Waiting With Eagerness

I encourage you to take your copy of God's Word and open it to 1 Corinthians.

If you do not have your own copy, that's okay.

There's one provided in the pew or the seat for you.

1 Corinthians.

We began looking at 1 Corinthians together last Sunday, and we'll continue that this morning.

1 Corinthians is based off of the Apostle Paul's letter to a specific local church in the ancient city of Corinth.

And I have to be honest with you.

I have a love-hate relationship with the church at Corinth.

As a shepherd, I read about all of the issues that these folks had, the dysfunction in their relationships and in the ministry there.

And I think, really?

I mean, really?

You have the Apostle Paul as a leader and a source of encouragement and strength in the ministry, and this is what you do?

Really?

I just can't believe that they would be the way Scripture describes them.

That's one side of me.

The other side appreciates this part of Scripture greatly.

Because it shows us that local churches are gatherings of God's people who are still broken, who are still hurting, who are still dealing with sin.

There's a sense of realness in these portions of the Bible.

And if you are uncomfortable with that sort of realness, get over it.

Because that's real life.

This is real life.

We don't have to feel as if we are unusual or strange or odd if we are hurting and broken and sinful.

We're not alone.

Others have gone before us and been right in that place.

And because the church in Corinth was like this, the letters to that church provide rich resources for us as we struggle in a sin-cursed world.

I think the passage before us this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 is one of those passages that can indeed provide encouragement.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bible open, I'm going to read verses 4 through 9 if you'd like to follow along.

The Apostle Paul writes, I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.

That in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

This is the word of God.

Have you ever had a family member or a friend or maybe even a coworker that was always getting himself or herself into trouble?

One of those people that, you know, just can't seem to get out of their own way.

There are some people who are, well, at least they seem to be, immune to receiving guidance and correction that would help them live wisely.

And if you've if you've known somebody, you know that eventually you just want to throw your hands in the air in frustration and say, I'm done.

I'm done.

If that's the way you want your life to be, then have at it.

Do you know what that's like?

Have you been there?

If you haven't, praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

Maybe, maybe you even feel that way about church.

That, like Corinth, it just keeps on doing the wrong things and getting itself into new messes on a regular basis.

Corinth was one of those places.

It was a place you might want to avoid, not just the city, but the church.

I would understand if the Apostle Paul had written, I'm done with you folks.

I've tried and tried to help you over and over again.

I've tried to teach you, to instruct you, but you won't listen.

I'm done.

I wouldn't have been surprised if he had written that.

Knowing a little bit about the church in Corinth and the church, or the city of Corinth, and the church that was there, I might have even nodded my head in agreement.

Yeah, you go, Paul.

That's what makes this passage so astounding.

Look what he says in verse 4.

I give thanks.

Excuse me?

Did I read that right?

I give thanks to my God always for you.

What?

That place?

Those people?

You what?

This is one of the places where we get a glimpse right into the heart of the Apostle Paul.

He was like a parent who never gives up on a wayward child.

Yes, he grieved at their sin and their rebellion, but he loved them and he was thankful to God for them.

He was thankful for God's work in them.

Now we are not told that his thankfulness is bound up in their relationship.

He does not love them because they are his spiritual children.

Now that may be true.

He may love them because they are his spiritual children, but that's not what the point is here.

He's not thankful that they are disobedient to God and dysfunctional as a church.

That's not the reason for his thanks.

In fact, his thankfulness has nothing to do with the Christians in Corinth.

If we look carefully, it has nothing to do with them.

It has everything to do with the work of God in the Christians through the Lord Jesus Christ.

As I prayed and asked the Lord what to preach on to begin my time with you, he led me again and again and again to these first three chapters of 1 Corinthians, so that I might point out to us again and again and again the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is mentioned five times in the first three verses.

Another five times in our passage for today.

Five times in the next section, and three times in the last part of chapter one.

That's 18 times that Christ is mentioned just in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

These people needed to see Jesus.

As we saw last time, the Christians in Corinth needed to see their identity as being in Christ Jesus.

That means that history, status, employment, finances, families, all that is important from a human standpoint, all of those things take a back seat when it comes to Christ.

Our identity is found in Him.

Once we come to faith in Christ, God then begins a new work.

We immediately become a part of His church, and every person and every local assembly of God's people becomes a recipient of his work.

That is true even of dysfunctional Christians and churches like Corinth who are living according to the flesh.

That is the basis for the Apostle Paul's gratefulness.

God was at work, even in places like Corinth.

These six verses briefly outline that work of God, and the structure is based on time.

He identifies what God has done in the past in Christ.

He identifies what God is doing and what God will do.

Now you will see and hear again and again the repetition in Christ.

What God has done in Christ, what he is doing in Christ, what he will do in Christ.

This is all about the work of God in and on behalf of the church, God's called out people, and he does that work through Christ.

And all of you are invited to join with us as we celebrate the work of God.

It is worthy of celebration.

But you need to know that what we are talking about here is only for those who have come to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died to pay the price for our sins.

I want to welcome and encourage you to join us in that faith if you have not yet done so.

I want you to look carefully with me at the past.

What has God done in Christ?

When you read your Bible, noting details is important.

Look at what the Apostle Paul wrote.

I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given.

That was given.

If we go on, we see more of this past tense.

We read in verse 5, were enriched, and in verse 6, was confirmed.

Theologians call these divine passives.

That is, they are things that have been done in the past by God Himself.

God is the one who is acting.

Christians are the one who are receiving the action in Christ.

So the apostles' thanksgiving is not for anything the people in the church did, but for what God did.

This shows us that no matter how bad things get in the lives of Christians, or how difficult things become in a local church, there is always room to give thanks.

There was reason to give thanks for the church in Corinth.

If that is true, then there is reason to give thanks to God, not just for every true church, but also for what God has done in the lives of every believer, even for those who are struggling with sin.

Look at what is said about this dysfunctional church.

He said they received the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

What did that grace look like?

Well, we see in verse 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge.

Speech and knowledge here refers to understanding, to comprehension, to communication of the gospel.

We see that in the next verse, that this speech and knowledge is connected to the testimony, to the witness of Christ.

Even though this church was located in the midst of a pagan community, and it was floundering and even divided, the apostle knew that they had received the gospel, that they had believed in it and become recipients of God's gracious salvation.

And so in Christ, they were enriched in this speech and knowledge of Christ.

But God did not stop there.

They were also graced with the confirmation of the gospel in verse 6 in their lives.

They weren't left wondering if they were genuine believers.

God's grace granted to them an understanding of the gospel in an amazingly rich way, so that faith resulted.

And that faith was then confirmed through the various gifts God gave them.

Whenever the Apostle Paul thought about this ancient church, he was able to give thanks for them because of what God did.

Remember that.

Whenever it feels as though there is nothing for which you can give thanks.

Much of this first letter to the Corinthians is corrective.

It includes some pretty direct chastening, some firm rebuke and commands given to them because they were not properly living out their calling in Christ.

And even though that was true, the apostle could still be thankful for them.

Thankful because God was at work.

What a challenge that is for our often thankless hearts.

Isn't it true that thankfulness often dies the very moment someone irritates us or offends us?

It's just gone.

You can be having a conversation with someone, and they say the wrong thing about your spouse or your children or whatever, and instantly there is no thankfulness for that person, right?

Thankfulness often dies the moment sin is tolerated in the church.

Or the church moves in a direction that we personally don't like.

But that ought not to be, brothers and sisters.

We ought to be so moved by the grace of God given to people and to his church that we give thanks for it even when things are rough.

The confirmation of the gospel in their lives makes a natural transition in verses six and seven to what God is doing in Christ.

The testimony about Christ is confirmed, verse 7, so that you are not lacking in any gift.

Notice the movement to present tense, so that you are not lacking.

So we've talked about the past, now we're in the present.

He's talking about gifts.

The word for gift here is charismatic, from which we get our English terms charisma and charismatic.

And in English, in evangelical circles, that word charismatic can almost be a bad word sometimes.

But in reality, it simply means a gift of God's grace.

That's really all it means.

It doesn't speak about the nature of the gift.

It doesn't refer to the kind of gift.

Instead, this word emphasizes the source of the gift.

Literally translated, it would read, a grace gift.

So that you are not lacking in any grace gift.

The people in this dysfunctional church had been given gifts from God according to his grace.

And those gifts confirmed that they had believed in the gospel and come to faith in Christ.

The result of this gracious giving by the sovereign God is found in verse 7.

So that you are not lacking in any gift.

You are not lacking.

That's sort of a backhanded compliment.

This particular church was extremely proud of how the Spirit of God worked in and through them.

That's why a little bit later in the book there are some corrective sections about using gifts that God had given them.

I have the gift of healing.

Gift of tongues, whatever.

Go on and on and on.

So the apostle Paul says, I'm thankful that God has given you gifts.

But I'm thankful that you are not lacking.

It became more about them than about God from their perspective.

The Apostle Paul turns that around and says, I'm glad that God has not made you lack.

It's his way of saying, don't boast in what God has done for you.

Give thanks in his grace that you are not lacking.

Now I want you to notice some implications of this for the local church, for this gathering of God's people.

First, it is not appropriate for us to boast about God's gifts to us in any way that draws focus, attention on ourselves.

When we do that, it ceases to be a grace gift and instead becomes a talent that I am showing off.

Second, we need to know that God's grace is active today.

Right now, in providing for this local church, providing us with everything we need for life and godliness, as Peter would say it.

His grace is not just a past event, it is a present action.

It is current, it is active today.

Third implication is that God's provision for his church is not just based on the universal church.

God doesn't just look at the entire world and all of his called-out people in the whole world and say, what does the entire church need?

But he looks at what each local true assembly of believers needs to function in a way that honors him and glorifies him.

In other words, we at Faith Evangelical Free Church have all of the gifts of grace that are needed to honor Christ and fulfill his purpose at this time.

Now that doesn't mean that he won't add other people with other gifts to our fellowship, or even that he might take some away to serve in a different place.

It means that each one of you has been gifted by God's grace in some way to serve this body and to serve Christ for his glory.

That's why it's so important for everyone to be involved in service to Christ in some way.

If everyone is not involved, then we are a church functioning as it were without fingers or toes or hands or feet.

We're lame if we aren't all serving together.

Because God designed his church to function as a unit.

Together, every part fitted properly.

And he actively, presently is providing for us in that way.

And he will continue to do that as we wait for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Webb, thank you for choosing some songs that focus on heaven, on the revealing of Christ.

Because that's the focus we need to maintain.

Life's rough.

We live under a curse of sin.

Life will be a struggle.

But he has given us gifts of his grace to serve him, to serve the church, to glorify him, and we keep on doing that day after day with endurance and perseverance because we're keeping our eyes focused on his revealing.

We need to have our focus focused.

On Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Or, more specifically in this text, to focus on the day in which he will be revealed in all of his glory.

This is not a reference specifically to his coming again, although that's implied.

This is the same word when it says the revealing, that's the same word used in Revelation chapter 1, verse 1, for the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1:1

It's the word apocalypsis from which we get apocalyptic.

And we've come to know apocalyptic as disaster.

That's not the way the Bible describes apocalyptic.

Apocalypsis in the Bible is seeing Christ revealed in all of his glory.

In all of his beauty and all of his power.

So we serve Christ and one another and the church with all of the power that he works within us because he has graced us with gifts to do so.

We serve with our focus on him as we eagerly wait for him to be revealed.

That word wait is, I think, lacking a little bit in the English Standard Version.

Because it's a waiting that includes eagerness and expectation.

Waiting is not sitting back in your easy chair until your favorite show comes on.

Waiting is not sitting in a pew waiting to see Christ in all of his glory.

This is an eager, active expectation that we will see Jesus in all of his glory.

And that eager expectation spurs us on to live and serve in light of the gracious gifts he's given us.

God is doing that in us at this very moment.

Now notice what God will do.

We move here to the future tense, verse 8.

Who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God is faithful.

I was tempted to just have one sermon on verse 9.

I still may throw a web a curveball and do that.

If we look carefully, we see here the characteristics of God's future work.

What is he going to do?

He will sustain.

Notice the referent.

Who will sustain?

Who is he referring to?

It's the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every part of this is God's doing.

He has graced us, he is gracing us, and he will grace us.

He enriched, he confirmed, and he causes his church to not lack gifts, and he will sustain, and all of that is through the work of Christ.

It is his work from beginning to end.

Isn't that an encouraging truth?

Let that sink in.

We began with the giving of God's grace in regeneration and the giving of faith to believe in Christ Jesus, who will then sustain us to the end.

Sustain is a word that refers to firmness.

To firmness and so to confirm something.

It's a word that's often used in a legal sense, so that every promise of God is confirmed.

That is, it will be done.

And that confirmation leads then to a sense of surety.

It will happen.

In this way, God's people who are called by his name will be kept.

He will keep us firm to the end.

Isn't that encouraging?

It ought to strengthen and embolden us as we walk with Christ, as we serve him in this world and in his church.

I can imagine that that would have been an encouraging statement to the Corinthian Christians because they were wandering aimlessly in their sin and pride.

They were walking in the works of the flesh instead of the fruit of the spirit.

And yet, those who were called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord would be sustained in their faith.

They would be kept secure by God's hand so as to not fully fall away into their sin.

Friends, what a safe place to rest.

The one who has called us to himself will sustain us to the end.

That is a place to rest your heart and your mind and your very soul.

If your faith in Christ is genuine saving faith, if your faith has been confirmed in Christ in the church, then you can rest secure that the Lord Jesus Himself will keep you to the end.

Isn't that what He's promised us elsewhere?

In John chapter 10, beginning in verse 29 or 27 or so, Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they will follow me.

John 10 · chapter mention

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My father, who is greater than all, holds them too, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

I've described that passage before, with a set of keys.

You take a set of keys and you put it in your hand, and there's a child there, what do they want to do?

Peel back the fingers and try to get the keys out, right?

Jesus says, I hold you in my hand, and no one will snatch you out.

He says, Oh, by the way, the Father, who is greater than all, holds you in his hand, and no one can snatch you out of that place.

Do you get that?

The Lord Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end.

Are you safe in the hand of the sun?

If you have not yet experienced the soul-comforting, life-enriching grace of God found in Jesus, then throw aside the weight that so easily encumbers and come to Jesus.

Lay your sin and your burden at his feet at the foot of the cross and trust in him as your Lord.

If you are safe in him, if I have described you, are you resting actively in his sustaining care for you?

Your end is secure.

It's guaranteed.

It is confirmed.

So much so that you and I will be counted guiltless when we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what he says.

Guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let that sink in for a minute.

I don't want to embarrass anybody, so I won't ask for a show of hands.

But how many of us have sinned already this morning?

Maybe we were irritated with a spouse or angry with the kids.

Maybe we boiled on the inside because of those other slow drivers on the road.

Or the ones who didn't use their turn signal.

Maybe you lied, coveted, or struggled with lust already this morning.

No, if you are a Christian, that sin bothers you.

Sin pains you.

And what's worse is that we can't seem to escape it.

But praise be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We will stand before Christ the Lord guiltless.

Not because of anything that we have done, not because of our good works, not because we've prayed prayers, not because we've been in our church service week in and week out, but because we have been cleansed by the fountain of his blood, declared righteous by the Father and granted the righteousness of Christ through faith.

I guarantee you that was incredible news for this particular local church.

Read the rest of the book and note how messed up this church was.

But in the amazing grace of God in Christ, God himself would sustain them because he called them, and in Christ, he would consider them guiltless when they stood before the judge of all the earth.

Now you might say, I'm not so sure about that, Pastor.

I've done some pretty awful things in my time.

I've got some terrible, sinful habits that I just can't seem to kick.

I've got a lot of guilt that shadows me, and I'm just not confident that what you're saying is true.

If that is you, don't believe me.

Believe God.

And I'm so thankful for that.

If I could lose my way in Christ, I would.

If I could turn God's saving grace into eternal wrath, I would.

But praise be to him that it is not in my hands.

And friend, it is not in yours either.

It is where it belongs, in the good, powerful, saving hands of the faithful God.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Apostle Paul returns here to a common theme in this passage, and that is the idea of calling.

In verse 1, Paul was called by the will of God to be an apostle.

In verse 2, he identified the recipients of this letter as those called to be saints.

And it's those same people who were called to be saints who were then called into the fellowship of his Son.

Notice then the flow of thought.

God's faithfulness called us to himself.

God's faithfulness enriches us with good gifts of grace so that our salvation is confirmed and his purpose is completed.

And then God's grace causes us to live and serve his people until he returns, and it is finally God's faithfulness that will keep us, will sustain us, will confirm us as his own until the moment we see Jesus.

That means there is every single reason for us to be a thankful church.

We're not a perfect church.

That doesn't exist.

But we can always be a thankful church.

We can be a place where God's grace is on display, where God's work of saving people is being confirmed.

We can be a place where God's grace is actively moving us to live and serve by the enablement of his gifts of grace.

And we can be a place of eager expectation as we look to Jesus, sustained by the faithful work of our great God.

Will you join me in being that kind of church?

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, what a comfort, what a hope and encouragement this is.

Sin so easily entangles us.

Churches so easily get off the right track onto the wrong track, and we're just a messed up group of people.

But oh for your grace.

Grace to give thanks to you more.

Grace to rest in your marvelous love for us.

We your people again commit to you.

To you, the faithful God.

And all his people said, Amen.