SERMON OUTLINE:
Dealing with Disgrace (vs 1-5)
Explaining the Expulsion (vs 6-8)
Clarifying some Confusion (vs 9-13)
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
• Somebody sent this anecdote into Readers Digest:
• One afternoon in the hospital operating room where I am a nurse,
• I heard one of our nurse anaesthetists;
• Was trying to put a patient to sleep before an important operation.
• "Now I want you to breathe in and out," she intoned. "In and out, slowly in and out."
• The patient opened her eyes and yearningly said, "Is there any other way?"
• TRANSITION:
• What is the primary purpose of hospitals?
• Put simply: to help sick people get better.
• Therefore, the most important measure of a hospital is not its beauty,
• It is not the friendliness of the staff, or its sophisticated equipment.
• The measure of a hospital is its ability to make hurting people better.
• If a hospital doesn’t do that, everything else is a waste of time.
• I don’t know anyone who goes to a hospital for fun and games;
• Or to admire the architecture.
• Or because they make a jolly good cup of tea!
• Everyone I know (maybe there is an exception here this morning);
• But everyone I know who goes to a hospital has only one question:
• “Can you fix what’s wrong?”
• TRANSITION:
• The church of Jesus Christ is God’s spiritual hospital:
• Among the many things that take place here within these four walls;
• Our number one aim is to make spiritually sick people better!
• And then to keep those people spiritually healthy.
• i.e. Past: God offers forgiveness of sins, peace of mind, a new start.
• i.e. Present: help and strength to battle our addictions and bad habits.
• i.e. Assistance to deal with character traits that spoil our walk with Jesus & other people.
• In some ways leaving Church ought to be like leaving hospital;
• We want you to leave this place feeling better than when you came in!
• And spiritually fitter to battle the week ahead.
Ill:
• Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994) was a Christian evangelist and author;
• You can listen to many of his sermons online free of charge;
• But I warn you – he is an old fashioned ‘fire & brimstone’ preacher.
• He does not take prisoners and his messages speak into your very soul.
Now one of my favourite quotes of Ravenhill is this one:
“The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make him holy, then put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.”
• What a great description of what God does in the life of a Christian!
• He saves us, he keeps us and he sanctifies us.
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ this morning:
• Then you are someone who has allowed;
• Jesus Christ to radically ‘take’ hold of your life;
• And to wash away your unholiness, that is your sinfulness.
• In its place God has given his people the promised Holy Spirit;
• To indwell them and to change them.
• That is the number one reason we have the Holy Spirit in our lives;
• That we might be holy - there is a bit of a clue in his name!
God then places his people back in an unholy world;
• That is where we live and interact and socialise with other human beings;
• On a daily basis.
• Positionally in Christ we may be ‘citizens of heaven’;
• But in everyday reality we are dwellers on earth.
• So God places his people “..back into that unholy world and keeps them holy in it.”
• That’s why Jesus called us his followers;
• “The light of the world” and not the light of the Church!
• Because we are in the world but we are not of the world.
• TRANSITION: The Church of Corinth was a light in a city of darkness.
• Remember that at one time they too shared in that darkness!
Ill:
• This letter written about seven years after the Church was planted (A.D. 57).
• The apostle Paul listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9-11;
• Some of their lifestyles before they met Christ,
• Some of you were ….’wicked, thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers, and swindlers’.
• ’Sexual immoral, idolatrous, adulterous, homosexual’
• It is not a very pleasant list to have to read out publicly;
• But at one time these Christians were an ‘unholy people living in an unholy world’.
• But then they encountered the good news of Jesus Christ!
• They changed, which is why after that list of sins the apostle Paul writes a great line;
• “That is what some of you WERE!”
• That is the difference Christ makes to an individual;
• ‘Out of an unholy world and makes us holy’
• Jesus s in the business of transforming lives, making the old new!
• Then he puts us; “back into that unholy world and keep us holy in it.”
• That was now the situation for these Christians at Corinth.
• Or should I say MOST these Christians at Corinth.
Ill:
• A life boat in an ocean full of water has not got a problem;
• While the boat is in the water it is a place of safety and security for those on board.
• But if too much of the water gets inside the lifeboat;
• You have a big problem – sooner or later that boat will sink.
• TRANSITION: A holy Church in an depraved world has not got a problem;
• But if too much of that corrupt world gets into the Church;
• You got a big problem.
• And that was now happening with this Church in Corinth.
Ill:
• Think back to my opening illustration of a hospital:
• Although the apostle Paul is not a medical doctor, think of him as a spiritual doctor;
• He looks at his patient – the Corinthian Church;
• And he diagnoses that they are a Church contaminated with spiritual cancer.
Question: What is that spiritual cancer?
Answer:
• The cancer is the sinful actions & lifestyles of some of the Church members;
• If ignored or left undealt with, in time it will affect and kill this church.
• So in this passage, Paul the spiritual doctor;
• Will show you the patient’s chart;
• This chart clearly reveals the disease the patient is suffering from;
• And like a good doctor;
• Paul not only points out the problem,
• But he also prescribes cure that this patient needs.
(1). Dealing with Disgrace (vs 1-5).
Ill:
• We are used to hearing about politicians and celebrities caught up in scandals;
• Every week our Sunday’s tabloid newspapers are full of such stories.
• Sadly some of those newspapers may well also contain stories and reports;
• Of Christian leaders and members of a particular Church;
• Who are also caught up in some sort of scandalous behaviour.
• It happens today and it happened 2,000 years ago.
• And what we read about here in chapter 5;
• Would have been guaranteed to make the Corinthian tabloid newspapers.
FIRST: We Read About Scandalous Behaviour (vs 1)
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you…”
• The apostle Paul hears news;
• That some of these Corinthian Christians were misusing God’s gift of sex.
• Instead of following the Biblical model;
• That sex was to be enjoyed between one man and one woman within marriage.
• Some of these Church members were copying the behaviour of their culture;
• Taking their standards from their society.
• The norm in Pagan Corinth was to sleep around with different sexual partners.
• And some Christian converts were carrying on that practice;
• Everyone else is behaving this way – it’s the norm - so why not me as well.
When you read the whole of verse 1 we see the full extent of the situation:
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: a man is sleeping with his father’s wife”
• Not only was there immorality going on that involved members of this Church.
• The immorality mentioned involved a form of incest.
• A member of the Church was having a sexual affair with his mother-in-law.
• Note the description used; “his father's wife”, not “his own mother”
• Note also that the woman does not seem to be part of the Church fellowship;
• Otherwise Paul would have had the Church deal with her as well.
The apostle Paul then reminds them of just how bad this situation was:
• He says this sort of behaviour would even shock the pagan Corinthians!
• Even in their permissive culture, incest was taboo even for them.
• For God's people, it should have been unthinkable!
• (see Lev. 18:8;Dt. 22:30)
SECOND: We Read About Scandalous Reaction (vs 2)
“And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?”
• Although the leaders knew about this situation;
• They refused to take any action to sort it out.
• They let it continue even though it was ruining the reputation of the Church;
• And more importantly it was bringing disgrace to the name of Jesus Christ!
• I think the apostle Paul was more shocked by the church's reaction to this situation;
• Than he was to hear that a form of incest was taking place!
• So he is forced to step in and deal with the situation;
• And we will see how he does that as this chapter unfolds.
Note:
• We see in verse two that these Corinthian believers had a wrong mind set;
• There is a big misunderstanding, a big error in their thinking.
• The apostle Paul says in verse 2:
• “You should be heart broken and mourning but instead you are proud by this situation!”
• Instead of being scandalised by this behaviour ;
• In their confusion they mistakenly saw the situation as something to boast about.
Question: Why would they be proud and boastful?
Answer:
• They misunderstood what ‘grace’ is all about!
• I think it was because they misunderstood their freedom in Christ.
• God’s grace, our freedom in Christ is not a licensee to do whatever we want;
• And to get away with it without any consequences.
Question: What is grace?
Answer: “Grace is everything for nothing to those who don’t deserve anything”
• True grace is when Jesus takes sinful, polluted, rotten to the core people.
• People like you and me who have plenty of faults and failings and corrupt baggage.
• And he gives to us what we did not deserve;
• In him we find forgiveness.
• And there is the promise of a new start, a new life;
• Not because we deserved it or earn it but simply because of his grace towards us!
Now these Corinthian Christians seemed to have misunderstood that grace;
• And they seemed to had assumed;
• That God’s grace gave you license to live anyway you want to!
• In their confusion their mind-set, their thinking appears to be:
• “The more you sin, the more God’s grace will forgive you”
• Which is of course an abuse of grace and a misunderstanding of what true grace is.
Ill:
• Imagine a man involved in a serious car accident;
• He is rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
• The odds are against him and it looks like he is about to die.
• But due to the intervention of a skilled surgeon;
• The man is not only saved from death,
• But in time his scars heal up and he is as good as new.
• Now imagine the same man a few months later gets in his car and says;
• “I’m gonna deliberately crash this car hard into that wall,
• because I want to show you just how good the surgeon and the hospital is!”
• You and I would say that the man is insane;
• Hospitals, surgeons & nurses are not there to deal with peoples stupidity;
• Rather they are there to help the needy, the vulnerable, the sick.
• TRANSITION: God’s grace is there to forgive the past;
• To repair the damage of sin in our lives and to give us a new start;
• Set us in a new direction.
• Only a fool will deliberately keep crashing their lives;
• To try and prove how good God’s grace is!
• Grace does not does not work like that!
These Corinthian Christians had misunderstood God’s grace;
• And assumed that grace gave you a license to live anyway you want to!
• And so the apostle tells them, “No!”
• They should be mourning over this situation not boasting!
• They should be ashamed of their actions and not proud!
• They should be repenting and not rejoicing!
THIRD: The Proper Response (vs 3-5)
Verse 3 in the NLB paraphrase reads:
“Although I am not there with you, I have been thinking a lot about this, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I have already decided what to do, just as though I were there. You are to call a meeting of the church—and the power of the Lord Jesus will be with you as you meet, and I will be there in spirit”
• The apostle Paul acts, he responds with a reasoned course of action.
• He has been thinking and praying and deliberating the best course of action to take.
• Notice he does not call on Church traditions or constitutions;
• He doesn’t even ask the Church leaders to wield their authority.
• Instead he exhorts the Corinthian congregation;
• To apply correction in the name and the power of Jesus.
• They must take action for the sake of the Church, for the name & reputation of Jesus;
• And for this mans own good!
Ill:
• Occasionally my children get splinters in their hands;
• Now splinters cannot be ignored because they soon become infected and painful.
• Now this may surprise you but my children do not come to me for help;
• Rather they go to their mother!
• Now I am able to help them;
• But for some unknown reason they assume mum will be gentler and kinder!
• TRANSITION: Open sin in a Church congregation;
• Like a splinter needs dealing with otherwise it will only get worse!
• And it will affect not just them but the rest of the body of Christ as well.
Read: Verses 4-5:
4” So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”
• The proper response is that this man and his extreme situation;
• Is to call him to account for his actions before the congregation.
• Remember that his sin according to verse 1 was known about by everyone;
• So the Church must be seen publicly to act and deal with the situation.
• So that our communities realise we value what is right and wrong.
Pause to say:
• Now we are not told to apply these principles to everyone Christian who fails;
• Most Christians who fail and we do for no-one is perfect;
• But most situations can be dealt with confidentially and in private.
• The aim of any Church discipline is to deal with the situation as soon as you can;
• And to seek to bring restoration and healing;
• Back into the lives of those who have been hurt.
• But this man and his situation is exceptional;
• When like this man someone is unrepentant and not willing to remedy the situation;
• Then for this man what we read was the right course of action.
Ill:
• When you became a Christian, you realised the importance of finding a local Church;
• A spiritual home where you can be cared for, prayed for and supported.
• Now anyone can attend this fellowship and we trust be blessed by it.
• But others here this morning do not just attend this Church fellowship;
• They members or committed to the fellowship at a deeper level.
• When a person comes into membership/fellowship;
• They are not join a club or a society;
• But they are committing to become part of a family.
• TRANSITION:
• Well in the Church of Jesus Christ anyone is welcome to be part of that family!
• The good, the bad and the ugly!
• We are all born in to that family when we take Jesus Christ to be our Lord & Saviour!
• Any family survives and thrives when there is headship; Leadership;
• And where there is discipline;
• We may differ in what we think appropriate discipline involves;
• But every family needs it or it will soon fail to function properly;
• And the children will grow up spoilt or wild.
Now on this occasion the discipline involved to try and bring this man to is senses:
• Was to put the person ‘out of fellowship’:
• To ex-communicate them,
• To take away their influence in the fellowship and restrict their impact.
• This action would also show to both believer and unbeliever God has standards.
• There is a right way and a wrong way to behave in his family;
• And that his children are responsible for their lifestyle choices.
Notice: 3 times the apostle says this is the right course of action:
Verse 2b:
“and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?”
Verse 5:
“hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord”
Verse 13b:
“‘Expel the wicked person from among you.’”
Pause to comment on verse 5:
• There are two kingdoms at work in life:
• The kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God.
• When a person becomes a Christian he moves from the kingdom of Satan;
• Into the kingdom of Christ.
• Christ now rules and dominates that person’s life.
• To ‘hand someone over to Satan’s kingdom’;
• Is simply to say if you want to live in an incestuous relationship;
• Then that is your choice but you are on your own! Get on with it!
Ill:
• As parents we have at times all had stroppy children who refuse to cooperate;
• And that child needs correcting;
• So you might say to that child;
• “Go and sit on the naughty step until you learn to behave!”
• On the naughty step you have given the child a choice;
• They can stay on the step under their own selfish control;
• Or they can come back to the rest of the family under the parents control.
• TRANSITION:
• To ‘hand someone over to Satan’s kingdom’;
• Is to do the same with a spiritual child who will not comply.
• They can stay on the step under their own selfish (or under Satan’s) control;
• Or they can come back to the rest of the family under the Holy Spirit’s control.
(2). Explaining the Expulsion (vs 6-8)
Quote: It was John Donne who penned the classic words;
“No man is an island, entire if itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the man”
• TRANSITION: What is true in society in doubly true in the Church!
• Because as Christians we are all part of the ‘one body’ of Christ;
• Therefore we directly affect each other for good or for bad.
• Paul then uses an everyday household illustration to help explain the point;
• That one Christian’s sin can corrupt an entire congregation.
Verses 6-8:
“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Ill:
• Women in ancient times who wanted to make bread;
• Could not use yeast because yeast was scarce;
• Instead leaven was the popular alternative.
• Leaven was actually just an old piece of dough that had begun to ferment.
• When this lump of leaven added to a new batch of dough,
• It spread its fermentation throughout the whole loaf, making the bread lighter.
• But it had to be watched;
• Because the longer the process continued,
• The greater the danger that the dough would become spoiled and poisonous.
• When the dough became bad,
• Then it all needed to be thrown away, and the process begun again.
The application from this illustration is easy to understand:
• Certain things left unattended or ignored will go on to have a disastrous effect;
• They need to be dealt with quickly and efficiently.
(3). Clarifying some Confusion (vs 9-13)
Ill:
• A mother took her little boy to the hospital;
• The paediatrician trying to relax his young patients;
• Tried to put them at ease and test their knowledge of body parts.
• One day, while pointing to a little boy's ear, the doctor asked him, "Is this your nose?"
• Immediately the little boy nervously turned to his mother and said,
• "Mom, I think we'd better find a different doctor!"
• TRANSITION:
• When some people try to be help they can make the situation even more confusing!
• I am glad to say that the apostle Paul brings some clarification to this situation.
Note: Paul clarifies his command in verses 9-10:
• He makes it clear that in a world where Christians are a minority;
• You cannot but mix with people of different lifestyle behaviour and values to ours.
• The only way to avoid those who do have faith in Christ;
• Would be to leave the world completely;
ill:
• Please do not be what one person called a; 'rabbit hole Christian':
• Popping out of your holes,
• Racing from your insulated warren,
• To meet only with other Christians,
• Then racing back home to our insulated warrens.
• Separating from people who do not share our faith might make us feel safer,
• But it also keeps us from being salt and light to a dark and thirsty world.
• It will rob us of any evangelistic influence with our community.
In verses 11-13 the apostle makes his point clear:
11 “But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
These are very strong words that the apostle Paul writes:
• They are also words that need to be balanced with other New Testament scriptures;
• Otherwise we will apply them out of context and in inappropriate ways.
• The person mentioned here in this chapter is the one who claims to believe;
• But refuses to let Christ influence their lives in any way.
• They are self-delusional and to be avoided.
• The apostle tells us we are not to associate with,
• Or even eat with, anyone who calls himself a believer;
• But who persistently partakes in a lifestyle of habitual sin.
• Let me emphasises again that the context suggests;
• Do not have this attitude towards someone who fails and is repentant;
• That person is always to be supported;
• Is always to be cared for and encouraged back into a relationship with the Lord.
• The person mentioned here is the one who claims to believe;
• But refuses to let Christ influence their lives in any way.
• i.e. This man having a sexual relationship with his Mother-in-law;
• Boasting about it and with no desire to stop it and no remorse or repentance for it!
• This person is self-delusional and to be avoided.
Note: In this verse:
• The apostle also made it clear that sexual immorality;
• Was not the only area that required a measure of church discipline.
• His list included the greedy,
• The idolatrous (think about what that one looks like today!),
• Slanderers, drunkards, and swindlers.
• And although the consequences may not be excommunication;
• These things cannot go on unchecked or allowed to cause harm;
• They too need to be dealt with…
• So that the name of Jesus is not reproached;
• So that the body of Jesus (Church) is not contaminated,
• So that the individual might be made aware that we are not a law unto ourselves;
• But as members of the body of Christ we are accountable.
Conclusion
• So what do we do with this passage today?
• Lots of churches choose to ignore it,
• Because the issue of how to exercise church discipline is too complicated.
Note:
• The bigger question is; do we want to be a healthy body of Christ?
• Do we want to be a spiritual healthy fellowship.
• If so then that will not happen all by itself or by chance;
• At times action needs to be taken.
• We need to remember that; sin is to be grieved over, not celebrated or ignored.
• When individuals fall and fail in their Christian walk;
• We are to pray and love and support all we can;
• Our ultimate aim is to see that individual restored.
• Discipline should always be redemptive, not punitive.
Ill:
• A few years ago, an angry man at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam;
• Took out a knife and slashed the famous painting “Nightwatch” by Rembrandt.
• A short time later, a distraught, hostile man slipped into St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome;
• On him was a hammer;
• And he began to smash Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture The Pieta.
• Two cherished works of art were severely damaged.
• But what did officials of the museum and Church do?
Throw them out and forget about them?
Absolutely not!
Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision,
They made every effort to restore the treasures.
• TRASITION: Discipline should always be redemptive, not punitive.
• By His sovereign grace, God can restore the vandalized damage of sin,
• And make us beautiful once again.
sermon audio:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=aB2QS19Bg0rpREDPbjuCrDHrQzoDmzGc&forceSave&filename=A_Scandal_in_the_Church_%281_Corinthians_5%29_-_sermon_by_Gordon_Curley.mp3
