854 1 Cor.10.23 - 11.1 Adopting Gospel Behaviour
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- Israel Folau upset the unbelievers when he posted a message on his Instagram account that says that certain behaviours will cause a person’s destiny to be hell unless they turn to Christ
Adopting Gospel Behaviour
Adopting Gospel Behaviour
Date: 09-02-20 854 Echuca
- Israel Folau upset the unbelievers when he posted a message on his Instagram account that says that the unbeliever’s destiny is in hell unless they turn to Christ
Q. Did he do the wrong thing? Some Christians think he did!
Q. Furthermore, who did the offending here?
- He quoted a paraphrase from the Bible. Who really did the offending?
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- Now some of you might not agree with his “out-there-in-your-face” approach
Q. The question I want to ask is this: Who really caused the offence?
Q. Were these Israel Folau’s words or statements, or were they from God?
- Certainly, we are not to create an offence on matters of preference, but it is another matter when people are offended by God
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- The first point to acknowledge this morning is that there is a crucial difference between an offence that we, personally, might have given & an offence that arose because of what God has said & done
- Paul has already stated that the Gospel of Christ will offend
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
—18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
—23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
—23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
- Paul cannot be saying that if the Gospel offends the unbeliever, then you should stop speaking the Gospel
- Paul cannot be saying that if the Christ offends the unbeliever, then you should stop speaking the Gospel
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- The issue, then, is not offence per se, as the Gospel will offend
- The issue is about who offends!
- If people are put off because of some careless, thoughtless or insensitive mannerism of ours, then our offence has triggered them to close themselves off from going any further with looking into Christ
- Our “ways” need to stay out of the way so that only the Gospel & the word of God is allowed to offend
- After all, the world is going in the opposite direction from God
- You are never going to arrest that flow unless something shakes them up & causes them to take note of their position before God
- The Gospel of Jesus Christ will do that
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- Margaret Court was in the same boat as she made a stand for traditional marriage between a man & a woman
- The world didn’t like that & of course, they vilified her – so much for the world’s thesis on diversity
- It seems that the only diversity allowed is the diversity that agrees with those who promote diversity!
- That’s not diversity – we have a name for that – it’s called hypocrisy!
- Seriously, diversity means diverse views & opinions - even those that don’t agree with diversity
- That means that views & opinions that differ should be accepted, but some views are obviously not
1. Seeking Good for One’s Neighbour
1. Seeking Good for One’s Neighbour
- The thrust of the message today is the overall theme of seeking the good of our neighbour
- Neighbour is an all encompassing word that is not merely related to Christians exclusively
- The word here is literally, “the other” which of course means other people other than yourself
32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.
—32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.
- The ultimate good for a person is that they be reconciled to God
- The ultimate good for a person is that they be reconciled to God
- We can do all sorts of good for a person, but from the perspective of the Gospel, there is no good that can compare to the good that comes from Gospel oriented behaviour & concern for a person’s reconciliation with God
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- Often, the good we do for another person comes at a cost
- A cost in exercising patience; a cost in giving financially; a cost in giving time; a cost – get this – in risking getting hurt
- For example, when you help someone & put yourself out for someone, there may be no thank you & no appreciation
- That can be hurtful when you have put a lot of heart & soul into helping that person without as much as a thank you
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- Obviously, we are not suggesting that you accept becoming a doormat for people to take advantage of you & your generosity
- Sometimes people are not in a good place to be able to appreciate the help they receive – we need to understand that but, also, there comes a time when being used by someone doesn’t end up helping them at all in the long run – it just ends up feeding their wrong attitudes
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- The point the apostle is making here is that although Christians may be at liberty to exercise those liberties given by the Gospel, we have a choice to do good & put those liberties aside for the good of other people
- Let’s consider some specifics here
- Generally speaking, the elderly like hymns, the young like upbeat songs
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Q. Should there be only one or the other? Or should there be the thoughts of doing good to others & to put one’s own preference off for the sake of others?
- That’s why we have a mixture of both so we all give & take as the people of God
- Different styles as in Hymns & chorus/songs are not specifically mandated for selection in Scripture so we are at liberty to give away our preferences for the good of others
In essentials, unity
In non-essentials, liberty
In all things, love
- This is a motto that has served the church well
2. A Behaviour Concerned with the Glory of God
2. A Behaviour Concerned with the Glory of God
- Now let me dabble a bit here with some talk about propaganda
- Donald Trump has been in show biz
- He was compare of a very successful show called “The Apprentice”
- He has learnt how to read people & knows how they tick
- He has taken that with him into politics & knows how to push the buttons to get people on board – he has learnt the art of propaganda
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- You can do that for wholesome purposes or for evil purposes
- Hitler had an incredible, brilliant propaganda machine that, in the end, was used for evil & not for good
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Q. In the way we do things, what is our aim? What do we promote with our lives – what is our propaganda?
Q. Are we promoting baseless stuff? Are we genuinely Gospel oriented?
Q. Why do we say what we say, do what we do?
- I guess we could take a line & plot on there from one end to another; from self-giving to self-serving & everything we do can fall anywhere in between the two – even in the middle where some things we do works out for everyone concerned
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- But there is a better way to think about it here & this is the way the apostle Paul has it
- Everything we do he says, we do to the glory of God
- If you do this, you can’t go wrong no matter what day of the week it is
Q. But what do we mean, however, by the glory of God?
- I’m glad you asked that question!
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- The best way to illustrate this, I find, is to consider what “glory” meant in the OT
- The Hebrew word for glory in the OT is kavod & it carries the connotation of weightiness
- I want you to imagine a hidden treasure – a treasure of gold, silver, rubies, diamonds & all sorts of precious stones
Q. Do you think you would have a bit of trouble collecting all those heavy precious stones?
Q. They’re weighty aren’t they?
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- Some of you who have been around for long enough to probably remember
the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”
- Ali Baba goes to the cave with the words “open sesame” & the cave opens to reveal a cavern packed with treasure
- He takes some of it home & puts it on a scale to weigh it
- Precious stones are weighty – literally – but are weighty in value too
- Precious stones also shine brilliantly with radiance – they have significant value & are glorious
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- This is the sense to the glory of God
- God is significant & who has the greatest value anywhere
- He shines bright & glorious & full of honour
- He is not glorified when the people He created give glory to the creation & treat as if it were God – we call this pantheism & it has been around a long time
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
—22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
- They defamed Him by giving His glory to created things
- They defamed Him by giving His glory to created things
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
—23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
- Mankind, overall, has turned away from the Lord & turned away from His values & concerns
- Mankind, overall, has turned away from the Lord & turned away from His values & concerns
- The picture here is like a dart board & the participants darts fall to the floor & don’t even make the dart board - it falls short
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- When we do all for the glory of God, we are saying that we want to see God’s person-hood enhanced
- Now this can be done through the Gospel & even when people reject the Gospel, God is still glorified – why?
- Because He is shown to be in the right
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– People reject Him, not because they are incapable of reconciling with God – because through the Gospel they can - that’s the point of the Gospel
- But through the rejection of the Gospel, God’s judgements are vindicated because it shows that they reject God because they hate Him & don’t want Him no matter what He does for them
- He is glorified even through the rejection of the Gospel
A God of faithfulness & without injustice – good & upright is He
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- If we flaunt our freedom from the law which forbids among other things, the eating of pork/bacon & we have Jewish guests in our home & we serve them up bacon, then you have created an offence against their scruples
- You haven’t, through the Gospel, condescended to their position & allowed God to be the only offence because you have become the offence before they have even heard the Gospel – most likely they will not now even give it a hearing
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- There was a couple that were involved in our homegroup many years ago who had struggled with a parent due to alcohol abuse
- They were adamant that the NT condemned the drinking of alcohol period
Q. What would you do in such a situation?
Q. Would you go toe to toe with them about the freedom to drink?
Q. If they were hurt through a traumatic time or event & had a weakness there that led them to a faulty view of the teaching of the NT, do we callously disregard that weakness & assert our freedom & go so far as to drink alcohol in their presence?
- Your action may be a trigger that sends them off in a bad direction
- Love dictates otherwise & so the one who does all for the glory of God would not touch the alcohol while in their presence so they might not stumble & fall as believers in Christ
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Q. But what are we to make of this passage here?
- Much of the meat that made it’s way to the meat market had previously been sacrificed to a pagan god
Q. Is the meat polluted?
Q. Is it wrong to eat it? You don’t know & can’t know if it had been sacrificed to an idol
- But Paul has already said that there are no gods so its just meat
- It’s part of what God has provided for us & He owns the whole earth
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- But then, we get to what is the most difficult of verses to figure out & I’m not going to even start to go through the various options of how to understand this here
- But it seems from my understanding that you have here a private meal setting where an unbeliever has invited you to go & dine with him
- Paul says to eat whatever is put in front of you – all food is clean for the Christian, but if someone is with you & says that it has been sacrificed to an idol, he says to abstain from that meat
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- We don’t know who this person is, but it seems as though the person who has informed him has concerns about the fact that the food has been offered to an idol
- In this case, he says, don’t eat it
- Not that it is wrong for you, but it is wrong that this person might be led astray or take offence by your freedom to eat it
- Better to put aside your freedom & not to offend another person – whether that person be Jewish, Muslim or a brother in Christ
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Q. So if you are dining with friends & they offered wine to you, what response should you consider?
- If it comes to your attention that there is someone at the table that has a weakness for alcohol, or is young in the faith, or has a bad past experience like the couple I mentioned that were in our homegroup, what do you do?
- The right thing to do is to abstain & to not cause someone else a problem
- You may love wine & it could be easy to justify the issue somehow in order to to partake of the nice wine
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- You may even think that it is high time they got over the issue
Q. You may be right, but would you want to risk that?
24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
—24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
- To change people takes patience & time & we are not always good at either of those
- To change people takes patience & time & we are not always good at either of those
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- But then comes two strange questions from Paul in this passage & it starts in v.25
- Someone – probably a fellow guest – says that this meat has been sacrificed to an idol
- The problem is not yours but the conscience of the person or people around you
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- Then comes the questions:
29 I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?
—29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
- Perhaps the answer to these questions resides in the teaching he has been giving
- Perhaps the answer to these questions resides in the teaching he has been giving
- The answer is – for the good of the other person
- I live for the glory of God, not myself – it’s for the good of the other person
- Personal freedoms are not the criteria for how we live our lives
3. Avoiding Offence: Follow Paul’s Lead
3. Avoiding Offence: Follow Paul’s Lead
- One of the preeminent rules in understanding the NT is remembering who the author is writing to
- It’s not us – it was written to the people of the 1st century
- Try & grasp this distinction: It’s written for us (for our benefit), but not to us
- We are not the direct recipients
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- But that’s ok because the Lord has us in mind as the apostle teaches the early church the truths of Christ
- Remember here that the Corinthian church were at odds with her apostle
Q. Shudder the thought – this church against the great apostle Paul?
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- They argued that they had the freedom to pursue their rights in the Gospel & that Paul was the poorer one for it, since he refused to claim & pursue those rights for himself
- These Christians were so immersed in their culture that they couldn’t see the Christian truth
Q. Does it surprise us though?
- They had been diminishing the suffering & crucifixion of Jesus
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
—21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
—30 But from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, (LEB)
30 But from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
—30 But from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, (LEB)
- Wisdom for them was in the world – worldly wisdom - & the cross – how on earth could anyone be attracted to the cross?
- Wisdom for them was in the world – worldly wisdom - & the cross – how on earth could anyone be attracted to the cross?
- So Paul was dealing with a fairly worldly church that was thinking a little too much about themselves
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Q. When it comes to a passion for the lost, should we take this on board or is this only for the apostle & his word to the Corinthian church?
- Can I suggest to you that chp 11:1 is very instructive for the whole church
1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
—1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
Q. Isn’t that an essential feature of being a disciple of Christ?
Q. Isn’t that an essential feature of being a disciple of Christ?
- He imitates Christ & calls on the church to imitate him since he is imitating Christ
- When he denies his rights & puts others first he is, in fact, imitating Jesus
- The whole essence of Jesus’ crucifixion & self-giving was for our benefit
- So what the apostle is instructing here is on the back of Christ’s character & mission
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- Do not needlessly offend anyone with anything other than the Gospel & word of Christ
- Let them be offended by the Lord alone
- To do this, means off-loading ones rights & privileges to benefit someone else
- The reason is clear: “that they may be saved”
- That they may be brought face to face with the Lord Jesus
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- The take home for us today is v.31 “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God”