Amazing Grace(2)

Intro:

Today we are continuing our journey through 1st Corinthians, inside our theme of ‘Called Higher’.

In the 1700s a man named John Newton worked aboard a slave trading ship called the Pegasus. The Pegasus would take items to West Africa and trade them for slaves bound to the Carribbean and North America. In 1745, Newton found himself sold into slavery, and for 3 years lived as the slave of Princess Peye of the Sherbro people. Newton at this time was an Atheist who vehemently denied the existence of a god of any kind. In 1748, the ship Greyhound landed on the West African coast and Newton was rescued. On the voyage home, the Greyhound was caught in a terrible storm, and Newton found himself crying out to a God he had previously not believed in for mercy. God granted Newton mercy, and although by Newtons own admission he wasnt saved yet, over time he came to embrace evangelical Christianity. Many years later Newton would be ordained as a priest in the Church of England, and would come to write the single greatest hymn ever penned. An atheist slave trader turned Anglican preacher, who would later go blind, penned Amazing Grace. It is this Amazing Grace that we find in our text this morning. The apostle Paul has written to the Corinthian Church regarding problems within their congregation, and after he greets them in verses 1-3, the Bible says:

4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,

5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge,

6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,

7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

With God as my helper this morning, I want to preach on the thought of Amazing Grace. Now, there is no way that anyone could ever say everything that can be thought of to say on the grace of God, but God has shown me a few things with regard to what we see in in this passage.

V.4 - The Cause of Grace

Firstly I want to draw your attention to the cause of grace. Paul says in verse 4 that he is thankful for the Corinthians, and he is thankful for the grace they have been given by God in Christ Jesus. The one fact most people have at their fingertips concerning the Corinthian church is that it was a mess—full of problems, sins, division, heresy. It was, in this sense, no different from any modern church. The church is a fellowship of sinners before it is a fellowship of saints. Even those churches which have glowing reputations are known all too well by their members and pastors to be full of weaknesses and sins. The sad thing is that dissatisfied church members will often naively think that another church in the area will somehow be better than the one they now attend. From this restlessness comes the common habit of church-swapping. Perhaps one of the best antidotes for this kind of attitude is to look again at what Paul says in verses 4–9 about the notoriously messy church at Corinth. We need to register this primary truth—Paul looks at the Corinthian church as it is in Christ before he looks at anything else that is true of the church. That disciplined statement of faith is rarely made in local churches. The problems are examined and lamented, but often there is no vision of what God has already done in Christ. Before wrestling with a long list of problems in the Corinthian church, Paul mentioned several positive feelings and hopes. He affirmed that he was always sure to thank God for his readers, and explained why. Paul first explained that the cause of his gratitude was the grace, or unmerited favor, the Corinthians had received in Christ Jesus.

I want you to notice what Paul doesn’t do. He doesn’t go into what he knows is a bad situation with a bull in a china shop mentality. The Corinthian church had problems, big problems, but they, like us, had been visited by grace. Paul recognizes that he has also been given grace, and he knows that the grace he has been given requires him to give grace in return. Grace is the uniting force, and the people of Corinth are the object of that grace. Paul says its the grace of God that was given to you by Christ Jesus. Just imagine being in Corinth, knowing the problems you had, and then getting a letter from Paul. Imagine the dread they had when they seen who the letter was from. Imagine the anxiety that set in on them. And then they read those first couple of paragraphs. They are reminded of the calling God placed on their lives, and then they are reminded of who they are, screw ups and all. They are the object of the grace of God, and this morning, if your here and you’re saved, so are you! There are several things I could say here, but I’m reminded of something that I hope sticks with you. There are people in our lives that have royally screwed up. There are people who have sinned against God, against you, and against those you love. I know there are and you know there are, but heres what Paul is saying that I echo this morning. Regardless of how badly the person or persons may have sinned, if they are truly a child of God we all need to recognize something. Even in the midst of their screw up, in the middle of trials and failures, in the worst mess you can imagine, they are still a child of God and even though they have messed up, theres enough of them left to salvage and help! For to long the church has discarded those who mess up. We throw people away like garbage, when God has never and will never throw anyone away. We were worth so much to God that Jesus died, we are the object of his grace, and regardless of who you are or what you’ve done there is grace that will redeem and restore!

The Bible says that God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us! When we were unworthy, dying without God and without hope in this world, living in sin and having no desire to be right with God, there was someone greater, someone stronger, someone more powerful than us that caused the grace of God to appear in my life and yours if you’re saved, and rather than holding us responsible for our sins and dropping us off the deep end into hell, rather than giving us what we deserved for our sins against him, he gives us grace. Grace that enables us to rise above what we were and what we would have done and do what God wants us to do. We are given grace. We thank God for that Grace, and because of that grace, we show grace to others! This is because that the cause of grace leads way into the character of grace.

V.5-7

Verse 5 starts off by saying ‘that you were enriched in everything by him’. Right off the bat I want you to know that this isnt talking about being materially rich, it isnt about money, but at the same time it means that no one who comes to Christ is impoverished. While you may not be rich in material things, you have been enriched by Christ! If this isnt talking about material riches, what is it talking about? Think about this. The themes of spiritual bankruptcy and spiritual wealth are very prominent in the Bible, and for good reason. Those to whom Paul wrote this letter lived in a society that produced great material wealth but that created spiritually bankrupt people. In a society that thinks of little else but making money and having fun there is a constant deterioration in the quality of life. The worth of self and of persons diminishes and the quality of relationships deteriorates. Soon the distinctions between right and wrong fade and values become distorted; social pressure toward evil emerges. This was precisely the mood and pattern of life in first-century Corinth, but it is also a fairly accurate description of most cities in the world today.

Paul’s claim is that in a world of such spiritual poverty Christ has enriched the lives of those to whom he is writing. Paul is pointing to some past action in their lives and could have referred both to their conversions and to whatever growth they had subsequently experienced. My first thought when reading this was to think that it must have been a tongue-in-cheek statement since Paul will soon be writing to them about their lack of unity. But Paul was not making a comparison between what they were and what they ought to be. Rather, he was thinking of the kind of people they were and the kinds of lives they had lived before Christ had come into their lives. Measured against their pagan neighbors or even against their former selves it was perfectly clear that Christ had enriched their lives. They had confirmed the gospel in their own experience. The life that grasps the truth of God is rich.

look at the phrases Paul uses to describe this. The grace of God … was given you’ … ‘in every way you were enriched in him’ … ‘you come short in no gift’—three statements which speak of the great generosity of God towards these redeemed sinners at Corinth. Quickly I want to point something out. These statements are about the church of God at Corinth, not about individual believers. If we are to know the fullness of God’s blessing, if we are to experience all the gifts of his grace which are ours in Christ, it has to be together in fellowship. You and I will NEVER experience the fullness of God’s grace, we will never know the depths of the riches of Christ, outside of the local church. We must be part of a local body! No individual Christian can claim to that they have all the gifts of the Spirit, we dont have it all together, and we need one another! As individuals we dont have all the gifts within us, but the local church potentially does have every spiritual gift within its corporate life, and should expect God to bring them into mature expression. In giving us his Son Jesus, God has given us all he has; he can give us no more; we have everything in him. As such, we should be all the more eager to look for him to appear! Paul says that you come short in no gift eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ! Such a hope has its own inner incentive to move forward as those destined to be the bride of Christ, because it is then (and only then) that we will enter into the full reality of all that is ours in Christ.

In talking of the gifts of God’s grace, Paul specifically stresses that the church has been enriched with all speech and all knowledge.

Paul is adamant that God has fully endowed the whole congregation with these gifts of knowledge and speech, and no doubt Paul is thinking of particular friends at Corinth with different gifts. On the speaking side he would have included such gifts as prophecy, teaching, preaching, evangelism, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues, and any use of the gift of speech which contributes to the building up of the church. As far as knowledge is concerned, the church as a body has access to all the wisdom, insight, discernment and truth which it needs: it needs no special gurus to bring it to them.

Two important points are made about preaching in the rather difficult phrase in verse 6: even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you. The meaning probably is this: as Paul himself proclaimed ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’ to the church of God at Corinth during those busy 18 months, so they began to appreciate and gradually to experience the richness of their inheritance as children of God. In other words, they were enriched in proportion to the quality and the clarity of Paul’s preaching. The two points here about preaching, therefore, are these. First, the privilege and the responsibility of the preacher is to uncover and explain all that is ours in Christ; secondly, bare preaching is not adequate—it must be confirmed (more literally ‘secured’) in the lives of the hearers, and that requires the work of God’s Spirit,14 bringing conviction, illumination and faith.

The church is thus fully endowed with all the gifts of God’s grace. These need to be discovered, explained and appropriated. For this to happen, preaching must testify to the unsearchable riches of Christ. Such preaching requires the power of the Spirit to secure those riches in the life of the Christian community.

V.8-9

We’ve seen the cause of grace, the character of grace, and now I want to look at 2 other things together. The confirmation of grace, and the culmination of grace.

Not only is Paul very positive about the present resources of the church of God at Corinth; he is also full of confidence in the Lord for its future. Whatever ups and downs it might face, Paul is sure of the faithfulness of God: he has called them into the fellowship of his Son, he will confirm (this is the same word as in verse 6 = ‘make secure’) them to the end.

Just like last week, in verse 8 we see italics. If you remember these italics arent in teh original text, they’re added to make better sense of the passage. Look quickly at verse 8. Paul says ‘who will confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’ the phrase ‘that you may be’ is in italics. That isnt part of the original text. Paul isn’t hoping that Christ will present the Corinthians blameless, he knows he will! Let’s read it together leaving the italics out. Who will confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Out of all the promises we’re given in the word of God, one that I especially love and that brings my soul comfort is Philippians 1:6, where Paul says that we are confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. There’s something inside of every saved person that they didnt start, and they aren’t keeping it going, that will continue working in them until it takes them home to glory! What is that thing? Its grace! Grace is at work in our lives every single day, confirming us and working in us until one day it will present us blameless before Christ our Lord

If we have been called, on the initiative of God himself, to share in his Son, Jesus Christ, then God will not abandon us or go back on his promises. That is the force of the word faithful in verse 9. We can totally depend on God: he is not a man, he cannot deny himself, he will keep his word. The church is his responsibility: he is committed to ‘the perfecting of the saints’.

God’s goal is not merely the end of each individual’s lifespan, which he certainly guards with personal care, but the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (8). If we take the teaching on this subject in this letter, we discover that this day marks the full disclosure (literally ‘unveiling’) both of Jesus Christ as he really is, and of the true quality of our service for Christ (3:10–15), as well as the inner purposes and motives of our hearts (4:5). It is a day, anticipated with joy in each celebration of the Lord’s Supper (11:26), when the dead in Christ shall be raised (15:23, 52) to an incorruptible life in what Paul calls ‘a spiritual body’ (15:44). It is a day, therefore, for which Paul longs in the prayer at the end of his letter (16:22): when he says even so come Lord Jesus!

God’s faithfulness extends to that day, and beyond it into the fullness of eternity. He will keep his people guiltless in that day: i.e. when the secrets of men’s hearts are disclosed and we might have had legitimate fear of being finally found guilty before him. God will ensure that absolutely no charge or accusation is laid against his people, whether by human beings or by Satan, the great ‘accuser of the brethren’. On that day it will be plain to all that it is God who justifies, and that those whom he has justified he has also, in the selfsame act, glorified. It is Jesus who matters on that day; it is his day; he calls the tune; he determines the issues. Because we have been called to share in Jesus, we share in his supremacy on that day. We are not under judgment for sin on that day. If anything, the New Testament teaches that we shall exercise judgment along with Jesus Christ.

If we have been called to share in Jesus, let us abide in him—the only way of gradually becoming like him. When we have become like him through the grace of God continuously at work in us, it will be impossible for any guilt, or even cause for guilt, to exist. To such a radical purpose God has committed himself in calling us into fellowship with his Son.

The practical implications of this ‘glorious hope’ in terms of our vision for the local church are relatively straightforward. It means that we are unreservedly committed to the church of God where he has placed us; that we are unhesitatingly confident about God’s desire and ability to make his church in that place like Jesus Christ; that we are uncompromisingly certain about the call for us to be holy, as he is holy

Prayer