Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 25, 2026
Trinity Lutheran Church - Wyandotte, MI
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Sermon Text: John 3:1-17

Divided by Sin, United in Christ

“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.” (1 Corinthians 1:10)

In the Name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I had a lot of anxiety in writing this message for today. Why all this fear and anxiety, you may ask. The anxiety is a mix of fear of disappointing our pastor, fear of not meeting expectations, fear of stumbling over my words as I deliver the message, and fear of rejection. But why fear, do I not trust in the Lord? I do trust in the Lord. Ultimately, this fear, anxiety, and lack of trust in God is the result of sin. Sin is a dividing force in our world. Sin divides us from God, from His created world, and it divides us from one another.

In the beginning God created us to communion with Him, to walk with Him in trust and fellowship – as Adam and Eve once did in the Garden of Eden. God is the source of our life, love, and light in the world. This fellowship we had was more than emotional, moral, or spiritual; it was our very purpose in life. Living in communion with God is what it means to be human; it is literally what we were created for.

Sin shattered this communion, this walk, our fellowship with God. Sin entered our hearts and disrupted our purpose in life. Sin is more than just breaking some rule; it is open rebellion against God. A distrust of His Word, a rejection of His love, and a turning away from our fellowship with God and turning to ourselves for the source of life and truth. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, we divided ourselves from the source of life and truth. Now sin and death have entered the world.

God is righteous and cannot simply ignore sin. The wages of sin is death, and not just physical death but also a spiritual death, an eternal separation from God, the source of life. Sin also enslaves us and blinds us, so that we cannot fix the problem ourselves. From birth, we are sinful and unclean, and no amount of effort, religion, or good works can bridge the gap that sin has created between God and us.

Sin also divides from the whole of God’s creation. When we rebelled against God, sin did not remain only in the human heart, but broke our relationship with God. Sin spread into the whole creation. After the fall, as a consequence of our sin, God says to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:17). God did not curse the ground; God was telling us that because of our sin, the earth itself is now against us. Thorns and thistles appear, work becomes hard, and creation itself becomes resistant and hostile. What was once a garden of great beauty is now a battlefield. The world is no longer simply a gift to be received, but a place of struggle, scarcity, decay, and death.

Instead of humble stewards, we become exploiters, abusers, or careless consumers. We either try to dominate creation as if it were ours to use without limit, or we fear it as something hostile and uncontrollable. The right relationship – one of gratitude, care, and responsible use – is replaced by greed, waste, and neglect on the one hand, or anxiety and helplessness on the other. Even our labor within creation, which God originally gave as a good gift, is now marked by frustration and sweat.

Sin goes beyond dividing us from God and His creation, it also divides us from one another. The issues of the Corinthian church that Apostle Paul addresses in our Epistle (1 Corinthians 1:10–18), exemplify this. It is worth noting that the Corinthian church was a Christian congregation founded by the Apostle Paul around A.D. 50 during his second missionary journey (Acts 18). Corinth was a wealthy, influential port city in Greece, famous for trade, cultural diversity, and for moral corruption and pagan worship. The congregation was made up mostly of Gentile converts, with some Jewish believers, coming from many social classes and backgrounds.

Having heard of the troubles in the Corinthian church, Paul writes to them admonish them and guide them back to Christ-centered unity. Paul begins addressing this issue with a heart-filled plea for unity, “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.” (1 Corinthians 1:10)

One of the problems that the Corinthian church were people dividing themselves into groups or factions, quarreling – maybe we would say arguing – over following prominent members of the Christin community, the people were arguing like “…“I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”” (1 Corinthians 1:12). As if each of these men were teaching something different than the other. They were all teaching, proclaiming the same thing, just with a distinct focus or style. Paul's preaching was focused on the Gentiles. Apollos's preaching was learned and eloquent. Cephas (Apostle Peter) preached with emphasis on the Jewish people. Each one of these men preaches the same message that there is forgiveness of sin in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even the pious-sounding group that says, “I follow Christ”, was not out of loyalty but a pumped-up spiritual pride, thinking themselves better than the rest because they claim to “follow Christ”.

This division in the Corinthian church is the result of sin in our world, working itself out in the life of the congregation through pride, boasting, and self-centeredness that fracture the body of Christ into competing groups.

The Corinthians had begun to define themselves not by Christ, but by their favorite leaders/preachers, using their God-given gifts as badges of superiority and as excuses to look down on one another. Paul exposes how absurd and destructive this is by asking, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13). Sin always turns our eyes away from what God has done for us and toward ourselves—our preferences, our status, our group, our selfish desires.

At the heart of these divisions is sin, which causes misunderstanding and distorts what the Church is and how God works in us. Paul points them back to their baptism and to the cross. They were not baptized into a personality, a movement, or a style of ministry, but baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Their unity does not come from agreeing on every human opinion, but from being united in the crucified and risen Lord, Jesus Christ. When sin rules, even holy things – preachers, gifts, traditions – can get twisted into tools for self-exaltation and separation.

Paul then goes deeper and shows that the ultimate cure for our division is the message of the cross. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18). The cross is life and salvation, but to those who are content in and with their sins, the cross is foolish, nonsense. But for those of us who know that we are sinful, trapped by our sins, and deserving of death, God's righteous judgment for our sins. The cross is the power of God to set us free, to break the chains of sin and death, and to give us life and salvation.

The cross destroys all human boasting. At the cross, no one can claim to be better, wiser, or more deserving than another. All stand equally as sinners in need of mercy, and all are saved in exactly the same way, by the death and resurrection of Christ.

Sin divides us from each other because it always pushes us to seek our identity in something other than Christ – our group, our opinions, our leaders, or ourselves. It turns brothers and sisters into rivals and the Church into factions. The cross does the opposite. It humbles us, unites us, and reminds us that we are made to be with God, to communion with Him.

The cross does more than unite us in Christ; it also changes our hearts, our thoughts, and our actions. As we live out our lives for Christ – going to church, listing to the sermons, reading our bibles, going or having bible studies, and helping others in their needs – we become more like Christ. No longer do we live for ourselves, for our eyes are now fixed on Christ and the good works that He has prepared for us to do for our fellow brothers, sisters, and community. Our once selfish desires, that distracted and divided us, are turned into a desire of helping others, encourage them, and lifting them up in faith and love of God. The cross teaches us to forgive one another, to reconcile with each other, knowing that through the cross we are reconciled with God.

On the cross, Christ took our sins, our guilt, and our punishment. He gave His life freely to set us free from the bonds of our sins, and to restore the bonds of fellowship, love, and trust to God and to one another. In our baptism, we are united with Christ in His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave. In Christ, our fellowship with God has not just been renewed but made greater because we join with Christ as heirs to the Kingdom of God. And one day, in that new Heaven and Earth, we will walk and talk with God once again, as Adam and Eve once did in the Garden of Eden. This close, personal communion with God is what He always meant for us to do. We are no longer divided by sin but united in Christ. Thanks be to God!

May the Love and peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.