Ephesians 4:11-13 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

We are continuing our series, Ephesians, this weekend at the Vineyard and beginning a new subsection: Equipping the Saints!

For the last few chapters, Paul has been beautifully laying out the groundwork and framework for our faith in Christ, and now he moves into a new section where he develops an incredibly robust ecclesiology (the theology of the church).

In Ephesus, as we've mentioned, there were many pagan temples that focused on the glorification of self, of obtaining "divine" knowledge so as to climb the ladder toward the celebration of the individual. There were so many occult practices going on that worshiped the creation rather than the Creator, and Paul's audience in Ephesus is running up against this ideology of self-actualization.

Doesn't sound too far from our current context, does it?

In Ephesians 4, Paul highlights the importance of each person, but each person is called to serve one another building up the Church. It's not for their own gain, but so that Christ can be glorified and magnified!

What Paul is addressing in Ephesus is extremely applicable in our current context where there's constant celebrity worship and Gnostic practices, and we'll be spending the next few weeks highlighting the importance of each of these spiritual gifts of apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, pastoral ministry, and teaching and how they all work together to build up the Church and glorify God!