1st Corinthians Flyover MSOTB

When we started NewChurch, I had this dream that if we just kept things simple—focused on Jesus, preached the Bible—worship God, love people—then maybe we’d avoid all the typical church drama. That dream lasted about two minutes. I lost friends over starting the church at all—they saw it as a threat to my previous church. Some people thought our new church was too traditional (When we say things like, “Lift up your hearts! This is the word of the Lord.” Saying the Lord’s Prayer every week). Of course, other people thought we weren’t traditional enough (where’s the Kyrie? The Gloria? The Nunc Dimittis?) I mean, all these liturgical elements are not only perfectly fine, we actually do include them in our worship every week—just not in the traditional way. Anyway, we started NewChurch but then people started complaining about stuff. Like, you know, there were some who loved the band and others who thought the music was too loud. People who thought the sermons were too long and others who thought they were too short—yes, too short, those people exist! Some thought being in a portable church in a gym was perfect because it feels so “raw and missional.” Others were like, “When are we getting our own building already?” Then I start talking about the vision to be a restaurant that’s open all week so we can connect with the community and invite them to join us in the same space on Sunday—some people love the idea and some people don’t get it.

That’s just life in a church. You put a bunch of sinners together, there’s gonna be friction. Sometimes sparks. Sometimes full-on dumpster fires. An old preacher friend of mine used to say, “Church would be great if it wasn’t for the people.”

Last week as we were making our way through the Book of Acts, we talked about the Apostle Paul starting a new church in Corinth. It was a rough start with getting kicked out of the synagogue and taken to court, but a church was planted and he stayed there a year and a half—really got to know the people in that little congregation.

This week we’re doing a flyover of a letter he wrote to that church in Corinth several years later. It’s part of our “Making Sense of the Bible” series—I think this is the 19th book I’ve covered like this, only 47 to go! Ha. A few years ago, we went through 1st Corinthians verse by verse if you want to look that up and go deeper.

We’re going to find out they were kind of a mess. They loved Jesus but it was also as chaotic as a garage band rehearsal—Sunday worship was like a bar fight with drunk people throwing chairs at each other and then making out under the tables. They had divisions over their favorite preachers, they were suing each other in Roman courts, immorality that made pagans blush, arguments about whose spiritual gifts were more spiritual, and people showing up to Communion like it was happy hour at the Golden Corral. Plus a bunch of them didn’t think the resurrection was even real.

Paul hears about all this and writes a letter of Biblical proportions to set them straight. It’s a call for unity and faithfulness.

But he doesn’t say, “Hey, shame on you! Try harder! Be nice.” He doesn’t just point his finger at them. He just keeps pointing them back to Jesus. Back to love. Back to the cross. Back to the resurrection. Back to unity.

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18

He's like, “You guys are dividing up into camps—‘I follow Paul,’ ‘I follow Apollos,’ ‘I follow Peter.’ Pitting all the leaders against each other. Some of them tried to Jesus Juke everyone else and say, ‘I just follow the Messiah!’” Not in a good way, more like, “Because I’m better than you!” 

So, Paul shuts it down: “Was I crucified for you? Were you baptized in my name?” He points to the sacrifice Jesus made for His people—the cross doesn’t look impressive to the world at all. What kind of sense does it make to worship a God who was so easily killed? Paul wanted to remind them—Christ crucified is God dying to save us. Which sounds like foolishness to the world, people who don’t have faith in Jesus—but it’s the power of salvation to those who believe.

The cross isn’t just at the center of Christianity—it is Christianity!

That’s the center of the letter—it’s the answer to all the messes they’d made. He was going to point out some really stupid unChristian things they were doing, tell them to repent, and then point them back to the cross.

Corinth was “sin city.” We talked about it last week, the place was like New York, New Orleans, and Las Vegas all rolled into one. Lots of money, lots of pagan worship, a shrine to Aphrodite that had more than 1,000 prostitutes—biggest cathouse in the Roman empire. Sin was the air they breathed. And when they came to church, they dragged that baggage right along with them.

Chapter 5 starts by Paul calling out some particular sin they were letting slide…

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.” 1 Corinthians 5:1

Dude was shacking up with his mother in law—Samuel L Jackson might have something to say about that. And the church was so proud of their tolerance, they thought they were so open-minded. Paul tells them sin is like yeast, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” You can’t celebrate Christ as your Passover Lamb and wink at sin at the same time. It infects everything. It spreads. 

What about us? Do we do the same thing? I’m not talking about all the sin we see on TV and social media, all the crazy sin outside our church. I’m talking about our sin. You and me. What would Paul call us out for? Do we take God’s word seriously when it comes to sin? Premarital sex, shacking up, porn? Whatever else we got going on? Do we understand how serious these things are?

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19–20

When he says you’re the temple of the Holy Spirit, he’s not saying you should start taking vitamins and exercising—he’s talking about sin. In particular, sexual sin. He specifically says when the people in their church would hang out with Aphrodite’s prostitutes, which is something some of them must have been doing, that—because they are the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit—they’re actually joining Jesus with a prostitute. Paul’s not pulling punches. “Stop acting like your body belongs to you and doing whatever you want with it—like there’s no consequences.” But also, “You were bought with a price—the blood of Jesus bought you. You’re His.” Which is good news. You don’t want to belong to anyone else.

Then he gets very practical and goes on to talk about marriage, and singleness. The Corinthians were fighting about whether it was more spiritual to marry or stay single. In a previous letter, that we don’t seem to have, they had asked, “Would it be better to not have sex at all?” Paul answers their question—serve the Lord where you are. Married? Stay married. Have as much sex as your partner wants to have—don’t make it about you—your body is their body. And if you’re single? You’re free to stay that way and serve the Lord wholeheartedly. But if you find yourself burning with lust, then you should get married. It’s better to marry than to burn. But to be clear, sex only belongs in marriage. His point is holiness isn’t about being married or unmarried, it’s about honoring God and being faithful with your body. 

In chapters 8 and 9, Paul talks about Christian freedom. He spends a lot of time talking about food sacrificed to idols. Because there were so many pagan temples, there were a lot of animal sacrifices—and the meat would be sold really cheap or given away. You never knew whether that goat stew had been used in demon worship or not—that really bothered some people. Paul didn’t really have a problem with it because he knew all those gods weren’t real anyway. But he also said knowledge puffs up—it’s love that builds up. Sure, you might be free to eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, but if your freedom causes your brother or sister to stumble, then you’re sinning against them and against Christ. Not everything that’s permissible is helpful. So instead of being selfish, do everything for the glory of God, and for the love of your neighbor—don’t offend people if you can help it. That’s the Christian balance: freedom guided by love. Luther said, “The Christian is perfectly free, lord of all, subject to none. And at the same time, perfectly dutiful, servant of all, subject to everyone.”

Back in the day, when I was 15 or so, I had a pastor who tried to convince me to stop listening to rock music—even Christian rock. He thought it all was of the devil. Then I read this passage in 1st Corinthians and eventually, I came to understand rock music as being like meat offered to idols. So, I went with Paul’s solution. You know, don’t listen to Kiss records around my weaker brother—who apparently was Pastor Goff. Problem solved.

The Corinthians were a mess. They brought that “we do whatever we want/freedom without love” attitude to church, too. They had rich people in the congregation and they had poor people. They’d show up for worship, the rich people would eat, drink, and be merry—too merry—while expecting the poor to wait on them hand and foot, clean up the mess, and then send the poor people home hungry.

They called this the Agape Feast—the Love Feast. They actually thought they were honoring the Lord’s Supper when they did this, as crazy as that sounds. Paul reminds them that worship isn’t supposed to be about filling your belly and getting drunk. He also made it clear that Communion is serious business, it’s proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes back. It’s Christ giving Himself to His church. It’s to be done with reverence.

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat and drink.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-29

When we come to the Lord’s Supper, we’re told to examine ourselves. Examine yourself. “Am I worthy?”

What does that mean? To be worthy. Does it mean to be without sin? I hope not, because then none of us should ever take Communion.

To eat and drink in an unworthy manner is to ignore the reason for Christ’s death on the cross. To not believe it. His body broken for you, His blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins. Do you believe that? Have you examined yourself? Have you repented? Have you confessed your sin, turned away from it, and turned toward Jesus? I don’t mean you have to make a list of every single sin you’ve ever done, I mean in general—”Lord, I am a sinner and come to You in need of Your grace and mercy.” We are only worthy because of what Jesus has done for us—when we examine ourselves, this is what we are remembering. Our salvation comes from outside us through the body and blood of Jesus, just like our life is sustained by food and drink that comes from outside us. There is a great mystery here. Approach with reverence.

The Corinthian church was really into their worship services. I think they made the craziest charismaniacal freakshows of our day look like a Sunday nap. Their worship was off the rails. Everyone talking at once, speaking in tongues nobody understood, trying to out-prophesy each other, constantly interrupting, no sense of order or decency. Like a kindergarten classroom with a case of Red Bull and the teacher left the room.

Paul actually says they’re acting like babies, so that’s not far off.

I used to be part of a church where everyone would speak in tongues, the pastor would speak gibberish into a microphone. It looked completely insane.

You might think I’m being mean. I’m not. At least not any more than St Paul. In chapter 14 he says, ‘If the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders come in, won’t they think you’ve lost your minds?’”

But Paul doesn’t just shut all their spiritual enthusiasm down. He doesn’t say their spiritual gifts are bad. He says everything should be done decently and in order. And he also says there’s something much more important they should be focused on… 

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Corinthians 13:1

Without love, it’s all missing the point. Then he gives us the best definition of love the world has ever known:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends… So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

That’s the glue of the church, not spiritual fireworks. Not how emotional the music makes us feel. Not how much we cry or dance around or whatever else makes us feel “spiritual.” None of those things are the point.

They’ll know we are Christians by our love for one another. By our patience and kindness. By how we don’t insist on our own way. How we’re not irritable or resentful. How we forgive each other. How we are good to each other. 

How do you think we’re doing at that? Yes, we have faith in God. Yes, we have hope in the promise of salvation and eternal life. Faith, hope. But more than those things—the greatest treasure in the church is love. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” How did He love us?

Do you have a problem with anyone in our church? Are you keeping track of the ways someone has offended you? Holding things against them? It’s not good. 

And then comes chapter 15, the big crescendo. Corinth was every bit as secular minded and philosophical as Athens. They had just as many intellectual Greeks who thought the whole idea of an actual physical resurrection was kooky talk. And that idea had infected this church. Some of them were saying it’s all “spiritual.” When we die, our spirit leaves our body and goes to heaven—and that’s it. Souls in heaven forever while the discarded shells rot in the ground. They thought the same thing about Jesus—that He was “spiritually” raised. Not His body.

That’s not Christianity. Paul says…

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17

If the resurrection didn’t really happen, then Christianity is a joke. There’s no point to any of this. All this church stuff and believing in Jesus is pathetic. But thankfully Paul goes on to say this, “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead, (over 500 eyewitnesses saw Him walk the earth again) the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Which means death is not the end of you or your body. On Judgment Day, your spirit will rejoin your resurrected body. Jesus is just the first in the resurrection, the rest of us are all going to do exactly the same thing He did. And on that day, when Jesus returns at the end of time, death will lose all its power…

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’  1 Corinthians 15:51-58

That’s the best news ever. That’s the Gospel.

In chapter 16 he wraps up with a big hug: “Let all that you do be done in love. … My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.” As hard as he’s been on them in this letter, he signs off with love. Hugs and kisses. “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” We should probably stick with a handshake or a hug.

You know, everything Paul wrote to that little church in Corinth, he could have written to us. We’ve got our divisions. We’ve got our sin. We’ve got our pride and our selfishness. We’re tempted to make church all about what we like, something we attend when we feel like it, when we’re not too busy—instead of a community of love where we’re committed to showing up and encouraging each other just by being here. Like the Corinthians, there’s a lot we could be doing better.

But the same word Paul gave them, God gives us: The cross of Christ is the center. It looks like foolishness to the perishing but it is the power of God for those being saved. The greatest thing we have is love, and love looks like Christ crucified for you—we are bound together in His love. 

Your sins are forgiven, and your labor in the Lord is never in vain. You are washed in baptism. You are sanctified by grace through faith. You are justified in the name of Jesus. You are His body, His temple, His beloved child. You are His church. He hasn’t given up on you. He won’t.

He didn’t give up on Corinth, and He’s not giving up on NewChurch.

So we keep the cross at the center. We let the resurrection reshape our hope. We let love guide our freedom. And we stand firm in Christ, who is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. God is faithful, He has called you into fellowship with each other and communion with His Son. No matter how messy the church gets, Christ crucified and risen must remain the center—it’s His cross, His resurrection, and His love hold us together in unity. AMEN.