Sermon Tone Analysis

! NEW SERIES:  THE TROUBLED TRIUMPHANT CHURCH

!

Sermon 9 – “The Praxis of Being Spiritual People”

! 1 Cor.

3:1-4

* PRAY                READ TEXT*

*Introduction*

          Have you ever been to a movie theater or concert and had someone sitting around you who was acting completely selfish……making noise and moving around…..laughing way too loudly and for long stretches!

Last week I read an interesting letter to the editor in The Tennessean about fan behavior!

It wasn’t sports fans, for a change, but music fans.

It seems that this writer had attended an Eagles’ concert in Cincinnati the previous weekend and he sat behind or beside (I can’t recall) a real, hardcore Eagles Fan!

The title of the letter was something like, ‘I want to thank you for your enthusiastic ruining of the Concert for me and several other Eagles’ fans!’

It seems that the writer’s concert experience was ruined by an obnoxious “fan” who stood, danced, shouted, held out his cell phone and sang (WAY OFF KEY!) through the entire concert.

The writer concluded by questioning whether this person was REALLY a fan of the Eagles…or simply came to hear himself sing to their instruments (since that’s all anyone in the seats around him got to hear!)!

The writer thanked the obnoxious fan because his nasty behavior reminded the writer of how selfishness plays out and hurts others!

Tie-in – In a very similar way, this is what Paul is saying to the Corinthian Church in the first few verses of Chapt.

3.

He has just finished giving us, in simple terms, two groups or classes of people in Chapt.

2:  we have:

1.

The “natural person” who is without Christ….without

the Holy Spirit and lost.

This is the person in 2:14 “*14* 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.”

This is the       person that is perishing….that

cannot and will not accept the word

    of the cross – (1:18).

2.    Then there is the “spiritual person” or, as Paul calls them in 2.6 the ‘perfect’ or ‘mature’ person – Remember, this is not some super-spiritual, highly intelligent Christian….it is a person who has the Holy Spirit – a True Believer.

Just that simple!

The problem here is that it’s too simple….too

black and white…and it leaves out the vast majority of the Corinthian church…..there is another group that Paul must now describe and introduce….a

class that doesn’t fit completely into either the “natural” or the “spiritual”.

3.

This is, what Paul describes as, the “fleshly people” or as “infants in Christ.”

These are ones who belong to Christ, but aren’t acting like Christ!

And similar to the “Eagles’ Fan” from The Tennessean…..Paul is saying, *“Hey look…..you claim Christ and to be his…..but your behavior doesn’t jive with your claim!”  “You claim to be saved by ‘the word of the cross’ but you have left the crucified life behind!!”*

JUST like the disturbing “fan” who sat next to the letter writer in the Tennessean, the behavior of the Corinthian Christians is anything but spiritual!

*And how Paul describes* and addresses this problem in the behavior can be both an offer of tenderhearted hope to some and a tough warning to others…both in the same statement of truth from this passage!

*Justification and Sanctification*

Before we go into our text this morning, however, we need to make certain that we understand two important truths….*two

equally but different parts of our salvation in Christ*…..

1.    *Justification - *the first is a one-time only event that occurs the moment we come to Christ in faith…..it’s called Justification...and it deals with our eternal position in Christ…..the fact that the atoning death of Jesus on the cross provides us forgiveness for sins and his substitution on the cross (he redeemed us) means that Jesus took upon Himself…the punishment for my sins.

*Justification *means that once and for all….I have been declared not guilty before the throne of Grace; AND I have been given the righteousness of the Son – Jesus Christ!

If you are a Christian, this is your position in Christ.

God has accepted you, by His grace and only because of the sacrifice of His Son, *but our position CANNOT BE MOVED!  *

But there is *another part to our salvation*….one

that is not a one time event….but it is a process….a

transforming work of God in our hearts.

2.    This, we call *Sanctification.*

Here we need to park for a moment.

*When a person becomes a Christian* he also becomes a new creation with a new nature, a new inner being, and a heart that now desires God (rather than one that constantly rebels against God).

*2 Co **5:17* -  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

What happens in our lives after becoming a new creation….being

Born-Again…this is all *Sanctification – *becoming more and more re-made in the perfect image of God’s Son – Jesus Christ.

It is this */process of becoming/*…..this progressive transformation of *Being who you are – of living outwardly who you are inwardly – that causes such warfare in our lives.

*

We see this clearly in Scripture…and Paul does a great job pointing to it in Romans 6:6-7; 12:

*6* We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

*7* For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Rom 6:12

*12* Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

Even as our old nature has been crucified with Christ…..until God calls us to glory with Him (or Christ Returns and takes us up)…..we still have an *inner war* going on between our new heart that longs for God and our sinful flesh – that longs only for self.

In fact, one of the best way to describe our flesh is selfish pride….always

putting ourselves first!

The flesh gauges everything with the “what’s in it for me” question!

* *It is this very warfare that allows Paul to name the Corinthian Christians fleshly infants in Christ!

*The Problem*

The problem in Corinth is the same problem we find in so many churches and in so many Christian lives…..*their lives reflected the world rather than Christ!  *The problem is that the Corinthian believers were claiming the cross of Christ and not living and walking in the way of the cross!

This has been *Paul’s theme throughout this letter*….live

out who you are in Christ!

It is the praxis of faith…..*how you live and think and desire and act and dream……*it is living outwardly what you are inwardly!

Living any other way puts us in the 3rd….fleshly

class of people:

1 Cor 3:1

*3 *But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

Notice a couple of things in v.1:

a.     Paul is giving addressing them as fellow Christians….not

as those without Christ…..he calls them “brothers and sisters.”

In using “brother and sister” Paul is standing with them and not over them as a judge!

It is a beginning – not of anger but of love!

b.

But he cannot speak or deal with them as being mature or spiritual people….but

as fleshly people.

Positionally, they are “in Christ” but in praxis – they are caught deep in sin…..and they are not growing in Christ.

c.

They are “infants in Christ” – To be born is the beginning…but birth is not so much in question here as it is growth that they are lacking!

There’s more evidence of their arrested development in v.2:

  1 Co 3:2-3

*2* I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready, *3* for you are still of the flesh.

……..

 

*So what does Paul mean by “milk, not solid food,”?

*

What he does NOT mean:  Often we think in terms of growth in knowledge here….that

they haven’t been weaned from the gospel.

It’s not their intellectual IQ in spiritual things that is lacking!

The Problem is Praxis!

They know the word of the cross…..they know the gospel…but they aren’t living who they are and what they know!

You see, there is absolutely NO difference in the content of spiritual truth between milk and solid food!

The growth…the lack of maturing in their lives comes from their lack of living who they are!

It’s in the praxis of their faith!

So, if both milk and solid food are both of the same spiritual truth; differing only in detail and depth…..the milk and meat are the same!

To think otherwise would be to say there is a greater spiritual awareness or truth or teaching than the word of the cross……and there isn’t!

*Why do babies need milk?** – What happens if an infant is given solid food too soon?

*(Sick) – Why?  Paul says,“you were not ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready, *3* for you are still of the flesh…”  They weren’t ready because they can’t digest the solid food.

Their behavior shows that they still haven’t digested (understood) the gospel….the

word of the cross ……and their behavior is infantile!