Good morning my friends who are on the “Walking with Jesus” journey with me. . . it’s Sunday June 9.
Today we begin reading together, the powerful letter written by the Holy Spirit of God through Paul, to the Christians in the big, busy, bustling and may I say bombastic city of Corinth.
I hope you saw the maps link we put in yesterday’s “Walking with Jesus”, so you can understand WHERE Corinth is, WHEN Paul was there, and WHERE Ephesus is, because it is from Ephesus, during his 3 year residence there (Acts 19:10), that Paul wrote this letter. The year was about 56 AD.
(Corinth as part of Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey from FREE BIBLE MAPS.)
Evidently, Paul had received a delegation from Corinth (1 Cor. 16:17) who had come to him in Ephesus, with some troubling reports of how the Christians in Corinth were living and what they were facing, but also some questions (1 Cor. 7:1). They came to Paul since he was the person who had brought the Gospel to them and founded this church. They needed his advice. Remember they only had the Old Testament. Perhaps they had heard of the book of James & Paul’s letters Galatians and 1 & 2 Thessalonians, but we have no evidence that these relatively fresh letters, had been read yet in Corinth.
Dawn and I live in central Florida now, so may I compare Corinth to Miami? Corinth was a big, vivacious, audacious coastal city. People from all over the world, all types of businesses, education and lots of entertainment…all kinds of entertainment, especially the kind sailors are reported to enjoy. I think you could call Corinth a raucous city.
Paul had spent 18 months there (Acts 18:11), sharing the Gospel of Jesus, with anyone who would listen. A very diverse group of people had responded to Paul and an eclectic church had begun. Because it was such a wild and crazy city, and these Christians were from such widely diverse backgrounds, after Paul left to continue his journeys,(Acts 18:18-22) the void of his leadership left this church something like a rudderless ship, floating in the wind.
That’s why Paul starts his letter by calling them to recognize they are “the church of God in Corinth…sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…”. Now put yourself there. As you hear this being read and you look around the room and see a diverse gathering of people, from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds, and all having lived the lifestyle of this wild Corinth…but all who share this newfound faith in Jesus…, what are you sensing Paul is saying here? May I suggest it’s a call to IDENTITY!
Paul starts by calling them to recognize they are people ‘called out from’ the raucous crowd of Corinth. “Called out ones” is what the word Church means, “Eklessia” is the word in the language spoken all across the Roman Empire in that day, Greek. Called out, by God, from the world, TO Himself, through Jesus (John 6:44) to BE a holy, God honoring people! Peter later writes it so eloquently, for all Christians, everywhere. (1 Peter 2:9-12) “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God…”.
In vs. 4-9 do you see Paul calls them to remember they have received an outpouring of enormous GRACE (kindness) from God. Rather than being judged and punished by God for their raucous lifestyle, they have understood Jesus paid their sin debt with His death, and God has forgiven them, and His Holy Spirit has begun a transforming work in each of them, which confirms or validates what Paul proclaimed to them is the power of the Gospel.
Notice in vs. 7 Paul reminds them that in addition to being forgiven and changed people, God has given to them His spiritual gifts and He is strengthening them to live God honoring lives. Finally, in vs 9, Paul reminds them of God’s reliability, His faithfulness to His Word, His promises, His people, and His work in their lives.
Beginning in vs 10 Paul hits head on, one of the problems that was troubling the Corinthian Church and may rip it apart: Division and Disagreement among the Christians. Does that sound familiar to us in our churches all across America and our world today? You see my friends, Paul had lived among them for a while, then Apollos had been there and he was evidently a very persuasive speaker. “Cephas” is of course Peter, the most famous of the disciples. So the people were forming little groups, who were declaring their leader preference, even their allegiance to different preachers of Jesus’ Gospel.
But Paul hits this hard… the Gospel is all about Jesus. Our Salvation is only possible because of Jesus and it is accomplished by Jesus. He is the leader of His church everywhere. It’s all about Jesus… not any missionary or preacher or charismatic Christian. Be careful about division, it’s a tool of the devil to deeply wound God’s people. As we all know few things break our hearts more than being caught up in a church split!
Years later the author of the book of Hebrews wrote it this way: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:1,2). In every church, in every place around the world, in every generation… this must be the priority…keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, our hearts prioritizing Jesus, our ears open to Jesus, especially when there is disagreement or different factions rising up among the gathering of Christians in a particular place. Do you hear me friends? This is truth for Corinth in 56 AD and right now in many parts of our world!
Paul calls them to return to a place of standing in awe of the shocking and profound, life-changing, power of the Gospel of Jesus at work in each of them. “…we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, CHRIST, the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (vs. 23,24) Paul reminds his Corinthian Christian friends...”Think of what you were when you were called… it is because of Him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (vs.26-30)
Let’s do the same… look back, Who were you before Jesus? Who would you be today without Jesus? Paul is calling them to look back, and remember the messed up lives they had before Jesus, and be overwhelmed by the reality of their redemption from sin bondage / the fact God has declared them justified with the righteousness of Jesus, / and now sees them as His HOLY people, living in a big, bombastic, wild and crazy city.
What about you and me my friends… what do we see when we look back / when we look in the mirror / and when we look around where we live today?
Finally be careful you don’t miss the last verse of this first chapter. It’s like fishing bait, let it grab you… do you recognize it? He’s calling us out. When you look at yourself, what do you puff up your chest and feel a bit prideful about? Here Paul quotes just enough of one of the most powerful Old Testament statements, to cause people to run to find an OT scroll and look up Jeremiah 9:23,24 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, nor the strong man boast of his strength, nor the rich man boast of his wealth, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows God, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight’, declares the LORD.” Oh my friends… just let that percolate a while. Have a great Sunday, my friends!!
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)