2. Unity
Notes
Transcript
It is so good to be with you all this morning! Thank you for all of your prayers and support for our team as we spent the last week camping on a mountain in Colorado. As enjoyable as that experience was, it is good to be back together as a church family!
If you are new with us, we have spent the last year working through core verses that make up the Bible, and today we hit core verse number 46…which means there are only six more to go!
Have you ever taken a minute to stop and appreciate ants. Not your relative, but the insect. Ants, and ants colonies are really fascinating and they pop up just about anywhere. What makes them so fascinating is how they work together with this singular purpose. Everything is focused on the queen. She has all the babies…and all the other ants have a role to play in carrying out the purpose. There are the worker ants who build the huge nests and then go and get food. There are the soldier ants who protect the nest for enemies or predators. What makes ants so impressive is that they work together, they cooperate and are untied to carry out their purpose. You see, by cooperating, ants can do amazing things, like dig huge nests, use their bodies to form rafts or bridges, sew leaves together, or farm others insects for food. Some scientists say that a colony of ants acts like one single animal. A colony of ants, acts like one single animal.
Imagine, if humans could ever work together as one. Imagine all the things that could be accomplished! Think of how we could eradicate all the problems that seem to plague our planet, things like the distribution of food, clean drinking water, education, reduction in crime…and the list could go on and on. What hinders our world is not intelligence or even resources, what holds humans back from unity and cooperation is…selfishness, pride, greed…simply put sin. Sin is the problem that plagues our world and hinders unity and cooperation.
So, the Christians, clear their throat and say, “Well we have the answer for sin (puts hands on hips) it’s Jesus!” The world looks at Christians in their declaration and snicker…or just plain laugh because we may have the answer for sin, but we haven’t always allowed it to transform how we live as a community. Truth be told, the church has not been a good witness to the world in regards to unity. There are literally hundreds of different denominations who follow Jesus, it’s actually a bit embarrassing. The one thing that has hindered the witness of the church to the world is not our sermons, ministries, service or even generosity. What has hindered the Jesus movement more then anything is our inability to be one. Jesus knew how important unity was, and that if his followers ever committed themselves to unity, the rest of the world would see him. Here is a portion of Jesus’ prayer before he is arrested in the garden.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Jesus says, that when his followers are one change happens. Things begin to move in a different direction. People who didn’t believe, start to believe. People that doubted believe. People that are forgotten are found. Why? Christians live as one, in unity.
Here’s what I want to you to get this morning:
When Christians are united in Christ, change happens and people experience Jesus.
It sounds so good on paper, but it just doesn’t happen very easily does it. We all have our own opinions, traditions and ideas. Just look back over the last year. One of the things that the Covid Pandemic revealed was that unity is hard. Not only do we have our own opinions, but even as Christians we struggle with the sins of selfishness, pride, and indifference.
If we want change to happen and if we want people to experience Jesus, we must first and foremost be united.
So, how is that going to happen?
If you have your Bibles or devices, we are going to discover that unity has always been an issue. The apostle Paul addresses unity with the church in Ephesus. If you are using the YouVersion Bible app, go to Events, then look for Iowa City Church. All the Scriptures and Sermon Notes will be right there.
In Ephesians chapter four, Paul puts together a strategy on how to build unity within the church. So keep in mind that he is writing to Christians, helping them live as one. Let’s take a look at what he says.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
As Paul writes from a prison cell, he reminds these Christians to model the attributes that where shown to them when they first heard about Jesus. Think of it this way, if I was to hold up a mirror, and someone from the back put a spot light on it, the mirror would what? Reflect the same light back at the one who turned on the spotlight. Paul is reminding them of gentleness, patience and love that was shown to them to help them know Jesus. He is now calling them to reflect that same love to those in their church family. Paul then gives a short list of the attributes they should reflect. Keep in mind, this is how we are to live with those in our church family.
Listen to how A.W. Tozer describes the key to unity.
A.W. Tozer wrote:
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So, one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
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.
Unity is Hard Work
I want you to think about the last disagreement or conflict that you had. Were any of these traits practiced? It doesn’t matter if you’re position, whether you’re the pastor, an elder, or a member of the church who faithfully serves every week. It is your job to humble, gentle and patient. It’s your job to bear with one another in love. To be clear, bearing with one another, means to endure, to put up with. Bearing is hard work.
When was the last time you came to church and had to “bear” with someone. Someone is currently thinking…I’m bearing with this sermon, does that count? Often times, we really don’t have to practice patience or love with each other, let alone bearing with one another. Here’s a challenge for you. If you don’t find yourself struggling to love someone in the church or needing to practice patience you probably need to build more community or involve yourself more. Here’s why, the church of Jesus is the more diverse organization on the planet and with diversity you have conflicting philosophies, strategies and opinions. We all experienced this last year with the COVID pandemic. There are churches that closed and pastors who have left the ministry because of the in ability for people to be patient, love and bear with one another.
This is one of the reasons why trips to Colorado are helpful in exercising unity because we take 20 plus people from different backgrounds and ideas, load up in vans drive across Nebraska to Colorado, up onto a mountain to camp in a tent. Quite literally we had our unity challenged this year and quite frankly in some ways we neglected Paul’s instructions. However, I was very impressed by one young lady who took it upon herself to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. It was actions like that which remind me that when we put in the effort, do what Jesus said about being peacemakers, we can find unity…but it’s hard work.
Let’s keep reading.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Focus On What Makes Us One
Paul does something really clever here. He knows that church he is writing to is very diverse, he knows they have different opinions and ideas…but he brings it all back to what makes us one: Our Faith in Jesus Christ.
Faith in Jesus is so powerful and unifying that in the church you will find Democrats and Republicans. You will find a socialist, communist and capitalist all in the same church worshipping Jesus. You can find rich and poor, brilliant thinkers and people with average IQs. You will find different races, languages and cultures. You will even find Hawkeyes and Cylcones worshipping together. Why? Jesus and what he means to Christians allows us to put our differences aside and find unity in Jesus.
So when you find yourself challenged by another person’s opinions, politics or strange quirk…remember, they love Jesus too!
One last part to Paul’s unity strategy.
Ephesians 4:7–13 (NIV)
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he took many captives
and gave gifts to his people.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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.
Unity Happens When We Use Our Gifts To Make Others Better
The apostle Paul reaches back into the OT, specifically Psalm 68 to address how God wants to rescue his people and give them good gifts. That’s what Psalm 68 is all about. Through Jesus we have been rescued and redeemed and in turn been given gifts, spiritual gifts.
Did you realize that each passage in the NT which talks about spiritual gifts comes in the context of church unity? We in the church are gifted so our church can operate as one.
If you are new to the concept of spiritual gifts, let me quote from Mark Moore and our Core52 book. He gives a good definition.
“Spiritual gifts are abilities given by the Holy Spirit that an individual can use to benefit the body of Christ. Some of these gifts are miraculous, as in you couldn’t do them before. Most of the gifts, however, are natural abilities, such as teaching, administration, giving, and mercy. Though some gifts may be given after salvation, most are given at birth.” ~ Mark Moore
To be clear, the spiritual gifts list in the Bible are never comprehensive. They simply provide a framework for us to begin to understand how God provides us with gifts for his church.
So what is your gift? Have you ever stopped to consider what it may be? Moore provides a three step process to start to get to the bottom of finding your spiritual gift.
walk into a room
look around,
identify what needs to be done that you would enjoy doing with excellence.
For example. You walk into this room for our worship service and you see kids running around and you would like to work with them. Maybe you would like to change the color of the foyer. Maybe you see someone all by themselves and you want to talk with them. Maybe you see the screen and are intrigued. What would you like to do, with excellence to…and this is the whole reason for spiritual gifts…help all of us to mature, becoming like Jesus.
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.
We may come into the church with many, many differences…however the goal is to become like Jesus.
When Christians are united in Christ, change happens and people experience Jesus.
Here are a few obedience challenges I want you to take up. In other words, if we are going to follow Jesus, what do we need to do to improve our unity:
You Can’t Have Unity without Community.
Discover Your Spiritual Gift and Ask How You Can Use It.
Are You Making Every Effort to Keep the Unity?
I need to apologize to you. For far too long, I’ve been selfish and arrogant in thinking the work of the church flows through me. If I’m honest, I’m not a Swiss Army knife of spiritual gifts, I have a couple and they involve a lot of talking.
God has put our church in this place, in this community for a reason. We are here to love and serve our community and help them follow Jesus. There has never been a greater time for that to happen then now. I can’t carry out the mission of the church on my own…but we all can. There are so many gifted and talented people here who can do things that we haven’t even dreamed up yet. My prayer is that you are challenged to take the gift Jesus has given you, press forward through the challenges of working with broken people and help me carry out the mission of our church....and here is how it’s going to happen. By following Jesus and doing what he says.
When Christians are united in Christ, change happens and people experience Jesus.