Riches of Unity starts with You!
Sufficiency of Christ: A Walk through Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 46 viewsChristian virtues to apply to promote Church unity
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Travelling
Travelling
Have you ever travelled to another country, to another culture? You wanted a good steak but the people don’t eat meat or meat is not really available. If you were going to be a missionary somewhere you would learn about the culture and be ready to adapt to it if you wanted to impact people wouldn’t you.
If someone immigrates to the USA he has to learn certain things to become a US Citizen. He has to adapt, he has to accept responsibility for the laws of the land doesn’t he?
As a Christian we have responsibilities too, as a baby Christian maybe you don’t know much except you were taught to
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
Now we can teach people what it means to be a disciple but unless the person is willing to take responsibility for being a Christian there could be issues with unity.
(Slide) Unity of the believers promotes unity of the Church
After Paul spends three chapters teaching us what the believer has “in Christ” he now goes to the application, or practical section in Chapters 4-6. And no better place than here in chapter 4 which is all about unity of the church which starts with the unity of the believers.
(Slide) The responsibilities of Christian living
Our daily conduct has its footing in the doctrine we believe. What we believe when put into action brings unity to the body. Remember Christ broke down the dividing walls between man and God and man and man. Which brings us now to our section today of what some of the necessary Christian virtues that promote the unity of believers and the unity of the Church look like. While these virtues can in no way earn favor with God, since it is by grace through faith in which we are saved, they do promote unity for the body of Christ to fulfill our purpose.
I. Source of our virtues
I. Source of our virtues
1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
Eph4:
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The transition from who we are in Christ comes right to who we are to be in Christ, the virtues we are to have as a Christian. Because we know who we are we should want to have these virtues.
(Slide) Parakaleo (Urge, exhort, implore)
Meaning in the Greek; to call to one’s side, not a command to do something, but an appeal to join together in doing something.
Paul urges, implores, exhorts them to “walk worthy” of the calling. We in and of ourselves cannot do it under our power, that would be a system of works and we know that does not work. Our worthiness only comes from the Spirit the source of our virtues.
(Slide; this is all one slide, leave it that way) Walking means, what he is asking us to do takes effort. It is not a single time use for Paul
Walk in love (5:2)
Walk as children of light (5:8)
Walk not as fools (5:15)
That brings us to worthy; we are only made worthy by the gift of Gods grace, this is the standard, the high standard that the Christian is expected to be transformed to. Again, in and of our own power we cannot do it, but the Spirit which is the source of the power to have and apply these virtues is!
II. Signs of our Virtues
II. Signs of our Virtues
So one quick thing I want to touch on our calling, the calling is a calling to a vocation, this is more than a job that can change, but a career, a calling , a permanent thing. We are to be committed to the vocation of Christian. These virtues are visible and are proof of your calling (vocation) and your striving to walk worthy.
(Slide) Sign 1 - Humility
Before the days of Christ, being humble was considered weakness, , it was ignoble. Christ set an example of true humility and spoke often regarding humility
5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
It is the same word here in Matthew. Now having said that I want to go a little further. Humility comes from knowing yourself , knowing your sinfulness outside of Christ and your forgiveness inside of Christ. It is accepting yourself and not comparing yourself to others knowing God has a place just for you and what you do will bring glory to God. Humility in this aspect is knowing God accepts you and your gifts (Rom12:3) and you don’t think more highly of yourself or less of yourself but just as you ought to.
It was in humility that Christ invited people to come to Him.
29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Christ was humble and as Christians we should be humble.
Sign -2 - Gentleness (meekness)
Meekness is not to be confused with weakness as I’m sure most of you have heard that before. It is power under control.
3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)
Moses was meek man, Jesus was a meek man according to Mt11:28-30 that we looked at a moment ago. One dictionary illustration is a colt who has been broken. It still has all the same power, but now the power is under control. Jesus was meek when He turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple.
When coupled with humility it is the Christian that submits to the needs of others as unto the Lord. It is the example of Christ when washing the Apostles feet and that included Judas. s
(Slide) “Meekness is a willingness to be least if obedience to God requires it.” -Lloyd Ogilvie
One more illustration on this, the weak person yields because he cannot do anything else, the meek person yields because he is willing for the benefit of others.
So as a Christian we are to be humble and meek (gentle) and that leads to our next one.
Sign 3 - Patience
In some versions it says “longsuffering” - the one who never gives up, never gives in, and is not detoured by a temporary setback, it not dissuaded, discouraged or disappointed for knows the long run, the end goal
Phi
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Another way to look at patience, longsuffering is “long temper.” - the ability to endure discomfort without fighting back.
(Slide) “It is as the spirit of one who has the power to take revenge, but never does.” -Chrysostom
Or another one
(Slide) “the spirit which refuses to retaliate” - Lightfoot
So the the Christian this virtue never admits defeat, cannot be broken by any misfortune or suffering, disappointment or discouragement, but will persevere until the end.
The Christian needs to have the same patience towards others as God has shown him through Christ. This is bearing with one another.
This kind of patience is not found outside of love, a grace given by God. This is forebearing with one another
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
(Slide) this kind of love is a decision it is more than
Eros = erotic, marital love
Philia = brother love, affection
Storge = family love
(Slide) This is agape = unconquerable benevolence; wanting the highest good for someone no matter the personal cost .
This virtue is like Article 134 of the UCMJ, it’s the catch all. For when you have this, you have it all. you have the embodiment of Christ, which is the exact representation of the Father.
3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
You have God
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
And that is true to know God is to know love, to love God is to love others. Love is what sustains us in our Christian walk. It helps us endure when it is hard.
(Insert marriage illustration of enduring hard times)
This now leads to the last virtue that we see in our passage today. - Peace.
3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
when we are humble, when we are gentle, when we are patience and longsuffering with love we are being diligent, for these qualities take effort. But the effort helps to promote and the preserve the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit that the Lord sent to the people to be the Church. The Spirit that the Lord promised would be our comforter, our helper. The Helper that helps us have unity and have peace. Peace is part of our vocation, our job.
(Slide) Get out of self, get into the unity for others
We need to get out of the way, get out of ourselves with humility meekness, longsuffering and love, when we have these things then the Christian community, the Church will have unity. Community depends on it, the riches of unity starts with you!
So now what, it brings us from the source of our unity to the signs of our unity to the shape of our virtues.
III. The Shape of our Virtues
III. The Shape of our Virtues
The source of our calling, our vocation is Jesus Himself, we knowing this want to know and grow in Him and for Him and we will have signs of our vocation, we will have Christian virtues that will be developed in us. The shape of our vocation, our unity is from the Spirit. Unity of the Spirit is created by the spirit and it requires human diligence to maintain it, but we can do it because the Spirit created it. So what does it look like, what is the shape of it?
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Eph4:4-
We are one! When we have the virtues mentioned before we are one in Christ
One body - Christ is the head of the body the oneness of the body is required to accomplish the work (vocation) God has called us to. We need the head. Oneness within the body because of the love of Christ and the love for Christ.
One Spirit - this is both spirit and breath - Unless there is breath in a body the body is dead, we need the Spirit, the breath to be live
One Hope - this is the hope of our calling - our vocation, our vocation to serve the body of Christ, to share Christ with others so we can all obtain the end goal. Heaven! we can do it because
We have One Lord, and One Faith - we have One Lord, one way, because there is only One saving faith. Faith that justified Abraham, Faith that justifies you and me. Faith in Jesus Christ and His promises, faith in His word regarding the forgiveness of sins through
One baptism - One baptism, this is not John’s baptism for that was for remission of sins, but not into the possession of Jesus Christ. This is the baptism into the possession of Christ as laid out in Mt28:20; Mk16:16 and Act2:38 where the sins are forgiven and we are giving the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that brings us life in Christ. Our life through Christ that reconciles us to
One God and Father over all - One God and Father that we were separated because of our sin. The One God and Father who loved us and sent Jesus to come and die so we may have eternal life through Him.
Our Christian faith, our Christian unity stems for our love for God and our believe that we live in a God-created, God-controlled, God-sustained, God-filled world where God wants all to come to repentance.
Invitation
WILL YOU COME
WILL YOU GO