Walking in Unity

Welcome

Announcements

Join us on Sunday Mornings at 9:30 am for Sunday School as we will be starting a new series next week.

We highly encourage all of you to attend on Wednesday nights as we are studying the book Autopsy of a Revived Church, and asking what does God have next for our body here.

Please Join us after the service for a Church luncheon and time of fellowship in the Parrish Hall.

Ordination and Installation

Call To Worship

332 Oh How Good It Is

Confession

Prayer of Confession

Almighty and most merciful Father, we are thankful that your mercy is higher than the heavens, wider than our wanderings, deeper than all our sin. Forgive our careless attitudes toward your purposes, our refusal to relieve the suffering of others, our envy of those who have more than we have, our obsession with creating a life of constant pleasure, our indifference to the treasures of heaven, our neglect of your wise and gracious law. Help us to change our way of life so that we may desire what is good, love what you love, and do what you command, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Assurance of Faith

God hates our sin but never stops loving us.

God’s Son, Jesus, sacrificed his life for us

by dying on the cross.

He showed his victory over death

by rising from the dead.

He removed our guilt

and gave us new, unending life with God.

Children of God, believe the good news!

In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.

Thanks be to God!

Worship

353 O Church Arise

368 Speak, O Lord

Prayers of the People

Prayer Request

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Walking in Unity

Last week I mentioned that as we are entering into a new year, and by God’s provision an new focus in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that for the first few weeks of the year we are going to focus on the topic of Church Unity. It always amazes me to watch God work as he prepares his people to do something new. As we enter into 2022, our church focus is on seeking God’s wisdom and blessing in moving this church forward. Not looking back at what has been or what might have been, but rather focusing on the moment and asking what does He have for us right now. What work are we to be doing for the kingdom with the talents and gifts that He has given us. So as we jump into the topic of church unity today I ask that you seek to apply what God communicates to us through His word in the church here and now. Seeking to understand how it applies in our current context, and how we are to live out His will for us as it is communicated through His word.

But as we turn to God’s word found int this letter from Paul to the church at Ephesus, we must remember to not add or take anything away from he instruction found therein. Paul was ultimately not writing a letter to us, so as we seek application, it can only be from a point of understanding from the original recipients. We must make sure we do not import our own perspectives into the text.

Remember when Paul is speaking to this first century church and calling them to unity It was in the context of them living in a world hostile to their faith. We can see that witnessed to in the book of Acts. We need also remember that the people in this church did not have the trappings of centuries of Church tradition, they simply had this new faith, and the teaching of the Apostle Paul, and the word of God found int he Old Testament. Much of which was foreign to them because they were not Jews. So as we read today of the unity Paul is calling them to, we cannot invade the text with our understanding of the terms that are used, or the modern ideas of how to live with one another.

This may be hard though as most of us are at a disadvantage because we have lived a lifetime of reading the Bible from our own viewpoint. Importing our specific practices and traditions right into the text. We hare given little to no instruction on how to interpret Scripture with proper hermeneutics, which simply means having a consistent method for interpreting the text of the Scripture. So this year as we come to the text I think it is important as we seek to properly apply it, that we learn to properly understand it as it was originally written.

Unified in Our Walk

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Last week we looked at the first two verses, focusing on each of us and our individual response to our Calling in Christ, and how Paul is calling us to walk in a worthy manner with regards to that calling. A calling that was laid out in the first half of the letter.

This week we look at how that response relates to the unity of the body of Christ. as each of the principles that we are called to as individual Christians, humility, gentleness, and patience are also prescriptions for us as a corporate body of believers. The Word found here is not simply a plea from Paul for Christians to just be all around nice people, but rather the application here is that these traits are the necessary bedrock of unity within the Church. So we must be mindful of how we are walking individually and together.

Minding My Walk

I cannot change a single person in this room, other than myself. So if Paul is telling us that these are the qualities of a person that are foundational to unity within the body, and if I desire for the body to be united, I must first and continually examine myself to make sure that my behaviors are contributing to the body rather than detracting from its unity.

Lamentations 3:40 ESV

40 Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!

If a text of Scripture prescribes a certain behavior and we fail to abide by that prescription, then we are in sin, we must repent, meaning not only are we to recognize our shortcomings, but we are to turn away from them. We must seek to abide by God’s word rather than our own natures.

Monthly we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and according to 1 Cor 11:28 “28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” we are to take this time to really examine ourselves in these areas.

If we are to walk in a worthy manner, it is much like walking from one point to another without a road that is easily discernable. We have a map, but we have to learn how to read the map, use the compass and find our way through the wilderness. (Side note about dead reckoning vs terrain association?)

Minding Your Walk

But like we said Paul was not necessarily writing this to just the individual reader, but rather to a corporate body. And in order for a group of people to abide by a collective set of orders, there must be cooperation, there must be leadership and accountability to one another.

Therefore, when Paul is calling for us to bear with one another in love, He is not merely saying put up with one another, but in the Greek he is calling for us to hold one another up. Therefore, we are called to assist one another in our individual walks. For the early Christians in a world that hated them, they were faced with the constant challenge to maintain their faith. Life would be so much easier if they just returned to their previously Pagan ways, so Paul is encouraging them to carry each other through.

We too have this mandate. And sometimes this mandate calls us to help others see their shortfalls. While this is hard and should only be done in and between those with love for one another, it is our Christian duty.

In the book of Matthew, we find our favorite verse that gets used about not judging one another.

Matthew 7:5 ESV

5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

But in reading all of Scripture we find this contradicts with Pauls teaching in Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 5:12–13 ESV

12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Our problem comes in making assumptions. Jesus in the book of Matthew is not calling us to ignore our brothers sins because we are not perfect ourselves, but rather telling us to mind to our own selves in a particular area before calling out someone else.

So Paul is telling the church that they are to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit through proper application of these principles in themselves and in the body.

Doing so in the Spirit

But what does it mean to maintain the unity in the Spirit.

It begins with an assumption, it says to maintain, Paul already knows that unity has been created among in the church through the work of the Holy Spirit. He is not asking fallen, but saved persons, to come together in tough situations and figure out how to establish a unified front.

He calls them to maintain it through walking in a worthy manner of those called into God’s family. Much like we tell our children that they must behave in a particular way because they represent our house.

Unified in Our Faith

Ephesians 4:4–6 ESV

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Paul here seeks to demonstrate to the church that this is not merely a list of do’s and dont’s that they must achieve under their own power. Just as the unity of the walk of the church was already established by the Spirit, so too was the faith of the church.

One Body, One Spirit, One Lord

One Body - the Ephesians in this church were most likely not all from the same ethnic backgrounds, much less the same family groups, or even the same countries. But He is telling them that they were called into a single body, a body that eliminates all the divides that may have previously existed between them.

Galatians 3:28 ESV

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

One Spirit - He tells them they are all called to one Spirit, the same Spirit that that earlier in the letter was the one promised to seal them until such time as they attained to the inheritance. For them and for us it is important to realize that it is the Spirit that not only establishes the unity within the church, but the same very one that will empower us to maintain it.

One Lord - We are far to nonchalant in our identification of Jesus as Lord. To us it is yet another moniker in a list of names to apply to Christ, but to these first readers, they hear something far different. They here kyrios, they are told that they must confess there is Jesus as Lord, but prior to this they lived in a world where Ceaser was the only Lord. Before Christ Ceaser was the the only King they would profess, He was the ruler, the maker of law. But now they are called to only one Lord, and that was Jesus.

One Faith, One Baptism

Feel free to activate that earlier warning about reading our own context into the passage. Because Paul tells the reader they are called to one faith, and one baptism

Unfortunately Paul did not provide an extensive theological treatise at this point or anywhere within the text to explain just what the precise points of that faith and baptism were. We cannot at this point almost 2000 years later apply our meaning and understanding.

Remember at this time the church was in its infancy, their understanding reached little beyond the basics of the Gospel. In fact what they had just read in this letter might have been the most extensive explanation of the faith they had ever encountered, and in it is nothing of baptism.

So how does Paul tell them they were called to one faith, one baptism, when chances are they had only a rudimentary understanding of that, and how are we to make application of it in our quest for unity now in our church.

Simply put this statement is not a tool by which we can point today and say any other group of believers is unequivocally wrong in their understanding and we are right, short of coming across a denial of something that is clearly laid out in the text of Scripture.

So we must remember that each group of Christians reads Scripture through the lens of their traditions, and until the Holy Spirit clearly resolves all of the differences, we can only point to the fact that we are all called to the same one faith and one baptism that the Ephesians were, and that is merely what Paul has stated of the faith here in writing, and the fact that Christians are called to be baptised.

One God & Father

Paul concludes this portion of Scripture with what to us is a fairly innocuous statement, but in reality for the time was somewhat earth shattering for the people in and around Ephesus, a people who had lived their lives dedicated to a slew of different gods.

Now Paul is making clear to them they are called to the one God who is over all, through all and in all. This God was the Creator of everything, He did not derive His being from the creation.

And this God is our Father, He is the one who had provided for us an inheritance according to ch 1.

We have been called to Him, by Him. He has chosen to call us to Him, even when we as wretched sinners denied Him, and refused to seek after him.

Unified For A Purpose

As with all things we are told, we want to know why. And Paul in a way provides us with an answer here in the text. We are unified in our walk and in our faith so that we might have peace, and hope, and love, and to have those that we might better fulfill our purpose in Him.

Bond of Peace

Paul tells us to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ho syndesmos ho eirene. The soon-des-mos or bond if you will indicates that which binds together, its the word used to indicate the ligaments which binds bone to bone. I do not think you can find a better illustrative word in describing the bond between the members of a church. We are bound together as parts of the body of Christ, to serve the head, to carry out the work He has for us. And we are told that we are to walk in a worthy manner, with an eagerness to maintain a unity that provides a peace, a harmony between all the parts.

Calling of Hope

Paul is well know for interjections within the text, in verse 4 we find one such interjection:

Ephesians 4:4 ESV

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—

As He begins to describe in what way there is unity in the body he takes a quick reflection in how that corporate unity in the body and Spirit is like unto our individual calling one that is called to one hope. This points to what we saw in ch 2 in that there is no calling for the Jew and another for Gentile, but that both are called to one hope, the reconciliation of the one new man to God through Christ.

Our unity is found in hope because we serve one Lord, One God and Father of all. We can know that our efforts to serve Him will not be in vain for He will achieve His purpose, and as we saw multiple times in past Scripture, He will do that through His body, the church.

With One Another in Love

Paul tells us to bear with one another, and to do so in love. Jesus himself has told us that this is the second greatest commandment and it is like the first “Love you neighbor as yourself.”

In order to walk in unity there must be love between each of us, it must be the central thing that purposes all we do.

If I said it once I have said it a thousand times, and it bears repeating again. Love my friend is not an emotion to be felt, but an action to be done. 1 Cor 13:4-7 “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Here in Ephesians we are called to be humble, gentle, and patient, these are characteristics of how love operates, but love itself is the work we do in caring for one another.

Corporately, when we are loving one another as Paul calls us to do here we are unstoppable, the body of Christ is mighty and can accomplish His ends.

Conclusion

So then as we look to see what it is that Paul was telling these early Christians, how they were to live together, walk together, believe together, and do so in the light of great persecution, and contrary to everything they had ever know. Let us see then how we might live according to the same principles.

Let us seek to find ourselves in one accord. Let each of us look at where we are in our individual walk, and be not selfish in it as it is the bedrock of the unity of the church. If I dismiss my own pride, my unkindness, my impatience, my lack of willingness to carry along my brother, as mere personality quirks. Saying that is just the way I am, or if I am desirous to blame those around me for my ill behavior, then how are we to achieve any semblance of unity in the labor God has given us. Let me think of myself last, and all of you first.

Let us focus on the the things we have in common, more than the things in which we differ. Our calling in hope to one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one Spirit, and One God and Father of all. If we can see ourselves together on these topics, then we may notice less those things that make us differ. A team focused on it similarities is far more cohesive than one constantly bickering about their differences.

Over the next few weeks we will look at the ultimate purpose of this unity to which we are called, but needless to say we have work that we must do for the Lord and each member of the body is vitally important to that labor. So let us be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace.

Lords Supper

343 The Communion Hymn

Lets us now partake of the Lord’s Supper together as the New Covenant body:

Table is open to all who are professing believers

The words of Institution that the Apostle Paul has given us should give us caution as we come to the table this morning:

English Standard Version Chapter 11

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

So as we pray and prepare to receive the supper, keep the Word in your mind, preparing your heart for the receiving of the Supper.

Please take this time to pray, and prepare your heart to receive the Supper.

And now in His name, I take these elements to be set apart by prayer and thanksgiving to the holy and mysterious use for which he has appointed them. As He gave thanks and blessed, let us draw near to God, and present unto Him our prayers and thanksgivings.

God, Who by the blood of your dear Son has consecrated us a new and living way into the holiest of all: we ask of you, cleanse our minds by the work of the Holy Spirit, that drawing near to you with a pure heart and clear conscience, we may receive these gifts without sin, and in doing so glorify your Holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Have the people come and take. Elders deliver to those who cannot rise.

The Bread: On the night Jesus was betrayed , he took the bread and when He had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to the disciples to eat saying: “This is my body which is broken for your; do this in remembrance of me” Take the bread

The Wine: And in the same manner He also took the Cup, and having given thanks, He gave it to the disciples, saying: “This is the cup of the New Covenant in my Blood, shed for many for the remission of sin. Do This as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Drink of the cup.

Let us Pray.....

Benediction & Doxology

Closing Prayer

If anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to catch me afterwards. And a quick reminder we do have plates in the back for anyone who desires to worship through giving today. The plate to the right is general giving, and the one to the left is specific for our missions giving.

Join us as we sing the doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Please Join us in the Parrish Hall for Lunch