Sermon
delivered on February 2nd, 2025
Sunday Morning Service
By: Pastor Greg Hocson
Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:1-6
Ephesians 4:1 I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, 2: With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3: Endeavouring to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4: There is one body, and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5: One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, 6: One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and
in you all.
Introduction
In this section the apostle Paul
stresses church unity. He calls believers to maintain spiritual unity of the
church. He writes in verse 3, “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace.” Christians must be diligent to preserve the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace. The unity that we are to endeavor to maintain
is not a superficial unity. It is not a unity at all costs.
The apostle Paul is not speaking of unity at any price in
which the fundamental truths of the gospel are abandoned. If we are to preserve
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, we need to know the tie that
binds us together as one body.
Our Lord Jesus has done everything
needed to bring Jews and Gentiles together, establishing one Church, as our
text reveals.
Ephesians 4:4 There is
one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5:
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6: One God and Father of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all.
Having exhorted the believers in
Ephesus the duty of maintaining unity, the apostle Paul goes on to list both
its nature and basis. There are seven elements he mentions
here and as I pointed out last time these seven elements are arranged
around each member of the Trinity. In these three verses, the apostle Paul
directs our attention to each member of the Trinity. He begins with the
Spirit (4:4),
moves to the Son (“one Lord,”
4:5),
and ends with “one God and Father of all”
(4:6).
Christian unity is bound up with our common relationship with the one God who
is a Triune God. Last Lord’s
Day, we talked about the first three elements, focusing on the Holy Spirit. In
the words of Paul, “there is one body, and
one Spirit, and one hope of your calling.”
The first basis for unity and harmony
among believers in the church that Paul mentions is that we are part of One Body—the body of
Christ. Our unity is not based on our nationality, ethnicity, education,
upbringing, financial condition, or any earthly factor. No, but biblical unity
is built on the truth that there is one body, whose head is the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Second, there is One
Spirit. There is only one body because there
is only one Spirit. As there is one body, so there is one Spirit, who quickens
dead sinners, and baptizes believers into the one body of Christ at the moment
of conversion. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are all partakers of the same
Spirit, thus we are one.
Third, there is One Hope. Our calling
involves everything that God has done, everything that God is doing, and
everything that God wants to do one day for you as a believer in Christ. All
believers have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul used the word
‘earnest’. That word ‘earnest’ is the same word we get for engagement ring. It’s the downpayment on
our inheritance. It is our future. This is our confidence. This is our one
hope. It is a sure hope. It is a blessed hope. It is Christ in us the
hope of glory!
Now in verse 4, Paul moves from the
Spirit to the Son, that is, Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:5 One Lord,
one faith, one baptism.
Fourth, there is One
Lord.
Paul now moves from the Spirit to
Jesus Christ. One Lord. There are many lords, but there is only one Lord. There
ought to be unity among believers, because they all have one and the same Lord.
There is not a different Lord for the Jews and another for the Gentiles! There
is not a different Lord for the believers in Ephesus and another for the
believers in Galatia. There is not a different Lord for the believers in States
and another for the believers in Africa or Asia or Australia or Europe. Members
of the One Body may surely differ in their views on many things, on
things that are non-essentials, but they are to be united
on the essential and important truth that there is one Lord—the Lord
Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul asserts that there is
but “one Lord.” The Greek word here that Paul uses
is the word “Kurios”. It is one of Paul’s favorite ways of referring to the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word Yahweh or Jehovah. Jesus
Himself claims that He is Yahweh.
John 8:58 Jesus said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Here our Lord, claims that He is the
God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush and revealed Himself as the Great
I AM. And we know that’s
exactly what He intended, because of the response of the Jews …
John 8:59 Then took they
up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus
is Jehovah. This is the consistent truth proclaimed in the Scripture. The
inspired writers viewed Jesus as none other than God Himself. As there is only
one Lord, there is only one Saviour. Salvation rests in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone.
Romans 10:8 But what
saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is,
the word of faith, which we preach; 9: That if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10: For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
The confession of faith that Paul
refers to is the content of his preaching. It is affirmation recognizing that
Jesus is Lord or Jesus is Yahweh. Our Lord Himself declares in Isaiah 45:6, “That
they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none
beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.” And
He goes on to say in verse 21, “and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none
beside me.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is that One
Lord, and one God and one Saviour. Jesus is Lord. He has been given this
exalted name and “at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11)
This is the great foundation of our
unity, we believe and confess that there is one Lord! If a person or a
religious group denies this foundational truth, that Jesus Christ is fully
God and fully man, we are not in unity with them. True unity one
with another is experienced only upon this ultimate foundation—Jesus Christ is Lord!
Fifth, there is One
Faith.
Ephesians 4:5 One Lord, one
faith …
The term “faith”
has several of meanings in the New Testament. Sometimes, faith may
refer to the act of believing or other times, it may refer to
that of one’s
belief. In both senses it is true that Christians have only one
faith. But in context, the faith here refers not to the act of
believing but rather to what is believed. Here, the
apostle Paul is not referring to the act of faith by which a
person is saved, but rather to the body of doctrine revealed
in the New Testament. It refers to the substance of one’s belief.
Paul asserts that there is one only
faith. There is not one faith for the Jews and another faith for the Gentiles.
No, there is one body of doctrine, there is only one body of
truth for both Jews and Gentiles. There is one body of doctrine that was given
by God through the Apostles to the church. It is called the apostles’ doctrine in Acts 2:42. Jude calls it “the faith which was once for
all delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). In the words of Warren Wiersbe, “The
early Christians recognized a body of basic doctrine that they taught, guarded,
and committed to others (2 Tim. 2:2).
Christians may differ in some matters of interpretation and church practice;
but all true Christians agree on “the
faith”—and to depart from “the faith” is to bring about disunity
within the body of Christ.” (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition
Commentary. 1989. Victor)
Like a mighty army moves the church of
God.
Brothers, we are treading where the
saints have trod.
We are not divided; all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine, one in
charity.
-S. Baring-Gould
This is what united the early church,
they were one in doctrine. They were not united at all cost. Their unity was rooted
and grounded in truth and in doctrine. But when the body of truth
revealed in the Scripture is denied and ignored, there is not true biblical
unity. If we are to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace we
need to know and hold to the body of truth and doctrine that unite us
as a body. So, Paul exhorts us “that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph 4:14). In Colossians 3:16, he admonishes us to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” This
is the tie that binds us together as one body—one Lord, and one Faith.
Sixth, there is One
Baptism.
Ephesians 4:5 One Lord,
one faith, one baptism.
Submitting to the same Lord, believing
the same body of truth, we also share one and the same baptism. Some
think that this refers to water baptism, the ordinance of baptism after one
becomes a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. We are commanded as believers
to be baptized. We should be baptized, but I don’t think Paul is talking about external
observance of water baptism in this text. I believe Paul is referring to “spiritual baptism,” the one
baptism of the Spirit, which takes place at salvation.
The Paul spoke about this one baptism
in his first letter to the Corinthians chapter 12.
1 Corinthians 12:12 For
as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
Paul here speaks again about the body.
He points out how the body is one but has many members. And how each member has
been ingrafted into that one body. And how does each member become part of the
body? He says in here in verses 13 and 14, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all
made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.”
‘One Lord, one faith, one baptism.’ Faith
and baptism are specifically linked to the Lord Jesus Christ. When
a person is saved and converted to Christ, he becomes a member of Christ’s living body. He is baptized into the
living body of Jesus Christ. Remember the words of John the Baptist in Mark 1:7-8, “And
preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of
whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized
you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.”
Paul writes this in Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in
Christ Jesus. 27: For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. 28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. 29: And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise.
That is the baptism that he is talking
about. To all believers, the thing that unites us together is that we have been
baptized spiritually. Paul in Ephesians 4:5 is
not referring to the external water baptism but the internal work of
the Holy Spirit.
This is not the external observance of
water baptism to which Paul refers in Ephesians
4:5, that there is one baptism. When he refers to that one
baptism, he is referring to the baptism of 1
Corinthians 12:13. In that we have been brought
by a spiritual transformation, into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the gracious and powerful work of the Holy Spirit, not only were our sins
forgiven, but we are also translated from darkness into light. We were removed
from one domain to another domain, from one realm to another realm, from the
realm and domain of sin and death, into the realm and domain of righteousness
and life.
Closing Exhortations
Ephesians 4:1 I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, 2: With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3: Endeavouring to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4: There is one body, and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5: One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, 6: One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and
in you all.
We all have different roles in the
body of Christ, and we will certainly differ in our opinions on many things.
But, in spite of the many differences we have, our calling is the same—to
live together in loving unity with other believers as we grow and mature and
serve together and proclaim the gospel to the world.
Christian unity is a high call, and a
difficult call. Actually, it’s impossible apart from the assistance
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil
1:19), for without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). In the
words of Paul, we must be “endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3). We
must be diligent to preserve the true unity among
all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time, we
must be careful not to set aside these fundamental truths that form
the basis for true Christian unity. C. H. Spurgeon wrote, “Fellowship
with known and vital error is participation in sin.”
Let us endeavor to keep the unity if
the Spirit in the bond of peace but let us also be careful not to
forget and abandon the tie that binds us together, namely, we are
members of one body, we share one Spirit, one hope of calling, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.
AMEN!