Robert Jeffress - How to Act In Church
Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress and welcome again to "Pathway to Victory". In today's fast-paced world, many Christians have started to view church attendance as optional rather than essential. But the Bible tells us that the church is vital to our spiritual growth and our witness to the world. So how should we behave when we gather together as believers? Today, we're turning to Ephesians 4 to discover God's blueprint for unity within his body. My message is titled "How to Act In Church" on today's edition of "Pathway to Victory".
Walking can be boring, especially when you compare it to other activities like mountain climbing, skydiving, or even running. But as somebody has noted, walking, when done at the right pace and with regularity, can not only keep you healthy, it'll help you reach your intended destination. You know, it's interesting that in Genesis 17:1, we saw in our study of Abraham, that when Abraham was 99 years old, God appeared to him and said, "Abraham, walk," not run, not gallop, but "Walk with me and be blameless before me".
What does it mean to walk with God? We're going to find the answer to that question in the second half of the book of Ephesians, beginning with chapter 4. So if you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians 4. And, you know, every communicator has a pattern he follows most of the time in communication. You've been listening to me almost 17 years, that's hard to believe, but you probably picked up on a certain pattern that I tend to follow. I always begin with a question or a statement or a brief story intended to grab your attention, not sure I've succeeded at that yet, but that's what I try to do in the opening, then state the thesis of the sermon, review what we saw last time, give the message, and then close with one or two applications for how this applies to us. That's my pattern.
Well, the apostle Paul had a pattern too you've picked up on, if you've read his letters. Usually, the first portion of his letter, he gives great doctrinal truth, but that doctrinal truth is always followed by practical application. You see that in his letter to the Christians at Rome. The first 11 chapters of Romans are the great doctrines of the faith, the depravity of man, the blood atonement of Jesus Christ, salvation through grace, the role of Israel in God's program, all of that is in chapters 1 through 11. But when he gets to chapter 12, verse 1, he says, "I therefore beseech you that you present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God".
And the rest of the book is how you present yourself as a sacrifice to God. Well, the same thing is true in Ephesians. The very first area Paul talks about is not morality, it's not about the family, it's not about spiritual warfare. Paul begins by discussing how our wealth from Christ should impact our relationship to other Christians in the church. And that's why he makes a call to unity in verses 2 to 3: "With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace".
That may surprise you that Paul would talk about the church. First of all, the church is vital. That's why Paul mentions it first. He talks about the importance of unity. There are two reasons why unity in the church is essential. First of all, the church serves as Christ's representative in the world. Paul talks about the church being the body of Christ. Christ is the head, but we are his body, and we are the only part of Christ that most unbelievers will ever see.
Notice in Ephesians 3:10, remember Paul said, "So that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through," what? "The church". It's through the church that the wisdom of God is made known in the world. Brennan Manning said, "The greatest single cause of atheism today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable".
Secondly, the church is important because the Christian's source of energy in the world is the church. The church is the Christian's source of energy in the world. It's where Christians come to recharge their spiritual batteries. And if you alienate people from the church, they wither up and they die in their faith. You know, it's interesting in Proverbs 6, God gives a list of the seven things he hates the most. You know what the climactic thing that writer mentions is? Those who sow discord among the brethren. God absolutely hates people who caused disunity in the church and ruined the witness of Christianity and destroyed the power source of people from the church by alienating them from the church. He hates that.
And I want to tell you, I've been a pastor for more than 40 years. I've seen God deal very harshly with people who cause disunity in the church. He doesn't put up with it because it is his body, the body of Christ in the church. If it's so important, pastor, how do we preserve the unity of spirit in the bond of peace? Notice the four ingredients of unity. He says, "With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love".
Let's unpack those words real quickly. First of all, the word "Humility". If we're going to be unified, we have to practice humility. It's interesting, in Paul's day, humility was not a virtue, it was a vice. It was thought to be weakness to be humble. In fact, there was no word that really Paul could choose from the Greek language, so he had to coin a term that means "To put ahead of yourself". That's what humility is, to put something or someone ahead of your own interest. Somebody said, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less". And that's what Jesus demonstrated for us.
The perfect example of humility is Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves: don't merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourself which was in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to grasp, but he emptied himself". He wasn't looking out for his interest. His interest would be to stay in heaven and enjoy the privileges of being the Son of God. But he put our need above his interest by dying for us. That's what humility is. And then he mentions gentleness. The word translated gentleness actually is sometimes translated meekness.
Now, we absolutely hate that word, meekness, because of what it rhymes with. What does it rhyme with? Weakness. Who wants to be weak? Meek, but that's not what the word means. The word translated gentleness, or meekness, is a word that refers to a powerful horse that has been broken by its trainer. The horse is still powerful, but it's power under control. It's difficult to do, but it's essential for unity. And then thirdly, he says, with patience, makrothumia. Makro, long, thumia, temper. To be patient means to be long-tempered.
John macArthur says, "It means to have a long fuse, not a short fuse". Christendom said this is a word which is used of a man who is wronged and easily has it in his power to avenge himself, but never does it. Have a long fuse. And fourthly, forbearance, tolerance, showing tolerance for one another in love. This goes beyond not just retaliating against somebody. It means letting go of that offense that has been committed against you. Not paying back evil for evil. It means giving up your right to hurt that other person for hurting you. These are the ingredients of unity. What are the catalysts for unity? Why should I be concerned about this? Paul gives a sevenfold answer to that question.
And notice the repetition of the word "One". Beginning of verse 4, "For there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling: there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and all". Let's look at those very quickly. He said the reason we're to work toward unity is there is one body. There's one body of Christ, not several bodies of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:12, Paul said, "For the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so is the body of Christ".
That's why you Christians are to be one. There is one body. Secondly, there is one spirit. How did we become a part of the one body through one spirit? 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, "For with one spirit," one Holy Spirit, "We were all baptized into one body". Now, look, there is one Holy Spirit. He works different ways in different people's lives to do different things, but he never fights against himself. He's never at war with himself. There is one spirit, Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer in this room. That's why we ought to be unified. And then thirdly, he says, "There's one hope," there it is again, one, "One hope of your calling".
What is the hope, the one hope of every Christian? Titus 2:13 says, "It's the blessed hope of Christ appearing". That is the one hope we have. Now, is he talking about Christ appearing at the rapture or his appearing at his second coming seven years later? Yes. He's talking about both! He's talking about the hope for Christians as when he appears to snatch us away to take us to be with him forever, if we're alive at that time, and he's talking about seven years later when Christ comes with believers and everyone shall see him. That is our one hope, that this world isn't going to stay the way it is, that Christ is coming back to redeem us and recreate this world as he originally intended.
There's one hope. Not only that, there is one Lord. You see, we have all the members of the Trinity involved in this passage. There is one spirit and there is one Lord, that's referring to Jesus Christ. Not only that, not only is there one Lord, there's one faith. There's only one faith that leads to salvation. It's faith in Jesus Christ.
In writing about this passage, Dr. Crystal tells the story of a time he went to Africa and a missionary was taking him on a tour of several villages. And they came into a village that had been devastated by smallpox. And the missionary pointed to the roofs of the thatched huts, and there were brooms on the top of all of these thatched huts.
And Dr. Crystal asked, "What are those brooms"? And he said, "Those brooms represent a family that has been hit by smallpox". And with the broom, that's a symbol of shooing away the demons of smallpox. And that's how they deal with smallpox. They just get the broom and shovel out the demon of smallpox. Well, Louis Pasteur had a different way to deal with smallpox. He said smallpox is a bacterium that needs to be vaccinated against.
Now, both Louis Pasteur and these Africans were sincere in their belief. They thought what they were doing was the right way to deal with a deadly disease, but only one of them was right. It's the same way with eternal life. There are a lot of faiths that say, "If you want to be right with God, do this, do this, do this, do this". People who follow those religions are sincere, but they're sincerely wrong. There's only one way to deal with the deadly disease of sin and that's through Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father but by me".
Now, have you noticed how Paul is building, building, building? He said, "There's one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism". There are not many baptisms. There are people right now who say, "Well, I was baptized with the Holy Spirit when I was saved, but I'm waiting for that second baptism". You're going to be waiting a long time because there is no second or third or fourth baptism. When you trusted in Christ as your Savior, you received all of the Holy Spirit you need for Godliness and power in your life.
Now, the Holy Spirit doesn't get all of you when he baptizes you. That's a continual process, we'll see in Ephesians, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being controlled by the spirit, but we have all of the spirit. And then finally, the climax, there is one God. There's one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. One God, that was the most basic teaching of Judaism. Deuteronomy 6, "Hear, o Israel: the Lord your God is one God". And just as it is impossible to divide God, so it should be impossible to divide Christians in a church. There is one God and father of all who is over all and through all.
Now, it would be real easy to shut our Bibles at this point, to close our eyes, to join hands and sing a chorus of "Kumbaya" as we meditate on being unified. But notice what Paul said. Unity in a church doesn't come automatically, and it doesn't stay automatically. We have to be diligent. We have to work at it. That's why he says, "Be diligent to preserve the unity in the bond of peace". I'm going to suggest five things. If every member of First Baptist Church Dallas would do, including the pastor, we would continue the unity we now enjoy. We enjoy a great unity in our church.
How do we preserve that unity that Paul says? Jot these down, commitments I hope you'll consider making. Number one, I will refrain from criticizing any member of this church without first going to him privately. If you have something against somebody, you and I have the obligation to talk to them privately.
Secondly, I will refuse to engage in gossip about other believers in the church. By the way, gossip can be misinformation, but gossip can be truth as well. sharing things that are true about a situation of which you are neither part of the problem or part of the solution, that's what gossip is. sharing information needlessly.
Thirdly, I will resist sharing confidential information that's been entrusted to me. That's especially important for leaders in the church, to keep confidences.
Number four, I will remember that the church's progress is more important than my preferences. That is so key. Remember that the church's progress in wanting people to Christ and equipping believers, that's more important than our individual preferences. I know you're going to be shocked by this, but I have an opinion about just about everything, but I realize my preferences don't automatically come from God. They're just that, they're opinions, they're preferences. More important than my preference is the progress of the church.
And number five, I'll recommit to loving rather than condemning fellow Christians. I will recommit to loving rather than condemning fellow Christians. I was reminded of the story of Andrew Jackson. Remember Andrew Jackson? He was the seventh president of the United States, but before that, he was the major general in the Tennessee militia. And during the war of 1812, the troops that were under Jackson's command started fighting and bickering and losing, and morale was at an all-time low. When Jackson called his men together and said, "Men, remember this. The enemy... Is over there".
That's right. As Christians, we need to remember the enemy is not fellow Christians, certainly not in this body. We are united. We love one another. The enemy is on the outside. The enemy is our adversary the devil, who seeks to alienate people from the church, isolate Christians from one another, and then attack and destroy them. We can't let him succeed. We have a wonderful unity in this church that we've enjoyed for more than two decades. This church is unified. Let's be diligent to preserve that unity of spirit in the bond of peace.