Divisions in the Church

Introduction

Good morning church and thank you for joining us in worship this morning. Turn with me in your bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10. Today we are going to talk about unity in the church and the struggles that Corinth was feeling with finding it in Christ. It reminds me of Lucy.

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.

"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."

"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"

Charles Schultz.

Tension

The church in Corinth was fractured in its allegiance and it’s purpose, subsequently, because of those divides. There existed many churches within the church because of personalities and followings. These issues are still very much alive and well in our time and we are prone to fall into these traps if we don’t make efforts to learn and guard ourselves. So in order to better understand, let’s get right into it this morning as we read together starting in chapter 1:10.

Truth

1 Corinthians 1:10–17 (ESV)

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.

16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Pray

Exposition

Remembering the authority and position that Paul quoted last week in verses 1-9, as well as his call to remember that there is only one church: the Church of Christ, we now see some of those statements come into focus. Paul is appealing the the church, in verse 10, and by the authority that Christ has given him as an apostle, to challenge this church in their disagreements. They are to be unified, the word here meaning literally to be “knit together” and instead they are divided. They are have the same mind and yet, they are widely known to be divisive and quarrelsome. They are to have the same judgment and yet they are all over the place. That unity, that mind, that judgement are not supposed to be their own either; they are to have the same mind of and in Christ. This, we spoke to last week when we discussed the goal of our unity to to walk in Christ. In essence, Juston’s opinion isn’t what counts. That’s not my goal or my gift that I bring to the church. Instead I bring my hope, my gifts, my relationship with Christ, my knowledge of the scriptures, my personal walk, my relationships, my failures and the lessons Christ has revealed to me through them, and I bring all of that to the body of the church to be used as Christ reveals and gives me opportunity. My goal is to be how he’d have me be for the good of this place and these people. Church family, that should be your goal as well. That we would rally and be united around seeing Christ’s will being done in our community and in our midst.

Paul then outlines specifics. Chloe, a member of the church that felt alarmed enough to bring the news to Paul and seek his advice, is the source of his information. His address in verse 11 of them as “brothers” seeks to harsher the blow of his words while outlining the issue of their arguments. They are not enemies but brothers. The source of these squabbles seems to be one that has been directly caused by personalities and followings around leaders and teachers.

It’s important to note that these 4 teachers had done nothing to cause or endorse these disagreements but the fractures are surrounding more than just the names.

Paul- No doubt, the sect that claimed affiliation with Paul belonged to the gentile party. They were guilty often of hearing only part of Paul’s words and teachings on Christian liberty and freedom from the law. Often this would lead to living however they saw fit, giving them liberty and licence to go after whatever lifestyle they wanted. They, of course, were forgetting the parts that Paul harped on about being set free from their sin, saved, not to live in sin but be unshackled by it.

Apollos- We find reference to Apollos in Acts 18:24

Acts 18:24 (ESV)

24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.

Alexandria was the centre of intellectual activity, the cutting edge of scientific and scholastic endeavors regarding the scriptures. Often the would dive heavy into texts declaring connections that almost required a sort of Philosophical education to see or understand. Very much, the enterprise of academic scripture readings and interpretations finds its origins in Alexandria’s back yard. As such, many who flocked to the teaching an preaching of Apollos found the academic nature of such hidden nuggets superior to the elementary teachings of others.

Cephas- Cephas is the Jewish form of Peter’s name. These people were most likely Jews who wanted Jewish law taught and lived by. They were legalists who exalted Law, and, by doing so, belittled grace.

Christ- one of two answers is available, one being that there was a group that identified with Christ. However, their sin would not be saying that they belonged to Christ but in acting as if He belonged to them alone. Perhaps a little self-righteous, intolerant. Secondly, it could be that this does not describe a party at all but a Greek language jumble. There is no punctuation in Greek. It is possible that Paul is saying “I am of Paul, I am of Apollos; I am of Cephas— but I (meaning Paul) belong to Christ.”

Next Paul goes through discourse surrounding baptism in verse 13.

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.

16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

He name drops Crispus, Gaius, and Stephanas as those he did baptize. You’ll remember that Crispus was the leader of the synagogue. Gaius was his host as told by Romans 16:23, and scholars suggest that Stephanas might have been Paul’s first convert in Corinth when he arrived.

Despite the names, Paul is not seeking to belittle baptism here at all but to sum up the truth, the name of the guy who baptized you is far let important than the name of the one you were baptized to proclaim.

Christ is not divided into sub-factions depending on who your preacher or teacher was. The objective is to know Jesus, to follow Jesus, not to be discipled into the church of Apollos or Paul for that matter.

This brings into question the matter of modern day denominational groups and churches in our nation and throughout the world. It’s been say loudly and proudly that we all “just need to get along” and quit all this denominational infighting. After all, we are all apart of the big “C” Church, isn’t that enough? So Juston, what would this passage say to those critiques of the modern church and even our own “Baptist” denominational structures? Shouldn’t we play nice with other Christians. Well yes, of course, and no, of course. I’ll explain in moment, but suffice it to say here for now that we must do our due diligence to make sure that we do in fact actually serve the same Christ when we claim unity in Him.

Lastly, we find Paul summing up his whole apeal

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

For Paul and for us we must maintain and remember that the power of the church, the power of the word, the power of the Bible, serving one another, the fellowship we have, the unity we have, the entire function and meaning of Baptism in the first place is only available because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to save sinners from themselves.

No matter how good the message or the messenger or the mission trip or the project or how many people you fed, or how many orphans you clothed or how many wells we dug, if we preach or teacher or serve without sharing the hope of the gospel we’ve missed the point and the power Christ can offer. We serve yes, we love yes, we feed yes, but we do these things so that we can share the hope that Jesus brings. No matter how big the baptism rally, the eloquent the message or the messenger— it must be about Jesus to have any power. Oh that we would believe this again. Church, all we have to offer is Jesus and thank God almighty, he is enough.

So, as we move now into our time of application lets think on the lessons the words has laid out for us and think on the 3 changes that scripture calls us to make when it comes to truth.

Belief

Attitude

Behavior.

In most cases, the scriptures has something to teach us and change in us on one of these 3 fronts. So let us consider them now.

Application

Whatever you win them with is whatever you win them too—Christ is the Main Event Always. Belief Change.

Crossroads Church in Cincinnati came under alot of scrutiny for their Super Bowl service that involved them having a Super Bowl Preach off service. The service included all of their staff clad to the 9’s in NFL apparel, the stage converted into a football field, a woman kicking the bible in a football cover over the pastor’s head, and even a man dressed as a referee swinging on the stage in on a wrecking ball, simulating a popular song by Milee Cyrus. Thankfully, he had a tremendous amount more clothes than she did when she sang it. In a word church, what where you thinking? The church responded to many calling out their antics by claiming their teams where seeking to do something creative that would engage the audience. The seeker sensitive movement, as it has been coined, in church started around 95-2010 in which we declared that we needed to whatever we could to make church more seeker sensitive and help non-churched people get into the door. It has at this point evolved into a multi-headed hydra, a beast that we must keep feeding lest we loose our numbers and our influence.

Friends, simply put, whatever we win people with, we win them too. If we share the gospel truth that Jesus can save and that he is the answer, and a person has the lights turned on in their life by that truth we’ve won. If you have to have a smoke machine, a top tier band, a world class building, 4.5 million dollar children’s facilities, and 13 campuses to do it, we might be in danger of making Jesus an after thought. That is not to say that all mega churches are bad or that their is something wrong with reaching the seekers. We must however, ask ourselves, always, are week making Jesus the main thing or is something else taken his place.

Take great efforts seek to be more influenced by the truth of the Scriptures than by personalities. Attitude/Behavior Change.

3 points i’d like to make surrounding this topic.

First, Truth first and trust foremost. Unity for unities sake is not the goal either. We can’t just prize unity to the extent that we are willing to look past error or sometimes outright blasphemy. We have unity, as Paul stated “in the same mind and the same judgment.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Essence of Separation, quoted in The Berean Call, July, 1992, p. 4.

"To remain divided is sinful! Did not our Lord pray, that they may be one, even as we are one"? (John 17:22). A chorus of ecumenical voices keep harping the unity tune. What they are saying is, "Christians of all doctrinal shades and beliefs must come together in one visible organization, regardless... Unite, unite!"  Such teaching is false, reckless and dangerous. Truth alone must determine our alignments. Truth comes before unity.  Unity without truth is hazardous. Our Lord's prayer in John 17 must be read in its full context. Look at verse 17: "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." Only those sanctified through the Word can be one in Christ. To teach otherwise is to betray the Gospel.

The simple Gospel as told by the Word of God teaches us that Christ is the main event and we cannot see him rightly, understand him truly, or follow him in truth whilst looking to anything other than his word. Scripture is the road map for unity and we must bring our fellowship around its truth and challenge, encourage, and admonish one another to hold to its words. To be sure, some denominational divides are silly but some are grounded on doctrinal necessities that can’t be overlooked because salvation and truth hang in the balance when we decide to teach anything other than the truth of the Word of God.

Secondly, not only this, but also we must move past the struggle that was felt back, even in their day to follow the best and brightest. In a world of branding, influencers, and entertainment driven social hits, the best and most elegant speakers, authors, and influencers float to the top as pseudo-celebrities.

I was reading the other day an article that decried the plight of the local small town church in an age when such great voices and preachers are but a click away. There was once a time when you went to the church that was in town, the same as your mom, the same as your grandma. You served and raised your kids, and you listened to anointed preaching from your small town church pastor, we will call him Clyde. He loved the church and the church loved him and he served faithfully for years alongside those he lived next too. This was the way. However, now in a world of world wide reach, people in your small town church now listen to sermons, not just from Clyde, but from the bigger and more eloquent guys in your area. Not them alone but also John MacArthur, John Piper, Tim Keller, Adrian Rogers. And now they feel shortchanged. Clyde may have preached faithfully and been there at the bedside of grandma when she passed but faithful preaching can, all of the sudden, feel not enough when you see your guy standing across from the likes of the greats. Who could hold a candle to the prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon? Yet we might not realize that each preacher, in each church, in their day, in their time, in their mission field is not to be compared to MacArthur, or Spurgeon, or Paul, or Apollos. They are to be faithful to the calling they have been entrusted with for their time.

Third, All men are fallible. All men can get some things right while also having somethings horribly wrong. Do not be so terribly invested in personalities, pastors, authors, teachers, or churches that you become wholesale accepting of all they say or do. Including me. Challenge the message against the truth of the scriptures. If it holds up—good! If it does not- find where the error is. Perhaps it happened in mistake and you can, in love correct your brother. Perhaps it was not in error but in purpose. Then we can bring about hopes to restore and educate and invest ourselves in our brothers and even our pastors. We must always be using sound discernment about not only the message but sometimes the messenger as well.

Ravi Zaccharias, the case of the amazing apologist and teacher, is one such black eye that we must learn from and change our ways in. He was held in such high esteem and lauded as too big, to high, and too holy to be, even held accountable to his own organizations leaders. Yet, it was found to be after his death that the esteemed apologize was really the altar ego of a man who engaged in the horrendous and un-biblical behavior that he preached against, objectifying and abusing countless women over the length of his entire career. Friends, no man is too big or too holy to fail. In my time growing up in the faith I have seen too many of the men that I would have driven across the nation to hear preach just once, outed not only from their churches but from the ministry entire. Some for issues of ego, others for moral failures, some for secret lives hidden so deep their own families were caught unaware.

What lessons should we pluck from such struggle. The word is true and infallible. Cling to it and to those who champion it. The only difference between me and any man is 5 minutes and a choice. That goes for all of us, Pastors and ministers included. Pastors are just as sinful as all of us are and prone to the same struggles and temptations. Pastors need your prayers. They need your support. They need friends who will care, not only for their ministry but also their inner lives. Do not fall prey to the traps of our culture’s celebrity obsession and surround yourself with men and women who hold, not to their brand or their growth, but to the brand of Jesus and the gospel He gives that sets men free. To those who use whatever platform they’ve been given to champion the cause of Christ. And those who live the convictions of the word out in example, for the glory of Christ, not their own personal image.

Emulate Paul’s lack of Ego here. It’s not about you or your crowds or your followers. Its about Jesus. Belief/Attitude Change

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Paul was well aware that he wasn’t the best preacher or the greatest speaker. Yet it did not matter to him. He was Paul and Christ called him to be Paul. He wasn’t supposed to be Apollos or Cephas, or Jesus. He was there to point the way and build churches. Its about Jesus. Do not get trapped in the comparison game because, as President Teddy Roosevelt said, “ Comparison is the thief of Joy.” There will always be somebody better but there will never be another person who is called to be faithful to where you are being called to serve. He made you for this time, for this spot, for this purpose. Mom’s-raise them kids in the admiration and knowledge of the Lord. Pray for them diligently and show them what it means to have a momma that goes to battle for her family. Don’t seek validation from scrolling through other people’s vacation highlights. Dad’s raise up those kids to know that they are not who this world says they are. That they are more than conquerors in Christ who saves them. Be that conqueror in your home and don’t bail. Spend as much time investing in your kids as you do working on your swing, checking the game cameras, or updating the scores. Husbands, wives, cherish your home, your marriage, and celebrate it in your home rather than looking to other couples and what they have going on to validate your marriage. Your job doesn’t define you. Your success doesn't validate you. Being better than the Jones’ is fleeting and unfulfilling. Instead, hold fast to this truth: Your worth comes not by being the best at anything. It comes from Jesus Christ who saw you in your sin, bought you with his life, and has set you apart as a saint for his purposes. No one else even gets a say in your worth. He holds the deed to your soul and no one can even bring a charge against you brother. Its’ about jesus.

Landing.

Some simple assignments.

Could you tell someone the simple gospel if asked right now? Practice it this week and pray for an opportunity to share it with someone who doesn’t know Jesus.

Are there authors, teachers, preachers, commentators, podcasts, ect who command more of your time and your devotion than you have in the Word itself? What steps can you make this week to change it so that you are getting more word than commentary?

Are there any disagreements in your life right now that you have with another brother or sister that is dividing you that doesn’t honor God? Make steps this week to repent if necessary, reconnect if possible, and decide to have a heart that forgives and values unity.

Can you genuinely say that you are comfortable being who Christ has gifted you to be? Christ must increase, I must decrease. Share with the Lord and someone else this week areas where ego still is a problem.