Today is May 7th, 2023 – or 5-7-23. Those are all PRIME numbers, which means you can’t divide them by 2, 3, 4, or anything else. Primes are numbers that can only be divided by themselves and 1. Now, I’ve never given much thought to “prime” numbers, but there is an entire discipline of mathematics that seems to get real excited about them. Believe it or not, (in the math circles that are dedicated to prime numbers) there’s a “Prime Number Theorem (PNT)”; “Twin Primes”; “Goldbach's Conjecture”; “Palindromic Primes”; and the “Riemann Hypothesis” – every one of those dealing with PRIME numbers. Now, I don’t understand any of that - and you wouldn’t care - but at the thought of prime numbers the mouths of various mathematicians water.
But you don’t have to be a mathematician to get excited about numbers. There are people who Gamble and buy lottery tickets who swear by their “prime numbers”… they call them “lucky numbers.” But, of course there are no lucky numbers, and gambling’s not a very good idea but people can talk themselves into about anything when it comes to their lucky numbers.
And then there’s a group of cultists (people who say they can predict your future) based on the power of numbers that they call Numerology. They teach that Numbers have “power” and creative energy. Each number even has its own “color” (7 is the color violet). They go so far as to say the letters of your name can be translated into numbers and those numbers can be used to predict your future. But Christians shouldn’t do that! We shouldn’t do horoscopes or palm readings or Tea Leaves or Numerology. God hates all that! So I wouldn’t do that!
But there are numbers that God considers “prime” and you see a lot of in Scripture. For example, the number 40 is popular with Him. During Noah’s flood it rained 40 days and 40 nights; and when Moses went up on the Mountain to receive the Law, he was gone for 40 days; then Israel wandered in the wilderness 40 years; and of course, Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights after His baptism.
Twelve (12) is also a popular number with God. There were the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 Apostles. Revelation talks about the New Jerusalem having “a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:12 & 14) God really likes the number 12.
Then, the number three (3) shows up a lot as well. Throughout the Old Testament we read these three names over and over again: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And in the New Testament Jesus had 12 Apostles... but He also had His inner circle - Peter, James, and John. They show up a lot. And then there are several places in New Testament we have the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit repeated together - the ultimate 3. Most importantly, Jesus was crucified and buried and He rose from the dead on the… THIRD day. God likes the number 3 a lot.
In fact, God likes all kinds of numbers. In fact, He likes them so much that there’s an entire book in the Bible called… “NUMBERS”.
So, God likes all kinds of numbers, but is there a prime number that God likes better than others? Well, I think there is. In fact, I think the number God likes the best of all is the number ONE! Ephesians 4:4-6 says “There is ONE body and ONE Spirit — just as you were called to the ONE hope that belongs to your call — ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
God REALLY likes the number ONE! But why? Well God likes the number “one” because Ephesians 4 sums up what God had planned ever since the dawn of creation. Everything in Scripture pointed to the coming of the Messiah, and when Jesus came His objective was to take lost and broken people and bring them together into ONE body called the Church!
When some people here the word “Church” they think a building – but that’s not the ONE body. When other hear “Church” they think of the denomination they’re part of – but that’s not the ONE body. The ONE body is the body of Christians who’ve surrendered themselves to Jesus. There’s something we MUST understand this: we are the lost and broken people Jesus came for. When we became Christians, we became His! In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we’re told “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
There is ONE body, and it belongs to Jesus because He is the ONE Lord. And if we are part of His ONE body, we need to remember that He is that One Lord and we’ve been called to change. If we are not willing to change our lives (once we come to Christ) and we’re not willing to make Him the Lord and Master of our lives, then we’re not really part of that ONE body. We might go to ONE church building on Sunday mornings but if our lives show that we haven’t changed… then we’re not in that ONE body.
ILLUS: It’s kind of like a guy who takes a burlap bag and throws a bunch of cats inside and then ties off the top. He’s got ONE bag and all those cats are in one bag, but the cats haven’t changed. And if you throw all those cats in together, a cat’s gonna do what a cat’s gonna do because those cats have not changed. So, just a bit of friendly advice: I wouldn’t put my hand inside that bag if I were you.
That’s why so many churches are such a mess. They’ve got ONE bag (ONE building) but they aren’t ONE body because they don’t have ONE Lord. They haven’t changed.
So, One Body and One Lord… and then there’s ONE Faith! But faith in what or who? Answer: Faith in Jesus.
Galatians 3:26 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Your ONE FAITH is in Jesus. Your faith is NOT in yourselves… it’s in Jesus. Now, why is that important? Well, too often people think that God will be impressed by their good works. They believe their faith is in how GOOD they think they are will make the difference. If you were to ask them if they were going to heaven they might reply “Yes, because I’ve done enough good things”
ILLUS: According to survey done by Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University roughly half of Americans believe they will go to heaven if they are “generally good” or “do enough good things.”
ILLUS: Michael Bloomberg (once the mayor of NY) was once told a reporter: “I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
Those folks have FAITH in their own personal righteousness (good deeds). They literally believe that their SELF-righteousness qualifies them for heaven. But God says “that ain’t gonna happen.” Romans 3:23 tells us “We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I don’t deserve to go heaven. You don’t deserve to go to heaven, and I’m pretty sure Michael Bloomberg doesn’t either.
It’s only by our faith in Jesus that we have a chance of going to heaven. As one person said: “If you don’t follow Jesus, you won’t go where He went.”
ILLUS: For years I struggled with how to explain this contrast of the belief in my personal works as opposed to my personal faith in Jesus, and finally – at a funeral – I discovered an insight. At most funerals you’ll see all kinds of flowers that people have bought to show their love and respect for the family and the dearly departed. Most of the times you’ll see bouquets of cut flowers because cut flowers can be mixed and matched to make beautiful arrangements. Other times they’ll buy planters – and the planters are still eye-catching as the bouquets. But they buy most attractive flowers or planters that they can find. If you will, they buy the flowers because of their “fruit.”
Now, let’s say after the funeral that the family tells me I can take any flower or planter home that I like. So I take home a bouquet of cut flowers, put them in a vase, water them and place them in the window. After a month or so, what are those flowers going to look like? They’ll be dead. By contrast, if I take a planter home and water it and put it in the sun and take of it properly, what will that plant look like in a month? Well, it should grow and be even more filled with life. What’s the difference? Why would the cut flowers die and the planter be alive? It’s because the planter has roots, and the cut flowers don’t. It’s the root, not the fruit, that gives life. In the same way, it’s the ROOT we have in Jesus that gives us life, not the FRUIT of our good deeds. God loves good deeds, but they won’t buy you a place in heaven. The fruit doesn’t give life… it’s the root we find in Jesus.
So One Lord, One Faith… ONE BAPTISM. Galatians 3:26-28 says “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:26-28
Now notice WHAT are we all “baptized into…”. We’re baptized into Christ. We’re not baptized to follow a particular human teacher, nor baptized into a particular Church, nor baptized into a denomination. We are baptized into Jesus. Why are we baptized into Jesus? Because Jesus is your ONE LORD, and Jesus is your ONE FAITH, nd now – because you clothed yourself with Jesus in baptism - that ONE BAPTISM makes you ONE in Christ.
As Romans 6:3-4 puts it “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” We DIED with Him; We were BURIED with Him; and we ROSE FROM THE GRAVE with Him. We became one with Christ in our baptism.
So that explains the power of us having ONE LORD, ONE FAITH and ONE BAPTISM.
ILLUS: I saw this graphic online and I thought it summed it up perfectly: “One Creator – God; One Race – Human; One Blood – Red; One Problem – Sin; One Solution – Jesus Christ.” Or as someone else said it: Life is short… death is sure. Sin the cause… Christ the cure. ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM.
ILLUS: A preacher friend of mine named Mike told of his conversion to Christ. He said that his family was known throughout the community as the worst examples of humanity. The parents were irresponsible. The kids were troublemakers. They lived like animals, even eating food out of trashcans. Everyone who saw them thought, “That’s just who they are. That’s all they’ll ever be. They’ll never change.” But Mike did.
There came a point at which he heard the powerful message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and he decided that was what he wanted for his life. He believed in Jesus, repented of his sins, and was buried in the waters of baptism for forgiveness of his sins. He eventually became a preacher, and he even baptized several of his family members into Christ. Then one day, Mike was at the funeral of his brother-in-law. One of the women who was there (who had not seen him since his conversion) told him she was amazed at the change that had taken place in his life. She was surprised at what HE had made of himself. Mike responded: “Oh I really appreciate your compliment, but I really didn’t change myself. It was Christ IN ME that brought about the changes in my life.” That’s because Jesus is our one Lord, one Faith and One Baptism. He is the ONE who brings about the change in our lives.
But there’s one more important aspect of this number ONE that I don’t want you to miss.
Jesus was being criticized by scribes and Pharisees because He was eating with sinners, and he turned to them and told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost ONE of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the ONE that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over ONE sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
How many sheep were lost? JUST ONE. ONE sheep wandered off, and the good shepherd left the 99 to find that ONE sheep. And when the shepherd found that ONE sheep he called all his friends and neighbors to rejoice with Him. What Jesus was saying was – if there were only one sheep that had wandered off, I’d have given my life for them. Someone once said that “If you were the only person on earth, Christ would have still suffered and died for you.” (Augustine)
So here’s the question: are you that one? Are you the one who has not made Jesus your Lord and become part of His body? Are you the one who hasn’t put your faith in Jesus rather than in your good deeds? And are you the one who has yet to allow yourself to be buried in the waters of baptism and risen from that watery grave to walk in newness of life?
INVITATION
