1.
Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word today is taken
from 1 Cor. 1:10-18 and is entitled, “We
Are Brothers and Sisters in Christ.”
2.
Let’s face it: there are some
people out there who are never going to be our best friends. Maybe the first
time you met you just got off on the wrong foot. Maybe you value, stand for,
believe in very different things. Maybe it’s just personalities—oil and water
that don’t mix. Or maybe you run with a different crowd—you’re really close
with somebody; they’re really close with somebody else; you each follow a
different leader, and that keeps you apart. You’re just never going to be
friends. He or she is never really going to like you much, and the feeling is
pretty mutual. You live with it. It happens.
3.
It even happens here, in church,
in this very congregation, probably in this very sanctuary this morning. Your
never-going-to-be-friend may be sitting not too many pews away, but after
church, you’ll go in opposite directions, sometimes intentionally.
4.
In our text this morning, St. Paul
says that was happening in the Church at Corinth. We don’t know all the causes,
but here’s how it played out: some said, “I follow Paul,” others said, “I
follow Apollos,” others, “I follow Cephas,” and still others, “I follow Christ”
(v 12). There were divisions, quarrels, among the members of the Church at
Corinth. They weren’t friends. It happens.
5.
We do understand why some people
just won’t be our friends, don’t we! All
the usual human dynamics were no doubt in play in the Church at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 1:10-12 St. Paul says, “10I 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. 11For
it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among
you, my brothers. 12What I mean is that each one of you says, “I
follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow
Christ.”
In the Corinthians Church there were substantial
disagreements about doctrine and practice (v 10)—sexual immorality, lawsuits,
marriage, giving offense, the Lord’s Supper, women’s roles, worship, the
resurrection. The church was dividing
into “parties” (vv 11–12)—even though the “leaders” of those parties had no
intention of being pitted one against another.
There were personality issues too—in a city and congregation that
brought together people with very diverse backgrounds.
6. We recognize all those problems! Disagreements about decisions in the
congregation that really matter. In the
church there may be disagreements about how preaching should be done, worship—contemporary or liturgical, or on
the distribution of the Lord’s Supper. Cliques can also form within the church
around those people we are most comfortable with unfortunately leaving some
people left out. There can be individual
conflicts among members, such as poor
first impressions, strong personalities clashing, and so on. It happens. St. Paul says it was
happening in the Church at Corinth. And that, Paul says . . . is unacceptable!
Sinful! Totally out of place in the Church of God! St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:13, “13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
7.
Let me tell you a story about two
men who were just never going to be friends.
Sosthenes . . . synagogue ruler in Corinth . . . zealous for the law . .
. used to being in charge. St. Paul . .
. comes along with new teachings . . . equally zealous . . . winning converts
away from the synagogue (even the previous leader) Two men off on the wrong foot . . . strong
personalities . . . following the God of Abraham or Jesus Christ? . . . zealous
for the law or for salvation by faith apart from works? . . . one drags the
other into court . . . not going to be friends!
But . . . Sosthenes beaten . . . abandoned . . . perhaps befriended by
Paul . . . more than friends: brothers and co-authors of 1 Corinthians (1:1)!
8.
How can this be, then, that people
who were never going to be friends can be even more than friends? Did seeing Sosthenes, this zealous Jew, lying
on the street remind Paul of his own encounter with the pavement once on a road
to Damascus? Jesus hadn’t abandoned
Saul, despite their so badly getting off on the wrong foot. And Jesus forgiving Paul changed everything
for him! No longer could Paul see anyone as a hopelessly never-to-be friend.
9.
As we have
learned from Paul and Sosthenes, how we relate to one another as human beings
depends upon how we see ourselves as creatures created by God our Creator. This in turn affects our everyday
relationships with one another. This is
what we teach our children at Christ Lutheran School in West Bloomfield. Every day they are taught to show love and
kindness to everyone around them because each person is created in God’s
image. They even work on showing
kindness to each other through a program of earning kindness points each week. At Christ Lutheran School our children learn
that the value of human life doesn’t depend upon what someone is able to do or
not to do. God creates life. God made the first two human beings in His image
(Gn 1:26–27). Even though this image was lost when sin came into the world,
this original, lofty position still gives value to human life (cf Gn 9:6).
10.
All life is
worthy of life, because God makes it so.
And how we relate to each other as Christians also can show this fact. We don’t hate our neighbor, for that would be
murdering our neighbor in our heart, instead we see each person as being
created by God our Heavenly Father. He created life with His hands. You and
every life have handmade value! God redeemed life with His outstretched hands
through His Son Jesus Christ. You and every life have been bought with a price!
God’s power is at work in those He calls His own. You and every child of God
are instruments of His power (Jer 1:5). Thank God for the value He gives to
every life!
11.
So, Paul asks us this morning has
Christ been divided from us? We got off on the wrong foot with him by our
sin—especially those sins of separating ourselves from our fellow members right
here—but Christ has done everything to make us his friends again—and more than
that, brothers! 2 Cor 5:17–19 says, “17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All
this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling
the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and
entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
12.
We stood for different things—Jesus
for us, we for ourselves. We followed different leaders—Jesus his heavenly
Father, we our sinful desires. We had totally clashing personalities—Jesus
humble and serving, we “me-first” and stubborn.
But Jesus made us his own brothers by dying for all those sins of ours
and then baptizing us into his cross (v 18).
And he’s done the same for everyone sitting in every other pew here this
morning. Which makes every one of us
here today better than just friends. Every
Member of God’s Church Is Better than a Best Friend; He or She Is a Brother or
Sister in Christ. “I appeal to you, brothers,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . that there be no divisions among
you” (v 10). For Christ is not divided from you. Amen.
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