Hope for Messy Churches

1:02As far as I can tell, she has become a multi-millionaire by telling Americans two things. You have too much stuff, your stuff is on the floor. I feel like I say that a thousand times a day, as probably do all of the parents in the room. What I love, though, about Marie Kondo is that she can look at a mess. And she can see something beautiful. In fact, if you've ever seen the show's intro, she says, I'm so excited because I love mess.

1:41And in a way, that is how God feels when he looks at the church. Today we are starting a new series that will last the entire school year through the book of 1 Corinthians. It's called Messi Church. And before we get to the study of the text itself, we need to first understand the context of ancient Corinth, the city, and we need to understand Paul's relationship with the believers who were there in that city. Well, the ancient city of Corinth, as you can see on the map, is situated on this tiny strip of land. It's only four miles across.

2:19It connects northern Greece with southern Greece. It connects the Aegean Sea with the Adriatic Sea. So it is a very strategic location both economically and militarily. Well, in 146 B.C., the Roman Empire was in its process of expansion and globalization. And Corinth, along with the rest of the Greek city-states, did not like this very much. And so they rebelled. Well, Rome didn't like that, so the military marched in, killed most of the people, enslaved the rest, and leveled the city.

2:53About 46 BC, so this is about 100 years later, Julius Caesar takes a look at this place. And he says, this has potential. And so he begins to redevelop it as a Roman colony. He begins to rebuild the city, encouraging large masses of the population, giving them incentives to move there and resettle it. And so 100 years later, it starts to become this very bustling city. It was a true melting pot. And it was similar in its shape and culture and form to many of the megacities that we have today, like Tokyo or Rio or New York City. It was very diverse ethnically, it was diverse culturally, it was diverse religiously. In fact, there were dozens and dozens of temples all throughout the city. And two of the most prominent were the Temple of Aphrodite, who's the goddess of love, and the Temple of Apollo, who was the god of music and also the ideal of male beauty. And so the city was served by thousands of temple prostitutes.

4:00And it became a center of homosexual practice as well. The city was so debaucherous that the phrase to Corinthianize came to mean leading a licentious lifestyle. All over the Roman Empire, women of ill repute were known as Corinthian girls. And so, about a century later, 100 years after this, on his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul comes to this city. City, which we learn about in Acts chapter 18. Now, in God's providence, Paul met two other Jewish believers, Aquila and Priscilla, who were also tent makers like Paul. And they were in Corinth because the Roman Emperor Claudius had driven all of the Jews out of Rome, and so they were resettling in different places. Many of them came to Corinth.

4:51So Paul began his ministry in Corinth like he did in most other places. He first went to the synagogue to the Jews. He began preaching the gospel there. And as usual, unfortunately, also, he was kicked out of the synagogue. They didn't want to hear any more of his message. But there was a lot of fruit. And one person who became a believer was a guy named Titius Justus, who owned the house next door to the synagogue and said, Paul, why don't you come over here and preach instead? So he literally moves next door and begins preaching the gospel there. And the gospel just takes root and takes off. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, is converted, along with his whole family. Many other Corinthians come to faith in Christ. But remember, Paul is not doing well when he gets to Corinth. On this missionary journey, he has experienced all kinds of persecution and difficulty. In Philippi, he was beaten and arrested.

5:49He then went to Thessalonica and to Berea, where he was chased out of the city twice by the Jewish leaders. And then he came to Athens, where he preaches. That great message in the Areopagus in Acts 17, but he gets this lukewarm reception, right? Some believed, but some mocked him, and others said, Look, we'll hear you some more about this, but we don't know. And so, when Paul comes into Corinth, he is kind of limping physically, probably emotionally, spiritually. And so, look at what the Lord says to Paul in Acts 18 as he's there ministering in Corinth. Look at this encouragement. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. What an encouragement. God knows exactly what we need when we need it, and Paul needed that encouragement. And so he stays there for another year and a half ministering the word. And after 18 months in Corinth, he leaves to take the gospel message elsewhere.

7:04The church there is established enough, and so he moves on. And one of the places that he ends up next is a place called Ephesus. He goes there and then he comes back and he ends up staying there for three years. And during Paul's time in Ephesus, two things happen: one, a letter comes to him, actually a series of letters from Corinth, from the leadership of the church saying, Hey, we've got a bunch of problems that we're dealing with. We need your help.

7:29The other thing, Is that a delegation actually came to Paul from Corinth to say, hey, listen, your letter is taking too long. We need help now. And so the situation is very serious. There's a lot of issues going on. And so that's why Paul writes what we know as 1 Corinthians to deal with all of those issues and challenges and struggles that the church was facing. The list was long. There were questions about Paul's apostleship and his authority. There was division over preachers, sexual immorality, legal battles, unhealthy marriages, abuse of Christian freedoms, confusion about worship, and doubts about the resurrection of Jesus brought on by false teachers who had infiltrated the church. That's just some of the problems that they were dealing with.

8:18What a mess. But friends, since every church is made up of sinners who are being conformed to the image of Christ, every church is messy. And thankfully, God is in the business of transforming messy churches into beautiful displays of his glory. That's Paul's message to the Corinthians. And 2,000 years later, that is still his message to us today: that God is in the business of transforming messy churches into beautiful displays. Of his glory. And so I hope that as we begin this study and continue it through the year, you are going to be challenged, you are going to be encouraged, because we, like the Corinthian church, are messy.

9:13We have issues and problems and challenges of our own today, as every church does. And so I hope and pray that this series is going to encourage us and challenge us to be that beautiful display of God's glory that He desires us to be and that He calls us to be. Well, friends, our text today can be divided into two parts. In verses one through three, you have Paul's initial greeting to the church, and then his prayers for the church make up verses four through nine. Now, it is tempting for many modern Bible readers to skim these introductions or to skip them entirely. Can I get a witness? Has anybody ever skipped an introduction to a letter? I've got three honest people in the room. Four or five. I see those hands. I see that hand back there. We'll wait. Yes. Okay, so we all have skimmed or skipped introductions to letters before, right? But, friends, if we do that, then we risk misunderstanding and misapplying what the rest of the letter is about. We also miss out on the opportunity for rich theological reflection because these verses are packed. And Paul has packed this greeting with four themes that will be developed in all the remaining chapters of the Lord. Letter. The themes are authority, ownership, holiness, and unity. Authority, ownership, holiness, and unity. The first theme is authority. And as I mentioned earlier, the false teachers were a big problem. They questioned Paul's message and his credentials as an apostle. And so, right here, look at verse 1. Paul reminds them where his authority comes from. He says, Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.

11:10The word apostle means messenger or sent one. He was called by the will of God to be a messenger or sent one of Christ Jesus. You see, friends, Paul was not sitting in his high school guidance counselor's office one day and said, You know, I think I might like a career as an apostle. That sounds interesting. Get to travel the world, experience new places. He did not say that. In fact, look at what we find in Galatians 1:14 as Paul is giving his own testimony. He says, And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the tradition of my fathers.

11:54See, not only was Paul not interested in becoming a messenger of Jesus, He had actually dedicated his life to wiping out both the followers of Jesus and their message. He did not want to become an apostle. But on the road to Damascus, Jesus revealed himself to Paul, blinding him with his glory. And then Jesus appeared to a Christian leader named Ananias and then sent him to Paul so that he could share with him this message of who Jesus really is. And Ananias, this Christian leader, is like, Lord, I'm not sure if you know this, but Paul is actually killing Christians.

12:36This might not be a great person to send me to. And I want to remind you what Jesus says to Ananias. He tells him, go, because he is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles. And then he adds this, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. Paul did not nominate himself for apostleship. He didn't choose Jesus. Jesus chose him and authorized him to serve as an apostle. So when Paul writes and we read his letters, we are reading these words that were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

13:31We are reading the words of a chosen apostle of Jesus Christ, and the words carry God's authority. These are not the words of an impressive spiritual entrepreneur. These are the very words of God. So the first theme is authority. The second theme is ownership. I want you to look again now at verse 2. Who is Paul writing to? To the church of God that is in Corinth. Whose church is it? It is God's church. And that's very relevant. Because starting next week, we're going to see that the church was divided over many issues, particularly over spiritual leaders and preachers in the church. Some people are saying they follow Paul. Some are saying they follow Apollos. Some are saying they follow Peter. Some even are saying that they follow Jesus. That's a super spiritual crew.

14:37And so there's all of this division. And Paul reminds them right here at the outset of his letter in this greeting that the church does not belong to any human leader. It is God's church, not Paul's, not Apollos's, not Peter's, and not yours or mine. And that is a challenging reminder to. All of us. None of us own this church. New life is not my church. This is not Pastor Allen's church. It's not Pastor Allen's platform for him to have a social media presence in the world. This is God's church. I don't own it. You don't own it. He is the owner. He is the author and perfecter. It belongs to God. And the longer that a church exists, we're now in our 11th year, the longer a church exists, the more temptation there is for people to start acting like owners rather than stewards of what God has entrusted to us. And so Paul, right off the bat, says, listen, you are the church of God. Don't forget that. So the second theme is ownership. The third theme is holiness.

15:54Holiness. Look again at verse 2. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now, the word sanctified is a word that if you've grown up in church or if you've been reading the scriptures, you're at least familiar with that word. It means something like consecrated, dedicated, set apart, made holy. It has that kind of range of meaning. And as we've discussed today, and you may remember if you've read 1 Corinthians before, many of the Corinthians. Corinthians are not exactly living the holiest lives. Not exactly living the most dedicated, set apart lives.

16:38There are lawsuits and sexual immorality, a general lack of love for one another. And yet, when Paul writes to them, he calls them those sanctified. I don't normally become Greek nerd up here, but this is a perfect passive participle. That doesn't matter. What matters is this. What that means is it is a verb describing something that has happened to a noun. A verb describing something that has happened to a noun. Well, what's the noun? The noun is the Corinthians, the Corinthian believers. And what happened to them, according to Paul, is that they have been sanctified. Past tense. They've been consecrated. They've been dedicated. They've been set apart. They've been declared holy. This has happened to them. And so you see, although the Corinthians aren't living the perfectly holy lives that they are called to live, in God's eyes, they are those sanctified. God looks at them through the person and work of Jesus.

17:57What a glorious reality. God views every person who trusts in Jesus Christ not as a sinner, but as a saint. He views us not as we once were. He doesn't even view us as we are now. He views us as we are and will be in Christ. What a glorious reality that we are viewed not through the lens of our works and our failures and our sins. We are viewed by God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Yes, sanctification is ongoing. Yes, it will take a lifetime of becoming more and more holy. And even at the ends of our lives, we won't be as holy as we have been called to be or as we need to be. But friends, the good news is that we are already sanctified. We are already looked at and thought of as holy by God because Jesus, our Savior, is holy.

19:01So that third theme is holiness. And then the final theme is unity. Unity. Look again at the text. 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. Paul reminds us of the Lord. Them at this point that through faith in Christ, they are united together with all other believers around the world. Believers from every tribe and every tongue and every nation, they are united together. And since that's true, what Paul is saying is that every local church, including the Corinthian church, should be a display of that unity.

19:57Though every church is going to be comprised of a diverse group of people, you see, friends, I think most Christians believe in the idea of our unity with the universal church. You won't find too many Christians who are going to say, no, I don't think we are called to, I don't think we should, I don't think we have unity with all believers around the world. There are not many people who are going to say that. I think most all of us agree that we are called to that unity and that we have that unity. But what we have to understand is that it's meaningless to speak of unity with people that you may never meet in this life and not pursue unity in a local church with real flesh and blood people who share your faith, but who may be different ethnically, culturally, economically, demographically.

20:59Paul calls These Christians, and he calls us today to that kind of unity, to display a compelling unity that will actually draw non-Christians to the gospel. What did Jesus Himself say? All men will know that you are my disciples, if what? If you have great programs, if you have nice facilities, if you think the right thoughts, no. By the way that we love one another, we're called to that kind of compelling unity that is a beautiful display of God's glory.

21:44So, friends, how about all that? In just the first two verses, Paul has introduced the themes of authority and ownership and holiness and unity. And so, in verse 3, he blesses them with grace and peace. He takes kind of a colloquial greeting and he puts a Christian bent on it. He offers them the grace and peace that comes through Jesus Christ. And then he jumps into the body of the letter itself. And what I want you to see here, this is so notable, Paul doesn't jump right into this list of problems and concerns. And the list is long, so it would be understandable if he did that. He doesn't do that. What does he do? He begins. With his prayers.

22:32And I find this remarkable. His prayers are prayers of thanksgiving. See, there's this old adage that says, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And so, Paul, before he ever jumps into correction, rebuke, helping them to get a lot of things right that they've gotten wrong in the last few years, he wants to let them know, I pray for you. I pray for you all the time, and I am thankful to God.

23:09And what is Paul thankful for? Three things: God's people, God's grace, and God's faithfulness. God's people, grace, and faithfulness. First, he starts off by giving thanks for God's people. Yes, even these Corinthians that have so many problems and are causing Paul such heartache and concern and trouble. I mean, just ask yourself: how often do you give thanks for people who cause you problems and trouble and heartache? Just every day. God, I'm so thankful that I'm surrounded by difficult, impossible people. What a blessed life this is.

23:54Paul gives thanks for them, people who are fighting and suing each other and probably not making judgments. Jesus looks very great to the surrounding culture. But Paul is able to give thanks because he is thinking of them and he is looking at them through the lens of Christ. He is not thinking of them and looking at them as they are, but as God sees them, like we just talked about. He is looking at them as God sees them, as sanctified people, holy people called to live holy lives, but who are still struggling with sin.

24:33He thinks of them in that way. And I believe that if we saw people like God sees us in Christ, and if we extended the same grace to other people that we want them to extend to us when we sin and fail and let others down, then I think we too can give thanks for messy people, even the ones that make our lives difficult. So just ask yourself this question today: Are you thankful for all of God's people?

25:09Second, Paul gives thanks for God's grace. And in particular, he gives thanks for God's grace that's been poured out for them in the form of spiritual gifts. Now, you notice here in the text, he highlights two: gifts of speech and gifts of knowledge. And so with the gifts of speech, we're talking about teaching and prophecy, even speaking in other languages, as Paul is going to address in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14. With gifts of knowledge, he's talking about things like wisdom and discernment and understanding that come from the Spirit. And he gives thanks because God gave them these gifts to build one another up in love.

25:54They were so enriched by God's grace poured out in this form that Paul, look at what he says in verse 7. He says, you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as I enjoy pointing out, this is second-person plural you. Every you in this passage is plural, so it's Texan, y'all. So the verse is really, y'all are not lacking in any gift as y'all wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea here is not that you personally have been given every single spiritual gift and you lack nothing, but as a part of the body of Christ, the body of Christ together, the local church, you, y'all, are not lacking in any spiritual gift. We have everything that we need to persist in faith and love and self-control until Jesus returns. Because, friends, when Jesus returns, we don't need the gifts any longer. Now we see in a mirror dimly, as Paul's going to say later, then we will see. And know him in full, even as he fully knows us now.

27:05But until then, God has given them everything that they need. He's given the body of Christ everything that they need through these gracious gifts to build one another up in love. So ask yourself the question: Am I using my spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ in the local church? Third and finally, Paul gives thanks for God's faithfulness. Verses 8 and 9 are just about as encouraging as it gets for a struggling church or even a struggling Christian. No matter how much they're struggling with sin, struggling to live holy lives that honor God and reflect the character of Christ, they can be encouraged because God will sustain them to the end.

27:57That is his promise. He is the one who called them, and he will never rescind. He will never take back that calling. They can know that they will be found guiltless on the day that Jesus returns because his righteousness is credited to them through their faith in his perfect life, his death on the cross for their sins, and his resurrection from the dead. In fact, anyone who trusts in Christ, his life, death, Resurrection is counted righteous and will be found guiltless on the day that Jesus returns. He kept the law for us and he died for our failures to keep the law perfectly. That is the good news of the gospel. God is faithful. This should encourage the Corinthians, and friends, it should encourage us today as well.

28:55You will not be saved by all of your efforts to be perfectly faithful to God. You will be saved because no matter what, God is perfectly faithful to you. And so ask yourself: are you thankful daily for God's faithfulness to you? Friends, the Corinthian church was messy. There was a long list of problems and challenges that were the result of sinful attitudes and sinful behaviors. But don't forget, every single church is messy because every church is comprised of people in process, people who are in the process of being conformed to the image of Christ.

29:55And thankfully, God is in the business of transforming messy. Churches into beautiful displays of his glory. Many of you here today are visiting for the very first time, or you started visiting recently. And as you will soon learn, new life is not a perfect church. Every member here already knows that. But new life is God's church. And so he continues to pour out his grace upon us. He continues to make us into a holier people. He continues to demonstrate his faithfulness and to unify us together as a body of Christ. He will sustain us to the end because even when we as a church are not completely faithful to him, he is always and forever faithful to us.

30:53And those truths should encourage even the messiest churches and the messiest people. Let's pray. Father, we are so aware of our imperfections, our failures to obey your word perfectly at all times, our lack of love for the lost and even for other Christians, even other Christians in our local church. When we read 1 Corinthians, I pray that we would not be. Become puffed up as though we don't deal with a lot of the same issues. Maybe they look a little differently, but they're the same root issues.

31:40And so, God, we pray as we embark on this study that you would speak to our hearts, that you would pour out your grace upon us, that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit to do what is humanly impossible, to do what is impossible in the flesh, to love other people who are as difficult as we are. And we pray that as you continue to make us into a holy people, we pray that we would more and more become that beautiful display of your glory that would draw the watching world to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope that can only be found in Him.

32:27Thank you for preserving Paul's words to the Corinthians for 2,000 years so that we could be encouraged and challenged by them today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.