MPC
3rd April 2016.April 3 - 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 - "Power of the Gospel"
MPC
3rd April 2016.
Pier Franchini
I grew up going to church. I've heard many Christian words over my time. Yet one in particular was used so often. Gospel. So I wonder what enters your mind when you hear that word? I wonder what it stirs up? You see you may have grown up in church or been around often enough to know it's a word we use frequently. Or you may be new here this morning and think of it as weird, foreign Christian term that has little relevance to you.
Yes, the gospel is the biblical narrative of what God has done to reach us in entering into the world in Jesus Christ to achieve a salvation that we could not achieve ourselves. But my fear is that we can easily lose sight of its beauty and importance. That maybe to some of us the gospel has become just another bit of information, that you can read from any website, blog, book or magazine, simply a set of systematic beliefs for Christians. But you see the Gospel is so much more than just information: the gospel is actually transformation!
So this morning will be the first of a two week series called Power of the Gospel where we will be looking at how the Gospel is more powerful and important than what it first seems to be.
So I ask again what comes to mind when you hear the word 'gospel'? If you have your bibles there I encourage you to please have them open and follow with me. Please read with me v1...
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2To the church of God in Corinth, to those 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: 3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now you have to understand and marvel at who is actually writing this letter because this guy, Paul was not your stereotypical Christian who grew up in a Christian home who loved hearing about Jesus. No, it was quite the opposite. What is remarkable is that this man once tried to destroy and eliminate Christianity completely. And he wasn't some crazed fanatic either. He was a Roman citizen born in the provincial city of Tarsus. He came from a prestigious family line in accordance with his Jewish heritage. He was highly educated and intellectually brilliant. He was incredibly disciplined and devout. He excelled beyond a lot of his peers. As a Pharisee he was most likely meticulous with his prayer life, reading the scriptures, fasting, tithing, you name it. He did the religious thing better than most of us can. Yet he hated Christians AND he hated the gospel message with every fibre of his being. So much so that he actually thought that he was doing God an important service by trying to destroy and eliminate Christianity.
So what changed? Because where we are right now in this letter he's calling himself an apostle of Christ Jesus. He would become one of Christianity's greatest champions, thinkers and missionaries. He would walk around the ancient world planting churches. He would actually go through many trials, heartaches, suffering and loss for the sake of telling others about Jesus. He would write a major chunk of the New Testament and he himself would describe his life in this way - to live is Christ and die is gain. Even more than these, he writes that all things in his life are considered rubbish in comparison to knowing Jesus. So what happened? To put it simply - the Gospel. Paul had an encounter with the living God.
You see the Gospel doesn't simply educate a life. It transforms it. The gospel isn't merely a set of beliefs that Christians have, it is so much more. The Gospel isn't information its transformation because the Gospel is about a person, a relationship. You see what you get in the Gospel is God! You encounter the Risen saviour. It is this fact that makes the Gospel transformation. And Paul understood this with a vicious clarity. That the gospel wasn't lifeless information but the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes!
Its key to understand this about Paul if you are going to understand any of what he is about to say to the Corinthian church, and to us this morning. He was a man transformed by the Gospel. Read with me verse 4...
4I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way-with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge- 6God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Corinthian church struggled just like a lot of us do today - they felt the pressure of the world they lived in. The culture, the city, the values, the hopes, the pursuits. They felt an uneasiness and were worried that somehow they were missing something in the Gospel. You see its easy to think Jesus isn't enough when you compare Him to your context. I mean is Jesus going to pay the mortgage, is Jesus going make my job better, is Jesus going to fix my marriage, is Jesus going to get me better grades? So they felt the tension that maybe they needed something else - that maybe a new car, a bigger house or an iPhone will fix. Or maybe we just need to change jobs, or be bringing in more money and that will satisfy us. Or maybe a newer home, or a more promising retirement, or maybe what we need is a holiday. You see the Corinthians understood like all of us that innate human desire to find satisfaction and fulfilment in life. Is it any wonder why the advertising industry is booming? Do you know why we buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like, with money we don't have? Is it because we really live fulfilled, satisfied lives?
So here Paul reminds the Corinthians about the sufficiency of the Gospel. That life in Jesus is sufficient in every way, that He is all we need and could ever want (you have been enriched in every way) and that there is nothing lacking in Him. That somehow our stagnant spiritual life is because we need something more. You see Paul understood the pressures the Corinthians faced. They lived in a growing, bustling cosmopolitan city. A city that praised wisdom, eloquence, giftedness, wealth and status. And within that context they were to believe that the Gospel was and is enough. You can see and imagine the tensions that would arise here. We aren't any different.
I mean our very own culture celebrates 'tolerance' (or a very skewed view of it at least) that you can hold to whatever your beliefs as long as you don't try to share it with anyone else or claim exclusivity. Yet we believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to be saved. That in him is the fullness of life. And that we are called to repent of our sins. That there is a way that honours God in the way we live out our sexuality. That God will come to judge. That there is hell for those who reject God. Can you start to feel tension in your own heart as the clash of cultures and worlds happen?
Yet Paul understood that the Gospel was so much more than what this world has to offer. So he reminds them of the sufficiency of it. That the Gospel, the great news of Jesus, translates into the everyday of our lives. The mundane things of life. The joys and the heartache. The pleasures and the pain. That the gospel engages our suffering and brokenness. That the Gospel satisfies and fulfils what is lacking.
You see it is easy to think that intellectually, something more is needed. For those who don't know I have been studying at Queensland Theological College for the past 3 years. Intensely looking at the bible, theology, exegesis. Engaging with apologetics, philosophy, critics and scholars. Let me share a secret about my time at bible college so far - after three years we are still learning about the Gospel. And I still feel like I've have only touched the surface. It is easy to think that spiritually something is missing. I know that as Christians many of us struggle with our own personal bible reading and prayer life. Yet that doesn't mean that nothing spiritual is happening. I mean our struggle isn't against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. It would be shocking if we didn't find those things hard. You see it's easy to think that experientially we are missing something. I don't always have fluttery, moving experiences every time I come to church. I love coming and being with God's people but I don't always feel like I'm on cloud nine when I do. That doesn't mean I need to go somewhere new every time to experience something, to remind me that it's good.
So Paul reminds them that the gospel is sufficient both now and in the future. That God hasn't held out on them or us. So is Jesus going to pay the mortgage, is Jesus going make my job better, is Jesus going to fix my marriage, is Jesus going to get me better grades? Yes, by transforming our lives. By making it about Jesus and not us. Don't mishear me. I am not saying you'll have magical money appear in your bank account or that you will wake up tomorrow morning and suddenly enjoy your work, and your marriage instantly problem-free. Far from it. Rather what you will find is that there is something that will engage these areas of our lives and transform it. That the Gospel is sufficient.
You know what I love about the Corinthians, is that they were broken, messed up people like you and I. I love this about them because it reminds me that the gospel is for us. It reminds me that in the Gospel it isn't about how awesome we are but how awesome our God is. When did church become a place were we have to look like we have it altogether? When did church become a place where we have to pretend everything is fine and easy in order to make Jesus look good? Because it isn't. No rather, how did Martin Luther put it, aren't we all mere beggars telling other beggars where to find bread? So I love that these Corinthians were raw and broken people because it makes Paul's pursuit of them with the Gospel so much more beautiful and real. But don't get me wrong; I don't celebrate that they did wrong, but rather the hope of those things changing. Because the Corinthians got some things really really wrong. Let's read one of them...
10I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." 13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.)
Alexander the Great once united all of ancient Greece (a feat no other leader had done before him) and united all of the great Persian empire together. He united them under his banner by basically conquering them, building the best of Greek culture into their cities while allowing them to keep their own cultural identity, and then he moved on. So what resulted was a weird phenomenon of these cultures wanting to incorporate the Greek culture into their own. It is what is called Hellenisation. Yet that unity ended when Alexander died. Between 1934-1945 Adolf Hitler united Germany under a Nazi regime by making it a totalitarian government. In other words the government had complete control over public and private life. It caused the second world war and was the result of the holocaust which killed over six million Jews. Unity is something that has been fought over for thousands of years. Yet I want to ask how does someone even go about uniting a world with all of its diversity?Can unity even occur in the midst of such diversity?
You see sadly the Corinthians had forgotten the majesty, beauty and sufficiency of the Gospel. They had lost sight of it. And the moment you lose sight of the Gospel division occurs. When you think the Gospel is not enough, division is the result. So division was occurring within the Corinthian church. They began following particular leaders over and above others. So depending on their strengths, one would follow Paul, the other Apollos - I like how this guy preaches, I like how this guy speaks, this guy is friendlier, more approachable, this guy is funnier. You see they began to create a division within themselves that should never have existed amongst the people of God.
You see the Gospel breaks down every social class and social prejudice. It confronts any racial tension and breaks any racist view. It destroys discrimination. Removes partiality. And unites people under one common hope and purpose. The Gospel creates a unity with diversity. How?
Because Jesus is what unites us. He is what unites our diversity. So it doesn't matter whether your male or female, black or white, whether you were born in Peru or Australia. It doesn't matter whether you have six digit income or you live in poverty. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, while we were his enemies. He came to make us His people. A people from every tribe and nation. A people who would confess that Jesus is Lord and gladly live their lives for His glory and renown. He sees all our gifts and talents. All our faults and failures. All our weaknesses and complexities. And unties them in His life, death and resurrection. A unity that this world has never seen or heard of outside of Him.
So Paul reminds them of the Gospel - Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not. So he goes back to the Gospel. Read with me...
17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
So let me put it this way: the preacher is in no way more special than the welcomer who handed you a bible this morning. Yes God gives us different gifts, different talents, different interests, different roles but all of those are understood in the context of encouraging, building up, and growing each other, God's people - the church. The gospel life, the transformed life, has removed the emphasis of self promotion, self centeredness, social status, racial prejudice, to make a new people united in diversity, a people from every tribe and nation. A people who would seek to love and serve Jesus. A people who would seek to serve and love one another. A people who engage the broken and needy. A people who would proclaim the gospel. A people who would breath, eat, sleep and live the Gospel. You see the gospel transforms and unites us - this is the power of the Gospel and more.