On To Corinth (2022) Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

BACKGROUND:

• (a). The City was Cosmopolitan:

• (b). The City was Commercial.

• (c). The City was Corrupt.

FOUR SNAPSHOTS:

• Photo #1: the tentmaker (vs 1-3).

• Photo #2: the watchman (vs 4-6).

• Photo #3: the evangelist (vs 7-10).

• Photo #4: the builder (11-17)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• Whether it is the distance from Brighton, Manchester or Glasgow,

• The actual point for measuring the distance to and from London,

• Is located at Charing Cross, Westminster.

• Question: Why Charing Cross?

• Answer: Not even because it is quite central in London.

• It was chosen not because of its geographical location, but for another reason.

• You have to go back almost 750 years to the reign of Edward I.

• The name stems from the fact that King Edward I,

• Erected a cross on that site in memory of his wife Eleanor after her death in 1290.

• The cross-outside Charing Cross Station is a replica made in 1863,

• The one that stood at the original site was a few hundred metres away.

• Historians believe the original was not as ornate as the one seen today.

I was thinking of the cross after our Thursday night house group:

• Alistair who said that the sermon we looked at last week was probably just the highlights,

• We noted that he doesn’t mention the cross of Christ,

• But he does talk about the resurrection.

• Now you cannot of course have one without the other!

Today the apostle Paul has left Athens and walked 90-miles west to Corinth.

• And unlike Athens, when he is with Christian friends (chapter 17 vs 15)

• And here we get a better insight as to what he preached.

• Later he would write a letter to the Corinthians in which he says,

• Quote 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 22.

• “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Quote: 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 1-4.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures:”

Ill:

• No cross then no salvation!

• Can’t play football without a ball.

• You cannot cook a meal without using food.

• You cannot play the piano without the keys.

• You cannot be saved without the cross.

• TRANSITION: Only at the cross is the problem of sin dealt with!

• “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”

• So, we know what message the apostle Paul preached,

• The gospel, the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ as predicted in the scriptures.

Note: As we look at these verses, note that:

• Athens and Corinth were very different types of cities.

• And there was great rivalry between the two cities.

• e.g., Portsmouth & Southampton, Manchester & Liverpool, Glasgow & Edinburgh.

• Athens had been the leading political and commercial centre in Greece.

• But now Corinth had replaced it!

• That alone caused major rivalry & opposition.

Ill:

• Corinth & Athens were in every sense city of contrast,

• e.g., Glasgow and Edinburgh.

• Athens was the university city, a cultural city e.g., Edinburgh.

• Where the eggheads, the intellectuals met and spent time in philosophical discussion.

• Corinth was a bustling port e.g., Glasgow.

• It was a populous city and the port made it economically wealthy.

BACKGROUND: 3 THINGS TO NOTE:

(A). The City was Cosmopolitan:

• Cosmopolitan simply means multi-ethnic, international, broad-based,

• A city that included people from many different countries.

Ill:

• For many years I ran a Holiday Club in Hounslow, London,

• We would easily get over fifteen nationalities each day.

• I counted Asian, Congolese, Philippines, Egyptians, Polish, Nepalese and more.

• TRANSITION: The city of Corinth was like that!

• People from all over the world passed through its port!

• Historians tell us that the city was mostly populated by freedmen,

• By ex-slaves:

• Individuals who had either bought their freedom or earned it in some way.

Ill:

• The apostle Paul alludes to this in his first letter to them,

• Written some 7 years later (1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 & chapter 7 verse 22):

“Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.”

“For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.”

• Many of these ex-slaves had worked their way up the social ladder,