Sermon Tone Analysis

“*WORLD, BROTHER, CHURCH*”

(A Series on I Corinthians)

 

Westgate Chapel 8~/8~/04                          I Corinthians 5:9-13

 

PROPOSITION:  As a redeemed community of faith, God has called us into a Biblical relationship with the world, with our brother, and with the church.

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I. introduction

!! -     I AM deeply concerned today about...

!!! ~*     The war in Iraq and the threat all over the world today of Islamic terrorism.

!!!! •     The reality is that wars come and go, and nations rise and fall....but *one thing* remains throughout all time and eternity.

!!! ~*     I am concerned about the economy, the job market, and the impact of the price of gasoline.

!!!! •     The reality is that money is made and lost, national economies rise and fall.... but *one thing* remains throughout all time and eternity.

!!! ~*     I am concerned about the unpredictability of the stock market.

!!!! •     The reality is that the stock market has crashed here before, and fortunes have been made and lost before.... but *one thing* remains throughout all time and eternity.

!!! ~*     I am concerned about peace in the Middle East.

!!!! •     The reality is that Arabs and Jews have been fighting for thousands of years, and peace has been won and lost before....but *one thing* remains throughout all time and eternity.

!!! ~*     I am concerned about the coming election, and the impact of the election on matters of righteousness like abortion and same sex marriage.

!!!! •     The reality is that politicians and political issues come and go, nations like America rise and fall (abortions per capita were about the same as they are now in this country before the great awakening of the 1700’s)....but only *one thing* remains throughout all time and eternity.

!!! ~*     I am concerned about turmoil in our inner cities. Drug addiction amongst our young people, and teen gang violence.

!!!! •     The reality is that young people have been the focus of social concern for generations since Cain killed his brother.....but *one thing* remains throughout all time and eternity.

!! -     AND that *one thing* is the Church of Jesus....called out of this world, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, and made into the people of God, the community of faith.

!! -     GOD gave His Son as a sacrifice, because He wanted to purchase for Himself a bride, a holy nation, a royal priesthood from out of the world that would be to the praise of His glorious grace.

!! -     SO, this thing called Church is not a nice idea....wooden pews, an organ, and  a steeple.

!! -     NO, the Church of Jesus is the MAIN THING that God is doing in the world today.

!! -     LISTEN for this priority in the Scriptures.

!! -     PETER the apostle writes,

!!!       “*As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him*--(5) *you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ*.”

(I Peter 2:4-5)

!! -     VERSES 9&10 of the same chapter say,

!!!       “*But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.*

(10) *Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy*.”

!! -     LISTEN to the writer of Hebrews explain the priority of the Church of Jesus in God’s dealings in the world.

!!!       “*But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,* (23) *to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect*, (24) *to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel*.”

(Hebrews 12:22-24)

!! -     WHEN you and I were born again, we were saved into His Church, as members together of that Church, expressed uniquely in every local fellowship.

!! -     YOU were not called by God into some isolated, private religious experience.

!! -     NO, when you come to God through Jesus Christ, you belong...to God and to all of us.

!!!       “...*in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others*.”

(Romans 12:5)

!! -     TOGETHER we are the body of Christ for this generation, and this locality.

!! -     NO wonder the New Testament is full of appeals for us to live a life worthy of the calling....that phrase is used ten times in the New Testament by Paul and the apostle John.

!! -     THIS is at the heart of what Paul is calling for in the last five verses of I Corinthians 5.

!! -     HE examines the quality of our relationship as believers in three areas:

!!! 1.

The world

!!! 2.   Our brothers and sisters

!!! 3.   Our local church

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ii. the world

!! -     FIRST Paul refers to the nature of our relationship with the people of the world.

!! -     REMEMBER Corinth is a hedonistic place to live....much more so than the world we live in today.

!! -     SIN was a widely accepted way of life, much like it is becoming in our world today.

!! -     THE people of Corinth were...

!!! ~*     Proud of their fine city and cultured lifestyle.

!!! ~*     Into pleasure wherever they could find it.

!!! ~*     Greedy, never satisfied and always wanting more.

!!! ~*     Separated between the haves and the have-nots.

!!! ~*     Saturated in sex.

!!! ~*     Totally into their trade and business ventures, cheating whenever necessary to get ahead.

!!! ~*     Worshipping the false gods of the Greek pantheon.

!! -     AND out of this hedonistic population, God called for Himself a people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood....a Church.

!! -     AND this brand new church of believers in Corinth...

!!! ~*     Worshipped together

!!! ~*     Listened to preaching together.

!!! ~*     Ate at each other’s homes.

!!! ~*     Played together.

!!! ~*     Took communion together.

!!! ~*     Shared the Gospel with their friends.

!! -     BUT they still worked side-by-side with the pagans of Corinth at Boeing, and Microsoft, and Bank of America, and Bon Marche.

!! -     AND they still lived next door to the sinners of Corinth.

!! -     AND they still attended little league with the pagans...and the occasional chariot race or two.

!! -     AND they bought groceries at Albertsons together with the sinners of Corinth.

!! -     AND this became a little bit of a problem....because some of them seemed to remember Paul saying that they shouldn’t be related at all to obvious sinners.

!! -     SO, to straighten things out, Paul writes to them about their relationship with the sinful world in I Corinthians 5:9 (page 1131).

!!!       “*I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people* (10) *not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters.

In that case you would have to leave this world*.”

(I Corinthians 5:9-10)

!! -     AS believers, bonded together by the Life of Christ into the Church of Jesus, we are not called to leave this world.

!! -     JESUS said that we are to be salt and light in this rotting, dark world.

!!! ~*     Salt is a preservative, keeping meat from rotting and being useless....as well as adding taste.

!!! ~*     Light shines, eliminating darkness and fear.

!! -     YOU can’t be salt if you stay in the shaker.

You can’t be light if you hide under your bed.

!! -     JESUS moved about freely amongst the unhypocritical sinners....in fact that is what He was criticized for doing.

!! -     WELL, what is our relationship with the world to be?

!! -     THE word of Jesus are clear in all of the Gospels that we are to be IN the world, but not OF the world.

!!! ~*     We are not to be conformed, shaped to the patterns of the world (Romans 12:2)

!!! ~*     We are not to be dazzled by the wisdom of the world (I Corinthians 3:19)

!!! ~*     We are not to have our interests divided by making the world our goal (I Corinthians 7:34).

!!! ~*     We are to reject the things that the world holds up as priorities (2 Corinthians 10:2)

!!! ~*     We are not to follow the ways of the world (Epesians 2:2)

!!! ~*     We are not to be taken in by the philosophies of the world (Colossians 2:8)

!! -     WE are to live in the world as the foretaste of the kingdom of God.

!! -     WE move about with our eyes open and our armor on....on full alert because we are in enemy territory.

!! -     WE are not perfect, but we reject the ways of the world because the love of Jesus and His life and power are within.....moving us to righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

!! -     THAT is our relationship to the world.

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! iii. the brother

!! -     WELL, Paul moves on to our relationship to the brothers and sisters in the family of God.

!! -     THE Bible is pretty clear that when you and I are placed in the Body of Christ that we are related to each other, dependent on each other, supportive of each other.

!!! ~*     Ecclesiastes 4:12 says,

!!!!       “*Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken*.”