It is good to be with you. I greet you in the name of our Lord. One of the pleasant surprises when I was here is that I really enjoy the bell that marks the hour now. When I was here, it was more of a fire alarm and a little more jarring. But now it's so pleasant. I can preach right through it and not even notice. Open your Bibles, if you have them, with you there to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1. I'm excited to speak here and to be with you. And you men, particularly spanning across denominations, you are the next generation of Bible teachers and preachers. And you'll be taking the torch from someone else. And you'll be carrying this high calling of preaching Christ. And may God guide you in that task. One of the vows that doctors take when becoming licensed is they take the vow to do no harm. And perhaps that's a good concept for us to keep in mind as pastors as well. Do no harm. Of course, we want to do more than that, much more than that. We want to bring healing and health to the people, to lead people to Jesus, to build them up in the faith, to guide them in the truth. But sadly, the sad reality is that some of the most destructive characters in the church have been pastors. And pastors have come in and destroyed churches. And so you take on this very weighty task and you should be aware as you take it on of how to kill a church. And so today we're going to survey some of the chapters in 1 Corinthians taking a look at some of the issues that threatened to kill this church in Corinth that had divided it so deeply. The church had become so deeply divided. Much harm was being done by people there. And so Paul wrote this letter to address it. So I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10 and 11. So listen to God's holy word. It's God's word that will guide your steps and make your paths straight. So let's listen. 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." That's where we're going to end the reading of God's Word. We'll take a look at more of it as we go along. This is God's Word, may He use it to unite us together in Christ Jesus. There's one thing that pretty much every American can agree on, and it's that we can't agree on anything. We're a divided nation, and our divisions are running deeper and deeper by the day. And all the news outlets have published articles and media about how divided, indeed, we are. They also, in these articles, try to go on to identify these issues that so deeply divide us, and they list all kinds of things. We've got abortion and race and health care, gender confusion, immigration, climate change, capitalism versus socialism, Democrats versus Republicans, and on and on and on. were fractured in a thousand different ways. Well, much like our divided country, Paul's writing to a divided church, divided by all kinds of issues. And as he identifies these issues, he urges them to be united together in Christ Jesus. These issues that Paul identifies here in this book are issues that have the power to kill a church. But the gospel, he says, has the power to heal it. And so as the next generation of pastors and elders and missionaries, we need to be on guard against these potential divisions. We need to be careful that we don't go in and cause harm, but rather build the unity of the church by having your ministry centered on Jesus Christ and his word. In this book, there are a number of controversies that threaten to kill the church, and these are the same controversies that are threatening us today. Nothing new under the sun here in that sense. And as we take on this monumental task of leading the church, we're to do no harm, to not cause splinter and division, but to unite the church under the ministry of Jesus Christ and His Word. That's what we're called to do. As we go through this book, I'm going to point out four different ways that you can kill a church. Four different ways to kill a church. And the first way of killing a church is by promoting a celebrity culture or promoting a culture of celebrity pastors. Celebrity pastors, Paul says, can divide the church. In chapter 1, and again in chapter 3, Paul addresses the problem of church members following certain Christian personalities and celebrities. So in chapter 1, verse 11, I read it earlier, and then verse 12, for it's been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. And what I mean is that each one of you say, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, which of course is another name for Peter, or I follow Christ. The problem here is that everyone has their favorite pastor and they like to argue over which one is the best. And it actually is quite similar to the discussion that the disciples were having in the upper room as Jesus was preparing to go to the cross. They were arguing over which of them was the greatest. They have this, the same thing is happening here. They have this precious gospel, but they're arguing over about who's the greatest pastor. And they've lost their focus on Christ. And it's interesting that Paul mentions here that some claim to follow Christ. I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Peter, I follow Christ. And you might think, well, isn't the last one the one we're going for here? Well, by mentioning that some follow Christ, it's inferring that they think that Paul and Apollos and Peter are in some way not promoting Christ or in some way not following Christ. They're indirectly accusing these men of preaching something other than Christ and saying, oh, but I follow Christ. It's a statement of judgment against these men. And Paul says, what are you doing? Is Christ divided? Are there teams that we need to keep track of here? He says, no. We're all seeking to follow Christ. And all the preacher is supposed to do, he says later in chapter 2, is to proclaim the message of Christ and Him crucified and applying that to the people's lives, applying that to the people. We need to be careful that we're not following people because of their charisma or their intellect. or their eloquence. But we follow Christ, and if someone is preaching Christ, we follow Christ with him. In our present age with social media and live streaming and sermon audio and all these things available to us, we have the opportunity to always listen to our favorite preachers. And I have mine. But what can happen is that we can generate an instinctual loyalty toward these pastors, in a sense, idolizing them, elevating their words as being more important, more authoritative in their lives than anyone else's. And as a result, instead of congregations, the trend now is to have church at home, watching it online, or satellite campuses where one voice is heard because everyone wants to hear the main guy, the guy with the golden tongue. And we dismiss everyone else. It's just they're not as good. Paul's warning us against this kind of cult following. Carl Truman was reflecting on this issue of celebrity pastors. And he said that he often asks the question of his students. This is when he was teaching at the other seminary. He would ask this question. Who's been the most influential preacher in your spiritual life? And he said that almost never do people say the preacher from their home church. They most often name the celebrity pastors and the big names as if they have greater authority to speak into their lives than the week-to-week pastor who's shepherding their soul. He's urging us to guard against this. And we cannot promote this in our ministries. We need to guard against elevating others as celebrity pastors or also encouraging inappropriate loyalties to you or to someone else. urging people as John the Baptist did, I must decrease, I'm going to disappear, you follow Christ, we preach Christ. If you want to kill the church, then you promote an unhealthy loyalty to a certain preacher rather than a loyalty to Christ. Paul applies the gospel to this problem, and later in chapter 1, Paul essentially says in verse 26, we are not celebrities. And we're not to act like celebrities. We're not considered wise by worldly standards, not powerful, not of noble birth. We were nobodies, but God chose us. And only because of Jesus and this gospel are we actually somebody. It's a message for nobodies like us. And as preachers, all we want to do is preach Christ from the pulpit, from house to house, and with our lives. We need to guard against this celebrity culture. Don't encourage inappropriate loyalty, either to yourself or to others, but preach Christ and Him crucified. A second way that we can kill the church is by refusing to carry out church discipline, refusing to carry out church discipline. There was great immorality taking place in this church in Corinth, and it was public knowledge, and it was left unaddressed. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says that it was reported to him that a member of the church is sleeping with his stepmom. His stepmom, even unbelievers, are disgusted by this. And he says, yet you're allowing this to happen within the church. And then in chapter six, he also mentions people who are visiting local prostitutes. Apparently, members of the church were still going and worshiping false gods at a local temple, a Roman god, and sleeping with the prostitutes there. And then to top it all off, he says at the beginning of chapter five, not only are you allowing this to happen in the church, but you're actually proud that it's happening in the church. They're proud in the sense that they think this shows how gracious they are as a church. No judgment, no warning of sin. We just talk about grace here. Look how gracious we are. We have such sinners in our church. Well, Paul says, this cannot be. And let him who has done this be removed from among you. He's encouraging the church to carry out discipline. If someone is living in blatant sin, the elders need to address it. And they need to address it for two reasons. First, to protect the church. If sin is left unaddressed, the church will be destroyed. Paul goes on to talk about it. yeast that takes over the whole loaf. The second reason for addressing the sin is for the sinner's own good. They're believing the lie that they can continue unchecked in sin and unrepentant and still be a Christian. Paul says that's not how it works here. He says in chapter 6 verse 9, no unrepentant sinner will enter the kingdom of God. We can't be giving people false assurance. Don't let them think that they can live however they want and then come to church on Sunday and call it good. Instead, he says, put him out of your fellowship or hand him over to Satan. Let him feel the weight of his sin and in verse 5, chapter 5, so that in the end his spirit might be saved. We have to show people the seriousness and the destruction of sin so that they fear for their soul. So they truly repent and rest genuinely in the Lord. Church discipline is, it's hard to say the hardest, but it is definitely one of the hardest, if not the hardest thing to do as a pastor. And I totally get why churches have sort of given up on the whole concept, because it's hard and it's uncomfortable. It leads to lots of difficult meetings and difficult decisions. difficult conversations, but Paul says here it's critical. And if we don't, we will kill the church. We'll be divided and destroyed by our own sin. Paul again motivates the church to take action by again pointing back to the gospel. He reminded the people of the Passover meal. The Passover lamb was only eaten with unleavened bread, bread without yeast. It was the symbol for sin. And he says in verse seven of chapter five, Jesus, the Passover lamb, died to cleanse you and to set you free from your sin, not as an excuse so that you could sin all the more. He says in verse eight, let's celebrate the freedom that we have in Christ, not by living it up in sin, but by walking in righteousness. Jesus died to cleanse you. Don't use that freedom for sin. Use that freedom to walk in righteousness. If you want to kill the church, then let sin go unchecked in the congregation. If you want to build up the church, then honor the Lord. Carry out the discipline that's necessary with discretion and humility and wisdom and patience and faith. God will lead you and he will build up the church. A third way to kill the church is to allow conflicts to continue to fester. Unresolved conflicts will kill the church. He says in chapter 6 that when conflicts arise in the church, go to the elders and let them help you get it settled. Conflicts that arise in the church should be addressed and resolved within the church. Don't go to the courthouse, don't file lawsuits, go to the elders. Apparently there were lawsuits that were levied from member against member and instead of reconciliation that was bringing more division. And I should clarify here that Paul is referring to conflicts that don't have criminal charges. When there are criminal charges in the church, the church should be inviting the state to carry out its God-given responsibility to punish the wrongdoer, and the church should be working in tandem with the state, not excluding the state, but Paul is not talking here about criminal activities, he's talking about conflicts. Our congregations need to be good at resolving conflict, at being peacemakers, at gently confronting and humbly confessing and graciously forgiving. When there's conflict, encourage your congregation to come to you or to the elders and help them walk through it. God gives us his word to walk through these steps. And if there's an issue bigger than you, then if you're a part of a presbytery, invite the presbyterian. If you have sister congregations, you can appeal to them for help. In many circumstances, God will use these other brothers to help bring peace in the church. In many circumstances, the church can bring peace to a conflict that could very easily destroy it. Again, he points to the reality of the gospel. He says in chapter 6, verse 2, that because you're united to Christ, don't you know that you're going to judge the world and even judge angels? How much more should the church be able to handle day-to-day conflicts? Unresolved conflict can kill the church, so let's commit to working through conflicts within the church, and the Spirit of God will bring great unity. And then a fourth and final way to kill the church is general insensitivity. General insensitivity. Being insensitive to the needs and the convictions of others in the church. In chapter eight, Paul addresses this general problem related to a specific issue. In the ancient world, oftentimes, whatever food was sold at the market there, it was first sacrificed to some false god. Which actually is the exact situation in the Muslim world. Whenever you buy meat in the Muslim world or in a Muslim market, it's been sacrificed in the name of Allah. And so it's a real situation. And there are some people in the church who didn't care about that. Since idols weren't actually gods that actually existed, it didn't matter how the animal died. And they ate that meat with a clear conscience. But there are also others in the church who are very sensitive. They had a very sensitive conscience and they thought, well, if I eat this meat sacrificed to idols, it's like the equivalent of me bowing down to this idol. And Paul clarifies that this is an issue that should be left to the individual conscience. He says either way is fine, but you have to work it out in your own heart. And he says, the issue isn't so much whether or not you eat the meat, the issue is being sensitive to the convictions of others. And what he's saying is that if you might find yourself in a situation where if you eat this meat that was sacrificed to idols, it might lead to misunderstanding, the misunderstanding of others. Some might see you eating this meat and think that I guess Christians can worship Jesus and worship other gods too. If that's their conclusion, it leads people astray because they misunderstand. And if that's the situation, it's better not to eat. You give up your right so as to not cause confusion. And in chapter nine, Paul then points out the various ways in which he gave up his rights. because he wanted to be sensitive to others and to avoid confusion. So in chapter 9, he essentially says, I have every right to receive a salary in the church, but he says, I've given up that right because I don't want there to be any perception that I'm just peddling the gospel to get people's money. I have a right, but I've given it up. so as to not make an obstacle for the gospel. He says in verse 19 and following that, I give certain rights up depending on whom I'm ministering to. To the Jews, I become a Jew. And what he means by that is that if he's going to go and eat lunch with some Jewish friends to talk about the gospel, he's not going to order the pork sandwich. Because it would be unnecessary offense to the Jewish friends, creating obstacles to keep them from hearing the gospel. A simple current day example would be if I'm meeting with someone who struggles with alcohol or has a conviction against drinking alcohol, I wouldn't flaunt my freedom and order a beer while talking because that would create an unnecessary stumbling block. He's using all these examples to urge us to be sensitive to the convictions of others. Don't flaunt your freedom. Be willing to give up your rights so as to not cause a stumbling block. And again, he points back to the gospel. He says, by doing this, we're following in Christ's footsteps. He gave up every right for your good. And although being very God himself, he didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he willingly took on the form of a servant. Literally, he became a slave. And what is a slave? A slave is a person who has no rights. He went to that wretched cross and he died. He willingly gave up his rights in order to save many. And as his followers, it's our privilege and honor to walk in his footsteps. So be sensitive to the convictions of others in your preaching. Be sensitive in how your words come across. In your house to house ministry, be sensitive of the experiences and the convictions of others willing to give up your rights. so that you can help make the way straight for people to come to Christ. Be sensitive to others for the cause of Christ. We live in a divided country, a divided world splintered in 100 different ways. And every news source tries to identify these dividing issues, of which there is no shortage. But not one outlet, not one politician will be able to unite us unless the gospel is applied to our lives. In this divided world, we have such an opportunity as the church to display the power of the gospel by living out our unity in Christ Jesus. There are all kinds of things that threaten to divide us as a church. We are actually natural born enemies, but it's here where natural born enemies become family. It's only in the message of the cross and the resurrection. Do we truly become one? We are one. Let's live out the unity of the gospel, displaying our unity in Christ, showing that a house divided can be powerfully united together only in Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray. God, our Father, we thank you for uniting us together in Jesus Christ and that you've broken down the dividing walls that splintered us and you've made us one. Help us, Lord, to display this unity in the midst of a divided world so that your name would be lifted up more and more, so that more and more people would be united together with us in Christ Jesus. Help us as ministers in your church to build up the unity of the church, not to cause division. Help us to stand on Christ and his truth and apply it to people's lives. Do this all for the glory of your holy and majestic name. Together we say, amen. If we have time, we can sing Psalm 133, selection A. What a blessing it is to dwell together in unity.