1 Corinthians #3. Upside Down World. 1 Cor 1:26 — 2:16

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment


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C.S. Lewis writes about heaven in his little book, The Great Divorce (the book is not about marriage or divorce, it is about heaven and hell). The main character arrives in heaven and witnesses many different interesting, joyful and fearful things. At one point, he sees a procession coming toward him. Angels are dancing around a person who is approaching, throwing flowers on the ground as they go. A choir of boys and girls stride alongside, singing the most beautiful music ever heard. Dozens of bright and beautiful animals also attend this celebrity. The person is a woman, clothed in brilliant light, beautiful beyond imagination. The main character in the book immediately assumes this must by Mary, mother of Jesus.

“Is it?…is it?” I whispered to my guide.

“Not at all,” said he. “It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith, and she lived at Golders Green.”

“She seems to be…well, a person of particular importance?”

“Aye, she is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”

This is one of the points that Paul is making as he writes to the Corinthians. Apparently the Corinthians were proud of themselves spiritually, and they were drawn toward things that looked good on the outside. That was one reason that had begun to follow human leaders – they liked the way it looked to be associated with people they felt were successful or of good reputation.

But Paul is reminding them that God doesn’t work the world does, and he doesn’t evaluate things the way the world does. As the Holy Spirit said to Samuel:

Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart. (1 Sam 16:7)

This is a major theme throughout the entire Bible, and Paul is reminding the Corinthians of this. Throughout Biblical history, God chose differently than most people would have. He used Jacob, the second born (and in those days the first born was considered to be most important, while other siblings were mere accessories). He chose Judah, not Reuben the first born of Jacob. He also chose Joseph, the 11th of twelve brothers. He chose Moses, the youngest of three siblings, a man who was not much of a speaker, to lead the people of Israel. He used a prostitute, Rahab, to help the invading Israelites, and she became an ancestor of the greatest king of Israel, who was himself the eighth brother in an ordinary family. He chose a teenage girl to be the mother of messiah. He chose a bunch of under-educated, thick-headed fisherman to bring to the world the eternally significant news of salvation through Jesus Christ. As Paul writes, God has consistently chosen the foolish, the weak, the despised and the things of no account. Jesus himself painted the same sort of picture of God’s kingdom:

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. (Matt 11:25)

But many who are first will be last, and the last first. (Matt 19:30)

The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matt 23:11-12)

In addition, the Corinthians themselves were not much account, when you got right down to it. Paul reminds them of this. He may be trying to poke a hole in their pride, but I think he was also encouraging them to put their confidence in God’s work, not in outward appearances, not in human leaders, and not in themselves.

Paul does not exclude himself from all this. In chapter 2, he says that he belongs in the category of foolish, weak and despised in the world’s eyes. If you remember from the first message on 1 Corinthians, Paul did in fact, arrive in Corinth shaken by his recent experiences in Macedonia. He isn’t just being polite – from all that we know, he would have been physically weak from travels and beatings, and emotionally fragile from the rejection and hatred that had been directed at him almost everywhere he went. Paul is reminding them that it was not his preaching or wisdom or impressive personality that led them to Jesus – it was the power of the Holy Spirit.

I think all this is very important to us in America in the 21st century. In America, we love winners. We love success. We often think that bigger must mean better. Let’s be honest here. Don’t you believe that the CEO of Wal-Mart is doing better than the owner-operator of a local appliance-repair store with two part-time employees? And by “doing better” don’t we really mean running a bigger operation, and making more money? But the small-time owner might be much happier than the CEO. He might have a better marriage, and have better relationships with his kids. He might have more significant positive impact on the lives of those around him, than the CEO. But we are inclined to judge only on external successes, and those are mostly judged on size and money.

Some of you have become aware that your pastor now drives a clean, nice-looking Mercedes-benz. People might observe that and say “He must be doing all right.” I hear people make those kinds of judgments about others all the time. But think about it – what kind of conclusion is that? Does the Mercedes say anything about my marriage? Does it say anything about my happiness, or how close I am to the Lord? Plus, most of you don’t know how much or little I paid for it. As it happens, the car is 16 years old with 142,000 miles. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with it, but as measure of how anyone is really doing in life, a car is flat-out ridiculous.

I’m tempted to do the same thing as a pastor. I can start to think big churches are doing well, just because they are big, and I wonder about small churches – just because they are small. The church that Jesus left behind him was small. Paul started a bunch of churches, but most of the evidence suggests that they were all quite small.

Sometimes we get ourselves a tiny bit of depth, and we go beyond what looks good and start glorifying what sounds good. I think this is why so many people are led astray into the prosperity gospel. It sounds good to say that following Jesus is a way to get health and wealth in this life. You can build a big following quickly that way. Others sit and listen to preachers or mentors who put on a great show, but when it’s all over, there was very little substance to it. People in Germany used to say that when they listened to Adolf Hitler, they were mesmerized, but if they were told in cold factual, unemotional terms what Hitler actually said, they were appalled and repelled.

I take two things from this. First, I should be encouraged if I feel sometimes like I am of no account and insignificant in this world. God uses people like that. The world’s evaluation is meaningless. If I am small, weak, foolish, no-account, then I just might be useful and important in God’s kingdom.

Second, I need to learn to evaluate things the way God does, not the way the world does. Paul talks about this in chapter 2, verses 6-16. Paul says we can’t understand God’s way of thinking through human wisdom and learning and logic. He says instead, that we need revelation. Revelation is simply God revealing his Truth to us. Paul says this happens through the Holy Spirit. We can’t get it for ourselves by logic or judging with the world’s standards and tools. We need to ask for it and receive it from the Holy Spirit. We need to ask God to show us his way of looking at things. And we get that perspective because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and reveals spiritual truth to us.

There are many things we can learn without God’s revelation. We can learn the laws of gravity, and calculus1 and how to make soup without special revelation from God. But if we want to see ourselves and others the way God sees us, we need revelation. If we want to know what God is up to in our lives, we need it. If we are to be effective in blessing others with God’s love and grace, we need His revelatin through the Spirit.

Now, I want to make some things clear. God’s ultimate, special-revelation is the Bible. He revealed his truth to the human writers of the Bible, and they wrote it down. All other revelation must be judged by the Bible. In other words, if you have a revelation that adultery is not sinful, it is not a revelation from God, because God’s ultimate revelation, the Bible, already tells us that adultery is wrong.

But we are supposed to live in a daily relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. We should expect the Spirit to speak to us and reveal truth to us. (John 14:25; 15:26; 16:13-15)

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you. (John 16:13-15)

The bible and the daily interaction with the Spirit work together. According to Paul in this passage, without God’s spirit, we wouldn’t really even get what the Bible is saying. We need the Spirit in us, doing what Jesus said he would do, which is to explain and teach us all that Jesus said. Without the Spirit, and His revelation, the Bible won’t make much sense to us.

As we consider these things today, let the Spirit reveal his truth to you. Maybe he is calling you out for judging by outward appearances and getting caught up in the standards of the world around us. Maybe he is speaking to you about feeling small and insignificant. Maybe he is just encouraging you to get closer to Him, so that you will know him better.

1Actually, I’m not sure that I could learn calculus without God’s special revelation.

1 Corinthians #2. 1 Cor 1:10-25

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Last week, Paul established the fact that in Jesus Christ, the Corinthians lacked nothing. In Jesus Christ, we have all we need; in Him our spirits have already been made perfect. But we still exist, not only in spirit, but in body in this sin-riddled world. Now, Paul appeals to them (and to us) to let the power of God flow through their spirits into the lives they are living here and now.

The first issue he approaches, is division in the church. As always, we need to understand the context of this passage. Paul is not talking about theological disputes. In fact, from what we learn later that perhaps the Corinthians should have been having some theological differences, and standing up for what is right, even if it caused strife. Thus, in chapter five he calls them out for tolerating open sin in the church. In several other places in the letter he corrects them where they have gone astray from pure doctrine. So they weren’t actually having theological disputes, though, as I say, maybe they should have.

Paul also is not talking about meeting in separate groups in different places at different times. They had to do that. As in all places for the first 300 years of Christianity, they Christians at Corinth did not all meet together in one place. They met in small groups in homes at different times.

He explains specifically what he means by divisions: the Christians in Corinth are splitting into factions because they are following human leaders. In fact, they same to be putting human leaders in the same category as Jesus Christ. The ironic thing is that the human leaders themselves are not even in Corinth any more, and none of them want to be followed in this way. Paul urges the Corinthians to be united with the “same understanding and the same conviction.” In other words, he is saying “you all need to be on the same page,” and that “page” is Jesus Christ.

This is another reason that Paul began the letter the way he did, reminding the Corinthians of all they had in Jesus. They don’t have those blessings through Paul, or Peter (Cephas is the Aramic name for Peter) or Apollos. The life, forgiveness, grace, joy, wisdom, spiritual gifts – all come through Jesus, and only through Jesus. Paul says something interesting here. He says he is glad he didn’t baptize too many people, so that they wouldn’t become confused. This is a hint at part of the meaning of baptism. Baptism (received with faith) is an initiation into a relationship. This was part of the common meaning of baptism for the Jews, and the New Testament also seems to view it this way:

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:3-7)

Baptism seems to be, in some sense, something that identifies and unites you with the person in whose name you were baptized. It is like an initiation ceremony. Several other places in the New Testament, it speaks of being baptized “into” Christ. The point Paul is making is that the Corinthians were not united with him, or Peter or Apollos. They were not initiated as followers of those three, or anyone else except Jesus Christ. They were not united with Paul or Apollos or Peter. They were united with Christ. The problem was, the Corinthians were losing their perspective and following the teachers, instead of the Person they were teaching about. To approach it from a different perspective, as a pastor and teacher, I believe firmly that if anyone follows me, I have failed. If anyone follows Jesus because of my words and actions, I have done my job.

There are two important truths here. The first truth is that all people who put their trust in Jesus Christ belong to Jesus Christ. Because of that, we are all brothers and sisters in Him. We are all on the same team, and we have the same Leader. The people who trust Jesus and go the Catholic Church are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Those who trust Jesus and go the Baptist church are my brothers and sisters too. Likewise for believers who attend Pentecostal churches, or Presbyterian congregations. People who do not put their trust in Jesus Christ are not my brothers and sisters in Christ, even if they attend the same worship service I do. This is not my opinion – it is the spiritual reality of faith in Jesus Christ. This is what Paul is trying to hammer home. It doesn’t matter which house you attend worship in. As long as you are not being led astray, it doesn’t matter which teacher/apostle/pastor you relate to the best. What matters is faith in Jesus Christ.

There is another reality also that is often forgotten. And that is, the people of God have never all belonged to the same earthly, human-led church. Even in the middle ages when virtually all Christians in Western Europe belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, there were millions of Christians elsewhere in the world who did not. Paul isn’t concerned about different churches in Corinth meeting in different places – in his time, they had to. He isn’t worried about the fact they had different bible teachers – in fact, it was a gift to the Christians in Corinth that were exposed to three such excellent teachers. True Christian unity doesn’t mean all Christians gathered together in one place, or belonging to one organization or having one human leader. But true Unity is found when we realize that all those who trust Jesus share the experience of knowing Him and walking with Him daily. It occurs when we truly live out the fact that all of us have the same savior and Lord.

I would like to see New Joy Fellowship grow. I would like to see us make disciples of more people. But I am not concerned in the least that we are just one of many, many churches in Lebanon, Tennessee. Pulling all the churches together into one organization would not achieve the spiritual unity Paul is talking about. We are already in spiritual unity with everyone who trusts Jesus, and we need to recognize it.

It is not about human beings and human teachers or human wisdom. This is why Paul launches into a discussion of wisdom in verse 18. He is reminding them of the message of Jesus, that it is not a message that comes out of human individuals or human wisdom. Paul’s discussion of this is longer than we can cover in one message, but I want to point out something he says here that is very important.

For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. Because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than man’s strength (1 Corinthians 1:22-25)

Paul is pointing out that we naturally look for one (or both) of two things. He says that Jews look for a “sign.” He means specifically that they want to see a miracle in connection with faith. To put it another way, they want to know if their faith “works.” Does it bring positive results? I don’t think Paul intends to say that only Jews feel this way. Certainly, in Paul’s day, that was a typical approach not only of Jews, but of most middle-eastern cultures. Five hundred years later, Islam grew extremely rapidly in the middle-east precisely because Muslims were victorious in battle – Islam “worked.” This is one approach to faith, and it is actually fairly common even in America today. It is not unusual to hear a testimony like this: “My life was a mess, and then I started going to church and praying, and soon I was out of debt and had a happy marriage.” God does do that for people sometimes. And when we surrender to Jesus, we begin to live our lives more and more the way we were created to be. The result is that sometimes things go better for us – faith really does bring positive results. God really does miracles too. Paul knew all about that – he watched God heal people through him; he prophesied through God’s power; he even raised a dead boy through the power of the Holy Spirit. But we make a mistake if we think that the positive results in this life are the entire point of having faith in Jesus. And the message of the cross is very different from the message of the world. Mohammed, the founder of Islam ended up very wealthy. He had many wives and mistresses. He held a lot of political power. Jesus, in contrast, lived in poverty and celibacy his whole life, and ended up brutally executed in shame. His vindication was not through success in this life, but through resurrection. The fact that Jesus submitted to this kind of life and death is offensive to the “does this work?” mindset. The fact that Christianity is not an automatic path to an easy, outwardly successful life is also a roadblock to people who just want something to make their lives better, and to those who think that outward success is proof of God’s favor. Jesus call to his followers does not sound like the easy, successful life:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

Paul describes another mindset as well. He says that Greeks seek wisdom. Again, I don’t think Paul means only Greeks take this approach, but it was typical of Greek culture during that period, and it has become also typical in much of Western culture in the 21st century. This approach says, “I won’t believe it unless it can be proved intellectually. It has to make perfect sense.” I don’t believe you have to give up thinking to become a Christian. In fact, I think it is demonstrably the most intellectually cogent way of looking at the world. Even so, there are points at which we must take a leap of faith. We would be deceiving ourselves if we said that Christianity can be completely proved. It does require faith. At some point we must step beyond what we can know with our brains, and say “I believe. I trust you, Lord.” This is offensive to the intellectual mindset. Never mind that all worldviews require this, even atheism. Other world views (like atheism) allow their followers to at least pretend that faith is not required, and all is proved. But Christianity puts it right out there in the open: faith is necessary. Human intellect alone cannot arrive at the truth. This is not always well received by people with a primarily intellectual world-view. Actually, Paul puts it more directly: to people like that, it is foolishness.

So the central message of Christianity can appear foolish (it requires a leap of faith, a surrendering to something we cannot know with our minds alone) and weak (it does not always bring about success and prosperity in the world). Paul’s challenge here is to make that leap of faith, to put our trust in Jesus even when it doesn’t all make sense, even when it doesn’t all come out successfully in this life. This is not human wisdom. This is not a leap of faith to follow human leaders. In an initial, shallow way, it even seems counter-intuitive (though if you give it some reflection, you’ll see that it is not).

Is there some way in which the Holy Spirit is reminding you to leap today?

1 Corinthians Part 1. 1:1-9. The Foundation

On By Pastor TomIn apostle paul, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Video Version

We are going to begin a new study this week. We will be looking in some detail at the first (surviving) letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians. As we do this, it will helpful to have a little cultural and historical background about the city of Corinth and the church there.

Corinth was situated on the narrow neck of land (isthmus) that joins the Peloponnese peninsula (say that five times fast!) to the rest of Greece. If you look at a map of Greece, the Peloponnese is the big mass that looks a bit like a four-fingered hand sticking south into the Mediterranean sea. One of the most famous cities on the Peloponnese is Sparta. From the ancient city of Corinth, at the narrowest isthmus of the peninsula, if you looked to the West and North you would see the gulf of Corinth; to the East and South is the Saronic gulf. The land between these two bodies of water is less than four miles wide at that point. The Romans tried to dig a canal there, but they found out it was solid rock. A canal was not successfully completed until 1893. Even so, in ancient times, ships would come in to both sides of the isthmus, and send their goods over the four miles of road to the opposite side, and thus save the time and risk of a much longer trip around the Peloponnese. The people at Corinth even developed a system for hauling smaller ships across the short stretch of land, completely loaded.

Because of the shipping advantages, and because anyone traveling to or from the Peloponnese had to pass through there, the city of Corinth became a major commercial center. It even has a modern day claim to fame in the realm of agriculture. A certain type of fruit flourished in the soil nearby, and even today we call it the “currant” a name which is derived from “Corinth.” Long before the time of Christ, Corinth was famous for its temple of Aphrodite – the Greek goddess of love. It is said that at one time more than 1,000 prostitutes worked for the temple. The Romans destroyed the city in 146 BC, and then re-built it about 100 years later. It quickly regained its status as a major trade center, and though the temple of Aphrodite did not return, Corinth was still a watchword for sexual immorality. In addition, the Corinthians hosted the Isthmian Games – much like the Olympic games, but held on different years. These games were immensely popular, and continued uninterrupted even after the Romans destroyed the city, and on after they rebuilt it.

Scholars estimate during the time of the New Testament the city of Corinth was home to about half a million people. So what Paul encountered in Corinth was this: a large city in which people of many different races and economic levels mixed; a place where you might make a fortune, or where you could find ways indulge your sensual desires; or where you might make a name for yourself as a famous athlete. It was a place to pursue your personal dreams and ambitions, and a culture in which pride was more evident than humility. It was not a place known for strong moral character. If I may be so bold, in some ways it was a little bit like America in the 21st century.

Paul arrived in Corinth a little the worse for wear. He’d been kicked out of three cities in a row (Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea). After that he’d been to Athens, where he wasn’t very successful at starting a church. Then he came to to Corinth. He met a Jewish couple – Priscilla and Aquila – who had been expelled from Rome along with most Jews there. They may have already been Christians – that part is not quite clear. Paul did his usual thing, preaching in the Jewish synagogue. As usual, a few Jews received the message, and then trouble started, and he began preaching to the Gentiles. But this time, Paul heard from the Lord in a dream. The Holy Spirit said to him:

Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.

So Paul ended up staying in Corinth peacefully for about eighteen months, and when he left, it was by his own choice, not because he was driven away. Priscilla and Aquila went with Paul when he left, and then they parted ways at Ephesus. The couple met another man of God, named Apollos. After giving Apollos some further instruction, they sent him to do more work with the church at Corinth.

At some point, Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians that was lost. Paul refers to this letter in 1 Corinthians 5:9. He apparently wrote another letter in between 1 and 2 Corinthians, which was also lost (there are references to it in 2 Corinthians). So, out of four letters from Paul to Corinth, we have two. This is not any cause for theological concern. The Holy Spirit preserved for us the writing that he wanted preserved.

Sometime after his first, “lost” letter, the Corinthian Christians sent a letter of their own to Paul, with some questions about various matters. At roughly the same time, some people from Corinth visited Paul – they may in fact, have personally delivered the letter. From the letter, and from the visitors, Paul learned some things about the Corinthian church that disturbed him. In response, he sat down and wrote the letter which we call 1 Corinthians.

The first three verses of the letter are a fairly typical greeting: virtually all of the letters in the New Testament have greetings that are similar to this. However, there are slight differences in the opening of each letter, and the differences here, taken together with verses 4-9, seem to have a purpose.

The fact is, Paul is going to write some things in this letter that are not very complimentary to the Corinthian Christians. He has to take them task for causing unnecessary divisions; for sexual immorality; for devaluing the word of God through Paul’s own ministry; for suing each other; for abusing spiritual gifts; for abusing the Lord’s supper; and for disorderly worship. Sadly, the Corinthians Christians have begun to compromise with their culture and they’ve screwed some things up in a big way.

Paul knows all this, and has it mind as he begins writing. But he has something else in mind also. That other thing on his mind is the great grace and love and power that are in Jesus Christ. Ultimately, the spiritual reality of the situation is not based upon the behavior of the Corinthians. It is based upon the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Paul uses the name “Christ Jesus” or some variant of it nine times in the first nine verses. He makes additional references to Jesus (as “he” or “him”) three more times in the same verses. He reminds the Corinthians that he himself is called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by God. He tells them that they have been made holy, and are called to remain holy, only in Christ Jesus. He reminds them several times that Jesus Christ is their Lord. Their grace, their knowledge, their spirituality are all given to them by and through faith in Jesus Christ. They have been enriched in every way in Jesus. They lack nothing – in, and because of, Jesus Christ.

One of my greatest struggles as a parent has been to effectively convey this dual message: I love you no matter what. Nothing you do or don’t do could make me love you any more. Nothing you do or don’t do, could make me love you any less. And, at the same time, I want you to change your behavior.

This is kind of what Paul wants to convey. The Corinthians need to change their behavior. They are living in ways that are destructive to themselves and to others. They are becoming ineffective as witnesses for Jesus.

And yet, Paul wants to make sure they know that in and through Jesus Christ, they lack nothing. In Christ Jesus, they are complete. It is not about their performance – it is about God’s grace, love and power, given through Jesus Christ and received through faith. Yes, they need to address some things about how they are living their lives in the world. But in the spiritual realm, where their spirits are alive and connected with God through faith in Jesus, they have already been made perfect and complete. The task is to bring that power to bear on the way they live their lives. Paul closes this opening section like this:

He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.