One Lord

August 12, 2007

Ephesians 4:1-6

One hot day, Herman Trueblood, all clean and cooled off by a nice swim in the ocean, saw a sweating man and his two sons trying on a hot day to push his disabled car up an incline. Two voices started yelling at each other inside him. One said, “There is an opportunity for service; you ought to help them push.” The other voice protested, “Now that is none of your business. You will get yourself all hot and dirty. Let them handle their own affair.” He finally yielded to his better impulse. He put his shoulder to the task. The car moved and kept moving.

A simple thing then happened which Trueblood never forgot. The father stuck out his dirty hand, and Trueblood stuck out his dirty hand. The father said, “I am very glad that you came along. You had just enough strength, added to ours, to make the thing go.”

“Years have passed since that hot day, but I can still hear that man saying, ‘You had just enough strength, added to ours, to make the thing go,’ ” Trueblood reflected more recently. “There are many thousands of people struggling to get some heavy load over the hill, and I probably have ‘just enough strength, added to theirs, to make the thing go.’ ”

In other words, we’re to Bear One Another’s Burdens, working together for Kingdom purposes!

Please turn in your Bible to Ephesians, chapter four and we’ll read verses 1 through 6: “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love. being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”

Why do you think Paul starts this section with “therefore”? What is it there for except to point backward to all Paul has talked about in chapters one through three. He now points forward. Notice, he starts by calling attention to the fact that he is a prisoner? "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord." I think the answer is that he wants them to feel the truth that it is worth it. Walking worthy of our Christian calling (the calling to glory and everlasting joy with Christ) is worth being imprisoned for and worth dying for.

Writing from prison means that what he writes is dangerous. It is not a nice, middle class way to solve your problems and be comfortable. Real, radical Christianity is risky and unpopular and dangerous. Jesus had given many warnings that following him was dangerous in the short run and safe in the long run. For example, he said, in Luke 21:12-13:

“They will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.”

There is something very powerful about a testimony from prison where your life is at stake. That's the power Paul wants to put behind these words. The power we feel when we hear Richard Wurmbrand tell us of Tahir Iqbal, a Muslim convert to Christianity who was imprisoned December 7, 1990 in Lahore, Pakistan, and died in prison July 19 this year. He was a paraplegic and confined to a wheel chair. When asked about the possibility of being hanged he said, "I will kiss my rope, but will never deny my faith."

That kind of talk from prison is like a stiff wakening winter wind in the face of our drowsy, television-soaked, comfortable kind of Christianity. It wakes us up and makes us dress spiritually for the winter battles. That's what Paul wants to happen when we read his testimony from prison. He wants us to wake up to all we have in Christ.

He pleads with the church to walk worthy of our calling. Specifically, he emphasizes be "diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (v.3). We walk unworthily of our calling in Christ if we disregard the unity of the body and don't expend every effort to safeguard what Christ died to obtain. "Be diligent," Paul says, "Be eager, be earnest" to keep the unity given by the Spirit of God and obtained with the blood of Christ (2:16).

This is Paul's prison burden for the church at Ephesus. If we have any empathy for a suffering church, it should make us say, Yes, unity is utterly crucial. How, brother Paul? How shall we achieve unity?

His answer is found in verse 2. The character traits that will preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace are humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love. So he says that a life worthy of our calling will lead to unity of the Spirit "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love." If you are humble you will be gentle, and if you are patient you will be forbearing or tolerant of one another’s weaknesses or idiosyncrasies. And if you are gentle and forbearing in love, you will be a peacemaker and a unity preserver. So be diligent and eager to be a humble and patient person by the power of Christ.

But beware of a modern mistake here. Humble does not mean wishy-washy when it comes to truth. Forbearing does not mean saying: truth doesn't matter or unity at all cost. It is a great mistake to confuse humility with weakness to uphold truth. But many today do confuse them. They think that the only humble demeanor is the uncertain, vague, iffy demeanor – the smiling saint with no convictions..

Is that what Paul meant? When he speaks of meekness, does he mean weakness? No! The only way to preserve the unity of the Spirit is to be certain in your grasp of truth. He didn't seem to be that way. I think G.K. Chesterton put his finger on our problem fifty years ago in a little book called Orthodoxy:

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is the part he ought not to assert--himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt--the Divine Reason.

I think that's right because later in this chapter Paul says he wants Christians to not be babes any longer blown about by winds of doctrine but to come to the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God (4:13-14). The humility that leads to unity is not uncertainty and doubt and vagueness and confusion. It is the demeanor that says: I am not the center; truth is the center and I submit to the truth and go where it leads. I am not king; God is king. My will is not the law; God's word is the law. I don't tell God how many faiths are acceptable to him; he tells me. I don't define the foundation of the unity of the Spirit; God does.

That is what he is doing in verses 4-6. Here he gives the unity that we are to pursue - the unity of the Spirit has nothing to do with our definition of truth and everything to do with God’s definition of truth. We are humbly to recognize God’s truth and submit to it and rejoice in it and live it out. Amen!

Now, let’s look at verses 4 to 6 more closely. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”

We have one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father. This is the foundation of our diligent efforts to preserve the unity of the Spirit. Our unity rests on the oneness of God, the oneness of faith, the oneness of baptism and the oneness of the body. Those things are one, no matter what you or I do. They are fixed. Our task is to walk worthily of them. And what is a worthy walk? We know it is our task as believers to walk worthy of our Lord. But what exactly does that mean? I’m going to venture a guess here that besides being humble and forbearing and loving and unified in truth, it means following the Great Commandment to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind. Do you agree? And if we love our neighbor as ourself, wouldn’t we want the best for them? And isn’t the best – Jesus? And, eternity in heaven with Him? I believe if we are walking worthy of our Lord, we will be speaking boldly of our faith when God opens a door for us to share the reason for our hope.

You and I know there are countless religious groups. And you and I know they are all anxious to get their message out aren’t they? Mormons and JW’s go door to door evangelizing – making converts – not just here but worldwide. Are hteir efforts working? Yes! Their zeal to spread their form of the gospel is making converts. Muslims are busy making converts too. These sects and cults take the great commission more seriously than we do!

Now the question I want to ask this morning is: What does this have to do with missions? What does walking worthy have to do with the task of the church to evangelize the unreached peoples of the world?

Since there is only one God (the Father of all who believe, Eph. 2:12) and only one Lord (the Lord Jesus Christ, Eph. 1:2f), and only one Spirit (the Holy Spirit poured out from the Father by the Son, Acts 2:33) and only one faith (faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, Eph. 1:13,15) and only one baptism (into Christ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Matt. 28:19f), and only one body (the church of God gathered with Jesus as the head, Eph. 4:15), the Bible tells us we must take the news of this God and this faith to the nations because "There is no other name under heaven," Peter said, "given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Other religions and other lords will not save. Jesus saves! Romans 10:13-15 says “for "WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED." How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!"

You might think that this morning’s text is about church unity, not about missions. But think again. The issue at Ephesus, as we saw back in chapter two was the issue of whether Gentiles could be full fellow heirs with Jews in the body of Christ. The answer was that Christ reconciled both in ONE body to God through the cross (2:16). Both have access in ONE Spirit to the Father (2:18). Those who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ and made into ONE new man (2:15). So the issue of unity for Paul is created by the mission of the church to "those who were far off"--the Gentiles, the Nations--far off spiritually and far off culturally and sometimes geographically.

In other words, --the fact that there is only one Christ, and only one God, and only one faith--is the foundation of unity inside the church and the foundation for mission outside the church.

If there were many true gods, and many Saviors, and many valid faiths, and many baptismal entrances into many genuine body's of redeemed people, there would be little need for missions the way Paul sees the urgent need. But there is only one God and one Lord and one faith and one baptism. And so this salvation truth must be proclaimed to all creation--to all the peoples.

You can see in Romans 10:12-15 how the singularity and uniqueness of the Lordship of Christ connects the unity of church and mission of the church.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all abounding in riches for all who call upon him. For, "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!"

So the truth that there is one Lord one faith one baptism is a truth for inside the church and outside the church. It is the foundation for unity inside and the foundation for missions outside. Since there is one Lord we should be diligent to maintain the unity of the Spirit under that unifying lordship. And since there is one Lord among all the religions of the world, we should be diligent to spread the news to Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and Tribal religions and atheists.

I want you to believe this, but I want you to believe it with your eyes open and to count the cost. It has never been a popular stance--that there is one Lord in all the universe whom all humans must deal with, and that this Lord is the God-Man Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose once for all 2000 years ago in Palestine; and knowing and trusting him alone is the only way to escape the just judgment of God. The particularity and singularity and uniqueness of Jesus as man's only hope has never been popular, and it is increasingly unpopular today.

If you believe it, you may be called arrogant, and intolerant and ignorant. You will be opposed by powerful people like British theologian John Hick who argues that different religions are "equals, though they each may have different emphases." Christianity, he says, is not superior, but one partner in the quest for salvation. We are not to seek one world religion but rather we look to the day when "the ecumenical spirit which has so largely transformed Christianity will increasingly affect relations between the world faiths." He likes to quote from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, iv, 11, "However man may approach me, even so do I accept them; for, on all sides, whatever path they may choose is mine." But, is that what the Bible says? Do all ways lead to God?

If it is true that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that knowing and trusting him is the only way to heaven--if it is true, then believing it is not arrogant, but a humble submission to scriptural truth. And teaching it is not intolerant except in the sense that doctors are intolerant of poison and tolerant of medicine. Jesus is our medicine; everything else is poison!

And does it mean that you are ignorant when you say that there is only one way to God--One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism? Well, every person in the world is ignorant of millions of facts. So yes we are ignorant. But when you are trying to find your way out of the woods, the important thing is not that you know all the trees and streams and birds and rocks and paths. The important thing is that you know one thing--the path that leads to other side. And if you are lost at night and you see a light in the distance, what do you do? You head for the light.

This is what Jesus came to do. He is a light in the darkness. He makes a path to heaven for rebellious sinners; and there is only one path. If you know Jesus, (if the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ has shone in your heart) you know the way. The one Lord, the one Faith, the one Baptism.

Togetherness Can Build Up a Church

A clergyman once remarked to Sir John Barbirolli how he wished he could fill his church building the way Sir John and the Halle Orchestra filled every seat of a large concert hall. The conductor replied, “You could, if you had a hundred members who worked together as well as the members of this orchestra.”

The white cuffs of the violinists stood out against a black background and made a bold horizontal line across the left side of the stage. As they played, those white cuffs remained an almost perfectly straight line which often moved up and down very quickly. It was a splendid demonstration of how the members of a great orchestra will not only play the right notes, but will play them together.

A great church is somewhat like a great orchestra. The members will not only make the right moves, but will make them together. They must learn to decide upon a task and execute it with perfect harmony. A musician who always wants to play his favorite piece (which may be exceptionally beautiful) and refuses to play—or else plays very halfheartedly or slowly—when another composition is chosen, not only will not help the cause but will be a detriment to the whole orchestra and may destroy its appeal. And a church member who is out of step with others, and who approaches his tasks carelessly or reluctantly, may generate more sour music than the sweet notes all the rest can draw out