Imagine a church wracked with divisions. Powerful leaders promote themselves against each other, each with his band of loyal followers. One of them is having an affair with his stepmother, and, instead of disciplining him, many in the church boast of his freedom in Christ to behave in such a way. Believers sue each other in secular courts; some like to visit prostitutes. As a backlash against this rampant immorality, another faction in the church is promoting celibacy --- complete sexual abstinence for all believers --- as the Christian ideal. Still other debates rage about how decisively new Christians should break from their pagan past. Disagreements about men’s and women’s roles in the church add to the confusion. As if all this were not enough, alleged prophecies and speaking in tongues occur regularly, but not always in constructive fashion. A significant number of these immature Christians do not even believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ!
Does this sound like anything you have ever heard of? Probably no contemporary church faces this exact cluster of issues all at once. But all of the issues remain remarkably current. The description, of course, is not of any contemporary church but of the first-century church in Corinth. Yet if we can understand the nature of these problems and the nature of Paul’s divinely inspired instruction in response to them, then we will gain great insights into numerous debates that threaten to divide today’s church and keep it from having the world-transforming impact God intends it to have (Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians: The NIV Application Commentary, p. 17).
TEXT: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Why preach through a book of the Bible?
· Because it allows the preacher and congregation to know what the coming week’s text will be.
· Because it forces the preacher to address difficult or unpopular passages.
· Because it keeps the preacher from always speaking on the same subjects.
· Because it is the most natural way to learn the message of God’s Word.
Like most letters of the first century, 1 Corinthians begins with the name of the writer, the name of the recipients, and greetings (see vv. 1-3).
AUTHOR: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Paul also sends greetings from a man named Sosthenes. He is simply described as “our brother” which leads us to believe that he was well known to the Corinthians. Acts 18:17 mentions that the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth was named Sosthenes. We are told that he and some other Jews took Paul to court because of what he was teaching. If this Sosthenes was the same Sosthenes as in the opening of 1 Corinthians, then he must have turned to Christ sometime later. This gives us encouragement to share the gospel of Christ with those who seem most opposed to it. Paul is probably the greatest example of this. He was once a persecutor of the church. God saved him as he was on his way to Damascus to arrest the Christians. The greatest persecutor of the church became its greatest preacher.
This letter of Paul to the Corinthians is actually a response to a letter they wrote to him. It’s possible that Sosthenes delivered the Corinthians’ letter to Paul and then later returned with Paul’s letter to them.
RECIPIENTS: “The church of God in Corinth.” The church was founded by Paul on his second missionary journey (Acts 18). Notice, though, that Paul describes the church in Corinth as “the church of God.” Paul was as responsible for the birth and life of that church as it is humanly possible to be, but it was God’s church, not Paul’s church.
Forest Hills Fellowship Baptist Church is not my church. It’s not your church. It’s God’s church.
The church in Corinth caused Paul a lot of grief. It was a church filled with problems. Many church members were resisting Paul’s authority. Yet still he could say, “I always thank God for you” (v. 4).
TITLE: Thank God for the Church!
Sometimes it’s hard to thank God for other Christians. Yet even when Christians are not all they should be, there are always reasons to be thankful for them.
Why should we give thanks to God for our fellow Christians?
Paul gives us three reasons why we should give thanks to God for other Christians.
I. EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS BEEN SANCTIFIED BY GOD (v. 2).
. . . to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ --- their Lord and ours.
To “sanctify” means to “make holy.” Every Christian has been made holy “in Christ Jesus.” We are not only made holy but also “called to be holy.” Is Paul being redundant. No. Sanctification has a past, present, and future tense.
· Past / Positional Sanctification
· Present / Practical Sanctification
· Future / Perfect Sanctification
Holiness is God’s plan for every Christian --- for “all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable. . . . For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:3-4, 7-8).
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16).
We all know that it’s very difficult to be holy in this world. But it was no different for the Corinthians. The city of Corinth was one of the most corrupt cities of the first century. It was the Las Vegas of the ancient world. Las Vegas has been nicknamed “Sin City.” It would be accurate to describe Corinth as the “Sin City” of Paul’s day.
Corinth had gained such a reputation for sexual sin that the word korinthiazo was coined, which means “to act like a Corinthian --- in other words, “to commit fornication.” Life in first century Corinth was similar in many ways to life in twenty-first century North America.
In 6:9-10, Paul lists some of the specific sins for which the city was noted and which formerly had characterized many believers in the church.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Some of you here this morning might have lived a very wicked life before you came to Christ. But, just like the Corinthian believers, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.” You are “called to be holy.”
II. EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS BEEN GIFTED BY GOD (vv. 4-7).
I always thank God for you because of the grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way --- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge --- because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
A spiritual gift is some capability given through the Holy Spirit that enables a Christian to minister to the needs of others.
The Corinthians had been “enriched.” They had been made spiritually wealthy. They did “not lack any spiritual gift.” In other words, all of the spiritual gifts were present in their church.
A. Since every Christian is given at least one spiritual gift, every Christian is useful to God.
B. Since Christians receive spiritual gifts only by God’s grace, there is no reason to boast about them.
That was one of the problems in the Corinthian church. They had a wrong view of their spiritual gifts. They boasted in their gifts.
“Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (4:7).
C. Spiritual gifts confirms that the gospel is true.
Paul says, “Our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you” (v. 6). His preaching about Christ has been accepted by the Corinthians, and their changed lives had proved it to be true.
III. EVERY CHRISTIAN WILL BE KEPT BY GOD (vv. 8-9).
He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”
“The day of our Lord Jesus Christ” refers to the day when Christ will return for His church.
How could Paul be so confident that the Corinthians would be “blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ?” Because his confidence was not in the Corinthians themselves, but in God. “God . . . is faithful.” “He will keep you strong to the end.”
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole Spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it” (1 Thess. 5:23-24).
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands” (Deut. 7:9).
“Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies” (Ps. 36:5).
“Your faithfulness continues through all generations” (Ps. 119:90).
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fails. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23).
