Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 16. Hear the word of God. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all, and end you all. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended, what does it mean but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head. From whom? The whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Let's pray and ask God to bless his word to us. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this portion. of your inspired, inerrant, infallible word. We pray, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit, you would help us to understand what is taught here and that you would apply it to our hearts and lives for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. This is a passage that is largely about the unity of the church, but in the context of the church's diversity, that we as Christians are yet, though joined together, yet nevertheless different from one another. Now, a context for this discussion of the unity of the church would certainly be what we find in 2.11 through 3.11, the union of Gentiles and Jews together in the church as the great mystery, or a great mystery that was to be revealed. And it is in line with that and in light of that that Paul comes back to that discussion. Now he begins in chapter four with expressing to them a desire, he beseeches them, to walk worthy of the calling which which what they were called. Now that's a general expression. It is a general walk that we are all to have as Christians. But we will see what he has in mind is this subject of the unity of the church. That we walk worthy only if we walk in a way that expresses the unity of the church. Certainly there are other parts to our Christian walk, and Paul certainly deals with those later, and especially later even in this same chapter, where in verse 17, The verse right after the end of our text, he says, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. And he goes on to talk about what's wrong with their walk and how our walk should be different. But in this part that we're looking at tonight, the first 16 verses, he has to do with a walk in unity. And so these particular aspects of it that are seen in verses two and three are with regard to that. And certainly at this point, I'll mention verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. But that in verse two also is related, but we'll come back to that. Because what he does, beginning in verse four, is to express the foundational unity of the church. So there's a unity of the church in terms of expression in its life, but there is, in a sense, prior to that, and at a higher level than that, a foundational unity. foundational in this sense. Let's look at the verses. In verse four, there is one body. And he's talking about the church, one body and one spirit, binding this body together, of course, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. The Christian hope that is the calling that we are called into is one for every Christian. Every Christian has one Lord, one faith, there is one baptism, there is one God and father of all, and then he goes on to talk about the father and then also the son. But I think it is important for us to see at this point that this is a foundational unity. What is true of us as Christians in the most basic sense is true of all of us and binds us all together. There are not two churches of Jesus Christ. Now we live in a setting where there are numerous denominations. And denominations are in a sense a problem In that, they fail to reflect the proper unity of the church. And yet, as we will be seeing further down in the text, that unity is not to be achieved at the expense of the truth. at the expense of the gospel. And yet, there are those who would say that we all ought to just agree and get along. And most of us are agreeable sorts of folks, and we want to say, well, sure. But then comes, and what do we agree about? Well, obviously each of us would think we should agree with my doctrine. If all of us would agree with my doctrine, there wouldn't be a problem. But the other guy's saying the same thing. And we look at his doctrine and we say, it's not biblical. How can we agree with that? And so there have been introduced over time, both through false doctrine and a willingness to depart from the scriptures altogether, but also, by just different interpretations of different Christians, different views, which we feel that we can't compromise. One of the most, one of the best examples of that, in a good sense, is the difference between Baptists and Presbyterians. Baptists believe their view of baptism that only those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ should be baptized. We think that all of those who are in the covenant of Jesus Christ should be baptized as a reflection of their being in the covenant. Both groups are committed to the word of God, but to their own understandings of it. So that's one of the better sorts of disagreement and denominational separation. We wouldn't ask the Baptists to just go along with us, nor should they ask us to just go along with them. Certainly we should be continuing to discuss with them these doctrines and why we hold to the ones that they do and hear that we do and hearing them on why they hold to theirs. But this is not the bad kind of division and denominational division, but there certainly are those kinds. There are those kinds that are necessary not because of disagreements between brothers, but those that are necessary because of departures of some from the faith altogether. That would be a reason for a number of the conservative denominations in the country who have left their mainline denominations, a reason for the existence of the OPC and the PCA having left respective northern and southern Presbyterian churches over a turning away from doctrine. We can't be united with them. We should not be united with those who are willing to pervert the gospel to deny cardinal aspects of Christian truth. And so, we've got a concern that Paul expresses very early in the passage, but the concern is based on that which is foundational for our Christianity. There's one church, one true church. There is one Holy Spirit. And there aren't different kinds of Holy Spirits and different ways in which the Spirit manifests Himself. He manifests Himself to all the church in the same way. The Christian calling has one hope, that is eternal life in Jesus Christ and final redemption. There is one Lord, and that's referenced to not God in the triune sense, but that is a reference to Jesus Christ. There's only one Savior and Lord, one Messiah, and that's Jesus. And those who would express another don't have foundational unity with us, but should if they also believe in that one Lord, one faith, one saving faith that binds us together, really one baptism biblically, and one God and father of all. So there is this foundation for Christian unity. And it is so important that we should not in any light way depart from it. But in addition to this foundational unity, there are very real differences. The real differences that should be taken into account but that cannot be allowed to split us. Now, as he gets into that, he does it first by his reference to God and to Christ. But let's look at that in verse six. Part of the foundational oneness is over all of us and above all of us and through all of us and in all of us is one God and Father. But then, verse seven says, but to each one of us, with all this shared Christianity, to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Now, we're not viewed here in a collective sense as the church, but as individuals, each one of us. Grace has been given. And that grace, it says, is given according to the measure of Christ's gift or Christ's giving. And then he refers to that over the next few verses. In a sense, you could say he just enlarges on Christ as the giver. But as he does that, he specifically refers to an Old Testament passage that talks about the Messiah giving gifts. In verse eight, therefore he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now he's citing Psalm 68 verse 18. He is basically in this context telling us that refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the ascended one, the one who led captivity captive in the sense that for Christians, our captivity and our bondage to sin and Satan is broken. And Christ is the one who broke that, but then he is the one who gave gifts to men. We're going to see that those gifts are different, but let's look further as he talks about Christ being the ascended one. Verse nine, now this he ascended, in that verse, what does it mean? But that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. Now that's not below the ground. This is not a reference to Christ going to hell in some sense or another, but he descended down here. He left heaven, descended to the earth, the lower parts of all the creation, which would be the earth. He who descended from heaven to the earth, is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And Paul is referring to the importance and the significance of Christ's exaltation in his ascension. that there is a sense in which Christ in his finished work and his ascension is ascending to a higher place, not geographically speaking, but in a sense a higher position. Now he is ascended as the king and head of the church, the redeemer of his people, something that was not true of him before he descended. So here's some of his exultation, far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And then verse 11 begins to talk about the giving of gifts. Verse 11, and he himself gave some, Christ did this, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. So you've had specific articles with regard, the definite article in the Greek with regard to the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, but then some pastors and teachers are joined together without that separation. And so they are probably intended and by most now are, this is interpreted as putting these two together as one office. Though some still separated and for the purpose of our text and discussion at least tonight, it's not going to make a lot of difference. But the idea is that the apostles and prophets were given to give us God's word. evangelists and pastors and teachers were given to the church for the exposition and application of God's word in either evangelistic senses or in the sense of building up the church towards maturity. And these last, but in another sense, all of the church, all of these that have been given by Christ to the church or verse 12, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. Now, this passage gets interpreted in multiple ways. Some would put a comma after saints. They're all given for the purpose of equipping the saints, comma, and for the work of ministry, comma, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. but it's probably more correct to omit the comma after saints. As you go through the Bible, who does the work of ministry? And translation could have it the work of service. Well, it's all the Christians. It is not a work reserved just for those who have special ministerial and pastoral and teaching and preaching gifts, but to all of the church. And so it is those who are called to preach and teach who equip the saints to do the work of ministry. Now, It's important to pause at this point and to help you to focus on the fact that you are to be the ones doing the work of ministry. It's not just a part, and I don't think it's ever been in our congregation, but you certainly see it in many churches. where the part of the people is to support the ministers to do the work of ministry. And you just keep hiring until you have enough to do enough ministry. That's not the idea. The idea is that evangelists, pastors, and teachers are called and given by Christ for the work of equipping the saints for the work of ministry. It's your job. There is more to be done than just preaching and teaching. There is the ministry of loving one another, comforting one another, encouraging one another, even rebuking one another, all of which you all are to have a part in. You need to be equipped for those things, but all those things are parts of your ministry. Outreach and evangelism, while there may be a special office for that, it is not to be left only to those called to the special office to evangelize, but to all Christians who is to teach our children the gospel. Well, hopefully the church does, but we as parents have the responsibility to do that as well. And so all of the aspects of Christian ministry, other than the functions that Christ has given as listed in verse 11, are to be performed by Christians. It doesn't mean that pastors don't do those things too, but it means that Christians do those. and it's a part of our calling. And we're not gonna do it the same way, and we're not going to have the same opportunities, nor in Paul's day was everybody apostle and prophet and evangelist and pastors and teachers, but those were distinct gifts, and the idea is that there is variety. that the ministries are different, but also the people are different, and their spiritual gifts are different. You need to know that Ephesians 4 is not the only passage in the Bible about spiritual gifts. There is also Ephesians 12, And that carries over into verse 14, chapter 14, with chapter 13 in between, explaining to us that love must undergird all of the gifts. But in that passage, and especially in chapter 12, and I hope I didn't say Ephesians, but I may have, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, and then 13 about love. In 12, especially in 1 Corinthians, there's a recognition of the unity and the diversity, the diversity of gifts. There's a longer list of gifts there than anywhere else. And those gifts are different. And yet Paul says there has to be unity. And there must be that. There are, Like the body, and this is an analogy that he carries through there, there are the body's members or parts. And each of those is different in the physical body, but in the spiritual body of Christ, the church, there are also different members. Well, Romans 12 also talks briefly about the church and 1 Peter 4 does as well about spiritual gifts in the church and those other passages. So those are all passages that deal with this. Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4. And so those are all passages that deal with the diversity and the unity in the church and deal with spiritual gifts. But the equipping of the saints is an enablement of the saints to use those gifts in ways that glorify God. And also basically is an enablement and equipping of them to maintain unity even when they're doing different things. You see that These offices and officers in verse 11 are given for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, which the saints do, but also for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ. So that edifying, that building up, that making an edifice of the church is the work of pastors and teachers and evangelists and in Paul's day, apostles and prophets. And building up to what point, verse 13, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Again, referring back to a foundational unity, but that must be built up in us. The faith has its own unity. and yet we must be built up and equipped to the point where we become unified in that faith. It is the duties of pastors and teachers and such to help Christians come to such an understanding of the faith, of the teachings of God in his word, that the unity is made and held effectively It is that work of equipping and teaching and edifying that should produce unity even between Baptists and Presbyterians, but all sorts of Christians. The true Christians as they come to know the truth better would be unified. Not that there would be somebody imposing a unity, saying we have to all get together, but rather by teaching and preaching, we would all come to the same beliefs. We'd have to deal with what are the issues in interpreting scripture that separate us on some of our beliefs, and it is the work. of those called to the preaching and teaching and pastoral ministry to help build up the church to that kind of unity of the faith, not unity that ignores the essentials of the faith, but brings it together, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. To a perfect man, or you could read it, a mature man, it can be translated that way. And we'll see that fits in the contrast to verse 14. But the church should be built up in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect or mature man. To this extent, look, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Just as we saw last week that we set our sights often too low when we pray, here we are shown that we set our sights too low in what we hope for the church. That it would be matured to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, those who are younger, there's a difference in the word stature and statue. A statue would be made of rock or clay or something like that and might look like a person or a horse or something like that. But a stature is the fullness of the height and the fullness of the size of the person. Well, how big is Christ? How big is the fullness of Christ? Well, it envelops all of creation. And the church is to be built to that measure. it is to be built up into that measure. The church is to have a fullness that fills the created world, not just in size and in numbers, but in terms of the glory of Christ. We want the church sometimes only to be built up enough so that it has some influence in the world. That's not aiming for the church to be built to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We must aim higher just as chapter three in the end tells us we must pray for higher things. Now, in terms of that mature man, the contrast in verse 14, that is to be sought in the preaching and teaching of the word of God is that we should no longer be children. It is not sufficient to be children in the faith. We find Hebrews talking about that in chapter five and into chapter six. We find that referred to as well in first Corinthians. The idea that we ought to be maturing and growing and growing in our doctrinal understanding and our ability to apply those things to all of life. But here the other side is looked at because In reality, it's more children than adults, usually, that squabble, that fail to have unity and express love. And we're to be built up beyond that kind of childlessness. The children are Childish Christians, which is different from a childlike faith, but childish immature Christians are the ones who are tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. They are the ones who are subject to the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Now one of the sad and scary things in this verse is that much of the disunity in the church is due to the work of those who would like to split things. When there is disunity in the church, it can be very much an ugly thing. And especially when it is promoted as by trickery, by craftiness of deceitful plotting. We generally wouldn't think that would go on in the church. Why would Christians do such things? And basically the answer for the most part is, well, surely they wouldn't. But scripture again and again warns us for those who have crept into the church, who aren't truly converted. And it would probably be that that is referenced here. But don't we know that all of us as Christians have sinfulness that mirrors the sinfulness of this world and that could lead some among true Christians into this sort of division in the church. The history of the church is a history of divisiveness, of divisions. You see that from the earliest church to our own day, some of the division into denominations is due more to that kind of thing than to people having honest differences of interpretation. And so that has always been a part of what happens in the church and what we need to guard against. And a major part of guarding against that is the preaching and teaching of the whole counsel of God. It's why part of the remedy among Christians for this is in verse 15, speaking the truth in love. Now we all know that we're called to speak the truth in love. We're probably, most of us adults at least, aware of the fact that Christians, when they want to criticize a brother in Christ, will start and preface their criticism by the reminder that we're supposed to speak the truth in love. But then sometimes, in fairly unloving ways, we issue that criticism of our brother or sister in Christ, which is not what we're supposed to do. But Christians sort of speak the truth in love. Not cunning craftiness, not trickery, but just unvarnished, plain truth. relayed with a loving spirit and attitude. Scripture tells us in other places, like in Galatians chapter six, looking to ourselves because of our own temptations that we face. And so not exalting ourselves to be the ones to tell the truth to others, but There are, aren't there, Christians that you know who just need somebody to tell them about some weakness in their life, but to be told in love? And sometimes we hesitate to do so. We hesitate to do it because we don't want to introduce disunity. But sometimes the unity is added to as we honestly but lovingly confront one another and say, my brother or my sister, you need to know that you can't gossip, for instance, or any of a number of other things. The things you're saying, you shouldn't say. The things you're doing, you should not be doing. There are things like that that we need to say to one another. With the goal, as verse 15 has it, that we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. Don't we all fall short of being grown up into Christ likeness? And so shouldn't all of us be receptive to those loving truths spoken to us that have a sincere desire to see us built up into Christ and to see Christ honored? When we're doing things that don't honor Christ, shouldn't we be told? Shouldn't we have it pointed out to us? Of course we should. Well, whose duty is that? Well, it may be the duty of those who are called to preach and teach, but many times it's just a duty of their brother and sister in Christ who know about it. How many times do you go to the pastors to say, well, so-and-so is having this problem spiritually and they need to be confronted? And the pastors say, what, I didn't know about that. And they never should have had to because you should have already addressed that issue with your brother or sister in Christ in a loving way. You're the one aware of it, do it. But wow, that's implying that all of us in all of our differences, are to be pulling together the church towards a unity, not just pastors and such, but all of us. In fact, with regard to that head, Christ, verse 16 says, from him, from whom, the whole body, meaning the whole church, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love, for the building up of itself in love. What causes that? When we all do our part. Each of us, each of you. to your part, the effective working by which every part does its share. You don't have to be called to the ministry or called to be an evangelist or to be a pastor. You have your share. And some of the other passages that I listed for you details some of those various things, gifts of hospitality and administration and various and sundry other things that some of you are called to exercise. Exercise your gifts, not someone else's. But if you do that, then it is that that causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Now, let's go back to verse two. I said we would. I'll start with one again. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. And look how he then says we are to walk worthy of it, with all lowliness and gentleness. not pride and haughtiness, but lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering or with patience, bearing with one another in love. Do we do that? We're called to do that. Here are the ways the Christian walk is to be conformed to the goal of unifying and building up the church in its unity. with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. Now bearing with one another means suffering the insufferable. There are those who at times are insufferable. There are those who are just a hassle to be around. They've got personality quirks that grate on different ones of us. and those we are to bear with in love, and to approach them in a spirit of lowliness and gentleness with patience. All of that is a part of what verse three says, endeavoring to keep, to preserve, to maintain the unity of the spirit in the body of peace, in the bond of peace. Unity of the spirit. The spirit provides the unity. But we can rend that unity. We can tear that unity. Christians often have done that. But we instead are to be striving, endeavoring, working to keep that unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Here Paul issues to the church a call to unity that doesn't minimize our diversity and our differences, but causes all of us in our differences to together focus on building unity and love. which scripture elsewhere Jesus himself in John 13 and 17 says shows the world that he is indeed the Son of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know that disunity in the church in all of its aspects is an ugly thing. And we know that the love and unity and peaceful bond that rightly belongs to the church in Jesus Christ and in the Spirit is a beautiful thing that is attractive to the world. Father, we pray that we would all seek to be unified in our understandings of scripture and that you would bless those who have the ministry of the word in leading and teaching in that direction, but that we would all endeavor in humility, in love, and with patience. to build up one another together in love, that we would all do our part, that we would also supply, all of us supply that which as joints and ligaments and parts of the body can supply. And so that what is built is the glorious body of Christ to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Jesus, we pray in his name, amen.