Lunacy?
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
January 12, 2003
INTRO:
A. [Lunatics Never Unite, Citation: Haddon Robinson, "The Wisdom of Small Creatures," Preaching Today, Tape No. 93.]
A man went to an asylum for the criminally insane.
He was a bit surprised to find that there were three guards to take care of a hundred inmates.
He said to one of the guards, "Aren’t you afraid that the inmates will unite, overcome you, and escape?"
The guard said, "Lunatics never unite."
Locusts do.
Christians should.
If we don’t, we don’t know where our power is.
B. And so today, I want to ask, “Are Christians luny?”
C. Let’s read our text, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18.
D. Now, Paul is not discussing the differences that exist between denominations and brotherhoods.
1. In his day, there were no denominational or brotherhood divisions.
2. There was only one church in Corinth.
3. It would be like there only being one church in Greencastle, one church in Bainbridge, and one in Crawfordsville; one church in each town.
4. Paul wrote this letter to the church in the city of Corinth.
E. Paul, in this passage, is striking out against division within the local congregation of the church.
1. However, division is wrong wherever we find it and this passage has application in nearly all cases.
2. Division of any kind is wrong.
3. Division is division, whether inside of one church or within the church world-wide.
4. Denominationalism is wrong.
5. And I must say as well that most division within local congregations today is not over matters of faith, but rather the result of personalities that are in conflict.
6. And it wasn’t any different in Corinth.
E. Paul is writing this letter to the Corinthian while in Ephesus and verse 11 tells how he learned of the Corinthians’ problems.
1. One of the people living in Corinth was named Chloe.
2. And some of the people living in Chloe’s household had traveled from Corinth to Ephesus to inform Paul of the divisions within the church at Corinth.
F. The problem was a burden; not something to be covered up.
1. They went to an inspired apostle with the problem.
2. Good example to follow!
3. Let’s follow that example by looking to this inspired apostle for help with our modern-day divisions.
4. First notice...
I. THE DIVISIONS PAUL NOTED IN THIS CHURCH
A. The Greek word for “division” in verse 10 is “schisma” which means to “rip” or “tear”.
1. Paul says the church in Corinth has been torn into different parts.
2. The people have divided themselves into different groups.
3. These different groups had different beliefs and ways of doing things.
B. We might sum up the divisions in this way:
1. First Paul mentions the “I follow Paul” group.
a. This group may have taken the attitude that Paul started this church and he will always be our leader.
b. These are the traditionalists.
c. They probably said things like, “This is the way we’ve always done it before.”
d. “Paul started this church, and we’re always going to do things his way.”
e. This is the way Paul taught us and nothing is ever going to convince us that there is any other way.
f. I usually refer to this group as the “Don’t bother confusing me with the facts, I already know what I believe” crowd.
g. “I follow Paul.”
2. Then there was the “I follow Apollos” group.
a. These people may have put great emphasis on knowledge of the Scripture.
b. Apollos was mighty in his use of the Word although he didn’t know as much as he should have.
c. These may have been the Bible intellectuals.
d. They probably memorized and had great knowledge of the scriptures.
e. However, they also probably did very little evangelism or any other ministries besides teaching.
f. You can image this group sitting around reading the Bible to each other all of the time and since they did a lot of sitting, were probably a little overweight.
g. “I follow Apollos.”
3. “I follow Peter.”
a. These may have put great emphasis on the church and since Peter had been given the keys to the kingdom, and since Peter instituted the church on Pentecost, they decided they would follow him.
b. They may have been great “church” men without going further.
c. The crowd that showed up for church on Sunday morning, but didn’t do anything else for Christ.
d. They probably didn’t use their talents and their abilities for Christ throughout the week.
e. They just stressed to people they need to go to church.
f. “I follow Peter.”
4. And there was a group that said I follow Christ.
a. These may have been saying, “We don’t need anyone or anything but Jesus.”
b. This is probably where our Restoration Movement started!!
c. This group probably refused to follow any man made traditions or rituals, they would only follow Jesus.
d. They followed some aspects of Christ’s teachings while ignoring others
e. They probably didn’t want to be known as followers of any man; they wanted to be called Christians only.
f. “I follow Christ.”
C. Now, which group was right?
1. Is it right to have deep, heart-felt beliefs?
2. Is it right to stress the importance of Bible study?
3. Is it right to believe and stress the importance of church attendance?
4. Is it right to be determined to be lead only by Jesus and not the opinions of man?
5. So who was right?
a. They all were right.
b. They all believed some good things.
c. So if they all were right in their beliefs, why was Paul upset?
6. Well, who was wrong?
a. They all were wrong.
b. They all were right about some things, but yet were wrong about at least one very important fact.
c. Now notice...
II. THE QUESTIONS PAUL ASKED THIS CHRUCH
A. “Is Christ divided?”
1. This means, “has Christ been split up into different groups”
2. Would He want His body, the church, fragmented?
3. What good does it do for the cause of Christ when this group does one thing well and some other things not as well, while another group does something well that the first group doesn’t do as well.
4. Answer: It does a lot of good!
5. It does a lot of good for the cause of Christ when one group of believers does one thing well while another group does something else well!
6. So, again, why is Paul so upset about this?
7. Because their pride in what they believed caused division.
a. Instead of making their differences a good thing, they made them a bad thing.
b. Instead of realizing that each group had good attributes and that each played an important role on the team of God, they got mad at the others when they didn’t do things the way their group did them.
c. Here is a quote from about 40 years ago here today in the US that illustrates the problem: “If you don’t go to the kind of church that I go to, your going to hell.”
d. And I’m here to tell you that you will not be able to convince God to send everyone to hell that doesn’t go to a Christian church!
e. God is not going to stand there on judgment day and send everyone to hell that went to a Baptist Church instead of a Christian Church.
f. But I glad to say that we are beginning to loose that attitude.
g. We’ve grown enough in our understanding of Christ and the church that we no longer say things like that.
h. And while we’ve still got a ways to go in this area, I thank God that we have begun to make that journey!
i. IS Christ divided? NO!!!
B. “Was Paul crucified for you?”
1. With his second question, Paul directs them to the cross.
2. He focuses on the atonement.
3. At the foot of the cross we are all sinners; no one is better than anyone else.
4. We need to stress unity in the blood of Jesus over the opinions of man!
5. The Baptists and the Methodists are not our enemy - Satan is our enemy.
a. Now do I agree with everything they teach?
b. No, but I also don’t treat them like my enemy.
c. It’s an attitude.
d. That’s what Paul is getting at: attitude.
e. When you stand at the foot of the cross, are you going to look over at that Presbyterian and tell him he’s going to hell?
f. Jesus died for all of us!
g. The enemy is the one who sent Him to the cross!
h. Now do I believe baptism is important?
1) I certainly do!
2) But I can’t tell that thief on the cross that he can’t go to heaven because he wasn’t baptized in a Christian church!
i. Denominationalism is wrong.
j. Divisions between churches is wrong.
6. But not only does this apply to division between different churches, it also applies to division within a particular local congregation.
a. Division inside a church is wrong as well.
b. Just like outside the church, inside the church we smut respect and appreciate our differences.
c. We need to think of those who see or do things a little differently than us as different members of the team.
d. I don’t play first base very well, but I can pitch.
e. You play catcher and she plays third base.
f. We need to look at the goals we are trying to accomplish as working together to win the game.
g. If everyone played first base, we’d have some problems.
h. But we all have different talents and use them for the same purpose: to further the kingdom of God and bring glory to His name.
i. Our goal is not to get everyone to do the things that we like to do and to do them the way we want them to be done.
j. Our goal is to further the kingdom of God and to bring glory to His name, not ours.
k. Jesus said, “Let you light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)
l. We are to do things in a manner in which the Father gets all the praise and glory—not us!
m. That’s why all of these groups were right and all of them were wrong.
1) They were doing the right things, but they weren’t doing them the right way.
2) Their attitudes weren’t right.
3) They weren’t concerned about letting God get the glory for what they did.
4) They wanted everything done THEIR way, and not necessarily GOD’s way.
7. And with this second question, Paul is telling these people to quit emphasizing their differences and emphasize the cross!
8. The cross should unify us!
9. Was Paul crucified for you?
10. Was Raccoon John Smith crucified for you?
11. Let’s emphasize the cross and not our differences!
C. Paul’s third question was: “Were you baptized into the name of Paul?”
1. The fact is, they had been baptized into the name of Christ.
a. They weren’t baptized into the name of Paul.
b. They weren’t baptized into the name of Apollos or Peter.
c. People today are not baptized into the name of John Calvin or Martin Luther.
d. People today are not baptized in the name of Raccoon John Smith or Walter Campbell or any other preacher.
e. They are not baptized into the name of Todd Coget.
g. The Corinthians were, and we are, baptized in the name of Christ!
2. They had all been baptized and should stress its importance, but not condemn those that didn’t believe exactly they way they did.
a. Christ is not divided.
b. And we should not divide His body the church!
c. And now notice...
III. THE SIGNIFICANT FACTS PAUL GAVE THIS CHURCH
A. We could obscure the message of the cross by flaunting our own intellect and eloquence (17).
1. Paul depended on the simple message of the cross even though he had great intellect.
2. And we should do likewise.
a. I think you know that I go to great lengths to make my sermons as understandable as possible.
b. I work very hard at making the Bible more understandable and less obscure.
c. I depend upon God’s strength to make my messages as useful to people as possible and not just pretty words.
3. And I must say that you don’t have to be a Bible college graduate to explain the cross to someone.
4. You probably don’t know all their is to know about the Bible—but I don’t either, even with a Bible college diploma.
5. But the cross is the most important event in the Bible and if your saved you surely understand the cross!
6. We must not be as concerned about intellect and eloquence as we are about the truth of the cross!
7. We can’t worry about being smart enough or having pretty enough words to package it in.
8. But we must be concerned to stress the simple truths of the Bible because the eternities of souls are at stake!
B. And we must be devoted to prayer in order for this to do any good!
1. Because the message of the cross is absolute foolishness from the standpoint of the world (18).
2. Foolishness is from the root word for “moron,” “dull,” or “stupid.”
a. Sophomore=”sophos”+”moria”
b. That word “moria” is the word here in verse 18
3. Power is from the word “dunamis” is the for “dynamite.”
a. The power is in God and God alone.
b. The power is not in the pretty words of any preacher.
c. The power is not in the wisdom of any Bible scholar.
d. The dynamite is in God alone.
e. God has the power to use you if you’ll let Him.
f. You make yourself available to Him through prayer.
g. You don’t have the ability to win someone to Christ, but God does, and He can make it available to you when your heart is open and willing to allow God to use you.
h. And you make yourself available to Him through prayer.
i. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
4. The message of the cross is the power of God!
a. God allow His Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we could have eternal life—that’s power!
b. And God allowed His Son to die on the cross so that we can be unified—that’s power!
1) What other power do you know that can unify blacks and whites?
2) What other power do you know that can unify republicans and democrats?
3) Iraqi’s and Americans?
4) Red, yellow, black, brown, and white!
5) The power of the cross is that it unifies the ununifiable!
c. In His preparation for the cross, Jesus prayed, “My prayer is not for them alone (the ones He had personally taught). 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.” (John 17:20)
1) Do you see the connection between that prayer and Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”?
2) We are to be one, we are to be united, so that the world might believe.
3) The ununifiable are united by the power of the cross.
4) The world is supposed to see that we are united and by the power of the unity, the world would believe!
5) We need to show the world that we are not lunatics!
6) “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
7) When the world sees, men and women, black and white, republican and democrats, Americans and Chinese unified the world will believe.
5. But the reality is that we have brothers and sisters divided into groups and trying to insist that everyone else be just like them within the same church.
a. We have Baptist against Methodists.
b. We’ve got Prebysterians against charismatics.
c. And independents against everyone.
d. We are not united and the world does not believe.
e. The world does not see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.
f. The world sees envy, backbiting, arguing, and division and they want nothing to do with it.
g. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44)
6. Paul’s third question tells us that the cross should unify us!
a. When we stand at the foot of the cross and see a perfect, sinless man who died for us we know that we are sinners.
b. We know that we don’t deserve to have someone that good die for us.
c. We feel dirty, unclean, and ashamed of ourselves when we stand at the foot of the cross.
d. And as we stand at the foot of the cross, we should feel grateful that God was willing to send His Son to die in our place.
e. We, the sinners, deserved to die, but Jesus, the sinless, died in our place.
f. We should all just shout: “Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!”
g. And as we turn to our side, we see thousands of others shouting with us!
h. We should turn and embrace them, but instead we turn our backs and say, “Your not like me.”
i. Friends, we desperately need to embrace those who stand with us at the foot of the cross.
j. Notice I didn’t say everyone—I said those who join us at the foot of the cross thanking God for their salvation.
k. We need to tear down the walls that separate us and embrace our brothers and sisters.
l. The world desperately needs to see us unified!
m. The world needs to see that we are not lunatics and that we have the power of God in us to unify the ununifiable!
CONCLUSION:
A. [Illustration]
At Calvary, the Roman soldiers divided the earthly belongings of Jesus, but they gambled for His seamless robe rather than tear it.
These were hardened men, but they saw the beauty of that robe and refused to tear it.
I have heard that the early church used this seamless garment as an illustration of the unity of the church.
To divide the church was to “tear” or destroy something of great value and beauty that belongs to Christ.
B. My question for you this morning is: “Are we united?”
1. Are you following Biblical teaching?
2. Many today are led by peer pressure, religious opinions formed without knowledge, and ideas without Biblical foundation, etc.
3. Are there walls of expectations that you need to tear down in order to be unified with your brothers and sisters?
4. Are there some certain people’s teachings that are getting in the way of your being united with other Christians?
5. Have you been a party to dividing the Lord’s Church?
6. What steps do you need to make in order to promote unity?
C. Have you been united with Christ?
#429 “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love”
