Yesterday, Today, and Forever

A Body of Love

A Sermon for the Ordination of Pastor John Solie by the Rye Congregational Church

June 24, 2012

(Ephesians 4:7-16)

[7] But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

We are here to celebrate the unity that the Lord has given to Rye Congregational Church as the Lord has granted new vision for your congregation as you serve together here in this town and throughout the world. Our oneness comes from this important fact: There is one Head of the Body of Christ, Jesus.

The unity that we have does not mean that we are all exactly the same. In fact, we are all different, and that is part of what enables the Body to fulfill the mission of love that Jesus has given us. This diversity within the body is for the purpose of fostering a greater and better unity that God has in mind for us.

It is particularly appropriate for us to celebrate diversity in gifts when we come to a service of ordination. John Solie is being set apart here tonight by the laying on of hands in recognition of a work that the Head of the church has done in his life. The giftedness that John has is offered up to God for your sake. Using our gifts for each other is the way of love.

[8] Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” [9] (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? [10] He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

The body of Christ, the church, serves at the pleasure of Jesus, the Head of this body of love. The Apostle Paul quotes from Psalm 68, a psalm of David. In that psalm, someone is leading a large number of prisoners up a mountain. But these prisoners are not weary or despairing. They are singing and playing instruments. They are using their gifts to praise the Lord.

Paul helps us to see what this psalm is all about. We are the happy prisoners of the King being brought home to heaven. The One who leads us is the One who ascended into heaven for us. When He arrived in heaven, He gave gifts to us.

This One who ascended is the Son of God. Before He could ascend up to heaven, He had to first come down from heaven to work our salvation. The Son of God became the Son of Man in order to conquer death for us here below in these lower regions. After He made atonement for our sins, He was declared to be the victorious Son of God through His resurrection from the dead, and He ascended to heaven as the beginning of a new resurrection world. In that world He fills everything. John, and you and I, the whole church in Rye and the whole church in heaven and on earth is to be filled with the fullness of the resurrection Man, Jesus Christ, who fills all in all. He was the King of Love in His suffering death. He calls men like John and a church like Rye Congregational to follow Him in a life of Spirit-filled love. Our unity is in Him, our ascended Head.

[11] 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, [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,

This plan of living together in a community of resurrection love here in this dying world is the only reason why Christ gave the church apostles, prophets, and evangelists. It is the only reason why He gives Rye Congregational Church pastors and teachers. It is not so that we can be pleased with our own giftedness, or win popularity contests or prizes for speaking ability or Scriptural insight. None of that means a thing without the love that comes from Jesus Christ. The love that comes from Jesus is dying love, a love that suffers for the glory of God and for the good of the body.

John Solie is set apart as a shepherd and teacher by this body of faith today to love you. He will faithfully do the ministry of the Word as your pastor and teacher here as he has over these years. What is new in this is an increased awareness of your togetherness with John in Christ in this great enterprise of love. Together you are saying that you as a church recognize your role in Christ to say yes and Amen to God's use of this man as a shepherd of the flock. You have chosen what you are convinced to be the will of God above every other consideration, and so has John. You have chosen the way of suffering love for this community of faith. There is heavenly power and giftedness in that settled determination.

Your goal together is that you would be more and more like the Head of the body. That will come through God's Word and God's Spirit. God will use the giftedness of John to bring forth unity in the faith here, and a more mature knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This will help the church to grow up in ways that Jesus desires.

[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.

The old truths of Christ given to us in the inspired record of the Scriptures, these are the right truths for this congregation. These are the truths that John has been patiently teaching you since the Lord first settled him here some years ago. Today you say yes to those truths again, and perhaps in a more settled way than you have before. These are the truths of the One who died for your sins, and was raised as a vindication that His sacrifice was effective for you. These are the truths of the ascended Head of the church who gives gifts to His people. These are the truths of heaven and of eternal life.

There are other doctrines that whirl in and out a town claiming to be something new and fresh. Is there some teaching that stands against the Jesus of the Scriptures? Is there some new way of doing church that promises to be the only way for church to succeed in our generation? You know better than that. The more that you grow in the Word you know that Jesus will build His church His way. This church has unity not in some new methodology or in some new vision of a new Jesus. Rye Congregational Church, together with the whole church of the Lord Jesus, stands on Christ the solid rock. All other ground is sinking sand. John and Rye Congregational Church, stay with the Jesus of the Bible. Be the body of love that He has prepared you to be. The real Jesus is the same forever.