Walk, Ephesians 4:1-16, Sermon by Peter Mead – Transcript

You can listen to the recording for this transcript on Spotify, or on CrossPreach.

I wonder what your neighbours, the people around you, I wonder what they think of the church. Not the building, “the church,” but the people, the church. I wonder about the way the church is perceived.

A lot of people, it seems, have the perception that the church is made-up of nice people. And by nice, I don’t really mean that necessarily positively. You know, just nice, sort of vanilla, maybe boring, probably fairly kind of conservative and traditional and ethical and moral and upstanding and all that good stuff, but essentially just nice.

And really, if you push them, maybe they would say, yeah, the church is full of nice people who aren’t very nice to each other. Have you noticed that? We’ve got this reputation for being so divided and for constantly fighting and arguing over all sorts of different issues. And there’s some reason for people to think that way. But I hope that in this series that we’re just starting today, that we will not finish the series agreeing with that perception: “Yep, the church is definitely full of nice people who are not very nice to each other.” That would be a complete failure, as far as the series is concerned.

I hope what we see is that the way the church is presented in the Bible, the way that the particular chapter that we’re going to look at portrays and presents what we have right here, as a group of God’s people, is actually far better than even we have imagined it to be. That this really is an incredible privilege to be part of this. Not just the meeting, but really the body of Christ.

We’re going to look in the book of Ephesians, and if you don’t have a Bible, wave your hand in the air and somebody kind will find you one. I think we’re on page 977 in one of the church Bibles. So Ephesians chapter 4.

The series title very simply is one word. It’s walk. WALK. And the reason we’ve called it that is because when Paul gets to Ephesians 4, that seems to be the word that just triggers his thinking in the first 3 chapters – I know Andy spoke a couple of weeks ago from chapter 3, talking about the church and how it is this display of God’s amazing wisdom to the universe, the cosmos – but we haven’t gone through the first 3 chapters. So let me just kind of give you a sense of them.

In the first 3 chapters, Paul presents the incredible, overwhelmingly amazing calling that we have. We’re called, by God, to become a body, a gathering, a group of people who are united together in Christ.

He talks in the first chapter about how the Father and the Son and the Spirit have all participated in bringing us to salvation. That the same Spirit and the same power that raised Christ from the dead is toward us as we trust Him. And that power raises us from our spiritual death and seats us with Christ in the heavenly realms. That’s Ephesians 2.

And though we were far off, and distant, and alienated, and separated from God’s people, He’s made it possible for us to be brought near and to become one people.

That’s the end of chapter 2, so that in chapter 3, Paul is just blown away thinking about his privilege of proclaiming that message to Jews and to Gentiles, people who, for all intents and purposes, are absolutely separate, God has brought together in one body, equal together in the body of Christ. And so he finishes the first 3 chapters saying, “Wow, God is able to do so much more than we could ever begin to ask or even imagine. Wow, God is amazing!” That’s our calling.

And I suppose you could look at that and you could say that, just as Christ is now seated in heaven, mission accomplished – His whole work has been done, He’s gone to the cross, He’s died, He’s raised back to life, conquering death, He is now seated in heaven – we’re seated with him. That’s amazing. He’s done the job and we get to jump in at the point where the job is done. It’s not that Jesus has done everything that he needed to do and now it’s time for us to do what we need to do to kind of, you know, catch up. No, in Ephesians, it’s very clear Jesus has done everything. Therefore, we’re seated with Him. Mission accomplished. If we’ve trusted Christ to be our Savior, we’re there, we’re saved, we’re secure. There’s nothing more to earn. There’s nothing more to take care of to finish the job so that when eternity comes and we step into it, God can weigh up the evidence and say you actually, “Yeah, you did try hard enough. Well done, I’ll let you in. It’s not that at all. It’s job done. There’s no due left for us in order for us to get the job done. Our salvation is complete in Christ.

And so that’s our privilege, our position. We’re seated in Christ. We are in Christ –  39 times in the book of Ephesians Paul says “in Christ,” “in Him.” That’s the big theme of Ephesians. In fact, it’s the big theme of Paul’s letters. We’re in Him. We’re united together in Him.

Then we come to chapter 4. And chapter 4 verse 1, Paul says, “Therefore,” in light of every truth that has been presented, “Therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling that you’ve received.” Just think about walking. Walking is something that that we do every day. As we get into the kind of post four years of age for a season, we don’t think about it. As we get older, we start to think about it again. Walking is this thing that we just do. But it’s this active participation in life. It’s got a sense of movement and progress and activity. It’s not a passive kind of sit around and do-nothing kind of a word, is it? Walk means you’re going somewhere.

And so from chapter 4, verse1, Paul urges the Ephesians to walk. Walk in a manner worthy, in light of all that Jesus has done, live it out.

And you’re going to see, if you read on through Ephesians, that he uses it in 4:1, again in 4:17, 5:2, 5:8, 5:15; he uses it to introduce every new thought as he progresses. We’re sat with Christ, therefore walk.

And so we’re going to be thinking through chapter 4 over the next three weeks about the walk that we have together kind of the active outworking of all that Christ has given to us. And so we’re going to be reading a section that’s just full of encouragement, full of instruction, full of expectation. There’s no sense that we’re going to be putting our feet up and saying “There’s nothing for me to engage with. I might as well just fall asleep.” No, we’re going to see in Ephesians 4, and then if we’d carried on, we’d see it in Ephesians chapters five and six, there’s a whole load of implications for all of life. But remember, it’s not that we’re trying to earn anything because it’s already been paid for. It’s how we’re living in response to what Jesus has done for us.

And so this first section that we’re going to look at today, from 4:1-16, it’s going to speak about our walking together, walking in unity. And it’s going to focus us in on that. What we’re going to see as the main thought here is that we walk together in order to grow together.

Let’s read the passage and hopefully you’ll see what I mean, and if not, I’ve got a few minutes to prove it. All right from chapter 4:1, I’ll read straight through.

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 he ascended on high he led a host of captives,

and he gave gifts to men.”

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the 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 of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

So we walk together in order to grow together.

Walk together. Notice what he says right at the start. It takes until verse 3 to get to it, but he says, this is what he’s urging them in terms of walking in a manner worthy, he says in verse 3, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This togetherness, that has been created by the Gospel he wants them to be eager to lean into that, into that unity.

Now, some of us have been in this church from the beginning, some of us for quite a while. I have to say, we’re blessed! We are massively blessed with the unity that we have here. I’ve been in churches, and I’ve known lots of churches, where what we have here would feel like heaven compared to the experience they have. The tensions, the difficulties, the backbiting and the gossip. We’re really blessed.

But Paul says be eager to maintain it. Don’t take it for granted. Don’t think that that’s just going to carry on, you know, you’ve just happened to fall into a united church. No it’s, a blessing that is created – not by us, it’s created by the Spirit of God – and he wants them eager to maintain it.

If you let your eyes drop down to verse 13, he mentions “until we all attain to the unity of the faith.” So there’s a there’s a unity that is ours because Christ has saved us and brought us together. Maintain that. But then later on he says there’s something to attain, something to move towards. So there’s a sense in which there may be an initial unity and a mature unity.

In fact, we’re going to think about what this passage tells us as far as the unity is concerned. But there’s a goal for unity. I think sometimes we can hear, or I can hear, speaking about unity in the church, “Yeah, that’s, that’s just nice, isn’t it?” It could just sound like a nice thing that that if we’re Christians, we should probably get on with one another, that would be nice. But actually there’s a purpose to it. And so we walk together in order to grow together. I didn’t put this word in at the start, let me just put it in now and hopefully it doesn’t offend us. We walk together in order to grow up together. Now, if someone says to you, “Oye, grow up!” it usually doesn’t go well, does it? That’s the start of an awkward conversation. But essentially, with lots of love, that’s what Paul’s saying to the Ephesians, he’s saying, “Oye, grow up.”

That’s the purpose of the church. That’s part of the reason that we exist is to grow up together.

That seems a little bit weird, doesn’t it? Grow up. We’re adults. The kids have gone out to their kids clubs. Actually, when you come to Trinity, some of us are so used to it, we may not spot it anymore, but if you ever noticed there’s quite a few children in this church. You may have tripped over 3 or 4 already today. We’re so blessed, aren’t we, with children? Especially just this bunch of little ones that I often look at them and think what a youth group that’s going to be. You know, whatever is going on in youth group now, it’s just a warm up. Let’s be praying for the youth leaders in 10 years’ time. It’s exciting, isn’t it, to think about these people, these little people growing up into big people together!

But actually what we see with the little ones, God sees with us. When we’re born into the family of God, we’re born literally as spiritual babies. And so in 1 Peter, for example, it talks about being born again. It talks about this new birth in chapter 1. So in chapter 2, it says “like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk.” That’s where we start.

And there’s ways in which all of us still have lingering immaturity. Now, if you’ve been a Christian for, you know, a year or two or three, don’t be offended, but there’s plenty of space there to be immature. You’ve barely started. But even those of us that have been Christians for decades, there are still areas of our lives where actually there may be immaturity. Just like with humans, you know how it is, you look at a three-year old and you hope in 20 years’ time they’ll be mature. But sometimes you meet someone who’s 23 or 33 or even 43 and you think “Not very mature there.” And just as with humans, so it is with us spiritually, it’spossible to have years on the clock, but to not really be very mature spiritually.

And so Paul saying in Ephesians, not a kind of telling off, he’s urging them, encouraging them that this is what the church is for. It’s a community where as we walk together, we can grow up together. We can move towards maturity. That’s a beautiful thought.

In verse 14, he describes the immaturity that we’re leaving behind. He says,

so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

I suppose there’s maybe Three characteristics of immaturity – true of children and true of spiritual children for, you know, those of us who are not yet super mature in the faith. Three characteristics.

One thing you’ll notice with the tiny ones is that they’re a little bit unsteady. You know, they’re the ones you’ve really got to watch out for. If you’re going to trip over someone, trip over someone that’s steady because at least they’ll survive it, right? But the little ones are really unsteady on their feet, and this toss to and fro is speaking of a spiritual unsteadiness. Think of a little yacht or a rowing boat in a storm just getting thrown all over the place. It’s not in control of itself. It’s just, whoa, kind of a scary idea, like it’s just whirling around and getting bounced here and there. When we’re spiritually immature – we’re fully born, we’re fully alive, if we’ve trusted Christ, salvation is ours, ee have everything that we will ever have in Him, it’s already true – but our lives will be characterized by an unsteadiness. A going from this to that and not really sticking with anything, not really following through on commitments, not having that kind of sense of anchoring that a more mature person has.

Have you noticed, maybe you even remember this, I remember as a child that feeling of I can’t even explain this, but I’m about to cry. Do you remember that feeling? It’s like you’re the electrical circuits in your brain don’t quite connect yet, and so just something can trigger and you go, oh, oh no, I’m going to cry. This is embarrassing. And you don’t even think that, do you? When you’re really young, it’s no embarrassment. You just wail.

We’ve got a – you know, we’ve had six kids who’ve wailed in their time. I’m not going to highlight any of them, but it happens, right? There’s just this kind of the slightest trigger and this extreme agony and, you know, wailing and then bit of sugar and all happiness. That’s not really our approach. But there’s this to and fro-ness to a young person that if you see the wailing in a 45 year old, you think, ohh, that’s more serious. There’s that lack of steadiness when we’re spiritually immature.

There’s a lack of discernment, isn’t there? It says here, “tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.” Every new idea, every book, every conference, everything that comes along. The person who’s immature will just be excited about this, they’re excited about that, they’re excited about this, and then they believe that, now they think this. And there’s kind of a lack of discernment, a lack of ability to process and think and say, hang on a second, Biblically, this is the way forward.

It’s the same with children. You don’t have a child sat in the high chair next to the table and put nice food in front of them and say, you know, “That’s good food. You’ve got your, you know, good, healthy, balanced diet there. I’m just going to leave this bottle of bleach open within reach, but don’t drink that because we’re really bad for you.” You don’t do that with a three-year old or a two-year old, do you? You put the bleach out of reach. Because they don’t have the discernment to process the fact that that is really harmful, while this is super healthy. A spiritually immature person will see something that purports to be Christian and just gets swept up in it. And then something else, and then something else. And then when they look back, they’ll see, Actually, there hasn’t been much growth. Nothing has really taken root. There hasn’t been much lasting fruit. It’s just been hype. As we mature, there’s a steadiness, but there’s also a discernment. As we become more Bible gripped in our thinking, we become more Biblical in our living.

And I suppose the third kind of characteristic of immaturity is only subtly hinted at in the text, but it screams at you in the face every time you’re parenting a little one, and that is that humans, in their immature state, are completely self-absorbed. You deal with a one-year-old, a two-year-old, a three-year-old, you are dealing with one of the most selfish creatures you’ll ever meet. That’s the way we’re wired, isn’t it? I want food, I’m unhappy. I want this, I don’t want that. She had, so can I? There’s always the back to self kind of orientation. And that’s true with spiritually immature people too. That person offended me. That person upset me. That person didn’t thank me. That person – it’s always me focused. Every conversation, every issue – there’s an offence, there’s an unwillingness to apologize or to make things right. There’s just a sort of a sense of entitlement that I’m the centre of the universe, and why isn’t everybody just bowing down to serve me?

It’s natural, it’s normal, but it’s immature. And as we mature, we become more steady, we become more discerning, and we become more self-giving. And Paul saying that’s what the church is for. As we’re in community together, we can grow together towards the mature version of what we’re supposed to be.

So, what goes into that? I’m just going to point out three things from this passage. We’re just going to scratch the surface, we haven’t got time to look at every little detail.

The first thing I want us to notice is in verses 4 through 6. Four, five, and six. Where it goes through this list of ones, you may have noticed when I was reading it, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Seven ones. Did you notice that there are the three Persons of the Trinity here? We’ve got the Spirit in verse 4, we’ve got the Lord that is Jesus in verse 5, we’ve got God and Father in verse 6. We’ve got the Trinity in this set of ones.

And what Paul is saying here is look, the life of the Trinity is at work in us. OK, so who, who is who is we?—That’s great English, isn’t it? Who are we? What is the church? The church is a community of people with the life of God at work within them. It’s not just that we’re nice. Sometimes we’re not even nice, but it’s not just that we’re nice. That’s such a, you know, you can go to bowls clubs and knitting circles and you can find nice people in lots of places. It’s not restricted to the church. No, that’s, that’s looking on the wrong scale. What we are here that is miraculous and unique is that we are people who have the life of God within us. No one else has that. No one outside of Christ has the life of God within them. It’s not just that we’re nice, it’s that we’re on the inside, new. It’s not just that we have a certain kind of style of life or way of living, it’s that we have the presence of life in a way that is not possible outside of Christ.

There’s something substantially different about us. And so the way Paul describes that in verse 4 is to say, you know, there’s one spirit one body first of all, one body, the body of Christ, with one Spirit within the body of Christ. So we’re called to one hope. Then he moves on to the Son and he says just as there is one Lord, one faith, it’s the faith in Him, one baptism, there’s only one way to kind of enter into the one body with the one Spirit, with the one hope because of the one Lord, and that’s the one faith which then you follow up with one baptism – it’s all united. There’s no different ways in. There’s no different options. There’s no plan B or plan C’s. There’s one way, and it’s all through Christ so that the Spirit is in us. And then there is one Father, and He’s the one that gets all the glory for initiating it and forgiving it and planning it. The whole thing is about the Father. And so the Father’s plan worked out through the Son and the Spirit, that’s us.

And so the life of God within the Christian is an absolutely wonderful and miraculous reality. And that’s where we start. We don’t start just with a sense of I’m a I’m a rubbish failure. Well, I better try harder to be united. No, actually I am a rubbish failure. But in Christ, and because I’m in Christ, the Spirit of God is in me and He’s in you – there’s something already special before we even start to think about maintaining or attaining. Do you see what I mean? It’s the life of God that is the foundation for the unity that we have.

Then, from verses 7 to 12, Paul says that doesn’t mean that we’re all cookie cutters, we’re not uniform, we’re not all literally the same creatures. He says, no, no, there’s a diversity because by the grace of God, not only has he given us all one salvation, he’s given us each individually a part to play.

This idea of the body of Christ is a brilliant analogy because the more we learn about the human body, the more the analogy seems to work. Paul uses it in other places. He hints at it here. The idea that we are one body, the body is not a collection of separate entities, like a bag of pool balls, or a bag of marbles, just bouncing off each other. The body is this incredibly integrated system of systems. Every time I think I understand something about the human body, I read something or see something else and go I never knew that. That’s incredible –  the intricacy of what’s going on within us.

100 years ago I looked this up, the Nobel Prize for Physiology and medicine, the medical Nobel Prize was going for things like discovery of blood types, discovery of vitamin C. Immunity type issues. How to deal with different diseases, typhus and things like that. It’s things that we’re thankful for. Antibiotics that came a little bit later, you know, that’s great. Then you come forward 100 years, 2016, that’s three years ago that the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine went to a Japanese scientist called Osumi, I think was his last name. And he discovered the mechanism how the cells within our body are able to recycle bits that are broken. What? How cool is that? He didn’t invent it. It was there by design, right? God made us these amazing creatures. And even in a fallen, dying state, we have these mechanisms within the cell so that when something isn’t quite working the way it should, the body is able to then take that and recycle that and use that energy for – it’s like it feeds itself off itself in order to fix itself – how cool is that design?  I want one of those cars, if they ever come up with a car that implements the same thing. That’d be amazing, wouldn’t it?

But God designed us that way. And so I get excited about these little scientific things as proper brains are discovering them. I just try and get my head around them. But actually the most exciting thing is what’s going on here where the body of Christ is brought together and God in His perfect wisdom gives gifts to individuals and says, I want you to play this part, and I want you to play this part so that working together, the whole can be what it’s intended to be.

So, what he describes here is specifically 5 gifts that are people. Apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds, teachers (maybe shepherd-teachers, maybe shepherds and teachers, doesn’t matter). And you think, Well, I’m not an apostle. Prophet – no I’m not a prophet. Evangelist – not very good at that. Shepherd teacher? not so much. Oh, I’m not in there. Yes, you are. It’s not that everybody is included in that list, but everybody’s included in verse 12. Verse 11 gives us the list. He has given gifts to men so that, verse 12, they can equip the Saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

So a shepherd teacher? Let’s name one at random: Andy. Someone like Andy is a gift to us as a church. But the one thing that we cannot say is that he does the ministry. No, he does his ministry to equip us for the work of ministry. That’s where all of us come in because every one of us has got a part to play. And so, yeah, there are some roles that have kind of a teaching, leading, equipping kind of sense to them. Great. Praise the Lord for people like Andy, but actually every one of us has a part to play. And that’s the beauty of the church. As we’re walking together through life, we’re growing up together not simply because a couple of guys preach every week. We’re growing together because of a conversation, because of a text message, because of an encouragement, because somebody sat down and listened to us and prayed with us and gave us some encouragement and maybe a little bit of advice. Maybe they did something for us behind the scenes. Maybe they cared for us in a practical way. All these little aspects of church life that are so uncelebrated – and if we celebrated them, it would feel awkward, right? Just say, let’s celebrate this secret that was done this week. All of that works just like the cells in our body are working when we don’t even know what cells are, there’s stuff happening behind the scenes to make us grow up together. It’s beautiful. And so some visible, some obvious, but all of us with a part to play, as we are equipped for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ.

And so then you get to the end of the section. And having seen this life of God within us, each one of us with a part to play, then at the end he, he really develops this maturity kind of a goal. And look what he says about it. Let’s jump down to verse 15.

Rather than this spiritually immature kind of spiritual babies, spiritual toddler kind of lifestyle, he says no, no, rather (verse 15)

Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Speaking the truth in love. It’s not easy, is it? Some people are very good at speaking the truth and lovingly, and they do all sorts of damage. Others of us are really good at being very loving and just letting the truth fall by the wayside, in case we ever upset anybody. But Paul says no, when the body’s working properly, there’s a speaking the truth in love. There’s a living out of the truth, and a sharing of the truth, and it’s wrapped up and it’s couched in love. There’s a loving encouragement with it.

It’s hard though, isn’t it? I’ll be the first to admit I struggle with being on the receiving end. If you don’t believe me, ask Melanie. It’s really hard to be criticized or to be told, actually he didn’t do that quite right. Or, you’re not very good at handling this kind of thing. I bristle, I’m quite hedgehogy at that. It’s spiritual immaturity. And, and maybe many of us struggle with it in that way. But as we grow up as a church, what’s going to happen is not that we’re just going to do better and better at pretending all is well. Actually, that’s not growing up. That’s just called wasting time. Growing up is where we become better and better at speaking the truth in love. Of opening our lives up to each other. Of hearing kind of the realities that we need to hear, hearing the truths of Scripture and the truths about ourselves, in the most loving, safe environment possible.

If you’ve got a friend in church that you can be completely honest with, you have a gift from God. Don’t take that for granted. And maybe you can find one or two more and gradually, bit by bit, we can connect more than just “hi, how are you,” but instead, “here let me bear my soul.” You can’t do it in every conversation and you don’t want to do it with everybody, I get that. But gradually, as the body is doing its part, as the joints and the ligaments are holding the whole thing together, the mature version of the church is not a church with no issues; it’s a church so gripped by the grace of God that we’ll admit our issues, and share our issues, and even carry each other’s burdens together. That that’s why I think that the Church is so much better than the world thinks it is. We’re not just nice people, we’re new people. And we’re not just nice people that every now and again manage to be nice to one another. No, the reality is that there’s something in this community that is far greater than anything that can be measured by niceness. It’s about life, God’s life in us, in God’s life, through us. Speaking the truth and love to one another, growing up together.

That’s the invitation. That’s the first part. Next week we’re gonna go on to the next section where Paul’s gonna use the word walk again. He’s gonna say, OK, yeah, walking together, to grow up together and walking differently. But I don’t want to get into that. We’ll see that next time.