One Body
Letters from Prison • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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A word that I’m sure most of you have heard that is a part of millennial and Gen X humor is this word “adulting.” What captures the spirt of that word is this caption I saw a while back. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be an adult so people couldn’t tell me what to do, now that I’m an adult, I really want someone to tell me what to do.”
Adulting is hard. Maturing is hard.
We have spent the last several weeks in the book of Ephesians. In chapters 1-3, Paul reminds the readers who Jesus is. That Jesus is our salvation and cornerstone of the Church being built. We now come to chapter 4, where he shifts into our response to Jesus, calling us to grow and mature as new parts of the body of Christ. He transitions to this section, now, with this statement.
1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
We have such interesting, often incorrect view of calling. I’m a pastor, it’s a calling. A missionary is called by God.
Stop thinking that way. You have been called by God. Lead a life worthy of it. Not a life of chasing after the material. A life of cynicism. A life of pride.
Take a moment. Silently. Within. Dwell on that statement. I have been called by God. The God of the Bible. The God of creation. The God of healing and of Victory.
It’s a high calling. We are always called higher than we are, which is why we fall short. But with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we rise to it. He now starts talking about our calling in context of each other.
2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
When you live somewhere long enough, you find that there’s baggage. There’s relational tension. If we are followers of Christ, we must be patient. We make allowance for each other’s faults. Why? Because we all have faults!
The world doesn’t live that way. The world holds grudges. The world looks for the bad. We extend grace because we have received grace.
3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
Like we talked about last week. I am only responsible for me, and you are responsible for you. Have you made every effort? I get it. Peace is hard sometimes. It’s a choice to lay aside our own pride and we often have real, genuine hurt. But you know you have already lost it when you go to this “well they need to initiate peace.” The church thrives when we all make the decision, regardless of others decisions, to be peacemakers. Not just to get along, but with purpose.
4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.
In a culture of many gods, Paul is hammering home the point that there is only one true God. One purpose.
Which means everything else is false. It is our faith in Jesus as Lord, that unites us. Not our country, not a political party, not a denomination. All under the banner of Christ. And within that framework of unity do we find our purpose.
7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. 8 That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”
Paul goes on to explain that scripture, which he is quoting from Psalm 68.
9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.
Reinforcing the point again that Jesus is one with God, and therefore existed prior to being made human. We know He ascended, but only because He had first descended.
10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
Jesus is not some teacher that taught good things. Jesus is one with God the father, this God we see throughout the Old Testament. The people reading this understand God, the great I Am, to be greater than imagination. Great enough to fill all creation. He continues to come back to Jesus as the focal point.. The one who descended, Jesus, ascended and now in oneness with God the father fills the universe with Himself.
He goes on to say.
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
We have been reading the words written by Paul, an apostle. We have children, right now, being taught the word of God. There are evangelists all over the world preaching the gospel, travelling from place to place. And there are pastors, called to a specific location, preaching, many only a few miles away.
All those positions are to equip God’s people, you, to do His work. I’ve had people come to me and lay out a vision for ministry, and I have the chance to say “how can I support you?” That doesn’t mean I’m involved in every ministry, same as you. But then I get to see other people being blessed by members of this body. That’s what it’s all about.
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Every generation. We keep going.
Until we have complete unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s son. Hasn’t quite happened yet.
Let me ask you a real, direct question. Do you have a deep knowledge of Jesus? Every day, every year, my knowledge deepens. I can’t really describe it, because like going flying through the air or climbing a mountain words can’t describe it. But to know Jesus more is the most incredible experience imaginable. Imagine searching less and less for purpose because you found it. Imagine the claws of worldly things being less and less. Not complete yet, but in process.
That’s maturity. As you mature from childhood to adulthood it’s not just about becoming cynical, right? It’s about taking responsibility. It’s about putting others first. It’s about contributing. It’s about becoming more solid.
Some of us come into the family of God as children and never grow up. I think last week was a wake up call for many. To see a man like Charlie Kirk murdered not just for political views, but because he held strong Christian views, was a wake up call for many. It’s time to start growing up. Because, as he goes on to say.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
Could you sit there like Charlie could and hold your ground? Not in obstinance but because you know scripture, you know the truth, so deep within? You have such a knowledge of Christ that without even trying you see through obviously false teaching?
Are you tossed around by every new idea?
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
Not just speaking the truth in a nice way, although it is partially that. Speaking the truth rooted in love. I speak the truth WHILE BEING rooted in God’s love. I am in His love, speaking truth. You see the difference? How can I be angry when I am completely engulfed in God’s love?
Jesus didn’t need people to believe Him. Many did, many didn’t. It never influenced what He said or didn’t say. When we as individuals can be solid, it contributes to the entire body.
16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
We each have our role. In every role, we speak the truth in love.
Many, if not most of us, have been thinking about Charlie Kirk. It’s been on my mind constantly, and of course the more you watch the more it gives you. I have watched him speak often through the years, but in the last week I have seen him talk more than ever. It’s surreal, because I watch this man debate not only political issues, but preach the gospel constantly. His understanding of the world came from scripture. His passion was for people to come to knowledge of and maturity in Christ. And all the while I have this repeat of the video of his murder running through my head. I did see it. It was terrible. I wake up in the middle of the night with it running through my head. A brother-in-Christ. Gunned down in America. A Christian martyr in the truest sense of the word.
You can no longer remain children. It’s time to grow up. You have been called by God.
This calling on your life is not “let’s come together and hold hands with everybody everywhere and sing kumbayah.” This calling on your life is to do God’s work. To make disciples. To fight evil. There are people that are directed by Satan and his demons that want anything of God destroyed. That want you afraid. Afraid of offending. Afraid of speaking the truth. They want you immature and complacent.
It’s time to rise to your calling. You have been given tools and been equipped, use them. Perhaps your calling is to teach and equip others. Or maybe you’re in step one, and you need to listen, take it in, learn. Take the time to do that. God has a call on your life.
Let us be unified, rooted in God’s love, no longer blown about, and leave this place prepared for every good work for the glory of Jesus.
