Farewell (1 Corinthians 16:1-24)

So, like I said, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and we're gonna be reading the whole chapter.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

So, if you're able, will you please stand for the reading of God's word?

Oh, I've got to turn my mic on.

I should probably do that.

There we go.

Okay, that's probably better.

1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 1 through 24.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

Now, about the collection for the saints, do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches.

On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering, so that no collections will need to be made when I come.

When I arrive, I will send with letters those you recommend to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

If it is suitable for me to go as well, they will travel with me.

I will come to you after I pass through Macedonia, for I will be travelling through Macedonia, and perhaps I will remain with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I go.

I don't want to see you now just in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, because a wide door for effective ministry has opened for me.

Yet many oppose me.

If Timothy comes, see that he has nothing to fear while with you, because he is doing the Lord's work just as I am.

So let no one look down on him.

Send him on his way in peace, so that he can come to me, because I am expecting him with the brothers.

Now about our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers, but he is not at all he was not at all willing to come now.

However, he will come when he has an opportunity.

Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong, do everything in love.

Brothers and sisters, you know the household of Stephanus.

They are the first fruits of Achaea, and have devoted themselves to serving the saints.

I urge you also to submit to such people and to everyone who works and labors with them.

I'm delighted to have Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus present, because these men have made up for your absence, for they have refreshed my spirit and yours.

Therefore, recognize such people.

The churches of Asia send you greetings.

Aquila and Priscilla send you greetings warmly in the Lord, along with the church that meets in their home.

All of the brothers and sisters send you greetings.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

This greeting is in my own hand.

Paul, if any one does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.

Our Lord come.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this last chapter that we have in 1 Corinthians.

Lord, I pray just because there's so many details and so many things mentioned that we wouldn't just glaze over and try and get to the end.

But you would show us exactly what each one of us is to take away from this passage here today.

What each one of us, what you want each one of us to get from this so that we can become more like Jesus, so we can abide more closely with Jesus.

So I pray that you would speak to our hearts through your word here this morning, that you would use me not to say my own words, Lord, but to communicate what you want us as a body to understand here this morning.

Lord, we pray that you would do great and mighty and awesome things within your body here in this church, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So today, like I said, we get to finish the book of 1 Corinthians, which is always an exciting time as a church to be able to come to the end of a book.

So far, in our little over two years that we've been meeting on Sunday mornings, we've been able to go through the Gospel of Mark.

We've gone through the book of Romans, and then after today we'll be able to say we've gone through the book of 1 Corinthians.

And chapter 16 here this morning is interesting because Paul could have easily finished the book with chapter 15.

And no one would have known the difference, I don't think.

Because at the end of chapter 15, as we went over last week, he says, But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

We could have just ended it right there, right?

Isn't that a great way to end a book?

But the Holy Spirit had some last instructions and a few details that he wanted to share with this church in Corinth.

And it gives us here this morning a bunch of nuggets that we get to glean from here today.

And these nuggets don't necessarily wrap up into this nice theme that we can tie a bow on.

We're gonna just be getting these one nuggets at a time.

In a sense, it's gonna be a bunch of mini-sermons that I'm throwing out there to you.

Um because we're talking about travel plans and and things like that.

And then uh we're also gonna be pulling a lot from the book of Acts because that helps us with our timeline as we're going through and seeing what Paul's talking about with his travel plans and the various things uh that he mentions uh with Timothy and uh and things like that.

So I admit it's gonna be a little more scattered than normal here this morning because of the nature of this chapter, but I really believe there's a lot of different nuggets and a lot of different things that we can each glean from what Paul has to say, obviously, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to the church in Corinth.

So we're just gonna jump right in here with verse one.

He says, now about the collection for the saints, do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches.

On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering, so that no collection will need to be made when I come.

Here in these first three verses, Paul's referring to a collection that he's helping prepare for the church in Jerusalem.

You know, we see mentions of this gift multiple times in the New Testament, because not only was the church in Jerusalem experiencing a famine at this time, as we learn in Acts, but the church in Jerusalem was experiencing a lot of persecution as well.

This was a church that was in need.

We saw in Acts as well that they had a lot of widows that they were taking care of.

So they had a lot of needs, and because of the persecution, because of the famine, they needed help from the outside churches.

And Paul is saying, I don't want to spend time on this when I get to you.

It's like have that gift for the Jerusalem church ready to go.

You know, I'm not gonna go do some fundraising campaign, and I don't want people to feel coerced to give once I give there.

As we'll see, Paul really just wants to spend time with this church.

That's really what his heart is.

He doesn't want to be raising funds, he wants to spend time with the people.

So he gives them instructions on how they should be going about this.

He says, on the first day of the week, so he's talking about Sunday, most likely talking about when they're gathering together as a church.

He says, Each of you is to set something aside according to how each is prospering.

Now, here's one of the nuggets we can gain out of this.

The New Testament talks a lot about being very generous in our giving, very generous in taking care of one another.

And this passage uh really reinforces that.

When we get to 2 Corinthians, the next book that we're gonna go through, Paul's gonna reinforce it again.

He's gonna say in 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 7, he says, the point is this the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.

Each person should do as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.

And we see a lot of verses similar to this throughout the New Testament, but I want to talk about the concept of tithing.

Don't worry, we don't talk about this every week.

If you're new here, only when it's in the text.

But the concept of tithing is simply giving 10% of your increase to the Lord.

But that is not a New Testament concept.

It's a concept that comes from the law, specifically Numbers 18, as the Lord's telling Aaron, he was, you know, the high priest, that the Levite priests are to receive 10% from the Israelites to support their work that they were doing in the tabernacle.

So 10% is to fund the Levitical ministry.

And that's where we get that concept of tithing from that you've probably heard about if you've been in the church for any amount of time.

But people have actually gone through and they've done the math and they've added up what the Israelites were giving to the Lord in total.

You know, when you add in the offerings that they were bringing and the feasts and what they were giving to the poor and what they were giving to the widows, and it adds up to 23.3% on average per year that the Israelites were giving to the Lord.

But that was part of the law that God gave to Israel to both support and participate in the sacrificial system.

So Paul doesn't mention the word tithe here, I think partly because he's regarding to a special offering, not specifically the support of the church.

But he says in verse 2, on the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering.

So there's no set benchmark for followers of Christ today as far as giving goes.

It's actually more complicated for us.

The Israelites knew this is what I give and when I give it.

I personally would love a percentage.

I'm just like, this is how much you should be giving.

It's like, okay, there's my goal, that's what I'm gonna be doing.

Because I would just rather not think about it.

You know, I'd just rather just give me the percentage.

Instead, Paul says giving to give depending on how well you are prospering.

And don't give reluctantly and don't give out of compulsion.

You know, I said it this is more complicated for us today because it means we need to walk by the Spirit in our giving.

We need to pray about what God wants us to give, and then it says to give joyfully.

Without an attitude of, oh, I really could have used that money, but here you go, Lord.

Or, you know, feeling guilty because you're not giving that.

That's not what the Lord wants.

That's why in 2 Corinthians it says, each person should do as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.

You know, one of the reasons that we don't talk a lot about giving here at Abide, and one of the reasons we don't pass a plate around every Sunday to do an offering, is that we don't want anyone to ever give out of compulsion.

That's why we have the box back over there on the counter.

That's where all of the giving is to be.

You know, verse 2 in our text this morning says, set something aside, and then it says, save in keeping.

You know, it sure seems like Paul is saying, have it prepared before you get to church.

There is a seeking the Lord, there's a deciding in your heart, and there's a planning that's supposed to be involved with this, not out of compulsion, where you see the plate go by and you're like, I'm gonna feel really bad if I just keep passing and I don't at least put something in the plate.

You know, another reason that we don't talk a lot about money, you know, unless it's in our text like this morning, is that we realize that money is not an issue for God.

He doesn't need money.

You know, Scripture tells us that he owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

And have you seen beef prices lately?

It's through the roof, right?

God doesn't need our money.

We don't give to God because he needs it so badly.

The giving is for us.

You know, much like Jesus being the first fruits offering that we've been talking about so much regarding the resurrection, you know, where the Israelites would give the first bundle of their crop to the Lord, recognizing that this is the Lord's and the rest of my crop is the Lord's as well.

It's all his to begin with.

So here's the first fruits.

Our giving is to be no different.

It's saying, God, this is all your money to begin with.

And my giving is just recognizing that it's all yours to begin with in the first place, and I'll give of my first fruits, knowing that you will provide all that I need with the rest of my crop.

Or in our context, with the rest of our paycheck, most likely.

So I think the question, especially if we were raised with the concept of tithing, is what do we do if we've been giving 10% as a tithe to the church?

You know, should we continue?

Well, I'll just tell you how I view it, how my family views it for what it's worth, because I was raised in a 10% automatically going to God family, and I'll add that I'm very grateful that I was, that my parents taught me giving in that way, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

You know, I think if 10%, though, is what God called his people to do in order to support the ministry at the tabernacle in order to present to take care of the Levite priests, that's probably a good number for us to shoot for as well.

And that's what Michelle and I do.

But for everything above and beyond that, Michelle and I pray on that.

We decide which ministries to support regularly, which ministries to support one time.

You know, and sometimes there's just times where God says, just give that person money or give that ministry money.

You know, do this randomly, this one time, and and we do.

And that's just kind of how we approach that above and beyond the 10%.

And that's not patting ourselves on the back, it's just kind of what we've come to settle on as a family.

But I encourage you to take this to the Lord in prayer.

Ask him to lead you by his spirit with how you give, with what you do with those first fruits, and what you do above and beyond that as well.

And I can tell you from experience that if you are giving by the direction of the Holy Spirit, giving is a blast.

It's actually really, really fun.

It's so much fun because you get to be a part of what God is doing in someone else's life.

You get to be a part of God's kingdom work through that giving.

Now, we as a church, you know, that's that's not people up here.

We as a church, that's every person in every seat here.

We as a church get to be a part of what God's doing by giving.

Between 15 and 20% of everything that comes into this church goes back out into other ministries.

So we get to be a part of what God's doing with the deaf community in Guatemala.

We get to be a part of what Calvary Chapel Pedrogalis is doing in Mexico.

We get to be a part, as we prayed this morning, of what Talking Bibles is doing in India.

We get to be a part of what Tree of Life Pregnancy Center is doing within our own county.

We get to be a part of God's work through those ministries simply by giving to them.

So Paul's message to the Corinthians is I don't want you to be, I don't, I don't want to be a fundraiser when I get there.

I don't want you to give out of compulsion.

So each give as you can and have it ready before I get there.

Look at verse 3 with me.

When I arrive, I will send with letters those you recommend to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

If it is suitable for me to go as well, they will travel with me.

So when Paul arrives, he's saying, have some people ready.

You choose who those people are to carry that gift to Jerusalem.

And if it works out, Paul says, I'll go with them.

Maybe our travel plans will align and we can all go to Jerusalem together.

And as we'll see, Paul knows how to hold his travel plans lightly because he's used to getting disrupted in his travel plans.

But he's well versed in his travel plans, not working out exactly how he thought they were going to.

You know, something that's interesting about verse 3 here as we look at it is the word that Paul chooses for gift, and we have a slide for it so you can see it.

This isn't a word used for gift as in like a present that you're bringing to the church in Jerusalem.

It means grace, that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, grace of speech.

So he's saying to carry your grace instead of a gift, you know, to Jerusalem.

To carry your joy, to carry your pleasure and your delight.

You know, this really doesn't sound like a gift that's being given begrudgingly, does it?

This is a joyful gift given with delight that he is giving or he's telling them to carry to Jerusalem.

You know, I've always kind of pictured these people just, you know, they have this gift and they're walking the 1800 miles to Jerusalem or whatever.

But when you read it like this, like now I picture those people skipping to Jerusalem, right?

They have this gift and they're going with joy.

They're taking this delight with them.

So they're not giving this gift begrudgingly.

He's saying, take your joy, take that gift to Jerusalem in that way.

Verse 5.

I will come to you after I pass through Macedonia, for I will be traveling through Macedonia.

Paul's plan doesn't exactly work out exactly like he's planning here.

We're gonna see once we get into 2 Corinthians that Paul makes a very painful visit from Ephesus to Corinth and then back again.

You know, it's through that this letter that we're in, 1 Corinthians, um, it's thought that this letter went over so well once it was delivered to the Corinthians that Paul had to make a short visit to Corinth, directly from Ephesus, probably by Ephesus, probably by a boat, to try and smooth things out.

And then he had to come back to Ephesus once again.

And then he makes this journey that he's talking about now, up through Macedonia and then down into Corinth.

This is all based on what we're gonna be seeing in 2 Corinthians chapter 2.

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

So we're gonna dig into that later and not this morning.

For now, let's move on to verse 6.

It says, and perhaps I will remain with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I go.

So we see in Acts 20 that Paul ended up spending three months in Greece where things seemed to finally be patched up and smooth over for them.

But we talked earlier about how Paul looks at giving, you know, regarding this gift in Jerusalem.

You know, he's kind of hands-off, he tells them to take care of this before he arrives.

But here, it seems like he has no problem saying, I may spend the winter with you, and then you can send me.

It sure seems like he's saying, you can take care of me, and then you can provide for my next journey, my next leg of my missionary journey.

And he presents it as an opportunity for them to participate in his ministry.

Doesn't it?

The way he phrased it.

It's not, you know, if you're able and if you wouldn't mind, can you, you know, can I stay with you for three months and then, you know, you can send me on my way.

It's I'm gonna come to you and then you can send me.

You know, it's like this opportunity that he's presenting to them.

Paul is confident that he's doing the Lord's work and confident that the church should be supporting him in his missionary journey.

And he has no problem telling them that he's planning to show up, he's planning to, and then planning to be sent by them.

Because as churches, we should have no problem supporting missionaries and sending missionaries, and then when they're with us, meeting their needs while they are with us in that time as well.

That's part of the role that we have as a church.

Look at verse 7 with me.

I don't want to see you now, just in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

Those are very important words right there.

But I will say in Ephesus until Pentecost, because a wide door of effective ministry has opened for me, yet many oppose me.

We see in Acts 19 that Paul spent over two years in Ephesus, and at the time of this letter, he was still there, and he still had work to do.

But what is interesting is look at verse 9.

He says, A wide door of effective ministry is opened for me, yet many oppose me.

Does anybody here doubt that Paul was in God's will ministering in Ephesus?

That he was supposed to be there proclaiming the truth of the gospel for over two years to the Ephesians while also writing this letter while he was there that we're reading here today, 1 Corinthians.

You know, I tend to think he was probably in the center of God's will.

Yet it says, Many oppose me.

You know, this tells me that Paul didn't.

See opposition as a sign he was doing something wrong.

But a natural place to be when you're doing something right for the kingdom of God.

In 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 12 to 13, it says, Dear friends, don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you.

1 Peter 4:12–13

Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.

We shouldn't be surprised, it says here, when we have fiery ordeals, when we have fiery trials.

And these are, I admit, this is absolutely nothing compared to what Paul's talking about, what Paul's going through.

But whenever a projector bulb went out, or an ant blew, or a channel wasn't working, or a cable was broken, or whatever it might be, I remember my attitude in those times was why God?

Why on Sunday morning when we're trying to worship you, would you allow such things to happen to us?

I was surprised by those minor trials.

But everything changed when God taught me to change the question.

He taught me to change the question from, you know, why God?

Why us when we're trying to do this to what God?

What do you plan on doing through this technical difficulty?

What do you want us to learn from things not going exactly how we had planned?

You know, instead of seeing trials as an imposition, I started to look for the opportunity that God was providing.

Really believing that God could work all things.

All.

All means all.

He can work all things together for good.

You know, God's not going to allow a trial if it isn't for his glory in the end.

You know, recognizing this is huge if we can take it from why God to what God?

What do you want us to learn from this?

And it doesn't make trials fun, but it changes our perspective towards the trial that we're going through in the moment.

So we, like Paul, can honestly say, I've got some amazing ministry going on, and I've got opposition going on at the same time.

And so Paul says, I'm staying in Ephesus a while longer because there's still work to be done here.

Look at verse 10 with me.

If Timothy comes, see that he has nothing to fear while with you, because he is doing the Lord's work just as I am.

So let no one look down on him.

Send him on his way in peace, so that he can come to me, because I am expecting him with the brothers.

You know, my first question when I when I read this is why would Paul need to give this specific direction to the Corinthian church regarding Timothy?

Well, you know, we've seen that this church didn't really respect Paul or his authority.

And then here comes Timothy.

He's a guy that's even younger than Paul.

So I think Paul's probably worried about what they might do to this young man.

And the way that Paul writes his letters to Timothy, you kind of get the impression that he's probably not the most confident guy.

So I think this is Paul's fatherly protection coming out over Timothy, saying, you know, let no one look down on this guy, and then send him on his way in peace, Corinth.

You know, in peace.

So that he can come to me because I'm expecting him with the brothers.

And we'll see in 2 Corinthians that Timothy actually does end up uh joining up with Paul.

Look at verse 12 with me.

Now, about our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers, but he was not at all willing to come now.

However, he will come when he has an opportunity.

So we know that the Corinthian church was already very acquainted with Apollos because of what we saw in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, when Paul told him to stop saying that they are of Paul, or they are of Apollos, or that they are of Cephas, but to identify only with Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

So we saw Apollos right there.

So Paul says, I tried to encourage him to come to you, but he wouldn't listen, basically.

But he's gonna come at his next opportunity.

I find it interesting because it shows that two Christian leaders within the church can strongly disagree on an issue regarding God's kingdom work, and it doesn't mean one was right and one was wrong.

Paul obviously saw urgency in Apollos coming to the Corinthian church, and Apollos obviously saw urgency in being somewhere else.

You know, we see this with Paul and Barnabas as well in Acts 15.

It says that they disagreed so vehemently with each other about John and Mark that they ended up parting ways and going in two different directions, which was probably actually a benefit in the end because two teams went out instead of one.

So disagreement, you know, as far as the work of the ministry is not always a bad thing with how God's kingdom work should be done.

It doesn't always make one person right and another wrong.

Sometimes God just has two different plans to go in two different directions.

Uh, and then Paul has one last admonition uh here in this letter.

Verse 13, he says, be alert.

Really, don't be lulled to sleep.

Stay on your toes, watch, is what he's saying here.

It says, stand firm in the faith.

So keep on in the faith, in what you know to be true.

Don't waver.

Then he says, be courageous.

That means to make a man out of somebody, or to make brave.

That's the definition.

He says, and then be strong, increase in strength, continuously be strong is what he's saying.

And then in verse 14, he says, do everything in love.

In all of this alertness and courage and strength, he says, make sure you do this all out of love.

I think what he's really saying is, don't forget chapter 13.

They obviously didn't have the chapters back then, but that whole section on love that he just spoke about says, do everything in love.

You know, and I think Paul reminds them of this here because it's easy to get out of balance as believers.

One extreme saying it's all about truth at all costs.

Who cares who gets hurt or offended?

And then the other extreme is, you know, we need to love people and not hurt their feelings with the truth as long as they know that God loves them.

That's why I think in Scripture, truth and love are so often paired together.

1 Corinthians 13 6, as we went over a couple weeks ago, it says, love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in truth.

Ephesians 4 15 says, But speak the truth in love.

Let us grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ.

So he's saying, be all of these things, be alert, stand firm, be courageous, be strong, but don't be a jerk.

That's really kind of how he's labeling it here.

Be all of these things, he's saying, in love.

Because without love, what did it say in chapter 13?

We're just a noisy gong and a clinging symbol, making noise for no purpose and just annoying people.

Look at verse 15.

Brothers and sisters, you know the household of Stephanus.

They are the first fruits of Achaia and have devoted themselves to serving the saints.

Now we see in 1 Corinthians 1 16 that Paul actually baptized and his whole household, it says.

And the fact that Paul calls them the first fruits of Achaea probably means that they were the first converts in this region.

Achaia being the Roman province that Corinth was located in.

And then after these guys were baptized, then they devoted themselves to serving the saints.

In the King James Version, it says they addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.

You know, as we'll see in verse 16, these were church leaders that Paul's referring to here, Stephanus and his household.

Probably most likely elders of this church in Corinth.

They're most likely the ones that brought all of these issues to Paul in the first place for him to write this letter, and then probably the ones that brought the letter back to the Corinthian church, saying, here's Paul's response to all of our questions.

We'll see that a little bit in verse 17, but first let's look at the end of 15 through 16.

Paul goes on, I urge you also to submit to such people and to everyone who works and labors with them.

He's saying, Recognize these guys and those that work with them as the spiritual authority that's placed over you.

Don't treat them like you treat me.

I think it's basically what Paul is telling them.

It's like, no, you should be submitting to these guys.

Verse 17, he says, I am delighted to have Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus present.

So they're with Paul as he's writing, because these men have made up for your absence.

Saying they've made up for what you didn't do, Corinth.

What that is, we're not exactly sure.

Maybe, you know, these guys brought him some support of some type that he didn't receive when he was actually with the Corinthians.

We don't know for sure.

Verse 18.

For they have refreshed my spirit and yours, therefore recognize such people.

As we've seen, and we will continue to see in 2 Corinthians, the Corinthians made Paul's life harder than it should have been.

They tended to question him at every turn, it seems.

But these guys that came to visit Paul, these three guys, they refreshed him.

They lifted his spirits, they encouraged him.

And Paul says that they have done the same to the church in Corinth.

These are the guys that were devoted and addicted to serving the saints.

And they were refreshing the church as a whole.

I want to hang out with these guys, right?

Don't you want to hang out with these guys?

These are the kind of people that sound, you know, the refreshing, encouraging people where you leave and it's like, oh, that was just so good hanging out with those people.

Paul says, recognize such people.

And he says something similar to in 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 12 through 13.

1 Thessalonians 5:12–13

He says, Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you, and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work.

This idea of recognition means really to become thoroughly acquainted with, and to watch, and to see and to perceive the things that these people are doing.

Really, let these guys be an example of what you're perceiving, you know, perceive what they're doing as an example.

Recognize people that are sold out for the Lord and are devoted to serving his church.

And that's what Stephanus and his household are doing.

So Paul's just simply saying, recognize those people.

Verse 19.

So remember, Paul's writing from Ephesus.

He said, Aquila and Priscilla send you greetings warmly in the Lord, along with the church that meets in their home.

Now, this was a couple that ministered with Paul when he was in Corinth.

They're tent makers, just like Paul.

They worked together, and Paul stayed with them in that time.

So this couple obviously knows Corinth well, and Corinth knows this couple well.

Verse 20.

You know, greetings, we've talked about this a few times.

Greetings were a big deal back in this culture.

Something that I think our culture doesn't fully understand.

And greetings among churches back then was really a way of saying, we know what you're going through, and you're not alone.

There's another church in Asia that knows the struggle, that knows the joys of following Jesus.

So be encouraged.

We greet you.

So the church in Asia sends their greeting.

And then he says, greet one another with a holy kiss.

And I'm going to skip all the jokes on that this morning.

But the real question is, who's Paul talking to here when he says, greet one another with a holy kiss?

He's talking to the church in Corinth.

A church, as we've seen, that's divided.

Remember, the Corinthians were most likely reading this letter in one sitting.

So they just heard from this letter to not split over who's of Paul and who's of Apollos and who's of Cephas.

They just heard the rich get admonished for getting drunk during a communion meal while the poor were left hungry.

They just got corrected for being selfish with their spiritual gifts when they would gather together, being selfish in the way that they were using them.

They were corrected for not loving one another.

And they were corrected because some were saying there was no resurrection from the dead.

And they just took all of this in, this whole letter in, and they're still in contention with one another.

There hasn't even been time for them to reconcile.

And Paul just throws out there, and greet each other with a holy kiss.

Right now, and whenever you see each other, greet each other with a holy kiss.

He's saying you shouldn't be avoiding each other.

You shouldn't be giving side glances to each other across the room.

You know, that stuff isn't for the body of Christ.

You know, today for our culture, I think the equivalent of a holy kiss is like a holy handshake, you know, or maybe a holy side hug or something like that.

The idea being don't have contentions among you, but greet each other genuinely.

If you have issues, you need to work those things out so that you can greet each other genuinely.

And then as we get into verse 21 here, Paul's gonna shift gears one more time.

He's gonna say, This greeting is in my own hand, Paul.

You know, Paul was using a scribe or a secretary of some sort up until this point, but at the very end, he wanted them to see that it was in his own hand that he was writing this.

It'd be similar to today if we typed a letter and then we printed it out and then we signed it with a pen.

Kind of that personal touch that proves that we were actually the author of the letter, and we were the one that forged this, we were the one that was sending it.

This is our message that is being sent to you.

So this is Paul's personal touch and proof of authorship that he's given to the Corinthian church.

And he goes on in his own hand in verse 22, he says, If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.

Our Lord come.

And if you're just reading through this, it seems a little out of place that Paul puts this right here.

But I guess he just wanted in his own handwriting to warn the church one last time to genuinely love the Lord.

And as we talked a lot about the different types of love in chapter 13, this is the phileo love that he's talking about.

The love that you have because you're fond of somebody.

So he says, if anyone does not love the Lord, if anyone is not fond of Jesus, a curse be on him.

Or you will be cursed, you will be cut off.

You'll be resurrected only for destruction.

So he's talking about hell here.

If you're not fond of Jesus, then you will be cursed.

And then he ends that sentence with our Lord come.

Anybody ever heard the word Marinatha before?

Yeah?

Moses?

No?

Only a few?

Come on, hands up.

How many verbs that were?

Okay, good.

That's what I figured.

It's a very interesting word study.

And I want to encourage you to do that on your own.

But it's an Aramaic word that is used in the Greek, and the way Paul used it, there's all of these things where you know people think that he's it's both saying, our Lord has come, and calling out, Come, O Lord.

But I'll let you do that on your own time because it's pretty extensive.

But that's the word right there, Marinatha.

Look at verse 23.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.

And I love this because Paul spent the majority of this letter correcting the Corinthian church.

But as we talked about earlier, he uses truth in love.

You know, he could have ended the letter with verse 22.

If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him.

The end.

Good luck.

I wash my hands of you people.

You know, he could have easily done it that way.

But instead, he ends it with verse 23.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

May his grace in all of these things that we've talked about, in all of your shortcomings, in all of the things that I've corrected you in.

May the grace of Jesus be with you.

May he help you in all of these things, because his grace is sufficient in all of your shortcomings.

And then the last thing he says to this church, this church that gave him so much grief, he says, My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.

He said, I'm giving you this truth and love.

I love you, Corinth.

I want you to succeed in Christ, Corinth.

I'm rooting for you.

I don't want you to be cursed.

I want you to be found in Christ.

So verse 22 is the truth.

In verse 23, Paul shows them the love, the truth and the love paired together there.

Like I said, there's a lot of different nuggets.

We're all over the place this morning, just following along with what Paul was saying.

But in this chapter, I really believe that there's something for each one of us that God wants us to leave with today.

Whether that's having to do with giving, whether that's not being surprised by trials, whether that's you know holding on to our own plans lightly so we can say, if the Lord allow us.

Whether it was regarding supporting missionaries, speaking truth and love, as we just talked about.

Or maybe it's about submitting to spiritual authority that God has placed over you.

Or the importance, as we just saw, of being fond of Christ.

Not just loving him, but being fond of Christ.

You know, in all of that, I trust that the Holy Spirit has spoken to each one of us in a different way today.

So will you please pray with me?

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

Lord, I thank you for chapter 16, with just so many different things that uh that Paul covers here.

Um, I pray that we would be able to grasp onto one of those things that you want to affect us with, that you want to change within us to become more and more like Jesus.

And Lord, we thank you for this book of 1 Corinthians and everything that you've taught us, everything that you've shown us through this.

Lord, it's sad that this church had so many problems, but in a way I'm glad because we got to learn so much because of the way that through your Holy Spirit you addressed this church in Corinth.

So, Lord, help us to not just read through this book and sit through these sermons and just gain and head knowledge, Lord, but that we would apply these things to our life, to our church as a whole, and that you would continue to refine us and to make us more and more like Jesus, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.