Sent

1 Corinthians 4:14-21

You may have heard on Friday about the attack on a popular cafe in the diplomatic area of Dhaka in Bangladesh. I heard of it first from one of our workers there who lives just 5 minutes away. Once again, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for yet another successful attempt to kill foreigners and spread terror. Their violence in the name of religion seems to know no bounds. Places that used to be considered safe have now become targets, and although America has experienced only a tiny fraction of what is happening in the rest of the world, recent incidents here as well remind us of the risk to virtually everyone now. Many people are afraid of what is happening in the world.

On the same day as the Dhaka attack, I was listening to a talk about how a Christian should respond to radical Islam. There were several good suggestions about how to love our enemies, as Jesus commanded. One of the speakers made two important points that I would like to highlight. First, we should not expect to be exempt from violent persecution. Jesus warned of it, and early Christians fully expected it to happen. In Acts 4, after Peter and John were arrested, the believers did not pray for protection. 

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.  You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.’

Entrusted

1 Corinthians 4:1-13

Today will look at 1 Corinthians 4:1-13.  In order to put today’s message in the context with the rest of the series we have to look back at a couple of verse from last week.  Here Paul exhorts the church in Corinth:

So let no one exult proudly concerning men [boasting of having this or that man as a leader].  For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas (Peter) —1 Corinthians 3:21-22 (Amplified)

Moving on to our passage for today, we read:

“So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.”—1 Corinthians 4:1

The Wisdom of this World

1 Corinthians 3:18-23

We opened the time with a video of the song “A Puzzlement” from movie version of The King and I.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u5iHzag120

Who recognizes that movie?  It’s The King And I.  It is a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical from1951. It was based on a novel written in 1944 which in turn was based on the memoirs of Anna Leonowens.  Mrs. Anna as she is called in the movie was a teacher to the king’s household in the kingdom of Siam, modern day Thailand, from 1862 until 1867.  So the musical is based (somewhat loosely) on a true story.  The song we saw performed is titled “A Puzzlement”.  The king played by Yul Brynner is the singer. 

Have you ever felt like the king?  Have “there been times you almost thought you were not sure of what you absolutely know?”  Or have you “found confusion in conclusion, you concluded long ago?”  Are there many facts in your head “of which you wish you were more certain, you were sure?” 

God's Temple

I Corinthians 3:10-17

Welcome! Today we continue our series in I Corinthians, looking at verses 10-17 of chapter 3. I want to start today by telling you about my slightly exciting adventure the Friday before last. I came to work early, before almost anyone was around, parked and came through the basement entrance of my building on campus. There, as I have many times before, I got in the elevator and waited to be transported to the third floor. The elevator beeped as we passed by the 1^st floor, beeped again as we passed by the 2^nd, and just before I expected to hear the final beep and have the doors open, the elevator lurched to a stop. At the same time, the number three on the control panel which had suddenly been lit turned off, and so did the lighted display up at eye level of the number three.

I tried pushing the number three again, but nothing happened, nothing lit up. I tried pressing other numbers – again, nothing. Now I am getting concerned. I look more carefully at the elevator and notice there is a button with a picture of a bell on it. I press it, and a bell rings quietly. That’s not going to do any good, I thought, since nobody is here. Then I noticed a little door below the control panel. I opened it and found a phone with a keypad. I picked up the receiver and heard a dial tone, so I dialed 911.

Not Mere Humans

I Corinthians 3:1-9 

Good morning and welcome to I Corinthians chapter 3!  That is where we are in our series titled “Broken but Indispensable.”  In today’s passage, Paul is going to make some rather firm statements to the Corinthian church and likely to some of us listening.  Before we dive into our verses in chapter 3, let’s go back to see where we have come from, giving special attention to how Paul opened this letter.

In his regular fashion, Paul first introduces the writers of the letter:  himself and Sosthenes.  He states his intended recipients:  the Corinthians, of course, but he is also writing to “all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” which includes us as well.  Paul describes his audience as “those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus” and “saints by calling.”

Paul continues, saying, “I thank my God always concerning you.” (I Cor 1:4-9)  He goes on to say, “You’ve got it!”  You have been given the grace of God in Christ.  You have been enriched in everything in Him:  in all speech, in all knowledge.  You are not lacking in any gift.

What We Speak

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

“Do it God’s way”.  Has there ever been a time in your life that you knew that something had to be done your way?  I used to have a job working at a nursery doing a variety of different things.  One of the things I did was to do the regular maintenance on the tractors.  I grew up being able to drive a tractor and work on tractors some.  Over the years I learned quite a bit more about mechanic work.  My boss told me to jack up the tractor when I greased the king-pin joint in the front in.  He didn’t tell me why.  I thought he was telling me to lift up the tractor so I could get underneath the tractor better.  But when I did the first maintenance on the tractor I didn’t jack it up.  I didn’t need to lift it up because I could slide underneath it pretty easily. 

After I finished the work, my boss asked me if I had remembered to jack it up. I said that I didn’t because I could reach the joint without having to lift it up.  At that point he told me that it needed to be lifted up not so that I could reach the joint easier but so that the pressure would be lifted off of the front wheels, allowing the grease to penetrate all parts of the joint better.  I didn’t follow his directions because I didn’t think he knew the best way of doing it.  This nursery had been in the family for a 100 years and he had been doing nursery work since he was a little kid.  And he had been working on tractors for no telling how long.  But for some reason, I thought I knew best.

The "Foolishness" of God

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

 

Welcome! Today we continue our series in I Corinthians, Broken but Indispensable. Today’s title is The “Foolishness” of God. To make sure that nobody misunderstands me, note that the quotation marks around the word “foolishness” are very important! This means the supposed (so our world says) foolishness of God. But if God, the Author of the universe and all that is in it, is foolish, what does that make its’ creation that wants to belittle Him? But I am getting ahead of myself.

Now the word “foolishness” or “foolish” appears 6 times in today’s passage. There are two closely related Greek words used. One is moria. So for you Lord of the Rings fans, the Mines of Moria where the dwarves hoarded gold and dug too deep in their greed, disturbing things that should not be disturbed, are really the Mines of Foolishness, a very appropriate name, I would say.

Divisions Among You

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Last week, we started this new series on I Corinthians, a rather lengthy letter to the church at Corinth.  I was surprised to find it’s actually a few words longer than the book of Romans.  It’s just shy of 9500 words.  That’s about twice as many words as I’m likely to say in this message.  If we read straight through it out loud, it’d take us about an hour and a half to do it.

The basis of this letter is Paul’s heart-felt and deeply personal concern for the Corinth church as a pastor.  When I say concern for the church, I mean concern for the people of the church because that is what a church is.  A church is the people, not the building.  It is the ones whom God has chosen, His ekklesia.

Introduction/Enriched in Every Way

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Welcome! Today we begin a new series on the first 12 chapters of II Corinthians. We will return, God willing, to the rest of II Corinthians early next year. What, you think I said something wrong? Well, not entirely. In Chapter 5 and Verse 9 of this book, Paul writes, “I wrote to you in my letter…” That is, the book we call I Corinthians is not the first thing Paul wrote to the people of Corinth. In fact, Bible scholars think there are actually at least four letters to Corinth. But so as to not confuse you any longer, I will refer to this letter as everyone else does and from here on call this I Corinthians.

The Future: New Heavens and New Earth

Last week, John Farmer covered the doctrine of judgment. This week, we will finish our series on church doctrine by discussing the doctrine of the “New Heavens and New Earth.”  We will examine the Scriptures to see what the Lord has to say about the New Heavens and the New Earth and more specifically the New Jerusalem.

What is heaven?  Heaven is a place, not just a state of mind. Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our Father who art in heaven.”  Luke records in his gospel:

“When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” --Luke 24:50-52