Keep it Real Simple
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Pop Quiz!
Pop Quiz!
Please close your text books and take out a #2 pencil. I will be passing out Scantrons.
Did you ever have that dream where you have a test, maybe a final and you didn’t study… or you didn’t even know you were enrolled in the class until that day. And you arrive for the exam and you are completely unprepared???
Congratulations: I just made your dreams come true! You’re welcome.
Let’s test your knowledge and memory of 1 Corinthians. Is he really going to give us a test? Yes. Because that’s fun.
Question 1: Why should a woman have a “symbol of authority” on her head?
Answer: Because of the angels.
Question 2: Paul wishes everyone’s FaceBook relationship status is?
Answer: Single.
Question 3: What sexual immorality is reported among the Corinthian church?
Answer: A man sleeping with his father’s wife. Gross.
There’s a lot going on in this book. Paul addresses some big issues: divisiveness, and sexual immorality, and marriage and food, and spiritual gifts and love.
So here, at the end, let’s make sure not to get lost in the details. Let’s remember how we started.
Intro to Corinthians
Intro to Corinthians
Remember way back in January when we started this book. Why did we do it?
The Corinthian church was figuring out how to be a church. But they were starting to reflect the culture around them.
We have been given a beautiful opportunity to rediscover anew how to be the Church of Jesus, the Body of Christ. The temple of the Holy Spirit in an increasingly non-Christian world.
And there’s a lot of detail in here, but we can boil it down real simple. Last week we had a simple 5 point - 5 finger list:
Recap:
Recap:
Watch out
Stand up
Man up
Get strong
Love always
Turns out we can get even simpler if we need to. Here’s the answer to all the real questions on the exam.
How do we live as Victorious Awesome Christians who are the Church and bring Glory to God?
Love God, Love People.
How do we “do” church right?
Love God, Love People.
Who does this apply to?
Yes.
We want to unpack that, right. How do we love God? See the rest of Scripture. How do we love people? See the rest of the story, people doing it well and not so well throughout the Bible. That’s the detail work.
But this is our interpretive lens, our two greatest commandments, upon which all the law and prophets hang.
Love God, Love People.
Here at the very end of 1 Corinthians, Paul points to this in others, models it himself, and commands it to the church.
Leadership
Leadership
First he points this out in the emerging leaders in Corinth.
How does one become a leader in the church?
Great example:
Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—
be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.
I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence,
for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.
The whole household of Stephanas. (Pretty awesome history of Steves in the Bible). They devoted themselves to serving God’s people.
Sounds like servants? And yet, Paul says to:
“be subject to such as these.” What do you do when you are looking for leaders? What should we be doing in the near future when we are looking for additional leaders in roles in our church?
Look for the people “devoted to the service of the saints” and “be subject to them.”
That means to submit yourselves to their leadership. And further, “give recognition to such people.” Because they show that they are loving big, loving for real, finding ways to serve and just serving.
Does it say “find the people who name and claim the title?” “Take a survey of who wants to lead?” Or even “ask them if they want to lead?”
Nope. Just “submit yourselves to them.”
That looks like this: Hey, I see you devoting yourself: you are doing awesome things. I want to do like you do. I’m going to make you the boss of me in this area of life. In this ministry. In this service.
Which brings us to something more important than “Leadership”.
Follower-ship
Follower-ship
There is a whole lot of work on “Leadership Development” and improving leaders and raising up leaders… and that is important.
But in MOST contexts of life ALL of us aren’t leaders, we are followers. At the very least, in absolutely all contexts we are followers of Jesus. Which means the thing we should be really beautifully great at is submitting ourselves.
We should be the best at that.
We are not, so much. But that is all of our responsibility… and it is radically counter-cultural to (a version of) the American dream of individual greatness.
Not “be all you can be” but “submit yourself wholly to Jesus.” And find people who can inspire you and lead you to devote yourself to loving God and loving others… and submit yourself to them.
Follow me as I follow Stephanas as he follows Paul as he follows Jesus.
Love Others
Love Others
But hear the great love Paul calls us to, and the great love he models for the church. For the saints. For men and women he just loves!
I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.
Listen: he loves those dudes!
And the churches where he is pastoring now, in Ephesus, which is in Asia Minor, they want in on the love:
The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.
Paul’s likely living with Aquila and Prisca at this time. “Prisca” is a cute little nickname for Priscilla. Imagine them yelling in from the other room, making tents, while Paul’s on Zoom with Corinth. “Heeeey! Love you!”
And then all the church, all ‘dem brothers
All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
Okay… you had to go and make it weird.
Holy Kiss
Holy Kiss
In fact, let me help make it weird. Go ahead and greet one another with a holy kiss. But… keep it holy.
I looked this up. In the Greek “holy kiss” means “no tongue”.
Paul says this often: to the Romans, in 2 Corinthians, to the Thessalonians. Peter talks about it too in 1 Peter. This is a thing.
Later this is kind of formalized as “the kiss of peace” and made a part of the Eucharist, but that likely isn’t the context here.
And there are cultural precedents. A pupil greets a master with honor, a host greets an honored guest. It is to convey gratitude and respect.
This was not a “Greek” thing or a “Roman” thing like we think of today. Italians *smooch* *smooch*. That came from this, from the emergence of Christianity, not the other way around.
It is simply this: an act of love. Intimate, respectful, honoring. A physical sign that I love you.
We don’t need to overthink this, this wasn’t shocking, Paul isn’t teaching a new weird thing to do. We can communicate love and affection with a good hug, with a side-hug, with a handshake, with a COVID appropriate elbow bump.
“Holy kiss” is “freely demonstrate your love for one another. Your trust, your respect.”
Love People. And show it. Keep it holy.
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
Implying what? That the rest of it was probably written by a scribe, taking dictation perhaps? But here is a weird thing:
If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
If anyone doesn’t love Jesus… “come to church and be welcome!”
No. Be “cursed”. This is the word “anathema”. It’s… harsh!
Why be cursed. Anti theme. Certainly someone who doesn’t love Jesus to the end is cursed. They are missing out on life now and life forever. Life abundant!
And what kind of love? This is “phileo”, brotherly love, where we might expect “agape”? In that way, it directly echoes the brotherly love the church is expressing for one another, the context of covenant with covenant blessings and curses.
Love, phileo, one another.
Love, phileo, Jesus. And if you miss out on that you are missing out on everything. You have missed the theme.
Maybe most accursed, the way Paul uses “anathema” elsewhere is for those who teach another gospel. So referring to the “curious seeker who isn’t there yet” and more to the “Christian faker” claiming the name of Jesus but with no love.
I think that gets Paul all fired up and Paul wants to fight. And he wants to see that kind of brokenness, that kind of “anti-Christ” (which is what that really is) OUT of the church.
So passionate, that he literally starts speaking another language “Our Lord, come!”
This ending is actually the word “Maranatha” which is Aramaic. It’s like Paul sends up a prayer, speaking Jesus’ earthly language. “Come, Lord Jesus!” It’s exclammatory!
Paul is all fired up!
But hear it surrounded again by love
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Unmerited grace. Favor. Love of Jesus on you. Here comes love “agape.”
Paul loves them all in Corinth. The ones who got it right and the ones who are still getting it wrong. Those with spiritual gifts, and those misusing the gift of tongues… and the guy sleeping with his father’s wife (remember that?) He loves the ones who think he’s the best pastor, and the ones who vote for Apollos, and the ones who get all superior and say “I follow Jesus.”
Grace on all y’all.
My love be with all y’all.
In Christ Jesus.
Amen. (There he goes speaking Aramaic again. “Amen” means “truly” or “True ‘dat” (pretty sure the kids are still saying that)
Love God, Love People
Love God, Love People
So how do we do this church thing?
Love God, Love People.
I feel like I read that somewhere!
We are going to have our Membership Class here in a bit. Spoiler: what is the primary takeaway for who we are and what we do here?
We are a people who love God and love others. Then let’s get into the details, let’s get practical, let’s get active.
This is pretty much what our covenant boils down to. Love God, Love People, Make disciples. Take the “next step” in doing that!
People will use this phrase, twist this phrase to mean what they think it should mean. Who gets to define what “Love God” means? God does. He’s pretty clear about it, actually. Keep my commands, worship God alone, everything for His glory, sacrifice and submission, holiness and righteous… He has a lot to say on the subject.
How do I love others?
God shows us. And he corrects it when His people get it wrong. Jesus modeled it in life, in death, in resurrection. It isn’t a weak love, a passive love, a laissez faire “do whatever you want” kind of love. It is a “rescue sinners from the realm of darkness” kind of love, it is fight and die for you kind of love, it is full of truth and grace kind of love.
This is love. This is church. Keep it real simple, boil it all down.
Let’s LOVE God. Let’s LOVE one another. Holy kiss and all. Let’s LOVE the people outside our community enough to go and make disciples of all nations.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.