Choosing to be Wronged

When we read Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we see a church whose attitudes and actions are sometimes indistinguishable from the Roman culture around them. The church in Corinth is messy and divided, but it belongs to God. The letter of 1 Corinthians shows us a beautiful picture of how the gospel can bring transformation and renewal to every area of life. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The sermon text for today is from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 1 through 11. You can find this passage in the Blue Pew Bible on page 1736. Please listen as I read God's Word. If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord's people? Or do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life? Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned by the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead one brother takes another to court, and this in front of unbelievers. The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Here ends the reading.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Good morning. Hope you're doing well this morning. My name is John. I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood, especially as Dave said already this morning. Uh if you are newer with us, whether this is your first time or whether you are just new-ish, new adjacent, uh, we're so glad that you're here. Also, if you've been here for a long time, maybe we don't say this enough, we're glad you're here too. Even Tyler. Even Tyler. But if you've been here for a long time, many years, uh, we're glad you're here. If you're here as our guest today, especially, uh, we just want to say how grateful we are that you are here with us on a Sunday morning. Uh, some of you know that we have a small Hispanic congregation that meets in our building on a different night of the week. Uh, I reached out to Luis, who's one of the members and one of the uh leaders in that small congregation. I reached out to him uh the other day to see how he's doing and to see how their community is doing. Because even though the people who are a part of their church are citizens, uh most people who even look like they could be an undocumented immigrant are scared right now. And that's what he expressed to me was like, I look like I'm Mexican. And so lots of people like me are feeling scared right now. Uh he said that so far they are doing okay, and he asked us to pray for God's protection over his family and over their church. Um I'm really not interested in talking about immigration policy or enforcement this morning. That's a message for a different time. Uh, but I do think that it is important to just name this with you all today. The Bible tells us that when one part of the body hurts, that the whole body hurts too. And there's a part of the larger body of Christ in our city that meets in our own building, that's feeling the events, feeling the weight of the events of these last couple weeks in a way that many of us simply are not. I'm not afraid of going to the grocery store. I'm not afraid of a knock on my front door. I think that when we stop and think about the larger immigrant population in our uh in our city, that we might be very surprised to find out how many of the immigrants who live here, like our friends at Conquistando Fronteras, are actually our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And so I think it's important that we allow this part of the body that is gathered here today uh to just hurt alongside of the other parts of the body in our city who are experiencing things that many of us here today simply aren't. Uh with all this going on in our city right now, I want to begin our time this morning by uh reading a prayer from this amazing and helpful book. It's called Every Moment Holy. And uh the prayer that I want to begin our time with this morning is called A Liturgy for Those Flooded by Too Much Information. Anyone feel that way right now? A liturgy for too much information. In a world so wired and interconnected, our anxious hearts are pummeled by an endless barrage of troubling news. We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord, than we can rightly consider, of more suffering and scandal than we can respond to, of more hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice than we can engage with compassion. But you, O Jesus, are not disquieted. You are neither anxious nor overwhelmed. You carried the full weight of the suffering of a broken world when you hung upon the cross and you carry it still. When the cacophony of universal distress unsettles us, remind us that we are but small and finite creatures, never designed to carry the vast abstractions of great burdens, for our arms are too short and our strength is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and redemption are your great labors. Guard us then from shutting down our empathy or walling off our hearts because of the unactionable misery that floods our awareness. You have many children in many places around this globe. Move each of our hearts to compassionately respond to those needs that intersect our actual lives. That in all places your body might be actively addressing the pain and brokenness of this world, each of us liberated and empowered by your spirit to fulfill the small part of your redemptive work assigned to us. Give us discernment in the face of troubling news reports. Give us discernment to know when to pray, when to speak out, when to act, and when to simply shut off our screens and our devices, and to sit quietly in your presence, casting the burdens of this world upon the strong shoulders of the one who alone is able to bear it. And Lord, we also pray this morning for our brothers and sisters at Conquistando Fronteras. We thank you for your protection over them, and we pray that you would continue to guard them and their church community. God, give them opportunities to love and serve the immigrant population of our city and to bring the light of Jesus into a dark situation. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus who is able to do all of this and more. Amen. I can follow up and ask, um, but I I asked lots of questions and he said that they were doing okay. Um so I'll I'll send something out if there is a need, uh, but he didn't indicate that to me when I talked with him yesterday. So uh thank you for asking about that. Okay. Uh this morning we are uh continuing a series that we have been in the book of 1 Corinthians, and uh what we've been exploring together is how the gospel, the message about Jesus is good news for every area of life. And this letter that is written by a church planter named Paul to the church that is in the city of Corinth, it covers lots of different subjects, and in doing so shows us all the different ways that the gospel is good news for all these different parts of our lives. Uh, in this section of the book that we're in right now, uh, we've been just sort of naming this out loud, that Paul is addressing some of uh some of the worst kinds of some of the worst of the situation uh that existed in this church in Corinth. And I I had the thought this week, uh, you know how they took the life of Jesus and made it into a series called The Chosen? What if they made a series based on the book of 1 Corinthians? I was I I I I imagined to myself, I thought, you know, I imagine the beginning of today's episode going something like this. Tonight on, what's wrong with you people? Watch as personal disagreements boil over into courtroom battles. Stay tuned to find out who the real winners and losers are as the church in Corinth tears itself apart. On the one hand, you sort of can't help but laugh. Because it it just it you just gotta laugh at this. And on the other hand, this isn't really all that funny. In part because the things that we see and experience in the modern church are no different than the things that they experienced in their context. It obviously looks different, but all the same sins and all the same temptations that we see in this church in the city of Corinth, all those same kinds of things exist in our church and it exist in our context as well. And so all these things that might feel so distant from us, as we read about them on the pages of an ancient document, all these things that feel so distant and so foreign to us are actually far closer to us and far more relevant to us than we may want to admit. So let's spend some time looking at these verses today and uh see what the Lord has in here for us. I want to look at these uh these verses under three headings. And the first is this the first thing we see as we look at these verses is we see a glimpse of our glorious future. So remember that in these uh in this passage you heard read, Paul's he's addressing that there's divisions among them in the church in Corinth, and uh that there's conflicts. There's conflicts that have escalated to the point of civil litigation in a Roman court system. And as you read this, he doesn't address the specifics of what's happening or who's suing each other over what. He doesn't uh name the specifics of that litigation, uh, I think in part because the specifics of those what's going on is not actually all that important to him. It's the fact that there are lawsuits among them in the church in the first place. That's what the problem is. And so listen again to the opening verses where he says this if any of you has a dispute with one another, do you dare take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord's people? Or do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world? And if you were to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life? As you hear him say that, you see very clearly a contrast between the glorious future of God's people and how they're actually acting and living and behaving in the world right now. So he points us to that future and he says, Don't you know that God's people are going to judge the world? And God's people are going to judge angels. And uh a legitimate question at this point is, where does Paul get that? Because uh that what he says here is uh it's not a strongly emphasized thing either in the Hebrew Bible or in the teachings of Jesus. There's a few different places that sort of hint at this, um, but this is not a you know very prominent thing in the Bible. But I think it's actually kind of simple, really. I think that uh what he says, uh what he says about judging the world and judging angels is just an extension of his understanding of our union with Christ. So listen to what he says uh as he writes to the church in the city of Colossae. He says this in Colossians 3. He says, Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. So he says, your life is hidden in him. If you trust Jesus by faith, your life is now hidden with him, and Jesus is right now sitting at the right hand of God, meaning he's ruling and reigning over all things. He's in the position of authority over all creation, which means that because our lives through faith are joined to his, we will one day rule and reign over creation with him. Because our lives have been joined to him. You know, we're so used to thinking of new creation in terms of all the blessings that we will enjoy in the presence of the Lord, and those blessings are many, and we ought to think about those things, but we're so used to thinking about new creation in terms of all the good things that we'll receive and experience that we forget this aspect of it. That everything that belongs to Christ also belongs to us. And one day we will not only experience the unending riches of his grace, we will also co-reign over creation with him. And I think this is really what's behind uh Paul's talk of ruling and reigning over angels and judging the world. Um, and you know, do I have any clue what this means or what this looks like? None whatsoever.

unknown 15:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Uh and I feel good about that because neither do you.

unknown 15:34

Okay?

SPEAKER_01 15:35

So none of us really knows exactly what this is gonna look like or any of that. Uh, but I, for one, am just gonna trust Paul that he knows what he's talking about here, okay? And I think it would be good for us to do that. So this is this is the glorious future to which he's pointing us. He's saying God's people are going to judge the world and will judge angels. Don't you know what awaits you in this glorious future? And it's this glorious future that makes these civil disputes among them look so absolutely foolish. So the first thing we see is a glimpse of our glorious future. And the second thing that we see here is we see a warning about sin and our future inheritance. A warning about sin and our future inheritance. So again, he's addressing people that are suing each other in the church. But in Paul's mind, all these lawsuits are just the outward expression of something that's actually a much deeper thing. And there's three phrases that we see in these verses that really help us, I think, get to the bottom of what does Paul see as actually like the center, the core of the problem here. So he says, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your own brothers and sisters. He says that in verse 8. You yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you get the sense here, he's just flabbergasted. That God's people could treat one another this way, that God's people could let these divisions among them escalate into something like this. You yourselves cheat and do wrong. Then he says, Nobody among you is wise enough to judge a dispute. Now, the Corinthians, they're they're convinced that they are really wise and they're really mature and they're really spiritual. And Paul's like, you guys aren't even wise enough to be able to judge simple matters internally. You have to take this stuff out into the courts. You're not as wise as you think you are. So they're cheating one another. No one is wise enough to bring a judgment and bring resolution to this. And then the third part of this is that those internal conflicts are spilling out into the public square. And so all the public litigation is just the external sort of fruitfulness of a dysfunctional community where people are wronging one another and people are cheating one another, and no one's wise enough to figure out how to fix it. Seeing their sin against one another and seeing their lack of spiritual maturity, he then gives this warning. He says, wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now we have to be careful. We see that specifically in this context, he's talking about those people who are suing one another. He says, wrongdoers, and he calls them wrongdoers, you're wronging one another. Wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Then of course he goes on to expand that, and he says, Well, it's not just those who are suing each other who are in danger, it's anyone who's a wrongdoer. And then he goes on to list nine different sins that he says will disqualify a person from inheriting the kingdom of God. Now, it would be worth our time at some point to go through this list one by one, but I think that for our purposes today, uh, we just should be careful that we don't miss the forest for the trees. Okay, we need to see the sort of the bigger thing that Paul is doing here is he is warning them that there are certain sins that disqualify a person from inheriting the kingdom of God. And there's two senses in which this is true. Okay, there's a very obvious future sense to this, where he says, you will not inherit the coming kingdom. He says that when Jesus returns, and when he finally and fully makes all things new, those who have persisted in unrepentant sin will be disqualified from inheriting that kingdom. So, in other words, he's not saying here that this is a list of sins that are worse than any other kind of sin. And you dare not touch this really bad list of sins, but all the other kinds of sins, those are okay. He's not pointing this out as like, this is the worst of the worst, and if you do these really bad things, you're disqualified. No, he is giving a representative list, meaning this is a list of all the kinds of things that will disqualify you. And these are things that uh most commentators say he's not just sort of pulling, you know, sins out of thin air, trying to make a point. He's he's identifying the kinds of sins that exist in their church community and the kinds of sins that because of the Roman culture around them, they were most tempted to give into. So these are specific sins to this church community, and he's not saying that these are worse than anything else. He's saying any unrepentant sin will disqualify a person from their future inheritance in the kingdom of God. So certainly there's a future aspect to this. But remember that while the kingdom of God is a not yet reality, the kingdom of God is also an already not yet reality. And so a person who lives in unrepentant sin, who resists the work of the Spirit of God in their life to change them and transform them, is not just in danger of forfeiting their future inheritance, but their present inheritance as well. What does that mean? Well, I think the the easiest way to make this point is to show you the list of sins. Okay. Uh to show you the list of sins. These are the nine things that Paul lists here in chapter six and says, hey, wrongdoers, those people who live in and persist in these kinds of sins, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, take this list and put it next to the list Paul gave just like a few verses before this at the end of chapter five, where he says there's all these kinds of sins that if a person does these things, do not associate with them. If a person Claims to be a follower of Jesus and lives in this kind of unrepentant sin, you are to put them out of your church community. So there's a list of sins that will disqualify you from the coming kingdom of God, and there's a list of sins that disqualify you from being a part of the local church. And notice that all six of these that he gave in that list in chapter five, he also gives here in the list in chapter six. When we look at these lists side by side, I think what we see is that living in unrepentant sin, Paul says, will disqualify a person not only from inheriting the future coming kingdom of God, but it will also disqualify you from being a part of the present kingdom of God as it's being expressed in and through the local church. So they're in danger not only of something in the future, they're in danger of something right now. If they continue to live in this kind of sin, Paul says you're going to be excommunicated from the church. When he says that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God in the future or in the present, this is serious business. What he's talking about here. This is no small thing. And of course, the the common theme that runs through this entire section of the letter, if you've been with us, you've seen this. The common theme that runs through this section of the letter is the seriousness of our sin and the seriousness of sin in the life of the church community. Paul wants us to take our sin very seriously, recognizing the consequences and the implications of continuing on to live in a life of unrepentant, conscious sin. This is the point. If you persist in unrepentant sin, you should question what inheritance you will receive. Because everyone, the Bible says, is going to receive an inheritance, either the inheritance of eternal ruin or the inheritance of life together in the kingdom of God. And so Paul says, if you continue to live in these kinds of sins, you should question. You should have questions about which of those inheritances you will actually receive. Because continuing to live in this kind of sin demonstrates your heart has not been changed. Demonstrates that God has not yet gotten a hold of the stuff inside of you to change you and transform you in those ways that he wants to. And so this is a serious warning. Paul wants the church in Corinth and he wants us who are overhearing this to recognize the significance and the seriousness of conscious and unrepentant sin in our lives. But of course, he doesn't leave us just, he's not just a prophet of doom. He's not just here to, you know, lay down the law and bring this word of, you know, sort of judgment or bring a word of condemnation for them. No, he offers an invitation. He shows them this warning and says, guys, be careful. Be careful that you're not found to be living among this group of people or to be living in this way. But then he also finishes by giving us this invitation to be changed by the grace and the power of God. After listing all of these sins that he says prevent a person from inheriting the kingdom of God, he concludes by saying in verse 11, and that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So obviously, like without question, Paul wants the Corinthians to behave differently. This whole book is like, you can summarize it, but it's Paul's way of saying, guys, stop it. Just stop what you're doing. Do better. You know, he obviously wants them to change their behavior, but the way he goes about motivating them and spurring them on towards changed behavior is not by focusing on their behavior, it's by focusing on their new status in Christ. His emphasis here is by reminding them of what is true about them in Jesus. He says, You have been washed, you have been sanctified or made holy. You have been justified. And notice how all these things are in the past tense. This isn't something you work towards and one day will earn your badge of achievement. These are things that are past tense things that have been done to you in the past tense. In talking about who they are now and who they used to be, this new status they have versus their old way of life, he's putting his finger on the tension that exists at the heart of following Jesus. And this is a tension that exists both for them as well as for us. The tension is, on the one hand, in Christ, we are not who we used to be. Okay? If you are in Christ, if you trust Jesus by faith, you are not who you used to be. We've been given a new status, we've been given a new identity, our behavior has been changed, our lives have been changed, and some of us have stories of ways that God has done that in dramatic ways. And praise God for the times when He does it in those dramatic ways. Our lives are not the same, and our lives have not been changed merely because we've been given a new moral code to follow, but because we've been given a new heart. And so now, as a joyful response to the love of God for us in Jesus, we want our lives to please him. And so we live differently, not because of guilt or obligation, but because we want to please him, because we love him, because we want our external behavior to reflect the internal transformation that has already taken place inside of us. So in Christ, we are not who we used to be. We have been and are being changed by the presence and the power of God the Spirit. So on the one hand, in Christ, we are not who we used to be. And the other side of this tension is this sometimes we follow our old way of life. Sometimes we follow the patterns of our old way of life. Anyone who's followed Jesus for more than about 15 minutes, you laugh because you know what I'm gonna say. Anyone who's followed Jesus for any length of time knows that when you become a follower of Jesus, you don't just like stop sinning and live this like perfected existence of perfect holiness. No, you spend the rest of your life wrestling with your sin and desires and temptations, and you spend the rest of your life trying to submit all of who you are to Jesus, and that change and that transformation is a slow process. Much slower than I want it to be in my own life, let me tell you. Sometimes we take one step forward and two steps back. This is what it means to follow Jesus, is not living in perfection, but living in a constant state of repentance and dependence upon the grace of God. And this is the tension that we see the Corinthians living in. He says, you have been washed. And also, they are struggling to bring all of their lives into conformity with the way of Jesus and live as if that's actually true. When he lists all those sins and then says, that's what some of you were, he's not saying you used to be that, but good news, you don't struggle with any of those things anymore. Can I just show you that this is true? Uh in chapter 6, in these verses, he says, uh, those who are sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. The passage we're looking at next week, right after this, he says, flee sexual immorality. Also stop going to prostitutes. So it's obvious when he says, those who are sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. Also, some of you are still living this way. And so I need to give you instruction and tell you to stop it. So it's not as if they perfectly have been living and have been totally free from sin or the struggle or temptation to their old way of life. No, they have been washed, they have been justified, they have been sanctified, and they're still trying to figure out what it looks like to live as if that's actually true. It's true for them, and it's also true for us as well. This is what it looks like to follow Jesus is we live in the reality that in Christ we are not who we used to be, and sometimes we follow our old way of life. And this is why we need to be reminded of this new status we have in Christ. It's why we have to be constantly reminded, you are not who you used to be. And so what this passage calls us to do is live like who we are. This is so central as you read, especially the letters that Paul writes in so much of the Bible, so much of it is centered around saying, This is who you are, now live like it. You have been washed, you have been justified, you have been sanctified. Now, okay, go live as if that's actually true. And it takes the rest of our lives to figure out how to do that well. This passage calls us to have a life that matches this new status that we have been given in Christ. And this happens, again, not by focusing on, not by becoming hyper-fixated on our behavior, which of course is important. We should care about our behavior. But this kind of inner transformation and life transformation happens by becoming hyper-fixated on the new status we possess because of what God has done for us in Jesus. That's the beginning of, that's not the end of, but that's the beginning of where this life transformation takes place. That's how we live like who we are, is we become obsessed with thinking about and dwelling on and meditating on and ordering our lives around what is currently true about us because of what Jesus has done. And so we look to, we look to Jesus and we see that he lived a life free from the filth and the stain of sin. He lived a life of complete and perfect holiness. He perfectly embodied and lived by the law and the instruction of the Lord. And the witness of the New Testament tells us that he did all of this for us. Not just for us, but he did all of this on our behalf, so that everything that is true about Jesus could also be true of us. That his holiness and his righteousness and his purity and his right standing before the Father could be given to us. Through faith, we can be cleansed from our sin. Through faith, we can be declared holy. Through faith, we can be restored in relationship to God the Father and can stand before Him. Legally speaking, declared not guilty. And it's because of what Jesus has done for us. And so it's to the degree that our lives and our minds and our hearts are obsessed with that message. It's to the degree that we are obsessed with who we actually are now in Christ, that new status, to that degree we will begin to live like who we actually are. The communion table is a weekly reminder of this new status that we have been given in Christ. As we come to the communion table each week, uh we are confessing our need for a savior. We say this often, like it means something that we come forward every single week with empty hands. With not just nothing to offer, but we come forward needing to receive the grace and the mercy of God. And the good news is that God meets us here every single time. The communion table is a reminder of our need for a savior, and it's also a reminder that God has made a way. And so we come here today empty-handed, but we don't leave empty-handed. We come here empty, but we leave the communion table full because we get to receive the broken body and shed blood of Jesus.