Unity in the Body

Paul Calls For Unity

Star Wars, The Mandalorian, they are a group of fighters that are left after the Dark Side had taken over, the Jedi mostly defeated and everyone basically had to fend for their self. Since the war involving the Dark Side and the Jedi had finished, the Mandalorians scattered throughout the universe since there weren’t that many left, in fact they were not sure how many were left, if any other than those around them.

They are committed to the preservation of their culture, honor to their people believing that they are stronger together in unity than apart. They were committed to the restoration of Mandalore, their planet that they thought had been destroyed and they were fiercely committed to protecting the Foundlings, the children and orphans.

They are fiercely committed to their code and creed, bound by a common purpose. They face many trials, but they press on, always reminding each other with the simple but powerful words of what they believe, saying to each other, "This is the Way." It’s more than a statement; it’s a guiding principle that directs their actions, decisions, and loyalty to one another. They know their strength comes from following "the Way" together.

One of the worst cases of hatred I have ever come across is found in a will written in 1935 by a Mr. Donohoe. It says, "Unto my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude toward a doting father, … I leave the sum of $1.00 to each and a father's curse. May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering malignant and torturous nature." The last line of the will is so vicious I shudder to quote it. It reads, "May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned for eternity."

Such utter contempt didn't develop in a day. It had to grow over a long period of time. We should never allow our minds to become fertile soil for the seeds of hatred. We would do ourselves a world of good by heeding the words of Paul, "Do not let the sun go down on your wrath" (Eph. 4:26-27). By Richard De Haan.

The Revised Standard Version Chapter 4

26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil

And James gave wise counsel when he told us to "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:19, 20).

19 Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. (James 19-20)

Let's not forget that:

15 Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:15)

United in the Body

Paul wrote this letter to remind the people that the people must be united in the Body.

3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

There is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. Paul mentions some of the traits that the people of God should have: humility, gentleness, patience, love and peace. Look at what isn’t there, hatred, unforgiving, divisiveness. We can’t be truly one body if we have hate in our heart, if we carry anger around as easily as we carry our cell phones. We cannot grow and be the body we are called to be if we don’t understand or simply refuse to follow what Paul is saying.

The church is one body—you cannot touch a toe without affecting the whole body.

Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck (German Protestant Theologian)

All of these are great but they all depend on one basic thing: selflessness. If we live our life and in our own story, we write ourselves in as the main character then we lose the things that Paul says we should have to be the people of God. When we make our self the center, where all things revolve around us then we are no longer in the Body, we make ourselves “a body in the midst of many bodies”. We don’t know what is going on or who is doing it and it may get to the point where we foolishly believe that we are the ones in control, that we are the hero our story.

Ephesians 2:5 “even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”

Scripture tells us that we must die to the self and sin of this world and when that happens Christ becomes the center of all things, then and only then does the traits show in our life, then comes peace, oneness which is the characteristic of the church that Paul is talking about.

The Story of God tells us that we are created to be One people united by the blood of Christ. Nothing in our life or life in general show that we are created to be separate from each other. We can go back to Eden again and look at what God gave to Adam when He gave him Eve. We are not created to be our own little world, our own body, instead we are created to work together for the good of the kingdom of God. We are not created to live in a life of hate, hurting each other or not supporting each other.

Cooperation in the Body

The Body of Christ is designed to work when the body is connected jointly with each other. We are not all called for the same reasons, each one of you have a gift given by God. Not all people are called to be and do the same things, we are designed by a creator that knew that every person can’t do everything so He equips us to perform our own function within the body.

But too often we don’t live like this, we separate ourselves in our self righteous lives and continue in our own story, one where we are the most important character, we create this life in our minds that is not supposed to exist. But we keep living it and before long we may actually begin to believe it.

Ephesians 4:11–12 “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”

The word “equip” is defined as: Equip - The providing of all necessary facilities for achieving a task. God does not provide tasks for believers without also providing the gifts which are needed to equip believers for those tasks. He is not going to tell you to do something then not give you the means to do it but we also have to be brave enough, confident enough, not in ourselves, but TRUST in God enough to explore the gifts God has given us, to explore and experience the God in you! You have these gifts right now, you possess the power of God in you but something holds you back from trusting in God to use them or look for them.

When you came in here this morning, you did something you’ve done many times and not just here. You came in here this morning, looked around for a place to sit, maybe it’s your assigned pew, and you sat down. When was the last time you looked at the pew you’re sitting on? When was the last time you crawled underneath it, took measurements, took samples of the wood, look to see if the wood is split? Is the back of the pew broken? Did the math, tested the load bearing capacity of the place you’re going to sit? Never, yet at the same time you trust that the pew will hold you up, it will support it, you never question it, chances are you’ve never questioned it but you trust it. You lean more on a pew, a chair than you lean on God. Why do you more trust in a pew than in God? Is that pew going to support you in your darkest days? When you get sick, loved one dies, lose a job, NO, but God will! But here’s the thing, it’s not only that will God support you, all of us will. It’s how we are designed.

Unity in the Faith and Each Other

Rub your stomach and pat your head at the same time. Why is it hard? Because the body is made to be coordinated, not disconnected. It takes special effort and concentration to do two very different things at the same time. It’s not natural. The church, all of us, are supposed to be one body, coordinated together to face the trials of life together, support each other, share the Gospel together but often times we are not of one heart.

Missionary Jim Walton was translating the NT for the Muinane people of La Sabana in the jungles of Colombia. But he was having trouble with the word "peace".

During this time, Fernando, the village chief, was promised a 20-minute plane ride to a location that would have taken him 3 days to travel by walking. The plane was delayed in arriving at La Sabana, so Fernando departed on foot. When the plane finally came, a runner took off to bring Fernando back. But by the time he had returned, the plane had left.

Fernando was livid because of the mix-up. He went to Jim and launched into an angry tirade. Fortunately, Walton had taped the chief's diatribe. When he later translated it, he discovered that the chief kept repeating the phrase, "I don't have one heart."

Jim asked other villagers what having "one heart" meant, and he found that it was like saying, "There is nothing between you and the other person." That, Walton realized, was just what he needed to translate the word, "peace". To have peace with God means that there is nothing--no sin, no guilt, no condemnation--that separates us. And that peace with God is possible only through Christ. Do you have that one heart this morning?

The grace of God is with us, forgives us, cleanses us of our sin when we come to Jesus Christ and accepts us warts and all but this is only when we have one heart and have the desire to be one family, to be a part of the story that God has so lovingly and intentionally made you a part of. Are you going to be one body? One heart? Will you take up your role and be part of the body of Christ, united together?

In the opening of the sermon I was talking about the fictional Mandalorians and their creed, “this is the way.” I talked about how they applied this in their life to stand up for each other, go out and find one another, support each other, of how it called them to a higher calling than themselves alone could ever be.

Long before Christianity was known as Christianity, it was simply called The Way. In Acts, for instance, Saul was hunting down men and women “belonging to the Way” (9:2). In Ephesus, there was an uproar over those who were part of “the Way” (19:23). To us, that seems an odd name, if not a little too generic and nondescript. So why was it used?

Acts 19:23 “About that time there arose no little stir concerning the Way.”

Acts 9:2 “and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

In the scriptures of Israel, the Hebrew noun for “way” is derek (דֶּ֫רֶךְ). The verb, darak, means to tread, trample, march, or walk, so the place where you do that is a derek—a road, path, or journey. But it implies more than simply taking a stroll. In English, we speak metaphorically of a “way of life” or “the road we’re now traveling,” by which we mean how we’ve chosen to live, where we are in life, or the behaviors and beliefs that characterize us.

Is it any surprise that the followers of Jesus were known as those who followed The Way? And, given that Jesus himself said, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,” how appropriate a name for this faith (John 14:6)!

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” John 14:6

To be a Christian, therefore is to be whom we claim to be and that is a child of God, to be of the Way, to walk as one body doing the work and being the person we are supposed to be.

We too are called to a higher calling, not in a fictional but a factual story, the story that God Himself wrote, to be united in worship, work and obedience. Take your place in the story, use the gifts He has given you, unite in the body so we can stand firm in our faith so we can go out and find the lost, share the Gospel, help others, love our neighbor and love our God.

6372 Christ is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is he the best of several ways; he is the only way.

A. W. Tozer