In one of the Peanuts specials, Linus is reclining on the floor watching television. Lucy walks in and says to him, “Change the channel right now.” Linus says, “I was here first, why should I change the channel?” Lucy holds up her hand. She said, “You see these five fingers? Alone, they are nothing. But when I curl them into a fist, they become a weapon that is a terrible thing to behold.” So Linus gets up and changes the channel. The next thing you see is
Lucy reclining on the floor watching television, and Linus is over at the side looking at his hands, and he says, “Why can't you guys get together like that?” That is what Paul is talking about in our text for this morning. Of course, he’s not advocating violence as a means to an end. But, he is spot on talking about what it takes to make an impact for the Kingdom of God.
It takes the church, coming together in unity, with a common vision, a common mission, relinquishing our individual rights, in order to see things happen for the Kingdom. The question is, how do we do that?
1. Accept the Bible as my source of authority.
Hidden in this passage of scripture is one of the greatest verses in the Bible about the character and nature of the Bible itself. Look at verse 4 again. “For everything that was written in the past [that means the Old Testament] was written [look at these four things the Bible does] to teach us, so that it gives us endurance and encouragement of the scriptures
so that we might have hope. That's what the word of God does. You know what the basis of my unity with you is? It is that I believe that the Bible is the Word of God and you believe that the Bible is the Word of God. That is the basis of our unity, because we are using the same source of authority. Listen to me. You don't have to believe exactly what I believe about the Bible. Please hear me now. Every word of this Bible is inspired. But I'm not going to stand up and tell you that every interpretation I have of the Bible is inspired and perfect. You may disagree with me on certain points of interpretation of the Bible. I believe certain things
about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and as long as you believe He is coming back, you may not believe those same details I do. You know what? I am going to love you, accept you,
fellowship with you. I'm not going to say, “Get out of here,” as long as we both say the Bible is the Word of God. But hear me. If you come to be a part of our church and you say, “The Bible is just a book of history, just a book of fairy tales; it is not supernatural, the Bible is no different than a novel,” there is no unity between us.
You know why?
That is one of those essentials where we cannot compromise. The Bible itself says in verse 4,
“Everything that was written” [not just parts of it], What does the Bible say about itself?
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says,
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Every word of this book, God breathed on it and God breathes through it. It is alive. If when you read the Bible, particularly the OT, do you go, “Boring”? you have not discovered the keys to understanding the Bible. A number of years ago, I came to some keys for the OT that made it come alive to me. The first key that opened the Bible to me was to know that ALL the Bible is about Jesus. Not just the New Testament. ALL the Bible. Genesis through Revelation, it’s all about Jesus.
Here is what you need to know. You see, the truth of Jesus is enfolded in the OT; it is unfolded in the NT. The gospel is concealed in the OT; it is revealed in the NT. The NT is in the old contained; and the OT is in the new explained.
You may think you need to read the Bible like a novel, starting in Genesis and going all the way
through and then study the NT. If you really want to appreciate and understand the NT, you must get a grasp of the OT first. It is all about Jesus. I say that because Jesus said it. He said to the Pharisees, “Search the scriptures. For these are they which do testify of me” (John 5:39).
He is talking about the OT.
On the first Easter evening while he's walking to Emmaus with these two disciples, the Bible says, “And he showed them in all the scriptures (that is the OT) the things concerning himself.”
Ladies and gentlemen, if you read the OT and you don't find Jesus, you had better read it again, because somewhere in type, in prophecy, there you will find Jesus. When I learned that,
it totally revolutionized the Bible for me.
Another thing that revolutionized the Bible for me was to understand that the events of the OT have Christian applications. For instance, the Exodus, when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, is a picture of salvation.
Those who came out of Egypt through the Red Sea, is a picture of salvation and baptism. There are many Christians today who are wandering in the wilderness. They have not entered into God's rest. I think that is the spirit-filled life and it is available to any Christian who enters into the promised land of God's rest.
You know what else I discovered? Much of the prophecy of the Old Testament is talking about the Second Coming of Jesus and the millennial reign of Christ on earth. For instance, if you don't know that, you'll read the books of Daniel and Ezekiel and scratch your head and say,
“I don't know what that's about.” When I read it, I want to jump, shout, sing, because it gets me excited about the Second Coming.
Do you accept the Bible as God's word? That is the basis of unity. I hear this all the time, and often I hear from people who are supposed to be born-again Christians: “You know what I believe? I believe ultimately, everybody is going to be saved.
The Buddhists, those in Islam, even those who are good but they don't have any religion of their own.” And do you know the number one reason why they believe that? They say, “I just figured that was the fairest thing for God to do.” Now, a lot of people that believe that. And they believe that on the basis of their own intelligence. In order to believe that, you have to elevate your own intelligence to the level of the authority of the Word of God. I’ll tell you, I am not that smart. I don't trust the whole of eternity to these corpuscles between my two ears. I need something as my source of authority, and I have said, “This is it.” And when you believe that, too, that is the basis of our unity.
Now how can we promote that unity in the church? Pray for unity with in my church. That is what Paul did. Look at verse 5, “May the God who gives endurance [he's praying now] give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.”
Is unity important in the church? The church is called the body of Christ. Have you ever thought about what it would be like if the members of our physical bodies behaved like the members of the spiritual body sometimes do?
HEART – “You know, I’m just stuck in a rut. For the last 45 years all I do is beat and beat.
Lub, dub... lub, dub... lub, dub... I’m tired of it. It’s time for someone else to step up and do this job. Okay, feet, it’s up to you. You pump the blood.”
LUNGS: We’re so under-appreciated around here. I don’t think the other organs realize that they couldn’t do their jobs without us. If we quit doing our job for a few minutes, everyone will finally see how valuable we are to this place. The brain thinks he’s big stuff. Humph! Let him do without some oxygen for a while and we’ll see how important he is!
LIVER: “Why do I get all the dirty work? You think it’s fun making bile? I’ve been in this body for 45 years now and do you think anyone has ever asked me to make any decisions, pump any blood, or perform any functions that are noticeable outside the body? Sometimes I wonder why I bother.”
APPENDIX – “Ha! Just watch the rest of those organs work. Day after day, hour after hour, they work themselves do death. I’m just along for the ride. Why contribute when I can just sit here and get the same nutrients and oxygen that they get? Why get involved?”
You get the idea. The point is that the individual parts that make up our bodies ere created specifically for certain tasks within the body as a whole. The body works as a finely tuned machine when all the parts do what they were uniquely gifted to do. There are no unimportant parts—except the appendix. Folks, We don’t need any appendix in our church.
Paul is praying here. God give us unity. God is saying, “Here it is. I give it to you. Will you accept it?”
Folks, we need to be praying that God would help us to keep the unity of the church. The devil would like nothing more than to split this church or any church. The devil lives to create division. He wants to put a wedge between every husband and wife, between every child and parent, between every church member and between every member of every Sunday School.
He wants to divide. That's why we must keep on praying for unity. The night before Jesus was crucified, look at what he prayed in John 17:23. Hours before the cross, he said, “Father, I in them [meaning in Christians] and you in me, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me, and you've loved them even as you've loved me.” Jesus is still praying for the unity of this church, so we ought to pray for it. That is a Biblical thing to do.
The key, in verse 5 is, “as you follow Christ Jesus.” Let me give you a little visual illustration.
Look up here for a minute. I'm going to hang on to this pulpit right here. Harry, would you help me? Harry, I want you to try to get close to this pulpit, but don't get close to me. No, you're close to me. No, you're still close to me. Sorry, no, you're close to me. Get close to the pulpit, but don't get close to me. You say, “How stupid.” He can't get close to the pulpit without getting close to me, because I'm close to the pulpit.
I want you to imagine that this pulpit symbolizes Jesus. Did you know that when I'm abiding in Jesus and I'm close to Jesus—come on Harry, you get close to Jesus. When he's close to Jesus and I'm close to Jesus, we're close to each other. Our unity is not based upon him being close to me. Our unity is based upon me being close to Jesus and him being close to Jesus. You cannot claim to be close to Jesus and be divided from your brother and sister in Christ. And if you are divided from your brother or sister in Christ, one of you is not close to Jesus. That is why we pray for unity.
We can't create unity—we can only keep it or disrupt it. We can either keep it or kill it, but we can't create it. Sometimes people say, “We've got to come together to create unity.” No…man cannot make unity. Only God can. Look at Ephesians 4:3. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” Our only job is to keep it. Only the Spirit can create it.
Man's efforts at unification never work. Sometimes you get a group of people together, and they meet and say, “That's unity.”
That is like taking two cats, tying their tails together and hanging them over a clothesline. You have unification, but there is absolutely no unity there at all. The act of people coming together is not unity. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. The problem arises when we, as Christians, get so self-centered and so narrow-minded that the only people we want to fellowship with are those who believe and think and feel exactly the way we do.
You want to know how to combat this from happening in the church? The best way is to join with others in praising God. It is impossible to praise God when you are out of sorts with your Christian brother. Look what psalmist says in Psalms 34:3, “Glorify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.” Look at Romans 15:6, “that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Almost every day, I sing praises to the Lord, but I come together with you on Sunday. With one voice, we sing praises to the Lord.
That promotes and enhances the unity of our church. When a lost person comes in the doors of this church, they sit down and they look around and see other Christians in here singing praises to God. I want to tell you, that has an impact on them because with one heart and one voice, we are glorifying God together.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee told a story about a little community where there were three churches
on the same corner, a Presbyterian church, Methodist church and Baptist church. One Sunday night, all the windows were open and they could hear each other singing. They didn't get along very well. The people in the Presbyterian Church were singing this song, “Will There be Any Stars in My Crown?” When they finished, the Methodist church sang, “No, Not One.” Then the Baptists sang, “Oh That Will be Glory for Me.” Dr. McGee said that all three of those churches ought to sit down together and sing the doxology of praise to God. That's what the world needs to see. They need to see us together. Jesus said, “When we come together, that's when the world knows that God has sent us.”
I finish today with a true story. A number of years ago in Canada, a little two-year-old girl wandered away from her neighborhood. It was a cold, winter day. Her parents alerted the neighbors and they saw some tracks in the snow, but there were a lot of other tracks, so for several hours the searchers went in all different directions calling her name. They didn't find her. A little before sunset one of the men said, “Instead of all working separately, let's join hands and form a long line and walk through the field together. That way we cannot miss a square foot.”
That's what they did. They joined hands and together walked as one long line calling that little girl's name.Tragically, they found her frozen body curled up. One of the men said with great anguish, “Oh, if we had only joined hands sooner.”
There are people out there without Jesus. One reason they are going to hell is because we are in here debating over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, whether this little thing is right or wrong. What we need to do is join hands together and show them that Jesus is the answer.
Like Lucy, individually, we’re nothing. But, when we join together under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we can make a powerful impact for the Kingdom of God.
