Thistletown Baptist Church
November 9, 2008
The Bond of Peace
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Ephesians 3:14 – 4:3 (ESV)
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, [16] that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [18] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, [19] and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
[20] Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, [2] with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, [3] eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
I Introduction
The Scriptures are clear that war will not finally end until Jesus puts an end to it once and for all when He returns. Until then men will still have evil hearts and that evil will show itself in horrifying atrocities. But that does not mean that we are not to fight for peace. We must.
It is because it is Remembrance Day and the IDOP for the persecuted church, that I wanted this morning to talk about the peace that the Gospel brings to those who know Jesus Christ. Not the inner peace with God that becomes ours when we believe (although there can hardly be a higher peace to talk about), but the peace that reigns between true believers who love the same God. Faith in Jesus Christ brings peace with God (Romans 5:1). But the peace with God that comes because of faith in Jesus Christ does not stop there. It produces peace on the horizontal level. If a person really has peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ then it is going to show, first of all, in how he gets along with other people who also have peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. And that is what we are gong to look at this morning.
II Walk Worthy of Your Calling
We are in Ephesians 4:1-3. The basic command of all of Ephesians 4 – 6 is the one given right at the beginning “walk worthy of your calling.” The rest of this Letter is a description of what the worthy walk looks like.
The phrase “of your calling” looks back to all that has preceded this point in the letter. So Paul joins both all that he has said and relates it to all that he is about to say.
See the calling in:
1:3-14 esp. vs. 4f, 7-10, 11f }
2:4-7 } This is our calling
3:6, 10, 14-19, 20. }
This is our calling dear ones and we are called to walk worthy of it. For it is a grand calling, a glorious calling. It is a calling that will alter the whole way in which we live.
But the primary reference that Paul makes is to 2:11-22
Now dear ones, you need to follow along closely. If you have your Bible you need now to have it open and to follow along. The Apostle Paul spoke in long, connected sentences and thoughts and it is important that we understand the connections he makes in this text. The fact that to understand Paul sometimes takes some hard mental work is a testimony that God wants us to work hard mentally as well as spiritually.
4:1 – “I therefore” looks back to 3:14-21 and that section begins with “for this reason” – for what reason? The reason he refers to goes all the way back to what is spoken before 3:1. In 3:1, “for this reason” refers to 2:11-22 where Paul is talking about the great accomplishment of the cross in bringing Jew and Gentile together into one.
2:14-22 says:
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility [15] by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, [16] and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. [17] And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. [18] For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. [19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, [20] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, [21] in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. [22] In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
“For this reason” (3:14) Since 2:14-22 is true I pray this for you (3:14-21). And since I pray that I therefore urge you to walk worthy of your calling … . Absolutely amazing. Stunning. The calling that God is drawing our attention to in this text is the calling to be one, to be united, to love one another, to be at peace with each other – to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Note the very last thing that Paul says in chapter 3. Just put it together “Our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think. Now then, walk worthy of your calling…”
III The Unity of the Spirit
1) What do you expect to be told to do after the lofty words of 3:20f are said to you? What kind of life will it be that shows itself to be worthy of such a calling? Think it through dear ones – God can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. And our minds are lifted to the heights of great things happening. God can do more than we ask or think – a revival of newsworthy proportions that has the news agencies here seeking for an explanation for the lack of crime, the love that shows itself in helping the hurting. Oh what we could be a part of if God would do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. Miracles being performed, sick being healed, the dead being raised, debts being paid, youth reunited with their parents … . Where does your heart go when you hear “above all that we can ask or think”?
See where God takes us when He inspires Paul to write this incredible thing.
4:2f “…” humility, patience, gentleness, forbearance. Ah dear ones, is this what you think about when you think of God doing above all we can ask or think? See that this takes the power of God doing exceedingly more than you can ask or think. You pray to know the power of God. Here it is dear one. Do not miss it – Love God supremely and others before yourself.
2) And note the language that Paul uses: “I urge you”. There is urgency here. There is pleading. .
You don’t urge people to do things that do not matter to you. You do not urge people to
do things that are not important. Do you urge people to do trivial things? Do yo urge them to do things that do not matter? No. You urge them to do what is important, what is crucial, what is necessary for their health, safety, betterment … . You urge your kids not talk to strangers. You urge your teenagers not to get involved in drugs … . Your doctor urges you to eat the right things. And God here, urges us to get along. This is important. This is crucial. This is absolutely necessary.
And see this as well:
It takes the immeasurable power of God at work in your heart to get you to live with humility, patience, gentleness, forbearance and love. Because we are so vastly different from one another.
In this room, in the hearts and minds of people you just sang songs with, prayed with, prayed for …. are people who
i.Wrestle with horrible sins
ii.Voted differently than you did
iii.Have vastly, VASTLY different tastes in music, art, entertainment, movie preferences,
food preferences, clothing preferences .. . We have people of different colours, different ethnicities, different cultures. We have children here and young people here and young adults here sitting next to people who are in their eighties and nineties. There are people here who rub you the wrong way, who may have been rude to you at some time … . Look around you dear ones and see people of whom Eph. 1:3-14, 2:1-4 and 2:11-22 are true.
It is these people whom God now calls you to live with humility … and to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
3) Unity – We are called here to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
Not organizational unity, or denominational unity. This is not an external unity that can be maintained through laws and by-laws and rules and regulations. This is not some unity that was hammered out in a room between enemies so that they can come out to the public and declare an agreement. The parties still hate each other but at least they are not fighting. No, no. This the unity that is brought to us and maintained in us by the work of the Holy Spirit. This is unity that reaches into the depths of our hearts and changes people so that they truly do love each other … . Do not underestimate this dear ones. The Apostle John is very blunt about this in I John 3:11-24
4) The unity of the Spirit will not be a unity that does not care about truth. You cannot have a unity of the Spirit with a non believer. You can have a deep friendship, a love a … but you cannot have a unity that reflects the Spirit. See the unity of Rev. 17:13. There was unity amongst the Axis powers in WWII but it did not come from the Holy Spirit.
5) Verse 3 – Eager to maintain. We are not to do this grudgingly. We are to be eager to do it.
Eager = to give diligence to, to be eager, to make every effort. To make haste.
Lit. – always being eager … The desire to keep the unity of the Spirit is a constant concern for the church.
The verb suggests the need for perseverance. This command will only be obeyed through difficulty. It will
require resolve, determination, effort. Dear ones, unity is hard work. War is easy. Hate is easy. Stubbornness, inflexibility – these are the natural easy way to go. Maintaining peace is hard work. It does not come easily. So much nonsense around about “just let go and let God”, “empty yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in you.” The work the HS is going to do in you is give you the strength to do the hard work that He commands you to do. This is not “just say you love Jesus” and then everybody gets along. Not at all. We need to stop blaming the Holy Spirit for our laziness.
The unity that we are to maintain is the unity that comes from the Holy Spirit
6)Note these three things about the unity of the Spirit:
a) A unity that seeks first of all the glory of God – Romans 15:5f
Dear ones we need to know this. Being out of fellowship with other believers is not just a bad testimony, it is a barrier to worship. Jesus did ot just save you. And He did not just save me. He saved us. And He put us in this church to worship – together. The believers in this room are called to glorify God, not with many voices, but with one voice.
b) A unity that seeks the good of the church – Eph. 4:15f
c) A unity that seeks to maintain itself for the sake of winning the lost – Phil. 1:27
Quote from Yancey in CT – “One modern Indian pastor told me, ‘Most of what happened in Christian churches [in India], including even the miracles, can be duplicated in Hindu and Muslim congregations. But in my area only Christians strive, however ineptly, to mix men and women of different castes, races, and social groups. That’s a real miracle.'”
7) A powerful unity
Note from this – Hindus and Muslims can duplicate the miracles. Dear ones, the mark of the faith is not the miracle. The devil can work a miracle. The magicians of Egypt worked miracles. Miracles are not what the world needs to see. The real power of God is when the things that normally would cause people to take up arms against one another because of their station in life, the tribe they come from, the territory they occupy …, in the church of Jesus Christ – don’t matter. And the reason they don’t matter is because God can do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. And the reason they don’t matter is because Ephesians 2:14-22 is true of true saints of God.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility [15] by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, [16] and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. [17] And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. [18] For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. [19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, [20] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, [21] in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. [22] In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Isn’t this what amazes the Apostle John in Revelation 7:9f. Hear the amazement in his voice. Do not think that all that he is taken up with is the size of the crowd. There is more to what makes his eyes pop than that. What amazes him is that this tremendous crowd is made up of all kinds of different people.
We commemorate today that men and women from all over the world were willing to get involved in a war that had as one of its major premises that one race of people is better than another.
The American Civil War – fought over the right to enslave a particular race of humanity.
The Rwandan massacres in the early nineties, the Bosnian conflict around the same time, the Middle East conflict, the laws and violence in South Africa for centuries, the caste system of India, the class system of Great Britain, colonial exploration in the 16th – 18th centuries. The list goes on and on and on. All these things I referred to were ethnically based and were accompanied by the belief that one group of people were intrinsically better than another and had the right to enslave, murder, suppress or in some other way oppress a group of people because of who they were or what they worshipped or what colour they were or what their station in life was … .
The free world celebrated the fact this week that a man whose ancestors were slaves was elected president of the United States. Well, how sad is this that the, most powerful democracy in the world takes almost 300 years to demonstrate the first statement of its own constitution/declaration of independence?
All of this dear ones is erased at the cross. At the cross we discover that all people are sinners in need of grace and all sinners are offered it. This is not trivial stuff is it? This is the real stuff.
IV Conclusion
1) Don’t get sidetracked dear ones into thinking that Christian unity is small stuff. This is where our attentions need to be focussed.
2) Don’t just apply this to inter-church unity. This starts here, in this room with the people we worship with. Are there any people in this room you need to forgive? Any you need to say “Sorry” to? Pray about it and then do it. We try to obey James 5:13-15 in this church. Let’s give verse 16 a go as well.
3) Individualism needs to be done away with. Oh how we are marked by our culture in this one thing alone! We cannot exist without one another. We are not the body of Christ if all we do is meet together once a week. We need to value one another. We need to show the world that God has made us one. The reason we are to be eager to maintain the unity … is because we are one – the reason we are to demonstrate oneness is because we are one. The external oneness is there because of an internal reality. We are not commanded to become one. We are commanded to keep the oneness of the Spirit. S
Keep it, show it, enjoy it, love it, pray for it, demonstrate it to each other. Demonstrate it to the world. Dear ones, what is wrong with us? If as many people in this room who think they are Christians really are Christians then you ought to feel the love form across the street.
(1)dear ones – think this through. Look around you. That Christian sitting near you – Eph. 1:4-6, 7-11 …are all true of him.
(2)Eph. 2:11 -22 is trues of every one of them…
(3)What a great work Christ has doen. But dear ones, do not just think of it as a work done for you as an individual. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is for as community of people. Eph. 5:25 – He died for the church, the body of Christ, the assembly of the saints. His Spirit is in the world awaking those people to the glories of God. He is bringing them into theat body. God and the angels rejoice when another one is brought in. And we should too. And we should be eager to have them join us and be taught the faith and serve Christ and fellowship with us.
Dear people. Since God can do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think – let us be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. For God’s glory, our good and the salvation of people from every tribe, nation, people and language.
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