Lesson 1

Mid- Course Corrections

I Corinthians 1:1-9

A recent re-telling of the flight of Apollo 13 has spurred a renewed interest in the details of space travel. It is not hard to be fascinated by the prospect of journeying so far into space, beyond the borders of our familiar world.

After all, the farther an arrow has to travel, the less likely it is to hit the target. Someone has made this comparison. Sending a manned spaceship to the moon is like aiming a grain of sand at a basketball three city blocks away! The laws of space travel are, by necessity very precise. Scientists can rely on the consistencies of God's universe. But man-made space ships aren't quite so consistent. No matter how carefully scientists aim at the moon, they have to continually make mid-course corrections by means of steering jets that adjust the spacecraft's direction.

Life, as they say, is a lot like that. God gives precise directions, but we respond with imprecise obedience. It seems that even when we are traveling the straight and narrow, we require constant mid-course corrections. Christians, individually, and churches corporately can make some bad choices and drift off-target. We need God's daily dose of correction and direction.

To continue with this same analogy, Acts 18 describes the launching of a church, a particular church, the congregation in Corinth. We learn from Acts 18, that God used several people to launch this work. There was, of course, Paul now on his second missionary tour. He hooked in Corinth with a Jewish couple named Aquilla and Priscilla and he was joined shortly by Silas and Timothy. These 5 were the "ground crew" responsible for launching the church at Corinth.

As was his standard operating procedure, Paul sought out the Jewish community as his evangelistic starting point. He went to the synagogue each Sabbath and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. There were some Jewish converts, most notably, Crispus the ruler of the synagogue. But there was also a strong Jewish opposition to Paul's teaching, so much so, that Paul turned his attention toward the Gentiles. He literally went to the house next door to the synagogue, the house of a man named Justus, and it was in this home that the Corinthian church was born. Crispus and his family were baptized and many other Corinthians (Jews and Gentiles) heard the gospel, believed and were baptized. Paul spent a year and a half in Corinth. You can read about this in Acts 18:1-11. The end of Acts 18 and 19:1 tell us about Apollos, a very eloquent preacher who, after some doctrinal correction from Aquila and Priscilla, probably became the pastor of the church at Corinth.

If there was ever any place that needed a church it was Corinth. Today Corinth is a small town in Greece with little significance. But in the New Testament times it was a thriving, prosperous and strategically located city, situated in the middle of an isthmus, on a commanding plateau. In ancient times, all north and south overland traffic had to pass through Corinth. In addition, ships traveling east and west were usually carried overland or skids and rollers across the narrow isthmus directly past Corinth. This procedure was quicker (saved 250 mile of sea travel), more economical and safer. (Today there is a canal across this isthmus). Corinth then benefitted from land and sea traffic in all directions and consequently became a major trade center.

Corinth was a very cosmopolitan city. It was the place were the other games were held. Most of us know about the ancient Olympian games at Mt. Olympus made popular over the last 100 years by the modern Olympic games. But there were also the ancient Isthmian Games held at Corinth. Corinth was the capital city of the Roman province of Achaia meaning there there would be Greek and Roman government officials international businessmen headquartered in Corinth.

Large cities have reputations. If I just mention Las Vegas or San Francisco or New York or L. A. some image is conjured up in your mind. The reputation of Corinth was its intellectualism but especially its immorality. There was a pagan temple in Corinth dedicated to the worship of the Aphrodite, the goddes of love. Associated with this temple were a thousand temple prostitutes, called priestesses. Even in the pagan world this city was known for its immorality. To "Corinthianize" was to behave like a Corinthian meaning gross immorality and drunken debachery. The name of the city became associated with depravity. This city needed Christ. It needed Christians. It needed a Christian influence. It needed a church. And by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the ministry of Paul and Apollos and these others, a church was launched in Corinth about the year 50 A.D.

The problem was that the ungodly city needed the church's godly influence but what started happening, as is so often, the church began to be influenced by the culture of Corinth rather than vice versa. The church became worldy - carnal, immoral, and then divided and factionalized, quarreling and confused. It had been launched but suddenly it was drifting off-course.

It was at this point that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. According to 5:9, Paul had written an earlier epistle, prior to I Corinthians warning them about their association with immoral people who claim Christ. That letter is known in Bible scholar circles as "the lost letter". We don't have it. According to 7:1, the Corinthians had written Paul a letter asking questions about certain aspects of the Christian life. I Corinthians is not a book but a letter from Paul, the missionary who had established the church, to the church dealing with, in the first six chapters, the Quarrels within the Church and, in the last nine chapters, Questions from the church. It is Paul's longest epistle. It was written about eight years after Paul had first gone to Corinth. Eight years after the church was initially launched, it needed some mid-course corrections. I Corinthians is written to correct the course of a drifting church, to get it back on course.

As I thought about all of these things, I thought also about Dearborn Baptist Church. This is where my heart is. This church is the center my life - right there with my family. I live and breath Dearborn Baptist Church. I think about it constantly. Even when I shouldn't be. On vacation, at social engagements, I am always talking about this church. I even dream about the church.

Ten years ago, September 1986, this church was launched as a little mission meeting in a rented school room. Some of you have been here from the very beginning. Most of you have come along since. The Sparks family visited in October, accepted the invitation to lead the church in November and arrived in December 1986. We may not live in as wicked a place a Corinth was, but our culture at large is every bit as immoral as Corinth. We want to influence that culture for Christ but often we are influenced by that culture. Perhaps we, like the Corinthians, have drifted off course. Perhaps Dearborn Baptist Church needs some mid-course corrections. I want you to study this epistle called I Corinthians with me, to be sensitive to the Word of God and the Spirit of God as He convicts of sins and corrects our course. According to 1:2, this letter is for us, too. It comes from Paul, verse 1. It is addressed to church at Corinth - but notice, "with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." Hey, that's us! This letter was written to Dearborn Baptist Church, too. The letter, designed to get us back on course, begins by reminding us who we are, where we came from, and what we have in Christ.

We Are The Church Of God, v. 2.

No, that is not a denominational title. It denotes the one to whom we belong. This church, this assembly of believers, this congregation belongs to God. This is God's church.

We Are The People Of God, vs. 2-4.

Our Past. We have been "called by God to be saints", v. 2. We have "called upon the name of Jesus Christ as our Lord" and the Bible says "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." God has saved us by his grace, vss. 3-4. And thus, verse 2, we are those "who are sanctified in Christ Jesus." According to verse 6, there ought to be evidence of our salvation. "The testimony of Christ" should have been "confirmed" in us.

Our Future. This means, according to verses 8-9, that our future is absolutely secure. The God who called us into a postion of fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ, that is, who called us to salvation is faithful (verse 9). He will confirm us all the way to the end. And one day, we will be presented to God by Jesus Christ blameless.

Our Present. Not only has God saved us by His grace, but according to verse 5-7, God has also "enriched us" in "everything." We are rich in Christ. We are complete in Christ, Colossians says. Peter says that we have all things that pertain to life and godliness. Paul singles out two particular riches in Christ.

Utterance. This refers to the capacity to speak God's truth. There was, as we shall see later in this epistle, some problems with speaking at Corinth. Paul mentions at the very beginning that they had the capacity to speak God's truth.

Knowledge. We don't know everything. But we do know everything we need to know to serve the Lord. Our problem is not that we don't know enough. It's that we don't obey what we already know. Paul is going to speak a great deal later in the letter about knowledge. He introduces the subject here.

Gifts. Again, I Corinthians has much to say about spiritual gifts - three entire chapters. The Corinthians may have been misusing their spiritual gifts, but at the very beginning of this epistle, Paul tells them that not one spiritual gift was lacking in this church, verse 7.

We have the capacity to speak God's truth. We know everything we need to know to serve the Lord. We lack no spiritual gifts. We are rich in Christ.

Who are we? We are the church that belongs to God. We are the people of God.

Where did we come from? We have been saved and sanctified by the grace of God.

Where are we going? Jesus is going to come and get us and take us all to heaven.

Will we make it? Absolutely! God is faithful! He will confirm us unto the end and present us blameless.

Do we have everything we need? Yes we do! We are enriched in everything and come behind in nothing. But right now, we need some mid-course corrections to keep us on course. I Corinthians is the corrections manual of the church. Let's read it, learn from it and put it into practice!

We you pray with me and together let's ask the Lord to reveal to us where we have drifted off-course and to give us the grace and courage and determination to do what it takes to make the needed corrections?