1 Corinthians 1:4-17
0 Amens
We started last week on a journey through the NT book of 1st Corinthians...
And as we said last week, Paul loved the city of Corinth so much, and these people so much, he had risked his life to plant a church there. But after going on to plant other churches in other areas, he was actually in the city of Ephesus when a group of people from Corinth came to visit and reported that they were having some problems: divisions among them, crazy sexual immorality, drunkeness and selfishness and lawsuits and all kinds of other things among them. So Paul writes this letter to help get them back on track.
And again, as we said last week- this book isn't just about correcting what's wrong- it's also about what's right- it's about love, about unity, about the gifts that God gives to a community like ours and what it means to be a community that worships well, believes rightly, sticks together no matter what, and over and above everything else- points people to Jesus. Our hope is that by spending the next few months in this book, more and more, those words will describe this community. And that by being that type of community, we'll begin, more and more, to make a difference here in this city we love so much, Portland.
So- let me pray for us and we'll get on to 1st Corinthians...
Prayer/Meditation
So- tell me- a lot of you grew up in church- some had good experiences with that, some not so much-
what’s the craziest thing you ever saw people fight about in church?
Last Christmas a fight broke out in the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem… (Picture- read story)
I gotta tell ya- I’d have paid good money to see priests fighting with brooms. But…Probably not the way it’s supposed to be, is it? Not if you read the passage we’re looking at today in 1st Cor. If you have a Bible…
VS 4
As I said last week- Paul is going to have some hard words to say for these guys- but he starts off nicely- I thank God for you- which I'm sure he did, and for the gracious gifts He's given you- we're going to talk more about those in the coming weeks...
But here's something interesting- does anyone have a translation other than "gracious gifts" here? Some of you probably have just "grace," right?
Which, if you think about it, is sort of a back-handed complement. I thank God for the grace he's given you- in other words, God has given you guys a lot because, well, you needed a lot. It's complementary to God, not so much to the Corinthians who kept really testing the measure of that grace...
VS 5-7
Kind of a tough line of thought to follow here- But here's what I think he's saying-
Through Him- through Jesus, God has enriched your church- He's given you so many things- so much grace, so many spiritual gifts- and even though you have so much knowledge and pride yourself on your rhetoric and speaking skills, it's the grace of God and the gifts He's given you that make you rich- not the things you pride yourselves on...
And the reason He gave you those gifts? To prove to you that everything I told you about Christ was true.
And now... Your community has all it needs. You have every spiritual gift.
50-60 people in this church of Corinth at that time- run down the lists of spiritual gifts- did someone in Corinth have the gift of wisdom? of hospitality? of leadership? of teaching? Yes, yes, yes and yes...
So why, as we're going to see in these next chapters, did they get so off track? If the gifts of wisdom and hospitality and leadership and teaching and discernment and all the rest, why did they allow such crazy sexual immorality as was happening, why were the poor being edged out by the rich who'd get there early and drink all the communion wine, why were they so divided, why were they so messed up...?? For this simple reason: gifted does not equal mature.
Evergreen is larger now than this church Paul was writing to. Do we have "every spiritual gift we need" here in this community? You bet...
So why is it that it's hard for us to serve the poor the way we say we'd like to, why don't more people help out with the kids and set-up and tear down, why, even though we do so well in so many areas, do we continue to struggle in a number of places?
Because gifted does not equal mature...
We're a church much like the church in Corinth- not in that anyone here is sleeping with their stepmother or getting drunk on the communion wine- but we're young, overeducated, live in a city known for it's license and we too have every spiritual gift represented here in our community. And just like in theirs- without maturity, and without a certain type of maturity, we could easily devolve down into just a nice group of people or even a not so nice group of people. Into folks just out to get their own needs met- maybe their religious needs- as in "Sing songs I like, preach shorter, tell more jokes and don't talk about money or sex or I'm leaving." Or maybe other kinds of needs- nothing worse than a group that turns into a psychologically abusive community where everyone is out to prove how spiritual and cool they are and everyone else exists just to stroke my ego... or maybe even sexual needs- nearly 40 percent of our community is single. And that means every once in awhile- some guy wanders through the door looking not for Ms. Right, but for Ms. Right Now. So what kind of maturity safeguards a community from all that?
VS 8-9
What kind of maturity? Jesus is mentioned 9 TIMES in the first 9 verses...
Why? What point do you think Paul is making?
It's not your church, it's God's he says... God has called you to live- not whatever way YOU want to, but whatever way God wants you to; to be His holy people...
And all of it revolves around, is centered on, pointed towards... Jesus.
Paul keeps saying it over and over and over- Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Why? Because it's what the Corinthians most needed to hear.
They didn't need the latest religious thinking, the hippest theory on church growth or the latest thinking about what God really meant when He said x, y and z... What they needed was Jesus, and as we're going to see in this next little bit, it was exactly Jesus that they were forgetting.
They needed the kind of maturity that centers its community life in Jesus and trusts Him to help keep things on the right track. If they had thought more about Jesus and following Him, and less about themselves, they wouldn't have gotten into the mess they were in- Yes- Jesus was a friend of sinners and prostitutes. But not in the way some of the Corinthians were. He turned water into wine, but not so He and the disciples could get drunk like the Corinthians were. He loved His mother, but... well, you get the picture...
Listen, evergreen... God has invited our community, like this community here, into partnership with Jesus. Think about how amazing that is- God is on the move, Jesus is working in this city, doing amazing things- and He's asking us to take part, to be His partner in bringing life and peace and forgiveness… But He's the controlling partner- He calls the shots. It's all about Him. He calls us, gifts us, sends us...
The only question is how willing we are to get over ourselves and grow up into being the kind of community God has called us to be. Let’s stop for a minute and just sit with that…
2 songs-
So, What kind of community does Paul want the Corinthians to be? What kind of community is God calling evergreen to be? That's the rest of the book. He says...
VS 10
Just in case you are still counting- that's ten mentions of Jesus in ten verses...
And now, he breaks out a word a lot of people hate to hear- "authority."
Brothers and sisters- by Jesus' authority, speaking for Him, knowing this is what He wants, let me tell you this- live in harmony, let there be no divisions.
What do you think he means here? What does it look like to not have divisions in a community, to be of one mind? What doesn’t it mean?
Unity does not mean a lack of diversity- it doesn't mean we all think the same. It means we are all working in the same direction and giving a lot of lee-way to each other about how that might look in individual lives.
Some of you have grown up in, or come from some pretty messed-up church communities- places where one group was pitted against another- usually along age lines- young versus old. Places were virtual wars were fought over “we want to sing these songs”, “we want to sing those.” We want to build a big giant building, we think that's a waste of money. We want red carpet, we want blue. Some of you may have been part of churches that absolutely ignored Scripture like this and decided that they were going to value their own likes and dislikes and their own theological teams and categories so highly, they would actually allow the body of Christ, the church to be split- How does something like that ever happen?
VS 11-12
What causes division? Agendas...
You might be tempted to think it's about personalities, but not so much. About Paul, Apollos, whatever- Under the surface, what in my experience it really comes down to is "So and so sees it like I do- so I wave his flag." "So and so is really sensitive to MY concerns, so I wave her flag."
The death of community is individual agendas over the commitment to the community as a whole- When people show up, plug in and then say- this needs to change or I'm gone. This is my agenda and I need it to be yours.
There’s a story in the Old Testament about a king named Nebuchadnezzar who became convinced that the God of the Hebrew people he had conquered was the God of gods- the true God. Which was great until the next chapt. about 4 verses later when he sets up a massive golden statue and tells everyone they need to bow down and worship it or he’s going to throw them in a giant fiery furnace, which makes for one of the greatest flanelgraph/kid’s story ever (picture).
Here’s the thing- why would Nebuchadnezzar meet God and then immediately make a huge idol for everyone to worship- He wouldn’t, unless the idol was his picture, his not-so-well-informed idea of what God was really like.
See- this is a very human thing to do- we meet God in a certain way and we want everyone else to experience it exactly the same. Whether we’re talking about the kind of music that really moves us to worship or an experience with certain spiritual gifts… or even just- I think "we" should have a greater emphasis on whatever God is teaching ME… we insist that everyone else bow down to our way of thinking about how things should be in community. Paul says:
VS 13-17
We’re going to talk more about this Paul/Apollos stuff and what Paul’s getting at with “clever speech” in the next couple of weeks… but here’s the basic gist here: Everything we do as a community needs to serve our overall purpose in pointing people towards life in the way of Jesus. And other than that- the rest is just details- some more important, some less… but details.
Paul says- I'm glad I didn't have a hands on role in baptizing more of you than I did- so not more of you than are could claim to be on "my team." In the body of Christ, there are no teams. At least- there shouldn't be. I often wonder about denominations that name themselves after someone- Lutheran, Wesleyan, I think the Baptists are named after John the Baptist, right? No- but I wonder- have folks who go by names like that read this? I'm a Lutheran. Okay. I'm an "Emergent"... okay... Whatever- Paul says, it's not about that. It's about Jesus.
Let me speak to a number of different kinds of people here...
1st- to those of you who aren't yet followers of Jesus or aren't sure... Relax. Hang out, Ask questions, push back, serve along side us, let us help you in whatever way we can... Just take Jesus around the block, kick the tires of this community, and see if it's something that calls to you, that resonates with you.
2nd- to those of you who are Christians- followers of Jesus. If you've come here, hurt and broken, my words to you are similar- take time, heal, let your needs be known and let this community help take care of you. Not that we know how to do it perfectly, or never let people down, because we do- but let us try. Heal. And when you begin to feel some health again- listen to what I'm saying to the rest of those who call themselves Christians... and that's this:
For those who are Christ followers and have been around awhile- the question is this: What has God brought you here to do, to contribute? "How can I serve evergreen as evergreen attempts to point people to Jesus and serve Portland?"
Our goal, seriously, is to do away with the role of "attender." We don't need any more folks whose desire is just to come and sit. If you're a follower of Jesus, it’s time to figure out what it means to be a part of the body, what role you play in the life of the community.
When you give money, when you sign up for set-up, help get the stuff back to the office after, invite someone new, or someone who just looks like they need a friendly conversation to stay after and have lunch, when you help us try something for the poor whether it goes great or it doesn't, when you help lead or even just participate in a homegroup, when you are willing to never complain about anything without following it up with- and here's what I'm going to do about it. OR if you don't know what to do about it, say- And I'm willing to do something about it- I just need help figuring out what to do…. To the extent you do any or all of that, you help us move forward in mission.
But…if you've been hanging around the community for a couple of months now, and have yet to pitch in... you need to know: evergreen is not a provider of religious goods and services. We don't exist to meet the spiritual or religious needs of comfortable Christians who want to drop in once a week or once or twice a month just to get a God fix. We are a covenant community, with core values that mean something to us, core commitments that help us stay on track and know what it means to say "I'm in" at evergreen... A covenant community means that we may not agree on everything- we don’t have to- but we agree on Jesus, on moving forward in mission to the city of Portland and on putting everything else including our own desires for how church should be second to that.
What’s your role here? If you don’t have one yet, don’t feel guilty- just talk to someone- ask for help in figuring it out. There’s plenty to do- and not enough of us- there will never be enough of us for anyone to say- oh- someone else will get that. Why has God brought you to Evergreen? And what part will you play in the story of how we make a difference in this city we love?
Pray
2 Songs/Communion
Wrap up- Bob
Announcements- Kelli
Blessing- Prayer of St Fursa.
Read MoreAnd as we said last week, Paul loved the city of Corinth so much, and these people so much, he had risked his life to plant a church there. But after going on to plant other churches in other areas, he was actually in the city of Ephesus when a group of people from Corinth came to visit and reported that they were having some problems: divisions among them, crazy sexual immorality, drunkeness and selfishness and lawsuits and all kinds of other things among them. So Paul writes this letter to help get them back on track.
And again, as we said last week- this book isn't just about correcting what's wrong- it's also about what's right- it's about love, about unity, about the gifts that God gives to a community like ours and what it means to be a community that worships well, believes rightly, sticks together no matter what, and over and above everything else- points people to Jesus. Our hope is that by spending the next few months in this book, more and more, those words will describe this community. And that by being that type of community, we'll begin, more and more, to make a difference here in this city we love so much, Portland.
So- let me pray for us and we'll get on to 1st Corinthians...
Prayer/Meditation
So- tell me- a lot of you grew up in church- some had good experiences with that, some not so much-
what’s the craziest thing you ever saw people fight about in church?
Last Christmas a fight broke out in the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem… (Picture- read story)
I gotta tell ya- I’d have paid good money to see priests fighting with brooms. But…Probably not the way it’s supposed to be, is it? Not if you read the passage we’re looking at today in 1st Cor. If you have a Bible…
VS 4
As I said last week- Paul is going to have some hard words to say for these guys- but he starts off nicely- I thank God for you- which I'm sure he did, and for the gracious gifts He's given you- we're going to talk more about those in the coming weeks...
But here's something interesting- does anyone have a translation other than "gracious gifts" here? Some of you probably have just "grace," right?
Which, if you think about it, is sort of a back-handed complement. I thank God for the grace he's given you- in other words, God has given you guys a lot because, well, you needed a lot. It's complementary to God, not so much to the Corinthians who kept really testing the measure of that grace...
VS 5-7
Kind of a tough line of thought to follow here- But here's what I think he's saying-
Through Him- through Jesus, God has enriched your church- He's given you so many things- so much grace, so many spiritual gifts- and even though you have so much knowledge and pride yourself on your rhetoric and speaking skills, it's the grace of God and the gifts He's given you that make you rich- not the things you pride yourselves on...
And the reason He gave you those gifts? To prove to you that everything I told you about Christ was true.
And now... Your community has all it needs. You have every spiritual gift.
50-60 people in this church of Corinth at that time- run down the lists of spiritual gifts- did someone in Corinth have the gift of wisdom? of hospitality? of leadership? of teaching? Yes, yes, yes and yes...
So why, as we're going to see in these next chapters, did they get so off track? If the gifts of wisdom and hospitality and leadership and teaching and discernment and all the rest, why did they allow such crazy sexual immorality as was happening, why were the poor being edged out by the rich who'd get there early and drink all the communion wine, why were they so divided, why were they so messed up...?? For this simple reason: gifted does not equal mature.
Evergreen is larger now than this church Paul was writing to. Do we have "every spiritual gift we need" here in this community? You bet...
So why is it that it's hard for us to serve the poor the way we say we'd like to, why don't more people help out with the kids and set-up and tear down, why, even though we do so well in so many areas, do we continue to struggle in a number of places?
Because gifted does not equal mature...
We're a church much like the church in Corinth- not in that anyone here is sleeping with their stepmother or getting drunk on the communion wine- but we're young, overeducated, live in a city known for it's license and we too have every spiritual gift represented here in our community. And just like in theirs- without maturity, and without a certain type of maturity, we could easily devolve down into just a nice group of people or even a not so nice group of people. Into folks just out to get their own needs met- maybe their religious needs- as in "Sing songs I like, preach shorter, tell more jokes and don't talk about money or sex or I'm leaving." Or maybe other kinds of needs- nothing worse than a group that turns into a psychologically abusive community where everyone is out to prove how spiritual and cool they are and everyone else exists just to stroke my ego... or maybe even sexual needs- nearly 40 percent of our community is single. And that means every once in awhile- some guy wanders through the door looking not for Ms. Right, but for Ms. Right Now. So what kind of maturity safeguards a community from all that?
VS 8-9
What kind of maturity? Jesus is mentioned 9 TIMES in the first 9 verses...
Why? What point do you think Paul is making?
It's not your church, it's God's he says... God has called you to live- not whatever way YOU want to, but whatever way God wants you to; to be His holy people...
And all of it revolves around, is centered on, pointed towards... Jesus.
Paul keeps saying it over and over and over- Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Why? Because it's what the Corinthians most needed to hear.
They didn't need the latest religious thinking, the hippest theory on church growth or the latest thinking about what God really meant when He said x, y and z... What they needed was Jesus, and as we're going to see in this next little bit, it was exactly Jesus that they were forgetting.
They needed the kind of maturity that centers its community life in Jesus and trusts Him to help keep things on the right track. If they had thought more about Jesus and following Him, and less about themselves, they wouldn't have gotten into the mess they were in- Yes- Jesus was a friend of sinners and prostitutes. But not in the way some of the Corinthians were. He turned water into wine, but not so He and the disciples could get drunk like the Corinthians were. He loved His mother, but... well, you get the picture...
Listen, evergreen... God has invited our community, like this community here, into partnership with Jesus. Think about how amazing that is- God is on the move, Jesus is working in this city, doing amazing things- and He's asking us to take part, to be His partner in bringing life and peace and forgiveness… But He's the controlling partner- He calls the shots. It's all about Him. He calls us, gifts us, sends us...
The only question is how willing we are to get over ourselves and grow up into being the kind of community God has called us to be. Let’s stop for a minute and just sit with that…
2 songs-
So, What kind of community does Paul want the Corinthians to be? What kind of community is God calling evergreen to be? That's the rest of the book. He says...
VS 10
Just in case you are still counting- that's ten mentions of Jesus in ten verses...
And now, he breaks out a word a lot of people hate to hear- "authority."
Brothers and sisters- by Jesus' authority, speaking for Him, knowing this is what He wants, let me tell you this- live in harmony, let there be no divisions.
What do you think he means here? What does it look like to not have divisions in a community, to be of one mind? What doesn’t it mean?
Unity does not mean a lack of diversity- it doesn't mean we all think the same. It means we are all working in the same direction and giving a lot of lee-way to each other about how that might look in individual lives.
Some of you have grown up in, or come from some pretty messed-up church communities- places where one group was pitted against another- usually along age lines- young versus old. Places were virtual wars were fought over “we want to sing these songs”, “we want to sing those.” We want to build a big giant building, we think that's a waste of money. We want red carpet, we want blue. Some of you may have been part of churches that absolutely ignored Scripture like this and decided that they were going to value their own likes and dislikes and their own theological teams and categories so highly, they would actually allow the body of Christ, the church to be split- How does something like that ever happen?
VS 11-12
What causes division? Agendas...
You might be tempted to think it's about personalities, but not so much. About Paul, Apollos, whatever- Under the surface, what in my experience it really comes down to is "So and so sees it like I do- so I wave his flag." "So and so is really sensitive to MY concerns, so I wave her flag."
The death of community is individual agendas over the commitment to the community as a whole- When people show up, plug in and then say- this needs to change or I'm gone. This is my agenda and I need it to be yours.
There’s a story in the Old Testament about a king named Nebuchadnezzar who became convinced that the God of the Hebrew people he had conquered was the God of gods- the true God. Which was great until the next chapt. about 4 verses later when he sets up a massive golden statue and tells everyone they need to bow down and worship it or he’s going to throw them in a giant fiery furnace, which makes for one of the greatest flanelgraph/kid’s story ever (picture).
Here’s the thing- why would Nebuchadnezzar meet God and then immediately make a huge idol for everyone to worship- He wouldn’t, unless the idol was his picture, his not-so-well-informed idea of what God was really like.
See- this is a very human thing to do- we meet God in a certain way and we want everyone else to experience it exactly the same. Whether we’re talking about the kind of music that really moves us to worship or an experience with certain spiritual gifts… or even just- I think "we" should have a greater emphasis on whatever God is teaching ME… we insist that everyone else bow down to our way of thinking about how things should be in community. Paul says:
VS 13-17
We’re going to talk more about this Paul/Apollos stuff and what Paul’s getting at with “clever speech” in the next couple of weeks… but here’s the basic gist here: Everything we do as a community needs to serve our overall purpose in pointing people towards life in the way of Jesus. And other than that- the rest is just details- some more important, some less… but details.
Paul says- I'm glad I didn't have a hands on role in baptizing more of you than I did- so not more of you than are could claim to be on "my team." In the body of Christ, there are no teams. At least- there shouldn't be. I often wonder about denominations that name themselves after someone- Lutheran, Wesleyan, I think the Baptists are named after John the Baptist, right? No- but I wonder- have folks who go by names like that read this? I'm a Lutheran. Okay. I'm an "Emergent"... okay... Whatever- Paul says, it's not about that. It's about Jesus.
Let me speak to a number of different kinds of people here...
1st- to those of you who aren't yet followers of Jesus or aren't sure... Relax. Hang out, Ask questions, push back, serve along side us, let us help you in whatever way we can... Just take Jesus around the block, kick the tires of this community, and see if it's something that calls to you, that resonates with you.
2nd- to those of you who are Christians- followers of Jesus. If you've come here, hurt and broken, my words to you are similar- take time, heal, let your needs be known and let this community help take care of you. Not that we know how to do it perfectly, or never let people down, because we do- but let us try. Heal. And when you begin to feel some health again- listen to what I'm saying to the rest of those who call themselves Christians... and that's this:
For those who are Christ followers and have been around awhile- the question is this: What has God brought you here to do, to contribute? "How can I serve evergreen as evergreen attempts to point people to Jesus and serve Portland?"
Our goal, seriously, is to do away with the role of "attender." We don't need any more folks whose desire is just to come and sit. If you're a follower of Jesus, it’s time to figure out what it means to be a part of the body, what role you play in the life of the community.
When you give money, when you sign up for set-up, help get the stuff back to the office after, invite someone new, or someone who just looks like they need a friendly conversation to stay after and have lunch, when you help us try something for the poor whether it goes great or it doesn't, when you help lead or even just participate in a homegroup, when you are willing to never complain about anything without following it up with- and here's what I'm going to do about it. OR if you don't know what to do about it, say- And I'm willing to do something about it- I just need help figuring out what to do…. To the extent you do any or all of that, you help us move forward in mission.
But…if you've been hanging around the community for a couple of months now, and have yet to pitch in... you need to know: evergreen is not a provider of religious goods and services. We don't exist to meet the spiritual or religious needs of comfortable Christians who want to drop in once a week or once or twice a month just to get a God fix. We are a covenant community, with core values that mean something to us, core commitments that help us stay on track and know what it means to say "I'm in" at evergreen... A covenant community means that we may not agree on everything- we don’t have to- but we agree on Jesus, on moving forward in mission to the city of Portland and on putting everything else including our own desires for how church should be second to that.
What’s your role here? If you don’t have one yet, don’t feel guilty- just talk to someone- ask for help in figuring it out. There’s plenty to do- and not enough of us- there will never be enough of us for anyone to say- oh- someone else will get that. Why has God brought you to Evergreen? And what part will you play in the story of how we make a difference in this city we love?
Pray
2 Songs/Communion
Wrap up- Bob
Announcements- Kelli
Blessing- Prayer of St Fursa.
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