E P H E S I A N S  4

 

In recent weeks of the Christmas season, as we will see at Easter, greater number of people attending Church services. This is surely due to well-known  and tuneful hymns being sung, and the appeal of the Bible stories. This is a minor version of the large evangelical meetings, held at the large stadiums filled to capacity, when the Billy Graham Crusades were held some years past, despite prominent members of the Church trying to stop them.  We can learn from such examples, and endeavour to make our services formed with hymns and songs

A true Christian would also agree that a principal reason, is due to the fact that the Church has turned away from pure and solid Bible teaching.  The Bible is the supreme authority for the life of the Church, and urgent correction is needed.

Paul opens this Letter to the Church at Ephesus with a call to unity, based on the truths of one God and one salvation.Paul is in prison because of his preaching of the gospel, and he was prepared to be held in confinement for serving his Lord, and his call has much power. Christians have to live in a manner worthy of the fact they are called to show humility, patience, gentleness and holiness. Humility was regarded as distasteful in the pagan community, where pride was revered. The virtues of Christ formed His character, and were expected to be found in every Christian,  Peace was a state of reconciliation and love, so making a bond to unite Christians.

Turn with me to Paul’s Letter to thr Ephesians Church in Chapter 4, looking at verse 4.

 There is one Body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one Hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism one God and Father, of all, who is over all and through all in all.

A powerful message of this chapter is the statement, one God and Father who is over all and in all, which shows that Christianity is an exclusive faith, the true faith.

Seven times you have the word ‘one’ repeated.

One body, the Church.

The Church is one body, and Christians can meet in congregations in any place throughout the world. We are one body, having the same faith, worshipping the same God and Savior, with people of every nation, both genders, race and color, of all ages. No other institution can make such a claim. And we are all brothers and sisters in one heavenly family

One Spirit, the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit unites people across the lines of class, which would otherwise divide them.  The Holy Spirt cleanses and empowers, which leads to convert at the conversion.

One hope

Christians do not have separate hopes, but are called together to eternal life and enjoy God for ever in resurrection glory. They are also a call to unity this side of heaven.

There is only one Lord

This refers to Jesus

One faith,

Thus contains the doctrinal truths that all Christians should commonly confess

One baptism

Christians have disagreed over baptism since the early days of the Church. In this respect, it refers to the baptism of all believers into one body. Water baptism  is an outside sign of an inward reality, of a believer being in Christ with the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

The Church of to-day has abused the act of baptism, by allowing a person who claims to have changed gender to be re-baptized under the new name. This is hardly justified, as it is the same body under a new name, which transgresses Christian teaching.

 But the Church makes provision for a second baptism with special liturgy, for those people who believe in trans gendering. The most eminent  medical  surgeons have stated, that no matter how much mutilation of the body in trying to effect this, there cannot be a complete change. Men and women have different chromosomes, which cannot be changed, but the physical, and mental consequences are affecting lives, with numerous suicides.

One God

The God of Israel is the one true God, and the Bible is the true revealed revelation of God

God is Father to all, and there is no room for any other  god. He is transcendent, and having created everything, dwells in the hearts of His people.

.  There are people in most Churches who have to be protected; children who are at the mercy of false teachers; of those who are not fully believers. Popular fashions are sometimes put forward, often from people in ‘Administration’ Offices, which were so mind-blowingly ridiculous, and were in fact mere gimmicks. Throughout history, fashions did come and go as they sought popularity.  I once put forward a suggestion we try using the Bible to  help people, which was dismissed as cynical.

Paul spoke of the mockery by people, but in fact there have been disingenuous ideas proposed  in a serious manner, which were beyond belief. There is only one way to avoid the latest fashion, by living nearer to Christ and His teaching. Which means turning to the Bible where we do in fact find Jesus. The only way we can keep the whole Church healthy, is in an intimate and indissoluble connection with the head and directing mind of Christ.

There are too many people, who are prepared to state other religions can lead to eternal life, that other religions can save, that God accepts the worship of all religious people,  This suggests the Church has failed to properly teach truly Biblical message.

There is a reluctance to say anything which may sound like condemnation..  I have heard it said it openly, by a senior member of the Church. This means people are being misled, as regards future life.

It is impossible for Christians and other faiths to worship together. Only Christianity claims Jesus is the Son of God, and is the Saviour who died on the Cross.  We say we worship the one true God, that Jesus is the only way to approach God. That Jesus is the only way we can be forgiven of sin. That Jesus and his Apostles were of Jewish heritage, which would offend. We say that only those who accept Christ as Saviour can get to heaven. These statements are of Bible teaching, and the only religion that can make them. Whilst these facts are faithfully held, they may cause displeasure and offend, it is necessary to offer the handshake of friendship to other faiths, and respect their right of them to be held

Paul was writing on a theme of unity. He saw the Church as a family of brothers and sisters in Christ wanting to meet as a family in their Father’s House. He always wanted to bring credit to Christianity, to act as he believed Christ expected of his followers.

Paul saw the world turning to Christ, with a baptism after repentance and confession of Jesus as Lord. This was the gateway to the Church, and we are called to  live in a  manner of holiness and unity 

We may have different ways of worship, which is reasonable as God made many different kinds of flowers which all grow in the same way, and Christians should grow in Christ with the one basic set of doctrine.

Whilst God is King and Judge, he is also Father. He is always in control no matter how things may look, guiding and directing.

Paul listed the gifts Jesus gave his Church, and we have a picture of the early Church. The Apostles had authority right through the Church, and were like itinerant preachers. Ultimately they  were Pastors, similar to the Ministers of our Churches caring for one set of people.  The aim was to build the Church up, not destroyed. No disruption should ever occur, but it does. The Church must have perfect unity, fractions should not exist, and anything which might cause differences must be stopped immediately,

Each Church should have a purpose, for there are a lot of people who have not fully grasped how the Church should function on a regular basis.

He Church was built on the sure foundation of the Apostles teaching, who were told by our Lord to go and preach all he had commanded.  We tell people God loves them and wants them to be saved, and for this purpose he sent Jesus to die on the Cross so their sins could be forgiven, which is the only way they can be saved.

There should never be disharmony amongst Christians, but now more than ever there is division within Churches over moral and social issues.  This is because an absence of leadership. The Church is now pursuing a course to accommodate the beliefs of LGBT organisation, which should be allowed to pursue its own ideologies, and we should be pursuing the course set out by God in the Bible. In the higher echelons of the Church, God seems to be left out. If Pastors used the pulpit to keep the teaching of the

Apostles rather than social issues, the people would be more biblically literate.

 

Since the birth of the Church at Pentecost, false teachers have been active in putting forward a message which fits in with their preferments, it has not ceased.

The Apostle Peter gave a sermon, after which three thousand people joined the first Christian Church. They were not coerced  nor bribed to attend, they were ‘cut to the heart’ and eagerly listened to the teaching of the Apostles. And God blessed and added to their number.

May Churches to-day preach the words of those Apostles, now gifted to us by God in the New Testament, and may God richly bless His Church, and add to our number.