After I go through
Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I
will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help
me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now and make only
a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I
will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective
work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.
When Timothy comes, see
to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on
the work of the Lord, just as I am. No one, then, should treat him with
contempt. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am
expecting him along with the brothers.
Now about our brother
Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite
unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity.
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be
strong. Do everything in love.
You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in
Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people. I
urge you, brothers and sisters, to submit to such people and to everyone who
joins in the work and labours at it. I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and
Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. For
they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition.
Introduction:
Ø Writer: The Apostle Paul.
Ø Corinth: A church in disarray.
Ø Purpose: To instruct the church in
right ways.
Ø Issues: Selfishness, pride,
arrogance, deviation from the truth, acceptance of error, and complacency.
Ø Remedy: Come back to the truth and
encouragement to do the right thing.
The church in Corinth are a people
who are in trouble. They are reeling over sin in their midst. They have made
bad decisions and are suffering the consequences of their actions. They have
come to the attention of the Apostle Paul who has had to rebuke them for their
ways in this letter. They need instructing as to how they accept Timothy and
Apollos and also Paul himself. They also needed to be told that in their midst
was Stephanas and his believing family who they should take notice of and be
like rather than being the worldly Christians that they had become. It is
interesting that in in middle of Paul’s pleas he gives them some incredibly
powerful and important advice:
He urges them to stand firm in bible
truth and to deal with error whilst at the same time caring for the purity of
the gospel and of the church.
Be on your guard; stand firm in the
faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.
There are five instructions here that
ought to be the motto of every church and every Christian in all times. If we
can just live by these five rules then the church and every individual
Christian would always please the Lord our God.
I know that there are issues here in
Ogmore-by-Sea. It is not because somebody has been telling tales out of school
but simply because there are always issues in all churches and in all of our
lives. We should all want to glorify the Lord Jesus in all that we do. That of
course is vitally important for us as individuals but I would say that in some
ways it is more so for the church. But yet at times it seems to be that like
Corinth we pass by serious difficulties and errors in the church as if it
really does not matter but focus in on secondary issues as of vital importance.
Problems within the church or the
family of God ought to bring tears to our eyes.
When last did you weep over the state
of the church? More to the point when last did you weep over the state of
Ogmore-by-Sea Evangelical church? I put it to you that there is much to weep
over. We might not have sunk to the depths that the church in Corinth had but
there are things both in the church and in our personal lives that are in
contradiction to God’s directives for us. It is simply not good enough for us to
say that this is because we are human and that we are still under the influence
of sin. We have been saved from the penalty of sin, not in order to sit and
bask in easy believism but to glorify God, in the church and in our personal
lives! This passage tells how that we must accomplish this. It is not a
suggestion at the end of a nice little letter from Paul; it is final
instructions at the end of a hard hitting letter that addressed the serious errors
of Corinthian ways.
So what do we learn?
In order to protect the church we
must:
1.
Be
on our guard.
2.
Stand
firm.
3.
Be
courageous.
4.
Be
strong.
5.
Do
all of this in love.
As we read this we cannot help but
think of Joshua, which is exactly what Paul intended! Moses had died and Joshua
had been promoted by God to lead the people of His people. As you can imagine
he felt insecure. Moses had been such a great pastor; how on earth can Joshua
follow in his footsteps? But God commissioned Joshua to be himself and not to
attempt to be another Moses! Therefore God instructed him in the way that he
was to go (just as Paul is doing in this letter):
Read Joshua 1:1-9
Joshua Installed as Leader
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua
son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then,
you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I
am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where
you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the
desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite
country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand
against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with
you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because
you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to
give them.
“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant
Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may
be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips;
meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything
written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong
and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God
will be with you wherever you go.”
The Old Testament is where Paul
learned all of his theology and so this incident along with many others in the
Old Testament is what spurred him on to instruct Corinth in the way that he
did. There are similarities between Joshua’s circumstance and that of the
leaders of the Corinthian church. They were both to lead a rebellious people to
do exactly what God commands in order that He might bless them as He wants.
It is the same for the church in all
times therefore we must:
1: Be on our guard.
There was much in Corinth that had
happened because the leaders had taken their eye off the ball. I was recently
teaching Nathaniel to catch a ball. He had become frustrated because he just
could not do it. His problem was that he had “policeman eyes” they were
everywhere and so he had no focus. All that I did was to keep on telling him to
keep his eye on the ball. When he did then: success! He had got it.
He can now catch.
That is what Paul is saying to the
church. Keep your eye on the important things.
What are they?
Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always
on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
It is not popular today but it is
absolutely necessary, the bible is our guide, take your eye off the bible and
you will never “catch the blessing!” Blessing comes from obedience to God’s
expressed word. Keep the Word ever before you, both here in the church (elders
you are responsible for that whatever others might demand) and in your personal
life. If you want to know why you’re spiritual life is dull and why you are
missing the blessing.
You HAVE taken your eye off the bible!
Be on your guard!
But also:
2: Stand firm:
That does not necessarily mean stand
still! We have just considered the importance of guarding the word of truth.
Again from our passage in Joshua we can learn what Paul means when he said
“Stand firm!”
Look at verse 7:
“Be strong and very courageous. Be
careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to
the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”
Soldiers of Christ, arise, and put your armour on,
Strong in the strength which God supplies through His eternal Son.
Strong in the Lord of hosts, and in His mighty power,
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts is more than conqueror.
Stand firm do not move from the
truth. That is not popular today but then again it never was. It will not make
you popular with men and sadly at times with other Christians also but nevertheless
it is vital! Corinth got into a desperate mess because nobody stood
firm on the truth of the word. What will you do here in OBSEC?
Leaders you will be under pressure to do all sorts of things but you must:
Stand firm!
Whilst guarding the truth and
standing firm you must also:
3: Be courageous and
be strong:
Joshua was not only told to stand for the truth; he also must
be courageous with the truth. What Canaan needed most in Joshua’s day was to be
occupied by God’s people and for that to
be accomplished Joshua not only had to be on his guard and to stand firm in the
truth but he was to act upon the truth.
Look at verse 6:
“Be strong and courageous, because you will
lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”
And verse 9:
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and
courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Be bold, be strong
For the Lord your God is with you
Be bold, be strong
For the Lord your God is with you
I am not afraid
I am not dismayed
Because I'm walking in faith and
victory
Come on and walk in faith and victory
For the Lord your God is with you!
The Lord our God is with us in a way that Joshua could only
look forward to. Emmanuel has come; the Lord Jesus Christ is the captain of our
guard. He is with us and He is leading us on into victory. He has called us to
occupy our land for the good of the population. Just as Canaan needed to be
occupied by Israel so this world needs the church. But let us be more focussed,
Ogmore-by-Sea needs you. Remember Kitchener during the Great war had his
picture all over the place declaring to the population; “we need you!”
Ogmore-by-Sea needs Jesus. You are a representation of Jesus to them, you have
the word of life and hope and help. You must be bold, strong and courageous.
You must occupy the land by going into the community with words of eternal
life. The children’s work is a start, the Monday fellowship is exciting but
there are more in our community than young and old. How do we bring the word of
life into our community? We must walk in faith and in the promise of victory;
we are on the victory side:
On the victory side, on
the victory side
No foe can harm me; no
fear can alarm me,
We are on the victory
side.
On the victory side, on
the victory side
With Christ within, the
fight we will win.
We are on the victory
side.
Do we believe that? Will we be bold, strong and courageous?
Paul tells us to be watchful, to stand firm and to be strong! Remember that we
are on the victory side.
There is one final instruction for us to consider:
4: All of this must be done in love!
Joshua went into Canaan in judgement; the people of Canaan
had overstepped the mark! We have a very different ministry. It is still one of
judgement but it is with the offer of grace and mercy. For Canaan it was too
late, they had had their chance but it is different in our world today we are
in a day of grace and so we go in love. Not with sloppy sentimental eyes
looking into heaven a type of starry eyed gospel but we go with the authority
of God to declare His judgement upon sin
but also with an offer of grace for the forgiveness of sin. Joshua had the
sword of judgement but we have the gospel of salvation.
The love that Paul is referring to here is the love that
Jesus has.
Jesus’ love is
threefold:
He has
Ø Love for His Father.
Ø Love for His people.
Ø Love for the world.
Our love is to be the same. Do you Love the Lord your God
with all of your heart, all of your soul, mind and strength? Is He your
passion, read the gospels and see how Jesus loved the Father; and NOW be like
Jesus!
Do you love God’s people? That is the church. Look around you
now, who is it that you do not love. You are failing Jesus, put it right!
(Why not pray for that person right now?)
We are reminded that Jesus said that all people would know
that we are His disciples by the true love that we have for one another. That
again is real love and in no way hairy fairly slop. Read about how Jesus loved
His Father and His people and also the church which at times required serious
rebuke and even a whipping. Paul earlier in this letter had to threaten a visit
that would be unpleasant because true love is blatantly honest and not always
pleasant but it is always fair and done with love.
Are you really honest; fair and
loving with each other?
When we have that love
for each other then we must also:
Love the world! Do you love the lost with a gospel love? They
need the gospel and you are their missionaries. What are you doing for them? If
nothing then you are simply displaying your utter contempt for them.
I do pray that God will bless us all as we seek to glorify
Him in all that we are.
Onward and upward we go.
Amen.
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