On the subject of unity, Tony Evans makes the following insightful comments about the purpose of the United States of America. He says, ‘One of the great experiments regarding nationality is the American Experiment. The American Experiment is unique because of its intentionality to bring people from all walks of life, from every nation, under the banner of a single flag and to intentionally seek to bring across to these shores people from all kinds of other nations who would make up a union called the United States of America. This experiment brought people together who would pledge allegiance to a single flag even though their backgrounds were different, unique, and dissimilar. We acknowledge our differences by annotating our original heritages to our current nationality with terms like Irish American, Swedish American, Polish American, African American, or Hispanic American. The introductory phrase cites the uniqueness. The last word cites the unity. I am under the American Banner because I am uniquely based on culture, history, background, or previous location. In this experiment, there was an attempt to have a United States even though the people seeking to be unified were totally different. What the American Experiment represents from a cultural, historical, and geographical perspective to this nation, the church of Jesus Christ was meant to be for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—people from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives, all pledging allegiance to the cross.’ ¹ This idea of being one people in Christ, whether male or female, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, is what the Spirit of God via the Apostle Paul tried to get over to the church of Ephesus. And in this week’s Light on Life podcast, that’s precisely what we are focusing on as we discuss ‘Why Unity Is Essential in All Things God.’

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

The challenge today is to admonish you to get your relationships in order. Strife is a killer. You cannot afford the separation that strife brings. Reach out to people — ask them to forgive you, and you forgive them. By so doing, you will come inline in this earthly realm with the plan of God to unify all in Christ.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: How does the essential nature of unity change your perspective on relationships? Would you please share your thoughts in the comments section below?

Episode Resources:

If you need healing in your body, you can find additional information on the subject of Miracles in the resources listed below.

1. Why Divine Healing Is Better for Your Life [Podcast]
2. Changing A Life Through Miracles
3. Becoming A Student of Miracles: More Lessons
4. Is God A Miracle Working God?
5. The Value of Humility and Consecration In the Miracles of God
6. Healing Scripture List
7. How You Can Know Jesus Will Do Miracles for You [Podcast]
8. Why You Should Absolutely Be a Student of Miracles [Podcast]
9. How to Use the Name of Jesus to Live a Miracle Life [Podcast]
10. Why This Miracle of Jesus Matters [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com.

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Podcast Notes

Unity: An Essential New Creation Focus

• Let’s jump right into the Word.

Ephesians 2:11–16 (ESV) — 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

• The first caution that we have straight-off is that the Spirit of God instructs us to remember.
• Remember what?
• Remember where you came from.
• It’s vital to not only look forward but to look back at where you came from — and how God brought you out and delivered you.
• If you remember, a Pharisee asked Jesus to eat with him.
• You find this story in Luke Chapter 7:36–47.
• A certain woman, a sinner, came into the house and began to wipe Jesus’ feet with her tears and anointed his feet with oil, and wiped his feet with her hair.
• The homeowner, the Pharisee, was hugely offended at this sight.
• This woman was a sinner.
• How dare a sinner touch a rabbi’s feet.
• Jesus was a Rabbi; I don’t know if you realize that.
• So, Jesus told a story about two men who owed an outstanding debt.
• One owed ten times what the other man owed.
• The lender canceled both men’s debts.
• So, here’s the question that Jesus asked: ‘Which one had the most gratitude? — which man showed the most love at being debt-free?
• The Pharisee said, ‘Wow, it’s the person who was forgiven much, the person who had ten times the debt.’
• Jesus used that to explain why this woman was crying at His feet.
• She remembered how much Jesus had loved her — how much Jesus had forgiven her of her past life.
• You see, remembering is vital.
• Remembering leads to worship.
• Calling your past to mind leads to raising your hands, magnifying God, and thanking Him because you know where you came from and realize where God brought you from.
• The word remember here means keeping in mind, thinking of, and focusing on the dramatic aspect of remembrance.
• It also means recalling information from memory without necessarily implying that people have forgotten.
• So, it’s oh my, I forgot where I came from.
• Instead, it’s ‘Oh my, thank God for where I came from.’
• What are we supposed to remember? — six things.
• Six words or group of words here describe our lost state before receiving Jesus as Lord.
• You were
  1. Gentiles in the flesh
  2. Separated
  3. Alienated
  4. Strangers
  5. No Hope
  6. No God
• This list reminds you of Paul’s previous list in verses one-three of this same chapter.
• We did a podcast on those.
• If you missed it, check out the link in the show notes.
• Paul said you were dead in trespasses and sins.
• The Spirit of God said you followed the course of this world – that’s devils’ demons and evil spirits.
• God’s Word said that you lived in the passions of your flesh, and you fulfilled the desires of your body and your mind.
• That’s bad, but the word of God also stated that you were by nature children of wrath.
• So, Paul’s already talked about an extensive list of who you were before you came to Jesus but, here, he continues the list with a different emphasis.
• And that emphasis is unity.
• Look at what he starts with.

Gentiles in the Flesh

• You were Gentiles in the flesh.
• Isn’t that an interesting statement?
• It seems like there are some extra words there.
• Paul didn’t say you were Gentiles.
• He said you were Gentiles in the flesh.
• That’s so cool that Paul emphasized that.
• ‘Gentiles in the flesh’ – how else could you be a Gentile if it’s not after the flesh?
• The extra indicator or verbiage that Paul uses points to the issue of race.
• Your race, Black, White, Oriental, Hispanic — is only race in the flesh.
• Gentile is a flesh term.
• God doesn’t see you as a Gentile after the flesh.
• If you have come to Jesus, you are a child of God by His Spirit.
• It doesn’t matter what your ethnicity is.
• Get over that – some believers are so focused on ethnicity they forget that, in Jesus, you are a member of the body of Christ.
• Paul is talking about unity here.
• God recognizes Gentiles as a ‘fleshly’ race.
• Of course, he does. He’s not ignorant of who lives on planet earth.

1 Corinthians 10:32 (ESV) — 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,

• So, the first two Jews and Greeks, or Jews and Gentiles, are physical terms, while the last term, the Church of God, is a distinct race of men.
• There is no race in Christ.
• Here it is in Galatians — the same point.

Galatians 3:26–28 (ESV) — 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

• This phrase ‘Gentiles in the flesh’ that the Spirit of God inspired Paul to say also indicates that God never intended a separation among men.
• There was supposed to be one race of man called Adam.
• The whole thing was supposed to be unified from the get-go.
• So now, we come to the next word.

We Were Separated

• We were separated.
• What does the word ‘separated’ mean?
• And, with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
• The Greek word ‘separated’ means without.
• It means we were without – we were lacking.
• Lacking what? — lacking relationship.
• We were independent in the wrong way.²
• There’s a good way to be independent, and there’s a bad way.
• You never want to be independent of God. You always want to depend on Him.
• Independent of God describes your life outside of Jesus.

We Were Alienated

• We were alienated – alienated from what? — the commonwealth of Israel.
• That means we were estranged or a foreigner.
• Gentiles were alienated from the citizenship of Israel.
• You were not citizens of Israel.
• This is not natural citizenship that Paul speaks of here but spiritual.
• He’s not talking about natural citizenship here.
• You are a citizen of whatever country you are.
• How do we know that?
• For one, we have a scriptural record that not all who were physically born Israelites were of Israel.
• Listen to these verses in Romans.

Romans 2:28–29 (ESV) — 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

• So, there are two kinds of Jews, physical and spiritual.
• There were Jews who were physically born from Jewish parents but did not have a heart for God.
• That’s all over the Old Testament.
• Listen to another verse on this.

Romans 9:6 (ESV) — 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,

• So, to be of Israel is to be of the faith of Abraham.
• Abraham was not Jewish by physical birth — he was Mesopotamian.
• He was from the land of Ur.
• Abraham was a Gentile and by faith became a Jew — a Jew after the spirit, not after the flesh — not by physical birth.

Galatians 3:6 (ESV) — 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

• Those who are of faith are children of Israel.

Romans 4:13–14 (ESV) — 13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

• Those who are of faith are citizens of Israel.
• They are the commonwealth of Israel.
• So, Gentiles after the flesh were alienated from ‘real spiritual Israel.’
• If we could say it that way.

We Were Strangers

• We were strangers to the covenants of promise — Gentiles after the flesh, that is.
• The Greek word ‘strangers’ means ‘unacquainted with.
• It means without interest in.³
• That’s a bad place to be – to be unacquainted with and have no interest in the covenants of God.
• You always want to be interested in and acquainted with God’s promises concerning neighbors and nations.
• So, you were a stranger – you didn’t understand the Adamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant.
• It’s not just knowing the facts about those covenants- that’s not what Paul’s talking about here.
• He’s talking about understanding the progression of promise and the movement of God’s plan from one age to the next.
• Today, it’s vital to understand that there was an old covenant and that today there is a new one — a New Covenant that replaces the old — a New Covenant that is established upon better promises than the old.
• Some believers are just intent on living under the Old Covenant because they don’t understand this progression of God’s promises throughout the ages.
• I’m telling you some of these have a total shipwreck of their lives and are making the same mistake as the physical nation of Israel who did not embrace Jesus because they clung to the Law.

No Hope and No God

• The last two things that describe your life apart from God are no hope and no God.
• That was the past — your past.
• But now, verse thirteen of Ephesians two starts by saying, ‘but now.’
• Meaning it’s all different.
• ‘But now’ means that today, you are none of these things.
• And two phrases describe this transformation — broken down and abolished.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, — Ephesians 2:13–14

• What was broken down? — a dividing wall of hostility.
• Paul is talking about unity — dividing wall — did you hear that?
• What was abolished? — the Law.
• The result of all this? Peace.
• So, these six things we’ve talked about – Gentiles in the flesh, separated, alienated, strangers, no hope, no God — all of these were a point of division between Jew and Gentiles.
• Jews looked at Gentiles after the flesh and said, you are worse than dogs. You don’t have what we have — we have the covenants, we have the promises, we have God — you have nothing — stay away from us.
• All of that is extinct now because He is our peace.
• Everything is centered in Jesus.
• Jew and Gentile can now look to Him.
• He tore the wall down and brought us all to a place where unity is possible.
• He reconciles all of us, and by so doing, He killed the hostility between men.
• So let me ask a question here: if the hostility is killed, why would anyone try to resurrect it.
• It’s them and us anymore — it’s we.
• So, the resurrection of disharmony, strife, discord, and any other word that you want to describe a lack of unity is all devil.
• Now, remind yourself of the illustration that we started with — the American experiment of unifying diverse people under one flag.
• Wouldn’t you say that since God founded this nation and the disunity we see in our politics, the disharmony that we are experiencing in our country has a recognizable source?

The Word Unity in the Bible

• The actual word ‘unity’ occurs four times in the Bible.

Psalm 133:1 (ESV) — 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Ephesians 4:3 (ESV) — 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:13 (ESV) — 13 until 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 fullness of Christ,

1 Peter 3:8 (ESV) — 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

• So, we have brothers living in unity, unity of the spirit, unity of faith, and unity of mind.
• But the concept of unity is also expressed in other terminology in scripture.
• Look up words, one accord — one mind — like-minded — agree with one another.

Philippians 2:2 (ESV) — 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

• Listen to these similar phrases to unity — same mind, same love, full accord, one mind — all those phrases speak of unity.
• Here’s another verse in Romans — hear it — pick out the unity part.

Romans 15:5–6 (ESV) — 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Live in harmony with one another — that’s unity.

Romans 12:16 (ESV) — 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

Colossians 3:14 (ESV) — 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

• So, you see unity is in the Bible a significant number of times even though it’s not expressly spelled out u-n-i-t-y.

Unity in Ephesians Four

• We’ve already quoted verse four, ‘maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
• But keep reading chapter four.

Ephesians 4:4–6 (ESV) — 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

• There is only one body — Jew and Gentile.
• There is only one body — Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic.
• There’s only one body — Republican and Democrat.
• There is only one body — North American, African, Asian, South American.
• There’s only one body, male and female.
• There’s only one body black, white, red, and yellow.
• It doesn’t matter what your physical distinction is.
• There is one body, and we are all supposed to operate in unity in Jesus.
• We’ve been all baptized into one body because there is only one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
• Now look at the following two verses and here the progression of unity.

Ephesians 4:7–8 (ESV) — 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

• Now drop to verse eleven.

Ephesians 4:11–13 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until 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 fullness of Christ,

• In Jesus, we have unity – we have one God in three persons — He has made us all one – but one doesn’t mean we’re identical.
• It doesn’t mean we are the same.
• Look at the different gifts that God gave the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
• We are one, but we are not all the same.

Romans 12:4–8 (ESV) — 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

• So, we’re one, but we’re different according to grace.
• God made us different gift-wise.
• So, we are supposed to be of the same mind but His Spirit operating and flowing through us is different.
• As we get ready to close, listen to these words from the lips of D.L. Moody.

Moody said, ‘There is one thing I have noticed as I have traveled in different countries; I never yet have known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided. Unity is one thing that we must have if we are to have the Holy Spirit of God to work in our midst. If a church is divided, the members should immediately seek unity. Let the believers come together and get the difficulty out of the way. If the minister of a church cannot unite the people, if those that were dissatisfied will not fall in, it would be better for that minister to retire. There are a good many ministers in this country who are wasting their time; they have lost, some of them, months, and years; they have not seen any fruit, and they will not see any fruit, because they have a divided church. Such a church cannot grow in divine things. The Spirit of God doesn’t work where there is division, and what we want to-day is the spirit of unity amongst God’s children, so that the Lord may work. D. L. Moody, Moody’s Stories: Being a Second Volume of Anecdotes, Incidents and Illustrations (New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburg: Fleming H. Revell, 1899), 83–84.

• That wraps it up nice and neat.
• Why Unity Is Essential in All Things God, you guys have a great God-week in Jesus Name Amen.

#S3-018: How God Reacquired Adam’s Stolen Authority [Podcast]

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