Sermon Tone Analysis
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Tone of specific sentences
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1 Corinthians 10:1-13
May 2007
\\ 1 Cor 10:1-131 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers 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.
(5) Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
(6) Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
(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 pagan 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 the Lord, 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.
(11) These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
(12) So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
(13) No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
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 stand up under it.
\\ When my kids were little, we used to love to go walking, for about 2 minutes.
Jacob, light saber swinging, would be yanking my left arm off, trying to bound off to who knows where.
My daughter Adriel, in her fluffy foofoo dress, would sink down trying to pull my other arm to the ground.
We used to call Jacob “Tigger the Tiger”.
He was always in a hurry and had no patience at all.
Adriel, on my other hand, would collapse like a Raggedy Ann doll full of rocks, and then the whine would start, “Daddy, I’m tired.
Daddy, carry me.”
She’d just go limp like a wilted flower.
\\ The church at Corinth had a problem with people wilting.
Let’s read in the text... (read 1 Cor 10:1-6)
\\ The church at Corinth had a problem with people wilting.
They seemed not to be aware that, morally speaking, there were more than a few folk that seemed considerably more wilted than upright.
Paul needed to help the church realize that they might be headed for the same fate as their Hebrew forefathers.
Especially the ones whose bodies lie scattered over the desert, dried up and dead like thousands of wilted flowers.
\\ And they couldn’t see it because Corinth was such a cool place with all the beautiful people and good things and art museums and philosophy and temples and gods.
You could buy anything you wanted at Corinth.
Everything went through Corinth.
It was the capital of the province.
You could buy anything that was for sale in this place.
You could buy exotic imported pleasures too.
The variety of temples and gods and religious practices available at Corinth was over the top.
Corinth was the kind of place a consumer could indulge, let desires run wild.
\\ (1 Cor 10:1) I do not want you to be ignorant, Paul says, (1 Cor 10:5) God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
Scattered like thousands of wilted dried up dead flowers.
There’s an awful lot of death here.
\\ The Hebrews wilted, but not before having known God’s rich blessings.
They had been under the cloud, the covering of grace.
They had passed through the sea, the mighty deliverance of God.
They had Moses’ baptism, the covenant promises.
They ate the spiritual food, drank the spiritual drink.
They had communion with God.
They drank from the spiritual rock, the rock that accompanied them, the rock that traveled with them on their journey.
Christ himself was with them, caring for them.
Nevertheless, they wilted.
Bodies scattered.
Thousands and thousands of bodies.
How could this be?
What happened?
In a word, arrogance.
To presume that the goodness of God indicates that one is entitled to the favor of God is the hallmark of arrogance.
The Hebrew children were arrogant.
And so was the church at Corinth.
And their arrogance led to sin.
\\ (1 Cor 10:7) 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 pagan revelry."
Paul is referring to the story of the golden calf (Ex 32).
Moses had disappeared up the smoky mountain.
He’d been gone many days.
What was taking him so long?
For all the people know, he died up there.
“Make us some gods who can lead us,” they whined.
“We’re tired of waiting.”
Bunch of whiners.
“This Moses, we don’t know what’s happened to him.
Make us some new gods and we’ll party on.”
Aaron said, “Give me your gold rings, your earrings, your nose rings, your toe rings.”
Aaron wilted and went to work.
One calf later and they all got amnesia.
They forgot all about Moses, all about the Lord.
That old song:
“I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea (Ex 15:1).”
Forgotten.
The bread from heaven, forgotten.
Water from the rock, forgotten.
\\ Beholding their glistening golden calf, they sang instead, (Ex 32:4) "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
\\ We have the calf.
We’re blessed.
Sorry about Moses.
Don’t know what happened to him.
Party on!
\\ The folks at Corinth were surrounded by idolatry.
There was a dozen different temples and religions to choose from.
These aren’t storefront churches, either.
These are big exciting temples with smoke and sacrifice and noise and revelry.
And meat markets everywhere with all the sacrificing going on.
You couldn’t hardly go out to dinner without likely being served some food that had been offered to an idol.
The whole town was immersed in idolatry.
And when you live with idols everywhere, you stop asking, “What is this doing to me?” and you risked becoming vulnerable to all the idols stand for.
\\ We risk getting entangled in all the idols of our day.
The cry of our day is, “Give me good things and a good body.”
I have friends who go to the gym twice a week.
I have another friend who has a personal trainer.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked her what happened.
She was bent over in pain, could hardly move, after the trainer got done with her.
And we pay money for this kind of abuse.
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