Introduction | 1 Corinthians 1:1-3

Well, good morning, church family, and welcome

to our brand new preaching series in the book

of 1 Corinthians. Mornings like this are always

an incredible joy for me. This is one of those

mornings where, as a church family, we get to

take a collective first step on a long journey

into the depths of God's Word. And I was thinking

about this last night. Who but the Lord knows

where this is going to take us? And who but the

Spirit of God knows what we're going to be shown

along the way? Isn't that true? I know this for

sure. Every time that we have finished a substantial

book like this one, and in recent years, we have

walked together through the book of Romans and

through the gospel of John. Every time that we

finished a book like that, I look back at where

we started, and I think to myself, you know what?

We're not the same church we were before. And

that's a really good and healthy thing. So when

it comes to this new series, I know that the

Lord is going to grow us as well, because I know

that he's always faithful to bless his church

when we commit our hearts and our minds to know

him better. Now, as you can see on the screen,

we have chosen a particular title for this series,

Kingdom Living in a Foolish World. And that is

certainly an accurate description of where we

live today. We live in a world that is lacking

in wisdom and filled with foolish thinking. And

so together we want to find out in this study

how God desires us to walk, both as saints but

also as strangers and aliens in the midst of

a chaotic world where temptation and distractions

are all around us. Now today, all we're going

to do is introduce the letter. We're just going

to look at the initial greeting that Paul writes

to the Corinthians, and then we will dive into

some important context. We're going to talk about

the history of Corinth. We're going to talk about

Paul's connection to the church in that city.

And hopefully what we'll do today is set the

table for what's to come. So let's dive into

it. Grab your Bibles and let's open up to the

New Testament and go to 1 Corinthians 1, very

first verse. 1 Corinthians 1, we're going to

read actually all the way through verse 9 here

together, this entire greeting that Paul gives

to the church. So here's what it says. Hear the

word of the Lord. Verse 1, Paul, called as an

apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and

Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God,

which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified

in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. Verse 4.

in everything. You were enriched in Him, in all

speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony

concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that

you're not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly

the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who

will also confirm you to the end, blameless in

the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful,

through whom you were called into fellowship

with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. By the way,

did you notice how many times in that passage

you've got the name of Jesus, but also the term

Lord? We'll pick up on more on that next week

together. Now, we're going to come back to the

first three verses of those nine at the end of

this message, and we'll look at them more closely.

But now I want to talk about the historical context

of what we just read. And let me start with this.

Why does it matter in the first place? Listen,

today is not just about letting me fly my historical

nerd flag. There is an actual purpose in studying

the history. And it's about two things in particular

that I want to share with you this morning. First

of all, it's about veracity. And second, it's

about the difference between interpretation and

application. When we talk about the veracity,

or better word, the truthfulness of a passage

of Scripture, what we're talking about is whether

or not the history, the geography, and the culture

found in the narrative lines up with facts on

the ground. So, for example, if a story in the

Bible were to misidentify a particular location

or misidentify a person of importance or not

describe a cultural practice correctly, well,

that would call into question the veracity of

that biblical account. So as we study a book

like 1 Corinthians, we want to look at the history

of the city. We want to look at its geography,

its culture, and then we want to look to see

if Paul's letter reflects what historians and

archaeologists know about that time and about

that part of the world. And if it does support

what we know to be true, guess what? Then that's

going to increase our trust in the text, and

it's going to strengthen our faith. So veracity

matters. Second, the history matters because

we want to interpret the scriptures properly

before we start to apply it. So we have to understand

what a text means, what it meant back in the

original time before we talk about what the text

means in our lives today. So what we have to

figure out is, first of all, what did the original

author, in this case Paul, what did he intend

to communicate? to the particular audience of

that day, the Corinthian church, in that historical

and cultural context, which, of course, is the

first century Greek world. So, for example, when

Paul talks about whether or not Christians can

eat meat sacrificed to idols, We can't just jump

to any application until we understand what was

going on in Greco -Roman religion and in those

pagan temples in the first century. And once

we figure that out, then we can look at how principles

from that instruction apply to the boundaries

of freedom that we have in Christ today. So we've

got to make sure that we understand the context

and the meaning in that day before we talk about

application. That means that knowing the history

of a region really does matter. And seeing its

geography on an actual map and studying the cultural

nuances of life in that day and age. All of those

things, all of those things help us to appreciate

the truth and the beauty and the practicality

of God's word. And they help us grow deeper in

our faith as we seek to apply ancient principles

in our day and age. Does that make sense? Okay,

good. So let's start this morning by talking

about the history of Corinth. And I want to go

back to before the time of Christ, before Paul

arrives in that city, I want to go back into

the BC era. And the first thing we have to acknowledge

is that by the time that Paul does come upon

the scene in the first century, before he comes

to Corinth, it is both an old city, a very old

city, and also a very new city. Now, here's what

I mean by that. First of all, let's go back in

our minds, back to the days of ancient Greece.

I want you to go back to the days of Socrates

and Plato, back to the days of pagan temples

and mythological gods and, yes, togas, men in

togas. Don't get me started on that. Back to

the period of classical Greece, prior to the

rise of Alexander the Great. Back in classical

Greece, there was no central government that

ruled all of Greece. If you know anything about

the Greeks, fiercely independent. They didn't

like the idea of central government. So each

area within Greece, including all the islands

there in the Aegean Sea, were ruled as part of

a concept called the polis. Very important word,

or the city -state. So each region, each city

-state had its own set of laws, its own temples,

its own fortifications, its own armies. And some

of these polises were small. Some of them had

vast amounts of mountainous land. Some of them

were even just individual islands there in the

Aegean Sea. So most prominently, you had like

the polis of Athens, and you had the polis of

Sparta. and the polis of Thebes, and the polis

of Argos, and of course you had the polis of

Corinth. And in the classical period, most of

these city -states were ruled by something called

oligarchs, and that's a word you hear coming

up more and more these days in our political

discussions. Oligarchs, the word literally means

in the Greek, rule by a few. So in an oligarchy,

power was concentrated in the hands of just a

few men who were sort of recognized by the citizens

of that polis based on their family lines, based

on their wealth, and oftentimes based on their

military power. And sometimes these oligarchs

were benevolent rulers. They were good governors,

but more often than not, they were corrupt and

abusive. And later, some of these men would be

called tyrannos, where we get our word tyrant

from. because of their corruption and abuse.

And that was true in the polis of Corinth in

the 6th century BC. In fact, these two men, the

first one has lost his nose, sorry about that.

Sipsilus and his son, Periander, ruled as tyrants

over Corinth for more than 70 years in the 6th

century BC. When their days of power were over,

then Corinth suffered through a whole Long period

of instability. Rulers and leadership in government

that went up and down and all over the place.

And they struggled economically because this

Polish, just about 40 miles away, we call Athens,

began to become a more successful commercial

center. Still, the Corinthians were able to protect

their city. I'm going to give you a timeline

here. They were able to protect their city and,

in fact, sent soldiers. to be part of a Greek

confederacy that fought against multiple Persian

invasions. If you know anything about the story

of the Persians and the Greeks, some of you guys

have seen the movie 300. We talked about Xerxes

when we were in the book of Esther. This is where

those worlds sort of collide together. So they

sent soldiers to fight in these wars, first of

all against King Darius of Persia in the year

490 BC. Ten years later, when Xerxes brought

his massive army from Persia over to Greece,

the Corinthians were part of fighting that war

as well. That was in 480 BC. Now, 50 years after

those wars with Persia, and they had successfully

pushed the Persians away, well, then the city

-states did what so many human beings do. They

turned their attention to fighting with each

other. And they fought against each other in

what we call the Peloponnesian Wars. And in that

conflict, Corinth allied itself with Sparta.

against Athens and her allies, and they were

victorious in that. However, Corinth didn't win

its independence. Whereas it had been dominated

by Athens for a while, now it became dominated

by Sparta. And that continued for quite a while

until the year 338 BC when a brand new power

arose in the Greek mainland from the north, not

a classical Greek polis, not a democracy, but

a warrior state. ruled by a king. This is the

Macedonians. We hear a lot about Macedonia in

the New Testament. King Philip of Macedon, who's

Alexander the Great's father, was the first great

Macedonian king. He brought his forces south

and began picking off one Greek city -state after

another, moving south, defeating Thebes, defeating

Athens, defeating everybody. And eventually came

to Corinth and occupied Corinth as well. In fact,

he garrisoned the whole of his army in the city

of Corinth. And all of Greece basically, except

for Sparta, Sparta was sort of isolated. All

of Greece became Macedonian. That was just the

fact. Even after Philip's death, his son Alexander

made Corinth the administrative center. of his

force as he was planning to invade Persia himself.

And as we know, a dozen years after that, he

had absolutely annihilated the Persian Empire.

Now, fast forward past the days of Alexander

to the next great power, this one coming out

of the West, the ever -expanding Roman Empire.

In the 2nd century BC, Roman legions for the

first time begin showing up on the shores of

Macedonia. By 146 BC, 146 BC, they had crushed

every Greek army on the mainland, and in the

process of this, this is important, Rome completely

leveled the city of Corinth, knocked every stone

down, flattened it, put every single male in

the city to the sword, and sold every woman and

every child into slavery in 146 BC. For 100 years,

Corinth lay... in absolute ruins, flattened to

the earth, completely desolate, uninhabited.

And there was no sign that it was going to ever

rise again, except for the man we know as Julius

Caesar. And Julius Caesar in 44 BC looked at

the landscape of Corinth and saw its potential,

and he ordered the city to be rebuilt. Not just

rebuilt, but made the actual Roman capital of

the entire region of of what we call Achaia today.

So this rebirth of the city then brought a whole

new life to it. Corinth once again sprang from

the ground and it brought a whole new batch of

citizens to the region. Now it was flooded with

merchants and traders from all over the ancient

world. Roman soldiers were housed there, but

also retiring Roman soldiers who were given land

grants and a pension after their service all

came to Corinth. And we're going to find out

a good number of Jews as well. came from Israel

and settled in Corinth. So this is why I said

just a bit ago, by the time Paul gets there,

it's an old city, very ancient, but it's also

very new, having been rebuilt and reconstructed

under Roman power. And now, as we come to the

time of Christ, Corinth is now a very important

city and a very prosperous city. So let's fast

forward now to the time of Christ and beyond.

We'll get to Paul's connection to the city. And

first, we're going to do some maps. I promised

this on social media that we'll do some maps

today. Thank you very much, map fans over here.

We'll do a whole bunch of maps here. But this

is an important timeline to understand how Corinth

got to where it is by the time of Christ and

by the time of Paul. Okay, so real quick, let's

look at the Mediterranean world. Make sure we

get our bearings. And I've given you some important

places here. You see where Egypt is, and then

Israel, Syria to the north, coming then west,

you have Asia Minor, Italy, and the dots are,

what's the blue dot? Blue dot's always Jerusalem,

good. That orange dot is called Syrian Antioch.

That's the launching point for all of Paul's

missionary journeys. This is where he starts

out of. And just as a sort of a boundary, you

have the red dot, which is what? Rome. Okay,

where is Greece in the middle of all this? Okay,

it's right there. So it's smack dab in the middle

of the Mediterranean world, and you can see why

this would be such an important place for any

nation to occupy. So now we're going to zoom

in into this area here, and just we have Asia

Minor, Macedonia to the north, Greece to the

south, and what is that island I've circled there?

Bonus points, Crete, very good. So we just recently

came out of Titus, right, which was Paul's letter

to Titus on the island of Crete. So that's where

that is. And then just one last thing here. Anybody

know what that is? It's called the Peloponnese.

And it looks distinct from Greece, but there's

a little landmass called an isthmus, say that

word, that connects the Peloponnese to mainland

Greece. That's very important. for Corinth, and

we'll come back to that in just a moment. Okay,

so let's get to a timeline here. I want you to

now go to the year 46 AD. We've now crossed from

44 BC, 100 years later, 46 AD. The Apostle Paul

and his partner Barnabas are on what we call

his first missionary journey, and they sail out

of Antioch. in Syria, and they first visit the

island of Cyprus, and then they go to a place

called Pamphylia, and then they go to Pisidian

Antioch and through a number of locations that

later will come to be known as the Galatian churches,

Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, the Galatian churches,

and they come back in 48. at the end of this

first missionary journey, and they come back

because they're being called to a very specific

event, a very important event in the book of

Acts. In the year 49, they attend what's called

the Jerusalem Council. You find it in Acts 15.

It's a very important marker for the church that

you should know about. That is where all the

apostles and sort of the elders of the missionary

movement came to decide, what do we do with all

these Gentiles who are coming to faith in Christ?

Before this, everybody coming to faith was Jewish.

They had a background in the Hebrew scriptures.

But now everywhere we go, we're finding Gentiles

with pagan backgrounds. They're coming to faith

in Christ. So the elders and apostles got together

and said, what do we do with these people? What

do we require of them in order to be considered

believers? So they go to the Jerusalem council.

I don't have time to unpack all that. But the

following year, then Paul and Barnabas, they

go their separate ways. And Paul takes on a new

partner by the name of Silas, and they start

out on what we call the second missionary journey

around the year 50. And so they go back to some

of those churches that they had planted, and

they deliver to them the news about, here's what

was decided at the Jerusalem council. And they're

talking to Gentiles, they're going, good news,

you don't have to become Jewish to be a follower

of Christ. So he delivers that news to them.

And then in the next year, the year 51, after

being divinely prohibitive from preaching in

Asia and Bithynia, Paul, Silas, and Timothy all

together now find themselves in a very important

place. I'm going to put it on a map. A couple

important cities in Asia Minor. There's where

Ephesus is. That green dot is Troas. Paul, Silas,

and Timothy find themselves in this port city

called Troas. And in this moment comes another

one of the most important moments in the history

of the church. It's described in Acts chapter

Acts 16 · chapter mention

16, and I'll read it to you here. It says this,

a vision appeared to Paul in the night. Okay,

he's in Troas. He gets a vision. A man of Macedonia

was standing and appealing to him, saying, come

over to Macedonia and help us. When he had seen

the vision, immediately we sought to go into

Macedonia, concluding that God had called us

to preach the gospel to them. What was your first

clue? Right? Yeah. We just got a vision saying,

come over here. We've decided that's a good idea.

We should do that because this is what God is

calling us to. So they hop on a ship from Troas

across the Aegean Sea and they land in Macedonia.

Okay, so there's a couple more dots on here for

you to look at. They land in Macedonia. They

eventually make their way to Philippi, that kind

of orangish dot in the northern part of Macedonia.

Remember, that's where they meet Lydia, and they

plant a church there in Philippi. Of course,

later, the letter to the Philippians. And then

after spending a night in jail there, remember,

and being miraculously freed, Paul and his friends

make their way further south into Thessalonica.

where they plant the Thessalonian church, and

then on to a place called Berea, that light blue

dot. So all of that is up in Macedonia. And then

finally, they leave Macedonia. They begin to

travel south into the region of Achaia, and they

arrive in the city of Athens, this glorious Greek,

the ultimate Greek city of Athens. And it's there

where Paul delivers his famous sermon to all

the philosophers on this place we call Mars Hill.

All this is in the book of Acts. We come to Acts

18 then. We see Paul leaving Athens. This time

he leaves without Silas and Timothy, and he comes

to Corinth for the first time. So this is the

important moment. Corinth is that red dot, and

you can see where Sparta is as well. That location

is incredibly important. Paul comes to Corinth.

What happens when he arrives in Corinth? Well,

right off the bat, he meets an important couple.

We call them in English, we always say Aquila

and Priscilla or whatever. Their names in Greek,

Aquilos and Priscilla. That's for another day.

We'll just go with the English, but that's how

they were pronounced. But these were Jewish believers

in Christ. They're in Corinth. They were from

Pontus, which is in Asia Minor, and they had

been living in Rome, but Emperor Claudius, we

know this historically, expelled the Jews out

of the city of Rome. So Aquila and Priscilla

had to leave Rome, and they ended up in Corinth,

and they meet Paul. And Paul stays with this

couple and joins them in their trade, which is

what? Tent making. And they make tents together

while they're out evangelizing and teaching about

the gospel. So we're told, and I'll give you

the date here. This is in 51 to 52. We're told

that every Sabbath, Paul would go to the synagogue

there in Corinth. Okay, Paul always started with

his fellow Jews. We know this from the book of

Romans, right? He has a great heart for his people,

the ethnic Jews. And he would go to the synagogue

and reason with them, trying to win them to Christ.

And then Silas and Timothy eventually come down

to Corinth as well. And whatever they bring to

the table, now it says that Paul's able to devote

100 % of his time to preaching and teaching.

But what happens in the synagogue? The same thing

that happens everywhere Paul goes. His boldness

prompts a hostile reaction from the unbelieving

Jews. And we shouldn't be surprised by that,

right? The Jews are very set in what they believe.

They have the Torah. They have their scriptures.

And what they believe is happening is, here's

Paul. He's an apostate Jew who is preaching this

new faith in the way they're thinking. And it

doesn't make sense to them because God hasn't

yet opened their eyes. And so they react very

hostily. to Paul. So he has to leave the synagogue

and start focusing on evangelizing the Greeks

there in Corinth. To do that, the Bible tells

us that he set up headquarters in the house of

a man named Titius Justice, who was a Gentile

God -fearer. He had been in the synagogue worshiping

as a Gentile. Now he pulls away from there. Paul

sets up his ministry in his house. And where

is his house located? Right next door to the

synagogue. I love that little detail. Paul's

like, fine, I'm going to go right over here and

I'll talk to the Gentiles and you'll see me doing

that. I just love that. And by the grace of God,

Paul's efforts are successful. Gentiles start

getting saved. They're submitting to baptism.

In fact, the leader of the synagogue, a man named

Crispus, we're told, becomes a believer along

with the rest of his household. But even with

the good news that's going on, Paul knows he

is stirring up a hornet's nest in Corinth. The

Jews are getting more hostile. And it becomes

obvious that Paul is concerned for his safety.

Here's how we know that. Listen to how God comforts

him in the midst of this. This is Acts chapter

Acts 18 · chapter mention

18. Paul's in Corinth. He's worried about his

safety. And the Lord said to Paul in the night

by another vision, do not be afraid any longer,

Paul, but go on speaking and do not be silent

for I am with you. How comforting would that

be? And no man will attack you in order to harm

you. Look at this now. For I have many people

in this city. What a statement of assurance that

must have been for Paul. God speaks to him directly

in a vision. He commits his own hand of protection

over Paul's ministry. And he says, look, I'm

sovereign over the entire population in Corinth,

every person. And I have many people there that

belong to me. And what a brilliant illustration

this is. For those of us, who hold to a balanced,

reformed view of salvation, this is a beautiful

example for us. Think about this. Those who often

attack our view about salvation, about election,

they will say, well, look, if God elects some

to salvation, what's the point of praying? What's

the point of evangelizing? God is gonna save

whoever he marks out, whether you get involved

or not. So why would you pray? Why would you

evangelize? But we know, biblically, that is

a distortion of the truth. And this passage,

gives us a perfect response. We affirm this.

Yes, God will save whom he will save. We affirm

that. But God works through secondary causes,

like Paul, like you, like me, like all of us,

to accomplish his will on the earth by bringing

sinners to repentance and salvation. It's not

that he needs us to save people, right? He doesn't

need anything, but it's part of his sovereign

will to work through us. If Paul didn't think

he had a role to play in this process, he would

have said, oh, thank you, Lord, for letting me

know that you have a whole bunch of people in

this city. Now I can move on to somewhere else.

Right? But he does the opposite. It's precisely

because God said, I have many that belong to

me here, that Paul said, great, I'm staying.

Do you understand the importance of this? For

our view of salvation, Paul says, precisely because

of that, I am going to stay. And we're told in

verse 11 that he settles there a year and six

months, which is much longer than Paul ever wanted

to stay anywhere because he's a mover. But he

says, look, if God has many here, I've got a

role to play here. And this principle is true

for us today. We know in Santa Clarita, God has

marked out many for salvation. He is sovereign

to save. But that doesn't mean we go, oh, well,

good. We can go sit on the couch and watch TV

and God will somehow save people, right? He doesn't

need us, but it's our job to go. And it's our

job to seek those who need Christ, to share the

gospel, to lead them towards repentance and faith.

And you know what? If they do, if we're out there

and we go and we talk to people and they receive

Christ by faith, guess what? We will know that

God had marked them out from the beginning. That's

what the Bible tells us, that they belonged to

him even before the world was made. And that

somehow, and this blows my mind, that God gave

us the privilege of playing a small role, participating

in seeing people come to know Christ. That's

how God works. He's the primary cause. He's the

one who saves, but he works through his servants.

Amen? What a great passage. Highlight this. Underline

it. If people start asking you, why do you believe

about election? Wow, right? What a great passage

for that. So Paul chooses to stay in Corinth

for a year and a half. And immediately in the

text, we see God doing exactly what he promised,

protecting Paul. The very next verse says this.

While Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews

with one accord rose up against Paul and brought

him, really it's dragged him before the judgment

seat. Paul was concerned about this. He knew

things were getting tense, and he gets dragged

before the judgment seat. A couple important

things here. First of all, this is another example

of why history matters, why it helps us to trust

the text. You say, well, why would a proconsul

be in Corinth? That's a very important office.

It's like the governor of our state. Well, the

answer is, it's because we know Julius Caesar

made Corinth the capital of that region of Achaia.

So it's historically true. That's important.

Second, look at the phrase judgment seat at the

end of the verse there. It's just one word in

the Greek. It's bema. Just one word. Two big

things about the bema. Once again, we know by

archaeology it is a historically accurate feature

of Corinth. Excavations at the ancient site have

literally uncovered the platform where the bema

was located. We know that's true. But what's

cool about this is Paul is later, in writing

to the Corinthians, is going to use the image

of the bema In two different places, in chapter

three of 1 Corinthians, he's gonna talk about

when the day comes when believers' works will

be tested by fire. And the picture is, it's gonna

be tested at Abema, at the judgment seat, your

works. Not you, but your works, the things that

you did. Did you do them for the glory of God

or for the glory of self? They'll be tested by

fire. Then in 2 Corinthians, he's gonna write,

for all of us must appear before God. The judgment

seat of Christ, the Bema of Christ. So the Corinthians

receiving these two letters, they completely

understand. This is one of those cultural archaeological

nuances that help us with the text. They fully

understand what Paul is talking about when he

mentions the Bema. So the Jews seize Paul, they

bring him up on charges before Galileo, but guess

what happens? By God's sovereign grace and protection,

this Gentile governor, who couldn't care less

about Christianity, dismisses all the charges

against Paul outright and completely frees him

and lets him keep teaching in Corinth. God was

faithful to his promise in the vision. So he

spends 18 months in the city and he plants the

Corinthian church there. And then we're told

that Paul sails back towards his home base in

Syrian Antioch. And he comes with Priscilla and

Aquila. And then they stop at the very important

city of Ephesus in the year 53. This is important.

This is likely when the Ephesian church is planted.

Paul doesn't stay there long. He leaves Priscilla

and Aquila there and he goes back to Antioch.

But then he doesn't stay at home long either.

Very soon after, he goes off on his third missionary

journey in 53. Once again, takes a similar route.

He goes to Asia Minor. He strengthens all those

Galatian churches. Then he comes back to Ephesus.

This is where everything becomes important for

the letter to the Corinthians. He comes back

to Ephesus. Remember, he was only there briefly.

He comes back there and we're gonna find out

he spends two years ministering there in Ephesus.

So where does he go first? To the synagogue in

Ephesus, okay? Three months it says in the book

of Acts that he tried to reason with the Jews

to come to salvation in Christ. And when they

hardened their hearts, he withdrew and he set

up his teaching ministry. I love this part. In

what? A school. Yeah, he set up his ministry

for two years in a school, and he taught the

Gentiles from this school. So much so, it says,

all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord,

both Jews and Greeks, because of Paul's teaching

ministry. Now, here's where it really gets interesting.

While he's in Ephesus, Paul receives some unfavorable

reports about what's happening across the ocean,

across the sea, over in the Corinthian church.

So he sits down and he writes a letter to them

and he sends it by messenger. Now this first

letter is not our 1 Corinthians. We're going

to find out that 1 Corinthians is actually 2

Corinthians. 2 Corinthians is actually 4 Corinthians.

But I'm jumping ahead. He writes a first letter,

not 1 Corinthians, and not preserved for us.

Not one manuscript of this letter has ever been

found. It's not part of the canon, obviously,

because we don't even have it. But Paul talks

about it in our 1 Corinthians. He says in chapter

5, he says, I wrote you in my letter not to associate

with immoral people. That's 1 Corinthians 5,

9. So he himself says, hey, remember that letter

I sent you? And it may have been a very short

letter that he just fired off and sent to Corinth.

And we're going to find out they didn't understand

what he was, they didn't get it. So when he writes

1 Corinthians, you have to bring more corrections

to what he previously wrote. And there's more

of this to come there in Ephesus. Remember, he's

across the Aegean Sea in Asia Minor on the coast

in Ephesus. And then he hears from a woman named

Chloe. Her name is in the text. This Christian

woman who lives in Corinth by the name of Chloe.

And she writes and says, all kinds of divisions

are happening in our church. People are lining

up behind certain preachers and the unity of

this brand new church is being destroyed. And

by the way, there's all kinds of sexual immorality

too that's running rampant through the church.

And she warns Paul about this. And then there's

more. It seems from the letter in 1 Corinthians

that a three -man delegation came from Corinth,

got on a ship, came over to Ephesus, visited

with Paul, and brought with them a list of questions.

Paul, we need help in Corinth. We have questions.

Will you write something down that helps us with

these issues? Questions about marriage and divorce,

about food sacrifice to idols, questions about

worship, about the Lord's table, about the practice

of spiritual gifts, about the resurrection. All

of these questions they put before Paul. And

then having received this, first of all, alarming

report from Chloe. about problems, and then this

list of questions from these men, this is when

Paul writes the letter of 1 Corinthians from

Ephesus in the year 54. Does that comport in

your brain? So you see the timeline there. It's

very, very important. Okay. Big drink. Can we

talk about Corinth itself now? Because when we

get into the interpretation of this letter, We're

going to see all kinds of weird cultural things

in there that you have to know something about

the city in order to truly understand. So the

first thing to know is in the first century,

Corinth proper was located on a plateau overlooking

this thing I mentioned earlier, the Isthmus of

Corinth. See that red object there? It's a land

bridge. that connects the Peloponnese, this giant

landmass that at first glance might look like

an island, but it's not. It's connected by that

landmass, and then what you have is southern

Greece above that. So this isthmus, correct,

it is 20 miles long, and at its narrowest place,

it's four miles wide, four to eight miles wide,

okay? And what this isthmus creates is, you can

see it here, natural harbors on both sides of

it, okay? Perfect for trade. Perfect for ships.

Natural harbors. On one side, the Aegean Sea.

In the south and in the north, the Ionian Sea.

And the harbor, I'm going to give you another

map here that gives you some actual color to

it. The harbor on the Ionian side is called Lecheon.

That's the yellow dot you see there. The harbor

on the Aegean side is called Sencria. which is

the green dot. And Sancria is actually a place

that shows up multiple times in the New Testament.

In fact, when we learn later on about the deaconess

named Phoebe, we're told that she comes from

the church of Sancria, which is that green dot

there. And one of the interesting features about

this isthmus is how it was used by ship captains.

Here's what's interesting. Apparently... The

tip of the Peloponnese, if you were to sail around

the tip of Greece, the Peloponnese, notorious

for violent storms. Ship captains did not like

sailing around that route. It added 200 miles

to their route, but it was also very dangerous.

So what the Corinthians did was they built an

overland ship road. See that little red line?

That connected the two bodies of water. So what

would happen is if a ship came and they were

coming down from the Gulf of Corinth there and

they wanted to get across the Isthmus, they would

harbor there, they would offload their cargo,

it would be transported four miles across the

road and reloaded onto another ship. That was

the safest way to do it. If the ship was small

enough, they had the technology to lift the ship

out of the water and using a roller system, move

it to the other body of water. This is one of

the things that made Corinth very, very prosperous.

By the way, that road is still visible today

if you go to Corinth. So, in fact, I'll give

you, there it is today, still with the ancient

stones. Now, it's been upgraded. I'll show you

that picture later, but those stones still exist.

That's where they would drag the cargo across

the Isthmus. It's called the Dialkos Road. That's

a word in Greek that literally means, ready,

to drag across. Makes perfect sense. Perfect

sense. By the way, here's an image of the harbor

at Sancria. So you see some of the ancient stones

that are still there on that side of the Isthmus.

Now, the population in Corinth in the days of

Paul is a little bit difficult to estimate all

kinds of numbers, but it's definitely in the

hundreds of thousands of people. It's a big city.

In fact, scholars believe that Corinth was...

was in the top five or six most populous cities

in the ancient world. And much of that size was

due to its location, due to its commercial power

as a crossroads for trading. Whether you're going

north to south or you're going from the Peloponnese

to the mainland or back, you have to go through

Corinth. So they could tax you and they could

be involved in that trade. It makes sense. They

became very prosperous. Luxuries from all over

the world came through their ports. Pottery,

bronze, brass, all the marble that was used in

all of the beautiful Greek buildings that we

so easily recognize. Most of it came through

Corinth. In fact, if you know anything about

architecture, these little things at the top

of columns are called capitals. And there were

three main styles in the ancient world. There

was a Doric, the most simple, then the Ionian,

and the most ornate, the most beautiful, the

most creative. were the Corinthian capitals,

and you see those all over the place. So Corinth

was known for this, for its beauty, its wealth,

its learning, its international flavor, and also

for its many, many vices. And that is important

to understand. In fact, speaking of vices, let's

talk about the gods that are worshipped in Corinth.

The most notable feature in the city of Corinth

is known as the Acrocorinthus. See that giant

mountain? It's the most notable feature of the

city. It's almost 2 ,000 feet high, and it rises

up on this plateau just north of the city. In

the days of Paul, at the very top of that mountain

was a massive pagan temple. If you've ever been

to Israel, you know this is true. They always

put temples where? At the highest point of a

city. It was designed for worship. And so the

massive temple on the top of that mountain, a

temple to the pagan goddess Aphrodite. the goddess

of love. And the Greek historian Strabo writes

in his journal that the temple of Aphrodite was

so filled with riches, get this now, it was able

to house more than a thousand temple slaves dedicated

to the worship of Aphrodite. Some were men, mostly

women, and they served as temple prostitutes.

That's how you worshiped Aphrodite. was by visiting

the temple prostitutes. Strabo writes that it's

on account of these women that the city was perpetually

crowded with travelers and merchants, and they

freely squandered their money worshiping Aphrodite

on that mountain, right? And you can sort of

picture that, right? I don't know if you want

to think it's Las Vegas or whatever, right? It's

the place you go to sin. And that's what's going

on here. In fact, the sexual depravity of the

city was so well known that the Greeks coined

a term to Corinthianize that described what it

meant to be a prostitute, what it meant to be

involved in fornication. But it wasn't just Aphrodite.

In Paul's day, there's no less than a dozen.

pagan temples in different parts of the city.

Worship sites dedicated to Athena, Poseidon,

Hermes, Isis, Heracles, and more. And one very

prominent temple right smack dab in the middle

of the city itself dedicated to Apollo, who was

the god of music and poetry and archery and healing.

And by the way, Apollo was said to be the son

of Zeus and the twin brother of Artemis. Artemis

of the Ephesians, the patron goddess of Ephesus,

just across the sea. So you had Apollo and you

had Artemis, twins in the pantheon of gods. Today,

seven of the 38 columns in the temple to Apollo

are still standing. You can visit them today.

In the northern part of the city, you find something

called the Agora. which was present in every

Greek city. It's the marketplace. And the marketplace

there was part of this large courtyard. And that

is where the Bema seat was also found. That's

where it was a speaker's platform. So government

officials would use the Bema seat in the courtyard

of the Agora of Corinth to speak to the people.

In fact, here's a picture of the platform that

still stands to this day. So you would have this

platform and a big seat up there where Galio

or whoever would sit there, and you had benches

in the back and benches on the side. And this

is where all the important business of the city

took place. Again, that idea of Bema is going

to come into play in both Corinthian letters.

And then this is just an artist's rendering of

the city based on archaeological work that's

been done there. So you see how the city was

laid out. You have this massive theater. which

was very important to the Greeks in the front,

that A, that's the temple of Apollo that was

right in the middle of the city, and B, that's

where the courtyard, the agora was, and where

the bema seat was located. And it's important

to understand all that. So... A couple more important

things. In all the streets that led into that

courtyard, you would find shops and taverns.

In fact, along all the city streets, archaeologists

have dug up just a boatload of drinking vessels

and cups. In his writing, Strabo says that all

the people of Corinth gorged themselves constantly.

He says it's even customary that when actors

come on the stage in the theater that they would

come out drunk. That was just a normal thing

in Corinth. A couple more important things to

note. We know that the Corinthians took great

interest in philosophy. They loved great orators.

They loved stage plays. That theater held, according

to... Scholars who have dug it up there held

up to 18 ,000 people. Basically the size of a

large college basketball arena today. They loved

their plays. The final thing I'll mention is

they also loved athletics. Corinth hosted the

second most important athletic games in the Greek

world, the Isthmian Games. I'm just gonna have

to keep saying that word. Second only to the

Olympics in the Greek world. So they loved that

as well. All that to say, just to summarize what

Corinth was about, I'm going to put up an AI

image just because I love this. You've got to

get a flavor for what this felt like. This is

a great image. Could you imagine being a Christian

missionary and you're walking into this and you

see the worship of pagans everywhere? It's wild.

The world of the first Corinthians was very much

like our cities today. That's important to understand.

where there's a thirst for wealth and power and

beauty and intellectualism, but most of all,

a thirst and a hunger for all kinds of forms

of comfort and pleasure, which is what we as

Americans are driven by, comfort and pleasure.

They were a proud people, affluent, materialistic,

and based on what we're gonna read in this letter,

a lot of that seeped into the young Christian

church, right? So much of American culture seeps

into our church today, which we have to be on

guard for. Now, as for modern -day Corinth, it's

very interesting with what God has done with

this once -powerful city. The ancient biblical

city today is nothing but a small village. Nobody

lives there. It's really just open to tourists

who want to come and see the ruins. That's it.

There is a modern -day city of Corinth a few

miles away. It calls itself Corinth. There's

only 30 ,000 people that live there, about a

tenth the size of Santa Clarita. So it's not

what it once was, that's for sure. And as for

that road that went across the Isthmus, that's

what it looks like today. In the late 1800s,

the Greek government finally, with all the engineering

that was required, built a canal that connects

those two bodies of water. So it's a very different

place than it was back in Paul's day. Good? Bookmark

this sermon so that you have to go back and go,

wait, what? Give me the context again. It's very

important. But before we're done, we're going

to go back. Go back to your Bibles. Let's go

back to those first three verses. I just want

to make a few comments about the first three

verses, and then we'll wrap up. 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:1–3

1, verses 1 through 3. There's actually some,

sometimes, have you ever noticed when you read

your Bibles, you sort of read right past the

greeting? Right? We're just like, let's get to

the meat. But there's actually a ton of really

important stuff in here. Verse 1, Paul. Called

as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of

God and Sosthenes, our brother. And here's all

this very simple verse communicates to us. Paul

knew exactly who he was. He knew what his purpose

was in life. And he knew how he got there. That

is so important for every one of us in this room.

We say again, he knew who he was. He understood

his purpose. And he knew how he got to that place.

Those are valuable things for all of us to know

about ourselves. No matter what you do for a

living or don't do for a living, to know who

you are in Christ makes a huge difference. Paul

was called, and I think a clear way to say that

is he was divinely appointed by God to be an

apostle of Jesus Christ, meaning he was uniquely

chosen by the Lord to be a special seminary,

emissary, I should say. a special emissary, an

ambassador and spokesman who wielded inspired

authority. This is why we talk about the apostolic

office is closed. He wields an inspired authority

on behalf of the one who called him to that role

and sent him into the world. Apostles were unique

for that day. And that unique calling Paul knew

was, I'm gonna get rid of that. Paul knew was

not because he was all that special. This is

so important. I'm going to click one more time.

This is so important. Paul calls himself the

chief of sinners, doesn't he? He knew that this

was a gift from God, that it was by the will

of God alone, nothing special in him, by the

will of God alone, that he had been called to

be an apostle. And now it was God's will that

he, of all people, be called to go into the Gentile

world. to places like Corinth and to speak the

truth on behalf of the king of kings, calling

men and women to repent of their sins and submit

to the lordship of Christ by faith. Paul knew

that was his purpose and he knew it was only

because of the will of God and therefore God

would be faithful to carry out his mission. And

then we have this man Sosthenes. Who is he? Well,

earlier we talked about how in Acts 18, Paul

moved his ministry away from the synagogue right

next door to the synagogue and how a man named

Crispus, who had been a leader of synagogue,

came to know Christ. Well, it appears that Sosthenes

was the guy who replaced him. When the one guy

stepped down from the synagogue, Sosthenes took

his place. If you read Acts 18, what happens

is Paul gets dragged before Galio, the proconsul,

and he dismisses the charges and the people riot

and they beat a man called Sosthenes because

he was the new leader of the synagogue. And then

later on, we read 1 Corinthians and wow, by God's

grace, we find out that Sosthenes who had protected

Paul on that day and got beaten for it, is now

a believer in Christ. He's our brother. That's

pretty cool, huh? Verse two, to the church of

God, which is at Corinth, notice that Paul wants

us to see who the church belongs to. Who does

it belong to? Say it with me. God. Now that sounds

straightforward, right? But how often do we find

ourselves identifying a church with a person,

usually a pastor? And we say, that's so -and

-so's church. Stop doing that. I don't care how

great a pastor he is, how great a preacher he

is. Stop doing that. The universal church belongs

to God. It is the body of Christ. And every true

local church also belongs to him. Even troubled

churches like the one in Corinth. Christ is king.

Christ is Lord over every assembly of believers

who gather in his name, who gather in spirit

and truth to worship him, including the church

at Oak Hill. Please never say this is Jeff's

church. I rebuke it. It is God's church. I know,

again, something really simple, but really, really

profound. And verse two continues, to those who

have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints

by calling, with all who in every place call

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord

and ours. Notice the two key words here, sanctified

in calling. Listen, friends, take note that both

of those things come from God. They are not things

that we have the ability to initiate or generate

on our own. They come from God. So right out

of the gate, Paul is being very careful to emphasize

that the standing of the believers in Corinth

is solely the result of God's grace manifested

through the gospel in Jesus Christ. Because we

don't initiate our sanctification. We don't initiate

our calling. It comes from God. And therefore,

nobody in Corinth had any grounds to boast in

themselves. It's all grace as a gift from God.

And in spite of all the problems in this church,

Paul wants the believers to know, look, you've

been sanctified in Christ. What does that mean?

That you've been set apart for his glory. You've

been set apart for his use and his purposes.

He wants them to know about that truth. You're

sanctified, and therefore that should affect

every area of your life, how you think, how you

feel, and all the choices that you make. You've

been sanctified. And he says, they're not only

saints, but saints because of God's electing

call upon their lives. Notice he doesn't say

they will become saints, right, by doing some

long list of good works or by improving their

lives. Paul calls them saints in the present

tense. In spite of the sin of the church, he

says, in the present tense, you are saints. To

be a saint is not to be some kind of higher than

everybody else. Christian, as the Catholic Church

would teach. The term saint refers to ordinary

believers like you and I, redeemed by the blood

of Christ and now called to match that identity

with how we live. Saints, very important. And

then there at the end of verse two, you see Paul

expressing his desire that this letter, although

it's addressed to the Corinthian church, he wants

it to be received by churches everywhere. He

says all. All believers who in every place call

on the name of the Lord. That means that the

principles that he's about to write in 1 Corinthians,

they apply in the church at Philippi, in the

church of Ephesus, in Thessalonica, in the church

in Stevenson Ranch. These principles apply. Amen?

Listen, too many people over the years, they've

looked at letters like this and they've said,

well, we're going to avoid those teachings because

we're just going to insist that all those things

only applied in the first century. That Paul

was just talking to the believers then, not to

us today. Guys, this is how people try to get

around hard teachings. See, if I don't like something

that's written in here, I just go, oh, that only

applied to the first century Corinthians, not

to me. What's the basis for your taking that

position? I don't like the teaching. I don't

want it to apply to my life. That is a classic

argument. Well, that's time bound to that culture.

But what Paul says here at the end of verse two

is, nope, nope, to all believers in every place.

That's so important to see. Finally, grace to

you and peace from God our Father and the Lord

Jesus Christ. This is a favorite of Paul's, right?

Notice grace is always first and peace is always

second. That's because God's grace is the source

of our peace. Without his grace, you really can't

have his peace. Amen? That's important. And then

the last thing I'll say, and then we'll all be

done. Look, as we're getting ready to jump into

this letter, we all know that the Corinthian

church was a mess. That is its reputation. All

the problems, right? We talk about it all the

time. But this dawned on me last night. Sometimes

I just... Ask Tanya. I step back and I look at

my computer screen and I just stare at it. Like,

I need to reflect on what's going on here. And

it hit me last night. The timing of all this.

Guys, as Paul's writing 1 Corinthians, Christianity

as a faith apart from Judaism is only about 20

years old. 20. This church is only a few years

old. The believers there, the vast majority of

them would have been absolutely baby believers.

Would we not expect some problems? Would any

of us done any better than these folks? And I

think we see here, Paul's aware of that. He knows

that grace abounds. He knows how much time it's

gonna take for spiritual maturity to develop

in Corinth. And I think this comes through, both

in these first three verses and all the way through

verse nine. Paul doesn't come off angry or frustrated.

In fact, he's quite thankful and optimistic.

In spite of the problems, he says, you guys are

saints by calling. You are sanctified in Christ.

You have a true testimony that Christ is confirmed

in you, he says. And so these were men and women

Paul knew. He knew them personally, right? They

were the fruits of his church planting ministry.

And one of the things about ministry is one thing

to step back and go, I'd like to minister to

that mass of unknown people. But when you actually

get in there and meet people and minister to

them face to face and know them personally, it's

a game changer. Paul knew these people. He's

writing as a spiritual father. And it's like

a father who sees this son who has all of this

potential. But right now, in this moment, he's

beset with temptations and with all kinds of

problems. And so Paul, like a good father, says,

I want to see you start to grow. I want you to

see you start to mature. And that's where we're

headed next week. Amen? Let's bow our heads.

Father, thank you for the encouragement of even

just a few verses from your word. How you have

spoken through the Apostle Paul in just simple

terms, Lord. But by doing that, communicated

so many important truths to us. And Lord, I know

that as we prepare our hearts for this series,

we all kind of have a feeling of what was going

on in Corinth and the difficulties they faced.

And so I just want to pray for myself and for

my brothers and sisters here in this church in

this time that we would have grace as well, that

we would see our own sins in the church at Corinth,

that we would be become more and more aware of

the things that we're tempted with and maybe

the subtle things that we engage in that we maybe

weren't aware of. And so, Father, I pray that

as we talk about seeing people like the first

century Corinthians, talk about seeing them spiritually

mature, that that would be a challenge to us.

in Stevenson Ranch in the 21st century. Father,

we ask that you would go before us in this journey

that we just started on. And Lord, it may last

a couple of years, we don't know, but we know

that your spirit will be powerful, that he will

work in us and he will grow us and lead us and

guide us into truth. And for that, Lord, we are

eternally thankful. So thank you for the start

this morning. Be glorified now as we respond

in song. Again, let our praise be not just from

our lips, but from the depths of our heart that

you might be glorified in this place. In Christ's

name we pray. Amen.