Unity

Survey: Do you believe that you can be a very good Christian without attending the church? 81% North Americans say yes.

This is challenging to this letter Paul has written because Paul answers the “why” of the church.

Three questions we’re going to answer at the end of our text:

How involved should we be in the church?

What should a healthy church look on this inside?

What does a healthy church do?

vs.11-12

In the OT, to be separated from Israel, was to be separated from God.

If other nations wanted to know God, they had to join up with Israel. Paul is saying the same thing is true here about the church.

If you want to be connected to God it has to be through this “New Israel” or the Church.

There is no such thing as a mature Christian that is not deeply connected to the Church.

Paul is reminding these Ephesian Christians that they once were part of those separated, alien nations (vs.12b)

Paul is reminding these Ephesian Christians that they once were part of those separated, alien nations (vs.12b)

This perspective should change how you view people on the outside

This perspective should change how you view people on the outside

vs.13-14

In our culture we can see many types of divisions amongst people. In those divisions there are walls that separate people from others on the outside.

The Jews had a literal wall that said “No Gentiles may ever here” and it explained that any Gentile that entered was responsible for his own death. This separated, in the Jewish mind, the good from the bad, the clean from the unclean.

The Jews had a literal wall that said “No Gentiles may ever here” and it explained that any Gentile that entered was responsible for his own death.

This separated, in the Jewish mind, the good from the bad, the clean from the unclean.

We always see ourselves on the inside of the wall of acceptability. Paul says there’s really only category of people: sinners. Everybody is on the outside of God’s circle. There are no good people and bad people, no winners and losers. Theres only bad dead dysfunctional rebels who deeply need the salvation of Jesus.

We always see ourselves on the inside of the wall of acceptability. Us and them or me and them.

Paul says there’s really only category of people: sinners.

Everybody is on the outside of God’s circle.

There are no good people and bad people, no winners and losers.

Theres only bad dead dysfunctional rebels who deeply need the salvation of Jesus.

Paul says Jesus’ blood covers us all alike

Paul says Jesus’ blood covers us all alike

vs. 15 Jesus creates a new humanity

Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead as a Jew or a Gentile, or as a white man, black man, hispanic or asian. He was raised as a completely new man.

In the church, Paul says, God is building a new race of people who have in common Jesus’ blood and Jesus’ spirit.

This is the key to our unity.

This unifies us greater than any differences can hold us back.

We are one race- human, with one problem- sin, one solution- Jesus, and one hope- the resurrection of Jesus.

vs.18-22 “we”

God is building this new structure. The Father is the architect, the Son is the foundation, and the Spirit is the builder

Our 3 questions:

How involved should we be in the church?

You should be involved to the extent that you want God to be at work in your life.

The Church is how God works, the means by which he works. Each member is a part of God’s building and therefore each member houses a special function of the Spirit.

Each of us are a brick that houses the presence God in the world.

- Paul calls us the body with Jesus as the head. The head accomplishes its purposes via the members of it’s body. That means that if you disconnect yourself from the body of Christ, you disconnect yourself from the power of God.

If you want God to work in your life, you gotta be part of the Church.

What does a healthy church look like on the inside?

A healthy church will trend in the diversity direction.

A group of people who have the same culture, background, and skin color gathering in a large audience and listening to music and hearing an entertaining speaker is not a miracle. You can find that at any rock concert you go to.

Paul tells us that what is miraculous and proves that God is at work in a people, is when our unity shows that we have something that unites us that goes far beyond those cultural experiences and preferences that might divide us.

We may prefer different music styles, we may come from different parts of the country, we might have different opinions politically, etc. but we are united around our great love for our great Savior.

You will have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable sometimes.

What does a healthy church do?

We are to be seen as God’s body on Earth. His hands his feet.If this is true then we have to ask what Jesus would be doing outside of these walls.

The most important thing we do is proclaim the Word of God.

People’s greatest need is to hear God’s Word.

You can’t get poorer than to have God’s Word absent from your life.

What if you saw yourself as the only way God could speak to people in your family, school, community, etc.?

In the book of Acts, the only way the Gospel was ever preached was from the mouth of a human.

The Spirit is constantly moving in the book of Acts and angels are giving people messages. But the only ones speaking the Gospel of how to be saved are the humans.

Paul says remember once YOU were on the outside and someone brought you in, so shouldn’t you do the same and do all you can to bring in those who are lost on the outside and disconnected from eternal life?

There are over 6,640 unreached people groups in our world. Which are groups with little to no access to the Gospel.

Of the 6,640 there is 1,162 are not even engaged, meaning not even a single Christian is working within them to bring the Gospel to them.

How would you see your life differently if you understood that you are God’s primary instrument, his plan “A” and there is no plan “B” to get the Gospel to them?

This is the identity of the church, and it’s why we should and must be involved.