Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
June 5, 2022
INTRO (SLIDE 1)
“Je un rendez-vous avec David dans vingt minutes.”
If you didn’t understand that sentence, it’s ok. That was French, and it means “I have an appointment with David in twenty minutes.” And it’s one of the only things I remember from my three years of French class in high school!
Anyone else learn a language in high school or college and never really use it?
You see, the best way to learn a language is by using it, by immersion. I took 3 years of French, but I lived in California where there are a lot of Spanish-speakers. Almost everyone at my school took Spanish, but I wanted to be a contrarian, so I took French. But there was no way for me to practice French outside of my classroom, so I never really learned the language.
ILLUST — The one opportunity I had to use my French came about 8 years ago. Sarah and I were on a vacation around the Mediterranean, and we had a stop along the southern coast of France. We went into a market to buy some lunch and I decided to order my food in French. I psyched myself up, and I walked up the shopkeeper at a cheese stand, and I spoke my best French and he looked at me very strangely. Uh-oh, what did I do wrong?
He looks at me and says in English, “Are you American?” And I answer, “Yes.” He says, “I’m Italian, I don’t speak French.” Of course, the one person I try to speak French to in this market is the only guy who doesn’t speak French!
Last week, our guest speaker, Carlton Harris, explained how learning to pray is like a kid learning to talk. We learn mostly by imitation. We start by grunting, we learn simple words, and then eventually we learn to speak with complex phrases and sentences.
The same could be said generally about the Christian life. We learn to walk with Jesus by imitation. We are taught the Christian faith, but the life of discipleship is also caught.
This is key: Faith that is taught and caught must occur within the context of a community of faith. God has designed you to learn the language of faith by immersion.
ILLUST — Mark Dever, the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C., recently said this at a conference I was attending. He said, “To know the gospel and not be enmeshed in a local church is like learning a language that you never speak, read, or use. The congregation of believers is the place where the gospel is embedded and lived and spoken and practiced.”
You see, discipleship without diving deep into a church family, or without allowing your life to be woven into the fabric of the people of God will be as useless as my 3 years of French class!
Here’s the point friends: We need each other. We need to learning to walk with Jesus by immersion and by trying to speak and live and think in ways that align with His kingdom and his righteousness.
This is what we are going to do this summer in our new series. We are going to focus on a primary dimension of our discipleship that I long for every one of us to grow in. We are going to learn how to pray from the Apostle Paul.
We are going to learn new language for prayer.
We are going to observe what concerns Paul the most in prayer.
We are going to be encouraged, challenged, and inspired.
We are going to see what gospel-centered and kingdom-minded prayer looks like.
We are going to find opportunities to practice prayer together.
Each week we will dive into a prayer of Paul from the New Testament. Each prayer highlights something about God. We will be learning about God’s faithfulness, comfort, power, sovereignty, revelation, strength, good work in you, will, justice, protection, and mercy.
Today, we will be kicking off this series by looking at God’s faithfulness from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9. Open with me to 1 Corinthians.
BACKGROUND
Let me tell you a quick bit of background about this letter. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, an ancient Greek city, while he was staying in Ephesus around the spring of 55 AD while he was on this 3rd missionary journey.
Paul had been in Corinth a few years earlier preaching the gospel and starting new churches, and now he had heard about conflicts, moral compromise, wrong teaching, and disruptive worship services in the church in Corinth.
Corinth was like the San Francisco of the ancient world. It was a large port city known for its sexual promiscuity, entertainment, wealth, and idolatry. It was a common phrase in the 1st century to describe someone who is living a wild life as “living like a Corinthian.”
The converts to Christianity in Corinth had to unlearn a lot of “worldliness,” and just like we were talking about a few minutes ago, the context of a church community revealed all kinds of issues and opportunities for transformation and spiritual growth.
PROP — Paul’s central message to the Corinthians is this: God is faithful, his faithfulness is proven in the gospel, and he is working in and through you to bring your life into alignment with your calling to be his holy people.
So, let’s read our passage. This is Paul’s prayer for the Corinthians, and indeed a prayer for us, the church. READ 1 Corinthians 1:4-9.
ORG SENT — Here’s how we will tackle this passage. There is one guiding phrase in verse 9 that shapes this entire prayer: God is faithful. Let’s look at what this phrase means and how it informs what Paul prays for the church.
MAIN 1 — God is Faithful. (SLIDE 2a)
This word “faithful” simply means: trustworthy, reliable, fully capable (SLIDE 2b)
In other words, a faithful person follows through with what they say they will do. They are dependable, they keep their promises, and they can be trusted.
ILLUST — When I hear the word “reliable” or “dependable” I often think of a car. We all want a car that is reliable, which means we want a car that will start in the winter, that won’t break down on the road, and won’t leave us stranded somewhere.
There are awards and ratings for new car reliability. You’ve probably heard of J.D. Power ratings for reliability when you see a car commercial. Auto manufacturers want to have a reputation as making dependable and trustworthy cars.
Listen friends: God is the reigning winner of the “most reliable in the universe” award, every year ever for eternity!
You see, God promised to send his Son Jesus. He promised to forgive and to make us new creations. He promised to give us his Spirit and to preserve us to the end when he will return and make a new heavens and new earth. God’s promises are sure because he is infinitely good, infinitely powerful, and infinitely trustworthy. (SLIDE 2c) If there is anyone you can trust, it is God.
It is in this reality of God’s faithfulness, proven in history through Jesus Christ, that Paul writes to the church in Corinth. Let’s look at how God’s faithfulness transforms how Paul prays. (SLIDE 3a)
Remember, we are going to learn from Paul’s example about how to pray. This prayer is beautiful because Paul applies the theme of God’s faithfulness by using the same word twice in verses 6 and 8 in order to frame how God’s promises are coming to fruition in the PRESENT in the lives of the Corinthians, and how God’s promises are secure for the FUTURE when Jesus will return to establish his Kingdom.
PRESENT = God “confirming” (SLIDE 3b) — READ vv. 4-6.
This word “confirming” means “to put something beyond doubt.”
This word is used in the Bible to describe how a truth claim is confirmed by actions. It is about alignment of words and deeds. (SLIDE 3c)
What specifically is Paul referring to here?
Look at verse 5. He says that the confirmation of God’s grace in their lives is that they have been enriched in two specific ways: speech and knowledge.
Paul is writing to a Greek audience. Speech and knowledge are two specific terms that come from Greek philosophy. They are the words “logos” and “gnosis”. (SLIDE 3d)
The logos was one of the highest values in Greek culture. It was the source and rationale for life. It was the universal divine reason, the unchanging good order of the cosmos, the transcendent truth that undergirded all of life.
And gnosis was another pinnacle value of Greek culture. It refers to special knowledge or insight into humanity’s real nature and into the ways of the gods.
KEY: Paul is is co-opting these lofty Greek philosophical and religious terms to explain that the gospel redeems and transforms culture! These Christians have been enriched with the REAL transcendent and unchanging truth, the real logos. And they have the REAL insight into the human condition and the ways of God, the real gnosis. Contrary to these abstract Greek philosophical concepts, God has revealed a real and tangible Word and Knowledge: Jesus Christ! He is the fulfillment of the deepest longings that are expressed in human culture.
IMPORTANT — It is only through Jesus that you can come to know the true source of life and the true understanding of history! Jesus is the key to the entire cosmos!
ASK: What are some of the values or truth-claims of our culture that the gospel transforms? What are the ways that God pours out his radically transforming grace so that we begin to speak a different language, the language of the Kingdom? There are lot of things this affects:
Personhood — In the gospel, personhood comes from the image of God, and everyone has dignity and worth, from conception to natural death.
Marriage — In the gospel, marriage between a man and woman is a living illustration of Christ and the church. It’s about self-giving love.
Sexuality — In the gospel, inner desires do not define us and the pursuit of self-defined identities will never ultimately satisfy.
Politics — In the gospel, we are citizens of heaven and the Kingdom of God is where our ultimate allegiance lies.
Justice — In the gospel, justice is an attribute of God that is displayed at the cross and guaranteed to be fully carried out at the judgment.
Creation — We are stewards of God’s beautiful creation, called to manage this place for fruitfulness and to reflect God’s goodness.
Resources — In the gospel, money, material things, vocational skills, and our time and energy are redeemed to be leveraged for God’s glory.
These are just a few examples of how God will “confirm” in the present his work of grace in our lives to renew our thoughts, attitudes, and actions to be gospel-centered, Christ-honoring, and kingdom-focused.
FUTURE = God “keeping” (SLIDE 3e) — READ vv. 7-8.
Paul’s prayer has a focus on the future, specifically on the return of Christ.
He literally uses the word “apocalypse” when he says that Jesus Christ will be revealed.
There are two things that are promised here:
Verse 7 — We have every spiritual gift that we need as we await Jesus’ return. In other words, God has equipped the church with all the tools we need to make disciples and continue in faithfulness until the end. He knows what the church needs, and we don’t lack anything!
Verse 8 — He will “keep us firm to the end”. This is the same word as “confirm” in verse 6. In this instance, it means “to strengthen in commitment.”
In other words, it emphasizes a work of God within us to cause us to be strong, to maintain a firm commitment, to be strengthened to face whatever challenges may come. It is about staying power. (SLIDE 3f)
APPLY
Now, here’s where we need to land today: In light of God’s faithfulness, how can Paul pray that we would have alignment of words/deeds, and how can he pray that we would have staying power in the Christian life?
Look at verse 9 again: READ v. 9.
Friends, the reason we see transformation, the reason we have hope is because we have fellowship with Jesus. (SLIDE 3g) I can’t even begin to describe how incredible this is.
The word “fellowship” is a rich word:
Koinonia = communion, close relationship, sharing together.
KEY: God’s faithfulness has opened a way for us to have fellowship with Jesus, God in the flesh! So, let me ask you: How well do you know Jesus? Are you close to him? Would you recognize him if he showed up?
ILLUST — One of my favorite shows is The Chosen. It is a mini-series that chronicles the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. They have done such a good job at portraying Jesus and the disciples, making them come alive.
When the character who plays Jesus speaks words directly from scripture like a parable or when he heals someone, it makes me cry every time because I feel this sense when I hear Jesus’ words from scripture spoken aloud: I know him, I know that voice.
Hearing Jesus’ words from the gospels portrayed in this way is like hearing the words of a language that is learned by immersion in the Body of Christ and in fellowship with the Savior.
Its a language foreign to the world, but for those who have ears to hear, Jesus’ words are the words of light and life. It is a language of good news to the brokenhearted, freedom for those who are burdened, and healing for those who are shattered and without hope.
Friends, my prayer for you is the same as Paul’s. God is faithful. I pray that you would come into deep fellowship with Jesus, to become embedded within his people, to see God confirm the gospel in your life by transforming you today and keeping you until the day when Jesus returns to bring us home.