Focus on the Message

Simplexity

1 Corinthians 1

Big Idea: Simplexity: Simply following Christ in a complex culture.

Introductory thoughts:

We live in a complex culture.

· The amount of information accessible to us is continually increasing. In fact you probably receive more information in your inbox in the morning than a person in the 17th century would have received in a lifetime.

· 7.3 million new pages are being added to the visible World Wide Web today.

· 1000 books were published today

· Technology has made our lives more efficient and more complex.

· More stuff = more money, time and energy. We have lots of fun stuff at our disposal, but it costs money and time to maintain.

· True in our spiritual lives as well.

a. We live in diverse neighborhoods.

i. James not knowing if his neighbors even spoke English

b. Diverse cultures bring diverse religious background

c. No common unity of morals

d. There are a lot of voices out there claiming to speak the truth. Many even claim biblical authority.

We desire simplicity.

· Apple knows this. Plug and Play mantra.

· Google knows this – limited things you see on their home screen.

· Graphic design

· Southwest Airlines – food is minimal, no hubs

· Papa John’s pizza – one recipe, simple menu

Paul’s missionary journeys

· Map of churches started.

World of Corinth

· City rebuilt by the Romans in 44 bc by Julius Caesar

· Wealthy city

· First city of Greece

· Philosophy was important

· Periander was a prominent philosopher of his time even considered one of the seven wise men of his time.

· Stood in a strategic position to control trade

· Dominated by temple of Aphrodite (goddess of love) built on the heights of the acropolis

· “Aphrodite”was worshipped with great devotion in Corinth. Strabo says that in her temple on the fifteen-hundred-foot high hill above the city, called the Acrocorinth, “there were more than a thousand temple slaves, prostitutes, whom both men and women had dedicated to the goddess.” Some say this was an exaggeration. Few Greeks however saw this as immoral or shameful. The phrase out of 1 Cor. 6:12 “all things are lawful for me” apparently was coined by the locale.

· “Corinth” was a byword for excess and sexual licence. Even a word for it: Corinthianize.

· Large floating and transient population

Chapter 1

Introduction: 1:1-16

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

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.)

Paul planted the church - Acts 18

Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized (Acts 18:7-8).

Ø Letter to the Romans written from Corinth

· Paul mentions in Romans 16:23 an Erastus who is also mentioned on an inscpriction originally set in bronze letters into the pavement at Corinth as a magistrate for Corinth. He was the donor and making election promises.

Ø Reasons for writing the letter

· Divisiveness

· Their mindset was turning more legalistic mindset

· Pagan lifestyle influence

· Elitism - Wealth and wisdom of the area made them prone to pride

· Pride in spiritual gifts

· Confusion on marriage

· Confusion on singleness

· Fornication

· Pseudo-philosophy

· Pretense of eloquence

· Communion had become a drunken brawl.

The Message is the Cross: 1:17-25

17

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (17).

Ø Paul’s purpose was to preach the gospel, nothing more, nothing less.

· Focusing on our purpose helps us accomplish more with less

18-21

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

Ø Wisdom (from a Greek perspective) was the highest goal.

· Reason and rhetoric

· Snobbish, look down on everyone else kind of wisdom

· They wanted to add to the message of the cross because it seemed elementary to them. To make it more palatable to their peers.

o Spoch

o Perhaps even the Corinthians had sensed the humiliation behind the message of the cross and tried to “move on” beyond that message. But to move on would be to abandon Christ

· Ironic that they would say the gospel is wise, but by human standards it is ridiculous. No person in their right mind would choose a cross to be the tool by which people were saved. It is not wise by human standards.

· Power of the gospel does not come from human words or wisdom. It comes from the cross.

· It is absolute, fundamental and sufficient.

Ø Two groups of people

· Those who don’t get it

o Those perishing – like those in a canoe headed for a waterfall

o “lost” – one thing to be lost, another thing to not know it

o Sheila missed interstate in Kansas

§ On the wrong path, but didn’t know it

o Foolishness – those who are not on the path think the cross is moronic

· Those who do

o Those who are being saved – the person who gets it

o Made a decision to get into a new boat, one that doesn’t lead to death, but leads to life

o To them it is “power,” (24) – single greatest transformer of their life, blowing them up

Which person are you?

22-23

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

Ø People in that day looked for truth and enlightenment in two primary places:

· Miracles

· Wisdom – something that seems right in our own eyes

Ø 2 Reasons People don’t get:

1. Human wisdom cannot grasp God’s plan (21)

· Doesn’t mean you check your mind at the door.

· It means you cannot rely on human wisdom alone.

2. They are not looking for it

· Like after you buy a car and you notice everyone has one

· Presidential race – groomed and primed, and then the guy at Subway runs. Jesus is more like the guy at the subway shop

· Stumbling block – scandalon

· The logic of the cross doesn’t make any sense to them

· Mere wisdom would have never delved into the mystery of the cross.

· Like Jesus said, “seek and you will find.”

· Go to any bookstore and there are thousands of voices crying out for your attention. I am drawn to those areas of interest. I like to browse, but I only browse in areas of interest. I have to really be looking for something in order to find something.

24-25

But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

Ø Christ to those who get it is both power and wisdom

· Why some do get it: God lets you get it.

o God calls people

General call for all to believe –romans 1; psalm 19

§ Specific call – effectual call – when the HS allows someone to get it

§ One day you get it, one day you don’t

§ HS is like advertising, helps you see you need something when you didn’t know you needed it

§ Like a lightbulb

§ HS uses us, sometimes just makes it click

§ Romans 3:11-12

· We are moving in our direction

· God must initiate the first move to us

§ Lt. Dan’s question is flawed. You can’t find Jesus, Jesus has to find you first.

The Cross is our Hope: 1:26-31

26

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

Ø Background can’t save you

· Think about who you were when you accepted Christ.

o Not Wise

o Not Influential

o Not Noble Birth

· The cross obliterates all human grounds for boasting

· Number of titles with the word “self” in the title – 489,928

27-29

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

Ø The Corinthians did not stumble upon the Gospel, God chose them.

· And he intentionally chose the foolish, the weak and the lowly so as no one could claim it was by their power

o Kopi Luwak

§ $300/lb

§ Sell it by the ounce

§ Only one thousand pounds of this coffee at most make it to the world market every year.

§ The world’s most exotic bean comes from only one lace on earth. The island of Sumatra in Indonesia in a region known as Java.

§ Kopi is Indonesian for coffee. Luwak is Indonesian for cat, a palm civet, that is involved in the process of harvesting this bean. About the size of a fox, a luwak is a nocturnal, fruit-eating cousin of the mongoos. The Jaun Valdez of the animal kingdom, it roams at night over the island of Sumatra and only picks the most perfect, ripe coffee cherries to eat. It would rather starve than feast on an inferior bean.

§ The civet can then defecates the undigested coffee cherries in sausage like links, and local harvesters dig in the rainforest floor and river banks looking for civet cat dung. They wash the clumps until only the beans are left, which then are dried in the sun.

§ Another name for the Kopi Luwak

o God works this exact same way.

§ The beloved image of all Christian images is the dove. But dove is nothing other than a poetic name for a trash bird called a pigeon.

§ Jesus grew up in a place called Nazereth – Can anything good come out of there?

§ Born in a cave. What do you think one of the first things he smelled was?

§ He died on Golgotha which was pretty much a garbage dump. What do you think he died smelling?

§ Jacob was a schemer and a thief who become the father of a nation.

§ David was an adulterer.

§ Peter was a boastful, profane fisherman who Christ built his church on.

§ Saul was a persecutor of Christians.

o God is in the business of taking trash and turning into treasure.

· God chooses that which looks foolish in order to strip all dependence on self.

· Living a gospel life is not about gifts. We learn about that later.

· It’s not about not growing smarter or more mature. We again hear about that later.

· It’s about learning to trust your complete life in Jesus.

· Ill. Book god is not great basic pretense is that religion is bad for us. Religion in the book is earning God’s favor. I agree, but that’s not the Gospel.

· The gospel is this: Trust him completely or nothing.

What are you trusting?

30-31

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Ø Jesus became for us wisdom from God

· Wisdom is a person

o Doesn’t have to do with getting smart or status

o Has completely to do with salvation through Jesus

· Righteousness – right standing before God, despite his/her guilt from having broken his law.

· Holiness – reflecting God’s character

· Redemption – slavery term, to buy back

Ø Boasting – certainly “to take pride in” but also “to put one’s full confidence in”

· God has eliminated human pretense and self-sufficiency

· The cross rules out anything other than grace saving you.

· Ill. We could boast about our church.

· Our knowledge.

· Our prestige.

Application

If you don’t get it, then keep exploring. #. If you do get it, then thank God.
Trust God completely for your salvation, don’t try to earn it.
Allow God to express his power through you.

Person hurt you

Old you would seek revenge
New you, lets it go.
That’s the power of the cross

Marriage isn’t working

Old you would give up
New you chooses commitment and patient and little by little the experience new life
Cross

Loses job

Old you would be absolutely angry
New you clam and at peace
What could explain this mindset?

This is not reason for boasting on our own. We boast in Christ.