The sermon continues an ongoing exposition of Ephesians 4, focusing on verses 11-14, and picks up where the previous week's message left off. Paul teaches that the ascended Christ gave gifts to his church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. The sermon reviews that apostles and prophets received special revelation and laid the foundation of the church in Scripture, a foundation that is not repeated. It then turns to the remaining gifts — evangelists and pastor-teachers — noting that while every believer is, to some extent, called to evangelize, teach, and shepherd others (in the family, at church, at work), Christ has also set apart certain people who devote themselves full-time to these callings with particular emphasis. Pastor Stephen Tong is held up as an example of a man of many gifts — preacher, teacher, choir conductor, even a builder and craftsman — whose deepest calling, evident to anyone who has followed his ministry closely, is that of an evangelist: a man who goes everywhere proclaiming the gospel. The sermon recalls a choir tribute sung to him in America, "Wherever You Send Me," as evidence that those closest to him understood his evangelistic heart. Missionaries who leave their homeland, like Michael Densmore coming from America to Indonesia, are cited as another expression of this calling, and the sermon connects the spread of the gospel to every people group with the return of Christ, drawing on Matthew's teaching that the end will come once the gospel has been preached to all nations — not that all will believe, but that all must hear.

The sermon then turns to pastors and teachers, arguing that shepherding and teaching are functionally one calling, since a shepherd's central task is to teach and form the minds and lives of God's people. The recent death of John MacArthur, who pastored Grace Community Church and taught for fifty-six years, is remembered as an example of a life poured out in this calling, quoting Charles Wesley's line that "God buries his workmen, but carries on his work" — the death of faithful servants does not end God's purposes, which continue until the church "attains" (not merely maintains) unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, full maturity, and the fullness of Christ's stature. The sermon distinguishes this "attaining" language in verse 13 from the "maintaining" unity commanded earlier in Ephesians 4:3: the earlier unity is a spiritual reality already accomplished by God that believers are called to preserve, while the unity of verse 13 is a maturing process not yet complete, continuing until death for the individual and until Christ's return for the church corporately. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 13:9-12, the sermon describes present knowledge of God as partial, like a dim reflection in an ancient polished-metal mirror, awaiting the fuller knowledge to come. True knowledge of God, the sermon argues, is inseparable from obedience — citing John Calvin's principle that every true knowledge of God is born of obedience — so that trusting, understanding, and obeying form a continuous cycle of growth. The sermon then works through John 1:1-3 to press home the true identity of the "Son of God" the church is called to know: the Word was with God and was God from the beginning, and the added clause "without him nothing was made that has been made" is shown to rule out any notion — held by groups like Jehovah's Witnesses — that Christ himself is the first created being. Because Christ made all things, he cannot himself be among the things made; he is eternally begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father from everlasting to everlasting, and this becomes the ground for insisting, against Islamic objections, that Jesus is truly the divine Son, not merely a venerated prophet.

The sermon then addresses verse 14's warning against being "children tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine," carefully distinguishing this negative sense of childlikeness from Jesus' positive call in Matthew 18 to childlike trust, teachability, and wonder. Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 14:20 — be infants in evil but mature in thinking — supplies the needed contrast, illustrated soberly by the recent "mushroom murder" case of Erin Patterson in Australia, held up as an image of someone who became a practiced expert in deception and evil. The sermon then names specific deceptive teachings threatening the congregation: the cultic movement Shincheonji, founded by Lee Man-hee, which erases all church history and claims fulfillment of Scripture begins with its founder; Mormonism; and prosperity/health-and-wealth theology, illustrated by the heartbreaking story of a cancer patient promised certain healing by a deceptive preacher, who died after being told to skip proper medical care, a story compared to a beautifully presented beef Wellington laced with poison — attractive on the surface but deadly underneath. The remedy against all such deception, the sermon insists, is not primarily combative apologetics but being well-taught in the truth itself, rooted in sound doctrine through regular preaching, catechism classes, and discipleship. The sermon closes with a pastoral charge to keep growing rather than remain stagnant, reflecting on the congregation's eight years as a church plant, its call to spiritual maturity, and its responsibility to raise up and disciple the next generation, ending with a prayer for teachable hearts and a preview that next week's exposition will move on to the positive picture of growth in Ephesians 4:15-16.

Bible Verses Used

• Ephesians 4:11-14: The sermon's main text, detailing the gifts Christ gave the church (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers) and their purpose — building believers toward unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, and guarding them from being tossed by every wind of doctrine.

• Ephesians 4:3: Contrasted with verse 13 to distinguish the unity believers already possess and are called to maintain from the unity they are still called to attain.

• Ephesians 6:11: Cited alongside the warning against deceptive teaching to reinforce the call to put on the full armor of God against the devil's schemes.

• 1 Corinthians 13:9-12: Used to explain that present knowledge of God is partial and dim, like a reflection in an ancient mirror, awaiting the fuller knowledge to come.

• 1 Corinthians 14:20: Cited as the key to resolving the apparent tension with Matthew 18:3 — believers are to be infants in evil but mature in thinking.

• John 1:1-3: Expounded at length to establish that Christ, the eternal Word, is the uncreated Creator of all things, refuting teachings that regard him as a created being.

• John 1:14: Used to explain that the Word "became flesh," the eternally begotten Son taking on human nature.

• Matthew 18:3: Cited as Jesus' positive call to childlike trust and dependence, distinguished from Paul's negative use of childlikeness in Ephesians 4:14.

• 2 Corinthians 11:3: Used to warn that believers' minds can be led astray from sincere devotion to Christ, just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning.