1 Corithians #1

1 CORINTHIANS
#1 Listen Up Church!
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Edited from Word Alive radio script
By Derek Stringer
I know the church very well.
I started to go to a church when I was 7 years old. It was because my dad thought I should.
Later I realised it was to get me out of the home on a Sunday afternoon so that he could get
some peace and quiet – but that was the start for me.
By the time I was in my mid-teens I was attending more than the youth meetings at the
church. By the time I was 21 I was studying Theology and then it was as an itinerant
Evangelist I got to visit a lot of churches around Great Britain. It was not long before
invitations to preach in many different countries came my way so I got to see and be involved
with many different types of churches. Add to that pastoring churches in England – I know the
church.
I love the church. I know that there are problems, but I also know that there are many good
and caring people in the church who sincerely want to be what Christ wants them to be.
I know that He died for the church and wants to see it become the salt and light in the
community that will make church relevant to people today.
I also know this – what my local church is like is very much dependent upon me. If I am what
Christ wants me to be, that will help my local church to be what it is meant to be. I can’t make
a difference for other people. I can make a difference for myself.
All this brings us to the series I’m beginning right now here on Word Alive.
It’s so important I want to take my time over it. I also want to use another programme we
make at GNBA called Bible Focus to help explore it. You remember that the apostle Paul
would often say, “Remember this”, or, “I remind you of this.” In other words, he had already
told them this but needed to say it again. I feel the same way about the topic we’re starting to
explore now.
Don’t you find like me you need to hear things you know only too well again and again? It
makes that truth go down deep into us. Only then will we be able to live the Christian life
effectively and fruitfully. Sometimes the problems we have in our churches are because we
don’t use our minds enough when we go to meetings.
When I’ve been preaching in a church I will at times have someone come up to me and say,
“Well, that’s given us something to think about.” I get the impression that they were surprised!
But church is not the place where we leave our brain at the door – at least we’re not
supposed to.
"How was your game, dear?" his wife said.
"Well, I was hitting the golf ball well enough, but my eyesight's not so good these days and I
couldn't see where the ball was landing all the time."
"Well, you are getting close to 80 - why don't you take my brother along next time?"
"But he's older than I am and doesn't play golf anymore."
"But he's got good eyesight. He would watch the ball for you."
The next time he teed off with his brother-in-law looking on.
He swung and the ball disappeared down the fairway. He said to his brother-in-law, "Do you
see it?"
"Yes I see it.”
"Well, where is it?"
Peering off into the distance he said, "I forget."
Well, it’s not just the older people who can forget. When it comes to God’s Word we need to
keep checking the truths out so that they become part of us.
If you are able to open a Bible and follow along with me I think there’s benefit in doing that. I
know that’s not always possible – let alone wise. I mean, if you’re listening to Word Alive as
you drive your car, don’t do it!
I want to talk about the church and what Christ wants it to be. This really means I’m talking
about what Christ wants ME to be in His church.
I’m going to start a series in First Corinthians. If ever there is a New Testament letter that is
bang up-to-date it’s this one.
If we think we have problems with the church today – take a look at the church at Corinth –
it’s probably worse. If today’s church is discouraging, the church at Corinth could make you
depressed.
The church at Corinth was riddled with huge problems.
So where should PAUL start in attempting to bring some order out of the chaos that was this
Christian community?
Keep in mind that Paul is writing a letter and it seems to be a response to some queries
the people in the church have been making. Things have happened – “Oh let’s ask Paul shall
we” – so they did.
Paul clearly touches on issues in the church but he’s got a whole lot more to say to them.
That’s the thing about church life.
We sometimes think, if we can just get this issues sorted out. If we can just get these people
adjusted and more ‘spiritual’ things will improve.
I remember a Pastor of a very large church sending me an email and saying, quote, “I have
had some blessed reductions from my church.”
In other words, there were people causing him problems but no longer – they’ve left!
The problem is that those who leave are often replaced by other people you would rather see
leave as well.
It’s like the old story of the train company that did a study on train crashes. They
discovered that the back carriages were the worst affected. What is the solution? Take off the
back carriage! It doesn’t really solve the problem does it? There’s always another back
carriage to replace the previous one.
Paul knew that he must deal with the real cause of the Corinthian church problem.
He was like a doctor – the patient is worried about the rash on his back – the physician is
more concerned with what’s cause it.
This is why Paul devoted the first 4 chapters to a diagnosis and a treatment of the main
spiritual disease of the Corinthian church. It’s an ugly word that sums up their problem but we
can’t avoid it and it’s still the kind of problem that faces Christians today – it’s the problem of
CARNALITY.
All that Paul has to say by way of introduction is to get at the root of the problem so that he
can bring this church along to a healthy way of existing.
Don’t we want to be part of a healthy church? Well, it will start as we become healthy
ourselves. What Paul has to say really can help and it will if we take to heart the lessons.
The first nine verses go the usual route of a first century letter. The name of the WRITER, the
person or people to whom he is writing followed by a GREETING – saying something nice
about the people.
However, Paul’s introduction is far more extensive and contains a clear and distinct Christian
feature to it.
He takes the usual greeting and embellishes it.
Instead of simply saying something nice about the people he turns it into a prayer of
thanksgiving to God.
Looking at the opening verse you see how immediately Paul puts a ‘marker’ down. Why
should the people in this church take a blind bit of notice about what he writes?
Sometimes as a preacher you get the clear sense that people have their minds on other
things.
Clearly the Word of God isn’t taken that seriously. In lots of places the Bible isn’t opened there’s no checking on what the preacher is saying, there’s no following along.
Why? Because there’s very little intention of letting the preachers words make any difference
to their lives.
If we for one moment start to realise that what we hear is really a matter of life and death, and
that the ‘speaker’ comes with a huge authority backing them up, we would not be so
lackadaisical.
Paul needs to make that point and the only way he can do it is by clearly outlining his
authoritative position.
He makes 3 big claims for himself.
He starts by saying: I AM AN APOSTLE.
Apostles were believers who had seen the resurrected Christ and had been specially
commissioned specifically by Christ to teach and to put down the foundation for the church
age.
You couldn’t be considered an APOSTLE unless your life was marked out by a miraculous
authenticating of it by the obedience of genuine and spiritual Christians.
You can’t read through Paul’s letter to the Corinthians without seeing this ring of authority
again and again in Paul’s words.
NEXT, Paul says: I’M NOT A SELF-APPOINTED APOSTLE.
He didn’t take the title to himself as had some people in the early church.
It wasn’t by popular vote either.
Paul had seen Christ after his death and resurrection. Jesus as His Lord had made it clear:
“This is the role that I want you to take up.”
THIRDLY: GOD DECREED PAUL AN APOSTLE.
It was God the Father who decreed Paul’s salvation and apostleship, and it was Christ who
secured that purpose when he confronted Paul (then known as Saul) on the road to
Damascus.
Paul was a team-player and he includes SOSTHENES as his associate in writing the epistle.
But, it’s clearly more Paul than Sosthenes in charge of what’s being conveyed.
I think that this man is likely to be the chief ruler of the synagogue in Corinth. He was beaten
up by the Greeks before Gallia’s judgment seat.
Christians went through tough times back then. The very idea that coming to Jesus
makes life nice and comfortable was far from the truth.
It’s great to have people whom you can call a BROTHER (or a sister) in the faith.
So this is the man writing – PAUL, and SOSTHENES was in total agreement with all of Paul’s
counsel.
What about the readers?
Now don’t miss this, Paul is going to be critical of these believers – that was necessary. They
needed to get rid of the tumours in the body of Christ (the local church) they needed to be cut
out.
But before he criticises them he describes them in different ways.
If we have something hard to say about our fellow believers and our local church maybe we
can learn something from this.
Maybe we should first stop and ask, what positive things can I say? Isn’t that how Jesus tried
hard to approach things with the churches in the Book of Revelation? Yes, he would need to
say, “I have this against you.” But in all but one case among the 7 churches he addressed,
he will begin with something positive.
Often I will be told the problems of a church but I feel like saying (and sometimes will say) “Is
there anything good that you can say?”
Let’s get the right perspective on this you see.
Take a look at the ways Paul describes the believers in this church at Corinth.
We’re in the first 3 verses of chapter 1 and Paul begins by saying of them, YOU ARE
SPECIAL.
That’s because they are the CHURCH OF GOD.
Whatever the negatives, they were members of the one true church which Christ built and
purchased through His redemptive death and resurrection.
Oh, there may be fights among them. That’s not healthy. If your own hand is punching your
own chin and your own mouth is biting your own hand, clearly you need help. But it doesn’t
mean it’s not your body.
Part of the answer is not to deny that there are problems but to realise this is Christ’s body on
earth, so it needs to act wisely and well.
If we see ourselves as just a group of individuals who happen to go to the same building at
the same time to do a similar thing in worshiping the same God, we don’t see ourselves as
HIS BODY. That will not help us.
Notice this church is special in a particular place - CORINTH.
They were a recognisable body of believers and a particular location.
It’s not unusual to come across Christians who don’t belong to any particular local gathering
of Christians.
They say, “I belong to the universal church.”
But that’s only part of it. The New Testament is full of local expressions of this universal
church.
BELONGING with the resultant accountability is all part of the Christian life.
So Paul is saying what we need to hear too – you are SPECIAL.
SECOND – YOU ARE SANCTIFIED.
That’s because, as the church of God, we are “SANCTIFIED in Christ Jesus.”
That’s a POSITION that God has given to them as His SPECIAL people.
They had been set apart by God from the world by Himself in a decisive event in the past and
they were remaining and would continue to remain in a sanctified position or standing.
Such a position was only possible because they were judicially accepted in all that Christ had
done for them.
SPECIAL!
SANCTIFIED!
And now, YOU ARE SAINTS.
That’s because we are “Called to be HOLY” – or SAINTS!
You can look around in your church on a Sunday morning and see the SAINTS!
Now of course we’ve got to live up to this name but it’s a more usual title for us in the New
Testament than is the title CHRISTIAN.
You see, SAINTHOOD wasn’t part of their future destiny – a goal that might not be realised
because of their sin. NO, it expressed their present standing.
The big problem was they weren’t saintly in their practice.
God had said, “I’m making you SPECIAL. You matter to me. I’ve done something to make it
possible for you to relate to Him now.”
Jesus died for you that you might be forgiven. But He rose and ascended by the Holy Spirit
and comes to live in you. You have the potential through His INDWELLING PRESENCE by
the HOLY SPIRIT to find something of the STATE of your STATUS.
How does that happen?
Paul touches on it when he says: “Called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who
call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.”
SPECIAL
SANCTIFIED
SAINTS
And SUBMISSIVE –
That’s because, together with other believers, we fully yield to our Lord Jesus Christ declaring
Him LORD.
The simplest definition of believer is this – “Jesus Christ is LORD.”
Here’s our question: do we want our local church to be a better witness to Christ? Then here’s
the harder question, “What about me? What does it mean from me?” The starting point is this
and saying it because we believe it – JESUS is LORD. Do you know this, HE Is MY LORD.”
SPECIAL
SANCTIFIED
SAINTS
And SUBMISSIVE –
We can know more than good wishes but we can have a SATISFACTION that is
unobtainable anywhere else.
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
We may not be in the best of shape. We know what we’re like in attitude and action. But in
spite of their carnality, the Corinthian church continued to be showered with blessings.
Know this – our Father and the Son want the same for us. Thank Him today and live in the
good of it right now.
There’s a story told of a little boy visiting his aunt with his mother. She said to him, “Now
remember to be polite. Remember to say ‘please and thank you.’” During the visit the aunt
said, “Would you like an orange?” The little boy replied, “Yes!” His mother said to him, “Now
what else do you say?” He replied, ‘Peel it!’
We have to teach our children to say THANK YOU don’t we – to be grateful for what
they get.
You can’t read the Word of God without realising how important THANKFULNESS is in our
relationship to God. Right in the middle of our Bible is the Book of Psalms – and it’s heavy
with the Psalms of thankfulness.
Coming over to the ministry of Jesus you will see how THANKFULNESS features a lot in His
approach to the Father. Reading the letters of the New Testament you see how they learned
the lesson.
Both in our personal prayer life as well as in church prayer meetings, if we are not careful we
can speed straight into the requests and not take any significant time to be thankful to the
Lord. That’s an error.
It’s as we become thankful it sets the scene and prepares an atmosphere of confidence in
which we can approach God for the things that we need or want to see happen in the lives of
the people around us.
That’s one reason why you never read a prayer of Paul in his epistles that doesn’t start with
thankfulness.
That’s the case as we come now to 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 4.
Paul has introduced himself and commented on the church.
He knows that this church has some questions for him about problems and issues in it – but
that doesn’t stop him from commencing with a prayer of thanksgiving for them.
Back in those days it was normal to say something flattering about the person or people to
whom you were writing – to compliment them in some way. Paul doesn’t do that but he will
thank God for what He has been doing.
Now of course all this raises a question. This is the church at Corinth and perhaps like some
churches we know, there are things happening that give credibility to a charge of hypocrisy.
So, how could Paul be thankful for the Corinthians, especially since he knew about their
differences and selfishness? Isn’t this being unreal? Is Paul being sarcastic – “Oh what a
wonderful church you are!”? Not a bit of it.
Although I reckon that the church was probably surprised to read that Paul was thankful. They
probably expected him to be frustrated, angry, ashamed or disgusted.
BUT PAUL WAS THANKFUL FOR 5 REASONS.
I want to tell you what they are and ask whether we can be thankful for exactly the same
things about our church. I’d like to think that we can be. If we will use this as a template to
pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the church to which we belong, it will make a difference and
don’t we want that?
FIRST: BE THANKFUL FOR GRACE.
Paul writes: “I always thank God for you because of his GRACE given you in Christ Jesus.”
WHEN did they receive God’s grace? When did we?
Back in time when we received the free gift of righteousness – of being accepted and valued
by God. Paul was thankful for their salvation.
Okay there may be problem people in our church. There may be problems in us. But can we
look back and say, “I know that I’m a saved person”? “I’m not looking to anything that I can do
to get right with God but trusting in what Christ has done for me to put me right with God.”
So there is a long way to go on the journey with God, but we are on the road. Our lives are
better than they were before we started on this road.
Is that the case? If it is it’s something to be thankful for. It’s right to be thankful for it. Don’t
start by thinking of how far we still have to go. Start by thinking at least we’ve begun.
SECONDLY: BE THANKFUL FOR ENRICHMENT.
“For in him (that’s Christ) you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in
all your knowledge.”
Have we grasped the truth about Christ? Are we able to speak about Him in a knowledgeable
way?
I listened to one of the writers of a musical about Jesus explain his ‘take’ on Jesus. I wanted
to scream. It was so inaccurate. I know that. You hear comments about Jesus and you know
how out of character they are don’t you? That’ something to be thankful for – so let’s thank
Him for it.
Like the Corinthian church we may have a lot to learn, but we are learning and we’re learning
the truth. We have been especially blessed.
NEXT: BE THANFUL FOR CONFIRMATION.
Paul was thankful. He says, “Because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.
Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be
revealed.”
Paul had preached the gospel to these people. God authenticated his ministry to be true by
giving signs through the apostle. There was a demonstration of power by the Holy Spirit
turning the lives of these people around.
As Paul worked miracles and as supernatural endowments operated within them, the
Corinthians knew that what Paul was saying was absolute truth. Knowing that should cause
them to respond to Paul’s subsequent comments, teaching and responding to their questions.
Can we look around our church and say, “I know that God has been at work? Look at the
gifting that there is. Look at the people with new aims, new desires, new dreams - the Holy
Spirit has been at work and is at work. The fact that these people are there is just great.
Oh yes, we still have much to learn but again it’s a start and something to be thankful for.
What must have saddened Paul as it probably does us is this – the Corinthian church had
everything in which to do a work for Christ while they waited for Him to come again but they’d
failed to do so to the full.
One of my daughters has trained a little fish to swim through a hoop. It’s funny. Okay, it’s only
a hoop and it’s done by the enticement of food. Okay it’s not synchronised swimming with a
shoal of fish – but it is something!
It’s just a little analogy for us but let’s be thankful for the little things that have been achieved
in us and the Christians around us. That can get us ready for the bigger things God will want
to achieve.
BE THANKFUL FOR PRESERVATION.
“He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ.”
The word BLAMELESS doesn’t mean that believers are without sin and never get anything
wrong – of course not. This epistle is going to reveal the ‘dark side’ of the church.
This is a LEGAL term. No charge of condemnation nor sentencing to eternal death would ever
be brought against them in the court of God’s justice. Literally, the word translated
BLAMELESS means NOT CALLED IN – it’s the answer to Paul’s rhetorical question: “Who
will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he
that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died.”
Paul knew that God would preserve that churches blameless standing throughout their future
behaviour.
There is a day coming when we will meet our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we feel uncertain about
our reception on that day?
At times it’s to be expected. We know what we are like. But our security isn’t based upon what
we are like but what HE is like AND what He has done to make us welcome.
Thank Him that despite ourselves such is His grip on us He will not let us fall.
Like a mountaineer climbing a rock face we may slip, but that doesn’t mean we go back to
base camp. It doesn’t mean Jesus won’t keep us in his team.
Be thankful for that.
Finally –
BE THANKFUL FOR FAITHFULNESS.
It’s “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is
FAITHFUL.”
In the face of the church’s unfaithfulness, Paul was thankful for God’s faithfulness.
You see, God isn’t just TRUE, He is also TRUSTWORTHY. His Word is sure and His
promises are certain. His faithfulness can be seen in His sovereign call of the Corinthians to
unique fellowship with other believers and with the Lord Jesus Christ in spite of God’s
obvious, prior knowledge of their low-grade and murky-water behaviour since becoming
God’s children.
Yes, their local fellowship was disjointed.
Yes, Paul wanted them to show more of their spiritual communion with Christ in visible
expressions of love within the church. BUT, God is always dependable. He is always reliable.
He is always true to His Word.
LET’S BE THANKFUL FOR THAT.
So, are we inclined to be negative about our local church? Maybe there’s good cause.
Are we inclined to be cynical about ourselves and whether we will ever make headway
spiritually?
LIKE PAUL, START HERE.
Be thankful for what we can be thankful for. It will change our perspective on everything. It will
mean that when we do get round to having to be negative, just maybe what we say will
register more.
Be thankful for all the blessings that are ours because God is faithful.