Ephesians 4:4-6
Notes
Transcript
Handout
You could see on the sign out front or in the Spirit of Faith email that came out this week a somewhat intriguing title to the sermon. “Don’t be an unused gift card.” I think the people that drive by are probably wondering what wacko preaches at that church? They talked about The Best Pizza in town on Easter. He called out Chip and Joanna Gaines. Who is this guy? Who is he, likening me to an unused gift card?
Anyway…the title will be on the sign over the next three weeks because as I was preparing the text this week…I realized that it is going to take three weeks to develop this thought.
The intention is that over the next three weeks we will look at the next 12 verses in Ephesians. The next three weeks is really one big long sermon, but in my graciousness and because of my desire to still be employed…I have decided that I won’t preach a 3 hour long sermon today!
With that being said…we won’t really scratch the surface of the catchy title until next week.
This week what we are going to see in the text is that...
Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
Next Week: We have been equipped to maintain the unity, with the gifts we been given.
Week after that: We have been equipped to maintain the unity, with the people we have been given.
But before we talk about this week, or next week or the week after last…let’s remind ourselves of what we look at last week.
Last week we talked about howI..
It is our job to maintain the unity that was attained for us by the work of Jesus.
This was another heavy hitter that the devil didn’t want us to hear and certainly didn’t want us to apply in our relationship toward one another.
We talked about how we need to be “eager” to maintain, that which Jesus spilled His blood for to attain. Unity in the Body of Christ is a gift from God that is given to His blood bought children. It is a gift that we have recieved, but now we must do our best to maintain. We have to be proactive in maintaining it and it will take ever last drop of who we are…but when we run out of ourselves and our efforts, that is when the indwelling Christ kicks in and empower us to actually do this call to walk worthy. Isn’t that what the Scriptures teach us?
How have you been proactive this week in maintaining the unity Jesus died to attain for us? How have you been humble, gentle, patient, and forbearing with those you love and those in the church?
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The call to walk worthy is a call to come to the end of yourself, so that Christ can manifest Himself to you, to those who live in close proximity to you and to the world at large. When you are weak…you are strong because in that moment, then and only then are you are empowered by the strength that only God supplies.
Last week we looked at the virtues that need to be activated in our lives in order empower the unity that we are called to maintain.
We all have lights in our house…but if they just suspended in a can on the ceiling or surrounded by a lampshade on a night stand and the switch is never flipped to give them power…they are useless for providing that which they were created to do.
The children of God have been indwelt by the Living Christ by His Spirit. That Spirit actually transfers the power over the mechanism of our personhood and allows us to be “humble, and gentle, and patient and fore-bearing.”
You can’t do that consistently on your own…you need Jesus to do that. And praise God for those opportunities that God gives us to exemplify the humility of Christ and the gentleness of Christ and the patience of Christ and the forbearance of Christ…because the opportunity to exemplify those traits has a duel threat status to a world that is lost in darkness and damnation.
When we are given the opportunity to exemplify this Christ like behavior…we are given the opportunity to be more conformed to the image of Christ…which is our ultimate good. God will use the people we love the most to scrape up against us to remove the indwelling sins of pride, and harshness, and the sin of becoming easily agitated by those who annoy us. Don’t tell me the bible is not relevant when we talk about these issues that every human being that has ever lived has always wrestled with! God is so good to give us His Word to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
Not only is it good for us....but it is also for the good of the world because what this world needs is not more of us trying and failing to exemplify these Christ like trait…what the world needs is the Living Christ in us actually accomplishing these thing as we live the crucified life by faith in the Son of God as God makes His appeal to a lost world that is dying in darkness…
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And when people look at us and the see our behavior is strange and other worldly…what they are really seeing, is the actions of the ONE who extends to them the same forgiveness we have been given.
AMAZING!
So this week we will discover that we have been equipped to maintain the unity through that which we have experienced. Everyone who believes in and belongs to Christ has had a common 7 fold experience of grace that has unified us. I didn’t say, SHOULD unify us, I said HAS unified us.
We have not been ill equipped…so no excuses…we must maintain the unity!
Let’s look at the text and marvel together...
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. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
I want to highlight something as we begin this three week long sermon.
Paul isn’t subtle in his use of language here. If you make just a cursory reading of the text you will notice something seemingly paradoxical.
Paul has been painstakingly creative in his use of “all encompassing language.” In verses 4:4-6, Paul uses the word, ‘one’ seven times in one sentence. If we didn’t believe in authorial intent and the doctrine of inspiration that applies to the very words themselves we would be tempted to think that the Apostle Paul had a speech impediment! What else could account for the such repetition. Sometimes people get bothered with the repetitious nature of modern worship music. I am right there with you, but sometimes repetition is extremely intentional and not just emotional. This is what Paul is doing here with his use of language. He is going to say the word “one” seven times in order to stress the unity that we all share in our experience of Christ.
But in verse 7 there is a stark contrast introduced by another one of those “big but’s” of the Bible.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
As much as we all experienced this unity and oneness in our call, there has been “specific grace” that has been showered down on “each one” of us. That is, there has been a “specific equipping of grace” that has been given to each individual that makes up the corporate Body of Christ. Our Christian unity is enriched by the diversity of our gifts that we have been graciously given by God to build up the body.
Come back next week as we talk about the “specific grace” that we have each been given to build up and maintain the body.
So whether you like it or not…we are all in this together…so we must share what we have been given.
But that’s next week…
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Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
That begs the question, “What have we experienced?” I’m glad you asked…let’s study our wondrous 7 fold experience of grace shall we?
One Body
One Body
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
First things first…Paul is going to remind us that we are all members of one universal church. It seems to be the case that there were many “congregations” of believers in Ephesus. That is why in Ephesians 3:2, Paul writes...
2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you,
That sentence indicates to us that there were more than just one local church in Ephesus. If there was just one local church in Ephesus that Paul established, then surely as he was establishing that church they would have certainly known of his “stewardship of grace” because he would have told them. The fact that there were more than one congregation of “called out ones” in Ephesus can indicate a number of things, but it at least reveals one thing to us.
The Ephesians did a good job with evangelism.
How do you think FCC is doing with evangelism? How are we loving one another (John 13:34-35)?
The 1st century world was under the dominion of the Roman empire. No sensible citizen of Ephesus would consider defying the Roman government by claiming there was another King named Jesus who was from Nazareth in Galilee which is 1,129 miles away. On a good day of travel, people in that day could make 20 miles by foot. That means they were a 56 and a half day journey away from Him, oh and by the way, if they would make the journey upon arrival they wouldn’t find Jesus there because they are way late to the Jesus party, because He ascended into heaven about 20 years prior to Paul’s arrival.
New converts in Ephesus doesn’t make any sense unless those who heard about Paul’s “stewardship of grace” shared the “Good News” with others. They must have passed on what they had seen and heard from Paul when he was with them for 2.5 years.
There was real “conversion growth” happening and not just “transfer growth.” All throughout the city there were little pockets of people being “won to the faith,” “built up in their faith,” and equipped to pass on the faith.” The Ephesians were disciples who were busy with the work of making disciples.
As much as we get excited about what God is doing at FCC and what he might be leading us to do ministry wise and program wise, staffing wise, and building wise…we must reminder ourselves again of our slogan...
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
We don’t want to build the Kingdom of FCC, we want to do our small, little, and yet still very significant part of establishing God’s rule and reign here on the outskirts of Lynden Washington by proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and positioning ourselves as servants of others for Jesus’ sake…so that we can be disciples who doggedly seek to make more disciples.
I come from Chicago. Chicago almost as many churches as Lynden!
Look, I am pumped that there are are so many churches here…that is as long as they are preaching the Gospel of God’s grace and the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” and not some rule based, holier than thou, God I thank you that I’m not like that tax collector type of religion…that is the stuff that is lukewarm and that stuff makes our Lord want to vomit!
But if other churches are preaching the true Jesus, we are all part of the same universal body.
We are all members of “one Body.”
One Spirit
One Spirit
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
Anatomically speaking “each body” has “a spirit.” Humans exist as physical and spiritual creatures. So, to expand the analogy, if there is “one universal body”…there there is also “one universal Spirit”…by which we have been regenerated by. Each one of us has all of the Holy Spirit.
He is indivisible…kind of like when you say the pledge of allegiance. “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
On a side note, it is hard for me to take seriously my pledge of allegiance when I see the word “indivisible” in the pledge and look around and clearly see so much division in the country. I realize that might be controversially, but I don’t see an indivisible nation. On the contrary, I see a very divided nation.
But praise God, my ultimate citizenship is not here, so therefore my allegiance isn’t ultimately to a flag that represents unity and yet fails to deliver on the streets or the courts or the politicians chambers where it is incredibly divided. My ultimate citizenship is in heaven and I pledge my undying allegiance to the King of that Kingdom because I have…and we have been born again by His indivisible Spirit whom He has also given to dwell in each one of us who call Jesus Christ Lord.
His kingdom will have no end and the gates of hell will not prevail against its advances!
There is one Spirit that has caused us to be born again and sealed us in the one universal body of Christ.
and the Body of Christ, as a living, unstoppable, organism if fueled by our one hope.
One Hope
One Hope
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
This isn’t just hope that is out there somewhere…this is hope that belongs to or is inseparably linked with our call to belong to Christ. Think about the sequence of the listing here. There is one body that we are part of and we have we have all been brought into that body by the sovereign work of the Spirit. Remember what Jesus said in...
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
That means by an act of God’s choosing, we have be invited to participate in the one reality that exists on this planet that “displays the manifold wisdom of God.” We get to be a part of this. Not because of what we have done, but because of the provision of the infinite Son! And when you combine that with what we talked about two weeks ago…that God has not, is not and will never hold out on you and that He is working all things for your good and His glory…do you know what thats called?
Hope! And it belongs to your call. And you have been called…therefore you can always abound with hope. You! Me! Us! Even in our depressed, anxious, sin riddled states can be filled with hope. It is ours. It belongs to our call. And we have been called to be part of the most important reality in the universe.
How is it that even in our depressed, anxious, sin riddled state we can still be filled with hope?
You can filled with strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow as you integrate God’s redemptive acts in the past with your trusting human responses to that grace in the present. We who are part of the Body of Christ are indwelt by the Spirit and can experience all the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and certainly in the future.
We are people of hope…and that hope wouldn’t be even on our radar screens without our common experience of our...
One Lord
One Lord
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
There is “one” Lord…not multiple lords. We won’t take much time develop this thought because I am assuming you know about the uniqueness and exclusivity of Jesus. We could make this sermon go really long and talk until the end of time itself by talking about the accomplishments of our “one Lord.” That’s how John concludes his narrative right?
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
This is comical…seemingly hyperbolic…but in a very real sense every book in the world, ever written or that will ever be written could not contain all that Jesus did, and is doing because...
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,
Everything that orbits around his glory is subordinate to Him. Remember when the world classifying social services as either essential or non-essential?
Let me tell you something…there is only one essential social service in the universe and He is the Lord Jesus Christ because...
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
If all things hold together in Him…if you take Him out of the equation, all hell breaks loose.
But since He Himself is the intrinsic, preeminent One of all that is seen and unseen and we corporately make up His Body when we gather together…the church of Jesus Christ has become the one essential social service that must continue to live out its commission come hell or high water.
Do you think the church of Jesus Christ is an “essential” or “non-essential” entity?
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
There is One Lord and we preach to all the inhabitants of the world the “unsearchable riches of Christ.”
And we become participates in His Lordship by our...
One Faith
One Faith
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
The way that we participate in One Body, One Spirit, and One Lord is through our “one faith” meaning the doctrine of justification by faith alone. I think the recognition and exposition of this doctrine found in the book of Romans is the Apostle Paul’s crowing achievement for the cause of Christianity.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The way that we are made righteous in God’s eyes and become participates in the Body, become indwelt by the Spirit and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord is through our expression of faith in what He has done on our behalf and not our feeble attempts to be made righteous on our own.
Righteousness before God has nothing to do with human achievement. God gives us the initial faith to believe what He has done for us in Christ and that initial faith spawn more faith to keep believing…thus the born again of God do exactly what the prophet Habakkuk preached... “the righteous shall live by faith.”
Not only that but all, those in Christ has experienced “one baptism.”
One baptism
One baptism
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
It is rather sad that in a sentence where Paul is promoting the unity of the Body of Christ he brings up a topic that has throughout the centuries caused divisions in the church. It just goes to show that we need to keep the main thing, the main thing. In the denomination in which I recieved my ordination, before they listed off their list of 6 “distinctives” they introduced their distictives with an inaugural phrase that I just love:
In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, charity. In all things, Jesus Christ.
In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, charity. In all things, Jesus Christ.
They kept the main thing the main thing. This whole thing is about the person and work of Jesus Christ and not about our doctrinal preferences.
So what is it about baptism that Paul is trying to indicate here? I’ll tell you what it isn’t highlighting…it isn’t about mode or method…it is the reality that our baptism points to that matters.
What reality does our baptism point too? Well we have been baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer identified apart from the saving work of each member of the Trinity. We no longer belong to the dominion of darkness, rather we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sin.
Our baptism symbolizes our death to self and resurrection to newness of life. Our baptism points to that common reality. (If you haven’t been baptized yet…)
Have you been baptized? Do you periodically remind yourself of what you baptism symbolizes? If so, how? If you haven’t been baptized, when are you going to contact Pastor Shawn to discuss this step of obedience :)
and finally we all have experienced God as our...
One God and Father of all
One God and Father of all
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
We all have the same dad…that means we are unified in such a way that when we look at the people around us who also believe, we don’t see individuals who are strangers to us…we see our brothers and sisters. That is what Paul is driving at here. We all experienced a new birth. By nature all things that are born, have a father…it just so happens for those born again all have the same Father. One God and Father. One God who relates to us AS a Father because He IS our Father.
And just in case we aren’t convinced of our unity yet…which seems nearly unfathomable even if we only have the reading comprehension level of a 1st grader, Paul adds this final phrase.
“Who is over all, through all and in all.”
The word “all” here is not gender neutral referring to ever person who has ever lived. Although God is the Creator of ever person who has ever lived…there are those of whom Jesus said this shocking phrase.
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
This phrase is not is teaching on the universal Fatherhood of God. The word all is referring to “all those” who have had the previous 6 experiences Paul just talked about. Paul is referring to the members who belong to the Body of Christ and not the world in general.
He is our dad who is over us…and who empowers us and works through us and although it is perplexing to us…He by His Spirit dwells in us.
It was said, “although God is the Creator of all, He is not the Father of all.” How is that a true statement. How would you substantiate that to a friend or a co-worker who doesn’t agree with you?
Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
Textual Idea: We have been equipped to maintain the unity because of what we have all experienced.
We have not been ill equipped for this calling to walk in a manner worthy of our calling to maintain the unity because look at what we have all have uniformly experienced.
Praise God!
Come back next week and find out how to not be an unused gift card.