One Body & One Spirit
Ephesians 4:1-6
8/03/2003
I want to study today’s scripture passage verse by verse. I do this because not only does it show us how to live as one body within our congregation, but I’m hoping in doing so, you will clearly see how all of life is connected through the Holy Spirit—the very soul of God. Ephesians 4, verse 1: “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called…” As the chapter opens, Paul refers to his experience as a prisoner and upholds it as a model for the Ephesians to follow. As a particular kind of prisoner, a prisoner in the Lord, he begs us to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
What is that calling? What have each of us been called to do in the name of Christ? If you call yourself a “Christian,” which literally means “Christ’s one,” then you are called to be His representative on earth. Paul challenges us to lead a life worthy of being called “Christian.”
In verses 2 and 3, Paul tells us exactly how he wants us to show Jesus to the world, with “humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Humility, gentleness, patience--these characteristics are encouraged precisely because they promote unity in the church.
People are watching your life every day! Can they see Christ in you? How well are you doing as Christ’s ambassador, how well are you doing at representing Him in the foreign world we live in?
We are to make every effort to maintain the unity, the oneness of the Spirit. How? By using the bond—the adhesive—of peace. Paul says that a life devoted to the unity of this body—the church, which is made up of you and I and others just like us--is a life worthy of that original call and baptism.
This devotion to the unity of our purpose in the church is not simply some logical, common- sense suggestion that we all "get along." It is bonded—glued--to the very purposes and reality of God. Verse 4 explains it: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.” That hope, that calling, refers to your baptism, that time when you proclaimed among other Christians your desire to be one with them and one with Jesus Christ. Water and the Holy Spirit sealed that deal.
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, (verse 5 & 6) one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” In this sense, a life lived in service to the unity of the church is a life lived in the Spirit of God. And a Christian is Christ’s ONE. One…..one…..one….
I don’t think any preacher can ever talk enough about the Holy Spirit, because it is the hardest part of the Trinity to understand. The Father, God; the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It’s easy for us to visualize Jesus because he took on human form and also because parts of his life were written about in the Bible. In the same way, we have a pretty good understanding of God from descriptions written in the Bible. But the Holy Spirit is way harder for us to understand. And although the Bible does record many things about the Spirit of God, that third part of God, it doesn’t have as much to say about the Spirit as it does about God and Christ. The Hebrew and Greek word for “spirit” used to be translated as “ghost,” which probably just adds to the confusion of who the Holy Spirit is.
But we MUST accept, just as Paul wrote in this Ephesians passage, that only by recognizing the very Spirit of God living inside us can we begin to understand how all of us are a part of God and God is a part of us. These verses emphasize our oneness by saying there is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of [us] all, who is above all and through all and in all.
Over the past few weeks, I have talked to you a lot about the power we have through Jesus that we are not fully using. We can only tap into that power through Christ. In fact, the Holy Spirit is probably the last gift Jesus gave his people before he returned to his rightful place beside His Father, our God. The biggest neglect we have is ignoring the gift of power Christ gave us!
In John Chapter 14, Jesus explains to the disciples that when his time comes to leave the earth, he will give them an Advocate, someone who will stand up for them, guide them, and help them do their jobs. Verse 16 says the Advocate will be with us forever. He then explained, “this is the Spirit…” the world won’t have it living in them because they don’t “see him or know him.” Jesus adds that this Spirit will “abide with you and will be in you.” It will always be with you and in you. Beginning with verse 26, Jesus says the Holy Spirit—the Advocate—will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus wants us to know. Jesus’ great power remains on earth in the form of the Holy Spirit which lives in us and through us. Now to me, the miraculous part is one I bet a lot of you have overlooked, although you may have read this familiar passage many times and heard it preached many times in your life. John 14:11 quotes Jesus asking that we please believe that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, “BUT IF YOU DO NOT,” Jesus says, “BUT IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THAT, then believe what I say because of the works I have done” and you have seen with your own eyes.
And then Jesus says something quite astounding (this is the part we all tend to ignore), He says, “The one[s] who believe in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” Jesus isn’t sticking around, but He says all those Christians—Christ’s One—will do even greater things than He did while He was on earth because He’s staying in heaven and He’s leaving the Christians here.
Now how are little ol’ you and little ol’ me supposed to make miracles and stuff even greater than Christ himself did while He was on earth? Remember some of those things He did? Turned water into wine, healed blind people and people who couldn’t walk and people who couldn’t hear, brought dead people back to life—Jesus is saying we’re gonna do bigger things than that?
See, we don’t believe we can, do we? Is there a single one of you here who believe you can touch a man’s blind eyes and make them see? We don’t believe we could possibly do something like that, so we don’t even try! And besides, we wouldn’t want other people to think we were playing God or worse, that they might think we were crazy, would we???
JESUS’ POWER REMAINS ON THE EARTH through the Holy Spirit. Do I believe that any one of you could heal a blind man? No I don’t. Last week I explained to you that God gave the major power to the church, which serves as the Body of Jesus on earth. And therein lies the answer to our great power: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all,” with the Holy Spirit as the adhesive that holds it all together.
I would love to be part of a church that does even greater works than Jesus did in His lifetime! We know this isn’t happening but it could. Jesus can do more and greater works now because He has the opportunity to multiply His miracle-working power through millions of hands instead of using just His own.
God gave us, just as Christ requested, the baptism of the Holy Spirit to continue the supernatural work of Christ on the earth. So why isn’t the church demonstrating supernatural power the way Jesus did, and even the early apostles?
Those first century followers made such an impact on their societies that they transformed entire nations. Today our churches mostly don’t have enough power to transform the sinners in our own pews, let alone reach other cities or countries. Why is that?
I believe it is because we had undervalued and reduced the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives! When we don’t understand something, what do we tend to do? Do we seek to learn more about it, or do we just ignore it and find another way to cope without it?
Sadly, most of us just try to forget about it; it just sounds too weird to be true. Or we deceive ourselves by saying, “Oh that was just back in Bible times. Things like that don’t happen today.”
The Holy Spirit was given to everyone. In John 14:16, Jesus says, “…I will ask the Father and he will give you [the Holy Spirit] and He will live in you and through you.” The apostle Paul, among others in the New Testament, wasn’t one of the original 12. Yet he demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit and did supernatural things because He believed in the promise of Jesus Christ.
Acts 13 tells us the story of a gathering of the church at Antioch. Here, people who were not even apostles heard the voice of the Holy Spirit and were authorized to lay hands on Barnabas and Saul and send them out as apostles.
If we see the Holy Spirit without power, of course none of it will make sense. I think the greatest difficulty we have believing all the things the Bible tells us about the Spirit is because it goes against the science of nature. It goes against all we have been taught to believe is normal since we were in first grade. The spiritual is, well, spooky! And in our humanness, we want to fit in, not bring attention to ourselves. We don’t want to seem different from others.
To deny the power of the Holy Spirit of God is to say that the Bible is a fairy tale! It comes right down to, “Do you believe the words in this book or don’t you?”
God has extended His power to us through His Spirit. He does this so that you and I can be witnesses to the life-changing power of our supernatural Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He does this so that we can attest that Jesus was not just another prophet or teacher or man. He was the real Son of God, He is God. NEVER underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit!!!
God is waiting for us to adjust our sails to the wind of the Holy Spirit and be swept into the center of His purpose. He’s been giving His soul to people long before Christ came to earth. Thousands of years ago, he revealed his promise to His prophet, Joel, which didn’t occur until about 40 AD.
“I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”
God commissioned all of us to preach the good news that everyone can spend their eternal lives in heaven instead of hell. The last words Jesus spoke in his human body on this very earth where we walk was, “Go, People! Go and make disciples of everyone, teaching them to obey my commandments.”
Incidentally, Jesus only gave us two commandments. The TEN were God’s. Jesus’ commandments were only two simple ones: Love your God with all your heart and mind and soul; and love your neighbors as yourself. God anointed us to lay hands on the sick and see them recover but many of us believe that God heals, but certainly not through our hands! How can you live the rest of your life without this power? Many people still believe that if we “pray right or do right then He might.” But God, through the Holy Spirit He himself has placed within every one of His baptized believers, is out to do nothing less than make you a wonder, by living inside your body and showing up in every area of your life.
I am a bonafide, Holy Spirit-filled, fire-baptized wonder because of Him! He feeds me with spiritual food that the unsaved know nothing about. I am a wonder of His grace, His mercy, His majesty, and His healing power. And so are each and every one of you, even if you have spent a lifetime trying to hide it, fight it, or deny it. Our churches are losing their power because we ignore this great power. Christians—Christ’s Ones—who insist on explaining away the validity of God’s promises limit themselves to receiving only a portion of His reward. The cost of rejecting these supernatural experiences is a lifeless, fruitless, powerless church.
I say it is time for all of us who say we follow Jesus to reclaim this gift that comes directly from the hands of Jesus Christ! God is searching for people who are willing to lay down their scientific arguments, lay down their unbeliefs, even as we say, “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!” (Matthew 9:24), and receive His priceless gift of power as He extends it.
There is an incredible sense of isolation in the world today. We were born connected! There was a direct lifeline from one person—our mother—to us. That connection had to be cut with a knife!
I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, by reconnecting to God and to other followers through the Holy Spirit, realizing that you are one with each and every Christian here and across the world and one with Jesus Christ. Recognize God who lives inside you in the form of His very Spirit. Then and only then, will we serve Him in the fullness of His promises and His divine power.
Please pray with me:
Father, your Spirit’s blessing far exceeds what we expect or even hope for. Your Word tells us that all our needs for guidance, understanding and healing comes through oneness of your people bound together in your Holy Spirit. Help us to believe, O Lord. And give us unexpected power as a church to love, to resist, and to reconcile. Amen.
BENEDICTION:
Jesus proclaimed to all people a new order of life in the kingdom of God, to give Himself and His Spirit to be a vital part of that new direction as God’s life-affirming, life-supporting and life-changing people. We go, having been called to become more than we now are and to share more fully in God’s renewal of all life. Amen.
Sources:
-Gary Shiplett, Worship & Hymnody (Downer's Grove, Ill.: Meriwether Publishing, 1980), 110
- Joe Schwarcz, "What Makes a Situation Sticky," The Washington Post, December 8, 1999, H1.
- Brian Wren, Piece Together Praise: A Theological Journey (Carol Stream, Ill.: Hope Publishing, 1996), 63
- Rod Parsley, Ancient Wells, Living Water (Columbus, OH: Charisma House)
