Work Hard at Unity

let me begin by asking you a question, and I want you to answer inwardly: why did you come this morning?

of all the things you could have done on the first Sunday in November, 1998, why did you come to this place?

I’ll give you a moment to think, because I want you to really answer this question inwardly

and we’ll come back to the answer in a minute

can I give you one answer?

it’s found in the passage of Scripture that was read for us earlier

(Ephesians 4:1) As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, and in Ephesians 4 he makes a transition in this letter from doctrine to practical application

and all good application is built on good doctrine

for three chapters, Paul has been teaching on the church – the nature and appearance of the church

he has challenged the Ephesian believers to function as the living body of Christ on earth – to be the means by which Christ is glorified in a particular geographical location

and he says in Ephesians 4:1, "Live a life worthy of the calling you have received"

I’ll tell you how Paul would answer the question, "Why did you come this morning"

Paul would have answered, "You came to be the church"

our calling is to be the church

according to Paul, the church is not somewhere we go; it’s something we are

and Paul would have said, the reason to come together at a given time in a given place is to be the particular, local representation of a universal reality: the body of Christ

we are here to be the body of Christ, the community of God – a people who are called out from different backgrounds and different nationalities to be one people fulfilling the biblical commands given to the church

I get so excited when I read passages like Acts 2:42-47

when I read about the sort of community that God has called us to be

and I say, "Yes, that’s what it is all about. That is what Richview Baptist Church is to be – people of all different ages and backgrounds, joined together to be one people under the authority of God"

in fact, Paul says something in Ephesians 3:10 that is shocking:

(Ephesians 3:10) His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,

what he says is that the church ought to be the sort of place that the very angels look to in order to understand the wisdom of God

as one person put it, "The Church becomes a mirror through which the bright ones of heaven see the glory of God."

let me put it simply

Richview Baptist Church, and other churches on earth, are observed by spiritual powers

it’s amazing that rulers and authorities in heavenly realms look at Richview Baptist Church to see what God’s wisdom looks like

and to the degree that the church is spiritually united, it portrays to the spiritual powers the wisdom of God

God designed the church, and the local church in particular, to be the local body of Christ revealing to spiritual powers the manifold wisdom of God

that’s why I came to church this morning

I came to be the church

and Ephesians 4:1 tells us:

(Ephesians 4:1) As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

it’s entirely possible to make a loud profession and have nothing to back it up

we need to take seriously our call to be the church!

we need to take seriously what God has in mind when he brought the church into being

Paul says, "Live the sort of life that matches what God has called you to be"

at Richview Baptist Church in November 1998, actually live what you are

be the body of Christ in this part of Etobicoke at this particular time

what’s it going to take to be the church?

I’m glad you asked!

Paul tells us exactly what it’s going to take to be the church in Ephesians 4:2 and on

(Ephesians 4:2) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

(Ephesians 4:3) Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

what’s it going to take to be the church – to walk worthy of the calling we’ve received?

THE CHURCH IS A COMMUNITY

Paul says, in order to be the church, we need to be just a certain sort of community

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of the church as a community

but we are designed to be a community of people that live our lives in such a way that when the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms look down at us, they see something different

we are to live our lives in community in such away that we reflect back to heaven the God’s wisdom in all its rich variety

that’s the sort of community we’re supposed to be

and if you read verse 3 again with me, you’ll see how serious Paul is about it:

(Ephesians 4:3) Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Paul says, "Make every effort"

the verb suggests the idea of great difficulty, and the resolute determination it will take to rise above it

it suggests a great zealousness – to value unity, to be attentive to it, and to invest great amounts of energy to it so that our unity is not threatened

you could almost paraphrase, "Work hard at it. Make it your top priority"

"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace," Paul writes

as a result of the peacemaking work of Christ at the cross, we are linked together, and as Paul mentioned earlier in Ephesians, any hostilities between us have been broken down

he’s made one new body out of two, making peace, and reconciling those of us who were different before into one body

that’s what Christ has called us to be

whether you’re young or old, whether you’re a true blue Jew or a Gentile, no matter who you are, you’ve now found commonality in Christ, and we’re all one together

that’s Paul’s message to the church

that’s the sort of community we’re to be

you might ask, why is community so important?

if you go back as far as you can go, God created everything we see around us, and said "Good, good, good"

and then he created man and said, "It is not good" – specifically, it is not good for man to be alone

when God created man, he created an individual

and when God created woman, he created society

we all know that the fall had a terrible effect upon individuals and society

individuals became alienated from God

and society became fragmented

now, ask yourself: what is God’s answer to a fallen individual? Christ

any Christian would be able to answer this

now, a harder question

what is God’s answer to a fragmented society? the church

the church is an alternate society, placed right within society, to show fragmenting society what community is all about

the church is to be a community of people that will not fragment and fracture as readily as society, so that we can show society what community is all about

and that’s why Paul says:

(Ephesians 4:3) Make every effort [work hard, strain] to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

that’s why I came this morning – to be that sort of church in this part of Etobicoke at this time in the world

to work relentlessly at this type of unity, so that when the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms see Richview Baptist Church, they see God’s wisdom in its various forms reflected back to them

what’s it going to take?

ACCORDING TO VERSE 2, IT’S GOING TO TAKE FOUR THINGS TO LIVE THAT SORT OF WAY

there are, you could say, four steps to community

it’s going to take humility

it really means that we’re to be prepared to show lowliness of mind

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but the church has a lot of people with strong opinions

and many times these strong opinions could never be confused with lowliness of mind

in Paul’s day, thinking low was the attitude of slaves and was considered a negative trait among the ancient Greeks, but he says something different

instead of clashing with opinions and saying, "This is my opinion, and I don’t want it mixed up with the facts," Paul says, "Enough of that! Show lowliness of mind. Sit together and say, ‘I’d like to share my opinion, but more importantly, I’d like you to carefully articulate your position.’"

that’s how we’re to be

Paul says in verse 2 it’s also going to take gentleness

(Ephesians 4:2) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

gentleness means strength under control

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but the church has a lot of people with strong personalities who happen to have strong opinions

and when you have strong opinions rammed home by strong personalities, you sometimes run into problems

somebody wins, and somebody loses

and those who lose end up splitting, and those who win end up running the show

it’s going to take gentleness to change this

it’s also going to take a lot of patience

the word Paul uses for patience in verse 2 literally means, "slow to anger"

it has the idea of suffering long, or longsuffering

it has the idea of not blowing your top when you don’t get your way

I’ve seen people lose their temper in church

in order to avoid this, Paul says, we need lots of patience

and according to verse two, it’s also going to take forbearance

(Ephesians 4:2) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

the idea is to put up with the tastes, idiosyncrasies, and even faults of others, because after all, we have our own

it’s talking about a mutuality of attitude – that we look at the interests of others instead of just our own interests

that we’re not totally wrapped up with our own position and our own desires

that we’re prepared to listen to and respond to a legitimate point of view from another person

that we make allowance for one another because of our love

so why did I come to church this morning?

I came to join with you to be the church

I came to work hard, to make every effort to be the sort of community that shows the rulers and authorities in heavenly realms all the wisdom of God in its varied forms

I came to be the church, didn’t you?

[APPLICATION]

one of the things that attracted me to Richview is our diversity

I love the fact that we have different ages and different interests, and yet we come together as one body to worship Christ

I look forward to even greater diversity as we expand and enjoy greater difference and become more multicultural

God loves diversity, and so do I

if we had more time, I would study with you the next few verses in Ephesians 4, which talk of our unity in the faith reflected in the diversity of gifts offered to the church

diversity expressed in unity is what the church is all about

but diversity presents its challenges, doesn’t it?

if we were all the same, there would be no arguments about worship styles, about certain practices, about so-and-so doing this, and so-and-so doing that

but yet diversity is part of God’s plan for the church

one of the toughest areas to apply this is worship

Paul says, work hard at maintaining a spirit of unity in the bond of peace

have you noticed how hard this is when it comes to worship?

people are now choosing their churches based on the music – not the preaching, not the doctrine, but more the style of music

music, in many ways, has become the battleground of the church

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there isn’t a lot of lowliness of mind and mutuality of attitude when it comes to the type of music played within the church

a famous preacher was asked, "What is your church’s philosophy of worship?"

and he replied, "Simple. Our church’s philosophy of worship is to make sure in every service that there’s something to offend everybody."

some people seem to have the idea that God stopped being creative when Charles Wesley died

and many others think that God only started being creative when Keith Green was born

I’m pretty sure God isn’t pleased with either attitude, because both imply that God at some time has stopped being creative

and in a day when people fragment and fracture based on likes and dislikes, wouldn’t it be great if Richview Baptist Church modeled for the world and the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms what it’s like to be a community?

wouldn’t it be great to model the spirit of unity in the bond of peace, showing humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance in our worship?

wouldn’t it be great if one day a week, we demonstrated some unity, a unity that is going to be reflected in diversity?

my heart breaks every time somebody gets up and leaves because they don’t like the music that’s being played

it’s unacceptable in a younger person, and it’s unacceptable in an older person

because what it shows is the very opposite of community

when fragmenting society and the rulers and the authorities in heavenly realms look at that sort of behavior, what do they see?

a lady in her 70’s sat down to write her pastor one Sunday after a worship service

she felt the music was dreadful; the songs loud and discordant; the words inane

so she began to write a letter of complaint to her pastor

a little voice within her head asked her, "What are you doing?"

she said, "I’m writing a letter of complaint to my pastor. The music was dreadful; the songs were loud and discordant; the words were inane"

the little voice asked her, "Why did you go to church?" and she responded, "Corporate worship"

and right away she knew, "No, I was there for personal worship, because I was elevating my likes and dislikes. I was really there for personal worship and not for corporate worship"

amazingly, the next time in church she didn’t like the music, she looked around, and to her amazement saw how corporate worship was taking place, and to her amazement others appeared to be really into the music

and so she phoned her pastor

she told him that she found the music dreadful, loud, and discordant; the words inane

but she said, "I’m not complaining. In the future, when there’s something I don’t like, I’ll remind myself I’m not there for personal worship. I’m there for corporate worship"

"And when I hear something I don’t like, I’ll just look around and rejoice in what’s happening in the hearts and minds of my brothers and sisters"

be careful before you make a preference or a prejudice into a principle

before you make your likes and dislikes a cause to break the unity of the spirit in the bond of the peace

did you ever notice how some people use their bodies in worship?

I used to sit there criticizing people because they appeared to be getting emotional in their worship

some clapped during a song; others raised their hand

and I had a bad attitude against anyone who dared to express themselves physically in worship

until I learned that the charismatics never invented this; the Bible did

in Psalm 28:2, Psalm 134:1-2, 1 Timothy 2:8, Nehemiah 8:6, and in other passages, the Bible talks of God’s people raising their hands to him in worship

and I’ve learned that raising the hands and clapping in worship are not Pentecostal things; they’re Christian things

and I’ve stopped criticizing, and I’ve begun doing these things myself

I wonder if part of keeping the spirit of unity in the bond of peace means that we give permission to others to be expressive in worship, even if we’re not

to praise God that when somebody lifts their hands in worship, even if we don’t, that we praise God that they’re worshiping

and when I raise my hands, I give praise for my brother and my sister who stands there with their hands at their side, because they’re worshiping God as well

I wonder if we can allow others to worship God biblically

so let me ask you again, why did you come to church this morning?

did you come to be the church?

did you come to work hard at keeping the spirit of unity in the bond of peace, showing fragmenting society what it’s like to be community

showing the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms the wisdom of God in its various forms?

what’s it going to take?

if we’re going to be that sort of church, it’s going to take lowliness of mind, gentleness (strength under control), patience or longsuffering, and mutuality of attitude

it’s going to take love – a concern for the well-being of others, rather than an exclusive concern for self

you put it all together:

(Ephesians 4:1) As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

(Ephesians 4:2) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

(Ephesians 4:3) Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

is that why you came to church?

now, let’s try something different as we close

I’d like you to hum one note with me (hum)

hum this one note, hum loud – that’s unity

it’s also boring

let’s try something different

I’d like you to hum the notes that Peter plays for us, broken into four groups

that’s disunity – it sounds awful

now let’s try one last thing

let’s hum some different notes that Peter plays

that’s what you call harmony – unity showing itself in diversity

which is better? unison, discord, or harmony?

let’s pray

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Work Hard at Unity (Ephesians 4:1-3)

Adapted from a message by Stu Briscoe