1 Corinthians: Imperfect Church, Perfect Gospel- God's Church, God's Way

Introduction

I am going to describe a culture to you this morning and I want you to think about what culture it sounds like

This culture is a gigantic melting pot of many different people from many different ethnicities and backgrounds. It has great wealth and diversity in religion and moral standards. This culture has a reputation of being independent and morally bankrupt. It is the great commercial center of the entire world, commerce flows in and out of this place and money was not a huge problem. This culture also has no problem cheating someone else in order to gain financially and socially. Products and goods are shipped in daily with things from all over the world And with the diversity there are many different places of worship for many different beliefs. This culture is known for its widely accepted sexual immorality and practices. In this culture SPORTS dominate daily life! Whenever a sporting event is scheduled to happen it drew the attention of most everyone in the area. What culture is this?

If you were to say 21st century America, you would be mostly right! But that’s not the correct answer I am looking for

The correct answer would be 1st century CORINTH!

I want to begin a new series this morning through the book of 1 Corinthians.

As I began to study for this series, I was BLOWN away by the similarities of this culture and ours!

So I don’t think it will be very hard for us to relate with the struggles that this church in Corinth had to face

I’ve titled this series Imperfect Church, Perfect Gospel

And as we walk through this book you will see clearly how TRUE both of those statements are!

I want to give a brief background to this book and church so that we can gain a better understanding of the context of which it’s written

The book of 1 Corinthians was written by Paul to the church in Corinth

It was written while on his third missionary journey while he was in Ephesus, around A.D. 54.

Corinth was a city of around 300,000 people

Paul had planted the church in Corinth on his second missionary journey (Acts 17:16-18:17).

After receiving both a concerning report about the church from “Chloe’s people” (v. 11) and a letter from the Corinthians themselves asking Paul various questions in a previous letter (7:1), Paul wrote this letter to respond to a slew of issues.

The church in Corinth had many flaws and we will see that as we move though the book, but Paul addresses issues in here such as division in the church, following people rather than Christ, sexual immorality in the church, lawsuits among believers, Gods design for marriage and singleness, Christian liberty, attire in worship, the Lords supper, the ressurrection, and many more And we are going to be deep diving in to them as we walk through this book

Now, I already described the city of Corinth, but the big issue that is addressed throughout the entire book is the issue of culture influencing the church!

And Im not sure if there is a better concept to walk through in 21 century America then that!

And we address this consistently moving through the book

But what I really want us to see is that even in the midst of our imperfections as people and as a church, WE HAVE A PERFECT GOSPEL!

The gospel is present in EVERY CHAPTER, ALL 16, OF 1 CORINTHIANS!

And as we look at the issues in the church at Corinth and quite possibly our own issues, my goal through this series, will be to bring it ALL back to the gospel and how we have hope because of it

This morning we are going to be looking at chapter 1:1-9

STAND AND READ

The Perfect Church

I think that I shall never see

A Church that’s all it ought to be:

A Church whose members never stray

Beyond the Strait and Narrow Way:

A Church that has no empty pews,

Whose Pastor never has the blues,

A Church whose Deacons always deak,

And none is proud, and all are meek:

Where gossips never peddle lies,

Or make complaints or criticize;

Where all are always sweet and kind,

And all to other’s faults are blind.

Such perfect Churches there may be,

But none of them are known to me.

But still, we’ll work, and pray and plan,

To make our own the best we can.

I’ve titled this mornings message God’s Church, God’s Way

In this passage, we are going to look at 3 foundations that God has given us for the church!

The first one is that

1. God Builds The Church

No matter what is happening in the life of a faithful New Testament church, we must never forget that the church is God’s church.

Where the Word of God is preached, God is being worshipped, the practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are done, church membership is upheld, church discipline is practiced, and Great Commision is being lived out

When those things are taking place, there exists the Lord’s church regardless of what may be going wrong otherwise.

God is still building faithful churches, imperfections and all, among the nations. And he builds them in two primary ways.

The first way is

A. God Calls Leaders To Serve

1 Corinthians 1:1 (ESV)

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

The Corinthian Church was planted because of the will of God and the obedience of Paul

Acts 16:6–10 (ESV)

6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Now skip over a page or 2 to Acts 18:1-11

Acts 18:1–11 (ESV)

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. 9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Because of Gods call and Pauls obedience a church was planted.

You see, the church needs leadership, and that leadership must be called of God.

We will dive into this topic later in the book of 1 corinthians but, there is a pattern that God has implemented regarding the building of HIS church.

Romans 10:13–15 (ESV)

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

It takes Gods calling and involvement and mans obedience to build a church.

This is designed specifically so that we as the church can carry the torch of the call of Abraham where God tells him that through your offspring ALL the NATIONS will be blessed!

As God raises someone up to lead in building His church, We have the responsibility to see that happen!

the second way God builds His church is that

B. God Calls Sinners To Be Saints

1 Corinthians 1:2–3 (ESV)

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can have a great leader, but without the people there is no church!

A church is not a church without the saints! This happens ONLY by and through the GOSPEL of JESUS!

When God begins to touch hearts and transform lives a church is born and a BATTLE begins!

NOTICE THE TENSION RIGHT AT THE ONSET!

The church of God (something good), which is at Corinth (someplace bad, CULTURE not the place!). Understanding the tension between the church and the culture is important to understanding the letter of 1 Corinthians. The bottom line is this: is the church influencing the culture, or is the culture influencing the church?

This is a question we MUST be asking ourselves here at Naumburg! Who is influencing who? Again we will be diving into this throughout this series

G. Campbell Morgan says in his introduction to 1 Corinthians: “The measure of failure on the part of the Church is the measure in which she has allowed herself to be influenced by the spirit of the age … We are sometimes told to-day that what the Church supremely needs is that she should catch the spirit of the age. A thousand times no. What the Church supremely needs is to correct the spirit of the age.”

How do we do this? Paul says here that we are CALLED TO BE SAINTS TOGETHER WITH ALL THOSE IN EVERY PLACE WHO CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD!

Brothers and sisters, we do not influence the culture by politics or boards, we influence the culture by the CHURCH!!

Now, im not saying that we shouldn’t have Christian’s in politics or different spheres of influence. WE SHOULD!

What I am saying is that those ARE NOT OUR PRIMARY SOURCE OF INFLUENCE ON THE CULTURE.

Sunday school lessons. Heart change is not done by political leadership, its done by THE GOSPEL AND THE CHURCH LIVING IT!

God wants to use us to influence the culture and build HIS church!

We could talk about this for hours but we must move on.

The second foundation for the church is that

2. God Gives His Church Gifts

Here In 1 Corinthians 1:4-7 we see Paul emphasize 2 different kinds of gifts that God gives His church

the first one is

A. The Gift of Grace

Going back to verse 3 and verse 4 we see this fleshed out

1 Corinthians 1:3–4 (ESV)

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,

Grace in its nature is a GIFT. If you aren’t given grace then it can’t be received. It’s impossible to EARN grace!

With that said, the grace that God gives His church is a grace that has a position and a purpose and MUST be given as a GIFT

Now, The position of grace is the fact that we are SAVED!

God has GIVEN us the GIFT of SALVATION!

Ephesians 2:1–5 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Grace is needed for us to have our position in Christ!

But it doesn’t stop with a position! Grace also has a purpose!

Its purpose is PEACE!

John McAurthur says in his commentary on 1 Corinthians that “grace is favor, and peace is one of its fruits”. Theologian Richard Lenski also said this “Grace is always first, peace always second. This is due to the fact that grace is the source of peace. Without grace there is and can be no peace, but when grace is ours, peace must of necessity follow.”

We live a world of turmoil! But I want to submit to you that it’s NOT because of power struggles, or terrorist invasions, or bad political leaders, its because we live in a world of SIN and its in DESPERATE NEED OF GRACE!

This grace has been given to us and we are carriers of it! How are we doing in our communities at bringing grace and peace to the places we are put?

Are we faithful beacons of grace in our society today?

The second kind of gift we see in this passage in 1 Corinthians is that

B. The Gift of The Gifts

1 Corinthians 1:5–7 (ESV)

5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

There are a couple different kinds of gifts mentioned here. The gifts in vs 7 we will do a deep dive into later in the book, and the gift in vs 5-6

This gift in vs 5-6 is the gift of knowing, understanding, and sharing the Word of God!

God built his church to grow through multiplication! And that multiplication is by the sharing of Gods word with those within the church and those outside the church!

We have all we need in His word to be equipped to share it!

So we looked at how God Builds the Church, how He Gives the church gifts and now

The last Foundation of the church in this text is

3. God Provides Hope and Promise

Church, God keeps his promises! There is not 1 promise in The Bible that God has not kept Or is not going to keep!

Numbers 23:19 (ESV)

19 God is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

So when God promises something we can be assured it will happen. So what does he promise here in 1 Corinthians 1:7b-9

1 Corinthians 1:7–9 (ESV)

7 as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless 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.

First we see that

A. Jesus is coming back

Im not sure about you but this is GREAT news!

We as believers should long for the day that Jesus comes to establish HIS perfect and just reign on the earth! There will be a complete defeat of satan and no more SIN!

If that doesn’t excite you, then you need to check your pulse, because I don’t know about you, but I am ready to be free of temptation and sin!

The second promise we see is that

B. God will keep us

This is more than God just helping us through life! This is word for sustain (ESV), Keep you firm (NIV), or confirm (KJV) is a verb, in the greek, that is being acted upon by the SUBJECT to the one being SPOKEN about

Let me clear up the mud.

The “who” in vs 8 is talking about Jesus from verse 7. Who (Jesus) will sustain you (us) until the end.

What does this mean? JESUS KEEPS THE BELIEVER UNTIL THE END!

Now, I don’t want to get into a debate on eternal security, but we all MUST AGREE that EVERY FAITHFUL BELIEVER WHO DIES IS KEPT BY JESUS AND WELCOMED INTO HEAVEN BY HIM!

Brothers and sisters, I NEED JESUS to keep me through This life! I cant do it on my own strength And neither can you!

And we can trust him to do so because

C. God Is Faithful

Church, as we go through this book, We need to keep this fact at the forefront. GOD IS FAITHFUL, EVEN WHEN WE ARE NOT!

The church at Corinth was MESSED UP! Issues all over the place! It was an Imperfect Church. And so are we at times! Yet through it all God is faithful and the gospel is still perfect!

Pray