Soul Revival

Bethlehem Bible Church

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October 18, 2009

00:00: Well, it is literally good to be here today, alive and preaching. If you have your
00:07: Bibles, why don't you turn to 1 Corinthians, the letter of 1 Corinthians. As you're turning there,
00:13: I don't know if you've been to many rededication services. You go to a service and you're struggling in your life and so you rededicate yourself to Christ Jesus.
00:22: Oftentimes, you would go to maybe a campfire when you were in youth group or something like that and everyone was given a stick and you would have to go to the campfire itself and you'd take the stick and that stick would symbolize you and you would toss the stick in the fire, dedicating you to God.
00:39: One man I know went and he put his... he wasn't a man then, but he was a boy and he put his watch in the fire and he was dedicating all his time to God.
00:48: Another man said that was just bad stewardship, he had to buy a new watch. We all struggle with sin, we all struggle with holiness and so, is there a real way we can rededicate our lives?
01:02: And I think the answer is yes, although it's a different way than you would normally think. Too often, rededication services, rededication prayers focus on who we are and we have to just try harder, we have to do better.
01:17: The focus is on sinful, frail man. I found one website that talked about rededication services, reconfirming our faith and it said you're to pray this prayer and God will take you back.
01:32: Oh Lord, I had you with me and I strayed, I turned my back on you and went away, but now
01:37: I see the error of my ways and now I want to turn again to you. And then the response from loveallpeople .org
01:44: is Congratulations! He is with you once again. Blessings to you in Jesus Christ, our
01:50: Lord. Now, I like prayer for rededication, I like that we would go ask
01:56: God for rededication, but I think too often we want a formula, we want something that's just easy and then we say
02:02: I'm rededicated. As we turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, this is lesson 2 or sermon 2 in 1
02:09: Corinthians, Luke, my 13 year old, said to me this morning, he said, Dad, I think when you finish 1 Corinthians, I'll have my driver's license.
02:17: I thought, oh, well, that may or may not be the case. But Paul is going to write to this church who needs to be truly rededicated to following their
02:27: Lord. And you're going to see that in the introduction, he doesn't talk about self -sufficiency, self -righteousness, moralistic, do better, try harder.
02:37: He's going to take the biblical approach, the real approach, and that is to show these saints at Corinth who
02:44: Christ Jesus is. And actually, when we have our own lives, like the church of Corinth, and we want a struggle in them regarding sin, this will help us as well today.
02:56: When I come to introductions like this, because chapter 1 verses 1 through 9 is basically an introduction, too often
03:03: I say to myself, well, it's just an introduction, let's get to the good stuff. But if we miss the first nine verses, we're going to miss a lot to this book.
03:12: There's a reason, I think you'd agree with me, that verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are here, and that's just not for a quick introduction, and then we move on.
03:22: We're going to see today that this is the way that God, the Holy Spirit, through Paul the
03:27: Apostle, frames this rededication, this renewing for the church of Corinth to say, yes,
03:34: I want to follow the Lord. How would you approach it if someone came to you and said, I'd like to renew my relationship with the
03:41: Lord, I'm bound and determined now to excel for Him. What would you say? Where would you go in the scriptures?
03:48: How would you approach this kind of person? And the answer is, what Paul does is shows them who
03:55: Jesus Christ is. And if you would with me, just to glance through this to start, look how many times in verses 1 through 9 you see the words
04:06: God, Jesus, Christ, Christ, Jesus, and the
04:11: Lord, Jesus Christ. Everything in here is about God. Let me just highlight these things for you.
04:18: Verse 1, Jesus Christ, by the will of God. Verse 2, the church of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus, who in every place call on the name of our
04:30: Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3, God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
04:37: Verse 4, my God, grace of God, which was given you in Christ Jesus.
04:43: Verse 5, in Him, talking about in Christ Jesus. Verse 6, concerning Christ.
04:51: Verse 7, Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9,
04:57: God is faithful, and then into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our
05:03: Lord. Everything Paul does is put the focus back on now, not themselves, but on the
05:10: Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, this isn't just some title. His first name's
05:15: Lord, His middle name's Jesus, and His last name's Christ. There's a reason why all these are here.
05:21: And so Christ, this Messiah, the one that Israel was looking for, Jesus, His first name,
05:27: God who saves, Joshua, Yeshua, and the Lord Jesus Christ. They're acting like Jesus isn't the
05:34: Savior, like He's not the Messiah, and that they themselves, the church of Corinth, are their own lords.
05:43: Now last week, we looked at the big picture, and the big picture was this. Why don't you turn with me to chapter 5, verse 9.
05:49: If you're here for the first time, we're starting our series of 1 Corinthians, and we're just gonna teach every word, every verse, as we ask the
05:55: Spirit of God to apply this word to our hearts so that we never look like Corinth, corporately or individually.
06:05: And we saw last week, if you look at chapter 5, verse 9, I wrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with fornicators, or in the
06:13: New American Standard, I wrote to you in my letter, not to associate with immoral people. And so most likely, there was a short letter ahead of time, before 1
06:21: Corinthians, that wasn't in the canon, that was not biblical. It had biblical advice, but not part of the canon of Scripture.
06:28: And the church of Corinth mistakenly thought, this means I'm never to hang out with any people who are immoral, and so I pretty much have to go move to Amish country, or move to some monkery or something.
06:41: And Paul says, no, let me write you another letter to confirm what I meant that you misread.
06:48: And he also gives some instruction on church discipline, civil court cases, purity, and then he answers questions in chapter 7 and following.
06:58: This is a book, by the way, as we look at the introduction for a while, that is very straightforward.
07:05: Not many times will we come into a spot here in 1 Corinthians, where we'll say, Paul was kind of beating around the proverbial bush.
07:13: Paul is direct. It's doctrine applied. It is Paul knowing that he's been there, teaching him doctrine, and now he says,
07:21: I want you to live it out. Very personal. You see Paul say, I, a lot of times. And he is comprehensively dealing with problems.
07:30: I went to the Patriots game a month or two ago to open the game. They had the flyover from the
07:36: Navy jets. I don't know what kind they were, F -14s, F -16s. I don't know the number, but I do know this.
07:42: It was loud, and it was impressive, flying right over so low. This was done before it started.
07:50: We just looked around, and it was done. Paul doesn't do that here in this book. It's impressive, but he deals with these problems in a very comprehensive way.
08:01: And he asks lots of questions. He asks questions so many times that start off this way.
08:08: Do you not know? Do you not know? The church of Corinth should have what? Known.
08:13: He'd already been there, and he had taught them. Do you not know? Chapter 3. Chapter 5. Do you not know? Chapter 6.
08:19: Do you not know? Do you not know? Do you not know? Do you not know? Do you not know? Chapter 9. Do you not know?
08:24: Do you not know? And so, Paul is talking to them in a way that is very pastoral, yet very direct.
08:30: And I think that's a good thing for pastors to be. Pastoral, yet direct. And here, if you look at chapter 1, verse 1,
08:38: Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sothenes, our brother.
08:45: Paul is the author of this book. Paul is the apostolic author.
08:51: And by the way, there's all kinds of evidence for this fact. There's really no question in scholastic endeavors that somehow it was someone else beside Paul.
09:01: By the way, wouldn't that be something that would be horrendous, that Paul is dealing with the lack of integrity at the church of Corinth, and then there's a liar who's writing the book called
09:10: Paul? No, that wouldn't seem to work. Even liberals say, quote, they bear so incontestably the character of Pauline originality that there is no conceivable ground for the assertion of critical doubts in their case regarding the
09:26: Pauline authorship of the book. So Paul wrote the book. He's got this rededication service.
09:32: And for our time this morning, for our outline, let me give you some affirmations that you can affirm in your own heart and minds so that you can have the same rededication service in your life, in your heart.
09:46: A rededication service in your heart bound to change your behavior. First affirmation.
09:51: You must affirm the apostolic authority of 1
09:57: Corinthians, that this is an apostolic book. You say, this is not really shooting off any bells and whistles.
10:06: Oh, that was such a good one. This is an apostolic book. Well, let's find out what Paul does and how he talks to them about his apostleship.
10:16: Paul called an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul did not just go, huh,
10:23: I'll be an apostle. I've just read What Color is My Parachute? And I think a apostle sounds good.
10:30: And I am a self -made man and I'll just do what I want and I can command them. Because remember, there were other people around Corinth who were doing that.
10:39: And we see that a lot in 2 Corinthians where these self -made apostles are saying, Paul didn't say that,
10:44: God didn't say that. Listen to us. And you see the text here. Paul called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of himself, by the board, by the presbytery, by the diocese, by the bishop, by the council, by our pastor.
11:03: This is not some career that Paul picked. This is not a five -year career plan. He said, this will be good for my resume.
11:10: Paul was an apostle because in Acts 9, Jesus said, you're now my son in the faith and you are now my apostle.
11:21: And Paul is going to say, you need to believe me because I didn't come up with this myself.
11:27: This was given to me by God, therefore you must listen to me. It starts with God's appointment and it ends with God's appointment.
11:36: And Paul knew that he was an apostle. It was not, oops, I think I'm an apostle. He knew it. There was not a vote.
11:43: There was not a second. There was not Robert Rules of Order. It was Paul by divine calling, by sovereign will.
11:49: You are an apostle. And I'll tell you this. Here's the application.
11:55: If you don't realize that the apostles wrote and spoke for God, you've missed out on any kind of way for transformation, for a dedication service, to have a proper understanding of apostolic messengers.
12:10: When Jesus speaks, it's in red letters. But when the Spirit of God speaks through apostles, it's in what color?
12:20: Red letters. You can't just say, well, I just only read the red letter stuff because that's Jesus. Jesus sent his disciples, his apostles and say, you now speak for me.
12:30: Now let me pose the question this way. What would you rather have today? If this were possible,
12:39: Jesus coming in here to speak to you today, physically, the
12:45: Jesus, the resurrected King, to come in here and preach a sermon to you, or would you rather have me preach from this apostolic messenger book, 1
12:56: Corinthians, that I will preach these words to you? Spirit of God applying.
13:02: Which one would you rather have? And of course we all default to I'd rather have Jesus. We're glad Mike's alive and he didn't die in the emergency room, but we would much rather have
13:10: Jesus. And we all sing together, I'd rather have Jesus, right? Turn with me to John chapter 14.
13:18: I think you're going to be shocked. I want to shock you. Jesus is going to leave the disciples.
13:25: Jesus is going to go away from the disciples. And he says, I'm going to give you another. I'm going to give you another one.
13:32: I'm going to give you one who is going to be just like me.
13:38: Let's turn our Bibles to John chapter 14. John chapter 14.
13:46: Now, Jesus is going to be saying that he's going to go. Remember in chapter 14 verse 1, do not let your heart be troubled.
13:55: Believe in God. Also believe in me. I'm going to be leaving sometime soon and don't be disturbed.
14:03: Don't be troubled. In my Father's house are many dwelling places.
14:09: And he's going to give them a commission. And you look at verse 16 of John chapter 14.
14:15: I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper, another of the same kind, that he may be with you forever.
14:26: That is the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.
14:40: I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. And so the
14:45: Spirit of Christ comes to the apostles and he will lead them and guide them into truth.
14:51: And he says, I personally can't be here, but there's going to be another one that will comfort you, that will teach you, that will be me, but it will be me, the
14:59: Spirit of God. This is not some kind of modalistic thing. This is the Holy Spirit he's going to send to them to speak to them and they ought not to be troubled.
15:09: They ought not to say, we'd rather have Jesus here. We don't want to have the Holy Spirit speaking through himself.
15:17: We don't want that. Now if you look at John chapter 16, the same kind of thing is said.
15:24: John chapter 16, you say, I don't understand, where are you going? Hang in there with me. John chapter 16, but now
15:34: I'm going to him, verse 5, who sent me and none of you ask me, where are you going?
15:40: Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. I'm leaving and you're sorry about that.
15:47: Okay, that's what's happening. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the
15:53: Helper, the Holy Spirit, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
16:04: Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. And concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see me.
16:12: And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them.
16:21: Pay attention, congregation, verse 13. But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you disciples, you apostles.
16:32: He's not talking to a congregation here. He's not talking to us individually. He's talking about the apostles.
16:38: He's talking about having them write Scripture. He will guide you into all the truth.
16:44: For he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears from the Father, he will speak.
16:50: And he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you.
16:58: All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said, and he takes of mine and will disclose it.
17:05: Takes that which is mine and will disclose it to you. All right, here's the picture. Jesus is going to go.
17:11: The disciples are anxious. The disciples are dismayed. And Jesus says, but the Spirit of God is going to come and he's going to move in you and you are going to speak the word of God.
17:20: Back to my original question. Would you rather have me here or would you rather have the apostolic word here in the
17:25: Spirit of God? Well, of course, you'd rather have Jesus. Did I say that? Did I say it right? Would you rather have Jesus here or would you rather have me here preaching this?
17:34: Well, Jesus can't be here because he's the right hand of the Father. But there is absolutely no difference between Jesus speaking his word, the red letter words, and Jesus speaking through his
17:47: Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, with these apostolic letters. If Jesus was here today and spoke some words that weren't in the
17:55: Bible and then I read you Romans 8, it would both be just as authoritative, just as biblical, and we should sit under both and say, you know, that is the word of God.
18:06: So it's not really a fair scenario. But would you rather have Jesus speak or would you rather have the apostolic word in 1
18:13: Corinthians speak? The answer is they're both exactly the same, from the same source and authoritative.
18:21: Now here's what happens. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 1. There are lots of people out there who are called apostles.
18:29: And I want you to listen to apostles, but I don't want you to listen to strip mall apostles. They're all out there in these apostolic kind of churches.
18:39: There's apostolic succession in the Roman Catholic Church. Lots of Pentecostal churches have apostles.
18:46: Are there apostles today? I ask the question because I want to answer it. If there are apostles, we ought to listen to them as we ought to listen to Jesus.
18:55: And if there are no apostles, we ought to say, well, then you're not an apostle. I will bank on what the apostles say written in the
19:02: Word. Let me just give you some background about apostles so you can spot easily.
19:08: Anyone who says they're an apostle today, you know that they're a fake, a fraud, and a phony. Apostles, number one, were eyewitnesses to the resurrection.
19:19: Eyewitnesses to the resurrection. When they were going to pick the apostle to replace Judas, Acts 1 says, it is therefore necessary that the men who have accompanied us all the time that Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us, one of these should be a witness with us of His resurrection.
19:40: They participated in Jesus' earthly ministry, number one. Number two, they saw the resurrected
19:45: Jesus. So I haven't met too many apostles today on earth that say, oh yeah, I saw
19:50: Jesus, unless it was because they ate too much salsa at midnight and it was some kind of vision or some kind of dream.
19:57: One man said, well, how do we know Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, doesn't show up like He did to Paul on the
20:02: Damascus Road? Number two, apostles performed undeniable miracles.
20:10: And I don't mean leg lengthening and bad back straightening like these charlatans do down at the DCU Center and any other place that they put up shop.
20:19: Apostles saw Jesus resurrected literally and physically. The twelve apostles minus Judas.
20:25: Then they had Paul the apostle, the untimely born one. And these apostles also could do miracles.
20:32: Listen to this verse, 2 Corinthians 12. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles.
20:43: If everybody was doing the miracles, then why would Paul have to write that? If doing miracles had been common for ordinary
20:51: Christians, why would Paul say, let me prove to you, Corinth, I'm an apostle because I do miracles.
20:57: If everybody does miracles, how can Paul use that to validate his apostleship? If everybody on TVN who does some kind of fake miracles with a bad hairdo can heal, then we've got a problem.
21:14: Take that out of the tape. That's from the medicine on Wednesday or Thursday that I had. I have some out.
21:21: It's the verse said, I can't remember. We need to listen to apostles, but the real ones.
21:28: And Paul says, here's a real apostle. Don't listen to anyone else except the real apostles. They've seen
21:33: Jesus raised from the dead and they can do undeniable miracles. Number three, they were around at the foundation of the church 2 ,000 years ago.
21:44: Ephesians chapter 2, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone.
21:51: You've got this figure of a church being a temple, and you've got the foundation, you've got the cornerstone, and now we're 2 ,000 years later.
21:58: So why do we need apostles when the foundation was built 2 ,000 years ago? So we have to be very careful that somehow we don't look at these apostles who say they exist today.
22:09: Mark my words, apostles do not exist today. Not the ones that have seen Jesus who do undeniable miracles.
22:16: We don't need them. Why is there an apostle necessary today? Because we already have his word. Don't go for anybody that says they're an apostle.
22:25: If you meet one, by the way, would you introduce them to me? And I want to go ask them what 1 Corinthians 15 means when
22:31: Paul says we have to do baptisms for the dead because he should know the answer. These people that are self -described apostles are control freaks and they have an agenda and they don't have a clue about what the
22:42: Bible says a real apostle should do. You have the words of the apostles in red letters.
22:49: You don't need anything else. How do you have a rededication service in your heart? Make sure you realize that God can change you through the apostolic messengers as he would say in Hebrews chapter 1.
23:00: Number two. Number two. We had a little deviation there about apostles but it just burns me if something gets stuck in my craw when people go around saying they're apostles today.
23:15: It denigrates what a real apostle is and who a real apostle is and they want to control you.
23:22: Maybe lots of people want to control people but I have no control over you outside of this book.
23:27: Isn't that the way it should be? Telling you to do things and telling you to send money and telling you to do all kinds of other crazy things?
23:33: I have not seen the resurrected Jesus. I cannot do undeniable miracles. Why would
23:42: I have to wait until 10 in the morning for the GI lab open to fix my esophagus if I could just fix myself? By the way, these apostles that have no hair and glasses on I think they've also got a problem because they can't even fix their own vision.
23:54: I digress. Let's keep going. With the apostleship comes authority.
24:02: That's why they want to say they're apostles because they want to rule you. They want to tell you what to do outside of the scriptures.
24:08: And Paul is saying don't let these quacks outside of Corinth and in Corinth and around Corinth tell you they're an apostle because they're not an apostle.
24:17: We need to make sure we do what Hebrews 1 says and Jesus said God doesn't speak anymore in visions and dreams and anything else
24:25: He speaks through His Son Himself and through His apostolic messengers. Hand -picked people by Jesus.
24:33: Number two. This is a rededication service bound to change your behavior.
24:39: Second affirmation. You must affirm that when the Lord Jesus Christ saves a person that person is radically different.
24:47: That should shake people up. When God saves you you're radically different. As I've said a thousand times before if the
24:53: God of the universe who speaks a word and the oceans are made indwells you
24:58: I don't think you're going to have the same old same old attitude. I'm just the same person. Now this is an indirect way
25:05: Paul goes about this. Why does he write the way he does? Verse 1. Paul called an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.
25:12: I'm speaking to you of not my own authority but of God's authority. And now he has a comrade. Not an apostle.
25:18: He calls him Sophonies our brother. Not another apostle. Not somebody that's seen Jesus. He has co -sender in almost every book except Romans.
25:30: And why did he do that? Well he doesn't want to show that he's isolated. He doesn't work with people. I think there's a different reason.
25:37: Who is Sophonies? He's only found two places in the Bible. Where are those two places? 1
25:42: Corinthians chapter 1 and one other place. When you study epistles what's one of the places you should go to study more about that epistle?
25:51: You say, I'd like to understand Ephesus. Where do you go to understand more about the ministry of Paul at Ephesus? The answer is
25:58: Acts. Let's turn there. Acts 18. I have something very easy for you to remember. Paul was in Athens, excuse me, in Corinth 18 months and we find his ministry at Corinth in Acts 18.
26:10: 1818. It's not a year. Acts 18, 18 months Paul was there. We're going to go take a look at some of the background of Corinth and you're going to meet
26:18: Sophonies and you're going to see why Paul includes him in his introduction. By the way,
26:25: I think I have 85 pages of notes today and there's no way we're going to get through it all and so I'm bound and determined to go faster when appropriate but why miss any of the good stuff?
26:36: I have a problem and here's the problem. I've learned so much about this passage that's so revolutionary. I don't have enough time to tell you instead of skipping over everything
26:44: I'll just turn it into a three part introduction. Okay. I used to think that reading fast was the right thing to do.
26:56: I've got to read through the Bible in a year. By the way, we had a big event at our house yesterday. I told the kids if you read the whole
27:02: Bible you get $100 cash. So Haley cashed in a while ago and Luke cashed in yesterday.
27:10: A hundred bucks. Wouldn't you like to be my kid? You say that's a bribe. I don't care what you call it but you want them to read their
27:18: Bibles. Now this time you've got to read it for the right reasons Luke. Start again. Genesis 1 .1.
27:26: There's so much in here. Let's look at the background in Acts chapter 18.
27:31: It will help us understand Corinth and then we'll get to meet Sophonies. So basically we're seeing what happened at Corinth.
27:39: Now let's go to chapter 18 verse 1. 18 months. Acts 18. 1818. Paul's going to be in a second missionary journey and he says in chapter 18 verse 1 after these things he left
27:51: Athens and went to Corinth. After what things? Well back up just a hair.
27:58: Chapter 17 is the previous chapter. Verse 32.
28:03: Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some began to sneer. Another said we shall hear you again concerning this.
28:12: So Paul went out of their midst. Some people believed. So Paul after those things left
28:18: Athens fairly dejected I would imagine. He wasn't violently cashed out but they just said oh you're not smart enough.
28:27: You're not intelligent enough. You didn't go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton. You know we're not concerned about that. We like to talk but it was a sophisticated kind of dismissal and he leaves and he goes to Corinth.
28:40: Sometimes he would leave because he sparked riots. Sometimes he would leave because they would just dismiss him and he walks about 50 miles.
28:48: It's 50 miles from. You know what we should do? Turn to the last book of your Bible. The 67th book of the
28:53: Bible. The book of maps. Let's just turn there just for a second. Turn there. Always gets a laugh.
29:00: Alright. Turn to the very back of your Bible and just take a look at the chapter or the page rather.
29:06: Mine is map 8. The missionary journeys of Paul. Just so you can get your mind's eye wrapped around where Corinth is and where Athens is.
29:16: And if you take a look and you try to find where you would normally find Greece today and you see the
29:23: Aegean Sea. You go down there. There's a bunch of islands and you should see the city of Athens.
29:29: On the other side you've got the Adriatic and Ionian and you'll see right there in Achaia the place called
29:35: Corinth. And I have a little arrow there, a red arrow and it shows basically Paul walking from Athens to Corinth.
29:43: Got the idea? It's about a 50 mile walk. Now we can go back to Acts chapter 18.
29:50: God gives him a good report and off he goes. Maybe there's 200 ,000 people in Corinth.
29:57: Maybe 400 ,000. And basically it's one of these interesting cities. We'll talk more about that in a minute.
30:03: Acts chapter 18 verse 2. And he found a Jew named Aquila a native of Pontus having recently come from Italy with his wife
30:09: Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and they were working for by trade they were what?
30:20: Tent makers. And what did Paul do? Interesting to see the life of Paul at a new place. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every
30:29: Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. So he would dialogue with them he would reason with them he always started at the synagogue and of course he would preach the gospel even if people weren't
30:38: Jews even if they were Greeks. And then he has this ministry. Verse 5. But when
30:44: Silas and Timothy came they were reinforcements down from Macedonia Paul began devoting himself completely to the word solemnly testifying to the
30:54: Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Here comes Silas here comes
31:00: Timothy good news is brought money from Philippi has been brought and Paul literally held himself to the word preached and preached and preached.
31:10: He doesn't have to work on tense anymore and now he is preaching the word. And look what happens when the word of God is preached to unbelievers.
31:17: When they resisted and blasphemed he shook out his garments verse 6 and said to them your blood be on your own heads
31:24: I am clean for now I will go to the Gentiles. You are resisting the word of God.
31:31: It means in battle array. It means in military array. You're lining up like a formation against the word of God because you will not have
31:38: King Jesus rule over you. And so what would the Jews do to Gentiles that they didn't like?
31:44: You go through Samaria and at the very end what do you dust off? Dust yourself off dust your feet off because you don't want to have any bit of their soil on your shoe.
31:52: And now Paul reverses it and instead of having the Jews dust the Gentiles dust off their feet.
31:58: What does Paul do? It's the exact opposite. He does it to the Jews. I'm going to the
32:04: Gentiles now. Blood is on your own head. Shaking out his garments.
32:10: You blasphemers. And it's not because you're anti -Paul but because you're anti -Jesus.
32:17: Your blood's on your own heads. Who talks like that today? Then he left there and went to the house of a man named
32:25: Tidius Justus. He was a worshiper of God.
32:30: That just means he's not a pagan. Whose house was what? Where? Next to the synagogue.
32:36: How mad they must be. Paul gets kicked out of the synagogue. The blood's on your own head. And he goes, well, where's the next opportunity for ministry?
32:43: I'll go next door. Next door evangelism. They must have been so mad. They must have followed him over there.
32:53: It gets better. The shockwaves continue. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue believed in the
33:00: Lord. Maybe he followed him over too and then he hears the message and he believes with all his household.
33:06: And many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. It's the best.
33:14: The word of God trumpeted forth through Paul the apostle. And God was saving people through the ministry of his word.
33:22: Verse 9. The heat is up so hot that Paul needs some encouragement.
33:29: And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, Paul, I know you're afraid.
33:36: Do not be afraid any longer. It's typical for Paul. He gets to a new city and the first thing he does is he looks up the
33:43: Google map and finds out prisons because he knows shortly he'll be there and they'll probably be beaten up and sent there.
33:50: So now Paul says, Jesus said, don't be afraid any longer but go on speaking. Do not be silent for I am what?
33:57: I'm with you. That sounds like Matthew 28 and lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the age.
34:04: And no man will attack you in order to harm you. Because when Paul preached, that's what they would do. When Stephen preached, that's what they did.
34:10: For I have many people in this city. Paul gets
34:15: Galatian persecution, Macedonian persecution, Athens kind of persecution.
34:22: Here we go again. It's the next city. And God with his grace and with his kindness says, you just keep preaching.
34:30: You may have difficulties, you may have trials, but nobody's going to hurt you. And by the way, here's the theological language.
34:36: There are lots of elect people in this city who aren't believers yet. There's lots of unregenerate elect people.
34:43: There's lots of people who when they hear the Gospel will respond. For I have many people in this city.
34:50: What a lucky vision for Paul to get. Out of all the six visions, this luck, random chance, fortuitous, serendipitous vision happened just right then.
35:02: How lucky. No, it was with encouragement. And with that encouragement, just at the right time, look what
35:08: Paul did. Verse 11. And he settled there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.
35:14: I'm going to just hunker down and do this. God's with me. He's going to protect me. Fireworks continue.
35:23: Verse 12. This is all happening in Corinth. But while Galileo was pro -council of Achaia, the
35:30: Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat.
35:35: You're not going to get hurt, Paul, Jesus said, but you're going to have troubles. And they bring him to this bema seat, this raised platform of civil and religious and other kind of judgments.
35:48: They bring him before Galileo, the pro -council of Achaia. By the way, history tells us this is Seneca's brother.
35:56: And basically they're going to say this. Galileo, you make a judgment so this guy can't preach anymore.
36:02: And so, verse 13, saying this man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. Roman law.
36:09: Of course, they think Jewish law too. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galileo said to the
36:16: Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or a vicious crime, oh Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you.
36:23: But if there are questions about words and names in your own law, look after it yourselves. I am willing to be a judge of these matters.
36:32: I'm not going to talk about religious debates. I'm here for civil issues, social issues. Christianity is fine, is basically what he's saying.
36:42: And what did he do? He drove them away from the judgment seat. And you think they're just going to sit back?
36:49: Here comes Sophonies right here. We can't grab
36:54: Paul. If we can't hurt Paul, we'll get somebody else. And they all took hold of Sophonies, the leader of the synagogue.
37:06: He must have been some chief ruler of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat.
37:13: But Galileo was not concerned about any of these things. God promises to watch over Paul, and here's this other guy there, and they start beating him up.
37:23: Isn't that amazing? Galileo, you're going to snub us, and we can't take out our anger on Paul.
37:30: We'll get somebody else. We're going to beat him in the marketplace, in the forum.
37:39: Now, back to 1 Corinthians 1. Why would Paul mention this guy?
37:46: Why in the world would Paul say, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Sophonies our brother?
37:55: Why would he say that? Here's why I think he says this. Corinth, you're carnal.
38:03: You're fleshly. You're ungodly. You're not living like Jesus is Lord. I'm writing you a letter, and I'm writing this letter with greetings from a man who will stand up for Christ Jesus, whether he's beat, whether he's killed.
38:18: This is like we're writing to you, and this is, I don't know if it's shaming them, I don't know if it's, it's certainly not sarcasm here, but Paul is saying, there's a man who at Corinth acted like Jesus is
38:30: Lord. Won't you too? They know who Sophonies is. He's not just some guy they made up.
38:39: He's radically different. One minute he's a Jew, and the next minute he's a Christian, and he has got the bruises and the stripes to prove it.
38:53: Number three. Number three found in chapter 1, verse 2. You must affirm that the church,
39:02: BBC, Bethlehem Bible Church, or any other church is not yours. It is God's. How do you say to yourself,
39:09: I'd like to be revved up again for God, not in a moralistic way? Well, number one, the Spirit of God will work through His Word as apostolic messengers.
39:16: Number two, I realize that His Word does change people, and I ought to be a changed person with whole new life, whole new motives, whole new issues, whole new desires.
39:25: And number three, you need to recognize this isn't my church. This isn't our church. Take a look at this.
39:32: Verse 2. To the church of God, which is at Corinth. This is
39:39: God's church. I don't know how often you do it, but sometimes if I'm not thinking properly, I do it. Well, at my church.
39:46: Friends, this isn't my church. You don't want this to be my church, do you? This is God's church. I'm not responsible for birthing you into the kingdom.
39:55: I'm not responsible for giving you spiritual gifts. This is God's church. And Paul says the same thing.
40:01: Corinth, you're acting selfishly like this is your club. This is your moose lodge. This is your elk's lodge.
40:08: This is your grange society meeting club organization. You forgot this is the church of God that Christ has purchased with His own blood.
40:16: Act like it. Paul is giving them all this information in their mind where they're thinking, I'm living carnally. I should be listening to the apostolic
40:23: Word. I should be realizing that Sothenes was changed from a pagan, from a non -believer to a believer, and now
40:31: I'm thinking, I'm acting like it's our own church. We make up our own rules. We do what we want. This is to the church of God.
40:38: It's not a political assembly. And by the way, most of the time when Paul writes, he uses the plural, and here he uses the singular.
40:46: One church, one accord, no divisions. You're all the people of God. Now, on a side note,
40:56: I want to say this. If this is Jesus Christ Church, who determines what we ought to do in this local assembly?
41:05: Well, it has to be Christ Jesus. I think the Corinthians had a slogan for their church, and their church slogan was this, the customer is always right.
41:17: This is seeker -sensitive stuff from the get -go. This is exactly, well, you know what,
41:23: Jesus I know maybe purchased the church, but now we've got to use our own wisdom to figure out what we need to do.
41:31: I'm sure they would say the church of Corinth, because they thought it was their church.
41:37: As one man said, keep your pastoral prayer short in your seeker services. The unchurched can't handle long prayers.
41:46: I'm sure they would affirm this man who said, we must be willing to adjust our worship services when unbelievers are present.
41:55: God tells us to be sensitive to the hang -ups of unbelievers in our services. That's Corinthian style.
42:03: That's the church of Corinth. That is not, Jesus purchased this church. Jesus owns the church.
42:09: It's His own possession. He treats it like a bride. And we are to do only what
42:15: He calls us to do in the local church. And God never said, you treat the bride like the bride is a whore.
42:24: He never said that. You never treat the bride of Christ like the bride of Christ is not the bride.
42:32: How will unbelievers respond if we do something? If you're an unbeliever here today, welcome. We have cookies for you afterwards.
42:39: It's not a matter of being unfriendly. It's a matter of this. We're not here to put a worship service together so you'll like it.
42:46: We're here to honor God because this isn't my church. It's not the elder's church. It's not your church.
42:51: It's Christ's church. And if He's happy at the end of the day, but you throw rocks, so be it. Adjust our worship practices when unbelievers are present.
43:04: Here's what should happen in Jesus' church. Turn to 1 Corinthians 14. I'll give you a little idea. You say,
43:09: Pastor Mike, you're kind of all riled up about this. Let me put it this way.
43:17: If you're married and someone began to attack your bride, friends, you will no longer be a pacifist.
43:27: If you've got any clue, any stature at all, any courage, honor, loyalty, thankfulness, gratitude, or anything else, you will not just stand there and go, defile my wife.
43:39: Go ahead, besmirch her, bedob her with all kinds of gross things. You just do whatever you want to my wife.
43:46: The smallest framed man who has any courage or understanding of being a husband would stand up to his dying breath to protect his wife, wouldn't he?
43:57: This is the bride of Christ. And the church of Corinth just played fast and loose with it. They just acted like they're in charge.
44:04: They're not under apostolic authority. They do what they want, when they want, how they want. And when the world floods in, they think it's probably a good evangelistic opportunity.
44:16: In Jesus's purchased church, here's what should happen when unbelievers show up. And if you're an unbeliever here today, this is my prayer for you.
44:25: Verse 23. If therefore the whole church should assemble together and all speak in tongues and ungifted men and unbelievers enter, will they not say that you're mad?
44:37: Verse 24. But if all prophesy or preach the Word, declare the truths of God, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all.
44:46: Why? Because the Word is preached. He is called into account by all because everyone who's preaching the Word will call into account.
44:52: One day you'll die and stand before God and you need a righteousness not of your own. You need to be forgiven by the risen
44:58: Christ. What does the Word of God do like Hebrews 4? The secrets of His heart are what?
45:05: Disclosed. Laid open. And so He will fall on His face and worship
45:11: God declaring that God is certainly among you. Now if it's my church, that's too radical.
45:19: If it's our church, that's too tough. But if it is Christ Jesus' church, that is what?
45:25: Just right. If we feel good about it. If we felt good about it, there wouldn't have to be words to tell us opposite of our feelings now.
45:38: When someone says that unbelievers don't respond to worship services with old songs or long preaching, friends, mark this and mark it well.
45:48: Unbelievers don't worship the God of the universe. They only worship themselves.
45:54: This isn't our church. My job on Sunday is not to entertain goats as Spurgeon said.
46:01: It is to edify the sheep. And once you turn into the
46:09: Church of Corinth and say anything goes, numbers matter, getting the unbelievers in matter.
46:15: I like getting the unbelievers in. We don't change our methodology.
46:21: How about Tampa Tribune? Reverend Tim Dyson, you can cancel the
46:26: Reverend part of his name, of Church Alive in Tampa, Florida gives away money for newcomers.
46:33: Friday night's event will include clowns, a light show, and music from rock musician Clint Brown. It takes creativity to reach out to new members.
46:42: No, it takes disobedience to turn the worship service into a place where if you show up you get free oil changes like some churches do.
46:52: You say, well, that doesn't happen around here. Wall Street Journal, Stanford, Connecticut.
47:00: Mary Wilkinson went to church on Sunday in January at St. Francis Episcopal Church.
47:05: Holy communion for pets. The 59 -year -old retired portfolio manager carried her 17 -year -old tiger cat to the altar, waited in line behind three panting dogs.
47:16: I mean, I want to laugh or shout, I don't know what, cry. Waited in line behind three panting dogs to receive the host, the
47:23: Eucharist, and had a special dedication performed for her cat, Purbox Jr. I like other parishioners who are animal people.
47:32: I like the church to do what I want. This is my church. This is our church. With pews hard to fill, a small number of otherwise traditional clergy are welcoming animals into the flock.
47:45: And I say with total disdain and no compromise style, when clergy officiate at pet funerals and group bark mitzvahs,
47:56: I want to scream. This is not my church. This is not your church. That isn't their church.
48:02: Maybe it is the church of Sardis because they're dead. This is Christ's church. And where are the people to stand up and say, come what may, we'll honor
48:10: Christ Jesus. You say, well, you're getting too upset about it. I wish everyone would be upset about the defaming of the bride of Christ.
48:25: What do you call a man who won't stand up for his bride? I'll call him a coward. What do you call people of the church, elders, pastors, and lay people who won't stand up for the word of God?
48:39: People want to do all the hows of ministry. How about the who of ministry? Whose church is it? That would pretty much solve every problem.
48:46: And Paul says this is the church of God. Act godly. Be under the word of God.
48:53: Not this doesn't work. How many numbers will we get? How will we get credibility in the congregations?
48:59: How about Jesus in John 6 .66? As a result of this teaching, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.
49:09: The day we have to take a survey at this church of the community, asking them what they like in church is the day
49:14: I quit. Why? Because they don't know what they need.
49:20: I know what they need because Jesus has told me and He's told you in the Word. And we do it whether they walk with us anymore or whether the place blows up to 5 ,000 people.
49:29: Kim said to me a while ago, she said, honey, you'll never be the pastor of a mega church. I think now today you know why.
49:41: When Rick Warren says, it is my deep conviction that anybody can be one to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart.
49:46: The most likely place to start is within a person's felt needs. Friends, that isn't even a
49:52: Christian statement. There is one who seeks, and it's the
49:58: Father who seeks people to be His worshippers. When Bill Heibel says to Peter Jennings during an interview on TV, Peter Jennings said, you don't think it was even important to have one cross in your church building?
50:14: Heibel responds, we're very serious about what Jesus did on the cross. But to capture the essence of Christianity in a single symbol is a little dangerous, we feel.
50:25: Paul says in chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, even
50:31: Him, what? Whether you eat or whether you drink or whether you have public worship service, you do all for the glory of the purchaser of the church.
50:43: That was Corinthians' problem. That was their problem. The same man
50:50: I quoted before said, the problem is the longer you're a believer, the less you think like an unbeliever. A.
50:56: Is that a problem? B. Your interests and values change. Because I haven't been a
51:01: Christian for most of my life, because I have been a Christian for most of my life, I think like a Christian. I don't normally think like an unbeliever.
51:08: Worse than that, I don't. I tend to think like a pastor.
51:13: And that's even further removed from an unbeliever's mindset. I must intentionally change mental gears when seeking to relate to non -Christians.
51:21: If that's one -on -one, maybe, but not in the church that Jesus purchased. We need to preach the cross that Tozer talked about.
51:31: Not the new cross, but the old cross. The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self -respect.
51:40: To the self -assertive it says, come and assert yourself for Christ. To the egotist it says, come and do your boasting in the
51:45: Lord. To the thrill seeker it says, come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship. But the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense is the gospel.
51:59: Friends, we are no one. This isn't my church. It's not your church.
52:05: I just want this. I want you to obey what the apostolic messengers said by the Spirit's power.
52:11: I want you to realize that if God gets a hold of you, you're going to be different. And you ought to have people in your lives whose lives have been so dramatically transformed.
52:19: You say, that's a good reminder. And you ought to say, this isn't my church. Therefore, I should do everything that the owner, that the
52:27: Lord, that the purchaser of the church says to do. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter.
52:33: If it's not popular, I don't care. If it's not copacetic with the culture, it matters not.
52:39: I have a husband. I have a king. I have a savior. And I'll do what he says even if it kills me.
52:46: That should be our attitude. And the good news is today, church, I know you believe this.
52:52: This is not a scolding sermon. You're on the other side. This is what we believe. For the majority of us here, we affirm we are under this book.
53:01: We are not over it. And the Lord and the king of the church says to do something, we want to just do it with more fidelity and more faithfulness.
53:07: Right? This isn't pastors up here, you're down there. We are in this together to say we will stand for the king.
53:14: And if somebody wants to sully the bride, they'll have to go through us to do it. And you say, well, we don't have a national platform.
53:21: Whatever platform we have in your neighborhood, in your family, on the radio, you use that platform to say it is
53:26: Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is his church. Anything else is dirty.
53:32: Yes? And when you think like that, you say, if only the church of Corinth would have thought like that, their problems would have disappeared.
53:44: Let's pray. Father, I know these are difficult words.
53:52: It's a tough message. And, Lord, I would just pray that you would prevent our church from ever slinking towards Sodom and Gomorrah, acting like the church of Corinth, somehow thinking the church is there, somehow living a life like they used to live.
54:10: Lord, we want to honor you. And, Lord, there's a time to be meek and to be mild and to be gentle. And there's a time to stand up.
54:18: And there's a time to proclaim. So, Lord, I pray for the ladies here today and for the men, for their different personalities and their different giftedness, that you would give them courage, maybe not all to stand up and raise their voice in the pulpit, but to stand and be heard for the truth, for the honor, and for the glory and for the weight of Christ Jesus our
54:39: Lord. We're thankful today that we are redeemed people, that you have purchased us, that you have rescued us from ourselves.
54:46: And now when it comes to church, when it comes to corporate worship, tie our hearts and bind our minds to the word.
54:53: And, Lord, when it comes to dance and comes to all kinds of other things, Lord, would you just help us to do what you've called us to do in your local assembly.
55:02: And we need your spirit to do it well and to do it better. And so, Lord, I commit this church to you.
55:08: I commit Bethlehem Bible Church and all the visitors to you today that you would help us to be resolved, to be biblical, to be faithful.
55:20: And, Lord, we can't do it on our own. And so grant us your Spirit of God who you promised to give us. In Jesus' name,