Church for the Rest of Us (2)

1 Cor 1:18 - 2:5

There are similarities between our current circumstance and the occasion of Paul’s letter to the believers in Corinth. First, our community is much like theirs - comprised of service industry workers, day laborers, and retired military. Like the city of Corinth we live at the juncture of north and south travel and east and west. Douglas County - and much of southern Oregon - are ‘religious.’ That is, a majority of residents have a strong belief in the existence of God. Like the Corinthians, though, defining ‘God’ is a challenge. Though nearly 60% of adults believe in God, less than half believe that religion is important in daily life, and less than 30% attend any kind of religious service once a week.

As a Roman colony, Roman religion was prominent in Corinth. Greek and Roman gods and goddesses were worshiped and held in high regard. By the time of this first letter, Roman Emperors were demanding the kind of worship and adoration one would give a god or goddess.

Since there were many retired Roman soldiers, Roman generals and military heroes were honored regularly. Military victories were celebrated in temples dedicated to various gods and goddesses. Military failures were because of a god or goddesses dis-favor toward the people.

Like Rome, we in the United States often elevate our military and political leaders to an almost god-like condition.

We are more alike that we often admit!

READ PASSAGE

In a world that valued strength - physically and intellectually - the message about the cross is both foolish and a picture of weakness.

Foolishness and Weakness

Can it truly be possible for one person to bear the sin of everyone who has been born and everyone who will be born?

In a world like Corinth, where every aspect of daily life was governed by different gods and goddesses, this statement would sound absurd.

2,000 years later people still are stopped by such a statement. While most people around us have a definition of sin, it usually is self-focused. What I do is not a sin. A sin, in most of our culture, is that which someone else does to another.

Forgiveness is not a category most people understand - unless I say or do something that you find hurtful - then I can atone for my sin by asking forgiveness or performing some act of kindness.

Death as a penalty for sin is only reserved for the most heinous of sin - aggravated murder and other such terrible crimes.

Yet, as the Bible clearly states, sin always brings death. And death means separation from God now - and ultimately - for eternity.

As Paul came into Corinth, he proclaimed a message that Jesus satisfied God’s penalty for sin by dying on a cross - which was a physical demonstration of Roman power and authority.

To assert, as Paul and Christians did and still do, that one person, humiliated by both Jewish and Roman authorities, was perfect satisfaction for sin, well, it is simply absurd.

God’s radical choices

“Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27, HCSB)

Among the believers gathering in Corinth, not many met the communities definition of power and influence. Not many were related to the ruling class or even the prominent military leaders of the region. Many were what the community around them identified as weak and insignificant.

For example, of the nine US Supreme Court Justices four of them are graduates of Harvard Law School, four are graduates of Yale, and one is a graduate of Notre Dame school of law.

That is an elite group - having graduated from Harvard and Yale - long recognized as having a larger than life presence in academic and political culture in our world.

Paul would look among believers today and say - there are not many ‘elite’ among you!

The message: Christ Crucified

Paul had left Athens after being imprisoned in Philippi, run out of town in Thessalonica and Berea, no doubt with physical scars from his treatment there. His brief rest in Athens was a series of frustrating discussions among scholars who regarded him as a ‘foolish babbler’ (Acts 17:18).

Limping into Corinth, Paul determined that he wouldn’t argue philosophy but would preach a clear and simple message:

1 Corinthians 2:2 HCSB

For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Imagine if you can, someone going into every coffee shop in our area and only talking about Jesus - the One who died and was raised again -as the only solution to our most significant challenges as individuals, families, and communities.

That was Paul’s strategy - week by week speaking in synagogues and after being shut out of the synagogues he moved into a home next door to a synagogue and there Paul was

“... occupied with preaching the message and solemnly testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.” (Acts 18:5, HCSB)

What parallels can we find between Paul’s letter to the believers in Corinth and our own day and time?

A Single Purpose

Why here? Why now? To what end?

At one point or another in each life these questions demand an answer.

Many people just avoid those questions - hence the advertising that fills our eyes and ears - drive this car/truck for your ‘adventures;’ wear this brand of clothing to stand out from the crowd (unless, of course everyone else buys the same brand…); spend you money on this hobby, watching this sport, investing your time in this TV series and these movies…; or join you friends for this brand at your favorite watering hole that keeps you motivated to keep working day after day.

For the Jew - that specific people group from which Paul came, the answer to the questions is simple: to know God, or as one author explains,

having an appropriately awe-filled yet intimate relationship, or partnership, with the creator, redeemer of Israel, and sovereign of the universe...

Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross 20th Anniversary Edition (Grand Rapids, MI.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001, 2021), 9.

For the Gentile we might say that the goal of life was to live in harmony with the gods/goddesses and the community in which one lived.

All people at some level have a conception of a god - as noted a majority of people living in OR believe in God - as He is known in the OT and NT.

The message of the Bible is that left to our own strategies, humans cannot find God much less can they have a relationship with Him.

Sin has so deformed the human soul that nothing an individual can do will heal the deformity. Only a divine intervention can heal that which sin has destroyed.

This is the message: The Cross of Jesus - foolishness to the Jews, unbelievably simple to the Gentile - only the cross can heal the brokenness of sin, only the death of a flawless, perfect sacrifice can atone for the sin that lies in each human heart.

Apart from this act of divine grace no one can know God as God created humans to know Him.

In Paul’s letter to believers in Rome he makes the case, by using multiple OT references:

“as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10–18, HCSB)

Just a few sentences later Paul writes,

Romans 3:21–24 HCSB

But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed —attested by the Law and the Prophets —that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Clearly Distinct From the World

The promise of God revealed in the cross is that all who believe can be saved. It is not education, it is not physical or intellectual or moral strength that heals the sin. Nothing but the blood!

Roman society was rigidly stratified. Once a slave - even if freed, the slave would be intimately tied to his or her masters’ family for livelihood - always a slave of one sort or another. Once a soldier, well, if one lived long enough he might retire. Once a landowner, always - through successive generations - a landowner. Once a citizen (whether by right of birth or the purchase of such a privilege) always a citizen.

There was no real movement between these social categories.

Paul wrote

“Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.” (1 Corinthians 1:26, HCSB)

‘Not many” but some! God’s gracious offer of salvation is not limited to the wealthy, the landowner, nor is His grace available only to slaves and lower class individuals.

The message of the cross is not restricted by social or economic barriers.

The cross cuts across all the social or economic barriers we might try and enforce.

No one can come to God except through the cross. In Acts, the book written by Luke detailing the early growth of the movement now called ‘Christians’ there are several episodes where individuals seek to buy God’s power. In each case they are renounced by those early followers of Christ.

Grace alone is the base line of the cross. God’s power is alone sufficient for erasing the stain of sin and opening the possibility of an intimate and eternal relationship with God.

Undiluted Proclamation

If you recall one of Paul’s pleas with the believers in Corinth was,

“Now I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say,

that there be no divisions among you,

and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.” (1 Corinthians 1:10, HCSB)

What is the message our church communicates? We love people! We care for our community! Those are important and necessary messages. But if that’s all people hear from us we will have spent our time and resources for nothing.

The message the world needs to hear is simply:

Through the cross of Jesus

Christ you can have an intimate and eternal relationship with God!

Warren Wiersbe recounts the following story:

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Two: Be Wise about … the Christian Message (1 Corinthians 2)

A certain church had a beautiful stained-glass window just behind the pulpit. It depicted Jesus Christ on the cross. One Sunday there was a guest minister who was much smaller than the regular pastor. A little girl listened to the guest for a time, then turned to her mother and asked, “Where is the man who usually stands there so we can’t see Jesus?”

REFLECT AND RESPOND:

How is the gospel transforming your life?

Do people see Christ at work in and through you?

Do your words and deeds dilute the message of the cross?

Try harder…make a more disciplined effort…you can do this....