Factions Infect The Church | Sermon 09/01/2024

All right, if you would, please open your Bibles with me to the first letter to the

Corinthians, chapter one. First Corinthians, chapter one.

We're gonna be in verses 10 through 17 today. First Corinthians, chapter one, verses 10 through 17.

And the title of the sermon today, church, is Factions Infect the

Church. Factions Infect the Church. So starting in verse 10 of First Corinthians, chapter one, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

God. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you.

Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas and I of Christ.

Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? 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 would say you were baptized in my name.

Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in the cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray once more as we approach the word of God today.

Lord, I know without a doubt, especially with what

Paul just said, that it's not the cleverness of speech. Lord, you know me, you know

I'm not a talented orator. You know I'm not a charismatic leader.

God, what we need today is the spirit. We need your Holy Spirit in me and in these people, your people,

Lord. Otherwise, this is just information. It's not transformation,

Lord. We don't need, we don't simply need information about division and about factions,

Lord. We need our hearts changed. We need you to remove the things that are always causing us to want to divide.

We need you to remove the things that are always making us out to be individuals. That are apart from others,

Lord, but we're one body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We are the church.

We are the bride of Christ. And Lord, some of us have truly lost that mentality.

We've forgotten what it's like to be one with the other. And we've divided, and we've had false assumptions against other people.

We've had moments where we've been so angry with other people, we've left, we've gone to other churches, even though we knew we were supposed to stay where we were.

And it's so easy to just give up and divide.

But Lord, I pray now that you would impress upon your people the reward and riches that come with long suffering together, with loving one another, and not having factions.

So Lord, please let this be a unifying moment for us. Please convict us.

Please guide us in your spirit. We pray this in the name of your son. Amen. Well, church, now that the apostle

Paul has reminded the Corinthians that both he and they have been and are being sanctified, now that he's reminded that you can be changed, and now that he's told them what to be thankful to God for, in both cases, turning the focus off of oneself to the only one who can fix this congregation, knowing that God can change you and that you need to be thankful to God, those are the foundations

Paul saw that these people need to have. This is the foundation you and I ought to have.

And so the writer of this letter and this planter of this church will address the first and desperately important subject of division.

You see, God detests a lot of things. The Bible says it. God hates a lot of things.

But there are some things that are especially atrocious to him. Look in your printout or look in the

Bible in Proverbs 6, verses 16 through 19. Wisdom states there are six things which the

Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who other lies, and here it is, and one who spreads strife among brothers.

God hates when his people are fractured apart. And Jesus knew it.

What applied to Beelzebul applies to the church. Jesus says it in Luke 11, verse 17.

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself falls.

Our Lord's expectation was and is that his church will be different.

It will be different than the world. The world divides and conquers. The world tears itself apart, but the people of Jesus Christ will be different.

And so for the first time in the history of mankind, I'm telling you, this is the first time ever that we are able, we have the ability, you and I, we have the ability to truly be united, not just superficially, not just under the banner of some name or some cause, which people can do for a time, but you and I, as Christians, have the unique ability to actually truly be united.

It's incredible. And it's the one through and to that we're united with, that's

Jesus Christ. And so make note, the apostle will continually bring it back to the

Savior in this text, okay? So in verse 10, Paul begins addressing the sins in the

Corinthian church, essentially saying, now, because of all that I said in verses one through 10, because of all that we should be thankful for, the grace, the enrichment, the knowledge, the gifts, the confirmation, the declaration of blameless on the final day, now, now

I appeal to you, brethren. And when he says the word brethren, it's used in this way in the

Greek, it is inclusive of all men and women, it's everyone. I appeal to you, men and women of the

Corinthian church equals those who are family, you who have a spiritual relationship together.

He's reminding them already of who they are. I appeal to you on the basis of gratitude and united family in our

Lord, our God. He is the focus. He's always the focus.

He says, stop looking at yourselves and look at God. And now that possibly, hopefully you have looked to God and experienced the gratitude that I told you to express,

I earnestly appeal to you, I exhort you. And that's how he begins this.

And this appeal for unification will run from here in chapter one, verse 10, all the way to chapter four, verse 21, this exhortation.

This church planter will now address their division and the problems and the wrong thinking that has gone with it, okay?

So notice to begin with Paul's appeal is not by his own authority or power. I exhort you by my own authority.

He says that as an authorized apostle of the risen Christ used prophetically by the

Holy Spirit, I exhort you in the name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And remember, I told you in the Gospel of John series that appealing to the name of God or the name of Christ is not just stating titles.

You see, in Jewish culture, in Hebrew culture, when you appeal to the name of someone, it meant not just their title, oh, my name's

Wade. It was who they are as a whole. I appeal to you by all of who

Jesus is, all that Jesus has done, all that Jesus will do.

I appeal to you by the power of Christ. I adjure you by the living

God, his very being. What Paul is saying is what he's about to address is something

Christ himself wants to address. This subject is very near and dear to the heart of God.

This hurts God, division hurts God. So the

Lord Jesus is invoked. Remember Corinthians, he is the Lord of your lives.

He's master. And most of all, Jesus Christ is the name in which they were baptized.

Jesus said to himself, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the

Holy Spirit. Remember your calling. Remember your baptism. Remember your Lord. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our

Lord Jesus, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you and that instead you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Four things are stated right there. Number one, you all agree. Number two, no divisions be among you.

Number three, that you may be made complete in the same mind. And number four, made complete in the same judgment.

So let's address these. First, Paul wants them to agree. And that's not simply to be agreeable.

He wants them to agree. This is different. The word in the Greek here is for speaking.

He's saying you all, and he says the word all, by the way, you all, all of you ought to speak the same thing or it could be said also in the

Greek, you all ought to have one voice. Hey, all of you, you ought to have one voice.

And the image I get in my mind is like multiple people trying to talk all at the same time and they're all saying what they wanna say, never deferring to the other person, never actually truly listening.

They're all trying to get their opinion out. Just not even one voice. It's crazy, it's nuts.

Some moms have that experience in their minivans, right? Like, come on, stop, right? One voice, please.

But it's even different than that. Another illustration would be when a king sends an emissary to a foreign leader to give an update on their kingdom, on their nation, but instead this emissary brought along three other ambassadors and these four ambassadors from this other king comes before this leader, this nation, and this leader goes, okay, emissaries of kingdom, whatever, give me your update from your king.

And all of a sudden, all four of these emissaries, these ambassadors start speaking and they're not even saying the same thing.

They're giving different updates, one about finances of the kingdom, one about warfare of the kingdom, one about the invaders of the kingdom, and one about the cultural impact that's happening in their kingdom.

And boom, all four try to give that king an update about their kingdom and the king is like confused, it's disorderly, and he's thinking, boy, if this is how they give reports, if this is how they give updates,

I don't even wanna see how disunified they are in their home nation. So that's the idea we get.

Paul says, speak the same thing. Be one voice together. Our church should be a place in which anyone outside of it may be able to ask one of you a question about Christ, about the gospel, and they get the same thing.

They get the same thing. You could go up to Josh Quesenberry and ask him about the gospel, he'll tell you about Christ.

You could go up to Nate Day and he'll tell you about Christ. So you see, you don't wanna go up to someone else and all of a sudden they said, well,

Jesus is a way, he's not the way, you know, you can find Jesus through Buddha or Hinduism or whatever.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not one voice, right? That's different. We just have one voice.

Those who are saying the same things are allies, they're compatriots, they're aligned associates.

And so an issue could be brought up in a church and all of a sudden the people get together and because they are informed by the scriptures, by the truth, because they're redeemed people, because they have the

Holy Spirit, they can come together and if an issue is presented, it'd be a no -brainer.

They all think the same thing. You know, speaking in one voice is like when a choir sings all in unison and in the same key.

You ever seen a symphony choir and they're all singing and they go up and they go down in their notes and in their keys and it's just magnificent.

But then imagine a choir where all of them are singing from a different song and they're in a different key and you just go,

I'm out of here, I'm done. This is horrible. That's not beauty, that's not art. That's ugly, that sounds horrible.

And so that's the image we get. Next, I exhort you all that there be no divisions among you.

The Greek word here is schismata, schismata, schisms. Something that was once whole, now that has been torn into pieces, multiple pieces.

And that word schism is a buzzword, especially in Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy.

That word schism has been used in an official sense in Christendom, especially the centuries following the

Eastern and Western church split where you had the Byzantine church and the

Roman church. Of course, both are riddled with errors to this day.

But you have that kind of schism, okay? Something where those schisms occur with theological or doctrinal differences that are irreconcilable.

But it's fairly unlikely, and this is key, it is fairly unlikely that the Corinthian church began to have extreme theological differences.

I don't believe that. I don't think they started to have separate membership. I don't think they started to have differing structures the way that we would think of different denominations or things like that.

That is way too soon. That would be anachronistic. That is outside of this timeline, okay?

As one commentator points out, what triggers Paul's dismay is that the report is that believers are forming alliances over and against fellow believers and creating strife.

Forming alliances with specific people in the group and being against other alliances in the group.

You see, if you remember from the first sermon I told you, in Greek culture back then, there was a party -making mentality that was already there with philosophers who would have protégés, right?

Oh, I follow this philosopher. You would have these distinct teachers with their respective students.

Oh, my teacher is this. I'm a pupil of this man, this woman. You had differences in social classes.

Oh, we're wealthy. Oh, we have all the big houses on the hill of Corinth by that temple over there.

You guys, oh boy, you're in poverty. You had Roman or native because having

Roman citizenship gave you an advantage to everyone else or whatever else there may be.

There were so many reasons to come together and to become a faction and become a group and become different than other people in the church.

And so what the Corinthian church was facing could have been a number of things, but I don't think it was ever truly pertaining to theology.

So what's occurring here is a change of priority in identity, a change of priority in identity.

You see, all of us have identities. What makes up you as you?

And what ought to be chief now as Christians is just that, that we are number one, firstly, we are

Christians. Christ is our identity. It is first and everything flows from that identity.

The minute you put something above that primary, demoting the identity of Christian in your life, havoc enters your experience.

Your life gets harder. You experience way more trials. And more than that, you think you could do this alone?

Yeah, there's a lot of people out there who think they could do this Christian life alone, but I'll tell you what, look at their lives and look at their secret lives.

No accountability, no fellowship. We can't do this alone.

We weren't made to do this alone. Havoc enters our lives. And so this reality, this identity as a

Christian ought to supersede all other convictions or opinions. And this is a command. Don't divide.

And we live in a culture that is so quick to divide, do we not? We live in a culture where there's categorization and specialization for everything.

There's like a Facebook group for hikers that hike with shorts only. Like, I mean, there's specialization for everything.

Christians who are charismatic, but also kind of Calvinistic, but also only go to churches with bald guys.

And there's just so many different specialized groups these days. It's easier.

You know what? It is so much easier. It is easier to divide.

So much easier. It's easier to divide from a church than to strive together to achieve that one voice that Paul talked about.

It's easier to divorce than to improve a marriage. It's easier to cut a friendship off than humbly asking for forgiveness.

But we're in Christ. Did Christ take the easy road? No, he did not.

He took what was called the Via Dolorosa, the road of suffering, the pathway of pain.

But what did it lead to? It led to the most rewarding redemption.

You stick with something, you don't divide, and you will be rewarded almost nine times out of 10.

Are there biblical reasons to divorce? Yes, there are some, fewer than people think.

Are there reasons to cut someone off? Yes, there are a few. Are there reasons for us to send someone out of this church?

Yes, the first year we had to do it. There's very few.

But when you stick with something, when it doesn't feel right in your flesh, but you know it's true according to the

Bible, you know you should go through it, you know you should walk through it, you will be rewarded.

You know, I tell this to people, longevity in a church is important. You're gonna see your leaders make mistakes because they're just human, but then if you, and we've made them already,

I've said it a few times, some of my mistakes, but if you go through that and you stick with it, then you'll get to be enriched by that.

If you have a relationship that breaks here and you work through it and you're both sanctified, and I'm not saying if someone's actively sitting against you that I shouldn't get involved or the leadership shouldn't get involved,

I'm saying if you go through it, if you wait, if you stay, you will be rewarded.

If we continue to hop and hop and hop and hop, we never get to build up that Christian life.

We're always starting over, okay? Something to consider. Paul says, instead, be made complete in the same mind.

This word complete isn't the typical Greek word for being complete or perfected at the end.

This word is different. It means to get things back into proper order, to fully restore something.

It was a surgical term in Greek days. It was a surgical term for setting of bone breaks, and it's used metaphorically here by Paul.

Paul's saying, brothers, sisters, set in place what was broken and let it heal back together.

Restore it back together. Have the same mind. You're so close together.

You ever have this in a Bible study where you and another brother or sister are so much on the same page that you say something from the word of God, and they're like, that's exactly what

I was thinking. You're on the same page. You have the same mind. Or having the same mind is to both know what is right and what is wrong.

Because some people have been calling bad things good and good things bad, and so be on the same biblical page again, the same minds think alike.

And he finishes here by saying, be of the same judgment too. Because if you're of the same mind, you'll make the same decisions.

Your opinions will align. It literally means to have the same regard for simply what is.

Whatever reality is, think the same thing. Because he's saying,

Corinthians, your worldviews have become different. Your worldviews have become different.

So in the end, Paul says, have agreement on truth and reality. Church, say the same things.

Think the same things. Do the same things. And restore all these things back to how you started with the gospel of Christ as the main thing.

Say the same thing. Think the same thing. Do the same thing. You go to corporate business classes, right?

I remember being in corporate America, and they're like, of course, there's this thing, group think, and they want people to be expressive and individuals, and that might have different applications.

But here, it's important as believers to think the same, to have the same -minded

Christ, to be unified. You know, here's the deal.

Your particular is far less important than the unity of the church.

Your particular, that special thing that you hold to, that thing that you like the most, that thing that you're like, that always comes back to you, it's far less important than you think.

You are to guard unity and discard anything that infringes upon truth -founded unity.

I'm not talking about compromising the truth. I'm not talking about that. I'm not saying give up your convictions.

I'm saying maintain unity to the point where you're not elevating your particulars so as to cause division.

So how does Paul know all of this is happening in his church plant? He's got some informers.

I'll tell you what, pastors always have informers. You gotta watch out. We're looking. No, I'm just kidding.

Verse 11, for I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you.

And Chloe's name is given in the genitive form. It literally says those of Chloe have revealed your quarrels to me.

And so that means that Paul didn't simply take one person's word for it. Paul interviewed or was given multiple witnesses to this unfortunate issue.

That's key. That's key. Multiple witnesses. Those of Chloe came to me.

There are, he says, aridas, conflicts, discords, strife, divisive events resulting in rivalry.

You've got quarrels among you. You've got infighting, he says. And now what's interesting, by the way, is that this word aridas is often in Paul's lists of vices, sins.

In Romans one, Galatians five, the deeds of the flesh, the evil list of sins in Titus chapter three, these things, these quarrels, this division, these are things characteristic of them before Christ saved them.

But they shouldn't be characteristic of them now. They shouldn't be characteristic of us now.

And I've seen these types of people before in my ministry. I've seen them before.

They turn everything into an argument. Every discussion is a hill to die on.

They sever ties with most people with their contention. These people are often self -righteous but hypocritically riddled with sin.

These type of people don't wanna share their heart with you or yours with them. They wanna rip your heart out and stomp on it.

They wanna hurt you. They say they're better than you. They are what's called schismatics, divisive men and women.

They are often a cancer in a church. They'll destroy it from the inside outward.

They love modern American Christianity because modern American Christianity has a large front door that brings tons of people in but there's never any forced exit, right?

These people can just stick around. The shepherds are not guarding the flocks. There's hired hands that leave the sheep unprotected to these people.

And these type of divisive people will gain followers and they will on their way to the top in their church, they'll build followers.

But as soon as it's hit a point, they'll separate even from their devoted followers because no one else can share the crown, there's only one.

There's no one else who can sit on the throne with them. These are divisive people. They don't realize that the division they're sowing is of the same seeds that were first planted in the mutiny of Lucifer with his demonic fallen angels against the one true

God. It's the same seed. That was the first division. And so what

I'm talking about here, you're like, whoa, Pastor Wade, extreme. I know, that's an extreme case, no doubt.

And it's possible there were a few like that in the Corinthian church, but hopefully most of them were naive to their sin.

Therefore grief and repentance is Paul's aim. Removal would be a last resort.

He doesn't want that. Now, as far as quarrels go,

Paul mentions one of the main issues creating rivalries. Verse 12, look at this, verse 12.

This is one of the main issues of why they're dividing. Now, I mean this, that each one of you is saying,

I am of Paul and I have Apollos and I have Cephas and I have

Christ. What he's saying is the

Corinthian church has split into four separate parties potentially, okay?

But scripture shows us that these parties can't be based on theological differences.

Why? Because Paul and Apollos and Peter and Jesus all preach the same exact gospel.

They preach the same exact message. So these groups aren't set up in such a way where it's like, well,

I follow Peter because he does this differently, he teaches this differently. Well, I follow Paul because he teaches that.

No, they were all united, same gospel message. And so what's going on here?

Why are there these four factions in the church? There are several theories and that's all that they are, by the way.

I can't give you a definite answer on any of this and I refuse to act like we know for certain.

I'm not that presumptuous with God's word, but there are several theories. And one that goes in line with Greek culture the most is that these groups paid special tribute to either

Paul, Apollos, Peter, or Jesus. Viewing someone as a strong leader was often determined in their oratory skills, their presentation, their charisma, and this is a big one, in how high profile they appeared to be.

How high profile they appeared to be. And so for whatever reason, one of these individuals seemed more impressive to certain people than the others.

And so the first group says, we are of Paul, we are of Paul.

And we assume those in this party were loyal to their church planter, their spiritual father, probably because of that.

Maybe they've even heard of the false apostles or the Judaizers speaking ill of him.

And this group, I am of Paul, they would come to his defense. It's possible that those of the

Pauline group were of the select few who were actually baptized by him or the select few who were actually given the gospel personally by him.

Now, whatever support they would have showed him, the writer of our letter, he wasn't pleased by it.

This made him angry. In fact, this sort of treatment to Paul repulses him.

Any other type of man would capitalize on their popularity, but the apostle

Paul doesn't. He knows he's no better than the other men in this list.

And some even say that the order of names is the order of greatness.

Paul, Apollos, Peter, Jesus Christ. And so Paul even considers himself, why would you be even of me?

I'm no one. He thinks he's no one without Christ and he would be right.

And so the next group besides the Paul group is the Apollos group. Apollos.

What do we know about this man? Acts chapter 18 and chapter 19 give details about him.

And Apollos was an Alexandrian Jew. And Luke specifically mentions this.

Apollos was an eloquent man and well -learned. It says in the

Bible that he was mighty in the scriptures. And although Apollos spoke accurately of the things of Christ, he wasn't finishing his gospel presentations on being baptized in Christ.

He spoke of John's baptism. Do you remember this? Does anyone recall this? Acts 18,

Apollos is sharing the gospel so mightily, but then Priscilla and Aquila see him and they listen to him.

They go, wow, this guy knows the scripture. But then at the end, Apollos was going, now receive John's baptism.

And they're like, whoa. And they pulled him aside and taught him, it says, the way more correctly.

They taught him the way. What was Christianity called in the first century? The way. They taught him the way more accurately.

And so after that, Apollos has been corrected. He said, oh, yes, thank you for letting me know.

I didn't know the rest of the story. And Apollos goes on to Achaia. And already as a new convert, it says that he was able to greatly help those who believe through grace.

And then it says, he became known as one who could powerfully refute

Jews in public with the scriptures. He was impressive.

And he started to do this where? In Corinth. He was deemed impressive in Corinth.

And some have thought that Apollos brought maybe differing views on baptism to the

Corinthians, especially since it's mentioned here. It was mentioned in Acts, but we have no evidence of that, none at all.

What you can actually imagine, what I can imagine is that shortly after Paul starts evangelizing the people in Corinth in Acts 18,

Apollos comes on the scene, a new Greek convert, Jewish, I'm sorry, a

Jewish man, now Christian, is converting Greeks, Gentiles, and those in the middle of conversion are seeing

Apollos skillfully use rhetoric, skillfully use argumentation and apologetics for the gospel.

These Greek people turning to Christ are seeing this, wow, this Apollos man, he's impressive.

In a society where arguing your philosophy is important, no wonder they could have elevated this street evangelist.

I am of Apollos, we're the apologetics guys. But again, whatever treatment they were giving

Apollos, he would have rejected it, he would have not wanted it. He was probably unwitting of their treatment of him.

So the sin is on them, the sin is on the Corinthians. You see, every leader is gifted in different ways, and it's terribly important to never elevate some over the others, especially over Christ.

So you have the group of Paul, you have the group of Apollos, now you have the next group, the one, those who profess

Cephas, or pronounced in the Greek with a kappa and an eta,

Cephas in the Greek. Cephas, this is the one we know to be the apostle Peter.

Now, what's interesting about this group is, I can tell you right now, there is not one piece of biblical evidence, not one indication in the scripture that Peter ever even visited

Corinth. We have no indication that he actually ever even went there.

So if you wanna know what this Peter group is about, we have no idea, and I can only guess.

So I was praying and going, God, why would these people say they were of Peter? And then I came to the point where I thought of Galatians, Galatians chapter two.

If you remember in Galatians chapter two, Paul talks about how Peter was sitting in Galatia among the

Gentile believers, but then when a certain Jewish Christian group came from Jerusalem to visit

Galatia, then all of a sudden Peter changed lunch tables. He was sitting with the

Gentiles eating food, and then Peter changed, and he only sat with the

Jewish Christians. And if you remember in Galatians chapter two, Paul had to call him out.

You are showing partiality. We're all believers now, and Peter was rebuked by Paul.

And so what you have to think about is maybe the followers of Peter were mostly

Jews. So Paul's believers could have been the first few initial converts.

Apollos' followers were mostly Gentile admirers, and Peter's could have been

Jews who found it difficult to assimilate from Jewish synagogue life into a

Gentile Christian context. Jews. Peter would have appeared in some ways the most

Jewish. Paul was very kind to Gentiles, but so was

Peter. Peter knew that the gospel was for everyone.

You see this especially in the book of Acts in the inclusion of the Gentiles with Cornelius.

Acts chapter 11, Peter has the vision the Gentiles are included. He goes to the

Jerusalem church. You guys, the Gentiles are included for this gospel, and so Peter knows, but maybe this group was following him because of that moment in Galatia.

But I also think it's possible that it was this. I think it's possible that the

Corinthians elevated Peter because they saw Peter as the right hand man of Jesus Christ.

Peter was one of the closest disciples and apostles to the Lord. He was what was called the pillar.

He was a mega apostle touched by heaven, right? Paul just simply saw a vision of Jesus on the road, but Peter walked with Jesus.

Peter was close to Jesus. Peter was different. Oh, Peter was so special, right?

So they elevated him. Oh, we don't care about you, Paul or Apollos.

You came later. We follow, we're of Peter. We don't know. What we do know is once again, now more mature and full of the

Holy Spirit, Peter would have rejected this treatment just as much as he would reject idol worship of him now, prayers given to Peter now, icons made of Peter now.

He'd reject it all. He doesn't want it. And so finally, the last group in our text is the group that said,

I am of Christ. There's always that one guy, by the way. You can follow whatever theologian you want.

I follow Jesus, I'm super holy here. So you're saying you don't read any other books or you don't go to a church and listen to a pastor.

No, Jesus teaches me personally, man, you are so holy. I wanna be like you, right?

I'm jesting, of course, I'm joking. These are typically the type of guys who have funky theology, they're self -righteous about how they need just a

Bible, they don't need a church. But I digress, this is a completely different category, okay?

Completely different thing than admiring a certain theologian's work or a pastor. So I have to tell you that the

Christ group is more mysterious to scholars than all the others. If Christ is the leader of the church, why would

Paul have to even bring it up? Someone's saying, I'm of Christ. Are the Christ group doing the right thing or are they doing the wrong thing?

Well, like I said, we have no indication that the differences here were doctrinal or theological.

They were elevating specific individuals that they wanted to be their personal leaders.

And I honestly wonder if, just like my joke, this group, although not given the gospel directly by Jesus Christ, were eventually rejecting all of the apostles, especially rejecting

Paul. Do you know what I'm saying? Essentially, what if this group, this

Christ group, was given the gospel and then all of a sudden, they wanted to reject all the elders and all the apostles that came their way.

They're like, we just follow Jesus. He'll teach us. They were rejecting authority possibly.

They don't need any human leaders over them or to teach them because they are of Christ. And we wouldn't need to go far in the gospels or in the epistles to show the grave error of that, but it is possible nonetheless.

Oh, Christ teaches us, Christ alone. Yeah, but Christ also gave the means and modes by which the church would be taught.

What does the Bible say? Apostles, teachers, evangelists, pastors, preachers.

And this group might have the audacity to go, nope, Jesus only. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Apostles, teachers, preachers, nope, Jesus only. But it's also possible that this group didn't even exist.

One commentator states the declaration that I belong to Christ is Paul's and prepares for his assertions that he knew only a crucified

Christ when he first preached in Corinth, that he has the mind of Christ, that he is to be thought of as a servant of Christ and that he is a fool for Christ.

His basic argument in these chapters would be that no leader has any ultimate significance and none is to be puffed up in favor of one against another, especially above the

Lord Jesus Christ. You know, what's interesting is when

Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation was becoming well -known, you all know Martin Luther, right?

16th century monk saw that the Bible taught that salvation is not purchased with indulgences.

Salvation is never purchased, it's never sold. It's given freely. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone.

That was Martin Luther's thing and he got in trouble with the Pope and with the Roman Catholic Church at that time.

That was the Protestant Reformation. Well, at some point, people started calling

Protestant Christians Lutherans. Oh, look at those Lutherans.

They're not Christians, they're Lutherans. You know what Martin Luther said to that?

He said this, "'What is Luther? "'This teaching is not mine, "'nor was

I crucified for anyone. "'How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, "'come to the point where people call "'the children of Christ by my evil name?'

That's what Martin Luther said. Don't call them Lutherans, call them

Christians. You see, vainglory, pride in oneself, excessive vanity, it's just as evil for people to tempt a leader to it than one indulging in it.

So what is Paul's point? Not that these individuals, Paul, Apollos, Peter, or Christ were elevating themselves, but that the

Corinthians were honoring each one with varying partiality and falling into what the people of the world do, separating from others due to the idolatry of men and divisive view of Christ.

Now, you can't idolize Jesus in the wrong way, but they were doing something.

Let me talk about that. We're gonna find that out in verse 13. And so the apostle is shocked here.

Look at verse 13. He says with this incredulity, "'Has

Christ been divided? "'Paul was not crucified for you, was he?

"'Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?' John Calvin said that it's as if Paul screamed, "'You have torn

Christ to pieces.' Christ and his bride are the inseparable unit.

They are spoken as of one. The bride of Christ isn't made up of a Paul group, an

Apollos group, a Peter group. And even if there was a Christ group, they would be wrong.

Why? As Chrysostom said, even those who said they were of Christ were at fault because they were implicitly denying this to others and making

Christ the head of a faction rather than the head of the whole."

You see, that's the issue of the Christ group. They were denying other people.

Oh, you have your Paul group. You have your Peter group. You have your Apollos group. We have the

Christ group. And they were keeping Christ to themselves at the detriment of the others, saying that Christ is the leader of a small faction rather than the head of a whole church.

And so the word here divided in the Greek is not schismata, but this time it's merizo.

It's as if they're taking Christ and they're apportioning him out in sections. Okay, let's cut Christ up.

And this group gets some of Christ. This group gets some of Christ. He goes to certain groups, but you're not supposed to do that.

Christ offers his full self to the whole church. Jesus uses this exact word in Mark 3 talking about Satan's kingdom being divided against itself.

And so the image we get is that the Corinthian groups weren't just separate from each other, but they were separate and against each other.

That's the key. Not only did they divide, but they were against each other.

And so Paul says, how dare you make Christ fight against Christ?

How dare you split the whole and turn them against each other? How dare you?

This is like spiritual polygamy. God has one bride.

Christ has one bride and the Lord made it even in creation. Creation shows us that there was one man, one woman,

Adam and Eve for marriage. A man demanded of by two, three, four, five wives is a divided man.

He can't give full attention to one bride. It becomes a divided household, polygamous households.

And God's household is not polygamous. He has one bride, the church.

It doesn't work any other way. And so the answer to Paul's second question is an emphatic no.

Was Paul crucified for you? Absolutely not. No other man besides the

God man has been able to propitiate and expiate sin for others. There is no one else.

No apostle even comes close to the greatness of our God, our Lord Jesus. Peter argues the same in Acts chapter four, verse 12.

He preaches and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

It is precisely because Christ sacrificed himself that he gets the name above every other name.

The name of Apollo, so the name of Paul and the name of Cephas are not even close.

He is the only name. To give equal loyalty to someone other than the one who is crucified for you is absurd and offensive to God.

And notice I didn't say don't give any loyalty to an apostle or an elder.

I said, don't give equal loyalty. The same loyalty you give to Jesus, don't give the same undying loyalty to a man or a woman.

Sure, give loyalty. I hope that you guys are loyal to each other in some way, but you're not so loyal so as to say, oh,

I'm gonna hold this person up and I'm gonna make a group this person. Because in the end, only

Jesus can redeem you. Only Jesus can bring you home. So, Paul now gives a ridiculous question for a ridiculous situation, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

And the answer is, of course not, right? They're not.

They were baptized into Christ under the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Corinthian believers were rescued from the domain of darkness.

They were transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. They aren't of the world anymore.

And therefore, they must renounce the world's practices because it's not that they don't know these things, it's that they failed to live it out.

Because, you see, factions are almost always made when someone idolizes a specific leader or yourself or some secondary doctrine.

This also shows us that baptism, he says, were you baptized in my name?

Baptism is not so much about who baptized you, but who you were baptized into, okay?

You see, some over the centuries have become distraught when they found out that the pastor or the person who baptized them turned from Christ, apostatized.

Does that reality truly invalidate your baptism? By no means.

One of Paul's points here is that whoever delivered you the gospel, whoever performed your baptism, whoever is your mentor, none of them truly and ultimately matter when this is about Christ.

You see, here's the deal, church. Whoever baptized you, they can fail you.

But who you're baptized into, Jesus Christ, he never will. He'll never fail you.

So that's why we say it's essential to have a Trinitarian baptism in Christ. And even if someone who baptized you turned from the faith, you have a baptism not from, but into Christ.

It's valid, it's valid. And yet, due to the Corinthian sin, Paul is glad that he's never given them more reason to elevate him.

He was talking about divisions and factions, but like any preacher, he digresses, he wanders into a baptism trail.

Look at verses 14 through 16. We're almost done here. I thank

God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say that you were baptized in my name.

Now, I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptize any other.

So some have said, baptisms are part of these rivalries.

Some people were exalting their baptizer over another, but what's difficult in saying that is once again, there was no evidence that Peter ever came to Corinth, and also,

Jesus ascended into heaven 10 to 15 years before this church was even planted.

So to say that the factions were made because of the men who baptized them, okay,

Paul baptized our group, Apollos baptized our group, Peter baptized our group, oh, and Jesus baptized our group.

Well, I'm telling you, Acts chapter 18, the very first time the gospel was brought to Corinth was over a decade after Jesus had rose into heaven.

So it's not possible that any of these Corinthian believers would have been baptized by him. So baptism or baptizers are not the thing that made these divisions, okay?

So after the preaching of the gospel, which is the common thread in all those acts,

I'm sorry, actually, I wanted to first say that Paul, as I told you, may be baptized some,

Apollos probably baptized a few, but that's probably it.

Again, Peter and Jesus didn't. It's possible maybe Silas or Aquila or Timothy came down and baptized some, we don't know.

But really, I guess why I'm coming back up a little bit to this is,

Paul's reason for this is that he doesn't want anyone to be exalted.

He wants no reason for anyone to exalt him. And he's thankful that he only baptized a few.

And here's the truth of it, church. Paul did not believe apostolic hands were necessary to perform the sacraments of the church.

There is no mystical nature to the leadership who is endowed with the laying on of hands.

And that's really kind of even a Mormon thing. That's an Eastern Orthodox thing. They say, they look at a guy like me and they go, does pastor

Wade truly have apostolic succession? Does he truly have the authority to baptize or give the

Lord's table to preach the word? Does he have apostolic succession, right?

And the Mormon church says, oh, we recognize you believe in Jesus, but you don't have the keys of the priesthood.

You see, the priesthood was given to our organization. You don't have it. So only we, the

Mormon church has the rights to baptize people in Jesus's name. But here we see in this moment in Paul's letter that he expected the gospel to spread like wildfire.

And he told men, he told Titus, he told Timothy, he said, appoint elders in every city.

And he knew that they were gonna baptize people. And he knew that it was gonna spread beyond the control of 12 or 13 apostles.

That is key. This whole universal church was meant to spread beyond the control of 13 men or whoever, however many apostles there were.

The Holy Spirit is the one who's over this church. The Holy Spirit is the one who endows believers with the calling and the ability to administer the sacraments.

It says now, Peter says in his first letter, you are a holy nation.

You are a royal priesthood, a people for God's own possession. Are there officers in the church?

Yes. But what I'm getting at is that Paul understood that this would go beyond his own hands.

Okay? And so where we are to have the wonder is not in the ones who baptize, but in the one who were baptized into.

The mystical aspect is that Christ lets us partake of the supper and partake in baptism.

And although they are external acts, they communicate a spiritual truth.

And they covenant us to the body of Christ and to Christ himself. Therein lies the wonder, not in the administrators of those things.

And so the way I like to imagine this part of our text is like Paul's counting on his fingers and he's like,

I wasn't baptized. You weren't baptized in my name, were you? And then he's like, there was

Gaius, there was Crispus. And then maybe the person who is scribing his letter was like, oh, wasn't there the household of Stephanas?

And he's like, yeah. And the household of Stephanas. But beyond that, I don't know if there was anyone else.

And so he makes this of so little importance because it's about who you were baptized into, not who performed your baptism.

And finally, Paul introduces the main subject of this letter for the next several chapters.

Last verse, go to our final verse, verse 17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in the cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

And so the word to baptize here is in the infinitive mood. What he's saying is,

I wasn't sent by Christ to just keep on baptizing. I wasn't commissioned by God to just baptize and go to places and baptize.

Baptism isn't the only thing I was called to do. I am not a baptizer, but a preacher of the gospel.

And because I preach the gospel, I baptize. He told the

Corinthians not to divide Christ and neither will Paul divide the great commission.

It's a package deal. Go, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them the commandments of Jesus.

He'll do all of it. He won't do just some. He's not just here to baptize. And the preaching of the gospel is the common thread in all of those acts.

You go because of the gospel of Christ. You make disciples by the gospel of Christ.

You baptize them as a symbol of the gospel of Christ, and you teach them the gospel of Christ in the entire

Bible. Later in chapter nine, Paul will say, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

And that preaching is not in the cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

He literally says wisdom of words or words of wisdom would nullify the cross of Christ.

It would reduce it to nothing. Rhetorical eloquence or fine speech, if that's what the

Corinthians have favored in their factions, it won't work. It won't work to save anyone, and it won't work to keep the church united.

And so maybe right here, we come to what made the factions.

This is it. What made the church in Corinth divide? It was the cleverness of speech and worldly wisdom of some individuals that they admired and elevated.

But what they all actually have is the equally given spirit of God in each man and woman.

You see, this type of wisdom that they admire is incompatible with the gospel because this wisdom doesn't rely upon the spirit and truth, but manipulation of words.

And most of the schismatics out there, most of those who divide, they will only ever know manipulation of speech.

They'll know cleverness. The spirit -wrought, heaven -produced, blood -bought gospel is different.

As one theologian says, eloquence that elevates the status of the preacher cancels out the power of the cross.

And when this happens, the speaker would become more inclined to gain audience approval than God's approval.

There are some men out there who tickle people's ears because in tickling their ears, the people give him praise and he'll continue to do it.

And it's that circular giving and taking. If you make me feel good about me,

I'll continue to give you what feels good about you. Right? Word smithery.

Word smithery makes the gospel powerless. And so brothers and sisters, do you want the power of words or the power of the cross?

Have you asked for that lately? Because in reality, what Paul is saying here, the most well -spoken but vain theologian could do nothing with his words to save anyone compared to the

Holy Spirit indwelt person relying only on the power of God. And it makes me think, do we pray on the way to evangelism?

Do we pray for God's power? Or do I simply listen to an apologetic video to get pumped up?

Do both, but always pray for power.

The man or woman who prays to God earnestly for assistance, those who read God's word for sustenance and not ammo are those who can be used by God better than any guy who's watching

YouTube videos on how to best argue with other people in different religions. You seek

God, you seek the power of God, and it will be hard for you to be offended.

It'll be hard for you to be divided. You seek the power of God, you can give the gospel. The power of God is far better than the eloquence of speech.

You see, the Corinthians have thought differently. They've built their churches on this wrong mentality and it's destroying the church.

Paul says, we have to look at the cross again. We've got to quit looking at men and the fluency of their words.

We want to appeal to men's spirits by the Holy Spirit. We don't want to appeal to men simply by their intellect.

And so Corinthians believers stop elevating human intellect and thereby elevating human leaders rely on God and elevate

God. So that brings me to my conclusion for today.

Okay. As you've seen here, idolatry and division can go hand in hand.

My first admonishment to us church is that all right horizontal relationships first require a right vertical relationship.

Christians who have a healthy and righteous relationship with other Christians first and foremost have a healthy and righteous relationship with God.

When we elevate our brothers and sisters and when they inevitably sin against us or let us down, we're crushed and we're tempted to divide.

But if your source of peace, if your savior is not these church relationships and it's actually the

Lord, you will more easily allow these people sitting around you to fail you without feeling it necessary to split from them or hate them.

Do you see that? When you make someone, whether it be your spouse or someone in the church, if you make them your savior and they fail you because they will, they're not

Christ, they're human, they're not perfect like him. When they fail you and they let you down, you're more hurt by it, you're more affected by it.

You're more willing to divide when that happens. But if it's Christ, if Christ is first and foremost, then those things can happen and you can forgive and you can let it go and you can keep going.

If you look at God, you'll remember the grace given to you was insurmountable. And so if all you have to do is give a drop of grace to someone else, what does that compare to all that you've been given?

All the sins that you've had forgiven and you can't forgive one? You can't forgive one sin when you've been forgiven everything?

And so first we need to cultivate that right relationship with God. My second admonishment is to have the attitude of Christ.

Philippians 2, 3 says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

The apostle then goes on to say, this is what led Christ to sacrifice himself for us.

You and I think we're too important. You and I think we're more important than others.

We don't even think we're equally important with others. Others are less important than us.

And this is against Christ and against scripture. If we actually possess this attitude, humility as it is, we would be unbreakable as a church.

The enemy wouldn't be able to touch us if you considered the person next to you is more important than yourself as he says.

Pride separates. When a wrong happens to you, you demand justice immediately.

And you know who didn't do that? Jesus. Jesus didn't demand restitution immediately.

And I'm not saying let things go. I'm saying our first priority has been not ourselves.

It's not been God's glory. It's not been unity. It's not even been considering if we did something to the other person.

And so maybe if we all realized how much we deserve hell, we wouldn't be so easily offended and divide from one another.

And my third admonishment is this. Where the Bible gives us liberty to have personal convictions, stop elevating the conviction to the same level of the gospel tenants.

You see, Paul continually warned that those who brought up genealogies or controversies as matters of great importance only brought contention to the church.

And so sometimes when you're in Bible studies or conversations or you're invited at someone's home and you've got this strong conviction about this, about head coverings or about,

I don't even know what. I know that there's some believers that think the earth is flat and stuff like that.

If you become a one argument Christian, you will drive people away from you.

And so you can hold those things, but if you make them higher than what is the gospel, you will create division in the church.

And finally, I end my conclusion on an assessment to avoid division in the church.

Be willing and ready to ask yourselves the following questions and it's in your printout. I put these questions in there for you.

Ask yourself this at all times. Am I lacking sympathy and compassion towards specific people?

Am I embracing an I versus them mentality? Is what

I am doing seen as gossip or spreading rumors or do we just call it venting?

Are any of my actions causing conflict or confusion? Am I prioritizing personal agendas over the collective wellbeing of the church?

Do I resist reconciliation and forgiveness? Do I resist it? Do I refuse to listen to the perspective of others?

Am I neglecting the value of love, kindness and unity in the gospel? And so as Paul said, is

Christ divided up? Is he torn to pieces? You see division isn't the unforgivable sin, but one day the

Bible says that we will all, he says that we will all give an account before Christ.

And so my encouragement to you is don't be part of this sin that God hates, this division and strive to be united in the truth and think about how

Christ prayed for us. He said, father, let them be one even as we are one.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your truth.

Thank you for your word. Thank you God that in the

Trinitarian relationship in the Godhead, you never divide.

You are not divided. You are one father, son and Holy Spirit. You model for us the perfect relationship, the perfect oneness.

In Christ, you have one bride. You don't have multiple brides. We make up that church, that bride of Christ.

And even in our own church, we've had divisions. In our own church, we've had strife.

In our own church, we've had false assumptions against brothers and sisters. We've had moments where we spoke evil things of other people in this room in our hearts and in our minds.

God, we have created factions and groups. And so Lord, please forgive us, cleanse us and help us

Lord to be changed by your word. That Christ is what unifies us and it is always worth laying aside our personal particulars for the body of Christ.

That is what's important, the unity of the church. And so Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for your word. Please let us remember it always.

Pray this in Jesus name, amen. All right, well, we are gonna take of the Lord's supper before we close out the worship service.

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this table is open to you. You don't have to be a member here necessarily to take of it.