This sermon (1 Corinthians 1: 6 -9) was preached at West Ewell Evangelical Church, Surrey, on Sunday 11 January 2015.
Introduction
We have discovered that the Corinthian church was very much like us – where the society had no moral compass and there was a religious maelstrom of all religions and the inclusion of none.
As we have mentioned before, we are looking at the contents of this letter through the prism of grace and peace (verse 3).
We looked at thanking God last time so we shall be investigating the completeness to be found in God this week.
The source of our completeness is the amazingness of God, which we have been singing about.
God is absolutely central to everything we are reliant on– note: Christ is mentioned nine times in first nine verses.
There are three areas that mentioned in these four verses:
a. Certainty – testimony of Christ revealed in you
b. Continuing sustenance
c. Conclusion of time
1. Certainty
In verse 6, the word indicates that we are to be bearing witness to what God has done for us – the word (‘confirming’) is often used in papyri in legal sense of guaranteeing.
We can confirm what God has done in our lives, which is seen through His grace and peace poured out through us to others.
The starting position has to be salvation, being made holy in God’s sight. We have seen previously that we are already called to be a child of God (2 Timothy 1: 8 – 12).
‘Blameless’ (v. 8) signifies ‘unimpeachable’ – God looks down and sees righteousness of Jesus covering us (2 Corinthians 5: 21 – ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’)
We need to know who we are in Christ Jesus I am reminded of the illustration found In Disney’s ‘Lion King.’ Simba the lion heir apparent had been exiled, experiencing the massive guilt about his role in his father’s death. His father had taught Simba the importance of his role in the animal kingdom and how he should act; but when the road got tough, the young lion prince ran. When Rafiki, the monkey who was the king’s prime minister, finds the errant prince and challenges him about his identity and what he should do next. The critical point comes when Rafiki literally raps Simba on the head and says, ’You don’t even know who you are!’
We need to know our identity as children of God.
As the children of God, we should be aware of eternal hands holding us up – we need to be aware of fact that God has saved us and how marvellous is our relationship with heavenly King.
Elyse Fitzpatrick stated: ‘Maturity in the Christian life is measured by only one test: how much closer to His character have we become?’
We have sure confidence in the love of God since it is grounded in fact that God is faithful. The character of God is at stake since He promised in His Word that nothing can separate us from Him (Romans chapter 8).
‘Faithful’ is defined as ‘firm in adherence to promises.’ Jeremiah wrote: ‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ (Lamentations 3: 22 – 23)
2. Continuing sustenance
Verse 7 tells of gifts. There are three possibilities as to what this means – a) salvation (Romans 5: 15 – ‘For if the many died by the trespass of the one man [i.e. Adam], how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!’ b) spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12: 4ff) or c) God’s gifts in general (Romans 11: 29 – ‘for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.’).
In this passage, it is the reference to God’s general gifts in general (c) that He outpours into the lives of His children.
His gifts are given to us not for our pleasure but as means of drawing others into the Kingdom of God. It should be our testimony of how God sustains and protects us. It should be talking points: how much do we use how God is working in our lives as starting points in conversations?
God’s gifts in our lives illustrate His grace. His love meant that He had to rescue us
Paul know of the grace of God in his life: ‘The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.’ (1Timothy 1: 14)
His enrichment of gifts upon us is an assurance, a foresight (v. 8) of the good things that we will experience in eternity.
Ann Landers wrote about a person she knew who said that the greatest gift he ever received in his life was a note his Dad gave him one Christmas. It read: ‘Son, this year I will give you 365 hours – an hour every day after dinner. We’ll talk about whatever you want to talk about. We’ll go wherever you want to go, play whatever you want to play. It will be your hour.’ That Dad kept his promise and renewed it every year.
Our heavenly Father is with us more than one hour a day – in fact, every nanosecond and every moment.
3. Conclusion of time
Verse 7, ‘apokalupsin’ = ‘revealed’ means ‘unfolding’ or ‘revelation’ refers to the Second Advent when we shall see Christ as He is.1 John 3: 2: ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’
Our lives should be characterised by eagerness and anticipation of Jesus coming back, not the anxiety that is often evident. It is this world that sucks our enthusiasm for God returning, The cares and the concerns, often legitimate, can cloud our vision of the returning glories of Christ.
l am reminded of the story of an old sea captain was quizzing a young naval student. ‘What steps would you take if a sudden storm came up starboard?’ The young man replied, ‘I would throw out an anchor, Sir.’ ‘What would you do if another storm sprang up aft?’ asked the captain. ‘I’d throw out another anchor, Sir.’ ‘But what if a third storm sprang up forward?’ ‘I’d throw out another anchor, Captain.' 'Wait a minute, son,’ said the captain. ‘Where in the world are you getting all these anchors?’ The young man replied, ‘From the same place you’re getting all these storms.’
In the midst of life, we need only one anchor, which is God the all-sufficient one.
Larry Crabb wrote: ‘We can count on God to patiently remove all the obstacles to our enjoyment of Him. He is committed to our joy.’
We need to live in the light of eternity, showing the love and light of God in our society – ‘just as you excel; in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.’ (2 Corinthians 8: 7).
What is your reaction? Are you looking forward to the final revelation of Jesus or so dependent on this world?
Conclusion
God does not deny His children for He is abounding in grace and peace.
The recent film ‘Unbroken' tells the life story of Louis Zamperini, who was anything but unbroken. He was the trouble-making son of Italian immigrants to United States, who rose to fame as an Olympic athlete. During World War 2, after a plane crash, Louis and two fellow soldiers were trapped on a raft for 47 days before they were captured by the Japanese. Louis was imprisoned and sadistically tortured by a prison officer he called the Bird. When Louis was released at the end of war, he was anything but unbroken for he suffered nightmares, flashbacks, a marriage that was dominated by his drinking and unsafe behaviour. His wife, Cynthia, filed for divorce and was in the process of taking their baby girl with her before she went to a Billy Graham crusade, found Christ as her Saviour and told Louis that would no longer divorce him. Louis was sceptical but also offended
After persistent requests, Louis went to a Billy Graham meeting and also found Jesus as his Lord. His biographer wrote about Louis’ conversion: ‘When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him. He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make him. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was a new creation.’
The grace and peace that God has more than enough for all of them, for he is super-generous.
I wonder what you expected from this morning – if it was just to meet with people, to socialise or to ‘do your bit’ for the week, then you would have been disappointed. If you were determined to meet with God in order that lives would be changed, then that desire would been fulfilled as He wants to pour out His gifts upon us, mainly in His indwelling Spirit in our lives.
There is so much that He wants to give us as He is our surety, our ever-present help and hope for the future, yet we are only content to take crumbs from the feast He has prepared for us.
We can be content with what we have now, that we do not want to move forward. The ultimate is (verse 9) fellowship with Jesus, who is faithful so we are not lacking. We should be enjoying that relationship – knowing that we are forgiven and drawing strength from Him, whilst we would delight in Him.
We were reminded in previous sermon that church is people gathered to call upon God – what have you called upon God for this morning?
