November 19, 2006
Unity
Ephesians 4
Pastor Brian Hawes
· That’s what Paul is writing about in
Ephesians 4:1-6, but to help us understand that passage a little better, I’ll
start by reading in Ephesians 3:14. (NEXT SLIDE) For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole
family in heaven and on earth derives its name. For what reason? Paul prayed because of the suffering he was
facing and because of what God did in bringing Jewish and Gentile believers
together in unity through Christ. (NEXT SLIDE) 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with
power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith. (NEXT SLIDE) And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may
have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high
and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (NEXT
SLIDE) 20 Now to him who is able
to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that
is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Now that we know what Paul is referring to, let’s read chapter 4 verses
1-6.
· Ephesians 4:1-6 (from the NIV) – (NEXT SLIDE) As a prisoner
for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have
received. 2 Be completely humble and
gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the
Spirit through the bond of peace. (NEXT SLIDE) 4 There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one
hope when you were called – 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and
Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
· I want you to understand something as
we get started. Pastor Gary and Pastor
Bob didn’t tell me what to preach on today.
When Pastor Gary and I were talking about it and he told me the date and
time, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper one word strongly in my mind – unity. Unity is what the
· (NEXT SLIDE) First,
unity means living a daily life that is worthy of Christ. Verse one – As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of
the calling you have received.
What does this mean? We have been
called to personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul’s admonishing us that, just has he has
sacrificed everything for this calling, this relationship, so should we. The phrase “live a life worthy of” is
actually one word in the Greek – peripatesai.
It means literally “to walk around.”
We’re called to live every moment of our daily life in light of our
relationship with Jesus Christ, to do what His Spirit tells us when He tells
us.
· Before we get too discouraged because
we know it’s hard to live like that – we’ve all tried it. The key is found in Ephesians 3:14-21. That’s why it’s so important that we read it
this morning. We’re called to walk in a
manner worthy of our calling to personal relationship with Jesus Christ (NEXT SLIDE) by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul prayed for us to be filled
with the power of God’s love. That’s why
Paul reminded us that God can do more than we’ve ever dreamed as we live our
lives yielded to Him. His Spirit enables
us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received.
· For probably the first fifteen years
or so after I received Christ, I didn’t understand how all this was
possible. I struggled to live anything
resembling a Christian walk. I wanted
to, and every day when I read my Bible I felt worse and worse about myself
because I couldn’t even come close to doing what it said. Then someone opened my eyes to the fact that
it is only the power of the Holy Spirit working within my heart that can enable
me to be obedient to God and His Word. What
a burden was lifted! I mean I still
struggle with living a daily walk with Christ, but with the power of the Holy
Spirit working in me I have many more successes than failures. I’m not perfect by any means – just ask
Kim. But by the power of the Holy Spirit
all of us can walk in a manner worthy of the calling we have received to
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
· (NEXT SLIDE) Second,
unity means walking in humility, gentleness, patience and love. Verse 2 – Be
completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. We’ve all known folks who have a very strong
sense of false humility. They’re so
humble that they’re dying to tell us how humble they are. Humility is one of those things that, if we
think we’ve got it, then we don’t. And
if we don’t think we have it, we’re probably on our way to getting it. One definition of humility I read was (NEXT SLIDE) “without arrogance.” And what is arrogance but thinking we’re
better than we are. Nobody likes someone
who’s arrogant. They’re obnoxious, rude,
self-centered, pushy, impatient and some of the most unloving and intolerant people
you’ll ever meet. How do I know? Been there, done that! It’s impossible to be gentle, patient and
loving without humility. (NEXT SLIDE) It’s impossible to have
unity without humility. Again,
something we all struggle with but something we can attain by the power of the
Holy Spirit.
· Kim and I were part of a church many
years ago when someone became very offended.
They didn’t take something that was being shared with them in the way it
was intended. And instead of following
the guidelines of Matthew 18 and going back to the people who had shared with
them, they told their friends in the church.
People not even remotely connected to the situation got up in arms, and
as a result, half the people left the church.
Not because of sin on anyone’s part, but because of a lack of humility
and gentleness and patience and love that seriously damaged the church’s
reputation in the community and hurt many innocent people. It’s impossible to have unity without
humility.
· (NEXT SLIDE) Third,
unity is hard work. Verse 3 – Make every effort to keep the unity of the
Spirit through the bond of peace.
My theological dictionary says, “Christians must exert themselves to
maintain the unity that Christ has achieved for them.” That’s a great way to put it. The Greek word means “to make haste, be
zealous” and has connotations such as work, effort, zeal, seriousness,
readiness, and dedication. Unity is
seriously hard work. It requires
diligence – we’ve got to fight to make sure our selfish desires don’t disrupt
the church. I’m convinced that God
doesn’t really care all that much about our opinions, preferences, and desires
when it comes to unity in the church.
Sometimes He blesses us by granting some of our preferences. (NEXT
SLIDE) God is most concerned about His name being glorified and the lost
coming to know and follow and serve Him.
End of discussion. Anything else
is nonessential. Paul calls us to work
with everything we’ve got to maintain the Spirit’s unity through God’s
peace. Our peace just won’t do it,
because our peace is based on our opinions, preferences, and desires. (NEXT
SLIDE) God’s peace is based on His power over our hearts and lives. When we submit to His power, we have true
peace. When we don’t, we might have a
temporary truce, but we’ll never experience real peace. Unity is hard work, but the rewards are
incredible.
· I haven’t always felt this way. I haven’t always believed that the hard work
that unity takes is worth it. But I’ve
been a Christian long enough and been in enough churches of all kinds to see
the devastation that the selfishness of personal opinions, preferences and
desires causes. As a pastor I’ve
counseled with those who’ve shared the pain inflicted on them by selfishness
within churches. When God’s people choose
to work hard for unity and to lay their personal opinions, preferences and
desires at the foot of the cross, God’s name is glorified and the lost come to
know and love Him. Galatians 5:24-25 in
the New Living says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed
the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them
there. 25 If we are living now by the
Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. We can work hard by the power of the Holy Spirit
to make true unity a reality in our hearts and lives.
· (NEXT SLIDE) Fourth,
unity means oneness in faith and Spirit.
Verses 4-6 – There is one body and
one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – 5 one
Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and
through all and in all. (NEXT SLIDE) Unity is a
single-minded focus on God and His purposes. There is no room for division. That doesn’t means our churches are all
supposed to be clones of one another. We
don’t all have to worship exactly the same way or have the same doctrinal
emphases. We’re all different
expressions of God’s love. And that’s
precisely why reconciliation with First Baptist is so important for this
church. The forgiveness and healing that
will take place will help free both churches to become the full expression of
God’s love that He has called them to be.
I’ve been part of too many churches in my life where unity was not
valued – personal opinion and preference and desire were. And, to be honest, much of the time I was
part of the problem because I didn’t fully understand how important unity is to
God and what it truly means. And I’m
sure many of you have been in the same boat.
(NEXT SLIDE) Unity in
Christ, not conformity to human preferences, is worth every effort we can make
to maintain it.
· Kim and I went to a Family Life
Weekend to Remember marriage seminar a few years ago. By the way, I strongly recommend that all
married couples go. Anyway, all the
speakers talked about oneness – about the need for married couples to become
one instead of merely just being two people who happen to live together and
share the same last name. But all that
truth kind of fades over time. So one or
the other of us (usually Kim – I can be a little dense at times) will from time
to time insist that we reconnect and refocus.
Those exact terms probably aren’t used, but the point is still the same
– to spend time working on oneness. The
same is true with our lives as Christians.
We need to do a gut check and see if we’re really living and breathing a
single-minded focus on God and His purposes.
If we don’t have that focus, we might as well be just another social
club. Unity in Christ is worth every
effort we can make to get it and keep it.
· Later on in Ephesians 4 we see what a
church that lives out the unity of the Spirit looks like. Verses 11-13 from The Message is one of my favorite passages in the entire
Bible. Listen and allow yourself to
dream God’s dreams of unity. (NEXT SLIDE) He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist and
pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within
Christ’s body, the Church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with
each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature
adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
· I’d like to ask everyone to bow your
heads and close your eyes out of respect for each other’s privacy. Maybe you’ve struggled with unity. Maybe it’s been all too easy for you to focus
on your own personal opinions, preferences and desires. And maybe you’ve been the source of disunity
in your home, work, school, or church. I
can honestly say that we have all done that at some time or another in our
lives. But if keeping the unity of the
Spirit through the bond of God’s peace is a struggle for you right now, and
you’d like me to pray for you, please raise your hand. No one else is looking around, just me. If you’re struggling with unity and would
like me to pray for you, please raise your hand right now.