As Seventh-Day Adventists, achieving unity with other denominations and religions can only be wishful thinking. But what about within our own church? Discover how to achieve biblical unity in a diverse, wordlwide church. Learn practical principles for engaging in fulfilling Christ’s desire for oneness in His remnant people.

GYC 2011: Fill Me

<p>As Seventh-Day Adventists, achieving unity with other denominations and religions can only be wishful thinking. But what about within our own church? Discover how to achieve biblical unity in a diverse, wordlwide church. Learn practical principles for engaging in fulfilling Christ’s desire for oneness in His remnant people.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2011 Seminar: Unity in the Church

Valmy Karemera

Daniel McGrath

Wishful Thinking? Part 1

This message was presented at the GYC 2011 conference.

For other resources like this, visit us online at GYCweb.org.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for Jesus.

Thank you that you are willing and able to give us your Holy Spirit.

And we recognize this morning that it's only by your spirit that the church will ever be unified and so we pray that right now you would be in this room, be with each person here.

Lord help us to hear from you and to be open to your leading and speaking to our hearts.

May this meeting glorify you we pray in Jesus name, amen.

Alright so yesterday we had our 2 hours block of seminars talking about divisions in the church.

And I think the general tone is that there are so many divisions, it would be a miracle if the Lord could unite us.

I think the Lord can unite his people and I think he will.

And because there are differences, there will always be people who will be fighting against them and battling for the Lord and that's important.

So I hope you didn't leave here yesterday thinking that we should just ignore the differences, the theological differences and just put them on the back burner and hope that they go away.

But I hope what you got out of it was that differences don't have to divide the church.

And if you came away with that understanding, that even though 2 people might disagree, they can still be united because that's what we saw in the early church yesterday.

So if you have your Bibles, we're looking at unity in the church.

Going back to Acts chapter 1, the Bible outlines several ways that the church was united.

And we looked at, in probably every session, verse 14.

And this is the famous, famous passage for unity in the church.

Verse 14 of Acts chapter 1 says, these all continued with 1 accord in prayer and supplication with the women, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

The first thing the Bible says about this group of people was that they were continually what?

Continually, before prayer and supplication, they were continually what?

Verse 14, and they all continued with 1 accord in prayer and supplication.

So, in prayer and supplication, they were both unified, in unity, together.

The Bible presents over and over in the book of Acts this phrase 1 accord where it's talking about they are unified as a church.

In Acts chapter 2 verse 1 it says they were all with 1 accord in 1 place.

So they're not just unified in prayer, they're all unified in purpose for the Holy Spirit.

And we saw if you were here yesterday, you saw that this unity was a condition for receiving the Holy Spirit.

So, continuing daily with 1 accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

So with 1 accord, not just in prayer, but also in what?

They're not just praying together every day, they're visiting house to house, ministering to each other's needs, in 1 accord, in unity.

The Bible says, So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with 1 accord, and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.

And they began to pray this prayer and to quote Scripture.

And when you get down to 31, and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness." you have unity in mission.

They were able to pray, and they prayed for boldness.

When the Holy Spirit came on them, they began to preach and to proclaim the message, and thousands, that also says multitudes, were added to the church.

So they're not just unified in prayer, they're not just unified in purpose or in fellowship, they're also unified in mission.

This is what drove the message, the Adventist message, because it's the same message, But the message of Christ's Gospel forward was the unity of the church.

In chapter 5, verse 12, "...and through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all with 1 accord in Solomon's porch." This might be a little more difficult to see, but they were all with 1 accord in Solomon's porch.

In general, they're here, they're preaching, they're laying, There are people, you know the story, that are lying about how much money they said they would give, they died.

And through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders are done.

Every 1 of them together in 1 accord with his brother.

In chapter 8 verse 6, find 1 accord again.

The multitudes with 1 accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." Philip is preaching Christ.

He comes down to the city, preaches Christ unto them.

And they heeded his word, his doctrine, the Bible says, the things that He spoke to them about Christ, and they were in 1 accord.

So even here in the doctrines that they presented, there was unity and agreement.

Fellowship, prayer, mission, doctrine together.

This is the last verse on the 1 accord text that we're going to look at.

There's some problems in the early church that they're facing with Jews and Gentiles.

And so they have this council in Jerusalem.

And in verse 25, they said, it seemed good to us being assembled with what?

Being assembled with 1 accord to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Saul.

And so they're saying that in this council they decided to take action and they were all in agreement.

The administration of the church was all in agreement as far as the mission of the church and what they should do for the solution.

And so they sent with 1 accord, with 1 heart, with 1 purpose, they sent Paul and Barnabas.

And so in prayer, in fellowship, in supplication, intercession, in mission, in being in doctrine, and in administration, the church was unified as a whole.

If you go back to Acts chapter 4, we need to define what unity is.

Acts chapter 4, the Bible says that in light of Pentecost and multitudes being joined to the church, Chapter 4 verse 32, the Bible says that, Now the multitudes of those who believed were of 1 heart and 1 soul.

Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them.

Nor was there anyone among them who lacked for all who were possessors of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds of all the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed to each 1 as he had need." So right here the Bible gives us just a little definition of what this unity looked like.

It wasn't a synthetic unity that they were putting aside their differences or their disagreements on doctrine.

They were together, the Bible says in verse 32, of 1 heart and 1 soul.

And if you go over to Ephesians 4, verse 13, you'll notice that Paul writing to this church in Ephesus, he says that unity consists of our faith and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

That's not a direct quote, so you'll have to look it up to make sure that I'm accurate.

Till we all come into the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

The gift of the Spirit, of apostles, of teachers, all of the things before, are for the unification of the Church.

I think if you would have asked me 2 or 3 years ago, I would have said unity probably isn't the most important thing.

I'm sure that there are other things that we could classify as more important than unity.

But for the early church, this was a reality and a condition for receiving the Holy Spirit.

We looked at yesterday that this unity, the continuing fellowship that they had in unity, made the devil scared.

And if unity is a condition for receiving the Holy Spirit, if you can create a false unity, or if you can create division, you can stop the Holy Spirit from being poured out.

And that's exactly what the devil has tried to do.

Jesus, in John 17, go there in your Bibles, prayed for unity for the church.

And there are several reasons why I think this is important because of what they tell us about God.

Wishful Thinking? Part 2

We are ready to begin our last session of this day and I think our last session of this weekend.

We've been discussing the subject of unity in the church and I would like to join my brother Dan to to also present the last section of this seminar on unity is unity, wishful thinking.

Before we begin, I invite you to bow your heads as we pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of study, for the privilege of prayer, we thank you for being with us today, we thank you for the gift of life.

As we look at this enormous subject of unity in the church, we ask first and foremost that you fill us with your holy spirit.

For without your holy spirit, we cannot be united.

I would like to begin with an outline of what we would like to cover today.

First, what unity is not The secondly, we want to cover unity, a divine imperative.

Thirdly, we want to look at Acts 15 as a model for unity.

And then we'll look at the basis for Adventist unity.

And lastly, we'll look at the motivation for unity in our church.

You know, it is often say that unity is not uniformity.

You might be from England and another person may be from Kenya and they are all Adventist.

Different cultures, different backgrounds, but they have unity.

They don't have to share the same parents, same mother, they don't have to share the same test buds, but they have unity.

I think it is clear that unity is never uniformity.

In fact, even science tells us that every snowflake is different from the other.

Can you imagine that Every piece of snow is different from the other.

Not all pieces of snow are alike, but yet they are all snow, no snow flakes are alike.

I think I was trying to find out where I got that but I was trying to I think I heard it or read it somewhere where it also said that no leaf on every tree is like the other.

So it's interesting that we can still have unity and yet not be the same.

Coexistence of truth and falsehood can also be unity.

There is a concept that the church ought to be a larger umbrella holding different schools of thought, different theologies in the church.

Can we call that unity at the end of the day?

Coexistence does not mean that it is unity.

Different schools of thought cannot suggest unity in the church.

Various schools of theological thoughts and presuppositions cannot imply unity in the church.

And this actually I would call it a counterfeit unity.

It's a counterfeit unity because God does not call us to have different minds.

He calls us to have 1 mind, the mind of Christ.

And as long as we have different minds we have a counterfeit unity.

We may all call ourselves Adventist but we have different minds and so is that unity?

So I would like to transition into unity as a divine imperative.

The kind of unity God calls us to as a church.

We're going to look at unity in the Trinity.

Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4.

And this is the famous, every, Every child in Israel had to memorize this Shema.

I think even today in Israel, every Jewish child has to memorize this prayer.

Here O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is 1.

Although implies that God is multiple beings in the Trinity but yet there exhibits 1.

It is in the plural form and implies 1 among others, 1 in a joined or shared oneness.

If God was not 1, Moses would have used a different word.

He would have used the word, probably the word Yahid, which is in a singular form and implies 1 in a unitary form.

So we see first and foremost that truly unity is a divine imperative because even in the Trinity itself there is unity.

And so it should not surprise us that God calls us to be what?

And even when Jesus prays, as Dan was telling us, when Jesus prays that we may be 1 with him as he's 1 with the Father.

There's a basis for biblical unity because even in God himself there is that unity.

I would like also to suggest as an example turn with me to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis chapter 2 Genesis chapter 2 verse 24.

The Bible says, Therefore Shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be 1 fresh That word appears again.

There shall be 1 a Husband and wife there shall be 1 2 people becoming 1 yet without losing that individuality.

That the same unity that is found in God God calls husband and wife to emulate the same unity that is found between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

No wonder God is against any other forms of marriage apart from what he has instituted in Genesis chapter 2.

The same word is used there, that a man shall leave his home and shall be united to his wife and they shall be 1.

The point is that biblical unity is first exhibited in the Trinity secondly as Dan illustrated or mentioned it to us We find that also Christ Christ prays for this unity 5 times 5 times we won't repeat it since he already covered it 5 times Christ prays for the unity of the church John 17 verse 11 verse 21 verse 22 verse 23 he prays for this unity that they may be 1 as we are 1.

And in John 17 verse 21 we find that Jesus prays for this unity that it may become a testimony to the world.

So unity is essential for the proclamation of the gospel.

As a church if we are united the world will notice that truly there is something unique, different about this church.

We need unity for the witness of the gospel.

So it is a divine imperative that we be united.

I would like also to suggest that even the word church, the word church, commonly called Ekklesia in Greek, it also calls us to unity.

The word Ecclesia which is commonly used as a church it is literally translated the ones called out.

You and me, regardless where you're from, regardless of our background, we share the same background as long as we are in the church.

Issues That Divide, Part 1

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

Are we ready to study issues that divide us?

Well, let's open up with a word of prayer before we begin.

Heavenly Father, we are thankful this afternoon that we can come together to study your word, to look at this great subject of unity, but more importantly now to look at issues that are dividing us.

I want to begin by sharing the outlook or the overview of what we want to cover in this seminar.

Number 1, we want to cover that division is not always a bad thing.

Secondly, we want to look at the greatest divider.

And thirdly, we want to look at the cause, the root cause of division, which is the division in thinking.

And lastly, we'll just highlight some contemporary issues that are dividing us.

And the Bible says, In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

And darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters verse 3 and God said let there be light and there was light verse 4 and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from darkness.

There we first encounter the first division.

Division is not always a bad thing because God is the first divider.

Verse 8, He divides heaven and the earth.

So, division is not always a bad thing, because God is the first divider.

In fact, if you study the entire Old Testament, and even the New Testament, you start to uncover this biblical thinking which almost divides us and the world.

If you study John 17 in the great prayer of Christ, when more than 3 times he prays that we may not be of the world, even though we are in the world, but we may not be of the world.

We are in the world, but we are not of the world.

So, throughout scripture we find this division.

This division that separates us from the world, that makes us a unique people, a holy people, as the Bible says.

Let's look at this division, this separation as is outlined in scripture.

We're going to look at it in the Old Testament first.

Good division as illustrated in the Old Testament.

We see in creation, in the very first chapter here of creation, we see that division being made that God did not depend on billions and billions of years to create.

That God spoke and He came into existence as the Psalmist tells us.

We see also a division, we see a contrast between the life of Abel and the life of Cain.

There is a division, there is a separation that is illustrated in scripture in the Old Testament.

We see also those who are in the ark and those who are outside of the ark.

We see the life of Isaac and the life of Ishmael.

We see the life of Jacob and the life of Esau.

Even we as Adventists, as we read Leviticus 11, it is implied there, that principle, that even our diet should be different from that of the world.

So you can start to see this kind of biblical thinking being illustrated throughout scripture.

That even to the point of our diet, even to the point of our dress, that must be different.

So there has to be that marked difference.

And as Joshua said, you know, choose whom you will serve today, but as for me, in my house, who will serve the Lord?

If you want to serve the world, serve the world, but as for me, so you can see that division being implied there.

And even as Elijah said on Mount Carmel, if God be God, let's serve Him.

So this biblical thinking, this is what the Bible calls us to, to think in these terms, in terms of right and wrong.

We see also this division implied even in the New Testament in fact Christ Christ himself makes this division more pronounced For example we see there is the narrow way and the broad way.

We see that there are those who are with us and those that scuttle us.

We see that the wit versus the tears, the wise virgins versus the foolish virgins, the sheep and the goat, the publican and the fallacies.

And then Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14, he says, what has light to do with darkness and what has righteousness to do with unrighteousness.

So this principle of separation, it is implied in scripture.

God is also the first divider, as we saw in Genesis.

And so, we are tracing throughout Scripture this separation, this principle of separation, this principle of division, that is a good division.

We also see this principle of separation continued on in Revelation.

There are those who have the seal of God and those who have the mark of the beast.

So in the end there is also this separation.

You either keep the Sabbath or you keep the Sunday.

We see this in Revelation 14 and Revelation 18.

There are those who are just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous, the holy and the unholy.

And even in the end, there are those who are within the walls of Jerusalem and those who are outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Series

GYC 2011 Seminar: Unity in the Church

Wishful Thinking? Part 2

Transcript

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