Life Together (1 Corinthians 1:1-17)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.599 You have your bibles that invite you to turn to first Corinthians. We're going 2 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:12.589 to be reading the first seventeen verses of Chapter One First Corinthians, chapter one, 3 00:00:12.669 --> 00:00:24.179 versus one through seventeen. This is the word of God. Paul, 4 00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:28.820 called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and 5 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:33.979 our brother Sostenes to the Church of God that is in Corinth to those sanctified 6 00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:38.210 in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who, 7 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:42.090 in every place, call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both 8 00:00:42.130 --> 00:00:47.689 their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God, our father 9 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:52.200 and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you, 10 00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:55.960 because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus, 11 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:59.840 that in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech and 12 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:03.750 all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so 13 00:01:03.829 --> 00:01:07.189 that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of 14 00:01:07.269 --> 00:01:11.709 our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end guiltless. In 15 00:01:11.829 --> 00:01:17.590 the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful, by whom you 16 00:01:17.750 --> 00:01:22.099 are called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. 17 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:25.980 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:29.659 that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, 19 00:01:29.780 --> 00:01:32.969 but that you be united in the same mind and in the same judgment, 20 00:01:33.489 --> 00:01:37.209 for has been reported to me by chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, 21 00:01:37.329 --> 00:01:40.370 my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, 22 00:01:40.810 --> 00:01:44.969 I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Sephis, or 23 00:01:45.049 --> 00:01:49.400 I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul Crucified for you? Or 24 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:53.480 you baptize in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none 25 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:57.560 of you except crispus and get gay us, so that no one may say 26 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:01.469 that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of 27 00:02:01.549 --> 00:02:06.349 Stefanus. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else, 28 00:02:06.870 --> 00:02:09.789 for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, 29 00:02:10.229 --> 00:02:15.669 and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied 30 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:19.180 of its power. Amen. This is the word of God. May Be 31 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:30.050 seated to say that the Corinthian Church had some difficulties would be a massive understatement. 32 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:35.250 It'd be far more accurate to say that the church at Corinth was a 33 00:02:35.849 --> 00:02:42.289 spiritual train wreck. These guys wrote the book on how a church should not 34 00:02:42.729 --> 00:02:46.840 go, what it should not do. In this letter we find a group 35 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:53.280 of Christians who are struggling with divisions, with a lack of love for each 36 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:58.360 other, a lack of unity. They're not serving each other. They they 37 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:05.310 are confused about sexuality, about marriage, about singleness. They're confused about spiritual 38 00:03:05.430 --> 00:03:08.430 gifts. They're confused about worship and what worship in the church should look like, 39 00:03:08.830 --> 00:03:12.789 and then, and then the list goes on and on and on, 40 00:03:14.219 --> 00:03:17.900 and it goes on a little bit more. I'm taking the youth at Ringkon 41 00:03:19.020 --> 00:03:23.500 Mountain through First Corinthians and weaken and week out there's something new that they're shocked 42 00:03:23.539 --> 00:03:32.250 by, that the church is doing wrongly hearing corinth. Behind all these practical 43 00:03:32.370 --> 00:03:38.169 issues you sort of surface issues and beneath that, on a foundational level, 44 00:03:38.449 --> 00:03:46.639 the Corinthians are also struggling with a deep, deep seated self centeredness and status 45 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:53.759 seeking that they brought into the church from the culture. They're putting themselves first, 46 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:58.189 and that's affecting then everything about the church, how they relate to each 47 00:03:58.189 --> 00:04:02.509 other and how they interact with each other, going first at the Lord's supper 48 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:08.389 and getting drunk while the poor and those who are lesser, of the Lesser 49 00:04:08.509 --> 00:04:14.340 Class sit hungry. So this, this church, is messed up. This 50 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:19.459 church is far out, far out there. It's an outlier. And yet, 51 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:26.370 given all that, given the mess of the Church at Corinth, when 52 00:04:26.410 --> 00:04:31.449 we open to the first chapter, First Corinthians, I would expect Paul to 53 00:04:31.610 --> 00:04:38.680 say, you guys are expelled, you guys are out of here. The 54 00:04:38.839 --> 00:04:43.279 presbytery has excommunicated this whole church. You are no longer among us, you 55 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:49.480 are no longer with us. But that's not what Paul does. In fact, 56 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:55.149 and I think we should actually be shocked by this, look at verse 57 00:04:55.230 --> 00:05:00.029 two. What does he say there? He says to the Church of God 58 00:05:00.189 --> 00:05:05.350 that is in Corinth the church belonging to God, to those sanctified in Christ 59 00:05:05.430 --> 00:05:12.540 Jesus, called to be saints. Just think about that for a moment. 60 00:05:14.540 --> 00:05:18.500 Despite the fact that they have messed up and sinned so horribly against God, 61 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:29.449 against each other, Paul still says that they are sanctified in Christ Jesus they 62 00:05:29.490 --> 00:05:34.689 have been set apart to God as holy. In Christ, they have this 63 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:42.000 calling on their lives still to be saints. Just as Paul was called in 64 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:46.040 the to be an apostle, in verse one, they too are called still 65 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:51.350 to be saints, to be those who are holy before God and living in 66 00:05:51.629 --> 00:05:59.790 a holy manner before him. They are ex septed in God's sight and even 67 00:05:59.949 --> 00:06:05.899 beloved. And that, as a result, then, Paul says, impacts 68 00:06:06.579 --> 00:06:13.980 everything else, everything else about the church, especially regarding unity. We're going 69 00:06:14.019 --> 00:06:15.899 to get to that in a second, because, you see, it's not 70 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:23.170 until we are humbled by the Gospel, humbled by the good news of what 71 00:06:23.290 --> 00:06:27.250 Jesus has done for us in his life and in his death and in his 72 00:06:27.410 --> 00:06:30.569 resurrection. It's not until we realize just how little we bring to the table 73 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:38.639 that we can then actually live at peace with each other, because we realize 74 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:45.040 that in Christ we are equal. This is a level playing field. I've 75 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:46.790 said this before, but but the ground is level at the foot of the 76 00:06:46.949 --> 00:06:53.389 cross. We all come with nothing, and that, haul says, is 77 00:06:53.509 --> 00:06:59.230 the foundation then, on which to build everything I wish to build the church 78 00:06:59.550 --> 00:07:02.939 and in particular, in which to seek out unity, because Paul's point here 79 00:07:02.980 --> 00:07:09.579 is clear that knowing who you are in Christ change is and how you live 80 00:07:09.660 --> 00:07:14.860 in community with each other. Knowing who you are in Christ then changes how 81 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:17.329 you live in community with each other. And so, in the time remaining 82 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:23.490 I just want to put before us just two simple questions here. Who Are 83 00:07:23.689 --> 00:07:30.759 you in Christ? And secondly, how then, do we live as a 84 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:34.120 community, as a body of Christ? First, who are you in Christ? 85 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:38.000 And the short dance that is found in verse four. So look at 86 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.800 Verse Four. There he says, I give thanks to my God always for 87 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:46.189 you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ, 88 00:07:46.470 --> 00:07:49.990 Jesus. So who are you? Well, the short answer, Paul says, 89 00:07:50.029 --> 00:07:55.069 is that if you're trusting in Christ, you are a recipient of grace. 90 00:07:57.230 --> 00:08:01.019 You're a recipient of grace. Everything you have, everything you are, 91 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:03.620 has been given to you in Jesus Christ. In fact, Paul will go 92 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:07.540 on later in First Corinthians, chapter four and he will say they're what do 93 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:15.370 you have that you did not receive? Everything about your Christian identity is because 94 00:08:15.410 --> 00:08:18.209 of what he has done for you, not what you have done, not 95 00:08:18.370 --> 00:08:22.329 what you have accomplished. It's not based on that. What do you have 96 00:08:22.529 --> 00:08:28.959 that you did not receive from Jesus? And then he goes on to describe 97 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.840 you, giving us five, five descriptions in sort of a cascade, a 98 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:37.000 blessing of what it looks like to be a recipient of grace. So the 99 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:41.909 first one we see is in verse five. He said this first description is 100 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:46.549 this. You've been made rich in Christ in every way. You are enriched 101 00:08:46.669 --> 00:08:52.549 in him in all speech and all knowledge. So Paul here is turning the 102 00:08:52.990 --> 00:08:58.539 values of the culture on their head. Corinth was a busy seaport. You 103 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:03.139 Think Long Beach. All right, it's a busy seaport, tons of trade 104 00:09:03.179 --> 00:09:07.860 and commerce. It was a center of business and of Industry and, as 105 00:09:07.899 --> 00:09:13.250 a result, the mindset of that city was that your status depended on you 106 00:09:13.370 --> 00:09:22.250 being successful as a businessman, in the workforce, in industry, in commerce. 107 00:09:22.730 --> 00:09:24.720 You could stand on your own two feet and say, look at what 108 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:28.720 I built with my two hands, look at what I've built from myself, 109 00:09:28.759 --> 00:09:35.320 look at all that I've accomplished. But, and so Paul is saying, 110 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:41.230 it doesn't depend on that, it doesn't depend on your financial security or prosperity. 111 00:09:41.309 --> 00:09:46.190 Rather, he says you've been enriched in Christ Jesus. And then he 112 00:09:46.230 --> 00:09:50.590 says in particular, describing what that looks like. He says you've been enriched 113 00:09:50.669 --> 00:09:54.980 in all speech and all knowledge, and that too is part of the Greek 114 00:09:54.100 --> 00:10:00.259 society, because Corinth was a city in Greece and the Greek's prize oratory. 115 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:03.860 They prize me the person who could stand up and give a speech and do 116 00:10:03.980 --> 00:10:09.809 it well, do it very fluidly and fluently and and it just tickling the 117 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:15.529 ears, stringing the sentences in the sounds together. They would actually pay for 118 00:10:15.730 --> 00:10:22.240 itinerant speakers to come and to give speeches. I won't go there. I 119 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:28.200 was thinking about politicians, but that they prize speech and you also, they 120 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:33.600 also prize knowledge. Again, this is Greece, the center, that the 121 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:39.149 origin of philosophy and of not this endless quest for knowledge. And Paul says 122 00:10:39.190 --> 00:10:48.110 that in Christ you've been given tremendous riches, tremendous wealth and all speech and 123 00:10:48.350 --> 00:10:52.659 all knowledge. You've been given the words that actually not just tickle people's ears 124 00:10:52.700 --> 00:10:58.659 but give life. You've been given the Gospel, you've been given a knowledge 125 00:10:58.700 --> 00:11:03.299 of God, not just at the world around you. What more could you 126 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:09.169 want? In thinking about this, where we get our value from, where 127 00:11:09.169 --> 00:11:13.570 we get our sense of worth from? There's a relatively new song put out 128 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:18.090 by Keith and Christin Getty, who wrote in Christ alone, and this new 129 00:11:18.129 --> 00:11:20.759 song that they wrote is called my worth is not in what I own, 130 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:26.279 and the first couple verses go like this. My worth is not in what 131 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:30.320 I own, not in the strength of flesh and bone, but in the 132 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:35.470 costly wounds of love at the Cross. My worth is not in skill or 133 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:39.629 name, in when or lose, in pride or shame, but in the 134 00:11:39.710 --> 00:11:45.309 blood of Christ that flowed at the cross. See, Paul is telling the 135 00:11:45.389 --> 00:11:48.500 Corinthians. This is where you're worth is, this is where you get value 136 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:56.379 and identity. It's not from again and your success and the workforce. It's 137 00:11:56.460 --> 00:12:01.730 not from your financial prosperity. In Christ, you are in here an air 138 00:12:01.929 --> 00:12:09.250 of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ, as Pastor Ross, I'm 139 00:12:09.289 --> 00:12:13.690 assuming, preached on this morning. He God is your portion. God is 140 00:12:13.769 --> 00:12:18.639 your portion, God is your treasure, your great and infinite reward. This 141 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:24.120 this is what you have in Christ. In Christ you've been made rich. 142 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:28.519 Then, secondly, in verse six, he says you have the spirit of 143 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:35.470 Christ. Verse six says this even as a testimony about Christ was confirmed among 144 00:12:35.590 --> 00:12:39.389 you, maybe maybe thinking, I don't see the spirit in there. How 145 00:12:39.429 --> 00:12:45.100 can you say that we have the spirit of Christ from this verse? And 146 00:12:45.259 --> 00:12:48.620 while the the name the Holy Spirit is not in there, the work of 147 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:56.100 the spirit is there very much, because it's a spirit who confirms to US 148 00:12:56.139 --> 00:13:03.049 Christ that we that we are in him, that we understand and believe and 149 00:13:03.330 --> 00:13:09.929 rest in the Gospel. It's a spirit who roots us in that Paul wrote 150 00:13:11.009 --> 00:13:15.399 in Second Corinthians one versus twenty one and twenty two, and it is God 151 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:18.799 who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed US and who has also 152 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:24.519 put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a 153 00:13:24.759 --> 00:13:28.549 guarantee. So the spirit that Christ sent confirms to us that that we have 154 00:13:28.669 --> 00:13:33.470 an interest in him, that that he is ours, that we are his, 155 00:13:33.750 --> 00:13:39.029 that we belong to him, that we truly have life in God and 156 00:13:39.190 --> 00:13:43.539 in Christ Jesus. It's a spirit who makes the work of Christ real to 157 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:52.659 our hearts and then who flushes that out among us in community with each other. 158 00:13:54.340 --> 00:13:58.610 And so Paul is saying that the spirit of God is convicting convincing these 159 00:13:58.649 --> 00:14:03.889 saints that they, as the body of Christ, are indeed the body of 160 00:14:03.929 --> 00:14:09.000 Christ. And Paul goes on and gives a third description of what the blessed 161 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.159 person, the person who has received grace, looks like. He says you 162 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.799 have every spiritual gift. In verse seven, Paul Says You're not lacking in 163 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:24.200 any gift. And you can jump forward first scrinthians twelve through fourteen, where 164 00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:30.710 Paul talks for three chapters about spiritual gifts and the wreck that these Corinthians were 165 00:14:30.990 --> 00:14:33.950 doing with them, using them for their own interests instead of to build up 166 00:14:35.110 --> 00:14:39.659 the body of Christ. But Paul isn't saying so. Paul isn't saying it's 167 00:14:39.659 --> 00:14:45.139 wrong that you have these spiritual gifts. fact, it's it's good. It's 168 00:14:45.179 --> 00:14:48.700 an evidence that the that you have, the spirit that you do but indeed 169 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:52.250 belong to Jesus Christ. It's good that you have every gift and and he 170 00:14:52.330 --> 00:14:58.690 says it's every gift, every spiritual gift, that's necessary to build up the 171 00:14:58.730 --> 00:15:05.730 body of Christ you have. That's an encouragement to us too. Every gift 172 00:15:05.409 --> 00:15:11.879 that is needed to build up the body of Christ is here. It's present 173 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:16.360 in the people of God were gifted differently individually, and yet we're to use 174 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:22.230 our gifts to build up this body, to use them sacrificially for one another. 175 00:15:22.190 --> 00:15:26.309 So it's not the gifts, that the gifts are bad, but rather 176 00:15:26.389 --> 00:15:28.950 the abuse of the gifts that Paul goes on to say is indeed bad. 177 00:15:31.990 --> 00:15:35.820 One commentator when this he was writing about this. He wrote something that was 178 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:39.019 very interesting to me. He's he explains it like this. He says the 179 00:15:39.139 --> 00:15:45.460 Corinthians took great pride in being gifted, but they had forgotten where they had 180 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:50.370 gotten those gifts from. They took pride in being gifted, but they'd forgotten 181 00:15:50.409 --> 00:15:54.049 where they got the gifts from. Fourthly, then, Paul says you have, 182 00:15:54.409 --> 00:15:58.570 you will be sustained guiltless until the end. Look again at Verse Eight. 183 00:16:00.330 --> 00:16:03.730 Paul says he will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the 184 00:16:03.769 --> 00:16:10.960 day of our Lord Jesus Christ. You hear the joy there. Paul is 185 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:21.110 telling these sinful, Selfish Corinthians that God is going to keep you. God 186 00:16:21.190 --> 00:16:25.990 has started his good work in you and he is not going to just abandon 187 00:16:26.070 --> 00:16:33.820 it midway through. He's going to he has made you blameless in Christ and 188 00:16:33.980 --> 00:16:38.220 he's going to keep you blameless in Christ. positionally, you may you may 189 00:16:38.340 --> 00:16:44.580 sin, but all your past, present and future sins have been done away 190 00:16:44.580 --> 00:16:48.769 with at the cross. They've been canceled there and as a result, you 191 00:16:48.009 --> 00:16:53.450 have hope, you have a future. He's saying, this does not end 192 00:16:53.529 --> 00:17:00.009 now. I should throw you out of the Church, I should expel your 193 00:17:00.090 --> 00:17:06.240 church from the gathering of churches, but I won't. He says it's because 194 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:11.920 God is going to keep you and sustain you to the end. That's also 195 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:21.309 encouraging for us. We sin, we fall short, we are in a 196 00:17:21.390 --> 00:17:27.109 lot of ways like the church at Corinth, selfish, self centered, but 197 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:33.660 God is going to finish. Why? He has started in you, Christian 198 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:42.779 God's not done with you. That's that's good news in fifthly, lastly, 199 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:48.289 the fifth description that Paul gives is in verse ten, where Paul says that 200 00:17:48.369 --> 00:17:52.730 you've been called into the fellowship of his son of the Sun, Jie, 201 00:17:52.970 --> 00:18:00.880 the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says here that we don't have simply an individual 202 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:07.640 relationship with Christ. It's true, we do, but we also have to 203 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:14.950 think about this as being a corporate relationship with Christ, because we are individually 204 00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:18.789 united to Christ by faith, by trusting in him. We have this personal 205 00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:25.990 relationship with Jesus. And yet if I have this relationship and you have this 206 00:18:26.109 --> 00:18:30.180 relationship and you and you as well, well, then we're connected to we 207 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:36.579 can't we can't help but be connected. We are corporately united to Christ. 208 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:41.849 We have this. We have to think in more than individual terms about how 209 00:18:41.970 --> 00:18:47.569 we relate to Christ and with each other. And again, this goes completely 210 00:18:47.569 --> 00:18:55.880 against the cultric corinth as well as our culture today. America's individualistic. You, 211 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:57.440 you again, you stand on your own two feet and you say to 212 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:02.680 the world, look at what I've done, look at who I am. 213 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:07.160 It's particularly easy now that facebook has come along. Or we can post all 214 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:10.549 our pictures and our status updates and say look at what I'm doing now, 215 00:19:11.150 --> 00:19:11.910 look at, look at, look. Do you see this picture of what 216 00:19:11.950 --> 00:19:18.589 I just made, what I just baked? All right, we we can 217 00:19:18.829 --> 00:19:22.910 it simply stay at the individual level in our relationship. We have to think 218 00:19:22.029 --> 00:19:26.140 broader than that, and that's what Paul has said. We have we have 219 00:19:26.259 --> 00:19:33.859 been joined to the fellowship of the Sun. We have entered into the community 220 00:19:34.059 --> 00:19:37.769 that has been formed by Christ. That word fellowship. There's the word point 221 00:19:37.809 --> 00:19:42.809 in EA, the community, that the fellowship. You think of the fellowship 222 00:19:42.849 --> 00:19:48.170 of the ring, those who are gathered together for a common purpose to destroy 223 00:19:48.289 --> 00:19:52.799 the one ring in the Lord of the Rings. All right, we got 224 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:57.200 has put us in community with each other, and and that's a good thing, 225 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:03.640 because it means that we're not just pilgrims alone on this journey. We're 226 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:08.829 not on our own. We're traveling with a group. We're traveling with the 227 00:20:08.950 --> 00:20:15.789 saints together towards this New Jerusalem, the city bill or, whose builder and 228 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:22.099 maker is God. That's our destination place and we can on the way. 229 00:20:22.140 --> 00:20:27.619 When we have struggles, trials, when we are weak, others come around 230 00:20:27.619 --> 00:20:36.210 us embarrass up again, think of Sam whay's Gamgee, carrying Frodo up the 231 00:20:36.289 --> 00:20:41.569 slopes of mountain doom. We're in it together, something that God has put 232 00:20:41.569 --> 00:20:45.849 us together for, because alone the journey is too much for us. We 233 00:20:45.970 --> 00:20:49.559 will falter, we will fall and we need someone to come alongside us and 234 00:20:49.640 --> 00:20:56.240 pick us up. So this is what the Corinthians have received in Christ. 235 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:00.400 God has showered them with this grace and lavished his love on them, and 236 00:21:00.599 --> 00:21:03.990 that, then, should bear itself out. And how they behave toward each 237 00:21:04.069 --> 00:21:10.829 other. It's only toward after telling them again who there they are, what 238 00:21:10.990 --> 00:21:14.869 their identity is in Christ, that them. Paul goes on and says, 239 00:21:15.150 --> 00:21:21.140 I'll show it, show it, show that this is indeed who you are. 240 00:21:21.619 --> 00:21:23.500 Live it out in your lives. So that's our second point. How 241 00:21:23.500 --> 00:21:29.619 should we live in community? So the first problem, of all the problems 242 00:21:29.660 --> 00:21:32.700 that we find in the book of First Corinthians, the first problem that we 243 00:21:32.859 --> 00:21:36.849 come to, is a one actually Paul spends the most time on. The 244 00:21:36.970 --> 00:21:41.410 actually addresses the issue of the unity of the Church and the divisions that are 245 00:21:41.450 --> 00:21:44.490 going on in the church at Corinth he talks about it for the first four 246 00:21:44.529 --> 00:21:48.680 chapters in one form or another, hitting at it from different angles. We're 247 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:52.920 only looking at the first few verses here, in verses ten through seventeen, 248 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:56.519 but I just want to draw your attention to verse ten for a moment. 249 00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:02.309 He says here I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our 250 00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:06.789 Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions 251 00:22:06.829 --> 00:22:11.390 among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same 252 00:22:11.430 --> 00:22:17.940 judgment. So what's goes on, as Paul explains in the next few verses 253 00:22:18.019 --> 00:22:23.220 was. What's going on is that the Corinthians are polarizing around certain leaders in 254 00:22:23.339 --> 00:22:32.250 the church. They're they're becoming sort of groupies for their favorite guy and as 255 00:22:32.250 --> 00:22:36.009 a result, some are saying I I'm I like Paul. Others are saying 256 00:22:36.809 --> 00:22:44.089 my guy is apolos. They are going at it and trying to follow after 257 00:22:45.559 --> 00:22:48.839 one particular individual to the detriment of everyone else and as a result, it's 258 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:57.400 causing bitterness and resentment among the Corinthians. But why? Why are they? 259 00:22:57.670 --> 00:23:03.190 Why are they doing this? Why are they picking favorites? Why are they 260 00:23:03.309 --> 00:23:10.750 following these individual leaders and getting upset at each other because they're not going along? 261 00:23:11.269 --> 00:23:15.220 WHY ARE THEY GETTING UPSET? What's going on here? Well, Paul 262 00:23:15.259 --> 00:23:21.819 tells us the reason in verse twelve. He actually quotes US four times the 263 00:23:21.980 --> 00:23:29.970 reason in verse twelve, and it's that little word I. I'm of Paul, 264 00:23:30.250 --> 00:23:37.690 I'm of Apolos, I'm of Peter, I'm of Christ. The Corinthians 265 00:23:37.730 --> 00:23:45.680 didn't have a corporate mindset. They weren't thinking terms of we, the thinking 266 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:51.839 terms of i. what, where do I stand in all this? How 267 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:56.109 am I going to benefit from this? How is my position that in the 268 00:23:56.230 --> 00:24:00.390 church going to be elevated and increased? How am I going to become more 269 00:24:00.990 --> 00:24:07.710 important? If this had been done, you know, if this had kept 270 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:12.539 going up to the present day, the Corinthians would have been handing out buttons 271 00:24:12.619 --> 00:24:18.619 and wearing tshirts and putting bumper stickers in their cars saying Paul's My guy, 272 00:24:19.339 --> 00:24:26.569 I love Apollos. They're in it for themselves, their status seekers. They're 273 00:24:26.609 --> 00:24:30.410 thinking, how is this going to improve my position in the church, and 274 00:24:32.130 --> 00:24:37.690 they're latching on to a particular candidate, you could say, and they're pinning 275 00:24:37.730 --> 00:24:42.279 their hopes on this person to the exclusion of everyone else, in the hopes 276 00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:48.799 that if this person does become the chief guy at Corinth I get to share 277 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:52.799 in some of the glory. I'm right, all y'all are wrong. All 278 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:57.789 right, my guy made it and I then follow in his train and his 279 00:24:57.869 --> 00:25:02.670 footsteps. All Right, I get a share of the glory. And there's 280 00:25:02.670 --> 00:25:08.059 a result. They're quarreling, they're fighting. Paul says, this is not 281 00:25:08.099 --> 00:25:12.740 how your to behave, this is not how you're to behave. Where the 282 00:25:12.779 --> 00:25:18.339 fellowship of Christ, they communion of the saints. And so Paul makes us 283 00:25:18.339 --> 00:25:23.650 appeal based on everything he has just said about them and explained, based on 284 00:25:23.730 --> 00:25:29.089 who they are in Christ. He makes us appeal, saying guys, Love 285 00:25:29.210 --> 00:25:34.210 One another, have grace towards each other, and then he actually gets pretty 286 00:25:34.210 --> 00:25:38.839 upset and says, why are you putting my face on that ad? Why 287 00:25:38.839 --> 00:25:45.279 are you putting my name on that bumper sticker? Was Paul Crucified for you? 288 00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:51.029 Were you baptized in my name? No, don't do that. I 289 00:25:51.069 --> 00:25:59.230 don't want any part of this. This is not Christian. These divisions in 290 00:25:59.309 --> 00:26:08.539 the church, quarreling, backbiting. That's not Christian. And the Youth and 291 00:26:08.579 --> 00:26:14.700 Family Group at ring con we have a policy. It's called no hunting. 292 00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:21.849 We don't talk poorly, don't speak badly, don't gossip about other people behind 293 00:26:21.890 --> 00:26:30.450 their back. That's what's going on here. They're hunting, they're the church 294 00:26:30.609 --> 00:26:34.599 is not a safe place. It's not a no hunting zone. Paul is 295 00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:38.759 saying, guys, you got to put that sign up no hunting. Here 296 00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:45.559 should be a safe place where you were loving each other, showing kindness to 297 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:49.509 each other, showing care for each other based on who you are in Christ 298 00:26:49.589 --> 00:26:52.430 Jesus, and the only way to do that friends, as if you humble 299 00:26:52.869 --> 00:27:00.029 yourself and actually listen to each other. We can't come at this with an 300 00:27:00.029 --> 00:27:08.819 air of superiority. Can't come at it putting ourselves first. have to come 301 00:27:08.900 --> 00:27:15.609 and humbly say I'm a sinner to and when there are issues that come up, 302 00:27:15.769 --> 00:27:22.450 problems, divisions, sit down and talk about it. This is what 303 00:27:22.650 --> 00:27:29.049 Paul is getting at here. But this is a natural this isn't normal for 304 00:27:29.130 --> 00:27:34.279 sinful human beings. Our natural tendency is towards self centeredness, and that's why 305 00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:41.119 it takes the power and grace of the Gospel to accomplish us, because this 306 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:48.470 is otherworldly. Living in this way. Dietrich bonhoffer was exactly right when he 307 00:27:48.589 --> 00:27:52.309 said this. He said without Christ we should not know God, we could 308 00:27:52.349 --> 00:27:59.019 not call upon him nor come to him. But without Christ we also would 309 00:27:59.019 --> 00:28:03.740 not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is 310 00:28:03.900 --> 00:28:08.140 blocked by our own ego. Christ opened up the way to God and the 311 00:28:08.259 --> 00:28:14.730 way to our brother. Now Christians can live with one another in peace, 312 00:28:15.089 --> 00:28:19.730 they can love and serve one another, they can become one, but they 313 00:28:19.769 --> 00:28:25.970 can continue to do so only by way of Jesus Christ. Only in Jesus 314 00:28:26.009 --> 00:28:34.319 Christ are we one. Only through him are we bound together. This is 315 00:28:34.440 --> 00:28:41.549 what the Gospel lived out looks like. It's at the cross that I am 316 00:28:41.630 --> 00:28:45.069 freed from the selfishness that used to ensnare me, I used to hold me 317 00:28:45.230 --> 00:28:49.950 captive. So now I can love my brother in Christ. Actually, it's 318 00:28:49.950 --> 00:28:53.710 at the cross that I see my savior, that he didn't just die for 319 00:28:53.869 --> 00:29:00.140 me, but also for you, and that means there's a bond here that 320 00:29:00.299 --> 00:29:06.059 goes deeper than family ties. It's a bond in blood that binds the church 321 00:29:06.259 --> 00:29:12.809 together. It's at the cross that I see Jesus divided and his body torn 322 00:29:14.329 --> 00:29:21.009 and broken, so that his body, the church, might never be divided 323 00:29:21.410 --> 00:29:27.359 and never be torn and brokenness under that's what we're going to celebrate here in 324 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:33.720 just a few moments the Lord's table. That here Christ shows he is given 325 00:29:33.880 --> 00:29:41.750 for us so that we might be one in him. Let's pray