Thessalonica was the Crown Jewel of the Apostle Paul’s mission work! His preaching there achieved a numerous and socially prominent following! Paul and his companions in the summer of 50 A.D. had to leave the city! Paul’s sudden departure left the newly found church exposed to great persecution! Paul sent Timothy from Corinth to check on the congregation at Thessalonica. Timothy informed Paul at his return to him that the congregation was steadfast and had a zeal to spread the Gospel! However the church did have some internal problems with sexual relations and some theological issues. Some in the congregation thought that those believer’s that had preceded them in death would have a disadvantage over the living when the Lord returned! So the Letter to the Thessalonians was born out of the need for Paul to settle these issues with the Church there. Paul has made it clear in his letter that God has not appointed us to wrath! The word wrath used here means a punishment with revenge from men! Revenge is a punishment from men that satisfies them but also brings grief to the punisher! The wrath of men is the opposite to the Salvation of God! God took out his revenge on men for their sin by punishing his only Son Jesus Christ on the Cross! Wrath and judgment came upon Jesus Christ for our sin! This is why rejecting Jesus Christ is so serious an offense to God! In fact it is the only unpardonable sin! Judgment or Salvation? Heaven or Hell? The choice you make about Jesus Christ will cast your eternity forever! Jesus is not an option unless you want the consequences being separated from God forever! Jesus is Judge of the living and the dead! He will be your Judge or Savior! The choice is yours to make! Keep in mind in Hell there are no more choices! In Heaven as the Angel’s who are created beings like us still have a choice! Lucifer made his choice to reject God but do you want to follow him to Hell? Jesus took our place on the Cross and took our Judgment upon himself! If Jesus does not take your Judgment you will take your own Judgment! Paul went on to clarify that whether we wake or sleep we live together with him! The word live from the Greek means that God through his Son Jesus Christ causes us to live righteous and Holy physically, spiritually and eternally in him! Paul goes on to say we need to comfort one another! We as the Church need to come to one another’s aid! To comfort one another together as the Body of Christ! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: corinth
Church In The City 1 Corinthians 7:——–
The Corinthian culture was much like the American culture today. It would be nice if marriage were Valentine’s day everyday! The Bible answers questions about sex, marriage, parenting, singleness and every other social and moral question you could ask. If you want the right answer go to God! Everyone seems to like Jesus however following Him seems to be a tripping point for most! People have to give up their sin and just too much for many. We have a sexual ethics problem in America because our culture is following voices that oppose the voice of God! If you follow Jesus you follow peace, joy, kindness and sexual boundaries! A restoration ministry focuses on brokenness. We deal with brokenness of the past! The Church is committed to discipleship. Paul was not anti-marriage when he said it is not good to marry. Paul was also encouraging women who were married to be respected and dignified. Paul went on to say in marriage your bodies belong to each other. Do not deprive one another. Marriage is a gift from God! Sex is powerful and marriage allows the healthy expression of this gift. The institution of marriage allows mutual respect and a healthy environment for sexual expression. One of the common abuses in marriage is couples using scriptures to beat up on each other. The wrong attitude is you owe me sex! The right attitude is we serve each other with sex. Not the power to control each other but to serve each other. We serve each other in marriage with sex. Do not keep score! Do not use sex to manipulate and control each other! Jesus produces a new attitude within us! The wrong attitude is my wife owes me sex. Sex is designed by God for pro-creation and not recreation. Jesus has given us a new way of living to serve each other in marriage. Wrong attitudes is this is your job and this is my job. Be kind and serve each other. Verse 12. Unbeliever’s are sanctified by the believing spouse. Women are often taking the children to church alone. Paul encourages them to stay steady. Do not put him out. Divorce is not an easy option. Divorce is not a fire escape. My mother was a believer but my father was not until I was 20 years old. I still had a great dad! While dad went deer hunting my mother took us to church. There were sometimes arguments about church. Paul also said not to stay in a abusive relationship. Do not give up easy. My mother instructed me in the scriptures and I am saved today because of her care for me. Verse 32. Single people also have purpose! Paul says you are valuable even if single. Couples have to focus on marriage issues while single people can focus on God’s affairs. Singleness is an opportunity! You can use your time and resources on building God’s Kingdom. About 20 years ago I had a couple come into my church office in real trouble. They showed physical aggression towards on another. They sat in chairs at opposite ends of my office and cursed at each other. I came to realize I could not fix their problems in one hour! Curse words flowed like water! You are a mother of this, that and everything! I shared with them that they need to learn to like each other. Need to treat each other like they were living in Mr. Roger’s neighborhood. They needed to forgive each other! They were messed up bad! They scheduled another appointment and this time they did not curse so much! Bad words were there but not so many. No death threats this time so things were looking up. They wanted me to help them have a good divorce! I asked them if they wanted a good marriage? They came back to my office again and again. Finally they sat next to each other on the same couch in my office! They smiled and began to love each other. Then ran a metal works business. They brought me a metal Cross they built in their shop as a gift in gratitude for the help I gave them. It has hung in my office over past 20 years as a reminder of God’s faithfulness! Forgive people! Forgive yourself and others! Let judgment go! We are called to forgive! Do not give up! Do not try to manipulate and control people! God has forgiven us through the Cross! Let Him restore and redeem you! Let us pray——— Source; Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday, February 16, 2014
The Spiritual Mystery of Sex! 1 Corinthians 6—–
The Greeks invented athletic contests and held them in honor of their gods! The Isthmus games were held every two years at the Isthmus of Corinth. The ancient Olympics were begun in 700 B.C. in honor of Zeus. No women were allowed to watch the games and only Greek nationals were allowed to participate. Corinth was a beautiful place in southern Greece with ocean on both sides. It was a major trade route with lots of wealthy people living there. The population had a lot of retired Roman military leaders living there so it was a secure place. It was a thriving place! It was also a sexually broken place with 1000 prostitutes in their temples. The poor got wealthy there! Quick money was to be made in Corinth. God created sex and it is one of his best idea’s! Next to Salvation He has never come up with a better idea! The problem is the world has perverted a great idea. There are over 430 million pornography sites on the internet! It is the most viewed topic on the internet. It has devastating effects on relationships. The world’s question about sex is, “How can I have better sex with more people?” This was Corinth and the world we live in today. What should be the question about sex in the Church? How can I Glorify God with my sexuality? 1 Corinthians 6:18. Flee sexual immorality! God designed sex to be used in the marriage covenant. The purpose of children is to raise righteous seed to counter the unrighteous seed in the earth. God’s design for marriage is beautiful! People do not like to hear wait until marriage. The city slogan in Corinth and even in America today is I will do what I want with whom I want where I want and when I want! People in Corinth would ask an immoral person the following question? Have you been Corinthinized? Have you been Americanized? Porn devastates the Church! The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord! Our bodies are members of Christ’s Body! The world says it does not matter what you do with your body? Is it your body or His? The cultural teachers in America say you can do what you want? No boundaries! Choices do not matter? Christ took on a human body. His human body was Crucified on a Cross. He was resurrected in a human body. Christ gave dignity to the human body! What we do with our body does have consequences! Good or bad! If Christ lives in your body can you unite Him with a prostitute? The two become one flesh! Sex has a spiritual and a physical dimension. You cannot have one without the other! You save yourself for marriage not as a consequence but as a Gift from God. Matthew 19:5-6. Leave your father and mother and become one flesh. Parents this is the only way you get grandchildren! No longer two but one. God joins two together as one in spirit and flesh. You are welded together. Do not be unequally yoked. Let no man separate what God has joined together! The powers of hell cannot separate us. Many do not wait? If so start over. Today start over. Anyone who comes to Christ is given a second chance! Sexual sin is commited against your own body. A little like suicide. Stand firm and flee sexual immorality! Turn and run! Run away from sin and run towards God! Psalm 101:2. Set your eyes on no vile thing! There are thousands of ads everyday promoting products with sex! David’s sin with Bathsheba began with wandering eyes! Stay focused on God! Do you notice the word, “Bath”, in her name? An idol replaces the true worship of God. Since in creation the woman was taken from the man it is easy for men to worship the woman which is self worship! It can become idol worship and replace the true Worship of God! There is a fine line here and we have to discern. I love my wife best when I love God! Take inventory! Do you need a warehouse to store all your idol’s? Your body is the Temple of The Holy Spirit! Honor God with your body! We are not our own but have been bought with a price! We serve one true God in one Temple who lives in us! The Greeks temple was aphroditis and their 1000 prostitutes! Corinth also had a slave culture. It included more than just sex slaves. Paul did not endorse slavery! In the Greek culture slaves were indentured servants! When a slave escaped and got captured he was turned over to a worse master. If you try to escape God your are turned over to the King of slave masters who is Satan! Christ has freed you from slavery! Jesus is not a cruel slave master but became a slave for you and laid down His life for you! Honor God with your body! It is personal to God what we do with our bodies. Why? We belong to Him! If you come into my house with mud and manure on your shoes I will get upset! I belong to Christ! My children belong to Christ! My family belongs to Christ! Our bodies belong to Christ and what we do with our bodies is very important! Source; Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday, February 9, 2014.
Church In The City (Lesson Two) 1 Corinthians 2
Paul was in Corinth for 18 months. Corinth was a dark place. Paul labored in Corinth praying, preaching, proclaiming, evangelizing and leading a small congregation. Paul was a tent maker and labored with his hands rather than demand money from others. He lived in a second story apartment. He stayed with Acquila and Prascilla who were displaced Jews out of Rome. Paul taught in the Jewish Temple in Corinth. Paul also taught in public forums and debated with passion for Christ with unbelievers. Paul himself had a miraculous conversion on the way to Damascus. Paul was faithful, steady and also met resistance everywhere he went. Sometimes you do not get the fruit you are going after. The Gospel is slow but sure! If you are fruitful God will send someone behind you to carry on the work. The foolishness of the Cross transcends all our understanding! Have the mind of Christ or be a fool. Last week we covered some of the particulars of the city of Corinth and it’s brokenness. A prosperous city yet very wicked. The city was ignorant of Christ. God did do miracles there in the midst of darkness. The power of the Gospel has not diminished. 1 Corinthians 2:6. Human wisdom versus God’s wisdom. The wisdom of this age and the rulers of this age. Politicians, military leaders, philosophers and cultural leaders came to nothing in Corinth. Today Corinth is a tourist trap. God’s secret wisdom was hidden before time. If the world had wisdom they would not have Crucified Christ! I am thankful to be an American but that will not save me! Be careful not to let pride steal God’s Glory. Those enamored with intelligence have no room for God! 1 Corinthians 3:18. Do not deceive yourselves. Paul engages the Greek and Roman cultures. A quote from Socrates,”Only true wisdom is to understand that you know nothing!” God has an ocean of wisdom! God’s wisdom is hidden from the world. Just as Paul was blinded from his natural sight the scales were removed from his eyes to see Christ! Here in Colorado Springs we have a 14000 foot mountain in front of us. Pikes Peak towers above all else here. Sometimes the mountain is completely enveloped in a cloud out of view. If you were a tourist passing through our city on a cloudy day they would miss it. So much of the world misses God’s wisdom! How small we are compared to Pikes Peak and the God who created it! Open your mind to the greater. In American culture today you hear you this statement a lot. I am not religious but very spiritual! What does this mean? People are saying I do not need the Bible, I am going a different path, I want my own way, I just do what I understand and I do my own thing. It was spiritual people who murdered Jesus! The Holy Spirit must open our eyes. Listen to the Holy Spirit and He will reveal God to you! The Spirit of God versus the spirit of the world. Is Google your first choice? What God says is right versus what the world says is right. The world points to self as the solution. A great mistake! The greatest mistake and danger to civilization is when you believe you are God! Adam and Eve got tricked by satan when he told them they could be just like God. Yes to know everything! Leave that to God. Be careful if your decisions point to self. Life is simple if you do it the right way. God’s wisdom must be our influence. No decisions without Christ! What did Jesus say about marriage, parenting, money, sex, health, ect? Read your Bible! So many wrong voices out there. Be intentional and make your first call to God! Jesus Christ must be at the center of our decisions. Start with deciding to follow Him. American culture has lost it’s centrality to Christ! We cannot worship intellect and survive. We need right attitude. We are powerless! Humility leads to the power of the Cross! God either leads us or someone else will. Say God I believe and God I choose you! Recognize the limitations of the human mind. Recognize He is God and you are not. Alcoholic recovery organizations have a creed that is really Biblical. They say,”You are powerless to get out of it!” Religion is powerless to overcome sin! Remember Jesus got mad at religious people! God is personal like a home schooler. Parents know best and sit down and teach their children. One of the limitations of public schools is no personal instruction. God connects to us personally so we can understand Him. God is not distant. We are powerless but God is personal! Are you following Him? Source; Message given by Pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday, January 12, 2014.
Church In The City
How would the city of Corinth compare today with a modern city? Corinth was the first frontier outpost. It was a prosperous city. Caesar’s Roman army retirement community live there. It was located on a key east-west trade route. The poor got rich in Corinth! You might say all the lotto winners lived there. The displaced Jews lived there because Caesar kicked them out of Rome. Sexual perversion was rampant in Corinth. Somehow money and sex are always linked together? The Temple of Aprodita had 1000 temple prostitutes as part of their worship. The Temple of Apollos had nude statues of male prostitutes. Corinth was much like American culture today with sexual brokenness. When Paul walked into Corinth people were celebrating the Isthmian games which was the ancient Olympics. Corinth had athletic training centers much like Colorado Springs does today. The people of Corinth celebrated strength, independence, intellectualism, materialism and public debate. The Greek orator’s debated constantly. They all figured it out they did not need God! 1 Corinthians 2:3-5. Paul says I was not with you with enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. That our Faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God! Can God raise up people in a corrupt culture? America is becoming more secular. Heathenistic cultures trump pleasure over purpose. The message of the Crucified Christ is not popular in America just as it was not in Corinth 2000 years ago! But it is still really good news! Polite people did not talk about the Cross in the 1st. century. The worst criminals were crucified. How do you message people about the Cross? The cross was cruel and ugly punishment. Jesus was tortured, beaten, bloodied and murdered! He died the lowest kind of death. It goes to say the Cross is foolishness to the perishing. Why did God choose death to redeem? The wages of sin is death! To the saved the Cross is the power of God! Are you grateful for the Cross? The Cross is central to belief. The Cross is entry to everything. The Cross destroys the wisdom of the wise! Intelligent people say that if God cannot answer all my questions then I will not follow him! My adopted son Abram is a very intelligent little boy. His grandfather was a nuclear physics engineer! Sometimes Abram will ask me questions that are deep and thoughtful. Sometimes I do not know the answer to his question. God came to save us and not answer all our questions. Corinth had some of the best minds of that era. They were intellectuals, philosophers, Romans, Greeks and Jews. Preaching Christ was foolish to the gentiles. The Jews expected a military Messiah. What do you want to hear? I want to be skinny and rich! American and Corinth cultures say “Blessed are the smart and the strong, Blessed are the ambitious, God helps those who help themselves!” Superman has arrived! It is me! Jesus said,”Blessed are the poor in spirit,meek,merciful and kind.” The Roman government of Corinth ruled by fear and intimidation like many governments do today. Why did Jesus submit to the tyranny of the Roman government and the Jews and go to the Cross? To show the world a new way to use power! The world uses power to rule over people. Watch an NFL game. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent to try to dominate one another! Competition is to fight for power! Dominate others! Get power to defend yourself! Buy armies and men and women to rule over others. When Pilate had Jesus on trial he told Jesus he had power to condemn Him to death or release Him. Jesus told Pilate I lay my life down and unless my Father gives you power you cannot touch me. Christ goes to the Cross to use power in a new way. Christ gave His life for people and not to rule over people! God has given us power for people in service to people and care for them. Jesus became a nobody to save everybody. Jesus is calling the marginalized and the down and out. Not to manipulate them but release them from the bondages of sin. The nobodies are being invited in. Discover a new way of being powerful. Everyone can belong! No disenfranchised! The Cross is where you start and finish. No substitute for the Cross! All must come to the Cross and believe! Source; Sermon notes taken from message given by Pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday January 5, 2014.
Brethren
Paul begins his speech in First Corinthians Chapter 15 with the word brethern. The Greek word used in the text is the word Adelphos. This word means of the same womb. It can mean a brother literal of figurative. I cannot help but to ask do we treat each other like we came from the same womb? We do not expect the world to do this but how about the Church? Paul’s most trouble of all came from the Church at Corinth! More divisions and more immoral behavior than any other Church. Paul was trying to bring unity to a divided Church! So he began in Chapter 15 by using the word brethern. During my three years in India I had a difficult time getting Pastor’s to work together. The biggest issue above denominations was the caste system. If Pastor’s were not of the same caste they did not want to work together? I used to ask them is your caste greater than your God? Jesus said we must be born again! We must and need this second birth that is greater and more important than our natural birth! We have issues in our own Church right now where some people do not want to mix with other races of people? Unless one is born again one cannot get beyond their first earthly birth! Do we see the world through the eyes of God? Are we color blind and only see the creator of all behind the visual images in our mind? Do we have the mind of Christ and accept all people as God has made all people? Does God discriminate? He does in only one area. He descriminates when it comes to right and wrong! He upholds the righteous and condemns the wicked! Paul was trying to get the Church at Corinth to see beyond themselves and seek a purpose greater than themselves! Mary’s womb produced many children but the first born Christ was unique from all other children who have or ever will be born again! Christ’s Father in Heaven looked down to His only begotten Son ever to live on the earth and become the sacrifice for my Sin and yours! Only the womb of God can produce children who recognize other children who have been born from the same womb! Are you born again? I was born again in the year 1973. Do you know your second birth date? If so I can only say, “Happy Birthday!”