Yes, gracious God, we are just thankful for your goodness and
your gifts to us and for your word.
And we thank you this morning that you have given us Bardo and
we trust you've worked with him in a study of this text.
And I pray that you would speak through him now.
Give him wisdom and clarity, and give us minds and hearts to hear
what you have to say through Him.
So we just pray over this time, and we pray over Bardo in Jesus
name. Amen.
Thank you. Good morning, Church.
We live in a divided world, a desperate world trying to
convince itself that it's united.
A world that boasts about diversity and acceptance of
fluidity, where someone can call themselves one thing one day and
something completely different the next.
An approach to relieve misery, to transform the inner
condition, is by changing what's on the outside, by jumping
between religions or changing our environment or changing our
prepositions or our appearance in the hopes of finding,
belonging or understanding who we are.
But the Triune God of Scripture has put a great light into the
world that answers this longing and confusion, the promise of
identity, contentment, unity, and diversity.
He's provided a way out of the darkness, and the church must be
the tower from which that great light can be seen.
So we're carrying on in our series and Ephesians this
morning we'll be looking at the first few verses of Chapter 4.
If you have your Bibles with you, please turn with me just to
bring the memory. Some of the previous chapters
before we start, Ephesians 1 spoke about the blessing of the
believers in Christ, our predestination, our adoption,
our redemption, and the ceiling of the Holy Spirit.
Shane Wildemoth, I think, stressed the importance of
prayer to us and our dependence on God.
Lewis then introduced us to Ephesians Chapter 2 and the
Doctrine of salvation by grace through Faith.
Jeff then just helped us grasp the scandal of foreigners
sharing in the promises given to the Jewish patriarchs.
The reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in Christ and He went
on in Ephesians chapter 3 to explain the revelation of the
mystery of Christ, the fact that God has equalized us and how
we've come into the spiritual blessings of Israel.
He challenged us to be so full of Christ that when someone
knocks at the door, they find Jesus.
And he made us, made it clear to us last week that Chapter 4
moves from information to instruction, the living out of
these Jews and Gentiles and the coming together of this new
body. So this morning as we look at
Ephesians, chapter 2, verses one to six, and I want to echo
Paul's exhortation to you. To walk worthy of the calling to
which you've been called. And we'll consider the
inclusivity and the exclude exclusivity of the nature of
unity that reveals the Triune God that will cause the world to
look to him. So firstly, from verses 1:00 to
3:00 we'll examine the inclusive nature of unity.
It's call, it's manner, it's focus.
And then from 4:00 to 6:00, the exclusive nature of unity.
Let's read together now. 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.
And 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 overall and through all and in all.
So to start, we'll be looking at the inclusive nature of unity.
We've already recalled the previous chapters, as Paul
intended us to do, with the opening words.
Therefore, we've acknowledged these biblical truths.
Therefore, walk in alignment with them.
Be what you are. Be what you're called to be.
But before we can even begin, before we can consider the
exhortation, what does Paul mean by called?
Or can I phrase it this way? Have you been called?
Because if not, why go on? And if so, how do you know?
This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
He lived a perfect life, the perfect obedient life to the law
of God At all times. He suffered, He died on the
cross and perfection He took upon him the sin of the world.
He didn't stay dead, but he rose from the dead.
He overcame death and he offers life.
To all those that will believe in him, this is the essence of
the gospel. But it's also just a statement
of fact. As James 219 indicates, faith
isn't just knowing the facts. So, so faith is more than
knowing the facts. What does this calling look
like? How do you know that you've been
called? Because Paul assumes that you
know. First Corinthians chapter one,
verse 9 tells us God is faithful who has called you into
fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
So calling is fellowship with Christ.
Hebrews chapter 3. This one says that believers
share in the heavenly calling and first Peter reminds us that
we have been called. Out of darkness into fellowship
with Christ to Timothy chapter one, verse 9 also says he has
called us to a holy life not because of anything that we have
done, but because but for his own purpose and grace.
Similee back in Ephesians chapter two we read for grace
you have been saved through faith.
And this is not of your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one
may boast. So here is the probing
consideration, as you ask yourself, have I been called?
To start with the obvious? Do you have faith in Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Savior? A faith that not only recognizes
your need for God's grace and forgiveness, but also?
A deep desire to have a relationship with Him.
You want to commune with God, to follow Him.
But not only do you long for this deep relationship, you want
to read and understand His word, to commune with Him in prayer
and in worship. Do you have an inner conviction?
Or a sense of God's presence that draws you to seek Him and
understand His will for your life?
Are there evidences in your life that can give you this
assurance? Has there been a change in your
attitude, your behavior, your priorities, the things that you
value so that they align more closely with God's purposes and
they're growing in your faith from year to year?
Perhaps, probably. Not as quickly as you would
like, but you see it, and I hope that others see it too.
And finally, importantly, as it relates to our passage, to do
that today, do you desire fellowship with other believers?
Do you feel yourself drawn toward godly men and women if
you cannot identify with these things?
My dear friend, I plead with you.
Start right now. Plead with God.
Speak to him until your inward disposition changes.
Don't stop until you can say that you've been truly born
again. For those of you who Paul named
as called, let's now consider this exhortation.
To have a relationship with God is not a trivial thing.
A close relationship with an earthly king is not something to
be despised or a relationship that's readily neglected.
It's a special position of immense value and benefit.
It would be one thing if you and this king grew up together as
childhood friends, but if he sought you out though, you had
nothing to offer him. At great cost to himself, and
called you into fellowship with him.
Would this not be an even greater privilege?
Paul says I, a prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy
of your calling as a prisoner. An example to the Ephesians.
He's able to call them to live fully for Christ.
The reason Paul is in prison is because of the good news.
He does not refer to himself as a prisoner of Rome, but rather a
prisoner of the Lord. Christ is his Lord, and he will
submit himself in all things to his master.
Yet unlike A prisoner Paul has exercising authority.
He writes to exhort, to urge to implore the Ephesians, not
simply to walk in their calling. But to walk worthy of it and the
Greek, the word translated worthy here is axios and it has
the idea of weight, from which we get the English word axiom.
It's not a word that I'm familiar with, but it means to
be of equal weights. So you can imagine a set of
scales. On the one side is your heavenly
position with this great king. You can call him anytime, any
place. He's actively working in your
life. He's working all things for your
good. And on the other side of the
scale, Paul is calling you to daily live an equal measure.
This is an impossible exhortation.
Yet it gives. Yet God gives us grace and grace
and grace. And so it compounds.
And the weighty worth of his calling grows so that the
immeasurable riches of His grace grows and grows and grows, and
his mercies become new every morning.
And God is glorified in your walk.
Now this is Our Calling. The pool has a specific
application in mind. Let's look at verse 2.
It reads with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another in love.
Humility before God absolutely, because salvation is none of us.
But the focus of this chapter is on the one another, the calling
to work work with the calling to Walkworthy.
As a calling to love the family of God bearing with one another
in love. In light of the fact that God
has been so patient toward me, I must surely be patient toward my
brother. When Jesus was asked what the
great what is the greatest commandment in Matthew 22, he
didn't just stop at loving God, but he went on to add and the
2nd is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Bearing with one another in love is not simply staying calm,
staying calm on the outside, boiling on the inside.
Nor does it mean simply tolerating each other.
It's bearing in love, Paul writes.
Paul writes this because he understands that it's not always
easy to love each other. Scripture records our Paul and
Barnabas argued over John, Mark, and even went separate ways for
a while. The word bearing in the Greek
text and Nico has the emphasis to patiently tolerate someone
who's difficult or foolish. However, consider the ultimatum
from Revelation chapter 2. Where we find another letter to
the church and Ephesus. It reads to the one who holds
the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among
the seven gold lamp stands. Say this.
I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance, and that
you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put to test those who
call themselves apostles, and they are not.
And you found them to be false. And you have persevered, and
you've endured for my name's sake, and you have not grown
weary. Sounds really good, doesn't it?
But then it says, But I have this against you, that you have
left your first love. Therefore remember from where
you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you fit.
You did it first, or else I am coming to you and will remove
your lamp stand from its place unless you repent.
This church would cease to be a church if they did not walk and
the love they had at first. The Holy Spirit will not dwell
in a church that has abandoned its first love, And as John so
convictingly tells us in one John Four If anyone says I love
God and hates his brother, he is a liar.
For he who does not love her love his brother, whom he sees,
cannot love God, whom he does not see.
Love is first, and the list as we consider the fruit of the
Spirit. It's the theme that dominates
John's writings. It's the first item for prayer
and Paul's petition to the Philippians.
Now the church was made-up of former Gentiles and Jews, Jews
who knew their Bibles who had memorized entire sections of the
Old Testament, and Gentiles who did not.
There were difference in customs, opinions on clothing,
music. Some felt comfortable eating one
thing and others didn't. There is even a different social
hierarchy. That is why this verse is
qualified with patience, with gentleness, with humility, can
be easy to tolerate a mildly annoying person.
But patience is especially needed when a brother or sister
in Christ is foolish or difficult.
It happens. This unity of the Spirit has
little to do with us being all the same.
This is the inclusive nature of unity.
Everyone is different, yet we're all part of 1 body and in dwelt
by 1 spirit. Now, I'm not going to give you
an out here. You cannot bear with someone by
not coming to church. The one body is made-up of all
believers, and Paul's exhortation is not just to avoid
your calling, but walk worthy of it.
You cannot attain to the fullness of spiritual maturity
by avoiding your calling. How many spiritual fruit can you
bear when you're never around anyone who challenges you?
So if you really want to be spiritual, go hang out with
those people that you find challenging to love.
We are to walk worthy of Our Calling.
We are to do it in love, and verse three tells us the
purpose. Let's have a look.
Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of
peace, the new American standing being diligent to keep the unity
of the Spirit and the bond of peace.
Paul, who also refers to himself later as an ambassador in
chains, the prisoner in the Lord, is exhorting the Church to
make every effort to do your utmost to keep the unity of the
Spirit and the bond of peace the shackle of peace.
This bond is intended to constrain us.
In Romans chapter 14 says something similar.
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace
and mutual edification, not a superficial piece like the
Prophet. Ezekiel warns us about those
that say peace when there is no peace.
It compares it to merely plastering over a cracked wall
so that when the rain comes, the wall falls down.
Peace isn't letting things slide and loading them up into a
spiritual backpack of resentment, it's taking the hard
Rd. At the same time.
It's about being careful, diligent not to break up the
unity of the Spirit, admitting mistakes, accepting rebuke with
all humility and gentleness with patience and love.
When Paul speaks of keeping the unity of the Spirit, it is a
call to preserve something that already exists.
Paul is not suggesting that we erase all denominational
boundaries to create one big mega church.
There is only one Spirit and he unites all of us in Christ.
We are all called to preserve the that unity that is the
intention of our worthy walk. Now God is a God of
reconciliation, if we recall Ephesians chapter 214, it says.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has
broken down the flesh and the dividing wall of hostility.
And we as the body of Christ have a duty of cosmic
reconciliation to bring all peoples before the Lord.
If we are to be effective in this and proclaiming the gospel
and missions and Christian living, then we need to conform
to the Church as she is divinely purposed.
When Christ's body is seen to be the community of reconciliation,
then we can convincingly proclaim the gospel of
reconciliation to others. We cannot expect to be a divided
church and be the salt of the earth.
We cannot expect the world to understand the love of Christ if
we have no love for one another. As Philippians chapter 2 says,
if you really, if you are really a participant in the Spirit,
than you are to be of 1 accord and of 1 mind.
The inclusive nature of unity is that it transcends differences,
that that transcends the different ways that God has made
us, our past, our parents, our language, all these things.
But we are to be 1 ensemble. When you listen to an orchestra,
not every person plays the same instrument, not every instrument
plays the same note. But at the director direction of
the conductor there is harmony and there is beauty and the
coming together of every different instrument to one aim,
to one purpose, to one song. God's masterpiece of
reconciliation. And this brings us to the second
consideration of unity. The 2nd aspect of the nature of
unity that reveals the try and God that will cause the world to
look to him is the exclusive nature of unity.
It's the exclusive nature of unity.
From verses four to six there is one body and one spirit, just as
you were called to 1 Hope, 1 Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God, and Father of all whose overall and through all and in
all. Having considered the importance
of unity, let us now consider what that unity means.
The verses before us make up 7 doctrinal notches.
They use the word 1 to point to a fundamental Christian value or
or face on. If you're familiar with the
scripture the scriptures use of the number 7, then may I suggest
that the seven here, the fact that there are seven of them is
no accident. Paul's putting us to us the
complete the perfect unity. Not unity at any price, but a
unity grounded in the three persons of the Trinity.
First, we see the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit,
and His work in bringing unity. There's four.
There is one body and one spirit.
As we mentioned earlier, the body is not a man made
institution. The Holy Spirit creates
coordinates, orchestrates the body of Christ, believers across
every ethnic group, culture and social boundary.
The same Spirit who empowered Jewish believers at Pentecost,
fell on gentle Gentile believers in the House of Cornelius and
then dwell. Who can we believers today?
We feel a connection when we meet someone else who shares a
passion with us, such as rugby or motorsport or Lego or
dancing, whatever it might be. But when we meet another
believer who could be completely different, then there's a skip
in our own a being. There's a delight, there's a
warmth, there's an invisible bond.
Not only has God reconciled us to himself through Christ, but
He's reconciled us to one another Birth for equates this
one body and one spirit with one with having one hope, Our
Calling. Having already considered Our
Calling, let us turn our eyes to this one hope.
This hope is the expectation of eternal life, salvation through
Christ, a shared longing for Christ's return.
But we have a pledge, a guarantee, a glory to come.
We've received the first installment of our inheritance,
the Holy Spirit of promise. In our hearts, the fruit that we
bear in Christ is a foretaste of the future, the love that comes
without condition, the peace that surpasses understanding,
the joy that cannot be taken, the strength when we are weary.
These things are the appetizers, the tidbits of the bliss that is
to come, for we shall share the glory of Christ.
The next threefold acclamation points to the second person of
the Trinity, Jesus Christ our Lord.
In verse five it reads 1 Lord, one faith, one baptism.
The term Lord, which was the title for Yahweh in the Old
Testament, is no surprise to us here.
Paul uses it often and again he implies the Lordship of Christ.
We don't have another master, and our master is not divided.
And writing to the Corinthians, Paul rebukes them on this
matter. First Corinthians, chapter 10
reads. Now I exhort you, brethren, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all be an
agreement, and there be no division among you, but that you
be made complete and of the same mind and of the same judgment.
For I've been informed concerning you, my brethren, by
Chloe's people, that there is quarrelling among you.
Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, I am of Paul, and
I'm of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ.
Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or
were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Was what Paul taught important? It is but our striving is not to
conform to Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham or Elizabeth
Elliott. We strive to increasingly,
increasingly conform to Christ's likeness.
God's eternal purpose has been accomplished in Jesus Christ our
Lord, and He fills the universe with His sovereign reign.
The head of the body is Christ, and our one faith is in him, one
name in whom we genuinely trust, but also one body of truth, one
faith which was once and for all delivered to the Saints.
Believers share in a common faith in Christ's redemptive
work. To to deny the essential
doctrines of Christianity is to abandon the Christian faith.
To embrace them leads to spiritual maturity.
Let's consider one John chapter 4, two to three.
By this you know the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not
confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the
Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world
already. It doesn't matter what the
Spirit says. The fundamental truth of the
faith, what the Bible teaches, is immutable.
It's part of the exclusive nature of the true unity.
God's word does not change and God does not change.
Furthermore, there's only one baptism, a death to self and a
living to Christ. Now, Paul isn't making a
distinction between water baptism and the baptism of the
Spirit. These hair splitting
distinctions were all part of the same transition of the old
life to the new life in New Testament times.
To have one without the other was an anomaly, but if it's any
comfort we use this type of language all the time.
A marriage ring doesn't really bind two people together nor
does a flag united nation. We also say things like light
this candle candle in honor of their memory or I am saved by
the cross. The point is that Jewish and
Gentile believers alike acknowledge 1 Lord, share one
faith in him, and have have undergone 1 shared baptism in
his name. And we see this very thing in
Galatians chapter 3 from 2326 to 29.
For you all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all
of you were baptized into Christ.
For all you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male
nor female. For you are all one in Christ,
and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's
descendants. Ears according to promise, as
Paul States and Colossians, God's purpose through Christ is
to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace
through the blood of Christ, through him reconciling things
upon earth and things in heaven. And thirdly, in our text back in
Ephesians chapter four, we see the first Person of the Trinity,
God the Father and His work in bringing unity.
Verse six There is one God and one Father of all who is overall
and through all and in all the Holy Spirit.
The focus of verse four and the Lord Jesus from verse five are
not viewed as separate entities. There is one God.
This flows out of what He's already said earlier and in
earlier chapters. There's not an Old Testament God
and a New Testament God. God is the Father who belongs.
God is the father of all those who belong to the family of
faith, both Jews and Gentiles, without distinction.
If you belong, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's
descendants and ears according to the promise, this exclusive
unity and that all things are only brought together in Christ.
This carried further in Ephesians we see back in chapter
one, verse 10. It tells us God's purpose is the
summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven, and
things on earth. In other words, to bring all
creation to the point where it finds its true head in Christ.
Ephesians 4, verse six. In Ephesians 4, verse six, we're
encouraged we encounter the exclusive nature of unity in the
sovereignty of God. He is the Father of all
creation, orchestrating all things, ordering, ordering
things to His divine plan. As our Father, He holds
authority over everything, serving as the author and
sustainer of life. His control is absolute and
nothing is beyond his reach. Furthermore, God is through all,
actively working every circumstance and event through
Christ who mediates our relationship with Him.
God acts as our Father. He is also in all dwelling
within all believers. Through the Holy Spirit, the
intimate presence that shapes our lives, God's universal rule
is carried out to achieve the ultimate purpose, uniting all
things in Christ. The unity within the Trinity
lays the foundation for the church.
Through the church, God's wisdom is showcased to the entire
universe. The church serves as a glimpse
of God's ultimate plan, with believers demonstrating unity
that reflects God's final goal. In closing, let us look back on
the exclusive and inclusive nature of unity that revealed
the Triune God and will cause the world to look to Him.
Firstly, diversity. Far from destroying unity, will,
if characterized, character characterized with humility,
gentleness, and patience toward fellow Christians, will promote
it. The inclusive nature of unity is
that true, lasting God. Grounded unity is more than
being thankful for the blessings that we have in Christ, but it's
also living in a manner worthy of them.
And Christ has found our identity, contentment and unity.
Loving God means loving brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers
in the faith. A love for all the Saints, even
the foolish and difficult ones, for the purpose of building up
the Church to be a beacon of light in a dark and desperate
and divided world. A love that bears with one
another and preserves the unity of the Spirit and the bond of
peace. Secondly, we looked at the
exclusive nature of unity. There is only one gospel, There
is only one law. There's one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all. There is no other name by which
men may be saved. There is no other religion.
They can offer peace with God. Now God is not divided, but he's
overall three through all and indwelling every believer.
This is the intention of our worthy walk, to conform the
church to to conform to the church as she is divinely,
divinely displayed so that the world can understand the love of
Christ, the pilot project of God's purposes.
Paul was willing to suffer imprisonment and had many times.
He didn't have any second thoughts in exchanging his life
for the one that he was called to.
For those who have tasted the first fruits, who share in the
same promises and have the same hope in in your calling,
remember that even the morsels of promise that we have here on
earth outweigh prison, the pleasures of the world, the
earthly ties, the conflicts with other believers.
We look forward to the day when Christ returns.
We look together. We say come Lord Jesus, come,
bring everything into perfect subjection, perfect unity.
In closing, I just want to pray the Paul's prayer from Ephesians
chapter 314. For this reason I bow my knee
before the Father from whom every family in heaven.
And on earth is named that according to the riches of his
glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through
His Spirit in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and
grounded in love, may have strength.
To comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness
of God. Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all we ask will think according to the
power at work within us. To him be glory in the Church
and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen.