"The Unity of the Church" Ephesians 4:1-6 Sunday Evening Worship Service

So I'd ask you now to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, if you would please.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

I want to spend a few minutes there.

You know, in recent years, there's been a lot of questions asked as to what makes a healthy church.

And I bet if we were to have a just a sort of an open mic and you could say what makes a healthy church, there would be so many different answers all over the place.

Well, so just to set the stage for you, tonight, when you get home from this meeting, if you don't want to watch any football, if you've had enough of that, Google qualities of a healthy church and see what you get.

They have lists.

Some lists are short, five qualities of a healthy church, others are very long.

47 qualities of a healthy church.

I mean, you could go on and on and on.

And so there are numerous websites and all kinds of opinions.

You know, the all kinds of different ingredients that they use to make up a healthy church.

And so, right away, just in having a healthy church where you hope to have unity, there's controversy because there's so many different opinions.

And various things get on the list.

For example, the stuff in the building.

Is it pretty on the outside?

Is there enough seating?

Is it comfortable?

You know, that's why we we had scientists test these chairs to make sure that they were comfortable for you, that things were you felt good.

Are the people friendly?

Um is there free coffee?

We are feeding people with addictions here all the time, every Sunday, and it's over there, and it's delicious.

Are the sermons light and lively?

Or are they deep and make you think?

Is there too much Bible in the sermon?

Or is there not enough Bible in the sermon?

You know, there's a church in the largest church in the United States, the people that start the service up, they hold up their Bible, they say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Bible, and they never use it again in the rest of the service.

Do the pastors have a sense of humor?

Are they comedians instead of theologians?

Is it biblically based or is it a philosophical approach?

Now that's just in the teaching aspect.

Let's go to music.

Yeah, I'm preaching.

My goodness, there are all kinds of thoughts on the music.

Um do they sing psalms, songs, hymns, and spiritual songs?

Is there a choir?

Is there an orchestra?

Or is there a vocal band?

Or is there a major heavy metal band with fog machine and laser lights?

You know, and I was watching one church this week on YouTube just to get the feel for this, and they have these, you know, those things that they blast off at basketball games that throw flames up in the air, you know?

That would be cool.

I'd love to preach hell and damnation on that, you know.

One thing is for sure Gregorian chants made no one's list.

So you won't be seeing those.

Is there scripture reading?

What version of the Bible do they use?

Is there poetry that's often given?

Or how about spiritually expressive dance?

Now, wouldn't you like to have seen some of that while Jesse was speaking on essential oil this morning, you know?

That while he's going through the scriptures, someone was just kind of.

In some churches, they they look for fellowship groups, things that people have together in common.

When I was growing up, uh my church made the huge mistake of uh getting involved in a bowling league.

And so just picture the people around you tonight that you would be sitting there worshiping together, and then on Friday nights you'd be headed down to the Alexandria duckpin lanes, winging them down the aisle.

And you know, that was supposed to develop fellowship.

And great thought there, but what ultimately happened was that uh that uh people on the teams, you know, they they couldn't make it, but then they'd start sending their brother-in-law who was a championship bowler.

And so you bring in these ringers, and then it created dissension.

And so now you've got uh people are wanting church discipline because of what's happening in the bowling alley.

You know, crazy things.

But perhaps I think the most essential ingredient for a spiritually healthy church, it's not the externals that the church provides through the things that it does, but rather it is the internal working of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers in the church within the local assembly.

That is the most important thing.

And so tonight we look at Ephesians 4, and we're gonna look at the first uh the first six verses of that chapter.

It's a beautiful passage.

So to set the stage, we're talking about somewhere in between 80 60 and 62, Paul is in Rome.

Uh, it is during his first imprisonment there.

He has arrived there having endured a mob attack in Jerusalem.

They wanted to kill him because they the people the Jews who had come from Asia Minor recognized him at the temple.

They thought he had brought or accused him of bringing Gentiles into the temple, and so they went after him.

They wanted to kill him limb from limb and just tear him apart.

And uh, so he was rescued by the Roman guard there.

He was then transferred to Caesarea.

He avoided assassination plot, he was transferred under guard to Caesarea, and he endured the corrupt, uh bribe-seeking Roman governors who were trying to, were going to be uh adjudicating his case, but he languished under their authority for a long time.

Then he endured an ill-timed winter voyage, resulting in the most miraculous shipwreck that's recorded in Acts.

And finally, he makes his way to Rome for his case to be adjudicated by arguably one of the most evil, corrupt men in all the world, the debauched Roman Emperor Nero.

And so he has made an appeal for Caesar to hear his case, but the Caesar who's going to hear his case is by no means just, by no means are his hands clean.

So it's during this time while he's under house arrest, he's attended to by a rotating shift of Roman guards, and it's right at this time when Paul, the world's greatest evangelist at this time, is confined, unable to travel to new places to proclaim the gospel to new people.

And even beyond that, unable to travel to the churches where he had sowed the seed and people believed, and the churches were planted.

These were throughout Greece and Asia Minor, and he was going to be able to go there to encourage his believers there.

Now think about that.

The thing that you love to do the most, the thing that is your passion, your heartbeat spiritually, the thing that just you God has called you into this, and now you are shut down, locked down.

How did Paul feel through that?

Well, he didn't stop.

He seized opportunity and he begins writing, and he writes what uh what are called the um the prison epistles.

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon.

Appropriately in each of the prison epistles, Paul he mentions his condition, but he also mentions good that's come out of the situation.

And really, it exposes to us that God doesn't waste anything, including confinement in a prison.

So Paul's personal mission field is the Roman guard who is chained to him.

They go through this shift 24-7.

There's a Roman guard, and Paul is either chained to him or he's chained to a post in the house somewhere.

And as Paul concludes in describing the setting, or as the book of Acts concludes, describing Paul's setting, he lived there two years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

And then we read in Philippians the result being, he says in Philippians 1, verse 12, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

Philippians 1:12

And most of the brothers have become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

So you see this apostle looking at the limitation that he had and what he couldn't do, but that what was God was doing with his limitation.

People were coming to faith in Christ, and other believers becoming bold in speaking the gospel, and this is exactly what Paul wanted, despite the fact that he was in prison.

And so perhaps on one of those ordinary days where the next shift of guard comes in, he sits down and he dictates to one of his co-laborers a letter to the Christians in Ephesus.

And he eloquently pours forth in the first three chapters beautiful phrases, doctrines of the church that are strong.

In chapter one, he speaks of the Ephesians' spiritual blessings that belong to them in Christ.

And if you get a chance in that first opening paragraph there, you'll see the world's longest sentence.

Paul is just filled with the Spirit and laying out to the people that they've been blessed with spiritual blessing above and beyond anything that can be described.

In chapter 2, he exposes their former condition as being dead in their trespasses and sins, but through the mercy and love and grace of Christ, they are made by faith alive in him.

Just think of that.

Dead.

Made to life through Christ.

And then in chapter 3, Paul opens their eyes to the mystery of the eternal purpose of God that was spoken by the prophets, and it's been revealed to the apostles that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.

In order to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.

This mystery is now being opened.

And our eyes see that God has a plan for Jew and Gentile to bring them together in one body, which is called the church.

And so in the first three chapters of Ephesians, a doctrinal foundation has been established.

It's been set in place.

And so in chapter 4 and chapters 4 through 6, Paul turns his attention to the application of the doctrine of the life of the believer.

And 1900 years later, it is still fresh, still good for us.

So first he proclaims to them the unity of the church, which is our call.

Paul says in verse 1 of chapter 4, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

Paul begins by describing his condition, a prisoner, confined, can't go anywhere, can't walk anywhere that he wants.

But he uses his situation to springboard into encouragement for them.

Just as they can physically walk, they can go here, they can go there, they can do as they please.

Paul gives them a contrasting picture by encouraging them as they walk, as they live their lives before the pagan world to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which they've been called, that their actions would glorify Christ, that they would evidence daily their faith in the one who has saved them.

That is why a couple of chapters earlier in Ephesians 2, Paul said, Even when we were dead in our trespasses, we have been made alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places, so that at the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace they have been saved through faith.

It's not of their doing, it is a gift of God.

It's not as a result of work, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So in this portion of Ephesians, Paul is encouraging the believers there to embrace their collective unity in Christ by walking worthy of that call.

And what does that word worthy mean?

It means of equal weight.

In this verse, all Christians are being urged to demonstrate before a pagan world the equal weight between what we say we believe and how we live our lives before others.

You know, a lot has changed in the sporting area and in being a longtime lover of sports.

When I was a kid, you know, we just went to the ballpark and watched the Washington senators lose and lose and lose, and then we went home and that was it.

But now you have to dress for the occasion.

You have to have the jersey of your favorite player.

And you have to know all of the stats, and you have to know everything about them, and you're you're what is uh you're what is called a fanatic, a fan.

And uh and you you collect their autographs and you get their cards and and and and you're not even on the team.

You're not getting paid for that.

Here's the beautiful thing.

Christ has called us to himself.

We're on his team.

And there's nothing that we need to do to be on that team.

It's by grace he saves us.

But then because of our salvation in him, we're asked to walk worthy of him.

Show yourself to be a believer.

As his church, his ecclesia, his called out ones, he called us out of a world to eternal glory.

He's called us from darkness to light.

He's called us from damnation to salvation.

He's called us from paganism and unbelief to faith in the living God.

He's called us from misery to mercy.

He's called us from godlessness to grace.

And he emphasizes the motivation of unity in Christ as the calling to which you have been called.

Our salvation was not an accident.

It was not random.

It was not a coincidental, what's this?

Some might think so, but the scriptures say otherwise.

Our salvation was marvelously ordained by God from start to finish.

And I would challenge you, in just this epistle alone that we're looking at tonight, again, if you're not going to watch football tonight, if you want to do some extra study, take this Bible and go through Ephesians.

At any time you see the words like chosen or predestined or his purpose or his will or his call, make a note of it.

Check it, put a check mark on the margin or circle it.

And as you begin to go through this, you will see that it leaps off the page.

And do that with every book in the New Testament.

And you'll begin to see that God planned your salvation from the beginning.

It leaps off every page of the scriptures.

Next, Paul provides specificity as to the unity of the church in our walk and how we're to evidence our faith in Christ to the world.

He says in verse 2, with all humility, which actually means strictly it's lowliness.

Lowliness.

It's used in Christian writings of people living at that time.

It's rarely used.

You never see it.

Only in Christian writings do you see the word humility.

I can't even pronounce the Greek word.

It's so long, but it's, you know, it's just humility was seen as a vice rather than a virtue.

People that were proud and arrogant were looked up to in the Greek culture.

But here, as well as in Philippians 2 and in Colossians 3, both prison epistles, Paul exhorts all followers of Christ to embrace the quality of humility that Christ perfectly demonstrated.

Not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

Pride and arrogance are toxic and abrasive, corrosive solvents that eat away at the spirit of unity in a church.

And so Paul is asking for humility.

You've often heard of the story of the pastor who was considered by his congregation to be the most humble man they had ever met.

So they gave him a medal.

And then the next week they fired him because he wore it.

That's one of those bad jokes that you hear over and over and over and over again.

I've got more of those.

He then moves from the aspect of humility, of giving people credit instead of yourself of being in the spotlight, of not being arrogant.

He talks about gentleness.

Not attention demanding.

Others' focus.

Watching how you say things to others so you won't hurt their feelings.

I recall years and years and years ago, my wife and I we were in the, I guess we were in what was called the New Life class back then.

Okay, so you know this is ancient history.

And uh we had been invited to this couple's house to to have dinner and get to know them, and so we're we're at their place and enjoying a good evening.

And then I don't know um how it got started, but the the husband said, Hey, would you like to see some um this is when they had the slide projectors, you remember those?

You know, look, would you like to see uh some vacation that we went on?

And um and I said yes.

I should have never said yes.

No, not a good idea.

Let's uh let's go uh weed the yard or something, but but it was uh it was it was dreadful.

Um he brought out seven carousels of sort about the fourth carousel when I'm starting, my eyes are rolling back in my head and I'm starting to get delirious.

Uh up pops a picture of his wife, and um I'll just say this exceptionally large lady uh who was uh had the gift of girth.

Um she was gigantic.

And um, and and so there there was the uh his wife, and she had this scowl on her face, and and uh he said, I don't know what uh Marion's scowling at, and I said, probably because she, and I made some off-handed, bad thinking comment about the size of the person next to her, to which Marion said, Oh, that's John's sister.

I remember that.

But what I really remember from that evening were two things, and it involved my wife.

I just remember the the feel of her pointed elbow as it went right into my ribcake, and I can still remember the air going out of my lungs as I and then feeling like you know, so small, and then the other thing was the uh as we get into the car and go home, they're down on uh they lived off of Route 1 uh in northern, I guess, uh Alexandria or Southern Alexandria, I guess, off of Route 1.

You know, and Kathy didn't talk until you know we hit 395.

It was uh just this silence.

You know, and and and then you know, she kind of looked at me and said, Really?

Which is really neat because she was demonstrating gentleness where I had not.

You know.

Attention seeking, brash.

Uh but the person who is gentle has a kind spirit.

Cares about everyone, attends to everyone.

Others are more important than they are.

They love to serve others, they love to To encourage others.

They're a kind people.

I see gentle people all over the place in this church.

You know, you can see the gentleness of Christ even as he made uh time for children, as he interacted with a Samaritan woman, as he defended the woman caught in adultery, or comforted comforted the sisters of Lazarus.

Even in his agony on the cross, he asks for forgiveness for those who what they've done to him.

And even further, he provides hope for a thief who is repentant.

That kind of gentleness.

That's the gentleness to aspire for and to have in our lives, that we would glorify Christ in living as he lived.

He goes on to saying, with patience bearing with one another in love.

The word in patience in the Greek it's the image of a slow burn, kind of like a crock pot.

You know, um, when I get home from work and there's something in the crock pot, I only want to know one thing.

When's dinner?

Because the fragrance is so good and it's so wonderful.

And so is patience and bearing with people, enduring with them, being long-suffering.

It's a self-restraint that doesn't retaliate.

You think through what you're going to say and you're kind to people and you do talk with them in a loving way.

And it's hard for us in our culture.

Because when you go home and you flip on the news, and if you look at one of the news shows, there's usually a moderator and a panel of two people who oppose each other, and they yell at each other for about five minutes, and then they say, Okay, that's all we have time for, let's go to a commercial.

That's how we get turned up into conflict.

We have a playground mentality.

Remember the old days on the playground when two people would get into a disagreement, and right away a circle forms around them, and then two guys are looking like they're gonna square off, and what are the what are the people on the outside of the circle do?

What do they say?

Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! And the teacher comes rolling on in, hauls away the participants, tells everybody to go about their business.

It's the kind of thing that's driven into our minds.

We love to see conflict.

When the Apostle Peter posed Jesus with one of the most amazing questions, I think he thought he was setting himself up for a compliment from Jesus.

Peter says to the Lord, How often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

And so Peter says, gives a suggestion, and it sounds really great.

It sounds like, you know, Jesus is gonna say, Yes, that's exactly right, Peter.

So Peter says to him, as many as seven times?

I mean, that sounds really good, doesn't it?

I should forgive a person at least seven times.

They hurt me, I forgive them.

They do it again, I forgive them, you know.

And I'm, you know, I'm counting it, counting it down.

And then when they get the past seven, that's it.

No more forgiveness.

Instead, Jesus raises the bar so high, higher than Peter could even imagine.

Jesus says to him, I don't say to you seven times, I say 77 times.

A huge number.

So that's the type of people that we need to be: to bear with one another, to love one another, to encourage them, to walk together, to be understanding of them.

And verse 3 says, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

This emphasizes an active effort of keeping unity.

You can't be passive about this.

And so it means laying aside harsh words, becoming a non-combatant.

We can no longer think about crushing the opposition to win arguments.

Loving toleration despite our differences, our attitudes, where we're from, where we were raised.

In Philippians 4 2, there's a rather cryptic statement by Paul given to two people in the church at Philippi.

He says, I entreat Yodia and I entreat Cintiki to agree in the Lord.

And here, over 19 centuries later, the church has pondered as to what the issue was to their agreement.

What were Yodia and Cintiki arguing about?

I think the translation for Yodia is sweet smell, and Centiki is harmony.

And and I think one Southern pastor said he liked to call them odious and so touchy.

We don't know what they were fighting about.

We don't know what the offense was.

We don't know who was in the right, and we don't know who was in the wrong.

And I think Paul does that for a purpose because he wants us to dwell together in harmony.

It's not the issues, it's the unity that we have in Christ.

You know, one of my favorite Greek poets, Anonymous, said these words, to dwell above with saints we love, oh, but that will be glory, but to dwell below with the saints we know, well, that's another story.

It's another one of those old things you've heard at sermons many times before.

Paul never went about solving their issue.

Instead, he pointed them to ending it by setting aside the struggle and agreeing in the Lord.

And finally, as we begin the uh the landing approach and the completion of this message, we see Paul bringing to light the unity of the church in what we believe.

He reminds the Ephesians of all that brings them together by offering one of the most uh a brief early doctrinal creed.

He says in verse 4, there is one body, the church, compromised of all who believe in faith in Jesus Christ from Pentecost to the coming rapture.

All who have acknowledged their sin, believing Christ's atoning and sufficient work on the cross on their behalf, and believing in the power of his resurrection, validating the truth that he is our risen Savior, the Son of God.

He also speaks of one Spirit, the Holy Spirit that indwells believers, guaranteeing as a pledge to them the unity with Christ and our unity with each other as believers in Jesus.

And then he says, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, he brings the call again up.

He refers to the fact that all believers have a common hope regarding our future with God.

This hope began at the time of our call, and our hope is eternal salvation.

And then one Lord, referring to Jesus Christ.

You know, the Ephesian culture was immersed in a pantheistic belief of numerous gods and goddesses.

I mean, they were selling what would Zeus do, bracelets and all kinds of stuff like that, and it was just uh it was a large list, probably 24 or 25 major gods, and then you got the little ones to go along with it.

And so uh they would worship, they would sacrifice, they would pray to them for protection, for well-being, for abundance, for revenge.

And beyond that, the Roman Empire required, demanded a yearly sacrifice of incense, proclaiming Caesar as Lord.

But Paul here teaches there's one Lord.

And his name is Jesus Christ.

He then speaks of one faith.

That's the faith that's supplied by God and exercised by all who are in Christ Jesus that have caused our salvation.

He speaks of one baptism.

This is the rite that is used by so many churches, even though it's done in different ways.

It's a signification of our membership into the church as believers.

It's a public declaration of faith in Christ, as Jesus asked us to do.

There may be different modes as to how it's accomplished, but virtually all Christian communities participate in some form of baptism.

And that's what he's saying here.

And then starting in verse 6, one God and Father of all.

The ultimate basis for our unity is found in the character of God the Father.

He's over all, he's sovereign, he's supreme, he's our creator.

He's through all, he permeates everything.

And he's in all.

God the Father, the basis of unity within the church.

And what is significant here is that God, the Father of all who believe, and we are his children, adopted into his family.

He is our sovereign, he is our Lord.

It's by faith in him that we are reconciled.

You know, in John 16, Jesus spoke with his disciples for the last time.

And he said to them these words Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away, but if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak into his own authority.

But whatever is he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is mine.

Therefore I said that we will take, he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

So he speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of his disciples.

And then a minute later, Jesus takes time and he prays to his Father in their presence and says to them, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The glory that you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one.

I in them and you in me, that we may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given to me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given to me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

I made known to them your name.

I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

And so you see, with this creed of oneness about our faith and what we believe, you see within it this fabric of unity in the church.

It's woven tightly in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And it's done so that we as his church might fulfill his will as he has given to us in his word.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we are so grateful for the church.

Lord, I think of the times that I have been ministered to from the pulpit, from teachers, from pastors.

I think of the times I have been ministered to by the people of faith who've encouraged me, who've prayed for me, who've helped me.

And I think of the times, Lord, that we have had sweet fellowship together and singing hymns of the faith and of loving each other.

And Lord, there's there are even greater things to be done.

So, Father, would you continue to guide and protect us?

Would you would you be careful for us?

Because we are so prone to wander.

But Lord, hold us close.

And as we serve you, Lord, we do so with kindness and gentleness and meekness and humility.

That we would do it with love and bear with each other.

And I know, Lord, often it's hard for Christians to get along with each other, but you've called us to do it, so help us.

And Lord, may we continue to follow you, ever being faithful.

May we go after the wandering, the lost, may we encourage them with the good news of Jesus.

And may we fulfill the Great Commission so that you might say to all of us gathered together in the Emmanuel section of heaven, Well done, good and faithful servants.

We thank you in Christ's name.

Amen.

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