The Gospel Church

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ~ John 14:6

Ephesians: The Perfecting of the Saints

Transcript

I’m glad you’re joining us today. I hope you are doing well, and I greet you in Jesus’ name.

This has been a very eventful week in the world. On Monday, we had the big eclipse, which was an amazing thing to see. We had a really good view of it from here in Indiana. And then things have been very tense in the Middle East this week. Last night, at about 9 pm our time, Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel. It wasn’t clear just how it would turn out, but Israel shot most or all of them down, and there was not any serious damage caused. But today Israel is saying they are going to respond to the attack. So things are very tense in Israel and the Middle East. Let’s keep all of them in our prayers, especially our friends in Israel. I know they spent the night in bomb shelters last night. So just prayer for them all.

And of course, I do need to take a minute to point out to you that the end of days did not start this week. This eclipse that happened on Monday has no significance whatsoever. It was not a sign of the end. And everyone who hinted on things like that – they are dangerous deceivers. And I want to encourage you to never listen to another thing they say. A lot of the places we come from, that is exactly what they said. But it has come and gone, and nothing happened. And now they will distract the people with the Middle East tension. And that will come and go, and we will still be here. And that is just how they operate. They jump from one thing to the next to the next. And it never works out the way they say. What they are predicting never happens. The way they say things will unfold never does. And it is the same thing again.

And, if you are watching the news in the Middle East and you are from the places we come from, I cannot help but point out to you that what is happening is a million miles different from what our preachers told us was supposed to happen. Iran was not supposed to be involved in this stuff. And Jordan, last night, Jordan was helping Israel – fighting on the same side as Israel. And Egypt was defending Israel too. So this thing is a million miles different from what they said. And so, if this is the end of days, they were totally wrong in their predictions. And we can very safely discard them because they have proven they had no idea what they were talking about.

And, if today is the first time you are joining us, and you are wondering who we are and what we are about, my name is Charles Paisley. I and most of our listeners here are formerly part of the cult following of William Branham known as the message. I am formerly the associate pastor of the second oldest message church in the world right here in Jeffersonville Indiana where the message started at. And this is a little mission we operate to offer help and encouragement to the people leaving the message, which is a doomsday cult. And most importantly, we are seeking to just take a look at the plain reading of scripture.

And today we are back in the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. I invite you to turn there with me. We have been going through the book of Ephesians since October. And we have been just taking a few verses at a time and going through it nice and slow. And today we are focusing on verse 12 especially. But I will read from verse 7 down to verse 13. I welcome you to read along with me. Paul wrote:

“But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.’ (In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 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.”

Ephesians 4:8-13 ESV

Let us pray

Lord God, thank you for your grace and mercy towards us. That while we were blinded and deceived by false apostles and false prophets, you still loved us, and you made a way for us to escape. As we turn our attention to these verses, we pray that the Holy Spirit grants us understanding and discernment, Lord, that we might understand what is written. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Introduction

Well, I’m glad to be back to these verses today. Part of me wants to just power through this chapter, but I think it’s better to just go slow, one verse at a time through here. That way, you will have plenty of time to think about each part.

Last week, we focused on verse 11. And today, we’re going to be focusing on verse 12. But before we do that, let me just remind us where we are overall in the book of Ephesians and the things we covered in our last lesson. That’ll help us as we pick up here in verse 12.

As you recall, the start of chapter 4 began a new section of the book of Ephesians. In the first three chapters, the apostle Paul spoke in terms of doctrine. And then at the start of chapter 4, he began speaking about practice. And almost all of Paul’s Epistles are like that. The first part of his epistle is always doctrine – the way to think about things. And then in his second part of the epistle, he goes into practice or the way that we should behave in light of the doctrine. And in that way, Paul always gives both sides of the equation, both how we should think about things and how we should behave in light of those things. It’s a complete picture.

And as we started chapter 4, Paul began explaining how we should behave in light of the things that he already explained to us. And it began in the first few verses by calling on the Ephesians to get along with each other and to do that by showing the fruit of the spirit towards each other: love, peace, humility, kindness, and being forgiving towards each other.

And as he called on them to get along with each other, he pauses at verse 4. And then from verse 4, he inserts this digression. And this digression away from the topic of Christian behavior is so he can explain why the Ephesians should get along with each other. And the reason why they should all get along is that they were all united with Christ. And because they all had unity, they should endeavor to realize they are all one people. And in light of being one, they should seek to get along with each other.

Now after Paul explained how we’re all alike, he then also explained how we are different. And one of the ways in which we’re different is that we have different measures of Grace and differing gifts and talents. And Paul then makes another digression. And his second digression is to explain something about these gifts.

Now when we come down to verse 13 and 14, Paul is going to tie this all back up. And as we get there, we will see how all of this fits back under the main point – which is that we should all get along with each other.

So keep that in mind as we’re reading through this section. The overarching point here is that Christians should get along with each other because they are united. And this little diversion between verse 7 and verse 12 is ultimately going to come back and connect with his main point that we should all get along with each other. Paul does not lose his main point, and I don’t want us to lose the main point either as we focus on the verses here in this digression.

Now, as you see there in verse 8, 9, and 10, Paul talks about the death and burial and resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. And he’s talking entirely in the past tense about the events that occurred when Christ paid for all of our sins. And something happened back then, all those many years ago. After Christ’s sacrifice, he gave gifts unto men. And in verse 11, Paul points out that Jesus gave some people the gift of apostles, and others, the gift of prophets, and others the gift of evangelists, and others the gifts of pastors and teachers.

And in the context of Paul’s statement here, Paul is talking specifically about the apostles and Prophets and other ministers who were called by Jesus Christ and given gifts at the very start of the church.

There is nothing here to indicate Paul has any other ministers in mind in verse 11 besides those at the very start of the church. And it’s really pretty obvious if you just read the words on the page as they’re plainly written. Paul is talking entirely in the past tense; he’s talking about ministers who were called by Jesus, in the time surrounding his resurrection. And the plain reading of verse 11 is talking about ministers who had already been given a gift before the book of Ephesians was written. It’s not talking about ministers who were given a gift after the book of Ephesians was written.

Now of course, there are still ministers today. There are still ministers called by God today who are gifted in different ways. But verse 11 is not talking about the ministers of today. Verse 11 is talking about the ministers of the first generation of the church.

And it is very, very important to notice that. In the plain reading of verse 8, 9, 10, and 11, there is nothing to suggest. Paul is talking about anything except that very first generation of preachers called by Jesus Christ around the time of his resurrection. He’s not talking about apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers of the future in verse 11. He is most certainly, definitely, no question about it. He is talking about apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists from the past.

And part of the reason this is important to recognize is that there is a difference in the ministers of that first generation of the church and then the ministers who came afterward. There is a difference. The ministers of the first generation of the church had a unique role to perform. Their mission had a unique part to it. And that unique part of their mission did not pass down to the preachers who came afterward.

Part of the mission did pass down to future generations. But part of the mission was finished right there, in the very first generation of the church. And the part that they finished was laying the foundation.

The foundation of the church was laid down in the first generation. And there will never be any more foundation laying to ever happen again. There are not going to be more foundation layers because the foundation is finished.

We don’t need another apostle Paul because everything we need from the apostle Paul is written down right here in the Bible. We don’t need another apostle Peter. Everything we need importantly from Peter’s written down here in the Bible.

We don’t need another apostle John to come finish writing the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation says if you modify it in any way, you are cursed.

So there’s not going to come anything more than is already in there. That is it. There is not going to be more. Otherwise, it would not have put a curse on anyone who tries to add to it.

So everything we are going to get about the book of Revelation is already written in the book. Everything we need for life and godliness is already written in the bible. The faith that was delivered once and for all time is already written in the book. And the ministers of the church, in the very first generation, had that special role in laying that foundation. And they left us their writings, and teachings, and practices, right here in the bible. And so, as we read verse 11, we can understand that the ministers of the first generation of the church had this unique role.

And while we do still have ministers today, they are not foundation layers. They are not writing new books of the bible. And in that way – they are not of the same caliber as the ministers of the first generation.

And so it’s important to recognize that in verse 11, Paul is talking specifically about those very first generations of ministers.

Verse 11 says, “and he gave.” That’s past tense. He gave. Paul is describing in verse 11 something that happened before the book of Ephesians was written. And Verse 8, 9, and 10 tells us when it happened; it happened around the time of Christ’s resurrection.

Now as we come down to verse 12, Paul begins to explain the mission of this first generation of ministers.

Perfecting of the saints?

And I will read the first part of verse 12.

Christ gave these ministers.

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry,

To equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
That is the English standard version,
And most every translation of the Bible reads verse 11 the same way. Most every translation of the Bible will say the purpose of those ministers is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

Now, if we were reading the King James, it would say, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry.

And so before we go any further with that, let’s just talk about what word to use here. Should we use the word equip or should we use the word perfecting? And why did the King James version use the word perfecting, when all the other versions use the word equip?

Now how would we figure that out? How would we determine what is the right word to use here? One thing we could do is to get a Strong’s Concordance and to look at the original Greek in a Greek dictionary. And if you do that – if you will look up the original Greek word to see what it means – you will find the word equip is actually more accurate here than the word perfecting. And that is the reason most translations use the word equip, it’s because the Greek word here really does mean equip.

In Greek, the word for perfect is teleios. “Be thou perfect as our father in heaven is perfect.” The word for perfect is teleios. But that is not the word here in Ephesians 4:12. Here in Ephesians 4:12, the word, katarismon. And every single Greek dictionary I have looked in – this word katarismon would mean to equip or to prepare. And you could say it does mean to perfectly equip or to perfectly prepare. But the emphasis is on the equipping or the preparing. And so if you use the word perfecting – like in the King James – you might miss the meaning.

And so, my point here is this: The first part of verse 12 is not talking about perfection in the way you or I thought of it when we were in the message. It is not about being a perfected individual. Verse 12 is not about being perfect as our father in heaven is perfect. But verse 12 it is about being perfectly equipped. It’s not about having a perfect nature, or a perfect character, or perfect integrity. But it is about being perfectly equipped to do a certain job.

It’s like graduating from trade school with a perfect grade. You are perfectly equipped to do the job you trained for. You’ve been given perfect training, perfect equipment, perfect education. And that is what verse 12 is telling us. This is about people being perfectly equipped to do a particular job.

And that makes perfect sense. Because this verse tells us exactly what the job is. We don’t have to guess at what people were being perfectly equipped to do. We can know exactly what the saints are being prepared and equipped to do. Because the same verse tells us what it is. The saints are being prepared and equipped to do the work of the ministry. They are being perfectly equipped to do the work of the ministry.

And that really is where the emphasis of this whole statement lands.

Verse 12 is telling us that this first generation of preachers from the early church had a job to perfectly equip the saints who came after them to do the work of the ministry.

Verse 12 is not saying that people are being made perfect individuals in a total absolute sense. But it is telling us that the first generation of Ministers perfectly equipped the saints who came afterward, so that they could also do the work of the ministry.

Let me say that again.

The first generation of ministers perfectly equipped the saints who came after them to do the work of the ministry.

Verse 12 is about ministers teaching others to also be ministers.

This verse is about ministers equipping other saints to also be ministers.

And just as important, they are being perfectly equipped them to be ministers.

Perfectly, nothing lacking.

And that perfecting is describing the quality of the work that very first generation of ministers did.

They did a perfect job at equipping the rest.

Let me read it again.

11 And he gave (That is past tense, before the book of Ephesians was wrote, [he gave] the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to [perfectly] equip the saints for the work of ministry,

Now to me, this is plain as day.

The plain reading of this verse is that the first generation of ministers perfectly equipped the saints to do the work of the ministry.

And I know what I am saying is radically different than what we understood this verse to mean in the message.

In the message, we thought this verse meant a last-day ministry would lead us all to perfection.

They would help every one of us become a perfect individual.

But I have to say, that is a total, and absolute misreading of this passage.

And I dare say, if you have come from the message, you’ve never heard anything different.

You’ve never even heard someone tell you what I’m telling you right now.

This is probably the first time you ever heard this explanation in your life.

But what I’m saying to you right now is the common way that this verse is understood by Protestant Christians.

Verse 13 means the first generation of Christian ministers perfectly equipped the church with everything they need to carry on the work of the ministry.

What does it mean to be perfectly equipped?

And I want you to think about that a little deeper. What does it mean if the first generation of preachers perfectly equipped the saints for ministry? What does that mean?

It means that we already have everything we need right here in the Bible. That first set of preachers and the first generation of the church perfectly equipped us to do the work of ministry. I don’t need anything else to be a minister besides what they have already provided because what they already gave us perfectly equipped us. They did a perfect job equipping us. I don’t need anything else.

And what did they equip us with? That first generation of preachers equipped us with the Bible. They left behind them writings, practices, beliefs, ways of doing things. And what they left behind, we have it right here, black and white in writing. And verse 12 tells us we are perfectly equipped to do the work of the ministry by just taking what the first generation of ministers left to us.

We don’t need more books of the Bible. We don’t need more understanding than what we can get by reading the Bible. We don’t need new practices. We don’t need new ways of doing things. We don’t need new special revelations. The saints were already perfectly equipped by the first generation of Christian ministers. That is what verse 11 and 12 is telling us.

When Paul says they are perfectly equipped, he is saying there is nothing else needed. Paul is telling the Ephesians that what they have received from the first generation of ministers is authoritative. It’s everything they need to be equipped for the job they have to do as it relates to the work of the ministry.

Paul is not telling the Ephesians that they need another generation of preachers to come and perfectly equip them. No, he is telling them the exact opposite of that. He is telling them they have already been given everything they need to be perfectly equipped by the first generation of Christian ministers.

This perfection of being perfectly equipped is not something off in the future. What Paul is talking about in verse 12 is already over and done with. It was over and done with before Paul wrote down the book of Ephesians.

And now here in writing, Paul is saying in black and white that the saints have indeed been perfectly equipped to do the work of the ministry.

And I apologize if I’m belaboring this point, but this might be just about as far as I go in this lesson today. And I want to urge you, I want to really urge you, just sit down, throw out of your mind all of the trash that has been indoctrinated into your head in the doomsday cult all of these years, and you sit down and use the dictionary definition for these words. And just ask yourself, isn’t the plain meaning of these words exactly what I’m telling you?

Even if you’re in the King James version, it is the plain reading. Because the King James version says “perfecting the saints for the work of the ministry.” So even in the King James, it’s plain that it’s specifically talking about perfecting or equipping them for ministry.

And I don’t want to overload you too much. I know what I’m saying here is probably a whole lot, especially if you come from the message churches that I do. So I’m not going to go beyond verse 12 today.

But I encourage you, just read from verse 8 down to verse 12, and just see for yourself. See if it doesn’t say exactly what I’m explaining to you. That the first generation of Christian ministers perfectly equipped the saints for the work of ministry.

Which means we don’t need to add anything to what they have already done. We are already perfectly equipped without adding anything else to it.

For the building up of the body of Christ

Now, before I close today, I do want to finish verse 12. So let me read this one more time, starting at verse 11. Paul says:

“11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip [or perfect] the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

Now, there at the end of verse 12, Paul starts to introduce the ultimate objective. And that’s what verse 13 and 14 are going to be about too: the ultimate objective of all of this. This first generation of ministers, they began something. They had a unique role in starting things out and laying the foundation. They had a unique role to perfectly equip the saints who came after them to continue the work. And they were equipping the ministers who would come after them to carry on the work. Because only part of the mission of the first generation of preachers was unique. They were unique in laying the foundation. But the ministers who came after them were going to keep building.

Remember that Jesus gave the church a commission. He commissioned the church to take the gospel to the ends of the world. He told them that the gospel must be published into all nations, and only then will the end come. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. When the apostles kept obsessing over when Jesus was going to set up the heavenly Kingdom, Jesus told them it wasn’t for them to know when that was going to happen. And nothing has changed; it’s still not for us to know when that is going to happen. Instead of obsessing over when it’s going to happen, Jesus told them to focus on their mission, which was to share the gospel message to the ends of the world and to make disciples of all men. That is the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry is spreading and sharing the gospel message to the ends of the earth and making disciples of all men. That is the work of the ministry.

And we have been perfectly equipped to do that by the writings of that first generation of ministers. And it’s a cycle, it’s ongoing. The writings and teachings of the apostles equipped the second generation of the church, and the writings and teachings of the apostles equipped the third generation of the church, and the writings and teachings of the apostles equipped the fourth generation of the church, and you can carry that all the way down to the present day to our generation. Every generation of the church has been perfectly equipped, over and over again, by what we have right here in the Bible, left to us by that first generation of Christian ministers.

And every generation that has come has a role to play in advancing verse 12, 13, and 14. Each generation of Christians continues to build up the body of Christ, continues to spread and share the gospel, continues to carry things forward. But we’re not laying a new foundation, we don’t need a new Bible, and we don’t need to add to what the first generation of ministers left us. Every generation has been perfectly equipped to do the work because each generation comes back to the Bible and gets equipped from the Bible all over again. And with each successive generation, the body of Christ is built up. The temple is being built up, the same one that Paul was speaking of back in chapter 2. Block by block, brick by brick, beam by beam, individual by individual, the church is being built, all on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, what they laid down in the first generation of the church. We’re all being brought into alignment with the foundation they laid, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Christ himself, Christ as Savior.

Brothers and sisters, there will never be a restoration of the first generation of church ministry. They had a unique role, by very definition, it can only happen once.

And as I bring this lesson to a close today, I hope and pray I’ve shed some new light on this for you. I know I am offering two very different ways to understand this passage of scripture.

The message says verse 11 and 12 are about a group of last day ministers who will perfect the church, and I am telling you the plain reading is that verse 11 and 12 are about the first generation of ministers perfectly equipping those who came after them to do the work of the ministry.

And you may need to sit down and think about that. You may need to read this over a few times and see what you think. And so, I pray, let the Holy Spirit teach you, and read it and see what it says for yourself.

And I want you to be encouraged. You’re not looking for some preacher to come perfect you. That is not what this verse is about. But this verse does tell you that you have everything you need to be perfectly equipped to do the work of the ministry, and you have that right here in the Bible. You don’t need something from someone else.

And I want to encourage you today, seek out your role in that. There is a message of good news that needs to be shared with the world. Jesus Christ has come into the world; he is Lord and Savior. He has paid for the debt of sin, and through faith in him as our Savior, all men can be saved. That is a message of good news and salvation, and we can share that with others, through our words, through our life, through our example.

There is much more I could say here, but this is where we will stop for now. I know you are probably anxious to get to the next verse, I am too. And if you are, come back next time and we will get down to verse 13, and we will look at the Unity of the Faith and the stature of the perfect man.

Prayer

Let me close in prayer.

Lord God, thank you for the Bible. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who is our teacher. Open our understanding, Oh God, to the plainness and the simplicity of the Bible. Lord, many people have spent so long reading between the lines; they have lost the ability to see what it is black and white. Heal their minds. And Lord God, we pray for all our friends who are still trapped in the doomsday cult. They have been blinded by a curse, Oh God. We thank you for delivering us, but we pray that you also deliver them. This we ask, in Jesus’ name. Amen.