United: Unity in the Body

Follow Along with the Message

 Unity in the church is as difficult to maintain, as staying up right in a three legged race.

Bruce McCracken said, “A unified church is one of the strongest evidences of the truth of the gospel.”

N.T. Wright wrote, “In Ephesians 4, Paul takes his readers back to the fundamental instruction manual on living the Christian life.”

1. We Experience Community

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Christian community is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”

We, the church, are called to be radically united in a world that is becoming more disunited.

Psalm 133 says, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

2. We Advance the Gospel

In his book Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination, Eugene Peterson writes, “The gospel is never for individuals but always for a people.”

Richard Lints writes, “Unity is a gift from God through Jesus Christ. It is a gift that the church is meant to maintain, because it is not of human creation but of God.”

“…that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:21)

3. We Display His Love

Building a unified church takes time. It takes commitment from both the leadership and laity.

They, the world, will know that we are his disciples by our love. (John 13:35)

Ready to run a three legged race together?