Christ's Gift, Eph, 4:7-10

Ephesians 4 7 through 10. As we go through this, I'd like to congratulate you on arriving with me at one of the most difficult passages in the book of Ephesians. It's one about which there are the greatest variety of interpretations. Guess what? Most of them are not correct. Okay. And so we want to take a look at this morning. What exactly was Paul intending to say and why? And we'll examine that after the sirens get done. Okay.

As we've been going through the book of Ephesians, just to kind of get ourselves reoriented here, Ephesians chapters 1 through 3 have been telling us principally about our position in Christ. It's been focused on that and not on a lot of telling us, you know, do this, don't do that, stop doing this and begin doing that, right? It's been telling us repeatedly in this section of scripture our position.

It's been telling us from the very start that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, and then enumerating and explaining those blessings. We've also been seeing here, in chapter 3 in particular, about God's eternal purpose. And that purpose, as you see on the first page of your handout as well, is that God be His glory be declared and revealed, that He share His glory with us, And finally, that he be glorified, those four points. And so we saw those standing out boldly in chapter three. Now, so where are we at this point?

And as we entered chapter four, Paul was focusing on the character of the church, a little different perspective, because many of the things before were talking about Paul himself. We're talking about Christ and his blessings. Remember, we've seen up to this point seven times where the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned in the book of Ephesians. And now we see a focus upon the Church.

Now, the Church, as Paul has made clear, is what it is because of who God is, His very character. It's founded in who He is and what God has done, God's accomplishments. And much of what we look at as our position in Christ has been described here. And what is it? But God's accomplishment. It's not because of what we've done. It's not because of what we've earned. And contrary to all the advertisements you hear, it's not because of what you deserve. Okay? It's a blessing. It is grace far above anything deserved.

The Church is defined specifically, as we've seen, by who Christ is and what He has done. That's the focal point in what we've seen today. The church is not just an organization. We can't just post an organizational chart here. As we've got here, we've got the church board senior pastor, two junior pastors, give them whatever name you want.

And then we've got the passive people, persistently pestered, paying to be pestered paternalistically. All right. That's not what God had in mind. Okay? Now, what we see God does have in mind and has been spelled out in Ephesians and in Colossians, and He's not done, chapter 4 and chapter 5, are going to continue it. Aren't you glad you don't have to be passive people?

Instead, what we see is the relationship between Christ and the church. That's what's spelled out. That's what's clear. So important a point that he doesn't just lay it down and leave it, but continues to explain it. And we'll see it in this chapter, additionally, and additionally in chapter 5 as we go through it.

Christ is the head. The church is the body. The church is not. this organizational chart, but the church is a living organism, very dynamic, and as we go through the passage on in through verse 16, we're going to see a very living body, not a static body, not a dead body, not a human organization, but the body of Christ, living, active, dynamic, an organism. Now, let's take a look at the big picture.

This is a picture that will be helpful for us to get. We've covered verses 1-6. We're going to address verses 7-10 this morning, and then 11-16 we're going to break into two parts. But this is the big picture sweep in that passage, and it goes like this. In chapter 4, verses 1-6, there will be an appeal for our condition, that is our daily condition, and I tend to like to to describe it that way. Daily condition, eternal position, so that it gives people a time perspective. Appeal for our daily condition, based on our singular eternal position in the Lord. That's what he founds it upon. Notice in this passage the focus is on unity.

Then as we get into chapter 4, 7 through 10, we will see Christ's actions, singularly, that then give us a diversity of gifts among believers. He'll continue to explain that as we get into chapter 4, verses 11 through 16, and he begins to explain how the diversity of gifts still works as one body.

So we see position not as some sort of a hypothetical thing that we say, that's awful nice, but I'm not quite sure what it means, Instead of that, we see it as a practical reality. How does the One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism work out in practical reality? What does that look like in the actual living, dynamic organism called the Body of Christ? What does that look like?

That's what he's going to explain, and he's going to be very explicit. We're not going to have any doubt when he's done. Now, as we get into this passage here, We're going to divide it in two parts for the sake of being able to get everything on the screen. And as we look at the first verses, 7 and 8, something I'd like to draw to your attention. You have this chart here that is in the lower half of your first page.

And this explains the spiritual gifts, at least shows where they're listed. The spiritual gifts that are active during the apostolic year, that is during the New Testament era, and those that we call church age gifts, they were also active then. What has taken place is that the apostolic era gifts, which had a purpose for a time, have ended.

Now, because I can't possibly begin to explain all that here this morning, but I do want you to have a good resource. On the cabinet to the right, there is a stack, it may have gotten a little shorter, but a stack of legal size sheets that look like this. No, I don't expect you to read this. Legal size sheets that give a great deal of explanation about spiritual gifts, both those that are present now in the church, as well as those that were present during the apostolic era.

Feel free to take hold of those. If perchance we run out, let me know. I want to be sure that you have at least the opportunity to have those. If you have taken the church history Of course, you likely already have them, and in that case it's an even larger sheet that's folded out. Nonetheless, I would like you to have at least the opportunity to have this if you'd like it. Let's take a look at it.

What Paul's going to do is here, he's going to get us ready for verse 11. So verses 7-10 is all about getting us ready for verse 11, because verses 11 is getting us ready for verses 12-16. So get ready. Now, as we look at that, we are accustomed to thinking, and you'll see on the chart that's on page 1, we're accustomed to thinking we've got all these spiritual gifts and it is the Holy Spirit who gives them. What Paul's going to tell us here in chapter 4 of Ephesians is something a little different. And at first you might be a little puzzled, scratching your head about it. It is true that the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts, but the point that he makes here It is what Christ has accomplished that is the originating giver of the gifts.

Let's take, for example, I want to give a gift to John, John Doyle. And so I come with a package to Mike, and I say, Mike, would you please give this to John? I'm giving the gift, but when it comes time to actually give it, Mike would be the one presenting it to him. Of course, I didn't tell him it was a junior atomic bomb kit, but that's beside the point.

So that's the point. The Lord Jesus is the one who gives. It is the Holy Spirit who does the final giving and actually distributes as He wills. That's the truth that we see in 1 Corinthians 12. So, the spiritual gifts are given by Christ by His action. We've been identified with Him. It is what Christ accomplished in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. that is the originating power and energy of those gifts, and it is the Holy Spirit who does the practical giving, just as Mike gave John the junior atomic bomb kit. He does the practical giving of these gifts and wills their distribution to each believer.

So let's get into the passage, and the first point that Paul makes here, but to each one of us, Now, he's turned a corner here, hasn't he? The first part of the chapter, what has he talked about? One Lord, one faith, one baptism, seven ones as we saw as we looked at the passage, all the focus on unity, right? Now he is turning a corner as he looks at this particular part of the passage and he says, all right, we have a oneness. That oneness is unequivocal. That oneness is certainly there.

At the same time, there is a diversity. and nobody in the body of Christ is left out. It isn't like, hey, you know, we've got these gifted people here over in the corner, and we kind of keep track of those folks, and the rest of them, sorry. No. He says everyone, to each one, is given a gift. Now, the phrase isn't some fancy Greek, there isn't some grammatically complex thing that provides some great insight, but it is still a phenomenal passage in this way.

These words are profound because every single believer is included. If you are a believer here this morning, you're included. Paul's talking about you. Now, does Paul really mean each one? I mean, does he really, really, really mean it? Yes. We turn to 1 Corinthians 12, 7. What did he say?

To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. He's not done. Later on in chapter 12, a few verses later, distributing to each one individually as he wills. The point being, every single believer is given a gift or gifts by the Holy Spirit's will, but Christ is the original giver. Why? Because of your identification with him, because you've been saved by him and by his action. The Holy Spirit is the instrument of the distribution of those gifts that come from Christ the giver.

All right, as we look at this, this grace was given, okay? Certainly there are a great many places in Scripture where we see grace explicitly talking about God's grace, that is, God's gifting beyond what we deserve. And while that's true, this particular phrase and one of the patterns that you may have noticed and I'll take note of here, if I put letters up in green, it means I've added them. after you've had your handout printed. So if you want to write, go ahead. Alright.

Compare to Ephesians 3, 7, and 8, where Paul says of his apostleship that a grace was given. What is his apostleship? A gift. A spiritual gift. It's a grace given. He uses that same phrase here when he gets to chapter 4, just one chapter later, and you'll see a pattern begin to emerge. He says, I was an apostle and this grace was given to me. to preach to the Gentiles. But I wasn't the only one. To each one, this grace was given. A grace was given. You are not an apostle. I'm not an apostle. Paul was given the gift of apostleship. A grace was given.

You and I have another giftedness. Each one. And that's his point. Each and every one. Before, a chapter earlier, he said, I was given a particular gift. This grace was given. Now, he's turning to the rest of the body and saying, you have received this grace. This grace was given.

According to the measure of Christ's gift. Remember, according to means consistent with and as measured by. The magnitude of Christ's gift. It is Christ's gift that is the origin. It is Christ's gift that is the standard of this gifting. It's completely by grace. It's massive in magnitude. The giftedness that he has here is for each and every believer. It is profound. One person may have a giftedness that is very visible and high-profile. Another may have a giftedness that is less visible. It is equally important.

Now, as we look at this, So what does Paul mean by the gift of Christ? Well, guess what? He's about to tell us. That's what the next verses are, okay? So, therefore it says, or wherefore he saith in the King James, so what does he mean by it, or he, as we see in this passage? Well, it goes like this. In the scripture, and especially in the New Testament where they're quoting the Old Testament, we'll often see something like It says, or he says, or even somewhere it says.

And you wonder, why don't they just give chapter and verse? Well, they didn't have it. Chapters were put in around the year 1200. Verses were put in around the middle 1500s. And so they didn't have chapter and verse. So you'll see frequent reference in the New Testament, 260 times the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, to these kinds of phrases. Paul is going to use this phrase again later on, as we'll see in 5.4. Okay, these are added later. Now, one of the insights comes out of a custom, and what we're seeing referenced to in the verses ahead here are from this custom.

In the Roman times and for centuries before, the pattern was victorious generals would take some of the captives, they would take some of the spoils, and bring them into their victory procession as they proceeded back home. And everybody said, oh, this is great, this is wonderful, you guys won. And so this victory procession of the general, as he would have all these soldiers and captives and captured things, booty, loot, whatever, the spoils, those would be a part of the victory procession.

This is a picture that Paul is using, but he's using it differently, as we'll see here shortly. Let's take it for instance, a few decades after this, the Romans would, it's only a couple decades, the Romans would defeat Jerusalem. They brought back 700 Jews and some of the temple treasures to parade through Rome to say, see, we did great.

Now, so here's what we see. We see when he ascended on high, he led captive, a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. Now, one of the things that some folks have noticed is this verse is similar to, not identical to, but similar to Psalm 68, 18. So if we compare those verses, one of the things that we note They say yeah, it's similar, but there's a couple of primary differences some other minor ones, but primary you has changed to he and Gave is instead received so that's caused a lot of folks to kind of scratch their heads and say all doing here well If we compare all of psalm 68 to Ephesians 4 8 we begin to see that what Paul is doing is summarizing and you can see for yourself see I Okay, guess what? I'll let you look that up later. I don't really expect you to see this. Okay, let's put it this way.

Ephesians 4.8 summarizes Psalm 68, but it applies it to Christ giving gifts to the church. That was not anticipated in Psalm 68. The Psalms do not anticipate, do not include, and have no reference directly to the church. Paul is summarizing that chapter and making application to the church.

Can he do that? Yeah, he's an apostle. I'm not, I can't. But he can. So we see this, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. You say, that's fine, Vern. What does it mean? Well, Paul was really hoping you'd ask that question. He really was. He just was hoping you would ask that question. So, I'm glad you thought of it.

All right. So, what he does is he goes on to verses 9 and 10 and he explains it. See? So now you have the explanation, right? Aren't you happy? All right. Well, that's fine, Vern, but what does the explanation mean? Now, wait a minute. You want me to explain the explanation? Okay. Okay.

Christ ascended And you notice there's two parts that have ascended, one part in verse 9 and also in verse 10. Christ ascended, and the literal occurrence of that took place described in Acts 1, 9 through 11, as the folks in the Acts elective have seen some weeks back. We were identified with him in his ascension, okay? That's mentioned here twice, and Paul has made note here in Ephesians and elsewhere that we've been identified with him in his ascension. He uses the phrase here, it's translated far above the heavens. Now there's a phrase that comes out of the Old Testament where they would say the highest heaven or the heaven of heavens.

And it's because they're in the kind of the Jewish view of things, three heavens. The one is the heavens in our atmosphere where the birds fly and the clouds drift around and things of that sort. That's where tornadoes come from and hail and all that wonderful stuff. There's also the heaven above that, which goes all the way out to the distant galaxies. This is the one above that, the highest heaven, far above the lower heavens, into the highest heaven, the heaven of heavens.

Then, the other part of it, he also had descended to the lower parts of the earth, he who descended. So there's reference to ascension, and now descending. Now, what Paul makes reference to here, if there is an ascension, it implies, well, there must've been a descension, right? If he ascended, then somehow I must've gotten there to ascend, right? And so it implies that he also descended. Now, that's where we run into some head-scratchers. That still leaves a question. What does descended mean? Hmm. Does it mean just to the earth? Does it mean to die on the cross? Does it mean into the grave? Does it mean into hell? So, we need to think this one through. I would ask that you consider this.

This Greek word for descended is used about 80 times in the New Testament. Never is it used to describe Christ or even the angels descending into hell. exception, if you will, but it still isn't referenced to Christ and the angels, and that's to the citizens of Capernaum who are described as descending into Hades, the place of the dead. But still, the predominant evidence here doesn't point to Christ descending, or even the angels descending into hell.

The other thing here, it's used a number of times in verses that describe Christ or the angels descending and ascending, and descending to the earth, as in John 3.13. You can look at a couple other verses that are listed there. Think also about this. What did Christ say to the thief on the cross next to him?

Did he say he was going to go to hell? You're going to come to hell with me for the next three days. Sorry, it's going to be a rough ride, but you'll come out all right. No. Today, you will be with me in paradise. I submit to you that paradise is not hell. Think also of this. Jesus, very near death, says this, to the Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Notice the green lettering there, clue, clue, clue. I won't go into it now, but you're certainly welcome to do so.

Philippians 2, 5-8. gives an ascending and descending description, no mention of going into hell in the midst of that. So, coming down to earth to do what he did in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding is what's anticipated in this verse, and not hell. I don't believe hell is in the description here.

Why do I bring that up? It's because there are Folks that do get into almost a mythology about that. There have even been some acting that's done and even put into movies about Jesus being tortured by Satan down in hell and he gets to tease him and poke at him and take his trident and stab him and things like that. Incredible mythology that came out later.

Okay. Now the lower parts of the earth. This isn't a reference to hell or Hades, I would say. but to the earth itself, including being buried in the earth, in which we're identified with Christ. It has, in that sense, here's the green again, carries the meaning of the lower parts, comma, the earth. Not like there's some really low, low, low, way down part that's actually the underworld.

Ah, you might say, but wait! Wait, Vern! Hey! Hold on. I won't honk there, you folks won't care for that. Okay. Doesn't the Apostles' Creed say that Christ descended into hell? Ah, now you got him. We've got Vern here. Okay, maybe not. Yes, it does. All right, it does.

But it wasn't in this form until about 750 AD. Did the Apostles write the Apostles' Creed? No. Did they know anything about it? No. Generations had gone by before it actually was in the form that we see now. The first form that it came in was in a cult group that was rejected by the church. And so there was that aspect of it. The other part, it was translated from Greek to Latin to English. And in the original Greek, it's not hell, but the place of the dead. So it's a combination of a later development that the apostles never knew about. And also, I would say somewhat of a mistranslation from the Greek into Latin and into English.

Okay, then there is a so that. You know, Paul loves so that's. You know that. Alright, so that we can read this. So that he might fill all things. Now we need to look at that. Christ is the first of the new creation and we are of the new creation. Here are several passages, Romans, Colossians, Galatians, that make that point. Christ is the first of the new creation the source of it, the firstborn. And we are of the new creation.

Why? Because we've been identified with him. We have his history and not our own. That's good. When this world's all through, all these things, I'm glad we've got this place. I'm glad we've got deacons to take care of things. I'm glad we can stay in here this morning and the microphone works and we've got projectors and the floor doesn't collapse and things like that. That's wonderful.

But in truth, there will be a day come when all this is gone. It disappears. And if your body is like mine, you'll be glad it's gone. Anyway, Christ will fill all of the new creation. He is the source of it. He will fill all of it. The new creation is all because of Christ. And what He accomplished at that one point in history, at that one point in time, in the old creation, it began the new.

Let's take a look at this. This is the Ephesians 4, 7-10, expanded and explained. And you also have this in your handout. I'm going to let you know. There's a little bit of green in here. I added to it, so I'll need to explain the explanation. Oh boy. Okay, here we go.

But to each one of us in the church, grace was freely given, that's the spiritual gift, according to the measure which Christ does the giving. He gives big. Therefore, as Psalm 68, 18 communicates, and is further expanded in the rest of the chapter, as adapted by Paul for this context, when Christ ascended to the heights of the heavens, he led a host of captives, and here's where I've got an extra note. These notes here indicate that the host of captives is not grabbing Satan and his demons and hauling them up to heaven.

It's us. We were slaves of sin. We were held captive, as Galatians puts it. Captive as slaves of sin. And now, what happens instead? We're now slaves of righteousness. Captives transformed. Transformed and transferred, that's the Colossians 113 passage, transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. He led a host of captives, and Christ gave spiritual gifts to those in the church who were part of his victory train.

That's us. How about that? Hey folks, you're captives, and I'm going to parade you through the streets of heaven, and then I'm going to have you seated next to me. Oh, and by the way, that's positionally. But I'm going to give you gifts. So these spoils you see here, it's for you. Those are gifts for you. Verse 9.

Now in Psalm 68, it says that he ascended into his rightful place in heaven. What does it mean except that logically he had also condescended to the earth? That's the Philippians 2, 5-8 message there. Even to the point of death on the cross and burial beneath the surface of it? Christ, the one who descended, is himself also the one who ascended to the highest place in the heavenlies by the Father's exaltation.

The Father did it so that he might be the one who in the course of time fills all things unto the new creation. The new creation is Christ's doing. As we were identified with him, we're included in it and brought in it. All things, every one of us. We're sitting here this morning in these bodies that we won't have forever. But he said, no, You'll be a part of the new creation forever in different bodies. And boy, am I glad for that. This is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

He's telling us all the things that are going on in the church body here. That's because Christ gave. Yes, the Holy Spirit is the distributor and the specific willer of those gifts. But it's Christ doing that gave us these things because we were identified with him.

Here we were, captives, and he said, I'll make you captives, but you're going to love it. Matter of fact, you're going to be in awe for eternity, gasping with wonder at how marvelous a giving this is. It's that magnitude. He says, I'm going to give to you. And it's just started. It's just begun. You're going to be amazed for eternity. A million years will go by, and you will continue to be astounded. So this is just the beginning. We'll give you some starter gifts. Use them. I got something in mind for you that goes on forever. Let's pray.

Lord, what a tremendous thing you've done. Lord, this is awesome. This is just valuable, almost beyond comprehension. You have blessed us unfathomably. And you said on top of that, I'll give you gifts. Gifts you can use now that will echo through eternity. Lord, thank you for your overwhelming, unfathomable grace. How marvelous, how amazing your grace. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.