Christ Church Washington D.C.

Something has grown increasingly apparent over the last several weeks in our nation, and it is the swiftness of God’s mercy. I don’t say simply his mercy, but how quickly his mercy acts. In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s tragic murder, we heard those in high authority declaring the good lordship of Jesus over all things and the grace of God on offer in the gospel.
In the last few months, as plain sense reality, once denied almost universally in the decadence of our last few years, has been recognized again without apology. Even in a city like Denver, where I’m from, we’ve seen the beginnings, just the edges of the beginnings of revival as those who’ve never been to church, never read the Bibles, never had any interest, are showing up at church or reaching out to have conversations, to ask questions, not just, that doesn’t just, that doesn’t simply mean he has a lot of goodness and truth, but that he gives, he is generous with his goodness and truth, he spreads it prodigally everywhere. In other words, here is a God who stands ready to meet us in mercy, to cleanse us from all sin, to restore us to himself and to one another. And so do not neglect this marvelous truth. We gather today to worship a God who delights to give grace.
Who delights to give it quickly and in a measure that we can hardly know to ask for. So wherever you are coming from this morning. So wherever you are coming from this morning, whatever failures and sins have marred your marriage, your leadership, your children, or perhaps your whole life up to this point, God’s grace is fast. He comes to us as we repent of our petty rebellions, our defiling lusts, and our godless pride. But as we repent, I would warn you,
be prepared to be prepared to be prepared to be prepared to be met with a grace that washes, cleanses, even drowns our sin in a swift and overwhelming mercy. Be prepared to be met with a grace that washes, cleanses, even drowns our sin in a swift and overwhelming mercy. Hear now the word of the Lord from Ephesians 4, 7 through 16. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended, what does it mean but that he also
first descended? He ascended into the lower parts of the earth? He ascended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should not be children, no longer be children tossed to and fro, no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things, and to him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
You may be seated. Let’s pray. We ask now, Father, that you would take up your word and that you would wield it among us. God, that it might bear fruit in our lives, that we might trust you, believe you, know you more, and that God, our lives might increasingly reflect the joy of your salvation. In your name we pray. Amen. So Christianity is built fundamentally around five claims. Those claims about Jesus Christ. Those claims appear over and over and over and over again throughout the New Testament. They’re foreshadowed in the Old Testament. And we just said them in our creed. But I want to remind you of those five claims because they are, one of them in particular is central to our text today. It’s actually central to all of Ephesians. But I want to lay those out in front of you again. First, we as Christians believe in the incarnation, that Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, did something wild, did something wild, did something wild, did something wild, did something wild, was born as a baby in a manger. It’s like one of the craziest things we believe, but it’s amazing. And so we believe in the incarnation. We believe that he died in our place. And we believe that three days later, he defeated sin and death at his resurrection. And then number four, and the one we’re going to be focusing on today, we believe in the ascension of Jesus. And now this is perhaps one of the most neglected doctrines concerning Christianity, our marriages, our marriages, our raising of our children, our
I want to know Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ,
is in captivity, and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ,
who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ,
and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ, and who Jesus Christ, who Jesus Christ. reconciled to God. Some see and hear and smell your odor, and they reject it. They hate it. They want nothing to do with the authority of Jesus. They want nothing to do with the grace of God, and yet this is what we’ve been called to do. Now, how do we do it? Maybe another way to spell that is what is that aroma, and how does that aroma come upon us? Well, it comes upon us by these gifts that he
gives to men. This is a quote from Psalm 68, which is itself a quote from Leviticus chapter 8. Leviticus chapter 8, God takes for himself some of the people, those who would become the Levites, and then he gives those as gifts back to the people. The Levites were primarily responsible for the ministry of the word, the ministry of the tabernacle, and eventually the temple. They often would bear the sword,
that sword would eventually transform. They were the chief musicians in the temple, and they were the ones that declared, delivered the word of God to God’s people, which is why you have this great parallel. If you look down at verse 11, what are the gifts that he’s given to us? What is the gifts that he’s given to you? Well, he has a list here. The apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, and some teachers. So the gift,
some of the gifts that Jesus is given to you, some of the gifts that Jesus is given to you, some of the gifts that Jesus is given to you, some of the gifts that Jesus is given to you.
The word being counseled, the word being counseled. Evangelists proclaim the gospel to the lost, seeing the lost, seeing the lost come to faith. The pastors, or shepherds, shepherd the flock. They use the word, they wield the word to care for God’s people. The teachers teach didactically, what does the word say? How do we apply the word and live in accordance with the word? And the vehicle for delivering the word to God’s people was the apostles and the prophets.
So the image so far. So the image so far, you and I are in a parade. We’re marching here on this place near D.C. And God is leading us. Christ himself is leading us in a victory march, declaring his reign over all the nations. In fact, if you go back to Psalm 68, this is the mechanism, the means by which the reign of Christ is coming to all of the nations. And so he’s leading us. And there is about us something that stands out in the midst of the world. And the mechanism by which that happens is Jesus giving gifts to his people, the church, and the primary gifts that he’s giving are our delivery vehicles for the scriptures, for the word. So God wants us to have a life, a life in God’s spirit, a life united with Jesus in the heavenlies. And he wants that life to be put on display,
the worship of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of the church put on display, the life of men and women who trust, who cling to, who delight in Jesus on display in this city. And it will smell like life to some and death to others. And the means by which we walk in and receive that kind of life, that kind of calling, that vocation in this city is the spirit comes by means of the word proclaimed, the word sung,
the word sung, the word sung, the word sung, the word sung, the word sung, the word sung, everywhere. That’s the gift that God has given you. That’s the gift that God has given you. That’s the means by which we enter into and exemplify this life in the spirit wherever and in all the various places that you and I have been called to live and do life. Now, what does that look like? What does that ministry of the word then do for us?
We have this wonderful phrase. We have this wonderful phrase, verse 12. It begins with the word for. So it tells us what this ministry, this ministry of the word given to prophets and apostles and evangelists and pastors and teachers, what it’s given to accomplish. And it says for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. So saints is you. And my job as one of these pastors,
the teachers is to equip is to equip, in other words, to give you the things you need to do the work of ministry. Now, far too often in the American context, the word ministry has been reduced to merely the pastoral vocation. But the word ministry simply means authority and responsibility over something or someone. So Levites were given the ministry of the tabernacle. They’re given authority and responsibility
for what took place in the tabernacle for what took place in the tabernacle. But it merely is a communication of the fact that if you have a ministry of the fact that if you have a ministry means you’ve been given authority and you’ve been given authority and you’ve been given responsibility for something. And so you have the ministry of the home or the ministry, if you’re a banker, ministry of the bank. You’ve got a particular arena in which you bear responsibility and you bear authority. In the first place, you bear responsibility to God, but you also bear responsibility to the institutions
and the peoples and the peoples and the peoples and the peoples that you serve. So let’s put it all together. So let’s put it all together. Jesus leads us and he gives gifts. Gracious, merciful gifts. Gracious, merciful gifts. Gifts that are delivered by means of the ministry of the word. The preaching, the singing, a lot of what we’re doing here this morning. Hearing the scriptures, believing the scriptures, and the spirit then wielding them in our lives so that you can have all the tools you need
to fulfill the responsibilities. Fulfill the responsibilities you’ve been given in all the various vocations you’ve been called into. Whether it’s as a wife or a mother, whether that’s as a father or a husband, whether that’s as a student, whatever it is that God’s called you into, wherever he’s given you responsibility and authority, the connection is you to hear the word, to trust the word, have the word ministered to you that you then might be equipped because that word should shape
and direct. It should saturate every single part of your life and direct. It should saturate every single part of your life and your responsibilities in the ministries that God has given you. Now, it does two fundamental things. It equips you for the work of ministry, but then the second thing is it overcomes a problem, a problem that is common to us and common in our world. Look at verse 14. I’m putting away this child likeness, but rather we would speak the truth in love. I’m speaking and then living in accordance with the way that God says the world is and love. I’m applying that truth for the good, the real true good of one another and the good of our neighbors. And oftentimes that good isn’t a good that everybody wants.
but it is good. Enormously gracious God and generous God and kind God. He gives good gifts. He gives good gifts. He forgives sins. He forgives sins. He frees us from slavery to sin. And he binds us to his son Jesus and leads us as his captives freed from bondage to sin and made to worship him forever. Let us pray.
So Father, we worship you as the great giver of good gifts. So Father, we worship you as the great giver of good gifts, the forgiver of sin, our Lord and our King. I pray that we would receive your good gifts with gratitude and with joy, trusting your word, being transformed by your word, having fruit born in us by your spirit, wielding your word.