Week 3: The Big Rocks... In Essentials, Unity

1 Corinthians 1:10; Acts 2:44

One of the ways we honor God as a church is by maintaining a spirit of unity.

Psalm 133:1 says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” Jesus also emphasized the importance of harmony. He said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:35). His final prayer in the garden of Gethsemane was, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me” (John 17:23).

Many of the New Testament letters appeal to the churches to refrain from division and live in harmony. Paul writes in Romans 14:19, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” In Ephesians 4:3 he says, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought” (1 Corinthians 1:10).

When churches bicker, it saps our energy, it quenches our spirit, and it negates our testimony.

3 ways that each of us can help to maintain the unity that we enjoy and that God so desires.

A. AVOID SILLY ARGUMENTS

When Paul was mentoring Titus, the young church leader, he wrote to him in chapter 3 verse 9, “Avoid foolish controversies.”

We need to avoid controversy and those kinds of issues for two reasons. Number one, they accomplish nothing.

A second reason foolish arguments are to be avoided is that they are potentially divisive.

B. Be Devoted to Each Other in Service

William Barclay wrote, “Half the trouble that arises in the church concerns rights, privileges, places, and prestige. Someone has not been given his or her place. Someone has not been thanked. Someone has been neglected. Someone has been given a more prominent place on the platform than somebody else and there is trouble.”

Humility is not thinking less of yourself. Humility is not thinking of yourself at all.

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).

Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant:” (Matthew 23:11).

There is hardly ever any bickering over the basin.

C. Continue to Follow the New Testament Example

You know the Christian Church is special and unique, because we base everything we believe in and stand for on the Bible. We don’t form committees and debate doctrine and pass our answers along to you. What we believe is not based on my opinion or Gus opinion, or the elders’ opinions, but it is based on scripture. When the Christian Church was pioneered…a group of church leaders got together and were frustrated with all the division and disunity in the body of Christ….and so they started a movement based on the Bible…Wow what a unique concept. Some of the earliest Christian Church slogans were: “Were not the only Christians, just Christians only.” “No book but the Bible” “No creed but Christ.” And I especially like this one, “In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. And in all things love.”

If you look in the book of Acts, the New Testament church began as a united church. The book of Acts is the story of the birth and growth of the church. And the defining moment in the birth of the church happened in Acts 2:1, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” Acts 4:32 says, “All the believers were one in heart and mind.”

It's about community... and community is not a vague thing in the book of Acts. And there's one word that just runs through it like a thread.
Acts 1:14, "All these were constantly together, devoting themselves to prayer."
Acts 2:1, "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place."
Acts 2:42,44, "They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All who believed were together and had all things in common."
What's the word that just keeps running through it? It's "together."

Jesus prayed the night before He was crucified. He prayed for His disciples and He prayed for us…those who would believe in Him through their message…and His prayer was the same for both groups (That we would be one, just as He and the Father are one).

“Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up unto him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:15, 16).