How To Handle A Bad Church.
Memory Verse: ' Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. '
Psalm 51:10
Sermon Sentence: The local church is God’s plan A for His disciples and there is no plan B.
Psalm 51:10
Sermon Sentence: The local church is God’s plan A for His disciples and there is no plan B.
Day 1
Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-17
Paul had an interesting role with churches that he was a part of. He had a respect that commanded attention and a friendship that allowed many different types of approaches to be accepted. I am sure he had many friends in the churches, and you can reach that conclusion by reading the letters that he wrote to the churches. In 1 Corinthians, Paul is addressing a specific problem, the church. Not just some of the church, he doesn’t seem pleased with a lot of the church. He calls out certain people and does not seem to shy away from giving praise where it is due and criticism where it is needed.
This week, I want to open our new series of sermons up with a journey through the idea of how Paul addressed churches. We will do this by reading the opening chapter of 5 different letters that he wrote. Some of them were letters meant to be good and encouraging in their approach. Galatians and 1 Corinthians do not seem to be easy letters of pleasantries, but rather strong direct rebukes of very important things.
Try to pretend that you are there that Sunday that your pastor opens up the letter that Paul has sent to the church. Try to imagine what it was like to respect this man and his teachings, but then also know that this could go either really good or really bad. Try to imagine that you are there hearing this read out loud to the congregation. See if you can tell where he is going by the way that he starts the letter.
If the church at Corinth had so many bad problems, why do you think Paul starts the letter out like this?
How would you have approached a dysfunctional church if you were tasked with calling them out for the debauchery and disunity?
What do you think the backstory is about Chloe and her people?
What do you take away for your life personally in this opening?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Paul had an interesting role with churches that he was a part of. He had a respect that commanded attention and a friendship that allowed many different types of approaches to be accepted. I am sure he had many friends in the churches, and you can reach that conclusion by reading the letters that he wrote to the churches. In 1 Corinthians, Paul is addressing a specific problem, the church. Not just some of the church, he doesn’t seem pleased with a lot of the church. He calls out certain people and does not seem to shy away from giving praise where it is due and criticism where it is needed.
This week, I want to open our new series of sermons up with a journey through the idea of how Paul addressed churches. We will do this by reading the opening chapter of 5 different letters that he wrote. Some of them were letters meant to be good and encouraging in their approach. Galatians and 1 Corinthians do not seem to be easy letters of pleasantries, but rather strong direct rebukes of very important things.
Try to pretend that you are there that Sunday that your pastor opens up the letter that Paul has sent to the church. Try to imagine what it was like to respect this man and his teachings, but then also know that this could go either really good or really bad. Try to imagine that you are there hearing this read out loud to the congregation. See if you can tell where he is going by the way that he starts the letter.
If the church at Corinth had so many bad problems, why do you think Paul starts the letter out like this?
How would you have approached a dysfunctional church if you were tasked with calling them out for the debauchery and disunity?
What do you think the backstory is about Chloe and her people?
What do you take away for your life personally in this opening?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read Galatians 1:1-24
Corinth was wrought with problems of people that were sexually distorted in life and way off base with the actions of unity in the church, setting up a hierarchy of preference for more well off people. The problems seem to stink to high heavens! Galatia was a different animal altogether. It was a seemingly well-behaved orderly church, but they were messing up some key things in their teachings. They were accused of changing the gospel.
If I were to read verse 6 without the reference of where it came from, I would bet you anything it was written to the church at Corinth to answer their problems. But it wasn’t. It was written to Galatia to handle its issues. The strong language makes you realize that Paul is pretty serious about doctrine and the specifics of the gospel. That doesn’t mean he is light on behavior…but that misbehavior needs a different approach than bad doctrine.
Notice that Paul starts with getting right to the problem at hand and then he explains to them his authority to be able to address such a thing. In 1 Corinthians, it was the opposite: He addressed the authority he had to speak to what they needed to hear, then he addressed the issues after encouraging them in who they are. This letter seems to be more direct and angry in its first approach.
Why do you think Paul was adamantly harping on his testimony and call to these churches in Galatia? Do you think they were questioning his place there, that he felt they didn’t know, or some other reason?
In the other to the church at Corinth, it seems like they would have an idea of what was coming. Do you think this letter surprised people more than the one to Corinth, when it was read out loud?
How do you see the dangers Paul addressed here around you?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Corinth was wrought with problems of people that were sexually distorted in life and way off base with the actions of unity in the church, setting up a hierarchy of preference for more well off people. The problems seem to stink to high heavens! Galatia was a different animal altogether. It was a seemingly well-behaved orderly church, but they were messing up some key things in their teachings. They were accused of changing the gospel.
If I were to read verse 6 without the reference of where it came from, I would bet you anything it was written to the church at Corinth to answer their problems. But it wasn’t. It was written to Galatia to handle its issues. The strong language makes you realize that Paul is pretty serious about doctrine and the specifics of the gospel. That doesn’t mean he is light on behavior…but that misbehavior needs a different approach than bad doctrine.
Notice that Paul starts with getting right to the problem at hand and then he explains to them his authority to be able to address such a thing. In 1 Corinthians, it was the opposite: He addressed the authority he had to speak to what they needed to hear, then he addressed the issues after encouraging them in who they are. This letter seems to be more direct and angry in its first approach.
Why do you think Paul was adamantly harping on his testimony and call to these churches in Galatia? Do you think they were questioning his place there, that he felt they didn’t know, or some other reason?
In the other to the church at Corinth, it seems like they would have an idea of what was coming. Do you think this letter surprised people more than the one to Corinth, when it was read out loud?
How do you see the dangers Paul addressed here around you?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Ephesians 1:1-23
Now you surely get the many different tones that Paul can take, right? He comes in so lovingly and soft in this letter, encouraging the readers with an over abundance of teaching and explaining the Gospel. Maybe they were not as established as the other churches, or maybe they just didn’t have as many problems sitting out in the open that needed to be addressed. Either way, this is certainly a different tone and feeling to start this letter.
How does this become your prayer today?
Now you surely get the many different tones that Paul can take, right? He comes in so lovingly and soft in this letter, encouraging the readers with an over abundance of teaching and explaining the Gospel. Maybe they were not as established as the other churches, or maybe they just didn’t have as many problems sitting out in the open that needed to be addressed. Either way, this is certainly a different tone and feeling to start this letter.
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read 2 Corinthians 1:1-24
The next time that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, it felt a lot different. It almost feels like he is checking in with them. Reading verse 8 makes me think that there were a few things that started to get around and people were hearing that Paul had found himself going through some difficult persecutions and legal troubles. So he was writing them to let them know why he had not shown up like he said he would before and what has been going on.
That is an interesting thing to consider: he wanted to visit them. After the first letter (as you will see in studying it further in this series) it doesn’t seem like it would be the type of place that Paul would want to visit, let alone feel overly welcome in a visit! Maybe the word has gotten back to Paul that things were looking better and some changes had happened, maybe Paul was too distracted by what he had going on to be too tough on them?
You will also notice that his writing partner from 1 Corinthians, Sosethenes, is not there this time. He uses plural group words to talk about himself and those with him, but in the introduction, we do not get much about who these people are. As I am reading this introduction, I notice that if Paul is going through a tough time and has experienced persecution and great trouble, he does not use it as a chance to merit himself some sympathy, but rather as leverage to share the gospel again, and to encourage the readers using himself as an example.
When you go through difficult times, do you tend to use it as a moment to talk about what you have going on, or as a chance to encourage and lift others up?
What would this sort of thing look like in your life right now?
What are some relationships that you could encourage the other person through your circumstances?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
The next time that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, it felt a lot different. It almost feels like he is checking in with them. Reading verse 8 makes me think that there were a few things that started to get around and people were hearing that Paul had found himself going through some difficult persecutions and legal troubles. So he was writing them to let them know why he had not shown up like he said he would before and what has been going on.
That is an interesting thing to consider: he wanted to visit them. After the first letter (as you will see in studying it further in this series) it doesn’t seem like it would be the type of place that Paul would want to visit, let alone feel overly welcome in a visit! Maybe the word has gotten back to Paul that things were looking better and some changes had happened, maybe Paul was too distracted by what he had going on to be too tough on them?
You will also notice that his writing partner from 1 Corinthians, Sosethenes, is not there this time. He uses plural group words to talk about himself and those with him, but in the introduction, we do not get much about who these people are. As I am reading this introduction, I notice that if Paul is going through a tough time and has experienced persecution and great trouble, he does not use it as a chance to merit himself some sympathy, but rather as leverage to share the gospel again, and to encourage the readers using himself as an example.
When you go through difficult times, do you tend to use it as a moment to talk about what you have going on, or as a chance to encourage and lift others up?
What would this sort of thing look like in your life right now?
What are some relationships that you could encourage the other person through your circumstances?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Philippians 1:1-30
Paul and Timothy team up to write this letter to the church at Philippi. If you don’t know, Timothy was a seemingly younger pastor that Paul was training in ministry and in many different places. We have a couple of letters that would later be written by Paul to Timothy that we get to read as well. In this letter, Paul starts out thanking the people of Philippi for being partners in ministry with him. Paul seemed to have a specific view of those that had become established in the churches that he worked with as being partners on the same mission as himself. He invited them into the family that would be needed to make all of this stuff work.
Here again, Paul is writing to do what looks like an update about the stories that were starting to circulate about the difficult circumstances that he was finding himself in. The ministry was going well in all of the places that he had gone, but he was also going to address the fact that they had probably heard about some pretty difficult situations that he was in. As for all of that, they were to just realize that those struggles are for the purpose of advancing the gospel.
That really is an interesting take, is it not? Paul had been arrested in quite a few situations that merited a false judgement and although hindsight leaves us with the 30,000 ft. view, it was probably pretty hard, in real time, to distinguish what was the good flowing out of Paul’s work. Paul was constantly reminding his readers of the reality that his struggles and hard times were not what had set back and derailed what he was called to do, but rather, much like Jesus' crucifixion, were being used to God’s advantage and not the way they looked in real time.
If you were writing a letter to the church at Philippi, and wanted to give a similar report about how God is using your struggles to advance the gospel, what would you say?
Why do we spend more time complaining about what has happened to us rather than how God has used what has happened to us to further the gospel?
How do you make the change to Paul’s perspective in life?
How does this become your prayer today?
Paul and Timothy team up to write this letter to the church at Philippi. If you don’t know, Timothy was a seemingly younger pastor that Paul was training in ministry and in many different places. We have a couple of letters that would later be written by Paul to Timothy that we get to read as well. In this letter, Paul starts out thanking the people of Philippi for being partners in ministry with him. Paul seemed to have a specific view of those that had become established in the churches that he worked with as being partners on the same mission as himself. He invited them into the family that would be needed to make all of this stuff work.
Here again, Paul is writing to do what looks like an update about the stories that were starting to circulate about the difficult circumstances that he was finding himself in. The ministry was going well in all of the places that he had gone, but he was also going to address the fact that they had probably heard about some pretty difficult situations that he was in. As for all of that, they were to just realize that those struggles are for the purpose of advancing the gospel.
That really is an interesting take, is it not? Paul had been arrested in quite a few situations that merited a false judgement and although hindsight leaves us with the 30,000 ft. view, it was probably pretty hard, in real time, to distinguish what was the good flowing out of Paul’s work. Paul was constantly reminding his readers of the reality that his struggles and hard times were not what had set back and derailed what he was called to do, but rather, much like Jesus' crucifixion, were being used to God’s advantage and not the way they looked in real time.
If you were writing a letter to the church at Philippi, and wanted to give a similar report about how God is using your struggles to advance the gospel, what would you say?
Why do we spend more time complaining about what has happened to us rather than how God has used what has happened to us to further the gospel?
How do you make the change to Paul’s perspective in life?
How does this become your prayer today?
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