CHRIST'S CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Ephesians 4:11-13

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Any great structure first has a great architect who is followed by a great builder who knows how to follow the architect’s vision and blueprint.

When we think about the Christian church, it’s very important to remember that it was God’s plan all along. He was the Master Architect who had a vision for what He wanted to build and a perfect blueprint to follow. All He needed was a Master Builder.

Enter Jesus.

God’s one and only Son was sent to establish salvation for those who would believe in Him as Savior and He built the body of disciples, one follower at a time, starting with the first disciples. He trained them up to first serve alongside Him and then to continue His work after He ascended into the heavens to sit at His Father’s right hand.

Additional servants with specialized spiritual skills were added to the mix - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They were all called and tasked by Jesus to “equip His people for works of service”.

In other words, servitude begets servitude and if one is going to truly show themselves as Christian, they need to display a selfless servitude toward others, the same selflessness that defined Christ.

Note in our scripture passage for today from Ephesians 4 that Jesus, the Master Builder of the church, enlisted people with unique talents to help build the church just as a builder would use people of different trades to build a home (i.e. carpenters, electricians, and plumbers). He did this with a specific goal in mind, to build up the church until such a time as all believers shared a “unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God” so that they might “become mature” to the point of “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”.

In other words, Jesus used people with special gifts to bring the church together so they might exercise a collective faith in Him, grow in their knowledge of Him, and ultimately be like Him in every way.

In the end translation, Christ’s construction project, the church, is still a work in progress. Today, He is still using many people who He equipped with special abilities to help His body of believers develop to where they are a mirror image of Him and one day perfection will come when He returns and takes those who are in Him to abide in the new heaven and earth forever.

Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son and the blessing of salvation we have in Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com