CALLED TO UNITY IN CHRIST

July 29, 2018

Pastor Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Exodus 24:3-11

Gospel Lesson; John 6:1-15

Sermon Text; Ephesians 4:1-7

Ephesians 4:11-16

The text we will look at for today is taken from the letter, or the epistle to the Ephesians, chapter four, verses one through seven, and then verses eleven through sixteen. This is calling us to unity in Christ. This is in Jesus' name.

As a prisoner in the Lord, therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Live with all humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love.

Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in the one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.

But to each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of the gift from Christ. He Himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving, in order to build up the body of Christ. This is to continue until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, resulting in a mature man with a stature reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ. The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, when people use tricks and invent clever ways to lead us astray. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we would in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. From Him the whole body, being joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows in accordance with Christ's activity when He measured out each individual part. He causes the growth of the body so that it builds itself up in love.

These are your words. Heavenly Father, lead us in the way of truth. Your Word is truth.

Amen

The other day I was sitting at my computer. I don't even remember what I was trying to do a search for, but all of a sudden this little phrase came across my computer screen. It was so arresting that I just stopped, and looked at it. And then, I actually took my hands off of the keyboard, and put my hands on my lap. Here is what it said.

“Don't just go to church.

Be The Church.”

I looked at that, and I read it again. “Don't just go to church. Be The Church.”

Being a Lutheran, I asked myself the question, “What does this mean? What does it mean to be the church?” Today I want to challenge all of us with that statement.

“Don't just go to church.

Be The Church.”

So, what does that mean to “Be The church”? The book of Ephesians is probably the book in the Bible that, more than any other book in the Bible, talks about what The Church is, and what it means to be The Church. In fact, interestingly the book of Ephesians, just like many of Paul's writings, is broken up into two sections.

-The first section of the book of Ephesians is doctrinal. It is teaching. The first three chapters of the book Ephesians talks about what The Church is, and what the definition of The Holy, Christian Church is.

-Then, the last three chapters, chapters four, five, and six talk about what it means to be The Church.

So, what is The Church? That is the first part of Ephesians.

The second part of Ephesians is, how do we put that into practice? How do I, “Be The church”?

So, let's look at that today, on the basis of our scripture reading. Our scripture reading starts at chapter four, verse one. That means we have just finished what is called The Doctrinal Portion of Ephesians. Scripture has just looked at, What is The Church? Now it is going to flow into, “How do we put that into practice? What does that mean to Be The Church?”

In order to talk about that, we have to, just briefly, go back into Ephesians one, two, and three, and ask, “What is The Church?” I have to know what it is, before I can be it.

In fact, I am going to have you look at your scripture reading at verses four, five, and six. Verses four, five, and six are really a summary of the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians. They define what The Church is. We discover in Ephesians one, two, and three The Church is believers in Jesus. The Holy Christian Church is made up of anybody who believes in Jesus, as their Savior. It doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter whether you are young, or old. It doesn't matter if you are rich, or poor. It doesn't matter if you are smart, or don't know hardly anything. It doesn't matter whether you are Jew, or Gentile. If you believe in Jesus, as your only Savior from sin, you are a member of The Holy Christian Church.

The Holy Christian Church is made up of believers.

They are all over the world. They are made up of many, many, many different individuals. And yet, even though it is made up of all these different people, they are all one. They are all united. Out of many, one. Verses four, five, and six explains that unity. It does it by looking at the work of The Trinity. Usually, we think about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is going to take it in reverse order, here, and talk about the work of the Spirit, the Son, and then the Father.

Look at what it says in verse four. “There is one body...” So, I have one body that is made up of many members, but it is just one body. It is talking about unity of believers.

“There is one body and one Spirit...”

So, it doesn't matter if you are three years old, or you are 83 years old. Here is what we believe.

“I believe I cannot by own reason, or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But, the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified, and kept me in the true faith, just as He calls gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”

There is “one Spirit”. That one Holy Spirit, through the Gospel, has called every single one of us to faith in Christ. We are one.

It says there is

“...one Spirit,

just as you were called in the one hope of your calling.”

What is that one hope all of us, all Christians have? I don't care who you are. I don't care how old, how young, what color. We all have one hope. That means one confident thing we are looking forward to. Here is what it is. “In this Christian Church He richly and daily forgives me, and all believers all of our sins, and at the last day, at the last day He will raise up me, and all the dead, and grant me, and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.”

We all have that one confidence. I am going to be in Heaven, some day, with all believers. We are one.

It goes on to the work of Jesus, the Son, in verse five.

“There is one Lord...”

We all have one Jesus we look to. He is our head. He is our leader. He is our guide. We look to Him, alone. He is the One we follow. In fact it says,

“There is one Lord,

one faith...”

We all have the same faith in Jesus. That one faith we have is, “I know I am a sinner. But, I know He paid for my sins. He died for my sins. My sins are forgiven, because of what Jesus did.” That is why the Bible says,

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and you will be saved.”

“God so loved the world

that He gave His one and only Son.

Whoever believes in Him shall not perish,

but have everlasting life.”

We have one faith in Jesus, as our Savior. We are united. We are one.

It says there is

“...one baptism...”

All of us, and I don't care if you live here in Madison, or you live in some little rural town in Nepal, if you have been baptized, you have been baptized into Christ. You have been clothed with Christ. You have been covered up with His holy righteousness. Your sinful nature has been drown with Him, and a new life of faith has come forward. We are one. We have one baptism. We are united.

Then, it goes on to the work of the Father in verse six. There is

“...one God and Father of all,

who is over all...”

Whether it is the little, five year old Christian who lives in a home where there is lots of trouble, or the 80 year old Christian who lives in an apartment all by themselves, we have the same Father who is over us all. He is watching over us all. We are united.

“...one God and Father of all,

who is over all,

and through all,

and in us all.”

We have one Father, and He is through us all. He works through every Christian for the good of The Church. He is in us all.

That is the unity of The Holy Christian Church. Many, many people, but we have one Lord, one faith, one hope, one baptism. We are united. That is The Church.

Now we get to the second part of Ephesians, where it says, “Be The Church.” Be The Church. The Holy Spirit has created this unity. It is a unity He has made. He has created it. It is real. It exists. It is true.

So, how do we display that? How do we put that into practice? Look at what our scripture calls us to, in verse three. This is really the center point of all of Ephesians.

“Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit

in the bond of peace.”

That should be our goal, as Christians. Here this unity has been created by the Spirit. It says, “Make every effort to maintain that”. The Greek word there is like a 'treasure', a dear, dear treasure, this 'unity' we have in the Lord. We should see it as such a dear treasure that we want to preserve that unity, and keep that unity. Make every effort to do that.

Look at verse one:

“...I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling

with which you have been called.”

“...one Lord, one faith, one baptism...”

You have been called to unity. The Bible says, “Live a life worthy of the calling...” Again, the Greek word is a picture of scales, balancing scales. You have been called. You have gotten this huge calling to be one in Christ. When it says live a life worthy of that, it is like, “Live your life as if you are really striving to maintain that wonderful unity you have been called to. Be The Church. Be the church, and maintain that unity.”

Now, our scripture reading is going to look at three ways “We can Be The Church”, that we maintain that unity we have been called to.

-First of all, it is going to talk about an attitude, an attitude that maintains unity among believers. If I wanted to divide this congregation right now, there are at least four different things I could do. Verse two calls us to four ways to preserve unity.

“Live with all humility, gentleness, patience,

bearing with one another in love.”

So, one way I could divide this group is I could be proud, and only be concerned about my good, my wants, and run rough-shod over what you care about, and what you want. That would divide us. Here it says,

“Live with all humility.”

Humility is the attitude of Christ, who considered us more important than Himself. He even died on the cross to take care of our needs. Humility looks at others, and says, “I am going to consider you as important, or even more important than myself.” That maintains the unity of The Church. That is being the church.

I could divide this body by being harsh and pushing my way around. “It's my way or the highway.” That would divide us.

So, what does it call us to? It calls us to “gentleness”. Gentleness is this kind heart this kind attitude that wants to work together with other people. That is being the church That is maintaining the unity we were called to.

I could divide this body by being impatient. “You aren't moving fast enough.” “You don't get it quick enough.” “Get out of my way.” But, instead, what does the scripture call us to? It calls us to “patience”, patience with one another, as God is patient with us. Patiently work with one another. That maintains unity. That is being the church.

Then, I could disrupt unity by not putting up with your shortcomings, or you not putting up with mine. We all have lots of them, don't we, lots of shortcomings? Some of them, because we are just not capable of certain things, and some of them because we, yes, are sinners, and we are not perfect people. If I didn't have time to put up with any of that, we would not maintain any unity.

What does it say? “...bearing with one another in love”. That maintains unity, when we forgive one another. We understand, “I have my issues. You have yours. But, together we bear with one another, and we maintain this unity.” That is being the church.

-That is number one, so that we maintain the unity we are called to in Christ.

Number two is this. How do I grow in becoming more humble, more patient, more able to bear with one another in Christ? That takes us to the next part. I am going to say it this way. You know that slogan, “Don't just go to church, be The Church.”? Part of being the church is going to church. That is part of being the church. That is part of being united, as one body. In fact, look at what it says here in verse seven and following.

“But to each one of us grace was given,

according to the measure of the gift from Christ.”

Now, he is going to talk about what we call The Public Ministry.

“He Himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets...”

Who were those people? Those are the people who were responsible for the writing of the Holy Scriptures. The apostles were the ones who oversaw the writing of The New Testament. The Holy Spirit worked through them. The prophets are the ones who wrote The Old Testament. The Holy Spirit worked through them. And so, the apostles, and the prophets were called by God to deliver to us The Holy Scriptures, which the Holy Spirit works through to build up His Church.

Then it goes on, and says,

“He Himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets,

as well as evangelists...”

So, somebody had to take the scripture then, that the apostles, and the prophets wrote, and deliver it to different parts of the world. We call them evangelists. Once it is delivered to certain parts of the world, then somebody in the local congregation has to teach, and preach that Word. So, it says,

“...as well as pastors and teachers...”

What is the purpose of pastors, and teachers in the scriptures? Listen to what it says. It says,

“...for the purpose of the training of the saints

for the work of serving,

in order to build up the body of Christ.”

“All scripture”, the Bible tells us, “is God breathed, and is useful for” (listen to this) “is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Part of being the church, maintaining that unity, and growing in humility, kindness, love, and gentleness is being immersed in The Word, because that is the only thing the Holy Spirit works through, to cause us to grow as a body.

Which gets us to the third thing the scripture passage points us to.

(I am going to diverge just a little bit, but you will see how this ties in.) The other day, Sherri and I were walking through a store, a big box store (Sherri says I smile at people too much, but I like to smile a lot at people), and I saw this woman coming toward to me. Her eyes diverted, and she looked really down, as if something was wrong. As I walked by her, I saw she had lost her arm, a part of her arm. It was all wrapped up, and bandaged. I thought, “Well, no wonder she looks really down. What if I lost my hand? I would be devastated. If I lost part of my body, I would be devastated. I love to do art. I need my hands to do my work at church, whether it is on the computer, or looking at a book. And, I love to scratch Sherri's back. If I lost my hand I would be devastated.”

We are the body of Christ. We are the body of Christ, and we want to maintain that unity. We don't want to lose part of the body. And so our scripture reading says our goal should be this, and this is being the church. We should be mature and grow up, so we become stronger and stronger. Here is what our scripture reading says can happen. Verse fourteen says,

“The goal is that we would no longer be little children

(some translations say, infants)

tossed by the waves

and blown around by every wind of teaching,

when people use tricks

and invent clever ways to lead us astray.”

Whenever I am some place where there is a big body of water, and I see little children, with no parental supervision nearby, my stomach just gets tied up in knots, because I am worried about the little kids. Can you imagine a little child out in a boat all by themselves, and a huge storm comes along. They don't have the knowledge, or the strength to keep from being swept into great danger. Immaturity in the faith is dangerous. It can cause a part of the body to be led astray, and maybe even lost.

It says you can be deceived, or led astray by clever tricks. If somebody pulls up in a car by a little child, and says, “Hey,come on in here. I have a little candy for you”, that little child could cleverly be led astray, not having any idea what may be coming, because the little child doesn't have the knowledge, or the strength to get away once they are captured.

So immaturity in the faith is dangerous. We love each other, and we don't want part of the body to be gone, and missing. That would be devastating to us. It would be devastating to Jesus' body, The Church of Christ.

Verse fifteen says,

“Instead, speaking the truth in love,

we would in all things grow up into Christ,

who is the head.”

This talks about encouraging one another. This is being The Church. Being The Church is encouraging one another to grow up into Christ. It is encouraging one another to live a life of unity. It is encouraging one another to go to church, and be The Church. It says,

“From Him the whole body,

being joined and held together by every supporting ligament,

grows in accordance with Christ's activity

when He measured out each individual part.”

We are all part of that body, every one of us. We are all unique. We are all different, but we are all part of one body. We are intended to work together. Look at what it says.

“He causes the growth of the body

so that it builds itself up in love.”

I am going to leave you with that challenging statement again.

Don't just go to church.

Be The Church.

Amen