Keeping the Unity (Ephesians)

Appleton Gospel Church

Keeping the Unity: Unity in the church (or any close relationship) doesn't just happen. It takes work...and lots of it! In the church, our union with Christ means we ought to have unity with each other. But staying united takes loads of humility, gentleness, and patience. This is not easy; is it worth it? Absolutely. Recorded on Jun 9, 2024, on Ephesians 4:1-6 by Pastor David Parks. Our series, Ephesians: The Gospel in Life, serves as an epilogue to Finding Life in Jesus’ Name from John’s gospel. The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians reveals much about how the life found by faith in Jesus actually works. This series will touch on themes of grace, identity, purpose, family, the church, spiritual warfare, and more. If you’re considering the life of Jesus or if you’re ready to follow him today, this series is for you. Sermon Transcript We’ve been working through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in a sermon series called The Gospel in Life. And today, as we start Chapter 4, we’re going to consider the unity we have as a church, that because of our union with Christ — which, we’ve seen is one of the main themes of Ephesians — but because of our union with Christ, we also have unity with everyone else who has this same union with Christ. This past week, Holly and I went back through a hard drive with all our old pictures, and I came across our old, grainy wedding video. Some of you know that Holly and I met when we were ten years old. So, even though we got married when we were young, it still felt like we knew everything about each other. Of course, that was far from true, but, you know, young love! But what that video captured was that on our wedding day, Holly and I were two who became one. And Holly and I were blessed not to have much conflict early on in our marriage. But do you know how hard we’ve had to work over the last hundred and fifty years of our marriage to stay one? Even in the best of circumstances, it takes a lot of work to keep a marriage healthy. But this is just a picture of the work needed to keep the relationships healthy that we have here in the church. There are many things that might be different about us or threaten to divide us, but we have been made one in Christ. But how can we keep our unity here in the church when there are so many forces that seek to pull us apart? If you have your Bible/app, please take it and open it to Eph 4:1. We’ll read through this and unpack it together. Ephesians 4:1 (NIV), “1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” In Chapter 1, Paul made it clear that every believer is called in Christ — called into a relationship with God, called from death to life, called into hope, called into the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, called by the power of the Spirit, and so much more. In Chapter 2, we saw that this calling was a result of God’s gracious gift and because of God’s eternal love — not because of anything we had done or ever could do. Remember? “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” We’re not saved by works, but saving faith is faith that produces good works. Remember? “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” So, the way of salvation is not by works. But the Christian life is full of good works done because we’ve been saved. Now, it’s always important to make sure we get the order right. Otherwise, we can become confused and think that salvation depends on us. This is why Paul and other NT authors usually start with what the gospel is, but then they pivot to talking about what the gospel does in life. In Ephesians, Chapters 1-3 are mostly about what the gospel is. But here, at the start of Chapter 4 and through the end of the letter, Paul turns his focus more to what the gospel does.