LET THE CHURCH BE THE CHURCH PART I: SPIRITUAL WISDOM
I CORINTHIANS 2: 6 -- 3: 3
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER: APRIL 27, 2003
INTRODUCTION: “My Town” as sung by Montgomery Gentry.
There’s a for sale sign on a big ole rusty tractor, You can’t miss it, it’s the first thing that you see, Just up the road a pale blue water tower, With "I Love Jenny" painted in bright green, Hey that’s my uncle Ray there by the courthouse, He’ll be lowerin’ the flag when the sun goes down, Hey this is my town, Well now there ain’t much goin’ on here since they closed the mill, But that whistle still blows everyday at noon, There’s a bunch of us still go down to the diner, And wonder if that interstate’s still comin’ through, But come Sunday mornin’ service at the Church of Christ
Well there ain’t an empty seat to be found, This is my town, na na na na, Yeah, this is my town na na na na na na, Where I was born, where I was raised, Where I keep all my yesterdays, Where I ran off ’cause I got mad when it came to blows with my old man, Where I came back and settled down, And where they’ll put me in the ground this is my town, This is my town, Well I bought and painted up that rusty tractor, You can’t miss it, it’s sittin’ right there in our yard, The county came and took the water tower, And that’s Jenny with the baby in the car, We’re off to Sunday service at the Church of Christ, If we want a seat we better leave right now, Maybe later I could show you around, This is my town, na na na na, Yeah, this is my town na na na na na na, Where I was born, where I was raised, Where I keep all my yesterdays, Where I ran off ’cause I got mad when it came to blows with my old man, Where I came back and settled down, And where they’ll put me in the ground this is my town, This is my town!
Writers: (Jeffrey Steele, Tim Owens, Jeff Bates)
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Today I want us to start on a journey together thinking about what it is to be a real church. As we were journeying together toward the cross, we read Matthew 16: 16ff “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’” Now this is exciting and powerful, but what does it mean to us and are we fulfilling this great promise in our day? Are we really a church who is walking in the command of the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28: 19-20).” Can we hear the words of Montgomery Gentry and sing this is my town; we’re off to Sunday service at the Church of Christ, if we want a seat we better leave right now! The real question is how do we become the church that Jesus has called us to be? The answer is that we must first become the people that Jesus has called us to be. The Apostle Paul addresses this dilemma with the people of the city of Corinth.
THESIS SENTENCE: The Church of Jesus Christ is a Church focused on the wisdom of the Cross.
What kind of people filled the Corinthian church and what kind of people fill the Catawba Heights Wesleyan Church?
SOME STATISTICS THAT JOHN MAXELL SHARES CONCERNING MAINLINE DENOMINATION MEMBERSHIP:
50% are not certain of their salvation.
60% seldom attend church.
70% give 1% or less of their income.
80% have no ministry within the church.
80% do not attend Sunday School or a small group.
90% have not been discipled or trained.
3500 to 4000 churches close each year/ that’s 10 a day.
1900—27 churches for every 10,000 people.
1985—12 churches for every 10,000 people.
The average size of all churches in America is only 75 (100?) people and 85% of them have plateaued or are declining.
The real question for us today is what can we learn from the people of Corinth?
SOME ARE IN…
I. THE QUEST FOR WISDOM
A. THE MESSAGE OF WISDOM FOR THE MATURE
1. Our text begins with a rebuttal to a question that was asked, “Why don’t you teach us about wisdom?”
2. What they were really asking is we want to be as enlightened as those who lead our culture/ our age/ our times.
3. Paul responds with a bit of a slam. He states that if you really want wisdom, you would seek it from God.
4. The whole argument Paul has been making is that true wisdom comes from God and is embodied in the Cross of Christ alone.
5. True wisdom for Paul is found in the Cross alone, this is the wisdom that the mature find.
B. THE WISDOM OF THIS AGE
1. Here Paul addresses those that know nothing of God. These are people who crave information, to be enlightened, but don’t want to hear about the Cross. To them, the cross is foolishness; it just doesn’t make sense.
2. To these that are asking for “enlightenment” Paul states, the wisdom of this age and of the rulers of this age “come to nothing.”
3. What Paul is really saying is that he is teaching wisdom, just not the kind they are looking for, but a Wisdom that is from God, a Wisdom that is revealed to us by His Spirit.
SOME ARE IN…
II. THE QUEST FOR THE SPIRIT
A. THE SPIRIT OF THIS WORLD
1. Again Paul differentiates for these seekers of wisdom two kinds of “spirits”. There is the spirit of the world and the Spirit of God.
2. The spirit of this world Paul states is the spirit of man. It is the wisdom of mankind.
3. This spirit of the world or the spirit within a person is what the KJV calls the natural man. This is the spirit that lives in contrast or in opposition to the Spirit of God.
4. This is the man without the Spirit of God as seen in verse 14. This is the person who does not accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him.
5. Paul goes on to state that this person not only refuses to accept the things of God, but that this person cannot understand the things of God because they are “spiritually” discerned.
6. The bottom line here is that people who seek the spirit of this world are those that have no part of the Spirit of God.
B. THE SPIRIT OF GOD
1. But, the spiritual man, the person who seeks after the things of God, the person who has accepted the Spirit of God into their lives, makes judgments about all things. This means, they do not see things as the world sees things, they see things, as God wants them to see them.
2. The reality here is that Spiritual people, those that seek the Spirit of God, are controlled by God. They are lead by God and seek to do, as God would have them. 3. He goes on to say that these people are not lead by the spirit of this world or by the wisdom of this world, but are Judged by God alone, not by what men think. 4. The most powerful statement ever is that these people have the very mind of Christ. What he is saying is that these people are Philippians 2 people, they have the attitude of Christ Jesus “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross (6-8)!”
5. This takes us back to the beginning. What was the real wisdom that the Apostle Paul was teaching? It was the wisdom of the Cross, it is what this world does not understand, and it is of what has been said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
6. This is no other than the forgiveness and salvation that come through the cross alone!!
SOME ARE IN…
III. THE QUEST OF THE CHURCH 3: 1-3
A. INFANCY
1. BUT, what has any of this to do with the church and being a church lead by the Spirit, or a church of the SPIRIT???
2. This is where Paul makes it oh so clear and takes us back to chapter 1 verses 10 and 11 where he addresses the issue of division in the church.
3. Paul has made it clear that there are two kinds of people, those that don’t know God and those that do, those that have the wisdom of this world and those that have the wisdom of God, those that have the spirit of the natural man and those that have the Spirit of God. Those that align with God have the cross as wisdom, the Spirit of God as their guide and the mind of Christ as their understanding.
4. But then he introduces us to the original dilemma, some who think they are spiritual are not, but are worldly. They are like decaf coffee; they look like the real deal, but don’t have the power of the real deal. The effect is not the same. Their actions give them away. Paul calls them babies and babies who are still nursing, babies that can only drink milk!
AN ASIDE: Is there a problem with babies? Shouldn’t the church be filled with babies, chronologically and spiritually? The answer is yes, but how long should one be a baby. Moms, do you want to change diapers for the rest of your lives? Do you hope your children will one day be able to feed themselves? The answer again is yes; we all desire that our children grow up. Sometime we just don’t want them to grow up to quick, but we all hope our children become adults!
B. MATURITY
1. The goal of the wisdom that Paul teaches is Maturity.
2. Refer back to verse 6. “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature…” The interesting aspect about this word mature is that in the Greek, the word is Telios, or a derivative of it. Teleios is the word often translated perfect that we Wesleyans love to talk about. This rendering, “Mature” is the most accurate for perfection. Perfection is not always getting every little thing right, it is growing up and knowing the difference and not making the mistakes of immaturity.
3. What was happening in the church at Corinth was that those that should have been all grown up were acting like babies. They were jealousy and quarreling among themselves. Paul calls this acting like mere men.
4. This “mere men” stands in opposition to those that are lead by the Spirit of God.
5. Therefore to be mature would be not to quarrel and be jealous. It would be to have solid food, and it would be the opposite of worldly, which was to act as mere men.
ILLUSTRATION: John Maxwell shares a story about a man at Pearl Harbor. He had gone to a bible study the night before the big attack. The group was asked to share their verse and he couldn’t think of one. The next day, when the Japanese attacked, the guns on the ship were all filled with blanks. He said for fifteen minutes he shot at the enemy with fake ammunition. God spoke to him in that instant and told him he was no different than the gun he was shooting. He only had the appearance of power, but not the real thing. He vowed that day to study the word of God and with the help of God to grow up to be a real Christian.
Is your gun loaded??
CONCLUSION: There was a song we once sang at Mt. Moriah that speaks to this issue. It is called the Church Triumphant and was written by Bill Gather. It goes like this:
Let the church be the church, Let the people rejoice, For we’ve settled the question
We’ve made our choice, Let the anthems ring out, Songs of victory swell, For the church triumphant, Is alive and well!
Verse 1
This old ship’s been through battles before, Storms and tempests rocks upon the shore, Though the hull may be battered, Down inside safe and dry it will, Carry its cargo to the mansion above.
WHAT KIND OF CHURCH ARE WE?? WHAT KIND OF CHURCH ARE YOU? WHAT KIND OF PERSON ARE YOU?? UNLESS WE YEILD TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD, WE WILL NEVER BE THE CHURCH OF WHICH CAN BE SAID, “THE GATES OF HADES SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT!”
ARE YOU A LEGITIMATE BABE IN CHRIST, ONE WHO HAS ONLY KNOWN JESUS FOR A SHORT TIME? HAVE YOU REACHED MATURITY? ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THE ADULT IN CHRIST, THE MATURE PERSON YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE??
HOW DO YOU NEED TO PRAY TODAY??
