Buzzwords. Who likes buzzwords? Paradigm shift. Synergy. Empowerment. Exit strategy. Wellness. Offshoring. Downsizing. Benchmarking. Mission Critical. Fuzzy logic. We love our buzzwords. But do we always know what we mean when we use a buzzword? Do other people know what we mean? How about this one:
Due to the disconnect particularly as regards to the digital divide emerging between our differing demographics we seek to construct a next generation framework using a fundamental paradigm shift leading to the desired outcome of a win-win situation which going forward will at the end of the day, utilising front end technology and best practice such as webinars, B2B, rich media and and appropriate information logistics as well as utilising best practice real world management techniques, create a holistic approach, keeping in view our event horizon and releasing synergies while touching base with all stakeholders as they are empowered to reach their potential, with particular emphasis on our solutionaries and game-changers, so that the enterprise in our globalised, intergrated society may achieve a seamless transition to a mission critical mindset and thus avoid downsizing and inappropriate offshoring and maintain our edge and critical mass in our customer-centric marketplace going forward.
Buzzwords, we laugh at them. But we all use them! And in the Christian world, we have buzzwords too. Here are some: Callling. Giftings. Unity. Equipping. We use them a lot. Last year, the church was looking for a new pastor who had certain giftings. And a calling. Then you were going to call him. For some reason, you called me. As a church, you want to be equipped. Equipped in your gifitings. And in it all, youd like to see a bit of unity. We use these phrases a lot. But do we always know what they mean? Even if we do, do our listeners know what they mean? Or are they just buzzwords that we use, hoping we know what they mean? Thinking we know what they mean? Assuming the other person knows that they mean?
Today we start with Ephesians 4, which looks at these buzzwords - call, gifts, unity, equipping. And today we look at verses 1-6 which look at call and unity. It looks at other words too. But they arent buzzwords. Words like, humble, patient, gentle. They arent buzzwords. Who wants to be humble, patient and gentle?! So lets dive in and have a look at the first six verses. The words calling, unity as well as humble, patient, gentle.
But before we do lets have a look at a bit of context. Last week we finished off the first section / first half of Ephesians. What was it about? It was about what Christ has done for us. Spritual blessings. Chosen before the foundation of the world. Adopted as His children. Our sins forgiven. We have an inheritance, an eternal inheritance. We have been made alive in Christ taken from death to life. The barrier between us and God and between each other has been broken down. We are part of His church. We are His instrument to make His wisdom made known throughout the heavenly realms. What a privilege! And chapter 3 concluded with what? A prayer! A prayer for what? For power. Power for what? Power to understand the ununderstandable love of God! And strength. Strength for what? Strength so that Christ can live in our hearts! And so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God! Is there anything else we could want? Such a gift. And we were so unworthy to receive it.
Now in the rest of the letter Paul goes on to explain the implications of all this. The implications of the fact that if you are a Christian, God has taken you from death to life, rescued you from sin. Given you an eternal inheritance with Him. Filled you with Christ and put you in the church, which is His people, even His body. His vehicle for making His wisdom known throughout even the heavenly realms as well as on the earth. Yes, there are implications for for this. You cannot become a Christian and remain unchanged. And this is what Paul spends the rest of Ephesians doing - talking about how we should live our lives as Christians.
He starts this second section of the book with the words:
EPH 4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
I urge you. This is not an if you feel like it type of urging. Later on in Ephesians 4.17 Paul says, EPH 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
Paul urges us, insists, that our lives change, that they are different as a result of being in Christ. This is not an optional extra. It is not like going to McDonalds, and being urged to buy more when they say, Would you like fries with that? No matter what Ronald McDonald may try and tell you, you dont need to have fries with your Macas meal. But the Christian life is not like McDonalds. God doesnt say, Okay, youve ordered salvation, would you like a changed life, a holy life, with that? And no matter the push, the sales pitch from the Bible, the preacher, it really is optional. Youve got salvation, and if youd like to have a bit extra, well you can order the changed life also if you want it, but if you dont really want it, dont want to pay the extra cost, you can still have the salvation, the ticket to heaven, the fire insurance to escape hell, but its really up to you if you want the changed life.
NO!
A changed life is not optional. A Christian without a changed life is not like a hamburger without fries. A Christian without a changed life is more like a hamburger without the meat pattie. Like a meat pie without the mince in the middle. Like Coca Cola without the cola. It just isnt the real thing. In verse 1 Paul urges us. In verse 17, he insists. And what is it that we should be doing? Verse 1 says to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Literally it means and some of your translations have something like this: live in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
Hear the buzz words. Calling, Called, Call. Calling is a bit of a Christian buzzword isnt it? How do we use it? We talk about our calling in life. We talk about what God has called me to do. God has called me to be a musician. God has called me to do childrens ministry. God has called me to be a missionary to such and such a country. When we were serving overseas, people often asked as how God called us to the country we went to. God has called me to youth work. God has called me to be a pastor. Speaking of pastors, a few months ago the church issued a call to me to be your pastor. Thats how we normally use the word calling or call. Its quite a buzzword.
But is that how the Bible uses the words, calling or call? Lets have a look and see. What does it say in this passage? Is it referring to a special call for specific people to do something specific, like being a missionary to a certain place? What is this calling we were called to, referred to in verse 1?
In verse 4, it tells us what we were called to: you were called to one hope when you were called. We were called to one hope. Pauls already talked about our calling in chapter 1. In the first pray he prays for us: Eph 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. Again, the call is to the hope we have. And Paul has spent the last 3 chapters talking about that hope. Adopted as His children, our sins forgiven, part of His new community the church. Destined to enjoy eternal life with Him. Brothers and sisters that is our callling! Our calling is to be His! To be Gods! In fact, if you look at the where the word calling appears in the New Testament, and if any of you are interested, send me an email and Ill send you a list of all the places the word appears in the New Testament. It almost always refers to either our calling to be Christians, our calling to be Gods, Christs, or our calling to live a holy life. For example, 2 Tim 1:8bBut join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life. The way we use the word calling is often, perhaps most of the time, not how the New Testament normally uses it. With the exception of Pauls calling to be an apostle, you dont find the word calling used in relation to our particular ministry or the specifics of how we might use our specific talents to serve the Lord. The Bible uses different concepts to describe that, and how we can tell how we should specifically serve the Lord. Well touch on that a bit more next week when we talk about that other buzzword, giftings.
But note here, - what the call is, for every Christian. Weve been called to a glorious hope, an eternal hope. And as a result of that calling, we are also called to live a life worthy of that calling. So if you are a believer in Jesus and you are wondering what God has called you to do, I can tell you right now. It is to live a life worthy of your calling as a Christian. And we will be looking at that in more detail as we go through the last few chapters of Ephesians, how that works out in daily life, where the rubber hits the road.
But now in the next few verses, Paul lays the foundation for all our ministry, for all our service. Lets read again Eph 4:1-6
EPH 4:1 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.
There are two things this passage focuses on after the initial call in verse 1. In verse 2 it talks about how we are to be humble, gentle, patient. In verses 3-6 it talks about the unity in the things we share as Christians. Next week as I said, well be talking about ministry. Not just the pastors ministry, or the deacons ministry, or the music teams, Kingdom Kids workersministry and so on, but the ministry of every Christian and the gifts we have and how to use them. But before we go on to that, Paul is here laying the foundation of how we are to work together as the church.
What does it say in verse 2? Ephesians 42 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. We need to stop and take a closer look at these. Verse 2 humble. Who likes to be humble? You know, in the ancient Greek-Roman world, the world Paul wrote this letter in, humility was despised. Despised. It was not regarded as positive trait. The Greek word is actually stronger than our English word humility. It meant abasement. Subjugation. Lowly thinking. Paul was really being counter-cultural. Going against the flow. But what about today? We talk about humility positively, but is it what we really believe, when we say we should be humble? Lowly? thats what the word means in Greek lowly. And gentleness. The Greek here means, mild and gentle friendliness.
We must bear this in mind when next week we talk more about ministry and using our gifts. Because this is the foundation. We are to do ministry and use our gifts in humility, gentless, and patience, bearing with one another in love. Gifts and giftings its another buzzword in the Christian world. It is very populat to talk about us achieving signficance in using our gifts. That is, that as we use our gifts, we will feel signficant and this will help our self esteem. And often that is given as a reason, why we should discover our gifts and use them - so we can be significant and have this need for signficance in our lives met.
But, is this what the Bible says? No the Bible does not say we serve and use our gifts in order to achieve significance. Brothers and sisters, there is only one way in which you are significant, in which I am significant, and that is that Christ died for us.
That, if you are a believer, He chose you from the foundation of the world, not because of anything you have done, not because of any gift you have, not because of any way you serve God, but just because He loved you, and called you to be His child and adopted you and gave you the hope of eternal life. Brothers and sisters, that is where our significance lies.
In terms of using our gifts, of serving, it almost the opposite. We are to work together in humility lowliness, even abasement. In gentleness, patience, and as it says here: bearing with one another in love. Or perhaps better said, Putting up with each other in love. Yes, its not always easy to get along is it? We have different opinions. We have different ideas about different things. About how the church should be run. About how we should spend our money. About who should be deacons, about who should do what. About how to do what. About the music. What we should sing. How loud it should be. How long the sermon should be. Some of you think my sermons are too long, others think they are too short. The fact is, we are individuals. God made us all different, we all have different ideas of the way things should be done, and this is true in ministry too.
The concept of gift-based ministry is fundamentally a sound one. We should use the gifts God has given us for His glory. But there can be some pitfalls we need to be careful of. What do we do when we have a gift we want to use, but the church doesnt recognise our gift? Or the church doesnt have a ministry where we could use that gift? Or too many other people are already doing that ministry, and there isnt room for us? And maybe others doing that minstry are not actually as gifted as we think we are? Why arent we doing it instead of them?
On the opposite side of the equation, sometimes things dont get done, because no one thinks they have the gift for that. I admire the people on the cleaning roster. Not many people would put their hands up and say they have a gift for cleaning, but its something that needs to be done!
So when we work together as a church, as the place where God dwells as we looked at a few weeks ago, we need to do so with humility, gentleness, patience, putting up with each other in love. Why? Well, despite our diversity, we have a lot in common. In fact, much more in common than not in common, although we may not always realise it, and may need reminding of it from time to time as Paul reminds us here.
And thats where the next few verses take us. Our unity. Our oneness. As well shortly see, what we have in common, is quite incredible, but it is something we have to work at. Eph 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Note here that we have to work at keeping our unity. And weve seen in the first few chapters of Ephesians, that all the things we have in Christ, are things given to us. But now we are commanded to do something, something active. God has given us the things that unify us. God has given us our unity as believers, but it is up to us to maintain it, to keep it, iin a very active way. Make every effort. Another way to translate it is, working hard. Make every effort, work hard, at keeping that unity. The unity that we have.
And what is this unity that we have? Verse 4-6 has all these ones. One body. One Spirit. One hope. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. One God and Father over all. We can actually divide these ones up. 3 of them actually refer to God and refer to the 3 different members of the Trinity. Verse 4 One Spirit. God the Holy Spirit. Verse 5 One Lord. When Lord is used in the New Testament, it usually refers to Jesus. So One Lord God the Son. Verse 6 One God and Father God the Father. Brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter our differences, if we are true Christians, trusting in Jesus for our salvation, living for Him, we have one God whom we worship and serve. One Father. One Lord. One Spirit.
The rest of the ones refer to aspects of our Christian walk. Verse 4 - one body. As weve seen, the word body refers to the church. And we can apply that on two levels. One is the church universal. Even though in Gympie there are a number of God honouring churches, we share a common faith and unity with the members of those other churches, that is, those churches that are faithful to Biblical teaching and the Gospel. And we share a unity with believers everywhere. Today there are churches in many people of the world sadly not all. But there are many many different languages, cultures, colours where the church exists - but we are one body! But on the day to day level, in this church, Gympie Baptist Church, we are a local expression of the universal body, and we need to be in unity with each other.
For we share other things in common too. We have one hope, as it says here, you were called to one hope when you were called. Literally it means, you were called to one hope of your calling. Remember what we talked about before about the buzzword calling? In the most commonly used sense of the word, calling in the New Testament, we actually all have the same calling! The calling to the eternal hope of eternal life with Christ Jesus! What a calling that is! Despite our different gifts, our different ways of serving God, we are united in this most fundamental of callings - one hope.
In verse 5 it says that we share one faith. What does that mean? It means that we all come to God the same way. Through Christ. More particularly, through belief in Christ. That He lived, died and rose again, and in dying He died for our sins. He took the punishment for our sins. He rose again and in doing so, He proved Himself stronger than death, and thus secures eternal life for us. And through Christs work on the cross, and through our belief in that, we are saved! That is our one faith, our one belief, and that is what our unity is based on. But that also means that we dont have spiritual unity with someone, who has a different believe to this.
And today if you are here, and you are not sure if that is your belief, that Christ died for your sins, please consider the claims of the Christian faith. Talk to me about it, how wonderful it would be to have this belief and to have this unity with millions of others around the world, who share this one faith.
And next the passage talks about one baptism. Baptism - signifying our coming to faith in Christ. And as Baptists, we believe that baptism is connected with belief, hence our practice of not baptising infants and only baptising someone after they professes belief, professes belief in that one faith that we share. If you havent yet shared in that one baptism, or would like to know more about what baptism means, please come and talk to me or phone or email me during the week.
And finally, One God and Father, who is Father of all, who is over all, through all and in all. One God, One Lord Jesus, One Spirit, One body, one hope, one faith, one baptism.
So, what have we touched upon today? A few buzzwords. Calling. Unity. Giftings. And next time we will look more at giftings, as well as equipping. We looked at the fact that as Christians we need to live our lives worthy of the calling we have been called to. That all of us have been called to. To live changed lives dedicated to God. And we do that on the basis of our unity, a unity God has given us, but we are charged to make every effort to keep that unity. A unity we need to keep with humility, gentleness, patience, putting up with each other in love.
