author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. We are going to be looking at verses 10-17 tonight.
[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 - KJV 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 12. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 13. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 14. I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; 15. Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. 16. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Remember, this Corinthian church was a mess. This whole book of 1 Corinthians was written to deal with problems. Paul was able to remain hopeful despite all of their problems because He knew that Christ was working in them - but He still had to deal with their problems.
In verse 10, Paul starts dealing with their biggest problem. He's going to spend several chapters on this one.
Now, as a review - this church had a ton of very serious issues:
- they had gross imorality
- there was drunkenness during the Lord's supper
- their services were a chaotic mess of people trying to speak in tongues
- they had a faction that didn't even believe in the Lord's supper I mean, it was a mess. And Paul is going to deal with all of these messes. But he starts with the first one and the most important one - and that is prideful divisions.
From a human standpoint - when you put all of the problems in this church up on a board - prideful divisions doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. I mean, there was a lot of big stuff going on here.
Put to Paul, prideful divisions was their biggest problem. He spent the most time on this problem. It may be the root of everything else going on here.
Look at verses 10-11 again:
[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:10-11 - KJV 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
Paul starts by begging them as brethren. He could have commanded them as an apostle. But he begs them as brothers, invoking the name of Christ - that they don't have divisions.
That word "divisions" is the word "schismata" in the greek. Schisms. Tears. Breaks.
Verse 11 tells us why Paul wrote this letter - he heard from someone in the know that there were "contentions" in the church. They weren't getting along. They were fighting with each other. Contentions.
And so Paul starts out with this one plea: don't let there be any divisions, be perfectly joined together in the same mind and same judgment.
So here is how I want to approach this passage tonight. I want to give you what I think Paul was asking for. Then we'll break it down into three points.
If I was going to summarize this message I would say:
God calls the local church to be unified, submissive to leadership, and gospel centered. When a local church becomes disunited and man centered, they miss the whole point and lose all gospel effectiveness.
I'm going to give you three statements about what God wants for a local church that I think we can get from this passage. Let's pray and we'll get into it.
The thing I think this passage teaches us about what God wants for a local church is...
1. The local church should be unified in doctrine and practice.
Paul said in verse 10:
[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:10 - KJV 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
He was begging the church that they have unity. That they all be on the same page. That they not have a bunch of divisions. Instead, they needed to be of the same mind and same judgment.
Now, there is nothing less normal than that. It is human nature to be anything but unified. I mean, anyone who has ever worked a shift in the nursery knows that it takes about 10 seconds for some kid to say "mine" and a fight to break out. Anyone with more than one kid who has ever taken a car ride knows it's' a lot of quarreling and arguing. People want their own way.
The Bible teaches us pretty plainly that the reason why churches quarrel and argue is the same thing - people want their own way.
Listen to James 4.
[!bible] James 4:1-2 - KJV
- From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
- Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Why do we fight? Why do we quarrel? Because of our lusts. Because of desires. Because we want what we want.
This Corinthian church had descended into a quarreling church. A church that was ripping each other apart. There were different factions in the church and they were fighting with each other. And that had to be dealt with.
And so Paul says "I'm begging you - be of the same mind. Be of the same judgment."
The local church should be unified in doctrine and practice.
Now, practically, this means two things for us:
First, it means we have to come together on doctrine.
Verse 10 says that you all speak the same thing.
It is a very dangerous thing to have a church where you have one group over here and they believe one thing, and another group over there, and they believe something different. We are supposed to be together. Of the same mind. Speaking the same thing.
This doesn't mean that we are all a bunch of carbon copies and that no one thinks for themselves - it is ok to have questions. But its not ok to turn those questions into factions. It's not ok to have a church where you have a calvinist group and an arminian group competing with each other in the church. That's not ever ok. That's a sign of a very unhealthy church.
We have to be together on doctrine.
A second thing this means is that we have to come together around practice. How we live. How we behave. How we lead the church - there should be an essential unity there.
Again, that doesn't mean you cannot have questions. But those questions should never turn into factions. You can't have a group in the church who wants to go one way and a group who wants to go another and they are fighting with each other.
Now, how does God ordain for a church to have essential unity around doctrine and practice? I don't think this is complicated - it might not be popular - but it is for the church to submit themselves to the church leaders.
[!bible] Hebrews 13:17 - KJV 17. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
[!bible] 1 Timothy 5:17 - KJV 17. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
[!bible] 1 Thessalonians 5:12 - KJV 12. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
Just as God puts parents over a home - and the regular course of action for a child is to obey and follow the leadership of parents - I believe God puts leaders (and notice the "them" there) over a church, and the normal course of action is to follow those leaders.
If that cannot be done - then you either need new leaders or a new church, but what you cannot have is a church that is fractured. A church that is divided where parties are fighting with one another is a completely unhealthy church - it's confusing to new converts and it is a terrible testimony to the world.
So there has to be unity in the local church. The local church should be unified in doctrine and practice.
That's the first point tonight. The second thing I think these verses teach us about what God wants for a church is a counterbalance to that.
2. The local church should be centered around Christ, not man.
Look at verses 11-12 again:
[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:11-12 - KJV 11. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 12. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
What was happening in this church is that you had factions. You had groups. Cliques in the church. And they were centering themselves and identifying themselves with a man.
- Some of them identified with Paul. He was the founder of their church and they were loyal.
- Some of them identified with Apollos. He had led the church for awhile and was an extremely gifted speaker and orator.
- Some of them identified with Peter. Maybe they wanted to be with the OG apostle.
- Other people, piously said "I'm in the Christ clique."
And in every case - it was bad. Very bad. Because what this was was just a thin veneer over their pride. Their ego. It was each of them saying "I'm the real Christian here. I'm a Paul kind of Christian."
Notice - Paul didn't encourage this. Apollos or Peter wouldn't have encouraged this either. This was all them. They were making a man the center of their religious identity.
If you think that this is some obscure thing that happens only in Bible times you couldn't be more wrong. There are plenty of people who worship at the cult of personality and identify with a man.
- People saying I'm a Jack Hyles Christian
- I'm a John R. Rice Christian or I'm a Lee Robberson Christian.
- I'm a Clarence Sexton Christian or a Paul Chappell Christian.
- Maybe they say I'm a John MacArthur guy or I'm a Andy Stanley guy or I'm an Albert Mohler guy.
There are cults of personality everywhere. If we aren't careful, we can make church a cult of personality. It can become about the pastor. And that is really, really bad.
Paul was encouraged that there was a Paul faction in this church. He didn't say "You should all be Paul people." No. He's mortified!
And he gets right to the point. Look at verse 13
[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:13 - KJV 13. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
Our Christian walk has to be about one person and one person only - the Lord Jesus Christ. We serve Him. He was the one who was crucified for us. He was the one we were baptized under. Christ, and Christ alone.
As Galatians 6:14 puts it:
[!bible] Galatians 6:14 - KJV 14. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Our glorying is on Christ and Christ alone. He is our leader. He is who we cheer for. Not the preacher. Not the leader of our own little faction. But Christ.
There is all this temptation in the church to make it about a person - but it has to be about Christ.
Let me put a finer point on this: I've been in churches before where the Pastor was almost idolized. He sat on a big elevated platform above the people. He was the focal point of the whole thing. His birthday was treated like a national holiday.
And I don't want our church to have any of that. One of the reasons I don't sit on the platform and why I'm so insistent on having lots of people preach is so that the focus isn't on me.
So
- the local church should be unified in doctrine and practice.
- the local church should be centered around Christ, not man.
There is one more thing I want you to see in this text and it is:
3. The local church should prioritize the preaching of the gospel to all else.
Look at verse 17:
[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:17 - KJV 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
To Paul the most important thing he did was preach the gospel. Baptism is important - but not the important thing. The important thing is the preaching of the gospel.
And the important part of that is "the gospel." Paul was worried that his wisdom and his eloquence would get in the way of the gospel.
Here is what I believe: I believe God's word changes lives. I believe God's word has the answers. I believe that the heart of God's word is the gospel that Jesus came to save us from our sins and that men need to believe in Him.
I work hard to not be a boring preacher. (You may not be able to tell it) but I work at delivery and diction and all of that stuff. But the important thing can never be me. It can never by my preaching - it needs to be the core message - the message of the Bible and ultimately, the message of the gospel.
If it becomes man-centered - then it becomes of no effect. It loses it's power.
A church focused on programs, personalities, or politics over the gospel becomes powerless. Adrian Rogers said, “The church is at its best when it is on the battlefield fighting sin, death, hell, and the grave. She is at her worst when she is in the barracks fighting her own members.”
Let’s be a church that preaches Christ crucified, calling people to repentance and faith. That’s where the power is. That’s what changes lives.
author: Ryan Hayden
As I was studying for this, I read a quote from Adrian Rogers that I think sums up this text very, very well. Dr. Rogers said:
The church is at its best when it is on the battlefield fighting sin, death, hell and the grave. She is at her worst when she is in the barracks fighting her own members.
As a local church - God wants us to be unified in doctrine and practice, centered around Christ and not man, and dedicated to keeping the main thing the main thing: the preaching of the gospel.
The easiest thing in the world is for us to lose that - to devolve into factions and fighting, to make man our champion. But when we do that, we lose what makes us truly unique.
I'm praying God lets us be a unified, Christ-centered, gospel preaching church. This is so important. It may be the most important thing to get and maintain.
Let's stand for prayer.
