The Church is Unified

“The Church is Unified”

“The Church is Visible and Invisible”

“The Church is Holy”

The Church is Marked by Doctrine”

THE ROLE AND PURPOSE OF CHURCH IN THE COMMUNITY

Huffington Post -

The role of the modern church in the life of the 21st-century believer is critical because it fills a void only the church can. If a car needs fixing, it is brought to the mechanic shop. If someone is sick, the health center or hospital is the best place to seek medical attention. Church is where people should go if they are in need of a “spiritual fix.” The church is really a hospital for sinners and not an exclusive club for saints.

So why would someone want to attend church? Regardless of what is said about churches, people expect that their life problems can be addressed in some fashion or form. With all the weight and pressures of their world weighing down on their minds, people expect the church to provide Bible-based answers that no other institution can provide.

People need to have their spiritual, emotional and physical needs met. We are living in a crazy world today. helps me put this in perspective, “but know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.” I’ll take the liberty to say that perilous times are here.

More and more children are growing up in broken homes, unemployment is on the rise and Christians are sinking deeper into debt like never before. Many churchgoers are struggling to make ends meet in their everyday lives, and we feel the pinch of reality just like everyone else. Believers are not exempt from trials of the world. We are living in perilous and drastic times.

Ephesians 3:10 ESV

so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Big Idea:

TRADITIONAL STRUGGLES WITH UNITY IN THE CHURCH

Jews - Gentiles

Protestant - Catholic

Reformed - Non - Reformed

Ephesians 4:1-16

The goal now is to be patient with each other and bear with one another in love (v. 2). The call to unity is the summons to show in relational practice what is already true in spiritual reality.

ILLUSTRATION

According to John Powell (author, Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am) there are  five levels of communication.

Level One: Clichés.  This is the most superficial level.  It’s a hi-ho-are-you type of conversation that is entirely social in nature.

Level Two: Facts and Reports.  This level exchanges only external information.  It is safe conversation that ranges from the weather to who-won-the-game to the nightly new.

Level Three: Opinions and Judgments.  This is the first level to scratch below the surface and reveal something of ourselves.  On this lever, words like “ought” and “should” and “like” and “dislike” come out of hiding to reveal our convictions.

Level Four: Feelings.  This is the level that reveals our emotions, a level most people seldom penetrate.  “I feel sad” or “I’m afraid” or “I am angry” are all examples of level four communication.

Level Five: Maximum Truth.  This deepest level speaks truth in its most open and candid form.  Maximum truth includes affirmations, confrontation, confession, forgiveness, the sharing of dreams and disillusions, and the telling and keeping of secrets.

Level Five describes how God has communicated to us.  God's word offers us affirmations, confronts sin, call us to confession, and expresses His will for every believer.  As Christians, we should aspire to “level five” communication--“Maximum Truth."

The spiritual reality on which relational unity is based is described in seven parts: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Paul wants the Jews and Gentile Christians in Ephesus to get along because, despite their historic, ethnic, and cultural differences, they have these deep spiritual realities in common.

PREFERENCE - TRADITION - ESSENTIAL

IMPLICATIONS OF ONENESS

Denominational Distinctives

Doctrine of inherency - there is no mandate in scripture to have unity with those who do not share the same basic elements of our faith. (mormonism, Unitarian, )

Organism vs. Organization - true bond that exists

True Church - “all others outside our group are deceived, those who believe their’s is the only true church.”

1. The Foundation of Unity

Ephesians 2:20 ESV

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

Ephesians 4:13 ESV

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Both the household and the Temple rest on one uniting foundation which is Jesus Christ.

Unity is only Spiritual - The invisible church is one - the visible church will always fall short.

Spiritual unity is the responsibility of every believer. (there is not unity without a shared allegiance to Christ and our faith)

WHAT CORE DOCTRINES CONSTITUTE OUR FAITH?

Ecumenical creeds, shared understanding of scripture, justification, resurrection, atonement, basic Christian morality, the trinity....

It is important what you Believe, because what you believe determines how you behave!

“Our Walk”

Worthy of your Calling - Put off the Grave clothes - Walk in Harmony and Victory.

Dialogue with other Christian traditions is valuable only so long as we don’t forget that genuine unity is grounded in the gospel.

WE NEVER SEEK UNITY AT THE EXPENSE OF DOCTRINAL SUBSTANCE

2. The Walk of Unity

*Many people today seek to unite Christians in a way that is not Biblical. They would say “We are not interested in Doctrine’s but Love.” “It makes no difference what you believe as long as you live right.” That’s like saying in the Election for President we are not interested in your policies or how you are going to govern we just like the fact that you can give a good speech.”

It is important what you Believe, because what you believe determines how you behave!

“Our Walk”

Worthy of your Calling - Put off the Grave clothes - Walk in Harmony and Victory.

Dialogue with other Christian traditions is valuable only so long as we don’t forget that genuine unity is grounded in the gospel.

WE NEVER SEEK UNITY AT THE EXPENSE OF DOCTRINAL SUBSTANCE

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 ESV

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

ONE BODY: Connection to the Local Body - we exercise our spiritual gifts and grow! The fact that a person is a member of the one body does not excuse him from belonging to a local body.

ONE SPIRIT: The same spirit indwells every believer, so that we belong to each other in the Lord.

ONE HOPE: This refers to the return of the Lord to take His church to heaven. The Holy Spirit within us gives us the assurance of this promise.

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

ONE LORD: This is our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, lives for us, and is one day coming back for us. Someone asked Ghandi, the spiritual leader of India, “What is the greatest hindrance to Christianity in India?” He replied, “Christians.” Acknowledging the Lordship of Christ is a giant step toward spiritual unity among His people. (without this we have no unity to share)

ONE FAITH: There is one settled body of truth deposited by Christ in His church, and this is “the faith.” Christians may differ in some matters of interpretation and church practice; but all true Christians agree on “the faith” - to depart from it is to bring disunity.

ONE BAPTISM: Since Paul is discussing the one body, this “one baptism” is probably the baptism of the Spirit upon the regeneration process of conversion. Water baptism is an outward sign of what has already taken place spiritually.

ONE GOD AND ONE FATHER: We are children adopted into the same family - with the same father.

3. The Gifts of Unity

1 Corinthians 1:1–12 ESV

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

1 Corinthians 1:

The Spirit has given all believers at least one gift.

Gifts are used for unifying and edifying

spiritual gifts and natural abilities.

all believers are needed if the body is to function normally.

Problem today is that most churches are on life support. We wonder why the church is not functioning the way it should.

4. The Growth of Unity (4:12-16)

ILLUSTRATION

"Humans, are born to the longest period of abject dependency of any species and dependent on conspecifics other members of the same species across their entire lifespan to survive and prosper ... "

APPLICATION

This is as true in the spiritual realm as it is in the physical. As Christians—members of Christ’s church—we NEED each other. We cannot function alone. And both individually and collectively, we cannot function without God, our head.

“We will grow in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 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” ().

Paul was looking at the church on two levels. He saw the body of Christ, made up of all true believers, growing gradually until it reaches spiritual maturity, “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Unity experienced when the body is ministering and growing together. (this is the visible church being seen)

EVIDENCE OF GROWTH in Unity

Christlikeness

Stability: The maturing Christian is not tossed about by every religious novelty that comes along. (the church hopping Christian)

Truth joined with Love: 4:15 truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. It is a mark of maturity when we are able to share truth with our fellow Christians, and do it in love.

Proverbs 27:6 ESV

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Cooperation: . We belong to each other, we effect each other, we need each other. The body grows as individual members grow.

Affection: “Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo each other in showing love. Unifying love in the body of Christ is doing good whether we feel like it or not.

AIM OF GROWTH IN UNITY

A witness to the world.

Acclamation of Glory to God.

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

What are the implications for Us?

Embrace the Unity Creating Holy Spirit

Strive to know and Spread true views of Christ

Love Christians across Boundaries

ILLUSTRATION

Many gothic cathedrals were built during the Middle Ages. These towering edifices were all constructed prior to the invention of modern earth-moving equipment, giant cranes, or mega forklifts. To erect these giant stone structures, a quarry would have to be established somewhere as proximal as possible to the desired location. Unfortunately, these quarries were sometimes many miles away. Many times, the sole means for moving the stones from quarry to cathedral was by locals forming a human conveyor line, passing the stones person-to-person from one site to the other. This is one challenging way to “build” God’s church!

APPLICATION

Likewise, God has built His Church, hewing the stones, one at a time, out of the quarry of humanity. Each of us is a carefully crafted stone, transported from however far we might have been from God, and strategically placed in His great edifice, with Jesus as the "chief cornerstone" (, ).

Always remember the pit from which you were taken and the glory and the privilege you now enjoy as a member of God's cathedral.

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn" ().

Spiritual unity is not something that we manufacture. It is something we already have in Christ, and we must protect and maintain it.