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00:02 I've been asked to speak this morning on the gospel call from chaos to community
00:10 this year. And by the way, happy new year. I think it is still appropriate
00:15 within the first two weeks of Chinese New Year to say happy new year, although I'm not as familiar with those customs
00:20 as I'm sure you are. But this year, our church is going to be focusing intentionally on community and building
00:28 community. But not just any kind of community, but rather community that
00:34 results from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so for the next several weeks on
00:40 Sunday mornings, we will be preaching through the book of First Corinthians.
00:45 And from this book, we'll be able to learn and apply things from this pastoral letter that was written to a
00:51 community of faith many years ago. But we'll learn from them things that will apply to us today.
00:59 Before I start on looking at First Corinthians, I want to go back and just give a brief review of where we are in
01:06 biblical history. Now, I know many of you will know this, but some that are relatively new in the faith. We were in
01:13 a series in Judges. Now, we're in a series in First Corinthians. And how does all this fit together? Some of you might be wondering. So, going way back
01:21 to the beginning of the Bible, we have the creation story. And then we see how
01:27 God had created this perfect world. But then people sinned. They disobeyed God.
01:32 And because of that, there's alienation and separation from God. There is no
01:38 more community with God. And even the community with each other is broken. So
01:43 we see God has a plan and he calls Abraham and his descendants and he promises that through them he will bring
01:50 blessings to all people as he prepares a nation through the descendants of Abraham through whom he will give his
01:57 law through whom he will send the prophets and through whom ultimately he will send the Messiah. But Abraham's
02:03 slaves end up in Abraham's descendants end up as slaves in Egypt. And then we
02:09 see Moses delivering the people from Egypt through God's working in his life.
02:16 And then God gives the people his law. He also provides a sacrificial system
02:22 knowing that the people will never keep the law at all times. They need forgiveness. And then we get to the part
02:29 of history that we were studying since September. If you've been here since September, you saw how that after the
02:36 people entered the promised land that then they were led by a series of judges
02:41 and the people went further and further away from God. No good relationship with God, horrible
02:49 relationships with each other. But this was over a thousand years before the time of Christ. And this is
02:54 what we've been preaching on up until just recently. After the time of the judges, then we have the kings that come
03:02 and the most powerful, most important king, King David. The kingdom was united
03:07 under him and his son. But then the kingdom split. After the kingdom split, they both
03:13 disobeyed God so much that God sent enemy armies that conquered the people, took them into exile. But then God,
03:21 because of his plan to send the Messiah, sent them back from exile. He restored them to Jerusalem. And then the high
03:28 point of the Bible, we see then the life of Jesus as Jesus the son of God comes
03:33 to earth through his life through his ministry especially the crucifixion and
03:40 resurrection. Now it's possible to have reconciliation with God come back into
03:46 fellowship with him and enter into community with people.
03:51 And then the section of the history of the Bible that we'll be looking at today in the next several weeks is then the
03:58 life of the early church. But for those of you that are relatively new in the faith, from what we preached back in the
04:05 fall, it's not ever fall here, is it? Back in September through through January, it was over,00 years spaced now
04:15 with the main emphasis of the coming of Jesus up until what we have today. So
04:20 this gives just a brief history of where we are and we'll be looking now about
04:27 how the gospel is spreading. The good news about Jesus is spreading through the ancient world and how communities of
04:36 faith are being established. Our text today begins Paul called by the
04:43 will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sineses to the
04:49 church of God that is in Corenth. Now I want to stop right there because
04:56 when we say the church of God that is in Corenth, if we know something about the city of Corenth, that will help us to
05:04 understand this letter a little bit better. What was significant about this city? What was life like in this city?
05:14 How difficult would it have been for the gospel to take root and to spread and to build community in this city?
05:23 Well, one of the most important things about Corinth was its very strategic location. Pretty much right in the
05:29 middle of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. If you see the middle section there in
05:34 the light brown, towards the bottom of that, you'll see the town of Corinth. So, it's about halfway between Rome, the
05:42 capital of the Roman Empire, and then everything of the Roman Empire to the east. So, being a major center like it
05:52 was, it was a center of trade and commerce. And all of the major trade routes would have gone through Corinth.
05:59 When you look at the map, you say, "Well, why would they just not sail around the edge of Corinth?" Well, there
06:06 was a saying that if you try to sail around the Cape of Malaya, that little
06:11 cape at the bottom, don't plan on going home because that extra two to 300
06:18 kilometers was usually a very perilous journey over a stormy sea. And it was
06:24 much easier just to sail in to Corinth, unload your freight, move it just a few
06:30 kilometers across this narrow piece of land, loaded onto another ship on the
06:35 other side. So you see, Corinth was always hustling and bustling right in the middle of the east west trade routes
06:42 connecting the Roman Empire. Also the north south trade routes going right through Corinth.
06:48 Corinth because of this trade became a very wealthy city. It became the capital
06:54 of the province of Aaya.
06:59 This is a artist reconstruction of what it might have looked like there.
07:05 This city was filled with temples, filled with public buildings,
07:11 marketplaces. Corinth became this very powerful city that became an economic powerhouse full
07:19 of merchants and craftsmen and artisans. but was also filled with common laborers
07:25 and slaves. So it was very diverse extreme socioeconomic levels from
07:31 povertystricken and slaves up to the extremely wealthy profitable businessmen
07:37 and politicians. It was also very diverse ethnically and
07:43 there's two reasons for the diversity ethnically. One, the city had been destroyed by the Romans back about 146
07:50 years before the birth of Christ. It laid empty for a hundred years and
07:57 then Julius Caesar ordered the city to be rebuilt and he populated it on
08:02 purpose with people from all over the Roman Empire. So there wasn't just one ethnic group there, but people from all
08:09 over had come. Plus with the prosperity of Corinth,
08:14 people from all over the world wanted to move there to try to get a piece of the trade. And Corinth was also very
08:22 religiously diverse. Every religion or cult in the Mediterranean world would have been
08:28 represented there in Corinth. There were temples and statues to just about every
08:33 god or goddess in that part of the world that you can imagine. statues and temples to Poseidon, Artemus, Athena,
08:41 Jupiter, Apollo, Aphroditi, a temple to the fates and necessity, a
08:48 temple to Octavia, who was the sister of Caesar Augustus, showing the beginning
08:54 of emperor worship and the worship of the emperor's family. There was also a
08:59 sizable Jewish population in this city. So, there was much diversity in the city
09:05 of Corenth. professionally, socioeconomically, racially, ethnically, religiously.
09:14 Almost sounds like KL, doesn't it? Because everything I've said about
09:19 Corenth is true here. Extreme socioeconomic groups, wide variety of
09:25 ethnic groups, different religious backgrounds, about any kind of religion you can think of
09:31 from this part of the world. But then there's one thing that might be a little different than KL. I don't
09:38 know. You would know better than I. Corinth was probably much worse than KL
09:44 in the area of morals. Corinth had the reputation of being
09:50 probably the most immoral city in the entire Roman Empire. Corinth was not the
09:56 city you would want to send your teenager, young adult to go to study at the university. Corinth is not the type
10:04 of city, ladies, that you would want your husband to go to on a business trip and extend a few extra days on vacation.
10:12 The morals in Corinth were so bad that a word in the Greek language was coined
10:18 which would be transliterated to Corinthize. In other words, Corinthianize. In other
10:24 words, make somebody into somebody like somebody that lives in Corinth, which
10:31 basically means if you Corinthianize somebody, that means you corrupt their morals. They become a person who lives a
10:38 life of debauchery, a life of immorality, a life of drunkenness, a
10:43 life of promiscuity. Now, some of the immorality in the city of Corinth could probably be connected
10:51 to the worship of some of the gods there. It makes a difference who you
10:56 worship because frequently you come become like the one that you worship.
11:02 This is the temple what's left of the temple of Apollo. Apollo was a very
11:08 handsome male god. And in the worship of
11:13 Apollo, sometimes homosexual behavior among men was promoted. And in the
11:20 background, you can't see the ruins, but up on the hill was the famous temple to Aphroditi,
11:28 the erotic goddess of love, sometimes known by the name of Venus.
11:36 This is one of the few pictures I could find of a statue of Aphroditi that I
11:41 thought I could show in church because almost all of the statues of Aphrodite, she's not wearing any clothes and I
11:47 didn't think that was appropriate. Even though it's a piece of marble, didn't think that appropriate in church. But nevertheless, you can see with this type
11:54 of a culture in Corenth, you can understand why an entire chapter of the
12:00 book of First Corinthians is devoted to love. true love, a love from God.
12:08 Strabo, not quite as good-looking as Aphroditi, but nevertheless, Strabo was
12:14 a Greek geographer who was writing about the time of the birth of Christ. So,
12:20 just a few years before Paul would have visited this city. But Strabo wrote
12:26 about the geography, of course, because he was a geographer. And he pointed out that there were these two harbors on
12:32 either side of Corinth and through the trade and commerce the city had become very rich. But Strabo also wrote that in
12:39 connection with the worship of Aphrodity, this erotic goddess of love, that there
12:44 were 1,000 temple prostitutes that were available to, shall we say, help the
12:51 people worship. So ship captains, sailors, merchants,
12:57 businessmen, soldiers, even sex tourists flocked
13:02 to Corinth. They were involved in sexual immorality there. And Strabo also wrote
13:09 that in his opinion that it was because partly because of the prostitution that
13:15 Corinth had become so wealthy. So all of this yeah if you want to read it check
13:21 out the book and you can read what Strabo had to write about Corinth. But you can see with a city that is so full
13:28 of evil and immorality and a city that is has so many divisions
13:35 and diverse diverse types of people that it would be quite a challenging place to
13:42 go to try to share the gospel. especially if you're the very first one
13:48 to go there to try to share the gospel. And it's amazing to me that in a place
13:54 like Corenth that there actually was a church of God
14:01 in that city. So how could a community of faith take root in a town like that? How could a
14:10 community of faith exist where there's so much immorality and so many
14:15 divisions? Well, only through the grace of God and through the power of the gospel. And
14:22 here's how it happened. Paul called by the will of God to be an
14:27 apostle of Christ Jesus. Paul being sent out by God to share the gospel with
14:34 people who had never heard, especially the non-Jewish people. He went on
14:39 missionary journeys to share the gospel around the Roman Empire. And on his second missionary journey, he left
14:46 Antioch, which you'll see on the right hand side about in the middle. And he traveled to the city of Trrowaz in the
14:52 northwest part of the province of Asia. We now know it as Turkey. From there
14:58 went on to the city of Philippi, which is the first time the gospel came to
15:03 what is now European shores. from Philippi went on to Thessalonica,
15:08 then to Berea. And all of this time Paul was with other Christians who were helping him. And then traveling by
15:16 himself, he went on down to Athens. And in Athens, he encountered quite a
15:23 challenge to the gospel. A big city, a city full of education, culture,
15:29 philosophy, as well as a lot of idolatry. But people did come to faith and then we
15:36 don't know why but Paul felt called by God to go on to Corenth. So we see him
15:42 going that short distance then on down to Corenth. And this was really going to
15:47 be a challenge because Corinth was a bigger city at that time than Athens. It
15:53 was the largest city Paul had yet gone to to share the gospel. And it was the
15:58 most corrupt and the most immoral city Paul had yet visited.
16:03 Paul knew the reputation that Corinth had. He knew what a chaotic, ungodly place it was. And he knew it would be
16:11 difficult to share the gospel there among that many different kinds of people with such diverse backgrounds.
16:18 So many different religions, so many different racial and ethnic groups.
16:25 It would be like if God were calling us to go into the clang valley and share
16:30 the gospel. God is calling us into the clang valley to share the gospel. And so some of the
16:37 same feelings you might have. Oh, I'm supposed to go share with all of these different types of people, all these
16:44 ethnic groups, all these people from different religious backgrounds. Those are feelings that the Apostle Paul
16:49 undoubtedly also had. No, it's not easy.
16:55 Yes, it's challenging, but it wasn't easy for Paul either. Look
17:00 what Paul wrote. He said, "It was in weakness, fear, and
17:05 trembling that I came to you." Now, we often don't expect to hear an apostle, a
17:11 great missionary like Paul say something like that. He was a human being like you, like me. And yes, God called him to
17:20 go share the gospel. He had also been beaten several times. He had been put in
17:26 jail. He had been stoned and left for dead. Paul going by himself to a city like
17:33 Corenth, such a wild and crazy place, he had fear. He had trembling. But still
17:42 he went in obedience to God, trusting God, going in the power and the strength
17:48 of the Holy Spirit and proclaiming the powerful message of the gospel through
17:54 Jesus Christ. Acts 18 tells us the story of Paul
17:59 taking the gospel to Corenth. To begin with, he goes regularly to the Jewish synagogue.
18:05 There he talks to both Jews and Greeks and he shows them that Jesus is indeed
18:11 the promised Messiah, the one that the entire Jewish scriptures were pointing to. The prophets had foretold him. God
18:18 had promised this one would come and Jesus is that person. And we also know that Paul preached and
18:26 proclaimed regularly this message because he says later in this letter, this is what he proclaimed. That was of
18:32 first importance that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. He was buried. He was raised
18:40 on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and he appeared to many people. And we also know that in Paul's
18:47 missionary work that he proclaimed repentance towards God and faith in our
18:53 Lord Jesus Christ because just shortly after Paul wrote the letter of first Corinthians, he spoke to a group of
18:60 people and summarized his mission work and said, "This is what I did. I proclaimed repentance. I proclaimed
19:07 faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." So this is the heart of the message that Paul was preaching. Jesus is the Messiah. He
19:15 died for our sins. He rose again. And if you repent, turn to God in faith, you
19:21 can come into a right relationship with God and come into community with God's
19:27 people. Many of the Corinthians did believe the message. Many of them were baptized,
19:34 including the Jewish leader of the synagogue and his entire family.
19:39 The Jewish leader's name was Christmas. And we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and the verses Suzanne just read, he was
19:47 one of the people that Paul baptized. But there were Jewish people who rejected the gospel. They did not want
19:54 to hear that Jesus was the Messiah. So they kicked Paul out of the synagogue. Became very abusive to him. But no
20:02 problem. That did not stop his message. He just moved right next door. And there
20:07 was a gentile person who lived right next door. and he continued his preaching and teaching there. Well,
20:14 after a period of time in Acts 18, it tells us that Paul was thinking about
20:19 leaving the city of Corenth. We don't know why. Possibly he'd become discouraged.
20:26 Possibly he was afraid. Possibly he had heard that there might be a group of people who were wanting to try to get
20:32 him arrested or put in jail, possibly killed. And he'd already experienced a
20:38 lot of this. So he was thinking about leaving Corenth.
20:44 But then right before he left, God told him in a dream, Paul, do not be afraid.
20:53 Go on speaking. Don't be silent.
20:59 I think God is telling each one of us that same message today. Don't be afraid.
21:06 Open your mouth. Speak up. Let people know the truth about God. And
21:13 the key is because God was with him. Don't be
21:19 afraid. Keep on speaking. I am with you. Just like Jesus promised in the end of
21:24 Matthew's gospel, go make disciples of all people. Behold, I am with you.
21:32 And God promised that God he would take care of Paul. And he also said there are
21:37 many more people in this city who are my people. There are many more people who if and when they hear the gospel message
21:44 proclaimed they will believe. But they won't believe if they do not
21:50 hear the gospel message. So then we see in Acts 18 that Paul stayed for about a
21:55 year and a half in the city of Corenth. And during the time he was there, there was a new Roman proconsul who was
22:03 appointed to the office. His name was Gallalo. And that's just an interesting aside because because of this man named
22:11 Gallo written in the Bible, we can date pretty precisely Paul's time in the city
22:18 of Corinth. Because archaeologists have uncovered an inscription in stone that was
22:26 commissioned by the Roman emperor of the time, Emperor Claudius.
22:31 And in this inscription, the emperor is describing Gallo as his friend and he
22:37 mentions that Gallo is now the proconsul of that part of the world, Aaya. So it
22:46 was during the time that Gallo was now the proconsul that the Jews did attack
22:53 Paul for his proclaiming the gospel and they took him before the proconsul
22:59 go took him to court and this is what remains of that court today. But when
23:04 Gallo heard the case he just threw it out and he also threw the Jewish leaders out of the court and they got so angry
23:11 that they then beat up their own leader. I don't understand that. But they beat up their own leader, the Jewish leader
23:17 of the synagogue, a man named Sines. And we're going to see that name again in a
23:22 minute. But after about a year and a half of ministry, then Paul did leave
23:27 Corenth and he moved on to another city to share the gospel.
23:33 So back to our letter. I told you we'd see that name again. We don't know for
23:39 sure it's the same sines, but this is a relatively uncommon name. Not only now,
23:45 but also back then. You don't find too many people with this name. So there's a good possibility that after that guy got
23:51 beat up by his own people, he decided that he too would accept Christ.
23:57 So Paul with the help of Sosines then wrote the letter that we know now as first Corinthians. and he wrote it to
24:04 address the problems that the church in Corenth was facing, needing to deal
24:09 with. Paul had heard from someone, a lady named Khloe, that there was
24:15 quarreling or strife within the church. Now, in later letter
24:21 later chapters of the book of First Corinthians, we will see that this was not the only problem they had. They had
24:28 many problems. Matter of fact, if you know anything about the Corinthian church, probably the first thing that
24:34 comes to your mind when you think of the Corinthian church is they sure had a lot of problems. And if you ever get to
24:42 feeling wondering about, you know, does our church have problems? Well, yeah, we do. But we can always say, but at least
24:47 we're not as bad as the people in Corenth. But despite the problems Corinth had,
24:53 there were some good things going. And so today we're going to look at some of the positive things that are mentioned
24:60 in the first chapter about this church as well as then begin to look at the problems. And when we examine this text,
25:08 there will be some things that we can see that will apply to our lives both individually and also corporately as a
25:15 community of faith. When we look at the rest of the text, I want to ask us three questions. One,
25:24 what are the foundations that we'll see in the text for Christian community?
25:30 Two, what are the dangers that we see in this particular part of the text for
25:36 Christian community? And then what is the hope especially hope for the future for the Christian
25:44 community? First of all, the question, what are the foundations
25:50 for Christian community? We see that beginning back in verse two.
25:56 Paul's writing to the church of God, that is in Corenth, to those sanctified
26:02 in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord
26:09 Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Here we see that God provides the
26:18 initiative. God works in our lives to change us. God
26:24 calls us to him. God calls us to each other. So you see that God himself
26:32 provides the foundation for Christian community because he calls us to be his
26:38 church. We are the church of God. You know, the church is not a building and
26:43 it's people. But it's not just any people. It's those who have been called
26:49 out by God. Those who have been set apart to have a special relationship with God. Those who are set apart to
26:57 serve God. They have a distinct identity as being the people of God. Not because
27:03 they're special, not because they're perfect, but because they have been sanctified
27:09 in Christ Jesus. Now, we usually think of sanctification as the lifelong process that begins at
27:16 the moment we accept Christ and doesn't end until the day we die or until Jesus
27:22 comes again, whichever might be first. And in some places of the scripture, the
27:27 word sanctification is used to describe a lifelong continuing process as we
27:33 become more and more like Jesus. But this verse is speaking of sanctification as something that has happened, a
27:41 one-time act in the past. And yes, it is possible for one word to have more than
27:47 one meaning. If you know English, you know many words that have more than one
27:53 meaning. Same thing is true in the Greek language. So when Paul's talking about
27:58 something about being sanctified as something in the past, he's talking
28:03 about something that caused a decisive break
28:08 with the way our life had been. Later in the book of 1 Corinthians in
28:14 chapter 6, Paul will be talking and it says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous do you not know that the
28:21 unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" And then he lists many different types of unrighteousness
28:28 including idolatry, adultery, homosexual behavior, thieves, being greedy,
28:34 drunkards, swindlers, etc. But then he says, "But you were washed. You were
28:41 sanctified. You were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Showing again
28:48 sanctification is something happening in the past. There was something decisive
28:55 that had happened in the past in the life of these Corinthian Christians. There had been a decisive break. You
29:03 were a drunkard, but you're not anymore. You were involved in homosexual behavior
29:08 or adultery, but there's been a decisive break. You're not doing that anymore. You were filled with greed. You're not
29:16 anymore because of that decisive break. There's been a break with the old lifestyle because we have been set apart
29:23 for God. So sanctification means both this lifelong process that we oftenimes
29:30 think of, but it also means this decisive break with the old life
29:36 as we accept Jesus to come into our life. So then our text continues and
29:42 talks about the fact that we are called to be saints. Now, when we hear that word saints,
29:49 sometimes we think of people that have a halo or we think of people that are so
29:54 highly spiritual, we could never be like them. Or if you've been to some churches, they have statues and they'll
30:01 have even a label. This is St. Mary or this is St. Paul or this is St. Peter or whatever. And people pray in front of
30:08 some of these statues. That's not what the word means. And the translation that was printed as this
30:15 text was being read this morning says we were called to be God's holy people.
30:21 We're not saints by the definition that maybe the Catholic Church would use. We're saints by the definition the Bible
30:28 uses, which is anybody who believes in Jesus is in God's eye a saint because he
30:34 has called us to be holy. But holy is also a word that's sometimes misunderstood. If a person is holy, then
30:42 we think, "Oh, they're perfect. Never do anything wrong." Nobody will fit that category on this
30:48 side of heaven. Holy means we have been set apart by God. Set apart to belong to him. Set
30:58 apart to become more and more like him. Set apart to let him rule our life and
31:04 to change our life. So all people who believe in Jesus are saints. Not because
31:10 of their achievement but because of what God has done for them. So I could say
31:15 St. Arnold, St. Andrew, you find him in some churches even St. Richard,
31:23 St. Yuan, St. Jeff, everybody that believes in Oh, I forgot St. Yedion. We
31:29 got to mention our elders, too. In God's eyes, those who believe in him
31:36 are considered to be saints. Well, our text continues,
31:42 "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
31:50 Grace is God's love and favor that he shows to us. Even though we do not
31:56 deserve it, even though we cannot earn it, God gives his grace to us because of who
32:03 he is, not because of who we are.
32:08 God's grace is what makes it possible for us to then experience the peace that
32:15 comes from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And this peace that
32:21 we receive is peace first of all with him because
32:26 earlier we were alienated from God. We were enemies of God. It was like we were
32:32 at war with God rebelling against him. But through the cross of Christ, through
32:37 God's grace, we have now been reconciled to God. We've received forgiveness,
32:43 we're now at peace with God. This peace is an inner peace, an inner harmony
32:49 because now we're in a harmonious relationship with our creator. It's an
32:54 inner sense of well-being, a sense of wholeness, a sense of completeness, a
33:01 sense of purpose that is lacking in the lives of so many people. Just a couple of days ago, I was
33:08 talking with a friend who is very concerned about one of her friends who is not a believer in Jesus. And she's
33:14 tried to share the gospel with this person, but the person doesn't seem to be interested in listening.
33:20 But the person has told her, "I feel an emptiness on the inside. I feel a void.
33:27 I feel like there's something missing in my life. There's not this inner harmony
33:32 or inner peace." She because she knows something's not right. And so she came up with the idea. She said, "I think I'm
33:38 going to try volunteerism. I'm going to volunteer to do something good."
33:45 And I recommend doing good. Jesus tells us to do good. But if you're doing good
33:52 and ignoring the relationship with God, you're still going to have that inner
33:58 void and that inner emptiness because that will be filled by the relationship
34:03 with God that comes from God's grace, the inner peace that we can get from
34:08 him. So back to the first question, what are foundations of Christian community?
34:14 God's grace. God takes the initiative. God calls, God works in our lives.
34:22 Continuing in the same line and expanding on the meaning of grace, the clearest way that we see the grace of
34:29 God is through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
34:34 So this is a basic foundation for the Christian community, the gospel message
34:41 of what Jesus has done for us. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, especially what
34:49 the verses you'll be hearing next week in the sermon, emphasize very strongly the cross, the crucifixion. When we get
34:56 to the end of the book of 1 Corinthians, the resurrection is going to be stressed very strongly in verse 15, chapter 15.
35:04 And we've already seen this verse where Paul said, "This is of utmost importance. This is the message. This is
35:11 what will bring us into a right relationship with God. And this is what will bring harmony with other people.
35:17 That Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried. He rose
35:23 on the third day according to the scripture. He appeared to many witnesses.
35:29 So the gospel message is crucial for Christian community because without the gospel there is no community. But with
35:37 the gospel we see we have so much in common. What do we have in common? Well,
35:43 we recognize we all sin. I'm not perfect.
35:49 Nobody here is. We all need a savior. None of us can make ourselves right with
35:58 God. We need somebody to help us because we all need God's grace. And the only
36:04 way we can be reconciled to God and brought into fellowship with him and other believers is when we respond in
36:10 repentance and faith, confessing our sin and letting God change our heart, letting God change our mind, letting God
36:17 take control of our life, entrusting our lives to him. And that's what's meant back in chapter
36:24 1 verse two when it says that the church of God is all of those who call upon the
36:31 name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So God has given us a decisive call to
36:39 come to him to be holy. But then we make a decisive response to go by God by
36:45 calling on him in faith acknowledging Jesus as Lord. So our response to God is
36:52 that of breaking allegiances to old masters, to old things that used to
36:57 control and lead our life and to now begin to call on Jesus for help, for
37:03 guidance. That's what it means to call on the name of the Lord in faith. God
37:08 calls us out of darkness. He calls us out of chaos. He calls us out of emptiness. And in response to his call,
37:16 we decisively turn from what we used to trust in. And from that moment on, we
37:21 call on Jesus, asking him to take control of our lives and to direct our paths. And these two together, God's
37:29 call to us and then our call in faith to God. That's what it means to become a
37:36 Christian. So the gospel message is crucial to
37:42 establish Christian community. Without the gospel message and our response to the gospel, we cannot be part of
37:49 Christian community. Did you notice how many times that the
37:56 word Lord is mentioned in our text? Yes, recognition of Jesus as Lord is crucial
38:03 to Christian community. Back in verse two, those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
38:12 three, grace and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
38:18 seven, as you are waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
38:24 Verse eight, he will who will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of
38:30 our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse nine, God is faithful by whom you were called into
38:37 the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord.
38:43 I think by so much repetition Paul is trying to make a clear point.
38:49 A Christian recognizes Jesus as Lord. If we are in the family of God, we have a
38:56 common Lord. We have the same Lord. Lord, not just as a theory, not just as
39:02 somebody that exists out there, not just as a title of respect, but someone who really bows their knee before Jesus and
39:09 allows him to rule their life as master and leader. So when anyone comes into the community
39:17 of faith, we have the same Lord and that will do a lot to bring about us having
39:24 similar values. We'll have some of the same basic priorities in life such as seeking first
39:32 the kingdom of God. We'll have some of the same basic desires in life such as
39:38 we want to glorify God with our life. We have the heart to want to love the Lord
39:44 our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We'll have the
39:49 desire to love our neighbor as oursel. And we'll have the same goal of making
39:56 disciples of all peoples, being Christ witnesses, proclaiming the gospel to all
40:01 people. So when we have the same Lord, we'll more likely be able to do what
40:07 Paul asks us to do in verse 10 when he appeal he says he appeals in the name of
40:14 our Lord Jesus Christ that we agree that there be no divisions
40:21 that we be united in the same mind and in the same judgment.
40:26 Oh we won't ever agree on everything. You might like Nasi Lamach for lunch and I won't ever like like Nasi Lamach for
40:33 lunch. Sorry, but that's not what it's talking about. There's some minor points
40:38 even in some minor areas of doctrine. We might disagree on methodologies we might
40:44 disagree on. We should agree. For example, we want to reach lost people for Christ, but which methodology would
40:51 be most effective with this group of people or which methodology might be most effective with that group? We might
40:56 have some minor disagreements on that, but there will be this unity of purpose
41:02 of wanting to honor God and do his will. There'll be this unity of heart. And
41:09 there will be unity in the most important crucial areas of doctrine
41:15 based on holy scripture. And rather than being distracted by our
41:20 own pride and ego and other things in life, we'll want to have Christ at the center of our life. So crucial to the
41:29 foundation for comm community commun Christian community is our joint and
41:34 common recognition of Jesus as Lord. And another key to Christian community
41:40 is our coming to God as father. We see this in verse three. Grace to you and
41:47 peace from God our father. Now why is this important for Christian community?
41:53 Well, if I come to God as father and you come to God as father, that means we
41:58 have the same father. And notice the preposition. He doesn't say God my father or God your father, but God our
42:07 father. If we have the same father, that means we're family.
42:12 You can't choose your brothers and sisters whether in a physical life or in spiritual life. All who believe in Jesus
42:20 are your brothers and sisters. And that's why Paul appeals to them as brothers or the translation that we saw
42:27 earlier, brothers and sisters. The call from God is a call to be
42:32 reconciled to him. And when we're reconciled to God, then we become part of God's family. Now, some people when
42:40 they think of responding to the gospel call of responding to God in faith, they
42:45 act as if they're God's only child. God does not have any only children.
42:54 When we come to faith in Christ, we're not only coming to God, we're coming into his family. And we have brothers
43:02 and sisters in faith. When we come to God in faith, we need to realize that God has these many other
43:09 brothers and sisters and this family is going to continue to grow. So foundation
43:15 for our Christian community is coming to God in faith. Second question I wanted
43:21 to ask is what are dangers for the Christian community? Well, we
43:27 see one thing in our text today. Many more will be mentioned later in the book of 1 Corinthians. But we see back in
43:35 verses 11 and 12 that Paul talks about there was quarreling among the people.
43:40 Now quarrel is not really a strong enough word. It was really some strong arguments. Strife, a word that Paul uses
43:48 in a list of sins the things we should avoid because it's works of the flesh.
43:53 And he said that the people are dividing into groups personality cults possibly. One is saying I belong to Paul. Another
44:00 I belong to Apollos. I belong to Cphus. I belong to Christ. We don't know
44:06 exactly what that means, but it's probably a personality cult. It'd be like in this church, oh well, I follow
44:12 Arnold Limb's teaching. Not me. I listen to Brother Yedion. Not me. I listen to
44:17 Dr. Peter. He's a doctor. No, I like Pastor Rama. He actually helps poor
44:22 people. I'm going to be in his group of people. That's the type of thing that was going
44:28 on as silly as it might be in the church of Corenth. And we don't know what the group stood for. Possibly the group that
44:36 surren said I we belong to Paul. They like the part where Paul said you're free from the Jewish law. And they took
44:42 it to the extreme of being libertarian. Possibly the people that said I follow Apollos.
44:48 Apollos is well educated, very articulate, very cerebral. Maybe this was a group that for them the Christian
44:54 faith was all a mental game with no effect on their life. I belong to Cphus,
45:00 another word for another name for Peter. Possibly those who had a Jewish background. Yes, I still follow all the
45:06 Jewish law. So I'm better than you are. Or then the ones that follow Christ
45:12 may be separating the I their own idea of who Christ is from the historical
45:17 Jesus. Kind of like the prosperity gospel today. where they forget that Jesus came as a
45:24 suffering servant who gave his life and his disciples
45:31 did the same. But separate their idea from what they wish Jesus were from the
45:36 reality of who Jesus really is. Or it could be that the group that said they followed Christ were anti- athoritarian.
45:43 I don't listen to anybody except God.
45:48 the super spiritual type person who's really not all that spiritual at all
45:54 because really they're listening to their own desires and their own thoughts and confusing that with the voice of God. So, we don't really know what these
46:01 divisions were. But Paul then asks a series of rhetorical questions. Is Christ divided?
46:07 Answer, no. Was Paul crucified for you? Same answer, no. Were you baptized in
46:14 the name of Paul? Of course not. That's ridiculous. And then he went on to say, I thank God
46:21 that I baptized none of you except Chrisus. That was the first leader of the Jewish synagogue that came to faith.
46:27 And Gaes, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. And then
46:34 he said, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
46:39 with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
46:45 Now, Paul's comments here on baptism have confused many people or surprised
46:50 many people anyway because didn't Jesus himself command us to baptize?
46:57 Yes, he did. Matthew 28, go make disciples of all people. Baptize them in
47:02 the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Teach them to do everything I've
47:07 commanded you to do. So Paul is not saying that baptism is
47:13 unimportant. But what Paul is wanting to emphasize here, the person who baptizes
47:19 you is not important. What's important is the person into whom you are being
47:26 baptized because you are being baptized into Jesus and into the body of Christ.
47:34 Baptism is not essential for salvation. It does not save you. If it did, Paul
47:39 would have been baptizing everybody he could have. And baptism is only for those who have
47:47 responded in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Possibly one of the problems in Corenth
47:54 was that there might have been people who had been baptized thinking that baptism was some kind of a magical
48:00 ritual that would do something, but they had never accepted Christ as their Lord
48:05 and Savior. You see, baptism is only for those who have made that commitment. We should
48:12 never in church announce, "Oh, we're going to have a baptism class and everybody that wants to be baptized show up." No. Everybody who has received
48:19 Jesus as their Lord and Savior and has not yet been baptized and would like to be baptized, come to the training.
48:27 Or if you would like to know more about baptism, but not just whoever wants to come and be baptized. I can remember a
48:34 few years ago, Andrew will probably know who I'm talking about, but a few years ago,
48:40 there was a couple, a young man and a young lady. They were from different countries, different ethnic groups, and
48:47 different religious groups. And they wanted to be married, but to be married,
48:52 they thought they should be of the same religion. Problem was, he did not want to become what she was, and she did not
48:58 want to become what he was. So, they decided, let's just meet in the middle. let's become Christian.
49:04 So they talked to me and asked, "Hey, we want to become Christians. Can you baptize us and then marry us?" And I
49:10 said, "Well, I'll be glad to talk to you about Jesus and help you what know what it means to be a Christian." They weren't interested in that. They were
49:16 ready to be baptized right on the spot. That would have done no good. And
49:23 that's, I think, one thing Paul is emphasizing here. faith in Christ, responding to God's
49:30 call in your life in faith and repentance is what's important. And then
49:35 you follow Christ in baptism as an outward symbol of an interchange. It's
49:41 nothing magical. And in this text, I think we're also seeing that Paul is talking about the
49:49 priority of gospel proclamation. Other things are secondary. Even
49:55 something as important as baptism is secondary to a clear presentation of the
50:01 gospel message because it's the on the basis of the gospel that we build and grow. It's on the basis of the gospel
50:09 that we are baptized. It's on the basis of the gospel that we do good works. It's on the basis of the gospel that we
50:15 were able to bear fruit like we heard about last Sunday. Sometimes I think our churches just want
50:21 to Christianize people, help people adopt a little bit different lifestyle,
50:26 attend some religious meetings, adopt a religious vocabulary,
50:32 be involved in some kind of a social ministry. All of these are good, but they're
50:38 secondary and they need to be based with the gospel as the foundation and also
50:44 with the goal of proclaiming the gospel so more people can come to faith.
50:51 Because as Paul said in another letter he wrote probably during the time he was in Corenth, it is the gospel that is the
50:59 power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
51:05 So Paul is saying don't focus on me, focus on Jesus. Don't focus on secondary
51:13 things. Focus primarily on the most important thing. So based on what we've seen so far, what
51:20 are dangers for Christian community? Sin, pride, jealousy, selfishness, lack of
51:28 love that we saw in these divisions. also taking our focus off Jesus, taking
51:34 our focus off his will, off his way for us. And that brings us to the final
51:40 question. And unfortunately, the format I use is not the same format is on here
51:46 on this uh screen. But the final question we're asking is
51:52 what is the hope for Christian community? Especially relating to what is the hope for the future for our
51:58 Christian community. We see this in the verses that we have skipped over. Reading from verse four,
52:06 Paul says,"I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.
52:12 that in every way you were enriched in him and all speech and all knowledge, even as a testimony about Christ was
52:18 confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the
52:24 revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless
52:29 in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into
52:35 the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord.
52:40 want us to focus on the verses that talk more specifically about the future,
52:45 the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will sustain us so that we will be
52:52 guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Talking about judgment day, the end of time. And then we see God is
52:59 faithful by whom you were called. What's the hope for the Christian community?
53:05 What's our hope for the future? When I was in the university, I was
53:11 studying coral conducting. And in coral conducting, our professor said there are
53:17 two important rules for coral conducting, directing a choir. First rule is the conductor is always right.
53:27 Second rule, if the conductor is wrong, refer back to rule number one.
53:36 So in asking here and unfortunately it's not on the screen. What is the hope for the Christian community?
53:44 Rule number one said God provides the foundation. Number two shows that we
53:49 mess things up. So number three refer back to number one. And that's the hope
53:55 for the Christian community. God's grace, the gospel message, our common
54:00 recognition of Jesus as Lord, accepting God as father.
54:06 Today, people are longing for community. Many might be experienced the chaos that
54:12 was prevalent in Corenth. Many might be experiencing an emptiness or a void or a
54:18 loneliness. God is offering community through faith
54:23 in our Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not a believer in Jesus today, you can come
54:28 and put your faith in him. And if you are a believer,
54:33 refer back to rule number one. Acknowledge Jesus as the Lord daily.
54:40 Recognize each other as brothers and sisters. Experience God's grace in your life and
54:46 share it with others. Let's pray together. Almighty God, as we come before you, we
54:54 thank you for what we can learn from your scripture. And as we look at the situation there in the city of Corenth,
55:01 we want to praise you for the miracle that a community of faith even took hold in that community.
55:08 And father, that gives us courage. That gives us encouragement to realize the same thing can happen here in our area.
55:15 So we thank you for our brothers and sisters here in this church. these who have acknowledged you as the Lord of
55:22 their lives who wanting to serve you. I pray that you will help all of us to focus our attention more on you to
55:28 confess sin that gets in the way. And Father, for those who have not yet responded in faith to you, who might
55:35 just have become Christianized or maybe baptized but not really experienced a transformed heart that you give. I pray
55:42 that today you would speak to them, draw them to you in faith, and that they would call on you. In Jesus name I pray.
55:49 Amen.
