The Body Building Word | Ephesians 4:1-16
Brian Hedges | August 2, 2026
I want to invite you to turn in Scripture to Ephesians 4. Over the past three weeks, we have been looking at different aspects of God’s word in this series called “The Living Word,” and we’ve seen that the Scriptures are the God-breathed word, the soul-saving word, and then last week in Andy’s message, the life-giving word. Today, we’re going to look at the body-building word.
Most of the time when we hear the words “body building” we think of a gym, don’t we? We think of weights and conditioning and strength training and nutrition and so on. We know that strong bodies do not happen accidentally, they are built up over time.
The same is true in the spiritual body, the body of Christ, and this is Christ’s great purpose for his church. He said, “I will build my church.” The question is, how does Christ build his church? The answer is given in Ephesians 4.
It’s also given briefly in a verse I want to read here right at the beginning, in Acts 20:32. Now, what’s interesting is that these words are actually Paul’s words to the leaders, the elders of the church of Ephesus. It is his farewell address to them. It’s the last time he will see them. It is a meeting that is emotional, with many tears, and Paul is exhorting these elders to care for the flock. And notice what he says to them, knowing he will never see them again. He does not commend them to better leadership, better organization, better strategies. Instead, he says this: “Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
“I commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up.” The word is what builds the church, the word of God’s grace.
That sentence is kind of a bridge between today’s passage and everything we’ve seen in this series. If God’s word, the God-breathed word, is what saves sinners; if the life-giving word is what gives new birth; then that very same word builds up the church. It is the body-building word.
I want us to see this this morning in Ephesians 4. We’re going to work through Ephesians 4:1-16. I’m just going to read each section as we go, and today we’re going to look at three things. We’re going to see that:
1. Christ Calls His People through His Word
2. Christ Equips the Saints through His Word
3. Christ Matures the Body through His Word
May God bless this as we expound his word together.
1. Christ Calls His People through His Word
Number one, Christ calls His people through His word. Look at Ephesians 4:1-6.
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called [notice the words, the calling to which you have been called], with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called [there it is again] to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
This is God’s word.
This is a transition point in the letter to the Ephesians. The first three chapters are Paul’s explanation of the great spiritual blessings that we have in Jesus Christ and how God has brought Jew and Gentile together into one body, one new humanity. He is building up a temple for God to be inhabited by the Spirit; the church is that temple. There’s a great prayer that God will fill the church, fill this temple with all the fullness of God, and then application begins right here in chapter 4, as Paul reminds them of the call by which they have been called. He says, “Walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.”
He’s reminding them here of how they came to be a part of the church in the first place. How does God gather his people? He gathers his people by calling them through his word.
I want you to notice three things briefly about this call.
(1) First of all, it is a creative call. It is a call that creates life, that creates faith, that creates the very response that it demands. It is a powerful call. “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Again in verse 4, he reminds them of “the hope to which you have been called.” The Christian life begins with a call.
If you are a Christian this morning, it is because God called you. It’s not merely that we are invited to Christ (although we are), but more happens. We are summoned to Christ. It is a call that comes with authority and with power.
Throughout the Scriptures, we see that this is how God saves people. This has been a theme through this series. James says that God brought us forth by the word of truth (James 1). Peter says that we’ve been born again through the living and abiding word of God—the message last week. Paul says faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. We come to God because we are called through his word, and it is a creative, life-giving call.
The word of God has power. The word of God has the power to create life. In fact, the very word of God that created the universe is the word of God that inaugurates the new creation and that calls us to faith in Christ.
Listen to this explanation from theologian Michael Horton. He says,
“Just as creation begins with a command, ’Let there be,’ ’And there was,’ so too does the new creation originate in the womb of the word. The word not only sets forth, it also brings forth. The word is not made alive, active, or effective by human decision or effort. Faith itself is created by the Spirit through that evangelical pronouncement. The word of Christ creates faith in Christ, and where this is present, there is the church.”
This was one of the great marks of the Reformation, right? The definition of the church. Calvin said it in a memorable sentence: “Wherever the pure voice of the gospel sounds forth, there, beyond all doubt, is the church.” The church is created by the word. The word creates the church; the life-giving, creative call of God.
(2) Notice also that this call is mediated through the word. God himself calls. God speaks, but he speaks through the word. You see it on the day of Pentecost, when the apostle Peter preaches in the power of the Spirit. It says, “Those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” They were added to the church through the word.
There’s a sequence there. The word is proclaimed, the word is received, people are added to the church. As Luke continues the story of the church in the book of Acts, he includes, in numerous transition points in this book, the book of Acts, he includes these little progress reports on the church, and it’s interesting how he words them. He’s talking about how the church grows, but he does so by framing it in terms of the expansion of the word. Listen to just a couple of these, okay?
Acts 6:7: “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly.”
Acts 12:24: “The word of God increased and multiplied.”
Acts 13:49: “The word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.”
Acts 19:20: “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”
I learned this from theologian Brian Rosner. He says, “To trace the activity of the Spirit in Acts is to observe the progress of the word.”
The word; this is what we have to grasp. Wherever God’s word advances, God’s church advances. The progress of the word is inseparably tied to the progress of the church. The word of God is what calls us.
Let me give you just one more passage, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14. This is one of those passages that ties together so many elements of the doctrine of salvation. But notice the language of calling. Paul says,
“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I mean, there’s a whole chain of salvation. You’re beloved by the Lord, chosen by God, saved, sanctified by the Spirit, believed in the truth, called to glory—but how does it all happen? Through the gospel. You’re called through the gospel.
Do you see this, the instrumentality of the word? I want to just ask you this morning—the first major point of application—I want to ask you, have you experienced this call? Have you heard the voice of the Spirit speaking through the word of God, bringing life to your heart, bringing light to your darkened mind, bringing you out of darkness into light, saving you by the power of God, so that you are called to God through the gospel? Has God used his word in that way?
The Lord’s word is so powerful. God uses sometimes even obscure parts of Scripture that are applied to the heart with power to bring someone to faith in Jesus Christ.
Many years ago, there was a teenager who was seventeen years old. He read these words, Ecclesiastes 11:3: “If a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie,” and he became a Christian. His name was R.C. Sproul. He said he was probably the only person in the history of the church that was converted from that verse, but God used his word to bring this man to life in Christ, to faith in Christ.
Do you resonate with these words of Charles Wesley?
“Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin in nature’s night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light!
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.”
How did that happen? The word calls us, and the Spirit works through that call.
(3) It’s a creative call, it is a call mediated through the word, and then one more thing, briefly: it is a unifying call. I stress this because it is Paul’s main point in this passage, that God not only calls us, but he calls us to something. He calls us out of darkness, he calls us into light; he calls us out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. And that call unites us to the body of Christ, and it’s a call that comes with obligation.
So he says that we are called to “walk worthy of the calling,” and he describes what that worthy walk looks like in terms of gentleness and humility and patience and forbearance and an eagerness to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Then he describes this unity—“one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” The gospel calls us into the fellowship of Christ, and it calls us into the fellowship with all who are united to Christ. It is a unifying call.
Therefore, the application here is to remember what we have been called to. We are called to walk worthy of the Lord by imitating him in humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and unity.
We sing about this in that great hymn:
“The church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord.
She is his new creation—” how?
“By water and the word,” baptism and the word.
“From heaven he came and sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her,
And for her life he died.”
It’s this truth that unites us together, the call of God through his word as he gathers his people to himself.
2. Christ Equips the Saints through His Word
But God not only calls us through his word, Christ not only calls us through his word, he also equips the saints through the word. You see this in verses 7-12.
“But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,
“’When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.’”
Paul here is quoting from Psalm 68, and he is describing here the triumphant work of Jesus Christ, who as the triumphant victorious King now gifts his church—he gives, in a sense, the spoils of war to his people, and he gifts the church. Verse 9 continues,
“(In saying, ’He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) [Then notice especially verses 11-12.] And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers [pastors and teachers], to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”
Once again, we see Christ doing something for the church through the word. Remember, we’re talking about the body-building word—the word that calls the church, but the word that also equips the church, equips the saints.
You see, the giver of the gifts is Christ, and then the nature of the gifts is given in verse 11: “The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers.”
Now the apostles and prophets, I think we have good reason to say, were foundational gifts for the church. In fact, in Ephesians 2:20, Paul talks about how the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. It’s through the apostles and prophets that the word of God is inscripturated and that we have the canon of Scripture. We have our Bibles because holy men, moved by God, moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote these things down. They are the foundational gifts.
The evangelists are those who spread that word, they spread that good news to others. Then the shepherds and teachers or pastors and teachers are those gifts given to the church in the form not only of senior pastors, but every shepherding gift in the church, leaders in the church who are equipped to minister the word to others so that the church is equipped, so that the saints are equipped.
The thing I want you to notice here is that all these gifts that Paul lists here are fundamentally word gifts. They’re not the only gifts in the church, but they are the equipping gifts in the church. They are word gifts, gifts of preaching the word, teaching the word, spreading the word, shepherding (that is, feeding the flock) with the word—the “word of his grace,” as Paul calls it in Acts 20.
This doesn’t mean merely Bible teaching; it includes that, but it is the word of his grace. It is the preaching and the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the exposition of the word, and the goal is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. That’s the purpose of the gifts.
One of the things that means—and this is important for us at Redeemer; this is kind of built into the DNA of Redeemer Church. It’s worth stating again and again and again. Redeemer Church believes, on the basis of this passage, in every-member ministry. The work of the ministry is not just for the pastors. It’s not just for the church staff. It’s not just for the elders. The work of the ministry is the work of the saints. You see that in verse 12? The gifts are given “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” If your version of the Bible has a comma between the word “saints” and “for,” get a different translation. It’s “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” In other words, the work of the ministry is your job. It’s the job of the whole church, every member of the church engaged in ministry!
The job of the teaching, pastoring, shepherding gifts in the church is to equip, to resource, to build up. Again, there’s a sequence here. Just as the word creates the church, so we see here that Christ gives gifts to the church to equip, so that the saints are able to do the work of ministry, so that the body of Christ is built up.
This implies, doesn’t it, that every member of the church has a gift, a ministry, an opportunity.
Here’s the application: If you belong to Christ, he has given you gifts. He’s given you opportunities and people to serve. The question is not whether you have a ministry or whether you have a gift, the question is whether you are using that gift and whether the teaching ministry of Redeemer is doing a good job equipping you to use that gift.
How do you know what your gift is? Do you take some kind of a personality survey, figure out what you really are geared to do? That could be a helpful thing. We actually have a resource like that on our website where you can take a spiritual gifts test. That could be a helpful thing to do; do it if you haven’t done it.
Let me tell you the simplest way to discover your gift in the body of Christ: it’s to look for needs, look for opportunities. If you can see a need, if you can see an opportunity, and then you can move in faith and in love to meet that need—to serve others, to care for others, to love others, to fill in the gaps, to use your gifting, your talents, your resources, your skills to build up others, to encourage others, to serve the church, to make it a better place—if you do that, you’ve discovered your gift.
Paul in this passage says it’s only when every joint is in place, only when every part of the body is doing its part, that the body is really built up and matures and grows. We’re going to talk about that in just a moment.
But here’s the thing: we all have a gift. The job of the teaching ministry of the church, the word in the church, equips the saints to use those gifts for the sake of the body. Find your gift, brother, sister. Look for opportunities, meet needs out of love for Christ, love for the church. Build up the body of Christ, serve as God enables you to serve.
3. Christ Matures the Body through His Word
Christ calls his people through his word, Christ equips the saints through his word. One more point, number three: Christ matures the body through his word. He matures the body through his word.
So verse 13, just continuing with the sentence we’ve already seen in verse 12, the gifts are given
“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 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 [so there’s the goal; the goal is maturity], 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. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 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.”
Now that’s a mouthful. Paul is compressing so many ideas into these sentences. Let’s just kind of break it down. What I want you to see is the goal and the means for accomplishing that goal.
Here’s the goal: maturity in Christ. Maturity in Christ. We see it in verses 13-14. He wants us to attain mature manhood, grow up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to no longer be children. That’s the goal of this ministry that equips the saints, the ministry of the word that equips the saints for ministry to the body. It’s that the body grows and matures.
What does Christian maturity look like, then? What does it look like for individuals and for the church to be mature in Christ? That’s an important thing for us to grasp. What are we after in all that we’re trying to do in this church? Do we just want more seats filled? Do we just want to add to the numbers? Do we just want a bigger budget? Do we just want more programs? Is that the goal, or is there a different goal? What does it mean to grow in Christ, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ?
Listen to J.C. Ryle, that great bishop of the nineteenth century. It’s one of the best paragraphs I’ve ever read about spiritual growth. Listen to what he says.
“When I speak of growth in grace, I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigor and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer’s heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress and increase. When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this, that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual-mindedness more marked. He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart. He manifests more of it in his life. He is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith, and from grace to grace.”
That’s spiritual growth. And brothers and sisters, that’s what we want. That’s what we want. We want to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, with a deeper sense of sin, a stronger faith, a brighter hope, a broader, more extensive love, more spiritual-mindedness, more likeness to Jesus Christ. It’s to be more like Jesus! It’s to grow up into his standard of maturity, the measure of the stature of Christ. It’s to grow up in fullness in Christ, to become more like Christ.
Listen, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether we are a church of two hundred or four hundred or six hundred or fifteen hundred; if we are not becoming more like Christ, we are not accomplishing the goal that God has for the church. The goal is maturity in Christ; numbers are a byproduct.
The way this is accomplished is through the word, and it requires these two things, means. Here are the means: number one, it requires connection; and number two, communication.
(1) Connection. Paul says that “Christ is the head, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,” and he talks about how every part of the body is connected, every part is doing its part.
We know this in a physical body. If I lop off my hand, that hand is no longer going to be connected to the body. It’s no longer going to receive the nourishment from the rest of the body, nerves and blood vessels and bones. It’s all severed. It’s a grotesque image. A piece of the body that is severed from the whole cannot grow.
In the same way spiritually, you can’t grow and you can’t contribute to the growth if you are not connected to the church. And friends, that means more than attendance on Sunday morning; it does not mean less than that. It does not mean less than that. Sunday morning is crucial. We need corporate worship together. But we need more than that. We need friendship. We need one-anothering. We need one-on-one, life-on-life ministry. We need older, mature Christians discipling younger, newer Christians. We need the church in fellowship. We need people in groups, in teams, serving alongside one another, not just to make the machinery of the church work, but because it’s through those connections that the spiritual maturity of the church transpires. The connection is necessary.
One of the great myths of modern Christianity is that “I can follow Jesus by myself.” Not so. It doesn’t matter how many sermons you livestream, how many podcasts you listen to, how many books you read, as wonderful as those things are: if there is no vital connection in relationship with other Christians, you will neither mature yourself nor contribute to the maturity of others. You need the church, and the church needs you. Get connected.
(2) The means is connection, but it’s not just connection. It’s connection with communication. Members of the body must be connected, and there is a communication that happens.
We know this in the physical body, nerves communicating signals from the brain to the other parts of the body; blood vessels and arteries so that the blood flows through the body. There’s a communication that happens, there’s a system in the physical body where there’s communication of life between the various parts.
In the same way, there must be in the church communication. Notice how Paul describes this in verses 15-16. He’s just said, “I don’t want you to be like children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine; rather,” verse 15, “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 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.”
Focus on that phrase, “Speaking the truth in love.” What is it? It’s communication. It’s word ministry. It’s word ministry.
Really, “speaking the truth” is one verb in the Greek, and it carries the idea not only of speaking with our words but of the application of truth in all dimensions of life. You could almost read it like this: “Truthing in love.”
But we primarily do that as we teach and admonish and encourage and comfort and counsel and pray for one another, as we use our words to be the channels through which the word of God comes through to minister to other believers.
The idea here is that the ministry which begins in the pulpit now spreads through the whole congregation, and the whole body of Christ becomes a word-centered, word-ministering community. And as the church does that, it builds itself up in love.
The word of his grace is able to build you up. Christ builds the body, and he builds the body through the parts of the body speaking truth and love, so that the body is built up.
Final application—one more illustration and I’m done. I want you to just ask yourself a simple question this morning: Are people around me more spiritually mature because they know me? Are you contributing to the spiritual maturity of others in the body of Christ? That’s what Paul says should be happening. He says when every part is doing its work, the body is built up—every part! The body is built up as we speak the truth in love.
Are people around me more spiritually mature because they know me? Am I encouraging others with Scripture? Am I praying with them and for them? Am I comforting them with the promises of God? Am I able to gently and lovingly bring God’s counsel into their lives? Do I point them to Jesus Christ? Am I the kind of Christian through whom the word flows to others throughout the week? That is the secret of a healthy church. A church is healthy to the degree that that ministry is happening in the body of Christ, not just on Sunday morning but throughout the week. To the degree it’s not happening, it’s not healthy. This is how the word builds up the body of Christ, but the word is what does the work.
Final illustration. When Martin Luther was hidden in the Wartburg Castle after the Diet of Worms, the more radical reformers took over in Wittenberg. They were toppling over statues, they were trying to reform the church by force—images being destroyed, the mass abolished abruptly, division spreading through the city, violence on every side. When Luther returned, he agreed that the church needed reform, but he insisted that God’s people are not changed through coercion, they are changed through the word.
He reflected on these events years later, and this is what he said. He said,
“I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s word, otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip and my Amsdorf, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did so much damage to it. I did nothing; the word did it all.”
Now, in a sense, of course, Luther didn’t do nothing. I mean, never was a man more tireless. He was writing like crazy, he was translating the New Testament into German, he was preaching. His volumes now fill a whole bookcase; there are something like sixty, seventy volumes of Luther’s works. Amazing productivity. But he says, “It wasn’t me, it was the word.” The power was not in Luther, the power was in the word of God.
The same is true today. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Paul tells us how he builds the church: he builds it through the word of his grace, the word which calls us, the word which equips us, the word which matures us. But listen, the word does it all.
What you and I need is a fresh devotion to that word, a fresh confidence in that word, dependence on that word, the ministry of that word. Let’s pray.
Gracious God, we thank you this morning for giving us your word; that you have spoken to us through apostles and prophets; that you have spoken to us supremely through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; that you have encapsulated this word in the pages of Holy Scripture; that you have given us the Bible in our own language; that we are so well-resourced and so well-equipped, Lord, to know and teach and communicate your word. Lord, we thank you for that, and our prayer this morning is that you would forgive us for every way in which we have neglected your word. Forgive us, Lord, for every instance where we have not expressed confidence in your word, and give us hearts this morning that are freshly devoted to your word. When your word speaks, you speak.
Lord, since this is true, we pray that you would give us ears to hear and hearts to understand and hands and feet to obey and mouths to speak your word, and that you would do a mighty work in our own lives and in this community of believers and in this area in which we live, and that you would do it through the ministry of the word.
Help each one of us to see the part that we have to play. Help each one of us to see that we have a stewardship, that we have opportunities, we have gifts, we have resources, we have time, we have homes, we have friendships and relationships. Help us to use those as opportunities to minister the word to others.
Help us, Lord, to be connected to one another, and if we are not yet connected, to seek those connections out. Lord, by your Spirit, do the work that you want to do in our hearts and in our lives.
As we come now to the table of the Lord, we ask you to prepare our hearts for it. May we once again come to the table in repentance and in faith, turning from our sins and trusting in Christ our Savior, who has paid for our sins with his precious blood. We pray, Lord, that in these moments you would apply your word to our hearts and apply the gospel to our hearts in such a way that we are renewed and encouraged and sanctified, deepened in our fellowship with you. We pray this in Jesus’ name and for his sake, amen.
