  The same thing is true for the church / the Body of Christ.  We need every individual member to exercise his or her gift to build up the Body and to reach out to the world around us.

Ephesians 4 makes a similar point about unity, but Paul comes at it from a different angle.  In this passage, he does not speak about the spiritual gifts given to individual Christians.  Instead, he speaks about spiritual gifts given to the church / the community / the Body of Christ.  God gives every church four gifts: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists and Pastor-Teachers.

(Some people have tried to say Paul describes five spiritual gifts.  But the NIV translation shows us that it is actually only four.  Notice the repetition of the phrase “some to be.”  This phrase is used four times to indicate the four gifts…Some to be apostles…Some to be prophets…Some to be evangelists…Some to be pastors and teachers…)

There are three important points to notice about these four gifts.

First, all four of these gifts are actually people.  “Apostle” can refer to the first twelve disciples who lived with Jesus.  Or, it can refer to anyone who has been sent.  We can think of this as the role of modern day missionaries who are sent around the world.  Or, we can think of people who plant modern day churches.  “Prophet” makes us think of someone with the ability to predict the future.  However, Paul described this gift as an ongoing ministry for Christian churches and more than likely drew his usage from his Jewish background.  In the Old Testament, there were times when prophets predicted the future.  But, most of the time they simply spoke God’s Word to God’s people.  This is the ministry of preaching and probably has something to do with the early preaching ministry in founding a Christian church.  “Evangelist” is someone who shares the Gospel / Good News.  We typically think of evangelists as serving in itinerate ministry, and it might refer to the work of winning new converts and establishing them into new churches.  “Pastor-Teacher” is the one does the ongoing work of teaching and nurturing the church.

Second, all four of these gifts are grounded in the Word of God.  Apostles are sent to establish the Word of God in new areas.  Prophets and evangelists help new churches to grow by declaring the Word of God to non-Christians and new Christians.  Pastors help churches to grow and nurture the believers through teaching the Word of God.

Third, all four of these gifts have one goal in mind…to equip the church members to do the work of ministry. 

Priesthood of All Believers

Notice that Paul says God gives ministers to the church.  But, notice that he does not tell the church to expect the ministers to do all the work.  In fact, Paul says just the opposite.  God gives ministers to the church so that the ministers can equip church members to do works of ministry and service.

This is one of the Scriptures we Baptists use to define our cherished doctrine of Priesthood of All Believers.  On one hand, we believe in Priesthood of All Believers, because we believe Jesus gives us equal access to God.  We do not need a class of priests to tell us what God’s Word says, and we do not need someone to take our prayers to God on our behalf.  Because of Jesus, we can hear from God and speak to God for ourselves.  On the other hand, we believe in Priesthood of All Believers, because God has called each of us to serve.

Paul explicitly tells us that all Christians are to be engaged in some kind of ministry.  We can see this in the NIV translation “works of service.”  But, it actually shows up better in the Greek of Ephesians 4: 12 which uses the word for “deacon,” literally saying all God’s people are to do the “works of deaconing.” 

I believe this is one of the reasons why Paul was so fond of speaking of the church as the Body of Christ.  Just as there are many different parts of the human body, there are many different members in the church.  Just as body parts have different functions, each church member has been gifted to do something different. 

There are no two members of this church who are exactly alike.  We each have different talents.  We each have different spiritual gifts.  We each have different passions.  We each have different experiences.  AND, we each have different relationships outside of the church.

This is what will make One Focus a successful ministry.  We are not expecting our ministerial staff to do all the work of evangelism and outreach.  Instead, we are equipping our individual church members to pray for and reach out to people outside of our church.  Also, we are asking for you to help our church reach out by finding people only you can reach.  There are people in your life that I do not know…  There is someone in your life that only you can reach, because you already have a relationship with them.

If God expected the ministers of our church to do all the work of evangelism and outreach, there would be people in Lufkin, Texas who would be unreachable.  But, if everyone in our church accepts God’s calling to do ministry, then we can reach every person in this town.

Maturity = Becoming like Jesus

Paul teaches us that God has given ministers to each church in order to equip the church members to do the work of ministry.  The work of ministry is bigger than just one person / one pastor / one minister.  Successful ministry involves the whole church.

Then, Paul closes this passage by describing what the church is supposed to look like.  When every member serves in ministry, the result is a unified church made up of mature Christians. 

I believe we need to take seriously the connection between serving and unity and the connection between serving and maturity.

Do you want our church to be a unified church?  Get busy doing the work of ministry and service.

Do you want to be a mature Christian?  Get busy doing the work of ministry and service.

God did not call us to be lazy Christians.  God did not call us to be a lazy church.  God called us to be members of a Body that does something…And to use our individual gifts to make sure the Body will be successful.

Ultimately, God has called us to be like Jesus.  This is what mature Christians look like…As Paul said in Ephesians 4: 13, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

God has given us his Spirit to mold our lives into the image of Jesus.  Day by day, God is making us more like the character of Jesus…Humility in every relationship… Compassion for those in need…  Knowing God’s Word and will…  But, God also gives us the power to live as Jesus lived.  Not only adopting the character of Jesus but also the actions of Jesus… Loving service to all people… Leading people into relationship with God through our words and our actions…

Conclusion

This is how you can participate in One Focus.  Love and serve others the way we read about Jesus’ love and service in the New Testament.

Christlike love is more than liking someone or even having respect for.  Christlike love is meeting the needs of other people in your life.

Sometimes God may give you an opportunity to meet a great need in someone’s life, like in a crisis situation.  Most of the time, God will give you many small opportunities.  Be a true friend to someone by supporting them during a difficult time in their life.  Write an encouraging note to someone.  Lend a listening ear or a helping hand to someone in need.

By showing the love of Christ to other people, you can be a witness in their life.