Gospel Identity

Welcome

Well, good morning, Park | Forest Glen family! It’s good to be with you here today. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan Osborn and I serve as one of the pastors here…I’m grateful you’re able to join us today!

Shout out to those of you watching online.

If you have a bible with you, open up with me to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. We’re starting a new series today through this New Testament letter that I am really looking forward to! Over the next 9 months or so, we’re gonna be studying the book together, wrestling with some of these ideas, trying to make sense of what’s in this letter and what it means for us today. But what we will find is that far from being a long, outdated, culturally insensitive letter, 1 Corinthians is fresh and timely for us! In this letter, Paul, the author is going to be talking about some of the same foundational questions of what it means to be Christian and how christians are supposed to live and engage in a pluralistic society.

What does it look like for a church to be healthy and shaped by the same grace, Monday through Saturday, that it loudly proclaims on Sunday?

What does it look like for a church to represent and honor Jesus?

Or, simply put, question we will come back to week after week: How does the church follow Jesus in a world that doesn’t follow Jesus?

Introduction

And this is a decisive question for us…because the stakes are high. What a church does or how individual Christians act, tells a very specific story about Jesus and what he’s like to the world around us. I think author and theologian, Brennan Manning said it well:

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

Friends, the kind church we are matters.

What we give ourselves too...

How we engage with one another...

How we engage outside these walls…matters.

And that’s not just true for us, in 21st Century America…that is and has been true for every church throughout history.

And getting this right…seeing and righting wrongs…working on our issues (especially the one’s we’d rather keep hidden away)…that is what 1 Corinthians is all about!

So, if you’re not there yet, open with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We’ll be looking at verses 1-17 today.

And I’ll start with a bit of background to this letter just so we get our bearings straight…and then we’ll look at first major idea, that followers of Jesus embrace their Gospel Identity.

Sound good?

Alright, I’ll pray and then we’ll get started.

1 Corinthians 1:1–17 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. 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. 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? 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.

PRAY

Background to the Letter

Alright let’s get started.

Through this series, I want this letter to come alive for us. I want us to feel the tension the Corinthian church we was feeling…I want us to know what life was life for them so that as we look to this 2,000 year old letter, we can best understand what it means for us today.

Author and Recipients

First Corinthians is the first letter we have written by a man named Paul who started the church in the Roman city of Corinth…sometime around 46 AD.

Let me show on map where Corinth is.

Paul’s pattern was to go from city to city to share the message of Jesus and start churches in those cities. He started the church in Corinth — and we actually have record of that in Acts 18, which describes Paul’s work there. He was in Corinth for about a year and half.

Roman Corinth

History

And the city itself has a fascinating history. Originally, Corinth was a Greek city…but it was almost completely destroyed by the Romans during an uprising in 146 BC. It actually lay almost abandoned for about 100 years before it was rebuilt by Julias Caesar and was therefore a thoroughly Roman city. And to populate this new city, he started sending over former slaves who had purchased or acquired their freedom. They were not high class in the traditional Roman social order, but in Corinth people found the rare ability to climb the social latter. It was a place where people could make a name for themselves and so it attracted people from all over the place…And, actually a lot like Chicago, it was proud city.

Religion

It was also a deeply religious city with temples to different Roman gods…it had a growing Jewish community around the time Paul was there. And because of the temples and prostitution linked to the worship in the temples, it because known as a city with loose sexual morals…so much so that the name of the city was used openly as a euphemism so that in some places, prostitutes were called “Corinthians girls”.

It was a wild, growing, city of influence that was ripe for the message of Jesus to take root and expand!

Reason for the Letter

Again, Acts 18 tells us Paul was in Corinth for about a year and a half, pastoring and caring for the small group of people he’s come to deeply love.

But after a few years of being gone, he starts to get some letters from them and some concerning reports from other people that things are not right in the church. And the letter neatly breaks down into two MAJOR sections. In the first, which we’ll look at today, Paul will deal with the problems that have been reported to him. And then, starting in chapter 7, he will shift to answering the questions they have asked him in a previous letter. And he’s pretty direct! At times, he’s sarcastic with them…at other times, he’s pretty bold in how he addresses what he sees as serious issues in the church…like there are some pretty messed up things going on there!

Gospel Identity

But I love how Paul actually starts this letter…because he doesn’t just dive into all the things they need to stop or start doing…he reminds them first of who they are and what is true of them as followers of Jesus. In other words, he reminds them of their gospel identity.

Look with me again starting in verse one....and keep in mind…he’s writing to a group of people who’ve got some serious sin issues going and he knows it!

1 Corinthians 1:1–9 (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.

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.

And in all of these phrases, Paul is talking about is true of those who are followers of Christ. He’s talking about the gospel accomplishes in us, when, by faith we trust in Jesus and his death and resurrection.

And I wish we could spend the entire time looking at this. Instead it feels a bit like when you go to the Art Institute and have to spend like 30 seconds glossing over masterpiece after masterpiece…that’s exactly what we’re seeing in these first nine verses!

Sanctified in Christ

He says they are “...sanctified in Christ...” in v. 2 (1 Cor. 1:2). That word ‘sanctified’ is crucial. It means: to be made holy. And Paul is saying that he’s writing this letter to those who have been made holy in Christ!

Theologians call this: Sanctification.

One author put it this way:

Sanctification is the ongoing supernatural work of God to rescue justified sinners from the disease of sin and to conform them to the image of his Son: holy, christlike, and empowered to do good works.

And we talk about the process of becoming more like Jesus. As he was pure and blameless, sanctification means we become more like him purity and blamelessness. And it’s not something that we bring about…but something that God makes happen. Look at it again, they are sanctified in Christ…that by their faith in Jesus, and his death a resurrection…they are being made more like him by him!

Paul is saying to the Corinthian church…the church with issues…the church made up of messed up people who still struggle with sin…in fact he says to us…You are sanctified.

Called to be Saints

He goes on to say they’ve been “...called to be saints...”

And sometimes we get caught up on that word, “...saint...”, especially if we’ve grown up around the Roman Catholic or Orthodox church. It feels like saint should mean something like “Amazing, superhero Christian”. But what really quiet amazing about it is that it’s actually the normal word used to describe followers of Jesus in the New Testament. It’s related to the idea of sanctification because it literally means, “Holy one”.

And again, the jarring thing about this is that, knowing the issues going on in the Corinthian church, how can Paul say this about them? How is true that they have these issues and at the same time can be called saints?

Grace Given to you in Christ

He celebrates in v. 4 (1 Cor. 1:4) that God has given them grace…he’s given them something that have not earned on their own!

Enriched in Him

He says in v. 5 (1 Cor. 1:5) that they’ve been enriched in Christ…that above and beyond what they need or deserve God has gifted with what they need—and if you keep reading, he’s gifted them with the spiritual gifts abundantly…that God has done far more than what they deserve!

Who will sustain you

In v. 8 (1 Cor. 1:8) it is God who will sustain them…that he will continue the work of providing for them as they seek to follow Jesus in world and culture that does not and is in fact hostile to the claims and message of Jesus!

Guiltless in the day of our Lord

And that in sustaining them through all of what they encounter, they will be guiltless in the end! That that work of sanctification will be completed as they will be preserved!

Gospel Identity

Friends, this is the Gospel Identity! And the reason Paul starts with this is because he knows that if there is any course correction that will take place in the church, it has to happen on the heart level, not just the action and works level! They need to be reminded and we need to be reminded of the Identity we already have by faith in Jesus!

That it is not our own doing...

That we did not simply make our selves good enough for God to finally show us affection and attention...

That we did not find the secret sauce to finally make him happy enough with us…

No, the Gospel Identity they must cling too…the Gospel identity we must cling to is the work of God in our lives through the death and resurrection of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. A Gospel Identity focuses first, not on what I make of myself, but what God makes of me. It’s not what I am doing for myself, but what God, in Christ, is doing in me.

And we take on this identity, by placing our faith in Jesus, in his death and resurrection....trusting that as we are being sanctified…as we are growing to become more like Jesus…our own struggles and sin begin to fade.

Transition

But the Gospel Identity doesn’t mean we will always get it right. We still fall short. And need to be reminded to come back…remember the main idea here: Paul is saying they need to embrace their gospel identity. To live as if it’s true! And he shifts to this call to return in v. 10 (1 Cor. 1:10)

Reject Division, Pursue Unity

Let’s look with me starting at v. 10

Like I said earlier, this starts the first of two MAJOR sections in 1 Corinthians. Paul talks about specific issues that have been reported to him.

Now, he knows about these issues through a group he calls, “Chloe’s people” in v. 11. Look there real quick.

1 Corinthians 1:11 (ESV)

11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

We don’t know really anything about Chloe or her ‘people’. She had some reason to go back and forth from Ephesus (where Paul was writing) and Corinth so she was probably a business woman. He assumes they know her otherwise he’d probably give some more context...And Paul obviously trusted her..because he ended up writing part of bible to deal with the issues she brought up!

And the church in Corinth is first having this letter read out loud to them as they’ve gathered for worship…just like we did last week. You can imagine…as soon as Paul drops Chloe’s name, there’s a couple folks who are like, “Shoot…she probably told him about (fill in the blank).

Pursuing Unity

But before he even gets to the issue...he starts off with the solution to the problem in v. 10 (1 Cor. 1:10)

1 Corinthians 1:10 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.

Remember what he’s just said in the first section we looked at…he’s been talking about the Gospel identity that they have and share. What he’s essentially saying now is live it.

You who have been sanctified…you who have recieved God’s grace…you who are in fellowship with Jesus…let that same gospel inform how you engage with and see one another!

He makes this appeal to them, not based on his own authority, but by the name of Jesus. And what he’s telling them is that this is not merely his wish for them…or his opinion about what works best. No, this is coming from Christ! That is to say, if they are going to live consistently with the Gospel, they have to put this into practice.

Look at it again: 1 Cor. 1:10

1 Corinthians 1:10 (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.

And he’s putting his finger on the very real issue of division in the church.

He’s talking about a church that has broken up in to tribes and factions…actually the greek word used here for ‘divisions’ is the word: schisma which is where we get the word schism from.

He gives some more detail about this in v. 11, (1 Cor. 1:11-12

1 Corinthians 1:11–12 (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.”

They are arguing back and forth…they can’t agree…they’re picking fights with each other. And some of the issues are just pointless! V. 12 (1 Cor. 1:12).

They’ve picked their favorite leaders and that’s who they’re going to follow. Some of them are saying, “I’m team Paul!” or “I’m team Apollos!”…or “I’m team Cephas!”

And he’s like, what’s that about?

V. 13, (1 Cor. 1:13

1 Corinthians 1:13 ESV

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

And his point is that they’ve found the wrong rally point! All of these leaders, Paul, Apollos, and Cephas which is just another name for Peter…these are all people who are following Jesus…it’s not about them, it’s about Him! And their attention needs to be focused around Jesus, not these other guys!

And before we think this just a side issue Paul’s dealing with, I think the fact that he brings it up first should tell us quite a bit. At the very least, Paul’s treating this like an issue that needs to be corrected right away…because unchecked division wreaks havoc on a church community.

But we also want to be careful here and make sure we’re tracking with the real problem he’ bringing up. See, Paul’s issue is not really that there are different tribes and groups in the church. That is inevitable!

Think about our own church…we’re gonna a ton of different groups of people…some of it’s just based on life stage…we’ve got single folks, married, married with kids, empty nesters, young kids, jr. and sr. high, college, men, women, democrats, republicans, different ethnic background, cubs fans, sox fans, chicago proper or suburbs. And we could keep going down the list. Any church that’s more than three people will have some kinds of groups that naturally pop up. But that’s not the problem.

It’s that the Corinthians are letting these tribes and different groups become their primary focus. They’re not just recognizing their differences, but they’re fighting over them.

It’s a problem when we become increasingly suspicious of one another in the community because of those groups.

Here’s how it works: Imagine that I get up here and I tell you, “Hey the people who have shaped my thinking the most are: Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Tucker Carlson.

Some of you are going to be like: YES! Atta boy!

Other’s of you would be seriously concerned that your pastor is a closet conspiracy theorist.

Why?

It’s because part of what it means to be human is to make assumptions about one another. We categorize people…we put them in boxes that make sense to us…we come up with stories that try and help us make sense of what’s going on around us. And we all do it.

Merge (Who is my Pastor?)

In our own church family, we’re just coming out of a merge between Park | Forest Glen and Park | Norwood Park…two churches on the NW Side of chicago. Frankly, we could do exactly what Paul’s talking about here…some of us saying, “Brenton’s really my pastor…or Dan’s my pastor”. And these seemingly innocent statements make room for something much more sinister to take root and grow—a dangerous tribalism in the church.

Political Factions

The same is true for political differences in the church. And we are on the cusp of going through another election season with the midterms coming up…or with the Chicago Mayoral elections coming out. And granted, most of our individual politicking doesn’t happen when we’re meeting on Sunday mornings. But it does happen on our social media accounts…and more than that, the critiques and judgmentalism that slides in happens on social media where we see other people’s posts, likes, and comments and begin to form a serious set of assumption about them based on those things. And at the same time, we have developed such a social fragility that we don’t really want to talk to them about it…we’d rather just scoff, skip our coffee, and keep scrolling.

Let’s not pretend we’re somehow above that…we all do it!

“I didn’t know they believed that...”

Do you see how this kind of tribal thinking can so easily infect our community?

Unity around the Cross

Paul’s talking about clinging to the wrong rally point! And that shouldn’t be the case in the church…because we have something far greater, far more powerful than these other identity markers to unify us. That’s why he takes us to the power of the Cross…the story of the death a resurrection of Jesus as the ground for unity within in the church. Because, you see, it’s at the cross of Christ that we see, we are not the one’s who figured everything out…that we are not the one’s who have everything put together on our own, but instead, the central message of the cross is that we’ve missed the mark. That we have fallen short. That we have failed to live the way God has called us to live…and yet, it is in spite of our failure and sin, that Jesus lovingly and willing went to the cross to die in the place of a broken, fragile, judgmental, people.

And when we look to the cross, we see Jesus who gave his life for us…dying in our place, for our sin. And yet rose again from the dead so that he might bring about everything Paul’s talked about at the beginning of this chapter!

It’s the cross that makes saints.

It’s through the cross that we receive GRACE and PEACE.

It’s through the cross that we are enriched.

It’s through the cross that we are sustained.

It’s through the cross that we are shown guiltless.

It’s the cross that shows us God’s faithfulness.

It’s the cross that calls us into fellowship and friendship with Jesus!

You see, in the first section, Paul is saying you need to come back to the cross and take hold of your Gospel Identity!

Conclusion