Good afternoon everyone. Not a good start.
Good afternoon everyone. When I was assigned a second
session, I did not realize that it was going to be the hardest
one because everybody is tired and sleepy.
First day, you're still fresh, ready to go.
The last day is a Sunday celebration.
You go to church and well, the second day you stayed up all
night. The bed is not you're adjusting
to your new mattresses. Or maybe you're crazy enough to
took two hour hike this morning or run around and play
basketball and now it's just tired.
But so I'm asking for your help. OK, let's, let's, let's focus
and hear what God has for us this afternoon.
If you have your Bibles, you can please turn them to Book of
Ephesians chapter 4. Yesterday we hear about Paul's
prayer to the church from Pastor Daniel.
I'm not going to quiz you on what those prayer points are,
but yesterday we hear about Paul's prayer from the church
and today we will look into the next part.
So after Paul prayed for the church, this is the next part.
And this title of the short homily is a charge to the
church. A charge to the church.
Let me sip this last bit of caffeine.
Some of you know this maybe not so much anymore.
But years ago, when we were still living in the United
States after right after our first son was born, I picked up
a second job to help support the family.
And out of all the things I could do, I decided to become a
wedding photographer. What started as a side job
quickly became something I really love.
Like I really poured my heart into that.
And there's so many things that I found really exciting about
shooting a wedding, photographing a wedding.
And to me, though, one of the most amazing and it's it's it's
what I really enjoyed was really getting to capture these like
unscripted moments throughout the day.
It's not the ones where you get the couple together and say
cheese, but it's the ones that nobody even know what's
happening or direct. Like, you know, we we the moment
of father see his daughter in her dress for the first time.
Always beautiful. Made doubly hard once I had
Madison grandmother quietly wiping her eyes and many times
the couple would told me that that's the last photos they have
of their grandmother. The groom expectantly looking
forward to see whether the bride's at the back of the
aisle. Those moments.
But my favorite moments to capture every single wedding.
It's almost always the moment the bride takes the first step
down the aisle. I actually found one of Meredith
here. Sometimes the bride would pause,
takes a breath, close her eyes, compose herself.
Sometimes she's so eager, like Meredith here is, she's almost
like so jumpy and can't wait. But that step, that first step
is so heavy with meaning because yes, they're not going to be
official, official until later when the minister proclaims him
husband and his wife. But the moment she takes that
first step, the moment she walk down the aisle is when it
becomes real for her. She officially is the bride.
It's not before, not when she puts on makeup, but when it's
like real and watching all the audiences right there seated,
all the loved ones watching them.
That first step is always so heavy with meaning.
It's amazing, brothers and sisters, and put that away now
and thank you. There is something about
identity that change how a person walk their their step,
their face, their voice, their bearing, all of it changes not
because they're trying to be different, but because something
truly has happened to them. And this takes us to our passage
here from Ephesians 4. In the first 3 chapters,
something has happened to you. Something has happened to you.
And now in chapter 4, the apostle Paul stands up and says,
church, you better walk like it. You better walk like it.
So let's look at our passage, Ephesians 4.
We're going to start in first one.
For the sake of time, we're going to read it in three
different parts, where each part is is Paul's charge to the
church. Let's first read Ephesians 4,
verse one to six. 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. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
all, who is over all and through all and in all.
This is God's word. So number one, you're taking
notes. Guard the unity.
That's Paul's charts to the church.
Guard the unity verse one to six.
So first thing to notice is the first word after I Paul says
what church quiz? What's the first the second word
there in the in the whole thing. So after I therefore notice that
word. Therefore, whenever there's a
word, therefore you got to look before that.
What's therefore what right? That's like a hinge of the
entire letter, because for three full chapters, Ephesians 123,
Paul's been piling up 1 glorious truth, one glorious reality of
the gospel on top of another, the Father choosing us, the Son
redeeming us, the Spirit sealing us, and the prayer that Pastor
Daniel preached about yesterday. 3 chapters.
No commands, just glorious realities of the gospel.
No commands until now and says here and now.
Therefore Paul gives this charge.
So you need to see the weight of chapter 1 to 3 before you can
feel the urgency of chapter 4. That's sometimes when you go
into a passage like this, you start in this, you lose the
weight of the entire sentence or entire word there.
Therefore, and what is the charge?
I therefore a prisoner by the way of the Lord.
It's not it's not saying this proudly.
He says he, I urge you to what? To walk, how to walk in a manner
that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
There's a ton to unpack here. First, if you are in Christ this
afternoon, you, each of you, have been called towards
something. There is not a single person in
this room. If you are in Christ, there is
not a single person here whom that who had not been called.
It is not just for those in the ministry, not just for deacons,
no, each of you. And what is that calling?
We'll see at the end of this passage.
So that's number one, to, to, to, to pay, pay notice to #2
Secondly, this calling, Paul says, demands a certain way of
walking. The Greek word behind walking
worthy literally carries like weight.
There's a weight to it. It actually means to balance the
scales. Basically it says here your walk
church should match the weight of what you have been given.
And church, Paul says, what because of these glorious truth
of the gospel I just preached to you in one to three, you ought
to walk in a way that is worthy of this glorious truth of the
gospel. And how do we do that?
How do we do that? He says with humility, with
gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love
and with eagerness for unity. We don't have time to dive deep
into each one, but let's look briefly at each one of those.
Humility, right? In the Greco Roman world, this
word actually was an insult. You believe that when, when,
when you use these words, this, this very word, it's reserved
for slaves. But Christianity, rehab, change,
transform the meaning of the word because the Lord of glory
took the form of a servant. CS Lewis says humility is not
thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of
yourself less. It is the freedom.
You ever thought about that? Humility is the freedom to
consider other people's interests as more important than
yours. Humility, gentleness.
This is often translated as meekness.
Meekness. Aristotle defined it as the
golden mean between excessive anger and ability and inability
to feel anger. That it's, it's like a train
horse. You're just as strong as before,
but you are completely under control.
Strength under control. Gentleness is not weakness.
It takes more, takes more power to be gentle many times.
And gentleness show up visibly in how we speak right and how we
respond when we're provoked. Gentle person can be firm
without being harsh. Gentle person can be honest
without being brutal, can be strong without being abrasive.
It's warm, not scalding. Patience literally mean long
tempered, a long fuse. Patience here specifically means
patience with people, not circumstances.
There's the patience that bears with somebody's slowness,
immaturity, repeated failures, irritating habits, maybe
theological wonkiness. It is Love's tolerance of time,
the willingness to give people the time and the room to grow.
Bearing with one another in love means what to hold up to put up,
to endure. There's there is there is quiet.
Paul basically just says, yeah, other Christians, that they're
hard to bear. Do you realize, church, that
you're more difficult to deal with than you think it is true?
My wife tells me that all the time.
Just kidding. She does not.
We often think that it is everyone else that's the
problem, but the truth is, as fallen sinful people, we are the
difficult one. We are the difficult one.
And this kind of bearing we are called to do is not the kind
where we simply tolerate each other's existence and move on.
The phrase in love here is the medium, not just the manner.
Because without love, if you put up with someone, it's just going
to resent that person. You just put up with it.
But in love means you have the willingness to to absorb, to
cover, to endure what others do to you or say to you without
retaliating or holding it against them or making it a
public matter first. Peter 48 says love covers a
multitude of sins. Forbearance is Love's choice to
not keep records of wrongs. In my project right now, you
know, you know, we're building a house.
The neighbors. The neighbor has this wall that
as we were digging the foundation starting to lean in
into our property. And the first thing that our
Tukang Armando did was put up these columns to bear the weight
of these sinking walls that are coming towards us.
And and these columns with like and and and and as these columns
are erected up, we can see that these these these these walls
starting to now straighten up. And I was as I was watching that
happen. It reminds me of what this
bearing one another really looks like, right.
You're the the, the the stick doesn't have to think about
whether it's not is right that this wall is falling over them.
The same thing with us in the church as we bear one another's.
And finally, the eagerness to maintain the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. This is the main reason for our
manner of walking church. We are to guard the unity of the
church with the way we carry ourselves.
We are called to be humble, gentle, patient, bear with one
another because the church is full of people, different
backgrounds, personalities, histories, characters, and each
of us are called to love one another.
And God in his manifold wisdom, precisely designed the church to
be this way. You ever thought like man?
Church would be so much easier if everybody thinks like me.
But that is not how God designed it.
He designed the church full of people who are different than
you and it is by acting this way that you can be the beautiful
display from our retreat. Call back to our retreat a few
years ago, a living, gathered, imperfect community that
reflects God's perfect character and love to the word.
Notice the person's precise wording.
Paul does not say create the unity of the Spirit.
The Spirit has created it. You don't.
We don't have any role in creating the Spirit created the
unity. We maintain it.
He does not say be willing to maintain.
He says be eager. The word eager.
There is a sense of urgency, diligence, zealous.
This is act of unity keeping. It does not wait until conflict
begins. He is already pursuing peace
before peace is even in danger. And this bond of peace, peace is
the binding agent that holds the unity together.
Why are we called the guard to unity?
We'll see that in verses 4 to 6. We are guarding the unity
because of what we share. Paul gave us 7 ones reasons on
why 7 realities that binds us together as one church.
There is one body, he says, 1 Spirit, 1 Hope of Our Calling in
Christ, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Seven of these ones here. Everyone of them comes to us
through Christ, through His flesh.
Ephesians says the dividing wall of hostility came down through
his ascension. The Spirit poured out through
his blood. We have access to the Father.
Christ is the one through whom this unity become ours.
Now this is heart. We never say this is easy.
Remember though, who this letter was even written to to begin
with. This was a church full of
Gentiles and Jews mixing together two people groups who
apart from Christ would never even sit in the same table to
eat dinner together, let alone worship.
To the Jew, the Gentile was unclean, Not just annoying,
unclean. To a Gentile, they can't even
comprehend all the things that the Jew is doing.
Centuries of prejudice, separation, dietary laws,
cultural enmity, And yet here they are, in the same room,
singing the same songs, praying to the same Father, breaking the
same breath. And what happened?
Christ did. He was the one breaking down the
dividing wall by his own flesh. He has made the two one.
And to that Church of all churches, Paul writes, eager to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
But notice something, brothers and sisters, Christ does not
only secure the unity, he's actually the one that embodies
this unity. Because Christ was humble, he
took the form of a servant. Christ was gentle, he said
himself, I am gentle and lowly in heart.
He was patient. Paul says Christ displays
perfect patience toward him as an example for us.
He bore with us in love. There's no one that bears our
weaknesses more than Christ. Did he absorb what we deserve?
He was eager to be our peace, that he died for it.
Christ was the one that purchased our oneness, and
Christ is the example of these virtues that keeps our oneness.
So this piece that binds the church together is not your
invention. It's not just church's
invention. It already costs God the Father,
his only Son. That's why we must guard it.
That's our church. So #1 Paul charges to guard the
unity #2 receive the equipping. Receive the equipping for 7:00
to 12:00. But grace was given, let's reach
7 to 12, but its grace was given to each one of us according to
the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when He
ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and he gave gifts
to men. In saying He ascended, what does
it mean but that He had also descended into the lower
regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who
also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all
things. And he gave the apostles, the
prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers to
equip the Saints for the work of ministry, for building up the
body of Christ. So at first glance, when I was
reading this quickly to prepare for this message, this 7 to 12
felt to me like kind of a detour because Paul here just charge
us, walk worthy, guard the unity.
And now he's quoting a passage from the Old Testament.
It's talking about Christ's ascension.
It's talking about pastors, teachers, why and, and, and when
you dig deeper, this is not a detour.
This is actually the foundation that in which this entire
passage rests. This is the engine, the unity of
verses one to six and then later we'll see the maturity in 13 to
16. They're not produced by sheer
effort, they're produced by Christ from His throne above
through His word. Because after giving the charge
of unity among what seemingly impossible people to unite.
I love though that the 1st 2 words of verse 7 says, can we
read this together? The 1st 2 words of verse 7 says,
but grace, but grace. Aren't you glad for those two
words? We are unable but grace that is
how our Christian walk is supposed to be marked with at
the end of your life when you're when you look back into the
things that God has allowed you to do or allowed to happen in
your life. When your grandchildren sit
around the table and ask your grandpa, grandma, how did you do
it? I hope the answer for each one
of us is but grace not because I did this or I was able to
accomplish that, or I was smart or talented or I overcame a lot
of because grace is given to each one of us according to the
measure of Christ gift. And the only way we'll ever
achieve this unity in the body of Christ is because of grace.
The Old Testament passage that Paul quotes in Psalm 68, it's an
interesting Psalm, is actually a victory Psalm that pictures a
conquering king returning from battle, distributing the spoils
of war to his people. Now the king is is Jesus Christ,
it says. Paul even says so.
He says he descended low because God descends to a Manger, to a
cross, to the grave. And then he says he ascended
high to the right hand of the Father.
So that what? So that he might fill all
things. And from his throne this
victorious king is now distributing the spoils of his
own conquest. And what are we?
What are the spoils? It's easier.
Pastors, teachers, the ministry of the teaching of the Word in
the church. It says here in verse 11 He gave
the apostle prophets, evangelists, shepherds and
teachers. All those people do what?
Proclaim the truth of the gospel.
Very specific purpose though verse 12 it says what the
purpose is to equip the Saints for the work of ministry and for
the building up of the body of Christ. 1st it's important that
we recognise this imagery that Paul deliberately choose to use.
He states the fact that the ascended Christ is giving all
these gifts from a position of victory.
Why does that matter? I I sat on that for a while when
I was working on this passage. The answer is because a defeated
king have no gifts to give. In the ancient world, when a
king returned from battle, the entire economic life of his
people depended on whether or not he had won.
Victorious king would come home leading captives, dragging
spoils of gold and weapons, livestock, and distribute them
to his people. The gifts were the evidence that
the war had been won. Defeated king came home with
nothing. So when Paul here deliberately
invokes this Psalm, a triumph Psalm, he's making a claim about
these gifts in verse 11. The very existence that there's
churches with preaching and teaching of God's word of the
gospel is proof that Christ had won.
If Christ was still on trial, still in the grave, never
resurrected, still struggling against principalities and
powers, there would be no gifts. There will be no church.
The church pulpit and the faithful proclamation of the
gospel is one of the loudest declaration that Jesus Christ
has won. And here's when it comes to us,
because this whole thing is about the Saints.
Who is the Saints? Who are the Saints?
That's you. That's all of us.
None of you are excluded here. You are all equipped through the
preaching and the teaching of the Word every week so that you,
we all can do the work of ministry that God has called us
to do. The work of ministry does not
belong merely to the elders and deacons of this church.
It is for all of us. That's exactly how God has
designed this church to be built up.
So receive the equipping and if you're a brother in our church,
may I urge you to consider if maybe God has called you to
teach the Word, to proclaim the gospel in the pulpit of our
church. It's a calling that everyone
has. So it is this crucial to the
building up of the church. So second, we receive the
equipping. First, we guard the unity.
Second, we receive the equipping.
And lastly, we are to grow up into Christ.
Let's read the last four verses together.
Until we all maintain 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 carry about by
every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and
deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking truth in love,
we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into
Christ, from whom the whole body join, held together by every
joint with which it was equipped.
When each part is working properly makes the body grow so
that it builds itself up in love.
All right, so here Paul continues his charge again that
he starts all the way back in verse one.
And the reason, the goal for us to guard the unity for the
church to be equipped with the teaching of God's word is this
right here. So that the whole body, the
church, all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God so that the church can be united in knowing
Jesus more and more. That is the destination.
That's what it means to grow up into Christ, to measure to the
stature of the fullness of Christ.
Just like Pastor Daniel preached yesterday about this prayer in
Ephesians 319, so that you would be filled with all the fullness
of God. That prayer is where Paul says
we're heading here. As we do that, you will leave
childish things behind. You'll stop being confused and
tossed by every wind of doctrine.
Spiritual immaturity is dangerous to the unity of the
church. It leaves you vulnerable to
false teaching, to deceit. And then Paul gives a super
practical application for us to do here, which is found in the
next verse. And he he clearly indicates
this, that this is what he meant because he says another word
rather right in the first word he says.
Therefore now he says rather, Oh, rather, what do you mean
rather? So before that he says, don't be
like this. Don't be like children.
Don't be confused by all the, the, the, the, the, the, the
false teaching and every win of doctrine rather speaking the
truth in love, right? It can be weird to read that at
first because you're like, what do you mean?
Like I, I shouldn't be I shouldn't be confused by every
win of doctrine. Rather I need to speak the truth
in love. This is why it's important when
you read scripture to read by its proper context, because
without that proceeding first you read like a verse like this.
You think Oh I need to speak up my mind simply means I need to
speak up hard things politely. Maybe it can mean that as well
for sure. But if you follow his strain of
thought, he just says what? Again, Church guard the unity by
receiving the equipping that are done by the church leaders so
that you might know Jesus more and more and not be dragged by
false teaching and rather speak the truth in love.
What truth? It's not my truth.
The truth in verse 15 is the very same truth that's being
preached in verse 11 is the gospel truth.
It's not my personal opinion. The verb appears plural.
The charge is for all of us in the church, not just the elders
and deacons. All of us are now to speak the
truth of the gospel into each other's lives.
And this is also the work of the ministry that's being referred
to in verse 12. We, all of us, not just elders
or people with both personalities and outgoing
personalities, we are to speak the truth of the gospel into one
another's lives. That is the work of ministry.
Yes, there are practical ministry work.
You look at this retreat, Can you imagine the amount of work
that has taken so many people to step up to pull this event
together? When you look at our Sunday
celebration from from from all the different elements that
needs to happen for the Sunday celebration to run, there are
there are there are there are there are many, many important,
commendable ministries that you can join and sign up for.
But if that's all that you think of, practical ministry, you miss
the point of this chapter, because Paul's not telling the
church sign up to different church communities.
Paul's telling the church speak the truth of the gospel in love
to one another. That's your charge.
It always says about the gospel, the proclamation of the gospel
of Jesus Christ from the pulpit, equipping the Saints who then
proclaims it to one another so that the church, the whole
church will grow up. You want to look at a church and
and and know what makes the church a mature church is when
members in the church from all ages can sit across each other
and proclaim the gospel truth to one another into him who is the
head into Christ. In light of that, here are some
practical applications for us. I want to give you 4 forms of
gospel speech, 4 forms of gospel speech that every one of us can
do with one another. And in fact, I do encourage you
to do that and we will do that later.
After this, at the end of the session and throughout the
retreat and after the retreat, encourage one another speaking
gospel truth to a struggling brother and sister.
Tell them Christ is for you. The cross is enough.
I know you're struggling with His sin, but your sin is not
bigger than His grace. Remind each other who they are
in Christ. When life makes us forget,
exhort one another. Stir each other up to to love
and good works. Ground in what?
Grounded in what Christ has done.
You're not nagging another. You're not You're not trying to
bring some moralism, but it's, it's gospel fuel exhortation,
guys, let's do this correct one another.
That's the harder side. But notice it's the gospel
truth, not personal opinion. And when you do that in love by
people who knew they need correction too, because when you
correct without the gospel, that's condemning.
When you correct with the gospel, that's restoring parents
and children here. That's one of the hardest
relationships dynamics of the relationship of parent and
child. When you receive gospel
correction from your parents, it's hard, but in Christ you can
understand it for what it is. It is for your maturing into the
fullness of Christ. And lastly, pray the gospel
truth to one another, praying the truth of the gospel into
each other's lives and situations, praying Scripture,
praying God's promises, praying that Christ will be revealed for
one another. Brothers and sisters, what I
just told you or charged you with these 4 examples, all of
these things that it's not just theoretical things that we
should do. It is the charge.
It is what Christ has been doing in His Church for over 2000
years now. He still unites former enemies.
He still equips the Saints through His Word.
He still grows children into mature speakers of the Gospel.
In 1962, Don Richardson moved with his wife and baby into the
swamps of what is now W Papua to live among the Saowy people.
The Saowy is a tribe of headhunters whose highest
cultural value was treachery. They idealize fattening with
friendship before you slaughter them.
They would befriend an enemy for months, then murdering him at
his most trusting moment. When this when when when when
Don first preached the gospel to them, the Saowy people cheered
when you talk about Judas, because to them Judas was the
hero who had perfectly fattened Jesus with friendship for three
years before betraying him with a kiss.
But Richardson noticed something.
Because there is a way for the Saudi people to ever had peace
between these warring villages and it is to through what they
called the Terra. Tim translated the peace child,
which is a crazy concept because a father from one tribe would
carry his own son across the battle line and place his son
into the arms of the enemy. And as long as that child live,
there was peace in the villages. When, when Richardson realized
this, he he gathered them and says, you know there is a Father
who gave his only son into our arms.
Jesus is our peace child. He lives forever.
Therefore there is peace. Already the Saudi people wept,
the tribes that murder each other for generations.
They lay down their weapons, they ate together at the Lord's
table. What they saw in their custom,
God has already given in His Son in 2012.
Fifty years later after that, these missionaries actually came
back to visit the Savi people. And it says that over 2002 to
3000 Savi people welcomed them. And till this day that tribe is
the tribe that continued to spread the gospel of Christ, the
peace that binds the church to others around them.
Look at what Christ did there. He took a tribe of headhunters
and he made them one body with the global church. 1 Spirit, 1
Lord, 1 baptism. He guard the unity he purchased,
and then Jesus send them. What an evangelist one of the
gifts of the ascended Christ from verse 11 who preached the
word among them for years and years until they finally were
equipped. He gave them the word and 50
years later they saw we they're no longer children cheering for
Judas. They they matured now that.