Podcast-Feed11th April 2010 - Ian Clague - Unity
Ian looked at Ephesians 4:1-6 and Paul’s plea for a unity of Spirit among believers. Unity of the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:1-6 (English Standard Version): 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.
At the core of this is a plea from Paul to be Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit
Eager – (meaning to be diligent, labour, make an effort)
Maintain – (tay-reh-o)
– To guard from loss or injury – By Keeping your eyes on it – To hold fast to
Jesus’ Prayer John 17 v 20, 21 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Jesus is approaching the end he knew was coming and what did he pray – That they might be one – why – as a witness to the world – He we see the heart of Jesus – for unity in his body.
We then looked the idea of the Trinity? – The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or God is one in essence and three in person.
These definitions express three crucial truths:
• There is only one God. James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good!
• The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons in the Godhead, The fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means, in other words, that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Jesus is God, but He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the Son or the Father. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at God. Don’t mean person in the sense they are independent individual, but in the sense that each regards himself as I and others as you. Jesus refers to himself as I but to his Father and the Holy spirit as ‘you’ ‘the other’ cf John 17 again and the reference to sending the Spirit after he has risen. While each is of same essence
• Each Person of the Godhead is fully God: The Father is fully God, Jesus is fully God, the Holy Spirit is fully God.
Wayne Grudem quote – But if each person is fully God and has all of God’s being, then we also should not think that the personal distinctions are any kind of additional attributes added on to the being of God . . . Rather, each person of the Trinity has all of the attributes of God, and no one Person has any attributes that are not possessed by the others. On the other hand, we must say that the Persons are real, that they are not just different ways of looking at the one being of God…the only way it seems possible to do this is to say that the distinction between the persons is not a difference of `being’ but a difference of `relationships.’ This is something far removed from our human experience, where every different human `person’ is a different being as well. Somehow God’s being is so much greater than ours that within his one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so that there can be three distinct persons In God we see no problem with being three and one at the same time. We see and eternal and perfect unity. And we know from Jesus’ prayer that he longs to see something of that reflected in his church.
This brings us back to Ephesians we have been looking at for a while this year Ephesians 2:11-22
Jesus came not only to deal with our sin as something that divided us from God, but also a curse (Gen 3:15) that brought division between us. It’s the work of the cross that has accomplished this amazing thing – I am in Christ, you are in Christ – therefore we are made one in Jesus. This is the unity of the spirit given to us as a free Gift and it is to this that Paul is entreating us in Ph 4 to be Eager to maintain. It’s a gift we need to work to keep it not create it.
Luke 22:42 , John 6:38, Phil 2v7
So Jesus Co-equal with God, fully God in all regards, eternally existent, does the will of his father. Jesus has a heart of submission to his Father. – We need to have hearts able to submit to one another in order to maintain the unity of the spirit, and have servant hearts in all we do and how we relate and deal with one another. This theme is carried on in the New Testament in our attitude to one another.
Hebrews 13v17 Rom 13v1 , Col 1v25 I , 1 pet 4 v10 , 1 cor 13 v4-7
We are moving into a new time as a church God is speaking to us. One of the challenges when God moves his people on is keeping everyone together. Easy for someone to feel this is what God is saying to everyone else, ‘But not to me’ . Part of God moving us on will be God stretching out our tent pegs, He will change things, he will shake things up and he will require of us that we put our hands on the plough, requiring us to do and be what we may not have been in the past. There is grace available for us in this and support in the Unity of the spirit. However It’s easy in these times of God moving us on for grumbling to arise (see Ex 16v8 the example with Moses). WE have to actively seek to maintain the unity of the spirit. Its not something we are working towards. It’s a gift from God and we are seeking to keep it and not allow Satan to rob us of it.
Questions
1/ In what ways are you contributing to the unity of the spirit being worked out in the Body of Jesus? How could you?
2/ Do you find submission and servanthood in relationships (in and out of church) a challenge, and/or do you have experiences in the past that make this so?
3/ Given the passion of Jesus for unity in his body, how can you work to eagerly maintain the unity of the spirit? – I think in the context of God speaking to us at the moment we need to consider how we might or could serve the body as we move forward. [NB: This is not simply ‘jobs that need doing’ or ‘ministries we feel called to’, but focusing on serving the needs of other in the wider church.]
Listen now! (0:45min / 12MB)