Holy Spirit Series 2000
The World, The Spirit and the Cross
Introduction to 1 Corinthians
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
What sank the Titanic? Most of you saw the movie. Many have seen the news reels. What took the gigantic ship to the ocean bottom on April 15, 1912 along with over 1500 men, women, and children? What sank the unsinkable ship? An iceberg? A gigantic gash in its hull? A mistake of the captain? All of these may have had a part to play in the disaster. But what really took the ship down is quite simple. Water. Plain old sea-water.
I am not a mariner. I know very little about ships and sailing. But I do know this. The ship belongs in the water and not the other way around. When the water gets in the ship, you have a problem. You get enough water in the ship and it will sink, no matter how big or impressive or expensive the boat.
There is a parable here for the Christian life. Jesus said his disciples are to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:15-19). Like a sailing ship, it is OK to be surrounded by the world, even worldly ideas and values, but those ideas and values must not get in our lives or our church. When they do, disaster is just around the corner. This has always been the greatest spiritual battle of the Christian life. Spiritual warfare is not about wrestling with demons and goblins. It is about holding back the subtle deadly influence of your neighbors and their way of thinking.
Today I will begin a series of four messages. I hope they will be helpful on several fronts. First we will be looking directly at the Word of God. That always matters. It is one thing to hear interesting and even inspiriting words from preachers and teachers. It is altogether another matter for those words to be directly linked to the clear teachings of the Word of God.
Secondly, the particular portion of the Bible that we will examine is both interesting and somewhat controversial. We are going to examine 1 Corinthians 12-14 and the issue of how God works in the life of his people and his church. This portion of Scripture is in the Bible for a reason. Apparently the Holy Spirit thought the original readers needed it and others who would follow would also need the same message.
But most of all, this series of studies may have something very powerful for those of us in this church, in this city, in this day. Some Bible scholars think this book of the Bible is among the most relevant for our times. First Corinthians is really about how a church of real live human beings who have come to place their faith in Jesus Christ deal with the challenge of life in a very non-Christian world.
Does that have anything to do with us? I dare say it does. We live in a day very different than that of our parents and grandparents. We are surrounded by worldly temptations, worldly attitudes, and worldly priorities to the extreme. Many of us have lost the ability to distinguish between the popular message of our world and the message of the Gospel. Worse yet, some no longer think it even matters. This is the issue of 1 Corinthians.
Today I want lead you through a brief journey of 1 Corinthians. This will provide important background for understanding chapters 12-14. There are three important principles for rightly understanding any passage of scripture. Get these right and you are well on your way to correctly understanding the Bible. Ignore them and you will almost always get them wrong. The three principles are these: context, context, context. Nothing replaces the importance of reading and understanding the Bible the way the Holy Spirit gave—in its original context. Fortunately, reading and understanding the context of a bible passage is not some mysterious process. All you have to do is read and re-read the text. It requires effort, but anyone can do it.
Let’s start by reading the main theme passage of 1 Corinthians. It is the ideas of this text that Paul applies to a number of different issues. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25—
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.ӣ
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”£
Why this message? Why did this need to be emphasized? What prompted Paul to lay down these themes about the cross, signs, wisdom, foolishness and boasting? To figure this out, we must explore what was happening in the lives of the people to whom this was first written.
First things first. This was a letter written by the Apostle Paul, the Jewish Pharisee who actively persecuted the early Christians until he was supernaturally converted to the very faith he opposed. He would become the most effective missionary evangelist of Christ in the early church. What a transformation! His testimony is one of the most remarkable evidences for the power and reality of Christian gospel. If God could change this man, there is nothing in your life or in the life of anyone you know that is beyond the power of God.
The letter was written in the middle of the first-century; about three years or so after the message of Christ first came to the Greek city of Corinth. The story of the beginnings of the first church in the city is told in Acts 18.
The city was home to about 80,000 people. It was an important commercial and religious center in southern Greece. Because it was home to people from all over the world, it was full of all kinds of spiritual and moral choices. In fact, the city was notorious for its wild, immoral atmosphere. Other Greek cities would use the phrase “to corinthianize” to describe the worst, of the worst of moral degradation. To refer to someone as a “Corinthian girl” was to call her prostitute. That wasn’t the way Christians saw the city; it was the common perspective even among otherwise rather ungodly pagan people. This was the hometown of the Corinthian Christian Church.
To get a sense of what these new Christians lived with consider Romans 1:21-32. Paul was in Corinth as he penned these words. Most Bible scholars believed he simply looked out his window and described what saw passing by on the street below.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
What happens when Christians live in such a world? It sounds like our world doesn’t it? It is a challenge. It is like a ship sailing a storm tossed sea. One must always be on guard lest the water gets in the ship or the world gets inside the church. Keeping the world out can be done. It must be done. But it will not be easy! It wasn’t easy at Corinth.
I want to walk you through 1 Corinthians and point out the leaks in the hull of the ship. Because there is seldom anything new under the sun, it is likely that their issues may be ours as well. Listen for anything that sounds familiar.
I won’t read all of the passages that we might. It will simply sample verses here and there to give you a flavor of the bigger picture. There are two kinds of issues in 1 Corinthians. First, there are events that Paul has been told about by the couriers of his correspondence with the church; secondly, there are a number of specific questions that Paul has been asked to address.
1:11 speaks of matters that “some from Chloe’s household have informed me” about. 5:1 speaks another matter that was “actually reported.” At 7:1 the discussion changes directions. Paul begins, “now for the matters you wrote about.” At several other points in the letter, normally at the beginning of chapters, Paul writes, “now concerning.” This phrase marks a transition from his answer from one of their questions to the next. This phrase is found at: 7:1, 25, 8:1, 12:1, 16:l. A similar transition begins at 11:2 and 15:l.
According to my count, there are at least eight different issues in the letter and a few other side issues. Let me outline them. These are the problems to which 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 is the solution. Remember these are Christian people, some of whom weren’t particularly acting like it.
1:ll—There were divisions in the congregation. Different groups were fighting with one another, quarreling with one another, and according to 6:1 even suing one another in civil courts. All the while they were claiming to be Christian brothers and some were even declaring themselves among God’s spiritual elite. “Tell me it isn’t so,” Paul laments. “The fact that you can’t get along and treat each other civilly is evidence you aren’t nearly as spiritual as you think you are.”
5:l—At least one person in the church was carrying on illicit sexual affair with his stepmother. The pair was not only continuing the relationship, but some in the church were actually proud of how tolerant they were. “We are so spiritual,” they seemed to argue, “that we can even forgive that.” “You don’t get it,” Paul warns, “Sin kills. You don’t tolerate it; you don’t take pride in it. You repent of it.” When they asked, “Who are we to judge,” Paul countered, “You who truly know Christ, that’s who!” As strange as it may seem to us, I hope, some seemed to be arguing as long as they could claim God was working miracles or speaking to or through them in supernatural ways, what they did morally didn’t matter. Paul even had to explain the ABC’s of why prostitution was bad.
7:l—At the other extreme, some seemed to argue that the only way to deal with sexual temptation in such a promiscuous society was to become totally celibate. Even some who were married had allowed themselves to believe that physical intimacy was so spiritually contaminating that they abstained from it even in marriage. Needless to say, the spouses of some of these misguided believers didn’t particularly appreciate the attitude. Paul counters such an insane belief system with a clear and balanced discussion of Christian marriage, divorce, and mutual concern between spouses. It is not the physical intimacy between spouses that contaminates the spiritual life, but unfaithfulness, dishonesty, and mixed up priorities.
8:1—Some couldn’t quite figure out if Jesus was the only Lord or just one option among many. In other words, wasn’t it possible to be a Christian and keep your options open for other religions? The practical issue was how believers in Jesus related to the many opportunities to participate in the worship of pagan idols so prevalent in the community. For example, what do you do if invited to a pagan wedding feast that involved sacrifices and blessing to heathen gods?
Some seemed to say that as long as you said the word Jesus, you could go anywhere and do anything. Others seemed to think that being a Christian meant giving up all contacts and associations with those who were not Christians. That’s not an easy call. Paul calls for clear thinking, Christian consistency, and real life consideration even for those who might come to different conclusions than you. Above all, he says, “Don’t think that this issue doesn’t matter. False worship always matters to God.”
11:1—Some in the Corinthian church couldn’t agree on a “dress code for worship”, proper procedures for communion, and how prominent a role women could have in Christian meetings. His answers are rather involved, but the bottom line seems to be: Wow, if you can’t settle your anger and quarrels and differences before you get to the communion service, you better take three deep breathes and do some major soul searching. Sharing in communion while harboring anger in your heart toward a fellow Christian is a very dangerous matter. God doesn’t take it lightly and you shouldn’t either.
12:1—This is the section we will consider over the next three weeks. There were some differences of opinion regarding how God works in believers’ lives. Specifically, some had encountered rather exceptional spiritual experiences. When they worshipped and prayed, they overflowed with emotions and ecstasy. They possessed what Paul referred to as a “gift of languages.” Some claimed to be able to speak and pray in a language they had never learned. The very nature of this experience caused some to conclude they must be special to the Holy Spirit. Others perhaps doubted their spirituality for the very same reason. At the same time, these “especially spiritual ones,” as they viewed themselves, tried to convince others that all of their problems would be solved, if only they had what they had. Paul’s answer to that is what we will look at in the next month.
15:1—Some in the church, not unbelievers on the outside, didn’t get it regarding the resurrection of Christ. Specifically, they didn’t understand that our future means a personal resurrected body. After death, it is not just some kind of vague immortal soul that lives. Perhaps because of the strange religious ideas that they were raised with, some found it hard to think of a personally, resurrected life. Paul argues if you can’t believe in your resurrection body, how can you claim to believe in Christ’s bodily resurrection. And if you don’t believe that, how can you call yourself a Christian?
16:1—Some were having difficulty understanding the need for Christian generosity with their money. They talked a good faith. They promised certain things, but found the follow through to the pocketbook a bit too hard.
This quite a list! You see churches do have problems. That’s not unusual. But problems are to be solved, not lived with. Problems may be normal, but they must never become acceptable. You deal with them; you don’t deny them or rationalize them. Christian problems, whether relational, marital, religious, moral, about worship services, or money – always have a theological or doctrinal base. Bad living or bad church behavior always comes from bad believing.
If these are the questions, how is 1:18-31 the answer? How could so many problems, false ideas, and messed up thinking develop in one group of professedly Christian people? And how does 1:18-31 provide a solution.
While we don’t exactly know how these problems could have developed and become as bad as they did, but there are some good clues in the book. Much of it grew out of the pagan thinking of the day. Apart from the gospel, most people tend to think that religion and morals and behaviors having nothing to do with one another. For most heathen religions, faith is simply a matter of going through certain ceremonies, learning certain magic formulas and rituals, or experiencing special feelings in the ceremonies or rituals. As long as a person goes through the ceremonies and experiences the magic, everything is OK.
Imagine what happens if a person or a number of people profess Christ, but never rid their minds of such thinking patterns. Now add to that mixture special blessings of God and many marvelous ministries of the Holy Spirit. This is where our study of 1 Corinthians 12-14 will come in beginning next week.
The Corinthian congregation had been blessed in special ways. At the beginning of the letter, Paul insists, “4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (1:4-7). Judging from chapter 12-14, some in the congregation were especially blessed by the Lord with ability to speak in languages they had never learned; some experienced prophetic visions, and probably a number of other works of the Lord.
But that was where the problems began. Giving the pagan thinking common to many before they heard the gospel, it was only a short leap to the conclusions: if we are experiencing God in these marvelous ways then we must be OK with him. How we live must be OK? What we think must be OK? These experiences are proof that we have been chosen by God. Anyone who isn’t like us or doesn’t have the experiences we have, must not be OK with God. They aren’t as close to God as we are.
The whole point of 1 Corinthians and especially 12-14 is to show that this thinking is messed up. Even if the spiritual manifestations are from God, (and we can’t automatically conclude that they always are because many pagan religions claimed the same experiences) the wrong-headed thinking about them isn’t. Sin is still sin and needs to be repented of—even in the life a person blessed with special gifts from the Holy Spirit. It is not one’s spiritual or emotional experiences that is proof of the Spirit, Paul says over and over again, but the heart-felt content of one’s faith in Jesus and what he did and one’s obedience to his teachings in a life of holiness, including how you treat your fellow Christians. Nothing, no matter how exceptional the spiritual or emotional experience, excuses anything less.
At Corinth, on the other hand, some believers used their spiritual blessings as an excuse to fight and quarrel, slander and gossip, live immoral lives, and pat themselves on the back for their ability to accept on-going sinful behavior. They lived in prejudice toward the poor and others like them, flirted with the false religions of their neighbors, rejected their spouses and did business with prostitutes. That’s ok, they argued. We have a gift of languages from the Spirit and see visions. Surely if we can do that then we are OK with God. How wrong they were!
This same wrong-headed tendency exists today. I won’t go into now. I will save some of the specific application for our study of chapters 12-14. But it was exactly this kind of thinking that led to what happened to Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, the infamous televangelists.
Let’s read 1:18-25 in this light: 18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”£
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
To the people of that day, wisdom referred to either a special knowledge only available to the super-smart or more often to spiritual wisdom that came only through visions from the gods. Only the elite had such wisdom. Common folk could get it only from association with those to whom the gods spoke. Modern cults like Christian Science, Scientology, and others are directly in line with such ancient pagan thinking. For the Gospel on the other hand, God’s wisdom was available to everyone on the same terms, not just to some super-spiritually elite.
22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
Jews tended to believe that God’s supernatural favor proved their standing with him in every other way. A miracle or claim of one was the proof that needed to be cited. For Greeks it was supernatural visions from God. When you read “wisdom” in 1 Corinthians don’t think of biblical knowledge or Christian understanding. That’s not what is meant. It is special wisdom either through visions and dreams or secret lessons learned from spiritual gurus. It was not available to ordinary people like you and me.
23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.
What makes the cross foolishness to some? It is too simple, too openly available to all. Why is it a stumbling bock to others? It is not over-powering. It doesn’t vindicate a few, but declares all to be in the same need of forgiveness before God. It says we can’t save ourselves. It forbids forever any notion that sin is OK or tolerable.
30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Corinth is closer than you think! I am constantly amazed at how often this two thousand year old thinking sticks its ugly head out from under our modern church confusions and problems. When it does, the same solution is needed. We don’t need an outbreak of miracles or more displays of emotion. We don’t need to discover forgotten spiritual secrets or master the lasted ritual or technique. We don’t need to see visions or dream dreams. What we really need is a good healthy dose of the “old rugged cross.”
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
