To continue our meditation, we will read a somewhat extended section from the part of Scripture in which we are finding our key: the Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, beginning at verse 7.
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore He saith,
When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.
Now this, He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
So we now come to the essential service of the church in relation to the design end: that He, Christ, shall fill all things.
We saw this morning that that is the divine purpose, fixed in eternity, unalterable and undefeated. We saw that, alongside of that, the church is said to be “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” That is, the medium, instrument, and vessel by which the divine design and purpose shall be fulfilled: that He shall fill all things.
And then we went on to see the method of that fulfilment. It is made so clear in this letter. The apostle then sums up all that he has said and heads it up to this sublime issue of the marriage relationship between Christ and the church.
The divine method, as we have illustrated from the book of Esther, means divine selection, divine redemption, divine enrichment and adornment, and divine covenant. All are illustrated in the case of Esther.
There we stopped short of the next thing: the essential service.
It is perfectly evident in that book that divine sovereignty is in operation. Undoubtedly that is the meaning of the book.
It is perfectly evident that Esther was not just selected, chosen, and called to the king and to the palace; released from the bondage of her exile and captivity; redeemed; then adorned with everything essential to make her suitable for the pleasure of the king; and then enriched with his riches and privileges.
All that was not just for Esther’s sake, nor merely that she might be able to support herself in her new position and privileges, moving in and out of the palace and showing all that she had come into and with which she had been endowed.
The real meaning of that book, as the sequel shows, is that divine sovereignty was in operation in all those ways on behalf of other people—people who had to be delivered, people who had to come into all the good of that sovereignty of the throne.
Those people were under threat. They had come under an edict from a very evil source—indeed, we may say, from hell itself—represented by Haman the Agagite.
When you mention that name with any knowledge of the Old Testament, you will remember the attitude of the Lord toward Agag. It represents something very evil: a hand against the throne. That is what it was—a hand against the throne and against the people of God.
In this book of Esther, that thing comes up from the pit, designed to destroy the people of God and the testimony of life which is within them. Esther came to the kingdom for such a time as that. It was the essential service of Esther.
When you come to the Letter to the Ephesians, as we have seen, all these features of Esther are found in spiritual expression. Every one of them is in this letter.
You arrive at this: it is not just for the church’s own good, benefit, glory, and pleasure. The church is a special instrument, elect and foreordained in a vastly greater context than itself.
Just as the city at the end of the Bible stands in the midst of the nations to minister life to the nations—its tree of life and river of life being figures or symbols of a great divine truth—so, right at the heart of things, is this elect body, elected and foreordained to minister the fullness of Christ within its own compass and beyond its own compass.
That is for the ages to come, and it is for now. That is the essential service of the church.
Now, with that service in view, the apostle is led to bring us to this matter of the church’s ministry as the way to the end of His filling all things by means of it. The church is a ministering instrument, a vessel. That is what is here: the ministry of Christ and of His fullness through the church.
Through us, if we are truly in and of the church. It is our vocation.
I want to emphasize this. I want you to be quite sure that you get hold of this. All that is said here about certain people functioning is only within the compass of this: that this is essentially a ministering church, or it has missed the way. It has missed the way, and that is a tragic missing of the way.
Israel, we are told in the Old Testament, was the wife of the Lord. “I became a husband unto them.” Israel was called to be the ministering channel and instrument of the Lord to all the nations.
Because Israel did not fulfil that high purpose, but built its walls around itself, shut itself in, and became an exclusive body, it has for two thousand years been out of the way. It has missed the way. It is set aside, in the place of Vashti, who was supplanted by Esther.
And that is the church. When we speak of the church, dear friends, do not let us get beyond individual responsibility. There can be no such thing as church without the individuals who make it up.
Every individual is a part of that church, that body, and is intended to be a functioning part. Every one of you here this afternoon, without exception, is supposed to be contributing something out of the fullness of Christ beyond yourself to others.
You are in this high and holy calling, this vocation, to be the channel, the vehicle, the mediator of something of that fullness. Every one—every one.
The Lord has made His provision for this, and having made His provision, of course, He expects this to be so.
Here we have these words:
When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.
He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
And, of course, their work is to bring the church to fullness. But it is not that they do all the work while the church simply sits and listens to what they have to say, and then goes home saying, “Well, it was all right,” or, “It was good today,” or, “It was very good,” and that is the end of it.
No, friends, never. That is a misapprehension of ministry.
These gifts, as stated here, were given “for the perfecting,” the making complete, “of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto His fullness.”
These gifts are given essentially to bring the church into a place where it can fulfil its ministry. Make no mistake about that. The ministry belongs to the church.
The Lord has made provision for the church to be helped to fulfil its ministry by these gifts. And it is a wonderful thing.
As you know, this is a quotation from Psalm 68. If you recall that psalm, it is the psalm of the triumphant return of the victorious monarch after his campaign, in which he has overthrown his enemies.
He has taken great spoil and brought back many prisoners. In his triumph, and in the bounty of his gains, he is now generously distributing gifts to his people in his kingdom, in order that they may come into the good of his great triumph—the peace.
That is the picture of Psalm 68. There is little doubt, I think, that the psalm has its historic background in David’s conquest of Zion.
Remember the story? Zion was held by the Jebusites. They said, in effect, “The blind and the lame can keep you out.” Their minds were such that they regarded it as an impregnable stronghold, needing nothing more than that to defend it.
David threw out his challenge concerning the taking of the stronghold, inspired his men to that great task, and they launched their attack. They scaled the height, overthrew the enemy, subdued every opposing force, and took great spoil.
David followed this up and took over all those gains. Though the record does not say so explicitly, in keeping with the practice of the day, he would have distributed his gains among the people so that they might know what a great leader, conqueror, and king he was.
That is the picture behind Psalm 68. It is a wonderful psalm; you can read it again.
But now, is it not remarkable and impressive that the apostle lifts out of that mighty psalm these words and transfers the whole idea to the Lord Jesus?
When He ascended up on high.
You have to put in there the word from the Letter to the Hebrews: “Ye are come unto Mount Zion.” Zion, you see, is the great conquest place where the King dwells. We are come to Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem.
When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and He gave gifts. Why did He give? What happened?
That the fullness of His conquest—His mighty, triumphant campaign over this universe—might become the inheritance and the good of all His people.
But in order that that might be so, there are distributors of the good and the wealth. The distributors are named here: some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
The object is that we should come into the good of His victory. There is another illustration—not so perfect, perhaps, nor so complete—in the life of the same man, David.
During the time when David was driven out, hunted in the wilderness, and had gone over to the Philistines, he was given a town for his own possession and dwelling: the town of Ziklag.
One day, while he and his men had gone out on one of their raids, the Amalekites made a raid upon Ziklag, burned it with fire, took all its contents, took David’s wives, took the people, and went on.
David and his men returned and found the state of things. They were in great distress. They wept until they had no more power to weep. David was in great distress, for they spoke of stoning him; but he strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
He called for the priest to inquire of the Lord whether he should pursue the Amalekites. The answer was, “Yes, pursue; thou shalt surely recover all.”
David went up with his men in pursuit. After a long and recent campaign, two hundred of his men were too faint to go on. So David left them with the baggage and said, in effect, “You stay here and look after this, and we will go on with the task.”
Leaving them there, he went on. Do you remember that they found a half-dead Egyptian, apparently hardly conscious, sick, having had no food for three days and three nights?
They generously gave him food until he regained consciousness and sat up. Then David said to him, “Who are you? Who are you?”
He said, “I am an Egyptian, servant to an Amalekite. Three days ago we made a raid upon Ziklag, but I fell sick and my master left me to die.”
David said, “Will you bring us down to the Amalekites? You know where they are and which way they have gone. Will you bring us down?”
He said, “Swear unto me that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master.” They swore, and so he brought them down upon the trail of the Amalekites.
They overtook them. The word was fulfilled. They made their assault, and all but two hundred of the Amalekites were slain; those two hundred escaped on camels.
But it says that David recovered all. He recovered all. And it seems that he recovered a great deal more than he had lost. There is always more at the end than at the beginning when you are moving with the Lord.
However, that is by the way. He seems to have recovered a great deal more than he lost.
On the return, David came back to the men whom he had left with the baggage. Some of the men said, “No, not at all. They did not go to the battle; why should they share the spoil?”
David said, “Not a bit of it. As his portion is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his portion be that tarrieth by the baggage.” And he made it an ordinance forever in Israel. So they got their portion.
Then he came back. Notice what he did at once: he started distributing the spoil everywhere. He sent it to Judah; he sent it to many people. Look at the story.
In all directions, he was giving the gifts of his victory. Put it around the other way: every person within the range of David’s associations and fellowships came into the good of his victory.
He had led his captivity captive, brought it back, and was now giving gifts unto men. It is another illustration which fits right in here with Psalm 68.
The apostle is saying to us that the Lord Jesus has made war. He has come out in a tremendous campaign against principalities and powers, against the whole mighty range of evil.
We shall say more about that, probably this evening, but this is the position: He has overthrown the enemy, taken the spoil, and brought it back.
Now He is saying, “All My people must come into the good of it. They must all receive of My fullness. They must all come into the blessing of the fullness that is vested in Me through this conquest.”
“My fullness must be seen in all My people unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” That is the end.
Then, unto that end, there are these various ministries which He gives. He gave, in His giving of gifts.
In Ephesians, these are personal gifts. In Romans, as you know, it is prophecy and service—the thing itself, the function. But here it is the persons in the function: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
It is not for us this afternoon to spend a great deal of time on these various functions, because it would take a great deal of time. We need only remark that the apostle—or the Holy Spirit through the apostle—begins with apostleship.
That is a very significant thing. When you are in this particular part of the Bible, in what is called the Letter to the Ephesians, you are dealing with a much bigger thing than a local matter.
You start from the standpoint of the universe. You may work inward and finish at some centre, but you start from the standpoint of the universe. The apostle is the universal function.
Remember, He sent them out. He called them apostles—sent ones. He said, “Go ye into all the world.” All the world. That is the universal function.
This is not local. It is the whole range of Christ’s kingdom. Apostleship relates to that.
My point for the moment is that God begins with the universal. When it comes to the local presently, the local must be the embodiment of all that is universal and the expression of all that is universal.
If we bring it down to a lower level, if it takes a smaller compass, if it becomes something less, it has missed the divine thought. You will find that it will lose its power, and its anointing will be limited.
It must be vast. It starts with the universal: He gave some apostles.
In the other place where he refers to these gifts, he says, “First apostles.” Firstly—firstly. That is, you and I, as in the church, and all who are of this church, must first of all be enlarged, viewed, and inspired with a universal vision and motive.
We must be gripped by the universality of Jesus Christ in this whole world. That must be our range of vision and purpose—nothing less than that, nothing less than that.
We must get hold of that to liberate us entirely from all gravitations toward something less than Christ. Christ is so great that He is to fill all things.
The uttermost bound, and everything within the uttermost, is to be filled with Him. We must have no less a vision, motive, and inspiration than that to begin with.
Then, some prophets. That would take some time to explain. Certainly, in the New Testament there was still a prophetic gift. But taking the prophetic gift at large, it means those who are anointed to interpret the thoughts of God to His people.
They bring to His church, and keep before His church, all the fullness of His thoughts concerning the church itself and its vocation.
The prophet has always fulfilled that function of calling back the people if they have departed, and keeping faithfully before them what God meant in calling them and what God’s purpose was in choosing them.
That real ministry and vocation is, under the anointing of the Spirit, to have that interpreted of God by revelation from God. Very important.
These are the people to whom the Lord has shown something of His mind and His purpose. They have come to it, not by study and not by being informed, but it has come to them by the Holy Spirit.
They cannot get away from it. They cannot get away from that function. You meet them and hear them, and you find, as you would say, that they are always on the same line.
All right, so long as it is not the only line. But there it is: the prophet, just for that—to keep the thoughts of God in fullness ever fresh before the people of God.
Then some evangelists. Evangelists undoubtedly were the itinerant messengers of the gospel, going here, there, and everywhere.
But again, it is a sovereign difference. That dispensation does not pass.
We should not say, “These gifts were all right for what we call apostolic times, New Testament times, but not now.” If we take that position, we are forfeiting something very vital.
These gifts, these personal gifts, ought still to be here in the church universal—sovereign gifts of the risen Lord—to be recognized, accepted, accredited, and honoured.
There are some men, you know, who simply cannot speak or preach without going straight for the unsaved. They go straight to the unsaved.
Perhaps they are not very big, perhaps they are not very deep; but if they get onto anything else, they lose their gift. The Lord is with them there. There is no doubt about it. The Lord is with them on that line.
They are given to the church in that capacity. They only spoil their own ministry if they try to be something else. It is for us to recognize and to come into their function.
Pastors and teachers. I like that combination. It is really shepherds and instructors in one.
Pastors and teachers—I like that combination. It is really shepherds and instructors in one.
You can be a shepherd, rushing around and fussing about people all the time, trying to make them comfortable, happy, pleased with themselves, and snug, doing all that sort of thing. Shepherd, yes—but shepherd and instructor.
Pastor and teacher in one. Those whom you are cherishing, caring for, and trying to help must not simply be left there in their own narrowness, pleased with themselves. You may have said some nice things and helpful things to them, but they have got to come to understanding through the pastor and teacher.
Thank God for pastors and teachers combined. We can do unfairness, or put it around the other way: it can make people top-heavy if it is all teaching without cherishing.
The two things must work together. It must be like that.
But when we have said all this, what is the grand object? What is the test of ministry, the test of anointing, the test of function? What is it?
It is found in this: “Till we all.” “Till we all.” Ultimately, unto the fullness of Christ.
Every divinely given ministry is only for the purpose of bringing us to completeness, and ultimately to the fullness of Christ. Is it doing that?
The point at which we arrive is a very practical point for us all. It is not just to hear and listen to what is said to us, what is brought to us by these various means.
It is not just to receive all that they have to say. The test of us, to whom ministries come by various instruments, is this: are we quite sure that it is resulting in some increase of Christlikeness?
That will necessitate an attitude and an action. The Lord has spoken today. The Lord has said something today. I am listening intently to this brother, to this servant of the Lord, to see what it is that the Lord has to say.
I am listening to see what the Lord has to say because I am being involved in a great responsibility by hearing. What has the Lord said?
Now then, if I can discern in the Spirit anything that the Lord has said to me, I have to go straight away and turn that into life, into character, into conduct, into service.
I wonder how many, after a message, get before the Lord and say, “Now, Lord, it is not good enough for me to hear that. That may only work out for my condemnation.”
As He said, “The word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.” It may only be to my condemnation. There is no guarantee that my hearing a lot of divine truth is going to result in my spiritual measure being increased willy-nilly.
I have got to do something about it. I have got to take this to the Lord and do something about it.
No difference how possible it is for volumes and volumes, over the years, to be given, spiritual measure may remain very small. I say that reluctantly, but it is possible.
The point is this: all these gifts are given for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the fullness of Christ.
This is the essential service. You are not called to office; you are called to function.
Other people are quite ready to begin to do something if you only put them into a uniform, stick a badge on them, or call them by some title—missionary, reverend, or something like that. Oh, they will get busy about it then.
But no, that is not what is here. The Holy Spirit, through this apostle, is speaking to the church: “Till we all, till we all, till we all.”
He is saying that every one of the “all” has to increase in the measure of Christ through ministries given and, through that increase, have something themselves to contribute.
So that it is possible for people who are in need of light, life, and help to say, “So-and-so has got something. He has got something. She has got something. Those people have really got something.”
It may not be something dramatic, but it is something. They count for something because of what they have. It must be like that, dear friends. This is the essential service.
To refer to Esther again, we mentioned how it worked out in the end. Because she came, through great and marvellous grace—abounding grace—into the riches, wealth, and glory of her marriage relationship with the king, a whole nation derived the benefit and was saved from death unto life.
Purim was created, and they had a good day. They kept the feast, and they had a good day. Oh, the Lord’s people need a good day. I trust we are having a good day today.
But surely we have it in our hearts for all the Lord’s people: a good day in this sense—release, deliverance, escape from the devices of the enemy, the counsels of hell, and the verdicts of death.
The escape, and coming into all the good that Esther came into—that is really what we are seeking.
Perhaps we are here today with some sense, not only that this is needed, but that this is really what the Lord wants. I hope with all my heart that, as we are here today speaking to one another, your hearts are able to say, “Now, this is what the church needs. This is it. I wish it were like that.”
I hope it is in some measure. Dear friends, have that desire and wish in your heart strong enough—strong enough—that whenever there is a message through a messenger of the Lord, an anointed messenger of the Lord, in whatever capacity or function he may fulfil his ministry, you listen.
Listen for what the Lord is saying today. What is it that comes this time from the Lord? And do something about that. You can do something about that.
That kind of attitude will bring in spiritual measure, spiritual increase, and lead on—lead on, at least in ourselves—toward the ultimate object of it all: unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The Lord stir us, burden us, with this great sense of vocation. We are called to the throne. We are called to marriage union with the King. We are called to administer His resources to His kingdom and to His people.
We are called now to be ministers of Christ—yes, ministers of Christ—in perhaps a much more real and wonderful sense than is very often attached to that word, “minister.”
The name can be used, the word can be used, but people do not always know what it means. We are called to be a ministering church in every part.
Now go and get before the Lord over this. Say, “Well, I know I am nothing very much. I have not got so much light. I do not know very much. I am not very much good.”
But here we are: the Lord has said this. I have got to do something about it. Small as I am, mean as I am, contemptible as I am, worthless as I am, the Lord has said this to me: that I am a part of His body, and His body is called upon to be a ministering body in every part.
I am in the body, and that which every joint supplieth, I have got to be in that supply to the other parts of the body.
The Lord help us really to take that. You will find, in that way, your deliverance from so much—so much.
A great deal of our trouble, dear friends, our difficulties, confusion, and so on, is due to our being turned in upon a corporate introspection, occupied with ourselves corporately and our problems.
Oh, it is a tragedy. We may say more about it presently. But may the Lord give us the great vision of Himself and of our calling, and bless us in the good of His distribution.
If I were to add a word, I would put it this way: you know that in the beginning, in New Testament times, when people really came to the Lord and were saved, the apostles did lay their hands upon them and pray for them.
They did. And if you look into the matter, you will find that it was for this: that by the Holy Spirit they should become functioning members of the body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit distributes gifts for functions, qualifying believers to be functioning members. The Holy Spirit does not recognize or accept any passengers in the church of God.
Every single one is to be a functioning member by the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us.
While that is a challenging statement, and may worry us a little, remember that it is meant to show us this: the Lord has made provision for what He requires. He really has.
We do know that the Holy Spirit helps us in certain ways. “This is the way in which the Lord is with you. This is the way in which the Spirit helps you. This is where I find the Lord helping me.”
Yes, He has distributed according to His will. It is for every one of us, by real exercise, to find out what it is that we have to do and contribute in the body of Christ.
Do not try to do what someone else is doing. Get it from the Lord, and it will be found. You must leave it there for the present.