Introduction:
A. The story is told of a preacher who was delivering a children’s sermon about the need for unity.
1. He looked at the children and said emphatically, “God wants us to be one!”
2. On four year-old started to cry and protested, “I’ve already been one, I want to be five!”
B. Being “one” isn’t just a problem for children, it can be a challenge for all of us, adults included.
1. Lucy and Linus from the peanuts comic strip were in a deep conversation.
2. Linus was telling his big sister, “Charlie Brown says that brothers and sisters can learn to get along. He says they can get along the same way mature adults get along. And he says that adults can get along the same way that nations get along.”
3. Linus paused…“At this point the analogy breaks down.”
C. Getting along with each other and experiencing unity is not easy for us human beings.
1. Can you identify the source of this quote? – “A house divided cannot stand.”
2. You might remember that Abraham Lincoln used those words in the debates surrounding the Civil War conflict.
3. But as you may know, Abraham Lincoln did not originate that concept, nor those words.
4. In Mark 3:24,25, Jesus said, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
5. Nowhere is it more important for us to experience peace and unity than in the church.
D. We are in our second lesson in our new series called “The Most Excellent Way,” which is a study of Paul’s letter called First Corinthians.
1. In last week’s lesson we discussed what life was like in Corinth at the time when Paul planted the church there in A.D. 50.
2. Corinth was a very wealthy and very immoral culture, but the Gospel was planted there and the church grew with great success.
3. Paul stayed there for 18 months, but then moved on to Ephesus.
4. Several years after leaving, Paul got word that the church was in trouble, there were many problems facing that young church.
5. So, Paul wrote them a series of letters to address the problems.
6. Nevertheless, one of the truths we rejoiced in last week is that in spite of all the problems in the life of the church in Corinth, Paul stilled considered them brothers and sisters.
7. They were still the church and Paul was still thankful for them in spite of all their problems.
8. The same should be true for us as we work with each other here at Wetzel Road.
E. Now, given all the problems at Corinth, where would one begin trying to deal with them?
1. Which problem should be addressed first?
2. When the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write this letter, He led Paul to first address the problem of division.
3. I think this is hardly coincidental or accidental, for if this problem was not resolved first, then most of the other problems discussed later in the letter either wouldn’t need to be addressed, or could not be effectively addressed without unity.
I. Assessing the Problem of Division
A. Paul revealed that he was aware of the problem through information he had received from members of Chloe’s household.
1. The specific identities of these people are unknown to us.
2. We know that the name “Chloe” is a woman’s name, and one often used among the “well-to-do”.
3. It seems reasonable to assume that she is a member of the church in Corinth, and that those in her household are either her children or servants, also likely Christians.
4. On the other hand, she may be a part of the church in Ephesus, and some from her household have traveled to Corinth and have returned with this news.
5. We really don’t know. What we do know is that what is reported to Paul is taken very seriously, so he regards it as not merely rumor.
6. I happen to think that Paul mentioned her household by name because those to whom he is writing are people who obviously respect her as well.
B. Paul identifies the problem as quarrels about allegiance to certain leaders.
1. He says, “What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’” (1:12)
2. In some respects, it is pointless to speculate concerning the differences of teaching or emphasis which were characteristic of the four groups identified here, because Paul doesn’t give us much information to work with.
3. But for illustrative purposes, I’d like us to spend a few minutes speculating on what the different parties aligned behind these leaders might have been embracing causing the divisions.
4. This might help us see ourselves, and how division might creep up between us here at Wetzel.
C. The first of the parties boasted, “I follow Paul.”
1. Being a preacher and leader of God’s people, I can tell you that Paul was not happy that some were boasting of following him, personally.
2. All of us who lead want to be appreciated and held in high esteem, certainly, but we don’t want people to line up behind us, we want them to line up behind Christ.
3. So what might be going on with this group claiming to follow Paul?
4. They might be suffering from the “founding-father syndrome.”
a. Paul was their preacher. He had brought them to Christ, and even though he was gone and a new preacher had come and taken over, they were still followers of Paul.
b. In their mind, no one would ever be as good as good old Paul.
c. They remembered and longed for the good old days when Paul was their preacher.
5. The other thing that may characterize the Paul group is that they most likely were Gentiles who enjoyed Paul’s focus on freedom and the end of a bondage to the Jewish Law.
6. It is quite possible that this group had turned their liberty into license to sin.
7. Can you sense that you might be drawn to the founding father trap or to the freedom group? Is that the group you would have aligned with?
D. The second party boasted, “I follow Apollos.”
1. This group may have fallen into the “outstanding-preacher syndrome.”
2. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, Egypt which was a center of intellectual activity.
3. He was an eloquent speaker, and knowledgeable in the Scriptures.
4. The Alexandrians were specialists in allegorizing the Scriptures.
5. They could find the most obtuse and complex teachings in the simplest of biblical writings.
6. They were always in search of a new idea, a new insight, a cleverly worded message.
7. For them, Paul was too plain.
8. By his own admission, Paul said he wasn’t a very good preacher. He simply told the truth in a plain and straightforward fashion. Apollos was their superstar preacher.
9. Can you sense that you might be drawn to the outstanding preacher trap?
E. The third group boasted, “I follow Cephas.”
1. Cephas is the Jewish form of the name of Peter.
2. We have no official record that Peter had ever visited Corinth, but he may have, and even so, he may have had a following.
3. Perhaps this group is made up of mostly Jews who saw themselves as traditionalists.
4. They may have minimized grace and maximized allegiance to the Law.
5. Their hearts were committed to Peter and Jerusalem, after all, Peter had walked with Jesus and he was “the rock,” and that was enough for them.
6. Can you sense that the traditional group might be your group?
F. The final group is most puzzling of all, they boast, “I follow Christ.”
1. Isn’t that what every Christian should be boasting? So something else must be going on.
2. Perhaps this group may have been claiming Christ in some kind of exclusivistic way.
3. William Barclay describes them as persons whose real fault is not in saying that they belong to Christ, but in acting as if Christ belongs to them.
4. So these folks may have felt like they had a super relationship with Christ, like a direct pipeline to God.
5. They were arrogant and self-righteous.
6. They may have looked down on all the other lesser Christians who didn’t know the truth like they did, and weren’t as pious and pure as they were. They were the real committed group.
7. Can you sense that this would have been the group you would have sided with?
G. Like I said, earlier, these are all speculations that I have employed to illustrate how easily we all can get sucked into dividing into groups that begin to do battle with each other.
1. There are a few observations I want to point out.
2. First of all, we have to acknowledge that the early church wasn’t perfect.
a. Sometimes we like to idealize the early church as if the first-generation of Christianity enjoyed a pure, untroubled honeymoon period.
b. There is no evidence of that in the New Testament.
c. Right from the very start, the apostles found themselves struggling to keep the gospel pure, and struggling to keep the churches unified.
3. Another important observation is to note that three of the four parties were not aligned with Paul.
a. This may mean that Paul’s authority was in serious jeopardy with a sizable number in the church. That could have made it hard to lead them to unity.
4. The final observation is just the fact that the contentions within the body at Corinth were centered around personalities and ministries.
a. The things that divide churches are seldom “doctrinal issues” so much as personal loyalties.
b. An elder doesn’t get his way, or a preacher is asked to leave, or some member is miffed because his or her great idea is not embraced – and the church chooses up sides, has a nasty fuss and splits.
H. Anyone who has ever lived through a church split will tell you that they never want to go through that again. Some of you know exactly what that pain is like.
1. Twice in my life, I have been associated with churches that have experienced division.
2. The first was when I was in my early teens, and the second was when I was in my early 20s.
3. Both times I was overcome with sadness as I watched relationships sever and people fall by the wayside.
4. Satan loves to destroy the church through disunity and division.
5. Unfortunately, we are often easily used as Satan’s instruments in the church’s destruction.
II. Addressing the Problem of Division
A. So how did Paul address the problem of division at Corinth?
B. Paul began with an appeal.
1. Paul did not approach them as a threatening parent with a rod, but as a loving brother and concerned teacher.
2. The word “appeal” in the Greek means to tenderly come alongside and urge.
3. Paul called on the various groups to come together as one.
4. Verse 10 reads, “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.”
5. The last thing that God wants for His people is division.
6. The word in the Greek translated “division,” is the word schismata, which literally refers to a garment that is torn apart.
7. Paul appeals to them to have agreement that they may be united, literally being knit back together again.
8. The Greek word used here is katarizo, can be used medically to describe the knitting together of bones that have been fractured, or joining together a joint that has been dislocated.
9. It was also used for the mending of fishing nets.
C. Just what is this unity supposed to look like?
1. Is this “perfect united-ness” a kind of uniformity?
a. Absolutely not. God is not interested in producing carbon-copy Christians.
b. Later on in his letter, Paul will emphasize the importance of diversity.
2. Is this “perfect united-ness” a peace at any price?
a. Certainly not. Paul will go on in his letter to be clear about the need for doctrinal purity and godly lifestyles.
b. Paul is not prepared to avoid conflict, so as to enable a superficial sense of unity.
3. This unity that Paul describes is the establishment of a central focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ.
a. Paul asked that this agreement in unity be “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (vs. 10)
b. And then Paul ended the paragraph emphasizing that his ministry was not about drawing people to himself, but about preaching the gospel, and not in a way that draws attention to himself, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. (vs. 17)
D. Paul’s next move as he addressed the problem, was to pose a series of biting rhetorical questions – all implying the answer “no.”
1. Paul asked, “Is Christ divided?” I’m told that it could be more precisely translated, “Has Christ been divided up and parceled out?”
a. Obviously Christ is not divided, so how can his people be?
2. Even more telling are the next two questions, which make the point that no merely human preacher can ever be the basis for the church’s faith and unity.
3. So Paul asked, “Was Paul crucified for you?” and “Were you baptized into the name of Paul?”
4. Those questions are so absurb.
5. As we all know, our spiritual salvation and life depends entirely on Jesus and His death on the cross and our union with Him in baptism.
6. The church is saved and sustained only in the name of Jesus – not in the name of Paul, Apollos, or Cephas.
7. When this truth is kept clearly in focus, petty rivalries and preferences for different preachers are seen in their true light – they are simply ridiculous.
E. Some have used this passage to disparage baptism, but nothing could be further from the truth.
1. When Paul says that he was not sent to baptize, he does not depreciate baptism, but rather indicates that some of the Corinthians had failed to understand its significance.
2. Baptism does not bind a person to the preacher who performs the baptism.
3. New Testament baptism is “in the name of Jesus Christ” and binds the person being baptized to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
4. Paul seems to have been aware of the possibility of personality cults emerging, and so it appears to have been his deliberate pattern to allow his ministry partners to do the baptizing, rather than himself.
Conclusion:
A. So what lessons can we take for ourselves from today’s text?
1. First of all, hopefully we can appreciate God’s desire for unity among His people, and make a renewed commitment to doing all we can to be perfectly united in mind and thought.
2. Second, hopefully we have recognized some of the traps that we can fall into that lead to disunity and division.
B. How can a person split a church?
1. All we have to do is forget who died for us. Jesus is our Savior.
2. Forget, to whom we belong. Jesus is our Lord.
3. Forget what is our purpose and mission. To preach the gospel and point folks to Jesus.
C. When we forget that it is all about Jesus, then it is easy to get off track.
1. We begin to fight about everything.
2. We jockey to gain control so we can have it our way.
3. We draw attention to ourselves as we make sure that we get the credit for what is accomplished.
D. The key to the Corinthian unity and ours as well is a focus on Jesus.
1. That’s why Paul is going to point their attention, and ours, for the rest of this chapter and the next, to the cross.
2. The key to being perfectly united in mind and thought is to have the mind of Christ.
E. A.W. Tozer, in his book, The Pursuit of God, wrote, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
F. May God make us one as we keep our individual and collective focus on Jesus Christ.
1. I’m reminded of the words to two hymns we know and love to sing.
2. The first calls us to: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full on His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
3. The second reminds us that: “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity may one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love!”
G. Let us love the Lord and love each other, and keep our eyes focused on Christ. Amen.
Resources:
The (Im)Perfect Church (Studies in 1 Corinthians), Rubel Shelly, 21st Century Christian, 1983.
First Corinthians (Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching), Richard Hays, John Knox Press, 1997.
1 Corinthians (The NIV Application Commentary), Craig L. Blomberg, Zondervan, 1994.
1 Corinthians (Bible Study Guide), Charles R. Swindoll, Insight For Living, 1977.
“Appeal for Unity,” by John Huffman, Jr. Sermon, September 25, 2005
