Is Christ Divided? Unity Rooted in the Cross

Devotional

Day 1: When Controversy Forges Confession

The Nicene Creed’s words were hammered out in the fires of fourth-century conflict, not abstract theology. Arius’ denial of Christ’s divinity threatened to fracture the church, but Athanasius stood firm, insisting truth matters enough to fight for. This creed reminds us that unity isn’t found in avoiding hard truths but anchoring to Christ amid disagreement. Its enduring words transcend time and culture, binding diverse believers to something greater than personal preferences. The creed’s survival testifies to truths worth exile, debate, and sacrifice. [28:24]

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.” (Nicene Creed)

Reflection: Where have you been tempted to prioritize comfort over costly truth? How might anchoring to Christ’s unchanging nature steady you in current disagreements?

Day 2: Alexandria’s Scholar and the Humility of Learning

Apollos, the eloquent Alexandrian, knew Scripture deeply yet still needed correction. Priscilla and Aquila didn’t publicly shame him but drew him aside, bridging his partial understanding with gentleness. True unity isn’t uniformity of knowledge but humility in growth. Alexandria’s legacy—a crossroads of Jewish faith and Greek thought—mirrors our call to hold conviction without arrogance. Even the educated need grace to learn. [36:28]

“He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God more accurately.” (Acts 18:26, ESV)

Reflection: When has someone’s gentle correction deepened your faith? How can you cultivate a heart that receives truth without defensiveness?

Day 3: The Cross Levels Every Tribe

In Corinth, divisions arose over preachers, wisdom, and status. Paul dismantled these hierarchies by pointing to the cross—where all stand equally needy. Intellectuals, mystics, and laborers alike find their pride shattered at Calvary. Unity flourishes not in ignoring differences but in kneeling together under the bloodstained beam. The cross isn’t a metaphor for compromise but a declaration that no tribe owns Christ. [49:28]

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:22–23, ESV)

Reflection: What personal “badge of honor” (achievement, background, or preference) might you need to lay down at the cross today?

Day 4: Servants, Not Saviors

When Corinth split into factions shouting “I follow Paul!” or “I follow Apollos!”, Paul reframed their rivalry: leaders are just gardeners tending God’s field. Apollos watered, Paul planted—but neither controlled the growth. Division often starts when we confuse servants with saviors. True unity remembers that every pastor, theologian, or influencer points beyond themselves to the One who gives life. [50:06]

“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:5–6, ESV)

Reflection: Have you ever idealized a spiritual leader to the point of division? How might focusing on Christ recalibrate your view of human mentors?

Day 5: Love’s Grammar in a Divided Church

First Corinthians 13 wasn’t written for weddings but for a church fractured by arguments. Paul’s “love chapter” rebukes using truth as a weapon and unity as an excuse for indifference. Love rejoices in truth without weaponizing it, bears friction without resentment, and endures because it clings to Christ. This love—not sentimentalism—holds the church together when doctrines divide and cultures clash. [52:29]

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–5, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you struggle to love someone you agree with theologically? How might Christ’s patience reshape your approach to unity?

Sermon Summary

The Nicene Creed stands as a witness that truth was worth contending for, not crafted in a quiet classroom but forged in controversy. Arius said the Son was a creature, yet Athanasius answered that if Jesus is anything less than God, the gospel collapses. So the church confessed, God from God, light from light, begotten of the Father. That confession points beyond tribes, preferences, and favorite teachers to Christ himself. Which raises the live question in Acts and today: what most threatens the church? Not only Rome, prisons, and beatings, but an internal threat that keeps showing up, the pull toward division.

Acts does not only trace geographic advance, it narrates the Spirit forming a new people. Pentecost brings real unity without erasing difference. Then come conflicts, Hebrews and Hellenists, Jew and Gentile, the Jerusalem council. People whose histories do not belong together are called into one body. A ragtag people with little in common other than Jesus and the church are held together by Christ.

Into that story, Acts 18 introduces Apollos from Alexandria, a city where Jewish faith and Greek thought met, a city of learning. Egypt keeps showing up in Scripture as enemy and refuge, and now God uses a son of Alexandria to strengthen the church. Apollos is eloquent and competent, yet he knows only John’s baptism. Priscilla and Aquila quietly take him aside, teach him the way of God more accurately, and he receives it. That is maturity. That is love.

Later, Corinth turns faithful servants into banners. Some say, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas. Paul’s question cuts through the noise, Is Christ divided? Unity is not pretending differences do not matter. Nicea did not hum Kumbaya while shrinking truth. Acts itself contains sharp debates and real correction. The real question is what holds a people together while they contend for truth.

Paul points to the cross. Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but the church preaches Christ crucified. The cross levels everyone. The scholar from Alexandria and the fisherman from Galilee stand equally in need of grace. Pride fuels division, the cross kills pride. So what then is Apollos, what is Paul? Servants through whom many believed. God gives the growth. And the love hymn of 1 Corinthians 13 was written, not for a wedding aisle, but for a fractured church. Love refuses to abandon truth, and truth gives love its backbone. The Creed still gathers voices from every place to confess one God, one Lord, one church. The Spirit keeps forming one family, held together by Christ, so that the answer to Paul’s question remains no.

Key Takeaways

1. Disunity is the gravest threat [31:49] Division rises from within more often than it crashes in from without. Acts shows unity birthed by the Spirit and then tested by culture, language, and history. Guarding unity requires naming the real fault lines and refusing to baptize preferences as principles. The church’s durability depends on deeper bonds than affinity. [31:49]
2. The cross levels every boast [49:28] At the foot of the cross, there are no insiders with better footing. A crucified Messiah unmasks the hunger for status that fractures communities. Pride is the spark, the cross is the extinguisher. Receiving grace together is the only way to live together. [49:28]
3. Leaders are servants, not banners [50:06] Paul and Apollos are instruments, not identities. God appoints planters and waterers so that attention can rise beyond the field hands to the Lord of the harvest. Honoring gifts without forming tribes is a test of spiritual maturity. Preference must never be mistaken for allegiance. [50:06]
4. Love binds truth to people [52:09] Paul’s love chapter was written to stop a church from eating itself alive. Love is patient with persons and stubborn about truth, refusing to cheer wrongdoing while refusing to humiliate a brother. That kind of love keeps correction personal and hope alive. Orthodoxy without love is noise, and love without truth is fog. [52:09]
5. Orthodoxy deepens real unity [29:42] “God from God, light from light” was not hair-splitting, it was the church protecting the gospel that saves. Shared confession aims hearts at Christ, not at camps. Historic creeds stretch believers beyond their moment and their tribe. Depth of truth widens the table across centuries and continents. [29:42]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[26:11] - Reciting the Nicene Creed
[28:24] - Creeds forged in controversy
[28:59] - Athanasius against the world
[29:42] - “God from God, light from light”
[30:46] - What threatens the church most?
[32:31] - Pentecost and real unity
[33:35] - Ragtag people held by Jesus
[36:09] - Meet Apollos of Alexandria
[38:12] - Why Alexandria matters
[41:39] - Priscilla and Aquila correct Apollos
[43:20] - Corinth splits into camps
[48:03] - The cross at the center
[49:47] - Servants, not celebrities
[50:48] - Love for a divided church
[53:02] - One Lord, one people
[54:35] - Prayer for love and unity

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
- Acts 18:24-28 (ESV)
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

- 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 (ESV)
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Observation Questions

What details does Acts 18:24-28 highlight about Apollos’s background, knowledge, and how he was corrected?
How did the church in Corinth fracture into factions, and what question does Paul ask to confront this division?
According to the sermon, why was the Nicene Creed forged in controversy, and what truth did it protect? [29:42]
What example does the sermon give of “maturity” and “love” in how Priscilla and Aquila corrected Apollos? [42:37]

Interpretation Questions

Why might Luke emphasize Apollos’s origin in Alexandria and his eloquence? How does this contrast with other leaders in Acts (e.g., Peter, a fisherman)?
Paul asks, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor 1:13). What does this imply about the relationship between human leaders and the identity of the church?
The sermon states, “The cross levels everyone” and “pride fuels division.” How does the cross dismantle pride, and why is pride a root cause of disunity? [49:28]
How does 1 Corinthians 13 (the “love chapter”) address division in the church, and why is truth inseparable from love? [52:09]

Application Questions

When have you seen division arise in a church or group over preferences (e.g., worship styles, leaders, traditions)? How did it mirror the Corinthian factions, and what could have been done differently?
The cross “levels every boast” by reminding us we all need grace equally. What areas of pride (e.g., knowledge, status, background) might you need to lay down to pursue unity? [49:28]
Priscilla and Aquila corrected Apollos privately and gently. How can you approach someone with incomplete understanding in a way that reflects both truth and love?
The sermon says, “Love refuses to abandon truth, and truth gives love its backbone.” When have you struggled to balance truth and love in a conflict? What practical step could help you hold both together? [52:09]
The Nicene Creed unites Christians across time and culture. How might regularly confessing historic creeds deepen your connection to the global church and guard against division? [29:42]

Sermon Clips

35s

#ChristNotCliques

“People taking good leaders and turning them into competing tribes. Sound familiar? People attaching their identity to personalities. People dividing the church around human beings rather than Christ. And Paul asks one of the most devastating questions of all of scripture. He says, verse 13, is Christ divided? That's the issue, not Paul, not Apollos, not Peter, but Christ. Is Christ divided?”

38s

#OneBodyInChrist

“But because there is something greater than our disagreements. One lord, one cross, one people. And perhaps perhaps this is the story that acts has been trying to teach us all along. The holy spirit gathering people from Jerusalem and Alexandria, from Corinth and Ephesus, from every tribe and language and every nation into one family, one body, one church. Held together not by personality, not by preference, not by geography, not by language, but held together by Christ.”

35s

#FollowChristNotFactions

“My brothers and sisters, what I mean is that each of you is saying, well, I follow Paul. I follow Apollos or I follow Cephas or I follow Christ. And Paul is horrified at this. Not because Apollos has done something wrong. There's no evidence of that in fact. Apollos appears to be a faithful servant of Christ just as Paul is. The problem isn't Apollos. The problem is the people.”

46s

#CreedBeyondTribes

“You see, empires have fallen, kingdoms have come and gone, languages have changed, churches have divided, denominations have multiplied, and yet Christians throughout the world continue to confess these words. Because this creed, it points us beyond ourselves, beyond our tribes, beyond our preferences, beyond our favorite teachers, and towards Christ. Which raises the question this morning that I want us to ponder as we continue to journey through the book of Acts. What is the greatest threat to the church?”

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Is Christ Divided? Unity Rooted in the Cross

Devotional

Day 1: When Controversy Forges Confession

Day 2: Alexandria’s Scholar and the Humility of Learning

Day 3: The Cross Levels Every Tribe

Day 4: Servants, Not Saviors

Day 5: Love’s Grammar in a Divided Church

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Is Christ Divided? Unity Rooted in the Cross

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