Grace for the Divided (Part 1)

Scripture Reading (1 Corinthians 1:1-17)

Goal

These people KNOW JESUS...

These people NEED JESUS...

An Encouraging Greeting

1 Corinthians 1:1–3 ESV

1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 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: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. This LETTER is WRITTEN by ONE CALLED of God.

1 Corinthians 1:1 ESV

1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

Throughout this letter, we are going to hear PAUL make CORRECTION after CORRECTION after CORRECTION.

But before we get to those very stern corrections, we have Paul here setting the table for them in the very first verse.

It’s as if Paul is saying from the beginning “Don’t HEED these corrections as my corrections.” Treat them as corrections coming from an APOSTLE, one chosen and appointed by God. Treat them as corrections carrying the weight and authority of God.”

I believe we have similar struggles in our own day as we wrestle to treat God’s word like the very words of God. The Lord’s words that find throughout this sermon series will constantly challenge us, but we need to treat them like they carry the weight and authority of God and ALTER OUR LIVES accordingly.

II. This LETTER is WRITTEN by ONE CALLED by God to a CHURCH sanctified by God

1 Corinthians 1:2 (ESV)

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth...

To the church of God that is in Corinth…

One theologian calls this phrase ‘a great and joyful paradox’

Given Corinth’s crazy reputation, it is REALLY WILD to THINK ABOUT A CHURCH EXISTING in the midst of it!

According to many scholars, Corinth was a big commercial port with a lot of commerce. It was a wealthy city, a luxurious city, and as some of the young folks would say, RATCHETED city.

Corinth was filled to the brim with every type of immorality you could think off! The city was SOOOO RATCHETED that outsiders would play on the RATCHETEDNESS!

According to one study (Word Studies in the New Testament)

To “corinthianize” became a term used to refer to reckless debauchery.

In stage plays, Corinthians were commonly represented as drunk.

If you were hoping the Corinthian church stood tall and strong in the face of the culture and was never taken in by the immorality of Corinth, your hope would be misplaced.

We are calling this sermon series, GRIME AND GLORY because you will learn THAT THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH was often swept up in a lot of the cultures’ sins and idolatry.

But the Corinthians weren’t just swept up by the sins of the culture…THEY WERE CHURCH FOLKS after all. MEANING they were DEEPLY DIVIDED OVER A LOT...

1 Corinthians 1:11–13 ESV

11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Chole’s people have reported back to Paul that folks are back in Corinth and fighting over everything...

They are suing one another - Chapter 6...

They are arguing over sexual immorality - Chapter 5

By the time we get to chapter 7, they move from addressing Chloe’s concerns of division to addressing even more of the church’s concerns that are causing divisions, concerns that they have written Paul about earlier in a letter that we’ve never seen before.

Paul in chapter 7 verse 1 says this...

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote...

And he proceeds to discuss more matters which they seem to be divided over...

whether marriage is a good thing or singleness is a good thing in Chapter 7

dietary decisions or to say it another way, should they eat food offered to idols or not in Chapter 8

head coverings...

the Lord’s supper...

Will come back to all of this in a minute…

What’s interesting is that despite all of those arguments and all of this influence of the culture on the church and all of these corrections that Paul is preparing to give and yet what does He key in on in the beginning? God’s TREMENDOUS grace and mercy at work in the Corinthians church.

1 Corinthians 1:2 ESV

2 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:

Because of the righteousness that has been secured for us through Jesus’ sacrifice, God, over and over again, names us not by our record but by the record of Jesus secured on our behalf...

Paul is about to bring correction after correction after correction to this church and YET…listen to these opening words...

SANCTIFIED in Christ Jesus…

You are set apart for the Lord’s service...

CALLED TO BE SAINTS TOGETHER WITH ALL THOSE WHO IN EVERY PLACE CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THEIR LORD AND OURS......

You are called together with every saint in every other place. You are called alongside the squeaky cleanest church. They have no greater hold on Christ as Lord as you do!!!

There are at least two very important lessons here for us...

God loves His children even when they are woefully flawed. Why? Because His love is not based on their perfection, it is based on HIS PERFECTION. HIS PERFECT LOVE as seen through Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection.

The church that sees itself as squeaky clean is just as righteous as the clumsiest and grimiest church that is pursuing Jesus because both of them are called not based on their own merit but through the work of the Son!

When you think about just how much Paul is preparing to correct in this letter, it is stunning that he would began this way…

APPLICATION: If I were willing to bet, I believe that some of you in this room or watching online are probably like this church: your failures are front and center in your life, your flaws are clearly visible, your sin habits are tough to break. As a result, you may very well be sitting or watching saying GOD does not want to nor will He ever use me.

But 1 Corinthians from the very beginning proves that is not the case!

Those who have truly placed their hope and trust in Christ Jesus are sanctified and called to be SAINTS together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...

If that’s the case and we are already sanctified than what’s this letter about? This letter is about sanctification.

You see sanctification is both a POSITION and a PROGRESSION.

Sanctification is both WHERE YOU ARE and WHERE YOU’RE GOING.

Those who are in Christ Jesus are set apart, but by making war on their sin including those sins that are causing divisions, they ARE BEING SANCTIFIED.

Paul is basically saying “God has already positioned you as His...” Now go and be who you are!

ILLUSTRATION: Take for instance the adoption of a child. I have a friend who welcomed a new child into his home and early own the child expressed behavior that he and his wife considered out of bounds for their family. The child was at an age where he could understand clear instructions and calls to obey. So, when this child disobeyed and it was a lot, my friend would explain to him, “Young man, we don’t do that here!” No, the young man wasn’t about to be kicked out. POSITIONALLY, he was still a son, but PROGRESSIVELY HE WAS ALSO learning how to be a son in this new household.

This is much of what is driving Paul in this letter...

Encouraging, Sharpening, Rebuking, and Correcting in order that we might better resemble who the Lord has already declared us to be!

So, where does Paul start? With a grateful reminder...

A Grateful Reminder

Before Paul dives too deep into where they have gone wrong, he wants to pause and offer thanks for where God has brought them from…Look with me at verse 4-9...

1 Corinthians 1:4–9 ESV

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul’s statements of thanksgiving are fairly normal in his writings but they are particularly important here because of how much correction he is about to bring....

At the heart of his thanksgiving is this truth: whatever you need to grow in your sanctification before God…you actually already possess...

Through Christ, you have received much GRACE from God and that GRACE has led to you existing in the midst of a GODLESS CULTURE and still being different. How have they been visited by God’s GRACE?

Enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge…

Now that you are in Christ, you talk differently, you think differently. The Wisdom of Christ is in their minds and the Gospel of Christ is now on their tongues.

even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—

Again, I can’t say it enough...”we are about to see a lot of corrections of this church in the coming weeks” And yet here Paul is saying “YOUR ENRICHMENT in SPEECH and KNOWLEDGE, YOUR TRANSFORMED LIVES, YOUR GIFTING has served as a testimony to those around you that what we’ve been preaching IS REAL!!!!!

It would be easy to read this book and just think of the Corinthian church as just some wild and crazy church and you would be RIGHT in a sense, but in another sense, God has done some amazing work here. This should serve as a reminder that the church can be EXTREMELY COMPLEX. A church can simultaneously show great evidences of grace and sizeable remnants of fallenness.

Remember I said that at the heart of Paul’s thanksgiving is this truth: whatever you need to grow in your sanctification before God…you actually already possess…but He takes that thought a step further for the Corinthians in verses 7-9

1 Corinthians 1:7–9 ESV

7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul says God’s grace has so visited you that you have EVERYTHING you need not only to grow in sanctification but to continue growing until the Lord comes back to get us and present us blameless...

Not simply in the sense that you have ever gift that you need to be sustained, but you have THE GOD that you need...

As grimy as CORINTH is and AS grimy as this Corinthian church can sometimes be…Paul says you’ll be kept until the end and presented to God as guiltless, why? BECAUSE GOD IS FAITHFUL! HE WILL NOT LET YOU LET HIM DOWN!!!

APPLICATION: Oftentimes, as Christians, when we struggle with our failures before God, one thing that we simply don’t do enough of is remind ourselves of HIS FAITHFULNESS! We tell ourselves I’m going to conquer this sin or that sin because of my strength and will, but ultimately you’re going to eventually conquer this sin because HE IS FAITHFUL and OUT OF HIS FAITHFULNESS, He has determined to gift you with everything you need to keep you until the end, OUT OF HIS FAITHFULNESS, He has committed to sustain you until the end, OUT OF HIS FAITHFULNESS, He has determined to present you blameless before God.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

The salvation that STARTED in you is GOD’s doing! So, the salvation that will END in you will also be GOD’s doing! No matter how grimy the church at Corinth looks, we can take confidence that they will one day be presented clean not because they’re always faithful to God but because He is and will always be faithful to them. If you are in Christ, the same is true of you!

This confidence in Christ is what Paul wants to build on throughout this letter…

It’s as if Paul is saying, “Yes, this local body of believers definitely has its issues but THANKFULLY, it also has the MASTER PHYSICIAN who will find the illness, treat it and by the end will have eradicated any trace of it.

However, part of the work of the Master Physician is using His people to bring correction when we are wayward. That correction itself is a grace to us, and so the Master Physician has employed Paul to bring that correction through this letter.

It starts in verse 10 with the Corinthians 1st major issue...

The first 10 verses made it clear that these people KNOW JESUS...

Now it is about to become clearly evident through the next 15 and half chapters that these people NEED JESUS!!!! The Story of my life

A Sharp Appeal

Context

One thread that is going to run throughout Corinthians is the thread of division…In fact much of what Paul is writing in Corinthians is an attempt to unify the body again around the cause of the Gospel versus all the other secondary and tertiary issues that tend to divide a church.

He immediately jumps into this by unpacking the issue that is threatening to destroy them...

1 Corinthians 1:10–13 ESV

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Chloe’s people has shared with Paul that factions within the body are being forged…A PARTY SPIRIT as it is sometimes called.

You have some people who are probably saying…

“Man, that Paul I just love how his mind works…He has so much theological depth and sophistication. I’ve even heard Peter thinks his deeper than he is…I just like that in the leaders and teachers that I follow...”

Somebody else is probably saying...

“Man, me personally, I like a REALLY REALLY good preacher. Somebody that can just build it up and than tear the house down…that’s why I rock with Apollos. You ever heard that boy preach? He can go!!!! Paul just doesn’t do it for me”

Somebody else is probably saying...

“Peter is my guy cause he just TELLS IT LIKE IS! I don’t care what nobody say with Peter you know EXACTLY where you stand! And He was the one that spoke at Pentecost when the Spirit fell.

And yet there is somebody else that is probably saying...

“You guys are so worldly…I’m don’t waste my time listening to any of those guys. As long as I got King Jesus I don’t need anybody else...” And by making this claim is becoming a party in and of itself.

I KNOW NOBODY HAS THESE PROBLEMS IN TODAY’S CHURCHES!!!!!

NOBODY

OF COURSE, WE HAVE THESE PROBLEMS...

One says I follow Calvin and consider themselves superior because of their theological sophistication...

One says I follow Wesley and consider themselves superior because of the methodical approach...

Another says I follow G.E. Patterson and considers themselves superior because of their passion for preaching the house down

Another says I follow Dever and considers themselves superior because of their passion for the order of the local church...

One says I follow Biden and considers themselves superior because of their commitment to justice matters

One says I follow Trump and considers themselves superior because of their commitment to personal responsibility matters...

We do this too often we pick styles, personalities, backgrounds, philosophical approaches, political alliances that align with who we are, who our families are, who our friends are and we elevate them to first order levels of importance...

By the way, if you wonder why most of churches look unusually like we do, start no further than with this...

To that Paul has three requests (verse 10):

All of you agree

There be no divisions among you

You be united in the same mind and same judgment

How on earth can we accomplish this???

Humility before God’s Word...

We have to labor to bring everything under subjection to God’s word...

Musical styles what does God’s word say?

Order of worship? What does God’s word say?

Attire? What does God’s word say?

Book Chapter Verse…If there is not a Book Chapter Verse than we have to have the humilty of saying if God didn’t think it was important to be clear than it is probably not important enough to drive wedges between us...

So if there is no BOOK CHAPTER VERSE than it more than likely becomes a secondary or tertiary issues and when it does we have to have...

Humility before One Another...

Agree to disagree…everything ain’t essential...

The Key to Unity

1 Corinthians 1:14–17 ESV

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

The Supremacy of the Gospel.

Please only hear what I’m saying. Do not hear something else past what I’m saying. Paul appears to make an appeal the Gospel is above the priority of baptism. He is not saying that baptism isn’t important. I’m sooooo glad that I didn’t baptize any of you because that would have been yet another opportunity for you guys to divide over and besides I wasn’t sent to baptize. I was sent to preach the Gospel.

I love how this is setup. Paul is thinking about everyone he’s baptized…Crispus, Gaius…Yeah that’s it. And I can picture Sosthenes in the room saying “wait a second what about Stephanas and his family?” and Paul being like “oh yeah Stephanas’ and his people but that’s it!”

Why is that important? It was important to point to something that was very important in our Faith. A Holy Sacrament like baptism but to show that it was not so important that it occupied much of Paul’s mind space when compared to the Gospel.

In order to build and establish UNITY we must build a true sense of the importance of the Gospel above and beyond everything else...

When I think about how much energy we spend talking about everything else but the Gospel, is it any wonder why we are always so divided?

Paul makes the proclamation of the Gospel the main thing...

The Supremacy of the Christ and the Cross.

1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Paul says I’m not going to let fancy reasoning and sophisticated arguments that are beyond the scope of Scripture be what I thrive in...

Whenever I do…I create a recipe for division

And I empty the cross of its power...