A Sovereign God Speaks to a Troubled Church

This morning’s text is taken from 1 Corinthians 1:1-9:

1 Corinthians 1:1–9 ESV

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This morning we begin a new series from the book of 1 Corinthians. This is one of Paul’s longer letters, primarily because it addresses so many problems. The church in Corinth was a troubled church. Many of the issues that troubled the Corinthian church are still troubling the church today: issues such as sexual immorality, the role of women, spiritual gifts (especially the speaking in tongues) and divisions in the church.

Like a counselor who is bombarded by many problems as they begin counseling a person, it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. In my pastoral counseling classes in seminary I was warned, “The problem is not the problem.”

The Problem is Not the Problem

When you begin counseling a person, the problems they present you with are real and need to be addressed. However, rarely are they the real or root problem. The real problem is hidden beneath all the presenting problems.

The church in Corinth has real problems, but each of these individual problems is caused by a deeper root problem—the rejection of God’s sovereign authority. The nine verses that introduce 1 Corinthians have been carefully crafted by Paul to focus his reader’s minds on the real issue: God’s sovereign authority. This authority is first seen in God’s sovereign call:

God’s Sovereign Call (vs. 1-3)

Paul begins with his own call “to be an apostle of Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:1). One only has to turn to the account of Paul’s call found in Acts 9 to clearly see that when Paul speaks of “call” he is referring to a sovereign act of God. Paul, who was named Saul at the time, was not predisposed to be a Christian, in fact, he was a persecutor of the church, but Jesus revealed Himself to Paul in such a powerful and glorious way that Paul was effectually won over.

When Paul turns to the conversion of the Corinthians, he uses “call” in the same way—effectual call. There is a general call that goes out to all people—the call to faith and repentance, but the effectual call actually creates faith and repentance. This will become clearer as we continue our study of 1 Corinthians, but for now, let me highlight one verse:

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

In other words, unless a person is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they have no ability to understand the things of God in such a way as to lead to saving faith!

So why is this important on a practical level?

It is important because a proper understanding of who we are called to be in Christ and how we obtained this lofty position undercuts all the sinful “problems” that plagued the Corinthians and plagues us. We are “sanctified”, that is call apart for God’s service and consequently, we are call “saints”. We are a part of a larger congregation, consisting of “all those in every place who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”! Therefore, divisions, selfishness, pride, sexual immorality and idolatry have no place in our lives.

Christianity is not some self-help, pull yourself up by the bootstraps religion, it is a religion of simply living up to who we really are in Christ! There is a progressive sanctification in this life, and we will never reach perfection in this life, but we grow in sanctification, not by effort, but by faith! Are you frustrated by your lack of growth as a Christian? If so, the message of the book of 1 Corinthians is for you! This message has the power to transform your life, which leads to the next point:

God’s Sovereign Grace (vs. 4-9)

Just as Scripture speaks of “calling” in different ways, so it does “grace”. The grace that Paul is writing about here is not God’s unmerited favor, but rather, His transforming power! This transforming power is first seen in verse 5:

1 Corinthians 1:5 ESV

that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—

The translation process hides the true significance of this verse from us. The Greek word translated “speech” is logos and the Greek word translated “knowledge” is gnosis. In chapter 12, Paul speaks of the spiritual gift of teaching as the logos of sophia (meaning wisdom) and the logos of gnosis. We will see very soon in this series how important a person’s source of wisdom and knowledge are. The divisions that were tearing the Corinthian church apart were caused by bringing the wisdom and knowledge of the world into the church. It is still what is bringing division into Christ’s church. I will be speaking about this more in the coming weeks, but for now do you not see that the two burning questions that face not only the church but our nation right now are these:

1. What can be trusted, in other words, what is the source of true knowledge?

2. What is the wise course of action, so that our divisions are healed?

By God’s sovereign grace, the church has been enriched in every way with the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom!

This brings us to verse 7:

1 Corinthians 1:7 ESV

so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Spiritual gifts was a big issue of controversy not only in the Corinthian church, but also in the church today. Verse 7 is a bold statement declaring that every local congregation has all the spiritual gifts they need to fulfill their calling! There is so much more that will be said about this when we get to chapters 12-14, but for now, I want to assure you that this word is true for our congregation. Using the wisdom of this world, we can compare ourselves to other congregations and perhaps judge ourselves as lacking or perhaps superior to other congregations. This is foolishness, God sovereignly distributes the gifts as He sees fit and we have just what we need to fulfill His calling upon us! I find this incredibly encouraging, don’t you?

This verse and the one following it, contain another example of God sovereign grace—the power to sustain and protect us until the “day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So far, I have not spoken concerning the political crisis our nation is facing. There is much to be said, but there is one thing that needs to be said above all others—Jesus is Lord and His Kingdom is not of this world! In the two thousand years since Christ inaugurated His Kingdom, many nations, kingdoms and tribes have come and gone. This September, I will turn 60, a world map published in 1961 looks very different from a world map published today. Fifty-nine years from today, will my grandson be able to find the United States of America on a world map? I do not know, but I know this, Christ Kingdom will still stand and his grandfather and grandmother will be safely abiding in it!

This is by no merit or effort of our own, but it is entirely because of the sovereign grace of God!

Why am I so confident? I am confident because of what verse nine says:

1 Corinthians 1:9 ESV

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This brings us to the final point:

Submission to God’s Sovereign Authority is the Only Solution

I began this message by reminding you of the old counseling maxim: “The problem is not the problem.” We have identified the root problem, rebellion against God’s sovereign authority and in so identifying, it we have identified the solution, submission to that same authority.

Remember this message, because it is the key to reading and studying 1 Corinthians profitably. If you are not willing to submit to God’s authority, the book of 1 Corinthians will only confuse you. There is a reason the book of 1 Corinthians speaks of the Holy Spirit more than any other book in the Bible, it is because the life it calls us to can only be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit, but this is what makes 1 Corinthians such a powerful and exciting book! It moves us past the status quo to our real status in Christ—the status of being saints of God in Christ Jesus!