What I Would Do Differently
Session 2: Why Invest Your Life in Discipling Others?
II. Introduction
2. Second, the work of discipling others can be done for wrong motives.
a. Can you think of any wrong motives?
i. Self-promotion.
ii. A desire to control others.
iii. A desire to validate our own walk with God.
3. Third, discipling others can be hard, and we can be tempted to give up if we are not properly motivated.
a. I don’t want us to simply start some short-term program.
b. I want us to have a firm conviction of the necessity and importance of discipling so that we will not grow weary in doing good in this area.
d. So, we will look at why this is a worthy investment of our lives and what should motivate us in this work.
i. This is so important that we will spend two weeks on it.
ii. Today we will look at Ephesians 4:11-16.
iii. We will see two biblical motives.
III. Two Motivations for Discipling Others from Ephesians 4:11-16 a. Overview of Ephesians 4:11-16
i. Here, “Paul pours his efforts into describing how the church . . . must function in order to fulfill its mission.”11
1. In the preceding verses (vv. 7-10), “the clear message is that Jesus has dominion over heaven and earth, and thus he has the authority to dispense gifts” to each believer.12 2. The focus of the verses we will look at, vv. 11-16, is on
how Jesus provides gifts to the church to accomplish God’s plan of “building up” the body of Christ.
a. v. 12 “for building up the body of Christ”
b. v. 16 “makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
ii. As we look at these verses, we will see two motives for discipling others.
b. Motivation #1 – Read Eph 4:11-12 and let’s discover it together.
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”
11 Bryan Chapell, Ephesians, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2009), 182, Logos Bible Software.
12 Chapell, Ephesians, 189.
i. Observation questions:
1. What do “apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers” all have in common? (They are leaders of God’s people, gifts from Christ to his people).
2. Who are “shepherds and teachers”? (pastors).
3. What is the pastor’s job? (to equip the saints for the work of ministry).
4. What is meant by “work of the ministry” in v. 12?
(“building up the body of Christ”)
a. Does it include discipling others?
b. If so, what makes you say that?
i. Looking more like Jesus is a key part of discipleship.
ii. See esp. v. 15 “we are to grow up in every way . . . into Christ.”
5. Who is to do the “work of ministry”? (saints).
6. Based on this, who is responsible for doing ministry (including discipling others) in the church?
7. What is the flow of discipling or the “chain” of responsibility?
a. Pastors equip the church members.
i. To “equip” is to prepare them and outfit them for service.13
ii. To give them to tools and help them develop the character needed for service to one another.
b. Church members, as they are equipped, do the work of the ministry that builds up individual members and the body.
ii. So, motivation #1 is that it is your God-given job and responsibility to disciple others in the church.
1. It is not merely the pastor’s job.
2. He is discipling the church (publicly teaching and modeling godliness).
3. But the goal of his work is to equip the saints to do the ministry.
iii. Think about how this gives every believer meaningful, spiritual ministry to be involved in.
1. Often Christians don’t know how to get involved.
2. But according to this passage, every believer should receive equipping and do spiritual ministry in the church.
13 Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 263, Logos Bible Software.
3. That is the purpose of this training. I am attempting to teach and equip you. By God’s grace, you can model it for others.
c. Motivation #2 – Read Ephesians 4:12-16 and listen for the purpose/results of “the work of the ministry.”
“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 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, 14 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. 15 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.”
i. Observation Questions
1. What is the metaphor for the church in v. 12 and v. 16?
a. Body.
b. Each Christian in the church is a “member” of the body (see also 1 Cor 12:12).
2. What is the result when each member is doing his/her job?
a. Building up the body (12)
b. Unity of knowledge of the Son of God (13) c. Mature Christlikeness (13)
d. Protection from false doctrine (14) e. Growth in Christ (15)
f. Building up in love (16)
3. How might you summarize the effect of members discipling one another?
a. Healthy Christians making a healthy body of Christ!
b. Mature Christians building up a mature body of Christ!
c. A properly functioning body of Christ.
ii. So, the motive for discipling others is that each member has the important job of building up and maturing other parts of the body so that we grow as Christ’s body.
iii. Let’s talk about some implications about being the “body” of Christ.
1. “The body metaphor,” in verse 16, requires “‘each part’
(not just the leaders) to work for the upbuilding of Christ’s church.”14
14 Chapell, Ephesians, 191.
a. It powerfully illustrates that each member bears responsibility for ministry.
b. Martin Lloyd-Jones correctly observed that “a fatal tendency” of many is “to think of the Church as just a building to which they come to sit and listen to sermons and addresses, and in which they do nothing.”15
c. In other words, they see the church as an educational institution.
i. Is there truth to that view?
ii. Yes! We learn at church for our own growth.
iii. What is the problem with that view?
1. It ignores the importance of each member working to build up the body.
2. At school, I can show up, learn, and succeed regardless of how my fellow students are doing.
3. If body parts worked that way, the body won’t make it very long!
2. Second implication: The body metaphor reveals “the interdependence of Christians as members of Christ and of each other.”16
a. Jerry Bridges notes that “although God saves us as individuals, he immediately incorporates us into the body of Christ.”17
b. There is an organic and indissoluble connection between members in the body in which each part exists for the good of the other parts.
c. As Calvin notes, “No member of the body exists to serve itself, nor does each member exist merely for its own private use. He should consider his own interests only insofar as he sets his mind on the general edification of the whole church.”18 Each member, therefore, has a responsibility to put “its
15 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Christian Unity: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1-16 (Grand Rapids:
Baker Books, 1980), 170.
16 E. P. Clowney, “Church,” in New Dictionary of Theology, ed. Sinclair B. Ferguson, David F.
Wright, and J. I. Packer (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 141, Logos Bible Software.
17 Jerry Bridges, True Community (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012), 39. See 1 Cor 12:13.
18 John Calvin, A Little Book on the Christian Life, trans. and ed. Aaron Clay Denlinger and Burk Parsons (Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2017), 37.
abilities to use for the other members of the body.”19
d. In another place, Calvin points out that if a person focuses mainly on his or her own individual growth, it is like a body part content to grow to an enormous size even while other parts remain stunted.20
e. Contrary to that sad but common mindset, the New Testament shows that “Paul not only envisions a body of proportional growth, but a body that cannot grow properly without all believers receiving gifted input from all other members of the body.”21 f. Part of maturing then, requires that each member
has concern for other members.
g. If one member is developmentally behind, it is the responsibility of other members to facilitate his or her growth.
iv. So, because we are in the “body of Christ,” we should be motivated to see each member of the body maturing and developing. Our motive is for the health of the body of Christ.