1 Corinthians - Week 29

0:00 Thanks to Chris and the band and the choir. Can you come back every week? That'll be all right. No, nobody's saying yes. Okay, right. A couple of things to mention before we get into this morning's passage, but just on an announcement space. First of all, we did mention that communion is on here this evening at six. Really looking forward to that.

0:21 Jason Kennedy, who some of you know, will be leading our thoughts and our time of communion there. So please do come back here at six this evening. Then, you may have got an email on Friday. We have our very first, in the history of Glen Abbey staff, we have our very first maternity leave coming up with Heather Donaghy going off in September. And we're delighted about that. But that means there's a little hole to fill and we need to get that sorted out. So we have advertised a couple of temporary posts for one sort of male support youth worker and one female as well. So if you're interested in that and you may want to find out more, just drop me an email and we can get more information and application and so on to you.

1:05 Then I just want to mention that this Saturday, Mark McAerath and Rachel Gilbert, hopefully have we got photos? We do, great, are getting married and we just want to extend our love and our prayers to them ahead of that and we pray that everything goes really, really well on Saturday And then we have new members to welcome in this morning. So first of all, we have Caitlin Snowden. This is Caitlin. Many of you will know Caitlin. It's so great to be welcoming new young adults. Well, not new. Caitlin's been around for a long time, but you know what I mean.

1:41 Young adults like Caitlin, and also then Matthew Bamford as well. Caitlin and Matthew are bound to be given their age at second service, not first, so you won't see them probably. But then also to welcome Andrew and Claire Cuthbert. Are Andrew and Claire around this morning? I spotted that? There they are. They're just there. So if you get a chance to speak to them afterwards, there's a picture of Andrew and Claire and Benjamin and Ivy.

2:04 And we are so, personally, I'm so delighted to be able to welcome you guys into membership this morning as well. Why don't we pray just before we get in to what we're talking about today. Father, thank you for the for the life, for the vitality that we have in this church through you and in you. Thank you for Mark and Rachel ahead of their wedding this Saturday. We pray that all of the last minute plans and nerves and stresses will all run smoothly, that the day will go well, but most importantly, that you will be in the midst of their marriage, that their marriage will be a witness to Christ and his church. And we pray for them in that. We pray for Caitlin and for Maddie and for Andrew and for Claire as they come into membership in this church. As we always pray, we pray that they will find their place in this body.

3:04 They will be strengthened. They will be built up. They will be loved. They will be cared for. and that they will be able to give that love and care to others and to strengthen this body through the ways that they can serve, the ways they've been uniquely gifted by you to do that. And that we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. We are at talk 29 of our series in 1 Corinthians, which, believe it or not, began on the 4th of September 2022.

3:37 This has been something of a marathon. I do apologize, visitors. That is a little bit too much for me to catch you up on this morning. But I hope that you'll still be able to get something from this. And here we are as Paul closes this little letter. This is the close. And let me say, there's so much treasure in this close for us to just excavate this morning. And as we go through it, and we're going to go through it bit by bit, I want us just to remember and keep in mind the last few weeks to hear everything that Paul says in light of the resurrection.

4:12 To see everything he says through those big lenses of our future in Christ. Those glasses that I put up last week. Because for Paul, for every single aspect of life, every attitude, every choice, every action, however seemingly mundane and ordinary is to be by God, for God, in God, is all focused on and inspired by the eternal kingdom that is ours in Christ. And the first illustration of that mindset of Paul's is found in verses five to nine when he begins here telling the church in Corinth about his travel plans. So let's jump in verse five, and like I say, we'll go through it bit by bit. Here's what he says, after I go through Macedonia, I will come to you, for I'll be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you for a while or even spend the winter so that you can help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit.

5:10 I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost because a great door for effective work has opened to me and there are many who oppose me. The primary school teacher in me feels compelled to begin with a geography lesson this morning for all those people who are hearing names like Macedonia and things like that and have no idea what Paul is talking about. So here, hopefully, is a screenshot from Google Maps of modern-day Mediterranean area. You can see the big bit of Italy, kicking little Sicily over there. You can see, hopefully, if I can get this to work. Yeah, I just wanted to do this for this, right? You can see Greece here.

5:53 You can see Turkey over here. You can see Palestine and so on here, Jerusalem, the north coast of Africa and so on. Here's the Aegean Sea. Keep your eyes focused on that and then we move to the next slide. And here are the key cities that Paul is talking about. Ephesus in the west coast of Turkey, Corinth in southern Greece there and so on and so forth. So with that in mind, keep an eye on that. And as Paul writes this letter to the Corinthians, he is in Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia and what is today western Turkey.

6:25 his planning is clear. It's carefully thought out common sense. Many of the churches he's planted need his guidance, need his presence, need his care. So his plan is that he'll stay in Ephesus until after Pentecost. That's around June time in our language. He'll then make his way up the north coast, up the coast north, and then probably to Troas from where he'll sail across the Aegean. into Europe to pick up the Ignatian Road west so that he can visit those churches he's established in these places, Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea. And after he's visited those churches, he plans to head down through Greece and stay with the Corinthians for a while, perhaps even settling there for winter with them for two reasons, so that they can support him in his onward journey, wherever that is.

7:21 And because he cares so deeply about them, this is going to be a thread running through this section this morning. He cares so deeply about them, he wants to spend as much time with them as possible. Now, we find out in 2 Corinthians that things didn't work out the way that Paul planned here. But I doubt that that was too much of a surprise to him or a concern to him. Notice his wording in what we read. Perhaps, he says, or wherever I go, or if the Lord permits. Paul here, using these sorts of terms, he doesn't have issues with FOMO, right? He's not flaky.

8:04 He's not a commitment phobe in any way. He makes plans about everything meticulously with all of the prayerful wisdom and all of the common sense that God has given him. with God's purposes and kingdom at the center of his thinking, always with his big glasses on. But he always holds those plans loosely. He's always open to God altering those plans and taking them in a different direction if that becomes apparent. And we're called to do the same, To use our God-given wisdom and common sense to make plans, to set goals for our lives, motivated by love with our big eternal kingdom glasses on. Short-term plans, medium-term plans, long-term plans about all sorts of things. Things like our education and our career path and serving in the church and how we spend our money and relationships and much, much more.

9:07 Besides, we are not to sit around meandering our way through life or waiting for God to open doors. We are to get on with striving to live planned lives of purpose. But at the same time, we are also to hold those plans we make loosely. Because the reality is that God might be using this plan that you have and that you're walking into. so that you have the maturity and maybe the relationship with him and the experience and the skills needed to do something totally different that he has for you. And we need to be open and sensitive to his leading. Whatever our age, young, old, whatever.

9:58 I was struck this week as I listened to the podcast that was mentioned earlier with MVI when Alan mentioned how he'd gone to Baptist College with a view to pastoral ministry. But in his words, I love the way he put this, God had other ideas and blew the walls off what I thought pastoral ministry was. And God has used Alan's initial plans in ways that he didn't foresee, but in a way that has blessed Monkstown for 27 years. That's what we're talking about. Are we making plans? Are we pushing into those plans, but yet are we being open-handed with them, knowing and trusting that even our plans belong to God? We've sung just there, it's your breath in our lungs. Our breath belongs to him.

10:52 Our finances belong to him. Our talents belong to him. Our plans belong to him. Are we thinking like Paul in those ways? He's linked to this then is this fascinating insight into Paul's decision over whether he should stay in Ephesus. He's decided, he says, to stay longer for two reasons. First, because a great door for effective work has opened to me. I get that one.

11:17 I get what he says there. But then second, because there is loads of opposition, he says. Most of us would put that firmly in the, it's time to leave, Colin. Especially given that Paul's already metaphorically described this opposition in gladiatorial terms. As fighting wild beasts. In other words, as being under the threat of death constantly. This is the way it is, Paul says. So, I've got to stay.

11:51 And this is often, if we've walked the Christian life for a period of time, we'll know this. This is often the way things are. The place of greatest opportunity is often the place of greatest opposition. Not necessarily threat of death. I doubt that's facing many of us in this room. But plenty of real, genuine difficulty. Opposition. Slander.

12:18 Backbiting. Relational tension. Emotional and mental drain. all sorts of heavy, heavy weights on your shoulders. For us, the urge is so often to say this, with all of this, God mustn't want me here. And we choose to run for the hills. For Paul, this was a reason to stay for a little bit longer. Perhaps this morning,

12:52 It might be that you are in your own Ephesus right now. Could be anything. Could be leading a home group. Could be being an elder. It could be being a youth leader. It could be working in that job. It could be supporting that family member or walking alongside that friend. And when you look at it, you can see clearly the open door of opportunities.

13:20 But my goodness, it's hard. it's so hard maybe God's saying to you that's exactly why you're meant to stay that's exactly why you're meant to stay for now for the work I want to do both through you and maybe too for the work that I want to do in you for now I want you to stay in your Ephesus if that's you maybe after this morning you'll maybe want to pray with somebody about that in our prayer room afterwards we move on verses 10 to 18 when timothy comes paul goes on see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you if you know about timothy you know that he he had a more timid personality for he is carrying on the work of the lord just as i am no one then should treat him with contempt. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me.

14:24 I am expecting him along with the brothers. Now about our brother, Apollos, I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity. Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. You're gonna sing this for the rest of your lives now. Be courageous, be strong, and do everything in love. You know that the household of Stephanus were the first converts in Achaia and have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord's people.

14:55 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it. I was glad when Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus arrived because they have supplied what was lacking from you, for they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. In this little block of verses, we see Paul's heart and perspective here on his family in Christ. As a model for this church in Corinth and, of course, as a model for us too. So what can we learn here from how he talks about Timothy and how he talks about Apollos and how he talks about Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaicus? Well, first we see this. We see how much he values and respects each one of them.

15:50 And calls on the Corinthians to do the same. Different personalities, different abilities, different roles. Same deep value on show from Paul. He values Apollos and he makes that very clear to them. Remember, if you can, all the way back to the beginning of this letter, how one of the major problems has been different factions emerging in the church. Do you remember I follow Paul? No, but I follow Apollos. Well, I follow Peter.

16:17 Well, no, no, I follow none of them. I follow Christ. And lots of the Corinthians were desperate for their guy, for the charismatic Apollos to visit. And there may have been sort of underhanded suggestions that Paul was getting in the way of that because he didn't want to be upstaged by Apollos. Paul makes it clear, very clear here. I couldn't give two hoots about that is basically what he's saying you all go in for this cult of personality stuff but all that does it shows your spiritual immaturity it shows how much you're influenced by the personality influencer values of your city Apollos he's my friend and he is my partner in the gospel we are partners we are not competitors we are pulling in the same direction and striving for the same goal together. And I urged him on that basis to go and visit you. And Paul says here too, I deeply value Timothy as well.

17:25 And you should too. I'm sending you Timothy as my trusted representative. And I know what you think of Timothy saying. And you might think he's not what you need. You might be saying, Timothy, he's not a leader. He's not what we need. But in your context, he's saying to this church, with your issues and attitudes and all that you need to fix, he's exactly what you need. The question is for you, if you're going to choose to welcome him and value him and respect him the way that I do, are you going to be open to that?

18:01 Because if you do, God can and will work through him for your good, despite your preconceived ideas about him. and then thirdly Paul says I deeply value Stephanus and his household and you should too they deserve it they deserve your respect they've earned it as the first fruits of those who came to believe in Achaia as those who since that time have devoted their lives to your young and growing but let's be honest deeply challenging church these people and those like him the right thing to do the wise thing to do is to humbly submit to people like this. To stop bickering and stop talking about your favorites and talking about the ones that you don't like and stirring division. Sort it out. Respond to people in this way. Have this perspective on everyone. What about us then? Simple question, are we more like Paul?

19:05 Or are we more like this church in Corinth in our attitude towards others? Are we personality pushers? Do we idol worship some and belittle others based on our personal preferences? Or do we push back against that sort of talk when other people raise it? Do we seek to be part of and build teams of love and collaboration and partnership and building each other up with lots of different people that maybe aren't like us and don't think exactly like us? Are we prepared to trust that God can use Timothy style, non-type A leaders for his gospel and his glory as well as the Apollos' among us? Do we value all of our Stephanases for their faithfulness over time? How do we respond?

20:05 What do we do? As well as seeing how much Paul values and respects these partners in the gospel, we also see him clearly articulate how much he loves them. But also, and I find this so refreshing, how much he needs them. We think of Paul as this sort of type A person. Just him and God doesn't need anybody else. But that's not what Paul is talking about, says here. We see his fatherly heart for Timothy, his son in the faith. He wants him back.

20:36 He wants to be able to spend time with him. And his brotherly love for Apollos and those other guys. I love how he describes the effect of their visit on him. They refreshed my spirit. They left me feeling so good, so filled up, so energized, so encouraged. time with them was like plugging into a spiritual and emotional charger. They were like having a little slice of Corinth with me. And in a way, they made up for the fact that I couldn't see you all.

21:12 That's what Paul means here when he says they have supplied what was lacking from you. That's not a dig at the church. That's a sign, that's an expression of affection for them. He time with them all. But these guys have brought something of the church to him and he is refreshed. Paul wasn't afraid to say, I need people. To keep going, I need partners in my work like Timothy and Apollos. I need refreshers like Stephanas.

21:44 I need people. Living for Christ is not meant to be a solo venture. And yet, even in amongst all these people, so many of us can treat it like that. So two simple questions for us today. First of all, am I putting myself in places with people who can spiritually refresh and recharge me? Or am I, and men, let's be honest, I'm probably speaking to you a little bit more? Am I allowing my antisocial propensity or my busyness with other things to get in the way of friendships or get in the way of being part of a home group or get in the way of serving side by side with others, whatever it is? Am I opening myself up to the refreshment that I need from the body of Christ?

22:35 And then secondly, am I seeking to be a refresher? I put this picture up for no other reason that it'll help you remember these sweets that my granny used to give me. Just to remember, am I a refresher? Each day, who can I text? Who can I phone? Who can I send a card to? Who can I invite out to coffee? Who can I say thank you to?

23:02 Who can I build up in courage? Who can I tell how much I value them? Am I seeking to be a refresher? And in this passage as well, we've just got to mention that little sort of bang, bang, bang sentence of all those different things that we sung earlier on. Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.

23:29 Do everything in love. This little bit feels like it's almost designed, I think, to be learned. Learned through song or learned as a memory verse or whatever and used as a daily reminder. So maybe that's something we can begin doing this week. Maybe you can sing that every morning when you get up on this first thing. Today, reminding ourselves in whatever it brings that I need to be on my guard. I need to wake up and realize that living for Jesus is a battle with dangers at every turn. That doesn't mean I need to panic, but I do need to be realistic.

24:08 I do need to be attentive. There are going to be temptations coming at my flesh from all sorts of different angles, including this little cuboid in my pocket. Am I going to be vigilant to that? There are going to be spiritual attacks. The devil schemes, as Paul talks about in Ephesians, seeking to undermine and chip away at my faith. I need to be watchful and ready. There are going to be temptations to compromise my faith in the workplace or in a friendship group or because of a relationship that I maybe want to pursue or whatever. I need to be on full alert of the potential consequences of that.

24:57 It's a battle and we need to recognize it's a battle today too. And whatever it brings, I need to stand firm in the faith. Not in my faith, I need to stand firm in the faith. In the handed down deposit that we looked at in our first week of this little section in 1 Corinthians 15, I need to place my identity in nothing else but in Christ and in his gospel, his death, his resurrection, his return. That's the true north of everything of my life. Today, in whatever it brings, I need to be courageous and strong, not giving in to fear in the face of opposition or ridicule or rejection or hatred because of Christ. And I don't need to find that courage or strength within myself as if this is some sort of thing that I just need to summon up. No, I can find the courage and strength that I need by in the words that we've sung already this morning by waiting on the Lord.

25:59 As we've sung already this morning, blessed are those who run to him. who place their hope and confidence in Jesus, he won't forsake them or take courage in his power to see him. The words be strong here in the NIV are probably better translated as be strengthened. Not be strong, but be strengthened. It's not about summing it up from inside myself. It is about going to a place. It's about going to a person. It's about going to a source of strength, our stronghold, our mighty fortress, our God.

26:42 This church in Corinth were in a serious mess because they were so passive and because they weren't doing any of these things. They were sleepy to temptation and spiritual attack. They were far too open to influence from the values of their city. They were weak. but most of all their major dysfunctionality was that they didn't love. Nothing was being done in love. Everything was being done in arrogance and condescension and for self-promotion and competition.

27:17 Paul reminds them here in this little phrase of all that he said to them in chapter 13. Without love all of this is pointless and useless and will not last. your hollow gongs and clanging cymbals. So today, whatever it brings, here's the reminder I am to do everything in love because it is love that lasts. And then finally, verses 19 to 24, the churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord and so does the church that meets at their house. All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings.

27:58 Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed. Come, Lord. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen. We need to remember, as I have said before and as we close here, that unlike us, this church did not take 20 months to make its way through this letter.

28:33 This letter would have been brought into the gathering, and it would have been read in one sitting. It might have taken, what, an hour, an hour and a half, something like that. And as you can imagine, if you think back through that whole letter, by the end of that time, with everything that Paul has called out across this letter in them, all the deep problems he's identified in them and called them out on that they might at this moment be feeling a little tender, be feeling a little defensive, condemned, embarrassed. Maybe some of them, probably only some of them, be feeling that they had let Paul down. But here, as Paul closes, it's almost as if he's thinking, I know what a tough lesson this will have been for you. I know that this will have hurt, it'll have cut deep, but please don't forget in the midst of it all, I am still full of hope for you. I am still full of love for you, full of affection for you. And I believe and know that going back to what he says in chapter one, Christ will sustain you to the end.

29:47 You are loved, he says to this church, by the wider church because you're their brothers and sisters in Christ, your family. You're loved by Aquila and Priscilla who were part of your church family before moving to Ephesus, who shared in all the highs and the lows and the joys and the struggles and the challenges and the temptations of being witnesses to Christ in a city like Corinth. All of these people, all of these people are praying for you and they are cheering you on to be everything that God has called you to be. No one has or will give up on you. And you're loved by me, Paul says. And he writes in his own hand. I love that. Takes the pen or whatever the writing emblem it was off Sosthenes to conclude the writing of the letter himself to personalize it even more.

30:44 I love you. I love you. Every word of instruction, every word of criticism, every word of sarcasm even in this letter, they've all been motivated, every single word, by my deep love for you in Christ. You're a bit of a mess. Yes. And you have a long, long way to go. But I love you because Christ loves you and I will never give up on you because in his grace he will never give up on you. You are his one and only plan for Corinth.

31:25 You're his body in Corinth and he is going to work out his purposes in and through you. It's very easy, isn't it? Maybe you're not going to admit this as I stand up here but it's very easy at times to get disillusioned with the church. Things that happen to us. Things that people say to us. Things that people do to us. Church is a bit of a problem because it's made up of people like me.

31:56 And you, isn't it? And we can end up saying, give me Jesus but not the church. But the Bible doesn't give us that option. Christ doesn't give us that option. It is the church that God is making his manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms through. Find that in Ephesians. It is the church that is the body of Christ and each one of us is a part of that body. It is the church that is the temple.

32:26 It's the church that is the dwelling place of God. It is the church that is the beloved bride of Christ. And Paul loves the church and is for the church for all of these reasons and we are to be the same. We are to love the church too. Understanding that this is the greatest thing that we could ever be called to be a part of. The privilege, the grace to be invited into the body of Christ of which he is the head. We, Glen Abbey, together are part of God's kingdom plan and purposes in this place at this time. And so we are to keep going.

33:17 We're to keep going. We're to keep loving the Lord by loving the church, by loving one another. That line, if anyone does not love the Lord, let them be cursed. Is Paul warning those in the church, let's get that clear, who are tearing apart rather than building up in love. And we are to be people who are building up, not knocking down. We need to keep living today and each day, whatever our age, whatever our experience, whatever our gifts, whatever, anything, living each day as his church in the inexhaustible grace of Jesus. Keep living each as his church with those big glasses on that we've talked about. Keep living in full view of his return that we've talked about, of our resurrection lives in him.

34:15 Keep living today as the church and for the church in full view of his kingdom rule and reign, saying with Paul, come, Lord. Come, Lord. let's pray as the band and the choir come back up Father thank you for this letter to this church in Corinth written to them but written for us as well as them and as we consider all of these different parts of what we've looked at this morning and we consider how we need to respond. Maybe the first thing we need to do is to repent.

35:12 This passage will have acted as a mirror to so much of our lives and you, the way we think, the plans that we make, the priorities that we have. So Father, if we, this morning, maybe need to loosen our grip on some of those plans recognizing that even those belong to you. Help us by your spirit to do that. If we are meandering our way through our lives with no purpose and no planning if we are being passive in our faith we repent of that and we ask you to strengthen us begin to change that. If we have been guilty of treating people poorly, if we've been guilty of just getting caught up in the cult of personality

36:18 and idolizing some people and belittling others based, as we talked about on our preferences, Father, we repent of that. and we ask that you would give us your eyes to see them the way that you do. Help us to value each and every member of the body here. And if we've tried to live this Christian life alone, just in our own strength, Father, help us to see, like Paul, how much we need others on this journey the way that you have designed it to be. And help us to take steps into that, we pray. And Father, perhaps our repentance this morning begins for the first time with actually just turning to Jesus.

37:24 and accepting his invitation of grace, his invitation of forgiveness, his invitation into this family, into this church, and into all of his eternal purposes and plans into his hope. By your spirit, touch hearts now who need to make that response, we pray. Father, strengthen our church by your Spirit. Give us eyes to see the privilege it is to be part of what we have here, what you're doing here, and show us where we are to participate in that for your kingdom and for your glory, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.