Apostles Church

Ephesians 4:1-6. Paul has given us the Gospel in ch. 1-3. By the cross and resurrection of Jesus, God is healing all the alienation that sin brought into this world (1:10). Now he transitions and will spend the rest of this letter teaching us what kind of people that Gospel creates. The Gospel creates a community called the Church that is called to live a particular way. So, the rest of the book will talk about the corporate life of the Church, how we live in relationships with one another and with the world. God wants a Church marked by unity and by purity.

The Church is God’s display of the Gospel. The Church is evidence of the Gospel’s truth an power. It is an orchard where the fruit of the Gospel is clearly seen. In the Church, the world sees the kind of community the Gospel can create when it penetrates the hearts of people. The culture learns what humanity can be when it shaped by the story of God and not by the dominant cultural story of affluence, consumerism and self-satisfying pleasure. So there is a lot at stake. Paul urges them to walk worthily – embrace a pattern of life that is consistent with what God has saved you to be. This walk is fleshed out in the arena of relationships. The evidence that you really know Jesus Christ and his Gospel has settled in your heart is in the way you treat others. Paul urges us to embrace a pattern of life that is marked by humility and gentleness; patience, forbearance and love. Humility and Gentleness. the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance. Humility is free from self-importance, gentleness means you are not always demanding your way. You don’t have to win all the time. Patience and Forbearance. This means that you don’t demand your timing to be adhered to and you don’t demand others perform in accordance with your preference. And that you continually put up with someone and their sins, shortcomings, frustrating behavior. Love. This is the highest of the virtues that is to be the predominant expression of the Christian life. We seek the good of others even at cost to ourselves. All of these virtues were displayed to us and for us in Jesus. To walk worthy is to walk in the pattern of Jesus. Concludes it with “being eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” taking great pains, and being vigilant; it is the nature of things for our relationships to go bad unless we are diligent to maintain them with unity. Don’t work against the unity of the body by stirring up debates, arguments. Difference between asking questions to seek understanding and asking questions to provoke debate and argument.

So, this is the evidence of a Gospel heart. Creeds. But what about your relationships? We tend to back off of relationships when they start requiring these virtues from us. We need these relationships because they become the arena where we experience growth in Christ likeness. This is why you need the church. If you don’t have relationships in your life that require these virtues, it is because you are not exercising the hospitality of Jesus.

There is a lot at stake here. When the Church is marked by these kind of relationships, it is a testimony to the world of what humanity can look like under the Lordship of Jesus. And we serve as preview of what this world is destined for when all things are brought under his Reign. We are often a poor preview. But what if we took that calling seriously? How compelling would we become as a community? What if our community was known for its love? If we developed a communal life that was antithetical to that of this world?  This is why you need the Church. You can’t truly live on mission without it because part of the mission is through our community life showing the world what it is not but what it could become by the Gospel.

This Requires that the Church Continually Respond to the Gospel.  Paul grounds this admonition in 7 statements about our oneness that the Gospel creates. These Gospel realities give us 7 anchors for our relationships. So, when you are offended, hurt, or in conflict, we can come back to these unshakeable realities that are stronger than our violated pride and preferences. One God who is our Father. He does whatever it takes to make us his sons and daughters. He is over us, in us, and working through us to shape the future.  One Lord, one faith one baptism. Jesus who has died and risen from the dead for our sins, loving us when we did not deserve to be loved, forgiving us at cost to himself. By one faith in Him we are saved and made Sons and Daughters of God. He has rescued us and that shared experience of being rescued creates a bond between us. That faith is professed in baptism. Illus: Uniform. We need to be baptized and to remember our baptism. One Hope. Jesus’ return where he will set the world right. Shared anticipation. One Spirit and one Body. Put his Spirit within who is a bond that ties us together as one body.

If you don’t have a Gospel heart, then what others do to you will loom larger in your heart than what God had done for us. Your sins against me loom larger than my sins against God, and his forgiveness is not moving me to forgive. If I don’t have a Gospel heart, my preference and demands carry more weight than the Gospel story and its demands.

Application:
Remember how God has loved you, been patient with you, forgiven you and humbled himself to save us. Remember how he has loved others.
Repent to those to whom you have not displayed a Gospel heart to. Start with your closest circle: Spouse, kids, roommate, neighbors, co-workers.
Renew your commitment to the Church.