Non-Negotiables
Notes
Transcript
Five words one phrase...
Five words one phrase...
Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Paul is doing something here towards the end of this first letter to the Corinthian church that we all need to have happen at times. He’s making sure they have a very clear understanding about what matters most. More than arguments, or miss-understandings, more than freedoms, more than the whole body thing that was talked about earlier in the chapter, and lets be clear Paul tells the people in the Church in Corninth under no uncertain terms how they, who are following Christ are supposed to act. All that we do is supposed to have it’s foundation in Love that’s what we read here..
But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.
If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
To be clear gifts matter, spiritual gifts matter, the body of christ and living in it matters all of that is true all of that is something we talk about and have dug into here and will do so over and over throughout the years BUT
Paul is winding down his letter with a very important reminder that we all need to take deep into our mind, heart, and spirit. we are going to look at the five words and then the phrase. here’s the phrase with one word that jumps out at me.
By which you are being saved
Today we are going to drill down on a few important things about the non-negotiables when it comes to our faith in Christ, but i want to pause at this phrase for a minute and talk about a few others in vs 1 and 2 of chapter 15.
Paul says I want to make something clear for you…Here’s the Greek on that..
Gnorizo it means to make known or reveal, as you can see from the graphic it has all kinds of uses but each of them is pretty clear. Paul wants the Corinthians to have a know realize understand all of those words exactly what the foundational matters of faith are.
He goes on to lay out a very important word after that first comma.
Euangelion, Gospel; good news; good tidings. It’s like Paul wants to make sure they get it that the non negotiable when it comes to faith are the best news ever. The good news is not about gifting, it’s not about calling, or freedom, or fill in all those blanks.
Paralambano; take bring taking along, you get the idea. this gospel this good news is something that is for more than just a day or two. It’s not supposed to be like a piece of art or furniture that you leave in your home it’s supposed to be picked up and then carried along with you regularly.
Histemi; stopped, established put, weighed out, stayed. the nonrecognition that the good news is the thing that holds us up, that keeps us where we are supposed to be, that gives us the ability to do and dig into and live all the other stuff that Paul has talked about so far in this letter.
Kai: and, also, so , but, even...All of this matters but the word that sticks out more to me is the word being. Paul is making it clear. He’s reminding them that this is what’s happening you are saved because you recieved the truth, because you stood on the truth but the bottom line is you are saved because of the the truth.
The real deal
The real deal
We know that the world of Christianity is a large one.
Believe it or not there are about 1200 different Christian denominations in the US alone. That number balloons to some 34000 when you pull out to the world according to the World Christian Encyclopedia. However those rather large numbers are usually broken down into Eight mega groups, as follows .
Roman Catholic
Eastern Orthodoxy
Oriental Orthodoxy
Assyrian Churches
Protestantism
Resorationism
Anglican
Pentecostal
That’s a lot of different forms of one particular faith. You can even break those things down further when you think about Orthodox -vs- Progressive Christianity. In these two breakdowns there are all sorts of sects, emergent, social, reformed, original fill in the blank there are so many flavors of Christianity is it any wonder that if you get a large enough group of people who claim to be Christ Followers together and that group actually starts talking there will be a whole mess of ugly a few hours later?
Here’s the thing. I don’t care what denomination you are from, I don' care what church you go to, It doesn’t bother me when people interpret scripture differently in some areas than I do, AS LONG AS.
See those three words are important. Be progressive, be orthodox, shout the importance of the social gospel, double down on the way creation happened, do whatever you need to do in those areas. Debate them talk about them, attempt to suss out and explain the way the Trinity works if you must AS LONG AS…you understand the bottom line real deal of what it means to actually be a Christian.
For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me.
I love what Paul says here. MOST IMPORTANT, he has spent the whole letter detailing how a Christ follower is supposed to act, the importance of freedom, the need for love the use of the gifts given by the Holy spirit, how to run things in the church all of that stuff that a person that has already signed up for the membership needs to be able to grow in their faith but he winds down the letter with telling them the most important thing.
Christ Died
Christ was buried
Christ was raised
Christ appeared
Those four things are the legs to the table of our Faith
(show what happens when you don’t have all four legs on a table and try to put stuff on it)
When you and I engage with other Christ followers, this is what we all should have in common. The realization the acceptance the knowledge that Jesus was who he said he was, that he died, that he was put into a tomb that he raised from the dead and that people actually saw him after all this, and not just the people he hung out with but 500 plus people including Paul himself. Paul who is keenly aware of how amazing it is that Jesus chose to do so.
Not such a big head
Not such a big head
I have in the past had an issue with Paul, he was never my favorite Apostle, I’ll admit I have found some of his writings to come off as arrogant, but reading these verses in Corinthians has changed some of my thoughts on that subject. Paul is dealing with things just like we do, he’s dealing with his own insecurities, his own past, his own guilt. I’ve always known that i guess, but I always read things like Pauls thorn in the flesh as this gotcha from God but in a bad way. Yet reading this next set of verses really made a difference.
For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, so we proclaim and so you have believed.
And finally we come to it. Paul, the most prolific writer of the New Testament, struggled, he dealt with guilt, and shame and frustration. He was reminded, likely whenever he saw the other apostles, or some of the people he had persecuted or fill in the blank of why he should’t have belonged, why he shouldn't have fit and yet he doesn’t camp out there. He recognizes the non negotiable and wraps them all into the important part of it all. The reason that Paul can and does talk about what matters, the reason he is able to say this is the most important thing has nothing to do with how great a writer he is, It’s not about how much he studied before he became a follower of the way, it’s not even because of how hard he worked even though he did so. It’s because of God’s grace that Paul is able to be who and what he is…but it’s more than that. Given the issues that Paul was obviously dealing with God’s grace is always what enabled him to accept who he was. What made him keep going, what compelled him, in spite of doubting himself, of the guilt and shame, It was God’s grace that enabled Paul to share the most important thing, over and over and over again.
So what about us?
So what about us?
In the end all that other stuff that we learn and study matters, we need the words that Paul and others wrote, we need the things that we study in the Old Testament that give us insight into what Grace and Mercy means, we need to study and understand and interpret. We need all that but more than anything we need to understand the MOST IMPORTANT THING. It’s okay to disagree, it’s okay to interpret some things differently than others. It’s okay to lean into orthodoxy, its okay to push into the social aspects of being a follower of Christ and all that Matthew 23 entails. as long as we recognize the foundation not only doesn't change but it can not ever change in our world. We must always lean into the TRUTH
Jesus died
Jesus was buried
Jesus rose
Jesus appeared (LIVES not just lived)
If we would as Christ followers across the world remember the most important thing and recognize the need to share the most important thing then all the rest of these needed things will have the right foundation to make a difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
This Week’s Challenge
This Week’s Challenge
Lean into the MOST IMPORTANT part of your faith. Let your interactions filter though the truth of the gospel. Engage with people who claim the same faith but disagree with your flavor of it from the most important part and see what a difference it makes.
Engage with people who don’t claim your faith with the understanding of their need to see Jesus and all he is and did.