UNITY – Part 8 – Three Steps to Unity

Our passage this morning is in Ephesian 4:1-16

Passage:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call–one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (Eph. 4:1-7)

Prayer:

Intro:

Paul is signaling a HUGE shift in the tone of the text with this passage -in fact if you are using the journaling bibles we handed out – you could even draw a line at the bottom of chapter three – and say end of part 1 – that’s how stark the difference is between chapters 1-3 and 4-6.

Over and Over again – Paul has been reminding the people of this

Paul here – in this opening section – gives three elements for the church to be unified:

He says – if we are going to be a united church that accomplishes the mission of God – that carries the gospel – that is the light. or if we are going to be a church that lives united with other churches in our community – we must walk worthy – embrace our role within the body – and become mature.

Walk Worthy:

be humble – be gentle – have patience – bear in love- he puts it simple

Interestingly – Paul says “be eager to MAINTAIN the unity” meaning – the unity that we are after – in our churches – in our families – in our marriages – if all parties are believers – it’s already here – we don’t have to make or construct unity – unity is made – unity is here because of the cross – he is the one that made us one people – he is the one that brought us back to life – he is the one who gave us a new identity – unity is offered and possible – it is us that gets in the way.

HUMILITY

The first element that he talks about here for unity is humility

Pride – destroys everything

Paul says Let go of the pride – be humble – be quick to hear – slow to speak slow to anger –

GENTLENESS and PATIENCE

Proverbs says – A gentle answer turns away wrath – but a harsh word stirs up anger.
- meaning how we approach eachother in the midst of conflict matters –
- and how we approach eachother – often determines whether the conflict is going to come to an end or it is going to keep going –
- Gentlessness is not have overlooking issues and just letting issues happen – that’s call passivity – the Bible would call that wrong. Gentlessness is addressing issues in a way where the issue is the target – not the other person.

BEARING IN LOVE

Finally the last one here – is bearing with one another in love – which is a commitment to the other person
- you have to put up with me – and I have to put with you.

I think this one is really important – in the church – we often give up on unity way too quickly

To bear with one another in love is stick things out in the good and bad – and in patience, gentleness, and humility approach each other with the issues that come up rather than split.

And here’s why – Paul says

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

Embrace our Role in the Body

After talking about we need to treat eachother – he talks about how in order for a church to be truly unified and successful in the mission that God has – we have to be a church that exemplifies and uses all five of the ministry giftings that God has made.

I think a lot of times in the church we think of apostles and prophets and evangelists, shepherds – teachers – and we think of them only as offices

like for Apostle we think of the Apostle Paul – but apostle by itself just means “one who is sent” or the prophet Isaiah – or the Evangelist John the baptist – and those are great examples of people who filled those offices –
- How Paul is using these words here are less about an office and title – he is more talking about gifting – or a types of people within the church to make it function – and it is vitally important that all of us understand where we fit – with each of these – so that we can serve in that way.

APOSTLE

To Put it simply – a person with an apostle gifting is someone who is thinking about tomorrow. They are really good at seeing a need – starting a ministry and taking the church into new places to reach new people – they are really good at setting up something new – then handing it off to someone.

without an Apostle – the church grows stagnant

PROPHET

Now I think a lot of times when we think of prophet – we think of foretelling meaning – telling the future or something like we see in the Old Testament – I believe today – that the primary function of a prophet is not so much to be fortelling as much as it is forthtelling.

meaning – God has given them the ability to look at the church look at culture – to see the issue and be able to speak into it.

But I think there is another role here – Prophets are also people who speak hope into situations. That in the middle of a hard and difficult situation – the prophet says “church – it’s gonna be ok – we have these promises.”

without a prophet the church becomes apathetic and loses the ability to speak to culture

EVANGELIST

The evangelist is someone who is always sharing their faith with other people. Evangelists are always looking at the people around them who need the gospel – and are inviting them to come along.

without the evangelist – the church loses it’s fire to reach the lost

Shepherd

Next is the shepherd – shepherds are individuals – as the name suggests – who care for the sheep. They are defend the congregation, the help the congregation, the counsel the congregation, they bind the wounds, they have a hand on the pulse of the church and what are the needs – where are the people hurting right now.
without shepherds – the church loses it’s heart

Teachers

The teachers are passionate about God’s word
but teachers, have a passion to walk people through the story of God’s word – to take complex things in Scripture and make them simple – and then finally to teach people to study Scripture for themselves so that they feed themselves and feed other people –
without the teacher – the church is shallow.

It is when all five of these types of people are working together within the body of Christ–just like the avengers–we are coming back full circle- that we can truly be unified, truly be effective – truly reach the lost- and truly be the church.

And what Paul says – is that when all of these things are functioning – we become mature

Become Mature

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way in him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

He says – when you are growing in personal godliness – and treating eachother as God has called you to – or walking worthy of your calling –

and when you are functioning in your gifting and the church is working together the God has designed it to – the body will become mature.
- you won’t be children anymore – or immature –
- you won’t be cast along by every wind of doctrine – meaning you won’t get duped everytime false doctrine come along.

But you will function as a city on the hill – as a light in the darkness – as the body of Christ. The text says as we do these things – the body grows into Christ.

Church – this is the process that he has called us to

UNITY – Part 8 – Three Steps to Unity

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