Well, good morning, church family, and welcome
to our brand new preaching series in the book
of 1 Corinthians. Mornings like this are always
an incredible joy for me. This is one of those
mornings where, as a church family, we get to
take a collective first step on a long journey
into the depths of God's Word. And I was thinking
about this last night. Who but the Lord knows
where this is going to take us? And who but the
Spirit of God knows what we're going to be shown
along the way? Isn't that true? I know this for
sure. Every time that we have finished a substantial
book like this one, and in recent years, we have
walked together through the book of Romans and
through the gospel of John. Every time that we
finished a book like that, I look back at where
we started, and I think to myself, you know what?
We're not the same church we were before. And
that's a really good and healthy thing. So when
it comes to this new series, I know that the
Lord is going to grow us as well, because I know
that he's always faithful to bless his church
when we commit our hearts and our minds to know
him better. Now, as you can see on the screen,
we have chosen a particular title for this series,
Kingdom Living in a Foolish World. And that is
certainly an accurate description of where we
live today. We live in a world that is lacking
in wisdom and filled with foolish thinking. And
so together we want to find out in this study
how God desires us to walk, both as saints but
also as strangers and aliens in the midst of
a chaotic world where temptation and distractions
are all around us. Now today, all we're going
to do is introduce the letter. We're just going
to look at the initial greeting that Paul writes
to the Corinthians, and then we will dive into
some important context. We're going to talk about
the history of Corinth. We're going to talk about
Paul's connection to the church in that city.
And hopefully what we'll do today is set the
table for what's to come. So let's dive into
it. Grab your Bibles and let's open up to the
New Testament and go to 1 Corinthians 1, very
first verse. 1 Corinthians 1, we're going to
read actually all the way through verse 9 here
together, this entire greeting that Paul gives
to the church. So here's what it says. Hear the
word of the Lord. Verse 1, Paul, called as an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and
Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God,
which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified
in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. Verse 4.
in everything. You were enriched in Him, in all
speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony
concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that
you're not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly
the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
will also confirm you to the end, blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful,
through whom you were called into fellowship
with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. By the way,
did you notice how many times in that passage
you've got the name of Jesus, but also the term
Lord? We'll pick up on more on that next week
together. Now, we're going to come back to the
first three verses of those nine at the end of
this message, and we'll look at them more closely.
But now I want to talk about the historical context
of what we just read. And let me start with this.
Why does it matter in the first place? Listen,
today is not just about letting me fly my historical
nerd flag. There is an actual purpose in studying
the history. And it's about two things in particular
that I want to share with you this morning. First
of all, it's about veracity. And second, it's
about the difference between interpretation and
application. When we talk about the veracity,
or better word, the truthfulness of a passage
of Scripture, what we're talking about is whether
or not the history, the geography, and the culture
found in the narrative lines up with facts on
the ground. So, for example, if a story in the
Bible were to misidentify a particular location
or misidentify a person of importance or not
describe a cultural practice correctly, well,
that would call into question the veracity of
that biblical account. So as we study a book
like 1 Corinthians, we want to look at the history
of the city. We want to look at its geography,
its culture, and then we want to look to see
if Paul's letter reflects what historians and
archaeologists know about that time and about
that part of the world. And if it does support
what we know to be true, guess what? Then that's
going to increase our trust in the text, and
it's going to strengthen our faith. So veracity
matters. Second, the history matters because
we want to interpret the scriptures properly
before we start to apply it. So we have to understand
what a text means, what it meant back in the
original time before we talk about what the text
means in our lives today. So what we have to
figure out is, first of all, what did the original
author, in this case Paul, what did he intend
to communicate? to the particular audience of
that day, the Corinthian church, in that historical
and cultural context, which, of course, is the
first century Greek world. So, for example, when
Paul talks about whether or not Christians can
eat meat sacrificed to idols, We can't just jump
to any application until we understand what was
going on in Greco -Roman religion and in those
pagan temples in the first century. And once
we figure that out, then we can look at how principles
from that instruction apply to the boundaries
of freedom that we have in Christ today. So we've
got to make sure that we understand the context
and the meaning in that day before we talk about
application. That means that knowing the history
of a region really does matter. And seeing its
geography on an actual map and studying the cultural
nuances of life in that day and age. All of those
things, all of those things help us to appreciate
the truth and the beauty and the practicality
of God's word. And they help us grow deeper in
our faith as we seek to apply ancient principles
in our day and age. Does that make sense? Okay,
good. So let's start this morning by talking
about the history of Corinth. And I want to go
back to before the time of Christ, before Paul
arrives in that city, I want to go back into
the BC era. And the first thing we have to acknowledge
is that by the time that Paul does come upon
the scene in the first century, before he comes
to Corinth, it is both an old city, a very old
city, and also a very new city. Now, here's what
I mean by that. First of all, let's go back in
our minds, back to the days of ancient Greece.
I want you to go back to the days of Socrates
and Plato, back to the days of pagan temples
and mythological gods and, yes, togas, men in
togas. Don't get me started on that. Back to
the period of classical Greece, prior to the
rise of Alexander the Great. Back in classical
Greece, there was no central government that
ruled all of Greece. If you know anything about
the Greeks, fiercely independent. They didn't
like the idea of central government. So each
area within Greece, including all the islands
there in the Aegean Sea, were ruled as part of
a concept called the polis. Very important word,
or the city -state. So each region, each city
-state had its own set of laws, its own temples,
its own fortifications, its own armies. And some
of these polises were small. Some of them had
vast amounts of mountainous land. Some of them
were even just individual islands there in the
Aegean Sea. So most prominently, you had like
the polis of Athens, and you had the polis of
Sparta. and the polis of Thebes, and the polis
of Argos, and of course you had the polis of
Corinth. And in the classical period, most of
these city -states were ruled by something called
oligarchs, and that's a word you hear coming
up more and more these days in our political
discussions. Oligarchs, the word literally means
in the Greek, rule by a few. So in an oligarchy,
power was concentrated in the hands of just a
few men who were sort of recognized by the citizens
of that polis based on their family lines, based
on their wealth, and oftentimes based on their
military power. And sometimes these oligarchs
were benevolent rulers. They were good governors,
but more often than not, they were corrupt and
abusive. And later, some of these men would be
called tyrannos, where we get our word tyrant
from. because of their corruption and abuse.
And that was true in the polis of Corinth in
the 6th century BC. In fact, these two men, the
first one has lost his nose, sorry about that.
Sipsilus and his son, Periander, ruled as tyrants
over Corinth for more than 70 years in the 6th
century BC. When their days of power were over,
then Corinth suffered through a whole Long period
of instability. Rulers and leadership in government
that went up and down and all over the place.
And they struggled economically because this
Polish, just about 40 miles away, we call Athens,
began to become a more successful commercial
center. Still, the Corinthians were able to protect
their city. I'm going to give you a timeline
here. They were able to protect their city and,
in fact, sent soldiers. to be part of a Greek
confederacy that fought against multiple Persian
invasions. If you know anything about the story
of the Persians and the Greeks, some of you guys
have seen the movie 300. We talked about Xerxes
when we were in the book of Esther. This is where
those worlds sort of collide together. So they
sent soldiers to fight in these wars, first of
all against King Darius of Persia in the year
490 BC. Ten years later, when Xerxes brought
his massive army from Persia over to Greece,
the Corinthians were part of fighting that war
as well. That was in 480 BC. Now, 50 years after
those wars with Persia, and they had successfully
pushed the Persians away, well, then the city
-states did what so many human beings do. They
turned their attention to fighting with each
other. And they fought against each other in
what we call the Peloponnesian Wars. And in that
conflict, Corinth allied itself with Sparta.
against Athens and her allies, and they were
victorious in that. However, Corinth didn't win
its independence. Whereas it had been dominated
by Athens for a while, now it became dominated
by Sparta. And that continued for quite a while
until the year 338 BC when a brand new power
arose in the Greek mainland from the north, not
a classical Greek polis, not a democracy, but
a warrior state. ruled by a king. This is the
Macedonians. We hear a lot about Macedonia in
the New Testament. King Philip of Macedon, who's
Alexander the Great's father, was the first great
Macedonian king. He brought his forces south
and began picking off one Greek city -state after
another, moving south, defeating Thebes, defeating
Athens, defeating everybody. And eventually came
to Corinth and occupied Corinth as well. In fact,
he garrisoned the whole of his army in the city
of Corinth. And all of Greece basically, except
for Sparta, Sparta was sort of isolated. All
of Greece became Macedonian. That was just the
fact. Even after Philip's death, his son Alexander
made Corinth the administrative center. of his
force as he was planning to invade Persia himself.
And as we know, a dozen years after that, he
had absolutely annihilated the Persian Empire.
Now, fast forward past the days of Alexander
to the next great power, this one coming out
of the West, the ever -expanding Roman Empire.
In the 2nd century BC, Roman legions for the
first time begin showing up on the shores of
Macedonia. By 146 BC, 146 BC, they had crushed
every Greek army on the mainland, and in the
process of this, this is important, Rome completely
leveled the city of Corinth, knocked every stone
down, flattened it, put every single male in
the city to the sword, and sold every woman and
every child into slavery in 146 BC. For 100 years,
Corinth lay... in absolute ruins, flattened to
the earth, completely desolate, uninhabited.
And there was no sign that it was going to ever
rise again, except for the man we know as Julius
Caesar. And Julius Caesar in 44 BC looked at
the landscape of Corinth and saw its potential,
and he ordered the city to be rebuilt. Not just
rebuilt, but made the actual Roman capital of
the entire region of of what we call Achaia today.
So this rebirth of the city then brought a whole
new life to it. Corinth once again sprang from
the ground and it brought a whole new batch of
citizens to the region. Now it was flooded with
merchants and traders from all over the ancient
world. Roman soldiers were housed there, but
also retiring Roman soldiers who were given land
grants and a pension after their service all
came to Corinth. And we're going to find out
a good number of Jews as well. came from Israel
and settled in Corinth. So this is why I said
just a bit ago, by the time Paul gets there,
it's an old city, very ancient, but it's also
very new, having been rebuilt and reconstructed
under Roman power. And now, as we come to the
time of Christ, Corinth is now a very important
city and a very prosperous city. So let's fast
forward now to the time of Christ and beyond.
We'll get to Paul's connection to the city. And
first, we're going to do some maps. I promised
this on social media that we'll do some maps
today. Thank you very much, map fans over here.
We'll do a whole bunch of maps here. But this
is an important timeline to understand how Corinth
got to where it is by the time of Christ and
by the time of Paul. Okay, so real quick, let's
look at the Mediterranean world. Make sure we
get our bearings. And I've given you some important
places here. You see where Egypt is, and then
Israel, Syria to the north, coming then west,
you have Asia Minor, Italy, and the dots are,
what's the blue dot? Blue dot's always Jerusalem,
good. That orange dot is called Syrian Antioch.
That's the launching point for all of Paul's
missionary journeys. This is where he starts
out of. And just as a sort of a boundary, you
have the red dot, which is what? Rome. Okay,
where is Greece in the middle of all this? Okay,
it's right there. So it's smack dab in the middle
of the Mediterranean world, and you can see why
this would be such an important place for any
nation to occupy. So now we're going to zoom
in into this area here, and just we have Asia
Minor, Macedonia to the north, Greece to the
south, and what is that island I've circled there?
Bonus points, Crete, very good. So we just recently
came out of Titus, right, which was Paul's letter
to Titus on the island of Crete. So that's where
that is. And then just one last thing here. Anybody
know what that is? It's called the Peloponnese.
And it looks distinct from Greece, but there's
a little landmass called an isthmus, say that
word, that connects the Peloponnese to mainland
Greece. That's very important. for Corinth, and
we'll come back to that in just a moment. Okay,
so let's get to a timeline here. I want you to
now go to the year 46 AD. We've now crossed from
44 BC, 100 years later, 46 AD. The Apostle Paul
and his partner Barnabas are on what we call
his first missionary journey, and they sail out
of Antioch. in Syria, and they first visit the
island of Cyprus, and then they go to a place
called Pamphylia, and then they go to Pisidian
Antioch and through a number of locations that
later will come to be known as the Galatian churches,
Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, the Galatian churches,
and they come back in 48. at the end of this
first missionary journey, and they come back
because they're being called to a very specific
event, a very important event in the book of
Acts. In the year 49, they attend what's called
the Jerusalem Council. You find it in Acts 15.
It's a very important marker for the church that
you should know about. That is where all the
apostles and sort of the elders of the missionary
movement came to decide, what do we do with all
these Gentiles who are coming to faith in Christ?
Before this, everybody coming to faith was Jewish.
They had a background in the Hebrew scriptures.
But now everywhere we go, we're finding Gentiles
with pagan backgrounds. They're coming to faith
in Christ. So the elders and apostles got together
and said, what do we do with these people? What
do we require of them in order to be considered
believers? So they go to the Jerusalem council.
I don't have time to unpack all that. But the
following year, then Paul and Barnabas, they
go their separate ways. And Paul takes on a new
partner by the name of Silas, and they start
out on what we call the second missionary journey
around the year 50. And so they go back to some
of those churches that they had planted, and
they deliver to them the news about, here's what
was decided at the Jerusalem council. And they're
talking to Gentiles, they're going, good news,
you don't have to become Jewish to be a follower
of Christ. So he delivers that news to them.
And then in the next year, the year 51, after
being divinely prohibitive from preaching in
Asia and Bithynia, Paul, Silas, and Timothy all
together now find themselves in a very important
place. I'm going to put it on a map. A couple
important cities in Asia Minor. There's where
Ephesus is. That green dot is Troas. Paul, Silas,
and Timothy find themselves in this port city
called Troas. And in this moment comes another
one of the most important moments in the history
of the church. It's described in Acts chapter
16, and I'll read it to you here. It says this,
a vision appeared to Paul in the night. Okay,
he's in Troas. He gets a vision. A man of Macedonia
was standing and appealing to him, saying, come
over to Macedonia and help us. When he had seen
the vision, immediately we sought to go into
Macedonia, concluding that God had called us
to preach the gospel to them. What was your first
clue? Right? Yeah. We just got a vision saying,
come over here. We've decided that's a good idea.
We should do that because this is what God is
calling us to. So they hop on a ship from Troas
across the Aegean Sea and they land in Macedonia.
Okay, so there's a couple more dots on here for
you to look at. They land in Macedonia. They
eventually make their way to Philippi, that kind
of orangish dot in the northern part of Macedonia.
Remember, that's where they meet Lydia, and they
plant a church there in Philippi. Of course,
later, the letter to the Philippians. And then
after spending a night in jail there, remember,
and being miraculously freed, Paul and his friends
make their way further south into Thessalonica.
where they plant the Thessalonian church, and
then on to a place called Berea, that light blue
dot. So all of that is up in Macedonia. And then
finally, they leave Macedonia. They begin to
travel south into the region of Achaia, and they
arrive in the city of Athens, this glorious Greek,
the ultimate Greek city of Athens. And it's there
where Paul delivers his famous sermon to all
the philosophers on this place we call Mars Hill.
All this is in the book of Acts. We come to Acts
18 then. We see Paul leaving Athens. This time
he leaves without Silas and Timothy, and he comes
to Corinth for the first time. So this is the
important moment. Corinth is that red dot, and
you can see where Sparta is as well. That location
is incredibly important. Paul comes to Corinth.
What happens when he arrives in Corinth? Well,
right off the bat, he meets an important couple.
We call them in English, we always say Aquila
and Priscilla or whatever. Their names in Greek,
Aquilos and Priscilla. That's for another day.
We'll just go with the English, but that's how
they were pronounced. But these were Jewish believers
in Christ. They're in Corinth. They were from
Pontus, which is in Asia Minor, and they had
been living in Rome, but Emperor Claudius, we
know this historically, expelled the Jews out
of the city of Rome. So Aquila and Priscilla
had to leave Rome, and they ended up in Corinth,
and they meet Paul. And Paul stays with this
couple and joins them in their trade, which is
what? Tent making. And they make tents together
while they're out evangelizing and teaching about
the gospel. So we're told, and I'll give you
the date here. This is in 51 to 52. We're told
that every Sabbath, Paul would go to the synagogue
there in Corinth. Okay, Paul always started with
his fellow Jews. We know this from the book of
Romans, right? He has a great heart for his people,
the ethnic Jews. And he would go to the synagogue
and reason with them, trying to win them to Christ.
And then Silas and Timothy eventually come down
to Corinth as well. And whatever they bring to
the table, now it says that Paul's able to devote
100 % of his time to preaching and teaching.
But what happens in the synagogue? The same thing
that happens everywhere Paul goes. His boldness
prompts a hostile reaction from the unbelieving
Jews. And we shouldn't be surprised by that,
right? The Jews are very set in what they believe.
They have the Torah. They have their scriptures.
And what they believe is happening is, here's
Paul. He's an apostate Jew who is preaching this
new faith in the way they're thinking. And it
doesn't make sense to them because God hasn't
yet opened their eyes. And so they react very
hostily. to Paul. So he has to leave the synagogue
and start focusing on evangelizing the Greeks
there in Corinth. To do that, the Bible tells
us that he set up headquarters in the house of
a man named Titius Justice, who was a Gentile
God -fearer. He had been in the synagogue worshiping
as a Gentile. Now he pulls away from there. Paul
sets up his ministry in his house. And where
is his house located? Right next door to the
synagogue. I love that little detail. Paul's
like, fine, I'm going to go right over here and
I'll talk to the Gentiles and you'll see me doing
that. I just love that. And by the grace of God,
Paul's efforts are successful. Gentiles start
getting saved. They're submitting to baptism.
In fact, the leader of the synagogue, a man named
Crispus, we're told, becomes a believer along
with the rest of his household. But even with
the good news that's going on, Paul knows he
is stirring up a hornet's nest in Corinth. The
Jews are getting more hostile. And it becomes
obvious that Paul is concerned for his safety.
Here's how we know that. Listen to how God comforts
him in the midst of this. This is Acts chapter
18. Paul's in Corinth. He's worried about his
safety. And the Lord said to Paul in the night
by another vision, do not be afraid any longer,
Paul, but go on speaking and do not be silent
for I am with you. How comforting would that
be? And no man will attack you in order to harm
you. Look at this now. For I have many people
in this city. What a statement of assurance that
must have been for Paul. God speaks to him directly
in a vision. He commits his own hand of protection
over Paul's ministry. And he says, look, I'm
sovereign over the entire population in Corinth,
every person. And I have many people there that
belong to me. And what a brilliant illustration
this is. For those of us, who hold to a balanced,
reformed view of salvation, this is a beautiful
example for us. Think about this. Those who often
attack our view about salvation, about election,
they will say, well, look, if God elects some
to salvation, what's the point of praying? What's
the point of evangelizing? God is gonna save
whoever he marks out, whether you get involved
or not. So why would you pray? Why would you
evangelize? But we know, biblically, that is
a distortion of the truth. And this passage,
gives us a perfect response. We affirm this.
Yes, God will save whom he will save. We affirm
that. But God works through secondary causes,
like Paul, like you, like me, like all of us,
to accomplish his will on the earth by bringing
sinners to repentance and salvation. It's not
that he needs us to save people, right? He doesn't
need anything, but it's part of his sovereign
will to work through us. If Paul didn't think
he had a role to play in this process, he would
have said, oh, thank you, Lord, for letting me
know that you have a whole bunch of people in
this city. Now I can move on to somewhere else.
Right? But he does the opposite. It's precisely
because God said, I have many that belong to
me here, that Paul said, great, I'm staying.
Do you understand the importance of this? For
our view of salvation, Paul says, precisely because
of that, I am going to stay. And we're told in
verse 11 that he settles there a year and six
months, which is much longer than Paul ever wanted
to stay anywhere because he's a mover. But he
says, look, if God has many here, I've got a
role to play here. And this principle is true
for us today. We know in Santa Clarita, God has
marked out many for salvation. He is sovereign
to save. But that doesn't mean we go, oh, well,
good. We can go sit on the couch and watch TV
and God will somehow save people, right? He doesn't
need us, but it's our job to go. And it's our
job to seek those who need Christ, to share the
gospel, to lead them towards repentance and faith.
And you know what? If they do, if we're out there
and we go and we talk to people and they receive
Christ by faith, guess what? We will know that
God had marked them out from the beginning. That's
what the Bible tells us, that they belonged to
him even before the world was made. And that
somehow, and this blows my mind, that God gave
us the privilege of playing a small role, participating
in seeing people come to know Christ. That's
how God works. He's the primary cause. He's the
one who saves, but he works through his servants.
Amen? What a great passage. Highlight this. Underline
it. If people start asking you, why do you believe
about election? Wow, right? What a great passage
for that. So Paul chooses to stay in Corinth
for a year and a half. And immediately in the
text, we see God doing exactly what he promised,
protecting Paul. The very next verse says this.
While Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews
with one accord rose up against Paul and brought
him, really it's dragged him before the judgment
seat. Paul was concerned about this. He knew
things were getting tense, and he gets dragged
before the judgment seat. A couple important
things here. First of all, this is another example
of why history matters, why it helps us to trust
the text. You say, well, why would a proconsul
be in Corinth? That's a very important office.
It's like the governor of our state. Well, the
answer is, it's because we know Julius Caesar
made Corinth the capital of that region of Achaia.
So it's historically true. That's important.
Second, look at the phrase judgment seat at the
end of the verse there. It's just one word in
the Greek. It's bema. Just one word. Two big
things about the bema. Once again, we know by
archaeology it is a historically accurate feature
of Corinth. Excavations at the ancient site have
literally uncovered the platform where the bema
was located. We know that's true. But what's
cool about this is Paul is later, in writing
to the Corinthians, is going to use the image
of the bema In two different places, in chapter
three of 1 Corinthians, he's gonna talk about
when the day comes when believers' works will
be tested by fire. And the picture is, it's gonna
be tested at Abema, at the judgment seat, your
works. Not you, but your works, the things that
you did. Did you do them for the glory of God
or for the glory of self? They'll be tested by
fire. Then in 2 Corinthians, he's gonna write,
for all of us must appear before God. The judgment
seat of Christ, the Bema of Christ. So the Corinthians
receiving these two letters, they completely
understand. This is one of those cultural archaeological
nuances that help us with the text. They fully
understand what Paul is talking about when he
mentions the Bema. So the Jews seize Paul, they
bring him up on charges before Galileo, but guess
what happens? By God's sovereign grace and protection,
this Gentile governor, who couldn't care less
about Christianity, dismisses all the charges
against Paul outright and completely frees him
and lets him keep teaching in Corinth. God was
faithful to his promise in the vision. So he
spends 18 months in the city and he plants the
Corinthian church there. And then we're told
that Paul sails back towards his home base in
Syrian Antioch. And he comes with Priscilla and
Aquila. And then they stop at the very important
city of Ephesus in the year 53. This is important.
This is likely when the Ephesian church is planted.
Paul doesn't stay there long. He leaves Priscilla
and Aquila there and he goes back to Antioch.
But then he doesn't stay at home long either.
Very soon after, he goes off on his third missionary
journey in 53. Once again, takes a similar route.
He goes to Asia Minor. He strengthens all those
Galatian churches. Then he comes back to Ephesus.
This is where everything becomes important for
the letter to the Corinthians. He comes back
to Ephesus. Remember, he was only there briefly.
He comes back there and we're gonna find out
he spends two years ministering there in Ephesus.
So where does he go first? To the synagogue in
Ephesus, okay? Three months it says in the book
of Acts that he tried to reason with the Jews
to come to salvation in Christ. And when they
hardened their hearts, he withdrew and he set
up his teaching ministry. I love this part. In
what? A school. Yeah, he set up his ministry
for two years in a school, and he taught the
Gentiles from this school. So much so, it says,
all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord,
both Jews and Greeks, because of Paul's teaching
ministry. Now, here's where it really gets interesting.
While he's in Ephesus, Paul receives some unfavorable
reports about what's happening across the ocean,
across the sea, over in the Corinthian church.
So he sits down and he writes a letter to them
and he sends it by messenger. Now this first
letter is not our 1 Corinthians. We're going
to find out that 1 Corinthians is actually 2
Corinthians. 2 Corinthians is actually 4 Corinthians.
But I'm jumping ahead. He writes a first letter,
not 1 Corinthians, and not preserved for us.
Not one manuscript of this letter has ever been
found. It's not part of the canon, obviously,
because we don't even have it. But Paul talks
about it in our 1 Corinthians. He says in chapter
5, he says, I wrote you in my letter not to associate
with immoral people. That's 1 Corinthians 5,
9. So he himself says, hey, remember that letter
I sent you? And it may have been a very short
letter that he just fired off and sent to Corinth.
And we're going to find out they didn't understand
what he was, they didn't get it. So when he writes
1 Corinthians, you have to bring more corrections
to what he previously wrote. And there's more
of this to come there in Ephesus. Remember, he's
across the Aegean Sea in Asia Minor on the coast
in Ephesus. And then he hears from a woman named
Chloe. Her name is in the text. This Christian
woman who lives in Corinth by the name of Chloe.
And she writes and says, all kinds of divisions
are happening in our church. People are lining
up behind certain preachers and the unity of
this brand new church is being destroyed. And
by the way, there's all kinds of sexual immorality
too that's running rampant through the church.
And she warns Paul about this. And then there's
more. It seems from the letter in 1 Corinthians
that a three -man delegation came from Corinth,
got on a ship, came over to Ephesus, visited
with Paul, and brought with them a list of questions.
Paul, we need help in Corinth. We have questions.
Will you write something down that helps us with
these issues? Questions about marriage and divorce,
about food sacrifice to idols, questions about
worship, about the Lord's table, about the practice
of spiritual gifts, about the resurrection. All
of these questions they put before Paul. And
then having received this, first of all, alarming
report from Chloe. about problems, and then this
list of questions from these men, this is when
Paul writes the letter of 1 Corinthians from
Ephesus in the year 54. Does that comport in
your brain? So you see the timeline there. It's
very, very important. Okay. Big drink. Can we
talk about Corinth itself now? Because when we
get into the interpretation of this letter, We're
going to see all kinds of weird cultural things
in there that you have to know something about
the city in order to truly understand. So the
first thing to know is in the first century,
Corinth proper was located on a plateau overlooking
this thing I mentioned earlier, the Isthmus of
Corinth. See that red object there? It's a land
bridge. that connects the Peloponnese, this giant
landmass that at first glance might look like
an island, but it's not. It's connected by that
landmass, and then what you have is southern
Greece above that. So this isthmus, correct,
it is 20 miles long, and at its narrowest place,
it's four miles wide, four to eight miles wide,
okay? And what this isthmus creates is, you can
see it here, natural harbors on both sides of
it, okay? Perfect for trade. Perfect for ships.
Natural harbors. On one side, the Aegean Sea.
In the south and in the north, the Ionian Sea.
And the harbor, I'm going to give you another
map here that gives you some actual color to
it. The harbor on the Ionian side is called Lecheon.
That's the yellow dot you see there. The harbor
on the Aegean side is called Sencria. which is
the green dot. And Sancria is actually a place
that shows up multiple times in the New Testament.
In fact, when we learn later on about the deaconess
named Phoebe, we're told that she comes from
the church of Sancria, which is that green dot
there. And one of the interesting features about
this isthmus is how it was used by ship captains.
Here's what's interesting. Apparently... The
tip of the Peloponnese, if you were to sail around
the tip of Greece, the Peloponnese, notorious
for violent storms. Ship captains did not like
sailing around that route. It added 200 miles
to their route, but it was also very dangerous.
So what the Corinthians did was they built an
overland ship road. See that little red line?
That connected the two bodies of water. So what
would happen is if a ship came and they were
coming down from the Gulf of Corinth there and
they wanted to get across the Isthmus, they would
harbor there, they would offload their cargo,
it would be transported four miles across the
road and reloaded onto another ship. That was
the safest way to do it. If the ship was small
enough, they had the technology to lift the ship
out of the water and using a roller system, move
it to the other body of water. This is one of
the things that made Corinth very, very prosperous.
By the way, that road is still visible today
if you go to Corinth. So, in fact, I'll give
you, there it is today, still with the ancient
stones. Now, it's been upgraded. I'll show you
that picture later, but those stones still exist.
That's where they would drag the cargo across
the Isthmus. It's called the Dialkos Road. That's
a word in Greek that literally means, ready,
to drag across. Makes perfect sense. Perfect
sense. By the way, here's an image of the harbor
at Sancria. So you see some of the ancient stones
that are still there on that side of the Isthmus.
Now, the population in Corinth in the days of
Paul is a little bit difficult to estimate all
kinds of numbers, but it's definitely in the
hundreds of thousands of people. It's a big city.
In fact, scholars believe that Corinth was...
was in the top five or six most populous cities
in the ancient world. And much of that size was
due to its location, due to its commercial power
as a crossroads for trading. Whether you're going
north to south or you're going from the Peloponnese
to the mainland or back, you have to go through
Corinth. So they could tax you and they could
be involved in that trade. It makes sense. They
became very prosperous. Luxuries from all over
the world came through their ports. Pottery,
bronze, brass, all the marble that was used in
all of the beautiful Greek buildings that we
so easily recognize. Most of it came through
Corinth. In fact, if you know anything about
architecture, these little things at the top
of columns are called capitals. And there were
three main styles in the ancient world. There
was a Doric, the most simple, then the Ionian,
and the most ornate, the most beautiful, the
most creative. were the Corinthian capitals,
and you see those all over the place. So Corinth
was known for this, for its beauty, its wealth,
its learning, its international flavor, and also
for its many, many vices. And that is important
to understand. In fact, speaking of vices, let's
talk about the gods that are worshipped in Corinth.
The most notable feature in the city of Corinth
is known as the Acrocorinthus. See that giant
mountain? It's the most notable feature of the
city. It's almost 2 ,000 feet high, and it rises
up on this plateau just north of the city. In
the days of Paul, at the very top of that mountain
was a massive pagan temple. If you've ever been
to Israel, you know this is true. They always
put temples where? At the highest point of a
city. It was designed for worship. And so the
massive temple on the top of that mountain, a
temple to the pagan goddess Aphrodite. the goddess
of love. And the Greek historian Strabo writes
in his journal that the temple of Aphrodite was
so filled with riches, get this now, it was able
to house more than a thousand temple slaves dedicated
to the worship of Aphrodite. Some were men, mostly
women, and they served as temple prostitutes.
That's how you worshiped Aphrodite. was by visiting
the temple prostitutes. Strabo writes that it's
on account of these women that the city was perpetually
crowded with travelers and merchants, and they
freely squandered their money worshiping Aphrodite
on that mountain, right? And you can sort of
picture that, right? I don't know if you want
to think it's Las Vegas or whatever, right? It's
the place you go to sin. And that's what's going
on here. In fact, the sexual depravity of the
city was so well known that the Greeks coined
a term to Corinthianize that described what it
meant to be a prostitute, what it meant to be
involved in fornication. But it wasn't just Aphrodite.
In Paul's day, there's no less than a dozen.
pagan temples in different parts of the city.
Worship sites dedicated to Athena, Poseidon,
Hermes, Isis, Heracles, and more. And one very
prominent temple right smack dab in the middle
of the city itself dedicated to Apollo, who was
the god of music and poetry and archery and healing.
And by the way, Apollo was said to be the son
of Zeus and the twin brother of Artemis. Artemis
of the Ephesians, the patron goddess of Ephesus,
just across the sea. So you had Apollo and you
had Artemis, twins in the pantheon of gods. Today,
seven of the 38 columns in the temple to Apollo
are still standing. You can visit them today.
In the northern part of the city, you find something
called the Agora. which was present in every
Greek city. It's the marketplace. And the marketplace
there was part of this large courtyard. And that
is where the Bema seat was also found. That's
where it was a speaker's platform. So government
officials would use the Bema seat in the courtyard
of the Agora of Corinth to speak to the people.
In fact, here's a picture of the platform that
still stands to this day. So you would have this
platform and a big seat up there where Galio
or whoever would sit there, and you had benches
in the back and benches on the side. And this
is where all the important business of the city
took place. Again, that idea of Bema is going
to come into play in both Corinthian letters.
And then this is just an artist's rendering of
the city based on archaeological work that's
been done there. So you see how the city was
laid out. You have this massive theater. which
was very important to the Greeks in the front,
that A, that's the temple of Apollo that was
right in the middle of the city, and B, that's
where the courtyard, the agora was, and where
the bema seat was located. And it's important
to understand all that. So... A couple more important
things. In all the streets that led into that
courtyard, you would find shops and taverns.
In fact, along all the city streets, archaeologists
have dug up just a boatload of drinking vessels
and cups. In his writing, Strabo says that all
the people of Corinth gorged themselves constantly.
He says it's even customary that when actors
come on the stage in the theater that they would
come out drunk. That was just a normal thing
in Corinth. A couple more important things to
note. We know that the Corinthians took great
interest in philosophy. They loved great orators.
They loved stage plays. That theater held, according
to... Scholars who have dug it up there held
up to 18 ,000 people. Basically the size of a
large college basketball arena today. They loved
their plays. The final thing I'll mention is
they also loved athletics. Corinth hosted the
second most important athletic games in the Greek
world, the Isthmian Games. I'm just gonna have
to keep saying that word. Second only to the
Olympics in the Greek world. So they loved that
as well. All that to say, just to summarize what
Corinth was about, I'm going to put up an AI
image just because I love this. You've got to
get a flavor for what this felt like. This is
a great image. Could you imagine being a Christian
missionary and you're walking into this and you
see the worship of pagans everywhere? It's wild.
The world of the first Corinthians was very much
like our cities today. That's important to understand.
where there's a thirst for wealth and power and
beauty and intellectualism, but most of all,
a thirst and a hunger for all kinds of forms
of comfort and pleasure, which is what we as
Americans are driven by, comfort and pleasure.
They were a proud people, affluent, materialistic,
and based on what we're gonna read in this letter,
a lot of that seeped into the young Christian
church, right? So much of American culture seeps
into our church today, which we have to be on
guard for. Now, as for modern -day Corinth, it's
very interesting with what God has done with
this once -powerful city. The ancient biblical
city today is nothing but a small village. Nobody
lives there. It's really just open to tourists
who want to come and see the ruins. That's it.
There is a modern -day city of Corinth a few
miles away. It calls itself Corinth. There's
only 30 ,000 people that live there, about a
tenth the size of Santa Clarita. So it's not
what it once was, that's for sure. And as for
that road that went across the Isthmus, that's
what it looks like today. In the late 1800s,
the Greek government finally, with all the engineering
that was required, built a canal that connects
those two bodies of water. So it's a very different
place than it was back in Paul's day. Good? Bookmark
this sermon so that you have to go back and go,
wait, what? Give me the context again. It's very
important. But before we're done, we're going
to go back. Go back to your Bibles. Let's go
back to those first three verses. I just want
to make a few comments about the first three
verses, and then we'll wrap up. 1 Corinthians
1, verses 1 through 3. There's actually some,
sometimes, have you ever noticed when you read
your Bibles, you sort of read right past the
greeting? Right? We're just like, let's get to
the meat. But there's actually a ton of really
important stuff in here. Verse 1, Paul. Called
as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God and Sosthenes, our brother. And here's all
this very simple verse communicates to us. Paul
knew exactly who he was. He knew what his purpose
was in life. And he knew how he got there. That
is so important for every one of us in this room.
We say again, he knew who he was. He understood
his purpose. And he knew how he got to that place.
Those are valuable things for all of us to know
about ourselves. No matter what you do for a
living or don't do for a living, to know who
you are in Christ makes a huge difference. Paul
was called, and I think a clear way to say that
is he was divinely appointed by God to be an
apostle of Jesus Christ, meaning he was uniquely
chosen by the Lord to be a special seminary,
emissary, I should say. a special emissary, an
ambassador and spokesman who wielded inspired
authority. This is why we talk about the apostolic
office is closed. He wields an inspired authority
on behalf of the one who called him to that role
and sent him into the world. Apostles were unique
for that day. And that unique calling Paul knew
was, I'm gonna get rid of that. Paul knew was
not because he was all that special. This is
so important. I'm going to click one more time.
This is so important. Paul calls himself the
chief of sinners, doesn't he? He knew that this
was a gift from God, that it was by the will
of God alone, nothing special in him, by the
will of God alone, that he had been called to
be an apostle. And now it was God's will that
he, of all people, be called to go into the Gentile
world. to places like Corinth and to speak the
truth on behalf of the king of kings, calling
men and women to repent of their sins and submit
to the lordship of Christ by faith. Paul knew
that was his purpose and he knew it was only
because of the will of God and therefore God
would be faithful to carry out his mission. And
then we have this man Sosthenes. Who is he? Well,
earlier we talked about how in Acts 18, Paul
moved his ministry away from the synagogue right
next door to the synagogue and how a man named
Crispus, who had been a leader of synagogue,
came to know Christ. Well, it appears that Sosthenes
was the guy who replaced him. When the one guy
stepped down from the synagogue, Sosthenes took
his place. If you read Acts 18, what happens
is Paul gets dragged before Galio, the proconsul,
and he dismisses the charges and the people riot
and they beat a man called Sosthenes because
he was the new leader of the synagogue. And then
later on, we read 1 Corinthians and wow, by God's
grace, we find out that Sosthenes who had protected
Paul on that day and got beaten for it, is now
a believer in Christ. He's our brother. That's
pretty cool, huh? Verse two, to the church of
God, which is at Corinth, notice that Paul wants
us to see who the church belongs to. Who does
it belong to? Say it with me. God. Now that sounds
straightforward, right? But how often do we find
ourselves identifying a church with a person,
usually a pastor? And we say, that's so -and
-so's church. Stop doing that. I don't care how
great a pastor he is, how great a preacher he
is. Stop doing that. The universal church belongs
to God. It is the body of Christ. And every true
local church also belongs to him. Even troubled
churches like the one in Corinth. Christ is king.
Christ is Lord over every assembly of believers
who gather in his name, who gather in spirit
and truth to worship him, including the church
at Oak Hill. Please never say this is Jeff's
church. I rebuke it. It is God's church. I know,
again, something really simple, but really, really
profound. And verse two continues, to those who
have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints
by calling, with all who in every place call
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord
and ours. Notice the two key words here, sanctified
in calling. Listen, friends, take note that both
of those things come from God. They are not things
that we have the ability to initiate or generate
on our own. They come from God. So right out
of the gate, Paul is being very careful to emphasize
that the standing of the believers in Corinth
is solely the result of God's grace manifested
through the gospel in Jesus Christ. Because we
don't initiate our sanctification. We don't initiate
our calling. It comes from God. And therefore,
nobody in Corinth had any grounds to boast in
themselves. It's all grace as a gift from God.
And in spite of all the problems in this church,
Paul wants the believers to know, look, you've
been sanctified in Christ. What does that mean?
That you've been set apart for his glory. You've
been set apart for his use and his purposes.
He wants them to know about that truth. You're
sanctified, and therefore that should affect
every area of your life, how you think, how you
feel, and all the choices that you make. You've
been sanctified. And he says, they're not only
saints, but saints because of God's electing
call upon their lives. Notice he doesn't say
they will become saints, right, by doing some
long list of good works or by improving their
lives. Paul calls them saints in the present
tense. In spite of the sin of the church, he
says, in the present tense, you are saints. To
be a saint is not to be some kind of higher than
everybody else. Christian, as the Catholic Church
would teach. The term saint refers to ordinary
believers like you and I, redeemed by the blood
of Christ and now called to match that identity
with how we live. Saints, very important. And
then there at the end of verse two, you see Paul
expressing his desire that this letter, although
it's addressed to the Corinthian church, he wants
it to be received by churches everywhere. He
says all. All believers who in every place call
on the name of the Lord. That means that the
principles that he's about to write in 1 Corinthians,
they apply in the church at Philippi, in the
church of Ephesus, in Thessalonica, in the church
in Stevenson Ranch. These principles apply. Amen?
Listen, too many people over the years, they've
looked at letters like this and they've said,
well, we're going to avoid those teachings because
we're just going to insist that all those things
only applied in the first century. That Paul
was just talking to the believers then, not to
us today. Guys, this is how people try to get
around hard teachings. See, if I don't like something
that's written in here, I just go, oh, that only
applied to the first century Corinthians, not
to me. What's the basis for your taking that
position? I don't like the teaching. I don't
want it to apply to my life. That is a classic
argument. Well, that's time bound to that culture.
But what Paul says here at the end of verse two
is, nope, nope, to all believers in every place.
That's so important to see. Finally, grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is a favorite of Paul's, right?
Notice grace is always first and peace is always
second. That's because God's grace is the source
of our peace. Without his grace, you really can't
have his peace. Amen? That's important. And then
the last thing I'll say, and then we'll all be
done. Look, as we're getting ready to jump into
this letter, we all know that the Corinthian
church was a mess. That is its reputation. All
the problems, right? We talk about it all the
time. But this dawned on me last night. Sometimes
I just... Ask Tanya. I step back and I look at
my computer screen and I just stare at it. Like,
I need to reflect on what's going on here. And
it hit me last night. The timing of all this.
Guys, as Paul's writing 1 Corinthians, Christianity
as a faith apart from Judaism is only about 20
years old. 20. This church is only a few years
old. The believers there, the vast majority of
them would have been absolutely baby believers.
Would we not expect some problems? Would any
of us done any better than these folks? And I
think we see here, Paul's aware of that. He knows
that grace abounds. He knows how much time it's
gonna take for spiritual maturity to develop
in Corinth. And I think this comes through, both
in these first three verses and all the way through
verse nine. Paul doesn't come off angry or frustrated.
In fact, he's quite thankful and optimistic.
In spite of the problems, he says, you guys are
saints by calling. You are sanctified in Christ.
You have a true testimony that Christ is confirmed
in you, he says. And so these were men and women
Paul knew. He knew them personally, right? They
were the fruits of his church planting ministry.
And one of the things about ministry is one thing
to step back and go, I'd like to minister to
that mass of unknown people. But when you actually
get in there and meet people and minister to
them face to face and know them personally, it's
a game changer. Paul knew these people. He's
writing as a spiritual father. And it's like
a father who sees this son who has all of this
potential. But right now, in this moment, he's
beset with temptations and with all kinds of
problems. And so Paul, like a good father, says,
I want to see you start to grow. I want you to
see you start to mature. And that's where we're
headed next week. Amen? Let's bow our heads.
Father, thank you for the encouragement of even
just a few verses from your word. How you have
spoken through the Apostle Paul in just simple
terms, Lord. But by doing that, communicated
so many important truths to us. And Lord, I know
that as we prepare our hearts for this series,
we all kind of have a feeling of what was going
on in Corinth and the difficulties they faced.
And so I just want to pray for myself and for
my brothers and sisters here in this church in
this time that we would have grace as well, that
we would see our own sins in the church at Corinth,
that we would be become more and more aware of
the things that we're tempted with and maybe
the subtle things that we engage in that we maybe
weren't aware of. And so, Father, I pray that
as we talk about seeing people like the first
century Corinthians, talk about seeing them spiritually
mature, that that would be a challenge to us.
in Stevenson Ranch in the 21st century. Father,
we ask that you would go before us in this journey
that we just started on. And Lord, it may last
a couple of years, we don't know, but we know
that your spirit will be powerful, that he will
work in us and he will grow us and lead us and
guide us into truth. And for that, Lord, we are
eternally thankful. So thank you for the start
this morning. Be glorified now as we respond
in song. Again, let our praise be not just from
our lips, but from the depths of our heart that
you might be glorified in this place. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.