"Is Christ Divided?" (I Corinthians 1:1-16)

"Is Christ Divided?" from I Corinthians 1:1-16 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on July 27, 2025. 

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

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Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta.

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First Corinthians chapter one, let's begin reading in verse number one. The Bible says, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon or I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. Then in everything ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who also or shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, that but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I have Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank my God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius. Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name, and I baptized also the household of Stephanus, besides I know not whether I baptized any other. But you mark one phrase, these three words, a question in verse number thirteen, is Christ divided? Is Christ divided? Now when we come to this church at Corinth, Paul knows this church. He loves this church. You can go to Acts chapter 18 and you can find out where he goes to Corinth. And this church is planted and people are saved and leadership is raised up. And Paul knows these people, and he says here, in fact, he tells us, I've gotten a report back. He says, I've heard of the house of Chloe, he says in verse 11, that there are contentions among you. He says there's there's divisions going on. There's people that have kind of divided themselves up into factions, and some are saying, I am of Paul, and some are saying, I am of Cephas, and I am of Apollos, and while I am of Christ, and they kind of have these little religious parties all going on, each with their own little head, right? And so Paul is going to deal with this. It's a divided church. Now we're going to find there's a lot of issues in this church. We work our way through the book. There's a lot of things that had to be dealt with. But from the onset, Paul is saying, let's deal with the divisions, because if we're going to move forward, we're going to move forward together. If we're going to advance for Christ, we're going to advance together. And so he's going to preach a message here of unity. The psalmist said in Psalm 133 and verse 1, he said, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. And you know how good it is when there's unity in a family. How good it is when there's unity in a workplace. And how good is it when there's unity in the house of God among his people? And so let's find out if Paul's going to deal with this, if he's going to deal with a divided church, then how is he going to deal with it? He makes a number of points. Would you write these things down if you're taking notes? Write them down. Number one, we find there is a unity of message, a unity of message. If you look at these opening ten verses, we find the name or at least a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ in each of these ten verses. It's quite incredible. Paul knows he's dealing with a carnal, divided church. So what does he do? He's going to just preach a message of Jesus Christ. If you remember the last two Sundays we preached, I preached the last part of this chapter. We preached on, where he says in verse number 17, he's preaching the gospel, right? We preach no other message but the gospel. He says that he's in verse 23 that we preach Christ crucified. And then when he opens the chapter, look at verse number one. Look, he's just going to emphasize Jesus Christ. It really permeates all of this. He says in verse number one, he's called to be an apostle of who? Of Jesus Christ. He says in verse number two, under the church of God, which is accordant to them that are sanctified, that's set apart in Christ Jesus. They're called to be saints, he says here. He says, My calling is rooted in Jesus Christ. Our very sanctification, being set apart, separated from the world, is found in Jesus Christ. Look at verse number three, he says, There is grace and peace given to us from who? From the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the unity here? Unity and message, preaching on Christ. Look at verse number four. He says, The grace of God is given you how? By Jesus Christ. Look at verse 5. He says that in everything ye are enriched by Him. By who? By Jesus Christ. Now I like that in verse 5. He says, Ye are enriched by Him. That means you're made better. You're enriched, meaning He touches and He makes better, He makes fuller, He makes more complete in all utterance and in all knowledge. Utterance is how we speak, knowledge is how we think. Maybe you say, I got trouble with my mind. Well, you know how your mind's going to get better? When it's enriched by Jesus Christ. Maybe you say, Well, look, I need a little help in how I'm talking. In my utterance, my speech is not right. Well, you know how it's made right? It's enriched by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the devil will use lots of different things to enrich our mind and enrich our speech. It doesn't make it any better, it makes it worse. But if we start getting close to Jesus and we start being permeated with his word and his thought and what he's saying, what he's teaching, then it enriches us. Look at verse number six. He says, there's the testimony of Christ. He says at verse 7, you're behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse number 8. He speaks of the end, and he speaks of the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is coming again. If you believe the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again, would you say amen? Amen. Would you look at verse 9? He says, God is faithful, by whom ye are called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So what is the message? It is a message of Jesus Christ. If there's ever a pastor that comes to this place, or if this pastor ever starts preaching another message other than the message of the Lord Jesus Christ and the clear teaching of God's word, well you better get rid of him. And if I start preaching another message or another gospel, you know what Paul talked about in Galatians chapter 1? We won't turn there, but in Galatians chapter 1 he says, if you begin to preach any other gospel, then let him be accursed. If you start preaching some other message than I have given you, then get him out of there. There's one message. We may preach a lot of things. We may preach social cause. Sometimes churches take the idea of a social cause as this is the reason that we exist. But if we get away from the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will not be long before this church will entirely lose its way. And when Paul is dealing with this church, and look, we're going to work our way through this church, there are grave issues in this church. There are issues of morality issues in this church. There's issues we see are of contention in this church. There's issues of the truth not being preached in this church. There's issues in their worship in this church. And so where does Paul start? He just starts with saying, if we're going to move together, it's going to be around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where Paul begins, and I think it's where we should begin. This church will be divided as long as they do not unite around Jesus Christ. There's unity in message. Would you make note of a second thing here? Not only a unity in message, but there is a unity of mind. Would you look down with me, please, in verse number 10? Also, he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Now I beseech you, brethren. Now, beseech means I'm coming to you. And the idea of beseech is not a face-to-face thing, but it's a side-to-side thing. It's almost as if Paul is coming along this church and he puts his arm around him and he says, Now look, I'm begging you. I'm really asking you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing. Would you mark that in verse 10? Speak the same thing. And that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind. Would you mark in the same mind there? And then he says that in the same judgment, would you mark in the same judgment there? The first thing is he says that ye speak the same thing. You know, the way we think will affect the way we talk. You can often tell what people are thinking, what people are dwelling on, what people are meditating on, how? But what they talk about. Sometimes you come into church services and people are talking about whatever football game was played the day before. That's not all wrong. I'm not all against that. But when they have given themselves to that, they're permeated with that, you know what they like to talk about? They want to talk about the game. You ever get around somebody and they just talk about Jesus? You ever been around people? I've been around people. And it seems like everything they say has a whiff of Jesus about it. You know why? Because they've just permeated themselves with it. With the Word of God. And they permeated themselves with the right kind of music and they permeated themselves with his teaching. And it says here, I want you all to speak the same thing. Now, what does that mean? You say, Pastor, you're saying we should all be robots, right? We just all fall in line. No, you know what I'm saying? There is a message which we have, and it's the Word of God. You know, if you go into every single one of our Sunday school classes, we have two children's classes, we have a men's Sunday school class, a women's class for the adults. They may be teaching different lessons on that day, but they're all speaking the same thing. You know why? Because all of it has been drawn from, not a newspaper, not a magazine, not a quarterly. It's all been drawn from the Word of God. You know what speaking the same thing is? It's all teaching the same doctrine, the same things that the Lord Jesus Christ gave his apostles. Now we're passing on 2,000 years later speaking the same thing. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul is speaking to Timothy about deacons, and one qualification he gives of a deacon is he says that a deacon is to not be double-tongued. We're talking about what we're speaking. It's to say one thing to one person and something different to someone else. Can you imagine having a church where this group is going over here and they're saying one thing? And then this group's all meeting together and they're saying another thing, and this group's getting together and they're saying another thing. He says, look, you should be speaking the same thing. There should be a unity of message. There should be a unity of mind that's going on. Not being double-tongued means not talking out of both sides of our mouth, is how some people say it. You know, gossip is saying behind a person's back what you would never say to their face. Flattery is the absolute opposite. It's saying to a person's face what you would never say behind their back. And I ask you, what we teach from the Word of God, are we teaching the Word of God? Are we living according to the Word of God? Is there a consistency in doctrine? And is there a consistency in emphasis in what we're placing here? We're seeking to all be together in what we're teaching. All be together in what we're saying. Speaking the same thing. He also says here, we're in the same mind. Would you mark that? In verse number 10. Paul said in Romans chapter 12, he said, be of the same mind one toward another. You know what that means? We all think what we ought to think about another person. We may come in today and you may see someone and you say, Boy, I don't really like that person. You know, I don't like the way they dress, I don't like the way they look, I don't like where they come from. You may have any number of reasons why you're not thinking the same mind one toward another. We're gonna have a hard time existing as a church if we're living like that. We're gonna have a hard time moving forward if we're not thinking the same mind one of another. What does that mean? That means looking at one another and thinking of one another the way that Christ looks and thinks of each and every one of us. A sinner saved by grace if we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. Christ looks at us as one that has been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven, and that's how we should look at one another. He says in Romans 15. Now, the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded, one toward another. He goes on to say, that you may be with one mind and one mouth. Glorify God. Boy, if a church could be of one mind and one mouth, can you imagine what a church could do? Thinking the same way, speaking the same way. Would you turn with me to the book of Philippians? Let's go to Philippians chapter 1, please. Philippians chapter 1. Paul also is a human penman of this book, writing to another church, the church at Philippi, which he knows and loves. Look at me, please, at Philippians chapter 1. As we think about being of the same mind, this unity here. Philippians chapter 1, verse number 27, he says, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel. Now, I didn't come to preach on this this morning, but conversation means a lifestyle. And he says in verse 27, only let your lifestyle, the way you live, be as it becometh the gospel. He's saying, if you say you're a Christian and you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then your lifestyle, your daily conversation should line up with that. We don't come and be a Christian on Sunday and live like the world Monday through Saturday. Christianity is not a clock-in, clock-out job. It is a life given to Jesus Christ. But he says in verse 27, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving, what's the next word out loud? Together for the faith of the gospel. He says, with one mind. And among those who are here that are members of this church, we're moving together. Paul says, striving together, moving forward for the faith of the gospel. I've heard of churches, I'm thankful at head and heavier. I've heard of churches that they fight over the color of the carpet and they fight over what pictures are going to be hung in the bathroom and everything else, right? They're going to divide up and they're going to say, this is what we're going to do, and this is what we're. I'm thankful we've never had to deal with things like that. I pray we never have to deal with those kind of things. Look, let's talk the devil down and let's talk Jesus up. But of one mind means we're convinced that we're going to take the gospel to our city. We're convinced we're going to reach all people, all races, all socioeconomic states. Everyone that walks in this place can come and hear the truth, and we're going to treat them with dignity, and we're going to treat them with respect so they can hear the truth of God's word. One mind. Go to with me. Look at chapter 2 and verse number 2. Would you please hear Philippians? Paul says this. He says, Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. What is he saying? I want you to all be on the same page. I want you to all be moving forward together. He says in chapter 3 and verse number 16 here in Philippians. He says, Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing, being of the same mind. Look back with me in our passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse number 10, he says, look. Speak the same thing, in the same mind, and then he says, in the same judgment, in the same judgment. Now this goes deeper than just the mind, and the it really affects the purpose and the will. This gets down to why does the church at Corinth exist? Why does the City Baptist Church exist? In the same judgment, it has to do with a unity of purpose. Do we know why we exist? Do we understand why this morning we opened up the doors and we turned the lights on and we ran the air and we took the Bible bus out and picked up children and adults for church? Do we know? Why do we do that? You know, there comes a point for a lot of churches where existence just becomes the goal. We've just got to stay alive a little longer. There comes a point, sadly, for many churches, it's just we've just got to bring enough money in the offerings and keep enough people in the pews where we can keep the lights on, keep the bills paid, and keep a preacher around. That's a sad existence. That's a sad existence. God help us. You know, there's a company, many of you know it, in 1888, George Eastman started the Kodak Company. And for years, Kodak was the leader in the film business. You know, by the mid-1900s, Kodak controlled up almost 90% of the U.S. film market. They employed nearly 50,000 employees, Kodak did. You know what they did in 1975? Kodak, the master of the film business, they developed the digital camera in 1975. You know what they did? They shelved it. They were worried that the digital camera would destroy their business. Well, you know what? They were exactly right. Because somebody else came along and did it better and killed Kodak. In 2012, after over 120 years of business, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Now you say, Pastor, what does this have to do with us? Here's what it has to do with us. Kodak was not in the film business. You know what Kodak was in? They were in the memory business. Not memory, not storing memory, but making memories. And if they understood their purpose, it's not just about film, it's about remembering and memories. Boy, they could still be a giant today. And if our church loses an understanding of why we exist, and we just think it's just to turn the lights on and open up and have a few people come and have some religious experience at 10.30 on a Sunday morning, then it won't be very long. This place will be shuttered, the doors will be closed, and they'll tell stories about what used to happen at the City Baptist Church. No, we are. We are a body of baptized believers that have voluntarily joined ourselves together to carry out the Great Commission. And if there ever comes a point where we just start turning inward, and everything about the City Baptist Church is just about the City Baptist Church, oh, we're dying on the vine. You say, Pastor, why would we go to Magnolia Park apartments two miles from here and have a Bible club in Magnolia Park apartments? Because everything we do shouldn't happen within these four walls. We should be out, there should be work going on seven days a week outside these four walls that the City Baptist Church is doing in this city. We should be all over the place. I'd love it. I know you let me dream, and I appreciate you let me dream. I don't tell you half of them. I told you, I said, you know, what if we what if that Magnolia Park Bible club started happening on Sunday afternoons? We won't be able to do it on Monday afternoons when school's going on. It needs to happen on Sunday afternoons when school's going on. Could you imagine if one day there were, there wasn't just one Bible club going on on a Sunday afternoon, but there were there were teams, there were a team, 10 teams going out throughout our city on Sunday afternoons? And what we had Bible clubs and parks, Bible clubs and apartment complexes, Bible studies going on. What if there were 25 of them going on? What could be done if a church said we're going to be responsible to get the gospel across our city and to reach people that may not come. They may not come. Could it be that there are homeless encampments? I met yesterday. There was a man who reached out to me from another state and he said, I've got a nephew. He's living on the streets in Atlanta. I have a phone number for him. Would you go speak to him? We texted, we met, went down and met him down at the Midtown Martin. We talked for a while. How many people know someone in Atlanta and they say, I wish there was just a church there? I wish there was a church there that would just go after them with the gospel. How many of them know City Baptist Church is there? And they're, boy, their people are just after the lost. They've got a hunger to reach people with the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're reaching children, they're reaching young adults, they're reaching senior citizens, they're reaching people. You wouldn't believe what's going on. Why? Because there's a unity of mind. There's a unity and purpose of what we're moving forward and what we're doing. I mentioned a moment ago that we're a body of baptized believers that have voluntarily joined ourselves together. No one made you come today. No one told you you had to be here. We voluntarily joined together. And we're a body of baptized believers. Those who are baptized, it means they've come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. I ask you this morning, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you know, as Jesus said in John 3, that you have been born again? The Bible tells us we're all sinners, we've come short of the glory of God. Our sin has separated us from God. And there's no amount of good works, good deeds, church membership, Sunday school attendance, any of it that can get us to heaven. I ask you, has there been a time you've called upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save you of your sin? Then if you know him, follow him in Believers' Baptism. Become a members of a church. Get in a good Bible preaching church. I think you found one here. But why have we joined together? We've joined together to carry out the Great Commission. Why would we start a Christian school? You know how we start a Christian school? To develop the mind of Christ in a child. People say, people say, I'm against brainwashing. I'm for just brainwashing with the right things. I'm for brainwashing with the word of God. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna teach children to memorize Scripture. And when they speak and they say things, we're gonna say, we're gonna say, does it line up with the Word of God? When we teach the Bible in our Sunday school classes, we're gonna filter it through. Is this the teaching of the Word of God? There is a unity of message, a unity of mind. Would you make note of a third thing here? There's a unity of its members. Look at me, please, at verse 11. In 1 Corinthians 1, he says, For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Somebody in that church, the house of Chloe. This is a woman, I'm glad for women that stand up and do the right thing in a church. Chloe writes to Paul. She says, Paul, we need help. There's people here, they're tearing this place apart. And Paul, would you help us? And Paul, he says, I love how he approaches him. He says here in verse 11, My brethren, he says, Look, we're we all know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. Paul is not against these people. He just says, we just got to work this out. We've got to take care of this. And he says here, look at verse number 12. Now I say that every one of you saith, I'm a Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Christ. You know, Paul was the one that started the church. Apollos is the one who comes and he's a gifted person. He takes over after Paul. A Cephas, that's another word for Peter, he's the leader of the apostles, and then there's Christ. You know, they all have their reason why this is the person I'm following. Thankfully, you know, we don't have that. This is a church plant. We've only been around long enough to have one pastor, and that's me. So thankfully, we don't have people here that say, Well, I'm of brother so-and-so, you know, three pastors ago. I'm of brother so-and-so, the pastor emeritus. You know, you know what we can all say, I'm of Christ. And we're going to listen to Christ. We're going to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm an under-shepherd, I realize that, but we have one head of this church, and it is Christ, and his headquarters is in heaven. And you know what he says here? Or hold your place. Would you go with me to 1 Corinthians? Go to chapter 12. Go to chapter 12. Paul keeps dealing with this. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, here's what he says. Would you look at me at verse number 4? He's going to deal with spiritual gifts in chapter 12, and if we keep working our way through 1 Corinthians, we're going to get there. But he says this in chapter 12, verse 4. He says, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same, what's that next word in verse 4? Spirit. Okay, same spirit, right? And there are differences of administrations, but the same, what's that word? Lord, very good. Same spirit, same Lord. Verse 6, and there are diversities of operations, but is the same, what? God, very good. So same spirit, same Lord, same God. Look down with me, please, verse 8. For to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another word of knowledge, by the same what? Spirit, very good. Into verse number 9, the gifts of healing, by the same what? Spirit. Verse number 11, but all these worketh at one and the self-same what? Spirit. Very good. Verse 13, for by one what? Spirit. Okay, he's talking about spiritual gifts, and we're not going to get into all that right now, but he's saying, if the Holy Spirit, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, and the Holy Spirit is at work in you, and I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and the Holy Spirit is at work in me, the Holy Spirit in you is the same Holy Spirit in me, and they're not going to fight against each other. The Holy Spirit in you and the Holy Spirit in me, if we're both right with the Lord, we're walking in the Spirit, they're not going to work against one another because it's the same Spirit, it's the same God, it's the same Lord. You know what we've got to do? We've got to make sure that each and every one of us are surrendered to the working of the Spirit in our lives. And if we can do that, can you imagine what could be done here? Could you imagine what could be done from 425 10th Street Northwest? If there was a group of people that said, we're going to be united in the message we're going to preach. It's a message of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to be united in our mind. We're going to speak the same things from the Word of God. We're going to be of the same purpose, the same judgment, moving forward for the gospel. And we're going to have unity of members. We're going to get along. We're going to fight for one another. We are brethren together. Christ is not divided. Remember the question we started with? Is Christ divided? He is not divided. Neither should our church be divided. Let us move together. Moving forward. Advancing for Christ. Speaking the same thing, judging the same thing, thinking the same thing, of the same mind as we follow the Lord.

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