UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL
INTRO:
We are so exited to have everyone here this morning. It is the first time in 2 years that we have been able to celebrate Resurrection Sunday in our sanctuary and we have so many guests. Those things are amazing. However, it is important that on this Resurrection Sunday that we in the Church be very conscious of one very important point. We live in very troubled times and it is critical that the Church serves as the beacon to the world. It is important that we set the example of unity around the important concepts of love, mutual concern for each other, and first and foremost the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ.
Here at Carey’s Run over the past few weeks we have been looking at why the Resurrection matters. We have seen that it gives us hope, peace, and certainty. Today we speak of another major result of the resurrection which is just as essential to the modern Christian. It is the source of the World’s only hope for true unit.
Lately I have spoken with many people in the Church and out of the Church who worry that we will fall apart as much as the world has. The Church today is being pressured on many sides that are trying to force it into disintegrating into factions, just as the world has fallen victim to balkanization. There is a sense that we are too divided and that the will to hold it together is fading. But I say that hope is not lost. As long as God is in Heaven and we focus our message on Christ, hope lives.
The only way we can show the unity that will allow us to be the true city on the hill and light for the world that the Lord calls us to be is if we adhere to 4 key principles. To be faithful to Jesus’ command that we remain unified we must make it clear that there is no room in Christ’s church for racism, sexism, or classism, we must make sure that grace and mercy trumps Justice and fairness, we each must keep our joint identity as servants of Christ primary in our lives without devaluing those things that make each of us unique, and we must not let political and social opinions cause a separation among us.
PREVIEW:
I. The Church is called to be United.
II. The Only Source of a True Hope For Peace in the World is the Resurrected Christ.
III. To Truly Be United, Christians Must Acknowledge That Our Differences In Backgrounds and Interests Is Superseded By the Resurrection and Lordship of Jesus Christ.
IV. The Message of the Cross and the Empty Tomb Is One of Mercy and Grace and not one of Justice and Fairness.
BODY:
A. THE CHURCH IS CALLED TO BE UNITED.
1. It was Jesus’ Fondest Wish For Us.
i. John 17:20-23.
2. This is not just talking about denominations or congregations playing nice with each other.
3. This means that there is no place in Christ’s Kingdom for racial, ethnic, sexual, or socio-economic animosity. We are called to love not hate or discriminate.
a. Christ put forward this VERY powerful message with the fact he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and when he made a Samaritan the hero of one of His most famous parables in Luke 10, even though he had just been rejected by a Samaritan town in Luke 9.
b. Paul drives this home even further in
1. GALATIANS 3:26-29.
c. We are ALL children of God.
d. Many have tried to misuse the scriptures to say otherwise, but Christ tells us they are wrong.
4. OUR value comes not from what makes us or from where we come but rather from Who made us and from Whom we come.
5. This is because as we live our lives like we truly believe in the truth of
i. EPHESIANS 4:1-13,
ii. and as we join our brothers and sisters in all tribes and tongues to proclaim our love for one another and our God, we can serve as the shining city on a hill that can lead the world out of the darkness of chaos and hatred that is trying to envelope our Globe at the moment.
iii. Jesus told the disciples in John 13:35 that they will know us by our love for one another.
6. This is also to manifest itself in our love for all of God’s children, even those who currently stand in opposition to our Savior and His message. We examine this further in point II.
B. The Resurrected Christ is the Only Hope For True Peace And Unity In The World.
1. All who try to grab power or engage in revolution first attack Church.
a. French Revolution, Stalin and Mao all clamped down.
b. Marx and Neitzche insisted that religion was a hurdle to be overcome and left behind.
c. Many Progressive voices today are following the same path of trying to put the Church on
the defensive.
d. They all did it because the teachings of Jesus Christ and the indwelling presence of the
Holy Spirit are the only thing around which people of all backgrounds can unite and
therefore it poses a threat to whatever poison they are selling.
e. Wall in Berlin: “God is Dead. Neitzche Neitzche is dead. God”
2. This is because as Paul points out in
a. Romans 1:20-32
b. When you try to form human plans and explanations in the absence of God your plans
and ideas are doomed to fail, because:
3. Jesus is the pure truth and rational way through which creation is supposed to function.
a. John 14:6
b. John 1: 1-5
Logos is rational order by which all things are made.
4. The founders of all other philosophies and religions are dead, only Christ and His great love lives
and reigns. By the power of the empty tomb He assumes the right to be seen as humanity’s one
and only hope for true peace and unification.
C. To Truly Be United, Christians Must Acknowledge That Our Differences In Backgrounds and
Interest Is Superseded By the Resurrection and Lordship of Jesus Christ.
1. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
2. Instruments, buildings styles of worship, language, money, etc can and should be different as long as the message, Jesus saves, is the same.
3. Many of us may go through things others don’t but we should just be there for them even if we don’t understand.
4. However, it is critical that all members of the body of Christ MAKE SURE that Christ and the Church family take precedence over our devotions to our other group identities and ways we define ourselves and the world separates us.
D. The Message of the Cross and the Empty Tomb Is One of Mercy and Grace and not one of
Justice and Fairness.
1. Romans 5:6-11
2. Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
3. We deserved the consequences of our actions, but Christ freed us from those consequences by paying the price for us.
a. Was it fair? NO
b. Was it just? NO
c. Is it a sign of the mercy of our God? YES
4. Whenever we feel a need to set things right, to get justice, to get even it is important to remember Christ and transcend justice and show mercy.
a. Romans 1:16-17
b. We are called to radiate God’s Love and to set the example for those around us.
i. Show generosity
ii. Treat all, no matter race, gender, ethnicity, past mistakes, as the prince or princess of the Most High God that they are.
iii. Be the shining city on the hill
c. However, our duty, is to spread the Gospel through the power of God’s Love and the proof of the empty tomb.
d. Several times in Scripture God’s people put Mission above all else.
i. John 18:36-37
ii. Jesus put Kingdom establishment over undoing Rome’s oppression.
iii. Paul in Philemon
5. Romans 12:17-21
CONCLUSION:
Life is hard and the World is a real messed up place right now. But, because of the Resurrection the world has an unmovable point around which we all, regardless of who we are or where we come from, can rally. Putting aside our need for justice and our need to find validity in human created concepts can lead us to greater heights and amazing things. Mercy when truly lived can open the Church’s doors to many who so desperately seek meaning in this sea of confusion that makes up modern life, and will head-off many disputes among the people of the Church and around the globe that are based upon past behavior or our group identities. Simply put the Resurrection matters more now than ever because the unity that flows from true obedience to the Gospel call to love has never been more needed than now and it can start with you. What will be your response? Come and leave behind your mistakes, those things that plaque you and separate us and come into the arms of Christ as we stand and sing number __________.
