Swallow No Camels

July 14, 2026 – United or Divided?— Acts #47
Acts. 14:1-7

Acts 14:1-7  Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel.

Last week, we saw that Paul and Barnabas had some success in leading some in the city of Pisidian Antioch to Jesus.  But opposition rose against them, and they were run out of town.   So they traveled east to the next city in Galatia, Iconium.  And what happens there?  The same thing that happens everywhere.   Some believe.  Others do not. 

And the city becomes divided, and that soon leads to violence.   But wait, isn’t Christianity supposed to bring peace?  Isn’t Jesus the prince of peace?  If He is, then why is there such great division wherever Paul and Barnabas bring the gospel of Jesus?  For as we follow our missionaries on their journeys in Acts, we will see that two things happen everywhere they go:  Some people’s lives are transformed.  Others rise in opposition.  As a result, communities are divided. 

Remember they were run out of town in Antioch.  They were almost stoned in Iconium, and we will read next that, in Lystra, Paul was stoned and dragged outside the city and left for dead.  

So what are Paul and Barnabas doing wrong?  Why are they causing such an uproar and division in all these towns? It is not that Paul and Barnabas are doing anything wrong.  They are just presenting the word of God plainly.   And the word of God will do what it does:

Hebrews 4:12   For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Gospel is good news, and the Word of God can bring us great comfort at times.  But to anyone living their life according to their own rules and decisions, God’s word is not a cozy blanket to keep them comfortable.  It is a sharp and stabbing weapon of attack.  The word of God cuts through all the pretense.  It does not cause divisions; it reveals the divisions that are already there.  To borrow a quote from Finley Peter Dunne, 

God’s word comforts the afflicted but afflicts the comfortable.

It forces people to come face to face with the elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring.   When God’s word is presented, our sin is exposed, and we can no longer hide it.   We are forced to make a decision.  What are you going to do about this sin problem?  What are you going to do with Jesus?  You must either accept Him and follow Him, or you must choose to oppose Him.  There is no middle ground.

God’s word challenges us to stop just cruising through life as if life is all about having fun, eating good food, and accumulating more stuff.  We are forced to see the world as God sees it — broken by sin.  It forces people to come face to face with the elephant in the room that everyone is ignoring.   When God’s word is presented, our sin is exposed, and we can no longer hide it.   We are forced to make a decision.  What are you going to do about this sin problem?  What are you going to do with Jesus?  You must either accept Him and follow Him, or you must choose to oppose Him.  There is no middle ground.

But people don’t like to talk about sin, that is, unless it is someone else’s sin.  And people sure do like to talk about others’ sins.    Some Christians like to talk about how much they hate sin.  They say “Hate the sin, love the sinner.”  I think that saying needs a little work.  Yes, we are to follow the example of Jesus and love the sinner, and we are to hate all sin, but our focus should be to hate the sin within us so that we may repent of it and become who God intended us to be.   And this is how God’s word is a piercing sword.

It exposes sin and forces us to make a decision.  That makes people uncomfortable.  So we just don’t mention it.  After all, we don’t want to offend anyone.  If we can only present the gospel in such a way that no one is offended.  “You see, Paul and Barnabas, some of the things the Bible speaks out about are offensive to some people.  So maybe you should leave those parts out.  Then you could present a gospel that will not cause divisions, one that offends no one.”  And instead of divisions, we will have unity.  And unity is a good thing, right? 

This year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country, the United States.  And we are 50 states united in one federal government, with a single currency and open borders between the states.   We are the United States.  And our pledge to our flag states “one nation, under God…”, a statement that we are all united under God.  (Of course, the pledge to the flag wasn’t written until the late 1800s, and the phrase “under God” was not added until 1954.)  

And let me pose a question: is it really accurate to say that we are one nation ‘under God’?   You don’t have to watch many news reports or see many election advertisements to see that we are a nation that is deeply divided.  Never, since the Civil War, have the divisions in our country been more apparent.  Yet, for now, we are still one nation.

And further, is it accurate to say that we are one nation ‘under God’?  Well, God is certainly over us, as he is sovereign over all of creation, but can you really say that we are a nation that follows God or submits to his reign?  America can not in any way call itself a nation that follows a certain God.  In fact, this country was established on the ideal of religious freedom, under which the government cannot establish a particular religion.  The government has no say in who or what you choose to worship.

Some like to call us a Christian nation, yet we have passed laws that have legalized many things that break the heart of God.  The United States of America says that it is perfectly fine to murder over a million unborn babies every year.   And abortion, marriage, divorce, how we treat the poor, the elderly, the sojourner- these are not political issues; these are ethical issues that God has spoken about.  But our country has often voted God out of these issues.  

Our nation says, God, you are wrong.  We are going to rewrite the definitions of marriage and divorce to align with our ideas.   We will pass some laws to fix those errors in your Bible.   It’s perfectly fine that we kill 3000 babies every day.  It does not matter that we have killed 50 million babies since 1974.  It is all legal and good.  When Jesus saw his friends mourning over the loss of their friend Lazarus, Jesus wept.  How much more do I think Jesus weeps over the death of these 50 million innocents?

If only we were a nation under God, unified in Him.  Because the Bible tells us this

 ……unity in anything other than the truth of God leads to disaster.

Look at Genesis 11.   The whole earth had the same language.  They were completely united.  Everyone worked together on a project in Babel to build a great tower.  God told them to fill the earth, but they wanted to all stay in one place and make a name for themselves, to be equal to God.   And you know what happened.  They were so unified in their sin that God had to separate the people.  At Babel, God destroyed the unity and divided the people.

And then, over 2000 years later, God reversed His actions at Babel.   At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended, God brought together people from many lands and enabled them to understand one another. 

At Babel, God destroyed the unity people had in themselves and divided them.
At Pentecost, God created a unity of people in HIm.
Unity is only good if the unifying factor is God.

Just a few years ago, many churches decided that division was better than unity.  The decision was made that being united with the United Methodist Church was no longer a good idea, because they felt their unity with the UMC was not honoring the truth of God’s Word.  Division was deemed to be better than unity.

But did you realize that in 2023, when almost half of the members of the United Methodist Church, representing 1/4 of the United Methodist Churches, decided to leave the denomination,  it was not the first time that Methodists in America had faced such a problem?  

The UMC initially began as the Methodist Episcopal Church.  When it was founded in 1784, it passed rules requiring all members to free their slaves.  But those rules were never followed in the South, and for the sake of unity, the conference made a compromise.  It kept the rules forbidding slavery on the books while doing almost nothing to enforce them.  Does that sound familiar?   That is exactly what happened in the years leading up to the recent split of the UMC.  The Book of Discipline stated clearly that practicing homosexuality was “incompatible with Christian teaching”.  But the rules were never enforced, and openly practicing homosexual pastors and bishops were allowed to remain in office.   

The first crisis on slavery came to a head at the 1844 General Conference when many of the southern delegates walked out.  The following year, the Methodist Episcopal Church South was formed.   The issue of slavery was solved for the nation through a bitter Civil War.  Even though that reason for the denominational split was resolved, the Methodist Churches did not reunite until 1939 and eventually, in 1968, became the United Methodist Church.  

And the recent crisis in the United Methodist Church continues.  Before the window to disaffiliate closed at the end of 2023, leaders of the UMC had told the more conservative members that remained that there would be room for both conservative evangelicals as well as the “progressive” Christians who affirmed same-sex marriage and ordained practicing homosexuals.  They were told they had the freedom to think differently and still be part of the UMC.  They were told they would be sent pastors who were in line with their more conservative beliefs.  This was all in the hope of reducing the number of churches disaffiliating.

But the events of the past month have made it clear that the UMC is no longer interested in leaving room for any conservative elements in its denomination.  A month ago, the UMC decided that graduates of Asbury Seminary, the largest Methodist seminary in the country, would no longer be accepted for ordination in the denomination.  Their reason:

“The University Senate’s decision is intended to ensure that United Methodist candidates for ministry are formed in settings clearly aligned with United Methodist teachings, theology, leadership and values.” 

Now the truth comes out.  The UMC never intended to allow any difference of opinion on this doctrine.  Now they are clearly stating that if you don’t affirm same-sex marriage and homosexuality, you are a heretic and not welcome in the UMC.

So once again, the unity of a denomination was challenged by a single issue, first slavery and now homosexuality and other sexual identification issues.   And let me state my position.  I believe the Bible is undeniably clear on the fact that it is a sin… that it is an abomination…to tell a lie.

Proverbs 6:16-19  “There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”

Proverbs 6 says that lying is a sin; it is an abomination, something God hates.   Also on that list are a spirit of arrogance, thinking yourself better than others; hands that shed the blood of innocents; a false witness; and a person who stirs up conflict in a community, to name a few. Other passages add idol worship, occult practices, or cheating in business or on your taxes.  And there are sexual practices that are listed as abominations, such as adultery (which includes second marriages following divorces that were not for Biblical reasons).  Along the same line, the Bible is clear that marriage is for one man and one woman and that homosexual practices are a sin.  This is abundantly clear in the Old and New Testaments.

So if you have ever thought you were better than anyone else, if you have ever lied, if you have ever participated in stirring up conflict among others, or cheated on taxes, or if you have ever committed any of the other sins listed, then you are in the same boat as everyone else.  None of us is without sin.  And God doesn’t just hate a few sins, but God hates all sin.   But praise Him, He loves all sinners and sent His Son to pay the debts for our sins and to cover us with His righteousness.

And while this current issue in the church and in our country is sexual practices, it could just as well be abortion, for hands that shed innocent blood are an abomination also.  We think we can pick and choose which sins are worse, but God has already done that.  It seems that if we make a list of the sins we hate, it is always the ones that we are not tempted towards.  

And remember that God called us to be witnesses.  A witness tells what he knows: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  You don’t have to understand the whole Bible to be a witness.  You tell what you know from experience.  

It is not our job to be the prosecuting attorney.  It is not our job to be the judge or the jury.   It is not our job to judge people or to convict them of their sins.  That is God’s job.  It is our job to love our neighbor.  That is all people, even though they are sinners, just like us. Then we are to be witnesses; we say what we know from our lives based on the Word of God.  We speak the truth in love.

And we let the word of God be what it is.  Not everyone is going to like what it says, but we don’t change what it says to please people.  And that is why Paul and Barnabas caused division wherever they took the gospel. The word of God is always going to be offensive to some people.

For some people, the gospel message hurts their pride becasue it tells them they are wrong and they can not save themselves.  They have to have help.  For others, the gospel is offensive because it calls for repentance.  And some people do not want to face the fact that their behavior is wrong and they must change.  Some don’t want to hear that they have to submit to anyone’s rules, including God.  

God says, “I love you, but you must repent and agree to let me be the king of your life and live by my rules.”  Then each person must decide what they will do with Jesus.  Will you follow him, or will you reject Him?

There is a kingdom of peace coming.  God is giving everyone a chance to decide if they want to be in His kingdom or be left outside.  And once the time of decision is up, then those who have chosen to be in the Kingdom of God will live in the kingdom of peace with total unity in Yehovah, no divisions.  But we are not there yet.  For now, we still face division.