Ephesians Talk 4

Live a Life worthy of your calling as Christ body in oneness of faith, knowledge, service, and speaking the truth in love that leads to maturity.
Intro:
They say that people in society can be divided into two basic categories, and they are those for who the glass is half full, and those for who the glass is half empty. So I thought I’d take a straw poll and we could see what kind of people we are.
So Let’s see some hands,
who would describe themselves as a glass half full kind of person?
and who would describe themselves as a glass half empty kind of person?

Well that’s interesting, now I suspect that we aren’t always a good judge of ourselves in this area. So I decided to come up with a highly scientific, deeply rigorous, in fact full proof way of discerning with you belong to one category or the other. Are you ready?
Put your hand up if you’ve ever thought about what would be written on your own epitaph (you know you’re headstone)?
Own up to it, hand up if you’ve ever thought about it?

Well congratulations I think it’s probably safe to say you are the glass half empty people. But that’s okay, because I’m one of them too, and personally I think you just have a healthy grasp of reality.

Now one of my favourite Epitaph’s (not that I read a lot, mind you), is from a man who definitely was a glass half empty person (despite outward appearances) Spike Milligan. Spike’s Epitaph on his headstone in Ireland reads, ‘I Told you I was ill’.

But the last words and testament someone can be quite an indictment on the life a person has lived, whether they’re written by themselves or someone else.

Now oddly enough from the Bible epitaph’s have had quite a profound effect on me and in particular the ones from the book of Kings. Now in the book of kings you read epitaph of a king after another, and they divide into three main categories. Those who followed in the footsteps of their father and did evil and the eyes of the Lord.
Those who followed in the footsteps of their father and did good in the eyes of the Lord, which is all obvious enough.
But the ones that have the most profound effect on me were the ones who followed in the footsteps of their father and did the good in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. These epitaph’s the scary ones, because deep down these are the ones I think I can relate to. Knowing what is good and not doing it wholeheartedly.

And it is in light of this kind of thinking that Paul speaks to us from Ephesians today. Paul is calling us to have an epitaph that says, ‘life worthy of their calling they were given from the Lord.’ When I end my days I hope and pray that that is what people are able to say about me, ‘lived a life worthy of their calling’. That is what the Apostle Paul has done, and that is what he is calling us today and we see that in the first section of our text today which goes from versus 1-6.

1. Live a Life worthy of your calling to keep the Unity of the Spirit through love and peace V1-6

NIV Ephesians 4:1
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.

Paul begins this chapter in V1 by offering something of a theme statement for the whole chapter, (in fact it could be a theme statement to the whole of the rest of the book of Ephesians). Paul is urging the Ephesian believers to live a life worthy of the calling that they have received.

So far in his letter Paul has outlined what great riches these people have received in Christ. God has called them out of the darkness, God has called them out of their sin, God has called them out of this world and he has called them into Christ, to sit with him in the heavenly places. They have received a great calling from God (in all the grace they have received), and Paul is calling them to live a life worthy that calling.

But in case they have any visions of grandeur because of this great calling, it’s incredibly instructive that in V1 Paul writes this to them as a prisoner for the Lord, the calling is one of greatness, but it is one of difficult service in this world. And this idea is born out in more detail as we move along versus two in three.
So V1 is the theme of living a life worthy of the Lord and versus two and three is the explanation of what will this mean for the Ephesians, what will this look like to live a life worthy of the lord?

In these versus Paul says they’re calling is to keep the unity of the spirit.
There is a theological truism going on here, that they are already unified in the Spirit. God has unified them in the spirit of the of his Son and they are to make every effort to keep this unity. And they are to do it through a love that expresses its itself in them bearing with one another through being humble and gentle and patient. Now if this language looks familiar, well it should, because it’s picks up the language that Paul uses in describing Christ in Philippians. The language is of humility of Christ who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped at and he was gentle and patient he served the needs of others to secure their salvation.

This love we are to exhibit to one another is one of service of one another.

Paul is reminding us that God has given us the unity in the spirit and we are to keep to this unity. So what this means in real terms I think is, Paul is calling us to bear with one another’s foibles, we are to bear with one another’s weaknesses, we are not to be impatient with one another because we are different, or we find each other difficult. We are to have the same concerns and attitude as Christ himself that we would serve these people.

So hopefully you look around at this congregation at this church, and think to yourself, ‘Gee a there are some weird people here’. If a congregation doesn’t have some weird people in it, we are probably be doing something wrong.
If think the congregations all the same as you, well we really have probably done something wrong!
But if you look around at the people and think, ‘they are not like me, in fact they’re a little weird and sometimes annoying’, well this is a good thing, because it gives us the opportunity to serve them in love, and that’s what were called to do.

God is calling us to serve one another so that our lives would be worthy of the calling we have received, that we would bear with one another in love, that we would be patient humble and kind to each other so that we would keep the unity of the spirit that God has given us.

In V4 Paul goes on to explain the grounds on which it is that we can be unified. These verses are both a declaration and an appeal as to why we are unified, and why we should be unified in verses 4-6.

Paul uses this great Trinitarian explanation for the unity that we have. This theological truism that we are one body the body of the one Lord, because of the one spirit, who unites us. All this has happened because of the one God who is the father of us all, the one in v6 who is overall and through all.

This is the all consuming nature of this relationship we have with the God who has saved us.
The point of all history in all creation is God’s purpose that is focused upon Jesus who is Lord of all, and in this amazing way this is what we have been called to be part of.

The three distinct persons of this one Trinitarian God are at work in their unique roles, acting together in harmony to bring one body, under the one Lord. A body that has many parts, but is united by the one spirit.

In a real way the Trinitarian co-operation is a model to God’s people. In the way the persons of the trinity unite in such a oneness of purpose (they are in fact one Lord!) we are to similarly (and yet with the obvious distinction that we are in fact different people not one) we are to be similarly united in purpose as the one body of the Lord.

And God’s oneness of purpose is borne out in the oneness of our response, we are one body because of the one spirit, and this is borne out in our one calling, in our one hope, one faith, and one baptism.

Christ rules his body through his spirit and his word. And in his word and by the power of his spirit he is calling us to keep the unity of this spirit being humble and patient with one another.
We are to serve one another to keep the unity of the spirit in this one body.

And as we move on Paul, in the second section of the text from Vs 7-13, is saying;


2. Each one of us has been given grace to serve Christ’s body, so that we may all achieve our unity and maturity, in the knowledge of the Son of God
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.

Now as we look at this section of the text, the mainline of the argument starts in v7, We’re Paul says, ‘but to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it’. But then his main line of argument jumps down to verse 11 when he says, ‘it was Jesus who gave some to be Apostle’s, Prophets, evangelist pastors and teachers’.
Now the purpose of these roles that Christ has appointed, is that the body of Christ would be built up, and they would serve one another. Their service has the goal that they would be built up, and have unity in their faith and knowledge of the Son of God. That they would have a maturity and fullness of Christ.

That is the main line of Paul’s argument in the second section of the text and Vs 8-10 is something of an aside. It is as though Paul starts his argument in verse 7 and gets distracted in verses 8-10 and then continues the mainline of his argument in verse 11. But versus 8-10 aren’t just a distraction they are the important grounds by which Christ can distribute these gifts.

Christ is the Lord overall who fills the entire universe, he’s the one who has descended to the depths and now has ascended to the heights, in imagery that is again very reminiscent of Philippians 2. Christ is the Lord who gives gifts to his servants as he sees fit, and Paul is going to explain in verse 11 what this gifting is about. Christ has saved us all by his grace, but as the Lord he assigns different roles to his servants for the good of the whole body. We are equal in the body of Christ but we are not identical, we all have our own responsibilities within the body of Christ for the good of the body of Christ.

Now as we look at the list of roles or like gifts if you like in verse 11, the list of gifts certainly is not exhaustive! And Paul seems to focus on particular roles that are based around speaking.

Now when Paul talks about the Apostles and Prophets, he is not so talking about a gifting for everyone, but the particular role given to those to whom God revealed the scriptures. The apostles being the writers of the new Testament if you like, and the Prophets being representative of those who wrote the old Testament.
(and you see this kind of idea repeated throughout the book Ephesians in chapter 2 V20 with the apostles and profits are the foundation and Ch3 V5 again the apostles and Prophets are seen together as almost representatives of the old and new Testament scriptures).

So what the apostles and Prophets have spoken is in a primary and real way, foundational for the church in the building up the Church.

The roles of the evangelist and the pastor and the teacher on the other hand seem to relate to what new Testament believers who are leaders in the church, are called to do. They are to speak and teach the truth of what has been revealed to the apostles and the prophets, they are to be faithful overseers and shepherds of God’s people the church. And we see this kind of ideas picked up in the description of overseas and shepherds in the book of Titus. While of course the evangelists are to be faithful with the Gospel message to a lost and broken world.

These roles remind us that speech is the most primary gifting God has given his people for them to be built up to the full measure of Christ. That we would have unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God. We exist to build one another up in the truth of God by the way we speak to each other.

Now if you’ve been around any church for while, you often hear a call to improve the sense of unity within our church. The solution people usually offer is something about common events to get people to, so we can to spend time together. Now there is some truth in that, in that we are physical beings and time together relationally helps to express our fellowship.

But Ephesians is implicitly saying here that long lattes, or coming together for an egg and bacon roll is not the centrality of Christian Fellowship, it might work if you’re a member of the bowling club or the Australian Jockey club to build unity. But profoundly, foundationly and primarily Christian unity is built-up and expressed around the word. We speak the truth to each other that we all may grow in the knowledge of the son of God.
This is the unity in the faith that comes from this knowledge and how we mature to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ in the Spirit.

And this is why the bible and song and creeds are so central to our time meeting together as a church, it is the means by which we all grow together in our unity, and express the realities of the unity that Christ has already won for us.

And Paul here in v13 is calling us to attain the whole measure of what Christ has already won for us, and versus 14-16 is going to spell out the little more detail what that means.

3. Do not be infants any longer but speak the truth in love that we may be a mature Christian community v14-15.
14 Then (subj) 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 (subj) 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.

Paul here says, ‘don’t be immature any longer, but be mature in our relationships by speaking the truth in love to one another.’

This passage is warning us of the reality, that there are deceitful teachers out there claiming to follow Christ who are not. Paul uses the language of ‘deceived’ which is quite evocative for us as we hear it, because in the Bible there is one father of deceit and he was at work even since the time of the garden of Eden.

‘The snake was crafty than all the beasts of the field’, and Paul is warning us that he is still at work today, he is still trying to deceive God’s people. And Paul is telling us not to be immature anymore and frightened and deceived by this kind of thing.

But how are we to stand against this deceit, well together and we are to speak the truth to one another in love. The truth of God and his Son the Lord Jesus as revealed in the Bible, the truth of the one faith of the one Lord who is Lord overall and through all and in all. We are to remind each other of the truths of the great calling we have received, we have been saved and we are to serve one another by reminding each other of these great truth.

Paul is reminding us again that speech is central to the Christian faith, we remind each other of the truth of the Christian faith, we encourage one another as to the truth of the Christian faith, but we do it in love.

We do it to the benefit of our brothers and sisters, we do it as an expression of our other person centred-ness and we do it to their good. We do it in humility in gentleness in patience. We do it bearing with one another in love and we do it as a form of making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit that we already have in Christ.

We are to work together to grow together and in particular we are to protect each other from going astray and being to see it by speaking the truth in love to one another. Each one of us has a part to play in this, each one of us is part of the supporting ligaments or part of the body, to grow the body up in love and we are all called to do our work in this.

So the challenge for us is, are you at work in the body?
Are you speaking the truth in love to one another, the truth of the Christian faith, that we may grow a maturity that we would not be deceived into false teaching.

Are You at work in the body?
Our society today is increasingly becoming a spectator community, and just look at what people have been doing over last week and a half, all we do is spectate. But in reality we are such a passive and consumerist society we aren’t even good spectators anymore. In fact our society has become so in disengaged from any kind of any obligation or communal commitment, we don’t actually even go to the grounds anymore to spectate, people consider it a great commitment to watch an event on television. We have become laughably disengaged from doing anything, even spectating, properly.

So are you disengaged from the body?
Or Are You serving and the life of the body of Christ to which you have been saved and called?
Are You were working ligament or muscle?
Or are you more like an appendix who does nothing, but when you do get involved it only causes trouble and stops the rest of the body from functioning properly?

In the book Proverbs we told to consider the ant and how it works, and there is great truth in that for us as the body of Christ. Each Ant goes about its work to the good of the other and the whole, not it’s own interests. We should do the same. I’m sure we would all like to be part of a church were everyone was like ants, people going about their business and serving as they should serve, imagine how good that would be. Imagine we wouldn’t even need rosters.

And realistically, I’d settle for to be part of a church where people want to be on a roster because it is a chance to serve! Even that would be a huge step in the right direction for all of us being at work in the body, to help build up the maturity to help us grow together in love.

I mean it is a bit laughable isn’t it, yes I know Christ died for me but I just don’t want to be tied down by a regular commitment like a roster, I mean sure Paul we all know you are in gaol for Christ, but a roster just gets in the way of my free time.


Our lives are to be about living a life worthy of our calling, we are to serve the body in humility like Christ served us.

16 I pray that
out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you
with power through his Spirit
in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts
through faith.
And I pray that you,
being rooted
and
established in love,
18 may have power,
together with all the saints,
to grasp
how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love
that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled
to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able
to do immeasurably more than all
we ask
or imagine,
according to his power
that is at work
within us,
21 to him be glory
in the church and
in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
Amen.