Wrong Beliefs, Wrong Church

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[0:00] I'd like to invite you to find 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10-17. It's in your bulletin. You can look at it in your own version of the Bible, too, if you have that at home. And again, we're beginning a new series on 1 and 2 Corinthians. Don't even know how long it'll take us to get through it. We're just going to get through it. We're not going to read every single verse, but we're going to really hit the highlights, and that's for sure. So I want to give, as an introduction, just a little bit of background on Paul and his relationship with this church in Corinth. First off, we know that, at least for this first letter, Paul is writing it from Ephesus, which is just across the Aegean Sea from Corinth. And if you remember from geography or maybe from history, that Corinth sits on a geographical, it's a term called an isthmus, and it's very hard to imagine how to spell it just by me saying that, but it's I-S-T-H-M-U-S, an isthmus, which is this narrow stretch of land that connects to larger cities. It's a very large land masses, and so it was a crossroads of all sorts of trade and commerce, and it had a reputation in antiquity as being a place of great craftsmanship, of wealth. It was actually then destroyed in some of the Greek wars that they had amongst themselves,

[1:14] but the Romans rebuilt it, and they recolonized it, and by the time Paul had visited it, it was again a thriving city. If you look at Acts chapter 18 and chapter 19, you find that Paul, as we mentioned a few weeks ago, was a very, very great great great great great great utter to them, and he sent it to them. Some of the things he heard about the church in Corinth is that it had gone astray with quarrels and immoral behavior and the humiliation of the poor. And this is something I talked about two weeks ago, where people would come to the Lord's Supper with a giant feast, basically eat a steak in front of somebody who had nothing. And so it really heightened the class differences within the church, all during the meal in which you were supposed to be unified in Christ. So division and quarreling and schisms along class lines and other lines were part of the church there. And this was painful for Paul because that wasn't the spirit that he brought the gospel to them in. And maybe you can just imagine those of you who are parents, you can think, oh, I raised my kids really well. And then you leave town. for a day and they have this huge party and they destroy everything and the cops come to your house

[2:58] and you have to bail your kids out of jail. It'd be something like that. He's like, I had put all this time into these people and they have in no time whatsoever have really turned around. And so he's writing them this really heartfelt series of letters about how they can be restored, how they can come back into a healthier relationship with the gospel and with each other.

[3:23] And I want to draw a distinction because this is important. This letter, while it does seem geared towards correcting some behaviors that are happening, that's not its primary goal because the behaviors are growing out of a misunderstanding or a false understanding of what the gospel actually is. Now, if you're taking notes at home, especially the young people, I want you to really grab this concept and maybe make some notes here. The things you believe in, have a lot to say about the things you then do. And so these people were making mistakes and their behavior was an issue, but it wasn't the root issue. The root issue really was what did they believe because they were acting out of their beliefs. And so these schisms and quarrels and immorality were all a result of a false teaching that they had adopted after Paul left. And so one example of this was a misunderstanding.

[4:25] So if you remember some great people experiences with some experiences experiences ! life We've had some recent sermons on the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and Holy Trinity. And so the Spirit's very important and very easily misunderstood. And the people he was writing to somehow thought that receiving the Holy Spirit put them on a higher elevated plane than all sorts of other people. And not only that, that those who had the Holy Spirit amongst them had different levels of value. And so some of them thought that if they could speak in certain languages that not even anyone could understand, that that made them more special in God's eyes and it elevated them above everyone else. And that's not the purpose of the Holy Spirit, to create even more divisions in the church. The Holy Spirit gives his gifts so that the ministry of the church can go forward, so that the gospel can be preached in new languages, so words and healings and miraculous things can happen that always give glory to God, not to the person who's performing them. And they had missed this. So they were kind of high. High on the Spirit, but in a negative, selfish way. The other thing they thought was that if they believed, what they believed was if the Spirit had come to them and they had received the Spirit,

[5:42] that that then separated them from the physical aspects of this world. So they were kind of like so spiritually or heavenly minded that they weren't any earthly good. And again, I'm going to say, if you're taking notes at home, this is a super important point, is that the Spirit... The Spirit does not draw you away from this physical world.

[6:03] The Spirit enables you to minister and act and work in the physical world, in the body that you have. It's so important. But they got carried away and they said, well, now that I have the Holy Spirit, the physical world, it doesn't matter.

[6:21] And so what I do in the physical world and with my physical body doesn't really matter. And so I can drink to get drunk. Because it's just my body. Or I can do something immoral with my body. And it's just my body. It doesn't matter. It doesn't affect my spirit, right? Or I can eat food that's been sacrificed to a pagan idol in a pagan ceremony. And that's not going to pollute me at all because that's just my body. It's just food. And there's a little bit more to that story. We'll get to that eventually. Not today, but in the series because there's a distinction that's important.

[6:58] Paul says, and this is later too, that in fact your body is important to the Spirit. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that phrase right there should have woken everybody up like, oh, the spiritual and the physical are so connected when you're a believer. They're not separated out. What you do with your body matters and it affects your spirit. You can ruin your spirit. You can ruin your spirit by what you do with your body. And there's no doubt about that. It matters what you do with your body. And here's where it especially matters. I'm really building up to something here that I think we want to pay attention to. And again, if you're taking notes, this is the last time I'm going to talk about taking notes, but this is the most important part, is that in the body, in the physical world, that is where Christ was crucified.

[7:56] Do you see that? That happened not, it wasn't a spiritual only thing. It wasn't just like a hologram that happened. There were later Christian heresies about this, that this just kind of seemed like it happened, but it didn't really happen. No, it happened. That was real blood dripping down. Those were real nails. That was real wood on the cross. That was Christ's body. That was his last breath, was a physical breath in and out of his body. His voice crying out from the cross was a real voice making real waves in the surrounding area. And so, you can't separate from the physical because it's in the physical that Christ entered the world and Christ died in the world. And most especially, Christ was raised again in the flesh. It's so important. And so, when Paul is talking, he's always talking about the death and the resurrection of Jesus. These are such important categories for us to understand. And so, Paul writes to him everywhere he writes, but especially for the Corinthians, because he wants to root them again in the true teaching that the physical world matters, what you do with your physical body matters, and that Christ ministered through the physical world, in the physical world, and his body truly did suffer and die and was raised again,

[9:18] so that new life could be in this body, in this world, until we die or until we go to heaven. So, there's work to be done, but it's to be done in the physical world. It's to be done in the body, in this world.

[9:34] So, and I'm going to put my glasses on just because it's a little fuzzy here. Remember, I sent home a memory verse. 1 Corinthians 2.2. If you pick one from the list, just pick this one. It's short and it's really, I think it's top. 1 Corinthians 2.2. This is what Paul says, and Ryan is going to, Ryan Clint is preaching next week, and he's going to get a chance to preach on this. For I resolve to know nothing, while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is Paul's message. The Christ of the cross in the body, in the flesh, and when you figure all that out, then there's no room for thinking that you're superior than somebody else. So, Paul is correcting a behavior, yes, but we should think of it as him saying, look, your behavior is bad, but it's because your beliefs are wrong. Your beliefs are wrong, and we have to correct your beliefs, and we think, but also your behaviors are wrong, and you need to address that, and we need to address your beliefs, and between those two things, maybe your church can sort of straighten out and fly right from there on out. Now, Paul has been wounded by them. He's trying to not, he's trying not to take it personally, but he sets aside his zeal, he sets all that aside.

[10:49] The thing that hurts him, and you can tell that it hurts him, he has tears. He tries to set that aside, because he has this zeal that they would come to know Jesus as crucified and risen, and not put on airs of superiority because of what they think they know.

[11:07] And what he does also is he presents his credentials. He is someone who has authority because he's an apostle, because Jesus has sent him to do a task. But he comes to them in humility. He comes to them in humility because he does not want to put on airs of superiority, and fall into the trap that they have fallen into. And then today, and this is, we're still in the introduction, believe it or not, this is my longest introduction ever. I guess I could stop now and call it the sermon done, and you would love that, but no, this is just the beginning. At the end, and this is a foretaste, I want that to be our outward facing attitude, Paul's attitude, to this world that is broken and divided, is that we have the authority of Jesus to be sent into the world with good news, but we need to go out with humility. We need to go into this world with humility and set aside any privileges that we may have. We have to come as humble servants into this world and set aside what we think makes us special, because our specialness isn't found in us, it's found in God, who created us, made us, and redeemed us through Jesus. So that's our introduction, just kind of get the sense of where Paul is, why he's writing his letter, and let's go to our reading.

[12:24] 1 Corinthians 1, 10-17. Paul writes this, I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another, so that there may be no divisions among you, and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thoughts. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this, one of you says, I follow Paul. Another, I follow Apollos. Another, I follow Cephas, who is Peter. Still another, I follow Christ.

[13:06] And Paul asks, Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, Amen.

[13:55] Well, I'm going to ask us to go backwards into our text, and I'm going to cover some of the verses that are real highlights, and then we're going to sort of talk about what all this means for us. So let's go ahead and look back at verse 10. And he's addressing the fact that there are divisions. There are divisions among you. And Paul asks that they should instead agree. Literally, that means they should say the same thing. And that's kind of an interesting play on, not a play on words, but a turn of phrase for him, because there's other words for agree or be of one mind. But he really wants them to say the same thing. And I think he wants them to say the same thing in their worship service. He wants them to speak with one voice about what Jesus has done for them. So that there's not this, as Victoria had us doing, five different songs in the church at the same time, five different theologies of Jesus floating around. They need to agree with each other on what it is that Jesus teaches, and they need to say the same thing when they worship. And in case they're confused about what Jesus teaches, well, thank goodness for Paul. He's really ready here to help them sort that through all over again, as if a year and a half with them wasn't enough.

[15:09] And who knows? We know that other people had come and gone from that church after he left, or even while he was there. And there were other people going around preaching what they called the gospel, and some of them were right, and some of them were wrong, some of them were close. It's complex. So Paul has to help sort all this out. And you've already heard reference to somebody named Apollos. Apollos is also mentioned in the book of Acts. And generally speaking, he's probably right on. He just has a different emphasis than Paul. And Paul is not upset necessarily with Apollos. But there is a difference, and Paul is always ready to correct things. It's interesting that our Bible has no epistles from Apollos. No. It's just something, right? It should tell you that Paul was able to tap into the true teaching of the church because of his relationship with Jesus and the Spirit.

[16:02] So it's important that the church has unity in its beliefs, and we value that as a church too. Now here's what I would say, and I think you know this, that we think it's important to agree, but we don't have to agree on every single little detail. There are many sort of side issues in the Christian faith, that we can happily disagree with each other on, and not mean that that's the end of the world for the church, because they're smaller things. But the big things, actually, we have to agree on them. And if we don't agree on them, then that's the point where we kind of have to, somebody has to go and start a new church somewhere. And the thing that we have to agree on, mostly, is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we can't agree on that, that that was a physical thing, if we can't agree on that, then we have a real problem. So those are the, I mean, and there's another list of things that we could make that really are the highlights, you could find them in the creeds, like the Nicene Creed. Those are important beliefs, they're all central to the faith. Things that are not on those lists, though, we can differ on. So Paul, I think, is saying the same thing here too. You need to agree with each other, you need to say the same thing.

[17:16] Now take a look at verse 12. And this is the heart of the matter. Verse 12 is the heart of the matter. Paul is understanding what it is that is causing the division. And what the division is, is that there are four teachers, at least on this list, well, three or four teachers, if you count Jesus. And people are saying, my understanding of the gospel is because I listen to Paul. And somebody else said, well, I listen to Apollos. And then there are a few people who are trying to one-up them, and they say, well, I listen to Cephas, that's Peter, who's the chief of the apostles. So that's really, like, I'm going to sort of, that's my ace in the hole. I'm going to play my Peter card, and it's going to wipe you all out. And then somebody else is like, hold my beer. I'm going to, and he's going, I am taught by Jesus himself.

[18:10] All y'all, step back. And that's a very pious thing to say. Isn't it? That Jesus is my teacher. But they hadn't met Jesus. And probably none of them had met Peter either, because I don't think Peter had traveled to Corinth. Maybe some of them had gone to Jerusalem and met Peter, but there's no record of that. It sounds good to say, I follow Christ. But really, it's just a way of saying, my beliefs are of the highest sort in this church, in this church. And so what I say has to go in this church. What I say has to have the most value. And actually, this is still happening. It's happening in churches. It's funny how you could read this list of things that are wrong with the Corinthian church and go, oh, gosh, I think I've seen that in other churches, modern, contemporary churches. We see people in churches, they make an appeal to holy things. They use spiritual language. They like to quote the Bible, sometimes out of context, often out of context. Sometimes they're wrong in their quotations of the Bible. Not always, but... And they do this to have some power or to feel better about themselves. And that's not what knowledge should lead to, right? That's not the purpose of knowledge. It's not to puff somebody up, as Paul says.

[19:32] Knowledge leads you to develop humility. The more you know Jesus, the more humble you become. The more you know what he did for you on the cross. The more humble you become. Again, another memory verse. This saying is worthy of all acceptance. Christ Jesus died for sinners, of whom I am the worst. That's the epitome of humility, right there. Paul has it figured out. And he's not bragging that he's got it figured out. It's through his own tears that he tells people he's figured this out. I figured it out. I'm a broken, wretched sinner. Who will separate me from you? From this body of death. But thanks be to God for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's got it figured out. Humility comes when we know Jesus. Not power over other people. Not prestige or superiority in the church.

[20:34] And also there's this appeal of one person over another. Oh, I follow Apollos. I follow Paul. I follow Cephas. It's kind of tribal, right? I've identified sort of my brand, my leader. I'm going to go with him or her. And that's how factions start. And that's not what Jesus wants.

[20:58] So now, take a look at verses 13, 14, 15, and 16. They're all of a group. And Paul begins to really drive this home. He says, It does not matter who first taught you the faith, as long as the teaching was correct. He doesn't have a problem with Apollos, as long as Apollos is preaching the gospel. Not a problem at all. If Apollos preaches a false gospel, then we have problems. But Paul is ready, willing, able to share the glory with anybody, if there is any glory to be had.

[21:32] And you know, it's okay. You may have a tender spot in your heart for someone who mentored you in the faith. And that's a good thing. I think that's a great thing. Somebody maybe have mentored you, and to you they look like a spiritual giant. And praise God that there's somebody like that. But really, it's Jesus who saves us. Not your mentor. Not your spiritual hero. Jesus does it.

[21:57] So in chapter 3, if you look a little later, Paul reminds them that it was not him, and neither was it Apollos who brought them to faith. And if you look at chapter 3, verse 6 of this same book, it says, I planted the seed.

[22:12] Apollos watered it. Praise God. But God made it grow. He's not going to claim credit for somebody coming to believe in Jesus. And he doesn't think Apollos should either. God gets the credit. All we do is this one faithful part. I plant. He waters. God makes it grow. Somebody else sees the harvest. And that's that humility that he's trying to model for them as a church.

[22:40] And he says, Don't attach too much importance to the one who baptized you. Because they didn't baptize you into their camp. They baptized you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as a result, you belong to God, not to them. And you belong to God, body and soul, because water is a real thing. It's a real physical element. It's actually two elements, hydrogen and oxygen, if you want to get specific. The water touches your body. See, baptism is so smart that we have two sacraments, holy communion and baptism. Do you remember that both of them involve physical elements? As a reminder that we are grounded in the physical world and that God reaches us in our physical bodies. So you were not baptized into Apollos or Paul or Cephas. You were baptized into God's family.

[23:34] And so, we're beginning to see this false teaching sort of emerge, even in what Paul is writing about. Just a few verses here, eight verses already, we're beginning to get a taste for what is being taught that's wrong. People on some level must be saying, I have a better claim on this than the other people in the church, because Paul baptized me. You were baptized by Apollos and that must be some kind of deficient baptism. Oh, really?

[24:08] You know, you could find a Christian who could say, well, Billy Graham baptized me. You know, that should open every door for that person, right? No. Billy Graham in this equation is nobody. And Billy Graham would say so. He'd say, it wasn't my work. It was the power of God at work when someone's baptized. It's not the person doing the baptizing. So there's this mistakenness about where authority comes from, about where power comes from, where spiritual understanding is. And is the purpose of getting baptized, is that to, get you on another plane of elevation over other people in the church? Is the purpose of receiving the Holy Spirit so that you can lord it over other people? No. Paul is going to say over and over again, all those things happen so that you can become a servant to other people. Huge difference.

[25:02] So the next step then for these people would be to say, I have a superior spirit in me. I can show off my spiritual gifts. I'm so spiritual, that the physical world is of no importance. You see how it all comes together? And before long, the church is a total mess. It's completely divided and toxic and dysfunctional. And really, who of us would want to be in that church? Where people are always demonstrating to each other how superior they are to everybody else. I don't think I could last 10 seconds in there. I would run for the door. And like I said, if they called me to be their pastor, I would want a thousand people praying. I would want a thousand people praying for me every day. Because it would just be so oppressive. But praise God that it looks like Paul never backs down from a single fight. And I think it's because he has the Holy Spirit in him. It's that thing that allows you to do something that you cannot do by yourself. And the Spirit said, write them a letter, go visit them again. You're going to cry. It's going to hurt. But you're doing this because I've called you into this life and I'm going to give you power to do it.

[26:07] Well, we have a messed up church. And we haven't even gotten to how messed up it is. We'll get into how crazy this church is. We'll get into that in the coming weeks. And it's interesting. And it's valuable. Because it could be a mirror that we hold up to ourselves. And that's valuable. But let's get to the antidote. That's the sickness.

[26:29] Bad behavior stemming from bad beliefs. So what's the antidote? Well, the antidote is in verse 17. And read this together with me. We find it in verse 17. And this is the main verse for today. So if you want to take home any verse from today, take home verse 17. It goes like this. For Christ did not send me to baptize. Baptism is important, yes. And I did baptize some of you, but I wish I hadn't, you know, so you wouldn't have this kind of false thinking about it. Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

[27:02] That's what I was sent for. Not with words of human wisdom. I'm not puffing myself up because the gospel is not human wisdom. And Ryan, again, Ryan is going to talk about this next week. Looking forward to it, Ryan. Not with words of human wisdom, lest, L-E-S-T, it's the kind of, we don't use that word, I don't use that word every day. Victoria, you're always using the word lest. I don't know why. No, she's not.

[27:31] Lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Do you see what he's saying there? If I were to puff myself up, the cross of Christ would be emptied of its power. And that's something he does not want to do. If we know anything about Paul, we know he doesn't want to do that one. He wishes he had not baptized anyone at all so that they wouldn't get the wrong ideas. He did not come to baptize the Corinthians. That was not the goal. He did not come to give them spiritual badges to put on their jackets so that they could show them off and feel superior. He did not come with wisdom even, and we'll see more about that. He came to preach the gospel. It's that simple. He came to preach the physical crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new life that that brings. And yes, that does mean getting baptized. That's part of it, right? Because baptism is a sign of humility. It's a sign that you've died with Christ and you've been raised again with him. Think about how baptism could get misunderstood. Baptism is you saying, I'm a sinner.

[28:33] Baptism is saying, I want to die to the old self. I want to die to the old self and go under the water. And like Christ three days later, of course you're not there for three days because then baptism, well, never mind. But the baptism, three seconds, it's okay. You're under, but you come up again and it's also an image of the resurrection of Jesus that you've been born now into a new life in Christ and you don't own yourself anymore. I don't see how anything about baptism could make anyone feel superior, and yet that was what was happening.

[29:03] Baptism is an exercise in humility. It's also a sign that you've left the devil's side of the battle and you've declared yourself for Jesus and you're on his side. And it's a sign that you've become humble servants to the world in the same way that Jesus did, for example, when he washed his disciples' feet at the Last Supper. I'm going to become humble. I'm going to serve. The master is going to serve the servants. I'm going to set aside my authority, my privilege, and take on the role of the servant and wash your feet. That's all baptism right there. Some people think foot washing should be a third sacrament, and it kind of works because it's also water and that hasn't taken off, but I think there's a good case to be made. Pay attention to this last part of verse 17.

[29:57] All of this is so that the cross of Christ not be emptied of its power. You know, he really cares about this. He cares about the cross. Have you noticed, right? We see it here too. To him, it's the only thing that matters almost. So he does not want to do anything that takes away from the cross, that distracts from the cross, that cheapens the cross or empties the cross. And this is the same word that we find in Philippians 2.7. It's the Greek word for emptying yourself or setting aside something, some privilege or authority. It's keno'o. That's where we get the word kenosis, this idea that Jesus empties himself and entered the world. And so here's another memory verse, Philippians 2.7 of Jesus. It is written, He made himself nothing, he emptied himself, in taking the very nature of a servant. This is what Jesus does. He sets aside or makes himself nothing or empties himself. And so while Christ can be emptied to the point of entering the world in flesh and going to the cross in the flesh, the cross, Jesus may be emptied, but the cross may never be emptied because it stands as a testament to God's love for the world and it stands as a testament of the obedience of the Son. And it stands as a testament of the Son giving away everything

[31:21] so that others might live. So Paul doesn't want baptism or whose camp you're in he says if we start puffing ourselves up even just with these two spiritual acts I agree more with this teacher, I was baptized by this teacher. He says don't even start that because when you do that you will empty the cross of Christ of its power. Don't ever do that. It's a real problem. The cross is there as a reminder that we don't puff ourselves up. We become servants, we become humble. So that's all a good introduction to this series. We're going to see a lot more like this but this is the beginning. This is how it starts and it's a great way to start.

[32:10] Paul's going to keep driving this message home and there are some bad behaviors in the church and again they're a result of an incorrect belief about Christ and about the cross and about the physical world and about the Holy Spirit. And that's going to get cleared up bit by bit. And we hope then that the Corinthian church reforms itself and takes all this to heart and starts acting differently.

[32:37] So Paul's going to methodically begin to correct that belief and that's what we have to look forward to in this series. And honestly I'm very excited about it because as I've said there's a lot in there that's going to affect our lives. It's going to be like a mirror that we can hold up to our own lives, to our church, to any community that we're in.

[32:53] So I'm going to even start with that real quick and this is the very end now. For us in the church we cannot make the same mistakes the Corinthians made. Now spoiler alert we probably already are. That's why we need this letter to correct ourselves. We can't get our way or put ourselves on top by appealing to some higher knowledge. That can't happen in the church. Some people can't be like well I know I've read this author and so my way should prevail here in the church. You know if anyone wants to be a leader in the church they first have to be a servant. Isn't that astounding? That's so different from how leadership works in the church.

[33:33] It's about what I can get and what I can control and how I can be stronger, bigger and more powerful and better than other people. But the model of Christ of a leader is one who gives up all their own things and empties themselves and serves others. That's true leadership and that has to be the model for leadership in the church. If somebody wants to be a leader in the church they cannot do it to satisfy their own needs but because they're humble they can do it and they want to help other people. That's the cross in action. That's what the cross looks like in the church. And we need to be careful about making heroes of any one person. They may seem holy and spiritual but if they are not Jesus okay, mark my words if they are not Jesus I guarantee they are human and they will make mistakes and of course they already have made mistakes. We may just not have detected them yet. And spoiler alert again I have made many mistakes. Many, many, many mistakes myself. And if I've wounded anybody I would want to apologize and seek forgiveness honestly. I mean there's no other way to live. I can't sleep at night if I don't do that. Praise God.

[34:48] The real test in the church and elsewhere is not whether somebody makes a mistake or not. It's how they respond to that mistake once it is known or even before it's known. Do they come forward with it? Do they deny? Do they get angry? Do they act like well I was entitled to that? We see this behavior a lot in churches. It's not biblical. It's not biblical. I don't know what else to say about it.

[35:22] Or does somebody who is caught in sin or falls or made a huge mistake do they come in humility and they say I messed up. I lost sight of the cross just now. I need to take some time to tend to my own soul. Even listening at home I know you know you know which of those you would rather see happen when somebody falls. You know which person is more approachable. You know which person you would trust more in the future. You just know. And the world knows too. This is what we need to model. Even as Christians we need to own our own mistakes as a church to the world. The church needs to own that has been complicit in racism and sexism and a lot of other isms that I don't have the time to list because you know we don't have five hours right now. The church needs to own up to it and say we want to learn. We want to grow. We need to take time to tend to our own soul.

[36:27] That's what we do as Christians. That's what we do as the church because it's not our own. It's not about how powerful we are or how spiritual we look. It's are we servants? Are we servants in the world? Do we set aside our privilege and wash some feet?

[36:43] So for the part I teased earlier and something I think will be a theme as we go through these letters and I just mentioned it briefly. Paul comes to this broken body in Corinth with a challenge. He tells them not to puff themselves up by pointing to their own spirituality and so he can't do that either. And Paul doesn't. He doesn't do that. He doesn't say, you know, last night I spent eight hours praying instead of sleeping. Poor me. And the Spirit tells me you are all wrong. He doesn't write that. He doesn't list all of his spiritual accomplishments because that would be playing their game and he doesn't want to do that. But he does appeal to the authority that Christ has given him. And make no mistake, Christ has given him authority to preach and so he's only doing what Christ told him to do. He's kind of walking a tightrope here. He can't talk about how spiritual he is, but he does have to talk about how he has authority from Jesus himself to say what he's saying. And I think that's the challenge for us as Christians too. This is what happens in Acts 9.15. If you remember this, the Lord said to Ananias, the person who had met Paul, Go, this man Paul, is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings

[37:56] and before the people of Israel. And then this next part is really haunting. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. Paul doesn't love doing this. Probably isn't the first thing he wants to do. But he has the Holy Spirit on his side empowering him and he has the authority of Jesus driving him forward saying, You must bring my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel and you must correct this false teaching. But you can't take on this false teaching and you can't take on the mistakes that those people are making and tell them not to make them. So you have to come to them with humility. You have to set aside your privilege.

[38:37] But you have to speak from your authority. And you have to confront their false beliefs so that their false and wrong behavior can be rectified. And all you have to do is preach the gospel. All you have to do is talk about what Jesus did.

[38:54] And that's the challenge for us too. I want us to be thinking about that. What privilege can we lay down? What badge can we take off? And at the same time, what authority can we claim to preach the gospel of the cross into this world? Let's pray.

[39:13] Father, thank you again for your word. I don't know where to start. It's just so amazing. Thank you that Paul answered your call to write this letter, to spend time with the Corinthians. Thank you that he was a servant. Help us to be too. Help us to set aside all those things we think make us special.

[39:35] And help us to serve the world. It needs it now more than ever. Amen.