Sermon Tone Analysis

*“THE CHURCH AT **CORINTH**”*

* *

(1 Corinthians 1:1-9)

 

      I invite you to come with me momentarily as we draw back the curtains of time and step back about two thousand years ago.

It is a crisp, spring-like day as we step aboard a wooden ship, now harbored in Apollonia, part of Greece, and sail into the Gulf of Corinth, staying overnight in the port city of Lechaeum.

Our destination is Ephesus, where we will meet a short, stoop-shouldered missionary named Paul.

In order to reach the city of Ephesus, we will watch as our ship is carried overland on rollers across the isthmus near the city of Corinth.

The reason for this procedure is twofold.

Sailing around Peloponnesus to our south is both time-consuming and dangerous—so dangerous, in fact, sailors in the area observe: “a sailor never takes his journey around Malea) the cape at the south end of the peninsula) until he first writes his will.

The second reason for taking the ship across the isthmus is that in the long-term, it is a less expensive option that sailing around the peninsula.

It would be nice if we could spend some time in Corinth, for it is one of the leading cities at Greece.

Perhaps we could watch the athletes getting ready for the Isthminian games—second only to the great Olympian games held in Rome.

Or maybe we could climb up to the acropolis (literally “high city”) known as the AeroCorinth, where on a clear day, we could see Athens, some forty-five miles away.

The AeroCorinth is situated on a 2,000 foot high granite mound and is large enough to hold all of Corinth (about ¾ million people) and its surrounding farmlands in a time of siege.

The AeroCorinth houses some 1,00 priestesses known all over the world for plying their trade upon the many foreign travelers in the city.

As a matter of fact, it is probably just as well that our stay at Corinth will be brief, because the city is also well-known for its vices and excess.

Due to its strategic location, Corinth attracts many sailors, merchantmen, and travelers, and is a city void of moral conscience.

The city is so base and vile that the expression “he is acting like a Corinthian” is now commonly used to describe base and wicked behavior.

I have heard from various sources that the Corinthian Christians are not much better than their unsaved counterparts.

In one of Paul’s recent letters, he has said that some believers are participating in fornication (the word us porneia, from which we get our word pornography), idolatry, adultery, effimamcy, homosexuality, stealing and covetousness.

With Christi like these, who needs heathen people?

In fact, some have said that it is difficult to tell a heathen from a Corinthian Christian.

Now let us come back to the present and look tat the church at Corinth from a Biblical and historical perspective:

 

*I.

THE CHURCH AT **CORINTH*

 

      I understand that Paul established the church at Corinth on his second missionary journey.

I believe that he recorded the history of the church for us in Acts 18.

 

*A.

The people of the church (Acts 18:*

 

      The church at Corinth was formed by believers from Rome, who had been expelled by Claudius Caesar.

Suetonius speaks of the Claudian edict:

 

      “The expulsion of the Jews was due to a riot and tumult in Rome caused by one Chrestus.”

Though the name is spelled with an “e”, I suspect that Suetonius’ hearting is not what it was once was and that the person in question was actually the Messiah Jesus.

1.

Priscilla and Aquila

 

      At any rate, an entire Jewish community was expelled from Rom and many of them came to Corinth, among whom was Aquila and Priscilla.

The name Aquila in Greek means “eagle.”

The name “Priscilla” is a female form of Prisca, one of the great families of Rome.

I have heard that Priscilla is related to the great Prisca family.

Priscilla was a gifted and culture woman; Priscilla and Aquila were tentmakers by trade.

They were used by God to instruct the future pastor of the Church at Corinth, Apollos, the Alexandrian.

The church at Corinth had a slow start—notice verses 4-6: “4And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

5And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews /that/ Jesus /was/ Christ.

6And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook /his/ raiment, and said unto them, Your blood /be/ upon your own heads; I /am/ clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.”

Silas and Timothy, Paul’s fellow laborers, came along to help Paul out, so he gave himself completely to the ministry of the Word.

Notice Acts 17:16: “16Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

17Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.”

2.

Titus Justus (Acts 18:7)

 

      Acts 18:7 tells us that a house owned by a man named Titus Justus and strategically located next to the Synagogue was first used as a meeting place for the church at Corinth.

Verse 8 mentions Crispus, leader of the synagogue who was saved: “8And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.”

The word “akountes” translated “hearing” is a present indicative participle that carries the idea, “continued hearing, continued to believe, continued to be baptized.

3.

Apollos

 

      Apollos is mentioned in verses 24-28:

 

        “24And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, /and/ mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. 26And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto /them/, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

27And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace.”

Apollos was an Alexandrian by birth, mighty in the Scriptures, but possessed only a partial knowledge of salvation and the teachings of Christ.

Notice verse 28: “28For he mightily convinced the Jews, /and that/ publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”

Notice that Paul mentions Sosthenes in verse 1: “1Paul, called /to be/ an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes /our/ brother.”

Acts 18:17 tells us that “17…all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat /him/ before the judgment seat.”

We have seen the people of the church at Corinth, now let’s notice together:

 

*B.

The peril of the church*

* *

      In the early days of the church at Corinth, it seemed as though the church was going to “die on the vine.”

Notice verses 6-8:

 

            “6And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook /his/ raiment, and said unto them, Your blood /be/ upon your own heads; I /am/ clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

7And he departed thence, and entered into a certain /man’s/ house, named Justus, /one/ that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

8And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.”

The believers at Corinth were rejected by the Jews (v.

6), received by a Gentile (v.

7), and encouraged by a leader of the synagogue.

But the Lord encouraged Paul in verses 9-11:

 

            “9Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: 10For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.

11And he continued /there/ a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

*C.

The problems of the church*

 

      The Corinthian church had a number of serious problems:

 

1.

Factions (1:10-13; 3:1-9)

 

2.

Worldliness

 

3.

Specific questions

 

      The church was in an upheaval.

Some of the members were getting drunk at the Lord’s Table, one man was living in sin with his Father’s wife, the church was splitting into factions and cliques.

Someone, in the midst of all these problems, writes Paul a letter asking six church-related questions.

Paul writes a letter back, not only in answering the questions, but also (in the first six chapters) dealing with their problems.

The questions were:

 

a.

What were the right Christian principles concerning sex, marriage and divorce.

Paul answers these questions in chapter 7.

 

b.

Should believers do their shopping at meat markets associated with great pagan temples?

The crux of this questions centers upon doubtful things, gray areas.

Paul answers these questions in chapters 8-10.

c.

Should a woman dress for church services as for a private or a public function.

Should capable women take a leading part in the services.

Chapter 11:2-16 deals with this issue.

d.

What was the proper way to observe the Lord’s Table?

What were the Biblical parameters?

Answer in chapter 11:17-34.

e.

What about the use and practice of spiritual gifts?

Sometimes the worship service was disturbed by uncontrolled ecstatic speech.