Sermon Notes:

If you profess faith in Christ, I would like to ask you a question. Have you ever wondered if you were really a Christian? Maybe there is some persistent sin in your life that causes you doubt or perhaps you just recognize that your heart is all too frequently not Christ-like. The Bible tells us that our good works are evidence of a transformed heart and that we are to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. If you are a believer this morning you should be concerned about that sin. The warnings in the Bible are real warnings and if you are friends with your sin then you are no friend of God. 

We are called to put to death the deeds of the flesh through the Holy Spirit and that is a requirement of saving faith. To presume upon grace is to die in our sins. But there is good news for those who have come to Christ seeking deliverance from sin. Your sensitivity to sin and your hatred for it are evidence of the Spirit of God working in you. The good news is that if we are united to Christ through faith then our good works need not speak for us because we are redeemed on the basis of the perfect work of Jesus Christ. Our assurance is not based upon our performance but on his. 

Our perseverance and final salvation are in His hands. Our redemption is not about me or you, it is about the glory of God in Christ. If our salvation were dependent upon us, we would mess that up for sure, but praise God that our standing before him depends wholly upon His grace. 

Today we begin our series “Growing in Grace” which is a study of 1 Corinthians. We will begin by looking at just the introduction. Many people rush through the introductions. Don’t do that. When I read this introduction and considered the rest of the letter I was very encouraged. I was reminded that I am no less a child of God on a bad day as I am on a good day. I may be a work in progress, but I am an adopted heir of heaven by God’s Grace and to the praise of His glory. This is the main point of our message this morning; believers in Jesus have hope not because of our faithfulness, but because of God’s. 

As we will see, in many ways, the church in Corinth was a mess. There are three categories of sin in the New Testament we are told to flee from, these are idolatry, sexual immorality, and greed. All three of these are issues in Corinth as well as pride and false teaching. The Corinthian letters are a little bit like the cable movie channels of the New Testament. 

Corinth was a very wealthy and powerful city. It was a provincial capital and had two ports that positioned it at the center of trade in the Mediterranean. It was similar to the kind of wealthy international port cities we have today. In our country we could think of places like New York, San Francisco, or New Orleans. Places where people from all over the world pass through and you can hear many languages spoken in the market and observe a mingling of all sorts of customs. It had a reputation as an exciting and wealthy place that had great sports, arts, culture, and business prospects.

Like similar cities today, it also had a reputation for other things. In the Greco-Roman world sexual morals were much looser than in our culture even now. Fornication, prostitution, and even certain categories of rape were acceptable but Corinth stood out even at that time as a place with a reputation for sexual immorality. 

So Corinth is a mixing bowl of all sorts of influences and people. The congregation Paul writes to includes both Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, slaves and wealthy Roman citizens. It is truly a place where the Gospel could go out in all directions both geographically and socially. Paul has a special relationship with this Church, he visited multiple times and likely sent them several letters, two of which are included in the New Testament.

Our letter, 1 Corinthians, is at least the second letter Paul wrote to them. He had written a previous letter that included a warning to them to avoid sexual immoral people. It may have caused some confusion because they sent back a letter asking several questions. Paul then writes 1 Corinthians in response to their letter and  verbal reports about things that were going on in Corinth. 

So reading this letter is a bit like listening to one side of a phone call. We can hear Paul’s side of the conversation and have to fill in the blanks a bit to follow along. The first 6 chapters appear to mostly deal with the oral reports Paul received and the remaining chapters primarily deal with his responses to their questions although Paul seems to connect the two in various places.

The key concern throughout both sections, however, is that their behavior be shaped by the new identity they possess in Christ. This is the most practical of all Paul’s letters. It is a letter that consistently equips the Corinthians to grow in Grace and explains what that looks like and why.  

If you have your Bible please open with me to 1 Corinthians 1:1. If you are using the blue pew Bibles it is page 1187. If you do not own a Bible, please consider that one our gift to you.

1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, ² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

At first glance, this sounds like a pretty typical greeting but if we pay attention we will notice several interesting things. First, Paul is already laying the foundation for his teaching about their new identity as God’s people.

Paul begins by reminding them that his apostleship does not depend upon his eloquence or capabilities, but he is an apostle because God called him. His authority doesn’t come from his popularity, it comes from God. He will build upon this when he talks later about leadership.

Paul is the author as we can see from his consistent use of the first person “I” when speaking of himself but notice that Sosthenes is also identified as sending the letter to them. We learn in Acts 18 there was a Jewish synagogue leader in Corinth with this name but we don’t know for certain if it is the same person. Either way Paul is not alone in his concern for them, which he will allude to later when talks about divisions. 

He  then addresses them as the church of God in Corinth, and adds “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus”. In most of Paul’s letters he addresses the churches on the basis of their calling or justification. He will often refer to them as saints, which he does here also, but this is the only letter where he describes the church as those who are sanctified.

To be sanctified is to be set apart for God’s use. Priests and tools and altars were sanctified in the Old Testament, being set apart for the sacrifices. When using the term to refer to believers it really means to be made like Jesus, to be holy. What is interesting is that as we read the letter we find out they are certainly not acting in a sanctified way. Nevertheless, Paul identifies them this way. Even though much of the letter deals with sin, Paul identifies them according to the new reality they possess in Christ and with the confidence that God’s promises to them are certain.

We can see here that sanctification is not instantaneous, it is a process. All believers are positionally sanctified. Every Christian is claimed by God and set aside for his use. We are holy in the sense that Jesus set us apart for his glory. His word concerning us is so sure that to be declared righteous by faith is to be positionally sanctified. But we see also that practically speaking sanctification is a progressive and ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. That is part of why Paul is writing to them, so that they can grow in spiritual maturity.

We can think of salvation as involving three different aspects of our relationship to sin and holiness. The moment we believe in Jesus we are justified, that is we are freed from the penalty of sin and are declared righteous in relation to the law. From that point on we are being sanctified, or freed from the power of sin in our life. By faith, we are able to increasingly resist the devil and temptation. Finally, when we are raised with Jesus we will be glorified, where we will be freed from the presence of sin. We will have conquered death and will be perfected in holiness. We will be fully freed to live out our new identity in Christ.

Because this is all God’s work, Paul sees the completion of it as certain for those who have become believers. He says they are called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. He calls them saints, which literally means holy ones. Here is this church struggling with division, immorality, pride, and even incestuous adultery and he calls them holy ones.

We sometimes hear about catholic saints such as saint Augustine or saint Benedict. The Roman Church gives that title to people they claim exhibit heroic virtue and have confirmed miracles. Here the apostle Paul is calling these divided, proud, morally permissive Corinthians by that title.

Furthermore, he says that they are saints together with everyone who calls on the name of Jesus. Brothers and sisters do you realize that when you come to Christ, we become saints? We are set aside for God’s use. We do not earn sainthood through heroic virtue and performing miracles. We receive it as a gift of grace through faith in Christ.

What is even more remarkable is what this new identity implies about the Kingdom of God. The phrase “to call upon the Lord” which Paul uses applies to believers in Jesus is a common Old Testament way of describing the worship of the one true God. 

A key theme in the Old Testament is that God has chosen a specific place for people to call upon His name. God made a covenant with Israel and chose Jerusalem as His holy city and the Temple as His dwelling place on earth. Worshipping the True God was always connected with the tabernacle and later the temple and there were special rules for those who could not go up to Jerusalem on pilgrimage.

Another theme in the Old Testament though was a promise that a time was coming when God would glorify His name throughout the world. For example, in Malachi 1:11 the prophet records God’s rebuke of the priests saying, ¹¹ For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.  

In John’s gospel we see this come up in Jesus conversation with the woman at the well,

John 4:20–24: ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Paul is saying that these Corinthians are participating in the fulfillment of the Messianic promises. Through faith in Christ they and we have become citizens of the kingdom God promised to establish. Another way to say it is that the Last Days have begun and they are participating in it. 

Brother and sisters, so are we. There is a chain of promises going all the way back to Adam, and through Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and David all the way down to us today. Along with these Corinthians, by God’s grace, we have been included in the restoration of God’s creation to His glory. We are his saints, his holy ones, and he is at work in us to bring glory to his name. 

Through the eyes of the world, the church at Corinth and the church in Southgate may not look like anything special but Paul says they are the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promises to bring forth a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness will reign and God will be glorified. 

Back in 2016 a man bought two items at an estate sale in Concord, Massachusetts; a fake jade necklace for $1 and a small drawing of the Virgin Mary and Child for $30. In 2019 he was considering selling the drawing to someone who wanted the frame when a friend who was a rare book dealer suggested it might be valuable and connected him with an art dealer named Clifford Shorer. After looking at the drawing Mr. Shorer recognized the style as that of the famous 16th century artist Albrecht Dürer. The process of authenticating the piece as from Dürer is still underway, but the watermark on the paper and the style of the drawing suggest that it certainly came from Dürer’s studio. The piece is worth at least $12 million dollars and if it is certified as the work of Albrecht Dürer personally, it would be worth around $50 million dollars.

I wonder how many people walked past this masterpiece sitting in an estate sale because they didn’t know what they were looking at. To them it didn’t look much different from the  items surrounding it. But to someone with a trained eye, who knew what to look for, it’s value was unmistakable. That is often the way it is with Christians. 

When the world looks at us they don’t see anything special. Just walk into just about any church and what do you see according to the flesh? Just people similar to what you would find elsewhere in that community. Nobody important or powerful or influential. No leading thinkers. You will meet some people who are doing well in various ways but also many who are dealing with the things common in any group. People are depressed, ungrateful, addicted, tired, worn out, afraid, bitter, and struggling with greed, lust, pride, and all sorts of other sins.

But what do we see when we look according to the spirit? We see something glorious and beautiful. Though we are not rich, we are heirs of  the treasures of heaven. Though we are not powerful, we are invincible in our mission. Though we are not philosophers, we are the custodians of the highest wisdom and truth. Though we suffer and die we have been granted immortality. Yes, we struggle with sin but in Christ we are no longer slaves to it.

Paul begins by reminding the Corinthians of the promises they have already received and the great calling to which they have been called. It might be hard to see that if you don’t know what to look for. We are not yet what we will be but we already possess this new identity. In fact, the Christian life is really a calling to live in light of this new identity. We can be confident that this is who we are because God has said it is so.

Look at how Paul continues to encourage these believers,

⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,

Paul thanks God for his work in these believers. It is nothing they did that earned the blessing of being called as children of God, that much is clear from the rest of the letter. It is God who has called them, equipped them, and will perfect them. Paul is going to correct and rebuke them but first he wants them to know that he loves them and prays for them. He can hold them to the high standards of the Christian life because they have Christ.

Paul isn’t just going to tell them what they should do, he also reminds them of how they are able to do it. This is my desire as a pastor as well. That in every instruction there is grace. That every correction always also points also to Christ who enables us. 

Paul finishes the introduction by mentioning several aspects of the grace they have received that he will build on in the rest of the letter.

⁵ that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— ⁶ even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

First, they were blessed in speech and knowledge. They could adequately proclaim the gospel and had been equipped with all the knowledge they needed to grow in it. This church had been blessed with many gifted preachers and teachers. Paul had spent 18 months there,  Apollos was there, Aquila and Priscilla spent time there, the apostle Peter and his wife apparently visited, and several other gifted preachers no doubt passed through. They did not lack good preaching or theological sophistication. I am sure they heard many great sermons and theological discussions. 

They must have known several doctrines very well and Paul says the testimony about Christ was confirmed among them. He also says they did not lack any gift. These are gifts given by the Holy Spirit for the building up of the church. Paul says every possible gift was in operation in the Corinthian church. Preaching, teaching, prophesy, tongues, whatever else; you name it, it was a gift enjoyed in Corinth. 

Their problem was not a lack of basic doctrine or a lack of gifts. Of course, there were many things they did not know, but in the things they received they were well taught and well equipped. Their main problem was application. It was the way they used these gifts and knowledge. 

I think in this way Corinth is very similar to churches in our own country. There are many churches that clearly preach and teach the Bible and who are blessed with tremendous gifts but who remain weak because there is too little emphasis on actually applying the gifts and teaching to the lives of people. As we will see in the coming weeks, the Gospel has radical implications, and it is offensive to those who are comfortable with themselves. 

There are too many comfortable churches today where there is little if any distinction between church members and their unbelieving neighbors. Paul does what any good pastor would do. He addresses them in the confidence that those who are believers will be perfected and then he confronts them with their sin so they can pursue the holiness they are called to.

In the coming chapters, he will rebuke them and instruct them, but he does not do so legalistically. In fact, the very foundation of his discipline is his love for them and so although he is severe, he offers not just correction but also confidence. He encourages them to persevere as they wait for the revelation of Jesus Christ,

⁸ who [he says in verse 8] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Although there are many issues in Corinth, Paul says they will be guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the day when Christ will come in judgment. It is a great and terrible day when the motives and thoughts of all men will be revealed and weighed in the balance. Men and women will be evaluated not on how they appear but on how they actually are.

God is righteous and will judge righteously. Everyone who has undermined the goodness of God’s creation has earned a sentence of separation from God’s goodness in hell where we would experience his wrath instead. But the Bible says that God is not only holy, but also loving. He sent his son Jesus into the world to live without sin and then to offer himself as a pure and perfect sacrifice in exchange for every sinner who would put their faith in him.

Jesus satisfied the wrath of God by being tortured and crucified on a cross in the place of those who believe in him. He already took the punishment in place of those he saves. The price must be paid. If we accept the payment Jesus made on our behalf the judge can let us go because our debt is paid. If we do not, then we must pay for it ourselves. Which will you choose? Three days after he was killed, Jesus was resurrected, proving he had overcome sin and death. The price was paid, and he is able to save all those who put their faith in him. 

This is what Paul points the Corinthians to for their hope. This is the same hope we have, indeed, it is the only hope offered to sinners. On that great and terrible day of the Lord when Christ comes in power and glory, when the mountains will tremble and the skies are rolled up like a lampshade, those who are in Christ will be found guiltless. Those faithful Corinthians will be pure as fresh snow and so will those of us who put our trust in Christ.

Why is that? Is it because of our worthiness? No. Paul tells us,  ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. There is a day when Christ will return but God has already begun building his kingdom in his church. We are among the first to participate in the fulfillment of the promises of God that in the last days he will glorify himself by purifying a people for himself. We are his holy ones, we are his witnesses, and we are his people because of the grace we have received in Christ.

In the coming weeks we are going to look at this church in Corinth. We are going to see idolatry, sexual immorality, selfishness, doctrinal errors, and pride. We are also going to see the Holy Spirit working through the apostle Paul to do reconstructive surgery transforming them into the image of Christ because they are the saints of God. In the same way, we may look at our church and our own lives and see much that is poor and weak but if you believe then make no mistake, there is a crown for you. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, we who appeared dead will be raised to glory.

Believer, you were not made a saint or adopted as a child of God because you deserved it. You were not chosen because you were worthy, far from it. Our sanctification and our future glory no more rest upon our own merit than did our justification. Can you imagine a father or mother who went through the entire process to adopt a child and then leave them behind at the adoption center? Then neither can we imagine a perfect Father setting aside a people for his glory and then abandoning them to the very corruption he came to rescue them from.

Let’s pray. Father God, we pray that the Holy Spirit will work through your precious Word to transform us by the truth of the Gospel. We pray that we will be corrected and challenged and even rebuked in those areas where we are not living by faith. We pray also that you will encourage us and empower us by your Spirit to understand and apply your Word so that we too will have the confidence that you will complete the good work you began in us and that we would truly live as saints of God.

Amen