The Corinthian Correspondence: Part 1 - Introduction

The Corinthian Correspondence, Part 1 Today we begin a brand new series. The Corinthian Correspondence: 1 and 2 Corinthians. These letters are famous, among Bible readers, among Christians. Those who are familiar with these letters, we remember reading such things as what love is all about—and where is that found? 1 Cor. 13. Or the advice Paul gives on marriage—1 Cor. 7. How about the passage we read practically every year at Easter, where Paul explains the gospel in 1 Cor. 15, and the rest of that long chapter dealing with the resurrection. How about 2 Corinthians? What well-known topics does Paul deal with in this letter? How about comfort and encouragement in the first chapter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Or what about that incredible truth in 5:17, where Paul tells us a great spiritual fact of life—that all who are in Christ are new creatures—the old has passed away and the new has come. And Paul’s unforgettable personal testimony of how much he suffered for the sake of gospel, even being stoned and taken up to the 3rd heaven. Remember, too of how Paul asked the Lord 3 times to take away his thorn in the flesh but the Lord told him “no.” Paul concluded “when I am weak, then I am strong.” In short, a LOT of truth in these letters. Superb truth! But let’s stop here a moment and look at something. Anybody who has read these letters knows that there isn’t a whole lot that Paul commends the Corinthian believers for. In these letters, though there are amazing thoughts, Paul also takes great pains to deal with the massive problems in the church in Corinth. But the profound truth Paul wrote in these letters that we consider so valuable, probably would never have been written if it wasn’t for the problems the Corinthians had. The point here is, from the get-go, we can be thankful to the Lord for even the issues, problems and sins we encounter and are guilty of. God does not waste anything that comes into the lives of his people, either the Corinthians or us. Let me reiterate: As followers of Jesus, God wastes nothing. But we don’t like to think about our issues, problems and sins do we? We like to think of ourselves as doing well. And I think of some of Paul’s other letters he wrote. He gave his friends in Thessalonica high praise. He thanked his friends in Philippi for their partnership in ministry. How about Romans? Paul’s question to them was “Will you help me take the gospel to the ends of the earth? By the way, here is the gospel I preach,” and this letter became a masterpiece of Christian thought for 2,000 years. Paul referred to Timothy as “My beloved son in the faith.” But the Corinthian correspondence. A little bit different than all of these positive letters, don’t you think? But over the next however many weeks we are going to be stretched, challenged, rebuked, corrected and trained in righteousness—hey, isn’t that what God’s word supposed to do? This is what Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. Before we dive into these letters, though, we need some orientation. I’ve got to tell you, in preparing for this series I have been amazed at the things I’ve been learning. There was much I thought I had nailed down in my mind regarding these letters. I have been exposed to a whole lot of, shall we say, a shifting in my perspective. It’s incredible what study and meditation will do in one’s relationship with the Word of God, and with the God of the Word. Not only that, but I see more clearly now than ever before the truth of Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun.” It is breathtaking to see the similarities between our culture today and Corinth 2,000 years ago. As I describe some of the Corinthian culture in the first century a little later on, see if you can pick out some of those similarities. In our orientation today, we want ask basic fact finding questions. Like true journalists trying to get at the truth of the matter—unlike the fake news we often read about, we want to ask and try to answer the 6 fact finding questions surrounding these letters: the 5 W’s and How. To begin, I want us to see, not only the big picture, but the cosmic picture—the biggest picture there is. I want to remind us of something that I would say that we all take for granted—that we are living in the last days. I know. Most of us are aware that we are in the last days. But how does this truth affect the way we live when we are not here on Sunday mornings? How does this truth affect the everyday decisions of our lives? In light of the end being near, how does this affect the way we use the time the Lord has loaned us? Or his resources he has entrusted to us? I’m preaching to myself as well, for I don’t pay attention to this nearly as I ought. But with the apostle Paul especially, the conviction that we are in the last days, meant everything to him, for he, too was living in the last days, as we have been for 2,000 years. Paul’s perspective will be our Who—as in who wrote the Corinthian Correspondence. Then we want to ask and answer What? as in What was the cultural soil in which the Corinthian Christians came from? As we understand, or even get exposed to this info, I think we will gain some insight as to why the Corinthian believers struggled with the problems they had. Third, comes the when, where, and how—as in when and how the church in Corinth got started. To do that, we will read Luke’s take on it in Acts 18:1-17. We are also going to see not only what Paul did, but even a bit of what he taught these new believers. And finally the why. Why did Paul write these letters? In other words, we are going to touch on some of the problems the Corinthian church had, then we will finish up with a very sobering question. So, now, on to the investigation of the background of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. As I mentioned a moment ago, Paul’s conviction that he was living in the last days compelled him to give his life for the sake of the gospel, and the Lord who commissioned him as an apostle. One writer observed that Paul’s life was made up of 3 realities. The first one was that he was a top drawer Jew. A member of the Jewish ruling council—the Sanhedrin, a master of the Scriptures, one who was convinced that all the promises of God were wrapped up in the Messiah and his appearing. But there was a problem—for a time, Paul rejected out of hand that Jesus was this Messiah. In the earliest days of the church, he hated the Christians. His zeal to protect God’s Messianic promises found in the Scripture—the Old Testament that is—consumed him. See, Paul knew that God promised in the last days, he would grant world peace. All of God’s enemies would be destroyed. People from every nation would be drawn into God’s kingdom. God’s Messiah would be king of the world. Jerusalem would be the capital. Paul had a consuming passion to put down anybody, by any means who would dare thwart God’s plan. That’s why he horribly mistreated Christians. And all the followers of this impostor, Jesus, needed to become no more. But when Jesus confronted him, and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” a radical change took place. Jesus convinced Paul that the Christians were right. That the Messiah Paul waited for was the very one who knocked him to the ground. I don’t have words for how profoundly the Lord Jesus changed him. But from the day he met Jesus on the Damascus road til his beheading in the Mamertine prison in Rome, Paul was convinced that every Messianic promise came true in Jesus. For Paul, Jesus had ushered in the last days. The Eschaton. Kingdom come. And all that goes with it. When Jesus came on the scene, and he said, “the kingdom of God is among you,” Paul understood that Jesus embodied the kingdom. The night Jesus was betrayed and said, ‘This is the blood of the New Covenant,’” Paul became convinced that Jesus was the beginning of the New Age where God’s ways and God’s Spirit would invade God’s people. When Paul heard that Jesus commanded his followers to preach the gospel to every creature and make disciples of all the nations, Paul then realized that the gentiles and the Jews were to be part of God’s Messianic kingdom. And it was just a matter of time til Jesus would return as King of kings and Lord of lords to rule and reign over all the nations with a rod of iron. And that every person would stand before the Lord Jesus on the day of judgment and all would give an account to him. Paul was convinced that it was Messiah Jesus who would be the gatekeeper to paradise, the very place he told the thief on the cross he was going because he recognized Jesus as Lord. Paul also saw the world through renewed eyes in the here and now. All things were made new. For Paul, Jesus was the embodiment of the Kingdom of God. And all who were part of God’s people were radically changed. All sins forgiven. Repentance from evil, and faithfully living lives committed to the King was the norm. Early on in Paul’s ministry, he pointed this out as he wrote to another church he started in Thessalonica. In short, Paul praised the Lord for the profound changes the believers there experienced in 1 Thessalonians 1:8–10 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. The Thessalonians were the model for Christians everywhere. They heard the gospel. They turned to God in faith, while turning from their idols in repentance. They embarked on a lifelong journey of service to the Lord, while waiting for the return of Jesus who will deliver all of his people from the wrath of God when he comes to judge the world. This was Paul’s vision for not just the Thessalonians but all the churches he started. Paul saw the Kingdom of God beginning to take shape spiritually in God’s people in the here and now, and with just as much conviction, he was waiting in hope for the Lord’s return to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords over the nations. So, what drove Paul to give his life in service to the King is that he saw every Messianic Promise and truth fulfilled in one man—the God-man: Messiah Jesus. See, Paul didn’t just get saved, as we like to put it. No, for Paul it was far more profound. As the one who wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem” included in the lyrics we sang a couple of weeks ago: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee—Jesus—tonight.” And for us who know Christ, and even more importantly, for all those who Christ knows, is this true of us as well? Do we see in Jesus all of the promises and hopes of Kingdom Come all converge in him? Do you see, as Paul saw, Kingdom come in the church—that we get the privilege of living in the kingdom right now, with the power of God having changed us and the ways of God inscribed on our hearts? This is what it means to love the Lord and live in his kingdom. As you look around at your brothers and sisters, do you see in them the profound changes that God brought about by his Spirit living in them? Do they see that change in you? If your vision has become a little dim, allow the Lord to confront, and refresh and stretch you during our series as we engage in the Corinthian Correspondence. Not only was Paul uniquely qualified to be Christ’s apostle because he was a profoundly changed Messianic Jew, he was also born a Roman citizen. As such, he was not afraid to interact with gentiles, who many religious Jews thought were unclean and would have nothing to do with them. But Paul as a Jew was fully immersed in the gentile world; indeed he was one “of them”. He knew the ways and customs of the gentiles and was more than able to translate, as it were the truth of God into the lives of gentiles who became followers of the Jewish Messiah. And we will see Paul in action with the Corinthian believers in a few minutes. In short, Paul had the heart of a Messianic Jew with the hands and feet of a gentile, thoroughly familiar and even at home in a gentile world. So much for the “Who” of our investigation. Now let’s turn the corner to discover the “what”: What was the cultural soil the Corinthian believers emerged from? Now, we need to know this because it stands to reason. When the church was formed in Corinth, where did the people who made up the congregations come from? From the neighborhood, of course! And by the way, the Corinthian church did not meet together in one church building. In fact, church history tells us that the first church buildings were not even built until several hundred years after Christ went back to heaven. There were a lot of small and some not so small house churches around Corinth. And as we get into the main problem of the Corinthian church in a couple of weeks, it’s pretty easy to see how one group, one house church could be committed to Paul while those in another house church could be committed to Apollos and so on. But what was the culture like? The history of Corinth was such that it had been completely rebuilt as a large city less than 100 years prior to when the church started—it was basically brand new as far as cities go. When Julius Caesar sent his servants to rebuild the city that was destroyed, which he saw as strategic to advance his interests, he set the city up for success. The kinds of people Caesar invited to live there were military veterans, merchants and freed slaves. It was literally a service-oriented economy, and people didn’t have to work hard. Corinth was literally the geographical center of the empire. It had not one, but two seaports, attracting people from all around. Situated close to Athens, which was dying, Corinth was quickly taking its place as The place to be. It became the richest and most powerful city in Greece in its heyday. The city was home to the second largest empire-wide event—the Isthmus games, second only to the Olympics. But the games did not only showcase the best in athletic talent. They also held speech contests as well, and the winners of the rhetorical contests were celebrated just as much as the athletes. Athletes and talking heads were the rock stars of their day, sort of like our day! Like every city, there were several gods that the people worshiped. One of the gods was actually a goddess named Aphrodite, and upwards of 1,000 female slaves were dedicated to the service of this goddess of love, spelled l-u-s-t, beauty, and fertility. She was also called Venus. The temple prostitutes contributed to the economy of Corinth, so it was important that they ply their trade well. And the women who were not temple prostitutes made themselves extremely attractive. Enter into the mix all the people who constantly came and went and the statement “what is done in Corinth stays in Corinth” was alive and well. The level of immorality there was so well known that the Greeks actually had a word for it: Corinthianize. And throughout the Greco-Roman Empire, when a young woman was called a Corinthian, it was like calling her certain names that we use for girls that engage in immorality. I’ll leave it at that. But imagine! A city famous for prostitution and immorality! Oh wait! We have a city like that: Las Vegas! Self-promotion, making a name for one’s self was an artform in Corinth. For example a freedman named Gnaeus Babbius actually put himself on a pedestal, making a monument to himself, paying for it with his own money. He was in government service and wanted everybody, to include his posterity to know about it. There’s a lot more we can say about the culture of Corinth but let me use the words of one author: They were prosperous, cosmopolitan, and religiously pluralistic, accustomed to visits by impressive, traveling public speakers and obsessed with status, self-promotion, and personal rights. From a Jewish or Christian viewpoint, as with any pagan city, its citizens were marked by the worship of idols, sexual immorality, and greed. The elites of Corinth followed only one thing—the accumulation of wealth—which attracted like-minded sailors. As a result, Corinth was known and identified far and wide as a city of evil, immorality, and frivolousness. I will remind us of the background of Corinth as we go through the letter. But let me say one thing for now. Paul said that when he came to Corinth preaching the gospel he did not do it by way of lofty speech or wisdom. I think it is significant that Paul would say that. Not that he was unable. But the Corinthians were moved by impressive traveling public speakers. In other words, could it be that not only Paul’s message but also his methods were counter cultural. It seems he chose not to use the techniques and culture of the day to preach Christ and him crucified. We asked the “who” and “what” questions. Now let’s find out when, where and how the church in Corinth got started. So, let’s turn to Acts 18:1-17 as we read Luke’s story of how it happened. After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 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, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 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.” 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. 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. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 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.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong doing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” And he drove them from the tribunal. And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this. After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae—a seaport of Corinth--he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. In the context, this was in the middle of Paul’s second missionary journey, around A.D. 50-51. Let me make a point or two then move on as to why Paul wrote his letters. Paul began as he always did when he entered a new place, in the synagogue. When they rejected him, he turned to the gentiles. It reminds me of what the Lord told the disciples when he sent them out: “if they don’t receive you and the message, don’t spend time with them. Go on to those who will appreciate it.” And I think that is great advice. Someone put it this way: “nobody has the right to hear the gospel twice until everybody has heard the gospel once.” I’m not sure I would go that far, but there is some truth to that. Let’s not allow those we really want to see come to Christ become our obsession if they don’t want the Lord at the expense of others who haven’t heard. This is what Paul seemed to do. Though Paul had unceasing anguish in his heart that his fellow Jews did not come to Christ, that did not prevent him from giving the gospel to those who were interested. So, what did he do? He took both Jews and gentiles aside and taught them the word of God. He grounded the new converts in the word and endeavored to make them disciples of Jesus. But notice who they were: almost all of them were gentiles, who probably knew nothing of a Jewish Bible. Remember what the Bible was in Paul’s day? The Old Testament. He trained them in the ways of God’s Torah. He taught them Jewish concepts, such as the proper use of a Temple. Christ who is the sacrificial lamb. The idea that leaven is symbol for sin. And even the resurrection. All of these ideas and so much more are what Paul took 18 months to teach them. The work was hard. It was dangerous. And Paul needed encouragement. So who showed up, just when Paul needed him? It was the Lord Jesus telling him in a vision that there was going to be a revival of sorts among the Corinthians. The point I want to make here is that it takes a while to grow a disciple of Jesus. And I’m pleased to say that there are several of us who are involved right now in spending time doing that. We call it mentoring. See, Jesus gave his church 3 tasks: Evangelize the lost, disciple the saved, and as a church, to live together in love and unity. He gave us nothing else to do. Feeding the hungry is a good thing. But the Red Cross or Local Catholic relief can do that. Clothing non-Christians is a good thing. But the United Way can do that. What are the things that The Red Cross or the United Way cannot do? Evangelize the lost, disciple the saved and be instrumental in having local congregations of Christians live together in love and unity. My prayer for all of us is that we would commit ourselves to doing these very things. And I guarantee you, if you become an integral part of these 3 things, your life will never be the same. He will give you deep satisfaction and joy unspeakable! If you have not committed yourself to evangelism, discipleship and unity, let me encourage you to get involved. It begins with prayer on Sunday mornings right here from 7:30-8:00 and Bible Fellowship at 9:00. Enough said. But Paul apparently saw that his work of equipping the new believers was sufficient and handed the work over to leadership to continue on the work of evangelization, disciplemaking and unity. Then he left. But in between the time he left and the penning of his first letter, tragically something went wrong with his beloved Corinthians. Somehow they got their eyes looking in the wrong place. They became, again, enamored with persuasive traveling speakers who were able to emotionally move them. They tolerated sin, even sin that pagans in their neighborhoods did not tolerate. They hung out their dirty laundry of disunity and divisions in front of non-believing Corinthians. False teaching about husband and wife marital intimacy arose. Instead of living together in love and unity, they began to separate themselves as the “haves” and “have nots” and it showed up big time in of all places—the observance of the Lord’s table! As Paul continued on his missionary journeys, collecting funds from gentile churches to help their Jewish brothers and sisters who were experiencing a famine, word of what was going on in the Corinthian church got back to Paul. His heart was broken. His anger was aroused. And he began to write. Paul’s letters were designed as a spiritual 2x4 upside their heart. We will see him at work giving them a thorough spiritual massage. His righteous anger, his broken heart and zeal to set them right again will become very evident as we walk through these letters. And this is the why of the Corinthian Correspondence. As we finish the message today, I realize I’ve thrown a lot of background information at you—information that we need to understand some of why Paul wrote what he did. But if you get nothing else today, get this: there is one overarching idea with these letters. One word that Paul wanted to communicate to them time and time again and it is this: unity. Oneness. We will cover this in a bit more detail in a couple of weeks and regularly revisit their lack of unity in the weeks to come. Every one of the errors Paul pointed out can be found in a lack of unity. This disunity of the Corinthians is due to one thing: the failure of the individuals in the church to look to Jesus. The Corinthians broke into factions because they failed to look to Jesus as their one Lord. They tolerated sexual sin because they failed to see Jesus as holy. They separated themselves into the haves and have nots, stingy with their resources because they forgot the gift of salvation that Christ offered. Some denied the resurrection because they looked away from the crucified and resurrected Lord of Glory, the author of salvation. I can go on, and I will as we walk through these precious truths found in the Corinthian Correspondence. But for now, let’s leave it at that. Let me ask you though, how are you contributing to the unity making Grace United a stronger witness, or how are you detracting from the unity, making the witness of Grace United weaker? Food for thought. And prayer. And perhaps even repentance. As I was preparing this message, it struck me. Hard. Imagine! When we as followers of Jesus get united with the Family of God throughout the ages on the other side, we will encounter the Corinthian believers. We will have many opportunities to ask our brothers and sisters about the things we will be reading and studying throughout our time in 1 and 2 Corinthians, both the precious truths and the rebukes, corrections and righteous training given by Paul’s pen. Two of Paul’s letters were written with the Corinthians’ name on them. So now it is our turn. I have a question for us: If a Christian leader were to write a letter for the whole world to see based on what he saw and knew of Grace United, what would he include in it? May the Lord help us to be about the 3 tasks that he gave us to do: Evangelize the lost. disciple the saved. Live together in love and unity. To the glory of God and the building up of his church, so that when we stand before him he will tell us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That is what I long to hear from him more than anything else. What is it that what you want to hear from our Lord, who is altogether lovely, when it’s all said and done?