Third, it is corporate. Eleven times Paul makes...
Third, it is corporate.
Eleven times Paul makes mention of the church as a whole with the use of the plural pronoun “you.” Paul is not addressing individual believers here. He is rather addressing the church as a whole. It is the entire assembly of called out ones who have been given the grace of God, enriched in every way, and are not lacking in any spiritual gift. It is the entire assembly of called out ones who eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ, who God will keep strong to the end, so that they will be blameless, and who have been called into fellowship with Jesus Christ. The implication of this is profound. If we are “to know the fullness of God’s blessing, if we are to experience all the gifts of his grace which are ours in Christ, it has to be together in fellowship” (Prior, 24). This is a fellowship that begins because of our
a) Enriched – the second blessing of God’s holy calling
i) What it means
(1) “To cause to abound in something, make rich in spiritual blessings.”
ii) Source
(1) “in him” – the source of such enrichment is found in Jesus Christ.
(2) “Christ and his work are the true wealth of the community” (TDNT, ploutizw).
(3) We are enriched by close communion with Christ
(a) Read John 15:1-8
(i) No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine (v.4)
(ii) You will bear much fruit in Christ (v.5)
(iii) Apart from Christ you can do nothing (v.5)
(b) Read Colossians 3:16-17
(i) How you remain in Christ -
(ii) Purpose of such enrichment –
(c) Richly blessed
(i) Romans 10:12 – “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”
(d) Unsearchable riches
(i) Ephesians 3:8 – “Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
(e) Glorious
(i) Phil. 4:19 – “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
iii) Scope
(1) In Every Way
(a) We are not enriched in just one or two ways, we are not enriched just a little bit, but we are enriched in every way. There is not a single way in your life as a believer that you have not been enriched in Christ.
(b) Application –
(i) Riches to Paul are not about material wealth and prosperity; rather it is about the work of God in Christ.
1. This is why I despise the health and wealth gospel that teaches if you have enough faith, God will give you great wealth and health. Nonsense. If you are in Christ, you are rich toward God! Great wealth and heath mean nothing withour being enriched in Christ and being rich toward God.
(ii) Christ taught the same thing in Luke 12:16-21
1. It is wonderful if God has materially blessed with great possessions and affluences, but that is nothing if you are not rich toward God.
(iii) We are made spiritually rich in Christ. This speaks volumes for Scripture is emphatic that before being made spiritually rich in Christ, we were spiritually broken, destitute, and empty. Yet because of the grace of God given in Christ Jesus, we have now been enriched in Christ.
Let me draw an application here. John D. Rockefeller's three simple rules for anyone who wants to become rich: 1. Go to work early. 2. Stay at work late. 3. Find oil. All over the world, people are striving after the riches of this world thinking that will make their lives full of purpose. All the while, we who are in Christ are made rich not because of anything we did, but because of God’s great grace and mercy. Indeed, God, who is rich in mercy and grace, has made us rich in every way. “You say, how am I rich? I have little money, hardly any possessions, no car, I rent a house, etc. I am not rich, I am poor. Here is the beauty of the gospel. You are made rich in Christ. You may not have much money, have hardly any possessions, have a car, or own a house but you possess Jesus Christ, the creator and sustainer of the universe, the author and finisher of your faith, whose riches are unsearchable and glorious. In Christ, we have the hope of eternal life in Christ. In Christ we are made rich by God. How much greater this is than any car or house, or possession you could ever have? What earthly possession could satisfy you more than this? What earthly possession compares at all to this? Christ is appointed heir of all things, and we are co-heirs with him. Behold then the rich mercy and grace of God who has bestowed such a wonderful gift to us, that we should be called children of God! You have been made rich in Christ! The fleeting, tarnished, corruptible riches of this world pale to the timeless, eternal, priceless, unsearchable riches of Christ that is ours because of God’s great grace and mercy. Do not put your hope in the riches of this world, but put your hope in God who richly provides us with everything we need in Christ Jesus. Patrick Henry said, “I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them a single shilling, they would have been rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed.” - Patrick Henry “In giving us his Son Jesus, God has given us all he has; he can give us no more; we have everything in him” (Prior, 24).
Let me make a second connection here. Remember, we noticed how Paul has emphasized the corporate nature of the church and pointed out If we are “to know the fullness of God’s blessing, if we are to experience all the gifts of his grace which are ours in Christ, it has to be together in fellowship” (Prior, 24). This makes clear that we come to know just how mysterious, deep, and glorious the riches of Christ are as we come together in fellowship in Christ. The deeper the fellowship, the deeper we come to know Christ. This serves to demonstrate how crucial it is for you and me to be here in fellowship with each other and not to skip out and church hop. I do not, and God does not, want you here just to fill up the seats. I want you here, and God wants you here, not to fill seats, but because we are all one in Christ, and we are all enriched with each other’s presence. When you are not here, you cannot experience just how deep, and mysterious, and glorious the riches of Christ are and neither can we. We need each other in this way. We are interdependent upon each other in this manner.
Scripture knows nothing of Christianity in isolation. It knows nothing of believers who “go it alone” and are rugged individualists. Scripture is emphatic that we are all members of the body of Christ, each put there by God, each dependent upon each other and the head, which is Christ. “Believers learn what Christ-likeness is by observing it in fellow Christians. We see the love of Christ reflected in the lives of our fellow believers; we are enriched by Christ through our contact with them; we hear Christ speaking to us through them. Believers are inspired by the example of their fellow Christians, sustained by their prayers, corrected by their loving admonitions, and encouraged by their support” (Hoekema, 89, Gods Image). It is here, as a church united in the name of Christ, that we are enriched. Please then commit yourselves to being an active participant in this body for your own spiritual enrichment and for ours. If your passion is to live a holy life, honor God in everything, as well it should be, there is no better place and no better way to do it than here in the fellowship of like brothers and sisters in Christ.
(2) Word and Knowledge
(a) With the mentioning of “word” and “knowledge” Paul then focuses on two areas in which the believers at Corinth were made rich in Christ.
(b) These two words are making reference to spiritual gifts, not every day, natural speech and knowledge.
(i) “Word” makes reference to all gifts and ministry involving speech, including but not limited to, tongues, prophecy, preaching, teaching, exhortation and evangelism.
(ii) The word “knowledge” makes reference to all gifts and ministry involving knowledge, including but not limited to, a gift of special knowledge and prophetic revelation.
(c) Paul singles out these two in particular for two reasons.
(i) First, he points them out due to the Corinthians great enrichment in them. Most of chapter 8 is concerned with this special knowledge, and chapters 12-14 discusses, along with many other gifts, both knowledge and speech. In fact, Paul talks more about the gift of knowledge in this book more than any other book in the NT. The believers at Corinth were greatly blessed in this area.
1. 2 Corinthians 8:7 – “But just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.”
(ii) The second reason Paul points them out here is because of their great abuse of and pride in them. As one commentator notes, “The Corinthians’ greatest liabilities and greatest strengths lie in their gifts” (Brown, 71).
1. They have started to treat these grace gifts as though they were deserved and this leads to Paul eventual rebuke.
a. Notice Paul’s biting remark to them in 1 Corinthians 4:7 – “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not
b. Notice his biting mark to them also in 1 Co. 14:36 – “Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?”
2. They were not practicing them in an orderly manner
a. “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” 1 Cor. 14:40
3. Additionally, the Corinthians had a habit of exalting these two spiritual gifts above all the other gifts, a notion that Paul will make every effort to rid them of in this letter.
a. It is somewhat humorous that Paul will ask the wise and knowledgeable Corinthians 11 times, “Do you not know?”
b. but we do not want to get to far ahead of ourselves.
4. “As material riches can inspire poisonous, self-destructive attitudes and behaviors, so can spiritual riches.”
(iii) For now, it will do us well to notice again the ability of Paul to be thankful for these gifts in the lives of the Corinthians despite their abuse of them precisely because they are gifts from God.
1. May I also encourage you to give thanks to God for your spiritual gift, do not presume upon it, use it orderly and for God’s glory and honor.
b) Confirmed – the third blessing of God’s holy calling - Verse six has a causal connection with the previous verses. That is, it is the foundation or reason for what has preceded. The sense of it is this. Paul and companions preached the testimony of Christ, God blessed the preaching of Christ by giving grace in Christ Jesus, and enriching them in every way in Christ Jesus, especially in their speech and knowledge. In other words, Paul preached, then God confirmed, or secured, or even better, put into effect that preaching of Christ by his grace and enriching in Christ Jesus. Paul spoke the words of Christ; God put the force into it. God put the power into it. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 – “my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. What I really like about this verse is it gives us, in a condensed manner, how God builds his church. I always like when God does this because I have a thick head and the simpler the better. Verses like these are in here so I can have some hope of grasping it. This one is so simple, even cavemen can understand it. First, there is the proclamation or testimony given of Christ, and then God confirms this proclamation, that is, puts it into effect, by graciously awakening sinners from their sins, and enriching them in every way in Christ. God builds his church this way. We proclaim the testimony of Christ and God confirms it. If we were to put it in the form of a catechism it would go like this, “How does God build his church? Through proclamation and confirmation.” Or if we were watching Jeopardy, the category would be God’s Church, the answer would be, “How God builds his church,” the question would be “what is proclamation and confirmation.”
i) First, the necessity to preach the gospel of Christ – I do not want to undermine here the importance of living what you preach for certainly if you do not live what you preach no one will likely listen to you anyways. It is of the utmost importance that our lives reflect what we preach, but I need to be clear that it is not the way you live your life that will save people. At some point you need to verbally share the gospel. Suppose that when Paul stayed in Corinth for 18mths he never said a word to anyone but lived a holy life. Would anyone be saved from his or her sins? NO! Faith does not come by good testimony; faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. That is why God sent forth Paul as a preacher for how can anyone believe in the one of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? You each this morning are sent ones by God to proclaim Christ to all your friends, family, and enemies. You are all preachers of Christ crucified, not in the same way that I am up here preaching, but preachers nonetheless. God has sent you forth in this manner.
George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1968, Currier's sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.
Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier's plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.
Sweeting concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message -- the most important in your life -- and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?"
We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to proclaim it to others still enslaved by sin. Are we doing all we can to make sure that people get the message?
Our Daily Bread, November 6, 1994.
(1) Christ commanded it
(a) Mark 16:15 – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.”
(b) Acts 1:8 – “you will be my witnesses…”
(2) John the Baptist practiced it –
(a) John 1:7-8 – “He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.”
(3) Apostles practiced it
(a) Acts 4:33 – “and with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.”
(4) Paul practiced it
(a) 1 Co. 2:1-2 – “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
(5) Don’t be ashamed of it
(a) 2 Tim. 1:8 – “so do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel…”
(b) Rom. 1:16 – “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”
(6) So live godly, humble, holy lives so that you do not undue with your actions what you say with your lips, but also verbally proclaim Christ.
(7) Paul proclaimed the testimony of Christ. That Jesus is Lord, and that he died for our sins and that God raised him from the dead and this morning if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
ii) Second, the necessity of God to confirm it.
(1) Bare preaching is not adequate, it must be confirmed, that is put into effect, in the lives of the hearers, and that requires the work of God’s Spirit, bringing conviction, illumination, and faith.
(a) 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 – “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ, he anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
(b) Isa. 55:10-11 – “as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
(2) We need to pray for two things then, first, the boldness to proclaim Christ and second, for God to establish the proclamation of Christ in their lives.
(a) Salvation comes from the Lord and is wholly of Him
(b) What is dependent upon you is giving the testimony of Christ. Whether the person accepts or rejects the testimony of Christ is not in your hands. What is in your hands is the faithful proclaiming of the gospel.
(3) Let us then give thanks to God for those he sent into our lives to proclaim Christ to us, for enriching us and confirming us. What a gracious God.