Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

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THE CAUSE OF CHRISTIAN DISUNITY

The Church is a living body of believers in Christ.

It is a family, a spiritual family, populated by flesh and blood Christians.

And just like what happens in real families, love, joy, peace, unity, disunity can be experienced in the Church.

For in stance, it did not take a long time for fault lines of division to develop in the early Church ().

Thank God through the help of the Holy Spirit, the Church dealt with it.

They selected men full of the Holy Spirit, with no tribal inclinations to supervise the sharing of provisions to the needy.

The will of God is for His Church is to exist in unbroken peace, love and unity.

The Holy Spirit operates freely where there is peace, love and unity.

Where there is disunity and lack of love and peace, the cause must be discovered and dealt with as swiftly as possible.

Corrective measures should be applied as soon as possible.

The congregation should pursue unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The apostle Paul commended the Corinthian Church for their many wonderful Spiritual blessings.

They were (i) Sanctified in Christ; (ii) Called to be saints; (iii) Recipients of Grace and Peace from God; (iv) Recipients of Numerous Spiritual Gifts; (v) The Testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in them; (vi) Called into fellowship with Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Great blessings!

But he had to bring to their notice the unchristian behaviour that was surprisingly rampant in the Church.

There are lots of lessons we can learn from this.

Those of us who are pastors or workers or even normal Christian Church members, should learn this crucial lesson from Paul.

This is the very style of correction by our Lord Jesus Christ (,), and as a true follower of Christ, this should also be your method of dealing with people who err from the truth.

1. CAUSES OF CHRISTIAN DISUNITY

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There are many things that can cause disunity and take away love and peace from the Church.

Some (if not all) of these are linked to lack of understanding of Scriptures () and carnality.

Many Christians (even committed one) do err, due to lack of understanding of Scriptures!

They reach wrong conclusions and pass wrong judgements due to lack of understanding of Scriptures.

Here are some of the things that cause loss of peace and unity.

(i) Negligence Due To Ethnic/Racial Inclination

Acts 6:1-6

Those who divide the Church along ethnic, racial or tribal lines are not following Christ’s principles but worldly principles.

Division occurs when a Church begins to grow.

Satan hates a growing Church and would do anything to try to stop it.

In this incident division started with members murmuring.

God hates murmuring, and we are warned against it (; ; ; ; ).

God sent a swift judgement against Israel for murmuring.

But He also send them a cure in His mercy.

The surprise is that in spite of God’s warning against murmuring, many Christians still murmur!

Murmuring creates factions.

In the early Church, racial discrimination caused the negligence of the Grecian widows, and negligence caused the murmuring and division in the Church.

If we want to see the power of God in action in this Church, we must obey God and avoid murmuring.

If anyone calls you aside to start murmuring or gossiping, just excuse yourself immediately and get away from them.

Do not let anyone drag you into the sin of murmuring or gossiping.

(ii) Disagreement on Ministry Methods

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Disagreement in ministry methods is one of the major causes of division and disunity in the Church.

Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement over who should follow them to the mission field!

John Mark left Paul and Barnabas during one of their missionary journeys, and Paul did not want to God with Him again.

But Barnabas wanted Him to come along.

This caused a sharp disagreement, and Paul and Barnabas separated.

Paul chose Silas and carried on with his work.

Some ministers look at this story and immediately condemn Barnabas as a failure.

No he wasn’t.

I believe that God’s Purpose for Barnabas was fulfilled.

His name translates as Son of Encouragement (); He greatly encouraged the Church (); He vouched for Paul when the disciples were suspicious of him (); He was one of the leaders of the early Church and was sent on missionary work with Paul ().

The cause of this disagreement was too insignificant to have been allowed to affect the partnership of these great apostles.

In the end, Barnabas was able to strengthen Mark in the faith.

Paul later found him profitable in the ministry (); Mark became the writer of the second Gospel.

He also became one of the bishops of the early Church.

And the Church of God was blessed.

Ministers, please remember .

(iii) Holier Than Thou Attitudes

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In the early Church, the Jewish believers felt superior to the gentile believers, and carried on with their custom of not eating with the gentiles.

They couldn’t see how they could have fellowship to the extent of eating together with gentile believers.

Though they knew that the gentiles have become believers, they still felt superior to them.

Yet, the Church of God knows no race, nor tribe, nor ethnicity.

There is no superior or inferior person in the Church, but Christ is all and in all.

Lay aside pride.

Lay aside ethnicity or racial discrimination.

Yes, you may have more maturity as a believer, but that should not make you proud.

Rather you should fear least you sin against the weak brethren of the Lord by your pride, and lest the Lord bring you low because of your pride ().

holier than thou attitude will divide the Church.

(iv) Arrogance Resulting From Gifts

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Arrogance is vehemently condemned in the Bible.

It is one of the seven things God hates ().

Many in the Corinthian Church became arrogant because of their spiritual gifts.

What are some of the things that can cause arrogance in the Church today?

Wealth, education, work status, family background, position in church, nearness to people in authority…!

All these can cause some believers to become proud and arrogant.

God has decreed that proud and arrogant people shall be humbled (,; ).

Believers are to be like our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. he came to serve, not to be served.

He came to give His life, not to preserve it ().

So let the same mind be in you, that is, behave the same was as Jesus did ().

(v) Groupings In the Church

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This Church was riddled with factions.

One faction belonged to Paul, another to Peter, another to Apollos, and yet another to Jesus!

They created a fractured Church, with people gathering around their own chosen, favourite teacher.

There were four factions in the church.

One group followed Paul, and they may have been predominantly Gentiles, because he was the apostle to the Gentiles.

Another group followed Apollos, the learned orator (), probably because they enjoyed his wonderful speaking.

The third group, probably Jews, leaned toward Peter, the apostle to the Jews (), and the fourth group tried to prove it was more spiritual than the rest by following “Christ alone” and rejecting human leaders.

Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p.

419).

Paul had to rebuke them.

Paul did not die for them.

Christ was not divided.

The whole Church belonged to Him.

Paul had to rebuke them.

Paul did not die for them.

Christ was not divided.

The whole Church belonged to Him.

Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p.

419).

(v) Carnality Among Believers