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Evening sermon at PRBC for April 24, 2011
Sacrifice. We know that there is there is but one God, but some being accustomed to their conscience being. But food will not commend us to God. Better if we do eat. But take care this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
Or someone sees you of knowledge dining in an idol's temple. Sacrifice to idols. Through your knowledge he who is weak is weak. So by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
The days of the early church. Because here was. And guess what it's about? Problems. Indians have kicked out their elders for no good reason. Letters of. To attempt to correct. You've heard it said many times.
Through the ages in its individual manifestations. It's a situation that requires us to know a little something about the backgrounds to be able to appreciate what is being said. We can simply jump in our cars and head over to Fry's or to Safeway or.
It's amazing how you go from state to state. All of the grocery store's names change. They're the same chains. But they have different names in different states. It's really odd. But we can just we can just get into our cars.
We can go over. And within a mile of my house or so there's a large Fry's and they have a large deli department. And I'll go over there. I love getting this particular kind of just super yummy, super lean turkey sliced real thin.
And there's it's well stocked. I mean there's you can choose from anything there. And I I rarely have to ask where the meat came from. Thankfully we don't live in England right now to ask whether it's halal.
You know, was the name of Allah spoken over when the turkey was killed? Which is starting to happen in places like England these days. But but you can you can choose anything you want. That wasn't the case.
Fry's has not been around that long. And so we go back to Corinth. The primary source of meat in the city would be found in the fact that you have many many temples in the city in which sacrifices were being made.
Sacrifices to the gods. To as Paul describes them, to idols. Now concerning things, sacrifice to idols. And so the primary way of obtaining meat in the marketplace was that you would be, get a good deal on, have a stamp on it, you know, you sort of barter with somebody.
And the meat coming from one of the sacrifices to one of the idols in one of the temples, the main source of meat that would be available to you. Well this caused a problem. Let's say you had been converted to Christ and you had been involved in particularly idolatrous sacrifices and religious observance.
And now you want to have nothing to do with that religious observance. You want nothing to do with that religion. And let's say you're one of the guys that used to do the sacrificing. You knew exactly where that meat went.
You would be scandalized. And you know where that meat is and you're going to be partaking of the same meat that you had been involved in the sacrifice of only a few weeks or months earlier before you had vowed the meat of Christ and had renounced these idols and realized that they were enemies of Christ.
But then there were others in the Church of Corinth. They recognized that they were scandalized by these things, but their argument was, and so we don't have to worry about it. Because it's all been blessed by God.
It's all from God's creation. We don't have to worry about this. And so there was a division. There was a problem. And here Paul addresses that particular issue. He says, yes, we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant.
So in other words, is Paul trying to deal with two different groups in the Church? And this is without a doubt one of the hardest things in the world to do. I have said many, many times, just currently, to do that than to deal with divisions in the Church.
Muslims don't scare me as much as angry Baptists. No comparison there. It is extremely difficult to deal with these tensions within the fellowship. And that's exactly what Paul's doing here. And what you've got on the one side are the people saying, look, that's what I used to do.
I do not want to have any connection with that. And when I see you doing that, I am scandalized by it. But the other people are saying, you need to have the knowledge that we have. We have knowledge that there is no such thing as an idol in this world.
And so you have the two sides. And they're not coming together. What does Paul suggest as the mechanism in a Church? Where at the one side, Paul agrees unless someone walks up to you and says, here's a cheeseburger from Apollos' temple.
And they say it out loud. And yes, it's just simply me. But if you think you've got it all figured out, let me tell you something, you haven't even started. He knows exactly how I should have done everything.
If you think you know something, there is to know. If anyone loves you. That's not Paul's point either. He actually happens to agree with the people who have the knowledge here. They are right in the congregation.
We know. And he's speaking for the whole Christian congregation. We do know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world. And what does he mean by that? He knows there are idols. There is no such thing as the corresponding reality in the sense of, these are not true gods.
And there is no god but one. There is no god but one. Statement. Today that's considered to be a given, but it was not. The Jews were detested by many of the Romans for their monotheism. Jews and Christians together were frequently called atheists because they said there were no gods, plural, but only one god.
And it was considered to be extreme. If the norm in your culture was the worship of many gods, and you come along and say, the exact same kind of modern society, where people say, well who do you think you are that you know what the truth is?
But he says, we know, we know that there is no god but one. There is only one true god. This is a standard statement of the monotheism, what is called second temple Judaism. The second temple, the temple that existed in the days of the Lord Jesus, out of which many of those first disciples came, there is no god but one.
For, even if there are so-called gods, so-called gods, legomenoi, those that are identified or called gods. And so he says, and there are lots of them. It was huge, and then you had the gods of the east, and you had the gods of the Egyptians, and all sorts of that stuff.
Even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven and earth, as indeed there are gods many and lords many, there is but one god, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist.
But their experience, fully understood, those that they worshipped, those idols they worshipped, didn't really exist. Certainly say, but the idea that there are gods many and lords many, allegiance from a lesser god to a greater god, that can't be it.
Weak people that are still growing in Christ, still coming to understand the reality of the fact that there is only one true creator, and that means everything else that exists is under his sovereignty and control, under his power.
There is no Apollos out there, there is no Zeus over here. There is only one true god. He says, look, even if it is popular to identify these idols, yet for us, we just limit our worship. These other gods are out there, but we just choose not to worship them.
And the knowledge is absolute monotheism. Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we exist, but for us, the Christian people, one god, heis theos, one god, the Father, unto him, heis theos, one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him.
Theological sections, deep textures together in the bond of love in the face, Philippians 2, 5 -11, the carmen Christi, the hymn to Christ as to God, what's that about? Treat one another with humility of mind.
It's a sermon illustration about peace in the church. Colossians 1, the whole thing about Christ as the creator of all things, beware of those coming into the church who are teaching these things, who might deceive you.
All of it is focused upon the church, and that's what you have here. In 1 Corinthians 8, verses 5 -6, is one of the most important, and yet it's in the middle. We have very similar language, speaking simply of God, and to him are all things, to him be the glory forever.
All the same Greek prepositions, simply used, of God, differentiation, differentiation in the terminology of Jesus Christ. Shema, shema means to hear, hear, shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Akkad, hear Israel, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh, but in the Greek Septuagint translation of that text, what you had was hear Israel, kurios, kurios was the word that was used for Yahweh, the word Lord was substituted for, so the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, two phrases.
Now once you hear that, then you look at this, it may not be amazing, but again we need to see what it is, what he's done, is he has, from the shema, in light of Christ, all the New Testament is a revelation, and therefore, is to be read in, and so when he speaks to the, he's not telling them, notice this is not, now before I talk to you about idols, I need to give you a theology lesson here, I need to introduce you to the God we're talking about, no, this is, this is done in passing, this is, this is taken as, as common knowledge.
Now we know, this is the knowledge that is ours, because with this issue in the congregation, based upon the presupposition that they, as the Christian people, shared a particular commitment of faith, there was a revelation that was theirs, there was a truth they were committed to, as the people of God.
It wasn't that everybody got together, and decided to share their feelings. That's not a basis for the church. If that was how church was done, and there are people running around out there that think that's how church, how we feel, and that makes people feel just wonderful about each other, and that's all wonderful and good, but, that's not, because, maybe some of the weaker brothers think, no, he can appeal to a common, accepted norm, a truth, to which they were all committed, there is one God, or one Lord, so he doesn't expand, it is, he has taken, made it fuller, in light, and so we have theos, that's in the first phrase, of the Shema, kurios hatheos, the Lord is our God, and so there is one theos, there is one God, the Father, and then he adds this phrase, from whom, for him, and one Lord, because it says, kurios hatheos esten, there is one Lord, and one Lord, Jesus the Messiah, through whom, and it's the same word, same phrase, taphonto, all things are, and we, through him.
So, the all things, come from the Father, through the Son, have been created for the Father, and we exist, through, if Paul was trying to get away from the Shema, why would he use the words of the Shema?
He uses the, in the light, in the light, we have not changed, we simply accept, to understand that this, is not something that developed, it's not something that first came into existence of the council of Nicaea, or something like that, it is part and parcel, it is of the very essence, of the revelation, between the old, it is part, these divine, and so with that in mind, because just, goldmine, of insight, into the Son, these are their trinity, any goldmine, is just as likely to be used, for deception, misuse, witnesses will use it, to try to divide Christ off, from God the Father, the Muslims will use it, to try to say, see, we only have to verse 6, but to us there is but one God, the Father, see, Christians didn't believe that Jesus was God, these words, unless, we know what the content, any text, that carries great treasure for us of truth, proportional, opportunity, of being twisted, there is, to me, this wonderful, what hadn't yet become a full blown division in the church, but he could foresee the possibility, that this could lead, to a real division in the church, and what he wants, is he wants to see, unity amongst the brethren, and when there's that kind of tension, there's that kind of difficulty, that unity isn't necessarily going to be there, and so he wants to address it, but he addresses it, based upon the common faith that is ours, he didn't just simply use his apostolic authority, and say, you people over here do this, and you people over here do that, just do it, just listen to what I have to say, he explains, to those who have knowledge, he has made it, and don't worry, I do not want to come and put in a situation, or give up, what his sermon illustration was in Philippians chapter 2, is that not exactly what humility of mind is?
Having certain rights, but laying them aside on the surface of others? I will not allow my freedom to be the occasion of the destruction of another believer. That's how he concludes the chapter. So, you might be right, in your theology, but your theology must, so he makes that kind of application.
But at the same time, he explains, think about what you believe. There is no God. These deities you worship, you once served those which were not gods. You worship those which by very nature are no gods.
There is no God but One. And so think, this is one area where we keep activity on our part. We are taking all the things that we believe, the entirety of our life, and we are examining them in the light of God's Word.
We are to bring what we believe about God together with what we believe about eating, and sacrifice to idols, and our former life. There can't be one thing over here and one thing over here, because clearly, for the weaker brethren, they haven't seen how these two fit together yet.
And sometimes that takes time.
Understand that.
Aren't you glad God's given us all time? He doesn't expect us to be perfect. He doesn't expect us to have perfect knowledge the instant we walk in. But what He is doing, is He's calling the weaker brethren, how they fit together.
Don't become stuck in those. See the beautiful consistency of all that the Christian life is to be. I experience strong emphasis upon the identity of the seventh head of the ten beast monster in Revelation.
I think most of that time was spent, what has He accomplished? It was the focus upon the main things. Because He can say to them, and He doesn't have to defend that. He doesn't have to say, oh you know, I forgot to tell you about this, I'm sorry.
No, it's a given.
And so what that means, the plain things, the central things, who God is, who Christ is, what the accomplishment of the Gospel is, the inspiration, reliability of the Word of God. These are the things that we need to be.
And to see that the very foundation that Paul, is our common thing. Let's have a little chat about this. He does talk about love. Deeply back into the Old Testament, we see the consistency of God's revelation.
We see the fact that we're not worshipping some new God, but instead the one God of the Shema who revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, to Moses. He's still the one God we worship today. There has been no change in that sense.
Some were weaker brethren, some were stronger brethren, but even being stronger brethren in knowledge didn't necessarily mean that they were stronger brethren in love. And so, yeah, sometimes central text.
That is true, but to be known by God.