What does communion with God, communion with His people, and temptation all have in common?

Intro

Paul to the Corinthian church. The church was filled with sinful behavior. Sexual sin, division, hatred between generations, pride, etc. But they were also filled with supernatural gifts and prosperity.

Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments. The bible tells us draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Jesus said these are my sisters and brothers, the ones who do my Father’s will. In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul is applying those principles and giving more meat to those ideas.

Here’s the question I’m struggling with this week: What is happening when I do that thing I know is wrong? Why do I not just stumble but lose fights over temptation? Because what I want to say is this, and there are many different ways to put it, but I want to say God why haven’t you healed this in me?

Think about it. God is the one who sanctifies. God is the one who saves, He’s the one who frees us from our sins, He’s the one who conforms us into the image of His son. So then, if I fall I want to scream God where were you? Why won’t you free me from this?

Imagine the people in Corinth who were addicted to their sins, how many of them blamed God for their sin? Paul writes to them and makes clear that the deficiency is not on the part of God, but on our communion with Him.

1 Corinthians 10:1–11:1 (NIV)

Communion with the church, means to get our sustenance from the same source

1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

* Baptism: There are many types of baptism in the Bible. The Christian baptism, the one you had, was a declaration of your faith. It’s you proclaiming to the world that you are a believer, Christ is your lord, and your sins have been washed away. You have been buried with Christ and have been born again into spiritual life.

* Baptism is also the church welcoming you in to the body of Christ. When you are baptized the church is saying we accept you as one of us. This is the conventional way baptism was used. The baptism of John, for example, signified the Israelites being accepted back into communion with God’s people - that’s why it was so scandalous. They were all baptized into Moses means, they were baptized - through the cloud and the sea - into communion with God’s people, with Moses as the under-shepherd and v3 under Christ their rock.

Even Israel had Christ as their rock. There isn’t two ways to heaven, one for the Jew and another for the Christian. Israel was saved by faith in God to redeem them and their redeemer is Christ just as He is ours.

The definition of communion with God and also communion with each other is this - they ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.

There are many different ways to read the bible - some of them are wrong - but there isn’t just one way that’s correct. One of the most useful is to compare and harmonize different ideas that are woven together in a text. I don’t think Paul was a manic writer that jumped in and out of a million ideas that didn’t have anything to do with one another. So what does Paul want the Corinthian church, and the church at large, to know by putting these 3 ideas together.

Communion with God 2. Communion with the people of God 3. Temptation, sin, and Idolatry.

Paul sets the intensity of these truths, they aren’t theological minutia

5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

There are millions of dead Israelites, that never made it into the promised land, who’s corpses lay under the sand so that v1 we would not be ignorant of these truths Paul is about to give us.

7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

Here’s the truth; Corinth - stop getting drunk, stop whoring around, stop testing Christ, and stop grumbling against God. Because God killed people for such things. In one day 23,000 people died for sins that were running rampant, and are running rampant, throughout the church. You are playing with fire and you are going to be destroyed by it.

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

But Paul, you’re the one who said I’m saved by faith, mercy, and grace - James is the one who is supposed to say, faith without works is dead. Not Paul! Not only that but you don’t understand. I do what I don’t want to do and what I don’t want to do - I find myself doing! It’s not my fault, God isn’t taking it from me, Satan tricked me. Paul you don’t understand the magnitude or sinister nature of my temptation!

12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Satan doesn’t need to craft a brand new, special edition temptation for us. When we fall, it’s for the same old trick. Your temptation isn’t special, it’s common. Don’t make it out to be more than it is. There’s a saying in the marines, “10,000 men have done this before you, it’s not that bad.” Billions of people have faced the temptation you are in and many of them endured. You can endure.

* What is happening when I do that thing I know is wrong? Why do I not just stumble but lose fights over temptation? Because what I want to say is this, and there are many different ways to put it, but I want to say God why haven’t you healed this in me?

God’s answer to me this week: You passed the exit sign on the way to this destination. You could have gotten off the train a few stops before it pulled in to this station. We want to blame God when he doesn’t stop us from blowing up on the job, but we don’t want to heed his voice when He tells us to spend time with Him in the morning and pray for our enemies. We don’t spend time having compassion on people who frustrate us, we allow bitterness to grow in our heart while God is screaming, in His word to stop, and then we say, “God where were you?”

Norman, I’ve been here begging you to stop. I left millions dead in the wilderness to show you the sinister nature of sin. What else do you want from me?

14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

Sin isn’t wrong for no reason. Sin is wrong because it abandons communion with God and with His people. That’s what these ideas have to do with one another. Therefore - because - there are no new temptation, God gives you a way out and you can take it, flee from sin for we participate in the blood and the body of Christ and as one loaf, one body we all commune with one another in a beautiful dance of love.

That’s why when we fall we don’t want to go to church any more. That’s why when someone is missing from your life, they cut fellowship, they seem to abandon - not just Sunday morning - but they just seem to disappear. Then you find out later, they fell back into their old way and are sinking under the crushing weight of their addictions.

18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

You cannot be in right relationship with the body of Christ or with Christ Himself and the demonic, sexually immoral, divisive, grumbling idols. Not because this is an exclusive club and if you don’t follow the rules you aren’t welcome. If that’s what you get from 23,000 dead in one day you’ve missed it. It’s because it doesn’t work. The church won’t have to remove you, you’ll remove yourself.

Paul is going to speak specifically about a sin he is accused of and explain why that doesn’t apply here

23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” 27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. 29 I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. 1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Follow my example

What is my example?

This message is for me. These arguments and questions are mine. The bitterness against God and the victim mentality are mine. So here is my example to you.

Whenever I fall, whenever I sin, I tell Sam Miller. Now, that doesn’t mean everyone tell Sam! But you need someone who will have your back. And don’t expect them to come and pry it out of you. Bring it up. Because sin and communion can’t co-exist. That means if you are in communion sin will flee! Just like sin crushes communion, communion crushes sin.

Tell someone, and tell God. Ask for forgiveness and believe that you have been forgiven. Come into communion with God and sin will flee.

Don’t be the victim. Own up, take responsibility and let the word put you in your place.