One Lord, One Body

Welcome to Faith for Living. First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga brings you today's teaching designed to apply God's Word to the struggles and challenges of our day that we might have, Faith for Living. While joining us today is Clay Warner, he's a native of Nashville, Indiana, and a graduate of Westminster Seminary in Escondito, California. Clay is a minister of discipleship at First Presbyterian Church, and his desire is that the church ministry be Christ-centered and relevant to everyday life. Clay, his wife, lives in their son, live in the Chattanooga area. And today, Clay brings to us a message entitled, One Lord, One Body. As we continue our sermon series, Authentic Relationships, Authentic Community. Our text for today is from Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. Here now is Clay Warner. Now ever since I was a little boy, there was one day that I was really looking forward to. One day that I thought, when that day comes, it's going to be one of the happiest days of my entire life, going up in Indiana almost every single boy longed in hope for this day, and we wanted to come as soon as possible, and each year we were waiting, is it going to happen this year? Is it going to happen this year? Oh, I can't wait for this to happen. And it finally happened last year, one of the greatest days of my life, Super Bowl 41. They're cults finally winning the Super Bowl. For years, they had gotten so far in the playoffs, and then in the end, they just dropped the ball, and our hopes were just dashed and disappointed, but last year, they finally won the Super Bowl. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about that and called up all my friends, all my relatives, and said, we finally did it. This is great. It was I was here in Tennessee, and I could celebrate with Tennessee folks because of Peyton Manning being from here, as well. So that was pretty exciting, and it was cheers all around. But one of the things that was interesting after the game was that when you listen to the interviews of Rex Grossman, he had a different perspective. Now, Rex Grossman is a great quarterback. We actually played him when I was in junior high, so that's my brush with fame right there. But he comes after the interview, and you can almost say, he had almost single handed Italy lost the game because he had thrown an interception, and the second half that pretty much just changed the momentum from the Bears to the Colts. And Rex Grossman said this to an interview, they said, you know, what do you have to say after losing the Super Bowl, and he said, well, at least I got my team this far. He was focused completely on himself, he was focused on his own gifts, his own stardom. He loved having the camera in his face, but one of the things that he forgot in a sense was his team. And everything was about him. Now, everyone knows that when you become an NFL quarterback, you have to live a life worthy of that calling. And at that point, in many ways, Rex Grossman was not living a life worthy of an NFL quarterback. He's a great quarterback, but a good quarterback is a good leader. And a good quarterback takes the blame, even when it might be someone else's, and a good quarterback gives other people the credit, even when perhaps he's the one that won the game, just that at least I brought my team this far. Paul is saying in Ephesians 4 that we are called to live a life worthy, of course, not as NFL quarterbacks, but as Christians. As those who have been called into the presence of the Lord by faith and Jesus Christ, as those who have been called to live in community with each other. Paul has spent the first three chapters of Ephesians showing us the deep, the profound, the amazing, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and how that was shown to us on the cross, and how we were dead in our sins, but at the right time God made us alive in Christ, and he hasn't just given us grace, he's lavished that grace upon us. He doesn't just possess love towards us, he possesses a great love towards his people. He spends three chapters on theology, this deep, profound things of the love of God, and the first thing he says for application is, be humble. It's not necessarily what anyone might expect, but he calls us to live a life worthy of our calling, and sometimes we honestly mistake what that means because we think, well, living a life worthy of the Christian faith means I have all my theological teas crossed in my eyes dotted, that's living a life worthy, or maybe it means that we have everything about the end times, known down to the tea, what's going to happen, who's going to do it, and everything else, well, that's valid too, but it's not necessarily the essential thing about living a life worthy, sometimes we think it's about going to every single church program. How do I live a life worthy of being a Christian, well, I'm every single Christian event that I can go to, or maybe it's just keeping the rules. One pastor I know has said it like this, in the 21st century, we've become a whole bunch of human doings, and not human beings anymore, but Paul is saying that we must first be humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love, and only then can we do the great thing of striving for unity, the unity for which Christ died to give. Now why does he first start out by saying, be humble, be gentle? It's because he realizes that there are huge differences in the Ephesian church, he knows that there's big differences in all the churches, because in chapter 2, verses 11-22, he mentions about how the Jews, believing Jews, and believing Gentiles have been made one in Christ, they're part of the same believing community, the same one plan of God that he has always had from all eternity to unite them by faith into one person. You can see that in verses 15 and 16 of chapter 2. It says that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two, so making peace that he might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross, thereby killing what? The hostility. He's saying that when believing Jews and believing Gentiles come together, they use the hate each other. They use it in many ways, kill each other, and now Paul is saying because of the cross and because of his grace, they are part of the same community, and in light of the good news of the gospel, he says, be humble. Well not only are those the differences between Jews and Gentiles, but there's differences even in our midst, differences of theology, differences of worship style, differences of race, differences of economics, differences of geography, you name it. Differences of geography really came home to me here recently. Some of you have heard this story, but I went up to Gatlinburg, get away for a little while with my wife, and I see, well I won't mention that, but I see different things hanging from people's windows and I stop at a Wendy's, and I had a larger bill, I had a 50, because we were on vacation and I hand it to the lady and she goes, I don't like 50s, and I said, well I'm sorry, if you can't take that, I have a debit card right here and she goes, no, we take 50s, I just don't like looking at grand space, I'm a 50 dollar bill, I'm just glad I didn't have to tell her I was from Indiana, that would have been bad news. Now here's the deal, what if we went to the same church? Now that's a humorous story, but God calls us to live and community and to love one another and to pursue unity, despite the differences that we have, so we're going to look this morning briefly at Paul's application of unity, and then his profound thoughts on the foundation of that very unity, but if you look with me in verses 4 or chapter 4 verses 1 through 3, we'll start in 2, this is the application that he says, here is how you live a life worthy of the calling that you have been given by God's grace, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Paul starts out by showing that we live a life worthy by taking things personally, we have to deal with our own hearts first before we deal with others, and that's why it starts with the personal issues of humility and gentleness. Now, if you look, he says that we must possess all humility in verse 2, some translations have it complete humility, not just some, not just a little here and a little there, but complete humility Paul calls us to, he goes to say he says that pride is not a virtue that should be committed in the Christian community, but humility literally means lowliness of mind. Philippians 2, 3 says in humility count others more significant than yourselves. If you want to live a life worthy of your calling in a Christian community with brothers and sisters and maintain the unity that's been created by the gospel, think others is better than yourself. Then he says this in Romans 12 verse 3, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly than he ought to think of himself. You will never find it in scripture where it says, you're thinking too poorly of yourself. More often than not it's saying that we think too highly of ourselves, and if you ask a Christian, or a non-Christian what they see in the church, it might be something different than that. And in Tennessee I believe there's 69 endangered species on our animal list. About the United States there's 1273 animal species on the endangered species list. According to David Kinneman who just wrote a book on Christian and who came here and gave a talk, I think last Sunday night, over 70% of the unbelieving community surrounding the church says that the church is prideful and quick to judge. So what else should be on that endangered species list for the non-Christian according to them? People, Christians. Sometimes it's rare to find one, but when you do, you want to be with them. You want to be around them. You want them to rub off on you. The Paul calls us first to complete humility. Not only that he says, complete gentleness, it's not being harsh, it's not being judgmental towards others. It's a word that used to be used when an animal was tamed. Think of a rotwiler, a bulldog that's just rabid, and someone comes along who can train that animal. It's sitting there and it's playing along. It's being pretty rough, but at his master's voice he says sit and he sits and at his master's voice you see this huge dog that's ferocious and known for what damage it can do and he says rollover, play dead, shake my hand. An animal that is willing to listen to the voice of its master and listen. Paul is saying to Christians who struggle with sin, who still struggle with differences he's saying humble, gentle, live a life of love in the midst of your brothers and a life of gentleness would say yes, Lord, whatever you call me to do. The word for gentleness means that we have a consideration of others. It means that we have a willingness to waive all of our rights for the sake of the welfare of someone else and the only other place where these two words are used in tandem like they are here is in Matthew 11, verse 29. Some of you know that verse come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for I am humble and meek, Paul is saying that we are taking upon ourselves by his grace a Christ-like character when we pursue humility and when we pursue gentleness. It's the complete opposite of pride and it's the complete opposite of harshness because Paul is saying that if you have those things which we all do, those things destroy Christian unity. Now one of the great things I really enjoyed about dating my wife as she was in Colorado Springs was every single time I went to her place to go visit and see her friends and talk to them and just hang out, I got to drive by Cheyenne Mountain. Now some of you probably haven't heard the name of that mountain but it's one of the largest deepest military bases in the entire United States. It was built back in the 60s for a possible nuclear explosion that could have happened here on our soil and they spent many years in the 1960s digging a hole into the mountains over a mile deep into the mountain, it's 10,000 feet high but they bored the hole one mile into the ground and at the top of this tunnel at the very front are two massive doors that are 25 tons each that open up. Now listen to this, that place in Cheyenne Mountain, that military base could withstand a 30 megaton blast and still come out unscathed. Now let me put that in perspective for you. That's like taking 30 million tons, not 30 million pounds, but 30 million tons of TNT right outside that door and exploding it and it'll still survive. Let me put it in another perspective, the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki or Hiroshima, those were 24 kilotons. The bomb that could withstand this place at Cheyenne Mountain could be a thousand times more powerful than that what was dropped in World War II and this place could still survive because it was bored so deep into the earth. Now Paul is saying that when you pursue humility which is lowliness of mind, now keep in mind pride is highness of mind if you're on top of Cheyenne Mountain at 10,000 feet and that bomb goes off, you're not going to be around anymore but if you're deep in the earth you'll be there, you'll survive and you'll be doing okay, you can last a year down there with the food rations that they have but Paul is saying that if you pursue that humility and gentleness go deeper than you ever think you could go and you'll be able to withstand whatever blast comes your way from someone else because too often when we get attacked from someone else or we differ with someone else the first thing we start doing is planning how we can get back or planning how we can attack or planning how we can walk away but Paul is saying the deeper you go the greater blast you can withstand and come out and still love and still be with that person and still show concern for them so he moves on from saying that this is the application of unity our personal issues to our relational he begins by talking about patience that you can see in verse 2 it says with patience bearing with one another in love now he says patience he uses a unique word but he doesn't mean what I often think it would probably mean me sitting at McDonald's trying to get my double cheeseburger actually it's two double cheeseburgers and biggie sized at that so but usually it takes him a while to get that order ready but he doesn't mean being patient for me to get my fast food or whatever it might be the word he uses for patience in the Old Testament is translated of God slow to anger it means someone is coming against you someone is causing you trouble and you still say I'm not going to attack I'm not going to go against him I'm going to love him and then he says this it says that we bear with one another in love I'm so thankful that he didn't just say bear with one another because it's easy to just put up with somebody sometime just avoid him but he says bear with one another in love and the love that he has seen and showed us all throughout chapters 1 through 3 in Ephesians is a love that pursues no matter what the sacrifice has to be done bear with one another in love pursue those who have offended you because you have gone low in humility and what they do can't touch you when you're that low just like it is it's shy in mountain now imagine this someone comes from Tennessee or from Florida right where it's really hot and muggy let's say it's August right is anyone been down there in August it's it's unbearable I never want to be down in Florida in August I mean it's it's 108 or 800 degrees 200 percent humidity you just want to get out of there and let's say this person from Florida saying you know what I'm going to take a trip up north where it's nice and cool where do I want to go I'm going to say Tennessee that's going to be a lot cooler in Tennessee in August yeah that's going to be great so he gets his you know maybe fall clothing on his he brings his winter clothing with him that's going to be so cool up there I'm going to get refreshed well he comes and he's mistaken because it's just as hot here I would say California ruined me I was out there it doesn't get hotter really than 80 degrees and if it gets hotter than 80 I'm boiling hot if it gets colder than 70 I'm freezing cold I come here it's like a hundred degrees for 21 straight days in August and I'm dying but we would say that that person who came up from Florida he's not a realist he didn't get his facts he should have known before he came in Paul is saying I mean notice he says that we need to be patient with each other that we need to bear with one another in love he's talking about the Christian community they're going to hurt you and you're going to hurt others and that is why he calls us to be patient to bear with one another in love Paul is a realist he realizes there's going to be conflict in the church and not only this he says in verse 3 eager to maintain the unity of the spirit now let me just kind of let you grasp the eagerness that he's talking about here it's not a sit back and I'm going to wait and see what happens let me just illustrate it for you I'm going down look out mountain last year this happened twice to me and my wife's car and need us to say we didn't buy a great car but I'm going down on the steepest steepest part so look out mountain I'm enjoying the scenery by the side there's a guardrail right here it's a really steep drop off and my brakes aren't they're not working they're going all the way to the ground I have no brakes I can't stop what's going to happen there's a guardrail right in front of me and a huge drop off at the end now what do you think my response was I guess I'll just wait and see if the brakes fix themselves I wonder if that guardrail works might find out here pretty soon I was eager to fix my car I was eager to get it stopped so what did I do I take my gears and I put it down in the third I put it down in the seconds keep on slowing down put it down in the first if anyone needs lessons on this come talk to me but each time I geared down I slowed down a little bit and pulled my emergency brake and I got pulled to a stop needles to say I was eager to get my car stopped because I had a wife and son I really wanted to see I didn't want to go off the side of look out mountain but I was eager to maintain the safety in my car and had to bring it to a stop Paul is saying that there's going to be conflict in the church wherever you go not just first Presbyterian but every single church in the world is somehow going to have some form of conflict and instead of saying I'm going to wait back and see the word that he uses there is eager to maintain with haste go pursue that unity now notice that it says the main to maintain it we don't create it the Lord did and by faith and by His grace we maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace well that's the application of unity it's first personal then it's relational it's first dealing with our own hearts with humility and gentleness and then dealing with each other with patience but he moves on to the foundation of unity which first and foremost is the Trinity he says that there is in verse four one body one spirit just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call in the universe five one Lord one faith one baptism now we could deal with all of those things but we're just going to deal with a couple here briefly but one Lord the Lord Jesus Christ he is saying that the foundation of our unity is the perfect harmony of the Trinity from all eternity they have always existed in perfect harmony with each other father son and holy spirit have had perfect peace perfect fellowship perfect love with each other and now the Lord says because of Christ death you look like that maintain that keep it pursue it it's not just something that a preacher has to say it's what Jesus himself said in John 17 holy father he prays keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one even as we are one and notice the purpose of this in verse 22 chapter 17 so that the world may know that you have sent me so the world may believe that you have sent me so the foundation of our unity is the Trinity and then he says that we have one faith now when he mentions faith I don't think it's the subjective trust in the Lord although that's essential what I think he's talking about is the actual content of scripture the truth that we believe that's shown to us in scripture because often people think we pursue unity by getting the lowest common denominator about truth and we just find out kind of some of the small things we agree on no Paul is saying you both pursue together the complete truth in the word you don't throw anything off to the side you say let's come together and figure out the fullness of the truth and then he says one baptism and our baptism we are brought together in one family one believing family where we all sons and daughters of the Lord we confess that before we started the sermon we believe in one holy Catholic or universal church the communion of the saints those are things we say we believe do we practice them because we've all been baptized into the same Lord our Lord Jesus Christ now notice this in verse 6 says that we have one God and Father of all who is overall and through all in and all and that is good news for people like me and I hope for folks like you because what that means is when he says one God and Father of all who is overall it means that he is above all that he is powerful that he is omnipotent that he knows everything he is so powerful that there is no heart so prideful no heart so harsh no heart so impatient that he can't crush it and make it a soft gentle heart loving heart by his spirit now if you're like me when he hears something like that he say oh that's awesome I know somebody that could really use that you're probably thinking of him right now him or her but why that is good news is because it's your own heart first but that's good news for he can break the hardness in your own heart the person that maybe you really don't want to talk to or maybe is really offended you he's saying he is so strong he can change your heart to want to go towards them and then it says that he is through all in and all it means that he is so close it means that he's struggling if you're struggling with someone or something in the church outside of the church a conflict here or there he's saying you can get through it I'm with you Christ died so that I could be in you the Holy Spirit and he is saying now many by conflict are broken it says I'm close to the broken hearted in the Old Testament I say the crushed in spirit there's hope for people who have been damaged by other Christians because God is overall and in all well that shortly is the foundation of the unity that we possess it's the Trinity it's truth it's the community that we belong to it's the family that we belong to we've seen the application of that unity with humility and gentleness patience and forbearance now remember what Rex Grossman said at the beginning at least I got my team this far well Peyton Manning being a good Tennessee boy said a lot better things than that he almost single-handedly won the game and what he said was I wouldn't be here giving you this interview if it wouldn't have been for my amazing team he gave them the glory he realized that any progress that he made was because the team that was behind him and any progress that we make as a church and as individuals is not because of ourselves it's because the Lord's grace first and then our brothers and sisters Paul said it like this in chapter 3 it says that you we're talking to all the saints being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the height with depth and love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord he is saying that you need every single person in the church not just the ones you hang out with not just the ones you get a long with even those whom you may differ from or have avoided for quite some time he's saying you need them desperately to understand Christ's love Paul calls us to apply the wonderful truths that he has spoken of in chapters 1 through 3 with humility going low gentleness being concerned for others patience with others forbearance in love and he's shown us at the foundation of that unity is the Trinity father son and Holy Spirit at the cross taking away the enmity and also showing that that is a common bond of truth that we pursue together and as we pursue that truth together Christ will be magnified and we will be changed conflict is an opportunity to strengthen unity and Christian unity is essential to our witness when an outside world wonders how can people who are so different get along so well which is an open door of the gospel because then we say only by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ faith for living is brought to you by your friends at the historic first Presbyterian church in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee through expository Bible preaching living worship loving fellowship and compassionate outreach we want to be a ministry of God's grace with lives transformed through the gospel of Jesus Christ we have programs and opportunities for every age level from the youngest to teens to 30 something to retirees join us for Sunday morning worship at 8.30 and 11 were located at 554 McCullough Avenue across from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus visit us in person or on the web at faithforliving.net or call 423-648-7914 a copy of today's program on audio CD cassette tape or DVD is also available when requesting today's faith for living television broadcast simply reference today's sermon title on your screen or mention today's date and we invite you back again next week at the same time for another edition of faith for 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