The Word is Celebrate

About this sermon

Theologians tell us there were at least 4 letters that went back and forth from Corinth to Paul. The Question Letter from Corinth (we don’t have) 1st Corinthians (we can reverse engineer what was in the question letter from Paul’s response) A Follow Report from Corinth (we don’t have) 2nd Corinthians Last week we were introduced to Paul the Apostle the human author of this letter. Paul was the one to who they raised their questions for at least 3 reasons. He had Unique Authority - Keep in mind that the office of Apostle was the highest rank any human can hold in the Church. If the President of the Southern Baptist Convention walked into our gathering this morning - he would simply be a visitor. But if Paul walked in - he would be the boss. He could pull rank in any department, he would stand in the pulpit. If he wanted us to change something, he had the right and rank to command us to change. He had Inspiration - In a very unique way God spoke through Paul. Not every Apostle penned scripture, but Paul did. Paul wrote much of your NT and is responsible for the shaping of the early church in many ways. So he wasn’t just giving his opinion he was giving God’s perspective on the situations at Corinth. He had Personal Understanding - Paul had planted this Church during his 2nd Missionary Journey. He was in a sense a spiritual Father to these people. There would be no church at Corinth without Paul. Because of those three things Paul was the perfect Apostle to send their questions to. CORINTH: Remember we learned last week that first century Corinth was the Las Vegas of it’s day. It was sin city. What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth. High above the city was acroCorinth as it was called was a place both for defense of the city as well as pagan worship. It was large enough to hold all of the citizens of the city in a time of siege. It also held a famous temple to Aphrodite, goddess of love. The temple normally housed some one thousand priestesses, ritual prostitutes, who each night would come down into Corinth and ply their trade among the many foreign travelers and the local men - which explains why, “To Corinthianize” was synonymous with a sexually loose and drunken lifestyle. So sexual immorality was not only an act of pure lust, it was also believed to be pleasing to Aphrodite - who would in return for consorting with temple prostitutes would bless the city. When a young man passed puberty it was his duty as a citizen to consort with these prostitutes, Young ladies were expected to work as prostitutes for a season. If they didn’t they were considered bad citizens, non patriot, un-Corinthian. Into this city Paul shows up and announces the coming of Christ the Messiah, tells of his Death for our sins and his resurrection from the dead. He speaks of how we can be saved by faith in Christ. Many were saved and a church was formed. After his departure a very gifted and godly Christian Preacher came into the Church named Apollos. Many believe Apollos was the best preacher in the Early Church, even better than Paul. Apollos help mature the Church, appointed the leadership, and so on. Then he moved on to other fields. So your have this Church in Sin City. Even the Pastors had only been Christian for a few months. There was much that they didn’t know and didn’t understand. Every night the temple prostitutes continued to work the city streets. Temptations didn’t go away. AND Keep in mind they didn’t have a completed New Testament. They had a couple of the Gospels, maybe copies of a few letters written by the Apostles and what they could remember from Paul’s time with them. The Gospels give us a lot of information but there were many questions that Jesus didn’t address. That is where the questions began to arise. Much of the NT arose out of settling issues like we have in Corinth. So often throughout this letter you will see Paul saying things that he didn’t say elsewhere, “I tell you this not the Lord”. That is not to say that inspiration flickered a bit, but rather, we don’t have a record where Jesus addressed this issue in the Gospels. OUTLINE: Chapters 1-2 are introductory, They are basically a primer on the essential elements of the Gospel. Chapters 3-4 Paul is rebuking the church for it’s division. Now is chapter 5 Paul begins to answer their questions. 5 on is where I want us to focus.

Topics

• Bible Study
• Joy