Unity

Note: I have developed a set of simple PowerPoint slides for use with this sermon. If you are interested in the slides I will send them to you by Email. Email your request to me at sam@srmccormick.net and be sure to enter "Easter Slides" in the subject line (otherwise I am likely to overlook your Email message among the hundreds I receive). I will try to respond promptly but allow a few days for me to respond.

UNITY

Psalm 133

I. The sweetness of unity.

Read Psalm 133

This is a lovely psalm. There is not a single word of lament, anger, or complaint, or negative thought.

The psalm celebrates unity like it is precious oil, and the dew of Mount Hermon falling as refreshing and life-giving rain on Jerusalem.

Paul began his letter to the Ephesus church by telling Christians there to be EAGER to maintain unity.

Ephesians 4:1-3 - read

The principle of unity is seen in the design of marriage.

God created the man, and took the woman from the man’s body. Then he said,

The two shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24)

Many years later, Jesus said to the Pharisees:

…a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Mark 10:7-8

Paul wrote to the Macedonian church of Philippi that oneness among its members would “make his joy complete.”

Philippians 2:1-2 …if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

The word “unity” comes from the word “one.” In some languages, in particular the Spanish uno and Latin unum, the word for one is derived from the same root – un – as the English word unity.

When unity exists the plural, two or more, become - another sense - the singular “one.”

The motto proposed for the first Great Seal of the United States by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson in 1776 was E Pluribus Unum. It’s a Latin phrase meaning "from many, one "

The phrase offered a strong statement of the American determination to form a single nation from a collection of dissimilar colonies. It described a unified nation of people from many different backgrounds, beliefs and different ways of thinking and doing things.

In any relationship – business, government, sports, other team activities – we are stronger and better when we are united, better positioned and equipped to fend off attacks by enemies.

A bundle of straws is stronger than a single straw.

Unity is person to person, brother to brother, sister to sister, or friend to friend. All combinations of unity are sweet.

In practically any situation of life, a group may be united or disunited.

There can be concord or discord.

Discord ranges from simple disagreements to enmity.

On his last night with the disciples, Jesus prayed for us.

He had been praying for the eleven. Then he prayed for all who would believe in him because of the disciples’ work.

Read John 17:20-23

Just as he and the father are one! That is a very high standard!

Jesus did not pray to us that believers in him would be “one.”

His prayer was to the Father.

The prayer of Jesus was not without purpose:

V23 - so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Unity among disciples of Christ is designed to show to the world that God loves us even as he loves Jesus.

I can’t read the prayer of Jesus and think of unity among Christians as being optional.

II. The elusiveness of unity in the church

The church has been demonstrating for centuries that unity is elusive.

Paul saw disunity in the young church at Corinth, and sought to correct the divisions by writing these words:

1 Corinthians 1:10-11 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

Quarreling in the church! What were those Christians quarreling about?

The bickering was about who baptized each of them, or who each one followed. It seems to have been considered prestigious to have been baptized by some of the early teachers.

Is that something for Christians to separate into quarreling camps about? Paul says it is not.

What was Paul talking about? Quarrelling.

Paul wasn’t talking about every single thing that would ever come before any church anywhere. He was appealing to them within a context! The context of Paul’s admonition is not glorying in man – Paul, Apollos, and Cephas - but in Christ.