Sermon: Being One Ephesians 4:1-6

From the very beginning of our study in Ephesians, I pointed out this book by James Clear called Atomic Habits. One of the points that James Clear makes in that book is that the best way to change what you do is to change who you think you are.

That’s what Paul is doing in Ephesians. He begins with our identity, with our new descriptions, our new story, our new people, and the purpose that we have in this world.

And now, as we turn to the second half of the book, Paul provides very practical applications of our new identity. How does what Jesus has done for us change how we live?

In Ephesians 4:1–3, Paul tells us how to live: Being One.

We have stories of churches that have divided over ridiculous things. But we have stories like that too at Pleasant View.

The Elijah Creel story is a fight about where on the original two acres to build the sanctuary.

And for those who were here in 2014, I count at least four different issues in eight months where we weren’t on the same page: the gun debate, a Saturday night service, Christmas bonuses, and more.

We’re not immune.

And our study in Ezra and Nehemiah showed us that when God is trying to do a great work, the devil’s best play is to create division from the inside.

But for today, I think it might be more helpful to start with verses 4–6, where Paul draws the bow back even further.

There is one body.

Now there are many local churches, but there is one body of Christ. There will not be the Baptist section in heaven, or the Independent Baptist section in heaven, or the Methodists and the Presbyterians and all those. There will just be one body in heaven.

This is the church that we’ve got, and it is our job to obey the Scriptures with the church that we have, not the church that we want.

The church that we have.

Every human has one body.

So too, Jesus has one body, and we belong to this one body.

Jesus shed His own blood to tear down the walls that divided us.

But there is one body, and even here there are not individual divisions in this body.

We belong to the same church.

Just as we have one body, we each have one spirit.

So too, the body of Jesus has one Spirit.

And there is one Spirit—the same Spirit that lives inside of me lives inside of you, and lives inside of her, and lives inside of him.

The same Spirit that connects us all, and has indwelt us all, and is working in us all.

Some members might partake of spirits. Apparently some deacons in Wake Forest played basketball like some spirits. But in the church there is only one Spirit.

And it is the same hope—the future that each of us has, the hope of heaven, of Jesus’ return, of taking us to be with Him, so that we might be where He is—is the same hope.

The new heavens, the new earth, the drying of the tears, and the name written in the book of life—it’s all the same hope.

We’re not hoping for different things. We’re not looking forward to different things.

We’re all crying out with the Apostle John, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”

We all have the same hope here because we all have the same Lord.

Same Lord.

And that reference there to Lord is about the Master, one leader, one who is in charge.

There is one who is ruling and reigning on the throne, and there is one who is on the throne in your heart, and there is one who is on the throne of my life, and it happens to be the same person.

Romans teaches us, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord…”

So how can we be going off in different directions when we have the same Lord?

There is one faith.

Paul here is probably referring to the same set of basic beliefs. We can differ on some minor issues. We can differ about the timing of the tribulation or baptizing babies or whatever else.

But the basic core beliefs of Christianity are all the same: that God made man good, that man sinned, and that God became a man and took on our flesh, and then took our sin on the cross, and died for it, and then rose again three days later. He ascended into heaven and will return to judge the living and the dead.

We believe these things.

Every Christian who has ever lived has believed these things.

There are some things that we can debate and create denominations over.

But at its core, the Christian faith is not a potluck with options of what you want to believe.

As Paul said, if even an angel preaches to you another gospel than the one in Scripture, let him be anathema.

And Sunday looks a whole lot different in lots of different churches.

But there is one set of beliefs, one faith that we belong to.

And there is one baptism.

We were all baptized, identifying with Jesus and His death and His resurrection.

We even baptize differently in different kinds of baptistries, and even with immersion, being dunked under, or just a little sprinkling for the babies.

But ultimately, it all is pointing to the same thing, and the reality is all the same thing of being united together with Christ.

We all have died to ourselves, been buried in the likeness of His death, and every Christian has been raised to new life. Jesus has made us alive.

So we all get into this family the same way.

And so because of that, there is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

Let me make a very simple point.

If you have the same father, you are siblings—brothers and sisters.

And so Paul says, if there is one body, if there is one Spirit, if there is one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father over all—

Isn’t that enough to unite us?

I mean, honestly, if that won’t do it, what do we need?

Seven things. What more do you need to be unified?

Music? Preferences? Style?

Paul is calling on us.

He is begging. He is urging.

Because we have been called.

God called us when we were dead in our sin and made us alive with Him.

He called us to join His family.

He has called us to get and to give the gospel of salvation.

God called you. He called you out of darkness and into marvelous light.

We’re aiming for oneness.

Many who claim Jesus have given up on the unity of the church.

Maybe you’ve settled for Pleasant View just not fighting. But that’s not the same as oneness.

Like Paul prayed in chapter 3, the Christian life is something we have to do together.

To be one is to be…

To walk with humility.

It literally means having a low heart, understanding that you are not so high.

The Greeks did not consider humility a virtue; they thought it was a vice.

Pride was the virtue—to believe in yourself.

But Paul is calling us to humility.

Biblical humility is not walking around saying, “I’m the worst person on earth. The world would be better if I weren’t here.”

Humility is understanding Ephesians chapters 1–3: your identity in Christ.

It’s important we don’t forget that.

We don’t close the book on the first three chapters of the book because we don’t close the chapters of our identity. We never stop thinking in those terms.

James Clear is right. If we will understand our identity, then our behaviors will change.

We were dead in our sins. We were children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind. We were following the course of this world. We used to be strangers and aliens to the promises of God.

But because of His glorious grace, God loved us so much that He made us alive together with Christ.

Then we’ll be humble.

True Christian humility is understanding who we are.

We will understand that we’re not worthy in front of the Almighty God. We’ll understand that we are not the Savior of the world. We’re not the savior of our families. We’re not the savior of our communities.

But Jesus is.

C.S. Lewis put it best: humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.

Humility is the mother who makes sure everyone has eaten and only after cleaning up the table realizes she never ate.

Humility is the man who jumps into the ocean regardless of the risk to save someone drowning.

Humility is the most mature Christians we have seeing the prayer life of someone younger.

It’s seeing the boldness of a new believer.

It’s seeing the Bible knowledge of someone you’ve disagreed with in the past and seeking to learn from them.

Humility is singing the hymns even though you prefer the new ones. It’s singing the new ones even though you prefer hymns.

In fact, it’s getting in the car and someone pointing out, “Isn’t that the song you hate? But you were singing it pretty loud…”

Humility is signing up for the outreach you don’t really care for or maybe even don’t think will work.

Humility is coming to church not as a customer with wants but as a servant seeking what God deserves.

That’s humility.

Are you walking humbly? As fitting of a sinner saved by grace?

With humility goes gentleness, being meek and mild.

Gentleness is not weakness but strength under control.

Studies say roughhousing is good for kids. My girls call it playing rough. You may even see me play-punch Simeon.

One of the surprising benefits of those studies is that it teaches kids to learn gentleness.

You want to know why?

Because they picked up on the fact, “Dad could pick me up and body-slam me right now, and he chooses not to.”

So they just naturally pick up this idea: My dad has power he doesn’t use.

But you know, right—if you’re a Christian, you are the child of a heavenly Father who has all the power in the world, and yet He chose not to use it.

He could have come in His first coming, like He will in His second, riding a horse dressed for battle with a rod of iron in His hand and a sword coming out of His mouth.

You understand? He could have brought down fire and brimstone like James and John wanted Him to, but instead He came not as a soldier, not as a warrior, but as a shepherd, to seek and to save the lost.

“A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not quench.”

If you are a Christian here today, you are a prime recipient of the gentlest man who’s ever walked this earth.

Are you walking worthy of receiving that gentleness?

Are you gentle?

You have power with your words. Are you using that power under control?

Or do people fear your disparaging comments, your negativity, your cynicism?

When people are struggling, are you the person they should go to?

Or do they fear you’ll notice their mistake?

When I was 16, I was playing golf with a former Division I football lineman named Perry Mason. On hole 8, I accidentally rear-ended his golf cart.

And I was nervous about what this mountain of a man was going to say to me.

But he got out and said, “All right—let’s call the pro shop. It was a mistake. Let’s just admit it and move on.”

That is gentleness.

Do you walk with that kind of gentleness?

Paul says, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience.”

I love this definition for the Greek word. The Greek word here means tranquility while waiting.

Now we live in the fastest-paced society in the history of the world. I mean, that’s just the reality.

We were in the doctor’s office Tuesday getting a vaccine for Lottie, and we were talking about the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Lottie asked if we could watch it.

And I said, “I don’t know what it’s on.”

And she was so confused.

“If you don’t know what app it is on, then how have you ever watched it?”

And I thought how that conversation would have gone when I was a kid.

My parents would have said, “Well, maybe Friday we can go to Movie Gallery and see if they have it.”

And a movie rental would have been unimaginable for many of you growing up.

But for this generation of kids: just pull out the phone, click the right app, and push play.

In this kind of world, it is not just harder to be patient. It is all the more important that God’s people stay patient, that we have tranquility while waiting, because Jesus isn’t rushing up.

How patient God has always been with us.

Four hundred years the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt. Why? Because God was being patient with the Canaanites and their sin.

God sends Jonah to Nineveh, and Jonah tells us at the end he doesn’t want to go. Why? Because God is patient, and He lets people change, and He gives them time.

Do you realize how patient God has been with you?

And you’re not changing very fast, are you?

You haven’t given up those same old sins very quickly, have you?

You haven’t picked up the acts of obedience you told yourself decades ago you’d be better at by now, have you?

And yet, we have a heavenly Father who is patient with us.

So shouldn’t we be patient with each other?

Shouldn’t we avoid giving up on one another?

Sure, we need to be patient in traffic. Sure, we need to be patient while dinner’s cooking.

But we need to be patient with one another.

Are you walking in patience?

Patient with the Christian still with a lot to learn?

Patient with the one who could demonstrate more faith?

Patient with the one who could be more faithful to church?

Patience doesn’t mean we don’t speak the truth in love.

But it does mean we don’t give up on each other.

Are you walking in patience?

Finally, “Bearing with one another in love.”

Bearing with one another literally means to get up under the weight of.

Imagine two people struggling to carry a couch into the house, and you run up and take some of the weight off, and you get up under the weight.

It’s not sympathy: “Man, that looks tough. Man, I wish I could help.”

It’s not suggestion: “You should have gotten a dolly. You should have hired movers.”

It’s sacrifice. It’s putting some of the weight that they’re having to carry into our own hands.

Are you willing to bear with each other in love?

Ours is the story of God Himself bearing the weight, getting up under our weight that we could not bear, that would have crushed us if He had left us in it, and Jesus coming up under us and bearing, out of His love for us, the weight that we were under.

What kind of difficulties are you getting up under for people in this church?

Financial difficulties.

Marriages struggling.

Parental logistics.

Loneliness.

Are you taking a corner of that struggle and carrying it yourself?

Let me say this, though.

Some of us make it too difficult for others to get up under our weight because we’re too busy hiding the struggle.

No, that’s not it.

We’re too proud to let other people see our struggle.

No one can get up under our weight because they don’t even know we’ve got it. They don’t know that it’s crushing us. They don’t know the despair that we are under.

As we’re crying out for relief to God, God has sent a room full of family to come alongside us and to bear that weight, and yet we are too busy being too proud to have our prayers answered.

But as you see the weight, as you see the sweat and the white knuckles, will you jump up under the weight of brothers and sisters in this church?

And then lastly, are you eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?

Are you eager?

Are you willing to exert yourself to try your hardest and to do your very best, to give it every ounce you’ve got until the very last whistle blows?

To do what?

To maintain.

To guard. To protect.

You see, it’s not something we build.

We don’t work at the unity factory. We’re simply the guys who change the oil, maintain it.

Eager, doing our best to guard unity.

This word “guard” is used all throughout the Easter story as soldiers are commanded to guard the cross of Jesus and then the tomb of Jesus. They are to make sure no one messes with or disturbs the body.

Are you making every effort to ensure that no one messes with the unity of this church—a unity Jesus shed His very blood for?

The bond of peace.

Jesus is our peace.

As they say in Acts 4, they were of one heart and soul.

And it is a unity that Jesus Himself paid for. It is a unity that God Himself bought.

There is so much that holds us together because of all that God has done for us.

In John 17, Jesus prays that His church would be unified. When He does, Jesus says that the world will know we are following Jesus by how we love one another.

What are you doing to ensure that it is?

How are they to believe in a God who breaks down walls when they see His church busy building new ones?

How are they to believe in a God who raises the dead alive when the church isn’t living at peace?

How are they to believe in one Lord if we can’t follow Him together?

So let’s walk worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called.

Doing everything we can to keep people from messing with the unity Jesus gave us.

With humility, gentleness, patience, bearing each other’s burdens.

So from the many, we might be one.