The Key To Dealing With A Divided Church

Transcript

Stand with me as we read God’s Word together.

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, and 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 and sisters. 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 Stephanus. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.

— 1 Corinthians 1

(ESV)

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. Family, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. We approach your word this morning knowing that if we intend to know anything, or grow from your word, or be changed by it, or apply the text in our life as a congregation, then we need the help of your Holy Spirit to quicken our minds, to soften our hearts, to conform us into the image of Jesus, our God, and King, and Savior. And so we pray that even now, you would be our eyes, that you would be our guide, and that you would be our governor as we seek to understand your word.

Unity’s Divine Purpose

We desperately need you, God. Meet us here this morning, we pray, in Christ’s name. Amen. You may be seated. Just one week after Palm Sunday, where the people exalted Jesus, the people that praised Him, and declared Hosanna in the highest, they all turned against Him, and called for His crucifixion. And with the anguish of the cross, and the bitter cup of God’s wrath directly in view, out of all the things that would have flooded the mind and heart of Jesus, the most pressing of His concerns was His people, those He came to die for. He fixed His eyes on the cross, to save His people from their sins. But it wasn’t just salvation He was concerned about, though that was the reason He came. Jesus knew that after His death and resurrection, that He would ascend to the right hand of the Father, and leave those He saved behind, to continue the mission of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth,

so that more and more people might be saved. Aware of the challenges ahead, and aware of the devil’s schemes to sow discord among His people, to try and stop the spreading of the gospel, Jesus moved by compassion and concern for His people. Out of all the things He could have done, He prays. And out of all the things He could have prayed for, He prayed for their unity. And I want you to just listen to some of Jesus’ prayer, as recorded in the gospel of chapter 17. Britta read some of this for us this morning. Jesus prays, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. That they may be all one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.

That they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Listen, what else Jesus prays? The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and you in me. That they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you have loved me. Jesus prays this beautiful prayer of deep and unbreakable oneness for his people, because of what that oneness reveals. You see, family, the unity we share is not simply for our own benefit, that we might all get along on a Sunday morning from 10 to 12 p.m. It’s for the benefit of a watching world. We, the church, who were once a divided people, who had nothing in common with each other, now have the most significant thing in common.

Which is Jesus Christ himself. In fact, the unity that we have as Christians is far greater than any other unity shared on the planet. My friend Shailen, when speaking about Jesus’ prayer for unity, says that we have more in common with other Christians than we do our own blood relatives who are not Christian. God has stitched together all different kinds of people, from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, generations, to put on display supernatural unity. A unity that can only exist because of Christ. A unity that testifies to the supernatural saving power of the gospel that comes only through Christ. Brothers and sisters, the primary purpose for the unity of the church is for the mystery of God’s glory to be made known to a watching world. This is why Jesus prays that the glory the Father gave him, he gives to us. The glory of the invisible God is made visible to a watching world when our unity bursts through this dark and divided world.

So that when the world peers into it and sees the differences that we have being eclipsed by our unity, that God has won for us, they will have no choice but to attribute that unity to something that is far beyond this world. Something transcendent and supernatural. Unity in the church points to the God who created this world and who also came to save those in this world. No other place in our world does this kind of unity exist. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17, we see that Jesus made unity a priority because of its purpose. That’s why he prays. And this, family, is why in Paul’s corrective letter to the Corinthian church, he prioritizes the issue that is threatening the very unity that Jesus prayed for and paid for. Out of all the things that Paul needed to address in this crazy and compromised church,

he begins first with that which was most pressing to Jesus. The unity of the church. Last week, in the last part of our text, Paul wrote in verse 9, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul, in his thankfulness, includes the fellowship, meaning the unity that the Corinthian Christians have with Jesus and his people. A unity that they have because of God’s faithfulness. So Paul reminds him in verse 9 that they were called into that unity, that God is the one responsible for making them one in Jesus. In other words, they didn’t have to create unity among themselves. They already had it. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, emphasizes the unity that Christians have, that they were brought into. In Ephesians 4, verses 1-6, Paul writes, I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Listen, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called into one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Notice, Paul said, eager to maintain the unity. Friends, you can’t maintain something unless you already have possession of it. And it seems that the Corinthian Christians, in their compromise, have lost sight of maintaining the unity of the church. And Paul sees this as such a great issue within the church that he dedicates the first four chapters of his letter dealing exclusively with the things that threaten the unity of the church. My hope for us this morning as we look at this text

Divided Doctrine

is not that we would just see how the Corinthians failed to maintain their unity, but that we would see in their neglect a caution, a warning for us to work hard to preserve or to maintain the unity that Jesus prayed for, for Trinity Church. Last week we looked at the key to dealing with difficult Christians and this morning we’ll look at the key to dealing with a divided church. And to help us along, I’ve broken up our text into two categories that I think serves as the two greatest issues that fractured the unity of the church in Corinth. And that is divided doctrine and divided leadership. There’s a lot to unpack this morning, so we’ll pick up in verse 10 with divided doctrine. Paul writes, I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to stop here for a second.

Before we dive into the issue of divided doctrine, notice first the style in which Paul offers correction. It’s interesting. It’s in the form of an appeal. That’s an interesting strategy when it comes to correcting what is so fundamentally wrong with these Christians. Paul’s posture here is very fatherly. Paul is not demanding with a heavy hand. He’s not telling them to just do what they’re told. He’s not even rebuking them, which he very well could have, but he doesn’t do that. Instead, he earnestly asks them to make the necessary adjustments that are harming the church. His correction is in the form of an encouragement to them. And notice, Paul doesn’t feel the need to flex his apostolic authority in his appeal. No, he doesn’t say, I appeal to you as an apostle of Jesus Christ. One of the twelve. He’s not leveraging his own authority. Instead, Paul appeals on behalf of Jesus Christ.

And that’s because what we saw over the last two weeks, Jesus is the one to whom the church belongs. Paul says on behalf of him who is faithful, I appeal to you. And what exactly is Paul’s appeal? Well, it’s a threefold appeal for unity. He says, I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, 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. And to simplify this threefold appeal, it might be better to understand his appeal as having harmony with what we confess in the church, cooperation as a church, and that they conform their thinking for the church. Okay, so let’s unpack each one of these. Let’s start with what they confess in the church. Paul appeals that they all agree. Now, before we unpack this agreeing or what he is calling us to agree to,

it’s important to understand that Paul’s appeal in these verses is specific to a local church. So while it is true that all Christians are united in Christ, when Paul addresses issues of their unity or disunity, he’s speaking to the unity of a local church, where the members are committed to one another. And the reason this is important is because Paul is not saying that every church must agree with every other church in the world. Churches are different, and they’re different for good reasons. Paul is saying the local church, not the universal church, must agree. But what is the local church to be in agreement with? Well, I think the NIV, in its translation, is a bit helpful for us to understand what we are to be united in. The NIV says, I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that all of you agree with one another in what you say. So this agreement has everything to do with the things that we speak to each other, with the truths that we confess. And this would be most tangibly expressed in the realm of doctrine, or the church’s teaching. As members of the same church, there is to be unity in the doctrine that we corporately confess, and that we declare to one another individually. You can’t have unity in the church if there’s no common belief, if there’s no common statement of faith. No, we have to have a common doctrine if we intend to have authentic unity in the church. Now, most of you have, at some point, probably heard the statement, well, doctrine divides. It’s a very true statement. Doctrine does divide. But that’s not always a bad thing. We almost always hear that statement with a negative connotation to it.

And because of that, a lot of Christians and a lot of churches decide not to emphasize doctrinal differences or distinctives. And so what they end up doing is they kind of stay elusive with their doctrine. They kind of just skirt around the difficult doctrines because they think that doctrine will be the cause for all the disunity in the church. But that’s not entirely true. Nor is that helpful for Christian maturity. I mean, I’ve heard so many times in my life people say, you know, we really don’t need to be concerned with theology. We just need to be concerned with Jesus. But of course, the moment you ask them, who is Jesus? Well, they’re forced to make a theological distinctive. I mean, what if that person said, well, I don’t believe that Jesus was the son of God. Or I don’t believe that Jesus is the only way to get to God.

Family, there can be no agreement with that person concerning their understanding of who Jesus is. Because that’s not what Christians believe. And that’s not what the Bible teaches. Family, having clear doctrinal distinctives does two things. It divides, but it also creates unity. It divides truth from error, but it also unifies truth from error. Drawing a line in the sand where we stand doctrinally, despite what many Christians in our culture say, is a good thing. And we need to understand this, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where it seems like churches don’t care at all about doctrine. Or they change their doctrine on a semi-annual basis. The moment a particular doctrine becomes out of step with the culture or appears to be exclusive or intolerant, they either throw the doctrine away completely, the doctrine they once held to, or they change the doctrine to something that’s more culturally palatable

or socially acceptable. And their justification for changing the doctrine is that they have a more refined hermeneutic now than all of church history put together. And by hermeneutic, what we mean is just a fancy way of Bible interpretation. Family, we shouldn’t be doing that. Our doctrine should be historic and consistent and unchanging, even if it makes us sound old school or bigoted. Consistency and clarity is not only necessary for the unity of the church, but it’s also helpful and kind. R.C. Sproul said, if Christian unity is to mean anything, it must be a unity of faith grounded in the truth. To sacrifice conviction for peace is to have no conviction at all. And this is helpful because peace doesn’t mean to acquiesce to the culture. And listen, why this is so important is because the tide of the culture, with its various doctrines, if it makes its way into the church,

there must be agreement with what we believe or that tide will begin to erode our unity. Paul says, be united in your doctrine so that you won’t be divided as a church. But listen, it’s not just unity with the words we confess. There also needs to be cooperation around our common confession. To say something is one thing. It’s a whole other thing to live it out in the community. We all have to be on the same team to make the same moves. And we got to play with the same playbook. I mean, what kind of team plays a game without playing like a team? They just kind of do whatever they want without using the same playbook or playing by the same rules. I’ll tell you what kind of team that is. An ununified team. A team that will likely lose the game. We are to work out what we confess together in the life of our church.

And the reason this is so important is because if someone in the church, no matter how kind or peaceable they are, starts teaching things that are out of step with the church’s doctrine or the church’s teaching position, listen, even if it’s done with the very best of intentions, will always create division in the church. Always. And this was obviously the case in the church in Corinth. Paul says don’t do that. There should be cooperation with what we confess so that there won’t be any division among us. This, by the way, is why it’s so important for you to know what the church holds to doctrinally. Family, you can’t agree with something if you don’t know what that something is that you are to agree with. And you can’t cooperate with something if you’re operating independent of the knowledge of the doctrine. So we’ve got to know what it is.

And family, listen, if you’re unclear as to what the doctrine is, I have some really good news for you. We will be giving you everything you need to know concerning the doctrine of the church at tonight’s members meeting. Right? So that as our polity changes and we move towards our new polity, you can have everything you need to have in your hands to affirm what we believe. Which, family, now you can understand why we’ve been consistently emphasizing that though the polity is changing, the doctrine has not changed. None of our doctrine has changed. The reason we put so much emphasis on you affirming the doctrine that has not changed is because our unity in every way is dependent upon it. I mean, think about this for a second. If you have a member who is not in agreement with the church’s doctrine or with what the elders teach,

then what will likely happen to that member is that member will grow increasingly suspicious and critical of the elders and what they teach. And if they’re only critical of the teaching, then they won’t come to church ready to receive God’s Word. And instead of sitting under the beauty of God’s Word as it’s being preached, they will instead stand over the Word to critique it. And eventually, their critique of it or their differences with it will make its way into the church if we as a church are doing our job, which is word work, teaching one another. And if there is critique or differences in our doctrine, it will create factions in the church, which will always sow disunity. Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean that you just blindly take everything that the elders teach as infallible. No, you’ve got to search the Scriptures. Test the teaching with the Scriptures.

See if what we say stands true. And this family, by the way, is one of the reasons why we preach expositionally, line by line, so that you can see what we say. So that you can know there’s no tricks or slight of the hand when it comes to what we teach. And if there is something that you are concerned about or don’t understand or are wrestling with or in disagreement with, come and speak with the elders. And we will offer, as best as we can, clarity that you need. But I do want to be clear. If you find yourself constantly at odds with the teaching or constantly and consistently critical of the teaching, or you consistently land in a different space hermeneutically, and listen, I say this in love, it will be good for you to start talking with the elders about looking for a different church.

One that sits closer to your unique interpretation of the Scriptures. And listen, here’s the heart behind all this. We want you to be in a church where you can trust your elders and trust the teaching. It’s exceedingly important for the unity of the church. And we say this because to stay in a place where you cannot agree will only cause division in the church, whether you intend to do that or not. You cannot cooperate if all you do is critique. To be a church that is unified family, we need to share the same theological conviction. Now, something that might be running through your mind is, well, what about new Christians? We do have a lot of new Christians in this church. Many of these new Christians, they don’t understand the doctrine of the church yet. So what do we do about that? Well, that’s a whole different thing.

Not knowing the doctrine completely because you’re still trying to figure it out in the life of the church is not the same as actively contesting the doctrine of the church. There’s a massive difference there. Okay? And Paul continues to push in on unity and says, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. Now, that word united here can be better translated complete. And the word complete has a kind of medical connotation to it, which many of you in the church can resonate with. In fact, its most literal translation is to put back into its proper place. So imagine you have a broken bone. Why do you put a cast on a broken bone? So that you can set that bone back in its proper place, so that you can repair what is broken by setting it back to what it once was.

What Paul’s getting at here is that our minds and our judgments are broken from the fall and have a way of impacting the unity of the church. So we need to reset what is not in place in terms of our minds and our judgments. In other words, Christ gave us unity fully in place. But because we live with all the effects of the fall, we can sometimes act and think in ways that are not in their proper place. Let me just think about this for a second. The church is filled with all kinds of sinful people. Myself included. Amen? All kinds of opinions on how things should be done. But our opinions come from minds that are fallen. And so some opinions and some of the ways in which we express those opinions might not come from the most unifying perspective or take into account how our opinions

might not serve the overall unity of the church. So the question is this. How in the world can all of us who have all these different opinions and different perspectives with the very best of intentions who are sinful share the same mind and judgment? Well, it begins by conforming our minds to the mind of Christ as it pertains to our church. And what is the mind of Christ? Well, Philippians 2 gives us some help here. Philippians 2, 1-5 says So if there is any encouragement in Christ any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit any affliction and sympathy complete my joy by being of the same mind having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourself. Let each one of you look not only to his own interests

but also to the interests of others. Family, this is the mind of Christ. Loving, serving, humbly submitting ourselves patiently enduring with others who have different perspectives considering others and their opinions as more important than ourselves thinking and acting with the same goal in mind which is preserving and maintaining the unity of the church. Or just to keep it dumb simple do what Jesus did pray, prefer, set aside your rights and privileges for the church. That’s exactly what our Lord did. Now, I want to be clear when Paul says we need to have the same mind and same judgment he doesn’t mean that we have to be 100% in agreement with everyone’s perspective or that we have to adopt various different people’s perspectives or that we even have to agree with every aspect of what the church does. No, there needs to be room for people to have opinions and perspectives.

We’re not robots. We need to have room for people’s consciences. But if our opinions become such that it becomes a point of contention that it destroys the unity of the church we need to push those opinions and perspectives down. Okay? Furthermore, we need to make room for things that the Bible is silent on. We don’t have to agree on those things. We can have opinions and preferences and we can even have different philosophies of ministry just don’t let those differences divide the church. So when it comes to the core doctrine of the church we must have a shared confession we must cooperate concerning that shared confession and above everything else we must conform our thinking to the mind of Christ so that we might begin thinking about the greater good of the church. We need to do this if we aim to have authentic unity.

Divided Leadership

And family, listen, I know this is hard. Unity is very hard work. Putting up with different people and their perspectives is very hard. Preferring others and pushing down your own preferences is hard work. Family, this is going to become exceedingly difficult especially in an election year. You got to be mindful of the things that you post on your social media. You must be thinking first and foremost is what I’m about to post here going to preserve the unity of the church? Or is this going to cause division in the church? And if you think it’s going to cause division please don’t post it. We don’t want to go through what we went through a couple years back. That was horrible. That created so much disunity in our church. We don’t want to do that. Let’s learn from that. The Lord calls us to be eager.

Eager, zealous, excited, passionate about maintaining our unity. So we need to have the same mind and the same judgment so as to not divide the church. But listen, it’s not just the doctrine that the church in Corinth was divided over. There was also division in leadership and we see this in verse 11. Paul writes, For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers and sisters. So, word has reached Paul through Chloe’s people. We don’t know who Chloe is. We don’t even know if Chloe’s a Christian. But Chloe’s friends or employees or whoever they were they approached Paul concerning the disunity within the Corinthian church. That’s how bad it was. That everybody knew what was going on. Okay? So they tell Paul about the current state of the church specifically concerning division. Now, this word quarreling that Paul uses here

it can be translated rivalries. And I actually think that’s a very helpful word for us to understand. So the report Paul received was that certain factions had emerged within the church and that people were aligning themselves with specific church leaders. It appeared that these groups were deeply committed to their particular leader they followed and this fostered a kind of competition between the members who prized their particular leader. So instead of the church working together in unity towards a common goal members began to view other members as rivals. As competition. Which ultimately undermined the unity of the church. And we see how Paul broke down these factions in verse 12. Paul says, 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. Now, it’s important to know that these particular divisions

were not rooted in doctrinal differences. All of these leaders mentioned by Paul would have been in total agreement doctrinally. They all held to the apostolic teaching. So these divisions were purely based on personal allegiances rather than theological differences. In other words, the church was being divided by the cult of personality. And cliques were being created that caused a fragmenting of the church. And so some of these people were they were in Paul’s camp. And probably because Paul was undeniably the most prominent figure in the church. After all, he was the one who introduced the gospel to Corinth in the first place. He was the one who planted the church. And they likely positioned themselves within the Paul camp not because of loyalty to Paul but for recognition and status. You remember the Corinthian Christians were all very proud people consumed with status. But here’s the thing.

There was a potential problem with the Paul camp. Because some of the church criticized Paul for his speaking ability or lack thereof. And his personal appearance. Some of the people in the church sought a more polished leader. Someone a bit more polished might be better to click up with. Someone who’s a bit more culturally relevant and gifted with words. Someone like Apollos. Many felt that Paul’s suffering and weak speech didn’t fit the brand of a growing cosmopolitan church. And so they elevated Apollos to be the most prominent figure in the church. But there’s a problem with Apollos. Despite his charisma and his gift of gab Apollos didn’t have a direct connection to Jesus like Cephas. Who we know as Peter. And if prominence is the goal for the church or if they’re wanting to align with the most prominent figure in the church

following Peter, the one whom Jesus called the rock of the church that might seem more fitting. But out of these three camps emerged another camp. A group that paraded their personal piety above any prominent figure in the church and that was the Jesus camp. A group completely disillusioned with prominent figures. In fact, they thought it was more prestigious and perhaps more pious to have no church leadership. And so they chose the Jesus camp which gave the appearance of the ideal choice out of the four. But to be clear this group’s stance wasn’t about following the right leader rather a rejection of any church leadership. Which is a position that seems pious but is actually quite sinful. I mean Jesus himself would not be a fan of their anti-pastor position. In fact, we get a sense of Jesus as heart and the importance for people to have pastors

in Mark’s gospel. Chapter 6 verse 34 Jesus went ashore. He saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things. Jesus had compassion for people without pastors. He knew that people without church leaders were in a very dangerous place and would be subject to all kinds of spiritual harm. And so Jesus gives to the church leadership. And we saw this in Ephesians 4. He gives them to the church to love and serve and instruct God’s people for the work of ministry. So rejecting all pastoral authority or all church leadership is rejecting God’s design for the church. You understand that? Rejecting pastoral authority is rejecting God’s design for the church. So it’s not a more spiritual position to not need pastors, it’s an immature position. These factions and rivalries

led to conflict within the church with the leadership being pitted against each other by the other people. And just as we saw last week with gifts the leaders weren’t the problem. The people were the problem. Church leadership is a good gift, but sadly this good gift of godly leadership in the church became the tool for sin and division. And listen, though this was a big issue back in the day in Corinth, this issue is even more pronounced today. Especially with the rise of technology and social media. What I mean is that these kind of factions can happen with prominent pastors who aren’t even a part of a local church. I mean, you’ve got podcast pastors, you’ve got national conference speaking pastors, you have pastors with book deals, all contributing to the rise of the celebrity pastor. And the influence of these celebrity pastors can often conflict

or create conflict with the life of the local church. You know, John Piper says this, what do our pastors say about that? John MacArthur’s stance on the government is this, where do the elders stand with that? Mark Dever has said this about the church, why don’t the elders say the same thing? We probably do say the same thing, but that’s not the point. I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding. We ought not get it twisted, these leaders are good and godly men, but they are not the leaders God has given every local church. They can’t be. And so placing their leadership above local pastors or pitting them against local pastors hurts the unity of the church. It breeds distrust. Because when celebrity pastors have more influence over a congregation than their actual pastors, it fractures the church. It creates distrust, disunity. It’s really discouraging. The comparison

and the critique will no doubt create conflict. And here’s the thing, members of local churches who put more stock in podcast celebrity pastors, they only prove that they’re actually in the anti-authority group that Paul is referencing. A lot of people who only listen to podcast pastors, they’re very unhealthy people. Because a podcast can’t hold you accountable. A podcast can’t offer you correction. A podcast won’t be with you in the hospital when you need them the most. A podcast won’t be able to sit down and have coffee with you just to check in on how you’re doing spiritually. Listen, I know a lot of people who won’t submit to their local church leaders because they’re so consumed by the opinions and perspectives of their favorite celebrity pastors. And there’s a strange phenomenon that occurs. The more a person becomes infatuated with celebrity pastors, the more critical they become of pastors in

general. It’s almost as if no pastor is good enough for them because they never stand up to the standard of their preferred pastor. And by default, sadly, those people become part of the Jesus camp just like in Corinth. And what’s so sad is that they miss the blessing and benefit of what God prescribes for members in a local church. And that is to love and submit to your local pastors. Listen, because your local pastors are the ones accountable to God to look after your soul. These celebrity pastors don’t even know who you are. To them, you are just a click. Family, just so you know, one of the ways we try to mitigate this kind of sectarian pastor problem in our church is by having a plurality of elders. Where there isn’t one guy that the church is looking to lead them. Now listen, I know my title

is lead pastor, but that doesn’t mean that I lead the church. Or that I lead independently. I can’t do that. I don’t have that kind of authority. I don’t have that kind of authority in a plurality of elders. Nor do I want that kind of authority. There is beauty in shared pastoral leadership. I just wish that you could sit in on an elder meeting and see just how many times I get shut down for the glory of God and for the good of your souls. It’s beautiful to see how all the elders lead the church. And how God uses the collective wisdom of these elders to serve in the area of maintaining the unity of the church. Family, I have to have my mind and my judgments put in its proper place. Because I’m just as sinful as you. Part of God’s design for the church is giving pastors to the church

to help teach and protect the unity of the church. This is why we believe a plurality of elders is best. And look at how Paul seeks to teach and protect the unity of the church over divided leadership in verse 13. He says, Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Essentially, Paul is saying don’t divide what Christ has unified. Christ is one, so don’t segment him off into different parts. And listen, Paul can say this because Paul had first-hand knowledge of how Jesus is one with the church. You remember, this is now the third week we’ve talked about this. When Paul was confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus, Jesus asks Paul, Why are you persecuting me? The point is what you do to one part of the body of Christ, you do to Christ himself

because Jesus and his church are one. We are tethered together and this church is a local expression of that tetheredness. So Paul’s answer to this rhetorical question is no. He’s not divided. And so neither should we be divided. We are one. And when we become preoccupied with particular pastors because of a cult of personality, we lose perspective on the unique place that only Jesus should occupy in the church. This is why Paul says, Was Paul crucified for you? The answer, no. Were you baptized in my name? The answer, no. You see, part of the problem was that the people had created a position and priority with whatever pastor they preferred based on external ministry prominence or gifts. So they selected their preferred pastor. And so Paul is so concerned because when they do that, they miss the whole point. People and their public ministry are

Christ Alone

not the primary focus of the church. Jesus and his gospel is the primary focus of the church. Here Paul takes a wonderful cue from John the Baptist who knew how to put his public ministry in its proper place. Correct place. When the disciples of John the Baptist were threatened by Jesus as public ministry, they came to John and they said, John, they’re all going to go to him. Our ministry is going to be done. And how does John respond? Essentially, John says, so what? That’s the whole point.

I must decrease, and the Lord Jesus must increase. The whole role of a pastor is to help God’s people elevate the name of Christ. Not to have people in the church elevate the pastor because of what that pastor does for Christ. Paul goes on in verse 14 through 16 with this little rant about how he’s so thankful he wasn’t the one who baptized all the people in the church. And just a side note: I love how Paul speaks here because it’s so human. I mean, you really get a sense of Paul’s personality here and here and only a few other places you see Paul’s divine and human element at work when it comes to the inspiration of Scripture. Paul says, I thank God I baptized none of you except for Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. And it’s almost like someone said, yo, Paul,

just so you know, you did also baptize the household of Stephanus. And Paul’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, but fine.’ But beyond that, I don’t even know who else I baptized, but that’s not the point. It doesn’t matter. It’s like you see Paul’s kind of punchiness. He’s so gentle and now he gets all punchy and fired up. He’s saying, ‘You put so much emphasis on public ministry.’ And Paul is just giving it to them. You can hear it in his voice. I’m thankful I didn’t baptize y’all because you guys are missing the point. The way you guys elevate people, you’d exalt a person simply because they were the ones who baptized you. Don’t you see that when you do that, you attach the wrong value to baptism. The value is not in the baptizer, but in the one whose name you are baptized into.

King Jesus. Christ is the one who died for you. Christ is the one who unifies you. And Christ is the name in who you were baptized into. So he alone is the one we are to elevate. Then in verse 17, Paul closes by saying, 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. Paul, in his statement, like he so often does, takes his ministry influence, his platform as an apostle, all of that prominence, and he puts it in its proper place. In its correct place. Paul is essentially saying, I am nothing. I am no one to be elevated. I’m nothing but an instrument to preach the gospel. And just in case you forgot, it’s obvious that God was behind the preaching because I don’t speak

with the kind of eloquent words that might persuade you to believe. I mumbled out the cross of Christ, and you believed. Not because of how I presented it, or what I said, but because of the power of Jesus. The great unifier of the church, and the only celebrity of the church. And family, why is Jesus the only celebrity in this church? Why is Jesus the only one we exalt in this church? Because he alone is the only one who humbled himself to the point of death. The only sinless and perfect one to ever walk the earth. The only one who could perfectly satisfy the legal demands our sins deserve, which is death. Jesus is the only one worthy of being exalted in this church because no one else could do for us what Christ has done for us. And if you have experienced this grace and mercy, if you’ve

experienced this salvation, then you know no one else deserves this kind of prominence or platform or praise. Jesus alone deserves it all. He alone is worthy. And so we as a church together must make Jesus the prize of life and the Lord of all. We as a church must put in proper place our worship and adoration of the only one worthy of it. If you’re here this morning and you’re wondering, like, what are you talking about? Worship and adoration of Christ alone. If you’re wondering why Christians don’t worship men or praise political systems or trust in our good works to save us, it’s because none of those things could provide for us what we need the most. We need a sinless Savior, and that’s precisely who Jesus is. Can I ask you this morning? Do you know this sinless Savior? Do you know Him? You can know Him.

I appeal to you this morning. Trust and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. The Bible says clearly those who trust in Him will be saved. Saved from what? Saved from the wrath of God. That’s looming over you right now. Turn away from your current rejection of Jesus and turn to Him in faith and He will receive you. And if you want to know more about that gospel or the God who saves, please come and talk to me this morning. I would love to talk to you about that. I would love to help you understand more about Jesus and why He is worthy of your praise, adoration, and lordship. Family, my hope for us this morning is that we would see Paul’s appeal as the grace of God to govern the unity in our church. And that we may be united in our doctrine

and in our leadership. This is so vital for us as a church. But most importantly, family, that we would be united in our worship and adoration of Him. Let us make every effort to maintain the unity that Christ paid for and Christ prayed for. Amen? Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you. That you didn’t just save us and leave us on our own to figure things out. That you didn’t put this heavy weight on us to try to figure out how we might all get along. But that your blood purchased a unity for us that we could never create on our own. And I pray, O Lord and God, that in every engagement we have as members of this church, that you would help us have before our eyes the cross of Christ that purchased our unity. So that as we maintain our unity in

this church, those who peer into this church might see the mystery, the wonder, and the beauty of the God who saves and stitches us together like a puzzle. God, I pray that our ministry to one another of unity and deferring and giving of each other would be an example to the world that through it would yield innumerable fruit. God, I pray that you would help us to pray constantly as Jesus prayed for the unity of the church. That we may be one just as you are one. That we all may be one in you. We pray these things in Christ’s name, the celebrity of our church, the unifier of our church, and the great Savior of our church. Amen.