United We Stand
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Good morning Valley Church Clinton! If you have your Bibles this morning, please open it to Ephesians 4:11-16.
I want to bring up a term this morning that you may have heard in your high school biology class: Symbiotic relationships.
And no, this isn’t a new Gen Z term for dating. This is a term that means a close and long-term biological interaction between two or more different species, where at least one of the organisms benefits.
One type of symbiotic relationship is called mutualism, where 2 animals come together and they both benefit.
Now, the classic comic book example of this is in the Spiderman comics when Eddie Brock is in a symbiotic relationship with something called Venom, who turn him into a super strong anithero, bonded completley. This is quickly getting really nerdy…
Probably a more well known example are these photos.
Photo Slide
You’ve probably seen this first picture of the zebra on national geographic, but this bird (an Oxpecker) lives on the Zebra and eats ticks off its body. Zebra has less ticks, and the Oxpecker get’s food. We get grossed out by the thought of eating ticks.
You’ve also probably seen remora fish on a whale shark. Again, the remora get’s fed, and the whale shark gets clean.
These are both mutual relationships where both parties come out better off that they were before. And in a zoomed out view, especially imagining you had never encountered either of these examples, it would almost look like one animal, like one species or organism.
Who knows how they came to be in that relationship, but in the natural world, they would die without one another. They are a cohesive unit, moving through life together.
See, I think too often in the church, we strive to do what’s best for us. We strive to see how “good” we can do, how we can work hard enough to earn the favor of the leaders or our fellow congregants. We try to do all the things, all the activities, to make ourselves feel accomplished.
We come to church week after week to check off our religious duty.
But what happens time and time again is burn out. Is moral failure. Abuse. Frustration. An eventual exit when the church doesn’t seem to give back what you’ve invested. It’s hurtful.
Church is viewed as an aspect of our life, where we take some time out of our week to do the Christian stuff, then we go back to our regularly scheduled lives.
But that’s not at all how the church is defined in Scripture.
Rather, the church is supposed to be one body, all members functioning properly according to their gifts. We’re one unit.
Most importantly, we’re called to be together, moving in one direction as one cohesive organism. We are a symbiotic relationship with one another. It’s our identity. It’s not a portion of our lives, it is our life.
So, I want to get into Ephesians 4:11-16 today, so let me read it for you.
11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. 14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
If you were with us in our Genesis series at our Main Valley campus, I spoke on the days of creation, and I did it all out of order. So, apologies, but we need to do that again today with this passage. Because this section, as Paul writes, is one long run on sentence.
So, let’s start in verse 13.
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
This is the central verse of our section today. This is our target as a church, as argued by Paul.
This thing we’re all working toward is to be unified, in faith and in knowledge, of Jesus.
I really like how the NT scholar NT Wright translates this verse.
13 The purpose of this is that we should all reach unity in our belief and loyalty, and in knowing God’s son. Then we shall reach the stature of the mature Man measured by the standards of the king’s fullness.
We can see here that the ultimate goal of the church that Paul is writing to is
Unity in Christ
Unity in Christ
And that unity means a whole lot more than simply getting along, living a happy go lucky, no conflict life that we would be comfortable with.
Paul clearly makes the distinction that we are to reach unity in the knowledge, which is our belief, and our faith, which is our loyalty and actual communal experience.
What Paul is worried about is false doctrine and teaching in the church that is simply not true, and in fact, it’s deceitful. There are teachers that much have either invaded the church or had profound impact on the Ephesian church which was detrimental to their beliefs.
This is why unity of belief and doctrine is so important at Valley Church. Because without our core theological beliefs, the ones we would die for, we don’t really have a foundation to stand on as a church.
These beliefs we take for granted today, but they were huge disputes in the early church, such as Jesus being God, resurrecting from the dead, the trinity, and other core values that we simply cannot cease to believe and simultaneously claim Jesus as Lord.
So, unity of mind and belief, but that’s coupled with unity of what we do. Because belief is meaningless without action. If it never leaves your brain, do you really believe it?
Paul describes this with the word translated in English “faith”. In the Greek, this is defined as “true piety, genuine devotion”. Or, as we see NT Wright translate it, loyalty.
Our unity is also in genuine devotion to Jesus as the Christ, as our Lord. It’s not a “yeah sure I have faith that God is there and the Bible has some good stuff in it”. In fact, we hear all the time how important “faith” or “our faith” is to various degrees. At it’s worst, it comes to fruition as blind faith.
But the fact of the matter is faith means we believe Jesus is who he says he is, and our actions follow.
Faith is described in Hebrews this way:
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved.
Faith, or a believing loyalty as Michael Heiser would describe it, is what caused Noah to believe God and build the Ark.
It’s what caused Abraham to trust God when He told him to move lands and sacrifice his son.
Faith is what caused Moses to stand up to Pharaoh and lead his people out of Egypt.
Faith is what prompted David to stand up to Goliath.
Faith is what caused Jesus to step up to the cross, for his disciples to drop everything to follow him, and for Paul to give his life to ministry.
Faith is what allowed Peter to watch his wife get crucified, knowing very well he was next.
James tells us faith without works is dead, and he’s right.
Faith is belief in action
And that’s what were called to, as a church. If you claim to be a follow of Christ, you are called to the church. And within that church, which was created by Christ, we are to be united in belief and loyalty, in faith and action.
Paul goes on to write that our maturity comes from this, as we grow together, becoming like Christ who is the head. We are measured by the standard of Christ.
That means…
We Are All Equal in the Church
We Are All Equal in the Church
There is no hierarchy in the church because we all fall short of this impossible task, which is goodness measured by the standard of Christ.
So the next time you think you’re not good enough to do anything of service to Jesus, well, you kind of aren’t. And neither am I. None of us should ever consider ourselves worthy or deserving of being a servant of Christ.
I’m currently reading a book called “A Church Called Tov”, and in it, they make mention of a study where pastors and congregations members interpret the same Gospel stories totally differently. See, the study revealed that more often, pastors tend to relate with Jesus in the stories, and congregation members relate with the oppressed and victimized.
And this resulted in wildly different interpretations of the same exact story. And this is a huge problem, because it results in pastors preaching as the mouthpiece of Jesus, and lay congregationalists as the lowly sinners who need their pastors word.
The pastors are elevated to this different class of Christian, above it all, while everyone else looks with adoration to the pulpit.
What we see in the teachings of Jesus paints a completley different story. The reality is, we should all be identifying as the weak in the story
Jesus constantly claims to be God, and claims to be good. Not just a good buy, but God good. Like, the definition of good. Like the Creator good.
So, we expect Jesus to exalt Himself, and to act proud, hight, mighty, and to rule. That’s what we expect in the story.
But here’s what we get: Jesus teaches that the blessed are the lowly, the oppressed, the isolated, and the victimized. Blessed are the mourners, the humble, the poor in spirit, the pure in heart.
He constantly shows patience to his nitwitted disciples. He becomes a poor traveling rabbi known for touching the sick, and hanging out with Samaritans.
Then, he takes off His robe and washes feet.
God. Becomes a servant. And washed feet.
And ultimately, he would become sin so we wouldn’t have to experience true death, and he would die in our place.
Jesus did extraordinary things in mundane ways. To mundane, normal people. Even to losers and societies outcasts. And then he became that outcast. That opposed person. That poor person.
Here’s the cool thing about that, and about what Paul writes:
We All Build the Body of Christ
We All Build the Body of Christ
We are all part of the church that is the body of Christ. This is our identity.
Jim Wilder, in his book RARE Leadership, talks quite a bit about group identity.
Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits For Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead 2. The Difference Between RARE Leaders and Sandbox Leaders
Lasting transformation takes place when a person’s identity changes and that person becomes comfortable in living out of their new identity. The best coaches, pastors, teachers, managers, and leaders are the ones who instill a clear sense of identity into their group and help people understand “This is who we are and this is how it is like us to act.”
Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits For Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead 2. The Difference Between RARE Leaders and Sandbox Leaders
“This is who we are and this is how it is like us to act.
What a wonderful summary of the church.
And this is what truly defines the church. See, the church is unlike any other entitiy or organism that has ever existed. We are symbiotic, not only with one another, but with Christ.
We all equally build the body of Christ, not because we deserve it or earned it, but because Christ is gracious enough and loves us enough to want community for us. To enter in community with him.
You see, group identity is powerful. It’s why we do what we do. It informs every decision we make, and defines who we are inside. According to brain science, it’s as important as individual identity in our daily lives.
If your identity is American, you make decisions like an American. If democratic or republican, your decisions, actions, and beliefs will line up that political party. If your group is the reformed denomination, your beliefs will align with those specific doctrines.
And I’m not saying any of those are bad, per se. But, as followers of Jesus, our core group identity is the church, with Christ as the head.
So, when you make decisions, when you can’t figure out how to identify, your identity is found in Christ’s church. In community. In joyous relationship with fellow disciples.
How is it to act like us? That’s such a good question we need to ask ourselves daily. How is it to act like the church? Paul is clear. In unity of belief and faith. Of beliefs and loyalty.
Every single person that participates in the church has a job, and no job is more or less important than another.
My job as a pastor/shepherd is to make sure you’re spiritual needs are taken care of. Because I believe God has tasked me with that. And believe me, God can take that calling away just as fast as he gave it to me.
Your individual jobs can vary, and may not be contained to one specific role. Do you feel like your gift is too small to contribute? That’s a lie from the mouth of Satan himself.
Let me read you a story from Mark:
41 Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. 43 Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had—all she had to live on.”
Are you a mother that’s struggling to just get your kids here on Sunday mornings? To keep your head above water keeping your house clean and your kids alive throughout the week? You are the body. You are contributing to the kingdom of God. Stop adding needless pressure on yourself.
Do you see yourself as “just” an employee? You’re providing faithfully for your family, working hard for an employer. You have the opportunity at work to be a joyful presence that most people never experience, you could have such a profound impact on your co workers by simply being happy at work. You’re building the kingdom of God, and you’re doing a great job.
Do you feel like everyone else is more spiritual than you? Are you oppressed? Do you feel disconnected from God? Let me tell you, you still belong to the body, and you’re a key part of it. You are important. You are called to be part of this relational community. And Jesus identifies with you.
There is no one else that can boast over you, because our measure is from Jesus, an unreachable standard on this earth.
There is power in the mundane, the boring. Jesus calls those kinds of people. He calls us to build His kingdom, to build his body.
Jesus doesn’t need your gifts, or high performing abilities, or your riches or money. What Jesus wants is your whole heart. Your belief, your faith, your loyalty, your devotion.
Our call is to give everything we have, our lives, to the church. To Christ.
We are an organism, together. If you zoom way in, sure, you can see our individual persons. But, if you zoom out, we are all behaving as one body, moving together in perfect unity, toward the same goal, with is Christ.
Valley Church Clinton, the local expression in our town of the body of believers, isn’t built by me. It isn’t built by our elders, or our small team of leadership.
Valley Church Clinton is built by all of us. The reach of this place to Clinton is directly correlated to our overall contribution.
This is your church. It’s up to us, together and equally yoked, to reach the city of Clinton with the light of Jesus Christ. My questions is, are you with us?
To end, I just want to simply read from Philippians:
1 If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Pray with me.
