The Dream Team
Ephesians: Transformed By Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The roster of the 1992 USA Olympic Men's basketball team, also known as the “Dream Team”, was as follows:
Charles Barkley Larry Bird Clyde Drexler Patrick Ewing Magic Johnson Michael Jordan Christian Laettner Karl Malone Chris Mullin Scottie Pippen David Robinson John Stockton. This team was coached by then head coach of the Detroit Pistons, Chuck Daly. He had quite a job!
This team is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled, and it easily won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The Dream Team worked in unity and averaged a winning margin of 43.8 points per game, and it was the first Olympic basketball team to feature all active NBA players.
Given the experience, skill, and sheer overwhelming strength, power, and excellence of each player on such a team, as long as these players could work together in harmony---the other countries and teams that played them were simply not even in the same class. For those that remember, they were quite a team to watch — because usually they all played against each other— but to bring them all under the same uniform— the United States of America— no one really knew what was possible. But just as “iron sharpens iron” in the proverb— these men made each other better over years of battling against each other— but then came together in unity and were unstoppable.
That came to my mind this week as I considered this next section of Paul’s great letter to the churches in and surrounding Ephesus.
Ephesians 4:1-4:16 can be compared to a modern-day sports team in the sense that all individuals in the team must use their unique skills and work together in unity to accomplish their common goal - which is winning. However, this unity and collaboration are not truly possible without the leadership and guidance of a coach, quite comparable to Christ's role in the church.
What we will see is that this second “half” of Ephesians is all about application. I love the teaching that we will be under — it contains a lot of “lists”. Paul takes a different tone now in his instructions. It’s going to spark our thinking, and challenge us to put into motion this great love and vision Paul has been explaining. He wants to see the church function as God’s dream team, equipped, empowered, and unstoppable. We move from premise to practice.
A Prisoner’s Request: to walk worthy. (v.1-3)
A Prisoner’s Request: to walk worthy. (v.1-3)
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Remember, we salvation doesn’t come “by” works— but it does come “for” works. We read that back in 2:8 and 2:10. We can now begin put in motion all that Paul has been explaining. Some translations will place the word “Walk” in the place of “live a life”. Walk worthy. Pay attention to what you are doing.
It’s kind of like getting your driver’s licence for the first time. You passed the tests, you completed the requirements. But now, you are handed the keys. And you do have a responsibility.
It’s a huge responsibility— driving a vehicle— and living into your God ordained purpose! He created us, and saves us by His grace—through Christ and we now seek the Spirit’s leading as we pull the automobile of our life into “Drive”.
We have a choice and a responsibility to live a life worthy of our calling.
How can we do that? Do we understand what we are called to? By God’s grace, we are “called” into a transformation— we have become a new human.
Well here is our first list—consider these the “foundations” of Unity and peace. They are action words… They reflect this new transformed life:
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Do you see them?
Building blocks of a peaceful life:
Humble- Not arrogant or self-centered.
Thinking of yourself less— treating others just as you would like to be treated.
Gentle- Not severe, rough, or violent
KJV says “meekness”- certain level of self-control, some translations also say “mildness”. Not spicy in your reactions to people— but calm.
Patient- Not reactive, impulsive, angry
KJV “Long-suffering” People are going to push your buttons— but how do we respond to them?
Loving- Tender, passionate affection.
Accepting someone as they are right now— knowing that God is working in their lives.
[Graphic] In powerpoint— Pyramid up to Peace and UNITY
Very practical— I hope we can pray daily to reflect these attributes within our lives, (to walk them out) and most definitely within our church toward each other! These are the core tools we need to consider in our toolboxes of fellowship and service to each other. Which one of these might God be calling you to consider more? Which is your strength?
You can make the effort— he continues with that thought:
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Some other translations say “being diligent”. Like every effort can mean lots of different ways to keep unity.
Teams are a great way to illustrate this. There is nothing better than being a part of a group of individuals that are actually better than the “sum of the parts”.
The unity of the Spirit of God makes an equation like this true:
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5
The synergy of a group of people working together in unity makes the “sum of the parts” greater than the whole.
But the opposite of this is true also—
Jesus said
24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
“Steiner Model” of organizational success:
Actual Performance = Potential performance - Faulty processes
Another so called “US Dream team” went to the 2004 Olympics— and failed miserably— by the standard set 12 years earlier. The US lost to Puerto Rico, Lithuania, and Argentina. No medal at all in fact.
“You can’t just show up at a basketball game and feel that because you have USA across your chest you’re going to win the game,” Iverson said.
I’ve suffered on teams like this, where there seemed to be two or more goals, two visions— competing for resources, effort and energy— that’s not Unity.
So Paul continues by illustrating exactly why and how we can find unity in the church!
The Bonds of Unity (v.4-6)
The Bonds of Unity (v.4-6)
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
The idea of “one” God is deeply rooted in the Jewish faith. There were a multitude of “gods” in the world, but God establishes a new nation at the Exodus— He uses Moses to proclaim freedom for God’s people enslaved by Egypt. They are dramatically led into the wilderness, but they were a newly transformed people. And one of the first concepts God teaches them through Moses is found in Deuteronomy:
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
Paul then rattles off another great list:
The church finds unity in
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Paul makes a list of seven building blocks that bond Christians together in unity. (v.4-6)
That makes a perfect seven items on this Unity list:
Unity is found in:
One body
One Spirit
One hope
One Lord
One faith
One baptism
One God and Father of all!
Look around— what makes us different is far more superficial than what we have in common.
The enemy wants us to believe we are so different, or we can’t work together— but not Paul. He reinforces unity through the undeniable “oneness” of God.
I learned a great lesson this week from our friend Sarah Hochstetler. She’s not here, but she was able to “tune” the piano here in the sanctuary this week.
I asked her a little bit about that process, and not only is it a really fascinating process— it has a direct relationship to the unity we are talking about here.
It’s a wonderful metaphor—I want to briefly explain two aspects of what Sarah did to tune the piano. The piano has 88 “keys” — or notes. They are all individual notes — but they obviously work together to make music.
She begins with the exact “center” of the piano— Middle C.
And guess what— there is an exact frequency that this middle C should be tuned to:
The frequency of middle C on a piano is 261.63 Hz. This is the frequency of the sound wave that is produced when the middle C key on a piano is struck. The frequency of a sound wave is the number of cycles that the wave completes per second. The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch of the sound.
She loaned me a tuning fork— This is the exact frequency that she is tuning Middle C to:
Everything else is based off that. Nothing else.
Another fun aspect of this metaphor is that most of the “keys” are made up of three strings — all three are struck to make the note. So she tunes the middle string of the three first— in relationship to middle C— and then comes back to tune the strings on either side to that middle string.
It illustrates the beautiful dynamic that Paul explains in
1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
As a leader, I’m going to “tune” myself to the Middle C— Christ Jesus— and nothing else— the people around me— My kids, grandkids, coworkers, team and classmates— I’m going to reverberating the power and grace and love of Christ— those around me can follow me (tune into my frequency) as I am tuned to Christ!
Now— as we jump down to verse 7
The Gifts of Christ (v.7-11)
The Gifts of Christ (v.7-11)
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
This next sentence starts by taking these big concepts of “all of us”— to now “each of us”— Paul instructs us that “grace”— Greek word “charis”— the gift has been given to each one of us— as Christ has decided. The unity is corporate, but it does not overshadow the value of each individual found within it.
Jesus gives individual believers specific gifts of His grace
The church is called to unity, but not uniformity.
There is a nice section of scripture next here in verses 8-10, but for the sake of time, I want to breeze past it— you can read more about it this week on your own. It’s basically summed up in verse 10:
10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
He- Jesus— Descended to the bottom when he died. He then ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. That’s all the Keys! He covers it all! You can’t go anywhere or be low or high outside His vision for your life.
Another list forms up here— verse 11 is a classic and memorable verse in this section of scripture:
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
A.P.E.S.T. is an acronym that is often used to describe these categories. Now there are varying camps of thought on these gifts— I want to express that EVANA and historical Anabaptist beliefs would acknowledge all these gifts in general ways— in addition to some other gifts that are listed in other places in scripture.
These are sometimes thought of as “categories” or “buckets” that various gifts could be grouped with:
Think about the role of these particular gifts:
Apostle: Vision, Leadership, Communication
The spiritual gifts of an apostle are the abilities that God gives to people to start and oversee the development of new churches or ministry structures. Apostles are often called "church planters" or "pioneer ministers." They are often skilled to receive and communicate the teachings and beliefs of the church. Doctrines. They are also skilled in leadership, administration, and teaching.
Prophet: Discernment, Revelation, Boldness
The spiritual gifts of prophets are the abilities that God gives to people to speak His word to others. Prophets are often called to deliver messages of encouragement, correction, and warning to the church. They can also be used by God to interpret circumstances to build up the churches faith.
Evangelist: Compelling, Relational, Bold with the Gospel
The spiritual gifts of the evangelist are the abilities that God gives to people to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others in a way that is clear, compelling, and effective. Evangelists have a passion for reaching the lost and helping them to experience the saving grace of God.
Pastor: Compassion, Patience, Counseling
The spiritual gifts of pastors are the abilities that God gives to people to care for and nurture the spiritual growth of others. Pastors are often called "shepherds" because they are responsible for leading and protecting the flock of God. They are also teachers and wise counselors, helping believers to understand and apply the Bible to their lives.
Teacher: Knowledge, Enthusiasm, Communication
The spiritual gift of teaching is the ability to effectively communicate the truths of the Bible to others. Teachers have a passion for learning and a desire to share their knowledge with others. They are able to explain complex concepts in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
Lots of the other spiritual gifts found in passages like Romans 12, and I Cor 12, could be placed under these more broad categories. Some churches choose to separate and distinguish them a little differently.
Regardless, I don’t want us to get too far into the weeds on these categories— although it would be a wonderful exercise for all of you to seek out what particular gifting you may have received. Yes, that’s right, all believers have received GRACE according to Jesus’ wishes! Yes, even you!
If you have interest in more of this type of discussion, feel free to contact me or the church office and schedule an appointment to come in and we can talk about it— there are even some simple surveys or evaluations you can take to start to explore.
God’s vision for the Church (v.12-16)
God’s vision for the Church (v.12-16)
Now— WHY?
12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
Christ gives us specific gifts to equip and build up the body of Christ.
He goes on to further explain the vision for building up the church:
13 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.
Each person, as they function as a part of the body of Christ— (both here locally, and also globally), should be built up attaining the fullness of Christ.
How I understanding this, we are connected as one body, serving one Lord— however we are all gifted and experienced differently— and being together studying, serving, living, in close proximity to each other--- this all contributes to the building up of each part—
Each of us is a part of all of us.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
Maturity and discernment comes through time, interaction, and even through difficult times- An infant doesn’t have these things— but a mature person has weathered trouble— and gained from it.
That’s what I miss about my relationship with my dad the most right now. We used to have wonderful talks about leadership, and decisions for life and organizations— teams, churches, workplaces. I would go to him with a struggle or a problem— and he, because of his experience and wisdom— the time he had spent and even the failures he went through— he would give me suggestions and loved me through his advice--
Building each other up in Christ gives all of us stability in the world.
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
That’s it! We are connected to each other, and Christ as our head.
But we are all subject to the function of every part- If one part is suffering, we are all suffering— if one part is rejoicing— we are all rejoicing.
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.
A great illustration I want to end with here:
When a craftsman makes a barrel— they put strips of wood together side by side and band them together tightly with a couple metal straps.
See this photo—
on the right— it’s in the process— on the left— these wood “staves” have all been strapped together. The barrel will only hold water up to the top if all the staves are solid all the way through— If one of the staves was accidentally shorter— then the barrel would only hold water up to that point.
We would never try to train our bodies by just exercising only one part! Like going to the gym and lifting only your arms all the time. You need to lift a variety of weights, with a variety of exercises to develop and train your whole body. That’s what’s most healthy and effective for you to be strong in all areas of movement.
We are all being formed into the likeness and fullness of Jesus— to be the “Dream Team” at Walnut Creek Mennonite Church! Every part is critical for Jesus— and every person is critical to me and our leaders here too. You matter, and you have a part to play in our great mission for Jesus.
We are going to sing a powerful song that recites these very verses— and then we have a great opportunity to welcome some new team members.
Let’s pray.
Holiness is not something we are called upon to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we already are.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones