This sermon (1 Corinthians 1: 10 - 17) was preached at West Ewell Evangelical Church, Surrey, on Sunday 15 March 2015.
Introduction
I am reminded of the illustration by Emo Phillips: I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. So I ran over and said ‘Stop! Don’t do it!’ ‘Why shouldn’t I?’ he said. I said, ‘Well, there’s so much to live for!’ He said, ‘Like what?’ I said, ‘Well…are you religious or atheist?’ He said, ‘Religious.’ I said, ‘Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?’ He said, ‘Christian.’ I said, ‘Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?’ He said, ‘Protestant.’ I said, ‘Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?’ He said, ‘Baptist.’ I said, ‘Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist church of God or Baptist church of the Lord.’ He said, ‘Baptist church of God.’ I said, ‘Me too! Are you original Baptist of God or are you reformed Baptist church of God.’ He said, ‘Reformed Baptist church of God.’ I said, ‘Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist church of God, reformation 1879, or Reformed Baptist church of God, reformation of 1915?’ He said, ‘Reformed Baptist church of God, reformation of 1915.’ I said, ‘Die, heretic’ and pushed him off.
As we will see that is an apt warning to the church today.
The Corinthian church was very much like us - surrounded by a society that had no moral compass and was confronted by a religious maelstrom.
We are looking at this letter through the prism of grace and peace (verse 3) which only comes from the Father and the Son.
We have been looking at the following so far in this epistle: called holy by God, people gathered to call upon God, being recipients of God’s grace, being enriched by God as He gives us good gifts so that we can testify to others about Him, waiting expectantly for the return of Jesus, and above all the faithfulness of God.
These are all high things until we hit a bump – it is where the mindset of the world enters the church.
We will look at:
1. Causes of Divisions
2. Our Attitude to others
3. Being Christ-centred
1. Causes of Divisions
Division is, in summary, caused by the weakness of man and the wiles of Satan – but will unpack that!
The word ‘divisions’ does not mean schisms but dissensions, it does not mean splits but internal factions.
The first camp belonged to those following Apollos. This preacher had arrived at Ephesus, where Aquila and Priscilla had completed the conversion of this intelligent and eloquent Bible student from Alexandria so that he was no longer disciple of John the Baptist to becoming a fully-fledged follower of Christ. Apollos was recommended to move to Corinth to minister among Jewish population, where he was successful – but a party grew up around him without His approval.
This camp of Apollos could be seen as the more ‘progressive’ section – those that wanted to move ahead and into those mission fields that were open. They wanted things that were exciting as Apollos was eloquent and he had the Alexandrian methods of interpreting the Old Testament (probably allegorical). Apollos contrasted with poor presence and feeble diction of Paul with possible eyesight problem. We can see Paul thinking what others are saying ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’ (2 Corinthians 10: 10)
The second camp belonged to those following Paul – they knew where they were with him as they had came to know Christ under his ministry.
The third camp stated that they followed Peter, who was the older disciple and the leader of the original Twelve. He had probably not visited Corinth but he represented the mother church in Jerusalem. They wanted tradition as Peter was more inclined to listen to those wanting to introduce elements of Judaism (see Galatians 2: 11 – 16).
The last group might seem innocent and non-partisan in saying that following Christ, but ironically they had became a party in themselves. There is the temptation to become either ‘holier than thou’ or wanting to bury heads in sand without addressing the issue that the church is facing.
We may not follow particular people but there are still hobby horses that we might ride – pet doctrinal viewpoints that do not matter, ways that we might want done in our way; so in turn we in turn prevent God working in His way.
There was sense of pride and arrogance within the camps, all of which they were thinking that right.
In Galatians 5: 20, the causes of divisions can seen as a work of the flesh - discord, selfish ambitions, dissension (literally ‘variances’), factions, could also be the result of jealousy.
In the passage in 1 Corinthians, these feelings are aroused as quarrels arose.
I had heard of a church in Kent where there were literally fist fights after church members’ meetings – and the congregation were all from one biological family!
Galatians 5: 15: ‘If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.’
I read the following illustration: There was once a rural church that everyone liked to listen to – Pastor Smith; everyone loved to listen to Pastor Smith. It did not take long for Pastor Smith to gain a great reputation. People would travel miles to listen to him preach. One Sunday Pastor Smith was on holiday and there was a guest preacher. During the first hymn, when people saw that Pastor Smith was away and realised that there was a guest preacher, many of them got up to leave. A large number started to make their way toward the door. After the first hymn, the guest preacher began the service by saying, ‘All of you who have come to worship Pastor Smith may leave. All of you who have come to worship Christ may stay.’
The negative emotions resulted not only with disunity within the church but it also denies the opportunity to listen to God, follow His way – stopping the progress of His work. Such divisions can set back the work of God in a neighbourhood for several generations.
It also is damaging the vision of God before men – they are supposed to see you and glorify Him, but not if you are doing all you can to outdo your brother or sister.
2. Our Attitude to others
In verse 10, Paul uses the affectionate terms ‘brothers.’
He also used phrase ‘in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ – full title heightens the solemnity of appeal, for His name is above all other party names.
‘Perfectly joined together’ means restoring to rightful condition. It is used of mending nets (Matthew 4: 21), and what was lacking in faith (1 Thessalonians 3: 10).
As Christ is not divided (verse 13), His people should not be either – ‘For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptised into one body.’ (1 Corinthians 12: 12)
We should have right attitude to think that not superior or inferior – ‘For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.’ (Romans 12: 3)
It does not mean that we cannot discuss and even disagree since God made us all to be different in personality and to have differing perspectives, but it should not mean putting up barriers.
There is the warning: when the Israelites grumbled in the desert, it did not make the journey any easier since hard enough as it was. So it should be that we should avoid such divisions and distractions since the devil making it hard for us as we walk together without us helping him.
We will be looking at forgiveness as we travel through epistle.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: ‘Do what is given to you, and do it well, and you would have done enough. Live together in the forgiveness of your sins. Forgive each other every day from the bottom of your hearts.’
We should look at the basics – keep them in mind. The example that Paul uses is baptism which he sets great store (e.g. Romans 6: 3: ‘don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?’)
There are parallel verses in Ephesians 4: 3 – 6 : ‘Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace [note: it’s that word again]. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’
Paul directs the Corinthians’ attention to the cross. With their emphasis on wisdom (as we have seen before), they had overlooked this – only Christ could accomplish the essential and unique work of redemption.
Their allegiance was to be Christ alone.
3. Being Christ-centred
This sermon is titled ‘Mind the Gap’ as it is not so much between ourselves but in our relationship to Jesus – the cause of any division is not being Christ-centred.
One of themes by John, both in gospel and epistles, is that love for God should be reflected in love for His children, e.g. 1 John 4: 11 ‘since God loved us, we ought to love one another’
Unthinkable that Christ’s Church should be split into sections – when we have Christ, we has all of Christ, so we should be content with that.
We all should be moving in the same direction – ‘So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.’ (1 Corinthians 3: 21 – 23)
When we divide, then we are not giving glory to God. The chief end of our lives should be to glorify Him, not to be involved in petty squabbles that do not matter in the light of eternity.
Fredrick Nietzsche (the philosopher who declared that ‘God is dead’) wrote: ‘I might believe in the Redeemer if His followers looked more Redeemed’
Keith Green (one of 20th century’s greatest evangelists in Last Days Ministry) stated: ‘I would have met Jesus sooner if not for Christians who led double lives.’
In verse 16, when Paul was referring to baptism, it is important to note that we were baptised ‘in the name of’ rather than ‘in’ Jesus. It is expressed in the terms of the covenant relationship so fellowship and allegiance is to be between Redeemer and the redeemed.
It does not matter who baptised us or who we baptised, but that person being baptised identified with Christ – for it was Christ who was crucified for us, not any teacher.
Our role, as was Paul’s (as stated in verse 17) is not to administer baptism, but it is to preach Christ crucified. Our attention should not be on ourselves as sinners but it should be all toward Jesus and proclaiming Him. This should find us ‘gossiping the Gospel’ in all situations that we find ourselves. Our emphasis should be giving glory to God and telling others about Him.
John Newton commented: ‘Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Saviour.’
We cannot be Christ-centred if we are full of ourselves and the negative emotions that we have against others.
Conclusion
Many divisions result of lack of grace and peace - remember that the latter means the total wellbeing. We need to look at our attitudes.
We need to admit that when we have been involved in divisions in the past, it has not always been full of grace and peace.
So today, we need to:
· Identify those parts of your life that could cause dissention in the church – then pray that God would so fill you up with Himself that no room for His name to come into disrepute.
· Confess where we had wrong attitudes to others in God’s church - it could be brothers and sisters locally and/or nationally
· Be Christ-centred and seek to glorify Christ alone – for He is above any man’s thoughts.
