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The Beauty and Blessing of Unity
Back to all sermons Date: January 6, 2019
Speaker: Rev. Todd Matocha
Series: Miscellaneous
Category: Sunday AM
Scripture: Psalm 133
The Beauty and Blessing of Unity
Sunday, January 6, 2019
10:49 AM
Rev. Todd Matocha
Psalm 133
- God Delights in a unified people
- Disunity in a church is uncomfortable and problematic
- Psalm 133:1 - "
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity![a]"
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+133&version=ESV>
God delights in the unity of His people - His purpose was for man to fill the earth in unity in Him. - Gen 11 - Man sought the wrong kind of unity that exalted man, so God judged by the confounding of language.
- God reflects himself through unity in His church - Trinity is about unity, not division
- James Montgomery Boice Quote: re: common participation in God
- Unity should be important to us since it is obviously important to God
- God enables his people to unite
- Unity is hard - so He empowers it - unity is not possible for us without His intervention.
- Friendships break down
- Marriages fall apart
- Churches struggle for unity
- A church is a collection of sinners with fallen natures coming together in Christ - apart from Him, there is no possibility for unity
- Unity in politics comes by elimination of the competition - but David sought to comfort and minister to the royal family he replaced.
- Ie. Battle at Giddeon - Abner and Joab - the chasing down of Abner - Abner killed a kinsman of Joab so Joab killed Abner against the orders of David 2 Sam. 5 - Saul's tribe came in unity to sit under David's rule - most church conflicts are trivial by comparison -
- Psalm 133:2 - "It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!"
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+133&version=ESV> - it is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit - ie. Day of Pentecost is a reversal of Babel curse - unity is now possible
- Ie. Paul - hated Christians - would have no time of day for gentiles, but through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit he became the apostle to the gentiles.
- God blesses a united people
- Psalm 133:3 "It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore." - From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+133&version=ESV> - the blessings of God (dew) come to the high (mt. Hermon) as well as the lowly - they bring unity.
- Calvin wrote that God … "commands blessing where peace is cultivated"
- Corinth was in disunity the unifying intent of the Lord's supper was lost on them and brought curse instead of blessing.
- We are called by God to positively cultivate in our own hearts and the hearts of the church, peace and unity. Col. 3:13
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians+3&version=ESV>
The role of deacon should be to cultivate unity