
Work Hard at Unity (Ephesians 4:1-3)
- 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?
- Ill give you a moment to think, because I want
you to really answer this question inwardly
- and well come back to the answer in a minute
-
- can I give you one answer?
- its 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"
-
- Ill 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;
its 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, thats 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
- its amazing that rulers and authorities in heavenly
realms look at Richview Baptist Church to see what Gods 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
-
- thats 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.
- its 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
-
- whats it going to take to be the church?
- Im glad you asked!
- Paul tells us exactly what its 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.
-
- whats it going to take to be the church
to walk worthy of the calling weve 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 dont know if youve 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 Gods wisdom in all its rich
variety
- thats the sort of community were supposed
to be
- and if you read verse 3 again with me, youll
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
- hes made one new body out of two, making peace,
and reconciling those of us who were different before into one body
- thats what Christ has called us to be
- whether youre young or old, whether youre
a true blue Jew or a Gentile, no matter who you are, youve now
found commonality in Christ, and were all one together
- thats Pauls message to the church
- thats the sort of community were 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 Gods answer to a fallen
individual? Christ
- any Christian would be able to answer this
- now, a harder question
- what is Gods 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 thats why Paul says:
- (Ephesians 4:3) Make every effort [work hard, strain]
to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
- thats 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 Gods wisdom in its various forms reflected
back to them
-
- whats it going to take?
- ACCORDING TO VERSE 2, ITS GOING TO TAKE FOUR
THINGS TO LIVE THAT SORT OF WAY
- there are, you could say, four steps to community
- its going to take humility
- it really means that were to be prepared to show
lowliness of mind
- I dont know if youve 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 Pauls 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 dont want it mixed up with the facts,"
Paul says, "Enough of that! Show lowliness of mind. Sit together
and say, Id like to share my opinion, but more importantly,
Id like you to carefully articulate your position."
- thats how were to be
-
- Paul says in verse 2 its 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 dont know if youve 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
- its going to take gentleness to change this
-
- its 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 dont
get your way
- Ive seen people lose their temper in church
- in order to avoid this, Paul says, we need lots of
patience
-
- and according to verse two, its 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
- its talking about a mutuality of attitude
that we look at the interests of others instead of just our own interests
- that were not totally wrapped up with our own
position and our own desires
- that were 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, didnt 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, doesnt
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 Gods 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 dont know if youve noticed, but there
isnt 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 churchs
philosophy of worship?"
- and he replied, "Simple. Our churchs philosophy
of worship is to make sure in every service that theres 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
- Im pretty sure God isnt 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, wouldnt it be great if Richview Baptist
Church modeled for the world and the rulers and authorities in the heavenly
realms what its like to be a community?
- wouldnt it be great to model the spirit of unity
in the bond of peace, showing humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance
in our worship?
-
- wouldnt 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 dont like the music thats being played
- its unacceptable in a younger person, and its
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 70s 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, "Im 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 didnt
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, "Im not complaining. In the
future, when theres something I dont like, Ill remind
myself Im not there for personal worship. Im there for corporate
worship"
- "And when I hear something I dont like,
Ill just look around and rejoice in whats 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 Gods people raising
their hands to him in worship
- and Ive learned that raising the hands and clapping
in worship are not Pentecostal things; theyre Christian things
- and Ive stopped criticizing, and Ive 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 were not
- to praise God that when somebody lifts their hands
in worship, even if we dont, that we praise God that theyre
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
theyre 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 its
like to be community
- showing the rulers and authorities in the heavenly
realms the wisdom of God in its various forms?
-
- whats it going to take?
- if were going to be that sort of church, its
going to take lowliness of mind, gentleness (strength under control),
patience or longsuffering, and mutuality of attitude
- its 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, lets try something different as we close
- Id like you to hum one note with me (hum)
- hum this one note, hum loud thats unity
- its also boring
-
- lets try something different
- Id like you to hum the notes that Peter plays
for us, broken into four groups
- thats disunity it sounds awful
-
- now lets try one last thing
- lets hum some different notes that Peter plays
- thats what you call harmony unity showing
itself in diversity
- which is better? unison, discord, or harmony?
- lets pray
Adapted from a message by Stu Briscoe