The Unity of the Church

 

Psalm 68:18; Ephesians 4:1-16 (text) • Download this sermon (PDF)
Pasig Covenant Reformed Church • August 10, 2008 • June 1, 2014

Introduction

Congregation of Christ: Today, we continue our study of our worship liturgy. We have finished the opening portions of our worship, namely, Entering Into Worship, then the Confession of Sin. Today, we go to our Response of Gratitude, as we give praise and thanksgiving to God for his forgiveness and salvation. We express our gratitude to God as we sing a psalm of thanksgiving, read a portion of our creeds and confessions together, give our offerings, and pray together as a congregation.

We will focus on our reading of our creeds and confessions. Not only do they unite us here in Pasig as a congregation, but they also unite us with the “catholic” church, as the Apostles’ creed and Nicene creed says. This doesn’t unite us with the Roman “catholic” church, but with the universal church of Christ in the whole world, from the creation of the world till its end.

Our text is taken from Paul’s epistle to the church in Ephesus. In chapters 1-3: Jews and Gentiles united in Christ as one people: all races, social and economic standing, cultures, languages. In chapters 5-6: about more specific unity between husband and wife, parents and children, master and slave. Here in chapter 4: unity of the church, the body of Christ.

Paul was a prisoner and a martyr for the Lord, for the sake of this unity. We are to be like him, willing to sacrifice everything for the unity of the church. In this passage, Paul exhorts the church to live a life, to walk in a manner worthy of God’s calling. What is this calling? It is God’s call to belong to Christ (Rom 1:6); to be God’s people (Rom. 9:25); to be holy (Rom 1:7); to a hope (Eph 4:4); to eternal life (1 Tim 6:12).

And this call is made to all kinds of peoples in all nations of the world. In our text, Paul exhorts the church, the body of Christ, to be united in three ways: (1) Unity in the Trinity; (2) Unity in Diversity; and (3) Unity in Maturity.

Unity in the Trinity

We are to be united because we believe in the One Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—the source and basis of our unity.

One Spirit

Paul first mentions the Holy Spirit in his exhortation to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Peace is the bond that keeps unity. But peace comes from the Spirit of Christ (Gal 5:22).

Since “there is one body,” this body is to be united in “one Spirit.” The church is a body filled with the Holy Spirit, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:13). All parts of the body working together in harmony results a healthy body.

Paul speaks of this need for harmony in the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:14-26. It is healthy when one member doesn’t say to another, “I have no need of you.” (verse 21). Or when a member thinks of himself as useless or less useful than others (verses 14-20). Or where the member that lacks honor is given more honor than the rest (verses 22-25).Or when a member is joyful, all the rest share in his joy; if a member is sorrowful, all the others share in his sorrow (verse 26).

And to this unity in the Spirit belongs our calling to “one hope.” This is our hope in the coming of God’s glorious kingdom when Christ returns from heaven. Every Lord’s Day, we celebrate our rest in our labors, but we hope in our final rest from all our sufferings, afflictions, and temptations.

One Lord

But we are also united in our faith in one Lord, Jesus Christ, who also is our Redeemer. We believe that there is no other name under heaven by which we are saved, except in the name of Christ. We are not saved in the name of Allah, Buddha, Manalo, or Quiboloy.

In our one Lord Jesus Christ, we are united in the one Christian faith, the body of teachings that he taught to his apostles and passed down through the millennia to his church today.

Today, there’s a culture of pluralism which tells us that “all roads lead to heaven. It doesn’t matter whether we’re Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist. Everyone goes to heaven, as long as you live a life of “faith” and do good works to your fellowmen. This is the kind of false faith that Mother Teresa taught—of making a Hindu a better Hindu, a Buddhist a better Buddhist, or a Muslim a better Muslim—so that all will go to heaven.

This lie is also being taught among evangelicals. All of us have the same faith, and we should all unite as Christians. Presbyterians, Reformed, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Catholics, etc., should all unite. Our churches should be churches of the least common denominator, with doctrines minimized and watered down because doctrines divide.

So we hear many pietistic sayings such as, “My only creed is Christ” or “My only creed is the Bible.” But ask them who Christ is, or what the Bible says about salvation, and you will hear all kinds of heresies. People say these things to hide their ignorance of Biblical teachings.

On the contrary, doctrine and sound teaching were very important to Paul:

• Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught (Rom 16:17).
• Charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine (1 Tim 1:3).
• If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. (1 Tim 6:3,4).
• Teach what accords w ith sound doctrine (Tit 2:1).

As a church, we’re not united only in the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. We’re united in the Reformed faith, the system of doctrine taught by the 16^th century Protestant Reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and other faithful men and women, many of whom became martyrs for Christ. We’re united in the doctrines of grace and of justification by faith; in Reformed worship and means of grace; in Reformed church government; and in Reformed view of the relationship between the Christian life and culture.

This is the reason why we are a Reformed church: we are united in the Reformed faith, Reformed doctrine, Reformed worship, and Reformed life.

Also, we are united in one baptism. Baptism is the sign of belonging to the people of God. It is the mark of being completely washed of our sins, and of our initiation into the body of Christ, of belonging to the covenant of grace between God and His people. As the church grows, children are born into families. Like the Israelite infants, children in the church are initiated into the covenant people of God. In the Old Testament, children were circumcised; in the New Testament, children are baptized with water in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This is why this morning, we baptized Pastor Jayson Santiago’s covenant child.

Adults who come to Christ, and who have never been baptized, will be baptized as a sign and seal of their membership into the united body of Christ. Together as one body united to Christ in one baptism, children and adults will worship God on the Lord’s Day.

One God and Father of All

We are united in one Spirit and one Lord, and also in “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” God is the Father of all believers in Christ who are renewed by the Spirit. So then all believers in the whole world are one family, united under our one God.

Our God is the Almighty, Sovereign God. He ordained everything that will come to pass from eternity. He is in control over all, whether good or evil, but he is not the author of sin. He works all things for the good of all his chosen people. His glory is known to all mankind through the things he has made.

God the Father is present in the whole universe; in fact, he fills the whole heaven and earth (Jer 23:24). This is why the Belgic Confession Article 1 says God is the “eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty” God. He is “the Alpha and the Omega… who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev 1:8). This is what we sing in the Gloria Patri.

We are united in the one God in Three Persons—Father, Spirit, Son.

Unity in Diversity

Today happens to be what traditionally is called “Ascension Day,” commemorating the day that Christ ascended into heaven, 50 days after his resurrection. Paul says in verse 8 that when our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, he “led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” Other translations say, he “led captives in his train” (NIV), or “led captivity captive” (KJV). What does Paul mean by this? The meaning is revealed by looking at several other passages in Scripture.

Paul was quoting verse 18 of Psalm 68. This psalm praises God who, like a conquering general, was victorious over his enemies. This triumphant warrior would lead his captured enemies in a victory parade when he returned to his city. And from the booty he took from his enemies, he would give gifts to his people.

Paul applies this verse to Christ, who, after crushing the head of his enemy Satan, plundered his kingdom of sin and hell. What was his booty? All that God the Father had given him to save from slavery to Satan and sin. Before faith came, we used to be slaves to sin and Satan, “we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed” (Gal 3:23).But when Christ died on the cross, he released us from the captivity of Satan. This is why Jesus say that his mission was to “proclaim liberty to the captives” (Lk 4:18). After being released from Satan’s captivity, believers have become captives of Christ.

Paul says that once we were slaves of lawlessness, but now we are “slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom 6:19). We are now captives and slaves of Christ. Like Moses who led the Israelites in a procession out of Egypt through the Red Sea and the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, Christ is leading all his people in a pilgrim procession to our heavenly city. He is now in heaven after his ascension, and when he returns, he will finally complete his victory parade in the new heaven and new earth.

As he is seated on his throne at his Father’s right hand, he pours out his gifts to his church.

Diverse Gifts

He gives gifts to the church according to his will, wisdom and sovereignty.But he gives gifts to all believers in his church, a great diversity of gifts, not to divide, but to maintain the unity of his body. Each of us must take the gifts Christ in his grace has given us and use them for the unity and building up of the congregation. Paul lists some of the gifts present in those early days of the church—wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:4-11)—of which only the first three, and discernment, are still present in the church today. There are other various gifts of services that are given to each believer: hospitality, arts and music, accounting, generosity, counseling, and many others for the glory of Christ and for the unity of his church.

Special Gifts

In other to these spiritual gifts given to the broad membership of the church, Paul specifically mentions four gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

The twelve apostles were men sent out directly by the Lord, who were eyewitness of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension. Then he mentions prophets in the New Testament. The apostles brought the gospel to the whole world and the prophets worked alongside the apostles for further revelations. Paul mentioned apostles and prophets first because they laid the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20). These two gifts are unrepeatable, since they have finished laying the foundation of the church. So there are no more prophets and apostles today.

God also gave evangelists. These men worked with a strong missionary sense and in the footsteps of the apostles. Philip, Timothy and Titus were all called “evangelists.” In the New Testament, there were only three permanent officebearers in the church: pastors, elders and deacons. So is an evangelist a fourth permanent officebearer? Philip was an example of an evangelist who went preaching the gospel quickly from place to place (Acts 8:5, 26, 40). After an evangelist leaves a place where a group of believers formed a congregation, a pastor-teacher takes over. This may be why “evangelists” are listed between temporary apostles and prophets and permanent pastor-teachers. The evangelists also performed extraordinary functions that are similar to those of the apostles, such as appointing elders and exercising discipline (Tit 1:5; 3:10)

Pastor-teachers have two main duties. As pastors, they shepherd the flock. As teachers, they preach and teach “all that Christ has commanded” the church. In sustaining his exam as a licensed exhorter, our brother Jude Atas has taken an important step in God’s calling him as a pastor. He is Christ’s gift to our church.

Today, the ascended Christ continue to give a great diversity of gifts to his church: to the members, gifts of service; to the ministers, elders and deacons, gifts of special work of preaching, teaching, administering and caring for the flock. All of these gifts he gives “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12) to attain the unity and the maturity of his diverse church.

Unity in Maturity

In verse 13, Paul says that the church will grow in “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God; to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” He says there are two ways in which the church grows in its unity in the Trinity and diversity of spiritual gifts:

First, we grow “in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Unity is attained when we are one in faith and knowledge. Having one faith and believing in the same doctrines that the pastors, elders and deacons teach, the members of the church will then use their diverse gifts of service to attain unity in the church.

As I mentioned before, many people in evangelical churches, when asked what their creed or confession is, respond, “My only creed is Christ.” But when asked who Christ is, they go stumbling and fumbling for words, and eventually end up with heresies such as Jesus did not really die because God cannot die, or Jesus became the Son of God only after he was born. But the church that is well-grounded in the knowledge of the Son of God through the preaching and teaching of the pure Word of God and partaking of the Lord’s Supper will also grow in unity.

Second, we grow “to mature manhood.” Throughout the New Testament, Christians are exhorted to grow up, and not remain as infants in the faith (1 Cor 3:2; Heb 5:14; 1 Pet 2:2). In verses 13-14, Paul contrasts child-like Christians against those whose goal is to attain “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” In most evangelical churches today, the people grow only to “teenhood,” never growing up in their Christian maturity. One writer describes megachurches as “one giant youth ministry.” [ref]Thomas Bergler, author of The Juvenilization of American Christianity (Eerdmans, 2012).[/ref] They are stuck in their love for fun and games, pizza and rocking entertainment, never desiring to study Scriptures deeper than “Celebrate, Jesus, Celebrate! and “Jesus is Rad and my Bud.”

This is why many are like rudderless boats “tossed to and fro by the waves,” and like trees “carried about by every wind” of a typhoon. These are those who are easily persuaded by all kinds of false doctrines and teachings, “by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” When name-it-and-claim-it prosperity teachers come, they are easily overcome with greed. When heretical cultists come, they are easily deceived by their persistence. When false teachers come, they are attracted by their pretensions of knowledge and boastful words.

But those who are deep in their knowledge of the Triune God through reading the Scriptures and listening to the preaching of the Word regularly on Sundays are not easily deceived. They have both knowledge and Spirit, so they are those whom Peter says are “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15). These are those who are deeply and securely anchored in Christ and his Spirit, using the gifts that he has given to them and to the church.

 

Beloved Friends: Christ is the Head of the Church,and you are the Body of Christ. Paul says that as the Body of Christ, you are like a human body of flesh and bones held together by joints and ligaments. And as a body, you grow together because Christ has given pastors and elders to equip you for service in his church. Use these gifts so that the church will mature in the knowledge of and walk with Christ.

When the church is built up and growing in maturity, you will also grow in love for one another. But even when you have deep knowledge of the Scriptural doctrines, you are to be humble, because knowledge, when there is no love, puffs up and becomes boasting. So when your brother or sister errs or stumbles, you are to “speak the truth in love, for the purpose of restoration into the church, not for casting out.

This is why it is very important to have an evening or a second worship service, which Lord willing, we will start next Lord’s Day. So that you will all grow together in the truth and in love for one another, using the spiritual gifts Christ has given to each one of you.

Now, for the most important question: Are you a part of Christ’s body? Make sure today that you are part of the body by believing with all your heart, soul, mind and strength that He is Lord and Savior. And if you know that you are a part of Christ’s body, are you using them for the building up of his church on earth, hoping that one day, he will return from heaven?