01.11.2015 Arrogance/Superiority/Boasting Meet the Power of the Cross

1-11-2015 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

1-11-2015 Worship from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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Lord, thank You so much that You are with us. Thank You for the opportunity to worship You and acknowledge you in our lives. Thank You for the power of the cross – that through that power are sins are wiped away and You have restored our relationship with You. You were willing to go to the cross. We are grateful for that. We are a diverse group with many different needs – but You are able to meet every need – to speak to every heart, so we ask You to do that this morning.
1 Corinthians 1: 26 Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. 27 But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, 29 so that no one can boast in his presence.
What we looked at last week – the church in Corinth had adopted and conformed to the behavior of the city. The people in the church were conforming to the culture. Considering it was Corinth – that is not a good thing – it was kind of the ‘sin city’ of their day – and the church was acting like that.
2 specific areas – First: faction/division/social and economic stratification
Second: Sexual immorality.
The society was divided and people were given different positions based on their position and wealth – they had their labels, and so do we. They were engaged in party politics. There was racial tension. We have all of that today. The church is doing the same thing – who is superior to whom – Consider your calling – there are not many wise, not many noble. Most in the church came from lower classes. You couldn’t go to churches based on your social status – some churches today are for the very very wealthy. But in that day – when you joined the church, you stepped DOWN. Even in business, you had to be engaged in sacrificing to animals and such. In Corinth, those who entered the church of noble birth were trying to bring the same social structures into the church. They controlled the community, and wanted to bring those things in to the church, and Paul is saying, STOP IT! The structures of the world are not the structures of the church.
Any Downton Abbey fans? It takes place in England at a time the noble people were losing their nobility – and they are having struggles giving up their place and position. And that is what is going on there – they were thinking – it should be no different, but Paul is saying it will not work here.
3 oft-used words: Superiority – the constant theme of the book. Arrogance – used 7 times in the N.T. – six of those in Corinthians. 3 – Boasting – like in v. 29 – and used even more times in 2 Corinthians. This is the heart of the problem – coming from an attitude of Superiority/Arrogance/Boasting.
1 Cor. 4: 6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.
Arrogance is always AGAINST somebody. It always puts someone else down. That is its nature. We see it in athletic events, where it is lifted up and honored! Smack talk!
4: 7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
Here is the problem – These attitudes appear in the church
Sermon within the sermon: How does that happen in the church? I won’t go to the usual suspects: Race/Economics/level of education/age (we live in a youth-oriented age – just watch advertising). You see it in the church as well – not here, but in many places.
I’d like to look at some that are really practical – applicable to our lives: How do we evaluate spiritual maturity? There can be an attitude of superiority when we say, This is what spiritual maturity is.
Every denomination will emphasize and privilege certain things that show who the spiritual people are – and when they do this, they de-emphasize other things that are just as important. If you look at churches throughout history – there is a myriad of ways that this is done – certain practices – if you engage in certain practices regularly – it makes you spiritually mature. Some would say you need to have communion weekly – or a daily quiet time – or an hour of prayer – or Bible memorization – all of those things are good – they are important – but in 1 Cor. 13 – Paul says – you can do all of them – but it can be all for naught. Yeah, we all know that passage from the weddings – you can do all of those things and still be a zero spiritually.
Another way we evaluate – those who don’t do CERTAIN sins! And then there are acceptable sins! If you struggle with the CERTAIN sins, you are not spiritually mature! How do we evaluate those? The acceptable sins are the ones I do, and the unacceptable ones are the ones that YOU do!
Spiritual maturity is sometimes linked to holding to certain doctrines. Yes, as we mentioned last week – there are certain doctrines we must hold to to be a Christian. Paul says, though I have all spiritual knowledge, I can still be a zero.
Lifestyle – the monastic movement – we look at those who lived in caves and fasted half of their lives – did you know it started as a way to accomplish the great commission? The first people who started it had massive impact. And then it became this THING – we call it RADICAL. Relevant. Separate. Engaged. All of those things are good, but lifestyle is not a sign of spiritual maturity – they can’t be used to show ourselves superior to others.
Last week in the young adults group – the question came up – how do you connect with God? I said, “I am not saying, how do you have a quiet time – or how do you pray – But if you have not had a quiet time in months – you still connect with God. And the question is, how does that work for you?”
Our tendency is to connect our spiritual health with the amount of time we spend doing spiritual things – and all of those things are important, but it is not a barometer of our spiritual maturity. We need to discover – how does spirituality work for you?
I was talking with a pastor this week – who is going through a drought – and he realized – the key for him is time alone with God – OUTSIDE! He realized he had to get out of the office – to the park where he froze, but it began to renew him!
Some in our group said they find the connection with God intellectually – through study and meditation on God’s word. For others – music – worship and praise. When you know that drives you to God, and you do that, it opens the other avenues – and makes your heart ready to hear what He has to say.
I know some – who use the Book of Common Prayer – written hundreds of years ago – a little guide to devotion to God – passages of scripture, things to pray – and for some, that is the very thing that works. It may not be for you. But we need to find what works and do it – in our relationship with God. Discover it.
There is a way to measure and evaluate your spiritual growth – Jesus gave us this measure – love the Lord your God and love your neighbor. How are you doing in those two areas – it is really simple.
In closing this mini-sermon – 4 ways to evaluate these:
1)We are becoming more and more spiritually mature as you understand God has chosen you
2) As you have a deeper understanding of your sin and you connect that with God’s forgiveness and grace. As you recognize how broken you are – not connected with guilt, but with grace – to know where the holes are – that makes for a good marriage – knowing where the problems are. Being able to discuss together where the problems are – not for the purpose of fighting, but for growth.
3) Our continual daily decision to surrender ourselves to God in trust. It is a moment by moment decision of obedience and trust.
4) Our commitment to love others – which we will look at another time.
Back to Corinthians –
1 Corinthians 1: 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
He is taking all of their sense of wisdom and power and nobility – all the things they think make them important – back then – the cross was a thing of shame and foolishness – Rome’s way of humiliating the people they conquered – they would take three days and all the world would walk by – these are the ones who are not even human. And Paul is saying – it is this that matters most. It is the weakness and foolishness – that the power of God – real status is found in the humiliation and shame of the cross – not in wealth, power, position and control
“The power of God’s love is greater than the human love for power”
1 Corinthians 1: 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.
What the cross did – it eliminated what the world valued completely. What do people in this country value? Money/power/influence. God turns that upside down. This is what heaven values: Humiliation, shame. In the eternal kingdom, who is worshiped? The lamb that was slain. Lambs are dumb/helpless/weak. But this one is the one that was slain. I am not saying that Jesus is dumb/helpless, and weak.
Paul is saying – it has to be different in the church – God’s value system is different.
2 Corinthians 13: 4 For indeed he was crucified by reason of weakness, but he lives because of God’s power. For we also are weak in him, but we will live together with him, because of God’s power toward you.
This weak thing – the cross of death of Christ – is where God’s power works in us. Jesus’ death has power in your life. All of that power comes through our understanding of the cross – it is through the cross that our sins our forgiven and relationships are restored. Large portions of the gospel focus on the cross. If you read the story of Christmas – it is short. Mark doesn’t even mention it – but 1/3 of the gospels are about the cross. I urge you to read it.
Galatians 6: 14 But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
If you want to boast – if you want to have something that is superior – here it is. We can boast – there is nothing we have done to deserve God’s love, forgiveness, favor. Any progress we make in our lives – it is not because of our effort. Yes, Paul says, give it every effort – but it is all God. Understand where it all comes from.
Romans 6: 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Through the cross you have the power to overcome those areas where you struggle. There is power to overcome addiction. There is power to overcome the worst of sins. Too often, we tend to look for… yes, it is okay to have practical steps, but then we never look at the cross. It is through the cross that the power comes.
When we do communion – we proclaim His death – to one another and to ourselves – we are proclaiming the cross. When we think about the cross, we tend to think about the pain of the cross. When Paul thought about the cross, he thought about the shame –
Hebrews 12:2bFor the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Think of him who endured such opposition against himself by sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and give up.
Despising the SHAME
In a world – their world, and ours too – that was so focused on superiority and status and power – through the shame of the cross all of that is removed.
…lose heart.
When we consider the hostility on Jesus – I advise you to spend time considering the shame – the hostility – the suffering of the cross – so that you might not lose hope.
Let's pray...