The Church - Corrupted 7/27/08
Sermon Series: The Church ________________
Sermon Title: The Church – Corrupted
Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 5:1- 13
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.””
Introduction: The human body is a miraculous piece of biological engineering. All of the various parts of it are made up of individual cells. Every one of these cells, though they are very specialized to fit into a specific part with very specific functions still carry the architectural blueprint of the entire body in a DNA strand. Every one of these little marvels of God’s complex design is able to repair itself and aid in the repair of the surrounding tissue. Each one is able to reproduce itself so that the body is continually being made over. It is estimated that all of the cells of the entire body is replaced every seven years or so. Yet for all of their awesome design the cells are still susceptible to various forms of corruption which can contaminate them and rewrite their circuitry so that they no longer function as they were intended. Perhaps one of the most hideous forms of this corruption is known today as Hansen’s disease or leprosy. As this disease spreads through the cells which make up the nervous system of the leper begins to lose feeling and sensitivity starting with the extremities and face and moving inward. The horrible disfigurement that we normally associate with this disease is actually caused because without the ability to feel pain, the body loses the early warning system which allows us to keep a small cut or sliver from becoming infected and causing greater damage to the tissue around the inflammation. A few grains of dust in the eye without the ability to be bothered by them suddenly cause so much corneal damage that the eyeball becomes hopelessly lost.
Transition: In many ways the body at Corinth was fighting for its life against a similar disease. A corruption had made its way into the body. The infection had already begun and the entire body was in mortal danger if they did not become aware of the infection then it would soon spread and slowly destroy the whole body. The disease was open acceptance of sexual immorality.
I. The Corruption Exposed
a. Paul has spent the previous almost 4 chapters of his letter dealing with the divisions which have arisen in the body based on their claims of individual priority because of who led them to Christ. He now turns to an entirely different matter which is endangering the body of Christ in Corinth. A nasty corruption has set up shop inside the body.
b. Paul is amazed at the corruption
i. A man is committing sexual immorality openly as a part of the community of Christ in Corinth. (porneia)
1. He is living with his father’s wife. Most commentators suppose, because of the wording Paul uses, that he is living with his widowed stepmother in a marriage type relationship. Chances are he would not have been able to receive a real marriage because this arrangement would have been illegal under both Jewish and Roman law. But as incredible as it seems he was practicing this openly in full knowledge of the rest of the body.
ii. Sometimes we need an outsider to see what is not apparent to us.
c. Even if we are not aware of it our witness has been incredibly damaged.
i. A recent article I read suggested that the thing which makes the church the most unattractive to those who are not a part of it is the real or perceived hypocrisy which they believe emanates from the body of Christ. There are people who are one way on Sunday and some other way the rest of the week.
ii. If we are going to be serious about claiming the area of real estate where we have been planted for Christ than we have to begin by being authentic in our walk. This does not mean that we are going to be perfect, nobody is. But it does mean that we can’t have one level of behavior when we are around our brothers and sisters in Christ and another level of behavior when we are around our worldly friends. I guarantee you they will notice.
d. Finally we have to be able to see the corruption which is infecting the body.
i. This requires authentic community.
1. Deep relationships something beyond the surface.
2. Being good listeners.
3. Being honest friends. Able to say the hard stuff to one another.
II. The Corruption Excised
a. At this point the infection is set and in danger of spreading and there is only one way to keep it from damaging more and more of the surrounding tissue. It must be ruthlessly and clearly cut out. Amputation is the only recourse left.
b. A couple of warnings before a church starts doing a medical procedure this
i. Be sure about the infection before you start hacking away.
ii. Be sure about your attitude. (Three attitudes to check when dealing with this type of problem in the church)
1. This congregation is arrogant about this sinfulness residing among them. Literally in the original language they are “Puffed up”. They have developed the attitude that by not reacting to this sinfulness among them they are showing some kind of cosmopolitan open-mindedness which they suppose demonstrates their sophistication to the world.
2. He commands the Corinthians to mourn
a. This attitude of lamentation and crying should be a part of the Christian community when we have allowed Jesus’ name to be tarnished through action or inaction of our own. They should feel shame at the fact that the Lamb of God has died to clean up their sinfulness and they are still heaping it on Him.
b. The other reason to mourn is that as a body you have allowed this sinful lifestyle to overtake a brother to the point where now he must be removed from the congregation. This sanction is a painful action and Paul’s concern even at this point where he is commanding them to “turn this brother over to Satan” is with not only the body’s health in mind but also in the last ditch effort to bring this sinner back into genuine relationship with Christ.
iii. Be open about your intentions. You notice Paul does not talk about doing anything secretly or under the table. He makes it clear that this sin is so open that it needs to be taken care of in an open assembly.
III. The Corruption Enclosed
a. Finally Paul wants to make sure that the rest of the body is clear on the limits of the infection.
b. Sometimes the Church has gotten the reputation as a judgmental group of narrow-minded bigots whose sole pleasure in this world is pointing out the sinfulness of the world around them. And the real shame is not that the Church is sometimes seen in this light but that sometimes we deserve this criticism.
c. It is not now, nor is it ever going to be our job to be some kind of moral police for the world or the community that we live in.
d. Sometimes I get really concerned about the those para-church organizations which make it their entire business to try to make this world into some type of Christian based society through political means rather than personal means.
e. The mission for the Church is set by the head of the Church Jesus and He made it clear that our job is to make disciples for Him everywhere we are planted. This means that conversion to a sold-out, authentic, personal, one on one relationship with Christ is the only real way to change the world that we live in. And we if we really want to accomplish that than we have to do it by living out our faith in the difficult circumstances of our lives.
f. The incredible thing about the surgery which Paul commanded the church in Corinth to perform was that its success was far beyond what should have been humanly possible. Not only was the body saved but if 2 Corinthians 2 is the follow up to this discipline than the limb that was amputated came back to life as well.
Conclusion: A word about the victory of the Church being so dependent on the ability of the community to be genuine and deep with one another. End with a corporate circle of prayer rather than a call forward.
