Unity Series

The story is told about a poor church in Tennessee back in the early 1900s. The congregation had had a terrible argument… and (sadly) there was a split. They couldn’t stand each other., however, neither side could afford to leave and build their own church building. And so they both continued to worship in the same building - but would STILL have nothing to do with each other. In those days, their church building was heated by coal, and out back there was a storage shed where they kept the coal. I’m told that someone posted a sign outside the storage shed that said: “One Lord, One Faith, Two Coal Piles.”

Our sermon series this month is entitled: “ONE THING”, and each of the sermons is focusing on ONE word that sums up a vital Christian teaching. Last week the word was “Grace”. And this week we’re looking that the concept of “UNITY.”

Unity within the church is was deeply important to Jesus. On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus prayed “that (Christians) may all be one just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:21

And Paul echoed that by writing that we should be “Eager to maintain THE UNITY of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3

Then Paul wrote: “There is ONE BODY and ONE SPIRIT — just as you were called to the ONE HOPE that belongs to your call — ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM. ONE GOD and Father of all.” Ephesians 4:4-6

But for all the importance of unity has for Jesus and for us - the church rarely been good at it. Not only have little churches like the one Tennessee struggled with splits - so have entire denominations across the US and the world.

According to a researcher named J. Gordon Melton there are 1517 different recognized denominations in USA. In his book, Melton included all kinds of groups, including cults such as the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses. He even included various "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 Nudist Christian Church of the Blessed Virgin Jesus". 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.

· Then there’s "The Church of God Anonymous". This group is kind of hard to find because… they’re (pause) anonymous.

My point is this – there’s a lot of division going on in churches that claim to follow Jesus. There are OVER 1500 different denominations in the USA alone. And I guess that shouldn’t surprise us because, at the time that Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians, there was already ONE SPLIT that had happened back then.

There were a group of Jews who’d become Christian and they were not pleased with the fact that the church (thru God’s guidance) had decided that Gentiles didn’t have to be circumcised in order to become Christians.

Well these Jewish believers (called CIRCUMCISERS) thought circumcision should be required. So they decided to FIX the problem, and they went from Gentile Church to Gentile Church insisting that these Gentiles be circumcised.

And one of the churches they’d stopped at… was the one in Ephesus.

This type of teaching so angered Paul that he wrote to the church in Galatia, and he condemned these circumcizers as heretics. He even went so far as to write: “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” Galatians 5:12

PAUL WAS ANGRY these heretics had perverted the message of salvation!

The Apostle John says that, in his ministry, he had seen that “… many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us…. Who is the liar (this anti-Christs) but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father.” 1 John 2:18-19 & 23

JOHN WAS ANGRY that these anti-Christs had perverted the teaching about Jesus!

And then, in the book of Jude where Jude wrote: “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 1:3-4