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September 4, 2005
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Unity
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"Agree, Already!"
1 Corinthians 1: 4-31; 2: 1-5
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Have you pondered the miracle of the unity of Scripture? This Bible I hold in my hand was penned by over 40 authors. There were fisherman and shepherds, prophets, priests, kings, and a medical doctor. They wrote down histories and poems, accounts of battles and proverbs. There are letters and descriptions of the end times: all this written in three languages on four continents over a period of 1500 years.
Now with all that would you expect this book to be a disjointed collection of thoughts without any common thread of unity? I would. Indeed, I doubt we could find five teachers at the local high school in this era, let alone over a period of centuries, who would wholeheartedly agree on any one subject.
However, this book has unity. From the first word until the last there is a singular message of Scripture. All the authors agree wholly that there is One God, the majestic 3-1 God. And all agree that all people have sinned and fallen short of this God and need to be reconciled. And all agree that there is one means of this reconciliation, the long predicted and prophesied and planned arrival of the second person of the Trinity, the Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died an unjust death and rose by the power of God to live forevermore.
Could anything be more amazing than this singular fact?
You are looking at the book, you have copies at home. It is a divine book, something only God could produce through the agency of faithful men and women who penned what they experienced, saw, heard and believed as carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, here is a book which is unified.
So, it makes sense, then that the people, you and I, born of the message of the book ought to dwell in unity. For this book says that as we become church we become one body, the body of Christ. As we become church we become one person, the bride of Christ. As we become church we become one army, the army of Living God walking in God's kingdom battling not people but the spiritual workers of iniquity. As we become church we become one building, the temple of the Living God.
- Is it any wonder then, that when people from Chloe's household wrote Paul about all the divisions in the one Body of Christ in Corinth that Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian believers?
He wrote recognizing that their disunity was not the product of a lack of giftedness but of a lack of maturity.
If you were in Corinth you would not all be sitting together in one place. This group might be the followers of Paul, and that group might be the followers of Apollos, and here would be those who follow Cephas or Peter, and finally you would be those who claim to follow Christ. And you would not be calm around one another, but fighting against one another.
Today we see this kind of disunity when people of different denominational backgrounds feud about one doctrine over and against another. Or when one congregation of one denominational stripe says they have the only means of salvation. We see this in local church settings when people divide themselves into safe enclaves and cliques: The pro choir group against the pro pastor group; the new rug in the fellowship hall campaign against the coat rack in the narthex.
What a horrible witness this behavior today is to those around the church!
Equally what a poor witness was these Christian's behavior for the rest of Corinth -- like a modern day Reno or Las Vegas -- this was "Sin City," it was the Macedonian version of Sodom or perhaps Portland. At the crossroads of major trade routes, everyone that passed through the area relished all the sin available to sample. But now the people around the church were witnessing behavior that would not encourage them to follow Christ. Indeed, they would be seeing that Jesus made little difference in life.
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Paul tackles their disunity by reminding them of the message he preached among them. You encounter this message throughout chapter one especially in verses 17, 21, 23, 24 and elsewhere. Then in 2:2 he says he resolved to know nothing while he was with them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Knowing Jesus is the core of what it means to be a Christian. This is the beginning of faith to enter into relationship with and follow Jesus with your life. Knowing Jesus is not just the decision at the altar when you gave your life to him, it is the life of growing to know Him better, to trust Him more and follow Him more closely.
It is a life which sings with action, "I have decided to follow Jesus" - a life that is sold out to the fact that what Jesus wants takes priority over what I want or someone wants of me.
To know Jesus is to be encountered by the power of God. When we come to faith, it is the power through the cross of Jesus that we experience in our lives. This is the power to break us from sin, to cleanse our hearts, to give us a new beginning. For Paul, for you, for me Jesus radically changed everything.
- Jesus is the answer to disunity. He is the core of our faith. When I am in unity with another brother in Christ from a different denomination it is because we both know Jesus. This is why Skip and I continue to say there is one church in Banks which worships in 4 locations, counting our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. This is why for years we were in the habit of beginning the worship service with prayer for two other local congregations recognizing that there is only one body of Christ which meets in different neighborhoods.
It is not just belief about Jesus that brings salvation and unity but an encounter with Him.
Today is a time to encounter Him. At this communion table we feast at a meal that Jesus inaugurated. We come and take of the bread, his Body broken for us that we might be made whole and then take of the cup of forgiveness and put ourselves into that cup, immerse ourselves in His forgiving grace as we come. It is the meal that proclaims the death of Jesus, Him crucified, in order that we can live. So, as you come, put yourself into this meal, realize anew that this is offered because of your sin, your need, and for your deliverance.
A dear friend of mine was preaching at a worship service at our seminary when he noticed much to his horror a fly crawling around the rim of the communion cup on the table. He kept talking but his attention was riveted upon that fly. It just kept crawling around the rim of that cup, not going in just around the edge. At that moment the Holy Spirit spoke to my friend's heart as he was preaching, "Steve, there is a fly in your communion." And he understood. It was the resurrected Lord, the speaking God, using a modern day parable to remind him of the distractedness of his own heart, his own need to bring his whole self to the table and put himself into the cup, to see himself immersed again in the fullness of what it means to have Jesus die and rise on his behalf.
As you come, deal with the flies, the distractions, the sinful tendencies, the temptations in your hearts and lives. Let Jesus be central. Get anything that has taken center stage in your life where only Jesus belongs to move over in favor of Him.
During tragedy is a time to encounter Jesus. One thing we can be praying for the dear folk down in Louisiana is that through tragedy they may powerfully encounter Jesus. The cross says that Jesus understands suffering, by actually having suffered. Jesus understands immense loss. Jesus understands and is bigger than cataclysmic horrors like these brothers and sisters have experienced.
This tragedy is also a time for the unity of the body to be brought forth. We must work side by side in order to help another. After the Tsunami in Indonesia, no Muslim nation came to help their fellow Muslims, convinced that Allah had decreed the destruction because the people were not being strict enough in following the law. However, when the Christians came to love, to be, to provide, these Muslims were caught off guard by an example of grace they knew nothing of in their system of faith. These Christians had all come because of Jesus. They had come with one purpose. And their love and unity proclaimed the gospel among the people. May the workers who go to LA also be such an example to these who have suffered.
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