Preserving the Unity of the Church

PDF

This morning as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's Table, I want you to turn again with me to Ephesians, chapter four. Because the next passage to which we come is a very appropriate one for us to reflect on as we prepare to take of the Lord's Table: Ephesians, chapter four. Last Sunday, I read a news story that was hilarious in one sense, and yet, at the same time, absolutely tragic. Perhaps you read the story, as well. It was written by Matti Friedman with the Associated Press. The article was entitled, "Monks Brawl at Christian Holy Site in Jerusalem." The article began: "Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity's holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergymen after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb. The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection." Goes on to describe that what happened was that there was a procession of one of these groups of monks, and they were apparently violating the space that another group of monks normally had, and the other group, in fear of a precedent being set, stopped them, resisted them, and a fight broke out. Police spokesman, Mickey Rosenfelt said, "Police were forced to intervene after fighting was reported. They arrested two monks, one from each side," he said. He goes on to describe how these two monks were led away in handcuffs after scuffling with dozens of riot police, all inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. "Six Christian sects," the article says, "divide control of the ancient church. And they regularly fight over turf and influence. And Israeli police are occasionally forced to intervene." In other words, this isn't the first time. This is a fairly routine occurrence, for the Israeli police to get a call, "There's a fight between monks inside The Church of the Holy Sepulcher." One monk, who gave his name as Seraphim (There's a clash of ironic terms), said he sustained a wound above his eye when an Armenian punched him from behind and broke his glasses. One of the churches said, "Well, this was not supposed to happen. It was against the status quo arrangement." He said the Greeks attacked first. The Greek Orthodox Church denied that his monks initiated the violence. The article finishes with these tragic words: "After the brawl, the church was crowded with Israeli riot police, holding assault rifles, standing beside Golgotha (where Jesus is believed to have been crucified), and the long, smooth stone marking the place where tradition holds His body was laid out." It is hilarious in one sense (To picture these monks, and I actually saw video footage of these monks going at each other in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher). But in the most real sense, it's a terrible tragedy. As, if you went with us to Israel (and several of you did), you discovered that this place, The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, is almost certainly the site where our Lord was crucified, and buried, and rose from the dead. So here at what is some of the holiest ground for believers, are professing believers (and there could be serious questions raised about that) but professing believers fighting with one another about turf and who owns what section of the church.

As I read that article last week, I couldn't help but think that, that is how many unbelievers see the church of Jesus Christ as a whole: a lot of infighting about petty issues. And that same kind of disunity is pervasive in many local churches, as well. I thank God that that is not true here. But, if you've been a Christian anytime at all, you've been a part of a church where there was significant argument and disunity: not over important, crucial issues, but over petty differences. This is not a little thing.

The problem of disunity in the church was so important to Paul, that when he turns to the second half of his letter to the church in Ephesus, and to the practical application of the truth, it is where he begins. Let me remind you, that Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 1 is a kind of hinge verse between the position we have in Christ in the first three chapters, and the practice that should be ours in the second three, the last three chapters of this book. Chapter 4, verse 1 is the topic sentence of the rest of this epistle. It is the over-arching command to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. You remember, we noted last time that "to walk worthy" has a couple of pictures in it (that idea). It has a picture of a set of scales. On one side of the scales is our walk, our conduct, our daily living. On the other side is our calling: that effective or effectual call, when God drew us to Himself to make us His own. And the two should balance. Our walk should be as weighty as our calling. Another image in that idea of worthy is: they should match. Our position and our practice should match. Just like we shouldn't wear clothes that clash, what we say we believe and the calling we have in Christ should not clash with how we live. The rest of the letter explains how it is we can walk worthy: how we can walk in a way that matches our calling.

And the very first way to walk worthy is to live in unity in the church. That is the very first place Paul starts. When he talks about a worthy walk, a walk that reflects who we are in Christ, he starts with unity.

Let me read this passage to you: Ephesians chapter one. And I'll just read the first six verses. Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 1: "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all."

This same theme, by the way, continues down through verse 16. Essentially there's one paragraph that begins in verse two and runs all the way down through verse 16 of this chapter. And the theme of this entire paragraph is the issue of Christian unity. That theme is clearly expressed in verse 3. Notice verse three again: "being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Most commentators would agree that this theme of unity dominates these sixteen verses, that the participial phrase in verse three is the core of this entire paragraph. This morning as we prepare our hearts to take of the Lord's Table, I just want us to think for a little bit about what Paul means in this verse that sets the theme of this paragraph: verse three. Because verse three raises several questions that I want us to consider and that will prepare us, not only for the Lord's Table today, but will prepare us for our ongoing study of this paragraph in the weeks ahead.

The first and most important question that we need to ask and answer is, "What are we talking about?" or "What is unity?" What is unity? If this is so important to Paul, that it's the very first thing he begins with when he starts talking about our practice (how we live), then we better know what it is! And we're kind of fuzzy about our thinking. We use the word "unity" occasionally. But it's not a word we use in normal life, very often, outside of the context of the church, and so I'm afraid our thinking about it is a little unclear.

What is unity? Well, the Greek word in verse three that's translated unity comes from a root word that is the ordinary Greek word for the number "one." Basically unity means "oneness;" a state of "oneness." But this isn't some externally-caused thing. You know, we talk a lot about unity, and there's a lot of discussion about it in Christian circles. And often it is external and artificial. That's not what Paul is talking about. In the twentieth century, there was a movement that began that is called "ecumenism." Perhaps you've heard that word, or the word "ecumenical." The idea was, in ecumenism is to attempt to force a sort of external unity among those who profess the Christian faith, regardless of how deep the differences may run. It doesn't matter how different their doctrine, how different their practice. We need to get them to cooperate in ministry. They need to work together to accomplish the things they agree on. Some well-meaning Christians try to unite evangelical Christians with some cult, like the Mormons, to fight abortion; or some liberal denomination, like the United Methodists to fight some other cause; or Roman Catholicism, to battle the ills in our society. And their arguments invariably come from passages like this that call for unity. But understand, folks, the unity here is not a forced external unity. Notice verse three. This is a unity that already exists: "being diligent to preserve the unity." We aren't supposed to create this unity. We're supposed to preserve it! We aren't supposed to make it. We're supposed to maintain it. There is already this unity, this oneness.

But what is it? Well, Paul, in the book of Ephesians, has already defined for us what this unity is. He has used, in the genius of the Holy Spirit, several different images that, together, help us understand, help us get a comprehensive view, of this unity that we enjoy. Let me show you these images. Because I think once you see the images, the pictures, the idea of unity will become a lot clearer.

The first picture is that of a human body. The unity we enjoy can be compared to the relationship of the members, of parts, of your body. This is Paul's favorite metaphor for the church. We don't know where he came up with this metaphor. There's a lot of conjecture about it. I personally believe it came from his teaching about the Lord's Table. But I can't guarantee you that. In this metaphor, the church is likened to a human body in which Christ is the Head, and every individual Christian is a different part, a different member, of the body. Notice how Paul uses this, in Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians, chapter one, verse22: "He put all things (GOD) put all things in subjection under Christ's feet, and gave Him as Head over all things to the church, which is His body." The church is the body. Christ is the Head, and the rest of the church is His body! But he gets more specific about it over in chapter 4, verse 15. He speaks again of the Head, which is Christ; Verse 16, "from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body to the building up of itself in love." As we will see, when we get there, Paul, here, is describing this image of a body with Christ as the Head, and every Christian is a part of that body. Every Christian fills a role in the body of Christ. Every Christian is a member of the body of Christ. So, folks, our unity is not an artificial one, imposed from the outside. We are part of a single organism that is vitally connected to Christ, our Head. You are not the literal body of Christ, in a physical sense. But there is something about our connection to each other and to Christ that can best be described as the relationship the members of your body have to each other. Think about that for a moment. It's hard to imagine a closer unity than that. The members of your body work together! You don't think of them as separate, most of the time, unless one is hurt. They work together to help provide for and protect the other members. And when one member hurts, they all hurt. All you have to do is get a serious hangnail, and it's amazing how distracting that is, and your whole body is brought to bear, to care for that. A paper cut, a blister on your toe, and your whole body goes to care for that one member. There's an organic unity. And the members can't be separated without damaging the whole. Listen, folks! Think about this for a moment. God gave you this picture. When God looks at this church, when He looks at all of us, He sees us as interconnected to each other, as the members of your body are to the other members of your body. That's how God looks at us. That's how God sees us. That is a real unity. We are united to each other in a way that can be compared to the connection between the various parts of your body.

There's a second picture of our unity that Paul uses here in Ephesians…..to help us see it: not only that of the human body, but secondly of a building or a temple. Look at Ephesians, chapter two. Ephesians, chapter two, verse 20. This is one of my favorite sections we studied together. Here, Christians are pictured as stones in a temple. Notice verse 20: "having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ being the cornerstone, the whole building is fitted together and is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into the dwelling of God by the Spirit." The picture is that you and I are like living stones in God's temple. And God has carefully cut every Christian out of the quarry of stone. He's shaped, carefully, that stone to fit the place He intends for it to fill. And then He carefully places it in its place in the overall building. And at that moment it becomes interconnected to the other stones. Together, you and I have become the Holy of Holies: a modern-day place where God manifests His presence. Think of it like this: We, the church (not this building), as Christians, in this place, are God's home. That's the picture. We're God's home! And the unity between us is like the stones in a finished building: so interconnected that to pull one out of place is to put the entire building at risk. You may not think of yourself like this, but this is how God thinks of us. God thinks of us as if we were like a human body, connected to each other organically, vitally. God pictures us as if we were stones in a building He's building: each one carefully placed to fill its role. And we're connected permanently to each other. In an ancient building, in an ancient temple particularly, there was no mortar used. Instead, the stones were cut carefully so they'd fit against each other. There was nothing supporting the other stones but stones. Powerful picture of the unity we enjoy.

There's a third picture of our unity that Paul uses here in Ephesians. It's that of a family. He begins this picture back in chapter one, verse five, when he says, that "He predestined us to adoption." In eternity past, God decided to adopt certain people to be His children. In chapter 2, verse 19 he says, "Now that we have been reconciled to God through Christ, we are no longer strangers and aliens, but we are fellow citizens. We are of God's household," His family! We belong to God's family! Chapter 4, verse 6: the same image: "There is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Paul's point, in context, is that both Jews and Gentiles have now become members of God's family. You all, we all, as Christians, are part of God's family. How do you become part of a family? There's only two ways. Either you're adopted into the family, or you're born into the family. That's it! And Scripture uses both of those images to describe Christians. In John, chapter 3, you remember, in Jesus' interchange with Nicodemus, He tells him what? "You must be born again." You need to be born into God's family. John 1 makes this same point: verses 12 and 13: "We are born into God's family." First Peter: Peter says, "we were born again through the living and enduring Word of God." We were born into God's family. But we were also adopted into God's family. Ephesians 1 says that God chose to adopt us in eternity past. He made a decision in eternity past, that He would adopt you, Christian. And Romans 8 says that at the moment of salvation, He actually adopted you. You were given the Spirit of adoption. And now the Holy Spirit within you cries out what? "Abba, Father!" And in the future, at the moment of your glorification, Romans 8 says, your adoption will be finalized. Paul says, "I eagerly wait for my adoption, that is, the redemption of my body." So all Christians, then, are members of God's family. The church is a family. When we meet on the Lord's Day for worship, we are getting together for a family gathering. Don't you sense this? Don't you feel this? Some of you, particularly, who have unbelieving family members, you are closer to the people in this church than you are to your own family members. Why? Because we are a family! In the mind of God, once you come to Christ, at that moment, you are ushered into God's family. You become, not only connected to God as your Father, but you become connected to the other members of the family. So understand that when Paul refers to this unity, this is what he means. There is already this real, vital unity between those who are Christians. It is like the unity between the members of a body. It's like the oneness between the stones in a building. It's like the unity between the members of a family. It's real. It exists. It's how God sees us. And it's what we see, ourselves, however imperfectly.

But verse three raises a second question in my mind: not only "What is unity?" But also, "What is the source of unity?" What is the source of this unity? Verse 3 again: "the unity of the Spirit." The Spirit of God is the source, the origin, the cause of this unity. It is the unity that the Spirit produces. If you were to go back to Ephesians, chapter 2, you'll remember, in the paragraph we looked at that begins in verse 11 and runs through the end of the chapter, he talks about our being reconciled to God. That happened through the work of Christ. Verse 13: "But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You've been reconciled to God and to each other by Christ. Christ bought this unity. But verse 22 says, "The Spirit wrought this unity." Notice verse 22: "You're being built together in a dwelling of God in, or by, the Spirit." Christ bought it and the Spirit wrought it. He is the one who produces it. I Corinthians, chapter 12 makes this point even a little more clearly. I Corinthians, 12, verse 12 says, "For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body though there are many, are one body, so also is Christ." In other words, it's the same spiritually as with your physical bodies. "For by one Spirit (that is, the Holy Spirit), we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." Here's the point: At the moment of your salvation, at the moment that you came to faith in Christ, when you repented and turned from your sins and embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and Savor, at that very moment, the Holy Spirit baptized you. That is, He immersed you into Christ. You became connected to the body of Christ. You became one with the other members of the body under the Head, Jesus Christ. So the Spirit produced it. And He produced it at the moment of salvation. This unity was created when you said, "I give up my sin and I turn to Christ." You and I can never create this unity. We aren't commanded to create this unity. We are to work to preserve it. The Spirit of God has already produced this very real unity that we have with other Christians. And you feel that. You sense that. I travel all over the world: go to Russia, or India, or Singapore. I've been to Australia, New Zealand. I've been all over the world, and mingled with other Christians, and you know what? It doesn't take us but about three minutes to connect. Why? Because there's this real unity that I could never have created. You could never have created. The Spirit of God did it. And that's what binds us together, as well.

That brings us to a third question: "So what is my responsibility in regard to this unity?" What is my responsibility? Verse 3: "being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit." Now, obviously, that is what is called a participle, a participial phrase. But most commentators agree that, although it is a participle in form, in meaning, it is a command. It is an imperative. We could legitimately rephrase it like this: "Be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit." The Greek word translated "being diligent," here occurs some eleven times in the New Testament. It's usually translated either like this, or "to be eager," or "to make every effort." We don't really have an English equivalent to this word, because it includes the idea of haste and urgency and importance and diligence, all wrapped into one. Paul is essentially saying, "Listen! Do this now! And do it because it's important! And work hard at it."

What are we to be diligent to do? Notice: "Be diligent to preserve." The Greek word means "to keep, to maintain; not to lose, or to allow to be damaged what is already ours." Keep, maintain, preserve the unity the Spirit has already produced. This is so important. When Paul turns to Christian living (This may not be high on your priority list, but it's high on God's!) Because when Paul turns to Christian living, the very first thing he talks about is our unity. It was equally important to the people of God in the Old Testament. If I had time, I'd take you back to Psalm 133. Read Psalm 133, a beautiful expression of the beauty of unity among brothers. And in the New Testament, Jesus, Himself, stressed the importance of this unity. We often turn to Jesus' High Priestly prayer in John 17 to really see His heart. It's the prayer that was prayed on the night before His crucifixion. Listen to what Jesus prayed for you and for me. Verse 22 of John 17: He says, "The glory which you have given me, Father, I have given to them that they may be one, just as we are one" (Father, may they enjoy the same unity we enjoy). "I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity; so that the world may know that You sent Me and love them, even as you have loved Me." This was crucial to Christ. He prayed it for His disciples and for us on the night before His crucifixion.

It was crucial for Paul. Nowhere can you see that more clearly than in I Corinthians. You read I Corinthians, and you see a church that was in trouble. I mean, everything was going on in Corinth. They were tolerating incest in the church. Undisciplined incest. There was lawsuits between members of the church. There were drunken brawls at the Lord's Table. They were abusing the gift of tongues. It's incredible what was going on in Corinth! And yet, where does Paul begin? Where would you begin if all that stuff was going on at church, and you were responsible for it? You know where Paul begins? He begins with unity. Chapter 1, verse 10: "I hear that there are divisions among you." And for two chapters he deals with the disunity. Why does he start there? Because, folks, when a church is united, it can deal with even the most serious problems. But when there is disunity, even the most basic problems, even the smallest of problems can wreck the church. So he begins by laying the foundation of unity.

And he does the same thing with the Ephesian church. When he gets to the practical, he starts with this very issue. Why is that? Why is it that we must be diligent to preserve this unity? Why is it so important to God? Well, He tells us in Ephesians. Look at Ephesians, chapter 1. It's because this unity is part of God's great eternal plan. Ephesians, chapter 1: you remember in verses 9 and 10; he explains God's great will and purpose. Verse 9 says, "Here is what He purposed: the mystery of His will which He purposed in Him." It is this: to sum up, verse 10: "All things in Christ, to bring everything united under Christ." You get the same message in Ephesians, chapter 3 that we studied together. Ephesians 3 verse 6: he says, "I've got this mystery I'm gonna tell you about; God's great eternal plan: that Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body." Verse 10: "so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church."

Let me put all that together for you. Here's what Paul was saying. Listen to it in the words of Lloyd Jones: "The central object of salvation is to reunite, to bring together again, to restore the unity that existed before sin and the fall produced this terrible havoc.

This is God's grand design. It is what displays God's glory above everything else. Sin wrecked the unity that existed on the planet and in the universe. And God's glory is most seen when He takes that wreck and He brings it back together in unity."

That's why it's so important to God. Because it's part of His great eternal plan! And fortunately, the Lord has given us a crucial reminder of our unity. It's the Lord's Table; the Lord's Supper.

The New Testament makes it clear that we are to celebrate the Lord's Table. And we are to do so with other Christians in the context of the church. How do I know that? Well, Paul makes it very clear in I Corinthians 11. In I Corinthians 11, Paul talks about the Lord's Supper. And he says, "I want you to do this in remembrance of Christ." Three times in that passage as he deals with the Lord's Supper, you know what he says? "When you come together", "When you come together", "When you come together." The Lord's Supper is to be taken together! Because you see, we tend to think of ourselves as individual Christians. And that's right. God does know us individually. But God also sees us as a group, as part of His family, as His children, together. And we are to celebrate what He has done for us, together. Why is it that we should only take the Lord's Table with other Christians?

Turn to I Corinthians 10. There's just one last passage before we take the Lord's Supper together. I Corinthians 10 explains why this is important. I Corinthians 10, verse 16: "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless" (That's referring to, by the way, the third cup in the Passover celebration: the one Jesus turned into the Lord's Table). "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body. For we all partake of the one bread." Do you hear what Paul is saying? He's saying that when we drink the cup, when we eat the bread, it shows that we are one. It shows our unity. It shows our partnership in the body of Christ. There is a sharing of fellowship with other Christians. It pictures, this ordinance pictures, that you and I are united. We're all eating the same bread. We're all drinking the same cup. You know what it shows? It shows that you and I are united in receiving the benefits of the death of Christ, which it pictures. We're all members of the family, enjoying the benefits of what our Lord has done for us.

Our Father, we thank You for the blood of Christ. We thank You that He willingly poured out His life as a sacrifice: the innocent for the guilty, so that we could go free; His life in exchange for our lives. Father, we thank You for such amazing love. "How can it be that You, my God, would die for me?" Lord, don't let us ever get over that. And help us to live this week in light of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us. Lord, may this ordinance remind us of Christ, and remind us of His cross. And may it remind us that someday He's coming again and we will celebrate this with Him in His kingdom. Until that day, keep us faithful.

We pray in Jesus' name,

Amen