The Sermon in a Nutshell: October 18

This week our sermon was called “The Church & Me: Called Out In Unity.” Our Scripture text was Ephesians 4:1-16. One thing that has baffled me, and I'm sure it's baffled many of you as well, is how in the world the church has come to be fractured into so many thousands of denominations today. The estimates range from 20,000 – 30,000 different denominations in the world today, each one of them calling themselves “Christian”! This is a long way from Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17 when He prayed that the church would be brought to “complete unity” (John 17:23).
In order to try to begin to make sense of this situation, we turned to Paul's words in Ephesians 4 this week. This passage begins with Paul encouraging the Ephesian believers to “live a life worthy of the calling [you'all] have received.” What is this calling Paul is talking about and how are we to live in a worthy manner? Well, the calling Paul is talking about is the way God has called all believers to be part of His chosen people, the church. The church is called out in unity as one chosen people. God didn't call out multiple churches, but the church as a whole. The rest of this passage tells us how we are to live lives worthy of this call to unity.
First, in verses 2-3 we see that being called out in unity depends on our actions. This means that even though we do not all meet in one building on Sunday morning, we can still show the unity of the church in the way we treat other Christians.
Next, in verses 4-6 we see that being called out in unity is rooted in who God is. Perhaps the greatest mystery of the Christian faith is the doctrine of the Trinity. When we talk about Trinity we talk about the way that God is three persons and yet one God all at once. God has existed from all eternity in a relationship of love as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Verses 4-6 echo this notion of Trinity when Paul says “there...is one Spirit...one Lord [Jesus Christ]...one God and Father of all...” (Eph 4:4-6). So God is our example of how we can have unity out of diversity.
Thirdly, verses 7-12 tell us that being called out in unity is enriched by the diversity of our gifts. This means that unity is NOT uniformity; the goal of evangelism is not to smash people into a cookie-cutter mold to make them look just like everyone else in the church. Rather, when individuals, each with his or her own unique gifts, find salvation in Christ and become a part of the church, God uses these people's gifts to build up the Church.
Finally, in verses 13-16 Paul tells us that being called out in unity demands our growth in maturity. Verse 14 hints at false teachers that were deceiving immature Christians with lies about the Gospel. These lies, 2,000 years ago as well as today, went something like “We have a secret knowledge that other Christians don't have, listen to us and you can be a 'super-Christian'” or “Those other people in church who call themselves 'Christians' live like a bunch of heathens, but if you follow these rules we will tell you about, you can show that you are one of the 'real' Christians.” Both of these lies divide the church. However, when we grow in maturity in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, we appreciate more and more God's calling of the church in unity.
While this study in Ephesians does not give us a definitive answer to the problem of denominational disunity in the church (this is a wound that is being healed but it will take a long, long time as well as a lot of work by the Holy Spirit), this passage does give us a way to move forward to advance the unity of the church. Because the church is called out in unity, we must take this call seriously! We need to treat other Christians as family, both in our own congregation as well as in other denominations, because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. More than that, as Christians of different denominations, we need to talk to each other about the way we interpret the Bible. This can be an enriching experience for all of us as we will learn things about Christ and Scripture from our brother and sisters of other denominations while at the same time teaching them things about Christ and Scripture which we have learned from our own denomination. None of this goes to say that denominational differences can't be significant or that we should abandon our dedication to pursuing God's truth in Scripture. However, in our dedication to Scripture, we must not be blind to the inescapable fact that Scripture tells us the church is called out in unity. Amen.