Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Touching Base! Part 199

Botox Church 2013, PART 3
God's Soccket


(You can find a recording of this sermon here.)

This Touching Base is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside of the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build healthy community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.

Think of the amazing world that we live in. What new invention, new gadget blows you away? What is out there that you would say is a techno miracle?

Text: Today we are looking at 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. When you read this text through you discover that what God did on the cross in Christ was way outside the box of the great thinkers of the day. On Sat/Sunday I talked about God’s soccket. If you were not there, just google the word “socket” and you can read the story. God’s soccket was the message of the cross, a new “technology” that had some of the critics up in arms.

Big Idea: Better to be a fool in God’s Kingdom than wise in the eyes of the world.

Open up your bible and work through this text and see how Paul develops this big idea.

1. God demotes those on High (v.18-25)

V.18 - What is the contrast you see in this verse? How would you describe the two groups of people in this verse?

V.19 - What does Paul say God will do to the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent?
“Destroy”: render useless
“Frustrate”: to declare invalid

V.20a - Who are the intelligent and the wise?
Note that the original context is Isaiah 29:13, where Israel was saying that their wisdom and intelligence was greater than God’s. Paul now adapts this saying to his current discussion.

V.20b - Note the word “foolish”. Is this the first time Paul uses it in our text? Paul is simply taking a word that they (the wise man, the philosopher and the scholar) are using and applying it to their own wisdom.
“Foolish” - it is where we get our English word “moron” from. Take a moment and in your group talk about who the real morons are in your life (just kidding!)

V.21 - What is Paul saying about the wisdom of God vs. the wisdom of man in this verse? What was considered foolish about the wisdom of God? Before you answer that question from the context, think of 2013. What is foolish about the message of the cross today?

V.22 Paul talks about what was considered foolish by referring to two groups of people:
Jews
The Jews wanted a conquering Messiah with a world empire, not a condemned and crucified one (Matt. 27:42; Luke 24:21). Only criminals of the worst sort were crucified. For the first-century Jew, dying on a cross signified that one was under God’s curse.
Greeks
Roman society was built around power and status; power was concentrated in the male head of the household, in wealthy and aristocratic families, and so forth. Associating power with a crucified man—the epitome of weakness—made no sense.

V.23-25 - What does Paul say Christ is in these verses which would be the exact opposite that Jews and Greeks would be saying? Notice the irony of v.25.

Based on what Paul has said thus far, I would far rather be a fool in God’s kingdom than wise in the eyes of the world.

Discuss the following:
  • One of the biggest road blocks to coming to faith in Christ is the power of idolatrous human wisdom that keeps us captive. Agree? Illustrate Know anyone who is being held captive by the power of idolatrous human wisdom? Why not take some time in your group or on your own to pray for that person.
  • Paul is not saying don’t love God with your mind, he is saying don’t limit God by your mind! Does your mind have any stretch marks on it? Growth can be painful!
  • Botox Church wants to take the mystery of the Gospel, the wonder of God’s soccket and reduce it, clean it up, reshape it, making it more palatable for the current day crowd. How do we do this today?

2. God promotes the lowly v26-31

Note the “lowly” from v.26-29. Remember the lowly were probably many of the freedmen (just a class above slaves known as trouble makers) who helped resettle Corinth.

V.29 - What does this statement make clear about salvation? That it is a result of ____________ not works!

V.30 - Notice who is the ultimate lowlife that has been promoted?
This Jesus (that they say is a fool) is actually the wisdom of God. Wisdom is another way of saying the cleverness of God. Look at Jesus and you see the cleverness and brilliance of God. The exact opposite of what they were saying. In fact note

v.18, 24, 30 point to Christ as the brilliance of God.

How is Jesus an example of the cleverness of God? V.30
Our righteousness - A status of legal rectitude/correctness that satisfies the moral requirements of God. Jesus makes us righteous by our faith in Him (Romans 1:17)
Our holiness - This is a word that emphasizes our righteousness. I think the emphasis in this day and age is key. We need Jesus, but not to be happy or to be wealthy or to have white shiny smiles. We need Jesus because Scripture says (v.18) that we are perishing – this bears the sense of wreckage and points to the tragedy of waste and loss. Without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Our redemption - This refers to the fact that Jesus is our payment for sin (Mark 10:45), meaning to pay a price in order to secure the release of something or someone. It connotes the idea of paying what is required in order to liberate from oppression, enslavement. Scripture declares that we are bound, prisoners of sin. This was a great act of love. It was our debt not his, it was our sin not his, it was his sacrifice not ours to gain our freedom.

Do you think our world would be a better place if more people were made righteous before God? (Morally aligned with God’s values.)

Do you think our world would be a better place if holiness was found in our political hallways, exemplified in office towers? What if holiness was found in more of our churches?

Do you think our world would be a better place if humankind was redeemed from some of the dark maladies – greed, perversion, selfishness, hate, racism that controls the human heart?

Paul is saying that Jesus is the cleverness of God! Thus his final words in v.31

Like I said, better to be a fool in God’s Kingdom than wise in the eyes of the world. Jesus is our boast! Are you a fool?


Mark
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact bethelcommunitygroups@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Touching Base! Part 198

Botox Church 2013, PART 2
Are You Healthy and Smart?


(You can find a recording of this sermon here.)

This Touching Base is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside of the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build healthy community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.

As a group, start by discussing the difference between a smart organization and a healthy organization. In his book The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni draws the contrasts with the following two lists.

Smart - strategy, marketing, finance, technology
Healthy - minimal politics, minimal confusion, high morale, high productivity, low turnover

Which category do you most identify with and why?

“The vast majority of organizations today have more than enough intelligence, expertise, and knowledge to be successful. What they lack is organizational health.” Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage.

My guess is that there are some of you who are exhausted because your work, church, or team, context is unhealthy. It might be smart, but not healthy. Seems to me that this is a growing problem in the workplace and, at times, in the church.

Big Idea: Organizational health must be guarded, led and championed.

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Let’s look at three answers to the question, how does one guard, lead and champion organizational health?
Paul demonstrates some great answers. Remember Paul is addressing a very cosmopolitan church, deeply influenced and shaped by the surrounding culture. Last week we did a quick overview of this church that demonstrated how this church was having trouble being in the world, but not of it.

1. Paul calls them to a higher level - what could be and should be v.10,11

Note the words that describe the context Paul is speaking into.

Divisions - This word is used in the Gospels to depict a tear in a garment (Mark 2:21; Matt. 9:16).
Quarrels - The ancient Greeks used this word in their literature to mean battle strife or rivalry, and both political and domestic strife.

Note: what he is appealing for them to do?

The result is that they would be perfectly united in mind and thought. The word perfect means to readjust, restore. In light of the word division, it could mean to stitch up that torn garment. It’s sad to think that the church was like a torn garment.

Thus far in our study, how would you sum up their condition? What would you liken Paul to? (I see him as a cheerleader)

Note that their condition is one that they have normalized. Divisions and quarrels have become part of their reality. Paul is stepping in and addressing an issue that seems to be going unaddressed.

Don’t you find that the nature of division/organizational sickness is that it can be left to linger, it is the bump under the rug that we trip over every so often, it is the hot potato no one wants to touch?

Discuss the following: Organizations/churches don’t fall into organizational health. They fall into organizational sickness, they are led into organizational health. This requires tough talks, face-to-face conversations, speaking the truth, determined dialogue.

Have you ever seen someone do this well?

2. Paul unpacks the problem v11,12

I don’t have space to write here what I said on Sat/Sunday, thus you may need to do some homework to figure out why certain people followed Paul versus Apollos etc.

One observation- It is so easy to make the church about a personality rather than Christ. Agree?

Man centered and competitively driven is what is unfolding. However the Church is to be Christ centered and Spirit driven.

Where have you seen this happen? What is the fall out? Imagine rival groups within a church.

Botox church is when we inject into the purity of the message of the church a big name, personality that robs Christ of the glory that He alone is worthy of.

Unresolved division/organizational sickness always distracts from the primary message of the church, it always distorts, obscures and diminishes Christ from being central.

3. Paul points to and models the solution not the problem. v13-17

How?

First seen in his argument technique – “reductio ad absurdum” - reducing an opponent’s position to its natural but absurd conclusion. Note v.13a. How would you answer the question? Paul is saying that what they are saying and doing is in complete contradiction to the head, Christ!

Ever seen absurd behavior in the church that completely goes against the very character or teaching of Christ? It is amazing how it can be tolerated.

Secondly, he steps aside. First he shows them that he does not have the credentials that Christ has, v.13b. Secondly he did not baptize many of them. Note the humorous, almost absent-minded way Paul recalls who he baptized. Because baptism was so important, often the person who did the baptizing was idolized. Paul, for this reason, steps aside in baptizing people so that Christ will be glorified, not himself. You gotta love a leader whose desire it is to lead but not rob Christ of the glory. You gotta love a leader who is part of the solution not the problem!

What are practical things leaders can do to “step aside” so that Christ is honored in the church?

Here are some questions as we wrap up:
Is God calling you to be a Paul and call people to what could be and should be?

Is God calling you to name the problem, call it what it is? This takes courage! If you are a leader at this church - we need you to be like a Paul - guarding, championing, leading on this front. God is grieved when division or other issues are left to simmer and thus compromise the culture.

Are you modeling the solution or are you as much a part of the problem as everyone else? Would Paul say to you “Your behavior is absurd, it goes against everything Christ your Savoir and Lord represents.”

Do you need His restorative measures in your life? Living in an unhealthy work, church team culture can suck the life right out of you.

Mark

If interested in joining or starting a small group contact bethelcommunitygroups@gmail.com

Monday, February 11, 2013

Touching Base! Part 197

Botox Church 2013, PART 1
God’s Kingdom Wave!



(You can find a recording of this sermon here.)

This Touching Base is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside of the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build healthy community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.

This morning/evening we are accomplishing two things - kicking off our Botox Church series that will cover 1 Corinthians 1-4, and kicking off our Move prayer focus. We hope that you will be engaged with both. The Botox Church series will encourage you to systematically move through scripture in our study. The Move focus will encourage you to engage in prayer over the next seven weeks.

As we think about prayer, answer the following questions.

What are the top five things you think people talk to God about?
Do you have one particular issue that you keep bringing to God?
Do you ever struggle with knowing what to say in prayer? (Romans 8:26)

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Break down the text with the following questions:
- Who is Sosthenes? Check out Acts 18:1-17
- Based on Acts 18 what kind of city was Corinth?
- What are the issues for which the Corinthians should be grateful?(see v.4-9)

Note v.2 “...together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ- their Lord and ours.”:
Can you remember the first time you called on the name of the Lord? Were you a believer or seeking after God?
How many times since then have you called on the name of the Lord?

The construction of this phrase is not only getting at the idea of one’s initial calling on God, but the ongoing calling on God that all Christ followers engage in. It is a continuous dialogue that has a starting point, but has no end in sight.

Who is Paul referring to in this verse?

He is referencing all those (big group) everywhere (in other words anywhere) who are calling on the Lord Jesus Christ. I love the last four words, “their Lord and ours.” The “their” and the “all those” are Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, male and female.

Big Idea: Prayer is God’s Kingdom Wave.

On Saturday/Sunday I likened prayer to a wave in a stadium. Ever been at a sports event when successive groups of spectators briefly stand, yell, and raise their arms? The result is a wave of standing spectators that travels through the crowd, even though individual spectators never move away from their seats. This is a picture of “together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...” In God’s stadium Christ followers from all over the planet rise to their feet or fall to their knees to pray, calling on God.

Group Exercise:
Corinth was part of that wave and… boy, oh boy!... did they ever have things to talk to God about. As a group take the next several minutes and finger through the pages of 1 Corinthians and list what you think were items on their prayer list. This exercise will serve as a good review or introduction into the book of 1 Corinthians.

To get you started, let me suggest that, no doubt, part of their prayer wave involved praise. As you read v.4-9 you can see that they had much to be grateful for and it had a lot to do with God’s character, faithfulness and generosity! If you were with us on Saturday or Sunday you will have seen the list we developed. The reason we are calling this series Botox Church is because some of the Corinthians were guilty of “injecting” into the Gospel so-called truths to make it more palatable to that particular culture. Certainly this would have been another issue to pray into.

As you make your list, the obvious conclusion is that they desperately needed God to move! Whether it is their list or ours, whether 2000 years ago or in the present day, the one thing we all have in common is that we want God to move, His Kingdom to come, His power to be displayed, His will to be done! Move! It is not that we are ordering God around, but simply wanting more of God. We want Him to move and do what only God can do. We want Him to move and do what for us seems impossible on a human level.

God wants us to be part of His kingdom wave. Some (not all) of the Corinthians were petitioning God on behalf of their church, their city and no doubt the Roman Empire. Today His wave continues, the needs continue to present themselves and the church continues to have the opportunity to enter and invite God to Move!

How can I get involved in God’s Kingdom Wave?

As a small group or an individual, use the weekly tools that will help you to pray into each week’s theme. Go to our website (http://bethelkingston.com) and you will see the Move slide. Just follow the instructions and you will be able to download the tool for that week. Another option is that you can pick up the Move tool in the foyer each week.

Let’s choose to be part of “all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord.”

Mark
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact bethelcommunitygroups@gmail.com