Morning Message Text: 1 Corinthians 1: 10-18
A Church Divided Over Leaders
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.
12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas ”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.)
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Morning Message:
We have far too many theoe anthropoe in our world and in our church. Most theoe anthropoe don’t think of themselves as such, but they display all of the characteristics of one, and they function in life like one. You probably don’t know what a theoe anthropoe is, even though you may be living your life acting like one. I probably should tell you what these Greek words mean. I will eventually, if you pay attention, you will find out during the course of this message. First, I want to lay the groundwork for this message by looking at the scripture in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, starting in verse 17. This is where Jesus first starts to preach and begins his ministry. His message: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. I find it interesting that Jesus begins with the same message that John the Baptized preached. Everything in a Christian’s life must begin with repentance because we are covered in sin; we are sinful through and through. How many of you watch the series Yellowstone? It is an excellent drama; I highly recommend it. There is a scene where the leader of the Indian tribes says to someone, “We are covered in sin, and we must both wash it off.” You see, our problem as human beings is that we think too highly of ourselves. We think of ourselves as clean and even holy when we should view ourselves as sinners in need of cleansing. Not just when we accept Jesus, but constantly, always in need of repentance. That is how we wash off the sin, and when we resist repentance, we are saying to God, “We don’t need you.”
As Jesus was walking along, he came across Peter and Andrew and called the two brothers to follow him. At once they left their fishing nets, which was all that they had in the world, and followed Jesus. This is a form of repentance. They left the life and livelihood of this world behind and started new with Jesus. The same thing happens with James and John. Jesus called them and they left the boat, their nets, and their father behind; they turned from the old life of fishing to a new life of serving. Now it doesn’t matter how much we think what they had was worth, the point is: They left everything they knew to follow Jesus; that’s true repentance. That is only possible when you realize that nothing is as important as Jesus, and God knows what’s best for your life. Do you know that today? Can we admit to ourselves that God knows what’s best for our lives and we haven’t a clue apart from him?
Paul finds the church in Corinth very divided. They have lost their way and had forgotten who should be the head of the church. This happens repeatedly in the church. We look to men or women, and instead of worshiping God and giving Jesus the glory, we place too much importance on leaders. Leaders in the church deserve our respect, but there is no church without Christ who must always be the head of the church. It is a sign of spiritual immaturity when a church forgets that Jesus must be more important than anyone else. In the early church the people called their great teachers theoe anthropoe or Godmen. They placed men on pedestals and worshiped them and claimed superiority from others who followed someone else. Paul is trying to bring them back to the reality that there is only one leader of the church and that is Jesus. He uses himself as an example by saying he is just a preacher. In other words, if I am only a mere servant then there is nothing special about these other teachers. Godmen, it sounds very arrogant.
Now this took my mind in a little different direction. In today’s society and church, I don’t believe that anyone looks to church leaders and places them above Christ. This generation in the church is different and I think that the world has convinced us that we are theoe anthropoe, Godmen. This is probably a recurring theme from me, so I have tried to wrap it up a little differently in order to open our eyes. None of us think of ourselves as Godmen, but we act like we are. I see very little, actually, no true repentance these days. The only conclusion that I can draw from this is that we must think that we are above repenting. We must assume that we are so holy and godly that we truly are Godmen, so no need of falling down before God and saying, “I’m sorry and I want you to change me.” We live in this world, and we are covered in sin every day, yet we come to church and say a prayer of confession without conviction, and we leave feeling fully justified; that’s if we bother to come at all. What are we willing to do about our condition? Anything? Or will we continue to act like theoe anthropoe?
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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