".....to judge angels"

1 Corinthians 6:1-3

1 Corinthians 6:1-3 “Does anyone among you, if he has a matter against someone else, dare to go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if by you the world is judged, are you unworthy of the most insignificant courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters?”

The church. The church has been called the body of Christ, the family of God, the bride of Christ, etc.

The church, it is many things to many people. It is meant to provide salvation, comfort, peace, healing. It is a place where right living is taught and supposed to be modeled. The world may do it a certain way but, the church cannot do it the way the world does it.

The church is not a building although it may be compared to one, it is not an organization although it may be compared to one, the church may be compared to a human body, yet the church is people. It is composed of people. People who live, people who die, people who marry and are given in marriage, people who don’t get married, people who marry and through the circumstances of life are no longer married. People who raise children, people who watch their children get married. All the cycles of life and the way that God designed it to be lived out are part of the church.

Paul wrote 2 letters that we know of to the church at Corinth. To the body of believers at Corinth. To the individuals who were part of the church at Corinth. The church at Corinth was part of the body, part of the bride of Christ; just like VLPC is part of the body of Christ, part of the bride. We are espoused to Jesus, we are his and with that realization that we are his and he paid a price for us, there come certain responsibilities on our part. He did his part and we need to live out our part. Marriage is a covenant, it is an agreement between two parties, two people, two families. So it is for the church.

In Corinth a mighty revival was taking place. Sinners were being delivered from their sins, the body of believers that was there before the revival took place were being blessed to experience this revival.

With any body, when growth happens, there comes aspects of growth that the church has to deal with.

When a baby is born, it is totally dependent on it’s mother and father. If it is born into a family with brothers and sisters, then those brothers and sisters become part of the growth process for that newborn baby.

A newborn baby can’t feed itself, it can’t change its soiled diapers, it can’t clean itself, it can’t change itself, it can’t walk let alone crawl, it can’t eat solid foods, the list goes on. Yet, if that newborn is loved and cared for, then it will grow.

It will grow and learn to change itself, it will learn to control it’s bodily functions, it will learn to clean itself, it will learn to eat solid foods it will learn to walk it will learn to talk. All the while the mother and father are teaching by saying and hopefully doing. All the while, hopefully the older brothers and sisters are loving the new addition to the family. Hopefully they are not regressing or hopefully they are not jealous of the new addition to the family.

Stability, new births, new growth, the difficulties that come with new births and new growth were all happening to the church at Corinth.

Not a backwater town - nothing against small towns. Countries are made of of small towns and large towns, small cities and large cities. Cities with little influence and cities with large influence. Corinth was a large city, located in Greece on the northeast corner of the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Scholars tells us that Corinth controlled the land route of trade between Asia and Italy (Rome) and was also between two major ports. The Corinth of Paul’s day was not only wealthy but, like our city of Los Angeles, it influenced the Graeco-Roman world of it’s day. Corinth was full of entrepreneurs, traders, freedmen, slaves master workers of bronze. It was said that the bronze of Corinth was more sought after than silver and almost as much as gold. In Corinth, like our city of Los Angeles, worldly values were sought after. Values like honor, prestige and self-promotion were valued. VLPC is here in a city of power and influence, a city where worldly values are sought and a city where those worldly values rule over the city. Yet, like the church located in Corinth, the church here in this city still needs to be the church. The church needs to and must be a place where the values of God and his kingdom reign supreme. The church cannot have the values of the world, the values of the world must be repented of and the values of the kingdom of God must reign supreme in the church. It is his church, he bought and paid for it with his blood.

Judging angels - In his letters Paul alludes to and says many things. One of the things that he said was this, 1 Corinthians 6:3

1 Corinthians 6:3 LEB

Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters?

So in this statement he was talking to believers in the same church who weren’t able to solve their differences and were taking each other to court. Think about it, Paul is saying that by us the world is to be judged and he in turn calls the courts of this world “insignificant”.

We find Paul giving the church a sense of their identity, a sense of who they were and who they were going to become. In his letters he gives identity to woman and discusses the power that women have due to their hair, he writes to them about celebrating communion. As Paul is continues writing to the church at Corinth, this issue of going to worldly courts wasn’t the only issue he was dealing with. Remember, Corinth was a wealthy and powerful city of this world, and as a product of this world this city was known for other things.

He dealt with idolatry, he spoke about spiritual gifts, talked about the resurrection and he dealt with sexual immorality. Corinth was known for its sexual immorality and this sexual immorality had crept into the church. He had to deal with a man in an incestuous relationship, let’s read a little further on what he had to deal with.

I Corinthians 5 “It is reported everywhere that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which does not even exist among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of his father. And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst? For although I am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as if I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. So t…”

1 Corinthians 7 “Now concerning the things about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” But because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his obligation to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does. Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by agreement, for a time, in order that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and then you should be together again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self control. But I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish all people could be like myself, but each one has his own gift from God, one in this way and another in that way. Now I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, f…”

3. Repentance - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 LEB

For everything there is an appointed time, a time for every matter under heaven: a time to bear and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to root up what is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.

There is a time for everything, and yet, whatever you desire you cannot have it out of it’s place, out of its time out of its season. Sex is meant to be within marriage. Sex is meant for a man and woman in marriage. Not outside of marriage. The church is not meant to be a hook up place.

So, the church is a place where the broken come to be restored at the foot of the cross, at Calvary where Jesus is. Where those who have only know sin, can live a new life in Christ, where in our weaknesses we are made strong. Only in Christ do we find this. Only at an altar of repentance.

Come to the altar