Unity (Psalm 133) Good morning, church I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 133 (turn).

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1 INTRO: Unity (Psalm 133) Good morning, church I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 133 (turn). We re in the middle of a sermon series called Three Prayers. These are three Psalms that I ve been praying for and over our church for the past several weeks and this series is my way of inviting you to pray these prayers with me as well. I mentioned last week that these three Psalms are part of what we call the Psalms of Ascent. They are songs that would have been sung while the people of Israel made the trek up to Jerusalem. And you literally have to go up to Jerusalem because it sits about a half- mile above sea level. So as you traveled up to the city, you would sing songs that prepared your heart as an individual and prepared your heart as a community to enter God s presence. TRANSITION: As we discussed last week from Psalm 127 if you want to enter and thrive within God s presence you must learn to depend upon Him. We must depend upon God to provide our identity and security, to make our life and work meaningful and productive. And as we will discover today from Psalm 133, another quality just as important as dependence is unity. In one sense, you could say that unity is an extension of dependence. Unity says, Not only am I depending upon God, but we are depending upon Him together. The key word being together. Let s look at the beauty of unity in Psalm 133. THE BEAUTY OF UNITY: 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (Psalm 133, ESV). This is sort of unusual language. I m guessing you don t pour oil on people s heads very often. So let s explore what it means. ü In the Old Testament, pouring oil over someone s head was a ceremony reserved for priests. A man named Aaron served as the nation of Israel s first priest so when our writer mentions Aaron, he s using Aaron as a figurehead for the full priesthood, by that I mean the name Aaron represents all priests. ü When a priest was brought to office, oil would be poured over his head as a symbol that this man was now set apart for a special task or for special service to God. o But obviously oil poured on the head, doesn t magically hover above the neck. No, because of gravity, it eventually flows down the face, the shoulders, and even chest, where the high priest the spiritual leader of Israel wore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. What the 1

2 author is saying is that when the people of God are united when brothers and sisters in the faith dwell in unity they become like priests. They become anointed by the Spirit of God. And they become set apart for special service to God. o You might say it this way the primary characteristic of a healthy, effective church isn t it size or logo or location. It s unity in Christ rooted in the Word of God. Our author goes so far as to call such unity, good and pleasant. 1 ü Our author then uses a second metaphor for unity. He describes it as dew from Hermon. o Hermon is the tallest mountain in all of Israel, nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, almost two miles. And because of its elevation, it constantly has precipitation rain, dew, even snow. When I was in Israel in March 2012, the average temperature fell somewhere between degrees. Not too bad for early spring. But in the distance you could see Mount Hermon with snow still atop its peaks. Now step out of spring and enter summer. As you might expect, summers in Israel are pretty brutal. From May to October, the city of Jerusalem, also called Zion in our Psalm, gets almost no rainfall. 2 And in a hot, arid climate like that the idea of dew from the mountains falling on your city is like someone offering you a bottle of Coca- Cola on a hot summer day (or I suppose Mountain Dew). Growing up, we had an above ground pool in our backyard. And whenever my brother, Jay, and I came in from swimming, we would get an ice cream sandwich. We thought they were the best treat in the world. In fact, we thought ice cream sandwiches were so good that when Mom wasn t looking we d sometimes sneak another. Did you know if you re really talented you can put a whole ice cream sandwich in your mouth in one bite? Two bites max. There are certain treats that bring refreshment to an otherwise parched life. The Psalmist says, Unity among God s people is like that. It s like a glass of lemonade at the ball diamond. Like dew from the highest mountain. Unity brings refreshment. It brings joy. It brings peace. Unity sets God s people apart for a special work; it prepares them to serve in the power of God. And so as the people would travel up to the city of Jerusalem for worship they would sing this song 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (Psalm 133, ESV) they knew if they were going to accomplish what God had for them to do, they would have to be united. 1 Exodus 29:7; Leviticus 8:12; cf. Exodus 28:9-12, See James E. Smith, The Wisdom Literature & Psalms (Joplin: College Press, 2000) Willem A. VanGemeren, "Psalms," Expositor s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991)

3 TRANSITION: But that only tells half of the story. If in the Old Testament, we discover the importance of unity, it s in the New Testament we learn how God achieves that unity. If you have your Bible open, I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 helps us understand what unity is, what it is not, how God achieves it, and why it matters for the church. THE CAUSE OF UNITY: 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:1-10, ESV). Please understand that this isn t poetic language saying that your life was only so- so before Jesus and that now because of Jesus your life is a little bit better. Psalm 133 used poetic language 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! (Psalm 133:1-3, ESV). That s simile that s metaphor that s poetry describing what unity is like in God s sight. Ephesians 2 doesn t use that type of language. This is language of being: ü And you were dead in the trespasses and sins this is who you actually were before you put your faith in Christ you may have been physically alive, but you were spiritually dead. Before you come to Christ you were, you are, dead in your sins and without hope. ü But of course the inverse is also true those who have placed their faith in Christ, now because of Jesus, though one day you will physically die, you will indeed live forever with God 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved o This is the heart of the Gospel that you were a dead man/woman walking; you were separated from God, deserving of His wrath, and awaiting condemnation; but in the midst of your sin, God extended to you grace. And grace allows you to walk in a new way of life. o That new life has several dimensions. Paul is about to discuss one of them in v

4 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:11-13, ESV). This is basically a restatement of the ideas found in vv. 1-6, except that here the writer, Paul, is starting to hone in on a conflict that existed between two different groups of people, the Jews and Gentiles. The circumcision group here refers to Jews. Uncircumcision is a reference to Gentiles. Let me give you a little context so you understand who these people are and why they don t play very nice. The book of Ephesians was written around 53 A.D., about 25 years after Jesus. And at the time the most famous building in the entire world not only in Israel but the entire world was the Temple of God. And on the outer edge of the Temple stood a wall that served as a divider between the Jews and Gentiles. If you were a Jew, you were allowed to pass by the wall and enter into the heart of the Temple. If you were a Gentile, you had to stay outside the wall in what was known as the Gentile Court. It was essentially ethnic segregation with religious overtones and occasionally it even became violent. In fact, a first- century historian named Josephus tells us that the Jews actually took these divisions so seriously that they built a 4.5- foot wall around the Temple proper with a sign that read, No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. 3 Now if you re wondering where I m headed with this or why it s a big deal, there s a story in the book of Acts about a guy named Paul bringing a Gentile past that 4.5- foot wall and into the temple and the repercussions that followed. Check out what happens 27 The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him, 28 yelling, Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the Temple and even defiles this holy place by bringing in Gentiles. 29 (For earlier that day they had seen him in the city with Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, and they assumed Paul had taken him into the Temple.) 30 The whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him. 31 As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the commander arrested him and ordered him bound with two chains. He asked the crowd who he was and what he had done. 34 Some shouted one thing and some another. Since he couldn t find out the truth in all the uproar and confusion, he ordered that Paul be taken to the fortress. 35 As Paul reached the stairs, the mob grew so violent the soldiers had to lift him to their shoulders to protect him. 36 And the crowd followed behind, shouting, Kill him, kill him! (Acts 21:27-36, NLT). Paul finds himself beaten, arrested, and on the verge of death simply because the Jews thought he d brought a gentleman from (where) Ephesus, beyond the wall that said no Gentiles, only Jews. If you go on to read the rest of Acts, you ll discover that because of this incident Paul winds up serving time in a Roman prison. He spends two years in that prison. And while there he writes several letters 3 A.S. Wood, Ephesians. Expositor s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981) 40. See Josephus, Antiquities

5 that are now in our New Testament, including a letter to the church at (guess where) Ephesus. 4 And to the church in Ephesus, the friends and family and co- workers of Trophimus, Paul writes the letter Ephesians. And right after he tells the people of Ephesus that they ve all been saved by grace not works, grace he writes these words, 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:14-18, ESV). Do you hear the power behind these words for the people living in Ephesus that 4.5- foot wall that said if you enter here we have the right to kill you, the wall that stood as the symbol of their exclusion, that wall that nearly got Paul killed, he says that wall has been torn down by Jesus Christ! In other words, once you repent and place your faith in Christ, it doesn t matter who you were Gentile; it doesn t matter who you were drug addict; it doesn t matter who you were child abuser; it doesn t matter that you were abandoned by your family because of Jesus you are now to be viewed with new eyes. The Bible teaches that because of Jesus there are no longer to be any barriers among the people of God. There s no room for thinking I m better than that person, or even I m worse than that person. When you place your faith in Jesus and decide you want to follow him, it doesn t matter what side of town you re from; it doesn t matter how good you are at sports, how high or low your grades are, whether you re fat or skinny, rich or poor, whether you wear nice clothes or dirty clothes; it doesn t matter whether you come from a great family or a dysfunctional family; it doesn t matter if you ve messed up, gave up, doped up, or been knocked up, the ground is truly level at the foot of the cross. And the church then becomes the place where these different people, from all walks of life, gather together under God s grace and are built into what Paul calls, a spiritual building, or a dwelling place of God. A place of unity beautiful in God s sight. Remember Psalm 133, 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (Psalm 133, ESV). TRANSITION: Unity brings refreshment. Unity signifies God s blessing. Unity prepares us to serve God in a special way. For these reasons, unity is the primary characteristic of a healthy church. Unity is so important you might even say it s worth fighting for. Woe how do you fight for unity? Aren t fighting and unity opposites? No because unity is not the same as uniformity. APPLICATION: 5 Uniformity is when a group of people share the same stylistic preferences. 4 J.B. Polhill, Paul & His Letters (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1999) 366; see discussion in Hoehner. 5 The following was inspired by Paul Tripp. See word/posts/walk- with- unity. 5

6 When I was in Indianapolis a couple weeks ago, I saw a van driving through the streets of downtown painted like Pink Floyd s Dark Side of the Moon album. If you like a band well enough to paint your vehicle like one of their albums, it s probably safe to assume you and your friends are fairly uniform. You share a lot of characteristics simply based upon musical preference. But that s not altogether different from when people in Owensboro all wear blue for that team in Lexington that shall not be named. Or when young adults flock to that book about a zombie bitten vampire who attends a magical school of werewolves who fight to death under the lights of the Capitol. Or even people who wear dark rimmed glasses now that they re back in style. We tend to gravitate towards people who are like us people who vote like us, people with similar lines of work, people who enjoy our type of hobbies, and share our tastes and styles. People who go to our school or who s kids are involved in similar activities. Uniformity isn't inherently wrong. God has hardwired each of us with preferences, and these preferences will attract similar people in our social circles. But here's what we need to understand even though uniformity is part of life, uniformity should never be the goal within the body of Christ. In fact, uniformity will kill a church. Let me give you two examples. Take the aging, rural church so stuck in its ways that it alienates the younger generations and eventually drives them away to the point that the church itself slowly dies as its members pass away. Or to be fair, take the young, hip urban church plant that targets a specific demographic, perhaps college students, only to discover that a church full of college students and young people can neither fully function as a church nor sustain itself. For both practical and theological reasons, the Bible says that there should not be uniformity among believers. 1 Corinthians 12 is probably the best treatise on the topic "Now there are varieties of gifts... varieties of service... varieties of activities (vv. 4-6) for the body does not consist of one member but of many (v. 14) If all were a single member, where would the body be?" (v. 19). Unity is set apart from uniformity because unity must rely upon the Holy Spirit. While uniformity is built upon the preference of the individual, unity is built upon the foundation of Christ. The same Lord that dwells in my soul is the same Lord that dwells in your soul, and the Spirit of God moves in a powerful way when either two or two thousand believers put aside their personal preferences and insignificant differences to unite under Jesus. In light of that, I ask you hear what I m about to say from the heart of a pastor who loves you. There is nothing more important than the Gospel, the good news that even though you were once dead in your sins as we talked about earlier, Jesus offers you new life. He has brought you from death to life. He has taken you from slavery to freedom, from despair to hope, from emptiness to community. That s why the book of Romans begins with a statement that should describe the heartbeat of every church, 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16, ESV). 6

7 ü At Owensboro Christian, we will always preach Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God and the only way to salvation because we are not ashamed of the Gospel. ü We will always base our faith and practice on the authority of the Bible. ü We will always pursue holiness because holy living is pleasing to God. ü We will always care for the people in our midst, esp. those who have no one else to care for them. ü Why? Because we are not ashamed of the Gospel it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. But here s the thing we may like to say that we re not ashamed of the Gospel, but we can t be afraid of the Gospel either. ü Let s look at that Romans passage one more time 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16, ESV). o Who is the Gospel for? Everyone who believes! Who? Everyone. o Do we truly believe that? Do you truly believe that? ü Sometimes I fear the people of the world are more ready to receive the Gospel than people in the church are ready to share it. There may be several reasons we re afraid of the Gospel, but I think one of them is that we re afraid reaching people far from God with the hope of Jesus Christ might change our church. It may threaten our stylistic preferences our uniformity. ü Many of you will know the name Richard Peck. Richard has been a longtime member of OCC. He s been in poor health for years and did not have a particularly good week this past week. While talking with some elders, a story was told about a time when we were making a shift in music, changing to a more updated style. And Richard said, I may not prefer this new music. But if it will help reach someone else for Jesus than I m for it. May we all have that same attitude not just about music but about any preference because not only are we unashamed of the Gospel, we re not afraid of the Gospel either. ü If we want to reach people for Jesus Christ if we want to see lives transformed, marriages saved, and the Next Generation to grow up to love Jesus with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, it won t be by going after people who attend other churches. And it won t simply be by going after people who already look, think, and act like us but are just out of the habit of coming to church. No, it ll be by going after the people who have given up on God and given up on the church because they believe God has given up on them. It will be by going after people who on the surface may look different than us. But when it comes down to it, don t they need the same grace that we do? 7

8 TRANSITION: Psalm 133 and Ephesians 2 show us that God designed the church to be this motley group of believers working together for the gospel not because we all have the same preferences, but because we ve all been saved by the same Savior. Because we recognize the same Lord. And because we want others to know Him too. Think about it that s the way Jesus started the church. With a group of twelve disciples a traitor, a political rebel, a tax collector, and a bunch of fishermen. The fishermen were suspicious of the traitor; afraid of the zealot; and hated the tax collector. And yet God used this group to begin the church. And they succeeded! How? Only because they were united around Jesus. CONCLUSION: Here s the crux of the matter. Are we willing to put up with things we don t like in order to reach people who are not like us? The answer has to be yes. Because everyone in this room has a son; a daughter; a spouse; a friend; a neighbor; a classmate; a co- worker; an enemy, who are far from God. And if you knew deep down that giving up a few personal preferences would help reach them with the Gospel, wouldn t it be worth it? Of course it would. And the willingness to give up something we like, so that someone else can know the love of God, that s unity. It s us, in all of our differences, uniting around Christ and his mission. You see if we re doing this church thing right, there will always be something going on that someone doesn t like. I m not talking about things that are immoral or blasphemous. I m talking about matters of stylistic preference. If we re doing church right, there will always be something going on that someone doesn t like, but I m not going to lose sleep over that. And I would ask you not to lose sleep over that either because Galatians 1:10 says that if we re simply trying to please people we re really not servants of Christ. You realize, right, that thing you don t like helped reach the person sitting across the room. And that thing they don t like, it s what helped you make OCC your home several years ago. Giving people their personal preference is not the driving force for our decisions. It can t be. Because there are over 2,000 of you and you re all different. We re not here to give the elders their preferences. We re not here to give the staff their preferences. We re not here to give me my own personal preferences. There are things we do that if it were just about me, we d do differently. But the church isn t about me. And it s not about preference. It s about people who have come to know and love Jesus not giving up on people who still need to know and love Jesus. The world already understands uniformity. The world practices uniformity. What it doesn t get is true unity. Biblical, God honoring, externally- focused unity. That type of unity is counterintuitive. It requires love, patience and self- control all qualities that we don t have apart from Christ. And it s those qualities we have through Christ that will reach the world. When we live with that type of unity, we will begin to experience God s full blessing; we will experience refreshment within our community; and we will experience power in our ministry 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers 8

9 dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore (Psalm 133, ESV). That s my prayer for Owensboro Christian Church and a prayer I invite you to pray with me PRAYER. COMMUNION: Knowing that we humans need tangible examples, God has given the church a wonderful gift. Every week at Owensboro Christian we pause for a moment to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made in our behalf. We typically call it communion. Some call it the Lord s Supper. Others call it the Eucharist. Another name for it is the Common Meal, i.e. a moment a meal when we lay aside our differences and preferences and say that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important characteristic that we share. What I would like us to do today is to take communion together to symbolize the unity we have in Christ. So here s what going to happen. In a moment, I will ask the servers to pass out the bread and juice. When you receive the bread and juice, I would ask you to hold them until everyone has been served. Then we are going to have a time of corporate prayer a time of prayer for unity within our church and as we pray we will hold the bread and juice, reminding us of what binds us together. And then, after our time of prayer, we will take the Lord s Supper together. Communionà Pass and hold à Pray together à Take together 9

10 Resources Josephus, Antiquities Peterson, Eugene, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005). Polhill, J.B. Paul & His Letters (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1999) 366; see discussion in Hoehner. Smith, James E., The Wisdom Literature & Psalms (Joplin: College Press, 2000). word/posts/walk- with- unity VanGemeren, Willem A., "Psalms," Expositor s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991). Wood, A.S. Ephesians. Expositor s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981). 10