When are we going to take ownership of our church?

I Corinthians 5:1-13

Last week we answered the 1st of our 3 questions church. We asked God to speak to who we are, knowing our identity and learned that

We are Spiritual beings, who have been charged to builds on a foundation that promotes the ministry of Jesus Christ by trusting the teachings of the Holy Spirit.

So now we are going to focus on what are we doing? that breads our title today call when are we going to take ownership of our church?

Ownership or responsibility for what happens in the church? When are we going to hold ourselves and our fellow Christian accountable? Growing up in Clinton, we had chores and they were not my favorite things. As long as I could find it from the last place I found it was okay. As long as it passed the sniff test we good to hang it backup. It seemed like my mother wanted to clean when we had just came home from a long day or even church service. She would say that you will rest better once the house was cleaned. My Aunt Theresa would take pride in how it looks and would try to maintain it that way for a longtime. Today’s lesson deals with two things our pride and our cleanliness.

How well do we keep our church house clean?

How proud are we of what we have done and better yet what’s next to come?

The Corinthian church was no doubt one of the most difficult churches Paul had to deal with. He loved the church, but man they had a lot of problems. Here in chapter 5, Paul is shocked over a major issue in the church sexual immorality for the Christian believers. Sexual sin wasn’t a (concern) problem. In fact, they seem to be proud of their (tolerance) or yet there acceptance of it. Heres how Paul begins this chapter

Verse 1- it’s actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and another kind even pagans do not tolerate a man sleeping with his father‘s wife.

The Greek word used here, porneia, can refer to a number of illicit sexual behaviors. Here it refers to a specific instance of sexual immorality that jeopardized the health of the Corinthian church. Side note: porneia

These are the stories that some of our television writers use to promote ratings. There was a time on tv you would not even see married women and men sleeping in the same bed. Now television has more inappropriate stuff to justify everybody. We know this is not morally right, yet we find ourselves watching these shows. When my daughter was in middle school, my wife and I heard about a popular show called “Grey's Anatomy”, so we began watching the show. As we watched the show they had some hilarious character that kept you laughing and waiting to see what they would do next. One thing my wife and I did notice was the sleeping around to where we saw more of that than doctor stuff. My daughter came home one day from school and stated that her friends watch this show and asked us how can we watch all the sex that was going on in the show. We started to realize that she was correct and stopped watching the show. We could not keep her from watching rated shows and yet we in the back acting like its okay we can handle it. Not realizing the danger and mental suggestions it places in our hearts. now I know we can’t make all shows but clean, but I do suggest you get a fast forward.

(Picture of Family)

So here Paul is saying the same thing that can happen in the church. We do not want the Sins of the world to corrupt our morals and values in the church.

It takes spiritual people to help expose sin.

This church member in Corinth that was having an ongoing relationship with his stepmother was even looked down on by the Greek culture and they had a lot of permissible immoral sexual acts. The sexual and morality of incest was forbidden by old testament law say Leviticus 18:8

8 The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness. 9 The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you shall not uncover, Le 18:8–9. Even Roman law did not permit this type of behavior.

This sin bears great consequences. In Genesis 49:3, on Jacob’s deathbed he tells Reuben, “ You are my firstborn, my strength, the child of my vigorous youth. You are first in rank and first in power 4 But you are as unruly as a flood, and you will be first no longer. For you went to bed with my wife; you defiled my marriage couch.” Reuben slept with Bilhah, one of Jacob’s servant wives. Bilhah was like Reuben’s stepmother. Because of this sin Reuben lost the firstborn status. Also, there are no prophets, kings, or judges with the tribe of Reuben. Also, God considers the marriage bed holy (Hebrews 13:4). To defile it as Reuben did brings serious consequences.

The movement is from unbelief, to evil, to falling away, and that is obviously a serious warning with dire consequences.

Grant R. Osborne

Paul used the phrase his father’s wife instead of his mother, probably to indicate that the woman was the offender stepmother. The omission of discipline, for the women implies that she was not a believer. The church is responsible for disciplining only its members, not unbelievers.

This was a sad time for the church. The laws of Greece and their cultures had permeated to create a tolerance within the church and the church at Corinth was OK with it.

Verse 2 states “shouldn’t you rather have gone in mourning and put out of your fellowship the man who’s been doing this. The attitude of mourning is what should have been displayed. If they would have mourned (been sad or grieved) the continual sin they would have eventually been led to godly grief that produces repentance and lead to salvation. Paul was angry and concerned by the Corinthian’s arrogant attitude towards this instead of grief because they were filled with pride. Look at how accepting we are.

Verse two “puffed up” the Corinthians had a twisted view of grace that caused him to be proud of the tolerance of the sexual offender. They believe that because God‘s grace is limitless, the freedom that every Christian enjoys is also limitless. Romans chapter 6, verse one and says, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound.

(2 Cor 5:12; 7:4; 8:24; Gal 6:4), the word pride in Scripture is more frequently used to refer to a very negative character trait that can be described as arrogant, conceited, and haughty

Corinthians 7:10

2 Corinthians 7:4 NKJV

Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.

2 Corinthians 8:24 NKJV

Therefore show to them, and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf.

Paul is saying have some pride and respect for your church and how they act, because it's a reflection of what we believe and accept. They had pride, but it's the one the bible refers to a lot. In society, we accept certain sinful acts of a male to be cool but for women, it's a disgrace. We must be proud of our church and when something is wrong we are obligated to stand on the truth. So Paul shows us how we should do it in verse 4

Verse 4, so when you are assembled, and I’m with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord, Jesus is present hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit, may be saved on the day of the lord.

So what is Paul trying to save? excommunication It’s a big scary word with an even scarier meaning the church was to kick this man out of the body it seems a rather harsh response and maybe you’re thinking should the church let him stay? I mean he might hear a convicting message and give up a sin. How is it loving to kick someone out of church? Should the church be the place for sinners to feel welcomed this doesn’t sound like something with Jesus would do. These are good questions, and Paul takes the rest of the chapter to answer first he deals with the goal of this judgment.

Take Pride in savings souls!!!

In verse 5 he says that the goal is the destruction of the flesh not the body. When flesh is used in scripture, it refers to the sinful desires we all struggle with. The new testament tells us time and time again we must walk away from our fleshly desires. Well, this man was refusing to give it up until the church was called to give this man over to his sin, so that he might wallow in the results of his sin. We have all struggled time and time again with this fleshly desire but we must not settle and get comfortable in it but learn to walk away. In the same verse, He gives a second goal so that his spirit might be saved

This dude was way off base here. Paul did not write him off here as a lost cause.

destruction of the flesh may refer to God, turning the sexual offender over to Satan for the physical affliction. After being separated from the spiritual protection of the church, ideally, the offender would recognize his sin, repent, and return to the church. All church discipline has restoration as his ultimate goal. We hope they love us enough that we will be in mourning knowing they are not with us.

“Church discipline should not be a self-righteous believer out to catch sinners but a group of broken-hearted, forgiven sinners, seeking to restore a lost brother,” but why was it so important to kick this man out?

Verse 6, Your boasting is not good don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new unleavened batch as you really are for Christ. Our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let’s keep the festival not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth

The backdrop of this passage is the Passover when the Israelites removed the old leaven from their home in preparation for the feast. The removal of Levin was a reminder of the Israelites quick departure from Egypt. They did not have time to wait for leavened bread to rise. The point here is that a little leaven has a tremendous impact or influence on whatever it is in. The Corinthian church was tolerating sexual sin. The leaven of seeing the smaller size was dangerous, because it could spread through the church. Like cancer

Yeast is often the symbol of sin in scripture and it’s one of the most fitting descriptions. This analogy was given to them during this time for them to truly understand what needed to be done and why. Sourdough bread was what they made each day. They would take a bit of a dow from yesterday and mix it in with fresh flour and water. A little bit of yeast in it quickly spreads through the new dough. It’s really the old-school way, and both Jews and Greeks made bread this way. Sourdough illustrates a biblical truth a little bit of sin, corrupts an entire church. It creeps in quietly but soon infiltrates everything every year as Passover approached Jews would seek out every bit of bread dough or crumb in their house. They would sweep it outside, removing the leaven that would infiltrate the perfectly pure dough needed to celebrate the feast, and in the same way, the church should remove from their midst unrepentant sinners.

The sexual offender was guilty of sinning and the whole congregation was also guilty of ignoring a man’s disobedience, and failing to hold him accountable. Left unchecked could caused many new believers to commit sinful acts.

The feast in verse eight is a figure of speech for Christ. Awe are to remove all leaven from the celebration of the Passover, so the Corinthians were not to contaminate their relationship with Christ with any malice or wickedness v

When the church practices church discipline we’re not inflicting evil upon the person that’s asked to leave. We’re not like the church in the scarlet letter, branding people for their sins. Instead, the church strives to remove from the Center the spiritual covering that is over that person we’re addressing the sin publicly, so the sinner might feel the burden of the missing fellowship and cry out for forgiveness.

Verse 9-13 says be careful of the Christian company you keep. This is really good point here that I need you to understand. People are leaving the church because they are tired of dealing with what they call “fake Christians.” To everyone we are not perfect and we will mess up and fall short of the glory of God . But because of His mercy we all have a 2nd chance, if we are willing to confess our sins, turn from wrong and continue to keep our feast with Christ.

Many Christians believe that the church is supposed to isolate themselves from the sinful world, but this is counter to the very gospel itself Paul writes that we are not to isolate ourselves away from sinners, but from sinful behavior, if we hide in our churches, and never reach out to the lost well game over Man, we lose, but this is the pathway to often take in pursuing holiness, a wholesale, cutting off of people who aren’t exactly like us. Listen, don’t expect sinners to be holy they are sinners after all, we shouldn’t be surprised when sinners lie, cheat, and steal, but we should expect better behavior from Christians. We should be harder on those who call themselves Christian but continue in their sins than we are on those outside.

Paul was writing to those who wanted to ignore the church problem. They didn’t realize that allowing public sin to exist in the church affects all its members. Paul does not expect anyone to be sinless. All believers struggle with sin Daily. Instead, he speaks against those who deliberately sin, feel no guilt and refuse to repent. This kind of sin cannot be tolerated in the church because it affects others. We have the responsibility to other believers. Blatant Sins, left uncorrected, can confuse and divide the congregation. While believers should encourage, pray for and build up one another, they must also be intolerant of sin that jeopardizes the spiritual health of the church.

Verse 7, As the Hebrews prepared for their exodus from slavery in Egypt, they recommended preparing bread without yeast, because I didn’t have time to wait for it to rise. And because yeast also was a symbol of sin, they were commanded to sweep it out of the house (Exodus 12:15) Christ is our passover Lamb, the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Because he has delivered us from the slavery of sin, we should have nothing to do with the sins of the past (“old bread”.)

The ultimate goal is always about salvation.

Lets make sure that we can lay our heads down tonight knowing that we have thought more about someone else than ourselves..

Theodore Roosevelt said” No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care”