OPEN: There’s a Methodist minister named J. Gordon Melton who has an interesting hobby. He collects lists of church denominations in the United States... and his research has revealed there are 1517 different recognized denominations in USA. He includes all kinds of groups, including cults such as the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses. Additionally there are a few "peculiar" groups in his list such as:
· "The Church of the Mystery of Universal Wisdom". They believe they can communicate with aliens and they seek guidance from flying saucers.
· "The Embassy of Heaven" (Strayton, Ore.) considers all earthly governments illegitimate and issues its own license plates for cars. No word as to whether Oregon accepts their license plates as legitimate.
· "The Nudist Christian Church of the Blessed Virgin Jesus". Now, I’m not quite sure what all this group teaches… but I’m pretty sure I could recognize them from a mile away. They’d be the ones with no clothes on.
· And the last one that caught my attention was "The Church of God Anonymous". They’re kind of hard to find since they’re (pause) anonymous.
Those are some of the “odd ducks” in the list. But in that list of 1517 denominations there are groups that we would probably consider to be more “normal”.
• There are 88 denominations that call themselves Baptist
• 42 call themselves Methodist
• 22 call themselves Presbyterian – and the list goes on and on.
APPLY: Now contrast that reality to these statements out of Scripture:
Philippians 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel
Ephesians 4:3-6 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
AND OF COURSE:
John 17:20-21 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Now, I find those Scriptures intriguing. They all basically say the same thing: the church SHOULD be ONE. This should be our objective… this should be our passion.
BUT do you think that we’ll EVER attain that goal?
Well, the early church had problems getting it done.
The church had been in existence for somewhere between 3 or 4 years when God had Peter baptize Gentiles without having circumcised them (Acts 10). This created such a furor amongst the Jewish believers (who were all circumcised) that had to hold a big gathering in Jerusalem to hash it out (Acts 15).
At that meeting, Peter and Paul gave testimony of what God had already done amongst the Gentiles. They were so persuasive that the leaders of the church sent out a letter to all the churches telling them that Gentile converts did not need to be circumcised to be saved.
DID THAT SETTLE THE ISSUE? Oh no! From that day on, a group of “circumcisers” went from church to church telling Gentile converts that they were NOT saved unless they submitted to circumcision.
This became such a divisive and troublesome issue that a major portion of Paul’s letters spent time combating this heresy.
So, even the early church couldn’t attain unity.
Does that mean we’ll never get it done?
Probably.
Does that mean we shouldn’t try?
There are those who would suggest it. They look at the all the different denominations and they conclude you’ll never get it done… so why try?
ILLUS: I read one man’s sermon that compared all the disunity in the church to a bunch of crayons. He maintained that all the varying denominations had their own particular colors and distinctions… but in the end they would all go back into the same box.
Now I found that to be a very colorful illustration (get it? Colorful… crayons... you can groan now). But I also found it to be very unbiblical.
Scripture repeatedly commands the church to pursue unity
- “stand firm in ONE spirit, contending as ONE man for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27)
- “Make every effort to keep the UNITY of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1)
- “agree with one another so that there may be NO DIVISIONS among you and that you may be PERFECTLY UNITED in mind and thought.” (I Corinthians 1:10)
These are NOT suggestions… they are marching orders. This is the overriding objective of the church.
In John 17, Jesus didn’t PREDICT unity. He PRAYED for it. He pled for it. And He prayed for unity because He knew that would be the one main difficulty for His church.
If it was so critical an issue that Jesus made it a key priority of His prayer, we need to be His servants to pursue it. But how? Well, there’s three ways that people have tried obtaining unity:
1st – there have been those who have pursued the “box of crayons” approach. They have tried to simply say that every church who claims to be Christian Church is one. It doesn’t matter what they believe. All that matters is that they CLAIM to belong.
Of course the problem with that approach is that, if we followed it to its logical conclusion, we would be forced to accept certain cults (i.e. Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and others) who claim to be Christian but who hold a perverted view of God and Christ, and often add to God’s Word to establish their claims.
That’s not going to work.
2nd – there have been those who’ve tried focus on the doctrines that the majority of churches agree with and use that as their standard of unity. Essentially (they say) we could just boil it all down to the lowest common denominator and what we could essentially agree on would be the basis of unity.
In religious circles this is called “ecumenicalism”
A friend of mine showed me a list of about 7 doctrines that the majority of churches agree on. Things like:
– the divinity of Christ
- the sinfulness of man
- the need for salvation by the blood of Jesus
The ecumenical effort is an attempt to echo something said by Augustine several 100 years ago:
“In essentials unity, In doubtful things liberty, But in all things love.”
That’s a good saying… and it is one of the concepts behind the ecumenical approach. But there’s a couple of problems with this approach.
1st: ecumenicalism seeks the lowest common denominator. It focuses on what MOST denominations can “agree” on. Essentially it’s based upon “majority vote” mindset.
Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, when I told the story about the denomination that voted on their doctrine every couple of years? This OFTEN becomes the result of ecumenicalism. They vote.
And churches that have tried to be “ecumenical” on this basis have often ended up with a soft, pudgy–kind of faith that really stands for very little, and has very little power or substance. Their churches are generally not very exciting because they stand for so little.
The 2nd problem with ecumenicalism is that it tries to have unity while ignoring many the principle causes for division in Christendom.
· it ignores unBiblical terminology that a lot of churches use.
· it ignores man-made names, traditions, and creeds.
· it ignores the many different ways churches invite converts to be saved.
ILLUS: Back when I was still wet behind the ears in my 1st ministry, our church had a joint VBS with one of the denominational churches in town. I liked their preacher, but I made the mistake of letting him give the invitation. His church sprinkled babies and ours only baptized adults… so he was a little unsure of what to do.
He could have simply asked the kids to come forward to make a decision after which he could have counseled the kids that were with his church… and I from the kids in ours. But this guy had an ecumenical twist to his thinking. He got up front and gave the invitation… and I swear he gave those kids 5 different ways to become Christians.
Mark Twain: you can tie 2 cats’ tails together and you have a union – but you do not have unity.
As appealing as ecumenicalism can sound, essentially it’s the practice of tying 2 cats’ tails together… with the resulting confusion and potential conflict.
Now, there’s a 3rd approach to unity – and it’s the one Jesus spoke of in His prayer. Jesus prayed:
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)
What was Jesus saying? He was saying that the only way to true unity was by the power of God’s Word.
· True unity can NOT be attained by consensus.
· True unity can NOT be gained by a majority vote.
· UNITY (in Christ) can only be attained on the basis of Scripture alone.
One of our brotherhood’s more prominent mottos is one we essentially ripped off from Augustine.
“In essentials unity, in opinions liberty, but in all things love”
(pause)
Granted, that’s what the ecumenical churches believe as well, but we reject the notion that unity can be established on the basis of “consensus”.
We believe that most of what creates division in Christendom is the use of man-made creeds, man-made traditions and man-made terminology. We’ve always taught that it doesn’t matter what a church or denomination believes… it only matters what they can support through Scripture.
Thus, it can be difficult for us to decide how freely to fellowship with groups that teach things we can’t find in the Bible.
ILLUS: For example, Larry (the lead singer in our Southern Gospel group “SonShine Boys”) loves Southern Gospel music and he often arranges to have different groups come in to sing to us. A lot of these groups come from denominational backgrounds that differ from us. And while much of what these groups sing is what we already believe they all receive a letter explaining one thing they cannot do in our building.
They are not allowed to talk about “accepting Jesus into your heart”
Or “praying for salvation”
Why not?
Because those concepts aren’t in Scripture. The Bible NO-WHERE gives us an example of anyone bowing their head and praying the “sinner’s prayer to accept Jesus into their heart.
It’s just not in the Bible!
We tell these groups that they are welcome to come and sing on our stage, but they are not welcome to introduce man-made doctrines.
We want unity in Christendom, but we want it solely on the basis of what can be found in Scripture. Nothing more… nothing less.
(pause)
So, we live in culture where there are over 1500 denominations with their various doctrines, and creeds and ways of becoming Christians…how can we strive to create unity in such a divisive atmosphere???
First we need to realize that this is not an issue we can afford to ignore. Scripture makes the concept of unity a high priority and Jesus greatly desires it. Thus, retreating into our fortress and drawing up the drawbridge is not an option. We are commanded to seek the creation of unity.
2nd – we don’t surrender our principles. We can’t solve the problem by simply ignoring it or giving in to it. We have to know what we believe… and why we believe it.
We must cling to the ideal of
· Christ as our only Creed
· The Bible as our only book of authority
· Christian - the only name we should go by
· Love as the law that guides us and binds us together.
3rd, we must never argue. (repeat)
Now, this is a tough one. I find it hard not to get quarrelsome at times.
If you’re convinced you’re right, and the other person is wrong it’s the most natural thing in the world to try to argue them out of it. They’re obviously not listening to you, so you have to turn up the volume and shout them into submission.
But 2 Timothy tells us: “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth” 2 Timothy 2:23-25
Arguing doesn’t leave any room for God to do His thing. If I get quarrelsome, I try to be the authority and power in the conversation…and that’s just not going to work.
ILLUS: At the 1st church I served, I was visiting with a husband and his wife. Lela, the wife, was the most gentle women you could ever encounter. Her husband Marvin wasn’t a bad guy either… but he rarely showed up for church. Couldn’t be bothered.
Well, here I was – just trying to get acquainted – when in walks their daughter and son-in-law. These folks went to church in another town… and they didn’t much like our church. The daughter and her husband began to try to engage me in an argument over baptism… but I wasn’t there to talk about baptism. I was just there to visit.
It was almost embarrassing. Try as I might to turn the conversation to something else, they were insistent on making me defend our position on baptism. But I repeatedly made it clear that I had no intention of getting in to that debate.
In spite of my best efforts, I could sense the whole tenor of the evening going downhill fast…
and as I got into my car, I apologized to God for my failure.
Then, the next week, Marvin was in church. And he was in church the week after that… and the week after that. Then one day, he called me and asked me to come out and talk. He wanted to get baptized.
What had stopped him from doing it before???
Well, every time he got around church people, all they seemed to want to do was argue.
I was the first preacher he’d ever seen try to stay out of an argument… and that was purely by accident.
So, first – realize this is not an option. Unity (on the basis of Scripture) must be a priority.
2nd - know what you believe
3rd – stay away from trying to “argue” people into God’s word
And LASTLY: Love people. As one person wisely noted,
“Most people don’t care what you know. What they want to know is how much you care.”
These are the principle concepts behind our motto:
“In essentials, unity, In opinions, liberty… and in all things love”
