Ephesians 4:11-16 - How Are Disciples Made?

There’s a common practice today that’s happening now more than ever: people are wearing their earbuds all the time. How do you feel about that? Some people wear them everywhere – grocery store, gym, even walking through a parking lot. Other people find the whole habit kind of off-putting.

And they can definitely cause some difficulty in communication. This happens at my house all the time. One person is talking to another, but won’t get a response because they don’t realize the other person can’t hear them.

When you put in the earbuds, you’re in your own world. It’s just you. If we’re not careful, we will begin to approach our spiritual growth in a similar way: isolated, self-contained, and disconnected from everyone else.

See, we’re prone to treat our spiritual growth as mainly an individual project. It’s often assumed to be something personal – between a person and God. And in one sense, it is personal. But according to God’s design, the church plays an indispensable role in you becoming a mature disciple. God’s plan for your spiritual growth is not just you. It’s “we.” Scripture consistently describes church leaders and members as vital for our growth.

That’s an unpopular declaration in this age of individualism. In fact, the age in which we live is often called an age of “radical individualism” in which the individual is the highest authority. “I belong to myself. I decide what’s true for me.”

You may hear that and think, “Oh yeah, there are some very mixed up people out there.” But man-centered individualism is always creeping in here – in subtle ways. For example, do you treat Christ more like your personal assistant than your King? Does He exist to help you cope, or succeed, or feel better, and reach your goals, or do you exist to obey, worship, and follow Him?

Or think about this: do you conceal your sins and suffering from fellow church members, carrying your burdens alone because they are “your business.” By doing so, you subtly reject the role of the body of Christ in bearing our burdens together.

Or when it comes to our worship service, is this a time when you can explore your own thoughts, daydream, doodle, be entertained or educated, or is this the unique time when – with God’s people and led by His shepherds – you contemplate Christ, and confess to Christ, and cherish Christ more in your heart?

Yes, God calls each of us to personal faith and personal obedience and worship, but we can have those only through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, and Christ redeems us from isolation and self-reliance to bring us into fellowship with Himself and with His people. We have communion with Him and each other, which is essential for spiritual growth.

Biblical proof of this is all over the Scriptures, but perhaps the most comprehensive reference is in Ephesians 4. Here we see the system through which Christ generates our spiritual growth. Notice the outline. This is how disciples are made. Christ gives His church leaders to administer the means by which He saves and strengthens us, Christ gives Himself spiritually to strengthen His whole church for service, Christ the Head stabilizes the Body (His church) against deception and drift, and the Body speaks truth in love to reflect our union with Christ the Head.

Now, for a little background on the book of Ephesians and the church in Ephesus,
the city was on the west coast of what is now Turkey. The famous temple of the Roman goddess Diana was there. It was known as one of seven wonders of the ancient world. Therefore, Ephesus functioned as a major center for the worship of Diana.

The city kept her cult thriving, and in turn, it profited off those who came to worship. So, as a result, Ephesus was seen as a city “nourished by” Diana. The Ephesians took great pride in this.

But when the apostle Paul proclaimed Christ, he taught that Diana was a false deity with no powers to care for the people. However, Jesus Christ did possess such power. Paul said that Diana – also called Artemis – did not actually nourish and cherish the Ephesians; however, Christ the Lord does nourish and cherish His holy bride, the Church – who are, as Paul says in chapter 5, “members of His body.”

Head and body, husband and wife – these are how Paul described the union between Christ and His church. The people of Ephesus imagined a life-giving connection between them and Diana. Paul renounced that belief, but he preached that such a life-giving connection was available – to the one true God, made possible by grace through faith in Christ.

Paul proclaimed that message according to the command of Christ in Matthew 28, which we looked at last week as we continue to revisit the mission of our church.
Good Shepherd exists “to join God on mission by producing mature followers of Jesus Christ for His glory and our joy.” We participate in God’s disciple-making work. We saw last week that it is Christ who makes disciples, and now, let’s see how.

Look at verse [11] again. “And he [Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers.” We understand that Christ gives Himself spiritually to His people through what we refer to as the “ordinary means of grace.” These are the ways ordained by Christ to strengthen our faith in Him: God’s Word (especially the preaching of it, but also the reading and teaching of it), along with the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and baptism, joined always with continual prayer in various settings (public worship, private and family worship, and other formal or informal gatherings of God’s people).

These practices are the instruments Christ has appointed, set apart, and blessed. Through them, God saves His people and then strengthens their faith in the person and work of Christ. Through them, we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, increasingly behold His glory, and are transformed in our inner being.

Understand that Christ doesn’t just command maturity – He supplies it by grace.
And in light of Christ’s command in Matthew 28 to His apostles, coupled with this passage of Ephesians (and many other passages as well), we understand that these means of grace are rightly administered by His officers.

Verse 11 is a list of these officers. These are church “offices” established by Christ. Now, the first three were functional only for the apostolic era, but the last two continue to this day. Yes, the influence of the first three still looms large. The apostles wrote the NT on the authority of and by the power of God. They – along with NT era prophets and evangelists – carried the gospel far and wide. Churches were established but entrusted not to more apostles, but to elders.

These elders function as a group of “shepherds and teachers.” What do they do? They preach, baptize, teach, lead the church in worship, care for the people’s spiritual needs, and make major decisions for the church – but always and only under the authority of Christ within the jurisdiction He has given. Christ rules His church by His Word and Holy Spirit, which guide the shepherds and teachers as together they perform the duties of their holy office.

Notice again that Christ “gave” these offices. Earlier in chapter 4, Paul says Christ “gave gifts” to His people. Of course, elsewhere Paul talks about each person’s spiritual gifts, but here, the “gifts” are the officers themselves. He gave these offices to His church. This is how disciples are made: first, Christ gives His church leaders to administer the means by which He saves and strengthens us. In Romans 10, Paul writes, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

Now look at verse [12]. Christ gave His officers “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Every church member’s role is championed with this phrase “the work of ministry.” We could translate it as the work of “service.”  

This includes many different categories of serving in the church: “mentoring” (Acts 18), “training” (Titus 2), “instructing” (Romans 15), “encouraging” (1 Thess. 5), “edifying” or “building up” (Romans 15), “admonishing” (Romans 15), and even “teaching” (Colossians 3) – though there is a difference between the church’s official teaching authority and the ministry every Christian can do for every other Christian.

These works of service – in all their various forms – are absolutely essential. The apostles command them in Scripture, and the Westminster Confession summarizes the Bible’s teaching on this, as we read and proclaimed earlier in our worship service. To what end? What is the result intended by Christ for us?

See verse [13], “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” You see, there is a sound, biblical pattern – an order – established by Christ our King. He gave apostles, prophets, and evangelists to establish the church and write down the Scriptures. He gave and continues to give shepherds and teachers to lead His church and administer His ordinary means. And through those means, Christ gives Himself spiritually to strengthen His whole church for service.

Notice the focus on the person and work of Christ in verse 13. Faith in Him, knowledge of Him, and the fullness of Him. Listen closely to me: nourished by the spiritual nutrients that come from His very person, we grow stronger. Fed by Him – and feeding on Him – we become like Him. This is how true and lasting growth from God occurs. We grow up into Christ. This is the language of our “union” with Him.

And this is how we avoid being pushed around by the changing opinions of our culture, look at verse [14]. Christ does all this “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

Consider again for a moment life in first-century Ephesus. The city was filled with deception dressed up as power and wisdom. Death disguised as life. Poverty masquerading as prosperity. Diana was a major figure in Roman mythology. False teachers said she nourished the city, and it was true that much of their economy was driven by that false religion. The city was thriving in the ancient world – thanks to Diana, they said. But it was all nothing more than a deceitful scheme.

Of course, in our life and times, where we live, Diana is no longer proclaimed. But there are false religions – and always, there are the winds and waves of what one scholar simply calls “public opinion.”

We hear so many “progressive” beliefs spouted by persuasive voices – maybe in a viral clip that “redefines” Jesus, or perhaps in a faith “deconstruction” story presented as “courageous” and “honest.” Like the wind, the direction is always changing.

Now in the ancient world, people would give praise to whatever god might help them. They rode the winds and waves, tossed about, unstable. Today, we are inundated with a steady stream of ideas and claims, with more to come that will surely surprise us. And if we’re subject to all of it, we will always be tossed about and unstable as well.

But Christ has a plan to keep us and care for us and make us stable and secure. As His officers perform their roles, and each member performs theirs, the whole congregation grows strong together in Christ. Again, we are fed by Him, and feeding on Him, we become like Him.

This reflects what Jesus said in John 15: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Nourishment flows from the Head to the whole Body – from the vine to the branches – and Christ, the vine, the Head stabilizes the Body against deception and drift.

But there’s one more essential part to consider in this “system” Christ created. Look at verse [15]. The true church fed on Christ won’t be tossed around by lies. “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Truth without love is harsh. Love without truth is hollow. But biblical truth spoken from a heart of love is how the body grows up into Christ. Again, the whole congregation needs one another and grows together, feeding on Christ through His ordained means of saving and strengthening us. Again, this is Word, sacraments, and prayer, enjoyed and shared with God’s people, with shepherds and teachers serving as the stewards of God’s truth.

Notice again, “we” speak the truth in love and “we” grow. God places each one of us in a certain role, but He is no “respecter of persons.” What I mean is, God doesn’t treat individuals as more valuable or accepted because of title, or office, or education, or social standing, or influence, or spiritual gift. The offices are real gifts and responsibilities, but they are not a badge of superiority. We have different essential roles in the body, but equal standing before God in Christ.

For example, though I’m the pastor, I’m not the wisest or most knowledgeable person in the church on every subject. I’m not the “best Christian” here or the “most mature believer” here. Yes, I’m gifted and knowledgeable in certain important things. I’m called to lead in certain unique ways. I teach and preach and instruct and guide. But I learn from the dear brothers and sisters of this congregation all the time. I learn from the adults and the children. After all, a disciple is a “learner.”

We are all learning from Christ, and learning Christ from and with each other. That’s why this passage doesn’t say only pastors speak the truth in love. It says we do. Christ the Head stabilizes the Body against deception and drift. His life flows to us and transforms us. And the Body speaks truth in love to reflect our union with Christ the Head. Nourished by the spiritual nutrients that come from His very person through His established order, we grow stronger together, and stronger individually.

So, this is, from the broadest vantage point, is how disciples are made: by Christ, through His officers authorized to administer His ordinary means, as Christ saves and sanctifies His elect. Every believer contributes to the disciple-making work, serving the church and speaking the good news of Jesus Christ to others.

The system Jesus established is elder-led, member-supported, with each believer using their gifts and applying their training and knowledge to serve the mission of Christ through His church. This is how we grow with the good growth that is from God.

Numerical growth as a church isn’t the first kind of growth we should seek. This growth – in the grace and knowledge of Christ – must come first. He graciously brings us to sit under His Word, come to His Table, pray with His saints, and speak His truth in love to each other.

Will you grow with us? And will you trust in Jesus Christ today? Trusting in Him, will you turn from your sins? When you do, He will shape you into His mature follower, living in healthy harmony with His people, for His glory and your joy.

Let’s bow in prayer.