Maturity in Unity

Pastor Koay Kheng Hin
14 June 2020

This morning, as we come together again to worship the Lord and to listen to the voice of God through His scriptures, I would like to take this time to talk about one very important issue concerning the church at this present point.

Even though we are gathered together to listen to the sermon, we all know that we are not physically together; that we are using an online approach and each of us are in our houses individually listening to this sermon. For this past couple of months, we have not been able to physically assemble and gather together as a community of God’s people. And it is times like that, that an urgent challenge is that when we are not careful and if we do not take the communal aspect and the communal community sense of being a church into rightful consideration. We may lose that sense of community and a certain individualism may creep in.

There is this challenge that as time goes on, we may think of our Christian faith as between us, ourselves and God. It becomes a bit too personal without realizing that God looks at us as a community of His people. And today I want to bring this message to all of us that we must hold on to this communal sense of being a people of God.

And one very fundamental aspect of this community of the people of God, of Tabernacle of Praise as a church of God is a church of God is right from the beginning, a community of God’s people whom God wants to grow unto Spiritual maturity. The title of today’s sermon is Maturity in Unity and I am taking the scripture verses from Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians, this letter to the church in Ephesus is a letter written by the Apostle Paul traditionally understood around AD 60 but even though it was his church, a letter that was written to the church nearly 2,000 years ago, the insights and the message of this letter to the Ephesians, those insights and those truths are equally applicable to us, 21st century Christians and I read from Ephesians 4:2-6, in verse 2 of Ephesians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul writes, be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Verse 3, make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Verse 4, there is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

If we just look at this 5 verses, we may think that the Apostle Paul is talking only about the unity of the Spirit. Of course he is talking about the unity of the Spirit but when he talks about the unity of the Spirit, he was trying to later on tie in this unity of the Spirit with maturity in Christ. So, he is not only talking about the unity of the Spirit per se. He is talking about the unity of the Spirit as it becomes a precondition and a prerequisite for the church to grow unto maturity in Christ.

Let us work on these few verses first. That in the unity of the Spirit, the Apostle Paul works from two angles. I want to begin with the doctrinal basis first. In verse 3, he mentions that we are to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. And verses 4 to 6 are 3 verses in which he gives us the reason why we have to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit and he goes on like that, he says the reason why we have to keep the unity of the Spirit is because he says that we are one body. He says that indeed the Spirit of God that is indwelling us is one Spirit, it’s the same Spirit and he says that we have one hope of glory, that we have one Lord, that, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. We have one faith which is the Christian faith that we are baptized in the same way in identifying with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ one baptism and finally we serve one God and Father of all. Altogether in these three verses, we have 6 “ones”. The use of this word “one” is to emphasize unity and it is a unity of the Spirit. Brothers and sisters in Tabernacle of Praise, I would like to appropriate this verses to all of us that even though we have our differences, even though we have different challenges in our lives, even though we may at times understand Scripture slightly differently in different ways, even though the expression of our gifts may be different but one thing is clear and is certain, we serve one God and one father of all. We serve the same Lord, we identified with the same baptism, We have the same Spirit, we have one hope, we are one body.

We indeed are indwelled with the same Holy Spirit and in a sense we already have the unity of the Spirit because the same Spirit indwells all of us. But of course what the Apostle Paul is trying to say in verse 3 is even though we are already unified through the indwelling of the same Spirit, we still need to make every effort to keep and to guard this unity of the Spirit it’s because even though we already are unified in the indwelling of the one Holy Spirit because of our own individual weaknesses, because of our pride, because of our impatience, because of unforgiveness, sometimes this unity of the Spirit may not be able to be expressed when we come together as a community of the people of God.

That is why right from the very beginning in verse 2, he begins by saying in order to be able to make this unity of the Spirit become real in our life so that we are able to be kept in the bond of peace, he says that we need to be completely humble and gentle, to be patient; bearing with one another in love.

Brothers and sisters, it is my prayer that Tabernacle of Praise will grow to be a humble Church, That Tabernacle of Praise will grow to be a gentle church. That Tabernacle of Praise will grow to be a patient church, a church where each and every one of us will bear with one another in love. It is my observation that offered we as human beings, we as persons, we tend to give precedence to competence over character. That often when we look at people, we look at them in their competence but I have to say this, that as children of God, as much as competence as it is gifted by the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God, needs to be acknowledged. A more important point that we have to note is character supersedes competence. And it is here where being humble, being gentle, being patient, being able to bear with one another in love is an expression of character and it is my prayer that Tabernacle of Praise will grow to be a church that will manifest and express spiritual character in conformity with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. That Tabernacle of Praise will be identified to be a church that has a strength of spiritual character as a Fruit of the Holy Spirit and in that strength of spiritual character in each and every one, we will indeed be able to grow in the unity of the Spirit.

Seven verses down after verse 6 of Ephesians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul begins to expound on the unity of the Spirit bringing into a conclusion of what will really benefit the church in that unity of the Spirit. And in verse 13, 7 verses down, the Apostle Paul writes until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ that we will reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God that we will all grow in the knowledge of the Son of God, our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ and then we will become mature and then we will attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So, you will find from the unity of the Spirit, the Apostle Paul moves to the conclusion of that, the unity of the Spirit if we keep it, we already have it because that same indwelling Spirit is in us even if we keep that unity of the Spirit and we guard it. Then we will attain that goal of a unity in the faith, in the knowledge of the Son of God and we will become mature and that maturity is the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

I would like to describe a little bit more about our growing in the knowledge of the Son of God our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. What is meant here are two aspects of that knowledge; an objective and a subjective knowledge. An objective knowledge refers to the intellectual knowledge. It refers to our study of the word of God. It refers to our teaching of the Word of God so that the truths of God’s Word can be properly understood by all of us in Tabernacle of Praise so that we can grow into a greater understanding of the person and the work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that is what is known as the objective or the intellectual knowledge, growing in our understanding of the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

But at the same time there is what we call the subjective knowledge of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. This is about knowing Jesus Christ in our personal experience. It is an experiential knowledge. To know him in our experience. That is the subjective knowledge.

We are to grow in that and the Apostle Paul says when each and every one of us, when Tabernacle of Praise can grow in both the understanding and also the experience of the person and work of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We would have become mature and that maturity is a maturity that is found as we keep on growing to the ideal of the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

That means we will grow into Christ-like character and Christ-like conduct. This is my prayer for Tabernacle of Praise that we will indeed grow in maturity in Christ. But of course, you will find that, that maturity in Christ, that can only be possible through a unity of the Spirit comes along with one important truth. And that one important truth is that, for that to happen, we actually need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. That is why in verses 2 to 6, the Apostle Paul talks about and he writes about the unity of the Spirit. Then in verse 13, he talks about the maturity of the church in Christ. In between verses 2 to 6 and verse 13, the Apostle Paul records and states verse 7 and what does he writes?

He writes, but to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. What the Apostle Paul is trying to say that the Spirit of God as Christ apportions, the grace gifts of the Spirit of God upon the church each and every one of us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the charismata, we will indeed be able to put our hands on the plough in order to serve our Lord in building up the church so that the church will grow unto maturity in Christ. And that is what the Apostle Paul finally concludes with in verses 15 to 16. In verse 15, he writes, instead speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the head that is Christ and verse 16, From Him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Let us look at verse 15.

How do we grow unto Spiritual maturity in Christ? Through speaking the truth in love. What is speaking the truth in love? Take one truth that is taught in the word of God. And that truth is, we are to forgive one another as Christ forgives us. Now, if we have a christian brother or christian sister who struggles with unforgiveness and we talk to him or her and we find that it is an area in which he finds it very very difficult to follow the Word of God. we cannot just leave it alone and say it’s okay to be unforgiving. In that case we are not speaking the truth but on the other hand we cannot speak the truth by reprimanding him, by saying that you are unforgiving, if you are bitter that you know we use a very judgmental attitude to say, to actually you know bring him down. We are speaking the truth but it will not be in love.

Speaking the truth in love means that we approach him with the truth we tell him that it is not right to be unforgiving, that we understand that but let us pray together, let us look to God and look to Jesus and when Jesus has forgiven us as we look into the forgiveness of Christ, we will be encouraged, we will be empowered with Jesus as an example, with the Holy Spirit empowerment, we will be able to forgive and we speak to him gently in teaching, in correction and in helping so that he will be able to overcome a stumbling block of unforgiveness. That is speaking the truth in love.

And the Apostle Paul writes, when we do it this way, we teach the Word of God. We preach the Word of God. And when we do it in humility and gentleness and when we do it in patience, when we do it in love, then the body of Christ, the church will indeed grow up to the head, mature in Christ and it is my prayer for Tabernacle of Praise, that we will indeed grow together as a church and this is what is meant and emphasized by the theme of Tabernacle of Praise, that we are a relational discipling church and discipling here, one aspect of it is that we will help one another, we will teach one another, we will indeed correct one another, to grow together so that we can mature together as a church.

Then we come to verse 16 and in verse 16, the Apostle Paul writes, From him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Here the Apostle Paul is trying to say that the growth of the church unto Spiritual maturity. And as applied to Tabernacle of Praise, the growth of Tabernacle of Praise in maturity in Christ is the work and the responsibility of all of us, of the pastors, of the board members, of the head on ministries, of the care group leaders, of the members and of every single one who is a part of Tabernacle of Praise, and he ends with, as each part does its work and this brings to mind verse 7.

In verse 7, the Apostle Paul writes, but to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. And I want to encourage all of you, as children of God, God is gracious to all of us that every one of us in one way or another will be able to express and manifest some gifts of the Holy Spirit. That is why in so many ministries of Tabernacle of Praise all of us from all walks of life, in our own different ways with very different natural talents, we are able to put our hands on the plough, we have an avenue to serve, that the service of our Lord and our God, Jesus Christ is open and available to all of us.

God is not looking at your capability. He is looking at your availability The moment you say here am I Oh Lord, use me, God will use you because you can serve the Lord in so many ways. If you can teach, you can serve in a Christian education ministry. If you can counsel, you can help with giving advice and counsel to people in need. If you have a pleasant personality you would be able to help out in the ushers ministry and there is the visitation ministry, there’s the media ministry there are so many ministries in which you can put your hands on the plough and when all of us come together identify with Tabernacle of Praise as a church of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ we together will be able to build Tabernacle of Praise up into spiritual maturity in Christ.

If you carefully look, in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 to 16, you’ll see a progression in the thought of the Apostle Paul and in this progression of thought, you will find from the beginning, the Apostle Paul emphasizes that we begin with the unity of the Spirit, bearing with one another in love and then he moves till the very end and when he reaches verses 15 and 16, he emphasizes that with that unity of the Spirit, then we will end with the maturity in Christ through speaking the truth in love.

The first part of Ephesians 4 emphasizes the Holy Spirit. Then by verses 15 and 16, the emphasis is on Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Saviour as the head of the church. The first part of Ephesians 4 talks about us bearing with one another in love. By the time the Apostle Paul reaches verses 15 and 16, he talks about speaking the truth to one another in love.

Indeed from the Spirit to Christ, the Holy Spirit indeed brings glory to Jesus Christ and as we come to the end of this message, before we conclude, we want to examine one cardinal principle. One fundamental principle of how the power of God is experienced and manifest. And for this understanding, we need to look into the Book of Acts. In the Book of Acts, we have in chapter 1 verse 14, the author Luke writes in Acts chapter 1 verse 14, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. These are the 120 disciples that are gathered in the upper room and verse 14 of Acts chapter 1 records these 120 disciples they continue in prayer and supplication but the phrase that I want to emphasize on is “with one accord” They were in one accord. That they had the unity of the Spirit expressed and manifest amongst themselves and then when you move to Acts chapter 2 verse 1.

When the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place. The very fact that there was this unity of Spirit among them was again emphasized and in that one accord, in that unity of the Spirit, verse 2 of Acts chapter 2 records the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and the insight, the fundamental principle I am drawing is the Holy Spirit works mightily when the community of God’s people are in one accord.

And today I can sense that by the grace of God, Tabernacle of Praise as a church of Jesus Christ, we are at our point where we can sense a unity of Spirit amongst us.

From the Pastoral Team to the Board Members, to the rest of the leadership and the members. There is the sweet spirit of us being in one accord and in that one accord, there is this expectation that indeed the Spirit of God will move mightily in our midst that there will be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit amongst us, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit for us to exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit to grow the church unto maturity in Christ.

And also for the power the Holy Spirit to come upon us not only in the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit but also to work in us, to transform each and every one of us so that we can express the fruit of the Holy Spirit so that we indeed in humility and gentleness will bring a fresh care, love, concern amongst each and every one of us to the church itself.

That our church will be different because we will indeed be expressing the love of God amongst ourselves and through the expression we will reach up to the community in the love of God. In conclusion, let us persevere. What to persevere in? To persevere, to grow unto Spiritual maturity, together knowing that it can only be possible to grow unto spiritual maturity when we have the unity of the Spirit, when we are in one accord awaiting the mighty manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. We want to draw this encouragement from the Apostle Paul from exposition of this first 16 verses of Ephesians chapter 4 that with the unity of the Spirit through bearing each other in love, the Apostle Paul climaxes his exposition with the maturity of the church in Christ through speaking the truth in love. May Tabernacle of Praise as a church do likewise.