Paul Daugherty - Uniting the Divided State of the Church
The Bible says that in the last days, the love of many will grow cold and that offenses will turn rampant. This is among believers. This is among God fearing people. That people will get divided, defensive, will get into strife, there will be arguments. Jesus warned of this. The disciples saw this in the Book of Acts. And yet at the same time, when we are submitted to the Holy Spirit, when we're surrendered, we can find healing where there's been division. We can find unity when we come under the authority of Jesus Christ. And unity doesn't mean we may agree on every single thing, but we agree on the main thing, that Jesus is the only way.
But if the enemy can get into the church and stir people up to get in fights and quarrels and go on Facebook and we fight behind screens, then we start wasting our energy and our time and we miss out on the harvest that's really in front of us so we've gotta unite. This is what we see in Acts chapter 10. All right, so at Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. So this is an Italian, right? This is not a Jewish man, this was a Gentile. This was someone who didn't grow up in Jerusalem. This wasn't someone who knew about all the stories of Jesus or the miracles of Jesus and yet he still believed in God. He and his whole family were devout and they were God fearing.
There's good people out there that believe in God, but they don't understand the power of Jesus Christ. They don't understand the power of the Holy Spirit, and they want hope, they want... Y'all, the world is looking for what we have the answers to. We have the answers and I'm not saying we have all the answers, but we have Jesus and he is the greatest answer to the problems that our world is facing right now. I may not know everything, I'm not the most educated person, but I know Jesus. I have a personal relationship with Jesus. And if I can share that with somebody, I can bring hope to somebody. All right, so Cornelius, he knew about God, but he didn't have a relationship with Jesus. He was a generous man, it says he gave generously. He was a charitable person, he helped the poor. He was a praying person, he prayed to God. He didn't know who Jesus was or the Holy Spirit, but he knew there was a God, a creator in heaven.
One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said, "Cornelius", and Cornelius stared at him in fear. What is it Lord? The angel said, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering to God". If God was listening to a non-Christian, God's listening to you. God was listening to a man who knew about God, but he didn't know Jesus and God said, "I heard your prayers, I saw your generosity, I saw what you did for the poor. I saw how you gave to people who were in need". And the angel said, "Now send some of your men to Joppa and bring back a guy named Simon who's called Peter. He's staying with Simon the tanner whose house is by the sea".
God had a vision and a plan and he knew all the details. He said, here's the address, here's the man's name, here's his nickname, here's where you need to go, here's what you need to do. God has directions for our life. God is not trying to lead us blindly with no plan at all. He has a purpose. Somebody say, I'm here on purpose because I have a purpose. God has a purpose for you, God has a purpose for your kids. God speaks, not only does he listen to our prayers, but he speaks to us. And when the angels spoke to him had left, Cornelius called a servants, he said, "Go to Joppa and find a man named Peter". While they were on their way, now Cornelius obeyed immediately. While they were on their way about noon in the following day, as they were on their journey approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
So Peter's up on the roof and he gets hungry and he asks if someone could make him something to eat. So while the meal was being prepared, Peter falls into a trance. Have you ever been so hungry that you fell into a trance? And I've been there before, I've been so hungry. Y'all, I was rollerblading yesterday and I was, I was like on mile eight or nine, I was coming back to the church and I was just, I think I was falling into a trance. I was thinking about Cava. I was thinking about the grilled chicken pita sandwich and I was thinking about the onions on there and I was thinking about drinking an ice cold lemonade.
Peter was falling into a trance 'cause he was so hungry and he saw heaven opened up something like a large sheet being let down on earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice spoke to him, "Get up Peter, kill and eat". And he said, "Surely not, Lord, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean". If we're not careful, the longer that we're in church, unintentionally, we start majoring on the minors. We start becoming very focused on specific things. And Peter had become so focused on what he ate as if that's what made him holy. I'm holy based on what I eat. I'm holy based on being a vegetarian.
This is a good word for all the non-vegetarians in the room. And the voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean". What have you called impure in your life that God has already made clean? Who have you called impure that God has already made clean? God wasn't talking about food, God wasn't talking about animals, God was talking about people. God's heart beats for people, people, people. God's heart in the church is not beating for rules, regulations, strifeful contentions, petty arguments, laws, his heart still beats for people, people, red and yellow, black and white, gay or straight, Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, God still loves people. God still has a plan and a purpose for humanity. God's plan for the church is to reach a harvest of people.
And guess what? The harvest of people is not just one group of sinners. It's not just the people who sin the way that you sin. Can I tell you God's call for the church has not changed? That we are still called to call sinners back home to the grace of God, the mercy of God. And you know they might sin differently than you, they might think differently than you, they might have voted differently than you, they may not live the same lifestyle as you, but is every person on earth a candidate for the gospel message of Jesus Christ and salvation? And this is where Jesus was speaking to Peter. He was saying, Peter, don't call anything impure that God has made clean. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, "Simon, there's three men who are downstairs looking for you. Don't hesitate, go with them. Don't hesitate sharing the message".
I wanna give us today seven ways that we can unite the divided state of the church. And the first way, number one, it starts with me. Somebody say it starts with me. It starts with me. If there's division in your life with people, whatever you can do that you haven't done that you need to do, do it. Wherever you need to sow forgiveness, wherever you need to sow apology, wherever that you need to sew repentance, wherever you need to let go of an offense, somebody say it starts with me. Jesus said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand". Any kingdom that's divided against itself. We're in a season right now where the enemy is trying to stir up division and strife, trying to split up factions and fractions and get people angry at each other and create multiple denominations, it's been going on for thousands of years.
Now, the enemy's trying to use it to stir it up over different offenses. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't have our personal opinions on specific things that are happening in our nation, in the world, we need that. But what we also need to remember is I can still love people even if I don't agree with them. You don't have to have the exact same opinion as everybody in the church to still sit beside them on the same row and say, I'm gonna pray for your family. I've never walked a day in your shoes so I don't know what you're going through, but I know this, Jesus cares, Jesus loves you, Jesus died for you. Y'all, this is why we as a church have to unite. Why? Because a house divided cannot stand. What are we uniting around? We're uniting around the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Here's the second way is we gotta see people how God sees them. If we're gonna unite the divided state of the church, we've gotta see people the way God sees them. These men come in verse 22 and they say, we've come from Cornelius. He's a righteous man, he's a God fearing man, he's respected by other Jewish people. An angel spoke to him and told us to come and get you. So Peter follows them, he goes with them and as Peter is walking with them, he asks, why did you send me? Why did you send for me? And Cornelius answers. He says, "I was in the house praying, an angel spoke to me". And then Peter realizes what God was up to. Look at verse 34. He said, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism".
Can we just stop right there? God does not show favoritism. What God did for your brother, he can do for you. What God did for Charmaine, he can do for you. What God did for Oral Roberts, he can do for you. What God did for Billy Graham, he can do for you. Verse 35, "But he accepts from every nation those who fear him and do what is right". Verse 36, "You know the message God sent to the people of Israel announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of some? Lord of one nation? Lord of all".
And then he begins to share the message and watch what happens. In verse 44, while Peter was still preaching the words, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles. This was Pentecost 2.0, this was the Gentile Pentecost. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 45, the circumcised believers. Now let me stop right there. There was a group of Jewish believers who had accepted Jesus. They were circumcised physically, which if you don't know what that is, ask your parents later, and they found their identity through that. It was some sort of an external factor, kind of how Peter found his purity from what he ate.
I find my sense of righteousness by the fact that I don't eat meat with blood in it, that I don't eat, you know, steak, that I only eat whatever's kosher. And so he's saying here, there was a group of believers that had found their sense of righteousness based on external factors. When they saw that these gentiles were speaking in tongues, look at verse 45, they looked at those who were speaking in tongues, the gifts of the spirit had been poured out and they heard them in verse 46 praising God and they realized, they were astonished that the Holy Spirit was not just for the circumcised, but also for the uncircumcised. Then Peter said in verse 47, "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ".
So number one, it starts with me. Number two, see people the way God sees them. And then here's number three. As we're bringing unity to a divided, we've got a number three, keep the main thing the main thing. My dad used to say this major on the majors, don't major on the minors. Let's keep the main thing... There were people, we're gonna see this in Acts 11 verse 1, it says, "The apostles and believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and they said, 'You went into the house of uncircumcised men and women and you ate with them.'"
Now the disciples are going backwards. They're going back to the yeast of the Pharisees. Jesus warned his disciples, don't be like the Pharisees who major on the minors. They have turned the minor thing into the main thing. They have turned rules, regulations, laws, external factors, as if that is the cure for man's sin. Can I tell you, the only cure for man's sin is the blood of Jesus Christ, he died on the cross. We only find forgiveness of sins not based on what we do for church people. I'm not forgiving you, Paul, until you do every single thing I tell you. You're gonna jump through every hoop, you're gonna climb through every ladder, you're gonna jump through the fire and then we'll forgive you.
Can I tell you in the Bible, the only way we find forgiveness is by calling on Jesus. His kindness leads us towards repentance. And repentance is not some sort of a pharisaical yeast of the Pharisees, physical, you gotta get circumcised, then you gotta get your haircut, then you gotta change your diet, you gotta eat these foods, then we'll accept you into the church. Can I tell you the acceptance that God brings is just call on the name of Jesus. That's good news for all of us. 'cause not everyone in this room has the right haircut. We got some mullets in the room, come on, Jesus, we got some facial hair in the room, we got tattoos in the room, we got earrings in the room.
We got people who come in from all different walks of life and you are accepted when you call on the name of Jesus and you say, Lord, I need you, I repent on my sins and that's the main thing, the main thing is Jesus. That's the main thing. And this is where we've gotta get the global church recognizing we must come back to the main thing. We are not in a fight against brothers and sisters, but against spiritual powers of this dark world. We are in a war for the next generation. If we're gonna reach kids who are trying to figure out what gender they are, trying to figure out their sexuality, we've got so much confusion in America right now flowing from every media channel you know and every new show that's coming out on Disney and all this stuff out there, the church has to come back to the main thing.
Our world needs Jesus, our world needs hope, our world needs healing and it starts with us coming around to that one big commandment Jesus told his disciples, love one another. By this the world will know that you are my disciples, by the way you treat brothers and sisters who look different than you, who eat different than you, who may have grown up different than you, who may have sinned differently than you, but the way you love each other, the way you keep the main thing the main thing is how there's gonna be a revival that breaks out in America, in public schools, in private schools, in home schools, in every area, in the universities, in the businesses all around the world. I want the band to come up.
Number four, we are not each other's enemy. We are not each other's enemy. How do we unite the divided state of the church? We've gotta remember, we are not each other's enemy. We are fighting against darkness. We are not fighting against denominations. We are not fighting against ideologies and philosophies and different opinions. We are fighting against spiritual demonic forces that are coming after your kids. And we don't fight with our hands like this, I don't fight with my fist, I fight like this. "This is how I fight my battles. This is how I fight for my marriage on my knees".
I fight for my kids on my knees. I fight for the church on my knees. I don't fight on Facebook. I don't fight petty little arguments with people. I don't fight over little opinions. I fight in my prayer closet. I fight with worship. I fight with the word of God. I fight with the victory confession that I'm here on purpose because I have a purpose. I fight with the declaration of faith that even when I don't see it, he's working, even when I don't feel it, he's working, even when I'm feeling depressed, he's fighting for me.
Even when I feel surrounded, it may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm surrounded by an army of angels. I'm surrounded by songs of deliverance. This is how we fight. We are not each other's enemy. Turn to someone next to you and say, you're not the enemy. Someone just felt free all of a sudden, they go, praise God, I've been trying to tell you that your whole life, honey. Revival is breaking out in homes today. You're not the enemy, mom, you're not the enemy, dad, you're not the enemy, wife, you're not the enemy, husband, you're not the enemy, son, you're not the enemy. The president's not the enemy. The vice president's not the enemy. The government's not the enemy. The leaders in another country are not the enemy. The enemy is the prince of darkness. He is a liar, he's the father of lies and he whispers lies of shame, accusation, guilt, suspicion, stirring up murderous thoughts, stirring up sinful thoughts.
So number five, we gotta remember the only way we bring healing to a nation is through kindness. His kindness leads to repentance. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. You can't be kind when you're prideful. You can't walk in meekness and love when you've got pride in your heart. If my people will humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, starts with me. Somebody say it starts with me. Turn from my wicked ways, humble myself, pray on my knees, God says I will hear their prayers and I will heal their land. I will heal the church. I will heal what God wants to do globally from Italy to Russia, to France, to America, to Canada, to Guatemala, to Mexico, to Peru, to China, to South Korea, to North Korea, to Australia from this denomination to that denomination.
Number six, never stop reaching and believing for God to heal, restore, save and redeem. How do we unite the divided state of the church? We've gotta continue to keep reaching, keep reaching, keep praying, keep contending, keep believing. Keep praying for God to heal families. Keep praying for God to restore people in your family. Back to Acts 11, Peter looked at his brothers who were angry at him and they said, "You shouldn't have eaten with those people". And Peter said, "listen, you need to know the whole story".
Look at verse 4, he says, I'm gonna tell him the whole story. Somebody say the whole story. Be careful judging something before you know the whole story. I was in the city of Joppa praying and I was in a trance and I saw a vision and I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners and it came down to where I was. I looked and I saw four footed animals and God said, "Get up Peter, kill and eat". Then a voice spoke to me when I said, "I'm not gonna eat that food". And the voice said, "Don't call anything impure that God has made clean".
"This happened three times", Peter said, and he's looking at his brothers and he says, "don't you see God wasn't talking about animals or food, he was talking about the way we see people. He was talking about that it's time for the church to get out of a rut and get into revival". The church had gotten stuck in a rut. The way we get out of a rut and we step into revival is we ask the Holy Spirit to show us the new thing he's calling us to do. That we ask the Holy Spirit, Lord, where there's walls and scales, where there's hurt and offenses, where there's strife and division and suspicion, where there's a sense of anger and hostility towards church people, Lord, I pray God that you would move me out of the rut of self-focused thinking, of busy priestly thinking. And, Lord, that I would be the good Samaritan that stops and lifts up the man on the side of the road and brings healing to a nation, that brings salvation and restoration and redemption to those who have fallen.
So Peter starts telling him, he says, God wants to use us brothers, John baptized with water, but we will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire. So if God, verse 17, if God gave the same gift that he gave us who believed in Jesus Christ. Remember, Abraham's salvation was by faith. Abraham's promise was by faith. It was by faith, it was before circumcision, it was before he did the external things, it was by faith. Who are we to cancel people? Who are we to stand in God's way if he wants us to save people who think differently than us, if he wants us to reach people that maybe we've pushed out of the church? Who have we called unclean that God is calling us to reach?
And God said, "That's a candidate for the grace of God". That's a candidate for the mercies that are new every morning. That's a candidate for salvation. That kid is a candidate for restoration. That marriage is a candidate for healing and redemption. God wants to use her story as a testimony. When they heard this, in verse 18, they had no further objections and they praised God saying, "So then even to Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life".
Number seven, here's the final point. Seven points, God's number right here, contend for revival. How do we unite the divided church? We start contending for revival. It's revival or bust. Now, those who had been scattered by the persecution in verse 19, that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, and they were spreading the word only to Jews at the time. However, there were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene who went to Antioch and they began to speak to the Greeks, speak to the Greeks, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord's hand was on them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas there and all a sudden the disciples began to explode and multiply. Revival is about to break out.