Fullness

Imagine being in a wooden boat on a stormy sea. The waves are rocking your boat, quickly filling it with water. And on top all of that, it is night time. This is the situation that Jesus’ disciples found themselves in one evening (read Mark 4:35-37). Jesus was so at peace, despite the storm, that He was asleep in the stern of the boat! His disciples woke Him up, in quite a panic.

Mark 4:39-40 (WEBBE): ³⁹He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”
⁴¹They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Jesus spoke to the storm, and it obeyed Him. Their boat was safe once more, and so were the small boats that accompanied them. This miracle made such an impression on them, that it is said that they “were greatly afraid”.

Jesus could have just left it at that, and the account would have been pretty impressive already. It clearly demonstrated His power. So why did he ask about them being afraid and not having faith? Because He wanted to emphasize that there is more beyond what they had taken hold of for themselves at that point. There was more for them to grow into.

The disciples had to learn and grow over time, just like we have to today. They had to spend time with Jesus, in His physical presence when He was on Earth, learning from Him. Remember, all of this happened before He was crucified and resurrected, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Today, we still need to spend time with God, but now we don’t need to go far at all – He lives IN US!

Colossians 1:27b (WEBBE): … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

1 Corinthians 6:19 (WEBBE): ¹⁹Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

So what is it that is available for us to grow into? Lets look at what Paul prayed for the Ephesians to receive.

Ephesians 3:14-19 (WEBBE): ¹⁴For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, ¹⁷that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Power, faith, love. Living lives “filled with all the fullness of God” is the state that we are supposed to be in. Paul wouldn’t have asked for this for the Ephesians if it wasn’t possible. And Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we can have this, just as much as the early church. It is done, and paid for. Now we just need to grow into that.

God had a plan for how we can help one another to reach that goal. He knew that it wouldn’t just happen overnight, so He appointed people to help us to grow into fully mature believers.

Ephesians 4:11-16 (WEBBE): ¹¹He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; ¹²for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; ¹⁵but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, ¹⁶from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

The point of the five-fold ministry is not so that there are teachers for the sake of having teachers. The point is that they help each and every believer to grow into maturity, which means being “filled with all the fullness of God”. It is meant for all believers to reach that maturity, not just for a chosen few. Think for a moment about the meaning of “all” (verse 13). In Greek it is πᾶς (pas). According to Thayer’s Greek Definitions, this means “1) individually 1a) each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything”. Have you grasped the meaning of “all” here?

This is meant for YOU!