Truth Encounter: 1 Corinthians: Recent Episodes
Dave Wyrtzen
What can God do with a church that has incest, prostitution, and infighting when they think they are the most spiritually powerful group of their generation. From speaking in tongues to the supreme charisma of love, these messages will enable you and your church to discover Christ’s priorities for local church life.
When the weather turns cold and snowy in March, do you ever dream of the day when you can retire and buy a condo in Florida? The next few minutes could keep you from making the tragic mistake of living your life with totally wrong dreams!
Suppose one hundred years from now one of your great, great grandchildren is rummaging around in the attic and found a box of letters that you had written. As they read these letters what would they conclude about what was important in your life? We have been studying a personal letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians and are coming to the conclusion of the book. You can almost hear the Apostle Paul scribbling quickly to get some last minute details to the Corinthians…
We all know that death and taxes are inevitable, and when it comes to paying taxes out of a dry bank account, it sometimes feels like death. Unlike many countries in Europe, the USA has no state church and giving to the church is your choice. What does God’s word actually teach us about the way the Lord wants us to give to support His work?
Our American culture places tremendous stress upon appearance, but all the Maybelline, Clinic, and weight machines can’t overcome the invasion of time against our vitality. This is not a call to throw away cosmetics or the exercise routines but it is time to face the fact that we need a hope in the future that our life existence will not end in the skeletal dust of the grave.
Description:“If this life is all there is, then why do it?” I’ve got some great news. Life is not meaningless. Your work can add up to something, but it is all contingent on getting a perspective that moves beyond trying to get everything to add up from just the ten, forty, or eighty years we spend here on earth.
One fact of human existence that we all try and ignore is that none of us can drink from the Fountain of Youth. Phil Simms and Troy Aikman might comment on the Super Bowl, but they do not play in it. This kind of talk can get real depressing except for one fact. I know someone who has beaten and can help us to outdistance time.
The waters of Lake Michigan were frigid and the cold sucked the swimmer's strength. As they began their frantic CPR it seemed futile. Then the miracle. The swimmer coughed and opened his eyes. As we talk about the miracle of Easter morning, are we talking about the resuscitation of a Savior, or did something infinitely more miraculous take place in that Palestinian tomb?
Mormons have built an entire baptismal rite on the passage. Many orthodox believers have hardly even heard of the phrase from First Corinthians 15, but as we turn to verse twenty nine we read these strange words “if the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” What is this talk about “baptism for the dead?”
Whenever we approach a religious holiday, the major magazines offer cover stories highlighting some of the latest controversies or discoveries in the land of the Bible. Suppose you logged into your news access and it had this headline, ”The Skeleton of Jesus Found.” What effect would a discovery like this have on your faith?
Imagine someone who was told that they had AIDS, only to discover when further tests were done that the virus had disappeared. Or imagine a convicted felon in a capital murder case on their way to the chamber where they will receive a lethal injection having their final walk interrupted with a pardon from the governor. Excited isn’t a strong enough word for this kind of joy and this joy should be yours.
Ethnic, religious, national, and international differences--they divide us humans and many men and women are willing to live and die for their group and cause. Did you know that God divides the entire human race into just two groups and it has nothing to do with race, citizenship, or social standing?
The most beautiful event that ever took place in history becoming common place? Ignored? That would be a tragedy and yet this is exactly what many do with the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead then our faith is useless
How can we be sure that this almost two thousand years of talk about the Savior who left death behind is not simply the wishful dreams of his original followers which mushroomed into the biggest delusion this world has ever seen?
Do you ever feel that God is speaking to you in a language you don’t understand, that He is turning away from you and won’t have anything to do with you? There is a good chance that you are not listening to the voice of the true God. He speaks in the language of your heart and He wants you to listen to His love.
Maybe it is time for us to take a careful look at how someone who comes to our churches, seeking to figure out what this Christianity is all about might react. Can they even understand our inside jargon? Are they faced with a truth and a love that exposes what is really going on deep in their own heart?
The music is loud. The words are unintelligible. The participants have sent their minds on vacation while their emotions sore into ecstasy. Unbelievers experience this in the frenzy of a disco, but some groups of believers are experiencing this in what is called the exhilaration of worship. What does the New Testament teach us about “out of our mind” experiences?
Have you ever gone to church and found yourself sitting back and going through this kind of evaluation? “I don’t know this song and I don’t particularly care for the praise band. The people sitting next to me didn’t even try to make me feel welcome. The pastor’s message was ok but his delivery was terrible." This might work for an evaluation of a restaurant, but when we gather with other believers, the issue is not your taste and satisfaction, it is your vertical connection with God and your horizontal giving to others.
No great social reformer could tear down the barriers that existed between God and mankind. In the Old Testament God especially chose one group of people who were to become an example that would wet the appetite of all men and women to come to Him. But after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God tore down all the walls of separation and invited anyone who would believe in his son to come to celebrate at his table as part of the family.
A drug addict will risk their life for the moment. A long distance runner will endure severe pain and oxygen deprivation for the experience. A musician will live for the union with the music that yields the euphoria. What is this experience called the “high” that so many live for? We all know that the drug high can be deadly and we warn our young people about the deleterious effects of drugs, but what about beginning to live for even legitimate highs?
Diapers, diet coke cans, paper plates, plastic silverware, razors, and plastic trash bags. It is possible that when historians grasp for a label to pigeon hole our time they might just choose the disposable age. It is a crime that our culture has made unwanted infants and worn out old folks disposable, and it is tragic when marriages and families are as easily discarded as used paper napkins. Is there anything “nondisposable?”
Wouldn’t you like to stand in DL Moody’s shoes before the throne of God or in this modern age, in Billy Graham’s? Well, both men knew that being a gifted mouth in the body of Christ is not enough. What is more important than all the sermons they ever preached?
Love is what makes the world go round. Socrates, Shakespeare, Jane Austin -these genius all wrote about it, but where can we find the most succinct and sublime revelation of what love is and how it acts?
Your child is in the hospital dying. You desperately pray for the Lord to heal them. Why does God apparently say “yes” to some parents and “no” to others? When Jesus was here on earth there were times when the sick in an entire town were brought to Jesus and he healed them all. Today there are recorded cases of miraculous healings, but many are left still languishing in their illness. Does this mean their faith is not strong enough? Is God simply not powerful enough to meet all of these desperate needs?
Should the contemporary church exhibit the same spiritual gifts as the Corinthian church of the first century? The issue has divided churches and friends. Can we get by all the emotion and take another careful look at exactly what was going on in the Corinthian church?
Too old, too old, too old. Some of you have heard this refrain and it has sucked away your meaning in life. Well I’ve got encouraging news for you. There is a group where no one becomes too old to play a vital role.
If a movie producer wants to make a horror film he fills the screen with all kinds of weird visuals: bodies covered with eyes, creatures with gigantic ears, or noses, or skeletons without skin or internal organs. Why do our churches at times look more like horror films than beautiful love stories?
The military creates unity by dressing everyone in the same uniform and making sure everyone has the same haircut. For most of us unity equals sameness, but is this the way that God looks at unity?
Some Bible teachers label the modern manifestation of gifts like tongues or prophecy as the deception of the devil, while others herald them as signs that the Lord is about to return to initiate his kingdom on earth. What does the Apostle Paul have to say about this divisive issue?
It is called holy. Often only a select priesthood is able to serve it; and entire denominations have been formed over disagreement about it. It is called Communion and the breaking of the bread, and sometimes this table which is supposed to remind believers of Christ’s death, resurrection and return initiates great fear or unworthiness. Who has the right to partake of the communion? What does it mean?
The Holy Spirit is rekindling the fires of worship throughout God’s family, but Satan is also countering by generating division over this area. Perhaps before we talk about styles, instruments, rhythm, and lyrics, we need to ask a more fundamental question: “Who should we think of when it comes to this serious business of worship?”
I’m sure you have heard the talk about removing the so-called chauvinistic language from our culture. In new translations of the Bible, it means that we replace “our Father in heaven” with “our almighty divine being in heaven.” How do you feel about these trendy changes or better yet, how does God feel?
Think back over this week and consider some of the opportunities you have had to rub shoulders with someone who doesn’t even consider that Jesus might want to be part of their daily routine? What steps are you taking to make contact with these individuals, begin to develop friendships, and to pray for meaningful opportunities to share Christ?
From those on the outside, "born againers" are a bunch of uptight people who can’t have a good time and live enslaved to a bunch of outdated biblical rules. The truth is that there is a no more liberated, free people on planet earth than those who have invited Jesus Christ into their lives. What is true freedom anyway?
If it’s time to plant a garden, we need a good book on gardening. If it’s time to build a building, we would be wise to find ourselves a good architect. Gardens and buildings demand wise planning, skillful implementation and careful nurturing. Weeds wage war against the legitimate plants in the garden, and sloppy workmanship or wrong design can lead to deadly results in the construction business. What in the world do gardens and buildings have in common with our churches?
Moral decay, brutal violence, cynicism, political infighting -things have gotten so bad that many are tempted to give up all hope. Less than 6 % of households fit into the Ozzie and Harriet style traditional family. Old fashioned biblical standards are mocked as at best culturally irrelevant and at worst puritanically bigoted. How does a follower of Christ stand against this tide of moral relativism with its “Let’s take a vote about what is right and what is wrong for us?”
Does the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup mean anything to you as a follower of Christ? In the first century the way they disciplined a believer who had fallen into unrepentant sin was to deny them access to the Lord’s Table. For many in the church today this would hardly be much of a punishment.
Ritual abuse, occult paraphernalia, a fascination with the dark side, 666 and Satan has once again come out of the closet. If Satan is real and if his demons can harm humans, what steps should we take to protect ourselves from this destructive attack?
It’s a Thursday and you almost have another week under your belt. What are your big plans for the weekend? Do your expectations run more like the “life is good" beer ads? Where does your heart point for a good time
Five o’clock alarms, ten and twenty mile runs, weight training, regimented diet, video analysis--the Olympian who hopes to win must dedicate everything to this objective. How does your discipline in seeking to win a heavenly medal- the commendation of your Savior- compare to the Olympian running for the gold?
Chuck Swindoll’s book sounded a trumpet call for a grace awakening, but many of God’s children continue to confuse culture and content and truth and tradition. Take a careful look at First Corinthians chapter nine. How could the Paul act like a Jew one minute and a Gentile the next?
No one can deliver freedom like Jesus Christ! If this is true, then why are so many of us some of the most uptight people you could ever meet? Worried about what we eat and drink. Worried about what we listen to. Worried about who we associate with and what we do!
A preacher who steals money from his church or hypocritically sells religious teaching for a quick buck robs far more than the congregation he serves.The Apostle Paul faced the con artists and the disillusioned congregations back in the first century, but he didn’t quit the ministry because of the lack of funds.
Just imagine inviting Jesus to spend the day with you, but as the you start to get involved in daily activities it is very apparent that there is a lot of stuff in the routine that you wouldn’t be comfortable having Jesus join you in. For example, who wants Jesus looking over your shoulder as you laugh at Jimmy Kimmel Live or salivate over a racy novel? Finally some friends invite you to come out that night and really party. As you get ready for the big night on the town and proceed out the door, Jesus follows even though you uninvited him. Finally in exasperation, you nail the Savior to the cross again to keep him out of your life. Powerful truth--but we need to be sure that we know what the biblical Christ is actual like, what he likes to do and what he doesn’'t like to do.
Just imagine inviting Jesus to spend the day with you, but as the you start to get involved in daily activities it is very apparent that there is a lot of stuff in the routine that you wouldn’t be comfortable having Jesus join you in. As you get ready for the big night on the town and proceed out the door, Jesus follows even though you uninvited him. Finally in exasperation, you nail the Savior to the cross again to keep him out of your life. Powerful truth--but we need to be sure that we know what the biblical Christ is actual like, what he likes to do and what he doesn't like to do.
No one else made the magic happen when in the midst of a night club, sitting on a barroom stool, Frank Sinatra began to croon “I did it my way!” He has done it all and he did it his way. But is this stress upon getting your way the essence of human existence? From the millions who applaud you would gather the case is closed. But there was another man who said that if you want to find your life, you are going to have to be willing to lose it; that if you live for yourself you will lose yourself, but if you lose yourself in caring for others, you will discover to your surprise that you have discovered it all.
Get at the facts! Improve your investigative procedures! Stretch your mind! Expand your horizons. If you have a Ph.D. behind your name in our society it makes you an expert, and people are supposed to listen to you. Few would argue that education is not a good thing, but did you know that there is a great danger in education?
There has never been a church with more available Bibles, more effective teachers, more beautiful and efficient worship centers, and more financial resources. Looking at the externals you would expect this church to have the most healthy spiritual people and to exert a powerful influence for God in their society. But for the most part the secular society views the church as angry, radical dissidents who view anyone who disagrees with them as an enemy. Where have we missed the path? What’s wrong with the evangelical church in America?
How does a single person know whether they should marry? If a life partner is taken away, what does God say about how the remaining partner needs to live out their days? Since the world is in such a mess, wouldn’t it be better not to marry and bear children? These are questions Christ followers are asking today and they were asking these same kinds of questions in the first century. We can be thankful because it means we can allow the Apostle Paul to respond to the issue of “to marry or not to marry.”
Change—it’s the name of the game. In the midst of all these changes we need to ask ourselves, “Why?” Why am I moving across the country to get that big promotion? Why am I moving into the bigger house with the gigantic payments? Why am I so restless? For the next few minutes call time out, and let’s explore together whether we might be going down a road we don’t want to travel toward a destination we don’t want to arrive at.
We have become a culture of broken relationships. Take a moment to take an inventory. How many old friends do you have? When someone wrongs you, do you lay them aside and move them out of your life? What about your marriage? Do you think of it as a place of reconciliation and forgiveness or as a place where your deepest felt needs should be met? Listen to Part Two of the Permanence of the Marriage Bond, a study of Paul’s strong counsel to couples struggling in their marriages.
Divorce. It has become the norm in our culture. A young couple starts out with high intentions, but for most the high temperature passion begins to wear off and after two, five, ten years, a couple mutually decides to go their separate ways. In most states this is a relatively easy legal procedure. What does God think about this “easy divorce” situation? In your town you can go from church to church and sooner or later you will find a pastor who will agree with your particular view about divorce. But for a few minutes let’s try and lay aside our preconceived ideas and try to understand God’s heartbeat.
It is in the top ten of most talked about subjects on any given day in the United States of America. Just form the letters of this tiny English word on your lips and immediately ears begin to search and seek for the next juicy morsel. You hear about it constantly just about anywhere communication takes place, but you rarely hear about it in a church building between the hours of 11:00 and 12:00. Today’s discussion brings us to 1 Corinthians 7:1-9 and the subject on the Apostle Paul’s mind is sex.
On a popular television series the main character cynically takes a jab at the celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday by saying, “Who wants to celebrate the coming to this continent of a group of people who were kicked out of England because they were against dancing and any other form of human pleasure?” The underlying message is that if you believe in the Pilgrims’ Jesus, you can kiss fun and good times good bye. It is the popular caricature of the pious Christian but does New Testament Christianity actually teach that the body is evil and any pleasure it enjoys must be sinful?
The evil one has decimated the testimony of so-called followers of Christ by strongly divorcing what we say with our lips about our beliefs from what we practice in our lives. If you do read the New Testament you will discover that this problem of sexual sin was never a problem for the Lord of the Church, but his followers from the first century to the present have wrestled with this temptation just like everyone else. Paul tells the truth about it and gives us the right information to overcome these temptations.
Their joint business venture has grown and become prosperous, but now a serious misunderstanding threatens not only their business, but their relationship as brothers in Christ. During the annual outside audit, $10,000 has turned up missing. Dick, one of the partners, just married off his third daughter, and John, the other partner, knows that the wedding and reception cost a bundle. An early morning discussion about this turned into a bitter argument. How should Dick and John settle their dispute?
We are supposed to be glowing in joy and love because God gave the precious gift of His Son to us. But maybe today you find yourself feeling more like a Scrooge because all this euphoria about the worship doesn’t eliminate the fact that you have been cheated and swindled by one of these so called “born againers.” If you have ever felt wronged by someone in the church you need to spend the next few minutes and listen to a story about Charlie Christian.
You regularly attended worship every Sunday for years, but now you find yourself just sleeping in on Sunday morning. You used to read your Bible daily, but now it is on the second shelf of your night stand gathering dust. You used to enjoy Christian radio, but now the rugged voice of the country western stars singing about the pleasure of just one moment of passionate love dominates your car radio. Before it’s too late, please listen. You might hear a forgotten voice calling you back home.
A pastor discovers that two of his key elders have been wife swapping. A longtime members was just picked up on a charge of sexual abuse . A nationally known preacher has to resign his ministry because of the charge of embezzlement. There is hardly any headline that could shock God’s people and tragically desiring to be merciful and compassionate we have become complacent and passive when it comes to dealing with the malignancy of evil. How did the first century church maintain both compassion and purity?
Is it wrong to go out and eat a big prime rib on your anniversary when there are millions starving in the world right now? If you are starving or facing severe physical suffering is this evidence that God is punishing you because you don’t have enough faith in him? These are the kinds of questions we are addressing with our study leader, Dave Wyrtzen, as we examine the fourth chapter of First Corinthians together.
When Jesus was here on earth the lame, the deaf, the blind, and the deformed simply came to his feet as he sat on a hill overlooking Galilee and they were instantly healed. He said in John that when he ascended to heaven that we would do even greater works than these. Doesn’t this mean that if we have enough faith all of our diseases will be healed, all of our financial needs will be met, all of our problems will end?
Think about who has the power over your life. Who do you want to look like or be like? What celebrity do you worship? Evidently there were super stars in the first century- even religious celebrities. The Apostle Paul warns us against those high flyers, their influence, and the way we respond reveals what’s inside.
Remember the old children’s rhyme “ring around the rosy pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down?” A building can be elegant in its design, stunning in its appearance, and colossal in its dimensions, but the whole thing will fall down if it’s not built on a solid foundation of the right materials. What is the right foundation for a church? What kind of materials should it be built of? These are the kinds of questions the Apostle Paul answers in First Corinthians chapter three.
One minute a leader is worshiped as the king and the next minute they are cursed as a thief. Why have so many of our leaders in both our court houses and our church houses fallen off their pedestals and disgraced their offices? Could it be that it has something to do with our loud applause followed by such angry booing? Our subject today takes us into the heart of the pressure and the problem of church leadership in America today.
Have you ever been in a large city and watched a gigantic crane swing a wrecking ball against a building? The demolition of a structure can be incredible. When the target is an old condemned building, no problem. But when a wrecking ball swings against our homes or churches, it’s another story.
I look in the mirror and my father is staring back at me. Where did the years go? If you are under thirty you probably haven’t started creaking and squeaking when you walk, but perhaps even some of you in your early twenties have already noticed a lot of hair in your comb that should still be on top of your head. We try to powder it, massage it, work it out, but no matter how hard we try we cannot stop the relentless onslaught of time against our bodies. Is your time running out?
Mystery stories grab our attention and the ratings in movies and on TV. Authors make millions weaving their tales of the cunning sleuth with his or hers uncanny problem solving abilities. Who would you guess is the greatest mystery writer of all time? This author has written a riddle no one could solve unless he gave them the key.
When our kids score high on their SATs, we are proud parents. When our son or daughter scores the winning point that brings victory against the crosstown rivals, our chest swells. We all know the smell of evil self-centered pride, and every one of you parents know the sweetness of a true appreciation for the gifts God has given to your children, but this is not the purest pride. Who should you boast about before others? Who deserves your cheers, your admiration, your devotion? Who should be your pride and joy?
Have you ever taken a look around your church, those who come to worship and adore the Son of God? Compare this group with the beautiful people who come in their limousines to attend the Emmy Awards, or the powerful execs taking a break on the golf courses of Palm Springs or the slopes of Taos. Who would you guess is going to have the lasting influence on this planet? When you look at human resources the cause of Christ seems to be in shaky hands.
Has anyone ever said to you, “Well if God would write His message in a legible hand for me in the sky or if He would come down here and speak to me audibly, then I would believe in Him. Until He shows me His credentials I remain an agnostic.” How do you deal with someone like that? Why doesn’t God deliver His Word to us in a lightning bolt? In this conclusion to "The Fool On The Hill," we want to encourage you to honestly face questions like these.
As a believer in the sacredness of the Old Rugged Cross, I become outraged when it is mocked and at this offense to my Lord. My anger makes me want to get back at those who malign His crucifixion. What’s going on in our modern society that mocks Jesus’ sacrifice for sin as the insane belief of a weak old man? Dave Wyrtzen challenges you to think about what the Romans and Greeks thought about the cross of Jesus Christ in the first century.
Christianity is one of the most divided religions in the world. Different denominations, different leaders, divisions between races, divisions over styles of leadership--name a splinter group and Christianity has it. Why is there all this division? Is all this diversity wrong? Is it God’s will for there to be one human head for his church on earth? Is there a difference between diversity and disunity? Listen…
Why do strong committed followers of Jesus Christ sometimes face the agony of long term disease, the hammer blow of a fatal accident, or the dread of job loss? If we possess everything in Christ, why do so many who love Him live in poverty around the world? Paul wrote a letter to a group of believers who believed they were already ruling with Christ in the heavenlies. The Apostle Paul was one man who had actually visited heaven and returned and he also knew what it meant to suffer in the cause of Christ. We get to listen to his mature counsel as he helps the Corinthians get a balance between the “already and the not yet” in God’s present and future plans for His children.
This fall will bring a major holiday of the year that turkeys everywhere dread but that most of us celebrate with joy--thanksgiving. Pilgrims, Indians, the foundational principles of our country--God, family, church, community, freedom; the delicious food --warm pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls--it gives all of us a chance to express gratitude for the bountiful physical blessings. It should also be a time for us to discover and to remember our rich spiritual heritage and God's gifts.
The Apostle Paul is writing to a group of believers living in a society just like ours. Homosexuality and heterosexual immorality were praised as legitimate life styles. Incest tore the lives of children apart. Entertainment was built on skin and blood. Paul planted a church in the midst of this cesspool and he is writing this letter to help them make an impact for Christ in this secular city.