Corinth

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for Monday mark the 14th I'm mark. And I've got a great cup of coffee and I have my sermon notes read and I have my Bible open. And isn't that interesting. My Bible for daily Bible reading, my Bible reading schedule is all about first Corinthians. And guess what? The sermon in the 10 40 was yesterday. That's right. The new Testament road church tour. That's hard to say stopped in Quran as we continue to think about these congregations in the new Testament. It, and particularly as those congregations go with our year with Paul reading schedule, we're able to do two things at once. Talk about Bible reading. Talk about that church, give us a better appreciation for where Paul was and what was going on with those brethren. So I hope that you're ready to think about daily Bible reading, but before we do that, a few extra notes from yesterday, sermon about the church in Corinth. Let's get started. As I said yesterday, sermon, we stopped off in Corinth for the new Testament church road tour. I'm not gonna repeat all of that. Gonna try to get mostly to daily vibrating here, but I am gonna share one big, I idea one extra idea. I really love this podcast, cuz I have a chance to say a few extra things here. Let me just add this. The church and Corinth is a church with a serious division problem that is apparent from chapter one, verse 10. But I do think by the time we get to chapter two where we're doing daily Bible reading, maybe we're starting to lose. Paul's train of thought a little bit here, but as we get into chapter three, you're gonna see pretty quickly that this is all about division chapter three, verse four, when one says I follow Paul and another, I follow Pauls. Are you not Mary being merely human? Whoa, whoa, whoa. There's chapter one, verse 10 all over again. And even then at the end of that chapter in chapter three and verse 21. So let no one boast in men or in following men, one translation has whether Paul or Apollo or SIFA. Oh, there it is. Again, we're still talking about division. And in fact in chapter four, Paul is still talking about the difficulty of division and the need for them to reco recognize him and recognize his apostolic credentials that will cure this division. If they will do what Paul is saying. Here's the point that I wanna make here. Can't say everything in a sermon to say this division matters to God. Division matters to God in all the craziness going on in Corinth. The first thing that Paul talks about is division. I'm gonna talk more about that in daily Bible reading notes, but I just want to emphasize that all that I can. It seems to me in many anyways, we just haven't paid enough attention to how important unity is to God and how offensive division is to God. It is part of the works of the flesh. And yet I have known brethren that practically boasted about how many churches they had divided. Is there ever a time when brethren are going to have to part the, of course there is we saw Paul and Barnabas do that in acts 15, that wasn't over a doctoral matter. It was over a personality conflict. They just couldn't see eye to eye. They had to, they had to separate that kind of thing will happen, but it just happens to us too often. If we had the idea, if we had before us, that unity matters to God that we should do everything we can to walk in the unity of the spirit, that unity is according to Jesus. One of the ways that we show the world that we are true believers in him as the Messiah, John chapter 13, if we would pay attention to Jesus's prayer in John chapter 17 for unity, if we would hear what Paul says about how awful it us to be divided, maybe we would be willing to swallow our pride a little bit and decide, you know what, I'm okay with red carpet or it's okay if we support this fellow in the mission field, instead of the fellow that I wanted supported, we would do more to work for unity. I say again, the church in Corinth has a lot of problems, but problem number one for Paul is the problem of division. We need to take that more seriously. Division ought to be the last resort, not the first resort, but it seems like if we can't get along well, we'll just started working on the other side of town. That's wrong, that's sinful. And if Paul wrote you a letter, Paul wrote me an a pistol. The first thing he would tackle is that wrong attitude, that wrong add action division is sinful and wrong. Paul says to the Corinthians, we need to take that message to heart. That's a great way for us to climb in to our daily Bible reading for the week. We'll begin in first Corinthians two verse 11 as we continue these ideas about division and how wrong it is that Paul started tackling in first Corinthians one verse 10, read that last week, got that started, but it's going on that theme continues this week. Let's think about it. Let's talk about it. We're resuming in first Corinthians chapter two and verse 11 today. So let's talk daily Bible reading in first Corinthians, the second chapter. That's what we'll be reading today on Monday, March the 14th, first Corinthians, the second chapter versus 11 to 16, then we're gonna finish first Corinthians three and four throughout the rest of the week. I'm not in my FA a studio. There's a little bit of an echo here and there's a lot of traffic going on as I'm on the road, making some recordings, but I do have a fresh cup of coffee and I'm ready to think about Corinthians with you. This is a really significant piece of Corinthians, particularly for its implications and our understanding of the Bible. But what Paul is doing here with that church. And some people have tried to use these verses to talk about conversion. But again, this really isn't about conversion. This is about the Corinthians who are Christians and Paul moves to help them think about how they should accept what he is saying because it comes from God. The only way we can know what God wants us to do is that spirit of God, verse 12 tells us the things of God. That's what this is about. It's about revelation and Pauls. In verse 13, we impart this, that goes with verse 12. We are imparting God's world view. And the contrast here is the origin of the true and the teaching that Paul brings is it from man? Or is it from God? And he is saying the source of Paul's wisdom. The source of my wisdom is from God, not from man. And then there is this huge contrast in verse 14, between the natural man and the spiritual man and the natural man is simply the man who lives via his own reasoning. He's not guided by revelation. He does not listen to the word of God. He's not concerned about the word of God. That man is not gonna get where he needs to get. That kind of person is not going to accept Paul's teaching. And we do need to keep this in the context of Corinthians. We're thinking about fixing it and what Paul wants fixed here is the disunity. That's the beginning of the whole epi first Corinthians one verse 10. And so Paul is saying, I am speaking by the spirit of God in the only way that you can resist. What I am saying is if you are a natural man, a man without the spirit, a man who doesn't care about the revelation of God. So verse 15, the spiritual person judges all things, but is himself judged by no one. The man guided by revelation understands how life works and how it fits together. The natural man gets things jumbled. He focuses on the wrong things. He messes it all up because he doesn't have revelation to guide him. Paul closes that section then with an illusion to Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 13. And he talks about having the mind of Christ. And I think he's pushing here for the Corinthians to think about how concerned they are, the world's estimate of them. Why are they so tuned in to what everybody else thinks? When those people are natural people, they don't accept the revelation of God's word. We don't care about what those kinds of people think. They don't understand. They don't get it. We care about what God says, what God has revealed in doing what God tells us. You and Paul says, I'm the one that's helping you with that. You need to listen to me. You need to do what I say because I'm an apostle, I'm revealing the will of God to you stop with disunity. That's where this section is going. I would say this. This is a tremendously significant section for understanding inspiration, because Paul says verse 13, we am this in words, in words, sometimes people try to soften the force of the doctrine of the inspiration scripture. By saying that the apostles just got kind of general ideas and, and they revealed their thinking about some things and their philosophies about some things. If you go down that road, it will not take you very long at all to be in a very subjective place. You get to a place where is baptism really required for salvation or is Peter or Luke or Paul, just talking about some general things, do something to demonstrate obedience to God. And so I can make an obedient act and receiving Jesus in my heart by faith and prayer and you can be baptized and it's all okay, because it's just vague and fuzzy and quasi. And we don't really know cuz it's just a bunch of spiritual thoughts. No, it is not. No, it is not. We am part this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit. The very words of the original new Testament, not the English words you and I are reading, but the original words of the new Testament came from God, came from the holy spirit. And so when the holy spirit said repent and be baptized, he didn't mean make a faith act. He meant repent and be baptized words. Now, again, I'm not certain that Paul is dealing with verbal here as he talks to the Corinthians. But without any question, this passage helps us establish that. But what he is saying, what we want to keep in context here is Corinthians. You need to hold on to what I say. You need to act on what I say because I am bringing to you the revelation of God's will. And he's gonna go forward from that in tomorrow's reading to continue to talk about how he comes from God, his message comes from God, I should say, and they need to accept that message. And that's how that has played out in the church. And they need to see that in Corinth, as they do what Paul tells them to do by the spirit of God. So it's Tuesday and we're reading the first 10 verses of first Corinthians chapter three. And I'm just gonna start by calling your attention to verse four for when one says I follow Paul in another, I follow Paul, are you not being merely human C Paul is still working the problem of first Corinthians one 10. We are still talking about division. In fact, all the way down to first Corinthians 3 22, whether Paul or Apollo or SIFA or the world. See there it is. He's still working that dividing in to various groups or parties naming themselves. After a preacher. Paul says in this section, these first 10 verses of chapter three preachers, aren't really that important. What matters is that the message came from God. What matters is what God wants them to do. And I really wish I could tell you about that. He says, but there's jealousy and STR verse three. That's always going to be the case where there is division there's Carnel attitudes, fleshly kind of thinking that's causing people to improperly value. The preachers who have come through there, Paul and Apollo verse five they're they're just messenger boys. Their only function is to do what God has assigned to them. God is the author of the message, not Paul or Apollo. God has given to every man different abilities and not all preachers, same thing. There's room for all preachers, but it's God who gives the increase. And then Paul concludes this section here with a very cool metaphor, three of them to describe the church, the field of God, the building of God in the temple of God. But I really love this podcast because it's a great chance for me to tie this together. I think by the time we get to the end of chapter, one, people get a little lost in two, three and four chapters, two, three, and four. They're not sure exactly how that relates and maybe make a mark out beside, write something out beside three, four and 3 22 to say the division problem is still being worked. That division is hindering their spiritual growth and Corinth. And it's significant here. You don't want to overvalue preachers. They're not important. God's messenger. Boy is not as important as God's message, which is not as important. Of course, as God, the one who sent the message, that's what the message is all about. It's gotta connect us to God. So we teach and we lead the results up to God. He gives the increase. That's an important principle for Evangel them. But again, let's keep it in context. We're thinking about what the Corinthians need to fix and what they need to fix is division. And Paul continues to work that idea, be spiritually minded, be the person who accepts the revelation of the spirit from chapter two. And that will go a long way to solving the division problems that Corinth knows. I'll see you tomorrow. We'll finish first Corine three, welcome to Wednesday. And we're going to continue in first Corine chapter three, we're reading versus 11 to 23, basically through the end of the chapter. And there are some passages here that are a little hard to get our heads wrapped around. But if we keep this in the context of the division problem in cor, I think we're gonna be okay. He continues. Then as we start our reading to talk about these fellow workers, I planted Apollo watered. He says in verse six. So now, now he's talking about building. No one can lay a foundation verse 11. And if you build on that foundation, verse 12, your work becomes manifest. What is that work? It seems to me that Paul is talking about the people who are converted and that some of the people who are converted may in fact not stay faithful. So perhaps there're somebody at Corinth boasting a big conversion numbers, really telling people, look at me, I'm somebody look at the hundreds of people that I have baptized into Christ. And Paul is saying, that's not really the ultimate task that some of those people, particularly if they were converted with a false gospel, if they were converted by the personality of this preacher, they're not gonna stay faithful that they, that isn't, that that's not the test. That's not how we look to determine whether or not somebody is truly serving God. He moves from that verse. 15 is very, very difficult. If anyone's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss though. He himself will be saved. And don't think Paul is talking there about the impossibility of apostles. See, because that would contradict so many other plain passages of scripture. We don't interpret the plane in light of the difficult. We're not gonna go back through the new Testament and try to adjust all the passages that talk about aposty because of what's said in verse 15, instead, verse 15 has to be understood in light of other plain easier passages. It seems to me that Paul, that on the day of judgment, those that you have brought to Christ. If, if you find that they are not faithful, that's a loss, that's a disappointment, but that doesn't reflect on you. If I teach somebody the gospel and they obey the gospel, and then later in their life, they leave the Lord. That doesn't mean I'll be lost. It means that they are lost, but he goes from there then verse 16. And, and, and again that doesn't iron, all the wrinkles outta the shirt in verse 15, I wish I understood better where Paul is going with that imagery in verse 15, he then moves though in verse 16, to talk about the temple and the temple here is the church. And if anyone destroys God's temple verse 17, God will destroy him. He's talking about division. He's talking about somebody who divides the church. One of these teachers who comes in and undermines Paul's work and says I'm somebody. And Paul is a nobody. Somebody who's tearing up the Corinthian church, that man, with his wisdom of this world, that's just folly with God and God will destroy him. In fact, verse 19, God catches the lies in their CTS. That's the only quote of job in the end tire. New Testament. The Lord knows the thoughts of the whys and their futile. So don't boast in men, verse 21, don't get caught up in the personality of men. I've known and you've known people who got preacher artists. We see that in the denominational world, people are all about their pastor or about this writer or this celebrity speaker. That's so far from Christianity. We can't have any part of that. We are about Christ because actually verse 22, Paul Apollo SIFA, the world, life, death, they're all yours. The people don't belong to the preach. The preacher belongs to the people. The preacher serves the people. That's how that works. And that's why, of course, in verse 22, Jesus is not listed there because yeah, we do belong to Jesus. Jesus doesn't belong to us, but preachers are servants of the people that they are teaching. They are not to get a personality cult, founding them, that they can draw after them to somehow worship them and enshrine them. And I, I have to say, I'm always amazed at how some people quote the writings of John Calvin in the denominational world as if he is an inspired apostle. It's just frightening. And yet I have seen that among brethren. If you ask them something, they'll say brother, and so says, instead of quoting scripture, that's just wrong. That leads to division. Paul is finishing now with some of this business with division, he's gonna say some more things about preachers being servants in chapter four, before he moves to the next problem that they need defects. But that's, Wednesday's reading. I'll see you tomorrow will start first Corine chapter four, it's Thursday. And we're reading first Corine chapter four, the first 10 verses. And I'm still determined to hold this together with the ideas of division and the troubles that are in Qurans, where they're dividing up into parties. So Paul is continuing to work towards the idea of what preachers real they are. And it just seems like as you're kind of reading between the lines here, that somebody in Corinth is making more of themselves because I'm a preacher and somehow, maybe belittling Paul, that he's not a real apostle or not much of a preacher. Somebody is pushing themselves forward. And so Paul is giving a true look at what it is to be a preacher. And here he says that preachers are just stewards. That's gonna be a big idea here today is that preachers should just be seen as servants of Jesus. They're not the heads of parties. They don't originate doctrine. They have something that's been given to them. The gospel that's verse one, they're stewards of the gospel. And so again, I've said several times, God's messenger. Boy is not that important. It is the message that counts. And so again, verse two, it's required of stewards. Lots of Jesus parables are built around the idea of stewardship, where you leave goods in the hands of another. And the most important virtue in that kind of search circumstance is that the person you are entrusting something with the steward has to be trustworthy. He has to have fidelity and integrity. So what we're looking for in preachers is fidelity to God and to God's word. And the Corinthians are, look at verse three, judging him, but Paul is not bothered by that judgment by their criticism. That doesn't mean that it did not hurt him, but that is not the standard people speaking well of you or people. Not speaking well of you is not what determines where you stand before the Lord. Now reading today then closes with some serious sarcasm here. I'm really glad the podcast to talk about some of this, cuz I'm afraid this might be misunderstood or people might be looking at this thinking, is this really sarcasm? And that is exactly what it is. Paul and Apollo have delivered God's revelation. They're not coming up with new ideas, new philosophies. They're not drawing a party to themselves. It's all about staying within the scriptures. Chapter one verse 19 chapter one, verse 31, the ideas in chapter two, beginning in about verse 11, where the spirit of God has revealed the mind of God. You need to stay within the scriptures. Chapter three, verse 19 and 20 stay within the scriptures. And there's this strong sarcasm here where he talks about verse eight. Oh, you're so great. You think you have it all put together? You know everything, boy, I just wish it was that way. I wish what you think of yourself was a true assessment of yourself Corinthians. But instead they look down on the apostles who are in a degraded kind of position and think of themselves as being so, so smart, but, but they're not as smart as they think they are as they're being led astray into some false ideas. What a great opportunity for us to just think a little bit about where we stand with the preachers of the gospel that we know today and how do we evaluate them? What do we think of them really easy to fall into that cult of celebrity preachers. The most likes the most influence on social media, the most views on YouTube, those things aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves. A true preacher is gonna want the message of God to get out as many venues and as many avenues as possible. But, but just because you have thousands of followers that not what makes a person a true preacher of the gospel chapter four is well, we're studying just from that vantage point. But again, Paul is working to try to help them not follow men, particularly as men divide them up into parties. And we'll see a little bit more of that as we finish this section. And then Paul turns to start dealing with some of other problems in cor in Corinth in chapter five tomorrow, we'll read chapter four versus 1121. Welcome to Friday, let's finish first Corinthians chapter four, we're reading 11 to 21 first Corinthians chapter four versus 11 to 21 today. And right away we see an issue that really seems to have been an issue for the Corin. First 12, Paul talks about working with his hands. No self-respecting Greek philosopher would have ever deemed to stoop solo has to work with his hands. So Paul uses that to set himself apart from those Greek philosophers. I'm not starting a philosophical party or school to follow after me, but sometimes that seems to have caused the Corinthians some issues. How come Paul works with his hands? What kind of person does that? There'll be more about that in chapter nine, Paul will discuss financial matters and financial support there. But what Paul does to, to show that he's different than the Greek philosophers actually is causing some issues there. As they try to impress upon him that template. This is how philosophers act. Paul has to say, no, I'm not a philosopher. And that's why I didn't do that kind of thing. And so now he begins to wind up this section, which you really began in chapter one in verse 10, verse 14. I don't write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you. And here we get some ideas that set up Paul spiritual authority. My beloved children Paul's care for them. His interest in them. He is the one that taught them the gospel and founded that church. He wants to teach and instruct them. He indeed has sent Timothy verse 17. Timothy does not see aim here to be the one carrying this epi in first Corinthians 16, 10. He seems to be on his way. There are some others maybe Stephans for, oh, I can't even say that for nots. And a CAIC is probably bore. This letter to them. Timothy is coming though. And he wants Timothy to teach them the way of the gospel to in a better way to remind them of, of what a Christian should be and, and what it is to be a faithful child. Verse 18. Notice, some are arrogant as though I'm not coming. Seems like some say, Paul, Paul won't come. He's, he's a coward. He won't come over here and confront us. Paul says, I am coming verse 19. And I will, with this situation, I will deal with these problems, cuz we've worked along here, especially in chapter three in chapter four, you could feel that party spirit somebody's advancing someone as being their leader, their teacher. This is the way it ought to be pulse coming to get that solved. He's gonna fix it. And maybe this is a great place for us to be answering those questions about Paul's mental state for us to think about how Paul handles people and, and just hold on to the idea of where is Paul when he is writing this and what is Paul thinking and feeling so much of the good that we're gonna get from spending this year with the apostle Paul is gonna come when we stop and just thinking about how did it feel to be Paul? How did it feel to be Paul in this church that you care about, that you started the people, you know, you Baptiz ties them. You started them in Christ and now there's all this trouble and they're even repudiating you. And, and they're saying, you're not an apostle and we're not gonna do what he says. And he oughta have been a very different kind of person. If you really is an apostle, that's not how he should be acting. All of this is just crashing down. Paul is frantic about it. He's sending Timothy, he's writing a letter. He wants them to get it fixed. That's our theme, fix it and cor needs to do some fixing. And next week we're gonna talk about some big, big problems that are gonna need some heavy duty repair work. Let's go to home Depot. I'll see you on Monday. We'll talk about first Corinthians chapter five Until then. Thanks for reading the Bible with me. Thanks for listening to this podcast. I hope that you'll share it with someone else. Who's interested in the word of God. I hope that you will continue to listen that you'll subscribe or follow and even read or review. Give us a rating, give us a review that helps more folks find the podcast. Really do appreciate your interest in God's word. And so I hope that your Friday will be a short, your weekend will be a great one that you will have the opportunity to worship the Lord. Particularly if you're in the Dallas Fort worth area, that you'll be at west side with us in Irving, just christians.com can get you some directions there in time of services. If you can't be with us in person, come join us online. We'll stream on Facebook or@justchristians.com. I hope you'll be worshiping the Lord on the first day of the week. And, and I hope to see you on Monday in first Corinthians chapter five, see you then I'll have a cup of coffee. We'll read the Bible together.

Thanks for listening to the west side church of Christ podcast. Monday morning coffee with mark. For more information about west side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat dot I that's upbeat with two P'S, U P B E a T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with us. And we look to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,