Jesus Together: Apprenticeship Community

Introduction/Scripture

Ephesians 4:1–16 NIV

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 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. 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. 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. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Pray.

Hook: Small groups are like a buzzword for the Church. Especially for the lat 30 years. The conversation has been about small groups. Community is another buzzword. We love our small groups. And they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Sunday school taught by a teacher, home group studying a bible study curriculum, knitting group, marvin menders is a community of retired guys that build things and serve in amazing ways in our community repairing homes or helping with things around the church.

Ephesians is a general letter that is likely written to a surrounding region including Ephesus. In this great letter Paul is giving an apology of what exactly has happened in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has made clear already in the letter the scandalous reality that there is a new ethnic and a new family in Jesus Christ.

No longer Jew and Gentile. Rich, poor, all in Christ have been brought into the family.

Best synopsis of the beginning of this declaration:

Ephesians 2:19–22 NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Chapter 4 provides this bridge, this great turning point that is made clear by the “therefore” of verse 1. With all of this I have just declared...

Ephesians 4:1–2 NIV

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Live a worthy life of the calling you have received. A life of humility and gentleness and love in community.

Life that is marked by peace and unity.

This is the apprenticeship community within the church. Last week I made the claim that discipleship is more about apprenticeship:

Be with Jesus

Become like Jesus

Do what Jesus did

This community that is described here in Ephesians 4 gets to the heart of it.

Jesus community shares unity

Paul begins by radically making the claim that the church, the community of God is in community with the triune, Father, son, and Spirit. The bible has not worked out trinitarian theology, but you can see here where the early church might be drawing trinitarian theology from.

Ephesians 4:3–6 NIV

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 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.

He says one seven times, to even a cursory reading one can tell he is trying to make a point. We could spend a whole sermon here but let’s talk about the characteristics of the unity that should be found in this kind of community:

First there is one body:

This body is the joining together of diverse people. The whole thesis of Ephesians is the joining together of Jew and Gentile. The crossing of one of the greatest ethnic barriers known in biblical times. It is also the crossing over socio-economic barriers.

Notice, though, the vision is not a loss in diversity but a joining together.

Diversity is actually vital in the apprentice community. Too often in the church today we are drawn to homogenous community.

Second there is one hope:

The first thing that joins together the diversity is the one hope we have.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. This is our hope.

Not a hope of building it up and making it right ourselves

Not a hope of just living our best life

Not a hope of self-discovery

Not a postmodern utopian future of progress and education and societal achievement

no other god

no last hope but eternal life and life today in Jesus Christ

Unity is created in a diverse community that is running towards the same hope.

Finally, there is one Christian family:

Because there is one God and Father who is above all and in all. We are all called into the family together.

It is not that revelatory to point out that we live in a divisive time. Everything is about defining ourselves and what makes us different from someone else. Pronouns, Republican, Democrat, pro-this, or pro-that, methodist, baptist, catholic, gentle parenting/peaceful parenting/positive parenting/discipline. Vaccinated or non-vax,

I saw a Tyler social media group and someone was trying to start a home church but only for people that had not gotten the vaccine.

Our denomination is like this right now, we know more of what we stand against than what we are for. We know clearly what divides us, and no attention to what unites us.

Paul is calling the whole church to this unity, but before Marvin can know this unity, we must practice this unity in small groups. Have you been in a community that protects the central focus of Jesus and this one hope? If we can do that, then our diversity brings a fuller life within the unity.

Jesus gives gifts in community

This isnt just a support group. This is not a place where we just encourage one another or watch over one another in love. That is good and it is biblical. But Something is given in community. Our Lord has given us gifts, look again in verse 11....

Ephesians 4:11–13 NIV

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.

• apostles

• prophets

• evangelists

• pastors

• teachers

Do you think this list only refers to professional Christians, to the vocational ones, or is it also a calling for all of us?

Apostle: Those that expand the gospel into new places, creating community,

Prophet: those that hear from God and speak for God clearly into community

Evangelist: hose that bring Christ to new places, but also quickens the step of the believer

Pastor: Those that provide care and theological oversight, helping community to live this worthy life

Teacher: those that can bring the revelation of God in Jesus Christ to life for everyone around them.

If you think these titles are ones that Gerry and I are supposed to carry, you are sorely mistaken.

But more importantly than the offices in this passage. The main point of Ephesians 4 is that the head of the body, Christ, who has achieved victory gives gifts, and those gifts are people.

You are a gift. When you are not in the community, we miss out on what God brings through you.

Community is where we live Jesus truth

My favorite part of this passage is the closing. So much so that I wrote my doctoral thesis on Ephesians 4. There is a beautiful image here for what it looks like to be a faithful worshipping community.

Ephesians 4:14–15 NIV

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

“Speaking the truth to one another in love” is a verse we love. Especially, when we feel like we want to say something critical of that person that is driving us crazy.

....just go speak truth in love.

Nope, the greek is more rigidly “truth with one another.”

example?

Paul is telling Ephesians to live truth with one another.

If we will live gospel truth with and next to one another then we will become Christ like.

4 year old and 2 year old (and one on the way, Lord help us). The way my kids learn is spending time with us living truth of life with them. Now the hard part is determining what truth we are living in front of them (is it scarcity, fear, selfishness, etc…we live out truth in front of those around us). But as we live out truth in front of them, as they go to school and learn about things, as they interact with littles and older kids their age, they are being shaped and formed. As they are formed they are not as susceptible to everything around them.

When it comes to things of the faith, Paul infers here that we are infants being tossed back and forth by the waves. And I wonder if it is because we spend very little time in community that lives out the Truth.

Closing:

I have been reading a lot of the late great Eugene Peterson. He is a pastor to pastors, but you may know him as the author of the Message translation. As he was starting the church he would serve for 30 years he realized there is an American stereotype of the church that needs to be broken. And I am paraphrasing mostly here....

He said that the story of the Church is largely what we are doing for Jesus, in the name of Jesus…we are in charge, we have his commands and we take the responsibility now.

Making his point more clearly, he says the American Stereotype is this: Salvation is God’s business, it is what he does and then he turns it over to us. Church is our business, it is what we do. God haven given himself to us in Jesus, now retires to the sideline and we take over. Occasionally we call a time out to consult with God. But basically we are the action.

No. The community of apprentices are those that are wrapped up into the unity of God. They are the ones that receive gifts from Jesus the head of the body, the victor, who currently rules and reigns, and is bringing us to himself. The community is the one who in living the truth of our identity and purpose together, we become like him. He is building his Church, we are stories that are invited into that.

When we think we are the action and relegate God to the sideline, I think we are actually putting ourselves on the sideline.

Jesus Together is about positioning ourselves in the community of grace to walk in life.