1 Corinthians 1 [Daily Bible Study]

[Music] as it is recognized early on the problem [Music] all right welcome to branch together today we're starting a new book first corinthians this book is real it is raw it is honest it is powerful as we walk through this book there's so much to learn about who God is how he works and how followers of Jesus are meant to live and work in light of the good powerful work of Jesus Christ I haven't read this letter in a while so as I've been reading to prepare for this list letter has been hitting me again as I read so so listen learn be open to the Holy Spirit illuminating and teaching us as we read and discuss today we're starting with chapter 1 and before we dive in I'm gonna take a moment and pray father we thank you for the gift of a new day thank you for another letter to open up to read to understand to learn a bit more another letter to challenge us we thank you for your apostles for people who were sent to share your good news people like Paul and Apollo's and Cephas and the people we will meet in this chapter we thank you for the church in Corinth 2,000 years ago they had problems and issues like our churches do today like we do today as people but you used them you worked through them you did amazing things in the life of their community I pray as we read that in our communities today we'd be open to where there are problems to where this book hits us and challenges us and helps us see that though there's a gap in time and a lot of differences and that there might be some things that are very similar that we can learn so much in mostly we pray that your spirit would illuminate and speak to us again today in fresh in new powerful ways as we seek to read these words that we've come to believe in trust as your scriptures and your holy words that can impact us and empower us today it's in your name we pray amen 1st Corinthians chapter 1 Paul called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will and so thines our brother to the Church of God at Corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called as Saints with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both their Lord and ours grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I always thank my god for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus that you were enriched in him in every way in all speech and all knowledge in this way the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ he will also strengthen you to the end so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ God is faithful you were called by him into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our Lord now I urge you brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree in what you say that there be no divisions among you and that you be united with the same understanding in the same conviction for it has been reported to me about you my brothers and sisters by members of khloe's people that there is rivalry among you what I am saying is this one of you says I belong to Paul or I belong to a palace or I belong to Cephas or I belong to Christ is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in Paul's name I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius so that no one can say they were baptized in my name I did in fact baptize the household of stephanas beyond that I don't recall if I baptized anyone else for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel not with eloquent wisdom so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect for the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but it is the power of God to us who are being saved for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent where is the one who is wise where is the teacher of the law where is the debater of this age hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish for since and God's wisdom the world did not know God through wisdom God was pleased to save those who believed through the foolishness of what is preached for Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles yet to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than human strength brothers and sisters consider your calling not many were wise from a human perspective not many powerful not many of noble birth instead God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world what is viewed as nothing to bring to nothing what is viewed as something so that no one may boast in his presence it is from him that you are in Christ Jesus who became wisdom from God for us our righteousness sanctification and redemption in order that as it is written let the one who boasts boast in the Lord Paul begins this letter with his normal pattern he declares who he is he is the sent one the Apostle from Jesus he is writing to a church of saints he is praying for grace and peace Paul as he almost always does leads with Thanksgiving for the people and the work that God has done in their lives he then starts talking about divisions in the church this is going to be a recurring theme Paul doesn't want there to be divisions Paul and I love this he appeals to them by the name of Jesus that they agree with one another and he mentions the quarrel it comes down to divisions where people associate themselves with a key leader in the faith perhaps someone who baptized them or someone whose teachings they particularly like people are going around saying I'm a Paul guy I'm a Cephas guy I'm gonna polish guy Paul hates this people were becoming proud and divisive over who they were connected to and Paul sees this as the wisdom of this age or of this world this is how things work in the world seeking to fit perhaps the Greek patterns in his day and age and through this whole section Paul tries to show that the church that God works in a different way he isn't drawn into all of that find the best and brightest stuff and then attach yourself to a winner or to attach herself to a cool pastor and through it all he mentions things that sound foolish to the world the cross and crucifixion that's a symbol of shame and defeat in his world but it is the power of God and through the cross and through this suffering and through this crucifixion the power of God is revealed so Paul's saying no no no don't attach yourself to a specific pastor or teacher the church is a people of God centered and attached to the cross of Jesus and living in the power of God for those of you who are committed followers of God today boast in the cross of Jesus be a follower of Jesus do not boast in your pastor or the teacher you like best or your church that's just too fickle a thing to boast in it's too fickle a thing to be excited about humans will let you down the cross of Christ won't the power of God won't I'll leave you this with the statement I heard it somewhere but I can't remember where so if you know this phrase let us know in the comments section who said it or who you've heard say it but it's something to this effect when you're part of a church community and you're hearing the Scriptures preached you can be left with three impressions after the sermon if it was a good sermon if it was good preaching sometimes we leave and we say wow that preacher is great or that's saying WOW I'm of Apollo or you might leave and say wow my church is great or you might leave and say wow god is great always aim for the third one teachers you and we are failing and letting people down if we're leaving our teaching with people thinking that we are great or our church is great the aim is always as we hear the word of God preached and proclaimed and taught and as people come to faith and as we learn the end result should always be that people are pointed to the fact that Wow God is great Wow Jesus has done this for us Wow Jesus and God and His Spirit are the ones that we give all the glory to that's all for today join us tomorrow as we dive into chapter 2 and Paul is gonna keep talking about this so we'll we'll dig in a little deeper tomorrow take care [Music] [Music] [Applause] you [Music]

Channel: Branch Together

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Keywords: 1 corinthians, daily bible study

Id: 0jOnKDKsQjA

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 17 2018