How God Shifts a Culture
Culture Shift • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 10 viewsPoints taken from Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub’s “How God Changes Culture,”
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A.
Corinthian Society
Corinthian Society
A. A Society Not Unlike Our Own
Location
Corinth was located on an isthmus (a narrow stretch of land that connects two larger land masses) connecting mainland Greece to the Peloponnesian peninsula.
This strategic location opened up trade routes to both the east and west.
Cultural
Corinth was a cultural melting pot, with individuals from all over the Roman empire calling it their home.
Major tourist attraction
Center of religious pilgrimage
Social
Self-centered
Reputation driven
Pleasure seeking
Polytheistic
Wealthy and prosperous
Intellectually driven
Competitive
Sound like any society you are familiar with?
Corinth would be like the New York, or Las Vegas, or San Francisco, or any other major city of our day.
B. A Church Not Unlike Our Own
The Corinthian church was a cross-section of Corinthian society.
It had people from all different cultural backgrounds, religious backgrounds (i.e., Jew and Gentile), economic backgrounds (i.e., poor to very wealthy), social backgrounds (i.e., slave and free), etc.
Any type of person you could find in Corinth you could find in the Corinthian church.
The Corinthian church was filled with human beings
Not unlike our church, and other churches here in America, the Corinthian church had also become a cross-section of Corinthian and biblical values.
Worldly values had wormed their way into the church and it was causing division, and questions, and doubts, and concerns, and anger, and frustration.
1 & 2 Corinthians is essentially Paul expounding upon what he wrote in Romans 12:
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
This was the theme verse of our VBS, and I am so thankful this was the theme because when God wants to shift a culture away from what this world says and back to Him it because with His Church.
What could I possibly learn from the church in Corinth? Our social and cultural and economic status is nothing like theirs.
C. The areas God wants to shift perspective and grow understanding in:
Is there anyone here who can grow in their understanding of Christian unity?
in their understanding of Christian ministry?
in their understanding of Christian reconciliation?
in their understanding of church discipline?
in their understanding of handling disagreements in a body of believers?
in their understanding of Godly, biblical sexuality?
in their understanding of marriage and singleness?
in their understanding of the freedoms you have in Christ?
in their understanding of communion?
in their understanding of spiritual gifts and how God can grow them and utilize them for His purpose?
in their understanding of Christ’s resurrection, and what our future resurrection will look like?
in their understanding of the resources God has given them and how to faithfully steward them?
We can look at the book of 1 Corinthians and think we’re so much better than them, we’re nothing like them, OR, we can approach this book by asking the Lord to shift our perspective and grow our understanding so that by His power we can work to influence and change the culture around us.
God wants to shift this culture back to Him. I know many of you earnestly desire the same thing. So here’s my challenge to you: for the rest of this year, and probably a good portion of next year, will you come to hear God’s Word with the desire and expectation that He will speak to you, will you listen with a desire to learn and grow, and will you put those truths into practice in your own life so that God can better use you as an agent of change in the sphere of influence He has placed you in.
1 Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Right here in these three verses you see the blueprint for how God shifts a culture back to Him:
When God wants to shift a culture …
I. He Calls, Equips, and Sends One of His Servants to Be His Agent of Change (v. 1)
I. He Calls, Equips, and Sends One of His Servants to Be His Agent of Change (v. 1)
1 Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
A. Calling
Calling is God’s will for your life. Calling is not for you, calling is not from you, and calling is not future focused.
Calling is not for you
Paul says he is called as an apostle of Jesus Christ
What is his calling for?
Jesus Christ. Paul is uniquely positioned as an ambassador sent out on mission for Jesus Christ.
His calling benefited Him, but his calling was not for Him.
Calling is not from you
Paul was called by the will of God. You’ve likely heard the saying that we sometimes think is clichè that:
God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
As you will see in this letter, and even more so when you read through 2 Corinthians, the Corinthian church questioned whether Paul was qualified for his position.
Corinthian society highly valued the rhetorical skill of teachers. Were they eloquent? Were they powerful orators? Did they present with an air of authority?
6 But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things.
Often Paul’s letters came across weightier than his public persona.
Paul was not called as an apostle because he was qualified, in fact he later says in this letter he is unqualified because of his persecution of Christians. Yet, his calling came from God, and by His grace He used Paul and his imperfections to grow His kingdom here on earth.
Your calling is not future tense
God’s calling in your life begins now.
Your calling is active and present wherever God has you.
Your calling is in your home and community
Your calling is in your job and your church
Your calling is in your family and friends
Your calling is wherever God has positioned you, and make no mistake that if You faithfully serve Him in that area now He is preparing to use you more in the future.
God is continually equipping you to meet the challenges of what He has called you to.
B. Equipping
As Christians, God called you and He equipped you. He gifted you.
Every single Christian has gifts that are given to them by the Holy Spirit.
Now spiritual gifts are sometimes a difficult subject because people often start comparing their gifts to others.
Why did God give you the gifts He did?
In the parable of the talents, this is what Jesus says:
15 “To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.
God gave you the gifts you have because He knew precisely what you were capable of handling, and every gift He gives, no matter how small it may seem to you, is necessary for the building of His kingdom here on earth.
Once again, I think of the VBS we just put on here last week. Every single day we had volunteers each working in their little niche. And it’s easy to think that one area of volunteering was more important than another, but if you start to remove even one of those individuals, VBS doesn’t flow as smoothly.
And sometimes God is building those gifts before you ever realize it
Paul was a passionate, zealous Jew. His calling as an apostle sent out on mission for Jesus was already being prepared even before Paul knew who Jesus was. He was a Jew who was trained in the Pharisaic tradition and understanding. He was uniquely positioned as a Jewish-Roman citizen who was trained in rhetoric and reasoning. And all throughout his upbringing, God was growing that calling in Paul’s life to prepare Him for what was next.
Winston Churchill was a difficult student. He struggled to sit in long lectures from professors over Latin and poetry. In fact, he was deemed so incompetent that he and other students were relegated to learning the inferior English language. You know what happened? Winston Churchill spent so much time studying English that he mastered it well before his contemporaries did and went on to become one of the most prominent and powerful orators and politicians of the 20th century.
When I was in college, I would frequently have students I barely knew tell me their life stories and problems. Sometimes I would catch myself thinking, “I didn’t even ask. Why am I the one who has to listen to your problems?” What was God doing? He had placed a call on my life to be a minister for Him, and even before I fully realized that calling, He was already preparing me for works of ministry.
What was Paul’s gifting?
Paul was called as an apostle
The Greek word apostolos literally means messenger, one who is sent out on mission.
20 And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; 21 but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see, And they who have not heard shall understand.”
The heart of an apostle is to go where the Gospel has not yet been preached and to establish and grow disciples in the name of Jesus Christ.
And to the His Church God gave four primary giftings:
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
What is the purpose of these roles?
Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit so that the Church of Jesus Christ may be equipped for works of service and ministry.
In other words, apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and pastor-teachers are given to the Church so that they may grow in their spiritual giftings and develop new ones for the glory of God.
You know Swiss Army knives? They have all sorts of tools that are each used for a specific purpose. As a kid, it was one of the coolest things you could own.
God wants to make Christians into a proverbial spiritual Swiss Army knife so that no matter what situation arises, you are prepared to meet it. He wants to gift you in a variety of ways.
But in order for Him to do that, we have to learn to be content with and grateful for the areas He has already gifted us in.
C. Sending
Once God has called you, and once He has equipped you, He sends you out on mission for Him.
Paul was sent to a variety of places, but the primary place he was sent to was to the Gentiles.
In Acts 18, you will read that after Paul left Athens, he traveled to Corinth and began preaching to the Jews. But after they refused to listen to him, he in turn went to the Gentiles. Sosthenes was one of the Jewish synagogue leaders we read about in Acts 18, and now he is called the brother or our brother.
In responding to his divine calling, Paul is sent out and in Sosthenes the Corinthians see the budding fruits of God’s work in Corinth. Because God doesn’t just call one member, He calls a body together to fill every need that the Church has.
When God wants to shift a culture …
II. He Builds and Establishes His Church (v. 2)
II. He Builds and Establishes His Church (v. 2)
A. Who’s Church?
2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
Paul is specifically writing to the gathering of Christian believers in Corinth. That gathering of Christian believers is called God’s Church.
Paul doesn’t say to my Church in Corinth
Every church that confesses Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior is God’s church
This is something that every pastor, leader, and member of a local body of believers, a church, needs to understand. It’s okay to take pride in your church in the sense that you are giving your best in every area you serve. What’s not okay is thinking that because of a position that you are in, or because you have given a certain amount, or because you regularly attend that it somehow makes it your church.
In one of my college classes we were discussing the differences between planting a church (apostleship) and ministering at an existing church (pastoring).
I said something along the lines of, “I have considered planting a church, but I do not think God has gifted me with the ability to plant my own church.”
Now, it was a perfectly innocent comment, but my professor used it as a teaching opportunity to shift our way of thinking. It’s never my church. It doesn’t matter if I was one of the founding members or not, it’s God who causes the growth.
In fact, we’ll read just a little bit later in this letter how Paul will address this specific issue.
B. Who makes up the Church?
The Greek word for church here is ekklesia, which means a gathering together, it means a gathering place.
I mentioned the Corinthians valued rhetoric and public speaking. All throughout the city their were public gatherings, ekklesias, that would take place where people would go to listen to and immerse themselves in knowledge.
Paul uses that same idea, one that the Corinthians were familiar with, to refer to the gathering together of the body of Christ, to listen to and immerse themselves in the One Truth, the One Knowledge, the One Understanding that would set them free.
Now, people will hear that and say, “See, I’m not called to go to church, I’m called to be the Church.”
And there’s truth in that statement, just as there’s some truth in every lie.
You are called to be the Church, but part of being the Church means gathering together as the Church.
You want to know why many people don’t go to church, to gather together with other believers, on a weekly basis? Because in our self-centered, pleasure-seeking, reputation driven age (just like Corinth), we’re more concerned with how going to church benefits me than with how going to church builds up and edifies other believers in the body of Christ and brings glory to His name.
And you know what the beautiful thing about Christ body is? When you go with the intention of being a blessing to others, you are inevitably blessed in the process.
Ethan, you’re just saying that because you want people to come to this church. Of course I want people to come to this church. That’s like asking the owner of a restaurant whether or not they want someone to eat at their dining establishment. But what I’m more interested in is seeing Christians find a local, Bible-believing body of believers, plugging themselves in, and serving in whatever way they can.
If that’s here at Faith Bible Fellowship, praise be! We want you and we love you and we can’t wait to serve with you.
And who are these people?
Those who have been sanctified in Jesus Christ
Sanctified means set apart with a purpose. You’re not just set off to the side to get dusty and rusty, you’re set apart to be used.
In fact, Paul specifically identifies them as saints by calling.
Saints means holy ones.
By calling means:
the moment you put your faith in trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
the moment you came to Him and sought His forgiveness
the moment you purposed in your heart to allow Him to be Lord in your life
you were given an ultimate calling.
You are sanctified. You are a saint. That’s your identity. You are set apart for a purpose, and that purpose is to in every area, in every way of your life, to live for Jesus so that He may be glorified and be made know.
Everyone who calls on the name of their Lord, Jesus Christ
It means every church, in any city, in any state, in any nation, that recognizes Jesus Christ as Savior, proclaims Him as Lord, and seeks to follow His will is a part of the Church that God established.
Ephesians 4:1–4 (NASB95)
1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
Notice that it is a spiritual unity Paul speaks about. He does not say every church should look the same, sound the same, or feel the same. So it means if our brothers and sisters down the street worship a little different than we do, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as we remain united in the common cause to worship and glorify and honor Jesus Christ.
In the vast multitude of Christian denominations, even if we differ slightly on doctrinal differences, we see diversity, not disunity.
The Church of God is any saint that confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and believed God raised Him from the dead. And how God shifts a culture back to Him is through the Church, capital C, that He builds and He establishes, and who are we to stand in the way of that if it looks a little bit different than we prefer.
When God wants to shift a culture …
III. He Lavishes Grace and Peace (v. 3)
III. He Lavishes Grace and Peace (v. 3)
A. Grace
Grace is the unmerited favor of God.
There’s nothing that you can do to earn God’s grace, He gives it to you.
Grace is the means of our salvation.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Grace teaches us what it means to live for Jesus Christ
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
There’s not a single one of you sitting in here who can say, “I’ve made it.” Every single thing I listed at the beginning that God is going to teach us in this book to grow deeper in, we all need that because we are sinners. I need it, you need it, we all need it.
You see the beauty of Christianity is that God personally invites us, Christians, His children, into that task to accomplish His purpose. What’s His purpose? To make His Son known so that all may come to a saving knowledge of Him and that cultures may be radically shifted, transformed, and revived.
The problem with that is were all still sinners in need of Savior, so in this process called the Christian walk, where the Holy Spirit is daily teaching each of us what it means to love and serve Jesus Christ, God lavishes His grace upon you.
B. Peace
When God wants to shift a culture back to Him, it can make us uneasy, especially when we don’t see the results we want to.
Even though the Church has been called, equipped, and sent out by God, we can worry when it appears the culture around us is going to hell in a hand basket.
So God also lavishes His peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace found from the confident hope you have in Jesus Christ, a peace that recognizes Christ is already victorious.
