God’s Plan for Unity in His Church

Transcript

GR 2324
07/18/2021
God’s Plan for Unity in His Church
Ephesians 4:12-16
Gil Rugh

We’re going in your bibles to Ephesians 4. Ephesians and the 4th chapter. We had a turn of events, perhaps we could put it that way. With chapter 4, the first three chapters of Ephesians laid the ground work of all that Christ has done and is doing in and through us as His children. But with chapter 4, we come to what we call the practical application of that. What that means for us, as we live for Christ day by day. The first six verses he emphasized the unity we have with Christ, the oneness that is ours with Him. That we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. And that was unfolded in the first three chapters, that call of God to our lives. That we live now for the one who loved us and died for us. So, we have that oneness with God. With His purposes and work in and through us.

And then with verse 7, “to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” It has been measured out to each one of us individually. What God has purposed and prepared for us, so that we can serve Him. How marvelous it is to consider the fact that we are servants of the living God. Every single one of us as believers in Jesus Christ are called and placed by Him in the area where He can use us to greatest advantage, to bring honor to Him. There are those who are confined to which we might say, to hell, hades, which is the waiting place for those who are going to be sentenced to hell.

But Christ gave gifts to men among His followers, His believers, there were gifts distributed. And verse 8 puts it, “When He ascended on high, He laid captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.” Verse 11, He laid out some of those gifts, which in some ways are priority to what He is doing. Because they include apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. But that’s so that all the rest of the gifts can function and be carried out according to the plan and program of God. So that each individual believer functions in the role that God has intended. Some may seem more prominent, more preeminent, more of a focal point. Others, the gifts seem to be in the background. But the important point is, that God is working in each and every one to accomplish His purposes, to bring about His goal for His people. Those who do not belong to God, they will be dealt with separately. But for those who belong to Him, each and every person has a unique and special place and role to fulfill.

So, verse 11 said, “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelist, and some as pastors and teachers.” Those gifts give the overview of what we might call the priority gifts, gifts that involve the communication of God’s truth. So that everyone can function in the role and realm. So it was in verse 12 where “the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith,” and so on.

So, those gifts primarily involve the communication of God’s truth. And God’s truth is the food, the nourishment that enables us to become more and more effective in our work and role of giving Christ the glory, the honor and the focus in the ministries that we have together. With those particular gifts mentioned in verse 11, they may have a priority because of the ministry of God’s truth. They are for the equipping of the saints, as verse 12 said, for the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ. That’s the pattern that we must have in clarity, as we work through these various sections of the book of Ephesians for example.

What is God doing? How is God working in each individual person? Well, we have these gifts, the apostles and prophets, as we noted, were temporary gifts in the sense they existed only during the initial phase of the establishing of the church, and the giving of God’s truth. Evangelists, they continue on to today. Those who carry the word of God to others who have not heard the word. Apostles did that particularly because they had a variety of gifts involved in their particular ministry. But then evangelists, those who would carry the gospel to others. Then pastors and teachers, the distinction, there are pastors and there are teachers. But these are often found together, pastors and teachers. Although you can have teachers who are not pastors. But all pastors would be involved it would seem, in teaching. The oversight of the ministry and the communication of God’s truth in connection with the oversight. You have some who just have the responsibility of teaching the word of God, but they don’t have particularly the responsibility of the oversight. But all of these gifts are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”

Every gift involves that particular responsibility of conveying God’s message of truth, so that a person in their individual responsibility becomes more effective in equipping the saints for the work of serving. So, whatever gift you might have, is part of what God has to make the body more effective. Doesn’t matter how many gifts we have brought together. A larger church, a smaller church, each one has every gift necessary for the accomplishing of God’s purposes in and through that particular group. “For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith.” It’s an ongoing ministry, the ministry of truth in the body. The ministry of the parts in the body. It just goes on and on and on, and is never done, until Christ says, come into My presence, with what we call the rapture of the church. The church, at some point in time, will be called into the presence of God personally. We will bodily be removed from the earth. We will meet in the air and we will be taken to glory. That’s the goal that we have. Now, how we function in preparation for that goal, is what is being discussed in chapter 4, 5 and 6. So, that we each realize, we have a place to play, a role to fulfill, appointed by God, so that the body can continue to grow to maturity. “Until we all,” verse 13, “attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” We’re growing up to be more and more like Christ.

Now each gift has a role to play, that is unique and special. The gifts are broken out more in detail, for example in 1 Corinthians, in chapters 11, 12, 13, 14. In there, where the different gifts get more exposure. Here he just gives the basic gifts and then the impact of those gifts. The gifts that involve the ministry of God’s word, now are used in those areas of the body of Christ. “Until we all attain to the… knowledge of the Son of God,” verse 13, “to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” We are everything that Christ intends us to be. We have grown to maturity, spiritually.

That doesn’t mean, now I can be this person and this person can be the other. No, there is a development in each area. Some will have a gift in one area, some will be gifted in the other. It’s like our human body which is the basic picture of the many pictures given. But the basic one is probably the body. And it has various parts, and all the parts contribute in some way, so that the body, when all the parts function as they should, it functions in a way that is most honoring to God. And that’s the way it is for us as believers. We continue to grow “until we all attain,” verse 13, “to the unity of the faith…” the oneness that is ours in Christ, “the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” That’s the goal, that we become more and more functioning together in a unified way, that brings honor to Christ.

And we are more like Christ in the way that we function. In the things that we do. We have different parts, different roles to play, but they all are contributing to the development of the person. Like our physical bodies. So, verse 14 then, it is ready to pick up and elaborate on the impact of each part of the body functioning as it should. “As a result, we will no longer be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.” What happens is, we begin to become more and more Christ-like in our demeanor, in our actions and the exercising of the abilities that God has given us. There is a unity that is produced.

I see it with the babies that are born. They have all the parts, that they function, not coordinated yet. But with the passing of time and the developing of maturity, there is more and more cohesiveness in what is being displayed. And the outworking of each individual part in connection with another part. So that progressively, over time we effectively demonstrate that we are one body, with many parts.

So, as a result, “we are no longer to be children,” babes, “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.” That’s a mark of immaturity, like with the babies, an immature baby. They have all the parts, they just don’t function yet together. And you watch them as they develop. They work more to be in harmony with one another, doing one thing. And that’s the picture of the body of Christ. We’re not any longer children, any longer immature, any longer undeveloped as we should. “Tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men.” Every time something new comes along, there is the enticement. Well, when you’re a baby, you expect that. You do things, you help them with their hands, they don’t scratch their own face. But, you just have to give time, because the parts of the body won’t work together unless there is the time to develop the various parts.

Look back in 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. Paul begins, and he talks there about individuals, professing believers, evidently some of them truly believers, but they’re not functioning in a coordinated way. So, he starts chapter 3, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, are you not walking like mere men? For one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men?” In the body of Christ, as He put it together, it can be pictured like your physical body. In that early stage, in the early weeks and months of a newborn, there’s no unity together. It is one part and they work against each other. That’s what he’s concerned about here. “I gave you,” verse 2, “milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not able to receive it.” And you’re not even able to now, to receive it. You ought to be moving on. You ought to be saying, this ought to be putting us together in a unified way. In a way that brings honor to God by what we are doing, by how we function.

Come the other direction, to the book of Hebrews chapter 13. All the way back in your New Testament, to the book of Hebrews. The last large book before you get to the book of Revelation. Then you’ll have James and 1 and 2 Peter, and the epistles of John. So, you have a number of books, but they are all small. But the last large letter we have is, we have our bibles put together, is in Hebrews. We want to go to chapter 13. Look at verse 9, “Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefitted.” There’s something wrong. We’ve got our attention diverted. So, “do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods.” So, you see, you need the work of the Spirit of God in your heart, to enable you to appreciate and benefit from what God is doing in and through you. And in and through others as well.

Come back to Ephesians chapter 4. “As a result,” verse 14, “we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.” In other words, men come up with ideas and plans, but they’re not according to the revelation of God. What He is doing, is building something unique and special. A church. But it’s comprised of a variety of people, each having something to contribute. So, “as a result, we are no longer to be children,” verse 14, “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.” They can seem amazing how they are put together, but they are men’s thinking. They are men’s ideas. They are men in deceitful scheming, that keep the body from functioning as a unified whole. And we constantly work dealing with these opposing ideas and forces. You know, in a way, it seems natural that the Spirit of God puts us together and we grow together. But there is something that’s there, always it seems, that is the work of the Devil in trying to make us, we’re working against one another. It really is to be a unified working, not the work of the Devil in craftiness.

Come over to 2 Corinthians again, just before the book of Ephesians. Galatians, but 2 Corinthians, at chapter 4 to begin with. Verse 3, reminds us that “even if our gospel is veiled,” 2 Corinthians 4:3, “it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” All this in preparation and anticipation for appreciating the uniqueness of what God is doing in a life.

Come over to chapter 11, still of 2 Corinthians, verse 3, “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you’ve not accepted, you bear this beautifully.” The point there being, they have been open to teaching which, instead of putting the body together in a unified way, puts it against one another. And we just are tearing each other apart, if you will. We’re breaking apart the unity instead of building the unity. Down in chapter 11 still of 2 Corinthians. Look at verse 13, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself is an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.” The way that the Devil works to keep the body from functioning unified in a way every part contributes, is he brings those in who say, well now, you don’t fit together like that; no, that’s not the way it is working. They “are false apostles,” verse 13, “deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.” So, they look, they act, but really what they are doing is creating a division in the body, not a unity. And if there is not unity, then the body won’t function as God created it to function, as a unified oneness. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. And that’s how he would describe himself. But he’s not really, so we shouldn’t be surprised if his servants disguise themselves. So we have that constant potential of friction in the body, in the family of God.

Come back to Ephesians 4. We’ll pick up with verse 15, “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up into all aspects into Him who is the head.” So, the contrast with verse 14 where the trickery of men, using their craftiness in deceitful scheming, brings conflict in the body. Instead of the unity that God created the body to have, it now has the disunity, the disharmony. Well, we think it ought to be this way. We come to the word of God to find out what God intends. In verse 15, “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” So, there is a goal, it is growth. But it is growth into Christ in all aspects. We speaking the truth in love, in concern for one another, for the well-being of others. “We are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” That’s the goal, to grow up to Him. And as we do, we become more like Him. What enables us, with hundreds of people, to become more like Christ, in a unified, harmonious way. We each see our part in relation to another part, as the Holy Spirit is working to build us together. The Devil is constantly working to fracture that unity. Sometimes with a good appearance to it. Well, it’s because we are standing for truth and they are not. But usually its not a matter of truth, it’s a matter of application in an area that ends up driving contrary to truth. Verse 15, “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” Now if we’re all growing up into Him, then there will be unity. There is harmony, there is a oneness that cannot be received in other places.

Back in 2 Corinthians again, just a few pages back, chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians, verse 18. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” So, we have a diversity of gifts. The Spirit of God working, giving unity in those gifts. But the diversity produces a oneness, a unity. Because it’s not a diversity that causes us to constantly be butting heads with one another. But it’s a diversity that causes us to appreciate we are to fit in with others. They have a diversity of gifts, they have different contribution to make. But it is all for the unity of the body.

Come back to chapter 4 of Ephesians, verse 15. “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” That’s the goal, to grow up to be more like Him. There’s only one head to the body. There’s a diversity of parts, a multiplicity of parts, but there is one head. One unifying entity, if you will. And if we don’t have that, then we’ve got a breakdown some place. My body doesn’t have a problem as long as it’s all taking its instructions from the head. But when there is a breakdown, then this part of the body doesn’t function in relationship to the other parts of the body. I have to back up and say, something is wrong. So, you have verse 16, “from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” This is how it all grows together. We are fitted and joined together as one body. Now, if we function under the direction of the one head, then there will be a unified oneness. We have that with our physical body, in all of its parts, when it functions under the control of the head. Now, when you have the hand that wants to do something different, then there’s a breakdown. The message between the head and the hand is interrupted by something. That’s what we’re looking at in Ephesians 2:20-21, we “are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into to a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” That’s the picture. With our diversity, we can become one. We are one because of the unity that we have in Christ Jesus and in Him alone.

Back to chapter 4, this is cohesive to everything he has said up to this point. If we understand the doctrine of the first three chapters, we’ll understand the application of that doctrine in chapters 4,5 and 6. “From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part.” Each part has its role to play, each part has its contribution to make. But it doesn’t conflict with the other parts. So, we are constantly growing. We haven’t grown to that perfection yet, but we are growing. That we have not yet arrived, where we can say, yes my contribution is just what it must be to grow in harmony with the others. There is adjustments constantly along the way. And if we don’t appreciate that, then we pretty soon just break apart, and break apart, and break apart. And to that extent, we end up having weakness, because we haven’t continued to grow along the lines that God has provided and intended. “The whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies.” Every part makes a contribution, every part has a part to play. It’s just not an entity there, that functions. It functions in connection with every other joint, as it is entitled here. “From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies.” Every part is making a contribution.

Now, we appreciate that. And we understand, there’s a constant adjustment to one another, to working together. Otherwise, well what? We’ll be butting heads. We’ll be, well they’re not functioning as they should. Now, we have to be careful, there will be differences that are allowed. But they are not essential to the growing of the body. So, we have to be careful that we keep our focus on “what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” And there comes, basically the provision of, we’re walking in love. We’re walking in love of one another. We realize that that part has yet to grow a little bit in understanding, in maturity. If you’re more mature, you’re more patient to help the less mature person grow to be a more mature person. It’s from verses 1 to 16, is has been basically a unified instruction. Starting out in the first 6 verses, with the unity we have. “Walk in a manner worthy,” verse 1, “of the calling with which you’ve been called.” And that means with humility and gentleness, and patience, and tolerance. “Diligent to preserve the unity.” And then he talked about the oneness, the one body, the one Spirit, the one hope, the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism, the one God and Father of all. “But to each one of us grace was given.” So, we recognize the unity. We recognize the diversity of the grace. And then, verse 11, transitioned, He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelist, and some as pastors and teachers.” And now we can grow. Now we can each function as we should, in the body. But well, this part seems to be working against this part. Well, that’s going to find out, maybe I have to make some adjustment, maybe someone else makes an adjustment, but the goal of it all is what? That we become unified together as one body, so that all of us are working toward the same goal, the same end. All of us have the same desire, that God’s will, will be done.

Now, why He’s put us all together with our diversity, I find the place that I fit. And when I find the place that I fit, then I contribute what I have to contribute to the functioning of the body. Now, at times there’s going to be adjustments because someone else, and it seems like we don’t quite mesh. Well, then I must belong to another church. Well, that’s one solution. Sometimes there are people that are lead to other places. Other people have been lead here. But overall, God has put us together, so that we can grow together. So, we can be “speaking the truth in love,” verse 15, and “grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head.” So, instead of saying, well I guess I don’t fit, they don’t appreciate what I have to offer, well, maybe the Lord’s telling me I have an adjustment to make. I have something to contribute, but it may not be in exactly the way I thought, the place I thought. And ultimately my purposes that I thought.

So, in each and everything, verse 16, brought it to a summary, “the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” I realize I have something to contribute. I may not have realized what it is. Well, then I just function where there are opportunities. And that one opportunity, well that was fine, but it wasn’t where I fit long term. I’ve done about everything that could be done in a church, cause I didn’t know. And then over time, it became clear where I should be and where I was most effective. And that becomes true for each one of us.

So, it’s a process of growing together. There’s just no easy way. But no, what did I say, difficult way, you just apply yourself. Lord, I’m here, I’m to be used of You. Where could You use me today? And then I’ll see how I grow with other believers.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord, for Your word, for it’s riches, for it’s efficiency. Thank You for the Spirit of God who enables us in spite of superficial differences, things that would put us in opposition to one another, and yet by Your grace, we can recognize and accept that You are at work. And Your work is being accomplished and done. So, pray that each one of us might continue to grow. Experience Your growth in our lives, so we can appreciate the growth that is being experienced in other lives. And then together, our growth together is a testimony of Your supernatural grace. We give You praise in Christ’s name. Amen