A young rabbi found a serious problem in his new congregation. During the Friday service, half the congregation stood for the prayers and half remained seated, and each side shouted at the other, insisting that theirs was the true tradition. Nothing the rabbi said or did helped to solve the impasse. Finally, in desperation, the young rabbi sought out the synagogue's 99-year-old founder.
He met the old rabbi in the nursing home and poured out his troubles. “So tell me,” he pleaded, “was it the tradition for the congregation to stand during the prayers?”
“No,” answered the old rabbi.
“Ah,” responded the younger man, “then it was the tradition to sit during the prayers.”
“No,” answered the old rabbi.
“Well,” the young rabbi responded, “what we have is complete chaos! Half the people stand and shout and the other half sit and scream.”
“Ah,” said the old rabbi, “that was the tradition” (P. J. Alindogan, The Potter's Jar blog, “Communicate and Relate,” 9-4-11; www.PreachingToday.com).
Sad to say, that’s the tradition in some of our churches, as well. Our society has become so divisive. People shout and scream at each other over politics, covid protocols, and personal preferences. And some of that divisiveness has infected the church.
Thankfully, I don’t see it here yet, but we have to be on guard that the divisiveness in the world stays out of the church. The question is: How? How do we keep our differences from dividing us? How do we keep our disagreements from turning into schisms that will ruin our testimony in this community? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, where God addresses a church full of problems which threaten to split it wide open.
1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree [literally, say the same thing], and that there be no divisions among you [i.e., no tearing apart], but that you be united [mended or sewn back together] in the same mind and the same judgment (ESV).
God wants his church to…
COME TOGETHER.
Be whole. Be unified in word, attitude, and purpose. Agree on the church’s basic beliefs and primary purpose.
First, proclaim the same message, focusing on the Gospel itself. Jesus is Lord! Jesus died for our sins and rose again, and He offers eternal life to anyone who believes in Him. That’s the message! Everything else is periphery, which can and will divide us. So proclaim the same message.
And second, pursue the same mission. Be united in purpose.
God calls us as a church to equip people to follow Jesus, so that they KNOW Him personally, GROW in their relationship with Him, SERVE Him as He has gifted them to serve, and SEND others to do the same. Let me say it again. God calls us as a church to equip people to follow Jesus, so that they KNOW Him personally, GROW in their relationship with Him, SERVE Him as He has gifted them to serve, and SEND others to do the same. Or as Jesus put it, “Make disciples.”
Proclaim the same message – the gospel. Pursue the same mission – make disciples. Otherwise, we will be torn apart. We will be divided.
The word “divisions” in verse 10 pictures a piece of cloth being ripped apart. And that’s what happens when churches lose sight of their message and their mission. They are ripped apart into various schisms.
Several years ago (2004), a controversy arose in Switzerland over the famous St. Bernard dogs at the St. Bernard hospice. The dogs, wearing barrels marked with a red cross, had been involved in the rescue of more than 200,000 people in the Swiss Alps for three centuries. However, with the last rescue happening in 1955, the monks at the hospice sought another organization to take care of the large dogs.
They had gone 50 years without working a single rescue! Helicopters and emergency personnel had replaced the dogs and the monks with faster and safer methods of rescue.
So Father Frederic Gaillard wanted to get rid of the dogs, because he said “they take up too much energy” for the four monks that were left. He wanted to shift the focus of the hospice back on people, not the dogs, but he received a lot of criticism. He transferred care of the dogs anyway to the Barry foundation at Martigny in Switzerland.
St. Bernard of Menthon founded the hospice in A.D. 1050 to minister to weary and distressed travelers. That was 650 years before they used the first dogs. Then, in 1700, their focus shifted to raising and keeping dogs for 300 years. At first, the dogs helped in rescues. Now, with the dogs gone, St. Bernard hospice is primarily a tourist attraction during the summer months (This Time It's the Faithful Hero That Needs the Rescue, www.aolsvc. news.aol.com, 10-27-04).
That’s what happens when an organization loses sight of its primary mission. St. Bernard hospice forgot that their primary mission was saving lives, not taking care of dogs. As a result, there was division and disunity before St Bernard’s became a museum for tourists.
The same thing happens in churches. When they forget that their primary mission is making disciples, not maintaining buildings and programs, then there is division and eventually dissolution.
But that’s not what God wants for His church. Instead, God wants us to be whole. God wants us to be united and knitted together around a single purpose.
The word “united” in vs.10 pictures a torn piece of cloth being sewn back together. People used it in Bible days to describe the mending of fish nets, or the setting of a broken bone. God wants churches that are torn apart to be mended. God wants them to be healed. God wants them brought together again as one.
The big question is How? How can we as a church come together around a single purpose? How can we mend our differences and keep from being torn apart? Well, the Corinthian church shows us how NOT to do it.
1 Corinthians 1:11-12 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 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” (ESV).
The Corinthian church got involved in personality cults. In other words, they focused on the messenger, not the message. They focused on personalities. They focused on the preachers.
Some came to know Christ under Paul. Some came to know Christ under Apollos, and some came to know Christ under Cephas (or Peter). Or perhaps they just preferred one preacher over the other.
Then there were those who thought they were “really spiritual.” They claimed to follow only Christ. Only they made it their boast. They made it their badge of honor, elevating themselves above the others, and the church was divided because of these factions. The church was divided because the people focused on certain personalities.
And the same thing happens in churches today. Think about the person who led you to Christ, or think about the pastor under whose ministry you began your walk with Christ. That person holds a special place in your heart, and that’s wonderful! But, if you’re not careful, you can become critical of later pastors and sew discord in the church.
Some Christians get focused on various radio or TV preachers. And often, their own preacher pales in comparison. So they too can become critical, and they too can end up sewing discord in the church. Favoring one preacher over another has divided many churches, so don’t do it! Refrain from making comparisons, and…
TAKE YOUR FOCUS OFF THE MESSENGER.
Move your attention away from the preacher.
Here, even the great apostle Paul tries to discourage his followers from focusing on him. Look at the questions he asks in verse 13
1 Corinthians 1:13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
NO! Paul is not their Savior. In fact, he didn’t even baptize very many of them.
1 Corinthians 1:14-16 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) –ESV
What is Paul doing here? He is minimizing the role he played in their salvation. He is trying to get their focus off himself and onto Christ. And that’s what you need to do if you want to remain joyfully connected to your church. Take your focus off the superstars. Take your focus off the personalities. Take your focus off the preacher.
That’s the way leaders build winning teams. They take the focus off themselves.
That’s what researchers discovered, who recently published their findings in Psychological Science. Even though it seems counterintuitive, they argue that too many talented players on a team can actually hurt the team’s overall performance. They titled their study, “The Too-Much Talent Effect.”
They analyzed professional sports teams, especially basketball and soccer, and discovered that talented players helped teams win—but only up to a point. Teams with the greatest proportion of elite athletes performed worse than those with more moderate proportions of top-level players. Star-studded basketball teams had less assists and rebounds than teams with more average players. The researchers concluded, “When teams need to come together, more talent can tear them apart.” For example, the basketball player chasing a point record may cost the team by taking risky shots instead of passing to a teammate (Roderick I. Swaab, “The Too-Much Talent Effect,” Psychological Science, 6-27-14; Cindi May, “The Surprising Problem of Too Much Talent," Scientific American, 10-14-14; www.PreachingToday. com).
When teams focus on the stars, they lose games. When churches focus on the stars, they too lose out on making disciples, their primary mission. Then they devolve into division, disunity, and eventually death. So take your focus off the messenger, and…
FOCUS ON THE MESSAGE.
Focus on the good news of Jesus Christ. Focus on the gospel and the message of the cross.
That’s what Paul did. He didn’t baptize very many people…
1 Corinthians 1:17 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 [or come to nothing] (ESV).
Paul’s primary focus was to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to promote himself by racking up the number of baptized converts. Paul pointed people away from himself to the cross, so the cross became front and center in people’s lives. That’s because the cross of Christ changes lives, not charismatic leaders. The cross of Christ makes the difference, not hyped-up personalities.
So take your focus off the messenger, and focus on the message. Lift high the cross of Christ, and let your attention be drawn to Him.
The mother of a nine-year-old boy named Mark received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son's school.
“Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son's third grade class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you should know about it immediately.” The mother began to grow worried.
The teacher continued, “Nothing like this has happened in all my years of teaching. This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the grasshopper:
“‘The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work.
“‘Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food. So he begins to beg, ‘Please Mr. Ant, you have much food. Please let me eat, too.’ Then I said, ‘Boys and girls, your job is to write the ending to the story.’
“Your son, Mark, raised his hand. ‘Teacher, may I draw a picture?’
“‘Well, yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must write the ending to the story.’
“As in all the years past, most of the students said the ant shared his food through the winter, and both the ant and the grasshopper lived. A few children wrote, ‘No, Mr. Grasshopper. You should have worked in the summer. Now, I have just enough food for myself.’ So the ant lived and the grasshopper died.
“But your son ended the story in a way different from any other child, ever. He wrote, ‘So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper. The grasshopper lived through the winter, but the ant died.’
“And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses” (Brad Walden, senior minister with the Tates Creek Christian Church, Lexington, KY; true story told by Mark's grandfather; www.PreachingToday.com).
Mark understood what the cross was all about. Every person is like that grasshopper, irresponsible and a sinner from day one. But Christ rescued us from the consequences of our own sin. He allowed us to escape those consequences, and He took the consequences of our sins upon Himself. He died on the cross in your place and rose again, so you could live forever with Him. All you need to do is trust Him with your life. All you need to do is ask Him to save you from your sins.
My friends, if you’ve never done that before, I invite you to do it right now. Put your faith in Christ, who died for you and rose again. Trust Jesus with your life and your eternal destiny. Call upon the name of the Lord today, and you will be saved from the deadly consequences of your sin.
That’s the message of the cross. It’s a message of forgiveness and self-sacrifice, and it’s the only message that keeps us together as a church. Like Christ did for us, forgive each other, even to your own hurt. Sacrifice your own rights, your own comfort, even for the sake of those who may not deserve it.
In a world full of divisiveness, how do we keep it from infecting the church? How do we maintain the beautiful unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3)? How do we remain whole, knitted together, bonded as one powerful force for the cause of Christ?
The answer is very simple. Take your focus off the messenger and focus on the message. Look away from people and personalities, and look to Christ, who sacrificed everything for you.
Many years ago the Atlantic Monthly (11/94) wrote about superstar tenors Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti performing together in Los Angeles. A reporter tried to press the issue of competitiveness between the three men.
But Domingo told him, “You have to put all of your concentration into opening your heart to the music. You can't be rivals when you're together making music.” (Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 2)
That’s the key to unity. That’s the key to wholeness in Christ. Open your heart to the music, not the musicians. Focus on the message of the cross, not he messenger who brings the message.
