Ligaments of the Church
Ephesians 4:12-16
Have you ever thought much about ligaments? You know what I am talking about, right? Ligaments. …the things that hold our skeletal system together. Ligaments are the super strong fibrous connectors that hold our bones together. They are different from tendons which are the super strong fibrous connections that hold our muscles to our skeleton.
I want to talk a few minutes about ligaments. Here is a picture of the ligaments in your shoulder – …do you see how they wrap themselves around the bones and actually hold the shoulder together?
Here is a picture of the ligaments in your elbow …can you see how they hold the joint together? …without the ligaments, our skeleton would fall a part …it would just be a collection of bones. Ligaments are important!!
Literally, ligaments are holding all of us together right now!
Now these ligaments are designed to hold us together tightly, but sometimes, if we put too much stress on our ligaments, they can stretch …or tear …or become detached ….and when that happens, the joints these ligaments hold together become loose and the joints begin to wear …and soon, the joint fails ….all because the ligament …that little part that holds it all together …is damaged.
You know, the Apostle Paul loved the church. He gave his life to the cause of building up the church. And as he struggled to communicate to people how wonderful the church was, he often turned to the human body as an analogy to help people understand.
The human body is made up of many parts, just like the church. It’s good for the parts to be different, to specialize. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12. In verses 12-24, Paul emphasizes the importance of all the different functions particular body parts perform and how they are all necessary to make a whole body. …and in Romans 12:8, Paul reminds us of the importance of all the parts working together ….doing their special function in harmony with one another so that the whole body functions well.
And just like our bodies have a head …the body that is the church has a head also …Christ is the head of the church. And in this morning’s text Paul extends the body analogy even further, mentioning the ligaments of our bodies to help us see the importance of connections in the church.
This morning we turn again to one of the most amazing pictures of the church, Ephesians 4:12-16. We are actually picking this passage up in the middle of one of the Apostle Paul’s loooooong sentences, so don’t think you have missed something, just listen to the beautiful picture Paul gives of us how the body of Christ should work.
Today we look at the ligaments of the church, the relationships that hold the church together.
12 “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
This is the Word of God for us, the People of God ….Thanks be to God!
My friends, …when we connect to Christ the head, …He connects us with one another.
And that’s a message that our lonely world needs to hear! The Pandemic of the past two years has brought the plight of our society to light in an ‘in-your-face’ way …we live in a desperately disconnected world!
…A world where the ligaments that are needed to hold society together are being stretched! …our connections are flopping around, and people are getting hurt.
Sociologist, Robert Putnam, in his best-selling book “Bowling Alone,” talks about something he calls ‘social capital’. Social Capital is that core connectedness that societies need to flourish. …It is the relationships that hold us together.
Let me give you a picture of social capital. When Christie and I were much younger, we lived in a small town of about 500 people. Severn was known as a clannish town. People said they could feel people watching them as they came into town. Well, one afternoon, Christie fell into and through the glass storm door of our house while I was at work. She cut the artery in her right arm and ended up with a shard of glass lodged in her arm. In the days before cell phones, she grabbed a towel, wrapped her arm that was spirting blood and went across the street to our neighbor who was a retired nurse. The nurse’s husband called 911 and then came to work to get me. When I got to their house, literally within 5 minutes, our next door neighbors had already been contacted and were taking care of our children, Christie was packaged ready for transport to the hospital …but there was no ambulance. So, our neighbors loaded us into their car and drove us the 20 miles to the nearest hospital. We hadn’t been there long before my dad showed up to support us, and early the next morning, our pastor came by to see how Christie was doing.
Those connections are Social Capital, networks of relationships that can support us in hard times …and that nourish us in good times.
Putnam’s book documents the erosion of social capital in our society. He looked at many different social institutions that once connected us, but are now in decline. Those who have lived 40 or more years can feel the difference. No more do social organizations thrive …groups like 4-H, Boy and Girl Scouts, the American Legion, Business and Professional Women, Eastern Star, Elks, Women’s Clubs, Jaycees, Kiwanis, Moose, Lions, Masons, Odd Fellows, Optimists, PTA, Red Cross Volunteers, Rotary, Shriners. …all of these are examples of social groups who have been in decline over the past 50 years even though the population has increased! …Folks, we’re a disconnected society!.
The great American society has devolved into a group of individualists! …with individualistic goals and desires. Our movies and novels repeat the same theme of the rugged individualist who stands up against everybody else, fighting the system alone, over and over and over again.
And the result for society is that we are horribly fragmented. Often neighbors don’t even know each other, let alone support one another. Our kids are isolated at school with their peers and have woefully few quality relationships with adults, …and even fewer role models to look up to and learn from.
The support that our society gives to those who are in trouble has often been reduced to a government check in the mail with a minimum of human contact.
The ligaments that are to hold our society together are just plain weak. And we are all paying the price for it.
And the church is paying a price for it, too. While we are not a ‘social organization’, faith-based organizations have been hit just as hard, and in some places harder than the social organizations.
But the Bible gives us some very important responsibilities for helping each other grow. And when we do these things and incorporate them into our relationships, we all help each other grow.
When tendons in our bodies are loose, the result is failure of the body to continue to function normally …When relationships are loose, it becomes almost impossible to grow.
I want to talk with you this morning about some Bible verses that show us how we should treat one another.
- Bear one another’s burdens. (Gal 6:2)
- Outdo one another in showing honor. (Rom 10:12)
- Live in harmony with one another. (Rom 12:16)
- Welcome one another. (Rom 15:7)
- Instruct one another. (Rom 15:14)
- Bear with one another in love. (Eph 4:2)
- Be kind to one another. (Eph 4:32a)
- Forgive one another. (Eph 4:32b)
- Encourage one another. (1Thes 5:11a)
- Build each other up. (1Thes 5:11b)
- Seek to do good to one another. (1Thes 5:15)
- Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Heb 3:13)
- Provoke one another to love and good deeds. (Heb 10:24)
- Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. (James 5:16)
- Love one another, deeply from the heart. (John 13:34-35, 1Peter 1:22)
- Be hospitable to one another. (1Peter 4:9)
- Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. (1Peter 4:10)
- Lay down your lives for one another.” (1John 3:16)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be surrounded by a group of friends, a lot of them,
- who will lay down their lives for you,
- who will graciously admonish you when you are wrong,
- who will encourage you,
- forgive you,
- always welcome you?
What a gift that would be! Many of us have tasted parts of that. All of those Scripture references are the ways God’s Word tells us …the different parts of the body are supposed to be connecting, and it’s such a beautiful picture!
But our culture pulls us away. …We all carry wounds that make us afraid of getting too close. We hear so many messages about going our own ways, …asserting our independence, …that we are left with some vague feeling of missing out on something, …..but we often don’t even know what it is that we are missing!
Satan does that! Satan blinds us, as much as possible to the truth of God’s Word! …My friends, …its up to us to read it and hold it in our hearts and put it into practice …and to live by it!
Being in relationship with other people like this means putting yourself out there! …it means making yourself vulnerable! …risking …being …hurt.
It gets scary get really close with one another. …and it can be hard work!
You’ll get your knees skinned a few times on the way.
It means saying no to a lot of things we would like to do for ourselves. …We all have a thousand excuses for doing anything but being really honest with each other. But as long as we give in to those excuses, we’ll never know relationships the way God has intended them to be for us!
Folks, do you realize that our God …THE Almighty, …is by the very definition of His nature, …relational?!?! Our God is the ultimate relational God …and He has made us in HIS image! …therefore, we are relational beings, too! …We have a deep desire to be in relationship …relationship with God and with the people around us!
And folks, if you skoff at what I just said …that we have a deep need to be in relationship with other people …then you, my friends, are in the wrong place! God calls us …every single one …into relationship with Himself …AND with His church! …and His church is made up …not of buildings …but of people! …You cannot be called by the name Christian and not desire to be in relationship with people!
And, my friends, …Love is the ligament that holds us together.
- Love pulls us beyond just picking and choosing which services are convenient to get to.
- Love brings us to church every week
o not just when we feel we need it or
o know there will be a special day,
o but every Sunday so that we can be a blessing to our brothers and sisters!
Love pulls us to build relationships all through the congregation, reaching out beyond our normal circle of friends. …Truly caring about their well-being.
Love tells us that every person that God has formed in the womb (Ps 139:13) …is precious in God’s sight and worth getting to know …so that we can encourage them …and live openly enough for them to be able to encourage us, too!
Love makes the ligaments of the church work!
When the ligaments get loose and floppy, the body begins to fall apart.
When the joints are strong and healthy there is no end to what we can do!
You are all saints! Verse 12 of our Scripture says its purpose is to “equip the saints”. God wants to equip you …the saints …so that His church thrives ….and folks, God’s church ….IS HIS PEOPLE!
So, church, I invite you this morning to look around and see all the people whom God has placed in your life ....people with whom God calls us into relationship with. And I ask you, as you have gathered her this morning, to consider how you can love each and every one! ...how can you build up and encourage all of them? ....how can you reflect God's love into their lives? ...and what do you need to do to put away the masks that we so easily hide behind ...so that all of them can be a blessing to you and help build you up...
Amen!
NOTE: This sermon was originally presented on Sermon Central by Stephen Aram. I heartily recommend it to you.
