Maintaining Christian Unity, Part 1

If an orchestra is harmonious, it's not because they're all playing the same instrument, it's because they're all playing the same song. Dr. Tony Evans says it's time believers change their tune. If you want to find blessing, you've got to find harmony.

And if you want to find harmony, you've got to be submitted to the Spirit of God. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Prejudice takes practice.

Dr. Evans, you said most of us have been getting plenty of practice since we were kids. Unlearning it isn't easy, but as a way of introducing today's message, where do we start? Well, there needs to be a call, first of all, to the Christian community, but even broader, to understand God's perspective on race and culture, and to begin to respond to that perspective rather than all the opinions of men. God created the races.

He had an intent for it. He has explained how He wants the races to work and to work together, and that's what we should be promoting. Well, we'll get some practical advice on how to do that as we jump into today's message, titled, Maintaining Christian Unity. One of the great experiments when it comes to nationality is the American experiment. To bring people from all walks of life, from every nation under the banner of a single flag, to intentionally seek to bring across to these shores people from all kinds of other nations who would make up a union called the United States of America, who would pledge allegiance to a single flag even though their backgrounds were different, unique, and dissimilar. You hear it when someone says, I'm an Irish American, or Swedish American, or Polish American, or African American, or Spanish American. The introductory phrase cites the uniqueness.

The last word cites the unity. Whatever I am, uniquely, based on culture or history or background or previous location, I am that under the American banner. There was in this experiment an attempt to have a United States, even though the people seeking to be united were totally different.

What is the American experiment from a cultural, historical, and geographical perspective is to this nation. The Church of Jesus Christ was meant to be for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. People from different backgrounds, cultures, different perspectives, all pledging allegiance to the cross. At the heart of the goal of God in history was the creating of a united people, not because they were the same, but they were all pledging allegiance to the same Lord. And that is why the issue of unity is such a big deal in the Bible.

It is not some eschewed, marginalized matter in Scripture. It is at the heart of what God has called the church to be in its local expressions and then its cosmic impact. The absence or presence of unity has everything to do with the absence or presence of God in the midst of his people.

Verse 10 of 1st Corinthians 1, he says, I exhort you brother in the name of Jesus Christ that you all agree that there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. It is a plea for unity. There was a problem in this church. It was a problem of disharmony, disunity.

It showed up very uniquely. He says, because I've been informed that the word has gotten back to me, your founder, that there are quarrels among you. You're fighting, bickering, conflicting with one another.

It's become a way of life for you to be destabilized. Some of you are saying, I am of Paul, others, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ. They had developed schisms based on personalities. There was one group that was allied with Paul. These were the charter members of the church. These were the ones who had been there from the beginning. These were the ones that Paul brought in, which were Gentiles.

The Gentiles had the argument. We were here from the beginning. We knew what was going on way back when. We were the founding members. Our names are on the cornerstone. We like the old way.

We're the old timers. Then there was another group. They said, I'm of Apollos. Apollos is from Alexandria.

Alexandria is under the influence of Greece. So these are the cultured, sophisticated, edumacated group. They've been to college. They've gotten their masters. They've gotten their doctorates. They want to take the church to this new intellectual level. They don't want to hang out with those who were of the barbarians.

They were not educated. They wanted to create this cultured, sophisticated group. So we belong to Apollos' ministry. There's another group in the church. We are of Cephas, Peter. They were aligned under Peter's ministry. Peter was their influencer.

And they wanted to make sure that their Jewish traditions were not hindered. And then you had the super spiritual group. I'm not of any of them.

I belong to Jesus. Paul calls them one of the groups because they were using pseudo spirituality to make them better than everybody else. This is a group that beat you over the head with the Bible. Not because there's something wrong with hearing the Bible, but they were using spiritual language to make themself better than everybody else. Paul is disgusted with their division.

He is disgusted that they do not understand this unique thing that God has created. They are talking oneness with walking in another direction. It's easy to see we are one in the spirit. We are one in the Lord.

Those words roll out easily. But unless you and I understand what God has created and function within that, then the church will never be the church no matter what you call it. What is this thing called unity? Sameness, oneness.

Well, let's clarify first of all what it is and what it is not. Whether you're talking about your family unity or in this case the church unity, let's clarify unity. Unity is not uniformity. Unity doesn't mean cooker-cutty Christianity. That was the great problem in the church.

How are we going to bring together these varying backgrounds? Some eat meat, some don't eat meat. Some go to parties, some don't go to parties. Some are Jews, some are Gentiles. We've got males, we've got females. We've got those who are on the low-class scale, the slaves.

Then we've got the upper-class, sophisticated people. Are we to create different churches for different groups? Or are we to raise the question, if we name the name of Jesus Christ, why we all can't get along? Paul didn't say, go start a Cephas church, a Paul church.

He didn't say, go start an Apollos church. He said, no, learn to be of the same judgment, unified. So obviously, unity does not mean uniformity. Unity can be simply defined as oneness of purpose, a very simple definition of unity on any level, wherever you find it, and especially in the Church of Jesus Christ, is oneness of purpose. The sameness is not in who you are.

The sameness is in where you're going. In other words, it is the goal that produces the unity. If a football team is unified, it does not mean that everyone's playing the same position.

It does mean everybody's going to the same goal line. If an orchestra is harmonious, it's not because they're all playing the same instrument. It's because they're all playing the same song. If a choir is singing in great harmony, it's not because they're singing the same parts.

It's because they're adding that part to the same song. It is the goal that produces the unity. Therefore, disunity means that there are competing goals, competing agendas, that everybody's not pulling in this one direction.

They've crafted their own direction, which is a problem if you're all operating in the same space. One of our orchestra members decided while everybody else was playing the song, they were going to play their song. That would be chaos. If one of the singers decided while they're all singing that song, I'm not into that song, let me sing my favorite Christian hymn. The fact that it was Christian doesn't mean it's still going to sound a mess.

Putting Christian over it won't make it right. Even if the one member decided to sing scripture, they're singing the word of God. If it's not what everybody else is singing, and it's not what the conductor has told them to sing, even the scripture is chaos because they're out of step. Have you ever seen a marching band when one band member is out of step? One band member, one band member is out of step. The implications are staggering. First of all, it's staggering for that one band member because they're not with everybody else. And then it's staggering for the other band members who are thrown off.

If one of you are out of tune, you might make other folks sing wrong because they're paying close attention to you. Unity is not sameness. Unity has to do with same purpose. In my uniqueness that God has given me, unity always involves uniqueness, but it is a variety of uniquenesses headed toward the same purpose.

But unity isn't everyone's goal. And when Dr. Evans comes back in a moment, he'll talk about Satan's strategy to disunify believers. First though, if you're ready to start making a difference in the effort to build unity in our churches, our neighborhoods, and our country, we put together a special package of resources for you. It includes Tony's current six-part series, Faith, Hope, Unity, a tribute to Black History Month, as well as his newly revised book, Oneness Embraced. Oneness Embraced is a powerful book that explores Tony's personal hurts and hopes over the culture and racial divides that have separated God's people. There's a full section on Black church history, providing a source of background and understanding that's been missing from social discourse.

And there are practical, kingdom-minded steps that churches and individuals can take to overcome prejudice, heal divisions, and build unity. Right now, if you'll make a financial contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station, we'll send you all the messages in the Faith, Hope, Unity series and the Oneness Embraced book as our thank-you gift. Just drop by tonyevans.org today to get the details. Or let one of our team members help you when you call us at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center is open 24-7, so there's no need to wait.

Again, dial 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information later on, but right now Dr. Evans will return with more of today's message right after this. It was my first time meeting Jesus in the Bible. That's what one student is saying after studying bibliology through the Tony Evans Training Center, taught by renowned theologian Dr. Tony Evans. These online courses feature compelling and exclusive video and audio teaching, plus an interactive scripture-based curriculum you can access online or through the mobile app. Sign up now at tonyevanstraining.org. Take a course with Dr. Evans and explore the kingdom, anytime, anywhere.

tonyevanstraining.org. The reason why the issue of unity is a big issue is because Satan's MO is disunity. His goal in your life is to disunify you. One, he wants to disunify you with you. He wants you to become confused about you. Have you ever met people or maybe you're one of them? I don't know who I am.

I'm confused about me. Now, if you're confused about you and you got other folk following a confused you, then they're gonna be confused about them or else look to follow somebody else. Then he wants to create disunity in your family. And then of course, in the church of Jesus Christ. First of all, he disunified the angels. He got one third of them to rebel against God. Then he disunified mankind from God by getting Adam and Eve to rebel against God. Then he disunified the first family by getting Adam and Eve in conflict with one another. Then he disunified their children, getting Cain to kill Abel.

This is his MO. Why is the devil's MO disunity? Why is it so big and so important for him to create conflict within the family of God?

Why is it critical that he is successful in destabilization through disunity? The reason why disunity is important to the devil is he knows something about God that we have forgotten. And that is God exits disunity because of his nature. All right, let's talk a little theology here. One of the great doctrines that is unbeknownst to many, but it's a hot doctrine today, and that is Trinitarianism. The Bible says there are three called God, but these three are one. Now, granted, you may not be able to fully understand the concept, but that is the biblical concept. So that distinguishes the uniqueness of the Christian God. If I say I believe in a capital of Texas, that Texas has a capital, and you say you believe that Texas has a capital, but I say it's Austin and you say it's Fort Worth, believing in one capital doesn't mean we believe in the same thing.

You gotta have the right capital. The nature of the Christian God is triune. That means that there's one God composed of three co-equal persons who are distinct in personhood, yet one in essence. In other words, they are all made up of the same thing, but they're not the same person. It's like a pretzel with three holes in it. The first hole is not the second hole, the second hole is not the third hole, but all three holes only make one pretzel.

And the reason the three holes make one pretzel is because they're tied together by the same dough. Divine nature, essence. That is, the characteristics of one member of the Trinity are the characteristics of the other two. Now, what you need to know about the triune God as far as this discussion of unity is concerned is that the Father, Son, and the Spirit work in perfect harmony with one another.

That's why Jesus says the Father works, I work. And we are in harmony with one another. There's only one time the Father and Son have not been in harmony, due to sin, not his, ours, on the cross when the Father forsook the Son and there was disharmony. But other than his sacrificial death on the cross, there's never been a time when there has been lack of perfect harmony within the Trinity.

So that is how they function. Whenever there is disharmony, lack of unity, the devil knows that the Father can't bless that. So what he wants is he wants to get families fighting, members fighting, leaders fighting, because he knows that God will do to their disharmony what he did to Jesus' disharmony, turn his back.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In fact, the Bible says when there is disharmony in the life of a couple, 1 Peter 1, verse 7, says that your prayers are hindered. In other words, disharmony blocks answered prayer. Unity comes from the very nature of God. So in order for Satan to create this unity, he's got to make the thing we're looking at better than the cause of Christ or bigger than the cause of Christ so he gets our undivided attention and causes breakdown of harmony, which is distance from the Father. The devil has done this with race. The devil has done this with culture.

The devil has done this with class. He breaks people up based on secondary matters that override the cause of Christ. The Bible makes it absolutely clear that the thing that makes us harmonious is that the ground is level at the cross. I don't care what your economic status is. I don't care what your education status is.

I don't care what your notoriety is. You're just a sinner saved by grace on your best day. You are a sinner saved by grace. You and I must fight for the unity of the faith. Fight for the unity of the church. Because only in its unity will Satan be thwarted and God's power be experienced. God sees unity, God brings blessing.

That's what Psalm 133 says. He says when the unity flows down, that flowing down, he says, is like oil. Oil had to do with the anointing of the priest. Therefore, oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is able and freely to come down, it starts at the head.

That's why there's got to be leadership at the top. And then it runs down on the robe and the robe covers the body. So when the oil comes down from heaven and it comes to the spiritual leadership and then out through the spiritual leaders and then the anointing of the Holy Spirit comes down on the robe, which covers the body, all the way down to the feet. When the Holy Spirit is able to work in an environment of unity, you can be assured there'll be blessing right behind you. If you want to find blessing, you got to find harmony. And if you want to find harmony, you've got to be submitted to the Spirit of God. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about what it's going to take to build up the bonds between believers.

And he'll come back in a moment with a final thought and a closing prayer, so don't go away. In the meantime, one practical step you can take to foster racial reconciliation is to pass this message onto your friends, your family, and your church leaders. It includes more material than we were able to present on the air today, and it comes as a part of Tony's current six-part message collection, Faith, Hope, Unity, a tribute to Black History Month. If you request it right away, we'll send it to you along with the stereotype-challenging book, Oneness Embraced. This limited-time special combo offer is yours with our thanks when you make a contribution to support Tony's ministry. As always, details are waiting for you at TonyEvans.org, or call our resource request line at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to help you day and night.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans, you talked today about the importance of building unity in our churches and having that spread into our culture. As we close, if you would, lead us in prayer toward that end. Dear Lord, we know that you've placed a premium on unity because you yourself are unified, even though they're distinct members of the Triune Godhead, and you want us to reflect that as your image-bearers. Would you awaken your people to not allow illegitimate differences to divide us, but to identify our differences, align those differences with you so that those differences complement one another in achieving your goal in history, which is your glory and the advancement of your kingdom. Thank you for working in the heart of your people to model before your world the uniqueness of our unified God. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, tomorrow, more from Dr. Evans on the power we connect with when we unite with others in God's family. In the meantime, be looking for ways to spread kindness to those you encounter throughout your day. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.