Lessons from Ephesians No.1 Loyalty

Ephesians and chapter 4, and we shall commence our reading at verse 1. As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

This is why it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. What does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe.

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will be no longer the infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is Christ.

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. The Lord will bless to us that reading from his word, and now our Sunday School superintendent, Peter Edwards, has a word for the boys and girls. I'd be glad if you'd have your Bibles open at Ephesians and chapter 4, and I repeat some of the verses already brought to our attention.

From verse 3, make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

The sequence of thought of the Apostle here in Ephesians 4, following what he has had to share in the previous chapter, compels me to address you today on the concept of solidarity. Now I would perhaps have hesitated in using that word as the title of our meditation a couple of years ago, because the word was not so common. But now it has been on the lips of many people, brought to our attention by the events in Czechoslovakia, the endeavors of ordinary people to exert their political and working rights, and by merging together to make an impression upon the government.

Solidarity, the bringing of people together. The dictionary defines solidarity in terms of mutual dependence, community of interest, many merging into the one. So as a result, they might make an impact and an impression.

Now you can hardly deny the fact that selecting for my address title this morning, Solidarity, is a direct reading, a direct conclusion upon what Paul has to say in these verses. He's speaking about our oneness in the Lord Jesus. And again there are many congregations in the United Kingdom where I would hesitate to bring this address, because Paul's reasoning seems a little complicated.

But to quote my friend Dr. Tozer, as I often do if you shake your head, here in the tab this morning, I think you will be able to get those little wheels in your brains working and by the help of the Holy Spirit to appreciate that what Paul has to tell us about our unity in Christ is of great benefit and consequence and stimulus to all of us. Now why is the Apostle speaking in this fashion? Why is he making this appeal? You remember last week I shared with you the fact that Paul is still in prison. And having prayed in a very remarkable fashion for the people at Ephesus, Paul having prostrated himself on his south floor before the Holy Father, having asked that they might be filled with all the fullness of God, goes on to remind them of certain dispositions that Christian people always ought to reproduce.

He instructs them, verse 2, to be completely humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love. And we found last week that his culminating thought was this, make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There you get the first suggestion, and certainly not the only suggestion, of solidarity amongst Christian people, keeping the unity of the faith in the bond of peace.

And you might say, well Paul, why are you arguing this? Why must Christian people yesteryear and also today be united? And he could well have argued, logically and convincingly, that well, within unity there is a great degree of efficiency. A united office, a good staff, all getting on well with another, means that the product at the end of the week in terms of administration is good. He could have argued that way.

He could also have reminded us of the little adage that in unity there is strength. And once more we would have complimented him on his logic. But the Apostle does not make direct reference to either of those two reasons.

Rather he tells us that one of the main objectives behind us being united together, loving one another, is the stimulus that we receive when we look at the Godhead. Because there we discover God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit accord in a bond of love. And what God is on heaven, in heaven.

So the church is to reproduce here on the earth. So let's look at what he has to say in some closer detail as he uses these verses which underline our unity as brothers and sisters. Did you notice first of all the repetition of the word one as the Apostle lists certain qualities and certain aspects of Christian unity? One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

And if you add all the unities up they come to seven. And seven, though I don't want wish to press the point, is the number of perfection. As though the Apostle Paul is saying that the perfections of God are to be reproduced amongst Christian people here on earth.

And one of the great perfections of the Godhead is that the members exist together in a bond of unbroken love. And then did you notice as we were reading these verses that there seemed to be three particular groupings of those seven unities. One body and one spirit and one hope.

That forms the first unity. Two references to the Holy Spirit and two reference to the unities of the Spirit that he produces and the reference to the Spirit himself in verse four. And then in verse five the references to the Lord, to the Lord Jesus Christ and the one faith and the one baptism that those who follow Jesus embrace.

And then the final group, and there is only one subject matter mentioned, is in the sixth verse. One God and Father of us all, who is over all and through all and in all. Now just in case you've lost Paul's reasoning, he's asking that Christian people love one another, that they be, that they bear with one another, that they keep the unity of friendship one to another.

And the reason why he explodes in verse four is, and the words there is are supplied in the English Bible, they're not there in the original, the reason is because there's one body and one spirit and one Lord and one baptism and one God and Father of all. In other words, when you're called to belong to the body of Christ, you're called into a unity that is a reproduction of all the glad unity that exists in the heavens. Now you might expect the Apostle Paul to reverse his order of illustration.

After all, he's referring to the Godhead and whenever we refer to the Trinity we do so in terms of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But when the Apostle here makes reference to the Trinity, he reverses the order. And first of all, in the third, in the fourth verse, you discover mention to the Spirit.

And then in the next verse, to the Lord, the Lord Jesus. And then in the sixth verse, for our purposes, the final verse this morning, the reference is to the Almighty God and Father. Why does Paul do this? Why does he start with the Spirit and then move on to the Lord Jesus and then finally to God the Father as he appeals for us to exhibit a Christian unity amongst ourselves? Well, I suggest that he does this because this is how we discover God, if you please.

The first contact that we have with the Godhead, so to speak, is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who convicts. He is the one who gives to us a sense of need, a recognition that our sins are terrible and something needs to be done about them.

The Holy Spirit is God's ambassador who moves around the earth and creates conviction within the hearts of those who respond to what He has to say. And then the Holy Spirit, He brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ and we recognize Him as our as our Savior. And then ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ takes us into the presence of God the Father.

There are three aspects of the work of salvation and they are all illustrated by the Trinity. And the Trinity works in complete cohesion, in complete accord. And as the Trinity has in mind the bringing of our salvation, so the Godhead gives us an example of the way that we should work together.

So we meet God in the form of the Spirit who takes us into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who becomes our one and only mediator. And through Jesus we have access to the Father. Now this is what Paul makes very clear in this most marvelous piece of teaching which needs a lot of concentration but rewards good effort on the part of the student.

Well then let's take that first triplet to which Paul makes reference. The fact that we as part of the people of God are to look to the fact of our one body and the one Spirit and the one hope. Here's the first triplet as I say that Paul reproduces in this in this fourth verse.

And let's go through those terms very quickly just to see how they relate one to another. Paul is introducing us to the work of the Holy Spirit but first of all he makes mention to one body. You say I don't quite understand that.

Well it's quite easy really if we take it slowly. How does Paul very often refer to the Christian church? Well in the second chapter he does so in terms of a mighty empire. He speaks of these people who once were were citizens of another country but now through Jesus Christ they become God's own children.

They are his citizens and that expression of of God having his own people his own empire is taken up and developed elsewhere in Paul's teaching. And then he makes reference to the church in terms of a temple. And again at the end of the second chapter of this epistle you you discover him speaking of Christians as though they're living stones built into the temple of God.

And in the fifth chapter you'll discover that the apostle Paul makes reference to the church as the bride the bride of Christ. But the most favorite way in which Paul illustrates the church is by referring to her as a body. One body.

And if you were to read into 1 Corinthians chapter 12 you'll discover that Paul breaks open his superb analogy as he talks about the human body and then he talks about you and me as being members of the body of Christ. And as in the human body we have different aspects that all make up that one marvelous thing your body and my body. So in the church of Jesus Christ there are many individuals and they all federate they all coalesce together and we become one in him.

You see God doesn't recognize denominations as such. He doesn't look down from his heaven and say they're the Methodists and they're the Presbyterians and they're the Catholics and they're the Pentates and they're the Charismatics and there are those respectable people in Worthing Tabernacle. He doesn't do that at all.

He looks down from his heavens and he sees one body. The aggregate of everyone who has confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That is the Holy Catholic Church as described in the Creed.

One body to which you belong if you trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Ah but how did that body come into being? Well that's why Paul moves us to the concept of the one spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is referred to as the church's midwife.

The midwife is present when a birth is expected and with her expertise the birth is successfully achieved and so the Holy Spirit brings birth to the church. We are born into the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit. He is the one you remember I mentioned this a few moments ago who convinces and convicts us of our sins.

This is his agency. You once felt terrible. Why did you feel terrible as a sinner? Well the Holy Spirit he was stalking you.

He was isolating you. You felt utterly alone. Utterly miserable.

You knew full well that you've broken the laws of God and that you you flew in the in the face of God's commandments and the Spirit educates you. Not just isolates you. He educates you and he teaches you something of the gravity of sin and you feel even worse and then the Spirit does something else.

He not only isolates and educates you but by his power he incorporates you into the body of Christ and you're born again. That's what it means by becoming a Christian. The Holy Spirit brings you into the body of Christ and you glow with vitality.

What is the energy that pulsates through the body of Christ? It's not the natural physical energy of the members of the local churches. It's the power that they draw from the Holy Spirit and everyone who is part of the body of Christ is indwelt by the Spirit and has this as a common denominator. But let's move on.

One body. One spirit. Also one hope.

How can the work of the Holy Spirit be that of bringing hope? You ask. Well you'll find that the Apostle Paul is extremely logical indeed. Let's take up the thought of hope for a moment and turn back to the first chapter of this Ephesian epistle.

And there in the 11th verse we're told of great things that have happened to us because of the predestined will of Almighty God has worked out through Jesus. In Him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. In order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory.

Now we're coming back to that verse in in a moment. But if you drop down to the 18th verse you'll see another reference to hope. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you.

What is a hope? Well it's something that's not been fulfilled but there's reasonable expectation. When I was a younger man and thought of such foolish things as large cars I once had the fond hope that I might drive a Mercedes Benz. When I was 20 it looked as though it might be possible.

Now I'm double that age I have given it up as being an utter illusion. There is nothing on which to build my hope. It will never be fulfilled and actually it's not a very serious hope and wasn't then to be quite honest.

But as far as the Holy Spirit is concerned where does He come into the area of hope? A long time ago I, well I've got it on the wrong finger, I slipped that ring onto this finger and it indicated that I was engaged. What is engagement? Well it's a situation of pregnant hope. She said yes and perhaps maybe there's reason to suggest she might go ahead with it and the engagement will lead into a marriage.

The hope will be realized. Now when the Holy Spirit is referred to in Ephesians the same word is used in the Greek language as the Greeks that today give to the word engagement ring. Will you drop back to the 13th verse of Ephesians 1? And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth.

The gospel of your salvation having believed you were marked in Him. With what? With a seal. The promised Holy Spirit.

The engagement ring was placed on your finger so to speak. Verse 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. When you take out a mortgage what do they require of you? Those beastly agencies called building societies who give you the illusion that ere long you might own your own home but the year advances after year and the rate seems to go up and up and the realization is pushed further and further back into your old age.

But the deposit you pay is if you like a little token of the full anticipation of paying the whole thing off and the inheritance is yours. It belongs to you legally. It is your house.

Now in that sense surely you follow me by now. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives He is if you like the deposit. He is promising great things now but even more wonderful things to come.

And this is why the Christian is a born optimist. Yes your life may be filled with some difficulties both physically and spiritually perhaps even financially perhaps in the area of employment but everything that you have now will pale into insignificance at the spiritual level to all that is in store for you in the future. And so you press on recognizing that though your vile body decays there is in heaven a glorious body reserved for you.

The path of the just as the Old Testament is as a shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day. So Christian people are those who are in the body of Christ. They have been brought into the body by the ministry of the Spirit and the Spirit gives them hope.

He is the Spirit of hope and that's why that little triplet is first of all brought to our attention because it's the immediate ministry that we confront our immediate experience as we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord. But the Holy Spirit has another activity and that is one that I've touched on. It is the the ministry of the Spirit to bring a person to Jesus.

No man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit and Jesus says when he has come the Spirit he will glorify me. And so the next little triplet that Paul brings to our attention quite logically features the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been brought into contact with the one Lord and we embrace the one faith that he reveals and we are incorporated into a relationship with him by the symbolism of the one baptism.

There is only one Lord Jesus Christ. There is no possibility of dividing him. He is utterly indivisible.

The gospelers had a spectacular experience of Jesus. They recognized that Peter and John and all the rest of them that there was no one to compare with him. When on one occasion some would-be disciples, some fair-weather disciples left him, Jesus said to them, will you also go away? And they said, Lord to whom shall we go? No one's like you, you're unique.

And you remember how this comes out in all its drama, in all its warmth, on one of the resurrection appearances. The disciples have been away fishing and then they spot a fire by the bank of Galilee and they recognize that the man by the fire, the man cooking breakfast is unusual, he's unique. It is the Lord.

The Lord. There is only one Lord. No one like Jesus Christ.

Paul makes it clear time and time again that the Lord Jesus Christ is irreplaceable. He cannot be divided. You remember when the apostle is writing to the Corinthians, they're having an argument.

Indeed one of the reasons why Paul writes so many letters is to maintain the unity of the faith, which often seems to be breaking down. And in current world you've got little groups, you know, one following one teacher, one following another. I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, and so forth.

And the super spiritual Lord who said, I'm of Christ. And Paul says, is Jesus capable of being divided? It's ridiculous. He's indivisible.

There is only one Lord. And if you are attached to him through faith by the mighty operation of the Spirit, if you have life in him, if you share that one hope, then obviously you're one with your brothers and sisters because Jesus Christ is the common denominator. One Lord.

And he brings one faith. All Christians agree as to this. Oh, I don't mean the whole deposit of theology.

There are many secondary issues on which we have a variety of opinions. But there is one irreducible element that Christians around the globe, black and white, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, accept. And that is that the gospel is the revelation of God through Jesus Christ.

And that when that man went to the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ, he went there for your sins and for the sins of believing mankind. You cannot be a Christian and not recognize this. The one faith, the trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

It's the irreducible minimum that all Christian people around the globe of every century have acknowledged. And if you acknowledge this, it breeds a solidarity. I'm one with you because I'm one in faith.

Because I'm one in the Lordship of Christ, made one by the operations of the spirit. One Lord, one faith, I and one baptism. Ah, but you say Christians often divide as to the amount of water in baptism and the application of baptism, the actual mode.

But it seems to me that Paul is going to the heart of the matter. He's not so concerned with the act as what it denotes. What does baptism denote? Well, being incorporated into the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those of us who are led by the spirit are baptized into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 makes that perfectly clear. And this baptism, however outwardly it might be applied, is the symbol of the fact that you and I are one with the Lord Jesus Christ.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Not the quantity of the water that's important, but the quality of the heart's devotion to Christ and the ability of the soul to live in the power of Jesus. And then finally, the last of the little groupings that the apostle makes when he speaks of our solidarity, brings us to the concept of the one God and father of all, who is over all and through all.

Paul never stops at the ministry of the spirit. Some people do, and it's unfortunate. He never stops at the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, magnificent though that be.

And it's a shame sometimes that our hymns are often so geared to the Lord Jesus that there is such a small section that takes us on to the Father. And this is one of the reasons why I applaud singing some of these scripture choruses from the Old Testament, which plunder, I use that word deliberately, the promises and the truths of the Old Testament, and bring honor and praise to the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit introduces us to the Son, and the Son introduces us to the Father.

And there's one thing that you can say about the apostle Paul, and that is he had a right doctrine of the first person of the Trinity, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Here is a summary of all those unities that make us one as Christian people, because we are welded together in the purposes of the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus. So the apostle earlier on has revealed this to us as in the first chapter.

In the second verse he says, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 17, his first prayer for the Ephesian Christians, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and so on. Look at verse 14 of the third chapter, for this reason I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

The Lord God is above everything. He is the one who warrants all praise and glory, for he sent the Son, who in turn sent the Spirit. He is over all, and he is through all.

His providential dealings are mediated towards each one of us, so that each day we can know something of the blessings of the faithful Heavenly Father. And what is more, it's almost mind-blowing that little preposition in, and he is in all. The body of Christ is pulsated by the power that flows from the Heavenly Father.

He comes to the temple, which is another way of expressing the Christian church on earth. He comes suddenly to his temple, and he receives the honor and the praise of his children. So you see what the Apostle has done.

Let me briefly summarize it once again. He has appealed for our solidarity, and he has done so not by showing us the efficiency and the strength which comes to those who are united, but he takes us into the heavenly realm. He groups together the members of the Trinity.

He talks to us first of all surprisingly about the Spirit, and we realize the logic that prompts him to deal with the Spirit and the unities that flow from him, because it's the Spirit who first woos us and brings us to a state of conviction. And then he leads us on to the Lord Jesus Christ and the oneness of faith and baptism that we enjoy, because we've been introduced to him by the Spirit. But he doesn't stay with the Lord Jesus.

He takes his arm to this Heavenly Father, because it is through the Spirit and by the office of the Lord Jesus that we have a right to approach this great God, this Heavenly Father. And the point of the matter is this. If the Trinity can cohere in such a united fashion and bring about their purposes, if there is, so to speak, I sound like a fool, no rivalry within the Trinity, if there is perfect agreement, agreement in purpose, agreement even in essence, then what is there if the church is right on earth should also be here? And therefore you have a great concern, or you should have, to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, living together, loving one another, sharing together.

Why? Because of this unbroken solidarity that should exist. This one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. The seven unities of the Christian faith.

Unity is not something that is organized from below. It is something that is bestowed from above and needs working at to be maintained and to appreciate all of its blessed consequences. May God increasingly make us a united people here in the tap, reproducing the unity that there is in the Godhead.

Amen. Now I come to the conclusion that this next hymn wasn't in our hymn book until Betty reminded me that I was trying to find the hymn from the third verse and not the first verse. So let's turn to 519, which underlines the unity, not only theologically, but practically, that Christian brothers and sisters have one to another and the unity that wells them to the triune God.

519, through the night of doubt and sorrow. Father, we've looked into your word and we've seen there something of the unity that you want us to enjoy. And in some measure, within your grace, perhaps we grasp the theology of the teaching of these verses.

But Lord, it would be an insult to you if we understood at that level, but didn't work it out in our day by day relationships. Grant us a baptism of unity and an ability to love one another, to forgive one another, to encourage one another, to share with one another so that all forms of loneliness and isolation are banished from this fellowship. And so that all shall appreciate more and more the blessings of the great God and Father who is above all and through all and in all.

Amen.