Sermon Tone Analysis

Call To Worship Scripture

1 Corinthians 1:

Sermon Scripture

More Than Human

From this verse we induce that there are two types of people to be addressed (within/or without) of the church, while there is hoped for, within the church a seperation wherein there shall be a certain type of person to be addressed within the church and a completly differerent to be addressed without the church.

So then, according to the Word of God, there are two types of people to be addressed.

The first is Spiritual.

The second is Flesh or Carnal.

Our first challenge in this is to identify what is meant and understand the attributes of these two types of people.

Let us begin with the latter.

Flesh/Carnal

Having the nature of flesh, i.e. under the control of the animal appetites

governed by mere human nature not by the Spirit of God

having its seat in the animal nature or aroused by the animal nature

Human: with the included idea of depravity.

Pertaining to the flesh

to the body: related to birth, linage, etc

Human: [a form of species]

Belonging to man or mankind; pertaining or relating to the race of man; as a human voice; human shape; human nature; human knowledge; human life.

Having the qualities of a man

Profane; not sacred or divine; as a human author.

Spiritual: (This word does not appear in scripture until after Pentecost)

Relating to the human spirit, or rational soul.

This is the part of man which is akin (related by blood or allied by nature) to God and thus serves as his instrument or organ.

Belonging to a spirit, or a being higher than man but inferior to God.

The ‘spiritual’ state of soul is normal for the believer, but not all believers attain or maintain it.

There is a contrast between a ‘spiritual’ state and that of the babe in Christ (the one who because of immaturity and inexperience has not yet reached spirituality)

Spirituality is not a fixed or absolute condition.

Thus is demands a constant growth and steady feeding as one of its strongest evidences.

If one is discussing living or order of operation, as in the way that one recieves information, rationalizes decisions and thus applies their life then you begin with the source of operation or that area of self where rationalization takes place.

That is to say the first stop, the organic realm of decision making.

When you do this you only have two areas to begin from.

It is either from the appetites of the flesh or the service of God (ie.

carnal or spiritual)

This is very theologically distinctive:

A spiritual (meaning healthy and related to the service of God) decision can never be made from the flesh…or simply put one who operates from the flesh is not spiritual.

This means that the human rationalization of good is not of service to God, or is not spiritual.

Now, onto Paul and his desire to address the church as spiritual rather than people of the flesh.

Note, that people of the flesh are connected to infancy in Christ.

That is those who have not yet matured or garnered the spiritual stregnth necessary to walk by the leading of the Spirit rather than the cravings of the flesh.

In other words we are descussing a reality check for the church.

Spirtual and Carnal is different than saying Christian and non-christian and is yet no less crucial to our understanding and walking/living in trueness of life.

The problem is that if one is of the flesh (yet in the church) though the teacher desires to address them as spiritual, meaning the desire of the teacher is to address their relation to God and how God will use them in His divine service, he cannot.

Listen friends, we can see here that carnal living amoungst the people of God is the greatest cause of stagnation in the church.

Paul wants to rally the church, he wants to proclaim the work of God within the church but the church is not oporating from their relation to God but rather to their relation to the world.

The church cannot recieve the message of God, the mission of her Lord if her rationing in life is rooted in human reasoning.

1 Corinthians

Paul fed them with milk.

This does not mean that Paul watered down the message.

This is why I don’t like skim milk or 2%…or whatever you have it…it’s just not biblical…give the baby whole milk…100% pure thick creamy milk.

I say that so that you understand Paul did not give them less of a message but rather fed them the fullness of the message in the form that they needed for nurishment and growth at the time.

Milk in the nutrients that it has is a meal.

Paul had fed them fully.

He had given them the full, pure, nourishment of the gospel in a form made for the infants easy digesting of it.

It is if you would, the elementary teaching of grace.

Those wonderful truths purposed not to be less than but rather foundational to the mature truths of grace.

It is those simple truths of the gospel that Paul had given to the Corinthians.

Those truths of man’s sinfulness, God’s mercy, repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet the carnality of the church gave Paul clear evidence that though those truths had been preached they were not being practiced.

The hoped for muscle and growth that the milk was to cause had not come.

What is the evidence of this?

The church is opporating from the carnal.

What is the evidence of this?

Jealousy (envy), strife, and divisions

Jealousy (envy)

A contentious rivalry

Strife

quarrel.

The expression of enmity.

Divisions

Dissension.

A standing apart.

This description shows their pattern of spiritual immaturity.

The maturity of the church is rooted in expressions of the gospel which is love, grace and unity.

These expressions shine through a long suffering nature with each other, a patience, a forgivness and repentance.

But the carnal church, rather than love is jealous, and rather than exercising grace it practices strife, and rather than a unity of spirit, it stands apart, divided and the divided church can never serve the perfectly unified God.

1 Corinthians 3:4-

The church has acted carnally in seeking to serve God.

I will say that again: What has stifled the maturation of the church in Corinth is their own rationalizing as to how to serve God.

Not because there are so many different way’s to serve God, for indeed their is only one, and that is humble obedience, but rather because the are seeking another way in seeking their own fame.

How often in the ministry is the “success” of a church or mission described by saying something like “here is what we did”.

There are entire books, seminars and college corses on strategies and buisness models for church growth.

We have become so carnal that the first question of church health isn’t what do you believe, or do you follow the Word of Christ, but is rather “how many?” or “where is your builiding located at?” or “what ministries do you have?”… “what do you offer, how can you serve me, how do you serve the community....”

We each have our own carnal rationalization for what the church is and therefore what “church” we are a part of, but this divisive rationing has blinded us from true spiritual service to Christ as a unified church.

Paul attempts here to further streghthen “the milk” teaching.

He goes back to the grace of God.

Notice it was not Paul’s reasoning that caused him to lay a foundation of faith in others, it wasn’t Pauls strategy that caused the success of that foundation.

Rather it was the grace of God.

Whenever our efforts, our strategy or our reasoning begins somewhere other than the grace of God, then we attempt to lay a different foundation than that which is laid in Jesus Christ.

Here is the thing, someone can build upon a different strategy.

You can grow a church by building an attractive building, by having multiple programs, by being “commuity involved” or whatever the popular movement of the day is, but what is made clear is that will not survive.

The life of the church is the grace of Christ made manifest in and through the church.

This is the foundation, it is the seed and it is the seed which is to be watered.

Now I go back and remind us all that wether a seed is laid or watered it is God alone who gives life and causes growth.

So then how do we opperate?

1 Corinthians 3:18-23

You see displays to us the carnal, it is the self rationalizing of good works that proves success or acceptance by being better or more successful than another.

It is results driven, self-dependant, King of the Hill type of operation.

However chapter 4 describes how the Spiritual church should be regarded:

Two things church that I believe we have by the grace of God sought to demonstrate before you and even been encouraged by you in, in regard to being spiritually minded servants of Christ: