Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20070107.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds
I. Finding Hope For Progress In God's Gracious Work In Believers
(1 Corinthians 1:1-9)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

This past week, several people in our Church body have been faced with what can seem to be overwhelming spiritual failure in the lives of others that can discourage us in our own walk with Christ:

(1) On Stub Hollow Road here in New Hartford not far from our Church, a young man who had before been in trouble with the law stabbed several other young men with a knife, killing one of them! The family of the deceased is well known by various people in our Church, and this has been a shock to our community, not to mention to those of us who know the family.

(2) Then, two Church prayer chain requests came in this week regarding serious substance abuse by professing Christians! Several believers I spoke with regarding one case on Wednesday told me they felt so numbed by it that they could not even pray!

(3) I received an e-mail the same Wednesday from one of our deacons who noted that CNN reported a nationally known Evangelical leader has said "that God told him during a recent prayer retreat" that terrorists will destroy many Americans near the end of 2007 and that the U. S. is pushing Israel toward "national suicide"!

However, as the e-mail author noted, this Evangelical leader has already had a former prophecy proven to be false, so he is a false prophet who is not to be heeded according to Deuteronomy 18:20-22!

Nevertheless, many Christians hang on this leader's every word, a fact that can discourage us who know better!



So, in view of the spiritual failure we see in other people or in other professing believers, not to mention in OURSELVES, we may ask, "Is it REALLY worth my WHILE even to TRY to live a godly life for Christ?! WHY and/or HOW can it be DONE?!"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "I am tempted to give up trying to live for Christ due to the failings I see in others, let alone in my own life! Any suggestions?!"
  1. The Corinthian believers had "an astonishing variety" of wrong beliefs and practices, cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., p. 1619.
  2. However, Paul's 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 introduction is PACKED with ENCOURAGING evidences of God's GRACIOUS WORK that OVERCOMES such SINFUL WEAKNESSES (as follows):
    1. First, Paul who wrote the letter himself exemplified God's triumphant grace in his conversion and Christian service, 1 Cor. 1:1a et al.:
      1. Before his salvation, Paul as "Saul" led in the stoning death of the Church's first martyr, Stephen, and followed this act by fanatically persecuting the Church, Acts 7:58; 8:1-3; 1 Timothy 1:12-13.
      2. Yet, after trusting in Christ due to Christ's gracious appearing to him near Damascus (Acts 9), Paul himself was stoned and left for dead as a missionary only to be revived by God's gracious power, Acts 14:19-20. It was probably at this time that his spirit ascended to God's heavenly presence where Paul heard words graciously to encourage him to serve the Lord back on earth, cf. 2 Cor. 12:1-7.
      3. Later when Paul came to Corinth, he came close to a "nervous breakdown", and graciously ministered in God's power that the Corinthians might trust in God's power and not his, 1 Cor. 2:1-5.
      4. Then, as Paul feared harm from the Corinthians, God graciously gave him a vision to keep him ministering there, Acts 18:1, 8-10.
      5. Thus, by God's great grace, Paul kept ministering for eighteen more months at Corinth, and more people were saved, Acts 18:11!
    2. Second, Paul's reference to his calling as an apostle of Christ through God's will graciously counters what doubt the Corinthian believers themselves had of his own apostolic calling, 1 Cor. 1:1b with 9:1-3.
    3. Third, Sosthenes who greeted the Corinthians via Paul's epistle in 1 Corinthians 1:1c was a powerful example of God's grace:
      1. The "Sosthenes" of 1 Corinthians 1:1c was well-known to Paul's Corinthian readers, so he is probably the Sosthenes of Acts 18:17 (cf. Harry A. Ironside, First Epistle to the Corinthians , 1966, p. 17).
      2. Sosthenes would thus have exemplified God's overcoming grace:
        1. When Paul initially evangelized at Corinth, he led Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue to faith in Christ, cf. Acts 18:8a.
        2. This influential man's conversion led many others to Christ (Acts 18:8b), so unbelieving Jews retaliated, charging Paul before the Proconsul, Gallio, that Paul taught an illegal religion, Acts 18:12-13; Ibid., Ryrie , ftns. to Acts 18:12 and 18:14-16.
        3. Gallio did not distinguish Christianity from legal Judaism and so drove the Jews from his court, Acts 18:14-16; Ibid.
        4. This reaction by Gallio gave anti-Semitic Greeks an opportunity to beat Sosthenes who had replaced Crispus as chief ruler of the synagogue that opposed Paul, Acts 18:17 with Acts 18:8!
        5. Thus, Sosthenes who was once beaten for opposing Paul as an unbeliever and had since believed in Christ and helped Paul, so he was a trophy of God's overcoming grace, 1 Cor inthians 1:1b!
    4. Fourth, Paul's reference to the Corinthians as being positionally "sanctified in Christ Jesus" as "saints" stands in astounding contrast to the lack of the experiential spiritual failures of these same Christians:
      1. Some of the dreadfully unholy actions of the Corinthian believers were gross immorality (1 Cor. 5:1-2), the abuse of the Lord's Table (1 Cor. 11:20-22), the abuse of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:1-5) and the denial of the bodily resurrection of the believer (1 Cor. 15:12)!
      2. Regardless of these failures, in God's great grace, they were still postionally sanctified in Christ and called to be saints, 1 Cor. 1:2!
    5. Fifth, Paul's extension of grace and peace to these Corinthians from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in view of all these spiritual problems encourages us in the hope that God WILL disciple His Church regardless of its great spiritual failings, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:3!
    6. Sixth, Paul's thanksgiving that God had given the Corinthians all the spiritual gifts was a gracious expression of God's favor in view of the Corinthians' abuse of these same gifts, 1 Cor. 1:4-7 with 14:23, 26.
    7. Seventh, Paul's claim that God would confirm the Corinthians blameless in the end reveals God's gracious unconditional salvation security for them regardless of their experiential failures, 1 Cor. 1:8-9.
Application: If troubled by the spiritual defeat we see in others or ourselves, (1) realize that the power of God's GRACE is VERY available and sufficient to help, and (2) TRUST in Christ to be saved, John 3:16. Then, (3) relying on God's indwelling Holy Spirit to live rightly (Romans 8:3-4), (4) may we confess the sins we have done as believers (1 John 1:9) and go ON in the Lord!

Lesson: Though the Corinthian believers were steeped in wrong beliefs and practices as to their EXPERIENCE, the OVERCOMING GRACE of GOD that SURROUNDED them in MANY ways was ABLE to give them VICTORY over such sinful weaknesses EVEN in their EXPERIENCE!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

God's overcoming grace was evident in the preparation of this message, and though I could report several testimonies to that fact, a striking one came my way on Friday morning this last week.

I had previously written up another closing illustration to use in this message, one that perfectly fit the truth of this sermon's point but which also bordered on being insensitive and thus unedifying to use.

Well, feeling unsettled Friday morning about the issue, I read my e-mail to find a final message from the believer who (as you recall from this sermon's "Introduction") had earlier informed me of the Evangelical leader who had made the questionable predictions based on an alleged message from God in a "recent prayer retreat".

This member of our Church noted that a coworker in his secular job who is not saved has often mocked Christianity because of the errant Charismatic practice of "speaking in tongues", a practice this coworker despises. When predictions like the national Evangelical leader with a Charismatic bent are then made, it gives opportunity for this unsaved man to make more scornful remarks about Christianity!

However, as this Church member closed his final e-mail message to me, in a positive note, he wrote: " . . . it would be better if we only had secular folks on the team against [our stand for the truth] and not also brothers [like this well-known Evangelical]. But, praise the Lord that He is our Rock and Foundation. And our trust and faith is in Him. He will overcome."



I couldn't resist including this message here as our final illustration! GOD HIMSELF evidently wants US to know that His ABUNDANT, OVERCOMING GRACE in our STANDING in Christ is available to EQUIP us to BE OVERCOMERS of sinful failure in our WALK!

May we then believe in Christ to be saved, then rely upon His indwelling Holy Spirit to LIVE TRIUMPHANTLY over past sinful failure as BELIEVERS, and that REGARDLESS of the failure that may occur around us!