A Church in Crisis

Divisions from Within

So we have just begun a series going through the book of 1 Corinthians, and Pastor Jason has been doing an excellent job painting us a picture of the culture and context in which the Corinthian church existed. The environment the Corinthians lived in was full of debauchery, “Sin City” would be a good title. We saw some similarities between their church and ours: both filled with sinners, both needing to live godly lives in the face of worldliness. And we were told to beware of losing our focus. We need to pray for those around us, and we need to point them to Jesus and the Cross.

Today, we will be continuing our series by going through 1 Corinthians 3-6. Go ahead and turn there, but let me start by asking a question: How many of you have experienced church division? Many of us have.

I looked up some issues that were causing divisions in churches …

Argument over the appropriate length of the worship leader’s beard. Idk, should we regulate Eric’s beard? Is that going to affect our worship?

A vote was called whether or not to remove the clock from the sanctuary. That’s a timely argument.

There was a fight over which picture of Jesus to hang in the foyer. I’d like to know who took that picture. I have other issues with that one, but I won’t get into that this morning.

As you know we’re putting in a new coffee area in the back. Several churches have had arguments over which coffee to serve, how strong, should we switch from Folgers to Starbucks, and people actually left the church because of that.

Who likes deviled eggs? Well, you might know where this one is going: there was an argument over whether or not deviled eggs should be allowed at church meals. A good compromise would be to have angel food cake for dessert.

And finally, there was an argument over whether to use gluten-free communion bread or not. That’s easy, I’m pretty sure the Bible says gluten-y is a sin.

Those are pretty petty things, yet they can cause problems within the church. Our focus this morning is going to be this: that the greatest danger to any church is division from within. Not from the outside, but from within.

As I was reading over these 4 chapters, I found 5 different examples of issues that were causing division within the Corinthian church. We’re going to take a look at these and see how we might prevent those same issues from affecting Faith Bible Church.

Sound good? We have a lot to cover so we’ll move quickly

Spiritual Immaturity (1 Cor 3:1-3).

The root of division can almost always be found in spiritual immaturity.

1 Corinthians 3:1–3 NKJV

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Paul calls the believers in the church of Corinth “carnal” - sarkinos (sarr-key-nos), it means fleshly. Someone who is dominated by their fleshly desires.

Please don’t mistake and think that Paul is writing to unsaved people here. He is speaking to the believers in the church. 1 Cor 1:2 says that to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, all who call on the name of Jesus Christ. They are believers. Paul preached the gospel to them and they believed. By their faith, they were justified and granted forgiveness and peace with God (Rom 5:1-2), but they were still greatly influenced by worldly thinking and behavior—they were babes in Christ. They are immature.

He knows they are “canal” because of what he wrote in verse 3, that envy, strife, and division is occurring among them. The bickering, the arguing. Compare this to what Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia in Gal 5:19-21, where he writes the works of the flesh are obvious:

Gal 5:19-21 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

These are evidences that you are giving in to your fleshly desires, and if these characteristics are common with you, then maybe you’re a “person of the flesh,” maybe you are being worldly, maybe you are still a babe in Christ.

It had been about 5 years since Paul was in Corinth, and yet the believers still needed spiritual milk, as Paul continues with this analogy. They couldn’t handle anything more solid. They were stuck on the very basics, probably the gospel and the basic doctrinal beliefs.

I like what Warren Wiersbe said, “You can tell a mature person by their diet.” You feed a baby milk, but if all they’re consuming at 5 years old is still milk, something is wrong. They should be transitioning from milk to cheerios and vegetables. Eventually, they are going to transition from milk to meat.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Victor Books, 1996, p. 578.

Can you see why spiritual immaturity causes problems? People are acting like the world, not Christ. Maybe they don’t know because of ignorance, they’re newly saved, or maybe they haven’t matured since they believed. This is going to cause problems. Either because you act like the world, giving in to your fleshly tendencies, or you just don’t know the Scriptures, so you haven’t learned how to think, renew their minds, you’re not putting off and putting on, know what to do, know who God is, etc.

Now, I’m going to save our applications until the end this, morning. Let’s just continue to look at the causes of division within the Corinthian church. First we see spiritual immaturity, secondly we see ...

2. Factions (1 Cor 3:4-9, 18-23)

Sometimes claiming loyalty to a particular preacher or teacher becomes what a believer is known for instead of being known by Christ. Claiming a particular person to follow can cause divisions to happen in the church.

1 Corinthians 3:4–9 NKJV

For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:21–23 NKJV

Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

The believers began focusing on men rather than God. They were following different personalities. God was using both Paul and Apollos to bring people to Christ, but it was God alone who was producing the results. It says in verse 5 that they are both servants of God; they both had their roles. Paul was used to plant the seeds. He was traveling around and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Apollos then had his task of watering the seeds. Apollos was an educated Jew who could powerfully use the OT to back the gospel. He was discipling the believers, he was helping them to spiritually mature. God placed Paul and Apollos in a position to serve God and His purposes. Each had their task. Paul planted seeds, while Apollos’s job was to water.

And the believers were saying, “I’m on team Paul,” and others were saying, “I’m on team Apollos,” when their loyalties should lie with Christ. I think it’s clear how picking sides and loyalties could cause division in the church.

Spiritual Immaturity, 2. Factions, 3. ...

3. Pride (1 Cor 4:6-13)

Pride is the next thing that I find in the text that will cause problems in the church.

1 Corinthians 4:6–13 NKJV

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us—and indeed I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you! For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.

Offscouring - dirty scrapings from skin when cleaning.

Paul is pointing out one of their main problems: pride. Again, it’s not hard to see how pride could divide a church.

Paul just addressed how they were favoring one leader over another, and now they are acting arrogantly in their behaviors. Look at verse 7, “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?”

Paul asks, why do you see yourself as superior, or better than others? What do you have that hasn’t been given to you by God? And he explains to them how everything belongs to God. He was the one who gives and takes away.

I’m currently studying Creation in one of my classes, and we’ve been discussing with each other our Stewardship of God’s creation. In Genesis 1, we learn we are created in God’s image, and then we are given the role of dominion, or stewardship, over everything. We are stewards for God, we manage what is His for His purposes. We are not the owners. If you start viewing everything you have from God like it’s yours to do with as you please, you’re on the fast track to pride.

Believers should have a position of humility before God. They didn’t earn it. Everything we have has been given to us by God.

Paul’s remedy for this pride was telling the Corinthians church to imitate himself, and the other apostles. In verses 9-13 he explains to the Corinthians were acting like they owned the world. “Knock it off,” he says. They had forgotten about the way Jesus suffered, or the way that the apostles were suffering, being treated like the filth of the world. Yet they want to act out in arrogance about what they have and who they are.

Pride will very easily start to cause divisions within the church. Not only are the problems caused by spiritual immaturity, factions, and pride, but also ...

4. Tolerating Willful Sin (1 Cor 5)

1 Corinthians 5:1–5 NKJV

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

For the sake of time, skip down to verse 9.

1 Corinthians 5:9–13 NKJV

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

Wow! Talk about tainting the bride of Christ!

Even as carnal as the city of Corinth was, this sinful relationship was something causing a stir, a buzz. This was something that those sinful Gentile sailors wouldn't even do.

Rather than mourning for this wickedness, the Corinthian believers were proud of their open-mindedness, their tolerance, maybe even their political correctness in allowing this offending believer to remain among them, unaddressed.

Paul instructed them in verse 5 to deliver this man to Satan for destruction, not damnation, but for restoration. That his flesh would be destroyed but his spirit saved. And he gives instruction to the church to stay away from such a man; stay away from people who say they are Christians yet live a life of sin.

Doctrine of Church Discipline

Let’s talk about the Doctrine of Church Discipline.

It seems to me like a lot of people are scared of Church Discipline. They’re very warry of it. Maybe they’re not even sure if they agree with it. So let’s talk about the Doctrine of Church Discipline.

I think many people fail to make the distinction between punishment and discipline, and there is a very significant difference between the two concepts. Punishment has the element of executing retribution for something wrong that has been done. Discipline encourages the restoration of the one in wrongdoing. Punishment is designed primarily to avenge a wrong and assert justice. Discipline is designed as a corrective for the one who has failed to live according to the standards of the Scriptures and the church.

Purpose of Church Discipline

There are 3 reasons for implementing Church Discipline:

Honor for Christs’ church

We don’t want the church’s testimony to be muddied. We want the church to be holy.

Protect the body.

Protect the innocent from corruption and evil.

In verse 6 Paul says that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Just as a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough, so sin can destroy the whole church.

Encourage repentance.

Paul’s decision with the man in Corinth was to remove him from the congregation so that we would turn back.

Matt 18:15 says you may gain your brother.

Stott, John. The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott. Edited by Meynell, Lexham Press, 2018

Process of Church Discipline

This is spelled out for us by Jesus in Matthew chapter 18. We see a clear 4 step process.

Step 1 - Tell him his sin alone (15)

Matthew 18:15 NKJV

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.

The first confronting of sin should be between two people. Not did you hear about so-and-so, but going to the person in love and humility. If he hears you, great, you’ve gained your brother. You’ll grow closer together.

It would be great if all conflict ended at this level, but that’s not always the case.

Step 2 - Take some witnesses (16)

Matthew 18:16 NKJV

But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’

This begins to put the pressure on the person. Maybe they thought it wasn’t a big deal, but when you are confronted by several people, it should wake one up.

And this meeting is still for gaining your brother back; for genuine confession, repentance, and restoration. But what happens when the person still refuses to repent?

Step 3 - Tell the church (17)

Matthew 18:17 (NKJV)

And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

The purpose of discipline is restoration. One person went, and no response. Two to three went, and no response. Now we’re all going after the person pleading with them to repent and be restored.

How long does the church spend encouraging a person to repent? Until prayerfully and through wisdom you believe the person is hardening their heart so much that they will not choose to repent.

This leads to the final step ...

Step 4 - Treat him as an outsider (17)

Matthew 18:17 (NKJV)

And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

Those were not very favorable labels during that time, and Jesus isn’t instructing to treat them poorly, because Jesus loved heathens and tax collectors, but if a believer chooses not to repent of sin, Jesus says to treat them as if they were outside of the church.

We want unbelievers, sinners, to be exposed to the church, but this is addressing a self-proclaimed believer. They are removed from membership and left to their shame and sin. If they truly belong to God, God will keep them, though He may drag them very low.

In devotions this week, in Philippians 1 it says that what God begins in us, He will complete.

MacArthur, John. “The Process of Church Discipline.” The Master’s Plan for the Church. Moody Press, 1991, 240-247.

Don’t be scared of discipline. And confronting sin is not unloving. Just like as a good parent, you discipline your children because you love them. You’re not benefiting your kids to allow them to live in sin. No, we love them, so we discipline them to correct behavior, and bring restoration to relationships, and we discipline those we love out of humility and love. Church discipline is the key to keeping the church pure, which then helps us reach the world for Christ.

Alright, you can relax now, that’s over with, let’s continue on with the last thing that was causing division within the Corinthian church.

5. Brining disputes before unbelievers (1 Cor 6:1-6)

1 Corinthians 6:1–6 NKJV

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!

From the text so far, we know the believers were having strife with one another, they were arguing, they were being arrogant, yet Paul begins this next judgment by saying, “Dare any of you!” take your brother or sister in Christ to court? Why would you take your disagreements before an unbeliever to decide what is right?

The courts during this time were well-known for their corruption, let alone taking your issues before unbelievers, someone who doesn’t have the same godly perspective as you do. And these weren’t serious criminal cases Paul is talking about, because he says these concerns could be handled by the church.

He expounds on this by asking some questions. Verses 2-3, “Don’t you know that the saints (the believers) will judge the world? Don’t you know they will judge the angels?” I think Paul is referring here to Revelation 20 and the millennial reign of Christ with His church. 1,000 years believers will rule and reign with Christ. If the saints can do that, why can’t they solved these trivial issues between each other? Paul says they will judge angels. I’m not sure if this is relating to 2 Peter 2:4 where we read the fallen angels will be judged, or if it just means the saints will rule over the angels in the future, but again, if this is what we are predestined for, why can we not solve our differences?

Is there really not a wise, spiritual person among the congregation that can solve the issues? I will end how how Paul started, "How dare you?” This may sound harsh, but sometimes rebuking is necessary when you’re doing something foolish. Paul says in verse 5 that going before unbelievers is shameful, and to do so will cause division in the church.

Application

So what can we do? What can we learn from the Church in Crisis, the Corinthian church, so that we don’t have division among us here at Faith Bible?

I want to leave you with three points of application.

Have a spiritual plan

Remember that I said, “spiritual maturity is the root of almost all problems within the church.” It is, so we need to have a spiritual plan.

My basketball philosophy, “Continuous Growth.” What are you doing to improve spiritually? …

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Bible study is essential for spiritual growth. 1 Peter 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. You need to develop a spiritual appetite for the spiritual milk of the Word, so that you might grow. It speaks of 3 things: (1) Your attitude toward the Word of God. Just as a baby longs for their mother’s milk, you should long for the Bible. (2) A baby develops an appetite. There are things we don’t like when we first try it, but as you grow and mature, you develop an appetite. (3) The purpose of the spiritual milk is to grow, or mature.

Bible study is essential for spiritual maturity. I want you to write down this passage to read this afternoon, Hebrews 5:11-14. The author here is explaining to his audience that they should be this time be teachers and disciple makers by this time, but they can't because they still need milk and not solid food. You need to discipline yourself and develop godliness due to your exposure to the Word of God. Let’s not be a spiritually immature church, like the church in Corinth.

So have a plan to spend time in God’s Word. Start simple if you have to.

Becoming spiritually mature will take care of the factions, pride, lawsuits, and other issues.

Loyalty to Christ

If we here at Faith Bible church want to say we’re on Team Jason, and we’re on team Frank, that’s going to cause divisions. Both of them are servants of God, and ultimately you’re responsible to Christ. Don’t cause division by dissenting into different groups or sects, be ultimately loyal to Christ!

Confront sin

If you are a believer, confront your sin. Don’t take it lightly. Don’t get offensive if someone confronts you on something. God says, be holy, as I am holy (1 Pet 1:16). Don’t let it go. Sin has serious consequences, that doesn’t just affect you, but others around you. 1 John 1:9.

If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, never put your trust in Him, take care of your sin today. You are headed for hell, a place of punishment and separation from God. Confess your sin, believe in Jesus, and you will be saved.

So have a plan to spiritually mature, develop an appetite for God’s Word, so that we as the church will minimize the division and conflict we have within Faith Bible Church, we won’t be in danger of falling apart, and we can more effectively be light in this world and reach people for Christ!