"Unity In the Church"

Unity in the Church

So let's open to the Gospel of John chapter 17 and the title of this message is Unity in the Church. Unity in the Church. Obviously we want unity in the church. Every church wants unity. Thank God we have it here at Morris Corner Church.

We've had unity here for a long time and unity doesn't mean that we all think exactly the same. That we have the same exact opinions on every little thing. That's not what unity is and we're going to see that.

But before we read from John there's a great verse in the Psalms. Psalm 133 verse 1 which says behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. So I think we know what the word unity means.

It basically refers to one. So uni, you know, one. So to be united we are individuals but we come together as one. And in this context we're one church. Many members, individual members, but we make up the one body.

And the church is described in the Bible as the body of Christ. I think there's a lot of misunderstandings about unity. That's why we need to look at what the Bible says. And we'll see that here in John chapter 17 Jesus prays that his disciples would be unified.

That they would be one. One with him and one with one another. Look at John 17 starting in verse 17. Jesus praying to God the Father says sanctify them, referring to his disciples, sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth. So God's word is just a key, absolute key, to unity. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will believe in me through their word. So you see Jesus isn't just praying for his 12 disciples or, you know, 12 minus Judas. No, he's praying for them and all of us.

He's praying for the disciples, the apostles, and all who would come to believe the gospel. Verse 21, here's the prayer, here's the desire, that they all may be what? One. In other words, that they all may have unity as you Father are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us.

That the world may believe and that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one. And may God have a blessing to the reading of his word.

But I believe the disciples had this unity because they were sanctified and they were sanctified by the word of God. They had a starting point. They knew what was true because they had Jesus there to tell them, but they had the scriptures.

So they had unity. Okay, now one of the problems is when we talk about unity, if you ask the average person, even the average Christian, if you ask anyone here, is there unity within Morris Corner Church?

Okay, yes, we would say yes there is. But if you ask, is there unity in Christianity? If you say, is there unity within, you know, the churches themselves all together? Do churches fellowship with one another?

I mean sometimes, but is there unity within Christianity? I mean most people would say no. Now here's the problem with that. If there's not unity within Christianity, then am I to believe that the prayer of Jesus was not answered?

Because I tend to think that Jesus had all his prayers answered. I have a hard time believing that Jesus would pray to the Father for something and that Jesus is praying for the wrong thing. Okay, I don't, that's not possible.

But would the Father really say no? So I'm going on the starting point that Jesus had his prayers answered, and I think that starts with the fact that his disciples were unified. So Peter and James and John, they all worked together.

They had one purpose. They built one church. Obviously there were different church fellowships, but they were all working together. And yes, they had unity in Christ, and they had unity with one another.

So I think that's something we can all agree on. Now here's the problem. When we talk about unity in the church, when I say the word church, a lot of people think of what people refer to as the universal church, right?

I think in the Bible when you see the word church, most of the time it's referring to the local church. And we've already established we have unity in our local church, and it's relatively easy to have unity in a church if you're doing the right thing.

But within the universal church, so to speak, worldwide, among Christians worldwide, yeah, you're right. There really is very little unity. Not only do you have the divide with the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, right?

There is that split back in the 1100s. And then you had another dividing line during the Protestant Reformation. So now you have the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, you have all the Protestant churches, and then the Protestants aren't even united because you have Baptists and Presbyterians and Calvinists and Arminians, and you have all these different churches.

And yeah, there's not a lot of unity within Christianity today. That's why we need to just focus on what we can control. Don't get discouraged with what's going on in the world. And we have to recognize that a lot of the people of the 2 .5 billion people in the world who call themselves Christians, this isn't a critique.

It's just we understand that they're not all really true believers, right? Just because somebody says they're a true believer. So not everyone is a true believer, and not all of the different churches and denominations are actually Christian denominations.

They've left the faith. They've departed from the teachings of the Word of God. So don't, all that to say this, don't get discouraged with what you see out there. Let's all focus on what we can do here, and then how much influence we can have, you know, starting in Leverett, Franklin County, Western Mass, and focus on that because we can actually control that much.

You just can't control things going on on the other side of the world. But unity starts with God, okay? So Jesus, notice what He says here. Look at verse 20, start there. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, and that they also may be one in us.

So is there unity within the Godhead? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, do they have unity amongst each other? Yes, they do. So that's the model. So God the Father, along with Jesus, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, they have what we would call a perfect unity, a perfect unity.

They are united as one God in three persons. They are united in purpose, and we see in the Gospels that Jesus always did the will of His Father in Heaven. Remember, there was one time where Jesus didn't want to do something, at least in His flesh.

He didn't want to be crucified. I mean, obviously no human being wants to go through that, but He had a greater desire to follow the Father's will. So He submitted, and not my will be done, He said, but thine.

So even then, part of Him wanted to do it more than He didn't. But Jesus followed the Father's will perfectly. Do Christians always follow God's will perfectly? Well, you don't need me to ask you that, because you know that's not happening, and it really even can't happen, because we live with a sinful flesh in a sinful world.

So we understand that the unity, whatever unity we have, is going to be imperfect, right? But we can still have unity. Again, I think Jesus had His prayer answered. So what does unity not look like? Let's start with some of the misunderstandings.

Some people think unless 100 of Christians agree 100 of the time on 100 of the issues, then see, you don't have unity because there's disagreement. You know, I do a lot of Christian ministry online, and it's just inevitable that you're going to run into people and just encounter people we all think more or less alike in this church.

Praise God for that. Not perfectly, but when you're online, you run into people all the time who think very differently, right? So you're always encountering people who think different, and there's some disagreement.

And what I've noticed, some people just can't handle disagreement, even if it's on maybe a secondary issue or a third tier issue. Let's say, because I do believe this, I believe that the rapture happens before the tribulation.

Could I be wrong about that? Well, I could. Well, I could be wrong. You know, I don't think the Bible, I think it's clear in the Bible. My point is, that's not an issue that people should be at each other's throats about.

I think it's very important, but sometimes you'll run into people, if you just share a different viewpoint, they freak out. There are those people that just, they cannot handle the slightest disagreement.

That is very unhealthy, and that's not what we're talking about when we're talking about unity. We're talking about unity, really, in the essentials. And there's a great, there's a great phrase, and I really am a big believer in this.

If you take notes, this is worth writing down. Maybe you already have it memorized, but it goes like this. In the essentials, unity. In the non-essentials, liberty. And in all things, charity. So let me repeat that.

In the essentials, we should have unity. So when it comes to the deity of Christ, the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the final authority. Believing in the virgin birth of Christ. We need to have unity in those essential teachings of Christianity.

Amen? And again, we do. Now again, you go online or start talking to a Jehovah's Witness or something, you're going to find disunity, unfortunately. But we need to have, as a church, we need to have unity on those things.

Non-essentials, though, we can have, we should show liberty, and we can have liberty. So we don't have to agree on everything. For example, who wrote the book of Hebrews? Who wrote the book of Hebrews?

See, I would say Paul. Holy Spirit. I believe, we all see, we all agree on the Holy Spirit. I don't really know, but I think the Apostle Paul, and I have reasons for that. But see, if you think it wasn't Paul, let's see, you think it was Apollos or some of these other theories.

It doesn't really matter. We can agree to disagree on that. Like if we were fighting about that and dividing over that issue, which I don't think anyone divides over that, somewhere in the world, someone has divided and had an argument about that.

See, that would be foolish. So we can have liberty. You can have your opinion on maybe secondary issues. I can have mine. We can agree to disagree. Okay, so in the essentials, yeah, the Trinity, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ, we need to be in lockstep and have unity in those issues.

But when it comes to the non-essentials, and I hate putting the timing of the rapture as a non-essential, it is a non-essential, but who wrote Hebrews? Wednesday night we talked about the sons of God in Genesis 6.

Who are the sons of God? The godly Linus Seth, or are they angels? See, those are the types of things we can agree to disagree on. So with those things, liberty, you can have your own view and I can have mine.

And we can still be in the same church and get along. But in all things, in all of these discussions, we need to have charity. We need to love one another. We need to be kind to one another. But there are those instances where there is disunity.

So let's talk about that for a moment. So again, some of the misunderstandings about unity. You have to agree 100 of the time on 100 of the issues. That's unrealistic. That's not what we're talking about.

But what about disunity? What causes disunity? If you've ever been in a church where there's been disunity, what are the major things that cause that? I think you can boil it down to two things. There's disunity in a church when number one, someone insists on getting their way.

They have to get their way and they're just not going to be happy until they do. And really what that boils down to is you're mistreating other people. You're not showing respect towards others. So number one reason for disunity in a church, you're mistreating other people.

This is where the acronym joy comes in. Okay, J, Jesus, O, others, Y, yourself. If you put Jesus first and you put others ahead of yourself and you put yourself last, yes you will have joy in the Christian life.

You'll have more joy. But that will eliminate these disputes with other people because you're considering them over yourself. Okay, so that's one way you can deal with disunity. What's the other thing that causes disunity in a church?

What is it? Pride. Okay, you know, and again that might fall under how you treat others. I would say the thing that causes disunity, one of the major things is false doctrine. So let's turn to Romans chapter 16.

And there's a few other unity passages we'll look at like Ephesians chapter 4. But Romans chapter 16 gives us a good rule of how we should handle people that teach a false doctrine. So Acts, Romans. Okay, we're looking at Romans chapter 16.

Why does false doctrine create disunity? Let me give an example. Here at this church, before I was the pastor, our former pastor, one thing that he really believed strongly in, and I do too, I might not mention it as much as he did, but we both agree this is essential, is the security of the believer.

Okay, the eternal security of the believer. So if you put your faith in Jesus, if you're saved, he believed in the doctrine of called once saved always saved. Now do I think if you're saved that you'll always be saved?

Absolutely. I agree with that. I mean I tend to look at it a little different of you know the preservation of the saints. But it's still the same concept that a true believer will never lose their salvation.

So let's say somebody has taught that for 30 years. You know you came to this church, you were taught the security of the believer. For the past 10 years I've been teaching the security of the believer.

But then all of a sudden you know something happens to me, the next guy comes in and he's teaching that you can lose your salvation. What would that do? Now there's yeah well it's not always that easy to get rid of a pastor.

But that would cause some division. Now it's true sometimes maybe a church is wrong on something and they need correction. But the point is if you're taught the truth and you have had this ingrained in you and you're clinging to the truth of God's word and somebody comes in and they're in a teaching position and they're telling you the opposite.

That just doesn't sit well. And you know there's something wrong because I know what the Bible teaches and here I'm getting the opposite. See that causes that causes division. Now we've sort of resolved that by saying that well if you if you believe that you can lose your salvation you're going to join a Pentecostal church or a Methodist church because they they teach that.

But in Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, you know these these are the churches that we would say yes we believe in the security of the believer. So we've sort of resolved that by different denominations.

But really when you have hundreds of denominations that does send a picture to the world that there's disunity right. So here's the here's the real way to solve false doctrine when it is taught in a church.

Look at Romans 16. Romans 16 starting in verse 17 the Apostle Paul says, now I urge you brethren note those or as the King James says mark those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and do what?

Avoid them. Then he says for those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the simple. So when someone long story short when someone comes in in the church and they start preaching false doctrine you go to them Titus 3 10 says you go to them you admonish them if they won't listen you admonish them again and if they still won't listen stop banging your head against the wall just have nothing to do with them and if it's a pastor preaching false doctrine he's got to go.

I mean that's the bottom line he's got to go and if the church is going to support him in his false doctrine you have to find another church that's preaching the truth. I mean that's just oh but what about unity we all you can't do anything about it if somebody is set on doing the wrong thing you can't change that so you just have to go and you can have unity in another fellowship that's really the only way to solve that.

In a perfect world we would all agree 100 of the time on 100 of the issues it's just not realistic in this life. Turn to Matthew chapter 18 the other issue of disunity because we want to talk about how to solve disunity we don't have this problem here praise the Lord but some churches do and if you have a problem you got to deal with it.

I mean that's just all there is to it you got to deal with problems. Head on because they they don't go away on their own. So Matthew chapter 18 let's say there's disunity because of this other problem there's there's people mistreating one another there's somebody in the church sinning against somebody else whatever that looks like they're they're being rude.

They're insulting them they're gossiping behind their back backbiting whatever it is Jesus tells us how to deal with that. Remember this oh this is a negative or no this is how to get unity. If you don't have it look at Matthew 18 starting in verse 15 Jesus says moreover if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

And if he hears you you have gained your brother. So if somebody does something against you and you're offended you're upset they did you wrong. What should you do. Go tell everybody else and talk behind their back.

You see then you're at fault and that doesn't help. No you just go to them. Here's the thing nine times out of ten when somebody says something that offends you they didn't actually mean to offend you.

So I would say give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe let it go if you can. But if you can't let it go just go to that person. Most of the time you'll resolve it. And you might even become better friends when you do that.

So that's the first thing. But let's say they don't. They don't hear you. They have done something wrong. And they just won't listen verse 16. But if he will not hear take with you two or three more that by the word of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he refuses to hear them so you bring two or three. And again most of the time this will resolve the issue. But if he refuses to hear them verse 17 then bring it before the entire church tell it to the church.

But if he refuses even to hear the church let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. And then Jesus says assuredly I say to you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. In other words God will recognize the decision made in that fellowship.

But most of the time it never gets to this final stage. But if it does you have to deal with the issue. And if somebody is just committed because I know it's hard to believe because the people who attend this church you're good people.

I mean theologically you know we're all we've all fallen short. I get it. But you know you're good people. You don't understand. Some people don't understand that there are there are folks who just live to cause trouble.

I mean they they go to a church they are there just to stir up trouble. That's their whole mission in life. Someone like that or maybe someone who's just fallen into patterns of sin you you just got to get rid of them.

You just got to tell them we love you. You can come back. We want you to come back we want to fix this. But until you're ready to fix this you're not welcome here. But when you're ready to change come back and we will welcome you in again.

That may seem I think a lot of people say well that's divisive. Well it's the teaching of Jesus. Right. You just read it along with me right. Isn't this written in red in your bible. If you have a red letter bible see here's the starting point.

Going back to John 17 actually you turn to Ephesians 4. We'll look at Ephesians 4. But going back to that statement by Christ in John 17 the disciples Jesus says sanctify them by your truth your word is truth.

It's impossible to have unity in the church unless you all agree that God's word is the final say yeah. But we want to do it like this. No Jesus said we need to do it like this as long as we are united and committed that the bible is the authority as long as we do it the biblical way that will preserve unity.

Okay. That that's the key sanctify them by thy truth thy word is truth. Okay. So you're in Ephesians chapter 4. So that's how that's how you deal with disunity. And it's not fun but again nine times out of ten it never even gets to that final stage.

But it's like you know it is like cancer. When someone has cancer and part of their body you get you need to cut the cancer out of the body. Because what is the church. It's the body body of Christ. Right.

So if there is cancer you need to cut that out and that that is painful but this is more positive. Ephesians 4 this is all and how we we can have unity and keep unity. Ephesians 4 1 through 6 the apostle Paul says I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called with all lowliness and gentleness with long-suffering bearing with one another in love.

Do you ever find that someone gets on your nerves that could never happen here at this church. I mean that's just not possible. But let's say you're at a different church but do you ever find that somebody.

They just sort of it's not all the time. But maybe they say something and I'm sure I've said things that come across wrong. And yeah it just kind of grates on you a little bit. What are you supposed to do.

I like this statement bearing with one another in love. If you really love that person you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna put up with a little bit you're gonna deal with that. Because again not 99 times out of 100 they don't mean anything by it.

So everyone has their little quirks. You know those things that I would do it this way or say it this way. But they say it this way. Hey this is just part of being in a family. Isn't that the way it is in your you know among your blood relatives there's always those people that are a little different do things differently.

But you remain together as a family. Why. Because you love them. So it's the same thing here we need to bear with one another in love endeavoring verse 3 to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and that is the church and one spirit that is the holy spirit just as you are called in one hope of your calling one lord one faith one baptism one god and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.

So this is a great passage on unity in the church. We're all part of the same body the body of christ and we have the same holy spirit. This is this is one thing I love. One of the things I love most about being a christian.

We we are of one spirit when it comes to the things of god you go out into this community and we should love the people of this community. Okay. But the people of this community think very very different than christians do.

That's safe to say. So you may have friendships outside of the church and there's people you get along with because you you relate. Maybe it's sports. Maybe it's a craft. Maybe it's something you have common ground with.

You get along. But we find that we think very very very different from the people of this world. Right. But when you're among friends when you're among believers it's we have this connection with one another.

What is that. That's the unity of the spirit. The same holy spirit that is within me is within you. And that's why we agree on maybe not a hundred percent of the things. But we agree on the big things.

Certainly. So that's the unity of the spirit. And we we find great delight in that. And we have one hope of our calling. What is that. I i believe that the hope there it's the hope of heaven. It's the hope of eternal life.

But i believe it's also a reference to the blessed hope that we should all be looking for the return of christ. But just to kind of wrap this up i just want to go back to this statement in the essentials.

What are we to have in the essentials unity. So what are the essentials of the faith virgin. Okay the the trinity the deity of christ the virgin birth resurrection of the red the bodily resurrection. The idea that jesus died.

Let's turn to first corinthians one. And we'll close here. First corinthians one. The bodily resurrection of christ. The idea that jesus is coming back. Okay all christians agree that jesus is coming back.

If if i could pick just one thing that is sort of a catch-all i believe this this book is is the word of god. This is the word of god. This is inerrant and infallible. Okay. Maybe your translation isn't.

But that's a different story. Okay but the the bible is the word of god. Do you agree with that. See here's the thing if you can just get a believer to agree with this that the bible is the word of god.

Everything else should come easy. Because then i can just show you in this book there's the virgin birth. Let's go to luke chapter one. Oh the christ rose bodily from the dead. Let's go to to mark 16.

So if you can get someone to to start there that the bible is the final authority everything else all the other doctrines really should fall into place. So in the essentials unity in the non-essentials liberty.

Okay people have the freedom to disagree with us and don't freak out if somebody doesn't think exactly like you. Okay now if somebody doesn't believe jesus is god that jesus is not god in the flesh we don't have unity with them.

Can we still care for them. Yes. Can we still pray for them. We want to get them saved. But you can't have that christian unity with someone who denies fundamental. So in the essentials unity non-essentials liberty and in all things charity.

Look at first corinthians chapter one. This is uh obviously a church. If you know anything about the church at corinth. Were they a united church. No i mean they you know they had they had christian unity to a degree.

But obviously they were. They were divided. They are the real picture of a divided church in the bible. Look at verse 10. First corinthians 1 10. Paul says now i plead with you brethren by the name of our lord jesus christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no what divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared to me concerning you my brethren by those of chloe's household that there are contentions among you. Now i say this that each of you says i am of paul or i am of apollos or i am of cephas or i am of christ.

Is christ divided. Was paul. You know. And was i crucified for you. Or were you baptized in the name of paul. You know it's interesting that there are these people in the church. Oh i'm in the apollos group.

You know. Maybe apollos was their favorite preacher. Or paul was their favorite preacher. I'm with paul. I'm with apollos. And people are in the church arguing about their favorite preacher. I'll tell you what that does happen online.

I'm with macarthur. You know. Amen. I'm with the whatever charismatic preacher. You know. And there are divisions like that. Well that's really not the way it's supposed to be. We we want to be careful about lifting up men.

We can recognize faithful men who are teachers. And you know there were denominations named after men. The lutherans the amish the mennonites. They're all named after men. Here's the thing i don't think martin luther would have.

Maybe i'm wrong about that. I don't think he would have been pleased that the that the church was named after him. So it's not really his fault and it's not really the people who are brought up in these churches.

It's not really their fault. But we need to be careful about lifting up an individual. Why. Because it's not really about the apostle paul. It's not really about martin luther or john macarthur or whoever it is.

It's all about who. It's all about christ. That's the point paul is making. So bottom line. It's all about christ and the gospel. And we talked about unity in the church. Unity in the holy spirit. And the greatest unity we have is unity in the gospel.

Just flip over to first corinthians 2 2. This will be the last verse. I mean this is paul building up to this point in chapter 2. This is the main message and main mission of this church. And really every bible believing church.

First corinthians 2 2 paul says. For i determined not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified. Now did paul teach other things. Yeah he did. Did he talk about a lot of other things.

Yeah he did. This always needs to be the main message. It's all about christ. This is the main message. Jesus christ him crucified him risen. So in conclusion when we lift up men you know what that does.

When we lift up men or we lift up our own opinions. And i need to have my way. And it's my way or the highway that leads to division. But when we lift up christ souls are saved and god is glorified. We need to be humble.

We need to be not self-serving. But we need to be serving others. We need to be self-sacrificial. Jesus dying on the cross was the ultimate example of a selfless act. It was also the ultimate example of god's love toward you.

And that's a message that we can unite around. Amen. So we need to keep the first things first. Let's pray. And father i thank you that we do have unity in the gospel that each member of this church would agree that the most important thing of all is that a person would place their faith in the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ.

This is the gospel grace alone. Faith alone in christ. Alone. And lord if there's someone here someone listening later on who has never placed their faith in jesus. I just ask that your holy spirit would do his work.

And that today would be the day of salvation. And i ask it all in christ's name. Amen.