We are starting a three week series on the vision of this church. Phrases like mission, vision, and values, can be confusing so let me first say that the mission of the church is clear from the Bible: Love God with all our heart. That’s our mission, both individually and collectively. And implications of this are to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, love your neighbor, and make disciples of all nations. We don’t need to recreate that. But how are we going to strive to see that be true of OGC…that’s what we call our vision. Our vision is that we as a church would grow in Christ, bless our city, and send to the world. So we are going to take a week for each of these parts of our vision and this week is ‘Grow in Christ.’
When we talk about Christian maturity, Ephesians four comes quickly to mind. Paul says that we must walk in a manner worthy of our calling. He says that we need to grow to maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we should ‘grow in every way.’ That we should grow as a body and build ourselves up. So this passage is filled with verses about growth and spiritual maturity. But, do you know what the main point of this passage is? Unity.
Unity in the body…the church. Which makes perfect sense if you think about it. If you have small kids in your home or are around homes with small kids, you’re constantly working against disunity and strife. No one has to teach a toddler the word ‘mine.’ Every problem they have is the biggest problem in the home to them and the expectation is that everyone would stop what they’re doing and solve that problem. I remember not being able to leave my kids in the same room alone for two minutes or a fight would break out. And this is normal and ok because little kids are immature. Now, if your kids are in their 20’s and nothing changes, that would not be ok because they would not have matured.
A mark of maturity and growth in a family is unity and Paul is saying in this passage that THE mark of maturity in a church is our unity. Jesus prayed for us to be unified as he and the Father are unified and that that would communicate something to the lost world. And this passage tells us 1) the source of our unity, 2) the agents of our unity, and 3) the result of our unity.
- The source of our unity
The source of our unity is the unity of God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t take a literary giant to see that Paul is wanting to emphasize the word ‘one.’ He uses it seven times in verses four, five, and six. And three of these times Paul is emphasizing the unity of the Trinity. One Spirit, One Lord (that is, Jesus), and One God and Father of all. The other four apply to us in relation to the three Persons of the Trinity.
Think about it this way. We are one body BECAUSE there is one Spirit indwelling us all. In 1 Corinthians, Paul said, 13 For kin one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—lJews or Greeks, slaves4 or free—and mall were made to drink of one Spirit. - 1 Cor 12:13 We have one hope, one faith, and one baptism BECAUSE there is only one Lord. One object of our faith, Jesus, into whom we are baptized, and upon whose return we hope. And we are One Christian family BECAUSE there is one God and Father who is above all and through all and in all. John Stott wrote, “One Father creates the one family. One Lord Jesus creates one faith, hope, and baptism. And one Spirit creates one body.”
Nothing else is going to unify us the way God does. Political affiliation, ethnicity, language, culture, tax bracket, or any other thing will not only be insufficient, they are actually going to divide us. And more than that, Paul is saying that the unity of the church is as indestructible as God himself. Now, that raises a few questions. First and foremost, why then does the church look so disunified?’ Does the disunity in the church today prove Paul wrong? Not at all. Paul anticipates this in this passage. This is why he says we are to maintain our unity. Doesn’t this sound odd? The unity of the church is as indestructible as God himself, now make sure you maintain that unity.
What Paul is saying is that we need to maintain the visibility of our unity. We need to make visible what is invisibly and eternally true. Imagine a family where not only do the parents get divorced, but then the kids all turn against each other and eventually no one talks to each other anymore. They all grow apart. They actually don’t cease to be a biological family, but that reality is no longer visible. We would long for them to experience the blessing and satisfaction of being a biological family that is in fellowship together. We would want for them to be able to maintain what they had as a family.
The word ‘maintain’ is actually hugely important to understand. Our unity that we have in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, is not something that we could ever create, attain, or gain. It is something that was given to us. We are all born into a fallen world and we are covered with shame - meaning we are disconnected from God. Any unity we had with him as his creation was destroyed and replaced with shame - which is relational separation. We can try and ignore the shame, we can try and cope with that shame, we can try and justify that shame, but all of us experience it and willingly contribute to it. But, God the Father decided before the foundations of the world that he would do something about it. God the Son, Jesus, came to this earth living a life of perfect honor only to take our shame upon himself on the cross. The shame of dying as a naked criminal nailed to the cross receiving the wrath our shame deserves.
Then, God the Spirit opens our eyes to Jesus. He enables us to see Jesus as our best and only hope, to put our faith in him, and then that Spirit resides in our hearts making us, collectively, his Temple. Now we are his dwelling place. One of the major identifiers of a family unit is that they live together - that is what was restored to us. Relational unity with God. And this time it’s given in such a way that it won’t be lost again like it was at the fall, because God gives us the desire to follow Jesus for the rest of our lives. All that was given to us. It was attained for us. Now, we work in him to maintain the visibility of that truth. Our unity with God is irrevocable in Christ - but the visible manifestation of that; our unity with each other, is not so easily maintained. It’s hard to overstate how strongly Paul is saying be eager to maintain this unity. He’s saying, ‘Go do it now! Don’t let anything get in your way!’
We are so loved and have been given a unity that we could never deserve. So, how is it that we maintain the visible reality of that unity? Second part.
- The Agents of Unity
The primary agents of unity are essentially those who teach with authority. Those who hold these offices Paul names, Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers. These aren’t the only agents of unity in the church, but the primary agents Paul is highlighting. When Paul says But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. - Eph 4:7 he’s saying that Jesus has distributed certain kinds of gifts through those who hold these offices that work toward glorifying God by maintaining our unity.
This transition from the unity of God to the diversity of our gifts is no coincidence. Jesus embodies every gift, and through the Holy Spirit, these gifts are distributed to his people. And in the same way that the Godhead is wonderfully diverse, but perfectly unified, these gifts empower us to that end.
This is what Paul means when he says that Jesus ascended, led a host of captives, and gave gifts to men? So, what in the world does Jesus ascending have to do with gifts for us? Paul is using Psalm 68 to give us a picture of what Jesus does. Psalm 68 is a psalm of David where he is celebrating the conquest of the Jebusite city and there is this triumphant ascent by God (in the form of the ark of the covenant) up Mount Zion where God is receiving gifts.
And Paul is using this to paint a picture that would have elicited images for the original audience that are foreign to us because we don’t go to battle with Miami or Tampa and we certainly don’t have mountains. But, in that day, it was common for the victorious king to do two things as he marched back into his city (which was normally on some sort of hilltop). First, he would parade what were called recaptured soldiers. His soldiers who had been captured by the enemy, but had been set free by the king. Second, he would bring home the spoils of war and give them out as gifts to his people.
This quotation from Psalm 68 is less of a quote and really more of a summary of the whole chapter and Paul is using this as a triumphant picture of what Christ has done. Jesus has won the war at His resurrection and at His ascension paraded a host of captives now set free and gave us the spoils of His victory in the form of the Holy Spirit and associated gifts. But, Paul seems unsatisfied with this connection to Psalm 68 alone. He wants to communicate that what Jesus is doing is on a much larger scale than any victory march of David. Look at verse 9: 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) - Ephesians 4:9
Paul is simply saying that if Jesus ascended, then that meant that He had to descend to come down here. Remember, it isn’t as if there were only two members of the Trinity and then three quarters of the way through the Bible.. Boom!...Jesus is created. Jesus has always existed and chose to come down to earth to free us who were captive to our sin. And Paul uses the words ‘lower regions’ to describe earth and emphasize how far earth is from the throne room of God. We don’t know where heaven is and my guess is that neither did Paul, but he is making a comparison to show how far Jesus descended to claim us and give us these gifts. A victory march to the top of Mount Everest would look like an anthill compared to what Jesus is doing here. Now, Jesus has given more gifts than we are covering here today, but Paul is specifically talking about the gifts of these offices and their purpose of unity.
Jesus gives the spoils of His victory to these agents of unity that we might make this invisible victory visible through our unity. Now, I don’t have time to cover what each of these gifts are. I may write the next Enews article on this, so if you aren’t signed up, you can do that under the connect tab on the website:) But, I can imagine someone wondering, “Well, what role then does the rest of the church have in unity?” Much! Paul says that we are all members of the same body. Some are hands, some are eyes, some are feet. But these offices, according to Paul, are like the joints that hold us all together. So, your role is first, to choose elders (which is the pastor/teacher part of the passage) who have gifts of unity. Then, your role is to follow the leading of the elders so that all of our various gifts can be utilized to their maximum potential.
And the main way the body works together is by being in community with each other… and not just any community, the one that has these gifts: the church. If we aren’t doing this, not only are we cutting ourselves off from the blessing of the gifts of others, we are cutting others off from the gifts Jesus has given you.
So, what does it look like to live in community as a local church? I could say a lot on this. More than I have time for. Never in the history of the church have we had to fight for community more because we live more spread out and busier lives than the church has ever seen. The first house Angela and I ever bought was a very small house that was built in the 50’s. The lot was like a wedge of pie that started in the back yard and widened until it got to the street and the house was at the very back of that wedge so the back yard was tiny and the front yard was huge. Do you realize that they don’t make houses like that anymore? People don’t care about the front yard. They want a larger back yard because we don’t sit on the front porch anymore and interact with our neighbors. We don’t walk to the store the way most of the world does, interacting with their neighbors on the way. We don’t even drive alone to the store anymore. We have someone deliver the groceries to our house. We have to see how our culture pushes us toward isolation and we have to fight against that.
As Elders at this church, it is our deep conviction that unity in this local church will rise and fall with our real community with each other. This is why we have community groups. It never ceases to amaze me that when someone in this church goes through a crisis and is not plugged into a community group, they tend to feel either neglected by the church or even abandoned. But, if someone goes through a crisis and is plugged into a community group, they usually talk about how amazing the church community is and how thankful they were in that season of need. Now, community groups aren’t only for seasons of crisis, but seasons of crisis have solidified in my eyes the value of them.
Community groups are for everyone; families, singles, young, old, new members and people who've been around forever. Our desire is that absolutely everyone here would be in a life giving community group. We are aiming for zero exceptions on this one. The best way to plug in is to ask someone you know and like what group they are in and go with them. If you don’t know anyone, then fill out a connection card and Amanda can meet with you and walk through the many options we have and see what works best for you.
This isn’t some tertiary optional ministry program - this is the basic way that we preserve Christian community in a culture where it no longer comes naturally. I know the temptation is to look at the church like a buffet of programs where you can take what you want and in some ways that’s true. But it’s more like going to dinner at somebody’s house - you may be able to pick your sides or dessert option, but the main dish is what it is. At OGC, community groups are part of the main dish.
When we are in real community, we grow in unity and that unity results in something powerful. Last point…
- The Result of Unity
The result of unity is two-fold. Right after Paul says what the gifts are, he tells us what they do, 12 qto equip the saints for the work of ministry, for rbuilding up sthe body of Christ, - Eph 4:12 So, there are two things here. The saints, that is all of us who believe in Jesus and are made holy by him, we are equipped to minister to each other and the body is built up.
It is built up in depth and breadth. In terms of depth, we become stable in our faith. Paul says in verse 14 that we will be like rocks the waves crash against and not drift wood that is carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
I don’t know how many of you have been in rough seas before, but it’s scary. I vividly remember going offshore for the first time on my dad’s boat as a four year old and it was so rough the coast guard shut down the inlet. We were stranded in the ocean with waves so high your boat was almost vertical to get up it. If you don’t know how to handle these waves, you will capsize and be adrift at the mercy of the sea. And, in my Dad’s defense, we didn’t have all these fancy weather apps back then. You did your best, but you never knew really what the seas were going to do. Paul is saying that Christians who are not plugged into the body and working toward unity are going to be at the mercy of these waves of bad doctrine and human cunning.
Stability makes us solid in the depth of our faith, but it also grows us in our breadth. That is, unbelievers are presented with the gospel by all of us and they believe. Stability in our faith changes our posture toward the unbelieving world from critical to curious. My wife always says curiosity kills a critical spirit. If we are not secure in our faith, we are going to be fearful when other worldviews threaten it. And if we are fearful, we are going to want to fight, which gives us a critical spirit. But, if we are secure in what we believe, then we can be curious in our engagement with other worldviews and much better positioned to show them Jesus.
When we embrace a type of lone ranger Christianity, which Paul has no category for, we are creating a faith without the authority and instruction that Jesus gave the church as a gift at his ascension. God has sovereignly decided to bless, equip, and empower the church, as such. And we as elders want to lean into that. We want everyone here to be blessed by the gifts of others, but to do that, we must be united.
And I know some people here might be thinking, “But I’m so tired. I’m so tired. I just want to come and be fed. Can’t I just do that?” I think one of the greatest failings of the modern Western church has been that we have called people to too little. We’ve tried to make it so easy to just come on Sunday and that’s it. But, sometimes output becomes input. What happens when we are too tired to work out, but we do? We get the energy we didn’t have. The same thing is true spiritually. And if you need to change things in your schedule, I’m telling you that it will be worth it.
Some of you here today are thriving parts of the body and God wants to use you to help plug others in and build them up. Maybe that’s simply inviting a friend to your community group. Maybe that’s meeting someone you don’t know on Sunday. Maybe it’s coming a bit early and staying a bit late to get to know others better.
Others of you believe in Jesus, but you wouldn’t say you are experiencing the community that Paul is calling us toward. I’d love to ask you to consider what the next step is for you to be more substantively plugged in for the sake of your building up, but that will also bless us in ours. You’ve heard me talk about community groups, but you can also register for our next Discover OGC on Sunday August 18th and Monday August 19th.
And some of you might be considering Jesus for the first time. And if that’s you, I’d love to talk with you. You can pull me aside. You can fill out a connect card. But more importantly, you can go to Jesus today. You can tell him you believe that he has died for your sin. That he has paid the price for your shame and that you want to be made perfect in God’s eyes through faith in Jesus. That you want to be joined to the body of Christ. He’s made that possible for everyone. All you need to do is respond.