Is Christ Divided? – Sermon 26 January, 2014

Is Christ Divided?

1 Cor. 1:10-18

In today’s passage Paul after his greetings goes directly to the heart of the matter and appeals to the believers of the Church in Corinth to be united without division.

I wonder if we lived in that age, we too could receive a letter from the Apostle Paul addressed to the churches in Sydney. It would be for all of us who believe in the name of Jesus Christ and affirm our Christian faith. The Bible is for every believer in all places and in all times.

Sometimes the church runs into trouble just as it did in Corinth. It finds itself caught in the midst of something which threatens to divide its membership. That thing could be simply from the colour of the paint used, change of the setting of the church, colour of the carpets, how to conduct communion service, leadership matters, mission priorities, biblical interpretation or theology.

What is the church to do when it encounters these kinds of divisive issues? What should we do if we at St. Andrew’s encounter issues which could cause division among us?

The following few points will help us to resolve the issues.

1. We must focus our attention on the Lord Jesus

Paul begins his address to the Corinthian church declaring and affirming the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Using the phrase ‘by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ’ Paul was speaking as the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks with authority to the church by the role assigned by God. He wants them to refocus their attention on the one to whom their true allegiance lies, Christ. The allegiance of the church does not lie with the pastor, although the pastor has a unique role and responsibility assigned to Him by the call of God. The allegiance of the church does not lie with a few select members of the body but with the Lord Jesus Christ as the head of the church.

Then he puts in verse 13 three powerful questions: “Has Christ been divided?” “Was Paul crucified for you?” and “Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” The answer to these three questions is the same. “No”. No, Christ is not divided and no, Paul did not die for us and we were not baptized in the name of Paul, Our Lord and Saviour is not divided and with our baptism we identify ourselves with Christ.

We should not lose sight of the Saviour. If we lose sight of Christ, then we turn our attention to other people. That’s what Paul means when he mentions Paul and Apolos. At Corinth they began focusing on personalities rather than Christ. Sometimes we focus on different problems as the Corinthians did when they took people to court. We focus on wrong priorities as the Corinthians did when they went after their desires abusing spiritual gifts, even the Lord’s Supper.

No doubt Roger Federer is the greatest and best tennis player, Mohammed Ali is the greatest boxer and for some Charles Spurgeon is the greatest preacher. But there could be a time when a better tennis player, a boxer and even preacher could come, but there will never be anyone better than Jesus. Our focus must always be on Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

2. We must focus our attention on the Mission

If our focus is upon Jesus then our focus would also be upon the mission Jesus had given the church. One of the problems in the Corinthian church was that some were identifying with certain leaders rather than with Christ. The apostle Paul points out that his commission was not to baptize but to preach the gospel. Jesus in His great commission said: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Our mission is to preach the gospel. Paul’s mission was to “gospelize” not baptize. The gospel is the good news that we can have eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. We must focus our attention on the Message

The mission of the church is to preach Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. When Paul accepted the challenge of going and preaching he may have looked to be a fool by the world. But he preferred to be fool in the eyes of the world for preaching Christ to be wise in the eyes of God. The world may consider us fools for believing the Bible and preaching that Jesus is the only way.

The same is true for us. Are we going to transform our culture or is our culture going to transform us?

In Corinth the people were looking for powerful and articulate preachers. Paul believed that his task was not to entertain and amuse the crowds with his marvellous preaching skills but rather to proclaim the cross. He did not want to do anything to draw attention to himself and to take away from the message.

We should be careful not to move away from the message of the gospel and distract people from looking at Jesus Christ and being saved. We should do our best to proclaim to the world that salvation is only through Jesus Christ.

The church has one Christ and one Saviour.

The church has one mission to win and disciple the world.

The church has one message. It is the message of the cross.

Paul in chapter 2 verse 2 says: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

We should follow the same statement “nothing except the living Jesus and Him crucified”. This is not an easy task. To do that we should choose the same path that Paul chose, which was similar to what Jesus himself did choose.

That’s what the world around us needs and that’s why we should focus our attention on Jesus Christ, our Mission and our Message.

And we should do this together. Otherwise we will be dividing Christ, the church.

We are one though we are many. As Christ is not divided so the church should not be divided but united.

Krikor Youmshajekian