WE’RE DIFFERENT
I Corinthians 1:1-9
S: Jesus
Th: Live the Difference
Pr: WE ARE TO BE DIFFERENT.
?: How? How is it observed?
KW: Blessings
TS: We will find in our study of I Corinthians 1:1-9 three blessings that we receive that enable us to be different.
The _____ blessing is we are…
I. SANCTIFIED
II. SUPPLEMENTED
III. SUSTAINED
Version: ESV
RMBC 04 January 04 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Identification (Hydrologists)
A helicopter crew was alerted to search for two geologists missing in the Sierra Nevada. They spotted two men standing in a clearing and dropped a note: "If you are the lost geologists, go to the center of the clearing and wave." Instead they turned and walked back to their campfire. Obviously, the crew assumed they were the wrong men and continued their search.
Two hours later they turned up the lost pair’s abandoned snowmobiles. Tracing their footprints in the deep snow led them back to the same camp they’d seen earlier. This time the crew sent a man down on a rescue hoist, who confirmed they had the right men and picked them up. "Why didn’t you respond to our note?" the crew asked.
"Because," the rescued men replied indignantly, “we are hydrologists, not geologists."
Well…
Do you know who you are?
ILL Notebook: Difference (The Lion King – Simba)
Many of you are familiar with the story of “The Lion King.” You might remember when Simba couldn’t decide whether or not he should return to the Pride Lands. He has some heavy baggage he has carried, including a tremendous guilt about his father’s death. As Simba was growing up though, his father had taught him much about his role in life and how he should act. But when things became difficult, he ran. Now his past has caught up with him. When Rafiki finds him, Simba is challenged about his identity and what to do next. The critical point comes when Rafiki literally raps him on the head and says, “You don’t even know who you are!”
(illustration derived from “Who Are You?” by Jeffrey Kellum)
TRANSITION:
Today, we begin our series called…
1. “Live the Difference!”
One of our goals through this year is for you to identify and know who you are!
For, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to make a difference.
Not only that…we are different!
It is nothing to be ashamed of, for God has made that difference in our lives.
To aid us in our theme, we will be turning to the first letter written by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.
It begins this way…
[1] Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, [2] to the church of God that is in Corinth…
Before we go any further, let’s do a little background on these key elements revealed in these first verses…
2. (Background of I Corinthians…)
First, there is…
2.1 Paul
Paul begins the letter by communicating who he is.
He is an apostle.
He does not say this to boast, but rather to verify his authority.
His call by God establishes his credentials, and gives his listeners the reason they need to give attention to what he writes.
Next, let’s consider the city of…
2.2 Corinth
If you have a map in the back of your Bible, take a look where Corinth is located in Greece.
You will see it is located at the end of a very small strip of land that was known as “The Bridge of Greece.”
Corinth was also known as the “Crossroads of the Roman Empire.”
It was prosperous and important; cosmopolitan and multi-cultural.
The people there were intellectually alert, materially successful, and morally corrupt.
Philosophically, they believed in the reckless development of the individual.
Corinth was especially known for the temple that sat above the city.
It was a temple built for the worshippers of the goddess of love, Aphrodite.
The religious tradition of this temple involved a ritual prostitution.
And to fulfill this tradition, 1000 prostitutes, both male and female, heterosexual and homosexual, would make their way into town every night to practice their “religious” duties.
For the typical Corinthian, surrendering to every lust was a way of life.
The church at Corinth was not unfamiliar with Paul.
Indeed, he was their founder.
In fact, Paul had stayed longer in Corinth than in any other place during his journeys.
Perhaps, the very culture and moral state of the city bears out the rationale for this.
Now…neither was the church of Corinth unfamiliar with…
2.3 Sosthenes
It is apparent that he was known by the Corinthians, as he had been the leader of the synagogue when Paul first approached the city.
Now…it appears that Sosthenes is accompanying Paul, perhaps as his secretary.
That was the background, now let us reinforce the direction we wish to take in our study today.
It is simply this…
3. WE ARE TO BE DIFFERENT.
The question we are asking that corresponds with this statement is…how?
How does this difference happen?
Well…
4. We will find in our study of I Corinthians 1:1-9 three blessings that we receive that enable us to be different.
Let’s consider the entire text now…
[1] Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, [2] to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
[3] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[4] I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, [5] that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge — [6] even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you — [7] so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, [8] who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
You will notice that the body of this text is in the framework of a prayer.
Paul communicates an attitude of thankfulness because God’s grace is a fact in the church of Corinth.
For those of you that are already familiar with the context of this letter, you might find Paul’s positive attitude a bit ironic, for he is thankful for the very things that are causing him grief.
Corinth is a church that is very much in trouble, yet Paul recognizes that they are God’s people, not his.
With an attitude of gratitude, he prays for God’s purpose and plan for these people.
Well, we are to be different, in a good way and the first blessing that makes that happen is sanctification.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first blessing is we are SANCTIFIED.
Sanctified is not a common word in our vocabulary, but it will become more familiar to us this year.
Its meaning is one of being set apart.
Holy, holiness, saint, sanctified, and sanctify are the same words.
The words purify, consecrate, dedicate, and perfect are related verbs, and are helpful in understanding the concept.
But first, let us understand that…
1. God has made us holy.
Do you know who you are?
Well, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, I can describe you.
You are sanctified.
You are cleaned up, repaired, and put back into operation.
You have been made whole.
This was true for the believers in Corinth.
They were holy in God’s sight.
But it did not happen because of what they had done, and certainly not because of what they were doing.
It was entirely based on what God had done for them.
They were cleansed and perfected because God made it so.
The word “holy” though, hardly seems to accurately describe this church (and perhaps ourselves as well).
Their choices seemed to be so unholy.
ILL Notebook: Behavior (prison)
There were two mothers that were talking about their sons.
The first said, "My son is such a saint. He works hard, doesn’t smoke, and he hasn’t so much as looked at a woman in over two years."
The other woman said, "Well, my son is a saint himself. Not only hasn’t he not looked at a woman in over three years, but he hasn’t touched a drop of liquor in all that time."
"My word," the first mother said. "You must be so proud."
"I am," the second mother replied. "And when he’s paroled next month, I’m going to throw him a big party."
Well…
2. God summons us to be saints.
To be called saints was quite a declaration in view of how the Corinthians were living.
In practice, they were gross sinners.
But because of their position in Christ, they were pure saints.
This is what we must remember as well.
We must remember our position.
Because we have been made holy, we are to act holy.
Because of who we are in Christ, we are to be different.
We are to live the life matching who we are.
If we are set apart, it means we are to bear the character of Him who has set us apart.
We are called on to be saintly…holy…with observable righteous behavior that demonstrates a definitive break with our old behavior and allegiances.
That being said, we must recognize that this is truly a struggle.
In fact, this was the very reason why Paul was writing this letter to the Corinthians.
One commentator, Gordon Fee, describes the Corinthian church this way:
“In too many ways they look far more like Corinth than they do God’s holy people in Corinth.”
The attitudes, actions, and activities of the city were infiltrating the church.
Instead of the church changing the city, the city was changing the church.
This had to stop.
They were saints!
The good news about this is that…
3. God does not leave us alone.
No one individual faces this challenge alone.
No one church faces this challenge alone.
The church is a body of people that find their source in God.
The Corinthians had to learn that they were not the center of the religious universe.
They were not unique.
Instead, they were to seek unity among themselves.
They were to seek unity among all those that called on the name of Jesus.
They were to learn and practice that the same Lord is the Lord over all.
Now we come to…
II. The second blessing is we are SUPPLEMENTED.
I like using this word supplemented as a synonym for enriched.
It gives us the idea that we are the recipients of abundance.
We are made rich, beyond our needs.
This is first observed in that…
1. God has given us grace.
Contained in the root meaning of grace is the idea of gift.
So…when God provides salvation for us through Jesus, it is a gift that is totally underserved and unmerited.
It is giving that cannot be repaid.
It is a gift that turns bad news into good news.
What we could not do for ourselves, God does for us.
This was the good news for the Corinthians.
And this continues to be the good news for us as well.
But not only has God graced us with salvation…
2. God has given us what we need to live the difference.
Specifically, Paul was excited that the Corinthians excelled in speech and knowledge.
And what this shows us is that God enriches our intellectual and communicative abilities.
You see, God gives every believer the capacity to speak for Him.
We have no excuses.
We can speak.
We can testify.
We will always be able to say everything God wants us to say.
When we submit our minds to Him, He empowers us with the right words.
Alongside of this, we will always be able to know everything God wants us to know.
You see, we are given everything we need to know to effectively speak.
We have His Word.
And, we have His Spirit to interpret it.
And if speech and knowledge were not enough…
3. God has made sure we are not deficient in accomplishing our purposes.
The Corinthians were not lacking in any spiritual gifts.
They were lacking in spiritual maturity.
They were lacking in moral purity.
But they were not lacking any spiritual gifts.
The church in Corinth had more than they needed!
When we get further in our study of I Corinthians, we will examine this concept of spiritual gifts with much greater detail.
But suffice it to say that God endows all believers with charismata, spiritual gifts.
These are special abilities that are given to us when we become believers.
Before we believed, we were unable to do these things with same capability or adequacy.
These blessed abilities enable us to achieve God’s purposes for the church.
Again, in the future, we will study these, and the right way and the wrong way to use these gifts.
Overall, though, I want us to note that we need nothing else from God.
God has given to us abundantly.
We have every spiritual blessing.
God has not failed us in any way.
Now, we come to…
III. The third blessing is we are SUSTAINED.
Paul refers to our waiting for the second coming of our Lord.
It is a waiting that is characterized by eagerness, not anxiety.
No matter how bad it may seem in the world, its condition does not steal our hope.
No, we have the confidence that…
1. God will keep us safe until the end.
Because God’s work on our behalf stands firm, we are blameless.
We are free from accusation.
You see, our past is already taken care of, for God set us apart.
Our present is provided for, for God gives us the dynamic of His Spirit to work in our now.
And, our future is assured, for God will complete the work.
He will not leave us undone.
Therefore, He will sustain our faith.
He will keep us believing, even through the most difficult times, making our hope firm to the end.
ILL Notebook: Sovereignty (Quecreek Miners)
In late July 2002, nine Pennsylvania miners were trapped in the Quecreek Mine and had not been heard from in two days. When 50 million gallons of water had flooded the shaft, a 6-inch air pipe was lowered into their chamber. At first, the miners signaled by banging on the pipe, but now it was silent.
Hope grew as rescuers drilled through the equivalent of 20 stories of granite with a massive diamond tipped bit. Hope faded when the bit broke only a third of the way to the trapped miners — 240 feet underground. For 18 hours drilling stopped while the shattered pieces of broken bit were retrieved and a new bit was installed. The unforeseen setback was viewed as a tragic turn of events, and what little hope there was to rescue the miners seemed to evaporate.
As it turned out, the broken bit proved to be advantageous to the rescue effort, and after three days underground the nine miners were freed.
"What a beautiful ending!" said Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker. "We’re nine for nine, and we got all of our guys out. As precarious as the circumstances had become at points, we fought through it, and we were ultimately successful. It is nothing short of a miracle."
The governor went on to tell the media that the time lost in repairing the snapped drill seemed in retrospect like "providential intervention." Governor Schweiker observed that the 18-hour interruption allowed water to be pumped out to make the ultimate rescue possible. Conversely if the shaft had been penetrated earlier, the drillers would probably have encountered only water and not miners.
The setbacks we face in life often appear to us as tragic turns of events.
From God’s perspective, however, such setbacks are necessary mileposts en route to his desired destination for us.
You see, life is not always easy, but…
2. God is faithful (Philippians 1:6).
Life is not always easy, but God is always faithful.
Note how the apostle Paul describes it in his letter to the church in Philippi…
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Faithful is who He is.
God is always reliable.
God is always true to Himself.
Therefore, we stay saved because God does not change His mind.
This speaks to why Paul is so thankful.
The disobedience of the church of Corinth did not change God’s guarantee.
He would keep His promise.
And in the meantime, He will continue to work.
He will perfect His people, no matter how immature and chaotic they are at times.
APPLICATION:
Paul’s prayer for the Corinthian church teaches us so much here.
So I do want us to note this…
1. Our thinking must always be God-centered, not man-driven.
Did you notice that every subpoint in the outline today started with the word “God”?
You see, we are where we are because of what God has done, not by what we have accomplished.
The Corinthians were self-satisfied and creature-oriented, and as a result, their behavior did not reflect the One who had graced them.
When we focus on ourselves, we fail to live the difference.
But we must always recognize that we are dependent.
You see…
2. We live the difference because God enables us to do so.
We are in process of being remolded.
We are becoming more and more like saints, though the process seems more like fits and starts.
What God has started in us is a good work.
He will finish it so that we will live the difference.
Communion:
It is this table that reminds us, eloquently of who Jesus was, and who He is in our midst.
It is this table that also reminds us, eloquently of whom we were before Jesus came into our lives.
We were dirty, sinful, impure and unholy.
And now the table reminds us that because of Jesus’ death, we have been made pure and holy…forever.
Though from time to time, we may struggle to see it in our lives, we have been sanctified by His willingness and His success at the cross.
We are united together because of the work of Jesus.
Those of us that know Jesus are invited to share in the elements of the table.
If you do not know Jesus, that is, you have not received Him as your Savior and Lord, you do not trust Him with your life, that is, you have not been changed by the message, just let the elements pass by.
Please wait until the time comes when you do have that personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
You may remember that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”
We take the bread today to remind us that we have new life in Jesus.
We feed on Him.
He is our life.
We eat Christ when we are in our moments of doubt.
When we are suffering from temptation, and we find no capacity to resist the pressures and lusts of life, we find that it is Jesus that sustains us.
So, it is this symbol of the bread that reminds us that our strength comes not from ourselves, but from Christ alone.
It is His work on the cross that enables us to have new life.
Being led in prayer by..., let us take a moment and thank Him for favoring us with his mercy, love and kindness.
(Prayer)
The apostle Paul writes, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
The fruit of the vine reminds us of death, for it represents the blood of Jesus.
Blood poured out spells death.
You know, it is ironic that we call Good Friday “good,” but it was good for us.
For, when we came to Christ, our old life ended.
It was no longer worthwhile in God’s sight.
It had no value.
It provided no help to us.
Instead, we rejoice that new life is ours, a sanctified life, that comes with His death on the cross.
... will now come and lead us in prayer.
Again, the apostle Paul writes, "In the same way, after supper he took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Live the difference…for God has made you holy; therefore it is not beyond you to be holy…live up to the calling to which you have been called.
Live the difference…for God has supplied to you all you need to accomplish it; you know what you need to know – you can say what you need to say; you are abundantly supplied in every way.
Live the difference…for God is sustaining you – even at this very moment; and He has guaranteed your future, for He will finish the work He has begun.
Now may your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best; and may you be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Amen.
