Introduction: It was January 1862, in the heart of the American Civil War, when then Union Army marched its way to the heart of the South where it endured a long fought battle against the Confederate Army in New Orleans, Louisiana. Finally, in April of the same year, New Orleans came under the control of the Union Army. It was then that the Civil War evolved by allowing blacks to fight in the United States Army. Thousands of black freemen and former slaves could have avoided the dangers, fears, and discomfort of being a soldier, yet the black members of the Louisiana Native Guard chose to stay and fight with the Union Army because they wanted and believed in freedom.
The blacks were discriminated against by the white officers of the Union Army. They were given inferior firearms and other equipment, and were sent to front lines of the battles they fought. Yet, these men maintained unity in desire for all black men, women, and children in the United States of America to be free.
Today, here at Bethel Friends, we share a commonality with the heroes of the Louisiana Native Guard. Just as the soldiers experienced unity in their desire to be free, we share a unity of faith in Christ even in the midst of persecution from our friends and neighbors who have abandoned the truth of Jesus Christ. Today we will examine “Unity of Faith” as a core value of our church, based on Ephesians 4:11-16.
I. Unity is facilitated through the Public Ministry (vv.11-12a)
“11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,…”
In these two verses we learn a primary way unity is facilitated within the Church. Unity is facilitated through the public ministry. The Apostle Paul writes that God gave a variety of spiritual gifts to individual believers for this specific purpose. The list of gifts found in Ephesians 4 is commonly called the “office gifts”, that is public ministry gifts. The office gifts for public ministry include apostles. They were eyewitnesses of the Resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul was an apostle, having seen Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. Peter, one of the twelve disciples and author of 1 & 2 Peter in the New Testament, was an apostle because he saw Jesus after His resurrection. John, the author of the Gospel of John, and 1, 2, and 3 John, and Revelation, was an apostle. Prophets were people God chose to be His “mouthpieces” through whom to speak to His people. Their prophecies addressed the past, present and future. The next gift listed is the evangelist. The truth is, there is not much known about this gift, but it probably was not must different than the evangelists of the 20th and 21st centuries where a man will travel from place to place to preach to a multitude. Finally, God gave the gift of pastoring and teaching to some as well. There is some debate whether this is one or two gifts, but the purpose of God’s giving and calling believers to this/these office(s) is the same – to equip all believers for the work of the ministry (v.12). The application of these gifts, as we are about to see, was to grow the church into a more productive and unified body. Similarly, when applied today, such gifts can be the instruments of unity within our church.
II. Unity is a fruit of edification (v.12b)
“…for the edifying of the body of Christ,” (v.12b)
What good is it to give facilitators if they do not facilitate? We have just seen a variety of facilitating gifts, but now the Apostle Paul addresses the way they are to facilitate. The key word is translated as “edifying” in the later part of verse twelve. In the original language, Greek, this word is a compound word - it is composed of two words brought together to form a single word. The word is “οἰκοδομὴν” which is a combination of the words “house” and “build.” Therefore, the word Paul uses for “edifying” literally means “to build a house.” Paul was informing the public ministers and church members that the public ministers were to “build up” the body of believers into an effective harbor of ministry where the whole church was to effectively minister to one another.
Illustration: Joe Torre is one of the greatest and most successful baseball managers in the history of Major League Baseball. He coached the New York Yankees for twelve years from 1995 – 2007. During his time as skipper of the Pinstriped team, his Yankees played in six World Series, winning four (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000). What made Joe a great manager was more than how he substituted his pitchers or had his players steal bases or hit home runs. Joe Torre supported his players and verbally built them up in private and in public. This created an atmosphere of trust and confidence between the players, manager, front office, and fans, and media. Torre was notorious for building up his players up! So it is to be with us in the church. Church leaders are to use their God-given gifts to build up the church.
II. Edification leads to unity in Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God (v.13a)
“…13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,” (v. 13a)
Faith and knowledge of the Son of God is not an instantaneous fruit of conversion. Faith here is not subjective (the faith by which we believe) but objective (what is believed). For example, a Hindu can study the Christian faith which is the body of doctrines that comprise Christianity (subjective), but only a person who trusts in the death and resurrection of Jesus has saving faith (objective). Edification expands the knowledge base of “what is believed.” Edification produces a deeper knowledge of the Son of God. The Greek word for knowledge here is not a collection of facts, but rather experiential knowledge. The more one experiences Christ on a day to day basis, the deeper that relationship will be. As the whole church grows in its understanding of the Christian faith and experiences Christ more and more, the result will be a maturation of the unity of the body as a whole.
However, Paul continues in verse fourteen, “...14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,…” For decades we have been associated with Western Yearly Meeting (WYM). In recent years, many prominent members, pastors, and churches have denied the doctrines that unify us at Bethel, as well as unify the body of Christ. Many of our friends in other churches have denied the deity of Jesus, His being the only way to be saved, and even the need to be saved. Some pastors in our denomination are so bold to question that Jesus was a historical person, much less that He was/is God! We see in verse fourteen that the church in Ephesus was experiencing such an attack on their beliefs that we are experiencing today in WYM. The very doctrines which are spelled out and affirmed in our constitution, Faith and Practice, have been discarded in the name of tolerance, and the thought that such doctrines are out of date. The shift toward Unitarianism and Universalism by many in WYM is exactly what Paul writes that the unity of faith will prevent = changing beliefs with every whim of society (tossed to and fro), falling into the deceits of the world and the craftiness of false teaching.
Illustration: Turn on the TV, read the newspaper, or glance at the news app on your phone - by doing any of these you will quickly see lack of unity within our elected officials. In Washington, Republicans and Democrats seldom agree on anything. That is why there is a tremendous lack of unity and a major political divide in our country. WYM shares a similar divide, although not political, but spiritual.
III. The foundation of Unity is Love
15 …but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” (vv. 15-16)
There is a prepositional phrase that is key to understanding the unity discussed in Ephesians 4; it is found twice, once in verse fifteen and once in verse sixteen. He writes “…but, speaking the truth in love…causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Did you catch the two words comprising the prepositional phrase? “In love.” Love is the foundation for all unity; it is the glue that holds us all together. Agape love, which is the word used here in verse sixteen, is the love that connects us to God and each other. If a Christian congregation is not saturated with the love of God and each other, there will be no desire to strive for a growing unity. Public servants of the Word will not want to edify the body. The body of believers will not care about each other, but rather selfishly pursue their own end through self-gratification.
Application: For years, Bethel has proudly stood on the inerrant Word of God; we have defended and proclaimed it (1 Peter 3:15). However, for years, we have been met with resistance and an ever-increasing hatred of conservative Christianity. We have been made to feel unwelcome and unwanted because of our relentless defending of the Bible. What we have experienced is the opposite of love. Therefore, because unity of faith is so important to us that it is one of our four key values, we have unanimously voted to leave WYM. It breaks our hearts that so many of our friends and fellow churches have been “…tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” It breaks our hearts that we have seen our brothers in sin, approached them alone and with witnesses, yet we have lost them (Matthew 18:15-20). It breaks our hearts that we have attempted to restore our friends into the unity and knowledge of Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:1), but have been rejected and persecuted. For so many years we have stayed with WYM and acted “in love” because we love the people dearly.
Application: We recently reached a point of no-return. We knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that we, and our true biblical foundations, are unwanted. Therefore, we are seeking to leave WYM and to be joined with Midwest Evangelical Yearly Meeting of Friends. Midwest shares our values and our desire to worship the Lord in love and unity of faith, and share in the knowledge and love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
