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As we celebrate Easter, we’re going to look at the most important promise ever made, one that changed the course of history, and a promise that we celebrate coming to pass at Easter. It’s the promise of the resurrection – when Jesus, the Son of God, died on a cross, and then rose from the dead three days later. Just as he said.
We can see the issue for the Corinthians, and we can work through Paul’s arguments. But what about us? We live in a sex obsessed world. We all have our own sexual history both in terms of how we think and how we behave. How do we process this teaching without simply being paralysed by guilt and or shame? How do we apply this truth personally and corporately?
The use of the past tense in this passage is hopeful as well as humbling. Paul is not setting them or us up for a fall. We do not have to give in to our flesh. We can move on from our petty intolerances. Because we have been washed, sanctified, and justified. God has done a work in us, is doing a work in us, and will finish the work he is doing in us on that day of days when Christ returns. We are not helpless or hopeless - which is what guilt tells us. We have hope in the one who promises to help.
Your heart really matters to God. In a world full of distractions, we are called to guard our hearts and keep Jesus at the centre. Come with us as we discover the importance of God's grace, church community, and staying close to the Good Shepherd.
If we’re going to take collective responsibility for the holiness of the church, then we need to be sincere about our own discipleship, which will mean regularly dying to self. And we need a high bar on what we mean by Christian community, sharing lives and discipling one another, which will mean having difficult conversations with one another from time to time.
Be patient with everyone. You are going to meet people in church or in Life Group who are going to rub you the wrong way. It’s just going to happen. But when we remember we are all made in the image of God, and if we remember what Paul said at the beginning of the letter to the Corinthians that none of us can boast that we are better than anyone else, then we can learn to have grace with one another.
Paul is sarcastic about the Corinthian’s boasting which is rooted in pride – regarding one person as better than another in race, class, roles in the church, wisdom/eloquence, factions re leaders, and gifts of the Spirit. Paul followed the lead of Jesus, the God who came in low, fully God, fully man, – a picture of the ‘suffering servant’ who came low to serve, to die on the cross
Paul starts of chapter 3, by DISCIPLING the Church to see with some clarity and conviction where they might be getting stuck. Where immature theology and worldly values ARE hindering them from a life of spiritual GROWTH. BUT… he ends the chapter by giving them a vision of how God sees them / of how God has positioned them / of what GOD has in store for them.
The why question for the Corinthians revealed the problem of pride. Paul addresses their pride by reminding them that the gospel is the great leveller. Christians have no reason to boast because our salvation is all down to God. There’s no basis for feeling either superior or inferior to other believers. The challenge with pride is that its presence can be very subtle.
Lots of people want Jesus without the cross. Limit him to being just a good moral teacher or a misunderstood martyr. But the cross is the whole point – the reason he came. His weakest moment – is his most powerful act! The cross is the deepest of mysteries – and the simplest of truths. What it achieves is within the grasp of a child or the most impaired of minds – and yet its full depths are beyond the sharpest of intellects and the most powerful of angels. It can be understood in a moment, but we’ll spend eternity exploring its wonders.
There is disunity in the church and Paul will have none of it. In a world that is increasingly divided, polarised, antagonistic, self righteous and self centred it is vital for Paul that the church is unified. The church is meant to speak a better story to the world around it. Not that there will always be agreement on all issues, but rather that disagreements do not breed dissent, disruption and disintegration. Paul will pick up some of the details of their disunity in chapter three, but at this point, he begins to unpack the WHY behind the WHAT.
We want to get into Corinthians because it is a book about mission. It is written by a man on mission, the church is the fruit of that mission and they are a people on mission. They have been blown off course. The success of the gospel in drawing people from every area of life is potentially their downfall. In their desire to be accessible and relevant to their city, they are in danger of becoming indistinguishable from their city. Paul is calling them back to the uniqueness, purity, unity, and power of the gospel not so they can become even more proud, but so they become even more missionally effective.
Have you ever heard the saying it is better to give than receive? That sounds like the kind of sage advice you might see on an inspirational Instagram post, doesn’t it? Would it surprise you to know that it is actually from the Bible? The apostle Paul, in Acts chapter 20, said to his friends “remember the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Over the last couple of weeks we have looked at the gifts of Gold and Frankincense already, and today I want to focus on the gift of Myrrh. And I’m just going to come right out and say that Myrrh is a strange present to give to a toddler. It’s a sticky, fragrant, resin substance that’s extracted from a particular tree.
These wise men bring gifts that would have made sense to them. These were valuable items, and they were bringing gifts for a King. But, as we are hinted at in Isaiah 60, these gifts were also part of God’s plan for revealing the true identity of this child. Offerings of thanksgiving and praise: o Gold – sovereignty and Kingship o Frankincense – this child is worthy of worship o Myrrh – death and sacrifice
Even though Jesus at this point, is a small child, and born into humble origins, the son of a carpenter, he is in fact a King. The one and only King. King over all the earth. He’s not sitting in the palace with Herod, but nevertheless, he is a King. But what kind of King is he? We’re going to look at a few Kings in this passage to learn more about what kind of King Jesus is, and why we should do as the wise men do and bow down and worship him.
God has the power to establish us by his grace. Paul’s message in his letter to the Romans: the gospel is the power of God for salvation for anyone who has faith in Jesus. As JI Packer said: ‘God saves sinners’. This transforms the way we live through the Holy Spirit. He is able to establish us, to make firm. We cannot save ourselves. Tim Keller: ‘The gospel is not done by us but done for us’ Jesus has lifted us out of the slimy pit: (Psalm 40:2 – ‘He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock; and gave me a firm place to stand’) – he has established us, made us firm in the salvation he has given us.
So, should women stay silent? When we read this passage in a modern western context this is the question that tends to leap out of the text. Some of you may well have grown up in, or been part of a church that has limited the role of women in the church based on passages like this. Some would argue that it is clear – women should remain silent – that is what the verse says and, therefore, we simply apply what it simply says! However, we know that we should seek to understand any verse within the context of the original language and the overall context of the passage. So let us do that here...
These verses succinctly define the purpose of prophesy as edifying those it’s spoken to. A hallmark of Holy Spirit inspired prophecy is that it builds people up, by strengthening, encouraging, or comforting them. This is in contrast to tongues, which is for self-edification. There are two dangers regarding the prophetic gifts that we ignore at our peril...
Paul’s main point in these 25 verses is to stop the Corinthians from filling their church meetings with publicly given tongues that are not then interpreted, but rather to encourage them to eagerly desire the intelligible gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy, so that everyone can understand what’s being said. Therefore, he argues, a publicly given tongue should be interpreted, so that everyone can understand the essence of what was said, whether by someone else or the tongue giver themselves, if no one else interprets it.
Love gifts from the Holy Spirit that we are to eagerly desire! To operate in an atmosphere of love… "follow the way of love and eagerly desire". They are Gifts for a purpose. To build up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12) and empower the church to fulfil its commission.
we will unpack today, that if the love of God isn’t the underpinning of these gifts, then we are in danger of misusing or even abusing them, as appeared to be the case in the church in Corinth. As with all things that God entrusts to His people, if we are going to handle them well, the actual gift is not of primary importance, but the character of the one receiving it is.
As we will keep reminding ourselves when talking about Spiritual Gifts – they are gifts to give away for the blessing of others. Is the giver also blessed in the giving – often yes. But gifts and ministries exist for the good of the community, not the aggrandisement of the one ministering. I am not a big fan of the word “ministries” but in scripture, the root of this word is the word servant and the verb to serve. It serves us well to remember that when Jesus teaches his Apostles on leadership he equates greatness in the Kingdom with servanthood not position. We must guard ourselves against seeking a platform and or putting someone on a pedestal.
I've been asked to share my story with you today. And I am happy to do that, not because it is my story and I want people to know me - no, but because it is God's story in my life, and I love talking about God. And my prayer is also that while you're listening to me telling God's story in my life, God will encourage you about His story in your life. What He is doing, what He has been doing and what He will do. As I was praying together with Erich, my husband in preparation for this talk, he had the impression that God was saying; I see you. And my prayer is that as you hear me share a little bit of God in my life, you will know that the God who saw me, the God who sees me, is the God who sees you.
Are you eagerly desiring God to do something in your life? Embracing spiritual gifts, learning about them, asking God for them, and being active in the way you’re practising them - is where purpose and faith flourish. It’s how the Church is equipped and built up. And most importantly, it’s one of the key ways that the glory of Jesus shines through our lives.
A healthy church is a church that experiences the full array of spiritual gifts. A church where everyone has something, and no one has everything. Where no gift is universal, and no gift is missing. When someone brings a spiritual gift, rather than thinking, “I wish I had that gift”, ask the Holy Spirit, “What complementary gift do you want me to grow in?”
We can say church is about many things: social action, community life, music, evangelistic outreach, emotional health, freedom. right living. They are all important, but we mustn’t make them idols. They are secondary, they are the consequence, not the cause. The focus and purpose of our gatherings above everything else is to encounter God to experience his presence amongst us – the fulfilment of the ancient Exodus promise – they will be my people and I will dwell amongst them. Everything flows from the presence of God amongst his people when they gather. That is what we eagerly desire above everything else.
How do our vision and values and Jesus’ instruction to “seek first the Kingdom of God” work out in the busyness of life. One of the reasons that we get distracted from a Kingdom vision and onto the stuff of life, is because the stuff of life keeps coming at us. How do we hold on to the truth that Jesus reminded us of last week? We have to be intentional.
Our vision shapes how we live. How we spend our: Time, Talent, and Treasure. We recognise that we can be so easily distracted and deterred from our identity and Kingdom calling by the stuff of life. We looked at Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount in which he seeks to recalibrate us around our eternal identity as children of the living God. It is that identity which enables us to prioritise our relational purposes in God.
So we come to the final message in our tour of Colossians. We have: o Fixed our eyes on Jesus. o Unpacked biblical leadership. o Combatted the flesh. o Reminded ourselves that every area of life matters to God. Today we look at Prayer. We are going to look at prayer, because as we read through Colossians, there are multiple references to prayer. Using these verses as our source material we are going to ask ourselves some questions about prayer. What is prayer? How does Paul encourage us to pray?
Viewing these verses from our modern culture, it would be easy to miss the point. A modern reader can be distracted by concepts of submission in marriage based on gender and the concept of slavery. These are huge subjects and we do not have time to unpack them fully here. However, when approaching both subjects we must remember that biblical submission never gives licence for abuse or oppression – indeed Jesus’ submission to the will of the Father and to human authority in his incarnation point to a foundation of humility that is sorely missing in our modern world.
