Quit the Quarreling

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 Of Us, in us at work, or to find the flesh of bringing 2 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:10.310 more fruit of marusness. That same spirit and caused huge wise from the dead, 3 00:00:10.390 --> 00:00:17.949 also causes us to be born again, the neddess nor life, the 4 00:00:18.030 --> 00:00:26.339 promise of gold, of Resurrection from the dead and strength for hear, for 5 00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:39.530 beast that you were sanctifying our of your church that we in we pray that 6 00:00:39.609 --> 00:00:42.770 you can do these things now as home to the reading, reaching of the 7 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:52.359 bread of your grace and Jesus name, for this is a story. First 8 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:59.359 Corinthians chacolate one, first printhians boil. I'll be reading to end through sixteen, 9 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:26.060 your first printings, one tender sixteen. All gives to the church in 10 00:01:26.180 --> 00:01:37.650 corners of instructures. He tells them to lives. Why? Instructions of us 11 00:01:37.730 --> 00:01:52.640 today is one I feel you brothers by the name Jesus Christ, all be 12 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:56.879 no divisions, but that you being united in the same mind and the same 13 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:01.150 judgment. For it is reported to me by chloe's that there is quarreling. 14 00:02:01.670 --> 00:02:07.109 My brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says I fell, 15 00:02:07.229 --> 00:02:14.069 I follows, I follow see, I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? 16 00:02:15.150 --> 00:02:19.340 Was Paul Crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 17 00:02:20.219 --> 00:02:23.620 I thank God that I baptize none of you except crispus and guy us, 18 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:25.819 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 19 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:31.250 I did baptize also the household of Stefanis, but are beyond that. I 20 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:37.449 do not know whether I baptized anyone else. The God bless his word to 21 00:02:37.569 --> 00:02:45.599 us. So, as I mentioned before, I read Paul has instructions here 22 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:50.240 for us. He wants us to be of the same mind, united of 23 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:54.759 the same mind, to be of the same judgment or, to put it 24 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:00.189 negatively, not to be quarreling among ourselves, not to have divisions among ourselves. 25 00:03:00.229 --> 00:03:06.469 He appeals to them. He calls them brothers twice very early on in 26 00:03:06.509 --> 00:03:09.550 the passage. He's he's trying, and I think he is being gentle here. 27 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:15.419 He uses that brotherly language both to remind them of his connection with them 28 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:20.539 but also their connection with each other. They're not to be divided their brothers. 29 00:03:20.620 --> 00:03:23.900 They're part of this same family. But the families fighting and dad saying 30 00:03:24.020 --> 00:03:30.849 stop it, stop fighting, stop the quarreling, stop arguing, the united 31 00:03:30.930 --> 00:03:37.650 with one another. Christ is not divided. Paul feels so strongly about this 32 00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:42.039 that he speaks in a way that I would say is uncommon among ministers of 33 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:47.400 Christ, to say I'm glad that I didn't baptize you, as an unusual 34 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:57.389 way for a minister who is charged with baptizing and preaching to speak. He 35 00:03:57.430 --> 00:04:01.030 says I don't know whether I baptized anyone else. He's in some ways relativizes 36 00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:06.349 of the baptisms of people that he baptized in the church. I wonder how 37 00:04:06.389 --> 00:04:11.060 you would feel if you're like, Hey, you baptize me, Paul o? 38 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:14.979 Can you don't remember stuff on is okay, but you see what Paul's 39 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:18.819 doing right, he's he's relativizing these things. He's in some ways connecting to 40 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:24.220 the people by using this language of brotherhood, but all so disconnecting from them 41 00:04:24.259 --> 00:04:29.930 as well. Why? Because Paul wants them to see their identity not in 42 00:04:30.170 --> 00:04:35.850 him, even though they're brothers with him or he is their brother, but 43 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:42.839 he wants them to see themselves in Christ, as we must as well. 44 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:47.000 We all know what it's like to have family fights and church fights as well. 45 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:51.910 Sadly, sometimes we get to the place where we just begin to accept 46 00:04:51.949 --> 00:04:55.990 this as okay, like, well, it's just the way it is, 47 00:04:57.029 --> 00:05:00.350 and it's true. We don't want what we might say in a fancy way 48 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:04.790 and over realized eschatology, or we don't want to bring heaven down to Earth 49 00:05:04.829 --> 00:05:10.699 before it's time. We don't want to try to create a utopia that can't 50 00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:14.060 exist. The Lord has told us that life under the sun is hard, 51 00:05:14.819 --> 00:05:17.939 that there are enemies within the church, that we not to not we ought 52 00:05:18.060 --> 00:05:24.170 not to be mindless about how we are in union with people. We ought 53 00:05:24.209 --> 00:05:29.610 not to be in judge. Are Have the same judgment when that judgment disagrees 54 00:05:29.649 --> 00:05:34.449 with the scripture, for example. Right, we don't want to go beyond 55 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:40.519 what he says here, but we also don't want to overqualify what he says 56 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:46.519 and excuse ourselves from our fighting and from our quarreling simply by saying, well, 57 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:49.870 life is hard and there's still sin. That's certainly true, but it 58 00:05:49.949 --> 00:05:54.949 doesn't excuse us from what he's calling us to do, does it? He 59 00:05:55.149 --> 00:05:59.949 calls us to be united with one another, and he'll talk about this in 60 00:06:00.069 --> 00:06:03.230 other places. First Corinthians, for example, has that famous chapter, Chapter 61 00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:06.939 Thirteen, which is all about love. We read this at our men's Bible 62 00:06:06.980 --> 00:06:13.379 study this last week. Right. Love is that thing that binds us together. 63 00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:17.339 Love is a gift and which we give ourselves one to another. As 64 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:21.410 we abide in God's love, we can share that love with each other. 65 00:06:21.689 --> 00:06:27.410 But that's not what's happening in Corinth. In a number of ways, the 66 00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:32.240 church there is struggling to get along and there's some very particular reasons behind that, 67 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:40.120 which will explore this morning. Paul tells us in Verse Eleven and twelve 68 00:06:40.279 --> 00:06:46.470 what's going on. He says it's been reported to me by chloe's people that 69 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:53.110 there is quarreling among you. Now there's all different kinds of quarreling and fighting. 70 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:57.189 Paul's a very particular kind of quarreling in mind, and he says in 71 00:06:57.350 --> 00:07:01.980 verse twelve what I mean is that each one of you says I follow Paul 72 00:07:02.660 --> 00:07:09.980 or a police or Cephus or Christ, and Paul says he is saying here 73 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:13.300 and is he will go on to say over the next several chapters, essentially 74 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:17.569 chapters one through four, this is not right, and he's going to develop 75 00:07:17.689 --> 00:07:23.449 that and help us to understand various things in this in this light. He's 76 00:07:23.490 --> 00:07:26.490 going to help us understand the Ministry of the word. He's going to understand, 77 00:07:26.610 --> 00:07:30.800 help us to understand the work he does as an apostle. He's going 78 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:33.800 to help us to understand how we are united to one another and, as 79 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:40.160 we get into that once to help you'd understand a little bit more of what 80 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:45.110 he's talking about by thinking about the background, to understand, in other words, 81 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:47.990 what this, these instructions, would have meant for the Corinthians and for 82 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:53.029 us to think more deeply about what it means for us. It's really, 83 00:07:53.110 --> 00:07:58.899 really helpful to understand what Corinth was like in Paul's Day. That's because this 84 00:07:59.139 --> 00:08:03.100 quarreling that's going on in Corinth is coming out of a culture of that day. 85 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:09.300 They're taking things that they normally they saw and were part of their lives 86 00:08:09.420 --> 00:08:13.850 and they're bringing them into the church in a way that was not right. 87 00:08:13.209 --> 00:08:16.689 It helps us to understand this. I follow Paul. Paul, I follow 88 00:08:16.769 --> 00:08:24.569 a constious apollos controversy. I want to just draw mention here this pause for 89 00:08:24.569 --> 00:08:28.519 a moment and say that I'm drawing here from the excellent research of several authors 90 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:33.399 and will do so as I continue in the sermon sermon series. In particular, 91 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:39.759 Bruce Winter. He's a Cambridge historian of the early church and the Greco 92 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:45.110 Roman world. He specializes in ancient corinth, and also Dwayne Lifton. He's 93 00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:50.590 a Meritis, president of Wheaton College. So what is the background going on 94 00:08:50.870 --> 00:08:54.350 here? What is the background for this quarreling? Why are they saying this? 95 00:08:54.509 --> 00:08:58.659 I follow Paul, I follow Paulse we know that Paul didn't set this 96 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:01.940 up this way. A polas didn't set this up this way. Peter wasn't 97 00:09:01.059 --> 00:09:05.779 asking them to be divided with one another. They were. These teachers were 98 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:11.129 not fighting with one another. So what's going on? Why were people claiming 99 00:09:11.330 --> 00:09:18.090 individual leaders or apostles, even Christ as their leader? The answer is that 100 00:09:18.129 --> 00:09:22.850 at this particular time in Corinth, Corinth and other places in the Greco Roman 101 00:09:22.970 --> 00:09:28.879 world, we're experiencing a rebirth of a movement that had been popular several centuries 102 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:33.279 before, in the fifth century BC, and now is making a big comeback, 103 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.269 a big comeback. Now, various times in various places you'll see one 104 00:09:39.429 --> 00:09:45.590 profession or one or another become kind of the hot thing, you know, 105 00:09:45.710 --> 00:09:50.070 on and especially among the social elite, on the WHO. Then, of 106 00:09:50.190 --> 00:09:54.379 course, as they pursue that thing, make it desirable for everyone else and 107 00:09:54.460 --> 00:09:58.340 at this particular time, that hot profession, the thing that everybody wanted to 108 00:09:58.379 --> 00:10:05.259 be involved in in some way, was sophistry. Now, sophist was a 109 00:10:05.100 --> 00:10:13.450 highly polished speaker. Bruce Winter calls it, a virtuoso orator, so one 110 00:10:13.490 --> 00:10:18.850 who's really, really good at speaking. We have people like this today, 111 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:24.600 right, we have people who, you know, they speak at graduations and 112 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.480 they go speak at corporate events and they sell out stadiums and they go around 113 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:35.480 and they're known for their ability to speak. That it's a little different back 114 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:39.590 then. I'll explain it a little bit, but it was. It was 115 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:46.190 a very desirable job for people. It made you rich, made you admired, 116 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:48.389 it made you famous and and it was one of the few ways that 117 00:10:48.509 --> 00:10:52.700 you could actually break out of your social status, right. And we've had 118 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:58.340 moments like this where all of a sudden there, if you get a little 119 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:01.980 lucky and you work hard, that you can jump up in society. And 120 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:07.049 this was like this for sofistrey. If you could learn to speak well, 121 00:11:07.169 --> 00:11:09.210 if you could get connected with the right teacher, if you had a certain 122 00:11:09.250 --> 00:11:15.009 amount of gifts, you could become someone that was important, just difficult in 123 00:11:15.049 --> 00:11:20.679 a society that was very stratifical, stratified. So Sofas. What were they 124 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.360 will partly they were entertainers. They would draw a large crowds. Sometimes they 125 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:31.200 were followed by many people. They also participated, even competed in a kind 126 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:35.909 of Olympic Games called the is smiths. Is SMITHIAN Games one of the most 127 00:11:35.990 --> 00:11:41.230 important events that was held in Corinth during that time every couple of years. 128 00:11:41.470 --> 00:11:46.350 It's one of the main things. In fact, being the president of those 129 00:11:46.389 --> 00:11:52.100 Games was one of the highest positions you could have of any position in society, 130 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:56.620 and the SOFISTS would compete there and people would watch and they talk about 131 00:11:56.659 --> 00:12:01.100 it and they analyze it and it was a big deal. The sofists would 132 00:12:01.139 --> 00:12:05.649 also put participate in the Cities Assembly. Interestingly, it's a word Ecclesia, 133 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:11.330 like church. This they were people called out and they they were good at 134 00:12:11.330 --> 00:12:16.720 public speaking and they would participate in that. They would be contracted to represent 135 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:20.480 the government for various important reasons. All right, we need to send out 136 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:24.159 these emissaries, for example, to go speak to Soandso and make sure this 137 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:28.600 thing happens, kind of like a diplomat or something like that. And they'd 138 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:33.269 send the sofist? Why? Because the guy really good at talking, he's 139 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:37.350 really good at presenting the case, he's really good at making the argument. 140 00:12:45.059 --> 00:12:52.059 Now to how would you become a sofist? Well, you do so by 141 00:12:52.220 --> 00:12:56.100 enrolling in one of the schools of the sofist. So these so fists would 142 00:12:56.179 --> 00:13:03.570 have people that were called disciples. This is a word that it was very 143 00:13:03.690 --> 00:13:09.289 prominently used in the fifth century and then again at this time in this movement 144 00:13:09.970 --> 00:13:15.279 sprung up again. Disciples, and it was the job of the disciple or 145 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:20.120 the follower to imitate the one they were following. That's what a disciple did. 146 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:22.679 This, of course, was lucrative for the sofas because, right, 147 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.149 you'd gather people into your school, you'd be paid all these fees by these 148 00:13:26.230 --> 00:13:30.950 rich families so you could train up their boys and then they would and this 149 00:13:31.070 --> 00:13:35.710 would elevate your own esteem, right, and your own reputation is all these 150 00:13:35.750 --> 00:13:39.909 people followed around imitating you, trying to be like you. And of course 151 00:13:39.990 --> 00:13:46.899 this kind of thing still happens today, right celebrities, when they become famous, 152 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:50.179 people go and cut their hair like them and wear clothes like them and 153 00:13:50.259 --> 00:13:54.779 try to match their gait and and things like that. This would happen with 154 00:13:54.899 --> 00:14:00.049 the sophists as well. It was the job of the disciple to imitate the 155 00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:05.289 one they were following. Jesus told his followers, his disciples, to teach 156 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:09.679 others all that he commanded. He called us to imitate him in his way 157 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:16.200 of life, not his manner of dress, but the things he did. 158 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:24.669 The sofist did require this, but much more disciples, they not only followed 159 00:14:24.710 --> 00:14:28.230 their strategies for speaking well, but also their mannerisms, the way they talk, 160 00:14:28.470 --> 00:14:31.950 the way they leaned a certain way, the way they paused after their 161 00:14:31.990 --> 00:14:39.700 sentences, and sometimes this was quite ostentatious. These people would dress exquisitely. 162 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:45.419 They would dress to impress. They would aim to be godlike, perfect elegance. 163 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:50.460 When they entered a room, they exuded charm, they spoke eloquently, 164 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:54.289 elegantly. Everyone said wow, someone you wanted to be like. It was 165 00:14:54.370 --> 00:15:00.889 someone who was important. Well, as they gathered these schools together, as 166 00:15:00.929 --> 00:15:05.490 they gathered these disciples together, what would often happen is the sophists, remember 167 00:15:05.529 --> 00:15:11.519 this is a competitive, competitive and even business environment. They would often roast 168 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:18.000 other sophists or straight up lie about them to gain an advantage over them, 169 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.789 and then the disciples would do that as well. They would follow this teacher 170 00:15:22.870 --> 00:15:30.710 or follow that teacher, and you'd have these groups of people following and living 171 00:15:30.750 --> 00:15:35.899 out these ways and then fighting one another because that established yourself as a true 172 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:41.220 disciple of this person or that person. It established the reputation of your your 173 00:15:41.299 --> 00:15:46.620 teacher you. So you had these kind of tribes of people centered around these 174 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:54.889 sofist sometimes there's records of even physical fights breaking out between disciples as they stood 175 00:15:54.889 --> 00:16:02.210 up and protected their the reputation of their teacher, and as they all this 176 00:16:02.330 --> 00:16:07.679 happened, people would him this ladder of importance. They would gain wealth and 177 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:12.399 fame, but it also created a lot of strife and a lot of quarreling, 178 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:21.509 backbiting, self protection, self promotion, gossip. Some of what went 179 00:16:21.590 --> 00:16:26.190 on among the sophist was certainly immoral and some of it was just good market 180 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:32.940 competition. That was putting to use of God given skill. But neither of 181 00:16:33.059 --> 00:16:37.860 those had any place in the Church of Christ. One the first one, 182 00:16:37.940 --> 00:16:44.539 because the moral and second one because the Church of Christ is constituted differently. 183 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:51.330 It's the Church of Christ is not a competitive market place of people's trying to 184 00:16:51.769 --> 00:16:59.250 establish themselves one of her or against another. It was something else. The 185 00:16:59.370 --> 00:17:03.679 problem is is that the Christians of that time were viewing these new teachers, 186 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:07.400 that they were seeing the Apollos and the sea fasts and the Peter and the 187 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:12.440 Paul, and they were looking them not as ministers of the Gospel but as 188 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:17.390 sophists. That's an easy mistake. People still make this today. Right, 189 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:21.430 you see a preacher, you hear him speak and you and you begin to 190 00:17:21.470 --> 00:17:25.549 treat him in a different way. Maybe you begin to treat him like other 191 00:17:25.670 --> 00:17:32.259 speakers. You get analyzed like a Ted x speaker, for example, or 192 00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:37.059 graduation speaker, a politician who speaks all different kinds of ways. But Paul 193 00:17:37.180 --> 00:17:42.859 says, no, preaching has its own particular thing. Yes, we use 194 00:17:42.940 --> 00:17:47.210 language, yes, where it's rhetoric involved in all of that, but it 195 00:17:47.329 --> 00:17:52.730 has its own purpose, has its own way of doing things and it's different 196 00:17:52.609 --> 00:17:57.329 than what you're used to thinking about and it's certainly different than the way that 197 00:17:57.450 --> 00:18:02.799 you are used to treating and following these teachers. You say they were looking 198 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:07.960 to Paul and Apollos and others as prominent teachers within the Church and then following 199 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:11.359 them like sophists. Oh, man, a pause. He's really our guy. 200 00:18:11.480 --> 00:18:15.789 Man, he's so eloquent. Paul, his knees were shaking last time. 201 00:18:15.829 --> 00:18:18.390 Did you see that? That guy? You can't even speak. His 202 00:18:18.630 --> 00:18:23.230 bodily presence was not that awesome. Sure, his words are great, his 203 00:18:23.349 --> 00:18:30.980 letters are awesome, but his public performance not so hot. Paulse tells it. 204 00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:34.259 tells us that that's what was being said about him and was probably true. 205 00:18:36.299 --> 00:18:41.609 He tells us that in Second Corinthians ten that's how people were judging him. 206 00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:48.970 They began to follow these various Christian teachers like you might follow a sophist. 207 00:18:51.730 --> 00:18:56.960 And Paul is saying, guys, guys, know, this is different. 208 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:03.759 This people, this body, is a different thing. We're not acting 209 00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:07.960 like sophist. We're not trying to gather people around ourselves, saying, Oh 210 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:11.230 yeah, I baptized you and you and you, and you're all followers of 211 00:19:11.349 --> 00:19:15.430 me and let's go make fun of Apollos and all of that. He'll go 212 00:19:15.549 --> 00:19:19.069 on to say, no, I I planted apoulos watered. We're all in 213 00:19:19.190 --> 00:19:25.259 it together. Sure, we may have different gifts. A police might be 214 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:30.299 a better speaker, but God is. But God has given these gifts in 215 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:33.859 different ways for the building, of building up of us together into one. 216 00:19:36.579 --> 00:19:38.170 So, in other words, the Christians thought of Paul as a kind of 217 00:19:38.289 --> 00:19:44.130 Christian Sophist, and Wal Paul did act with power and certainty. He was 218 00:19:44.650 --> 00:19:51.569 not a sophist. He did not care whether his physical presence was charming people 219 00:19:51.569 --> 00:19:57.160 or not. He wanted his words to be clear. He wanted to speak 220 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:03.160 the truth of Christ. He was there to deliver a message that he trusted 221 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:08.589 not in his rhetorical abilities but in the Holy Spirit to have the effect on 222 00:20:08.710 --> 00:20:14.029 the people that it would come to them not as the words of men and 223 00:20:14.549 --> 00:20:18.869 then they would all, you know, swoon and go oh Paul, but 224 00:20:19.029 --> 00:20:25.420 that they would lift their hands and praise to God. That was his desire. 225 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:29.339 He was not an embattle asset for the civil government, he was an 226 00:20:29.339 --> 00:20:34.579 ambassador for Christ. He and a police were not competitors for market attention, 227 00:20:36.210 --> 00:20:41.089 though differently gifted. They were co workers in a field ready for harvest. 228 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:47.009 So that's why he'll conclude in chapter three. The beginning of chapter three, 229 00:20:47.329 --> 00:20:51.319 he says, you guys are being childish, he says, but I, 230 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:55.240 brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people, the 231 00:20:55.359 --> 00:20:59.960 fresh as infants in Christ. I Fed you with milk, not solid food, 232 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:02.480 for you are not ready for it. And even now you are not 233 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:06.430 ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy 234 00:21:06.710 --> 00:21:10.829 and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, behaving only in 235 00:21:10.910 --> 00:21:14.950 a human way? For when one says I fall a Paul and another I 236 00:21:15.069 --> 00:21:19.980 follow a police, are you not being merely human? Paul is saying is 237 00:21:21.140 --> 00:21:26.259 that the church is different, that he's called us to be not merely human, 238 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:30.940 but those who are being conformed into the image of the God man Jesus 239 00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:34.609 Christ, those who are being established in a new way, in a new 240 00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:45.769 kind of organization, an organization and organism, a body that is not divided. 241 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:52.319 That's what he says here in our verses this morning. He says, 242 00:21:52.920 --> 00:21:57.480 I Paul a Paul, I follow Apolos, all fallow Christ. But is 243 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:06.109 Christ divided? The answer of courses is no. Christ is not divided. 244 00:22:06.630 --> 00:22:14.430 We understand ourselves as people who belong to him first and foremost. Yes, 245 00:22:14.630 --> 00:22:18.420 the Lord uses the Apostle Paul. Yes, the Lord uses a brother, 246 00:22:18.539 --> 00:22:22.900 Sausthenes and Apollos and others, but it's the Lord who's using him, and 247 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:30.569 it's the Lord whom we follow as disciples, not Paul. We are united 248 00:22:30.609 --> 00:22:33.369 to him, we are following him, we are to have his mind, 249 00:22:34.170 --> 00:22:40.849 to be in greement with ourselves through him. Remember how this letter began. 250 00:22:41.890 --> 00:22:45.240 What does Paul say about himself? He calls himself up, called by the 251 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:51.400 will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's a sent one 252 00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:53.880 to draw our attention to him. Remember what else Paul said in the beginning? 253 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:57.000 He said this was to this letter was to the Church of God, 254 00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:02.230 that is in clorance to those who are sanctified in Christ, called to be 255 00:23:02.390 --> 00:23:08.710 saints together, Not Saints Divided, Not Saints Quarreling, Not Saints at war. 256 00:23:10.069 --> 00:23:12.900 He then goes on to say grace to you and peace from God, 257 00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:18.740 our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The people of God don't need to 258 00:23:18.859 --> 00:23:22.380 be clamoring for the things of this world because they have all that they need 259 00:23:23.180 --> 00:23:27.849 in Christ. Remember what we went over last time in verse five, where 260 00:23:27.849 --> 00:23:33.690 he says that in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech 261 00:23:33.690 --> 00:23:37.450 and all knowledge. Isn't that interesting? How he says that in all speech 262 00:23:37.569 --> 00:23:41.240 and all knowledge. Well, everyone else was running to the sofist to find 263 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:45.519 knowledge tell us, things, speak to us, things train us how to 264 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:48.920 speak. When we come to Jesus Christ, he says I'll take care of 265 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:56.190 you, I'll give you everything you need for life and godliness. He says 266 00:23:56.190 --> 00:23:59.950 in verse seven, you are not lacking any gift as you wait for the 267 00:24:00.109 --> 00:24:03.950 revealing of all our Jesus Christ. If we are people who are not lacking 268 00:24:04.069 --> 00:24:10.579 any gift, what do we need to fight about? Usually if we fight 269 00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:14.539 about things that we feel like we don't have, things that we feel are 270 00:24:14.700 --> 00:24:19.380 threatened if somebody else doesn't submit and give them to us. We have everything 271 00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:26.890 we need, so let's not fight. Quarreling often happens out of fear that 272 00:24:26.970 --> 00:24:30.769 we won't get what we need. But we have what we need in Jesus 273 00:24:30.970 --> 00:24:36.809 and that means that we don't need to bring cultural modes or man centered modes 274 00:24:36.930 --> 00:24:41.799 into the church in order to obtain the things that Christ offers. The usual 275 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:47.440 tools are barely even able to accomplish earthly things. They're certainly not going to 276 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:52.910 be able to accomplish spiritual and heavenly blessings, and that's fine. They don't 277 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:56.670 need to, because God came into this world to give us all that we 278 00:24:56.789 --> 00:25:03.910 need. We do need the things that people often seek after, that we 279 00:25:03.069 --> 00:25:08.700 seek after. We need security, we need to be valued, we need 280 00:25:10.220 --> 00:25:15.660 significance and meaning, but we don't get them the way the world thinks they 281 00:25:15.700 --> 00:25:21.970 ought to be got. We get them through the grace of Jesus giving us, 282 00:25:22.289 --> 00:25:25.730 giving them to us, when we simply believe him and trust him. 283 00:25:25.730 --> 00:25:30.890 Jesus didn't come into the world and say go and do these things and after 284 00:25:32.009 --> 00:25:34.960 you do them, my grace will be sufficient for you and then I will 285 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:40.400 bless you because you will have proved yourself. As my disciple, Jesus, 286 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:45.240 says, just trust and follow me and you will receive everything. Give up 287 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:51.309 on the things of this world, follow me and all will be added to 288 00:25:51.470 --> 00:25:57.309 you. When the world rejects Jesus, rejects the body of Christ and then 289 00:25:57.390 --> 00:26:02.869 just fights among themselves, they give up on the prospect that they forget the 290 00:26:03.349 --> 00:26:08.500 central problem that we really have, which is enmity with God. That's the 291 00:26:08.619 --> 00:26:12.339 real problem, that's where our real problem is. That's why we don't have 292 00:26:12.660 --> 00:26:17.819 what we want. That's why we feel frustrated, that's why we feel a 293 00:26:17.859 --> 00:26:22.450 lack of significance and value and security, because we are enmity with the one 294 00:26:22.490 --> 00:26:26.970 who can give us all those things. So what's the answer to that problem? 295 00:26:26.490 --> 00:26:32.369 Is it to fight among ourselves, or is it to get peace with 296 00:26:32.569 --> 00:26:36.319 God? It's, of course, to get peace with God, and God 297 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:41.599 gives that to us through Jesus Christ. God sends his only son into the 298 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:47.000 world to die on a cross to forgive us our sins so that we would 299 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:51.230 have peace with him. So instead of obtaining these things ourselves, we receive 300 00:26:51.430 --> 00:26:56.430 them through the one who gives them to us. receive them through Jesus. 301 00:26:57.829 --> 00:27:04.420 That means that in the church we receive things like dignity, honor, importance, 302 00:27:04.859 --> 00:27:11.819 significance, value and security. But we achieve them not by or we 303 00:27:11.940 --> 00:27:15.500 get them not by achieving them through, you know, ranks, and and 304 00:27:15.890 --> 00:27:22.730 and and, yeah, certainly quarreling, but we get them through faith alone. 305 00:27:26.769 --> 00:27:30.079 When we begin to the more we understand who Jesus is, in other 306 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:36.400 words, the more we will understand who we are in him and who we 307 00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:40.880 ought to be. There's a line that jumped out at me recently from be 308 00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:45.789 Thou my vision. You know, the famous hymn the little there's a little 309 00:27:45.829 --> 00:27:51.230 line in it that I guess I noticed for the first time or renoticed or 310 00:27:51.309 --> 00:27:52.390 something like that is stood out to me in a new way. It says, 311 00:27:52.910 --> 00:28:00.059 be Thou my dignity. That's a really interesting prayer. Isn't it a 312 00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:07.819 request of the Lord to ask him to be our dignity? We often find 313 00:28:07.859 --> 00:28:15.170 ourselves in places where we want esteem, we want to feel valued, we 314 00:28:15.369 --> 00:28:21.289 want significance. We don't want to be fools and mocked at and derided people. 315 00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:26.289 We want value, and there's nothing wrong with that. The question because 316 00:28:26.289 --> 00:28:30.279 we are valuable. God made us in his image. Right. But how 317 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:34.440 do we receive that dignity? Do we do it by pushing others down, 318 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:41.509 climbing ladders and raising ourselves up, or we do it by being raised up 319 00:28:41.589 --> 00:28:47.390 by God himself into his life, where we receive the dignity of Christ, 320 00:28:47.509 --> 00:28:52.349 the honor of Christ, the value of Christ in us, and as we 321 00:28:52.630 --> 00:28:56.220 received that together. Brothers and sisters, what reason is they're left to argue? 322 00:28:56.259 --> 00:29:00.619 What reason is they're left to quarrel and to fight? Now we have 323 00:29:00.740 --> 00:29:04.980 our own particular problems about quarreling and fighting in this time and in this age. 324 00:29:06.460 --> 00:29:08.940 We need to be sensitive of them. Some of them overlap with these 325 00:29:10.049 --> 00:29:14.210 concerns that Paul had in Corinth and some of them don't. But it's ours 326 00:29:14.289 --> 00:29:17.650 to think about, isn't it? And it's ours to think about in this 327 00:29:17.970 --> 00:29:22.329 way, with Christ as the center of our life, with Christ is our 328 00:29:22.410 --> 00:29:26.599 head and us in him. So let's pray and ask for him to help 329 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:29.920 us to do that and to give us His grace that we might be unified 330 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.960 in him. Our heavenly father, we do praise your name. We praise 331 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:38.029 your name for the grace and peace that come to us from you and through 332 00:29:38.069 --> 00:29:44.950 the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly Christ is not divided, one member over here, 333 00:29:45.150 --> 00:29:49.190 one member over there. Know he is one and even one with you, 334 00:29:51.589 --> 00:29:56.660 and you have called us into that divine life, uniting us to Christ, 335 00:29:56.940 --> 00:30:00.220 so that he might be in us and so that we might be in 336 00:30:00.339 --> 00:30:06.859 you. These things are glorious and wonderful, and in this, Lord, 337 00:30:06.900 --> 00:30:11.650 we find everything that we need. We find our life, we find eternal 338 00:30:11.690 --> 00:30:17.049 salvation, we find the forgiveness of our sins, we find peace with you, 339 00:30:18.809 --> 00:30:25.000 we find glory in you and value in you, significance meaning. We 340 00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:30.400 find safety in you, under the shadow of your wings, Lord, when 341 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.559 people would seek to pick fights with us, let us learn how to not 342 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:41.950 not be afraid, but learn how to stand strong and Christ. Let us 343 00:30:41.950 --> 00:30:45.029 also learn how to not be people who pick fights and and quarrel and put 344 00:30:45.069 --> 00:30:49.500 others down. Instead, lord, t us to love with that same love 345 00:30:49.700 --> 00:30:55.740 that we abide in and a love that we have been given. Let us 346 00:30:55.740 --> 00:31:00.019 learn how to think practically through these things in our own church and our own 347 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:03.890 contexts. What are the ways in which we might exhibit the love of Jesus 348 00:31:03.890 --> 00:31:10.289 Christ to others more than we currently are? Let us learn to rely on 349 00:31:10.609 --> 00:31:17.410 you for everything, knowing that you will not fail, that you will not 350 00:31:17.650 --> 00:31:22.640 fail, according to your steadfast love, to give us everything that we need. 351 00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:27.440 Instead of turning against each other, let us learn to turn toward you, 352 00:31:29.880 --> 00:31:32.680 and in that, Lord, may you be glorified and may you build 353 00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:37.029 up a people that are not childish, but that are mature. I'm strong, 354 00:31:37.950 --> 00:31:41.549 not filled with jealousy and strife, but filled with love and with peace, 355 00:31:42.349 --> 00:31:48.700 not tossed about by every wind of doctrine, but standing strong against the 356 00:31:48.299 --> 00:31:52.819 turmoil of this world. And as you do this work in us, Lord, 357 00:31:53.380 --> 00:31:59.539 may your name be praised and may you cause us to be sustained until 358 00:31:59.539 --> 00:32:04.329 the end, when the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed. We pray this 359 00:32:04.450 --> 00:32:06.049 in his name. I an