SERIES: “OVERCOMING OBSTACLES THAT OBSTRUCT OBEDIENCE”
TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13
TITLE: “ABOUT LIFE, LOVE, AND LIBERTY”
INTRODUCTION: A. A very well-respected, Nobel prize-winning physicist was asked to travel the
country and lecture on some of his current theories. The people sponsoring the
lectureship provided a limousine and a chauffeur in which to travel the country. Night
after night, from town to town, and banquet after banquet, the physicist delivered the
same basic speech.
After all the miles on the road together, the physicist and the chauffeur became
good friends. One night, while driving the physicist to the next town, the chauffeur
says, “Hey, Doc. I’m getting tired of hearing the same speech night after night.” The
physicist says, “You know, I’m getting tired of delivering the same speech night after
night.”
The chauffeur replies, “I’ve heard that speech so many times, I could give it and no
one would know the difference.” The physicist asks, “Do you really think so?” The
chauffeur says, “Sure, Doc. No problem.” The physicist thinks on it for awhile and
finally says, “Tell you what. Just to make tomorrow night interesting, I’m going to
let you do the speech. You wear the tux and I’ll wear your chauffeur’s outfit. This is
going to be fun.”
According to the plan, the next night the chauffeur wears the tuxedo and delivers
the speech while the physicist wears the chauffeur’s outfit and sits at the back of the
banquet room. The speech goes so well that the chauffeur finishes a few minutes
early. As he goes to his seat at the head table, the emcee says, “Since we have a few
minutes left, I’m going to open the floor for any questions for our venerable guest.”
The first person stands up and asks a very intricate and complicated question
concerning a principle in physics. The physicist sitting in the back is panicked! He
could easily answer the question but there’s no way the chauffeur can answer it. His
stomach starts to churn and a bead of sweat breaks out across his brow. He just knows
that they’re sunk. Their little prank has backfired.
Meanwhile, the chauffeur has a huge grin on his face. He pauses for a moment
after the question and says, “That question is so easy that any one should be able to
answer it. And to prove my point, I’m going to let my chauffeur come up to the
microphone and do just that.”
1. Some questions are difficult to answer
2. Other questions seem to have obvious answers
--A young boy was helping his grandfather dig potatoes. After several minutes of
this strenuous work, he began to tire. Wearily he asks, “Grandpa, what made you
bury these things anyway?”
3. Some questions are annoying
a. When you’re playing golf, why do people have to ask, “Did you lose your ball?”
or “Did you find it yet?” when you’re out in the rough looking for it?
--What do they think you’re doing out there? Checking out the flora and
fauna?
b. Why do people ask someone who’s digging their car out of a snow bank, “Are
you stuck?”
--You feel like saying, “No, my car died, and I wanted to give it a decent
burial!”
c. How about when you’re wet, disgusted and irritated with a flat tire on a rainy
night beside a busy road? Why does anyone have to ask, “Have you got a flat
tire?”
--You fell like replying, “No, of course not. I always rotate my tires at night on
a busy road when its raining!”
4. Some questions are important to living the Christian life.
B. Last week in Chapt. 7, Paul starts the section off by stating that he was going to take
some time to answer some questions.
--Some of the Christians in Corinth had questions concerning living the Christian life
1. The first question was answered in last week’s message
--“Waiting, Dating, and Mating” concerning marriage and sexuality
2. The second question is in tonight’s text.
--“What about eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols?”
a. Corinth was a town with a large pagan temple
b. Most of the meat available to purchase had at one time been part of the pagan
sacrifices
--Part of the meat was burnt as an offering, part was taken by the priests for
their meals. The rest given to public officials as part of their salaries. The
rest was sold to the markets for general sale.
3. Meat sacrificed to idols is not a problem for us in 21st century USA
--However, there are behavior and situations in our society which the Bible does
not explicitly endorse nor does it specifically forbid: dancing, smoking, social
drinking, Sunday recreation or work, playing card games, styles of clothing,
going to movies, watching television, surfing the Internet and so forth
4. In answering the question for the Corinthian Christians, the apostle Paul gives us
some standards and principles based on scriptural guidelines that we should use in
making choices concerning our participation these “gray areas”
C. 1 Cor. 8:1-13 – “ Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess
knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows
something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is
known by God. So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is
nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-
called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many
‘lords’), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and
for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things
came and through whom we live. But not everyone knows this. Some people are still
so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been
sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no
better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not
become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees
you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to
eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is
destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and
wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes
my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to
fall.”
I. IT’S ABOUT REAL LIFE
A. The principles and guidelines given to us in Scripture are all designed to work in real life
1. They’re not just some theological or philosophical discussions
2. They’re given for our benefit and for our usage
B. What we know and what we believe and profess is not any good until we can apply it to real life
1. Paul is saying that anything we know about God is only important when it can be lived out in everyday
situations
2. So many people have a knowledge about God and about the Bible but live as if it doesn’t mean
anything in the way they live their lives
--The ability to quote Bible verses and recite Bible facts is not as important as taking biblical
principles and applying them to our jobs, our families, our friends, and our entire existence
II. IT’S ABOUT A REAL LORD
A. Paul mentions that there are other “gods” and “lords”
--meaning that there are other things we can worship and serve
1. He says that some of these are just “fairy tales”
a. They’re manufactured by human imagination and desire
b. Here’s something funny: If I tell a story about a pretty girl kissing a frog and the from turning into
a man, the world will tell me it’s a fairy tale. If I tell about a frog turning into a man over millions
of years, they believe I’m telling the truth.
2. But he also says that some these “god” are actually spirit beings
--they’re Satan and his demons who have misled mankind into believing that they were worthy of
worship
B. Paul then declares that there is only on Lord – one King of king and Lord lf Lord
--Jesus Christ
1. The principle them follows that if we have made Him the Lord of our lives, the actual guideline is for
us to ask ourselves the question: “What is it that Jesus would do in my situation?”
2. Some years back, WWJD became an over worn symbol in our society.
a. People wore WWJD bracelets and necklaces like they wear a cross.
--It had no real meaning to them but they wore it because it was popular.
b. As Christians, “What would Jesus do?” should be a question we ask ourselves all the time.
III. IT’S ABOUT REAL LOVE
A. Paul says that when situations arise where there is no clear-cut “Thus saith the Lord” that we should
operate out of the principle of love.
1. Jesus told us that the two greatest commandments were to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind
and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
2. To love our neighbor as our ourselves, we have to ask, “What is going to be best for the other person
regardless of what I’d like to do?”
B. The principle of love operates when we put the needs of others first
--It examines behavior with two basic questions:
1. Will what I want to do be a help or a hindrance to someone who is weaker or more immature in the
faith than I am?
2. Will what I want to do going to be a stepping stone or a stumbling block to someone else?
IV. IT’S ABOUT REAL LIBERTY
A. Everyone has a right to something and everyone is usually screaming about the loss of some kind of a
right.
1. Paul is saying in this passage that when we focus on our rights, we’ll probably end up stepping on
someone else’s rights.
2. Applied to life, he means that what I want is not as important as what someone else needs
B. The greatest liberty you will ever know is when you are free enough to give up what you want or desire
so that someone else can receive what they need
1. Isn’t that what Jesus did when He paid for our sins with His life?
--He prayed in the garden that if there was anyway He could get out of doing what needed to be done,
then He’d rather not go through with it. But He also showed His faithfulness when He said to the
Father, “Nevertheless, not my will but your will be done.”
2. I’ll have to admit – this is one of the hardest things for me to personally
a. Especially if I’m tired or exasperated or upset
b. But at the moment I can’t give up what I want, I’m not free
--I’m trapped by what I want
3. Have you ever stood in a long line to wait for service? Maybe it was the bank or the post office.
The greatest place in line to be is “next”. There’s a lot of joy in being “next”. It’s hard to describe the
joy we feel when the clerk or teller says, “You’re next.”
The best part about being “next” is letting someone else go ahead of you. “Why don’t you go
ahead of me?” “Why thank you very much. You’re so kind.” You can let as many people go ahead
of you as you want because guess what? You’re still “next”!
--Paul reminds us that we can have that joy all the time when we put the needs of others ahead of our
own.
a. 1 Cor. 10:24 – “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”
b. Phil 2:3 – “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider other better
than yourselves.”
CONCLUSION: A. A real life, a real Lord, a real love, and a real liberty
1. All these things are available if Jesus is really the Lord of your life
--Is He in control or are you?
2. The word translated as “idol” in both the Hebrew and the Greek literally means, “the
way I see things”
--Do you run your life the way you see things and how they ought to be or do you let
Jesus run your life the way He sees things and how they ought to be?
B. Ivan the Terrible was one of the Czars of 16th century Russia. He was best known for
his erratic behavior and his brutality. He was so busy conquering new territory for his
country that he had no time to find a wife. His advisors became concerned that he had
not married, and therefore would not produce and heir to the throne. So Ivan
commissioned his men advisors to find him a suitable wife who was beautiful, intelligent,
and the daughter of a nobleman. They found her in Greece.
Her name was Sophia, the daughter of the king of Greece. Ivan asked for his
daughter’s hand in marriage and the king agreed on the condition that Ivan be baptized
and join the Greek Orthodox church. Ivan agreed and set out for Greece to be married
accompanied by 500 of his best soldiers. When the soldiers found out that Ivan was to be
baptized, the soldiers said they wanted to be baptized too.
The Greek Orthodox Church required that everyone who came to be baptized make a
profession of faith and then make an affirmation concerning the articles of the church.
The soldiers agreed to the profession of faith and they agreed to the articles of church –
except for one. The article they couldn’t affirm was one which prohibited them from
being professional soldiers. They asked the priest if they could have some time to think
over the problem of how to join the church and at the same time remain soldiers in Ivan’s
army.
They devised a plan among themselves and announced they were ready to be baptized.
They marched out into the water, all 500 of them along with 500 priests. As the priests
put the soldiers under the water, each soldier grasped his sword and lifted it high in the
air. The soldiers were baptized completely, except for their swords and their fighting
arms. Those who witnessed the mass baptisms said that it was an amazing spectacle to
see five hundred dry arms and five hundred swords sticking up out of the water.
--What part of your life have you been unwilling to give to God? What is the
“unbaptized arm” in your life?
