Oneness, Diversity, Unity

Well, good morning. Thank you for your singing, for your praising of God and song. I ask you to open up your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, please. Ephesians chapter 4. We'll start in verse 1, just for the sake of context. We'll read to verse 13.

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of christ's gift therefore it says when jesus ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men and saying he ascended what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions that is the earth He who descended is one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Let us pray. Oh God in heaven, what a text we have before us. A needed instruction and teaching built off of the foundational principles of the gospel that we are to be united as the church. Any kind of disunity is a complete affront on who you are as one true God, diverse in three persons, and dispensing a one salvation. I pray, God, that we would take this doctrine very seriously, and it would totally change and influence the way we treat one another as a church.

It is far too easy, God, to give in to irritations and patience, Lord, and it's easy for us to forget who you are and what you've done in salvation and act in a way, even if it's within our hearts, that is disunified with our brethren. I pray, God, that we would again be refreshed with this doctrine of the church, the oneness of the church, and it would, Lord, cause us to be unified despite or even in light of our diversity. Thank you for this teaching.

Thank you for the Spirit who works these things in our hearts. I pray that you'd be with my words and you'd be with the people's hearts so that together we can grow after the image of Jesus together as a church. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we are again in the land of imperatives, and we started a couple weeks ago, and we talked about the land of the imperatives of Jesus saying, this is what you shall do to have to enjoy life, is the commandments of Jesus, right?

Built off of what he has done for us and forgiven us of our sins, He now says, and now I give you this land of my commandments to enjoy by my grace. And we saw that the first thing we come across in the imperative is it's found in community. If you remember, we found that the imperative land is found in community with one another, that we cannot be isolated Christians, but we must be in community, anticipating in that community or church the imperative land, the beautiful land Jesus has for us.

And so not only should we look at the obedience to Jesus and the imperatives as something that we must do in society or with one another, but we should expect to enjoy Jesus purposely with one another. And we cannot be like the typical American where we're isolated from one another yet expect great things from Christ. We must do it in community, in the church. but we talked about and Paul highlighted that it is bearing with one another if you remember in verse 2 he expects that it's difficult if you notice sin has caused a separation between God and us and each other and sin kind of creeps around even with the forgiveness of Christ that we enjoy today and so if you haven't noticed the more we fellowship with one another the more difficult it becomes and so it's kind of a hard thing I want more Christ fellowship with one other.

But as I fellowship with one another, it becomes more difficult, in which Paul understands that, and he says we must bear with one another. And now what gives us hope, because it's okay, I got to bear with one another, still difficult, but I got to do it in order to enjoy the land of the imperatives. What gives us hope, what we can hang this doctrine on that gives us strength and hope, as I pointed out last time, is that in verse 3 he says we do this with an attitude eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit.

It's vital. That's not a throwaway term. It's not something that we just quickly get through. We are to be eager to what? Create unity? To create this of ourselves somehow?

No, we cannot do that. But rather we are to maintain the unity that the Spirit is creating or doing in the church That is vital We do not create we maintain because the Spirit is the one who creates Now with that thought with that doctrine in mind we then go forward in the next several verses where he's not even going to mention any imperatives. It's going to be more indicative of how the Spirit creates that unity he's talking about there.

Does that make sense where we're going here? Is that that one verse is a launching off point, several verses of, we are to maintain the unity the Spirit is creating, and this is how he's doing it. And this encourages us to be able to be unified because this is what the Spirit is doing. And we'll see this break broken off this morning and that the church, the Spirit is working in the church.

The church is the oneness of the church, the diversity of the church, and therefore the unity of the church. This is what the Spirit is doing in the church. It's a church of oneness, as we'll see. It's a church of diversity as we'll see and therefore a church of unity. You got to understand and before we get into it see the way we can look at diversity in the church in our sin is a temptation for disunity.

Do you see what I mean? We can have the diversity in the church, the differentness of the church in the temptation and sin is to use that for disunity. But what the Spirit is doing is he's created a beautiful picture of how God can work in the church, a diverse church that is unified in the oneness of who he is. That is the glory of God revealed, that the diversity of who we are is not used for disunity, but the beautiful picture of unity in the oneness of God.

So instead of diversity being abused, diversity is actually used for the glory of God. and maybe a good image in our head as we go through this oneness, diversity, and unity of what God is doing in the church, a good picture is consider a painting. A painting is not, is one painting as you're looking at, is one painting. It's not two, three, or four.

It's one painting on the wall. But that one painting doesn't just have one broad stroke of one color, right? It's not a painting, that's just simply a color. But what does that one painting have? It has a diversity of strokes, all on the canvas, right? But as long as you're not a modernist and you go before art in the modern period, it all comes together to unite together to make one beautiful painting.

Consider a countryside town with maybe a city in the distance, right? With a train going through the town and maybe the sunset is on the west. Yeah, west. And then you have these beautiful strokes of the paintbrush, all diverse, but yet making a one painting or unifying together to make one painting. Or consider maybe the 50 states of America, right? We are one nation, yet 50 diverse states that unify together to make that one nation.

Or to use a biblical analogy, think of the body. The body is one body. It's not two or three or four. There's going to be problems if there's two or three or four bodies in one. one body yet diverse parts of the body that come together to make a unified whole and that is what the church is as we'll see here one church yet diverse in its elements but yet in that diversity it unifies together back into that oneness beautifully to make a beautiful painting to make a beautiful this is God's glory what he can do with diversity this is what we're going to see this morning, God willing, Lord willing.

And so let's look at the oneness of the church that the Spirit is creating, that we can hang this doctrine on and have hope. Look at the oneness of the church in verse 4 of chapter 4. There is one body. Now again, look at how many times he uses one. Okay, it's not like he like kind of like tripped out and he forgot, oh man, I just used one too many times.

He's doing it on purpose. Seven ones here to highlight the oneness of the church. There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. And then he switches to a bunch of alls. Of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. One and all.

One church is what he's displaying there, right? Now notice how he does it. He uses the Trinity. He says, he uses the very nature of God who is one, yet diverse in three persons. And that's a perfect model for us when we consider the fact that we are to be one church, even though we're diverse, yet we are to be one. It's that our God who has constituted or created this church is one.

And don't ever lose that. Don't ever start going off into the heresy of maybe he's two or three gods. He is one God, but yet he is truly diverse in three persons. We are one church, yet we are truly diverse in who we are, but yet we are still one. And so I think it makes perfect sense that Paul here in 4 and 5 and 6 details the Trinity. Again, notice that there is one spirit in verse 4.

Notice verse 5, one Lord, and that's talking about Jesus. And verse 6, one God and Father. So he's detailing the oneness of God yet diverse in three persons to reveal the fact that the church is to be one, diverse yet unified in one. But notice how he kind of works through the Trinity there. Usually when Paul details the Trinity, he goes Father, Son, and Spirit.

If we had more time, we could look at the different points. But you just believe me, he usually goes Father, Son, Spirit. Notice here he says Spirit, Father, Spirit, Son, Father. And I think the reason why he's doing that kind of reverse order is that he's starting from the effect first and going to the source at the end. He's starting from the effect of the Spirit.

The Spirit is the effect of how we can be one. But yet the Spirit comes from the Son, and the Son and the Spirit come from the Father. So he starting from effect and going to the source So with that said with those kind of introductory statements let look at that There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call So notice he details the spirit.

The true effect of unity or oneness in the church is because of the spirit. And notice he surrounds it with what the spirit does in salvation or in creating that church. Does that make sense? one spirit one body one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call if you are in Christ today that is because the spirit has called you into the body of Jesus Christ and has set you to one hope that we have of the upward call of Christ Jesus our Lord you see that oneness involved there you are brought in and you're calling by the spirit as you respond in faith to the one body of Jesus.

And we all have the one upward call of Christ. We're all in the body moving to the same direction of that hope of the righteousness of Christ. He is our aim. He is our objective. He is where we go, him alone. It's a remarkable thing.

We've been going through our testimonies on flock, different people sharing their testimonies, and I hope to go through everyone. I think it's really good for us to know each other's testimonies, and especially as new people come in to know that. And it's really, really cool to see how there's diverse or different ways that people were before Christ.

I enjoyed my poison of sin this way, and another person enjoyed his poison of sin that way. My death looked like this, and my death looked like that, right? But then all of a sudden, as testimonies are given, it emerges into, yeah, I was called by the Holy spirit maybe not using that direct language but nevertheless you can hear it i was called by the spirit into the one body into the one church coming in and now i have this objective of christ in my vision now i just want christ and so even though there's a very much diverse testimonies and how it looks yet there is a sameness a oneness to it that i've been called out into the one body of Christ and I have him as my hope, my one call, the one direction I'm going.

This is the job of the Spirit, the one Spirit that we have. He brings about a oneness in our salvation as he calls us into the body of Christ and brings us on the same track of the same hope, the same upward calling that we see in verse 4. But then he moves on. Let me take a breather, drink my water. in verse 5 he goes on to the one lord it is the spirit was sent by jesus and the father jesus and the father spent sent the spirit that is the the effect right but if we go to the cause we can go to jesus now jesus is the one lord and it's one faith and one baptism again we're talking about the oneness of the church when we are called into his body we are saying that my lord my sovereign is no longer my passions of the flesh, is no longer what I determined to be right or good or whatever, but rather I serve the one Lord of all, the sovereign of everything.

He is the one that I look to now. He is my Lord, my master. When we are brought into the body, we are all unified. We're all one and saying the Lord, Jesus Christ is our Lord, no longer Satan, no longer self. I'm no longer the sovereign, but the one Lord is. And that's exactly what he goes on to say.

That's exactly what, in verse 5, our one faith is saying, right? We each have the one faith that we express, that I have trust, I put my trust and confidence in Jesus Christ for forgiveness, but also, and he is my one master. That is my faith, right? When you're obeying Jesus, you are revealing the one faith that you have in Jesus. He is my master now and my trust is in him.

And we all are one in that same faith, which is then revealed in what Paul says in our one baptism. That's what baptism, I think he's talking about just water baptism that we see. That baptism is that person saying, I no longer am living in faith of anything else, of following anything else. Instead, I'm following the Lord. I'm following the master. I believe that he has saved me, forgiven me, and now I am his, and I'm following him, and I'm showing that in my baptism.

And so he's talking about that. It's what the Lord does. He brings about that faith that we trust in him, and that baptism reveals that faith that we have in him. It's the one faith, and the one Lord, and the one baptism that expresses that faith, a one church. So when you see baptism going on here, praise be to God, it's not just something that is an individual affair, although it is.

It is someone saying, I have decided to follow Jesus the Lord. I will no longer, again, I don't want to belabor the point, but what you're doing is you're not just seeing someone isolated or just in an isolated of themselves, but it's actually something which he's uh it's a it's a universal church ordinance that we are all collectively doing as you look at the baptism baptism that they're doing you remember your own baptism you remember it's the same baptism and we have the same lord and we're following the same lord the same faith so it's not just an isolated affair but it is a communal affair as we remember their baptism same as mine we're in the same faith we're all in this if i may use this phrase we're all in it together. This is the one church, the one faith that we have.

And notice then it goes one step further, Paul does in verse six, to the one God and Father. The Father sent the Son and the Spirit. The source of everything is found in the Father. And so it makes sense that he would kind of culminate this oneness of the church in the Father himself. You got to understand that It's by Christ and through the Spirit that, look at verse 6, that he is the father of us all.

Now when he says all, he's not talking about the whole world. The father is not the father of the whole world. He the creator of the whole world And I talked about this recently But he is the father that is the intimate father where he has intimate children of unity of love of the forgiveness of sins all that He is the father of all, meaning all the church.

Remember, what Paul's saying is this is one church that the Spirit is producing from God, right? And so we've got to understand that in verse 6 he goes on to the Father and he says that by Christ, what he just said, by Christ in verse 5, through the Spirit in verse 4, we have one Father of all the church. We all share the same Father because of Christ, by Christ, through the Spirit.

And then we can say the same thing as he continues in verse 6. He says, the Father of all who is over all. So by Christ, the Father is over all the church. He is, again, what we said in Christ remains true here. He is the sovereign over the church. He is the one sovereign through Christ.

He is over all the church. So we're not going off to different authorities, different heads. We are going to Father in Christ, who is the authority over all, right? The oneness of our church. And he says he is, the Father is through all. And so again, by Christ, through the Spirit, the Father is through everything.

So every single minute detail of the church as it functions, the Father has his fingerprint on it. As the church functions in the most even minute detail of the church and its functioning, the Father has his thumbprint on it. It is a detail of his. He is through it all. And so again, have in your mind, this is one church, isn't it? Everything we do, he's through it all.

The oneness of the father his fingerprint is on it all it is the one church and of course his last statement last thing says and he is in all the father is in all of us by christ through the spirit he is in all of us so notice and behold these verses and how they describe the oneness of the church and notice when there is disunity in the church when there's disunity between you and a brother or sister, what are you saying about the oneness of the church? Consider what you're saying about the oneness of the church when you are allowing disunity within that church. When you understand the oneness of God, diverse in three persons, yet making and creating the one salvation that we share.

When there is disunity between each other, it should hurt us more than anything because we're saying something very terrible, something wrong about the one Father, one Lord, one spirit and the one church. So it should hurt us. It should pain us deeply whenever there is some kind of disunity between you and a brother or sister because of the doctrine that establishes our oneness.

Consider that whenever there's something in between you and a brother or sister. You see, far too often we let emotions take control and we say they did that, they did the other, but we have no understanding of what are we saying about our father when we have that kind of disunity with that brother or sister. May we so much want to glorify our Father that we can't help but to say, yeah, despite the things that are going on, we serve one Father.

There's no reason why we can't be united here. Notice and behold the oneness of the church with these verses. But now, again, we said that we're going to see the oneness of the church, but we also see diversity of the church. That painting on the wall, it's not just one broad stroke of a paintbrush of the color blue. It is a beautiful painting of diverse strokes that come together to make a unified tapestry of glory to our God.

And so not only can we talk about the oneness of the church as we're talking about unity, but we have to talk about the diversity of the church. Because God's going to have that glory that although it's diverse, it unifies in me, he's saying. And so look at the diversity of the church in verses 7 and moving forward. Paul says, but, see, you see that word but, that's moving a direction.

I was just talking about the oneness of the church. Now I'm going to talk about the diversity of the church. And he says, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. There's a few things we've got to look at there. Grace was given, look again at verse 7, to each one of us. and it's in a different measure. You see that?

According to Christ's gift. So each person who has been saved, who's in that church, the one church, they have a different measure of the gift or the grace of Christ. A different proportion. It looks different. So notice the diverse language now. We were just talking about the same salvation.

Now all of a sudden we're talking about different measures, a different grace, gifts that we have from Christ that are unique with one another. It's diverse. And you've got to see that when he says, but grace was given and it's diverse, he's not talking about salvation in general. Because typically when you think of grace, you just think of salvation, right?

I was saved by grace through faith alone. But he's not referring to just the simple fact of salvation, because we all share the same salvation. It's not like I have a greater measure of salvation as you if you're in Christ. It doesn't change. You can have the most mature Christian giant sitting in the room, and a Christian who was saved yesterday who's still dealing with the sins that makes any of us blush, yet they have the same salvation, not measured out, but yet given liberally.

Open wide the mouth and it comes forth, right? 2 Peter 1, verse 1. Remember, he says, those who have attained the same salvation, well, that's what I get for trying to use my memory, but Peter says in 2 Peter 1 verse 1 he says he's writing to the church and Peter says that we have the same salvation, the same salvation Peter himself, the apostle he looked at the salvation the church had there the same salvation that he has so with that being said when we look back at verse 7 we're not looking at but grace was given to each one according to the measure of Christ's gift that just the grace of of just that salvation.

But what we're talking about in verse 7 is jump ahead to verse 12. Look at what he says. To equip the saints, what? For the work of ministry. The work of ministry. So the work of ministry, or the work that we do in the church, differs with one another.

Do you get what I'm saying? The work of ministry that we have in this one church is diversified in the different gifts and measure gifts that we have. In other words, we all don't do the same work or the same ability in that work. We are diversified in the work, the ministry that we all receive from Christ. Does that make sense? So although we have one church, yet we are diverse in the way that we work the ministry in that church.

Every single one of us is different. We all have a different measure of giftedness given to us. Now there's a couple things I want to notice about that before we move forward, is I want to kind of paint the picture of the very, very perhaps mature Christian who is doing a lot of work in the ministry. He knows exactly or she knows exactly what her or his gifts are because he uses them all the time and they're vital in the church.

The work of ministry is everywhere. I want to look at that person real quick in light of this verse and I want to look at the other person who says, I don't know what my gifts are. In fact, to be honest with I don't know if I have any works of ministry. I don't think it's anywhere. I hear that one a lot right there. I don't know if I have any gifts of ministry.

Let's first look at the one who is doing a ton of work of ministry, very mature, a ton of work of ministry. The issue that we can find there is that they can forget that gifts were given to everyone. And in other words, different measures of gifts according to Jesus, who's sovereign. He says, I'm going to give this person an amount of gifts. I'm going to give this person this person.

And what he's doing is he's saying that everyone needs to collectively come together to work the ministry in the church. Jesus did not have this one Christian who can do it all, to where they can do it everything. Just everyone just watch and behold this one, typically nowadays, it's the pastor who can do it all, because I've given him all the gifts.

And so that person needs to understand that the measure of gift has been given to everyone differently for the sake of the work of unity in the ministry it's not all on me but it's a diversifying of the gifts to everyone and so as we are working in the ministry for those who are working a lot you need to understand that it's not all on you it's not all your ministry it's a collective work of everyone who's measured who has uh who has a measured gift uh differently with each one that we got to understand but going to that other person which i think is is very common, right? I just, I don't know if I'm gifted in anything. I don't know of any work that I can be doing in the church.

I get that. I get that struggle. I remember being there before myself. We got to understand, what does Paul say here? Everyone is gifted. Everyone is.

He doesn't say some people are gifted. If you have been called into the church of Christ, he has, and we'll see by his power, gifted you to some measure to work in the church. You've got to understand that. The moment that you say, I just don't think I'm gifted in anywhere, I don't know, you are then denying the power that Christ has given you to gift, to work in the ministry, as we'll see.

It is not good to do that. You need to tell yourself, no, I am saved. He has saved me. I'm in his church. And now I'm gifted with a work I can do in that ministry. And notice, for those people, it is a gift.

Why do I say that? Because the people who are having a hard time really working in the ministry of the church, a lot of times they think, well, that would be a curse because I don't want to have to go out and do that. I'd rather stay home. But notice, it is a gift from your Lord to gift you with a work of ministry for you to do in the church, to contribute in the church.

It is a gift from him that he has gifted you. Now, perhaps, perhaps, moving forward from here, Paul kind of underlines this doctrine by saying, And the way that that gift, that grace is measured out to you is by complete power of Christ. Now, why does that help us? The diverse gifts that you have to minister in the church is done by the power of Jesus Christ.

Now, why does that help? Well, for the person who does a lot of work, who might think that this is all something that I am doing, know that your gift to work in the ministry does not come forth from you. It does not come forth from the pastor. It comes forth from the power of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it enables us to be humble as we utilize those gifts.

And going forth with the power of Jesus Christ and giving us this gift, as we'll see, for those who are not working or they're afraid to work in the ministry, they're afraid to do that, am I gifted? Notice that you need to settle your heart and mind on the power of Christ that he did to gift you with what he has gifted you with. So do not dishonor him by saying, I don't know if I'm gifted.

Christ has powerfully worked a gift in you to work. And so rest on that as you move forth in the work of ministry. Now, what is that power that we need to put our minds on as we consider giftedness for the different diverse works of ministry that we have? Well, look at what he says in verse 8. In verse 8. He says, It says, when he, that is Jesus, ascended on high, Jesus led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

So there we have, he says, therefore it says, therefore it says. And what he means by it is he means the scriptures say. And he's referring, and we read it earlier, in Psalm 68, and that Psalm there, he's referring to that Psalm, and specifically in verse 18, when he says in Psalm 68, verse 18, go there real quick. Go there in your Bibles. He says, You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and received gifts among men even among the rebellious that the Lord God may dwell there That kind of like the the high point of the psalm and what that psalm is really about it going to help us to know what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 4 is that psalm is about is when Jerusalem the the place where God in the old testament said I'm going to dwell there my presence will be there is when Jerusalem what God chose to dwell there is when when Jerusalem was captured, was taken.

And what the psalm is saying is, praise be to God, our victor, for he has conquered Jerusalem. He has led captives. He has vanquished the enemy. And now Jerusalem will be the dwelling place of our God because of his great efforts in warfare. That's what the psalm 6a is all about. It's all about the victory of God to conquer Mount Zion, Jerusalem, the area where he has decided to make his presence known.

And the ending is very good. And we'll connect it with where we're at in Ephesians 4. Look at that last paragraph in Psalm 68, verse 32. O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God. This is ultimately sing praises because he has conquered. Sing praises to the Lord, Salem.

To him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens, behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice, ascribed power to God, whose majesty is over Israel and whose power is in the skies, awesome is God from his sanctuary, the God of Israel. He is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Now grab hold of that. Paul now is using that and saying, yeah, that God who has conquered, that's Jesus.

That God who we are to praise for his conquering power, for his vanquishing the enemy, that is Jesus. That is Jesus who has came down and done the work, and now he has given his people power to be in the work of ministry, to be unified in the church. So keep that in your mind as we read that. Therefore, back in Ephesians 4, verse 8, Paul says, and think about this psalm, he says, when he ascended on high, quoting verse 18, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

Now, what does he mean there? Well, he's saying that Jesus ascended to the Father. And he's going to say in verse 9 and 10, he says the one who ascended is the one who first descended. So Jesus, the Son of God, together with the Father and the Triune and the Trinity, he descended from the heavenly abode, took on flesh, and descended to the lower regions, that is the earth.

And then he vanquished his enemies. He completely conquered them, just like we saw in Psalm 68. But how did our God, who took on flesh, came down, descended, and vanquished his enemy? How did he do that? Well, we all remember Easter. He completely destroyed sin, its stronghold, the enemy.

He destroyed sin and all those who were captive to Satan in sin. Do you understand what I'm saying? And this is what he says. When he ascended on high, he went back to be with the Father. after vanquishing the enemy, he led a host of captives. Who are those captives? The church.

The church. You do know, we all understand, that the church was once captive to Satan. We were once captivated to him to, again, do all the things that sin required. But Jesus Christ vanquished the enemy, vanquished Satan, and now he leads that captive of Satan, the church, and he makes them his captives. And I can tell you, and I think the church here can attest, that Jesus is a much better captor than Satan.

And so he says, when he ascended on high, finished his work, death and resurrection, he went back to be with the Father, and he led a host of captives. He led the church out of the dungeons, out of captivity, and he gave, what does it say, gifts to men, or gifts to the church. So not only, as you're considering the gift that Paul says the church has, each individual and diverse form, you've got to connect it with the ability, the power of Jesus to bring you out of captivity to Satan to be his captive.

He also, with that same power, gave you a gift to minister in the church. You get what I'm saying? It's the same gift. So you cannot then say, salvation is a work of mine. That's a work of Jesus. And you also cannot say, and look at these gifts that I do in the church.

Look at my ministry. So much. This church would not survive without me. You can't say that. Because it's the same power in Christ who gave you those gifts. And, beloved, let me go to the other side now.

You cannot say, I don't know if I have a gift. I don't know if I, I don't see where it's at. Jesus Christ and his power enabled you to have a measure of gift to minister. That needs to be ringing in your heart as you say, what am I to do? I can't tell you what you need to do. I can, if you know, we can talk and I can help you, but standing behind the pulpit, I can't tell you exactly every single individual, but what I can tell you is start with the presupposition that I have a gift.

And where can it then be used? Because it is the power of Christ to give me the gift as he was victorious in salvation, he gave gifts to men, i.e. even me. And this is what he goes on to say in verse 9. He says, in saying, chapter 4, verse 9, in saying he, Jesus Christ, ascended, what does it mean? But that he also descended first, right? Jesus Christ, in order to ascend up to heaven, he also first descended when he took on flesh, right?

He descended into the lower regions the earth he who that is jesus verse 10 descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might what fill all things this is the motivation that jesus had he went back to be with the father but not without giving salvation and gifts to men that in the gifts that we have in the ministry in the church that we have we would fill all things we would be the presence of jesus everywhere on this earth even as he is at the right hand of the father that is the goal of our diverse gifts The goal of the different gifts that we have each measured differently is that collectively together we would utilize that to be the very presence of Jesus everywhere on this earth. Look at what Ephesians 1 says. Remember what he says.

Ephesians 1, verse 22, And that's the way we look at ourselves, right? We are the one church of Christ who has been given diverse gifts from him and his power to then utilize together as the one church to be his very presence on the earth. Now again, put in your mind, what does that say whenever I choose this unity instead with my brother and sister?

Oh, that's great, wonderful, but until my brother and sister is hard to bear with, as we saw in verse chapter 4 earlier. But what does that say when we decide, okay, this is enough now, no longer unity. We're saying that this isn't all that important. Beloved, it is everything. The whole purpose of the church is to be the presence of God on the earth. And woe is any of us that we would choose disunity over that precious calling of Christ.

But now, in verse 11, he then talks about some diverse gifts that he's given. Again, we're talking about the oneness of the church, the diversity of the church, and we're heading towards the unity because of that diversity in the oneness. And he says in verse 11, look at some of the different gifts or offices, as we see, that are diverse. He says, and he gave the apostles, he gave the prophets, he gave the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers.

So right away we could see there that most of us don't fit any of those. Most of us. Now a few of us do. He's going to get to the rest of us. But first, with the diversity, he talks about the fact that Jesus, as a gift to man, as a gift to the church, he gave apostles he gave again in verse 11 the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers now there's a whole lot of controversy there's a whole lot i can get into with each one of these things okay but i'm just going to kind of go through it we can talk about it later if you have any questions but i think what he's saying here is all centering on the word of christ that was given that continues to give that equips that grows us in unity together look what he says he says the apostles what did the apostles do the apostles were in the first era the first century of the church and the apostles with the prophets received revelation from god and wrote it down in the scriptures do you get what i'm saying here the apostles and the prophets received new revelation and wrote it down in the scriptures he gave gifts to the church to be able to write down the revelation the word of jesus christ but with the scriptures complete with the word of god now canonized.

It's complete. We have it here. There's no longer any new revelation happening. That is over. And so he moves on to the evangelists. What do the evangelists do?

They take the word of the prophets of the apostles and they proclaim it to those who do not know the word or Christ. The evangelists speak the good news of the revealed gospel given to the apostles and the prophets and they proclaim it to those who don't know it so that people would respond and come into the church and then once they're in the church what do we have we have shepherds and teachers to nourish them in that same word do you get what i'm saying so the diverse gifts there are used all to nourish people in that one word of christ shepherds and teachers they're not two different offices there they're the same office and it's shepherds and teachers the the pastors of the flock, right? Those are the people who maintain the word in the area, right?

And the way we do it is by proclaiming, teaching, but also doing it in a way that's shepherding, right? Doing it in a way that's intimate with each individual. We are willing to counsel one-on-one. We're willing to go home, house-to-house to answer questions and answer problems that people may have. But it's all geared on bringing the word and nourishing the flock, the one church with that word. it was it was given through the apostles and prophets proclaimed with the evangelists and the shepherds and teachers maintain it with the church that's called out again there's all sorts of there's nuances here it's not so clean some pastors are evangelists we see timothy certainly was a pastor he was also called an evangelist philip he was called an evangelist and he was a deacon.

So there's a lot of conversation that could be had. What does it mean, is evangelists in office today as pastors and teachers are, or is, I should say? One commentator says it's very similar to our missionaries, that they go off and they preach the word to distant lands or to people who don't know it. There's a lot that could be said about that, but nevertheless, the thing I want to look at as we're closing now, is that the word of God was given, diverse gifts, the word was given, in which the shepherds and teachers are one of those gifts given by Christ, and what do we do with it?

Do we say, look at me? You know, the one who's given all gifts, right? The full measure is given to me? No, what the pastor teacher does as the leader in the church is he makes sure that he then equips all of the church, every member, thy diverse members of the church to be unified under Christ. Look at that in verse 12. What do we do To equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ So the diverse gifts apostles prophets evangelists the shepherds and teachers what do they use their gifts for What does it kind of come to a point to In verse 12 it is to equip all the saints for their own work of ministry Remember what we said, if you are a saint in Christ, you do have a work of ministry.

And what the pastor teacher does, the evangelist does, what the apostles, prophets did, is they gave and they presented the word to you, nourish you in the word, so that you will be equipped for that ministry that God has powerfully worked in you. So notice that the objective of the pastor is not to simply to be in all authority and power and have all you guys bow down to us, right? But rather it is everything that we've been given, gifts from Christ, is to then nourish you so that you can then work ministry in the church itself.

We're all working together to work in ministry, being equipped to help one another to do what? We'll look at verse 14 and we'll end here. I'm sorry, verse 13. It is for the sake of unity with the oneness of our God or of Christ. Look at verse 13. Until, this is happening until we all, every one of us, attain to the unity of the faith.

So notice how it does that, right? oneness and we talk about the diversity and now the diversity comes together to then make unity of the faith and of the knowledge he says of the son of god that is to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ so notice how it all comes back together our lord is one he is our lord one faith one baptism and he dispenses all sorts of different gifts to different men so that they all come back together so that we can work together to then look like the one Lord Jesus Christ. So notice how the oneness to diversity then creates a unity as we go and we look like the oneness of Christ himself. And that is what our diversity should look like.

That is what it should look like when we see our different diverse gifts, is that we are working in ministry with one another so we can look like the one Jesus Christ. With a conclusion here, I think that I know that the world itself is longing for unity. Have you noticed that? The world itself is longing for unity. The world itself hates disunity everywhere.

It's a, it's a, it's the same feeling when there's disunity in the nation, in the country, The world hates it. And I think that is a good thing and natural because everyone has been made by the one God. And so everyone's been made by the one God who's perfectly one, unified in the Trinity. And so there's a longing in the creature's heart that there would be unity all around us.

The world longs for unity. And the church is the only place where true unity from true diversity can be had because of the one Jesus Christ that we're going to. We are the only place that can offer that unity. You see, it's very interesting that Satan says, I'll give unity, I'll give unity. And all sorts of worldly philosophies, you look at CRT and all the garbage, utter putrid philosophies that are out there in society of this will give us unity, but none of it does.

Because if you notice, all those philosophies cannot handle true diversity. Have you ever noticed that? CRT claims to be all about diversity, but it destroys it. All these worldly godless systems, they promise a whole bundle of true unity from diversity, but they cannot do it. The only thing or system or people who can provide true unity is the one who are diverse yet unified in the image of Jesus.

We are the only hope for a true unified world under the Lord Jesus Christ. So what a calling we have as a church. As the world is saying, where is the unity? So much disunity. What a calling we have to say the unity is found in the church. What a calling we have to understand that that unity comes forth from our one God who's working at one salvation and diverse people so that we can work together after the image of Jesus Christ.

What a calling we have that we need to be reminded of when we are finding it hard to bear with one another. That the differences of opinion, the differences that might cause us to be a little bit irritated are actually an example. It's actually showing that diversity in the body. And that diversity should not be used for disunity or being rude with one another, but yeah, it should be glorified Christ.

And that in this diversity that we're looking at here that's tempted me to sin, this can actually glorify God as we work unity in that because of who he is. How easy it is when we see that diversity, we just get irritated instead. How easy it is that when we see the diversity, we just find it hard to bear with one another instead. Oh, how much we need to look at what God is doing in it, the oneness of who he is, the salvation, the oneness found there, and look at thy diversity and celebrate it in unity to Christ.

And there's times where we see the diversity of someone in the body and that diversity is them sinning against the Lord. It's not just a different gift given by the Lord and they're doing it differently and we can celebrate it, although it's not the way we would do it perhaps. It is actually not submitting in faith to the Lord as their baptism said that they would or that they were going to do.

And it's in that that we work against it. Not because we're working against diversity, but we're working against anyone who would use their diversity away from the authority of Jesus. But for all those under Christ as their Lord, with the diverse gifts that they have, we celebrate the diversity that we have with one another, even if there's a temptation to get irritated, because we know that there is a one God, one salvation, one Christ that we are all working towards together with our different gifts.

Praise be to our God for this unifying gift he's given to us in the spirit. God in heaven, thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, this gospel not only unifies us as a church, but it unifies our families, as we'll see in Ephesians moving forward. It unifies society, as we'll see with slaves, our masters, our employers, our employees. This unifying nature of Jesus and what he's doing.

Lord, as we look to Christ together, It truly causes us to actually celebrate our diversity as we look to the oneness of who you are together, utilizing one another and the gifts that we have. Lord, help us to bear with one another in love. And that doesn't simply just look like, well, I want to get frustrated, but I'm just going to just keep it down and just move forward.

It means that we actually have proper understanding of what we're dealing with when we look at differences with one another. Lord, help us to celebrate the differences that we have as we are again coming together, unified under the banner of Jesus Christ, knowing that you powerfully work these different diverse gifts in each one of us to be used together. God in heaven, I pray that as we are approaching this table, you would help those who might be embittered with another.

You would help those that perhaps they haven't said anything out loud, perhaps they haven't acted it out, but in their heart they know that they're finding it very hard to bear with another brother or sister in Christ. I pray that if that thing is because of sin, they would deal with that in a way that Christ has told us that promotes unity. But if it's simply just different gifts used in different measured ways, you would give them patience and love and joy that together, although we look differently, we can work together towards the same upward call of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thank you for his power worked in us for salvation and unification. Praise be to his name forever. In Jesus' name, amen.