The Truth of Christ and Christian Unity

disunity then in the body is a contradiction of Christ who is not divided he is not rent asunder he is whole to live in disunity is to contradict who we are as the body of Christ since disunity is a contradiction of the undivided Christ then getting clearer on who Christ is and what he's done is essential in our pursuit of unity that's the focus of John Piper as he looks at First Corinthians 1 10-17 in this episode of light and Truth this sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on January 24th 1998. what is the nature of the disunity that Paul was meeting at Corinth it's described in verses 11 and 12. let's read these two verses for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you my brethren what I mean is that each of you says I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos or I belong to cephas or I belong to Christ now what's the nature of this disunity evidently what was happening is that the church was lining up behind its favorite teacher and isolating and elevating the distinctives of that teacher and boasting in them as better and deriving some kind of substitutionary pleasure for having been in the train of this noteworthy teacher Pride Paul is going to make plain in just a moment is the root of this disunity that boasts in one teacher over another but now before I give you the evidence from that from the text I want to show you how relevant this issue is today by just pointing out two ways that today the same boasting and pride and dangers the church and our Unity two expressions of this Pride today let me describe two one there is a broad danger throughout the church especially in a day where the media present preachers and many churches are big like this one and ten times bigger some of them and people become notorious or famous depending on your attitude and the temptation just pervades Christendom to align yourself with a star in order to get some of his glory most of us feel like nobodies because we are when you watch television it's constantly glamorized how wonderful it is to be in the Limelight to be well known and you know as you sit there in your living room there aren't 500 people who know you let alone 5 billion in the world or 5 million so you just feel I'm a nobody compared to all these people that people watch on TV or read about or whatever and inside many times the impulse to change that and to satisfy this desire to be somebody is solved by finding a somebody and jumping on their coattails or their bandwagon and you study all their books you listen to all their sermons you get all their tapes you tune into all their programs you learn how they gesture you learn how they talk you learn everything about them and you begin to assess everything by them they become a kind of Ideal or Paradigm or authority for you and surely slowly but surely other people who aren't on the bandwagon they're just not quite with it and you can see so easily how this form of Pride begins to deteriorate the fabric of the church which is unity and one gets puffed up above another teacher or people aligning themselves with different stars on the horizon of evangelicalism for example that's one form that the pride takes but be careful now because the other side of the coin that looks like the opposite of this is just another expression of the same Pride it goes like this you hear a radio talk preacher and you learn something valuable and it helps you it strengthens your faith and you go to somebody and you start excitedly saying what you learned and they immediately communicate very clearly either through their body or their tone of voice or explicitly uh I don't have a herd mentality like you seem to I don't jump on bandwagons I'm critical I don't follow every radio preacher who comes along in other words the opposite side of this jumping on bandwagons or seeking to share the Limelight of some noteworthy person is a constant anti-authoritarianism suspicion antagonism toward leadership cynicism skepticism that says I'm not going to be impressed by that Sunday school teacher I'm not gonna be impressed by that Pastor I am you know I'm in my little world and I get things straight from God or I make up ideas on my own not both of those are opposites and yet they're exactly the same at root it's Pride unwillingness to learn on one hand and the craving for attention and and praise and notoriety on the other hand and so I just want to make plain as we get started here that the issue of Pride beneath this boasting in teachers at Corinth that is severing and and dismantling the unity at card is prevalent the danger is is in every one of us and we must be alert to it and pay attention now as we focus on the second question how does Paul attempt to undermine this disunity how does he attack the foundation of disunity at Corinth the answer in a nutshell is he does it with truth he believes what Jesus believed in John 17 17 when Jesus prayed to his father father sanctify them in the truth Thy word is truth now what's he saying he's saying God sanctifies and he uses truth to do it now that's exactly what Paul believes and therefore what Paul does in order to sanctify these proud people that is to Humble them and to unify them is to teach them six truths six truths that attack blast shatter the foundation of disunity and I want to give you these six truths very briefly number one it's found in verse 13. is Christ divided now the answer that is obviously no and so the truth as you state it and not in a question is Christ is not divided now why is that relevant for the issue of of disunity two two reasons it's relevant the first comes by thinking ahead to First Corinthians 12 where Paul says just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one body so it is with Christ for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body so what he's saying is we are in a sense Christ because we are the physical manifestation of the body of Christ in the world today disunity then in the body is a contradiction of Christ who is not divided he is not rent asunder he is whole to live in disunity is to contradict who we are as the body of Christ if the fingers on the right hand begin to boast over the fingers on the left hand and say we're led by the right wrist not the left wrist and boast in this leader over this leader What Becomes of the ability to make snowballs I tried to make a snowball with one hand the other night I could get a golf ball-sized snowball but when you threw it it was so light it wouldn't go on beam and so I couldn't hit Benjamin so I took both gloves off and lasted a minute What Becomes of playing the whole piano song What Becomes of applause to the Lord if the body is rent with one group of fingers boasting in one leader and another group of fingers boasting in another leader we shatter Christ he is not divided that's truth number one truth number two comes from the end of chapter three and I'm going to take them out of order here and jump you way over if you want to go with me I hope you do to chapter 3 verse 21 because this truth here is so closely uh related to what we've seen so far let's read the verse and then I'll try to State the truth let no one boast of men for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's now notice a few things he mentions Paul Apollos and cephas so we know he's got the same the same party spirit in mind here that's the heads of the parties even if they didn't want to be heads of the parties and what is the truth that should shatter boasting in men that is boasting in Paul or policer cephas the truth is Believers already possess the universe so why would they want to stake their claim on a little teeny piece of turf and say that we've got Paul or paulus or cephas when they have everything why would they want to say Apollos belongs to me and I belong to Apollos when everything belongs to the believer if the first truth said Christ is not divided it also meant when you have Christ you have a whole Christ right you should never say well she has 80 percent of Christ not only have 50 percent of Christ or I have 80 and she only has 50 percent you should never say that Christ is not divided he has he is whole and when you have Christ you have the whole Christ now this this truth says when you are Christ's you have the universe do you believe that I mean some truths approach unbelievability because of their magnitude this truth says that Christians inherit the universe and that makes boasting in a little teeny part of the universe inconsistent does a man who owns and runs the city boast in one condominium over another does a man who owns the world boasts that one Farm is bigger than another he owns them all we be lie the truth that we are Heirs of the universe when we need inside to Puff ourselves up by staking our claim in the Limelight with this leader that's truth number two truth number three is found in verse 13 again of chapter one it's the sentence or the question was Paul crucified for you the answer to that is no and so the statement the truth is Paul was not crucified for you Christ was crucified for you now this is very tactful do you see what Paul's doing here tactically whose party is he gunning for here his own exactly his agenda would have been gravely mistaken had he gone for Apollos first it would have played right into the hands of the Paul party and said see even our teacher can recognize your weaknesses so he goes right for his own party and what's his main agenda to kill himself as a ground for boasting to destroy Paul as a ground for boasting and the first way he does it does it in two ways the first way he does it is to say I wasn't crucified what does he mean by that how's that how's that supposed to affect these people I think in two ways first he's supposed to say I mean they're supposed to think something like this if Christ loved me enough to die for me he is a treasure that is infinitely valuable therefore when I compare the value of Christ crucified to this little teacher this little teacher becomes virtually insignificant and all glory and all joy and all boasting go to Christ and that's what he said in verse 31 at the end of the chapter isn't it let him who boasts boast in the Lord now here's the second effect this truth is supposed to have upon us I think when Paul said did I get crucified I think he almost wanted to say I got crucified for like you and what does that mean it means I'm hopelessly corrupt I'm hopelessly a sinner and lost without a crucified Son of God I'm undone and you will boast in me someone so bad it took the death of the almighty to save me from destruction you see the point how can you boast in one who needed to be died for let all your boasting go to the one who dies for you and me we are worms compared to the value of the crucified Christ that's truth number three truth number four comes from the next question were you baptized into the name of Paul and the answer to that is no and so the truth is you were not baptized into my name you were baptized into Christ's name now what were they boasting in here I think you can hear some of it they were boasting like this Paul was the first one on the scene here he planted this church he was the first one to call anybody to Faith he baptized the first converts and I was one of them or my brother stephanus well he was one of them and Paul responds by saying this is paraphrase of verses 14 following it doesn't amount to a hill of beings who baptized you now that might sound disrespectful to baptism until you hear him him ask indirectly into whose name were you baptized what holy name was prayerfully and solemnly pronounced over you in the waters of baptism I don't care what man stood by you and held you under the water to whom did you appeal in your Clarity of conscience in that act Paul Christ now hidden in this is a clear statement about the inconsistency about boasting in baptism what does baptism symbolize our baptism pool is hidden right here behind us and when I take people under the water like this and they go into the water where they go in they're going to a grave right they are dying and they're rising to newness of life life toward God death towards self and sin so what is baptism it's an emblem of death to self isn't it an amazing travesty to boast in that which is the death of your ego and so hidden right here in this were you baptized into the name of Paul is a two-pronged correction for demolition of the foundation of disunity you were baptized into Christ you were United to Christ I'm nobody his name was pronounced over you not mine and it meant you died how can you boast about that by which you died to self truth number five found in verse 17. for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with eloquent wisdom not with words of wisdom lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power now now Apollos is in view and his party the reason I think the Apollos party is now in view is because in Acts 18 24 this is what we read now a Jew named Apollos a native of Alexandria came to Ephesus he was an eloquent man well-versed in the scriptures and in verse 27 of Acts 18 it says he left Ephesus and went to Ikea that is to Karen and began to water the sea now we don't have to use too much speculation here to know what these two parties were saying the Paul party was saying our man was on the scene first he planted this church he called the first converts he baptized the first Converse he's an apostle and he did signs of an apostle that's their boast the Apollos party says yeah but have you ever heard Apollos preach what eloquence and he went to school got his degree in Alexandria our leader has a doctorate and what wisdom rolls off of his golden tongue and Paul responds to this by saying it is possible to call so much attention to yourself and to your manner and your demeanor and your education and your skills that you nullify the cross the cross is a place where you die not a place where you shine when a man claims to preach Christ crucified you better look through the accidents of leadership and see whether he is crucified by the accidents of leadership I mean oratorical ability and signs and wonders those are the accidents of authenticity not the heart of the matter and what we need in America today is a Christendom who can look right through pastors TV preachers radio preachers beyond the oratorical Ability Beyond the claims to do signs and wonders and see whether they are dead or not whether they have died to self and exalt Christ Alone read with me to see if you don't think this is still in view in verses 22 to 24 of this chapter finally chapter 3 verses 4 to 7 is the final sixth truth and I invite you to look at this with me because it confirms that the Paul party and the Apollos party are really the two big troublemakers cephas is dropping out Christ has dropped out as a partisan figure let's read these verses Verses 4 to 7 to chapter 3. when one says I belong to Paul and another I belong to Apollos you see only two are mentioned now are you not merely men what then is Apollos what is Paul slaves servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned or gave to each I planted Apollos water but God gave the growth so neither he who plants nor he who Waters is anything but God who gives the growth so you see what the point is the point is Apollos came a little after Paul Paul came first he planted seed Apollos came later and watered it and now here are people boasting in the planter and boasting in the water and Paul's pulling his hair out and saying don't you understand the sovereignty of God [Music] that's the sixth truth God is Sovereign in the salvation of Sinners sure I preached balaam's ass preached [Music] God saved Sinners and God Alone and therefore if you're going to boast in anything boasting God let him who boasts boast in the Lord this is light and Truth god-centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure him truly I'm your host Dan Krueger thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper will preach a sermon on the cross and human boasting in our series titled the transforming power of the cross I hope you'll join us for more resources visit desiringgod.org

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 2,065

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Light + Truth, L + T, The Transforming Power of the Cross, The Power of the Cross, Cross of Christ, Transforming Power, 1 Corinthians 1:10–17, The Truth of Christ and Christian Unity, Truth of Christ, Christian Unity

Id: q71opQNlg6E

Length: 24min 8sec (1448 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023