Ekklesia and Unity | Luke Taylor

What is the Ekklesia? What is the significance of what it means? What about unity? Precious unity that is a command, an expectation and a necessity for Gods bride!

Time codes:

0:00 - Intro
7:39 - What is the Ekklesia?
10:58 - A pandemic of disunity 
21:25 - John 17:20-23
34:22 - Unity analogy
35:55 - Conclusion

Music by
Over the limits
Vernacolmusic

Transcript

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Wildfire podcast is an extension of Wildfire, which has a focus of igniting men and women of God into a deeper discipleship with Christ, instilling people with a passion to radically and relentlessly pursue Christ wherever that leads.

That God's truth will spread like a wildfire.

I wonder what adjective you would use to describe your pursuit of God.

All of us, God willing, in here have a pursuit of God.

But how would you describe it?

Is it passive, not very engaging, or are you radically pursuing God?

Where you can say I can't pursue him any more than what I am.

That's not what I'm talking about, but I had to say it, I had to say it.

It's what I've been thinking about this week, about what our pursuit of God is, because all of us in here are united in that.

There's a lot of things that all of us in here don't know.

I myself included in that.

I've discovered I really don't know a lot, but I have a pursuit of the things of God, and I'll keep on pursuing God.

So all of us in here, we're all at different stages in our race.

Some of us know more than others.

Some people know more in here than I do, but yet our pursuit is what matters.

There might be someone in here who knows more than you, but their pursuit of God is very slow.

Whereas your pursuit is excited and enthusiastic for what you might learn.

So with that in mind, our pursuit of God, I'm gonna be talking about ecclesia and unity.

Now hands up if anyone knows here what ecclesia means.

Does anyone know what ecclesia means?

One person in the back, my dad.

Great, so we're definitely gonna leave here knowing something that we didn't know whenever we came into the room.

Ecclesia and unity.

On the night of the 21st of September 1788, during the Austro-Turkish war, the Austrian army under Emperor Joseph II defeated itself in a major friendly fire incident.

Clashes between Austrian troops began when Austrian troops who were serving as scouts refused to share their alcohol with some of their fellow infantry men.

After one of the drunken soldiers fired a shot at his own man, the other infantry opened fire in return.

Amidst the confusion of the two groups fighting, somebody shouted, Turks, Turks, the enemy, the enemy, leading them to believe that the enemy was nearby.

So the soldiers fled back into their own camp, and a confused officer ordered his artillery to fire upon his own men.

In the darkness, the Austrian believes that the enemy cavalry were attacking, but yet unawares, they were attacking each other.

Over 1,000 Austrians were killed during that night all because of friendly fire.

And often, I think, this reflects the state of the church, where we're not actually engaged with the enemy, but we're engaged with ourselves, and we're guilty of friendly fire.

So I want to talk about the church, the bride of Christ, the sacred set apart means in which God has chosen to advance his kingdom.

I want to also talk about the pandemic of apparent disunity, discord, and division that is so evident for all to see within God's church.

And thirdly, I want to talk about the importance of unity within God's church, something that cannot be understated.

And how will I talk about this?

I will explain what is meant by the word ecclesia.

So whenever I say that, why am I saying that?

What does it mean?

I will also highlight the disunity that exists and somehow our natural gravitation towards disunity.

And using John 17 verses 20 to 23, and you can get that up if you would like, John 17 verses 20 to 23, I will highlight how unity is an expectation, unity is a command, and unity is a necessity for God's ecclesia.

But why talk about this?

Why should you sit here in this moment in your life and listen to the words that I have to say?

And the answer is, you shouldn't.

My words alone can accomplish nothing of any value.

Instead, my prayer has and is that because I have been set apart by God through what Jesus did on the cross, I am filled with the spirit of the living God.

Somehow, the spirit of the living God is inside of me, and it's God's spirit through me that anything of any value is going to come this morning.

And I'm going to preach, I'm going to teach from the word of God, which is described as being alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword that cuts through bone and marrow, soul and spirit.

It will cut through your soul and your spirit.

And the spirit of God that lives inside of you.

God's spirit in me, God's spirit in you, and his inspired word means that for nothing to take place this morning is impossible.

It's impossible.

And as to the topic, the church is one of the most beautiful things that is created by God.

It's not manmade creation.

Yet we can easily become put off by the church that is so often modeled to us.

What is to be one of the greatest evangelistic tools has become one of the most off-putting things.

A divided church.

So I just wanna still our hearts before the presence of God that we might pursue him together.

Let's pray.

God, Creator of the universe, the one who is sustaining us with the breath in our lungs as we speak.

With each breath that we take, it is purpose.

And it is meaning you are saying that you want us here and you want us here for a purpose.

You have brought us here this morning for a reason.

And when we open up your word, we pray that the Spirit of the living God is in this place.

And so we approach with a fear and a reverence and an expectation that for every individual in here, regardless of age, regardless of class, of occupation, of circumstance, of life, we ask that you move.

And we are expectant of that.

We pray these things in your name.

Amen.

So the Ecclesia, what is the Ecclesia?

This is a great word defined as a called out assembly or congregation.

That is what the word means.

But in our English translations, it is most commonly translated as church.

It is where we get the words ecclesiology, ecclesiastical, which is the study of the church.

And it has its origins in the Bible, of course.

So for example, in Acts 11, 26, it says that Barnabas and Saul met with the Ecclesia, the church in Antioch.

And in 1 Corinthians 59, Paul says that he had persecuted the Ecclesia of God, the church of God.

The word in the New Testament was also referred to an assembly of people.

Stephen, for example, in Acts 7, 38, talks about the assembly or the Ecclesia in the wilderness.

And in Acts 19, 39, Ecclesia refers to the convening or the gathering of citizens to discuss legal matters.

However, in most contexts of the Bible, the word Ecclesia is used to refer to the people who comprise the New Testament Church.

So what is the significance of understanding that we, the Ecclesia, that is the set apart ones, that is the Church, us sitting in this room are called and set apart?

What is the significance of understanding that?

It is important that we understand the very nature of the Church of God is to be set apart, to be distinct.

But the same calling is for us as followers of Jesus Christ.

This makes sense because the Ecclesia is made up of followers of Jesus Christ.

It is made up of individuals who understand that they are to be set apart, salt and light, uniquely different and distinct to the world that is around them.

And so when we gather as a collective as we are this morning, we express that same set-apart-ness, the same salt, the same light, but it hits different when it's the Ecclesia, the set-apart ones coming together.

This collective group who all understand their identity, who all understand what Jesus has done for them, where there is unity, where there is truth, where there is love and there is liberty.

That is a people that has unmatched power to influence the world around them.

So Ecclesia is church, but we can't lose the significance or the meaning of what church is.

Ecclesia, we are the set-apart ones, the called out ones.

So when I say Ecclesia, it just means we are the set-apart ones.

It is us, the church, a collective, a collective body who are called to be salt, and light, distinct to the world around us.

And that same distinctness as a body is evident in our own individual lives.

But yet, there is a pandemic of disunity within the Ecclesia.

Within a set-apart ones of God, there is disunity.

Since the creation of God's church in the New Testament, there's been the threat of disunity as an attempt to thwart the purposes of God and his church.

And disunity originates from two main areas, from the outside in, but more so from the inside out.

So let me address firstly, from the outside in.

Whenever we read in the Bible, what do we read about this disunity that comes from the outside and infiltrates its way through to the church?

In 3 John, we read of a character called Diotrephes, a figure who causes discord within God's church, who doesn't accept authority, and who, the Bible says, does evil.

Or in 2 John 1, it talks about how there are many who deceive among you, but those people are described as the anti-Christ.

They are anti-Christ, anti-God.

They are not in the vine.

They are not in Jesus, but yet they are amongst you, actively deceiving, bringing discord in to the set apart ones of God, into the Ecclesia.

There are many, many false teachers in the world today, those who speak things explicitly contrary to God's word, who do not have a reputable character, and are actively leading people away from God because of their watered down view of God's word.

And these people sow discord among God's people.

It reminds me of one of the parables that Jesus taught in Matthew 13, where he talks about a farmer went and he sowed seed in a field.

And then in the night, the enemy came and sowed weeds into that field.

And whenever the wheat grew, the weeds grew with it.

And the farmer seen this and his friends came and said, did you not plant good seed?

And he says, yes, but an enemy has done this.

And so we have to be very self aware that there is an enemy.

And whenever the Bible talks about how our battles are not against flesh and blood, but they are against powers and principalities.

Okay?

Demon possessions, the demonic realm, still exists today.

And to say that it doesn't, to not recognize that problem, puts us in a very dangerous place.

And so we have to be very self aware as to division that comes from the outside into the church.

But the main focus of our disunity somehow doesn't seem to be from the outside in.

Shockingly, amidst the Ecclesia, the set apart ones of God, it somehow comes from within.

It somehow comes from us, me and you, sitting in this room.

None of us are exempt from causing disunity and discord and division within what God has set apart.

And that's a very dangerous thing, that that which God has set apart, what he has set apart through his precious blood on the cross.

I would have the audacity to cause division and strife.

For what reason?

Because theologically, that person is just not with me yet.

But how sure am I?

How sure am I about the things that I believe?

We have to re-prioritize what matters.

Truth matters, but so does unity.

Can there be truth and no unity?

I think not.

For true unity to exist, there has to be truth.

But for truth to exist, there has to be unity.

We highlighted earlier how the Ecclesia is made up of God's people.

Where there are people, there are problems, myself included.

I am a person and so I pose to be a problem.

And your understanding of that reality, your humility to recognize that you can be a problem and that you're not exempt from that is the first step.

If you think in terms of your family, those, they, these are the people that you love the most, whom you would die for.

But yet somehow these are the people that have the capacity to annoy you the most.

Or if you are married, the person that you are one with, that which God has joined together, who you love incredibly, that same person has the greatest capacity to annoy you.

Right?

How on earth does that work?

You love that person so much, so incredibly, but yet you find that they're the person that you get annoyed with the most.

And it is the same in the body of Christ.

It would be naïve not to anticipate that within our church family, where there is such great and abounding love, I do not deny that, there will also inevitably be disagreement.

There will inevitably be things that we get annoyed with one another about.

And the greater capacity for love that exists, the greater capacity for expectation, the greater capacity for love that exists, the greater capacity for expectation.

That is a lot of where the disagreement may be within your family, within your friends, within your marriages come from, because you have an expectation of that person that has came from your love of them.

You love them, and so you have an expectation that they will act in a certain way.

And when they don't act in that certain way, that is what annoys you the most.

And we have an expectation as the family of God, those have been set apart, we have an expectation of one another.

And when that expectation is not met, we get seriously aggravated and annoyed.

And then that annoyance leads to division and disunity.

And where does it originate?

In the New Testament, we read right from the creation of God's church that there is division and there is discord.

There's an alarming account of racial and religious discrimination in a seemingly harmonious community.

In Acts six, it says, in those days when the number of disciples were increasing, the Hellenistic Jews, that's the Greek Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews, the Hebrew Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

So there is also disunity over following.

In First Corinthians one, it says, My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you, arguments among you.

And what I mean by this is one says, I follow Paul.

Another says, I follow Apollos.

Another says, I follow Caiaphas.

Still another says, I follow Christ.

There is disunity over following.

And if there is an apparent existence of disunity within our country, it is the disunity that originates from following.

No, I'm a part of the Brethren Church.

No, I'm a part of the Baptist Church.

No, I'm a part of the Presbyterian Church.

No, I'm gonna add a word onto that.

I'm a part of the Free Presbyterian Church.

Okay?

And there are many, many, many, many more denominations.

And the skepticism that I have is that within all of these, we are guilty of what 1 Corinthians 1 is talking about.

That if Paul was writing his epistle in his letter today, he would say to the Church of Northern Ireland, my brothers and sisters, someone has informed me that there are quarrels among you.

Some follow the Brethren.

Some follow the Free Presbyterian.

Some follow Insert Whatever.

And our allegiance is not to the Word of God.

It is not to the Ecclesia, the Set-apart Ones of God.

It is not an allegiance to truth, an allegiance to love, an allegiance to unity.

Our allegiance is to ourselves and our denomination.

And we have to be so, so careful about that.

This unity also exists in Church practice.

1 Corinthians 11, it says, in the first place, I hear that when you come together as a Church, there are divisions among you.

And to some extent, I believe it.

Notice Paul's astonishment at the disunity.

Paul, in his ministry, has this expectation, okay?

The Ecclesia is the Set-apart Ones of God, those who have been transformed, called from darkness into marvelous light, who are pursuing God with everything that they have.

How can disunity be a thing that exists?

It couldn't be.

And yet Paul says here, I have heard that there is disunity within the Ecclesia of God's people.

And he says, I think I believe that.

I don't see how it could be possible because of the transformative impact the life and follower of Jesus should have, and us as a collective should have.

But somehow, and to some extent, I believe that this could be true.

And I think that sort of shows the symptomatic problem of our culture and the church today, that we're really not surprised whenever we hear about yet another division that takes place in a church.

Did you hear that that their church has split, and they've now created a new one?

Oh, okay.

Unsurprising.

It should really break our hearts because it breaks God's.

It breaks God's heart when he sees his Ecclesia that he has joined together, fragment and divide over the most ridiculous things.

And so what I want to leave you with is the passage.

And I would urge you all to turn to it with me as we come to a close.

John 17, verses 20 to 23.

John 17, verses 20 to 23.

And so to give you a bit of context as to what's happening here, this is on the eve of what are the most significant events of human history.

And that is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and three days later, his resurrection.

So here, let me paint the picture for you.

Jesus has been ministering with his disciples for three years, and it has now reached the climax where they are having the Passover meal, where Jesus is giving them communion.

And that night, Jesus would of course be arrested, and so we begin with the most significant events of human history.

But as he is sitting with his disciples, we read a prayer of Jesus.

The words that I'm speaking are a prayer of Jesus.

That is specifically to his disciples, but as we'll read here, are for his body, the body of Christ.

And so it says, John 17, 20, we read that there is an expectation from God to have unity because of what has been accomplished by the Trinity.

These are the words of Jesus.

I do not ask for these only, that is his disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, us.

That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.

This is the prayer of Jesus.

He is the I am God, Savior cornerstone, which we sang.

He is our bridegroom.

And so we need to listen very attentively and closely to what is being said here.

There's no room for missing it this morning.

There's no room for not paying attention to let this just go over our heads.

This is Jesus speaking.

Okay?

What would you do if Jesus was here in physical form and was saying these words to you?

Would you pay attention?

This is the faith that we have that these are still the words of Jesus.

It's not like Taylor saying these and it's not you reading them.

This is Jesus' words.

Jesus is saying that those who believe in me, the ecclesia, my set apart ones, they may be one.

One, a togetherness and a binding, supernatural joining together of God's people, just as, just as what?

They may be one just as.

Okay, so we see oneness is what God wants.

It's what Jesus wants.

But what is the metaphor or the analogy that Jesus is gonna draw upon to emphasize the importance of oneness here?

Just as, can you imagine the disciples drawing upon every word of Jesus here?

Okay, they're literally, these are Jews, and this is mind boggling to them.

Okay, what Jesus is saying, I pray that they may be one.

The disciples are sitting there and they're like, one?

One?

And Jesus says, just as, and you can imagine the disciples starting to lean in, just as what, Jesus?

What are we to be one as?

Is Jesus gonna use another one of his agrarian parables?

Or like an athlete?

That we be one just as a marriage is one?

That we be one just as a chariot?

And the chariot rider is one?

What is Jesus going to do?

And what he says next is ridiculous, and it is insane.

Just as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you.

The oneness that Jesus expects of us, he says, just as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, Jesus uses the oneness of the Son, that is himself, and the oneness of the Father.

A oneness so incomprehensible, to even attempt to comprehend the oneness of the Father and the Son, we can't, we can't do it.

That we have two distinct persons here, Father and Son, but yet they are simply one.

There is no dividing them.

And Jesus says, my Ecclesia, the church that I'm about to die for, I'm about to go to the cross for these people.

For what reason?

That you may be one, one, just as I and the Father are one.

This is the oneness that Jesus expects of us.

We, God's people, those saved by Jesus, who was sent by the Father, are now filled with the Spirit of the living God.

And we are to be one, just as the Father and the Son are one.

Does our oneness today reflect that?

The oneness of the Bride of Christ, the Ecclesia, the Set-apart Ones, are we as one, just as the Father and the Son are one?

Because that's the expectation that Jesus lays for his church.

In John 17, verses 20 to 23, the next verses, we read that this is a command.

It's not only an expectation, this is a command.

The glory, this is Jesus, the glory that you've given me, I have given to them.

The glory that the Father has given to Jesus, Jesus has only given that same glory to us.

For what reason?

That they may be one, even as we are one.

Again, I, that is Jesus, in them, us, and you, that is the Father, in me.

The Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in us.

For what reason?

That they may become perfectly one.

Everything that Jesus is saying here is for the purpose of unity and oneness.

The glory that was given by the Father to the Son has been given by the Son to then give to us, his ecclesia.

But for what purpose?

That we may be one, even as the Father and Son are one.

God has not given us glory that we may be divided amongst ourselves, that's ludicrous.

But God has given us power and glory so that we might be one.

There is power and there is glory that has been given to you by the Father.

Every individual in this room, you have been given power and glory by Jesus by what he has done on the cross.

And to what are you going to do with that power and glory?

Are you going to go and sow division amongst God's ecclesia?

Or are we going to use that power, use that glory, the spirit of the living God that is in us, to create this network of unity, a binding, a supernatural binding together, where I am one with you.

I am one with you.

I am not divided.

I am not against you.

I love you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

And I pray that you love me too.

And this love is supernatural, that this oneness that we have is supernatural.

How can I, a 22 year old, he lives up in the North Coast, have a oneness with you?

And I may not have had a conversation with you, but I have been given power and glory, and you've been given power and glory, so that no matter what the divide, whether you come from here, that I can have a oneness with a brother and sister in Christ who's in Saudi Arabia, of which I cannot relate, but I can relate with one thing, and that is Jesus has saved us, and has brought us together to be one.

Unity is not just an expectation of Jesus.

It is not just a command, but it is simply a necessity.

There's no other way.

There's no other way.

But for what reason do we have unity?

We see that we are given power and glory to have unity, and that unity is to be as one, just as the father and son are one.

And Jesus says twice in this passage, why are we to have unity as the church?

Why is it that we're to be one?

And Jesus says, verse 23, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Okay, and if you've missed it, Jesus says it again in the passage, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you have loved me.

Our unity expresses the love of God.

People should look at the Church of God, His Ecclesia, the set apart ones, and they should think, how is it possible for such unity to exist among such diversity?

And the only answer can be a supernatural one.

Our unity necessitates this upward gaze.

And so is the necessity.

That we, the Church, are made up of so many different people.

Okay?

You have different jobs to me, you have different expectations to me, different desires to me, you have different circumstances in your life.

The moment that you're weeping, I'm rejoicing somewhere else.

And the moment that I am weeping, you're rejoicing somewhere else.

Such diversity.

There are things that I would laugh at that you wouldn't.

There are things that I would not take seriously that you would take seriously.

We have different temperaments, we have different preferences, and we have different ways that we would live.

But yeah, our unity comes from who?

Jesus.

Jesus has made it possible for us to have a oneness.

To be bound together, to be one just as the Father and the Son are one.

And this oneness that takes place can only be possible by the work of the triune God.

We can't create a oneness.

It's not possible.

There's so much division in the world because of the diversity, because of the differences.

And they will maintain those differences, and so with it, their division.

But within the Church of God, the Ecclesia, the Set-apart Ones, we, thank goodness, do not have to settle for being divided with one another, to have division and to have disagreement.

Why?

Because of the supernatural work of God makes it possible for us to have a oneness, a oneness, so that when the world looks in, they're like, why?

How is that possible?

How is that possible?

I'm so confused.

Look how different these are.

Look at the way you think differently and you live differently.

Yet there is this oneness that I can't, I don't understand, but I see your church, I see the oneness that you have, the way that you love one another, amidst the difference.

How is that possible?

And I will say to them, God, God, that's how, and that's evangelism.

So that the world, the world around us may believe that you have sent me.

That our unity makes the world believe that Jesus was sent by God.

And that's what Romans 10, nine says.

If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, that God sent Jesus to accomplish a mission and our unity showcases that Jesus accomplished the mission, which is to unify a people under who?

Jesus.

The world may know that you have sent me and loved them as you have loved me.

The way the father loves the son, the father loves the world.

And this is expressed, God demonstrates his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And our unity, our togetherness, showcases the fruit of that, that we are one.

So I want to leave you with an analogy.

I've been reading Francis Chan's book on Unity, on Until Unity, because we're obviously hosting an event on Unity in April to try and just bring a unity of God's people back.

And in this book, he says a very poignant analogy that I think summarizes it very well.

He says that imagine going into an orphanage, a family going into an orphanage, and they're looking to adopt.

And as they're going through the orphanage and they're journeying through, they just start yelling and screaming at each other.

Just saying all of these things about each other.

Okay.

Can you imagine children looking at that family?

Do you think, oh, see that family screaming at each other, yelling?

I want to be a part of that family.

Let me just step on into that.

That seems a family I want to be a part of.

No, no.

They're screaming and yelling at each other, and the child is running away from that family.

And that's the church, and that's the witness that we often present.

We are the yelling family going through the orphanage, which is the world around us.

And people are looking in on us, and they're saying, that is the last thing that I want to join.

And our testimony should be that we have a oneness and a unity so that the world looks in and says, I have to be a part of that.

I have to be a part of that oneness.

That oneness that comes from Jesus, who was sent by the Father, and then through the means of the Holy Spirit is made possible for us to have a unity.

What have I talked about this morning?

The church, the Bride of Christ, the set apart ones, that is the ecclesia.

Two, the pandemic of apparent disunity and discord and division that exists today in the church.

And three, the importance of unity within God's church.

And how have we talked about that?

We've talked about the ecclesia and what that means.

We've highlighted disunity and how we have this natural gravitation towards it.

And so we have to be very self-aware of ourselves.

And three, using John 17, the prayer of Jesus, the words of Jesus, we have highlighted how unity is an expectation.

Unity is a command and unity is a necessity for God's ecclesia to be a witness to the world.

And it is the only way a healthy church can operate.

And that is in a oneness and a unity.

And why did we talk about this?

To bring it all back.

Why talk about this?

The ecclesia is what God has set apart to proclaim the good news of his kingdom here on earth.

That is me and that is you.

This is a reality so incredible, so mind blowing, so moving, that it should move us into a place of action.

And that action is not friendly fire on each other, where we inflict casualties on ourselves.

No, that oneness and that unity, okay?

That's the action that we want.

It is to build unity.

That action of maintaining unity within what God has joined, that's what it's about.

And amidst the pandemic of disunity that saturates the world around us, the church does not conform to this pattern, but it is set apart.

That is its nature.

It is salt and it is light.

And amidst the great diversity, there is great unity.

That leaves the world baffled as to how it is possible that there could be such unity from such diversity.

And God's Ecclesia will answer by saying, it is possible because of God.

Let's pray.

God, I pray this morning that we don't have it all together and we don't know everything, but what we do know is that you have an expectation of oneness within your Ecclesia, your set of part ones.

And we have to pursue you and we have to pursue unity and truth and love.

And this is going to be difficult and it's going to require humility.

But I pray this morning that inside the hearts of every individual here, you have kindled something that makes them think to themselves, I'm a part of the set of part ones.

What a privilege and what a blessing.

And it creates this gratitude.

But also that we will just strive for oneness here in Stewartstown and that we may strive as a oneness together as God's church, because something bigger is going on.

We are being a witness to the world around us so that they may believe in you, that our light may shine before men so that they may glorify our Father in heaven.

Help us to feel convicted this morning.

Help us to repent if we need to repent of the division that we have caused.

And help us from this day onwards to strive for the unity that you so desire.

And that unity is to be one just as you and the Father are one.

In your name we pray.

Amen.