Everything: The Message Of 1 Corinthians - Craig Hopkins | Brackla Tabernacle

[Music] hey there thanks for clicking on to brackler tabernacle online where you can listen to this week's sunday message over the coming weeks we're going to take a journey together looking through the book of one corinthians which is the apostles paul's first letter to the church in corinth we would really love to see you guys in one of our in-person gatherings whether that be sunday or in small groups that are happening across the week so why not head over to bracketabenacknow.org and find out when and where these are all happening and how you can get involved but for now here's this week's message [Music] over the next few weeks we're going to be navigating through the letter of one corinthians during our sunday teaching and there's a simple reason why apart from the brilliance that good expository systematic teaching uh helps us as followers of jesus the real real real real reason why is because i think one corinthians could have been written for us right here today it wasn't of course it was written in the mid-fifties of the first century a.d and so this letter that we're going to read and talk about for the next few weeks is around 2000 years old but because the holy spirit breathed on it this letter is alive which means that it can have an impact on our life on my life and yours right now our belief our behavior our belonging our intellect everything in one hit today this letter could have been written for the western church i think in 2021 and thank god it was and so as a local church we're going to journey through this up until advent and we're going to preach through this letter one corinthians but that isn't it of course it can't be the total sum of your and mine uh learning and forming in this letter it'll be down to me done to you as individuals to pray and think and read and ask questions to chat with others to pray with others to think about i don't know buy commentaries or listen to podcasts and study for ourselves so that over these next few weeks we all get to grow in maturing in jesus listening to what jesus says trusting it and then obeying it is how we mature in life and friendship with god there are really are no shortcuts at all and so i invite you all to journey with us over these weeks it's going to be absolutely fantastic and if you've been following along online and wondering why on earth would we do something like this why would we spend all these weeks in a 2000 year old letter it is simply because of this we believe that this bible is the word of god and then by reading it talking about it and preaching it these three simple things you and i get uh our lives affected the god speaks to us through them and so if you're a person of faith or not hey please please please keep joining with us on this journey i'm gonna read now from the passage today one corinthians chapter one and the first nine verses so follow along 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 praise 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 [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't you love it when jesus does something in a person's life that so incredibly changes the circumstances of them and those around them that we all just get to stand back and just go wow some of you will be thinking of people in your mind right now who fit that description drug dealers becoming pastors humanist academics becoming preachers of jesus the most self-centered individual you know has become the most generous person through christ's transformation because jesus changes lives and the senders of this letter to this church at corinth are two of those changed people i think it's superb the jesus has his followers in pretty much every start of society today loving people sharing grace speaking truth pointing the way to rescue think about your your workplace your family your your sports club your craft group whatever wasn't it kind of jesus to send you to them you've been called and placed within that environment being the demonstration and message of jesus amongst people everywhere isn't it incredibly kind to the master to do such things this letter opens with two names paul called to be an apostle of christ jesus by the will of god in acts chapter 18 which we won't read now but which if you're going to be forming along with us you absolutely should read in acts chapter 18 we read we read of paul this paul luke tells us that that he goes to corinth as a missionary and establishes a small church there along with priscilla and aquila two jewish people to a couple of married couple like paul who had become followers of jesus themselves this married couple ends up in corinth after being uh along with all jewish people expelled from rome so the author of this letter paul who years earlier had been dramatically converted from church hater to church planter you can read that earlier on in the book of acts after meeting the resurrected jesus this jesus then commissions paul sends him as is a possible as his apostle literally meaning as as one who has been sent to the non-jewish inhabitants of largely the eastern mediterranean world this was as paul god's will and paul submitted to it found and followed jesus and became willing to go where jesus sent him and do what jesus told him tells him to do paul in his following of jesus we read has been beaten and threatened and whipped and shipwrecked and tortured and imprisoned all for the gospel and seeing him reading his writings you get an immediate impression of everything everything that paul knew and had was changed in a moment of encounter with jesus and that everything was now on the table in how paul would live or die and how he'd be treated or mistreated along the way of following jesus when you saw paul you knew that the gospel changes and demands everything and you either run to that changing force or you try and run away from it there's no gray areas when paul is around you're in it or you're not this is the will of god you submit to it like i have would be paul's sort of mantra paul and our brother sosthenes paul is not talking about a literal brother but a term that we would use here within church circles because of we're church family because we're children of god loved by him and brought into relationships not of blood but of of deep friendship and relationship because so we call each other brother or sister or whatever so our brother sostheny sosthani's great name i find it so magnificent of the holy spirit to include his name we we surmise in partier because we know nothing of this guy other than his name here in this context but it isn't a hard jump to make to think that this is the same sosthenes that is mentioned in acts 18 which i said just a moment ago when paul founded the church in corinth he did it after rejection the jewish people in corinth wanted nothing to do with paul so they kicked him out of their synagogue where he had been meeting with and influencing other jewish people to believe in jesus just like he had done so instead paul starts meeting in the house next door to the synagogue and so begins the church of corinth which eventually included crispus great name who was the synagogue leader who himself had become a follower of jesus this was a massive deal now of course so much so that the jewish people were so sick of paul that they tried to have him arrested but when the roman authorities the ruling authorities of corinth pushed back on them they became so angry that they started to take their vengeance out on someone and they took their vengeance out on the then synagogue leader a guy by the name of sosthenes could it be that this sosthanes for it isn't the most familiar of names is it who was once beaten by jewish leaders in front of roman leaders had himself come to find jesus too and at this jesus had picked him up and healed him and saved him and restored him and transformed him that now some years later he's he's with paul telling people that he likely know in the church of corinth friends the gospel changes everything look at me look at us paul and sosthenes everything the two writers have known that christ jesus by the will of god has changed everything and his message of love and transformation changes everything and so they write ensuring that everyone who they can influence not only revels in jesus's transforming power but is encouraged to apply that power to every area and detail of their lives so that the everything changing gospel does that just that amongst them in their relationships in their habits in their thinking in their time their leisure their food their sexual habits their gender roles their perspectives their gathered times their following of jesus in their concept of death and resurrection in fact the message of this entire letter written down by men who walk the walk as well as talk the talk is that the gospel changes everything [Music] [Applause] [Music] to the church of god in corinth to those sanctified in christ jesus and called to be his holy people so here it begins paul writes not to the city of corinth but to the church and in doing so however he knows that the city of corinth is a big player in forming the church it affects its culture and its makeup just like other geographical or economic or even linguistic factors jesus calls together calls out from a specific place to gather to a specific place with a specific climate and economy and language and history and that's why churches look and act differently so often the church community in a mediterranean climate like i don't know the coastal south of spain can eat together outdoors constantly which i'm pretty sure is absolutely conducive to happier and healthier lives but a church community in i don't know the north of canada where it snows for 10 months of the year so you can't go outside at all well those communities will look and do things very differently from each other because of the specific place the god has placed them i've been liberated by this thought over the last few months recently in the throes of um of pandemic when we were all able to access material and teaching and brilliant worship songs from across the globe at a click of a mouse or push of a finger it was easy to forget about the local instead of the global and fall into the sin of comparison by forgetting that jesus has uniquely called you and me to live and work and socialize and educate in a specific place and in my context of course and many of yours bridgend and that god that that calling that god calling will look speak feel and act very different to literally every other church family in the world we are uniquely us we're odd and whilst our differences are to be celebrated they're also meant to be contextualized in our true reality they're in sense they're meant to be placed into something more powerful than our differences how we just do things around here paul writes that these people in this place are sanctified in christ jesus and called to be his holy people so whilst we live and move in the locality in which we reside we're also incredibly different as christians to everyone else because jesus christ has called us out to be his set apart holy people knowing the presence of the beautiful holiness of god that frees us into knowing joy and safety and contentment and grace rather than degradation and strife and harm that exists outside of holiness a people have been called out not just in ones or twos but a people and jesus has looked through bridgend his gospel has been proclaimed and people have responded and in that response jesus brings them together as a people group distinct and explicitly his and in responding to him he is sanctifying them he is making them become more like him into a people they already are because of jesus holy corinth at the time of paul and sostheny's writing was a massive metropolis of a place a huge city it was situated on a small section of land called they called the isthmus between two large bodies of water the gulf of corinth and the rest of the aegean and the mediterranean sea and so if you wanted to travel anywhere from east to west or west to east you would on this on sea was included you'd go through corinth you'd unload your boat at one port and take it via massive amount of slaves to the four miles to the other port or the other side of the islamists and you dock then as you sail on smaller boats were literally dragged across the grounds on rollers by by slaves in order to just dock at the other side and they'd carry on and that was safer and cheaper particularly if slaves did all the work than going the 300 miles around the peloponnese so in corinth people are arriving and leaving all the time there's trade is the beating heart of the economy and so change is constant your people coming and going stress and strife and pack together in this small in this massive city loads of money changing hands so you've got tired drunk grumpy trades men and women battling to survive in these conditions it wasn't conducive to great relationships culturally within corinth there were some significant things too which helps our understanding next week dave is going to talk about the the orators that came to corinth so i'll leave that for now but i'll mention that in the corinth was in its religious it's spiritual it's supernatural life superstitious life that was quite high on the agenda too corinth was known to have two significant temples at the top of this massive hill the acrocurrent stood the temple of aphrodite the goddess of love and sex and lust and occupying that temple was over a thousand shrine prostitutes who made their living by coming down out of the temple at night and plying their trade for money amongst the traders in the city and in the city itself you found the temple of apollos the ideal man the perfect human body and so you had naked images of apollos everywhere and his worshipers were encouraged to engage in sexual practice with those other men near or at the temple and so the glorification of sex in all its forms was part of the culture of corinth and so with these two pillars of money and trade and commerce and sex within and outside of the home literally on the street and how people connected and interacted with each other in relationships you've got in this city 2000 years ago i think the very culture of us today money is power and celebrity and glamour and fame runs in its wake bringing influence and adoration just look at instagram and sex is everywhere and in everything and seemingly its gratification and glorification is the mantra of our hour and how we all interact together as people particularly when there's moments of division or harshness or controversy i think best describes what on earth is happening right now in britain right now and so god in his kindness speaks through the ages and declares the good news of jesus christ the one whose death and resurrection my friends changes everything the gospel changes everything jesus changes everything so here we have in corinth a church called out from it all living in it all on mission through it all but utterly different saved from it all by extension all of us because paul writes not only to them but to all who call on the name of the lord jesus that's you and me his their lord and ours isn't that great paul would have had no idea of course the two odd two bit thousand years later where after he and sostheny's write down wrote sat down and wrote a letter to corinth that here in bridgend and even online we can be formed just as they were by being filled with the holy spirit and being transformed by his word and by his spirit bringing glory to god and having our lives utterly transformed everything is changed by jesus verse 3 says grace and peace to you from god our father and the lord jesus christ as the spirit fills them to write these things down they bear witness that the a that followers of jesus breathe after being called out from staff and people in cities in rescue and gathered together in holiness the air is no longer profanity or discord or rage or anger or division but grace and peace that isn't counted up by the will or the emotion but that comes from god himself through jesus and so this is who you are if you've been transformed by the gospel you and i are part of the everything changing community called the church rescued from having to live like everyone else called to something holy and healthy and joy filled with grace and peace is its environment don't you just want to stop and breathe it in and rejoice as like the stress of it all is taken away and that's exactly what paul does he gives thanks i always thank my god for you he gives thanks when he thinks about these people in corinth and the city in which they live and how jesus has rescued them he gives thanks at how incredibly resourced they are as individuals and as a church family they've got great speech he says and great knowledge they've got every spiritual gift this going jesus really truly powerfully and magnificently really is at work amongst them the gospel has really taken root in people's lives and they are on it they're being changed by it so paul gives thanks and wows and wonders of what jesus has done and what he will do paul keeps on asking then that god himself that christ will as they wait for his return keep these corinthians firm to the end blameless when jesus comes back so that they run their race well so they've smashed it and in light of the environment around them and the pressures and the temptations and the power and the trauma of all that they live in and with that jesus keeps them firm and on it and even blameless how well not chiefly because of them although the rest of the letter is going to talk about how they play their role but rather because christ who's brought them into loving deep relationship with himself this god is faithful he's reliable he's dependable he's powerful he's strong [Music] and so these two signatories to this letter these two examples of what can happen to a human life when it is exposed to the message and life of jesus write to this church family in corinth to challenge them deeply that this gospel that has saved them transformed them and holds them is the same one in and through which now every single detail of your life and habits your beliefs and behaviors must be looked through with grace and peace about so my friend how about you and like me are there people around you that have been transformed by jesus how has what jesus has done in them inspired you i wonder why if you don't this week why didn't you get in touch with that person and thank god for them encourage them of their inspiration do that this week how do you view the church not global or universal now but local and geographically specific and are you part of this living community of people if not why not how engaged are you in this church in bradford tabernacle will you be formed by us by all of us in our living relationship with god and with each other connect my friends properly and how do you view your life just like everyone else is around you lives near you with a bit of jesus on the side or are you prepared to be transformed so that jesus is utterly at the center and everything else is on the edge and will you give thanks for christ's rescue of you and the resources that he's put in you and through you and around you why didn't you list them with this week and think about them and be mindful of them and will you pray will you pray that others other followers of jesus will stick it to the end and that on the journey they too will be transformed will you pray for his church will you pray for our church this week and all of this is to come with lots of stuff for us to think about and apply to our lives so let us pray and let's go on this journey together as we contemplate one corinthians and talk again and again about everything the gospel changes everything if you don't know jesus and would like to then we at this church would love to speak to you why don't you get in touch with us some of the details will be at the end of our time together get in touch with us connect with us and let us introduce you to the greatest of us all jesus who changes everything [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] you

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Length: 29min 17sec (1757 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021