1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Don't Look for Sweet in Bitter!

1 Corinthians 1:26-31  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

In the above verses we see Paul stating the truth of salvation.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  God determined for them to hear the Good News of Jesus being the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE —  our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  They need not thank or honor anyone but God for their salvation, their redeemed status.  However, the believers in Corinth were arguing about who they should follow in their Christian lives, who they should credit for being born again.  Their disputation over who they should follow was a detrimental spirit, splintering the church into factions.  Paul considered this disunity as immaturity or even secularism.  In a secular society, disunity and factions are common characteristics of men and women.  Quarreling, disputing and strife exist constantly in the unredeemed world; wars and rumors of wars are always present.  In Christ, unity should be paramount in the church.  The Corinthians were fractioning over who they should follow in the Christian walk: Apollo, Peter, Paul are even Christ in the flesh.  Who should get the credit for their new life in God?  Paul feared for them because their arguing was splitting the body of Christ in Corinth.  This immaturity in following Christ, who is the Truth, the Way and the Life would destroy the Christian testimony in Corinth.  As with all humans in their unredeemed spirits, they are taking the tack that they are smarter and more knowledgeable than others.  Now Paul douses their arrogance with the reality of born again people.  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  Paul is telling them that you might believe you are more learned, insightful and wiser than others; however, most of those people who are esteemed, rich and knowledgeable in this world are not in the body of Christ.  The Good News does not offer them anything reasonable they can believe in for it contradicts their rational approach to their daily lives.  The Good News tells them that they are sinners and that they need Christ to have eternal life.  The majority of them will not accept what God is offering them: eternal life.  Therefore, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  The Corinthian church consisted mostly of average, common people.  They were not the leaders or the elite in Corinth.  For the leaders, the elite of Corinth, considered the Christians foolish for their attachment to Christ.  For the Corinthian church to argue over who they should honor in their new lIfe was total foolishness for the prominent in Corinth.  They could care less.  Paul is telling them, aline yourself with Christ's work and his love for you.  You should boast in being followers of Jesus of Nazareth.  Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

Jesus did not choose men of great honor and prestige in Israel.  He chose the average, the common man as his disciples.  Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen who worked with their hands.  They bent their backs in labor, not their minds in ideas about God.  He called other men who held no special position in the community of the Jews: Philip, Nathanael, Thomas, James, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas.  He also called Matthew a tax collector whose friends were considered the scum of the earth by the priests.  As a group, we might consider them to be the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  After Jesus performed wonders and miracles, many wanted to be in Jesus’ retinue, but these common people were his closest allies and friends.  They were his bodyguards, his students.  They heard every word Jesus spoke and and saw every miracle, just unlearned men who Jesus chose to honor with his presence.  When Jesus sent them out on an assignment to preach the Good News, He gave them special power and authority over demons, but alone without this assignment directed by Jesus, they were just common, average people with no power from God.  When they could not deliver a boy from demon possession, Jesus was disturbed by their lack of faith.  He addressed the people, but mostly his disciples by saying, “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you?  How long shall I put up with you?  Bring the boy to me.”So they brought him.  When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion.  He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.  Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”  “From childhood,” he answered.  “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him.  But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”  Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”  When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”  The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out.  The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.”  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.  (Mark 9:19-27)  The disciples had seen Jesus many times cast out demons, but when they tried, they were totally defeated by the demon.  The demon in the boy did not respond to ordinary people who possess no faith in God’s power when they speak for God.  Later, the disciples questioned Jesus about their powerlessness.  After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?  ”He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”  (Mark 9:28-29)  This kind of power comes only with connection with God through an intimate fellowship with him through prayer.  Jesus said that He always hears his Father’s words, and we know Jesus always prayed incessantly.  The power to cast out demons does not come from man’s words; his incantations, but from the well of Power that rests in the Father God.  Later we see the Spirit of God fill the disciples: the power of God through the Spirit rests in human flesh after Pentecost.  When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  (Acts 2:1-4)

This power to tame the adverse spirits to God’s will came to Christians.  No one will be left out who falls under God’s authority through believing in Jesus as his or her Redeemer.  I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  (1 Corinthians 2:17-18)  Men and women will receive this power; young and old will inherit this power through Jesus Christ the Lord.  Paul tells the Corinthians, boast only in the Lord.  In Luke 2, we see the boy Jesus in the Temple.  He was from the Father with the power of God IN HIM.  His parents after celebrating the Passover were on their way back to Nazareth when they discovered Jesus was not with them.  They hurried back to Jerusalem and looked for three days to find him.  They found him in the Temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  The people were amazed  at his understanding of the scriptures, demonstrating the power of God within him.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy.  This power of God has come even to the children who trust Jesus as their Savior.  God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, or maybe the unprepared to astonish the world.  In a world that honors, preparedness, degrees and certificates of learning, God chose twelve disciples who had no such preparedness.  He placed his hand on the weak, the meek, the lowly; He elevated them to his kingdom.  Often in this world of disheveled spirits, we see the most learned, honored people of any community take a course opposite of God’s holiness and goodness.  In Isaiah 5 we see the elite of society, who feel they are so clever, knowledgeable, boasting in themselves before God as they elevate sin and darkness.  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.  (Isaiah 5:20-21)  To be prepared, to be learned is good, but you do not find God through that route.  You find him through faith and prayer.  The elite of Jesus’ time rejected Jesus as the Messiah.  They wanted Jesus to verify that he was from God.  They asked Jesus to perform a miracle for them, a sign to prove he was from God.  Jesus would not satisfy their demand.  Instead he said, A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign!  But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  (Matthew 12:39-40)  This statement blows the mind of the learned, the knowledgeable, the rational.  No way could they accept such a statement.  For them, Jesus the impossible Savior from God’s kingdom was verifying an impossible event.  They could not and would not believe in Jesus as the Messiah; He was not appeasing the rational mind of people, especially the elite.  Our friends around this breakfast table, Jesus is the Savior.  Trust in him, trust in his work and not your own.  He has given you a Spirit of truth and power.  Rest IN HIM, boast IN HIM, your eternal life is secure IN HIM.  

           

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1 Corinthians 1:I0-25 Seek Pure Wisdom!

1 Corinthians 1:I0-25  I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.  My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.  What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”  Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Were you baptized in the name of Paul?  I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.  (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.)  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.   For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”  Where is the wise person?  Where is the teacher of the law?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Paul is upset with the Corinthian church because they are entertaining disputation and quarreling in their midst.  Rather than have unity, they are divided by championing certain individuals as their spiritual fathers.  They argue about something that has little to do with their new life IN CHRIST.  Paul understands that this kind of division and discord can lead to much more serious things, such as apostasy or a walking away from the truth of the gospel, which is Christ in us the hope of glory.  Paul considers such disputation as a sure sign of immaturity or worldliness.  They are still carrying around in them parts of the old man, enumerated in Galatians 5:19-21: impurity, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.  These are attributes of the devil and his darkness, not of Christ and his light.  Immaturity and fleshly thoughts have deceived the Corinthian church, clothing them in discord and dissensions.  This is troubling to Paul for he taught them only the Good News and had clothed them with the light of the Lord.  His ministry consisted of elevating Jesus as the Son of God and that He was crucified and resurrected by the hand of God through the power of his Spirit.  Yet, now they have allowed the devil’s spirit to invade the living church in Corinth.  Jesus taught oneness to his disciples, oneness with him and God.  Oneness is the message of the Holy Spirit to the church.  Failing to heed this message is very dangerous.  Paul understood where this discord within the church would lead: schisms.  Multiple schisms had divided the church from the very beginning.  Some were big divisions in the church of the living God; others were divisions within one church or denomination.  Usually along with this discord would come words of hate, bitterness, and even physical violence.  God’s cardinal rule of loving your neighbor as yourself is shattered for sure when you do not love your enemy as Jesus taught.  Jesus addresses this kind of darkness in teaching his disciples that they should remain one in the Spirit.  Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.  Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.  But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.  They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.  (1 John 2:9-11)  In Deuteronomy 12 we see how much God hates this kind of discord.  Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses.  Miriam is struck with leprous skin.  In proverbs we see that God hates a person who stirs up conflict in the community.  (Proverb 6:19) 

Of course the body of Christ should always be aware of apostasy creeping within the fundamental beliefs of the Good News.  Some ideas are not a danger to the church’s existence or testimony, but others can destroy the appeal of the Good News in a secular community.  So the church should be alert in protecting the essence of salvation: Christ crucified for the sins of the world and Christ resurrected from the grave, revealing that eternal life will come to all who believe in Jesus’s work on the cross.  However schisms in the church have happened over many things, not essential to the message of unity IN CHRIST.  Paul is dealing with the division within the church over something that is not essential to the core message of Jesus as the Savior of the world.  They are fighting over who they wish to follow in their walk with Christ: I follow Paul”; “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.  Paul asked the obvious question Is Christ divided?   Of course not, Christ's work is whole, complete and final.  People ought not to follow any other man but Christ and his works alone.  Sad, but true, division, arguing, quarreling cause the hearts to be corrupted with feelings adverse to unity.  Paul tells the Ephesians, Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  (Ephesians 4:31-32)  Jesus understood that wolves would come in the flock to destroy and corrupt his sheep.  He had protected his disciples with his presence.  He lost only Judas who was never a part of his flock.  Judas lived for himself, stealing from the money people gave to Jesus’ work on earth.  Eventually he sold Jesus to the priests.  But for the others, Jesus was concerned about leaving them alone without his presence, so he prayed to the Father, keep them one as we are one.  All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.  And glory has come to me through them.  I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.  (John 17:10)  Jesus wanted no schism in his disciples after He left them, to die on the cross.  He encouraged them to know that He will return to them one day and that they should be in unity when that day arrives. He wanted them to know that the Father God was with them because of their trust in him as the Son of God.  You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  (John 14:17-20)  Paul was now encouraging the Corinthians not to be divided in their thinking, but to dwell securely in Jesus and the Father, for they are one in unity.  Therefore, they should be one together in God and the Son.

Paul is preaching unity to the Corinthians.  He does not even want them to think of him as being their spiritual father if it causes disunity.  He desires that they fix their eyes on Jesus, and through the work of the Spirit, glorify Christ in everything they do.  They are to glorify Christ in their lives, not lift up any person as the reason for their Christian walk.  Christ alone is their leader and the Holy Spirit has been given to them to lift up Christ in their lives. If Christ is truly their leader and if their hearts are attuned to the Spirit’s voice, they will emulate Christ in everything they do, not some man or leader.  Paul dismisses the wisdom and knowledge of this world as carrying little clout in saving the world from destruction.  Salvation, eternal life with God, comes only through the cross. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.   For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”  Where is the wise person?  Where is the teacher of the law?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  When Christians divide the church over what they consider to be wise and knowledgeable, they are walking on dangerous ground.  Today’s text says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.  Paul tells Timothy, Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.  (2 Timothy 2:14)  Errant words and ideas that are away from the Good News of Christ crucified for the salvation of all men should be avoided, but to quibble on ideas that are not destructive to the essential message of Christ being Lord of all should be considered not important enough to divide the church of the living God.  Divisive words, discord, dissension in the church destroy the work of Christ in any community.  Often these kinds of words come from those who wish to be followed.  They do not originate from the Peacemaker but from the flesh.  Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.  But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.  (James 3:16-18)  Dear friends around this breakfast table, do not sow words of bitterness and division within the church.  Let your wisdom and knowledge be as a peacemaker.  Paul struggled with the Corinthians because so many of them were functioning out of their own wisdom and knowledge.  They were immature, still quarreling about non-essentials.  Paul knew they were in danger of splitting apart.  The secular Corinthians would see this and consider Christianity as not necessary in their lives.  Let us be true servants of God, emulating only Jesus in our speech, actions, and lives.       

   

 

  

  

 

 

  

                              

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 Walk in the Light!

1 Corinthians 1:1-9  Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.  For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.  Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.  He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In I Corinthians we see Paul writing to the new-found church in Corinth.  These are the people he led to Christianity.   Corinth as a city had existed for thousands of years, but Corinth's recent inhabitants have been there for only about a hundred years when Paul arrived.  About two hundred years before Paul arrived, Corinth's original inhabitants had been wiped out by the Romans.  At that time the males in Corinth were slain and the females had been carried off into slavery.  For around a hundred years after that disaster, Corinth was but a wasteland with few inhabitants.  However, in 44 BC Julius Caesar re-inhabited Corinth with sixteen thousand people from land he controlled.  Paul arrives for the first time in 50 AD, so he is ministering to people who are rather new to the area of Corinth, but these people like the previous inhabitants were deep into idol worship.  They worshiped a variety of gods.  The sun, moon, stars, soil, etc were their gods; they made idols and shrines to these non-gods.  Even as today, people worship what they can see and experience; people try to find the Creator through what they see or even imagine.  The philosophers, deep-thinkers, scientists, and even Christian apologists try to discover God by what they see, not what they do not see or imagine.  However, the Creator of all is beyond our imaginations.  We base our conclusions of God by what we can see or investigate.  But the God we cannot see or truly investigate is the Creator.  The Jews begin their prayers by placing God in his rightful position: He is the God who has existed forever and will exist forever.  He created everything out of nothing and nothing exists outside of him.  John 1 begins with the iteration of this reality.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:1-5)   Paul went to Corinth to tell them of the Good News that he had seen the God that man has been seeking for ages, the God who existed before time and our reality, personified in Jesus Christ.  Of course Jesus revealed God by doing what God only can do: create something out of nothing.  The blind see, the cripple walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the possessed are made whole.  As the once blind man said to the disbelieving Pharisees about Jesus’ divinity: “Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied.  “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from?  We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will.  Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind.  If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.”  (John 9:30-33) 

Paul is now writing to these new converts in Corinth.  He praises them for developing a new way of living and thinking.  For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.  They are definitely new creatures in Christ.  They are coming out of their old, beggarly style of living: lives of anger and destruction.  Once they lived as all humans, focused only on their own welfare, willing to take advantage of others for their own benefit.  As history reveals, mankind has been continually in wars, struggles and fights since the beginning of time.  Millions of people have been murdered and enslaved for the selfish reasons of others; this is the story of mankind everywhere on the face of the earth.  Nothing has corralled mankind's selfish pursuits, not their religion, their philosophies, their knowledge, their wisdom, their science; men and women have always done wicked things.   Jesus said the only way to a different lifestyle is that humans become new creations.  People must be born again or they well always portray the defilement inherited within them from Adam and Eve’s sin against God’s will.  Jesus tells NIcodemus, the Pharisee, the nature of people is to reject the light of God, for they love their lifestyle centered on their selfish wills which leads to exploitation.  Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.  (John 3:19-21)  We know from scripture that Jesus is the way, the TRUTH, and the life.  Paul in 1 Corinthians is reiterating to the Corinthians what light is all about.  He talks about servanthood, a selfless life for the benefit of others.  Even though they function in their gatherings with the evidence of the Holy Spirit's presence, they still need to drop their own wills in their daily lives at the feet of Jesus.  Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere humans?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?  (1 Corinthians 3:1-4)  Paul does not appreciate that his new converts are acting as mere human beings, not taking on the mantle of Christ Jesus, who was the servant of all.  His purpose in writing to the Corinthians is to mature them in their walk as new creatures IN CHRIST.

Paul commends the Corinthians, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.  They are spiritually competent in worshipping God, but their daily lives reveal immaturity, discord.  Paul is telling the Corinthians in his letter to them that operating the gifts of the Holy Spirit within the church’s gathering is good.  However, the Spirit’s authority must be operative in their daily lives.  The Spirit's attributes ought to be seen in their interaction with other people, in the church and outside of the church.  People should know them as servants of the Light.  To live as Christ’s lived, you must be willing to be the servant of others, carrying little self-will with you.  A life identified as Christ’s life displays the characteristics of God the Father.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.  (Galatians 5:22-26)  The Corinthians, in functioning IN IMMATURITY, are provoking each other, claiming they know the right way to God by choosing the spiritual leaders they wish to follow.  Paul is upset with them, for they are quarreling over things that do not matter much.  By doing so, they are operating in darkness and not light.  In such disputation they are sinking back into the darkness of the world.  What is the world like?  From the beginning of time, sin has brought darkness, self-willedness, quarreling, fighting, warring to mankind.  Paul describes sinful pursuit and darkness in the souls of men and women in his letter to the Galatians.  In the old creature as Jesus said people love darkness.  The old man or woman dwells in the darkness of sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  (Galatians 5:19-21)  Paul in 1 Corinthians warns the Corinthians to stay away from discord, quarreling and fighting over who they follow in their spiritual lives.  These disputes seem innocuous, not important to the soul’s survival, but Paul is telling them to grow up because such innocuous disputes can hinder your walk in the light, and can push you back into the fleshly desires of darkness.  We will see as we walk through this letter to the Corinthians that Paul is beseeching them to grow up in their daily lives, to put aside their disunity and to find the unity of Christ in God his Father.  These are good guidelines for us all.  

                              

    

 

         

   

Acts 28:17-31 Live By Faith!

Acts 28:17-31  Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders.  When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.  They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.  The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar.  I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.  For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you.  It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”  They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.  But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”  They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.  He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.  Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.  They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:“ ‘Go to this people and say,“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”  For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.  “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”  For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.  He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

In the above focus, we see Paul in Rome, the center of the western world preaching the gospel.  His life after the Lord’s interdiction carried only one theme, to preach the Good News of God’s grace and mercy to all people.  The Lord said to Ananias, “Go!  This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.  This personal commission from the Lord caused him to endure much suffering as he ministered the Good News to people in Israel and in the surrounding communities of the Greeks.  I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.  That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.  (Romans 1:14-15)  He never backed off in preaching the salvation plan of God’s mercy and grace for all people.  Once he had lived as a self-righteous Rabbi, zealous about keeping the purity of Judaism.  He had a murderous heart, willing to kill men and women if they strayed from the law of Moses.  He was willing to have children orphaned for the cause of his religious views.  Paul was a man of a hard heart and sightless eyes.  But the Lord physically blinded his spiritually sightless eyes, and by doing that He also opened up Paul’s stopped ears to the mercy and goodness of God.  So Paul who once was the quintessential Jew of the law was now a servant of the Creator God who made all people in his image.  From Jerusalem this Good News of God’s love towards all people would travel around the world.  Paul was a chief instrument to see the word of God reach the Gentiles.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:  THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH.   (Romans 1:16-17)  Paul was first obligated to minister this Good News to his beloved Jews.  After his salvation experience, he ministered to the Jews in Damascus and then in Jerusalem.   The Jerusalem Jews wanted no part in this gospel of the Good News.  For the Jews, the law of Moses was enough of God’s revelation for them.  They needed no other revelation of God’s nature.  They knew the God who demanded obedience to his law; anything else would bring the judgement of God hard upon them.  The Jerusalem Jews railed so strongly against this new teaching and against Paul, a messenger of this "cultish belief," that they planned to kill Paul.  The nascent church of Jerusalem found out about this plan to murder Paul, so they sent him packing back to his home: Tarsus.  At this time it looked as if Paul’s ministry about Jesus being Lord was over.  However a revival hit the city of Antioch.  Barnabas a faithful Christian Jew in Jerusalem was sent to Antioch to observe what was happening.  He found that many in that city were turning to the Lord.  He then realized he would need additional help to minister The Way of the Lord to these new converts, so he went to Tarsus to find Paul, at that time called, Saul.  He found Saul, convinced him to accompany him to Antioch.  So Saul resumed his calling by the Lord, ministering the gospel in Antioch.  

But as with Jesus before him, the Good News was primarily given to the Jews.  The Chosen People were to learn about the Good News of Jesus being the Messiah first.  Some accepted this mysterious plan of God revealed to them in the last days, but most refused to alter their belief in obeying fervently the law of Moses.  Any other teaching was cultish and deserved death.  Jesus’ teaching and activity was centered in Palestine.  He loved his people; God his Father loved his chosen, but the chosen refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Redeemer.  Most of the leaders and priests of the Israelites thought of Jesus as a bastard child with no authority from God to alter the religion of the Jews in any way.  But God’s everlasting love reached out to the Jew first. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.  Look, your house is left to you desolate.  For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  (Matthew 23:37-39)  The Jewish leaders and priests would achieve their goal in murdering this “cult” leader as far as they were concerned.  They needed the help of the Romans for only their authorities could administer capital punishment.  At first the people greeted Jesus as a Savior, a man from God.  They had heard of Lazarus being raised from the dead.  Many had seen Jesus perform multiple miracles of healing.  As Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, they greeted him with joy.  However, later their joy evolved into hatred and bitterness.  Their initial hope rested in Jesus as being their coming King.  He supposedly would deliver them from Rome's heavy hand of occupation.  But instead of him being elevated by God’s sovereign power as their King, they see Jesus bound, beaten and disgraced by the hated Romans.  Pilate embarrasses the Jews by saying, here is your king; He is the evidence of you being a weak people, a worthless people; your king has no power over Rome.  Jesus was clear evidence that the Jewish people were bound and controlled by the Romans.  The people turned against Jesus because He was a disgrace to them so they yelled again and again: crucify him, crucify him.  Get rid of this man who is an embarrassment to the the Jewish people.  So Jesus was led away, carrying a cross, pleasing the people.  The cross fulfilled the will of the people, the leaders and priests of the Israelites, but it also completed the work of God through Jesus Christ, his Son.  The cross was the vehicle to free all of mankind from the slavery to sin.  The Jewish leaders and priests illustrated this slavery to evil very well for they desired to murder Jesus from the very beginning.  Jesus had embarrassed them in front of the people.  HIs teaching had put them down; his miracles had exposed them to their powerlessness.  He even healed on the most sacred day of the week, the Sabbath.  How could Jesus be a man sent by God to the Jews; he was a violator of the law.  But as Paul once was, they were slaves to sin.  Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  I know that you are Abraham’s descendants.  Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word.  I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father, Satan.  (John 8:34-38)

At the end of Acts we see this willingness to be a slave to sin abiding in the hearts of most of the Jews.  Paul is disgusted with their obstinate attitude towards the Good News.  The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: “‘Go to this people and say,“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”  For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.  “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!  All through the book of Acts, the Jews were the major foes to the Good News.  They persecuted the disciples, even had Herod kill James; they also killed Stephen by stoning.  The leaders of the Jews carried a strong hatred against the Christians; they would crucify all of them if they had the power to do so.  But Jesus understood well the hardness of their hearts, their unwillingness to accept him as the Good News to all the world.  He spoke in parables so they would not easily recognize him as being the Messiah, for their rebellion for centuries had confronted God’s grace and mercy.  They chose other gods made of stone and wood.  They had even given their babies to these gods, destroying God precious ones, given to them from God’s heavenly domain, so Jesus spoke in parables.  The Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.  He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!  (Mark 4:10-12)  God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  His everlasting love has always extended to his Chosen.  But they chose to reject his everlasting love and turn to the non-gods of this world.  Paul is now confronted again with this reality.  They were satisfied with a powerless existence of serving God in rituals and in obeying special ceremonies, but not willing to know God as the intimate Creator who desires to gather them under his wing, giving them an eternal existence with him.  Because of their resistance to Jesus as the Messiah, the Jews would face another diaspora, scattered throughout the world, away from their land of Palestine.  But God’s everlasting love never left his chosen.  His everlasting love towards a rebellious people epitomizes God’s love towards all of mankind. He gave his love: Jesus, to the world.  The world treated him miserably, finally killed him, but this was all in God’s plan to save the world from their slavery to sin.  Paul in his last words to us is crying out: open your eyes, hear God’s loving words, accept Jesus his Son as Lord of your lives.  Then your sightless eyes and stopped ears will be restored.  Then, you will know the God of everlasting love; you will know his grace and mercy.  He is waiting for your decision every day.  Today is the day of salvation, do not waste your days serving the gods of materialism, for there is no eternal life in stone and wood.  Jesus Christ is your everything.  Seek him!