1 Cor. 1:1-9
What if you were lost? You took the wrong exit off the highway and ended up in down town somewhere, surrounded by night clubs and bars, tenement houses, motor cycle gangs, street fighters, drug pushers, prostitutes and gun fights, plus, to top it off, worst nightmare of all, a government sponsored establishment that makes money by promoting that tough life style and encouraging it to continue! I know. You want to get out of there as fast as you can. But just suppose that while you were there God spoke to your heart and said, “I want you to preach the gospel and plant a church right here among these people.” Now, how would you respond to God? I’m betting a lot of us would still want to get out of there as fast as we can. What could God be thinking, sending anyone into that kind of environment?
Well, Paul might have wondered that too when he first arrived in Corinth. But he wasn’t lost. God sent him to that city, and it was very much like the one we would be afraid to be lost in. Well, they didn’t have guns or motorcycles, but they had all the attitudes and violence and sin that goes with that lifestyle.
The NIV Life Application Commentary on 1 Corinthians, written by Craig Blomberg, describes the Corinth this way. It was a prominent Roman colony of about 80,000 people. In Paul’s day it was probably the wealthiest city in Greece and a major, multicultural urban center. They had a large arena for athletic games every two years that were a lot like the Olympics. They had a large theater with seating for 18,000 and a concert hall hold that could hold 3,000. These regularly brought drama and musical entertainment of many forms.
There was a massive hill overlooking the town, on the top of which stood a temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, from which we get the word aphrodisiac if you want to know what kind of love was celebrated in that temple. This was so prevalent that in the Greek world if you wanted to identify a loose woman of ill repute you could just call her a “Corinthian girl.”
Corinth housed other religious shrines too, most notably a temple to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, as well as sites for worshiping Isis, the Egyptian goddess of seafarers, and her Greek male counterpart, Poseidon. Less directly religious in nature but even more pervasive were the Greek ideals of individualism, equality, freedom and distrust of authority. Those ideals sound familiar to us don’t they?
When Paul started preaching the gospel in Corinth, the majority of the congregation would have come from Gentile and pagan backgrounds of numerous cultures. Also, the majority came not from the small, wealthy, and powerful segment of the Roman society, but from the ranks of ordinary tradesman and workers. Fresh from their immersion in the many pagan religions of the community, most of the Corinthian Christians had not adequately broken from away from the numerous immoral practices of the prevailing culture that surrounded them.
That is why at one point in this letter Paul reminds them of their backgrounds. In chapter 1:26-29, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
It may be that Paul himself at some point wondered what God was up to and why he had asked Paul to go to work in Corinth, of all places. Just like we would respond to the situation I described in the introduction, I think Paul wanted to get out of there! Perhaps even Paul, the great apostle, was discouraged by the immensity of the task and the improbability of overcoming the cultural obstacles. I draw that conclusion from the fact that God himself had to encourage Paul to stay. In Acts 18, after we read about the Corinthian Jewish community’s rejection of Paul’s gospel, verses 9-11 say, “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.’ So Paul stayed a year and a half.” Paul lived and worked by faith in God. That doesn’t mean it was easy.
In the same or a similar way today, it isn’t easy for members of the modern church to handle the way the world is changing around us. Perhaps instead of finding ourselves lost in a strange city, we find that the city that has been your home for decades is becoming stranger and stranger around us as the culture in which we live reverts and degrades into more and more pagan forms of culture. That can be very discouraging. It is more important than ever for the church to trust in God and find strength from the Scripture and not let the ways of the world drain it back out.
So today we are starting a series in the book of 1 Corinthians, one of several of Pastor Paul the Apostle’s letters to the Corinthians. After he finally left Corinth and as he continued his church planting ministry, traveling around the northern coast of the Mediterranean, he got news of how they were doing and they had a few questions for him to answer. From the two letters we have, 1 and 2 Corinthians that were saved by faithful and devoted followers of Christ, we learn that the Church at Corinth was a pretty amazing place. It was a church with many spiritual gifts and one with many spiritual problems at the same time.
It was a church Paul cared about even after he left. So Paul tried to help them, much as a physician will sit down with a patient and make healthy recommendations. This means that Paul’s letters to the Corinthian Church are full of inspired advice and instruction concerning what it means to be a spiritually healthy congregation. He very clearly tells the Corinthians what is healthy and good about them, but also what is very clearly wrong with them and how they should fix it. The result is a pretty comprehensive coverage of the spiritual life of the body of Christ.
As we go along we will find that in spite of the many years of separation and distinctly different culture between us and them, the Corinthian Christians dealt with many of the same issues that are still talked about in the modern church, both good and bad. In the course of our series we will discuss divisions in the church, Christian morality and ethics as well as how the congregation should respond and discipline errant members; proper worship, respect for God-ordained authority, Biblical views on marriage, how to respond to the surrounding culture, and how to work together to further the mission of Christ. All of this is soaked in a proper understanding of the relationship of the Holy Spirit to each believer and to all of us together.
So after that rather long introduction let’s dive in to the opening of this letter to see what gems lie even here, in the first nine verses. Paul’s letter begins according to the normal customs for letter writing in his day. This is actually one of the reasons we know it is a letter and not a sermon. In those days, the recipient of a letter always wanted to know first, who is it from? That’s a perfectly reasonable question. In fact even today, when we get a personal letter in our house the first question Kathy asks me is “Who’s it from?” I am not even allowed to read the letter until after she knows who it is from. So it is kind of funny to me that today we end a letter by saying who wrote it. I think the old Greek way actually makes more sense. But we handle that issue by looking at the return address on the envelope, so we know who wrote it even before we open the letter. In the old days, scrolls did not travel in envelopes. There was nothing on the outside to identify the sender, except maybe the currier who brought it.
Anyway, Paul announces himself and reminds his readers of his importance to them, not because he himself is great but because he was appointed to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Can we see this as a statement coming from a humble heart? He is admitting that, far from considering himself to be anything special, the truth is that he would not have had a ministry among them if it had not been God’s will for it to be so. But since it is God who has ordained him, Paul will later say that this is why they should listen to him, because he doesn’t come with just words, but with the Holy Spirit’s power and authority.
In addition it is interesting that in this greeting Paul mentions his fellowship with Sosthenes, apparently someone known to the Corinthians and who is endorsing Paul’s message by adding his name. It is interesting because right at the outset Paul is hinting at unity and fellowship, as opposed to the divisions and factions he will talk about in the Corinthian Church.
When Paul next identifies to whom he is writing, he gives them a very positive identifier. He says they are the “church of God in Corinth, … sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.”
Let us always remember, throughout our study of this letter, that although the church is having serious problems, Paul believes they have a lot going for them. They are worth his time and effort. It is God’s Church after all, and God will be faithful to complete the work he began in them. Paul believes that and willingly plays his part in God’s work.
It is always good to begin a difficult performance review and evaluation with a positive note of that for which we can give thanks. Always start with the good news! And so Paul goes on to say, “I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
In this he has mentioned their strongest points. That God has given his grace and they appreciate that, that they have been richly blessed with many spiritual gifts and they rejoice in using them, that their spiritual enrichment is proof of God’s work and confirmation that Paul is right about what he says concerning them. He commends them for being fully equipped to serve and enthusiastic about the return of Jesus Christ. He reminds them that it is God who will keep them firm to the end, so depend upon that in order to be found blameless when that day comes.
Let’s apply the same truths, at the outset, to the ministry of our congregation. Let’s use our study in the book of Corinthians as a sort of examination of the health of our ministry. Paul the Apostle, will be our physician, though perhaps a sort of a clinician guided by the great physician, Jesus Christ himself as supervisor and healer.
But for today, I want to begin with the good news and give thanks for you and for your history as a Covenant Church. It is a rich history! You possess a strong heritage of raising up devoted and genuine servants of the Lord who have been sent out from here to become pastors, seminary professors and missionaries! Just the size of this sanctuary, built in 1913, testifies to the greatness of the ministry just 40 years after its founding! Who knows what we met yet become again in another 40 years if we here today remain faithful to God in prayers and devotion to raise up from among us new disciples of Christ. It is pretty obvious when you look around that to do that we will have to have a new outreach to the community. But that must be God’s will for us and we can find it as we seek him.
And you do still seek him. You have shown that you still have hope for such a future. I see that in your endurance during the years when you had no pastor. You searched and prayed and you kept services going by using whatever local pastors could bring the messages while you patiently waited for God’s will to be revealed to you. You sacrificed and cut costs by taking on the chores personally to keep the church building clean. Then there’s also your involvement in supporting the ministries through the fundraisers at Culver’s, bake sales and yard sales.
You try to do outreach. There’s the prayer walks, the youth activities and the band concerts. You still serve. Last summer so many of you helped to paint Bob Behl’s house, and put a new roof on the Nelson’s house and fixed the garage door. So many of you visited Ruth Nelson, Carol and Eleanor Carlson and Margaret Van Pelt, and a lot of that was with prepared meals to bless them and make life easier.
You still see a future despite circumstances! God has given you the gifts of evangelism, teaching and discipleship. You have the spiritual gift of faith. You try new things and accept changes without being tied too tightly to tradition. This is adventurous and courageous!
You are known as a very friendly church! Most of our visitors really like the way we do the meet and greet time because it welcomes them without putting them on the spot. That is the result of your gift of hospitality. You also love one another. You have shown it in those practical ways like providing meals for friends when that would bless. You have really taken to the prayer shawl ministry and your enthusiasm has grown for gathering around someone who needs prayer, right in the center aisle.
For today I want us all to celebrate that we are still a church alive. It’s OK to feel very good about all these good things that you are doing. That’s ministry! God has put that into you! God can use your good attitudes and call you to new adventures because he knows that you are willing workers and really do want to be known as neighbors who care. Depend on this. God will help you. God will bless you as you seek his face and do his will.
So what Paul said to the Corinthians can very much be said about you. Now I am saying it. I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of good deeds and with all wisdom for gracious living—God thus confirming your testimony that Christ is among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Oh we’re not a perfect church. We might now be one of the smaller churches in town. This congregation has suffered a few hardships and a few setbacks. But God has not forgotten you or discarded you. He still has great plans in store and you are worth far more to him than you may realize. Just as Paul knew that he was going to be talking about the Corinthian congregations challenges and even their sins, in the weeks to come we will be taking the honest looks at ourselves too, as measured by the standard of God’s word, not just man’s opinion. But let’s hang in there and seek the touch of the master’s hand. Let us pray.
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