If you want to have the kind of a church Like the kind of a church you like,
You needn’t slip your clothes in a grip, And start on a long, long hike.
You’ll only find what you left behind, For there’s nothing that’s really new.
It’s a knock at yourself when you knock your church. For it isn’t your church–it’s you!
Real churches are made, not by people afraid Lest someone else gets ahead.
When everyone works and nobody shirks, You can raise a church from the dead!
And if when you make your personal stake, Your neighbor can make one too.
Your church will be what you want it to be, For it isn’t your church – it’s you!
I wonder – are we asking the right question? Is the question: What does the church I’ve always longed for look like? Or should the question be: What does the church God always intended look like? The emphasis is on Who should be pleased by the church! I will say, that I think if we will allow the Lord to remake and re-mold our church into what He wants it to be, we will also be quite well pleased, as well! But if we simply endeavor to make it pleasing to us – nobody – not God, and not us – are going to be very happy about it!
I think we are on the right track when we look at the church in the book of Acts and try to determine what the church was like. We’ve talked about the church being a caring bunch of people, capturing the heart of our community by compassion and love, welcoming all people without regard to their race or ethnic background.
Today, I want to re-emphasize the fact that this business of building the church is God’s business, not yours or mine. You might say it is “tainted” – “taint your business, and it taint my business – it’s God’s business! Jesus had a conversation with Peter, and asked Peter who he says Jesus is. Peter wisely responded: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said, “On this rock of confession I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matt 16:15-18). It should not surprise us, then, that God would establish his church in one of the places that was notorious for its sin and wickedness – Corinth! Let me tell you a little about this place that would become a central player in the new church.
According to one of my professors, Dr. Charles Carter, in his book The Acts of the Apostles, “Corinth was in Paul’s day both the political and commercial metropolis of Greece and was the residence of the Roman Proconsul. The wickedness of Corinth made it a byword for corruption and licentiousness throughout the Roman world (266).
The Beacon Bible Commentary says “Corinth was the meetingplace of many cultures and languages. It had a considerable Jewish community. It was the capital of Achaia. It was the home of the famous Isthmian games. But its chief notoriety in Paul’s day seems to have been its reputation throughout the world as a center of licentious immorality. All kinds of vice flourished, much of it allied with religion. Acrocorinth, the fortress hill which dominated the city, had a temple to Aphrodite and 1000 priestesses dedicated to prostitution. Corinth was identified with sexual vice to the degree that its name had passed into the language: “to Corinthianize” meant to corrupt morally; to “act the Corinthian” meant to practice fornication. It was in this city of Roman officialdom, Greek commerce, pagan religions, wealth, poverty, slavery, and moral pollution, that Paul planted a thriving Christian church.(Acts. 207)”
Does that surprise us? Isn’t that the story of every place that has experienced a move of God? God doesn’t necessarily move upon the “cleaned up” place, the nice place. If you read back in Acts 17, you discover that Paul has just come from Athens, the “nice” place. It would have appeared to be a place more open to the gospel – there was the monument to the Unknown God that Paul used to illustrate a wonderful oratory to the learned men meeting at the Aereopagus. But the people who responded there was minimal. The Interpreter’s Bible Commentary says, “Athens had both the pride and the glory that were rapidly fading, so Paul moved from a city renowned for its learning to one notorious for its vice” (Acts. 239).
I’m interested in knowing how the Lord working in Corinth applies to what the Lord can do here in West Chester – how about you? I think if we were going to draw comparisons, we would probably say that this community might be more like Athens than Corinth. We are the nice place, the healthy living in the Burbs place. Don’t you think? But you know what? After 2,000 years, God is still doing what He has always been doing – establishing His church among people who are open and receptive to Him! The moral climate doesn’t hinder or help the church of God – it’s just the place where people live and move and respond to the Gospel. God can “raise a church from the dead” if people are willing to allow Him to work. AMEN?
The Church God wants us to be does some things right…
1. WE MUST GATHER THE TEAM. An interesting thing is happening in Acts 17 & 18. At the end of Acts 16, Paul & Silas have just gotten out of prison in Phillipi. They go to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left. They go down several miles to Thessalonica. Opposition raises it’s ugly head and Paul & Silas are sent out under the cover of darkness. They go to Berea, where they are warmly received. V 11: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true!” You should be doing that, too! Opposition again – and Paul is sent out. Silas and Timothy stay in Berea. Paul is now on his own, and he goes to Athens. V 15: “The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.”
While in Athens Paul tries to make the most of the opportunities. He identifies with their culture and makes his message relevant, but there is little response to the Gospel. Report of his efforts there: “A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.” But notice, he is in Athens by himself.
Paul leaves Athens and goes 50 miles across the Isthmus to Corinth, and notice how God starts gathering the outreach team. Maybe Athens was an illustration to Paul that he could not accomplish this task alone. Later on he would write to this same Corinthian church and confess: “Who is Apollos, and who is Paul, that we should be the cause of such quarrels? Why, we’re only servants. Through us God caused you to believe. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow. The ones who do the planting or watering aren’t important, but God is important because He is the one who makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose.” (I Cor 3:5-8 NLT).
Notice the members of the team that are brought in: Paul comes over from Athens. A Jew, Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. (interesting!) Silas and Timothy finally catch up with Paul and bring him an offering so that now he doesn’t have to be bi-vocational but can give himself “exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.”
Let me remind you, loved ones, that God is still in the business of “gathering His team” to do the work that He has called them to do. As far as I know Ephesians 4:11-16 is still in effect! READ EPHESIANS 4:11-16!
2. WE MUST DEFINE OUR PURPOSE FOR EXISTENCE. It sounds to me like Paul was having an “Elijah experience.” After the great victory up on Mt. Carmel where God sends the fire and consumes the sacrifice that Elijah has prepared; 450 prophets of Baal and 400 followers of Asherah are wiped out. Wonderful victory! But the next scene has Elijah ready to give up and die. “I’m the only one left, Lord. Take me home!” Apparently, Paul was having some of those same kinds of thought. But the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision at night: (v. 9-10 “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will harm you because many people here in this city belong to me.” Paul is refired in his determination to obey God. He recommits himself to the purpose of God to build the Church of God in this den of iniquity! His passion is restored.
Oh that God would do that for us, friends! God give us a fresh vision! Help us to see with your eyes, Lord! Help us to know that it is our job to speak, and Your job to save! Help us Lord that we will be re-fired for the work of God! That our hearts will be re-kindled with Your love for people! May we accept again the privilege – and the responsibility – of being Your people in this place! And may we work for Your glory and honor!
3. WE MUST FACE THE OPPOSITION. Paul has been working away for a year and half, teaching the word of God, but some Jews decide that they have had enough. “Concerted action” more literally means “came to do battle” with Paul and brought him before the governor for judgment. Just so happens that the governor – though apparently not a believer- he’s full blooded Roman – yet he, too, is one of God’s players. You know that every ruler and king is set up according to God’s will, don’t you? It says so in Romans 13:1 “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Gallio is no slouch. Dr. Carter states, “Gallio, brother of the Roman philosopher Seneca (tutor of the emperor Nero) and uncle of the poet Lucan, was a well-educated, accomplished, and amiable Roman who had been advanced from the office of consul to the proconsularship of Achaia, with its capital at Corinth, in about AD 52. He was noted for his sense of justice and administrative ability” (270). Probably, the Jews thought this new guy would yield to their pressure – but they were wrong.
I love this sequence of events: The Jews come with their accusations and charges against Paul. Paul is all ready to make his defense, but before a word comes out, Gallio speaks. End of story. Gallio won’t allow those games in his court. V. 18 says Paul stayed in Corinth for some time before making his way to Ephesus. Those that oppose the Gospel are not the problem; they will always be around. The problem comes when we yield to their pressure and pay attention to them instead of to God’s will! That’s the problem!
Not only did God have his first line in the game at Corinth, he sent in a second line, headed by a man named Apollos who has been greatly helped and influenced by Aquila and Priscilla! He comes into Corinth after Paul and works to establish the church with sound doctrine.
4. WE MUST SEE RESULTS! Here’s the good part, folks. Because of the work of God’s team in Corinth, some wonderful rejoicing took place in heaven! You know what Luke 15:7 says, don’t you? “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent!” Some sinners were repenting, and coming into a personal relationship with their Savior, Jesus Christ, in Corinth.
Let me point these out to you, because they aren’t all in one neat list somewhere – but they are listed in the Lamb’s book of Life because of the efforts God put forth in Corinth.
Acts 18:8 Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, and all his household believed in the Lord. Many others in Corinth also became believers and were baptized. Who, you ask?
I Corinthians 16:15 Stephanas and his household were the first to become believers in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. Also listed here are Fortunatus and Achaicus
Romans 16:23 Erastus, the city’s director of public works and our brother Quartus
Romans 16:22 Tertius, who wrote down the letter to the Romans for Paul,
Romans 16:23 mentions Gaius, whose hospitality Paul and the whole church here enjoy. And I
Corinthians 1:14 mentions that Paul did baptize Crispus and Gaius.
I Corinthians 1:11 mentions Chloe
Romans 16:1 “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servent of the church in Cenchrea.”
The kind of a church God wants for us to be – and we want to be – is a church where “everybody works and nobody shirks” – where we see our God given responsibility to bear the good news of the gospel to people who have not heard. We aren’t waiting for them to get cleaned up to come to Christ – we are taking the gospel to them with renewed passion and purpose – overcoming obstacles – to bring men and women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. AMEN?
