Life In Christ Ministry with Pastor Flavio Carvalho

Yesterdays passage was hard — apostles as the trash of the world, last in the parade. Today Paul sets the hammer down and picks up something else entirely. Listen:

“I am not writing to embarrass you. I want to help you, just as parents help their own dear children. Ten thousand people may teach you about Christ, but I am your only father. You became my children when I told you about Christ Jesus, and I want you to be like me. Thats why I sent Timothy to you. I love him like a son, and he is a faithful servant of the Lord. Timothy will tell you what I do to follow Christ and how it agrees with what I always teach about Christ in every church.” (1 Corinthians 4:14–17, CEV)

Yesterdays passage was hard — apostles as the trash of the world, last in the parade. Today Paul sets the hammer down and picks up something else entirely. Listen:

“I am not writing to embarrass you. I want to help you, just as parents help their own dear children. Ten thousand people may teach you about Christ, but I am your only father. You became my children when I told you about Christ Jesus, and I want you to be like me. Thats why I sent Timothy to you. I love him like a son, and he is a faithful servant of the Lord. Timothy will tell you what I do to follow Christ and how it agrees with what I always teach about Christ in every church.” (1 Corinthians 4:14–17, CEV)

Before we get to todays passage, we need three verses that set it up. In verses 6 through 8, Paul turns to the Corinthians and asks a question that has never lost its edge: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not?” Then he says, with heavy irony, that they have already become rich, already become kings, and he wishes it were true so he could reign with them. They were comfortable. And they had become comfortable at the expense of the men who brought them the gospel.

That is the setup. Now hear what Paul says about the life of the people who actually carried the message to them:

“It seems to me that God has put us apostles in the worst possible place. We are like prisoners on their way to death. Angels and the people of this world just laugh at us. Because of Christ we are thought of as fools, but Christ has made you wise. We are weak and hated, but you are powerful and respected. Even today we go hungry and thirsty and dont have anything to wear except rags. We are mistreated and dont have a place to live.” (1 Corinthians 4:9–11, CEV

We close chapter 4 where Sundays message closed it, and Paul ends with a question he hands straight to the congregation. Listen:

“Some of you think I am not coming for a visit, and so you are bragging. But if the Lord lets me come, I will soon be there. Then I will find out if the ones who are doing all this bragging really have any power. Gods kingdom isnt just a lot of words. It is power. What do you want me to do when I arrive? Do you want me to be hard on you or to be kind and gentle?” (1 Corinthians 4:18–21, CEV)

Corinth was a wealthy port city, a place of commerce and philosophy and public reputation, and the culture there prized the celebrity orator. A man could make a living being admired. That instinct walked straight into the church, and by chapter 1 Paul is already dealing with the wreckage — “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Peter.” Chapter 3 told them they were behaving like infants. Now, in chapter 4, Paul does something more constructive. He does not just rebuke the factions. He teaches them how to think about ministers in the first place.

Pull up a chair, because we have arrived at the heart of 1 Corinthians 3 — and at one of the most searching passages in all of Pauls letters. In 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9, Paul has just called us Gods building. So, what materials have we been using on this building?

Today we close chapter 3, and the tile of our message is, “Everything is Yours!”

How does Paul end a chapter that began by calling these people babies? The way a great composer ends a symphony — the theme returns, and then it opens into something enormous.

Today we close chapter 3, and the tile of our message is, “Everything is Yours!”

How does Paul end a chapter that began by calling these people babies? The way a great composer ends a symphony — the theme returns, and then it opens into something enormous.

This week we are exploring 1 Corinthians 3, one section at a time. Today we focus on verses 1-4. Here is the sentence the whole chapter turns on, and I want you to carry it all week: a person can be saved and still be immature. Being born again happens in a moment. Growing up takes the rest of your life. Let that sink in for a minute.

Friends, todays text is two verses long and carries a weight far beyond its size. Listen:

“All of you surely know that you are Gods temple and that his Spirit lives in you. Together you are Gods holy temple, and God will destroy anyone who destroys his temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16–17, CEV)

Now, most of us have heard this verse applied to the body — your body is a temple, so take care of it. That is true, and Paul does say it, but he says it three chapters later, in chapter 6. Here the pronouns are plural. Every “you” in these two verses is a “you all.” Paul is not looking at individuals. He is looking at a congregation and saying: together, you are the place where God lives.

Corinth was a wealthy port city, a place of commerce and philosophy and public reputation, and the culture there prized the celebrity orator. A man could make a living being admired. That instinct walked straight into the church, and by chapter 1 Paul is already dealing with the wreckage — “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Peter.” Chapter 3 told them they were behaving like infants. Now, in chapter 4, Paul does something more constructive. He does not just rebuke the factions. He teaches them how to think about ministers in the first place.

This is our final broadcast in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and what a week it has been. We have walked with Paul through his confession of weakness and the simple gospel. Through God’s hidden wisdom reserved for the mature. Through the Holy Spirit who searches the depths of God and dwells in the believer. Through the great contrast between the natural and the spiritual person. Today Paul closes the chapter with a single line that should arrest every reader. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 16.

This week, we open chapter 2 — and Paul keeps pressing the same nail. If chapter 1 was the wisdom of the cross, chapter 2 is the source of true wisdom.

And Paul opens chapter 2 with one of the most beautiful and humbling confessions in the entire New Testament. He tells the Corinthians how he came to preach to them in the first place.

Today Paul makes sure we do not misread him. He is not against wisdom. He is against the wrong wisdom. He distinguishes the wisdom of the world from the wisdom of God.

For two days now we have been walking through 1 Corinthians 2. We have heard Paul’s confession that he came to Corinth in weakness with a simple gospel. And we have seen him distinguish the world’s wisdom from God’s hidden wisdom — a wisdom mysterious to the powerful and reserved for the mature.

Today Paul answers the great question that should be on every reader’s lips: how does this hidden wisdom get from the heart of God to the heart of the believer?

In chapter 2, Paul keeps going. If chapter 1 was the wisdom of the cross, chapter 2 is the source of true wisdom. And he begins with one of the most beautiful and humbling confessions in all of the New Testament: he tells the Corinthians how he came to preach to them. Not as a polished orator. Not as a philosopher. But as a weak, trembling man whose only message was Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

For three days now we have been walking through 1 Corinthians 2. We have heard Paul’s confession of weakness, his teaching on God’s hidden wisdom, and yesterday his glorious description of the Holy Spirit who searches the depths of God and reveals them to the believer. Today Paul lays out a contrast that divides every reader of this letter — and every human being who has ever lived — into one of two categories.

Welcome back to Life in Christ Radio. For two days now we have been walking through 1 Corinthians 1. We have heard Paul greet a most unlikely church as “saints,” and we have watched him confront the very first thing that went wrong among them — factions and divisions. Today Paul does something remarkable. He takes that surface problem — divisions — and traces it all the way back to a deeper problem — the way the world thinks.

For three days now we have been walking through 1 Corinthians 1 — the saints in unlikely Corinth, the warning against divisions, and yesterday the cross as the wisdom and power of God. Today Paul does something deeply personal. He looks around the Corinthian congregation and tells them why God chose them.

Welcome to Life in Christ. I am glad you are with me today. We are beginning a brand-new walk through Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians — Christian Answers to Real Life. And today we open with the first verses of chapter 1 — Paul’s greeting and thanksgiving to one of the most remarkable, troubled, and gifted churches the world has ever seen.