WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:00.420 Bible. 00:00:00.420 --> 00:00:04.876 You can get that out or you can look at one of the Bibles in the pew there. 00:00:04.876 --> 00:00:18.739 For those that might be visiting with us tonight, we have been going through a series on Sunday nights where each Sunday night we look at the next book of the Bible, so it's a message on the whole book of the Bible. 00:00:18.739 --> 00:00:29.687 We're not going to go all night, so stick around if you're here visiting, but we're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians especially tonight, and I want to start in chapter 1. 00:00:29.687 --> 00:00:33.951 I'm going to read chapter 1, verses 4 through 9. 00:00:33.951 --> 00:00:39.490 1 Corinthians 1, verses 4 through 9. 00:00:39.490 --> 00:00:55.113 I always thank my God for you, because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in him in every way, in all speech and all knowledge. 00:00:55.113 --> 00:01:02.081 In this way the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you do not lack any spiritual gift. 00:01:02.081 --> 00:01:02.442 As you. 00:01:02.442 --> 00:01:29.841 Eager's letter to the church of Corinth. 00:01:29.841 --> 00:01:32.789 You'd be thinking that's a great church. 00:01:32.789 --> 00:01:38.003 They have every spiritual gift, they're not lacking anything. 00:01:38.003 --> 00:01:41.290 They have fellowship with Jesus and with each other. 00:01:41.290 --> 00:01:46.847 This is the kind of healthy church that I would have wanted to be a part of if I was living back in Bible times. 00:01:46.847 --> 00:01:50.353 And then you read the rest of the letter. 00:01:50.353 --> 00:01:56.393 There's a guy sleeping with his mother-in-law. 00:01:56.393 --> 00:01:57.558 There's division in the church. 00:01:57.558 --> 00:01:58.501 They're suing each other. 00:01:58.501 --> 00:02:00.066 People are getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. 00:02:00.066 --> 00:02:01.870 Some people seem to doubt the resurrection. 00:02:01.870 --> 00:02:04.561 Wait a minute. 00:02:04.561 --> 00:02:06.709 That's not the church that I first thought. 00:02:06.709 --> 00:02:12.567 But it's the same Paul who opened this way who wrote the rest of the letter right? 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:20.893 Paul has the amazing ability to see God's grace in messy situations. 00:02:20.893 --> 00:02:28.092 He also has the willingness to challenge people where they need to be challenged. 00:02:28.092 --> 00:02:32.788 Sometimes we tend to go in one direction or the other. 00:02:32.788 --> 00:02:42.187 We can be kind of a bloodhound for sniffing out any little error in a church or our church or someone else's church, and Paul starts with God's grace is among you, and I see it active. 00:02:42.187 --> 00:02:50.953 And then sometimes we can be so kind that we're not willing to say the difficult things that need to be said about significant sin in a situation. 00:02:50.953 --> 00:02:52.622 And Paul does both. 00:02:52.622 --> 00:02:54.625 We should aim to do both. 00:02:54.625 --> 00:02:57.610 That was free. 00:02:57.871 --> 00:03:00.294 Now onto the topic at hand tonight. 00:03:00.294 --> 00:03:06.722 Before we get to the main idea, that's not going to be quite the way I framed the main idea for 1 Corinthians. 00:03:06.722 --> 00:03:08.425 Let's look at the structure of the book. 00:03:08.425 --> 00:03:12.663 Last time we met on Sunday night we looked at Romans. 00:03:12.663 --> 00:03:15.551 Romans is more of a sustained argument. 00:03:15.551 --> 00:03:19.723 1 Corinthians is a letter, like Romans was, to a church, the church of Corinth. 00:03:19.723 --> 00:03:25.949 That Paul writes under inspiration of God, but it's not quite the argument and the steps of Romans. 00:03:25.949 --> 00:03:27.784 It's a bit more topical in nature. 00:03:28.186 --> 00:03:34.745 Paul seems to be writing to respond to some questions the Corinthians had as they wrote to him. 00:03:34.745 --> 00:03:36.288 Let me show you that. 00:03:36.288 --> 00:03:39.366 So hold your finger here in 1 Corinthians 1, go over to chapter 7. 00:03:39.366 --> 00:03:50.659 Look at verse 1. 00:03:50.659 --> 00:03:54.403 Now, in response to the matters you wrote about, he says it. 00:03:54.403 --> 00:03:56.728 He's going to address what they asked him about. 00:03:56.728 --> 00:04:01.533 Look down to verse 25 of chapter 7. 00:04:01.533 --> 00:04:10.180 Now about virgins. 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:11.260 Do you hear the same language of now about? 00:04:11.260 --> 00:04:11.581 Now about. 00:04:11.581 --> 00:04:12.322 Go over to chapter 8, verse 1. 00:04:12.322 --> 00:04:18.827 Now about food sacrifice to idols, chapter 12, look over there at verse 1. 00:04:18.827 --> 00:04:28.677 Now, concerning spiritual gifts, and then over to chapter 15, verse 35. 00:04:28.677 --> 00:04:35.543 But someone will ask how are the dead raised? 00:04:35.564 --> 00:04:46.303 So it seems like Paul's going to respond to in part the series of questions that they had for him, but he doesn't start that until chapter seven. 00:04:46.303 --> 00:04:47.565 Why does he wait so long? 00:04:47.565 --> 00:04:53.932 Well, he has some things that he is going to be confronting them about. 00:04:53.932 --> 00:04:56.540 That he needs to talk about before he gets to their questions. 00:04:56.540 --> 00:04:57.483 That's part of it. 00:04:57.483 --> 00:05:05.735 But he's also setting the foundation for how he wants to help them approach those questions. 00:05:05.735 --> 00:05:15.040 He wants them to see something precious and important, and here's the big theme I want to give to you tonight from 1 Corinthians. 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:38.764 If we're thinking about our own takeaway in light of how Paul speaks to the Corinthians, corinthians, the more we understand God's eternal plan to unite people to his son, the more we'll be able to answer every question in life. 00:05:38.764 --> 00:05:41.266 Now, I know that's a big claim, I realize that. 00:05:41.266 --> 00:05:58.567 Let me repeat that again the more we understand God's eternal plan, the more we grasp it, enjoy it to unite people to his son, the more we'll be able to answer every question in life. 00:05:58.567 --> 00:06:01.512 Wait a minute, I just took a calculus test. 00:06:01.512 --> 00:06:03.644 The Bible didn't help me one bit with those questions. 00:06:03.644 --> 00:06:05.350 We could. 00:06:05.350 --> 00:06:19.009 If you want me to modify, you know the thesis the more we understand God's eternal plan to unite people to his son, the more we have the foundational material to address every question in life about knowing and pleasing God. 00:06:19.009 --> 00:06:26.923 Now, that's a mouthful so I shortened it, but really aren't the questions about knowing and pleasing God the most important questions. 00:06:26.923 --> 00:06:38.425 I mean, you can build the Brooklyn Bridge, but if you don't know how to live a life while pleasing to God, that knowledge of building the Brooklyn Bridge only is so valuable, right? 00:06:38.425 --> 00:06:42.120 So those are the most important questions, and you see this right at the outset. 00:06:42.161 --> 00:06:43.846 So go back to the verses we were looking at that. 00:06:43.846 --> 00:06:45.690 I read for you 1 Corinthians 1. 00:06:45.690 --> 00:07:03.293 We've got these two foundation pillars of union with Christ that believers have, and then God's eternal plan, especially as it involves the future coming into the present. 00:07:03.293 --> 00:07:05.345 So first, look at union with Christ. 00:07:05.345 --> 00:07:10.223 So Paul says there I thank my God for you. 00:07:10.223 --> 00:07:18.295 Verse number four because of the grace given to you in Christ Jesus. 00:07:18.295 --> 00:07:20.762 So there's union with Christ. 00:07:20.762 --> 00:07:28.358 Now, in verse number five you were enriched in him in every way. 00:07:28.358 --> 00:07:33.648 Verse number nine you were called by him into fellowship with his son. 00:07:33.648 --> 00:07:36.512 Union, union, union. 00:07:36.512 --> 00:07:38.322 You've got to understand your union with Christ. 00:07:38.322 --> 00:07:39.406 He's starting with that. 00:07:40.910 --> 00:07:41.831 What about eternity? 00:07:41.831 --> 00:07:48.762 What about eternity? 00:07:48.762 --> 00:07:49.322 Look at verse number seven. 00:07:49.322 --> 00:07:53.473 You don't lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:07:53.473 --> 00:07:58.624 That's talking about the second coming, when Christ is revealed and returns from heaven. 00:07:58.624 --> 00:08:12.925 And then he goes on to say in verse number eight, he will strengthen you to the end, eternity approaching, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, again, the end. 00:08:12.925 --> 00:08:30.567 So right from the outset he's got these connected foundation pillars of union with Christ and looking to the future and God's eternal plan, and those two themes are going to be woven throughout the letter as he addresses their problems and responds to their questions. 00:08:30.567 --> 00:08:46.201 So I'm going to try to prove that to you tonight by walking through seven examples from this book of how Paul brings the eternal plan of God to unite people to his son, how he brings that to bear on their lives and the questions they're facing. 00:08:46.201 --> 00:08:48.687 So seven examples of that from the letter. 00:08:49.028 --> 00:08:51.663 Here's the first example division in the church. 00:08:51.663 --> 00:08:55.581 They didn't write to him about that one, but he heard about it and wanted to talk about it. 00:08:55.581 --> 00:09:13.562 So look at chapter three, go over chapter three, verse number three you are still worldly. 00:09:13.562 --> 00:09:16.347 For since there's envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans? 00:09:16.347 --> 00:09:20.802 Whenever someone says I belong to paul and I belong to paul's, are you not acting like mere humans? 00:09:20.802 --> 00:09:22.125 There there's the problem division. 00:09:24.369 --> 00:09:25.530 Look down at verse number 11. 00:09:25.530 --> 00:09:31.703 No one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. 00:09:31.703 --> 00:09:35.648 That foundation is Jesus Christ. 00:09:35.648 --> 00:09:41.999 If you're a believer, paul says you're built onto Jesus Christ. 00:09:41.999 --> 00:09:54.297 You're not built onto Paul or Apollos or you're built onto Christ, but if you're, this building stacked on him, if you're united to him, then you have to be united to others. 00:09:54.297 --> 00:09:59.073 You can't put bricks down and the bricks don't go together. 00:09:59.073 --> 00:10:03.304 If they're part of the same foundation, they do go together and the bricks don't go together. 00:10:03.304 --> 00:10:05.389 If they're part of the same foundation, they do go together. 00:10:05.389 --> 00:10:09.301 That's his logic here. 00:10:09.321 --> 00:10:11.288 Look down to verse 21, chapter 3. 00:10:11.288 --> 00:10:16.431 Still so, there's union with Christ. 00:10:16.431 --> 00:10:16.812 By implication. 00:10:16.812 --> 00:10:17.513 Let no one boast in human leaders. 00:10:17.513 --> 00:10:20.177 This is part of their division, as they were elevating, idolizing certain human leaders. 00:10:20.177 --> 00:10:35.083 Let no one boast in human leaders, for everything is yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life or death, or things present or things to come. 00:10:35.083 --> 00:10:38.238 There's eternity, there's the future. 00:10:38.238 --> 00:10:44.220 Everything is yours and you belong to Christ. 00:10:44.220 --> 00:10:45.903 There's union again. 00:10:45.903 --> 00:10:51.772 So think about division in light of who you are in Jesus and what's coming, and you'll be helped. 00:10:52.312 --> 00:10:56.041 Example number two lawsuits among fellow believers. 00:10:56.041 --> 00:11:00.113 Over to chapter six, verse number one. 00:11:00.113 --> 00:11:03.903 If any of you has a dispute against another. 00:11:03.903 --> 00:11:09.076 How dare you take it to court before the unrighteous and not before saints? 00:11:09.076 --> 00:11:11.400 So we don't know the situation. 00:11:11.400 --> 00:11:20.322 Imagine you know, somebody gives someone else their plow to borrow for something and they return it and they say wait a minute, you broke my plow, you need to fix it. 00:11:20.322 --> 00:11:23.312 No, when you gave it to me it was already pretty much shot. 00:11:23.312 --> 00:11:25.356 You need to fix it yourself. 00:11:25.356 --> 00:11:27.100 Oh yeah, well, I'm going to sue you. 00:11:27.100 --> 00:11:28.110 Oh yeah, go ahead. 00:11:28.110 --> 00:11:29.033 I'm making that up. 00:11:29.033 --> 00:11:31.418 But in your own mind, imagine what it's going to be. 00:11:32.160 --> 00:11:33.370 And Paul says don't do that. 00:11:33.370 --> 00:11:37.816 And he could say don't do that because that's not very nice. 00:11:37.816 --> 00:11:40.480 But it's actually not what he says here. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:46.331 He says in verse 2, don't you know that saints will judge the world? 00:11:46.331 --> 00:11:56.153 Verse number 3, this is even more interesting Don't you know that we will judge angels? 00:11:56.153 --> 00:12:03.565 If I was a member of the church of Corinth I would have said no, I didn't know. 00:12:03.565 --> 00:12:03.825 That. 00:12:03.825 --> 00:12:04.610 That's news to me. 00:12:04.610 --> 00:12:13.375 Where does Moses say for all the righteous, in the future, when angels are judged, you'll get to judge them too. 00:12:13.375 --> 00:12:14.278 Where is that in the Bible? 00:12:14.278 --> 00:12:19.899 And Paul says he doesn't just say I got something to inform you. 00:12:19.899 --> 00:12:22.393 He says don't you know that says he doesn't just say I got something to inform you. 00:12:22.393 --> 00:12:22.953 He says don't you know that? 00:12:22.953 --> 00:12:24.517 Well, it's possible. 00:12:24.517 --> 00:12:33.630 When he helped establish this church he had extra revelation he gave, and that's possible. 00:12:33.630 --> 00:12:36.756 I think what's more likely here is he's making a theological deduction that he says and thinks they should have made. 00:12:36.817 --> 00:12:46.153 Doesn't Jesus say when the Son of man comes in his glory and sits on his glorious throne to his disciples, you too will sit on thrones. 00:12:46.153 --> 00:12:49.061 What do you do when you're on a throne? 00:12:49.061 --> 00:12:49.822 You're a king. 00:12:49.822 --> 00:12:51.273 You make pronouncements and judgments. 00:12:51.273 --> 00:12:57.894 Isn't it true that Jesus one day is going to judge the living and the dead and angels? 00:12:57.894 --> 00:13:02.500 But if you're united to Christ, you'll be right there with him. 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:06.452 Now, I don't know the mechanics of it. 00:13:06.452 --> 00:13:14.918 Is that Jesus makes his declaration against the sinful angels who rebelled with Satan and then we say amen, or do we actually verbalize some pronouncement? 00:13:14.918 --> 00:13:24.445 I don't know the mechanics of this judgment, but Paul is bringing in both the future and the reality that if you're belonging to Christ, what Jesus is going to do, you'll be a part of that. 00:13:24.445 --> 00:13:42.572 So you're going to be before all the created order, judging heavenly beings, and you're going to take your fellow church member to loss over a tractor, a plow, come on, that's the logic here. 00:13:43.676 --> 00:13:47.152 Example number three sex, marriage and singleness. 00:13:47.152 --> 00:13:49.298 I'm cramming three things into one example. 00:13:49.298 --> 00:13:50.701 They are related in Paul's mind. 00:13:50.701 --> 00:13:52.311 So go over to chapter five. 00:13:52.311 --> 00:14:02.684 So here's a man that Paul needs to confront, given the especially grievous nature of his sin. 00:14:02.684 --> 00:14:15.779 And Paul says, verse number five hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, but notice the reason so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 00:14:15.779 --> 00:14:20.621 There's a looking to the future in the judgment that's being given to this man. 00:14:20.621 --> 00:14:24.937 There's still the hope that he's going to be saved eventually through God's grace. 00:14:26.558 --> 00:14:30.524 Look down, if you will, to chapter 6. 00:14:30.524 --> 00:14:34.960 Further down, verse 14. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:42.159 God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:45.692 Don't you know that your bodies are a part of Christ's body? 00:14:45.692 --> 00:14:51.583 Should I take a part of Christ's body and make it part of a prostitute? 00:14:51.583 --> 00:14:52.812 Absolutely not. 00:14:52.812 --> 00:14:54.595 So. 00:14:54.595 --> 00:14:59.962 It's not just that this form of immorality is icky or wrong. 00:14:59.962 --> 00:15:01.932 Paul could say both of those things. 00:15:01.932 --> 00:15:15.443 But he's saying you belong to Christ and you can't separate, as a human, your body and your spirit, your one being so when you take your body and sin in this way because you're united to Christ. 00:15:15.443 --> 00:15:22.562 It's as though you're bringing Christ into that and consider that as you're facing these temptations. 00:15:22.562 --> 00:15:28.755 And he even goes a bit further than that, verse 16,. 00:15:28.755 --> 00:15:32.323 Don't you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? 00:15:32.323 --> 00:15:35.019 For scripture says the two will become one flesh. 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:41.297 But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 00:15:41.297 --> 00:15:56.198 There's something so sacred about our intimate union with Jesus Christ that that's the ballast and ground and help for us to face other kinds of temptation, though in some ways maybe a little different in nature. 00:15:56.198 --> 00:16:00.402 There's an intimacy there of union with Christ is a reality of our relationship. 00:16:01.991 --> 00:16:03.457 Over to chapter number seven. 00:16:03.457 --> 00:16:06.533 So now we're getting to their questions. 00:16:06.533 --> 00:16:17.193 So we're still in my third example of trying to prove this argument about what Paul's doing in Corinthians, showing us how all the questions of life they can flow back to. 00:16:17.193 --> 00:16:18.277 We're united to Christ. 00:16:18.277 --> 00:16:19.480 The future is present. 00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:22.416 God's got an eternal plan that reshapes our thinking. 00:16:22.416 --> 00:16:24.174 So I'm an example number three. 00:16:24.174 --> 00:16:31.101 But now in the letter he's going to turn to some of their actual questions, and marriage and issues related to marriage are part of their questions. 00:16:31.101 --> 00:16:35.301 He's got throughout chapter seven a refrain. 00:16:35.301 --> 00:16:37.677 So look at verse number 17. 00:16:37.677 --> 00:16:44.216 Let each one live his life in the situation the Lord assigned when God called him. 00:16:44.216 --> 00:16:46.198 Verse 20. 00:16:46.198 --> 00:16:47.559 Verse 24. 00:16:47.559 --> 00:17:00.081 Verse 26. 00:17:00.081 --> 00:17:07.713 In which he was called Verse 26,. 00:17:07.733 --> 00:17:10.137 Because of the present distress, I think it's good for a man to remain as he is. 00:17:10.137 --> 00:17:10.818 Do you hear that theme? 00:17:10.818 --> 00:17:11.920 Stay as you are. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:20.178 There's a theme, but that refrain is, in light of what he's already developed, that you belong to Jesus. 00:17:20.178 --> 00:17:24.464 The most important union you could have has already been established if you belong to Christ. 00:17:24.464 --> 00:17:41.134 So you don't have to be overly distressed about whether you were converted after you were converted after you were already married and now my spouse is not a believer and this could be horrible what about the influence on the kids? 00:17:41.134 --> 00:17:43.898 And remain in the situation in which God's called you. 00:17:46.810 --> 00:17:50.942 Now I could imagine a 20-year-old coming to me and saying Micah. 00:17:50.942 --> 00:17:57.220 I could imagine a 60-year-old saying this, but it's a little more pressing as a 20-year-old for most people. 00:17:57.220 --> 00:18:01.215 I could imagine a 20-year-old saying I hear what Paul is saying. 00:18:01.215 --> 00:18:05.104 I've experienced union with Christ. 00:18:05.104 --> 00:18:09.231 I want to enjoy that intimacy with Christ more. 00:18:09.231 --> 00:18:16.922 I can extrapolate, you know, when Paul says don't visit a prostitute, I shouldn't be in my college, ending up in someone else's dorm room. 00:18:16.922 --> 00:18:18.284 I don't want that. 00:18:18.284 --> 00:18:19.005 I've got that. 00:18:19.005 --> 00:18:27.057 I understand the future is going to be here sooner than I think and in the future it's a different situation. 00:18:27.057 --> 00:18:28.801 We're not given a marriage in eternity. 00:18:28.801 --> 00:18:33.298 I understand those things, but there's the here and now. 00:18:33.298 --> 00:18:41.192 We're not living in the future and there are days I feel like if I don't get married in the next 30 minutes, something terrible could happen. 00:18:41.192 --> 00:18:44.557 I could end up in someone's room where I shouldn't be. 00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:47.863 Paul's got a response to that. 00:18:47.863 --> 00:18:53.582 He says get married, he makes an allowance for that and it's a happy allowance, it's a joyful allowance. 00:18:53.582 --> 00:18:59.171 Now, I don't think Paul would have said to every 20-year-old get married within the next 30 minutes. 00:18:59.171 --> 00:19:02.657 I don't think he would have said that, but he's got an allowance for that. 00:19:02.657 --> 00:19:16.309 But the allowances and the situational specifics of all these different things that he goes through here, that's not what's animating his heart and his mind fundamentally. 00:19:16.309 --> 00:19:18.294 He acknowledged and addresses it. 00:19:18.294 --> 00:19:27.911 But what he's still trying to do is reshape their whole frame of thinking, regardless of the decisions they make in the course of their life, in the present or in the future. 00:19:27.911 --> 00:19:29.795 And he says as much here. 00:19:29.835 --> 00:19:33.303 Look again at chapter 7, look at verse 29. 00:19:33.303 --> 00:19:39.178 This is what I mean brothers and sisters. 00:19:39.178 --> 00:19:43.070 So he even signals he's going to summarize something important. 00:19:43.070 --> 00:19:45.335 This is what I mean brothers and sisters. 00:19:45.335 --> 00:19:47.999 The time is limited. 00:19:47.999 --> 00:19:55.455 So from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none. 00:19:55.455 --> 00:20:07.559 Those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they didn't own anything. 00:20:09.851 --> 00:20:11.016 There's some hyperbole here. 00:20:11.016 --> 00:20:15.218 This is the same Paul who said husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. 00:20:15.218 --> 00:20:17.659 He's the same Paul who said wives love your husbands. 00:20:17.659 --> 00:20:20.337 It's the same Paul that said provide for your family. 00:20:20.337 --> 00:20:21.361 That's a command. 00:20:21.361 --> 00:20:24.231 So there's exaggeration here. 00:20:24.231 --> 00:20:25.914 But he's making a point. 00:20:25.914 --> 00:20:33.653 No matter what your situation in life, there's a mentality of how you approach that. 00:20:33.653 --> 00:20:42.018 And it's not only the nearness of eternity, it's not that only our life is a vapor and soon it'll be over. 00:20:42.018 --> 00:20:45.913 It's that the future is already present. 00:20:45.913 --> 00:20:47.676 So keep reading what he says here. 00:20:47.676 --> 00:20:50.210 So there's a union with Christ as the foundation. 00:20:50.210 --> 00:21:05.007 But keep reading what he says here, verse 31, those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it, for this world in its current form is passing away. 00:21:05.007 --> 00:21:11.682 He doesn't say it will pass away, he says it's running through your fingers right now. 00:21:11.682 --> 00:21:14.713 Eternity is already present right now. 00:21:14.713 --> 00:21:21.035 So you've got to come to grips with that, regardless of your life situation. 00:21:21.035 --> 00:21:23.298 That regardless of your life situation. 00:21:23.317 --> 00:21:25.682 Example number four food offered to idols. 00:21:25.682 --> 00:21:26.584 Chapter eight. 00:21:26.584 --> 00:21:35.612 They bring this up. 00:21:35.612 --> 00:21:36.375 There's some delicious hamburger. 00:21:36.375 --> 00:21:38.506 Maybe the butcher had a ceremony to Zeus before he brought this hamburger out of the back. 00:21:38.506 --> 00:21:41.695 And if I eat this hamburger, am I somehow worshiping a false god? 00:21:41.695 --> 00:21:42.598 Maybe I shouldn't eat it. 00:21:42.598 --> 00:21:45.415 And someone else is like ah, it's a piece of meat. 00:21:45.415 --> 00:21:47.101 I'm not worshiping Zeus, it's delicious. 00:21:47.101 --> 00:21:48.932 Pass the burger over to me, I'll have it. 00:21:48.932 --> 00:21:50.435 This kind of thing. 00:21:51.698 --> 00:21:53.843 How does Paul respond to this? 00:21:53.843 --> 00:21:58.398 Well, his burden is to say you need to give up your rights for others. 00:21:58.398 --> 00:22:00.055 You need to love others. 00:22:00.055 --> 00:22:02.140 That's the overarching principle. 00:22:02.140 --> 00:22:04.866 Your rights for others, you need to love others. 00:22:04.866 --> 00:22:06.230 That's the overarching principle. 00:22:06.230 --> 00:22:14.189 But look at what he says in verse number 12 of chapter 8. 00:22:14.189 --> 00:22:21.297 If you're not careful about the conscience of other Christians verse number 12,. 00:22:21.297 --> 00:22:28.501 When you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 00:22:28.501 --> 00:22:31.429 But Christ doesn't have a weak conscience. 00:22:31.429 --> 00:22:33.414 We can't tempt him to do anything wrong. 00:22:33.414 --> 00:22:38.651 Yes, but because the people you interact with are united to Christ. 00:22:38.651 --> 00:22:43.642 When you trouble them you're troubling the Lord. 00:22:43.642 --> 00:22:45.814 So keep in mind that union with Jesus. 00:22:49.482 --> 00:22:55.273 Down in the next chapter, chapter number nine, verse 25. 00:22:55.273 --> 00:23:01.721 He gives many examples here of how he is willing to give up his own right as an apostle for the sake of others. 00:23:01.721 --> 00:23:06.432 Still kind of on this theme of beat out for the idols, but verse 25. 00:23:06.432 --> 00:23:11.412 Now, everyone who competes exercises self-control on everything. 00:23:11.412 --> 00:23:17.244 They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. 00:23:17.244 --> 00:23:21.991 When do you receive that In the future? 00:23:21.991 --> 00:23:27.934 He's living his life and he'll give up all kinds of things because he's got the end in view. 00:23:27.934 --> 00:23:29.540 He's got God's eternal plan in view. 00:23:29.540 --> 00:23:32.890 That burger sure is tasty, but it doesn't have the immediate in view. 00:23:32.890 --> 00:23:43.837 He's got loving others in light of God's eternal plan as the center thing in his mind. 00:23:43.857 --> 00:23:44.078 Chapter 10. 00:23:44.078 --> 00:23:50.633 Chapter 10. 00:23:50.633 --> 00:23:51.394 Look at verse number 11. 00:23:51.394 --> 00:24:01.691 He's talking about Israel in the past and the nature of if you do eat food offered to idols in the context of a worship ceremony. 00:24:01.691 --> 00:24:06.268 Now that's where Paul says don't do that, because there's the union element. 00:24:06.268 --> 00:24:20.534 You're taking just like if you were visiting a prostitute the warning back from earlier chapters if you go into the context of a false pagan worship ritual and you participate in that because you're united to Christ. 00:24:20.534 --> 00:24:29.205 You're bringing Christ into that and you're in danger of bringing the forces that are there to bear on your life in some unfortunate way. 00:24:29.205 --> 00:24:31.912 But again he argues from the future. 00:24:31.912 --> 00:24:38.195 Chapter 10, life in some unfortunate way, but again he argues from the future. 00:24:38.236 --> 00:24:39.140 Chapter 10, verse number 11. 00:24:39.140 --> 00:24:47.032 These things happened to them, the Israelites, as examples, and they were written for our instruction on whom the ends of the ages have come. 00:24:47.032 --> 00:24:49.720 What does that have to do with anything? 00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:51.923 What does that have to do with anything? 00:24:51.923 --> 00:24:55.708 In light of Christ's coming, everything is collapsing. 00:24:55.708 --> 00:25:19.575 The future is here, eternity is present Not fully and finally, as it will be one day but the coming of Christ into the world was the biggest change in world history and if you've got that change in the back of your mind, you can see the meat offered to idol for what it is in light of that and you can see loving others in light of what it is for that. 00:25:19.595 --> 00:25:26.481 Next example, example number five, the Lord's Supper and their behavior at the Lord's Supper, and this actually overlaps some with food offered to idols. 00:25:26.481 --> 00:25:28.768 But chapter 10, we're still here. 00:25:28.768 --> 00:25:30.291 In chapter 10, look down at verse 16. 00:25:30.291 --> 00:25:33.492 We're still here in chapter 10. 00:25:33.492 --> 00:25:34.576 Look down at verse 16. 00:25:34.576 --> 00:25:40.584 They had some divisive behavior even at the Lord's Supper. 00:25:40.604 --> 00:25:45.073 And he says in verse 16 of chapter 10, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? 00:25:45.073 --> 00:25:50.392 The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 00:25:50.392 --> 00:25:57.346 Because there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body, since all of us share in the one bread. 00:25:57.346 --> 00:26:17.209 Communion is not merely a ritual, it's a participation, not that the bread or the cup somehow automatically just gives us more of Christ, but, as we're believing and trusting and calling to mind the truths that symbolize there, it's a spiritual experience. 00:26:17.209 --> 00:26:18.794 It's not just a ritual. 00:26:18.794 --> 00:26:36.575 And because it's a spiritual experience and you're meditating on and exhibiting your union with Christ and his death and resurrection, how could you rush ahead and selfishly take when others are hurting and they're not arrived? 00:26:36.575 --> 00:26:48.133 How could you greedily drink and you drink so much, you get drunk at the Lord's Supper when this is supposed to be a spiritual experience of who you are as belonging to the Lord? 00:26:52.381 --> 00:26:59.848 Chapter 11, still the Lord's Supper example, but we've got union to Christ and we see again the future. 00:26:59.848 --> 00:27:13.853 Invoked chapter 11, verse 26 as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. 00:27:13.853 --> 00:27:21.971 Communion is a chance for us to proclaim all that Christ is, and we're doing that always with anticipation that he's coming. 00:27:21.971 --> 00:27:23.121 He's coming, he's coming. 00:27:23.121 --> 00:27:25.950 That's part of what we say when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. 00:27:25.950 --> 00:27:29.123 Two examples left. 00:27:29.123 --> 00:27:33.272 Number six spiritual gifts, chapter 12. 00:27:36.362 --> 00:27:40.607 Now, concerning spiritual gifts, that's how the chapter opens. 00:27:40.607 --> 00:27:43.930 Look over to verse number 12 and 13 of chapter 12. 00:27:43.930 --> 00:27:50.123 And you hear a similar argument from the division he addressed at the beginning of the letter. 00:27:50.123 --> 00:27:59.707 Just as the body is one and has many parts and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ. 00:27:59.707 --> 00:28:07.710 For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all given one spirit to drink. 00:28:07.710 --> 00:28:12.749 How should we exercise spiritual gifts, paul? 00:28:12.749 --> 00:28:20.403 How should we exercise spiritual gifts, paul? 00:28:20.403 --> 00:28:22.451 He doesn't say go out into the woods and ask God to show you your special spiritual gift. 00:28:22.451 --> 00:28:23.354 Maybe you could use it, maybe not. 00:28:23.354 --> 00:28:24.196 It's a horrible idea. 00:28:24.196 --> 00:28:32.244 But he begins with now remember, even though there's different gifts, you're one body and that's the body of Christ. 00:28:32.244 --> 00:28:33.207 You're united to him. 00:28:33.207 --> 00:28:43.894 So, in all the ways you exercise your spiritual gifts, you're trying to build up the body because you belong to Jesus and he's built you up, and don't you want to build up others who belong to him. 00:28:43.894 --> 00:28:45.461 It's all together, it's all one. 00:28:47.282 --> 00:28:59.121 Chapter 13, read at weddings, and a wonderful exhortation for new husbands and wives has application even beyond that. 00:28:59.121 --> 00:29:02.950 He's still talking about spiritual gifts, because in chapter 12 he does. 00:29:02.950 --> 00:29:04.060 In chapter 14 he does too. 00:29:04.060 --> 00:29:20.210 What he says in 13, though, is yes, there's spiritual gifts, but, again, love is this crowning virtue, and his argument is the reason why love is the crowning virtue is because it lasts longer than some of these spiritual gifts will last. 00:29:22.101 --> 00:29:26.852 Chapter 13, look at verse number eight Love never ends. 00:29:26.852 --> 00:29:31.911 As for prophecies, they will come to an end. 00:29:31.911 --> 00:29:35.923 So you can prophesy Good, great, wonderful. 00:29:35.923 --> 00:29:39.308 Paul tells the Corinthians, but that has a timestamp. 00:29:39.308 --> 00:29:40.566 Love doesn't have a timestamp. 00:29:40.566 --> 00:29:43.946 As for tongues, they will cease. 00:29:43.946 --> 00:29:53.954 As for knowledge, it will come to an end, for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 00:29:54.455 --> 00:29:58.029 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. 00:29:58.029 --> 00:30:13.011 When I became a man, I put aside childish things, for now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then, face to face, the revelation of the day of the Lord Jesus. 00:30:13.011 --> 00:30:16.443 The same thing he opened the letter with, he brings out here. 00:30:16.443 --> 00:30:24.582 Christ is coming back and the things that are effective in these days and these ages. 00:30:24.582 --> 00:30:28.711 They won't always be here, but love will always be here and Christ is coming. 00:30:28.711 --> 00:30:39.886 So exercise your spiritual gifts in light of the love you have for the body of Christ and pleading with God that he give you a love that surpasses even the great insight or wisdom or other kinds of gifts that you might have. 00:30:42.980 --> 00:30:46.185 Finally, resurrection hope Over to chapter 15. 00:30:46.185 --> 00:30:58.672 Apparently, they've got questions about the resurrection and some, it seems, perhaps are even unsure if believers will have bodily resurrection. 00:30:58.672 --> 00:31:08.263 And Paul says yes, absolutely, you can anticipate if you know the Lord Jesus, christ, your body is going to be raised out of that ground. 00:31:08.263 --> 00:31:12.773 And look at his arguments here. 00:31:12.773 --> 00:31:18.500 And look at his arguments here. 00:31:18.500 --> 00:31:29.069 Look first there at verse number 12, where you see him even phrase the question this way If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead. 00:31:30.819 --> 00:31:42.244 And I take Paul to be making this theological argument, like he made back in chapter 6 with the lawsuits and the judging the angels to be saying more than well, one guy rose from the dead. 00:31:42.244 --> 00:31:44.672 So you can't say no one ever rose from the dead. 00:31:44.672 --> 00:31:49.088 I take him to be saying Jesus rose from the dead. 00:31:49.088 --> 00:31:52.463 And haven't we been saying all along you're united to Christ. 00:31:52.463 --> 00:32:02.107 So if you're united to Christ and his body came out of the grave to live forever, why would you even think that your body wouldn't come out of the grave and live forever? 00:32:02.107 --> 00:32:05.020 That's impossible because you belong to Jesus. 00:32:05.020 --> 00:32:09.184 Look down to verse number 22. 00:32:09.184 --> 00:32:13.347 Verse number 22. 00:32:13.347 --> 00:32:40.429 Just as in Adam, all die, we come into the world united to Adam in a legal sense, in a moral sense and bearing his sin, nature and the consequences of all those things, which is death. 00:32:40.429 --> 00:32:41.593 But in Christ all will be made alive. 00:32:41.593 --> 00:32:42.915 There's no hope of the resurrection apart from Christ. 00:32:42.915 --> 00:32:53.654 God doesn't owe us new bodies, but if we belong to Jesus, christ has earned and accomplished all that we could ask for, including the right to adoption and new bodies in the grand and glorious future. 00:32:55.240 --> 00:32:56.704 Go over to verse number 58. 00:32:56.704 --> 00:33:10.980 We're skipping down here some, but Paul is going to move from this question about resurrection to encouraging them in their day-to-day labor. 00:33:10.980 --> 00:33:13.249 Paul does care about day-to-day life. 00:33:13.249 --> 00:33:16.788 So don't hear what I'm saying that Paul doesn't care about the questions of life. 00:33:16.788 --> 00:33:17.630 He does. 00:33:17.630 --> 00:33:23.932 He just wants them to view them with an eternal lens and with this lens of your union with Christ. 00:33:23.932 --> 00:33:28.009 He ends this whole section in verse 58,. 00:33:28.009 --> 00:33:44.832 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor is not in vain. 00:33:44.832 --> 00:33:46.795 But I skipped something. 00:33:46.795 --> 00:33:50.885 Your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 00:33:50.885 --> 00:33:57.950 Yeah, your labor has value every day, even though heaven and hell are pressing in on us. 00:33:57.950 --> 00:34:04.028 Eternity has already arrived in the future and your labor still has value, but that's because you belong to the Son. 00:34:04.028 --> 00:34:10.230 I hope this gives you hope. 00:34:10.963 --> 00:34:20.661 This was great getting into this in Corinthians this week and the last couple of weeks for me because, again, this is a resource and a way to approach all kinds of questions in life. 00:34:20.661 --> 00:34:29.731 The way that Paul does it so regularly in this book should suggest to us it's not just about these questions they had, but how we think about all kinds of questions. 00:34:29.731 --> 00:34:31.764 Let me start with I'm united to Christ. 00:34:31.764 --> 00:34:33.510 How does that reshape the way I think about it? 00:34:33.510 --> 00:34:36.989 And the future is here, it's coming, it's near. 00:34:36.989 --> 00:34:39.509 How does that reshape how I think about these questions? 00:34:40.840 --> 00:34:45.532 Last passage, we didn't hit this earlier, but go back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 2. 00:34:45.532 --> 00:34:49.867 Or, I'm sorry, chapter 1, chapter 1 still. 00:34:49.867 --> 00:34:50.621 So I read that opening. 00:34:50.621 --> 00:34:52.519 Or, I'm sorry, chapter one, chapter one still. 00:34:52.519 --> 00:34:59.313 So I read that opening of Paul setting the foundation. 00:34:59.313 --> 00:35:02.188 And then he reiterates that again. 00:35:03.041 --> 00:35:05.570 And just look down to verse number 30. 00:35:05.570 --> 00:35:17.311 It is from, and I'll close with this First of all, it's from him, god the Father, that you are in. 00:35:17.311 --> 00:35:23.449 Christ Jesus, god's got an eternal plan to unite people to his son. 00:35:23.449 --> 00:35:36.221 And it's Christ Jesus who became wisdom from God for us, the most important kind of wisdom, wisdom for every life, day-to-day life. 00:35:36.221 --> 00:35:49.583 But wisdom even beyond that, who became wisdom from God for us, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it's written, let the one who boasts boast, boast in the Lord. 00:35:49.583 --> 00:35:54.605 Let's pray, lord. 00:35:54.605 --> 00:35:59.228 We want to grasp this more. 00:36:00.608 --> 00:36:10.092 We, if we're honest, we confess we've only begun to see the tip of what this means for us to be united to the Son. 00:36:10.833 --> 00:36:17.155 That it's forgiveness, it's restored fellowship with you, it's intimate union and communion. 00:36:18.336 --> 00:36:31.144 It's the knowledge of things present and things to come, it's life and death and angels and judgments and disagreements with fellow believers and everything in between. 00:36:31.164 --> 00:36:42.277