CONFLICT IN THE CHURCH

[1]WELCOME: Good morning, if you’re new with us this morning, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone. Really glad to be worshipping with you this morning in person and online. We started out the new year with our SERIES: Choosing Joy, which is based on a book in the second half of our bibles called Philippians. The writer of it is a man named Paul who was an early leader in the church who started hundreds of churches. He wrote letters to individual churches to help them love Jesus more as well as address issues that they were facing. The book of Philippians is often called the book of joy because Paul is constantly talking about having joy or rejoicing which is highly unusual considering that he wrote this letter while in Rome and under arrest. We’ve been going through this book and seeing how joy can be experienced even when things are hard. We’ve looked at how focusing on the fact that we have been saved by Jesus even though we didn’t deserve it brings joy. That Joy is tied to being in community with the family of Jesus. We can have joy when we focus on the opportunities Jesus puts in front of us instead of the obstacles. Last week we talked about how pride steals our joy and breaks Christian community. Well, this week Paul tells us that joy comes when the…[2]

·  CHURCH HANDLES DISAGREEMENT WITHOUT DIVISION: This should only take about 10 minutes, right? I think I can clear everything up that causes fights in the church pretty quickly and then we can go get some lunch. Just kidding. The truth is if Paul was having to tell the church that they needed to be able to disagree without division 2,000 years ago, and we still see Christians fighting each other it’s something that isn’t easy. In fact, it’s incredibly hard. Yet it’s crucial to work towards it if we want to be effective at reaching those who are lost and hurting in this dark and divided world. [3]So, this morning, go ahead and open up your bibles to [Phil. 2:12-18] or open up the cornerstone app and you can follow along with the bible and sermon notes there. Before we dig into the scriptures today, I’m going to ask for God’s guidance to say well what needs to be said and for us as a church to receive it and to be given strength and power to live it out. Let’s pray…[4]

(TEACH) A DARK WORLD NEEDS UNIFED LIGHT (God)

RECAP: So, just a reminder that this week’s scripture is tied to last week. What we saw is that the church in Philippi was experiencing pressure from the culture around them as well as disunity from within. The culture was pressuring them to either fall in line or keep their beliefs to themselves or face being cut off. Then there were two influential women leaders in the church named Euodia and Syntyche that were having a disagreement and it appears that people in the church were taking sides on who they supported. There are some pretty significant teachings in this passage, but verse 14 is really the main point. Paul says that…[5]

·  THIS DARK WORLD NEEDS LIGHT: He says that this world is crooked. It’s bent out of shape. It’s not the way it was originally intended. The Greek word that is translated crooked is scolios. It’s where we get our word scoloiosis which is when the spinal cord twists sideways. The human spine wasn’t designed to turn that way and it causes all kinds of health problems. Paul says, our world is like that. It has been deformed by sin, it’s unhealthy and is not functioning in a way God designed it to. He also says the word crooked and twisted. To twist something is to take something good and use it badly, to distort it and corrupt it. For example, if you use a hammer to hammer nails into wood, that’s using it for its intended purpose and it’s good. When you take a hammer and use it to hammer nails into someones wrists, that’s twisted. We live in a twisted world that has taken sexuality and turned it into something to be sold on the internet or through trafficking. We have taken having children and turned it into an inconvenience that can be dealt with at a clinic. Paul is looking at the church and says, this place is dark. It needs a light to look to! It’s needs a picture of how life is supposed to be lived. This dark world needs you to focus on what is truly important.

o 2 weeks ago you saw me get passionate about the need to not fight about personal preferences so we can focus on the power of the gospel and be able to face persecution. I wasn’t taking shots at any single person. I was expressing frustration at what I have seen over my entire life and what I am still seeing today. I have watched churches split and die over music. I have heard of people leaving churches over changes in services times of only 15 minutes. It hurts my heart and I think it frustrates our Savior. The ones that Jesus was most frustrated with were the people who valued their preferences more than they valued people. Additionally, I’m bothered that that the church in America is declining and churches are shutting down permanently. Statistically speaking, the number of people who claim to be Christians but aren’t part of a community any more is going up. 

o [6]THE WORLD IS DARK PLACE THAT NEEDS A UNIFED FOCUSED LIGHT. Let me give you a visual illustration of what Paul is talking about. This is a flashlight with a single led bulb in it. Let’s turn out the lights for a moment. [7]In the dark, this little shines pretty well doesn’t it. Now let’s turn the lights back on. [8] This right here is a led stage light, it has 7 leds in it. Now let’s turn out the lights. [9] See the difference? Sure, a flashlight is noticeable and good, but see how much more effective led lights are when there’s multiple lights together shining in the same direction? Alright, let’s turn the lights back on. [10]So how do we begin to work towards being that kind of unified church? I think that Paul gives us two words that tell us what not to do. When we do the opposite of those things we will begin to see a more unified church in this dark world.

(APP) COMPLAINING & ARGUING

Paul tells us that we should do all things without complaining and arguing. As I dug a little deeper into the meanings of these words it brought some real clarity for me so let me see if this helps us understand what Paul was getting at. First, the word translated at complaining is actually…

[11]GRUMBLING/MURMURING: When Levi was little we used to read the Bible App for Kids that when you tapped on things it made noises. [12]In the stories where the Pharisees showed up, if you clicked on the pharisees it did this… [13-14]It cracks me up. There’s two ways to murmur. The first one is to yourself quietly under your breath. The second way is to murmur to someone else but quietly so that not everyone hears. This is what we see when the Pharisees are upset at Jesus. They very rarely say to Jesus’ face the things they’re thinking when they’re murmuring. They said it to each other, they say it to his disciples, but not usually face to face with Jesus. Grumbling and murmuring is passive aggressive. Paul is saying…[15]

·  GET FACE TO FACE AND TALK TO OTHERS INSTEAD OF GRUMBLING ABOUT THEM. Paul is confronting the people in the church who are ignoring the teaching of Jesus in [16][Matthew 18:15]. Jesus says if there is a problem between two believers, it should first be openly talked about just between those two believers. Straight lines. A to B. Do not include C unless there is someone who is sinning and they are unrepentant.  This runs counter to everything in our culture. It’s uncomfortable and hard. Yet when we don’t respect people enough to talk to them directly, things always get messier and more broken when more people get involved. Paul is addressing the way that people deal with conflict in a passive way when he talks about grumbling. The second word he uses is arguing and he’s dealing with active conflict between people. Again, another way this word might be translated is

[17]DEBATING: Let me ask a question here…anybody see the last presidential debates? Wasn’t it a beautiful picture of how we should all interact with each other? Not listening. Interrupting. Name calling. Misrepresenting each other and telling half-truths. All for the purpose of getting people to pick a side right? I’m increasingly becoming aware that debate is the primary form of communication in our day and age. We are more interested in building arguments and winning than we are with building relationships and understanding. You know what I find interesting about Jesus? He avoids getting involved in debates and engages in dialogue. For example in [Luke 10] a religious scholar stood up to test Jesus and debate him. He asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He’s looking to see whether Jesus will side with him or argue with him. What we see is Jesus starts to tell a story of the good Samaritan.  2 Jewish people pass by someone who has been beaten and robbed and is dying, but a Samaritan stops to show him love. Jesus sees that the religious guy needs to learn to love people as much as he loves being right and tries to get him to switch from debate to dialogue. If we are to be a healthy unified light in a dark world, instead of debating each other, we need to [18]

o ENGAGED IN DIALOGUE I love the way that author David Benner talks about dialogue. He says “In dialogue the intent is exploration, discovery, and insight. In dialogue I attend to share how I experience the world and seek to understand how you do so.” He goes on to say that “Persons made in God’s image deserve nothing less than respect, and respect is the foundation of dialogue.” In the prayer of Saint Francis there is a line that says “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.” [19]Dialogue is about respect and curiosity. You are someone made in the image of God, someone whom Jesus Christ died for, who has value and a place in the body of Christ. I’m curious about why you think and feel the way that you do and will not make assumptions about your motives. Instead, I will ask questions to help me understand you and the way you see the world. Just because your way of thinking is different, doesn’t mean its necessarily wrong. Can this be a win win situation? Can we both cling to what is true and still love and forgive one another? Here is why this has to be taken seriously in the church…

(WHY) THE PRAYER, SACRIFICE, AND MISSION OF JESUS

[20]JESUS PRAYED FOR UNITY: As Jesus  was eating his very last meal with his disciples, he prays this magnificent prayer that often people call the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. Jesus is speaking to his Father in Heaven. He prays that God would protect them from a world that would hate them. He prays that they would experience joy even in the middle of hardship. He prays that they would grow to be like him more and more and go out and serve others just like he had served. Then he said [21-23][John 17:20-23]. Jesus had very little time before he died and he prayed for his followers to be united, to live in unity, just like he and the father were one, that we would have that kind of deep communion with each other. Not only did Jesus pray to his Father for the church to be unified, but…[24]

JESUS DIED TO CREATE COMMUNITY: For a loving unified church to ever exist, they had to have their sin dealt with and be given power to live differently. This passage hinges on the part that comes earlier. Jesus was God, he lived in perfect harmony and unity with his father and the Holy Spirit for all of eternity. They created humanity, not because they needed us, but because love always overflows and includes others, so god created others for him to love and for us to experience that love. But we broke community with God when we decided we wanted to be in charge. They believed the grumblings against God from Satan that they deserved better and that they weren’t being treated like equals. And this world spiraled. Married people blamed and fought each other. Siblings killed each other. People began to treat each other like property to be used. Slavery grew up. Instead of God letting us stay divided from him, and letting us live in a selfish broken world forever, he sent his son Jesus. Even as Jesus was experiencing the worst treatment by other human beings, we’re told he never lashed out at others or at God. [25-26][Isaiah 53:7] says “He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.” If anyone had a right to grumble about others it was Jesus. If anyone had a right to grumble against God for the pain, they were experiencing it was Jesus. Yet Jesus loved those who hurt him and trusted the one who sent him. He died for all of our sin to bring a crooked and twisted generation back to him. Then he gave us his holy spirit to turn us into a light that would shine like stars in the universe. We couldn’t follow the example of forgiving others and serving others like Jesus without the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us. So when we as the church love each other even when we’ve been wronged, even when they don’t deserve it, when we trust God to deal out consequences when there is unrepentant sin…

[27]TO SHINE TOGETHER VISIBLY: People already see enough fighting and division in the world. They need an alternative. The Church is God’s response to that. We’re told that you’ve been reconciled to God through Jesus, now be reconciled to others. [28-29][2 Cor. 5:18-19] Show the world that Jesus is real by the way that you seek to bring healing and restoration to relationships instead of murmuring or debating. Get face to face with one another. Talk to each other. Enter into dialogue instead of debate. Care for one another by the way you speak to one another. Then the world will believe that Jesus is real because they will see a community that is radically different than any other human community. We’ll be one as the Father and Jesus and the Spirit are one. Let me end with this…[30]

(DISC) HOW WE DEAL WITH CONFLICT CAN BE AN ACT OF WORSHIP

POURED OUT: Paul says “But I will rejoice even if I loves my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.” [Phil 2:17-18] Paul says that how we deal with others and how we deal with being mistreated is an opportunity to worship God. He uses the image of pouring out a liquid like wine as a sacrifice to God. Here’s something you may not know. Certain sacrifices meant certain things. There were sacrifices that dealt with sin which often involved killing animals and burning them. They were burnt offerings. However, the poured sacrifices were an offering that you gave to God because you were thankful for what he has done for you. A pour offering was a way of giving something to God to say thankyou for his forgiveness, for his blessings on your life, and for making it possible to be in a relationship with him. Paul says, because of the sacrifice of Jesus that deals with my sin, I will give my life to him as an offering of gratitude. I will pour myself out to the last drop because of the one who poured himself out for me. Paul is telling us that because our Jesus has forgiven so much, has given so much, that our entire lives, every relationship we have, is a chance to show Jesus how much we are grateful to him. When we choose to seek others out instead of talking about them, we are worshipping. When we choose to honor others with dialogue, we are worshipping. And this dark world is watching. Will we shine like stars? Let’s pray.