Maturity No.2 Getting on with others

The Bible is open at Ephesians chapter 4. We will be darting around a little in our study this evening. I remind you that this was our launching pad last week as we considered the first of this series on Christian maturity. And it's in this chapter that the Apostle Paul in the 14th verse tells us that we are no longer to be infants.

And in the previous verse, the 13th, has suggested that we should all aim to become as mature as our Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the main testing grounds for maturity is to what degree you get along with your Christian brother and sister. So we're in for some very interesting comments and lessons this evening.

Do you ever suffer from hiccups? I don't generally, apart from on the rare occasion I ask people in the tabernacle to sing from hymns of faith, number 379. The third verse goes, like a mighty army moves the church of God. Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.

Now my hiccup. We are not divided. All one body we.

One in hope and doctrine. One in charity. Well that's the ideal.

But even within the broad spectrum of evangelicalism, the ideal is far from actual. And in the majority of local church fellowships, the outworking of that verse is not always to be seen. There is a parody, a take-off of that verse, which if I remember it correctly, I meant to check before I came here, but I was a little late arriving this evening, goes something after this fashion.

Like a mighty tortoise crawls the church of God. Brothers, we are treading where we've always trod. We are not united.

Not one body we. Very strong on doctrine. Weak on charity.

Well somewhere between the ideal, verse 3 of Hymn 379, and the parody is where most Christian fellowships find themselves. In other words, it's not always easy for Christian people to get on with one another, or for Christian churches, for that matter, as communities, to relate properly. Now I quoted that parody of onward Christian soldiers with a certain amount of humour.

But let me make it quite clear that my subject this evening is not a humorous one. One of the final things that our Lord Jesus prayed about, before he was delivered into the hands of Pontius Pilate and the high priests, was that those who became his followers might know unity. In the 17th chapter of John's Gospel, we read in the 20th verse, My prayer is not for them alone, not just for my contemporary disciples.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father. Just as you are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us. Now, he's not thinking so much of oneness of substance, but rather oneness of emotion, oneness of feeling, a concern, an agape love that flows from one person to the other, so that the Christian community appears to the outsider as totally unified.

Now, that was the sort of relationship which our Lord Jesus enjoyed with the Father. It was unbroken, and so from time to time, the Heavenly Father interjects into the ministry of our Lord Jesus, and he speaks audibly, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved Son, hear him.

There was no break of unity at all. Now, it's that relationship of unity that the Lord Jesus enjoyed with the Heavenly Father, that he prays might be experienced by his present disciples, and the millions of people who, as the future becomes the present, will find themselves as followers of the Lord Jesus. Now, this passion that the Lord Jesus had, that people who followed him might get on one with another, was passed on to the apostles, those who gave us the foundational teaching of the Christian church.

And so, in the passage where your Bible is open at the moment, you find Ephesians chapter 4, the words of the apostle Paul. In the opening part of that passage, when he says, 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 one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. And just in case you haven't got the message, listen to him now.

Stress the word one. 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. You don't need to be clever in understanding the word of God to pick up what Paul is emphasizing.

He wants unity. Unity amongst the churches in the Ephesian area. Unity amongst the communities of the body of Christ as they're scattered around the Roman world.

And we have discovered, have we not, in our own Bible studies week by week on a Sunday morning, as we've made our way through the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, that he reemphasizes the message there. You don't get very far into the first chapter of Corinthians before Pastor Paul has a heart appeal that he levels at his brothers and sisters in Corinth. Turn to that first chapter of the opening letter and the tenth verse.

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. Now, when I was commenting on that verse some several months ago now, you might recall that I pointed out that the expression you might be perfectly united in mind and thought is not really the language of a classical scholar like Paul was. It's the language of a fisherman.

In fact, he plucks it from the fishing industry. You remember how the Lord Jesus is described when he first comes across Peter and the other fisherman disciples in the Gospels. We find them in Mark chapter 1 and 19 mending their nets.

Have you ever seen fishermen mending their nets? They've got a whacking great needle. Always feel whenever, and the occasions are very limited because I've got such a faithful and loyal wife, that I always feel whenever I try to put a button on my shirt that the eye of the needle is ridiculously tiny and it takes me a long time before I actually hit the bull's eye. That's not the case with fishermen.

They have a great needle and they have rather thick thread and they patch up the nets. It's necessary to have good nets to get a lot of fish. If you have a thumping great hole in the middle of your net then it's pretty pointless going out on the sea and casting that net overboard because all the fish eventually are going to escape as the net is hauled in.

Now the apostle must have this in mind when he's speaking about the evangelistic activity of the people in Corinth. Look, you've got to be in your relationships as skillful as fishermen knitting together any breach because if you don't, the very expression of unity so-called, that you have in Corinth will be self-evident as a hollow one and no one is going to be impressed by you at all. So he appeals from the depths of his heart may there be no divisions among you may there be no tears, that's what that word means, sisms but may you be perfectly united.

And that's the reason why we commenced our study this evening by reading from the account of Jacob's sons and their maltreatment of Joseph in the book of Genesis. You see, in one sense, and alas that one has to make this comment there you've got a picture, an unhappy picture of the church. Here is Jacob and he's got twelve sons one he's kept at home the next to the youngest, Joseph, he goes and meets his brothers and takes packed lunch with him for them.

They dislike him, they set on him they take the coat from him they baptize the coat in blood after they've sold him to some Midianites and they come back and they put the remains of the coat in front of Jacob and his heart is filled with sorrow. What does this mean? My lad's life, it's been torn apart by some wild beast. I can see that that is his coat it's bloodstained and as a result, Jacob is so sorrowful no one can in any way pacify him at all.

I believe that there is great sorrow in heaven in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ the sensitive Savior when he sees disagreement, discord within, if you please, Jacob's household. I believe, as I've expressed before not specifically because of its need in the tabernacle here but of its wider need in evangelicalism that the Spirit of God is saying to the churches in these days cultivate the gift of mending the nets of being perfectly united of getting on with one another because certain attendant blessings as we shall see flow from such a condition. It's always seemed to me very relevant that when our Lord's last moments are described before his death and mighty resurrection we have the picture of a bloodstained Christ.

I don't want to deal with the harrowing experiences our Lord went through. They're set forth in the 24th Psalm particularly when the description is given of his back and the way that it has been furrowed as like a plow having gone across it. And when you read the gospel narratives it's all filled out.

Our Lord's body was broken. So at the communion table we remember this his body broken for us and we take bread and we break it. His blood spilt for us we take wine and we drink it.

There was only one intended time when the body of Christ was to be broken and it was during his death and prior to his resurrection. You say, I don't follow what you're getting at. Think it through my friend.

You're intelligent people. You wouldn't be coming to a Bible study this evening if that were not the case. The physical body of Christ is one thing that we read of in the gospels but equally important and developed throughout the epistles is the mystical body of Christ.

What is the mystical body of Christ? It's you. It's me. We are the body of Christ.

Jesus by his spirit lives in us. That's why the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 majors on the concept of the body of the Lord Jesus and speaks about spiritual gifts. And it is beyond the imagination of the sensitive Apostle Paul that the mystical body of Christ should ever be divided in a permanent fashion.

And so he says in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 25 there should be no division, no schism, no fracture, no tear within the body. Go back to Ephesians and chapter 4 or maybe you've still got your Bible open there and it becomes so much more clear from the 16th verse or from the 15th verse and onwards. Speak the truth in love.

We will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is Christ. Now verse 16 is a description of the body of Christ, the mystical body, you and me, millions of other people around the world. 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.

When the body is together, well oiled so to speak, each ligament supporting one another, the muscle, the sinew, the bone, every bit of the body doing its job, then it's efficient. And this, says the Apostle Paul, is what the body of Christ is to be like. No tears, no fractures, no weight applied to any particular part of the body which might crush it, but healthy, coordinated, moving on under the direction of the head of the body which is none other than the Saviour.

And so in the final verse of that chapter, Paul says be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. And in those circumstances there will be unity. Alright, so far so good.

I reckon you must have followed me up to this point in our study. But why are we so concerned about this business of getting on with one another and being united? Well, because it's in such a condition as that, as was mentioned last week, that we become efficient, spiritually. If you were to turn back to Psalm 133, you get a delightful description of two things.

One was historically possible and did occur, and the other is a metaphor which would have required a miracle for it to have literally happened. Psalm 133. What literally happened there? Well, look at the second verse.

There is an account of the way the high priest in Old Testament days used to be ordained. With a very generous supply of oil, he was, well, if not immersed, Baptist fashion, he was well sprinkled, Anglican fashion, and as oil was poured on his head, ran down his beard and onto his collar and robes and fell off the ends of his dress. Now, there's a picture of a man illustrating, symbolizing the blessing of God resting upon him.

The high priest ordained by the Lord in unity with the purposes of God being set up on his ministry, set off on his ministry. Now, says the psalmist, that's a picture of the way God likes to bless. Verse 1, when brothers and sisters live together in unity.

When there's a situation like that, God is in attendance. Now, I said there were two metaphors. Let's drop down to the second one and it's in verse 3. Reference there is made to Mount Hermon and also to Mount Zion.

If you know anything about geography, you will be aware that Zion is a peak on which the city of Jerusalem was built. It's in the south of Palestine. Hermon is a mountain, a peak, in the north of Palestine, just north of Galilee.

Now, the apostle, or rather the psalmist says, when there's unity, then it's just as if the dew of Hermon in the north were falling on Mount Zion. Dew richly descends on Mount Hermon. Now, for that dew to get to Mount Zion in the south, there'd have to be a tremendous miracle.

The two mountains would be brought together. Now, don't be literalistic. The psalmist is not suggesting that that would happen at a literal level.

But he's using it as a very, very striking metaphor to show how when there's unity amongst God's people, miracles occur. And the basic miracle, which is of tremendous importance, is the manifestation of God's presence. The end of verse 3. For there, the Lord bestows His blessing, even life, forevermore.

Now, is not that the reason why Jesus came into this world? I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly. When the gospel is successfully preached, thousands of people come to a realization of who Jesus is. But as I shall try to show you in the next point that I want to make, salvation blessing is very often linked to unity within the church.

Like successful fishing is correlated, linked to having good nets. A hole in the net means the fish escapes. Disunity in the church means that your evangelism is impaired.

So that's another reason why we ought to be getting on with one another. But let's move back to John's gospel and chapter 17, the high priestly prayer on which I touched a few moments ago. Here is our Saviour bearing His heart and praying for His contemporary disciples and those who will be given Him in the generations to come.

And to repeat what He says, John 17 and verse 21, May they all be one, Father, just as You are in me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent me. Unity and effective evangelism are linked together.

Nobody wants to join a crowd of squabbling adults. They can squabble in secular society. They don't want to find the same thing within the community of Christ.

The magnetism that is to attract men and women, at least at fellowship level to the church, is what they see about relationships as they look on from the outside, inwardly, in the church amongst you and me. So you see how Psalm 133, in a very remarkable fashion, and the High Priestly Prayer in John 17, underline this basic principle. And it comes out again in the epistle, which the apostle John writes, which we will not be looking at right now, but if you read it through at home later on, you will find time and time again the apostle of love indicates that authentic discipleship is demonstrated in the way that people love one another.

If you say you love God and your brother's in need and you don't minister to your brother, says John, then you don't love God. John is terribly pragmatic. That's a difficult word.

He's terribly experimental. He wants his faith to be seen in terms of works which are visible. You can't get behind that.

The critical, bigoted, carping Christian needs to look into his own experience to see whether, in effect, he is in the faith or not. Because you never learned Christ as a bigot. You never learned of Jesus as one who is insensitive.

And if the spirit of Jesus indwells in you, then where is the fruit of that spirit? And particularly in the area of relationships. So that's what these three passages of Scripture in particular underline. They come together and they demonstrate this truth.

Now I was, but I'm losing out on time and I want to get to the latter part of my address. I was going to spend five minutes or so showing you, but you can work it out for yourself, the opposites that there is within the book of Proverbs and in the New Testament. The type of person who is sowing deceit called the scoundrel in the book of Proverbs and the type of man who receives the congratulations of the Lord Jesus because he is referred to in the Sermon on the Mount as the peacemaker.

You read Proverbs. It's a delightful book. I once heard Dr. Billy Graham's wife says that she works her way through Proverbs every month.

It's got so much delight in it. There's a bit of humor in Proverbs. You come across some very comical figures but there is also some basic practical teaching on living the godly life.

And the scoundrel, the villain who crops up again and again in the book of Proverbs is an illustration of what you and I should not be. And the villain is good at sowing discord. And the book of Proverbs says that there are seven things that God dislikes.

Indeed, to quote it accurately it says there are six things and then it smuggles in another one right at the end. And the seventh is the man who sows dissension amongst his brothers. Know the Lord Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount not the scoundrel is to be your pattern is to be your goal but rather the peacemaker.

Blessed is the peacemaker. Happy is the peacemaker. And that's the aim for us in the tabernacle.

It's the aim or should be for every Bible-believing Christian. But having sketched this out more theoretically I want to come down to the nitty-gritty to the practicalities. And let me make this statement and then buttress it by Scripture giving the latter as my warrant.

It's not always easy to get on with Christians. Now I'm sure that the majority of you will deny that assertion because you don't have any particular tensions in this area at all. But it seems to me that the Apostle Paul is making such a concession.

Turn to Romans chapter 12 will you? Romans chapter 12 and verse 18. Here is a key verse. I'll read the 17th to give the context as you're finding it.

If you're with the NIV it's page 202 in the New Testament section. Romans 12. Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. Verse 18. If it is possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone.

I'm almost tempted to make that our motto text for next year but it's a bit long for CPO to squeeze it on our card that we generally have. If it is possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone. Did you think when you linked up those of you who are members of our fellowship here there might be some difficult people in that church? There might be someone in fact did you get a little bit more bold? There might be a couple of dozen people amongst the four or five hundred that are really awkward.

And did it dawn on you after a while that you could be one of them? It seems to me that that's a possibility that Paul smuggles into this verse 18. As far as it depends on you you've got some responsibility in this area yourself for ensuring that the local community exists harmoniously and we get on with one another. Now Paul knows he's had problems himself and certainly the churches that he's founded are increasingly having difficulty that incidentally is why he's writing to them a lot of the letters were stimulated by problems in the churches that he tries to calm.

Paul recognises himself that there are and will be difficulties when Christian brother and sister come together and try to interrelate. Well how are we going to cope with these altercations I think is the posh word Rao is the more easily understood arguments, difficulties, discord that crop up time to time. It seems to me that the best thing in approaching this is first of all to identify it.

Don't be blind when problems crop up not necessarily in the community as a whole but maybe with your own relationship with someone. We have an expression in the north of England I think I've come across it down here about nipping something in the bud and that means taking pretty prompt action. Now I will confess that the Apostle Paul does not use the expression nip it in the bud but he gets reasonably close.

Look at Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 26. He suggests that there might be a reason why you get angry and he says in your anger your righteous indignation don't sin. And then he says do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

And that's pretty near nipping it in the bud, isn't it? Within 24 hours if there is something that is causing you difficulty and problem, breach within relationship then at least sort yourself out identify it and take measures against it. You remember when he writes that letter to Philippians he talks about two ladies I'm always sorry for the ladies because verse 2 of Philippians 4 has really been rammed home by preachers as though it's only the ladies in the church that ever create difficulty and of course that is not the case. And it's delightful, isn't it, that one of these ladies allows us to make a pun on her name as the Apostle Paul pleads with Euodia and with the person called Suntaci to agree with each other in the Lord.

But when you're done with humour what he is asking is that these two come to terms with the fact that they have had some difficulty and behave maturely like Christian people identifying their problem and dealing with it. But the second thing it seems to me having recognised that maybe you're not in a proper relationship your net is a little bit broken towards one brother or one sister is to pray over it. To pray over it.

You know it's impossible to pray and be angry with someone at the same time. You cannot in a state of intense anger pray compassionately and sensitively for someone. I would make, if it were possible to be autocratic and I've never been that but I would make it compulsory reading for everyone before going to sleep this evening to look through 1 Samuel and chapter 26.

In 1 Samuel 26 you've got the classic illustration of a man who has every right to be mad at another. I'm talking about David and Saul. King Saul who is envious and jealous towards David and causes him to leave the city and to move into the wilderness.

Do you remember how God allows David to have Saul in his hand? He could have killed him if he'd wanted to but David won't touch the Lord's anointed. And there's a wonderful description of that relationship as I say between David and Saul in 1 Samuel 26. David has got the thing in perspective.

He can even bring his problem to the Lord and right was on the side of David most definitely in this area. But because he's in a right relationship with the Lord he can control his anger which might have been arguably well justified in directing it towards Saul. Identify your problem.

Pray over it. Then analyse it. Why has it happened? What is there between me and that brother or that sister or that group of people that has caused this fracture in relationship? Now to do this properly you've got to be cool.

You've got to have the fires of anger dimmed considerably. Remember how the psalmist said I said in my haste all men are liars. That was the problem.

He said it in his haste. Oh how hasty we are. Particularly those of us born north of St Albans.

So very hasty to react. And the Bible says no. In effect just cool it.

Put the brake on. Go and think it through yourself. Analyse it.

Approach it from several directions. Remembering all the time the comment of the prophet Jeremiah the heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Do you remember the comment of Oliver Cromwell? I forget the historical incident.

He sent us what we might call a telegram in these days to someone. I beseech you by the bowels of Christ consider that you might be wrong. That you might be wrong.

That I might be wrong. That I've contributed. I could have been right in my argument but wrong in my temperament.

I could have been wrong in my lack of insensitivity toward the need of that other person. Maybe the argument was right but my manner was culpable. I was to be blamed.

Analyse it. The apostle Paul and Peter have to analyse the squabble that crops up at Galatia when Paul has to rebuke Peter and eventually they have to patch it up and get on together as brothers. Relegate number four unimportant issues.

Do you know most breaks it seems to me in fellowship are over trivia over small things but it's the small things that become gigantic. For the brothers that Joseph had got the best coat. That dad had taken him into the John Colliers of his day and given him a coat that was better than everyone else's.

It wasn't that important. Maybe it was irksome. Maybe it got under their skin.

Maybe occasionally Joseph did come over as a bit smug but even putting all those things together they were minor irritations compared with the dastardly plan of killing him or almost as bad selling him as a slave. Here's Absalom with his long flowing hair and his natural good looks and there's his dad still alive and he might continue for years and Absalom wants the crown but was the crown that important to you Absalom that you planned rebellion against your father and all the diabolical consequences that followed from that? If you could bring Absalom back from the grave and let him have a run through of his life again would he not have preferred this advice about analysing your problem going and seeing David if David had contributed to the breakdown in relationship and if he'd lacked in parental care in years before relegate unimportant issues the Martha Mary squabble was basically over a very unimportant thing as Martha possibly would have confessed later on. And then what about the Lord's Prayer? Dare you say the Lord's Prayer and have a problem between you and your brother or your sister or any group within the church forgive us our trespasses it doesn't stop there as we forgive those that trespass against us the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and endured hell because of what you did to him and there's no one who's done that to you so if the greater can be forgiven by him cannot the lesser be forgiven by you even if you have been injured and right is on your side dare you take that bread and that wine and remember the Lord and have a fractured relationship with your brother, your sister dare you sow discord within the church community be it here or anywhere else and come and defile the very table that God sets up in remembrance of his Son the Apostle Paul is not joking when he says he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself he does so to his spiritual harm we are then to approach the offended party a gentle answer says Solomon in Proverbs turns away wrath a harsh word stirs up anger be careful how you do it be careful that you've got the right temperament you don't have to in any way move from a principle that needs to be secured but there's a way that you can get a point across without putting the person to a clean pair of heels wanting to escape from your clutches Paul puts it let your conversation be always full of grace Colossians 4 and verse 6 do you know what is one of the most needful things in the church today I'm thinking now of inter-church relationships and groups within churches rather than individuals it is the teaching on submission the teaching on submission what do I mean by that well Ephesians 4 and 21 you've still got your Bibles open there refers to us submitting to one another it's not Ephesians 4 Ephesians 5 is it yes Ephesians 5, 21 submit to one another out of reverence for Christ Paul is here again speaking about retaining unity in relationships but keep your finger on that place and move across will you to Hebrews and to the last chapter of that book and there is another comment made about submission it's not an easy verse for a pastor to preach on because it seems very, very pointed but maybe we shy away from things that ought to be brought to the attention of people never mind the fact that there's a point Hebrews 13 verse 17 obey your leaders and submit to their authority they keep watch over you as men who must give an account obey them so that their work will be a joy not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you when the New Testament talks about leadership in the churches it always does so in the plural you never come across the word elder in the singular it's always elders and here not leader in the singular it's leaders God has set, says the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 certain basic ministry gifts within the church he's given pastors he's given teachers elsewhere Paul enlarges on the idea of elders and deacons why are these men given to the church? to rule not in a dictatorial fashion but like a shepherd will nourish and direct the sheep to ensure that there is careful pastoral work done that there is a leadership and when leaders are together and they determine a policy and one is a member of that particular community then unless there is something obviously wrong like the whole church moving into heresy which would be a very, very strange situation what those men direct should generally speaking be done not because they are infallible but simply because if they are God given leaders they have worked out between them in the safety of the plurality of leadership what they believe to be the policy for a particular church I have known churches split asunder because of the questioning of leadership and the breaking up into little groups I'm of Paul I'm of Apollos I'm of Cephas you remember that was the difficulty that was the scenario in the church at Corinth to which Paul addresses himself no says the apostle you're not of Paul you're not of Cephas you're not of Apollos basically you're of the Lord Jesus Christ and thank God for the leadership that you've got and as that leadership is controlling your situation your church situation within the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ then follow and believe that in some circumstances where you may disagree it is possible that your leaders see far more facets of a particular argument than you do and they plot their course for the whole church from the point of view of a greater knowledge than you might have now this isn't me speaking this is the Bible speaking obey your leaders submit to those who are in authority over you why? because in so doing relationships within the church are kept intact the Bible speaks of us being able to handle our relationships and get on with one another it does not want us to be like Jacob's sons pouncing upon Joseph and bringing sorrow to the heart of the father the Lord Jesus Christ wants his body to be knit together for men and women to get on with one another and to follow the leadership that God has instituted within his church I offer these thoughts to you from the Bible in the name of our Lord Jesus Amen