Sermon Tone Analysis

In /The Great Evangelical Disaster/, Francis Schaeffer identifies two biblical principles all Bible-believing Christians must practice, whether individually or collectively: purity and love (p.

70).

On purity, Schaeffer notes, “Scripture commands that we must do more than just talk about the purity of the visible church; we must actually practice it, even when it is costly.”

Regarding observable love he notes that in the flesh Christians are unable to practice both love and purity simultaneously.

One will naturally be stressed over the other.

To practice both requires continual focus on the work of Christ and reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

“Without [love], a stress on purity becomes hard, proud, and legalistic; likewise, without [purity], a stress on love becomes sheer compromise.

Spirituality begins to have real meaning in our lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God. . . .

Without this simultaneous exhibition our marvelous God and Lord is not set forth.

It is rather a caricature of him that is shown, and he is dishonored” (pp.

70-71).

What is the purpose of the church of Jesus Christ?

Why does it exist?

What are the distinguishing marks of the church?

Someone in the book of Acts, upset over the impact Christian missionaries were having in his city, gathered a mob and hauled some of the believers before the local authorities exclaiming, “These men who have upset the world have come here also” (Acts 17:6).

In another locale it was reported that the name of the Lord was so powerfully proclaimed that those who believed confessed their involvement in practicing magical arts and burned their magic books out of fear of the Lord (Acts 19:18-19).

Does the church today have this kind of impact in the community?

In preparing this introduction I reviewed a popular evangelical theology handbook and was surprised to find no mention in the section on ecclesiology (i.e.

doctrine of the church) of the ultimate purpose of the church in the plan of God.

The purposes given were basically limited to teaching, prayer, and fellowship.

These practices of the church are certainly important, as the leadership of the church should be equipping its membership to be salt and light to the world as witnesses of God and Christ.

The church should, as well, be engaged in corporate worship of the one true God.

But these activities are merely /means/ to accomplish the goal – the goal is much higher.

The purpose of the church is to testify to the world of the existence of the one true God; the infinite, personal, holy God who so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that through faith those who believe might be saved (Jn.

3:16).

This testimony, however, is not limited merely to the existence of God, for many religions testify to the existence of a god or gods.

The role of the church in the world is to witness to the /distinctive/ characteristics of the one true God by simultaneously displaying His holiness (Eph.

5:27; I Th.

4:7; I Pet.

1:15-16) and His love (Jn.

13:34).

If the church were merely to be a once a week meeting for devotion, prayer, and worship, we would not need to study Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

But because the church exists for the goal of praising the glorious grace of God (Eph.

1:6, 12, 14) and because God in His blueprint from eternity past chose the church to be the means through which He would reveal His manifold wisdom to the spiritual principalities and powers, we must address the issues confronting the church today that undermine its ability to fully serve the role for which God called us.

A great way to do that is to study

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*THE MARK OF THE CHURCH*

* *

\\ * *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*THE CITY OF CORINTH*

\\ examples, both positive and negative, of churches from the pages of the NT to gain insight into their best practices, their shortcomings, and their errors; to understand the root causes and to leverage the corrective actions taken.

Fortunately for us, I Corinthians is a great example of the many ways a church can go wrong and what God required for it to return to sound, biblical moorings.

What makes the Corinthian church such a remarkable example is the fact that it failed to practice either of the biblical mandates for believers – purity and love.

As a result, the church failed Christ in a third way – unity and testimony.

As we study I Corinthians, we will seek to learn all we can about the doctrines of the church, the depravity of man, the pervasiveness of sin, and the wonderful grace of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This letter is all about how all these elements came together in a combustible way due to failure of this church to prioritize purity and love.

All churches have this in common: a mixture of self-centered human beings with a tendency to sin yet covered by the blood of Christ.

In heaven we will enjoy the fellowship of believers in true unity, purity, and love.

For now, our goal is to bring near to the world a picture of this eternal kingdom to come so that others may be impacted by it in a positive, God-glorifying way, and perhaps even be an instrument through which others are called into it.

We must remember that the church belongs neither to the culture, nor to us, but to God.

It is His household, the pillar and support of the truth (I Tim.

3:15).

The church is the very body of Christ with Christ serving as its head (Eph.

1:23; 5:23).

It is our reasonable service to God to “upset the world” for the cause of Christ.

Here are the three distinctives for the church:

 

*Distinctive #1 – Love*: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn.

13:34-35 NASB).

*Distinctive #2 – Purity*: “Sanctify [the ones you gave me] in Thy truth; Thy word is truth” (Jn.

17:17 NASB).

*Distinctive #3 – Unity*: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.

And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and Thou didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me” (Jn.

17:20-21 NASB).

Our first step in this study is to take a brief look at the city of Corinth.

There can be no doubt that the primary reason the church struggled in Corinth is because the culture of Corinth was firmly planted in the church.

It’s easy to see why.

Corinth was a cosmopolitan city; a melting pot, if you will, of many different nationalities of people including Italians, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Asians, and Egyptians, to name a few.

It boasted the best the Greek world had to offer in the way of enterprise, opportunity, the arts, intellectual pursuits, as well as the best of philosophy, sports, and ingenuity.

The

\\ Corinthian believers had tremendous pride in their culture and in their history.

They had been trained for generations to be second to no one in anything.

They loved especially that their community was a playground to the Mediterranean world, a 24-hour party town that made them the envy, and scandal, of the neighboring city-states.

Corinth was located strategically on a narrow isthmus connecting central Greece and the Peloponnese some 45 miles to the southwest of Athens.

Corinth enjoyed harbors to the Aegean Sea to its east and the Ionian Sea to its west.

Ships would commonly dock in one harbor and the merchants would transport the cargo across the isthmus to the other harbor to avoid having to sail around the south end of the Peloponnesus.

Because of this unique setting, Corinth was a center for commercial trading, land and sea, as well as a strategically vital station for the military.

To the north of the city rose the majestic Acrocorinthus, a sheer rock wall of a mountain some 1800 feet high, which provided protection and an inexhaustible water supply for the city, not to mention a lofty throne for the temple of Aphrodite.

In Paul’s day, Corinth enjoyed tremendous prosperity due to its commercial and military advantages.

It boasted a free population of 200,000 and nearly a half-million in slave population.

There were man-made canals for the flow of drinking water from the Acrocorinthus.

The city also used the water for refrigeration and public baths.

In its center was the Agora, a trend-setting marketplace circled by colonnades and monuments with a multitude of open-air shops.

Near the center of the Agora was the /bema/, the tribunal platform.

The /bema/ was covered with marble with waiting rooms on either side in which were marble floors and benches.

Public addresses and civil hearings took place from the /bema /(Mare, pp.

177-178).

It was to the /bema/ that the Jews brought Paul for a hearing before the Roman proconsul Gallio (Acts 18:12-17).

In addition, Corinth had two theaters, one of which could seat 18,000 people, and biannually the city hosted the Isthmian Games attracting participants from all over the Greek world for athletic competition.

Cultural life in Corinth centered around the worship of the goddess Aphrodite.

Her statue was attired in the armor of the war-god Ares with his helmet for a footrest, and his shield for a mirror (Bruce, p. 249).

The great thing about religion in Corinth was that religious worship was nothing more than a celebration of the human predisposition towards vice and immorality.

You see, worship of Aphrodite involved unrestrained licentiousness.

One thousand prostitutes served as priestesses as worship involved sexual perversion and drunkenness.

Corinth was so rife with prostitution that the term /Corinthian girl/ became internationally known as referring to a prostitute.

In addition, the term /to Corinthianize/, came to mean “to live lewdly like a prostitute.”

Now if sexual pleasure happened to not be your choice of worship, there were other gods and worship practices readily available.

For example, the Isthmian Games were held in honor of Poseidon.

So you could worship your god through your enthusiasm for sports.

There was also the temple of Melicertes, the god of seafarers, located at the foot of the Acrocorinthus.

You could worship him through sailing and fishing.

Remember, in paganism worship of the gods was basically a means to worship one’s self.

Corinth was indeed quite a city.

There was money to be made - the lure of extravagant living.

There were sports, gambling, prostitution, drinking, idolatry – all this with no accountability because the local religions supported it.

Dr.

David Jeremiah sums up the city of Corinth in this manner (p.

12):

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

\\ * *

* *

 

 

 

 

*PAUL AND THE CORINTHIANS*

\\ The ideal of the Corinthian was the reckless development of the individual: the merchant who made his gain by every and all means, the man of pleasure surrendering himself to every lust, the athlete steeled to every bodily exercise and proud of his physical strength.

These were the true Corinthian types.