1 Corinthians

Introduction

As I write this, I am flipping through 1 Corinthians to count and identify the nine groups in the church that were quarreling over nine or more issues. Here they are:

1 – Whose disciple they were – Paul, Apollo, Peter, Christ... 1:12. Actually, that could be considered either one or four different parties! Still, it's one issue.

2 - Over the place of “wisdom” or “knowledge. A Greek Christianity was trying to influence the early church, claiming that to become a Christian required secret knowledge Jesus gave his disciples.1:17-2:4

3 – Immaturity, reflected by jealousy and quarreling...3:3, 18

4 – Some were criticizing or judging Paul...3-4

5 – Pride...4:8

6 – Sexual immorality and approval of it...5:1ff...

7 – Filling lawsuits against each other...6:1ff

8 – Marrying, re-marrying, and divorce – 7:1-16

9 – A question about eating food after it has been sacrificed to idols...Chapter 8.

Apparently one faction thought it was ok, another thought it was idol worship.

10 – Proper dress for worship. Discussion over men and women, the length of their hair, and whether to wear head coverings...11:1-16

11 – Drunkenness and gluttony at the Lord's Supper...11:17:16ff

12 – Spiritual gifts and their use...12:1ff

13 – Speaking in tongues

14 – Was Jesus really raised, and what about our resurrection? ...5:1ff

My judgment is that reviewing these find 9 that are controversies going on, and the others are answers to questions that had written him about or things that came to his mind during the writing. If you need a “cheat sheet,” the nine are listed on page 12 of the quarterly.

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Another bad decision from the editors: both 1 & 2 Corinthians are combined in 13 lessons. And after dividing Acts in half! Part of it could be me. I wrote a learner's book on 1 Corinthians and the Teacher's book for Second. I've never written on Acts before your notes. Not sure how I'm going to handle it. Prob depend on how the lessons are divided.

1 Corinthians is fairly clear and not difficult to understand, at least compared to Romans or Ephesians. It's one of the earliest books written, even before the gospels. I'd guess about 55AD, 30-35 years after the Crucifixion. Corinth was the New Orleans or San Francisco of its day with a wild reputation. It was a seaport located on an isthmus where ships were ported from the Aegean to the Mediterranean. That meant sailors and passengers from all over the world passed through. No wonder Paul sought to establish a church there. And no wonder he became worried when he got reports of trouble in that church. So he did two things. First, he wrote a letter to call on them to correct their behvior, and second, he gave it to Timothy to deliver it and discuss it with the congregation and its leaders.

Remember this is a letter. Paul followed the letter form common in his time, I prefer their way, because before email I always had to look down to the bottom to see who was writing me. The ancients put the signature first and followed it with a thanksgiving to the gods. Paul baptizes that format and Christianized it as we shall see.

Compared to Romans, this is a simple book to read. Nevertheless the first couple of verses are CRAMMED with significant theological words. On the face of it, verse one looks routine, and even preachers skim over it. But let's slow way down and look at almost each word to see what might be hidden there.

VERSE 1: Paul – When you're reading one of his letters don't forget the Damascus road. He is the most converted man in history. When God wanted a messenger to the Gentiles, he picked the most gifted leader from the enemy! That radical change lay behind everything he ever did afterward. This is the man who understood what it was to fight God's will and work. He considered himself the greatest of sinners, so remember whenever he is attacking sin, he is coming from a different place than most people. So don't ever believe that someone is outside of the reach of the Lord. If Jesus can transform Saul into Paul, He can do the same for anyone.

Called – the Damascus Road experience. He was converted and called to be a missionary to the Gentiles at the same time. That experience and that call became the driving force in his life from that time forward. My personal call to the ministry at age 11 has likewise driven my life. I could wish everyone would have that same sense of calling in whatever line of work you're involved in. For 26 years I was pastor of two churches with a large number of paper mill workers. I regularly told them I could wish for them that they felt they were where God wanted them to work, and that their family and the rest of their lives were built around God's leading. And I certainly wish that for you!

Apostle – one sent. I memorized in Royal Ambassadors the motto: We are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is one who represents one king in the court of another. Or one's own country. As Christians we are called to represent God through our lives, service, and witness.

Paul adds “of Christ Jesus.” Scholars like to say “Jesus” refers to the 30 years of Jesus's earthly life, and “Christ” refers to the eternal Christ. Those scholars also want to discuss the preposition “of.” Does it mean the apostleship is about the gospel of Christ, or is it about the person of Christ. Of course, Both are true. The Spirit of Christ is with him as he proclaims the Gospel.

Through the will of God – Paul had a strong sense of being driven and used by God. Preaching was not his choice. He had no choice. He often calls himself a servant, or slave, or bond-slave. A slave has no will of his own. His master's will has become his. Paul was sold out to Jesus. Where the Spirit said go, he went; when the Spirit said stay, he stayed.

And the brother Sosthenes – Paul seems to have dictated his letters. As a rabbi, he certainly knew how to write as well as read. But perhaps because of bad eyesight (that's one interpretation of the “thorn in the flesh), he had someone to write for him.

Verse 2 – to the congregation of God in Corinth. King James would not allow the translators in 1611 to use the word congregation to translate the Greek word “ecclesia.” He confined them to the word “church,” because he thought of the Church of England as one large group over which he reigned. Other protestant groups, especially in America with our strong individualism, often prefer “congregation” and think of the local church. In Corinth was their physical location. “Of God was their spiritual location.

They were called by God to be saints and were being sanctified to accomplish this. They were called by God to be holy ones and were being made holy.

They were called by God to be set apart and were being set apart to fulfill that call.

In Greek and Latin the word for saints and sanctification are similar as they are in English. The root is the word for holy. New Testament holiness actually means being set apart – different! The word called is the same as in verse one of Paul's calling. When God calls us to follow, He sets us apart and begins to transform us into the likeness of Christ!

He then continued the early letter format by thanking God for them. (The Greeks would thank Apollo or some other god. He further states his gratitude is based on their redemption – the grace that he saw God had manifested in their lives. We still see that grace today in the lives of Christians who have “awakened” or “got turned on” to Jesus Christ.

He wishes them grace and peace, a form of Greek and Hebrew greetings. He baptizes those secular meanings with Christianity. He changes charein (greetings) to charis (grace). He keeps the Hebrew word shalom – peace. But Biblical peace is not just absense of strife. Peace is positive. It is health, stability, maturity.

Do you see how Paul can enrich theologically some routine words in a routine format? Paul's letters can all be profitably studied word by word in great detail. Thus my problem with notes this quarter. I've about decided for most lessons to focus even more than I have previously on covering the background and surrounding material to supplement and not repeat the quarterly. Since next week we jump ahead five chapters, I believe I'm going to send this Intro on Wednesday and Chapters 2-5 later. You may or may not want to skip those.

TO ROME!

Acts 27-28

We come to the end of our study on Acts this week. Next Sunday we begin to study 1 Corinthians, which is an early letter of Paul, probably after 1 Thessalonians and the Gospel of Mark. I once counted nine (9!) different groups in the church. Beware when a church starts choosing up sides!

Now let's review major themes through Acts:

1 -The book has been called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. From the in rushing like a mighty win and flames of fire after the Great Commission and prayer, God's Spirit was working effectively in the lives of believers to spread the Gospel around the world. It's an awesome thought that God can be working in His world through you!

2 – One candidate for THE theme of Acts is the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Rome. The last word of the book is “unhindered.” The message was broadcast throughout the Empire!

3 – The Gospel was and IS for all. This is the underlying story. We focus on the tongues in Acts 1, but a better translation is languages. Acts 2:8 shows everyone was hearing the story in the language from their home country! That's a powerful way of making an early statement that the Gospel is for everyone. The average layman or laywoman can often be more effective in explaining the Christian life than a preacher, because they speak their neighbor's language.

4 – The apostles witnessed and ministered to all sorts of people: the lame beggar, the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, always Jews, also Gentiles, next to last came Roman officials and a King! That reminds us that WE are called to share God's love with everyone. I don't know the solution to the immigration problem for example, but I know when they come within our purview, we have orders from the Lord.

5 – Ministry is as varied as both the believers and society around them. Both Jesus in the Gospels and the disciples in Acts witness in innumerable ways to a widely varying type of people. And the meetings are all different. God expects us to witness and minister according to who we are, where we are, and who they are!

Now let's turn to this week's lesson, still emphasizing what the quarterly doesn't focus on.

Paul prophesies shipwreck. The ship then wrecks. As he did in the Philippian jail, he saved lives. He kept the sailors from killing the prisoners by assuring them they would not escape. He actually helped deal with the situation by gathering firewood. Whoops! A snake grabbed him! Like any good Louisiana boy, he just shook off the snake and went on collecting wood. The crew was sure the venomous serpent had killed him. But God intended Paul for Rome and not premature death, so nothing happened. They were impressed and wanted to make a god of him. (Ever notice in the NT how eager people are to make gods out of disciple, but wouldn't accept Jesus as divine?)

Flash forward 2000 years into the back woods of Appalachia and elsewhere. Snake worshipers! Or at lest snake handlers. For some reason they are always rattlers. They say they sometimes get bit, but develop an immunity. They claim Biblical justification from the very end of Mark – 16:18. You can forget that, because Mark didn't write verses 9 – the end. Most current translations omit it, or put it in a footnote. My copy of the NIV prints it with the heading that “the most reliable manuscripts of Mark omit verses 9 – 20. I have personally verified this, and it's true. We have discovered many older manuscripts since the KJV was written – about 5000 or more – and the latest translations give us the closest possible witness to what the NT writers actually wrote. Would you rather read the words of John Mark or some anonymous scribe? Incidentally, as far as snake handing goes, you might check out “cleaning the cobra pit” on YouTube. Incredible!

Paul, by the way, unsurprisingly used their awe as an opportunity to share with them that he was no god, but he could point them to the true God. How often do you work the Lord into your conversations?

The entire trip moves at a leisurely pace. They seem in no hurry along the way and apparently meet with believers wherever they stop. I wonder whether Paul started any more churches along the way. We do know that the governor of the island offed “us” hospitality. Think about that word. Elsewhere in Acts, “us” means Luke is with Paul and whoever else is around. So Luke traveled toward Rome also, but note it was Paul who healed the ruler's father! Was Publius, himself likely a Roman – his name is Latin – respecting Paul's citizenhood or his learning and personality? Does “us” include the entire ship's crew? They stayed three months!

They landed in Italy at a port called Puteoli. There they “found brothers” who invited them to hang around for a week, which they did. Have you realized how incredible it is that Paul seems by now to be leading the expedition and not his captors? Maybe over the sea voyage they too had become brothers? The local Christians traveled with him to Rome and turned him over to their fellow believers from the capitol city. The latter group had heard they were coming. From whom? Did the Puteoli group send a message? Or had they got a letter from a believer from Jerusalem or Cypress? Or did someone just text them?

Another surprise! Paul is not thrown in jail, but allowed to live in his own (rented?) house with a guard to nursemaid him. Actually, he used his home as a abase of operations, beginning first with the Jewish leaders in Rome. You remember Paul always began his work in a new city by speaking in the synagogue. So in Rome he sent for the Jewish leaders, since perhaps he wasn't allowed to wander freely. They came, and he explained his situation to them. They said they knew nothing about this. The Jerusalem Jews who acted so hard-nosed on their home ground, hadn't bothered to reach ahead. They came back on an appointed day, bringing others with them. Paul preached and taught,

The book concludes by saying Paul stayed for two years in his rented house witnessing to Christ. Luke says nothing about what happened after that. Some writings from the next century say he was released and went to Spain, as he had hoped to do. Another says he was hanged by Nero or another emperor. But you can be sure that he preached Christ until his death. When's the last time you bore witness?

FIVE VITAL TAKEAWAYS!

Acts 21-22

Got lazy last week. Sorry – well, a little.

1 – Remember each chapter is part of a section, and each section is part of the book. Always keep in mind for your Bible study that the author has some specific goals in mind and often one over-arching goal for the whole book. Most everything in the book contributes to that goal.

Acts tells the story of the Gospel traveling from Jerusalem to Rome. One may argue that the church began at Pentecost and by the time Paul was in Rome that body had reached “the ends of the earth,” the center of power.

We saw early on in Chapter 6 men with Greek names were appointed as the Seven to solve a dispute. Later we find Philip preaching in Samaria and baptizing an Ethiopian eunuch. Then Paul leaves a racially mixed church in Antioch and makes a ground-breaking missionary trip establishing churches. Then he returns twice, looping back to establish those churches more securely and begin more. Twice he returns to Jerusalem to “report” what's happening back to the original Jewish source. That second trip is where we find him today.

This trip launches that final trip to Rome. To all appearances Paul is in serious, even life-threatening trouble to crowds and Authorities. But behind it all, God is working to impel Paul to Rome. Note especially 22:22. The Jews listened to his conversion experience just fine until he mentioned that Jesus was sending him to the Gentiles. This enraged them. To that crowd, Jews were special. The rest of humanity was dogs created to fuel the fires of hell.

>Can you recall incidents in your life you did not understand at the time, but later the Spirit showed you how it prepared you or set you up for other things?

2 – Paul was always ready to witness. When Roman troops had to save him from a mob, his first reaction was to ask permission to address that same blood-thirsty mob. And guess what? He did. And I bet at least a few of them became believers as a result. Looking again at the whole story, Paul spoke to individuals, small groups, friendly congregations, and hostile opponents. He spoke to the poor and to kings. The spirit impelled him so he could not be silent.

>How alert are you to opportunities to share your story?

>When was the last time you witnessed?

3 – One can witness in multiple ways. I've been certified to teach several types of witnessing courses, and all have helped people. Most Christians know the “Roman Road,” although it's a pick and choose set of verses from Romans. Both the SBC and other groups have published booklets you can read to a non-Christian that leads them into understanding how to be saved and offers the opportunity. But years ago I noted that in the Gospel of John, Jesus approached each person in a different way: Nicodemus and the new birth, the woman at the well and the water of life.

Likewise the Book of Acts presents the gospel in relation to where the listeners are. Peter at Pentecost and the early Paul summarize Jewish history and present Christ as the fulfillment of prophesy. This was of supreme importance to Jews (see above that thought they were privileged.) In Athens, Paul used a very different approach with a Greek audience – the unknown God. Now Paul in giving his personal testimony makes the gospel impact very personal.

Consider how to tell the gospel story in terms that your audience will understand. Do you think a youth director, a college minister, and senior adult leader would present the same basic message in the same or different ways?

>How might you share your faith with a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker?

4 – Recognize that in many cases an “interim report” is of more value and applies to more people than a gospel presentation or a conversion experience. An interim report is a testimony of what God has done in your life lately. How has He helped you get through difficult situations or led you to new service? Baptists have a temptation to live off the memory of a public commitment years ago. But healthy and mature Christians regularly update their experiences as they grow in grace.

5 – Note some things in Sunday's lesson often missed: Paul was incredibly willing to go back out and preach to the crowd who had just tried to kill him! He was not above playing off one side against another – Pharisees who believed in resurrection and Saducees who did not. Paul had a nephew, ergo at least one brother or sister.