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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) *Song of Adoration: Hymnal #148B “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah” Song of Confession: Hymnal #5: 1-3 “Hear My Words, O Lord” *Song of Preparation: Hymnal #89B: 1-5 “My Song Forever Shall Record” Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-16 Text: Ephesians 4:1-6 Message: Walking in Unity *Song of Response: Hymnal #404: 1-3, 6 “The Church’s One Foundation” *Doxology: Hymnal #488: 1-3 “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior” |
Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
There are two extremes in preaching which are very common in the modern church. Both of which must be avoided. The first extreme is to preach the law only. The way that this takes place is usually with moralistic preaching. This is the common preaching of many evangelical churches, but also Reformed churches. The minister might lay out the 10 steps to financial freedom, 12 ways to improve your life, 8 steps to a healthy marriage. All of those things are desirable, but when they are preached apart from Christ, they are simply moralistic sermons. They could be preached by a Mormon, Jew, or even an atheist.
The other extreme is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ but never apply it. These ministers have a fear of telling a congregation what to do. It is often an over-reaction to moralistic preaching. The whole sermon is on the fact of Christ’s work, we can call that the indicative. The basic truth of redemption in Jesus Christ. The command to live and love and serve is the imperative. It should be preached as the result of Christ’s work. This is how the book of Ephesians is divided. The first three chapters dealt with the glorious blessing we have in Christ. It focused on the indicative. Now in chapter 4-6, we see the application, the imperative. I will always bring you back to chapters 1-3, because that is the foundation, but we move forward in this letter to the Ephesians and to the whole church to realistically ask and seek to answer, how we should live as individual Christians who are united into a Christian church and community. John Stott summarizes it this way, “Through Jesus Christ, who died for sinners and was raised from death, God is creating something entirely new, not just a new life for individuals for a new society. Paul sees an alienated humanity being reconciled, a fractured humanity being united, even a new humanity being created. It is a magnificent vision. Now the apostle moves on from the new society to the new standards which are expected of it.”
We begin this section of the book looking at verses 1-6. Our theme is Our Lord calls us to walk worthy of our calling.
- In Attitude (v. 1-2)
- In Purpose (v. 3)
- In Unity (v. 4-6)
I. In Attitude (v. 1-2)
Our text begins with the important word “therefore.” This important word connects what is about to be said with what had already by said. In chapters 1-3 specifically, the Apostle laid out the glorious work God has accomplished in Jesus Christ. He has chosen and saved us, giving us all the benefits of his inheritance. He has broken down the wall between Jews and Gentiles with the blood of Jesus. He has redeemed us to be useful. Eph. 2:10 said that as new creations, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Now our text is picking up this idea of walking in them. Verse 1 says to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” The way to walk will be laid out in the coming chapters.
This will be a matter of the attitude of the heart. Charles Swindoll said, “Life is 10% of what happens and 90% of how you react to it.” That is a matter of attitude. There are 4 characteristics in our text connected to our attitude. The first on is “with all humility.” Humility is a negative characteristic in the eyes of the world. It was in the days of Paul in Roman culture and it is today. It is viewed as weakness. The opposite is pride and brashness. An older term for this humility is lowliness or low-mindedness. It is the opposite of being puffed up. It shouldn’t be surprising that this is the first characteristic Paul would use. In verse 1 he calls himself a prisoner for the Lord, this was literally a slave for the Lord. It was the Lord who came in humility. In Matthew 5:3, the beatitude goes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” We should have a natural dislike for arrogant pride. You ever meet someone so full of themselves, you just walk away and think, how could anyone be friends with them? Pride is the mother of all sin. (Prov. 15:25; 16:18) Humility views others higher than we view ourselves.
The second virtue is gentleness, sometimes and better translated as meekness. Again from the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The world views meekness as mousy and weak, but not the Bible. Moses was the meekest man in all the earth. Yet, she stood before Pharaoh and demanded, “Let my people go.” Our Lord called himself meek and lowly of heart. Like humility, meekness rejoices in the accomplishments of others.
The third virtue is patience. Patience is the ability to endure hardship or trail without anger or frustration. Patience requires us to accept our circumstances. Richard Phillips tells the story of a man who came to his pastor and asked him to pray for him to have patience. The minister responded, “Lord, please send great tribulation into this brother’s life.” The man stopped and said, “You must not have heard my right, I didn’t ask you to pray for tribulation, I asked you to pray for patience.” “Oh, I heard, what you said,” the preacher replied, then he pointed out to him Romans 5:3 which reads, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance (or patience).
The fourth virtue is bearing with one another in love. This is forebearance. If patience is enduring circumstances, love is bearing with people. The word used here is the Greek word agape. This is distinguished from the word philia (or phileo), which is a kind of love for people and things we like. Philia is based on receiving and agape is based on giving. It is the type of love we must extend to people we find it difficult to be around, or those who do things different than we do.
All four of these virtues are needed in the church. Unity is the greater focus here. These things are a matter of attitude.
II. In Purpose (v. 3)
We confess in our ecumenical creeds that the church is one. Clearly that cannot be the case, right? There are so many denominations in the world. The call of our text is unity. But, the call of the text is not to produce unity, but rather to maintain it. The church is one because Jesus has one body. There is not a black expression of Jesus, and a white one and an Asian one, etc.
The church is catholic (lower case c) and there is only one. We have a spiritual unity with the church. In two months I plan to go to Ehiopia to teach pastors the Bible. They are my brothers and sisters and in Christ. The URCNA might not recognize their denomination, they might not even be in a denomination. But, we are one as much as I am one with you. This is because our unity is in Christ. We are called to maintain the unity, pray for the unity, express the unity of the body.
The bond of peace is the result of the humility and gentleness, the patience and bearing with one another in love.
The result of spiritual unity, is physical unity. There has been an ecumenical movement over the last 75 years that seek to bring all churches together. The problem with this, is that in order to do so, comprises of clear and foundational scriptural truths will have to made. Unity must be in the truth of God’s word. We ought not to seek unity with Roman Catholics until they formulate their theology biblically, even just beginning with justification.
However, the division in presbyterian and Reformed denominations ought to grieve us. Many of us came from different denominations, not merely because we switched towns, but for principled theological reasons. These things are not minor. We ought not to seek a broad ecumenicity in unity. We can stand with other churches on social issues, etc. but we must not compromise the foundational truths, one of which is the authority of the Bible.
With those who are of like faith and practice, in light of the unity Jesus prays for in John 17 and the unity spoken of in Ephesians 4, we should seek the closest possible unity with other churches. That is difficult and can be frustrating work, but it is for the glory of God. What is at stake in the unity of the church? Read John 17:20-21. Here Jesus is speaking of those who will believe.
We are on the side of Christ, and as we see the church grow in some places in the world, let us rejoice, and where we see it wane, let us grieve that. It is the work of the Lord, but we should desire all to have the same love for Jesus as we have. He has given his life for us. He has saved us and united us in his body, the church.
III. In Unity (v. 4-6)
God united us in Jesus Christ. We are all branches of the same vine. The church is true, organic, living, and active and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The church is one. There are 7 statements which use that term “one.”
The one body of verse 4 refers to the church. This body is made up of Jews and Gentiles alike, for there is one head of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ. Read Rom. 12:5; I Cor. 10:17; 12:27; Eph. 1:23.
Second, we have one spirit. It is the Spirit that unites all together. In theology, the doctrine of the church is most associated with the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who works faith in our heart. The Spirit makes the preaching effectual in our hearts. See I Cor. 12:13. If we believe what we confess about the Holy Spirit, then we know that he softens and hardens hearts.
Third, we have one hope. Our hearts are united unto the coming promises and return of Jesus Christ. The promises listed already in chapter 1 are not merely nice ideas to think about. They are the true and living hope of the faithful. We see this afternoon that we are awaiting the resurrection of the dead. Christians are, by definition, those who are looking ahead in hope.
Fourth, is one Lord. Here we have the second person of the Trinity. We already saw the Spirit and in a moment we will see God the Father. God himself will be the glue that unites the church together. We have seen the unity of the body. This is because of the oneness of God. The word lord, really means master and ruler. We might wonder what the role of other authorities are in our lives? They are all under the authority of the Lord. We are obedient in light of the 5th commandment to authority over us, because in doing so, we are serving the Lord. Except in a rare case, a child does not have to decide whether to listen to God or her parents. By listening to her parents, she is listening and obeying God.
Five and six can be taken together: one faith and one baptism. Faith is trusting in the God of the scriptures. Finding in Christ a complete salvation. When someone is converted, they ought to be baptized. Baptism is then an initiation into the church of Christ, picturing the process of dying to sin and living to righteousness. Though our lives are filled with daily conversion, we are only regenerated and justified once. This is why we do not need to be rebaptized. Rebaptism is an affront to God, because it is a denial of his promise already given. For a covenant child to be baptized and then say later in life, I want to be baptized again, is as logically unnecessary as saying to their mother, I want to re-enter your womb and be born again because I don’t remember the first time I was born. Well, that can’t happen. Here is one part of the weightiness of re-baptism.
Also with one faith and one baptism, we are speaking about worship. We come together in corporate worship, with all different things on our minds, but also with one heart, voice, and purpose, to bring glory to God.
The final one is one God and father of all. This is the language of family. The verse adds “who is over all and through all and in all.” We are united together because God unites us together. There are all kinds of divisions among God’s people: race, social status, national background, personal difference and perspectives. Each one of these threaten the unity of the church and God’s purpose for her. The same was true for the Ephesians and a Jew and Gentile mixed church.
When we see the call and reality of unity in the church, let us bow before the Lord. Man would seek to break up all that is good, but God has united his people together. We might never see eye to eye on any number of theological issues in this life, but we are one in Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic is justified on the same grounds as the Baptist and the Presbyterian.
The matter of church unity begins with the attitude of the heart, and impacts our goals and purpose, and it recognizes the essential unity we have in Jesus Christ. The call of our text is the maintenance of the unity we have. Let us therefore view others higher than ourselves, let us put them before ourselves, and let us seek to give all the glory to the Lord. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Steven Swets, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2024, Rev. Steven Swets
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