The Unity of the Faith 1

Ephesians 4:12b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Will you take a Bible please and turn to Ephesians? We’ve moved to the next verse, which is a big
moment. Ephesians 4:11 goes, “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors and teachers.” Then the reason is in Verse 12, “To equip the saints for
the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” We emphasize that “to equip the saints”
is not, really just give them what they need — but actually to complete them, to perfect them, to
bring them to fullness. That’s really what it means.

In fact, the Greek word means to rearrange the furniture in the house. So it’s really to rearrange
the saints in Jesus — the way they were meant to be at the very beginning. I don’t want to drag it
out too much. But probably you’ve done some thinking yourself about this whole reality that “we are
God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” {Ephesians 2:10} Probably you’ve worked it out in
your own heads: now when did that take place? And probably like me, you’ve been driven to the
obvious fact that it took place the moment Jesus came into being — and it just bewilders you. But
obviously, that’s when he had to be created.

God doesn’t work sequentially. He works all in one second, and as he conceived Christ, he conceived
all of us in Christ. And the reason he conceived all of us in Christ was he wanted many brethren to
be with his Son and him, and he determined that those brethren had to have the same freedom of will
that he had. If they had that, they could do what they wanted, and he had to be prepared for that.
That’s the big thing in God’s love.

We really have to catch that. It is not easy to make a free will agent. It’s surprisingly
difficult to make a free will agent. Think about it. It’s very hard to make a free will agent.
It’s harder to put up with what that free will agent may do. That’s real love, and that’s what he
did. He determined, “I will not only put up with them — I will let them do whatever they want to
do inside me so that they can tear me apart. So that they can, if necessary, crucify me.” And
that’s where Jesus’ crucifixion really expresses something you see as true — when you realize that
all this took place the moment God conceived of his Son.

The moment he conceived of his own dear Son, that very moment he conceived of all of us inside him,
he conceived of what we would all do, and he conceived of that dear Son being torn apart and
crucified. That’s part of the meaning of this verse. The Greek word is to rearrange the saints in
Jesus the way they were before they tore him apart.

So everything that we have done, every divorce that has taken place, every time we’ve been irritable
with one another, every time people have fought each other in battles — they’ve done it inside
Jesus. They have crucified the Savior — they have crucified God. God himself has suffered all of
that. He has suffered all of that so that he could keep us alive and give us choice, let us see
what we had chosen, and let us see why there was only one sensible choice. That’s what we’re
involved in here.

So that’s why it’s interesting that the more you go into the inner meaning of the Greek words, the
more you get into the depths of eternity. That’s really what we’re talking about now — the depths

of eternity — when we say that God gave certain people as pastors, teachers, evangelists, and
prophets, to the church — so that he could equip the saints, so that he could rearrange the saints
in Jesus the way they were originally before they tore him apart.

That comes out more and more clearly as the next few versus go on. The end of verse 12 goes, “For
building up the body of Christ, until,” — “mechri” in Greek — “we all attain to the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ.”

Well, it’s a wonderful verse, and would take at least three, four, maybe five Sundays to go through
it. So we’ll get started. “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith.” So that’s what God is
involved in. He’s not involved in just your little life, but he’s trying to put you back in the
position that you were as part of Jesus.

That’s our only meaning. Our only meaning is that we are part of Jesus. That’s why we come again
and again to pictures of the marriage feast of the Lamb in heaven. You get the idea it’s a pretty
busy place, this heaven. It’s pretty social, and it is because we’re all part of Jesus. That’s
really why we feel close to one another at all, because it’s the remembrance that we are all part of
Jesus and we’re all in some ways like each other. That’s why we can communicate to each other. We
have generally the same kind of feelings deep down — because we all come from the one Father,
Jesus.

He is, according to Isaiah, the everlasting Father — even though we always think of him as the Son
of God. He is the divine Son of God, but he is the everlasting Father of all of us, and we are part
of his many brethren. So we were made in Christ to belong to each other, and it’s so that we may
attain to the unity of the faith. Attain is the Greek word that means “arrive at” — so that we may
arrive at a unity of faith. So that we may dwell together in united faith and trust.

Now often we take “pistis,” which is the word “faith” — and we emphasize all the time the kind of
tricky little definitions of faith — what we believe is the object of our faith, or how we should
behave in prayer situations.

There are lots of people that make lots of money giving lectures on this kind of thing. You listen
to some of them and view some of them — and to some extent we were part of that. But, they spend
their whole time delineating faith. Then lots and lots of people talk about growing in faith, and
all they’re doing is growing in more knowledge. More tricky little stories of what you do when you
want the guidance of the Holy Spirit, etcetera. But that’s not the unity of faith that God is
talking about here.

I’ll tell you what he’s talking about. It’s a well-known story — Mark 4:35: “On that day, when
evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd,
they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with them. And a great
storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he
was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not
care if we perish?’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’
And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you no
faith?’ And they were filled with awe, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even wind
and sea obey him?’”

“I’m overdrawn.” “I’ve just lost that sale.” A person couldn’t have thought out all those moments
when even Jesus is in the bow of the boat, and you lose it. You lose that personal rest and trust
in him that keeps everything calm. It’s that unity of faith that God is talking about here. He is
working on each one of us day after day to bring us into a deep personal trust of him that will
never waiver, even when the boat seems to be filling up with water. He is after a deep oneness
between us and him that will never shake.

In other words, when the Bible talks about arriving at the unity of faith, they’re not talking about
faith as a set of beliefs, or faith as a certain way to live the victorious life, or faith as how to
deal with temptation, or faith as how to read the Bible properly, or faith as how to remain filled
with the Holy Spirit. The Bible is talking about a deep personal oneness between you and Jesus that
at the time of trial will remain steady and quiet, and there’ll be no, “Master, carest thou not that
we perish?” There will be no brief moment of terror or panic.

Have you any experience of panic? Have you any moment when you’re momentarily desolated? God has
given pastors, evangelists, prophets, and teachers — but especially he’s given to you the perfect
life to bring you into a real unity of faith and a completeness of him.

So really, everything each of us goes through is carefully tailored by God to bring us into a
closeness with Jesus, where we feel exactly what he feels in every situation. Where we rest deeply
in him. Where we are no longer playing games with him. We’re no longer playing with the idea, “Oh,
I must remember Jesus is with me. I must remember Jesus is with me.”

It’s so insulting. But it must just gouge his spirit, when we, the big professors of Christianity,
find the bank book is overdrawn, and suddenly all hell doth break loose. “Throw out the life belts
— we’re in trouble!” And he is resting back there in the bow of the boat — because he has his
hands on every wave and will not allow one of them to sink us.

So when we talk about coming into a unity of faith, that’s what God is saying through Paul. The
Bible is full of these examples. Luke 10:38: “Now as they went on their way, he entered a village;
and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at
the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she
went to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her
then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about
many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away
from her.’”

It’s the second sermon I preached, so I learned to make it clear that Mary had already done her
preparation, and had time to sit and listen to Jesus.

God is bringing us into all kinds of situations which are full of activity, full of chaos — and
distract us. He’s bringing us into them in order to drive us more deeply into the continual rest
that Jesus has himself. No doubt that’s part of the reason why we’re in this busy world.

It is chaotic, isn’t it? It’s wild, and you really can’t take your eyes off the road. You have to
keep them on it. If you ignore what’s going on around you, you won’t be alive too long. So there
are lots of situations that we’re in day-by-day where you have to actually know what is going on,
and you have to be, in that sense, occupied with it. God is putting us into that because there is a
deeper rest and peace in Jesus that he has for us.

A deeper reality. We need to see — there’s a deeper reality that we are not in when we get shaken
by the circumstances and the chaos around us. There is a deeper rest in Jesus that God has for us
that he’s endeavoring to bring us into. That’s why we’re in all these situations. He’s constantly
working to bring us to a place where we can move through all of those things in absolute peace,
where they do not disturb that inner rest and trust that we have in Jesus.

Now, how do you do that? All I can see is that that’s one of the benefits of growing a little older
and moving a little nearer the end. It does seem to me that you then begin to conceive, now and
again, how cold it would be out there wherever you have to fly to, once you get into that casket.
And it seems that God is lovingly, as we grow older, making us aware of the vastness of the universe
and the smallness of ourselves in connection with it, and the fact that it won’t be too long and
we’ll part with what we now know around us.

God is purposely and lovingly bringing us to that situation in our lives so that we will actually
begin to enter into a place of deeper peace and rest. A deeper consciousness of a greater reality
than these things which are going to pass away. And so it is good.

It’s good — the odd little prod that you get when you find a little lump here or a little lump
there, or you find a little kind of different feeling as far as energy is concerned. It’s good.
It’s God gently drawing us away from this whole temporary arrangement that is around us to bring us
into a unity of faith. That is, a deep trust in Jesus. It is “pistis.”

The heart of “pistis,” the Greek word for faith, is not belief in this and that, and belief in how
to do this and how to do that — but it’s a deep trust. Wesley said, “a recumbency upon Christ” – a
lying back into Jesus’ arms. It’s being in a place of personal oneness with him that is not shaken
by all the things that go on around.

Another verse having to do with this is Genesis 25:29: “Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau
came in from the field, and he was famished. And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red
pottage, for I am famished!’ (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, ‘First sell me your
birthright.’”

Jacob was always on the make. He was always trying to manipulate circumstances, or opportunities
for his own benefit. “’First sell me your birthright.’ Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use
is a birthright to me?’ Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first’” – meaning, before I give you any food.
“So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of
lentils, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

Jacob was always a manipulator, and that was presumably what the wrestling was about at Peniel. He
was dealing with that inborn determination he had to get what he needed by whatever means he
possibly could — to manipulate it somehow or other.

Abraham was the opposite. Genesis 14:21: “And the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give me the
persons, but take the goods for yourself.’” You remember — the kings had joined together with
Abram. Going back to Verse 17: “After his return from the defeat of Ched-or-laomer and the kings
who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the
King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most
High. And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth;

and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’” He said this because
Abram had fought with the other kings, fought together with them as allies, and they had had a great
victory.

“And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give me the
persons, but take the goods for yourself.’” So they wanted to share the bootie, share the spoil.
“But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, maker of heaven and
earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, lest you should
say, “I have made Abram rich.” I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share
of the men who went with me; let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.’”

Abraham was determined that he would not take anything except from God’s hand. Jacob was always
trying to work the angle to manipulate it for himself. God is involved in bringing us into
Abraham’s place — where we rest in Jesus and trust him for everything that we need, and refuse to
use the circumstances, or manipulate the things to help God out.

So the Father is involved in bringing us into the unity of faith — a deep trust that confides in
Jesus and rests in him — to give us whatever we need. “Whatever you do not give me, Lord, I do not
need.” Then we are able to walk with peace, and we are able to have diamonds and jewels all around
us, and we are able to walk through all kinds of situations where we could grab something for
ourselves if we chose. But we refuse, because we do not want the world to say, “I have made you
rich.” We want our riches to come from Jesus’ own hand. So it’s that kind of personal trust that
God is endeavoring to bring us into.

It’s a very fine thing. Wesley said, “Faith is not a speculative rational thing, a cold lifeless
assent, a train of ideas in the head.” So it’s not a speculative rational thing. It’s not a cold
lifeless thing. It’s not a lifeless assent or a train of ideas in the head. And much of
Christianity is filling all of us up with different trains of ideas in the head: “Boy, what we need
is better teaching. What we need is good teaching” – a train of ideas in the head. But it’s not
that. It’s what Wesley says, “A disposition of the heart.” It’s a deep trust in Jesus — deep
oneness with him.

It’s quite interesting. There is one hymn: “And he walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells
me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” It was
customary for us slick cynical intellectuals to say, “Oh, that’s wrong! You can’t have a joy and
peace that nobody else has ever known — as if you’re the only one.”

Well, it is true. It’s a personal peace with Jesus that only you have. Why? Because you’re the
only person like you. In the whole universe, you’re the only part of Jesus that is like you — and
he wants that peace back inside himself. He wants that peace back where it used to be. That is
what God is working to bring about in each of us — to bring us back into that deep trust in Jesus
that deals with all these things, that doesn’t need to manipulate circumstances, that can rest in
him, that rests in him even at the moment of panic when things are not going right and the boat
seems to be sinking.

So have a look at that, because it’s a fine thing. Notice your responses. Don’t just steamroll
over the top of them and say, “Oh well, I blew it there. I blew it there.”

That’s dumb. No — ask yourself, “Now when I responded like that — there was a little quickening

of the heartbeat. Why was that? Do I not trust my Lord? Do I not rest in him? I notice myself in
the words I used there, trying to get a little of something for myself. Why? Do I not trust him?
Has he not given me all I need? Is my freedom and joy not dependent on resting in him alone for
what I have?”

“Surely once I begin to desire, as old Buddha said, I come into pain. The cause of all pain, he
said, was desire. Surely once I begin to desire something that I haven’t got, that Jesus hasn’t
given me, I begin to come into some lack of rest. Now, why is that?”

So, that is what the Father is doing – doing everything in our lives to bring us into unity of
faith, personal trust in Jesus. Let us pray.