We Are ONE in Christ
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Story about we are one (sports story )
How many of you have ever been part of a sports team?
When I was in School I played soccer. There were 11 of us boys on the field.
We had a goalie - his job was to block any shots the other team tried to make in our goal,
In front of Him was the ...
Fullbacks or the defense- these were 4 big dudes whose whole job was to keep the other team from getting close enough to our goal to shoot. Their mission was to stop the ball no matter what the cost. You did not want to run into a defender at full speed.
In front of them were the mid fielders-
Midfielders- These are the guys who controlled the field- They helped guard the goal with the defense , but they also were the guys who brought the ball across midfield on offense- These were the guys who had crazy long endurance and could run the entire game. They were quick on their feet and accurate with their passes.
In Front of them were the 3 Forwards
Forwards were the offensive weapons of the team- these guys could shoot the ball at speeds faster and more accurate than anyone else on the field. The job was to score goals against the other team.
I started playing soccer when I was in 5th grade-
5th grade- it was a giant blob of kids all running around the ball. everyone was defense- everyone was midfield and everyone was offense- Even when the coach would tell us to stay in our position we always ended up in a blob.
No one really did the role that they were assigned to do.
it wasn’t really a soccer - it was more like keep away. If you got lucky you might actual get a chance to kick the ball.
Jr High Soccer- the game became more organized- we were assigned positions and told to stay in them, and every game we would be assigned different positions to play.
This was more organized than 5th grade soccer but we were never that great because we never really learned our roles as a team.
High School Soccer- High school soccer was much more organized -I was a midfield - I played left midfield, Right Midfield and Center midfield. and on occasion I would center forward.
My job was starting to become more clear- My role was to get the ball from defense to our offense. We scored a lot more goals than we did in Jr High or in 5th grade- because we were functioning more like a team.
But it wasn’t until I played college soccer that I really understood what it meant for our team to be fully dependent on one another for our success.
In 5th grade we scored usually because someone missed the ball,
In jr High we scored usually because the other team made a mistake
In High School we scored because we usually outplayed the other team
But at the college level in in order for our team to win we had to be unified in everything we did.
Every player on the field had a very specific role.
I was no longer just a midfielder or forward. I now played 1 position and that was left striker
My job was to score goals on the other team-
But even if I scored 10 goals in a game the only way for our team to win was for every member of the team to do the specific role that they were given.
and that was to score goals on the other team and to stop them from scoring on us.
When our goalie blocked the shots and our defenders stopped our opponents offense and when our midfield controlled the field and when our strikers scored goals then our team was successful,
In order for our team to be successful Everyone on the team had to do the specific role that they were given by the coach.
We are in the 2nd week of a two part sermon on the Unity of the Church.
Paul has just given us the charge to walk worthy of our calling. To live our lives in a way that brings glory to God.
and what He is saying is that the foundation of walking worthy is to be unified in our church.
Read the text: lets begin today by reading the passage we studied last week- turn in your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 4: beginning in verse one...
1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 4:3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Paul is saying that if you want to walk worthy of your calling you must maintain unity in the church.
He then tells us the characteristics we must have in our lives to have unity in the church
Humility, Gentleness, patience, love and eagerness for peace
and now in our text this morning Paul moves from the characteristics of unity to the foundation of unity.
Listen to what Ephesians 4:4-6 says
4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling, 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [NET]
Paul gives us 7 foundational “One” statements to point out how the church is unified in the gospel of Jesus.
Today we are going to look at these 7 statements and see how we as a church must find our unity in Christ.
ONE BODY
ONE BODY
This is the body of Christ that ALL believers are part of from the moment they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.
The Body of Christ is every believer from the day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts to the future Rapture of the Church.
1 Cor. 12:12-20 tells us that we are a diverse group of people that God has brought together to function as one Body in Christ
“For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. 12:13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. 12:14 For in fact the body is not a single member, but many. 12:15 If the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. 12:16 And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, what part would do the hearing? If the whole were an ear, what part would exercise the sense of smell? 12:18 But as a matter of fact, God has placed each of the members in the body just as he decided. 12:19 If they were all the same member, where would the body be? 12:20 So now there are many members, but one body.
Like a good soccer team- every one has a specific role that was given to them because of their individual gifts.
If everyone was the goalie - there would be no one to score goals. If everyone was the forwards there wouldn’t be anyone to stop the other team.
I played forward because I could shoot the ball accurately and effectively- that is were my gifts and abilities were. My brother on the other hand couldn't really shoot the ball well, But he was a brute on defense- He was hard for anyone to get around.
On a team everyone has different roles, but as a group we were Unified in our purpose of winning the game. and the way that we lived out our unity was that each of us did the role that we were gifted to do. and when we all worked together we were unified in ONE BODY AS A TEAM.
The same thing is in the church- We have many members in our body
God has given each of us a specific gift or talent to be used for the unity of the church.- In order for our church to be ONE BODY every one of use must be doing the role that God has gifted you with the abilities to do.
No were in scripture Do I see that God gave some the gift of spiritual retirement- There is no such thing as a faithful church member who is not serving the body of Christ in some way .
you are ONE BODY when you serve one another with the spiritual gifts that God has given you.
We can maintain our unity in the church Because we are ONE BODY IN CHRIST
ONE SPIRIT
ONE SPIRIT
This Refers to the Holy Spirit the 3rd person in the Trinity of God.
So what does it mean for the church to be one Spirit?
Eph. 1:13-14-
The H. Spirit sealed our Salvation - You you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and savior of your life -God marked your salvation as complete-He put the stamp of the holy Spirit on your Debt of Sin and he marked it PAID IN FULL! The H.S. is the guarantee from God that your debt of sin has been paid.
The Spirit is the downpayment for our eternal inheritance in heaven.
2 Cor. 3:18
The H.S is the one that changes mankind to be more like jesus
Eph. 3:16
The H.S. is the source of our Christian strength that allows all of us to stand firm when trials come into our lives.
3:20- Reiterates this idea that it is the H.S. that works in all of us to do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.
So when Paul writes that the church Has one Spirit He is telling us that we are equally Secured in our faith, that we are all indwelt by God, that the Spirit equally convict all of us of our sins, and that we all possess the same power that raised Jesus From the grave the Power that comes from the Holy Spirit living in us as believers..
We are One in Spirit because the Same Spirit indwells all believers equally and works in each of our hearts to make us all more like jesus Christ,
We can maintain unity in the church because we all have one SPIRIT.
ONE HOPE
ONE HOPE
We have Hope - Because our Salvation was completely accomplished through Christ’s finished work on the cross.
We as the church have one Hope and that is that Jesus will do what he said he will do. .
John 14:3 “... I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too”
Titus 2:13 Describes this Hope .... “ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,”
As a church we can be unified in our desire to see Jesus.
Our Hope is in The Lord’s Eminent return . and all believers share in this hope because we are all equally secured in Christ. Our One Hope is that we know Jesus is coming Back to take us to heaven and that our eternity is completely secure in Christ by the seal of the Holy Spirit who indwells our hearts as believers.
We can maintain our unity in the church because we have ONE HOPE.
ONE LORD
ONE LORD
In Ancient England-a Lord was a title given to Royal Nobility.
To be a lord meant that you had great power and authority over those under you.
English Lords owned huge areas of Land, and they had the power to control the land and all of its inhabitants any way that they deemed fit.
To live on the land that A LORD OWNED MEANT THAT EVERYTHING YOU DID WAS FOR HIS BENEFIT AND NOT YOUR OWN. YOU SERVED HIM WITH EVERY PART OF YOUR LIFE,
IN ESSENCE YOUR LIFE EXISTED FOR HIS GLORY.
any occupant that would not declare their master as Lord was put to death.
Paul tells us that the church has One Lord- We have one master- There is only one head of the church and that is Jesus Christ- the 2nd person of the triune Godhead.
Col. 1:15020 describes the supremacy of Christ as our lord. as the head of the church.
Col.1:15-20 “1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, 1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him—all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him and for him. 1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him. 1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son 1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”-
Notice what this passage Said
“all things were made by him and for Him”
Christ is Lord over all creation because he is the creator of it all, He owns it-because he created it,
But more importantly We see in verse 18 that Christ is the head of the church.
We have one Lord and that is Jesus Christ-and as the head of the church he deserves all of our praise in the church, and all of the glory from the Church.
In order to gain salvation lost sinners must profess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord of their life.
Acts 16:30-31 “what must I do to be saved?” 16:31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”
He was saying to Confess Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.
understand that during the first century when the Ephesus Church was reading this letter from Paul- they understood what it meant to profess Jesus as Lord of their Life.
We need to understand that When these Ephesian Christians proclaimed Jesus as Lord of their life, they were saying that Caesar was Not the Lord of their life any more but Jesus was. and when the Jewish Christians proclaimed Jesus as Lord they were saying that Jesus was the God of the Old Testament scriptures which meant going against the religious leaders of their day.
To Proclaim Jesus as Lord for these 1st Century believers meant that they were going against their religion their traditions, and their government. .
As the Church today understand that Pastors are not the Lord‘s of the Church, denominations are not the Lord ‘s of the Church. Deacons are not the Lords of the church, Charter members are not the Lords of the church. Jesus Alone is our Lord. and because of this- He deserves all of our Praise.
The Church is united because we have one and only One lord and that is jesus Christ
Trans: we are also United in one Faith...
ONE FAITH
ONE FAITH
Faith is our belief that God will always do what he says he will do.
For the Church To have one faith means that we hold to the same doctrinal truths of Scripture.
We don’t get to change God’s Word to match our lifestyles.
We can not add to it and we can not leave the parts that we don’t like out of it.
Having ONE FAITH means that we hold to the same doctrinal truths
Remember- that Doctrine is a set of beliefs held by a church. these are the non negotiable truths that we must all follow as the Church.
Our Church has a statement of Faith - its OUR CHURCH DOCTRINE or
The Bible- We Believe That the Bible is the Inspired Inherent Complete Word of God qand it contains everything we need in order to life a life that pleases God.
God- We Believe that there is One and only One living and true God. And this one God reveals himself to us in 3 distinct persons- The Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit.
Mankind- We believe that although Mankind is a special creation of God, a creation made in God’s own image, Man on his own chose to sin against a holy God, and this brought condemnation to all of Mankind.
Rom. 3:23- All have sinned and fallen Short of the Glory of God
SIN - We believe that sin is anything contrary to the perfect character of God, It is missing the mark, and by missing the mark it is hitting the wrong mark. S
Because all have sinned everyone is condemned to an eternal lake of Fire- a place of punishment for sin.
We further believer that God desires that no one would have to go to this eternal place of punishment and so in His own love for mankind He chose to offer us Salvation.
Salvation- We believe that Salvation from our Sin comes only iN Christ Alone, By Grace alone, Through Faith Alone, for the Glory of God alone.
We believe that Our Salvation is all about God, He chose us, He redeemed us, He Forgave us, And Our response to this free gift that God brings us is Belief in the name of Jesus Alone.
The Church- We believe that those who have accepted the free gift of Salvation instantaneously become part of Christ Church at the moment of Salvation.
We believe that every one who has put their faith in Jesus from the day of Pentecost until the rapture of the saints are part of the church.
We believe that the local church was instituted by God for the purpose of Making and Equipping followers of jesus.
When a church is Divided on what it believes it has no doctrinal foundation to stand on, and this causes great divisions in the church.
This is why so many churches split and even more cease to exist.
For our local church to be united we must maintain the Doctrinal truths of Scripture that bind us together as one church in Christ and this is our faith.
Trans: Paul tells us that we are also United together in .....
ONE BAPTISM
ONE BAPTISM
The word Baptism has 2 meanings in Scripture. — Baptism by Water and Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism by Water-
This Physical baptism means to be immersed in Water-
When water baptism is mentioned in the Bible it is always an outward expression of an inward change that has already taken place in the persons life.
During the first century if a person wanted to be follower of a Religious teacher they would go down to a river and the teacher would baptize the person in the water.
This ritual signified to everyone around them that they were now a follower of that religious leader and that they would live their life in accordance with his teachings. They were saying I am no longer my own person But I know represent my religious teacher
Water Baptism is an outward act of obedience that shows those around you that you are committed to following Christ.
No where in Scripture does Water Baptism bring any grace from God- Its purpose is not for God to love you more or dispense some sort of favor on your life.
Water Baptism does not wash away your sins and make you clean from its guilty stains.
We believe that the scriptures clearly teaches that water baptism is for believers by immersion. It is an outward public display to show the believers new identity in christ. Through Baptism a believer proclaims His belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
It is telling the world that they are committed to following Jesus with their life.
Baptism of the Spirit-
this baptism does not involve water.
The 2nd biblical definition of Baptism is to be joined with”
We believe that Spirit Baptism occurs simultaneously with regeneration, This happens at the moment of Salvation for all new believers.
This Baptism is when those who have faith in Jesus Christ receive the Holy Spirit and are incorporated into the body of Christ.
God instantly joins you together with the H.S.
and this baptism happens at the moment a sinner puts his faith in Christ for Salvation.
Paul is referring to Spirit Baptism in this passage.
All believers in Christ have been baptized into the Holy Spirit. He indwells all believers making us ONE IN CHRIST
TRANSITION: and Now PAUL wraps up the ONENESS OF THE CHURCH and He says WE have ONE GOD AND FATHER who is over all and through and in All.
ONE GOD
ONE GOD
Ephesians 1:4-5
You are adopted into God’s Family- he chose you to be His Sons and daughters.
God is the adopted father of all regenerate believers in His Son Jesus.
This means that the we as believers in Jesus are the children of God with all the rights and privileges that come with being God’s own child.?
it means that wean eternal inheritance in heaven with Jesus
it means that God’s loves us is far more abundant than we cold ever imagine
it means that he disciplines us and corrects us for our own good.
It means that He will always do what is best for us so that we will become more like Him.
As a church we are adopted children into the same family, serving the same father, We are United by ONE GOD
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
In CHRIST we are ONE
READ THE SLIDE...........” the ones”
If We are ONE IN CHRIST than WE NEED TO ACT LIKE!
The way for unity to be lived out in this local church is when each of us understands that we are ONE in Christ. We are equal in Christ.
There is no room for division in God’s church because we are all equal in Christ.
The wisdom of this world is trying to divide us by race, by gender, by economic status, by any way that it can drive divisions between us.
But God’s word is so clear.
If you are IN Christ
If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ Alone, and are a follower fo Him than you are equally in Christ.
Paul in these 1st 7 verses of Ephesians Chapter 4 is telling us that the only way that we can maintain unity in our church is when we realize that we are ONE IN CHRIST.
We are equal in Christ as the church.
We are called to maintain Unity in this church and this can only happen when we live our lives together as many members of the same Body-serving one another.
and when we are serving one another in unity it will naturally produce and equip new followers of Jesus in our community.
CONCLUSION;
HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO YOUR LIFE AS PART OF THIS LOCAL CHURCH
I would ask you the same question I asked you last week
Are you faithfully serving the church body?
Or Are your words and actions driving this church apart by your selfishness?
We are called to unitty in this Church. and when we stand on the foundation of Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of our church we can be unified....
Because We are ONE BODY IN Christ ,
LED BY the SAME SPIRIT,
PROCLAIMING the SAME HOPE,
SERVING the SAME LORD,
LVING OUT the SAME FAITH IN OUR LIVES,
BAPTIZED IN TO THE SAME SPIRIT,
AND ALL OF THIS IS BECAUSE THE SAME GOD THAT CHOSE TO SAVE ME CHOSE TO SAVE YOU through the Same Savior -jesus Christ.
Lets be a church that stands in Unity for the GLORY OF GOD!
Pray.