1 Corinthians 1:1-3

Many of you who are older than I look at the world that we are in and ask “What happened?” As some people say: “Mayberry isn’t Mayberry anymore.”

We can look at our own town. We see the alcoholism. We see the drug use, even in our school. We see a new shop on Main Street: The Neligh Vapor Shop. We see the broken families.

We can look at the churches in the area. Immorality is normal. Who waits for marriage anymore? The things that no one would do back in the day are flaunted. We could talk about beliefs. The Methodist church, which was the foundation of Gospel truth a hundred years ago is about to split over homosexuality.

Most of the churches in this county do not believe in salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. They add works to it. Several do not even believe that the Bible is the Word of God, complete and without error.

We can look at the history of this church, the splits, the squabbles, the fights, the pride. We can look at ourselves and admit we are not perfect, just like everyone else isn’t perfect.

The saying is “History repeats itself.” And I believe that we as the church in America needs the message of 1 Corinthians again. What the Corinthian church struggled with, or didn’t struggle, is exactly what we as the church are facing or dabbling in today.

Before we dive into the passage today, let’s lay some background to this book. We always ask: who, when, what.

First, let’s pray

1A. Introduction

1B. Who

This letter was written by Paul the apostle. He was not one of the twelve apostles who lived with Jesus for 3.5 years, who saw his death.

Paul was a religious leader, a Pharisee, who actively persecuted Christians. After Jesus went to Heaven, Paul traveled around Israel and threw Christians into prison, he even influenced the execution of some.

He thought he was doing a service for God. But, he was a horrible person. Consider how we reaction to Muslim extremists. That’s who Paul was.

Then, one day, Paul was traveling to Damascus to terrorize Christians there. Jesus appeared to him, struck him blind, and proved the truth of the Gospel to him.

Paul repented and turned to Jesus in faith. He was gloriously saved, not by works but by faith in Jesus Christ.

After years of learning more about Christianity, both alone and with other Christians. He began to travel around the Roman empire as an evangelist.

On his second trip, he came to Corinth. There he met Priscilla and Aquilla. Titus and Silas joined him. He spent a year and a half there and then went to Ephesus. After a period of time, Apollos was sent to Corinth to continue the work. You’ll see his name pop up from time to time in this letter.

Corinth was a hard mission field. When Ahab was king in Israel, Corinth was a thriving city in Greece. It rivaled Athens as the wealthiest and most influential city in the area. People flocked to Corinth because of the temples of Apollos and Aphrodite. The ruins of the temple of Apollos can still be seen. During this time of prosperity, this town was also known as sin city. Literally.

The temple of Aphrodite employed one thousand prostitutes. Immorality was so engrained in what people thought of Corinth that Greek literature began to coin phrase about it. Plato would refer to a prostitute, no matter where she was, by the phrase “Corinthian girl.” Another writer used the phrase: Doing Corinth for fornication.

That life came to an abrupt halt in 146 BC. Rome came to conquer Corinth. They destroyed the town. Most of the people were either killed or sold into slavery. It lay empty for decades.

One hundred years later, Julius Caesar rebuilt the town. He brought in freed slaves, soldiers, and urban laborers to live there. Situated where it was on a prominent trade route, it quickly grew. People from all over the Roman empire moved there. It became the capital of the province of Achaia, and was a place of cultural and religious pluralism. Everything was okay there.

We don’t have any evidence of the temples of Apollos or Aphrodite being rebuilt. However, we know the worship of Aphrodite continued in shrines scattered throughout the city. Immorality was exulted, along with all sorts of other sins.

The Corinth of Paul’s day was basically New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas all rolled into one. It wasn’t a nice place to live.

That’s the who: Paul and Corinth

2B. When

Now, the when. Paul first visited Corinth in AD 51, about 18 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is about 15 years before his own death. He stayed there 1.5 years, as I said. Then he left. In AD 54, he wrote a letter to Corinth. We don’t have that letter. We don’t really know what is in that letter. We just know that he wrote it, because he refers to this letter in 1 Cor 5.

The Corinthian church misunderstood the letter and wrote a letter back. We don’t know what that said either except it contained questions about Christian living, church life, and accusations about Paul’s authority and apostleship.

So, he wrote this letter back which we will be studying this year. After this letter, he visited Corinth two more times and wrote at least one more letter.

3B. What

So, we have the who and the when. Now the what.

In this letter we have a bunch of themes: Paul defends his apostleship. He urges the Corinthians to embrace the values of the cross. He touches on issues of purity. He talks about loving God and others. Church worship practices are spent a lot of time on. He defends bodily resurrection.

He covers the gammit. But, maybe a one phrase theme would be helpful.

I don’t know if you have ever seen the movie Ratatouille. It’s a cooking show about a rat. A phrase is repeated throughout it: anyone can cook.

So, to borrow from Ratatouille, Paul is saying: anyone can be sanctified.

No matter how messed up we are, no matter how messed up someone else is, sanctification can be pursued. God can take our brokenness and make something beautiful from it, where we actually show his image.

If the Corinthian church can change, we all can.

Now, let’s dive into the passage for today: 1 Cor 1:1-3

2A. Who are we as the church?

Paul starts all his letters with a simple introduction, who is writing it and who is it written to. His elementary teacher would be proud.

But, he also puts some important truths into his intro. Here he answers the question: who are we as the church? That question provides the basis for everything else in the letter.

You see, our practice is supposed to line up with who we are. A football player plays according to the rules of football, not track. Someone who stays in the Sample house keeps the Sample rules. Someone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus Christ, lives according to that truth.

Our practice is supposed to line up with who we are.

So, who are we as the church? Some of the answers to that question are going to be very simple, but necessary to remember. 6 answers.

1B. We are a localized group

First, we are a localized group. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. While this letter has been used by churches throughout the world for the past 2000 years, it was meant for a specific church in a specific place.

Paul interacted with specific churches. When he went on his missionary journeys, he started a church in each of the towns he visited. A group of people that would meet to worship God in that community. They met to perform baptisms and take communion. They encouraged one another in their sanctification. It was a church in a specific community.

They wouldn’t travel to other communities to worship. They worshiped there in their community.

God designed the church to be a localized group, a covenant community where we know each other, a group built on truth, to teach truth, to edify each other, to encourage each other in the fulfilment of the Great Commission and to restore each other when we sin.

Not to belabor the point. This was not the church in Athens. This was not the church in Jerusalem. This was the church in Corinth.

We have an interesting phenomenon in the American church with the rise of the mega churches. Now, I have nothing against a large church. But, people have grown used to traveling long distances to attend a church. And that church will grow larger and larger, but all of the smaller communities around lose the witness of the Gospel because everyone is leaving to worship God.

I have nothing against people who drive a distance because there are no good churches in their community. Nebraska has a lot of communities like that.

There is a larger church in the NE Nebraska area which has been talking to me about how they can take their members and plant churches in the smaller communities from where their members are coming from.

I get excited about that.

The church is a localized group.

2B. We are sanctified

We are a localized group of those who are sanctified. We are sanctified. Paul says in v2.

Now, this term of sanctified means to be set apart. This does not have to do immediately with God continuing to change us to be like Christ. This has to do with our salvation.

When we make that decision to trust Jesus for our salvation, turning from our sin and everything else we have trusted in or worshiped, God sets us apart.

We are his.

Peter says it this way:

1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We have been through a radical change, a new birth, where we are different than what we were: we are God’s, on his team now.

Now, if someone is not sanctified in Christ Jesus, they have never trusted in him for their salvation, they are not part of the church. They cannot be.

The church is a localized group who have been sanctified.

3B. We are called to be holy

They have been sanctified and called to be holy. You can see that in the verse that you will have memorized by the end of the sermon.

When we are set apart in Christ Jesus, we are set apart for a purpose: to be holy even as God is holy.

Tim Keller says: God sees us as we are, loves us as we are, and accepts us as we are. But by His grace, He does not leave us where we are.

He calls us to change.

Paul writes:

Romans 6:12–13 (NIV)

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

We are called to leave behind our life that is so displeasing to God. We are called to leave behind our priorities and desires. We are called to take up our cross and follow Him.

We are called to be an image of God. That’s why we meet together every week.

The author of Hebrews writes:

Hebrews 10:24–25 (NIV)

24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

We meet so that we can help each other in our holiness. Those who do not meet together tend to get stunted in their holiness.

The church is a localized group who have been sanctified and called to be holy.

4B. We are part of a larger group

You ready for number 4? Do you need a coffee break?

Not only is the church a localized group who have been sanctified and called to be holy, but the church is part of a larger group.

See v2.

This is called the universal church. We are part of a family that contains all those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ from the first century until now, until when Jesus Christ comes again.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:19–21 (NIV)

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

We are scattered throughout the nations and throughout the centuries, but one day, we will be together worshiping God in one voice.

John writes:

Revelation 5:13–14 (NIV)

13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be praise and honor and glory and power,

for ever and ever!”

14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

We are part of a larger group. We cannot exist alone: us against the world. In fact, through helping and partnering with other Christians, we grow in being more Christ-like.

The church is part of a larger group.

5B. We are worshipers of God

We are part of a larger group, defined as those who worship God.

Read v2.

Have you memorized it yet?

This phrase: “Call on the name of the Lord,” has been used throughout Scripture. In the OT, it was used for those who were worshipers of the one true God.

Genesis 4:26 (NIV)

26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.

At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.

These are opposed to those who do not call on the name of the Lord:

Psalm 79:6 (NIV)

6 Pour out your wrath on the nations

that do not acknowledge you,

on the kingdoms

that do not call on your name;

In the NT, this phrase morphed from just a worshiper of the one true God to someone who is a follower of Jesus Christ, having trusted in him for salvation.

As Peter said,

Acts 2:21 (NIV)

21 And everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

This calling speaks of our need for him. We are those who confess that Jesus, our God, is our all-in-all. He is everything to us.

Jonathan Edwards speaks of his beauty, that he is the most beautiful thing in the world, therefore we don’t want to pursue anyone or anything else. Nothing is a greater priority for us, nothing has control of our heart.

If someone walks through these doors and does not know that we are worshipers of God alone, something is wrong. If someone spends time with us in our home or in the community and does not know that we are worshipers of God, something is wrong.

Just as with the local church, if someone is not a worshiper of the one true God, saved by the grace of Christ alone, we are not part of them.

We are part of a larger group defined by those who worship God.

6B. We bear grace and peace.

So, were have we been? Who are we?

We are a localized group who have been sanctified and called to be holy.

We are part of a larger group defined by those who worship God.

Final answer to the question: who are we? Is: we bear grace and peace.

Read v3

As we are dependent on God, he produces in us grace and peace. What does that mean?

Well, it speaks of our relationship with God and with each other.

In Christ, we have grace from God, unmerited favor. In spite of our sin, he looks down on us and gives us salvation and all other blessings. Peace means that we are reconciled with him, we can have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe.

If we have that state with God through Jesus Christ, we can have this state with each other. Through the promptings of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we learn how to turn around and show others grace and peace.

We give people favor that they don’t deserve, and we see to extend a relationship of peace to people that we might not otherwise give the time of day.

This again is a work of God as we follow him.

So that is a small snapshot of who we are as the church.

We are a localized group who have been sanctified and called to be holy.

We are part of a larger group defined by those who worship God.

We bear grace and peace.

Paul will go on to ask the Corinthians and us: does our practice line up with who we are?

If it doesn’t, we draw a line in the sand and say: God, sanctify me. Make me holy. So that I can stop being a hypocrite and start reflecting you.

Anyone can be sanctified.