Ephesians 4:1-16 Ducks fly together If you ve ever played any team sports, you d be familiar with the saying, There is no I in team. I ve played a lot of team sports in my time: basketball, touch footy and my favourite, tag gridiron. And if I ve learnt anything while playing team sports, it s that the team needs to work as one with a clear goal of winning the match. In team sports you must work together as a team. All the players come together with their different gifts and skills. The team coach unites them, making clear their direction. In team sports, there is need for setting goals, making decisions together, learning to communicate together, to manage conflict and there is a great deal of trust with each other in the team. Without all these elements the team can quickly fall apart when each individual does their own thing. An individual player s selfish ambition can be a detriment to the team. We ve all seen this play out over the last few years with the Labour Party, as Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, and the faceless men battled it out for leadership over the party and country. Without a goal in sight, each member apparently serving their own needs, the Labor party quickly disintegrated and it looks like they ll be whitewashed in the upcoming election. One of my favorite childhood movies, a sports film, is Mighty Ducks. The Mighty Ducks are an ice hockey team a bunch of teenagers with different issues, personalities and skills. They begin as a dysfunctional team and are led by an even more dysfunctional coach. Each team member, including the coach, has their own agenda, and doesn t think about the benefit of the whole team. The movie progresses with a typical Hollywood storyline, and we find that they slowly work together as a team, putting aside their differences. And in a typical Hollywood ending, in the grand final, when they are down by two goals, the coach gives this inspirational speech: We re not goons and we re not bullies. No matter what people say or do we have to be ourselves. Well you, who are you? We re team USA, gathered from all across America. And we re going to stick together. You know why? Because we are ducks and ducks fly together. And just when you think they re about to break apart. Ducks fly together. And when the wind blows and the sky is black Ducks fly together. Ducks fly together. And happily ever after the team wins because they were ducks flying together, working as a team and not as individuals. 1
And we, the church, are a team. A team that God has assembled, made up of different personalities and skills. We are all called by God to work together to extend His kingdom by making disciples. But often the first sign of an unhealthy church is when the church no longer works together as one body. The church becomes dysfunctional and different groups within the church end up doing their own thing. And today as we continue to look at what is a healthy church, we touch on the topic of unity and our calling as a church. And how the church in Woy Woy is called to be one that is united, how we are ducks that fly together. The passage that we read today is a letter written by Paul to the Ephesians and he calls upon the church to strive for unity, even in their diversity. A key element to be a healthy church is that the church must be united for a cause that the church is called for. And there are three questions that Paul answers for us today. Well first what is the church called to do? Second how can a church be unified despite our diversity? What are the roles of ministers and leaders in a healthy church? 2
Our calling (v.1-6) As we answer the first question Paul urges us to live a life worthy of the calling that we as a church have received. If you ve ever been to one of the Katoomba Christian Conventions, you may have noticed the plaque on the stage wall, which reads ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS. Of course, this is a verse from Paul s letter to the Galatians (Gal 3:28), where he says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And Paul s call to us is the same as his call to the Galatians and Ephesians. As John taught us last week, the church is united through the fellowship of saints, who have been immersed in the Holy Spirit. Our unity is our defining factor. And so we see in Ephesians 4, verses two to three, that we are called to love one another, to be patient, to be humble and to be gentle. As a church there will be conflict, there will be disagreements and often in churches conflict can consume the church. And often our church conflicts stem from disagreements about how things should be done or when a decision is made. But far too often, these conflicts fester and dominate what church is all about. They change the focus of why we come together. Don t hear me incorrectly - conflict is not a symptom of an unhealthy church. It is relentless conflict, that continues week in and week out. It is conflict that distracts the church from the gospel and from worshipping Jesus. An unhealthy church displays to the world a lack of unity and love for each other. If it s dealt with correctly, conflict can be healthy for a church. And Paul urges us to bear with each other in love when conflict occurs. We are to endure each other with humility, gentleness and patience. But most importantly we are able to forgive each other and be united to each other. That s why Paul urges us in verse three: Eph. 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. And the bond of peace that Paul calls us to means we are to make every effort to maintain unity within our congregations and with those outside. The peace that Paul reminds us of in Ephesians 2 is the peace that Christ has won for us, binding together Jews and Gentles into the one people of God. The work that Jesus did at the cross was a work of reconciliation. We 3
know from Ephesians 2 that God forgave our sins, through Jesus death on the cross, and welcomed us into His Kingdom with open arms. This is how we have been united, despite our different backgrounds, ages and cultures, to be the body of Christ. And the greater work of the cross is that God made us His church so we could continue in the good work of reconciliation. Jesus has called us to make disciples of all nations. And in order to make disciples we must first reconcile to each other in mutual love as our first calling because then we will be able to do the calling of the work of reconciliation to those outside the church. Friends, we must move together to the calling that God has given us as a church. There might be past hurts, or relationships that have gone sour, or some of us have been unhappy about the way things might be done in the Sunday service. But Paul urges us to make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace by loving each other through forgiveness. When we bear with each other in patience, when we deal with each other in gentleness, and when we say sorry to each other by the bond of peace then we are showing to the world how wonderful is Jesus love on the cross. And we as a church here at Woy Woy, need to be unified, we need to ask God to give us the grace and strength to forgive each other, we need to ask God to help us be patient and gentle with one another. We need to ask Him to help us love one another deeply, as Christ loved us even while we were still sinners and rebelling against Him. If we strive to be a healthy church, we need first to heed to the calling to be united as one as Paul says: Eph. 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called Eph. 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; Eph. 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. And this is our first point of call as a church to be the body of Christ: first to be united to each other through Christ s love and second our call and goal as a church is to make disciples of all nations. 4
Our diversity (v.7-10) Once Paul describes our calling as a church, he moves on to describe how the church can be unified despite our diversity. As with team sports, in the church each member is gifted with a variety of talents and skills. And Paul in verse 7-10 describes that the church is unified but yet diversified because Christ has given his team one purpose but individual gifts to serve the church. And Paul s emphasis, as we see in verse seven, is on every member of the church, not just some members, or one member, but on the entire communion of saints. And to each member, Christ by His grace, has given us gifts to serve. But what does Paul mean when he says, as Christ apportioned it? Another word for apportion is distribute and Christ distributes to each member of the church different gifts. We remember from last week s sermon in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says: 1Cor. 12:4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1Cor. 12:5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 1Cor. 12:6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. And Paul describes to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians that we are all diverse in our gifts, each to our own function in the church, but we are united as a team, the church, that is unified for the same purpose of serving God. That is how we are united through diversity in serving and glorifying God. There is often thinking that the service of the church is left to the leaders or even to the minister of the church. It is true and I am not denying that leaders or ministers play a great part in the church, but in the view of a healthy church we all need to use the gifts we have been given to serve one another and glorify God. And the WCF explains to us clearly why we each need to play a role to serve the greater part of the church. In Chapter 16: Good works section two it explains this to us: WCF 16:2 These good works, done in obedience to God s commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and living faith. By means of them believers show their thankfulness, strengthen the assurance of salvation, edify their fellow believers, adorn the profession of the gospel, deprive their opponents of arguments against it, 5
and glorify God. It is God who has made believers what they are, creating them in Christ Jesus with a view to do good works, so that, bringing forth fruit that evidences holiness, they may have its outcome, eternal life. The WCF reminds us that we are to do good works to serve each other because it is in obedience to God. But also to the calling of the church as we serve each we strengthen our assurance of our salvation, we edify and build up each other in the church and most importantly of all we are adorning the profession of the gospel. What that means is when we adorn the gospel, when we do the work of the gospel as a church, and then the outside world will see us as what Jesus did. The world will know we are truly His people by the way we love each other and by the way we love the unlovable. And as a church we are united and called to adorn the gospel. Each with our different gifts serving each other, and each in our different capacities to serve the church with one common purpose of the gospel of grace and mercy then we as a church, as a bible college lecturer said makes us smell like Jesus. If they cannot smell Jesus on us, then there s a good probability that the world will not listen to us when we when we ask them to repent and believe the gospel. And as a church here in Woy Woy let s work together to smell like Jesus to those outside of the church here and be united to that cause together in our diversity in the gifts that Christ has given us. 6
The role of ministers and leaders (v.11-16) The final question that Paul answers in this passage what is the role of ministers and leaders in the church? Well in the world of team sports each team has a coach on the sidelines. The coach spends many hours studying the opposition s strength s and weaknesses, and many hours training the team to get the best out of each individual player. And Paul focuses on the coaches in the church from verses 11-13. He highlights the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and those who are pastors and teachers. We don t have any modern day apostles, because the apostles chosen by Jesus and the prophets of the Old Testament have already laid the foundations of the church. But God still provides evangelists, pastors and teachers today. And so Paul here emphasizes these people, not because they are special or more highly regarded than any part of the body of Christ. But Paul emphasizes the evangelist, the pastors and teachers because they provide the church with the teaching of the word of God so the body of Christ may grow and be unified. These are not only just coaches in the church, but they are player-coaches - not only do they teach the word, they also walk beside you doing the work of gospel together. And God has appointed these player-coaches as we see in verse 12 that through the word you are equipped as God s people to works of ministry. And as God s people we are all equipped with the truth of the gospel and we are not swayed by the teachings of this world so we can stay true to the task that God has called us. And most importantly of all their function is to hold the church together in unity and help to church stay true to their calling to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. In our Presbyterian system these people are appointed and called by the congregation through God. These office bearers are people in the session, our ministers and our elders who are given the task to lead the church and make decisions for the whole church. Although not all elders are able to teach the word, God has enabled them with the heart of the gospel and able to make decisions as a whole as session. And for a church to be healthy, for us the congregation we must trust these office bearers to lead the church and guide the church where God has called us to go. In a healthy church, the members submit to the leadership because their role is to provide the hard task of brining unity to the church and to help the church stay true to its calling to make disciples of Jesus Christ. 7
Conclusion Well why do ducks fly together? When ducks migrate to warmer conditions you see them flying together in a V shape. They fly in a V shape to help conserve their energy for the long flight. Each duck that is following behind benefits from the amount of wind that is blown from the front. Once in a while the leader changes and moves to the back, and another duck takes over. And so as these ducks fly together and they work together to get to their eventual goal. As a church, we can learn from ducks that fly together. That we stay true to our calling as a church to show the world that we look and smell like Jesus. And Paul concludes that we are to fly together as ducks from verse 15-16: Eph. 4:15 holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ: Eph. 4:16 from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to [the] working in [its] measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love. When ducks fly together, when we work together as a church serving each other in love, we stay true to our calling as a church to be unified as the body of Christ and the body increases as we do good works that God has prepared for us in advance to do. 8