Jesus Forbids Sectarianism - Luke 9:46-50

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. So please turn to the gospel of Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9 and the title of the message is Ecumenical but Separate.

Jesus Forbids Sectarianism in Luke 9

Ecumenical but Separate. To put it plainly, this church is willing to set aside our differences and work together with a variety of different churches and denominations. But there are limits to that. So what are the limits?

Most people who know me, they don't really think of me as an ecumenical guy. And that's true, but we are ecumenical, but we are separate. So I'll explain that in a moment, but let's start reading in Luke 9 verses 46 through 50.

Luke chapter 9, 46 through 50 says, As then a dispute arose among them, that is the 12 apostles, as to which one of them would be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by him and said to them, Whoever receives this little child in my name receives me.

And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you, least among you all, will be great. Now John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.

But Jesus said to him, Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side. Okay, so that statement here, that's what we're going to zero in on as part of the message. He who is not against us is what?

On our side. So this statement by the apostle John, he sees this man ministering in the name of Jesus, and he tells Jesus, he goes to Jesus, informs him that he sees this, and he says, We forbade him.

Why? Because he does not follow us. That is, he's not part of our group. So the 12 disciples confront this man, or at least some of the disciples confront this man and tell him to stop. Stop preaching or stop ministering in the name of Jesus.

And that kind of tells you that the apostle John and the others, they thought that they had a monopoly on Christian ministry. But apparently they didn't. There were others who had believed on Jesus that were busy serving him that the apostles were not even aware of.

And at this moment, John just happens to run into this guy ministering in the name of Christ. And John rebukes the man because he's not part of the 12. And then when he tells Jesus, what does Jesus do?

Jesus rebukes John. Do not forbid him for he who is not against us is on our side. Now, it's true. Later in the early church, there were men ministering in the name of Jesus. Men who did oppose the apostles and their doctrine.

That's different. But this man was not opposing John. He was not opposing Jesus. Certainly he was not opposing the 12. So you can look at it this way. The apostles where they were on the top of the pyramid, so to speak.

But they were not the only ones ministering in Jesus name. Do you remember that Jesus chose a man named Saul of Tarsus? And he chose Saul without consulting the 12, didn't he? At the end of the gospel of John, the last verse, John makes it clear the statement.

He says, and there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. So Jesus did a lot of things that we're not aware of.

Jesus did a lot of things that even the apostles were not aware of. So this is the first point of the message. Don't ever think that you're the only one. Don't ever think that we are the only one. Again, there is a man ministering in the name of Jesus.

He was truly ministering in Jesus name. John sees him. He gets upset because he doesn't know who this guy is. John thinks, hey, we're the only ones. Don't ever think that way. Don't ever think you're the only one or that our church or that our denomination.

Of course, we're not part of a denomination, but don't ever think anyone listening online or radio. Don't ever think that it's just you, your group, that you're the only ones because you're not. There are many people all over the world and all different groups that are serving the Lord.

Nobody has exclusive rights to minister in Jesus name. Nobody. This was, I think, a major error of the Catholic Church, where they thought that they were the only true church. They would still say that, although they've kind of backed off this idea a little bit.

But as evangelicals, we can't start thinking that way either. Whoever you are, whether you're a Baptist, independent, Pentecostal, doesn't matter what group that you are in. You can never start thinking that, hey, only the Baptists are right and everybody else is wrong.

Hey, only Christians that are just like us, we're the only ones who really got it down. Everybody else is wrong. You can't think like that. That's cult-like thinking. OK, that's cult-like thinking. So it's just our little group.

No. So what's the title of the message? Ecumenical, but separate. What's the term ecumenical? Are you familiar with the term ecumenical? We'll define that in a second. Ecumenical, but separate. I will be the first person to separate from someone opposing Christ or opposing sound doctrine.

If you know me, you know that's true. But I want to remain ecumenical in this sense. I don't want to get puffed up and think that I got it all right. And everyone who disagrees with me or sees it differently, they're all wrong.

Or it's just our church and people just like us. That's a prideful attitude. It's not just us. So I don't want to think like that. If someone is saved, if they're serving God at the same Holy Spirit that is within me and is within you, is within them, then I want to support them, work together.

Maybe that's not always possible, but I want to have fellowship with them or support them. And that's really what it means to be ecumenical. The word ecumenical means representing a number of different Christian churches.

Our church has fellowship with independent churches. We fellowship with Baptist churches. It's harder to have that close fellowship with some other groups. I admit that, but I believe that many of these other groups have some Presbyterian friends that I believe love the Lord.

And I'm willing to partner with them on some things. There's some charismatic churches. I have some disagreements. But I think we can, to some degree, work together. And that's what it means to be ecumenical.

Instead of just only talking with and only people like us are saved and everybody else is damned. That's a very, very dangerous attitude. And it is a pretty common attitude. It certainly has been historically.

So another way to put it, we are non sectarian. We are non sectarian. Matter of fact, in my Bible, this section in Luke's gospel is labeled the sin of sectarianism. Or again, it's only us in our little group.

So in many ways, I'm ecumenical. And in many ways, I'm separate. Anyways, this church is ecumenical. But in many ways, we are separate. Let's look at that statement again from the church constitution, the church mission statement.

We want to have cooperation with Christian activity that functions in harmony with God's holy word, the Bible. So if you just think about that statement for a moment. Cooperation with Christian activity, basically that lines up with the word of God.

There's a positive side to that. And there's a negative side to that. The positive side means we will cooperate with other groups as long as they're following scripture, right? That's pretty basic. That's the positive side.

The negative side is that we will be separate from those who don't follow scripture. This is pretty basic, right? And it's but it's necessary because not everybody believes in separation. So no one church or denomination is going to fully agree with another.

I mean, that's just the case. If I were to talk to you and have an hour-long conversation with each one of you, we're going to disagree on some things, aren't we? I mean, that's just the nature of it.

So some churches are not going to agree with everything. But when it's those critical issues about Christ and the nature of the gospel and holiness and right living, we can find unity. Now, our church is independent.

We're not part of any denomination. We don't have any denominational label. Personally, I think that's the way to go because I don't see denominations in the Bible, although I do realize understand why denominations exist.

So if there's a Baptist church that is preaching the true gospel and they're upholding a biblical standard, you know what? God bless them. We can work together with them, can't we?

Yes.

If there's a Presbyterian church that is preaching the true gospel and upholding a Christian standard, then amen, we can partner with them. I think there are a lot of good Christians that are charismatic and Pentecostal.

I certainly have some significant differences with them, but many of those people, I have no doubt they love the Lord. You know, there's even some good congregationalists out there. You know, we live in New England.

It might be like finding a needle in a haystack, but they do exist. You get the point. There are people who love Jesus in all sorts of different groups and denominations. Again, John sees this man. He's not part of our group, so I'm going to shut him down and he shouldn't be ministering in the name of Jesus.

Jesus, I did the right thing, didn't I? No, John, you didn't. That's what he told them.

So you get the idea.

So we should be ecumenical in this sense. Somebody asked me a question, you know, where do you draw the line? How do I know or how do we know if we can work together with another church? What's the approach?

This is this was my answer. I said, if the pastor of that church is saved, OK, if the pastor of that church is saved, if the church is preaching the true gospel, if they're not embracing and promoting sin, I believe that they're on our side or we're on their side.

We're all on the Lord's side, right? So that's generally my approach. We're on the same team. You know, but what's happening today? Christians are busy fighting each other, right? And we spent all this time fighting each other.

Well, we're much stronger if we're united so we can work together with other groups. So that's that's the sense in which I would be ecumenical. But the Bible also teaches separation because we're not just going to unite with every person, every church that has the label of Christian.

Separation from False Teaching and Sin

Let's turn to Second Timothy chapter three. We'll look at some statements there. Second Timothy three. But that line from our mission statement again, we are to have cooperation with Christian activity as long as it's in harmony with God's holy word, the Bible.

And again, obviously, we're not going to agree 100 percent of the time on everything. But if we agree on the person, work of Christ, and again, there's a basic level of Christian ethics and morality, I believe we can have fellowship.

Now, will you be able to find flaws with some of these other churches? One of the reasons why Christians maybe fight with other Christians or churches fight with other churches is because they find flaws.

Well, here's the thing about that. Yeah, that these other churches might have flaws. But guess what? Our church has flaws. These other people, they have flaws. But guess what? You have flaws. And it's like they say, yes, you can point the finger.

And this is kind of corny, but it's true. You can point the finger at somebody else. That's true. But what? You have three other fingers pointing back at you. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornett Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornettChurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.