Church Matters, Pt1: Unity Matters

June 3, 2018                          NOTES NOT EDITED
Pt1: Unity Matters

John 17:20-23

Sermon-in-a-Sentence: It is absolutely essential that every believer help protect the unity of the church in both word and deed.

A local country club hired a well-known professional golfer to give lessons at the club.  He had been giving lessons for a few months and was very popular.  On one occasion, two women approached the golf pro.  The golf pro responded to one of the ladies by asking, “Ma’am, do you want to learn how to play golf?”  Quickly the young lady replied, “Oh, no, not me. It’s my friend who wants to learn.  I learned yesterday!”

So it is with many Christians.  Very few are willing to do the hard, long work and make the sacrifices it takes to be an effective member of the Lord’s church.  Many feel that a few minutes in church once or twice a month is all it takes to be a member in good standing in the church.  Sadly, most churches operate that way.  In most places, church membership doesn’t really matter very much.

Various statistics show that less than 25% of the U.S. population attends church regularly.  Years ago, a USC University study showed that,  "On a typical Sunday morning in the period from 1955-58, almost half of all Americans were attending church." That is quite a slide in only 60 years. A recent HuffPost blog concluded, ""U.S. secularity is rising to surprising heights." What accounts for the decline in the value society has for church membership? Well, that's really the "$64,000 Question!"

The issue is complex and a solid, singular conclusion is hard to pin down.  I can, however, make one observation from my experience that identifies a core issue in the problem of the decline of church attendance in the U.S.  My answer is: "Even most church members do not think church membership really matters.”  Christianity is failing, not because of the secularization of society, but society is failing because of the secularization of church. To put it bluntly, "There's too much world in the church and not enough true church in the world."

Effective church not only matters, but it matters a great deal.  Over the next four Sundays, we will examine how much church matters by looking at four important themes:  Unity, Responsibility, Service, and Support.  This morning, we tackle the issue of Protecting the Unity of My Church.  Let’s read one of many passages that encourage believers to Protect the Unity of the Church.  Jn. 17:20-23.

Each week, we will examine three ways in which we can promote more effective church membership.  Today, we will learn to protect the UNITY of our church:  by acting in love toward others, by refusing to gossip, and by following the God-ordained leadership.

First, let’s examine how the Lord felt about the importance of UNITY in His Church.  Consider the Lord’s Prayer—not the model prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray—but the Lord’s own prayer shortly before He was led away to die on the cross for our sins.  The Lord offered this prayer on Thursday.  Later that night the unity of the disciples would be shattered by the betrayal of Judas.  With the cross only hours away, the issue most heavy upon the Lord’s heart was the “unity” of His followers—the unity of the Church.  The Lord prayed:

²⁰ I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me

through their message. ²¹ May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me. ²² I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one. ²³ I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Four times in these four verses Jesus prays for the “unity” of His followers.  The last time He adds a modifier, “complete unity.”

It is this “fourth” use of the word, “one,” that really reveals the eternal importance of unity and the priority it must have in the Lord’s Church.  The word “one” is proceeded by the strongest form of a verb you could use in this context, a “participle.”  A participle indicates that it is a continuing state.  Literally Jesus is saying, “may they continually be having been made into one.”  That is awkward for us in English, but extremely expressive for Paul in Greek.  Not only does Jesus use a participle, but He uses the most forceful construct of a participle, the perfect tense.  The perfect tense in Greek emphasizes the enduring, absolute quality of something that has happened.  It denotes something that has happened in the past and the effects of which carry on indefinitely.  Jesus spoke forcefully and absolutely about His desire that there be “unity” in the church.

It is not, however, only a N.T. admonition.  All throughout the Bible, God speaks for unity and against divisions among his people.  Proverbs 6 warns us:

¹⁶ The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to Him: ¹⁷ arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸ a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil,

¹⁹ a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.

Notice what rounds out 7^th place. One who “stirs up trouble” (soweth discord, KJV; stirs up dissension, NIV).  In a horse race, 7^th place would not finish in the money.  In the Biblical perspective, 7 is a most significant number. It’s the equivalent of “bold” letters. Nothing is worse by Biblical standards than damaging the “unity” of the church. 

No aspect of a disciple’s life is more important that protecting the unity of the body of Christ.  Now, how do we protect the unity of the church?

1.  By Acting in Love Toward Others. 

Love is such a simple thing, but oh so profound and powerful.  Paul sums up the “power of love” in one simple, yet sublime statement:

“Love never fails!” (1Cor. 13:8).  Other translations render this verse, “Love never ends (CSB, ESV).”  This is not incorrect.  The issue is the “perpetuity or perpetual quality” of love (fr. πίπτει piptei).  It is long lasting. It cannot be knocked over or knocked off.  It cannot be held up or held back.  It cannot be  denied or discourage.  Love never faints, never falls, and never fails.  It is before all things, above all things, beyond all things, and remains when all other things have passed away.  Paul concludes his poem on love by saying,

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end;

as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end . . . . . . ¹³ Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

A believer must Protect the UNITY of the Church by LOVING others.  Also, we must Protect the UNITY of the Church

2.  By REFUSING to GOSSIP.

Without question, one of the most dangerous instruments of destruction in the world is the human tongue.  The Bible says,

James 3   ⁵ So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things.  Consider how large a forest a small fire ignites. ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the whole body,  sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell. ⁷ Every sea creature, reptile, bird, or animal is tamed and has been tamed by man, ⁸ but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  ⁹ We praise our Lord and Father with it, and we curse men who are made in God’s likeness with it.  ¹⁰ Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things should not be this way.

James describes the human tongue as a “spark that ignites a forest fire, as a disgusting discharge of sewage that pollutes the whole body, as a wild animal that kills its prey and tears at its dead body; and as a venomous poison injected into a victim slowly killing it from the inside out.” 

A person would have to be unconscious not to recognize that God has utter contempt for a person that gossips.  People have odd views of the nature of gossip.  Some people believe that if what they are saying to one person about another person is true, then it isn’t gossip.  The Bible does not support such a view.  The Bible says that gossip is anything that comes out of our mouths about a person that is not “wholesome.”  Listen to Eph. 4:29:

²⁹ No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.  (NIV, unwholesome talk; KJV, corrupt communication).  The Amplified Bible translates Eph. 4:29 as, “Let no foul, or polluting language, nor evil word, nor unwholesome, or worthless talk ever com out of your mouth.”

How destructive is gossip?  It “befouls” the one that speaks.  It befouls the one spoken about, and it befouls the one to whom it is spoken.  Gossip is a lose-lose-lose proposition. Notice that what we say must “give grace to all including to those that hear.”

If you share in the garbage that comes out of someone’s mouth, you defile yourself, and bring God’s judgment upon your life.  You can’t swim in a polluted river and not become polluted yourself.

The word translated, “foul, polluting, evil, unwholesome or worthless” is the Greek word, sapros (σαπρός).  The word refers to something that causes decay or is in a state of decomposition, like spoiled fish, rotten fruit, or a decomposing body.  It was used generally of anything the is totally “unfit or worthless.”  In the strongest language the Bible condemns gossip because it is so destructive.  Gossip, will utterly destroy the UNITY of the church.

Mark Twain once said, “One of the striking differences between a cat and [gossip] is a cat only has nine lives.”  Gossip is like unleashing the devastation of an atomic bomb.  Once it is dropped, the destruction cannot be contained or managed.

We must Protect the Unity of our Church by LOVING others, by refusing to GOSSIP, and

3.  By Following the GOD-ORDAINED LEADERSHIP.

In every area and avenue of life there are two groups:  leaders and followers.  There are bad leaders with good followers.  There are good leaders with bad followers.  There are good leaders with good followers.  This last arrangement is the one that God blesses with explosive results.

Notice how good leaders with good followers ignited the explosive growth of the early church (Acts 2):

⁴¹ So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 people were added to them. ⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. ⁴³ Then fear came over everyone, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.  ⁴⁴ Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.  ⁴⁵ They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone had a need.  ⁴⁶ Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved.

The most explosive growth in the history of the Lord’s Church occurred over a period of only about 30 years.  The church exploded in growth from the Day of Pentecost until the close of the Book of Acts, from 120 in the upper room to estimates of 100,000, 300,000 or more.  And, one of the most interesting literary characteristics of the Book of Acts is the fact that it ends abrubtly with an “adverb,” not typical in English writing.  The Book of Acts closes with the words:

³¹ proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with full boldness and without hindrance (CSB).  The NASB keeps the more awkward Greek structure: ³¹preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered (NASB).

Devotion to the teaching of the apostles fueled the growth in the explosive period of the Book of Acts.  Verse 42 says that the people, devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.     

The word, devoted (προσκαρτεροῦντες proskarterountes) is a compound meaning to “remain, persist, or persevere.”  The root of the word adds a “time element” to the idea of persistence.  The early church spent a great deal of time listening to the apostles teaching—at great risk to their own personal safety as Christianity was religio illicita, an illegal religion.

Today, there is very little respect for the word of God and preachers of the Word than ever before.  People just don’t have “time” for long, drawn out surrender to Jesus Christ in worship.  They have even less time for messages on “hell and damnation.”  People today—if they have any taste at all for church at all—want to hear “little sermonettes by preacherettes.”  People today—if they want any church at all—want their religion like they like their beer—Church Lite.  Over 75% of the U.S. don’t want any church at all.  Here is a meme that appeared on my FaceBook page. 
[Cartoon Church with Name:  First Church of Christ or Whatever].  This church is in New York City with over 10,000 members.  The pastor has been proclaimed by Newsweek Magazine as “One of the Lord’s Foot Soldiers.”  He recently said this:

“There was a time when you would see people in the pulpit say, 'Well, if you don't believe in Jesus you going to Hell. That's insanity in many ways because that is not what Jesus even believes.”

He’s oh so right—there “used to be a time when preachers preached heaven high and hell hot,” but not much anymore.  He’s oh so wrong however to suggest that such teaching is “insanity.”  Jesus had a great deal to say about people going to hell that rejected Him.

That church is an example of a bad leader with bad followers.  Such a leader must be avoided.  Yet, as long as a preacher is preaching the Word of God and attempting to live a godly life, that leader should be—must be—obeyed.  Here’s what the Bible says (Heb. 13:17),

 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Nothing is more profitable to you as a person than having a “godly leader who is willing to swim against the current of the cultural tide of easy-believism, and preach the Word of God.”  If I did not feel that way about the pastors of the church I am attending, I’d “leave that church faster than the roadrunner escaping Wyle E. Coyote!”

Good leading and good following is the key to effective church membership. The Bible says:   Eph 4  ¹¹ And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,  ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son,

We are obligated by God’s sovereign grace to Protect the Unity of Our Church by OBEYING the God-called, God anointed leaders, as well as LOVING others and REFUSING Gossip.

As I pointed out at the start, “it is foolish to think that one can become an effective golfer by taking one lesson.”  It is equally foolish, and eternally more serious for one to believe that his or her life will matter much for the Kingdom of God if Church matters little to them. 

We show how much Church Matters when we pledge to Protect the UNITY of the church by LOVING others, REFUSING gossip, and FOLLOWING God-ordained leaders.