United

Psalm 133 (Opening) 1  Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2  It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3  It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Introduction The big thing in the news for the past several years, if you were to boil it down to one word, is division. There has always been a little bit of an “Us verses them” mentality as long as I can remember, but it seems to me that it has been escalating over the past few years and has started coming to a head. Some in the media have started saying there could be a second Civil War here in the US. I think that’s a little bit extreme, but I won’t totally discount the possibility. The problem, as I see it, is that people are being told what to believe and not taking the time to filter the information they are being fed to determine what is important and true, and what is just being used to stoke the fire. We expect political divisions, but the problem is that politics seems to bleed over into every other part of life in this country. Then that bleeds into every other interaction we have, and if you internalize it too much, it starts to take over every aspect of your life. Race. Background. Income. Religion. Gender. They all end up being dividing lines for people. Paul, in his letter to the congregations in Galatia, wrote, Galatians 3:28 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. We as Christians are all united, no matter what our background or genetic makeup, into a singular Body. As Christians, there should be no divisions. Paul elaborated on that in his letter to the congregation in Ephesus. Ephesians 4:1-6 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Paul wrote this letter to the congregation in Ephesus to encourage them to work together and work to be united, both their local congregation and to the Church universal. They were called, each person individually, by God. God drew each one of them to Christ. Paul and the other Christians there in Ephesus were the tools that God used to plant the seed in the people who became Christians there. Paul encouraged them to live the Christian life, a life that is constantly worshiping and serving God. The four qualities that Paul says that all Christians should have are humility, gentleness, patience, and enduring or long-suffering love. The goal of these four qualities is to create a peace that can bind all Christians in the unity that the Spirit creates. The Spirit is one of the things that binds us together, but we tend to ignore the Spirit when it’s not convenient, and especially when we feel that someone is doing something that we don’t approve of. So, we live in a constant battle between peace and discord which can dismember the body of Christ and make our work in this world useless. Body In verse 4 of Ephesians chapter 4, Paul begins explaining what produces unity in the universal Church, and why we need unity. He lists seven things that produce that unity. First, Paul writes that there is one body. There are multiple congregations that belong to Christ, but there is only one body that is the bride of Christ. In Paul’s first letter to the congregation in Corinth, he explains that each of us is a part of the body, and even though we’re different, each of us is an integral part. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. Here in his letter to Corinth Paul ties several of the “Ones” together. In fact, they are so intertwined that it’s difficult to separate them. Each of the “ones” is interdependent and tied into the other. Paul uses several examples in the next few paragraphs in 1 Corinthians to explain that even though we have different gifts and abilities, that doesn’t make us more important or less important in the body, and all the parts are needed to make the body whole. He sums it up with this statement: 1 Corinthians 12: 27 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. The body is made up of individuals, not congregations. Congregations are made up of individual parts of His body, but are not His body in its entirety. Some theologians explain it this way: the body of Christ, the universal Church, is the invisible Church. That is, you can’t see all of it at one time. The body includes those who have already died in Christ, and those living today who are in Christ. They differentiate between the visible church and the invisible Church. The visible church, those of us who belong to a congregation somewhere and participate in corporate worship, are a part of the invisible Church. But just like not everything in a chicken coop is a chicken, not everyone who is in the visible church is a part of the invisible Church. We can’t always tell who is in Christ and who isn’t, but the invisible Church is made up of those who are in Christ, because it is His body. There are several places where Paul uses the analogy of the church being the body of Christ. It demonstrates His ultimate Lordship and control over the Church, because each person, generally speaking, has control over every voluntary aspect of his body, so Christ has control over His body, the Church. Earlier in Ephesians, Paul explains it this way: Ephesians 1:22-23 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Spirit A unifying aspect of the Body is that each of us in the Body has the Spirit in us. When we are immersed into His death, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, as Peter said on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit is the seal of our guarantee, like the bow on the package of the gift of eternal life that we hope for. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. God anointed us with the Holy Spirit when we were immersed into the body of His Son. This is the same Spirit that Paul says that we all drink of in 1 Corinthians 12:13. It’s a unifying factor among all Christians, because we are spiritually one, bound together in one body by the same spirit. Hope Hope is what we have as a result of being in the one body, and having the one Spirit. We have the same hope because of our belief in Jesus and everything that He said. Remember, that hope is a reasonable expectation or belief in the fulfillment of something desired, not some vain hope that is really just a wish. Our hope is a reasonable expectation or belief because Jesus said He would do something. John 14:2-3 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. Our hope is that He will come back for us and take us to be in heaven with Him. We have hope in the resurrection of the dead, and that we will be with Him because we were obedient to Him. Like Paul wrote in his letter to Titus: Titus 2:11-14 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Jesus is the demonstration of God’s grace to mankind, the sacrifice for all our sins. But His return is only good news if we are obedient to Him. Lord Being obedient to Him means making Him the Lord of your life. We don’t understand Lordship in this country. The idea of the Lordship of Jesus is that He dictates what we should do, not us. He is in charge, not us. God made Jesus our Lord, and Jesus tells us that in the end of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew 28:18 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So, Jesus, with all authority, is in charge of all things, therefore, Lord of all things in heaven and on earth. In the Old Testament, God is called Adonai or Lord. That title is reserved for the Christ in the New Testament. Is there a difference? Both are part of the godhead, the three aspects of God that we read about throughout the Bible. The writer of Hebrews tried to clarify it this way. Hebrews 1:3-4 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Jesus is superior to the angels, as well as everything else. He is Lord of heaven and earth. Faith Faith is belief plus action. Faith is what is demonstrated by your belief. In ancient Greek, the word used for faith is the noun form of the verb used for belief. James tells us that the demons believe in God, but when we demonstrate our belief through works of faith, that is doing good things because we know that God will save us because of our faith in Jesus, then we glorify God through our actions. James 2:18-19 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Our faith in Christ helps us to selflessly love others. And because we have a selfless love for others, we do things to help them. As we become more like Jesus, and have more faith in Him, we become more selfless and do things for others that don’t make sense to those people who are not Christians, those who have not submitted to the Lordship of Christ. It makes us look different, and behave differently. The only thing that matters, that keeps us in Christ, is our faith, and that faith keeps us doing His will. Paul explained it this way to the congregations in Galatia: Galatians 5:6 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. What we do doesn’t make us righteous. Who we are doesn’t make us righteous. Faith in Jesus makes us righteous, and causes us to do what we do. It makes us do what Jesus tells us to do. Baptism One of the things that our faith causes us to do, in fact, one of the first things, is be immersed. Immersion without faith is just taking a bath. But being immersed because you have faith in Jesus, that He is who He said He is, and will do what He said He will do, that is life changing; eternal life changing. That’s what Paul explained to the congregation in Rome. Romans 6:3-4 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Paul tells the congregation in Ephesus that there is one baptism. And believe me, in my studies, I’ve found a lot of arguments about what he really meant by that. There are many ways that people say they baptize these days, and many reasons for baptizing. But there is only one real way, one real reason. The Greek word baptize, which is anglicized to baptism, means to immerse. There’s no question about that. There is one baptism, and that is, as Peter said on the day of Pentecost, for the forgiveness of sins. Acts 2:38 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This ties us back to the one Spirit that Paul wrote about earlier in verse 4 of Ephesians 4. That one Spirit that we receive as a result of our immersion into the death of Christ binds us together with the rest of the one body, and unifies us in spirit with the body of all believers, living and dead. We are all one. God and Father We’ve looked at six of the seven “ones” that Paul wrote to Ephesus about, encouraging them to be unified in the bonds of peace. The seventh “One” is God himself. Ephesians 4:6 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Anyone who believes in God, the One True God, knows and understands that He is the Father of all. It’s the first thing we read in the Bible. Genesis 1:1 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Not only did God create everything, and through that is the Father of all, but when He sent Moses to free the Israelites from Egypt, He told Moses this: Exodus 4:22-23 22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’” God called Israel His firstborn son. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 11 that we are grafted into the root of the olive tree, representing Israel, so now we also are His sons. God is the ruler of all. When Jesus says in Matthew 18 that all authority had been given to Him, that means it had to be given by God, who is the ultimate authority. Conclusion We as the body of Christ need to be the example of unity, and not take part in divisiveness and division. When writing to Ephesus, Paul emphasized unity because of problems between Jewish and Gentile Christians. But we are still facing similar problems. Racial, ethnic, and economic differences can and often do cause problems within the body of Christ, and between those of us in the body and those outside. Not long after the beginning of our nation, there were men who came to our country and after experiencing the division in the body of Christ decided that something needed to be done about it. Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, both in different areas of the country with no knowledge of the other, began movements to unify Christians of different denominations as Christians only. Many of the sermons used to encourage this unity were based on Ephesians 4:4-6, and also on Jesus prayer for unity in the Garden of Gethsemane, in John’s Gospel. John 17:20-23 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” Paul’s plea for unity in Ephesus and Jesus plea for unity among believers were driving factors for both Campbell and Stone to reach back to what Campbell called “the ancient order”, the simplest, most basic form of what Christian worship can be. Worship stripped of all the fancy trappings and extra unnecessary things; boiled down to its basics; uninfluenced by the world; unleavened, if you will. But Campbell never intended his description of “the ancient order” to be understood as conditions of salvation. That’s where the seven “Ones” that Paul lays out in Ephesians 4 come in. Those seven “Ones” define us as Christians. Our “unleavened” form of worship helps keep us from drifting away from that and allows us to unite at the most basic level with all our Christian brothers and sisters. Colossians 3:12-17 (Closing) 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.