What does First B Jackson teach about church unity?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on church unity starts with the conviction that unity among believers is not optional and not merely an internal matter. When Carl preached from Acts 4:32 through 5:11, he stopped on the phrase 'one of heart and soul' and connected it directly to Jesus' prayer in John 17, where Jesus asks that his followers would be one just as the Father and Son are one, so that the world would believe. The point was plain: unity among believers is itself a witness. Disunity is not. Pastor Joel made a similar move working through the Greek word homothumadon in Acts, showing that the earliest church prayed together, worshipped together, and answered government opposition together, and that this shared purpose was not accidental but the mark of people pulled in a single direction by a shared conviction.
The teaching has also been honest that unity can be counterfeited or destroyed. Pastor Joel walked through every use of homothumadon in Acts and pointed out that the crowd that stoned Stephen and the rioters in Ephesus also moved with one accord, which means the word describes a fact about a group, not a verdict on whether the group is right. That forces the real question: what is the unity anchored to? The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 was held up across several messages as the clearest positive example, where Jewish and Gentile believers faced a genuine conflict, reasoned from scripture together, and reached a conclusion they described as 'it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit.' The unity that emerged there was not the absence of hard disagreement but the fruit of working through it together under the authority of God's word.
When Jeremy Diebler preached through the 'one another' commands of the New Testament, he pressed on what that unity actually looks like in practice: accepting, forgiving, bearing with, encouraging, and submitting to one another. He noted that Jesus said the world would know his disciples by their love for each other, and that Paul told the Roman church that accepting one another brings praise to God. The consistent thread across these messages is that unity is something only God can establish, but it is something any one person can ruin, and that living it out faithfully is part of how the church makes the gospel visible to the world around it.
Taught from John 17 · Acts 4:32-5:11 · Romans 15:5-6 · Ephesians 4:1-16 · Acts 15
The passage taught · Ephesians 2:8-9
8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, that no one would boast.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- April 19, 2026 Walk Worthy of the Calling The pastor preached through Ephesians 4:1-16, tracing Paul's call to walk worthy, maintain unity, and use God's gifts to build up the body of Christ.
- April 19, 2026 Walk Worthy of the Calling Ephesians 4 opens with a call to walk worthy of Christ, exploring unity, spiritual gifts, and what it means to grow up together as one body.
- September 7, 2025 With One Mind The pastor traces the Greek word homothumadon through Acts, showing how a church unified around Christ looks different from every other kind of unanimity.
- December 1, 2024 One of Heart and Soul Carl walks through Acts 4:32-5:11, showing what a Spirit-filled church looks like through the examples of Barnabas, Ananias, and Sapphira.
- January 14, 2024 You Are Not All Alone Jeremy Diebler walks through the "one another" commands of Scripture, showing how loving each other well is the lab where Christian faith becomes real.
Mentioned along the way
- August 16, 2026 Forgetting What Lies Behind, Pressing Forward A sermon from Philippians on finding true worth in Christ, letting go of religious pride, and pressing forward together in unity, joy, and faith.
- June 21, 2026 Hills and Valleys: Walking Out the Faith Pastor Van closes Ephesians and opens Philippians, tracing grace, peace, and the call to humble, joyful service through Paul's final greetings and opening words.
- March 29, 2026 By the Will of God Pastor Ray opens Ephesians by sitting with just two verses, showing how Paul's identity, God's will, and the promise of grace and peace set the foundation for everything that follows.
- May 18, 2025 Keep the Gospel the Main Topic Paul and Barnabas split, Timothy gets circumcised: a Wyoming pastor explores how the early church navigated sharp disagreements while keeping the gospel moving forward. Hmm, that breaks the rules. Let me redo this. Paul and Barnabas split over John Mark, and Paul circumcises Timothy. A sermon from Acts 15-16 on unity, cultural sensitivity, and keeping the gospel the main thing.
- May 11, 2025 This weeks Sermon May 11th @ First B Jackson Acts 15 traces the Jerusalem Council's debate over grace and law, showing how early believers settled a defining question about how anyone, Jew or Gentile, is saved.
- May 11, 2025 Sunday May 11th 11am Service ( Mother's Day) Acts 15 sermon on the Jerusalem Council: how the early church settled whether Gentiles must follow Jewish law, and what it means for Christian unity today.
- May 11, 2025 Sunday May 11th 9am Service (Mother's Day) Acts 15's Jerusalem Council shows how the early church resolved a major dispute over salvation, landing on one answer: grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
- February 2, 2025 Transformation Is Possible Acts 9: Saul's conversion shakes Jerusalem, Peter heals the paralyzed and raises the dead. God transforms the hardest hearts and builds His church through ordinary people.
- December 1, 2024 Barnabas, Ananias, and the Fear of the Lord Acts 4-5 traces the early church's unity, generosity, and the contrasting stories of Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira, with a call to encourage, stay alert, and fear God.
- December 31, 2023 Godly Sorrow Versus Worldly Sorrow A New Year's Eve sermon from 2 Corinthians on how godly sorrow leads to repentance and restored relationships, while worldly sorrow leads only to death.
- October 16, 2022 The Attitude of Christ Philippians 2 shows that loving and serving others flows from what Christ first did for us, not from willpower or guilt. His example changes everything.
- November 10, 2019 Let Us Draw Near With a Sincere Heart Hebrews 10 calls believers to draw near, hold fast, and stir one another toward love and good works as the day of Christ's return draws closer.
- August 5, 2018 Not Because of Works Done by Us Titus 3 shows that God saved us by mercy and grace, not our works, and calls believers to gentleness, good works, and unity with all people.
- July 2, 2017 The Mystery Made Known The pastor walks through Ephesians 3, tracing the mystery of the gospel: that Gentiles are fellow heirs with Israel, and the Church exists to declare God's wisdom to all creation.
- June 25, 2017 He Himself Is Our Peace Ephesians 2:11-22 explored: once strangers to God, believers are now built together as His dwelling place through the peace Christ made on the cross.
- February 26, 2017 The Substance Belongs to Christ Colossians 2-3 sermon on why rules and rituals can't change us, and why Christ alone is the center that holds our faith together.
- November 20, 2016 Towards Unity and Diversity - Contemporary (3) A Romans 14-15 sermon on Christian unity, disputable matters, and the self-denying example of Christ, closing with a benediction on hope, belief, and the Holy Spirit.
- November 6, 2016 Every Tub Sits on Its Own Bottom Romans 14 calls Christians to receive one another fully, reserve judgment on disputable matters, and remember that every believer answers to one master alone.
- September 28, 2015 Monday Nights @ First B (17) A short letter with a lasting message: how greetings, hospitality, and faithfulness shape a church that reflects Christ to the world.
- August 16, 2015 Behold How Good and Pleasant It Is Paul's letter to Corinth shows how forgiveness restores unity in the church body, while Jesus prays the same thing for believers in John 17.
- February 11, 2015 Prisoner of Christ, Not of Circumstances A pastor shares Ephesians 3 on grace, the church, and suffering, including her own grief after a tragic loss in her home, and what she learned about God's faithfulness.
- January 4, 2015 One Body, Many Members A sermon on 1 Corinthians 12 exploring spiritual gifts, unity in the body of Christ, and why every believer's gift matters for the common good.
- December 28, 2014 Manifestation of the Spirit First Corinthians 12 explored: every believer receives a spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit, not for personal glory, but for the good of the whole church body.
- November 23, 2014 Called Out and Called Into A Wyoming pastor's rebuke of division at the Lord's Supper, drawn from 1 Corinthians 11, calls every believer to self-examination and unity at the foot of the cross.
- August 10, 2014 Mere Men, God's Temple, One Foundation The pastor walks through 1 Corinthians 3, showing how Paul called the Corinthian church away from factions and rivalry and back to the only foundation that holds: Jesus Christ.
- July 27, 2014 We Have the Mind of Christ A Wyoming pastor walks through 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, showing how God reveals the hidden wisdom of the cross to all who believe through His Spirit.
- July 13, 2014 Grace to You and Peace Paul's letter to a divided, sin-riddled Corinth still speaks today. Pastor Carl opens 1 Corinthians, tracing its context and calling believers back to the cross.
- August 4, 2013 The Blood of the Martyrs Is the Seed of the Church Philip scatters the gospel into Samaria, a city awakens to Christ, and Simon Magus reveals what happens when a heart wants God's power without God himself.
- June 30, 2013 Continuing in Acts, Morning Praise (2) A sermon from Acts 4-5 on the early church's unity and generosity, the warning in Ananias and Sapphira's deception, and what it means to follow Barnabas's example.