1. "Friends, founders of other world religions are all dead. I don't mean any disrespect when I say that the Buddha is dead. Gautama's bones have long again been forgotten. Muhammad is dead. However great an effect he may have had in one place or another, the man himself is dead and Muslims make no other claim. Friends, the founders of all the world religions are dead, except for Jesus. Jesus is alive."

2. "The lower regions that Paul mentions here are not some nether region below the earth. They are the earth. This is the descent. We see it in every scene from Bethlehem to Calvary to his burial in a stranger's tomb."

3. "We have lived for ourselves and other lesser objects. We have spent days and weeks and months and some of us years in darkness. And when that realization hits us, many of us are tempted to be utterly crushed and undone. But then we hear the good news that God who made us has also sent a Savior who could remake us."

4. "Why recount the fall of Judah in 2 Chronicles if God was not to send His only Son to come and find His scattered people and purchase them forever out of bondage? Why recount the sinful wanderings of God's people through the prophet Hosea if God did not intend to answer fully and forever and finally His people's unfaithfulness by the faithfulness of His Son?"

5. "What does it mean for Christ to be exalted to fill the universe? Well, we begin to see what it means here among us as the centrality of Christ in this book becomes the reality of life among us in this congregation. As Christ becomes central to the way we look at and love and care for and pray for each other."

6. "According to the measure of Christ's gift is where your jealousy or envy of other people's gifts in this church should go to die. Grab this verse and just stare at it, memorize it and meditate on it. Preach it back to yourself."

7. "Unity in a church does not come through an unnatural uniformity, but in a vibrant mutual unity where one helps the other supplementing what one lacks, offering to supply what they have themselves."

8. "Diversity is sometimes presented as a good all on its own. And while there are certainly benefits to observing the wide variety of people whom Christ has saved to love God and to love each other, our diversity is valuable because we all point to Christ. The value of Christian diversity is at best a reflection of Christian unity."

9. "The good news is that we never have any reason to compare our gifts with somebody else's. Never. There are plenty of gifts for all to go around. It's Christmas morning and better. We can freely spend time together rejoicing in each other's various capacities rather than resenting them."

10. "I don't think you really ever have to know what your specific gifts are. I think you and I simply need to respond to impulses and good desires, opportunities and needs. And as we grow in knowledge of God's Word and are filled with His Spirit, walking in fellowship with brothers and sisters, we grow in our caring for others and in helping them grow."

Observation Questions

1. According to Ephesians 4:7, what was given to each believer, and on what basis was it given?

2. In Ephesians 4:8, what three things does Paul say Christ did when "He ascended on high"?

3. What question does Paul raise in verse 9 about the meaning of Christ's ascension, and what answer does he provide?

4. According to verse 10, how far did Christ ascend, and what was the purpose of His ascension?

5. Looking back at Ephesians 2:19-22, how does Paul describe what believers are being built into together?

6. In Ephesians 1:20-23, where did God seat Christ after raising Him from the dead, and what did God put under Christ's feet?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Paul begin verse 7 with "but" after emphasizing unity in the previous verses, and what is he trying to help the Ephesian believers understand about the relationship between unity and diversity of gifts?

2. How does Paul's interpretation of Psalm 68:18 connect Christ's incarnation (descending) with His exaltation (ascending), and why is this descent-then-ascent pattern significant for understanding who Christ is?

3. What does it mean for Christ to "fill all things" (verse 10), and how does this connect to Paul's earlier statement in Ephesians 1:23 that the church is "the fullness of Him who fills all in all"?

4. According to the sermon, how does the phrase "according to the measure of Christ's gift" (verse 7) address the potential problem of jealousy or envy among believers regarding spiritual gifts?

5. How does the image of a victorious king distributing spoils to his people help explain Christ's role in giving gifts to the church, and what does this reveal about the source and purpose of spiritual gifts?

Application Questions

1. The sermon emphasized that jealousy over others' gifts should "go to die" at verse 7's phrase "according to the measure of Christ's gift." In what specific area of church life or service do you struggle with comparing your gifts to others, and how might meditating on Christ as the one who measures out gifts change your perspective?

2. The preacher encouraged believers to "pray specifically for God to gift you in ways that will build up the church." What is one concrete way you could serve your local church this week that you haven't considered before, and how might you begin praying about this?

3. The sermon pointed out that much faithful service in the church goes unseen, like Pastor Parker's intervention for Franklin Smith. How does knowing that Christ sees and uses your unseen service affect your motivation to serve, and what "unseen" act of service might you be neglecting because it lacks public recognition?

4. The preacher stated that "contentment leads to contribution" regarding our gifts. In what area of your life or church involvement do you need to grow in contentment with how God has equipped you, and what would it look like to move from discontent to joyful contribution?

5. For parents: The sermon specifically addressed children, encouraging them to discuss with their parents how God could use them. What conversation could you have with your children (or a younger believer) this week about how God has uniquely made and gifted them for His purposes?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Psalm 68:1-20 — This is the Old Testament passage Paul quotes in Ephesians 4:8, celebrating God's victorious deliverance of His people and His ascent to dwell among them.

2. 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 — Paul's extended teaching on the diversity of spiritual gifts within the one body of Christ, emphasizing that each member is necessary and given gifts by the same Spirit.

3. Philippians 2:5-11 — This passage describes Christ's descent in incarnation and humiliation, followed by His exaltation, directly paralleling Paul's argument in Ephesians 4:9-10.

4. Romans 12:3-8 — Paul teaches believers to think soberly about their gifts according to the measure of faith God has given, and to use differing gifts for the good of the body.

5. Acts 2:29-36 — Peter's Pentecost sermon declares that the risen and ascended Christ has poured out the Holy Spirit, showing how Christ's victory results in gifts for His people.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Story of Franklin Smith's Court-Martial and Lincoln's Victory

II. Who Is the Victor? (Ephesians 4:7-10)

III. What Is the Victor's Goal?

IV. How Does Christ Achieve This Goal?

V. Application: Trusting Christ's Distribution of Gifts for the Church's Unity

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Last week a number of you asked me, But what happened to Mr. Smith, the member of Joseph Parker's church who was being court-martialed in 1864? I got the question at the door. I got the question in emails. I got the question in texts. The truth is, I didn't know the answer, so I couldn't tell you.

But the apparently indefatigable Matt Martine, a productive member member of the Unsatisfied Group found the answer in the October 1972 issue of American Heritage magazine. And the article, among other things, shows that victory has its privileges. What do I mean? Well, for a number of years, the Navy had been besieged by critics who suggested that there was widespread bribery and profiteering and general corruption in contracting.

Career naval officers were embarrassed at being made to look at best incompetent and at worst corrupt themselves. A number of them got together and took advantage of wartime inconsistency in protecting the civilian rights to go after a contractor who had publicly criticized them for such corruption and that contractor was Mr. Smith, a member of Joseph Parker's church.

They had an ingenious plan of deception. They would try to convict the messenger because of the message he was bringing. They would show all that evidence that he had as really his own corruption, as if he were the one in the wrong. It was the kind of best defense is a good offense strategy. Well, to finish the story from last week, Joseph Parker, our second pastor, had in 1864 gotten President Lincoln to move the location of the trial.

Do you remember? That's where I left off. Lincoln says yes, and then he heads off the telegraph office at great speed to tell them they can move. Well, the rest of the story is that Franklin Smith, that's his first name, Parker's Church Sunday School Superintendent, at the Shalmut Avenue Baptist Church in Boston, where Joseph Parker was at the time the founding pastor. Smith was tried back in Boston, as Parker had asked.

The trial lasted 115 days, from September 15, 1864 to January 13, 1865. For Mr. Smith, the most important thing that happened in that period was that Abraham Lincoln was re-elected as President of the United States in November of 1864. On January 13th, 1865, Franklin Smith was convicted, as Parker had feared he would be, in what was essentially a rigged court-martial. This caused outrage around Boston and, in fact, around New England among merchants who knew Smith and his sterling character, among New England representatives and senators in Washington, but that's not the end of the story. That's where victory and its privileges come in.

Abraham Lincoln had won the presidency in 1860 and again in 1864. He'd given his famous Second Inaugural Address just a few blocks away from here down the street on March 4th, Saturday, 1865. Part of the power of Lincoln's office was the power to review and set aside judicial misjudgments. And injustices. And Lincoln had for 27 years practiced law and in fact had been a celebrated trial attorney.

When he reviewed the 3,000 pages of material surrounding Smith's trial, he saw right through what was happening. Two weeks to the day after he gave his celebrated Second Inaugural on the east steps of the Capitol on Saturday, March 18th, 1865, Lincoln issued a decision, concluding, Judgment and sentence are disapproved and declared null, and the accused ordered to be discharged. Victory has its privileges. And that is, at least in part, Paul's point in the passage of Ephesians we come to this morning.

Now that was artful. Ephesians chapter 4 Verses 7 to 10, found on page 977 in the Bible's provided. And, by the way, visitors, if you don't have a Bible of your own at home that you can read, please take this one, this Red Pew Bible, home with you as a gift from our congregation to you. So let's read this passage now, Ephesians, chapter 4, beginning at verse 7. 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.' 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. We'll ask three questions. Number one, who is the victor? Who is the victor?

Number two, what is the victor's goal? What is his goal?

And number three, How does he achieve it? How does he achieve it? And I pray that as we consider this, you'll see your own part in this great victory.

Number one, who is the victor? Paul knew the Hebrew Scriptures well. He loved the Psalms and he quoted them often. He knew Psalm 68 was a psalm in which David had recalled God's gracious action in saving his people giving them the Promised Land, caring for them, foreseeing worldwide worship of God. The greatness of God and His sovereign power that Paul had been describing in the first three chapters of Ephesians can be found also described or alluded to or presumed in Psalm 68.

The victories that God's people had seen under Moses and Joshua and even under David himself were real, and they also pointed to God's own greater victory to come. Paul's letter to the Ephesians has talked much about the church as the dwelling place of God. Do you remember that? Look back in Ephesians 2:19.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Meanwhile, in Psalm 68:18 talked about a place where the Lord God may dwell.

In fact, the last part of Psalm 68:18 reads, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there. What a radically gracious image. This holy God dwelling among the rebellious. It sounds like Old Testament Israel.

It sounds like us.

So when that verse, Psalm 68:18, began with, you, ascended on high, you might wonder how God could ascend. To ascend means to physically go up, but He is the highest of the high. Or as an image, we might use it of ascending to a position of authority, like a prince when he ascends to the throne of his late father, the king. But there, too, how could God ever ascend. But perhaps Paul then thought of Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3:13: no one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

So when we read Psalm 68:18 that Paul quotes here in our passage, when we read Psalm 68:18, you, ascended on high, Paul understood that the way the Most High God had gone up higher was just like Jesus had told Nicodemus. By first coming down.

In fact, that's just how Paul explains himself in the aside there in verses 9 and 10. He draws the reader to the question of what David meant by he ascended, and Paul reasoned, just like Jesus had, that the going up means that he who ascended must first have descended.

Well, where did God descend? Never more clearly or more profoundly than when the Son of God became incarnate.

How did Paul put it to the Philippian Christians? The Son of God was born in the likeness of men and humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Friends, the lower regions that Paul mentions here are not some nether region below the earth. They are the earth. The ESV has done this well, the lower regions, comma, the earth.

This is the descent. We see it in every scene from Bethlehem to Calvary to his burial in a stranger's tomb. Jesus Christ is, as we've already sung today, the incarnate Word. My debt was paid by Jesus' death.

Friend, do you understand this? This is why this church exists. This is why any true gospel preaching church exists, because we understand that we have all of us incurred a debt. God does not owe us life. He didn't give us life because He owed it to us.

He created us. And the life that He created us, He created us to live for Him.

But, friend, we have not lived this life for Him. None of us. I don't have to know you personally to say that. I just need to know my Bible. The Bible is clear that none of us have lived for God as we should.

We have lived for ourselves and other lesser objects. We have spent days and weeks and months and some of us years in darkness. And when that realization hits us, many of us are tempted to be utterly crushed and undone. But then we hear the good news that God who made us has also sent a Savior who could remake us. The one who was ultimately responsible for our first birth has said there could be a second, that we could be born again, that our sins could be forgiven, that Christ's goodness and righteousness could be given to us, and that His death would pay for our sins.

Could this be true? Such good news! God raised His Son from the dead to show that this was true. He ascended to heaven, as we read about here in our own passage. Friend, this is true and can be true, obviously, and in your own life.

If you want to know more about what it would look like for you to repent of your sins, for you to trust in Christ, talk to the person next to you. You're at a meeting of hundreds of Christians. Talk to any of us at the doors on the way out. We would love to talk to you about this, about what it means to become a Christian and how you could be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and know the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ is this victor.

His is the victory. Friends, founders of other world religions are all dead. I don't mean any disrespect when I say that the Buddha is dead. Gautama's bones have long again been forgotten. Muhammad is dead.

However, great an effect he may have had in one place or another, the man himself is dead and Muslims make no other claim. Friends, the founders of all the world religions are dead, except for Jesus. Jesus is alive. He arose and ascended in victory and calls all of us to bend our knees in submission to Him. So brothers and sisters rejoice in His victory that He will dwell even here among the rebellious with us.

You can see why Baptist churches traditionally had no separate choirs. They wanted the whole congregation to be the choir to sing God's praises. They had no separate Sundays like Easter. They wanted every Lord's Day to be given over to begin each week with a celebration of Christ's resurrection victory. Christ is the victor, and we begin every week here on the hill by celebrating His victory.

But let's go a little further in considering Christ's victory with our second question. Number two, what is His goal? What is the goal of this victory? We see the answer to this in Paul's description of Christ in verse 10. He who descended is the one who also ascended, far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.

Christ is the very one who ascended, as Paul had said back in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 21, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named. And Christ did this, we read here, that He might fill all things. So Christ will fill all in all. This is the fact that Christ will have such a glorious preeminence that it will be obvious to all. You think of that picture of God dwelling with His people forever in Revelation 22 where we read, the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.

Friends, David never wrote a psalm or Solomon a proverb. Friends, Moses never took down a law nor Jeremiah's scribe recorded a prophecy that did not in some very basic sense point to the culmination of God's plan in Christ. There's no place you can go in the Bible without understanding this. Why recount the fall of Judah in 2 Chronicles? If God was not to send His only Son to come and find His scattered people and purchase them forever out of bondage.

Why recount the sinful wanderings of God's people through the prophet Hosea if God did not intend to answer fully and forever and finally His people's unfaithfulness by the faithfulness of His Son? Why should Paul's friend Luke have so meticulously researched his own account of Christ's ministry, unless Jesus was the one He claimed to be, who taught His disciples. Luke says in Luke 24, Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Why would Paul have taken the trouble to send his dear friend Titus to the island of Crete? And to write to the Christians there about Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, it is the mercy of Jesus Christ that has stood in the way and opposed our own self-destructive trajectories, whether we tended to self-righteousness or to some other way of self-destruction. God's revelation is supremely about Christ. So what does it mean for Christ to be exalted to fill the universe? Well, we begin to see what it means here among us as the centrality of Christ in this book becomes the reality of life among us in this congregation. As Christ becomes central to the way we look at and love and care for and pray for each other.

When Christ ascended, His exaltation was a visible depiction of a spiritual reality, His ultimate exaltation. But Paul in Ephesians 1:20 said, being seated at the right hand of God. That means operating with the full power and authority of God. Listen again to how Paul exalted in this back in chapter 1, starting in verse 20. 15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Friends, this is how Paul had prayed for the Ephesian believers. Look at the end of chapter 3, verse 18. You may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Friends, we call this letter Ephesians, but it contains no street map of Ephesus, nor any long description of the Ephesian people.

This letter is about Jesus Christ as the Father's plan, the saving and uniting one, the mystery of the gospel, the one whose body the church is, whose Spirit gives us life and whose example shows us how to live in all our daily relationships. That's why we call the humbled and exalted one Lord. He is the one we follow. Even today, as we sit here, Christ is filling all the world with the preaching of His gospel, the pouring out of His Spirit, the growth of His church, and the remaining promise of His return. As God said, through Jeremiah, Do I not fill heaven and earth?

This is Christ's goal through His victory, to fill all things for His glory.

My last question, number three, How does Christ achieve this goal? How does Christ achieve this goal. And this is why I think Paul has brought forward this truth about Jesus Christ's victory and exaltation. I wonder if you've followed this through Ephesians. God intends to display His wisdom through the church.

This is the special way that Christ is filling the universe, as His gospel is proclaimed and His Spirit is poured out as He was at Pentecost. Do you remember what Peter preached at Pentecost? This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. That day Jesus Christ began a new phase in His public exaltation. As God dwelt with His rebellious people through His Holy Spirit being poured out.

Why do you think our passage begins with a but there at the beginning of Ephesians 4:7?

Well, that makes you go back and look at the verses just before it that we considered last week. And the verses that are to come, verse 11 following our next study, take just a moment right now and work it out in your own mind why you think Paul begins verse 7 with a but. I'm not going to call for any out loud answers, but I do want you to think about it for a minute. Take your eyes, put them down on the Bible, or your phone copy of it. Why is that but there?

Paul, in the previous verses, was talking about unity. We thought about that last week.

Now in verse 7, Paul brings into view one of the most obvious barriers to that unity, or at least apparent barriers. And that would be our differences. 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.

The Psalm that Paul cited here, Psalm 68, which talked about the Lord going up, thus implying the Lord's coming down, This psalm had also talked about his receiving gifts in the psalm, or giving gifts as Paul recounted it here. The significance is the same because the victor received the gifts in order to give them out to his people so they could share the spoils. Just like Thiago read to us about David doing in that passage from 1 Samuel 30, or just like Peter at Pentecost had said, Jesus received the Spirit from the Father and poured Him out on His people. This part of Ephesians should remind you of other passages of Paul's instructions, like 1 Corinthians, where discussions of diversity of gifts in chapter 12 leads to the famous consideration of love in chapter 13 and the nature of love. And then the exhortation of Paul to privilege gifts which build up the whole church in chapter 14.

So it seems that diversity of gifts only initially appear to detract from the unity of the body. In fact, Paul here is clear that the diversity of gifts in the body should not obscure the unity of the giver or the unity of his purpose. They're actually meant to forward that unity. Look again at verse 7, But grace was given to each one of us each one of us. Paul here emphasizes the fact that this calling to life in Christ together that had been given to them was given by grace.

And that this grace included both the grand concept of God's saving grace, like up there in chapter 2 where he said, By grace you have been saved. There's that use of the word grace. But also, There's more specific instances of God's grace. So look there in chapter 3:2, where Paul says to them, Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. What does he mean by that specifically?

Well, look down at verse 8, chapter 3:8. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. So Paul's call to preach to the Gentiles was a smaller grace. There's the great grand grace of salvation, and then there's a smaller grace, a particular gift that God gave to Paul to further his plans. Grace was given to each one of us.

Paul is talking here about the specific additional gifts of grace that God gives to each Christian in addition to the grand grace of saving faith. So this is the kind of gift that Paul wrote to the Roman church about in Romans 12:6, Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. Or he wrote to the Corinthian Christians where Paul listed out various spiritual gifts that they might have among them and he says in 1 Corinthians 12:11, All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. See how that fits with what Paul is saying here in verse 7, Ephesians 4:7, that grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. So these smaller, more specific gifts aren't all the same.

They differ from each other. That's why Paul starts verse 7 with that but. Paul has been stressing their unity, their unity given the very unity that they were to be eager to maintain that we considered last week, but now he turns to take account of some of the differences that the Ephesians would be experiencing in the congregation. And if you look down at verse 11, it seems clear that Paul was here in verse 7 referring to differing measures of Christ's gift, differing amounts, larger and smaller, but each and all according to Christ's decision. He was helping them to understand their differences.

Brothers and sisters, this phrase In verse 7, According to the measure of Christ's gift is where your jealousy or envy of other people's gifts in this church should go to die.

According to the measure of Christ's gift. Grab this verse and just stare at it, memorize it and meditate on it. Preach it back to yourself. Unity in a church does not come through an unnatural uniformity, but in a vibrant mutual unity where one helps the other supplementing what one lacks, offering to supply what they have themselves. We're like the building where there are foundational materials and there are framing materials and there are roofing materials all together.

And which one you and I are is not finally measured out by us or by the elders or by other circumstances, but finally and ultimately by Christ. He is the one who makes out these measures. He is the one who gifts his congregation. Dear friend, you see how important this is. This is where we can find some peace and satisfaction with our part in working for the unity of the body, as opposed to the roles assigned to others.

Our part is what Christ has given to us. Pray that you can grow in trusting God with differences between you and others. Growth in contentment here should actually help your ability to contribute to the health and welfare of the church. Contentment leads to contribution. God's plan is to use your gifts in others' lives and to use others' gifts in your own life.

His plan for others, for the local church as a whole, to have a vital role in your own spiritual life. Sometimes people today seem a little confused about diversity and unity. Diversity is sometimes presented as a good all on its own. And while there are certainly benefits to observing the wide variety of people whom Christ has saved to love God and to love each other, our diversity is valuable because we all point to Christ. We are valuable primarily as we all together, from wherever we're standing, Whoever we are, point to Christ in our life and words.

The value of Christian diversity is at best a reflection of Christian unity. And this is where Paul turns to Psalm 68:18. Paul sees justification for Christ's role here like this in Psalm 68, a psalm about God's great victory. You notice the way Paul introduced it in verse 8. Therefore it says, only time Paul in Ephesians uses that kind of introductory phrase to a quotation.

It's part of his move, I think, from the first half of his letter to the second half, from talking about these great truths now to turning and showing how they're lived out in the lives of individuals and how it fits into God's glorious plan for His church. So Paul is showing how it is that Christ has the right to give His followers these gifts. Christ, the victorious King, has a role for each Christian in the church. Victory has its privileges. He's won.

He gets the spoils. He shares with those who were in the battle with Him and those who kept the baggage. He shares according to His measure. When He ascended on high, He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men. So these gifts of Christ here in particular, some of them are listed down in verse 11, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers.

There are some gifts by which Christ will build up and so bring unity to His church. Some listed there in verse 11. But we don't assume everybody in the church is one of those categories. So here in verse 7, it's those kinds of gifts, but it's spread out across all the members of the church. So each one of us has gifts from God.

More on the particular ones in verse 11, Lord willing, the next time we come back to this. So there's the gift of salvation, the larger gift, and then there are the smaller gifts. And among those more specific gifts are those that Paul lists in verse 11 that we'll come to next time, and they are part of all these smaller gifts which would include each one of us, as Paul says in verse 7. So the gifts listed in verse 11. Are just a subset of each one of us gifts listed here in verse...

or mentioned here in verse 7. So these gifts that we've been given are the way Christ will continue His victory. He works through us. We are His body. The church, with these divinely given powers, is the visible proof of the truth of Christ's resurrection and ascension.

'till He comes again visibly and bodily to reign.' Dear friend, does this seem too good to be true? Do you believe that God could show such grace to you individually? That you could actually know this? That you could be each one of us there in verse 7 that have been given gifts? That He could use you for His grand purposes?

We understand that that is what is going on in the local church even today. And that that's not because you or I are so special, but because God is so mighty, so gracious, so able, and full of power. The one who has these great plans is the one who gives us everything we need to be a part of them. Even in the ways we don't fully understand. I pray that you can find peace and joy resting in that great confidence here this morning.

And if you're not a Christian, consider what God may have for you in this. Maybe you never understood this part of Christianity. Maybe Christianity seemed like a religious thing you just do every once in a while. You didn't realize that God had this larger plan and that you could come and be a part of this larger plan. Friends, talk to one of us afterwards to understand more what that could mean in your own life.

And kids, listen to me for just a second. Younger people, listen up, kids. Does one of your brothers or sisters seem to have gotten all the brains in the family? Or maybe all the artistic ability? Or maybe all the athletic ability?

I see various people pointing. Do you even struggle with the way that God has made you?

One of the great things about becoming a Christian is that you find out how much God is both deliberate and generous in the way He makes us. In the way He prepares us, in the way He equips us, and uses things that we wouldn't even begin to think He was going to use.

If you don't see how God could use you, maybe at home over lunch, talk to your mom or dad about how God could use somebody like you. Have a conversation with with it. Not one of us in the church is left out of God's kind gifts. Christ has given us exactly what we need according to His wise love. And it's all made much easier when we remember that our gifts have been given to us for Christ's glory, not our own.

Oh, Mark, that's easy for you to say. You're the preacher. We're all sitting here listening to you. Well, I admit it could look that way, maybe, if you don't know me, if you don't know my own heart, if you don't know my family, if you didn't hear my always optimistic and encouraging mother's crushed hopes and watch her tears as I told her that I thought God wanted me to be a pastor. But, Christian, we don't ultimately look to our parents.

Or our own ambitions, but to Christ. We trust Him to place us as He will for His glory. We don't determine the form that God's grace takes in our own lives. If you want to think more about this, maybe grab 1 Corinthians 12 and read that over lunch. The good news is that we never have any reason to compare our gifts with somebody else's.

Never. There are plenty of gifts for all to go around. It's Christmas morning and better. We can freely spend time together rejoicing in each other's various capacities rather than resenting them. Rejoicing, brothers and sisters.

I pray that you this morning will rejoice for the way Christ in His infinite wisdom and love has gifted and equipped each one of us. It's so good that every one of us here is not just a copy of me or of you or of anyone else. Christ giving out gifts in different measures to different folks is part of how He makes up the whole that is the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, and it is every other gospel preaching church there is around this city and around this world. Christ is the one who determines the contribution that we'll get to make in each other's lives. I praise God for how He's used so many of you, certainly you all together, but so many of you individually in my own life.

What a privilege that is. And I pray you've known something of that blessing in your own life, whether your time here started three decades ago or three weeks ago. And can I give you some advice for your prayers? Take a leaf from Paul's letter in 1 Corinthians 14 and pray specifically for God to gift you in ways that will build up the church. You will not regret that prayer.

Pray that God will gift you in ways that build up the church. And that may mean this church for decades. Thank you for so many of you. Thank you, Roachfords. Thank you, Jim Cox.

Thank you, Maxine. Thank you, so many who have been here for many decades, longer than I've been alive. Or it may take you to Grace Covenant Church in Elgin, Illinois. Or to the Nain Christian Church in Dubai. Or just across the river to Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria.

But whatever church Christ places you in, Pray that God will use you to build it up. As we use our gifts together here in this church, we actually preserve the unity of the body and become more visible proof of Christ's victory. I don't think you really ever have to know what your specific gifts are. I don't think you have to know what gifts you've been given beyond salvation. I think you and I simply need to respond to impulses and good desires opportunities and needs.

And as we grow in knowledge of God's Word and are filled with His Spirit, walking in fellowship with brothers and sisters, we grow and we grow in our caring for others and in helping them grow. And no one here has been left out of being given the ability to love. This is how Christ's victory will be completed and is being completed even now. Now, let's briefly return to 19th century Washington, and one last time to the Smith case. If you read the American Heritage article on it that I cited in the beginning, various senators and congressmen and business leaders play the lead roles.

Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner really plays The starring role, supporting helps are found in Senator Joseph Parker Hale of New Hampshire and others. You will not find any mention of our pastor, Joseph Parker, and his appeal to President Lincoln. Parker failed in his effort to get the trial called off. Parker failed. In his effort to get the court martial replaced by a civilian trial.

Parker failed even to get the one responsible for the government's case changed. All Parker's intervention did was change the trial's location from Philadelphia to Boston. Smith was still tried, he was still convicted, and Lincoln still overturned the verdict. Ultra. But you may remember how Parker had mentioned Smith's health and the heat below deck in the ship during the summer where Smith was being kept in Philadelphia.

Parker was concerned that the plot in moving the trial there, in part, was to expose Smith to the heat in order to kill him. Perhaps Smith would have died, killed by the unventilated heat below deck, if the location had not been changed back to Boston.

Perhaps Pastor Parker's unknown intervention was decisive in Smith's surviving to be delivered. We can't know. It's up to God to know His purposes and all the gifts He gives. For all His purposes, apparently, great and small. Parker never published his memoirs.

We can't know who would have known of his intervention. Certainly the author of the article in American Heritage didn't know about it.

Perhaps as the number, as few people, as the number who know about many of the things you've done in this church in service of the Lord, because you love Him, because He's loved you. Who knows what all Josh Cooper gets up to as an elder. Or how much time Jackie Galonski puts into helping members help our teenagers? How much of the smooth running of our life together is due to Jenny Apple's faithful treasuring, or Taylor West's kind making up of these bulletins that hundreds of us are using this morning?

Can you see how teaching the children, or working to help folks overseas in various ways, or counseling a distressed sister, or giving years to sharing the Gospel with undergrads, or being generous financially, are all significant in their own way.

Part of Christ's victory in giving you the gifts that He has.

I pray that this morning God will help you to trust that the gifts He's entrusted to you will be part of exactly what's required for us together to know and show the grace and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And will help to grow us together in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, whatever your situation, whatever your role, whatever your lot. I pray that today you'll be able to sing from the bottom of your heart, Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

Let's pray. Lord God, we thank youk for the gift of youf Word. We thank youk for showing us what it means. We rejoice that the Christ who has ascended far above all the heavens is the same one who descended for us. We thank youk that in His victory He has given gifts to each one of us here.

In His church. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to trust you for the measure of gift that you've given to us and that you will use us for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.