Reviewing the Foundation Laid

Transcript

GR 1310
11-13-05
Reviewing the Foundation Laid
1 Corinthians 1-4
Gil Rugh


We've been studying the book of 1 Corinthians together.  I want to pause in our move forward through the book to do some review.  And I realize that always has the danger of telling you what we have just recently done, but as I've been spending time working in the chapters coming up, and particularly chapter 5 that lies before us, I've been reminded of how foundational what Paul has covered is for everything else that comes.  There are some difficult matters ahead of us in our study of 1 Corinthians.  We're ready to start chapter 5 where we'll have to deal with the issue of immorality in the church and the responsibility of the church to exercise discipline.  And there is more rebuke given to the church for their failure to exercise discipline on the sinning member than there is rebuke given to the sinning member himself.  Serious matter, but a matter that sometimes the church finds hard to follow through on.

When we get to chapter 6 we're going to deal with the matter of disagreements among believers in the church and the resolution of disagreements between believers in the church.  And the handling of these things in a biblical manner.  And I know how difficult that is, and any time we've had church discipline there have been people that have struggled and found it hard to support such action.  And that has followed through with the matter of disagreements among believers in the church.  Oh, yes, we want to handle it biblically, we want to deal with it biblically.  But it's very easy for one party to be upset when it doesn't get handled the way they think it should be handled.  There is a biblical pattern that must be followed and so that will be chapter 6.  We get into chapter 7 we'll get into some matters relating to the family and the home and husbands and wives and marriage and all of that.  We haven't even gotten to the challenging stuff like the place of men and women.  Hopefully the Lord will come before that.

All of this is founded in what has been covered in the first four chapters.  What I would like to do is just highlight for you again some of what was covered in these first four chapters.  Then I want to go to another of Paul's letters and walk through the first chapter of that letter because I am impressed that Paul is writing almost the exact same thing to another church in another place on another continent.  And the Spirit of God has directed that there be this kind of repetition in His Word so that we are constantly reminded.  You might think with an infinite God it is not possible for us, even through all eternity to exhaust the knowledge of the living God.  And I can't grasp it.  Even in a perfected body, perfected mind, in a hundred billion years there will still be an infinite amount of things for us to learn about the living God.  That's overwhelming.  With all of that for God to make known, I am amazed at how much He has chosen to repeat Himself in His Word.  You would think He would say, I'm going to say everything just once because there is so much I have to tell them.  But he has selectively chosen what He will reveal and make known, and then He has repeated again and again these things so they would be driven home to us.  They are what is necessary for us to know to believe and to live in order to please Him and be prepared for the glory of His presence.

Paul began the letter with some opening remarks that are foundational.  He identified himself as an apostle, a called apostle.  He is in that position by the appointment of God.  That ties to what he is going to say about gifts in the church in the opening verses and it will prepare the way for what he is going to say about gifts in detailed discussion in chapters 12-14.  He serves in a special role in ministry to the church of God by being appointed or called an apostle.  He is writing to the church of God which is at Corinth.  And we talked about the doctrine of the church.  The church began at Pentecost and will conclude at the rapture of the church when we are called into the presence of the Lord in glory.  The church will be comprised of everyone who has become a believer in Jesus Christ from Acts 2 down through the rapture.  That's the universal church.  The manifestation of the church in the world is the local church. Churches like this and other churches are the manifestation of God's people in the world.  Paul is writing to the church of God which is at Corinth.  They are the ones who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.  He uses some words here that are picked up later.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 3:16, do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  You, the church, are a temple of God.  The Spirit of God dwells in you, you are the dwelling place of God's Spirit.  If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.  For the temple of God is holy.  He doesn't say the temple of God should be holy, the temple of God should become holy, but you are the temple of God and you are holy.  That's what you are, a holy temple.  I come here because of the word holy.  Back up to chapter 1 again.  He says he is writing to the church of God which is made up of those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus.  They are saints by calling.  That word sanctified is the saints and the word holy that we just read over in chapter 3 verse 17.  All come from the same basic Greek word, they are different forms of the same basic word.  And to be holy is to be set apart, to be sanctified is to be set apart, to be a saint is to be one who has been set apart.  So the same basic idea pervades all of these words.  God's people are commanded to be holy for He is holy, set apart from all sin and all defilement.  We are those who have been sanctified, set apart by God for Himself.  We are saints, holy ones, those who have been set apart by God in Christ, cleansed and made new.  The church is made up of those who are the people of God, those who have been sanctified.  They are the saints.  We could walk around and say, Saint Bill, it is good to see you today.  Saint Joan, how are you.  And on it goes.  We are the saints, we are brothers and sisters in Christ.  We could walk up and say to one, holy one, how are you today?  Oh, I thought only God was holy.  Well, think again.  We have become holy in Christ.  We are the saints, the holy ones.  You are holy, this church is holy, we are holy as God's people.  So preparing the way for what is to be the lifestyle of these people.

Now it just doesn't include the people in the church at Corinth.  The church at Corinth is a manifestation of God's presence in God's people in that place.  But there are other local churches, we'll look at another one in a moment, so Paul says at the end of verse 2, they are joined with all who in every place call on the names of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.  So we are joined together with all other believers in all other places, and other local churches which are the manifestation of God's presence, comprised of God's people.

He desires them to experience the ongoing grace of God.  Understand we are saved by grace and we continue to live by grace, so he says in verse 3, grace to you.  And then in verse 4 he'll talk about the grace that was already given to them.  That grace, we enter into His saving grace when we believe in Christ, and we live in that grace.  Just like our life of faith begins when we believe in Christ and now from there on we live by faith.

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ, that in everything you were enriched in Him.  The testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, in verse 6.  You're not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We're reminded that our salvation in Christ includes what we call justification, our being declared righteous by God on the basis of the finished work of Christ.  It includes our sanctification, our living holy lives as the people that God has set apart from sin for Himself.  It includes our glorification, the ultimate completion of the work of salvation, bringing us to perfection, bodily completion and perfection in the presence of Christ in glory.  That's what he's talking about.  Confirmed, verse 8, to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ when we will be called into His presence and experience the judgment that we have talked about, found blameless.  That will be the day of our glorification.

How do we know about this process, how can we be sure God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Now that introduction really forms the foundation for everything else he is going to say.  We are dealing with a holy people, set apart for a holy God, on their way to a glorious destiny, having received already a finished salvation.  It's amazing, the plan of God.  Now with all the problems, all the difficulties and all the weaknesses of the church at Corinth, you understand this is a great church.  I mean you're going to tell the church at Corinth and when we looked at chapter 3 Paul tells them they are fleshly, you, the ones who are holy, you saints, holy ones, who have been set apart, you're fleshly.  Something is not right.  We see the foundation is in who we are and what we are in Christ.  And that's where he picks up then, when we looked beginning in verse 10 and following.

There are problems in the church, there are divisions, there is conflict, they have centered around favorite personalities, favorite leaders, favorite teachers.  The church at Corinth is fractured.  There are quarrels and fighting and bickering going on, party spirit.  Paul talked about the ridiculousness of that.  What the church needs to do is back up and remind themselves, as great as the Apostle Paul was, as important as his ministry was, he was the founding father, if you will, of the church at Corinth by God's grace.  The focus should not be on him, in that sense, he didn't die for them.  That's what Paul says, verse 13.  Has Christ been divided?  How do you get division in the body of Christ, if it's Christ's church and He is the head of the church, how can you have divisions.  And Paul wasn't crucified for you, was he?  And you weren't baptized in the name of Paul, were you?  Just where is there this division in the church centering on your favorite leaders.  And we know it happens today.  People attach themselves and if their favorite person gets offended and leaves the church, you can be sure there will be an exodus of a certain group.  Why?  That's the one I like, he was my favorite, I'm with him.  We like to think we're not like the Corinthians, but we forget it's not Gil Rugh's church, this is not so-and-so's church, this is the church of Jesus Christ.  I didn't die for you, you weren't baptized in my name, you didn't become disciples of Gil.  You became disciples of Christ.  And on it goes.  The church at Corinth was fractured and the Spirit of God has placed us here because it is an ongoing difficulty in the church, which means they have lost focus on the work of Christ and what the church is as the body of Christ, comprised of the people that belong to Christ, who are to be the servants of Christ.

So this leads Paul to talk about the Gospel, which is to be the focal point.  Perhaps I have to remind you, since I had to ask the question, do you think Paul died for you?  Were you baptized in the name of Paul?  Let's back up and review.  Because the way the church gets into problems is we think we have moved beyond just the simplicity of the scripture, and we begin to try to bring the wisdom of the world and mix it with the wisdom of God and think we have to be effective in our day.  And every day, every time period, every culture we have to redo the Word of God or redo our ministry so we will be effective in that context.  And it just isn't so.  The ministry doesn't change, the work that God is doing doesn't change.  So he reminds them in verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel.  There is a place for baptism, baptism has a place of importance, but that's not the issue here.  They easily zero in on which leader, which of the pastors, if we can use terminology we'd use today, baptized me.  Which pastor has played the greatest role in my life?  I'm really attached to him.  I appreciate the rest of the church, but if they weren't here, I'd be out of here.  What do you say?  A family left the church and they said, well so-and-so, I don't know how long they'll be here.  Then when they go, what will we do? I didn't even know what to say.  Why don't you wait and find out?  Well they left, they wanted to leave before something happened to him so they'd be ready, I guess, I don't know.  And so the church depends on One person, depends on Christ.

So Paul says Christ didn't send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel.  There were some he baptized that he enumerates, but that's not what my ministry is.  My ministry was preaching the Gospel.  Not in cleverness of speech, and I keep reminding you, that word cleverness is the word wisdom.  Not in wisdom of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.  The ministry of the church is to give out the message of the cross, unadorned.  It's not, now we have the message of the cross, we don't want to alter it, but now we're going to bring the wisdom of the world.  You know we have sociology, psychology and other things today that will help us to be more effective.  And we're going to take the wisdom of man and join it together with the wisdom of God and we're going to have a ministry for the church today that will make great impact.  That's not God's way, that's not what Paul did.  That's not new.  We think that's because of the development, we understand psychology today, we understand sociology today, we understand philosophy today, we understand things in a way they didn't.  So we can have a more effective ministry.  And nothing has changed.  That's what Paul's argument is, that's the problem with the church at Corinth.  They thought they could take the wisdom of the world and mix it with the message of the cross.  The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  You cannot change that.  The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  So there are only two kinds of people in the world—those who think the message of Jesus Christ crucified to pay the penalty for sin is foolishness, moronic, stupid and those who recognize it is the power of God because through faith in Christ they experienced that power that has brought them salvation.  Now when I think I can bridge the gap by trying to impress and prove to the unbeliever that the message of Christ is true wisdom, then I begin to nullify the effectiveness of the message of the cross.

Verse 21, the end of the verse, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  Verse 23, we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, to Gentiles foolishness, to those who are the called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, Christ the wisdom of God.  You'll note the difference here in how people see the message of the cross is not that someone has gotten smart enough in using the wisdom of the world to impress unbelievers about the wisdom of the cross.  The difference is salvation.  That's all.  The Jews stumble over Christ, the Gentiles think it is foolishness to preach such a message.  Those who are the called of God, they understand that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  This does not impress the powerful, the wise of the world.

Verse 26, consider your calling, brethren, not many wise, mighty, noble.  God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base.  That's God's method.  We always think we can improve on it, and what do we have?  We have Christian celebrities and if someone who would be more well-known to us got saved, first thing we want to do is put them on a platform and get their testimony, because they are somebody.  That will impress the world.  Oh really.  It's not God's plan, it doesn't mean He doesn't save some intelligent people, some people in high places.  But the general plan of God is to use the weak, the base, the dishonored, because God doesn't want to share His glory with anyone.  That no one may boast before God.  By His doing you are in Christ Jesus.  It's a sovereign work of God.

And keeping that balance, so Paul went on through chapter 2 to talk about how he determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified in verse 2.  I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.  We noted, we sometimes think that if you really have a ministry that the Spirit of God is using, there is a certain fearlessness about you.  We think I'm not gifted to do evangelism because it's just not in me, I'm afraid, I tremble, my knees knock.  Well you're in good company.  Paul says I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom.  Same thing he said back in verse 17, not in wisdom of speech, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.  Because all I did was present to you Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Let me tell you, you are a sinner and God has a special plan for saving sinners.  It's not trying to do your best works, it's not getting baptized, it's not getting confirmed.  It's having His Son leave glory and come and die on a cross to pay the penalty for your sins.  And God has had His Son do that and He offers to you the free gift of His salvation, if you will place your faith in His Son, trust Him as your Savior.  There is no other hope for you for salvation, but that is the only hope you need, because if you will respond in faith to what God has done, He will save you.  That's not a message that's geared to impress anybody with your great intellect, your wisdom, your vast understanding of the philosophical issues or the psychological issues or anything else.  It's just the simple plain message that a person who didn't get beyond second grade could share.  And that's what Paul did, went around and shared.

I was thinking this week, I wonder what it would be like if I said the Apostle Paul, special dispensation, the Apostle Paul is going to be here to speak next Sunday.  You probably wouldn't be able to get in, I don't know how big the traffic jam would be.  I thought, I wonder what it would be like if Paul got up and preached, what people would be talking about when he left.  What did you think?  I thought he'd be taller.  You know half the time I couldn't hear him, he dropped his voice, I wish he would have spoken a little louder, and he seemed to not be very fluent.  He'd get halfway through a sentence and then a sentence would become convoluted and I wasn't sure I followed what .........  And you know when all is said and done he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, I expected more.  It's what the Corinthians did, in the second letter they said he wrote better letters than he gave messages.  They said he is better in his letters than he is in person.  We've had people like that.  You've gone to hear an author and you read their book and you couldn't wait to hear them.  When they got done speaking you said, the book is better.  That's sort of what the Corinthians said—the letters are better.  When you see him you won't be impressed and when you hear him you'll even be less impressed.  But something happened.  What?  My message and my preaching, while they weren't in persuasive words of wisdom, they were a demonstration of the Spirit and power.  He said let me tell you about Jesus Christ.  He died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin.  If you'll believe in Him you'll be saved, and people got saved.  That's the message the Corinthian church needed to get back on focus.  It's not about men, it's not about Paul, it's not about Apollos, it's not about their favorite leaders in the church at the present time.  It's about the simplicity of the message of Christ that changes lives and makes people new.

He went on to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit through the rest of chapter 2, and the believer has the Spirit.  He's going to talk about, in chapter 3, the role of the servants of God who do the work of God in God's field, the church.  Some plant, some water, some sow, some harvest.  Or working on the church as God's building.  There is a foundation laid.  You don't have a church until you have the foundation laid in Jesus Christ and the message of the cross.  And then we are growing and developing, each laborer contributing to the building of the building.

You come into chapter 4 we are God's servants, God's stewards.  Remember that, verse 1 of chapter 4, let a man regard us in this manner—servants of Christ, stewards of the mysteries of God.  It is required of a steward that a man be found faithful.  Then he went on to talk about the character of those who are faithfully serving God.  Something is wrong with the church at Corinth.  It is a successful church, it is a church that is already filled, has already become rich, doesn't need anything, verse 8.  Living like the kingdom had begun.  Paul contrasts that with his own experience and those of the other apostles who have no honor, no respect, who go from difficulty to difficulty.  They are treated like the scum of the earth.  Then he tells them, you become imitators of us, become an imitator of me, your spiritual father.

So understanding that prepares the way for what now follows in the responsibility of the church in dealing with problems within.  There is something more important than doing well, that's being faithful.  And that foundation is in who we are in Christ.  We must be faithful with the Gospel, we must be faithful to the Gospel.  We can't lose sight of who we are as the church.

Turn over to Colossians 1.  I just want to highlight some things from Colossians 1 that I think as we do you realize Paul has just said the same thing under the direction of the Spirit, using a little different terminology perhaps, sometimes the same terminology.  But saying the same thing to the church at Colossae.  Let me read you an article I clipped out of a magazine several years ago, I've read it to you in other contexts.  This is by a man who is a professor and also chapel speaker at a university.  There is a chapel on campus.  He says, when I recently asked a group of pastors what areas they wanted help with in their preaching, most of them replied, to preach sermons that really hit my people where they live.  At one time I would have agreed this was one of the primary purposes of Christian preaching, to relate the Gospel to contemporary culture.  Now I believe it is our weakness.  In leaning over to speak to the modern world, I fear we may have fallen in.  Most of the preaching in my own denomination struggles to relate the Gospel to the modern world.  I believe he is Southern Baptist.  We sought to use our sermons to build a bridge from the old world of the Bible to the modern world.  The traffic was always one way with the modern world rummaging about in scripture saying things like this, this relates to me, or I'm sorry, this is really impractical.  It was always the modern world telling the Bible what is what.  This way of preaching fails to do justice to the rather imperialistic claims of scripture.  The Bible doesn't want to speak to the modern world, the Bible wants to convert the modern world.  I'm not reading consecutively for time.

Unfortunately too often Christians have traded the modern world as if it were a fact, a reality to which we were obligated to adjust rather than a point of view with which we might argue.  He goes on to say, you cannot learn to speak French by reading a French novel in an English translation.  You must sit for the grammar, the syntax, the vocabulary and learn it.  Too often when we try to speak to our culture we merely adopt the culture of the moment rather than present the Gospel to the culture.  This is why the concept of user friendly churches often leads to churches getting used.  There is no way I can crank the Gospel down to the level where any American can walk in off the street and know what it's all about within 15 minutes.  You can't even do that with baseball.  Now I realize you can get the facts of the Gospel very quickly, but we somehow think the church service ought to be geared to the unbeliever so he walks in and in just a few minutes he really knows the Word of God.  There is truth, the basic facts of the Gospel I could give them to you in less than a minute.  But really the explanation of the Gospel, there is a fullness there that takes time.

The other day someone emerged from chapel after my sermon and said, this is a chapel on the university campus, Duke University.  The other day someone emerged from Duke Chapel after my sermon and said, I've never heard anything like that before.  Where on earth did you get that?  I replied, where on earth would you have heard this before?  After all, this is a pagan uninformed university environment.  Where would you hear this?  In the philosophy department?  Watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood?  No, to hear this you've got to get dressed and come down here on Sunday morning.  It's a strange assumption for Americans to feel they already have the equipment necessary to comprehend the Gospel in short without being born again.  The point is not to speak to the culture, the point is to change it.  God's appointed means of producing change is called church.  God's typical way of producing church is called preaching.

Basically that's what Paul is doing in writing to the Corinthians, and now in the first chapter of Colossians, calling them back to the issue of the cross.  The church is not called to fit in, the church by nature cannot fit in.  Turn to John 15.  Understand this, the church cannot fit in, and when it tries it is being deceitful, dishonest and unfaithful.  Jesus speaking to His disciples the night of His betrayal in John 15:18, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.  Now note this next verse.  If you are of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.  How much time does the church spend talking about how we can do things that the world would like us.  Now again, I'm not talking about doing things that are offensive—we're not going to mow our lawn, we're not going to keep the grounds looking nice.  If the neighbors don't like it, tough.  We're the church.  No, we're not talking like that.  But there is something we ought to realize.  Jesus Christ chose us out of the world.

Verse 19, because of this, the world hates you.  He doesn't say because of this the world may hate you, because of this the world may hate some of you, because of this at certain periods of time the world may hate you.  This is the way it is.  Just like, remember we read the church at Corinth, you are the temple of God, you are holy.  You as a believer have been chosen out of the world by Christ.  The world hates you.  Period.  Now we try to use man's wisdom and think we are being wise, and look how popular we are.  And I read you excerpts as we moved through the opening chapters of Corinthians of some current books that are so popular that imply the world doesn't really dislike us, the world really is not opposed to what we have to say.  Something is wrong, Jesus says that the world hates us.  We try to sometimes fool the world in covering up the fact that we don't belong to the world, we belong to Christ so that we can be liked by them.  But that's being deceitful, that's being dishonest.

So when you come back to Colossians Paul addresses the church at Colossae the same way he does the church at Corinth.  The problems were a little different in Colossae, but the cure is the same—come back to the focus, which is Jesus Christ and His work.  He started this letter identifying himself as an apostle, as he did with the church at Corinth.  Writing to the saints, the holy ones at Colossae.  He gives thanks, praying for them.  He's heard of their faith in verse 4, their love in verse 4, the love which they had for all the saints, other holy ones.  They have a hope laid up in heaven.  Remember Paul talked about being blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus in the opening verses of his letter to the Corinthians.  Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.  And this gospel has come to you and is bearing fruit as it is doing in other places, since the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth, the end of verse 6.  You see it is all about the truth, it's all about the message of God's grace in Christ.  Paul wasn't the one who brought this glorious message of the Gospel to the Colossians, Epaphras was.  You see it can be different messengers, because it is not the messenger who is the power of God for salvation, it's the Gospel which is the power of God for salvation.  The servant, the instrument, is not what is important.  Who is Epaphras?  He certainly is not as well known in the history of the church as the Apostle Paul.  But let me tell you, God used him powerfully, because he became the one through whom the Gospel was communicated to the Colossians.  You learned it, verse 7, from Epaphras.

He talks about his prayer for them that they might continue to grow and mature in Christ.  Then he talks about Christ in verse 15, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  By Him all things were created, the end of verse 16, all things have been created through Him and for Him.  There is a lot of debate going on today about the issue of creation and so on.  For us as believers in Jesus Christ it's a settled issue, but it does not surprise me that the unbelieving world is hostile to it. Didn't we just read in John 15 that the world hates Christ, and because it hates Christ the world will hate us?  Don't expect the world to be rational on this.  This is not a matter of scientific evidence, this is Romans 1, men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness are unwilling to admit and submit to the clear revelation that comes even through creation.  So we want to be careful that we are not trying to win the culture over.  What I read to you in this article is true.  We're not here to win the culture, we're here to bring conversion to the culture through the message of Christ.  But we spend so much time, we have to get the doctrine of creation taught alongside. I'm for teaching the doctrine of creation, but I realize the unbeliever is hostile and he is right, he is functioning consistently.  He is not right biblically, but he is right in the sense he is functioning consistently.  Because if you're going to acknowledge the doctrine of creation, you have to acknowledge the authority of the Creator.  And if you acknowledge the authority of the Creator, you're back to the One who is the Redeemer because the Creator was none other than the One who is the Savior who died on the cross.  Right?

Verse 16, by Him all things were created.  All things have been created through Him and for Him.  That's what it is all about.  And He is the head of the body, verse 18, the church.  The same thing Paul said when using a little different analogy.  He'll talk about the body later in 1 Corinthians.  But what did he talk about?  I didn't die for you, the church doesn't belong to me.  You don't belong to me, you belong to Christ.  He is the head of the body, the church, He is the beginning, the first born from the dead.  He Himself is to have first place in everything.  I’m not going to argue with Paul.  What are you doing gathering individual men?  He is to have first place in everything.

For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.  Here we are, to the message of the cross.  God didn't send me to baptize.  There is a place for baptism, but that's not what my ministry focuses on.  My ministry focuses on the cross.  Preach the gospel, not in wisdom of word so that the cross is made of no effect.  For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing, foolishness.

The work of reconciliation is accomplished through the blood of Christ.  He made peace.  It is now possible for man to be reconciled to God.  God was in Christ, Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5.  God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not in impugning their trespasses to them.  And Paul says that now we stand in Christ's place, begging you to be reconciled to God.  For He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  Reconciliation.  The ministry of the church is about reconciliation.  We preach the message of the blood of Christ.  We don't have a message to impress you with our wisdom and our arguments are greater than your arguments.  And if you consider the evidence, the evidence supporting our arguments is better than the evidence supporting your arguments.  When we get into that debate what we want to do is say, all those arguments over the evidence aren't really relevant.  You know what is relevant?  What will you do with Jesus Christ?  Where are you going to spend eternity?  Do you know you are a sinner on your way to an eternal hell and you could your mind about what the Bible says about creation?  You could become the greatest advocate and proponent for the fact that God created things and make an impact even in the scientific world, and die and go to hell.  There is a more serious issue here for you to deal with.  Now I realize there is consistency required, but for this person I can't convince them about these matters.  The issue is not you haven't seen enough evidence to convince them that God created everything, the issue is they are hostile toward God.  They hate Christ, they hate the message of the Gospel.  And unless the Spirit of God divinely intervenes with the Gospel that you may be privileged to present to them, there will be no change.

Why do we want to waste our time as though there were something to be gained in this battle.  Are people any less lost who believe in creation versus evolution?  No.  Multitudes of people believe many things that are true, but they aren't saved because salvation comes through faith in the blood of Christ as the only payment for your sin.  That's the issue.  So you know what?  I could sit down with a scientist at the university and wouldn't have to be thinking, how am I going to ....................  I'll be lost, I can't debate with him.  I don't want to debate with him.  I mean, he may think how can you be so stupid to believe in creation.  You know all the evidence is overwhelmingly against your view, I'm a scientist, I know it.  Yes, I appreciate you're a scientist, I appreciate the insights and understanding you must have of science.  But let me tell you one thing that you have to know.  That is God says you're a sinner and on your way to hell.  Oh you think I'm a sinner because I don't believe in creation.  No, that's not the issue, you're a sinner because you are a sinner.  You could change your mind and say I believe in creation.  You know what?  You'd still be a sinner and on your way to hell.  I'm not here to try to convince you that the biblical account of creation is true.  But I would beg you to be reconciled to God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Because if you're not, you will spend eternity in hell.  That's what God has done, it was His pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Christ in bodily form.  God is here as man, the God/Man, so that He could reconcile all things to Himself through the blood of the cross.  That's what the message of the church is, that's what the focus of this church is—Jesus Christ and the blood of the cross.

You were formerly alienated, verse 21, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.  Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.  How did Paul tell the Corinthians in those opening verses of chapter 1?  In the day of the Lord you will be found blameless.  What's he telling the Colossians?  Remember what changed your life—the message of the gospel, the death of Christ.  You were the ones formerly alienated, hostile, involved in all kinds of evil.  And He reconciled you through the death of His Son.  And now what a change—you'll be able to be presented in His presence holy and blameless and without spot.  You who were His enemies, who were hostile to Him, who were engaged in evil things, and now you've been reconciled through faith in His Son.  And continuing in that faith is the evidence.  Faith began at that moment of conversion, but that's now the way I live my life, trusting Him.

Verse 24, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.  This is where we were most recently at the end of 1 Corinthians 4.  Paul drew the contrast between the way the Corinthian church was conducting itself and the way he and other apostles were living.  Nothing changes, whether it's his ministry in Corinth or the ministry at Colossae.  I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.  Remarkable statement.  You know it is something of a paradox.  I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.  You know nothing changes.  Whether you're talking about Paul's ministry on behalf of the Corinthians, his ministry on behalf of the Colossians, or his ministry on behalf of the Philippians, it involves suffering.  You know why?  He had to go out representing Jesus Christ, the One hated by the world.  And he had been chosen out of the world by Christ so that one day he no longer belonged to the world, so the world didn't love him.  They hated him.  The world loves its own, it hates you as a believer because you're not part of the world any longer.

           Now I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.  The first reading of that, you say that almost sounds blasphemous.  Is there something that Christ came short of, something lacking in His afflictions?  I thought He said when He died on the cross, it is finished.  Now you tell me there is something lacking in His suffering.  What is lacking is getting the message of the death and resurrection of Christ to the lost.  How does that happen?  God doesn't send angels to proclaim the message of the gospel.  He sends human representatives, later Paul will tell the Corinthians, we have this treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels, in these physical bodies.  So Paul says I'm out and I present the gospel and I get beaten for it, I get sent to prison, family and friends have rejected me, I've lost everything that I had of value in Judaism, Philippians 3.  I've cast it all on the dung heap.  Why?  I've committed myself to Christ, I've committed myself to telling others about Christ.  There is no easy way to represent Christ in the world and make Him known.  The Corinthians thought they were smart, they weren't.  The Laodiceans thought they were smart, they weren't.  There is no other way but the hard way.  Remember Paul is going to end up telling the Corinthians after he talks about his sufferings and their life of ease, become imitators of me.

Verse 25, I was made a minister of this church according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit.  A minister, a servant.  Remember the concept in Corinthians of servant, of steward?  It is required, 1 Corinthians 4, that a steward be found faithful.  I was made a steward, a stewardship was bestowed upon me so that I might fully carry out the Word of God, fulfill the Word of God literally.  What I have to deal with.  I have to give out the message of Christ, give out the Word of God.

The mystery which has been hidden from past generations, now has been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of His glory, the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  You know the Apostle Paul knew exactly what was going on.  I'm going out to a hostile world to represent a hated Savior as one who no longer belongs to the world and will also be hated by the world.  What happened?  We think we have to do something, all we have is hostility.  We have to take the wisdom of the world to break down that hostility and that will soften them up to accept the gospel.  Paul says that never happens.  When you do that you render the gospel void.  What you do is go and present Christ.  We walk around it, walk around it, walk around it.  How many unbelievers around us die and go to hell because we were looking for the right occasion?  What is the right occasion?  If I go to the doctor, he examines me and says I've looked all through and this man needs immediate surgery or he will die from this disease very shortly.  But when he sits down with me he doesn't have the heart to tell me, and besides, I don't want my world rattled.  I came to him to get a good report, not a bad report.  So he just says, it's good to see you.  Did you enjoy the game yesterday?  These are good days and blah, blah, blah.  Three months later I'm on the verge of dying and he walks through the door and I say, why didn't you tell me?  I didn't want to upset you, I didn't want to hurt your feelings, I didn't want to get you angry at me.  I say, that's criminal.  Well how much more criminal, I sit there with someone on his way to hell and I know what he has to hear and believe to be saved, but I just don't think I want to tell him today.  I mean, hopefully he won't die before tomorrow and maybe tomorrow will be a good day.  Do we really believe this?

I know the problem.  Paul knew it—hostility, hatred, suffering.  But Paul turned it around and said, I'm rejoicing in my suffering.  Think about it.  I become part of Christ's sufferings, I become the link between the cross of Christ and you, because I bring you the message of the cross.  And thus by God's grace you have opportunity to be saved.  So I rejoice in my sufferings.  What a privilege.

Verse 28, we proclaim Him.  And here is Paul's pattern of ministry, it's not very difficult.  We proclaim Him.  Both the method and the message are ordained of God.  We have some who say, we don't change the message, we just change the method.  I've shared with you the current move now in evangelicalism is that, and it's been a mistake.  We no longer must change the method, we must also alter the message.  You pull up one anchor, you pull up the other anchor, you're adrift and you don't know where you're going.  And it's no wonder people get confused because they pull up the one anchor and the boat is spinning around so much so they might as well pull up the other anchor.  And we don't know where we are or where we're going.  We don't even know who we are anymore.  We proclaim Him.  What's the message?  Him, Christ.  What's the method?  Proclaim, admonishing and teaching.  I mean, is that very difficult?  Well you have to come up with some methods.  Paul said, I came to Corinth, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And I presented this message without the wisdom of men, just Christ.  Paul tells the Colossians, we're in a different city on a different continent.  Nothing is changed.  I won't have to spend six months analyzing the culture and setting of the city of Corinth and then analyze the culture and setting of the city of Colossae to determine that we structure the kind of ministry that will be effective in Colossae as over against the kind of ministry that will be effective in Corinth.  We just go and do what God told us to do—proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching, you'll note, every man.  Admonishing every man, teaching every man that we may present every man complete in Christ.  Well that makes it easy.  No it doesn't, that makes it hard.

For this purpose I also labor. There is a word we've seen in the opening part of Corinthians as well—toil to exhaustion.  Striving, the word we get the English word agonizing from.  And in chapter 2 verse 1, I want you to know how great a struggle I have.  Another form of the word agonizing.  I labor, striving according to His power which works mightily in me.  Isn't that a paradox as well in our thinking?  I would think that if the power of God is really working mightily within me, it wouldn't be hard at all.  Is that the difference?  I mean, is God's power just carrying me along, and it's not me, it's God.  It's not my labor and striving, it's His power.  And you'd think Paul would be saying, you know I just feel like sometimes I'm not doing anything but just being swept along in what the Spirit of God is doing.  But that's just not the way he talks.

For this purpose I labor, I toil to exhaustion, I agonize according to His power.  Well is it your agony or His power?  God's power never works without your struggle and toil.  And I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf.  It doesn't get easier with the passing of time.  I was listening to an elderly preacher this morning, he's elderly because he is even older than I.  And he was talking to an audience that had quite a few college young people, talking about what had happened when he was young and now he is old, and he said, one thing I learned.  When I was young I thought the ministry and serving God would be easier as I got older.  It's been just the opposite, it's gotten harder.  And I've found that to be true in my own life and ministry.  To be honest, I thought it would be easier with the passing of time, but it's gotten harder.  And we think that in the Christian life.  We like to think, you really can tell when the Spirit of God is working in your life because things just seem to happen naturally.  What does that mean?  Well it's not the same kind of struggle, so I give up.  You know, if giving my testimony for Christ causes me to tremble and get an uneasy stomach, then I'd better not do it.  I'm waiting for the right time.  And the two things that will have to happen is the unbeliever will say, would you please tell me how to get to heaven and I'll feel really confident in doing it.  Paul would have never shared the gospel with anyone.  You know what he was constantly doing?  Going to people who didn't want to hear, telling him what they didn't want to hear, and suffering the consequences.

But God's power mightily works within me.  I'm pouring every ounce of my life into this.  At the very end of his life he said, I'm already being poured out like a drink offering.  Right up to the end it's a sacrifice, it's giving everything I have.  It can't be done in his power, it has to be God's power in him, but there is no easy way to do God's work in the world today.  No easy way to be God's people in the world today, no way to be God's people and be loved or liked in the world today.  Now again, we run around with a martyr's complex trying to do what we can to offend people, but the more openly we are identified with Christ, the more bold we are with the gospel, the more hostility we will encounter, the more difficult and trying our lives will be.  That is what the church is.

Now that is the foundation that Paul has been writing to the Corinthians, that is the foundation he is laying for the Colossians to deal with some of the doctrinal issues they have.  How are we going to grapple with being the holy people of God and exercising church discipline and not tolerating sin in our midst and resolving conflicts and disputes within ourselves, and conducting ourselves properly in the context of marriage relationships, and on it goes, if we haven't committed ourselves to these basic, foundational matters.  I wanted to go back and remind you of these issues because they are the basis, lay the parameters for us as the church in dealing with these matters.  And they put us in direct conflict with the world, whether it's with discipline, whether it's with morality, whether it's with roles of men and women, whether it's with ........... (you fill in the blank).  The world is never in agreement with God.  Never.  Sometimes it seems superficial that they are, they never are.  That means we are never in agreement with the world, because we are always as His people, in agreement with God.

Have you come to see things the way they are?  Jesus Christ is the Savior.  You're not saved by coming to this church, you're not saved by being baptized in this church, you're not saved by giving money to this church, you're not saved by teaching Sunday School at this church, you're not saved by ................... (fill in the blank).  You're saved by faith in the finished work of Christ, His death on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin.  You could sit here every day of your life and die and go to hell because you are not reconciled through faith in the blood of Christ.  That's when you experience the grace of God and salvation comes to your life.

Let's pray together.  Thank You, Lord, for the glorious gospel of your Son.  Lord, we as Your church in this place have experienced that saving grace.  We are indeed the dwelling place of Your Spirit.  We have been reconciled, brought into a relationship of peace with You through the blood of Your Son.  That doesn't mean that every person sitting here has experienced Your power in salvation.  Lord, You know us as we are and I would pray first for those who are gathered here, each one, some may be new, some have been here a long time, Lord, that we might be careful to examine ourselves to see if indeed we are in the faith, we have come to that saving relationship with You through trusting Your Son and only Your Son, and manifest and seeing manifested the power of the gospel that has transformed our lives.  Lord, I pray that we may take these truths to heart as a church, Your church in this place, that we might conduct ourselves in every way and in every area as You have ordained for Your church to conduct itself.  As we grapple with difficult issues, as we continue through the letter to the Corinthians, Lord, may we see each of these issues, each of these situations in light of who we are, what Christ has done for us, that we are not called to try to conform to the world, but to be conformed to the image of Your Son who loved us, gave Himself for us.  And we gather before You in His name, amen.