Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Reading of Scripture

[ 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 ]

This is God’s Word, Amen.

[Title Slide]

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

“Purge the Evil Person”

II.

Introduction

After hearing a text like this read, we may be filled with dread.

Do the problems among the church in Corinth ever end?

First - division.

Now - sexual immorality and all kinds of evil, and we are only in Chapter 5! - And what’s next?

This letter of 1 Corinthians may sound harsh to us as hearers.

But remember, it did not start this way!

Whatever harshness proceeds out of the pen of the apostle, proceeds out of a place of a thanksgiving to God — always, for who they are, and who God has made them to be in Christ Jesus.

They are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

They are called saints in the name of the Lord.

They have grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were enriched in him, not lacking any gift, and will be sustained by him to the end, guiltless!

And all of this is founded in the faithfulness of God.

Any “holy harshness,” and “divine discipline” that is directed at them, is not meant to punish them but to purify them!

To remove away everything among them that is not Christ and Him crucified.

So that they might be the people God has made them to be — His.

And God is holy.

God is to be worshiped as holy.

And the Church is to be holy, as God is holy.

“This means that any worldly defilement of body, spirit, or mind, even if through simple contact with the world system, is incompatible with the holiness of God and interferes with the purity of worship.”

Allen P. Ross (304).

Being a sanctified people means that we must separate from the world and all its defilement (RHG, 304).

This separateness is not accomplished by going outside of the world, by remote isolation, seclusion, or perpetual quarantine.

We do not separate ourselves from the world, but we get rid of what is worldly from among us.

We do not go out of the world, but we purge whatever is wordly from among us.

And that requires discipline.

A. Introduction to Theme

The church in Corinth did not have a care, or concern for Church discipline.

Church discipline is a process among the body of saints, for purging what is wordly - what is evil - from among them.

It is a collective process, performed not by individuals, but by the body as a whole.

And so it doesn’t make any difference at all if a pastor, or a few lay leaders care about Church discipline — if we ALL do not care about Church discipline, then we show no concern for who we are and who God has made us to be in Christ.

Good discipline - godly discipline - proceeds out of love.

It never seeks the destruction of the soul, but only the salvation of it.

And when we are sanctified in Christ Jesus, we are also submitted to God’s loving discipline so that our souls might be saved in the day of the Lord.

In all that has been written thus far in 1 Corinthians, the apostle does not disown the church in Corinth - because God, our Father, does not disown us!

Christ does not divorce us!

Instead, God disciplines us, because he loves us.

B. Introduction to Text

The apostle is writing with a tender tone at the end of Chapter 4, as a spiritual father to his “beloved children.”

He asks this question:

And then without any break as it seems, without any opportunity for the church to respond, the apostle proceeds to address another report from among them.

III.

Exposition

A. 5:1-2

5:1

The topic of discipline moves from division (Chapters 1-4) now to sexual immorality.

Preben Vang says:

When a church looks and functions as described in the first four chapters, it invariably leads to the behavior of the next two chapters.

This is why it is important to practice Church discipline, because sin grows.

What starts small, if left unaddressed, becomes worse.

Sin grows!

The division, quarreling, jealousy and strife was something previously unknown to the apostle.

It was made clear to him by Chloe’s people (1 Cor 1:11).

But THIS — sexual immorality — it wasn’t flying under the radar.

It wasn’t whispered in the hidden chambers.

What the apostle wrote when he said “It is actually reported” may be translated literally in this way: “It is everywhere noised abroad” (GCM).

Everyone is talking about this!

And everyone knows where this sexual immorality is found - “among you.”

Lit., “IN YOU.”

Is there sexually immorality with God? Then why is it tolerated in the Church?

In this specific example, a man has his father’s wife.

A clear violation of God’s design, and God’s law (Lev.

18:8, Deut 22:30; 27:20).

This was not to be done by God’s people, and the apostle says that even the pagans, the Gentiles, the OUTSIDERS do not even do this!

So how did the church in Corinth respond?

5:2

The word arrogant means that they were “inflated with pride.”

This wasn’t ignorance.

If it was, it was willful ignorance.

They were building themselves up with the wrong reputation.

The church of Jesus Christ is often likened to a “hospital for sinners.”

And it is!

If you are a sinner, come.

We have a cure!

The word of the cross is the medicine you need!

Jesus will save your soul!

But you don’t stay a sinner when Christ saves you.

When Christ saves you, he transforms you, and you are a sinner no more.

He makes you a new creation, and you are called by his name - called a “saint.”

That means, a holy one.

And a process of sanctification begins in which the Spirit empowers you with everything you need for victory over the world, the flesh and the Devil.

Some “churches” seem to miss this in their messaging today.

They advertise: “we are a place for people who don’t like church.”

“We’re not a church for perfect people.”

“We’re a church full of sinners, so you come too.”

Or, “we are a place for the second chances.”

And they seem to boast about how bad, how sinful, how terrible the people are, or were, that attend their church, thinking that somehow shows how great God’s grace is?

If we boast about how bad we are, that must show how great God is?

That’s the kind of arrogance that leads to permissible sin.

Of course, God’s grace is amazing and greater than all our sin.

But we don’t boast in what we WERE, we boast in the Lord who has made us who we ARE!

We are not like the world!

We are not going to look like the world!

We are not going to behave like the world!

We are not going to talk like the world!