6.13.53 11.28.2021 Final Instructions 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Start:

Entice: Paul's rolodex must have been impressive. When we think about all the names he dropped and reflect on all the places he'd been, it is impressive.

In 1 Corinthians 16 we read the names of regions or cities in which he had founded congregations: Galatia, Macedonia, Ephesus, Achaia, Asia.

Add to that the incredible people he mentions, the collective ability of the team he had gathered—his ever-widening circle of collaborators both locally and traveling with him. In 1 Corinthians 16 alone he names the following: Timothy, Apollos, Stephanas, Fortunatus, Achaicus, Aquila and Prisca.

I have been very upfront through this whole series of sermons. The Corinthian Church was no picnic. Yet, Paul loved them, taught them, corrected and directed them. Their relationship may not always been warm but it was productive.

Engage: The road to maturity is not always easy. It can be a struggle. To become mature, people need pats on the back and the occasional kick in the tail. To grow, people need to be challenged. So, rather than just a condescending pat on the back Paul takes his leave of the Corinthians by issuing a firm set of commands.

Expand: In the midst of the final greetings and the name dropping Paul has one more pithy text.

Pithy=adjective, concise and forcefully expressive.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 ESV

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.

Excite:This is an intense, powerful, and memorable line of encouragement. It is compact. It is easily memorized. Unfortunately, it is not well known. I'd like to change that. Individually and collectively we have to encourage and challenge and commit.

Explore:

Sometimes we need to be very direct with one another.

Explain: We need to encourage one another with these imperatives

Body of Sermon:

1 Watch out!

1.1 Γρηγορεῖτε

1.2 Not so much your mom saying "now honey, be careful out there, wear your scarf and buckle up."

1.3 More like when a car cuts in front of you "Loookout!"

2 Stand up!

2.1 στήκετε

2.2 Paul likely coined the use of this phrase.

2.3 We are to be established, fully founded upon "the faith."

3 Be courageous!

3.1 ἀνδρίζεσθε

3.2 Maturity

3.3 Accountability

3.4 Man up.

4 Be strong!

4.1 κραταιοῦσθε

4.2 Endurance.

4.3 Resiliency.

5 Be Loving!

5.1 γινέσθω ἐν ἀγάπῃ

5.2 The basis for all we say and do is extending the Love of Jesus.

Shut Down:

Mature people are encouraged by challenges which make them stronger, stretch them, broaden them. All Paul does in this passage is to take the basic arguments of the epistle, reduce them to the barest essentials and transform them into commands which each believer can easily follow.

You don't have to be a congregation in crisis to implement these instructions. In our time and place the culture presses against us just as relentlessly as it did in Corinth. We need the same kind of mature resiliency. We need to be challenged.

The Church and its individual members must always work diligently to live and minister here and now without allowing the culture to control the conversation.

Our love for Christ energizes our love for one another, which activates our love for the world which motivates us to show and tell the saving grace of Jesus to those who do not know Him. That is God's Word for us today.