Bible Verse: Ephesians 4:13-16

Bible Verse: Ephesians 4:13-16
Title: Whole Person

13 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.
  14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and      blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and          craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
  15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who    is the Head, that is, Christ.
  16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting          ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Hallelujah!


A special characteristic of a believer is that when they meet a person of good faith, they are determined to live like that person. By looking at the lives of people of good faith such as prophets, they challenge believers to be just like them.  When a believer has a proper understanding of God, their faith will be firmly established. Understanding God becomes a firm foundation for faith. That's why it is important for believers to understand God properly.


It is not an exaggeration to say that understanding the Bible is understanding God. For this reason, proper theology in studying the Bible is important and the faith that follows is important. I am especially thankful that the Presbyterian Church we are associated with is playing an important role in Korean Church Reformation.The world is full of cults. Although it is a sign that the end is coming, the Korean church is considering how to tell what's right and wrong with cultic beliefs. That's how much the Presbyterian Church is leading the Korean Church.

This mainstream reformation didn't come about in one day. Throughout the years, by careful understanding and application of God's Word, by persevering the shame and death that followed Japanese Imperialism and protecting the integrity of faith, the people of faith left their marks as unseen workers protecting the Word.Ephesians 4:13 says "the faith...to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ". We can guess that this means having good faith.


The verse talks about attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Having a mature faith allows for a whole person. The important thing is to understand the concept of a whole person from the perspective of the Bible.'Being whole' is understood as being 'mature'. 'Mature' has different meanings. A fully fermented wine is considered mature, so we call it 'mature wine'.


We call ripe fruits 'mature fruits'. It's the same thing as saying they are delicious. We call those who are well trained and have much experience professionals. This is also considered mature.How about we all say mature?To understand the word 'mature', we need to look at the Bible. 'Being whole' means to be 'perfect'.


In bowling, there is a play called 'perfect game'. This refers to when a person managed to get all strikes in all their rounds. It is a game where no mistake is made. Thus, 'being whole' refers to this 'perfection'. If we look at Genesis, we can see a perfect event occurring. That event is God creating the world. That's why God says 'it was good' over and over after each thing He created. How good must it have been? To look on a perfect, faultless creation, to say 'it was good'...Hallelujah!


In the center of the creation stood man. All creation was perfe and that included the creation of man. We can say the man was 'whole' when he was created. Hallelujah! My dear brethren. God created us perfect. Hallelujah! Isn't God's creation amazing? There isn't a person like me in this world. It's a miracle! How did He created us so wondrously?Unfortunately, there are people who still have plastic surgeries. There probably aren't people like that in  Church.


There was a devoted deaconess in a church. She served the church so well that people never stopped praising her. Not only that, God blessed her husband's business, so they were financially well off.One day, God took her to heaven. She met God in heaven and thought 'I still have a lot to do'. So she asked God, 'God, would you give me another chance? I served so faithfully and I haven't even had plastic surgery yet...'.
So God gave her another chance. She got up as if waking from a sleep and went to a certain place. That place was a famous clinic for plastic surgery. She showed a picture of a famous celebrity and asked the doctor to make her just like that celebrity.

But the doctor looked at the picture and then at her and shook his head. The deaconess asked him "What's wrong?" and he said, "Well, I can do it, but it will be very expensive." So she said to him "Don't worry about it. I'll pay whatever the amount. Just make me look like the celebrity." So the doctor started the surgery.


After the surgery, the bandages were removed and the deaconess suddenly screamed. In front of the mirror was the face of the celebrity. She shouted again and said "Thank you God!" Unable to control her joy, she ran outside. But a car was driving at that moment and She went to God again and complained "God, you're so mean. You said you'd give me one more chance...But now look what happened..."

God created us perfect, as 'whole' beings just like today's verse says. God created humans perfect and whole. 'Whole person' points to God's perfect creation and we must believe that.
Let's think "I am a creation that is far superior than Michaelangelo's 'Last Supper' or Rodin's 'The Thinker'. Let's greet one another and say "How beautiful!" Good faith increases our understanding of God. It helps us know God better. Today's verse says "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God..." The 'whole person' is God's son and we are to believe in Him.


We meet many situations and obstacles in this world. How we interpret and react to those situations play an important role in shaping our faith. The starting point of faith is God. In Ephesians 2:8, it says "For it is by grace you have been saved..." Salvation is completely within God's power. He has given everyone the opportunity to receive salvation. Salvation is found in God.


God also allows faith to grow. That's why 1 Corinthians 3:7 says "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." Amen. He will guide us as flawless people to His kingdom. Colossians 1:22 says "But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." God will ultimately make us holy, flawless and guiltless and stand before Him.

Amen, Hallelujah!


Let's look at Abraham. What great faith he had! His faith earned him the nickname 'Ancestor of faith'. Abraham had a superhuman faith. Whenever we think of him, we have a desire to be person of good faith. The Bible talks about how Abraham came to be the ancestor of faith. Romans 4:23-24 "The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness- for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." What does this mean? It's not focusing on Abraham being a person of good faith.


The reason for Abraham's appearance in the Bible is to show that God plans to make us who believe in Christ as savior people of faith like Abraham. Hallelujah! How wonderful is our God's plan? Who's sitting next to you? They are people who have faith just like Abraham. This is God's plan. Greet the people next to you and say "Kim Abraham, Park Abraham..." This is God's plan. Isn't it amazing? There might be someone who thinks "I'm not a devoted believer. I don't serve faithfully..."


Look at Abraham. He didn't have good faith from the beginning. When he left Ur, the Egyptian king wanted Abraham's wife. How did he respond? If he said that Sarah was his wife, he would die, so he said she was his younger sister.He called his wife his younger sister in order to survive. What a jerk! He sold his wife to Pharaoh just so that he could live. He might even be the first person to sell another person.


God made this Abraham to become a person of faith. Think about it. Think about the night when his wife was taken away in front of Egypt's authority, the iron fist Pharaoh. Did he have a good night's sleep? No.The Bible doesn't go into details about this, but we can guess how much Abraham must've worried about his wife.Abraham must've spent the whole night awake just like Jacob did before meeting with Esau and wrestling the whole night with an angel. Abraham couldn't have slept thinking about his wife in the arms of Pharaoh.


God led Abraham in a situation where worry can only turn to prayer. "God please forgive me. Please have mercy on me." And he thinks about his wife. Abraham, who told his wife to believe in him when they left Ur and the people they have grown close to, now falls. Abraham realized he could not protect his wife by his strength. He asked God to help him, to protect his wife. God made him into an ancestor of faith. Verse 15-16 talks about an important concept in knowing God.


"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." There isn't as diverse a community as a church. Being in someone else's shoes, cooperating and serving is what it means to become a person of good faith. But there is a limit.

A church community is full of people with different backgrounds, different lifestyles, different values, different amount of knowledge, different hobbies and have nothing in common. But the fascinating thing is there isn't a community as harmonized as a church. Hebrews says "Holy brothers called from heaven". The church is full of people with different thoughts and personalities, but they are gathered under the name of "Jesus". They are gathered to praise Jesus. It is a community that worships and serves God. We are able to give up some things to praise God and let the scent of Jesus flow from us.


Jesus came to do many things and one of them was to serve. Matthew 20:28 says "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Serving is a word commonly used for people working at a restaurant. It is referring to when a person prepares food and cleans up afterwards. In English, worship is the same as service.


Worship is service. When people ask what I do, I reply "I work in a service business'. Then people would look at me up and down. Tell people the same thing when they ask what you do. Jesus came to be the server. We as believers exist to serve. What's our job? We are servers.If we cooperate and serve, we will have achieved Jesus' greatest command on earth. Jesus laid down his life to serve. A community that puts their life on the line and is prepared to die just to serve...What an amazing community that would be.


Verse 15 says a faith that leads us to become mature people is the understanding of Jesus' love and application of that love in our lives. "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." God wants us to love like Jesus.  Every one of us must be small Jesuses. Through love, we are showing Jesus' image. We can't see God. Despite that God created humans in His image.

God created us in His image because He wanted us to show His glory by living a life of serving. Who are mature people? Those who serve like Jesus. Those who love like Jesus. Jesus personally showed God's love on the cross. I pray that all of you here today will live that kind of blessed life in Jesus' name.