Ephesians 4:1-25 (NIV)ONE Church
Ephesians 4:4-6Sermon by Phil Hopwood
May 16th, 1998
Scripture Readings:
1
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.7
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."9
(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 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.14
Then we will no longer be 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. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 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.Living as Children of Light
17
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.20
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.25
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
INTRODUCTION:
The overall theme for 1998 is The Lord: his Body and his Work.
We are now focusing on "His Body"
What is the Body of the Lord? The "body of Christ" that we read about in Scripture?
What is its nature, it’s purpose?
I thought that over the next month or so we would look at our topic in a systematic way;
Use one passage, and a complementary statement as our foundation, or road map to guide us along our way
The Passage is:
Ephesians 4:1-25 (heard read for scripture reading)
The statement that complements this passage is taken from the Nicene Creed, written in 381 AD, which is basically a longer version of the Apostles’ Creed. (see appendix)
The word "creed" simply means, "I believe" and consists of a number of "I believe" statements dealing with the most fundamental of Christian beliefs.
The "I believe" statement we are going to be dealing with alongside our passage in Ephesians 4, is;
"I believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church"
FOUR "MARKS" or "NOTES" of the Church;
In discussing and studying the topic of the Church, (which is called "ecclesiology"), there are four basic principles or characteristics that are normally focused on, that are called "marks" or "notes" of the Church.
These marks of the Church are "one", "holy", "catholic" and "apostolic"
I plan to take some time on each of these as well as examining our passage in Ephesians
PURPOSE:
TODAY
Ephesians 4:4-6
4
There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Exploring the Belief we have, that is expressed in the NIcene Creed as:
"I believe in ONE holy Catholic and Apostolic Church"
PRAYER:
BODY:
TEXT
Ephesians 4:4-6
4
There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Nicene Creed. "I believe in ONE holy Catholic and Apostolic Church"
How can we speak of "ONE" church, one "United" body when there are all these different groups
How can that be if there are so many different Churches, denominations, and sects around the world
Book "Religions Bodies in Australia" describes around 300 religious groups just in Australia
There have been major debates and struggles over this question down through history
Really came to be a problem in the 16th century during the Reformation
There was a great controversy as to whether it was legitimate for Luther and the others to breakaway from what had been one basically undivided Church, the Roman Catholic Church.
According to Alister McGrath;
The Reformer’s response was to argue that the medieval church had become corrupted to the point at which it could no longer be regarded as a church, in the strict sense of the word. The scene was thus set for an explosive increase in denominations.
We see some clear examples of this in origins of the churches around us today
For example where did the Salvation Army come from;
à Methodists à Church of England à Roman Catholics
What about us?
Radio/Worldwide Church of God à Church of God (7th Day, Salem) à Church of God (7th Day) à Sabbatarian Adventists à Millerites à (Seventh Day Baptists?) à Separatists & Puritans à Church of England à Roman Catholics
If you look at the chart in Joe Tkach’s book, "Transformed by Truth" you will see how many groups have subsequently split off from us.
As Theologian Wayne Grudem observes;
It is right to pray and work for the greater purity of the church. But purity cannot be our only concern, or Christians would have a tendency to separate into tiny groups of very "pure" Christians and tend to exclude everyone who showed the slightest deviation in doctrine of conduct of life.
HOW is the CHURCH "ONE"?
Helpful to define what the church is, and see that there are two helpful ways of looking at it in order to understand it’s "oneness"
 | How would you define the Church? |
One well recognised definition is:
"The church is the community of all true believers for all time."
| How is this helpful? |
No geographical, denominational, cultural, or racial limits
Also no time limit
Includes all true believers from all eras, including those of the Old Testament
Talk about this more when we come to look at the "Catholic" facet of the church.
The word used for "church" in the NT, is the Greek word, ekklesia
It basically means " ‘congregation,’ ‘church,’ ‘gathering’ or ‘assembly.’
An ekklesia was a meeting or assembly. Its commonest use was for the public assembly of citizens duly summoned, which was a feature of all the cities outside Judaea where the gospel was planted
According to Harper’s Bible Dictionary;
In the NT ‘church’ always denotes a group of people, either all the Christians in a city or those gathered to worship in a particular house or all Christians in all the churches, the whole church. It never signifies a building or a ‘denomination.’
The word ekklesia denotes more an activity than some object, building or static entity. It is God’s people gathering together and doing His will
For example, saying it is time for church, is more accurate than saying we just drove by the church, because church is the assembling of believers together to do something, not a building.
So the ekklesia, the assembly, or church, is all those believers in all places, through all time, who gather together in community to serve God
Ephesians 2:13-16
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Plainly the church is made up of all that have been brought near to, and reconciled to God by the blood of Christ.
Its unity is to be found in this action of Jesus, and the belief of its members in that action, and the fact that the members are indeed reconciled and living at one with the one God
So again we read our text;
Ephesians 4:4-6
4
There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
The church is the assembly of all people, no matter what place, denomination, race or time—who are have been brought together into one body by Jesus their one Lord
They have been called to one Hope, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all and in all
| What does the phrase, "One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" tell us about the one body, the church? |
Who is through all and in all things
The fact that we are of different denominations or groups, or countries, or nationalities, or times, doesn’t make us the body or Church, nor exclude us from it.
Let’s finally look at two helpful ways of describing the diversity, yet oneness of the Church
VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE
The problem most people have in understanding the church is one, is that we don’t really see it’s oneness
We do see lots of different denominations and groups, but not one body – that’s very VISIBLE
The true, and real unity of all genuine believers is invisible to our eyes
This is because we cannot see the heart’s of true believers
We cannot see their faith, their relationship with the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit
This has led to two terms being used to describe the Church
The visible and the invisible Church
Grudem writes;
We can see those who outwardly attend the church, and we can see outward evidences of inward spiritual change, but we cannot actually see into people’s hearts and view their spiritual state—only God can do that.
2 Timothy 2:19
19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his,"...
Definitions:
The Invisible Church:
"The Invisible Church is the church as God sees it"
The Visible Church:
| How would you define the visible Church? |
"The visible church is the church as Christians on earth see it."
In this sense the visible church includes all who profess faith in Christ and give evidence of that faith in their lives. In this definition...we mean...the church as it is perceived by those who are genuine believers and have an understanding of the difference between believers and unbelievers.
When Paul wrote his letters, he usually addressed them "to the church in" such and such a place, in other words a visible group of believers.
Paul certainly realized that there were unbelievers in some of those churches, some who had made a profession of faith that was not genuine, who appeared to be Christians but would eventually fall away. Yet neither Paul nor anyone else could tell with certainty who those people were. Paul simply wrote to the entire church that met together in any one place.
In this sense, we could say today that the visible church is the group of people who come together each week as a church and profess faith in Christ.
The visible church throughout the world will always include some unbelievers, because we cannot see hearts as God sees them.
CONCLUSION & APPLICATION:
| What lessons do we learn from this study of the oneness of the Body of Christ, the Church? |
No matter what nation, race, or group we belong to, we are all truly one in and through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, reconciled and at one with the Father.
We should never pretend to conclusively judge or dictate who is part of the body, and who isn’t
We shouldn’t be exclusivists, pretending that there is only one true visible Church group, and that we are it
Grudem puts it well;
When we recognize there are unbelievers in the visible church, there is a danger that we may become overly suspicious. We may begin to doubt the salvation of many true believers... Calvin warned against this danger by saying that we must make a "charitable judgment" whereby we recognize as members of the church all who "by confession of faith, by example of life, and by partaking of the sacraments, profess the same God and Christ with us."
Vital that we act charitably towards those of other parts of the "Visible" church,
Recognising that only God truly knows for sure, those who are his,
Those who are genuinely part of the invisible, one true body of Christ.
We need to continually examine ourselves to make sure we understand, respect and act on this truth about the unity and oneness of the body of Christ, the Church
All the time we work toward to greater unity in the visible church, and look forward to the time when the invisible church becomes visible at the return of it’s head and foundation, Jesus Christ.
| PRAYER |
Appendix I: Some questions to think about:
Dozens of religions, probably hundreds on the earth even today, many more down through history
People have worshipped everything you can imagine
| Examples? |
| Sun, moon, stars |
| Animals |
| Imaginary creatures |
| Spirits, demons, angels, imagined gods |
| People |
| "works of their hands" |
| What about religion today? People worship, idoise, devote themselves to;
| ||||||||||||
| Why do people want to idolise and worship things, religious and material? |
| Most people believe as long as you are a basically good person, it doesn't matter what religion you belong to, or even if you don't belong to any religion, or have any particular belief |
Many people follow Eastern religions, or the occult, or the New Age Movement and believe that is fine
What does the BIble say?
How does our text help us with these questions? (Ephesians 4:4-6)
Lots of fundamentalist groups and cults believe that they are the one true church, That if you don't belong to their group you won't be saved. Lots who have broken away from us make that claim. Sadly many splinter groups end up with only the leader and a few friends, family or others as the total of those who purport to be the "true hurch" or the "only faithful servants of God," th only ones who have the full truth.
Do you think there are any legitimate reasons a group or inidividual should leave a churc, and or form another one? What would those reasons be? What scriptural backing is this based upon?
APPENDIX II:
THE NICENE CREED
Constantinople, 381 A.D.
- I believe in one God,
- the Father Almighty,
- maker of heaven and earth,
- and of all things visible and invisible;
- And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
- the only begotten Son of God,
- begotten of his Father before all worlds,
- God of God, Light of Light,
- very God of very God,
- begotten, not made,
- being of one substance with the Father;
- by whom all things were made;
- who for us men and for our salvation
- came down from heaven,
- and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost
- of the Virgin Mary,
- and was made man;
- and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
- he suffered and was buried;
- and the third day he rose again
- according to the Scriptures,
- and ascended into heaven,
- and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
- and he shall come again, with glory,
- to judge both the quick and the dead;
- whose kingdom shall have no end.
- And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Live,
- who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son];
- who with the Father and the Son together
- is worshipped and glorified;
- who spake by the Prophets.
- And I believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
- I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;
- and I look for the resurrection of the dead,
- and the life of the world to come.
- AMEN.
Works Cited:
The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
Alister McGrath, Christian Theology - An Introduction, 1994, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK, p.419 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England, 1994, p. 855-875. P.T. O’Brien, "Church", The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, eds. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid, (Leicester: InterVarsity Press), 1993, p. 123. D.W.B. Robinson, "Church", The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1962. Achtemier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.