A. How many of you have seen the movie “That Thing You Do”?
1. It’s one of the movies that our family enjoyed over the years.
2. It’s a movie about a fictional band that ended up being a “one hit wonder” band.
3. The band decided to name themselves the “wonders” but wanted to be unique and so rather than spelling the name “wonder” in the usual way, they spelled it “Oneders.”
4. This led to confusion in the pronunciation of their name and so they were often introduced as the “O – Needers.”
B. I was reminded of that fun movie when I saw a sermon with the title “God’s One-derful Plan for Unity.
1. God’s wonderful plan for unity focuses on the seven ones that equal unity.
2. Paul explained it to the Ephesians this way: 1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making 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 at your calling— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)
3. Last week’s sermon was the first in the new series that we are doing about these seven ones.
4. Last week, we focused on our great calling as Christians and how that walking worthy of that calling includes a commitment to keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
5. We talked about the important role that humility, gentleness, patience and forbearance play in enabling us to maintain unity in the church family.
6. An attitude of humility is based on thinking clearly about the value and love God has for us in spite of our sins, failures and imperfections.
7. That humility then allows us to extend God’s love and grace to others who are equally loved and valued in spite of their sins, failures and imperfections.
8. We extend gentleness, patience, and forbearance to others because of the gentleness, patience, and forbearance that we have received from God and from others.
C. With those things in mind, let’s turn our attention now to the first of the seven ones that equal unity – the first “one” is: there is ONE BODY.
1. How many bodies of Christ are there? Many? Nope, just one.
2. This may be very hard for us to comprehend because from our vantage point it looks like there are many bodies of Christ, but from God’s vantage point and in reality there is only one body.
D. The body is one of Paul’s favorite analogies to describe the church.
1. The church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the head of the body.
2. Paul had already used this expression twice in this letter and he developed it further in later chapters.
3. At the end of chapter one, Paul wrote: 20 He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens— 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way. (Eph. 1:20-23)
a. We see in this passage the special role that Jesus has as the ruler and authority over everything for the church, which is his body.
b. How beyond imagination is the thought that God, the One who fills all things in every way, lives in us, the church, giving us His fullness?
4. In chapter two, Paul wrote: 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. (Eph. 2:14-16)
a. Here Paul speaks of the hostility and separation that had existed between Jews and Gentiles and how that through the cross of Christ, God has brought everyone together and has created “one new man” and “one body” through the work of Christ.
5. A few verses later, Paul employed other analogies to describe the oneness of the church: 19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit. (Eph. 2:19-22)
a. Christians who are members of the one body are citizens of the one kingdom, and members of the one family, and a part of the one temple in which God’s Spirit lives.
6. Later in chapter five, Paul will refer to the church as the bride of Christ and as the husband, Jesus is the head of the church and Savior of the body (vs. 23) and Paul says that Christ provides and cares for the church, since we are members of his body (vs. 29-30).
7. All of these analogies point to the same universal and eternal reality – there is only one body, one church, one kingdom, one holy temple, and one family of God.
E. This one body that Paul is referring to is not one specific congregation – like our church meeting here at 4268 Wetzel Road – rather Paul is referring to the spiritual body of Christ, composed of all genuine believers in every time and place since the Day of Pentecost.
1. The one body is made up of all true disciples of Jesus for whom the Lord adds to the church – the one body – who worship in a multitude of local churches throughout the world and throughout time, and include those who have passed on to their reward – we and they are the one spiritual body of Christ.
2. Membership in the one body is not our right, but is our privilege based on God’s grace and God’s promises.
3. No one is a member of the one body, unless God makes them a member; welcoming them into the family of God and adding them to the church.
F. So how does anyone know if they are a part of the one body?
1. One way to answer that question would be to ask what is my relationship to the one Spirit, one Lord, one Faith, one Hope, one Baptism, and one God the Father?
2. A person can’t be a member of the one body if they don’t have the right relationship with all of the other 6 ones that equal unity. Right?
G. When we go back in time to that very first day when the Gospel was first preached and entrance into the one body was first offered, what do we see?
1. How did people respond to the invitation and become members of the one body?
2. Let’s look at what took place on the day it all began as is recorded in Acts 2.
3. It took place on the Day of Pentecost, which was a Jewish feast that took place 50 days after the Jewish feast of Passover.
4. That day, the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles with the sound of a rushing wind and what looked like tongues of fire rested on each of the apostles.
5. The apostles began to speak in different languages as the Spirit enabled them and the Jews from every nation that were present at that feast heard the apostles declaring the magnificent acts of God in their own languages.
6. That got everyone’s attention and it allowed Peter to stand before them and preach the good news of Jesus.
7. Peter proceeded to give a logical presentation about Jesus based on Old Testament passages and prophesies.
8. Peter concluded with the words: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” (Acts 2:36)
9. The crowd came under conviction and asked: “What should we do?” (vs. 37)
10. Peter replied: 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. (Acts 2:38-41)
H. Never before had the Gospel been preached and never before had entrance into the body of Christ been offered, but here was the first time.
1. That’s why it is so important for us to notice what the process was that moved people from lost-ness to found-ness, from being outside the one body to being inside the one body.
2. We notice that faith and conviction was involved – obviously those hearers believed that what Peter said about Jesus was true and they were cut to the heart.
3. We notice that repentance and confession was involved – the people admitted their need and wanted to know what they should do, how they should respond.
4. We notice that baptism was involved.
a. Peter’s reply was simple and straight forward: repent and be baptized.
b. Peter might have answered their question “what should we do?” a number of ways:
1. He might have said: “Do good works and earn your way into God’s good graces.”
2. He might have said: “Don’t do anything, only believe.”
3. He might have said: “Pray the sinner’s prayer and pray Jesus into your heart.”
c. But Peter didn’t say any of those things.
5. Because of the question they asked, he knew they believed and he knew they were confessing their faith, so he told them to repent and be baptized.
a. And what did Peter promise would be the result of repenting and being baptized?
b. They would receive the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
c. They didn’t have either of those things (forgiveness and the Holy Spirit) until they repented and were baptized.
6. Luke reports that those who accepted his message, those who believed and welcomed the message, were baptized and about 3000 were added to them that day.
7. Wouldn’t we love to see 3000 respond to a Gospel message today? Wouldn’t we love to have 3000 be added to the one body of Christ?
8. A few verses later, we are told that the original one body of Christ devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, and the result was that every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved (Acts 2:42, 47).
I. Throughout the rest of the book of Acts, we see the same process and procedure: the Gospel was preached and those who believed were baptized and were added to the one body.
1. Philip went to Samaria and those who believed were baptized (Acts 8:12-13).
2. Philip taught the Ethiopian man in his chariot and the man believed and was baptized (8:37-38).
3. Peter preached to Cornelius and his family and those who believed were baptized (10:47-48).
4. Paul preached to Lydia and her household by the river in Philippi and those who believed were baptized (16:13-15).
5. Paul taught the jailer and his household the good news of Jesus and in the middle of the night they believed and were baptized (16:32-34).
6. Paul preached to Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his household, and other Corinthians, and those who believed were baptized (18:8)
7. Let me mention one more interesting baptism episode in Acts 19, where Paul encounters some believers in Jesus who had been baptized already, but not for the right reasons and so Paul baptized them again for the right reasons and with the right baptism.
8. These verses from the very beginning of the church reveal how to enter into the one body.
9. As members of the one body, we must continue to teach and practice exactly what those first members of the one body taught and practiced in order to bring new people into the one body.
10. I’ll have more to say about being born again and the part that baptism plays in that process when we get to the sermon about the one baptism later in our series.
J. I would like to finish today’s sermon about the one body talking about an important practical application of the body analogy.
1. Thus far in the sermon, I’ve been talking about the universal one body, but I want us to turn our attention to the local one body that each of us is a part of.
2. The apostle Paul often applied the body analogy to the local church, like he did when he wrote the letters to the church in Corinth and the church in Rome.
3. In both of those letters, he gave long and well developed illustrations of how the local body of Christ, the individual congregation, should work together like our individual bodies made up of many parts should work in unison.
4. Many of us are very familiar with 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, where Paul employs the body analogy.
5. We don’t have time to cover all the verses in those chapters, but let’s be reminded of a few of them and their application.
K. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the body of Christ, he wrote: 12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. (1 Cor. 12:12-14)
1. Those verses emphasize how the many parts form one body and how the one Spirit makes that possible.
2. But then Paul proceeded to explain that those many parts have different functions and how all the parts need each other and depend on each other and that all the parts should have equal concern for each other.
L. When Paul wrote to the Romans about the body of Christ, he wrote: 3 For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. 4 Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, 5 in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. 6 According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; 7 if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; 8 if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness. (Rom. 12:3-8)
1. Here we see that Paul made some of the same points he made in 1 Corinthians 12.
2. The body has many parts, but they form the one body, and those many parts have different functions based upon the gifts they have received.
3. But no matter how big or little a part a person plays, no one should think of themselves as being too big or too small.
M. These are such important lessons for all of us to learn.
1. The body of Christ here at Wetzel Road is made up of many different parts – our body would be a strange body if it was made up of only eyes, or only feet!
a. Thank God our body has all kinds of different parts – eyes, ears, hands, feet, arms and legs.
b. Not all the parts of the body are designed to do the same kinds of work – the stomach is great at digesting food, but not so good at speaking or moving the body from one place to another.
c. So, we need all the parts of our body and we need all our parts to do their part.
2. Every member here at Wetzel Road should be asking ourselves: “Am I using my gifts and doing my part to make the body healthy and help it accomplish God’s purposes?”
a. If I’m not using my gifts at all or not using them enough, then I am not pleasing God and am hurting the body.
b. None of us can determine how another person should be serving or how much they should be serving, but each of us must be diligent to examine ourselves and ask God to direct us.
c. Because Jesus is the head of the church and we should be taking direction from the head, each of us should be looking to obey Jesus’ commands and follow His leadership and use our gifts and do our part.
d. There are so many different ways to use our gifts; including:
1. Leading and facilitating ministries.
2. Studying the Bible with others or teaching bible classes.
3. Working in the nursery, or our food pantry, or working on the church building.
4. Giving someone a ride, or watching their children.
5. Making a phone call, or writing a letter, cooking a meal, or making a visit.
6. Helping with our children’s programs and teen programs.
7. The possibilities are endless because there are so many ways to serve.
8. The question is: In what ways are you serving and is God pleased with your service?
3. A final thing I want to challenge us to think about is how we as the body can have equal concern for all of the members of the body.
a. It may be easier for us to have concern for the parts of the body who play big roles, or who have been members for a long time, or those we are most like or those we like the most.
b. But when we only have concern for those members of the body, then we are not being as spiritually mature as God would want us to be.
c. The more spiritually mature we are, the more we will be like Jesus – who loved those who are harder to love and who left the 99 to seek after the one lost sheep.
d. I pray that all of us will be more sensitive to the needs of others and will seek out those who are missing or who are more timid and try to fly under the radar.
e. Let’s be more conscious of those who are carrying heavy burdens and are exhausted and barely hanging on.
f. Every part of the body is important and valued and treasured by Jesus the head of the body and therefore, every part should be loved and valued by the other parts of the body.
N. There is only one body made up of all those who are born again.
1. The one Spirit brings us into the one family.
2. The cross and the church are God’s remedy and solution for racial discrimination and segregation and nationalism.
3. There is only one body and one church and one kingdom and one temple and one family.
4. Christ Jesus is our peace and He has made us one body and one temple where God’s Spirit lives and moves.
5. And we must be very careful how we treat each other, because we are the temple of God.
O. Are you in the one body today?
1. If not, we would love to help you enter into the one body the same way the first people entered into the one body.
2. If you are in the one body, are you doing your part to serve the body and obey the head?
3. If not, then I would encourage you to repent and serve in a way that pleases God and blesses the body of Christ and the world as well.
Resources:
• Ephesians and Philippians, Jay Lockhart and David Roper, Truth for Today Commentary, 2009.
• There is One Body, Southside Church of Christ, Dave Schmidt https://southsidechurchofchrist.com/sermons/there-is-one-body.html
• The Basis for Christian Unity, Steven Cole
https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-26-basis-christian-unity-ephesians-44-6
• Ephesians 4:4-6 Basis for Church Unity, http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/eph4v4.html
• The Basis for Unity, Brent Kercheville, Westpalmbeachchurchofchrist.com
