CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: I Corinthians 3:10-23
We recall from last week’s study that Paul was writing to a fracturing church. Various groups had formed in Corinth around personalities, based on those who had baptized them (Paul, Apollos, Peter – or one of their disciples/representatives). These factions competed with one another for disciples, and were likely developing their own distinctive philosophical beliefs about Jesus. They would then use these belief systems to boast about their wisdom, and discredit other groups as having inferior beliefs. In other words, the Christians at Corinth had become no different than the Greek and Judean faction systems they had pledged allegiance to before being baptized into Christ.
In I Corinthians 2, Paul reminded these factions that it was not his eloquence, smarts, or persuasive ability that had convinced them to become Christ-followers. Nor was it a philosophy of great wisdom that changed their hearts. Paul had come with but one message – Jesus crucified. As a messenger of the cross, Paul adopted the very character of his message in his delivery – weakness and trembling. Such a message and messenger could never stand along side the other shiny philosophies and mysteries available to the Corinthians. However, God’s Spirit had gotten hold of their hearts through Paul’s crucified ministry. Paul warned the Corinthians that the very “wisdom” which was fracturing them is what led to Christ’s crucifixion in the first place.
Paul does however hint at deeper teaching available to more mature believers. There is learning beyond the cross. However, in chapter 3 Paul tells the Corinthians that they are quite frankly too immature to handle next-level truth. He uses three illustrations from common life to demonstrate spiritual reality – food, farming, and building. While the Corinthians should be able to handle solid truth by this point, they are still spiritual babies, only capable of digesting milk! What a degrading comparison for those priding themselves on their great wisdom. Rather than viewing Apollos, who followed Paul as pastor in Corinth, as a competitor for disciples, Paul casts both of them as fellow planters in the field – one sowing and one watering.
Today’s scripture focus uses the example of building. Paul had laid a solid foundation for the Corinthians when he preached the wisdom of a crucified Jesus. Now, other teachers like Apollos were building on that foundation – not competing with it. In fact, all the Corinthians were both building on that foundation, and were the building itself! Together, they were God’s Temple, in which God’s Spirit lived. Only when the Corinthian Christians were a single unified structure would the Holy Spirit dwell in them and reveal God’s wisdom to them. Ironically, when they allowed divisions and foolish arguments over “wisdom” to divide them, they risked destruction of the very thing over which they fought, and missing out on the very wisdom they sought.
In our sermon today, let’s examine the condition of our 21st Century temple.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. Do the greatest challenges facing the Church today come from without or within the Church?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• The Corinthians’ “wisdom” was destroying them.
• Our “wisdom” is destructive, too.
• God’s Spirit dwelt in the Corinthian’s Temple.
• God’s Spirit dwells in our Temple!
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means putting God’s word in our minds and hearts. Memorize First Corinthians 3:16-17.
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CrossView - March 25th, 2012
(entire service, including sermon)
Sermon - March 25th, 2012
(scripture reading and sermon only)
Click Here for corresponding scripture, small group connection guide, and sermon notes
CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: I Corinthians 1:18-31
Today we begin a six week journey through First Corinthians. This was a letter written by Paul to the church he established in Corinth, a major Mediterranean port city. We call this type of writing a “Pauline Epistle” in bible talk. There are thirteen letters like this attributed to Paul in the New Testament (fourteen if you count Hebrews, but that’s debated.) Most of them were just like this one – written by Paul to a group of those who had previously responded to his preaching and accepted his new truth about the Kingdom of God. Paul wrote these letters to maintain or repair the connections he had with these groups, known as “churches”, so that the gospel would continue to be proclaimed and lived out until Christ’s appearing.
The name First Corinthians is a bit of a misnomer, for it was one in a series of correspondence going back and forth between Paul and the Corinthian church. Most of the other letters have been lost to us, but in this one, Paul dealt with some disputes taking place in the group, and answered some questions they had. First Corinthians follows perfectly the pattern of a letter of that day, which was modeled after personal conversation. Remember, 2% of the population was literate, so these letters were designed to be read aloud. Paul opened with a greeting, which served to remind everyone of the status and authority of both writer and audience. He then gives a customary thanksgiving – the equivalent of a “how are you” in our conversations today.
Paul then jumped to the body of the letter. In the first half, Paul dealt with disputes taking place in the Corinthian church; first, those inside the church between members, and secondly, those affecting the community outside the church. Chloe, possibly a slave and likely a person of influence in the Christian community, reported to Paul that cliques had formed within the church. A clique was a group within a larger group that met together exclusively for support and encouragement. It seems that cliques had formed in the Corinthian church based on who had been baptized by whom. In other words, if you had been baptized by Apollos, you became part of the Apollos clique, and considered yourself superior to those baptized by Paul.
Paul’s concern was that these cliques threatened to fracture the church. Paul used two terms important to the believers in Corinth – wisdom and power. As in all churches outside Jerusalem, there were two types of Christians in Corinth – “Jews” and “Greeks”. Jews established authority through displays of power; Greeks, through unquestionable wisdom. The cross fails on both counts! Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that foolish divisions based on differences of philosophy were no different than the “wisdom” and “power” of the world. True wisdom and power came from God and through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This made no sense to outsiders. It could only be understood by those who had responded to the Gospel.
We’ll look further into the wisdom and power of the cross in today’s sermon.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. What is the definition of a “clique” today? Do they exist in our society? Are they good or bad?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• The Corinthians wisdom and power wasn’t working.
• Our wisdom and power fall short as well.
• It was the cross that gave wisdom and power to the Corinthians.
• It is the cross that gives us wisdom and power today!
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means putting God’s word in our minds and hearts. Memorize First Corinthians 1:18
When he came home after work that evening, empty handed, Bob’s wife stuck her finger in his face. “Listen here, boy,” she demanded. “You go buy me a present, and it better go 0 to 200 in six seconds, or don’t come home. Just leave it in the driveway, AND I MEAN IT!”
The next morning, after Bob had left for work, his wife ran and looked out the front window. Sure enough, there was a wrapped box sitting in the driveway. Confused, Bob’s wife ran out and opened it.
It was a bathroom scale.
Bob’s been missing since Valentine’s Day.
*****
Paul is continuing his lengthy answer to the question “is it ok to eat meat that has been offered to idols?”. It wouldn’t seem that an issue like that would have anything to do with us today. Yet, we find some of the most practical and needed advice for 21st Century Christians in today’s scripture focus.
Discipline. Focus. Training. Self-denial. It’s easy to associate these words with successful athletes. In order to be at the very top of your game, you must maintain an extremely strict lifestyle. We witnessed the benefits of a lifetime of strict training at the Olympics last summer, when Michael Phelps took a record number of gold medals in swimming events. Our entire nation identified and celebrated with him at a time when there wasn’t much else to celebrate.
We’ve seen in the last couple of weeks what happens when a star athlete takes his foot off the gas for one moment.
Grace. Freedom. Hope. Comfort. It’s easy to associate these words with God’s love. After generations of emphasizing God’s judgement and sovereignty, resulting in a Church and world that feared Him, there’s a renewed emphasis today on God’s love. Today, we understand that love is not just another side of God’s split personality, but that love is God’s very nature, and all of His other attributes flow out of that love. We know that only love could explain the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the God-man. Punishment wasn’t enough of a motivation for Him to come and walk among us, allow us to kill Him, then come back even from hell with our adoption papers in His hand.
We also understand, correctly, that we cannot help ourselves. No matter how hard we try, we cannot love God and others without God’s help. We have come to understand that we are “powerless over our tendency to do the right thing, and that our lives have become unmanageable.” We can’t work hard enough to, live good enough, or believe right enough to earn God’s favor. He just loves us because it is His nature to love us, and if we are willing to respond to that love, He takes care of the rest.
I’m afraid, however, that we’ve come to understand this as exempting us from any responsibility whatsoever. We can live now live however we want to live, regardless of the consequences, knowing we are secure in His love.
My own journey mirrors this understanding. Somewhere along the line growing up, I got the idea that God was awfully mad at me, and, try as I might, I could never please Him. My fear of His immediate and eternal displeasure kept me on the straight and narrow, though it was a very unhappy way to go.
I can’t forget the freedom in knowing that He really wasn’t mad, or even disappointed, in me, but delighted in taking my hand in His.
Unfortunately, like a child raised in an overly strict home who finally gets a taste of freedom, I went off the deep end. No longer constrained by fear of God’s wrath, nothing became “off limits” to me. What I thought was freedom led to addictions, broken relationships, and a lot of heartache.
Now, back to our scripture. This is exactly what was happening in Corinth. Believers were engaging in practices that harmed their own bodies and the Body of Christ in the name of “Christian freedom.” This was the real “issue behind the issue” in the case of meat offered to idols.
Paul uses a metaphor the Corinthians would have understood quite well. Athletes competing in local games were intensely focused on the prize. Therefore, they maintained very strict, almost abusive lifestyles in order to be the greatest, the strongest, the fastest, the best. Their reward? A wreath of pine.
Paul urges the Corinthians to live in such a way as to win the prize. We often think of the prize as Heaven. Eternity is certainly in his mind, but Paul isn’t talking about working for a mansion. Paul is really talking about the prize of eternal love.
He who dies with the most trophies still dies, but he who dies with the most friends wins!
Church, how focused are we on loving those around us? Can we really reach out when we’re unhealthy, debt-ridden, entertainment saturated, and over-comfortable?
We have a responsibility to maintain a strict lifestyle, not because God won’t love us if we don’t, or even because we might Heaven otherwise, but because of the great love we have been given, which we are compelled to share with others around us.
God, help me to enslave my body, my wants, my preferences, my life, in order that I might grow relationships with those seeking You and those following You.
Review -
Corinth was a major port city in the Roman Empire, strategically located on a narrow strip of coast, fifty miles west of Athens. In New Testament times, it was the center of worship for Aphrodite, the goddess of sex, whose temple was served by over 1,000 priestess-prostitutes.
There is quite a lively “conversation” going on between the followers in Corinth and Paul, who founded the church there. Letters are being sent back and forth, delegations are coming to and fro, arguments are made, instructions given, and misconceptions clarified. I and II Corinthians are the only two surviving letters of this exchange.
1. What is your favorite sport to play? To watch?