Church Defined: One Focus (Ephesians 4:4-6)

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Let's go ahead and turn over in our Bibles now to the book of Ephesians.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians. Ephesians, and we're just walking through the text here. We have gotten to Ephesians chapter 4, and last week we looked at verses 1 through 6 on church unity. And the plan is normally to just cruise along through. Our destination is the end of the book of Ephesians, and we have been taking section by section by section, and we've been walking through the book of Ephesians together. But have you ever been on a trip before, and when you're on the trip, you realize, I want to slow down a little bit, and I want to stay the night here instead, or I want to go see this site and spend some more time. Well, that's what we're going to do here in the second half of Ephesians. Instead of cruising through on cruise control, we're going to slow it down a little bit.

And we're going to park here for a while and just enjoy what God teaches us, specifically about the church. And so this morning we're going to be looking again at verses 4 through 6 of the book of Ephesians. So chapter 4, verses 4 through 6. Hear now God's word. 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 in you all. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

I was reading about a contractor a little while ago, and as this contractor was remembering his past, he remembered that he never did roofing jobs himself. He would always subcontract that out. And one day, as this contractor was at home and his subcontractor was there, all of a sudden his phone rang. And he dropped his phone, got in his car, turned on the ignition, and sped down the road and got to a house.

And when he got to that house, the roofing shingles were there, the roof was half torn off, and someone was irate. They had actually called the cops. Because even though the shingles were there, even though the workers were there, even though the roof was half torn off, they were doing it at the wrong house. They had torn off the wrong person's roof. And see, often the church can fall into that trap. We can be doing lots of good work, we can be doing lots of good things, but what we find out is that we're working on the wrong roof.

We're doing good things, we're expending a lot of money and energy, but we have to ask ourselves, are we hitting the right mark? Are we going the right place? Are our eyes set where they should be? Are we working on the right house? And so we need to make sure that we are working at 111111 Church Street and not somewhere else.

Because here, last week, we talked at the very end of the message about the seven grounds for church unity. And I'm going to propose to you, as we look at what the church is, as we define the church, it needs to start with these seven ones. That as we focus on the one thing or the one person, we'll be led to the right address and doing the right work. And so we need to spend some time this morning looking at Ephesians chapter 4 verses 4 through 6. I'm going to read the text again for us today. So Ephesians chapter 4 verses 4 through 6.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is through all and in you all." So there are these seven ones and we're going to start off with what is the one body? The first thing we need to realize, these are all truth statements. They're just fired off like a Gatling gun, seven times in a row. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Seven times. One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one. Stated as fact.

And the first one is we are one body. And we learned in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 22 and 23 that that body is Jesus Christ. That we are, as Christians, the body of Jesus Christ. Now we need to deal with the awkward reality of what's going on right now. We're not together. The Sabbath, the Lord's Day, is the one day of the week that the whole church, you are the church, the whole church gathers together. to visibly show that oneness of the body. We are one body, one with another.

And this is not just an idea found in the book of Ephesians. Again, I'm going to encourage you, if you have your Bible, or if it's off to the side, go ahead and pull it out, because we're going to be walking through the Bible a little bit together today. And so the first place I want to go to show you this oneness is in the book of Romans, chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 tells us that verse 12, rejoicing in one hope, or sorry, verse 3, 12-3, For I say, through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt with each one a measure of faith.

For just as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we, being many, are one body, Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then differing gifts according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them." See, we are one body, one body, many members, many parts, but one body in Christ.

And it's not just here in the book of Romans, in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul says it again, that we are one body. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, God says the same thing again. 1 Corinthians 12, 12.

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ." We are one body together. Now we're going to deal with the many parts and the different gifts next week. Next week we're going to deal with how we have diversity within this unity, but the reality that Paul is stating right here in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4 is that we are one body.

Now that might not seem like a big deal to you, but that's a huge defining point for you as you come into the church. As you come into the assembly of God, this is not your church. This is not my church. We can't do whatever we want because it's not our body. It's whose body? It's Christ's body. All believers are in Christ. And we are one body working together. We should be working together in harmony, not in animosity.

See, imagine if you had two feet. That's not hard for you to imagine, but you have two feet. And your right foot is faster than your left foot. How easy is it for the right foot to get annoyed or upset with the left foot? You can get pretty annoyed by it, right? I mean, think about being that right foot.

Man, I just do all the work here. He's just a crooked foot. I just drag him along all day long. He barely does anything. All the weight's always on me. And I'm working as hard as I can. And this guy, every time, he's just slacking behind. But imagine if you were that left foot. Every time. My master puts a weight on me. Every time the church puts a weight on me, I bear that weight as much as I can and it hurts. And I try my hardest.

See, we're all one body. We love each other in Christian love. Remember what verse three said, Ephesians chapter four, verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Christ is building up a healthy body and we are one with each other. So how are you, let me ask you, how are you functioning in the body of Christ?

Are you the mouth? Are you the hands? Maybe you're the calluses on the hands. Are you the internal organs? Are you the lungs? Are you a vein? Are you one of those who has the flow of the Spirit moving through and that you are regularly praying for God's people? What member of the body are you? Maybe for some of you think, I don't know what I am, maybe I'm the appendix. You're intricate, you're needed, you're part of the body of Christ. We each need one another for we are one body together in Christ.

But the second one that we find here is that we need to focus on, that we need to look at, is we need to see that we are one in hope, or one in spirit. We are one in spirit. Verse 4, there is one body and one spirit. Now when it says spirit here, God is not telling us that we are one in feeling. God is not saying that we are one in agreement with each other all the time. Oh, if you have been in a church for longer than a week or two, you know that not everybody has the same opinion all the time. No, that's not what this is saying, but we have one spirit, the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians has told us a whole lot about the Holy Spirit. Remember what God said in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13? I'm just going to rattle these off real quick. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13, God taught us about this one Holy Spirit that in Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

Each one of you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. Likewise, in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 18, God says it again, for through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. How do you get to go into the throne room of God? How do you get to pray? What is the means by which you are elevated into the throne room of God and able to make your prayers and petitions and thanksgivings known?

Because you have the same one spirit. The spirit that is living in you is also living in the person sitting next to you. And as we realize, as we look around the church and we see people, we see the church as indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we realize That we each have this same one Spirit. And that's not all Ephesians has told us.

Ephesians 2.22 told us, "...in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." A dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Indeed, in chapter 3 verse 16, God tells us that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with the might through His Spirit in the inner man. Through His Spirit, this one Spirit. We all share the same one Spirit, and as we focus upon that one, We're moving towards the right address of who the church is supposed to be. Again, it's not just in the book of Ephesians that Paul teaches us about this one spirit, but indeed in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16, he tells us, do you not know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit? Therefore glorify God with your body.

Each of us are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and that produces godly living in our lives. And in Romans chapter 8 verses 9 through 11, he likewise tells us that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19, again he tells us that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And just in case you need more, again in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13, we have all been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Every single Christian has been indwelt, is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Do you see how this should erode judgmentalism in the church? If we're focusing on my preference, if I'm looking at what I want, if this is my ministry, That person isn't my way. That person is a little weak Christian. You know, I'm not even sure they really pray that much. I'm not really sure that they read their Bible that much. It seems like when they read their Bible they stutter. No, hold on.

That same Holy Spirit is alive and living in them as well as in you. And our job, as we'll see in the rest of Ephesians chapter 4, is to build each other up. and that bond of this one Spirit being in all of us. is what joins us together in that unity, working towards the same goal at the right place. The church is about the place where the Holy Spirit meets with us, for where two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there He is with us. His Holy Spirit is with us, because we all have that same one Spirit. But there's more than just that. The rest of chapter four, verse four, also tells you what? That we all have the same calling, or the hope of the calling. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4, again, just as you are called in one hope of your calling. Of your calling.

Now, the Bible is written in a different language. The New Testament is written in what's called Koine Greek. And Koine Greek, like in almost all other languages except for English, it has a second person plural. English, we have to like combine two words.

In the South, they say y'all. When I was in Pittsburgh, you know, Pittsburghese people would say yin guys, right? And so what this is talking about here is if we read it in Southern dialect, it would say just as y'all were called in one hope of y'all's calling. Paul is talking to the whole church.

They have the same one hope. Their eyes are all lifted up to Christ. Every single one of them together has the same hope, that hope which is laid up in heaven. Christian, oh, can you close your eyes and look with that hope, that thing, that tangibleness, the promise of heaven, of eternal bliss with God. is in your hands, that you are God's people, that he cares for you and loves you. Do we have that same one hope? Are your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith? We all have that same hope.

The church is built around that same hope. The church is not built around, oh, this ministry is doing good and doing this good outreach. No, that ministry is there to bring people's eyes to the hope of Jesus Christ. Oh, well, this ministry, I really like these things.

No, no, no, Christian, our eyes have to be fixed on the hope of Jesus Christ. We are going to be putting the roof on the wrong house if we are not looking at that same one hope. We look at that one hope, that one hope we have in Christ as the object of our hope.

Our hope is not our comfort. The Christian hope is not in our finances. The Christian hope is not in our IRA. The Christian hope is not in some president. The Christian hope is not in some congressman. The Christian hope is not in how well I'm able to do my work. No, the Christian hope is in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

He is our one hope. So we have that one hope, and oh, God lets us taste that hope Now, Charles Hodge, in his comments on this, says that tasting of the Holy Spirit is like a drop of water to a thirsty traveler. That it doesn't quench us. but it makes us long. It makes us want the full stream of water. Oh, when we fix our eyes on that one spirit and we fix our eyes upon that one hope, we want that hope more and more and more as a refreshing water to our souls where Jesus says, come and drink. Are you going to that one hope or have we lost sight of Christ? Well, the fourth one thing that we need to focus on is Jesus Christ himself. Not just the hope of the resurrection, not just the hope of the promises, but the one Lord himself.

Look with me at verse five, Ephesians chapter four, verse five. One Lord. One, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Lord. One. Yahweh in the flesh. How do we know that this is speaking of Jesus as Lord? Because in verse 6 it's going to talk about God the Father. There's a reason why we've been reading Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. Hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Jesus is our one Lord.

Jesus is the one who owns us and is sovereign over us. See, Jesus is our one Lord because he bought you at a price. Jesus Christ paid for your redemption with his very own blood. He owns you. Not as a cruel slave master, but as a loving Savior. Jesus Christ as our Lord, as our owner, is also our sovereign or our master. The one who owns a thing is able to do with it as he pleases. And Jesus is the Lord of his church. We have one Lord in the church.

If you watch many Facebook memes, her name is not the proverbial Karen. It's not your lordship. I don't care if you're the pastor of the church, if you call yourself a bishop of the church, if you call yourself an ancestor of the church. No, no, no, hold on.

We got one Lord, one King, one head of the church, and he sits upon the right hand of God the Father with a crown of thorns and glory upon his head. He has earned his sovereignty over the church. He is our ruler. He is our master. He is the one who dictates, commands to the church what it is about and what we are to do. We have one Lord, and He's not a cruel Lord. Your Lord Jesus Christ came to serve. Jesus is one with many under authority under Him, and yet what does He do? He cares about those whom he is an authority over.

He's even willing to lay down his life for them. He shepherds his sheep. He brings them beside the still waters. He brings them to green pastures. He makes them flourish with fruitfulness. He will never leave them nor forsake them. He will never let someone take his people out of his hand because he is their Lord. He is their master.

And did you know that Jesus prays? for our unity with him and with each other. When Jesus was going towards that cross, when Jesus was looking towards the torture of crucifixion, John, his apostle, records for us his prayer in John chapter 17. And in John chapter 17, Jesus has you in mind. Think about that. Your Lord was thinking about his disciples and his people as he was praying to his Father. Father, let them be one as you and I are one. Let's go ahead and turn there.

John chapter 17. Again, I'd encourage you, if you have your Bible, open up your Bible, meet me there, whether it's in your app or whether it's in a physical Bible. John chapter 17. I just want you to see Jesus' love for his people and his concern for unity. John chapter 17, verse 11. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given that they may be one as we are one.

Jesus's prayer for his church, for his bride, for his flock, for his body, for his people, is that we would be one. We have one Lord. Fifthly, we have one faith. We have one faith. Look with me at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 5. One Lord, one faith. One faith. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. We have one faith. Jesus Christ is our one Lord. We have one redemption. We have one sacrifice. We have one hope. It is only Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is Jesus Christ, our righteousness. It is Jesus Christ, our atonement. It is Jesus Christ. has redeemed us. It is God who has called us.

As Charles Hodge again helpfully says, this one faith is that we each receive the Scriptures as the very Word of God. And we not just receive them, we believe them and we are subjected to their teachings because they teach us the way of life. They teach us about our God. That unity of faith, that one faith we have is that we recognize and worship Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God. That we trust in his blood for redemption and his spirit for sanctification. Are you part of that one faith? Now let me encourage you This is not about one church in particular, nor about one denomination only.

There are Covenanters or Reformed Presbyterians of long ago who have told me about a story they used to laugh about and they used to tell each other. And that was when they would get up into heaven That they would stand there in heaven and they would be there and they would be worshiping and one of them would ask, what is that wall? And the angels would look at each other and say, we can't tell them. Because on the other side of the wall were a whole bunch of other Christians who are not Reformed Presbyterians. Right?

It is not one denomination. Indeed, the Reformed Presbyterian testimony even says that the nominations are a result of sin because in the church we should have unity. We should be working towards that unity. I'm going to encourage you, Christian, do not just be stuck into thinking that your way is the only way. We should be wrestling with each other on the details of the faith. But when we agree on the primaries of the faith, on those things I had mentioned before, we should be shoulder to shoulder with each other. We should recognize our unity with one another.

Do we love one another because we have that one faith? Are we working together towards the same house? Or are you over here working on your little shack? all the while the rest of the church, invisible broad church, is building truly the kingdom of God. Let me ask you, are you laboring in the right faith? We have this one faith.

This is something inward. We need to be careful here, because there are those who will profess things with their mouths, but their hearts disbelieve. I'm going to encourage you today. I'm not encouraging you to fall into the depths of introspection where you lose sight of Jesus Christ. But what I am asking you is, is Jesus Christ your only hope? Or are you holding on to other things? Oh, I would encourage you, I would exhort you, I would command you today to let go of your idols, to put to death those things in your heart. If anything else is holding your allegiance back from this one hope, one savior, one Lord, one faith, you're working on the wrong house. But it's not just this one faith. This one faith is seen and realized in the context of the body of Christ.

And that's our one baptism. Again, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 5 tells us we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. I was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Devin, who is right here, was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The children in the church were baptized with that same baptism. You were baptized with that same baptism. We were all baptized in that same Holy Spirit. It should be that baptism is that sign and seal that we are engrafted into that family of faith.

We have one baptism. Not somebody being baptized into Paul. not somebody being baptized into Apollos, not somebody being baptized into Luther, not someone being baptized into Calvin, not someone being baptized into Wesley, not somebody being baptized into John Piper or Francis Chan or take any other teacher. No, we are baptized into the name singular of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

We are His disciples. We follow after Him. We are brought into His family. It is His promises that we adhere to and hope in. It's His family we are members of. It is His covenant community that we are brought into. We have one baptism. So we have One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and we have one God who is in all and above all and through all and in y'all. In you all. It is God the Father. whom we must focus on. Do you see church? Do you see ecclesia? Do you see saints? Do you see family of God? Do you see temple of God that we are one when we focus our eyes on Him, not on us? Not on our preferences, not on our desires, but on Him.

When we want to taste and see that the Lord is good, we are moving towards the right direction. When we are desiring God and His glory, We are working on the right house. When we are looking to God's word so we can know more about God, we are working on the right house. When the preaching and the teaching comes from God's word to build people up that they might more fully enjoy and glorify God, we are working on the right house. The question is, where is our aim? Where is our focus? It's at 1111111 Church Street.

We are looking at the one God and Father of us all. And He's in you all. And He is sovereign over all. And He is through all. This is our God. This is our aim. This is our focus. This is our one narrowing in on focusing in on not this way, but upwards. Not my preferences, but His glory. Not what I want to be heard so I can fix the problems in my life, but what God has said because it brings Him glory. We focus our eyes upward. And as we focus our eyes upward, we are brought closer to one another. This is how we grow. This is what the church is defined by. Are we defined by factions and divisions? Are we defined by preferences? Are we defined by hatred? No. No. but we zealously guard.

We earnestly cling on to the unity of the Spirit, which is by the bond of peace. And it's accomplished by us focusing on that one who is our God and Father. So brothers and sisters, Christians, saints, building blocks of the living temple, church, you are God's church. And as we are built upon that chief cornerstone, that foundation, Jesus Christ, we will find more and more unity. And as we get into next week, we're going to look at the differing gifts And as we move past there, we're going to look at different offices that God gives up, but gives the church. But even as God gives us these things that has made us special to work in his body in a specific way, we must never lose focus of the one whom we love.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you, Father, for showing us our union with Jesus Christ. We thank you for making us one. Lord, we pray that we indeed would not just be one because your scripture says so, but that you indeed, by your Holy Spirit, would bless us that we would see more and more unity, deeper and deeper fellowship, that we would be one as you and your Son are one. Father, only you could do this. Lord, you know Satan doesn't want it to happen. You know our sinful natures fight against it. Our individualism will get in the way. Lord, please overrule it. Do a marvelous work in your people.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural Southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.