One Body
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5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.. Paul here is speaking of spritual gifts
The apostle Paul describes the kind of leaders God has provided for His church. His desire is for it to attain maturity, be Christ-likeness, and to become the spotless Bride of Jesus.
Paul also expresses God’s desire to bring the church into oneness:
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The one baptism by the Spirit immerses us into the body of Christ, for there is one body and one spirit.. one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
The spirit is the agent and the body of Christ is the element of the baptism.
This happens when one “drinks of the Spirit” at salvation. 1 corth 12:13 the Spirit engering in joins one to the body of Christ.
It is a spiritual drink that brings spiritual life.
It is a spiritual baptism that unites one to the spiritual body.
This is the desire of God to us.
This church and the church at large to dwell together in unity as one
The bible describes it as a good and pleasant thing
And in this place of unity God commands His blessing.
When people are unified they can accomplish anything
Good or bad
A unified church is one of the strongest force know to man.
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes. 3 It is like the dew of Hermon Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever.
Now that easier said than done why?
For there to be Agreement there has to be humility And where there is humility there is unity
Now the devil understand the power of unity
23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! 27 “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
Notice the context of jesus speaking about the kingdom when he is accused of casting out a devil be a devil.
He says a house divided cannot stand
I want to deal with the house as a metaphoric term
As in circle group. That who are apart of your community. Your church
The point Jesus is making `here is about Satan kingdom and the kingdom of God God kingdom bring confusion and divisions to Satan.
And if he house is defeated he will be finished
Now the devil knows this same principle and such is the reason he wants to separate us from God.
His goal is o cause and bring separation.
To the house….
And one of the ways he does that is through offence
Let me just say first usually we don’t let people that are not close to us (in our house) offend us.
Im walking down the street and the homeless guys say you are a loser. I don’t think much of it cause he is not in my house,
Now I come home and the my mother says the same thing and I am offended and hurt.
The devils desire is to divide the house through offence
Look with me at
10 “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.
Let look at the word here offence in the greek
skandalon: a stick for bait (of a trap), generally a snare, a stumbling block, an offense
literally to trip or separate.
Now I have heard this quote a lot
You can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can sure keep them from building a nest in your hair!
You cant stop a person from offending you but you can stop the devil from trapping you.
No one can offend us more than the people in our family
Let me say we have a responiblity not to enter into offence but we also have a larger responsible not to offend people.
The problem as I see it is that.
We are human. Broken people. We say the wrong things and we take things the wrong way.
We are quiet when we should speak and we speak when we should be quiet.
Look at
21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
a couple of things here
1. Peter should have been quiet
2. None of us are above offence
3. Offense hinders unity
38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Notice Jesus entered a house
Remember no one can offend you like the ones in your own house
Martha is serving mary is worshiping.
This text always confused me because of jesus word latter when he says the greatest along you is he that serves.
27 “For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
Ok now jesus which one is it. Looks as if Martha according to this text is the one who chose best.
Let me just say that this story if you read Matthews account come days after jesus raises lazarus from the dead.
Mary chose to worship and give God thanksgiving for what he had done which was the better part but no wonder Martha was offended..
Here the deal how you stay away from offence is this Martha attention was on what her sister was not doing
Mary attention was on the Lord.
Offence producing bitterness.
14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
beware of bitterness springing up.
19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a citadel.
Holding unto offence can change you and it is not worth it.
4 thing we must do when offended
1. forgive
2. quit talking about it
3. pray for the person that offended you
4. go talk to them.
1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.
He send them out in pair.. Some translations say 2 by 2
And what happen?
17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” 18 And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.
This is the power of unity.. the power of coming together.. the power of team work
30 “How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had given them up?
the goal of the gospel is to bring the church into oneness with church
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
