Hope Is Calling You Out!

There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call (Eph 4:4).

You don't recognize the number.  But you answer anyway.  Boy, are you glad you did.  It's hope.  But not just some random hope.  It's THE hope.  Yeah, THAT hope.  Paul reminds us, "There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call" (v4).  God has called you.  And not just you.  He's called a crew of folks to be part of His body.  He's called people from every ethnic group, culture and social status to come together in His Spirit-filled, Spirit-led church.  Aren't you glad you answered?

Hope is calling you out.

Alone in a dark Roman dungeon, the apostle wants us to know that we're not flying solo in our faith.  Hop down off your horse, Kemosabe.  There are no Lone Rangers when it comes to following Jesus.  Church is a team sport.  As a matter of fact, Paul wants his readers to understand the mind-blowing oneness and unity that results from God's call on our lives.  The Trinity is a powerful picture of the kind of wholeness and solidarity we're to have.  The Father, Son and Spirit are three "Whos" and one "What."  But you can't pry them apart.  They are THAT close.  God is calling us to be His body.  Many "whos" that form one "what."  In his letter to his friends in Rome, the dude from Tarsus wrote about how Jesus brings us together to be His hands and feet to a lost and dying world.  "So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (Rom 12:5).  God calls us to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.  We'll never be alone.  He'll never ditch me or turn His back on me.  And as a member of His body, I have folks who'll scoop me up when we I can do it myself.  

Are you you trying fly solo?  Stop it.  Land the plane.  That's not what God had in mind.  Way back in the beginning of His story He said that human loneliness is a bad thing (Gen 2:18).  Come together.  Right now.  Over Him.  Get into community with other folks who are following Jesus.  Yeah, I know.  Churches are jacked up.  Well, I've got news for you.  They're ALL jacked up.  Every last one of them.  That's because they're full of jacked up sinners like you and me.  But despite its flaws and failings, the local church is THE body of Jesus.  Christ uses His body to show His love to the people in the community.  So, get over yourself.  Hope is calling you to get back into community.  "You were called in one body" (Col 3:15).  The folks there need you.  You need them.

Hope is calling you out.

Paul makes it clear that there is just "one Spirit" (v4).  Don't be fooled by imitators.  There are certainly other spirits but only one Holy Spirit.  Did you know there's a way to test and see if a spirit really is His Spirit?  The Apostle John clues us in on the fact that "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" (1Jn 4:1-2).  If someone or something causes you and me to doubt the fact that Jesus is truly fully God and fully Man, then we don't want anything to do with them.  Those spirits are agents of our enemy.  Can I be straight up?  They're demons!  There's just ONE Spirit.  And He's come to fill and empower the local church to pour out the grace of God to people who have lost hope.

Hope is calling you out.

But there IS hope.  And hope is calling.  "You were called to the one hope that belongs to your call" (v4).  Ready for a little Greek lesson?  Well, here it comes anyway.  Twice in this verse Paul uses a form of the verb kaleo.  It means to summon, invite, provide a name, designate or call together for a purpose.  In the story about the big wedding, Jesus describes how the master sent his out to invite (Gr. kaleo) folks to the shindig (Mt 22:3).  In a legal sense, people use the term to summon people to appear in court (Acts 4:18).  But over and over again, biblical writers use this verb as a way to explain God's invitation to salvation in general (Mt 4:21; 2Th 2:14; 1Pet 2:9) or a specific task (Heb 5:4).

These words in this verse are VERY similar to the word we translate "church" or ekklesia, which means the "called out ones."  Jesus has called you and me to know the hope that's only found in a relationship with Him.  He's invited us.  He's summoned us.  He's calling us to a bigger purpose.  He's calling us to the ULTIMATE purpose.  

Hope is calling you out.

We need to stop thinking about the church as some sort of Christian bomb shelter where we can close our selves off from the rest of the nasty ol' world.  Jesus is calling us OUT!  He's inviting us to invite others to the hope that can only be found in Him.  There is only one hope.  Jesus.  He is Hope Personified (1Tim 1:1).  He's THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life (Jn 14:6).  We can't let others know about that hope if we're quivering in fear behind the locked doors of our fallout shelter from sin.  Jesus is calling us out!  Jesus is calling us to take His message of grace and hope out to people everywhere (Mt 28:19-20).

Hope is calling you out.