1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Our reading is taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 10 to 17.

1 Corinthians 1:10–17

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

What I mean is that each one of you says, I will follow Paul, or I will follow Apollos, or I will follow Cephas, or I will follow Christ.

Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that none of you may say that you were baptized in my name.

I did baptize also the household of Stephanus.

Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

So best reading of God's word.

Make sure that what I'm saying comes from the text and that I'm not just preaching my own thoughts.

And uh one of the uh one of the things that you get to see when we sing, or even as people were gathering down the front and over the next couple of weeks, is that one of the things about City Church is that we're a pretty diverse group of people, even just looking around you now.

We have different people from different backgrounds, countries, cultures, ages, personalities, walks of life.

And then there's the things that you don't see.

There's different theological backgrounds, different uh political instincts.

There's lots of little differences in a room like this this morning.

And that diversity is a good thing and something that should be celebrated.

But it also means that because we come from different backgrounds and have different temperaments and some different theological persuasions, different political beliefs, and all of those things, it means that we need to be somewhat deliberate in tending to our unity and being a family as we've been singing about together.

Because it is easy for the differences that exist between us to become divisions that get between us.

People that you gravitate to.

Families get to know other families, students get to know other students.

Irish people might get to know other Irish people, probably because they're related to them.

Different nationalities gravitate towards their own people from particular theological backgrounds recognize their people.

Newbies might all uh clump together, gravitate towards one another because it's a new experience shared together.

Is that wrong?

Is that always bad?

Are you allowed to have people that you more naturally gravitate to than others?

Just last week, uh, 25 or so Latinos went away together to that mansion, by the looks of things, from the from the Instagram reel that I saw, to enjoy time encouraging one another, praying together, worshiping together?

Is that a good thing?

Is it good that they did that?

Or should we be more worried?

Has some troubling Latino split occurred in our midst?

Is Mariano going to launch a revolution in proper South American style?

Is it always wrong?

Every church has natural differences, but how do we know when a difference becomes a division?

In Corinth, they were still meeting in the same group for their church.

So expressing differences had become divided.

They had different backgrounds, different economic statuses, different levels of giftedness, different theological preferences, and those differences had become divisions that were beginning to tear apart their unity.

And so in these verses, Paul gives us an insight into what it looks like when we begin to break down, when we begin to fracture apart, when divisions begin to take hold.

What I'm going to call this morning an anatomy of division.

And then we're going to see how he shows us then how Jesus heals the divisions that will inevitably arise among us, and how he unites us again.

So, first point division begins, it should come up on the screen, when differences begin to define us, or put it another way, division begins when our differences become our identities.

What I mean by that, well, Paul, just above this passage, literally one verse above this passage, has reminded the Christians that God has called them into fellowship with his son.

That that is the level and basis of their unity, that they are together in fellowship with Jesus.

And as you look at your Bible, there's actually a uh there's a there's a break, there's a paragraph break, but the same thought runs through into verse 10, where he's just been saying, You're all in fellowship with Jesus, but verse 10, I'm hearing that there's divisions among you.

You've begun to fracture apart.

And in verse 12, they begin, and he quotes it back to them.

People are beginning to say, I follow Paul, or I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I follow Kephas, which again is just another that's the same name for Peter.

The language is stronger than simply saying, Well, I quite like Paul's preaching.

It's the language of belonging.

I'm Paul's person, I'm Apollos' person, I'm Kephas's person.

Their mistake, therefore, is not that they just appreciate different leaders.

Their mistake is allowing those differences to answer a question that only Jesus should answer for their life.

And that is, well, who do I belong to?

Who are my people?

Whose am I?

They were saying, I'm Paulus.

Ah, I'm Apollosis.

Actually, I'm Kephasis and Peters.

Maybe they haven't entirely abandoned their Christian identity.

Maybe they would say, I'm sure they would, that they still believe in Jesus.

But what had happened was that a secondary identity had started to become more important, more socially powerful than who they were in Jesus.

Then their primary identity is being in fellowship with Christ.

Christ says in verse 9, you belong to me.

And the Corinthians were beginning to say, yes, I understand that.

And that obviously that's great, but the the thing that I really want you to know, the thing that really tells you who I am, is that I'm one of Paul's people.

I'm one of Apollos' people, I'm one of Kephas's people.

This is where difference starts to become division.

When things, when differences that should just describe us begin to define us, theology can describe us, culture can describe us, our ethnicity describes us, our life stage describes us, our church background and preferences describe us.

But the moment that those things begin to determine where we get our value, who we are, then those things have occupied a space in our hearts that exclusively belongs to Jesus.

Paul addresses this factionalism through some devastating questions that we'll unpack right towards the end.

But he asks him, he says, Was Paul crucified for you?

Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

In other words, he's saying, Did I save you from your sins?

Do I now own your life?

Do you belong to me?

Does my name stand over who you are?

He's like, of course not.

The Corinthians had taken an identity that belongs vertically to Christ and relocated it horizontally to other people, other things.

And before you think, well, how what has this got to do with me?

I don't do that.

But we do.

We take other identity markers.

Our identity is often a something of a composite, uh mosaic of different parts of us, our background, our temperament.

And we take those labels to ourselves.

But when you become a follower of Jesus, belonging to Him becomes your primary and most valuable identity.

To add an adjective to your description of Christian is therefore to devalue your Christian identity.

It would be a devaluing of my Christian identity to primarily describe myself, if I could be controversial, as a white Christian.

How jarring would that be?

If I suppose, you know, tell me about yourself.

Well, I'm a I'm a white Christian.

Imagine you're here from a different uh ethnic background.

You think, well, hold on a second, Mark, what are you communicating to me here about your Christian identity?

Do you see how it devalues it?

In the same way, it would be strange for you to say, oh, I'm a black Christian.

You see how the adjective actually begins to devalue the primary Christian identity?

Or if I say, I'm an Irish Christian.

Again, which one matters more to me?

My Irishness.

Or the fact that I belong to Jesus.

And there are lots of different adjectives that you could take to yourself.

It could be your your background or your ethnicity, as we just described.

For some people, it's their sexuality.

But if Jesus is your primary identity, he is the one to cling on to.

And what of the other differences that exist among us?

Of course, cultural affinity is natural.

There's nothing sinful about finding someone who's just easier to connect with, who understands your humor, speaks your language, shares your background, understands your your family culture.

But the gospel pushes us beyond that.

And so if I could just ask you a question just to just for you to search your own heart.

If every close friendship that you have in church could have existed without Jesus, then what gospel relationships have you actually cultivated?

Gospel relationships cause us to cross those boundary lines, cross those lines of difference, and to say, we would never naturally get together, we'd never naturally hang out, but we're all part of a supernatural community.

And so if you're only engaging with those who you would naturally have affinity with, how is the gospel encouraging you to cultivate new relationships, new deeper unities?

The church ought to produce relationships that natural affinity alone could never produce.

You're supposed to look around at your community group in the next couple of weeks and go, the gospel is amazing.

Because I would never normally hang out with all of you guys because you're all super weird.

And actually, if everybody in the room is weird, maybe it's you.

Maybe you're the problem.

The supernatural thing about the church isn't simply the diversity that we might show at a weekend away photograph.

It's the people who would never have naturally chosen one another discover that in Christ, he has chosen both of them and brought them together into the family of God.

Our world.

Eventually saying, These are my people, becomes, and so we're opposed to those people.

And this is the second part, and this is what's happening in Corinth.

That the divisions deepen when those divisions, those differences, second point, foster a sense of superiority.

And this is when differences divide us, when we begin to look down on others.

Verse 11, Paul says that these divisions were causing quarreling and strife between groups.

And you think, well, why would saying I follow this guy Apollos, who's mentioned in the Book of Acts, by the way, if you're just wondering who this is, why would that cause quarreling?

Why would that cause arguments and strife and tension in the church?

Well, only if identifying with these people was causing the followers to make comparative judgments.

So they're not just saying, I quite like Paulus.

Apollos is a Bible teacher, I subscribe to his Spotify stream.

No, they're saying Apollos is the kind of leader that the church needs.

Apollos is the kind of leader who shows real wisdom, and he's a better leader to follow than Kephas, than Paul, or whoever else.

This becomes even clearer as this unfolds in the subsequent chapters.

You see that they're boasting, they were boasting in being associated with these human leaders.

This is why Paul in this passage goes on to say, I didn't, I thank God that I didn't really baptize very many of you.

And he kind of listened to your remembers, oh yeah, I did baptize um Stephanus.

Beyond that, I can't really remember.

But why is he talking about that?

Because people in the Paul faction were going, well, actually, I was actually baptized by Paul.

Uh and so if I was baptized by somebody who'd seen the risen Jesus, sorry, did Apollos see the risen Lord Jesus?

No, that's right, he didn't.

But Paul baptized me.

Do you see?

That becomes a way of defining your superiority over and against someone else.

We're so quick as human beings to put our differences into hierarchies.

We don't just say, I'm different to you.

We say, even if it's just of ourselves, and my difference makes me slightly better than you.

One of these groups that we haven't mentioned yet, they were simply saying, I follow Christ.

Now these I mentioned last week were they were the pious theological types, the ones who felt as though they were superior to others and could sit above the fray of human politics and following earthly leaders and say, oh, I just, well, actually, for me, I just follow Jesus.

We can use theology in this way all the time.

There are different theological persuasions in this room.

I'll tell you mine if you want to get to know me.

Maybe you're visit you're visiting.

I'm a fairly conservative doctrine geek.

I spent in my early twenties loving to win arguments rather than win people.

And so we have a tendency, those of those of you who are in my stable, we like to look down on others because they're not as theologically clear as we are.

And it feels lovely.

Then there are the more charismatic people among us, and they might feel their superiority by saying, Well, at least I'm open to God doing stuff.

And all the conservative people are like, I don't know.

Then you have the more evangelistically minded people, and they express their superiority by saying, Well, at least we care about the lost.

Then you have the more socially minded people, and they express their superiority by saying, Well, at least we're actually helping people.

Different temperaments, different natural affinities that are being used to define us and being used to show our superiority over people.

We go down that road and we will fracture apart.

See how easy it is?

All of those things that I've mentioned, is it good to be theologically clear?

Yes.

Not just because that's my temper, but I actually think that that is important.

Is it good to be theologically clear?

Yes.

Is it good to lean into the spirit-drivenness of your life and ministry?

Yes.

Is it good to be uh concerned for the sake of the lost?

Yes.

Is it good to do good to others, to help the poor, the alien, and the widow?

Yes.

Those are all good things, but what's happening?

The good thing becomes my thing, and my thing becomes the most important thing.

And if you don't share in my thing, then you don't really get it.

We all have different dispositions, different temperaments.

And yes, again, I will say theological clarity is important.

But where difference says I I disagree with you, division goes on to say, and so I'm going to distance myself from you.

Difference is this matters to me.

But division says, and if it doesn't matter to you, then you're not really faithful.

Imagine City Church is a large family, which we are.

Imagine we're all sitting around a huge banqueting table for a large family meal.

We're chatting away, and many of us will disagree on theology and politics, we'll disagree on things like baptism and style of worship, we'll disagree on the roles of men and women in the church.

When does a crisis occur?

A crisis doesn't occur when we voice disagreement.

A crisis occurs when one says, Well, because you no longer because you don't think the way I do, I'm no longer sitting at the table with you.

That's why Paul keeps on calling the Corinthians brothers and sisters.

He's reminding them that they're family together, that they don't get to decide who's in their family.

God has already done that and brought them into the fellowship of his son.

So again, ask yourself: what differences do you perceive in other Christians that make it hard for you to enjoy them?

Hard for you to sit at the table and call them brother and sister.

How will you cross that dividing line, close that distance with someone who is different to you theologically, culturally, ethnically, socially?

In a church like ours, with all of our difference, maintaining unity is going to be one of our chief actions, something that we constantly need to work on and to look at.

When Paul in this passage urges them to be united in verse 10, the image that he has of being united, this is a beautiful image, is of mending nets.

It's of a fisherman mending his nets at the end of a long night's fishing.

It's a natural part of the job.

The fishermen place out the nets on the shoreline after a long night, and they see the holes, and they begin to tend them.

To mend their nets.

What a fisherman doesn't do is to look at some of the holes that are existing in the nets and say, This is terrible.

I shouldn't I shouldn't give up.

How could there possibly be a hole there?

This is the worst net ever.

I'm the worst fisherman, and these are the worst other fishermen that I've ever seen.

No.

He looks at the nets and goes, gets get holes in them.

This is part of the job.

Fishing's hard, it can cause strain.

I'm not going to pretend that there isn't a hole there because that's just going to make things worse.

But I'm not going to catastrophize it either.

I'm going to do the work of mending the nets.

Every church on a regular basis in our natural life together needs to mend the nets.

The worst thing that you can do is just to go, well, this person, they didn't respond to me the way that I hoped that they would respond to me.

And I feel it distanced me.

And so I'm just going to leave that hole there and I'm going to go off somewhere else.

No, no, no, no, you mend the nets.

Nets inevitably get holes in them, and you've got to repair them.

This is what it is to be united together.

This doesn't mean that you become less passionate about the thing that you are passionate about, the thing that you believe is important.

But you allow your unity in Christ to become the bigger thing that makes your differences look smaller.

And so, thirdly and finally, Paul then shows us how it is that Jesus can heal the divisions amongst us.

How is it that we can mend the nets together?

Paul, as I mentioned earlier, asks three rather explosive questions.

He says, Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

In order to mend the nets together, to bring unity back around Jesus, he asks these questions.

Because people love to talk about unity as a kind of pious buzzword.

You see this in kind of uh more mainline uh denominations that are kind of fracturing apart because of big disagreements.

They, well, why can't we?

Let's just we're just going to listen to one another, we're just going to journey together and uh to remain united.

And the question is, well, around what?

What's the basis of your unity?

What is it that is gathering you together?

What is it that is that is that you're drawing collective strength from?

You cannot just talk about unity as some sort of pious idea.

Unity for Paul here and unity for us here this morning has a ground, it has a center.

It's unity around Jesus, it's unity in him.

And that's what these questions are getting to the heart of.

Let's just briefly, as we begin to uh to draw to a close, look at these three questions in turn.

He says, Is Christ divided?

Literally, has Christ been parceled out to each of these groups where everybody gets a little bit of Jesus?

Can Christ be chopped up as a as a tribal possession, as a talisman to wear, to show your your piety?

Of course not, Paul says.

Therefore, if you belong to Christ, you belong not just to your grouping, not just to your natural affinity, but to one another.

Because we're united and joined to the same Jesus.

Christian unity does not require fewer differences, but more of Jesus.

Christian unity is not uniformity.

It's not just that you have to say and do and believe all of the same things.

Christian unity is that we are all united to the same Jesus.

It means that realizing that Jesus, Jesus isn't somehow more important or more at home with people like me.

And that's what we can think.

Well, Jesus, he would feel way more comfortable with my personality, my culture, my style of worship, my kind of people.

That's dividing Christ.

Now, this does not mean that some disagreements aren't important.

But it means that those differences no longer have the right to determine who I will love, who I will welcome, who I will listen to, serve, or enjoy in the context of the church, who I will call brother or sister in Christ.

So perhaps the mark of godly gospel maturity amongst us at City Church is to ask ourselves, can I gladly receive someone who whom Christ has received, even if they're not naturally my kind of person?

Is Christ divided?

Secondly, Paul says, was Paul crucified for you?

Why does Christ occupy this role that we've been talking about, that he gets to supremely define your life?

Why is he your primary identity if you are a follower of him, if you are a Christian?

How is it that he is worth defining who we are?

Well, the answer is the cross.

He was the one who gave himself for you, because he was the one who died for you.

Peter didn't, Paul didn't, Apollos didn't, your culture didn't, your temperament didn't.

Jesus did.

The cross establishes ultimate allegiance.

Because Jesus died for us, our ultimate fidelity is not to any label that we would take to ourselves.

It is to him.

And this destroys superiority.

Because who stands tall at the foot of the cross?

No one.

None of us can say God, you're so lucky to have me.

The intellectual and the uneducated come to the cross the same way.

The rich and the poor come to the cross the same way.

The Irish and the foreigner come to the cross the same way.

The mature Christian and the new baby in Christ come to the cross the same way.

All empty-handed.

All in need of forgiveness.

All in need of his grace.

We cannot stand at the foot of the cross and simultaneously say Jesus died for me and I'm better than you.

The third question that Paul asks is, Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

To be baptized in the name of someone was a sign of ownership.

A sign of belonging.

So in this question, Paul is saying, To whom do you belong?

Who marks your life?

Who has imprinted themselves on your life?

Paul saying you belong to Jesus.

Baptism here exposes how ridiculous the factions had become.

The very act that marked their incorporation into the fellowship of Christ is being overshadowed by arguments about which Christian leader they wanted to be best associated with.

So Paul almost comically demonstrates how little interest he has in the whole baptism question because he can barely remember.

He has no interest in garnering a following by baptizing the most believers.

He says, My priority is to preach the gospel.

He remembers a couple and then he goes, and then there was someone else because he's not keeping any record.

The Corinthians are saying, well, we follow Paul, Apollos, Kephas.

And Paul responds, no, no, no, no.

You belong to Christ.

Because you belong to Christ, you belong, therefore, to no other.

But you do belong to one another.

We bear one name because we belong to one Lord.

And if this is true, if we all believe in one Jesus and that he is wholly ours, that we are forgiven together and enabled by the same grace that he has given us, then that means that we can mend and strengthen our nets.

There may be holes in the net of our community that you are aware of right now.

What step do you need to take in order to mend the net?

Say, do you know what?

I've I've been needlessly divided.

I've not responded well.

Would you forgive me?

As if we are all Christ's, and if he has forgiven us all, then we can mend those nets.

There is no shame in doing it.

It is part of the job of a fisherman, and it is part of our community life together.

And what a great opportunity to mend and strengthen nets this morning as we launch our community groups for the year.

Sign up.

11 different opportunities to cross those dividing lines and to explore the new relationships that Jesus has brought us into.

11 groups meeting week by week, listening to one another, disagreeing patiently, mending nets graciously whenever those holes appear, forgiving readily, repenting truthfully, enjoying different perspectives, different cultures, different different cuisines, and allowing it all to enrich our life together.

If you're new, this is the community that we're inviting you into.

And if you've been at City for years, September is always a net stretching time as we expand our reach and embrace new people.

But let's open our arms, our homes, our hearts to those that we don't yet know.

Excited, curious to discover the oneness and the unity that we have with others that we didn't know existed, because we are all joined together in fellowship with the same Lord Jesus.

Let's pray together.