Unity in Christ

Intro

Some of you here today might be older enough to remember the reunification of Germany in 1990 almost a year after the fall of the Berlin wall in on 9th November 1989.

About 5 years ago I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Berlin and it’s quite a marvellous city. One of its more famous landmarks is the Brandenburg gate. Commissioned by Frederick William II of Prussia in the 18th century to represent peace.

Of course, many hundreds of years later a wall would be built in front of this gate, splitting East and West Berlin and the gate would be closed until the fall of that wall.

The wall having now been gone for many years, the gate again stands not only as a symbol of peace as originally intended, but as a symbol of German unity. Something so important when people remember what it was like to be separated.

And in today’s reading Paul is encouraging us to make sure that we strive as Christians for the very precious gift that is unity. But not unity for unitys sake. Unity in Jesus Christ and his word as we’ll see.

Recap

Ephesians is Paul’s letter to the church in the city of Ephesus.

Written whilst Paul was in jail. (we see that in the opening words of our reading in Ch 4 today)

Why’d he go to jail? Because he was a Christian!

And what did Paul say to the Ephesians?

First 3 chapters Paul outlines what God is doing in the world through Jesus.

Bringing sinners to spiritual life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Bringing together Jews and Gentiles, those who once hated each other together into a new society untied in Jesus Christ.

That is the gospel is the story not only of you and me individually having our relationship with God restored. It’s also about you and me having our relationship with each other restored.

Raised with Christ to live a resurrection life.

Ch 1-3 Raised with Christ. Ch 4-6 resurrection life.

John Stott puts it, “from mind stretching theology to its down-to-earth, concrete implications in everyday living.”

Now in Ch 4 Paul begins to encourage the Christians of Ephesus to live out the values of this new society that God is making.

Ephesians 4:1 TNIV

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Note the call is to live a life in response to the calling. Paul is not saying be humble, be gentle, love each other well and then God will count you as saved and one of his own. He’s saying given the fact that God has saved you, live like it! Christian behaviour is always a response to God’s love to a condition for it. There is no karma with God.

So what kind of life should we live?

A life of unity.

Ephesians 4:2–3 TNIV

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

This naturally flows out of Paul’s big theological idea that God is bringing together two people, Jew and Gentile into one united community. Think of any of the great conflicts of recent times, Catholics and Protestants in northern island, Israelis and Palestinians in modern day Israel, khmer rouge soldiers and their victims in Cambodia. People who hate each other. God is bringing them together in his church. When we find ourselves in that sort of situation we’re going to need to be people of humility, patience and love as Paul describes in v2. And as he says in v3 it’s going to take effort. Just because we’ve been saved doesn’t make it easy to love people we might have hated, but it gives us the reason to.

Paul talks about the reason in v5-6. There is says we need to make this effort to be unified and live lives of humble, gentle patient sacrificial love, because our unity reflects God. Who is a God of unity.

I’ve had cause to reflect on these first 6 verses a lot lately. As we’ve been prayerfully trying to navigate necessary changes at our church to minister to people of every generation and as people have inevitably found that difficult, the question of unity and the church has been on my mind.

No doubt mistakes have been made along the way, but my hearts desire has been to do everything possible to try and maintain unity whilst been faithful to the calling I believe God has placed on my as your leader to lead us to be a church ministering to every age and stage.

I thank God for each one of you who is hear today, and for those who can’t be due to health or some other reason but are still calling our church home. I thank God that though you may have disagreed. Though you might have thought we should’ve made changes more quickly or more slowly. Or though you don’t quite like the way I do this thing or that thing, you’ve made every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. You’ve been humble, gentle and patient. You’ve loved this church and me enough to stick with us. Will you commit today to keep doing that? I’m going to try. I pray that together you’ll continue to do as Paul commands here, and keep on living your life in this way, a way that is worthy of the calling each of us has received in Jesus Christ.

Leaders who enable unity

Well in verse 7-10 Paul gives a bit of complicated theology that I don’t have time to delve into today that show that Christ gives us all grace in order to live together lives of unity. And in verse 11-13 we see that God gives us leaders who help us to grow which enables unity.

Ephesians 4:11 TNIV

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,

Now we could say a lot about what an apostle is, what a prophet is, what an evangelist is, what a pastor is and what a teacher is. But I think when we consider the reason why God gives these gifts we get an overall sense of what these people do.

Note v12 these gifts are given to people to help the church do stuff and to build us up to become in v13, more unified. What kind of unity? A unity that comes from growth in our faith and knowledge of Jesus.

Ephesians 4:12 TNIV

to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Ephesians 4:13 TNIV

until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

So given that apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers are given to the church to enable the church to do ministry and grow in unity based on knowledge of Jesus, I think we have Paul listing gifts that all relate to teaching and leading.

Apostles teach and lead the church as it breaks new ground

Prophets hold God’s word fearlessly before people, often of power, who don’t want to hear what God has to say. And in doing so ensure we stay true to God.

Evangelists make the God understandable to people who don’t yet know God, so that they will respond and join the faith community.

Pastors guide the sheep in their everyday lives, they help people apply God’s word to their every day ups and downs.

Teachers teach, they connect ideas, they make the complex simple. They help us grow.

These are all word based ministries that Paul lists and he lists them because when we grow deeper in our knowledge of God and his word, that is the bible, we grow in our unity and love for each other.

(Note: Unity does not mean everyone is the same! - Different gifts doesn’t mean lack of unity.)

Unity in God

Paul rounds out this section (v14-16) of his letter by saying that when we submit ourselves to our spiritually gifted leaders and allow God to use them to grow us in our knowledge of him this helps us. We are able to become more discerning (v14) no longer flip flopping between our views based on whatever the next person says, but having a deep understanding of God. Growing up into Christ (v15) who joins us together (v16) and enables us to do His work.

The result of Godly, God gifted leadership will be that we are helped to grow in our understanding of God’s word enabled to live together in loving unity.

Where does our unity come from?

Is it where we live?

Is it the kind of worship we like?

Is it how long we’ve all been coming here?

Is it whether or not you think I’m doing a good job as the priest in charge?

Is it if you think the playgroup is a good idea?

No none of those things are what unite us. Our unity comes from each one of us continually submitting ourselves to Christ. Of acknowledging Him as the Lord of our lives and of seeking to love whoever he places around us as we seek to help people everywhere do likewise.

Will you join me in submitting yourself to the Lordship of Christ. To speak to truth in love to one another, and to allowing Christ to grow and build us up in love as we each do the things God has called us to in this place?