Eph 4:1-16 - Becoming One in Christ
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Becoming One in Christ audio
We come today to the core issue of the letter: If we’re to fulfil our destiny as a church, if we’re to demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, as we read last week, then we must be united in heart and mind. But can we do it?
Here in ch 4, Paul begins to outline how being the new people of God is to be worked out in the down-to-earth, concrete realities of life. As we read on we discover that there are two challenges for us. First, it’s to build ourselves into a single united people without any of the social and economic divisions we see everywhere else; and then to be a holy people, showing in our lives the purity and righteousness that belongs with the people of God.
So today let’s think about the unity of the Church. How does that unity arise and how is it to be maintained?
A. It depends on our Christian character.
What do you need for unity in the Church? Paul lists 5 characteristics of the Christian that unity depends on: humility, gentleness, patience, mutual forbearance, and love.
Not surprisingly he begins his list with humility. In fact the word he uses is actually humility of mind. In other words it’s about how we think about ourselves in relation to other people. It’s about an attitude that recognises the worth and value of other people irrespective of what we think of ourselves. He’ll repeat this idea in the next chapter where he tells us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
The trouble is this asks us to overcome both our inborn nature and our socially conditioned nature. Most of us are not naturally humble, even if we try to act that way. Our social conditioning is to put ourselves first, to insist on our rights, to overlook the other person’s needs if they interfere with our own personal needs or ambitions. But he begins his list here because humility is essential to unity. Pride and self-centredness almost always result in discord.
Gentleness is a tricky word. It’s too easily understood as weakness. The word here could be translated meekness. It’s the quality of moderation, of strength under control. So it’s the characteristic of a strong personality who doesn’t let their strength or their personal desires control them, nor uses that strength to control others. Rather they use what strength they have to serve others. Paul uses the term in his instructions in 2 Tim 2:24, 25 about how pastors are to deal with those who oppose the gospel: “The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, 25correcting opponents with gentleness.” Notice that humility and gentleness form a natural pairing. They’re how Jesus described himself: “I am gentle and lowly of heart.” (Matt 11:29).
The next two characteristics also form a natural pairing. Patience is a longsuffering attitude towards annoying people: the sort of attitude that God has to us I guess, while mutual forbearance is the sort of mutual tolerance without which no group of human beings could ever live together in peace for any length of time. Have you noticed how things are never done in exactly the right way unless you do them yourself? That’s what I find anyway. Well that’s why patience and forbearance are so important.
We’re hopefully going to get a new vicar in the near future and chances are they’ll have quite a different approach, a quite different set of ideas, to what we’ve been used to over the past 16 0r so years. So we’re going to need to exercise a good degree of patience and mutual forbearance if we’re to help him or her settle in to this new role and if we’re to maintain our unity in Christ.
The final characteristic in his list is love, which is more of an overarching quality that’s the foundation for the other four. I guess it actually leads to them being expressed. Paul will speak more of that at the end of this chapter when he speaks of personal holiness, but for now it’s enough to say that it’s the controlling force for everything else we do.
So here are five characteristics which make or break our efforts to live in unity: humility, gentleness, patience, mutual forbearance, and love. Let me ask you, which of those do you lack? Look at them again: humility, gentleness, patience, mutual forbearance, and love. Don’t think about anyone else. They’ll all lack one or more of those characteristics, I’m sure. Just think about yourself. If you fail to show one or more of those characteristics in your relationships with people then repent of it. Ask God to change you, to make you more like Jesus, so you can do your bit in making the Church more of the new creation that God wants it to be.
In fact ask God to make you more like him because that’s where the call for unity comes from.
B. It Arises from the Unity of our God
He says this is the reality into which we’ve all been brought: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
Notice that this long list of ones centres around the 3 persons of the Trinity. So there’s one body because there is only one Spirit who brings the Church into being and who fills each one of us. There’s only one Lord Jesus who is its head. There’s one hope, one faith, one baptism, because there’s only one Lord Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. Finally, there’s only one family of God because there’s only one Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
So our unity derives from the fact that the one Father creates the one family, the one Lord Jesus is the focus of the one faith, hope, and baptism, and the one Spirit creates and empowers the one body.
When you think of it like that you suddenly realise what someone is doing when their actions damage the unity of the church. What they’re actually doing is denying the unity of the Godhead. Of course as you look around churches today you realise that we’ve been very successful at breaking down that unity, haven’t we? Well, the unity of the Godhead isn’t damaged but its outworking in the church often is. And there goes the church’s witness to the world. That’s why Paul makes this plea in v3 to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
You’d think the unity of the Spirit would be indestructible, wouldn’t you, yet we’re told to maintain it. Why is that? Because we live in a fallen world where spiritual realities aren’t always seen in the visible church. That means we have to work hard if we’re to make the unity of the Church a reality.
For those with a scientific bent what we have here is analogous to the second law of thermodynamics. That is the universe naturally descends into disorder (entropy) unless an external force or energy is applied to it to maintain its stability. In the case of a church’s unity, it’ll dissipate and be broken down unless we continually work at building it up. We can’t afford to take it for granted. We need to keep on asking ourselves “Am I doing all I can to bring about that unity that God desires?”
That’s why Paul says do your best to maintain that which is the spiritual reality. If you call yourself by the name of the one God and Father, by the one Son; if you rely for your spiritual life on the one Spirit, then make sure you live in the church that way.
C. It’s enriched by a diversity of gifts
Thirdly, our unity is enriched and built up by the diversity of gifts in the Church. If you look at the great diversity of people and gifts and personality types in any given church you might well despair of ever reaching unity. There may be only one Church and one God, one Spirit, one Lord, etc., but the church itself is made up of a whole lot of individuals, every one of us different from all the rest. So how are we to come to unity from that sort of base?
Well, Paul says, it’s not actually as bad as it looks. Although we’re all individuals, there’s a reason for our difference. “Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.” That is, the differences you see are often the result of the different things Christ has for us to do. Someone once likened the Church to a jigsaw puzzle, particularly one of those puzzles where no two pieces are the same. And not only are the pieces different, but they each have sections that stick out or in, that other pieces link into and the task is to work out what piece fits in where. Well, that’s what the church is like. We’re like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece has a place, and where if one piece is missing, the picture is incomplete.
Notice though, that the gifts that he mentions here are of a particular type. This is a different list to the one in 1 Corinthians 12 for example. So what’s the difference? Well, the gifts he lists here, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are all gifts with the same purpose: to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. They’re all gifts that in one way or another bring God’s word to people, whether it’s for the first time as in apostles and prophets, or in the form of the gospel in the case of evangelists, or in a systematic and applied way in the case of pastors and teachers. And why is this important? Look back at 2:20: The Church is built upon this foundation: of God’s word left for us by the apostles and prophets. So these gifts are particularly important for building up the church because our growth, our unity will depend on us understanding and following God’s revealed word. That isn’t to say that other gifts aren’t important, but when it comes to the church achieving the unity that God desires, these gifts are to be prized by the Church.
D. It demands our growth to maturity.
Finally, notice why these gifts are given. They’re not just given so we can be built up. We’re not being built up for fun. No, the body of Christ is being built up until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. If we’re to achieve unity, then this is what we should be striving for: maturity! To be grown up. It’s what all children long for isn’t it? But in the case of the Church, maturity equates to attaining the full measure of the stature of Christ. That is, the same sort of unity that Christ experiences with the Father.
Do you remember what Jesus prayed on the night before his crucifixion? Let me remind you: “11Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one … 20I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:11-21)
I want you to think for a moment about the other people in the room here, or if you’re at home, then the other people who may be watching online along with you. I imagine most of them aren’t particularly like you. Some will have similar ideas, a few will have similar experiences but none will be exactly like you.
Yet Jesus has asked for a miracle to take place. He’s asked that the Father would change us to the point that we can look at those other people and fell a connection with them that’s so deep that it equates to the connection between God the Father and God the Son. This is what Paul is talking about. He wants us to reach the measure of the full stature of Christ. He wants us to get to the point where we’re one with each other and with God the Father; so that we’ll be able to stand against all the winds of misfortune, all the blasts of the evil one. “No longer children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” Can we find that solidarity with one another that helps us remain firm in our faith, never swayed from what’s true, firmly anchored in the truth that God has given us in his word?
If you want to grow to maturity then make sure you’re fully connected to Christ who is our head. Notice what he means by head here, by the way. Too many Christian teachers talk about the husband being the head of the wife, as we’ll see in 2 weeks’ time, meaning the leader, the boss, like a headmaster. But that isn’t what’s described here. No, the head is the one “from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love." The head is the one who empowers the body to do its thing. And again, every part is needed. Every part needs to be working properly for the body to be built up.
So, how can a diverse body like the church achieve the sort of unity that God desires? By growing in maturity. By becoming more like Christ as we learn from him.
By speaking the truth in love and growing into Christ who is our head.
What can you and I do individually? We can make sure that we do our part in encouraging one other to grow to maturity, to unity, to the full stature of Christ.
John 10:1-18 I am the Good Shepherd
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
I am the Good Shepherd
“I am the Good Shepherd” has a sort of comforting feel about it doesn’t it? But when Jesus says it in this passage his listeners may not have had the same response. They would have realised that he was saying something very significant; in fact, making a claim that no-one should dare to make.
Now I imagine you know that sheep and shepherds in the Old Testament were a well-known metaphor for the people of God.
For example, in a couple of weeks we’ll be reminded again of those words from Isaiah: “All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah was referring to the nation of Israel as he wrote those words, though we understand that they apply to us as well.
Today we often refer to Christian ministers as pastors. Ministers even refer to their congregation as their flock. So it’s still a common metaphor for God’s people.
Mark 6:1-29 - What Should We Expect?
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
What Should We Expect?
I guess one of the most difficult questions we’re faced with as a Christian is “Why do bad things happen to good people?” For those who might want to reply that “no-one is good, no not one”, I could rephrase the question to “Why do bad things happen to people who have committed their lives to God’s service?” And I could think of many examples of such bad things.
So my question today is “What should we expect?” There are plenty of examples of promises in Scripture of blessings and prosperity for those who serve God with a pure heart. So is that what we expect? Do we give to God’s work, as we saw two weeks ago, out of generosity and thankfulness, or because we’re hoping to be rewarded by God?
Do we rely on the promise that all things work together for good to those who love God, expecting that all will be well, all manner of things will be well - in our lives here and now?
Well, I think Mark may have had those questions in mind when he was compiling his gospel and he put these three instances together in the passage that we just heard read.
2 Cor 5:6-21 New Creation
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
New Creation and Reconciliation
Who’d like a new body? I’d say put your hands up but I wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle in your eagerness. Well today we follow up on what we heard last week, from Howard, of the reality of our hope of eternal life, of the fact that Jesus’ resurrection assures us of our own resurrection and, what’s more, that the presence of his Holy Spirit within us assures us that we’re already experiencing that eternal life with God, even if that is limited by our mortal bodies. Today we’re thinking about what that experience of God’s presence with us might mean for us in our present circumstances.
Paul begins this section reminding us that we remain always confident, not of our own strength or ability, but of God’s promise. One thing about Paul is that he understands what it’s like to struggle with life as a Christian. You’ll remember, if you were here 2 weeks ago, how he used that metaphor of having a great treasure in jars of clay. The jars of clay, of course, are us; our weak bodies and our less than perfect willpower.
Mat 18:21-35 - The Nature of Grace
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Nature of Grace
I think we can all relate to this story. We empathise with the poor servant who only owes a few dollars and is thrown into gaol by the culprit of the story. We feel the sense of powerlessness of the poorer servant. We feel the outrage of the other servants as they see this injustice being played out. We cheer when the master finds out and justice is finally done.
I wonder though, how often we find ourselves identifying with the unmerciful servant. Do we ever wonder whether Jesus is telling this story to warn us?
Do you see how the story starts? Peter has asked Jesus a question. It’s a question that arises from the previous discussion. There’s a danger with a catchy story like this. It’s so easy to take it out of context; to read it as a stand-alone event when it’s not. You see, Jesus has just finished talking about the question of discipline in the church. What do you do if someone in the church offends someone else? What do you do if someone is doing something that the Church considers sinful? How do you deal with that person? And the answer Jesus gives is that you first gently confront them in the hope that they repent and are restored to fellowship with you. If that doesn’t work you take a couple of witnesses along and only if that fails do you take it to the whole church.
But Peter’s been around for a while and he knows the sort of behaviour you can expect from some people. He says: “Yes, but what if someone sins against me over and over again?” I guess we’ve all experienced this. Someone does something to you, you confront them, and they apologise, They’re really sorry. They didn’t realise. It won’t happen again. And of course it does! The very next week! So you confront them again. And the whole process gets repeated. It doesn’t take long to get sick of this does it? It doesn’t take long before you begin to wonder whether you’re being taken advantage of; whether your kindness is wasted on this good-for-nothing so-and-so.
So Peter asks, “Where do we stop? What’s the limit?” “Can we put a number on it? How about 7 times?” Now notice that he’s understood what Jesus has been saying. He wants to be a frequently forgiving person. But the weakness in his question is the thought that there might be limits on Christian forgiveness. What he’s forgotten is that at the heart of the gospel is the understanding that wherever there’s repentance there will always be forgiveness.
Now before we go any further I need to put in an important clarification here. We’re not talking here about something like repeated domestic abuse where the offender asks for forgiveness and then repeats the abuse over and over again. Paul in his letter to the Romans is very helpful with that situation. At the end of chapter 12 he encourages us not to repay evil with evil but to seek to live peaceably with one another but then in the very next chapter he tells us that God has established governments to ensure that wrongdoers are punished. So if domestic or any other form of abuse is happening we need to call on the authorities to deal with it. That’s why we have our safe ministry protocols in the church.
But for the ordinary sorts of disagreements, hurts, offences, etc. our model is God himself. Listen to what we read in Isaiah 55: “6Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; 7let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Do you hear that sense of overflowing generosity on God’s part? He will abundantly pardon!
So there’s a misconception in Peter’s question which Jesus immediately corrects. “Not seven times but seventy-seven times” or “Seventy times seven” some versions have. That is, more times than you can count. Unlimited forgiveness because that’s what God’s forgiveness is like.
It may be that Jesus is thinking about the early chapters of Genesis where Lamech, the great avenger, boasts that “If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Lamech is the great hero of vengeance. We love stories of vengeance don’t we? We love to see the wicked caught out, the con man conned, the murderer punished. Think about those countless Liam Neeson thrillers with Neeson catching up on criminals who’ve done some terrible thing to his family or loved ones. And we all cheer when he deals with them don’t we?
But here’s the interesting thing about this parable. The popular media teaches that it’s heroic to take revenge. But here Jesus teaches that it’s more heroic to conquer revenge; to forgive, even if it costs us dearly; to leave revenge for God’s final judgement. And he shows us in a very graphic way why this is the case. He tells them a parable that illustrates why Jesus expects unlimited forgiveness from us: namely because we’ve been infinitely forgiven.
There’s a king, he says, who comes to settle accounts with his servants. So one is brought in who owes him 10,000 talents. Now if it’s a talent of silver that’s about $30 million in today’s terms but if it’s gold it’s more like $300 million. Either way it’s an outrageous amount; absolutely unpayable. So the king orders him to be sold into a debtor’s prison along with the rest of his family; a standard punishment which in fact existed in British law until a little over a hundred years ago. The servant falls to his knees and begs for time to repay. Now that in itself is a bit of a joke because the amount he owes is roughly 2,000 years pay, even if he weren’t to be in prison, so there’s no way he could ever repay what he owes. But still, he begs for mercy and to his amazement his master has pity on him. He forgives the entire debt.
Now put yourself in this man’s shoes. He’s been sentenced to be sold into slavery along with his whole family; he owes an unpayable debt and now the king has written it all off. He’s a free man again. He’s asked for patience and the chance to repay the debt and he’s got infinitely more than he asked for: amnesty and a complete remission of the debt. He’s received a forgiveness he didn’t dare to ask for. How would you feel? Overwhelmed with gratitude? So thankful that you have a merciful king?
Now remember that this is a parable about us. What Jesus is saying is that each of us has amassed the equivalent of an unpayable debt before God. Have you ever thought about that? Most people if you ask them how God might see them will say something like “Oh I’ve lived a pretty good life. I’ve never done much that was really wrong. I don’t think God would think too badly of me.” But here Jesus is saying, no, the debt of sin you’ve built up is running into billions, if not zillions. There’s no way you could ever repay it; ever make up for it. But then comes the amazing news of the gospel: that God is a gracious King who willingly remits our debt, who gives us free and unconditional forgiveness, wipes the slate clean, so we can walk away free.
But the story doesn’t end there. With the receiving of forgiveness comes the responsibility of the forgiven.
So what happens? The servant leaves the king’s presence and runs into a fellow servant who owes him a small amount of money, a few hundred dollars perhaps; a mere pittance compared to the amount he’d owed the King. So what does he do? Does he share his good fortune with him and forgive his debt in turn? No! He grabs him and, with some brutality, orders him to pay the lot. Now you can imagine the incredulity that this turn to the story would have raised among the first hearers. We feel the same don’t we, even if we’ve heard it many times before? How could anyone act like this so soon after getting such a reprieve from the king? Even when his fellow servant gets down on his knees he doesn’t relent. He doesn’t show any mercy or pity despite the mercy he’s been shown by the king.
It’s a pity this man didn’t give any thought to how much the king had forgiven him. Even when his fellow servant echoes almost the exact words that he’d used, he doesn’t recognise them. This is an important lesson to learn isn’t it? When we come to deal with someone who’s wronged us, we need to be especially aware of our own failings; of our own infinite need of forgiveness by God. We need to remind ourselves of the enormous debt that we owed God, but that God has removed from us.
Well, as is often the case in these parables the end of the story is a dire warning for us. The man refuses to give his fellow servant time to repay the debt, but throws him into prison, where of course he’ll never be able to repay it. But the mistake he’s made is more than simple ingratitude. What he’s forgotten is not just that the king has forgiven him his great debt, but that the king is still the king; that the king’s job is to ensure justice in his realm. The other servants don’t forget it though. In their distress at this injustice, they go and tell the king about it. The king calls the man in and says “You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt, just because you asked me. And yet you couldn’t show mercy on your fellow slave!” And he’s so angry with him that he hands him over to be tortured until he pays the lot. “This”, says Jesus, “is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” That’s gentle Jesus meek and mild for you! But this is a repeated message in the gospels. (Matt 6:15 NRSV) "if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Mat 7:2 NRSV) "For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get." So we mustn’t take this lightly. Our forgiveness is in one sense dependant on our willingness to forgive others.
So does that mean we have to earn our forgiveness after all? Does forgiving others make us worthy to be forgiven? It could sound like that, couldn’t it, if we weren’t careful. But there’s two things that we should notice about this parable. First of all the servant’s debt is forgiven right at the outset. It’s the fact upon which the rest of the story hangs. And secondly the debt is so great that no amount of forgiveness of others’ debts could ever be enough to earn it. So there’s no sense that his response to his fellow servant could somehow repay his own debt. No, the remission of that debt is a free gift from the king.
So let’s think about what’s wrong with what he does? Well, it shows that he’s failed to understand the type of behaviour that the king expects of his subjects. Unlike the sort of despotic king that Di talked about last week this king has built his rule on mercy and justice and he expects that mercy to be reflected throughout the kingdom. If this servant were a true follower of the king then he’d show the characteristics that the king places such great value on: in this case, mercy and forgiveness. So his forgiveness of others isn’t so much a condition of his being accepted as a faithful servant as a sign that that’s what he is.
Let me give you an illustration of what I’m trying to say. Do you remember the story of King Solomon and the two women who both claim that a baby is theirs? Do you remember what Solomon does? He says “Bring me a sword.” He’s says he’ll cut the baby down the middle and they can have half each. The real mother of course says, “No. Don’t kill him! Give the living baby to her.” While the other one stupidly says, “Sure, go ahead and cut him in two then neither of us will have him.” Well, it’s quite clear who the mother is, isn’t it? But let me ask you, did she become the mother by giving Solomon the right answer? No! Did the right answer in any way affect the truth of her claim? No! It certainly helped Solomon discern the truth but it in no way affected that truth, did it? Her motherhood came from a prior event - from giving birth to the baby. And it’s the same when we think about this parable. Forgiving one another because God first forgave us helps to discern the truth of our relationship to God, but it doesn’t determine it. Our relationship to God comes from the prior event of God’s forgiving us that unpayable debt of sin. His requirement that we then respond with mercy and forgiveness towards others is to show that we’ve truly changed sides. In other words it’s a sign that the repentance that accompanied the forgiveness was genuine, and that we’re continuing to relate to God with the awe and reverence that our respective positions warrant and with the change of heart that receiving God’s Holy Spirit provides us.
So here we have both a reminder of just how great God’s love and mercy is and a warning about the need to respond appropriately, to demonstrate by our behaviour, by our attitude to others that we’ve truly joined God’s family. While we must never condone sin or ignore it, when the sin is against us, we’re to follow the example of our Lord and King, to forgive unreservedly and without limit. We’re to be so overwhelmed by God’s love and forbearance that we can’t help but be loving and forbearing towards one another. If we’re Kingdom people then the way we relate will be the way our good and loving King relates. We’ll show by our lives that there are no limits to forgiveness in God’s kingdom.
Matt 13:1-13 - It all Depends on the Soil
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
It all Depends on the Soil
You’d have to say that Jesus’ ministry was a success wouldn’t you? Here in Matthew 13 we see a scene reminiscent of a Taylor Swift appearance. There are so many people flocking to hear him that he has to get the disciples to bring a boat for him to get into before he gets pushed into the water. People are flocking to hear him, willing to endure hunger and thirst because they’re hungry for God’s word - here is the evangelist’s dream. What more could you ask for?
And yet as Jesus proceeds to teach them, there’s a sadness in the story he tells - reinforced by his brief commentary on the purpose of parables in vs 10-12. What on the surface might appear to be a charming story of rural life has a barb to it. It contains a warning to us, the hearers, to be careful about how we listen to God’s word and how we persevere in following that word so it bears much fruit in our lives.
The sadness in the story is that it points out how often, and how easily, the divine seed of God’s word is destroyed.
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