Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Statement Of Faith

The Church Part 6

Intro: If I were to ask you what Christians really care about in life, we would get a long list. But I wonder if that list of things we truly cared about as Christians would correspond to how we truly lived as Christians.

     I want you to notice that Paul, the author of our text this morning, was in prison when he wrote this letter. If you were in a 1st century Roman prison, with no TV, no conjugal visits, no working to make license plates, no spending time in the library or taking classes to get a law degree, what would you care about...if you were a Christian?

     Perhaps some of you who have visited Christians at the prison in Trenton have asked them that very same question. Listen to what Paul was concerned about.

Eph. 4:1 'I, therefore' the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.' Paul was concerned that Believers remain faithful to their calling...that they talk the talk...but more importantly they walk the walk of life in Christ.

     Doing that doesn't come naturally so where do we learn how to walk the walk? Where do we learn how to walk worthy of our calling to which we have been called?  Right here in the local church, in the fellowship of Believers. Ephesians was written to the body of believers who were fellowshipping in the church at Ephesus. So what Paul writes about is to take place within the context of the local church, by the people of God.

Trans: Open you Bibles to Eph. 4:1 where we will find the first thing  the local church is to teach about walking.

I. Walk in the manner of your calling. (Eph. 4:1-6)
Read: Eph. 4:1-2
    A. What is your calling?
     The first question that came to mind as I was preparing for this message was 'what calling?' Can you be a bit more specific Paul? Well, he was. I believe Paul tells us what the calling is in the beginning of this letter to the church in Ephesus.

Read: Eph. 1:1-14

 What is our calling?
1. To be holy and blameless,
2. To be adopted as sons in Christ,
3. To be forgiven of our sins,
4. To know the mystery of God's will,
5. To receive and inheritance in heaven,
6. To be sealed for all eternity by the Holy Spirit of God.
    and the bottom line.....
7. To be God's own possession.

ILL: Oswald Chambers once said ' We are not primarily called to do something or to go somewhere; we are called to Someone. We are not called first to a special work but to God. The key to answering the call is to be devoted to no one and to nothing above God himself.

 The next question I asked myself was...
    B. How are we to walk?
     In a worthy manner. There are many examples around us of what it means to live in a manner worthy of a calling.

ILL: When police officers works, they are supposed to be an example of their profession. They live worthy of their profession when they don't steal or cheat, when they defend and uphold the Law. When doctors work, they are supposed to be an example of their profession. They live worthy of their profession when they care for those who are ill and seek to make them well.

 Get the picture?

     The word worthy here means 'equal weight'. The idea is that your calling and your conduct should be balanced.  As a Christian, there are marks of what it means to conduct or live your life in a manner worthy of you calling. And these marks are displayed in our relationships in the local church. (remember, Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus)

We walk in a manner worthy of our calling when we walk...
 1. In Love
      Love is the overarching, and most recognizable attribute of one who is walking worthy of their calling as a Christian.

John 13:34-35  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Romans 13:8,10 'Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law... Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.'

     Is love some gushy, warm fuzzy , huggy, kissy thing we are to show one another? No. Listen to Rom. 13:10 again... Love does no wrong to his neighbor.  Paul gets specific and tells us how it is displayed to others in the fellowship of the local church.

        a. Love is display with humility
          The saying is true...the more lowly minded, the more like minded.  Humility is the opposite of pride.

ILL: John Wesley and George Whitefield were good friends in their earlier years. John Wesley began his outdoor evangelism ministry at Whitefields encouraging. As time went on the men disagreed, with Whitefield leaning more towards Calvinism and Wesley toward Arminianism.  When Whitefield died, Wesley was asked if he thought he would see Dr. Whitefield in heaven. In exaggerated but honest respect he replied, 'No...he'll be so near the throne of God that men like me will never even get a glimpse of him.'

  That's humility. Though they disagreed, their love and respect for each other was strong.

        b. Love is displayed with gentleness.
      This is often translated meekness. It is the opposite of rudeness, and harshness. Gentleness is the uncomplaining disposition that enables us to bear without irritation or resentment the faults and injuries of others. The cross and the towel and basin are physical signs of gentleness and love.

        c. Love is displayed with patience.
      Another more expressive term we are all familiar with is longsuffering. Patience never gives up on a relationship, it is in it for the long haul. It is self restraint that does not hastily retaliate when wronged.

         d. Love is displayed with forbearance.
      Forbearance means to bear with one another, literally it means to hold another up. It means to put up with their faults and idiosyncrasies, knowing that we have our own. It not only means to tolerate, but to accept.  Paul, in Rom. 14:1 says to accept the one who is weak....just as Christ has accepted you...no criticizing, not name calling, no stabs in the back. Instead hold one another up.

     As a Christian, there are marks of what it means to live a life worthy of our calling. And these marks are humility, gentleness, patience and forbearance which are but pieces of the whole, which is love.  A Christian who walks worthy of his /her calling will walk in love with the brethren in the local church.

Trans: According to our text, a Christian will also walk in a manner worthy of their calling when they walk ...

 2. In Unity
Read: Eph. 4:3-6

      The absence of the qualities of humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and love will jeopardize Christian unity in the church. That is why Paul tells the church in Ephesus to exert all their powers to maintain the oneness in Christ that binds all believers to each other. A couple things to note here.

     a. We are to be diligent
         It would be unrealistic to say that in the church, even this church, there are not differences of opinion about quite many things. Paul recognized that, so he said that we are to be diligent, be eager to do something about it.
 What? In the midst of our difficulties, preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

     You see, there are pressures to break us up, there are forces at work to divide the church. Satan doesn't want God's work to be done, or His people walking worthy of their calling because others will see it and give glory to God.  He hates that and will work through any means to bring disunity among God's people...especially in the local church. So we are to strive, never give up working, displaying the attitudes we already discussed to preserve the unity of the Spirit.

Note: Paul doesn't say we are to create unity but preserve it.  The unity we have comes from being in Christ and remember Eph. 1:13 that part of our calling was that we were sealed in Him, Christ, with the Holy Spirit of promise.
 As Believers we all share the same Holy Spirit and it is He that creates our unity...we can either preserve it or tear it down.

 Where the Spirit of the Lord is allowed to reign and flow freely,
 Where the Spirit of the Lord is called upon to bring healing,
 Where the Spirit of the Lord is counted on to be present when the church gathers,
 Where the Spirit of the Lord is.....there is peace, there is unity and we walk in the manner worthy of our calling.

     b. 7 reasons this unity of the Spirit is to be  preserved.    Lets look at each very briefly.
1. One body
Galatians 3:27-28  For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
     The church destroys all boundaries that mankind erects as well as all natural distinctions and gather all kinds of people, without exception, into one body. Even though there are differences still within the church today, that which unites us is stronger than that which divides us because that which unites us is not of our own working....it is the Holy Spirit of God. Paul says, we are one body, in Christ.

2. One Spirit
     We have already seen that what unites us is the Holy Spirit and it is the Holy Spirit of God that indwells each Believer from the moment of conversion. Believers share the same Holy Spirit of God.

3. One hope
     All Christians, whether Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist or Pentecostal, all true believers in Christ, have the same hope of their calling...Our inheritance..eternal life in the presence of Jesus our Lord and Savior.

4. One Lord
     Jesus Christ. The head of the body, which is His church, the One through whom all must pass to enter eternal life. He is not only our one Savior and way to heaven, He is our one Lord, to whom we owe our total allegiance.

5. One faith
     We may as Christians differ on many diverse doctrines of the church, but all true Christians agree, share one faith..the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

6. One baptism
     Those who claim the name of Christ are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The methods may vary, but the content remains the same. We are baptized in death and raised in life through Jesus Christ.

    7. One God
 Deut. 6:4 says Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!' And those words still ring true today. there is but one God and Father of us all who believer since we were adopted as sons through the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary.
 We are called to the One True God to be his own possession. We are to walk in a manner worthy of our calling .

Conclusion
 In Witnesses of a Third Way: A Fresh Look at Evangelism, Robert Neff's chapter includes this story about visiting a church service: "It was one of those mornings when the tenor didn't get out of bed on the right side. ... As I listened to his faltering voice, I looked around.  People were pulling out hymnals to locate the hymn being sung by the soloist.    "By the second verse, the congregation had joined the soloist in the hymn.  And by the third verse, the tenor was beginning to find the range.  And by the fourth verse, it was beautiful.  And on the fifth verse the congregation was absolutely silent, and the tenor sang the most beautiful solo of his life.  That is life in the body of Christ, enabling one another to sing the tune Christ has given us."

 I wonder how we would react if that would happen here?
     Will we sit in the chairs criticizing the pastor for letting him sing a solo?
     Will we criticize the soloist for not getting up early enough to get his voice ready?
         Or will we have feel  compassion for him,
         Will we show humility knowing that something similar could happen to us sometime?
         Will we be patient, yes, even long suffering?
         Will we do what that wonderful, loving church did?

    Those who call themselves Christian always have a choice: a choice to have their lives defined by the calling to which they were called or to some other calling. God called us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. We have been called to demonstrate that worthy walk by our love and unity within the local church.

     Let me challenge you with this...what are you, personally doing to preserve the unity of the Spirit here at CBC? Let me challenge us corporately as a local church, the body of Christ, united by His Holy Spirit, are we providing an atmosphere where we are promoting love and unity? Are we diligently striving as a body to love one another ?

     You see, I believe Paul is telling us, like he told the local church in Ephesus, that we have a responsibility to teach those attending here how to walk?  I believe we are. But I believer we can be better at it...but it takes 100% participation as we will see next week. It takes each and every one here saying

Lord, Jesus, it is the cry of my heart to follow you, teach me, that I might walk in your holy ways. In a manner worthy of my calling, in Christ.