A preacher was having revival services in a town where a mental institution was located. One of the deacons employed at the institution asked the preacher to speak to the inmates at the chapel service. He agreed and after he had been preaching for a couple of minutes, one inmate stood up and said, "This is the worst preaching I’ve ever heard." This disturbed the preacher but he continued. After another five minutes the same inmate stood up and repeated, "This is the worst preaching I’ve ever heard." Turning to the deacon who invited him, the preacher whispered, "Maybe I should stop. This man might get violent."
"Oh no, don’t stop," said the deacon. "That man has been here four years, and that’s the first sensible thing he’s said yet." (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, 124)
Ephesians 2:19-22
NOTHING CAN BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER EXCEPT THE GOSPEL. God must change our natures if true unity is to exist between us. Naturally we are filled with prejudices.
There can be union without unity; tie two cats together by their tails and throw them over a clothesline. That’s union without unity.
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE VISIBLE, LOCAL CHURCH AND THE INVISIBLE, UNIVERSAL CHURCH.
The unity of Christians is described in at least five ways in this chapter:
1. Christians are MEMBERS OF ONE NEW RACE: "one new man" (v. 15).
2. Christians are PARTS OF ONE BODY: "one body" (v. 16).
3. Christians are CITIZENS OF ONE NATION: "fellowcitizens with the saints [God’s people]" (v. 19).
4. Christians are CHILDREN OF ONE FAMILY: "of the household of God" (v. 19).
5. Christians are STONES OF ONE TEMPLE: "[we] are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (vv. 20-22).
"NOW THEREFORE . . ." I want us to take a look at the big picture of Christian unity. What makes believers one?
I. WE ALL HAVE THE SAME PAST.
Ephesians 2:3 says that we "WERE BY NATURE THE CHILDREN OF WRATH."
Jeffrey Dahmer was America’s most notorious serial killer. Not only were his killings gruesome, but he was so morally twisted that he cooked and ate his victims’ body parts. On the day of his arrest, police made the horrible discovery of a human heart and several skulls in the refrigerator of his home.
Through his subsequent trial Dahmer remained impassive, never once showing any sign of remorse or regard for the deep pain he caused his victims’ families. He seemed to be a monster without a conscience. He was found guilty on all charges and the judge sentenced him to 16 consecutive life sentences for a total of 1,070 years in prison. Dahmer was hated by his fellow prisoners. They regarded him as being the lowest kind of human scum. Eventually two of the prisoners brutally killed him inside a prison washroom. But in the meantime Jeffrey had turned to Jesus, claiming to have become a Christian. He was even baptized in a prison tub.
People were totally outraged by Jeffrey’s jailhouse conversion. Their attitude was typified in an article by a prominent journalist who expressed it in these words:
"Good riddance. Dahmer is dead. . . . Did you heard he got religion? He made peace with his maker. Lucky for him we have different makers. I think mine requires a little more than a prison conversion and a dunk in the pool to make up for butchering a dozen and a half innocent people. Why is it these dogs never get religion before they slaughter people? Why does it always come too late to do anybody any good? Here’s the theological dilemma: If Dahmer murdered, raped and cannibalized an innocent boy who had not been "saved," and then Dahmer got "saved" himself, whose side would God be on? Who does he welcome with open arms on Judgment Day? Are we supposed to believe that God embraces the murderer and sends the victim to hell? Not in any heaven I want to be part of." (Bob Lonsberry, lonsberry.com)
My point is not to argue whether Jeffrey Dahmer actually was saved or not. Only God knows the truth about that.
You might say to yourself, "A person like that doesn’t deserve to be saved." You’re exactly right. Nobody like that deserves to be saved . . . but neither do I and neither do you. The only kind of salvation that God offers is undeserved salvation, salvation by grace. Ephesians 2:8 says, "By grace are ye saved." The only way I can be saved is by grace. The only way you can be saved is by grace.
Does God really have grace for a serial killer? Yes, He does. THERE IS GRACE FOR PEOPLE LIKE JEFFREY DAHMER. The old hymn calls God’s grace "AMAZING"; a better adjective might be "SHOCKING." I believe that if Dahmer’s repentance was genuine and if his faith in Christ was genuine, then his claim to be saved was genuine.
All of us would like to think that we are "better" than he was. But let me say something that probably will shock you: THERE IS GRACE ONLY FOR THE JEFFREY DAHMERS OF THE WORLD. They alone can be saved.
Too many religious people are like the Pharisee who prayed, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector" (Luke 18:11, NIV). He was right. He wasn’t like that tax collector . . . in more ways than one. Jesus said the Pharisee returned home a sinner while the despised tax collector left a saved man. Our Lord declared, "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God" (v. 14). How could that be? It was because the Pharisee saw himself as better than others like the tax collector, but the tax collector saw himself as a vile sinner in the sight of God. We are told that "the tax collector . . . would not even look up to heaven, but beat upon his breast and said, ‘God have mercy on me, a sinner’" (v. 13).
Most people today would say, "I thank God I’m not like Jeffrey Dahmer." BUT AS LONG AS YOU THINK YOU ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS, YOU ARE NOT READY TO BE SAVED. Why? Because you have not yet realized how great your sin really is. Jesus did not come to saved "semi" sinners. He came to save sinners who understand their need of God’s grace.
Recently I put a 40 watt lightbulb in my office. Soon, however, I found it to be too dim. I have since replaced it with a 100 watt bulb. There is a great difference between 40 watts and 100 watts. But let’s say I took those two bulbs out into the intense noonday sun. The difference disappears, doesn’t it? Compared to the sun, the light of those two bulbs would be as darkness. And in the presence of God’s brilliant holiness, all of our supposed goodness fades away. We no longer see ourselves as better than that other person. We stand there and see ourselves for what we really are—sinners.
The apostle Paul wrote that "THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE" (Rom. 3:22). There really is no difference between Jeffrey Dahmer and the most moral person on this planet. Why not? Because "ALL HAVE SINNED" (v. 23). "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE" (Rom. 3:10). I may not have committed as many sins as Dahmer did. And my sins may not have been as horrible as his were. But, the truth is, I am a sinner just like him.
Jesus once proclaimed, "I CAME NOT TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS, BUT SINNERS TO REPENTANCE" (Luke 5:32). There is one person that Jesus cannot save. It is the person who sees himself as righteous. It is the person who will not confess, "I am a sinner."
There was only righteous person who ever lived. His name is Jesus Christ. And compared to Him, I am Jeffrey Dahmer.
Jesus said, "HIM THAT COMETH TO ME I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT." Jesus didn’t give us any exceptions. He didn’t say, "I will receive anyone except for people like Jeffrey Dahmer." No, He promised, "Whoever comes to me I will receive."
Christ demonstrated His willingness to save anyone even as He suffered on the cross. One of the thieves who was hanging next to Him asked, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom" (Luke 23:42). This man had lived the life of a criminal. Only a little while earlier this same man was cursing Jesus like all the others. Now at the last possible moment he is knocking on heaven’s back door. Will Jesus let him? Here is what the Lord said: "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (v. 43). Heaven’s door will always be opened to men and women who will admit, "Yes, I am a sinner." Salvation is available to all who will pray, "Please save me, Jesus."
In the sight of God, we are all equally sinners. I am a sinner like the thief on the cross was. I am a sinner like Jeffrey Dahmer was. And only by God’s grace can I be saved, can you be saved.
The understanding that we are all equally sinners is the first step to unity. This realization will strip us of our pride. And remember: PRIDE IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL HOSTILITY.
II. WE ALL HAVE THE SAME SAVIOR.
I was once helpless and hopeless in the deep pit of sin. There seemed to be no way out. The pit became deeper and deeper each day. I was sure that one day it would take me down to the fire of hell. But one day a hand reached down and offered to pull me out. It was the hand of Jesus Christ. I took His hand and He lifted me up out of my despair. He became my Savior. Do you have this same Savior? If you do, you are a Christian. And you and I are one in Him.
"THROUGH HIM we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Eph. 2:18).
Over and over again in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he emphasizes that believers are "IN CHRIST JESUS."
1. "[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places IN CHRIST JESUS" (v. 6). Also, notice the word "TOGETHER."
2. "We are [God’s] workmanship, created IN CHRIST JESUS" (v. 10).
3. "Now IN CHRIST JESUS ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (v. 13).
A. W. Tozer said, "Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship." (bible.org/illus, from The Pursuit of God, ?)
NOT EVERYONE WHO TALKS ABOUT JESUS IS TALKING ABOUT THE SAME JESUS.
There can be no unity unless you and I are agreed about Jesus Christ.
III. WE ALL HAVE THE SAME SALVATION.
We share the same salvation. It is a "common salvation," as Jude describes it (v. 3).
A. This salvation is always by the blood of Christ.
"Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST" (Eph. 2:13).
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in one of his sermons, spoke of the importance of salvation "by the blood of Christ." He said,
. . . I am not nigh to any man unless he has been brought nigh by the blood of Christ. I have no fellowship and no union with a man who does not like the theology of the blood. He can tell me, if he likes, that he believes in Christ, but I know no Christ except the Christ who had to die for me and for my sins on the cross. I have no access to the Father except by "the blood of Jesus." A man who can bypass the cross is a man with whom I am not in fellowship, I care not what he calls himself. There is no unity except among those who belong to the blood-bought company, who share the same salvation in which the cross in inevitable, essential and central. . . . I cannot believe in a God who can wink at sin and pretend He has not seen it. God is "holy and just and righteous." He has said that He will punish sin, and He must; and I believe He has done so in Christ there on that cross. It is that same Christ of the cross, who literally rose in the body from the grave and ascended to heaven for my justification. I am only one with those who are clothed with the same robe of righteousness, which is Christ’s righteousness. There is no unity when people have these different clothings—one with his moral righteousness, another with the righteousness of some philosophy, and another with the righteousness of Christ. We are one with none but those who "have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb" and who are clothed immaculate with the righteousness of the Son of God. (God’s Way of Reconciliation, 285-286)
B. This salvation is exactly the same for every Christian.
I AM NO MORE OR LESS SAVED THAN ANY OTHER CHRISTIAN. The same is true of you if you are indeed a Christian.
IV. WE ALL HAVE THE SAME HOLY SPIRIT.
During World War II, Hitler commanded all religious groups to unite so that he could control them. Among the Brethren assemblies, half complied and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time. Those who did not, faced harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp.
When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups and there was much tension. Finally they decided that the situation had to be healed. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining his own heart in the light of Christ’s commands. Then they came together.
Francis Shaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend who was there, "What did you do then?" "We were just one," he replied. As they confessed their hostility and bitterness to God and yielded to His control, the Holy Spirit created a spirit of unity among them. Love filled their hearts and dissolved their hatred. (bible.org/illus, from Our Daily Bread, October 4, 1992)
Ephesians 2:18 states that it is "BY ONE SPIRIT" that we have access unto the Father.
The Bible says that "the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE" (Gal. 5:22). There can be no unity without love. And only true love is produced by the Holy Spirit. And since only Christians have the Holy Spirit, only Christians can experience true unity.
Because every Christian has the Holy Spirit, we also have the same interests, the same concerns, and the same desires. When we meet a stranger who is a Christian, we know that person at once.
V. WE ALL HAVE THE SAME FATHER.
"Through [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit UNTO THE FATHER" (Eph. 2:18).
We are all members of the same family. We are all children of the same Father.
Members of a family often disagree and argue, and you may look at them and say that they seem to hate each other. But if you try to get in between them you will soon find out that they are one.
VI. WE ALL HAVE THE SAME PROBLEMS.
Because we have the same nature, we have the same trials.
When you think you are alone in your troubles, you can look at your fellow Christians and say, "At least I’m not alone in this."
Because we have the same enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil—we have the same temptations.
"There hath no temptation taken you but SUCH AS IS COMMON WITH MAN" (1 Cor. 10:13).
VII. WE ALL ARE GOING TO THE SAME ETERNAL HOME.
We all have the same hope.
APPLICATION
Mark Twain used to say he put a dog and a cat in a cage together as an experiment to see if they could get along. They did, so he put in a bird, pig, and goat. They, too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then he put in a Baptist, Presbyterian, and Catholic; soon there was not a living thing left. (bible.org/illus, from Phillip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, 33)
Let’s make a call up to heaven. I’d like to know, Are there any Wesleyans up there" No? Are there any Presbyterians in heaven? No? Well, there must be some Baptists in heaven. No again? Who is up there? What? Turn to Galatians 3:28? Okay. "YE ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS." Now I understand. Denominational names are not known in heaven. Only Christians are there— men and women who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.
A. T. Pierson said, "Whatever may be the denominational flags that are raised, let them all be lowered when the blood-stained banner of the cross appears." (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, 201)
Charles Spurgeon said, "Two men . . . were walking from opposite directions on a foggy night! Each saw what he thought was a terrible monster moving towards him and making his heart beat with terror; as they came nearer to each other, they found that the dreadful monsters were brothers. So, men of different denominations are often afraid of one another, but when they get close to each other and know each other’s hearts, they find they are brethren after all." (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, 202)
In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus. "These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold." "Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can’t you guys get organized like that?" (bible.org/illus)
We might ask, "Why can’t the church get together like that? Why can’t we get along like we should."
Some of the problem is caused by sin—mostly the sin of pride. Much of the division is due to the sad fact that many churches do not proclaim and believe the truth.
Jesus prayed to the Father, "That [we (Christians)] may be one, even as [the Father and the Son] are one" (John 17:22)? Does that mean Baptists and Catholics and Anglicans and people of every other denomination should join together to form one united church regardless of doctrinal beliefs? No. That kind of teaching is reckless and dangerous. TRUTH MUST COME BEFORE UNITY. Unity without truth is a false and hazardous unity. Our Lord’s prayer in John 17 must be read in its full context. Verse 17 says, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Only those sanctified through the Word can be one in Christ. To teach otherwise is to betray the gospel.
Christians have the same PAST, the same SAVIOR, the same SALVATION, the same HOLY SPIRIT, the same FATHER, the same PROBLEMS, and the same ETERNAL HOME.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS UNITY EXCEPT IN PEOPLE OF WHOM ALL THESE THINGS ARE TRUE.
IF THESE THINGS ARE TRUE, THERE SHOULD BE UNITY.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said,
If a man tells me that he knows that he is a hopeless, vile, condemned, damned sinner, and that he relies only on the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ died for his sins, that His body was broken and His blood shed for my sins, that he trusts only to that atoning, reconciling work of Christ, that Christ was his Substitute, and that God in Christ by the Spirit has made a new man of him and given him a new nature, I am one with such a man. . . . AND IT SEEMS TO ME TO BE MORE AND MORE SINFUL THAT WE SHOULD ALLOW ANYTHING TO SEPARATE US. (God’s Way of Reconciliation, 288)
