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Possible Intro:
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The pandemic and our nation’s value of rugged individualism have wreaked havoc in our lives - more than we realize.
?I was listening to a podcast this week that contained a conversation between Russel Moore and Sam Alberry. Both are believers and apologists. Both attend church in the Nashville. Among the many things they discussed, the effects of the pandemic came into the conversation. They noted that the isolation, the comfort with being alone, the seclusion of the pandemic has both forced us into our own echo chambers where we only hear the voices that agree with us - and has created divisions in our culture that seem to only be expanding.
Some people have faced mental and emotional breakdowns and turmoil. Others have turned to unhealthy outlets.
Our society seems to only be able to promote solutions that cater to one side of a debate, but don’t allow for healthy conversations.
Contempt and Cancelation have become key words.
And yet, I believe that God has given us, in the beautiful design of the community that we call church, an environment in which we can flourish - if we’ll only make space to do things God’s way.
As we continue our look at biblical community and a cursory glance through the book of Ephesians - we’re reflecting on what Biblical community is and how it operates. I think one value of biblical community that was hindered by the pandemic (I know that’s been over for a while - but I believe it’s affects are lingering) and our individualistic society is intimacy. There is a nearness into which we’ve been called - if we will embrace it.
Before we dive into the intimacy that should mark us, I want us to briefly consider the foundation upon which our community is based.
In the first several chapters of the book of Ephesians, Paul communicates several “indicatives” or things that are true about God’s people. As I read through the first three chapters, I came across these 27 indicatives of believers - things that are true about us because of what Christ has done for us:
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blessed (Eph. 1:3)
chosen (Eph. 1:4)
be(come) holy and blameless (Eph. 1:4)
Predestined (Eph. 1:5, 11
Adopted (Eph. 1:5)
redemption/forgiveness (Eph. 1:7)
inheritance (Eph. 1:11)
sealed (Eph. 1:13)
enlightened (Eph. 1:18)
recipients of God’s kindness (Eph. 1:19-20)
formerly dead (Eph. 2:1-3)
alive with Christ (Eph. 2:5)
raised (resurrected?) (Eph. 2:6)
Seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6)
saved by grace through faith (Eph. 1:8-9)
handiwork/workmanship of God (Eph. 1:10)
brought near (Eph. 2:13)
one with other believers (Eph. 2:14)
one new humanity (Eph. 2:15)
hearers of peace (Eph. 2:17)
formerly aliens - now citizens (Eph. 2:19)
formerly aliens - now family/household (Eph. 2:19)
holy temple - with other believers (Eph. 2:20-21)
progressive realization of tabernacle/dwelling (Eph. 2:22)
fellow heirs (Eph. 3:6)
boldness (Eph. 3:12)
access (Eph. 2:12)
I admit that I may have missed some, but there are a lot of things that are true about God’s people - because of God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
I pray that we are encouraged by what Scripture reveals.
But then, as we come to the text that we’re looking at today, Paul makes a turn from indicatives to imperatives. In other words, since these things are true about us, we get to do the following.
Ephesians 4:1–3 ESV
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Because of all that we have in Christ, we are called to...
Walk worthily
Now Paul is not talking about our gait or strut, but our way of life. Now there are a couple of things to recognize.
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First of all
We can’t do anything to earn our salvation
Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
For those who’ve been a part of the church for a long time, this is nothing new - but for those who may be new to the idea of church and salvation - you can’t earn your salvation by doing anything, except...
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Recognize your sinful condition
- being fully separated from God because of our sin
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Acknowledge that the only way to fully pay for your sin is through death
Your death - which results in eternal punishment, (Hebrews 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”) or...
Jesus’ substitutionary death -
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ;
1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Essentially recognizing that Jesus took all of your punishment to the cross.
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Respond to Jesus’ call
Notice - the verse we are studying talks about walking in a manner worthy of the calling…
do you have doubts that your eternal home is in question - then maybe you’re being called...
Do you long for a life that is at peace with God, then maybe you are being called!
Are you being compelled to consider God’s gracious love toward you, then maybe you are being called!
Respond today - Romans 10:9-10 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
I realize that for most of us, this is nothing new. But in addition to recognizing that we don’t do anything to earn our salvation, we have to realize secondly that...
We can’t do anything to keep our salvation
It’s not as though Jesus will allow something to happen to us. After all, one of the “indicatives” that we learned earlier is that we are “sealed” (Eph. 1:13 “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” ).
So since we can’t do anything to earn or keep our salvation - the joy and challenge before us is to “walk in a manner worthy” of the life to which we’ve been called. It’s as though we get to walk as though we could earn it and keep it - yet with the freedom and lack of legalism that would accompany a performance based salvation.
Paul seems note that our walks should be accompanied with three complimenting traits:
Three complimenting traits of a worthy walk:
with humility - literally - “all humility” - Now, for the first century Ephesians, humility would not have been a trait worth exalting. And yet this is something that Christians are called to exhibit time and time again.
Philippians 2:3 ESV
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Colossians 3:12 ESV
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
1 Peter 5:5 ESV
Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
But what does humility look like? Why should this be an element of our worthy walk?
Well, when we realize that we are not worthy - it should result in a sense of humility. When we realize we don’t deserve the salvation that we walk in, it should cause us to lay down our pride and yield our preferences for one another.
Humility should allow me to show some grace when my brother or sister in Christ offends me.
Humility should allow me to walk with deep and strong convictions, but not demand that others see things exactly my way.
Humility marks my walk when I make space for someone else to shine.
1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Humility)
The story is told of two brothers who grew up on a farm. One went away to college, earned a law degree, and became a partner in a prominent law firm in the state capital. The other brother stayed on the family farm. One day the lawyer came and visited his brother, the farmer. He asked, “Why don’t you go out and make a name for yourself and hold your head up high in the world like me?” The brother pointed and said, “See that field of wheat over there? Look closely. Only the empty heads stand up. Those that are well filled always bow low.”Said differently, “The branch that bears the most fruit is bent the lowest to the ground.”688
In addition to walking with humility, Paul urges us to walk...
with gentleness -
Gentleness here is not a personality trait. It’s an active restraint. It seems like it’s the ability for someone to respond or react with strength but chooses not to. That’s not to say there is not a response, but it’s restrained. Throughout the NT - this word finds itself in various lists. But when it’s found on its own (not in a list), often the connotation is in how we interact with each other - even how we correct faults or confront sin in each other.
Galatians 6:1 ESV
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
2 Timothy 2:24–25 ESV
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
1 Corinthians 4:21 ESV
What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
So our worthy walk not only is accompanied with humility, but also with gentleness - in how we talk and interact with one another.
Thirdly, our worthy walk is accompanied...
with patience -
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Or longsuffering. In our calendar driven culture, patience can seem like something we schedule around or plan out of our way and yet patience is a virtue that is needed at the most inopportune times. Patience forces me to remember that my schedule is not the priority. Patience can allow us to take the time to pay attention to the fact that God might be doing something through what feels like an inconvenience.
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This week, Zoe got to show goats at the fair. She demonstrated a great deal of patience and poise as on several days she arrived at the fair early, fed and milked the goats, then waited for an hour or two or three until it was her time to show. Sometimes that waiting involved helping. I was convicted as I waited - she took the time and the obstacles in stride and pressed on. There were times when I got short tempered and frustrated about how my day was going differently than I expected - I wanted to be there to help and support but also felt the pull to be back at the office or to work on the sermon - completely looking past the people that God was placing around me to interact with.
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So we are called to walk worthily with humility, gentleness, and patience. But part of that walk includes...
Bearing with one another lovingly
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Of the major verbs that Paul uses - namely “walk” in verse 1 and “maintain” in verse 3 - “bearing” is the only verb that is presented in the passive voice. The others are imperatives or direct commands - to walk, to maintain. It’s as though this “bearing” is an attribute we exhibit as we walk and maintain. Just as humility, gentleness, and patience accompany our walk, bearing is a sort of accompaniment.
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the New Living Translation communicates this attribute by stating
Ephesians 4:2 (NLT)
?...making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
?The Lexham English Bible translates this bearing as...
Ephesians 4:2 (LEB)
?...putting up with one another in love,
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We are all works in progress. There is something that God is doing in each of us - refining us, sanctifying us, perfecting us. One of the joys and challenges we get in this life together as a church or an assembly of called out ones is that while we have one savior and one destination, we each come with different sins, faults, imperfections. We get to “put up with one another in love” as God shapes and molds us individually together.
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I’ve heard it said that a sculptor can take a piece of stone and has a vision or a picture for what that stone can look like. That which he or she sees in her mind is only realized after a great deal of time and energy chiseling away the parts that don’t fit the image in the artists mind. Along the way, the beautiful piece of stone will have moments of ugliness - and yet we know it’s a work in progress.
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While God is sanctifying us by the chiseling work of the His Holy Spirit, he does so in the context of community. So we get to patiently and lovingly put up or bear with one another as God completes his work in us, removing the old way of life, revealing His glorious masterpiece.
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There is one more command the Paul notes. We get to walk worthily and bear with one another lovingly. Finally, we are called to...
Maintain unity eagerly
What are you eager for? Have you ever noticed that when we are eager for something, there is a passion and a zeal to get it done? Maybe it’s being eager to
improve as an athlete
find the next vacation spot
lose weight
graduate
earn a promotion
retire
So often, the things that we are eager for are things out there, in front of us, just out of reach.
And yet Paul urges us to be eager to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” I wish I could say that this was my personal, eager desire. Unfortunately, all to often, my attitude is to “eagerly maintain peace” or at least an absence of conflict. And yet this charge to “maintain” unity also implies that disunity is a threat. Peter O’Brien notes that Paul’s language here has an urgency to it that is apparently difficult to translate into English.
If you remember a couple weeks ago when we considered the fact that we are UNITED, we reflected on the diversity that was present in Ephesus. Earlier in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul noted the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles - a dividing wall that Jesus Christ eradicated - forming us into one body, one temple, one tabernacle, one household.... Even here, in urging us to maintain unity, Paul reminds us that...
Ephesians 4:4–6 ESV
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
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Peter O’Brien reflects on the importance of maintaining this unity and warns about what divisions imply...
To keep this unity must mean to maintain it visibly. If the unity of the Spirit is real, it must be transparently evident, and believers have a responsibility before God to make sure that this is so. To live in a manner which mars the unity of the Spirit is to do [so] despite to the gracious reconciling work of Christ. It is tantamount to saying that his sacrificial death, by which relationships with God and others have been restored, along with the resulting freedom of access to the Father, are of no real consequence to us!
In other words, when I let my preference, opinion, background, gifting, or anything else that is “mine” get in the way of the unity the Christ has secured for “us” then I’m essentially viewing myself as more important than Christ.
Conversely, a walk that is lived with humility, gentleness, and patience recognizes that this is Jesus’ church - He is the head, not me - His blood secured our salvation - this is His body, not mine.
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Closing thoughts
I titled this sermon “intimate” - in some ways because I wanted to be a little cutesy - letting each letter of “UNITY” refer to a word that would help us think about what biblical community is.
UNITED - as one body, etc.
NORMS - life in that body requires togetherness, assembling, knowing one another
INTIMATE - there is a nearness implied in our unity. Taking many different people, with different backgrounds, different giftings, different sinful inclinations and putting us into one body - one expression of Christ’s body. It’s as though all of those differences are pushing us out. We can be held together by external forces (like a wall that is keeping something inside) - or we can work together - pulling toward one another, helping each other become the person that God wants us to be.
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As we move toward our schedule change on September 3 (worship and kids connection at 10:30) and the beginning of Community Groups - our hope is that these groups will foster fellowship - in other words - get us more comfortable with each other. Sure there is discomfort in nearness or intimacy - our flaws get harder to hide up close - but we also get to see the beauty of what God is doing in us individually and collectively more clearly.
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Our hope is also that these groups will foster mutual discipleship - as we get to encourage one another to grow. We get to help each other think biblically about life and culture. If I’m tempted to bolt, to let go, in this object lesson, I’ve got a couple of other people holding on to me as well - eagerly maintaining unity.
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Our hope is that these groups will also foster a culture of prayer - as we intercede with and for one another. We ask the Holy Spirit to work mightily in each others lives. We contend on our knees together and separately as we each put off our old way of life and put on Christ.
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Shifting to these groups will take adjustment. It will require sacrifice. But I believe, we as elders believe this shift will help us all to better “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we’ve] been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, as we bear with one another in love and eagerly maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
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Let’s pray.
For our benediction today, we are going to sing to one another. This is a song that we introduced a few weeks ago. Now we’ll have the words on the screen - which should be quite familiar. Since Christ has made us all His priests - let’s bless one other with these words.
