Before we move on in our study of Ephesians to some practical guidelines for living as children of light, we must look at one more aspect of the gifting of the church. Our reason for being. In our study so far we have seen that the church exists for a very specific purpose. That purpose is not so that we can be a social organization meeting once a week to fulfill the social or emotional needs of a select group of individuals. It is also not to be an organization set up to legislate morality in society or to be a moral watchdog. Social stability and civic morality are merely by products of a healthy church doing it's work in society. The church is far more than a religious agency or Christian Club.

We saw that there are certain gifts given to the church by Christ. These are the gifts of vs. 11 "...some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some teacher, pastors." The Holy Spirit gives gifts for many other reasons in the life of the believer, but these gifts are given by Jesus, to His church, so that the Church's purpose may be fulfilled. That purpose is to become the embodiment of the glorified risen Christ in society today. To become Jesus with skin on, declaring boldly and practically His power on earth in these days. The prayer, "hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come", is fulfilled only as we His body on earth, usher in His Kingdom through the acting out of His life here on earth.

This is the other side of the purpose for the gifts. In the first place they are given so that the body may be strengthened and equipped for ministry. This is the ministry to the members of the body. Toward the church (among the people of God, Sunday through Saturday). The other side of that is what we wish to deal with this morning. The ministry of God's people to the people in the world (life as we live it Monday through Saturday.

As we come to terms with the purpose of these gifts it is vital that we understand the ministry of Jesus when He was on earth. You will remember that in Jesus day, the people did not have to come to church to see Him operating in the gifts bestowed upon Him as Messiah. He lived those gifts out as He walked and talked and lived His live amongst the people. So should we also live His life. The church must, as Paul says, while not being of the world, be in the world.

It is only in this way that the world will come to see that Christ is not sitting on some cloud somewhere waiting to see how chaotic humankind will handle their affairs and circumstances until He someday returns. This was never His intention. He has never ceased to the work He began in the streets of Jerusalem 2000 years ago. That has never changed. What has changed is the method which He uses. Back then He had two hands, two feet and one body. Today he does the same things but with millions of hands and feet in one body. All working His works as one glorious organism.

And what are the works He is working through us? Jesus in His own words gives us the answer. And His answer lines up in a marvelous way with these four functional gifts of Ephesians 4.

As we look at Jesus as our model for ministry we will come to see in the first place, that the ministry of Christ and His church:

I. Appeals to Man's Flesh in Order to Change Man's Heart.

Luke 4:18-20
Do you remember the scene in Nazareth near the beginning of Jesus ministry? He was attending the synagogue on the Sabbath. The place must have been crowded. Everybody had heard of their hometown boys fame. They knew He would be in church, because we are told that this was His habit. I believe the whole city must have turned out that day no one wanted to miss anything. Perhaps they would see a mighty miracle.

A hush fall over the synagogue as Jesus takes the scroll and opens it to Isaiah 61. He reads. Luke 4:18-20 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, [19] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." [20] Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, [21] and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." [22] All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
Something else they may have been asking was, "What does He mean they are fulfilled in our midst?" Where are the miracles? That was what they were really there for. And Jesus saw right into their hearts and thoughts. So He answers them Luke 4:23-27
Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "[24] "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. [25] I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. [26] Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. [27] And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian."

What was Jesus point, and what does it have to do with ministry in the world today? The point is that Jesus wanted these people to understand that the physical miracles were not the main thing surrounding His ministry. It was not the outward sign that was important. They were exactly that. Just signs. And they were signs pointing to a far greater miracle. The miracle of a changed heart and a converted spirit. The miracles were merely to get the attention of the flesh so that the heart could respond to Christ in belief. But these people had no intention of believing in the carpenter. They just wanted the side show. Because of this, He said, they would not see a miracle in their town.

The truth about miracles is that they really are parables designed to teach on the physical level what God is able to do on the spiritual level. When we seek after the physical manifestations of the Spirit, we are making the same mistake as the Jews of old. Forever wanting to see the visible. Wanting to see proof of God's working. Wanting to know in the eyes of our mind the things that might "prove" that God exists, when all along it is the invisible that is important. Paul said that we can never behold in our human eyes or hear with human ears the things that God has in store for those who love Him. Jesus tells these people that the physical miracles spoken of in Isaiah have already found their fulfillment in their very midst in the hearts of those who did believe. He was speaking about the things of the soul. The things of the spirit. And this is the end to which ministry must move. Our ministry to the outer man is always for the purpose of the inner man being changed. If we are pursuing a social ministry of meeting peoples felt needs alone, we are failing in our purpose as a church.

The ministry of the church appeals to man's flesh in order to change man's heart. We must not forget that. Secondly, through the model of Jesus we see that ministry:

II. Applies Itself Through Spiritual Anointing
Luke 4:18
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me…"
Here we will look more closely at the application of these functional gifts. As we read again the prophesy of Isaiah written more than 700 years before Jesus was born, lets not read them only as Christ's calling, but as our own. Remembering His words of John 14:12, "…anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…" Here again is a reference to the working of the Spirit. What Jesus did on earth in the physical will be done in a far greater way today in the spirit. This is consistent with Jesus qualifying that statement by saying, "…because I go to the Father.." And what happened when Jesus went to the Father? The Father sent His Spirit. And it is by that Spirit that the church carries out it's ministry in the world. "Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord." More than anything in the world the church's ministry is of a spiritual nature, dealing with matters of the heart. Changing the inner man so that the outer man may function as God intended.

Looking at the passage we see that there are five divisions of a ministry which is Spirit anointed. The passage begins with the words, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." This is the only way true ministry can function. It is an outflow of the Spirit filled life. The Christian who is not Spirit filled can forget about ministry that will impact the spirit of man. We can do all of the physical stuff. We can give our money, say our prayers, march in our picket lines, speak out against the injustices of society, but sans the filling of the Spirit, our ministry will be void of the substance that changes men's hearts. And the way that we know that we are Spirit filled, will be according to the desire that we have to reach out to those who are in need. According to the sensitivity we have which pricks our hearts at their point of need without them saying a word. This is how it was with Jesus. This is how it must be with embodiment if Jesus in the world today.
And here is how the ministry will be applied.

1. Spirit Filled Ministry Seeks Out the Lost.
"He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." Here is the ministry of the evangelist.

The declaring of God's work in this world among the desperate. That is evangelism. The good news is that God has not left us to struggle on our own through all the crisis we may face in life. He has entered into our circumstances. He has participated with us in our suffering. He has paid the supreme sacrifice so that we may know His riches in the spiritual regardless of our misfortunes in the physical. He has done something about it, and not simply spoken. To share the great news of these actual events in history is to preach the good news.

He speaks of sharing the good news to the poor. Does that mean that the gospel is not intended for the rich? Obviously the meaning goes beyond this. If we remain consistent in our understanding of this passage we will see again that there is a spiritual lesson here. Jesus' first lesson in the sermon on the mount touched on the same issue. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God." Happy is the man who doesn't have anything and knows it. Happy is the man who does not have any standing before God Who does not have a long list of good deeds with which to plead his case, but blessed is the man who comes before God and says,
" Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling,
Naked come to thee for dress,
Helpless look to thee for grace
Foul, I to the fountain fly
Wash me savior, or I die.
This is how we attain God's Kingdom. This is what is meant by the poor. Jesus Himself said that He did not come to seek the righteous ones, but that the lost, the poor in spirit, may be saved.
Spirit filled ministry looks for those opportunities. Seeks out the lost Just as Jesus did. The task of evangelism.

In the second place,
2. Spirit Filled Ministry Sets free the Captives.
This is the ministry of teaching. It comes in a two pronged focus.
"He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind."
All around us there are people who are held captive by some force or another. Some habit, some system of thought, some harbored bitterness. We meet them every day. They are not like the ones who believe they have it all together. They know they lack much, but there is nothing they can do about it. Every time they make a change, they fall back to the old way. It is a continual losing battle. The same goes for those who are blinded to the truth of their situation. Living their lives in self denial. Jesus has brought some of us out of the same kind of captivity and delusion so that we may know His power to set the captives free. So that we may through the Spirit of freedom in us bring release to their captivity.

This release is done through the teaching ministry. Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free." This is how the captives are set free. This is how people come to terms with the reality of their predicament. By instruction, or council in truth. They will not be changed be through consolation and tolerance. They will be changed by the truth. The truth about forgiveness. The truth about consequences. The truth about eternity in a literal heaven or a literal hell.

A while back I had an opportunity to minister to a neighbor I met at a garage sale. Upon visiting with him I found out very quickly that he was a Vietnam Veteran and that he harbored a tremendous amount of bitterness and unforgiveness towards the authorities who he felt had treated him unjustly. A few weeks later, 2 in the morning I was called to the hospital by the man's wife. He had attempted to take his life. As I shared with him, the Spirit revealed to me that this was a man who was blinded to the truth and bound solid in unforgiveness. I began to share with him what was on my heart. I told him the truth about forgiveness. Immediately he began to relax. Tears began to flow and his hard heart began to crumble as he recognized the truth of what I was saying. He would never be set free until he chose to forgive.

This is what Jesus meant. This how the captives are liberated. Freedom from blindness comes in the same way. Jesus said, "If any man follow me, he shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." That is the ministry of discipling---duplicating the life of Christ which dwells in us, into the lives of others. Teaching people to follow and obey Jesus. Not simply to come to church and to sing about Him, and learn about His ways, but to practice His lifestyle. Moving people from the community to the crowd in church, but not settling for that. Bringing them by example and nurturing into the congregation, and then into the sphere of commitment and finally to the core of relationship in the body so that the cycle can begin again. This is how we deal with the blindness. "If any man follow me," says Jesus, "he will not walk in darkness."

This ministry is a lot more than religion. It involves every fiber of who we are. It impacts us at every point of our lives. It is not merely adding Christ to the rest of the baggage of our lives. It is giving all up and replacing it with His life. Spirit Filled Ministry Seeks Out the Lost. Spirit Filled Ministry Sets free the Captives.

Thirdly we see that:
3. Spirit Filled Ministry Severs Bonds of Oppression.
"To set at liberty those who are oppressed."
All of us are familiar with the oppression that seems to be so prevalent in these days. Especially among the youth of our nation. Someone described it as a dark cloud over the city. Our psychiatric hospitals are overcrowded with young people who are depressed and oppressed. When I was a teenager, it was unheard of for a young person to be afflicted with depression to the point of hospitalization. Today our hospitals are overcrowded with cases of acute depression. On TV the other night statistics revealed that 29% of all teenagers have contemplated suicide! O, how our society needs deliverance from oppression. This is one of the ministry gifts of the church. We have the spiritual anointing to pray for the deliverance of the oppressed. We don't hear enough about that in our churches. If the church was living Christ out in this very prominent aspect of His ministry the people would come as they did in the New Testament, bringing themselves and their children for the prayer of deliverance.

This also deals with the ministry of counseling. Today I am amazed at how many Christians will take their "oppressed" loved ones, and even themselves to some secular psychiatrist rather than to their local church. That is because the church by and large has not fulfilled this ministry function. We must at all costs come back to this model where Christ was the answer to man's needs, no matter how complex. "…anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…"

This is part of the ministry that is committed to some who is in the body of Christ---to sever the bonds of the oppressed.

There is one final aspect of spiritually anointed ministry.
4. Spirit Filled Ministry Settles the Question of Purpose.
The one great question of mankind today is, "What is the purpose of Life?" It would seen that there is no point to all of this. To this question and others concerning our destiny, and purpose in life, Jesus provides us the answer we must give. "…to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." The King James says, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

We can proclaim with absolute assurance that everything is moving in accordance with God's plan. It is moving on in accordance with His favor. We may not understand it, and we may question it, but He knows what He is doing. And right now is the greatest moment of opportunity. Right now God is still prevailing with mankind for our salvation. Right now is the acceptable day of the Lord. The door of grace is still wide open and all who will may come in. It will not always be this way. If you look back at the original passage in Isaiah from which Jesus quoted, you will notice that in the original there is a comma at this place. The sentence is not complete. It goes on to say, "and the day of vengeance of our God." Jesus stopped right before that. He did so because He was speaking of those things which are being fulfilled right now. Somewhere in the future it will be too late. For those who pass on to eternity without Christ it will be too late. That will be the day of God's vengeance. But for those who were in the sound of His voice, and to those who hear His words today He is saying, "today is the day of salvation."

This is what will settle the questions of the heart. To know that God is up to something now and that something is His redemptive purpose of bringing the lost into a right relationship with Him. That the earth is not going helter skelter out of control. That He does still have the whole world in His hands. From the tiny little baby to the silver hared mama and papa wondering how long their social security will hold out. God is in control. This not only settles the question, it also subdues our fears. God will not allow the forces of evil to utterly consume our world until His purpose has been fulfilled. And in that day, His own will be with Him and there will be no more fear. There will be no more tears. There will be no more questions, and it is to that end that He calls each of us to minister for Him in these days. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

This is the ministry of the church. Is it relevant? Seeking the lost, setting captives free, severing bonds of oppression, settling the questions and fears of people in distress. These are exciting times for ministry. In and out of the church. All of these ministries apply to both places. The community and the congregation. Where do you fit in? What is your role. You have one, you know. It is not only for the paid staff. This is for everyone. In the New Testament it was the ordinary man and woman that was called. Not the monks and priests and Holy men. The ordinary people. They became the extraordinary after they responded to the call. Elijah, Elisha, David, Deborah, Mary, Paul, Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter. Ordinary people called by God, responded and accomplished extraordinary things.

Jesus shared many parables concerning quantifiable results in the Kingdom. What was His point? The point is that we are expected to use the gift or gifts that we have been given. We cannot keep it safe and nurture it and never use it. He will not tolerate that. In the parable of the pounds the master did not simply take away from the unfaithful servant,. He cast him out into everlasting darkness. Strong words? Jesus is as serious as a heart attack when it comes to His Kingdom.

What are we doing with our gifts?