Ephesians 4:3-6

-Kendra and I had gone to Ole Miss vs Memphis football game. It was a rough game not like last night. Ole Miss just didn’t play well and they got beat. We are leaving the stadium, trying to get to our car when we observed a young man and an older man getting close to an altercation. This is not an uncommon scene at football games. You would think this was a Memphis fan trying to fight an Ole Miss fan or vice versa, but it wasn’t. It was two Ole Miss fans. I remember thinking at the time why would two Ole Miss fans be wanting to fight each other. Shouldn’t they be united? How do we understand unity? I think often we think it means we just have to agree all the time, but that is not biblical unity

-unity = oneness

John 17:20–26 ESV

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

-more than about what you do, it is about who you are

-the church is united but how?

Unity is Given

-eager to maintain the unity

-eager = to hasten, make every effort

-maintain = to keep, not to make or create but keep, we cannot make unity

-bond = fastener, ex. ligament holds the muscle to the bone, glue holds

Colossians 2:19 ESV

19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

-of peace

Ephesians 2:14 ESV

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

-how do we maintain unity? the bond of peace

-the bond of peace starts in Christ and continues in our sanctification

-results in us becoming humble, gentle, patient, loving, forgiving

-unity in the church is maintained when we are growing in sanctification

-how do we become this? How are we sanctified?

John 17:17 ESV

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

-One of the reasons Paul was so heavy on doctrine in the 1st half of the letter - one must know the gospel, and one must pursue Biblical truth in order to grow and maintain the unity within the church

-In fact the reason why there is so much disunity within fellowships today is a lack of right doctrine, I mean just think about it - what would happen if all of us are seeking Biblical truth and applying Biblical truth to our lives?

-What happens when individuals are rejecting iblical truth? there will be disunity, or when we make it about our preferences rather than the glory of God then their will be disunity

Unity is Exclusive

there is one body, one Spirit, called to one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father

-one

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

-unity is impossible outside of this verse

-seven

-perhaps the point: the church is diverse but it is only achieved by the one God, the one way of salvation

-one body

-not baptist, methodist, presbyterian, not white, black, asian, not male, not female - just one body

-one Spirit

Ephesians 2:22 ESV

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

-one hope

-condition before Christ - death, separation (2:12 - without hope)

-only one eternal destiny for those in Christ, and only one call can make a sinner new

-One Lord

-only one Savior not many, but one

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

-One faith

-only one saving faith

-one baptism

-notice the order:

-One Lord, one faith, one baptism

-The point: the only way to come to unity in the church is through the One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, one God and Father

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Unity is Empowered by God

one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

-God rules and empowers the church through Christ

-God indwells His people through the Spirit

Colossians 1:17–18 ESV

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

-This is the power of God

-1:10 - unite all things to Him

-1:11 - works all things according to the counsel of His will

-1:22 - He put all things under His feet, gave Him as head over all things to the church, who fills all in all

-3:9 - created all things

-God is sovereign - He is over everything

-He is the all powerful God and because His Spirit dwells within us, it is through His power that we can maintain the unity in the church

-