And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13, KJV)
I am moved by the very great depths of this letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians, and I want to pick up on Ephesians 4:11-13 where he is talking about the fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. The purpose of this ministry is to bring the Church, the members of the Body of Christ, the ‘saints’ into the place where they can contribute in some way into the ministry, to ‘edify the Body of Christ’ – until we all come to a sense of unity in the faith, unity in the knowledge of the Son of God – into maturity!
Verses 13 and 14 deal with the necessity to grow out of childhood into the maturity we should have in Christ. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, refers to the ‘milk of the Word’, that there must come a time when we move on from the milk of the Word to the ‘meat’ of the Word, just as a baby begins with milk before it is able to take solid food. And in v14, Paul says, “That from now on we should no more be children,” – he’s using the illustration of children differently here - that we should not be as “children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.” Paul is acknowledging that there are many different ‘doctrines’ in the Church, but not all are accurate, correct or helpful. We have to be extremely careful.
Many years ago, when I was working in the communist countries, I became very friendly with an American evangelist, Lester Sumrall. We got to know each other very well, travelled and ministered together. He was one of only two pastors who would travel with me behind the Iron Curtain. Though an American he was actually in Britain during the first part of World War II, and whilst in Britain he sought out and found Smith Wigglesworth, the great British healing evangelist. He was then in his old age, his wife had died and he was being cared for by one of his daughters. Lester told me that he had expected to find all the young British pastors and evangelists queuing up at his door to draw from him, but he was the only one who ever came. He was shocked that there was no one else, he couldn’t understand that the younger men weren’t looking to the older man for strength, for encouragement, for teaching.
When we are young we can be very full of enthusiasm, thank God for that! But we could also do with a little bit more maturity! Somebody once said it would be a good thing if you could put an old head on young shoulders! The wisdom of age, with the enthusiasm and strength of youth! At my age I thank God for all the wisdom from years of experience – but I also thank God I have the energy and vitality to still go out there – more strength than I’ve had at any time in my life!
But Lester would ask me about the spiritual situation in Britain. This was in the 1980s when he was travelling with me behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. He had seen in America that many of the leading ministers, in their latter years, seemed to lose their earlier simple faith and get into strange teachings. I was able to tell him that my father in his later years remained as keen as ever to see a real revival move based on the Word of God, he even started a movement which he called a ‘Resurgence of Faith Crusade’. I signed up to it. But we all of us have to be so careful we don’t get turned aside! There ARE strange doctrines out there! We do have to be careful, because there ARE some who would lead us astray. But it is said of me – and I believe and hope it’s true – I still preach the same message I’ve always done.
In fact I am driven by this sense that I must keep true to what I have always believed, to the Word of God, I don’t want to deviate from that truth. I had a dream a few years ago in which I was standing in a long line, waiting to enter somewhere and I was carrying something. And it was as if a Voice said to me, “Don’t let anybody take that away from you!” I don’t want anybody to take from me this enthusiasm, this sense of trying to be so true to the Word and the Calling of God!
We all of us have to grow into this sense of maturity, because in v14 Paul says, there are those who ‘lie in wait to deceive’. And he continues in v15, “But speak the Truth in love and grow up in Christ in all things.” It’s essential that we grow into the likeness of Christ, that we share His desire, His passion... It was only a few years ago, going on one of my prayer walks, I was saying, “Holy Spirit, You know more about Jesus than anyone, I want You to share with me the secret of how Jesus ministered, how He was successful in evangelism, how He was successful in the ministry of healing. Holy Spirit, I want to learn more about Jesus, I want to be more like Him. I want to be like Him in the way I preach, in the way I teach, I want to be like Him in the way that I bring healing. I want to be more like Christ!”