Philippians 2:1-11

Have a mind to suffer for Christ, by speaking the Gospel and serving each other in humility
Intro:
People throughout the history of the world have tried to answer the question of what is the goal of life? To the ancient philosophers like the stoics, the most you could hope for in this life was to bear up under all the external hardships and difficulties that happen to you with a sense of self control, with a sense of decency and integrity, their philosophy was you can’t control these events but you can control your response to them. This was thought to be a virtue, which is called stoicism.

Whereas today it seems our pop culture approach, our philosophy of the goal of life, is about finding self fulfillment. We don’t try to just accept the things that happen to us, we try and dictate terms to the events so that we will get what we want. We have a philosophy of trying to make things happen, to be proactive and not victims, or at a bare minimum we have a mantra to turn the quirky things that happen to our best advantage, these things only exist to make us stronger.

And oddly enough Paul in his letter to the Philippians is saying that both these ideas have hit upon something of a truth. Firstly, you can’t always control events that happen in your life, but you can control the way you respond to them. And secondly, life is about being fulfilled. But as is usual with Paul, he will radically and fundamentally modify these ideas, as he brings the Gospel of Christ to bear on their view of reality. As usual Paul offers a radical critique of the world, but he writes it from a very personal perspective.

Paul wrote this famous letter to the Philippians from a Roman jail cell which we learn from chapter 1:7. And he writes it to the struggling believer’s to encourage them to stand up for Christ and his gospel, by facing the two pressures that they are experiencing. The first pressure they are facing is an external pressure from Pagan opposition in the Roman Empire to not speak of Christ. And this is a very real and serious pressure for them. Paul is in prison for no other reason than preaching Christ. But Paul wants them to draw courage from his example and to speak out for Christ.

And secondly the believers in Philippi, are facing internal pressures of pride and self-centredness. And Paul is calling them to serve each other in humility and unity.

Paul wants the believers to live a life that is worthy of the Gospel of Christ and in their situations it will mean two things for them; Firstly, to speak! to speak the gospel and; Secondly, to serve; to serve each other in humility.
1. Be Like minded in unity and humility, because of Christ
NIV Philippians 2:1
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,
if any comfort from his love,
if any fellowship with the Spirit,
if any tenderness and compassion,
2 then make** my joy complete
by being like-minded,
having the same love,
being one in spirit and purpose.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition
or vain conceit,
but in humility
consider others
better than yourselves.
4 Each of you should look not [only] to your own interests,
but [also] to the interests of others.


Paul’s main point in this section is that all the believers should be like-minded in humility towards each other because they are in Christ.

Paul starts verse one with four questions that flow on from the context of verse 27, where he asks them, and compels them, to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. These four questions are really rhetorical questions because by asking, ‘if you having any encouragement from your union with Christ’, what he really means is, ‘since you have already these things’. And by reminding the believers of the good they have received he is going to go on and give them a command as to how they are to live, now that they have received these good things.

For Christian believers being united ‘with Christ’ (which is another way of saying in Paul’s theology to be ‘in Christ’) is to have all these great riches of Christ towards us. It is to have the comfort of his love, is to have the fellowship of the spirit, the holy spirit, and it is to have tenderness and compassion from God.
We have this great reconciliation between us and God in Christ, and we know from the power and fellowship of the spirit that our debts toward God have now been paid.

The security of our relationship ‘in Christ’, (where all that he has becomes ours) is the grounds on which Paul can compel us to live a life of obedience in response. We have received comfort from God’s love ‘in Christ’. We have seen the tenderness and compassion of God towards us, and we experience it in this deep relational fellowship with the holy spirit, in whom we commune with all of God himself, father son and holy spirit. And because of this we can now obey.

So in verse two Paul gives his commands that they are to make Paul’s joy complete, literally they are to make his cup overfilled with joy, and they are to do it through having the same love and spirit and purpose, and to be one in heart, soul and mind. It’s about having a total conviction as Paul did for others because of Christ.

This whole section of chapter 2 is about having a mind, and attitude that seeks after the things of God. The mind in the sense that Paul seems to be using it is this place where the intellect and will meet, where what we know to be true and our desire to carry it out connect, and shape our life and behaviour. Throughout this passage Paul is calling for us to have a mind that seeks after the things of God, to have a mind like Christ.

And it seems in this section that the Philippians are facing their internal pressures which are tempting them to not follow Christ, they are tempted we learn through V3 to do things from selfish ambition, or vain conceit, and considering themselves better than others. They are attempting in three different ways, to look after number one.

But Paul calls them twice to serve, to serve themselves but not others. In verse four he says, ‘in humility’ literally, ‘the lowliness of mind’, they are to consider themselves better than others. Again literally, ‘each of you should not look to your own interests but into the interests of others.’
The whole church is to make Paul’s joy complete by being like-minded in the same love, spirit and purpose (this total heart, whole mind conviction) in looking to the interests of the other and not themselves. Paul calls them to serve in humility for the sake of unity, to be prepared to suffer because of the love and fellowship compassion and tenderness of Christ we experience in the spirit.

Now usually in sermons they recommend you given illustration so that people understand your main point. And typically preaches go for some sort of sporting analogy at this point, (or if they are American something about being a marine!). Well in this chapter we have been spared these two travesties because Paul himself gives us the illustration, and that illustration is Christ himself and his life of obedience and suffering, but we will get to that in a moment when we deal with versus 5-11.


Now in this section of V5-8, Paul’s command in particular reminds us that the Christian life is not an individualist pursuit, we are to serve Christ by serving his purposes and in particular his people. Together we are to be united in our purpose of serving Christ and this will mean looking to the interests of others before yourself. It’s like what they used to teach at Sunday school you may remember, that Joy is about Jesus, others, yourself.

Unity happens amongst the Church congregation when you see humility and service going together. If there is a lack of unity, in may be a real symptom of a lack of humility, or a lack of service. Service of each other requires a genuine commitment to each other. Church life, which is the Christian life, compels us to make choices to genuinely enter the fray, and to invest in each others lives, to support each other and to serve each other for each other’s good.




2. Have the humble and obedient attitude of Christ.
5 Your attitude should be**
the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not
consider equality with God
something to be grasped,
7 but
made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant [slave],
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Paul’s command to the Philippian believers here is that they should have the same attitude of Christ, the humble and obedient attitude of Christ.

And here in verse five when Paul uses ‘attitude’ it is the same word he used previously in verse 2 and 3 to mean ‘the mind’. You are to have in yourself the same mind as Christ. And in this context the mind seems to be the place where the intellect and will connect. The place where we view the world and it enables us to resolve to do what we know to be right.

These verses form such a famous passage, where Paul manages to weave two great strands together for one clear purpose. Paul’s purpose is to move the Philippian believers to have the same attitude as Christ, and he does this by retelling them the story of Christ’s obedient incarnation, his obedient life and his obedient and humiliating death. This story that tells of Christ’s descent of obedience, these actions that display Christ attitude, which Paul uses to profoundly and powerfully convey the reason that they can, and should, have the mind of Christ.

Christ’s very work has formed the grounds by which they can have an attitude like Christ’s, and in the same breath, Christ’s example is the example they are to follow. They are to follow Christ in obedience through humility to be a slave, Obedience through humility to even death, Obedience through humility to even an unjust and shameful death.

And this isn’t some sort of empty rhetoric for Paul and the Philippian believers, as you remember Paul is in jail, and his obedience to Christ will eventually cost him his life.

Paul commands them to have the humble and obedient attitude of Christ. That is the clear first strand of what Paul is doing in this passage, but the second strand of what Paul is doing is to explain the profound and unique nature of Jesus Christ. This passage is one of the high points of what theologians call Christology, the study of understanding who Jesus Christ is and what he has done.

In this passage Paul speaks of the remarkable story of Christ’s descent of obedience, Christ is in his very nature God, and yet he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but instead humbled himself to be found in the appearance of a man. And if you think about that for a moment, the God of all creation, has entered into that creation, he has become part of that creation, he has become man. God in the incarnation of Jesus, humbled himself to be a man, a babe in dirty nappies, and awkward and gangly teenager, a know it all 20-year-old ( which in this case was actually an accurate description of himself!).

But he did not become only a man, even more than that, he was a man who took on the nature of a servant, literally a slave. He did not live to serve himself, but he lived to serve others. In fact he humbled himself not only to being a slave, but to death. God condescended to become part of his creation and experience death himself. God is not foreign or aloof to the suffering of this world, God in the person of Jesus Christ knows what it is like personally and intimately to face death.

Jesus Christ was the one man who did not deserve to die, and yet he humbled himself to suffer death, a cruel and humiliating death, of death upon a cross.


I’m not sure we have an appropriate equivalent of crucifixion around the world today, the only image I could conjure up was one that sticks in my mind from the first Gulf War where the Americans had bombed an Iraqi supply line along the road in the middle of nowhere. And because there was no one there to bury these people when the television crew came through some months later, there was these bodies (all really only skeletons with varying degrees of charred flesh on them), half buried under wind blown sand. And it became such a picture of the futility of war, and it had the appearance of such an un-glorious and un-dignified end. You could feel yourself recoil from this image, wanting to turn your head and have nothing to do with it, to pretend that it didn’t exist and you didn’t see it happen. To feel shame that you knew it did exist and it did happen and you would rather pretend that it didn’t. This is what the cross was like for the people in the first century.


And if that wasn’t enough the Bible tells us that anyone who was hung on a tree was cursed by God. Christ’s descent of Obedience took him from the throne room of heaven to the depths of hell, it seems there is no experience for man which Christ has not already personally experienced. Christ’s descent of obedience means he went from the heavens, to being part of the creation as man, and not just any man but as a slave, and not just as a slave but to death, and not just death but death upon across.

Mankind owes a debt to God for their disobedience towards God. Mankind needed to pay the debt, and mankind did in the man Jesus Christ. Sin came through the first Adam but reconciliation came through the second Adam Jesus Christ. Jesus the man, lived a perfect obedient life before God. But if Jesus was only a man, and not God, he could only be an example of the perfect life for us to follow.


But Paul explains what is going on in the cross is far deeper and greater than that. Jesus is God. God in mankind, in the person Jesus, God is paying the debt that mankind owed to God. God is reconciling man to God in himself. Christ’s death is not just an example to follow but primarily and crucially, it is atoning for our sin. His death is essential to paving the way to allow us to be obedient and not just presumptuous before God. Like Romans 5:8 says God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. God is the only person who could pay a debt that mankind owes to God, and he did it justly in the God man Jesus Christ.

But then all Christians are called to follow their master, and follow his example, not grasping at their rights, but emptying themselves for the sake of Christ and his gospel and the sake of others.

And what was the outcome of Christ’s descent of obedience? well we see in verses 9-11 that God the father exalted Jesus to the highest place. Christ’s suffering ended in glory. This alone should be a reason for us rejoicing.
But Paul goes on to strengthen the Philippians believers, by implying that in the same way as Christ suffered here on earth and was exulted, their suffering here on Earth for Christ will also result in them sharing in their Lords exaltation and glorification later.

9 Therefore God exalted him [to the highest place]
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow,
in heaven and
on earth and
under the earth,
11 and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
So God the father exults Jesus Christ to give him an authority and a place above all other things.

Now when he says exalted its not as though Jesus when he came to earth he was something less than God. Of course Christ was God in the beginning before any creation was brought into being, He was God in his incarnation, and clearly is God in his exaltation.
Christ’s exaltation is not a change in his status or nature, but it is God’s action to reveal the truth of who he is to all people. And that reality is brought out in the two aspects of application that Paul puts forward in versus 10 and 11. God exults Jesus so that firstly at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and secondly that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Now these actions of bowing the knee and confessing with the tongue, isn’t some sought of happy reunion either, it is a day of reckoning, so the final day of judgment as we know it, where God calls all things in creation to realise the reality that Christ is Lord over all. He has the name that is above all names, he is the Lord. Jesus is the lord of all creation.

And you’ll note that Christ’s descent of obedience we read about in verses 5-8 from heaven and earth, to death, to the cross is exactly the same path as his exaltation takes, he is exalted in heaven, then upon the earth, and then under the earth.
Christ’s life of humility wasn’t below or demeaning to the son of God, it was entirely fitting for the son of God, that he may be exalted and revealed in all the glory that is rightful to him as Lord of all.

Even in this we see the humility of Christ. All he has done, even his exaltation, ultimately brings glory to the father. Christ is at his very heart, the servant king.

You see in an analogous way as Christ suffered in this world and was glorified at the end, we share in Christ’s suffering now in order that we may share in his glory later, and this is entirely appropriate because he is the lord.

And the application Paul brings from this passage, is that at the end of time people will confess with their tongue that Jesus is Lord, and also bend the knee to him as their Lord. And this ties back into what he’s been asking the Philippians to do throughout the Letter. Paul urges them to plan now to do both those things.

Firstly, they are to speak! They have to confess with their mouths now that Jesus Christ is Lord. And they are to do that in the face of opposition, even if that results in suffering. And secondly, they are to serve! Which is their way of bending the knee to Jesus, they are to serve the Lord by serving each other for the sake of the gospel even if that means suffering now.

Paul is instructing the Philippian believers to have the humble and obedient attitude of Christ. They are to suffer now for the sake of Christ, by speaking of Christ in the face of opposition, and by serving each other, even if it’s difficult. If they are prepared to share in Christ’s suffering now, they will also share in Christ exultation and glory later.

Gods people the church, are people who speak the truth of Christ no matter the opposition, and serve each other with all humility, they are to have the attitude of Christ in themselves because this will bring unity and ultimately glory.

Matt 28:16-20

Making Plans
Big Idea: Jesus is the LORD of Heaven and Earth who commands His Disciples to make more Disciples
Introduction:
This mightn’t come as a surprise to you, but I can assure you it came as a surprise to me, that I have now well and truly passed from the decade of my twenties. I finished university over 10 years ago now, and if I had to summarize that decade, it would be about having to learn to make decisions, and decisions that I felt rather ill-prepared and inadequately equipped to make.

The twenties for a lot of people is when you get your first job, then leave your first job, maybe move out of home, or go overseas, get married, maybe even have kids. In Sydney today starting salaries have never been higher, which is good because the cost of education and the cost of housing have never been higher either.


But if any feeling was with me during that time it was the burden of too much choice, too many options. Sounds strange really, but the ability to just get up one day and move to the other side of the world and not have to consult anybody is not as freeing as it sounds. Too much choice is actually a burden.

The 20’s is a time when you make decisions and you really can make important plans!

But then again, no matter what stage of life we are at, we all make plans don’t we, we all have somewhere we want to be, a direction we are intending to go?

In the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus helps us to see the need of a plan, and it isn’t just any plan, he is talking about, its God’s plan he shows us. And Jesus can tell us this because of one important fact
Point 1: Jesus is Lord of Heaven and Earth
The first point we get from the text today is that Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth.
Have a look with me at Verse 18
Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that he is the ruler of all things; from the angels in heaven above, to the waves on the seas below; the lightning in the sky and the harvest of the crops in the fields.

Jesus is the Lord of the rebellious spirits in the heavens and he is the ruler of the rebellious people on earth.

For his Jewish disciples Jesus is stating clearly that he is equal with their God who created the world and now sustains it through his power. Jesus is saying he is one with their God, in Verse 19 the single name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus has all authority because Jesus is God.

And when we stop to think about it from the disciples perspective, these Jewish men who are now worshipping this man who is there God, what a stark contrast a couple of days makes! As you remember from a little earlier in the gospel story, there was a picture of Jesus as a powerless man dying a helpless, pitiful, thief’s death upon a cross.

Jesus, if you’re the Son of God: Save yourself
Jesus, if you’re the Son of God: Come down from the cross
Jesus, if you’re the Son of God: Are you going to rebuild the temple from up there?

Well this Jesus chose to die on that cross after which he did rebuild the temple in a more amazing fashion than any of them, including his disciples, could of envisaged, he rebuilt this temple from death to life, from powerless to all authority in heaven and on earth. He was raised from the dead.

This act is what confirms his authority over all heaven and earth including the ability to judge or to forgive.

Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth

As Australians we don’t have a very good regard for authority. And the starkest contrast is shown in the way we treat our leaders. Kath and I had the good fortune to visit Washington DC, and while we were standing on the side walk of Pennsylvania ave we noticed almost eerily there was no one really around (that could have had to do with the fact that the Washington sniper was currently on the rampage, but we didn’t know that at the time) but the streets as well were stopped to traffic, then to our amazement around the corner came the motorcade of the President of the United States, no more than twenty feet away, and George W. Bush waved at us, we almost involuntarily (lemming style) waved back. It was a surreal moment.

How many vehicles do you think was in his motorcade? 17 including an ambulance…He traveled exactly two blocks. About 800m on that journey.

Fast forward two months later and I’m stuck in peak hour traffic on Epping highway and I see a white statesman with 5 people crammed into it, then I realize there are Australian flags flying on the bonnet. A closer inspection revealed the bloke crammed into the center of the back seat was in fact John Howard. Patiently reading sitting in the same traffic I had to negotiate. Motorcade size, same as me – 1!

Most of us probably think, rightly so, he can wait like me Prime Minister or not.

But does that distinctly Australian attitude of authority carry over to how you view Jesus authority?

If you asked Jesus disciples they would have said that Jesus appearing from the dead is miraculous, and for him to state that he is Lord of all is just about unbelievable.

But the question it asks of you here today is “what do you say about it?”

Or has enough time passed since you heard of it that your sense of the significance of this has been dulled?

As Christians we can be dangerously presumptuous with our knowledge of who Jesus is. We are all in danger of being complacent.

How is Jesus Lordship reflected in your life?

How do you plan your life? Our most precious resource these days seems not to be money, like many people think, but to be time, How do plan to use yours to serve Jesus?

Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth

Point 2: Jesus commands His disciples to make more disciples and to teach them

The second point from today’s text is Jesus commands his disciples to make more disciples.
Have a look with me at verses 19 & 20
Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

The heart of Jesus command here is to make disciples, in the same way Jesus has discipled the eleven through teaching the Gospel and the commands of God they are to do likewise. Only there is something new about God’s work through the disciples, you see the eleven were all Jews, a continuation of God’s previous works through Israel. But now a new thing has begun the message of salvation going out to all nations the new era for the Gentiles has arrived. Which is great news for us.

You’ll note that Jesus calls for the disciples to make disciples, not just converts. Jesus is not commanding for lots of people to be converted, get numbers, (dare I say it 10%!), he is commanding them to make disciples, mature Christians who are obedient to Jesus teachings. They are to have a life that is recognizably consistent with the message of the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus they proclaim.

Let me say that again, their life is to reflect the Gospel message, this is Christian maturity.

Now what does he mean about being baptized? Well baptism in Matthew’s Gospel seems to be based around what John the Baptist did, and he baptized people as an outward sign of a repentant heart toward God, a recognition of a persons need to be forgiven. Baptism really would become an outward sign to others of someone being a Disciple of Jesus. Being a Disciple of Jesus is the priority of the command.

Jesus commands his disciples to make more disciples.


People of my age group have a tendency to think we are entirely the masters of our own destiny, no doubt a function of the choice available to us, and we’ll choose who has an influence on our lives, we’re pretty special – y’know - no matter how many fish in the sea it would feel so empty without me. And left to my own devices I’m no different.

We’re not as independent as we’d like to think. The company we keep and the things we occupy our minds with influence us.
I realize that a large number of you here today are parents, which is a great blessing, and I’m sure many of you have had that terrifying experience that happens to all parents at some stage…. I’m talking about that fateful moment when in a moment of anxiety and desperation, even exasperation, you have said something you wish you hadn’t and you realize that you are, despite your best attempts to resist it, in fact, turning into your own parents.

Y’know the type of thing I’m talking about, it’s the “because I’m your father” defense.

Whether it’s a conscious decision or not, the company we keep influences us. We relate to people and they influence us and we change as a result.

Jesus command to make disciples requires us to be Godly influences through teaching what Jesus taught and being obedient to it. We are to encourage each other to faith in Christ and obedience to his teachings.

A mark of Christianity is to be in intentional relationships with two types of people, those who are discipling us and those who we are discipling. Or do you think being a Christian is an individual pursuit?

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Now, If discipleship is about teaching other people Jesus teachings, how well do you know what Jesus taught? Do you read your Bible. If we took a straw poll on, ‘is the Bible the word of God?’, I’m guessing we would get a 100% strike rate. And yet if a asked who has read all of the Bible, would the rate be the same? What about the new testament, would that be 100%? What about if I asked who has read an entire gospel from start to finish? It’ll take you less than 3 hours to do (about the same amount of time as watching Lord of the Rings), I bet you we wouldn’t have 100%. Is Jesus our Lord or not? Work hard at being his disciples, and teaching others to do likewise because he is returning to weigh up his servants work.

Jesus commands his disciples to make more disciples.

Point 3: Jesus told them he will be with them to the end of the age

The third point from today’s text is that Jesus has promised to be with us until the end of the age.

Have Look with me at verse 20
Matthew 28:20 And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Jesus is encouraging his disciples that he will be in their work, or more correctly the disciples will carry on his work, they will not be alone and we know that Jesus continues to be with his disciples through the presence of his Spirit.

But the statement of the ends of the age is a double-edged sword really, it encourages Jesus disciples that he will see them through to the end, that they need not fear that end. But it reminds them that the Lord of Heaven and earth is going to return, it brings a sense of urgency about the disciples work to make disciples because the time will come when he will judge all.

Those who do not have their faith in the Lord Jesus are in immanent danger of judgment and condemnation and you have responsibility to share the message of the Gospel that is the power of God for the salvation of those who believe.

If you feel like the Christian life can be difficult at times, let me assure you that your not alone in this. Telling people about Jesus and working hard to convince them of their need to put their faith and trust in him can be hard work and more than a little daunting. It is important to remember that we are taking part in Jesus work, the Lord of Heaven and earth has promised to be with us.

And God is always faithful to his promises.

On my first beach mission at Toowoon Bay on the central coast, I was quite frankly terrified. And the part that scared me most was visitation, were you go in pairs and visit the same 25 or so campsites every day at the same time for a week. My visitation partner was the single most quiet person in the team, so it was a steep learning curve. One particular tent site was three English geezers on a back packer holiday and each of the first 5 days they were either too hung over or already drinking again to really be able to talk to. The tent was sought of covered with beer bottles and we’d just be polite and give them one of the program outlines each day.

Then one day they were sitting at their tent sober and talkative, obviously the beer money had run out and they were a little bored. We talked for a little while about their travels etc. and the conversation had kind of run it’s course so we turned to head to the next site and one of them said, “I read your handout, you guys don’t believe that Bible stuff do you?” 45mins later we’d been able to present the gospel of the Lord Jesus to them and explain the need to put your faith in him.

Being Christian can be daunting, but we should remember that we don’t make disciples in the sense that it is all our work, we simply continue to proclaim the gospel message and explain what Jesus taught. The Spirit of God will convict people of the Gospel messages truth and enables them to come to a saving knowledge of the truth about Jesus.

When you think about your plans, do you expect the end of the age come into your calculations?

Do you trust in God’s providence now through your plain and simple explanation of the Gospel to call people to himself?

Do you pray to the Lord that the people you know might be saved?

Conclusion:
Well we’re at the end, and the passage is stating for us that Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and earth and he is commanding us to go and make disciples.

What are your plans for your life? Do you think God has a plan for you?
We often think about God’s plans in a very narrow framework don’t we, who will I marry, what job will I get, where will I live?
Where will the kids go to school, who will they marry?

Jesus is in control of all things and he knows what you need.
Will you trust him to provide?

God has a plan to redeem people to himself and he is asking, well actually he is telling you to make it your plan too?

How will you plan this week, this year, the next ten years, to use your time and resources to make disciples for Christ?
Prayer:
Lord,
We thank you for your word and your spirit that convicts us within, of its truth and our need to change. Please help us to change.
Matthew 9:37 - 10:1 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Romans 10:13-15 Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
AMEN

1 Corinthians - Talk 6

The aim of the game is to Devote yourself to the Lord!
Serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him, wherever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price.
Intro:
Firstly, the chapter is long, but is important so it could have been a sermon series in it’s own right. But instead it will be a sermon, actually it is more of lecture really, in two parts and we are going to have a song in the middle.

Secondly, the material it covers can be difficult for us, and for some more than others! But what the passage says, God says for our good, and I’m trusting that my treatment of it here is similarly for our good, that is how it is intended.

Thirdly, Kids. As you see from the outline what we are about to cover, hopefully respectfully, but it may be that you would like to choose the time your kids hear about some of these things. I totally respect that and suggest that it if you would prefer it, the room next door will have supervision, to allow the kids to continue with their activity sheets.

Now let me start with a question what do the movie’s Bridget Jones’s diary and American pie have in common?

Not much at first glance I would imagine!
Both are mediocre movies made in the 90s maybe?
Well in any story what drives the story along, is conflict in regard to the hero’s quest, we ride with the hero wondering whether they will succeed or fail.
In both movies the goal of each of the hero’s is getting from the opposite gender what they want, getting even what they feel they need. You see they want to be fulfilled.

But the absolute polarity of what each gender feels they need, couldn’t be more stark than in the contrast between the movies content and style themselves. Both movies proposed the quest, that the hero needs something from the opposite sex.

On the one hand American pie, proposes men need sex from women to be fulfilled.

On the other hand Bridget Jones proposes women need relationship and status from men to be fulfilled.
Both approaches are ultimately self-centred quests to feel good about yourself, but as usual the men’s approach is quite crass, and the woman’s more subtle, but both are equally and thoroughly self-centred.

At their heart these movies display the wisdom of the world though, and its ‘look after number one’ attitude and this is what has been happening in Corinth and it is resulting in sexual immorality.

But Paul in this chapter is going to turn this thoroughly self-centred attitude on its head, in radically refocusing the Christian believers by saying the goal of life isn’t self-centredness or of self fulfillment, but the goal of life is to serve the Lord. And to serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him where ever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price

Now What triggers Paul’s whole discussion in this section of the text on marriage and sexuality and related singleness sorts of issues, is one quote in what the Corinthians have written to Paul.

But the overarching issue in all this for Paul, what’s driving him to talk about these things is from verse two, he says ‘there is so much immorality among the Corinthians’. In fact in verse 26 he calls it ‘a crisis’. These people who think themselves so spiritual wise are actually having a pretty hard time relating to each other appropriately as the gospel would compel them to.

Paul gives them direct commands to correct their behaviour, in this section Paul tries to address a number of groups from within the church, and in addressing them he gives them the milk (if I can call it that) in the basic elements of Christian morality when it comes to the situation they find themselves in.

1. Married people and sex (V1-6)
Serve the Lord in marriage by faithfulness through self-control, which is expressed physically by sex being between a husband and a wife.

So Paul begins in verse one by pulling out a quote from what the Corinthians had written to him where he literally says ‘it is good for a man not to touch a woman.’ Of course Paul realizes the theological and ethical implications of this kind of thinking. Again in this the Corinthians have an eschatological problem, this problem in understanding the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ of the Kingdom of God, the spiritual jetlag is still around of their body being in one time zone and head being another, and the implications of this is they think that the spiritual is everything, and the physical is nothing. The thinking behind the question written to Paul seems to be is there a better physical condition in this world, which will promote a higher spiritual state?

And the outworking of this kind thinking in Corinth, is the idea that sex is nothing because it belongs to the physical. Now this had two implications. Firstly the people who decided not to have anything to do with it because well it is physical and by implication it’s nothing. And secondly the people who decided they could do whatever they liked with their sexual behaviour, because its physical and it counts for nothing.
But Paul knows that this is not true for Christians, the spiritual and physical go together in the one person. What we do in our body counts, it is a spiritual good to use the body well and in particular to not have sexual immorality. The godly response to the body is not sexual immorality but self-control as we see in verse five.

So quickly let’s run through what other commands that Paul gives, what are the rules of the game when it comes to Christian sexuality in marriage. Paul gives two commands in verse two; that firstly, a man should have his own wife, and secondly, each woman should have and husband. So the model of marriage for Christians is one woman one man.

And Paul goes on to explain what this means in more detail in verse three giving another two commands. He says Firstly, a husband should fulfill his duty to his wife, and secondly, likewise the wife to her husband. What the text literally says is ‘the husband has authority over his wife’s body, and likewise the wife has authority over the husband’s body.’
There is a complimentary-ness about the relationship, but it highlights what we call ‘other person centred-ness’ of Christianity, in a way that really pulls the rug out from under these notions of self-centredness and self autonomy, or your body belonging solely and utterly to ourselves. Christianity expresses (particularly in the marriage relationship) the richness of the giving of everything to the other. Marriage fundamentally isn’t about the self.

So this utter and complete giving over of oneself to the other is a unique aspect of Christian marriage, and is so different to what the world thinks marriage is about. The world thinks marriage is really about individuals being self-fulfilled, it’s the Jerry McGuire thing of ‘you complete me’ (I deride that movie).
Like the other person only exists in the marriage, just to be mortar to fit around my bricks and to make me into a strong wall.

Christian marriage is about a profound giving of all that we have to the other, and them giving all that they have to us. Together we enter into a deep relational almost corporate unity, where all that they have becomes mine, and all that I have become theirs. Servant-hood is at the core of what it means to relate in this marriage relationship.

Marriage is not about one person taking from the other what they need, but about the willingness of one person to not withhold anything that would be good for the other. It is a loving and caring and sharing mutual and reciprocal giving of everything one has to the other, and it is done because it is for their good and not motivated by our own self interest.

And in this particular case Paul is talking about a sexual relationship between man and woman. There is one place for a sexual relationship and it is the marriage relationship between a one-man and one woman.

Husband and wife should give each other wholly to each other in the realm of the physical body to express their sexual relationship. Paul says this is good, it is an appropriate expression of self-control, and it is the antidote to the current sexual immorality that is a crisis within the Corinthian church.

In verse 5 Paul goes on to give his fifth and final command in these six versus, where he tells them do not deprive each other. It seems the backdrop to this is because of the overly spiritual mindset some believers are withholding sex from of their marital partner, and this is feeding the immorality, and possibly why Paul talks about the issue of prostitution in the chapter last week. And Paul tells them to knock it off, husbands and wives should be having sex, it’s good for them.

For some of you, I’m sure that’s not the worst news you’ve heard this week – who said church had to be boring, so you should be having sex with your spouse, but Paul goes on to say -- you’d better be praying with them as well!
Sex in marriage is good but prayer is even more important.

But as profound and good as this marriage relationship is Paul reminds us, that the husband and wife relating well and enjoying each other, it is not an end in itself. The end of marriage, and the purpose of marriage, is to serve the lord.

Is that how you view your marriage, is that how you live out your marriage?
Is that how you view a prospective marriage partner if you are single?
All life, but particularly the marriage relationship is about serving the Lord.

So serve the Lord in marriage by faithfulness through Self-Control, which is a complete and utter devotion to your spouse both physically and in prayer together.

2. Married People and Divorce (V10-11)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in marriage through not seeking a divorce.

In verse is 10 and 11 God through the apostle Paul is saying marriage is life long, the goal of marriage is to stay married.

A husband is called upon to fulfill his duty and not divorced his wife, now admittedly in the times Paul is talking about, to be divorced was something of a financial and relational disaster for a woman, it wasn’t as though she could it go out and get a job. So a man was to be faithful to the promises he made and not divorce his wife.

And Paul continues his complimentary and equal description of the obligations of both parties in marriage, by saying likewise if a woman needs to distance herself from her husband, Paul commands her that if this is required she must remain unmarried, or on the other hand the only other option is to be reconciled to her husband.

It seems here that Paul clearly states that separation, can have only one of two outcomes. Firstly, If it does occur it has a goal of reconciliation between the two parties. And secondly, if reconciliation is not possible, then Paul commands they must remain unmarried. Paul and the Lord clearly say in these directives, that the goal of marriage is to stay married, that is faithfulness.
But along with this, we need to say that these directives seems to be a tacit acknowledgement, that in this broken world with broken people, separation is still not a good, but it may be a necessary.

Now while Paul here doesn’t give the sum total of all the bibles teaching on separation, divorce and faithfulness his thinking on marriage here reflects the heart of what the Bible does say, that we are to serve the Lord by faithfulness in marriage by not getting divorced.

The goal of Christian teaching on this, is to hold up the real holiness of God, and acknowledge how he would have us live, but at the same time acknowledge God’s grace to us in our fallen condition and the call for us to be likewise with each other.

But doesn’t the Bible and particularly Jesus Teaching seem to give some criteria as to when divorce could happen? yes that seems to be true, but you know what in our context I doubt our problem is needing any encouragement to divorce.
We need to remember that divorce isn’t a solution to marriage, but it may be a right concession in extreme and difficult circumstances. But Paul here In verse 39 reminds us that marriage is until death does us part.

Now tying into this a little bit we can see why marriages and faithfulness in marriage is so important to the Lord. And it is because of the way Paul speaks about marriage in Ephesians 5, where in a real way, our faithfulness in marriage is a testimony to God’s faithfulness to the church in Christ. God is faithful to his promises that he has made and he is calling on his people to be likewise. It seems throughout the Bible and particularly in the old Testament with God’s people Israel, that physical faithfulness was an outward sign of spiritual faithfulness.

Married people are to serve the Lord in marriage through the faithfulness of not getting divorced.


3. Married Christians and Unbelievers (V12-16)
Serve the Lord in marriage by faithfulness through not seeking to leave an unbelieving spouse, but by desiring their salvation even at a personal cost.

I personally think this section of the text seems to be one of the harder parts of what Paul has to say here and in particular versus 12-16 where we are looking at the basic overarching theology of what Paul saying. He says that if you are married to an unbeliever, then there are bigger things going on than your marriage. What he is saying is (as hard as this is to hear) he is saying that it is better to be separated and for your unbelieving spouse to be saved, than to stay married and for them to be judged.

A marriage commitment is of great importance, but the salvation of people is even more important than that. Paul wants people who are married to unbelieving spouses to be faithful in marriage, by not seeking to leave them.


Twice he commands that they must not divorce them, either the husband or wife of a non believer, but he command the believer that if their spouse wants or to leave they should let them leave. And the rationale behind this is that salvation is more important than even marriage.

Serve the Lord by being faithful to your non- believing spouse in marriage, especially it seems to me by praying for their salvation.

4. Christians and Remarriage (V8-9) & (V39-40)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in singleness through Self-Control in sexual matters, or remarry, but only in the Lord.

Paul in talking about Christians and remarriage, talks particularly to those who widow (and by extension widower’s) and he says three things about the faithfulness of them in serving the Lord.

Firstly, it is better (if they are able) to remain single. Paul’s logic which he will develop a little later is that it is easier as a single person to remain single-minded in your service to the Lord. A married person has their attention divided.

Secondly, if the physical urges for sexual intimacy are too much for a person who is widowed to bear, Paul commands them to get married. Being married is the only place for sexual intimacy and this will facilitate them a being faithful in self-control.

Thirdly, if a person needs to remarry, they are free to do this, but a person must remarry in the Lord.

Serve the Lord by faithfulness in singleness through Self-Control in sexual matters, or remarry, but only in the Lord.

[BREAK]

5. Christians and Singleness (V7-8), (V25-28) & (V32-35)
Serve the Lord in singleness by faithfulness through Self-control in this gift, because it will save you from many troubles.

Paul in these relevant sections of the text in chapter 7 (you can see from your outline), highlights a number of things that single people all need to consider.

Firstly, Paul says that singleness is a gift.
“Some gift” I’m sure some of you think!
Paul means this gift is a status given from God, but this gift like all gifts is contextual, it isn’t necessarily an absolute, and if you find it difficult well you should pray to God about that. But in the meantime you should use the gift that God has given you to serve the Lord. Which brings us to our next point.

Secondly, Paul wishes that everyone was like him with the same gift, because to be single or unmarried or widowed, enables a person to be undivided in their focus upon serving the lord.
Paul is saying in real and tangible ways, you are able to serve the Lord better by being single in many ways. So use what God has given you. Seek to please the Lord, seek to look after the Lords affairs, because you are free from many of the concerns of the world which come through being married.

So single people, just like married people, (just like every other group of people that can be mentioned), in this passage are called to live in a right way, in an undivided devotion to Lord. And Paul in this chapter is outlining the rules of the game here to enable all of us to do that, no matter what the situation we find ourselves in.

Singleness is no more spiritual than marriage, as the Corinthians seemed to think it was, both have their advantages, but in particular Paul says singleness in practical ways enables a person to be undivided in serving of the Lord.

Single people should serve the Lord by being faithful with the gift he has given.

6. Christian Singles and Sex (V9)
Serve the Lord in singleness by faithfulness through Self-Control of your sexual desires.

Verse nine of chapter 7 gives a fairly clear directive as to the options for single people and their sexual desires.

Firstly, Paul explains that the right response to sexual desires while single is Self-Control. Sex belongs within marriage, within one context of the marriage relationship between one woman and one man.

Now as you may remember from last week, we spoke about Gods commands, as not being some sort of arbitrary pronouncement, but explained that his commands are pleasing to God, but also consistent with the world he has made.


God made reality, and what he commands is good, and it works with his created reality. To choose to do other than what God commands us is to actually go up against reality and it can only end in frustration, as you may remember the example of putting bread in the VCR and trying to get toast.

So to give a concrete example of this, this is the implications of what I read in the Sydney morning Herald last week. There are two articles and the first of them, is entitled ‘sexual infections skyrocket among generation Y’.

And the conclusion of their investigation was that this generation isn’t a bunch of a ‘one night stand-ers’, as it were, but they were described as being in a number of ‘serially monogamous’ relationships. Which is of course an oxymoron. And yet the report went on to say, that reports of STI’s (or sexually transmitted infections) has jumped 300% in the last nine years, there was 51,000 reported cases of STI’s last year.


And the health professional (rightly at one level let me say because of the medical risks) says in response to the question they were asked, ‘do we have any other options than condoms in this situation to avoid STI’s’, she replied ‘I have to say that there isn’t, if you don’t want to catch an STI.’

OR what she doesn’t say is that in fact if you dropped the serial from the monogamy, you know how many STI’s you would get? ZERO!

She also said again in this article that the more partners a person has, the more likely it is that you will be exposed to a STI and infected.

And God is not stupid about the world he has made. Proper Monogamy as opposed to serial monogamy (let’s give it a name, something like, lets say marriage) is a solution to STI’s. It mightn’t be easy to do (which is why abstinence or faithfulness aren’t really put forward as options in this paper) but it is good. Good from God, for us, and consistent with the world he has made for us to live in.

And just to prove it isn’t only the younger generation, there was a second article entitled ‘veterans of swinging 60s may pay for free love’. A study has found in instances where the Human Papilloma Virus or HPV (the virus that fairly recently they have decided to vaccinate teenage girls against), when instances of this virus were found, HPV positive cancer patients tended to have a higher number of sexual partners than others.

You see Self-control make sense of our world even statistically, but especially because God has told us what is for our good.

Secondly, if you’re a single and your sexual desires just are an overwhelming frustration for you, then the appropriate response is to get married. Faithfulness to the Lord means sexual desires can only be expressed in the context of the marriage relationship.


Now I realize that some people might not currently have the option to just get married, for want of a better description and they might call themselves ‘chronically single’. Well your two options are to learn self-control, or to just ask someone out.

Firstly, Self-control. Christ is the Lord of your body, don’t do things with your body that dis-honour Christ. Can I suggest you pray about this, and remember Paul’s instruction from last week, ‘flee sexual immorality’. Express your Christian freedom and responsibility by removing yourself from temptation.

Secondly, Marriage. The prime goal of marriage is to serve the Lord, which is quite a contrast and far removed from the overly romantic sentimentality, we pick up from society. This means that the point of going out with someone is to work out the answer to the question, ‘can you serve the Lord with this person?’
This is the big issue, not whether they are a good dresser with nice friends!

Serve the Lord in singleness by faithfulness through Self-Control of your sexual desires.

7. Christian Singles and Engagement (V36-38)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in engagement by doing what is wise to them!

As you read versus 36-38 Paul says people are free to do what they think is wise in this particular situation.
And in this instruction there is wisdom from Paul by implication about our physical relationship when we are engaged. Engaged is not married, by definition, (before God and man), and the one place for a sexual relationship is marriage.

Engagement calls for Self-Control in this area, because Paul says to either party you are within your rights to not actually go through with the engagement, if it doesn’t seem wise. So be warned Engagement is not marriage, and it would be a terrible thing before God and (for a future spouse) to have slept with another man’s wife, while you were engaged to her.

8. Christian Slaves and the Circumcised (18-23)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in any situation he places you.

Wherever we find ourselves we have been bought by Christ at a price and we are his slaves and to serve him as our master alone.
Five times throughout this chapter Paul tells people to remain, to remain in a situation in which God has placed them. Slave or free, single or married, neither is more spiritual than the other, and a person can serve the Lord wherever he has placed them.

9. The Sum of the Matter (V17, V20, V24 & V29-31)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him, wherever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price.

17 Nevertheless, each one should retain the place [walk] in life
that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.
This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.

20 Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him.

24 Brothers, each man, as responsible to God,
should remain in the situation God called him to.

29 What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short.
From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;
30 those who mourn,
as if they did not;
those who are happy,
as if they were not;
those who buy something,
as if it were not theirs to keep;
31 those who use the things of the world,
as if not engrossed in them.
For this world in its present form is passing away.



Paul tells the Corinthians to Serve the Lord because the time is short;
Firstly, wherever you find yourself, there is no ‘physical’ state of heightened spirituality!

And secondly, in Self control, for this is the solution to the current crisis of sexual immorality.

Serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him, wherever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price.

1 Corinthians - Talk 5

Do not be deceived, but flee sexual immorality because you belong to the Lord.
Intro
The crowning objective of Western civilization is liberty or freedom. For instance the American declaration of Independence which was written on the 4th July 1776 says,
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

So let me ask you this would you describe yourself as being free?
Lets have a show of hands who says ‘yes’, who says ‘no’.

See what you answered to that question really depends on how you define freedom doesn’t it?

In the context of the American declaration, the freedom was a freedom from slavery, so in that sense the answer is ‘yes’ in Australia today we are free. But in our society today the definition of freedom is getting broader and broader.

And yet in spite of this great quest for individual freedoms, we as a society still recognize the need to restrict personal freedoms for the good of all, and indeed in many cases for the good of the individual.

So as an example I am free to drive on the road because I have a licence, but I am not free to do it on the right-hand side of the Road in this country! I mean in a sense of being physically able, you are free to do it, but I guarantee it won’t end well.

But If there is one area in particular that society today champions of the rights of the individual to freedom, it is in the area of their sexuality. A maxim of today’s society is that, ‘this is my body and I have a right to do with it as I please.’
But there is a fundamental problem with this view, and Paul is going to demonstrate that today. Paul is going to point out that God has created his world, and he has made it so that our freedoms with sexuality and our body have particular limits. Limits that are pleasing to him and are for our good.

And Paul will remind the Christians in Corinth, that the world doesn’t know everything in the area of sexuality, because they don’t know the most important rule of the game. They don’t know God the creator. So Paul starts our passage today with a warning:
Don’t be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance, you are no longer like that!
9 Do you not know that
the wicked (Unrighteous)
will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived**:
Neither the sexually immoral
nor idolaters
nor adulterers
nor male prostitutes
nor homosexual offenders 10
nor thieves
nor the greedy
nor drunkards
nor slanderers
nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

The apostle Paul gives to the Corinthians three commands in the passage today on the first of these is;
Number one, don’t be deceived. Paul says don’t Be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance, your inheritance of the Kingdom of God.

Now what is Paul mean about deception? Well deception is something that has been around throughout the history of God’s people. Back to the time of Genesis, this temptation through deception, is so old that in fact it has been around literally since Adam was a boy!

Even back in the Garden of Eden as you may remember God’s people were deceived into giving away their inheritance. This deception came through the snake, who will ask the question, “did God really say?”. And you know what, that deception hasn’t changed through the whole of the history of God’s people. The deception that God’s people have always been susceptible to, is the question, ‘did God really say?’.

And this is the deception, that the Corinthians were susceptible to as well. Only the challenge for them didn’t come from the words of a snake in the Garden, but from the words of the wisdom of their age. The words of wisdom from their age about sexual liberation, and in their freedom in their ability to do whatever they chose.

The question their society posed to the Corinthians believers seems to have been, ‘Did God really say you can’t do these things with your body?’
‘Did God really say you can’t just have sex with any person you desired?
Surely you understand it doesn’t really matter what we do only in the body,
surely we’re enlightened spiritual people that know that what we do in the body does not effect what happens with the spirit?’
But in contrast Paul says that for the Christian the spiritual and physical go together in the one-person, so what you do in your body counts.

So we can see from the Corinthian situation, even though its 2000 years ago, some things never change. God’s people Today are still challenged through this Age old deception, as old as life itself, the question “did God really say?”.

Did God really say a husband and wife only? But what about people who are in a really committed relationship?
Did God really say not two men, nor two women? But we live in an age of tolerance and love?
Did God really say drink but not drunk? But we’re Australians for crying out Loud!

Now what are we supposed to make of this list of sins that Paul outlines for us versus 9 and 10? Why are these particular things listed as sins?

Firstly, God is showing us that these Sins in themselves are clear outward signs or symptoms, of a person who is in their inner inclinations, hostile towards God and his rule, and most importantly his son. They are a clear sign from God that they are unrighteous people and the ones who will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Secondly, these actions are wrong because they are out of step with the creation that God has made.

And God as our creator, knows what he made the world for, and he knows how he intended to work. And yet these people in their actions, that God expressly prohibits, are saying that they know better than God.

This is an absurd situation isn’t it?
You can’t get a manufacture good, And then decide after the fact what you think it’s supposed to be used for can you?
Have a go at slipping a piece of bread inside the VCR and then see if you can get a toast out of it?
It doesn’t make any sense does it?
You can’t ignore reality!

These actions are wrong not just because they are sinful but also because they are out a step with the reality of what God has made. These things actually aren’t good for us. These things by definition can’t end in fulfillment, but frustration. You cannot constantly go up against God and his creation (which is another way of saying reality) and expect to find fulfillment. All you can expect is frustration and a frustration that ends in losing your inheritance of the kingdom of God.

Living the way God instructs and intends it is good for us here in this world but it is especially good for us because it ensures that we will not forfeit our inheritance of the kingdom of God.

Paul commands us, don’t be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance!


Now in a group this large there is no doubt Christian people who do struggle with some of the issues that were just mentioned. This is a real issue for Christian people otherwise why would Paul need to warn Christians to turn away from the things?
But the point Paul wants to make here is that if we find ourselves struggling with these things we do need to turn away from them, we need to repent from them. And Paul goes on to say that we need to remember what we have been made.


11 And that is what some of you were.
But you were washed,
you were sanctified,
you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the Spirit of our God.


Once they were Ungodly and inclined to do these things. But now they have been made new. They have been made new by God. And in fact it’s not just any god but the Christian God who undertakes this work.

As you may have noticed, Paul uses profoundly Trinitarian language in describing the work of God in our salvation. God the Father has acted in the Lord Jesus Christ to win the salvation for all his people for all who would believe in his name. And this profound work of the Lord Jesus is applied to individual believers, both powerfully and personally, through the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

The Christian God is the Trinitarian God. The God who is Father, and Son and Holy Spirit, The three persons who are the one God, each of whom is actively and personally involved in winning our salvation and in applying it to our lives, and this includes making our inheritance sure. God’s faithfulness in action and personal love towards us in Jesus Christ are the grounds of the certainty of our inheritance.

And Paul explains for us, that the Lord Jesus Christ, has done three clear and important things for our salvation, which we learn from verse 11. Christ’s obedience in life and his faithful and sacrificial death on the cross, has taken the penalty we deserved and washed away our sin.

This is of course the image of Christ’s blood being shed and his life being poured out on the cross. His blood is what has washed away the stain of sin upon your and my life.

The concrete application of this truth is that we have been justified, we have been made right with God. We are no longer the wicked or the unrighteous, but we have been made righteous, we are justified in God’s sight.

Christ’s death has achieved these things for us. And the Holy Spirit has taken the riches that are Christ’s and applied them to our lives. We have been washed and we have been justified, but more than that the Holy Spirit now sanctifies us.

Sanctification is a great Biblical word, it reveals the truth that the holy spirit now works with in us, in our very person, to regenerate us, to regenerate our hearts and our minds, he changes us from the inside out to make us holy.

This is the truth is that Paul wants us to know, God has made you new in Jesus Christ, so act like you have been made. You have been made sons of the Kingdom of God, you will inherit the kingdom of God, so act like sons of the kingdom, and leave the old ways behind.

Don’t be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance you are no longer like that.

3 proverbs; tell us that God has authority over our bodies, for death and resurrection.
12 "Everything is permissible for me"—
but not everything is beneficial.
"Everything is permissible for me"—
but I will not be mastered by anything.

13 "Food for the stomach
and the stomach for food"--
but God will destroy them both.

The body (is not meant for sexual immorality), but for the Lord,
and the Lord for the body.
14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead,
and he will raise us also.

Paul in the section seems to put forward three Proverbs for his readers in Corinth. The first two seem to be known them, and Paul quotes these two Proverbs but in the same breath modifies them significantly, to undercut their meaning and to correct a wrong attitude in the Corinthian believers.

The first proverb is everything is permissible for me, and Paul corrects it by saying not everything is good. The Corinthians in their overly spiritual mindset, feel free to do whatever they please. And there is some sense of truth in that, because we share in Christ’s rule over his world. But again they haven’t understood what they have ‘now’ and what belongs to the ‘not yet’.

Paul says not everything you can do in this world is good. And as he goes on, he implies by his retort ‘I will not be mastered by anything’. He is reminding us that even Christians in this world can fall under the rule of wrong things, so what we do in the body counts. And given the context of verse 13 at Paul is talking particularly about acts of a sexual nature.

Sex is permissible for us in this world, in the right relationship context, it is after all a gift given by God. But it is a gift very quickly becomes our master if it is wrongly used.

In the second proverb in verse 13 the Corinthians seem to be saying with, food for the stomach and the stomach food, they seem to be making an appeal to a natural logic. This proverb seems to be in a more metaphorical sense of the grounding for their sexual behaviour. Well I have A and she has B, why not join the dots?

And Paul explains the flaw in the logic which is the problem, that although we can observe the things, we don’t always know what they’re good for, but God does. And he has told us. So we really do need to listen and obey when God speaks clearly as the creator. God is maker of these things, and he knows what they are good for. The Corinthians are focusing on these base level things of the body, and Paul wants to correct them and show that the body was meant far more than just this.

But it seems in our day and age our view of sexuality isn’t much different. What do you think the proverb of our age would be in regard to our sexuality and use of our body?
Probably, ‘if it feels good, do it!’

We live in A society and age just like the Corinthian and thinks it has the wisdom and the freedom to choose its own reality when it comes to its body. A society that holds that sexual freedom is to live in a society where we have the freedom to sleep with who we want, or even to be the gender we want.

And Paul is pointing out to all here that this kind of attitude, where we attempt to deny reality as it is and has been made by God, can only end in frustration. Is it any wonder at the height of sexual liberation in the 60s, Jagger penned the words, ‘I can’t get no satisfaction!’

You cannot go up against God and his word, and expect to win in the end, you can’t cheat reality.

Paul’s final proverb is a stark corrective to the view of the Corinthians about their freedom, their current view of freedom was resulting in them being slaves to their sexual desires, and in contrast Paul says that the body is not made to be a slave to our sexual desires but to serve the Lord.

This is the heart of the issue I think in this passage, ‘the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body’, And that is in total contrast to what the Corinthians are doing now. What Paul means is the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for serving God.

An in verse 14 Paul explains the rationale to his confidence about this claim, the Christian will be bodily raised just as Christ was. The spiritual and the physical go together in the one person in Christianity. The body will be raised, so what we do with it matters.

But if this a difficult area for you, well be encouraged because the power of God that raised Christ from the dead, is also the power that has washed and justified you, and is now at work in you and me to renew and change us.

God has the authority over our bodies in both death and resurrection so serve the Lord with your body now because that is what it was made to do.
You are one with the Lord in Spirit, so flee sexual immorality!
15 Do you not know that
your bodies are members of Christ himself?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute?
Never!
16 Do you not know that
he who unites himself with a prostitute
is one with her in body?
For it is said,
"The two will become one flesh."
17 But he who unites himself with the Lord
is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee** from sexual immorality.
All other sins a man commits are outside his body,
but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.


Paul in versus 15-18, gives us the second of his three commands for today, where he says in verse 18, ‘ flee from sexual immorality’. Literally he says get up and run from sexual immorality. What he means is you don’t think yourself wise by putting yourself in Temptations way, instead flee from these situations, flee from temptation and the opportunity to sin sexually.

If there are things that you look at, or the are places you go, or there are people, or even a person, whom you hang around with, which are tempting you, or in fact worse than that enabling you to sin. Then Paul says, get on your bike. Do the Harold.

In contrast to last week where we were to remove the immoral brother, this time we are to express our freedom in Christ, by removing ourselves from this situation. It is your responsibility and freedom as a Christian to leave. Sexual freedom is the not the capacity to do the most perverse thing (like our society seems to think), but it is in fact the freedom to have Self-control, and not be a victim to our impulses.
What you do in your body counts, you are one with the Lord in spirit, so flee sexual immorality.

Now if you have been paying attention you’ll probably notice two issues coming from the section of text; firstly, what does it mean ‘the two will become one flesh’, what’s going on there?

And secondly, what is the meaning of the expression, ‘all other sins a man commits outside his body but sexual sins against his own body’?

Well I’m sorry, we are not going to have time to address these issues today, but next week, we will have a chance to think about them as we see how chapter 7 contributes to our framework of a biblical understanding of marriage and sexual relations.


But just in case you aren’t around next week, in short, I think Paul is getting at the fact that the physical act of sex, involves in reality a union that is much more profound than being just skin deep. The Implications of this are when you use sex improperly, you profoundly injure yourself, and in the process shame Christ.

Anyway Paul’s main point here is clear, you are one with the Lord in spirit, so flee sexual immorality.
Honour God with your body! You are the Temple of God and were bought at a price
19 Do you not know that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you,
whom you have received from God?
You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor** God with your body.
Paul in this final section of chapter 6, gives his third and final command in the passage to the Corinthian believers, where he tells them to, honour God with your body because you are the temple of God and were bought at a price.

Now many of you may have heard of that book, ‘why men don’t want to go to church’, and in it there are some good and interesting reasons why they believe men don’t come to church, but there are some other reasons that are quite frankly juvenile and concerning.

Now it doesn’t suggest what I am about to, but hypothetically, can you imagine if the evangelistic strategy (out of this sort of thinking to reach more men), proposed a solution of having prostitution as part of the church service. It is quite patently ridiculous suggestion, isn’t it!
An idea that is so incongruous the Christian life and gospel that it defies description, it beggars belief doesn’t it!

Sexual immorality, and in this particular case prostitution, has no place in Christ’s temple does it?
And guess what, you are that temple!
So honour God with your body, and flee from sexual immorality.

God’s holy spirit in-dwells us, we are his temple here in this world, wherever we find ourselves, and his spirit is renewing our bodily person. So have no part of sexual immorality, how can any of these things be fitting for Christ.

God paid a heavy price in the death of his son Jesus to give you real freedom. Real freedom is not what the world thinks it is, Christian freedom is the freedom to serve and honour the Lord. Is the freedom to no longer give in to sin, but instead to serve the Lord by doing the good we were created to do, in the physical world he created for us to do it in.

True Christianity is not just mental, it isn’t just knowledge, nor is it just spiritual either, but it is also profoundly physical. What we do in the body counts before God. True Christianity is about the cross, Christ bought us at heavy price and because of that he is our Saviour, and hand in hand with that, the cross reminds us that he is our Lord. We serve and honour our Lord, by what we do with our bodies. Flee sexual immorality.