The Church Divided - 6/08/08

Date: 6/8/08
Sermon Series: 1st Corinthians – The Church ___________.
Sermon Title: The Church – Divided

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
“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. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

Theme: This message will introduce one of the main themes which Paul deals with throughout the rest of the letter: the disunity which is a part of the church at Corinth. This passage addresses, in general terms, the problem (factions) and the solution (focus on Christ).

Introduction:
In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus.
“These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.”
“Which channel do you want?” asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”
Charles Schultz.

There is no more danger for the church; there is no worse witness for the body of Christ than when irreconcilable disunity exists. When the community of Christ is interrupted by schisms than we are worse than no church at all as far as our effect on the place where we are called to serve.

Transition: As we start into the main body of the letter which Paul has written to the church in Corinth we are confronted by the first of several problems which Paul will address. Apparently Paul is responding to some information which he has received from a couple of sources. Somewhere along the way someone who was connected with the church in Corinth met with Paul, probably while he was in Ephesus. It would have been natural for Paul to question him closely about the state of the community of Christ in Corinth a place where Paul has spent a year and a half. We also find out that later in the epistle that Paul has received a letter from the folks, probably some of the leadership, in Corinth. They are responding back to Paul concerning a letter which Paul has previously written which we no longer have. They also report some of the goings on in the church. Out of all of the problems which Paul is going to address this disunity is the first, probably because i n many ways it is the basis for all of the rest of the issues which he will teach on.

I. The Problem – Disunity (the power of Paul’s appeal)
a. Schisms – The word that is used here denotes a tear, like in fabric, or a ripping of something like when a plow leaves a furrow in the soil.
i. Divisions
1. The nature of the church in Corinth.
a. This was probably not a community church like we would picture today. It was more than likely made up of a several different house churches which gathered for special occasions but spent most of their corporate worship time centered in different houses.
b. In this kind of structure it would have been natural for the church to be made up of those groups which were connected in their conversion.
c. The rest of the letter suggests that there are several reasons for the ripping of fellowship which is occurring in Corinth.
i. They are divided over which personality to claim. As if the person who led them to Christ was more important than their relationship with Christ.
ii. There is disunity over worship matters.
1. Spiritual gifts
2. women in the worship
3. The Lord’s Supper
iii. There is disunity over immorality in the Church
iv. Disunity over social matters – eating meat offered to idols.
v. The Resurrection
vi. Marriage
vii. And the list goes on.
d. What an incredible shame that one of the dividing factors of the body was the very thing which should have been connecting them together: their conversion.
2. Today it seems incredibly silly for us to think that this church was actually being divided over loyalties to those who had been instrumental in bringing them into relationship with Christ. But the arguments which we allow to split the church are just as bad.
a. Music in worship – on a local scale
i. Story of ladies with fingers in their ears.
b. Baptism – on a global scale: it is interesting that Paul in talking about who he baptized highlights probably the area of deepest division among different Christian denominations.
ii. Quarrels
1. Apparently open hostility has broken out among these various groups. They have allowed this tension which shouldn’t even exist to develop into open arguments.
2. Can you imagine how the witness of this church was affected in the city of Corinth? Later on in this letter Paul will address the fact that some of them are actually taking each other to court.
b. There are two ways of being united — one is by being frozen together, and the other is by being melted together. What Christians need is to be united in brotherly love, and then they may expect to have power. Moody’s Anecdotes, p. 53.
II. The Solution – Focus on Christ
a. Agree
i. Literally – say the same thing
ii. Saying the same thing about the gospel
iii. It is not who baptized you – but into whom you were baptized.
iv. Saying the same thing about the community of Christ
b. United- this is a word which was used to talk about mending torn nets.
i. In same mind
ii. In same judgment

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God.