Just What the Doctor Ordered: Unity in the Spirit
Ephesians 4:1-16
August 17, 2003
Humor
A severe rash prompted a man from a rural area to come to town to be examined by one of my colleagues. After the usual history-taking followed by a series of test, the physician advised the patient that he would have to get rid of the dog that was evidently causing the allergic reaction. As the man was preparing to leave the office, my colleague asked him out of curiosity if he planned to sell the animal or give it away. "Neither one," the patient replied. "I’m going to get me one of them second opinions I been reading about. It’s a lot easier to find a doctor than a good bird dog."
George Hawkins, M.D. in Medical Economics, in Reader’s Digest, January, 1982.
Doctors can give prescriptions and treatment plans but it is up to the patient to take the prescription and carry out the treatment plan. There was strife and division in the New Testament church over sharing the gospel with Gentiles and having both Jews and Gentiles in the same church. In the Book of Ephesians 4:1-16 God, through Paul, provides a prescription and treatment plan for handling strife and division in the church, then and now, and paints a portrait of what the church will look like if we follow the Father’s prescription and treatment plan. “Playing Church”, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations, p95 (bottom)
Please stand with me as we read Ephesians 4:1-16.
Eph 4:1-16
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- 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 to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."
9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
NIV
1. God’s prescription for the church: Unity in the Spirit. We need to focus on our spiritual commonalities:
It is obvious to me that the church has not picked up the prescription of Unity in the Spirit. The church is not living a life worthy of its calling because we are not patient with one another or humble and gentle with one another. We typically do not bear with one another in love. The Christian church today is more divided and fragmented today than at any other time in the history of the church. We are divided on methods of baptism, ages for baptism, inerrancy of Scripture, style of worship music, dress code for worship, color of the carpet, color of the walls, my parking space, my seat in the pew and my seat in Sunday School. We have division and strife over change, over tradition, and over personal preference. Some of these issues are worth debating about while others need to be dropped and repented from.
My wife and I were getting on a plane flying back from a Sunday School conference at Glorieta. I was tired and just wanted to sit down. Normally I try to talk to the person next to me to determine if they are a Christian or not. I did not feel like it this time. I was sitting in the middle seat, my wife was in the aisle and an Islamic individual was sitting in the window seat. I really did not feel up to this challenge so I politely minded my own business and began reading. My wife, however, decided not to mind her own business and interceded to a higher authority. She prayed that I would have an opportunity to share the gospel with this gentleman. How dare she intrude. Well, her prayer was obviously much more in line with the Father’s will than my own selfish desire because the gentleman started talking to me. He began asking me spiritual questions and I began sharing the gospel. After sharing the gospel he asked me why Christians could not get along. He said there are so many different groups and denominations and they all seem to be arguing with one another. I had to start explaining that we have some slightly different understandings in certain areas of doctrine but that we all have some very basic and common beliefs. I could not get any further than this though because what he has seen of the church from the outside looking in is a whole bunch of separate pockets of Christians who are unable and unwilling to work out their differences. As a church we need to focus more upon those issues of faith that unite us such as salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It is only after we unite and present a unified front of faith in Jesus Christ as the resurrected Lord and Savior of all that the world will begin to sit up, take notice and desire to have what we have.
Paul utilizes a “bottom up” theology. He starts at the bottom floor. He says that we have:
a. One body and one Spirit;
Paul starts with the church which is the body of Christ. We are all part of one body with Jesus Christ as the head. There is one and only one church and we are all moved by the same spirit which is the Holy Spirit. Imagine 8 people trying to paint one small room. If each painter operates independently, chooses his own paint color and measures off his own area of responsibility, what do you think will happen? There will be boundary wars between the two painters that share a common wall and there will be arguments regarding paint colors. The job will probably not get finished because it is likely that one or more of the painters will choose to leave the job and find another one. If the room does get completely painted no one will probably ever want to go into it because it is so repulsive looking since it is painted in 8 different colors.
If all of the painters worked together in unity the job would be done more efficiently, more effectively and the room would be able to serve its purpose.
Next, we have:
b. One Lord, one faith, one baptism;
By definition all Christians have the same Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ is appointed as Head of the church and Lord of all. If Jesus is Lord then you and I are subject to Him. We must remember our position within the created order. The world view of being subject to anything or anyone is considered undesirable. If He is Savior then we are the saved. When we realize and remember that we were saved by the suffering sacrifice of God in the flesh then being subject to Him becomes a natural act of gratitude. When we realize and remember that God took on human flesh to show us that He understands everything that we are going through we desire to be subject to Him. When we realize and remember that while we were still sinners He loved us, was beaten beyond recognition, was spit upon and mocked, was crucified and buried for us, we begin to understand the grace that allows us to be subject to Him. When we remember and realize that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified to pay the penalty for the sin of the world, past, present and future, that you and I might be forgiven, that He rose form the dead, ascended into heaven was crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords and reigns over all the earth you and I view it as an honor to be subject to Him. As we express our faith in Him by receiving the free gift of salvation and the forgiveness of sin we move into baptism which is the outward testimony of a new Christian testifying that He or she was once a sinner without hope, was drawn to Christ by grace through faith, is now dead to sin and has now risen to walk a new life with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
And finally we have:
c. One God and Father of all.
Genesis starts out with, “In the beginning, God…” God created all that exists out of nothing. Nothing existed before God. There is only one true God and He is Father of everyone. Those who are not Christians simply do not receive and accept Him as their heavenly Father. That does not make Him Father any less. He is Father to all Christians. That Christian friend, co-worker, church member or fellow committee member that you are having conflict with has the same Father you have and has the same Holy Spirit dwelling within them that you do.
2. God’s plan for leading the church to unity in the Spirit.
a. God gave grace to His church.
God has given every member of the body of Christ the ability to serve Him by reflecting Him to other people and by being used by Him to impact the lives of others. He gives us the privilege to serve inside the church and outside.
b. God equipped His church with spiritual gifts.
God equipped the church with divine offices of pastors, teachers and evangelists and he divinely calls the people to fill those positions. According to 1 Cor. 12, He gives spiritual gifts to each and every member of the body of Christ for all of us to utilize.
c. God gave purpose to His church.
In verses 12 and 13 Paul says the purpose of the church is to:
i. Disciple - Prepare God’s people for works of service
ii. Serve – The very act of preparation implies serving once preparation is complete.
iii. Encourage – build one another up so that the church may be built up.
iv. Mature – Continually grow up into the likeness of Christ.
to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
NIV
Illustration from Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, p137
Lee Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took to make a winning team. Vince Lombardi answered that there are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: if you’re going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: “If I don’t block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his.”
“The difference between mediocrity and greatness,” Lombardi said that night, “is the feeling these guys have for each other.”
3. The portrait of unity in the Spirit:
a. The Church will be steadfast in its doctrine and practice.
When we begin maturing we are able to question the teachings of the world and the church to discern truth from false teaching. There is the health and wealth teaching that is popular and we are steadily seeing the popularization of “lifestyle diversity”. The church needs to be steadfast in it’s understanding, teaching, practice and provide the appropriate response to these issues in a loving manner.
b. The Church will be known for forgiveness rather than contention.
I read a story of a father who was in his study reading. As he was reading he heard a loud commotion outside. It was his daughter playing outside with some of her friends. As they were playing the commotion got louder, and louder, and louder, until finally the father could not contain himself any longer. He opened the window and said, “Stop it. Honey, what’s wrong?” His daughter responded quickly, “But, daddy, we were just playing church.”
c. The Church will be known for unconditional love rather than judgmentalness.
We are in the business of loving people regardless of what they think of us or how they act toward us.
Illustration from Treasury of Inspirational Anecdotes, Quotations, & Illustrations, p.23.
There was a story of a kind nurse in Australia who was doing wonderful things to enable children who had been crippled with infantile paralysis to walk. Sister Elizabeth Kenny was asked about her success one day and she replied, “I’m no genius. I’m just a very ordinary person who still remembers and puts into action the stories my mother told me from the Bible.” Sister Kenny had learned about Jesus, and had come to desire above everything else to live as He lived, and to love as He loved.
How will we know that the Church is being built up? How will we know when we are moving toward unity in the Spirit? It’s simple. The world will take notice. The world will see the difference. The media will be filled with the positive things that are happening because of Christian involvement. There will be widespread reports of acts of love and kindness done to others without personal motivation. The world be drawn to the church because the church will be reflecting Christ.
4. Conclusion
The Lord has given the church a prescription, plan of treatment, and a portrait of what the church will look like after treatment. The question is whether the church will follow the Great Physician’s directions or go out for a second opinion?
