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Today we start a new sermon series out of the book of 1 Corinthians.
Before we dig into this book, I want to read first from the book of Acts, chapter 18.
This letter to the Church at Corinth was written by Paul to the various communities of believers that were meeting in the city of Corinth.
Corinth was a coastal town in Greece and likely had a population of around 100,000 people.
In this letter, Paul deals with the various issues that faced the church.
We’ll cover them all over the course of this series.
Many of them will sound familiar and serve to warn us against these same issues in our modern day church.
The beginning of the church in Corinth can be found in Acts 18...
The church started by Paul preaching in the temple and then by meeting in houses with those worshipped God and believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
The people in the church included both Jewish and non-Jewish people.
As we’ve read, this created quite a stir in the community.
Anytime a church begins to have an impact, there will always be those who come to oppose what happens.
Here we hear how the Jews were upset and brought the matter to the local government to try to get Paul in trouble.
When they couldn’t do that, they took their frustration out on the synagogue leader who allowed Paul to speak in the first place.
What happened in the book of Acts was unprecedented.
There was no written Bible like we have now, the apostles wrote down what Jesus taught them and how to deal with issues as the Holy Spirit led.
This was an exciting and dangerous time for the church.
It amazing to read through Acts and see all of the different things that happened along the way and how the church was just growing out of the overflow of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those believers.
With this growth and newness of the church, there are going to be questions.
Let’s go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 1.
At some point prior to Paul writing this letter to the church, they wrote Paul a letter and asked several questions.
In part, 1 Corinthians is a response to those questions, but it is also a response to what Paul is getting for reports about what is going on.
In contrast to how the letter starts, there are a few things Paul admonishes them about later in the letter that will make you wonder about the state of the church in Corinth.
One thing is clear to me.
The church at Corinth is being challenged to grow up, to mature, to set aside self and the culture around then and become the holy, bride of Christ - His Holy Church.
One of the things that we will notice and point out, is that this letter is very Christ centered in its perspective.
It’s not just a letter with a list of do’s and don’ts, we also will see the why behind the challenge.
The why for the church.
The church exists to glorify Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection and his eventual return.
That is the purpose of the church and the reason for this letter - to glorify Jesus.
Let’s go ahead and read the first 9 verses...
So often when I am reading these letters, I often read quickly past the salutation, but I should slow down a bit.
There is so much theology and information about our position in Christ.
As we go back through the 9 verses again, notice that Jesus is mentioned in every single one of the verses.
For Paul, Jesus is the center of all of these teachings.
Without Christ, the reason for gathering and being in community just falls apart.
Let’s go back to verse 1.
Those of you with a good memory will recognize the name Sosthenes.
This is believed to be the same Sosthenes that was mentioned in the passage in Acts.
He is the one who got beaten when the Jews weren’t able to get Paul in trouble.
It is believed that Sosthenes traveled with Paul and helped as a scribe for this letter.
This letter is first for the church in Corinth, but is is also for all those everywhere who call on Jesus as Lord.
As the church we are sanctified in Christ.
Sanctify means to be set apart as sacred, as holy.
This is a quality of the church and its people only in Jesus.
Then it says those called to be his holy people.
Holiness is a major theme of this letter.
We’ll see where the church continued to act like the world around them, doing the things the world does.
Paul’s gentle reminder at the beginning of this letter is that we are called to holy people.
Grace is getting something good that we don’t deserve.
Paul was thankful for that grace that was abundantly poured out on the church at Corinth.
Grace given because of Jesus.
This is part of the grace given - that they are in enriched in every way.
It is believed that the church was in fact very well off financially.
The term enriched literally means to make rich.
But those aren’t the only riches they got.
Those riches include words and knowledge.
These will be both be covered in later chapters as gifts given by God to the church.
These gifts are a measure of the grace given in Christ Jesus.
Gifts given to a church that had many problems.
That again is grace.
Grace is not something that can be earned.
If it needed to be earned, these gifts would not have been given to the church at Corinth or our church.
That doesn’t mean we don’t do the work required to keep a holy life, it means that even if we don’t God is still gracious because of Jesus.
And that is what Paul is saying if verse 6.
Their enriched-ness is a result of grace which is the testimony of Christ.
The grace poured out by Jesus has shown up in the form of spiritual gifts.
In 1 Corinthians 12, we will read and study spiritual gifts, but look at the last part of this verse.
The spiritual gifts are for us as we eagerly wait for Jesus to return.
That is what those spiritual gifts are for.
They are meant to help us get to hour of Jesus’ return as it says in the next verse:
There are several times in scripture where we can be certain of our salvation.
Jesus won’t let us go.
Once we are his, nothing can separate us from him.
Paul here finished up his encouraging them through time.
In verse 5-6 he tells them that they have been enriched.
Something that has happened in the past.
Then verse 7 uses present tense - they do not lack, as they wait.
Then in verse 8, we have the future promise that we will be blameless on the day Jesus comes back.
This is such a wonderful theological truth and encouragement by Paul for the church.
Paul ends the salutation with this:
We have been called into fellowship with Jesus.
Fellowship is relationship.
God created man for fellowship with Him.
Adam and Eve lived in fellowship with God in the garden of Eden prior to the fall.
That relationship was full of love and togetherness.
That is what we have available to us now as we lean into the faithfulness of God.
We can be one with him and one with each other as we eagerly wait on his return.
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